We have three days to kill before we travel to the Philippines. Clint Black sings in my head “killin time is killin me…”, but time to kill is my favorite time. I love when I have a choice in how to spend my time. Here at this condo, where Linnea and I are teamed up with Rusty Jackson, Joshua Daniels, Alissa Gibson, Leah Anderson, Lynnette Lee, and Amy Morris, we have electricity, a toilet, a shower, air conditioning, fans (thank you Jesus!), it is a cozy little spot, but I am especially thankful for two things, the big swimming pool and the exercise room.
Last night Josh and I competed in who could swim farthest underwater on one breath. This is not wasting time, this is training and building each other up and pushing each other farther than each of us thought we could go. This is what I believe healthy men do when we have time to kill. Push each other to be better than we think we can be, this is where our dreams are heading, getting boys and young men to wake up and truly be who God made them to be. Well, I have to admit, I went farther than I thought I would, not as far as I could have gone a few years ago, but I was pretty happy with the push. I pulled up just short of two lengths of the pool which is probably about two thirds the length of an Olympic pool. It is funny how I age that who I was in the past keeps seeming better, and I had my poor cranky shoulders to blame when Josh went a full 3 laps, and my poor cranky shoulder to blame when Rusty can throw the football on a rope to me and my return throw flaps in the air and quacks like a duck getting shot and one hops to him.
Today I woke up and went to the exercise room. Did some time on the stationary bike, reading the book that Seth gave me, by Rick Joyner. This book is called “Leadership, Management and the Five Essentials for Success”. I would say I was inspired by the creativity of the title, but Seth said it was worth reading and I started it a couple of days ago and it really is worth reading. I then did a little workout and swam 22 laps or 44 lengths and felt really good about myself.
I then went out for coffee and breakfast for Linnea and I, while she was figuring out and getting frustrated with the teams finances. I started reading the book again and read about The Knights of the Order of St. John. These men were used as an example of what can be accomplished by men living to the highest standards of leadership.
From 1309 until 1565 these men defended Europe from the threat of the Ottoman Empire. These men faced odds that were often 100 to 1, and prevented Europe from being ruled by the Islamic Empire. These couple thousand men changed the course of history because of their willingness to sacrifice themselves for the good of others (different than the Islamic Jihadists they faced who were willing to die, killing others in battle, due to the promise of heaven, like the 9/11 guys).
I had planned on reading a few pages and then taking a nap after my big workout, but reading about these men inspired me to get back into the exercise room and then come to type, to use my free time wisely, so here I am typing, wondering, thinking, and dreaming, about the future. This future that seems so wide open and possible. Wondering, how do we call more men out to this world race? Where are the men that are inspired by Braveheart and Gladiator. Men that grew up reading adventure and dreaming of the ‘frontier’? Where are the bold and daring men, the honorable and the noble? Men that desire to live for something bigger than themselves? Bigger than career and toys and ego?
Joyner writes that a good leader knows the soul of the enterprise; the product is the reason for the enterprise. Joyner writes that the soul of America is linked to conquest and adventure, a desire to achieve and push the limits. I believe that is the soul of the American man, but someone has lied and said that the soul of the man is to make a profit, make a paycheck, get laid, get married. The big problem is that so many men have swallowed this lie, and are frustrated and angry and depressed. Have given up hope, I think for some men the purpose of life is to have the adventure of the slavery of debt and paying it off, that many men are scared of what life would look like truly free and alive. But the true soul of a man cries for adventure, for pushing the limits, and the depressed and angry man stuck in the career and sacrificing for his family wears his depression and frustration like a badge of honor that comes from denying his true destiny. This crippled man actually finds some pride in his slavery to career and religion and ego, and thinks he is a hero.
I think of the vision for this world race and the product of people coming fully alive and I ask the question to anyone reading this, if you are tired of the slavery I have just written about and desire living a life more along the lines of the Order of St. John (I am going to see what the internet has on the topic), then I would suggest applying to this world race as a possible first step to push the limits of who you are and what you can be.
A final thought from Rohr:
“There are two ways of being a prophet. One is to tell the enslaved that they can be free. It is the difficult path of Moses. The second is to tell those who think they are free that they are in fact enslaved. This is the even more difficult path of Jesus.”
