discipleship

i think the world has a serious lack of people for us to look up to and be encouraged by.
not enough real fathers (mothers) and brothers (sisters) and teachers.
the kind whose wisdom and confidence you respect and admire.

there's a beautiful story (in Wild at Heart I think. if you know tell me, i've been wondering about it) about a group of men during World War 2. paratroopers on D-day I believe. they come up to a house occupied by germans.
and they don't know what to do!
they went through basic training, they could fire their guns, they knew how to fight.
but when they were thrown into the reality of it, knowledge, and even ability, didn't help so much.
they were scared. they had never been in such a situation before.
like coming up to a math problem that... you have the ability to do. but you just don't know how to put your knowledge together to work out this particular one.

well, then another group of men come up, led by a veteran.
he asks why they aren't attacking. and then understands.

he doesn't get mad or discourage them. they've never done this before.
but it's a war. they can't be "children" forever...

he says two things
first: "watch."

he then signals for his men to surround the house.
a few grenades and gunshots later...
they have taken the house.

then he returns to the first group...
second: "you can do that. now go do it."

i love this story.
we need people in our lives to
teach us how to "take houses."
men who convince us we can do it too.
men who encourage and inspire us to go do it.
and i'll add one more...
men who enable us to teach others how.

i'm thankful that I have a few of those.
i think most people don't.

i want to be that for people. i hope God teaches me how to be a leader like that. one who is looked up to, who is an inspiration, who is a teacher.
goodness, only he can do that with me.