Jack

Foreword:


For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything,
nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.
–Ecclesiastes 9:5

One of the most defining expressions of the Lord’s goodness to me is the father he chose for me. He gave me a great mom, and I will say more about that later, but the impact and blessing of a faithful dad is really hard to measure, especially for a son. God met that need in Jack Mounts, Jr. But to me, he was always just “Dad.” Well, that and my “best man” when I got married, a fitting title for Dad.


Growing up in church, I had a go-to piece of special music that I sang on a couple of occasions as a boy. Father’s Day was my day to sing before the Lord, the church, and, of course, my dad. I sang at least twice, maybe three times. I would get up and nervously chime out, “I’ve got a heavenly Father, who is up in glory, I’ve got a heavenly Savior, what a wonderful story, but on this earth I have my Daddy, he’s everything to me, he’s the head of this house according to God’s Word. Daddy, Daddy, thank God for Daddy, he’s the head of this house according to God’s Word.” It was that special day’s hit for years. I was so proud to sing that song. That Daddy meant the world to me, and I wanted everyone to know it.

When I was five, my friend at church named Greg Adams lost his dad to a brain tumor. I was rudely introduced to the hole that leaves or is filled by a present and faithful dad. Watching Greg, at five, I began to mourn the inevitable. I hated the thought that if the mortality tables ran their usual course, someday I would have to give up my own dad to heaven. So I determined to savor the moments and celebrate this gift. And that is what I have done. The memories are rich and full. I cannot quite get my arms around the breadth of their impact.

I want my children to understand their “Pa.” If these stories are not told their children will grow up without a sense of who went before them in our family. We will miss a moment without some sense of who the patriarch was. His name is Jack and he casts a long shadow. Out of a desire to preserve his memory and celebrate his influence for my children and theirs, I write this book.

I was not around for the first twenty-four years of my father’s life and was not closely attentive for the next five, but I have had a front row seat for the last forty-eight. I cannot spin a chronological biography, for there are too many unknown gaps and missing pieces of day-to-day life. But what I can do is to tell stories that are characteristic of him that frame a mosaic of his life and influence. My dad was not a formally educated man. That is a privilege that he gave his kids that he never had, a part of the legacy of his and Mom’s parenting. What he lacked in formal education, he made up for in wisdom and sense. These led to a longer reach on his great influence. I want to try to capture a measure of that wisdom and sense in this book. I have always needed it and benefited from it. My kids and their kids need it.

Dad would be the first one to tell you he was not perfect. I get that too. But what makes him, him needs to be repeated in coming generations. His strengths stick out in a culture that has abandoned many of the traits that he held dear in practice and experience. These iconic images are embedded in my memory–like him kneeling at his bedside to pray quietly and out loud before sleep–and need to be practiced in the years to come.

It is God who makes a good man. Ultimately, Dad’s strengths are an expression of God’s work of grace in his life through his faith in Jesus Christ. His sins are now eclipsed by that same grace.

In tribute to God’s gift to me in my dad, and in the hope that my children and theirs will have a clearer picture of where they came from and have insight into how to live skillfully based on the wisdom of the fathers, I write.


Eric Mounts
Father Day
June 17, 2012


My children, listen when your father corrects you. Pay attention
and learn good judgment, for I am giving you good guidance. Don’t
turn away from my instructions. For I, too, was once my father’s son,
tenderly loved as my mother’s only child. My father taught me.
–Proverbs 4:1-3a New Living Translation