A Real Man is…a Son, a King, a Warrior, and a Lover

The Apostle Paul was a real man who called men out to become real men. And I like how he does it.

“When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child;

When I became a man, I did away with childish things.”    

I Corinthians 13:11

Of course that’s the natural progression…from childhood, boyhood to manhood.  In the ancient world of Paul’s day there wasn’t an in between time called “the teenage years” where you weren’t either a child or an adult.  A person went from childhood to adulthood.  A male went from boyhood to manhood.  A boy around 13 went from being considered a child with the relative freedom and lack of responsibility a child enjoys to taking on adult spiritual commitments to God as well as the responsibilities of an adult.  Bar mitvah, “Son of the Commandment.”  And the Jews knew what a man was and what a man did.  A boy knew what he was supposed to become.

I think the ancient system was better.  My take on it is that one of the unintended but real consequences of the moral and sexual revolution in America from the 1960′s on–and the revolution is continuing and snowballing downhill…

… is that men have been freed by the dominant culture from building a spiritual and moral base in his life and therefore from taking on any adult commitments, like marriage and building a family.  A man can get sex from any available woman, and there are many, and the result is that many men are stuck in boyhood.  Neither man nor boy.  Darrin Patrick calls him, Ban.

Did you know that the average age of a video game buyer is 39?  Give me oxygen…guys that old are still playing video games?!!!  You got to be kidding me!

Fast forward to young men today.  So many don’t even know what a real man is.  There is no one cultural model of a man.  So many young men don’t know what he should become.  Women on the other hand, are going for it!  They’re fed up with a lot of young men who don’t know what they want to be or do in life.  Colleges are kicking out 3 female college grads for every 2 male grads.  For the first time in history women are getting more PhD’s then men.  60% of all Pharmacists are women and they’ve taken that traditionally male industry over.  It’s a woman’s world now.  A lot of women see men as the new “ball and chain.”  When they divorce a ton are just staying single because it’s more difficult and less satisfying being married.

Men don’t know what a man is anymore.  So I’m going to talk about it with you over the next several blogs.

Hey, until then, talk with some friends…what is a man…?  I’ve given you the categories already.  Come back and see if you agree.

You know what my calling in life is?  Building men…men who know they are Sons, Kings, Warriors and Lovers.

Stop being a boy…put the kids' toys away and let’s figure this out together!