“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, his greatest fulfillment in all he holds dear, is the moment when he’s worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle- victorious.” Vince Lombardi
In his classic book for men Wild at Heart, John Eldredge effectively argues us that every man has an adventure to live, a beauty to rescue and a battle to fight.
Battles to fight.
Yes, God has wired a man far differently than he wired a woman. If a woman is safe and secure in her environment she is at ease, at peace, and at rest. You place a man in the same secure environment and he becomes a malcontent, misaligned with no apparent meaning. He becomes a man at war with his own “Peaceful Easy Feeling” as the Eagle’s once put it.
Men are born to fight. I have a book in my library by Sam Sheridan called, A Fighter’s Heart and the only reason I spent money on it was I resonated with the title! Men are born to climb that hill that we may eventually die on. Heck, we will even volunteer even if death may be waiting at the summit! Without that bloody hill, without the field of battle, a man will wander into the vicarious world of his Modern Warfare on his X-Box, Fantasy Football league, or became the greatest armchair quarterback that ever lived-in his house that is!
As my oldest son James, proudly flexes after great day in the weight room, “Dad I did work today.” Yes, it is the purpose of every man to “do work”. Our bodies are not soft, curvaceous and aesthetically pleasing like a woman (I sure hope you agree). Men are created to “do work”-sharp lines, chiseled, utilitarian. We are formed to fight and defeat attrition. Tragically for men, the economy has left a lot of good men wandering aimlessly through a season of unemployment with no apparent purpose, no focal point of meaning, and no venue to “do work.”
However, our work is not our identity. Our work is to serve the King. Our work is to push back the darkness with all that our hearts can muster. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. (Colossians 3:23).”
The mind of men knows that we are not what we do. We are sons of the King (Luke 15:11-31, 1 Timothy 1:17). We are soldiers (2 Timothy 2:3-4) in God’s army. Even if the heart of a man knows his identity is in Christ and not in his work we become so connected to what we do that we often live at full draw with a constant tension between who we are and what we do.
Yankee great, Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to the fork in the road, take it!” This is good advice for men who find themselves wandering. Find that good cause, that field of battle, that hill you may die on and simply start walking. Just move. Take the fork in the road even if you are not sure where it leads. In time God will confirm His will, one way of the other. You were made to move. Stagnation is the pollution of Satan.
Like Moses, shout to the Lord, "Show me your glory (Exodus 33:18).”
Once you start to move you will begin to feel the heart of a fighter beating in your chest. You will have a victorious heart. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).”
