The Best Time for Men to Make Disciples

Something happened to me when I hit 35—I just didn’t want to live the old way any more.

I wanted to change my life. So I spent the next 2 1/2 years reading the Bible, looking for insight. 

Clarity came at the age of 37, and I wrote in the front of my Bible, “I want to live the rest of my earthly life for the will of God,” and meant it. I still do. 

That was the day I stopped being a cultural Christian and became a biblical Christian. That was the day I stopped seeking the God I wanted, and started seeking the God who is. 

So many men have told me similar stories. 

Apparently something happens to men around 35 years of age. For example, Reuben Greenberg, former chief of police in Charleston, South Carolina, wrote in his book Let’s Take Back Our Streets! that most criminals rehabilitate when they reach the age of 35. He wrote:

Rehabilitation comes from inside the former criminal himself. The change takes place in his head. He decides not to be a crook any more, just as he decided to be one. No one can say exactly what triggers this change; all we can say is that it happens around the age of 35. At that point the number of felons re-arrested and sentenced to additional prison terms drops to almost zero.

The change is astounding, really. These men who scorned working take jobs that once they would have spurned. They become taxpayers. They begin to raise families.

Keep your eyes open for 35-year-old men who are ready for a change. Because the best time to make a disciple is when a man wants to become one. {eoa}

Patrick Morley began teaching a weekly Bible study to a handful of men on Friday mornings in March 1986. This group grew to the 160 men who meet weekly in Winter Park, Florida. Since 2000, Internet technology has enabled thousands of men from around the world to participate each week by viewing or listening to the study. Pat is the author of The Man in the Mirror, a landmark best-seller for men drawn from Pat’s own search for a deeper relationship with God. For more teachings by Morely, go to pastoringmen.com, or visit his ministry online at maninthemirror.org.

For the original article, visit patrickmorley.com.