This was this morning.

This was this afternoon.

It’s no secret.  I like change.  I like to keep others (and myself) on their (my) toes.  Angie has had to limit the rooms I can change/rearrange to my office.  There’s even a story from before we were married.  She asked me to be at her apartment when the cable guy showed up so she could go to work.  When she got home that evening, I had completely rearranged her living room for better access to the cable line coming into the attic apartment.  She shrugged it off, laughed a little bit, (probably cursed me under her breath), and moved on.  This was the moment I knew I would marry her.

The rest of my life isn’t much different.  I rarely order the same thing when we return to restaurants.  I like to figure out new ways to incorporate old and new elements into worship.  I like to see what I can get away with changing and how far I can push the envelope.  I just really like change.

But, I’m realizing I need my constants.  I need certain things to remain.  Recently, I’ve realized the need for steady accountability.  I’ve been preached the process of accountability partners/relationships since high school.  I’d try them from time to time but, the never stuck.  Maybe I wasn’t putting enough into them.  Maybe we weren’t mature enough.  Maybe we weren’t focusing on it for the right reasons.  But now, as I’m well into my mid/lates 20s… I’m a soon to be dad, and we’ve just came through one of the rockiest patches of my life, I’m finding that I need those relationships to build me up.  To keep me grounded… to process… to think… to dream… to ask the tough questions… to live with.  I need the people around me that understand me for who I am, as screwed up as I am and all.

It’s a beautiful picture of brotherhood to me.  These guys, they know who they are,  all fit different parts of where I need my constants.  A friend, a peer in ministry, a mentor, a student… all parts that help deepen my faith.  There are reasons that a man didn’t go alone in all the missionary acts of the New Testament.  GOD even says, “It is not good for man to be alone.”

Bringing me to Angie… who is currently sleeping soundly next to me as I type… She keeps me from being alone.  She’s a great wife.  But, beyond a spouse, guys need guys.  And, despite our addictions to change/commitment issues… we, men, do indeed need our constants.

PJT//

PS – This whole thought started from a picture of a guy with no beard…