Unpack.
Unload.
Give up. Stop.
There is One who's valiantly walked a sorrowful path our feet could never belong to, who's shoulders bore burden alien to our own, who's heart swallowed life and death, fear and frailty, strength and worry and owns belonging both now and forevermore. The role of hero forever defined in victim so there would be no more standing alone, no more holding the skies from falling, balancing plates spinning or attempt at making life better.
That role is taken, and dad, that is not yours.
Sweat of your brow, brawn of your hand, both feeble at best; wrong at worst.
The struggle to a better life is not in your own effort. In fact, better life is not real but a fallacy we strain for measured in possession, power and position. The more we acquire the smaller we become, dwarfed amidst maintaining all we own. We forget value and what really matters. Your family doesn’t need more. They need you. And the best of you.
Sure, we must work with diligence and effort, but God does not bless your hard work. God blesses the humble of heart, the man whose hands lay open before Him with full awareness of limitation and broken heart. Effort will never earn you anything in God’s eyes. He recognizes humble hearts who confess their need for rescue, for help.
The most effective move you will ever make as a father is to stop the struggle and in holy pause, learn how to follow the path Christ pioneered for us all.
Your family needs a leader; one who leads fearlessly and follows close.
Give your family a better life, not in possession piling high and then forgotten, but in grace realized, love practiced and peace reinforced.
Start by letting go of the heavy day you know, the one that owns your time and affection. Open your hands calloused by the ineffectual strain of earning a better life to a new way of dependence and reliance and following.
The happiest of Father’s Day to you as you rest in His immeasurable ability to give you all that you (and your family) need.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17, ESV)
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