A long way to go and a short time to get there…
Yesterday at the Men’s Breakfast I was reminded that ‘I am a Christian in Training’ and that I have a long way to go yet before I will fully reflect the light of Christ.
My friend Steve and I have been meeting for lunch periodically and discussing Christ and many other issues. A couple of meetings ago, we got onto the subject of young men, needing mentoring and instruction on how to be a ‘good’ man. Many of today’s young men are adrift, they have no direction and there is no guidance for them. They do not understand what character is, what integrity is and though they may have accepted Christ into their hearts, they don’t know where to go to continue to build that faith.
Steve and I wanted to approach the Men’s Breakfast Ministry with the idea of gathering support and assistance in developing this idea. We want to do something similar to what the Women’s Ministry did a couple of years ago – called ‘Tween for a Day’ they took young ladies and made a great day of showing them how to look, dress and act like a lady and to garner their own self-respect as well as others. It was a great success.
So we pitched it to the men. Steve and I stood up and in front of these men discussed our idea. I spoke of character, integrity, the ease at which men can access pornography today. I spoke of all these ‘worldly’ things. And when I heard myself beginning to repeat things, I turned it over to Steve.
Steve didn’t speak of worldly things, he spoke of God.
He spoke of Jesus. He spoke of how we could educate these young men, how we could help shape their character into men that would serve Christ. He spoke of relationships where men could mentor one another with the worship of Jesus Christ as the focal point. Steve spoke of the real purpose; to bring men into closer relationship with Jesus Christ.
You could listen to him and feel the Lord’s spirit within him.
While my words were not empty, they lacked the conviction that Steve has, and that reminded me of how ‘I am a Christian in Training’. I do not yet place God first in my thoughts. I need to pray harder and build my relationship with God.
I have a long way to go, and a short time to get there.
By the way, if you have an idea on the subject of teaching our young men or would like to help us, please let Steve, Brother Charles or myself know. We want this idea to take hold and bear fruit for the glory of God.