SONSHIP STORIES:

KOSTAS V.

ATHENS, GREECE

“In this season of life, married, three kids, moving across the world—things often just feel messy, like everything is not how it's supposed to be. Everything is not in order. And my mind goes to, ‘How do I bring things back into my control?’ My feelings become muted. My reality is muted. It's hard to engage emotionally with people, especially the people who I love the most.”

“As men, especially when we grow up with fathers who didn’t spend that face-to-face or even shoulder-to-shoulder time with us, we lack words being spoken into our lives. And I think there’s this longing to be spoken to and for words that have meaning to resuscitate something in us or to heal a part of our lives. When it happens, it's a sacred moment. That's what Canyon Pathways words do for men, I think—they’re a symbol that the Father does love us, right now.”

“I came to my first Canyon Pathways retreat in a state of personal crisis, of burnout, and I was given the word ‘Lift’ that first night. I didn't have the mental capacity to respond to it immediately. So I was like, I just need to hold on to it. But this word has aged well in my life. It's something that I continue to discover as I grow in sonship—that the Father wants to lift me, carry me, just like I do my kids.”

“My wife is a really good barometer for me—she’ll observe, ‘You're just so angry. You’re wound up all the time.’ And in that state, I tend to see the world as checklists, things to accomplish, things to get done. I feel very weighted down by responsibilities. I’ll feel the stress in my body, my neck, my shoulders, and people become more tasks than image bearers to me.”

“Learning to live like a son has helped me lead like a father, and that’s where I have the most vision for my life right now. For some reason I have a lot of confidence in being a father. So this international move we made from Texas to Taiwan becomes about ‘What stories do I want my kids to share one day?’ It's how I'm investing in their lives right now and building their character and helping them to be resilient. So, yeah, I love being a dad. If I could be paid to do it full time, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”