55 - The Twelve Movements #5: A Man Walks Daily in the Dirt
Movement #5 is a matter of the heart, like every movement of The Twelve Movements of a Man’s Life.
When a man walks in the dirt daily:
He faces that he does not have control of life, and he cannot see the future; even so, he bravely walks into doing his duty/calling one day at a time.
If he has a vision of love and care for the people he offers himself to, he will go face the daily struggles of not having control; he knows that he is in charge of dealing with life on life’s terms.
He maintains and sustains an attitude of courage that requires humility, or healthy shame. He must need others and God.
Philosophy meets real life in tangible ways:
Care and Courage: For a man to “walk daily in the dirt,” he must bring care and courage to daily life and expresses what matters to him.
Tangible Action: His philosophy, character, ideas and ideals must have tangible action to be real and true.
Consistently Does: He consistently does what he claims matters to him.
Basically and practically, he takes care of business one step at a time:
1. He gets sweaty and tired, through action of output.
2. He grasps that passion means a willingness to be in pain for what matters.
3. He knows that if he pours out, he must re-fill and replenish, to keep going.
4. He takes responsibility for his self-care, to be able to continue to care.
Without passion, a person cannot truly be successful. It is essential.
It means that you are able to feel, care, and ask for help.
Healthy Shame means that you show up daily to do your duty/calling. This requires the help of others. Every man needs the support, wisdom, care, and encouragement of other men. And, of course, a man needs God.
We have Healthy Shame when we become aware that we don’t have all the answers and need the help of others. Humility is an outcome of Healthy Shame. (Episodes #19 and Episode #20).
To live with a passion for what matters (and its purposes) always includes the help of others.
A man without the humility to ask for help cannot genuinely succeed. His pride blocks his growth.
If a man doesn’t have a passion for caring for others and completing his duty/calling, he still has the desire to belong and matter. Usually that desire is met by attempting to become significant through achievement and competition towards others. This man finds his significance in comparing himself to others. Rarely is he close to friends and family.
Even if a man awakens to having wasted his life living in denial, ignorance or addiction, and without heart and his heart’s calling, God does not waste even what the man has wasted.
God is capable of taking our “garbage” and grinding it into compost to grow something beautiful.
Solomon says:
“He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also placed eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
(Ecclesiastes 3:11, NIV)
We are created to seek fulfillment, even heaven on earth, but we do not have control. We must trust God, and seek help to experience the beautiful that we can have.
A man must become humble enough to admit his neediness to get the help necessary to persevere.
Even the thief on the cross who “lived fully” only for a short time is remembered for his humility, the admission of his need, even of his wasted life. Yet, his admission has left all of us a lasting legacy of hope.
We are created to imagine eternity and its fulfillment,
face that we cannot manufacture it,
and yet do what we can to build something lasting one day at a time in the dirt of this life.
The closest we ever get to “completing” eternity on earth is by persevering one step and one day at a time.
This kind of man may not be recognized by the world at large, but rest assured that he is respected by those who watch him, work with him, and who love him.
A man who walks in the dirt daily, is showing and will continue to show that:
trust is not foolish
love is real
stability in a scary world is possible
This kind of man lives until he dies; he does not give up, but rather perseveres. He walks by the faith referenced in the book of Hebrews:
All of these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth … looking for a country of their own…a heavenly one.” (Hebrews 11:13-15, NIV)
This man walks daily in the dirt, one day at a time; he pursues the fulfillment of his calling—for eternity in his heart and for the love of others. He is guided by faith in the One who made him and saves him, God, the Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.
It is a wonderful experience to have a passion, a purpose, and a plan. But all passions are proven one day at a time, over time, by walking “daily in the dirt.”
Dr. Chip Dodd
Voice of the Heart Center