Act Like Men

 

Hey, Cobblestone Dads,

     If you’ve ever wished for a sneak peek at what’s coming up in our worship service for a Sunday, this is your week! Most weeks, you’re just as well off without one (maybe better), but I’m happy to provide a partial preview of Sunday, June 19, which is also Father’s Day of 2022:

     Men, you will receive a Slim-Jim-ish hunk of high-fat, high-sodium, highly processed meat in a colorful, mass-produced package. You’re welcome. If we could duct-tape a jalapeno pepper and some string cheese to the Slim Jim, we’d really be rockin’. Maybe next year. Your Slim Jim will, however, have the following attachment: a slip of paper or card stock with a Bible verse…

 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love (1Corinthians 16:13-14).

     Dads, lift a hand up in front of you and squeeze it into a fist. Imagine what might be done with that hand. Now, release your index finger from the fist, straighten it, and say, “Be watchful.” Has it ever occurred to you that, between Adam and Eve, only one of them had any idea what the world was like outside the Garden of Eden before they were expelled from it? Adam was created of dust from the ground (Genesis 2:7), after which the Lord God put him in the garden (verse 15). You are the point man, the watch-man. Nobody else in a family can or should be any closer to whatever might be a threat. Your vantage point is essential to the family’s well being. Scary? The Lord wouldn’t call you to it if he weren’t equipping you for it. Don’t leave your post, dad.

     Straighten the next finger. Gee, if only this finger could’ve been dedicated to the message “Stand firm in the faith” – instead of what it got hijacked for. Without flashing the middle finger at one another in church, let’s agree that it’s actually where it is as a reminder to test everything; hold fast what is good (1Thessalonians 5:21). And if anyone else in the world flies a middle finger at you, feel free to say to yourself, “Got it… I will stand firm in the faith… thank you!” With two fingers now extended, they form a V for Victory. If you haven’t lately, go read the end of the Bible again. See who wins. Guide your family in the direction of glory.

     Next finger, and say, “Act like men.” There’s no need for us to act like a wife, mother, or woman. God gave us wives, mothers, and women who do an infinitely better job of it than we ever could. Don’t fall for the “sameness” baloney. Men and women are different – glory, hallelujah! That being the case, consider why God made men the way he did. One of the most impactful comments I’ve ever seen on this subject came from a Christian teacher who said, “Men are put on this earth to solve problems, not create them.” If you lifted your left hand, the finger we just extended is also the ring finger, and it prompts me to say to our unmarried dads, “The Lord sees you. He will not turn away from you. Don’t you turn away from him.” My hope is that every unmarried dad in our church would know at least one of our elders on a first-name, call-me-anytime basis. Yours is a situation that’ll require extra diligence and finesse. The Lord is acquainted with every detail of your fatherhood, and wants you to succeed. Dads – married and unmarried – I can’t say it enough: you are irreplaceable.

     Uncanny, isn’t it, that the smallest, weakest finger of the hand would be dedicated to “be strong”? It’s the next instruction in the verses we’re looking at today, and the next finger to be unfolded from what used to be a fist. Let it be a reminder that our physical strength is given to us to be used in measure proportionate to the need. There’s a world of difference between closing a door and slamming it. Yes, by all means, be physically strong; gain all the reserves of strength your body can build – and be strong, mentally and emotionally, to apply that strength in proper measure. In the motorcycling world we say, “Power minus control equals stupidity – any fool can twist a throttle.”

     Ah, the powerful, prehensile, opposable thumb: unfold it, and trace its line back to the meaty part of the palm. Over the years, I’ve been without the use of one thumb or the other due to injury – burns, breaks, and whatnot. It’s no fun – nothing seems to be gripped well without the thumb. (Thankfully, I’ve never been without the use of both at the same time!) “Let all that you do be done in love.” The opposable thumb is one important feature that separates humans from the critters. So is love, as distinguishable from raw instinct. Love is a choice, a decision. Gentlemen, we can easily see our part in the biblical instruction; it’s a sentence unto itself, much like that other-way-pointing thumb. And it starts with the implied you: “Hey you/Hey me, whatever the heck you do, make doubly daggone sure it’s done in love!” For a solid reminder of what love is and does, see all thirteen verses of the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. Faith, hope, and love abide, 1Cor 13:13 says, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Dad can be watchful; Dad can stand firm in the faith; Dad can be the manliest man; Dad can be strong – but if Dad isn’t a steadfast practitioner of love, how will the children ever know how to practice love themselves?

     We now have an open hand. Lift the other and do the same.

     “Father, bless the hands of these men, these dads, my brothers – and mine too, Abba! Let the strength and gentleness, power and prowess of these hands be used in perfect measure, according to your will and your way – in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

     If I happen to see any of our men looking curiously at their fingers while gnawing on a Slim Jim this Sunday, I’ll know this letter found its target. Just, please, be careful with that middle one, and stand firm in the faith!  

 

 Grace and Peace (let me count the ways!),

 John