It’s amazing how much better a small seven point buck looks when it’s in the hands of your three year old son. 

As a 21st century dad I have to be intentional about spending time with my kids.  Even as a work from home father I find it difficult to carve out the quality time I imagine fathers of old having with their sons.  While valuable, the moments found with my kids between the buzz of my blackberry aren’t enough.

As a follower of Christ I seek to practice the “in the way” method of fatherhood taught in scripture.  You know, parenting that is done in the midst of daily life, where children catch their understanding of God and his wisdom simply by watching and following their dads.  

I believe that our heavenly Father clearly practiced this method of parenting with us by sending his Son to this world to walk among us and to be for us an example.

Often however I find it hard to get significant “in the way” time.  It’s not like my young children can be on sales calls with me, attend my meetings, or help me respond to email.  I often imagine it was easier to be a father when “in the way” meant they helped you in the barn, or in the field.  I imagine though, truth be told, that fathers of old took their three year old sons in the field with them because they had to work in the field 14 hours a day and they too were struggling with the “necessities” of life that tend to rob our children of us.

All that to say – as I prepared for a recent trip to see my family in OH, I decided to be intentional about some time with my oldest son Kade.  I called ahead and asked my dad to set up a deer feeder behind his barn so that Kade and I could spend some time in the stand together.  Between the feeder, the corn, the new arrows and broad-heads it ended up being an expensive 15 minutes (we shot the buck 15 minutes after we sat down).  But as my “little buck” pulled up and pulled the trigger on his first little buck I knew we had created an “in the way” moment that would last a lifetime. 

The time spent waiting, shooting, tracking, gutting, and dragging were moments he and I will remember for the rest of our lives.  They were also moments that didn’t occur by accident.

So for this father – watching this adorably disgusting video is a great reminder to me that being a good father won’t happen by accident.

Here’s to our kids and to making them a priority.

Josh

RISK _ WHAT'S YOUR TOLERANCE?

Sometimes you have to go out on a limb, because that’s where the fruit is.

Today a good friend reminded me of these words.  When he credited them to me I was quick to admit stealing them, although I can’t remember from whom.  Never-mind who said them, they are true, and like all truth. . . when embraced . . . they set you free.

I journal.  I began keeping a journal since I was in high school and have always found the process of writing a significant part of my spiritual journey as it forces me to wrest out an appropriate response to the daily events both ordained and allowed in my life.  Two weeks ago I finished a journal, one which I started in March of 2007, and as I put it on it’s shelf I reflected on the over two years worth of life contained between it’s covers.  Wow – what a trip down memory lane that was – a trip that has helped to define my understanding of the person of God more than any other period in my life.

You could say my trip down memory lane was highlighted by the risks I’d taken over the last two years, their consequences in my life and the lives of those around me.   I have always been a bit of a risk taker – riding my bike off a bridge in elementary school (and breaking bones), dunking a basketball off a table in middle school (and breaking bones), falling asleep at the wheel after an all-nighter in high school and hitting a semi (believe it or not – no broken bones).  I’ve taken stupid risks and bold risks.  Risks of love like marriage, parenting, and forgiveness and risks of lust like overeating, overworking, and overindulgence. 

If you are a follower of Christ, you have been called to a life of risk – obviously not stupid risks or sinful risks – but definitely to unsafe risks.  Risks that require faith over fear, dependence over confidence, and surrender verses sufficiency.  Our calling is one of God sized dreams and the failures that accompany the pursuit of anything bigger than our own abilities.  If we want to live safe and secure lives, raise good families, and die financially independent, the road is clear – but if we want to live an adventure with God, launch our children as passionate and dangerous world changers, and die with a journal worthy of being read – it will involve risk.

Peter got out of the boat, David charged the Giant, and Moses parted the sea. 

Peter also sank, David also cheated, and Moses also murdered.

But they’re lives are worthy of reading - why – because they took the risk to follow a God whose calling on their lives was bigger than they could attain on their own.

So as I have begin my new journal with it’s over 500 fresh blank pages, I have surrendered to more risk in my life, more dreams that only God can fulfill, and the full on embrace of the failures and brokenness that will come.

