Every Young Man's Battle: Stategies for Victory in the Real World of Sexual Temptation: The Every Man Series by Stephen Arterburn
Authors: Stephen Arterburn
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never forget a conversation
I (Fred) had with her. “Is it hard to hold such high standards like you
do?” I asked.
“Oh, I don’t mind being mocked,”
she replied. “Christ was mocked plenty. That’s just part of
it.”
Wow,
I said to myself. We sat silently for a while
as I pondered her statement. Then I glanced up at her and found her staring
wistfully into the distance. Suddenly, her face crumpled slightly, and a large
tear rolled out of the corner of her eye.
“I so ache to find a
friend, anyone, who’s like me,” she whispered.
How can
this be?
I thought.
How can we all be so mushy in our standards that
those walking straight are lonely?
I asked her youth pastor,
Larry, “Why aren’t the other youth drawn to Cyndi? I would
be.”
“Oh, they respect her to no end,” said Larry.
“Of course, some will always mock, but her peers rarely choose radically
committed Christians as role models. That represents too much sacrifice and too
much risk of not being accepted. They prefer to hang out with guys who play
sports and have a lot of girlfriends. You know, one who’s both Christian
and worldly simultaneously.”
Everyone with beliefs gets mocked,
not just Christians. Don’t be so afraid of it! That’s just a part
of life. When I was playing football, I was radical in my commitment to be the
best quarterback in the state. In the winter before my senior year, I decided
that I needed to improve my balance on the football field.
I devised a
plan. I noticed that the snowplows at school piled up the snow into a huge
twenty-foot-high berm that ran for the length of the parking lot. On the top of
this mountain was a ten-foot-wide plateau that jutted with boulders and jags of
snow and ice. Strapping my cleats on and tucking a ball under an arm, I’d
take off running from one end to the other. At full speed I cut in and out
between the jags and boulders, pretending they were linebackers and defensive
backs.
Early on, I paid a heavy price. The ice cuts and bruises really
hurt, and I took more than a beating. Still, as the weeks went by, I clipped
the jutting ice less often. My ability to cut and change directions became
sharper and faster with each passing day.
My teammates sometimes
dropped by to watch. They laughed and mocked me, all right. But I had faith
that I would be rewarded for my efforts, and I
was
rewarded. The next
fall, when it was third-and-two or fourth-and-one, who wanted me to run the
option play and keep the ball? Answer: The very same teammates who watched me
run for those tough yards on the snow berm. They knew I’d never go down
easily.
I did all that for football, a “god” that existed
only in my mind. Our own God is real, and He’ll truly reward those who
earnestly seek Him—or practice for Him! If you would step out for God
with even a fraction of the commitment I had on that ice plateau, you would be
an all-star in God’s kingdom.
And remember one more thing: While
authenticity has its price, inauthenticity for the sake of acceptance has a
high price as well—as we’ve seen in the many stories told earlier
in the book. The effects of your sin will follow you into adulthood. Since both
have their price, why not pay the price for something great? Why not fight? God
will
reward you.
N O P LANS TO S URRENDER
We came
across a newspaper story about a World War II vet named B. J.
“Bernie” Baker who was told he was dying of bone cancer. Given only
two years to live, he told the doctors to fight the disease with everything
possible. “Give me the treatments,” he said. “I’ll keep
living my life.” Meanwhile he and his wife found time for a motor-home
drive to Alaska, a fishing excursion to Costa Rica, and several trips to
Florida.
Nine years after the diagnosis, he was struggling with
shortness of breath and loss of strength, but he said, “I’m going
to keep fighting. Might as well.”
Those words
I (Fred) had with her. “Is it hard to hold such high standards like you
do?” I asked.
“Oh, I don’t mind being mocked,”
she replied. “Christ was mocked plenty. That’s just part of
it.”
Wow,
I said to myself. We sat silently for a while
as I pondered her statement. Then I glanced up at her and found her staring
wistfully into the distance. Suddenly, her face crumpled slightly, and a large
tear rolled out of the corner of her eye.
“I so ache to find a
friend, anyone, who’s like me,” she whispered.
How can
this be?
I thought.
How can we all be so mushy in our standards that
those walking straight are lonely?
I asked her youth pastor,
Larry, “Why aren’t the other youth drawn to Cyndi? I would
be.”
“Oh, they respect her to no end,” said Larry.
“Of course, some will always mock, but her peers rarely choose radically
committed Christians as role models. That represents too much sacrifice and too
much risk of not being accepted. They prefer to hang out with guys who play
sports and have a lot of girlfriends. You know, one who’s both Christian
and worldly simultaneously.”
Everyone with beliefs gets mocked,
not just Christians. Don’t be so afraid of it! That’s just a part
of life. When I was playing football, I was radical in my commitment to be the
best quarterback in the state. In the winter before my senior year, I decided
that I needed to improve my balance on the football field.
I devised a
plan. I noticed that the snowplows at school piled up the snow into a huge
twenty-foot-high berm that ran for the length of the parking lot. On the top of
this mountain was a ten-foot-wide plateau that jutted with boulders and jags of
snow and ice. Strapping my cleats on and tucking a ball under an arm, I’d
take off running from one end to the other. At full speed I cut in and out
between the jags and boulders, pretending they were linebackers and defensive
backs.
Early on, I paid a heavy price. The ice cuts and bruises really
hurt, and I took more than a beating. Still, as the weeks went by, I clipped
the jutting ice less often. My ability to cut and change directions became
sharper and faster with each passing day.
My teammates sometimes
dropped by to watch. They laughed and mocked me, all right. But I had faith
that I would be rewarded for my efforts, and I
was
rewarded. The next
fall, when it was third-and-two or fourth-and-one, who wanted me to run the
option play and keep the ball? Answer: The very same teammates who watched me
run for those tough yards on the snow berm. They knew I’d never go down
easily.
I did all that for football, a “god” that existed
only in my mind. Our own God is real, and He’ll truly reward those who
earnestly seek Him—or practice for Him! If you would step out for God
with even a fraction of the commitment I had on that ice plateau, you would be
an all-star in God’s kingdom.
And remember one more thing: While
authenticity has its price, inauthenticity for the sake of acceptance has a
high price as well—as we’ve seen in the many stories told earlier
in the book. The effects of your sin will follow you into adulthood. Since both
have their price, why not pay the price for something great? Why not fight? God
will
reward you.
N O P LANS TO S URRENDER
We came
across a newspaper story about a World War II vet named B. J.
“Bernie” Baker who was told he was dying of bone cancer. Given only
two years to live, he told the doctors to fight the disease with everything
possible. “Give me the treatments,” he said. “I’ll keep
living my life.” Meanwhile he and his wife found time for a motor-home
drive to Alaska, a fishing excursion to Costa Rica, and several trips to
Florida.
Nine years after the diagnosis, he was struggling with
shortness of breath and loss of strength, but he said, “I’m going
to keep fighting. Might as well.”
Those words
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