Nick Harrison - Promises to Keep: Daily Devotions for Men of Integrity

There is, in most men, the desire to build, to create, to be successful. The farmer wants the best possible farm, the most crops he can raise; the entrepreneur wants to build the best business and earn the most profit possible, the attorney wants to win as many cases as he can, the doctor wants to see his patients cured, the athlete wants to win all his games.

Most men search for, and settle on something meaningful to build or to do with their lives. Some succeed greatly. Some fail miserably. But even among those who accomplish much, if you talk to them for a while you often hear stories of regret. Sure, they made a lot of money, peers admire their feats, but their personal lives may be in shambles; their children hunger for a father, their wives for intimacy, their churches for leadership.

With our focus on outer success, so often we men become spiritually impoverished, without perhaps realizing it. Weve done all we know to do, and yet theres a sense of incompletion about it all. Something we cant quite put our finger on. We watch Clint Eastwood portray a fictional character we admire and wonder, Why cant we be more like him? Or John Wayne? Or Denzel Washington?

Many men, at forty, are still trying to grow up (just ask their wivesor ex-wives), trying to decide what kind of man they are supposed to be. They may, without words, be wondering, What makes a man? Simple questioncomplex answer.

A generation ago, the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, To be a man is to be responsible. Responsibility, yes, that sounds goodthats part of it. But responsible for what? For whom? How?

Many men who would be responsible seem to have lost their footing. Theyve lost the idea of what it means to be a man, and their lack of direction causes them to wander farther away from whatever traditional notions of manhood remain, in favor of role models who are terminators, Rambos or other fictional supermen.

Others have stumbled into the destruction of addictions to drugs, drink, sex, or workaholism at the expense of their self-esteem, their careers, and worst of all, their families. Even among men of religious faith, theres a hunger for something deeper, something lost in our era of fast lifestyles, sink-or-swim success, and often impersonal megachurches.

Men are indeed hungry. They want a meaningful faith, they want to be good fathers and husbands, they want solid friendships with other men, they want to excel at their jobs, and finally, they want to know how to simply be good menhow to be responsible.

For many men the praise of those we love, for a job well done as father, husband, son, brother, employee, or employer would lift a great weight from us. But to hear those words requires something from us for which we dont feel quite adequate. We grew up in a world where men seem to have gradually lost the talent, privilege, and often the will to exercise the leadership required of us. And our world is the worse for it.

Planet Earth is in desperate need of solid, confident men who arent afraid to lead boldly. Arent afraid to make a mistake. Men whose leadership inspires others to follow. Men who lead out of love, compassion, and respect for others and who lead because they have a vision of some meaningful place to take those who follow.

Each man, in a real sense, is meant to be that kind of leader: in his home, his church, his community, amongst his peers, in his job. The need is there, but where are the men?

Well, many are responding to the need. Men are waking up to the notion that they have a purpose in lifea role to play that no one else can. They have sons and daughters to lead into adulthood, wives to love and cherish, and important work to do.

Evidence of this awakening is seen in such groups as Promise Keepers, where Christian men are encouraged to commit to seven specific promises that require action on their part.

Other mens groups are also rallying members to shake off the lethargy of the past and get about the business of being men. Those who do are finding a new fulfillment. The bad PR about manhood was wrong. Real men can be strongand tender, can be leaderswithout tyranny; can be authoritativewithout arrogance. Men can have deep friendships with other men. Men can grieve when sadcan even cry and maintain their masculinity.

What God seems to be calling us to is the realization that our best source of manhood is rooted in God, revealed through Jesus Christ. When we abandon our own faulty ideas and the worlds deceptive concept of masculinity, and replace it with a total abandonment to be the man God formed us to be, we find a great sense of fulfillment, of coming home. Is it any wonder that the result is a fresh wave of evangelisminviting others to experience the freedom of manhood in Christ?

In Proverbs 27:17 Solomon wrote, As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. The following pages of iron from some notable Christian men, past and present, many of whom have been there, are offered with the hope of sharpening the iron in each reader.

Some of the daily entries are devotional readings, others are brief testimonies; a few are poems or hymns, and there is even a comic stripall designed to begin each day with a fresh perspective.

The writers are men from varying traditions within the Christian churchfrom Roman Catholic to Pentecostal. Some of the insight is decidedly practical, some is motivational, and some is relationalbut all of it is good food for men hungry for manhood.

A word of cautionall men arent alike. Not all are sports lovers, not all are married, not all are fathers. If you begin to read a days entry that doesnt seem to fit your circumstances, read it anyway. I believe each entry carries a truth that, in spirit, is universal among men, and each man reading this book can gain from that truth. In fact, more than likely, many of the readings will be right on target, uncannily so.