Happy Father's Day

Yesterday was a special Father’s Day for me. I celebrated the day in Jacksonville FL with my dad and my entire family. June 15th 2008 was a unique day for me. First it was Father’s Day, as I mentioned, it was my youngest daughter’s 24th Birthday (Sorry honey, I probably shouldn’t of mentioned that part), and yesterday I was officially hooded at my doctoral commencement. And that’s why the whole gang was in Florida at the beach this weekend.

I am thankful for a Godly dad. One who loves the lord and wants to see his son excel in the ministry to which I’ve been called. I’m thankful for my family, a wife who has put up with a lot of years of schooling and proof-reading thousands of pages of my writing, and two daughters who (admittedly drive me crazy sometimes but also make me proud of where they are going in life.

And I’m thankful for God granting me the grace and strength to finish my schooling. What a great way to celebrate with a graduation, fellowship and participating in a Eucharistic meal with my family, knowing that all of them have made professions of faith in our Lord.

I know how difficult it is for many people today to feel comfortable celebrating Father’s Day because they have never had a human father who they could look up to or love them, someone who could help them catch a glimpse of what our heavenly Father is like and how much he loves and cares for us and is there for us regardless of how often we blow it, chafe under His correction or reject His loving embrace.

This is one of the difficult challenges that our Christian community faces when we attempt to speak to this generation about a father who loves them. Many of them have had absentee fathers all of their lives. Many have never experienced a father who loves them or cares for them.

We need to express a love for those who have never had a human father love them. We need to love them into the Kingdom. This means that even when they are unlovely we still need to love them. (I know it’s harder to do than say)

God grant us the grace to love the lovely and the unlovely, to be Father’s representative to a lost world who need to experience God the Father’s love.

Blessings

Dr. Val

Royalty Has It Perks

I’ve been watching with some interest the situation with the Windsor family in England this week. Here in America we have not had a monarchy for more than 231 years and yet we continue to be interested in what the Royals do and say.

Not growing up under a monarchy (even a constitutional one) I never really thought about the different degrees of royalty there were. The UK papers have been all a buzz over a failed blackmail attempt of the royal family. Apparently there the family is made up of major members of the family and minor members of the family. Some less than savory characters had contacted the family with supposedly secret video of a member of the royal family in a sex act and drug use. These people were arrested while trying to extort money from royal staff members who turned out to be police instead.

The papers in covering the account never identified the royal family member who supposedly stared in the video. They just assured that public that it was a minor member of the royal family. This member immediately contacted the family and the authorities when they received the blackmail note. While the Queen was upset and embarrassed over the incident but she announced that she was standing with her “distant” family member throughout this ordeal.

You see, I’m a minor member of a Royal Family, too. I got to thinking about the royal household I was adopted into years ago and how my Father has had to put up with many embarrassing incidents throughout my life. He too has stood by me and supported me every time I’ve failed to live up to my adopted heritage. Each time that I turned to Him and admitted how I had screwed up again and asked for His forgiveness and help, He was always there to forgive and reconnect with me.

Like the story of the prodigal, my Father was always waiting for me to come back and ready to receive me back into His companionship. And unlike the story of the prodigal, my Big Brother not only accepts me, He died to enable the adoption to go through!

I have a pretty cool family and we are looking for more members.

Feel like joining?

Pastor Val