The heart of being a man is not to be ‘wild’, rather it is, under God, to take responsibility for his good creation. This has a two-fold dimension. It is responsibility for a job, and it is responsibility for people: for humanity’s task, and for humanity itself.
Now only Adam and Christ got to take responsibility for all humanity and all creation. These days we men are given something more modest, typically,
- One, two or three ways of working in the world, and
- A few people to take responsibility for, perhaps a wife and children, an extended family, as well as some opportunities in the church and community.
What marks men, then, is readiness – willingness and capacity to take on this two-fold responsibility. Boys are known by either their unwillingness or their incapacity to take on this responsibility, or both.
7 Comments
That’s a good definition Tim. Does that mean that if you have a job you can live at home with your mum and your Star Wars sheets and still be man?
Sorry Tim for the last comment. Seriously, I think this is helpful. It’s not the outward trappings of masculinity, but a readiness to shoulder responsibility that distinguishes a man from a boy. Unfortunately, our culture marks this transition to ‘manhood’ with a massive party and irresponsible drinking! No wonder men in our country never grow up.
Mark - I wasn’t offended, I think we need to be light hearted and serious about these things
Tim
Mark, re. your comments on partying and still living at home etc. this is failing precisely at taking responsibility for people - in the first place, oneself!
Tim, I’d like to hear comments about this:
http://news.smh.com.au/national/roxon-admits-mistakes-over-homophobia-20081127-6j1j.html
This may not be your brief (to comment on news). But I don’t know the document in question, and I don’t know what the “Fatherhood Foundation” is…
Oh, and that word verification is very difficult to penetrate!
(I took my word verification off, and I get about 3/4 harmless spam a year.)
Hi Tim,
I came up with a similar emphasis for husbands from Ephesians 5 last year, and when I’m on my normal computer I’ll email through the details.