I'll Make a Man Out of You

Alright, let's get down to business.

So every week on Thursdays our group has been splitting off and been doing separate men's and women's times.  This summer the men are exploring this idea of RACE:
R-Rejecting Passivity (not being idle, taking the initiative, when something needs to be done--do it!)
A-Accepting Responsibility (admitting your failures, following through with your word)
C-Courageously Leading (humbly leading others, being bold, stepping out of your comfort zone, relying on the Holy Spirit)
E-Expecting a Greater Reward (keeping an eternal perspective, not dwelling on Earthly matters)

So yesterday on our Wednesday off we had Men's and Women's time all day.  While the women were getting pedicures and eating ice cream sundaes (not a joke), the guys went to a state park about 30-45 min away.  The first thing we did was canoeing, which was a blast.  Unfortunately, I do have to admit that I was frustrated with one of my peers who could not get the paddling down.  But rather than create "conflict" and try and fix the problem, I was passive and let it happen.  As a result, we were the last canoe down the river and I was even more frustrated.  I failed at rejecting passivity.  Later on, though, I went up and apologized to him for being frustrated.  I accepted responsibility.  It's so neat to see how much grace and forgiveness there is in this group.

Then the metaphor became real.  We had a canoe race, but for you to win, both of your team’s canoes had to finish.  Our second canoe in our team happened to get a hole in it…needless to say, we didn’t come in first.  Oh well.  Then we did another relay race involving running and swimming.  When deciding what tasks each person would do in this race, I felt like I courageously led by figuring out who would be best at which leg, and organizing the positions for our team.  At the same time, it’s difficult to do this without being bossy or arrogant.

After a scrumptious dinner of hobo pies (look it up if you don’t know what it is) we were all blindfolded and taken to a remote location (so sketch right?).  We were instructed to take off our blindfolds one at a time and individually walk through the forest on a path only lit by 4 lanterns held by the staff members.  At each lantern we were read a Bible verse and asked if we promised to live a life that displays each of the 4 letters of RACE.  It was really neat walking through the forest at night and being encouraged like that.

At the end of those lanterns, we each received our own lanterns, so that we could be “lights” to the world and actually apply these ideas of RACE to our lives later on.  We were declared men.  Not as the world defines manhood, but how God wants to use us men for his purposes, whether or not we think we’re qualified or ready or equipped.  He is ready to send us out and spread his word.  We need to be ready and reliant on him.