The Stale Male (The Attack on Manhood)

I was recently reading an article on a men's webiste (http://www.theartofmanliness.com)  and it went along the lines of men being afraid to step into a situation where a child or young person needed help; this had nothing to do with their abilities, but society, false accusation, and assumption about men wanting to help.  Here's the main story from the article.


"he [Lapolla] took his 6-year-old grandson to a local playground and was accosted by a mom who questioned whether Lapolla was really the boy’s grandfather. He told the woman she was out of line, but then four other moms gathered around him and also questioned him, implying that he was really a kidnapper or child molester. They called the police and told Lapolla he couldn’t leave until they got there. He complied, and it only took the police a short time after they arrived to clear things up. Needless to say, neither Mr. Lapolla nor his grandson were very happy about the incident"




There were also a few other stories where men, who intended well, did not step up for fear of this same issue.  This has definitely been the case with myself as well, I've been in a situation where either a kid needed help, or someone to talk to, and I've been worried of being falsely accused and done nothing. And I'm a church leader which opens a whole other can of worms, because you want to help, but there are protocols and mandates, and as this articles lays out assumptions. I've found as well with church leaders, people look extra carefully for screw ups. It's an unfortunate move in our society when we as men can not "man up" and be the leaders we were meant to be because of societal ramifications and homophobia, etc.  Have we really turned men into sniveling, sad, pathetic beings?  Did we bring this on ourselves, or is there something greater at work.  Men are meant to be leaders, in the home, and outside, (Not that women can't be, you totally can.), have we lost our spines, did our balls fall off (yeah, I said that), what on earth is going on?  


MEN! My grandfather was not afraid to give me a hug, sit me on his knee, embrace me, my father was the same way when I was growing up.  It lead me to  be able to socially interact with people and actually enabled me to reach an intimate level with people (platonically speaking).  It's hard for us to even connect any more as men as we've perverted our very manhood with homophobia and fear of looking weird, or sticking out.  I give my mom a hug, and in the same way I give my best friend (a fellow man, and close friend of over a decade) a hug.  At his wedding I was the best man, and in my speech I made sure to let him know I loved him (as a brother and a friend of course, I have to clear that up for modern connotations that it carries).  Even in explaining that it's very apparent what we've done to the very state of our relationships with other men.  WE'VE BECOME SISSIES!!  


I'd like to call each and every one of you to be the man God made you to be! 

You can read the Art Of Manliness article HERE

Updates and Such

So it's been a few weeks (oops), I was at another Youth Camp, this time at Whispering Pines just outside of Medicine Hat, AB.  It was a great week and I saw the kids grow so much over that week and even saw the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in their lives (Mad props to God).

So I get back from camp and find my life in a slight uproar, while I was gone my Employment Inusrance Benefits ran out, thus leaving me with absolutely no income.  Want a stressful situation? Go through that while having the bank, etc. calling you for money.  STREEESSSSS!!!

But anyways, I sit down with my pastor/good friend, to mull over things, plan, and so on.  We end up scoring me a car for $1.00 (yes, One dollar, you read that right).  Thus I score a job as a delivery driver (for no less my favourite pizza place).  Now, what would life be without a curve ball (or two?), for my job I require commerical insurance, an extra $500 a year (ouch, I know), I know people that pay not much more than that for their insurance, and that's how much extra I have to pay.  On top of that, for it to be road worthy it needed a decent chunk of work.  Now for those wondering what car it is, it was a 1996 Geo Metro , now if it looked like this I would be COMPLETELY fine with it, however it looks like this

The story does not end here!! I drop it off at my church, I get a call asking what all the issues are and get told to drop off the list.  (Excuse that fragmented, messed up sentence thing).  So after dropping off that list of needed repairs, I get another call, everything is fixed!  For a grand total cost of, ZERO DOLLARS!  Why? Because we sat, prayed, planned, and followed God.  


Moral of this story: Trust in God, He has a plan, and it's better than any silly little idea we may have.  It may not be the prettiest car, or the fastest car, but God will used a rusty old lemon easier than a pimped out Mercedez (not knocking on you Mercedez owners).  


Do I car that my car isn't super awesome? Not really.
Do I plan on upgrading some day? Yeah, when I can actually afford it.
Am I content with how things worked out in a period of like two days? Definitely.


Don't be afraid to email prayer requests to amarks@live.ca