Adolescence

If you're interested in 20 minutes impacting the rest of your life, I suggest you watch this clip from Mark Driscoll - Adolescence: Boys Who Can Shave.

I believe God has called me to run Victory School of Wrestling for a few very obvious reasons, but none more obvious than to help teenagers grow into the MEN (and occasionally, the women) they are created to be. I believe in the potential inside each young man in this generation. Indeed, there is hardcore pressure on all sides for them to conform to the ways of the world like never before. Even still, I believe each one of them is created in the image of God to do something great with their lives. It is possible for a teenager to reverse engineer his life and live for something much greater.

We watched this video on adolescence yesterday as a group and I felt compelled to share my story with these impressionable young men. I was engaged at 22 years old and married at 23. During the dating process, Liz and I made some very serious decisions about how we were going to handle being a couple. In Madison, we were very counter-cultural. We made commitments while thinking logically, before we were in moments of temptation when emotions could have taken control of the decision making process. I'm not going to lie, remaining pure was difficult considering many of my roommates seemed to be enjoying life because they on the opposite side of the spectrum. Even with strong convictions and a lifestyle that reflected my faith, they still put pressure on me to compromise my standards for immediate satisfaction. Liz and I were married in 2003 and our relationship has grown each and every day.

Fast forward to present day. Liz and I celebrated our 8-year anniversary last week, we have two wonderful children, a fantastic house, a life-changing business and many more responsibilities that we're extremely grateful for. The irony is that these friends of mine (and I still do consider them friends, by the way) told me that I was too young to get married. By today's standards, I was. However, four of my dearest friends were quick to tell me to hold on to my youth because I'm only young once. That might be true, but it's also true that you only live once. These four are all in their 30's and remain single. Only one of them is a homeowner and only two have steady, full-time jobs. They produced very little during their 20's that made an impact. I wonder what they see when they look at my life today.

See, here's the deal: you are only young once and I believe we do need to cherish our high school and college years. There is little to no responsibility during those years. BUT, responsibility is not something that should be avoided as if it's a bad thing. It's what separates the men from the boys. Accept responsibility! Be a contributor instead of a consumer. Think long-term, not short-term.

In my 20's I was dead set against owning a mini-van. I was afraid it would cramp my style, make me look out-dated and take away my zest for life. Honestly, Liz and I fought the idea for months before we both decided it was the best option for our family. I can say without hesitation that my mom was right. Mini-vans are great. Not only have the automatic sliding doors been awesome, but what it's done for my manhood has been unrivaled in the past 5 years. It was almost like God hit me between the eyes and said, "Kevin, you idiot" (yes, God can call people idiots) "driving a mini-van is the manliest thing you can do. Your family comes before your image. Embracing your role as a father is far more manly than looking good in something else, but you know what's more? You look better in a mini-van than you could in anything else no matter what others are saying." I think He's right. Duh, of course He is.

The funny thing is, I heard similar jeers from these friends of mine about driving a mini-van. They thought, how could I drive a mini-van? Well, it's probably because I'm a man. Maybe they haven't crossed that line into manhood yet.