Where Are You?

Have you ever heard someone say that the key to having a successful business is location, location, location? Or that one of the keys to success is being in the right place at the right time? And so it is with the vocation of fatherhood. The success of your vocation depends upon your spiritual location.

“Where are you?” were the first words spoken by God after the original man’s fall from grace. This haunting question thundered and crashed upon Adam’s convicted soul. The Father proposed this question not to obtain an answer for Himself—as if He didn’t know Adam’s physical location—but to help man obtain the answer to the riddle of himself; to help you and me understand our vital role in God’s epic plan. God was not concerned with Adam’s geographical position, but rather with his theological position, that is, his relationship to God and to his bride.

What is your location in the context of God’s plan of salvation? How does your location affect your vocation? The answer to the divine question “Where are you?” is the key to understanding and unlocking the power of your masculinity and fatherhood, and will help you understand why you are essential to God’s plan, to your wife, and to your children.

Adam was “created by God from the slime of the earth,” in the unknown, in the wild—outside of the garden of paradise. Then “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it,” commanding him not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Notice that the man is created in the undomesticated, undiscovered, uncharted world; yet God removed him from that unknown wilderness and placed him in the garden.

The word “garden” in ancient Hebrew literature was often used as a symbol to describe the mystery of woman. Adam’s position was not exclusively in the wild, in a world of adventure—nor was his location to be reduced to living in the garden, that is, to being completely domesticated. Adam was called by God to stand on the horizon between the uncharted, outer world and the interior, domesticated world of the garden and to integrate these two worlds in his being.

It was Adam’s duty and honor to protect and defend the garden of woman, his bride, from Satan, who was lurking in the wild. Yet he failed.

Adam allowed the evil one to slither his way into the garden and manipulate Eve, convincing her to succumb to sin, to distrust the Father. Like Adam, you are called to be the guardian of your garden, ensuring that the evils of the world not contaminate your wife and children—ensuring that they trust in the Father. This is the incredible and demanding vocation of fatherhood—your fatherhood.

Assume your location and begin to live your vocation so that when God asks “Where are you?” you may respond, “Here I am Lord. I am ready to do your will.”