Dad's 80th

Last year, after I wrote one of the stories about Dad regarding his love of Coca-Cola, a dear friend of mine delivered a batch of 8-oz. bottled Cokes with some names on them for me and some others in our family. As you can see from the picture above, he had Dad’s name printed on some of them. Wow.

I’m sitting on our back porch tonight — listening to the crickets sing and thinking about Dad.

Today would have been his 80th birthday and I miss him.

I just finished enjoying a chilled 8-ounce bottled Coca-Cola. I popped the top on it and dropped some peanuts into the bottle and watched them fizz — just like Dad used to do. I watched the slideshow we made of his life for his funeral back in January 2021.

Then I raised the bottle and thanked God for my dad, Steady Cash, and took the first sip of a Coca-Cola in his honor. I’ve decided that every September 18 from here on out, I’m going to follow this same ritual. It’ll be the only time each year that I do this.

My aunt Courtney, Dad’s sister, texted Mom, my brothers, and me for Dad’s birthday saying she was missing him today and thinking about our family. In the replies, each of us had a story. I talked about the Coke I was going to drink tonight. Ed said he had “32” for breakfast, which is what Dad called 3 pancakes and 2 fried eggs. Scott had his twin girls baptized this morning with Mom there watching. And Scott has also made the noble commitment to eat a chocolate-chip cookie every day for the next five years. Way to go, bro! :)

One of Dad’s favorite passages in Scripture was Matthew 6:25-33. He quoted from it often, and I never see flowers in the field without thinking of him and that passage.

I’m doing a 30-day online devotional with some old fraternity brothers from Wake Forest based on Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost For His Highest. As grace would have it, today was day 12, and one of the lines from the reading was,

“Consider the lilies of the field . . .” (Matthew 6:28). They grow where they are planted. Many of us refuse to grow where God plants us. Therefore, we don’t take root anywhere.”

I think it takes a lot of us a long time to get truly comfortable with where God has planted us. Most of the time, it’s because we don’t really trust Him. We don’t like where we are planted or maybe for some of you it feels like He’s long left the garden. I get that. After 30 years in ministry, trust me, I get that. But I know in the deepest part of my heart, mind, and soul that about 2,000 years ago, God came back into our world in a profound way.

For me to really grab hold of that, it took a lot of friends walking patiently alongside me, and a lot of spiritual and emotional pruning. It even took some seasons of being willing for God to re-plant me where I was supposed to be rather than where I thought I wanted to be. Or maybe it was more about who I wanted to be.

Are you comfortable with where you are planted? Are you growing like you should or longing for something more? Do you feel deeply rooted or like a tumbleweed in the wind? It takes work to grow roots in the right place, but wow is the upside worth it. Selah.

Now, I’ve got to quit typing. My Coca-Cola is getting less chilled, and drinking warm Coca-Cola is not something I’m prepared to do for anybody.

Happy birthday, Dad.

I love you and miss you so much.

If you’re wondering about the story that prompted my friend Kevin to deliver the personalized Coca-Cola to me, here it is. It was story #6 of the 40 that I wrote at the end of last year.

If you’re looking for a list of all the stories in order, click here.