Being a Godly Man

Many times I have asked myself, “what kind of man do I want to be?” I continually come back to the attribute of godliness. I want to be a godly man. In my flesh I want to be the center of attention, I want to be esteemed. The reality is that I want to esteem God.

I have had the pleasure and at times curse of having been around a lot of pastors. I quit going to pastor’s conferences because I got tired of the egos. Sadly, pastors can be major egomaniacs. I desperately pray to God that I am not a prideful pastor, but a faithful godly man.

Dr. Roy Fish has been a Professor of Evangelism at one of my seminaries (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) for over 40 years. I was not able to get him for Evangelism 101 during my MDiv studies, but have had the privilege to be around him twice now. My wife and I did a study tour in England two summers ago and got to know Dr. and Mrs. Fish. Dr. Fish is the interim president of the North American Mission Board and thus we got to be around Dr. and Mrs. Fish again at our commissioning weekend.

I am not trying to “name drop” with this piece and in reality I would not know Dr. and Mrs. Fish if it were not for my wife. Kristen came to know the Lord during a revival service led by Dr. Fish and because my wife is the friendliest person I have ever met she ended up chumming with the Fish’s in England.

Dr. Fish has the type of reputation and resume to be an egomaniac. An ego for me would be foolishness, but an ego for him would be understood.

However, Dr. Fish is a godly man. I have learned to genuinely care about people from watching him deal gently with a bunch of awkward seminarians. I have learned to focus upon evangelism by feeling his passion for the gospel and for the lost in his sermons. I have learned to respect the sanctity of the pulpit by watching him sneak down to pray to God prior to preaching. I have learned to walk humbly by watching him both interact with this fun wife and by laughing at himself. Finally I have learned to seek godliness by seeing him continue to faithfully preach God’s Word without scandal for over four decades.

By the way, all of this is from only being around the guy a couple of times. Pray for me as I seek to esteem the Lord in all that I do.