“Any area of our lives for which we have no hope is under the influence of a lie.”  My dear warrior,
The Christmas season is a time of hope because we take time to remember Christ our Savior’s birth. But with all the stress that comes with the holidays (the shopping, cooking, cleaning, travelling, etc.), we often find ourselves in the middle of very difficult circumstances, things don’t seem to go as planned, and we can have bad days that sometimes just feel hopeless. Just this past week I found myself crying out to God and telling Him that I would much prefer to feel the weight of His glory than the weight of sadness. There are times when we may have particularly bad days, or struggles that just don’t seem to end. In those times of heartache or of losing hope or of fear and anxiety we may find ourselves wanting to throw in the towel, wanting to give up, and telling God that we don’t want to do this anymore. If you are feeling anguished this holiday season, let me encourage you, my dear wounded warrior.
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“Stand true to your calling to be a man. Real women will always be relieved and grateful when men are willing to be men”  My dear warrior,
I have become increasingly more aware of men struggling with what it means to be a man; struggling to understand what true masculinity is in a culture that is increasingly antagonistic towards what God designed men to be. Culture defines manliness as being tough as nails, showing no emotion; or demands men to be emasculated, submissive and sensitive; or downgrades/ debases/ demotes them to purely sexual beings, driven by their libido and knowing little more than animal instinct. None of these is correct, and each of them is a distortion of the reality set forth by our Creator. My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith would not depend on men's wisdom, but on God's power.  My dear warrior,
This time last year I would not have expected that I would be where I am today. I would not have expected to be completely set free and healed from all of my food allergies and health issues. I would not have thought I would be eating pizza, joining in on all the food festivities at work, and finally getting to enjoy the lush German Christmas pastries that I have missed and craved so much over the years. And yet here I am, completely healed. This Christmas I am happily eating gluten and free from the overwhelming feelings of guilt, shame and food depression that came with having food allergies. "Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible." My dear warrior,
A man is made by the small decisions he makes every day. The decision to do right or wrong; to indulge his fancy or be disciplined; to work hard toward his future or to lay back and enjoy folly; to dream big or resign himself to ‘que sera sera’. It is the small choices that shape our paths and therefore our lives. The choice to resist or give in to sin is always there. And no matter how large or small the instance may be, God is moved by our hearts when we choose to resist sin and (in our passion for Him) to live a life pleasing to Him. Likewise, even the smallest decision to give into sin (thinking ‘just this once can’t hurt’) causes us to be separated from God and leads us down the path of destruction. "The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us."  “The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self--all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call "ourselves," to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be "good.” My dear warrior,
As C.S. Lewis and A.W. Tozer both so eloquently stated, the almost impossible thing is to come to the end of ourselves. We struggle and wrangle to kill the flesh; we fight against temptation; we want to live our lives as ‘good people’; and yet, we fight to maintain control. We want to be in charge. We have to have the last word. If that sounds familiar because you are in the middle of that selfsame struggle, if you recognize yourself in this, let this be a letter for you. |
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Mere Humanity: Becoming a Mature Christian in an Immature World 
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