Author: Wick

Husband, Father, Pastor, Missionary, Writer, Poet, Friend, reader, coffee enthusiast, hockey Wing-Nut, musical participator, etc...
Posted in Different Scriptures

dad?! Daddy? Dadda? Daaa-aaaddy!!??

Posted on by Wick

“And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.  When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” – Mark 2:4-5

Any parent is familiar with the common pleading:  “Mom. Mommy.  Momma.  Mooo-oom.  Moommmmmmyyyy?   Moooom!?  Dad?  Daddy?  Daaa-aad?  Daaaaaddaaaa?!  Dad!? (etc.)  Our kids consistently give us examples of what it looks like to be desperate for someone else to pay attention to us.  As they tug at our clothes, smack our legs, throw whatever they want at us, etc.

The men in this verse were not all desperate for the attention of Jesus.  They were desperate on behalf of their friend, who was a paralytic.  We don’t get the full story, but we can only imagine the sort of impact tearing a hole in someone’s roof might lead to.  It seems a bit extreme, to be sure…but it also speaks to the level of their desperation on behalf of their friend.

This is the sort of desperation I believe we are called to have on behalf of our children.

These men could’ve simply been good friends, by walking the roads that Jesus walked.  But going with the crowd, and following whenever they traveled some place new.  By being close enough to hear the words of Jesus as he spoke.  Carrying their friend through the paths being walked by all of his followers.  By getting in line with their friend, but at the end of the day saying “Well, we’re very sorry.  We waited and waited, but there were just too many people being healed today.”  Their friend would’ve looked up, after having his hopes dashed on the rocky shore of reality, as a few tears welled up in his eyes, responding “That’s okay. I’m blessed to have such great friends.  Thanks for bringing me here today.”

But his friends were not content to simply give him an experience of being near Jesus.  They wanted their friend to actually meet and experience transformation that could only come from Jesus!  In the same way, we as parents should not be content to have our children come near Jesus.  We can easily become a family “bus service”, taking our kids to and from church.  Dropping them off, each going our separate ways, and as we head to lunch we check that off of our “What Christians do each week” checklist.

We want more than this for our children.  We want our kids to actually meet and experience transformation that can only come from Jesus!  Someday, I want my children to look back on growing up and not just say “My parents were good Christian parents. They took me to church twice a week!”

I want my kids to be able to say, “Yes, we went to church and that was a blessing.  But my parents ripped holes through the roofs of what was expected in order to bring me right into the presence of Jesus himself, and my life is forever changed by those moments!!!”

Of course, that may make the roof-owners upset.  I think we’d be okay with that…

Posted in Different Books, Different Thoughts

writing stories…

Posted on by Wick

I recently finished reading “Broken” by Karin Fossum. She’s a pretty great Norwegian author, I found simply by looking around at some best sellers from years gone by. Sidenote: I appreciated a book translated from another language – as it certainly seemed to have much less offensive language, even in the midst of very gritty situations.

In this book, there is an author attempting to write. She looks outside to see a line of characters for future stories that are to be written. But at the beginning of the book, one man cuts in line, and enters her home – pleading for her to begin writing his story.

There are great bits of dialogue, both internal and external, about what it means to “want” something for “our story”. Every other chapter or so, he enters the scene of her writing his story, and they talk about who he is, and where his story might lead. There is a thin tension existing between his ability to influence her, and her “big picture” telling of a story she feels is telling itself in many ways.

It reminded me of the role we play as parents. We do not write the story for our children. But it is our privilege and duty to frame their story within a larger story that is very worth telling. In the book, she reminds her character that he still has the ability to make his own choices, and he does this at one point. Her role is simply to give him the tools he needs, and a firm identity with which she can release him at the end of her novel into wherever else his life may lead.

Especially when our children are the young ages they are currently, our job is to make decisions on the larger aspects of plot development. What will this character value? What story will they have grown accustomed to thinking of themselves within? What questions do I want to instill as important for this character to be asking?

At one point in the story, the character asks the author why she didn’t at least give him a God. He has no faith background to handle what he’s going through, and he recognizes how beautiful it would be to have something like that in his story. Instead, he travels through much of the book feeling incomplete or “broken”, like a bridge that seems to lead nowhere.  In fact, it was quite frustrating at times to read how his feelings of being incomplete were crippling his ability to live.

Altogether a great book. Every once in a while, may we imagine our children all grown up, looking over our shoulders as we type their childhood. They may give us some great advice. Even more so, may we hand over the typing to God Himself, as we find our stories written together by the Author and Perfecter of our faith…(Hebrews 12:2)

Posted in Different Thoughts, Uncategorized

gaining courage.

Posted on by Wick

A while back we watched the movie “Courageous” with some friends. My expectations were pretty low, having seen “Fireproof” already. Don’t think I’m a complete hater, because I do agree – the content was great. Given as a message, it definitely meets expectations. Shown as a sermon illustration, there are really good opportunities. I know it challenged men everywhere, and strengthened marriages.

But as a movie – plllllt. I’m not a film critic, and don’t know much about cinematography. All I know is, I love to watch good movies. That was not one of them.

Back to the main topic. Courageous was much better than Fireproof, thankfully. (no Kirk Cameron helped a lot) Still was glad I didn’t pay $10 to see it in a theater, but it was enjoyable, funny, moments that caught me off guard, and a great message.

In one scene, (spoiler alert) a father takes his teenage daughter out for a really nice dinner. He communicates his love to her, and does a pretty good job asking her to remain pure until marriage. I mentally high-fived the guy, because it’s a great picture of parenting a teenage girl. Too often, parents will “send” their teens to a purity event/talk with a bunch of their peers, and the girls come home with ring-power, and a flimsy commitment to do what is socially acceptable. This is the type of conversation/commitment that happens best in the context of a loving family environment – not loud music and a charismatic speaker.

I don’t have teenage daughters, yet. But I do have 3 incredible girls, who I want to become women who love God anywhere near how their mother does. I cannot hope that will happen simply because we share a home with them. I also don’t want to wait until they become teens, and then take them out for a nice dinner, dumping a whole lot of parenting into one moment. Someday, I’ll share a similar talk with my daughters, and Lord willing it will come as a natural progression in our releasing them into adult-hood. Not as an awkward, “oops, forgot…you should know this too.”

I want my daughters to grow up each day knowing they’re loved, and have a safe environment for them to become who they are in Christ. The more solid that foundation is, the less they’ll feel the need to look elsewhere for affirmation and identity. I recognize it’s never a 100% guarantee…but I think we’re off to a pretty good start. 🙂