My Dad In Me

For most of us, there is a lot of our fathers in us.  That is certainly true for me.  If you were to see my dad (pictured above with my mom and my daughter at Joy's college graduation last month) you would not have to guess twice who his son is.  We look a lot alike.  But there is a lot of my dad in me in other ways as well.  Three of the greatest loves of my life (outside of God and my family) our loves I got from my dad.  Here they are:

BASEBALL!  I love baseball.  It is a passion of mine.  When I get to go to a Major League baseball game I am like a kid on Christmas morning.  I love to watch it and I love to follow it.  My dream is to retire (at the age of 48) and spend an entire summer travelling so that I can watch a baseball game in every Major League stadium all in the same season.  I got that from my dad.  He too loves baseball.  Now there is a major difference.  My dad is a New York Yankee fan.  I personally always root against the Yankees.  But setting that one small element aside, I got my love for baseball from my dad.

POLITICS!  I love politics.  It is a passion of mine.  I love to watch politics.  I love to read about politics.  I love to follow politics.  To me, the greatest nights of the year are elections nights - especially when it is the presidential year.  I got that from my dad.

CHURCH!  I love the local church.  That is a large reason why I became a pastor.  I got this love from my dad as well.  I grew up in church - literally.  My dad was not a pastor but he was on just about every board and committee the church had.  Our family lived by the motto, "If the church doors are open, the Distler family will be there."  And because my parents were also the church custodians, we were at church even when the doors were closed.  I never became tired of being at church.  In fact, as I grew older, I would often borrow my dad's church keys and go up to the church to do my homework or practice my trumpet.  I loved being in the church - I still do!  I get that from my dad.

Dad lives in Central Florida now and is retired.  He has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease but is doing well.  Because I live 1400 miles away in Northern Michigan we don't get to see each other much and frankly, neither of us our big phone talkers.  But when we do talk you can bank on the fact that after updates on the family our conversation will turn to three things we both love:

BASEBALL

POLITICS

CHURCH