Fathers Day and the Christian

The Christian Church over the years has taken this opportunity at Father’s Day to glorify fathers, berate fathers and motivate fathers, but without judging all those intentions today I will seek only to elevate the “call” of fatherhood. In this attempt the third Beatitude (blessed are the Meek), acts as our Godly standard of the Christian “Abba” (daddy).

Meekness is not the manliest quality, by our society’s standards. We have come to equate the thought of meekness with weakness, ineptness, and all manner of a Casper Milquetoast personality. But, true Biblical Meekness is far from any of these “Industrialized” ideas. The true meaning (and thus our call) is “power under perfect control.” Biblical meekness exudes strength, authority, power, thoughtfulness, and prayerfulness - All of which bring the defined ‘power’ in meekness under the total control of God in the man of God. This man is controlled by the undeniable understanding that his strength, authority and power all come from God and are intended for the use of God and His ultimate glory through us and our families. This is the picture of God’s man of ‘steel and velvet,’ God’s man of decisiveness, perfect peace and grand leadership. This is Biblical meekness.

I was struck recently at the eulogies given for President Ronald Regan. One of his sons said that the greatest lesson that his dad had taught him was that “strength was never more admirable than when it is applied with restraint.” President Bush said that Regan was instinctively “angered by injustice and afraid of nothing.” These are each magnificent descriptions of true Biblical meekness. This is power focused on injustice, afraid of nothing, and applied with restraint. Regan may have done our country many favors, but the exhibition of this great character trait of meekness may be the greatest lesson of manhood for our country that any president has ever lived out in front of us as a nation. Quietly, with the cock of the head and radiant smile he assured us in the most fatherly manner that everything was under control and that it is God who is ultimately blessing our Nation and His children.

This kind of quiet confidence is the manifestation of true Biblical meekness. Quiet passivism does not reach the standard and neither does boisterous antagonism. Meekness is neither of these nor anything in between. Meekness is something altogether different. It is not a homogenization of the things of man, but a unique result of God’s righteousness in a Spirit filled life. Meekness demands an authentic anger at injustice, a gentle touch in dealing with the helpless, and a genuine lack of fear in the face of the most dangerous adversary. Meekness realizes that power must be so specifically applied as to respect all human life while surgically dealing with the evils of the world by God’s principles and standards. This man of meekness understands that right is right, wrong is wrong and that the standards of God are truth.

None of us as fathers have secured perfection, but when we turn to God’s Word for our standards of fatherhood, hone our skills, admit our wrongs and allow the Spirit of God to work meekness through us, we find that God can even do this miracle in us. This is the attitude of meekness. It required a “poor spirit” and a genuine “mourning” of our own sins (Matt. 5). The very moment meekness (like humility) is proclaimed as secured in ones life, it is in fact lost. The irony is that we only see the trait truly exhibited in those that would deny being anywhere close to having achieved it.

The other interesting thing about meekness is that the moment one attempts to pursue only the ‘traits’ of meekness without its Biblical root, he dooms himself to failure. Meek traits are the manifestation of something much deeper and more profound than what is seen. It is the result, not of the pursuit of meekness but of the pursuit of a personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

Happy Father’s Day!