If you want to sit around on your blessed assurance and judge my risk taking – bring it – I can own my junk and God can own everything else.  If you want to get out of the boat, charge the giant, or part the sea.  Surrender, and let’s go for it together – after all -

Sometimes you have to go out on a limb, because that’s where the fruit is.

Josh
 

My two oldest built a bridge out of some spare 2X4’s I had laying around today (pictured left). When I saw it, it made me laugh.

I laughed because as a middle school boy I was introduced to one of the greatest movies of all time (at least as far as middle school boys are concerned). In this movie, set in the dark ages, the characters are trying to determine whether or not a woman is a witch – the logic goes like this. If she’s a witch she’ll burn, and if she’ll burn then she must be made out of wood, therefore to determine whether or not she is a witch one must simply determine if she is made out of wood (see why middle school boys like it). In confronting the difficult task of how to determine whether or not the woman in question was in fact made out of wood one of the main characters decides that the best option is to “build a bridge out of her” (I laughed when I typed this). Whether or not you know the movie or appreciate this type of humor – there is a point to my ramblings. 

You see, after the chuckles I stood there thinking about the bridges my kids would have to build in their lives.  In the course of a lifetime, we are all confronted with circumstances that our outside of our own natural ability to understand or control. Things like death, loss, abuse, oppression, unemployment, betrayal.  No matter how long or complex your list of difficulty, the point is – you have one – and my kids will too.

As I thought about this I was reminded of a story in the Bible.  The story of Jethro (Moses’ Father in Law).  If you are new to the Bible you can read the story of Moses and Jethro in Exodus 1-3.  What you will see is that God used some very unique and difficult circumstances to bring Jethro into Moses’ life to teach him how to lead sheep in the wilderness.  What you also see is that later on in Moses’ life (Exodus 18:17-19) God used Jethro to teach Moses how to lead God’s people in the wilderness without wearing himself or God’s people out.  Pretty cool story. 

It gets even cooler though when you realize where Jethro came from.  Jethro was the Priest in a land called Midian, the inhabitants of which were descendants from a man named Midian – whom was the son of a man called Abraham.  The thing you need to know about Abraham is that his life was an incredible adventure which included the miraculous birth of a son to he and his wife Sarah.  The miraculous son (at least as far as most are concerned) was not Midian, it was Isaac (you can read Abraham’s story in Genesis 12-25).  Isaac was a complete miracle and the direct fulfillment of a promise that God had made to bless the world through Abraham and Sarah’s offspring.  If their story was a Disney movie it would end like this “and after the birth of Isaac, Abraham and Sarah raised him to become a handsome prince who married a beautiful princess and then they lived happily ever after until they gently drifted off to sleep in each others arms.”

As you know, God is not Walt Disney and the story didn’t end like this.  Rather it ended like life ends.  Sarah in a box in the ground and Abraham without the love of his life.  But what most people miss is that God’s adventure for Abraham didn’t end with the birth of Isaac or the death of Sarah.  Rather it continued into an end of life romance with a woman named Keturah which resulted in several sons, one of whom was named Midian – whose great, great . . . grandson would come along side of Moses, who was Isaac’s great, great . . . grandson and teach him to lead God’s people through the wilderness. 

With history’s  perspective we can see how God wove from Sarah’s death, a new romance, new children, and a bridge to the future in which his offspring served each other.

So as I looked at the little wooden bridge my children had built . . .  I prayed.  Lord grant me, and my children, the faith to believe that every circumstance, no matter how good or evil, will be used by you to weave a Jethro and Moses type masterpiece that only eternity’s perspective can comprehend.

God is love, and his love results in his grace, which results in man’s free will, which results in man’s sinful choices affecting man, which results in pain, which also often results in man rejecting God’s love and grace.  What sadness.

I choose rather to accept God’s love and grace – accept the temporary pain caused by my own sin and the sinful choices of others – and trust God for the results.

So the next time you drive over a bridge – walk over a bridge – or watch a movie you fell in love with in middle school.  Think about Jethro and remember -

Today’s circumstances, no matter how difficult, are connecting you to God’s tomorrow.

God is good – rest in that.

Josh