Glen Kehrein 8/16/48--11/12/11

It's not easy to pen a tribute to someone you've never met, but whose life bordered mine 25 years ago, and influenced me more than I suspected.  Glen founded Circle Urban Ministries, in Austin/Chicago; right next to Oak Park and West Suburban Hospital where I interned.  I'v never been there either but Flo just visited for Glen's funeral.  Glen and his wife Lonnie were planning to retire in our area and had been coming to our church when colon cancer struck him down.  (When that happens to someone our age, it's by definition premature!)

Glen was very big on racial reconciliation and was an elder at Rock Church, a black/white congregation in Austin from which has emerged more community action than I can recount here. The pastor, Glen's close (pun) friend was Raleigh Washington, with whom Glen co-wrote the book, "Breaking Down Walls: A Model for Reconciliation in an Age of Racial Strife."

When I talked briefly with our pastor about Glen, Glen never made reference to any of these works in conversation even though he was given a "Doctorate of Peacekeeping" from Westminster College; one wouldn't suspect these things from just talking to him. I knew his name sounded familiar when it was on our prayer lists week after week, but I couldn't place it until Flo came back from the funeral and showed me the program.

I never read Glen's book; but the title always haunted me and challenged me.  And I did make efforts eventually when the opportunity arose--but tho my efforts ended tragically--Glen's live on.  He always emphasized "intentionality" in regards to racial reconciliation--but that involved full bore participation and availabiity of which I was never capable.(not just "good intentions, as Steve Lopez eventually learned--see below.)

I think for the intellectuallized soul, well, it's just hard to have "soul"; or to understand other people outside of all our categoricalized imperatives. What brings this to mind is the movie we saw last night, "The Soloist," which I strongly recommend esp. for idealistic people or people who put their trust in abstractions and hence use the stories of others to gain awards and fame or self a-steam as unto themselves. But as the movie implies, though grace is inherently resisted by most of us most of the time--there's nothing that can stop it in the end; regardless of the most daunting circumstances. (See Mtt 5:11)  So appearances  are almost always deceiving, because of our strong physical limitations plus our unwillingness to look deeper, spend more time with an individual,and put up with the inconveniences entailed in actuallly grappling with others' sometiemes incomprehensibe and foreign points of view--not to exhaust the list of all our disabilities and childish defense mechanisms. (It may even be that Freud could quickly put "rationalization" and "intellectualisation" on the list of precariously positioned defence mechanisms because of his observations of himself as much as of others. He was still by nature an up-tight quintessential white European, after all!)

"Glen served the Lord, his family, and the ministry faithfully. His quick wit, sense of humor, mentoring heart and compassion will be greatly missed."  He mentored others--now he will be mentored by the Worthy One. One can't say enough about the value of such  a life--or of any other life--yet ironically it is all too easy to say too much, by adding in our endless assumptions and their corollaries.  Better to leave it to others who actually and easily live such a life as his, in the same way a real rose exudes its fragrance. Take my wife...