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Fathers and sonsSaturday, May 15, 1999
John 16:24 I share a story of confession, and the joy of asking my sons Chris and Marc to pray for me, pray to break an ingrown sin in all our lives. We begin to talk about our sons and our fathers, and our lives with God. I have a couple of wonderful letters from my father. We talk about writing letters to our sons and daughters, and how difficult it is to stand aside from our pride and ask them to pray for us. How can that be, when they love us more than nearly anyone? Why do we let Satan rip us off like that? What a wonderful, tear-filled joyful journey it is to be a son, and then a father and still a son again... One of our fathers sat in just the same posture as his son now notices in himself. One of our fathers took 20 years to reach the critical moment of forgiveness with his son. One of our fathers is dying. Our children are growing up and out from us, and we want to know what they think of us. And we want them to know how much we love them. We want to tell them so. As fathers, and as sons, we will put into words what we want to say. And we will put the words on paper. As we do so we will release our own fathers and children from any guilt-driven duty to please us or sustain us. We will turn to God for his love and his sustenance. When we ask, we will receive. And our joy will be complete. Lord, thank you for teaching us to ask, teaching us to wait, teaching us how to receive. Thank you for showing us how to be fathers and sons. |
Eight men in a circle on the porch. The birds sing outside. We gather together to talk and pray, and share something of ourselves with each other. We are all together sons, fathers, grandfathers, husbands.