The Perspective of Volcanoes, Cobblestone Streets & the Faith of A Coffee Bean

Guatemalan volcanoes like Agua are awesome!

We've been home from Guatemala for a week now, but I felt it was important to record some thoughts about our trip!  (Besides the fact that Cafe Barista is awesome.)

During our last night in Guatemala, I spent part of the evening sitting atop my sister-in-law's house as the sun slowly made its way toward the horizon.  As I sat there enjoying the cool breeze of the Guatemalan highlands, a word came to me: Perspective.

Coming to Guatemala is always a lesson in perspective.

I've written often about the majesty of the volcanoes and mountain ranges here in Guatemala.  As someone who grew up in the flat as a pancake southern portion of New Jersey, I am not used to seeing volcanoes in person.  This is my sixth trip to Guatemala since 2008 and I am still not used to seeing those majestic giants.  I could sit and stare (and often do) for hours at the various volcanoes here in Guatemala.  Their vastness reminds me that I am very small indeed.  And that's a good thing to be reassured of when you struggle with your weight!  The sheer magnitude of each volcano just envelops you and brings vividly to life the Biblical truth of "who am I that you are mindful of me?"

At first glance, it is the size of each volcano that mesmerizes you.  However, as truly enthralling as they are to behold, there is an unfathomable power contained deep within each volcano.  The lava that occasionally makes an appearance atop each volcano and the force with which it sends plumes of fire and ash into the sky is a mind-blowing taste of the power of God.  It reminds us that we are not only small but weak in comparison to the divine power of the Creator behind such wonders.

I remember during one of my trips to Guatemala, being at a school in Santa Maria de Jesus, a small poverty-stricken village on the base of the Agua volcano, when a storm came rolling in.  Suddenly, as if from a scene in Lord of the Rings, the clouds engulfed the streets of the town until all you could see was cloud.  Watching the clouds crawl over the top of a mountain from a distance is pretty cool to see.  Watching it engulf the town in which you are currently standing in, can be quite mesmerizing, albeit a bit scary as well!

Beyond the volcanoes, you are also grounded in the antiquity of places like Antigua.  Antigua is a beautiful town that is over 500 years old and which is filled with cobblestone streets, open air markets and ruins of a bygone era.  The remnants of life throughout the centuries in this majestic town reminds you that in the perspective of human history, our own self-important lives are but a speck.  In the age of social media, we put so much importance on the temporary fleeting peripheral stuff of humanity instead of prioritizing that which lasts.  Just as a selfie is a hit online today and forgotten tomorrow, so our time on earth is limited indeed.  Seeing a town like Antigua that has spanned the ages is a reminder of just how short our own time here on earth is and how each life is connected in the big story of humanity that God is telling.

And then there are the people of Guatemala.  Emerging from the horrors of civil war and genocide just 2 decades ago, they are a surprisingly joyful people.  They are survivors.  And when you go into some of the poorer villages of Guatemala, you see the very definition of "joy that surpasses all understanding" among the Christians there.  These are people who don't have the "first world problems" of perhaps having to wait an extra minute or two for a latte or having our name spelled wrong on our cup.  And yet, as I have written before, they could teach the church of America a thing or two about joy in all circumstances.  The American church has become too dependent on our stuff.  We are just as materialistic as the world.  We don't truly rely on God because we don't need to with all of the stuff that we have.

Visiting with a full-time missionary in Guatemala reminds you that your brief trip to the missions field is really more about you than the people you come to serve.  The impact on our lives of having this experience will most likely outweigh any small impact we have made on the kids that we visited with during our trip.

The school that we visited is called Wisdom and Grace School, or Saber y Gracia in Espanol.  The school is located in a village near Antigua called Santo Thomas.  The leadership of the school have a big vision for impacting their community and have pretty much reached capacity for the number of kids at their school.  They currently have somewhere over 300 kids attending the school and when you attend the chapel service in the morning, you can see that they can't fit another person in the room!  They also use the building for a new church that they have started to begin sowing into the families of the community as well.  The leadership of the school understands the importance of involving the family in their children's faith and education journey.  You can read all about the school in this magazine from World Next Door.

