An Act of Heroism

This clip isn’t easy to watch, and my heart goes out to this mother and child.  What a great example of virtue and TrueManhood from this husband and father.  The man’s father puts it well by saying that love will fix the situation.  It may seem ridiculous to some, but love heals.  Afterall, do you think God liked seeing His Son dying on the cross?  Not a chance.  But, the love which Christ poured out for us, by giving up His life, was love at its core.  This man, Brian Wood, knew what it meant to love.

 

 

 

This piece shows me several things:

1. Our society has a drastically obvious double-standard about pro-life issues.  Notice how this pregnancy happens to be a baby – in this setting – but in most others, it’s simply a blob, a tissue-mass or an embryo.
2. Our society drastically misunderstands virtue.  If you notice, several times the gentleman’s actions were misinterpreted, saying that he made a choice and acted.  Although he did make a choice to sacrifice himself, he acted out of virtue.  The virtue of courage was obviously a part of this man’s life.
3. Our society will likely see a video clip like this and continue to abuse alcohol and drugs.  Selfishness runs rampant in our culture.  Fight it by not being selfish.  Be a selfless servant.

My condolences to the family.

TrueMan u!

God’s Will Be Done

In our lives, we should desire to seek God’s will and work so that our will may conform to His will.  In living God’s will for our lives, we will experience the utmost joy and happiness, which is what we are all longing for.  In our (personal) current situation, we are attempting to hear God’s call, understand it and heed it.  Speak Lord, your servant is listening.

We have an incredible opportunity pending… the potential merger of TrueManhood.com and The King’s Men (TKM) (www.thekingsmen.org.)  TKM is a Catholic lay apostolate currently based in Philadelphia.  They build up men in the mold of leader, protector and provider.  Mark Houck and Damian Wargo, TKM founders, have been praying about adding a third partner into the ministry for some time.  This may just be the time.  In order for this to happen, several things must take place first.

1. The Board of Directors for TKM (a non-profit) must vote and obtain a majority approval vote.  5 members must vote in favor.
2. Generous donations must continue to come in for TKM budget to be adequately equipped to handle a third salary.  (Information below.)
3. Mark and Damian must feel comfortable that I am the right man for the job.  This is a huge step for them and they want to make certain that this move is right.

Considering all these impediments, and possibly others, I humbly beg for your prayers.  It would be a dream to be able to work full-time in men’s ministry.  To be able to work with such an incredible ministry, as TKM, would make it even that much more special.  I truly believe that God has ordained this partnership and that we will greatly influence the lives of tens of thousands (if not more) men in the coming years.

Although I believe this merger is ordained by God, others must also believe.  This is where your prayers come in. Your financial support could also make this a reality much sooner.  Please consider becoming a benefactor for TKM – any and all donations help.  Recurring monthly donations are preferred, but no one’s picky here!  If you would like to become a benefactor, please email me directly at Dave@TrueManhood.com and I can get you in touch with TKM’s accounting department.

If every visitor to TrueManhood.com last week (merely a segmented sample group) donated $50 per month, we could raise $50,000/mo.  Please consider this.  May God’s will be done!

TrueMan up!

Well said, Fr Frank

I like Fr Frank’s approach here.  He definitely Man’s up!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJzJRhoLtUk]

An Explanation on Ephesians Chapter 5

On semi-regular occasions, I come across stories of men and women who look at Ephesians Chapter 5 in a different way than the Church does.  It often appears that they take the writings out of context and make them something that they are not.  I want to take a few minutes to explain portions of this sometimes mistaken portion of Scripture.  Note: I am not a Biblical scholar – I recommend that you cross-check my words here with other sources for full understanding.

Starting at verse 21 in chapter 5, St. Paul tells Wives and Husbands “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.  Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the Church, He Himself the savior of the body.  As the Church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.”  A few hard-hitting verses.  If we stop at this verse, we see the writer (St. Paul) asking women to be subordinate to their man in everything.  It almost appears that a woman should blindly follow her husband simply because he is 1. her husband and 2. the head of his wife.  We might look at this and say that a wife needs to be “below” her husband and always do as he tells her.  The image of a slave and a master comes to mind here.  After all, it’s right there in Scripture – right? 

Not quite.  We need to continue reading to finish out this section.  25: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed Himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the Church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.  So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the Church, because we are members of His body.”  We see a much different story when we continue reading.  St. Paul isn’t writing this to women alone.  Most importantly, he is writing this to husbands; husbands are the readers who especially need to heed these words. 

Look at this with me: scripture tells us that husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the Church.  Christ didn’t love the Church out of dictatorial power… He loved the Church out of service, out of self-sacrifice and out of pure virtue.  If we leave this part out of our understanding, our understanding lacks truth and our relationship with our spouse suffers.  Again, St. Paul is speaking to the men, saying “Men, serve your wife!  LOVE you wife!  Give up what you want for the sanctity and holiness of your wife!  Love her as you love yourself!  Want what’s best for her, never thinking about yourself first!”  I can imagine him being incredibly frustrated with men who were lacking as husbands, trying to get them to see that Christ set the example of being a real husband (a TrueMan) for them and that they simply need to emulate Him in order to succeed.

This means, for us men who are or who will be husbands, that we MUST act as Christ acted.  We must be perfected so that our actions, thoughts, words and deeds line up with how Christ would have done them.  We must be sacrificial in the way that we treat our wife.  Christ was a servant leader, He said “I come to serve, not to be served.”  Do that… don’t live to be served. 

On a practical note: as you look at your marriage and begin to digest what you are reading, realize that countless blessings will come from being a servant leader for your wife.  Being a servant leader means that you are serving while leading.  Service comes first.  Want respect from your wife?  Respect her first.  Want your wife to honor you?  Honor her first.  Want your wife to trust you?  Trust her first.  It’s a simple formula and this formula will change your life.  Christ calls us to act in the manner He acted, so guess what… if you are trying to act as Christ acted, you can’t be selfish, ever.  Serve your wife, serve your kids, serve your co-workers, serve everyone, and do it ahead of yourself and your needs.  It will change your life.

Man up!

7 Days of Virtue; Day 2 – Justice

 

 

Think of virtues like your muscles.  You work your muscles out so that they can perform for you when needed.  Virtue is the same way.  You practice, work on the virtue and then, when the time comes, the virtue is there and ready.

Day 2 of the 7 Day Journey through the Virtues: DAY 2 – JUSTICE.

Justice is the good due to others.  This removes the emphasis from self and places the emphasis on others.  Overemphasis on rights misses the concept of justice.   There are seven sub-virtues of Justice:

Practically, I am a justice-seeker, meaning that if I see someone who is not receiving “the good due to them”, I tend to step in and make it right.  I’ve done this since I was a kid – if I saw someone bullying someone, I stepped in and forced the bully to respond to me.  (Most often, the bullying stopped.)  Knowing this, regularly for me, seeking justice can easily overlap with anger, which is dangerous.  We want to afford people with the ability to receive the good that is due to them, yet we must be careful of how we go about that.  Use the virtue of prudence to know when to purposefully seek justice and when to not step in.

Man up!