This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right. Let's talk the truth. I can't hide it.
I can't hold it. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you what. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak your mind.
And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Welcome to Truth Talk Live. This is Peter Rosenberger, 866-34878. 84-866-34 TRUTH if you want to be a part of the program. This week uh Sunday is Father's Day.
It's Father's Day. which can be Kinda complicated for some people. Is it complicated for you? Do you have a story about your father? that You'd like to share.
For some, Father's Day is a day of gratitude. For others, it is a day of grief or anger or regret or longing.
Some remember fathers they love dearly. And others struggle to remember a father at all. Where do you fit in on that? Eight six six. thirty four TRUTH eight six six three four eight seventy eight, eighty four.
I was thinking about Father's Day recently and a friend sighed and said I guess I'll have to figure out a way to honour my father. Mm. Years ago, a caller to my radio program for caregivers. spoke of caring for his aging father. who is an abusive alcoholic who now requires assistance.
And uh The collar was fifty-two years old. But he confessed that whenever he was around his father he felt eleven again. Not fifty-two. 11. Is that your story?
The years had passed, the wounds had not. And another friend put it more bluntly saying my father was a pedophile. There was no explanation attached to the statement, no attempt to soften it, just the uh the stark reality of a life marked by a father's betrayal. I once heard a a well-known minister Recount Standing at his father's grave he was sixteen years old. And he said, I felt like I was losing my mind.
And he was looking at the grave and he cried out through his I mean, he just was just sobbing, wailing. And he said, you can't leave. You didn't tell me what you think of me. He wasn't grieving the loss of money or advice or even protection. He was grieving the loss of a verdict.
He didn't know what his father thought of him. You know, we got a lot of confusion about identity in our culture right now. We have a Supreme Court justice who says she can't identify what a woman is. But it seems for all that kind of confusion, one truth remains. Pretty stubborn.
People know when something essential is missing. And everybody's looking for a daddy. They may not think so they may not better say it that way. But that's what they're looking for. Millions spend their lives searching.
for a father.
Now, men sire children every day. Being a father is something else entirely. I mean, I've I'm out here on a ranch in Montana. I see bulls. That are breeding all the time with the cows, and then they go off by themselves somewhere and The cows raise the calf.
We've turned into a culture that way, but that is not What we're called to do in Scripture That may be what the beasts of the field do. But that is not what men are called to do as fathers. And yet How much of that is going on? A father forms. He blesses, he corrects, he protects, he teaches, he commissions with one word he could instil courage or or or fear.
He can he can strengthen a child for the journey ahead. Or he can leave wounds that linger for a decade. or decades. You know, a a father's voice can penetrate places that explanations can't. I'll give you an example forty-three years ago.
My wife awoke from a three week coma following her wreck. It was a horrific wreck, catastrophic wreck. She was Her body was just brought they didn't know she lived through the night. And so for three weeks. Her family kept vigil there Going up when they allowed them to into the ICU and so forth.
Back in those days, they were a little bit more strict on that sort of thing. But she was broken. She was disoriented, she was in unimaginable pain. She didn't know where she was. She didn't understand what had happened.
She could not comprehend. what lay ahead. And as she groaned and woke up, The first noise she made. immediately got the attention of the person in the room, and the first words she heard were spoken by her father. He said, Daddy's here, Gracie.
Daddy's here. She didn't know where Here was, but she knew her father's voice. Years later, one of our sons fell on a playground and he split his chin open. And I rushed him to the doctor, and he needed stitches. And as I held him while the doctor sewed him up, he looked at me with fear and confusion and Quite frankly, a bit of Betrayal, like you know, how could you do this to me, dad?
But he didn't have the ability to articulate that, he's just a toddler. You know, why are you letting this happen?
Well, I couldn't explain to him about infection or wound care or stitches and things such as that. There was no explanation that I had that could bridge the gap. between what he was experiencing and what I understood.
So I repeated the only thing I knew to say, which was Daddy's here. It's okay, it's Daddy's here. The explanation would have meant nothing to him but the presence. meant everything. There are a lot of fathers who leave too soon.
Fathers who abandon, fathers who wound, fathers who spend a lifetime trying to repair the damage they've done. And there are fathers whose voices still comfort decades after they're gone, and fathers whose words still. Wound. A lifetime later, I knew of one very successful author who told me he spent fifty years trying to wipe his father's face off of God. But scripture doesn't ask us to measure God by our fathers, it asks us to measure our fathers.