They have land set aside to build a new larger facility and are praying and believing God for over 1,000 students.  We had the privilege to walk through the field where the new school would be built and get a sneak peek at the vision for this next step for the school.  It was so very humbling to stand there looking at the volcano in the background and remember the promise of Scripture in Matthew 17:20:

"So Jesus said to them, 'assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

Now, perhaps a better analogy for Guatemala is the "faith of a coffee bean" but you get the idea!  In that small town of Santo Thomas, stands a group of believers walking out that very promise of Scripture in a way that most of the church in America could only imagine as a fairytale.  They see the mountain looming in the distance and instead of fear, they see confidence that God will provide the mountain of funding needed to build a new school to reach even more families for the kingdom of God.  What a tremendously audacious faith!

Taking a family missions trip is definitely worth your while.  God can use those experiences to really remind you and your children to have perspective: to understand how BIG and POWERFUL God is and to understand that you have a small but vital part in the BIG STORY that GOD is telling throughout history.  These trips can remind you that God is still actively at work today in the world telling His story and bringing the Father's love to a world in need.

To financially support the work that my sister-in-law is involved in, you can visit www.wisdomandgrace.org.   You can donate to the school in general or you can volunteer to sponsor a child at their school.  Please consider sowing into this amazing work.

Screaming & Convulsing Kids On A Plane: My Life in Aviation

The Hughes family doesn't fly a lot.

I know you are thinking that we are rolling in the dough and just living life like a boss.  It's easy to see our family jetsetting from one continent to the next as the Scrooge McDucks of 2015.

Seriously, we fly very rarely and when we do it is usually on a bargain Spirit flight.  Today was no different.

As we sat at our gate waiting for our flight to Guatemala, I was fortunate enough to sit next to a set of grandparents with overly excitable grandkids.  It was adorable how they jumped into their grandparents lap and covered them in kisses.  Not so much the kicking me, touching my knee with their hands and throwing their heads back into my lap as I attempted to tweet something witty.

I should also note that I had about 2 hours of sleep the night before and there wasn't even a Starbucks in our terminal.  You can imagine my horror as I consumed plain coffee from a random vendor with some sort of weird name instead of my venti vanilla latte.

Without an infusion of caffeine to jumpstart me into the land of the living, I was in a bit of a sour mood.

With each head in my lap and kick to the shin, I mumbled under my breath and continued to read my Jon Acuff book.  Of particular interest as I devolved into the Grinch was a chapter talking about how you get more job opportunities in public speaking if you aren't a jerk.  Jon Acuff, are you judging me right now?  I'm tired and I'm without my latte.  I have a right to put on Grump-fest 2015!

Well, finally we boarded our plane and found our seats at the back of the vehicle.  To the shock of absolutely no one, we had a family of about 15,000 children and toddlers in the row right in front of us.  Among the delightful sounds over the course of the next two and a half hours were the screaming of an infant, and the repetition in various tones of concern, comfort, discipline, and apathy of the name "Sophia" directed toward said infant.  Other delightful sounds in the cacophony of unruly kids included the toddler screaming as though he was murdered simply because the flight attendant put his tray in the upright position for take-off, and two other kids yelling and screaming at each other and the joyful vibrations of all of our neighboring seats and they punched, smacked, kicked, and pinched each other as they engaged in raucous horse-play.

This delightful utopian Spirit Airlines experience is repeated every single time that we board a plane, which again, is not often.  Every. Single. Time.

At that moment, my mind flashed to the yellow-soaked Spirit website that tried to entice me to purchase my seats just 24 hours earlier.  I refused to play their evil game of spending more money for my seat, but in this moment had those seats been labeled "This Seat Is Nowhere Near Screaming & Unruly Kids, In Fact, We Will Encase You In A Cone Of Silence and Ensconce You In Soft Downy Pillows" I would have paid a million dollars for those seats.

My wife Jaci said that she would have actually preferred throngs of snakes on the plane to the screaming mayhem of those children.  Cue Samuel L. Jackson.

Yes, as I already admitted, we don't have a million dollars.  As noted hundredaires (and occasional thousandaires when the bill companies haven't cashed our checks yet, we lack the McDuck bling to pay a million dollars for safety from the horror of unruly kids.

This is especially trying since our children are virtual angels while traveling.  During a regular day at home during the summer, there would be no shortage of bickering over various electronic devices or demands to "stop touching me" before world peace ends in the world on fire.  Fourteen hours in a car on a road trip?  Golden silence only occasionally interrupted with the singing of an angelic choir.

