Don't be the last link

Picking up on the "convoy as a verb" theme from last week...
If convoying is to travel alongside something of value, which is in need of protection, for the purpose of ensuring its safe delivery to a destination, that raises the question: What, exactly, is the precious cargo we are to convoy?

The valuables in our care can take many forms, but I'll throw out one example here today. 

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.  -Ephesians 5:25-28

You may say, "Well, that's pretty obvious, isn't it?" Apparently not. Or maybe obvious, but not easy. I know marriages break up for a million different reasons. The problems develop over time and are rarely attributable to one person. And just as it takes two to create the issues, they cannot be resolved unless both want reconciliation. So I'm not here to give a pollyanna "just smile and make it work" answer, or to lay a guilt trip on anyone who may be experiencing marital issues or has gone through divorce.

No, I bring this up because the summer of 2018 has been killer on marriages in Northwest Arkansas. Not just the worldly guy you work with or the couple you barely see down the street, but respectable Christian men whose families you know from church. Not just one or two odd situations, either, but more than a handful, marital casualties dotting the landscape. What does that say? To me it says we have way too many men under enemy attack who are waiting way too long to get help. By the time most of these situations saw the light of day, they were in full-on crisis mode. Let's put the moose on the table, guys. The time for being delicate has passed. Men of God have to recognize what the enemy is up to and step up to the challenge!

Not to say that God cannot redeem any or all of these marriages, because He's really good at those kinds of miracles. But what if a man who is struggling had a safe place to air those problems before they became insurmountable? A place where brothers who had walked that road could speak the truth of godly perspective and battle-scarred experience into his situation. A place where other men were willing to lift that brother up in prayer EVERY DAY. A place where he could learn what it means to convoy his wife and their marriage to safety. You think that kind of place might make a difference to that man? Dang straight it would!

And that brings us to our challenge. Lebron set it up, and Bob brought it home for us. "Don't be the last link in the chain." All of us have men in our lives who invested in us, encouraged us, showed us what it means to be a Christian man. There are others who God is purposely bringing across our paths because they need to know what we've learned and see what we've seen. Who has He put in your path? If you don't know, ask Him to show you. Repeatedly. When you come up with a name, put that name in front of your foxhole. Share the list of names from your foxhole and commit to pray for those men every day for the next month. See what happens. Heads up, eyes open, men!

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.  -2 Timothy 2:2