"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
It’s time for another Manvotional! A couple of weeks ago, the Art of Manliness posted an a section of a 1946 Army manual. I’ve recorded it onto MP3 below.
Manvotional (Download)
“Clenched Teeth” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
The unaccompanied MP3 is available here.
At the moment I’m just finishing up “Jesus among other gods” by Ravi Zacharias. In his chapter discussing Jesus’ interaction with Pontius Pilate, Zacharias tells of a really interesting incident in the life of Napoleon which I’d like to share. It’s a little long, but I really do encourage everyone to read it…
All in all, I’ve taught quite a few dance classes this year. For example, at the beginning of the summer, I visited a local school and introduced a class of Eighth Graders to swing dancing and last month I taught a group of a hundred and fifty teenagers (eesh!) at a youth retreat in Julian.
As a general rule, when I teach dance lessons, the girls are really enthusiastic about learning whereas the guys are usually more reluctant. I’ve noticed that this reaction is not limited to teenagers. I’ve seen the same thing when I’ve taught “young adults” and I’ve even seen the same reaction among real grown-ups too! For example, towards the beginning of the year I taught Nightclub Foxtrot at a local parish event and, when it was time for the lesson, all the men were suddenly rather absent… Where had all the “leaders” gone?
In this post I would like to outline the top eleven reasons as to why every man should learn to dance. Anyone who knows me well will know that I think all guys, without exception, should know how to dance. In Medieval times, a knight’s training was considered incomplete if he could not dance. It was true then and I think it’s no less true today… 🙂
Last month I published a series entitled Leading A Bible Study. I wrote those posts for two reasons. The first reason was to clarify in my own mind some of the lessons I had learned from leading various church groups. The other reason was to provide a resource for those beginning similar endeavours.
Upon completing the series, I sent out requests for feedback. I contacted friends, other Bible study leaders, as well as some random people on the Internet!
In response to the feedback I received, I decided to write a few follow-up posts on this subject. I will devote a post to each area of feedback, quoting the feedback received and offering my own comments in RED.
This year in the JP2 Group, more and more people have been stepping up to lead Bible study. This has been wonderful, and has brought with it a number of benefits.
Firstly, the variation in leadership has added some real diversity and insight to our Bible study sessions and helped keep the group fresh.
Secondly, in our community we often have people who attend JP2 for some time and then move on to another city. It is my hope that, by having led at JP2, these people will have the confidence at their new parish to support similar ministries or, if such ministries do not exist, then start them!
Finally, as the number of leaders in a group increases, the group becomes more self-sustaining, reducing the pressure on the group’s original leader, thus freeing him or her up to spend more time crocheting and playing the banjo…
I’ve led Bible studies, in some form or another, since about 2004. In doing so, I’ve made all kinds of mistakes. Seriously, name a mistake, I’ve done it. In fact, not only will I have done it, I’m pretty sure I’d have done it in far more spectacular fashion than you! :-p
Therefore, drawing upon my vast wealth of mistakes, in an effort to help those readers who are also involved in leadership, I’ve compiled a list of Do’s and Don’ts for leading Bible Study.
“Never trust spiritual leader who cannot dance.”
– Mr. Miyagi, The Next Karate Kid
I’m feeling in a poetic mood tonight although, to to be fair, it’s probably just the wine 😉
Anyway, I had previously written about my favourite poet, Kahlil Gibran, but I thought I’d share with you my favourite poem by another great poet and mustache wearer, Rudyard Kipling:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;