My Dad
I love my Dad. He’s been gone for 30 years now but I still love him. He taught me the value of a day’s work and, more importantly, provided me an example of how to be a man and a husband and a father and how not to be those same things.
Let me explain. My dad was born in that age, being on a farm in IL, where he remembered hitching a horse up to a carriage and saw times through the shuttle disaster. It would be safe to say that he saw the world change around him. He was born just a few months before the US entered the Second World War so he was too young for WWII and the Korean War and too old for Vietnam.
My dad grew up on a farm and disliked it so much he determined to leave farming only to strive to get back to it during the latter half of his life. I believe this desire to return to farming was driven by his inability to completely control his temper. While he was not physically abusive by any means, he bordered on being verbally abusive with us growing up.
While his family tolerated his lapses in verbal control due to the vast majority of time when he was a loving father and husband, employers weren’t as forgiving. For example, my dad was always good with math and worked for a bank. He progressed to become the head cashier (with advancement potential) until he got moved to being the vault supervisor when he blew up at his boss (no advancement potential).
I believe my dad’s yearning to return to farming, mid-life, was an escape from having to control himself around a human boss. Farmers, being entrepreneurs, don’t have a daily boss per se, but their fortunes are dependent on their hard work (under the farmer’s control) and the weather (under God’s control). Knowing how the business of farming has changed over the last 30 - 40 years makes me wonder how or if my dad would have evolved with the times.
I was thinking about him this morning when I read this.
“A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight, but the wicked falls by his own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust. When the wicked dies, his hope will perish, and the expectation of wealth perishes too. The righteous is delivered from trouble, and the wicked walks into it instead. With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.” - Proverbs 11:1-9 ESV
“Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.” - Psalm 66:16
“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” - Ecclesiastes 12:13
I believe my dad longed to escape serving a boss. I’ve come to think of it the opposite, we were made to serve others and God, the ultimate boss. But there are rewards,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” - Galatians 5:22-26
