To My Brothers

I am blessed to have some great guy friends, brothers in Christ.  I haven’t really had many guy friends before my last two years of college- I was always in all girls sports, I’ve always felt awkward around guys since middle school, and I lived in an all girls dorm my first two years at Hope. 

The guys I’m talking about most of all put Jesus first in their lives.  His love shines through them.  They seek God as the source of their strength, courage, and wisdom.  They seek to love and serve as He would in the ways that they live their lives, not just every now and then.  The guys I’m talking about are not ashamed of the Gospel.  They aren’t perfect either, but those things don’t define them, and they’re honest about their struggles.  I have guys who I spend time with, whose advice I choose to seek, and who love and encourage me as a sister.  They treat me and other women with the utmost respect, and seek to honor God in their relationships, while still being fun to be around, and being their goofy crazy selves.  I trust them and feel safe around them.  This is a gift.

I was thinking about this one day, and thanking God for these relationships and the love and wisdom that I’ve gained from them.  He then spoke something to me quite clearly:

“Baby girl, it’s because I want you to know that there are good men.”

Tears in my eyes.  I know that this won’t always be the case.  When I go to Thailand, the people that I interact with, and who I will be serving have not known this kind of love.  They have been used, abused, and disregarded by men.  I will see the men who treat women as objects for their own enjoyment rather than as treasures, as beautiful daughters of the King. 

If I know myself at all, this is going to make me really, really angry.  It will be incredibly easy for me to give into this anger, to let satan work more destruction and pain where there is already too much.  But I refuse.

There are good men.  I know this because I know some of them, and I know that there are many more like them, and I’ll meet some of them in Thailand too.  I refuse to become a man basher.  All of us are trapped in evil in some way, but we have the option of freedom through the death and resurrection of Jesus who has taken our sin away from us so that we don’t have to suffer the eternal consequences of it.  My prayer is that I can see all people in this way, and not ignore my own brokenness in criticizing someone else’s.  I want to be a woman who knows that men can do better and calls them higher.  It breaks my heart that people are trapped in evil in such ways, but God’s love and truth is greater and stronger even than this.

Lastly, to the men of integrity in my life- thank you does not even begin to cover it.  Thank you for showing me that there are good men.  The way that you conduct yourselves, the way that you treat women and all people that you meet does not go unseen, by those around you or by our Father in heaven.  Your love for Him shines so brightly.  Thank you for encouraging me, usually without even knowing it, for chasing God’s glory more than what the world has to offer.  I don’t even know a fraction of what I’m going to encounter in Thailand, but I know that the presence of you guys in my life right now is part of God preparing me for that season. 

There will and is so much that tries to bring you down, that tries to focus your eyes downward instead of up.  Keep looking up.  I know that you have something that you struggle with, because we all have that this side of heaven.  Hear me loud and clear here: God is stronger than you, your weakness, and your past.  You are not defined by your sin, by guilt, by shame.  The God of the universe has still chosen to call you son. 

Really though, I have to give the credit to God.  For letting me learn this particular lesson in such a rich and wonderful way, for bringing me brothers who love and support me.  May we not be seen, so that He may be seen.