Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
Taking up crosses daily doesn’t mean making one big once-and-for-all sacrifice and get it over with. It means repeatedly, over and over again, day after day and year after year, saying no to present desires and plans in order to say yes to God and others.
Dean woke up the Father’s Day morning so grateful that God had answered his prayers to bring his stepson Kyle back into his life. After the death of his wife, Annie, who passed away two years earlier after a long battle with a defective heart, Dean had tried to draw Kyle back into his life. Dean had raised Kyle from five-years-old and was the only father his stepson had known since Kyle’s birth father had been absent six months after he was born.
Families Forgive One Another
When Dean and Annie met at church when Kyle was just turning five, it didn’t take long for them to create a family. For Dean, it was idyllic. He loved Annie and he loved Kyle as if he was his own son. Dean was Kyle’s Boys Brigade leader and he took Kyle fishing in the summer months and snow skiing in the winter. They did everything together. In fact, the two even looked alike! His marriage to Annie and his stepson made Dean one happy and fulfilled man.
All had been well until Annie began developing serious heart problems which escalated over the years. Undergoing numerous operations to correct her failing heart, Annie and Dean finally faced the fact that she wouldn’t live to see Kyle grow to manhood. Kyle, by this time, was a teenager and the more he watched his mom grow sicker and weaker by the month, he began to distance himself from both Dean and Annie. It was heartbreaking for his parents because try as they might to reach him, Kyle became both rebellious and shut off emotionally. Nothing they tried worked to break through his cold, angry demeanor.
Forgiveness Doesn’t Have An End Date
A week before Kyle’s eighteenth birthday, Annie passed away in her sleep. Dean awoke in the morning and found his beloved wife gone. Rousing Kyle and delivering the news was the hardest task Dean ever had undertaken. Kyle stormed from the house and was absent for three days almost missing his mom’s funeral. After the goodbyes were said and everyone went home, Dean tried again to reach into Kyle’s grieving heart by assuring him of his love. Kyle didn’t say much but the next morning he had gone.
Dean did everything possible to locate his missing son in the weeks and months that followed. Finally, after every search was executed but came up with nothing, police told Dean there was nothing more they could do. So Dean tried to rebuild his shattered life without his wife Annie and his son by his side. Day after day, Dean cried out to the Lord and begged him to bring Kyle home. And while the authorities gave up looking for Kyle, Dean never did. His father’s heart would never stopping searching for his wayward son.
Forgiveness Never Gives Up
Some twenty months later, without any prior warning or announcement, Kyle came home. Dean answered the front door and was so stunned and shocked he thought his own heart would stopping beating at the sight of Kyle standing there. Reaching out toward Kyle, Dean pulled his son in close and wouldn’t let go. Throughout the evening, the two alternately wept and talked into late into the night. Repentant and sorrowful for his unloving behavior, Kyle asked for Dean’s forgiveness which Dean happily gave. That night, the night before Father’s Day, the day Dean had been dreading, God had mercifully answered this hurting father’s prayer and oh what a day of rejoicing it would be!
* * *
Oh what a day of rejoicing it was for both Dean and Kyle. Dean and Kyle spent the entire day together first grilling steaks with all the sides and then consumed a quart of ice cream afterward. Secretly, Dean observed how thin Kyle had become and he was determined to put some weight back on his once athletic son. They made plans together for getting Kyle into an apprentice program he had talked about while still in high school. They even planned to take a trip up into the mountains to camp and fish before the summer was out.
Forgiveness Offers Mercy And Compassion
But the most important subjects of their conversation on those early days was that of unpacking and trying to understand why Kyle felt compelled to run away after his mom died. Dean wisely listened a lot and said little as he tried to comprehend his son’s reasons. Dean’s thoughts fluctuated between heartfelt gratitude that Kyle was now home and a growing sense of what-were-you-thinking sentiments as well. Dean often privately reflected on how he would react if Kyle ever did return home and he responded with kindness and compassion. But now, after the shock of Kyle’s homecoming was fading, Dean knew he had to keep any bitterness or resentment at the suffering Kyle caused at bay…so he silently prayed. Lord, Thank you for bringing my son home to me. And now please help me to love him and to continue to invest in our relationship. Don’t allow any anger or bitterness to take root in my heart. My life is yours, it always has been. Let me live it for your glory one day at a time. Amen. And Dean lived up to this prayer…one day at a time.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In