Men and Women

It has been a cold winter in Minnesota. January hasn't seen 32 degrees yet, and most of the days have been below zero. Spring will be especially satisfying this year.


But I can still run at the Lake Street Y's big indoor track. It spans the Y's gymnasium and is 1/6 of a mile long. So while I run, I overlook the activities going on in the gym. There is a Somali soccer league, golf lessons, baseball tryouts, men's and women's basketball, an Asian football group, gay men's volleyball, and high school track. It is good to see the gym get so much use and to have something to look at as I round the oval.


Watching women's basketball, I've noticed that there is a lot of apologizing throughout the game. There are apologies for a personal foul, a missed shot, a turnover, etc.


I don't see the men apologizing very often on the court. When a foul is called on them, the most likely reaction is disbelief.


Of course these are generalizations. I bring it up here to simply make the point that I saw clearly the illustration of God's design at the Y. There is a certain goal-oriented, win-the-battle spirit that God has weaved into the masculine heart. And there is caring, sensitivity to the needs of others that He has breathed into the feminine.


Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that men aren't to be sensitive and women aren't to be goal-oriented. Consider Jesus. If there is ever a man who won the battle -- over sin and death and satan -- it is He. Yet He longed to gather Jerusalem as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, He wept over Lazarus, and He is touched by our weaknesses.


. . . male and female created He them. Genesis 1:27