Are You A Stallion Or A Gelding?

Do you know what gelding is?  It is a stallion that has been neutered.  Stones removed.  Castrated.  Those who raise horses geld stallions for lots of reasons.  One of them is to make the horse more sedate.  Well-behaved.  Easier to manage.

There is one considerable drawback.  Geldings cannot stud.  They are sterile.  Unable to reproduce.  But they’re nicer, I suppose.

In his book The Journey of Desire, John Eldredge recounts an unsuccessful counseling experience he had with a guy named Gary.  Gary was nice.  Well-behaved.  Easy to manage.  His wife was worried because he had no passion for anything.  He was a “nice Christian boy.”  Did all the right things.  But not out of any deep sense of conviction.

A gelding.

Sterile.

Eldredge was unable to help a man who’d lost all drive for anything in life.  A good deal of this hemorrhage of basic testosterone was no doubt rooted in a distorted idea of what the ideal Christian male is.  “Gentle Jesus–meek and mild.”  You get the picture.  Not the type of person who drives thieves from the sanctuary with a whip and uses strong, impolite language with religious bullies.

Passivity, especially in males, is the bane of our age.  It sours marriages.  It produces mediocre job performance.  Is often sedentary and unambitious.  It leaves those who count on us without a leader.

Geldings don’t change the world.  Sorry, but it’s true.

When I read about heroes in history, I find they were possessed with passion for whatever their mission was in life.  Teddy Roosevelt.  King David.  Richard Branson.  Peter.  Even disastrous Jeroboam.  And Jesus Christ.  True, they made mistakes (our Lord excepted).  And when they screwed up, it was a disaster.  But when they triumphed, it made history.

Your wife wants you to be passionate.  So do your kids.  Your friends and colleagues too.

In fact, the whole world wants it.

This is your time to be all there.  Find something—anything—worth doing and do it with all your might.

Suggestions:

• Get out of your chair at night and get moving.  Exercise, do extra work, take on a new project demanding effort and adrenaline.  You don’t want to end up like so many poor souls whom you see at the discount stores, grossly overweight, listless and unhappy.  Too many cheap carbs and time in front of the boob-tube.  It doesn’t have to be you.
• Start a blog.  I did.  This one is sticking and having the net effect of making me get off my duff and practice what I preach to my readers.
• Repeat after me: “I matter.  I can do this.  I am not a nobody.  And the world is counting on me being fully there in whatever I am doing.”  Again, if it isn’t worth doing with all your might, it probably isn’t worth doing.  You be the judge.

You’re called to be a stallion.  Don’t sell yourself short.  Go and produce life!

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Testosterone (and Its Maintenance)

We had a fascinating discussion today during our weekly leadership gathering.  Our topics meandered through such things as “swallowing the sovereignty pill” (dealing with God’s right to do as He pleases with His creatures) to my future plans (return to graduate school to finish my Master’s degree, including a move) and we finally ended at a fascinating point of discussion.

Testosterone.

This is not wholly unexpected in a gathering of three or four men.  Testosterone and its maintenance is a subject you—and I’m primarily addressing guys—cannot afford to treat lightly.

Recently, I heard statistics that said, essentially, that males in their twenties today have 60% less testosterone than their twenty-something counterparts from eighty to a hundred years ago.  Remember, males in their twenties are generally at their most active.  Why is this?

Some of it is lifestyle and vocational changes.  We are far more sedentary than our counterparts working in the early twentieth century.  The lack of exertion equals more flab and diminished testosterone.

A lot of it is our diet.  We eat way too many carbohydrates and too much high fructose corn syrup (which is in a lot of processed foods, even some you might not suspect).  Why? Because carbs are cheap and easy.  And it’s killing us.  Dr. Mehmet Oz explains that too much of this locks belly fat in guys (hip/buttocks fat in the gals) because it requires a lot of insulin to be secreted to process it.  I’m not a doctor but Dr. Oz says high insulin secretion precludes a lot of fat burning.

Some other things that emerged during our discussion:

• Soy apparently is the cause of lots of estrogen.  Estrogen and inactivity produces, among other things, the unsightly moobs (man boobs) in guys.  I’ve yet to meet a male who’s excited about growing male breasts.
• Ministers—personal caveat for me—have lower than normal testosterone levels.  Some of this may well be due to the sedentary nature of the ministerial enterprise.  But some of it is probably linked to a feminized view of Jesus Christ and Christianity, a la “gentle Jesus meek and mild” which, when wrongly applied, causes Christian men in general to be less aggressive and assertive when meeting the challenges and confrontations of life.  Ideas have consequences.  Some of this is reflected in some worship music where God is treated as a girlfriend or boyfriend.  Can you imagine John Wayne singing certain worship songs that have captured our imaginations? Yeah, me either.
• Diminished testosterone is linked to depression and erectile dysfunction, the latter not a particularly pleasant topic but relevant in our day.  Why all the ED meds, Viagra and the like?  I seriously doubt Frank Sinatra or Steve McQueen would’ve needed Viagra or Cialis.

