This past weekend I went home to ease the pain of my leaving for my parents and to see all of my friends since I've left for college. Coincidently, my father was celebrating his 19 years of sobriety. Obviously, he was sober for three months before I was born, but I've been alive to see the effects, positive effects.
Months before I was born, my parents were saved and started to attend a small church downtown. Soon after the extradordinary day of my birth, my dad lost his job. He began to grow weary and doubted if God was on his side or not, his pastor told him, practically dared him, to try to live his life without God and see how crappy things would get.
My parents would tell us the struggles they faced during my first few years of life, but they always reassured me of the plan God was sculpting through their struggles. I've always known my dad to be really good at one thing, if not anything else my dad is a Provider. So many times people have walked into our house looking for guidence only my dad could provide; whether it have been guidence with car trouble, directions, or life, my dad always had the answer, and if he didn't, he would provide a name that did. I've only known my dad as the man he is today, I've only known him since his growth in Christ; and because of that I've seen my dad sit at the kitchen talble taking phone call after phone call from customers because he's been blessed to own his own company, I've seen my dad talk on the porch for hours with guys fresh out of prison because he's been able to use his ugly past as a connection, I've seen my dad run to Las Vegas to pick up his sister-in-law and his nephew from a home they shouldn't have belonged to and offered up our own home when they had no place to stay because God has made him a provider. I remember my dad celebrating his 10 years of sobriety, his 15 years, but what I can't recall is his 6 months.
I think we often forget that whoever wants to become great amoung you must first become a servant, we forget that Rome wasn't built in a day. Before my father could celebrate his 19th year of sobriety he had to celebrate his first day, that even though it was a struggle to give up that lifestyle, I'm sure if you asked him today he'd tell you it was worth it.
My father's entire walk is longer than my lifespan, let alone my rebirth. Being in my first semester of college I'm waiting to start my big, huge story, not just be apart of one. But I must remember the liberation of that first day, not be told of what greatness feels like but experience that for myself. As I grow in the relationships I have started now I know I can reach what God has planned for me in time, as long as I remember this walk is a step-by-step journey, not a mile-by-mile.