Help Me, I'm an Idiot

I do some silly things from time to time.  There was one time when I forgot to put a guard on my hair clippers and ended up having to go bald for a little while.  And, being summer, my bald head got sunburned when I went on a run and didn't even think about putting sunscreen on my head.  I voluntarily shaved the very top of my head and my beard one Halloween to look like a 1970's cop with a balding head yet sweet mustache and sideburns (my Facebook bears the proof).  A previous Halloween saw me dress-up as Miss Piggy (which was utterly terrifying, and Facebook may or may not also bear the proof).  I "lost" my wallet under a pile of clean clothes on the day I was supposed to fly home, so I had to play 20 Questions with TSA for them to confirm my identity. College kids, am I right?

Wounds and Burdens Made Useful

There are times where I go back and read the posts I write on here.  Honestly, one of the main reasons I write is to try and organize thoughts on paper out of my jumbled mind and hope that I can glorify the Lord and share what is inside with some folks who are willing to read.  Yet, there is a theme in everything that I write--I am a man broken beyond belief! (Case in point)  Probably half the things I write either directly or indirectly revolve around my wounds and/or my sin.  Now, of course, there is always a hopeful ending, but there is a lot of sifting through the mud before I can reach such an ending, which is indicative of life in general.  There is a lot of struggle here--I even struggle to believe that my struggles are legitimate and not foolish or juvenile.

Sovereign Irony and a Noble Task

John A. Broadus Memorial Chapel (Southern Seminary, Louisville, KY.)

 "The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil."  1 Timothy 3:1-7

Man, A Little Lower than Angels (Part 2: Masculinity Brutalized)

In my last post, I looked at who Man was made to be in Genesis.  To be honest, that was the first half of a larger idea that I had, yet there was no way that I could put everything I wanted to say under one heading.  I wanted to show what Man was made to be from the Beginning, who he has become now, and the culture he finds himself in today.  I tried to cover the first two already, and now I am moving on to the third.  And, I must preface: it may read like a diatribe.  The masculine culture in which I have been raised sickens me.  The men in this world (and in Christ's church) seem to be, as I believe Mark Driscoll described them, nothing but boys who can shave.  Our idea of what makes a man needs to change.

Man, A Little Lower than Angels (Part 1: Genesis)

The annual Act Like Men conference is coming up this Saturday at Veritas Community Church, thus I have been thinking about what it is to be a Man of God in 21st Century America.  Quite frankly, despite my short 23 years of experience, I can say confidently that it is hard.  The world and its Prince tell us to do one thing while our Father in Heaven calls us to obedience to Him, and the conflict weighs heavily on our entire self.   This is the first half of my thoughts on the topic, and I am looking at the Man that God created in Genesis and the men we see in the world (and, more often than we would like to admit, in the mirror).  The eventual second part will be about how our concept of Masculinity, warped by sin, has become a unrealistic ideal in the eyes of our culture.  (There may be a third and a fourth...who knows?)