Taking My Hands out of My Pockets

About a year ago, I wrote a post about how I am Awkward.

Much of this post encompassed the friendly gesture of hugging. I am proud to announce to the blogging world that I am still pretty bad at giving hugs, but they are becoming less awkward! Here in Indiana, there are a couple of people who love to hug, so I guess you could say I have been practicing, and I am getting better! So watch out world...the only difference between Brad Pitt and Charlie Landis is that Brad can hug slightly better...but not for long.

(Insert transitional statement here).

Today is Father's Day! I have always felt bad for people who can't celebrate father's day because they don't have a dad in their life. If you think about it, Luke Skywalker couldn't celebrate this holiday. There is Luke, 20-something, and he is fighting some bad guy who has asthma to the max. When all of a sudden, Vader drops the news, "Luke, I am your Father." I can't even imagine what goes on in Luke's fragile mind. But I know he was still bitter about spending all those Father's Days all by himself. And when he finally finds out who is father way, the guy dies.

Now my dad doesn't have asthma or masquerade in a black helmet with a cape. My dad is an ordinary guy who loves steak and college football, but he is an extraordinary father. I cannot recall the many lessons he taught and the examples he set as a strong, caring, loving man of God. I am just so thankful and blessed to have Tim Landis as my dad. In Joshua 24:15, we see Joshua renewing the covenant between God and man, and he makes this exclamation, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!" My dad has tried to do this the best that he can, but he will even be the first person to tell you that he isn't perfect. But he is the perfect dad for me.

Last night at the Post, the college age service at Southeast, Kyle Idleman preached over Genesis 3. He discussed how we always tend to blame women for bringing sin into the world. Many believe the first sin of mankind was disobedience (Eve took a bite from the fruit from the tree they were forbidden to eat from), but the first sin was most likely Passivity. You see, Genesis 3:6 says, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband,who was with her, and he ate it. Adam was the responsible person for keeping God's law. It was in Genesis 2 where God first tells Adam not to eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...Eve was not ever around yet. It was Adam's responsibility, and apathetically said, "Sure, I'll have a bite."

There were so many good points Kyle made last night, but one quote I had to write down. Talking about masculinity, Kyle said that men love battles. We love blood, and we love action. Kyle said, "Most men love action, but they love watching it from the coach." What man does not love Gladiator or 300? We love watching guys on a football field get hit so hard they are literally knocked out, but when it comes to leading on the spiritual battlefield, we somehow lose our go-get-'em attitude. We become like Adam, and shrug our shoulders and say, "Sure. Whatever." We need to take our hands out of our pockets and lead that way God made us to lead. We cannot afford to be passive in our relationships. This includes our relationship with our wife, girlfriend, and even our God.

Being a single guy, it took me sometime understand how I shouldn't be passive in my life because Kyle talked about being passive in our romantic relationships. Of course, I'm totally going to take this information and use it in my future relationship, but what does it look like for me today? And the best I could come up with is that I need to be violently in love with My God. I need to be actively pursuing a relationship with my Maker.

I'm going to start taking my hands out of my pockets when it comes to following my God and my Savior. Will you join me???