“So
much wasted time…” David
Cassidy’s last words
David Cassidy, known primarily for his role
in the 1970s musical-sitcom, The Partridge
Family, died on November 21st. He was 67. Born into a show
business family, he rocketed to stardom on The
Partridge Family. As eldest son “Keith Partridge,” he became a global
heartthrob as the face – and voice – of the Partridge Family’s biggest hit, “I
Think I Love You.”
After the show ended in 1974, he devoted
himself to recording and songwriting, but struggled to match the success of his
early-20s. Late in life, he struggled with numerous personal problems. He was
charged with driving under the influence on three separate occasions. His third
wife, Sue Shifrin, filed for divorce in February of 2014 after 23 years of
marriage. In 2015, he filed for bankruptcy, listing assets and debts of up to
$10 million. That September, he was cited for leaving the scene of an accident.
David Cassidy is survived by two children,
musician Beau Cassidy and actress Katie Cassidy, with whom he acknowledged
having a distant relationship. “I wasn't her father. I was her biological
father but I didn't raise her,” he told an interviewer earlier this year. “She
has a completely different life.” Yet, David Cassidy himself was estranged from
his father, actor Jack Cassidy. He often expressed regret about Jack being
mostly absent from his life after David’s parents split up when he was 5. He
stayed with his mother and by the early 1960s had moved to Los Angeles.
As I read articles about his death, I felt very
sad. What saddened me the most was that though David Cassidy personally knew
the pain of being estranged from his father, he repeated that terrible wounding
in the lives of his own children. They needlessly became victims because of his
failure to change generational family patterns from which he himself had so
terribly suffered. Sadly, it’s a common pattern and one we often find in the
Bible.
If
we do not determine to be proactive, we too will face the consequences of
generational sin. Sin always has consequences. Many of us are familiar with the
law of the harvest that we find in Galatians 6:7-8a, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows,
that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own
flesh will from the flesh reap corruption…” You reap what you sow. There’s
no escape from this law. If you sow carrots, you get carrots. If you sow
strawberries, you get strawberries. If you sow good things in your life, you
reap good things. If you sow sin in your life, you reap the consequences of
that sin.
David Cassidy passed down family sin generationally. It’s a common cycle
– sin patterns are passed down from parents to children and then to their
children. For example, Abraham passed down the sin of lying to Isaac, who
passed it on to his deceiving son Jacob. A study of Israel’s kings show how one
king after another was influenced by his father’s sin. Let me share just one
example. “Ahaziah the son of
Ahab began to reign over Israel…and he reigned two years over Israel. He
did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of
his father and in the way of his mother…He provoked the Lord…to
anger in every way that his father had done” (1 Kings 22:51-53).
We
see this law at work within our own families and in society around us.
Prejudice is passed down. Alcoholism runs in families. Children of divorced
parents are more prone to divorce. This law of the generational harvest should
sober us when we ponder the implications for our children and grandchildren.
When I counsel a young couple in our pre-marital sessions, I warn them
that unless they are biblically pro-active, their marriage and parenting will
repeat the patterns of their parents. Recently, I saw a picture of a family
gathering. The grandfather had a reputation for being surly and negative. It
was very disheartening to see that same spirit reflected in the countenances of
his grandchildren. Yet, the opposite is often true. If parents are kind and
thoughtful, the adult children will often be kind and thoughtful.
Any pastor who has been in the ministry for at least a generation can
fairly accurately predict the spiritual aptitude of the next generation. If the
parents were casual about spiritual things, haphazard about church attendance
or the application of spiritual truth, their adult children will often only
increase in those sad patterns. Many times they completely drop out of church
and have little or no fruits of Christlikeness in their lives.
So
what can we do? Be honest with ourselves, God and our children. The
wrong tendency is to rationalize and justify ourselves. The solution is to instead
confess our sin and humble ourselves. Then, we need to ask the Lord to reveal
secret sins to us and sinful patterns. After we confess them and ask for God’s
grace, we must be honest with our adult children and take responsibility for
our failures. I appreciate that David Cassidy was honest and admitted that he
blew it. Unfortunately, he waited until nearly the end of his life to do it.
Finally,
we need to faithfully study God’s Word and look for spiritually healthy
patterns. As we see them, we must cry out to God for grace and the Spirit’s
power to replace our sinful patterns with the successful, godly ones that we
see in Scripture.
As
I look back on my countless failures as a husband and father, the truth of
Proverbs 18:13 encourages me, “Whoever conceals
his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes
them will obtain mercy.” We all blow it but God loves to pour out His mercy
and grace on us. But someone needs to stop and break the evil pattern. Will it
be you?
Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.
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