Dallas Men of God: Wednesday

Accountability – the right kind of peer pressure

God is teaching me about accountability right now and everywhere I look, I seem to be hearing songs or stories about or reading things about accountability and the importance of lifting each other up, building each other, encouraging and challenging each other to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. Accountability is still a mystery to me, but I’m learning more about it.

It is amazing how the Word of God is indeed alive. So many passages can speak to so many different issues. There may be one interpretation but there are many applications. There is a group of men meeting at church to study Nehemiah on Thursday mornings. I’m excited to see what all God is going to teach me through this study. I’ve read over the first few chapters a few times and I keep finding principles to help me through the day, principles to share with my wife and kids. You can’t read chapter 3 without getting the feeling of camaraderie and teamwork. Those men (and women) worked together on what must have seemed to be an impossible or at least very difficult task. There were many hecklers trying to discourage them. Enemies threatened, the fear of physical harm was real. Yet in 52 days the group accomplished something amazing.

Surely during that time people were not always cheerful and full of energy. Someone is bound to have smashed a finger or dropped a big rock or heavy tool on his foot. Gueys missed their families back in Susa. It appears to have been mainly men doing the work and you know how men can get some times- pretty egotistical about their work. There were probably some unkind, hurtful words….knowing guys, that is putting it mildly. There could have been some small battles for leadership. But it does not appear that happened. What happened is that they worked together and got the job done to the absolute glory of God.

I was talking to my brother Paul last week about the accountability I am developing with some of the men at church. He praised God over that and encouraged me to continue growing and walking as well as leading others. When I reread the Nehemiah passage about building the walls, I thought about how accountability is similar. They were building up, strengthening the walls against attack and creating a place of security and peace and they were working together to accomplish it. Our accountability to each other is like that. When we lift each other up in prayer and ask each other how we are doing on specific issues it keeps us working toward Christlike living. I told my brother about the strength the accountability is giving me. Hearing other men pray for me and knowing they are praying for me from day to day encourages me. It is hard to explain the different aspects. Part of it, for sure, is the shame issue. If I do this behavior and one of my godly brothers asks me about it then I’m caught. Like a child doing something they know they shouldn’t, hoping they don’t get caught and maybe resisting the temptation for that reason alone. Part of it too is the “I’m on a team” factor. We are all praying for each other, encouraging each other, wanting the best for each other, knowing that only in Christ and in obedience is true happiness. There is no happiness in sin.

Here is how accountability is worked out. I frequently get books on cd from the library and listen to them in the car if I get bored while driving. Sometimes I think the story is not something I need to listen to so I exchange it. But usually I don’t. I keep listening and tell myself, it won’t get any worse and I finish the book. This weekend I got a book and started listening to it. It was captivating and exciting as the team of good guys was winning. I thought sensed something pretty questionable coming up in the story. I stopped to get gas or something and when I got back in the car I thought about the godly men that pray for me. I felt a sense of accountability to them – like I should not let them down by continuing this cd if it got bad. I struggled with this and listened to the radio instead. The next morning I had managed to sleep off the guilt so I started listening again. Then the scene came, time to make a decision. I turned it off. After work I took it back to the library. The whole time I thanked God for the influence these godly men are having in my life. Their friendship, prayers, encouragement and challenges helped me avoid sin. That is peer pressure in the right direction. Join us on Wednesday nights to pray and Thursday morning to study Nehemiah.