God is in the business of surprising. It surprised me that we were in Nepal, the home of Mt. Everest, and living in one of the most polluted cities in the world – Kathmandu. Every now and again throughout the month when the smog was less dense I caught a glimpse of white capped mountain peaks hundreds of miles away, a far cry from the pristine mountain villages I pictured myself frolicking about doing ministry in. So our location wasn’t exactly what I expected but God surprised me in another way, a much better way, by allowing me to be impacted by a great man of God by the name of Nigel.
Throughout these last 9 months God has blessed me with two spiritual father figures to encourage, inspire, and challenge me in all aspects of my life, especially in the area of real Biblical manhood. Godsends for me in my journey especially with a women dominated squad. The last man of this caliber, who had such an impact on me was David from Costa Rica. Five months later I find myself sitting across the coffee table listening to another man, a man with true wisdom and a passion to reach the fatherless generation – to enable men to be all that they should and can be through the power of Christ. This man truly had an anointing from God. I had the privilege to sit down with him three times towards the end of the month, to really hear his heart, and for him to hear some of mine. I don’t want to make this about me, but God used Nigel to speak life into me, to revive me, to encourage, challenge, and inspire me. He inspired me to be a real man of God, a dangerous man – to go for my passions and desires. To care about something and make a difference. Among other things he helped me further work through a father wound. A wound of mine that isn’t as major as some albeit but a wound that matters nonetheless. It is the primary source of why I have always struggled with a lack of self confidence, self-esteem, and the assurance that I have what it takes. It is nothing that is or was my Dad’s fault, he loved me to the best he knew how, but no one is perfect and no father can perfectly love his son, at least no earthly father. Every man has a father wound, some more impacting than others. So let’s be honest, lets be real, lets say that it matters, and let’s let the Father heal us as men. This was my realization, this is the primary reason I had a God-ordained encounter with Nigel.
In some of his last words to my team, Nigel told us of King David’s mighty men, one of which was Shammah. In fact I had written a blog the month before about the third of David’s three Mightiest Men – more than just a coincidence to me. These men were loyal to David and to the Lord. They were men who took risks and did something with their lives – they were dangerous men. When I was in college I attended CRU. I liked CRU and I always enjoyed the weekly gatherings on Thursday nights. But I don’t remember a single thing any of the speakers ever said, except for one. It was senior send-off night and each of the seniors was to give a few words of wisdom to us. I looked up to the senior men standing there in front of everyone and so I paid attention. One of them by the name of Dan addressed the CRU “men”sitting there in that lecture hall. What he said wasn’t profound or an impressive revelation from God but it stuck with me. He said, “you men out there, I want you to get off your asses and do something with your lives”. His line stuck with me not just because he swore during a“Christian”event and I found that impressive and amusing in and of itself but because at that point I was just “sitting on my ass”and not doing anything particularly or remotely dangerous for the Kingdom of God. I really didn’t know who I was or what I was supposed to be doing and I sure as hell didn’t believe I had what it takes – so I wasn’t really doing much of anything. And sadly that’s where most of todays “men”are at, just sitting around doing all the normal nice things, especially the Christian men. A far cry from dangerous, their lives are consequently a far cry from abundant or anything that has potential to do any lasting damage for the Kingdom of God.
This blog is about how dangerous men have impacted me and it’s a blog to challenge nice, comfortable, spineless Christian men to become those dangerous men that have an impact and leave a lasting legacy. By God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit.
“The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force”. Matt. 11:12
