PreachersNotebook – Page 8 – Life lessons in leadership and ministry

A good good father

I had a tumultuous and conflict-ridden relationship with my biological dad and to this day we are completely estranged. I’m really OK with that because I have moved on in life and have enjoyed lots of strong, healthy fatherly influences in my life that filled that space in my life over the years. Additionally, my dad has demonstrated time and again that he has no interest in having any type of relationship with me.

I’ve made my peace with that a long time ago. This week, instead of my usual apathetic attitude about fatherhood, I find myself feeling and thinking warmly about my heavenly Father. I heard this song for the first time a few years ago and it’s been on my spiritual playlist ever since.

While I never knew what it was like to go fishing, or camping, or treated warmly and lovingly by my biological dad, I know that God the Father was always looking out for me. From having a mom that loved me enough for two parents, God making himself real to me when I was 16, to all of the good men I encountered in my life that always seem to take me under their wings, I know that God has always been a good, good Father to and I am so thankful for that.

Glorious Day: Hymns of Faith

I am a big fan of any heartfelt song or spiritual song that is uplifting and that encourages us upward in worship. I am especially a fan, and definitely partial to, the volume of classic hymns that I was exposed to during my early Pentecostal days. I discovered a band called Casting Crowns last year and I wanted to give a shout out to them and a particular album I find particularly uplifting.

What is Juneteenth?

Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday.

Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House two months earlier in Virginia, but slavery had remained relatively unaffected in Texas—until U.S. General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”