Bruising my Son

Speaking strictly in terms of work, my life is pretty much my phone. It's one of those cool PDA/phone/e-mail/back-scratcher combinations that has my calendar, phone, pictures of my cute kids, contacts, e-mail...the works.

My old pastor in Richmond once asked me why us para-church people were so addicted to these PDA things. I told him, "Maybe it's because we didn't spend our weeks sitting on our butts behind a nice desk waiting for people to come to us. We're actually out there taking care of people." Or something like that.

Anyway, me and my PDA, we're attached at the hip. Literally. I've got my little carrying holster on me most all the time.

One day a couple weeks ago I came home from work to the gladdest sound of my life: my kids shrieking with joy at my homecoming. Davis, my three-year-old, came running up to me to give me a big hug. Unfortunately, my holstered-phone is right at his eye-level and in the process of trying to give me a hug he bonked his eye and it bruised up a little bit.

It struck me as I consoled him that it was quite possible for this to be a metaphor for my relationship with all my children. My work, as symbolized by my phone, has the unique opportunity to bruise my family in a way that nothing else does. It's intensive. It requires not only nights and weekends away but plenty of emotional energy as well. It is imperative that in the process of loving on college students that I communicate to my own children that they are a much greater priority in my life.

As I have considered this metaphor over the past couple of weeks, I refuse to over-play it. Work is a blessing. It is good. Work has not only the potential to bruise my children uniquely but to bless them uniquely as well. My particular line of work has the potential of my kids seeing cooler, older kids following Jesus fitfully and faithfully.

But all work has the God-given opportunity to be a blessing to our families. It is simply a matter of pursuing it within Spirit-led boundaries and articulating the blessing that work is to our kids in the context of God's broader purposes here on earth. This is true whether you're in cube-world, a teacher in the classroom, serving in the armed forces or a venture capitalist.

In the mean time, I've developed a new habit. Upon entering my house the first thing I do is take my phone off my hip and put it aside. The work day is done. It is time for me to do some wrestling with my kids.