MEN OF PURPOSE

Brothers,

As the summer winds down, I wanted to reflect a little on the MOP sessions that have occurred in this "down time".

We have talked about many topics in the "living room" this summer and while each week has started in a different place, last week brought it all together for me.  Early on we talked about how we need to be more fatherly in raising our children and stop trying to be our children's friends. This takes a certain amount of Old Testament Father and an equal amount of the unconditional love and promise from the New Testament.  We have discussed what the true "manly" acts are that we should perform in our lives.  While it is easy to see feats of daring and masculine prowess as what makes us men, it is the the more gentle and seemingly mundane acts of grace that truly define a man.

Over the past weeks, the Church has given us many selections revolving around God's gift of bread and nourishment.  All of the other topics I think fit in here. It is the concept of God's gifts that I have been pondering.

I think that God gives us all many gifts.  We say he has blessed us with life, liberty, good fortune, health, children and on and on.  All that is true.  For me though, it boils down to the one true gift of God's grace.  Now I cannot define that word "grace" and many may differ in their interpretation.  To me the definition is one for study, but perhaps does not matter as long as it is fundamentally understood as the knowledge that God is there for each of us.  He is there to constantly take from, to support us, to give never-ending love.  The extra component, however, is that His grace is a gift that we must choose to accept and to believe in.

Our examples have been rooted in the Olympics, in part.  It is a timely reference point as we watch people from all over the world reach extraordinary heights of sporting prowess and achievement.  I do not think that God's gift to each participant is to win a gold medal, but rather to have the open heart to see God's grace and accept the other gifts that God has bestowed on each of us.  for some it is amazing ability in athletics.  For others it is the fierce desire to compete even thought the outcome of the race will never be in our favor.  for most, it is not an Olympic dream but rather just trying to be the best in each day that God gives us.

So the end result, the gold medal, the bonus, the kid getting into a certain school, etc. is, while certainly noble as a goal, not the end.  Understanding that the outcome is only another manifestation of God's grace.  Acceptance of this brings us further to giving ourselves over to God and his desires for us.  When we forget about "what is in it for me" in the temporal sense, we are much closer to the faith that brings us to what is really in it for us.

What we know is what we can hold, touch, count and compare.  What we cannot know fully is the breadth and depth of God's commitment to us.  Socrates (by no means a Christian) stated that true knowledge is knowing what you don't know.  Somehow this translates for me.  What we think we know is just passing.  Giving over to faith is gaining ultimate wisdom.  We just stop rowing the boat thinking that it will get us to shore.

I look forward to continuing the discussion, sharpening and fellowship this Sunday and into the Fall.

KJ

P.S.  We start The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis) this Fall after Parrish Day.  It is going to be very interesting.