We live in the midst of a generation which, for the most part, has no idea what real manhood looks like. Sure, we might catch a glimpse of it every now and then, in some character from a book or a movie--but it's more the stuff of legends, it would seem. Very rarely do we encounter real Men in everyday, normal life.
In Job chapter 29, Job is reminiscing on his earlier years, and winds up giving us a poignant picture of a godly man. He talks of a life saturated with the presence of God, a man who is respected by all who know him, because he is moved by the God's love to actually do something about injustice around him and to pour his life out on behalf of the weak and the destitute. That's what real manhood looks like.
And yet in our generation and our culture we're inundated with examples of "manliness" that fall so short of the real thing. The role models young men have to look up to are rock-stars in skinny jeans with voices that can easily be mistaken as female if the listener is not paying close attention. That, or the football players who work and sweat to be "tough" but at the end of the day go home to cushy homes and wide-screened televisions where they can relax from a long day of training to chase a pigskin from one end of the field to another. Then there's the other side of the spectrum--the brilliant entrepreneurs and businessmen who work hard and eventually become successful millionaires. Okay, so there are better role models out there...like perhaps the scientists and activists who strive to make an impact beyond themselves with their lives, or those who devote their entire lives to a particular field of study with the same intention.
But where are the men?
Where are the fathers worthy of the title "hero" even when their children have outgrown their phase of being enamored with Batman or Captain America? Where are the men who live out their calling and their faith to such an extent in their day-to-day lives that the Life that dwells inside them is poured out into their wives, their kids, their friends, their neighbors, total strangers, their communities, and this world? Where are the men who can say to those younger than them, "Follow me as I follow Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1)? Where are the men who can look back on their lives like Job did and say "I delivered the poor that cried for help...I put on righteousness, and it clothed me...I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame" (Job 29:12, 14, 15)? Where are the men of faith and courage who will dare to truly surrender all like this guy did? In our day of esteeming the famous and the popular, we just don't see much of the real stuff that manhood is made of.
But this post is not about inspiring depression and pessimism concerning manhood, but rather, hope. Why? Because I believe God is in the process of raising up men with the characteristics I just mentioned (and others I haven't touched on). I'm about to borrow an illustration from Eric Ludy...
Fossils and other remains have been found of a certain species of deer known as the Irish Elk, which once roamed the earth with a shoulder-height of about 7 feet and a rack of antlers spanning a massive 12 feet. Irish Elk are extinct now, leaving us with only their smaller relatives for comparison. Elk these days grow to a maximum of about 5 feet tall at the shoulders, with antler racks only about 4 feet wide...
But can you imagine what it would be like if elk suddenly started growing as big as some of their ancestors used to? What if a generation of elk started growing to the magnificent size of their predecessors?...What if a generation of men started growing into the fullness of genuine manhood as portrayed in Job 29 and so many other passages in the Bible, not to mention church history? =) Now maybe you see what I'm getting at with this post.
The amazing truth is, I've seen a glimpse of this very thing happening here in our generation, in our day and age. I've been blessed to know and come into contact with a fairly significant number of brothers in Christ who have begun to catch the vision God has for manhood and masculinity, and who are following hard after Him and desiring to be made into the men He has created and called them to be. But that's just the start.
Ultimately, when you get to the heart of the matter, any society, culture, or generation is defined by the individuals that compose it. Blanket statements and stereotypes are often utilized to try to convey a broad or generalized view of a large (and often very diverse) group of people. This is why stereotypes don't wind up working on the individual level--nobody fits the mold exactly. Even so, such generalizations can be useful in depicting overall trends or characteristics that the majority of a given group may tend to have in common. So if I were to generalize the current state of manhood in my generation, I would have to say we're faced with some (no offense) fairly depressing stuff...I was about to try to describe and sum up the current state of things, but perhaps it's better if I refrain and leave that to the men to address.
Ultimately, when you get to the heart of the matter, any society, culture, or generation is defined by the individuals that compose it. Blanket statements and stereotypes are often utilized to try to convey a broad or generalized view of a large (and often very diverse) group of people. This is why stereotypes don't wind up working on the individual level--nobody fits the mold exactly. Even so, such generalizations can be useful in depicting overall trends or characteristics that the majority of a given group may tend to have in common. So if I were to generalize the current state of manhood in my generation, I would have to say we're faced with some (no offense) fairly depressing stuff...I was about to try to describe and sum up the current state of things, but perhaps it's better if I refrain and leave that to the men to address.
So why is a girl writing about manliness anyway? What am I, of all people, doing writing this blog post? Well, there are a couple of reasons. The first is that for the past several years, biblical, godly manhood has been something I've felt pressed to pray for God to restore and instill in the men of my generation. In this time, He's brought some specific brothers-in-Christ into my life at various points and directed me to pray for Him to further various things I could see He was starting to do within each of their lives. And along the way, I've become aware of the fact that sometimes it takes a female's perspective to know to pray for certain aspects of manhood. God created us as women with certain longings and sort-of "instincts" in regards to what a man ought to be. Not that we can always go by the desires of our hearts, for it does still ring true that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9). However, where our feminine hearts' longings and ideals of what manhood is to look like do line up with the examples found in Scripture, we must do more than just lament and long for those ideals to become the norm. We must pray.
No great movement or change towards ultimate good in all of world history has ever come about without God enacting and enabling it and carrying it through to completion. Apart from Him, without Him, we can do nothing (1 John 15). But when God moves, so do His people. After all, we are His Body. So unless His Body has become disconnected from its Head, which is Christ, it will move in accordance with His will. But in order to do that, we must abide in Him, and remain abiding in Him.
So let none of us cop out. Men of God, each of you have the unique and individual responsibility before Him to continually seek His face and surrender your life to His will. You have the privilege of coming before the Author of Manhood and Masculinity and asking Him to forge within your soul that which He created you for in the first place, to make His Name great in and through you as He works that which no human being is capable of in your life. Women of God, each of us, likewise, have a unique and individual responsibility to seek the face of our Creator and plead with Him to work in us that which He created us for. May we come before Him and plead to be made into what a woman of God ought to be. May we ask Him to consume us to such an extent that His radiance is the only beauty we care about the world around us seeing.
Manhood and Womanhood were created to work together and to build upon one another. The rise of true masculinity will help make it easier for true womanhood to blossom and grow in our generation, and likewise the growth of true femininity will help to encourage and strengthen manhood as it ought to be.
I genuinely believe that God is at work in our generation right now to raise up men and women after His heart and to do a greater work than any of us have either seen or imagined. And I believe that a rise and return of true, biblical manhood is a crucial element of what He intends to do in our lifetime.
There is a quote from Keith Green's journal that has resonated in my soul ever since I first read it in his biography: "Lord, let there be a revival and let it begin in me!" It has struck me over and over again that praying for revival is empty and pointless if we are not simultaneously asking God to work according to His will in our own individual lives. For one thing, how exciting will it really be for us if the whole rest of the world gets set on fire by God to shine and live for His glory, but we're left out? If I settle for less than the fullness of God's will for my life--If I pick a spot and say, "Alright, I can stay here for the rest of my life and be content,"--I'll be missing out on the much bigger picture of the entirety of God's will. God doesn't stop with the individual. He uses one heart to ignite another, and in the process the flames should grow brighter in both. May we not hold back from asking and seeking after the fullness of what God desires to do--in our generation, yes, but also in every facet of each of our lives.
Rak Khazak!!
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