My husband, Jonathan is one of my favorite things about life.  He had a pretty exciting encounter this Father’s Day morning.
If you want to hear more from Jonathan you can follow him on twitter @JAD77.   -Polly

There are many aspects of being a father that are pretty amazing.  As a father I get the privilege of teaching my kids the basics of life, watch them grow and develop, see their character bloom, and enjoy their discoveries.  Lately its been exciting seeing Joel move into boyhood in some pretty amazing ways.  Part of this for me is giving him an image of Biblical Manhood.  There are some responsibilities that God has given me as a man and as a father that are unique.  Among them are provision, protection, and leadership.  This morning at 1:00 AM I got to experience fulfilling all these roles simultaneously.I was awoken to a pounding noise, along with some muffled hollering.  My first groggy thoughts were the kids were up and playing around in the living room.  I got up to investigate and quickly realized something else was going on.  As I went down the stairs, the pounding continued and as I peeked out the through the vertical blinds, I discovered its source.  There was a large man leaning on my door repeatedly hitting it with his fist.  Unsure of the nature of this early morning visit, I cracked the door to ask how I could help this individual.  As soon as the door was cracked the man began to push it open and force his way into my house.  I quickly move into defense mode, and put all my energies into trying to keep this intruder away from my wife and kids.  The protection side of God’s design of manhood was in top gear.  Adrenaline surged through my body, and over my dead body was the only way this guy was going to get into my house.  Through the scuffle, the door and the lock on the door were damaged beyond repair. The man’s mumbling shouts, left me with the conclusion that he was extremely drunk.  As we yelled at each other through the door we were fighting over, I informed him that if he did not leave, I would call the police.  My wife, upstairs staying safe had her phone in her hand ready to dial.  I gave the man a few moments to decide to leave, but, alas, he did not take his opportunity.  “Paula, do it!” I yelled up the stairs, and her fingers went flying through her iPhone, contacting emergency services.  My attacker continued his attempts to enter my home, but his efforts seemed to wane, though my resolve was still high, as what was actually happening on the other side of the door was unknown to me.  It felt like many minutes had passed, till the police arrived.

I heard them call him away from my door and begin questioning him, at which point I figured out he was, as the officer put it, “Drunk as a skunk”.

As the excitement slowed down, I waited for the police to come talk with me, at which point there were many decisions to make like whether or not to press charges, what do do about this guy, the door, my family, etc.  I will be 33 in a couple months, and in all this time, and I’ve taken a couple beatings in middle and high school, but never really been in a fight.  That record was tarnished this morning (sarcastic sorrow).

Protection, provision, and leadership (accountability) all came rushing at me in this singular event.  God was gracious and I was reminded again that my faith needs to be in Him for my security, both physically and spiritually.  An old Steve Green song based on  Psalm 20:7 floated through my head.  That verse says:

Here before me lying on the ground was this little two inch piece of steel that I had put my trust in to keep my family safe, and in reality the only reason that my family was safe was because of the hand of the Lord upon us.