Kingdom Men?

One of the things that burdens my heart is the men in the Kingdom. Where are the passionate ones who will change the World? Where are those that stay up at night wrestling with the realities of this lost World, and with their own sinfulness, and with the desire to be used by God in such great and amazing ways? So often I see young men grow up and become more tame, more docile, less passionate, less extreme, and I wonder why? But the tragedy that I see before me is even more desperate. For so often it has been the older men in the Kingdom that have been challenged by the young. The older bring the wisdom and maturity, but it is the young that bring the passion, the vigor, the danger. A true Kingdom community needs both, I as a man desire both, but there is no denying that it is the young man, the man in college that has done the most damage against the enemy throughout the ages. It is the young man that has brought about changes, has overturned rulers, has destroyed the status quo, has not been OK with settling. Yet before us today I ask, where are those young men? If in your college years is when you are to be most extreme, what will become of the Kingdom in our land when the most extreme, the most passionate, and the most dangerous, are really quite apathetic, quite safe, and quite tame?

I think about revolutionaries of the World, and the fact that we are part of the greatest, eternal revolution of all time and I see way to many nobles and not enough peasants. Yes, a revolt in history that we are all familiar with is the one portrayed in the movie Braveheart. There are really two types of men in the lands of Scotland, the peasants and the nobles. It was the nobles who didn’t want to fight, didn’t want to ruffle any feathers, wanted to play it safe. Their lands and comforts, their position and power, their safety and image were too important for them to engage in battle. They focused too much on what they could lose, and lost sight of what they could win. They resigned to be subject to another land and another King, because it was easier. Oh but then there was Wallace, and all those peasants, who did not miss the opportunity before them, who did not want to settle, and who were willing to give their very lives to fight a worthy cause, a compelling cause, a necessary cause.

What is more worthy of our lives than the freedom of the World? Yes there might be costs involved, but the costs are much greater by not being involved. There is a reason men followed Wallace, there is a reason we know him and are inspired, there is also a reason why we despise the nobles, and why they disgust us. My fellow men, are we the nobles in God’s Kingdom? Are we OK that another Kingdom has subjected this earth and the people in it? I ask you, will you decide today that safety, apathy, and tameness suck? Will you refuse to let the men around you continue on as we are? Let us today respond, and say it is time to fight, time to be extreme, time to leave our places and engage in the battle, and time to take others with us as we go.

I am heading to the Middle East this summer, and I am because I want to be the type of man of that goes, not the one who stays, I want to be the man who takes action, not the one who makes excuses, I want to be the man that refuses to let the battle pass when I can engage in it. Will you go this summer? Will you take other men with you? Will you help turn the tide and recover the passion that is missing amongst us? Let’s start now, and let’s make this summer be a marker, a time where we start showing the younger men around us that going is what men do. I am going, will you?