I Want to be a Man!

The desire to give our existence value

Years ago, a song swept Christian radio stations across the land - and I'm not talking about "Bullfrogs and Butterflies," although I really liked that song. I guess I could write an article about it - nah that would bore even me. I should know, I've tried it before.

The song, "A Man You Would Write About," was performed by 4 Him, and it encouraged those who heard it to be men (or women, I don't want to offend any feminine followers of the Philip Pfiles) that people would write about in a 100 years. Millions of people heard the song and wanted to be that type of person, for it struck a nerve. Most of us desire and dream about doing important things that will change the world.

I for one, want to be a man. Wait, that didn't come out right. What I mean is that as a man (my being a man is not in question here) I want to do great things with my life. I've talked to a number of my friends at ORU who have this same sense of destiny.

As students, we continually hear about this awesome calling and anointing that God has on us. Even the sign on the back wall in chapel proclaims that as students we will take the light, word and healing of Jesus to a dark and hurting world.

Each time I hear such a sermon I am filled with hope for the future, but I am also pestered by nagging thoughts. Will I be one of those students? Will I be a man people would write about on the Internet, much less in a book! I can't tell you. What I do know is that the dream in my heart and the vision in my mind are so real that I can almost touch them, but whether or not I ever will, is still in committee.

Jesus said that many are called but few are chosen. What separates the two? I don't know, but if I were a betting man, I'd put my nickel on talent, a dime on training, my roommate's quarter on dedication and the rest on God (which would be a buck and two cents - then I'd be broke). A wise man once said, "The mundane is the training ground for the heroic." In truth, the heroic feats are determined beforehand in the midst of the mundane, boring and unappreciated. These are the times that build character.

Maturity, I've heard it said, is determined by what a man does with his free time. And character is shown by what a man does when no one is looking. Don't shout me down because I'm repeating what someone else said that was good. Um . . . anyway. Winston Churchill emphasized the need for practicality when he said, "If a man is not a liberal (idealistic) when he is young, he has no heart. If a man is not a conservative (pragmatic) when he is old, he has no brain."

Mark Steele put it bluntly in an interview I had with him earlier this year.

"I know a bunch of people who say, ‘I just want to influence the world,' and they go to ORU and do nothing there," he said.

"A high mistake factor in our belief is that when God calls you to something, you are going to be instantly good at it; and when we are not good we think we missed our calling," he said. "Instead of just thinking we've got to work at it." It is good to be idealistic, but that can't change a tire - much less the world.

You must begin to take practical steps now if your dreams (and your life) are to be more than a passing whimsy.