Who's your Daddy?

Last night at Young Life I spoke about God being our Father. As I have tried to listen carefully to kids over the past few months, I have noticed that so much of the pain and confusion they feel stems from a broken relationship with their parents. I wanted to help them see that even if they don't have a great relationship with their earthly dad, they have a Heavenly Father that knit them together in His image, and longs to pursue a relationship with them. To help contrast God's father nature with so many of their preconceived ideas about what a father is, I asked them to anonymously write down words or phrases describing their dads. I read these towards the beginning of my talk and the room quickly silenced. It became even more obvious to me that my high school friends desperately need a Heavenly Father. Here's some of the things they wrote.

weird; strict; A-Hole; boring; bald; sketch; Disabled but amazing; thinks he’s cool; out-of-town a lot, big teddy bear; loving; super funny; drinks a lot; selfish bastard; god-aholic; smart; a kid at heart; likes dogs more than me; mean; can talk like daffy duck; e-bay junkie; dead; psycho; immature; unstable; I don’t have a dad; provider; watches lots of TV; strict; over-protective; bought an i-Pod from Hong Kong for $.99; selfish; jerk; grumpy; bi-polar; alcoholic; good driver; abusive; thinks I’m a druggie; has the same name as Iron Maiden’s guitarist; is chill in public; old; bad temper; hates me and even told me; fat; cares more about tv than me.

Today I talked with three guys who all want help understanding why their Heavenly Father gave them such "sucky" earthly dads. Today I feel:
-like seminary hasn't given me all the answers that I want
-broken-hearted for my high school friends
-so thankful for my own father
-filled with a holy fear about being a dad myself

I remember a guy named Joel Engle singing this song called "The Father I Never Had" at a Dawson McCallister conference when I was in middle school. The chorus was simple, and went like this.

"You're the father I never had, and your love never changes, through the good times and the bad, you're the father I never had, so just hold me in your arms and heal me from the past, and be the father I never had."