The Past is the Past, Live for Today
There’s a young couple that I know that inspired this post. They know who they are. The idea came up the other day when speaking to them, that although her past was rocky and riddled with struggle, pain and sin, that he is strong enough, as a man, to move beyond what happened in her past. He is being a TrueMan. She is striving for holiness and he sees that. He encourages her, builds her up, helps her to know that she is great and a wonderful daughter of God the Father. He is encouraged and challenged by her lifestyle, and that makes him better. He realizes that her mistakes of the past are overcome by Christ’s sacrifice. Although the emotional baggage can be difficult to work through, he knows it is well worth the fight. His response could be much different.
Instead of being so loving, understanding and positive, he could choose to react harshly. He could choose to end the relationship. He could choose to be mean, hurtful and condescending. If this was the method he took, he would be forgetting his own brokenness. He would be forgetting the fact that he, as well as she and everyone else, needs the power of Confession and forgiveness from Christ.
I challenge all of my readers to take some time to think about your perspective of today. Is today’s behavior based on mistakes from the past? Are you unable to move forward because of pain from past choices? Do you try to live today in order to right the wrongs from the past? Is the past guiding your today too strongly?
Do you forget about today because of the promise of tomorrow? Do you have an unhealthy assurance that you’ll be alive tomorrow? Do your daily actions, choices, words and thoughts warrant Heaven as a reward of a good and faithful servant? These questions, and so many more, are important. Our attitude is a vital part to our lifestyle.
If we see the past as “fixable”, or today as a waste, or tomorrow as the only thing to live for, then we are missing the boat. We’re called to holiness in every moment of today. This moment may be our last, so we must live it to the full. The past is the past, live for today.
Man up!
Always Being Watched
A TrueMan realizes that he’s always being watched. He realizes that he’s always in the microscope of someone else… either trying to learn from him or trying to pick apart his actions, words, attitudes, reactions and leadership. How does a man deal with this pressure? How does a man cope with the daunting task of never messing up? The answer, in this case, is not simple. The answer is a unique answer for each and every man out there, because each and every man has a different demeanor, perspective, outlook and characteristics.
Here’s a few things to remember that might make it easier:
- Be yourself. If you’re really striving to be a man, you’ll succeed here. Strive for virtue and keep your eyes on Christ.
- Be concerned, each and every day, with being better and better. This might include professionally, personally, spiritually, physically, etc. If you are always striving for perfection, your mind is always geared towards success.
- Think. Thinking prevents many bad choices throughout the day – do it.
- Pray. A man of prayer is grounded in Christ – this helps you see clearly to make the tough decisions and to always stand strong.
- Be humble. People are waiting to pick apart any little piece of you they can… why give them any reason to be right? Be relentless in humility.
There’s a reality here that can really bite someone… if you fail in an area of your life, and someone who is watching you sees it, there’s a long road ahead to mend the impression that they now have of you. First impressions are huge. Continuing impressions are huge. Also, please note that “failing in life”, here, means that you took a mistake to the extreme. For instance: you’re the leader of a group of students against drunk driving and you get hit with a DUI. Or, you speak about purity/chastity then get your girlfriend pregnant. These are the types of failings that push people away, that encourage people to use the word hypocrite. All in all, you can pick yourself up and move on, but the impact you have on others will be lasting. Be smart, make good decisions.
Man up!
"A Worldview that Leaves Me Cold"
This tid-bit came across my inbox today. I find it hilarious and frustrating at the same time. The point of why I’m posting it on TrueManhood today is that I want to encourage us all to think for ourselves and not get caught up in socially-enabled “End Times Fear”. God provides and is much bigger than global warming. Take care of your portion of the planet and keep living.
Man up!
“The brutal winter of 2009 is finally coming to an end in the Great Plains. Or is it? Temperatures across North Dakota have been five to 10 degrees below normal all winter long. Massive snowfalls have blanketed the Peace Garden State for months. As now, North Dakota is enduring an end-of-March blizzard. The people of Fargo are paying the price. The ice-jammed Red River is cresting more than 40 feet over normal, flooding everything that isn’t protected by the heroic efforts of North Dakota citizens building up and maintaining the levies. So, I ask you, what is the cause of all the cold, the snow, and the ice? Global warming, of course!
According to Kate White, a civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, “climate change caused by global warming likely is changing ice conditions and adding to the unpredictability” of ice jams along the Red River, so she said.
Let me see if I get this. A “near-record snowpack,” along with below-normal temperatures, have led to more ice, which is acting unpredictably because of global warming? What am I not getting here? I’ll tell you what I am getting—more proof that apocalyptic visions of global warming are driven by a particular worldview. Forget the facts. Even President Obama, at least to some degree, has bought into it. Here’s what he had to say: “I actually think the science around climate change is real. . . . If you look at the flooding that’s going on right now in North Dakota . . . that indicates the degree to which we have to take this seriously.” Record snow is the result of global warming? Folks, what we have to take seriously here is the fact that our worldview determines how we see the world and how we live in the world. And we’d better have it correct, which is why I spend so much time talking about this on this broadcast every day.
Despite the fact that the globe has been cooling since at least 2002, or that near-record cold and snow have plagued much of North America all year long, all the proponents of global warming can see is—well, global warming. This is why its adherents in Congress and in the White House want curbs on greenhouse gases, potentially ruinous cap-and-trade policies, and curbs on oil exploration (at a time when we need to decrease our dependence on foreign oil). And if in the near future you start paying upwards of $5 a pound for ground beef, thank those in Congress who want to tax cow flatulence as a way to combat global warming. As the New York Times relates, renowned physicist Freeman Dyson has called “climate change an ‘obsession’—the primary article of faith for ‘a worldwide secular religion’ known as environmentalism.” Dyson accuses the adherents of this religion of “relying too heavily on computer-generated climate models that foresee . . . imminent world devastation as icecaps melt, oceans rise and storms and plagues sweep the earth.” But the models aren’t holding true. Which is why the global warming scientists need to examine their worldview. And then they need to step out of the computer lab and take a walk. But they’d better bundle up first.”
