Author: David Tyra

A few months ago, my wife looked at me and said, “l think I need to have a dog.” And I looked back at her and said, “Who are you and what have you done with my wife?

I’ve always loved dogs. We had dogs when I was growing up. So did my wife’s family. And after we married, we had a couple of dogs when Our kids were little. But they were always outside dogs. Then we moved to Terre Haute, our kids started junior high and high school, my wife went back to college, and then began teaching music in public schools. Our lives got busier, and we never thought about having a dog. I Often said my wife’s favorite kind of dog was “other people’s.”

That was our Status quo for over three decades. so, I was kind of taken off-guard when my wife looked at me and in a quiet, serious voice said: “l think I need to have a dog.”

Several things led up to this. Our friends Paul and Roxy Bertsch got a Labradoodle dog named Franklin a few years ago, and as Paul says, “Franklin is a great ambassador for his breed.” He’s calm, friendly, and just a little goofy. Then my brother Curt and his wife Liz got a Bernadoodle puppy for their boys. Her name is Lulu, and she’s a delightful dog. We got acquainted with her last Christmas. One Of Our neighbors got a Doodle dog named Ollie, and my wife really liked him. And when Rae Anne visited her niece in Germany, they had a little Maltadoodle puppy named Piper—in honor of John Piper! I was surprised Rae Anne didn’t bring that puppy back in her luggage.

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The Sense of time passing faster only increases the older you get. An aging actor was once asked by an interviewer, “What’s it like to get old?” He replied, “you eat breakfast every half hour.” When I first heard that, I thought he meant that he ate a lot. Then I realized he meant that it seems like morning comes every thirty minutes. I’m beginning to experience that now. Apparently, when you’re “over the hill,” you pick up speed.

I love the Book of Psalms, and Psalm 139 is one of my favorites. I’m especially drawn to verse 16. The King James Version renders it this way:

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

The first phrase refers to our growth in the womb. The Hebrew word for substance was used to refer to “the body”. Unperfect means “unformed” or “unfinished”. The idea is that God was watching over you from the very beginning of your existence, even before your birth.

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Bob Dylan wrote a song called Man Gave Names to All the Animals. I first heard it sung by bluegrass mandolin player Tim Rice. (I like Bob Dylan’s songs, but only if somebody else sings them.) The song is witty and very tongue-in-cheek. Here’s a verse: “Saw an animal on the side of a hill…Eatin’ grass ‘till he had his fill…Saw the milk come out but he didn’t know how…‘Ahhh, I think I’ll call him a cow.’” I love the song; it’s so much fun. And it’s actually even Biblical, in its own way, ending with this ominous incomplete verse: “He saw an animal as smooth as glass…Slithering his way through the grass…Saw him disappear by a tree near a lake…” And the verse leaves you hanging, with that image of the Tempter in the Garden of Eden.

When I was a teenager I heard my pastor reference this Bible story of Adam naming the animals. He said, “Boy, Adam must have been smart! Have you seen those names? I can’t even pronounce some of them!” And I remember thinking, “Surely he doesn’t really think Adam gave animals their Latin genus and species names! Surely he’s making a joke!” But I wasn’t entirely sure. I still don’t know if he was joking or not.

Sometimes jokes are made about those who love animals. Certainly, people can be over-balanced in their attitude towards animals. The Bible is clear that, out of all God’s physical creatures, only human beings are made in the image of God. It’s a mistake to value animals on the same level as human beings.

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When I was in college it was an exciting time. It seemed like most everything in my life was up in the air. I had way more questions than I had answers, like: Would I get married? Who would I marry? (I had some thoughts about that, but I really wanted to hear from God.) What kind of a husband would I be? Would we have children? How many children would we have? What kind of a father would I be? Where would I go after I graduated? What part of the country would I live in? What kind of ministry would I have? Would I be an associate pastor first, or go right into a senior pastor position? Would I serve on a church staff, or be a solo pastor? And, on a deeper, more fearful level: Would I be a success? Would I be able to provide for my wife and children? Would my family be disappointed in me? Would God be disappointed in me? Would I be disappointed in myself?

I’d spent my teenage years as a prodigal son living on the edges of “the far country.” My parents made me tow the line for the most part, but I drifted away from God. I was making my own decisions, planning my own life, and taking my own path. And it all ended up with my life in the ditch in a big way. I wrecked the most important relationships with the most important people in my life, wasted some really good opportunities, and started to become someone that nobody really wanted to be around. I mean it when I say that, without Jesus, nobody would like me.

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I have a small leather 3-ring binder that I use for my sermon notes. I got it some years ago from supply store. It isn’t really a notebook. It’s actually an old address book, meant to hold pages with five or six names and addresses per page. These days you can hardly find address books like this anymore. Everybody(including me) keeps all their names and addresses on their contact list in their smartphones.

But I’d seen Billy Graham preach with his Bible and a full-size 3 ring notebook, and I thought, “Now why can’t I do that?” I’d begun preaching from more extensive notes, and eventually adopted a full manuscript format- something I thought I’d never do. I write out my sermons on half sheets of paper, 8 ½ x 5 ½ inches, and the more pages I wrote, the more a notebook made sense.

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There’s a short poem about money I heard a long time ago that I’ve never forgotten. Here it is:

Money talks; that’s no lie.
I heard it once; it said “Goodbye!”

But let me reword it a bit, like this:

Time flies; that’s no lie.
I heard it once; it said “Goodbye!”

Actually, I don’t think time says “Goodbye” at all. It just rushes by without so much as a “See you later!” It really is astonishing how fast it goes.

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About 1982 my family and I moved to Coal City, Indiana and I reconnected with a friend of mine I hadn’t seen for a couple of years. His name was Richard, and he was a musician, too. I was playing strictly acoustic guitar in those days, and he loaned me one of his amplifiers and an electronic effects unit for guitar. (For you guitar geeks out there, it was an Ibanez rackmount unit with compressor, overdrive, chorus, flanger and phaser.) All of this opened up a whole new world of wonderful sounds to explore.

Even more significantly, he loaned me an album of contemporary Christian music. It was an LP (I know, I’m an old guy) recorded by Dion, of “Dion and the Belmonts” fame. Dion had some top-40 hits in the sixties and seventies with songs like “Runaround Sue” and “Abraham, Martin and John.” But later Dion became a Christian and began to record Christian music. His music was a revelation to me. He sang the Gospel, clear and true, but in his own style, with guitar, bass, drums, and a Hammond B-3 organ. It was fantastic.

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John Maxwell was and is a Wesleyan minister who has pastored several churches in Indiana, Ohio, California and Florida. He has written many books on the subject of leadership, and held conferences on leadership all over the country. He has written and said many good and helpful things on leadership, but as far as I’m concerned, the best and most helpful thing he ever said was in an interview with Dr. James Dobson back in the mid-nineties.

Dr. Dobson’s organization, Focus On The Family, had begun issuing a series of cassette tapes specifically aimed at pastors. Each tape contained an interview with various people on some aspects of ministry. During the course of the interview with John Maxwell, Maxwell said this: “Leadership is influence.” That’s a direct quote,and it was an epiphany to me. I have long since given away that cassette tape to another minister…and if I still had it, I’m not sure I have a working tape machine to play it on anymore. But what he said on that tape has stuck with me.

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