Manhood isn’t what it used to be. The world, the flesh, and the enemy have tried to convince humanity that being a man means harboring no responsibility, sleeping with as many women as possible, living a life committed to nothing and no one, being fueled by lustful desires, and a selfish “look out for numba-one” mentality. I think it’s obvious that this is not the way God intended it to be.
This weekend, I’m going to be at the Alaska Men’s MinistriesSon’s of the Father conference that will help to define and discuss what it means to truly be a Man of God. There’s a line in the brochure for the conference that I love. It says:
Real men are men who are real.
It’s about being real with ourselves, it’s about being real with others, and it’s about being real with God. There’s so many voices trying to tell us what it means to be a man; but let’s listen to the voice of God and hear what He has to say on what it means to be a man. I can guarantee that God given identity of being a man is better than the perverted identity that we are bombarded with every hour of every day.
Over the last few days there’s been a certain sadness in my heart as I’ve read some really harmful and damaging words that certain Christians were writing regarding others. I’ve tried to come up with the words to adequately express the sadness and heart ache I feel, but one of the people I follow on Twitter posted a tweet today that put words to my feelings.
Christian on Christian web violence makes no sense to me. Why do we think we can love offline and hate online?
When are we as the Church going to finally embrace each other instead of attempt to bite and devour each other?
It’s no secret that my favorite band is Hillsong United. They also have a feature length documentary coming out soon talking about justice and worship. I found a trailer for it and the words spoken in it cut right to my heart. Have a look.
Real worship goes way beyond the music, it goes beyond the lights, it goes beyond the jump and dancing and lifting our hands in praise. These things are all well and good, but if our actions aren’t in line with our words, if what goes on in our churches does not affect what goes on in our world – then what’s the point of it all? The answer is simple, yet not easy. It’s to care for the widows and orphans. To speak out on behalf of those who have no voice. It’s to desire and seek out justice in a world that is full of injustice.
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
- James 2:14-18
I have blind spots – and I’m not talking about the one when I’m driving.
I have parts of me that I am not aware of.
Quirks.
Issues.
Struggles.
Sometimes when I see one of these blind spots it startles me and I wonder how I didn’t notice it.
Sometimes I try to deny that there is actually something in that spot.
God, through directly speaking to me or through other people, generally tells me that there is something there.
God wants to expose harmful blind spots in my life and heal them.
God wants to expose harmful blind spots in your life and heal them.
Will you let Him?
Will you open yourself up to see if there’s something that needs to be dealt with that you’re unaware of?
Will you trust Him to heal it?
Because I’ll bet you this…
He wants to.
Like the things I have in my life that God has been and is bringing into the light and saying, “Dustin, this is something that we need to take care of.” I believe that we all have areas that God wants to restore. Here’s an example using me. Friday night while talking to someone very close to me who I trust a lot, I said something that hinted at a blind spot in my life. The person I was talking to totally called me out on it and didn’t let me back track and brush it off as nothing. After we talked a little bit and I prayed and asked God what that was about, He brought up memories from my life in which this blind spot formed. I then proceeded to give that issue to God and choose to no longer hold onto it, but let Him take it from me.
It’s amazing in times like that when you can really feel and see the work that God is doing in you. It’s not always fun or easy, but God never said it would be. However He did promise that it would be worth it.
I have blind spots. But hopefully, I have fewer than I did last week.
Psalm 13 is not one of those feel-good-Psalms that you read when you’re having a great day and are loving life. It’s one of those psalms you read when you’re in a valley. A desert. A storm. This Psalm that David wrote is really calling out God and saying, “Where did you go!? What happened!? Why have you left me naked to fend for myself when my enemies are all around me!? Why have you let me feel this pain that I’m feeling!? Why…”
This is a feeling that I’m pretty sure that everyone has felt in their relationship with Christ, and if you haven’t felt this way yet, there’s a good chance that you will. I’ve felt this way for the last couple days and I’ve really been questioning why God would do something to, in a sense, take something away from me that I needed and not provide something else to fill that need. Last night it came down to me just venting to God and listing out what I’m feeling and why I feel that way. I went to the Psalms to find something that would resonate with what I’m feeling and came to Psalms 13 and 22. (Psalm 22 is the one that starts out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). And as I was reading these Psalms through the tears, the thing I noticed was how quick of a change the Psalm goes from a broken heart that is crying out, to a heart that is full of hope and trusting in who God is. Here’s Psalm 13:
1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
Did you see that? There were four verses of David crying out in a very raw and real way, and then in verse 5 he turns around and says, “But I trust in your unfailing love…” It’s so hard for me to comprehend how much it takes to be able to say that and truly mean it. To be in the midst of a violent storm and still have your eyes fixed on God instead of the chaos around you is much easier said than done. But I think that if we’re able to do that, if I’m able to do that, we’d see that our ginormous troubles are microscopic compared to who God is. That’s not to say that our troubles and needs aren’t real; it’s saying that God is big enough to cast our cares on and he’s big enough to provide for them. Now, saying that you still trust in God when you’re going through a storm does not negate the pain that you’re going through. What it does though, is say that in the midst of the pain that God is still God.
