“But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”- 1 John 2:5-6
This verses are a few of many that are written as a part of three pieces of paper that hang over my bed that I call my manhood plan. It’s really a declaration of who I am, my goals, gifts, and passions and a list of verses that I would hope to apply to my life. During the men’s book study at church tonight I got to thinking of my manhood plan, when one of the guys said he just wanted to be. To be who God wants him to be and not get caught up in trying to be someone he’s not or comparing himself to others. My goal, my quest and reason for even writing a manhood plan goes back to my desire to know myself for who God created me to be and to live that out.
To know myself for who God created me to be.
To Live that out.
Next to these two verses on my manhood plan I wrote “claim, walk, live Christ”. First I have to claim Christ. I have to claim the incredible crazy love that he has for me. I can’t claim something and then simply live like it is irrelevant to my life. Claiming Christ, obedience, disciples and cultivating that relationship is a daily thing. To claim Christ is a huge deal. In the first century to claim Christ might mean death so if you are going to claim Christ make the most of that claim.
I am not a greek scholar and honestly I do not have a grasp on any language including english most of the time, so in order to understand what claim means I looked it up in my bedside dictionary. In some-sense the word means to call for or ask for property, but I think in this sense it means “to state as a fact or to maintain”. How do we maintain things? How do you maintain your room? Your relationships? Your skills? I know Christ and I claim him but how do I move to maintaining that claim.
In this book study we are reading a book titled “Disciplines of a Godly Man” by R. Kent Hughes, the author talks about training and how we need to train ourselves. When we were talking about this training I was thinking over the years that I played basketball. I lived and breathed basketball. I trained in and out of team practices. I maintained my shooting form. I maintained my health. I maintained the bench pretty well, but I worked at it everyday. This maintaining the training is part of claiming Christ, but God doesn’t just train us to warm the bench.
Obeying Christ is great but it should move us to more. I think what John is getting at is that when we obey Christ, we allow him to train us and make his love complete in us by understanding who he has made us to be we are better able to move to living that out and walking as Christ did. This means daily letting God shape us and mold us. Daily intentionally maintaining that relationship through prayer and reading. Daily finding ways to be intentionally you who God made you to be and living as Jesus did in the context of where you are and what you are doing.
Claim Christ
Live like you have Claimed Christ in the full of the freedom, forgiveness and love that he offers.
Walk with Christ and others through life.
Maintain, Maintain, Maintain so when it comes down to the last seconds of the game you can come in an hit the game winning free-throws. Maintain, Maintain, Maintain so that God’s love might be made complete in you so that you can better love those around you. Maintain, Maintain, Maintain the truth.
As I am writing this I’m struck by the fact that even before I claimed Jesus he claimed me. He maintained his promises. He loved me before I loved him. He lived the way that he calls us to live. He walked the road we are walking and He is walking it again with us.
My manhood plan has a lot of really big claims and goals that I have written in order to challenge myself to maintain them, live them, and allow God to walk me through learning how to be me. I want my life to reflect my claim. I want to live in Christ and walk in the way that he did. Everyday is a challenge to live so claim life one step at a time.
-Caleb Ross Hunter
The Adventure of Dragon Hunting 