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On December 16, 2021 By In Discipleship, Wisdom

Discipline Is Freedom

“People look for the shortcut. The hack. And if you came here looking for that: you won’t find it. The shortcut is a lie. The hack doesn’t get you there. And if you want to take the easy road, it won’t take you to where you want to be: Stronger. Smarter. Faster. Healthier. Better. Free. To reach goals and overcome obstacles and become the best version of you possible will not happen by itself. It will not happen cutting corners, taking shortcuts, or looking for the easy way. There is no easy way. There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline. Discipline. There must be discipline. Discipline: the root of all good qualities. The driver of daily execution. The core principle that overcomes laziness and lethargy and excuses. Discipline defeats the infinite excuses that say: not today, not now, I need a rest, I will do it tomorrow. What’s the hack? How do you become stronger, smarter, faster, healthier? How do you become better? How do you achieve true freedom? There is only one way. The way of discipline.” (Willink, Jocko. Discipline Equals Freedom: Expanded Edition. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2020)

This may be something of the wisdom of the sons of the east and Egypt (1Kg 4.30). I don’t know the status of Jocko’s relationship with Christ, but much of what he says here lines up with the picture of the life of discipline that Solomon paints for us in Proverbs.

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On December 9, 2021 By In Counseling/Piety, Discipleship, Wisdom

All Hat And No Cowboy

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.

~Proverbs 14.23

Originally, the cowboy hat was made to be functional for those who spent long days in the sun working cattle. The wide brim protected the head from the sun’s rays. Eventually, that rim was turned upward on the sides so that the swinging of a rope would not be impeded or knock the hat off. The pinch at the top of the hat made the hat easier to grip.

As with many articles of clothing, fashion followed function. People who have romantic visions about cowboy life, love country music, or like the style of headwear incorporate the cowboy hat into their wardrobe. The hat says “cowboy,” but they ain’t no cowboys. Real cowboys have a saying for this: “He’s all hat and no cowboy,” or “All hat, no cattle.” For all of you city slickers out there, this means that a person is all talk and no action.

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On December 2, 2021 By In Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom

Hands On Wisdom

“The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.”

~Proverbs 19.24

The image is a comical one. A platter of food rests in the middle of the table. If the dish to which Solomon refers is a common one for that day, it doesn’t have any sides to negotiate. It is not a bowl that one would have to reach into and pull out of. Those at the table could simply reach and retrieve food with a minimal amount of effort, scraping it to themselves if they had to. Here is this man who has exerted just enough effort to get his hand to the plate of food, buries his hand in the food, but now he has neither the will nor the energy to bring it back to his mouth. All that he needs to sustain him and bring him joy is literally at his fingertips (actually, all over his fingertips), but his torpor keeps him from it. He will starve even though everything he needs is easily accessible.

He started the whole arduous process of eating, but he didn’t have the energy to finish it. Not finishing what one starts is the way of the fool. Solomon characterizes this as having a “slack hand” in Proverbs 10.4 He puts his hand to something, he takes hold of a commitment and, therefore, a responsibility, but then he lets it go before the job is complete. Maybe he had good intentions. He made commitments. He may have even been excited at first about what he was going to do. His hand might have been the fastest to get to the dish, but he quit on the project as quickly as he started.

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On November 24, 2021 By In Discipleship, Wisdom

Own It!

Once upon a time in first-century Israel, ten virgin young ladies were excited about attending a wedding. They didn’t know exactly when the bridegroom was coming, so they had to make adequate preparations for their waiting time. Five of these young ladies wisely worked diligently to prepare for any length of time that the bridegroom would delay. Whenever he came, they would be ready to go into the wedding feast. The other five young ladies foolishly didn’t work diligently but assumed everything would work itself out.

As the time of absence of the bridegroom lengthened, the inadequate preparation of the five foolish young ladies became evident. They were running out of supplies. They asked the five wise young ladies to share what they had. The five wise young ladies told them that their foolish lack of preparation put no obligations upon them to give what they had collected in their wisdom. The foolish five need to go to the market to restock.

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On November 18, 2021 By In Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom

Ant Wisdom

The wisdom that Solomon desires for his son is the wisdom that works. Wisdom worked from the beginning creating and ordering the world (Pr 3.19-20; 8.22-31). As the image of Wisdom, man is a worker, creating, ordering, and bringing productivity within the creation over which God set him to rule. We are world-makers, beginning with ordering the plot of creation that is uniquely ours–our own persons–and extending that dominion to wherever God grants us responsibility and authority.

God has created and commanded us to work. As Solomon’s son is moving into his maturity, the kingly stage of his life, Solomon is concerned that he understands his responsibilities as a worker and the tempting threats he will face as he fights the post-fall creation. Sin not only made the creation outside of man resistant to his dominion activity, but sin has also twisted man as a worker. We fight the curse of sin without and within.

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On November 4, 2021 By In Culture, Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom

The Salvation of Works

In all toil there is profit….

Proverbs 14.23

“Help Wanted” signs are up all over the country. Businesses are struggling, not only to find competent workers, but warm bodies who will show up. Jobs are available, but many people don’t want to work. On his November 2, 2021 show, Matt Walsh reported that three out of four unemployed able-bodied men of working age simply don’t want to work. Some of the biggest industries hit are the leisure and hospitality sectors. Vox, drawing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reports that there are 1.7 million job openings in the industries, ten percent of the entire industry, with another one million quitting. Theories concerning the loss of drive to work, especially among able-bodied men, are many. Some attribute it to low pay (although some places are paying higher wages than they ever have). Others attribute it to the government’s quantitative easing through printing money, extending and expanding unemployment benefits, and sending out stimulus checks, disincentivizing workers who make more staying home than they would at work. Walsh attributes the problem to despair and purposelessness.

