men who win
Manhood Is Not Automatic
By Chuck Gschwend

Sometimes it is easy for me to get in rut, live uninspired, unmotivated, and directionless. I find it very easy to get mindlessly caught up in the flow of life. During these times, I rarely do the things I know deep in my heart I want to do and am created to do as a man - give spiritual leadership to my own family, initiate meaningful discussions about God with my friends, sacrifice my agenda for my wife’s ultimate good, serve those less fortunate in our community. I know I ought to do these things, but I don’t. I need to be regularly called to step up to a life-giving manhood. A manhood, that rejects the passivity that comes so naturally to me.

Do you ever feel like I do? Stuck? Passive? Regretful? Or are you already doing all that you know you should be doing as a man? If so, awesome. Thank God for His empowering grace. Others of you are probably more like me, in continual need to be called to step up to manhood.

I can relate to the men who lived in Corinth back in Paul’s day. Paul called out for them to “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” 1 Corinthians 16:13-14. One thing that strikes me is that while Paul called these men to step up and “act like men,” he doesn’t say how a man is supposed to act. Paul merely assumes they knew. Sadly in our culture, I don’t believe we can assume men know how to “act like men.” There is no well-worn, tried and true path that will lead us from boyhood to manhood in our culture. And until we can see the path, we can’t take the journey.

ortunately, some are attempting to clarify the path to authentic manhood in our culture. Daniel Levinson, in “Seasons of Life,” lays out four steps from childhood to the later years of true manhood. Pastor Reb Bradley suggests five steps from boyhood to the single years to being a husband, then father and ultimately headed toward ministry. Dennis Rainey, leader of Family Life has laid out five steps from boyhood to adolescence to manhood to mentor to patriarch.

All these paths share a common trait: the absolute necessity to make a clean break away from adolescence in order to successfully arrive at manhood. While that occurs automatically in the physical realm it is not automatic in the emotional and spiritual realm - where it really counts. In fact, many fully-grown men remain in adolescence their whole lives.
Have you consciously stepped up to manhood? Can you identify the year, the place? Men, manhood is not automatic. This can be gleaned from 1 Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.” A choice must be made to do away with childish things. Have you made that choice?

Here are two quotes, which have rocked my world the last few months on this topic:
Dennis Rainey said: “Our churches are full of men just like I was…one foot on adolescence and one foot on manhood and have not turned from the lusts, the selfishness, the passivity, the rebellion of the teenage years to become what God called them to be.”

Have you turned intentionally and aggressively away from the self absorbed life that marks the average adolescent teenager for something nobler?

The second quote is from Carl Trueman, “One of the strangest trends of recent years has surely been the extended adolescence of the Western Male.” Trueman’s commentary was motivated by a recent survey which showed that the average age for video game players is now somewhere in the mid 30’s. This “extended adolescence” is one scary cultural trend.
Men, manhood is not automatic.

Men, God is calling us away from childish things.

Men, I believe we must continually ask ourselves a few hard questions:

1. Are we wasting our life on adolescent pursuits or the nobler pursuits of our Creator?
2. Are we a greater expert on our sports teams or on God’s eternally relevant Word?
3. Are we less self-absorbed than we were when we were 16?
4. Do we invest more time in fantasy football or fanaticizing about seeing our glorious God in heaven?
5. Are we less passive in accepting responsibility for the spiritual well being of our wife and children than we were five years ago?
6. Do we handle our money in a way that pleases the God who has given it to us, or do we use money to simply buy bigger toys?
7. Do we stand up for the rights of the less fortunate more than we did in high school?
8. Are we still trying to “fit in” as if we were still in junior high or are we secure in our identity as God’s beloved sons?
9. Are we still rebellious to God’s authority over us like we were when we were kids?
10. Are we still putting off until later a serious pursuit of God?

Men, we have all blown it in one way or another. Fortunately, there is one Man, Jesus, who grew out of adolescence, did away with childish things, and submitted to His Father’s will which resulted in Him stepping up and dying in our place on that ole rugged cross. He loves us. He wants us to rely on His death as payment for our selfish, adolescent lifestyles. He wants to create in us the heart of a tender warrior who will die to self and live for others. This is the call on your life. Embrace it. Embrace Him.