Category: Wildman Journey (Page 37 of 85)

Psalm 139 begins with  “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me” (Ps 139:1).  I thought of these words while reflecting on thoughts from spiritual writer, Louis Evely. “This activity [God’s loving power] of His most often occurs in a place we can’t enter, at the root of our being, for that’s where God reaches us, where he operates, molds us, and ceaselessly perfects His work in us.”  This loving power know us from the inside out.  “God along knows us as we are inside and He alone loves us even though we lose all our qualities, because He loves, not our qualities, but us.  Only He will put up with us forever.”

When it seems nothing is being done by us, much may have been done in us. Teresa of Avila observed that we would be surprised at what God is doing in our soul.  God is at work in  our depths far beyond what we can imagine or comprehend. Our part is to surrender to the process. “The Spirit also helps us in our present limitations.  For example, we do not know how to pray worthily, but his Spirit within us is actually praying for us in those agonizing longings which cannot find words. He who knows the heart’s secrets understands the Spirit’s intention as he prays according to God’s will for those who love him” ( Rom. 8:26-7  Phillips).

Knowing that God,  “alone loves us even though we lose all our qualities,” we can pray, “Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross- examine and test me, see for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong – then guide me on the road to eternal life” ( Ps 139:23-4 – Message). We can pray with confidence because of the Spirit within, “operates, molds us, and ceaselessly perfects His work in us.” This is transformation – God changing us from the inside out. “Now to him who by his power within us is able to do indefinitely more than we ever dare to ask or imagine…(Eph 3:20).  God is doing much more than we can imagine.

God  loves us not for our qualities, but for who we are.  “To us, the greatest demonstration of God’s love for us has been his sending his only Son into the world to give us life through him.  We see real love, not in the fact that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to make personal atonement for our sins’ ( I John 4:10-11 – Phillips).  This is condescension – not our reaching out to God, but God coming all the way down to where we are.  God loves us as we are not what we think we should be.  “Yet the proof of God’s amazing love is this: that it was while we were sinners that Christ died for us” ( Romans 5:8 – Phillips).

Jesus’ love for us will endure to the end. “I’m  absolutely convinced that nothing – nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable – absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us” (Romans 8:37-39).  God’s unconditional love give us confidence to keep reaching out to Jesus and keep moving onward.  With Paul we declare, “But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me…..By no means do I count myself and expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye n the goal, where God is beckoning us onward – to Jesus.  I off and running, and I’m not turning back” ( Phil 3:13-14 – Message).

Pop-rock pioneer of the 2000’s, Avril Lavigne, after an absence of five years has produced a worship song that reveals her cry to God for help after encountering a near-death experience.  She has been battling Lyme disease since 2014.  Her new single,  “Head Above Water,” depicts her struggle.

“God keep my head above water/ Don’t let me drown/ It gets harder/ I’ll meet you there at the altar/ As I fall down to my knees/ Don’t let me drown/ Don’t let me drown” are the words of the chorus.  She apparently had a experience of meeting God in an experience she describes as being on her knees at the altar.

I down loaded her song because her heart felt lyrics are  words I could identify with when I have felt like being underwater.  There was a time in the early 2000’s when I was on the verge of depression.  My wife told me that if I didn’t get out of my “pit,” she was going to take me to our personal physician so I could get a prescription for depression.  I was able to climb out of the pit, only by keeping my spiritual eyes on Jesus and crying out for mercy.  My experience made me appreciate those believers who fall into the pit and struggle to get out.

Ms Lavigne’s words are heart felt.  “And I can’t see in the stormy weather/ I can’t seem to keep it all together/ And I can’t swim the ocean like this forever/ And I can’t breathe.”  At the time, I had been a pastor for 30 years, having been in a lot of stormy weather.  But I was not keeping it all together.  I was underwater, having difficulty breathing spiritually. I was simply going through the motions, not allowing anyone to know how weak and fragile I felt. Life  was like stormy weather.  It was frustrating for my wife.  But thank God, she prayed me through the storm.

