What We Heard: 

Peter Goodwin, founder of Groove Life Rings, is no stranger to the outdoors. Born in Alaska, Peter experienced outdoor adventure that every man dreams of. After a season of school at Auburn University, at age 19, he moved to Alaska full-time and shortly after became a bush guide and bush pilot. 

Through his experience as a bush guide, God was refining and redefining his life. Often his experiences lead him to some dangerous and uncertain situations deep in the Alaskan bush. These experiences shaped the way he currently lives his life and leads his family. When you are in the bush, he said, “you truly come to the reality that you are not in control.” God made it clear to Peter that ultimately he was not in control. At that point his purpose behind his career changed. Peter began to use being a bush guide as a way to point people to Christ. God took Peter and changed his purpose for outdoor adventure to lead people to an understanding of God’s purpose for their life. 

Before Peter came to a greater understanding of his faith. He would be looking for identity in what he did, but God continued to shift his thoughts to pursue and identity in Christ alone. This shaped not only his career, but would eventually have a direct impact on his marriage and children. He went on to say that when you pursue Christ and making decisions in light of who he is, then our marriage becomes less about our wife following us. Instead, they are following Christ through us. This concept is the same when we lead our kids. 

Peter spoke about two things that are challenges for men: fear and complacency. Fear often times keep us from chasing after the things that God has for us. Fear of failure. Fear of regret. Fear of uncertainty. And complacency stops us from pursing God’s best for our lives. 

When we choose to submit to the leadership of Christ, fear and complacency have no place. “Surrender” is a key word when it comes to our faith. When we surrender we acknowledge that the only thing we can control is our relationship with Christ, he controls the rest. 

What It Means:

What a challenge for men to pursue an identity with Christ. Unfortunately, we live in a culture, within a day and age that defines us by what we do instead of who we are. Of course this is easier said than done. 

The big question here is, who are you following? Everyone follows someone or something. You may be a leader, but who is leading you? We all have people in our lives wondering the same thing. Who we are following determines what type of leader we will be.  

What We Do Next:

Press in. Look at your schedule and make a priority out of spending time with God. Not only that, continue to have an ongoing conversation with the Lord throughout your day.  The moment you sense fear or complacency establish itself in your life, pause and ask the Lord to shake it up. 

God has asked us to lead our homes, church, and work. This is an incredible responsibility and a great barometer for evaluating where we are and where we would like to go in our leadership are two questions that Peter reminded us of. 1) Am I living a self-centered life? or 2) Is Christ the center of my life?

We do have a choice of what things we pursue. As men, let’s make every effort to pursue the only thing that can change not only our life but the lives that we come in contact with. Jesus.