To my dad.
I have allot to be thankful. You are such a cool dude. I have had so many awesome memories with you, from us trading stories, to playing basketball, to wrestling, to playing in the pool, to listening to your jokes. The fun only seems to pick up as we grow older. I have now lived a third of your life. It feels a little strange to know that your generation is 40 years removed from mine, but yet I can still enjoy your company. I'm gonna really miss you when you go, and I pray that you will live to see my kids dunking and beating my old marks. That means that you are gonna have to be here at least another 20 years, so hold on cuz its gonna be an awesome time! I wouldn't mind if you stuck around here for longer than that, but that is the minimum that I will accept.
I'm not only blessed to have you as a dad, I am grateful for your friendship. As I grow older and we can relate to each other, and more responsibilities come upon me, I start to learn how much you have done for me in my childhood to raise me. People tell me all the time that I must have amazing parents by what they observe in me. I am glad that I can live up to the expectations of you: the man who deserves the credit.
Furthermore, I praise God that we go to church together. I know we used to go just a couple times a year together, for the big services when I was forced to sit with you and mom. Now I look forward to every week when we can go sit and worship and pray together. That one Sunday where we went up for prayer together was a very special moment in my life. I couldn't help but look back on the arguments we have had. In light of the difficulties we have experienced, it is a rather monumental thing that we were willing to do that together. I have watched your faith grown in the past few months, and I have watched how you are blessed because of it. I praise God for it, and I am excited to see this take off.
There were two humbling experiences that occurred in the past couple of weeks, other than walking down to the altar at church. The first being, when work slowed down for you in February, but yet I was able to make some money. You have given me so much over the course of my 20 years. Since money is one of the quantifiable things that you have contributed, I feel like I have a greater grasp for it than some of the other areas you bless me in. Being able to give you the money I made in that month, was difficult first, knowing that I have debts to pay. But the Lord released me in holding it, and I gave it to you. I haven't looked back since doing that, and I know that you are being a better steward that I would. It gave me a window into how it is to be a breadwinner for the family, and also created in me a new appreciation for all the thousands more you have given and keep giving me. What is mine is yours, and it felt good to be on the giving end this time.
The second experience was with probability theory. When you asked me if I knew probability theory, to be honest, I had forgotten most of what I know. But you asked for help so I came down to do my best. You are the one who gave me my exposure to probability theory, and the rest I got from the past 4 years of my math career after leaving your instruction. Well, teaching you was fun. I get my love for teaching math from you, and when I help other people I cant help but think of your influence on that area of my life. Sure mom is a teacher, but you were my math teacher. Even our dear friend from Costa Rica said that while Daniel is "Susanito" (little Susan), I am "Samirito" (little Sam). I have certainly grown up to be like you in many ways, including a love for teaching math. Well, the process of becoming your teacher from your student is much like becoming a man and being entrusted with more responsibilities. Growing up, I never thought I would know more than you in a subject of your expertise. It is humbling to see that the Lord has delivered me this far. I know also that I have much further to go, but I wanted to pause here to record it because this is noteworthy, not only in my career, but also in my life and our friendship.
There is one thing I want to point out about you that all my of my friends recognize: your generosity. Everybody says "dude, Michael, your dad is so nice". You are always serving us! I know that brings you great joy to support us in our activities by bringing us food, or drinks, or toys, or jokes, or anything to make us happy. Dad, My word for you that God gave me to share is that this attitude that you embody, the attitude of a servant, is the attitude of Christ. We are all called to serve as Christ served:
Mark 9:35 - Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
Dad, I know that you were commissioned by God to serve like you do.
Acts 26:16 "...the Lord replied. 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you."
I know that our Father God has duly made note of your generosity. I am glad that I have such a good tangible example to learn about the attitude a Christian must have. It's really cool, thanks dad.
Even though I consider us friends now, I do still recognize your authority. I want to let you know and declare to you that I feel convicted to do more to listen to your guidance.
Proverbs 4:10 - Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.
Proverbs is stacked with verses like these. If I tried quoting them all, I would just have to rewrite the Book of Proverbs! You have a sort of prophetic sense about you, and seem to do well at predicting disasters and dangerous incidents. I accept it, and I realize that you are put into position over me by God. So to you goes the respect, even if I disagree on what you have to say. I hope this letter finds you in a good mood, probably clipping news paper articles, making juice for the family, or cleaning some pile of junk up. Thanks for it all dad, the good and the bad. I love you dude!
Michael
