Tag Archives: jeremy haskins

Go hard after doctrinal arrogance

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Found a very helpful article on how to cultivate a culture of graciousness in the the church. The whole post is very helpful but the second point I think is very important for young more theologically minded pastors as well as church members.

2. Go hard after doctrinal arrogance 

Most everyone who thinks they are right about a particular theological issue believes they came to it through growing in the Lord, not just reading information. Both the Calvinists and the Arminians in your church think that. Both the premillennialists and the postmillennialists think that. Most every one of us believes that we came to our particular view in the midst of our spiritual growth. (And we’re all right about that, sort of.) Thinking this way is only natural. But the danger in this thinking is equating our particular view with progressive sanctification. Doing so means believing that because I believe ______, I am more sanctified than you. The reason you don’t yet subscribe to my view on this matter is because you are more immature in your faith. Suddenly we are creating first and second class Christians in the community. And that’s gross.

Gently but firmly rebuke doctrinal arrogance and root it out wherever you find it. Factions develop over devotion to secondary matters quite easily if left unchecked. Be careful in preaching against sin that you don’t have “favorite” sins, pet sins to rail against. People guilty of such sins may be convicted and repent, but more often they do not hear the message of grace when their sin is repeatedly singled out but that your church is a safe place to have any sin but theirs. And there is an inverse danger in having favorite sins to preach against: it implicitly tells people who don’t struggle with that sin that they must be holy because they don’t struggle with it. By singling out certain sins for special treatment, you are helping everybody else embrace the arrogance of the Pharisee in the temple who was proud he wasn’t the tax collector.

Remind your people often that the demons have impeccable theology, that demons can be Calvinists and Arminians, millenniarians and amillenniarians.

Guarding against self-righteousness

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At Ashland we are preaching through 1st John on Sunday Mornings. On Wednesday Evenings, I am teaching through Galatians at our community Bible Study in Lexington. These letters are blasting away at the self-righteousness in my own heart.  They help to display how self-righteousness kills unity in the church while continually distracting from our mission. I have often walked away from study and preaching overwhelmed with guilt thinking about the ways in which I have hindered growth in the body through my own selfish agendas. While I have often convinced myself of something different, my own theological and spiritual arrogance has never been for the good church.
As I continue to fight the self-righteousness in my own heart, I would like to share certain tendencies we should be aware of as we seek to protect ourselves from being a self-righteous hindrance to the mission of the church.
  • You listen to sermons primarily as a critic and not to be changed through application.
  • You hear sermons and study the Bible for the sake of others. (They really need to hear this.)
  • You are more irritated by the sins of others than broken for them.
  • You are more prone to doubt signs of repentance and obedience in the lives of others rather than rejoice with them.
  • You focus on secondary finer points of theology eventually making them the standard for maturity and fellowship in the body.
  • You zero in on specific Christians disciplines (those you like and/or have down) making them the standard of maturity and fellowship in the body.
  • You are drained when you leave church because you are overwhelmed by the ignorance and immaturity of others.
  • You begin to isolate from others Christians because of their ignorance and immaturity believing no one will ever get the truth you understand so well.
  • You study God’s word merely for theological debate and sloganeering.
  • You care more about other Christians agreeing with your theology than unbelievers actually believing the gospel.
  • You go to small group studies ready to pounce on anyone who doesn’t clearly articulate every nuance of biblical knowledge the way you do.
  • You go to small group studies ready to argue instead of encourage and to take notice God’s grace in the life of others.
  • You talk more about what you are reading than the ways in which God is changing your through the power of Spirit and the word.
  • Sermons on grace frustrate you for fear others might misunderstand and become disobedient Christians.

Ashland in MC – New Facilities this Sunday!

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new location promo

This Sunday Ashland’s church plant in Madison County (Ashland in Madison County) will move to new temporary facilities. 124 South Keeneland RIchmond Ky 40475 Join us at 10 am! And bring someone with you!

Why I pray for Josh Hamilton

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I have prayed for Josh Hamilton more than any other professional athlete. Just to be honest I don’t pray for professional athletes all that often. But, every time I see Josh Hamilton on the field or in an interview, I am prompted to pray for him.

The reason I pray for him really has little to do with his success. Except that I would know nothing of him if he wasn’t a successful MLB player. These days my prayers on behalf of Hamilton have much more to do with his failures.

