Who's Your Daddy?

I have a confession.  A struggle.  A great shame.  I am my father's son.  I talk just like him, I walk like him, I look like him(but obviously a much handsomer version).  The way I process information and respond is a carbon copy of my dad.  There is virtually no way I could convince anyone who knows both of us that I am not his son. 

Now, I am just kidding.  I think my dad is great and I look up to him in so many ways.  One of my greatest disappointments as a child was when I discovered that my dad couldn't be President(he wasn't born here).  All the problems we have would have been easily solved by my dad! 

In part, a lot of the ways I am similar to my dad are genetic.  I didn't choose to have such masculine and attractive facial hair.  But in many ways our similarities were born not out of genetics, but love and respect for my dad.  He was my model in so many ways.  And consciously and subconsciously I mimicked what I observed because I valued him and wanted him to be pleased with me.

Our lives become living reflections of what we value and love.  There is no hiding what is important to you.  It is literally written all over your "face".  If you were to say you place the highest value on "this" but act in ways directly contradictory to those ways....then you don't really mean it.  No one would ever say that I think running long distances is important.....I clearly don't look like I run long distances...and...I never actually run.....No matter what I might say about the matter does not change the reality.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus has been laying out a very clear challenge to the Jewish leaders who have become enamored with their own self-righteous behavior.  As chapter 8 is wrapping up I think the most important practical application is presented. 

"If God WERE your father, you would love me"- John 8:42

He does not say, "If God were your father, you would DO something".  He makes the central point that love for God and Jesus is the driving force behind our kinship with Christ. Earlier in the passage he does start by saying that if they were really his disciples they would follow his teaching.  But lest we confuse the issue, and the order of importance, he clarifies that it is LOVE for God that drives behavior. 

To be very clear, he says FIRST--Truly being his disciple......LEADS to SECOND---Following his teaching.

Acting a certain way does not MAKE you a disciple of Christ and a child of God.  Loving God is what makes us a child of God....AND that love changes how we act. 

When we reverse the process we do not create beloved children, but whitewashed tombs. 

There are so many ways that I am like my dad.  And most of them just happened as a natural response to my love for him.  I didn't say as a five year old, "I need to WALK and TALK this way SO that daddy loves me".  BECAUSE I love my daddy I desired to do so.

So what do we need to ask ourselves?  When we look at our lives, our behaviors, etc, do they reflect plainly how deeply we love the Son?  Or, do they reflect how much we love ourselves, and, this world?  Love as a motivator needs not be given a list of do's and don'ts.  But when they aren't a natural outpouring of who we are....we have to look deeply at our hearts. 

Sometimes it is good for a dad to copy a son..... I am pretty sure if my dad understood computers he would do stuff like this to me as well.....

Good but not Right

Matthew 8:21-22
²¹ Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
²² But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Last night my son Kai got out of bed to ask me an "important" question.  He comes up with all the most essential questions after he is supposed to go to bed.  When he came into the living room he saw that I was cleaning up the room.  Immediately he forgot whatever his primary excuse was for getting up and asked if he could help me clean up.

Doesn't that sound awesome?  What a responsible young 4 year old.  Of course I said, "NO!"  And warned him that if he got out of bed again he would be in big trouble.  He begged me to allow him to help saying, "But daddy, when  will I ever get to help clean??!?!!"  I wouldn't let him help, and 5 minutes he was crying in bed because there will never be anything for him to clean......

This morning, I offered for him to help me pick up some stuff before breakfast.  Guess who had zero interest in cleaning?  That kid!

Ultimately, his issue last night was not his heartfelt desire to be a helpful kid, it was his unwillingness to do what he was supposed to do...Go to Bed!  He is too smart to just say, "Can I watch a movie and eat candy??"  He says, "Daddy, let me clean for you"  Hoping that pretending to be a good kid will get him more traction with his dad to get what he wants. 

We create these false comparisons in our heads all the time.  Sure, I am not doing what I really should be doing, but look, I am doing something REALLLLLYY important right now.  We avoid primary responsibilities by filling our time with peripheral distractions.  The trick is that the things we use to avoid what is Right is not by doing something "bad", but in doing something that in a vacuum is a good thing as well.

In college I was the king of only cleaning my room if I had a paper to write.  I could guarantee that during midterms and exams my stuff would be spotless.  For weeks I had no concern about piles of laundry and unvacuumed floors, but the minute something I didn't want to do that I absolutely should do came up, I became a cleaning machine. 

Our ultimate purpose, the essential truth to what is Right and Good, is to follow hard after Jesus.  And when the call comes, we have all sorts of legitimate sounding reasons to put off the true life of Discipleship. 

I knew a guy in college who never had time for the things of God because he was so busy doing "school" and other such important things.  He most confidently assured everyone that once college was over he would be sooooo serious about Christ.  Guess how that worked out?  Just up and left his wife for another woman without warning 3 years after getting married.....

That which is the Right thing to do, is the primary thing we should do.  Not just what is "good".   

When the man tells Jesus that he will follow him after he buries his dad, he is saying, "I totally know you are a priority, but let me do this other stuff first."  The language doesn't indicate that his dad had just died, it indicates that he was just going to wait for his dad to die, whenever that might be.  See, he claimed he wanted to follow Jesus, as long as it didn't interfere with his plans.  

We want to relegate Jesus to a little convenient box in the back corner of our heart.  When we "need" Him, we'll pull Him out and let Him do His thing.   But, most of the time, we just want Him to keep quiet in there since we "got this".

There is nothing more essential, more valuable, more Right, than following Christ.  What are the "good" things that you use as excuses for why today is not the day you start?

Catching up on sleep?

School?

All that family "stuff"?

Gotta fix this "problem" first?

Waiting to "feel" more into it?

Once the kids grow up?  Or, you grow up?

If we start with that which is merely "good", we will never do that which is RIGHT.  If you prioritize that which is Right, we will find ourselves constantly successfully living within that which is Good.  When Christ goes before you, all the other issues that have been distractions to walking with Christ will be accomplished in ways beyond your imagining.  When we don't start with Christ, those things will never cease their consuming nature in your life.


No more "legitimate" excuses.  Become a disciple!

 

Is this how you deal with priorities?