Take Courage

Stepping Up: A Call to Courageous Manhood

FamilyLife Today® Radio Transcript

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Take Courage

Guest: Dennis Rainey

From the series: Stepping Up (Day 1 of 5)

Bob: Dennis Rainey says there is a call going out to men all over the world—a call to be men—to be courageous.

Dennis: A call to courageous manhood is all about calling men to pound their chest and say, “You know what—I refuse to do nothing about the evil that is destroying my marriage, my children, my family, and my grandchildren. I want to do something as a man.”

Bob: This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, March 7th. Our host is the President of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey; and I'm Bob Lepine. Today we are looking at what the Bible has to say about what God has in mind for men being men.

And welcome to FamilyLife Today. Thanks for joining us on the Monday edition. Is it okay for women to listen to what we are going to talk about?

Dennis: Oh, absolutely. Oh, sure. In fact, Barbara gives a message to women called “Helping Your Man Step Up to Real Manhood.”

Bob: I know, but you are going to be talking to the guys for the most part this week. This is kind of man-to-man, from-your-heart, kind of stuff. It is alright for the women to listen?

Dennis: Kind of? [laughter] I think it is going to be very instructive to single women, married women, moms who are raising boys, grandmothers, and obviously to single men, husbands, dads, and grandfathers as well. We are just going to talk heart-to-heart for the need for courageous manhood today and for men to step up and really take on the mantel of true godly male leadership.

Bob: This is something you have been chewing on for quite some time.

Dennis: That is a nice way to put it, Bob. [laughter] Chewing on it. I have tried to write this book four times in the last ten years—actually 12 years. I have run across notes that I have had that are like fossilized relics. [laughter]

I have been interrupted by health issues in our family; family crises when one of our children wasn’t doing well; Barbara had a health issue; and, of course, the recession back in 2008 and 2009—that took me off the book as I really scrambled here at FamilyLife to make sure we operated in the black, which by the grace of God we did.

All o f those things took me off task, Bob; but I am glad in a way because I believe what we have come up with here will be a tool that we place in the hands of men and women, for that matter, that is going to help them be more effective in taking on the mantel of male leadership.

Bob: This is your new book called Stepping Up. I think it is interesting—when you look at what the Bible has to say about being a man, there is a link to the idea of courage. That is what you have tapped into in this book.

Dennis: Right, Bob. I believe, as never before, men are under attack today. More than 60 percent of college students today are women. I don’t think it is safe to be a man on many occasions.

There was an article back last January in the Wall Street Journal. It was entitled, “Eek! A Male!” It was an article that talked about a man in Massachusetts who saw some smoke coming from a van. He rushed in; and as he was rescuing two small children before the van went up in smoke, the grandmother almost punched his lights out because she thought he was going to kidnap the kids. It is assumed almost that men are predators. We assume the worst about them.

The article went on to say that a guy in England didn’t stop and pick up a toddler beside the road because he was afraid he would be accused of being a child molester or a kidnapper of the child. He drove on, and the toddler ended up walking off into a pond and drowned.

Bob: Certainly there are men in the culture who are predatory and who do commit the kind of acts that raise the concern, but what I hear you saying is that that has had a chilling effect on men being what God has called men to be.

Dennis: Right. I think for men to step up and truly lead today, it takes courage as never before. Last night, Barbara and I were watching a series. In fact, you loaned us this series about John Adams, the second president of the United States. Barbara has already read the book by David McCullough. I just look at the sheer size of that book, and it frightens me.

Bob: You say, “I’ll watch the TV series.”

Dennis: I’ll watch the series! [laughter] At the end of the first session, I turned to Barbara and I was just commenting on John Adams and his courage. I told her, “You know what, we know very little today as men about that kind of courage that our Founding Fathers had in establishing this nation. They put their lives on the line to gain America’s freedom.”

I think we need a fresh vision of what it means to be a man and to step up and protect our wives, our families, our communities, our culture, and our nation from the evil that preys upon them. I think today—I think it is going to call upon that kind of courage that our Founding Fathers had more than 250 years ago.

Bob: Do you think men today are inhibited culturally? They back off from courage because the culture doesn’t reward it? Do you think it is their passivity that is kicking in? Why aren’t men stepping up to courageous manhood?

Dennis: If you look at Joshua 1, God commanded through Joshua, He commanded the nation of Israel, and specifically the men. He said, “Be courageous. Don’t be afraid.” He said it four times. You kind of wonder if the nation of Israel needed courage in the face of fear. Why would God command it four times?

I think there is something within all of us which tends toward cowardice—toward passivity—toward backing away from confronting our fears and moving through them and doing something about them. For instance, the other day, Barbara and I were in New York City. We were doing some shopping in a French store, which was an unusual store. It has all kinds of gadgets for the kitchen and for families. It really had some fun stuff for $10, $20.

We were looking in it, and there were two books that had an obscene word on the cover of the book. It is, in my opinion, the most vulgar term you could put on the cover of a book. There were two books there. I am going, “What is with that in this classy store?” I thought, “Nah, don’t do it.&...