{"id":919,"date":"2011-12-27T23:20:10","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T23:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/preacherskid\/?p=919"},"modified":"2011-12-27T23:39:47","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T23:39:47","slug":"god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html","title":{"rendered":"God be with you, ’til we meet again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>So, after a year of posting Preacher’s Kid, it’s time to say farewell.<\/p>\n

I have so appreciated the opportunity to share my occasionally tortured faith, to relive the sweet and bitter and in between insights and experiences of life and the aftermath of being the son of a preacher man.<\/p>\n

I have tried to share my own dysfunctional journey, as it were. I’ve tried to share, and to even understand, all these years later, how my faith both thrived because of, and in spite of my upbringing.<\/p>\n

And, in pouring out nearly 100 postings to a modest, but devoted readership, I have been in awe and wonder at the miracle<\/em> that I didn’t go down the same path as other PKs to completely abandoning faith.<\/p>\n

Oh, I have seen much — far too much<\/em> — of the failures, arrogance, hypocrisy and bigotry of my fellow believers, and how they have made the Body of Christ one that limps through this world, beating itself on the head with one hand . . . even while it gamely tries to give love with the other.<\/p>\n

And yet, faith abides<\/em>. Every time I near the point of throwing up my hands and surrendering to skepticism entirely, I witness a simple act of Christian kindness and sacrifice, one done for the love of Jesus and not the acclaim of anyone else. In other words, I see faith in action<\/em>, and for a moment of crystalline, pure light and love, \u00a0I glimpse the tarnished human spirit truly rise to touch the Holy Spirit within.<\/p>\n

The potential, you see, is there, if only for a day, an hour, or the heartbeat it takes to smile or embrace. And somehow, that is enough keep faith alive.<\/p>\n

Oh, we can be so much more<\/em> than we are. We cannot give up hope.<\/p>\n

So, one more memory from this preacher’s kid. Picture the funeral of an 11-year-old’s beloved Sunday School teacher. Jack Wahus was his name. I last saw Jack alive, barely, in a hospital bed, dying of bone cancer. The prayers for healing had been said, and the answer had been “not this time.” Jack, an I.V. drip barely knocking the edge off the pain,was \u00a0telling the little boy to whom he had become a surrogate grandfather not to worry: it was going to be OK, whatever happened.<\/p>\n

Behind the never-far away torture in his gray eyes was a sense of acceptance and peace. “It’s all going to be all right,” he grimaced in an attempt to smile.<\/p>\n

A week later, his funeral was held. It was a blur of tears for the boy wondering, for not the first time, about the mystery of why good people suffer . . . and yet remembering that Jack was at peace with it all. What a wonder that was; I wanted whatever Jack had that could make such darkness, light.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then, there was this song. Even today, 40 years later, it touches a tender place in my heart where that little boy still lives:<\/p>\n

God be with you till we meet again;<\/em>
\nBy His counsels guide, uphold you,<\/em>
\nWith His sheep securely fold you;<\/em>
\nGod be with you till we meet again.<\/em><\/p>\n

Till we meet, till we meet,<\/em>
\nTill we meet at Jesus\u2019 feet;<\/em>
\nTill we meet, till we meet,<\/em>
\nGod be with you till we meet again.<\/em><\/p>\n

God be with you till we meet again;<\/em>
\nNeath His wings protecting hide you;<\/em>
\nDaily manna still provide you;<\/em>
\nGod be with you till we meet again.<\/em><\/p>\n

God be with you till we meet again;<\/em>
\nWith the oil of joy anoint you;<\/em>
\nSacred ministries appoint you;<\/em>
\nGod be with you till we meet again.<\/em><\/p>\n

God be with you till we meet again;<\/em>
\nWhen life\u2019s perils thick confound you;<\/em>
\nPut His arms unfailing round you;<\/em>
\nGod be with you till we meet again.<\/em><\/p>\n

. . . \u00a0May we all find that peace that Jack had.<\/p>\n

God be with you.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, after a year of posting Preacher’s Kid, it’s time to say farewell. I have so appreciated the opportunity to share my occasionally tortured faith, to relive the sweet and bitter and in between insights and experiences of life and the aftermath of being the son of a preacher man. I have tried to share…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,8,70,85,83,9,3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christ","category-faith","category-healing","category-heaven","category-jesus","category-prayer","category-pks","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGod be with you, 'til we meet again - Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God be with you, 'til we meet again - Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So, after a year of posting Preacher’s Kid, it’s time to say farewell. I have so appreciated the opportunity to share my occasionally tortured faith, to relive the sweet and bitter and in between insights and experiences of life and the aftermath of being the son of a preacher man. I have tried to share…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-27T23:20:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-27T23:39:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/preacherskid\/files\/2011\/12\/thank-you-rocks-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"remims\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God be with you, 'til we meet again - Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God be with you, 'til we meet again - Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World","og_description":"So, after a year of posting Preacher’s Kid, it’s time to say farewell. I have so appreciated the opportunity to share my occasionally tortured faith, to relive the sweet and bitter and in between insights and experiences of life and the aftermath of being the son of a preacher man. I have tried to share…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html","og_site_name":"Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World","article_published_time":"2011-12-27T23:20:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-12-27T23:39:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/preacherskid\/files\/2011\/12\/thank-you-rocks-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"remims","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html","name":"God be with you, 'til we meet again - Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/preacherskid\/files\/2011\/12\/thank-you-rocks-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2011-12-27T23:20:10+00:00","dateModified":"2011-12-27T23:39:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/#\/schema\/person\/8a8939f8ac7f7fd8a0c906f2c12c2b63"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/preacherskid\/files\/2011\/12\/thank-you-rocks-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/preacherskid\/files\/2011\/12\/thank-you-rocks-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/12\/god-be-with-you-til-we-meet-again.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"God be with you, ’til we meet again"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/","name":"Preacher\u2019s Kid: Honest Faith, Real World","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Robert Mims","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/#\/schema\/person\/8a8939f8ac7f7fd8a0c906f2c12c2b63","name":"remims","description":"In 30-plus years as a journalist, I have written about subjects as varied as business, science, politics and the environment to sports, history and religion. Over the past 20 years, I have also freelanced magazines and ghostwritten numerous books with biographical, inspirational, historical and sociological themes. Among my awards over the years I most treasure earning regional recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists as Religion Writer of the Year, and finalist honors for both the Religion Newswriters Association's Templeton and Cornell feature writing prizes.","sameAs":["http:\/\/mimsmedia.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/author\/remims"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":923,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions\/923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}