Category: Brother Al (Page 62 of 68)

I need to make a confession to the men who read this blog.  As I relate to older men of my age, we are aware of the generation gap that exists between our children and grandchildren when it comes to “electronic devices” such as the computers and smart phones.  My wife and I have been experiencing significant stress in adapting to our new cell phones, along with the electronics in our new Highlander.  It has truly complicated our lives.  Literally, I had to go for a prayer walk and get back to my center, which, of course, is the awareness of Jesus in my life.  I found myself getting “grumpy” and negative.  I just wanted to go, hide and “throw in the towel.”

This personal saga that my bride and I have weathered really got me to thinking of how complications in life get us off center.  Life was so much simpler and easy to manage when we didn’t have to deal with matters of  “digital age.”  But now with all the electronic “wizardry” involved, both my wife and I are experience frustration, confusion, impatience and a lack of peace.  We rarely get on each other’s nerves, but that was we even happening.  The sense of peace that comes from Jesus’ presence was absent.  The mood was frustration, along with a sense of helplessness, as though we were caught in a web with no way out.

Men, what are the things that get you so distracted that you lose your focus on Jesus.  “Simplicity” is a vital practice in keeping us centered in Jesus.  Simplicity is not being a simpleton, but rather the expression of one who as the proper focus.  Their life is centered in Jesus.  At a deep level their desires are for him alone.   Judy and I try to live simply, that is, having a lifestyle that does not distract from our focus on Jesus. But we can get off center.  Paul said of his life, “I once thought things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.  Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage.” (Phil 3:7-8)  Simplicity is reflected in a life that sees everything as “worthless” compared to knowing Christ.

Years ago I read of an old Shaker hymn that has stuck with me and now has become more meaningful.  “Tis a gift to be simple, ’tis a gift to be free, ’tis a gift to come down where we ought to be.”  Notice the being simple is a gift.  We can’t accomplished it.  Jesus ignites a desire for him in our hearts.  When we yield our life to Jesus, he gives us a heart that is focused on him.  We also are gifted with freedom, along with the ability to “come down where we ought to be,” that is, to get our focus back.  Thankfully, Judy and I have our focus back on Jesus and not the electronic stuff.  But it will continue to be a challenge.  How are you being challenged in your focus?

Several years ago researchers at UC Berkley set out to test what they called the masculine overcompensation thesis, the theory that when men sense threats to their manhood they respond by exaggerating their gender traits.  They found, “that when men faced the implication that they were somehow not men, they tended to increase their support of war, homophobia, male dominance, ‘purchasing an SUV'” and other stereotypical behavior.  Women did not respond the same way.  The implication is that women feel less threatened in the culture.   The conclusion wrote one observer was, “the more manly you act, the less manly you probably are.”  I ask the question, “Doesn’t that put men in a double bind.”  How do you act manly in a god given way?

I agree that a lot of men, including Christian men, in our culture feel threatened.  How are Christian men to deal with this double bind  of  “the more manly you act, the less manly you probably are.?”   Threatened men are going to act out in some  unfortunate “macho ways.” Many more are going to remain passive and silent, resigning themselves to a gnawing resentment, not knowing who they were created to be as a man.

But men who follow Jesus have a choice, even when threatened and questioned about their manliness.  Men, I can not stress enough the need to get our mind and heart off of what the culture thinks of men and get our eyes on Jesus.  He is and will continue to be our example and measure of what it means to be a man.  The way out of the double bind is to see Jesus as our example in being able to be both “tough and tender.”  When threatened look to Jesus.

The New Testament presents the Son of Man as the True Man.  Jesus’ manhood subverted the manly man stereotype of the Greco-Roman world, which had such a  low regard from women.  Jesus’ manhood was one of humiliation, service, and crucifixion.  Jesus took on the form of a slave (Phil 2:5-11).  So true manhood for the follower of Jesus is measured first of all not by courage or strength, both of which are important, but rather by self-sacrificial love for the other.   “Servant love” expressed through servant leadership is the key to dealing with the double bind of the Berkeley research.  Such love expresses great courage and strength.

