It's funny how little things can make us remember those we love. I heard a radio commercial the other day about McDonald's new sweet tea. My first thought was how Dad would have loved that! He always put 6 or 7 teaspoons of sugar in his tea. And he spent many hours in McDonald's drinking cokes and figuring out how to make money on napkins. He never did make the money; he was not a perfect Dad, but he was good enough. He taught me how to love, he taught me how to dream, and he encouraged me to be who I was.
I talked about a less-than-perfect Dad in my sermon today. Abraham--despite the grand sounding name that actually means "father of peoples"--wasn't really much of a father. He sent one child into the wilderness and the other he took up the mountain to sacrifice on an altar. Abraham was caught, as all fathers are caught, between difficult choices. He was caught between God's promise of many children and God's command to sacrifice his only child. He had to learn that God's promises and God's commands could never contradict one another. Abraham may not have been a perfect father, but he was good enough, because, in the end, he learned to trust God. In the end, both of his sons received blessings from God. And that is all a father can really ask for.
Okay, fathers out there, what do you feel caught between? What apparent contradictions make it difficult for you to be the father you want to be? Can you accept that your heavenly father loves and forgives you and can strengthen you for the work of fatherhood? For those of you who do not have biological children, are you aware that you are not off the hook? That you are responsible for fathering the children in your community (here I am talking to those who are Christ followers)?
If you would like to comment on any of this, on my sermon or on your own father, feel free to post.
Blessings and Happy Fathers Day!
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I would just like to comment that when I went from wife, to wife of a father (we had kids), It completely changed my perspective and relationship with my own father. I was able to see better and understand more fully how loving and generous my father has been to me throughout my life. He has also been a father to children and adults alike in our community. I never realized how great he was, because he serves so humbly and selflessly. Until recently, I just took it for granted that that was the way he was. Now I am starting to see the way he has tried to serve God through fatherhood. I am truly grateful to God for my Dad who has, and still teaches me how to be a good and true servant of God.
ReplyDeleteWhen we have good parents, I think we tend to believe that people in the world are "basically good." At least I did. But the longer I live, the more obvious it is to me that "we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God" as Paul says in Romans. I became aware that most people in the world really weren't all that nice!
ReplyDeleteI also became much more aware, as time went on, that my parents were not good just because they were good, but that they were empowered to be good by God in their lives. My Dad was not particularly articulate about his faith, but it clearly grounded him; and I became more aware of that through the years.