A Child of the Wesleys

January 6:
Wesley’s Child is a double entendre. My father’s name was Wesley Wells, which means that I am Wesley’s child. For 26 years Wesley was a “cop” in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. He had a stroke when he was 54 (I was 14) and he was forced into retirement. He spent the next 20 years (the last 20 years of his life) being a “house husband” of sorts. Wesley had problems with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and chronic bronchitis, all of which were made worse by years of cigarette smoking. Wesley spent his healthy years working two jobs in order to provide for his family. He rarely took time off. He lived a simple, honest life as if he had something to prove. I believe the word we use today is “workaholic.”

I am Wesley’s child. I resemble my Dad. I have issues with blood pressure and cholesterol (although not nearly as severe as his.) I have some of his mannerism. I sometimes say things that he said. I clear my throat the same way he cleared his. But, it’s not simply biological. Like my father the cop, I tend to be a law and order kind of guy. I have a hard time taking time off. I am Wesley’s child. It’s actually kind of scary at times.

But, (and here’s where the double entendre part comes in) I am also a disciple of John Wesley (the founder of Methodism.) I was converted from “religion” to faith in Jesus much like Wesley. I agree with him that God is able to do anything, even sanctify (make holy) broken people like me. I believe (like Wesley) that God has called us to care about the people we live with on this shining sphere we call Earth. This Wesley called it “personal holiness.” I am first and foremost a follower of Jesus, but I work out of a Wesleyan theological model. So, I am (in a spiritual sense) a child of this other Wesley.

All of us seem to be an interesting composite of biology and avocation. We are what we have been made to be and what we have chosen to be. We don’t have much choice about the biological part. Our faces will always be a subtle reflection of people who have come before us. We do, however, have quite a bit of choice over what we do with what we have been given. All of us decide how we will live out our own personal theology or cosmology.

I believe it was Bob Dylan who said, “You're gonna have to serve somebody.” “Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody.”

So the question always becomes, “As I live my life day after day am I more a reflection of my ancestry or of my convictions?” Am I living out my biology or my spirituality? There is a bit of both Wesleys in me. I suspect it works that way for all of us.