A Letter to the Man Still in the Fight

Let me tell you what this course is, and who I think you are.

Every man I've ever known carries the same instinct, whether he says it out loud or not. He's supposed to be a warrior. He's supposed to stand between the people he loves and whatever is coming for them, protect them, and not flinch. That instinct isn't a flaw. God put it in you. But if you follow Christ, it raises a hard question nobody seems to answer straight. What does it mean to be a warrior for your family and a man who belongs completely to God? How do you hold both? The strength and the surrender. The sword and the knee. This course answers both halves before it's done, not just the half that's easier to preach.

I wrote this because I needed the answer myself.

A while back I started reading about the Knights Templar, and I couldn't stop. Not because of the treasure and the conspiracy nonsense, but because here were men who had somehow held the two things I was wrestling with. They were warriors, real ones, and they were monks, men who lived on their knees before God. They started as a small band who took a vow to protect the innocent on a dangerous road, long before they became the legend everyone half-remembers. And the more I learned about how they lived, and what they learned, some of it the hard way, the more I saw exactly what I was trying to become. A better husband. A better father. A better defender of Christ and of the people He put in my care.

Let me be honest with you up front, because you've been sold to your whole life and you can smell a pitch from across the room. I'm not a historian. I did a lot of research to make sure what you're about to read is historically accurate, and where the record is thin or the legend is false, I tell you so. What I am is just a man. A man who wanted to know how to protect his family, his church, and the innocent, without letting go of Christ to do it. That's the whole reason this course exists.

Here is the one thing I want you to carry into the first chapter, in case you read nothing else.

Even the Knights Templar, hard men, fighting men, feared across the known world, lived in prayer. They lived in the grace of God. They were strong Christian men, and the strength wasn't the whole of them. Underneath it they were on their knees, every single day. If they could be both, so can you. Because you and I and those men, 900 years back, all pray to the same God. He hasn't changed. What He built in them, He can build in you.

And I'm not writing this from a mountaintop, so let me tell you the truest thing I know. Christ met me in the pit. At my darkest, at the bottom, with nothing to offer Him, He came down and got me. He can meet you exactly where you are right now. Whatever you've done. However far down you think you've gone.

So if you're a Christian man trying to figure out how to be both, a warrior for your family and a monk for Christ, this course is for you.

Read on.

Stand your watch.

Jake

Before You Begin

You're about to spend twelve sessions with men who were warriors and monks in one body, and with the God who built them. Before the first chapter, name where you actually are.

1. What made you pick this up? Say the real reason, not the tidy one.
2. Which is harder for you, the sword or the knee, standing strong or going low? Be honest about which one you avoid.

Your rule to start. For the length of this course, do one thing. Pray every morning before your feet hit the floor, even one sentence. That's the whole engine, and you'll build the rest on it as you go.

Pray. Father, I picked this up because I'm tired of pretending. Meet me in it. Make me the man my people actually need, strong and on my knees at the same time. I'm starting. Walk me through it. Amen.