Christian Living

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In this generation of Christian men in America there is a crisis of duality that borders on madness. Christian men are afflicted in much the same way as in Paul’s keening wail in Romans 7 about his sinful nature.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The duality of spirit to flesh is ever present in our fallen world. And for men we see this in their passivity. The core longing of the heart of a man, the masculine soul, is for adventure yet so often men choose a life of passivity and timidity, particularly with matters of faith. Men who are forces for action and agents of change in their careers and recreation too often hit a space of apathy with the mission of Christ. This duality is a critical area of frustration for Christian men in this generation who were invited into Christianity with excitement and fervor to find that there is not much happening in the body after all.

The church has contributed to this in a huge way by setting its focus on the activity of the organization at the expense of the activity of the body. To many churches in America see Sunday worship as their “Game Day.” It is the main event for the week but for the Body it is not. Sunday worship for the Body is just the locker room. It is pre-game. Game day starts when the Body, the real church, exits the building and takes their faith and commitment to the Great Commission of Christ with them.

Tragically there is a vacuum of support and structure from one Sunday to the next that takes place outside of the walls of the church. As a man we are left to ask “What’s next? What do I do now?” And while the answer is clear the application is not and worst of all, we find ourselves alone. This reality can be terrifying and few men may find the inner strength to move. Those who do move often find themselves alone and easy prey, vulnerable to the enemy. These men discover an experience akin to the lone gazelle in the steppes of Africa.

This is why it is so critical to get men to move in a fellowship. We are designed to move, engage and act but we are not meant to go alone. Jesus knew this foundational truth and as his first act in ministry gathered his men around him. The son of God, God in the Flesh, needed his fellowship and then He moved. This is our example to follow.

And you see the difference in situations when we do. Last Saturday was an example of this and what a blessing it was to the men who were a part of it. From the outside it looked like any other moving day with a U-Haul truck, a gang of misfit volunteers and a household of goods to be moved. But in reality there was a lot more going on than moving boxes and furniture.

Men came together and shared the adventure together. For a few hours we were all sharing in the experience of being “that guy” who made a difference. We could pick up heavy things, drive trucks, hook up a clothes washer and dryer but there was something even more primal taking place. We were the agent of rescue for a beauty. We were the men who came to the aid of the woman in distress. We stood between her and the world and said to her “For this time we are your shield bearer. Nothing harms you while we are standing.”

Can there be anything more exciting? Adventure is the gold in the dirt of life and last week we had a grand one. In those few hours I worked with men who were strangers to me and over a few hours we had the seeds of a fellowship planted. I have no idea if those seeds will grow to produce fruit but at least there is the possibility whereas before there was none. But each of us can move forward with the knowledge that a good work was done and we were, if only for a blink of an eye, engaged with a band of brothers and for a moment our spirits were vibrantly alive.

This is the way we should be living every day. But would you choose it if it was available? Be careful how you answer that question because there is no reply to that invitation which will not result in judgment. You can choose your role but it will not come without a cost.

You can choose to engage and it will cost you time, energy, money and freedom. It will cause sacrifices you are not always exuberant about making. It will change everything around you and everything about you and may well expose your brokenness in ways you cannot imagine.

You can also choose passivity and withdraw from the field. This will cost you in a loss of self-respect, feelings of disempowerment and stagnated growth. You will watch events happen from the side lines as a man might watch a parade of veterans returning from war from the stoop of his home. You risk cultivating a heart of bitterness, regret and unfulfilled longing.

In either case there will be a judgment from God and so I ask you to choose with wisdom and awareness. Can there be more to Christian living than Sunday? Oh very much yes and it is just there, around the corner and over the small hill ahead.

Grab a few brothers and find it. Perhaps there will be Dragons!

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