06/21/2026
In the northeast corner of South Africa sits Kruger National Park — thousands of square miles of wild country, filled with elephants, lions, rhinos, and the raw power of God's creation.
In the 80's, Kruger had done such a great job of restoring the at-risk elephant population, they had too many. So, conservationists moved dozens of younger elephants to Pilanesberg National Park. It looked like a good solution.
A decade later, rangers began finding dead rhinos. At first, they suspected poachers. But the rhino horns were still there. These animals had not been hunted. They had been violently attacked. Then they began to find other animals of many species with the same result. Killed and pulverized.
Game cameras finally revealed the shocking truth. Young male elephants — adolescent bulls — were roaming the park in violent gangs, attacking and killing vulnerable animals.
Then the biologists noticed something deeper. These young males were coming into musth — a season when a male elephant’s testosterone can surge, his aggression rises, and his strength begins to outrun his maturity.
They were strong, but they were untaught. They had not been mentored into adult life.
Then the rangers brought in a few older bull elephants from Kruger. Within weeks, the violence stopped.
What changed? The young males needed fathers. True of that story - and true of our world today.
Our young men also need what they needed: mature masculinity in front of them.
They needed strength that had been disciplined. They needed presence. They needed order. They needed an older male to show them what power was for. They needed to be fathered.
That is Father’s Day. Raising up the next generation into their manhood. With order, consecration, and the love of Christ.
Paul said to the church in Corinth, “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers” (1 Corinthians 4:15).
An instructor gives you what he knows. A father gives you who he is.
An instructor gives knowledge from his mind. A father gives love from his heart.
My dad said it this way, “Being a male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of choice.”
And one of the greatest choices a man can make is to become a father in spirit — to stand in front of the next generation and say, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”
Our world does not simply need more information. It needs fathers.
Men who carry the spirit of a father. Men who bring order, courage, conviction, love, discipline, and blessing. Men who do not just correct behavior but call out destiny.
This Father’s Day, we honor every dad, every grandfather, every mentor, every pastor, every coach, every spiritual father who has stood in the gap for a young man who needed someone to show him the way.
Your presence is vital.
Your voice is crucial.
Your blessing makes a difference.
Because when fathers show up, the killing stops, the chaos breaks, the sons stand taller, and the future changes. God placed you here for that ... to build a legacy and change the future of the world through the power of Christ in you.
