Buck Hatch: Strength through Weakness

I was moved in reading a 1994 CT essay in which Nathan Hatch, president of Wake Forest, reflected on his dad's life as an expression of 2 Corinthians 12:10. Nathan's brother Jim works with church planters in the PCA and has been kind to me many times.

Nathan begins:

It is unnerving to say that the most godly person I have ever known is my father, James "Buck" Hatch, who turns 80 this year—unnerving because he has never been a tower of strength. Those of us who have known him best saw his weaknesses as clearly as his strengths. Grace amid weakness is, I suppose, the theme of this birthday tribute, for it was through his brokenness, not his strength, that he brought healing attention to the shadowed interior rooms of people's lives. His life has much to say about the nature of Christian ministry.

A painfully shy person, always near the brink of depression, Buck has experienced life more as a vale of tears than as a vista of opportunities. I often remember Dad coming to dinner—a boisterous affair with four sons—and just sitting at the table, not uttering a word.

Here's the rest of the essay.