What Guys Do

 

Watch!  Stand firm in the faith!  Be manly!  Be staunch! 

Paul To The Corinthians (1) 16: 13, Concordant New Testament 

If I would have known my dad back in the day, I probably would have called him a man of the times.  A man of his day and age.  Because that which he did, the drinking, smoking and affairs with different women, were often common behavior among guys of that time.  I remember my dad as a beer drinking, smoking rough and tumble type of guy who a lot of people respected in the small town we lived in.  Of course, being a county deputy sheriff, he commanded that respect.  For reasons known only to me, as I grew up I swore to myself that I would never be like him.  Not just because he left us when I was young, but because of the lifestyle that he lived.  A lot of times, sitting at the local bar was more important to him than going home.  That was the life he lived.  I had the choice not to follow in those footsteps.  Unfortunately, as the years went by I found myself becoming more and more involved with what guys do.  There was occasional drinking (Thankfully I never really had a taste for it) as well as frequent trips to the local strip clubs and bars.  After all, this is what guys do.  I can remember my coworkers snickering when I told them that I had never been to a nude bar.  It was like I was some kind of outcast.  Yes, I could have ignored those opinions and followed another path, but I wanted to be one of the guys.  I wanted to do what guys do.  Of course, as I began to do what guys do I began to be accepted by that crowd.  I was no longer an outsider.  The first hint that I began to realize that I was becoming like my dad happened sometime in my 40's after another night at a local strip club where a lot of money was spent.  I remembered how my dad used to come home late smelling like cigarettes and alcohol.  Then it hit me, I was doing what he did.  I was doing what guys do!  Having been raised in a Christian environment, I was also very aware of what the Father wanted for me, and it wasn't this life I was leading.  I remembered my vow to myself and felt as if I had somehow failed.  But one thing about God is that He NEVER considers us failures.  Yes, I had lost my way, but God was there to take me back when it was my time.  That's another thing about God, He never forces us to commune with Him, that decision is ours and our alone.  When I said that I had lost my way, I meant it.  I had forgotten who it was that I am inside.  

With Christ have I been crucified, yet I am living; no longer I, but living in me is Christ.  Now that which I am now living in the flesh, I am living in faith that is of the Son of God, Who loves me, and gives Himself up for me. 

Paul To The Galatians 2: 20, Concordant New Testament 

The first time I read the verse I was reminded in my spirit of just who I really was.  The apostle Paul, in His letter to the church of the Galatians, speaks to a wayward people of the indwelling Christ Jesus he had come to know in him {Paul To The Galatians 2:20}.  The old man Paul once knew, the man born into sin, was no more.  That man had been put to death with Jesus at the cross.  What remained in him was Christ Jesus.  Likewise, the man I once knew, born into sin, has been crucified with Jesus as well.  What remains now is Christ.  This is the man I am.  It has nothing to do with what guys do.  It definitely has nothing to with vying for the acceptance of others.  These things are not of the Father.  I can say that one thing which my earthly father and I shared was our place in the Lords family.  We were each created in the Fathers image {Genesis 1:27}.  The difference between us is that I realized where I was headed and found my way back to the Father.  My father spent his entire life never knowing the excitement of the man he truly was in Him.  Had the Father been revealed in him, I have no doubt that he would have been a changed man...for the better.  

I recall one of my final forays into doing what guys do.  As I stood at the door of another local strip club, I was struck by a feeling in my spirit that this was not the man I was.  I wasn't that man who needed the acceptance of others.  I definitely wasn't that guy who needed to do what guys do.  I turned away and left.  That's what men do.  

~Scott~