Possum Lodge Progress

Let's hear it, guys... all together... The Man's Prayer! You all know it if you've ever seen "The Red Green Show." "I'm a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess."

My previous post was about worth and value and where we derive it from. My answer was, THE place to start is, God values us... enough to send His precious Son to die for us.

You might be a person of great faith, or you may be someone who has never darkened the door of a church in your life. It makes no difference. We have all felt the pangs of the Possum Lodge Brothers agreeing that being a man is, in and of itself, a poor enough condition to feel bad about.

Why is that? Why do so many of us feel so miserable about ourselves?

For many of us, sadly, it's because we really have failed someone or even many people in our lives. We've let someone very close to us down. Our wife. Our son. Our daughter. Our parents. A girlfiend. A close friend.

In other ways, we may feel like we've never achieved what we set out to achieve. In still other ways, we may not deserve the guilt we feel at all, but feel it because we were raised (unfairly) to consider ourselves less than worthy of anyone's admiration or concern.

Whatever the reason, this is not a condition we need to remain in. There is a remedy for this painful state.

Gideon, a man in the Old Testament book of Judges was a man who most certainly didn't see himself as anyone great or powerful during a time of opression by a foreign enemy. He was confronted by an angel from God one day who said, "The Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior" (Judges 6:12).

Can you imagine how Gideon felt, hiding in a winepress, threshing grain because he was afraid his enemy would show up and steal the food he was trying to provide for his family?

Long story short... Gideon went from this sorrowful state to lead the army of Israel in routing their oppressors. He lived out the words of the angel who spoke of how God saw him.

However you see yourself today, please realize that God has the ability to see strengths in us that we could never see. Oh, that we would all be able to stand together someday and say the Lion's Lodge Pledge together... "I'm a man. I am made in God's image. I am a Victor! And I am SURE of it!"