The Keener Way

  There's a lot of things involved in being a man. More things than I know, certainly. I'm far from the apex of manhood. But there's one thing about being a man that doesn't get talked about a lot. I don't even really think about it much, except I came across this song earlier today and...wow it hit hard, knowing what some men in my life have gone through... So to all the men out there, this is for you, my brother-at-arms. Know that we see you. Know that we love you. I was fortunate to grow up with a loving father. A strong father. One who raised nine kids and shepherded a church community, and seldom let anyone see him reach the breaking point. Meanwhile, too many families out there struggle with an unloving father or no father at all. Men who didn't have what it takes to be a man. The first sign of stress, they bailed. Or they turned toxic. Or whatever else. And that's a topic for another manhood discussion. But most men aren't like that. Beyond my fat...

  This past week, I've been doing a challenge set by my church's pastor. Each day, choose a random passage of scripture, study it, and try to find an attribute of Adonai's character. In five weekdays, that is five attributes. Its been a fascinating study so far. But it really got interesting when one morning, I decided to study Job 38. A little poke inside me said "no, do Job 42." I looked at Job 42 and thought, "But i don't want to do Job 42. YHWH is rebuking Job's three friends. If I study that, I'm gonna almost have to study the whole book, to really grasp why he was angry with their counsel. That's the way my mind works." But the voice insisted. "Job 42". And I'll be honest, the study was worth it. I only did a very general overview of the whole book, but I came out of it with some enlightened thoughts. Here is a (very) rough and abridged version of the argument between Job and his companions.   Eliphaz (my god is fine g...