Don’t Write Him Off
I’m certainly guilty of it. I imagine most of you are, too. We see a person, and make a snap judgment. “They must be _________.” (fill in the blank.) It doesn’t matter what the snap judgment is, it matters because we just made it. We broke one of the cardinal-cliché-rules… we judged a book by its cover. Sure, sometimes our assumptions are correct. Other times, maybe most of the time, we are dead wrong. In the evangelization world, being dead wrong can cost people their souls.
Back in the day, I’m certain that people judged my cover properly… there wasn’t much of a secret that I was the least likely candidate for anyone to invest in, but thankfully, they went beyond my cover and saw the potential on the inside. My “book cover” screamed of anti-Catholic sentiment, with a splash of rage, a hefty dose of pride, a heaping handful of aggression, an overflowing cup of womanizing, and a host of other horrible traits. And that was just what was on the surface that people could see! I was pretty far gone, yet people saw enough hope in the risen Lord that He could get to me, and He did. I am forever grateful to the people who didn’t give up on me, and want to urge you to remember that you can’t simply write a man off because he appears a certain way, or even acts a certain way.
This man was actually a pastor of a church, disguised as a homeless man who showed up for church one day.
Who might I be talking about? Men who are overly rich, men who are overly poor. Men who are into heavy rock, or into gangster rap. It might be men who spend copious amounts of time in the gym, or at the firing range, or in the garage, or at the clubs. How about men who use four letter words every third word? It might be men who’ve never graced the doors of a church, or the man sitting in the pew behind you in Mass every week. Men with kids, men without. Men who smoke, men who drink. Men with tattoos, men with scars. Men who wear boots, men who carry guns. Men who drive sports cars, or jacked up trucks, or an old jalopy. My point… it doesn’t matter – each man has the same calling to TrueManhood.
St. Paul, as Saul of Tarsus, Knocked off his horse
As with everything, we should look to Christ. Who did He invest in? Jesus spent time, and befriended, some of the worst dudes around. He knew what He was doing, and look what those men did! Take the various fishermen, or the tax-collector, or even the worst persecutor of Christians of the time. Jesus went after them, conquered their hearts, and commissioned them to go out and make disciples of all nations. These ruffians, thugs, scallywags, and barbarians became the greatest evangelists of all time. Thank the Lord that He didn’t write them off!
So here’s an action-challenge: assess your scope of influence, determining the men in that scope, whether family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, strangers, etc. and make a list of any/all men that you’ve written off. By writing them off, you’ve missed opportunities to talk to them, to learn about them (or learn from them), to ask them questions, to give them the benefit of the doubt, etc. By writing them off, you’ve also destroyed the opportunity to serve them, love them, and to call them to something higher in life. Take this list – whether it be 1 man or 20 – and begin to pray for each man by name. In your prayer, ask God to guide your interactions (especially the next one) and to give you the strength to say or do what is right. You may be the only opportunity that man has to learn about Jesus Christ, the TrueMan. And you never know, he may be the next great evangelist that the world needs.
When my college friends chose not to write me off, it allowed a seed to blossom into many fruitful things. Had they written me off, and not seen the potential in me, only God knows where I would have been. I’m sure it wouldn’t be good, and I’m sure that many of the bad decisions I was making would have been amplified and continued. Thankfully, my conversion towards Christ changed me, brought me back into His Universal Church, led me to my wife and our four beautiful children. Thankfully, my conversion led to these years of service in ministry – hopefully doing the greatest good, of loving people and telling the Good News – and especially this ministry, TrueManhood Men’s Ministry.
Regardless of what a man is “in to”, he is called to holiness, to union with God. God the Father desires to have a relationship with His son. It may take you or me to introduce the son to his Father. Don’t shy away from the opportunities to reach out to even the least likely candidates.
TrueMan up!
Summer Time Spirituality
Since many of TrueManhood’s readers are in college, I think it’s important to take some time to talk about a spiritual life during the summer months. Many of you have a strong faith community and spiritual support system while on campus and many of you are heading home (or at least away from your group) for the summer; how do you keep a strong spiritual life going? Well, it’s easy to get back into old, bad habits when you go back into an old environment. Some of those old, bad habits might be as simple as forgetting to pray everyday. They might be more serious (with lasting effects on the rest of your life) like excessive drinking and promiscuous sexual activity. That said, here are a few suggestions of how to keep your spiritual life going – and growing!
- Pray daily. Take time (whichever part of the day is best for you) to make this a priority. As with any relationship, it requires that you speak and listen to the other person. God, in this regard, is no different. Talk to Him.
- Make Sunday Mass a priority, and get to daily Mass as much as possible. The grace received from the Eucharist will help you fight temptations toward old, bad habits.
- Stay in touch with your friends from campus. (Your good friends – NOT your nasty friends.) A support/accountability/prayer connection helps a person significantly. We are relational beings – created to be with one another. Your friends want to help you, so talk to them. It’ll probably end up helping them too.
- Do spiritual reading. Find one or more (good/orthodox) Catholic spiritual books and read. This might also include taking notes, journaling about what you read and/or about how it applies to your life or talking about it with someone else.
- Do your best to keep Christ first and foremost. I listed this last, but it’s not the least priority, but yet the highest priority. I write about Christ last so that you remember that it’s all about Him. Keep Him #1.
Man up!
