Are we mothering men?

The safe route isn't always the best route that leads to God's will.

I have had to learn that the hard way and also learn to not steal such a lesson from those I lead. We can easily seek to push our path on others out of fear instead of allowing them to learn and discover their own path with all its own challenges.

Fear isn't a great motivator and people often wither under the heavy light of constant practicalities. I think God has wired especially the young, to be those who dare and leap and are the innovators for a reason. Life can sap ones idealism and turn us into safe, predictable, domesticated and civilized robots. And to be honest, I am not sure how much we want them to really choose our path.
Are we really proud of the men we have become?

Emerson said:
"Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.
He who would gather immortal palms must not be
hindered by the name of goodness,
but must explore if it be goodness."

I think this quote nails on the head, what I have been feeling and thinking. Each of us has to determine what "goodness" is for us. Not that everything is relative but everything is not easily pigeonholed into a neat little formula. God's will isn't predictable and interpreting His will through circumstances is sure to lead one to frustration.

Circumstantial guidance seems very immature to me, or at least the lowest form of guidance. It seems to rely on outward things instead of personal convictions, solid truth and the gut. If we are always making our decisions on whether this goes this way or that goes that way; we seem like the double minded man, described as being tossed by the winds and the waves, always unstable and never receiving anything from the Lord.
I think the Lord honors and rewards the attitude of faith more than timidity masked as wisdom.

I am reminded of the parable of the talents. The one who sat on his talents and didn't risk, did not please the master and what he had was taken away. Such timid, miserly, fearful living, breeds contempt, not admiration. People want the security found in realizing dreams but the reality is, those who most often arrived there, got there through uncertainty, risk and faith not safety.

Do we want to leave a path of insecurity and Islamic-like servitude to ALLAHS WILL in everything or live out a living, dynamic and daring thing called freedom, that Jesus modeled and unleashed. You don't walk on water with cold, measured and predictable reductionism. But if we know Jesus, like Peter did, we would know that he was the kind of leader that would call us out of the boat into a wild, unsafe and potentially dangerous path...on the waves.

Can we sink? Yes, and we often do, but I would rather see young people aim at living on the edge of the unknown and learning from such attempts than always hiding in the skirts of the known. We don't need anymore breast suckers; it's time to stop coddling the young and breeding weenies instead of apostolic men. We've become a bunch of old balding birds, who instead of chasing eagles out of the nest, try to lure them into living a mundane life, a boring slavery to the nesting instinct.

We are emasculating manhood by trying to protect every young man from failing. We've become "mothering men" instead of those who lead by example in character, vision, victory and failure.

We have no stories to share because we spend lives reading other peoples stories.
We have nothing to pass on because we passed it up.
Instead of leaping we were sleeping...in our own womb of excuses.

We can't allow such a mindset to hamstring our sons or us...I won't allow it.