xiximimi
心安之處是我家
正文
Dear my beloved father,
Happy Birthday to you!
It is often moments like this where we step-back and take a stocktake of our lives…
To take a stocktake of my life is to start with you. Twenty-two years ago you were a young dad, your wife was five months pregnant with your second. This was your fifth year in Australia, a new and foreign country – separated from friends and family you had grown up with. Battling to find a means of living and to make ends meet – an experience so foreign to me because of you… You have cushioned me with your love, you always sacrificed yourself so that we might be without want. Yet gentle were you in your nurture, careful to educate us – to not spoil us. To see how your self-sacrificing work ethic has paved the way to where you are today, the way you continue to accumulate knowledge and in turn wisdom has been my example.
These leads me to the first of two particular things you are today.
Today you are 58 years wise. I know I do not always act as if I truly believe this, ignoring your advice and instruction. For this I ask your forgiveness. My recent trip to Japan has actually opened me to how insensitive I am to you. To learn to perceive from a new lens, has made me realise that I have been looking at you through my lens – not able to fully grasp the love behind your actions richly influenced by your own upbringing and cultural idiosyncrasies. I know there is so much I still do not understand and I am still tweaking the aperture. What I see today is that because of how you have continued to grow in knowledge, I have been challenged to keep pushing myself, as the platform you have laid increases. I pray that at this time in your life as you look to wind down your labours; that you do not wind down your growth but that you may continue to grow in knowledge and specifically the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
This leads to the second of two particular things you are today.
Today you are 58 years young. William Ewart Gladstone at 83, for the fourth time, became the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Michelangelo at 89, painted the “Last Judgement”. John Wesley at 88 preached with an undiminished eloquence. Thomas Edison at 90 was still inventing. Frank Lloyd Wright at 90 was a creative architect. Daniel at 90 was the choice for Prime Minister over the Medo-Persian Empire. George Bernard Shaw at 90 was writing plays. Shaw also wrote this quote:
“A life spent making mistakes it not only more honourable, but more useful than life spent doing nothing”.
God has done so much through your life and still has much more planned for you. If I could encourage you in one thing Dad, it is that in my experience there is no loss of joy in a life wholly-devoted to serving Jesus Christ the Lord. Don’t be scared to make mistakes because of your age, with God, He is able to lift you back up again. Don’t be scared to be ambitious for God. God has blessed you with a wealth of wisdom and knowledge and He will use it if you allow Him.
With love from your Son
Happy Birthday to you!
It is often moments like this where we step-back and take a stocktake of our lives…
To take a stocktake of my life is to start with you. Twenty-two years ago you were a young dad, your wife was five months pregnant with your second. This was your fifth year in Australia, a new and foreign country – separated from friends and family you had grown up with. Battling to find a means of living and to make ends meet – an experience so foreign to me because of you… You have cushioned me with your love, you always sacrificed yourself so that we might be without want. Yet gentle were you in your nurture, careful to educate us – to not spoil us. To see how your self-sacrificing work ethic has paved the way to where you are today, the way you continue to accumulate knowledge and in turn wisdom has been my example.
These leads me to the first of two particular things you are today.
Today you are 58 years wise. I know I do not always act as if I truly believe this, ignoring your advice and instruction. For this I ask your forgiveness. My recent trip to Japan has actually opened me to how insensitive I am to you. To learn to perceive from a new lens, has made me realise that I have been looking at you through my lens – not able to fully grasp the love behind your actions richly influenced by your own upbringing and cultural idiosyncrasies. I know there is so much I still do not understand and I am still tweaking the aperture. What I see today is that because of how you have continued to grow in knowledge, I have been challenged to keep pushing myself, as the platform you have laid increases. I pray that at this time in your life as you look to wind down your labours; that you do not wind down your growth but that you may continue to grow in knowledge and specifically the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
This leads to the second of two particular things you are today.
Today you are 58 years young. William Ewart Gladstone at 83, for the fourth time, became the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Michelangelo at 89, painted the “Last Judgement”. John Wesley at 88 preached with an undiminished eloquence. Thomas Edison at 90 was still inventing. Frank Lloyd Wright at 90 was a creative architect. Daniel at 90 was the choice for Prime Minister over the Medo-Persian Empire. George Bernard Shaw at 90 was writing plays. Shaw also wrote this quote:
“A life spent making mistakes it not only more honourable, but more useful than life spent doing nothing”.
God has done so much through your life and still has much more planned for you. If I could encourage you in one thing Dad, it is that in my experience there is no loss of joy in a life wholly-devoted to serving Jesus Christ the Lord. Don’t be scared to make mistakes because of your age, with God, He is able to lift you back up again. Don’t be scared to be ambitious for God. God has blessed you with a wealth of wisdom and knowledge and He will use it if you allow Him.
With love from your Son
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