…“Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

JOHN 14:8

If there is one thing I have come to realize upon recollection of my recent trip to Kenya and Uganda — it’s a universal and timeless thing — it’s that the world needs dads. Ten thousand miles away, people are in need of a father. Ten feet from my doorstep, people are in need of a father.

Dads matter.

We’ve become a fiercely independent world. We find our way without ever having to need fathers and father-figures. Our television sit-coms feature fathers that are little more than unnecessary and often troublesome appendages somewhat regrettably attached to a capable and occasionally condescending matriarch. As a society, we live in a dual world of needing to grow up and not really knowing how. Because, somewhere within us, we wonder if we’re really grown up enough at all. It’s a soul-seeking spiritual reality we long for. Whether our father could be painted into a Norman Rockwell lithograph or he left some big gaps in our need for a dad, the words of the disciple, Philip are equally potent: “…show us the Father.”

We all need that thing that father’s bestow upon their children — identity. We need it as men and as women. We need our own father to stare us in the face, standing close enough to us that we could feel the warm breath of his words, and we need to hear him say without hesitation, “I believe in you. You’re not on your own. I have always, and will always, love you.”

This Sunday, as we honor the best of our fathers, we’ll look to God, called “Father”, and continuing in our LISTEN series, we’ll tune our hearts to hear Him say, “[I] carried you, as a father carries his son.” It’s going to be a great Sunday. Bring anyone who is a dad, or, maybe even more so, is in need of a dad.

See you Sunday,

Jeff