A Good Father

I was thinking over a Father’s Day sermon I was preparing as I headed out to take a hike in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve on a recent morning. It was already over 80 degrees at 7:00 am on its way to 112. (The desert can be brutal.)

As I started up the rocky slope, I recognized Don Worcester walking down the hill towards me. Don has been a part of Living Streams since before his marriage to Renee, and before he earned his PhD in counseling. Don and Renee now have four grown children and they lead True North Consulting and Life Together. Don once facilitated our family counseling when my adult children felt a wise counselor would help me listen as they shared their concerns.

I was accustomed to seeing Renee in the Preserve, but a sighting of Don was rare. I gave him a hug as we stopped to talk. He was soaking wet with sweat and told me he had started his hike at 5:00 am. He had been training for two months for a father/daughter backpacking trip in Colorado.

His daughter Emma had been a mountaineering guide in the British Columbia Rockies; and their friends who will join them on the upcoming trip are marathon runners. They plan to start at 8,000 feet and increase their miles each day. When I told him it sounded rough, Don pointed to the backpack he was carrying. I reached out and touched it. It was filled with thirty pounds of rocks he was using to gain strength for the trip.

As I resumed my hike, I thought about how the desire to stay connected to his daughter had motivated him to get up each morning and carry rocks on his hikes. That does not sound fun to me. Only a father who really loves his daughter would endure such training. Yet those who know Don’s story will tell you that, in years past, he has carried loads for those he loves that were heavier than rocks.

I preached to hundreds of college students at Hope Church on Father’s Day. I talked about our Father in heaven and his promise to give us a good and long life if we honor our father and mother. Most of those students do not have parents like Don and Renee. Many come from broken, neglectful, and even abusive homes.

As we grow older we see our parents in different light. Even if we have really good parents, we see their flaws more clearly. Yet we are still commanded to honor them. If we honor them in spite of their shortcomings, we can learn lessons which give us wisdom through our whole lives. No matter how much we love our spouse, we see their flaws — and they see ours. The same is true of our friends, our bosses, and even our pastors.

Learning to honor flawed people is a key which improves all our relationships. Our natural reaction to flawed people is to despise their failures. Yet, contempt is a poison which ruins relationships.

We are experiencing a political crisis in our nation right now. Millions of people hate our current president and millions of people hate our former president. This means millions of people will despise whoever wins the next election. This is a dangerous situation. Jesus said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25).

I don’t know what forces would cause the desolation of our nation and what that would look like, and I hope we never have to find out.

The word of God teaches us to honor our leaders. “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor” (I Peter 2:17). The emperors, which the early church was commanded to honor, were often doing evil things. Yet honor serves as a glue which holds society together. Without the preservation of community bonds, chaos can and does reign.

It is easy to honor great parents and politicians. Our challenge is to learn the wisdom that comes when we honor those whose flaws are obvious. If we have political violence in the U.S., or if we succumb to destruction from our external enemies, part of the responsibility will rest on believers who demonize those with a different political perspective.

It's natural to hate our enemies, because they threaten us; yet Jesus tells us to love our enemies. He didn’t say this to make us martyrs. Love is powerful enough to put out the fire of hate if we obey Jesus. Loving people makes us vulnerable, but it also makes us the salt and light of Christ this world needs.

The apostle Paul said, “For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name” (Ephesians 3:14).

As we closed the service at Hope Church, hundreds of us knelt before our Father in heaven and asked him to give us the gifts we need to help our families and expand God’s Kingdom on earth. I invite you to kneel as the apostle did 2,000 years ago. Let’s pray that he will strengthen us in the inner man so we will have the power to do God’s will and grasp the depth of the love of Christ.

 There are times we all have to carry metaphysical rocks to strengthen the relationships with those we love. Carrying one another’s load helps prepare us to intercede effectively for the nation we love as well. Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

No matter what kind of family you were raised in, if Jesus is your Lord, you have a good Father in Heaven. Every gift we need to prosper in life comes from him. He is the one who can lighten our load and give us hope for the future.