Manhood at the University of Minnesota and the House of Commons

As I write this afternoon, I am at Wilson Library at the University looking out across the plaza. People walk, cycle, and "blade" to their next class or appointment. Like some others here at the library, I watch them between keystrokes and paragraphs.

I see students and faculty, visitors and administrators, men and women. Some of the men look like they might be athletes; others are clearly not athletes at all.

But what an error I would be making were I to “measure a man” by his physical appearance!

Two days ago I finished Amazing Grace, the biography of William Wilberforce. If you are unfamiliar with him, he led the fight in Parliament to abolish the slave trade. The man was a true warrior. Though he never wielded a sword or a pistol, he confronted the evil practice of rounding up Africans and shipping them to the West Indies to labor on a plantation. If they survived the trip, the slaves faced a life full of difficulties that are beyond my comprehension. Amid death threats and great opposition, Wilberforce and the abolitionists prevailed, though the political battle lasted decades.

The author provided a brief physical description of Wilberforce early in the book:

“Wilberforce was universally described as tiny and stood just over five feet tall with a child-sized torso. His chest was measured in later years at thirty-three inches.” (p. 43)

This “tiny” man was a spiritual and political giant who led the fight to secure the personal freedom of hundreds of thousands of slaves. I’ll say it again – what an error we make when we measure a man by what we see on the outside!

How, then, do we esteem the physical strength of a man? There is a certain glory to it, is there not? "The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair." (Proverbs 20:29) But what a fleeting glory it is! And how trivial in the sight of God! Recall what God said to Samuel when he was selecting a king:

“Do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature . . . For the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

Think about that, next time you overlook the plaza at a University.

His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor is his pleasure in the legs of a man. Psalm 147:10

Why I am a Coach and not a CPA, Part II

I was reminded of the call of God in my life the other day in a way that I did not expect. I was using the locker room at the Y when he crossed my path.

He had a look of innocence. He couldn’t have been more than 24 and he looked like he was off to a good start. He appeared educated and capable. A professional man, I guessed that he was, but with kind and friendly eyes.

Some of his behaviors made it clear, however, that he was same-sex attracted and he was "cruising" in the locker room.

I am sad for this man. In one of the best seasons of his life, he was being led by the nose by his sex drive. I am old enough now to know where this leads. Hundreds of sexual encounters, probably, by the time he is 30. Maybe a couple of relationships that will leave him broken and spent. Disease. His emotional growth will be stunted because he will handle difficult feelings with sexual escapes. He is running from one of God’s most precious gifts to him: the experience of being the man and feeling like a man. He is on a road that leads nowhere.

Where are the voices of warning? Who can help this man, were he decide to walk a different road?

This young man reminds me of myself 25 years ago. The profound longings for manliness, confusing emotions, various fears, deep passions, and cravings for relationships conspired together. Gay experiences were hard to resist. The people and places where I sought help offered little of the instruction and support that I really needed.

Now I am 48. Thank God for forgiving me, maturing me, leading me, and making a man out of me.

I think again of the young man, and the thousands of young men like him. And that is why I am a coach and not a CPA.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Psalm 51:12-13