In this episode, I push the men to discuss the distinction between working with your mind and working with your hands. And I do that, I think, because I feel some amount of guilt and shame over the fact that I am not especially good working with my hands.
Many young Christian men are in the same boat.
A guy like that is very susceptible to others who tell him that he has to hunt or build his own house or live on a farm if he’s going to be a real man. Those things involve work that is very good, but those works do not define what it means to be a man.
As we mentioned last week, the foundation of work is in the cultural mandate for us to take dominion over the earth. And there is absolutely a manly way to do that. But the essence of it is not in knowing how to program a computer or build a house, but rather in taking responsibility for yourself and for others out of love to them and love to God.
And, of course, we live in a physical world! So that means you must be willing to tackle physical work when it comes your way, and cheerfully! And as Christians, we don’t look down on physical work, we honor it.
Resources you may find helpful:
- Leisure, the Basis of Work, by Josef Pieper
- Why Work? by Dorothy Sayers
- When Fathers Ruled, by Steven Ozment
- Created for Work: Practical Insights for Young Men, by Bob Shultz
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