Be a Man

SEND ME

The following is an excerpt from my new book, “Be a Man the World Needs: Volume One,” available now at: https://a.co/d/80U575e. Every day this week, you can read a new devotion from the first chapter.

1.5 SEND ME

READ: Nehemiah 2:1-20

“And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.” Nehemiah 2:5 ESV

Every day, Nehemiah stood in the presence of the king. He was close, faithful, and always there to serve his king. But the plight of his people weighed on him. Nehemiah saw the world in need but did not merely see it. He decided to do something about it.

The land of his fathers was in chaos. The place of his people. There was a tremendous need, and it gripped his heart. The cupbearer was in a position to make such a big demand of a king. He was a servant. He was the king's property. But the king asked. Nehemiah’s faithfulness had created an opportunity for authenticity. When the moment came, Nehemiah didn’t balk. He acted.

Nehemiah took his awareness of the world’s need to one who could do something about it. And, more importantly, he had a willingness to participate in the solution. Nehemiah wasn’t trying to solve someone else’s problems by proxy or secondhand. He was willing to go.

What did Nehemiah know about building walls, leading people, or cross-country travel? Nothing. He was a cupbearer. Like many others before and so many after, Nehemiah’s willingness to faithfully attend to the need in front of him every day positioned him to do what was next.

Our world is bombarded by voices screaming about what they believe the world needs. It’s become so ubiquitous that it has become background noise. The world doesn’t need another voice pointing fingers at secondhand problems. The world needs men who are willing to say, “Send me.”

CHALLENGE: When you see a problem today, don’t just point it out to someone else. Become part of the solution.

GO TO SERVE

The following is an excerpt from my new book, “Be a Man the World Needs: Volume One,” available now at: https://a.co/d/80U575e. Every day this week, you can read a new devotion from the first chapter.

1.4 GO TO SERVE

READ: 1 Samuel 17:1-58

“And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 1 Samuel 17:32  ESV

David’s father asked him to take his brothers' lunch. But what the world needed was more than someone delivering bread and cheese. Another confrontation waited. Another opportunity.

The story of David and Goliath is the pivotal story of David’s life. It propelled him into prominence. The spotlight found David forever after. But he did not go seeking it. David went to serve his father.

David shined when he served. His heart for working on behalf of those around him caused people to love him. Sometimes serving looked like hanging out with the sheep, sometimes it meant facing giants. But it was David’s time with the sheep that prepared him for the encounter with Goliath.

The world needs men who are willing to serve in obscurity with a selfless heart. The time with the sheep when no one is looking is a proving ground for the valley where everyone watches. David stepped into the conflict with faith. God had proven himself faithful. The arrogant giant proclaiming himself an enemy of God was another opportunity.

David served his father first. He served his family. He did what was asked and what was required. It created in him the kind of willing heart that made him capable of faithfully confronting the giant.

You are surrounded by giants. They are everywhere. But we must be willing to walk through seasons of preparation in order to experience moments of deliverance. Serving for the sake of serving is often thankless and seemingly overlooked. God sees. God knows. What you do is not forgotten. It is practice for the giants the world needs you to slay.

CHALLENGE: Today, you will encounter an opportunity to do something that seems thankless and insignificant. Do it with an eager heart.

STAY CALM

The following is an excerpt from my new book, “Be a Man the World Needs: Volume One,” available now at: https://a.co/d/80U575e. Every day this week, you can read a new devotion from the first chapter.

1.3 STAY CALM

READ: Exodus 14:1-31

“The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Exodus 14:14 NLT

Imagine escaping slavery after generations. Suddenly the people of Israel experienced incredible freedom! Only, it seemed short-lived. As they camped at the edge of the sea, the armies of their oppressors bore down on them.

The weight of the terror of it must have been horrible. There stood multitudes of men facing the reality of a situation they knew they were powerless to stop. Their wives, children, families and friends were depending on them.

In that moment what the world needed wasn’t for the men of Israel to pick up swords they didn’t have and charge into the fray against the Egyptians. What the world needed was for the men of Israel to calm their fears. They had to choose trust in God over the reality of what they saw before them.

Sometimes your world will need you to step into danger. There will be moments to be bold, decisive, and aggressive. There will also be moments when you must simply trust God. Always be ready to act. Also, be ready to trust. Stay calm.

The headlines are full of men who lose their cool. You’re not going to be one of them. When trouble comes, you know you were made for it. You’re ready to embrace it. You’re calm because you know God himself will fight for you.

CHALLENGE: It’s going to happen. Something is going to surprise you today. It may push all the right buttons. When it comes, don’t lose your cool. Don’t panic. Stay calm. Even if it’s for just 30 seconds at a time.

EMBRACE IT

The following is an excerpt from my new book, “Be a Man the World Needs: Volume One,” available now at: https://a.co/d/80U575e. Every day this week, you can read a new devotion from the first chapter.

1.2 EMBRACE IT

READ: Genesis 37:18-36

“But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” Genesis 45:7 NIV

Joseph had every reason to play the victim card. He was a real victim. His own brothers had sold him out, literally. 

