“Yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged...” (Philemon 9a)
Paul, the aged. Before Paul asked Philemon to take a certain action, Paul played the age card. “Please do this, and remember that I’m old,” Paul implied. Age usually carries honor.
Meet Bill. I first met him in Indiana when I was about thirty, and he was pushing a hundred. He had been riding to church with some folks who were about to move out of state. I volunteered and soon learned that I would pick Bill up at the nursing home where he lived and return him after Sunday morning services. For the next few years, that ordinary task would change my life.
Willem “Bill” Suk (it rhymes with book) was born in Holland in 1900. He, his brother, and cousins were house painters until the Dutch economy tanked in the 1920s. They moved to Michigan because one of his cousins said, “there are lots of houses here to paint." Bill didn’t come to know Jesus until he was converted to Christ at a crusade in Michigan. He would never look back. In time, he finished Bible college, took a wife (he would outlive two), became a father and, in his late thirties, a pastor.
I was a seminary student at the time, and Bill–who insisted that I call him that–was exactly who I needed to flesh out academics. In class, I encountered theology, Biblical languages, church history, and homiletics. In my car on Sundays, I encountered a humble, experienced, funny, godly friend who knew just how to disciple me. He graciously told of every imaginable scenario with the sheep he had pastored for decades. He always pointed me to Christ and the Scriptures when he ventured advice. Soaking it all in, I was a sponge chauffeuring a saint. We laughed at each other’s jokes and prayed and wept over each other’s needs.
Before I moved away to become a pastor, Bill started bringing me a book or two each Sunday. Casually handing them to me, he would say, “these are especially good on the Book of James”or “this one helps me pray” and then refuse to accept them back. He nearly emptied his shelves. Those books are among my most treasured possessions still.His counsel rang in my ears when I was a pastor and rings still in my role as a hospice chaplain. His heavy Dutch accent and the twinkle in his eye when he laughed have stayed with me for years since he went to heaven at age 104.
Why introduce you to Bill? There are two reasons: First, you may need to reach out to someone around you. It may mean the world to him or her. Second, you may need what some "Bill" in your life has to offer you. Don’t miss either. Philemon needed Paul as Paul needed Philemon. I needed Bill as Bill needed me.
