Father’s Day can be complicated. There can be deep joy and deep sorrow – celebration and aching – all in the same day.

If that’s what this weekend looks like for you, I want you to know you’re not alone. The grief just means the love was real. And in all of it, God is near.

Let’s be honest – people aren’t always easy to love. And when I feel that tension, I have to stop and ask myself: What’s my motivation here? Is it to be right? To get my way? Or is it to reflect God’s love?

When something went wrong with my car, my first call was always to my dad. One night after church, my headlights randomly stopped working. I panicked, called him, and he drove 20 minutes to meet me. 

Of course he helped me... but the next day, I received an invoice. Would you believe it's now one of my most treasured possessions?

There’s a moment in Luke 1 that stops me in my tracks every time. The angel tells Mary she’s going to give birth to the Messiah – life-altering, overwhelming news – and her response is, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”

That kind of faith blows me away.

I did not have “Texas team helps catch a runaway zebra in Tennessee” on my 2025 bingo card, but here we are.

Learn more about Ed the zebra's dashing escape (and eventual capture) here: https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/pet-zebra-captured-after-8-days-on-the-loose-in-rutherford-county/

I almost gave up on college. I had the books, I was enrolled – but I stopped going to class. I watched friends graduate and figured I’d missed my shot. But then a few friends started encouraging me: You’re not too far gone. You can still finish.

Their words helped me believe again. And it reminded me how powerful encouragement really is – not just in school, but in faith.

I thought I was making a new friend named Diane from California – she texted the wrong number, we had a fun little back-and-forth, and she even offered me homemade Chinese food if I ever visited. But then I got that weird gut feeling… like maybe this was a scam. So I blocked her.

I either protected myself from a scammer or ghosted a very sweet woman named Diane. Either way, lesson learned.

Sometimes the enemy tries to haunt us with our past – bringing up old mistakes, stirring up guilt, and making us question if we’re really forgiven.

But here’s the truth: if you’ve brought it to Jesus, it’s covered.

Sometimes love looks like doing the dishes without being asked. And sometimes… it looks like planting two different kinds of wheat across your farmland to spell out a mile-long anniversary message.

You can dump a whole bucket of water on a rock and it won’t do much. But a slow, steady drip? Over time, it can carve right through it.

That’s what consistency does.