Act Like Men

Scott McFarland
03/24/24 - Sun AM Worship

Scripture:  I Corinthians 16:13-14

Where Have All the Good Men Gone?

If you grew up in the 80s, the opening lines from Bonnie Tyler’s song “Holding Out for a Hero,” written for the movie Footloose, can be heard clear as a bell:

Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?

The question, “Where have all the good men gone?” is a common one asked among females of all ages. Women of all ages struggle to find men who are serious about life, serious about their values, and have a clear direction and focus.  What is going on? It would take more than a bulletin article to give a full answer to the above question, but I think what is at play is a society in which men are given a pass on just about everything. Psychologists have recently talked about “delayed adolescence”—young men who have been allowed to dodge maturity and responsibility through high school, into college, and beyond. Since others around them expect so little, young men are allowed to grow into adults who have little direction, are allowed to do what they want when they want, and are trapped in a pattern of boyish behavior that keeps them from developing the character and maturity that makes good husbands and fathers. Even getting married and becoming fathers does not produce the maturity their spouse or parents hope to see—they continue to act as boys while married with children. “Boys will be boys” is more than just a phrase—it has become a way of passing off immature behavior into adulthood.

Perhaps my assessment of manhood in our culture is too harsh, but I don’t think so. I’ve seen enough, talked to enough women, and experienced enough of it myself to think the above paragraph is overstating the point. 80 years ago, men graduated high school in June and were fighting Nazis in Europe by October. They came home at 22 years old, got jobs, got married, bought houses, and began families. By their mid-twenties they were several years into a career and a family. Today, only about 2/3 of 25-year-old males are even working full time! What’s the cure? There are no easy answers for this kind of societal issue, but I believe the Bible has a lot of help to offer in this area of manhood and becoming a man. Issues like building moral character, developing discipline, understanding responsibility, and other values and qualities of becoming a man are found in the pages of Scripture. Books like Proverbs, letters like Ephesians and James are just some starting points for these conversations. Take heart! I think the world will eventually have enough of the lack of manhood in our society. When it does, we have the opportunity as believers to develop ourselves and our young men into the kind of people God would have us to be. It starts with us.

Scott McFarland