Ready? Aim. FIRE!!!

"Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." (1 Corinthians 16:13 NASB)

I hate my Poser, the Rep (representative, that unauthentic guy I send into the world before I go in). There are moments in each day when I want to put the sonuvabitch up against the wall, lock and load, and let the bullets fly while he takes a long draw on his last smoke.

Ready? Aim. FIRE!!!

I can be somewhat passionate about things I'm passionate about. And that scares some people. Why? I'm really not "alert" to the next show I have to watch on TV (I don't own one), or the next way to stick my nose up my bosses ass (I'm currently unemployed, so that lets me off that hook), or who to glad hand at the Sunday School coffee & doughnut table (man, I don't even wear a tie to a Baptist church, so you know I'm going to hell!). So right now I'm asking God, "Hey, God, what are You getting me ready for? What's The Battle about today?"

I love talking with God. He listens. And He answers. Now, I'm sure there are some theological heavyweights out there (probably NOT reading this blog) who might say I'm stretching it to assume that I'm hearing the voice of God in response. There's always that caution of "Is it really me or God?" That's why it's a good thing I'm not called to seminary...I'd end up in double-super secret probation or something for going medieval on some MDiv candidate who thinks and thinks and thinks and thinks some more.

Go ahead...fire your Rep! Oh, come on...you know The Poser, The Mask. Every man has one (I have several, who have served me well over the years). Who's The Poser tell you to be? Who's The Poser tell you The Poser is? And what about The Mask? What does yours look like? Does it fit really well? You know....the one you wear for your work, your wife, your church, even the one you wear for you!

Standing firm in the faith is not easy -- especially when "faith," at times, is just a group of men and women standing around posing before God. Sometimes I sit around my church body and think, "What in the crap have I gotten myself into?" It's moments like that I have to fire my Rep...put the bastard up against the brick wall and pepper him with hot lead until the clip is empty and he's hasta la vista, baby.

I'll let you in on a little secret: I really think Jesus is only concerned about my relationship with Him. Of course He cares that I like to read all of His Story about how He's got what it takes to come through, to fight, to offer adventure, and what He wants me to do to rescue all of the Beauty that is a part of Him and this world. It's relationship, relationship, relationship!!!

So I have to continue to take aim on what it is that the world, the flesh, and the Devil would tell me is relational. I don't believe it's relational for a man to be asleep and to let his heart get taken out, day after day, Christian or not. I don't think it's relational for a man to not give a damn about other men, the lost culture of initiation, or the absolutely abysmal state of man in our current Western culture. And I don't think it's relational for me to be swept up in a formulaic relationship with Christ, passing over the visceral, the blood and guts, and down in the balls relationship with Jesus that gives me the bullets to put into the rifle of truth and living.

Act like men, be strong. I can hear the testicles of many men in my church shriveling as I say that. What was Paul asking me so long ago, to be meek and mild, to shrink from The Truth and my truth? And why is it so inviting for men, The Poser, The Rep, to go small, to give all power away, and to show up in ways that resemble a piece of Swiss cheese instead of a man made in the image of God? No wonder porn, drugs, money, and all the rest of the comforters I can name seem like the easy way out to a man. Emptiness requires little to be empty. If I'm not willing to step up, I don't have to put on my shoes.

So, if I choose today to stay in The Poser, The Rep, I'll gladly accept the blindfold and the cigarette from you. Go ahead. Ready? Aim. FIRE!!! I choose to put the spotlight on The Poser, to fire The Rep, to put the man I don't want to be on in front of the firing squad. Good riddance to all of them...just for today!