By God. Even when his only begotten Son cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The Father had not surrendered his authority, abandoned his purpose, or stopped loving his son. The darkness was real, the suffering was real, but the cross was not chaos. It was.
It was the predetermined plan of God. for the redemption of his people. You know, life's going to lead us all into terrifying places we don't understand. Hospital rooms, funeral homes, gravesides, cancer centers. All that kind of stuff.
You you know this. In those moments we want explanations, but Our faith doesn't require complete understanding, does it? The older I get, the more I understand how my son felt laying on that examination table. He was too small to grasp. what was happening to him.
He couldn't understand why I allowed it. but he knew I was there. Has that been your experience? Was your father there? Father's Day can be complicated.
For a lot of people, it is. It could also be a day of great sadness because we lost somebody who loomed large in our life and we miss them. But it was not complicated grief. A pastor a friend of mine told me about complicated grief. When there's a death and there's not the Yeah.
Resolution, if you will. And it's complicated. Do you have complicated grief this Father's Day? 86634 TRUTH Eight six six. three four eight seventy eight eighty four.
How are you doing with this? What are your thoughts on this? Do we have a... Father problem, if you will. in our culture.
Where we are Sadly, deficient. We have a lot of men who have sired children, but have they fathered them. Are they caring for them? These are things that are worthy of discussion. and looking at and spe and spending time within Scripture.
What do we do about this as a church? What do we do about this as believers? How do we point people to the father when people reject their own fathers. These are These are valid questions. We'll talk about some more when we come back.
866-34-TRUTH-866-3626-2666 348-7884. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live.
This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to be with you, 866. 34 Truth, 866-348-7884. We're talking about. Father's Day and fatherhood in general.
You know, I've had a lot of people called by program who were just in tears. Because they're taking care of a father With Alzheimer's, dementia, or even addiction and alcoholism, like I talked about in the last block. And they all quote the same passage in Exodus: honor your mother and father. And they're struggling to do with that do that with somebody who is abusing them. while they're trying to take care of them.
And I've said to them very seriously, simply, you know, honoring your father does not mean that you have to honor addiction. It doesn't mean that you have to honor Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is the enemy, not your father, but he may be. Voicing out everything that's happening. It's the same voice, it's the same face.
But a disease has claimed his mind. But you can still honor him. You don't have to capitulate, and you don't certainly have to. go with every little whim, particularly if they're impaired. But we still honor by caring for dignity.
And I go back to, for example, Noah. you know Uh I know this is the uh this is Pride Month and they've hijacked the the rainbow for Pride Month, but the rainbow was long before there was Pride Month. And the rainbow was a sign of God's covenant that He's not going to do this again to the earth. with water. I remember Andre Crouch and the Gospel Disciples.
I'm taking you way back into the groove yard on that one. He had a song out there, Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again Some Other Day. And then Andre would say, God told Noah by the rainbow sign, No more water, fire next time. And the whole place was just rocking. It was a great, it was a great.
Show this is way back in the old days in the 70s. But the Noah after he got off the ark And he planted a vineyard. Grew a lot of grapes, made wine out of it.
So, this is some time has passed.
Now, it takes time to grow a vineyard after you've been on a boat for a while. And Uh he got drunk. Got just wasted with it and And uh he was passed out in the tent, and evidently he was passed out kind of uh just sprawled out naked. And he had three sons. And Noah, the oldest was Shem, and then you had Ham, and then you had Japh.
Um And it's um They uh One of them, the youngest one, I believe it was, and I believe that was Japeth. Uh no, ham, it was ham. He um he saw his father naked and sp sprawled out there, and he went and told his brothers. And um They they took a garment, they walked backwards, and they covered him up.
Now he'd done something kind of foolish. I don't know what any of us would do if we'd been on a boat and we get off the boat and we're the only ones on the earth kind of thing. I don't know what we'd do either. But the point of it is they did their best to honor their father. Ham evidently was mocking him.
Evidently, there was some type of derision. Look at the old man, that kind of thing. And um nobody knows for sure.
Some just say it was disrespect and Um You know, who knows? But the point of it is when Noah woke, He pronounced a curse, not directly on him, but on Canaan, his son. And um You know, it was one of those things where Sham and Ham, I mean, Sham and Japeth, you know, like I said, they walk backwards to cover their father.
Sometimes we have to walk backwards to cover her father.