The finishing touch, however, of any good flight experience, of course, was the consumption of what can only be described as rancid skunk meat by a nearby passenger.  The pungent smell of an as yet unidentified meat filled the cabin like the anti-Christmas morning.

I do so thoroughly enjoy those fellow travelers, who, when packing for their several hours trapped in a small confined space with several hundred other passengers at dangerously high altitudes, rummage through their kitchen to find the nastiest smelling rotting flesh that they can find.  "Rancid skunk meat?  Sweet!  That will hit the spot on the plane!  I'll be the hit of the plane!"

Please know that your efforts to offend our olfactory senses and induce vomiting are greatly appreciated.

The beautiful thing about flights, however, is that they end.  And you get the heck off that nightmare in the sky to step foot into your adventure in your new destination.  For us, that is the beautiful land of Guatemala.  As we arrived for our week in this beautiful land of volcanoes, awesome coffee, and wonderful people, we are reminded that all of our hellish flying experiences (which would make a great Lifetime Original Movie if anyone is interested in purchasing the rights) were worth going through in order to continue our #HughesSummerAdventures in central America.

After some sleep and some delicious Guatemalan coffee, let the adventure begin!  (Just please don't tell the monster baby Sophia where we are staying.  Please.  I beg you.)

Be A Gandalf: YOU SHALL NOT PASS

Gandalfs be like "YOU SHALL NO PASS"

If you've seen the first Lord of the Rings film or read the book, you know that Gandalf takes one for the team in the mines of Moria.

The evil Balrog flame creature thing is emerging from the shadows and threatens to engulf the entire fellowship of the ring in a terrifying fire akin to a tanning booth.

An expert on tanning, Gandalf knows that he can't let his team turn orange and embarrass themselves.

Tolkien's tale of the fellowship is quite interesting.  Frodo is the simple hobbit who bears the One Ring that has the potential to rule all of Middle Earth through the evil power of Sauron.  Sauron is an evil all-powerful being, although for most of the movie trilogy he is just an eye made of flames that sits atop a tower and looks around like a spotlight.

Frodo needs protection.  Hobbits are cool, but kinda useless.  Enter Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and Boromir.  He also needs a true friend, enter Sam.  And also comic relief.  Enter Merry and Pippin.

Gandalf is similar to my previous blog topic, Yoda, in that he represents the sage archetype in literature.  Sages often initiate the selection of the hero and the beginning of the quest.  They call the hero to adventure, they nurture them, train them, protect them, and die.

Wait, what?

Well from a storytelling perspective, it makes sense for most sages to die.  And if you think about sages in popular culture, you will realize that most of them do.

Yoda.

Obi-Wan.

Micky from Rocky.

Gandalf (sorta).

Dumbledore (I think, but I've never actually read it.)

Doc (from Cars.)

Uncle Ben (from Spider-Man not the rice guy.)

Clark Kent's real dad and adoptive dad.

Bruce Wayne's parents (although Alfred replaces them.)

You get the idea.  At some point the sage steps off the stage to let the hero move forward.  In fact, his still being there means that the hero doesn't really have the incentive to step up to the plate and save the day because the older wiser mentor is there to handle it.

It's kind of like how I viewed my handy-man dad growing up.  He knew how to fix anything, so I never bothered to learn.  Why did I need to know how to fix stuff?  Dad can do that.  I'd rather watch television.

Of course, now I no longer live with my dad and I can't fix a thing.  When Luke refused to listen to Yoda he lost a hand.  When Spider-Man forgot that his uncle told him that "with great power comes great responsibility" he ended up enabling the dude who killed his uncle.

Bilbo and Frodo both benefit from the mentoring of Gandalf.  He alone sees of the elder Baggins in The Hobbit, that there is a "great deal more in him than you know and a deal more than he has any idea of himself," as he pitches the incompetent homebody Bilbo Baggins to be a burglar for a group of adventure-seeking dwarves.  Sages see our inner potential and they help us realize it.

In the Christian sense, sages understand that every child has been created in the image of God and EVERY KID has the potential to lead, to love, to inspire, to create, and to change the world.  And that's something worth cultivating and even dying for.

Gandalf as a sage doesn't technically die, but he disappears frequently in The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series in order to allow for his heroes-in-training to step up and do their job.

