Category: Leadership

GUEST POST: A Lion Named Jack

You don’t know Jack.

But you will.

Jack’s one of my “young lions” (you’ve read and met several of them on this site over the months and years): guys in their 20’s who are interested in more than just the “American Dream” for their lives. They have spotted a treasure in a field(1) and are spending these seminal years gathering their ‘talents and minas’ so they can buy that field. No holds barred. Nothing held back. All for King and Kingdom.

These are young men who, like Jack, are violently struggling to stand against the current tides of culture, and seeking the ancient and apostolic faith that turned the world (in their era) upside down. They are just foolish enough to believe the same can happen in their time.

Recently, Jack approached me to mentor him weekly and in one of our earlier meet-ups I asked him to compose a mission statement for his life.

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The very next week he came prepared, and as he read his personal manifesto, I was admittedly moved and asked if it might be reproduced here for my readers. He graciously obliged. As you read, remember that there’s an entire ‘army’ of Jacks being called out of the earth whose passion is to live out these very things for the glory of Christ.

Does it encourage you? It certainly does me.

Mission Statement

To learn,

to observe,

to trust,

to love,

to exemplify.

To obtain knowledge but let it access my heart and not just my head.

To remain teachable, humble and vulnerable to correction by both leadership and the Holy Spirit.

To use my gifts to glorify God,

edify the body,

and speak truth speak truth myself.

To love with no expectation.

To challenge the mundane.

To show compassion to the hurting.

To keep my eyes open to serve.

To honor those in authority in every area of my life.

To embrace grace and profess truth.

To speak life into dead situations.

To be joyful,

grateful,

and show people the unreserved love that God demonstrates to me daily.

To be less, and have more of God.

To be everything God sees in his son Jack Roper.

To create a life of peace with those I encounter.

To understand those who don’t believe.

To not choose when or who I want to serve, love and show grace to.

To grow more in love with the Lover of my soul,

my Father,

Creator,

and Purpose,

my best Friend.

You’ll be hearing from Jack again pretty soon. He has a harrowing personal story that is his to tell – a story of devastation, depression, and hope leading to overcoming faith and forgiveness. You’ll want to stay tuned.

Oh, and pray for Jack this weekend. He’s been asked yet again to speak at Vida Nueva of North Georgia, a gathering of teens who have already expressed their own desire to live out the very ideals Jack expressed.

Oh for a sweet, sweeping, and lasting move of God! 

 

(1)Matthew 13:44

Things I’d Say to a Teen-age Boy

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TO: A young son in the faith
FOR: Introduction to manhood*
RE: My ’50-sense’ worth

Dear young man:

