A Man?

What is it that makes a man a man? Is it his measure of confidence? Is it how much weight he can bench press? Maybe it is how much money he has? Could it be how many women he has slept with? Or even having a girlfriend at all? Does it coincide with how large his genitalia are? Or is it something much more than these? Perhaps a measure of a man can be found by going back to who made man in the first place. God made man in his image and man was made to be in the wild. I have been reading a book called Wild at Heart by John Eldridge. It has really changed my perspective on what men are called to be. Especially for a lot of Christian men, because to be honest it seems many of us are bored and for lack of a better word, womanish. It seems most men in the church have lost their will to fight back, to explore, to be adventurous, to stand for himself and his family, to share without fear of what others think about him. Being a man is about being able to fight for what is right, being able to live on the edge of death, being able to fight for his woman and the beauty that she has to unveil to the world. He is the rock of the family, the provider, the defender, and the adventurer. He is dangerous and that is what makes his strength so scary. That is why our culture has tried to strip men of everything that makes them men. Probably the biggest problem with men is they do not know who they are in God. They get their identity from all the things that cannot fulfill them: women, money, power, prestige, work, or just being nice. You ever met a "nice" guy that looked like he was enjoying life? They are like a neutered dog, they have no spark, no danger, no strength. What I mean by strength is being able to eat their fear for breakfast and face something new everyday with great abandon and excitement. To adventure out from their preconceived comfort zones. As Eldridge describes, the world of todays men are like lions that can be found at a zoo. They are completely lifeless and are caged up. They are stripped of everything that makes them the predator of the plains. They are in effect bored.I hope God can continue to work in me to help me regain my strength in a world that is trying to emasculate me and put me in my place. I want to be wild, to be dangerous, to be someone that can stand for what is right, when everyone else shoots me down or wants to play it safe. That is my prayer.