Maximized Manhood?

Yesterday I got a shock in the mail. Not a bad shock, but something that I did not quite expect to get. I was in my room, typing away, when my flatmate walks in brandishing a rather large envelope – addressed to me. She dumped it on my bed and walked out, carrying on doing her own thing. Me, intrigued by this new entrant, opened the envelope, and discovered to my amazement that it contained my certificate for Maximized Manhood!
For the past many Monday nights, I’ve been heading off to a men’s small group, working through the “Majoring in Men” curriculum. Thus far I’m doing the “primary” curriculum, and have successfully completed the first book in the series of three. So here I am, feeling pretty good about myself at this point…then something hit me. A sense of shame and guilt came in. And I knew why.
To get this certificate, you need to first complete an exam and send it away for marking, at which point you get a certificate in due course – if you pass of course (and it’s very difficult to fail in these exams). But I hadn’t actually sent  my exam away! How on earth did I end up collecting this certificate? I felt bad at this point, because here’s a fine piece of paper I haven’t properly earned. So today I’m going to put this right – I’m going to thrust it in an envelope and post it out. That’s the “shame” part, now for the “guilt” part.
If I look back on my life during these past couple of months, I will find that I haven’t lived a maximized life. Anyone whose read Maximized Manhood  (Edwin Louis Cole) can spot the central message, and the call to Christ-like manhood. I ask myself: Have I been living a manhood that God wants me to live? Have I been living at my potential? Have I really been living at all?
The guilt will pass, but will leave behind lessons that I’ve gotta take on board. Prayers and accountability would be most cool =)