  1. it is manly, healing and cleansing to cry
  2. shake hands firmly while looking your counterpart in the eye
  3. learn and remember names; the most beautiful sound a person hears is their own name being said back to them
  4. write thank you notes for every good done to you, big or small; phone calls work also
  5. hold doors for girls, and, oh heck, for everyone else why not?
  6. never tell a girl “I love you” until you have clearance from the Lord she’s the one
  7. seek the Lord’s counsel FIRST when you’re confused or doubtful on a matter; save others’ input until after you’ve sat a spell before Christ
  8. live everyday so as to have a testimony of what the Lord has done for you/means to you
  9. begin and end your day with prayers of thanks, even if you’re just breathing out a few words; ready thankfulness assures a revived heart daily
  10. a young woman’s body is sacred; hands off; you must only view any female as Christ sees His bride
  11. do something adventurous (outside your comfort zone) at least once a month; try something new regularly
  12. take notes while you’re being given spiritual instruction; writing down the words is the quickest way to own them in your heart
  13. keep a journal; if you only write a half a paragraph a day it’s worth it; write out a prayer once per week in your journal
  14. stand out by taking care not to use foolish or vulgar words in your conversation; speak with integrity
  15. may your word be trustworthy and honorable
  16. if in doubt, don’t
  17. learn to ask questions; it’s a sure-fire way to learn
  18. choose your friends wisely; they must push you to grow in Christ; avoid unthankful, negative people; do not tolerate unkindness or arrogance
  19. be an available friend, completely unselfish with your time and energy
  20. show generosity to both God and your fellow man
  21. volunteer regularly for ministries that bless the unfortunate
  22. seek out a mentor (an older man) and let him walk out your faith with you (Dad, of course, but someone outside your family)
  23. strive to learn something new from God’s Word every week
  24. cultivate a desire to read; read a challenging book every six months (if not monthly)
  25. return phone calls/texts promptly
  26. be courteous to service staff in businesses and respectful to every adult
  27. do not EVER harbor resentment or bitterness; get it dealt with quickly
  28. be quick to say “I’m sorry” when you are at fault and never EVER tack a “but” onto the end of it
  29. there’s no shame in trying; I say again: don’t be afraid to try new things; color outside the lines
  30. you will fail, you will fall; expect at some point to be humiliated, but do not quit – it’s all part of learning the grace of maturity, so long as you don’t allow failures to define and/or hold you hostage
  31. forgive QUICKLY when offended; do not make people have to jump through hoops for them to feel accepted with you once again
  32. self-pride is an ugly wardrobe; think and act and respond in humility
  33. share your faith with someone outside the faith every chance the Lord opens up a door of opportunity
  34. read a classic at least once per year (your folks can help you identify some of the classics)
  35. stand up for a weaker brother who needs defending, but turn the cheek when you are a victim (unless your life is in danger)
  36. take a monthly sabbath alone with the Lord: a day, an overnight in the backyard, an afternoon; let it be a time for you to worship the Lord and renew your salvation
  37. spend as much time in nature as you can
  38. be on time; show up 5 minutes early to appointments
  39. if employed, give reason for your boss to be impressed
  40. eat well and healthy in your youth – you wouldn’t believe how  it all catches up in your later years, and you want to be healthy for the Master until your days run out
  41. pick up after yourself; don’t make someone have to remind you or, worse, go behind you cleaning up your messes
  42. welcome suffering and hardship; praise God and trust His heart; there’s no holiness without hardship
  43. don’t borrow your parent’s faith; lay claim to your own and live it passionately and with integrity
  44. don’t try to be someone you’re not; find out WHO you are and know WHOSE you are and live out of that
  45. treat young ladies with same respect you’d expect someone to treat your sister or your Mom
  46. learn the basics of car maintenance
  47. laugh five times a day
  48. don’t use social media to post personal drama and don’t broadcast your entire life on FB and Instagram; leave some mystery and sacred space for your life
  49. find something to like in everyone; don’t write anyone off – for ANY reason (doesn’t mean you have to be best friends, but show grace to everyone)
  50. don’t waste your life; pursue Christ with every fiber, muscle and molecule of your being

That’s it.
Proud of you, young man.
Now, go have an amazing manhood!

For Christ and Kingdom,
Pasture Scott

* A friend recently asked me (and others) to offer some sage counsel to his twin boys, turning 13. Dad was taking them on a ‘manhood’ outing and wanted other men of influence to speak life into them via the written word. I’ve retooled what I shared with his boys for this post.

The Courage of a Young Lion

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Watercolor artwork by Dylan Pierce (another one of my young lions!)

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Over the past few years I’ve featured a “lion’s share” segment on my blog, providing a platform for the ‘young lions’ I’ve been privileged to mentor and father spiritually.

Today I share with you, my beloved readers, one of the great young men of his generation. Shawn Buck has been with me in the pride for a bit over a year and will soon be moving on from the den as God has called him away from us. Lord willing, Shawn will be leaving for Cape Town, South Africa for a two-year (or life-long?) commitment with the Ubuntu Football Academy.

