Category: Brother Al (Page 1 of 70)

“Be a Man!”  These were  words I keep hearing within me, as I was alone on my daily walk.  Judy was not along,  so I took the time to reflect on my  spiritual journey and my relationship with my wife.  My heart was troubled  because of the frustration and confusion I felt in the verbal interaction with my wife.  There are times when I feel like I am in “a relational fog,” unsure my responses. I am learning to go below the surface to understand my feelings, not wanting to blame my wife.  I need to stay in the moment as a man and not react as a rebellious boy.  

As I walked and prayed a challenging thought came to me.  “You are going to have to humble yourself before your wife.”  I did not relish the prospects of being humbled.  However, I began to see I was not behaving  like a man, who had been married for over 60 years.  As I pondered my responses to our interaction , I could trace my feelings back to those of my childhood home environment, where I felt confused and misunderstood as a boy. 

I have been willing for the Holy Spirit to go deeper into my inner life.  The awareness of a wounded boy, kept coming into my awareness. My wife was not at fault for my reaction.  Judy, responding to me as my wife, was only triggering a response that made me feel like a young boy interacting to my mother.  It was indeed humbling for me to admit I was acting like a frightened  boy.  But that boyish response was not a healthy response, in a adult dialogue with my loving and caring wife.  I had to admit my anger, frustration and most of all alienation.  I had to own those feelings which caused me to  react in a childish manner.

I share this vulnerable moment in the hope that it might help a reader of this blog.  Here are some “helpful tips” for your ongoing journey with your wife, from someone who still has a lot to learn after 61 year with a woman who is one of the most consistent and spiritual persons I know. Remember, it take “two to tango.”  My growth is often reflected in the growth  taking place with “my bride.”

First, we  are learning to give each other emotional space to fail.  For me this means  my wife accepts my failings, while “hanging in there” as I come to awareness of my sinful patterns.  Please, remember all the will power and mental gymnastics will not get to your deeper responses.  I thank God, for the space my wife gives me.

Secondly, please remember, as the man, you need to humble yourself first.  This is how you take the lead.  You clear the air, admit your fault, ask for prayer and cherish your wife.  Period!!

Thirdly, don’t be afraid of “the inner journey.” If your gaze is on the Lord and you are  committed to Scripture as your frame of reference, be a man and face the dark secrets hidden in your heart.  Don’t try to tough it out.  That is  weakness.  A strong man can humble himself when it is necessary.

Fourthly, make a commitment to the Lord and your wife  to “Cherish” her, which means you will protect and care for your wife, even  when those times of “relational fog” set in. 

We read in I Peter 5: 5-6, “‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’  So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.”  

At the recent White House Correspondents Dinner, there was an assassination attempt on our President.  The gunmen never made it into the actually ballroom in an attempt to kill the President,  but was thankfully stopped before he could have caused harm.  It created a lot of fear, confusion and anxiety among those in attendance. 

I was struck by the response of Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erica.  She was overheard on a live mike, “I just want to go home.”  This  framed for me what has lead up to this moment in the history of our nation.  Civility is fractured today.  I have personally  committed myself to speaking in a civil and dignified manner in any public discourse I am involved in with those of a different opinion.  Civility in our speech can help change our present wilderness into a safe and secure place – more like home we all long for.  

Robert George, a Harvard law professor said the following in the aftermath of the assassination attempt. “Please, can everyone, right or left, MAGA or anti-MAGA, Republican or Democrat, stop catastrophizing and  trying to get everyone on your side worked up into a rage? ……..Our fellow citizens with whom we disagree are not devils or incarnate or personifications of evil.  We need to argue with our political adversaries – passionately perhaps – but with respect for their humanity and dignity.  We don’t need to destroy them.”

In the days to come, the rhetoric could very well become more heated and destructive in relationships, even within families.  As followers of Jesus, we have a firm place to stand.  It is Jesus, His Word and His kingdom, expressed clearly in Jesus’ words to Pontius Pilate.  “You say I am a king.  Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth.  All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” (John 18:37).  We have “Good News” for our confused and anxious nation.  It is all about Jesus and His kingdom. 

