Be a man, it teaches you the Gospel

"Why would God wire it this way? Let me tell you why I think He wired it this way. Nothing, no book, no Bible study, no song or conference has taught me the weight of God’s love and the glory of the gospel like trying to be a man. Here’s what I mean. Trying to love my wife like Christ loves the church and finding that very, very difficult to do and finding it at times not yielding the fruit that I wanted…Here’s a better one. My four year old, Audrey, is just my joy. I love having a son, but that daughter owns you. It’s a weird deal. For whatever reason, over and over again, Audrey thinks I am an enemy to her joy, when in the end, I want her joy and happiness more than she could ever comprehend, and I see better than she does. And when I say, “Hey, no candy right now,” I’m not trying to steal joy from her, I’m trying to increase joy for her. And when I say, “Don’t climb on the back of the couch when there’s a window right there. You could fall through it,” I’m not trying to rob her of the exhilaration of walking on the back of the couch, I’m trying to make sure she doesn’t cut herself to ribbons. And so what ends up happening in that moment, when I’m trying to increase joy and increase life and increase happiness and my daughter goes, “I don’t want any of that. I’ll get it my own way. I’ll do it my own way. I want what I want,” and she wars against the joy that I so desperately want for her, in one instance, I start to discipline and in another, God’s going, “This is playing out like another story I know, the one where I try to lead you like this and you’re like, ‘No, I want my stuff;’ and you are a four year old girl. This is very similar to Me, Chandler. So, while Audrey’s in the corner thinking about it, why don’t you go to the other corner and think about it over there?” All of a sudden, by trying to nurture and love and point Audrey to Christ and finding it war against me, I start to understand how big and beautiful the gospel is, that despite the fact that I war against the hand of God, He continues to love, pursue and extend grace. Or in those moments that I lavish upon Lauren affection and romance and all of those things and she doesn’t respond the way I want her to respond, all of a sudden I start to understand the gospel, I understand the depth of the love of Christ for me, the depth of His grace, the depth of His forgiveness. Do you know why it’s hard? Because when it’s hard, the we understand the gospel, when it’s hard, we walk in humility and when it’s hard, we’ll be dependent on God. If it was easy, none of those things would be there; they just wouldn’t be there. So listen, even the fact that it’s difficult is God’s love, mercy and grace. And I know some of you don’t think it’s difficult because you’re single, but have you ever wondered why it’s so difficult to pray with your wife but it’s not so difficult to pray with somebody else? Do you think maybe there’s some principalities at war against us?”
- Matt Chandler (The Role of Men Part 1: Defining Masculinity)

1 Corinthians 16:13 - Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.