Masculinity has become complicated. At least, it has become difficult to be confident about what it means to be a man—to be a man as God has designed men to be. The culture has plenty to say about masculinity that is toxic, but far less to say about masculinity that is good and honoring. We hear more about women becoming men than men simply being men. And many wonder: What are men meant to be and what are men supposed to do?

Into the fray steps Brant Hansen with a wonderful new book titled The Men We Need: God’s Purpose for the Manly Man, the Avid Indoorsman, or Any Man Willing to Show Up. “This book is about a big vision for manhood,” he says. “We’ve lacked that vision, and all of us—men, women, and children—are hurting because of it. The vision is this: We men are at our best when we are ‘keepers of the garden.’ This means we are protectors and defenders and cultivators. We are at our best when we champion the weak and vulnerable. We are at our best when we use whatever strength we have to safeguard the innocent and provide a place for people to thrive. This is the job Adam was given: keeper of the garden.”
I need to say right away that this is not one of those books—those trite and cheesy books for men that focuses on a clichéd version of masculinity bound to a particular culture and a bygone century. Hansen isn’t advocating a form of masculinity that depends on swinging hammers, wrestling bears, or distributing swords. In fact, he says he’s not even capable of writing that book because “I don’t even hunt. I play the accordion. … I’m an avid indoorsman. I own puppets.”
The heart of masculinity, he says, is taking responsibility—responsibility for those things God has made men particularly responsible for. “God gave Adam the job of looking after the garden and the things within. He was to guard it, tend it, and help it flourish. He was responsible for it. I believe looking after our own ‘gardens’ remains our masculine purpose, and we all implicitly know it. Our culture is in chaos regarding what masculinity really is, so it’s dangerous to suggest there’s a distinct, wonderful thing called masculinity. … Masculinity is about taking responsibility.” Hence, true masculinity is not displayed in flexing muscles or fixing stuff or achieving sexual conquests. Rather, true masculinity is displayed in being humble, responsible, dedicated keepers of the gardens God has given us.
Once Hansen lays a foundation for masculinity, he leads readers through “Six Decisions that Will Set You Apart.” They are:

Forsake the fake and relish the real. His focus here is rejecting pornography and video games and other fake forms of virtuous longings. “The hurting world and our hurting communities need us to solve real-world problems, protect real-world people, and fight real-world injustice. Actually, let me rephrase that a bit. The hurting world and your hurting community need you to solve real-world problems, protect real-world people, and fight real-world injustice. Please don’t waste your God-given desire for adventure and accomplishment by being a fake hero fighting fake injustices in fake worlds.”
Protect the vulnerable. Here he says that “The people in your neighborhood, at your school, or at your workplace should be safer because you’re there. Even if they don’t know it.” This means men must be willing to protect others and must be steadfastly unwilling to become a threat to others.
Be ambitious about the right things. “You will struggle with feeling meaningless when you choose to invest your time and energy in meaningless things,” he says. Hence, we must use our God-given ambition to pursue causes that actually matter.
Make women and children feel safe, not threatened. Here he calls upon men to invest themselves in helping the people around them grow and thrive. “I’m trying to be this kind of man, a man who makes his wife feel secure and protected. I know my wife is every bit my equal. I know she’s highly intelligent and strong and creative and funny. I know she can survive with or without me. But it’s my goal to see her thrive and flourish. I believe in her so strongly, I’m excited about what she can yet become.”
Choose today who you will become tomorrow. Quite simply, who we will be tomorrow is a direct result of what we pay attention to today. For this reason we must take great care when it comes to those things that earn our attention.
Take responsibility for your own spiritual life. This final chapter is dedicated to forming a real, open, honest relationship with the Lord—a loyalty to the God who is so very loyal to us.

At a time when masculinity is viewed as a liability more than an asset, as something that is more likely to harm the world than help it, Brant Hansen describes and celebrates a form of masculinity that is good, pure, and true—a form of masculinity that will serve families, serve the church, and serve the world. He calls men to embrace it and display it in their lives. It turns out that in this time of confusion, The Men We Need is exactly the book we need.

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May the Lord be with you and bless you today.
Westminster Books is having a big Spring Clearance Sale—reducing their inventory of books that are great, but that they have too many of. Also, if you let them know of a current or future pastor, they’ll send them a free copy of a brand new book by John Currie.
There are a few new Kindle deals this morning.
(Yesterday on the blog: The Sins That Plague Our Souls)

“We need a gospel awakening in Africa. Those of us who labor across Africa must not sacrifice biblical principles for short-term results. Over the past 50 years, this approach has resulted in African churches filled with nominal Christians who believe in a different gospel. We must do the long work of biblical preaching that convicts men of sin and calls men to repentance and faith. We must labor in prayer until Christ is formed in the hearts of men and women who are dead in their trespasses and sin. We must long, pray, and work for the conversion of men and then diligently disciple each one who believes in Jesus into maturity.”

