{"id":4993,"date":"2013-01-25T07:00:28","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/?p=4993"},"modified":"2013-01-26T08:45:45","modified_gmt":"2013-01-26T14:45:45","slug":"tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/2013\/01\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/552999_1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4994\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4994\" alt=\"Tom Balm\" src=\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"280\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tom Balm was an extraordinary man.<br \/>\nHe laughed more than a minister should, at least by 1967 standards,<br \/>\nwhen he came to our small town Iowa church.<\/p>\n<p>He spent too much time visiting the poor and needy,<br \/>\ntoo many hours sitting with those too infirm to come to church on Sunday morning,<br \/>\ntoo many Sunday school classes explaining propitiation to uninterested middle schoolers.<\/p>\n<p>Several times a week, his voice mingled with my father&#8217;s<br \/>\nand floated down the hall to meet my brother, sister, and I<br \/>\nwhen we got home from school.<\/p>\n<p>We walked into Dad&#8217;s room where he lay in bed,<br \/>\nTom on a chair beside him,<br \/>\nboth of them chortling and chuckling<br \/>\nuntil tears ran down their cheeks,<br \/>\nuntil the loneliness left my father&#8217;s eyes,<br \/>\nuntil Tom said good-bye and took the laughter with him.<\/p>\n<p>I close my eyes and see Tom sitting by our Sunday school room window,<br \/>\nriding herd on a roomful of hormonal middle schoolers,<br \/>\nspreading his arms to illustrate Christ&#8217;s crucifixion,<br \/>\nearnestly explaining how the Son<br \/>\nbore the wrath of the Father<br \/>\nfor the sins of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Did he use the word propitiation?<br \/>\nI don&#8217;t know.<br \/>\nBut decades later, when a pastor used the word in a sermon,<br \/>\nI pictured the window and the Sunday school room of my childhood<br \/>\nand Tom with his arms spread wide.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I understood<br \/>\nthe extraordinary love of the God<br \/>\nTom wanted to share with a group of middle schoolers,<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I understood<br \/>\nthe extraordinary nature of a man<br \/>\ntouched by the love of God he wanted us to know.<\/p>\n<p>A man with a heart full of laughter.<br \/>\nA man who made a difference in the lives<br \/>\nof a father who could not leave his bed,<br \/>\nand the three children who loved him.<\/p>\n<p>In memory of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cataldofuneralhome.com\/obituary\/96498\/Thomas-Balm-of-Garner-Iowa\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reverend Tom Balm<\/a>, August 14, 1932\u2013November 29, 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Balm was an extraordinary man. He laughed more than a minister should, at least by 1967 standards, when he came to our small town Iowa church. He spent too much time visiting the poor and needy, too many hours sitting with those too infirm to come to church on Sunday morning, too many Sunday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[301,2053,2051,2052],"class_list":["post-4993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections-on-the-past","tag-dad","tag-minister","tag-propitiation","tag-tom-balm"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man - Jolene Philo Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man - Jolene Philo Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Balm was an extraordinary man. He laughed more than a minister should, at least by 1967 standards, when he came to our small town Iowa church. He spent too much time visiting the poor and needy, too many hours sitting with those too infirm to come to church on Sunday morning, too many Sunday [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jolene Philo Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-25T13:00:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-26T14:45:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jphilo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@homeagainpodcst\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@homeagainpodcst\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jphilo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"jphilo\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/c4baf673fcd3485ec750b9d2a7780d91\"},\"headline\":\"Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-25T13:00:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-26T14:45:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/\"},\"wordCount\":312,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/c4baf673fcd3485ec750b9d2a7780d91\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Dad\",\"minister\",\"propitiation\",\"Tom Balm\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Reflections on the Past\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/\",\"name\":\"Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man - Jolene Philo Staging\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-25T13:00:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-26T14:45:45+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg\",\"width\":180,\"height\":280},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/\",\"name\":\"Jolene Philo Staging\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/c4baf673fcd3485ec750b9d2a7780d91\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/c4baf673fcd3485ec750b9d2a7780d91\",\"name\":\"jphilo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jolene-About-Headshot.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jolene-About-Headshot.jpg\",\"width\":515,\"height\":685,\"caption\":\"jphilo\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/author\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man - Jolene Philo Staging","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man - Jolene Philo Staging","og_description":"Tom Balm was an extraordinary man. He laughed more than a minister should, at least by 1967 standards, when he came to our small town Iowa church. He spent too much time visiting the poor and needy, too many hours sitting with those too infirm to come to church on Sunday morning, too many Sunday [&hellip;]","og_url":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/","og_site_name":"Jolene Philo Staging","article_published_time":"2013-01-25T13:00:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-26T14:45:45+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"jphilo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@homeagainpodcst","twitter_site":"@homeagainpodcst","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"jphilo","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/"},"author":{"name":"jphilo","@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/c4baf673fcd3485ec750b9d2a7780d91"},"headline":"Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man","datePublished":"2013-01-25T13:00:28+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-26T14:45:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/"},"wordCount":312,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/c4baf673fcd3485ec750b9d2a7780d91"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg","keywords":["Dad","minister","propitiation","Tom Balm"],"articleSection":["Reflections on the Past"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/","url":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/","name":"Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man - Jolene Philo Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg","datePublished":"2013-01-25T13:00:28+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-26T14:45:45+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/552999_1.jpg","width":180,"height":280},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/tom-balm-an-extraordinary-man\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tom Balm: An Extraordinary Man"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#website","url":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/","name":"Jolene Philo Staging","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/c4baf673fcd3485ec750b9d2a7780d91"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/c4baf673fcd3485ec750b9d2a7780d91","name":"jphilo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jolene-About-Headshot.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Jolene-About-Headshot.jpg","width":515,"height":685,"caption":"jphilo"},"logo":{"@id":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/"],"url":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/author\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4993"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5019,"href":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4993\/revisions\/5019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}