Can and Must

 

Hey, Cobblestone Dads,

     I hadn’t planned to write a series of letters ramping up to Father’s Day, but my heart is certainly tugging in that direction. Keying off of last week’s letter and looking into the next two, my heart yearns for the nineteenth of June, 2022 to be a breakthrough day – a Father’s Day unlike any we’ve known up until now.

     Even though my son and son-in-law are all grown up – and are already better men/husbands/dads than I’ll ever be – I’m including myself in the “we” language to dads. That’ll keep me from using too much “you” language, and remind both of us that I haven’t forgotten what it’s like to be an every-day dad.

     With men, the message has to be kept clear and simple. Breakthrough comes by way of AHA moments in all-caps. To that end, I’ll say there are precisely two truths the Lord wants us to get as dads:

1)      Yes, we can.

2)      Yes, we must.

     Can… what? By the power of the living God and the fellowship of his Holy Spirit, we CAN raise children who will, in turn, raise children who love Jesus and carry on his mission in this walk-around world. I’ve heard it likened to stacking kindling around the firewood – when the Lord puts the spark to it, that fire burns good and hot. Psalm 100:5 says, the LORD is good, and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Is it merely the idea of his faithfulness that continues, or his faithfulness, actually? Is it some memory of something God did for somebody long ago, or the working out of his faithfulness in this generation and all that will follow? There’s nothing vague about faithfulness; it shows up in every detail of life. In every detail of life, God makes a way for dads to convey his faithfulness.

     And we must… why? Because a father’s influence is irreplaceable. How do I know? Because I’ve tried time and again to replace the influence of Dad in the lives of other men’s children. I’ve seen organizations and entire governments try and fail. Without dad’s influence, there will be a void in a child’s life that goes plumb to the grave. The idea, of course, is to provide a consistently positive influence, but even a negative influence gives a child an idea of what not to do. Without the experience of a dad’s influence and authority, countless aspects of a child’s life go unguided – like static electricity looking for somewhere to go, quivering, groundless.  

     In the Bible book of Isaiah is a section dedicated to the “suffering servant.” This suffering servant, of course, is Jesus, who left heaven to come and live the perfect life we couldn’t live and die the awful death we should’ve died. We’re probably familiar with how he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and how, like a lamb, he was led away to the slaughter. We’re probably less familiar with an aspect of life he was willing to put on hold for a later and better time. See if you can identify it…

    By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
        and as for his generation, who considered
    that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
        stricken for the transgression of my people?...
    Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
        he has put him to grief;
    when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
        he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
    the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand (Isaiah 53:8, 10).

     Jesus was willing to be cut off out of the land of the living, to not have a generation carry on his name as men typically do by fathering children. Jesus was willing to forego marriage and fatherhood, trusting that he would in due time see many more offspring than he could’ve had by natural means.

     Gentlemen, listen to me: he left that work to us.

     By proxy, and for the sake of Jesus’s joy and fulfillment, we are raising up offspring for him. The promise of God the Father to Jesus his Son was that he would see his offspring, he would prolong his days, and the will of the Lord would prosper in his hand. Dads, can you begin to believe that Jesus wants us to succeed in fatherhood?

     By way of encouragement, I’ll offer a verse from one of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. The context doesn’t give a reason not to plug it into the realm of fatherhood, and does give reason to plug it into the realm of promoting God’s faithfulness through the generations, so here goes:

     Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord you labor is not in vain (1Corinthians 15:58).      

 

 Grace and Peace (because we can and because we must),

 

John