A message for men that you don’t want to hear

A message for men that you don’t want to hear

Note: I’ll be the first to admit my own responsibility for being a part of the problem in the past. I’m lovingly, yet sternly challenging you to read and consider what I am saying.  

Boys are crying out for help!

Over the last 50 years, our moral revolution has attacked the sanctity of human life, destroyed the family and diminished the father’s role in society. So, males are nothing more than animals that have sex at will with whomever they want, pursue immediate gratification and comfort, relish violence and affluence, then move on like a swam of locusts.

Today boys, as young as 8 years old are immersed in pornography, addicted to violent games/movies and have ZERO respect for human life. As a result, girls (and  other boys) are objects for personal gratification. Their parents exist to feed and pamper them.

Our boys need to be rescued from this toxic culture. Men who have abandoned their responsibilities need to repent and be restored.  Admit it, we need to help each other.

No matter how you slice it – Males hold all the cards.

We are paying the price for the “moral revolution“. This revolution is rooted in nothing more than personal immediate gratification (of males – primarily).  It says,

“I want what I want and I want it NOW… And I will use the veil of reproductive rights, feminism, sexual freedom, personal autonomy, marriage, coercion and political volition to achieve my personal gratification – be it comfort, affluence, power or orgasm.”

Our children are paying dearly with their lives. Make no mistake, “if it feels good, do it” culture carries a high cost. 

“A poor sailor blames the wind.”
It is no accident that adult males are molesting minors and demeaning women, abusing children, stealing, doing drugs, lying under oath, murdering, and going to jail at high rates.  We raise our boys according to the rules of the moral revolution.

When boys grow up infused with the ‘values’ of the revolution, then act on those impulses – the moral revolutionaries make an ‘out-cry’ and blame everyone except themselves.  A worldview that blames systems and institutions for society’s problems rejects personal responsibility and accountability. The moral revolutionaries will deny this and shift blame to something else.

 

How about raising boys who know what it means to be authentic men?

A man does not give into passivity, he takes responsibility for his own actions, he practices personal accountability and integrity, he is humble, just, kind, self-disciplined, leads courageously and focuses on a cause greater than himself. A man is the voice for the voiceless, a protector of the weak and a provider.

Stop raising boys and Start raising men!

Stop the cycle of blame. In order to raise men of honor and integrity, we must look ourselves in the mirror and ask how we are going to help raise authentic men. It is a heart issue. Boys are crying out for help. Let’s help them by modeling manhood for them by teaching and challenging them to become the courageous men they are created to be.

Ignore the screaming of the moral revolutionaries – they will never stop screaming. That is what they do – they rage against everything. They will not stop raging until they destroy everything – including themselves.  I’m not sorry for pushing back against the dangerous worldview driving the ‘moral revolution’.  As a matter of fact, I’m going to challenge it with extreme moral force. The moral revolutionaries’ worldview is marked by childish immaturity.

Dave Ramsey once said,

“We all have a red-faced screaming child inside us.  That child’s name is ‘Immaturity’.”

It’s not too late.

Our future depends on our personal accountability today.  

  • How am ‘I’ going to raise my son to be man?
  • How can ‘I’ support the fatherless who have no role model?

 


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Finishing the Race: Pressing On

Finishing the Race: Pressing On

I wish I could have been in Boston on Monday. 36,000 people participated in the Boston Marathon. I got a sense that this was going to be a special race like no other.  I would have loved to be there.  But, like many of you, I caught glimpses on Social Media.  There are so many touching and amazing stories emerging from event. Whether its the stories of amputees returning to race in Boston or folks running in memory of their fallen loved ones or participants carrying exhausted strangers toward the finish; we learn something about who we are. It is an encouragement to see others finishing the race.

Having personally participated in several very mentally and physically grueling endurance races, I can only imagine what it felt like to cross that line. It must have been so bitter-sweet and joy-filled words can’t describe it.

We have a choice:
When an event or loss devastates our lives, we are left with a choice. Whether it is the loss of a spouse or job, health issues, or broken dreams… We have a choice. We can linger in the bondage of that dark time or we can press on and finish the race.

Redeeming the experience
The tough and dark times are rich with value that can be redeemed. Maybe not immediately, but at some point in the future. When the participants crossed the finish line on Monday in Boston, they redeemed something of transcendent value that cannot be measured. The word ‘priceless’ seems like a cheap description of it. As onlookers, we sense it and feel it as we see and hear the stories pouring out from the race.

Pressing on: Finishing the Race
We all experience trials in life. Most we cannot escape. We must endure it. Personally, I believe that pain and suffering have a purpose and have a much higher value than pleasure. If I can encourage you to do one thing. I encourage you to press on and finish the race. There will come a time when you will be able to redeem it and bring forth more good than you ever expected. Plant those roots good and deep. When the heat and trials come, you will endure. And when the quenching rains come you will burst forth with the good fruit of life that has transcendent value. There will be folks cheering you on as you finish your race. It is yours to run. Who knows, maybe you’ll have the privilege of carrying someone else toward the finish line with you.

Encouragement from the Bible:
“Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isa 40:28-31)

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:9)

Press on….

Lost in Transition

TransitionTX
*Above photo from DC Rainmaker’s blog. Excellent piece covering his Galveston 70.3 Ironman experience.

Have you ever walked out of a large shopping center in the middle of the summer and forgotten where you parked? It’s blazing hot and feels like its 150 degrees. You’ve already had a long day. Forgetting where you parked your car among a sea of vehicles is just the cherry on top, right? This happens to me more time than I’d like to admit.

Several years ago, I raced in my first triathlon. A triathlon consists of a swim, bike and run (in that order). The area where athletes transition from one sport to the next is called, you guessed it the ‘Transition Area’. The transition area contains racks with hundreds, sometimes thousands of bikes and it is swarming with overworked athletes trying to move from one sport to the next as quickly as possible. Each athlete gets less than two square feet of space for all his/her race gear. Each space is marked by the athlete’s race number. It can get a little tense in transition. (more…)

Is there really anything left to say?

Is there really anything left to say?

Last Sunday afternoon, my foot landed across the finish line at the Ironman 70.3 Galveston.

6 hours and 28 minutes earlier, I entered the 62 degree ocean to begin a 1.2 mile swim. My training season had been riddled with illness, injury and a minor surgery in late-January. Life had crowded out over half of my training time. I was unprepared and having a little pity party right there in ocean. A lesson was coming my way.

When the the race started, I remembered that I was committed. I was going to finish this race or die trying. There were two things I was depending on to carry me across the finish line. The first was God. The other was the chance to see my wife, kids and family at the finish.

Twenty minutes into the swim, both of my calves cramped up. I pressed on.

Thirty miles into the 56 mile bike, I started having GI issues. I pressed on.

A couple miles from the bike finish, my back tire went flat. I pressed on.

Six miles into the 13.1 mile run, my legs were giving out. Then, I witnessed the most amazing thing.

I saw two men tethered to each other with a chord as they ran. I wondered what was going on. In mile 7, I saw them again. Then I figured it out.

It was a blind man competing in an Ironman 70.3 while a sighted man guided him through the grueling course. Try to imagine it for a moment. Close your eyes and imagine swimming over a mile, riding 56 miles and running a half-marathon all without sight and completely dependent on a guide. This is rich on so many levels…

Is there really anything left to say?

Blind-Athlete-Ironman-70.3

PS. I beat my 2010 time by 3 minutes.  God has a sense of humor 🙂