Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we're

asking the question do we need Warriors

this is prompted by an article in the

Wall Street Journal this week by Mike

Gallagher that was looking at the

struggles the US military has had in

meeting its enlistment goals just for

context in both 2022 in 2023 the Army

fell short of their enlistment goals

this is compounded by the fact that in

the previous administration uh record

numbers of soldiers were discharged for

things like uh refusing to comply with

the covid-19 vaccine mandate so for all

these reasons the US military has not

had the amount of soldiers they believe

they need to fulfill their mission it's

a recruitment crisis and Mr Gallagher in

his article was looking at the way the

US military has gone about recruiting

and actually arguing for a new approach

and the last few years what the military

has focused on is their benefit package

like other employers they offer

education credits and retirement

benefits uh but Mr Gallagher is arguing

that those are not sufficient because a

lot of companies argue or offer those

things the difference is you don't get

shot at that if you work there so what

he's saying is why not just own it why

not go a little more of the traditional

route talking about honor talk about

combat talk about danger talk about risk

make the whole point that we're looking

for the toughest the the bravest the

most intense make it the ultimate test

of of honor and love of your country

even own the fact sometimes where you

live isn't great the food you eat isn't

great but it's so worth it when I was

reading this article it made me realize

that sometimes as a culture uh we don't

own the fact that ideas have

consequences when we talk or Advance a

particular agenda there's a ripple

effect and I think over the last 10

years as a culture we have lost our way

with masculinity uh we have made all of

the emphasis on masculinity about the

negative aspects of it and certainly

there is a such thing as toxic masculin

any anything if you push it too far is

going to have damaging effects but if

all men ever hear about are the ways

that being a man are bad is it any

surprise that in a generation uh they no

longer find things like love of country

or honor or Duty or even danger to be

compelling they've been told these

things appeal to the worst parts of them

it's why we need a Reclamation of true

masculinity by the way that's not just a

cultural thing it's a Biblical one

consider for example in 1 Corinthians

16:13 as Paul ends his letter to the

Corinthian Church and to their leaders

he tells them act like men that's a

pretty Brazen way of Paul saying there

is a particular way of living and being

that is true for men men thrive on

challenge they thrive on brotherhood

they thrive on taking the hill that's

why in Proverbs 27 17 we're told that

just as iron sharpens iron one brother

challenges another that is the way God

has built men and maybe we need to be

sharing that message a little more

because in so doing it makes men want to

do the things that historically

traditionally biblically men have done

and that includes being Warriors in

Psalm 1441 the psalmist says the Lord

prepares my hands for battle and he's

not being metaphorical he means literal

actual medieval style battle that's

because he understood that God has

called men to protect men to defend this

is what Nehemiah says in Nehemiah 4:14

when he gives the rallying cry to the

men he's leading to rebuild Jerusalem

and he says you're going to fight today

you're going to fight for your wives for

your daughters for your sons because

that's what it means to be men this is

just One symptom of a larger problem men

need to hear all the great ways they

image God not just all the ways they

need to do and be better I think if we

will regain a positive view of

masculinity not only will we see people

showing up for things like the military

we will see our culture be elevated as a

result do we need Warriors yes do we

need healthy Godly men who act like men

yes let's begin praying and speaking

about them in that way hey thanks so

much for watching this episode of wake

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