The Men of Iron Minute

by Chad Zueck | Director of Content Creation

No One Ascends Alone

When I grew up, my love for all things baseball, was almost biblical. Big League Chew, evening games, and pitching were my salvation. I couldn’t get enough. My fascination for baseball skyrocketed when I watched the St. Louis Cardinals. I knew the starting lineup, the pitching staff, and the starting players like Hershey knows chocolate.

Like most of my friends, I started collecting baseball cards. I never put them in protective cases. They were bound by rubber bands and thrown in a cigar box in the back of my closet. I still have those cards, and they are in another closet with the same ole cigar box. Occasionally I go back in time to that box and reflect on my youth. Many guys treat friendships like we treat old baseball cards.

We can pull them out and reminisce while “many men live lives of quiet desperation” and put them back as if we can afford that isolation. (Thoreau). Masculine friendships are vital to our health and growth.

“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

// Proverbs 18:24 (NIV 2011)

Masculine friendships can be categorized into three groups. More on this in episode 66 of the Men of Iron Podcast.

· Recreational Friends- this guy is just around for some fun.

· Resilient Friends- this guy has been there through highs and lows over time.

· Resistance Friends- this guy has the shared mission to make one another better.

Jesus had Lazarus. Paul had Silas. John Mark had Barnabas. David had Jonathon.

Who do you have in these categories?

Anyone who imagines they can work alone winds up surrounded by nothing but rivals,

without companions. The fact is, no one ascends alone.

Lance Armstrong, It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Indeed, no one ascends alone.