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The salmon
nearly leapt onto their hooks! That was a far cry from the
day before when the four anglers couldn't even seem to catch
an old boot. Disappointed but not discouraged, they had climbed
aboard their small seaplane and skimmed over the Alaskan mountains
to a pristine, secluded bay where the fish were sure to bite.
They parked
their aircraft and waded upstream, where the water teemed
with ready-to-catch salmon. Later that afternoon, when they
returned to their camp, they were surprised to find the seaplane
high and dry. The tides fluctuated 23 feet in that particular
bay, and the pontoons rested on a bed of gravel. Since they
couldn't fly out till morning, they settled in for the night
and enjoyed some of their catch for dinner, then slept in
the plane.
In the
morning the seaplane was adrift, so they promptly cranked
the engine and started to take off. Too late, they discovered
one of the pontoons had been punctured and was filled with
water. The extra weight threw the plane into a circular pattern.
Within moments from lift-off the seaplane careened into the
sea and capsized. Dr. Phil Littleford determined that everyone
was alive, including his 12 year old son, Mark. He suggested
they pray, which the other two men quickly endorsed. No safety
equipment could be found on board - no life vests, flares,
nothing. The plane gurgled and submerged into the blackness
of the icy morning sea. Fortunately, they all had waders which
they inflated.
They all
began to swim for shore, but the rip-tide countered every
stroke. The two men alongside Phil and Mark were strong swimmers
and they both made shore, one just catching the tip of land
as the tides pulled them out toward sea. Their two companions
last saw Phil and Mark as a disappearing dot on the horizon,
swept arm-in-arm out to sea.
The Coast
Guard reported they probably lasted no more than an hour in
the freezing waters - hypothermia would chill the body functions
and they would go to sleep. Mark, being smaller, would fall
asleep first in his father's arms. Phil could have made the
shoreline, too, but that would have meant abandoning his son.
Their bodies were never found.
What father
wouldn't be willing to die for his son? If we are willing
to go so far as to die for our children, why is it that we
often don't seem willing to live for them?
Two things
recently have gotten me thinking about this. The first was
a dream I had that woke me out of sleep at 5:00 a.m. The gist
of the dream was that I needed to refocus on my priorities.
I had them. They were good ones. But I was so caught up in
everything else in my life that I needed to just stop doing
all the other junk and start simply acting out my priorities.
The second
thing that happened was that Sharon Ulep interviewed me for
the web page bio on our church's site. I realized that I couldn't
communicate how important my family was to me. I didn't want
to tell her that my kids were my hobby! But they sure are
more important than performing music, working out, collecting
comic books or antique sheet music! How do I communicate the
God-given importance of my family to others, let alone to
my family itself?
It seems
as though there are so many distractions, and I know I'm not
alone. What we have is a problem. It has been stated that
the number one influence on a child's self-esteem is their
relationship with their dad. How are we doing? Dawson McAllister
notes that about 1,000,000 teenage girls become pregnant each
year. By high school graduation, the number of kids in the
US who have lost their virginity is about 72%, according to
health department studies, let alone the pregnancies and STDs,
the heartache, depression, guilt, and pain that take their
toll on the lives of young people.
Dr. James
Dobson cites a study by Dr. Urie Bronfenbrenner. Wanting to
determine how much time middle-class fathers spent in contact
with their kids each day, he asked these men to estimate how
much time they spent with their one-year-old kids. The average
response was 15 to 20 minutes. But then they attached microphones
to the shirts of the kids to record actual parental interaction.
The results are shocking. The average amount of daily time
each dad spent with his kids was 37 seconds, an average of
2.7 daily encounters of 10 to 15 seconds!
All of
our homes are susceptible to this problem. Compare the 37-second
encounters to the four to seven hours of TV each day that
the average child watches, and we can all get depressed!
Now I
realize none of our children are average, and we may
not allow four to seven hours of TV in our house. But remember,
that's the average, and those same forces pull and tug at
each one of us. One of the greatest regrets of men in their
fifties is that they never got to know their kids.
This story
from Mark's gospel flies in the face of these statistics.
Here was a man who was making all the right moves, an official
in the synagogue, an elder in the faith named Jairus. In the
Bible, names are significant. Jairus means "He will awaken."
Jairus seeks Jesus, and pleads with him for the life of his
little daughter. "Please come and lay your hands on her,
that she may get well and live." Jairus saw no other
hope. We don't know what struck the little girl, or how she
came to be sick to the point of death. Was it that Jairus
was unaware for so long? Was it a sudden disease? Whatever
the situation, Jairus knew no where else to turn.
Jesus
didn't even ask. He knew. Mark says: "He went off with
him; and the crowd was following." On the way, the woman
who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years touches the hem of
Jesus' garment and is healed. After that, someone from Jairus'
house came and reported on the girl's death.
Jairus
sought out Jesus. (Do you seek out Jesus?)
Jairus
pleaded with Jesus. (Do you pray and wrestle with God in prayer
in order to seek his will?)
Jairus
brought Jesus to his little girl. (When your life is given
over to Jesus' authority, you have the mind of Christ in you.
His Holy Spirit dwells in you. Simply God's presence through
your presence in their lives will have an impact.)
Jesus
says: "Keep on believing!" There's no limit to what
God can do. (Faith is what we live by when the feelings aren't
there. We have to rely on faith first.)
Jesus
healed the little girl, in spite of what the crowd, the friends,
and family were saying. (The man continued to believe, even
though the crowd was against his position. Christianity in
public arenas is becoming more and more targeted.)
We need
to be the ones to introduce those around us to Jesus! No single
undertaking will ever come close to that of assisting in the
salvation of our children.
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