The Father Principle & Porn
Sometimes, a video that is less than 2 minutes long can speak to the deep and true realities of life that are core to our existence.
Watch this.
i know what you’re thinking. The deep and true realities of life? It’s a commercial. For batteries.
It is. And yet, it is about much more than batteries.
The story which is contained in the commercial hits at the heart of every man: A great relationship between a father and his son.
You get many quick glimpses of it. The father is teaching the son how to set up a tent. It’s in the backyard of the house they live in —which is pretty much where we all start with sleeping in a tent — and while in the tent, the father reassures and comforts the frightened boy.
Then the scene shifts to years when the boy is older; he is learning to enter the stage of exploration and adventure and the Father is right there, challenging the boy but teaching him how to rock climb at night.
Lastly, the boy is now a man, trying something very bold: the ascent of the Dawn Wall (one of rock climbing’s great achievements). All the while, the father is still involved. From a distance he watches, but he is readily accessible.
And the words that that son needs to hear; words of affirmation and validation and encouragement are provided by the father. The rock face is tough. So are you.
It’s beautiful.
What enhances this battery commercial — which is really a mini-film; a piece of cinematic beauty — is the fact that the climb and the father/son relationship are real.
Father and son talk a little about their relationship here.
What world-class free climber Kevin Jorgeson gets from his father in the commercial is what he got from his father throughout his years growing up: the words and actions of an engaged father who believes in his son and offers strength and love.
Every man needs that from his father. Many don’t get it. That leads to all sorts of chasing and searching and striving. The question of our masculinity remains unanswered and porn fills that void.
But not really. After all the porn, the question still lingers: “Am i a man?”
Dig deep enough into the life of a man heavily involved in porn and you will find fatherlessness — either literal fatherlessness, or an emotional sense of fatherlessness based on the nature of the his relationship with his father.
This is where God the Father steps in. He meets us in our fatherlessness, and even exposes our hunger for a Father, so that He might heal our hearts. The commercial shows in part the sort of father/son relationship God the Father has for every man.
He will comfort and protect us when we are fearful; He will train us and prepare to make the climb before us; and He will support us with words and actions in the moments when we are struggling with doubt.
And He will do much, much more than that. He will heal and restore our lives from the wounds we take in this life.
Every man needs to know God as Father in this way. In the context where we know God as the engaged and loving Father that He is, we have an entirely different interpretation of life. Difficulties are no longer cruel twists in the tale, nor are they examples of the ways in which we are failing at life.
Rather, those difficulties are challenges we know we can face because we know who we are as true sons of The Father.
A key component of experiencing a growing freedom from the pull of pornography is learning to live in our sonship; that place of grace and favor that God the Father bestows on us as His children.
Freedom is directly proportional to sonship.
Intentional Warriors 
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