and has given all things

My father turns seventy today, one of the factor's contributing to yesterday's thoughts. A few weeks back, I spoke on the topic of men and shepherding. I posited that men needed to do more for their family than provide and win bread; that, in fact, merely providing without shepherding is failure. Thinking about that today and I think differently.

If all you can do is give your all, if all you can do is sacrifice -- your aspirations, your visions, your own self -- for your loved ones, how can anyone ask for more? Lord only asks for you to give your all for the sake of others, it is the definition of Christ-like sacrifice. And if you do that, can it still be called failure?

The measure of a man is what he has to show for his sacrifice. And yes, what you want is a family brought closer to God. But if in the end, all you have are lives still worth living, lives enabled to live, I won't be the one disparaging that at all. I could not ask much more of myself.