So men here is my advice.  Don’t let anything in the culture cause you to get your spiritual eyes off of Jesus.  Surrender to him, follow him, desire him, and learn from his example.  Remember you have his very presence with you to give you guide and help.  In our day we need to heed the warning of Paul. “Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double talk.  They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything.  They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings.  But that is not the way of Christ.” (Eph 2:9 – The Message)

I have been asking the Lord to help me with having a more loving heart.  The principle is pretty straight forward.  God’s love has been poured into my heart (Romans 5:5).  But I have to learn to respond in kind to this love.  It is not a matter of my trying to “crank up” some more love.  It is a matter of receiving the love that has already been poured into my heart.  While the love is there, my desire to be a loving man, will be tested.  I had such an experience lately with my wife.

You need to know that my wife, Judy of 48 years, is one of the finest Christians I know.  That is high praise, but also the reality from my experience with her. Well, recently I was harsh with my wife  in a minor exchange we had.  I am not proud of this occurring pattern of being harsh.  When I get harsh it hurts my wife and I can tell it in her eyes.  As a work in progress, I don’t want it to be that way.  What is significant is that I can confess this to all who read this blog.  But more importantly is the greater awareness I have of how it hurts my wife.

What brought me to a deeper sense of regret was the fact that with others I can hide my true feelings and act kindly, creating the impression that I am this” loving, caring” guy.  This is pure hypocrisy.  I was able acknowledge this double standard to my wife.  I am seeing how easy it is show a “loving face” in public, but then to disregard and be insensitive in my attitude and behavior with my wife.   As I write blog, I am sure that I am stepping on “the spiritual toes” of more than one guy. So what is the point of my telling you my story in this blog.

Plain and simple, it is inexcusable for us as husbands to not be vigilant and on guard in our attitude and behavior with our wives.  Scripture makes it clear, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…” (Eph 5:25).  Your wife deserves the best you have to give.  If the love of Christ has been poured into your heart, then the first person to receive your love is your wife.  Remember she is “bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:23).  The measure of my spirituality and yours is found in the way we treat those who are closest to us.  If you struggle with what I am sharing with you, ask God to show you how you ought to love your wife. Paul exhorts husbands, “to love their wives as their own bodies” (Eph 5:28).  I know I am seeing how unloving it is when I express myself  harshly towards my  wife.  If it hurts her, it should also hurt me.  If not, I am not very loving.

Here is a new word for you, men.  I came across it in some recent reading.  “Mancession” refers especially to  younger men, who acknowledge their disengagement from culture.  They articulate a confusion and even ambivalence about what it means to be a man.  Men are asking, ” How do you talk about being a man in our culture without seeming to be anti-female.”  In many case men simply “drop out.”  They decide not to  engage the feminist agenda.  When their maleness is questioned they become silent.  But silence can produce an inner discontent that  becomes hard to keep in check.  As one observer put it, ‘If anything defines American maleness in the 21st century it is silent rage.”  Wes Yoder says of men, “We’re ashamed of the stuff we hide and are insecure about who we are.”

What do you think, men?  Does “mancession” reflect a trend among men in our culture.  Does it reflect the culture of your workplace or even your church?   There has been a subtle “feminizing” of the culture that has been intimating men for so time, causing them to question  their role and in some cases their God given identity as a man.  John Eldridge puts it well when he observes, “Men are wounded and feel they have no place to go.  So they go and hide.  Woman know this, and lament that they have no access to their man’s heart.  Men know it too, but they often do not know where to pick up the trail.”

Let me ask you if you know how to “pick up the trail,” that is, to live out of your God given identity.  Remember culture will keep you in the wilderness, searching in vain for what Robert Bly calls “golden key,” that unlocks the door to masculinity.  Without his true identity, a man will be empty, insecure and a pretender. There are no “inner juices” to be a man, only a  shadow of a man.  The key to finding our identity in our modern day wasteland is hearing the “quiet, still voice” of your heavenly Father saying “You are my beloved.”  Jesus heard this affirmation at the beginning of his ministry.  Near the end he could say, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love (John 15:9).

There is a program that I am involved in, made up of mostly women who are on a spiritual search.  Every couple of years I share a masculine view of spirituality.  What I say to these women, I say to you men reading this blog.  “A man is a man is a man.”  Maleness is part of the created order.  You cannot social engineer away this reality.  Masculinity and femininity are a gift from God.  So men, don’t let the extreme feminist agenda intimidate you into silence.  The key in my humble opinion is for a man to come in his confusion and brokenness before his heavenly Father.  Their in quietness and rest, he learns  that he has “a Father who delights in him.”   Don’t allow the voice of the culture, drown out the voice of your heavenly Father.