This is a good question to wrestle through. “Don’t be more guarded in your language than the apostles. When you’re more careful than Scripture, it can justify others’ concerns about Calvinism killing evangelism. Peter and Paul may not have told unbelievers ‘Jesus died for you,’ but they did make similar appeals in their evangelism…”

Andrew pleads with wavering Christians not to abandon their faith. “As you consider deconstruction, deconversion or even the moral dereliction of the truth at is in Jesus, may I offer you four facts that might anchor the home of your heart and might help you to stand firm when drifting back or away feel like a foregone conclusion…”

Trevin Wax: “It doesn’t matter how kind or winsome our approach may be. There will be times when our polite refusal to go along will be seen as a threat to societal cohesion. When we refuse to name good evil and evil good, or be complicit in certain forms of injustice, or deny the nature of bodily givenness, or go along with a lie simply because it’s socially acceptable, or say the lesser of two evils is somehow good, or sacrifice key principles as we engage in public and political life, or deny the core teachings of Christianity when they’re unpopular, our quiet ‘no’ will be scandalous.”

Elyse Fitzpatrick imagines some of what we will experience in the new heavens and new earth. “If you believe that this present world is all there is, then you will war and plunder and seek to get rather than give. If, on the other hand, you believe that what you’re seeing now is merely a shadow of what is to come (1 Cor 13:12), then you can live freely, generously, and joyously in this present age.”

“Christians are a Last Days people and will continue to be, until Christ’s return. Let’s not get caught up in the Speculation Industry that promotes confusion, distorts biblical texts, and deceives people far and wide. The Lord Jesus will return in great glory and splendor. But his return isn’t prompted by or connected to a total solar eclipse.”

We all sin in different ways. Some sin loudly and some sin quietly. Some sin in their actions and some in their imaginations. But it’s all sin.

If I could write as I would about the goodness of God to me, the ink would boil in my pen!
—Frances Ridley Havergal

I recently shared a message for young men. Having done that, I asked my friend Melissa Edgington if she would write an equivalent letter for young women. She kindly did so and allowed me to share it here.

Somewhere out there in the great, wide world, someone is praying for you. She probably doesn’t know you and you probably don’t know her. You may not meet one another for many more years. But she’s praying for you nonetheless and has been for a very long time. 
She is the mother of a son. She is a mother who once cradled a swaddled baby boy in her arms, bleary-eyed and sleep deprived, yet electric with the knowledge that this chubby-cheeked wonder was her own. She is a mother who thrilled at the sight of freshly plucked flowers clutched in a little boy’s outstretched hand. By day she laughed and groaned her way through his original knock-knock jokes, and by night she dreamt of what kind of man he would become, praying ceaselessly first for his salvation and then for his spiritual strength. She is a mother who implored the Creator of the Universe to make him into a man after God’s own heart.
From the time that she first laid eyes on this boy, she knew that he would one day fall in love with a woman. She has always understood that she is building a boy, body and heart and soul, to give away, both to the Lord’s service and to you. One part of her mission as a mother is the learning to let go a little bit, milestone by milestone, year by year, helping him stand on his own, helping him depend on Christ, and helping him become a man who will lead a family in devotion to the Lord and love his wife as Christ loves the church.
This mother has cooperated with Christ in bringing up a boy, training him, loving him, disciplining him, discipling him, and she has poured out everything that her heart can hold that might bless this child, her son, her treasure. In all of this she has prayed for you and is praying for you still.
She prayed for you in your childhood, for your safety and nurturing. She prayed that you would come to know Christ and that you would grow in your understanding of who He is and your role in His kingdom. She prayed that the Lord would protect you from the evil intentions of others, that He would rescue you from those would might seek to do you harm. 
And she prays for you still. For your heart, that it would beat for Christ alone. For your spirit, that it would be refreshed by the truth of God’s word. For your mind, that it would be filled with the goodness of God and thoughts that are true, right, noble, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. She prays that you are developing spiritual disciplines that bring you to thankfulness in difficult circumstances, to reliance on the One who has the answers, and to peace that passes all understanding. She prays that you are growing into a woman who has a passion for God’s people and a desire to serve the Lord. She prays that you will love her son, unconditionally, unendingly, and with tenderness and grace. And she asks the Lord to allow you and her precious child, her boy, to live a long and beautiful life of sacrifice and service, side by side, arm in arm.
She prays for you now. You will one day meet and fall in love with her cherished one, and all of these years, perhaps you never imagined that you have been carried on the wings of his mother’s prayers. Take comfort in knowing that somewhere, a mother is praying for you. Seek the Lord, dear girl, and grow in your love for Him so that you may become God’s good answer to a mother’s prayers.