✝️ Breaking Free: Trading Security for Significance

Good morning, and welcome to a new year, my brothers! This morning, I am admitting a sin I’ve lived with for years until I finally surrendered it to the Lord last year. This was a painful yet freeing article to write. My hope is that as you read it, the Lord will speak to you and encourage you to walk out in faith quicker than I did. We’re on this journey together, men. Let’s go!

This week’s manly topics (5-min read):

⛑️ MIND SET James tells us to confess our sins to each other so we can be healed. So I am going to confess one of mine to you in the hope you can share in the healing.
📰  NEWS We position ourselves for vital 2025 by taking smart action in the areas of exercise, nutrition and sleep. We also look at some cultural trends and topics that will make us wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
🎁 OFFER Are you benefiting from the MTM newsletter? Then refer Christian guys you know and earn some snazzy MTM swag for sharing the blessing. See MTM Referral Program details at end of this issue.

MIND SET
Breaking Free: Trading Security for Significance

An Idolator’s Confession

I had a mistress for years, most of my adult life. It’s painful to admit, but it’s the truth. This mistress became my idol, my security, my identity. I lost a marriage because of her. I denied God’s call on my life for years because of this mistress-idol.

2024 changed everything. God's quiet nudge, which I had heard and dismissed for years, became a clarion call, one I finally knew I had to obey. On December 23rd, I walked away for the last time. My emotions were mixed—I still love my mistress—but I know I've done the right thing, both for my family and for her.

Who was my mistress? Not a woman, but my job at Wendell August Forge. My family purchased it in 1978, and we celebrated our 100th year in business in 2023. It’s an amazing company with extraordinary people. I joined straight out of college in 1989, and until December 23rd, 2024, when we sold it to my good friend and our president, it was all I had known professionally.

From Security to Surrender

The company became my identity. I “knew” that financial security lay in The Forge (as it’s known in western PA). When we got ready to exit, I just “knew” it would be for millions, and I’d live contentedly on “Easy Street'“ for the rest of my life.

But God had a better plan. During my morning prayer time in 2023, He told me to hold Wendell August Forge loosely, open my hands (a bit, I thought at the time), and give it to Him. In my selfish thinking, I thought that meant preparing for a sale in 3-4 years, maximizing our EBITDA, pushing the multiple up, and walking away with millions.

Throughout 2024, God’s message became clearer: Sell it now. Don’t worry about the price. Trust me. I’ll take care of your family and the company. Like Indiana Jones in his Last Crusade, I stepped out in faith. The sale didn’t make me a millionaire, and I’m now without a steady paycheck for the first time since 1989.

And I’ve never felt better, more alive, more intimate with Jesus, or more aligned with His call.

My mission now is sharing with men what the Lord has shown me through struggles, pain, sin, and a few victories - with full transparency. Like this confession. No pride, just truth. He’s shown me, someone who defines success by magnitude, that impacting even one man fulfills His purpose.

What about you?

What's your mistress-idol? What defines you? What divine nudge have you been suppressing? Don’t wait like I did. Don't deny His still, small voice. The pain of denial is palpable - you might be feeling it even as you read this.

You wouldn’t be reading this if you weren't seeking more with Jesus. Like the disciples who immediately left their nets at Jesus’ call, trust Him with whatever keeps you from being “all-in” - whether it’s:

• A struggling marriage

• A porn addiction

• Career identity

• Lack of time with Him

• Loneliness

• Feelings of inadequacy

• Depression

• Absence of fulfillment

• Grief

• An ignored calling

Solomon reminds us:

As we enter 2025, consider these steps toward living fully for Christ:

1. Spend time alone with the Lord, asking Him to reveal what holds you back from being more the man. Might be an immediate answer. It might take some time. 

2. Persevere - do the above until it’s clear.

3. God has spoken. Write that down and act on it.

4. Daily surrender your idols, seeking His strength and wisdom.

5. Commit to daily Scripture reading and prayer, starting small and building consistently.

The road ahead won’t be easy. But that first step of surrendering your mistress-idol opens the door to His promises, in His perfect way and time.

Worship as you listen to Trust in God by Elevation Worship

THIS JUST IN
📣 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WEB 📣 

Training
“For physical training is of some value …” 1 Timothy 4:8

• Two of the most important factors in establishing and maintaining a new habit, like regular physical exercise, are 1) having a plan and 2) tracking your progress. Good news: There are lots of mobile apps that can help you address both factors. Here is a review of the best of the current crop of exercise apps that can serve as your virtual trainer and progress tracker. Courtesy PC Magazine

Nutrition
“… your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit …” 1 Corinthians 6:19

• Don’t let the fear of a room-clearing fish burp prevent you from benefiting from the myriad of health benefits conclusively associated with Omega-3 fatty acids. A raft of new studies conducted during the last two years show how Omega-3s reduce the inflammation linked to numerous age-related disorders as well as stabilize mood and improve brain function. Here is a useful Omega-3 buyers guide courtesy of Healthline Media.

Sleep
“I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the Lord sustains me.” Psalms 3:5

• Memories, especially the negative and traumatic kind, influence our mood and perspective. New research out of the U.K. revealed that sleep deprivation reduces our brain’s ability to manage memories. Think of your bad memories as the water held back by a dam and deep REM sleep as the structural steel that holds the dam together. Build a sleep discipline that includes seven to nine hours of uninterrupted sleep each night to preserve the strength of your brains’s “memory dam.” Courtesy ScienceDaily

Culture
“You are the salt of the earth.” Matthew 5:13

• Polling titan Gallup released their “20 Trends to Watch in 2025” based on telephone interviews with 1,000 U.S. adults over the course of 2024. File these insights in your Romans 13:11 folder. Courtesy Gallup, Inc.

• Humans have learned the wisdom of preparing for the unexpected since the times of Noah, the original prepper. The prepper movement has picked up fresh momentum in the wake of the COVID-19 and the turbulent years that followed. WORLD Magazine goes behind the scenes to help us understand the movement. Related, Angel Studio’s Homestead (featuring Band of Brothers and Yellowstone season two star Neal McDonough) portrays a post-apocalyptic prepper story and is playing in theaters now.