What if our spiritual lives came with a map?
Sounds crazy, right? But Jesus spoke of a narrow road that leads to life. So if there’s a road, why wouldn’t there be a map?
That’s the premise of my new book, “The Map: The Way of All Great Men.”
There is a map to manhood, embedded in the Gospel of Matthew. It’s a pattern of masculine development that shows up again and again in the lives of the men of scripture. Those who followed the map accomplished great things. But those who ignored it met with destruction.
So why do we need this map? Think of the ridiculous way we “make disciples” in the church today. We throw random Bible lessons at men, hoping it will change their lives. Tell me, would you train a soldier with random military exercises? Or a doctor with random medical experiments? Or a scholar with random classes? Of course not. Instead, you would place each of these men on an accepted training path – a path that had created thousands of expert soldiers, doctors and scholars.
This map shows us the ancient training path for male disciples. It’s the path that every great man has walked. Any other path leads to boredom, disengagment and ultimately, personal destruction.
Here’s a brief look at the Bible’s Map to Manhood:
This mountain represents a man’s identity—his nature, or his ego. Inside every man’s heart is the desire to reach the summit: to become a great man. Yet very few men even set foot on this mountain—much less get to the top.
On the left side of the map you see the female symbol, and on the right, the male symbol. As a man progresses through life, he must develop and balance the two sides of his nature: the soft, accepting feminine side and the hard, demanding masculine side. A truly great man must conquer both sides of the mountain if he is to reach the pinnacle of manhood.
Look at the bottom of the map (#1). A man starts his natural life journey on the feminine side. Every human egg is female. At birth the boy breaks free from the woman who bore him and begins a lifelong journey to identify himself as a man. This journey starts slowly. Little boys are not much concerned with their gender, but by the time they’re teenagers, most men become obsessed with manliness, pushing themselves to extreme displays of daring and courage. This pursuit is universal, observed among men in every culture on the globe.
Now look at the small hills at the base of the mountain’s right flank (#2). For the first twenty years or so, most men move as far as they can away from femininity, and they end up in an area called the “macho foothills.” These little hills represent a stunted manhood—violent, self-centered, power-hungry, and unmerciful. Some men never progress beyond macho—they remain obsessed with manliness their entire lives.
But sometimes a man wakes up and realizes that he is not climbing the mountain of manhood at all. He hears the call of Christ and wants to follow him. Now he has a frightening decision to make. He must climb down off those little hills and start going back in the feminine direction he’s been fleeing since age 6. Thus, the first Journey of Jesus is called (#3) The Journey of Submission.
The men who walk the first journey embrace the humility of our Lord. A first-journey Christian must reject his own strength, power, and intelligence, and takes up weakness, dependence, and reliance on Jesus. He must learn to love God and to be loved by God. Submission is the foundation of a successful walk with Christ.
No other religion demands that men begin their spiritual journey by moving so deliberately toward a feminine set of values and behaviors. For this reason, many men reject Christianity. Other men accept the teachings of Christ, but they fail to become men of faith because it requires them to backtrack, psychologically speaking. It’s easier for men to lie to themselves and pretend that the foothills are the pinnacle of manhood.
Once a man learns to submit, he must not stop there. The disciple begins a second journey in the opposite direction: The Journey of Strength. (#4) Having submitted himself to Christ, the man accepts the power God gives him and does not run from it. He resumes his pursuit of manliness, but at a higher level. This second journey is a lifelong process of discerning, executing, and completing the mission to which God has called the man.
“There is a third journey, called the Journey of Sacrifice. (#5) It is a second, deeper submission than the first. Sacrifice is a final, voluntary relinquishing of strength and power. It is the closing act of life, and it takes a man in the feminine direction once more—toward weakness, vulnerability, and a complete love for Christ. The pilgrim lays his life down for the next generation to carry the mission forward.Very few attempt this path. Fewer still reach the summit.
Church for Men is in the process of developing a number of discipleship regimens based on this map. You can check our progress by visiting Three Journeys Discipleship. Our first regimen is called Men’s League.
© 2010 Murrow Media, Inc.