Eric’s deeply felt sigh of wanting to go home is a great metaphor for our nation at this time. Here are some of my reflection on “home” for all who live in this land.

First, the longing for home is innate to every human being.  God made us for fellowship with him.  Ever since the garden, man has longed for home.   Jesus tells us, “My Father, will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23)  

Secondly, our world is a fearful and dreadful place. God calls us sheep.  We are dependent and vulnerable.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  He warns us, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy: I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10).  Jesus will keep us safe in this uncertain time.

Thirdly, as darkness descends on our nation,  the Christian has absolute confidence of being home in the arms of the Good Shepherd.  This is wonderful “good news.”  Jesus knocks at the door, “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.” (Rev 3:20).  

Fourthly, I want to live out the last days of my life, pointing people to the Good Shepherd.  It is a great time to share His story.  Many feel  abandoned and far from home.   Jesus in response is accused of welcoming sinners and eating with them, He is acting as the shepherd, who goes out to find the one lost sheep.  The shepherd celebrates in find the lost sheep.  “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” (Luke 15:6). 

In an article by Dr. John Seel and Lee Byberg, the authors maintain that our nation is not divided between the Right and the Left, conservatives and liberals, believers and secularists.  Rather both sides share a common condition: a culture of nihilism.  According to James Davison, a nihilistic culture “is defined by the drive to destroy and by the will to power.”  How do we rebuild meaning once again in culture?  This will mean  restoring what we have lost – a shared sacred space.   “Rebuilding this sacred order requires liminal leaders in the church, people able to navigate this in-between time, between the old collapsing order and what comes next.”

I find the idea of the sacred space or canopy, a way to visualize the task before me in my sphere of influence, with its heightened voices of anger, division and confrontation found on both the left and the right.  Could this be a “third way,” enabling believers to address the cultural crisis of our time?  A third way could be a healthy, appropriate  framework for men wanting to restore our culture.  As an  84 year old man, still with fire in his belly, this could help me in framing the message.  Just simply being a presence with this model in mind can be creative and effective.  

The authors maintain modernity has hollowed out the structures that give life a moral shape.  Expressive individualism has dissolve the bonds that hold communities together.  They warned, “without a shared scared order; societies unravel into confusion and conflict.”  The symptoms can be found  all around us.  But they warn the symptoms are far more lethal, more like a “systemic metastasizing disease.”  We have “lost our ability to find the way home.”  The two authors suggest that “renewal begins by rebuilding the deep structures of culture.”  This sacred order rests on three legs:  1) Authority – “the vertical source and story of truth and obligation,” 2) Plausibility – “the social and institutional environment that reinforces belief” and 3) Ritual – “the embodied practices that sustain identity and community.” 

First – Authority – “Every society needs a story that rises above preference.”  Morality is not a personal preference. People live by their stories. “They trust what captures their imagination.” The Christian story is a grand narrative. Culture is a normative invisible reality, with the power to define reality. “Truth is real and objective, morality is not up for negotiation but given, identity is derived, not designed, and freedom is found in conscious alignment with God’s design.”

Secondly – Plausibility –  “We learn truth not only by thinking about it but by belonging in it.”  “To restore the sacred order, we must build communities where faith is normal, desirable, and relationally supported.” 

Thirdly – Ritual – “If authority gives us the story, and plausibility gives us the community, then ritual gives us the embodied practices of the sacred.”  Through rituals, a community reveals what it loves and supports.   We need to restore rituals that will form people in the way of Christ.  Rituals create social patterns that give a sense of the sacred in our embodied experience. 

We are living through a civilizational crisis, a liminal space – “a threshold between ages.”  The authors call for liminal leaders with clarity, conviction and courage, who belong in places of relational solidarity and genuine communion.  “To rebuild a sacred order, we must restore the vertical of sacred authority, rebuild communities of plausibility, and renew the rituals that bind us together.”  The sacred canopy will not rebuild itself. 

I embrace the challenge. May more men see the vital need of restoring the sacred order or canopy in our culture.  It will take men with clarity, conviction and courage.    

