Danger: New Parent

Reduced sleep patterns, irritability, altered diet, diminished vocabulary, hormonal imbalance, euphoric emotions, change in habits, late nights, vomit, incontinency, bottle always in hand; these are all indicators that you are a new parent. As of 9:28 pm on March 28th I entered into the wonderful and fearful world of parenthood when Maya was born. The weight of great responsibility was laid on my wife and me at 7lbs and 14 oz. We were told of the joy, of the tiredness, of the heart ache, and love. Most of all we were told about how everything would change.

A lot has certainly changed As I aforementioned, sleep has changed, diet has changed; I find my vocabulary changing as I refer to myself as da-da, and speaking intelligible gibberish. My wife and I find ourselves getting excited over burping, pooping, and ridiculously small socks. The color pink has ferociously invaded my house, along with burp rags, bottles, diapers, and wipes. The few places we have taken her have been filled with sounds reminiscent of a firework show as people stop us to audibly express the cuteness of our daughter with “ohhh” and “aww.” I find myself deeply in love with someone I hardly know, a love only rivaled by my wife. My arms seem to have developed a new calling in holding and rocking her, and when I am at work they feel the void of their missing purpose. I find great pride in showing her off as if I accomplished some mountainous feat, even though it was God who favorably arranged the genes.

Much has changed, but not everything. I still find myself deeply in love with my wife. I still feel greatly called to ministry in the church, and I still suffer from an unhealthy addiction to boring ecclesial literature. I find it pleasantly surprising that while much has changed, much still is the same. I find it refreshing that even though I have learned much and have much to still learn, I have not changed everything, in fact it seems that the ability to love and care have always been within me. I may change my perspective after some months, weeks or even days, but I find that this responsibility to love and nourish was built inside me from the beginning by our good Creator and was only looking for a way to express itself. I think that is part of the mystery of life. Many times we become too afraid or too doubtful to attempt great things because we believe we first have to be changed into something we are not. The truth, however, is that we are already made good and capable of great things through faith. The wonderful reality is that God has already given us the ability to love greatly and practice mercy; we only need the occasion, the opportunity, and the chance for it to be brought out of us.

Imagine that you already have what it takes to ensure justice, to display love to strangers, to give yourself, your resources. You already have all you need through the grace of Jesus Christ, you only need the opportunity to have it brought out of you and God is waiting to give it to you. When God does this undoubtedly things will change, and maybe as a result you will change too, but we do not have to wait for change before we can attempt great things, because God has already put his Spirit in us.