Category: Different Thoughts

Posted in Different Scriptures, Different Thoughts

fathers day.

Posted on by Wick

I’m a father.  3 Daughters, and pursuing our 4th.  Father’s Day is always a day of rich thankfulness for me.  Without going into a huge amount of background, I was raised a large chunk of my “growing up/early teen” years without a dad around.  Mom did a crazy good job raising 5 kids, and figuring out how things would work…but these years still left me feeling a bit like I’d “missed out” on something important.

Even in college & as a young adult, when approaching some things, the thought would come to mind: “People who had a father growing up are probably more prepared for this than me.”  As if I was something incomplete, because of what I’d experienced.

So when we moved toward starting a family of our own, there was the fear that becoming a father would somehow “reveal” what I’d been lacking.  When I actually took time to think and pray about this, I knew it was a silly thought.  Nevertheless, it was a quiet humming in the background of my life’s musical score.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul writes “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

This verse has definitely rang true in my life.  Am I different because of going through many years without a dad at home?  Yes.  But do those differences do anything to weaken/make less of what God is accomplishing through me?  Not at all.  If anything, as the verse above declares, God’s power is all the more evident in these areas.

I’ve always known this verse, and even declared it to be true.  It has definitely been a blessing in ministry, to be able to look at teenagers going through rough times and say “I know what you’re going through, and I can speak Hope into your life.”  It wasn’t hard to embrace these areas of my weakness as being useful for ministry.

But what I’m learning is that it’s not simply that God wants to use these for my moments of “professional ministry”.  God wants His power to be manifested in my home as well.  The areas that I don’t know, where I’m humbled, and where I’m lacking….allow me to turn and point to Jesus Christ.  For my own sake, and for the sake of my family.

It’s counter-intuitive these days.  But it remains, as cheesy as it sounds.

I’m not an amazing father when I provide for my family financially, buy great gifts, and take them to Disney World (whew).  I’m not a great father when I fix the car engine (thankfully), clean our gutters, or patch a hole in the wall.  I’m a Father when I’m pointing my family to Jesus as their source of strength and wisdom.  And for that…I am more than well-equipped for the task.  🙂

And thankful…

Posted in Different Scriptures, Different Thoughts

ponies and caring.

Posted on by Wick

It happens a thousand times a day.  Okay, that may be a hyperbole (exaggeration for emphasis), but it happens daily, and usually several times a day.  One of our children will come up to us with a request.  We love our children, and would LOVE to give them every good thing.  But on many occasions, the thing they’re asking for would not quite be the best thing for them.

Case in point: ponies.

They’re great at a birthday party, or a state fair.  They’re even awesome at a friends’ house.  Some people may have the ability to own one as a pet, and take care of it well.

We do not.  Even if our daughters would love one.

In Luke 23:43, we see Jesus loving one of God’s children, by responding to His request a bit differently than expected.  We hear about this story all the time.  It’s about the men who were hung next to Jesus at Golgotha, crucified for what they’d done against Rome and the people.  Both mock Jesus, but one has a turn of heart and eventually asks Jesus, “remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

At this point we generally hear something about how Jesus spoke His agreement, and the man attained “salvation”.

But as we look closer, we see Jesus not quite giving the man what he was asking for.  We know that Jesus was viewed by many as not just a theological savior, but as a political savior also.  The “messiah” who would free them from Roman rule, and establish the Kingdom of God (think Rome, but with God instead of Caesar) on earth.  This man is suddenly convinced that Jesus is the messiah, and wants to be remembered when this Kingdom of God comes about.

To this, Jesus smiles with love, and offers the man something even better.  Freedom from the desire to be in power over Rome.  Jesus points the man toward “paradise”, a place of existence in the presence of Jesus, to await the completion of what God has begun.  Sure enough, the Kingdom of God is launched in Jesus Christ.  But even in His dying moment, Jesus takes the time to redirect someone who wants power and “being”, and offers something even better – His presence.

Isn’t it good to know that when we pray, God loves us enough to give us more than we even know to ask for???

Posted in Different Thoughts

holes. (an illustration. ish.)

Posted on by Wick

So let’s say there’s this giant wall. As big as the eye can see. Stretching in all ways on every direction. On one side, there is this crazy active, churning, flowing, transformational water. On the other side, a world made for water, but drying out. It’s changing as it dries. Not for the better.

Something happens. The wall is transformed. It’s thinner than it once was. It threatens to rip right in half, and let loose the water found behind it. But it must remain for now.

There becomes a hole in the wall, coming from the other side. As the trickle of water squirts through the hole, it threatens the dryness that has become so familiar to the world. Some embrace it, and experience what it offers. Others run from it, protect themselves from it, pretend it’s not what it seems.

Over time, some realize they can become a hole. But to become a hole is a strange thing. You give up whatever dried out identity you have built around yourself. It’s difficult to do. Some choose not to, finding one of a list of growing excuses. But there are some to still do, pressing themselves into the thin veil so hard that they burst through the other side, only to be blown back towards the world by the force of the rushing water…but remaining there as a hole.

There are places in the wall where trickles are running through. A lone small hole, in the midst of a large area of the wall. Almost like a dollar store squirt gun permanently mounted and squirting from the wall. The dry world soaks up all it can in these areas.

There are other areas. A hose has been run, from the dry land, duct taped to the wall, and spouting out back onto the dry land. From a distance, it seems water is flowing from beyond the wall. But coming closer, you realize it’s the same, dry-sourced stuff that exists everywhere already. But many gather anyways. After all, it’s still wet, right?

Then there are other areas. Areas where the holes are so close together. Where the holes seem to come together as one GIANT hole, and water is POURING through these areas, making contact with the world and transforming what once was dryness back into what it was created to be. Alive. Through the water.

Someday, the holes believe, the thin layer separating the churning waters from the land that is drying out will be removed completely. Not because of the holes themselves, but it certainly is in the same direction as they’ve been existing. They look forward to that day. They try to get others to join them in opening the wall.

Not so that they can “become holes” too.

But so that the water can get through and transform the world New…