This post has been a long time coming. It's something that's been floating around in my mind for quite a while now, but recently I have seen things that I feel like are forcing me to say something. Sad news, ladies - this post is for the men who happen to read it.
"Men of faith rise up and sing of the great and glorious King. You are strong when you feel weak, in your brokenness complete."
I heard that song I don't know how many years back and the last couple of days it's been stuck in my head. Forget the rest of the song for now, even the whole line. The first five words are what get me - "Men of faith rise up..." A few things I've observed recently:
One - I get the chance to work the sound board at church, which means during the service I have a perfect bird's eye view of everything that's going on. I get to see the people who come in late, the people who are texting instead of actively participating in the service, the people who are truly engaged - all of it. I thought it was just my imagination, but I began noticing what I thought was a trend. When the music is going full swing, it seems to me that more women are engaged than men. Now I know that we as men aren't big on the hand raising and such. We are a bit more emotionally reserved and so I understand a bit of reluctance. But it's not just music. When the sermon is over and the invitation is given, I don't remember the last time I saw a man go up to the front to pray or talk to a pastor. The women, though, they have it covered! They go up all the time - to pray, to pray with someone, to ask for prayer from a pastor - they seem to be eager to get to the altar, where the men don't want to budge from their seats.
Two - recently on campus there was a 'Night of Prayer.' The idea was that for 24 hours our campus would be praying, whether it was prayer requests, for the movement of the Lord among us, for mission trips, whatever came to mind. I thought to myself, "Oh, that's a great idea. They've done that before, even when I was a student. I bet that really moves people to have a heart for the Lord." Beth and I went to check the mail and passed the sign up sheet for 'Night of Prayer.' I glanced at it. I was shocked. To be honest, I went back later and took it just to make sure I had read correctly (if anyone needs it back, let me know and I'll drop it off where I got it). There were 107 people signed up (many doubled in time slots) for 20 minute intervals to pray throughout the day. Pretty good, I guess. I don't know what the numbers should look like on that, but that wasn't the shocking thing. I started counting.
Girl, girl, girl, boy, girl, girl, girl, girl, girl, girl, boy, boy...it went on.
In the end, 25 male people had signed up to participate. If you're tracking along with the math, that means 82 females had signed up. 82! That's 3.28 times more girls than boys who signed up to pray! That's 75% of the people who signed up! What?! I'm not saying that it's wrong for girls to pray or be involved in the spiritual renewal of our campus, but where are the men?
Now, I know the numbers are skewed some because not everyone who signed up showed up to pray, and not everyone who prayed was signed up.
Obviously.
Here's my point though after noting these two observations. While there are some men out there who lead their families to walk in spirit and in truth, while there are men out there who do not at all fit into this category - there are a lot of us who are failing in our jobs as men. The Bible says very plainly that the men are called to be the spiritual leaders of the household, of the church, of society. The men are to be the ones who are at the forefront of every spiritual battle, whether it's in prayer, on the mission field, at work, at church, whatever. The men.
Yet, who's doing the leading? Who's doing all the praying? Maybe privately there are men all across the globe who are prayer warriors, men who in their households really do lead by example and teach their families what the Lord would have of them. There are men that I know right now who are incredible spiritual leaders, men who I look up to and hope I will be like when I've grown and matured, my dad being at the top of that list.
But you can't be a man who privately leads your family and not live it out publicly.
And so, it leads me to believe that many men aren't leading their families, privately or not.
"Men of faith rise up and sing of the great and glorious King. You are strong when you feel weak, in your brokenness complete."
Men, you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to know all the answers. You don't have to get it right every time. But you MUST lead. God calls every last one of us to stand up and be the spiritual leader. He never said we wouldn't mess up, but He is saying we must try.
In the trying, we'll grow. In the growing, we'll improve. In the whole process, we'll be leading - like we're called to do.
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