Easily Touched

I wish I had the self-respect or the machismo - is that the understanding? - to pretend I didn't have an emotional bone in my body. But the wonderful fact is that I am both a man of sport and mud and sweat and work, and a man of tender love and compassion and sympathy and attempts at vulnerability and transparency. When did we, as a culture and as a world, buy into the lie that a man is cold and calculating, not allowing emotions or care to 'negatively' influence steely-willed rational thought? Unfortunately, this is about the furthest thing from a man you can find.

Men need to strike out again as the providers, conquerors, lovers, and dreamers God created us to be. (As a brief caveat, I wish to address that I don't at all suggest that men need to finally get in touch with their "feminine sides." This man does not believe that men have feminine sides - we have the God-endowed capacity to practice godly masculinity, which includes a sensitivity and compassion that is suited to caring for others, and especially women as the precious treasures they are. Without this sensitivity, men are lacking the full expression of the nature given to them. Women, also, can be instrumental in helping us learn to exercise this strength.) We have for too long allowed these beautiful qualities to be bastardized by selfishness, weakness, fear, and comfort. And I'm not talking about returning to a time when women had their male-prescribed roles to fill so the men in their lives can rule with an iron fist and a pot belly. What I am talking about is this:

1. A man who works his butt off, with a heart to provide for those in his charge, even if his wife still has to work (or wants to). I despise those lazy jaggamoes who let their woman go work their butts off so they can eat and play video games and ignore even the work that needs to be done around the house. SHAME on you!
2. A man who will fight for his family and his children and everyone's well-being at the sacrifice of himself - just like the men on the Titanic that willingly went to their deaths to get as many women and children on the boats as possible. These men don't give up when love gets hard, when raising kids becomes thankless, and when doing the right thing means they'll suffer for it. They fight. And if they screwed up in the past, they make amends, take their earned lumps, and move forward. I despise those selfish jaggamoes who think they deserve to be happy at the expense of others, and deserve to reject those they've previously made commitments to - either through marriage, steady relationship, or creating a child - in favor of someone or something new. You're not a man; you're a little boy with the puberty-granted ability to make babies. SHAME on you!
3. A man who will love a woman as Jesus loved the Church and gave Himself over to death for her. A man who sacrificially loves a woman as he loves himself, providing for and nourishing her above all else - showing that kind of love to the children under you can break down walls and destroy decades of familial curses passed through the ages. I despise those selfish jaggamoes who love only when it's convenient, and consider that love does not include doing the dishes, laundry, child duty, apologizing when you're in the wrong, compromising for the sake of these relationships, spiritually leading those God has placed in your care, and prioritizing your nuclear family above all other relationships in your life. SHAME on you!
   
4. A man who dreams a better way for his family and takes risks to provide and nourish them. I despise those selfish jaggamoes who spend more time thinking about themselves than about the ones they claim to love and care for. SHAME on you!

Now, for a moment of clarity and truth, at times I have been each of these men I despise. I don't consider myself as being through the rough waters and smooth sailing from here on out. I know it takes work each and every day, for the rest of my life, but I'm not the kind of man that wants to shrink back from the struggle. I've been a boy, I've been a guy, and a man is better by far.

Where did all this come from? Nothing dramatic or personal, in the strict sense of the word, but a commercial. A commercial I've watched before, I've posted on Facebook, and I have successfully wept over each time I saw it. I don't mean waterfalls or anything, just that tear of recognition over something beautiful, sneaking out the corner of my right eye (and it doesn't hurt that there's an adorable young girl in it that ignites this father's heart to give Jace a little sister). A commercial done by someone in the UK, this commercial:

So why share it? Because I'm a man. And I'm not afraid to share it. All of it.