"What do you want to do, Bob?"

It's a question that I hear from almost every angle.  Whether it is asked by friend or family member; colleague or college student; it is a question that I have wrestled with answering on a regular basis since I stepped away from youth ministry to further my education and pursue ministry at the collegiate level.  I was asked the question again tonight, but none of the aforementioned groups did the asking...

Sitting in a seat in Bethel's Everest-Rohrer Auditorium, I was asked by Caleb Bislow to take a moment to "ShushUpAndListen."  Following his sermon on how God moves us towards our mission and purpose, he allowed us time to seek where and how God would have us carry out such a mission.  As I watched student after student make their way to the altar, I began to see they all had one thing in common.  Each student that responded in the moment was a young woman.  Even after a morning session where Caleb rebuked the men of Bethel College for being passive participants in God's world mission, none of them seemed emotionally connected to the message. 

Now, I'm not assuming that every man in that place suffered from a stroke of disobedience, or that there weren't individuals responding in the quietness of their hearts and seats, but as Chandler Bing screams during a season 6 episode of FRIENDS, "where are all the men?!"  

It was there in that moment, that I remembered the cause for which I stepped away from middle school ministry.  My passion, or rather my burden is for these men who are stuck in a generation of undefined masculinity.  Do I know what makes a man?  Surely not to the extent I'd like to assume.  However, I do know that the men I've been raised in Christ to emulate chose to stand and fight for something, rather than settling for nothing.  It's my prayer that we don't raise and accompany a group, a generation, or a gender of settlers.

This ends my random thought of the night.

Humbly His,

Bob Morton