“Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus.
Luke 23:26 (NKJV)
Biblical Manhood
We all know RALI:
Reject passivity
Accept responsibility
Lead courageously
Invest eternally
Being intentional instead of drifting enables us to progress towards being the biblical men we know we need to be for our friends, our families and our Lord Jesus.
However, today I touch on an aspect of biblical manhood that’s painful: there are times that a man must admit he needs help. There are times when a man has to humble himself and allow others to do for him that which he can’t do for himself.
I can’t fix this
As I write this, I am sitting on an ice pack and am under the influence of pain meds. Now please don’t think this is the usual for me, but when you get a new hip on Monday, you’re still getting over it on Friday, and it will be several weeks yet before, Lord willing, I’m back to a new “normal.”
I got a new hip because I came to the point where I couldn’t walk without experiencing pain that grew increasingly worse the longer I walked. I didn’t want to get a new hip but I needed it. I didn’t want to have surgery but I needed it. I don’t want to sit on an ice pack and take pain meds but I need them.
I need them so I can be the man God wants me to be. I had to and have to surrender what I want so I can be who God wants me to be even if that means admitting I can’t fix it and letting someone else fix this problem, this hurt, this pain that I have whether it be a hip or some other “pain” in life.
Sometimes the hardest thing to accept is we aren’t strong enough to do it. We can’t just “man” our way through it. We have to let someone else carry the load for us just like Jesus did.
We have to let someone do it for us
Jesus and Jesus alone carried our sins to the Cross. My sins, your sins, I believe, all sins, were placed on Him and He carried each and every one of them to His Cross and nailed them there once and for all. But Jesus couldn’t get the Cross there by Himself; Simon had to help Him.
Simon of Cyrene was conscripted to carry Jesus’ Cross. Luke says
Luke 23:26 (NKJV)
"Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus."
I’m sure Jesus wanted to carry His Cross; it was literally His Cross to carry and His Sacrifice to make. But, after what He had been through, He wasn’t strong enough carry that beam of wood or the soldiers would have forced Him to do so.
Jesus had to let someone else do what He couldn’t do so He could finish what only He could do.
My brothers, a biblical man admits when he can’t, when he is not enough, and then lets someone else carry the load, not because he wants to do so but because he has to do so.
We surrender to the “new hip” so we can keep walking where Jesus leads. It’s not easy, but it’s what a man, a biblical man, does.
RALI on brothers!
Mike Book
MD5 Facilitator