Dear Dad,
There are a lifetime of things I’ve been wanting to talk to you about. I think that it’s taken me this long because I stumble when trying to express to you even the most simple thoughts… about what you mean to me and the mark that you’ve left on my life.
Like the times when I would greet customers from a stool behind the counter in your butcher shop, as you smiled with eyes of deep affection and affirmation. I know you’ve always believed in me.
I remember the day you told us there were going to be some changes in our family life. You had made the decision to leave your job and become a pastor. It was going to be difficult but you believed more than anything that this is what you were supposed to do. Looking back it was this decision that left a bigger mark on my life than any other. Something happened in my little heart that would go on to shape the course of my own life.
Some days I could see on your face the weight of the decision to step out in faith, following God into the unknown and doing your best to trust him with our whole family. I’m sure making the transition from a butcher to a pastor wasn’t easy. Especially on those days when we were the only ones in church. But you would still sing every verse to the hymns and speak with such conviction I would imagine there was a thousand people sitting behind our little family.
When you would preach something in my heart would deeply resonate and I knew somehow I was wired just like you… and that one day I would follow in your footsteps.
You’ve always been larger than life to me. As a little girl, you would always remind me that there was nothing more important that having faith. That’s the way you’ve always been dad… trusting God with the things most dear to you, with a faith that has always seemed unshakeable.
I remember calling you the day I found out I would be preaching for the first time. I was so excited and afraid all at the same time, but you seemed to know exactly what to say. Through it all I’ve never forgotten what it was like watching you preach, watching you lead and learning from you as you cared for people, and watching you go after God’s calling and purpose for your life.
And now it’s my turn to follow your example, to go after the dreams that God has put in my heart and to share that passion with as many people as I can.
When you have faith it can turn a mountain into a molehill. Fear will turn a molehill into a mountain… remember that this morning… and faith CAN move mountains. — this audio was lifted from an old cassette tape of my dad preaching nearly 20 years ago. Our styles change, our methods change, but the truth never changes.