Welcome to my odd musings about life, the world, and following Christ in a time and place that doesn't think He even exists, let alone is God.
This is something that I have been thinking about off and on for the past several days. In fact, in my written journal (yes, my delightful fan-base, I have writings that I don’t put on EITHER blog, and no, you can’t see them) an entry almost identical to this one is recorded last Wednesday. In light of this morning’s sermon, I found it only fitting to share these thoughts.
Pretty much since the beginning of time people have been taking their ideas about God from their fathers. This is part sociological, because for a long time a good portion of the world was patriarchal in nature, and partly due to the fact that God Himself spent a lot of time in the Bible describing himself as Father — so it’s not hard to make the connection. It was not long into my training for ministry that I was made painfully aware of the dangers of spending too much time on that particular analogy. You see, not everybody has pleasant memories of their fathers.
I, however, have nothing but the most positive of experiences with my dad. In fact, I am convinced that everyone who has ever met the child of two Italian immigrants whom they named Rocco Perna would say that they have been blessed to have known the man. Yeah. He’s THAT incredible.
Anyway, back to the crux of my writing tonight. My dad has been showing me the nature and character of God long before I knew how to see it. He’s not perfect, but I’m convinced he does a better job of it than most everyone I know. To make sure this doesn’t go into a long and sycophantic ramble about the awesomeness of my father, I precede to give you a list.
–Long before I knew anything about how God set aside His glory to be born the humble son of carpenter, I watched my dad work a second job nights in a convenience store making soda fountain drinks so that Mom could stay home with us.
–And as Christ did set aside glory to spend time with us, he gave up his own life on our behalf. While He was without sin, he died to pay for all of ours. He gave up so much that he could be with us. While I didn’t find out about it until I was in my late teens, my dad had the opportunity to work for both the Cocacola company and M&M/Mars. Like I said, he’s quite amazing. Had he taken either of the positions, he would probably reached high levels and could be earning three or four times what he makes now — and probably would be getting a lot more respect too. But instead, he stayed at the company he’s worked at most of his life. He did this so that my brothers and I would always have a father. Whenever we needed him, he’d be there. He did it for us.
–God is both just and loving. Sometimes this is hard for us to wrap our brains around. We think that either God punishes us for our sins as befits our rebellious nature, or He lets us do what we wish and doesn’t care about what we do because He loves us. These are both, in their own way, concepts that we can get. The fact that He is BOTH boggles our minds. My dad never spanked me, though I deserved it a number of times. He didn’t even ever yell at me all that often. What he did do, however, is break me down by telling me how much I disappointed him with my actions. When my dad would say that I would weep uncontrollably for hours it hurt me so. Every time he did that, however, he would be in my room later. He would explain to me why he said it. He’d explain to me what I should learn from my mistake. He would show me that even though I had done something that made him angry or disappointed, he always loved me.
–The greatest thing I’ve ever learned about God is his grace. See, God has done everything for us, and all He’s ever asked in return is that we believe in Him. That’s it. We are supposed to act how He wants — but if we don’t, He doesn’t take back his promises. He doesn’t say, “Oh, what I meant by ‘by grace you have been saved through faith’, was more along the lines of ‘you’ve been saved unless you piss me off.’” He doesn’t do that. What He does is allow us to be us, and hope that we might turn to Him because we want to. My dad has rarely imposed his will on anybody. Partly because it’s not in his nature, but partly because he hasn’t needed to. Dad has always been one to let people make their own decisions. Sometimes this has blown up in his face, but he always does. My whole life he has let me make a lot of my own decisions — even when I was utterly dependent on him for everything. My decisions were my own.
I could go on, but I’d be at this for a while, and it’s after midnight. In short, my father is awesome. Long before I knew how deeply he was effecting my understanding of God, my dad was showing me who He is. If only more fathers were like that.
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I heard once that people say they are more afraid of public speaking than they fear death. While I’ve grown into public speaking — even drawn to it — I remember being a kid that was so shy I’d break down into tears at the drop of a hat every time I was placed into a situation with new people. For a significant period of my life, I refused to do much of anything in a public forum because I didn’t feel I would ever be talented enough to make it happen. Even now, there are times I shy away from things because I feel that my abilities, or lack there of, would be an embarrassment.
Russell Hockenbury is a name that you probably haven’t heard of. If you live around here and hang out with me long enough, you probably STILL might not know who I’m talking about. Around here, we don’t really call him by that name. Around here, we just call him Uncle June. Uncle June is my mother’s uncle. A man who has spent most of his life buying, selling, breeding, and loving horses, I’ve never met a man who is more caring, hilarious, and damn fun to be around.
In a nation, and even a world, that seems to place celebrities and ne’er do wells to heroic stature, I wanted to put this up to remind all of us what sort of a person should be honored like this. At my job I’m looked down on a lot. It is the basic understanding of a lot of people in this area that your education, your earnings, and your position makes you a better person. Uncle June holds no degree but an honorary one, yet he has lived a life that is more full than mine will probably ever be. I work with younger folks a lot, and I have actually used stories about my Great Uncle June to both entertain and educate future generations on what it means to be a man of character. It’s why I share just part of his story with you now.
