{"id":20538,"date":"2026-03-11T09:31:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/happy-birthday-old-friend\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:10:18","slug":"happy-birthday-old-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/happy-birthday-old-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday Old Friend!"},"content":{"rendered":"

C.S. Lewis wrote somewhere that it was certainly all right to pray for the dead because when you get to a certain point in life your dearest friends aren\u2019t around. <\/p>\n

Not sure I\u2019ve reached that stage yet, but I certainly think a lot about my old friend and mentor Van Varner<\/a>, a longtime GUIDEPOSTS editor and former editor-in-chief. June 6 would have been his 86th birthday and if he were around this year\u2014I mean physically\u2014he would be sitting at the Belmont track in his seersucker suit for the running of his second most favorite race (his first, naturally, would be the Kentucky Derby).<\/p>\n

I think about him every time I edit a GUIDEPOSTS story and his classic advice about storytelling: \u201cTears should be in the eyes of the reader, not the narrator.\u201d <\/p>\n

I think of him when I see a big dog loping down the streets of New York\u2014he adored dogs. Readers often ask what happened to Coke, his last dog. You will be glad to know that Coke is in the care of Van\u2019s nephew Gordon and from reports, very happy. <\/p>\n

I think of the stories he told that made him laugh so hard his face would turn purple. <\/p>\n

I think of him when I read Daily Guideposts<\/em> devotionals. He knew how to find the godly in the everyday. <\/p>\n

I think of him when we pray on Monday mornings for others. His curiosity about people was immense. <\/p>\n

I think about his ratty old knapsack\u2014his reticule, he called it\u2014and how it always brimmed over with manuscripts. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t worry that he\u2019s happy\u2014he had a gift for happiness that surely has followed him into the beyond. I pray simply because I miss him. When you love somebody they\u2019re always in your prayers, whether in this world or the next. Happy Birthday, Van!\n <\/p>\n

Rick Hamlin is the executive editor at GUIDEPOSTS.<\/em><\/p>\n

—–<\/em><\/p>\n

Watch Rick’s video about Van<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C.S. Lewis wrote somewhere that it was certainly all right to pray for the dead because when you get to a certain point in life your dearest friends aren\u2019t around. Not sure I\u2019ve reached that stage yet, but I certainly think a lot about my old friend and mentor Van Varner, a longtime GUIDEPOSTS editor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[202,46],"ppma_author":[476],"class_list":["post-20538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-positive-living","tag-birthday","tag-friends"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHappy Birthday Old Friend! - Guideposts Articles<\/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=\"Happy Birthday Old Friend!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"C.S. 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