How often do we men stand up for something? What inspires us to defend, honor, protect, fight for and even speak out about? Most of the time, sports. Many times a favorite food. Or how about the latest truck, or the newest gadget. We will spend hours proclaiming the glory of our newest thing, or our favorite sports team. The Browns are a particular point of pride for me. I don't care that they are consistently in the bottom ten of the NFL. I love them with a passion that will shine even in the darkest of times.
What about things that really matter though?
What if the things that we care so much about, actually don't matter quite as much as we thought?
As men, we are built to act. Our bodies are hard-wired to defend, protect and cherish. Yet many times, we find ourselves defending things that, in the end, are meaningless. One hundred years from now, will someone look back on the Browns 10-6 2007 season and remember it as a great one? Will they look back and marvel at the iPhone? Our times will be relics, and what we fought passionately for will ultimately, not matter.
So how about we find something productive to fight for? Why don't we look at our lives and think to ourselves, "Boy, my wife/fiancée/girlfriend/sister/mother is really important to me. How about I cherish her and protect her?" Why don't we ever view women as something to be honored above all? When most men look at a women, we see something to be conquered, to be taken for our own. Our desires do not usually get past the idea of, "What can she do for me? Will she be my girlfriend so that I will look good in public? Will she slowly give up her innocence for me so I can be satisfied physically? Will she give me her heart, her everything, in order to keep me, only to realize that once I am done with her that I am only going to move on to the next girl that is "better" looking?" How is it that modern masculinity is seen as something that gets the girl, the money, the car, the job, the career that fulfills them?
Why don't we as men stand up and cherish a women? How often do we look at a girl and tell them "I will be there for you" and not just say it to win them over? Why don't we look at them and decide in our hearts that they are not just a prize to be won, but a prize to be adored and defended? Women don't want to be conquered, they want to be Loved. They want to be protected. They want us to stand up in the face of opposition and scream "She is not for you! She is valuable and cherished in my eyes, and I will NOT allow her to be destroyed by the lies and corruption that you bring! I will NOT allow myself to be convinced that I need to do sexual things with her to make her happy!" Most of all, she wants to hear our battle cry be "I will defend you, cherish you, protect you, fight for you, sacrifice myself for you, be there for you, never give up, never give in, and most of all, never stop loving you. I deem you a worthy enough prize to defend, not to conquer."
Where is manhood today?
