Charisa Stories

Tag: father

  • Training Camp for Christians

    I love football. The opening of football training camps gets my juices going. I watch some of the greatest athletes in the world getting ready to play a highly skilled game. So what do they start with every summer at training camp?

    Footwork and technique drills. Coaches demanding constant repetition of fundamental skills. The best teams are the ones that most consistently execute the most basic fundamental aspects of their craft.

    Legendary Coach Vince Lombardi famously began each training camp by gathering wide-eyed rookies and grizzled veterans around him. He would begin by holding the pigskin in front of him and solemnly proclaiming an indisputable truth.

    “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

    From that rather rudimentary start he would detail the importance of understanding the fundamentals of the sport. I can learn something from that approach. When I first came to faith I was so excited to learn the fundamentals of faith. How do I study the Bible? How do I pray? How do I grow in my faith? But something seemed to happen as I accumulated some seasons under my belt.

    I forgot the fundamentals.

    I started looking for the latest trend in faith. Which trendy Christian leader should I emulate next? I defined myself by movements instead of by Jesus, the Cross, and His finished work. For me football training camp is another reminder that I desperately need the fundamentals of faith.

    Fundamentals are best taught by those who have the gift of teaching and complete knowledge of the skills required. You hope you can find an expert to teach you. That is exactly what the disciples did when they came to Jesus and asked for His help on how to pray. They had watched Him pray. They knew how important prayer was to Jesus. Now they asked him to teach them how to pray. Here is Luke’s “play by play” of that moment.

    One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

    He said to them, “When you pray, say:

    “‘Father,
    hallowed be your name,
    your kingdom come.
    Give us each day our daily bread.
    Forgive us our sins,
        for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
    And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:1-4, NIV)

    Over much of my fumbling, bumbling Christian journey I would skip straight to the “give us our daily bread and forgive us our sins” parts of that prayer. I managed to miss the most important fundamental of this insightful prayer contained in the opening words.

    I get to relate to God as my Father! That privilege comes only from my relationship with Jesus. Noted preacher Haddon Robinson stated that in the entire Old Testament God is only called Father seven times and it was always in respect to the Nation Israel. There is never a recorded instance where any individual dared to address the Sovereign God as Father.

    Now Jesus comes on the scene and Robinson writes about the amazing contrast.

    “When you turn to the New Testament, however, 275 times or more we are told directly or indirectly that when we bow before the sovereign majesty of the universe the word that should come easily to our lips is Father.”

    That is a fundamental game changer! I can come to the God of the Universe who knows my sin, my weakness, my failures and call Him Father! Are you kidding me?

    I also tended to zoom by the next fundamental. 

    Hallowed be your name. 

    Prayer starts not with a shopping list of what I want God to do but instead with worship and recognition of who God is. We are coached by Jesus to remember how great God is and to recognize that His ways are not our ways. We are taught to remember that His holiness is perfect and His grace is our hope.

    Hallowed be your name.

    When I learn those fundamentals the rest of the offense falls into place. He is my Father who loves me and wants the best for me. If the answer is no that is an answer. That may mean my request will be answered later. It may be answered differently. It may not be answered at all. But through all of those responses I trust that He is holy, powerful, and present. Embrace that fundamental truth this week.

    Today’s blog is an excerpt from Waking Up Slowly, a 21 day journey to grow closer to God and one another.

  • You Don’t Have to be a Perfect Dad to Have a Powerful Impact

    Singer Dan Fogelberg was one of my favorite singer/songwriters. Every Father’s Day I think about a song written about his dad called “Leader of the Band”.  Fogelberg’s father was a musician and he passed that talent down to Dan. Parts of the lyric made me think of my Dad in his final years..

    The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
    But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul 

    I thank you for the music and your stories of the road
    I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go
    I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough
    And, papa, I don’t think I said ‘I love you’ near enough 

    My Dad knew how much I loved him. Still I wish I had told him more often. But this is the portion of the song that continues to impact me as a son.

    My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
    I’m just a living legacy to the leader of the band

    My Dad was a wonderful, kind, loving, and sometimes flawed man. He was not perfect but his overall story was powerful. I hope I am following his legacy of joy, kindness and love that he modeled so well. I realize with each passing year how much the leader of the pack impacted me. Every dad impacts the lives of their children. The question is how. Children listen only sometimes but they are always watching. My Dad probably never realized how closely I was watching.

    The last time I saw my father he left me with a memory that will stay with me till I join him in eternity. His condition had worsened considerably after a stroke. When I walked into the hospital room Dad’s eyes came alive and he grabbed my hand with an intensity that clearly communicated that he knew me. 

    Our family had encountered one difficult employee at the hospital. She had done nothing helpful and she had done nothing with a bad attitude. I looked at my sister Sherry as I held my Father’s hand and said, “We don’t have to take that crap!” To my surprise out of that shell that was my Dad came a very clear and loud response…”I taught you that!”