Hamilton has been very open about his past drug addiction and his continued struggles. I cannot help but feel if he had been more private about these things I would never have been prompted to pray for him in this way. I actually believe that if he hid them, as a fan, I would feel betrayed each time I found out about them. And yet, the opposite has been true for me and many more baseball fans. It’s the openness about his struggles that have caused me to be concerned with his spiritual welfare.

The church can learn from such openness. We are subtly convinced that it is our successes as Christians that bind us together. Tragically, this is why so many in the church struggle with serious sin and we never know about it. When such sin is uncovered and brought to light both sides feel betrayed.

The exact opposite should be true. It’s our collective need for Christ that binds us together. We are to be reminded of this need as we all continually cultivate a healthy openness in the life of the church concerning our failures. The more we hide our sin the more we lessen the awareness of our need for a Savior.

Let me be clear, in no way should we create environments that magnify sin for sin sake. Satan loves it when Christians worship their sin more than they worship Jesus. If we stop at sin and never get to the Savior we are just as bad off. And yet, being honest about how good we are at sinning, magnifies the greatness of our Savior’s success in saving us. Being honest about our struggles brings us together and ties our hearts together to the cross.

Here’s a video after from Hamilton’s four HR game earlier this week. Admire and appreciate the success of this talented athlete. Join me in praying for him in his continued battles with sin. May his story remind us to pray more fervently for one another.

From Southern Racist to Adoptive Dad (EC Lifeway Article)

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The following article was written for the January edition of Lifeway’s EC Magazine

From Southern Racist to Adoptive Dad 

I was born and raised in the South. The roots I have in the state of Tennessee run deep.  I firmly believe that in Heaven my granny’s syrupy sweet tea will be served with lunch on Sundays. I still love the same kind of country music our local station played through the static on my great grandmother’s cheap kitchen radio.

With much pride, I embrace my southern heritage. And yet, there is one connection with my past for which I am abundantly ashamed.

I was a racist!

It turns my stomach but I cannot deny that racism was a part of the way I was raised.  Now, it wasn’t the sort of violent racism of the 50s and 60s. I wasn’t scandalized that black people drank from the same water fountains I did. We attended the same schools, played on the same sports teams, and it all seemed right.

It wasn’t until we gathered for dinner on Sundays that the racist residue of our past could be smelled.  It was in the secret of heated church business meetings that our prejudices were defended as even being biblical.

For reasons unknown to me at the time, we still had to protect our families and churches from becoming ‘mixed.’  After all we were told, “Birds of a feather flock together.”  And even, Moses was forbidden to intermarry. (Numbers 12:1)

Such thinking didn’t stop us from praying for the lost in Africa during our prayer meetings. We even held backyard bible clubs in predominantly black areas in nearby inner cities. We had no problem going to them.  We just didn’t want them ever coming to us.

The subtly of the sin I willingly embraced was just as loud as the color of orange I still wear as loyal Tennessee Vol fan.  Its hard to believe I didn’t see it just as clearly.

As a young Bible college student I began to see that God’s family, the church, is designed to be a mixed with more than just different skin tones. His plan is to adopt people from every race and culture into one family. (Revelation 5:9)  I came to see that using, ‘ya’ll’ when talking about the church is more than acceptable. And yet, Jesus’ bride isn’t just white with a southern accent.

This new way of thinking led to some heated debates with a few relatives.  It also led my wife and I to adopt two boys from Ethiopia.  It was on July 13, 2009, that these abstract theological concepts of race and adoption became a living, breathing rebuke to all I use to think and believe.

The racism I formerly embraced now followed me to the grocery store. I began to notice second glances from others upon seeing a white dad with two black sons.  My prejudices cornered me when people would ask me, “Why black kids?”  The sins of my past haunted me when I heard folks begin their sentences with, “I’m not racist but…”

For some time I found myself constantly irritated with the racist tendencies of others. Then I realized why. The reason I know what’s behind their stares and comments, is because the same foolishness was once in me.  No longer was my anger directed solely toward relatives who still use the ‘N’ word.  My indignation toward racism had to first be stared down in the mirror.

Through the process of adoption that God has thoroughly transformed my thoughts about race. He is also changing many in my family through two black boys who now share the same heritage and last name as their white grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

And yet this is the same story Jesus is telling over and over in the world.  As He builds his church, racists from Tennessee to Zimbabwe are to take notice of the many shades and colors of Jesus’ brothers and sisters.  Our prayer should be that they not only hear us sing, “Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world.”  But that they will come to know its true and begin to sing with us, “Red, yellow, black and white, and even former racist like me.”

