Thank you, Timothy Keller
Tim Keller was a great inspiration to me and many friends. I’m thankful for his legacy.
In the summer of 2009, I was stuck working in a boring office job scanning documents.
The one perk?
Every day I would download two or three sermons from Tim Keller and listen to them during the day. In the space of a couple of months, I devoured his back catalogue and had to wait for new episodes to become available.
During that period of difficult transition from University to the world of work (well, mass unemployment), Keller's winsome sermons that pointed to Christ as the true and greater picture showed me the way forward.
Today, his family announced that Tim has gone home to be with the Lord; I'm grateful for his work.
The Reason for God and connecting with my housemate
A few years after my time of unemployment, I was in Ukraine, teaching English as a foreign language.
Among my limited possessions were a handful of paperbooks; two were by Keller (The Reason for God and The Prodigal God) while I was visiting the UK the school used my tiny one bedroom flat to house another teacher. He noticed my Keller books, one of which he'd just finished reading before he came to Ukraine, and struck up conversation.
A few weeks later we had become flatmates in a bigger shared flat.
That was the start of a great friendship that was so important for me while i was thousands of miles away from home and till this day. It's a small detail but im grateful that Keller helped bring us together in some small way. While we probably would have learned of each other's faith soon enough, this shortcutted everything.
Every good endevour
When I arrived in Krakow, I came along to a small church called New Covenant.
The pastor, Wojtek, was preaching through a series on work and mentioned Keller's book "Every Good Endevour" as part of the works he had read while preparing. We bonded over Keller's work after the service and I have stayed at that church for the last eight years.
A deep impact
Tim Keller's preaching, books and position towards the world have left a deep impact on me and many of my friends.
It's no coincidence that I have connected with so many people through his work.
I'm incredibly grateful for the legacy he leaves and I look forward to one day being able to thank him, face to face.
