A few weeks ago I told you about the amazing miracle that happened for those people we reach out to in the trash dumps of Mattamoros
This week I want to tell you about another miracle just as amazing. It’s not a blind eye seeing or a resurrection from the dead although it’s just as miraculous. My son Benjamin is graduating high school.
Now Ben, or Bean as we call him, is as sharp as a tack but he’s not famous for self motivation. That brother could sit and watch grass grow or paint dry for entertainment. Like his old man when I was his age, he seems to be content doing nothing until the very last minute. So all of us were shocked when he really manned up and started doing extra homework to get his grades where they should be. Bean, doing extra homework? Yes, there is a God and his glorious presence will be manifest next week when the bean dawns his cap and gown for his graduation ceremony.
The big deal about Ben’s graduation is that this is not just his victory, it’s our victory. This week’s confession from a highly caffeinated Christian comes brewing with proud papa accolades.
School of hard knocks
Let me detour into something God taught me about raising my boys. The place I learned this was not in an air conditioned room with a professor; it was behind the sixteen foot walls of a terrible prison. I have spent a lot of time in prisons throughout the state. Not because I committed crimes, but because I wanted to reach people who have.
In all of the prison ministry I have done, I have never seen one that wasn’t divided ethnically. There’s always a White section, a Black section and a Hispanic or Asian section. The one section I can’t ever find in a prison is the Jewish section. Although according to Wikipedia there are over six and a half million practicing Jews in the United States, there is a not a significant population in prisons. I wanted to know why there are so many high percentages of other ethnicities filling up our state prison systems but not Jews. Here’s what I found.
Practicing Jews have a culture where the fathers bless the sons. They publicly and privately value blessing and affirmation on young men as they are growing up. It’s a part of their heritage. Whether it’s through a Bar-Mitzvah or just through how they deal with their kids. Jewish sons have the verbalized approval of their dads and in most cases it keeps those boys from going crazy. Their father figure is a stable and loving, responsible man, not a running buddy, not the baby daddy. He’s a father and the sons are expected to grow into men who contribute and pass down their blessing to their own sons -so they do.
I might be a gentile Texan but I want to pass down a blessing to my own sons and in so doing, my sons will bless me.
School’s out
Next week, my son Benjamin Allen Brewer with thousands of other sons and daughters here locally will have accomplished what he set out to do twelve years ago. He’s a good boy and fine young man and I yes, I am so proud of him. Just two months later he will be leaving for a two year internship at Teen Mania’s Honor Academy (http://www.honoracademy.com) in East Texas and the iWwar School of Worship (http://iwarschool.com) in Vacaville, California. I can’t imagine what life is going to be like without my Bean around here, but off he goes to seek out his own destiny. He’s free to do it because he’s blessed and what a big difference that makes.
Thank you Ben for being you. You’re Mama and I both love you more than you can imagine. You were an amazing kid and I know you will be an amazing man. You are a blessing to all who know you Bean. I am so happy to publicly say it’s great to be your dad.
…Then as Jesus prayed, the sky opened up, and the Holy Spirit came down upon him in the form of a dove. A voice from heaven said, "You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you.
Luke 3:21,22 (CEV)
Contact the Brewer at www.FreshFromTheBrewer.com
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