I looked in the mirror one day thinking, “what do I have to be proud of as a single young man”? There were plenty of obvious answers to me. I’m an African-American male approaching 25 years without a criminal record, baby momma drama; I have a college degree and a salaried job with benefits, and I actually care about maturing as a human being past puberty. I often think that to myself, and praise God for it. But outside of my head, the applause is nominal. So I let the mirror talk to me and ask, “so, what am I celebrated for as a man?”

As I did so many times as a kid and teenager I turned to television for the answer. To me, television reflects a lot of our society’s collective values. Some of my favorite sitcoms are The Office, Scrubs, Everybody Loves Raymond, and King of Queens. What do they celebrate about men? Well, not much in my opinion. Yeah, they’re comedies, but most of the lead male characters are morons who seem to only get things right on accident. Jim from the Office seems like the exception, but the abundance of buffoons surrounding him, on his show and in his genre, suggest that level-headed gentlemen who are leaders and the romantic type are one in a million. And maybe we are, but the propagation of cave men has a much bigger platform.

Provocative Old Spice Ad

Then there’s the message pornography sells to dudes. And I’m not talking about just the unspeakable stuff little kids accidentally find online. I mean the music videos, the magazines, the advertisements, club fliers… everywhere.

Bottom line: do/use/buy/act __________, and get women, because nothing matters more than having a woman want you. The subtle cues of television celebrate the man who gives a woman whatever she wants, submits to whatever she wants, and makes no qualms with that being his reality. The more explicit stuff just says it more explicitly.

Those type of men don’t need brains. Arguably. they don’t even need hearts. And they don’t have any significance outside of what they can do for women. That’s not the man God molded. That’s Adam at his lowest point… the very Fall of mankind.

be strong, show yourself a man, and observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements … so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go – 1 Kings 2:2-3

Be strong. Show you’re a man. Do what God says. Everything else will be taken care of.

Be strong. This comes before “Show yourself a man” in this English translation of the Bible. For me, it confirms that it’s expected to really take something out of you to act like a man. It doesn’t just happen. Puberty doesn’t make men. Work, courage, and strength make men.

Show yourself to be a man. Prove it to yourself. God already knows who he made, and you can’t rely on a corrupted society to care. So show yourself what God made: walk in His ways. Trust that everything else will be taken care of.

This…. this is the challenge to male-kind. There’s none like it, none higher, and none more difficult. Anything less than aiming to live like God in human form, is weak. It’s not manly. It’s not the man God made. It’s the man, man made. And like everything else we make, it will fail us.

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