“You are the son of a king! A strong and engaged Father. A Father wise enough to guide you in the way, generous enough to provide for your journey, offering to walk with you every step.”

If you are involved in the church to any extent, then this is something that you hear pretty often.

As men, I think that this is one of the hardest things for us to truly believe in our hearts. It’s something that is said often and brushed over, but for most of us we simply just don’t believe it in the core of our hearts. We are on our own to make this life work.

Whatever comes our way, we have to face it alone. If anything good is going to come, we have to make it happen. When bad things stir up, then we have to fight it. We pray to our God, but it doesn’t seem like he is hearing us. For some reason, we have allowed this type of thinking to frame our daily view of life.

Lately, the idea of being fatherless has been on my heart. This used to be something that never crossed my mind because I didn’t think that I could relate. I grew up in a full house with Christian parents that loved me. I’m realizing that no matter what upbringing someone may have, we are all wounded and we all deal with this thought of being fatherless, especially as men.

Simply look around you and observe the way that men live. Striving and indulging. Pushing ourselves hard to excel, taking on battles with self-determination, driven by fear, and afraid to be alone. We go through our daily activities pushing these thoughts away while trying to enjoy simple pleasures along the way. This is a fatherless way to live.

George MacDonald said “The hardest, gladdest thing in the world is to cry Father! From a full heart. The refusal to look up to God as our father is the one central wrong in the whole human affair; the inability, the one central misery.” This is something to ponder. The one central misery.

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake? Matthew 7:9-10. If you’re like me, then you have read this dozens of times and jump right past it to the next part of the chapter. But really think about what this verse is saying! I think that Jesus was trying to speak to this deep part of our hearts that we don’t often uncover.

Jesus is for us and has good things in store for those that follow him and live righteously.

Wherever you are in your ability to believe it at this moment in your life, at least you can see what Jesus is driving at. You have a good Father and He is better than you thought. He really cares for you and he knows what it is best for your life. He is kind, generous, and all knowing.

No matter what stage of life that we are in, whether a twelve-year-old boy or a sixty-year-old man, we all struggle with this issue of being fatherless. Our whole life is going to be a process of allowing God to father us. He has been fathering us this whole time, but we don’t always recognize it.

I don’t want to live fatherless anymore.