What are you going to do?

Hey Guys,
I’m freshly returned from conducting a retreat with several other Dog Soldiers in Kansas City. To watch men connect with God and see God work out the things in their lives that are particular to each man…… it’s just stunning. Which leads me to my first topic today, and that is that next Tuesday morning, Oct. 4^th, this year’s group of Dog Soldiers will start. I have several great guys signed up and excited to get started, and yes there is room for several more. Let me know if you are interested by replying to this email.

Now far some thoughts. I was reading an article in National Geographic’s Adventure magazine titled “How to Survive Anything” and it was more about the mental condition that you need to be able to survive a disaster be it man-made, natural, or an adventure gone awry. Do the next right thing was some good advice, rather than worrying about anything else that can go wrong. Then I came to one that said to take control. The author pointed out that Illinois has 50% more tornados than Alabama, yet far fewer people died in those tornados than in Alabama. An Ivy league school did a study on this and came to the conclusion that it was the people in Alabama’s belief in God that did them in. That they believed that there was nothing they could do about anything, so they didn’t do what they could to protect themselves from a natural disaster like that and the people in Illinois would do what they could control.

Interesting. Where is the line between God’s sovereignty and our choice? Theologians will probably argue this one until the rapture, but I would like to offer some thoughts on the idea of choice.

If you will go and pull the word choice out of the Bible, you will see two interesting ideas. One, God chooses things, us, Jerusalem, His plan; and we get to choose who we will give our hearts to. God and his ways, or ways that are not of God. Most of what you see in the old testament of God getting ticked off is because of us choosing something besides Him. He is like a jealous lover in this regard.

Proverbs, in particular, asks us to choose wisdom, over and over again.

So, why this in an email to men? Because your choices are what makes you a man. Or not. Every day you will have choices of what to do with your time, temptation, your reactions, what to do with your money, loving your wife or not, the list goes on and on. Being a good man involves choosing the right, or God-led choice every time, regardless of the pain, or personal cost involved. This is where courage and faith go hand in hand.

Here's to knowing that God has our back in the choices He wants us to make.

Have a great week men.

Alex