Men, Your Courage Is Needed

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Recently, I was hiking with three of my kids when we came upon a stream we needed to cross. It was a particularly muddy and slippery area and the water was somewhat fast, so I hatched a plan: I’d jump over and then drag a log back to use as a bridge for my kids to walk across.

I readied myself on the driest rock I could find, bent my knees, counted, “One, two, three,” and…didn’t jump.

I repositioned my feet, bent my knees again to jump, envisioned my feet landing solidly on the other side, and…didn’t jump.

About this time, my 10-year old daughter moved up quietly behind me and whispered, “You can do it, Daddy! You can do it. I know you can. Heck, Daddy, I could do it! You want me to do it, Daddy?”

That was all it took. I jumped.

I think it was Gordon Dalbey who wrote years ago that women (and I’d add children) cannot bestow manhood upon men, but they can ignite it.

Men: Let the plight of your sisters, wives, daughters (and sons), female colleagues, classmates, and neighbors ignite your courage.

Because your courage is sorely needed.

  • Kids everywhere are learning about their bodies, relationships, and sex from pornography.
  • Churches are disregarding Scripture (and 2,000 years of Church teaching) in exchange for a Christianity that affirms homosexual sex and homosexual marriage.
  • Leaders are opening the doors of women’s bathrooms and locker rooms and inviting men in.
  • Children are being trafficked for sex under our noses.
  • And we, men, are nurturing lust and pornography as though it is just what men do, or at least what every man “struggles with.”

We don’t just need courage to “stand up to” those who promote unjust and dangerous policies (although we need that, too). C.S. Lewis wrote, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at its testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.”

We need courage to love God above all else and to love others (Dt. 10:12, Heb. 11:24-26), to be humble (Micah 6:8, Mt. 5:5), to be ridiculed (Mt. 5:11), to turn the other cheek (Lk 6:29), to endure (Mark 13:13), to love our enemies (Mt. 5:43-45), to believe salvation and sanctification are attained by grace (Gal. 2:21) even though grace is being misused (Jude 4), and to trust Christ even amidst the storm (Mt. 8:26).

And we need courage to confess our own sins (Ja. 5:16), to own our own sexual depravity—whether in thought, word, or deed—to bring it into the light, and to get all the help we need to change our own ways. (Regeneration can help!)

Men, we need courage. If you do not find it within yourself, than let the plight of your sisters, wives, daughters (and sons), female colleagues, classmates, and neighbors ignite your courage.

Because your courage is sorely needed.

They need your courage.

They are why God gave you courage.

More than getting across a stream is at stake. More dangers await than the risk of getting a little cold or wet.

I’d value hearing from you: Where or why else do men need courage today?

With you,
Josh

Thanks For Reading.

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By Josh Glaser

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