My Inspiration : My Grandfather
Today we especially remember our fathers, grandfathers and the men who have been mentors and role models in fatherlike ways.
Today I cannot help but think of my own father’s father. My grandfather, Charles Shellenberger, has been my inspiration as a physician and missionary for as long as I can remember.
Growing up, I distinctly remember getting vaccines from my grandfather. He was a pediatrician in Waco, Texas and, at least in our family, was renowned for giving “pain free” vaccine shots. It seemed that anyone who knew “Dr. Shellenberger” had serious respect for him. After a brief desire to be a train conductor (until about age 3), I always wanted to be a doctor like “Dodaddy” (our family’s nickname for him). I wanted to live in Waco, be a pediatrician, and even live at his house on Cedar Ridge Road. When he started doing mission trips to Guatemala in the 1980’s, I wanted to do that, too. His Christian leadership of his family and community were highly inspirational to me.
While I didn’t go on to become a pediatrician, live in Waco (except for when I attended Baylor University), or live at his house, I did become a physician and have followed in his footsteps through medical missions.
I never get tired of patients coming into my office and asking if I’m related to the Dr. Shellenberger from Waco. Now adults, they fondly remember his care for them when they were children. I can only hope to have a similar effect on my patients.
As a father now, I not only appreciate the spiritual heritage that has been passed down from generation-to-generation to me, but I pray I can successfully lead my children and grandchildren in the same paths.
I particularly like these excerpts from Psalm 78 that call us to do just that:
I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old— things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us.
We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.
He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.
Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.
I took my first medical mission trip to Guatemala in 2008. Since then, I have traveled to some of the most remote and impoverished parts of the world including Tanzania, Samoa, Guatemala, Honduras and most recently Eswatini - a tiny kingdom in southern Africa. In 2018 my wife and I started a nonprofit called The Inheritance, which I’d love for you to read more about here.
