A video from the journalists behind Restrepo about Sal Giunta, the first living Medal of Honor recipient in since the Vietnam war:

This is what humility and courage look like. This is manliness at its finest.

Glen Antoine Palmer, on his site The Gentlemens Standard wrote a powerful article espousing the idea that we are all witnesses—and specifically, that the actions our children witness us do will have a profound impact on them. He lists ten things his children will see him do. I definitely agree with this, and in the spirit of Rules for My Unborn Son I would adopt these as my own:

1. Going to work
2. Managing finances
3. Cook
4. Affection towards spouse
5. Affection towards own children
6. Dress
7. Social interaction
8. Show emotion
9. Go to church
10. Prayer

Read the full article on The Gentlemens Standard: The Gentlemens Ten- We Are All Witnesses.

ChristianityToday’s August issue addresses the issues of marriage and singleness. Within the cover article, I found a disturbing statistic:

Unfortunately, American evangelicals have another demographic concern: The ratio of devoutly Christian young women to men is far from even. Among evangelical churchgoers, there are about three single women for every two single men. This is the elephant in the corner of almost every congregation—a shortage of young Christian men.

Try counting singles in your congregation next Sunday. Evangelicals make much of avoiding being unequally yoked, but the fact that there are far more spiritually mature young women out there than men makes this bit of advice difficult to follow….I know, I know: God has someone in mind for them, and it’s just a matter of time before they meet. God does work miracles. But the fact remains that there just aren’t as many serious Christian young men as there are women, and the men know it.

…many men postpone growing up. Even their workplace performance is suffering: earnings for 25- to 34-year-old men have fallen by 20 percent since 1971, even after accounting for inflation. No wonder young women marry men who are on average at least two years older than they. Unfortunately, a key developmental institution for men—marriage—is the very thing being postponed, thus perpetuating their adolescence.

via The Case for Early Marriage | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

This makes my blood boil. Where are the men? Why are young men, my peers, holding onto selfish adolescence, embracing indolence as a lifestyle, and leaving the church? Why are they not sober-minded and considering their future?

I would venture three reasons why young men are not maturing as Christian men:

1. Young men are committing wholescale spiritual fornication

   Early Christian monks were very concerned about fornication, but not just the sexual kind. The concern of these Church patriarchs was committing spiritual adultery—loving God’s gifts above God. A serious study of the Old Testament prophets justifies this concern. In books like Hosea and Jeremiah, we see how God is fiercely jealous (protective) of His Bride, the Church. The relationship between us and God is characterized like that between a bride and a groom. For me, the love of God, to chase after His gifts, whether they be fun with friends, sports, entertainment, or possessions, is to make a cuckold out of God. It is impossible for young men to mature without actively deepening in their relationship with Christ. And it is impossible for that relationship to grow when they are loving the things of the world. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Mt 6:24).

   What really makes me upset is that parents are encouraging their sons to abandon God by supporting their reckless pursuit of pleasure apart from God. When a parent pressures their son into competitive sports instead of ministry, they are endorsing a position that pleasure and success in the trivial world of sports is more important than surrender and obedience to God. Parents need to stop encouraging their sons to pursue the cultural definition of adolescence. A carefree teenage life is antithetical to the things of God, and a parent who wishes to please God and prepare their son for maturity needs to push their son into developing a relationship with God and living that out in service to others.

2. Young men are not being mentored and discipled by older Christians.

   As I mentioned earlier this week in Two Generations and One Deep Divide, young men are not seeking out the counsel of older men and older men are failing to mentor younger ones. It is foolish to think that a young man can grow to maturity without the input and involvement of many older men. So why is it not happening? Young men, on the whole, struggle with pride, and being willing to respect and listen to older men takes humility. Older men, it seems, are busily occupied living their own lives and struggle with selfishness and an unwillingness to open up and engage younger men. Ultimately, the Bible places the brunt of the responsibility for this relationship on the older men. As long as the older men in a congregation are not investing in the young men, there will continue to be an efflux of young men from our churches.

3. Young men are being driven away by low and high standards.

   Without a doubt, standards are important. Parents have the duty to define acceptable standards of conduct for their household. However, misuse of standards seems to drive young men away from the things of God. On the one hand, a family with low standards tends to demean God’s holiness and not foster the spiritual disciplines necessary for growth as a Christian. On the other hand, high standards tends to drive young men away rather than strengthen their faith. Parents must give their young men enough room to fail and an environment that is restorative and allows them to get back up. A vibrant relationship with God is more important than legalistic standards.

Our church is losing its men, and the results are sure to be felt in the next decades. What must be done to restore them? How can we prevent the rapid loss of faith among us?

When a nation calls its prime men to battle, homes are broken, weeping sweethearts say their goodbyes, business are closed, college careers are wrecked, factories are refitted for wartime production, rationing and discomforts are accepted, all for war. Can we do less for the greatest fight that this world has ever known outside of the cross, this end time siege on sanity, morality, and spirituality?"

–Leonard Ravenhill

Question of the Day: How do you want to be remembered?