From Church Pews to Church Plants: Adoption Culture and The World Mission

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From Church Pews to Church Plants: Adoption Culture and The World Mission

This can be found as a chapter in “A Guide to Adoption and Orphan Care” Edited by Dr. Russell Moore. The whole book can be purchased here.

By Jeremy Haskins

Lunch time can be a chaotic in our home. Each day, when my wife calls our six kids to the table, it can get crazy.  To help with the chaos, our kids have assigned seats. However, one day my wife decided to break the norm and let the youngest, Jonah, assign everyone different seats.

Jonah lined everyone up and began seating them by saying, “Okay, I want the boys on this side of the table.  Now, I want the girls on that side of the table.”  Then turning to his brother Isaac, who was adopted from Ethiopia along with him, he said, “Okay Isaac. Now, I want the Browns to sit over here.” Everyone in the kitchen burst into laughter!

Apparently, in Jonah’s eyes, we have girls, boys, and browns in our family. My wife and I made sure to use this as an opportunity to teach our kids how to delight in their differences without segregating the lunch table.  While we must point out the wonderful distinctions we have in our family, we must make sure our kids know they all have the equal standing as Haskins.

This tendency to segregate around the table has always been a problem for the church. We see all over the churches in our New Testament.  As folks enter the church, first-century ushers were meeting them at the door directing traffic, “Jews over here.  Gentiles over there. Masters over there with your slaves seated at your feet.  Men here. Women there.”  And yet the Spirit stepped in to speak to the distinctions in the church saying, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

And the Spirit’s message still has to be applied to the church today. While the categories are different in our churches, the problem is still the same. And yet, through preaching of the gospel that cultivates a culture of adoption we are called to change the way we view seating charts in the church.

Adoption Culture: Not just tacking it on

I can assure you that all the sermons I heard in the small town church I grew up in had the gospel in them.  My pastors where intentional in this way. If the passage didn’t seem to be evangelistic enough, he would make sure to tack on John 3:16 and an invitation at the end.

All of my pastors growing up loved the gospel and wanted people to come to Jesus. Their heart was to make sure they got the gospel in every service.  And yet, such practice often leads to a tack it on kind of understanding of the gospel. Whatever you’re going to do you’ve got to tack on the gospel.

This is how many view the ministries we have in the context of our churches.  People who truly love the gospel see needs.  They start meeting those needs.  They then petition the church to make meeting these needs official ministries in the church.  To make the ministry legitimate we have to somehow tack the gospel onto it.  The thought is that if the gospel doesn’t fit with the ministry we should not be doing it.  The problem too often with this approach to ministry is that when the people who started the ministry fizzle out so does the ministry.  And by just tacking the gospel on its sure to eventually fizzle out.

The most effective way to create and cultivate our ministries in the church is to let it flow out of our understanding of the gospel.  And there is no other ministry where this is more important than ministering to orphans and vulnerable children.

This is why at Ashland Avenue Baptist in Lexington, Kentucky, where I serve as the Mission Pastor, we consciously chose to avoid using the phrase ‘adoption ministry’ when we talk about leading and helping families adopt children and caring for orphans.  Our desire is to cultivate a culture driven by the truth of our adoption in Christ.  A culture of adoption when cultivated by the constant and consistent preaching of the gospel not only leads to church unity but a greater fervency to rescue children from around the world who need adoption.

Adoption Culture: Understanding who we “really” are

An adoption culture begins with the constant reminder that we are all ex-orphans. What changed everything for us? Adoption! The good news of the gospel is that by God’s grace through faith we have experienced adoption. In the Son, our status is transformed from poverty stricken orphans to wealthy heirs of God’s eternal kingdom. This truth of the gospel for us has got to be cherished in every home, not just in homes with adopted children.

The danger of creating an adoption ministry apart from this truth is that it only leads to another line in your church’s budget.  It will become a ministry relegated to only adoptive families and social workers in your church.  People who are personally affected by the orphan crisis on a daily basis.  In an adoption culture, everyone has been transformed by the act of adoption and this naturally leads to a desire to rid the world of orphans, both physically and spiritually.

Adoption Culture: Helping Everyone Make the Connection

The doctrine of adoption in our churches moves us beyond the thought that adoption is only something for infertile couples and families who really love children in need.  We have to make the connection for our people between the act of adoption and our existence in the church.  The terms brother and sister have to be more than cordial greetings.  When we do folks begin to realize these people really are my brothers in Christ! And a whole new family life is opened up for them in the context of the local church.  This requires that we be intentional and concrete about what the gospel means.