Avril shares her story of almost giving up.  “God, keep my head above water/ I lose my breath at the bottom/ Come rescue me, I’ll be waiting/ I’m too young to fall asleep.”  I wanted to be rescued, but I did not now how it would happen.  I had to wait.  The issue was my perspective of myself and God.

Psalm 40, while not giving the image of being under water, but rather of sinking into a “slimy pit,” gave me a picture that I could hang unto in my struggle. “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand” (Ps. 40:1-2).

The one image that has stayed with me is the sense that I was down in a pit, with my hands griping the opening above me, while a shaft of light streamed into the gloom of the pit.  I had to keep my focus on the opening above me.  The only thing I could do was to hang on and cry out for God to be merciful to me.  I had to do this for myself. Either my wife and the few other guys who I had allowed into my life could help.  Eventually the Lord placed me on a rock.  As a result I had “a firm place to stand.”

So my advice to anyone feeling underwater or in a pit – hang on by simple trust in  Jesus and cry out continually for mercy.  You have not be abandoned.  You will be stronger because of your trail.  You will also have empathy for others in the pit.

As an older white guy in the Northwoods, I have a concern for the status of young, white, males in America, especially those who have given their allegiance to King Jesus and His kingdom reign in America.  Has the dominant cultural narrative begun to abandon the idea of a man being innocent until proven guilty by due process?  Has the #metoo movement gone to far?

Listen to what an army mom and homeschooling mother of four boys had to say: “I cannot accept a world in which my sons will be raised under the tyranny of a lawless, vindictive society that wants to subdue and oppress men in the name of equality for women.  It’s time to take a stand.  Mammas, we have to fight for our men, because they are in danger… Your father is, your husband is, and your sons are.”

Contrast her comments with those of Georgetown Professor C. Christiane Fair in a recent twit.  “All of them [men] deserve miserable deaths while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps.  Bonus: we castrate their corpses and feed them to swine? Yes.”  Today, notes R. R. Reno, “The rage over sex is perhaps the most powerful in our body politic today.”  We are at a crisis point.  Are we witnessing an intensification of the “gender wars?”

The Brett Kavanaugh hearings made this all too obvious in our national consciousness.  I am deeply concerned.  I  respect and admire Dr. Christine Blasey Ford for her painful, heartfelt testimony of being sexually assaulted as a teenager.  She is 100% sure it was Judge Kavanaugh.  But the judge swears before God he is innocent.  He has many close friends who agree.

My issue is with the minority party in this particular instance.  They seem to be embracing the rage against men for betraying the sexual revolution by making sex dangerous rather than safe.  In my opinion they are using Dr. Ford for their own political advantage.  In the meantime they are ruining the life of a man who has not been given due process.  I am deeply disturbed that as a nation we are an audience to the destroying of the lives of  two individuals created in the image of God.

I very much appreciate the reminder given by John Stonestreet, when he was reminded of C.S. Lewis’ sermon, “The Weight of Glory” in which he said:  “…It is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another – all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.  There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to a mere mortal.  Nations, cultures, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.  But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry , snub, and exploit….”  Stonestreet reminds us, “people are ends; they are never means.”  I want to remember this as the Kavanaugh saga continues.

My advice, men.  Take your stand in Christ!  “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand!  Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you” (Gal. 5:1 – Message).  Don’t let the dominant narrative, regarding male and female relationships, put you in a box. Don’t let the rage over sex intimidate you, since you have been set free in Jesus.  “In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female.  Among us you are all equal!” (Gal. 3:28 – Message).  Remember, “…Use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows” (Gal. 5:14 – Message).

