What I Write About

I write about the infinite number of intersections between every day life and the good news of the God who has come to get us.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Zoe Sleeps (some) and Being a "Yes" Man

Zoe slept for a three-hour stretch last night and nursed the rest of the time, meaning I just slept all night and neither prayed nor watched any Lord of the Rings. But sleep is oh, so good.

I've been thinking about parenting and how God is our good Father. My Systematic Theology professor hammered home to me that our God is a "yes" God--which goes against our culture's understanding of the Christian God (which may be the fault of his witnesses!). All his promises are "yes" to us in Christ. The only time God says "no" to us is when we say no to his yes. So God says, "I want to bless you with every good thing in Jesus Christ." And we respond, "No, I don't want that blessing" and God says, "No, I will!"

I've been thinking about what it might be like to have a home where our Good Father's "YES!" to us in Christ is the banner that flies over us. All our discpline, all our reading and laughing and playing, what we do and don't watch on t.v, Cocoa-Puffs or Cheerios, all of this I think is more profitably understood if we've got some sense that we only say "no" in order to more fully experience and enter into the "yes"--yes to love, yes to a home full of laughter, yes to respecting each other, yes to character and integrity and yes most of all to God's yes to us.

I want to be a "yes" dad--not a push-over, trying to be my kids best friend kind of yes. A deeper, wiser, more deliberate and more playful yes that echoes into my children's eternity.

But what do I know? All I've got is a 2-year-old and a 3-day-old! Some of you have much more experience in this than I do and you might be able to shed some more thoughtful light on the subject.

5 comments:

Sean Meade said...

objection: what about when you think you've said yes to God's yes, but you get a big, fat 'no', so, i guess, i must've said 'no'...

i'm with you theologically. but the psychology and reality of living it are something else...

Alex said...

Good issue to raise, Sean. I think there's definitely a certain amount of mystery in living under the umbrella of God's yes. Certainly, I'm skeptical of the vending machine in the sky type of understanding of our faith (Prayer of Jabez was not on my Christmas list at any point in the last 9 years) but if we start with the supposition that God's word to us is always yes, it gives us fresh hope to live in the midst of the very real (and very hard) no's that we all experience and hear.

Unknown said...

Your Systematic Theology professor? Are you an M.Div or and I just never knew this? (Just curious ;o)

Hope there is lots of sleep in store for you tonight.

Macon said...

Don't be fooled. Alex Kirk actually ghost wrote The Prayer of Jabez. It can now be told!

Sean Meade said...

ghost-wrote nothing. it's Alex J Kirk! ;-)