In honour of Father’s Day, let me tell you about my father, and how his example blazed a path for me to follow. In large measure, his example made me the man I am today. My father is not perfect, but he is, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, the best man that I know. Today I want to tell you about his quiet strength, his ironclad resolve, his sacrificial dedication. I want to talk to you about how formative his example has been in my life, as his son and I want to encourage us all to be the same for those in our spheres.
In general, I remember my childhood fondly. I was born out west but moved to Toronto so that my father could take over pastoring a small church in downtown Toronto. We had a roof over our heads, though we lived close to or below the poverty line for years since my father’s church was quite small, and his salary was equally humble, But they were careful with what they had and trusted God for the rest. My father’s dedication also left an impression on me. Every morning, if I came down early enough, there was my father in the kitchen, on his knees, reading his Bible and praying, with our dog curled up beside him. I remember waking up many nights to find him kneeling over my bedside praying for me. The knowledge that my father interceded on my behalf encouraged me so much, gave me such confidence, and is the example I continue to try to follow.
My parents were full of faith. That is part of what made me. When we had a lack, they trusted God to provide. There are many stories from my childhood of God’s provision, both large and small, but my favourite story is from our first house in Portage La Prairie Manitoba, the town of my birth. My parents bought a small house, but after moving in the well dried up. There was no municipal water supply so they needed to build a new well themselves, but there was no way they could afford it. In that area the average depth of a well was something like 100 Ft, so the thought of digging a well by hand was a laughable concept, but my parents had a lot of faith, and no other options. So my dad asked a guy to suggest a spot to dig and then he prayed over the spot, and started digging, by hand, with a spade. Well, portage is a very small town, so word got around fast and people started showing up to gawk. Like Noah building his ark. But he trusted God to provide and was willing to put in the work. Well, My dad hit water at 8 feet. He dug to 12 to secure good flow. People were so astounded that they pitched in for siding for the well and someone even lent them an excavator to make laying a pipe to the house easier. They ultimately put in a well for almost nothing. While we lived in that house, the well served us perfectly, and when time came to move, we left, and within a couple years that well dried up and the owners had to dig another one. Guess how deep they had to go for water? 100 feet. Coincidence? Could be. It seems miraculous to me, though in fairness, I was in diapers when this transpired so I know of it second hand. Regardless, faith like this left an impression on me and has encouraged me in my walk to be a man who can believe God for hard things.
My father’s quiet strength, perseverance and steadiness have deeply impacted me. I have a brother, who unfortunately, in his teens fell in with the wrong people and wound up in a gang in downtown Toronto at our high school. I watched, largely without understanding as this young, innocent kid turned angry and spiteful, changed his attire, music, his speech and his demeanor. When He was eventually expelled from my high school, My parents put him in a different school and he did okay for a couple of years, thankfully making an exit from the gang scene, having learned that lesson. Unfortunately, when he graduated, he went to bible college out west, where, unbeknownst to us, he started drinking heavily. Things for him went from bad to worse and precipitated in a years long struggle with alcohol depression and suicidality. All through this time my parents walked beside him. My brother would probably tell you that without my fathers faithful, patient, insistent presence and prayers in those years he wouldn’t have made it. I can’t imagine what it is like to be a parent under those circumstances, but I am thankful that they didn’t give up on him and that he didn’t give up. I am extremely happy to tell you that he has now been sober for close to a decade and got married this summer. And is a super awesome dude, of whom I am incredibly proud.
My father has modelled for me servant leadership. His church in Toronto is right downtown, and it is half a block 2 homeless shelters and not far from a number of very poor areas. The physical need there is as unending as it is desperate. Meeting that need is an inhuman task. And 6 days a week for the last 30 something years, day upon day he has risen to that challenge. He has suffered every indignity imaginable as a result, because hurting people hurt people, but he has persisted in helping so many who are bereft of all ability to ever return the favour. I am incredibly proud to be that man's son. To watch him live, to ride his coattails.
I could talk about my father forever. I hope one day you get to meet him. You can still find him preaching at his little church in downtown Toronto on top of a furniture store on Queen Street. To this day I am awestruck by this man. His example and God's grace have made me.
My father set for me an incredibly high standard - not by any expectations he had of me but rather by those he held for himself. They have become mine - and I long to rise to it, to be like him.
If I have a greatest desire it is that I faintly hope that one day, many years from now, my kids are able to speak up, as I do now, and praise God for my faithfulness and dedication - thank God that their dad did his best and answered the call. I hope that my example in some way pushes them further, calls them deeper in their walk with God, reminds them to be a light to those around them, and to find joy in the midst of pain - just as his has done for me. I often feel unequal to this task. Unqualified. But I will follow my father’s example and I will persist.
Now, If you are a young man or woman here today and don’t have someone like this in your life, I encourage you to seek them out. And for those of us who are parents or mentors, young and old, I want to encourage you to press on for the sake of those in your Midst.
Let me leave you with this verse, which has meant so much to me. Happy Father’s Day!
Martin
Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose hear”