What to do? [Disclaimer: I am neither a doctor nor a nutritionist.]

• Get active.  Regular exercise, especially if your work involves sitting for a long time, is a must.  Your overall health, including testosterone levels, will improve.
• Eat well.  Keep sweets and cheap carbs to a minimum and eat more proteins and the proper fats.
• Have a healthy view of maleness.  Jesus Christ, while gentle at times, also cleared the Temple of moneychangers and their livestock with a whip.  There is a time to be gentle and a time to get tough.  The key is knowing the difference and choosing your responses and attitudes carefully.

Guys, this is important.  Take care of yourselves.  Your loved ones, especially your ladies, need this.

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How Larry Bird Became Larry Bird

In 1979, Hall of Fame standout Larry Bird first broke into the NBA, the beginning of a long and spectacular career with the Boston Celtics.  Larry had a practice regimen that he faithfully observed throughout his career.  He would arrive at the venue at least two hours before game time and, with the help of a ball boy, shoot baskets.  Over and over.  Before every single game.  Larry said that through hard work and self-discipline, he was able to go farther in his career than other guys who had better natural gifts but didn’t work hard developing their talents.  Though Bird was tall (6’9”), he couldn’t run or jump well.  But he could outshoot and outthink his opponents.  This he did time and time again.

We all come into life with certain aptitudes, advantages and challenges.  What we do with what we’ve been given determine the kinds of lives we make for ourselves.  Quality and success in life do not come automatically.  You may have superior intelligence, even brilliance.  But if you neglect the hard work of study, learning, practice and productivity, your potential will remain unfulfilled.  That doctor, attorney, theologian, financial analyst, software engineer, or Grammy Award-winning musician inside you does not emerge automatically.

Some years ago a friend of mine was working on his Ph.D in Leadership Studies.  When asked what types of students earn their doctorates (versus those who don’t), he remarked, “The Einsteins wash out.” Why? “Because you can’t outsmart the work.”  That was the secret of Thomas Edison’s genius.  “It’s plain hard work that does it.”  I especially am keeping this in mind as I’m going back to graduate school in January to finish my Master’s degree.

Similarly, you may have come into life with health problems in your family tree.  Those challenges do not have to define or limit your life.  You may have obesity, heart disease or high blood pressure in your family line but their effects are not necessarily inevitable.  Again, it takes work—the hard but fruitful work of exercising, eating carefully, avoiding unhealthy behaviors and stuff.

Life is what we make it.  It’s a canvas to paint on.  Like Larry Bird, with hard work and self-discipline, we can take modest giftings, even disadvantages and turn them into a Hall of Fame life.

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Bruce Lee on Limits

“If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”

–Bruce Lee (1940-1973)

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Saturday Morning Work-Out Inspiration: From 50 pounds overweight to…

This is an inspiring video from fellow blogger David Kanigan.  Enjoy!

Saturday Morning Work-Out Inspiration: From 50 pounds overweight to….

Staying Sharp

Seventeen years ago, I hired on as an apprentice carpenter for a company that built staircases and hung trim.  It began a lifelong enjoyment for working with wood, especially hardwoods like red oak and poplar.  I was privileged to learn how to build curved staircases and these now fill quite a few houses in lower Michigan, where we lived at the time.

A carpenter learns very quickly that it is critical to keep his tools in good repair in order to do fine woodwork.  Chiefly, this means sharpening cutting implements regularly.  You may be surprised to find that dull tools—saws, chisels, router bits, etc.—not only do inferior work, marring the wood, but they are also dangerous.  You risk injury using chisels with dull blades.  A sharp saw does the work quickly, effectively, and safely.

In life, we have tools that we use to mold our lives and become effective and reach our potential.  Here are a few:

