Editor’s note: David Powlison, a member of the TGC Board, died on June 7, at the age of 69, of pancreatic cancer. In this article, Tim Keller, vice president of The Gospel Coalition, shares his thoughts on Powlison. with David Powlison on the Board of Directors of the Bible Counseling Coalition.
You know a man for what he loves. This is true in all the roles a man assumes. I think it is fair to say that David Powlison has served as the lead leader in the Bible Council movement and as an influence on those of evangelism most concerned with pastoral care. There are several reasons for this related to his publications and leadership within the Christian Board and Education Foundation (CCEF), but for those closest to his leadership, the reason is clear: David embodies the love for the things we aspire to love.
- David loved many things.
- But I would like to point out some particular loves that those of us who follow in his footsteps must follow.
We use words to make sense of this world, to capture our experiences and make sense of them. Was David thirsty to read to many of those who are particularly skilled?Poets, novelists, essayists, commentators. I could take advantage of those moments when a writer uses exactly the right text, a phrase so precise and eloquent that the reader feels that the contours of his inner life read for themselves. Such words allow someone to say yes, I’ve experienced what you’re talking about David tried to be such a writer.
David’s writing is not literature. But it’s literary. He loved to create words, not just write them. I wanted the truth to speak wonderfully. When you read it, you may notice that he worked on many of his sentences long enough to make them funny, elegant, or insightful. But his love of words was also born in the way he talked to people. After listening for a long time, he told them of his experience with words of a more vivid variety, with sharper contours and cleaner lines. David liked a proper word, for him they were like golden apples in silver boxes. David’s love of words was not secondary to who he was or what he produced. Those of us who want to emulate David perhaps should resort to good writing by reading a lot. Read on to see the experiences you would never have behind a thousand different pairs of eyes. Read on to see how someone describes something so accurately that it allows them to better understand their own experience.
Whether sliding through the waves on the shore on his board or reading a recent dream study, David was convinced that this world and all it contains is a great and masterful expression of the divine genius. Each layer of existence is linked in one way or another. to all others because they all relate directly to the God of all. He was delighted with the ivy that stretched over the brick walls in a slow search for sunlight not only because she was beautiful, but because she came from God.
This same pleasure allowed him to receive the news of cancer with sober joy; God had done it. Yes, cancer is the uncontrolled growth and division of cells that have strayed, multiplying outside their projected limits. Yes, what causes cancer is mysteriously complex? Could it have been an environmental and genetic exposure to carcinogens? And yes, our eyes did not penetrate these layers of reality, but God did. And they are all tied to your goals and he is good. Cancer is part of the interrelation of all things with God.
This love of the interdependence of God’s world has also made David a model of involvement with sources of knowledge outside of God’s Word, someone with whom he interacted and came from a different theoretical approach, including approaches hostile to the principles he had for her. He did so with a rare combination of humility and conviction. What David has done better than most of them is a critical commitment. Both words are important to understand how he did it. Does criticism perceive divisions between what is pleasing or unpleasant to the Lord in a but getting involved means recognizing the legitimacy inherent in trying to ask a good question and seeking a good answer.
Were your criticisms of those you disagreed with devastating?They became even more effective because of the appreciation he showed for all the good he found in his ideas. His criticisms were sympathetic, far more devastating than generic layoffs or radical convictions. I felt I had learned something valuable from people I totally disagreed with. Each perspective informed him of a factor in God’s interdependent world.
Those who have dedicated their lives to a similar field of study should emulate David here. Every human being has a limited set of experiences in the world, and we grow and develop by collecting information about a wider variety of experiences. our understanding of human beings as limited individuals who need a community, we must engage with broader content.
David has seen the world with new eyes (a nod to those who know his writing), but perhaps it is better to say that he saw the world with new eyes, the eyes of a heart that continually deepens his love for the Word of God. God.
When David shared his last thoughts in written or oral form, he never felt he was excited by a new theory he had found or a new methodology he was developing, but heard his enthusiasm that he was recently able to discern the Word of God differently. illuminating the world. He loved the themes of the scriptures and the unique perspective of the life each offers. He had a continuous sense of discovery in the world of scripture.
We must imitate this love, so that we may always be more impressed by the explanatory power of Scripture than by the explanatory power of everything else. Only Scripture provides direct and totally reliable access to God’s perspective above all and therefore has undisputed authority. The happiest task is to seek an understanding of our lives in the depths of divine wisdom. Our love of the scriptures must overflow in our eyes, change the way we see everything.
David’s love for the people and his love for the Word converged like two currents coming together in a river. This river flowed through the center of the landscape of David’s ministry, bringing countless people to life.
Your love for people was like an atmosphere you go into when you talk to them. As few people I know, David would be interested in the person sitting in front of him, happy to explore his unique experience. You felt comfortable talking about everything from counseling theory to sports in Philadelphia.
This love for people was not just a feeling, it led him to converse in the sense of what would most benefit the soul, he did so with sweetness and subtlety, as if Jesus Christ were the natural end of every human conversation. It was never abrupt, it was never forced in an awkward way, it was like gravity.
We must mimic the orbit of David’s conversations by creating people’s experiences enough to listen to them, and then linking those experiences with God as their greatest context. This is perhaps the largest skill set David has shown, which was something deeper than just a set. skills it was a way of being for him.
Although David never saw God, David loved him. It’s the gift of faith. In David, this faith has forged a particularly strong ability to recognize and rejoice in the beauty of God. But David now sees his God and still thinks he’s more beautiful than he could ever imagine. David sees God with really new eyes.
It was the loves that characterized David. Ore so that it is the loves that characterize us as we continue their efforts.