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I had a friend that was fitted for prescription glasses. It changed everything.He realized he had been squinting his eyes to see, to read, to work, and people thought he was continually upset or filled with anxiety. Now that he could focus, he could relax.Everything became clear. And he no longer pushed people away with negative facial cues.Focus is what gets things done. The ability to shut out the noise changes everything. The problem comes in our understanding of what it means to focus. As men, we lean into working harder, pushing stronger, and straining our reach. The best definition of focus...

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It’s the new year! A time for fresh vision, brave beginnings, and new resolutions. Too often, as men, we ask God to motivate us … by some means, get us started … somehow thinking that by magic, God could overcome issues that, by habit, we’ve messed up for years.Tinkerbell isn’t real – she’s not showing up to kick your butt into gear. And God doesn’t shower pixie dust over us to move us along.In the world of men just a few generations ago, if a man didn’t work, he didn’t eat. If he didn’t get up and plow the field or...

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What does a discipled man look like? In addition to my friends Erich, Andrew, Glenn, Walt, and others – a look at the biblical leader Daniel is a tremendous example. Daniel was the man who funded Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus when he had to take his family and hide in Egypt for four years. How did he do that? That’s part of the remarkable story of a man who got stronger under pressure.Pressure always magnifies. Pressure causes the flaws of life to appear. The Space Shuttle Columbia exploded on reentry over Texas on February 1, 2003, and disintegrated into thousands of...

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It is so much easier to write a long prayer list of, “I need” than to write a long one of, “thank you for.”Yet, it was thanksgiving and thankfulness that marked the explosive growth of the Early Church. Paul wrote from prison to the church at Philippi, “Keep on rejoicing in the Lord at all times. I will say it again: Keep on rejoicing!” (Php 4:4 ISV) It was this attitude that sustained him through the most difficult times.Pastor Jack Hayford wrote a book years ago that marked my life. In The Key to Everything, he said, “At Thanksgiving, the imagery...

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Eight years ago, at the close of our Lions Roar summit, we received an impromptu offering for the Chaplain of the Maricopa County Jail. Chaplain Herrera purchased hundreds of Maximized Manhood books to disciple incarcerated men in that prison. Friday night of Lions Roar, eight years later, walking the stage and raising his commissioning sword was Paul Vargas, one of the men who was in prison when those books arrived.That spontaneous offering – an act of love from a few hundred men in Dallas – gave new life to thousands of men in prison through a vibrant new faith in Jesus.Not...

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