“How am I doing?”  I can almost feel myself giving this kind of response to my mother.  Having a “people pleasing” personality and a mother who was rather domineering,” how I was doing,” was very important to me, as I wanted to please my mother.  I never knew how to please my father, because he was mostly emotional absent in my formative years.  “How am I doing?” has been a kind of mantra in my life in an unhealthy way.  I have come a long ways in being God’s man rather than being overly influenced by others.  But I still am working on my desire to please when it come to my heavenly Father.  I have to watch that it is not performance, rather than a relationship.

We can easily think of God like a parent who want to see us on our best behavior.  So we can tend to go to God in pray when we have nothing to hide, feeling pretty good about our journey. Richard Rolheiser has observed, “Because we don’t understand what prayer is, we treat God as an authority figure or a visiting dignitary – as someone to whom we don’t tell the real truth. We don’t tell God what is really going on in our lives.  We tell God what we think God wants to hear…What’s important is that we pray what’s inside us and not what we think God would like to see inside of us.”  Wow!!  This sure has been my story for longer than I care to acknowledge.

Remember men, God is your loving heavenly Father, who love you as you are not as you think you should be.   Along with the Psalmist we should, therefore,  rejoice in God intimate awareness of who we are, and not hide from intimacy with him.  “You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight.  You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence.  I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too – your reassuring presence, coming and going.  This is too much, too wonderful – I can’t take it all in.” (Ps 139:3-6  – The Message).

If prayer, which is the expression of our personal relationship to God, is to be meaningful  we need to accept that every feeling and every thought we have is valid.  We can stay away from prayer just when we need it the most.  So be honest and real.  Listen to Jesus’ words, “This world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant.  They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God.  Don’t fall for that nonsense.  This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need.  With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.” (Matt 6: 7-8 – The Message)  So men, don’t get caught up in those performance traps or spiritual improvement projects.  Just come to your heavenly Father as you are – in desperate need of his grace and mercy.

Here are some more thoughts from Camille Paglia.  This is from an interview with Bari Weiss of The Wall Street Journal.  Her insight about men being “intimidated” are right on.  “This PC gender politics thing – the way gender is being taught in the universities – in a very anti-male way,  it’s all about neutralization of maleness.”  The result is that men are “intimidated” and “can’t say anything….They understand the agenda.”  They “never tell the truth to women” about sex and they keep “raunchy” thoughts and sexual fantasies to themselves and their laptops.  “Masculinity is just becoming something that is imitated from the movies.  There’s nothing left.  There’s no room for anything manly right now.”  But wait a minute – there is one place in her opinion.

Paglia claims the only place where you can hear what men really feel is on Sports Radio.  She is an avid listener.  The energy and enthusiasm “inspires” her as a writer.  She dares to say, “If we had to go to war,” the callers “are the men that would save the nation.”  Now here is a woman who gets it.  I listen to Sports Talk Radio when Judy and I are on our long trip.  It’s the only time.  The issues are a matter of life and death.  Passions run high.  Vital victories and loses are cheered and mourned.  Opinions, strategies, motives and character are all passionately discussed.

But you know what I long for; the same kind of passion with a group of guys who desire to see the kingdom of Jesus extended in our culture.  I really miss that kind of passionate discussion.  As an older warrior, I desire the company of other warriors, especially younger warriors, to share strategy on being “subversive” for the Lord.  Is there judgment on our culture?  How am I supposed to react to what is going on?  I have some strong opinions that have been formed in my walk with God.  But I need other warriors to help me see more clearly.  There is no doubt that we are in a real battle.  But where is the passion?

Men, if you don’t feel some passion about what is going on in our culture, you have fallen asleep spiritually.  Jesus warns us to kept alert.  “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”  (Matt 25:13)  Don’t let the culture lull you to sleep spiritually.  Find another warrior or a group of humble, loving warriors determined to stand for Jesus, and join the fight.  Let them ignite you with some passion.  Listen to Paul’s warn and take it to heart. “You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars.  He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would.  About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other – ‘We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!’ – suddenly everything will fall apart.  It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.” (I Thess. 5:2-3 – The Message)

Every once and a while I run across a short article that just makes “plain sense” in this mixed up culture of ours.  One areas of great confusion is the stereotyping of the male and female roles.  While men have generally failed relationally to meet the needs of women  in our culture, I think the feminist have gone too far in their pained reaction .  So I was pleasantly surprised to read an article by Camile Paglia in “Time” magazine regarding some of her thoughts on men in our culture

Here is some of what she had to say.  “Is it any wonder that so many high-achieving young women….find themselves n the early stages of their careers in chronic uncertainty or anxiety about their prospects for an emotionally fulfilled private life?  When an educated culture routinely denigrates masculinity and manhood, then women will be perpetually stuck with boys, who have no incentive to mature or to honor their commitments.  And without strong men as models to either embrace or (for dissident lesbians) to resist, women will never attain a centered and profound sense of themselves as women.”

