30 Days of Gratitude… 25

Thinking a bit about fatherhood for a couple of reasons today, not the least of which is because of yesterday’s SCOTUS decision on Roe v. Wade, but also not exclusively for that reason.

The other is a book that I started some time ago, finished earlier this week, and started again.

Roe v. Wade

I won’t go really deep on this issue because it’s always risky business but let me say this. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I believe life begins at conception. If micro-organisms constitute life in terms of space exploration or ecology-management… a foetus is more than a micro-organism.

HOWEVER… what I really want to hone in on is this:

The weight of the problem Roe v. Wade is meant to address is, in my mind, disproportionately carried by women, when it takes two to make a foetus. There’s a whole lot of work that needs to be done with young men so that they act responsibly toward young women in the first place.

Which leads me to the second part…

Fathered by God

I read a quote this morning in the book Fathered by God (John Elderedge), which struck a chord:

We no longer live, either as a society or even as the church, with a father-view of the world, the view centered in the presence of a loving and strong father deeply engaged in our lives, to whom we can turn at any time for the guidance, comfort and provision we need.”
John Elderedge

I think there’s a vicious cycle in our society where fatherlessness is, in some cases, a multi-generational problem… and the church is not exempt.

God desires to be that deeply engaged father… the kind that we need and the kind that we desire and I honestly believe that that kind of relationship will deal with a LOT of societal ills. NOTE: I did NOT say “church membership” would deal with it… there are Christians who are broken as well.

God needs to heal (and we need to allow him to) a lot of things, in a lot of people… me included.