TURNING THE FATHERS’ HEARTS

By James Wilson

            The Genesis Generation – born after 1983 – have been called a fatherless generation, as has my own Boomer Generation.  In 2008 God called out a new season based on Luke 1:17.  The verse – in its prophetic context – proclaims a John the Baptist generation of fathers (and mothers) turning their hearts to the children…all children.  Fast forward to 2014 and I happened to watch two movies about fathering on a flight from Malaysia home to the States.

            The first was the critically acclaimed Nebraska, a film I cannot acclaim.  It depicts an alcoholic, thoroughly self-absorbed, and utterly disengaged father played – superbly – by Bruce Dern.  He imagines he has won a million dollar prize and is obsessed with traveling from Billings, Montana, to Lincoln, Nebraska, to claim it.  His sons and his wife move heaven and earth to get him there, in the vain hope he might actually notice the sacrifices they make for him.  He stops in his home town – in Nebraska – and interacts with old friends and relatives just as useless as he is; their reason for living is to con or coerce him out of money he has not won.  The few people he knows who have lived decent lives and want nothing from him are given a few meaningless moments of screen time.  It is all about this loser who never gets it and does nothing to justify his existence, relieve the suffering he has caused, or bless his children.

            The second was the un-acclaimed Delivery Man.  Vince Vaughn plays David Wozniak, another loser, but with the difference that he wants to be different.  David donates sperm twenty years back and takes his whole family to Europe on the proceeds from his donation.  He discovers the clinic used his sperm to sire more than five hundred children with nearly one hundred fifty demanding to know him despite the confidentiality agreement he signed.  Although his lawyer assures him he can win a lawsuit against the clinic if his name is leaked – he does win the suit – he comes gradually and freely to accept responsibility for fathering these kids.  Beginning with reluctance, and without revealing his identity, he helps one secure a job, another kick a heroin addiction, and gifts his time to still another.  Turning his heart to his children moves him to get rid of the marijuana grow in his apartment and, ultimately, to reveal himself.  In other words, turning his heart to his children changes him and creates authentic adult humanity in him.

            David freezes when he meets his son with cerebral palsy, but – haltingly – steps up to the plate for this challenge as well.  He makes the necessary commitment to really father his newborn son with his girlfriend, and commits to marry her.  This is a film I do acclaim for presenting a man donning authentic humanity by taking up the challenge to turn his heart to the children – any children – because that is God-in-Christ’s heart in this season.

            There is plenty of good teaching about the Father Heart of God.  There are plenty of opportunities for fatherless ones to experience that love from Him, mediated through men and women willing to parent in His image.  But there is precious little on the reality that the act of fathering is what makes us good sons and daughters as well as good fathers and mothers.  It works a lot like the centurion’s faith in Matthew 8:5-13.  The centurion understands that Jesus need only order it and his paralyzed servant is healed.  He understands Jesus’ authority because he operates both in and under authority as a Roman officer.  Jesus applauds his faith as unparalleled in Israel.  And the best news is that we need not know how to parent to begin.  It is on-the-job training, just as it was for David Wozniak.

            My own father had no patriarchal role model growing up.  He made plenty of mistakes raising me – hurtful mistakes.  But when the chips were down he stepped up to the plate.  He pushed when I needed pushing and had my back when I needed him behind me.  He blessed me on my wedding day like one of the biblical patriarchs although he could not have understood – in biblical terms – what he did.  I hope my children – those I raised and those I spiritually father – see my father and my God in me.

            Our alternatives are simple.  We can be as self-centered as the Bruce Dern character and kid ourselves that he is interesting, or we can be as Christ-centered as David Wozniak turns out to be – whether or not he knows it.  The choice is very simple.