The MAN card?

We all have different ideas of what qualities it takes to earn your MAN card. Yeah I went there. The infamous MAN card. I have had this card taken away from me so many times that I’m starting to wonder when things are going to fall off and other stuff grow in their place. Here are a 10 of the latest reasons why someone has taken my MAN card away.

1. I cannot help but cry whenever I watch Extreme Makeover Home edition.

2. I confess I’d rather go to the Opera than my wife.

3. I work out to Aerobics videos with my wife.

4. When my daughter got a Barbie playhouse for Christmas I played Barbie’s with her for over an hour.

5. I like many a chick flick; Romantic comedies are actually pretty good.

6. I actually like clothes and fashion. (They just don’t make most of the good stuff in XXL, US XXL)

7. I occasionally read People.

8. I sing higher than most girls

9. When my daughter asked me too I watched the Justin Bieber Documentary and actually liked it.

10. I will choose my wife over my bros any day of the week.

First off let me apologize to any guy whose MAN card privileges I have revoked in the past. The MAN card is by all accounts stupid. What makes a man a man is not the sports that he plays, or most likely used to play back in the day when he was the next__________ ! It’s not how hot his girlfriend/wife/conquests are; besides my wife is hotter than all of those anyways. It’s not even how much money he makes, thank goodness for this one or I’d be hosed. A man is defined by how he serves others. First his God, second his spouse (whether or not he’s found her yet) then his kids and finally those that God puts in his way. Now get this straight I fail constantly at all of these. You see being a Man is stinking hard. I want to serve me first. I would love it if everyone just did what I wanted and I had complete control over every situation. But sorry Cory that’s not how it works. Back in my first year of college I had to take a freshman lit class. We all had to take them and by the time I actually got around to signing up (yeah some things never change) there was only one class left. Feminism in Literature. I showed up to the first class and needless to say I was the only guy there and realized quite rapidly that I probably wasn’t going to be meeting any love interests in this class. For six months I benefited from every negative experience, feeling, and hatred that each of the girls in the class along with the Professor felt or had felt due to the male half of our species. Then came time for the final paper. After pulling my thumb from my mouth and escaping the fetal position I decided I would write a paper on what it is to be a man. Brilliant, I know, but as I researched and read all these books by many an expert I finally was hit by a few passages in the Bible that have stuck with me to this day. So here in summary are 5 points that I learned.

1. Love God and submit to his authority on your life.

Matthew 22:36-38 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

2. Love your wife holding her in esteem and supporting her and presenting her as beautiful inside and out.

Eph 5:25-3325 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

3. Serve others

Matthew 22:39-40 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

4. I cannot do it on my own.

Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

5. I will fail and when I do I need to own it and seek forgiveness for it.

John 21:15-19 15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

This is by no means and I’m not even implying that I have it all together but as I sit here today writing this I realize that though I have a long way to go to. I cannot say that I am alone. I have an amazing God who has blessed me with an awesome wife and wonderful kids who all through my many failings have extended grace love and forgiveness to me and so I will stick my MAN card back in my Wallet puff out my chest and proudly profess that I am a MAN.

Living

I've been spending some time working through first Peter over the past few months and am finding myself constantly challenged by this whole concept of living the holy life in a broken world. This idea that we have the hope of heaven, and know by faith and through God's grace that we will experience yet we still have to experience life here in this crazy world As Peter puts it, " What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, 4 including a future in heaven - and the future starts now! 5 God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all - life healed and whole. 6 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime." 1Peter 1:3-6 (The Message) For me this is so real yet sometimes so hard to grasp on to. I fully accept it as true and as Peter writes to the church of his day I think we too need to listen to what he is trying to say. What I hear in these and the following verses is the fact that God knows the struggles that we face every day and he realizes the temptations and pressures that the world puts on us are hard to resist and that it would be so easy for us just to give in and deal with the now and not worrying about what is to come. I get so wrapped up in what I am facing today that I forget what is ahead of me tomorrow. Not what my five or ten year plan is but rather what God's eternal plan is for me. What would happen if I started living my life as an eternal life rather than one that has an expiration date on it. The reality is that my Bucket List has an eternity for me to check items off. The time tables that I am continually setting for myself are my time tables not necessarily Gods. As I look back on my life thus far I see how God has moved me through the love of others and through loving others. My best laid plans and programming usually were used by God to show me dependence on him not his dependence on me. I took the time today to look back and really see where God has used me and where I felt his presence and could see him doing his work. The reality struck me like a 2X4 in the grill. My most powerful God moments have come when I wasn't "on the job" but rather was just being who God designed me to be. It was when I was so tired of trying to do life myself that I actually surrendered and let him take the lead. The times where I put Cory aside and just basked in the presence of God. Many would say No duh! And to tell you the truth I've preached and taught on this many times but just take a second sit down and ask yourself who are you relying on you right now? On yourself, or are you relying on God. Are you in a hurry, do you feel like you're going to run out of time, if it doesn't get done right now will it never get done. What is number one on your priority list right now , number 2, number 3? Where is God in your life. Sitting on the shelf or holding you in his arms. If your answer is that he is on the shelf my word of encouragement is that in reality he is holding you in his arms, all you have to do is open up your mind and heart enough to realize it and to lean back nuzzle up and let him lead the way. You'll still have to work and still be challenged you might have to give up some things and may have to throw some idols away. your family and friends may think your nuts and you might even question it yourself but in the eternal picture does it really matter what they think right now. As I read through scripture I am more and more convinced that God has a special place for those who are willing to look a little crazy by following his will. Those who went against their culture because their culture went against their God. Hate to point out the obvious but today's popular culture and priorities don't line up with those of my God and I think its time,for me at least, to start living the eternal life now while I'm here instead of waiting for the afterlife to get started.

All she asked for was some water

I was out for a late night jog. These are the only type I get nowadays. With my schedule a wife and five kids you squeeze stuff in whenever you can. This is my alone time, I pop in the earbuds, turn on my Ipod and away I go. Sometimes I pray a bit but usually I just zone out and watch the rain fall in front of me as I run. Tonight was no different I did my usual run saw the usual people out and about and thought to myself as I trotted along , but when I was about 15 minutes away from home I saw her standing on the corner working away. If I crossed the street it would be obvious that I was trying to avoid her so I thought to myself just pass on by and don’t make eye contact, you don’t want to give the wrong idea. So I ran past looking straight through her as if she wasn’t even there. Then as I passed I heard a voice ask “can I please have some of your water?” It was as much a shock to me as it was to her when I stopped and turned around. She asked me again “I’m so thirsty can I please have some of your water bottle?” I handed it to her and told her to take the rest and to keep it. She said thanks and as I left I just said “take care kiddo.” As if we’d been friends for a long time. As I was jogging back home all I could think of was the women at the well. I didn’t have the wherewithal to share Christ with her tonight and who knows if it was my job to do anyways. What I do know is that the water I gave her will only quench her thirst temporarily but the living water that has been given for us all could quench it forever. I like to think that I accept all people and that I don’t judge others, but it’s just not true. Tonight a prostitute taught me that I am no better or more human than she is. I may have a roof over my head a family that I love and all the other stuff that I hold dear but I need that water just as much as she does. We worry about H1N1, the bills that are piling up, getting our way and about our rights being ignored. Yet there are people around us who have no food to eat no water to drink and no idea that anyone, especially God, could love them. I’m not going to be perfect and I won’t always have the right answer but from here on out I know that I’ll always run with an extra bottle of water.