I’ve had a hard time writing this month. Part of that is just plain tiredness that comes from waking up at 6:30 every morning and working hard all day. The other part is a mystery. Usually I write about what God is teaching me, what I am experiencing, or what happens on a day to day basis. This month, that’s really simple. It doesn’t involve a lot of writing, or thinking, or analysis. It even took me a while to realize. This month has involved learning, but nothing specific. It has been about experiences, but nothing especially spectacular has happened. Even day to day life has been pretty low key all month. So what has this month been about?
We started off this month dissecting and studying what it means to be a man, specifically a man of God. What really separates the men from the boys? Well, a lot. Men, especially men of God, are made to be warriors – passionate pursuers of a spirit-filled life. Every warrior has a cause to fight for. The warrior pursuing his cause becomes consumed with passion. The passionate warrior has someone to protect, and ultimately a kingdom to advance. But a Godly man is also vulnerable, open, and understands the place and value of true intimacy. A real man knows who he is, understands his identity and calling, and walks in it daily. Most of all, men are made to cultivate – to be producers of life, family, and legacy, not consumers of material possessions, relationships, or time. Men of God are men of action. Men of God do.
That’s what this month has been about for me. Doing. Not merely talking about faith, or belief, or true manliness, but living it out. Discovering what it means to work hard to further the kingdom. In so many ways this month has been about the change, the transformation that comes when you stop trying and start doing – when you leave the details to God and walk in the faith of who he has made you to be. This only comes from God. This comes from the same Spirit of God that lived and moved in Jesus, that lives and moves in me. I have spent this month with 13 other amazing guys, not just talking, or studying, or trying – but being. Being men. Being intimate. Being strong. Being alive. I have felt so alive this month – effortlessly alive.
I will be in Africa in two days. From the day I signed up for this year, Africa has been hi-lighted in my mind. I have no idea what to expect. There is a nervous excitement bubbling up inside me that I can’t quite express fully. God is preparing me for something big, something I cannot handle on my own, but I don’t know what. We’ll see. But I’m not going to sit back and wait…
“12Not that I have already<sup value='(E)’> obtained this or<sup value='(F)’> am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for<sup value='(H)’> the prize of the upward<sup value='(I)’> call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:12-14)
