“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
{Winston Churchill}
Inspiration
ARE YOU UP FOR THE CHALLENGE OF A LIFETIME?
THAT’S WHAT BEING A FAMILY MAN IS: A CHALLENGE.
IT WILL TAKE MORE COURAGE, HEART, AND DRIVE THEN YOU EVER KNEW YOU HAD.
BUT ITS REWARDS CANNOT BE DESCRIBED, ONLY EXPERIENCED.
IF YOU HAVE A FAMILY, OR ASPIRE TO HAVE ONE, THIS IS WHAT YOU SIGN UP FOR.
THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A GOOD SIR!
ARE YOU IN?
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You. Yes, you. I have a question for you.
Have you settled or are you striving?
There’s a big difference you know.
Settlers find a safe, secure spot in life to bunker down and merely survive.
Strivers have a vision for their life, take the risk to get there, and fully live.
My hope is for you to not settle for some half-hearted, mediocre life. You were never meant to leave your potential untapped.
It’s never too soon, never too late, and never the wrong time, to pursue the life you were meant to live.
Strive. It’s what you are born to do!
The headline was revealing: “Costa Concordia cruise ship crash: Men pushed past women and children to reach lifeboats.”
When the Italian cruise ship struck a reef off the Tuscan island of Giglio in January of 2012, it took with it over 30 lives including a five-year-old little girl. Sadly, this disaster also gave us a glimpse into the mentality of the modern man.
In his excellent piece for National Review, writer Rich Lowry shared some of the details of shipwreck.
“In the words of one newspaper account, ‘An Australian mother and her young daughter have described being pushed aside by hysterical men as they tried to board lifeboats.’”
“Women and children were given priority in theory, but not necessarily in practice. The Australian mother said of the scene, ‘We just couldn’t believe it — especially the men, they were worse than the women.’ Another woman passenger agreed, ‘There were big men, crew members, pushing their way past us to get into the lifeboats.’ Yet another, a grandmother, complained, ‘I was standing by the lifeboats and men, big men, were banging into me and knocking the girls.’”
The captain of the ship is being investigated for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck, and abandoning ship while passengers and crew were still onboard. He claims he didn’t abandon ship, but tripped and fell into a life boat. How convenient for him.
When a captain’s first instinct is “every man for himself” rather than “women and children first” you know chivalry is in peril.
Where have all the heroes gone?
If you want your product to take off, marketers know the sweet spot is men between the ages of 18-34. This is not by accident. Their influence can’t be denied in our culture. Sadly, this is the same age group that is losing what it means to be a man. The U.S. Census reports that 1 in 3 guys in this age group still live at home with their parents. This is a 100% increase from 20 years ago.
The instinct to be a man is there, but our me-first motives nudge us down the road of least resistance. It’s what sends us to seek virtual adventures through gaming and virtual encounters with pornography. We’ve traded something real for something artificial. And we’re left with a sense of misguided passions and misplaced purpose. Even more, we’re losing what it means to be a man.
As a result, not only are many guys stuck in perpetual adolescence, but our culture has been left with one of the greatest social issues of our time: fatherlessness.
1 out of 3 children are growing up without their fathers. This is not including how many more fathers aren’t fully present in their own homes due to work, recreation, and stress. In fact, in two–parent homes, dads spend less than 30 minutes a day with their kids.
This is a growing national tragedy. And when you see it up close in real life, it’s frustrating and heartbreaking. This is a story that must change. Children are growing up without real heroes. I’m not talking about Batman, Tim Tebow, or Chuck Norris. As great as they are, I’m talking about everyday guys, like us.
Being a hero means more than saving lives, it’s about living life, investing in lives, and giving life. It’s about making a difference in this world, starting at home. That is where the battlefield is. We need heroes in the trenches living for something worth fighting for—our families.
If we accepted our noble calling to be the heroes we were designed to be, there would be fewer crimes, suicides, dropouts, runaways, teen pregnancies, and more. We would see a generation rise with more hope and possibility than ever. We owe it to them to give them the future they richly deserve by leaving the legacy they desperately need.
We need heroes! We need you!
The modern man may be shipwrecked, but this is a story we can change. As much as my frustration on the state of man fuels me, it’s my love for my family, and passion for my fellow brothers, that fuels me more.
Together, we can craft a better story. We must. Too much is at stake.
Photo courtesy of nps.gov
This Verse Will Change Your Life!
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” {Isaiah 1:17}
GoodSirs takes its cue from heroic verses like this. Look at the truth it’s dropping and tell me this is not the stuff of heroes? It describes someone…
That fires me up! It reminds me not only why GoodSirs exists, but why all of us exist.
We are all designed to be heroes. And if you’re a person of faith, this should add fuel to what you believe. And what you believe should drive how you live.
Notice the verse’s use of action verbs (Learn, Do, Seek, Defend, Take, Plead). It doesn’t allow its reader to take a passive stance, it challenges us to play offense. To pick up our fists and fight for something that matters! It doesn’t allow a doctors note or any other excuses, it demands nothing less than action.
I love how it begins with learning to do right, because it speaks to what kind of person we are. It starts with us and what we’re made of on the inside. What you made of? What’s in your heart? Why are you here? Who you are will determine how you live.
From there, it requires us to know what is right so that we can seek justice (make things right). This calls us to know why we believe what we believe. This is soul work because that sense of right and wrong comes from somewhere. Is it from God, is it instilled in us, is it both? It forces you to look at hard questions like: How come torturing and killing a little girl is wrong in all cultures in all times? When you’ve arrived at the place where you see that there’s something (Someone) bigger than us at play, you will live for something bigger.
When you’re living out this verse, you quickly realize it’s not about you. It’s about how you can serve others. You see that the strong have a moral obligation to stand on behalf of the weak, especially those who are being pushed down and trampled on. When I see folks crusade against bullying, human trafficking, poverty, fatherlessness, and more, I see a divine spark. I see a hero.
To take up the cause of the fatherless is to find a wound in this world and to put a bandage on it. I take this one to heart because GoodSirs is taking up the cause of the fatherless. We’re fighting for fathers to be there in full and not retreat, because fatherlessness is epidemic in our country. 1 in 3 children are growing up without their dad around. Which also means1 in 3 dads are missing out on the joy of raising their kids. That’s a story that must change. Do your part to bring healing, joy, relief, and a remedy to issues in this world. There are millions of causes to take up.
Pleading the case for the widow is to speak for those who don’t have a voice. In a patriarchal society, widows were often left without ample provision and without a say. If they were fortunate, someone (often a family member) would look after them and any children they had. Today, there are many without a voice. Who will make sure they aren’t forgotten, neglected, or ignored? Who will speak up for them? We don’t have the option to look around, we have orders to look at ourselves. It’s on us.
YOU WANT TO BE A HERO? TAKE THIS VERSE TO HEART AND LIVE IT OUT.