There is much talk today about being gospel-centered.  I believe this is good and healthy for the church, as longs as, it doesn’t keep concepts of grace and mercy in the abstract.  Being gospel-centered must also move people beyond individualistic approach of applying the gospel to seeing how the gospel applies in the context of their own local church.

To do this you have to be intentional and specific.  People have to be taught to see how our adoption in Christ changes the way we think about our fellowship with the single mom sitting next to us on Sunday whose rowdy kids continue to distract us in worship.  In Christ, she is a fellow heir not someone who deserves to be seated with her disruptive kids some where else.

We have to be led to recognize how the family with one kid from Kentucky and another from Kyrgyzstan signals to the cosmos that the gospel transcends bloodlines and makes Christian unity possible.  This can only be done through an aggressive intentionality in our preaching that is constantly and consistently applying the gospel to the life of the church.

Adoption Culture: Ex Orphans Together For Adoption

How does this affect the plight of 145 million orphans and vulnerable children around the world?

To begin with we need everyone in the church involved in orphan care.  We need the 90-year-old woman on a fixed income, who will never adopt.  She will never travel to Peru and serve in an orphanage. But you need her connected to orphan care somehow. How are you going to connect her to the need?  What is the best way to make the orphan crisis real to her?  When the reality that she is an ex-orphan who has been rescued by the grace of God in Christ becomes real, she will not want to just sit on the sidelines.

But apart from the gospel and outside an adoption culture this call to every member makes no sense.  By cultivating an adoption culture, through connecting the dots for people, they realize that no matter who, they are have a responsibility to care for all orphans physically and spiritually in some way.

In an adoption culture, this reality is constantly pressed upon us.  Not just the way we cast a vision for caring for children without families.  Its how we understand our mission to reach those apart from the family of God.

Adoption Culture: A Theology of Mission

In an adoption culture, the church is able to develop a clear theology of God’s mission in the world.  They begin to understand that God is not just generically collecting a faceless group of people out of the world. But, He is determined to form a specific family for Himself, the church. Within an adoption culture they realize this family is their family even though it is ultimately made up of people from every tribe, language, nation, and people. (Revelation 5:9)

In their minds, missions means family and central to the creating of this family is adoption.  And adoption is something they taste and see in their small groups each week as they live out gospel unity together in their church.  They begin to take on a new wisdom that Paul declares is, “the manifold wisdom of God is made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 3:10)

Adoption Culture: Even in the Andes Mountains  

In an adoption culture, we point out that this theology of mission, this wisdom, is not to be abstract it is to be experienced in our pews each week, as well as, the church’s we plant around the world.

For example, one of our church planting efforts is taking place in the village of Cordova, Peru, in the Andes Mountains. The driving hope of each child in Cordova is to simply endure each day long enough to get a well paying job in the mines or head to a nearby city to further their education. And yet, making their way through college or finding a better life outside of Cordova as ‘mountain people’ is very difficult in Peru.  The possibility that they would end up homeless in one Peru’s major cities is very real for each of the children we minister to in the village.

Over the last five years this void of love and hope has, to some extent, been filled by a group of “gringos” from Lexington, Kentucky. We have personally witnessed a transformation among the youth of the village just by our presence.  Behind their shy looks and whispers to one another, they are overwhelmed with the fact that a group of American’s would travel to Cordova just to spend time with them.

Ministering to children in Cordova has helped to move forward our church planting efforts.  However, we must make sure not to see it as a ploy just to reach the adults.  We are actually demonstrating pure and undefiled religion in the face of this mountain’s ancient pagan practices.  This is crucial to the church-planting mandate that Jesus commanded when He called us to make disciples of all nations by, “teaching all that I have commanded you.”

The day we leave Cordova we must turn to see a church waging war against the Evil One through preaching the gospel, baptizing new followers of Christ, and gathering around the Lord’s Table.  And if we are to really teach them what these things mean, we will also turn to see them fighting back darkness by defending the fatherless and visiting the suffering children in their homes and on their streets.

Conclusion

An adoption culture is much bigger than one segmented group of people who are simply more passionate than everyone else in the church about helping kids in need.  It’s the whole church realizing we all are needy kids.  We all need a loving Father to rescue us and give us a family.  We need His care and discipline that teaches us how to love one another and serve those apart from our family.  This need can only be met by the power of the Spirit, through the kind of consistent preaching the gospel that constantly presses it’s implications upon the church, the adoptive family of God.

