biblical manhood

Today I listened to my first podcast by Pastor Mark Driscoll out of Mars Hill in Seattle. I honestly went in not expecting anything significant. By the looks of their Web site, they’re a very relevant and trendy church, and I figured the topic of choice was going to be another happy-go-lucky sermon about how we’re God’s children and we need to be men of Christ, blah blah blah.

Boy was I wrong.

I was blown away. I’ve never listened to a podcast and had tears come to my eyes. Tears of anger, of grief, of fear, of shame – and it all happened so fast.

If you’ve never listened to Driscoll, he has a raspy sort of voice, one that the local community baseball team coach might have. He has a great sense of humor and speaks with fervor and intentionality. And the man can yell.

The sermon was entitled “Trial: Marriage and Men” and began as a survey of how most men are, for whatever reason, either too masculine or not masculine enough. More often than not, men follow the examples they were given growing up (ex. fathers, pastors, uncles, etc.) and our society has played so far into men’s heads that they just give up. Driscoll repeatedly called the men in the audience idiots. He prefaced the sermon by claiming that this was a message for men, not for women, and that as men, we could take it.

His thesis was that we need to follow in the example of Christ in order to truly be a man. He used references from Genesis to illustrate how our descent from Adam has played into our roles as men. He made the point that, while society tells us that men’s and women’s roles are equal and that neither has dominion over the other, society is wrong. Not that men and women aren’t equal in and of themselves, but his is the belief that men are the hunters and the breadwinners, and the wives are the supporters and the nurturers. Both roles are equally as important and without one, the other cannot function. He said that there are very few exceptions to this rule (ie. husband is paralyzed, etc). The fact is simple: if you are unable t provide for a family, you are unfit to have a family.

It’s plain and simple.

And so many of us men are living our lives as a lie! We’re so caught up in ourselves or other things that we lose sight of what God wants for us – of what He’s destined us to become.

The truth of this hits home to me because of how I’ve been failing in this area. I’m not actively seeking God every day. I’m not treating God’s daughters (my sisters in Christ) in a respectful way. I’m a joke. I’m not fit to be called a man – and as for my future, let’s hope that I turn things around.

This podcast literally changed my life – and I’m usually the skeptical one about these things. If you’re a dude and are looking for some purpose and regardless of what you think about the roles of men and women – give this a try.

Click here to get the podcast