Role Model

Last week we said farewell to my father-in-law, Bob O’Brien.  Bob was, without question, one of the most generous, genuine, and humble individuals I ever met.  Damned Lucky Strikes.

There is a certain kind of person, personality type, that, if you have a problem with that person you can be nearly assured that YOU are the problem.  (I am not one of those people.  If you have a problem with me, there is a pretty good chance I did something).  Bob was one of those people.  If you had a problem with Bob O’Brien, I can tell you with almost 100% certainty:  You are the problem.

When preparing to stand up for Bob at his graveside to say a few words last week, I started looking around the Bible for some applicable passages that came to mind.  It was tough.  Whatever else one might think about the Holy Bible, it undeniably has a great deal of practical wisdom.  Everywhere I looked, I thought, “there’s Bob” and “there’s Bob”.  Like many, even most folks, I know just enough Bible to be dangerous, and I landed on these passages.

Galatians 5 outlines the fruit of the spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  Who can argue against these traits? Bob exhibited all (not some) of these traits, and (in my experience) about all the time. 

So then Philippians 2:3-4 came to mind.  Aspirational for me, it is one of the few Bible verses I can quote by heart: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others”.  I have never met a more selfless and deferential person than Bob O’Brien, as he always put the needs and desires of others before himself.

Finally, Bob did the right things for the right reasons.  In Matthew 6, Jesus said “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding”.  Bob didn’t live the fruits of the spirit, didn’t put others first, for show.  Nobody could keep that up for the 32 years I knew him.  He did the right things for the right reasons.  Not for the applause of men, but because it was his character.

It would be a boring world if everyone was the same, for sure.  But would the world be a better place if everyone were a little more like me?  Ya, maybe a little. I'd like to hope.  Would the world be a better place if everyone were more like Bob O’Brien?

Yes.  A helluvalot better.