The models that have been lived out before you influence how you view roles, relationships, and responsibilities. In your developing years, as you evaluate examples before you, your personal values and positions are easily distorted from how things really should be.

Raised in a home without a Christian father, my vision of fatherhood was misleading. He never prayed, read his Bible, and never attended church. His language and lifestyle was nothing to set as a godly example. As a teenager in the mid-60s, my vision of manhood was blurred, grotesque and distorted. Life as a teenager in high school, in athletics and working in the oil fields in New Mexico exposed me to examples of men attempting to prove their masculinity with vulgar jokes, party lifestyle, without moral restraint. In recalling your life, like me you can recall influences that gave one an ugly vision of how it should be.

Matthew 25, Jesus gave a story to illustrate how we should invest what we have been given back into the kingdom of heaven. In a parable (an earthly story with a heavenly meaning) one man was given 5 talents, another was given 2, and last one was given 1. The first two invested theirs and doubled their value. The servant who received one hid his and made no profit for the master.

In the story when the master returned for an accounting, he rewarded the first two servants for their managing and investing that he had entrusted to them with, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.” To the one who hid his. with no increase in value, the master said, “You wicked and lazy servant.”

In an attempt to rationalize his actions, the lazy servant revealed his unclear vision of the master. He said, “I knew you to be a hard man. I was afraid. I hid your talent in the ground.” When you listen to the reasoning Jesus gave this servant in the story, you understand he had a blurred vision of God. He saw God as hard, and to be feared. He saw the accounting of God so demanding and cruel that hiding and returning what was given seemed to be the only way to avoid condemnation.

Blurred and distorted visions of God is at epidemic level in America today. Some view Him as uninvolved, not caring what happens in their lives. Others see Him waiting and watching for the next misstep so He will have a foundation for judgment and rejection. To some He is seen as a killjoy, taking anything and everything that represents fun out of life.

We desperately need to communicate to people a correct vision of the Master. God is love. God is good. God is merciful and forgiving. God wants to be a very close source of help in time of need. God gives life and makes it worth living. God created all things for His children to enjoy. With God, joy is something He wants us to experience.

Together let’s help others be free from a distorted vision of God!

John T. Catrett, III

ONHL Hospice Chaplain

124 East Broadway, PO Box 1216 74030

918.352.3080