My dad, Hank Hurst, a great and brilliant man, passed away a week ago due to illness from Parkinson's disease and dimentia. After years of amazing health and virile stature, he fought a tough fight with harsh diseases in the final years of his life. The Lord mercifully took my dad to be with Him in Heaven last Sunday morning. Meanwhile, my family and I celebrated his life with two beautiful services yesterday.
Dad's real name was Earnest Henry Hurst (yes, that's how his parents spelled his first name). As his oldest son, I asked him as a kid why he didn't name me "Earnest Henry Hurst, Junior." His answer to me was, "Because I loved you too much!" He hated his given name--he much preferred "Hank".
Dad was a Texan through and through. He was born in the hard country of West Texas in a little town outside Lubbock called O'Donnell (hometown of Bonanza's Dan Blocker). However, apparently, O'Donnell wasn't hard enough country. His family soon moved to another small town called Monument, New Mexico, where my dad was raised in an even harder environment.
Monument was a dry, desolate place. I remember visiting my grandparents when I was a kid and immediately visiting their old water cooler about 18 times within the first half hour. There wasn't much in Monument but lots of hard, cracked ground and miles and miles of miles and miles. Laying awake in their un-air conditioned house at night, I could hear the sounds of the occasional lonely car approaching every couple of hours or so. It always seemed like it took two hours for the car to get near our house before it would then pass by and then take another two hours to drive away down the abandoned highway.
Growing up poor in Monument in some hard family circumstances made my father tough, resilient, courageous; willing to try just about anything to succeed. Dad was a talented athlete, who lettered in many sports but was particularly gifted in basketball and tennis. Nevertheless, he "got out of Dodge" early at 16, and went on to eventually conquer the business world through all kinds of different endeavors. His primary business was as a general contractor in the construction business for many years in the Golden Triangle area of Southeast Texas. Dad and his company both made a significant impact on that community. He was a civic-minded man who was a leader in many arenas. Meanwhile, he enjoyed many professional moments of success and was well-known and well-loved by many.
But his greatest successes in this world were pretty simple. First of all, Hank was the patriarch to a large vibrant family. He married a great, brilliant woman in the person of my mom. He was the father to six kids, 15 grandkids and he also mentored many more people who were dependent on his wise leadership, sensitive compassion and loyal generosity. All of his children thought he was Superman and could do no wrong. Our friends told us the same thing. However, my dad remained a humble man. We didn't always know how important Dad was. We were too busy spending time with him, usually at the lake. Still, the fact remains that many people were discreetly supported and positively inspired by my Dad's life.
Secondly, Dad's other greatest success in life became poignantly evident again yesterday. As we laid his tired, worn-out body to rest, we could celebrate the reality that my father had already gone to be with Jesus earlier in the week. Fortunately, Dad had come to depend on scripture as the anchor of his life. As a result, he trusted Christ as his Savior. This was a very good thing and a great relief to his family.
It was a great thing because it turned out Hank Hurst wasn't perfect after all. It turned out that he wasn't invincible like we all thought he was. But he was smart! He put his faith in Jesus. Dad believed the disciple John who quoted Jesus when He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to Father except through me." Dad grew to faithfully read his Bible, his bedside devotional books, and he listened frequently to folks like John Bisagno, Charles Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, Claude Payne and Dave Peterson, all who helped shape and nurture his faith.
Because of my Dad's tough childhood, he particularly hungered for the peace that God gives--peace which passes understanding. And he received that peace whenever he would spend quiet time with God. Little by little, the Lord began to give him a new heart. In fact, when my dad would pray out loud, this titan of a man would pray some of the most gentle, sweet and peaceful prayers. And I remember when Dad gradually stopped trying to do things to win God's acceptance--thinking that he had to earn the Lord's approval somehow. Things began to change in earnest when my father just believed God's truth with simple faith.
I will miss my dad in the same way that I have missed my mom, who passed away from cancer almost 23 years ago. I'm grateful for their loving support and impactful influence on my life (and thereby my wife and children's lives). And I'm particularly thankful that my parents both broke the chain of powerful family dysfunction as they consciously or unconsciously made the decision to raise a warm, loving family. We are all still reaping the benefits of their choices.
