Step Up and Throw

This past week, about 20 of the men of 938 gathered at Tilted Axes in West Chester for some fun throwing axes. Here is what I like about Ax Throwing.  It is simple.  I get a sharp ax, throw it at a wall, it either sticks or it doesn’t, and I get immediate feedback as to whether I threw it right.

I wish life were this simple.  

There are certain things in life, like parenting, or the decision around what college to attend where it feels like the ax is flying and you have no idea as to whether that decision or a long line of decisions will hit its intended target.  It’s like you throw it and the ax seems to be indefinitely suspended in the air, and you are forced to wait as to whether it will hit its target or even stick at all. We just don’t get immediate feedback on our countless decisions each day.

What makes it even more difficult than with the tremendous growth and expansion of our world, we have to make so many more decisions, and in some ways throw so many more axes not knowing if they are going to hit.

If I can complicate it further, many of us aren’t even sure of where we stand in life, if our assumptions are right, AND we have these loud choruses around us shouting at us saying that we are wrong.   Sometimes we wonder if we are wrong, and that makes us feel like we are throwing axes that never seem to arrive at their target, and that we do it while standing on a skateboard that is moving down a hill. 

In life, we know that what goes around comes around and that our actions have consequences, so it makes dudes want to just sit on the couch, watch tv, and hope the axes will throw themselves. 

But deep down, we know that is not what men do.  Men step forward, take responsibility and act to make things better for others.  We might not hit the target every time, but we keep throwing our axes for those we care about and for the world around us. 

One of the things I have come to believe is that men need each other.  If you don’t have other guys to talk about the target, to talk about the ax, we lose courage and we stop throwing.  This world desperately needs men to step forward and protect the vulnerable and serve the community, their families and children, but most men are isolated and on their own. 

As a church, we believe that each person is sent with a purpose into this world.  Together, we help one another find our way back to God and to live in light of that purpose.  When we know our purpose, we become creative, we don’t react to the drama of the world, but we act locally for the good and the protection of those around us.  

When we know our purpose and why we are here, we make our decisions/throw our axes from level ground, we have clarity on our target and have the relief to know that we don’t have to get it right every time. It is not about us hitting the target, it is just not about us at all.  So we keep stepping up and throwing the next ax given to us. 

- Marc