I continue to be fascinated, inspired and amused by the “Jordon Peterson Phenomena.”  Most interesting has been the reaction  from social critics who have had some of their cherished assumptions about men and women challenged.   A quote from David French described well what is happening in  the social media regarding Peterson.  French observed, “Peterson stands out because he is playing in the Left’s cultural sandbox.  He’s disrupting an emerging secular cultural monopoly with arguments about history, tradition, and the deep truths about human nature that the cultural radicals had long thought they’d banished to the fringe.”

While Peterson’s orthodoxy is less than an evangelical guy like myself would hope for, he definitely has beliefs that favor a Christian worldview.  He gives clear guidance on morals and manners, he takes evil seriously and he values the church and traditional family values. Peterson in his writings, videos and public interviews is not attempting to reach a Christian audience.  What has been called “the Peterson Effect” describes Peterson’s effort to bring the findings of social science to bear on the cultural issues surrounding men and women.   His findings counter the progressive attempt of eliminating male-female differences.  “One ingredient in the astounding fame of Jordon Peterson,” writes Mark Bauerlein, “is his capacity to show just how lazy, obtuse, unprepared, smug, knee-jerk and prejudiced are many journalists at leading publications.”

Shame Morris in an article at Break Point reflects on Peterson’s earnestness. This is in evident when he speaks about young men.  He speaks with solemnity and gravity, being persuasive because he speaks with deep passion.  Without irony, mockery or pretense of superiority, Morris imagines Peterson saying to young men, “You know what?  You’re not a monster, and you’re not an idiot, and you’re not what’s wrong with the world, and I understand you’re feeling lost and don’t know what to do with you life.  But resentment and blaming other people is not going to get you anywhere.  I’m here to help you find your way out of this black hole of impotence, and I want you to start by cleaning your room.”

The idea of earnestness in Peterson’s message has struck a cord with me.  I concur with Bauerlein when he speaks of his influence.  “To watch someone stand up to it [cultural smugness], to hear him cite clinical data and hold firmly against the party line they know is dishonest and coercive – that goes a long way to explaining the Peterson phenomenon.”  Peterson is willing to go public with his deeply held convictions, knowing that he will not be accepted.  Three  characteristics in Peterson’s demeanor are convicting to me.  First, his willingness to suffer.  He believes that life contains unavoidable suffering, that needs to be embraced.  Redemptive suffering, the call to carry the cross, and the need to sacrifice are in short supply in today’s church.  Jesus tells us, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” ( Matt 16:24).

Secondly, Peterson speaks with passion.  He speaks with deep passion about his ideas, communicating with a sense of honesty and sincerity.  Paul reminds us,  “The Message that points to Christ on the cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense” (I Cor. 1: 18 – Message).

Thirdly, Peterson can be confrontational not willing to accommodate the culture, while remaining respectful and level headed.  Young men are drawn to Peterson because he is a rock in the cultural swamp in which many men are sinking. Jesus tells us, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” ( John 6:63).

At a recent congregational meeting at my church, I read from Jeremiah 6:16-17 – Message:  “Go stand at the crossroads and look around.  Ask for directions to the old road, the tried-and-true road.  Then take it.  Discover the right route for your souls.  But they said, ‘Nothing doing,  We aren’t going that way.’  I even provided watchmen for them, to warn them, to set off the alarm.  But the people said, ‘It’s a false alarm.  It doesn’t concern us.'”  These words could describe the passive attitude of many Christian men who, being unaffirmed and not having a sense of well-being in Jesus, capitulate to the dominant narrative they absorb every day.

Jeremiah’s words reflects the concept of “apatheism,” which answers the God question with a  shrug and a calm “whatever.”   Ben Sixsmith and Paul Rowan write, “With roots in the practical atheism and deism of the Enlightenment, ‘apatheism’ is embodied in French philosopher Denis Diderot’s famous remark that ‘it is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.'”  They go on to write about the “unholy trinity of apatheism” – a lack of reason to believe, a lack of motivation to believe and a lack of will to believe.

In a culture that is growing skeptical and ever more hostile to a biblical worldview, we will be tempted to compromise our core beliefs and fall victim to “apatheism.”   Are you committed to the truth?  Are you tempted to compromise the truth in your private life?  Are you  indifferent and unwilling to speak the truth?  Peter  challenges us,  “Don’t give the opposition a second thought.  Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your master.  Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy” (I Peter 3: 14-15 – Message).

You might be standing today before a crossroad  in your life journey, one that may compromise your core beliefs. Be warned! Compromising will bring cracks into the foundation of your character.  Jeremiah invites you to stand and look around.  This implies not being in a hurry.  Slow down, while asking for directions in finding the “old road, the tried-and-true road.”  The NIV says, “the ancient paths.”  This is why we all need a “band of brothers,” who provide “the mutual consolation” of other like-minded men.  Find other mature men who have walked on the “ancient paths.”

Men, when you stand at the crossroads or that fork in the road, you and you alone will have to choose.  At the core of the masculine soul is the call to “orientation, direction, order and responsibility.”  That is, make the right decision and stick with it. Mark my words, you will be tested in your resolve to follow through on taking the initiative.  Don’t let self-pity, self-hatred or anger get the best of your discernment.  The choices you make bring you into the frontlines of the battle in our culture over truth, order, integrity and honesty.  Your voice and character are needed right where you are, in our sphere of influence.  Don’t join those around you saying, “Nothing doing.  We aren’t going that way.”

In the process, “You will find rest for your souls” (v. 16 NIV).  You will be able to walk through the chaos, uncertainty and mistrust all around you.  God will provide watchmen to warn us, setting off an alarm.  Don’t be caught saying, “It’s a false alarm. It doesn’t concern us.”

This is a piece of no nonsense advice directed to  young men by Jordon Peterson.  Millions of men listen to Peterson because he is like a father figure, representing a man who cares for them, who is concerned for their well-being and speaks with authority into their lives.  He express deep empathy for their plight in the cultural wars.  When they are told men are dangerous, of little use to society and needing to deal with their “toxic masculinity,” Peterson is a breath of fresh air, tapping into an inner void of  immature, passiveness in men, who are confused, needing affirmation in their masculine souls. .

Shane Morris wrote a piece about the earnestness of Peterson observing how he speaks to men without a trace of irony, mockery or pretense of superiority. “You know what?  You’re not a monster, and you’re not an idiot, and you’re not what’s wrong with the world, and I understand you’re feeling lost and don’t know what to do with your life.  But resentment and blaming other people is not going to get you anywhere.  I’m here to help you find your way out of the black hole of impotence and I want you to start by cleaning your room.”

Much of the negative reaction to Peterson is prompted by a culture that has become more rights-centered rather than responsible-centered. Dennis Prager wisely notes, “It is not good for either sex to be rights-preoccupied, but it is particularly devastating to developing men, as men are supposed to be obligation-directed.”  He asks the question, “Is America still making men?” We might also ask, “If you think tough men are dangerous wait until you see what weak men are capable of.”

As young men listen to Peterson  he gives them direction and sense of purpose to their lives.  Many are not able to bring order into their daily lives.  Peterson tells them to simply start by “cleaning up their rooms.”  Men who are drawn to Peterson live like orphans in a wasteland of conflicting points of view, leaving them unable to move forward with any conviction of making a difference in their lives and others.  Peterson doesn’t give easy answers.  “To be fully human and fully worthy of responsility is to fight your entire life to bring order to chaos, to make an imprint upon the world in some meaningful way.”

While Peterson is not a follower of Jesus, he gives advice that speaks to the inner reality that every man faces.  Life is hard, we have to choose.  He speaks with earnestness and passion. He can be misunderstood.  For example  – “It’s very helpful for people to hear that they should make themselves competent and dangerous and take their proper place in the world.”  In other words, if we are going to stand for something, we need to be willing to sacrifice.  You could become dangerous.  Jesus said, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follower me” (Matt. 16:24).

The essence of the masculine is taking the initiative; speaking and acting according to the truth. Peterson’s words  remind me of many of the exhortations found in the first chapters of  Proverbs.  For example, “Listen, my son, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.  I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching” (Prov. 4:1-2).  His sincerity is felt as he sees the wreckage of the lives of young men without direction today.  Later on in Proverbs 4 we read, “But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble” (v19).

A new Nike ad features Colin Kaepernick.  Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who sparked controversy by kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice, will be the face of a Nike advertising campaign for the 30th anniversary of its ‘Just do It’ motto.  The ad features Kaepernick, the Nike logo and “just do it” slogan as well as the quote: “Believe in something.  Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

You can be certain of Nike’s intends to profit financially from this ad.  They are calculating that Kaepernick’s fame will exceed the money he is being paid. Nike is an “calculated company – They’ve never known their customer better.” “We believe Colin is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation, who has leveraged the power of sport to help move the world forward,” Nike executive Gino Fisanotti told ESPN.  “We wanted to energize its meaning and introduce ‘Just Do It’ to a new generation of athletes.”

The appeal is to young men searching for a cause and identity.  Nike sees Kaepernick as an icon of resistance.  Jemele Hill notes, “He represents the very culture that Nike wants to continue to monetize” His style of rebelliousness and outspokenness is an activism that has become a powerful brand. Nike’s best customers are active, high-earning young people, who give 62% approval to protests during the national anthem.  Lynde Langdon astutely observed, “Nike has just leveraged some of the strongest emotions of its most valuable customers in its favor.”

I do not want to take sides regarding kneeling during the National Anthem at NFL games. But I do wonder how the ad will, “help move the world forward.”   I  want to use the Kaepernick ad as a “trumpet call” for wild men to help move forward under the Lordship of King Jesus.  The wording  of the slogan lends itself to various interpretations.  Here is mine.

First the word “Just.”  Just is an adjective for behavior that is morally right and fair.  It can mean to act “now.”  “Just” is an urgent call for men to join King Jesus in furthering his kingdom reign in the earth.  The call is urgent for courageous men to fight in the spiritual battle between good and evil (Eph. 6:10-11).  This is the ultimate battle.

Secondly, the word “do.”  This is a call for men to take the initative by leading a life of godliness.  Our nation is filled with passive young men, who are void of meaning and purpose.  King Jesus invites men to give their whole life to kingdom living. He is asking men to “be all in.”

Thirdly, the word “it.”  What exactly does “it” mean?  It can mean anything.  That is the problem.  Men need direction.  What are they supposed to do.  The gospel is clear.  We are to pray and act upon –  “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10).

A word about the slogan, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”  For what are men willing to make sacrifice?  Who is asking for the sacrifice? The King’s message is a clear and challenging.  “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life’ ( John 12:24-5).  Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” ( Gal 2:20). Jesus invites a man to come and die for him.  Are you ready for such a sacrifice?

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, Humanae Vitae. It has turned out to be one of the most influential and controversial religious documents of the 20th century.  Glenn Stanton, director of global family formation studies at Focus on the Family noted, “Humane Vitae is as powerful and prophetic as it is misunderstood and ignored….]it is] an uncompromising and unapologetically Christian view of male and female, conjugal love, and the wonder of marital sexuality. It calls us to remember there is an objective and divine moral law related to our procreative possibilities and the ends of marriage itself.”

In the section “Consequences of Artificial Methods (17), Pope Paul VI makes this prophetic observation, now finding fulfillment in the #MeToo  movement, as women find their voice concerning sexual harassment. “When men become accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods they may, forget the reverence due to women, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.”

