SHOW YOURSELF A MAN: Getting in the Club
Several months ago J. Diehl was asking what it meant to be a man - to be fully ‘in the club’ so to speak.
That’s a tricky question, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and thought it might serve to help if I talked about some principles that I feel contribute to maturity and stability in the lives of young men.
The first one is simple - and comes directly from David’s mouth. This was his charge to Solomon before he ‘went the way of all the earth: Be strong, show yourself a man.
To put it another way: you are male by birth, but you are a man by choice. It is self-evident that simply because a someone turns eighteen years old - he is not necessarily ‘a man’. (We’ve all me the unfortunate forty-year old who has yet to pass the test) Being a man involves many other factors - but I feel the primary factor is choice.
What you choose (and in a very real sense IF you choose) determines whether you stay a boy or emerge from the shadows of immaturity into strength. If anyone told you it would be easy they were not filled with the spirit of truth. It is a daily choice - and often a difficult choice. Embracing the difficulty, the labor, the toil with a humble spirit is a big piece of what shows you to have passed from boyhood (a state of constant dependancy and little consequential responsibilty) into manhood.
Show yourself a man: Put another way. Don’t tell me that you are a man, but show me by what you choose. Show me by what you pursue. Show me by restraining your eyes, tongue, and $$$. Show me by serving with joy and not complaining.
More to follow…
