“I am my father’s son.”
That phrase has carried more meaning for me as the years have passed.
When I was a teenager, my father went to play handball one afternoon. Somewhere in the middle of the game, he collapsed. He passed out right there on the court, and an ambulance rushed him to the hospital. For me, as a young man, it felt shocking—something serious must have happened.
But the diagnosis was surprisingly simple: he was dehydrated.
At the time, it seemed almost too small an explanation for such a dramatic outcome. How could something as ordinary as unsatisfied thirst bring my dad to the point of crisis?
Only much later did I realize how profound that lesson really was.
Here’s the takeaway and metaphor – My father had been walking too close to the line of safety, living with too thin a margin for error. As long as conditions were normal, he was fine. But the moment he faced a physical challenge—the heat, the exertion, the strain—what had been hidden was suddenly exposed. The crisis did not begin on the handball court. It began in the choices he made long before, in the unnoticed neglect of what his body truly needed. Sure, he probably wasn’t aware of the signs before him, but that’s the point of this Letter.
I now see how much of my own life followed that same pattern.
As a young man, I lived with an arrogance of believing ‘It won’t happen to me’. Crisis always seemed remote, like something that belonged to other people, older people, less capable people, less disciplined people. What I lacked was not intelligence, ambition, or drive. “I have an MBA! A black belt! A business! Ha!”
What I did lack was thirst—thirst for wisdom, truth, and understanding.
Wisdom creates margin. It widens the distance between a challenge and a collapse. It gives the soul reserves when life suddenly gets hot, demanding, or painful. Without it, we may still function for a season, but we are living dangerously close to the edge.
My ego kept me from seeing this.
Because pride was so predominant in my inner life, I was closed off to higher levels of understanding. That posture sent subtle messages to everyone around me—my wife, my children, my friends, my business associates. To some it felt off-putting. To others it came across as arrogance. And to those who were genuinely more mature, it likely looked what it truly was: immaturity dressed in the clothes of confidence.
The tragedy of ego is that it does not merely blind us to truth; it also blinds us to how our biases affect the people we love and redirects opportunity elsewhere.
It took me many years to see this for what it was and thereby gain a healthier perspective. In truth, it was not until after I turned fifty that the scales began to fall from my eyes. My Christian journey taught me that wisdom is not merely knowledge. It begins with humility. It starts with the willingness to admit thirst. Scripture says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”, Proverbs 9:10, and I now understand why. Wisdom has the potential to enter when the ego exits. Truth finds space where pride no longer crowds it out.
To the young fathers and mothers building homes, marriages, and futures: do not wait for a crisis to discover your thirst. Pursue wisdom with a driving thirst now.
Build community. Read deeply. Listen carefully. Welcome correction. Seek mentors. Stay teachable before God and before the people who know you best. Build margin for error in your soul long before the heat of life arrives.
Because someday challenge will come. Marriage will stretch you. Parenting will humble you. Work will expose your limits. Suffering will ask questions your ego cannot answer.
In those moments, the margin you built through wisdom may be the very thing that keeps your family steady. And you may need to drink from the reservoirs you have filled.
I am my father’s son.
And by God’s blessing, I am learning not merely to inherit the lesson, but to gain from it and pay it forward.
Dave and Lis
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