And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
- John 12:32
I attended a seminar last night on "Manhood" where the speakers were showing us the social fallout that comes from the stereotypical male. This type is a mould into which most men are cemented today.
The illuminating point for me was one of the comments about the difference between male children and the teens and adult into which they grow.
As children, we are freely loving, caring, soft-hearted and innocent from birth. Then we sort of lose that as society tells us to toughen up and be a man. We grow to become half-men, incomplete! We end up dropping off the essential ingredients that our women and children require.
From this significant change in our nature, a raft of problems occurs, such as violence against both men and women, and suicides or depression when we can't live up to being that type of man.
We know part of us is missing but we don’t have the right to express it. When we do, we get laughed down or bullied.
As the three speakers were going through their spiels, I couldn’t help thinking how blind we become when we remove Christ from society. Here we had three men, all full-time employed by tax-payer funded service organisations to address this issue. They were all costing public money to arrive a the same conclusion as Christ. Jesus said, "Love the Lord with everything you have and love thy neighbour as yourself." Even years ago, when the Bible was more involved in society, we still had the manhood toughness problem. The view that a man has to have a certain robustness about him, strong and silent, has been a society flaw for hundreds of years. Yes, we must have a touch of warrior spirit to defend our patch, but it can’t be at the cost of losing our loving heart in the process.
Men have potential abilities far beyond where they are now, and society would love to embrace them if only they could be developed. Although it helps to a degree, merely having a Bible in society is not the answer. The answer is lifting Jesus amid that society, so He can then draw men unto Him. When drawn unto Christ, men are also drawn unto the fruit of the Spirit. From there, that caring, tender-hearted nature so evident in male children can also be unmistakable in male adults. Rightly balanced men can make such a positive impact on society, and we have lost that. But, it must come through Christ. Otherwise, we commence walking down the same dark path again and end up like these three chaps, looking for answers, blind to the fact that the answers are already there.
Today’s Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for showing me how I should live my life. Thank you again for Jesus, who was both strong and deliberate, but tender-hearted, able to show affection to all. Please help me take on these values and remove myself from any other mould society has put me in.
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