Manhood Misdirected

You guys let me know what you think of this....it is an email I sent out last night. Most of you probably got it. See below for some questions/thoughts I want you guys to consider...
_________________________________________

Typical to Chandler, he got me thinking tonight after this week’s sermon. Scratch that, the LORD got me thinking THROUGH Chandler…you know what I mean. As Matt talked about the battle we as men have been called to fight, I immediately thought of CS Lewis. I know, typical John – immediately thinking of CS Lewis or AW Tozer. They are my heroes! Get off. Anyway, I thought of something Lewis said in Abolition of Man:

“In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”

Our sense of manhood has been misdirected.

As I sit here typing this, I’m watching Justin McBride on the PBR pretty much tear it up, showing every other cowboy on the planet how to really ride a bull. For a second there I was insecure, even uncomfortable with the fact that I don’t so something “manly” like that on a regular basis. I miss the days when I was a firefighter (yes, little man John was a firefighter for 4 years). Now THAT is a manly job – burning buildings, mangled cars, doing CPR one minute and sitting down with the guys at the firehouse to have a burger the next.

Now I’m an educator – not exactly saving damsels in distress anymore. So I make up for it by driving a really big Chevy truck, living vicariously through Justin McBride and Bear Grills (ala Man vs. Wild on Discovery), and just in general allowing pop culture to define for me the level of my “manhood.” Oh yeah, lest I forget…I also have a really big painting of someone fly-fishing on the wall above my couch – and on the other wall I have a picture of Babe Ruth (as if he was the perfect example of a “real” man). There is also a sculpture of a retriever on my coffee table, and a miniature cowboy hat hanging from the rearview mirror in my truck. You know, manly stuff.

Dumb.

Then I think of a scripture I heard for the first time ever at my Pappy’s funeral when I was younger: “He has told you, O Man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Of anyone I had ever known to that point or anyone ever since, my Pappy personified that verse. He was a man who passionately loved his Lord and his family, who worked hard every day of his life, and had a humble strength that could not be put into words. I wanted to be like him.

That’s it! That’s all there is to it! THAT is the essence of a REAL man. So why when I try to live like that do I feel completely out of place and conspicuous? Why, like Lewis suggests, do I pursue virtue and enterprise and then in turn find people laughing at honor? Why is it that when I try to be a man of integrity that I find others, yes even Christians, chastising me for doing it?! Why is it easier to go with the flow and cast biblical manhood to the wind?

We’ve “castrated and then bid the geldings be fruitful.” We’ve called the temporal, selfish, illegitimate, and childish the fruit of manhood. Sadly, scripture calls it something entirely different. I need to get past my insecurity and be the man He has called me to be. But what about those BELIEVERS who would adopt the world’s view of manhood and poke fun, even unknowingly? Well, it’s high time I stop paying attention to them and realize that it may very well be ME whom the Lord wants to use to reach them. And if not, oh well. As my mom used to say, “John, you are responsible TO people, you are not responsible FOR them.”

So what’s the plan? What do we do? More specifically, what do I do?

“Be on alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” – 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Be on alert…
There is a battle raging all around us – a battle for men’s hearts, and for women’s sense of worth. The charge has been given to men to be aware of the battle, and to fight for both. MLK Jr. would say that, “A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”

Stand firm in the faith…
The only definition of “manhood” that matters is that given by scripture. My self-image MUST be informed by a Biblical worldview rather than my worldview being informed by my self-image.

Act like men…
Stop talking about it, and do it: BE above reproach, BE transformed by the renewing of your mind, BE a protector of the daughters of God, BE humble, BE loving, BE gracious, BE a servant. Go big or go home. Jim Elliot would say it this way: “We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the Cross. We are "sideliners" -- coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!”

Be strong…
Remembering that His strength is made perfect in weakness, I must constantly be reminded of my deep need for Christ – and then, in turn, allow him to meet that need. I have nothing to give save His strength IN me.

Let all that you do be done in love…
“All the fruits of the Spirit which we are to lay weight upon as evidential of grace, are summed up in charity, or Christian love; because this is the sum of all grace. And the only way, therefore, in which any can know their good estate, is by discerning the exercises of this divine charity in their hearts; for without charity, let men have what gifts you please, they are nothing.” –Jonathan Edwards

So far as I can tell, this is the challenge: Be on alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. It is not an easy task, but one the Church, and the world in general, are in desperate need of. We can no longer allow our manhood to be misdirected. The world has bid us be fruitful, but in the same breath has declared those tools which are needed to do so, and the fruit they produce, as laughable. We can no longer allow it. There is entirely too much that God has dreamed for us to be, to do, and to experience. I, for one, am sick of it – and I am thankful for a home group of guys that is just as appalled at the place we find ourselves as men. If nobody else forges forward, determined to be “real men,” we will.

“Men are God's method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men who the Holy Spirit can use - men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not come on machinery but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men.” – E.M. Bounds

________________________________________

1) So I am not much for goofy theme verses, but what if we all adopted 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 and held eachother accountable to memorize it and apply it over the next few months? Kinda made it our mission together?

2) And what if we also adopted as our goal/theme (sorry, lack of a better word there) to adopt Jim Elliot's cry, "Oh that God would make us dangerous!"

Just some thoughts....