He's Just My Dad

For some he is your pastor or interim pastor or leader or author or colleague, but for me he's just my dad.  Sometimes the word just is not used in a complimentary way.  It implies that something or someone is less than - He took a bite of the juicy red apple and said, "It's just ok.  Not the sweetest I've ever had."

But there is another way to use just.  It can be used to focus on the essence - She searched for the right religious experience and finally discovered the answer:  It's just Jesus!

So to be clear, he's just my dad is about essence not less than.  Here's how:

• He taught me how to throw and catch a baseball
• He taught me how to swim:  reach, pull and kick
• He was always the scorekeeper at my little league games
• He taught me how to mow the grass (something neither of us enjoy or do anymore)
• He had "the talks" with me about the birds and the bees
• He showed me how to tie the Windsor knot when I stopped using clip-on neckties
• He introduced me to mixing my grits with over-easy eggs and other culinary combinations
• He was a Dallas Cowboys fan in the 70's and 80's so I was too 
• He taught me to drive (I actually had to unlearn a couple things to pass the driving test)
• He told me stories from his childhood
• He told me to be on time
• He showed me how to balance a checkbook
• He taught me the principle of compounding interest
• He always said, "Give to God first."
• He modeled that it is ok to cry.
• And most importantly, he, in word and deed, has imparted to me the greatest lesson of all:  A life built on the foundation of Jesus - the author and perfecter of our faith.

There are good dads, and there are bad dads.  There are great dads, and there are no dads.  There are confused dads, and there are regretful dads.  There are dads still with us, and dads that have gone on to eternity.  I don't know which one you are thinking of today, but I do know this: we all need a dad.  Not to run our lives but to do life with us - to model and to show and to teach and to impart.

All the complexity surrounding fatherhood in our times makes it impossible for this day to feel the same for everyone.  But there is one Truth that can unite us:  We all share a heavenly Father whose love covers every situation with an unmatched ability to bring about redemption, hope, and peace. I pray that all of us would know and receive that gift from Him on this day. 

I want to know my heavenly Father in a deeper way.  I want to be the kind of father that speaks life and blessing into my kids' lives.  And I am proud and delighted that so many of you know my dad in other ways, but I am beyond grateful that he's just my dad.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden