Unlike the previous post, I offer no disclaimers. Actually I take that back. Many of the same disclaimers apply. I’m generalizing, I can only fit so much in to a single blog post. Take it with a grain of salt, and of course feel free to give me your opinion in the comments.
As a man I feel much more comfortable speaking about this subject then I did yesterday when I wrote “From Princess to Queen”. This post is aimed directly to you men (myself included, I picture saying this to myself in the mirror) and I make no apologies for what I have to say to you.
Look around the world. War, crime, poverty, violence, fatherless children. I blame you for the majority of it all. No matter what culture wants to say, no matter how much the feminist movement wants to misrepresent the idea of gender equality, the bottom line is that men are foundation builders for the world. It’s just the nature that we have. We build foundations, and we set the tone for the culture around us. It’s not mostly women in the porn industry. It’s men. (You might say the number of women is growing to which I say, men were there first, women followed after we men convinced them pornography is normal). It’s not women who are making decisions to go to war, it’s men (mainly). It’s not women who are beating their husbands, it’s men who are beating their wives because they can’t show restraint. I could go on and on and on and on, but I won’t because I think you get what I’m saying. Men, I blame us for most of our major issues today.
Somewhere along the line we started to believe some crazy things about what a man is. We traded love for lust, we traded restraint for anger, we traded integrity for doing whatever it takes to get our way, and we traded responsibility for a false sense of freedom . It’s a shame and it’s destroying the fabric of the world.
We have princes who never became kings. Little boys in a man’s body who only want what they want, when they want it. It makes sense that we come out this way when we live in the culture we do. Between the hyper-sexualized culture (More like fake sexuality) and the entertainment we take in. It’s no wonder why we are running around like a bunch of chickens with our heads cut off. We see false sexuality all the time, we see heroes in movies that are scripted. It’s not that these things (and things like it are completely false), they have just enough truth to resonate with us. These things strike chords that are real, they are just misplaced.
When we return to God, when we come back to the one who is the author of beauty, romance, adventure, integrity, honor, and all things good, we are able to put masculinity in its proper place and operate out of that. The more time we spend with our creator getting to know Him both through His Word and His Holy Spirit, we understand that being a man is a much different life than the one our culture shows us. Instead of viewing women as objects of physical pleasure, we view them as individuals with desires who deserve to be loved and protected. Our view of sex changes from dirty to clean. Integrity becomes a key part of who we strive to be. Our priority’s change from career and money, to family and community. We measure our worth not by what we do, but by who God already says we are. We begin to walk in the full understanding of how important it is that we be hope to a dying world, one that fights for what is good, that protects the innocent, and cares for the orphan and widow.
Are we perfect? Of course not. We’ve all bitten in to the apple of culture and what it says we should be. We quickly begin to realize however, that no matter how good that apple looked, it’s rotten inside full. I can speak personally and say that I have fallen often to the cultures lies about who a man is. I’ve been selfish, I’ve put myself ahead of others, and the consequences every time are always devastating.
The change starts with you, with us. Impact your family, impact your local community. Not all of us are called to be in the public eye, to be seen and heard by millions, and that’s ok. Be the unseen hero to many, but the seen hero to a few. We must man up in the truest sense of the word. Putting others before ourselves, putting their needs before ours, and being the front lines of defense.
Men have immense power, and when it’s used for good the world around us changes for good, when it’s abused, the world around us becomes a nightmare for those around us. May we walk with our creator and let him be the author of who we are, and what we’re meant to do.