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God  accused Judah of defiling their land.  The last few summers here in Northern Minnesota the fresh, crip, clear summer days have been defiled by smoke pollution from the forest fires in Canada. There have been clean air advisories, warning people to stay inside because of the bad air.  It is defiled (polluted).  Like Judea, many in our day, can not see how spiritually defied our land has become.  God had given us a fertile land.  “I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce.  But you  came and defied my land and made my inheritance detestable” (Jer. 2:7). As a nation we are no longer fertile (filled with hope and promise). 

The prophet was pointing to their worship of idols as the source of pollution.  But they were living in denial. In dramatic fashion, the prophet says, “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals'”?  Then in vivid imagery the prophet asks them to look at the evidence, “See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done.  You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving – in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her” (Jer. 2:23-24).  In the next verse comes their rely.  “I can’t help it.  I’m addicted to alien gods, I can’t quit.” 

The people are pictured like a “camel in heat” who is crisscrossing her tracks as she wanders aimlessly about. “It is a description of an animal consumed by carnal lust.  In like manner Judah eagerly sought out its idols.  The idols did not have to seek the people.  They were acting like people obsessed, running after their desires until their shoes wore out or they were consumed by thirst.  Their response to his appeal was, ‘It’s no use!’ Like a person hooked on drugs or alcohol, Judah had no desire to give up its gods in spite of warnings of the consequences.” (Huey). 

Jeremiah warned Judah not to follow the example of Israel, even though they saw what happened to Israel.  Jeremiah says, “Israel treated it all so lightly – she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone.  So now the land has been polluted.  But despite all this, her faithless sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me.  She has only pretended to be sorry” (Jer. 3:9).  Later God warned Jeremiah of the people going, “backward and not forward.” ( Jer. 7:24). 

God called Jeremiah ” a tester of metals.”  He would be testing the will of the people.  “They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander.  They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly” (Jer. 6:28).  But his refining would not be successful, for “wicked are not purge out.  They are called rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them” (Jer. 6:30).  They saw the prophets as a bunch of windbags.” “Nothing bad will happen to us, neither famine nor war will come our way. The prophets are all windbags. They speak nothing but nonsense” (Jer. 5:12-13 MSG).

Today our spiritual air is polluted with many idols and other gods, because we followed our passions.  We are going backward and not forward.  God has been testing our culture, finding it to be “rejected silver.”  We reject the voice of God, saying those folks are a bunch of windbags.  We continue to follow the stubborn inclinations of our hearts.  Could God be saying, “I have spoken and will not relent.  I have decided and will not turn back” (Jer. 4:28).   

I have been reading a book by Dr. David John Seel entitled “Aspirational Masculinity.”  It has been very informative as I continue to process what it means to be a man, living for Jesus in this new year (2026).  He acknowledges that masculinity is in a state of flux.  Even though men are listening for the male voice of others, they are not at all confident in knowing what a man actually is and how he should behave in our day.  Men wonder who they can  follow or trust with their “life aspirations.”   

Dr. Seel asks an intriguing  question, “What if men must lose their autonomy to find their authenticity?”  How are men to behave in a society, where men are  “being minimized, erased, and blamed.”  The crisis of masculinity in the author’s understanding is more a crisis of personhood.  Seel notes, “a man who is fully alive, is a man who is living his life in Christ; a man both aware of his Creator and dependent on his Creator for a re-created inner life.” He  lives in reliance on the indwelling presence of Christ.  Masculinity is about becoming someone new.

Dr Seel focuses is on being rather than doing . “Masculinity is not a noun, something we are, but a verb, something we are in the process of becoming, by living in the inner spiritual presence of God within us.”  Jesus’ incarnational presence in our lives makes the difference. Jesus is not an idea but the actual presence in our life.  “It is this mystical spiritual relationship, living life in Christ,” maintains Seel, “that animates all else in our live and brings it into a unified focus.”  God did not come to make us marginally better persons, but a whole new kind of person.  “An aspirational male,” maintains Dr. Seel, “is a new kind of creature, not merely a nicer male.” He quotes C. S. Lewis: “Our real selves are all waiting for us in him…Until you have given up yourself to Him you will not have a real self.”