Some of you understand what that means, don't you? And you kind of sigh while you do it. It's a hard thing. And it's a heartbreaking thing. And like I said at the beginning of the last block, Father's Day can be complicated.
for many people. My grandparents on both sides. uh my father's father and my mother's father both left much to be desired. Um And I'm stunned by my father, the way he became. He was just a tremendous man.
And He had no role model for this. His own father was just yeah. He had no role model. And my mother's father He had served in World War II, and I think that there was a lot of damage done to him at that point. There's a wonderful book I'd recommend you reading.
uh by a friend of mine who's passed away now, Joe Bonsell. uh with the Oak Ridge boys. I don't know if you remember Joe or not, but he wrote a book called G.I. Joe with Lily. And it talked about his journey, his parents' journey.
His father was a had a was one of the ones that went to um I believe he went to Utah Beach. He was wounded pretty horribly. And he tells their story. It's a worthy read, if you want to read it, and it just talks about his journey and. And the fatherhood, um Challenges, but also the joys that Joe writes very candidly about.
of a combat wounded veteran who struggled with a lot of different things. And what came out of that. And Joe's written several several books. Joe passed away a year ago, a little over a year ago.
Well Yeah. I think it's been a little over a year ago. But anyway, I don't know if you how many of you all follow the Oak Ridge boys, but Joe was an amazing guy. And uh it's it's a worthy book. But there's how think about how many books have been written on this to on this topic.
You know, and we want to somehow say that The male figure is not necessary in a family. In our culture, we've got that a lot. We see that, don't we? But we know that's not true. We see the import and the profound effect that a father has.
And if you notice, our culture went from, you know, a father being a Head of the home. And caring and attentive and paying attention, all the things that the father did, wise. to being the the butt of every joke and he was just kind of stupid. You know, we went from father's no father knows best to Al Bundy. And um and and it it it you see that that the father is usually the butt of the joke on on every sitcom.
You think that's accidental? Or does that appear to be by design? 86634 TRUTH 866348 7884. I want to uh Mm-hmm. return back to the conversation know about.
Why are so many people struggling with this? And I was referencing the last block, my son. uh laying on the table when he was just a toddler and I'm holding him down. And he he cannot understand what is happening to him. and no amount of explanation on my part would would solve that for him.
Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that way when you are dealing with something that's so painful? And you're asking why. Why? Did did it ever occur to you in that moment?
that maybe it's not that God Doesn't want to tell you, it's that you don't have the ability to process what's happening to us. I don't. I don't have that ability. The older I get, the more I'm reminded of how small I am. I live out in Montana, where every big sky country.
And and you you get the feeling of being very small out here. The mountains were here long before I arrived. Any of us The rivers were They were carving their courses. before our names were even thought of. before Lewis and Clark, who Help.
map this place out here. You know, the the I I I was out just Outside there, and the wind was blowing, and you know, it doesn't care about me. This stuff, you when you're in nature like this, it shows you how small. We really are. Smaller than we imagine.
And 'Kay. That comes into play when we're dealing with painful things. I go out at night sometimes and I can see the stars. And we had a caller last week who talked about his favorite hymn was How Great Thou Art. O Lord My God, when I am awesome wonder.
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars. It just. And I saw all these things and I think There's no way I can understand some of these things. But my father does.
And that's what anchors me. We'll talk some more of that about that when we come back. Andrew, take your calls. 866-866666666666 34 Truth, 866-348-7884. This is Truth Talk Live.
We'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Love. This is Peter Rosberger. Glad to be with you today, 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884.
Write this down if you don't mind, please. Caregiver.substack.com. That is my sub stack where I have tons of things out there that I've put out for my fellow caregivers. Most of you know I do a radio program on this network for family caregivers. And I would be remiss if I didn't talk to them, because so many of them right now are taking care of fathers.
Aging parents, that's one of the huge topics going on in our culture right now because the baby boomer population is aging. And we're living longer, but our minds aren't. And there are a lot of people right now that are doing this, and they recognize that they're presiding over a slow-motion funeral for some of them. It's a painful thing. And I've got Articles, books, music All kinds of things.
take advantage of it. Caregiver.substack.com Calm. And you can just subscribe to that. It's a free subscription. You can pay for stuff if you want to get access to other things or archives and things like that.
But there's tons of stuff out there for you. I've taken 40 years as a caregiver and distilled it down into manageable understanding. I had to forage for all of this stuff. You don't have to. I did.
But you don't have to because I put it out there for you. Caregiver.substack. com. Let me give you a couple of quotes. We're talking about fatherhood today.
