The Tin Man Saga

  The other day as I was waiting for the release of classes, I observed several young boys playing together on the playground. Sitting there, my mind was teleported back to a place in time that I remember the neighborhood kids playing together in my back yard.  photo by Joao Rafael I was raised in a certain part of the city, closest to the river and therefore our back yard was not exactly flat, grassy, and without thorns. Regardless of what small obstacles we faced, we always found a way to make things fun and enjoyable. We would pretend my back yard was a fortress and castle we had to defend against the bad guys. It was an army war zone where children would find the perfect shaped stick to become our Luger pistol or machine gun with which to annihilate the enemy. There were about 12 kids playing and so we had a come up with two teams to portray the bad guys and the good guys, then after a while, we would switch sides. It was no big deal to disagree as to which side one would ...

  Brrrr…Texans in my area have never experience cold weather like this before and it seems that we are all in a panic!! The forecast for Monday is 5 degrees and personally, in all my years I’ve never experienced this kind of cold before even when we vacationed in Colorado. Yes, I know I sound like I’m complaining and whining…well I suppose that I am, so sad too bad. The thought hit me though as I look around and speak to a few friends, the public in general, does not know what to do or how to prepare for these abnormal temperatures. The media is providing some advice on preparations for ourselves, our homes, our pets and pipes which is all very important. However, the real question I have is why do we wait for right before the freeze blankets us to actually act on a plan of how we are going to combat and avoid being one of its victims?  As I engage my devotion this morning, I got a mental picture of how I personally, and others I know, somehow wait until we are right dead set,...

  I caught the tail end of a documentary about Sasquatch, or more commonly known as Bigfoot and how so many people have seen it, but to this day remains elusive and unfounded.  I do not know if you believe or even have an opinion about the big guy but, what comes to mind when you hear anything about the myth of Bigfoot? Do you envision a hairy creature, 10 ft tall, and bigger than any creature that walks on two legs, or perhaps a vision of mystique and something wild? What if we could be like Bigfoot, in that we could hide out in the wild, in a place so hard to track down that we would be alone for a bit? Sound intriguing? I know that sometimes we want to get so disconnected from life, and we don’t want anyone to talk to us or locate us. A wish so powerful that we just want to be left alone to do whatever we want to do, need to do, to put together some strategy to sort life out. That place truly is a desire for many men, and I believe most men desire to have the ability to b...

  I am lonely at times. ..there, I said it. It wasn't so hard to say, and for the life of me I am just now beginning to understand why it is that so many men seem to have so much trouble admitting it. In the many conversations I've had with multiple guys the one thing that is constant is that there is a lack of authentic expressions and especially to sharing internal feelings up front. It takes time to develop into something really close and really intimate but why is that? I think I have an idea and I'd like to throw it out for your consideration and thoughts if you would like to share. There seems to be this internal notion for most men that sharing your feelings is a "female" thing so when there's any thought of sharing something intimate with a male friend men seem to hit a brick wall and absolutely will not go beyond. Can I paint a picture for you? They feel like the Israelites when they arrived at the Red Sea and could not go beyond that point. They look...

" Sticks and stones may break  my bones, but words will never  break  me." How many men have heard this phrase and how many more have spoken them? We use it as a metaphor to defend ourselves against verbal assaults or words that we don't take on as descriptive of us. Have we stopped to consider how this little harmless saying plays out in our lives? In all honesty, most every guy I have had the pleasure of working with, sooner or later share how certain words or phrases impacted their development. There were those that had a happy home life growing up and never really heard harsh words directed at them. Then there are those that as far back as they can remember were battered with disturbing and hurtful words. Words that left them with scars so deep that only God can heal them. With this in mind, I direct us back to the "sticks and stones" phrase and ask you again if you really and truly believe words don't impact an individual?   Are you aware that we were d...

  Yep, I said it, “we guys have to get a handle on the one thing we are good at and that is “mansplaining”. What is mansplaining one may ask? Well, as my wife defines it, “the process by which a male attempts to explain what a woman is trying to say to someone else” or literally a total communication failure. That’s “mansplaining” and it goes to show that the reason men grunt and point, is because of this very unique inability to verbally express others thoughts and opinions and sometimes not even their own. The mere reasons men don’t understand how women think and speak is because we were made to think without a mental pause button. That’s right, unlike our DVR gadget that allows to pause a show so we can get a sandwich or visit the library for a bit,  we do not have the same benefit as we listen to our wives or girlfriends to be able to pause them for a second. A button that would enable us to take information, process correctly, and then disseminate appropriately, and the...

It's 2 AM, my phone begins to vibrate and of course the first thing I think is that something has happened or someone has died. It's an awful gut feeling that almost always happens when one gets awakened suddenly by a phone so early in the morning.  The voice on the other end of the line says, "I'm sorry to wake you but I'm afraid...I don't know if I can continue with this". It's one of the young men that I have taken on as a mentee and is having a relapse in believing the lies he's been told all his life. My heart starts beating hard and I know this moment is crucial in helping him regain his foundational truth. This is one of many hurdles men will deal with in their journey. "What are you afraid of" I ask and he responds, "I'm afraid that I don't measure up to what God is asking of me. I feel like I should be punished for all my sins and things I've done wrong in my life. I feel like such a hypocrite even to think that ...