Dr. Seel has a challenge  for men.  “Are you ready to live as a “modern mystic,” embracing the deeper meaning of life?  How does this fit with your goals?”  Men will ultimately find their security and significance in the inner presence of Christ.  It is this dynamic that makes men whole men, able to embrace their full masculine self.  Dr. Seel is firm in his conviction: “There is no other way to find ourselves as men.”  I agree with Seel in his observation of men viewing talk about “the presence of Christ within” as rather weird.  “This is a mystical spiritual relationship, but it is no less real or objective because of it.  Our problem is our cultural bias for materialism and scientific empiricism.”  

An aspirational masculinity is based on a choice to “align ourselves with our true nature and with the true nature of reality.”  We align with something outside ourselves, giving us the ability to find who we really are. Our personhood is unified in Christ.  The four components of manhood  – spirituality, identity, work and marriage are harmonized and empowered in Christ.  “This is the coherence we all most desire in our lives.” We can aspire to such a lifestyle.

I find Dr. Seel a fresh breeze in the affirmation of the masculine.  1) His insistence of “self-abdication,” 2) Personhood in Christ – a totally new man.  3) Masculinity being more “verb than a noun” – more about becoming than doing, 4) Embracing the mystical – life of Jesus within,  5) Find meaning  in a unified lifestyle – God, self, marriage and work,  6) Balance of head and heart – the objective and subjective.

Jeremiah, the prophet was given  a ministry of speaking for God to a people who were hardened in their sinful ways.  Jeremiah was sent to shake them up.  “See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:10).  That is quite a calling.  But God promised to give Jeremiah strength, enabling him to endure their resistance. “Today I have made you a fortified city,” the Lord told Jeremiah, “an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land – against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land (Jer. 1:18). It sounded like Jeremiah would be facing significant opposition.

The people would not listen to Jeremiah.  He would agonize as he saw the impending judgment  the people would face from the invading Babylonian army.  He is  open and vulnerable about his spiritual state.  “Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain.  Oh, the agony in my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent.  For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry.  Disaster follows disaster; the whole land lies in ruins.  In an instant my tents are destroyed, my shelter in a moment.  How long must I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the trumpet” (Jer 4:19-21).  He knew he would share in the consequences of the coming invasion from the north.

Jeremiah was not comfortable in his preaching. “To whom can I speak and give warning?  Who will listen to me?  Their ears are closed so they cannot hear.   The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.  But I am full of the wrath of the Lord, and I cannot hold it in” ( Jer. 6:10-11).  He know his message would be an offensive to people who had become comfortable in their religious practices.  But the message burned in his soul.  “The words are fire in my belly, and burning in my bones.  I’m worn out trying to hold it in.  I can’t do it any longer” (Jer. 20:9 MSG). 

He was  frustrated with the religious leadership.   “Unspeakable! Sickening! What’s happen in this country? Prophets preach lies and priests hire on as their assistants.  And my people love it.  They eat it up!  But what will you do when it’s time to pick up the pieces? (Jer. 5:30-31 MSG) He accuses the people of defiling the land with their religious practices.  “The priests never thought to ask, ‘Where’s God?’ The religion experts knew nothing of me.  The rulers defied me. The prophets preached god Baal and chased empty god-dreams and silly-god -schemes” (Jer. 2:11 MSG). 

God was making the prophet “a tester of metals.” (Jer.6:27).  The people are like ore, “that you may observe and test their ways.  They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander.  They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly”.   Jeremiah as the refiner would not succeed.  “The refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out.”  In the end they would be called “rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them.” 

Those in our culture, who have the Word of God burning like fire in their heart, will certainly experience frustration with the rejection and down right hostility. Ultimately, God would destroy the nation of Judah in an invasion of the Babylon from the north.  Ironically, only a remnant that were willing to be taken into exile would survive.  I wonder if God is preparing a remnant to survive in the days to come?  May we not be considered  “rejected silver.”

