It is not news to any thinking person that the institution of the family has been under attack in this country since the Industrial Revolution first began to separate husbands and wives from each other, and parents from their children as our society turned from a primarily agrarian one into a grinding machine of industry. The blurring of familial roles, attempts at redefining the meaning of family within legislative and judicial spheres, the belittling of parental authority in film and television - especially the image of the father, and the exalting the separation between parents and their teenage children hint strongly at the disintegration of the one institution that is both ordained by God and the foundation of every civilization since Eden. Consequently, I should not be surprised by blatant examples of this trend even when they arrive in my email inbox, but I was.
This morning I received an email from Apple, Inc. replete with its latest offerings of indispensable widgets just in time for Father's Day. Their tag line to get Mom and the kids to buy Dad an iPod Nano is "Now it's his turn to tune you out." In it's not too subtle way, the marketing braintrust at Apple believes that the rest of the family has been tuning out dear old Dad for years. Now it is his turn to respond in kind. This may seem like a small thing, but it is emblematic of the greater societal degradation of the family. Even so, before I level a few well-deserved shots at our society and culture, there is plenty of room for introspection.
Of all of the activities that demand my attention, or more appropriately that receive my attention, which of them strengthen my family's view of who God created me to be as a husband and father, and which of them tear down that view? Do they see in me someone who is faithful to the things of God like prayer and devotion to the Word of God, faithful to service and worship, faithful to stewardship of my finances and my physical well being, or do they instead see in me someone who shifts like the wind in devotion to prayer and the Word, or someone who serves when it benefits me and worships corporately when others are watching, or someone who never really gives tithes or offerings and is a slovenly glutton? At one time or another, I would guess that each of these descriptions, both good and bad, would have been accurate adjectives for my life. But today is not one time or another.
In Jesus Christ I have been made new now, and so have you. We have shaken off the grave clothes of the old man and have put on the glory of the second Adam, the incomparable Son of God Himself. We are recreated into the image of the risen King, and we will never be the same again. As evidence of so great a transformation, our lives should pour forth the colors of redemption rather than the temporal drippings of the world's latest lie. The world is going to Hell by choice, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Is it not wondrous that what we bring to the Cross is a mess of sin, sorrow and regret, and receive in its place the cleansing flood of forgiveness, grace unending and joy unspeakable? And while the world is indeed be headed to Hell, how wonderful and infinite a message of grace we have to share with all who will hear. Let us not lose heart, therefore, because the world is turning away from the loving face of our Father. Let us instead be encouraged to be the heart and hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the lost who more than anything need to hear the Gospel of our good and gracious God. Let us live our lives so that the claims of Jesus Christ upon a man's soul will be seen for what they are: true and liberating and full of hope. In so doing, we will find in due time that it is the lies and schemes of the enemy that are being tuned out as many come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
"Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary." Galatians 6:9
Familiar with both the strength of men and the strength of God, the Psalmist wrote, "Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God." Psalm 20:7. Time and time again the Lord had shown Himself to be faithful. He is the Deliverer of His people.
We put our trust in a lot of things: relationships, jobs, circumstances, health, community, church; the list is endless. These are certainly good things, but they are at best temporary. The Lord our God wants us to look to and hope in Him and nothing else. What better way to remove our trust in other things than to show to us the transitory nature of all that we see?
A friend shared with me a few days ago that his job required him to work all hours of the day and night as well as be 'on call' twenty four hours a day. As a result, he could rarely be with his wife and children in church. He believed that God would have him lead his family, not only by providing for them materially, but also spiritually. This was not possible with his current employment. Consequently, he firmly believed that the Lord was calling him to leave his job immediately and find other employment. He jumped without a net. Some may say that this is foolish, to leave a job without something else to step into, but I am not at all surprised when this happens because I see it all the time.
I talked with a friend recently who has daughters. His wife is expecting another child and they want to wait to discover if it is a boy or a girl. I told him that personally I was glad that we had our son first because our girls were much less . . . active than our son. While girls like to play dress up, have tea parties, and play nicely for the most part, boys like to jump out of tall trees, tackle parked cars, wrestle anyone and everyone, and generally plow through life with their hair on fire. Ahhh, the good old days. I remember them well. I, too, did things that were not the most healthy activities for me, but while they were sometimes dangerous, they were a requisite part of being a boy and becoming a man.
I am always thankful for rain here in West Texas, but this morning it came with an extra blessing. As I left the gym at 7:15, a young husband and his wife were out the door just ahead of me. We all walked out into the rain, and as I opened my car door, I looked up to see the that this husband walked to his wife's side of the car to open the door for her. It would have been a dryer experience for him if he had simply gone to his side, opened the door, and then unlocked the door for his wife. Instead, he opened the car door for his wife, closed it, and then walked around to his side pretty well soaked. Chivalry is not dead.
I once met a man who said that he no longer had any sin in his life. He claimed to have come to the place where, being dead to his sin nature in Christ, he no longer sinned or even struggled with it because he chose not to do so. His claim reminded me of the deadly pride of Uzza: "When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, because the oxen nearly upset it. The anger of the LORD burned against Uzza, so He struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark; and he died there before God." 1 Chronicles 13:9-10
