A few weeks ago it was World Book Day/week. It was a week which gave me my favourite experience as an author. I was chatting to my grandson, Fletcher. (Its his birthday today March 31st 2020). As we chatted I told him that I had a new book coming out. I told him that it was my third book. And then it was a moment I will treasure forever. I handed him copies of my books and he paused, looked at me, and said, does that mean you are an author. That week they were hearing of the great authors, Roald Dahl, CS Lewis etc.. In a moment Fletcher elevated his “Paps” to a status in his mind that I certainly don’t deserve publicly, but between him and me, I became his favourite author. He joked of going to school dressed as me, for world book day. It was a magical moment which I will never forget. A few days later, Fletcher told me that he had laid in bed and read the introduction and Chapter 1, of Things Fathers Do. He said it was quite good. My best endorsement by far!
But something else happened that day, he told me that he wanted to write a book and be an author. I saw light in his eyes, a dream was birthed. ‘Things Fathers Do’ just got promoted to Things Grandfathers Do and that really sums up why I wrote this book. The things we do as mothers and fathers, will affect the generations to come, and they have the potential to reveal The Father.
The book began when I travelled to Brazil with my soccer crazy son to see England play in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. A once in a lifetime trip of a lifetime. My flight home was going to get me back 6 hours before I needed to be ready to preach three times on a Sunday morning. Knowing that I wouldn’t have much time I was reassured to know that my preach would be illustrated by the trip but I had no idea that it would actually be the foundation for an entire message and a book.
As I sat in Rio at the end of the trip I began to review my time with my son. From an English fan’s point of view it was a disaster but as a father it was one of the great victories of my life. Piece by piece a message arose out of my experience with my son as I jotted down reflections from the trip. And so ‘Fathers Do Things’ was birthed. It began as a list of practical things which dad’s do but has now grown into a book spanning many related themes of sonship, fatherhood, adoption and overcoming lies.
My Dad died when I was 15 years of age. It is an experience which I have shared and written about before. Thirty Two years after his death I had an experience with God in which he told me that I had stopped being a son when my father died and that sonship was never meant to end, after all Jesus is known as the son of David for all eternity. From that encounter and subsequent healing I have endeavored to live life as a son and a father. I know that we all need to be adopted, whether our fathers are alive, unknown or departed long ago and that has fueled my teaching and my life.. I have discovered that no area of life can be separated from the need to be sons and to know the father heart of God. From governing nations to leading organizations or raising our children the lack of this will create dysfunction and deficits sometimes with devastating results.
This journey includes overcoming lies which we carry about ourselves. Lies will tell us what we are not and what we cannot do and lead us to behave as less than we were created to be. When we live like that it will not just affect us but everyone influenced by our lives.
This book includes the practical things which fathers do but it is much more than just that. It will take the reader on a journey of desire, to be jealous for something, not jealous of. Jealous for being a great father who does things. Creating this desire the journey begins. taking the reader to the need to be adopted by our heavenly father and exchanging lies for truths which will increase the capacity to do the things which fathers do and to reveal our heavenly father.
With a brief journey into the subject of men and women and fathering the journey stays close to the title of doing things. The book is biblical, practical and spiritual. My style is to include not exclude to make truth accessible and even achievable. Our world needs fathers but doesn’t need more complex messages which cannot be applied. This message is simple at its core. Fathers do things, and mothers too and as they do, out of their identity they raise sons and daughters and at the same time reveal the father.
You can download a free chapter of THINGS FATHERS DO by clicking here.
