day no. 15,194: denying the "Y" and questioning the "why?"

For a transcript, click HERE

"The knight is a man of blood and iron, a man familiar with the sight of smashed faces and the ragged stumps of lopped-off limbs; he is also a demure, almost a maidenlike, guest in hall, a gentle, modest, unobtrusive man. He is not a compromise or happy mean between ferocity and meekness; he is fierce to the nth and meek to the nth" - C.S. Lewis, The Necessity of Chivalry

Christian men must be severe and kind, like their God. They must have the sternness to stomp on their enemies on the battlefield and the meekness to apologize for accidentally bumping into a stranger on the dance floor. They must know their way around virtue and violence. They must be a sir and a savage, a gentleman in manners and a general in war.

"The medieval ideal brought together two things which have no natural tendency to gravitate towards one another. It brought them together for that very reason. It taught humility and forbearance to the great warrior because everyone knew by experience how much he usually needed that lesson. It demanded valour of the urbane and modest man because everyone knew that he was as likely as not to be a milksop." - C.S. Lewis, The Necessity of Chivalry

Our current evangelical moment has cultivated gardens of thornless roses. It has raised a generation of men to believe that they are most manly when they are least manly. They have been praised for denying their Y chromosome and questioning their "why?" It has been observed that the church is a safe space for little old ladies of both sexes. For us, the call to chivalry is a call to remember valour. We have learned how to manscape and what wines pair best with fish and that white after Labor Day is a fashion faux pas, but we have forgotten how to smash faces and walk among lopped-off limbs 

Psalm 60:12, Psalm 108:13
Through God we shall do valiantly:
for He it is that shall tread down our enemies.

Christianity is a religion of world conquest and it's high time we remember that. In order to be the yeast that spreads to the four corners, we must be that beasts that rise to the occasion of the calling.

"Practice 'suaviter in modo' as well as the 'fortiter in re.'" -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, The Need of Decision for the Truth. 

In other words, be 'gentle in manner' and 'resolute in deed.'