Finding The Way Back
If porn is the ultimate compromise of the masculine soul, what is the way back to healthy masculinity?
How do we find wholeness in light of our compromise?
How do we recover what we have surrendered?
We need to start by recovering our true hearts and the imprint of authentic masculinity put there by God.
The recovery of our hearts is a journey. It’s a journey into our stories to encounter the joy and sorrow, celebration and heartache, the light and the darkness that live there.
The healing we so desperately seek can only be found by first engaging the wounds we have suffered in our respective stories and then receiving from God the mercy and strength needed to walk toward wholeness.
Before the resurrection there is the cross.
By taking the journey toward wholeness we draw closer to living out our genuine and true identities. We draw closer to being unmasked and unfazed.
That’s another way of saying naked and without shame.
We have no hope of that without a heart that is whole and is continuing to be made whole.
And that’s where Jesus comes in.
He lived with a whole heart as a man in this world. He demonstrates for us authentic, uncompromised masculinity.
Because we are made in the image of God, something deep in our souls resonates with what we see in Jesus. Somehow we know He is the real deal.
Likewise, as a result of God’s image in us, we have the yearning and the raw potential to be genuine men whose masculinity is not tainted with pretense.
In order to see the healthy expression of masculinity in Jesus, we need to be sure that the Jesus we are looking at is the right one. We must have Jesus as He really was and is.
Not Hip Jesus.
Not Political Jesus.
Not Religious Jesus.
Not “I’ll-never-say-anything-you-don’t-like” Jesus.
Just Jesus. Wild, playful, disruptive, scandalous, non-conforming, true, faithful, deeply good, and utterly free. Jesus in His masculinity. Jesus unashamed.
He knows how to love.
He knows how to play.
He knows genuine strength in its best expression.
The alignment of our hearts to His is the beginning, the middle, and the end of our masculine journey. It is the way back to recovering our true identity as men. It is how we redeem all that has been stolen from us and all that we have surrendered.
When we see Jesus, the real Jesus, we realize what we were made for because we see in Him what masculinity is supposed to be.
But we also see ourselves more clearly, including a glimpse into how our God-given masculine nature is trying to reveal itself, however raw and imperfect it may be at times.
Through the light of Jesus’ life, in His presence with us, we see that there are things we long for in our hearts which are in alignment with His desires.
For example, every man wants to live a life of significance, where he steps up to the challenges of his life and has an impact for good.
Every man wants a life that is full of rich relationships and experiences. He wants a life of taking pleasure in what is truly enjoyable, rewarding, and worth celebrating with a toast and a fine meal.
Every man craves beauty at the depth of his soul.
In all these things men are like Jesus, who went to parties, made wine (lots of it) at a wedding, had good friends, was both good and immeasurably significant, and created beauty for us to know.
Far from being a religious guy trying to turn us into eunuchs, Jesus is all about life to the full.
When we’ve compromised our masculinity, we find our way back by embracing and emulating Jesus _ the genuine article.
For more on the real Jesus, check out this link to a web cast done a few years ago by John Eldredge to promote his book “Beautiful Outlaw.”
Intentional Warriors 
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