In the case of the above mentioned action, Gandalf makes a final stand in the mines of Moria.  He knows that he's likely not going to make it out of this alive, but he knows that the real mission is keeping Frodo alive so that he can get that ring to Mt. Doom to save Middle Earth.  He dramatically thrusts his staff into the ground and emphatically declares to the Balrog that "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

The others end up running out of the mines.  Gandalf gets pulled down into the abyss with the super huge fire monster.

Frodo and the gang think that this is the end of Gandalf.  It is not.  He later returns as Gandalf the White, having succeeded in taking down the Balrog and emerging with new power just to finish the job.

In the meantime, however, Frodo grows into his role as a leader because Gandalf the Crutch is no longer there.  The same was true of the disciples.  Somewhat hapless ne'er-do-wells while Jesus was on earth, after His death, they finally step into the role that Jesus was preparing them for all along.  They finally connect the dots. They finally embrace the adventure that Jesus initiated for them.

All of our kids need Gandalfs in their lives.  And we need to never put our own adult egos ahead of the heart of a child.  Our job as parents and leaders is to lay down our lives to ensure that our children embrace the adventure that God has marked out for them.  Kids have this superhero power of a kid-sized faith passion that adults seem uneasy with.  The boundless energy and passion of a child is something that us geezers wish we could bottle.

What we lack in passion, however, we can make up for with wisdom and protection.

I love what Moses tells the Israelites in Exodus as the Egyptian army is advancing toward them.  He tells them to stand firm and they will see that the Lord will fight for them.  That this advancing menacing army that they see today, they will not see again.

Frodo never saw the Balrog again.  He stood there while Gandalf fought for him.

God will fight for our kids.  The needs will change over time, but our role will not.  It is up to us to show them true courage in standing firm in the Lord when scary life-altering things come their way.  (For me that is Mr. Peanut.) It's our job to stand in the gap for them like Gandalf and boldly declare to the enemy "YOU SHALL NOT PASS."  (Growing a beard and wearing wizard garb is optional.)

You never know what hangs in the balance if you fail to embrace your inner Gandalf.  If Gandalf didn't intercede on Frodo's behalf, Middle Earth would have been lost.  The kids that we are entrusted with are the Esthers, Moseses, Peters, Pauls, and Davids of their generation.  Every Esther needs her Mordecai, every Moses needs his Jethro, every David needs his Samuel or Nathan (depending on your mood.)

Future generations need this generation to rise to the occasion.  It is our job to ensure they get out of the mine to safely continue that journey.  And what a sacred task that is.

Yoda Faith: Do Or Do Not, There Is No Try

Yoda lights the way for the Christian journey...

Adore the green little Jedi master named Yoda, I do.  Ashamed of that, I am not.  Covered with Yoda merchandise, my desk is.

As a child in the early 1980s, I loved Star Wars.  I had all three films on VHS TAPE.  Yes kids, many years ago before the glory of Netflix and Hulu, we actually had to purchase copies of movies on VHS tapes that we played in magical machines called VCRs.  You couldn't skip to a scene.  You had to fast forward or rewind.  The hours of your life spent rewinding and fast forwarding your favorite VHS tapes were hours that you never got back.

Anyway, I actually do remember seeing The Return of the Jedi in the theaters.  It was the only Star Wars film that I was old enough to see in the theaters.  As a worldly young man of the age of 7, I rather enjoyed the film.  My younger brother was scared of Jabba the Hutt and I laughed at him for it.  I found Jabba entertaining.  Eating some sort of frog thing.  Having some puppet creature sitting on his tail. The pig guards.  What's not to like?

So, I was enjoying the film.  Then it happened.  Luke Skywalker finally returned to Yoda to complete his training.  And Yoda died.  HE. DIED.  He coughed and mumbled something about another Skywalker and then coughed some more.  He rolled over saying that he must "rest, rest, must rest."  And then he died and disappeared from his bed.

Sure, he was over 900 years old, but I was devastated.  (Much like my previously described devastation at the death of Optimus Prime.)

Looking back over Yoda's storyline, however, I begin to sense a reason why I like him so much.  Yoda trained centuries worth of Jedi knights.  He was wise.  He was all-powerful.  He had his mind blown by a flashlight.  Wait, what?

Yes, okay, so the great Jedi master perhaps spent too much time in the swamp, as he fought R2D2 over a flashlight and giggled like a toddler over it's magnificence.

Don't mess with Yoda. You have been warned.

