There’s a great song by the band, Casting Crowns, entitled “Courageous”. In it, the song asks the question above. Here are a few of the lyrics:

Where are you, men of courage?
You were made for so much more
Let the pounding of our hearts cry
We will serve the Lord

And here’s another part of the song:

This is our resolution
Our answer to the call
We will love our wives and children
We refuse to let them fall

This past weekend, there was an area-wide event for middle school and high school students called “The Mix“. This event hosted around 2,000 students and The Word was taught there. It is a high-energy, fun, loud event that draws students in, and then the gospel is shared throughout the entire weekend.

mix

My husband and I volunteered to usher the arena events, which was awesome to experience. Wow! Just wow! This was our first time being a part of this event, as our twins are in 6th grade, and that’s the youngest age that can go.

When the students are not at the arena all together, they are in their church groups, small groups, or at their host homes.

The host home part was another place where we were involved, as we hosted the boy group from our church. This caused a unique ratio that I had not yet experienced. Since I grew up in a home with a sister, and our twins are boy/girl, the boy/girl ratio in my home had always been in the girl favor, or equal. But not this weekend. Nope. I was completely out-numbered….like 1:8.

And it was awesome. A little smelly, but awesome! 🙂

That question asked above, that asks where the men of courage are?
I found them.
Right under my roof.

Let me share with you what any slide-show pictures from the past weekend won’t show you:

-Even though the guy group from our church didn’t get t0 our home till REALLY late (like so late, I may or may not have been accused of being a helicopter parent, since I texted them to check in…I was just used to Children’s Ministry retreats where there is a lights-out time enforced…praise Jesus!), when I got up the next morning, there was already a leader up studying in his Bible. It made me take pause. This man seriously could not have even had more than a few hours of sleep, yet there he was, in a chair in my home, with a lamp on, and his Bible open in front of him.
There, I saw a man of courage.

-During one of the small group times that took place at our home, in our living room, I couldn’t hear what was being said, as I was retreated to another room, but I could hear men voices teaching over the group of boys there. These boys were learning from a group of men in our church what it means to interact with others around them, including girls, biblically, as this was the theme of the weekend….#RelationshipGoals. My son still thinks girls are gross (praise Jesus again!), but one day, that will change, and when it does, he will have this teaching to refer back to.
There, I heard men of courage, in my living room, teaching the boys of our church.

-For this weekend to happen, men from all area churches had to lay down their lives. They had to leave their homes, their beds, their wives and children, to be there for the boy groups. Of course, the same was true of the women leaders involved.
There, I saw more men and women of courage.

-I also saw a man of courage in the image of an over-loaded backpack. The youth pastor at our church is in seminary. Let me just stop right here to give respect to anyone who has been through seminary. My dad attended New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and I watched him spend many late nights reading, studying, and writing papers. The same is true of our youth pastor. His backpack contained required reading for the courses he is currently taking, and even though that bag was full of books to be read and syllabuses that contained papers to be written, during the down time of the weekend, he participated in a Nerf-gun battle, and engaged with the students instead of doing student-work himself.
This was a man of courage, laying down his life for a weekend.

I see my husband praying with our children each night, and reading devotions with them each morning as they wait for the bus together. But to see so many men gathered for the sole purpose of pouring into the youth at our church?….it was just a great thing to witness!

So, when the song asks, “Where are you men of courage?”. I know where they are, for I’ve seen some. Men who are disciples of Jesus, making more disciples, and it’s a beautiful thing!

Or perhaps I should say, a handsome thing!