To Dad, In Honor of Fathers' Day

So after a month-long blogging hiatus, I am ready to catch up on many thoughts I've had over the past month -- even the past several months. I'll start with some thoughts on one of Hallmark's holiday creations.

I love Fathers' Day. I mean, I haven't always thought it something special. Until I was 18, my mom picked out and purchased my dad's gift for me. All I needed to know was what time we were grilling out as a family, if we were grilling at all. And even then, it was my dad doing the grilling.

With time, though, Fathers' Day has grown on me. Yes, I think it's a cheesy business ploy for us Americans to buy a whole bunch of cards from Hallmark, but I think it's important to recognize the father figures in our lives, for all they've given us, and if not for all they've given us, then at least for what they are meant to represent.

At church with my mom last month on Fathers' Day, a young father gave the sermon, reflecting on how difficult it is to try to be a father and to accurately represent to his young kids characteristics of our true Father in Heaven. He had me in tears when he apologized to all of those in the sanctuary who did not have fathers -- or didn't have loving fathers -- and who didn't know what the relentless, protective, unconditional love of a father could be. And maybe because their fathers didn't take upon them the challenge to love them as Father-like as possible, they never understood an entire side of God. That -- the knowing that others have prevented their children from knowing God as fully as those who have real father figures, that their children may not want to know God completely because calling God one of his names - Father, Abba, Daddy - brings back ten thousand bad memories -- that is what breaks my heart.

At the same time, it makes me so grateful that I am one of lucky ones. I have an amazing father, an incredible dad. Despite all his imperfections, and somehow through all of my own, I have seen clear glimpses of how God must love me. I have seen exampled before me ways I should act, what my priorities should be, and how I should love in my turn. I have seen these things in my dad's ability to be goofy and maintain a huge child-like spirit even at 57. I have seen them in how he coached my baseball and basketball teams in Spring Lake Sports for years. I have seen them in the ways he runs and bikes and skis and then goes on to enjoy the richness of a good meal. I have seen them when my dad once again placed family first and made sure I could spend the holidays with the family when he knew I couldn't afford to on my own. I have seen them in the ways he continually lifts up each of his children, praises our strengths, and offers his full support through our troubles. I have seen them when I hurt, because he hurts; when I rejoice, he does, too. I have witnessed his example in his prayers, his pursuit of knowledge, his raptures over all of Creation -- the mountains, the stars, the rainbow of colors on the Earth.

I am amazed when I learn knew things about my dad -- like how, despite a young family and a thriving career, he started and led a new Young Life club as a volunteer leader near age 30, or how he is not simply now the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic in Chicago, but how he has been unswervingly committed to CGLA's mission to seek justice and mercy for the poorest of the poor since his unpaid internship with CGLA while in law school in the mid-1970s.

Today, my dad continues to give countless hours to CGLA. Recently, he sued the Office of the Governor of Illinois on behalf of individuals who had waited far too long for decisions regarding their petitions for clemency from past crimes. CGLA argued that, because these individuals are allowed to reapply for clemency, they were due decisions, whether favorable or not.



Though the circuit court eventually reversed the decision of the district court to mandate decisions from the governor, when Pat Quinn replaced Rod Blagojevich as Governor, he immediately acted on the petitions and granted 11 pardons. Despite the messiness of the court system, because my dad and the CGLA did not cease pursuing justice on these people's behalves, they are able to start their lives fresh. How's that for an example of how to pursue justice and mercy?

My dad is not perfect, but he doesn't pretend to be, either. Rather, he makes known his mistakes and doesn't let anyone else confuse them for what is ideal or who God is. Because of that, it is so much easier to see all the marvelous ways he listens to God and pursues God in his actions and models good character and relationship with God for his children, his co-workers, and his friends. Because of the ways he succeeds and the character in which he fails, I love him more and more. As a grown-up, I can relate more as I find myself in situations I saw him in as a little girl. I can relate more as I marvel at the greatness of nature and of the entire universe because, watching my dad, my relationship with the Father has blossomed through the years so that I can have a full appreciation of His Creation.

Indeed, I am one of the lucky ones. Thank you, Dad, and thank you, Lord God, for giving my dad to me.

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