by Michael Holland
“Why is it so hard for my friend who’s Catholic to understand I’m a Follower of Jesus Christ?”
What a great question my then son brought to us late one night. I love these fathering moments: the ones when you are put on the spot to answer for a 15-year-old a question that has brought countries into great violence. The essence of our conversation focused on the reality that we all love and follow the same God, and that as different as he sees his friend’s religious/spiritual practices, his own probably seem just as odd to his friend.
As I reflect today on our conversation, I’m thankful we had the opportunity to have it and that, somehow, I was prepared for it. The question created a moment in time which can never be fully repeated, and in that moment it was game time. I was the man on the field, given the ball to make the play. My run down the field may not have been pretty, with stumbles here and there and less-than-fluid theological doctrine, but I did advance the ball forward for him.
Fathering moments are unscheduled and come about suddenly. To be prepared we must be in shape, and this means practice. My recent “practice” has included re-reading Mere Christianity
What’s been in your recent practice regimen?
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