That aside, Yoda knew how to impart wisdom and faith to the next generation.  When Luke Skywalker spent a large portion of his training whining and sniveling about how unfair things were and how he would never get it, Yoda just shook his head and used inverted syntax to impart gems to Luke  Gems such as:

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” (Yoda understood how destructive fear, anger and hatred are to faith.  He must have meditated on Jesus' teaching to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.)

“Always pass on what you have learned.” (Yoda was very focused on discipleship.)

“[Luke:] I can’t believe it. [Yoda:] That is why you fail.”  (Yoda understood that without faith it is impossible to please God.)

“You must unlearn what you have learned.” (Yoda clearly understood that your mind will be renewed through the power of Christ.)

“Truly wonderful the mind of a child is.”  (Clearly Yoda understood that you have to come to Christ like a child!)

“Do or do not. There is no try.”  (Yoda understood that a faith without works was dead.)

“Luke: What’s in there? Yoda: Only what you take with you.” (Yoda understood laying your burdens down and not carrying them with you in your daily walk with Christ.)

"Size matters not. Look at me.  Judge me by my size, do you?  Hmm?  Hmm.  And well you should not."  (Yoda was a big fan of David and Goliath.)

Understood the path of faith in Christ, Yoda did.

Yoda's training of the Jedi knights parallels the active role that your faith in Christ should have in your life.  In today's consumer driven church, where believers come to be fed and then see no importance in serving, Yoda's teachings could help light the way.  As Yoda famously chided Luke, there isn't a "try" in following Christ.  You do.  Or you do not.  Hot.  Or cold. There is no lukewarm try.  That is not to say that you will always succeed in all that you do.  It is to say that you should actively seek after the Lord every day and seek first His kingdom.

Do yourself a favor and follow Yoda's faith advice.  If you don't, your father will turn into an evil cyborg and he will cut off your hand and try to kill you.

The choice is yours.

Very definitive, Yoda is.  Uncertain, he is not.

Optimus Prime & Sacrifice

"One shall stand, one shall fall," --Optimus Prime 

On Memorial Day, we stop to thank those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom, those countless men and women over the generations who have willingly laid down their lives for others.

Sacrifice is a lost virtue in today's society and yet it is so central to the Gospel.  Social media, selfies, and an entire industry of reality shows centered around vapid self-centered people have conspired to baptize this generation in narcissism.

As a result, the Christian idea of sacrificing for others often falls on deaf ears.

As a child of the 1980s, I was one of many in that generation traumatized by the death of Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots.  Any child of the 1980s knows who the Transformers are--robots in disguise!  The evil Decepticons and the heroic Autobots were locked in a struggle for survival throughout the mid 1980s.  The cartoon show was part of my afternoon routine growing up.  If I didn't have a VHS tape ready to "time record" them, I needed to be there.  There were no such things as DVR, On Demand, or Netflix.  How did we survive?

Optimus Prime was my favorite.  I didn't own his toy until much later, however, as he was expensive. My Transformers were usually the cheaper ones.  So, the Autobots in my bedroom were often being led by lesser robots in hopes that Optimus Prime would one day arrive.  Then I had the great idea of pausing my VHS tapes and drawing the Transformers one by one.  I then cut them out and played with paper dolls of my heroes.  It was quite impressive.  I had a complete set of drawings.  And if one of them ripped or got faded, I just drew a new one!

Anyway, after several seasons, the cartoon series made the leap to the big screen in Transformers: The Movie. This seemed exciting.  Optimus Prime on the big screen!  That booming voice!  That awesome heroism!  The epic smackdown between Prime and Megatron!  That is until kids realized that the toy makers who inspired the show apparently needed to create a new line of toys and directed the storyline of the movie to kill off all that we held dear.

That included Optimus Prime.

As the Autobots on earth were nearly slaughtered, Optimus Prime showed up to save the day.  Graced with his own musical montage of the 1980s rock anthem called "The Touch," our dear Optimus Prime single-handedly defeated the entire Decepticon army.

Then he faced Megatron with the promise that "One shall stand, one shall fall."

Optimus was rocking it.  Then that annoying new toy Hot Rod interfered and Megatron got a massive shot in at Optimus Prime.  Although Megatron was also mortally wounded (so that they could introduce the new Galvatron toy!) Optimus Prime died and handed off the leadership of the Autobots to another new toy.  This was about 40 minutes into the movie.  Oh, and annoying Hot Rod ended up becoming the new leader by the end of the film.  What a kick to the gut!

