We have started a new man hikes blog.  Check this out...it is still in development, but the two man hikes that we have done have been so awesome that they needed their own blog.

"When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted."  Psalm 138:3

 

I am trying to tie the life of David to what we are trying to accomplish with these man hikes.  I hope going out on these hikes will help people pursue God's heart, what God dreamed when he created us, discover how to be the man he made us to be.

 

Seth said that David is the archetype for us as men.  So how did God train David, and how are our hikes similar?  Why did God choose David, how did God train David? How does God choose and train men, how do we as the church choose and train men?  Have God's ways changed?  Are the church's ways different than mans?

 

Charles Swindol wrote a biography on David which I read when I was 25 and just starting to pursue God, uh, for real.  Swindol says that there are three priorities for God appointed servant leaders, the people God chooses. 

 

 In 2 Chronicles 16:9 we read "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him....".  I believe our unchanging God still looks for those he will strengthen, people he will build his kingdom through.  So what are these priorities, how does God choose?

 

When God chose David, God said to Samuel (1 Samuel 16:7), "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 

 

What did God see in David?  What do I hope God is training in me and seeing in me?  What do I hope these hikes will develop?

 

Spirituality.  Ears to listen to his voice, a heart to obey.  A person whose heart is in harmony with God.  What burdens God's heart also burdens the heart of God's servants.  When he speaks we follow, our character conforms to His.  I want to be this man, I want my heart to long to please God's heart.  We spend time on these hikes listening to God and exhorting each other to pursue Him, pursue the dreams he has planted in us.

 

Humility.  God cares more about character than charisma.  Humility, a servants heart.  Is this person authentic or is he faking it?  Is he a servant?  Is he humble, faithful, respectful?  These hikes can be humbling in many ways, and we expect humility and transparency from each other.

 

Integrity.  "Complete, whole, innocent, having simplicity of life, wholesome, sound, unimpaired."  Bone deep honesty, honest to the core.  It is who you are when no one is looking.  Not just trying to make a good impression.  Keeping up a false self is difficult to do when we are exhausted from hiking and camping.  It is easier to be honest when it is just the guys and we don't feel pressured to impress anyone of the opposite sex.

 

Spirituality, humility, and integrity.  I love these words, what they represent.  These are the foundations of a bold and stouthearted man.

There is something about this word, STOUTHEART.  Psalm 138:3 says "When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted."

Something in me jumps at those words, BOLD and STOUTHEARTED, I want to be bold and stouthearted.

 

This Psalm was written by King David.  Was he bold and stouthearted?  God called David "a man after his own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22).  So, in my mind, David is claiming to be bold and stouthearted, and God is calling David a man after his own heart...God's heart then is bold and stout.

 

How do we develop this stout and bold heart?

 

On our man hike, Seth was talking about David being an archetype for us as men.  I can't think of any man better, God's word devotes 66 chapters to him.  Seth shared that David's life shows a pattern for us to follow.  This pattern looks similar to the stages that John Eldredge shares in his books.  I also see this pattern in John Maxwell's "Put Your Dream to the Test".

 

Eldredge's stages are:  Beloved Son, Cowboy, Warrior, Lover, King, and Sage.  I believe that Eldredge draws a lot of parallels to David in his book "The Way of the Wild Heart".  I haven't read this book in a while, but I believe Eldredge says it is rare to find a true Godly King and Sage, but I believe Seth fits this description, and spending a few days hiking with him was awesome for all of us (hopefully warriors and lovers, kings in training and future sages).

 

Seth's thoughts were that we as men have to learn to walk with God and defend ourselves first.  We have to know our identity and walk in it, that is step one, which I believe lines up with Son, Cowboy, and Warrior.  David's school for this was while he was watching his father's sheep and had to defend himself from the bear and the lion.

 

The next phase is learning to defend and lead our own family (wife and kids).  I believe this is the Lover and King in training stage, where my wife and son are really the first real bits of God's kingdom that I have been given dominion of.  Again, I guess David learned this while defending the sheep.

 

Stage three, according to Seth, was a stage of learning to be a leader and defender in your tribe.  I guess this includes extended family and friends.  This would be a warrior and king in training stage (?).  I guess this is done by walking in God's anointing and influence among friends and family, God's kingdom.  Maybe not positional leadership, but people are influenced by the man in this stage?  I am guessing this was David's time from battling Goliath up until he actually became king.  David fought many battles here.

 

Stage Four would be kingdom.  Leading and defending the territory God has given the man to serve, while also extending the kingdom, taking more territory.  Seth says that we start learning to do this by taking forays.  By stepping out and trying, taking a mission trip might be a good example.

 

The reason I am including the Maxwell book here is because Seth suggested for us to read that one before we went on this hike.  I guess this hike could be called more than a "man hike", maybe a "vision quest", maybe an initiation, absolutely some of the best disciplship and fellowship I have been a part of as an adult.

