"It Never Hurt a Man to Try and Be a Better Man…"
… words from Jack Ingram’s latest song, “That’s a Man”.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Andx4tHCQmw]
In the song, Jack sings about a young father working two jobs for his young family, just so they can get by and so he can give them a better life. He sings about a Marine, struggling with the loss of his buddy, and about how hard he tried to save him. He sings about a lot of things… what strikes me is that each of the stories has it’s fair share of heartache and difficulty, but in the end, a man does what he has to. He works hard, has a deep resolve and protects those around him. If it takes working 7 hot days a week, he does it. If it means working long hours, he does it. If it means blood, sweat and tears, he sheds them. Do others say “that’s a man” about you?
Chastity, A Life Choice
On Sunday, I was asked to address a group of high school guys at the Colorado Springs Chastity Rally. The young men were very attentive and seemed very receptive to the words of my message. As I spoke to these 14-18 year olds, I was hit that men over 18 need to hear this message just as much. Living a life of chastity is a choice and it is a call for all of us, whether we’re single, dating, married or a priest. In a marriage, a man must remain chaste… be careful not to confuse this with celibate, they are not the same thing. Living chastity means that we are living out our sexuality in the way that God intended. If you don’t know if you’re living a chaste life, I highly recommend diving into books that talk about this. My recommendations include “Theology of the Body for Beginners” and “The Good News About Sex and Marriage”. Both books are written by Christopher West. If you’ve read these books and are looking for more, you can always read the documents that these books come from, “Theology of the Body” by Pope John Paul II.
Living a chaste life is fulfilling. It’s not easy, but it’s fulfilling. The world is telling us that in order to be cool, hip and a real man, we must be having a ton of sex with every woman we come into contact with. This is NOT what God intended for us. You have the power to choose. You can choose a life of emptiness, moving from one night stand to one night stand. Or, you can choose a life of fulfillment, by giving yourself as a free gift to your wife in the sacred act of marital love. In my mind, there’s no question which one is better.
Man up!
Are You Like Adam?
Adam, you know, THE Adam. The first man. God’s creation. He was given dominion over all the animals, and the land, God gave him the crown of creation, Eve, as his wife and God asked him to “shamar” the garden. “What’s shamar, Dave?” In layman’s terms, it means to cultivate, protect and/or defend. [If God asked a guy to shamar his prized hot rod, would anyone drive or touch it? Probably not. Certainly, no one would have the opportunity to scratch it or damage it in any way.] Why didn’t Adam shamar the garden?
The serpent made his way in (Genesis 3) and began speaking to the woman. Often times, it’s portrayed as if Eve were alone in the garden and that Adam was somewhere else. The serpent, being cunning as he is, began to call into question what God said to them. Eve tried to correct him, but was unsuccessful in her explanation. (Read the passages in Genesis closely to pick up on this.) Eventually, Eve gave in and ate the fruit from the tree. Adam ate it too. See, Adam was there the entire time. He sat back and allowed the serpent to twist God’s words and confuse Eve. Had he been shamaring, as asked by God, the serpent would have never had the chance to even speak to Eve.
Shamar… do you do it like Adam or the guy with the hot rod?
Man up!
My Favorite Commercials
There were some funny commercials during yesterday’s amazing Superbowl game! Way to go Steelers! My two favorites were Jason Statham in Audi’s “The Chase” and Pepsi Max’s “I’m Good”.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZtRN4GfkCs]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rorbv0RWrbk]
I liked the Audi commercial the best because it seemed like a sweet car chase movie, which I enjoy. Jason Statham personifies cool (fit, agile, black suit, sweet car, amazing driving skills) in this spot. This spot, unlike many of the others, didn’t sell sex in place of a product. Good on Audi.
A TrueMan knows the answer to this question because a TrueMan is observant… without going back to the video clip first… What movie was showing on the marque before he turns down the Lexus? Bonus: What were the show times?
Man up!
7 Days of Manly Superbowl Stuff – Day 5
Be a responsible man. Take responsibility for your actions. Sometimes, men (and women too, but men definitely take the cake in this category) like to blame other people for their mistakes, poor choices and general bad judgment. This is not good. This is not something you want to adopt as a characteristic to live by. Taking ownership and being responsible for what you say and do is a key to living a life of a True Man. Your witness, success, happiness and future will be much brighter if you “man up” and “bite the bullet” when you do something less than your best.
How is he going to relate this to football? Easy. Imagine that you’re watching a game on Sunday. How often (I’d say just about every time) do we see a player throw his hands up in unbridled disagreement to the referee’s call of a penalty?
Why can’t they just admit that the face-masking call is legitimate and that the holding penalty occurred and that the pass interference wasn’t a figment of any body’s imagination?
