On The Journey To Becoming a Man

King David was "a man after God's own heart." So, needing help with this topic, I screwed up the courage and asked him for an interview. Here's what David said: "Physical rites of passage don't tell the whole story. You don't become a man through puberty and sexual experience or through career placement and achievement. To begin with," he continued, "I discovered I was needed, gifted and called. It was heady and empowering to serve my community.
"I might have blissfully offered my courage and art forever, but my journey wasn't over. I unwittingly became Saul's enemy. Wrongfully accused, I was chased into the wilderness. This completely upended me, leaving me alone, scared, vulnerable, and powerless. Meeting God in the wilderness and refusing to take things into my own hands was vital to giving depth to my soul.
"Later, when I became king, I made some very bad choices. I had to face my failure and watch my son die because of what I did. But I also discovered the depth of God's loving forgiveness.
"Finally, I would say that learning to live openly in God's presence by singing the ups and downs of my experience as prayer in the Psalms helped me accept the whole of who I am and forged my companionship with God." With those words, David bid me farewell.
I'm grateful to the king for his honesty. He told me more about becoming a man in those few words than my culture has told me in nearly sixty years.

- Jeff Imbach