I’m honored to serve on Shawn’s board but even more blessed to call him a son of the faith. This dude is as real as they come! In this post, Shawn bravely shares his greatest fight and offers hope in overcoming addiction to pornography. As the guys and I have discussed on numerous occasions, we don’t affix the slang “porn” too often because that has become a designation that makes it a culturally acceptable norm. To call it what it is – pornography – paints it in a more ‘graphic’ light, relegating it to it’s more insidious and self-destructive nature.

Thank you, Shawn, my son, for listening to Wisdom’s call and learning to pass by the “forbidden woman’s” house on the other side (Proverbs 7:4,5). I love you, courageous lion of God.

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When I was 13 years old, I came across pornography for the first time. It led me down a destructive road of getting deeper and deeper into the world of porn, of continuously lusting after girls and after self-gratification. It led to incredible shame, gut-wrenching guilt, and loss of self worth. It destroyed relationships and it built a dependence on something that doesn’t satisfy. It led me to lie constantly to cover my tracks. It consistently brought me into a world I never dreamt I would be a part of.

It changed my life.

Lust and porn is a cruel drug. That isn’t just some saying. It acts the same way as cocaine by releasing large amounts of dopamine into your brain. The fact that it is so easy to get can make it more dangerous than cocaine, because you can keep your brain doped up for hours (fightthenewdrug.org). It truly is one of the most dangerous things on this earth.

Have you ever heard of a healthy marriage where either the husband or wife wishes they would have slept with more people or watched more porn?

No.

Lust and porn are damaging to our future relationships. There will be images you can’t get out of your mind, unfair expectations you will put on your spouse and even damage done to your own confidence.

I pray that people realize just how destructive lust and porn are. This isn’t just some harmless thing that everybody does. One, it is so degrading to women. Women are amazing and deserve to be held up and shown so much more respect than porn. It truly does alter your view of them subconsciously and starts to paint them as objects in your mind. Two, it plays a large role in human trafficking. Chuck Norris actually wrote an incredible article about that here (http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/porns-part-in-sex-trafficking/). And three, it ultimately hurts you by making you think that that’s what it should be like: by bringing down your confidence, and by taking something so beautiful as sex and making it a cheap, non-committal and perverse action between two random people.

I say all of this not to judge you, be pessimistic or throw hatred on you, but to convince some of you that this is not some cute pet to keep around and play with. It is a dangerous destructive lion just waiting to destroy you completely.

I wish so badly that I could sit here today and tell you that it is something that I’m free of and have victory over, but it’s not. I still have a sexual addiction that I struggle with daily. I have seen significant, positive change in my life with this sexual addiction, though, and that is the only reason I am able to open up enough to write this blog and share my story with you.

I want you to know that you aren’t the only one dealing with this. You haven’t gone too far and or done something too awful. You aren’t defined by your addiction and you can see freedom from it. I have tried every cure/fix there is: accountability partners, Internet filters, multi-step programs, books, and everything else under the sun, and can I tell you the only thing that has made a lick of change in my life? Honestly, Jesus.

I know that is going to turn someone off and I hope you continue to read because I’m going to tell you the difference between all of the things I’ve tried and Him.

He knows you’re going to mess up. He doesn’t guarantee that everything will be fixed after 5 easy payments. He understands exactly, let me say again, exactly what you are going through. Don’t get me wrong, he isn’t happy you are failing like this, and yet he takes you back anyways. You will never go too far, mess up too much or be too unworthy of his acceptance. He loves you and delights when you realize that you can do nothing but lean on HIM. That’s called dependence, and when you start to depend on something that can truly satisfy instead of the false hope of pornography, that is when you will start to see change.

That is my story. Here it is for the world to see and know about. I hope that one day you can open up about your struggles and share your story with people.

If you don’t know whom you can tell, my email is scbuck27@gmail.com. I would love to listen and help in anyway I can.

Thank you so much for listening to my story!

H/T to Karlye – one of our lionesses! – over at flower roots.com. Her layout is way better than mine anyhow. And more pictures.