Swing...And A BIG Miss!

Kids are honest...BRUTALLY honest! So if you want an unfiltered, no-holds-barred opinion, just ask one of your children. EVENTUALLY, I'm told, they reach the age where you really have to drag information out of them...but my kids aren't there yet. Case in point, if any of my three knuckleheads are standing over me while I'm seated, I'm guaranteed to receive a comment centering around Rogaine, Bosley, or other hair-restoration product.

My children remind me that my body is in the firm grip of gravity, and that it would be best for me to wear long pants and a sweater when I go to the swimming pool.

I'm not funny. I'm not real athletic. My nostrils are exceptionally large. I yell too much. My car is ugly. I like weird music. And the fact that their mother would lower herself to marry a guy like me is totally lost on them.

You get the idea?

I've been reading a book called "Crazy Love." I've read it over...and over...and over. The author, Francis Chan, had me sold at the Preface. He begins by explaining that he thinks the Church has missed the boat, but he thought it was only him that felt that way. Until, one day, he stood in front of a crowd of 20,000 college students and posed that question to them. Every hand in the arena went up confirming Chan's philosophy.

I love God. I love Jesus. I want to spend eternity in front of the glorious throne of God, worshipping him with every ounce of my being. I want my wife there. I want all three of my boys there. I want my friends, my family, EVERYONE there with me.

And I want people to know I love God. I want them to know that He is the top priority in my life - that every decision I make is centered around Him and His will for me.

Which leads me to a random experiment I conducted a few weeks ago. Elijah (my 10-year old) and I were riding in the car together. I don't know where we were going (it's not important), when I was moved to ask a riveting question:

"Elijah, do you think that Daddy loves God?"

He look puzzled by the fact that I was ask him that. "Yes," he said simply.

Good! My life must be a great testimony to the fact that I love God. So I went to the next question..."How do you know that I love God?"

He didn't answer so quickly this time. "Uh, we go to Church every Sunday," he said. "And we set up the chairs in the church gym after basketball practice."

I sat there silently, hoping that Elijah would have an epiphany that would cause him to recollect those acts of love, charity, and selflessness that I had heaped on the less fortunate.

But who was I kidding? God was using my 10-year old as a human mirror. He was showing me the reflection of my spiritual body...and it looked flabbier and more unsightly than the physical one. It was embarrassing - humiliating. Deuteronomy tells me that, as a Dad, I'm supposed to be telling my kids about God and all that he's done regularly...yet my son thinks my only expression of love for God is a token hour on Sunday - 1/168 of a week.

So like an obese person who looks at themselves in the mirror and confesses, "I gotta change something!"...I make that same declaration.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - read "Crazy Love." Open your heart, mind, and soul to not just the words that Francis Chan writes in his book, but open it to the words that flow from God's HOLY book. It's time for me to KNOW God. I've met Him - He and I have been acquaintances for a long, long time. But I think I've missed something.