Ferrari Faith
By John Cragg, Executive Director

I was tired, trying to refocus, to emotionally prepare for my second job; being a dad to my children.  With my key in the door, I took a deep breath.  Every day I looked forward to the feel of their hugs and the smell of their hair.  Some days I was the great dad that I longed to be, but on other days, well it felt like I had little left to give.  As the door opened, I heard the joyful stampede.  “Dad’s home!  Dad’s home!”  Those early years of “daddy's home” enthusiasm were so sweet.  My 3 year-old, Mark, was the first to reach me followed by his two older sisters.

But this day, I did not get the hugs.  Mark stopped short as the girls watched, handing me a tiny ball of aluminum foil.  Christine (6) seeing my puzzled face said, “It is a present Dad.  From Mark.  He wrapped it himself.”  Christine often bailed me out when I needed a quick translation of her younger siblings words or emotions.

“Thank you Mark.  That is so nice of you.”  ”You better open it first Dad” came her quiet warning.  “Shhhh,” demanded Mark with all the authority a three year old can muster while dressed in one-piece pajamas with feet.

Now I was feeling the tension in the room.  Something was up.  I needed fresh Daddy wisdom.  Kay walked into the living room wearing a knowing smile.  She wanted to see the conclusion of the drama that had been unfolding in her life for the last couple hours.

I removed the foil to find an old half-inch nut.  Think fast John.  Think fast.  “Mark, thank you.  This is just what I wanted.  I have been trying to find something to put on my key chain and this is perfect.”  “ See, I told you he would like it.”  Mark barked at his sister.  “But dad.  It is just an old nut that he dug up in the dirt in the back yard.”

“But look at it Chris.  It fits perfectly on my key ring and it is a special nut.  Not only does it remind me of Mark, but it also reminds me of my grandfather.  Do you see that little blue square on the side of the metal nut?  This is an old fashion locking nut and my grandfather spent three years of his life inventing a kind of locking nut.”

Yes, this was a good day of fathering.  My son had found something that he thought would please me.  So, he cleaned it up and wrapped it, fully expecting to see the joy on my face.  Well, with the clues from my daughters and Kay, I was able to understand the importance of the moment.  That expression of a son’s love for his father is still on my key chain 18 years later.

Do I long for my time with my Heavenly Father?  Do I even think of what brings Him pleasure? How can I truly please him?  How do I express my love for Him?  Are
my attempts childish, needing a loving father’s heart to unwrap it, to make sense of it?  Or am I grown in my relationship with Him, knowing His language of love? 

In John 14:15, Jesus tells us how to express mature love for Him.   
If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Obedience is the key to expressing love for our Father in heaven.

This week a pastor shared his perspective on the hardness of the church today.  “Most Christians seem to want the savior Jesus but have no interest in the Lord Jesus.”  Obedience gets lost in busyness.

God calls us to a Ferrari faith.  It is costly, powerful and only He can drive it.  However, we often elect to take the bus.  It costs us little and it is going where we want to go.  When I owned my 1965 Mustang, my insurance agent told me that if I listed it as a classic, I would save a lot of money.  What do I have to do to have the insurance company list my car as a classic?  Not drive it to work and drive it less then 1,000 miles a year.  I think many of us qualify for a Classic faith.  It never goes to work and it is only brought out for the Sunday morning drive and for the occasional parade.

Am I being too harsh?  How else can we explain Sunday schools that cannot find teachers?  How can we have over a thousand churches on our Island and still have 16 group homes that are preparing foster children so poorly that 60 percent end up homeless when released at age 18?  James 1:27 tells us:
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  

Long Island Youth Mentoring is currently looking for just 16 churches that will adopt a group home.  The average home has 8 orphans.  We will work with these churches to train their people to care for the orphans of Long Island.  This gift of obedient love will not fit on any key chain.  However, I know it will please the Father in Heaven.

Let me end this letter with two quotes.  One from Jesus as He gives us the model for how we are to love the FATHER. …‘ the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded.’  John 14:31

The second by Henry Varley, a British businessman who became an evangelist and who challenged, and inspired, Dwight Moody with these now-famous words. “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him.  By God’s help, I aim to be that man.”

Long Island has yet to see what God can do with a group of men and women who are fully consecrated to Him.  By God’s help, let us aim to be numbered among that group.  .   †

*Names changed