“Confused Excuses” is the title Christopher Wright gives to Jeremiah 2:20-37.  I found it in the “Bible Speaks Today.”  Some self disclosure – I have made a commitment to understand the prophet Jeremiah, so that I might share some of what God has to say through the prophets for our day.  It is hard work.  But I want to be obedient to the Lord.  Jeremiah has been a real challenge for me to grasp both in its content and making application for our day. 

Anyway, as for Jer. 2:20-37,  Wright makes this observation regarding this passage. Jeremiah records seven direct quotations from the people.  In this way, Jeremiah “cleverly exposes how they swing back and forth between brazen denial of sin and abject acceptance of it.  Their words are simultaneously self-excusing and self-condemning.  The confusion is astonishing.  But it is simply what happens when people become so embroiled in sin that they can no longer think straight.”

In v. 20 the people reject God, “I will not serve you.”  But then in v. 23 they claim “I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals.”  But then in v. 25 they admit what they denied in v. 23, “It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.”   In v. 27 they seem to view the sexual symbols of fertility as both providers and protectors, “You are my father,” and “You gave me birth.”  But then in the same verse they cry out to God to save them, “Come and save us!” 

When reading v. 25, “It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them,” along with v. 35, “I am innocent; he is not angry with me” these comments reflect an addictive attitude. Wright notes, “their sin is compulsive, something over which they have no control.”  “These insights of Jeremiah,” contines Wright, “show that the psychology of addiction is not confined to individuals, but can come to characterize a whole community.” 

Wright then gives us God’s perspective.  “God’s response (v. 35) shows  that such a hollow defiance will simply not stand up in his court.”  God says to them, “But I will pass judgment on you because you say, ‘I have not sinned.'” The Message translates verse 35 as follows: “Don’t look now, but judgment’s on the way, aimed at you who say, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.'” Could it be that God is judging our culture because of all the excuses we are making for our behavior?

A good question to ask ourselves, “Do we ever try to excuse or defend ourselves before God?”  In our day the rhetoric is usually tilled toward blame rather than responsibility.  Being even more introspective, do we consider how our excuses appear to God?  I have to ask myself, “Do I come before my heavenly Father as someone who is totally dependant on His mercy and grace or am I wanting help with my own ‘self-improvement’ projects?”  

Even more searching is the question, “How is addiction to sin demonstrated in people’s lives today?” A good thing can become an idol when it becomes the ultimate thing.  What is the focus of our time, talent and treasure? Is God the ultimate reality or one of the idols of our culture?  Earlier in Chapter 2, God asks, “What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me?  They followed worthless idols and become worthless themselves” ( Jer. 2:5). 

Living as we do in a spiritual vacuum, our creator God is being replaced by a lot of other gods.  What becomes foremost in our hearts is our God.  Any worthless idol, will according to Jer 2:5 cause us to become worthless ourselves.  

Mark Hancock, CEO of Trail Life USA, had a thought provoking article in The Daily Signal, about young men in America,  observing, “America is waking up to the reality that the ‘Y’ matters.”  Referring to men he points to the Y chromosome, “The ‘Y’ doesn’t just mark their biology – it point them to their purpose.  The  ‘Y’ give them their Why.”  

He states bluntly, “The crisis began the moment the “Y” was dismissed…. Influential voices turned identity into a DIY project, erased the Y chromosome as a marker of manhood, blurred essential boundaries, and loosened every anchor that once helped boys grow.  Time-tested anchors of family, faith, community, mentors, and clear expectations were discarded…….boys were told that male and female were interchangeable, that fathers were optional, and that masculinity was either threatening or foolish.  We’re now living the consequences: Boys are faltering, and a generation is stalled on the road to manhood.”

The result is a generation of confused young men.  Hancock warns, “confused boys become wounded boys.”  They then become wounded men, who are associated with “toxic masculinity.”  Instead masculinity should be seen as strength serving in love, and power that has a redemptive purpose.  In the midst of this confusion, the void is filled with influencers who promise, “strength, belonging, answers, and initiation.”

