Grunt

Recently (the last month or so and definitely over the past week), I have been challenged to step up, to give it my all, and to be a God fearing man like those of my brothers David, Joshua, Timothy, and Paul of the past. I dont want to settle and at the same time I dont want to just grow a little bit personally, in my relationships, and in my service to God. So I got to thinking, what does it take to be God's man? (and to be completely honest, I was listening to a country station and the song "What It Takes" by Adam Gregory came on and I said to myself, how many times do i actually ask God this?...dont get me wrong, I need plenty of help/time to ask this question within the same reference of the song, but if I am truly asking God this....wont I get the answer to that question too?) So here is the start of some of the things I have identified that I need to actively work on....with God, with others, and even just learning by observing those who God has placed in my life!

>I need to be a role model, even when its tough (1 Peter 2:12 "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."): I want to be a man worthy of respect. Not that I am seeking the praise of men, but that other men and women can look at my life and want what I have. I want to make it such that my friends, my family, whomever I interact with can be proud and feel a sense of completeness when i am around. I want those in my life to be excited when i am around and i want to get to know others in my life or those not in my life in such a way that they are first and foremost getting to know Christ in me, that this is the most attractive part of me.

>I need to challenge others around me based on what I see them going through or what i have personally grown through (Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."): I want to be able to remind other people about what they are good at, what I appreciate about them, and even just reminding them to do and take advantage of those things that God has gifted them with in their lives. I want to be able to look into the lives of my friends and family that God has put in my life and see where i can personally challenge them to go further. And if i cant see into that specific person's life or i feel like they arent showing me/dont want me to....too bad because i have found and learned that getting rejected or feeling abandoned is worth the price of getting to know that one person that much better.

>I desire to try new things and explore new areas in my own life and in those who God has placed in my life...and I need to foster this experience daily (Psalm 139:8 "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there."): I have realized that i dont get bored easily. That some of the best parts/times in my life are just enjoying the here and now and that i dont need to be looking forward to what the next big thing is or what exciting thing might be planned. Because i know that if i am focusing in on God in my life, if I am trusting God with all my relationships and if i am helping others do the same, then i am truly living the most exciting life that God has planned for me. Now that being said, i really like, no love; the State of Michigan. I do miss my family being down here with very few people I know and I do miss my friends as well. But at the same time, I am embracing what this experience could open up for me next. I had originally hoped (back in December '08) that I would work for a little while and take a job overseas, quit and become a missionary wherever that might have been with my wife. Or maybe quit and become a youth pastor. Or quit and become a supply chain professional for a non-profit. Who knows. Similar to the fact that I long to challenge others, i kept these feelings, these dreams bottled up inside because i felt like no one wanted to hear them, i felt like it wasnt the right time, or that I personally was too scared that by saying it outloud, it might actually lead me to mockery by those around me.

>Be bold and take risks - at work, with my new friends, with my older/closer friends, and whenever i get the chance (Acts 4:31 "After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly."): While I have been fairly successful at this due to the spiritual gifts that God has granted me, I still need to be vigilant when it comes to reaching and stretching to my full potential. Yes, if God made it clear to me through my heart, through a friend, through His Word, or through circumstances; I would drop all that I am doing and move wherever to become a missionary. But at the same time, where my mission field is today is equally, if not more important. Like the parable of the talents, I need to be responsible with what God has given me today and not frivolously spend it away or hide it away for no one to see. When it comes to knowing that my boss is here over the weekend with no one else, I should invite him to church. When it comes to the friend that I have had for what seems like forever that has no one to share the gospel with him, I will share will him even if it means rejection. And similarly, the responsibilities that God may, or may not give me with a woman to pursue and eventually marry in the future, my responsibility to lead the relationship in a Christ-centered fashion will be my number one priority. And with that, the joys, the excitement, and yes....the struggles of making sure that each individual is seeking God to their fullest....is where continual boldness, prayer, and strength will need to come from me at the same time as being encouraged by the two.

>I need to know my priorities (Nehemiah 8:8 "They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read."): It is important that I not only know what is most important in my life (God, Family....including what will be my family/inlaw family one day, Friends / bros&sisters in Christ, those I dont know....and the rest just isnt on the radar). If my God, my family, my friends called for me to leave my job, I would leave it in a second. If my joy or my time was being taken up by something that was nothing then I would hope those in my life would see it before it was too late and correct it. Because truly, my life, my real priorities and passions are those laid out within His law to the extent that I am but a young man trying to learn it daily.

>I need to speak truth in love and even love in love (Romans 1:12 "that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."): I want to recognize those around me for who they are in Christ. And I want to praise those good things that God has brought into their lives that I am able to see, because even if i am not a part of it, to be able to even see God moving is encouragement enough as I know that it is God moving boldly in the lives of His people then. Within that same breath, I long to share with those I care about deeply, why I do in fact care about them or even love them. I desire to leave nothing to guessing and I want to give each of my breaths for each of my days to acknowledge how important that person is in my life and how much more i look forward to getting to know them....even amongst members of my own family.

>I want so badly to save others - those I love, and the widows and orphans of the world (1 Samuel 20:4 "Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you want me to do, I'll do for you." & James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."): If it means putting my own life at risk, if means giving up those temporary worldly things that I seek to give up anyway, if it means swimming again the current of the world to live under God's waterfall of love...so be it! I long to do what is contrary to the world. It is a struggle for me to see and hear of other Christians here where i live or others that i know from other places that do not give their "tithe" of their time, money, or talents to God for all of the blessings that He has given them. It is especially discouraging to me in knowing that i am even put down for giving myself to God as a spiritual sacrifice to Him.

>I want to get down (not meaning on the dance floor), but literally on my knees daily (Daniel 6:10 "Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before."): Prayer is my recognizing that God is bigger than myself and He controls my destiny and and not me. In the same way, I need to get down on my knees and physically represent what my soul is seeking. For as I act out with my own body, so too does my heart and my soul "buy-in" to the goodness and glory of God's plan for my life! That my life and all my actions might be a physical representation of worship for my Lord.

>I want to do what it takes to train myself to be a man of integrity (1 Corinthians 3:2 "I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready."): I have so many vices that I need help with, that i need to work on, that i need to daily lay down and Christ's feet and that i need those in my life to hold me accountable to. I need to daily as all men do, recognize that God's plan for physical purity in or out of a relationship (but in particularly within). Equally so, I need to give myself up to God in my taming of my tongue (James 3:1-12) when it comes to speaking the truth and when it comes to speaking grace/love in truth. In one sense I have been blessed with a great gift of linguistics to benefit those around me in how i can describe things exactly as i see them. Unfortunately more often than not I do not make it enough of a priority to discipline myself in speech such that I only say what is true or what i am seeking God's promises to be true in the future. More often than not I am speaking of things in a way i wish they were with regards to a mistake or i am speaking to things in a way that I hope they turn out instead of seeking the help of those around me throughout the process. And lastly (although not lastly but for now), I need to continue to seek God's grace in the social/party scene that comes with college and post college social groups. That when it comes to socializing, I am to be acting like Christ's representative and that this really isnt my home. So often I forget about that and it does blow my mind sometimes...that I am to be helping to improve this world even though it will all fade away....

So in these tough situations, in these times that I am called to be a man, in these times that I called to be in the world and not of the world. John 15:19