6-19-23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will not surprise those who know me that I went through a rebellious streak in my younger days. I remember it well \u2013 it lasted 15 or 20 minutes back in the\u2026 Back in my high-school days I did go through a cynical stage. Recently I recalled to a friend that when I was a high-school junior I memorized about a third of The <\/em>Rub\u00e1iy\u00e1t <\/em>of Omar Khayy\u00e1m,<\/em> as beautiful but as cynical, worldly, and secular a group of quatrains one could find under this inverted bowl we call the sky. (Oddly, I then rattled off several dozens of them, despite not having thought of them in decades. \u201cOddly,\u201d because half the time I go to the supermarket these days I forget what the heck I needed to buy…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But during that mildly cynical phase of my life, it was time go off to college. I was allowing skepticism to creep into my faith, and I wanted to discuss it with my father. Our conversation is vivid in my \u201cmind\u201d because it was a Saturday afternoon, and he was flat on his back, a captive audience, fixing something under his bathroom sink. No, no, and no. He hardly moved an inch, except to tighten the valve or something. \u201cOh, it\u2019s a phase,\u201d said. \u201cYou\u2019ll grow out of it.\u201d He asked if anything triggered my doubts. There was<\/em> one book I recently had read, a disputed Mark Twain book that was anti-God, not funny, and featured a character named Satan. He had begun The Mysterious Stranger <\/em>three times through his life, its final version (perhaps doctored by someone else after he died) written after his daughter\u2019s death when Twain was more cynical than he routinely was. And he let me know that God trusted me. Now, you might think that was a risky strategy. But it was a winning strategy. I felt respected; honored; trusted. That trust meant more, and stayed with me, than a weekend full of arguments, than a briefcase full of tracts, than weekly calls, tracking my behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to it, our Heavenly Father trusts us too. He has revealed His Truth; He has sent teachers and prophets; He even sent His Son to die so that we might live. Remember, on Father\u2019s Day, that we should honor\u2026 love\u2026 and trust\u2026 our Heavenly Father too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No \u2013 of course, no. Anyone with a pulse experiences certain changes. Winston Churchill supposedly said that anyone in his 20s who is not a liberal has no heart; and anyone older who is not a conservative has no brains. Well, I was never a liberal, but I get his point. We do evolve\u2026 because the world around us re<\/em>volves.
I suppose, if \u201crebellion\u201d has a cousin, I have always been a contrarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd why are you telling me this?\u201d he asked.
Now I realize that I really wanted him to talk me out of my doubts, but I shared the other reason: \u201cI have these thoughts on my own. I don\u2019t want you think down the road that college filled my head with these ideas.\u201d
Did he get angry? Did he laugh at my youthful foolishness? Did he sit up and reason with me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I almost felt offended. Years later, I identified with Elaine Benes: \u201cDon\u2019t you care if I go to hell?\u201d But at that moment, I asked, \u201cDad… Don\u2019t you<\/em> believe in Jesus?\u201dThat\u2019s when he sat up.
\u201cOf course I do. You know that. I believe you do, too, but if you don\u2019t test your faith it won\u2019t grow stronger. I\u2019m not worried. I trust God, and I trust you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I told Dad about the Mark Twain book. Then<\/em> he chuckled. Despite my processing of its valid challenges to Scripture, Dad said, \u201cI think you\u2019re safe.\u201d
Then he went back to the monkey wrench. And I went back to\u2026 my thoughts. I think I was insulted that he didn\u2019t go full-bore and call the Scriptural Rescue Squad. We used to debate everything<\/em> \u2013 politics, philosophy, literature, classical music. Why not this, I thought.
He trusted me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He loved us first, before we loved Him.
In fact, He trusted us before we trusted Him.
Does that inspire love, and trust, in you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n