Yesterday, I read about a controversial figure from the 1950-60s who a thoughtful, serious man, not sticking to a party line because it was his party. His original faith group disowned him. The media hated him. At the end of his life, he was changing his mind on fundamental ideas, and because of that, some have said he was beginning to put his faith in Christ. The writer I was reading said we couldn’t know any of these things, which points to the importance of doing the Lord’s will “as long as it is called ‘today.” We have no guarantee of tomorrow.

By all accounts, Tim Keller made the most of every day. He called us to Christ our Lord and now has been called home, after three years of managing pancreatic cancer.

ByFaith magazine has a good obituary that ends with this, from Reformed Theological Seminary Chancellor Ligon Duncan: “[Tim] in the PCA was a little bit like Gandalf in the Shire. We think he’s just a guy that does fireworks at birthday parties, when he’s actually out there in the world slaying dragons and taking on evil wizards.”