Jesus, Chuck Norris, and Bringing Up Boys
It makes perfect sense, work with me.
At the beginning of the previous school year a good friend of mine and fellow LayZman gave me one of the greatest gifts that can be exchanged between heterosexual males: Chuch Norris DVDs. Apparently Wal-Mart, in their benevolence, had a triple pack of roundhouse kicking goodness that my friend felt would be an apt birthday present for me. Now you know why we’re friends.
Now that my oldest son is 5, he’s becoming aware of the fact that there are DVD’s that Mom and Dad watch that he isn’t allowed to see. After seeing the sweet cover art on the DVD case, he instantly wanted to know if this was a film he could watch. My instant reaction was no, but then I started to think about it a bit more.
First off, the films are PG and are produced by Chuck and his brother to be family friendly. As I thought about it, the hilarious “violence” was really the only thing I could think of to keep him from watching the movies. And then I had a thought, some stuff in scripture is pretty violent.
Interestingly enough, my son and I had a conversation a few days before about the 2nd coming of Christ and I spoke about what the scriptures say about it. It’s pretty violent…for the bad guys.
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.
Here I am with a little boy who wants to watch Chuck Norris kick the crap out of the bad guys and I had just told him a few days earlier that Jesus was going to kick the crap out of the bad guys. So I decided to let them watch the movies with me.
It was great because it was a chance for me to talk to the boys about the fact that there are bad guys and good guys in the world. It’s the job of the good guys to care for those who are in need and protect them from the bad guys. We talked about being a strong man of God and taking care of Mom and each other.
I’m not really one of those Wild at Heart obsessed, outdoor sports, hunting, fishing kind of dads (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But, I do want my boys to love God and serve Him with the fact that they are boys who will grow into men. That means protecting those who need protection and loving justice. I don’t want them thinking of violence as the answer to everything, but I don’t want them insulated completely from it either.
Maybe this makes me a bad father, but my boys and I are closer and, thanks to Chuch Norris, we got to have some really interesting conversations about God, Jesus, justice, mercy, and being a man.
