So after reading the title of this post, you are thinking one of several things, or maybe all of the following: history is boring (which is what Elizabeth is saying as I read her the title). Only dorks like history. John must be a boring dork. History is just that...history; so why worry about it? Don't leave me yet, I have a few thoughts to mull over. In spending time with (specifically) male friends and family over the past few months, something has come up several times and I have begun putting it into practice. Dr. Harry Reeder, pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, advises the study of certain men of times past. He says pick a few men and study them well. I have come to see that his advise is not his own, but a echoing of the advise of Paul, the author of Hebrews and John. We are told to imitate the great leaders who have gone before us (II Thess. 3:9, Heb. 13:7, III John 11). So I have been reading biographies of Robert E. Lee and Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson. Why these two men? There are many reasons such as their humility, there leadership abilities, their love of family, their love of the church, their audacity, their amazing and practically lived faith etc etc etc. Why men who lived in such a different time? They have finished the race well.
I have already begun reaping the benefits of doing my best to imitate these men as they imitated Christ. So guys, following the words of biblical authors and pastors, find a few historical figures who lived well and have been widely written about, and soak them up. It takes effort, but so does everything else that is worth having.
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