Part 2::Do You Know A Strong Man? I Do…Me
This year of doing missions around the world, and how I became a MAN, was the scariest, hardest, and most humbling experience I have ever intentionally put myself through.
You might be wondering:
"How did the change happen? What went on during the year to change a weak man's heart to a strong man's heart?"
I can't exactly pinpoint for you what did it, what stopped the tears inside of me and replaced them with an unspeakable boldness. It wasn't just one thing. It wasn't just one event. It wasn't just one good learning experience.
It was the time and experiences of a year; A grueling year.
This journey of traveling the world and leading 50 other young adults resulted in my weakness inside, my tears, to be replaced with boldness, strength, courage, and Manhood.
living with strange people groups, being immersed into foreign cultures and languages, ministering to the dying, eating different foods, facing death, facing abuse, facing fears, facing weaknesses. All these and more, gave me experiences that built me up, and intrinsically gave me what I was looking for: my Manhood.
Did becoming a MAN inside mean I was able to look at this past year and be boastful or prideful for surviving and thriving in the challenges? NO NO NO! Actually, my pride was not built up. In fact, the opposite happened. My pride as a man was shot down. Any strength of Noe I thought I had was obliterated. How? By standing in front of a group of 50 young American smart college graduates and telling them you made a mistake as you're the one leading them. By getting yelled at in the face by an African man in Swahili ready to beat you to the ground. By going to sleep in your car knowing you don't know if your team is going to make it out alive of the Aussie jungle and you're responsible for them. By being called upon as a 28 yr. old to go face to face with a foreign pastor of 30 years of an entire African village and convince him that he is in the wrong, that I am taking one of my teams out of his home and ministry. By trying to keep your cool when you get robbed 5 times of all your possessions, and all you were there to do in that country was to help them.
My pride was humbled. I made mistakes. I took some blows. My strength was made weak. On my own strength, I was not able, I was not adequate. But through realizing I was made with an unexplainable amount of ability, strength, and courage, by God and through His Holy Spirit, I was made a MAN. I was made an adequate man! My relationship with God, me and Him together, I can conquer, I can win, I can fight the good fight. I was made adequate! I am nothing on my own, but healed and made strong with God on my side.
The internal strength I have is not rude, not a fighter with fists, not a bully, not a manipulator. It is manhood that knows wisdom, knows patience, knows gentleness, knows decisiveness, knows how to be as shrewd as a snake and as innocent as a dove. Put any challenge in front of my face, and through Christ, I can do all things!
