50 - 12 Movements of a Man's Life (Intro Part 2)
The "Living with Heart" Podcast is brought to you by Chip Dodd Resources (www.chipdodd.com) and The Voice of the Heart Center (vothcenter.com). Contact Bryan Barley for coaching at bryan@vothcenter.com.
The preface to Twelve Movements of a Man’s Life is vital because the movements are not just a list of twelve things to accomplish. They are twelve movements that are about a man’s whole life. They are processes that interlock and “circles” that join and move a man into wholeness and love and legacy.
The 12 Movements are about a man’s character of heart and having actions that match his character in order that he leaves behind a positive legacy.
Men are created to become someone who practices a lifestyle of:
Living fully
Loving deeply
Leading well a life that is worth treasuring by others
These three territories integrated create a positive legacy.
It is vital for a man to practice healthy anger as part of the lifestyle that we will be discussing in the following episodes.
For greater clarity about healthy anger, listen to “Living With Heart” Podcast episode #19 and episode #20.
Also, read The Voice of the Heart by Chip Dodd
Healthy anger is a feeling that moves a person to live with passion. Passion is the gift we receive when we live our lives expressing healthy anger.
Passion is a willingness to be in pain for something that is greater than comfort or pain.
It communicates that a person values the heart and cares about something greater than his own self-protection, and vulnerability.
Healthy anger moves us to care, hunger, thirst, hope, want, and desire. It moves us to deal with and express the truths of the heart. It expresses our willingness to be vulnerable enough to care about something.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
A man is created to live with passion, even in a world that belittles it and mocks it.
A man who has passion is going to be on mission to accomplish that which he is moved from within to do.
A man is created to be capable of intimacy, or “into-me-see.” In other words, he is capable of sharing the truths of his heart.
He will accept his needs for the sake of mission.
He will accept that he will need help to accomplish his desires.
He will need other men in his life to help stay strong to care for his family.
In the movie Braveheart, there is a scene called “I don’t want to lose heart” that speaks to the importance of living with healthy anger and also speaks to the need for other men to be able to remain strong.
Watch the movie clip from Braveheart https://youtu.be/yAxui1m9RTg?si=ST04NlvY16Fc35ro
A man’s strength comes from his neediness!
“Living With Heart” Podcast Episodes #1-#15 speak to the importance of grasping this reality.
The full life is so much more about keeping your heart “known” than it is about being smart, willful, or self-sufficient.
A man is created to live with integrity.
Integrity is:
keeping the behaviors of your life congruent with who you say you are. (Be the same person at 11am that you are at 11pm.)
Integrity also means that from the “front door” through the house to the “back door,” the man is made up of the same substance.
Integrity makes a man trustworthy. Trust is earned through truthfulness and dependability.
Therefore, a man who has integrity is integrated. HIs heart, head, hands, and habits are congruent, and express a character that is trustworthy.
Remember, He isn’t perfect. He is just headed in the best and most fulfilling direction because that is what he wants and needs for himself.
He is focused on a Philippians 4:8 life:
“. . . whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (NIV)
A man develops three characteristics to become who he is made to be, so he can do what he is made to do:
He has passion.
He is capable of intimacy, “into-me-see.”
He practices integrity.
Man is not called to live a life of perfection. He is called to be a man of passion, intimacy, and integrity. A man who makes mistakes, sins, needs forgiveness, needs other men, struggles, and asks questions.
A man with passion, intimacy, and integrity must remain needy in order to succeed.
Remember these realities of life:
Clumsy is inevitable, no matter how much we seek perfection.
We live life on life’s terms, not our demands.
Everything we do is practice. We never arrive fully.
It takes a lifetime to learn how to live.
We are forever Works in Progress.
So, we must always be willing to ask for help.
No one is an action figure who never is defeated.
Every man must face that he is not a “super-hero.”
A man must face is that he is not God; he is in need of God.
We give up the ego to experience our true selves.
Healthy shame is man’s strength!
Healthy Shame:
The willingness to face that I don’t have all the answers
The willingness to face that I need others
The willingness to face that I make mistakes
The willingness to face that I am not God
It is the feeling of healthy shame that moves us to remain dependent, truthful, and fully present with how we are created. We need others and God to live fully, love deeply, and lead well.
The ultimate self-fulfillment that comes from the twelve movements becomes a life of maximum service.
When we as men catch the fire of being of maximum service, we have stepped into the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:5-10).
The Perfect Loss: A Different Kind of Happiness by Chip Dodd is a book about the power of the Beatitudes in a person’s life.
We either leave a legacy of wealth or poverty.
If we don’t leave a legacy of wealth in others’ lives, we missed our own lives.
We either climb a ladder of e.g.o., which is Easing God Out, or we climb the mountain of living fully as we are created to live with passion, intimacy, and integrity as we work to leave legacy.
In living our lives today, we leave good in others’ hearts, we will effect 200 years from today. Our names may be forgotten, but what we invested in the hearts of others will be a legacy of goodness.
Even if your legacy is the one of the thief on the cross, it is never too late to start to leave behind a message of hope that others can hold on to and trust.
Dr. Chip Dodd
Voice of the Heart Center
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