There are positions throughout our culture that are critically important as guard towers for the good of people. These positions are both important and challenging. They are strategic and difficult. One of the most important and strategic positions is that of being a father. Yet most fathers I know have a nagging sense of wondering if they have fulfilled the responsibility to their families very well. No father wants to fall short. No man wants to leave their loved ones unprotected. But we live in a really messy world and there are messes all over the place for all sorts of reasons. I am not speaking theoretically, I am speaking honestly from my own experience. I struggle with wondering if I have been a failure in being a husband and a dad. I don’t think I have been a bad husband… but I have fallen short of what I had hoped. I don’t think I have been a bad father… but I know I missed being all that I could have been. My commitment does not wane, but it can get hard to stay the course.
One piece of advice that I would like to pass on comes from an unlikely figure. I don’t quote Woody Allen very often, but he once said that ‘80% of success is simply showing up’. There is a lot of truth to that. As a father you don’t always know what to do, but if you show up there is a better chance you will get close than if you don’t show up at all.
A better pice of advice is to show up with courage and fight for those who matter in your life. The Old Testament figure of Nehemiah recorded a strategically important instruction to the people of Jerusalem as they worked to rebuild the city wall in the face of violent opposition. He exhorted the people, and especially the men, in chapter 4 verse 14:
…to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid…., remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.
This is the call of God to the men and the fathers of His kingdom. This is the commission that we have been given to fight for those who live within the realm of our families, and we are to do it together, stationed side by side for the good of everyone.
I would like to tell you guys who are connected to Quest… it is an honor to be stationed on your left or your right and to have each others backs. I want to encourage you as you show up with courage to be the husband and a father you were made to be. I need your encouragement also as I work to fulfill my responsibility to my wife and my kids. So let me be one of those who say to you, WAY TO GOD DAD… YOU ROCK!!!!!!!
Your bro,
Kevin