Little caveat here: I have been meaning to write this for sometime, and I intend to make it a series. I pray this finds you well.
It has come to my attention that you are under much scrutiny of late. In an effort to share in that which you now bear I am writing to you. I will not promise to bring you alleviation through any word that here I type. I do not guarantee your over all well being following you reading this. I can not even say that you will walk away from this “changed for the better.” What I can say is that if you allow Jesus to speak to your heart as the man you are then you will be transformed regardless of what you’re reading.
So you are being persecuted. Maybe you are not explicitly being laughed at every time that you walk down a hallway, but you feel as though you can’t be yourself. Maybe in truth you are laughed at by your peers or even those you would like to call friend. Perhaps you are the joke of the family, your siblings call you an “accident.” Maybe you are just trying to do the right thing and it never works out. You simply want to live a good life and yet here you are. You feel like you are wandering aimlessly. You are caught up by nothing and everything, a leaf in a gale.
Man up and be vulnerable.
You will not make it through this life by simply gritting your teeth and pushing on. Nor will you accomplish anything outside of pain by bearing all your pain through passive actions.
Man up and be vulnerable.
Have you lead yourself to the mistake of thinking that you are now exempt from that which has bound men together for centuries before you? Are you so intelligent so as to be the first man in all of time that does not experience the shortcomings the rest of us do known as vice? Are you so proud to concede that you do not have trauma from your life?
Man up and be vulnerable.
What sets you apart then from your brothers around you? Do you test better than they? Do you socialize better perhaps? Your stronger than them then? Folly and waste are such measurements. You will live a life of self deception and misery by holding yourself to such animalistic rubrics.
Man up and be vulnerable.
Look at Him.
What pride do you see here? What conceit can you possibly claim to find in His gaze? Now look in the mirror. What are you doing? What my brother are you doing?
You wake up in the morning and then shortly after you go to bed at night. What happens in the space between? Do you see your life that flies past you or do you allow it to slip by simply praying for your numbered days to be delayed for one more nights rest? What will you gain from this sleep you so closely cherish? Sleep exists so that you may be awake to Praise the Lord in all things. To think otherwise is to always be asleep. Wake up brother. You are living in mediocrity, lying to yourself in order to continue in the illusion that you have everything under control. You have no control and you were never meant to.
Man up and be vulnerable.
What of the sisters in your life? Those made from your very rib to walk beside you to heaven. How do you look at them, what do you see? Do you truly look at them as though they have been taken from your very flesh and made into something more? Do you realize that this is the only creature unlike you on this planet that can relate to you equally and distinctly different from yourself? Have you loved her?
Look at Him.
How does He look at these sisters among us? With love brother, nothing below this. You must do the same. There is no other option. They are worth more than any fortune you will ever amass and yet you decide how you hold them in your gaze. You sisters don’t command your respect as the idols in your life, chaining you to its clutch. No, our sisters are vulnerable like us. We must elevate them with our respect and thus embracing our dignity as children of the Father.
Man up and be vulnerable.
What will you do brother? Will you find your brothers that wish to fight, or will you stay at home while men die on your behalf. Of course there is not a crusade as was in the many years past. That said make no mistake, men are dying for you every day. You will not know the sacrifices one man has endured for you till all is revealed. Yet all these are merely imitators of Him.
Look at Him.
He has died for you. He presents Himself daily before the Father for you. You, brother! Think of how easily you enamor yourself in your own weakness. We smother ourselves with our own hate not by accident, but total voluntary decision. We enjoy the pain that we inflict upon ourselves because we deserve it. It is easy to see ourselves as disgusting beasts more fit for base tasks than contemplating our intrinsic value in Him as sons. See brother, this hate you harbor cannot be contained in your chest, your mind. You will kill others while you worry about properly hating yourself. Come out brother, into the light. See it is warm and refreshing. Yes, it will hurt for you have spent much time away from its gaze. Notice though that this pain you now feel is not that of a knife being thrust into your chest, rather it is a wound being cauterized.
Look at Him.
See, the darkness cannot overtake His face. He wants you closer to Himself. He wants to embrace you, His prize, treasured and precious in His eyes. He is tired and weak from His passion for YOU. His suffering for YOU. All so that YOU may have life and have it abundantly. He is not going to drop you when you rest in Him brother as others have. He will hold you while you stay in the light. See there is pain here, but it sears clean the wounds you have inflicted upon yourself and the ones others have taken out on you. And if you look you will see He is experiencing the same that you endure. Do you see now brother? Do you see how little the thoughts of what others want you to be ultimately matter? He has planned everything for you. He has uniquely arranged your circumstances so as to best set you and those around you on a path to life abundant.
Man up and be vulnerable.
You cannot be vulnerable with any of your brothers and sisters unless you are first vulnerable with the One who from all intimacy flows. Anything outside of this is a lie that you have stubbornly swallowed brother. If you cannot be vulnerable before God then you will not know how to be vulnerable before your brothers and sisters. So please, my brother run to Him. You have been cut, thrown, shot, buffeted before for being vulnerable with others. I can say few things with the assurance that I say this, He will receive you perfectly. He longs to receive you and speak to you that which you most need to hear.
I love you.
He does brother, he really does. I would be dead now if this weren’t true, a husk of a man blown about like a leaf in a gale.
I pray brother that this may nourish you until next we speak. Don’t hesitate to reach out should you be nervous to say to Him, “and I love you.” Remember, He will receive you brother.
Man up and be vulnerable.
-Your brother in Christ.
Ipsa Duce 