The “Y” chromosome is not a cultural construction but rather God’s unique design for each man.  Every man is born with a Y chromosome.  “But only intentional formation give him his Why.”  “Masculinity” states Hancock, “was God’s idea first, not a social disease that needs to be eradicated….. We need masculinity ordered toward courage, conviction, humility, and love.”  

Hancock points to Jesus as exemplifying “rightly ordered” masculinity.  Jesus is “the One who confronted hypocrisy and welcomed the broken, who overturned tables and washed feet, who carried the weight of the world not to dominate but to redeem.”  Then he makes a statement that challenged me, as a member of the “silent generation.”  “This is the standard that boys are starving for.”  Boys are waiting…. “for men to step in with the clarity the culture refuses to give.” 

Boys need men in their formation.  They need father and mentor, “who teach them how to carry weight, how to honor women, how to master impulses, how to take responsibility, how to use strength for the good of others – strength that serves, not dominates.”  Men need to walk with younger men.  We need to model “strength ruled by love.”  We need to show boys “how to build, protect, serve, and lead.”  

A generation of young men is watching.  Who will show them the way?  “Masculinity doesn’t emerge by accident,” Hancock states.  “It is shaped by steady hands, steady hearts, and steady men……Families need men who know who they are – and why they’re here.”  The author pleads, “America needs masculinity right now.”  “It will take restoring the principles that created the greatest generation to build a new generation that doesn’t just navigate this destructive tide but turns back the tide itself.”  Hancock ends with this challenge, “the ‘boY’ matters, and boys are looking for men to follow.”

As an “old timer” I was convicted by the thought of young men watching, wanting to know the way.  Dr John Seel writes about the importance of who men aspire to be.  He notes that becoming fully male is “a verb not a noun: a state of being, an ongoing relationally and spiritually derived process.”  This is a lifelong commitment to a direction, dependance and development, becoming the best version of our masculine self.  I am committed to live for Jesus and be formed by him.     

This was the title of an article by Dr. John Seel.  He believes we are living through a “civilizational inflection.”  The West is gravely ill.  The disease is spiritual. The need is repentance not policy. “The patient,” suggests Dr. Seel, “still breathes, but the pulse of purpose is gone.  We are a zombie culture, animated yet dead.”

A culture cannot heal if it refuses to name its disease. Being influenced by Phillip Rieff,  Dr. Seel sees our culture as severing its link to the sacred.  Culture is a living organism that shapes and informs our lives.  Many believe we can resuscitate our culture, but Seel warns, “to confuse resuscitation for what is really needed resurrection is the final illusion of a dying civilization.”     

 “The sacred once ordered the social from above; now politics dictates culture, and culture manufactures its own religion,” notes Seel.  This reversal is mostly complete and is catastrophic.  “God created man in His image.  Now man perceives he can create God in his image or replace God with AI colonized by algorithms.” We have dethroned transcendence, while  enthroning ourselves. “We have retained the moralism of religion without its metaphysical grounding.”  Rieff saw such practices as “deathworks – cultural creations that invert the meaning they inherit.”

The result for our culture is a “dark enchantment – the return of pagan imagination under technological conditions.  The world is not disenchanted; it is enchanted by idols.”  The cure for such dark magic is divine enchantment.  We need “liminal leaders” – “men and women who can live between the lightning and the thunder, reading the weather of the age and preparing the ground for what comes next.”  

A liminal leader will exhibit four virtues: 1) “vision” – “The capacity to see beyond collapse toward renewal.”  2) “Courage” – “the willingness to act without institutional permission.” 3) “Humility” – “the conviction that renewal begins with repentance, not strategy” and  4) “Exploration” – “the willingness to seek what they do as not yet know.”  It is leadership that is restorative.  “It resists both despair and distraction.  It builds dense networks of meaning, small communities of faithfulness, and institutions ordered by truth rather than lies.”

