After church today, I went and joined my Sunday School group at our director’s house for lunch. It was a short meeting, but some of the guys invited me to join them for ultimate frisbee. For those who don’t know, I really have sports apathy. I don’t know a thing about sports hardly. I can watch Braves baseball, but that’s about it.
Well, I figured I’d go. I heard it was a bit wild though and there would probably be bloodshed, so I decided to stay out. Why? Well for those who don’t know, I have had scoliosis surgery so I have a steel rod on my spine and I don’t particularly want to risk anything happening to that.
So I walked around with my book in my hand and watched some of the other guys playing. For awhile, I felt like an outsider. All of the guys were out there playing and I was the only one with a Y chromosome that wasn’t on the field. It was as if this was a “guy thing” and I wasn’t participating.
Yet I thought about it some more of course. Who says that it’s the masculine thing to go out on a field and get dirty? I’m not saying it’s an unmasculine thing, but why can not the life of the mind be just as intellectual. These guys get rough and fight on the physical battleground. I do so on the intellectual. Is that not just as masculine?
I had to pause as I pondered that. A lot of our views on masculinity and femininity come from the culture. Women are told they must have a figure like X and weigh Y pounds and play with dolls and any number of things. Ladies. Don’t go to Cosmo or Glamour or any of these other magazines looking for true femininity. Still, tonight is for the guys.
We men are sadly seen in less than glamorous light in today’s society. We’re seen as ones who just belch and watch football and think about sex 24/7. We’re also supposed to be big and muscular and if you’re not, we’ll you’re just less than a guy. Unfortunately, that puts myself and a lot of other guys out.
Is this really the way it is? Let’s look at what Scripture says. When it speaks about a man in his household, it says he is t be the head and to love his wife and be willing to die for her. He is to be the head of the household. None of those qualities above are mentioned. You can lead your household whether you’re the skinniest kid from your graduating class or Mr. Universe.
Of course, I’m not saying there’s anything unmasculine about such traits either. I’m simply saying that real masculinity lies not in the physical and your association with that, nor would I say it even lies in the intellectual and your association with that. I think you can find real men on both sides and some men are even on both sides entirely.
So tonight, I want our men to go out and find real masculinity. You won’t find it in the men’s magazines. I have nothing against exercise or building yourself up if you want to do that. Just don’t do so thinking it makes you more of a man. Real masculinity is found in reflecting the nature of God as you were meant to be. The man who does that is a real man.
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