Kingdom MasculinitySample

Day 2: This is the Way!

Growing up, I thought I understood what it meant to be a man. Like so many, I was shaped by a thousand silent teachers: TV shows, movies, magazines, locker rooms. Masculinity looked like toughness, independence, emotional distance. You didn’t ask for help. You didn’t show weakness. You powered through. You definitely didn’t talk about it. Whatever “it” might have been.

I watched characters on shows like Dallas and 90210, men who either buried their emotions or wielded them recklessly, and something in me believed that was the standard. Be strong. Be cool. Don’t need anyone. But even as I tried to live up to it, a quiet ache grew inside me. Was this really all there was to being a man?

Then, I met Jesus. Not the version of Jesus that I had been taught to admire from a distance, but the real Jesus, the one who was strong in ways I couldn’t comprehend. He could calm storms with a word and call out injustice without fear. Yet He also wept over brokenness and touched the untouchable. In Him, strength and tenderness weren't at war; they were perfectly united. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus offers an invitation: “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest… For I am gentle and humble in heart.” True masculinity, I began to see, isn’t about how much weight you can carry or how hard you can push through. It’s about being secure in the love of the Father, strong because you are loved, not because you have something to prove.

Paul captures this beautifully in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” Notice the call: Stand firm. Be strong. But also, love. The strength God calls men into is always tethered to love, the kind of love that sacrifices, heals, and redeems.

The longer I walk with Jesus, the more I realize: masculinity is not something I have to perform or earn. It’s something I receive by abiding in Him. It’s the strength of knowing I am fully seen, fully known, and fully loved, and living from that place of unshakable identity.

As The Mandalorian says, “This is the way.”

Jesus said, “I am the way.”

And the good news is that He invites us to learn how to live this way also.

As you ponder on all this with God today, consider asking Him:

Father, how have the messages that I received about masculinity growing up shaped my view of myself? How have they shaped my view of others?

Jesus, what areas of my life need to be recalibrated to reflect your strength and love?

Holy Spirit, where am I still living with something to prove? Something to hide? Something to fear?