By Calvary Callender, Lead Pastor, Lantana Community Church
I can still remember the flood of emotions as I sat in the chair outside my wife’s hospital room as she was being prepped to deliver our first and much anticipated baby girl 18 years ago.
I was an anxious ball of uncertainty and excitement with a little inadequacy sprinkled in. How could I be a dad? But I was excited to be a dad! What was this going to be like? How could I be responsible for another human? Is it too late to change my mind?
Fast forward 18 years and I’m a flood of emotions again. This time, though, it’s because my baby girl is going to graduate high school. She’s on a path that I helped set her on. It’s a path to launch, to succeed, to become a self-sufficient person in this crazy world.
Isn’t it interesting that every day of her life I have spent teaching her to not need me, and now I wish she would still need me?
In this season, we get to celebrate our grads and our dads. For both of us, it’s a time of uncertainty. Perhaps we can both learn a lesson, in this season of caps and dad jokes, from Abraham. I think Abraham knew what that felt like — the joy of launching into the unknown mixed with the ache of letting go.
Scripture tells us that Abraham obeyed God and went, “even though he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). This is true for many graduates, stepping into a future that’s exciting and terrifying at the same time. It’s true for a lot of dads too, watching our kids move forward while we quietly pray they remember what we tried to teach them.
Abraham didn’t have a road map. He only had a promise and the faith to follow God.
If you’re a graduate, I hope you know it’s okay not to have all the answers. Just be faithful, follow God, and the rest will come.
If you’re a dad, whether in the hospital hallway or the graduation banquet, remember: your quiet, steady faithfulness matters more than you think. You’re building a legacy, one step into the unknown at a time.
I hope you’re reminded during this season of grads and dads that the most important journeys begin with trust, not certainty.
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