Did you ask those two questions of yourself last week?
1. PUT THE BOOK DOWN…….AND CONSIDER WHAT YOU WOULD THINK OF YOURSELF IF TOMORROW, YOU LOST EVERYTHING THAT THE WORLD HAS REWARDED YOU FOR!!!
2. Where are you deriving your sense of strength and power from? Ask yourself this question often.
Maybe I am wrong, but I would assume that most of you didn’t ………….
Why should you? You are comfortable, safe, healthy, employed……But are you effective in and for the Kingdom? For Jesus? I often doubt my effectiveness!!! Do you? Or do you even think about it??……….your eternal purpose? I don’t …….enough!!
It is sooooo much easier to be a Poser than a Real Man….to stand for the underdog, the "not so pretty", uneducated, poor, down trodden…is tough!!!! ..Real men expose posers……you will not be popular……..or well liked by many……..you will be challenged and humiliated……….not so cool anymore……kinda like Jesus……..crucified and buried but back, risen, and seen by over 500 people!
I met a young 13 year old boy today who was visiting our house with friends. When I innocently asked him about his father, he hung his head and with a sad voice told me his father had died when he was 5 years old as a war hero. His Aunt later told me that his father had committed suicide as a Soldier and the boy was not told the truth. Sad……this life is sad in many ways……and there are young boys out there with no Real Men in their lives. Why not you?? Why not me?? Wellllll………..you know the answer to that question…….we answered it at the beginning…..you are comfortable, safe, healthy and employed……….why the hell would I get involved with a young sad boy?
But don’t be afraid to let your strength show up………..the real you……the Real Man…….Let People feel the Weight of Who you Really are…..and let them deal with it. You and I both have a lot to offer "fatherless 13 year old boys”. Go find one and teach him how to be a Real Man.
Do people know who you really are? Are you afraid to show them? Are you afraid to be real and vulnerable? Are you posing for protection?
I remember going to a high school reunion a few years ago and meeting some buddies who had made it big….multi millionaires, married to beautiful, young women, driving fast cars and living in big houses on the beach, prestige and big titles like CEO and President……They were Legends in their own Minds! Although we were close in high school, they were very different now and I did not recognize them and they chose not to really acknowledge me. I remember thinking what money can do to a man and how we all live for this temporary pleasure of wealth and self-importance and how phony it all was!!
What is the “World” mentioned in the Bible? Eldredge says “the World is not a place or set of behaviors like drinking or dancing or going to bars, etc.—it is any system built by our collective sin, all our false selves coming together to reward and destroy each other. Take all those posers out there, put them together in an office or club or a church and want you get is what the Scriptures mean by the World.”
He goes on to say……”the World is carnival of counterfeits, counterfeit battles, counterfeit adventures, counterfeit beauties. Men should think of it as a corruption of their strength. Battle your way to the top, says the World, and you are a Man (or The Man). Why is it then that the men who get there are the most prideful, fearful, frightened, most emptiest posers around? They are mercenaries battling to build their own kingdoms. There is nothing transcendant about their own lives.
And the same holds true for adventure addicts……after the last adventure and the thrill is gone, it is still just a hobby. And we are all looking for that Golden-haired woman, the counterfeit beauty…..we are told to go for her.
Eldredge says again:
PUT THE BOOK DOWN…….AND CONSIDER WHAT YOU WOULD THINK OF YOURSELF IF TOMORROW, YOU LOST EVERYTHING THAT THE WORLD HAS REWARDED YOU FOR!!!
Where are you deriving your sense of strength and power from? Ask yourself this question often.
I am struggling with that now. I have had several chances in my live over the years to become very wealthy and God removed the opportunity……..for my own good. He knew that I could not handle it, that I would spend the wealth on me and prefer myself to others and my wife…..live for myself and not Him……for God’s sake, I have enough problem with that now in my present state.
Eldridge says….” Don’t be a self-promoter, choose the path of humility, climb down the ladder……invite the mail clerk home for dinner."
I fly a lot and it is often times a miserable experience. People are tired and miserable and grumpy. I try to find people doing something right and tell them about it……..like the flight attendant who smiles at me after a 12 hour day or the janitor scrubbing the toilet at the airport, giving it everything he’s got……to the glory of God.
Are you a Counterfeit????……….or do you let people feel the weight of who you really are??
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