• Vocational Skills – What talents and acuities do you have that you can sharpen now and in the days ahead?  I work in Information Technology and am a musician.  I try to read up on the latest technological innovations as well as become more proficient with the software apps I use in my work.  And with my instruments, I practice and learn new stuff.  Do you have a plan for skills development?
• Relationships – “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” (Jim Rohn)  What kinds of relationships do you cultivate to 1) add value to others and 2) help in your own development?  If you walk with wise and ambitious people, you fuel your passion to grow and develop.  But if you make a practice of hanging with people who are pessimistic and complacent, like it or not, it will affect you.  Enthusiasm is contagious.  So is discouragement and criticism.  Choose wisely.
• Reading ­– That readers are leaders is axiomatic.  And you are called to lead.  What kinds of books do you plan on reading or listening to this next year?  Here’s a good place to start: The Magic of Thinking Big (David Schwartz); How To Read A Book (Mortimer Adler & Charles Van Doren); Spiritual Leadership (J. Oswald Sanders); Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman); Talent Is Overrated (Geoff Colvin).  Possibilities are endless, but whatever you do, develop a reading plan for the next year.
• Physical Fitness – Your effectiveness is charged or limited by your physical fitness—or lack of it.  Regular cardiovascular exercise 1) improves your focus, 2) makes you feel better because of endorphins and 3) increases your longevity.  Also, there are numerous other benefits to staying fit, fighting the national epidemic of obesity.  Your career and its growth are one of these. As some have said, “Your shape will shape your future.”

Now go sharpen your tools and build.  You will be astounded at what they produce.

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The Practiced Life

When asked by filmmaker Paul Balmer in 2006 how much he practices guitar these days, classical guitar virtuoso Julian Bream—seventy-two years old at the time—answered:

“I’m retired now so the practice is down to just four hours.”

Four hours.

Every day.

Seventy-two years old.

Inspiring.

I better get practicing….

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“After Me!”

Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu

The world was stunned on July 4, 1976 at the news of the incredible rescue of over one hundred Israeli hostages by members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe, Uganda.

The hostages, mostly Israelis, and therefore Jewish, had been traveling from Tel Aviv to Athens aboard an Air France jetliner when their plane was hijacked by terrorists.  The flight was then diverted to Uganda where the terrorists were given haven by dictator Idi Amin.

A plan was put into action immediately in Israel to bring the hostages home safely.  At the head of the team to lead this effort was a 30-year-old soldier, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu.  “Yoni” to family and friends.

A mockup of the Entebbe airport was assembled in the desert based on Mossad intelligence.  The raid—dubbed Operation Thunderbolt—was practiced over and over and over.  The clock was ticking.  And time was not on the side of the hostages.

In the IDF, the motto for military leaders is “after me!”  Leaders are the first to lead the way into danger and put themselves in harm’s way.  It was no different for the raid at Entebbe.

The operation was a resounding military success.  The terrorists holding the Israelis were killed and all but four of the 102 hostages survived.

But there was one other casualty.  Col. Netanyahu died leading the raid.  He took fire during the rescue.  This was not wholly unexpected.  He had at other times put himself in the jaws of death to care for his men and his people.  Netanyahu’s story is eloquently recounted in the book Self-Portrait of A Hero.

It is the nature of a leader that at times he (or she) will face danger.  Will stand alone.  Will lose approval or popularity.  But a leader does this because human beings matter and the stakes are very high, even eternal.  A leader doesn’t wait to have someone point the way.  He is the beacon.  True north.  The bedrock that people can stand on.

Stand up and lead.  More people are counting on you than you can possibly imagine.

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Recovering Your Heart

It’s your thirtieth birthday.  You have a successful career as a marketing executive in the San Francisco Bay area.  You wake up strangely unexcited.  You have lunch with your wife whom you adore.  Later, you and your wife gather with friends in a local bar for dinner and drinks, in celebration of your big day.

The evening wears on and your wife decides to go home and turn in.  You elect to stay with your friends.  As you mingle, an attractive woman begins making overtures, coming on to you.  Her message is clear.

What do you do?

You excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, located towards the back of the bar.  You find a rear exit and leave.  Without any goodbyes.  You walk home, to the house occupied by the wife you adore, now sleeping.

Something needs to be worked out of you.  Thirty is a watershed.  You should be happy but aren’t.  You need to clear your head.

What do you do?

You strip down to your skivvies and t-shirt, find an old pair of running shoes in the garage and put them on.  You let your wife sleep.  Clad only in your underwear, shirt, socks and sneakers, you begin running.

You haven’t run in fifteen years.  You gave it up when an arrogant track and field coach laughed at you.  You were, after all, a cross-country guy who ran with heart and had served another coach with heart.  But he retired.

You run thirty miles without stopping except to grab burritos and a Coke and press on.  People think you’re crazy.  And you probably are.

That night is a rebirth for you.

That’s what you do if you’re Dean Karnazes.

Read his book Ultramarathon Man: Confessions Of An All-Night Runner.  The whole story and much more is there.  You won’t regret it.  You may even begin to think about what really matters in life.  It ain’t prestige, position or the other trappings of Yuppiedom.

Dean got his heart back that night and hasn’t stopped running.  That was almost twenty years ago.

What will it take to get your heart back?

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“To An Athlete Dying Young”

“A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest.  I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.” (Steve Prefontaine)

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.

–A. E. Housman

In tribute to running great, Steve Prefontaine (1951-75), who died much too young.

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