Fathers Say…Chikamu

The Road Trip

In September of 1971 the college campus at Boston University was a hotbed of student unrest. As I started my senior year, I was very involved in Campus Crusade for Christ through which I had come to true faith the year before.

Initially, my father was very skeptical and felt they were probably a radical group disguised as Christians to lead astray unsuspecting students. So, he asked if he could come up to meet these people and I invited him to church with me.

As soon as the pastor walked out to the pulpit, my dad turned to me and said, “I know that man.”

Surprised, I asked, “How do you know him?”

My dad replied, “When I was working in the shoe repair shop in Ridgewood, New Jersey in the 1940’s, that man was standing outside the shop preaching about Jesus on the street. He’s a good man.”

I was startled. Of all the people that could have walked out to the pulpit that day, it was someone my dad knew. And a Protestant preacher at that. What are the odds? Of course, God doesn’t deal in odds, only in providence. Of course.

So, my dad met the pastor, the Crusade staff, and my fellow student friends. He liked them all.

As he was getting on the bus to return home, he said to me “You can do anything you want with them. I trust you.”

You know, that time with my father was one of the neatest experiences we ever had together. He cared enough about whom I was hanging with to spend a day going with me to Boston and then taking the bus back to New York. Basically, he was saying, “I love you too much to NOT care about your life.” When we care about someone, we’ll go with him or her to the places they want to be, not where we want them to go.

And that’s what God does with us. He goes with us on our journey, and then shows up in mysterious ways to show us that he cares.

Question: Where can you go with your child to show them that you are as interested in their world as you want them to be in yours. If you can’t think of a place, ask your child. I bet they’d be very happy to tell you!