    Those were the final words that he spoke to me. And yes…you did teach me that Dad. And you taught me a whole lot more. You taught me that all of God’s children are to be valued unrelated to color or position. That everyone is important and deserves to be treated with dignity.

    You taught me the concept of grace. When I was in junior high I somehow manage to establish “credit” at a hobby store. I ran up a debt that was monumental in those days. When you found out I was terrified. But you taught me that grace means unmerited forgiveness for obvious guilt. You taught me there is a difference between mistakes of ignorance and willful wrongdoing. You taught me what forgiveness looks like and what it means for someone to pay for your mistakes out of unconditional love with no strings attached. I got a little foretaste of how Jesus would pay a debt for me that I could not pay later on in my life.

    You taught me that humor is a gift from God. That laughing at life and especially at your self makes it a whole lot easier to deal with daily frustrations.

    You taught me a lot Dad. And I will be forever grateful. Perhaps most importantly, you taught me what it looks like to be ready to die. You taught me how to put your family at ease by clearly and consistently letting us know that you were ready to meet Jesus.

    God’s Word consistently paints an image of God as our Father. Many people struggle with that picture because they can only relate to an angry, dominating or selfish father. I am so grateful that I had a dad that helped me to understand the real love of a father and what that means when God says I am His child. But I pray that you will believe the love our Father in Heaven even if the earthly role model was not ideal.

    How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
    And that is what we are!  –1 John 3:1

    That is what we are! A child of God our loving Father. That is a pretty good thing to meditate on for Father’s Day.

  • 21 Connect: Day 14 – The Power of Prayer

    21 Connect: Day 14 – The Power of Prayer

    I remember hearing a wonderful story about a prayer that was spoken in a little country church. The new pastor called on one of his older deacons to lead in the opening prayer. The deacon stood up, bowed his head and said, “Lord, I hate buttermilk.”

    The pastor opened one eye and wondered where this was going. The deacon continued, “Lord, I hate lard.” Now the pastor was totally perplexed. The deacon continued, “Lord, I ain’t too crazy about plain flour. But after you mix ’em all together and bake ’em in a hot oven, I just love biscuits.
    “Lord, help us to realize when life gets hard, when things come up that we don’t like, whenever we don’t understand what You are doing, that we need to wait and see what You are making. After you get through mixing and baking, it’ll probably be something even better than biscuits. Amen.”

    We make prayer so complex and hard. Philip Yancey wrote that “most of the great books on prayer are written by ‘experts’— monks, missionaries, mystics, saints. I’ve read scores of them, and mainly they make me feel guilty.”

    I can relate to that! So I decided to see what an expert had to say about prayer. That is exactly why the disciples came to Jesus and asked for His help on how to pray. They had watched Him pray. They knew how important prayer was to Jesus. Now they asked Him to teach them. Here is Luke’s “pray-by-pray” of that moment:

    One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
    He said to them, “When you pray, say:
    ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
    Give us each day our daily bread.
    Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
    And lead us not into temptation.’” (Luke 11 : 1-4 , NIV)


    Over much of my fumbling, bumbling Christian journey, I would skip straight to the “give us our daily bread and forgive us our sins” parts of that prayer. I managed to miss the most important foundational aspect of this insightful prayer. The first fundamental is contained in the opening word.

    Father.

    I get to relate to God as my Father! That privilege comes only from my relationship with Jesus. Noted preacher Haddon Robinson stated that in the entire Old Testament, God is called Father only seven times, and it is always in respect to the nation of Israel. There is never a recorded instance where
    any individual dared to address the Sovereign God as Father. Now Jesus comes on the scene, and Robinson writes about the amazing contrast:

    “Yet in the New Testament, at least 275 times, that is how we are instructed to speak to God. Because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, when we come to the sovereign majesty of the universe the word that should fall readily from our lips is Father.“

    That is a game changer! I can come to the God of the universe, who knows my sin, my weakness, and my failure, and call Him Father! Are you kidding me? Pastor Tim Keller puts that in amazing perspective.

    “The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.”

    Think about that for a moment.

    Jesus stated an interesting truth right before His instructions on how we should pray.

    When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need
    even before you ask him! (Matthew 6:7-8, The Message)

    So why even go through the effort if He knows already? Because it creates relationship with God. Jesus obviously did not mean to indicate that prayer is not vital. Look at His own example!

    Whenever Jesus faced a great challenge, He met it with prayer and Scripture. He steeled Himself for the agony of the Passion with hours of prayer. I have not met any adversity that I could not face when I meet it with God’s Word and presence in prayer. This is one place where it is okay to be constantly “plugged in.”

    Excerpted from Waking Up Slowly Book