Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Show Yourself a MAN!

Randy Stinson had a great article on being a man in the winter 2005 The Tie (the magazine of The Southern Baptist Seminary). He lists attributes that push us toward "acting like men."


Do the hardest task first

Attacking your hardest task of the day without delay will build your resistance to passivity. Wait­ing until the end of the day only reinforces your sinful tendencies toward passivity.

Make the hard phone call first

While this is similar to the first suggestion, it deals more with passivity within interper­sonal relationships. Some men are willing to do the hard task first, but avoid difficult situations involving other people.

Run to the battle

One only needs to consider the life of the Apostle Paul to see that conflict is a regular fea­ture of the Christian life. Men who think all con­flict should be avoided, or who refuse to engage with those who would harm the body of Christ or their family, not only model passivity but fail in the area of protection.

Do you work now as opposed to later

From term papers to tax filing, the man who is cultivating biblical masculinity will not allow these things to rule him. He will exercise domin­ion over them by doing them in a timely manner.

Keep your domain in order

While most of us on occasion have a messy desk or car trunk, a life that is characterized by disorder is evidence of passivity. Your home, dorm room, garage, office and car should bear the mark of your masculinity as you subdue it and keep it in order.

Kill a bear or a lion

In other words, do something that is a chal­lenge for you. It may actually be to kill a bear or a lion, but it may be a health challenge like run­ning a triathlon or a marathon. It may be some­thing as basic as riding a roller coaster or as edgy as snorkeling with sharks. It may involve debat­ing the atheist at work or starting a Bible study at home. It may mean you need to finally share the gospel with your lost friend or deal with a family conflict that you have allowed to go on for too long.



HT: Spudman, Mrs. Mahaney

1 comment:

  1. The way things are going, you'll have to mass debate the atheists, that's for sure.

    ReplyDelete

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