talking to Dad ...

We had our monthly leadership meeting tonight before Gathering.  A couple of years ago we decided to start holding those meetings around the dinner table ... becoming more of a family as we meet together to eat, share, pray, and learn.  I'll be honest.  Sometimes it feels like family.  Sometimes it still feels like a meeting.  Tonight was one of those times when it felt more like family.

We shared some prayer requests around the room and then closed our time in prayer.  As we prayed, voices piped up from all over the room.

I heard a familiar voice say, "Dad, we come to you in boldness and in humility ..." and all of a sudden it hit me.  I am not BIG on folks calling God "Daddy" ... I guess it seems faddish or fake to me ... I'm not big on the "thees" and "thous" either ... more comfortable somewhere there in the middle ...

Until tonight.  And then I head the familiar voice of one of our guys who has grown up without an earthly Father.  An amazing guy who truly loves his Father ... the only Father he knows ... and all of a sudden, his talking to his Dad became the most beautiful sound on earth.  And I came to understand in a new and wonderful way the Father we have who is both creator of the universe and Father to the fatherless.  How thankful I am that He lets us call Him our Father ... and that He listens when we call.  he never sleeps or slumbers.  He is never too busy or too burdened. 

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

Psalm 68:5