by Rev. Eric Folkerth

You will hear me say this on both Saturday and Sunday, but I wanted to share one of the traits that most inspired me about Dwight and Nell Lind. As you will see elsewhere in this newsletter —as you hopefully already know— this is a big weekend to celebrate their lives and legacy, and their connection to Kessler Park UMC.

One of the things that was inspiring to *me* about them both was a dual sense of both honoring where they had come from, but also growing *beyond* that place so that they could support “the next generation.”

Nell was SO passionate about children. But she also never insisted on molding them in *her* image, so much as supporting them in who they would become…in helping them become who they needed to be.

Dwight had —to my mind— remarkable views on Christian social justice movements. Following several of our “Racial Justice Series” programs (which he attended) he would clip and send news stories to me, supportive of racial justice in our time.

He and Nell both were incredibly supportive of the LGBTQ community.

Again, consider these views and where they had come from. They both started in relatively small, rural Texas settings decades ago. These places were far more “conservative” theologically and socially.

They might have stayed there. They might have calcified into the stereotypically cautious and conservative views we associate with rural folks. They might have told stories of the “glory days,” and lamented “the problem with kids today…”

But they did NOT do this…

Instead, throughout their lives, they embraced change and reached out in love and acceptance to their family, their church and all of North Oak Cliff.

That is a *remarkable* journey, considering how it began.

And all of it was undergirded by a deep and abiding faith and trust in God. They trusted in a God who was with them as young people and then helped them grow throughout their lives.

That trust in God allowed them to do all these things, experience all these things…grow, change, and try NEW things, even well into their 80s.

They were “centered” in history of where they were from —proud of their heritage and past— but they were “future focused” and embracing of young people and the next generation…willing to admit what they *didn’t* know and, more than anything, SO excited and proud to watch the next generation do things they could only dream of.

Friends, this a remarkable inspiration for us all, yes?

How maybe we all ought to live too, yes?

See you this weekend.

Eric