This Is for You
If you’re concerned about winning at what really counts before your life on this earth is done, then this book is for you. Maybe you’ve had some successes, maybe many successes (though probably not as many as you would have liked), but you still have a nagging sense that what you’re working so hard for may not be the right goal after all, at least not entirely. All of us know the awkward feeling when we start to wonder if we’ve got our ladder up against the wrong wall.
As a Christ follower, you want whatever God wants for you, because deep inside you sense that that’s where the real win for you must lie. We respect your desire. And we believe God does too. But what you do with that desire is what really matters.
Your quest for authentic success starts here.
Now, if you’re a woman and you’re checking out this book to see what it’s got to say, no need to feel guilty about peeking! There are no secrets here, only revelations from the Word of God and the lives of men. Maybe you have a son, a husband or some other important male in your life, and you want to know how to better encourage him in his pursuit of godly manhood. That’s great—this book will open your eyes as well as his. Share with him the insights you read here, or propose that the two of you read the book together and discuss it.
And that brings us to another opportunity.
You see, we need to acknowledge that men have a tendency to remain in their own isolated silos, trying to work on their problems all alone. So, male reader, while you can read this book alone and try to apply it to your life individually, we encourage you to read it and talk it through with others, especially a group of men you can trust. Use the study guide at the back of the book with a male friend, with your mentor, in a men’s small group, on a men’s retreat, or in any other setting where you can be honest with some other guys. Iron sharpens iron, and if we’ve been getting spiritually dull, we can help each other get our edge back.
Our promise to you is this: the teachings in this book are based on biblical principles, and if you learn and pursue God’s way of doing things, your definition of success will change in the key areas of your life for all the seasons of your life. We want to help you win the way God intended, because it’s the only way that lasts.
If that sounds promising to you, then turn the page.
Transformed by Trust
The real win is trusting God to lead
you into the life He wants you to have.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
stayed on you.
—Isa. 26:3, ESV
What do you want in life more than anything else? Can you picture it? Be completely honest. What do you think about the most, dream about, plan for, and strive the hardest to gain?
If you’re a Christian, resist the noble urge to answer “to follow Christ” too quickly. That might genuinely be the case, and we certainly encourage you in that direction. But if you’re like most men, your goals might be more mixed, more earthly, even if you are a Christian.
What you want more than anything else might be more along the lines of…
• having a great job;
• living an adventurous life;
• being married to the hottest, most understanding woman you know;
•driving the right car and living in the right house;
•having fun with your friends or family;
•climbing the ladder and succeeding in business;
•being financially secure;
•having people respect you; or
•doing something important, maybe even changing the world.
For too many of us, whether or not we would ever come right out and say it, those are our definitions of success. None of these goals are wrong, not if they’re seen in the proper perspective. But what we’ve discovered is that so many men start out to win what they most want but in the end don’t get it. Or they think they’re achieving what matters most, but in the long run life doesn’t pan out the way they’d hoped. What happens then?
If we’re truly going to succeed, most of us need to redefine success. The real win for a man is built on two simple but strategic components—who you trust and who you serve. Those two decisions change everything for a man. And that’s what we’re going to explore more in the pages to come. Pursuing the true win takes resolve, and the decision to shoot for it is a choice you make more than once. It takes courage, determination, and faith, and it certainly isn’t always easy.
Take it from us. We’ve both learned the hard way.
