A Godly Man: Devotions From Time of GraceVoorbeeld

The confessions of a man

I have a confession. It’s hard to be a man. I’m sure it’s hard to be a woman too, but I can’t speak to it. Maybe one of my female colleagues could cover that topic. I’m just glad I never had to give birth. Most of the things God says about men and women in the Bible apply to both no matter which one he is addressing. And when God gets pointed with men, he is often tailoring a message toward our weaknesses. Fathers are more likely than mothers to exasperate their children because they are men. And it’s hard to be a man.

The script for manliness is bent toward brutishness because men wrote it. We get a pass for being crude and smelly that women don’t get. We would like to think we are bigger, faster, stronger, but most ladies I know are tougher than I am. They would never start a fight or a war nor believe they have a mandate to finish it. Men have a history of thinking it is the order of the universe that we should dominate everything. And we can struggle to be cooperative when we don’t.

And then there is the God-man, Jesus Christ. Men have profaned his name too often and failed to seek real manhood in him. Religion is for women and children, right? Not at all.

I have grown to admire the men who have patterned their lives after Jesus.