An Epic Quest

"The glory of God is man fully alive." - St. Irenaeus

In the past this blog has been hardly more than some philosophical musings that were connected by the idea of planting a foothold as a man in this modern world.  The idea of returning to our roots from the past that are so deeply buried in the soil of distraction that they are having a hard time finding the aquifer of hard work, ingenuity, integrity, and manliness that we so desperately need to flourish as rock solid pillars of warriorship in our modern society.

Instead of continuing on in this manner of quasi motivational, that are somewhat mired in my own life's distractions, blog post after blog post I propose a quest.  Not just any quest but an Epic Quest that will take a significant personal journey. I, and a couple other men that I am lucky enough to call brothers, are going to start this journey.  We will look to change our daily mindset and to start a revolution in this world that we toil, commune, and live in.  The idea is that the quest will really never be completed but rather a life long commitment.  Really it will be a process of distinguishing how to approach each day with the mindset of a warrior with the hope that slowly those daily habits will start to form and will become as normal as breathing.

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." J.R.R. Tolkien

Here is the deal... often times in life we make decisions that we cannot understand the butterfly effect until far into the future.  I know when I reflect on my past that most of those times for me were decisions to not take action that cause me the most pain.  Some opportunities come our way and we know that we cannot let them go... we have heard about the girl who got away, right?  Well I didn't let mine get away, and I don't want to sleep on the idea of creating a warrior class for this generation that can live, lead, and standout in our modern society.  I do not think I can afford to for my spirit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr_OpFxCx-A

A year-long journey within a lifelong quest is our idea of how to start distinguishing some of the discernible qualities of warriorship and to map out a path to start living life like a warrior.  Like the warriors in the clip I do not want to look back 15 plus years from now with a son on the verge of making his own marks on the world and regret my effort to lead him and others in the right direction.

I will be honest... I had a great deal of trepidation leading up to this post.  I realized the magnitude and the accountability of putting ideas of this nature into words for others to read.  I had told the other two men that are joining me on this journey that I would post almost two weeks ago and I could not seem to get myself in the right state of mind to produce in words what my heart and spirit are feeling.  I realized though that was part of this whole quest.  To realize what a Warrior Ethos for a Modern World looks like, and that in the beginning I would doubtably be able to materialize exactly the intention of this quest.  Why not now?  Better than tomorrow.  Better than five more excuses and two more weeks from now.  It starts now.

"The question is... What HE intended us to be when HE made us." - C.S. Lewis

The three of us embarking on this quest come from somewhat similar but different backgrounds.  We are all at different points in our lives, different ages, different family situations, different interests, and different immediate goals.  The greatest thing, of which I have written on this blog before, is that we have the same end of the game goal in mind.  Regardless of where you are spiritually, physically, or mentally and regardless of what you do currently in this life you can still approach it with a warrior mindset based on the right principles.  We are Men and we crave the same basic things in life.  This is not relegated to one age, race, station in life, or personal interest this is for all Men.

We are going to start documenting our weekly progression of our pursuit to change our habits spiritually, mentally, and physically.  Each one of us will post a blog weekly about the prior week and our effort to become warriors.  We will discuss together what is working for each of us and what is not working.  You will see some of us transform physically and all of us spiritually.

Mixed in will hopefully be some podcasts and some videos of us doing man stuff to compliment the warrior lifestyle.

I believe that the hope is when the dust settles in a year that we will have the confidence and courage to be leaders of men.

As we progress through the weeks and months we will begin to shape the meaning of modern warriorship.

Let's roll, on the Journey of a Lifetime...

Are we really willing?

I was listening to a podcast over the last few days and somewhere in the middle of it the participants drew a visual picture for the listening audience of what they believe raising our collective consciousness looks like. Basically they said to take a table that is covered in bubbles.  When one bubble starts to move it immediately affects those around it and then the ripples of change start.  So when someone like Martin Luther King rises up out of the bubble pile there is an amazing impact even if his time was cut short.

I really like that picture and it makes incredible sense.  The question I have though is whether or not us bubbles really want to be disturbed?  Do we want the pressure that comes with it?  Do we even really want change?  Do we just want to ride it out and hopefully not be affected by any other crazy bubbles until it is our time to pop?

Even with this blog there is a certain type of pressure to make sure I live in line with what I am putting into words.  Heck that comes with the religious and spiritual side of things that I outspokenly align myself with. Really that pressure comes with simply being a man.  Then you add-on marriage and fatherhood and we are talking as much pressure as a mountain dew can rolling around in a teenagers trunk.

It is time that we all start answering the bell, myself included.  The few principles that we have already spoken about should be at play in every aspect of our lives regardless of who is watching.  That is the only way to develop those principles into second nature habits.

I believe that I am ready to be the bubble that moves... I want to affect other bubbles... I want to be the start of a ripple.

I know without a doubt that we can start something huge, something real and visceral.  It is needed in our society.  Do not be afraid of the pressure because that is already there be afraid of not doing anything before you pop.

We should never choose the easy path because the easy path is not the path of the warrior.  You know Jesus, right?  The single greatest bubble in history.  Look to Him, read His words and you will see the blueprint of how a bubble should float and how to interact with the bubbles around you.

Integrity

As I mentioned in my last post I wanted to start putting a so called Manvotional out there once a week.  Just so happens I have a little time right now and what better day than Monday to get the brain thinking about some of the things that are important as we strive to practice modern warriorship. This weekend I was thinking a lot about what the essential attributes of being a great man are.  There are definitely a few things that we need to have nailed down to be a standard that can bear the title of warrior.  I came to the conclusion though that without integrity then it really doesn't matter what else we have in our tool belt.

We all know people that are successful at say business or athletic endeavors but they lack character and most importantly integrity.  How do we feel about those people?  Are we quick to follow them?  To be really successful there must be integrity to accompany your talent in whatever aspect of your life or in my opinion it is all for not.  To lead men into the battle that is our lives and to be an example you must have integrity or no one will follow.

The modernwarriorship challenge for this week is to practice being completely honest in every aspect of your life.   I would imagine most of us are pretty good in this area but we all can work on it.  This week when you are standing around jawing with your peers remember to be of good character and try and lead in that manner.  When you are with your family be engaged with your kids and really listen to your wife.  While you are spending time in your spiritual walk be true to the things that you read and to the relationship with God.  Even in your time of leisure be careful to keep your mind on things that are pure and good.

This will do two things for you: 1) You will start to become a leader and gain respect from everyone and they will follow you even when the odds are against you. 2) You will be surprised how there is never a thought of guilt about how you live your life.  Never a thought of I shouldn't have said that, done that, or had that thought, because you are living with integrity.

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity.  Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office." Dwight D. Eisenhower