What if someone wrote a brutally honest book about how to be a manly man who is a “keeper of the garden” and “Champion for the weak and vulnerable,” and that man was a self-described flute playing captain of the Scholastic Bowl team…would you read the book?
Brant Hansen is that accordion and flute playing nerd, and he wrote the book, The Me We Need: God’s Purpose for the Manly Man, the Avid Indoorsman, or Any Man Willing to Show Up.
It is a refreshingly honest, yet humble and gentle, take on being a man and our responsibility as men.
Masculinity is about taking responsibility. We naturally respect men who take responsibility for themselves. We have even more respect for those who go beyond themselves to their families. And we have immense respect for men who take responsibility for those well outside their own homes. We are “masculine” not to the extent that we body-build or achieve sexual conquests or fix stuff, but to the extent that we are faithful to the job of being humble, consistent, dedicated keepers of the garden.
The book is immediately practical and applicable to our lives as men. I found myself relating to ways that we as men can abdicate our God-given directives because others are willing to step up. But we cannot shirk our duties, each of us is needed. A man who drops out of the game is missed. This isn’t a guilt trip, but it is a call to action and an assignment of value and worth to each of us as men.
If you don’t do something, don’t just assume it will get done. Your life is deeply meaningful, one way or another. Your efforts matter. Your work matters. You’re the only one uniquely placed in your position in the world. No one else is in your exact context. If someone needs encouragement and you don’t provide it, it’s quite possible they will not be encouraged. If someone needs their existence acknowledged and you are in a position to do that but take a pass, it’s possible no one will acknowledge it. Yes, God wants it done, and yes, he has the power to do it. That’s why he put you there.
Of course, this value and worth comes from God, and Hansen fills this book with scriptural references and points to God’s purpose in creating men.
I highly recommend this book to all men, especially those who are searching for motivation and clarity around our role as Christian men in our families and communities. However, I believe women would also benefit from reading the book and gaining understanding of what to look for in a good man.
This book has been highly impactful for me. It has helped to reinforce my confidence in being valuable and needed in the world. It describes how to distinguish between the dangers of “following your heart,” but also being intimately aware of the Lord’s leading and nudging. These concepts are held in tension throughout our lives as Christians, and Hansen assists the reader to grasp when it is the Lord and when it is merely our own selfish desires and ambitions.
Real, Godly men are desperately needed in the world today. It is those of us willing to answer the call and take action who will be used by God in unique and invaluable ways.