Father's Day can be complicated. It's coming up this weekend. And it can be complicated for some people. It can be a time of great joy and having a good time. And it could also be a Um a time of reflection.
Charles Wadsworth. Um um Writer wrote: By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right. He usually has a son who thinks he's wrong. How many of us there's nothing like quite understanding how we viewed our father until we see our sons and how they view us. Um Walt Whit Walt Whitman.
How pleasant it is to think of a father as a friend and companion. Um And Steve Martin wrote, A father carries pictures where his money used to be. Yeah. But in reality that picture is worth far more. Um These are things that you look back.
And you see How history has looked at this. I think one of the, I was looking at a lot of different quotes on this, and one of the ones that kind of stood out to me. was uh from Sigmund Freud. And Sic I mean uh you know You He said basically there's no gap so Big, let me get to make sure I get this right. I cannot think of any childhood, any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection. That one really jumped out at me. From Freud. And you know, a lot of times in this country, our culture, our pop culture, or the leftist culture often wants to quote Freud as a pushback to Christianity, and yet here he is right there. talking about a father's protection and how critical that need is.
Do we view that the same way? in our society to day. And um I remember Tim Russert, who did meet the press for many years with NBC. And uh he wrote about his father, Big Russ. And he said, The older I get, the f the smarter my father seemed to get.
And I saw that in my father. I saw the wisdom. And I remember seeing him. One of the things that I have always appreciated about my father. Is that he was consumed by the Word of God.
There was no situation I could go to him with where he didn't pull out his scriptures and. and show me the principle covered in Scripture. Not many people get to have that. I'm very grateful that I did. And um If you didn't have that I know my father didn't have it growing up.
I don't know that his father ever even hardly touched a Bible. But If we didn't have that, if you didn't have that. Can you be that for your children? Can you be that person? who pulls out the Bible for every situation.
Is there anything in life that we will face that we will not find the principal and the the clarity of thought in scripture. And if your answer is no, there's nothing in life that we're not going to find covered in Scripture as far as the principle. I mean, they're not going to have all the specifics of everything we deal with here. We don't there's no microwave oven in Scripture. There's no how to change a flat tire.
They didn't talk about changing a flat tire on a chariot. But the principle of it. If it's there, if we face it in life today, it's covered in Scripture. Do you believe that? And if you believe that, Would it not make sense, then, for you to be consumed with Scripture?
Would that not make sense? 866-34 TRUTH, 866-348-7884. You know, I go back to that um moment when Gracie Woke up. and her father said Daddy's here, Gracie. Daddy's here.
And she didn't even know where here was. She three weeks unconscious. She had no idea what happened to her. And she just knew that she woke up to this hateful new reality. of which she's not known a day without pain since then.
She tells me sometimes she even in her dreams she's in pain. That's 43 years. But the first word she heard was Daddy's here. And there are things that we wake up to. nightmare solutions.
I mean situations where there are no solutions. What do you listen to? And I found, you know, living out here, sometimes if I could be alone, sometimes I'd be quiet. I went out there and looked at the stars the other night, as I said in the last block. And I just kind of Think through this.
And I realize there's a there's a greater voice. that never falls silent. We don't always know how to listen. And he's never silent. When Gracie's dad sat by the bed and said, Daddy's here, you know, it was a gift to a frightened young woman.
who was waking to a world that she could not understand. But even his voice was just an echo. Every good father is. The best fathers will point to a greater voice. the worst fathers can't eclipse it.
Now that's a bold statement. But there are a lot of worse fathers out there. who have done great damage. but even that they cannot eclipse. Our Heavenly Father.
I don't necessarily understand how how all that works. I don't understand. how he redeems these things. But I take him at his word that he does. Just like my son was laying there on the table while the doctor's having to sew him up.
Have you ever noticed that when God operates, He doesn't use anesthesia very much? He just gives us his word and says bite down on this. Do you bite down on his word? Is that where you are today? If so, what word?
What what what do you what scripture comes to your mind that you bite down on? and said I will cling to this. I will cling to this. When the explanations fail, and they will, and they do. And it's painful when they do.
That voice still calls to his children. You know, maybe that's why I love that story with Gracie after her dad waking up. Daddy's here, Gracie, daddy's here. That is here. In a frightened world they remind me of a greater promise That that that he is here.
That he understands this. and he has come to us in this. Father's Day may be complicated for you. This this this Sunday They may be complicated for A lot of us. It's sad for some.
We miss our dads? You know, I I I n I knew uh Stu Epperson's father, Big Stu. I got to know him and meet him several times. And um You know, Stuart I have talked about that. Losing fathers is not cool, particularly when they were.
