Rear-View Mirror

Essentially, my only advertising for this blog is the bumper sticker on my car. I change the message with each blog in such a way that a driver behind me at a traffic light might just be inquisitive enough to visit the site. I'll often look in the rear-view mirror and see a man alone in the car, or a woman, or a couple, and lift up a prayer for them. I have appealed often in this blog to the concept of a father's love for his children. The average man is willing to take the chance of staying away from God. He has just enough stubborn determination to stay with the crowd for a long time but I want him to realize something, that he is applying this decision of his to his children also. "Oh, they can make up their own mind later on in life," he might say, but they will most likely make the same decision based on the pattern they saw in the father they loved. So, speaking here to these men....How much work have you put into this question of God and man? Might I offer a few possible answers.... You gave it some thought on an occasion or two and were not convinced.... You were dragged to church when you were young so you know what it's all about....or, Carl Sagan didn't buy it...and he was very intelligent. Maybe you are more of a philosopher...if there is a God why is there so much suffering, or... I'm not that bad of a person. I'm not concerned here with trying to answer these questions but rather in saying to you That's it? You are consigning your children to a future of not knowing Jesus because of your own limited experiences or because you stumbled over some questions that multitudes of Christians have trusted God with and thanked Him for ever since? Let me take a real leap here and assume that someone reading this might actually consider my thesis, that although they are not being drawn to Jesus Christ, they love their children more than their own life. What are they to do? The first thing is to pray with your children...before meals and at bedtime. How hard is this guys? They will never...ever...forget this! Second...put a Bible, God's word to us, on the coffee table and pick it up to read on occasion for them to see. Third...humble yourself before God and admit that praying with your children and picking up a Bible are a mere pittance of what a father should do but plead that God might take that morsel and protect them through it.  Another Christian reading this might wonder what kind of advice I'm giving? Twenty-five years ago or so, on one of our Pittsburgh rivers, there was a boating accident with a father and small child. The father couldn't swim and struggled as he held his child's head above the water. The child survived but the father drowned. That's what kind of advice this is. Hold your child's head above the water for you love them more than your own life. You might be surprised at what may happen for you indeed may be saying "I am not worthy... but have mercy on my child!" Your response here may turn out not to be your own for many have come to Christ in similar ways as this. We thought that we were making an insignificant step but God had initiated it. We didn't realize this until later. There is an anecdote from film noir that I would like to give here. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien starred in Angels With Dirty Faces. Here's the plot; Cagney was a gangster whose bravado earned the adoration of the young boys in his neighborhood. He eventually killed a police officer and was sentenced to death in the electric chair. Pat O'Brien was a Catholic priest who walked that last mile with him. Cagney was tough. He was going to spit in their faces before they applied the juice. O'Brien talked to him the whole way of how those boys were going to follow in his footsteps...they would end up like him. His defiance, especially in death, would only encourage them more. Cagney struggled...at first with anger, but upon being led into the chair he cried like a baby that he didn't want to die. They had to forcibly strap him into the chair. Only the priest knew the reason why this tough guy turned yellow. The picture ended as the youths lost the image of their hoodlum hero and went back to being young boys. Cagney's character was going to the chair but you can still move about. Take your child by the hand to Christ and see how He may respond...even with you.