RAW Letter

Not long ago our church had a local weekend student retreat for the boys.  As part of that experience I was asked to write one of many letters that hung up around the room they were worshiping in.  The letters were intended to be encouragement from older men in the church to the young guys attending.

Here is the one I wrote...

Guys :

I wanted to take a minute and write you a letter that challenges you to start on a grand adventure today.  An adventure that will lead you to be the kind of man that God longs for you to be, not the kind of man that the WORLD says you should be.

Being a man isn’t about things like muscles, fast cars, knowing how to fight, dating a lot of girls, drinking Bud Light, or making lots of money.  Those are the things that our culture would tell you to be consumed with so that you could be a “man.”  No, real manhood is about humility and sacrifice.  It’s about your worth, and ultimately God’s glory, being seen by others through the way that you lay down your own selfish desires to do what God commands.

The model for real manhood was obviously Jesus.  He is the example that you can always look to when the pressures of this world slam down on you and you are tempted to embrace the attributes of manhood that the enemy has convinced most people to believe in… 

Jesus is both the man who grabs a whip and clears the robbers from the temple AND the friend who weeps deeply at the grave of Lazarus.  He is the perfect balance of love and strength, tenderness and firmness, mercy and judgment.  Jesus is both the Lamb who, although innocent, chose to bear our sin in the face of intense pain and humiliation AND the Lion of Judah who will return tattooed, with fiery eyes, and a sword proceeding from his mouth to show his wrath to those who did not trust him.

Jesus is our model because his GOSPEL is our example.  In the work of Christ, God gives us grace.  Grace is getting what you do not deserve.  We deserve death, but God gives us life through the Cross.  In the same fashion, you must strive to be a man who unashamedly stands up for truth and who extends love and mercy to others, even when they do not deserve it.

Cling to the scriptures and to godly men as you walk through this adventure.  There are spiritual bandits who will stop at nothing to prevent you from reaching your potential.  Ignore their whispers of temptation and look to Jesus.  Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in this world.