Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

As I mentioned in Sunday's talk and posted yesterday on the blog, the number one relational breakdown for grown-up children is that they don't feel close to their fathers.

Dads love their kids but haven't learned how to convey that love to their grown children. The dads judge their intentions of showing love, while the kids judge the actions themselves, and feel a disconnect with their fathers.

This is a timeless tension between fathers and sons especially. They love each other deeply but they can't always figure out how to express that love towards each other. Instead they cover things up with a lot of talk about 'things'.

U2 has a song that acknowledges that sometimes fathers and sons play the role of adversary to one another, the son desperately wanting to be like or to understand his father even as he seeks to form his own identity separate from the man. And all the while the father desires to bless the son he loves so much he could burst but struggles to separate his own fears and failures from his relationship with his child.

Are you stuck in this tension right now, either as a dad or as a child? Reach a hand out across the divide.

Tough, you think you've got the stuff
You're telling me and anyone
You're hard enough

You don't have to put up a fight
You don't have to always be right
Let me take some of the punches
For you tonight

Listen to me now
I need to let you know
You don't have to go it alone

And it's you when I look in the mirror
And it's you when I don't pick up the phone
Sometimes you can't make it on your own

We fight all the time
You and I...that's alright
We're the same soul
I don't need...I don't need to hear you say
That if we weren't so alike
You'd like me a whole lot more

Listen to me now
I need to let you know
You don't have to go it alone

And it's you when I look in the mirror
And it's you when I don't pick up the phone
Sometimes you can't make it on your own

I know that we don't talk
I'm sick of it all
Can - you - hear - me - when - I -
Sing, you're the reason I sing
You're the reason why the opera is in me...

Where are we now?
I've still got to let you know
A house still doesn't make a home
Don't leave me here alone...

And it's you when I look in the mirror
And it's you that makes it hard to let go
Sometimes you can't make it on your own
Sometimes you can't make it
The best you can do is to fake it
Sometimes you can't make it on your own

http://www.u2.com/av/aplayer.php?song=449&album=68

Malachi 4:6
His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers.