My two eldest girls have this thing at their school that is called “All Pro Dads,” that they finally convinced me to attend. The program actually seems to be a great thing. Myself and a bunch of other dads of kids in the school sat at the cafeteria tables and talked through some good virtue based stuff. Today we talked about contentment. It was pretty good. I’ll probably go back when they do the next one. Plus, they had donuts.
But before today, I had shied away from all pro dads, telling my girls that I “wasn’t ready to go pro yet,” and that I was still at the amateur level of ‘dadding’. I suppose I got drafted today. I can’t wait until the NIL agreements start pouring in.
It got me thinking about that separation of “pro” and “amateur” in our culture. An amateur is etymologically someone who does something “for the love of the thing itself”. By that definition, I am most certainly an amateur dad. But a professional is someone who does something as a part of their occupation. Now, I don’t get paid for my ‘dadding’, but it is my vocation – a specific calling given to me by God. So in that sense, I can wear “all pro dad” legitimately.
It got me thinking also about being a Christian. At one level, you are an amateur Christian – you are a Christian for the love of it. God has shown you love in Christ, and so you show that love to God and to your neighbor. But I think like ‘dadding,’ we’re a little reluctant to own “all pro Christian”.
When I told my girls that I wasn’t ready to be a “pro dad,” they responded to me with incredulity. “C’mon dad, you’ve been a dad for 9 years. You’re definitely a pro.” To them, being a pro wasn’t about achieving a level of success or accomplishment, it was just about being in the vocation. I wonder if God gives us the same scoffing response when we say that we’re not ready “to go pro” with our Christianity. “How many years now since you’ve been baptized?”
My girls made me a “pro dad” the moment they were conceived. It didn’t mean I had everything together. It DID mean that I had to be forgiven a lot (still does). But it did mean that it was my vocation now, my calling. Same goes for your Baptism. You were baptized, and in that moment you gained the vocation of being a Christian. You may not feel like it, or even look like it sometimes, but you’re a pro. You have been made a pro by a God who made you that by His grace, through the Cross and Resurrection. So own it. You’re an “all pro Christian”. And we’re all learning what that means as we live out our vocations in His grace. Amen.