Remembering death won’t let us forget Jesus

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Death reminds us we are not in control. Tragically, this is something we easily forget. We move through each day taking care of all the details of our life. We work jobs to earn money, to pay bills, and to provide for our families. We choose what foods to eat and what foods to restrain from in order to sustain (or diminish) our health. We are constantly making decisions that effect not only our lives but the lives of others as well. All of this provides us with an illusion of control. We subtly become unconscious to the reality that God is the Sovereign King of the universe.

And, then there comes the news that another friend has cancer.  Or there is that voicemail from your own doctor that they need to run a few more tests. And we are found sitting in the surgery waiting room clasping the hands of our spouse wondering what’s next. That feeling of panic and anxiety keeps punching you in the gut while you grasp for some kind of power and realize, “I really have no control over any this!” Death reminds us whatever control we thought we have is only facade .

Try as we may to fight it with antibiotics, cosmetics products, and hand sanitizer, we cannot stop death. It’s coming.  We can’t stop it. We can’t control it.  Our only hope is One who can stop it. The One who does control all things, including our checking accounts and the food we stock in our kitchen pantry.

While death comes for us, there is One who came for death!

But it’s the way He, Jesus, came for death that is so scandalous. He came in a way that left those who saw Him wondering if even He could take control of this fierce opponent. He didn’t come for death blazing in with horses, tanks, and planes. Jesus chose to come in the form of a man.  And not the super-human type of man who defied gravity. He became the type of man who would eventually be susceptible to death. The enemy we fight against and try our best to avoid, He marched right up to… and He let win? He let death defeat Him!

And it’s the way that He let death win. He let death absolutely destroy Him. He subjected Himself to the most heinous of executions the world has ever seen and didn’t even put up a fight.  Being beaten to a bloody pulp, mocked as some clown – king, dragged through the streets with a 30 pound piece of wood falling off the mutilated flesh on his back, He didn’t say a word. (Mark 15:16-20)

Looking through His busted face and swollen eyes, He found no one to help Him. None of His friends were there.  There would be no rescue plan for Him. No jail break by the disciples who followed Him. He was left to a tourist to carry His cross.  Outside the city of Jerusalem, a place where He was suppose to plant His eternal throne, He was stapled to a pole and He suffocated to death. Death drug Him to a God forsaken trash heap for criminals and left Him to die.

Death in those moments seem to prove He had no control. There didn’t seem to be any Sovereignty on that day. Only Suffering.  And we are left with the question,”How could the One who was on mission to destroy death be left helpless hanging to death on a pole outside His city?”

He could have ransacked Jerusalem, over turned the government, and rightfully taken His throne in the middle of the city. He chose to be left helpless far from any sign of power, nailed to a cursed cross. And yet, it’s in His choosing to be there that we find His power.  For three days later, just like He said beforehand, in the most unlikely of ways He proved His Sovereignty.  He did something that no one else who has faced death has done.

As His corpse lay lifeless in the ground for two days, there didn’t seem any difference with this man and any other man.  But then, His eyelids flickered as His brain waves began to surge again. His lungs filled with air as His heart began to push the once stale blood through His body again. He stood up, stretched out His legs, and removed and folded the grave mask that was over His face. The moment His feet touched the concrete beneath His feet it all made sense. He really is the Defeater of death! The enemy we have no control over He had whipped by being whipped to death!

The penalty that all men deserve for their sins He endured.  That penalty of death was used up on Him. The One who never deserved to face the punishment of death faced it. (Romans 6:5-11) The One without sin died as a sinner forsaken by God. Now God has raised Him from the dead declaring it’s possible for anyone who believes in Him to have their sins forgiven. (Romans 4:23-25) By faith in Him, His death becomes your death and He promises, though you may die, you will never see death. You will live forever after walking from your coffin the same way He did. (John 8:51, Romans 6:5))

We have no control over death. Nor do we have the power for a resurrection. Jesus is the only one who has ever left his coffin empty by His own will. And it’s this vision that the word of God gives us to remind us that He is the only one who can raise us from the dead.

This vision of a death destroying Savior is the one we must have at those doctor’s visits and in those visitation lines at the funeral home. Places where our enemy reminds us we are not in control should remind us the enemy is no longer in control either. But, not only in these places where the aroma of death still lingers. It’s the vision of a once crucified Savior standing over His own grave that we must have while paying bills, changing diapers, and providing for our families.

