The Universe
The Men and Young Men’s Alliance (COGOP Men’s Ministry) theme this year is “Aspiring Towards a Job-like Engagement”. The Old Testament character of Job was a good man that was engaged with his family, faith and community, however that was not enough to keep his life from being marred by tragedy, illness, confusion and frustration. When he finally encounters God at the end of the book, he is subjected to a tsunami cross examination of questions. One that stands out in Job 38:5 arc of universe creating questions is… “…Who hath stretched the line upon it?”
Construction
String is a very ancient building tool that is practical and is still in use today. My late dad, who was a bricklayer, had a ball of string and stretched a leveled line from one end of a brick wall to the other. Every bricklayer in between had to build their section of the wall and lay the bricks level with this line.
My Prayer for Young Men
So, I have a particular prayer for the young men that I regularly bring to God. From the metaphor, the answer to the question is that God is the one who has built the universe in an orderly and planned way, meticulously according to a leveled row by row manner that brought forth a completed, firm and finished creation of everything.
Just as God has “stretched a line” to build the universe, he has also stretched a line for each of those young men. Let us then extrapolate on this metaphor a bit further.
Recognize the Designer
The first direction that we must go is to recognize the Designer. These young men must recognize that God is that one who has the design and knows the best version of themselves for their lives. God has stretched a line for the building of their lives. This is an important revelation and realization that everyone must come to terms with, or else nothing else makes sense. The line may lay out your purity, your life direction, your media consumption, your ministry, your relationships…it could be a wide variety of things. The height of the line changes as God is building you more and more to your true identity.
Don’t Mess with the Line
Secondly, you need to keep your fingers off the line. When I worked construction with my dad, I would angrily hear the bricklayer’s yell…
“Who’s touching the line? Don’t touch the line!”
If you are leaning on the line, or accidentally rest something on it, you run the risk of impacting the levelness and structure of the entire wall! We, as people mistakenly think that we know what is best for our lives but are blind to the reality that our circumstances and emotions can impact our perspective. Just like Job, we must default to God’s divine perspective.
These young men need to recognize that God has a line for the building up of their lives and they must let him determine what that line is. They need to take the attitude of Job 42:3 after he finished his encounter with God…
You asked, “Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”
Be an HR Manager
Throughout God’s questioning of Job, one thing is painfully clear and that is the lack of control he has on practically everything! God’s line of questioning is outrageous. How can Job move the stars around? How could he have control over death or go to the depths of the oceans? (Just to name a few things from Job 38.)
What these young men do have control over are the people and things that can build into their lives. They need to hire or allow qualified people to build the structure of their lives. These are people who can speak into their lives according to the line that God has stretched. They are parents, mentors, Christian friends… that is just to name a few.
Young men, you need to say “yes“, when a man you trust who loves God says to you, allow me to do a ceremony in your life. They need to say yes when someone says, “I’d like to help sponsor you to go to Men and Young Men’s Retreat.” Or they may say, “Come with me to church or this other function…” They need to say “yes” to Godly mentors who come into their lives.
At the same time, these young men need to fire those people and release those things that are not building according to the line that God has stretched for their lives. For everyone, that could mean letting go of friends (boyfriends, girlfriends, peers) who are a bad influence (Proverbs 13:20) and may inspire behaviours contrary to the way God wants you to live your life.
That also means letting go of social media and entertainment (movies and tv shows) that build competing contrary opinions and attitudes to the line God has stretched into our lives. Let’s be honest, we all know the things that we should not be watching and consuming…
If these people and things continue to be built into our lives, our structure won’t be level, it won’t be strong, it won’t look the way it’s supposed to, it probably won’t last and most likely will need to be renovated and rebuilt.
A Message to the Builders
If you are a builder (mother, father, mentor, Christian friend), you have the responsibility to build into their lives according to the line that God has stretched.
In the book of Judges, there is an interesting description of “worthless men” that entered in the life of Jephthah (Judges 11:3 NLT). It’s not that as human beings they had no intrinsic value (because we are all “fearfully and wonderfully made” Psalms 139:14), rather I believe that they brought no value into the life of Jephthah. (Instead of building according to the line that God had stretched for his life, they basically used him for their own benefit and encouraged him on a path away from God.) If we are influencing the people that God has put in our lives, we need to do so under God’s instruction and plan for their lives. It is a sacred and honourable privilege to positively affect those whom God has placed in our sphere of influence.
Conclusion
My prayer may have started for the young men, but its applicability stretches far beyond them. Respect the line that God has stretched for your life and understand that he is building you into the best version of yourself. There are MANY things that you don’t have control over, but you do have a say as to which people and things will build into your life.
The Genesis Man Project 