Sunday, June 19, 2016

You Do Not Have Many Fathers

Ever seen a computer generated rendering? Architects love them. It's kind of like a graphic simulation of a projected proposal for say, a new shopping mall, or an eco village. Single people jogging, or having coffee, moms pushing strollers. They simulate the vision, how something could be, and have an underlying utopia theme. There's a place for them, I suppose. I personally can't stand them. Kind of like a Thomas Kinkade painting.

Why do I bring this up? I suppose because it's Father's Day, and I've been reflecting on what it means to be a man and a father. Marriage and family has a way of stripping away the theoretical. How does it work? How do I put it into practice? What does it look like in REAL LIFE? These are the questions I am more concerned with nowadays.

In 1 Corinthians 4:15-16, the Apostle Paul writes:

"Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. There, I urge you, be imitators of me."

We can read all the articles and essays we want about how to be Christian men, or good fathers, or husbands. But I have found there is no substitute for real flesh and blood. I am blessed to have a solid fellowship of men who model what it means to be a Christian in the everyday. Some are single, most are married with children, working in various professions. I look to them to see how they act, how they respond to situations, and how they carry themselves because I know they are living in the real world. They are men of prayer, men of integrity.

I have also been fortunate to have had a great dad growing up who was a model of unconditional love. When I think about the problems in our culture today, so much of it seems to go back to an absence of fathers--fathers who love and stay married to their wives, who teach their sons and daughters life lessons, who protect and discipline, and who are there when they need them. The loss of a father--either through abandonment or divorce or death--leaves a deep wound in a child that sometimes never heals, and which they attempt to compensate for through different means. When a child is secure in his or her father's love, it's amazing what it does for human flourishing.

As a father, I need to model Christ to my children--in how I love their mother, in educating them, disciplining them, healthy behavior, and being rooted in prayer, reading the Bible, and worship. They look to me as a model, just like I look to my those men in my life who are models. It builds on itself, for generations to come.

Happy Father's Day!


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