After all, this is why God raised Him from the dead. So that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He, Jesus, is Lord. (Philippians 2:9-11)  Not just Lord over death but Lord over all of life as well. This is why God commands all men everywhere to repent and look to Jesus who He raised from the dead to rule forever. (Acts 17:29-31)

Death reminds us we are not in control. Death also drives us to the One who has complete control over life, death, resurrection and everything in between.

Why my sons wear #44: Baseball, Racism, and My Last name

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Stranger: Which one is yours?
Me: The one right there. Haskins #44.
Stranger (looking at me to make sure I am white): Which one?
Me: The black kid right there.
Stranger: Oh really?

Awkward silence ensues

Ever since we brought Isaac and Jonah home from Ethiopia, this sort of interaction has been common for my wife around their sporting events.  Parents trying to match each player up with their appropriate family, begin to realize the colors don’t exactly coordinate with all the kids on the team.

To break the silence we usually say something like, “I can’t believe you didn’t notice the family resemblance?”  And in no way do we begrudge these moments. We have actually become very thankful for the opportunities they provide to talk about adoption and the gospel.

Much of our kid’s sports activities have centered around baseball. Right now, we have 4 boys playing in 4 different leagues, all at the same park. One benefit to spending so much time at the same ballpark is that everyone knows our family. They have also come to know that the Haskins’ kids come in all kinds of shapes, shades, and sizes.  And yet, there is one thing they all share in common. On the diamond, they all wear #44.

When my oldest son Titus began playing t-ball, we decided he would wear #44. We are big Atlanta Braves fans.  And while Chipper Jones will always be our favorite Brave, we thought the history that Hank Aaron represented was important for our family to remember and champion.

I do not agree with everything Aaron has ever said or done. However, I do respect the price he paid to play in the Majors. Jackie Robinson was responsible for breaking the color barrier in baseball.  But for men like Aaron, who began his career by playing primarily in the South, there were still many horrible obstacles to endure. I wanted my kids to know this about the ‘real’ HR king and appreciate it.

To begin with the #44 was just a unique tool to teach our kids about racism.  Honestly, for me, it was more about Braves folklore than anything else. However, now seeing this number underneath my last name on my son’s jerseys causes me to reflect more on my own story than anyone else’s.

I remember standing in line at the post office with the first gift I would ever give my two new sons, who were still in an orphanage in Ethiopia.  As I prepared to send two Atlanta Braves hats to them, I realized one day these boys would also wear #44.  I began to daydream about two little boys, once orphaned in Africa, running onto a little league diamond with my last name across their backs.  I began to tear up right there in the post office thinking about how amazing this would be to see.

As much as I hate to admit it, racism was a part of life in the small rural town in Tennessee where I was raised. Compared to the violence of the 50s and 60s it could have been considered a quiet racism.  But it’s underlying wickedness was just as loud as the Tennessee orange we wore every Saturday to cheer on our beloved Vols!

The residue of such awful days gone by could still be heard in words used around our dinner tables and in our churches on Sunday. In these private and still very segregated settings, words were spoken and jokes were told that would have started riots in our desegregated lunchrooms on Monday. My stomach still turns to think about the sort of racist hypocrisy that even I was guilty of behind the closed doors of my home and church.

That’s why the first time I actually saw all four of my sons, two white and two black, standing with my last name and #44 across their backs this number was more than just neat baseball history for me.  For me, it represented a redemptive moment for my whole family.  It represented a transformation that I have seen even among members of my extended family as they all have embraced my two newest sons.

This summer my kids were spending some time with my grandparents in Tennessee. One of my black sons, Isaac, crawled into my (very white) grandfather’s lap and asked him, “Are you a Haskins too?” My grandfather responded, “Yes sir. I’m a Haskins just like you!”
There was a day when he wouldn’t have been so eager to share his last name with a black grandson. I’m certain my family line included folks who thought Hank Aaron didn’t deserve to play Major League baseball because of his race.  And yet, that moment between my granddad and his grandson, formerly from Ethiopia, was a repudiation to the such racism.

Haskins #44 constantly calls my attention to these kind of stories that I thank God my family is experiencing.  Haskins #44 also reminds me that if the Father is ever asked, “Which one is yours?”  He will not be ashamed to say, “That one right there. Haskins the former racist!”