Jesus said in Luke 12:
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Our needs our real. God knows this. And just like it says in the passage from Luke, God provides for the birds, and we are so much more important to Him than birds! In a storm, I think it’s important to still have our eyes on God and trust that he will provide for us like He promised.
Yesterday, as most of you know, was Thanksgiving; and as the owner of this blog, that brought up a question that I wrestled with for most of the day (well, maybe not most of the day, but it was something I thought about). Should I do a “Thanksgiving Post”? You know, a post where I say what I’m thankful for and all that jazz. Or should I take the day off from blogging to truly do what is encouraged, which is spending time with loved ones? Some of the blogs that I follow didn’t put up any posts and some of them did a Thanksgiving post, so since I couldn’t make up my mind on which one I’d do, I’m doing both. I didn’t blog yesterday and am doing my Thanksgiving post today. So here it is.
I’m thankful for the incredible steak dinner that my family had on Thanksgiving Day because steak kicks turkey’s tail any day.
You know those moments you experience once in a while where your eyes are opened and you react with with, “Wow, that’s amazing.” or “Wow, that’s terrible.”? I had one of those moments recently.
We live in a culture that’s all about “Me” and what I can do to make myself look, feel, and live better. Recently while I was in the bathroom at church, (why is it that people get revelations when they’re in the bathroom?), I was washing my hands and just about ready to go do something else when I looked in the mirror and realized the total cost of what I was wearing. Combined with my shoes, jeans, shirt, and jacket, I was wearing well over $200 worth of apparel on me. From there I realized that I’ll justify and make impulse buys on nice clothes and other stuff but then hesitates and cringes a little bit when I make my $40 a month contribution to my Compassion child. That’s not okay and this is something I think God has started working on me with in the quiet times when it’s just He and I.
Despite what I’d like to believe and what I like to portray as a person who has it all together, I’m still a mess and God still has a lot of work to do in me. But it’s a process. And although it might be hard and painful…
More than one billion people around the world live in poverty making less than one dollar a day. Eight hundred-million people go to bed hungry every night. Every three and a half seconds a person, often a child, dies as a result of extreme poverty and hunger. These facts, especially the last one, are humbling and heartbreaking to me as the reasons for their suffering and death is completely preventable.
I’ve always known that there are poor people out there who need help, but I’ve never done anything about it. I’ve sat back in my comfortable and trendy lifestyle and thought that someone else can do something to help and take care of these people. But as of late I’ve been exposed more to what poverty really looks like. It has come from reading about trips to Uganda to take a first hand look at life in the area; from my own sponsorship of a three year old boy in Uganda and reading about his life there; from the upcoming homeless feed the youth groups at my church are putting on; and from talking to Joel and seeing some of his pictures from Sudan:
What’s my excuse for not doing anything? I don’t have one. I’ve sat by comfortably my whole life while knowing that there is unnecessary suffering in the world. I’ve had a very legalistic approach to it to make it so I don’t feel guilty for my lack of action. I read a quote today from Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love that says it all:
Lukewarm people do whatever is necessary to keep themselves from feeling guilty. They want to do the bare minimum to be “good enough” without it requiring much of them… They ask, “How much do I have to give?” instead of, “How much can I give?”.
That’s me right there, asking, “How much do I have to give?” When God wants me to ask “How much can I give?”. So what I want to do now is issue a challenge to you, and I am going to take this challenge as well. In prayer today, go to God and ask, “How much can I give of myself to help these people?”
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