three roads converge: parenting. god. politics.

I said I was restarting this blog with a new goal. I know this post is long, but this will not be the norm. I just wanted to try and lay out why I needed a new format. Here goes...

There was a time, not so long ago, when politics was a major part of my life. I spent a lot of time thinking about what the best decisions would be for me, for my community, for my country, and for my world, both now and for future generations. It is amazing how having a child can completely alter how you view the priorities in your life. Now, instead of thinking about what I can do to try and perfect this world, both through my own actions, and through voting for others of like mind, I find myself focusing more on what I can do for my son, and future children, to allow them to cope in a world that will never be perfect and is utterly and forever broken. At this stage of my life, I am starting to understand the tool that is needed to face this broken world. So as a parent, what role, what responsibility do I have to raise Colin in an environment where he might come to know and understand this tool, Jesus Christ, and learn what it means to have a personal relationship with Him? That has become my greater goal as a parent. Not what we can leave in this world for our children, but what we can equip our children for in this world, so that they might spend eternity with their heavenly father, and understand what impact they might have on others around them. That is a legacy worth living for.

So as we near the most highly contested political race in this country since I have been able to vote, I am thinking about all of this stuff. I think about how there is nothing politically we can do, there is no governmental choice we can make, that is going to make America, nor this world, perfect. Ever. On one hand that sentiment makes me want to just toss my vote aside and not worry about any of it, but I know there is a more righteous cause. Because, on the other hand, there are decisions that can be made not to make this country perfect, but to create a lasting, sustainable structure for the future of this great nation. We will make mistakes. We will always make mistakes. People will always be selfish. Whether they are on the streets, or in the White House, or in the heart of suburbia, humans will always be selfish. This is something that George Washington and his cohorts knew almost 250 years ago when they crafted the Constitution. They instinctively knew they had to create a system of checks and balances so that no one person, no one entity, no one group of people could take control of our government and run with it. They knew that if anyone had the chance, they would do just that, and so America began with this mindset.

Currently I am reading Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller. Yes, I am just now reading this amazing book. He brings up this notion of checks and balances and explains it like this. If you ask a typical person, “Do you think that humanity is instinctively good?” the overarching theme of answers will be an emphatic “No.” Will you disagree? And yet, as we raise our children we teach them how to share, how to treat each other with care, and how to do things that will respect others as well as protect them from danger. If we as humans were actually good, then why do we have to teach them good behavior? The answer is that we are NOT inherently good as humans and we live in a world where evil exists. This is the incredible truth that I want to teach my son and teach his future brothers and sisters. And this is what I want to share with every living person I know. I just don’t know how, other than this blog. This incredible truth is not meant to scare or to intimidate anyone, it is only meant to help with the understanding that we as humans are not good and are not able to reach a state of goodness or perfection on our own. And that is why we have a savior.

I love my son with all of my heart, and I love the man that his birth is causing me to become. I am inspired in a way that I have never been before, not only for Colin but for every person on this earth. Call it my holy discontent if you will. I know I have a number of people reading this who are Christians. I know there are others who may have been raised in a Christian church, but aren’t quite sure what bearing God has on their life. And I know there are still others who are completely and totally separated from any notion of Christ or having any association with him. For the Christians, my hope is that you too might gain some level of inspiration if you have none. For those who have fallen away from the church, I hope that the wounds that are left behind would be allowed to heal and that you would come to know Christ instead of the religion of the church. And for those who who want nothing to do with God, it makes me glad that you are still reading. I cannot force you to accept Christ as your savior. I am not here to save anyone, because Christ already did that. I can only share with you my story as a Christian hope that God might use that to give you a better glimpse of who He is. Through that, through this blog, whether I am talking about God, politics, Colin, my life, music or otherwise, I hope that God might enter into your life, captivate your heart and lead you to Him.

This blog is for Colin, but I have decided not to use it to show you every cute little thing he might do. Instead I want it to be held through time as a testament to him, that one day he would be able to see the devotion his father has for him and for his eternity. And that it is with the same devotion that his father’s heart aches for the eternity of everyone on this planet.

If you would like more information on what a relationship with Christ might look like, feel free to contact me at dfish3@gmail.com. If you would prefer a more discreet, anonymous setting, here is a great resource for finding more information: http://www.charlottesouth.org/connect/wondering/index.asp.