There was weeping, gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. I would say that I went on a hunger strike, but as a chunky kid, I likely sought comfort in the house of TastyKake.

In fact, so scarred by Prime's death was I that when I saw the Michael Bay film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and witnessed Prime die on screen a second time, I turned to my friend and stated, "Optimus Prime better come back to life before this movie ends or I will burn this theater to the ground!"

Although I joined in the massive letter writing campaign that ultimately convinced Hasbro to bring Optimus Prime back from the dead, I learned a great lesson as a heart-broken 10 year old.

John 15:12-14 says:

"This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you."

Today's generation is so soaked in narcissism that it is missing out on what Optimus Prime understood: there is honor in laying down your life for others.  Jesus modeled this in His own sacrifice for our sins, but it was really the culmination of living an ENTIRE life putting Himself aside in favor of serving others.

Jesus laid down His life for our salvation, but He also continually laid down self in every action He took during her earthly life.

On Memorial Day, when we stop to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom,  it's probably a good idea to stop and think about our priorities in life and how we choose to live.

Do we put others first?  Do we serve others?  Do we understand the life-altering freedom-giving power of sacrifice?  When asked to sum up the greatest commandments, Jesus said to love God with all of your being and to love your neighbor as yourself.

In order to fully embrace the Christian life that Jesus has in mind for us, we need to embrace our inner Optimus Prime (complete with 1980s rock anthem of your choice) as we slay the Decepticon armies surrounding mankind.

Sacrifice.  Don't miss it.  When you "lose" your life as you narcissistically define it, you will gain a life beyond your comprehension just like Optimus Prime.

Protective Hulk Smash Dad: A Lesson In Trusting Our Heavenly Father

My Daddy Hulk-Smash was imperfect, but God is not...

Recently, our 8 year old son came to us and admitted that he was having a hard time at school because some kids were being mean to him.  These kids were doing their best Amish impressions and shunning him during recess.  His little heart was broken.  As he cried about how hurt he was about their rejection, our parent hearts broke.

This was especially difficult because of our 3 kids, young Jack is the friendliest and most adventure-prone of our kids.  His raw courage and complete lack of fear in virtually every aspect of life is remarkable to me.  As a kid who grew up in the grip of fear, it's been exciting watching Jackson embrace adventure!  While I often opted not to do things and embrace the safety of my couch as a child, Jackson is always ready to pounce on something new and adventurous.  On this night, however, he was a broken-hearted boy crying over his "terrible life" because of this rejection.  We hugged him, prayed with him and attempted to say the right things to him to make this better.

But somewhere deep inside me, a seething papa bear rage began to rise up.

A big of a HULK SMASH, if you will.

Suddenly, I fancied myself a massive green character in the Marvel Universe willing to smash and destroy anyone and anything that would dare hurt my boy.  I know what you are thinking, "this is a guy who works in children's ministry and he's blogging about attacking a bunch of 2nd graders?"

Yes.  Yes I am.  Of course, I wouldn't attack 2nd graders, but the desire to protect my son rose up within me with an unbridled passion.  I really didn't know what to do, but I felt such a protective urge to save my son at that moment.

Lately, God has been impressing on me the importance of trusting Him as a good Father.  We always talk about how God can protect us and God cares about us and how God is good.  We don't always walk that out.  Sometimes it is easier to believe that God is good from the sidelines, rather than in the excitement of the game.  Consider Jesus' teaching in Matthew 7:9-11:

"Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

We've all read or heard that passage a million times.  You're probably reading this right now quipping sarcastically, "okay, Bill, are you going to cite John 3:16 too?  I already know this."

As misguided as my HULK SMASH rage in defense of my son was, it was rooted in this same Fatherly passion to protect his own that dominates the scripture.  We are SONS AND DAUGHTERS of God, He constantly reminds us through the Bible that as our FATHER, in all things HE works things out for our good.  He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. His fatherly love for us is perfect.  It is the perfection of fatherhood that we will never see in earthly fathers.  When we well up with passion to protect our kids, sometimes we succeed and sometimes we fail.  When HE wells up with perfect passion to protect our kids, he conquers sin and death and opens a path to freedom.

As imperfect children here on earth, we will never fully understand the magnitude of His fatherly awesomeness.  And that's okay.  We can just rest in knowing that He is bigger than anything we will face and He is dying to provide for us in the way that only a perfect Father can.