Back in July of 1968 the pope’s words seemed a bit extreme for a culture experiencing a sexual revolution with the mantra of  “all you need is love,” meaning sex.  I was a young married seminarian, going to Fuller Seminary in Pasadena.  I remember well going to Griffith Park to observe what was then  called “love-ins,” where the freedom of expression was on full display.  For a young man from the northwoods of Michigan, going to see a “love in” with my parents from Upper Michigan was like visiting a alien culture and lifestyle.

As a young man, committed to marrying the love of my life in 1965, after a courtship of four years, I was  committed to sexual purity.  I am  thankful to God for his mercy towards me.  We married as virgins, but maintaining purity was not easy.  I remember well Paul’s admonition in I Cor. 6:18, “Flee from sexual immorality.  All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” “….sexual union has a spiritual component, sexual activity outside marriage is a unique sin both against Christ ( I Cor. 6:15) and one’s own body (v 18)” (ESV Study Bible).  The Message says it very descriptively, “Adultery is a brainless act, soul-destroying , self-destructive” (Prov 6:32).

The Pope pointed out that “human beings – and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation – need incentives to keep the moral law.” He spoke  like a father warning his children of the consequences of their choices.  He predicted, observed the Archbishop of Sidney that “the sexual and contraceptive revolution would lead to more infidelity than marital stability, to lower moral standards rather than greater virture, to a hyper-sexualized culture with all its attendant challenges and to the exploitation of women rather than their equality.”

Men, I cannot stress the vital need of Godly men to be exemplars of sexual purity.  Young men will look to you for hope and encouragement.  With such great sexual confusion in society, men young and old, need encouragement and loving accountability in the contempory sexual wilderness.  We need to celebrate and rejoice in God’s great gift of sex within marriage.  I Thess. 4:3-5 could be our watchword. “This is God’s will, you see: he wants you to be holy, to keep well away from fornication. Each of you shoul know how to control your own body in holiness and honor, not in the madness of lust like Gentiles who don’t know God” (Wright).

“Mere Sexuality” is the title of a book  by Todd Wilson.  His aim is to rediscover the Christian vision of sexuality. Mere sexuality refers “to the themes that have characterized the Christian vision of sexuality down through the ages….what most Christians at most times in most places have believed about human sexuality – in other words, the historic consensus.”  For me this implies subscribing to historic orthodox Christianity.

Being created male and female is our identity, a gift from a personal, relational, loving God.  “Contrast this with our culture’s messaging,” notes Wilson, “which tells us that we are who we desire sexually – turning sexual desire into an idol that has power to name us in a way that should be left to God.”  Feminist Camila Paglia has observed, “There is something fundamentally constant in gender that is grounded in concrete facts.” God did not create  solitary individuals, but a complementary pair to reflect his image.

The #EvolveTheDefintion movement is an attempt to legitimize our ability to label our sexual identity.  How will the definition evolve?  Is there a model or guide? Will there ever be a consensus on what is masculine?  I have tried in my blogs to define masculinity from a biblical perspective as a follower of Jesus.  My contention is that Christian men need to do their own soul work together, hearing the voices and stories of other men to be able to embrace their masculine souls..

The #EvolveTheDefintion movement is a good example of an attempt to redefine what it means to be a man.   My concern is for men who become confused, threatened or uncertain regarding their unique masculine identity.  While this movement has good intention in wanting to  help men with their male identity, there is the  danger of being influenced by “pervasive interpretive pluralism,” with no  consensus on what the Bible teaches on matters of sexuality. Listed below are some of the assumptions made by this movement that are questionable to anyone who subscribes to “mere sexuality.”

First, masculinity is a acquired identity. The differences between the sexes is not a matter of  “constructs,”‘  but rather a  “given” reality, going back to the orders of creation in Genesis.  We dare not impose our will and choice on what God has created. Personality type, spiritual gifting, family background, training, etc. will all help shape a man.  But each man’s  uniqueness is found in being addressed by his heavenly Father

Secondly, the need to expand the meaning of masculinity.  I agree that cultural norms and sensitivities change.  For example being “tough and tender”  rather then exhibiting a macho image is much more winsome in the MeToo era.  But beware of the influence of  the “peevish, grudging rancor against men” ( Paglia).