7 Days of Manly Superbowl Stuff – Day 4 (Kurt Warner Day)
Although I’m a HUGE Steelers fan, I’m going to be “ecumenical” today and give up a big shout out to Kurt Warner, the QB for the Arizona Cardinals. This guy’s got one amazing story. We might be familiar with the part of the story that includes his going from the grocery store stockboy to Superbowl MVP, but most of us aren’t familiar with the side of the story that goes like this…
Kurt grew up in an abusive home. He worked hard throughout his youth to overcome those odds and eventually made it to training camp with the Green Bay Packers, but was later released from the team. While working as a stock boy at the local Hy-Vee grocery store, he noticed Brenda, the checkout girl. He stayed after his shift one day and offered her a ride home; as he dropped her off, he asked if he could see her again, outside of work. She said it wasn’t possible. See, Brenda was a divorcee with two kids from an abusive previous marriage. Most men run to the hills at the sound of a story like that. Kurt was different, he wanted to take the kids with them on their date. She said it wasn’t possible. See, Brenda’s son was born a paraplegic and was in a wheelchair. No man would possibly want that situation to enter his seemingly normal life. Kurt was different, he wanted to help Brenda and her kids. Within a year of their first date, Kurt and Brenda were married. Kurt adopted Brenda’s son and daughter and together they have two additional children. Kurt went on to be signed as a free agent with the St. Louis Rams and was named 1999 League MVP as well as MVP of Superbowl XXXIV. (Only Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Emmitt Smith and Steve Young achieved that honor before him. They are all Hall of Famers!) Kurt attributes his success in the NFL and in life to his personal Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
See, Kurt manned up. He took struggle, hardships and seeming defeat and worked harder than they could. He continued to be faithful to Jesus and never let anything get in the way of his dreams. He found a woman that he loved and did whatever he could to win her heart. (He pursued her without end.) He treats her as his queen and loves every child, even a paraplegic. (Our society would suggest that a paraplegic is sub-human and should be aborted in the womb.) Kurt sets a great example for us about being a husband, father and dreamer. Thanks Kurt!
Man up!
Bishop Michael Sheridan's Letter about FOCA (Dec 5, 08)
Allow me to explain the purpose of this post. Although this post doesn’t come directly from me, it speaks to an issue that must be dealt with. As men, we must stand up and fight, not sit back and watch. We, as men, are called to service, to arms, to protect, to lead, to fight, to be righteous, to love and to be faithful. The pro-life (anti-abortion) movement is NOT a woman’s movement alone. This post speaks directly to the role that we play in defeating the evils of the culture of death. Man up!
Dec. 5, 2008 FOCA is a very bad law
Dec 4, 2008 4:00 PM
NOTE: The following article is based on data provided by the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities and the Office of the General Counsel of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and was published in the Catholic Herald newspaper (of the Diocese of Colorado Springs, CO).
Citizens have a right to expect that their elected officials will keep their campaign
promises. If President-Elect Obama keeps all of his campaign promises, the American people — both born and unborn — are in for big trouble.
On July 17, Obama stood before a gathering of Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the United States, and promised attendees that his first act as president would be to sign into the law the so-called Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). FOCA is the most radical abortion legislation in U.S. history. It is proposed by the pro-abortion lobby as simply the codification of the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade. But it is much more than that!
In fact, FOCA goes far beyond Roe vs. Wade. FOCA would propose abortion not just as something legal, but as a fundamental right, just like the right to vote and the right to free speech. FOCA will nullify every statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, policy and practice of any federal, state or local government that seeks to limit or regulate in any way the heinous practice of the murder of unborn children. More specifically:
FOCA will invalidate laws to protect a woman from unsafe abortion clinics and laws to ensure that she is informed about abortion. Because informing women about abortion and alternatives involves some delay and may lead some women to change their decision, laws ensuring informed consent would likely be seen as “interfering” with the abortion right.
FOCA will require taxpayers to pay for abortions. This new legislation would remove any language that ensures that taxpayers will not be forced to pay for abortions. Instead, under FOCA, the government may not “discriminate” against abortion in publicly funded programs.
FOCA will remove any and all bans on the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortions and will require states to allow partial-birth abortions and other late-term abortions. Currently, states are permitted to ban abortions after fetal viability (when a child can survive outside the womb). Because of FOCA’s insistence that abortion is a fundamental right, the murder of a child as (s)he is being born will be permitted.
FOCA will require states to allow abortions by non-physicians. So much for ensuring a medically safe procedure.
FOCA will deny parents an opportunity to be involved in their minor daughter’s abortion decision. So determined are the pro-abortion advocates to make abortion more available that they will see to it that children can undergo this traumatic ordeal without parental permission or counsel. A school nurse may not administer aspirin to minor children without the parents’ permission, but it will be abortion on demand for those same children.
FOCA will bar laws protecting a right of conscientious objection to abortion. The current resolution of the American Medical Association (approved by Roe vs. Wade) that allows hospitals, doctors, medical students and other health-care workers to opt out of participating in abortions will be overturned. Not only will the right to life of the 3,500 babies who are killed each day by abortion (expected to jump to 3,900 per day under FOCA) be taken away, the fundamental right to conscience and the practice of religion (guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution) will also be taken away. The pro-abortion lobby is intent not only on seeing to it that more abortions take place, it is intent on restricting other fundamental human freedoms as well.
In his statement on behalf of the American bishops, Cardinal Francis George, president of the USCCB, said that FOCA would have “a destructive effect on the freedom of conscience of doctors, nurses and health care workers whose personal conviction do not permit them to cooperate in the private killing of unborn children.” FOCA would be a direct threat to the very existence of Catholic hospitals.
In the words of the bishops who serve on the Committee for Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: “A vote for FOCA is a vote against modest, reasonable, widely supported laws that promote and protect women’s health, ensure informed consent, protect minors and ensure parental involvement, safeguard rights of conscience, and respect the desire of most citizens not to pay for abortions with their tax dollars. It is the most radical and extreme abortion legislation ever considered in the United States.”
I ask every Catholic and every man and woman of good will to contact their legislators and protest the passage of FOCA. In January all Catholics will be given the opportunity to participate in a campaign to inform the president-elect and the new Congress that FOCA, like Roe vs. Wade, is a very bad law.
President-Elect Obama has also promised that his administration will seek to reduce abortions in our country. But, as Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, reminds us with basic logic: “We can’t reduce abortions by promoting abortions” (Sept. 19 letter to U.S. Congress).
