Am I a Man?

So I'm not sure where this will go, I have a stack of books, the Word of God, google, some podcasts, and about a zillion thoughts. One of these podcasts I have is by a man named Mark Driscoll, pastor of a large church out of Seattle, and a contemporary Calvinistic theologian. Sometimes Mark and I agree on things, sometimes we don't; but I'm not here to get into that right now, rather I introduce him to you as the spark of this particular conversation. One of Mark's podcasts dealt with the topic of marriage, actually two of them did; one directed at men and the other at women. Now allow me to set forth first that I am well aware that I am not married. However, Driscoll set out to define what a man is, and I'm afraid I fall short; and happily so. Thus I am setting forth to define what it is to be a man, and moreover explore the fascination or perhaps obsession with "Manliness".

So a man should be big and strong, show no emotion, lead well, solve any problem and of course make enough money to provide all that a family could need; or at least that's what society tells us. But that can't be all there is, that can't be what I am called to be. Waldemar Janzen set forth the idea in Still the Image (1973), that before one worries about being man he must first set out to live as human. Male and female, or a suppose technically man and woman are subsets of the broader category of humanity, so if I want to excel at the former i must first excel at the latter.

What is humanity? Well at this point I could explore the great depth of the doctrines of Imago Dei; but I won't. That has been done by many people, many times; I will instead conclude that to be the image of God is to possess, at least the potential of, the characteristics of God. A solid, but none extensive list of these can be found in Galatians 5, the fruits of the Spirit. 

We have more to look to however then just the abstract ideas of things like love and peace; we have a living example of what that looks like. Christ came to the Earth and lived a perfect, blameless life... that is what I strive for in my quest to become a better person and a better man. 

But how can I live up to this perfect life? Well that's the ultimate question isn't it.

Here however I want to set forth that Christ was not the 'perfect man' as society would see it. And I would also set forth that he does not meet Driscoll's ideals for a Christian man. Christ is homeless, wifeless, put women on the same plain as men, he was fed by those around him. 

I'm not worried about being the man society expects me to be. I'm not worried about being the man another expects me to be. I'm not worried about being the man that you expect me to be. My goal is to live a life that reflects the glory of God, that strives to live as Christ demonstrated to me, a life where I can walk equally with my brothers and sisters in Christ alike. In Christ we find our wealth. 

There's lots I've skipped over, and I don't mean to come down on Mark to harsh, me is only one of a whole segment of Christians who hold this stance, but my fear is this; me become too worried about being men, about filling roles, that we forget to simply fill the role of the human image of God that is called to be a light to the nations.