Straight Talk To Men: Mastering Life's Challenges

As a boy growing up in a remote village of Chepkorio, like most of my friends, I loved athletics. I am a big fan to date. I even tried out to be on the team that would represent our school in the athletics competitions that would happen every year during second term. Well, my lessons in humility began right there and there – I was cut before the end of the first week of second term.

Now, I just had to give up from then, and my aspirations were dimmed. I next tried playing handball (Our school was doing so well in this game), but sad that ball games used to happen during first term. So, I had missed that opportunity, but I always looked forward to January the following year. Meanwhile, I would play handball with some friends during that time during P.Es and games time.

Back to athletics, I knew that timing was very essential, that I would look at the finishing time of world beaters then calculate how many minutes he took to complete every round of 400 meters. I had to run and make sure that I would try hard to finish each lap with the time used by the world record holders. I tried, but I couldn’t beat that. Today, I am glad to report “with utmost and great humility” that beating those records was a challenge too hard for me (to date). I settled to running to the shop to go buy sugar, paraffin, salt, run after the sheep and goats whilst confining them to their grazing fields, and running to do some errands (This is so common to Kalenjins: A Kalenjin would always tell you “acha nikimbie hapa nirudi” which I actually do to date).  

My attempt to try athletics is a good graphic of what can happen as we strive to commit ourselves to a life of obedience, that we really want to submit our lives and ourselves to God…but along with it comes myriads of obstacles, some which we feel are the hardest we’ve ever encountered in our entire living.

At that very moment, there is always a two pointer choice. One is to decide whether it’s not worth the effort and give up and the second is whether you can continue down the path of obedience and learn the secret of doing what it requires to master and take the hurdle one by one as they come.

As a man who seeks to be ‘The Man You Have Desired to Be’, you must learn to MASTER the Challenges, the hurdles, that are certain to arise in your attempt to live a life of impact.

The Challenges didn’t begin with you; It began from the Church.

From the very commencement of the church, we see in the Bible that the early disciples faced not one, not two but a number of challenges. Paul faced these as well and underwent relentless persecution of the church. Looking at just but a few of them, the first challenge the Disciples of Christ faced was that of whether to leave their nets of casting fish to be fishers of men. This was whether they will choose to follow and serve Christ or bow to pressures of the religious leaders of the day. For instance, Peter and John, two of Jesus’s Disciples were put before Sanhedrin, the main religious counsel in Israel. They were seriously threatened and commanded to stop preaching in the name of Jesus.

What was the outcome? These two men of God resisted and this is what and how they courageously declared in Acts 4:19-20 “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we’ve seen and heard.”

From this analogy, we ultimately realize that the path to obedience is seldom rarely and it wasn’t that smooth even in the early days of the church but the optimism of the two bold men resisted the challenge to disobey their Savior’s commands to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8).

Now this is even more interesting. What do you think was the ultimate effect of their obedience? Amazingly, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of the lord boldly, and their influence was felt even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Now this is a big influence! My prayer is that as a man, a man who really wants to be the man he’s always desired, you will boldly and courageously master the challenges that come your way and follow the pattern of obedience set by these men.

Can I ask you a question? This actually seems to be the best moment to challenge you a bit!! Who are you directing your obedience to? To Jesus, to your spouse or something else unworthy for a man? Are you in your life as a man striving towards clearing the hurdles before you? Are you deeply rooted towards standing firm in obedience? Are you standing up firm for your Christian beliefs?

Brother, we all know that Christ was the beginning of the church, and He is the beginning and the end of the life of ever man of influence. In order to have a lasting and indelible mark on this world, man, you must obey Christ and master the challenges.

The Challenge of Obedience

It wasn’t easy for Paul and his men. Paul’s path was wrecked with so many challenges to their faith together with his missionaries. As such, obedience is not easy for every man who desires to be an influence. But looking critically, this (obedience) is what God called Paul and his men to do/be. Same for the Disciples, that’s what God asked of them. To stop being ‘fishers of fish’ and turn to be ‘fishers of men’.

