A close friend and I were having a discussion on the topic of where have all the men gone. The conversation started out with a point made about how many incredible women of God there are; but so many men that by definition suck. Our compassion for women having to live with the severe shortage of real men got us onto the topic of why we are living in with a great deficit of quality men.
Here are a few ideas that we came up with
1. Our current culture is unlike any other culture before us. We have had to grow up in a world absent of real men to show us the way. It is no wonder that without a guide to lead us down the path of becoming men, we have gotten lost. An interesting phenomenon amongst African elephants was that for a period in areas where there had been a lot o poaching of bull elephants (for their ivory) the adolescent bull elephants grew out of control as far as how elephants usually commune with one another. The teenage bull elephants were demonstrating their angst on the female elephants who had no bulls to protect them. Now I am not in any way comparing elephants with the complexities of humanity in a Darwinist way, but in the way that when societal structure of elephants dramatically changed within one generation the society crashed to a halt in their absence. So really the question of why? is not nearly as important as How are we going to fix this?
2. The chances of the fathers of my generation coming around and fixing the problem is not likely. They gave up. They Ran away. They have failed and fled; leaving behind them an aftermath of destruction. If they are going to hand us a world that they broke then To Hell With Them! We are not going to need them hanging around us(future generation of men) continuing to hold us down cause they are not capable of bringing us up.
I suppose that part of my frustration is simply the fact that we are fallen men, living in a fallen world. We were created to live in the splendor that God had planned for us, but that splendor would have been nothing with out the choice to sin. However, God has graciously provided opportunity all along to be restored and to live with the strength that he had originally intended.
3. Part of figuring out How to fix the dilemma of the "man down" epidemic is figuring out what is the source for the lack of manhood amongst us. I believe it is that we are walking in our woundedness and not in the strength of God's mighty grace. I see a battlefield of men down, unable to fight because they are dead or too maimed to go on. However, the thing that i see in common with the few "elite" men of God amongst us is that we have received the grace from God to be healed of our wounds and continue in the uphill battle of fixing our father's broken world.
I still have the scars of where the battle got the best of me. I may forever walk with the limp of growing up without a real man to show me the way.
BUT I WILL CONTINUE TO STAND ON THE SOLID GROUND THAT GOD HAS PUT ME ON, AND I WILL CONTINUE TO HOPE AND HAVE FAITH IN THE FACT THAT HE WILL SECURE MY FOOTING IN THE FUTURE. AND I WILL STAND IN THE TRIUMPH OF VICTORY THAT CHRIST SECURED ON CALVARY. KNOWING FULL WELL THAT THE WAR HAS BEEN WON, BUT THERE IS A BATTLE STILL WAGING WITH IN US AND AROUND US. and it is that battle that i am calling upon the men of the future to fight beside me. and to persevere through the struggles and turmoil of this world until the day when the war ends and we can go home to be with our Heavenly Father God.
The only way that we have left to figure out how to be men, is through God, through each other, and through the remnant of real men in this world. Let us be a generation of men that despite great odds, will rise up to be the men that glorifies God in all we do. And the generation of men that make the final stand for Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven.
AMEN
Psalm 40
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 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.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is the man
who makes the LORD his trust,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods. [a]
5 Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare.
6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but my ears you have pierced with (righteousness)
burnt offerings and sin offerings
you did not require.
7 Then I said, "Here I am, I have come—
it is written about me in the scroll. [d]
8 I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart."
9 I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips,
as you know, O LORD.
10 I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not conceal your love and your truth
from the great assembly.
11 Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD;
may your love and your truth always protect me.
12 For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to save me;
O LORD, come quickly to help me.
14 May all who seek to take my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.
15 May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!"
be appalled at their own shame.
16 But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation always say,
"The LORD be exalted!"
17 Yet I am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.
