Andrew Belz: Walking with my father

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, June 16th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: And I’m Paul Butler. By now you know that this coming Sunday is Father’s Day. To mark the occasion, we asked one of our seasoned dads on staff to share his insights on fatherhood. Andrew Belz currently serves as Major Gifts Officer at WORLD. He’s been a fixture here for many years, giving us plenty of time to see him practice what he preaches. And a lot of what he preaches he got from his dad,

ANDREW BELZ, COMMENTATOR: My earliest memory of my dad was Sunday afternoon walks through pastureland in Iowa. The walks sometimes lasted for three hours. We followed paths, as near as we could, to the Wapsipinicon River, passing farms and cutting across fields and fences. To rest, we sat on piles of red and gray Iowa field stones while examining and tearing open milkweed pods.

My dad was a fierce believer in Christ and a grain elevator operator turned minister. 60 years past those Sunday walks, I recall him now for three affections, mainly.

The first was his open affection for me. Back then, hugging wasn’t common. But he had a wide-open smile, and he would seize my knee with his hand in a loving grab. He would lean in to hear me sing. We grew up with a sense that it was a privilege to be in our family. We also felt Dad considered it his privilege to have us as children. Every week as a teenager, I had to collect a check from Dad to give for piano lessons. Knowing that cash was spare, I once apologized for having to depend on him for those checks. He lovingly tucked one in my hand, folded my fingers over it, and said, “Son, you’re my own flesh and blood!”

Dad was also openly affectionate toward Mom. “I hope you find a girl like I did,” he would repeat. His love letters to her when he was at Dubuque Seminary are beautifully penned keepsakes within our family. But I can attest that Dad had to let grace have its way in him. His unconventional ministries like rural church planting, running a school, and even having a printing operation could come at Mom’s expense. But I watched him surrender some of his far-fetched ideas to his admiration for Mom. He showed that life-long romance, though bumpy at times, is possible.

The third was his open affection for God. Someone once said, “When your dad got religion, he got it bad.” He trusted the Bible completely, and it showed in his awareness that God made all things. On many occasions he would hold up a clear glass of water and marvel at the provision from his heavenly Father. He was a minor student of biology and again marveled at cell structure in corn and animals. He loved Job’s reference to the behemoth in the Bible, and for that matter everything in chapters 38 through 41 when God talks about everything created – from ostriches to hail to snow.

My dad is now with the Lord. But on this Father’s Day, I rejoice over his open affections. I find myself also rejoicing when I see my sons and sons-in-law openly showing affection for their kids, for their wives, and for their God. I would never claim fathering is easy or sentimentally attractive. It’s not easy. But the journey of fatherhood is worth celebrating. And by God’s grace, is it anything more than just cultivating a few key affections?

I’m Andrew Belz.

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