My Father's Chair

We had a very powerful Men's Fraternity meeting this morning. Robert Lewis talked about Facing the Father Wound. The entire room was silent as Robert shared from the pain of his own journey and how he has found forgiveness and freedom. At the end of the session he read a poem called, My Father's Chair. He sat in his own father's chair on the platform as he read the poem. It was a powerful moment.

I knew that I had heard that poem before. I came back to my office (After taking Josh and Jon to school because a car broadsided them at C Ave and 74th. Thankfully, no one was hurt.) and found the author to the poem. David Meece wrote the lyrics and sang My Father's Chair on his Once In A Lifetime album that was released in 1992. We owned that CD and I always loved the lyrics to My Father's Chair.

Robert Lewis read the first two verses from that song:

Sometimes at night I'd lie awake
Longing inside for my father's embrace
Sometimes at night I'd wander downstairs
And pray he'd returned, but no one was there.
Oh, how I'd cry, a child all alone
Waiting for him to come home.
Chorus:My father's chair, sat in an empty room
My father's chair, covered with sheets of gloom
My father's chair through all the years
And all the tears I cried in vain
No one was there in my father's chair.

Sometimes at night I sit all alone
Drifting asleep in a chair of my own
When sweet sleepy eyes peer down from the hall
Frightened by dreams they cannot recall
I hold them close, calming their fears
Praying they always will say,
Chorus:My father's chair sits in a loving room
My father's chair, no matter what I do
My father's chair, through all the years
And all the tears I need not fear
Love's always there in my father's chair.

But David Meece also wrote a third verse. I especially like it because it talks about my Heavenly Father:

Sometimes at night I dream of a throne
Of my loving God, calling me home
And as I appear, He rises and smiles
And reaches with love to welcome His child
Never to cry, never to fear
In His arms, safe and secure.
Chorus:My Father's chair sits in a royal room
My Father's chair holds glory beyond the tomb
My Father's chair, my God is there
And I am His eternal heir
Someday I'll share my Father's chair.

Someday I will curl up in my Heavenly Father's arms to spend eternity with Him. But in the mean time, I'm thankful for my dad who was and is a great role model for me of what it means to be a man. And I'm thankful for Ryan, Jason, Josh and Jon and the incedible young men they are becoming. And I hope that my boys too can say that "love was always there in my father's chair."