Reaping What We Sow

• A man of God… but still worldly enough to meet all of the previous requirements.
• Bible-based… but flexible enough with its interpretation to justify all of the previous worldly requirements.
• Not materialistic or idoloatrous… but very well paid, if not rich, and willing to go to whatever lengths are necessary to maintain it.

If this list seems a little schizophrenic, perhaps that is because it is. Is it really any wonder that so many men believe that a woman’s heart is a mine field, or that so many women end up disappointed by the men in their lives?

One of the first things I learned as an undergraduate physics student was that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Fire a rifle and it will recoil. Detonate an explosive and there will be high velocity shrapnel. The same goes for emotional and spiritual realities. Paul tells us,

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Gal. 6:7-8)

Like so much else Paul wrote, this was not meant to be a rebuke or an appeal to God as a traffic cop in the sky. It is simply a statement about the way the world is. Worldviews have consequences, and so do the lives we base on them. Living as we do in a post-Enlightenment world, we take it for granted that character is nothing more than opinion and daily choice. We decide what to believe and how to act just as we might decide to buy a Ford instead of a Toyota. Real character is so much more. It is a life journey, a path to be followed. It is who we are.

A few years ago there was a popular movement in Evangelical communities based on the question “what would Jesus do?” The idea was that in any life situation, we would become like Jesus if we would simply ask ourselves what He would do in the same situation and then just do it. Like so much modern spirituality, the question is well-meaning but hopelessly naïve. Jesus didn’t just "choose" to be the way He was any more than swimmer Michael Phelps "chose" to win 8 gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics because he had nothing better to do that week. Both men achieved what they did by committing themselves to walking a lifelong path that included work, sacrifice, and daily regimens. Diet, exercise, study, prayer, fasting, intentional community and accountability, vision quests… whatever the means, they practiced intentional lifestyles that over the years shaped them into a certain kind of man. Then, when the time came for them to act they did what came naturally to the men they were.

Michael Phelps didn’t have to ask himself what an athlete would do. He had become one.

The term “believer” is a modern one, and even the word “Christian” wasn’t used by the early church (the term was first coined in Antioch by opponents of the church and was derogatory). The first followers of Jesus referred to themselves as disciples (Greek: mathetos). This is of course, no accident. Whatever their spiritual tradition may be men of character aren’t born, nor do they put on wholeness and integrity like a dress shirt or sport jacket. Their lives are a consequence of the disciplined lifestyles they have chosen and the worldviews that grew out of them through years of faithfulness and commitment. “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law,” said Solomon (Proverbs 29:18 - NASB), and he was right. Spiritual discipline cultivates restraint, and this leads to vision. Men of integrity know who they are, what they believe in and why, and who their gods are and are not. Their restraint leads to a centered faithfulness that can weather life’s storms and protect their loved ones.