A perfect storm is brewing that has been created between the factors mentioned and many more that has already and will leave devastation in its wake. But all of this gives us the opportunity to ask ourselves, “Why do we work?” If work is only about getting a paycheck and the government provides that, why shouldn’t I get on the dole like everyone else and ride this gravy train until the last stop? The sheer mechanics of God’s world tell us that this is unstainable. You have to engage in some level of work to continue to survive. Remove producers from society and soon we will be covered with a fruitless, unkempt world that will be our death.

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On October 28, 2021 By In Discipleship, Wisdom

Little By Little

Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

~Proverbs 13.11

More. Faster. These two words, especially together, could very well be the tagline for modern Western society. Companies from casinos to Amazon play on our impatience, our insatiable desires to have more at an ever-increasing pace; to have more and have it easier than ever before. Entertainment has also picked up on our boredom with the mundane, repetitive rhythms of life, our impatience with “sameness,” and seeks to titillate us with bigger and more provocative technological wizardry. It is tempting and quite easy to fall into the frenzy of the bigger-faster-more society that feeds our impatient need for novelty and wealth without work.

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On August 31, 2021 By In Discipleship

Three Masculine Traits Lived Out by Jesus That Men Need to Recover Today

Guest post by David Bostrom

Throughout our lifetime, we’ve pretty much ignored Jesus as an example of masculinity.

Part of this has to do with the ‘gentle Jesus meek and mild’ perception that still dominates the church. In other words, by assuming Jesus isn’t really all that masculine, we don’t bother to look to Him as a model for manhood.

Also, there remains a particular fear that keeps some from giving Jesus much attention regarding masculinity. And that’s the fear that following Jesus as a model will somehow overshadow the necessity of His atonement, and we’ll begin to trust in ourselves rather than Him.

But the failure to look to Jesus regarding masculinity has been to our detriment. And it’s left many Christian men turning to secular gurus to try and discover what it means to live as a man in our day.

This is so unfortunate and unnecessary because as the second Adam, Jesus is the ultimate dominion man and the ideal one to turn to when it comes to recovering masculinity – in any generation.

So what can Jesus teach us about being a man? Particularly in today’s scenario?

In his study The Person of Jesus , Paul Miller does a fantastic job bringing to life a full and balanced view of the humanity of our Lord. In so doing, he reveals many traits of Jesus that instruct us about godly masculinity.

Let’s consider three which I believe men need to recover today.

Masculinity Looks and Takes Action

Throughout His ministry, Jesus was alert to what was going on around Him.

He didn’t sleepwalk His way through life. Instead, he paid attention to the people, situations, and needs before Him and then engaged them accordingly to bring hope.

One of the best examples of this involves the widow of Nain (Lk.7:11-17).

When Jesus, with His disciples, encountered a funeral, He didn’t just wait for it to pass by. Instead, he observed what was taking place and took special note of the widow who had lost her son. ‘His heart went out to her,’ the text says, and this led Him to take action that changed the woman’s life.

In a day when so many men have become passive, are conflicted about their duties, and have opted to just check out, this simple account gives a wake-up call.

It says…

Men, pay attention to what’s happening around you! Open up your heart. Consider how you might meet a need and bring hope. And move forward and engage.

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On August 26, 2021 By In Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom

Growing In The Light Of Wisdom

The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble. ~Proverbs 4.18-19

Solomon incentivizes his son to accept his words and walk in the path of wisdom with the promise of ever-growing light. Light is a great blessing in everyday life, but why would ever-growing light be an incentive to walk in the path of wisdom? Solomon’s promise is rooted in deep themes of Scripture that begin with the story of light and darkness in the opening scenes of history.

There was a time when there was nothing outside of God himself. You and I can’t imagine “nothing,” for when we try to imagine “nothing” we are imagining something. Nothing means that there wasn’t even darkness. On the opening day of history, God created heaven and earth and, with it, darkness (cf. Isa 45.7). Darkness was not evil in the broad sense of affliction or trouble or in the narrow sense of being sinful. In fact, God judges all of his creation “good” at the end of the week. Darkness was a part of each day and was, therefore, good with the rest of creation.

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On August 19, 2021 By In Culture, Discipleship, Family and Children, Men

Headship and Mission

In the beginning, God gave a mission to the man: he was to take dominion over the earth. This was his mission, but it was revealed he could not do it alone. So, God created the woman to be his helper, one who would come alongside him, who would be oriented to him and his God-given mission. The mission of the dominion of the world, bringing order and glory to a disordered and immature world, was beyond the capabilities of two individuals. God blessed them, giving them the ability to be fruitful and multiply. As children grew and eventually left their original household, cleaving to a spouse and creating a new household, a division of labor emerged that moved the mission forward. Each household, led by the husband who was helped by his wife, would develop its own mission that would contribute to the larger mission of the dominion of the world.

The grand mission continues and, therefore, the division of labor continues. Each household or family is responsible for an aspect of the mission. Within each household, the man is responsible to determine the mission of the household. That is the duty of headship. What this means is that must determine how the family fits in and works toward the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. You are not responsible for the entirety of the mission. But you and your family are responsible to pull part of the load.

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