Even in Egyptian slavery, Joseph experienced betrayal, hardship, and loss. But Joseph would not be deterred. Joseph saw the potential on the other side of every difficulty.

Joseph embraced hardship and experienced God's incredible goodness. Ultimately, Joseph’s willingness to embrace the moment provided the opportunity to make a profound difference.

When disaster struck, Joseph didn’t celebrate the misfortune of his captors. He didn’t stomp on the hopes of those who had betrayed, enslaved, and imprisoned him. Joseph once again embraced the need in front of him. Joseph looked for a way to help the world around him. Not only did it save a nation, it saved his family. Joseph didn’t look for a way to get back at them, he sought the chance to give himself to an incredible need.

You can spend your life looking for retribution or looking for contribution. A man the world needs will bear the scars of hurt and betrayal. No one gets out of this world alive. But you were made for it. Don’t go looking for it, but when hardship comes, don’t let it rob you of the opportunity to be a man the world needs. Your friends, family, and neighbors are depending on you.

CHALLENGE: Every day is met with some kind of hardship. Don’t ignore it today. Look for the opportunity hiding there. How can you be the man the world needs in this situation?

MADE FOR IT

The following is an excerpt from my new book, “Be a Man the World Needs: Volume One,” available now at: https://a.co/d/80U575e. Every day this week, you can read a new devotion from the first chapter.

1.1 MADE FOR IT

READ: Genesis 1:1-31

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 ESV

God had worked a masterpiece. A world teeming with life and untapped potential. Every syllable of God’s creative work set the stage. The blank canvas of possibility was ready.

The world was amazing. It was good. It was new and raw and wild. And it was in need. All that was made was waiting. But for what? The world was lacking one thing. God’s amazing creation needed a man. So God made Adam and Eve and called it good. And God gave man stewardship over His creation. God trusted the first man with His creation.

God still trusts men with His creation. You are a man God trusts with His creation. You are a man God trusts with His world.

The first mandate from heaven was to be fruitful and multiply. Because the Garden of Eden wasn’t a well-manicured masterpiece of landscaping. It was a landscape of potential, opportunity, and hope.

God still places men where hope is needed. You have everything you need to be a man the world needs. You were created for it.

CHALLENGE: Today, when you encounter a need in your everyday world. Meet it. You may be the only one who can.

Be a Man the World Needs: Introduction

The following is an excerpt from my new book “Be a Man the World Needs.” Available now on Amazon.
Order here: https://a.co/d/80U575e

Climb the Mountain

We were cutting a trail somewhere around 4,000 feet of elevation. Even at that height the air was thick with humidity as a tropical storm smothered the jungle like bush adorning the mountainside. The red clay stuck to our boots. Our gear grew heavier with every cascading drop. It was an adventure. Thankfully, we were on our way down the mountain.

What compelled a group of men to walk a mountain path through the jungle in the middle of the rain during hurricane season?

Men like adventure, but that wasn’t the real reason. We also like being invited to try difficult things. We like to test ourselves. Neither of those were the goal of our mountaintop trek.

So why did we go? Why were we climbing that particular mountain in that specific spot on that given day in June? Why? Because there was something on top of the mountain worth doing.

We didn’t go to see the sights even though we did see some remarkable things. The foliage of banana, plantain, and coffee trees dancing amidst a storm is pretty amazing. Below we glimpsed some of the geography and topography of the roads we had been traveling the previous days. They were laid out like lines on a map. It was a sight to behold. The sliver of blue breaking beyond the tropical front miles away peered like a promise of change through the sky. It was all incredible. It was all secondary. We had climbed the mountain to do something.

At the top of the mountain was a woman and her children. I couldn’t name any of them. I had never seen them before. I will never see them again except in the single solitary picture I took of their smiling faces after the work was done. The work is why we climbed the mountain.

What work?

My friends and I had climbed the mountain to make the lives of the lone family on the ridge of the mountain better. We had gone to do something very simple. We were building them a new cooking stove.

In a place where most houses are held together by mud and sticks, practically all the cooking happens around what most of us would describe as a camp fire. The physical implications on the health of the women and girls who tend these fires is disastrous over time. So we climbed a mountain to improve the quality of life for a woman and her family.

Why? Because that's what men were made for.

The World’s Need

There are two really dangerous ideas trying to claw their way to prominence in this world. They are the kind of ideas which always seem to resound across pop culture and the socially conscious. Both are dangerous nonsense.

The first is the notion we don’t really need men anymore. Except we all know that is nonsense.

The second dangerous idea is worse. It says that there aren’t any real men out there anymore. To put it bluntly—this is a lie puked straight from the pit of hell. There are millions of men out there. Men the world desperately needs. And there are millions of boys waiting for their turn at bat.

What the world doesn’t need is another clown beyond a keyboard putting down the real men who bust their butts everyday. They do it to keep our world from falling apart. To keep your world from falling apart. Real men don’t need the naysayers to twist the proverbial knife while he plays video games, eats his mom’s groceries, and enjoys free rent. What the world doesn’t need is more shaming of the elite echelon of actual men who show up everyday to make sure you have water to drink, roads to drive on, and groceries that show up at your local market.