Brother, if you want to be the man you have always desired to be, obedience is what God is calling you and I for – irrespective of the many challenges we face. Mind you, obedience to God always has its challenges. Desiring to be the man you’ve always wanted to be will always have its challenges. May be this is why it is a less traveled path!! Disobedience on the other hand, seems to be more traveled, more well-worn path. In fact, it is characterized by gridlock! Why? Because disobedience is easy path. It’s the path we’re tempted to take when things get sticky. It’s the path with least challenges. And sadly, it’s the path that makes us men of little or no influence/ positive impact.

What are some of the challenges that we face in our quest to be a man you’ve always desired to be? And how can you and I overcome and master these challenges and keep moving onward in our quest to become the man you have always desired? I am sure there are probably a few ‘pet’ challenges in your own life.

I will probably mention mine that I struggled with in the past, and as you think, you will find that you got so many.

• The Challenge of Ignorance:

One of the most tragic challenges to obedience and godly influence is ignorance – about the commands of Scripture. Knowing God was not/ didn’t seem to be a priority for me. And sadly, this is what is happening to most people in our society today. Maybe it’s your hectic lifestyle that’s keeping you preoccupied to spend time in God’s word. And this ignorance costed me so much. One day as I was driving on the Nairobi – Nakuru Highways at 110Kms per Hour, I was pulled over by a police officer at Naivasha junction. I tried to explain to the officer that I hadn’t seen the 50KM speed limit erected at Kinungi. How far did my plea of ignorance get me with that officer? 10,000K fine. 

•  The challenge of Flesh: 

Every Christian would agree that the presence of sin in our world is a fact of life that challenges our obedience. From the second sin that entered the world through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, all mankind (including you and me) entered into a struggle with obedience. Sometimes, that struggle is with God and His word. Sometimes it is with the Government and its laws – like speed limits etc. Brother, every Christian Man Battles with Flesh … even the great Apostle struggled. As you read below the book of Romans, sense the conflict between Paul’s sinful flesh and his desire to obey God. “²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” Romans 7:21-24

Mastering the flesh is a lifelong battle, and they are real but you can master your flesh rather than letting it master you. Here are some practical steps to M-A-S-T-E-R the challenges of flesh. 

M-onitor your time with those who drag you down, whether they are friends, workmates or family.

A-ccount for your struggles to a more spiritually mature Christian.

S-rengthen your inner man by the study of God’s word and through prayer.

T-rain your eyes to avoid anything that might fan the flames of your fleshy desires

E-xecrcise purity in all our relationships with the opposite sex

R-un from the lusts of flesh

• The Challenge of Apathy: 

Ignorance breeds apathy. And apathy for a Christian – a Christian meant to live boldly for Christ – is like dying of hypothermia, like freezing death. When you and I are exposed too long to the cold wins of ignorance and compromise, we slowly drift through complacency into the icy death of apathy.

Friend, apathy is a heart condition. It turns your heart for god into a heart that thinks it can exist without God. How do you keep from drifting into spiritual apathy? How can you keep apathy from settling into your life? Check your spiritual temperature on a regular basis by asking yourself these questions:

Am I making excuses for missing church? Am I becoming comfortable with little sins? Am I able to take or leave God’s Word? Am I spending more of my discretionary hours with non-Christians other than Christians? Am I looking to myself or the world rather than to God for help for life issues? Am I resisting the warnings of fellow believers?

If your answer to any or most of these questions is yes, then, my brother, you are well on your way to apathy. But realize that with God’s help, you can overcome the problem. Here is my ‘spiritual prescription’ for dealing with apathy.

• Recognize that apathy can happen to you
•  Realize that God’s Word is essential
• Reach out to those with ‘hot hearts’ for the Lord 
• Requests that others hold you accountable for your commitments to God.

The Keys to mastering Life’s Challenges

Ignorance, the flesh and apathy – these are the three definite challenges that can cause Christians to stumble on the path to becoming a person of influence. But the three keys o mastering these three challenges are:

Acknowledging the challenges of ignorance, the flesh and apathy,

Looking to God for help, and

Taking appropriate action

Brother, it’s ultimately you who determines whether you want to remain ignorant of God’s word. It’s you who decides whether you want to give in to the flesh. It’s you who dictates whether you drift into apathy. All three of these challenges can be mastered as you look to God for His strength in the inner man.

A person who can master the challenges of inner life will unquestionably have an influence on others.