It’s always been much easier for me to concentrate on the justice of God, Father-as-disciplinarian, than on the love of Christ. But the reason I don’t like it is totally unrelated to the actuality of His love; it has more to do with my own prejudices. [1] Reading Gadamer is really eye-opening: if I don’t tolerate peoples’ interacting with their prejudices and understanding how they hinder them—am I then not willing to see the destructive ones in myself?

I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about being a father someday. One of my best friends, a long time ago, swore up and down he’d never have kids because he was afraid he’d screw up. But, we all screw up. The only thing I can absolutely guarantee my loved ones is disappointment and hurt, because of the fall. But Christ guarantees ultimate love, love that has overpowered the fall—so a father yielding to Christ will be able to admit his mistakes, learn from them, and humble himself to seek forgiveness—aye, even from his own wife and kids—when he’s being a jerk (or worse).

But one thing that really struck me when I considered how to deal with my kids one day was that I was constantly applying a grace in my mind to the situation that I am unwilling to see God extending to me. Recognizing that I was able to, for instance, extend grace (with firmness, mind you) to my child when s/he disobeys me, I was caught off guard when the Father whispered, “And yet you, fallen mortal saved by My grace, make a tyrant out of me? Know you not that I love you more than you could possibly love your own?”

Reality check!

It’s always been much easier for me to concentrate on the justice of God, Father-as-disciplinarian, than on the love of Christ. But the reason I don’t like it is totally unrelated to the actuality of His love; it has more to do with my own prejudices. [2] Reading Gadamer is really eye-opening: if I don’t tolerate peoples’ interacting with their prejudices and understanding how they hinder them—am I then not willing to see the destructive ones in myself?

I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about being a father someday. One of my best friends, a long time ago, swore up and down he’d never have kids because he was afraid he’d screw up. But, we all screw up. The only thing I can absolutely guarantee my loved ones is disappointment and hurt, because of the fall. But Christ guarantees ultimate love, love that has overpowered the fall—so a father yielding to Christ will be able to admit his mistakes, learn from them, and humble himself to seek forgiveness—aye, even from his own wife and kids—when he’s being a jerk (or worse).

But one thing that really struck me when I considered how to deal with my kids one day was that I was constantly applying a grace in my mind to the situation that I am unwilling to see God extending to me. Recognizing that I was able to, for instance, extend grace (with firmness, mind you) to my child when s/he disobeys me, I was caught off guard when the Father whispered, “And yet you, fallen mortal saved by My grace, make a tyrant out of me? Know you not that I love you more than you could possibly love your own?”

Reality check!