The Increase Sample

SENECA WALLACE

MY REAL FATHER

Someone once told me that God has given fathers the most powerful shaping influence in the world. They shape their homes, their job environments, and their children. And by doing this, they end up shaping the world.

But their influence isn’t optional. Their choice isn’t whether or not they’ll have influence. They only get to choose what TYPE of influence they’ll be.

When I was a little boy, my mom married a man who became my stepfather. He coordinated drug deals from the basement of our two-story house, and he used the built-in home intercom system whenever he had anything to say to me. He and my mom separated when I was 11 years old.

I had a man in the house. But I didn’t have a father.

When the Bible says that God is a father to the fatherless, those words jump off the page and grab me every time. And in my experience, God doesn’t accomplish this directly. Instead, He works through other men.

In my life, God used other fathers to help me experience my heavenly Father. Men like Matt Hasselbeck, Trent Dilfer, Jim Zorn, Reggie Hodges, and Benjamin Watson — all of them, pouring their lives into me, as if I was a beloved son. I watched them live as Christ followers, and I watched them live as men.

As real men.

In Psalm 68:6, David says that God sets the lonely in families. My family became these men, and I have no doubt that God “set” me into them - both in Seattle, and then in Cleveland. They mentored me, challenged me, and carried me. And one day I’ll tell my own children of this family that God’s provided.

I share my complete story at theincrease.org. I invite you to visit me there before you move to the next thing in your day. And I also invite you take seriously the larger invitation from God to pour your life into another life. The trajectory of my life, as well as the shape of future generations with my last name, has all been radically changed for the better. And it’s all because five flawed and imperfect men said yes to a perfect and holy God. And because of them, I now call that God…

Father.