More Than Fine…

Food For My Soul

// November 26th, 2009 // Uncategorized

This past week was a huge blessing. I’m not sure exactly how to describe what I was doing. Mission trip? Retreat? Men’s conference? Baseball evangelism? School of encouragement and leadership? All of the above and more is the right answer. Because it was so many different things, I’m sure the Holy Spirit worked very differently in each of us and we all left with different favorite parts.

For me it was amazing to be around a group of Godly men, to observe them, be encouraged by them, talk about life and God with them, shares struggles and triumphs with them, and just joke and be guys with them. It was food for my soul that I have needed for a long time and even more so after 4 months in the Dominican without real fellowship. A lot of it was like being back in the locker room – the jokes, the ribbing the sarcasm. We had a lot of fun, but if you stopped and listened to the conversations, there was little talk about baseball despite the fact we were giving baseball clinics every morning. The conversations centered around God, family, life, struggles, passions and purpose. Help and prayer were requested. Encouragement, advice and prayer were offered. There was little posturing. There was a transparency and openness that isn’t common to groups of men. People got saved. Lives were changed. Friendships started. Bonds were forged.

More than anything this week I learned how essential it is to have Godly men speaking into your life, encouraging you and holding you accountable. Just doing life together. That is something I’ve always known academically, but you wouldn’t know from my actions I held that information to be true. So often in life I’ve tried to be my own best example and fallen flat on my face. So often I’ve walked the road of life all alone and ended up right right back where I started, falling into the same mistakes and temptations. Fellowship and accountability have fallen by the wayside, victims of my pride.

As we all went home Saturday, the temptation was to go back to business as usual, to go back to being proud and afraid. But most of that pride and fear rests on one faulty assumption: that you are the only struggling, that you are the only one that needs help. So each of us needs to “show some leadership” and be the first to admit our faults and ask for help and then watch as others come forward, empowered by your transparency.

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