People have asked us, why is your website called "StandUpDude"?
We knew it was bold and potentially offensive to call men to be men. Though the name may sound like a “calling out,” it’s not. No one likes being called out. Instead, it’s a "calling forward.” A calling forward of men who are willing to take the risk of being uncomfortable. A StandUpDude is a man willing to look at his life and wrestle with the question, “am I living full-on? -- Am I all-in? Am I willing, with God’s help, to do the work to discover, uncover or rediscover the man I am created to be?” And - “Am I willing to do the hard work it takes to be the man I’m created to be?”
If that man’s answer is “yes” … that man is a StandUpDude.
Jesus remains the original "Stand Up Dude." He is our living example of what it means to be a real man, in the real world while still fully modeling the gentle, yet powerful heart of God.
Looking at Jesus and knowing his story, we see he stood up for his friends. He stood up for women. He stood up for himself. He stood up for Truth and all that was right. And like any "StandUpDude” he stood up against any form of injustice, lies or hatred. Jesus did the hard stuff, no matter the cost, manifested on the cross, all the way to the end.
Unlike any other in history, Jesus’ death was not the end of His story; it was, in fact, the beginning. Christianity exists only because of what happened after Jesus died. Three days after his death, his disciples and many others began to claim that he had returned to life from the dead. His grave was found empty, the body gone, and numerous appearances were witnessed by many different groups of people, at different locations, and among different circumstances.
As a result of all this, people began to proclaim that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. They claimed his resurrection validated the message of forgiveness of sin through his sacrifice. At first, they declared this good news, known as the gospel, in Jerusalem, the same city where he was put to death.
This new following soon became known as the Way (see Acts 9:2; Acts 19:9; Acts 19:23; Acts 24:22) and expanded rapidly. In a short period of time, this gospel message of faith spread even beyond the region, expanding as far as Rome as well as to the very outermost of its vast empire.
It was Dr. James Allan Francis who penned the following words that aptly describe the influence of Jesus through the history of mankind:
"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
"He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompanies greatness. He had no credentials but himself. . . .
"While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While he was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth—his clothing. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
"Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today he is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.”
"I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life."
Even Napoleon himself admitted, "I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ was no mere man: between him and whoever else in the world there is no possible term of comparison."
A Stand Up Dude knows he can only truly stand by first humbling himself before Jesus. This humility becomes his new strength. This new strength is powered by the presence of the Holy Spirit now living inside each StandUpDude. This new, humble yet masculine strength (modeled by Jesus himself) now enables a StandUpDude to do the work, take the risk, and be all-in.
Through Jesus, the strength of every StandUpDude comes from knowing what he's standing ON, standing FOR and whom he is standing WITH.
Learn more HERE
Tim