“Just Be Held” is the title of a song from the latest CD release by “Casting Crowns.”  I played it for the guys at our last “wildman” retreat.  I try to keep up on contemporary Christian music.  The words to a lot of the songs are what I call “Fluff.”  There is no spiritual meat.…

At one of my recent “wildman” retreats, a young man came rather distort, due to the emotional strain of being the caregiver for his wife following her surgery.  He shared the discomfort he felt in shedding tears due to his emotional stress. In displaying  tears, he felt like a failure in the care of his…

I start with a quote from Matt 10.  “Don’t be intimidated.  Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are.  So don’t hesitate to go public now.  Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies.  There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being.…

Not long ago I read a quote from Albert Haase, a Franciscan priest that has stuck with me. “Forgiveness is the limitless choice not to  pick the scab, not to become entangled in the grudge, not to stoke the fires of anger and resentment by hugging the hurt or announcing it to others…. We often…

Walker Percy asks in his novel, “The Second Coming,” “is it possible for people to miss their lives in the same way one misses a plane?”  Here is a one of Percy’s characterization of his main character Will Barrett. “Not once in his entire life had he allowed himself to come to rest in the…

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…

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…

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…

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…

“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…