A Full Time Father Series

A Berlin policeman was crossing the street when a robber raced

by him with an angry store manager in hot pursuit. To the surprise

of hundreds of on lookers the policeman didn't make a move. The

robber got away and the police department was flooded with calls

from indignant citizens. When the policeman was called before his

superiors he explained his actions, or rather his lack of action. When

the robber ran passed him he had only 3 minutes of duty remaining

that day. He knew he couldn't capture and arrest the man in that

short of time, and so he didn't even try. The officials were not

impressed with his logic, but they did respect his right to be a

clock-watcher. They gave him a 7 weeks suspension in jail where he

could watch it all he wished.

There are many jobs you can leave, but jobs, which involve you in

moral issues and services to human need, are almost always full time

jobs. Fighting crime does not consume all of your time if you are a

policeman, but you can never be indifferent to time and be a good

policeman. Fighting disease does not take all of a doctor's time, but if

he is a good doctor he will never be indifferent to disease. A teacher

cannot be always overcoming ignorance, but a good teacher is ever

concerned about ways of doing so. We could go on with other

professions, but the point we are making is that some jobs are not

mere appendages to life, but are a very way of life. Some jobs are

just ways of making a living, but others are ways of living in

themselves.

Fatherhood is one of these fulltime jobs that become a way of

life. It is not a way of making a living, but a living so as to make a

way. That is, a way for children to realize the full potential of all God

has made them to be. Adam Reiter wrote-

You got t' keep a-workin at th' job of bein' Dad.

You'll find its most th' stiffest task, y' prob'ly ever had.

You got t' play th' game yourself, an' not jest point th' way.

T' kids when they're a-learnin' how t' live er else they'll stray.

There ain't no lay-offs an' no strikes, an' you can't up an' quit.

Y' sign up for a lifetime job. Y's got to do yer bit.

Modern studies reveal that many, if not most, of the problems of

youth are due to part time fathers in the American home. The kind

of woman a girl becomes, and the kind of man a boy becomes depends

in large measure of their father image. Some go so far as to say that

the most important thing a mother can do for her children is to guide

them in loving and respecting their father. This is no easy task if the

father himself is not impressed with his responsibility as a father.

This does not mean that all the father's time is consumed with his

children. But it does mean that his whole way of life must involve the

interest of his children. Children are to the father what crime

prevention is to be policeman; health is to the doctor, and what

learning is to the teacher. A full time father is one whose children

become a part of his way of life.

Job was that kind of a father. He is not only a great example of

faithfulness in suffering, but he is an ideal full time father. Often the

two go together-fatherhood and suffering. It often takes the patience

of Job to tolerate children. None of us can complain, however, in

comparison to Job. He had 7 boys and 3 girls. Full time fatherhood

does not mean we need to be literally having children all the time.

Ten was an ideal number in Job's day, but in our day it would be

considered extremism.

Job was not only famous he was also very rich. These are two

other ways we would have difficulty in imitating him. Job had none of

the problems that come from lack of resources. He represents a

father of the upper class, and so he had different problems than most

of us do. Job had need of nothing and so we can sympathize with his

ten children. It is hard enough to buy father's anything today, and so

I can't imagine what frustration it was back then. Being wealthy as

they were, however, it may not have been a problem. The reason it is

a problem today is that it is hard to find anything that is both nice

and cheap at the time. An unknown poet said it this way:

On Father's Day we honor dad