You know, wonderful men. But even then. They're just tiny echoes. of our Heavenly Father. Question is do we really believe that?
Do we really believe that? Do we know him as Father? You know, and when Jesus taught us how to pray. They said, Lord, how do we pray? He said, Our Father.
Our Father who art in heaven. That's an amazing thing, just to introduce that concept. That God was father to that culture. And I think for me I I don't the the the verse that that sticks out to me Luke 15, 20. While he was still a long way off, His father saw him.
and felt compassion. and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
Well, he was a long way off. How many of you ever felt that you were a long way off? He thought, well, the son thought, well, I'll just try to get a job being a servant. It's astonishing if you really unpack that, if you really think about that, the father was watching. He saw him from a long way off.
recognized him even though he had been living Licentiously and in a pig pit. And who knows what kind of shape he was in, and yet he still recognized it. Because a father knows his children. Your father knows you. Your Heavenly Father knows you.
He's known you since eternity past. And there are times when I would imagine just like for all of us, that his voice seems awful quiet, awful distant. But it's not. It's not. And he sees it all.
And he's not going to explain it to you Not because he wants to withhold from you, but We don't have the bandwidth to understand it. We we just don't. Wish I did. There are things that I have Asked him about And then I came to a point years ago, I said, well, what's he going to tell me that's going to make me smack my forehead and say, well, I'm glad you told me.
Now I understand why now I feel better. No, it doesn't work that way. He said to trust him. We go back to our father Abraham. Who Believed God.
who took him at his word, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. He didn't understand how he was going to become a great nation. He was an old man. Sarah was an old woman. He didn't understand.
He tried to you know, forced an issue. That's why he had Ishmael. But He didn't understand. But he did believe God, and he took him at his word. Scripture says in Genesis 15.
Abraham believed God. and took him at his word. Mm, it's a great word. Father's Day. It can be complicated.
866-34-TRUTH. 866-348-7884. This is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be. Right back.
Truth talk lie. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. This is Peter Rothenberg. I'm glad to be with you, 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884.
We're talking about Father's Day coming up this weekend. And I'm going to wrap it up with a couple of questions here. What what did your father leave you? If if your father is no longer with you, What did he leave you?
Some people, the answer comes pretty easily. Maybe he left you. uh a clear road map to faith or maybe courage. An example of integrity hard work. Sacrifice?
Kindness Some may struggle to answer that question. Maybe he left you a lot of regrets. Maybe he left wounds. Maybe he left a silence. That has echoed through much of your life Most fathers leave a mixture of both.
Fathers are human beings. And human beings are Well, we're complicated creatures, aren't we? I've been thinking about this a lot, though, with fatherhood and I am convinced that the greatest gift a father can leave his children isn't money. property, accomplishments, or even memories. its direction.
Did your father leave you direction? I am Beyond grateful. that my father pointed me to scripture. To help me better understand that everything that I need to know. in life.
that I need to know. is in the word of God. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His Word will always remain. If your father didn't do that for you, or is not doing that for you. And you have children, are you doing it for them?
I remember Mom and Dad. Towards the end of his life, and she was struggling, and she said, you know, she was really. Yeah, it she knew it was getting Term. And uh He said it's gonna be okay. She said, How do you know this?
And he looked at it very calmly. And he said. Because I No, God. Because I know God. What an amazing legacy to leave.
On his tombstone, it says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God. in his righteousness. Seeky first. Maybe that didn't happen with you. Maybe your father did not do those things for you.
But are you doing them? for your children. Are you the father? that you wanted to have. if you didn't have a father like that.
It's not too late. You can do it today. I would Highly recommend. Doing some word studies in scripture, going back and looking at fatherhood. And in scripture, by the way, if you ever noticed in scripture, God doesn't, He doesn't try to sanitize things, He shows you some bad fathers.
He shows you some really bad fathers. I mean, David A man after God's own heart. was not going to win the Father of the Year award. I mean, it his family was a mess. But children need a father.
They don't need a Messiah. We've already got a Saviour. And, um And no earthly father can carry that. You know, I've learned that over the years with my wife. She has a Saviour.
I'm not that Saviour. It's really important we understand who is who in this situation. And I see a lot of this with fathers about, you know, the men. In fatherhood, and they tend to be, you know, we're the spiritual head of the house and so forth, and they say all these things. We're, we're, the authority structure.
but I've noticed that a lot of them don't know how to function in that regards. Our Saviour was the supreme head of everything, and he got down and served. Wash people's feet. stooped, as the hymn writer said, to our weakness. He condescended to us, As fathers, do we do that for our children?
