Survivor Man
Anyone who knows me knows I love the out of doors. Camping, hiking, hunting, boating, whitewater rafting… you get the idea. Fortunately, in all of my escapades, I have only been lost in the woods once. The first rule to survival in that type of situation is “don’t panic”. When panic sets in people make dumb and foolish decisions because fear overtakes practical sense.
Anyone who knows me knows I love the out of doors. Camping, hiking, hunting, boating, whitewater rafting… you get the idea. Fortunately, in all of my escapades, I have only been lost in the woods once. The first rule to survival in that type of situation is “don’t panic”. When panic sets in people make dumb and foolish decisions because fear overtakes practical sense. In my one moment of misfortune, I wondered around for about 6 hours until I found a road and was able to make my way home. Yeah, OK, I was a little scared but I was also prepared. I use to be a Boyscout. Needless to say, I enjoy watching outdoor survivor shows when I have the chance now and then.
Recently, I have been working through the “disciples prayer” in Luke 11. It is essentially “The Lord’s Prayer”. Most, if not all of you reading this have recited the Lord’s Prayer at least once in your life. In verse three Jesus transitions the prayer from worshiping and glorifying God to the second half of the prayer which is about supplication, bringing our request before the Lord. There, Jesus starts with, “Give us this day our daily bread”.
As familiar as we are with these words and regardless of how many times we have recited them, I don’t know that most men know or mean what they are really saying / praying. In actuality, what we are praying is, “God, you be the source of my survival”. This concept really flies in the face of the concept of the “self made man”. As men, it is our nature to go it alone. We don’t stop to ask for directions. We lift large, bulky, heavy objects and when someone asks to give us a hand we say, “Nah, I got it”. We can do it on our own. We are survivors! Well, I’m all for the challenge and I get the whole deal about not showing our weakness but the reality is that God made us to be dependent upon Him…for everything.
Interesting how we seem to leave God out of so much of our lives. We have a mindset that we don’t need Him for as much as we really do and then when need arises we panic, make dumb decisions and try to fix things on our own. Yeah, that works…right. In those moments, guys, we don’t need to be a “survivor man”. What we really need is the Savior of men. He is the provider of everything that we need and all that we have. Do you know that?
Do you really believe that you need God for your very survival? Jesus taught us to pray from that perspective. I wonder, do we really believe what Jesus taught? Do you pray in such a way as though your very life depended on it?