That in my humble estimation is a profound insight into our cultural confusion.  With the relentless pounding men have taken in our culture, men are fleeing emotionally and relationally, behaving as “boys” (think of the beer ads during football games).  They simply don’t want to grow up. A cultural vacuum is produced in which there are no male models standing up to the destructive winds of culture.  As a result women suffer for our immaturity. But we read in Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Primary responsibility was given to the man.  But man needed help.  God said, “It ‘s not good for the Man to be alone; I’ll make him a helper, a companion” (Gen 2:20). In other words, men need help, not competition or “mothering.”  Male and female are to work together.

So I say to every may reading this blog, “Stand on your own two feet” and be a man, giving those feminist something to talk about.  They are dealing with “real men.”  Take the cultural mandate given to you by your heavenly Father, and with courage and grace fulfill your mandate.  I have always taken this seriously, while failing more then I would like to admit.  But by God grace, I will stand.  With all my heart I want to finish strong. But here is what I need to  remember.  First, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (II Cor 12:10).  Secondly, “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence” (Eph. 3:12).  Thirdly, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit’ (Ps 34:18)

So what does this mean for every man reading this blog?  First, in the strength of Jesus you can stand.  Yes, you can stand.  Secondly, you can take your stand with confidence.  Your heavenly Father will never leave or forsake you. Thirdly, God knows the struggle of your wounded and broken heart. Yes, there are times when it gets real tough. But your heavenly Father knows your pain.  He is the healer of broken and wounded hearts.

I appreciate the words from Madeleine L’Engle’s poem “After Annunciation” when I think about the confused state of Christmas in our culture.  These words in particular help me understand our confusion: “This is the irrational season/ When love blooms bright and wild/Had Mary been filled with reason/ There’d have been no room for the child.”  The conception and birth of Jesus is God’s initiative going beyond anything we could dream of.  This is God getting involved in the particularities of life.  As Eugene Peterson puts it, “Birth is painful. Babies are inconvenient and messy. There is immense trouble in having children.  God having a baby?  It’s far easier to accept God as the creator of majestic mountains, the rolling sea, and the delicate wild flowers.”

The Incarnation, God becoming a human being for the sins of the world, is the heart of the gospel in my understanding of the story.  I  take time during each Advent season to just think about what God did when he came as the baby Jesus.  It truly brings a spirit of worship and awe.  A key to our sharing God’s  story in our day, is to keep the conversation on Jesus, who was God and man in human form.  Yes, it may seem irrational, but it is the truth.  He is God come in the flesh, the savior of the world. “So the Word became human, and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.” (John 1:14).  So men we have lots to celebrate about at Christmas

However, a recent Pew Research center poll found that while nine in ten Americans say they celebrate Christmas, only one half of Americans view Christmas mostly as a religious holiday.  Another one third viewed it as more of a cultural holiday. Young adults were less likely to believe in the virgin birth.  A total of 66% of adult between 18 and 29 believe that Jesus was miraculously begotten by God, compared with 76% of all other adults.  So it seems that we also have a vital message to share with others, in a culture that is losing the meaning of Christmas. So instead of being caught up in “the Christmas wars” we should simply be telling the story of what really happened.  It is still the good news

One other thought about this “irrational season.”  C.S. Lewis talked about the incarnation as an “invasion.”  The Son of God came as an infant baby to invade enemy territory.  He live of obedience to his Heavenly Father.  He defeated the devil.  Our enemy has no authority in our life.  Listen to these words from The Message. “When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God.  God brought you alive – right along with Christ. Think of it!   All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross.  He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets:”(Col 2:13-15).  So go and celebrate your liberation during this “irrational” season.

