Brothers

For those of you who do not know I have two really good guys who I get together with weekly, you guys would know them as Moose and CWG.

I can remember a time when I had such an incredible desire to meet with other men and nobody to meet with. I just wanted to know what it was like to be a man from another man's point of view, since I didn't seem to know. It hurt because I couldn't find anybody willing to share their heart with me. Some of the guys that I approached at the church I was going to at the time liked the idea but couldn't find the value in actually making time to do it, other men I knew felt extremely threatened by the idea of going that intimate a level with another man. Come on now, we are men, we don't have those gushy feelings. We don't need anybody else, we are self sufficient.

At this time I was going through so much in life, I had just come out of a bad pornography addiction, my marriage was on the mend and I was a new father. I was going from dead end job to dead end job and trying to find my place in the world.

What does it mean to be a man? I wanted to know because from my perspective I wasn't doing very good at being one. I wanted to connect heart to heart.

My cry continued for another year or so until we started to go to the Church that we now call home and our family. This Church was constantly calling people into deeper relationships with God and each other. Surely I could find somebody who shared my hearts cry here. And sure enough, in our new care group a guy shared his testimony. He was kind of a funny looking guy but that didn't matter (just bugs). In his testimony he shared the same heart cry and the last words in he said in his testimony was "I'm just looking for a friend". Well I approached him afterwards and said I was looking for a friend too. Ever since then we have been like pea and carrots (Gump quote for those of you who do not know). We have not been able to get together as much as we probably would like to as he has 5 kids and I have 4 so we are kind of limited. But no matter what we know we are together in spirit.

We have challenged each other and seen each other to grow as men and as fathers, and to love our wives more. There is no topic that is taboo and I can tell him anything. He has been there for me and I for him (well I hope I have been there for him, he certainly has been for me). He is my best friend and I value him very highly. He is a man of God and a man of principle and I have so much to learn from him. I am honored that he calls me friend. I am talking about CWG if you didn't figure that out yet.

This year we had another friend join us in our Thursday night meetings, his name is Moose. Both CWG and I noticed that same heart that we have in him, and he fit in with us like corn with our peas and carrots. He has gone through some incredible battles of late. And though battle scared, he is shining brightly with the radiance of Christ. He always has an encouraging word for you even though some things in his life are kind of challenging for him right now.

So now I have been doubly blessed. Just like the time we couldn't afford a bike or bike trailer (for the kids) and Sarah prayed and we were given six bikes and two bike trailers in a matter of
two months, sometimes God answers in abundance.

There have been many others in my church that I have been able to build relationships with as well and I am not intentionally leaving anybody out. What I have with CWG and Moose is not reserved for them only as God's calling on my life is for more of this. This is what brothers is truly about.