Tonight I am going to continue on with things I have learned from the book by Mike Erre Why Guys Need God. Chapter four was titled Toil and Thorns.  The following quote really stood out to me

We are looking for who we are as men in what we do.  Our lives are based on work, earning, and performance.  No wonder we are confused when we show up at church and hear about God’s free gift of grace to us. pg. 59

I believe this is so true.  In society today everything we do seems to be based on performance.  As men we sit around and watch sports because we love the competition, we buy new cars because we are concerned about our image, we have to have the latest and greatest gadget so we can look, feel, or seem important.  I once heard a pastor put it this way “we buy things we do not need or want to impress people we do not know.”  So is it confusing for us when we walk into church and here that God’s grace is free absolutely.  I remember doing a free car wash with my teens and people would not understand why in the world we do this for free.  Why would we wash their car for free.  As men we face the same challenge with God’s grace.  It is difficult to understand that we do not have to earn it.

I will give one more quote form chapter four.

The moment we surrender control (or the perceived illusion of it), we find ourselves in the barren wild of God’s ruthless love.  At precisely that point of risk, when we no longer have it in ourselves to impress God or others, we realize we just can’t make life work through our own effort and resources, and we discover the freedom and courage that defines true men. pg.63

The other night at our church we watched a video about letting go of those things that are keeping us from fully serving God.  When the video concluded we all grabbed to handfuls of dirt and symbolically prayed for those things we needed to let go and then dropped the dirt.  I ma so often reminded that I need to empty myself of myself in or to experience that freedom and courage of a true man.