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A Father and His Kids!
Joe Killian • May 8, 2015
This past Tuesday evening I left Johnstown at 8:38 p.m. I know the exact time because I have been making this commute every Tuesday for the last four months and I know it takes me 1 hour and 25 minutes to get home at that time of night. This particular drive was challenging because I was pretty tired. I have been so busy recently that I hadn’t had the chance to rest and recharge over the weekend. I was thinking I would touch base with Maria and Josh when I got home and then head straight to bed because I had to leave early the next morning for a day of training. As I drove I sensed how irritable and anxious I was and I was just hoping to get 6 or 7 hours of sleep.
I had no idea what was in store for me when I got home.
Joshua is a senior in high school and we were looking forward to attending his National Honor Society ceremony the next evening. He is the president of NHS and therefore gets to give the speech on Leadership. When I arrived home at 10:06 p.m. he asked me to look the speech over. I was happy to do so and quickly forgot how tired I was.
Joshua is an excellent writer and was excited about the theme he had come up with for the speech. He read through the speech and I gave him a few suggestions to fine-tune it. Before we knew it, time got away from us and I realized it was 12:15 a.m. I helped Josh to print out the speech on my printer and as I turned to head to bed he opened up his arms and gave me a big hug. I’m not a “hugger” but I really embraced this one!! Josh said, “Thank you and I love you.” My heart melted! Even as I type this I am still filled with a love that defies description.
While some of this love is emotionally driven there is a depth to it that goes beyond the wonderful feelings I’m experiencing. As a parent I find it hard to describe how much I really love all three of my children. Here is the amazing thing; I believe that is where God’s love for you and me begins. In this week’s Gospel we hear of the love between Father and Son and Jesus gives us His explanation of how that love extends to and through us.
Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” John 15:9-17
Joshua’s speech was a hit! With a title of Leadership Is Like Pizza, how could it not be!?! What a joy it was to see our son shine. I really love that kid!
And imagine this, your Father in heaven loves you and me, His kids, even more! Now go as His Son commanded, and love one another!
The story continues...I'm still working on the pondless waterfall in our front yard. I shared this project with you two weeks ago in Playin' In the Dirt. Since then I've had to rework sections of the stream three different times because we were losing too much water. I am now an expert on evaporation rates and excessive splash, two causes of water loss. This morning I tore the whole thing apart and I'm starting over.
Have you ever watched DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda? I stumbled across it recently and thoroughly enjoyed Jack Black's performance as a bumbling, noodle selling, kung fu enthusiast, giant panda named P o. Set in ancient China, it is more than a humorous slapstick comedy. The core message of the story jumped out at me as I have been focusing recently on the concept of being. Po is shockingly identified as the Dragon Warrior and he reluctantly enters training. The goal of the training is to receive the Dragon Scroll, which is believed to hold the secret to limitless power. Now I don't want to spoil the big reveal but I will say that what Po realizes is the same as what I speak to in the concept of being and authentic identity. So, where do we find the secret to our "power?" I praise You, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works! My very self You know. Psalm 139:14 God knows it; and we must seek Him with all of our hearts in order to find it. As it was in the movie, the answer is stunningly simple. Our authentic identity is already within us. The challenge for Po in the movie was in seeing himself accurately and not the way others saw him. Even his teacher scoffed at the idea that Po was anything more than an underachieving dreamer who overate when he was anxious. Po's problems are rooted in the fact that he believes the lie of his false identity much more than he does his authentic one. Is it possible that you do the same? Who could have imagined that beneath all of Po's girth lived the Dragon Warrior? What's hidden from view in you? Seek God for understanding as to who He created you to be. Spoiler Alert: the secret of your limitless power is already in you. God placed it there and He wants you to be who He authentically created you to be.
Maria and I have been playing in the dirt a lot recently. First we replaced our French drain and then we embarked on a creative project intended to change the entire look of our front yard. My brother Jeffrey and I installed a new front step.
