Asking Manly Questions

Questions:
Why make a blog about manliness, or why am I talking about this silly topic so much? As men, who cares how many guns we have, who we can beat up, how fast our car is, etc? Are these things really what makes a man, or do they just demonstrate immaturity? As a Christian, shouldn't I abandon some of these traits and/or passions in favor of focusing on Christ and His message of what many/most would argue promotes passivity? Is being strong and aggressive and trying my best to stay that way contrary to basic Christian doctrine? What about listening to loud music? Does that promote anger and conflict, even if the message is supportive of Christianity?

The answers that I can come up with will be the subject of another blog, but what do you readers (all 1 or 2 people, maybe 3) think the answers to some/all of these questions are?

Quick thoughts about this blog

This background is boring and lame. I really need to change it someday soon.

Thus far, my blogs are ridiculously long. I hope they don't bore and/or intimidate all of the 2-3 people (if I'm lucky) in the world that see my blog and considers whether or not to actually read it. Unfortunately the lengthiness will probably continue, because once I have a thought/idea in my head I mull it around and ponder all of the angles until the topic is completely exhausted.

Clarifications, Corrections, Contrary, and Confirmation

After giving my introduction some further thought, I realized a few things that could use some further clarification, a correction that needs to be made, some things about me that are contrary to my proclamation of manliness, and also some additional traits that can probably be considered manly that previously went unmentioned.

Clarifications:

1. Although it may seem like it, I'm really not bragging about myself. I'm simply observing that I prefer to participate in what I consider to be manly hobbies, and demonstrate manly characteristics to the extent of very few other Christian men. I don't think that it makes me better than anyone else, it just means that I can find very few friends which share these same pastimes and interests, and if I do then they are very rarely Christians.
   

2. There are several professional mixed martial arts fighters that profess to be Christians, and I would guess them to be quite manly, since they make their living out of beating up their competition. Here are a few of the more popular ones:
   Rich Franklin
   Vitor Belfort
   Diego Sanchez
   Quinton Jackson
   Randy Couture
   Matt Hughes
   Ron Waterman
   However, since I don't actually know them personally, they don't count. Not to mention that fighting may be the only significant aspect of their manliness for all I know.

Corrections:
OK, I'm not the most manly Christian man that I know after all. I thought of a couple others that may possibly surpass me. I would say though that I'm one of the manliest Christian men that I know. I'm at least in the top 3-5, and I know a lot of people.

Contrary:
Admittedly, there are some aspects of my life that lack the level of manliness that you would expect from someone titling his blog as such.

1. I am not the best performer when it comes to sports. Not only that, but I'm not a big fan of watching or following them much either. People who knew me in grade school are probably laughing their aoff because I was just plain horrible at sports when I was younger. However, as my strength and confidence has improved with age, thankfully so has my athletic ability. So I don't completely suck anymore, but I'm not super impressive either.

2. I could use a few more pounds of muscle. I'm in pretty good shape, especially for my age. But at 175 lbs a bit more beefcake would help to enhance the manly image.
   

Confirmations:
I thought of a couple additional traits that could further confirm the idea behind the introduction.

1. Hairiness: I'm fairly hairy. Not to the extent of having excessive back or shoulder hair, but I can typically grow a beard in few days and I have a decent layer of chest hair. Yes, I know this is something that cannot be controlled (except for removing it via laser perhaps), but all other things being equal, smooth hairless skin is definitely more feminine than having a respectable (but not excessive) amount of body and facial hair.
   
   
2. Handyman: I mentioned in the introduction that I did a lot of work on my own cars, but thought I should expand that a little more to include house work. I can fix most anything. Of course, there are moments when the time required to fix it is more than I want to spend, or special tools are needed that I don't have or want to buy, etc. Usually though, I adopt my dad's philosophy that I'm as smart or smarter than the average repair man, so if they can do the job, then surely I can too.
   

An Opportunity That Knocks Once in a Lifetime

A couple of Fridays ago (10/6) I was home from work helping my wife after the birth of our second child, when my wife got a phone call from a good friend and neighbor a couple of doors down. She said that their 18 month old daughter had locked herself in a bedroom, they were getting panicky about it, and could I maybe come help?

I rushed over to find that there was a doorknob with a key lock (instead of the kind that you can poke a hanger into to open) on the interior bedroom door, and their little girl had accidentally locked it from the inside. Tammy (the neighbor) and her friend Sharon had already tried slipping and/or forcing various objects between the door frame to pry/force it open. I tried doing the same thing for a short while, until finally Tammy decided to grab a saw to try and cut around the door knob. The reasons were that a locksmith would take too long and cost too much, and the fire department probably would break down the door anyway, so it made sense to just go ahead and destroy the door.

Now, when I was younger, my dad put his fist through an interior bedroom door in a fit of rage. And ever since then I have wondered if I would be physically able to perform the same feat. Theoretically it wouldn't be too hard - I am fairly strong, have pretty good punching technique, and have put my fist through drywall before (in my own fit of rage when I was a teenager), and interior doors are two layers of fairly thin wood. But still, it's one thing to think you can and another to actually do it.

So I told them to stand back and then I let my right fist fly. One punch - crack! I didn't go through, but the door cracked, and flexed a lot more than I would hope, which makes it a lot harder to break. The top of the door was able to bend a good 2 -3 inches into the room, when pressed hard enough. Blood on my knuckes - well, I'm used to that from punching the heavy bag without gloves more times than I can count - so no big deal. Second punch - crack! Same thing. I grabbed the cracked door and pulled a piece of wood away. Lo and behold, right behind my point of impact was a nice strip of styrofoam that held the two sides together for stability. So it was stabilizing the wood, absorbing some of the shock, and preventing me from going straight through like I hoped to. One or two inches to the right this time - smash!! Right through.

Reached in through the door, turned the knob. Hero for the day. Now I'm wondering about it no more, I have some groovy cuts on my knuckles, and it was a pretty good rush too. Great manly moment. And to think my dad actually got paid to have moments like this as a cop.

Oh - and one more thing - several people wondered why I didn't want to kick the door in instead of punch through it. The reason is because first of all the door would fling inward where it could have hit the little girl, and secondly because it would have ruined the whole door frame, instead of just the door, which would be a whole lot more work and cost for my friend to replace it. I wouldn't mind giving it another try some day though, next time with better projecting of my punch. I should be able to go straight through with one solid motion, with or without the styrofoam.

He's More Important Than Just Crap Time

My life is insanely busy right now with 1 toddler, 1 newborn, 1 new house (with boxes to unpack and childproofing to accomplish), a car that is leaking 60% of it's compression through the exhaust valve(s) in cylinder 6 and needs new brakes (including rotors), etc. So about the only time I make to read the Bible is on the toilet. And even then I sometimes read the newspaper or Popular Mechanics magazine instead.

Well, last night I was reading the Bible on the toilet and I had an interesting thought. What if Lucas were all grown up with his busy life, and I were to say to him "Son, we never get to spend any time together anymore." to which he responded "Well dad, I'm really busy, but if you want to come into the bathroom while I'm taking a crap, then I'd be happy to hang out with you then."?

I'm pretty sure I would feel pretty insulted and disrespected, and at the very least I would kindly tell him, "No thanks, let me know when you can squeeze me into your regular schedule." Maybe I'd even say or at least think to myself "After all I've done for you, that's all the time I can get from you, is your crap time?"

I really need to make more time to spend with God, the one whom not only grants me with all of the blessings in my life, but genuinely desires to spend time with little insignificant me.