Thirdly, the need to be more inclusive.  I get nervous when ever the world “inclusive” is used.  What characteristics should be included and who is making the list.  I acknowledge being nurturing and sensitive is necessary for men.  But these are compliments to their essential masculinity.

Fourthly, there is no one way of being a man and there never has been one. I agree.  Each man is unique.  But beware since  – “Leaving sex to the feminist is like letting your dog vacation at the taxidermist’s” (Paglia).

Fifthly, concern for the narrow definition of masculinity.  Beware if this assumption being based on the mantra that “men are aggresors, women are victim, and patriarchy is to blame.”  The natural strengths of the masculine cannot not be discarded without damaging the relationship with the feminine.. “If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts” ( Paglia).

Recently I was watching  sports on TV, when I saw the #EvolveTheDefintion TV spot.  The first image was the word “masculine,”  as an adjective: “having qualities or appearance traditionally associate with men, especially strength and aggression.”  Some of the synonyms  recited by various men included, macho, manly, muscular, well-built, red-blooded, strapping, strong, brawny, powerful.  A young man appears who said in a rather confused manner, “none of these sound like me.”

The ad was created for Bonobos, which claims to be the largest clothing brand ever built on the web in the US.  The name comes from Bonobo, formerly called the pygmy chimpanzee, which is now an endangered great ape.  In the attempt to sell men’s clothing, Bonobos intends to offer the best shopping experience in the world.  “Your search for the perfect fit ends here” is their claim.

In order to appeal to all men, Bonobos created #EvolveTheDefintion as a project, “that uses the voices of real people to start a conversation around the narrow definition of masculine, its limitations, and how we can expand it to be more inclusive.”  Men are encouraged to, “add [their] voice and help create a world where every man fits…….Masculinity isn’t a fixed thing, but an acquired identity.  There is no one way of being a man and there never has been one.”

Remember advertising on TV is carefully crafted after much research and careful evaluation as to what the popular culture believes about a subject.  From the first blog I wrote almost nine years ago, my concern was to articulate a Christian perspective regarding the masculine soul  in contemporary life.  This ad is proof positive that masculinity is in crisis.  We have lost confidence in the masculine in the West.  Striving to be more inclusive will only bring more confusion.

I write to reassure any man reading this blog who might be questioning his masculinity.  I strongly reject the notion of masculinity being “an acquired identity.” We are created in our uniqueness to be masculine.  Writing at The Gospel Coalition, Brett McCracken writes, “Men and female are not fluid, easily interchangeable constructs we fashion from below.  Rather, they represent a complementary unity from above: one that goes beyond bodily or even gendered polarity.  It is a complementary unity that reflects the structure of the wider world and the God who created it.”

We read in Genesis 5:1-2, “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.  He created them male and female and blessed them.  And when they were created, he called them ‘man.'”  “Gender,” C. S. Lewis observes, “is a reality, and a more fundamental reality than sex…..Masculine and Feminine meet us on planes of reality where male and female would be simply meaningless.”  God has created you in all of your glorious uniqueness to be a man.  Your gender is masculine.  Celebrate that reality as you also celebrate the opposite; the feminine.

I have learned through much trail and error the wisdom of Leanne Payne.  Masculinity is bestowed more than taught.  What has this meant for me?  First, I accept myself, with all my warts, as uniquely created in God’s image as a male.  Secondly, I have found affirmation for my masculine soul, knowing that I have a Father in heaven who delights and is fond of me.  Thirdly, I continue to open my soul to the work of the Spirit in bring healing to my wounded masculine soul so that I can stand confidently in my uniqueness as a man.   Fourthly, I learned years ago to be among godly, affirmed men, so that I might “taste” their godly male presence.