rebelling against low expectations
I’ll never forget the first time a guy asked me out. Well, at least I think he was asking me out. One mid-summer afternoon, he walked into the office where I worked. After a few minutes of small-talk, plus scheduling an appointment, he leaned against the door, quirked a brow, and remarked, “Man, that Chinese food across the street smells good.” I inhaled. I couldn’t smell a thing. “Would you like...
“Guess who contacted me…again?” My friend showed me her phone screen. I peered at the message. “Oh no. Not again. Really?” For over a year, a young man my friend knew had been randomly Facebook messaging her. At first she thought he might be interested in her, but after sporadic, odd messages with no seeming purpose to them, she was beginning to think he was just weird. Or really, really lonely...
To everything there is a season. Life. It’s a constant struggle between what is and what I think should be. It’s a battle between normalcy and a constant state of change. Nothing really stays the same in an ever changing world, where even the seasons come and go faster than I could ever imagine. Sure, I make my plans. I set my goals. “By the time this gets here, I will be there...
I’ve got a question for you guys: Is it possible for young men to get through their teen years free from lust? Or what about this: Is it possible for a young man to find such a deep level of freedom that if he saw an immodestly dressed woman getting harassed on the street, he would be able to help her without lusting or would it be too much of a temptation? Or maybe he should run away, since...
Friendship is a powerful thing that we too often take for granted. I know from experience that friends can be a huge influence in your life for good or for bad. They can spur you on for Christ or drag you down to sin. They can offer you encouragement or end up betraying you. They can bring you excitement or bring you devastation. Friends are important – and we need to choose them wisely. But one...
Dockers, the khaki brand of Levi Strauss & Co., is asking men to man up and wear the pants. In a world of advertising that constantly buffets men (and women) with distorted views of manhood and womanhood, the campaign seems like a breath of fresh air. Yes, they are trying to sell pants — but there are good ways to sell pants and bad ways to sell pants. This seems like a pretty good way. In...
My six-year-old brother James is a gift-giver. One of his favorite ways of showing love for his family is to break out his “treasure chest” and present each family member an assorted handful of sea shells, rocks, and airsoft pellets. Each of these episodes is followed by a brief period in which everyone except James is trying to figure out where to store this new handful of treasure...
“All my life I have been overweight,” writes Amanda, in response to our recent post, The Big Misunderstanding, “I’ve been made fun of and used to consider myself ugly. When I went off to a private Christian college I noticed that all of the sudden there were gentlemen everywhere — for the other girls.” Amanda goes on to share how throughout her first year of college...
Nothing helps a woman get in touch with her “inner feminist” more than modern culture’s common portrayal of chivalry as little more than chauvinist men who feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger and act like Jabba the Hut. Such men, we are told, are constantly insinuating that women cannot handle even simple things like opening doors, lifting two pounds and standing up. The result is...
When does a boy become a man? The answer to this must go far beyond biology and chronological age. As defined in the Bible, manhood is a functional reality, demonstrated in a man’s fulfillment of responsibility and leadership. With this in mind, let me suggest thirteen marks of biblical manhood. The achievement of these vital qualities marks the emergence of a man who will demonstrate true...
rebelling against low expectations
