I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and show thyself a man. 1 Kings 2:2 Taking her cue from Davids parting counsel to his son, Solomon, Elizabeth Elliot wrote to her nephew: The whole world cries for men who are strong in conviction, strong to lead, to stand, to suffer. I pray that you will be that kind of man. How critical is counsel of this stripe today! Sociologists have recognized the attempt in pop culture to remake men into less masculine creatures. The values typically associated with masculinity are increasingly discouraged and even vilified in our post-modern world. Our society wants a kinder and gentler breed of man, or as C. S. Lewis put it in his book The Abolition of Man, men without chests. Lewis wrote: We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. By that intriguing phrase, Lewis means men without heart. He talks about cerebral man, i.e. man controlled by his intellect, and visceral man, i.e. man controlled by his appetites. But modern culture, he says, denies the need for the very thing that makes a man a man--his heart and his soul. What is needed so desperately today is men with chests, who lead by heart and conviction. We are not talking about men who rule by the belly, throwing their weight around with bluster and tyranny. We are talking about men who lead with the virtues that come from the soul--like honor and valor and conviction and integrity and commitment. God give us men with chests and deliver us from the traitors in our midst who laugh at honor and integrity.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 14:38:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015