✝️ From Palace to Wilderness to Purpose: Learning from Moses's Path

Good morning, my brothers! I’m often an impatient guy. I finish other people’s sentences WAY too often. I don’t like traffic lights or slow drivers. I’m bummed when my package from Amazon takes three to four days versus the promised two. As much as I wish it weren’t true, sometimes I also get frustrated with God when His timing is different than mine. Then, I remember Moses’s journey, and see God working in the waiting. Enjoy what He wants to teach us this week in our “waiting” seasons. Let’s go!

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

⛑️ MIND SET None of us enjoy waiting … in lines, in traffic, on hold. Waiting seems like a waste … but is it? What is God doing in the in-between time? The life of Moses gives us insight … as well as patience and hope.
📰  NEWS Sure, regular exercise is great but how does a guy who hasn’t exercised in years hope to develop an exercise habit? Glad you asked because we have an answer.
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PERSPECTIVE
From Palace to Wilderness to Purpose: Learning from Moses's Path

These past weeks, I’ve received a double blessing studying Moses - first through my morning devotions in Deuteronomy, then through my pastor's sermons on Exodus. As my wife and I discussed recently, both books, written by Moses under divine inspiration, reveal three distinct 40-year chapters of his life that offer powerful lessons for modern men.

Privilege: The Palace Years

Few of us can relate directly to Moses’s early life as an Egyptian prince. He was raised in the world's most powerful palace and received the finest education, military training, and luxuries imaginable. He enjoyed the best of everything: education, food, possessions, and servants who attended to his every need.

Yet his very survival as an infant reveals a profound parallel to our own stories: Moses was saved from certain death when Pharaoh's daughter pulled him from the Nile River, defying her father’s decree to kill all Hebrew boys. His parents couldn't fathom God’s plan when they placed that basket among the reeds in the Nile, but their faith played a crucial role. Like Moses, we, too, were saved not by our own doing but by God’s intervention for purposes beyond our understanding.

Preparation: The Wilderness Years

At 40, Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. He spent the next 40 years in Midian as a shepherd - a dramatic fall from prince to obscure herder. In that desert season, serving his father-in-law Jethro, Moses had no inkling of God’s plan for his life.

Many of us face similar desert seasons - times when God seems distant, and we wait impatiently for direction. Even 40 hours of waiting, let alone 40 years, can feel unbearable in our instant gratification culture. Often, we charge ahead in our own strength rather than waiting for God's timing, only to face failure. I know I've done this repeatedly, taking control when patience runs thin, only to fall flat through my own misguided “wisdom” and “strength.”

Are you in a dry season now? Are you wondering if God still cares, hears, and loves you? Are you asking if the Christian life is worth it? Remember that Jesus himself spent 30 years in obscurity as a carpenter before beginning his ministry.

What if we consider these desert seasons differently, the way I believe God desires us to? In His eyes, these desert times aren't necessarily punishment—they're preparation. God uses these seasons to shape our character, build our trust, and break down our self-reliance. He's building inner strength, teaching us to trust His wisdom and power rather than our own.

Purpose: The Exodus Years

At 80, after four decades in the wilderness, God revealed Moses's purpose through a burning bush—to lead the Israelites from slavery to freedom. Despite his initial doubts and debates with God about his qualifications, Moses stepped into the destiny that his privileged youth and desert years had prepared him for.

God has also designed each of us for significant purposes—not necessarily world-changing roles like Moses's, but purposes that matter deeply to Him. Success in God's eyes isn't measured by worldly standards of fame or influence but by our love, devotion, and obedience.

The enemy wants us to question our worth and purpose, to feel worthless and directionless. But God's truth stands firm: You were created for an eternal purpose that only you can fulfill. Whether that’s discipling another man, encouraging a struggling coworker, or helping an elderly neighbor, your purpose matters because it matters to God.

You and I might not be called to lead nations like Moses, but each of us is called to great life purpose. You matter because you bear God's image and have been called to a unique mission. It's not about recognition or numbers—we live for an “Audience of One.” When we step into our God-given purpose, we find a deep joy and peace that sustains us through every season and circumstance.

Remember: Your life’s chapters - whether privilege, preparation, or purpose - are all part of God’s perfect plan. Trust His timing, embrace each season, and stay faithful to His calling on your life.

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THIS JUST IN
📣 NEWS FROM AROUND THE WEB 📣 

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

• If you’ve followed MTM for more than a few issues, you know we believe regular, intelligent exercise is a key part of becoming more the man God has designed you to be. But getting started is less about knowledge and more about motivation. That is why we are dedicating this issue’s training section to highlighting the strategy, more than any other, will ensure you not only get started but that you keep going with your exercise plan: recruit a training partner. A training partner might be a family member, friend, neighbor, co-worker or possibly someone you meet at the gym (getting a gym membership is another action you can take to increase your exercise motivation.) This advice was inspired by a conversation Jeremy had with a 76-year-old very fit guy named Steve who is a gym regular. Steve explained that replaced cardio exercise (swimming) with weight training in his early 60s because he wanted to prevent age-related muscle loss (aka sarcopenia.)

Supplementation
“… the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Revelation 22:2

• What is one problem that astronauts share with men over 50? Loss of bone mass (really terrible for male astronauts over 50!) Micro-gravity and a sedentary lifestyle aggravated by age send signals to your brain to start winding down bone density. Unless you are reading this in space (we are with you, Butch!), you can counter this debilitating process by adding a 1000 mg Calcium plus 800 IU vitamin D supplement to your daily regime. This pairing produces one of the most useful anti-aging benefit among common nutritional supplements. Courtesy National Library of Medicine

Reading
“Prove all things; Hold fast to that which is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21

• The pantheon of faithful heroes that begins in Hebrews 11 continues to be written to this day. One of them has to be the legendary evangelist to mid-19th-century China, Hudson Taylor. Written by Taylor’s son and daughter-in-law, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret is a detailed account of one this most innovative and consequential lives in church history. At a time of Victorian-Age evangelism ventures that barely scratched beyond China’s coastal port towns, Taylor devised an ingenious (and wildly dangerous) method of penetrating inland. One measure of the effect of Taylor’s service is that the ministry he founded in 1865 continues to this day.

Style
“… whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

• For those of us who’ve followed psychologist and philosopher Jordan Peterson since he took a public stand against Canadian free speech restrictions in 2016, you might have wondered about his suit style and imagery (if you are unfamiliar, watch this Real Men Real Style review.) Peterson introduced his designer, Ukrainian-born Dimitry Toukhcher, to the world during a Joe Rogan interview. Toukhcher is the founder of Estonia-based LGFG Fashion House, who was inspired by Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life to create a line of suits in which each represents one of the rules.