True Men

My last two posts on being a man haven’t been very serious. I don’t actually think that manliness is defined by things like blowing stuff up, gutting fish, eating bacon, and lifting weights. Men can still be men while having a variety of interests. Men also come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors, and from many different backgrounds.

But there’s one thing all true men have in common: they submit to God’s authority. This submission includes living with integrity and being faithful, gracious, forgiving, and loving. It includes putting others before oneself, being willing to die for others, and even dying to oneself for others on a daily basis. Real manliness requires (among other things) service to others and submission to God.

Though I’m trying to become a true man, in this lifetime I’ll always be striving, never achieving. Though I can get closer to what God demands of me (i.e., perfection), I’ll never attain it. And I’ll never get anywhere without God’s grace.

One day, though, Christ will return to bring justice to the earth. On that day, he’ll perfect those who’ve submitted to him. On that day, Christ will transform me into the man he intended me to be.

For now, I’ll strive, by God’s grace, to become a truer and truer man until that bright and dreadful morning when Christ sets all things right.

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Day 253: Putting Our Song to Use

Today I gave you a back massage in a candle-lit room with our song—“Out of My League”—playing on our laptop.

When I prepared our room for your massage, I told you I would be upstairs for a few minutes, but didn’t tell you why. I also didn’t tell you that I recently bought our song from Amazon. (We haven’t listened to it in several years because we lost the CD.) So you were really surprised when you came into our room, saw the candle, heard our song playing, and I told you that I would give you a massage.

Day 252: Reading _The Meaning of Marriage_ Together

Earlier this year, I read Timothy Keller’s The Meaning of Marriage for one of my acts of love. Recently, our church started a kind of marriage seminar based on that book. We joined it. I read half of the first chapter to you for my 252nd act of love in preparation for the first session of that seminar.

In that passage, Keller gave some statistics on marriage. As is commonly known, divorce rates have been steadily increasing for years. But another fact about marriage is maybe less commonly known: in general, people who get married and stay married are happier with their lives than people who stay single or get divorced.

I’ve found that my married life is more satisfying than my single life was. The former’s tough, though. Maybe even tougher than the latter. (Perhaps I’ve forgotten just how tough it is to be single.) Still, marriage can be a great source of joy, part of which comes by perseverance through its hardships. If only people would endure through marital hardships (though some marriages shouldn’t be endured), they might find a tighter unity with their spouse and a deeper satisfaction with their marriage once the hardships pass.