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Recently I have been in a season where my days have been rushed. It seems like I am getting up later, rest which my body needs, and everything just seems to take longer. The result of this pattern is that the day seems over before I know it. We all have seasons of busyness when the inertia of life seems to sweep us along in the tide of time. Despite being home and in a season of battling cancer I had found myself in one such pattern.
No, I wasn’t rushing off to work, running errands or any of the other things most people are dealing with but the effect was still the same. I wasn’t skipping my devotions or falling into any habits that were bad my spirit just felt rushed all the time. One day I felt myself being tugged along by this current as I prayed. As I concluded my prayers I heard a phrase in my spirit that stopped everything. “I miss when you called me Father.”
It wasn’t said in anger, disappointment or frustration. It was almost said with a sigh of sadness. All the inertia of the past several weeks came screeching to a halt. I suddenly realized that all the busyness had pushed me into a pattern of calling Him Lord instead of Father. Now, there is nothing innately wrong with that but for me it had significant meaning.
Many years ago I started beginning my day when I woke up saying “Good morning Father”. It is a special moment between us where I set my mind on my Heavenly Father who loves me before I even set my feet on the floor. It also fostered a different level of love and faith as I drew near to my Father throughout the day. So many times I would find myself in a moment with Him just sharing my thoughts, my joys and my sorrows. We even shared silly moments watching the squirrels play or listening to the birds sing. Somehow in the craziness of life I had lost focus on the importance of that term of endearment. It’s not the my faith was struggling or that I was walking in anything sinful just that life had swept me up.
As soon as I heard that whispered sigh in my spirit I immediately sighed in my heart and quieted all the noise and said “I love you Father.” We don’t often consider how we impact His heart. The Bible says that He delights over us, and it makes sense when we consider that He created everything in the Garden of Eden just so He would have a place to spend time with us. So if you find yourself as I did, being swept along by life, I encourage you take a moment and call Him Father. Do it not because it is a religious exercise or something you have to do but because it will delight His heart. He wasn’t angry with me, disappointed or distant when he said that to me. His heart was just longing for me. I think sometimes we are so caught up in His role as Lord that we forget that He created us from a Father’s heart. So I encourage us all to call Him Father and embrace a love like no other.