Life's Stuff-flood and Me

It's a flood. Stuff, I mean. Tides rise, so do rivers. So does stuff. They all ebb, too.

Let's do life's stuff-flood for a reflective moment.

Mine is a crowded life suddenly. So, I'm taking time over a quick PBJ to reflect. Nevertheless, heart beats fast and axienty crowds my focus.

Go over to the blog--we call it a DIAblog--soninlaw, Matt, and I are building for our book. You'll love the two latest posts: "Generational Hike or Death March?" followed by today's "The Soon-to-be-man Son, His Dad, and Dad's Dad Are Actually..."

We are actually going on our 100-mile, five day mountain hike. Full day packing, shopping. The last week in 4-mile test hikes. I'll turn 70 somewhere in the mountains near Moab. "Imagine," Carolyn said, gleelessly, "IF you return, you'll be 70!"

For all the effort, our www.GENDADS.com DIAblog has been a long, hard struggle, but not quite ready for prime time. It's needed these days for publishing.

Then there is the madness of five grandkids next door (we're parked in their long gravel driveway for the summer).

What's my point worth reflecting? Thanks for asking.

Busy, sure. But the priority is my grandchildren. (Sure, God and wife and country, etc, but I'm talking about where I put my time, energy, and those persistent little daily sacrifices). Of the four older than 1 year, I can see basic personality pieces that will be with them the rest of their lives. Personality pluses and minuses we all have. That's what being filled with the Spirit of God addresses. You know, "Love, Joy, Gentleness..."(that's the one I pause on the most) to offset the character flaws that emerge from untransformed personality inventories.

Ready for the point? Almost there.

I was wondering what makes so many grandfathers disassociate from their grandchildren. I think I see it in the basic personality. Some, raised in strong families, especially Christ-centered ones, will have a ready platform for future family focus all the way to grandparenting. Others must need that transformation of character that is willing to make the significant sacrifices required to fulfill the fathering role and needed to build the legacy of good and godly children.

I'm about to write the whole book here. So, let's stop withthe point: Are you, young dad and older dad, prepared to do now and in the future what is necessary to extend godliness though your life-blood (or, as they say so crassly and clearly in Scripture, "your loins")? Are you prepared or preparing for the initiative, energy, commitment, sacrifice to make your children (or, there we go again, "seed") the models of godliness for future generations

CHALLENGER, WERE SENDING UP A SOLUTION

Stay glued to your screens Wild Gray Goose fans. New plan. Matt and I are opening an entirely separate blog, we call it a "diablog," to be the active platform for our book, Generational Fathering. GenDads will feature discussions, ideas, musings, and surveys. And, we hope, lots of dialog. We think we have something to share with you out of our lives about fathering--together. We need to hear stories and ideas and those revolutionary (ok, "outlandish") concepts of parenting from you. It'll keep our book real. And, we'll listen to the struggles you have that are common to fathers. We've been there and Matt makes his living rescuing families at the residential ranch for, well, "challenging" teens.

When? Houston is sending up a rescue ship. Should reach us in yet another week. GenDad diablog hopes to premier August 1. Yeah!!

And the Goose? Still wild and a little grayer and filled with the Wild Goose. Gary will blog here weekly or more. Idea is to engage others in their walk with God. Learn a little, prod a little. You might read a subtitle as Wild at Heart Redux.

Gathered by the River

Recent ponderous pondering to frame the book vanished this morning. The Father massaged my heart in family worship. In simple conclusion it was rediscovering that life in Christ wasn’t as much about how we march out the Christian conventions drawn from scripture but about how we walk in the heart of The Story; His heart, His story.

Where’d that come from? The kids, i.e., grandkids . We took a family Sunday at the wild water world of Lake Powell, the dammed up Colorado River in Utah. Five little ones, four big ones huddled in the air conditioned cool of the RV before boating. Sang some of those kids’ praise songs on the CD. “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord…I want to see You.” Then, “Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down…to say you are my God.”

My wife then un-TIVOed a Joyce Myers message she thought would fit. It did. Even the kids (5 to 12) “got” it, especially in family discussion. Life is a warfare against the enemy of our hearts. Setting aside our hearts for God and not spending it on ourselves, now that was something the kids understood.

Then came the reading. “Obscure” OT stuff, of all things. The kids took turns reading The Message rendering of Deuteronomy 30. And it’s very worth the read for Legacy Dads. It’s about the consequences of following the Lord…for generations. Verses 6 to 8 talk about freeing our heart to love God and live a full life. We all liked the part where verse nine assures us with “God will start enjoying you again.”

Popi, that’s me, offered another set verses God-breathed but not often read. Micah (yes, Micah) 6: 8 and 9, “He has showed you, O man, what is good, what He requires of you: to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” Across the page in my dual version Peterson puts it nicely, “…And don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously.”

The kids, our legacy, got it…for the moment. But like all children they do what they see. Will they SEE us take God more seriously than we do ourselves and follow our model with their lives in to the next generationS?