In the first chapter of John’s gospel, we find two of John the Baptist’s disciples beginning to follow Jesus.  “Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What are you after?'”  That question remains throughout the rest of John’s gospel, suggesting that beneath everything else there is a search taking place.  At the end of John, Mary Magdalene, encounters the risen Lord.  Jesus asks her the same question, “What do you  want?”  With deep affection, Jesus says, “Mary.”  As we journey with Jesus our heart longs to be addressed in a similar manner.  Think of the most intimate relationship that you have.  Doesn’t it go far beyond word and thoughts, to matters of the heart.

Prayer is a personal relationship with the Lord, involving our head (thoughts) as well as our hearts (affections).  When prayer does not touch our hearts, we will offer niece, religious words to the Lord. This results in a  tendency to be talking with ourselves rather than God, because we not speaking from our hearts. Men, we need to allow God to touch our hearts.  What we need most is to hear God’s voice within saying, “I love you.”  “Nothing will heal us more and nothing will make us more bold before life’s mystery and goodness than hearing those words from God.  Our very capacity to love depends upon it” ( Rolheiser).

So why is it so hard for me to be real and share my true feelings?  Well, here are some things I have found out for myself.  First, I make my relationship with God too complicated.  I preform rather than relate.  The truth is that if I have  trusted in Christ as my Savior, he already lives at the deepest place in me (His Spirit witnessing with my spirit -Rom 8:16), far beyond my understanding.  So he knows more about me then I do about myself, while loving me unconditionally. So I don’t have to hide, I can be real.  Secondly, life has taught me as a man to withhold my true feelings and affections, for fear of being hurt.  But God, who is merciful, isn’t going to hurt me. He waits for me to be real.  Thirdly, I have always  put on my best “religious face” when I think I am relating to the Lord.  What happens is that I end up talking to myself.  How unreal can I get? If I can’t share my heart with God, then I will not be able to receive his love for me.  Isn’t that what an intimate relationship is all about.

I know that I have stepped  into some deep water.  My burden for men reading this blog today is that you can have an intimate relationship Jesus.  I’ll make it as simply as I can:  1) You have a father who delights in you, 2) You have a Savior who is your friend (John 14:15) and 3) you have the Holy Spirit who is your helper (John 16:12).  So relax, be honest, share your whole heart with the Lord, and allow him to love you.  He waits for you to come home to him.  I know this is a daily practice for me.

Is it true that anxiety rather than doubt could be understood as being the opposite of faith in our walk with God.  I certainly can see this as being true in my journey.  If I pay attention to my soul life, anxiety and fear, gets a grip on my soul more often than doubts about my heavenly Father.   This quote from Ronald Rolheiser as made me do some soul searching.  “What opposes faith is not so much worry about this or that particular thing as worry that God has forgotten us…that there is every reason to fear and be anxious because, at the core of things, there isn’t a benevolent, all-powerful goodness who is concerned about us.”  Oh, yes!!!  The dreaded thought that I am alone, adrift on the sea of life, not sure how I will make it through the next passage.

Is there a fear that at times on the journey God seems to have slipped of the radar screen?  “It is this kind of anxiety,” observes Rolheiser, “the deep fear that we have been forgotten, that pushes any of us to make as assertion of our lives.”  In other words, we take matters into our own hands, rather than trusting, because deep inside we are not confident that God will come through for us.  We become anxious and fearful.  “This anxiety is the opposite of faith.  It is not so much the fear that God doesn’t exist, as the fear that God does not notice our existence.”

Here is what Rolheiser has to say about faith.  “What faith gives you is the assurance that God is good, that God can be trusted, that God won’t forget you, and that, despite any indication to the contrary, God is still in charge of this universe.  Faith says that God is real and God is Lord and, because of this, there is ultimately nothing to fear.  We are in safe hands.  Reality is gracious, forgiving, loving, redeeming, and absolutely trustworthy.  Our task is to surrender to that.”

So there you have it.  I usually don’t quote another author as much as I have in this blog. But it seems to me, that in our day of so much uncertainty regarding the future stability of our culture, along with the brake down in trust of our public institutions, we all need to reminded that our heavenly Father is in control and that he can be trusted.  I close with the image of God as a loving, caring parent.  This image comes from Isaiah 49:15, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”  Men, God has not forgotten you.  His very presence dwells within you.  He is loving you intimately in this very moment.  Our posture is that of awareness and coming to rest in his love.