We’ll think a little about women next week. The man and the woman are equal-both created in the image of God, both the crowning touch of creation. He could do even better than that, so he made woman. Yes, the man was better than everything else. God made man more like God than anything else He had made. And different from everything else in God’s creation, God created the man in God’s own image. So God scooped up a little clay in the garden, formed it like a sculptor into the shape of a man, breathed into that clay the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. After creating everything else, God determined He could do better-better than majestic oaks and redwoods, better than roses and orchids and daisies, better than lions and tigers and bears, better than dolphins and eagles and large-mouth bass, maybe even better than a dog. Let’s see what God has to say about manhood. I invite you to open your Bible to Psalm 15. And instead of listening to culture’s numerous definitions of manhood, let’s check a higher authority. And in this era of such gender confusion, it’s worth thinking about. What do a man’s tears or lack of tears say about his manhood? If a man is a nurturer is that part of his masculinity or is it his “feminine side”? If he’s open to sharing his feelings or to talk with other men about something besides sex and sports, dogs and trucks, does this diminish his manhood? Hey, I like scented candles that smell like apples and cinnamon, honeysuckle and pine? What does that say about me?Ī couple of decades ago manhood was locked in a laboratory and has been poked, prodded, and tested ever since? What is the measure of a man? That’s a question every generation should consider. Really? What is the measure of a man? Proficient with his fists? Or maybe with his wits? Perhaps the measure of a man is his work ethic or his character or the capacity to provide for himself and his family. In spite of what his daddy said, “Sometimes you have to fight to be a man.” And when the dust settled, Tommy lets us know the rich discovery he made. He went in where they were, locked the door behind him, and “with twenty years of crawling all bottled up inside him,” he exploded and lit into them like a windmill in a tornado. So after a rather poignant scene of weeping over his dead daddy’s picture, Tommy finds the men who roughed up his girlfriend. Tommy had been called yellow for the last time. But one day, the town rowdies accosted his girlfriend, Becky. Tommy was, and he was embarrassed over and over again as he tried to live up to the promise he made to his dying daddy.
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That was easy for dad to say-he wasn’t getting bullied.
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Tommy promised his dying daddy he wouldn’t get into fights because, as his daddy said, “Son, you don’t have to fight to be a man.” You could even step on his blue suede shoes, and he still wouldn’t fight. You could knock him down, spit in his face, slander his name all over the place. It’s the story of a young man who goes through life with everyone thinking that he’s yellow. His name is Tommy, and “people called him the coward of the county.” So went the Kenny Rogers ballad a few years back.