There’s an ongoing war within [our] culture.  It’s the war for manhood.  The older I become the harder it becomes to see a proper example of Biblical manhood.  Much like the culture the chairs and pews are overwhelmingly filled with ‘boys who can shave’. Let me give you an example actually taken from the people I interact with daily.

What is the difference between a 16 year old that lives at home with his parents, plays Xbox 360 all day, doesn’t have a job, dates around without any form of commitment, and has little or no responsibility outside of which fast food joint he wants to take his date for dinner and a 25 year old that bunks with dudes, pays $100 in rent a month, works part-time, and doesn’t shower very often?

You’re exactly right; the answer:  age.

I know what you’re thinking.  The aforementioned descriptions might be a little extreme and probably not ‘completely’ accurate in most cases, but the picture painted here should be pretty clear.

Adolescence is often seen as the stages between puberty and legal adulthood.  In our culture, this would be about 18 years old.  When a young man turns 18 he can buy tobacco, vote, and purchase rated R movie tickets.  Pretty sweet huh?  Yep.  Well, it seems that way.

In today’s culture, boys can become men without any ‘rite of passage,’ so to speak.  All it takes is… well… age.  I am seeing ‘men’ who are in their 20′s and 30’s reflect the lifestyle of 18 and 19 year olds.  And we call it manhood.  This is pathetic!

Confusion over what manhood is has plagued our cities, families and lives. The concept of a biblical man has been lost in our generation. Unfortunately, many churches struggle to provide for its members, much less those beyond their walls, with a tangible definition of a real man.

Mark Discoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church, gives some pretty good insight into this.

Historically, a guy would go through two life phases: boy, then man. The transition from boy to man was comprised of five sociological variables that happened almost simultaneously or in very close succession:

1. Leave your parents’ home (Gen. 2:24);
2. Finish your education or vocational training;
3. Start a career-track job, not a dead-end-Joe job;
4. Meet a woman, love her, honor her, court her, and marry her;
5. Have children with her.

But here’s what’s happened. Rather than moving from boy to man by this succession of sociological transitions, we’ve created something called adolescence. It’s a third life stage in the middle between boy and man. We don’t know what to call them so we just call them guys. These are boys who can shave.

Today, adolescence starts somewhere in the teen years and continues indefinitely. There is no foreseeable end. The problem with adolescence is guys don’t know when they’re ever going to grow up and be men, and no pressure is exerted on them to do so.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_K9sjB2pKM&feature=plcp&context=C3e679e9UDOEgsToPDskL7-M9Y0PM8UU5z0xQHxjc7]

Lyrics below…