Requiem for a good man.

"If I had a hammer..."
                 - Pete Seeger & Lee Hays

                                                                                           

May 24, 2015 - Pentecost Sunday

My father-in-law, Bert Steensma, was always building something.

Don't get confused, Bert wasn't a professional carpenter.  However, by the time I married his daughter, Stacey, 20 years ago he had already built a number of successful businesses.  Bert and his brother Gary have sold tractors and auto parts, owned a mall, an office building and a service station.  Together they were always building their business.

When he retired his stated goal was to help rebuild peoples lives by helping to rebuild the homes of those who had been struck by natural disasters - and he did volunteering with the Christian Reformed Church's Disaster Response Services for years.  He also spent time helping our church here in Alaska renovate their new space.  He even returned a decade later to repaint the walls he had painted when we opened.  In the final year of his life he was busy helping to remodel a small home for a women exiting homelessness.  In the midst of cancer treatments and failing health, he worked to build a new home, and a new life, for someone in who was in need of some rebuilding.

Bert's heart for building extended beyond the borders of Michigan or even the USA.  I recall a sun soaked day two years ago basking in the warmth with Dad in Talkeetna, AK and listening to him explain to me the work he had helped start in Honduras.  He outlined the reasons why they choose to pave peoples floors (health and infant mortality) and why they built water boxes (sanitation).  He and I talked about the relational aspects of ministry.  I was so blessed to hear his heart about helping those in need, his desire to know them and be known, and to connect with him on a level we didn't often share as we shared a beer.

Bert also built a family.  He married Lynda Smedley 48 years ago.  Together they have three daughters (something I can relate directly to) and a son, as well as 14 grandchildren.  I have had the privilege to be a part of this family for the past two decades and have been blessed by the skilled craftsmanship Bert had as a family man.

An outgoing and gregarious man Bert was always building friendships.  Quick to laugh, or make a joke, he was easy company. As a churchman he built the kingdom serving as a leader in the congregations he attended and supporting mission efforts across the world.

Today my father-in-law died, a victim of the lung cancer he so valiantly fought.  He breathed his last early Pentecost morning, giving up his Spirit the day we will celebrate the Spirit's arrival.

Today I reflect, not just on a good man, but on building.  
Bert's life - a life lived well - is asking me the question "what are you building?"  
It is a question that lingers for all of us left in the wake of this wonderful builder.  
What exactly am I building in/with my life?

Rest in Peace Dad.

"Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain."
                           - Psalm 127:1


Berts Obituary Can Be Viewed at:
http://www.zaagman.com/obituaries/obituary-listings?obId=503169#/obituaryInfo