Do we stoop? Do we expect other people to You know, I I I truly Roll my eyes at the stereotypes that we put on television. The man is the king of his castle, and he has to have his man cave and this and this and all these kinds of things. And it's it's it's really sad. Um Just for once, I'd love to see them.
Put a godly father on On display in a movie or in a TV series or something. I tell you the closest thing I saw to it Um the closest thing I saw to it in in film Was in recent times The Man of Steel, the Superman movie. And Kevin Coster played. Um his father. The adopted father here on earth, for Superman's adopted father.
And Kevin Costner is it's worth seeing just for him in this. He was phenomenal in this. And I think that's what Um I'd love to see more of that. It's hard to find it in today's culture. And um but but it but There you have it.
But we um We have an opportunity to day. Right now. As men. to push back against that. To be the father.
that we're called to be in Scripture, to serve our families. To serve our wife, to serve our children. Not by being subservient in that regards. But by stooping to them. caring for them.
Not making it about us. Your Earthly Father's Story Good or bad. is not the final chapter. There is a father who's known you. from before your first breath.
He has seen every wound. And he's heard every cry. He has not forgotten your name. And Through Christ? his own son, has made a way for you to come home.
This is not merely a Father's Day sentiment. That's the gospel. That's very good news for those of us who are weary. There was a wonderful man. that I knew growing up.
And He was a haemophiliac. Great guy, wonderful singer. And he I remember when the AIDS thing came about, and I said, you know, blood transfusions were transfusions were everything for hemophiliacs. And some of you may not realize how difficult that was during when AIDS first appeared on the scene. But for haemophiliacs it was, you know, it was a death sentence if it there was contaminated blood.
And I asked him one time, Are you How worried about this are you? He said, Well he said very matter of fact, I either die or I die. And As it turned out, there was a bad batch and he and every other haemophiliac in our home state Got it. and they got HIV. Contracted eight.
And people in the community shunned the family. You know, there it was it was a dark time for us and and everybody was so afraid of getting it and touching somebody and so forth. And and a lot of times people were left to just die alone. My father went to visit him Um, regularly. And sat by his bedside and read scripture to him.
He had a lot of questions about scripture, and he asked him, and they talked for a long time. Wonderful believer. And um Dad was, I think, the only one that darkened the door. to go see the family. And um he died.
and the family called and asked if if Gracie and I would come down from Nashville. Um and to sing at the funeral. And we did. This is back in the um very early nineties. I think maybe Yeah, it's like 91, 92, maybe 91.
And we sang at the funeral. And one of the songs he was known for singing was Through It All, and so we sang that. and Gracie had just lost her leg. her first leg. And this is when she lost her right leg.
And she's standing up there in the choir loft kind of on a trying to balance on a new prosthetic leg. and she's singing through it all, and she's got a lifetime of suffering still ahead of her, and years behind her. And after she finished I was I was at the piano and I was going to help her sit down and This man's father got up, walked across the church from in front of the casket of his son, and came up to the choirloft. and just held Gracie. Stopped the whole service.
A grieving father, loved his son. Our Heavenly Father understands that. He knows what it's like to lose a son. And so I share these things with you not because I want it to be a downer show or anything like that. I just know.
some of the burdens that people carry. And I'd like for you to understand. A little more of God. to know that he understands. He ceased this.
And like Gracie's dad said when she woke up in all that pain and agony, and her life was turned upside down. And her dad said, Daddy's here. This Father's Day I would have you remember that. that your Heavenly Father is here. He is always here.
Even when you and I don't know where here is. That we are so disoriented, we are so Overwhelmed by things. And we can still honor our earthly fathers no matter what they did or didn't do. We don't necessarily have to be reconciled on everything. There can still be healthy boundaries, particularly if they did things that were hurtful.
But we recognize that we have a greater one. There is a greater voice. That says daddy's here. And that's the voice that we cry out to: Abba, Father, as the Apostle Paul said. What a great gift we have that as believers, that we can cry out, Abba, Father.
And that's Truth Talk Live. That's the best I have in my storehouse for you to day. You can see more at my substack, caregiver.substack.com. And I look forward to each time with you, and I'll see you next time. All right.
Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there. And as you think about your father, remember the greater one. the greater voice, our Heavenly Father. Thanks so much. Truth talk light.