What this world needs is men. Real men. A lot of them. I’m crazy enough to believe they are out there. They don’t need your permission. They don’t want your applause. They only want to do what they were put here to do.

This world needs men who live on purpose, for a purpose. Men who mean what they say, say what they mean, and aren’t afraid to call out the chumps who try to stay somewhere in the middle. The middle is where masculinity goes to die. You either man up or you bow down. You either step up or you stop altogether. I’ve met hundreds of men who are laying down their lives every day to get it right.

The Mission

The original mandate for men has not changed. God spoke to Adam in the Garden and said “be fruitful and multiply”. Not because the Garden was a paradise of manicured orchards waiting to be plucked, but because it was a frontier of opportunity.

Adam was to work. He was to strive. He was designed by God to build, grow, and give. It is the essence of the heart of every man. That’s what this book is fundamentally about. Getting back to the modus operandi of what it means to be a man.

You are the man the world needs. You are. Believe it. You may not be living like it yet, but you’ll get there. You have to. No one else can get there for you. It is 100% on you. There are no shortcuts. The easy road is a dead end. But life is hard. So pick your hard. Or it will run you over. Ready or not, here it comes.

You were designed to make things better. Your strength is sorely needed in this world. And that’s putting it lightly. God put something inside you. Allow it to mature into the divinely inspired masculinity available to you. Until you do, there will be something absent in your world.

If you don’t live up to what God wants for you, your family will never know what it’s like to have a real man in their life. Your daughters will date deadbeats damned to repeat the pattern. Your sons will age into weak boys with beards and bank accounts. And your wife will be lonely—living in a mission half fulfilled.

Believe this. There is an enemy that hates you. He hates everything you are. What are you?

You are the original blueprint for what God wanted in this world. You are a man. You weren’t a backup plan. You were the plan.

Yes, we are men the world needs. We all have the potential to be. But we also have the potential to miss the mark big time. Adam did. So do we. But we don’t have to live in it.

Your enemy would have you believe you aren’t good enough for what God wants in your life. Your enemy is on a mission too. His aim is to steal the blueprint for what God wants to build through your life. He wants to kill the dream God put inside the heart of every man. The bottom line is that your enemy wants to destroy you and everything you stand for. If you take a look at our world, it’s hard to say the enemy isn’t winning. The enemy won’t win. He can’t win.

What the world needs right now are men who will step into their place in the fight. Men who will dare to give what it takes, grow into their strength, and build a better world around them. I think you’re a man like that. Get ready for the fight of your life.

The Need

There’s a tremendous difference between what I need and what I want. Most days I want a sixteen ounce steak, loaded mashed potatoes, and a gallon of Dr. Pepper. I learned long ago that eating like that regularly doesn’t produce a version of myself I like very much. And, giving in to what I want doesn’t shape me into the kind of man the people around me need. What I really need is not what I think I want much of the time.

What I actually want is for the people I love the most to know they can rely on me for the long haul. My life goal is faithfulness. That is my dream. To breathe my last breath at a ripe old age knowing I was faithful to my wife, my children, my family and friends–and the people who depend on me.

This is not a book about what you want. This was written to be a book about what the world needs. The truth is–what the world needs is you! Our world needs men like you to stand up, step up, and man up. We have a role to play. One that is uniquely ours. No one else will do it because no one else can. It belongs to you.

Ironically, whether you’ve admitted it yet or not, what you actually need is to embrace how much the world needs you. When you do you will step into your place in the big picture. You’ll find the spot where your purpose and your God-given passion sync up. It’s the one-two-combination that knocks the enemy on his butt. Nothing rattles hell more than a son of God walking in his God-given purpose.

You’re not a punk. And you’re not a sissy. You are a champion of the kingdom of God. His beloved son. Your life carries inherent dignity, value, and purpose on a scale you may have never attempted to consider. Consider it.

The words in these pages aren’t meant to be another feckless shot at tearing down men. We are sick of the mud-slinging in our world. We’re all tired of the emotional eunuchs parading their image of imposed masculinity on our world. I’m not here to pile it on. I wrote this book because I believe it’s time to rally the charge. The only way to stem the tide of limp-hearted cowards telling you what kind of man you’re supposed to be is for you to live it so loud they can’t help but shy away.

We can’t get there by tip-toeing through the issues. We’re going to take them head on. What’s going to follow is a set of twelve principles. This is designed so you can tackle one per week, per month, or whatever rhythm works. Each entry is short on purpose. I went small on the word count because I’m hoping it will give you the space to go big on reflection. Take the time to think them through. Get around a fire with some dudes and talk them out. At the least, create a text group and challenge one another.

You’re a smart guy. So, what you’ll notice pretty fast is that some of the maxims presented in this book seem at odds with each other while others seem repetitive. That’s not by accident. Some of them will cause tension. That’s by design. Step into the tension. Embrace difficulty. The easy path is a dead end. Your people need life. When you walk the hard road you’re not being reckless—you’re being engaged. You’re being honest. You’re taking the world as it actually is and you’re taking it head on. You’re being a man the world needs. Bravo.