The Father and the children

  Always by my Side, by Jim Nantz, was a book I looked forward to reading, and it had been sitting on my bookshelf for many moons.  In search of lighter reading, I picked it up and made my way through it.

  The book is subtitled The Healing Gift of a Father's Love, and its appeal to me was that it would be a book focused on the relationship between father and son.  And while this relationship was certainly evident in the pages, I felt like this was mostly a book about Jim Nantz and his friends, many of them very famous, where he squeezed in moments about his father.  The book was entertaining, and many of the stories were fascinating, especially ones that involved George H.W. Bush, but it left me wanting more from the aspect of the father-son relationship.  (In a sign of how quickly the world changes, perhaps having Don Imus quotes on the back of the book is not viewed the same as it once was, just as Nantz's view of Tiger Woods towards the end of the book reads somewhat differently in light of recent events)

  I grew a little frustrated at this, but then I realized that I do the same thing to my heavenly Father--I try to make my story about myself, squeezing him in a little around the margins and when it is convenient.  Is my life truly about Him and His glory, or is it centered on me and what I can accomplish?

  I know what the right answer to that question is, but my self-centered worldview gets in the way, and I live my life in casual ignorance of the grace that sustains me every moment of the day.  I continue to pray for the strength to focus upon God, making him the center of my universe, so that every thought and every action is in orbit around God.  I believe this is possible, and I pray for the courage to empty  myself, that the grace and love of God might be my strength and my nourishment.

  Below is a politics-free interview I found with Jim Nantz by Sean Hannity.