A Challenge To My Brothers

One thing I am sure of: Fear paralyzes. We seek to better ourselves, our families, and our ministries but often find we are stagnated, hiding…treading water waiting for the proverbial hammer to fall and shatter our fragile, tiny, world. Wondering what hour the things we hold most dear will be torn from our hands. Desperate to be significant, eager to be heard. Enduring a life lived under cloudy skies and threats of raging storms. Second guessing ourselves even in the calm. Mourning foolish decisions that have brought regret and harm.
We are wounded. Some wounds are small and easily ignored. Some are large and gaping. Both produce scars that make us ever more aware of our mortality and emptiness.
Scars have a way of making us bitter and hard. They force us to separate ourselves from deep, tender relationships. Building shaky walls between us and those we love. We learn to lie, not only to people around us, but to ourselves. Truth is compromised and our integrity takes the hit. We know our hidden shame, those things we never will speak aloud. Haunting guilt of things done and undone.
We understand pain. It surrounds us and informs our ever present actions and thought. We are not supposed to show fear because we know this reveals weakness and vulnerability. But the pain is real. The bitterness is real. The anger is brutal…and so is the potent fear that is born from this volatile mixture. A concoction so viral that it can render us cowards looking for the exit sign, praying that this urge to break and run is held at bay.
We also know the shape and size of all the masks we wear to appear confident, in control, and adequate. We fumble awkwardly with these masks sometimes forgetting which one we wear. The stunning fear of someone momentarily seeing what lies behind the veil keeps us up at night.
If we sit idly by, lost in our timidity, and fearfully wait for loss or calamity to befall us, we will not be disappointed. Life is certainly one loss after another. Some new monster chasing, panic taking our breath away, or that silent numbness slowly creeping.
We will fail. And in the course of ever succumbing to those failures, we never truly live.

But suppose we move ahead with our dreams? Suppose we find the courage to hope again and produce extraordinary vision? Suppose we dare to speak in the light what we know we are meant for?
Is it not Jesus who patiently whispers in our darkest night, “Fear not, For I am with you.”? Is it not our Heavenly Father who calls out to us, “Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid…” ?
In this very day we need to be men that will allow God to build us into soldiers of the Cross. Men boldly proclaiming Good News to the nations, self-controlled, self denying, alert and prepared for war. Men humbled and invigorated by the completeness of Christ’s redemption.
We may get bloodied and bruised. We may get weak and discouraged. We may be betrayed and suffer great loss. Yet we are firmly committed to Christ’s glory, to His Kingdom come. We will no longer despise our pain but allow it to awaken us from our slumber. The scars we carry will now have purpose as they point to grace. We will live and not waste our days.
We will pay the price Jesus bids us pay. We will forgive and be forgiven. We will honor God and His Word as our only Sovereign, bowing our knee only to Him…longing for that Country not built by human hands.
For there most assuredly is coming a day when we will no longer lose. When fear is rendered meaningless, and the stench of death is vanquished. There is coming a day when we will see Jesus face to face, and He our Redeemer and Lord will say, “Well done My good and faithful servant!”
And it will be the pursuit of hearing those words from our Savior’s lips that will fuel our dreams and visions today. Words so beautiful that even now they strike down fear, replacing it with freedom and victory.
As Autumn leaves burst into brilliant colors, it is death that turns them glorious. In like manner we too must die: dying to self, to our sin, our worldly ambitions, and abandoning ourselves to God. This too brings shining glory.
May we be Men of the Cross. Men who will embrace the Spirit’s holy, cleansing flame. May we together challenge the Brotherhood to stand beneath the blood-stained Banner of Christ, shoulder to shoulder, fearless, and on fire.

Your brother,
Darryl Riden

Romans chapter 8:31-39