Welcome to Part 1 of a 3 part series entitled The Chronicles of Men. Basically Man Month (aka Manistry in Thailand) has been out of control sweet. Hopefully I can give you some insight and some challenges as we peak into our month…so with out further ado, here is Part 1
Man Month…I don’t even know what to say there has been so much. I’m just gonna let it flow and see what comes out. Let’s see if I can verbalize some of the greatness that is Man Month. (p.s. at this point this was not a 3 part series…but when I get excited about something I just can’t help it!)
What happens when you get 14 dudes together for one whole month? Dirt? Farting? Sweat? Food? Well yeah, those are definitely staples of Man Month. But what about these…Transparency. Vulnerability. Intimacy. Yeah, can you imagine that? Fourteen men living out biblical community. Pride checked at the door,posturing and image management eliminated, allowing brothers to see each other broken, hurting, authentic…That is what being a real man is about. We as men have gotten it wrong for so long. We get raised in the back of school busses and through the media resulting in no actual concept of what it means to be a man. Who can lift the most weight, who is the best at sports, who has the best looking girlfriend, who never cries, who can pretend that he has it all together the best…
Well my brothers and I are sick and tired of media manhood. We want the real thing, we want to be real men. I guess that means looking at the ultimate man…Jesus. So what is a real man…? Well, here is a little bit of what I’ve learned this month.
To my fellow Warriors:
This month we listened to a sermon series by Craig Groeschel of Life Church called “The Warrior”. Every man of God is called to be a warrior. Unfortunately we don’t necessarily live out this high calling. Too often we are paralyzed by our biggest fear…FAILURE.
That word is pretty scary right? It’s staring you in the face right now isn’t it? Why is that? Why is our greatest fear so often failure? What the sermons claimed, and what I wholeheartedly agree, is that men often internalize our failure. That is, if we fail externally, then we feel as if we are failures internally. If we fail, then that makes US failures…
Side note…To my women: you have a role in this as well. I know many of you can be frustrated by the lack of godly men in this world. And I know you desire for men to step up and lead as God has called us to. So when you are hoping to motivate the men in your life remember this. Each man needs to know that people believe in him and he is respected. That’s it. If you want to motivate the men in your life, show him that you respect and believe in him as a spiritual leader. Cutting him down, in an attempt for reverse psychology will not work. That will only drive him to fear failure more. If you emasculate him, well then he won’t be the godly man you hope for. Okay, now where was I…
Anybody else ever feel that way? I’m certain I’m not alone. But there is a deep heart issue which we as men must work out. Unfortunately, you will have to come back tomorrow to dig a little bit deeper. We just scratched the surface today…but who wants to read a four page essay? I’m guessing not you. So instead we get three days to talk about this. My one request is that we make this interactive. Whatever thoughts, questions, challenges you might have please comment or email me. I love processing through all of this, so please please please let me know your thoughts!
I’ll let you go with a picture of what I end every single night to here in Thailand. (seriously, it’s like looking at a post card every night).
