That’s what our men did last weekend. We drove an hour, crossing the state line into
Virginia, and spent the weekend at Fairy Stone State Park. Obviously a real man’s hang out. This group has roughed it before, but this
time we had the palatial park lodge building, complete with actual beds, a full
kitchen, gas logs, and three showers. Just
outside the front door sat the all important campfire circle.
The theme for our weekend was, “I can. I Will.
I MUST!” As we promoted the
event, the slogan just sounded gimmicky to me.
But two men in our church, Keith Street and Guy Andrews, gathered us
around the fire and helped us dive into the scriptures and come out as changed
men.
We discovered that it is easy for us to believe in each
other. We see each others’ strengths,
potential, and opportunities. We know
that these men have what it takes.
Naturally we can say with confidence, “You can do it!” But we all need to learn that, “I can.” I have what it takes. We learned that believing in one another
inspires us to believe in ourselves. In Christ
we can accomplish everything God calls us to do. But we need the support, the encouragement,
the help from our brothers. One man
said, “I never again have to do anything solo.”
We learned that I can, but we
learned that we need each other in the process.
Esau failed to value his birthright (Genesis 25:29-34)
partly because he was alone. Where were
his hunting partners? They could have
warned Esau against the foolish bargain.
Why were the two twins apparent enemies?
They were living in isolation, not community. Their stories would have been entirely
different if they had loved and supported one another. Through community, we realize that we really
can do what God has equipped us to do. It
takes faith to believe that God can use us to accomplish big things.
Learning to say I can
energizes us with the possibilities. For
some, that energy of imagining captivates our minds, and we get stuck
there. I can becomes I could if
would. Ever since Adam watched the
serpent deceive his wife, men have tended toward passivity. We sit back and let life happen to us. Sinful human nature makes it real easy.
But we have to move beyond the possibilities of I can to the determination of I will.
When we believe that we have what it takes, we have the courage to step
up and make something happen. We make
commitments to ourselves, and ask our brothers to hold us accountable.
We invoked the wisdom of Yoda on this. One man around the fire challenged a teenager
to try to pick up a chair. The teen
cooperatively stood and picked up his empty chair. “No,” the man said, “You picked it up. I said try
to pick it up, not pick it up.” Suddenly
Yoda’s words made sense to me. “Either
do or do not. There is no ‘try.’”
God calls us to be men of action. He wants us to swim upstream, to go against
the flow, to do the difficult things.
Our retreat leader reminded us that you can’t float upstream. It takes effort, will, action, and engagement
to achieve anything valuable. Many of us
have been floating, and only dreaming of going upstream. This was our wake up call. The opposite of passive is active. We are called to action.
Finally we tackled I MUST! Once we believe we can, and take action, God reveals
to us our calling. “We are God’s
workmanship, created in Christ to do good works, which God has prepared in
advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). Once we are moved to action, we can pursue
those good works, and follow God’s leadership into his purpose for our lives.
Our men are different now.
A good different. We email and
call each other more. We pray together
more. We ask about the things that
matter more. We work less on hiding and
more on connecting. We are leading
better in our families. We are
experiencing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. It’s only been five days, but by God’s grace
we will never go back to passivity.
I would say that my life was changed by a slogan. But really my life is changed by the Spirit
of God, and he does his work as I share my life with friends.
