Wake-up Call (A Man Faces Himself), Definition of Manliness (Masculinity)

This post is about Chapter 1 "Wake-Up Call, A Man Faces Himself" from "Tender Warrior" by Stu Weber.

In this chapter Stu discusses, “how many times can you hear a wake-up call without really waking up?” Wake-up calls tend to come at the crossroads of life. Many times we are pushing the snooze button or living by, “I’ll always have a second-chance later” (there is always tomorrow, I’ll do better.) Stu challenges us to ask ourselves “what really matters?”

Often times we take relationships for granted and in particular, not treating our spouses correctly, not seeing them as a companion in life, and not fully sharing what's really inside us. Stu shares examples of his life where he took his relationship with his wife for granted and how it got this way. Stu points out that understanding how the living God put him (or us / me) together as a man helped he and his wife grow together as a couple.

Stu ends the chapter with discussing the definition of manliness. He states that real, God-made down-in-the-bedrock masculinity is something men in our culture are scrambling to understand. Being tough, tender, strong, sensitive, fierce, friendly? Which is it? He mentions that in the chapters that follow he will look at cultures confusion right in the eye. He will have us look at ourselves and face up to a few things. We will sort through what really matters in life and go the rounds with some tough issues.

Here’s some questions to leave you with:

Stu Weber uses the analogy of a “Wake-up” call to introduce the concept’s of “facing yourself/what’s important in life” and the “definition of masculinity.” In general, what does society / our culture say about what’s most important in life and what the definition of masculinity is?

What do you think?

Feel free to post comments or email with questions and your thoughts.