Day of Prayer

            O ne fall day as a junior at Rutgers University I walked out of a tunnel before the start of what would be my greatest college football performance, looking for my father. 

I came through the tunnel before the start of this game...

What I found was my fathers’ attention was on football.

            I didn’t realize the influence my father had on my life, even from afar as I hadn’t seen my father in years, till that fall day.  I walked through that tunnel and a rush of emotion enveloped me as I took the field looking for the father that I barely knew.   It didn’t matter that I barely knew him, what he had or hadn’t done as my father, I was ready to do what every boy is wired to do, I was ready to champion my father. 

            That moment in my life was the turning point of a heart being turned away from a father a father that I desperately needed.  You see I believe that the most difficult job going today is also the most necessary undertaking in life.  That job is becoming a father to a child.    I believe that in order to be a success in life a parent has to be significant in the lives of their children.  There is no greater champion than a father who coaches his children to become spiritual champions. 

I have a son Christopher who is only 6 years old and he’s already into sports (I wonder why).  But one of my proudest moments as his father is to hear my son when he gets the opportunity to pray, he never prays without mentioning the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

            Our society however has been duped into thinking that we have succeeded in raising our kids when they acquire success on the world’s educational, economic, political or sport fields.  Well, I’m a testament to the fact that even a World Champion can be left with a hole in his heart because of unresolved pain that leaves fathers like mine unable to love with a godly love.

I needed an authentic relationship from my father no strings attached.  I needed someone who valued his position as a, father to a son, and approached it as an opportunity of a lifetime.    George Barna says in his book “Revolutionary Parenting”, that our careers should be a, “means to the end of raising progeny who please God.”  I didn’t see that until I began looking for what a godly man really was.  I found it in one of my teammates, Tony Jones, and it was right there that becoming a man embraced me.

 I realized something as I walked through a Super Bowl tunnel as a veteran in the NFL.  Not once had I earnestly thanked my Father in heaven for first loving me

1 John 3 tells us, that he lavished His love on us.

            In the blink of an eye with one single heartfelt statement the emptiness of a world champion was filled with the love of my heavenly father as I ran through this tunnel saying, “thank you Jesus for saving my life”. 

I won a game becoming a two-time Super Bowl champion but much more significantly I became a champion for Jesus Christ.  That is the remedy for the fallenness of life and the answer to the fatherlessness that is devastating the hearts of men and their children.  My Father was pursuing me out of the “tunnels” of a fallen world.  

            I’m blessed to be partnered with other faith based strategies in tackling the crisis of fatherlessness in our world.   Being a parent in our world is a daunting task.  But it’s not a job for schools, or programs, or gov’t or even churches it’s a job for parents.   (READ) Scripture is clear that it is not our job to succeed in raising our children it is our job to be obedient to God’s calling and principles. 

Deuteronomy 6:5-9

5Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. NIV. 

You get the picture here we’re to live what we’re to teach at home.    If you’re a parent of a child you have also been uniquely gifted to fill the need that God has given you.  Will you trust Him for the outcome?    I hope you will. 

I hope you partner with me today in prayer for the lives of future parents who will accept their God given responsibility to raise their children to be spiritual champions whose children’s children end fatherlessness with a deep love for the Father. 

Many ministries like mine are helping a generation of children, and young men like the ones you watch play football, in need of a spiritual champion whom they were wired to worship, Jesus Christ!    Thank You Barbara Richardson, Barbara Gilleran Johnson, Sandy Rios, Ms. Tomlinson & Bonnie Quirk and the host of faithful staff and supporters standing in the gap for God’s future parents.