A wise sage once shared with me the secret to being a stress free man, he said every job requires– The Four T’s.
Every man’s got em, not every man uses em.
I don’t mean the literal appendages, I mean as in nerve, huevos, “to Cowboy Up,” pull the trigger, time to Man up, step off the cliff…
Risk is a part of life, the opposite of taking a risk is not being conservative, it is resignation. To be resigned to a life of uselessness (or “impotence”) Our language for being courageous is built around our most sensitive part. The part you want to protect at all cost. Ironically it is the pain that we try to avoid that has to be risked in order to achieve great strides.
There are two ways that courage manifests itself these days. Not all of us are faced with babies in burning buildings or going toe to toe with a bad guy at a crime scene. But, we do have choices to make about our purpose and battling for those who can’t/shouldn’t have to defend themselves.
Purpose
Are you doing what you love, what you were born to do? Or, have you resigned yourself to the lie that this is as good as it gets you might as well work like a dog and ache for the weekend to get here. Its funny, the resigned life is hard to live but easy to fall in to. And the purposeful life is hard to get into and easier to live in.
There is a parable in Matthew 25 that tells of a ruler who goes on a trip and entrusts some money to 3 of his workers. While he is away, the first invests the money and doubles it. The second does the same, the third hides the money and waits for the master to return. Here’s what the third guy says:
25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ 26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! … 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 28 ”Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents… 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness
“I was afraid” he says, that’s code for, “I didn’t have the stones to take a risk”
Battles
I was in a fast food joint not long ago when I overheard an old man berating the teenage girl behind the counter. He was an old dude but he was using his position as a customer to talk down to the girl that didn’t know about their “senior” menu. He kept on shouting at her about being overcharged for his drink. I told my wife to hand me a dollar and I went to the counter to pay the overcharge. He wouldn’t let me and turned his argument to me. Excellent. This is what I wanted to prove to her. She didn’t deserve this treatment and a stranger thought enough of her to deflect the abuse. I was then able to tell the man that he was acting inappropriately and he was shamed into not talking to the girl anymore.
There are battles to be fought all around us. There could be tendency to make mountains out of mole hills in an effort to look like you’re fighting for truth and justice but I always weigh the situation from two sides. Justice and Grace. Some people have a keen sense of justice while others live with an acute sense of grace. If someone is abusing both at the same time, its time to step in.
I am very good at fighting for people who I don’t think can fight for themselves, I sometimes step over the line but I don’t see that as being too bad. I do however have a huge problem pulling the trigger on taking a risk. I know I’m not doing what I was put here to do and if I’d just step off the cliff I’d be rewarded but, I wait and take baby steps and hope one day God will push me off the cliff so I don’t have to make the decision. God give me strength to trust you.
If you don’t think this is a serious issue in the life of a man, try this on for size: Rev 21:8
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.
Check out who leads this list of people heading to “the second death.”
So, I guess my advice to myself is to, “grow a pair.”
Finally there is something “Christians” do that sounds cool. When I hear the term “Vision Casting” I think of the Native American practice of going on a “Vision Quest.” The result of Vision Casting isn’t that much different but you don’t have to go through all that living in the desert stuff that can be uncomfortable. In the end you are confronted with purpose and a direction to steer it. And, if you’ve never heard Craig Groeschel cast a vision for direction you’ve missed out. Craig is a good teacher, its one of the reasons I wanted to keep going to Lifechurch but when he gets passionate about something it tends to have world-wide ramifications. Take, for example, OnePrayer.com. If you have ever wondered why we need all those denominations and 25 churches of the same type in every city and how absurd that is and what can be done about “Christian” unity, then go read the mission of One Prayer.