GENDADS

FIRST, IT WAS THE LORD’S “STILL, SMALL VOICE“(See comment below).

THEN IT WAS THE DEVIL’S TURN…Or was it?  You probably noticed.  I got hacked.  Messed up my rigid plans for the day.  BUT it got me back into this blog.  I’ve been planning that for over a week.   Or is that spelled, “weak?”  I ‘spect I’m being prodded by the Lord to re-enter the blog world as part of the mission to pick up my book writing.  Been away all summer helping son-in-law start his business. It’s actually a ministry of reaching out to families in chaos by way of equine assisted therapy on Deep Rivers Family Ranch.

SUDDENLY, THE LORD WHISPERED LOUDLY…”Take a break, son.”  He was refering to my time on my blog and social media.  He reminded me He wrote His Book, and now I should write mine.

SO FOR MY VISITORS OVER THE FIRST HALF OF OCTOBER:  This is a perfect place for a static page.  It introduces the book and a bit of our life touched, incredibly, by grace uncommon.  Feel free, however, to leave a comment (tap “comments,” above).]

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Per the blog header, the focus  of GenDads is pretty clear.  It’s about “generational fathering,” the concept of promoting multiple generations participation in the fathering challenge.  If the goal is “good and godly” children as lights of hope and righteousness in a darkening future, then the father and the father’s father would be a better set of tools to hammer out that sort of legacy.

One thing is obvious.  Like other “obvious” truths, we need reminding: it’s not the quantity (as in two complementing generations) but the quality of both that will assure the quality of the newest and very challenging generation being molded.

See the cute, happy couple? If the photo is 46 years old, does “happy” continue (even if “cute” is long gone)?  It’s a serious question.  The handsome Navy flyboy has wrinkles, white hair, and a protruding belly now.  But it  is the quality of his life–and his  “Happy Couple” marraige–that determines the quality of imprint “Popi” will have on his grandchidren.

This weekend Sunday service forces this issue.  You see, Carolyn (the still “cute” and obviously better half) and I were asked to share our testimony and given the entire message slot.  We would never have guessed (and still are a bit dazed) the overwhelming event that would become.  It was not the 46 years of walking with God together done in 40 minutes, but the entire week it took for us to forge Our Story from memory and pictures.  Tears, smiles, awed silence and shaking our heads in wonder as we reviewed each segment of the journey.

Reviewing our life under the Utterly Gracious Hand of a Loving God has changed us.  Our life forward will be different.  The “Finishing Well” phase of life  (like a race, a poem, a painting, a landscaping project…heck, like anything of worth) depends what’s been invested, hammered, built, tested, sacrificed (etc., etc.,) in early stages.  We were overwhelmed (I mean that; really, we were swept up in the wonder of it) at the amazing and unearned grace of God to have favored us so.  I type through tears even now.

This could be a very long post.  Or it could stop here.  Or maybe I should hit the “pause” tab for now.  I think over the next couple of days, with writing Generational Fathering highest on my priority list, I’ll take time on GenDads to share the highlights of that journey.  WHY?  Back to the “quality” thing in leaving a legacy imprint on my generations to follow. The quality of God’s grace is never in question.  How we appropriated it–that alone a mystery of unmetited grace–is the essence of how my life (amplified by my still-cute better half) will imprint these six grandchildren I so dearly love.

AND YOU?  HOW WILL THE WORK OF GOD IN YOUR LIFE UP ’TIL NOW IMPACT YOUR LIFE ONWARD..AND THOSE HE GIVES YOU TO LEAD, INCLUDING THE GENERATIONS TO FOLLOW FORWARD?

Actually, it’s MY guest post for my comrades over at “Hard Core Christian Men”. Wrote it last week, read it today. I need that reminder of “margin.” I’d better explain.

FLAPPING LIKE CRAZY, JUST NOT GETTING ANYWHERE.

Life was frenetic in my 30’s to 50’s and it suited me. Not so my wife, but, bless her heart, she stuck with it. Yes, I could slow down to read. I’m glad because two books changed my life. Sacred Romance by Curtis and Eldredge set in motion a whole life perspective and deep involvement with the Ransomed Heart gang. Most of you know about Wild at Heart, et. al. So let me tease you with the other book, Margin by Swenson.

You’ll get Dr. Richard Swenson’s theme quickly. But, honestly, you really do need to get his book (or books; several around this theme). This guy said exactly what I needed at just the right moment. It was as if he was God’s mouthpiece. Here it is for me during that hyper-adrenal period:

Gary, you live without margin. Get some. Every day is a page in the story you write for yourself even before you wake, and it goes from one edge to the other, from top to bottom. What if your family had a need? If you even recognized it, where would you stuff it in today’s Big Page? And how about God? You follow Him, right? How does He get a word in edgewise…when there is no edge, no margin. Are you going to give Him a slot a couple of pages away? What if they or He wants to engage you like now?

Problem 1: I was writing my own story, a noble, honorable, godly one. All the while, I knew it was the Lord God I was serving who really had the last word. I was stuffing all the words possible on my life’s page. I was supposed to be living in His Grand Story, the one the Council of the Godhead dreamed up and wrote for me even before they started the clock of time.

Problem 2: I had been writing in HIS margins. His story for me was excellent. Better than mine. By far. And His had wide margins. Gives a chance to put notes, even love notes, here and there. “NB,” Noto bono in God’s handwriting started showing up. His notes change everything.

In regular, less poetic terms, my discovery of margin (the book gives frightening data and examples) was something like, “Slow Down.” Only better. I’d heard that rant almost every day, but zipping about doing good faster than the speed of sound, the words were muffled.

One story closes this teaser. It happened suddenly on one drive from the ranch to town. I drove 45. The speed limit was 55. I usually drove 65 unless I was in a hurry. I was always in a hurry. I actually (this means I am NOT kidding you) saw things on the 15 minute drive (formerly 10 swish-by minutes) I’d never seen…spring flowers, snow still on Pikes Peak, two Elk hanging across the meadow in the tree line. I remember breathing softly when I told God, “Thank you.”

One story more, a bonus. My wife noticed. I have, since, lived a still full life, but I leave plenty of margin. When I got to the laid-back but productive leg of the journey (my indolent neighbors call it “retirement”), I said I only wanted two goals to drive me. (Wow, not 16?!) I wanted to love God more and better and I wanted to love my wife and family more and better. Very, very big margin in that story.

MAY I ASK?
1. WHOSE STORY DO YOU LIVE IN? YOURS OR HIS? HOW’S THAT WORKING FOR YOU?

2. GOT MARGIN?  WHO MOSTLY WRITES IN IT?

Tell us about it.

THEN, HE ASCENDED INTO THE CLOUDS,  BUT DID NOT LEAVE US ALONE.

It’s been a week since the celebration of our Lord’s resurrection. But it’s still fresh in way’s I’ve not experienced before. I think it hangs on for me because of the extraordinary series of events I’ve recited here that capped off my grandson’s Year of Passage.

The connection is legacy. The essence of the story on the Cross and the days that followed is legacy, it’s our biblical heritage of truths and examples passed down through the generations. We sometimes forget the history-changing events that the Gospels identify as Jesus reappears and further touches the life of His disciples (which, by extension, include us). The walk to Emmaus, the prayer meeting with the disciples, the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the announcement of the Great Commission, and the glorious ascension left us direction, left us examples…have I said this yet, “This is divine legacy.”

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