He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?  (Micah 6:8, ESV)

If you are of the male gender, you are either a real man or an imitation … there is no middle ground. 

C.P. Traveler here, sitting in for Chuckles on the usual busy weekend.  It happens to be Independence Day on Monday, and that means different things to different people.  But one theme seems to ring out more loudly (amid the fireworks and celebration) and that is the call of Freedom.  It goes far deeper than what our founding fathers and those who died in the revolt over 200 years ago felt or even experienced.  It’s the freedom of an individual to live in a way that moves toward God on the basis of the sacrifice made by One.

A couple of recent posts have caught my eye, and I’d like to comment on them through the lenses of real vs. imitation men and True Freedom.  And if you’ll hang on for a minute, I think I can connect the dots back to the verse from Micah I quoted above. 

The post by Chuckles about Circle of Hope Ranch just plain made me sick.  I sit on the editorial board of this fine forum and, as such, get to see some comments before or along with Chuckles prior to approval.  Between the story and the comments, frankly I just want to run outside and puke!  To think that so-called Christian men would draw up agreements as ridiculous as the one cited, take in young kids (and I know some of them were VERY troubled) and systematically abuse them, and do it all in the name of God just makes me mad.  I have a grand-niece who is giving her mother fits for various reasons (her mother gave my brother fits as well), but there is NO WAY we would ever think of subjecting her to that kind of torturous treatment.  Look, I’ve said before that I know there are times when “tough love” is necessary to save a train wreck … but what all these guys did goes beyond bordering on criminal and those who support them ought to be brought up as accessories after the fact.  When kids need help, we have to HELP them … not push them to a point where they either crumble or end up on America’s Most Wanted!   Life is too precious to treat it that way.  These are truly imitation men at their worst.

The response letter from Tim Anderson to one Ken Smith (alleged former lawman of rather mysterious background) is the other post that piqued my interest.  Once again, Tim has shown what a real man, connected to a personal God, will do when defending his family.  He will state the facts, plainly and simply, not accuse anyone unjustly, and then walk away.  He knows what a real man does and he lives it every time I see him do this.  Real men don’t skirt the accusations, but they don’t wallow in them either.  They seek the Truth to the best of their ability, they speak it, and then the move on to what is truly important.  For Tim, it’s supporting Tina as he has done all along.  That, folks, is a real man. 

The old prophet Micah, I suspect, knew something about real versus imitation men.  He certainly saw plenty of the latter in his work.  And so, he writes what God tells him to write and we get the benefit of the wisdom.  I know “proof texting” is something I normally have little tolerance for, but I’m thinking Micah 6:8 can stand by itself pretty well.  God wants His real men (and women) to live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.  Tim did it well in that letter to Ken.  Ken, Mack Ford, Chuck Phelps, Matt Fuller (I could go on) … not so much.  They each miss, as I have seen it, on one or more of those points.

Thank God this weekend for those who gave up what would have been a comfortable life to provide the freedom in our country.  But before you do that, thank Him for having His Son give up the comfort of Heaven so we could have True Freedom once and for all.  And then do your best to live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before Him.  And count yourself among the real men rather than the imitations. 

In His Peace alone,

C. P. Traveler