 

Maxwell asks if our dreams benefit others.  He says that our early years are spent discovering our talents, exploring our possibilities, and searching for our purpose.  As we get older we begin to focus more outward.  Maxwell says this is a process, like everything else I have just written about.

 

This process starts at level one:  I want to do something significant for myself.  Maxwell says it is impossible to help others if you haven't taken care of yourself.

 

The next stage is "I want to do something signigicant for others".  Maxwell uses Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, William Wilberforce and Thomas Edison as examples here.  Maxwell says "just try to help someone!".  St. Francis of Assisi said "Start doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

 

The third stage is "I want to do something significant with others."  This brings fulfillment, this pursuing the dream in community.  This is a stage I want to get to, but often have trouble with the community aspect.  I guess this is one of the highlights of our hike, that the 7 men pursued this together.  We pursued this dream of becoming men after God's own heart, bold and stout.

 

This blog is getting long, and I still have so much to talk about, but I will save it.

 

We have another one of these man hikes in the works, leave a comment here if you are interested and I will get back to you (leave your email).

 

 

What am I an advocate for?  The question bounced around in my head as I tried to focus on the sermon.  The pastor asked "What are you for?".  What does your life stand for?  What are you an advocate for? 

 

Half of me asks back, "what is the correct answer?  what answer would make you feel better?  What answer sounds best?"  Another voice says, "you are an advocate for your own comfort and appetites, your ego, your pride, your lusts", another voice says, "you advocate for your wife and child".

Seth asked me to follow up on his blog "Men recovering their lost masculinity".  After reading his blog, I asked myself, who cares?  What's the point?  Have we lost our masculinity?  Does this masculinity need to be recovered?  Why would anyone reading these blogs care?  With one of the big words in christianity these days being 'relevant', I ask, is masculinity relevant?  Does masculinity matter?  Have the guys I am going to hike with lost their masculinity?  Have I? 

 

What is masculinity?  I did a google search, I read the wikipedia article on masculinity.  Masculinity is defined as manly in character.  So what is manly?  Cicero wrote "a man's chief quality is courage".  "Scholars suggest integrity and equality as masculine values in male-male relationships,^[5] and virility in male-female relationships."Jeffrey Richards describes a European, "medieval masculinity which was essentially Christian and chivalric."^[6] Again ethics, courage and generosity are seen as characteristic of the portrayal of men in literary history." 

 

There are seven of us going on this hike.  Have these seven men lost their masculinity?   Have we lost our courage, our integrity, our chivalry, our virility, ethics, generousity?  I don't think so.  Knowing these seven men, I don't think we have lost our masculinity, that is why we are going on this hike.  The masculinity inside each of us demands that we go on this hike.  The masculinity in us gives us the courage to go outdoors, be uncomfortable (just the altitude is enough to make this difficult), face different fears (a couple of these guys don't even know each other- that can be scary enough.  What about financial fears of the time away and expense of the trip?  Mountain lions, rattlesnakes, grizzlies...do we bring a gun?), the masculinity in us drives us to step up to this challenge.  We need this risk, this adventure, this challenge.

 

I believe this hike is important for the seven of us as men, this is an investment. 

 

Why a man hike?  Why hike?  Why just the guys?

 

I think a hike makes sense because we can push ourselves physically without having any real skill.  Anyone who can walk can hike.  This is not a complex activity, so since men naturally measure ourselves against each other, even if this truly is not competitive, we are always trying to read each other's character.  We are always trying to measure our own character- do I have what it takes?

 

We can hike until we are physically exhausted.  Men spend so much energy propping up our false selves, our facade, just plain faking who we are so others will respect us.  We do this so much I think we even forget who God truly made us to be.  This stuff is more difficult when one is exhausted.

 

Men need to move.  That is another reason to hike.  Fresh air and exercise, God made us this way, it is healthy, why say this in any more detail?  Most of us are so sedentary we are clinically depressed and we don't even know it. 

 

Nature.  I thought John Muir said "nature is medicine", but when I googled that, I didn't find anything linked to him.  Some quotes I did find from him mentioned that he had most of the bible memorized and found God in nature much more than he ever found God in the church.

 

 I did find a lot of interesting new agey stuff in that search though.  I also found a book that said being in nature is good for ADHD (that's me, and probably everyone else on this hike).  I found a link that I put here that shows University of Michigan scientists found that being in an urban setting makes us dumber (I can't think of a better word, maybe I need to take this hike more than I realize) but that a brief walk in the woods or even just pictures of nature begins to improve scores on the tests they used.  Here's that link: 

 http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/scientists-urban-places-actually-make-you-stupid

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 Why just men?  The quote "masculinity begets masculinity" is what jumps out at me.  This is a quote or an idea I first learned from reading John Eldredge, it just rings true to my soul.  Maybe it rings true to my soul because I have had the blessing of having some men in my life who have taught me some things about being a man.  I have experienced this firsthand and expect to experience this again on the hike. 

