Two days ago, I went with my family to see the movie Courageous. While this blog is not intended to be a movie review, I do want to mention a few things about it.
First of all I highly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone. Even my 6 year old son liked it. If you don’t know anything about it, it was written, directed, and produced by a team from Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, GA. Sherwood has had 3 major motion pictures that they have released on very small budgets, and each one gets better than the last.
Some of you have already written this movie off because it is a “Christian” movie, but let me tell you the quality was outstanding. Others of you have already written it off because you feel that it won’t have enough action, blood, guts, swearing, or any of those other things that supposedly make for a great movie.
However, I can tell you first hand that this movie had some great suspenseful action. It made me laugh out loud more than most comedies I’ve watched; there were a couple of pretty intense fight scenes. And, yes, it tugged at my heartstrings, and I did not come away dry-eyed. (And for you TLC fans, there are also a couple of surprise cameo appearances.)
What Courageous did for me.
The main purpose of Courageous is to wake men up and inspire them to step up and be the husband and father that God has called them to be. And while I was definitely inspired in that area, that is not all of what the movie did for me.
There is a scene in the movie where the five main characters (all men) are sitting around a picnic table, and one of them asks the question, “So when did you know that you were a man?” A couple of the men were taken by surprise by the question, while the others knew immediately when they knew.
That question hit me hard. I am 35 years old, I’ve been married for almost 12 years, I have three children, and I still have never really felt like a man. I’ve accomplished some great things in my life, but I’ve always felt like I was just another kid in the crowd, and no one would take me seriously.
Society has taught us that if a male is not loud, tough, and take-charge then he is not a man. A man must love sports, he must shoot a certain amount of animals in his lifetime. He has to climb the ladder higher and faster than those around him, and he must be able to provide a large home and multiple cars for his family. If he falls short in any of these areas then he is reduced to what Hans and Franz would call a “girly-man”.
I don’t meet any of those criterion. I don’t like sports or hunting, I’m not an aggressive, take-charge person, and I have one car and no home. I love music, drama, and anything artsy. Over the years people have labeled me as a weak, second-class “girly-man”. Even as a minister, I have not been taken as seriously as other ministers (and at times I’ve even been teased and put down) because I prefer to minister through artistic ways such as music and drama.
Because of that I have pulled away from any type of close relationship with another man because I figure that they all see me the same. I figure they don't see me as a real man so I’m not worth their time. So I just stay to myself and do my required work then go home to my family that loves me regardless.
Having said all of that, Courageous is teaching me a lesson. I am learning that a man is not made by what he can accomplish or how big and bad he is. Manhood is not determined by any amount of money or possessions. A man is someone who loves God above anything else. He loves his wife unconditionally, and he would even lay down his life for his wife and family. A man is someone who loves his kids and trains them not in the ways of the world but in the ways of God.
So you can call me what you want. You can tease me and even put me down. But I know this one thing, I have a family that loves me and they love God. My kids are learning the word of God through the ways that we train and teach them. I know that my family will spend eternity with me in heaven and with Jesus, and that makes me a happy MAN.
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