Last week, I published a blog post and it wasn’t very good. There may have been a few flourishes, but overall it was long and disjointed.
I’ve learned a lesson from this.
Sometimes you need to step back. Stop with all the frenetic hacking and ask, "am I doing this right?"
I once worked for a brigadier who, when dealing with a problem, would ask us, "What is the exam question we need to answer?” So it is with this blog.
Each month it is becoming clearer to me the question I have been called to answer is, “What does it mean to live well in a broken world as a man?” I just need to work out how to do it with less complexity.
This question burns within me. It consumes every hour, but when I talk about it beyond my friends (you guys reading this - you know who you are!) I get vacant stares. There seems to be confusion that such a question is asked.
Is it not enough to go to work, enjoy my family and take up golf? Yes, of course, these are all good things - but it matters to me WHY these are good things and what else besides can be added to them so that we live fully.
I want you to take some time out today to think about what question you are here to answer and how you should be answering it?
Make no mistake - you are here to provide answers to problems in your surroundings - for your family, for your boss, maybe even for your neighbour. A preacher (Doug Wilson) recently said. “Masculinity is the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility”. As a man, you must take charge and swat away the problems sneaking up on your household. The key is to use your brain to avoid getting killed or injured in the process. Sometimes you will need to use gentle words of admonishment- other times a flamethrower might be appropriate.
“Masculinity is the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility”. Doug Wilson
1. What needs gripped? What are you letting slide? What is constantly going wrong in your household? How can you stop it happening again for the 6th, 10th or 100th time?
3. Take out 30 minutes to write out the issues and what you intend to do about them; for you must do something or you are failing in your masculine responsibility.