November 22, 2003

  • Biblical Masculinity

    I watched Once Upon a time in China (I) for the first time a while back after hearing numerous stories about this movie. Swelling within me was this great courage, a thirst for valor, and an eye for something greater than myself. This movie is like the Jet Li rendition of Braveheart. Wong Fei-Hung is the epic hero who stands up and fights for his country as foreigners come in and rape the country. He is the man who inspires courage in the hearts of his countrymen. What is it that I will fight for with the same courage? What will I fight with? Wong Fei-Hung fought using his sharp mind and his legendary kung fu. William Wallace, the warrior-poet, fought skillfully with the sword. Benjamin Martin (The Patriot) fought skillfully with his guns. Each of these men rose to courage in their country's time of greatest need  …  If the movies we like are telltale of the things our heart longs for, why is it that Braveheart is a favorite for so many of my guy friends? How is it that we can live so sedately and grow so complacent in America? Why have we ceased to dare great things and fight noble causes? Why is it so confusing to even know what to fight for?

    Christianity, as it currently exists, has done some terrible things to men. When all is said and done, I think most men in the church believe that God put them on the earth to be a good boy. The problem with men, we are told, is that they don’t know how to keep their promises, be spiritual leaders, talk to their wives, or raise their children. But, if they will try real hard they can reach the lofty summit of becoming  …. a nice guy. That’s what we hold up as models of Christian maturity: Really Nice Guys.   ~John Eldredge

    I find myself caught in this confusion. TV shows and movies subtly (and sometimes blatantly) minimize the differences. My co-workers sing this same refrain, and even the church echoes an alluring harmony. What I do know is this, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). Eldredge writes, “ there is a a masculine heart and a feminine heart, which in their own ways reflect or portray to the world God’s heart.”

     

    Is Jesus more like Mother Teresa or William Wallace? “One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for 18 yrs and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are healed of your sickness!” Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight.” But when the leader in charge of the synagogue got upset at Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, he says “You hypocrite! You work on the Sabbath day! Don’t you untie your ox or your donkey from their stalls on the Sabbath and lead them out for water? Wasn’t it necessary for me, even on the Sabbath day, to free this dear woman from the bondage in which Satan has held her for 18 yrs?”(Luke 13: 10-17 NLT)

     

    This same Jesus who spoke a tender word, who healed and touched an outcast, did not tippie-toe around church leaders on this heated issue.

     

Comments (3)

  • Makes me wonder which movies women most identify with...Chick flicks? Nah...I personally admire a few of Drew Barrymore's qualities in Ever After: She was a convicted activist but still feminine. Perhaps her feminity was enhanced by her conviction to do what is right... 

  • Personally, I agree with you, Dave, that particularly in Western culture we have forgotten what it means to be a gentleman. Men show little respect for themselves, each other, or women. They have no concept of service and dignity, honor, honesty, and graciousness. And no sense of self or shame. It's terrible. The culture has slipped and Christians have become to the point where it doesn't bother them. I disagree with Eldredge when he says that being a "nice guy" isn't important, but being "savage" is. Men are not to be savages. But they are to be gentlemen, who live with dignity and honor, devotion. Men who have steel in their spines and not just their speech. And men who fight and are strong, yet do so with civility and grace. Jesus knew when to be gentle and when and to whom to be severe, yet never was He out of control or savage. Always powerful, yet always graceful. A man.

  • what's a gasket? (re: double sided tape)

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