Manliness? Cool? Macho? Heroic? Muscled and fit? Hm, maybe not.
( Be sure and Read It All; it's really good. JB)

There is much talk about manhood today, but I don't see much of it in practice. Contrary to popular opinion, it's not about hunting bear with a pointy stick and never has been.

Many bestselling Christian writers talk about being warriors. They sell truckloads of books and inspire the creation of thousands of men's groups in countless churches. Men go on "advances" (don't EVER call it a "retreat"--too girlie) to learn how to develop their inner warrior, or if the group has more of a business focus, their inner leader.

Despite the millions of books sold, speaking engagements across the world, and a guaranteed bestselling sequel when the sales of the latest warrior tome peak, one arrow is routinely left out of the warrior author's quiver: humility.

By nature, humility and war are a hard marriage. The examples don't come as readily as the images we get of tough, swaggering men in bullet-shredded uniforms, each with a cigar firmly clenched between his teeth, mowing down one wave after another of Nazis, flamethrower in one hand, tank gun ripped off a flaming Sherman in the other. Such men ascend through the ranks and become twelve-star generals, husbands to nubile movie starlets, and CEOs of multinationals that consume lesser companies no matter how many poison pills are consumed. That's the role model of manliness we Americans hallow. (In the American Christian world, the model's pretty much the same, though the cigar is suspect.) ( Hat Tip to Adrian Warnock's blog)