Guys in suits: becoming more

[Note: this blog entry is actually a bit of a rant that bubbled up unbidden, following some particularly intensive interaction with several “guys in suits” in the context of an international business situation.  It likely has application, as well, to females wearing serious-looking grown-up attire.  But, with apologies to the ladies, I'm going to indulge in some guy-talk for just a sec....]

Inside every man in a suit — myself included — is a little boy still deciding how badly he wants to grow up. If we'll let Him, God will meet us in the midst of every situation and empower us to become more. But doing so is often costly to our carefully cobbled-together sense of who we already are.

We want to help change the world — a desire God yearns to fulfill! But He wants to bring about real Kingdom transformation within us first, foremost, and continually. Everything else flows from there ... including discovery of our authentic selves — the person God Himself had in mind when he breathed us into existence.

Our various personal and collaborative efforts can soar and bear the unmistakeable mark of His creative handiwork.

Or they can, at the end of the day, reveal a bunch of guys trying hard to do some good things and basically get their own needs met in the process. One-up each other. Validate their existence.

This is so, not because we are particularly bad people. This not unique to any of us; it is part of the human condition.  We've got lots of company!  But, at the end of the day, we also have a very personal choice to make.

Only God's grace can truly lift us beyond ourselves. Only He can move us beyond that deep-rooted need to make it all — however subtly — about ourselves.

Only His Spirit can grow us into godly husbands, who willingly lay down our lives for our wives; mature fathers, giving our best to our natural and spiritual children; transformational leaders, who effectively lead the enterprise or group entrusted to our care, fueled by sincere passion to see the very best come to pass for those we serve.

This He freely offers us, as His gift. And He has a way of making His grace available right in the trenches. But we must choose to “go there” — honestly, transparently, vulnerably, consistently — if we are to lay hold of it. Or, more accurately, if we are to let it lay hold of us.

We must hunger to become more, become inexorably unwilling to settle for less. We must find those who are ready to go there with us. Then we must, indeed, get on with it.

This is our reality, not some theory or fodder for our next "men's Bible study".