“We are living through a liminal period of withering,” notes Seel.  It is a, “500-year inflection point,” in which “the ideas of modernity are imploding, the institutions of modernity are paralyzed, and the instruments of modernity (namely AI) are exploding.”  We are the first civilization without a shared sacred symbolic. It is a time for watchful discernment and courageous leadership. 

 I accept the challenge of Dr Seel.  “There has rarely been a more exciting time to be alive as a follower of Christ than now. Ours  is a turning point.”  We live in “the pause between to lightening and the thunder.”  We live close to the coming storm.  Seel quotes C. S. Lewis, “You can’t go back and change to beginning, but you  can start where you are and change the ending.”     

Our culture has a deep spiritual sickness.  May I  have “the courage to resist its idols, to honor objective reality, and the imagination to rebuild on foundations of transcendence.” As I pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” may I not focus the turbulent weather patterns of the present age, forgetting the kingdom reign of King Jesus, as the unifying narrative of our time.   

Dr. Seel’s article is a prophetic call for men to come forth.  I write this blog to encourage men to be “liminal leaders.”  “The age is changing. This time, it truly is different.  The question is whether we will merely survive the transition – or sanctify it.  May we stand, liminal and luminous, as witnesses to the sacred in an age that has forgotten how to bow.”   

Variety magazine reported recently that Disney has “boy trouble.” Bill Winters believes, “They’re going to have to ditch an ideology that sneered at masculinity.”  Disney is losing the interest of Gen Z men (13-28), whom they describe as  a “lonely, gaming-obsessed group who were hampered in their formative years by COVID-19 lockdowns.”   Winters points out that Disney has part of the diagnosis correct, but the corporation needs to realize  young men have become alienated even more by an ideology that is undermining what was once celebrated by Disney.  They need to change the stories they tell. 

Winters maintains, “they’re going to have to ditch an ideology that sneered at masculinity, chivalry, righteous honor, power for noble purposes, the warrior ethos – all these things that coded as toxically male – and accepted these attitudes are actually good and necessary for any healthy society and worthy of exploring in entertainment.”   

“This ideology was obviously anti-men,” insists Winters.  There is a need to return again to tradition.  Traditional stories stick around for a reason.  One of the  moves Disney can make in Miller’s opinion is “to return to traditional storytelling.”  This means, “courageous heroes, nasty villains, and incredibly high stakes for believable characters who wrestle with timeless challenges like family, romance, revenge, redemption.”

“Gen Z males,” insists Miller, “are hungry for brotherhood and purpose.  They want demanding missions where success is deeply consequential not just for them but for the people they care about.”  Young men are looking for stories that contain these three elements, “authentic brotherhood, transcendent purpose and patriotism.”  

Miller is optimistic about the future of Disney.  But they will need to work at renewing and reviving our great institutions. But like the rest of America, Disney must be, “willing to do the hard work of renewing and reviving our greatest institutions.”  He sees Disney’s crisis as a blessing in disguise.  “Really, Disney’s ‘boy trouble‘ crisis is a gift for the company…..If Disney starts telling authentic, powerful stories that men actually want to see, they will capture a rising demographic and participate in a renewal of American culture in a way worthy of the greatest institutions.”

For a Christian the greatest story is telling the “Good News.”  Jesus came to show us a better way to live. He came to defeat the power of evil.  He calls men to radical commitment.  “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).   

The Good News calls for young men to be involved in brotherhood.  There is no greater brotherhood, then a group men  committed to the cause of Christ.  Early after high school, in my surrender to Jesus, I found the need for men in my life, who  were intentional about  their walk with God.   This is still true in my 80’s.  The modeling of godly men is vital for me to stay in the fight. We are in combat together, as we rescue people from darkness. 

The Good News certainly provides a transcendent purpose. Jesus taught us to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”   I am eternally thankful for “the Good News” of Jesus and his kingdom.  I have given full allegiance to this story.  It is the same yesterday, today and forever.  It has eternal consequences. 

I have been blest to live in a country where the story of Jesus has shaped a lot of our culture.  “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news” (Is. 52:7). It is inspiring to be surrounded by men who are excited about sharing the good news in our troubled culture.