Life Tribute for Royce A. Currieo (Dad)

How does one bury their father and the patriarch of one's family … exactly?  It is never an easy proposition but in the case of my Dad it seems especially difficult.  I suppose you could just recite a litany of his attributes and call it day … but that seems both a bit trite and very superficial.  It would also ignore the soul … that part of each of us that lives forever.  And that is what in Dad’s life makes this especially difficult … because he was just so hard to pin down.  It always seemed like a game to him in so many ways.  Although for most of us it seemed more like literal life and death.

And that is probably Dad’s greatest attribute … he was just so dang smart.  He very likely was the smartest man I have ever known.  The only trouble with that though was the he was incredibly aware of just how smart he was … at all times.  And if you didn’t believe it, you could just ask him.  He was a long time member of MENSA [you know that club of the IQ top 2%’ers] and he would let you know about it.  He often joked [or were these really jokes?] That only Mensans should be allowed to drive, or vote, or whatever it was he was annoyed with at the time.  And you never really knew if he really believed this or was just jerking your chain.  

And this fabulous breadth of knowledge was not just limited to mathematics [he thought Calculus, Differential Equations, Organic Chemistry, Physics and even Thermodynamics were all easy to understand].  Well … maybe for him they were … but he also was a brilliant student history, wartime strategies [and especially World War II … he probably knew more about that war than both Gen. Eisenhower and Gen. MacArthur combined … but I digress] … now where was I?  Oh yeah, he also had far-reaching knowledge of economics and even thermonuclear physics.  Yes, he was literally building hydrogen bombs when Sheryl and I were born.  But it was not only these things that he knew, but he was also a scholar of the Bible way back in the day.  When I was a teenager, I could actually picture him debating the Apostle Paul about Systematic Theology once they were both in heaven together.  But he seemingly grew tired of this when we moved from Tulsa to Clearwater, KS and sadly, I never really saw that interest again.  It was almost like he already knew all of that.  I think this can be a danger for the brightest in the world … they can somehow become “too smart” for God, if such a thing was even possible.  But I do take comfort that Dad knew the gospel inside and out.  He also knew the Word.  But the demons do as well and it does them no good.  My prayer is that somewhere deep down in his soul the word was an anchor for his faith and that he really believed.  I know the Apostle James would struggle accepting that kind of faith but all Jesus looks for is faith that is really faith and not merely knowledge and it only takes a small mustard seed amount for Jesus to see it.

Dad was also very loyal.  He loved his kids dearly and was fiercely committed to them and believed the best of them … always!  Whenever you were with him he raved on and on about whatever kid or kids were NOT with him.  This always seemed a bit sideways to me … maybe I because I was always more of a Steven Stills kinda guy who believed that you should “love the one you’re with.”  But Dad was more into loving the one who wasn’t there.  So maybe the trick was to quickly leave so that he would say good things about you too!?!  This, I think, highlighted one of Dad’s strongest and perhaps most maddening attributes … he was a Contrarian’s Contrarian.  He was probably the most contrarian person I’ve ever known.  I think he really loved a good argument and it was all too easy to get sucked into these with Dad … even if you went into the visit determined not to let this happen.  Because he knew how to get everyone’s goad.  Literally everyone.  And he loved a good argument … and not just because he always won.  He liked the sport of matching wits with people … even if it just made him feel victorious at the end.  Kind of like how he loved playing Monopoly and then slowly wringing every last cent out of every single player at the table.  He was always the “Master of the Board” at the end of every game.  Only he didn’t really care to bronze the board to showcase his victory … because he knew the result would be the same the next time we played the game … and the next time we played the game … and the next time we played the game.  My only question is why he never did this with anything other than Monopoly money.  I mean we could all be looking at a serious inheritance here!  But I digress again.

He strongly encouraged … nay downright expected all his kids to graduate from college.  Maybe that was because so many in his direct lineage had not.  But we knew from first grade on that it was college or bust for us.  He moved into our Sungate home in large part because that is where the best schools in Tulsa County were and he did not leave until Sheryl & I had graduated from Memorial High School.  Ann was no longer living with us then, but he pushed her too, and made sure she could go to OSU and graduate from college as well.  Education was very important to Dad and all us kids are better for his commitment to it.

Dad was one of the charter members at Asbury Methodist Church.  The church was barely a year old when we started attending and had just moved into a newly constructed fellowship hall with a Sunday school wing when we moved to Tulsa late in the winter of 1967.  Everyone knew everyone back in those days, and Dad quickly became a 6th grade Sunday school teacher even as he sat under the adult teaching of a giant of man named Frank Strozier [a Georgia grad and offensive lineman as I recall … he was my first exposure to SEC football and the whole “it just means more” thing … but again I digress].  His wife Dorothy would be instrumental in developing my young faith as well, as she taught my third grade Sunday school class and literally discipled me into faith in Christ.  Frank Strozier taught my Dad to become a student of God’s word.  Rev. Bill Mason played a very large role in encouraging Dad’s spiritual growth as well and he was powerfully used by God  keep our family together following the suicide of our mother in 1971.  It’s really hard to believe that will be fifty years ago this coming May.

Less than two years after that tragedy, Dad met Glenda whom he somehow then managed to pluck off the vine.  She was so much younger than him and seemingly way out of his league.  He definitely “married up” as they say these days.  And all my friends wanted to know how I ended up with such a hot momma.  I’ve often wondered that myself.  But it was all in God’s grace and she was the best thing that ever happened to Dad.  And those two became instrumental in developing a praise and worship ministry using what was at that time considered to be fairly contemporary Christian music [like the Bill Gaither Trio] … it doesn’t sound quite so “contemporary” tonight as we played and heard some of those songs but it was quite avantgarde for the Methodist church circa 1976 when all we ever seemed to use was the Charles Wesley hymnal.

And that brings us back around to faith … and what exactly is “saving faith?”  

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand?  But with you there is forgiveness; Therefore you are feared.  I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.  My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning.  Put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption.

He was wounded for our transgressions.  He was bruised for our inequities; the chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes were are healed.  All we, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but God has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus … for the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death!  Amen!  And it is all of our prayers tonight that Dad now you are finally free!

                                                [adapted from Psalm 130:3-7, Isaiah 53:5-6 and Romans 8:1-2]

Do we know this for certain in Dad’s life … sadly, no, not for certain … and it is my challenge to each you watching this tonight that you not leave your children with this kind of uncertainty, because it is the worst kind of uncertainty on this side of eternity.  Were there flickers of faith in Dad’s life?  Most certainly there were … the were actual times of faith with roaring flames … but then much like God would do for 400 years while his people grew into a mighty nation in Egypt and then again for another 400 years in the inter-testamental period of the Scriptures there was nothing but deafening silence from God.  These past twenty years have been difficult for our family for many reasons … not the least of which was just how physically difficult it was to communicate with Dad given his terrible hearing loss, but think how much harder it must have been for him … all that brilliance essentially locked in with no easy way for it to be seen or communicated.

So as we say goodbye to Dad tonight … and tonight is really more for us that remain than it is for him in the end.  What do we say?  How do we think?  I think in the end we just have to leave Dad’s eternal fate up to the Lord.  The Scripture that keeps coming to mind for me in times like these … albeit now it is more up close and personal for me than it ever has been … is Genesis 18:25, ‘Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”  And I think that is that we must keep our focus on … that God is just; God is good; and God does not do anything that we will not ultimately approve of someday. 

“Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”