What Imprint Will I Leave?

Reject the myth of the self-made man; each of us is a collage of influences. As M. G. Fray put it, "I cannot be 'just me.'" We are a divinely stirred mixture of others that imprint us with their own unique reflection of the Triune God. "There is a sense in which I have become like those who discipled me--I have become the people I have known and the (authors) I have studied and read" (M. G. Fray, "It Is Enough", 2000).

Anything good seen in me carefully resembles my mentors, both the ones I walked with and the ones that continue to mark me by written expression. There is really no such thing as 'Dane Fowlkes' except in that a name is given to denote this curious montage painted by Henry Fowlkes, Lois Fowlkes, Katie Richey, T. H. Harding, Bill Clark, Bill Malin, Donald Potts, Ira Cooke, Bud Fray, Al Fasol, Vance and Cherry Kirkpatrick, St. Francis, Brother Lawrence, Frank Laubach, Andrew Murray, Oswald Chambers, A. W. Tozer, A. B. Simpson, Henry Blackaby, Stanley Mwongella, and the list goes on.... There is no such thing as a self-made man.

What imprint will I leave on those who follow me?

Thanksgiving Reminiscences

Thanksgiving affords the perfect opportunity to say "thank you" to special individuals, living and deceased. Here are a few of my Thanksgiving reminiscences:

- Thank you Jo for allowing me to see God's grace in your eyes every morning. You will always be the most beautiful and incredibly special woman in all the world to me.
- Thank you my daughters for overlooking my shortcomings as a father and loving me in spite of disappointments along the way.
- Thank you Melody for loving a brother who has always been something of a maverick.
- Thank you Mandy and Missy for allowing me into your lives and blessing me with that proud designation of 'Papa' with your precious children.
- Thank you to my students from the past decade that found something beneficial in my musings along the way about what it means to be a Christ-follower and servant leaders.
- Thank you to generous Kingdom-minded business people that have taught me volumes by allowing me to listen and observe.
- Thank you to good friends that validate the axiom that a true friend is someone who walks in when everyone else walks out on you.
- Thank you Mom and Dad for granting unconditional love from beginning to end and everything in between. I miss you more than I can say.
- Thank you to churches along the way that taught me the importance of living in community (Trinity, Midyett, New Faith, Lily Grove, Memorial, Parkway, Bel Air, Crossings).
- Thank you my Kenyan brothers & sisters for softening the edges of my own ethnocentrism.
- Thank you Father for grace and infinite love that changes everything.

When Good People Disagree

Today a good friend confronted me over my latest blog containing strong political opinion and expressed his concern that my post painted him into a moral corner inappropriately. He insisted on a direction diametrically opposed to my own insistence and was both gracious and courageous enough to own the difference out loud so as not to allow the differences to nullify the common ground of relationship. In other words, we reaffirmed our convictions and our friendship at the selfsame time. Could this be the proper tact when good people disagree? Is it possible to hold conviction and another's heart with equal sanctity? This is a good reminder to me that authentic friendship allows honest debate and substantiates relationship as a cardinal virtue. No doubt more debate awaits our next conversation, but the sharp edge of opinion will be softened (not dulled) by grace and mutual respect.

Saddest Day for America

If projections hold true, we are witnessing the saddest day in American political history. This is far more than a narrow electoral victory for a Democratic incumbent; this is a statement of how deeply America has embraced the catastrophic downgrade into Socialism. With this election result, America rejects her democratic New World heritage and rushes headlong into the failed ideologies and economic policies of socialist Old World Europe. Bill O'Reilly got it right tonight when he said America is clearly now a majority that wants "stuff" from a government, regardless of how far in debt that government must go to provide the "stuff." So, where do we go from here? Tragically, the only way for this beloved country to go is down. We race headlong over a fiscal cliff, the economy will collapse into depression, and the "stuff" so many feel entitled to receive will soon be unaffordable for a bankrupt nation. But far worse than the growing economic chaos is the moral collapse that this election evidences. Obama's re-election means that America has embraced same-sex marriage, will arrogantly pay for abortion on demand, and legalizes the removal of religious liberty.

This election was a moral as well as ideological one and the outcome is that America is now a secular, liberal, socialist nation where "one nation under God" no longer applies.