Searching for Christmas: What If There's More to the Story Than You Thought? by J D Greear

Author:J D Greear [Greear, J D]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781784985530
Publisher: The Good Book Company
Published: 2020-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

THE TIME-BOMB DAD

This is the kind of dad from whom you just never knew quite what to expect.

If he had a bad day at work, then the smallest thing would set him off. Maybe drugs or alcohol magnified those outbursts. He hurt his kids verbally, emotionally, or physically. It’s hard to love somebody when you’re worried that they may, at any moment, begin to attack you. It’s still harder to translate this kind of experience into a broader concept of “fatherly love.” If your dad explodes all the time, there’s nothing safe about the idea of fatherly love.

Stephan Poulter says that the negative ramifications that come from this are manifold. An incredible number of anxiety disorders have their beginnings in this style of fathering. For example, he says, kids who grow up like this often become control freaks. When their dads exploded, their lives crashed, and they were powerless to prevent it. So as soon as they got the chance, they resolved to never be powerless again. They couldn’t control dad, but maybe they could control the rest of their lives.

And, of course, experiencing the time-bomb Dad has to affect how you react to the idea of God being a father. You’re going to have a hard time trusting him or leaving things in his hands, because how can you trust that he’ll actually take care of you? What happens if he’s in a bad mood? What happens if he’s not consistent? Just like with your earthly dad, you’re always trying to figure out what you’ve got to do to contain him, to stay on his good side, to avoid his outbursts. When you do something wrong, you wonder, What’s coming my way now? When something in life goes wrong, you wonder, What did I do now? What’s he angry about?

But Jesus could not be more different than the time-bomb dad. When Moses asked God to show him what he is like, God spoke to him, describing his character. And here’s what he told Moses:

“The Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth.” (Exodus 34 v 6)

God is quick to love and slow to anger. And he is utterly consistent in who he is and what he’s like. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13 v 8). His reactions are always proportionate to the situation, and he’ll respond in the same way tomorrow as he did 2,000 years ago. Jesus abounds constantly in mercy and kindness. Yes, he will get angry, but his anger is not capricious. It doesn’t pick on those weaker than him. No, when Jesus gets angry, it’s for the sake of justice. It’s for the sake of the “little ones” who are being mistreated (Matthew 18 v 6). His anger is never random or out of control.

In fact, the Hebrew word translated as “slow to anger” means “of long nostrils.” What do big noses have to do with not being angry?! Think about it: when you get angry, you start breathing heavily, and your nostrils get flared.

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