This will take about twenty minutes to work through:

http://www.quietbay.net/Science/astronomy/nightsky/

It is really great. You actually learn three constellations, two stars, and one planet as well as how to navigate with them. Great stuff…lots of fun and may be useful someday.

Yesterday, I had the privelege of hosting and refereeing a set of dodgeball games with the Quest program.

In conversation with Cpt. Menzel afterwards, we discussed why Dodgeball—and other intense, rough games—are good for boys.

They bring out testosterone.

I know a lot of moms out there  think this is a bad idea. I disagree. Our men need to be manly men, and our boys need to be manly boys. When young men are coddled and raised to be effeminate, gentle creatures, they are emasculated of their God-given drives to be manly. Many mothers are ultimately destroying their boys by raising them to avoid conflict, to avoid fighting, to avoid testosterone. Of course, there needs to be balance—young men need to understand how to be gentleman, how to use their drives to protect the weak.

They Create Competition

Men need to compete. They need to be self-driven. Games like dodgeball and activities like wrestling encourage this healthy competition.

They Promote Endurance

When you get smacked in the face by a dodgeball going ninety miles an hour, it hurts! It may even leave a mark! But pain is good. Injury isn’t, pain is. Pain motivates growth, and self-willingly enduring pain increases self-control in other areas of life as well.

This morning at 5:45 am, I was leading a PT session in which we were doing forward lunges up and down Heartbreak Hill (a long, steep hill next to our dorms) and holding positions like the “Flaming Chariot” (a sort of squat with your arms held out). It hurt. It really hurt. Our thighs felt like they were on fire.

I encouraged the guys to realize that “Pain is good. Pain is weakness leaving the body.” (to quote the USMC). I also told them, “Don’t give up! Don’t give in! Don’t give in! If you give in now, if you give in on the PT field, you will give in when you’re home alone surfing the internet. If you give in now, you will give in when you see an immodest magazine. Don’t give in! Don’t give in!” Of course, you have to picture me screaming this, as we were in mind-numbing pain at this point.

But it bears remembering that self-discipline, endurance, in physical activities will transfer to unrelated areas in our lives. By getting up early, or forcing myself to take freezing showers, I build my willpower and increase my ability to fight sin.

Play Hard Games!

So, in a nod to The Rebelution: Play Hard Games! As men, we need to get hurt. We need to push through the pain. We need to be encouraged to have the intestinal fortitude necessary to be manly men.

In an undisclosed region of Iraq, Air Force Staff Sgt. Earl I. Covel of Oregon was assigned to work with a small group of Army Special Forces soldiers and indigenous Kurdish fighters, when the safe house that Covel and his men were staying in came under a vicious attack.

Covel, the tactical air controller, made his way to the rooftop of a nearby building where he set up communications with air support while pointing out targets to his team. The soldier who was providing Covel cover fire as he coordinated the attack was shot and evacuated, with Covel left in a “little corner of hell” as he later described it. Covel continued to coordinate air and ground strikes for the next 36 hours, all the time returning enemy fire. Through it all, not one of Covel’s men was killed, though more than 100 insurgents were taken down. Later, it wasfound that approximately 200 insurgents were part of the large-scale assault.

At the recommendation of the Army soldiers with whom he served, Covel was recently awarded the Silver Star. “This honor speaks for itself,” Brigadier General Benjamin Bartlett said at the award ceremony. “Its importance cannot be overstated. I’ve been in the service for 31 years, and I’ve never seen a Silver Star presentation. What he did over there was beyond heroic. Heroes are those people who are put into a position where their true inner character comes out when it is needed most.”

From today’s Patriot Post

Links to other stories about this man:

• DoD’s DefenseLink Article: “Heroes in the War on Terror”
• US Centcom: “Tactical air controller receives Silver Star”

Anna at Hope Road posted a link to an article by Suzanne Hadley:

What Girls Wish You Knew

For us guys, this is a dream come true…we can actually see what women really want from us.

Suzanne gives seven bullet points that we should seek to make a reality:

• Show some respect.
• Be kind to everyone.
• Seek out spiritual guidance and accountability.
• Love your family.
• Take marriage seriously.
• Take initiative.
• Take a Risk.

These sound good, but the challenge is making them a daily habit.

Something I have found helpful was posting a “creed” of sorts on my bathroom mirror. I try to read it every morning. It reminds me of my priorities, of who I am, of what I am supposed to be doing.

And, I am trying to take steps of action as possible—spending time with my pastor and other older men, planning financially to save money, things like that.

But a lot of this, the attitudes of respect and love, that is a lot harder to develop. Those have to come from the heart, and they can only come from a heart that is centered on God and not on myself.

At its roots, this issue(like so many others) boils down to me relating to God as designed.

The emasculation of society by the smothering effects of modern uniformity has precipitated a severely over-managed, sadly under-led, and passionately un-principled culture from top to bottom. The great cry for the renewal of our civilization is for men to arise and be men.

Tristan Gylberd From The Patriot Post