The signs of this war are all around us. Here are a few of them:
- The lack of fathers is often cited as the number one social crisis of our time
- A fatherless child is 5 times more likely to suffer poverty, repeat a grade, or have emotional problems.
- A third of all children in America go to bed without their biological father in the home.
- Less than 10% of all churches can sustain active men’s ministries, and fewer than 1% of churchgoing men participate in them.
- About 70% of men say they have actively sought out porn over a one year’s time span.
This is just a sampling of some of the stats I have seen about men. You get the point. Why cite depressing stats? To be jolted awake. It’s too easy to fall asleep to the war around us — the long, insidious war against masculinity.
Let me restate: the long, insidious war against your masculinity.
Want to awaken? Read on…
Isn’t This Just Hype?
It’s easy to say blunt things to get the attention of readers. Am I guilty of this, just some hype to attract a wider audience? I don’t think so. Here are two reasons.
First, I have heard hundreds of men tell their stories. Every one is unique, full of wonder. But every story carries the fallout of war. I have listened to the battle weary, the walking wounded, and the nearly comatose. I see the war in their addictions, in their anxieties, and in the pain they inflict on themselves. My own life is no exception: years of fatherlessness, shame, generational curses, sinful patterns, demonic oppression, and confusion about masculinity. It’s the same long, insidious war against masculinity.
Your sense of being masculine is the epicenter of your being. Wouldn’t it make sense for the devil to launch his fiercest attacks here?
Here’s the second reason this isn’t hype. I open the New Testament, and I find a world at war. Jesus and the apostles assumed we were in occupied territory. There is a battle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. The light has made a stunning invasion, but the battle rages on for now.
Choosing to awaken
Choosing to stay asleep while a war is raging is not wise. But it’s an option many choose. It just seems easier to get on with life, manage as best you can, and try not to get into too much trouble. Spiritual inertia keeps men stuck here. But if you choose to awaken, it isn’t easy or comfortable. Much like a leg that’s fallen asleep, slapping it awake will feel like pins and needles until it fully awakens.
So where do you start? You start with a simple prayer: “Jesus, awaken me to the war around me and in me.” He will always take you up on it.
Then get help. Find a place to tell your story to another man or to a group of men. You need to come out of hiding. Come clean and allow other brothers to love you in your shame and sadness. They will consider it an honor to hear your story.
Next learn to fight for your own masculine heart. This is warrior training. Whatever the battlegrounds where you been emasculated, Jesus can teach you to fight for your heart and heal you. This is certainly my story. He was the great Warrior Himself and has promised to make us like Himself.
Finally, you need to get angry, really angry. I mean that. Most men have no idea what to do with their anger. They explode it on others or implode it on themselves. But there is a healthy place to focus our anger — on the evil one himself. The perpetrators of evil in our lives are appropriate targets for our anger, but at some point they need to be forgiven to free ourselves. They are just puppets of the great deceiver.
Get angry at the source, at Satan himself. Refuse his lies. Resist his tactics. Close the door to any entrance he has had in your life.
Choosing to stand in victory
One of the names Jesus was often given in the ancient church was Christ the Victor. It is not a name we often hear, but I love it. This is why I don’t get depressed when I see stats about men. However bad the situation, Jesus is still Victor. He has vanquished sin, death, and Satan.
This is also why I feel such hope. I mentioned at the start that I have listened to so many difficult stories of men. But I have also seen Jesus progressively heal so many men. I have watched Him heal memories, heal shame, set men free from destructive patterns, and give them the joy of being a man.
Once you experience Jesus as the Victor in your life, you will want to help others experience Him too.
Final Thought
I see a lot of men asleep. But I also see men in various quarters awakening to the long, insidious war against their masculinity. I see them awakening to Jesus. I see them finding their true identity and being sent on a mission. This gives me great hope.
I know it gives Jesus great joy.
Want to join us? Contact me for ideas.
Bill
