Friday Night Thoughts

I heard the most interesting thing on the radio this morning.

I was listening to sports talk radio of all things. In lieu of Father's day, my local radio station decided to interview the dads of many of the Atlanta sports stars. They interviewed Chipper Jones' (baseball) dad, Matt Ryan's (football) dad, and Josh Smith's (basketball) dad. Nothing was really that interesting about the interviews. They talked about ordinary things like sports and growing up in "rough" situations. Blah.

What was interesting was a comparison they ended up making. Michael Vick, the former star player for the Atlanta Falcons, was compared to all of the aforementioned Atlanta sports stars. Vick, unlike the other athletes, is currently in prison. The comparison made, however, was the effect of the father on the sports star. Each star athlete went through an incredibly difficult "trial" in their life. However Vick, unlike the other three, didn't have the support of his father when he went through his problems. In fact last year, when Michael was getting accused of the crime he would later be found guilty of, his father went on record to say that he never supported Michael. The three other sports stars, on the other hand, received unconditional love from their dads when they went through their respective difficulties. While, again, Vick's father did nothing but distance himself from his son when he needed him the most.

As I was driving, I started thinking about how truly important it really is to have a good dad in your life. There is so much that a child can only learn from their dad (just as there are some unique things that you can only learn from a mom). There is equal need from both parents as God had original designed. But the reality is many children grow up with just their mom. And the end result is that society gets weak men who have no idea what a man is supposed to look like. It's tragic.

This made me especially grateful for the Christian faith. A religion where God doesn't want some informal, criteria-meeting test for people; instead, He longs for a relationship where you would view Him as Father. What a thought.