 

I think it is not just any men though, Solomon said in Proverbs 27:17 that "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."  I know the Sunday School answer for what this verse means, I guess it is obvious to the Sunday School teacher, but not to me.  I don't understand how iron sharpens iron, and a search online gave some interesting answers.  I have a friend who is an engineer and has a business fixing heavy machinery, he is a real man, and he laughs at this verse because he says iron dulls iron.  To sharpen iron you need a harder material.  In my mind, this verse could be some humor on Solomon's part?  But bottom line, iron shapes iron, and a man shapes another man.

 

I choose these men to spend days hiking with because in time spent together we will effect each other and shape each other, and this is a good group of guys.  We need to wisely choose the people we allow to shape us.

 

There is a book called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Steven Covey.  I have read this a number of times, my first time when I was 23 (11 years ago!  The first self-help book I ever read).  Sometimes I try to follow these habits and other times I don't, but some of the ideas in this book are "sharpening the saw" and balancing PC and P, or production capability and production.  I believe Abraham Lincoln said that "if he were given 8 hours to chop down a tree, he would spend 6 sharpening the saw". 

 

For me, the bottom line for going on this hike is for the good of the people in my circle of influence.  I expect to be sharpened, I expect to invest in my production capability.  I expect to come home energized, recharged.  I expect to have an adventure, to build relationships.  I expect to be a better husband, father, son, uncle, brother. 

 

I expect to come home more masculine.  I expect to come home with just a little more courage, integrity, generousity, chivalry, christian character, and virility.  I think it matters.  I think masculinity is relevant.

 

 

 

 

Sitting here wiping sweat from my forehead, watching "Deadliest Warrior" on Spike, drinking a Flying Dog In Heat Wheat (Good people drink good beer), and taking a trip down memory lane.  We have been living out of boxes for 3 years, and we are going through them now.  I am tired.

 

This blog is like my journals, it has been 15 months since my last entry.  I wasn't sure if I would even remember how to post.  I can't believe 15 months have passed since I last posted.  Life rolls on.  My hair has more gray.  My dog smells more, and my son is 18 pounds.

 

Fifteen months ago we had no idea where we were headed.  Seasons change, a year blows by.  We get back to work.  We make a baby.  I have shoulder surgery.  Winter gets long.  It is March 2009, God, where is our life headed?  What are we doing?  I pray.  I say to Linnea, what are we living for?  Where is kindgom?  Is this it?  Winter in New England stretches on, I don't use my snowshoes as much as I wanted to.  My snowboard sits in the attic.   My Bible sits on the nightstand.  I work, Linnea is on leave.  Business and the economy are tanking.  I can't sleep at night, I worry, I worry.  I worry about stuff I can't control, I worry about stuff I can control.  I get tired. I get angry.  I get anxious.  I get depressed.  What about God's economy?  How did my faith shrink so much with this baby?  Is God still God?  God, we need help.  Do You even hear my prayers?  Where do You want us?

 

I ask God, seriously, not the bs I normally pray, where do you want us?  Within 24 hours I have an email from Jake Rodriguez which leads to our little family visiting Port Huron, Michigan.  Jaron is 8 weeks old, we figure out how to fly with an infant, he does great.

 

We see Jake, and Rusty, and Ericka (Rusty's new bride).  We meet Matt Snyder, Kim, Andi, Caroline.  We meet the Hindes.  We hang out and talk.  We get the current pulse of the World Race.  We love the direction.  We see God is doing amazing things.

 

We spend time with Michael and Kathy Hindes, God's presence is felt, tangibly...that old familiar, uh, feeling.  Truth is spoken, I recognize it.  I have missed this.  I have been hiding, gone to my quiet place, as Seth says.  I am spiritually constipated, this loosens something up.

 

We are invited to training camp, where we have just come back from.  Training camp was awesome.  God was there, God moved, God healed.  So much, so much, so much.

 

We listened to teachings by Ben Messner, Jimmy McCarty, and Mike Pascal.  Worship led by Matt Snyder and Kim Daniels.  Linnea is in tears all week, my heart says this is home, this is my tribe.  These are the people I want Jaron to be around.  This is kingdom.  Where do we fit in this part of kingdom?

 

Jimmy runs an amazing camp, I have a great time with the guys.  I have a great time hanging out with Seth and Rusty and Jake.  We spend time with Lynnette again, we love her.  So many familiar faces, family faces.

 

The week blows by too fast, we say good byes.  We drive to the airport.  We see Michael for a minute.  We are on the plane, and then we are home, then we are back to work.  I sit here now, listen to Jaron crying as he tries to poo (I had to fit that in, huh?  Some things never change.).

 

Where do we go from here?  We are planning on the next training camp.  We tell God "yes", where ever you lead, light our steps.  You are God, almighty, all loving, all knowing.  We have to trust you.  We ask the people who read this, pray for us again, where is God leading us?