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Following in Your Father's Footsteps
by John Bishop, Director of Spiritual Formation, based on this week's MS/HS chapel message
When I was a kid, my dad worked as a machinist in the engineering department at Cornell University. From time to time, he would tell us about the ridiculous plans he’d been handed, parts the engineering students had dreamed up on paper but never fully thought through. His job was to manufacture those parts according to the specifications. Because he was a very sharp man, he often had strong opinions about the designs and wasn’t shy about sharing them with the engineers upstairs. “Your specs are calling for A572 Grade 50 steel,” he’d say, “and you’re not going to get away with anything less than 4140.” Occasionally, he even changed their minds, saving himself a great deal of time and frustration in the process.
That discerning eye didn’t stay in the machine shop; he brought it home as well. We lived in an old house that
constantly needed attention, so there was always something under construction. Windows were being replaced, plumbing redone, walls torn down and moved, and furniture and equipment hauled in and out. Beyond the house, there were barns, sheds, and a chicken coop on the property that all required building and maintenance.
When we built the chicken coop, I was probably seven years old. I still remember being up on the roof, clumsily nailing down shingles. “You might want to drive the roofing nail, not your fingernail,” my dad would say as I nursed my bruised fingers. Learning how to handle a hammer was simply part of being a Bishop.
We often follow in the footsteps of our fathers. What we see our parents do, how they work, speak, and respond to challenges, shapes how we live. This influence can be both good and bad. I’ve always been “handy” because my dad taught me how to use tools, but I’ve also had to wrestle with the habit of using biting sarcasm to communicate.
When Jesus calls us to Himself, He says, “Follow me.” What He means is simple and demanding: live as I live, go where I would go, do what I would do, and say what I would say. Jesus followed perfectly in the footsteps of His Father in heaven, and He calls us to do the same. Romans 12:2 puts it plainly: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” In Christ, everything begins to change.
Over time, we start to sound different. We act differently. Our choices no longer mirror the culture around us but increasingly reflect Jesus. Some things we learn from our families are gifts to be cherished, God placed you in your family on purpose. But when it comes to how we ultimately live, our model is not our earthly father, but our heavenly one.
We were meant to follow in our Father’s footsteps, and those footsteps led to the cross so that we might have life, and have it to the fullest. Take inventory of your life: do the things you say and do look and sound like Jesus?
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When I was a kid, my dad worked as a machinist in the engineering department at Cornell University. From time to time, he would tell us about the ridiculous plans he’d been handed, parts the engineering students had dreamed up on paper but never fully thought through. His job was to manufacture those parts according to the specifications. Because he was a very sharp man, he often had strong opinions about the designs and wasn’t shy about sharing them with the engineers upstairs. “Your specs are calling for A572 Grade 50 steel,” he’d say, “and you’re not going to get away with anything less than 4140.” Occasionally, he even changed their minds, saving himself a great deal of time and frustration in the process.
That discerning eye didn’t stay in the machine shop; he brought it home as well. We lived in an old house that
constantly needed attention, so there was always something under construction. Windows were being replaced, plumbing redone, walls torn down and moved, and furniture and equipment hauled in and out. Beyond the house, there were barns, sheds, and a chicken coop on the property that all required building and maintenance.
When we built the chicken coop, I was probably seven years old. I still remember being up on the roof, clumsily nailing down shingles. “You might want to drive the roofing nail, not your fingernail,” my dad would say as I nursed my bruised fingers. Learning how to handle a hammer was simply part of being a Bishop.
We often follow in the footsteps of our fathers. What we see our parents do, how they work, speak, and respond to challenges, shapes how we live. This influence can be both good and bad. I’ve always been “handy” because my dad taught me how to use tools, but I’ve also had to wrestle with the habit of using biting sarcasm to communicate.
When Jesus calls us to Himself, He says, “Follow me.” What He means is simple and demanding: live as I live, go where I would go, do what I would do, and say what I would say. Jesus followed perfectly in the footsteps of His Father in heaven, and He calls us to do the same. Romans 12:2 puts it plainly: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” In Christ, everything begins to change.
Over time, we start to sound different. We act differently. Our choices no longer mirror the culture around us but increasingly reflect Jesus. Some things we learn from our families are gifts to be cherished, God placed you in your family on purpose. But when it comes to how we ultimately live, our model is not our earthly father, but our heavenly one.
We were meant to follow in our Father’s footsteps, and those footsteps led to the cross so that we might have life, and have it to the fullest. Take inventory of your life: do the things you say and do look and sound like Jesus?
Westminster Christian School, located in Palmetto Bay, Florida, is a private, college-preparatory school for children from preschool through twelfth grade.