Tuesday, June 16, 2009

June 16, 2009

I am glad I grew up in the era that I did because we had real men back then. We had John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Kirk Douglas, Stan "The Man" Musial, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Mr. Clean AND - the Marlboro Man. You didn't mess with those guys. At the risk of sounding like a crotchety old dude, I've got to ask, "Where are these guys today?" Manly men are few and far between these days. What ever happened to testosterone?

From where I am sitting, manhood has drifted into two extremes - the feminization of manhood and the fantasizing of manhood. On the one side we have the GQ, Calvin Klein, and Adam Lambert image of manhood, while the other extreme is the James Bond image of a macho, muscle-bound dude driving a hot machine and making it with hot mamas.

Where does that leave the rest of us who don't want to get waxed and have no desire to go wild and womanize. Square in the middle?

As one square to another, let me offer another face to manhood. Allow me to direct your attention to Noah from the Old Testament account in Genesis. Here is a man who "floats my boat". I focus on Noah because if he had not "manned up" we would be not having this conversation.

Hebrews summarizes his life like this:

"By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith." Hebrews 11:7

My image of manhood is a guy like Noah. I don't know what he looked like but I am thinking Sean Connery-ish. It doesn't matter so much how he looked but it is more about what he did. From this one verse we see some impressive stuff:

1) He pleased God

2) He protected his family

3) He preserved the human race

That resume works for me! What will you do today that will please God? What are your plans to protect your marriage and your family today?
Over the next few posts I want to challenge you to focus on manhood from a faith perspective.
Ready to "man-up"?