If you are a hunter, you may already know why some of our founding fathers wanted the national symbol to be the turkey rather than the eagle. As beautiful as they are, eagles are scavengers. The founding fathers were men still taming a wilderness, and they knew this. They weren’t easily impressed, but they were impressed with the turkey. If you have ever hunted turkeys, you were probably impressed too. They are unbelievably fast creatures, capable of running twenty-five miles per hour and flying at speeds up to fifty-five miles per hour. They are also smart and constantly on the alert. Hunters like to say a deer thinks every hunter is a tree stump but a turkey thinks every tree stump is a hunter. They can be hard to find, harder to kill, and then, just to be ornery, turkeys make themselves hard to clean after they’re dead. There are as many as fifty-five hundred feathers on an adult turkey. This is the wild turkey, though. The domesticated turkey is another story. They are idiots, perhaps the dumbest animals alive. Domesticated turkeys will eat themselves to death unless someone stops them. If thunder frightens them, they will often bunch up in one corner of their pen and suffocate each other. Interesting, isn’t it? In the wild, turkeys are amazing. When domesticated, turkeys are so stupid they have to be kept from accidentally killing themselves a dozen different ways. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s admit it: most of us are tragically over-domesticated. We have hardly any connection to the wild or our wilder selves. Words like adventure, exploit, and quest no longer apply to us. It is why we are soft, whiney, and bored... We need to bark at the moon, to blow something up, push ourselves into a zone we don’t control. We need to go in pursuit. We need a quest. I think this is why there is such a focus on the outdoor industry right now. Everyone feels a little disconnected from the physical world. I suggest everyone go outside this week, with the panic that’s taking over, find someplace away from others, take a lunch, read a book, just get away for a short time, maybe that will calm our collective hearts.

via Instagram

There is a plague of loneliness among men. In truth, the phrase that comes to mind is this: the friendless man.
But friends are the best reflection of a man’s happiness, priorities, and health.
Most men have simply lost touch with the men who mean the most to them. They find themselves awash in a sea of casual relationships. They do work with other men, and they can usually scare up a group of guys to go yell and scream at the sports bar. Yet when asked who they would turn to if they were about to have an affair or if their marriage was coming apart or if they were out of town and needed someone to get their son out of jail, most are at a loss to come up with a name...
What most of us do not have is a band of brothers, a tribe, a posse, a group of guys who know us and are fun to be with but who have no problem challenging us if we need it.
Men, we cannot ascend to our best selves or our God-given purposes if we walk alone or if all we have in common with other men is entertainment or pleasure. Men need friends with whom they share a common spirit, a mutual devotion to each other’s best, and a sacrificial commitment to protect, encourage, and defend.
Hear me well, gentlemen: we will never become the men we are called to be unless we learn the art of friendship and intentionally cultivate deep, meaningful, rowdy relationships with other men.
This is one of the most important things for a man to know.

“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭18:24‬ ‭NIV‬‬


“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”
‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭4:9-10‬ ‭NIV‬‬


Man’s purpose in this world is so unique, that it is meant to be one of such service and sacrifice, that he cannot fulfill his role successfully without doing so to the glory of God. There are many reasons for this.
First, a man cannot fulfill his purpose if he is living for applause, approval, and affirmation in this world. Instead, he contents himself with knowing he is fulfilling his purpose in this world and pleasing the God who made him. His reward comes when he is able to say, as we heard the Scottish Olympian and missionary Eric Liddell say in Chariots of Fire, “When I run, I feel his pleasure.”
Second, a man is meant to carry such responsibility that, if he’s not careful, he will descend into exhaustion and resentment without the inner resources that come from living in connection with God. We cannot do what we are assigned to do without strength and energy beyond our own.
Third, men are meant to tend the lives of others in such a way that they must have insight that comes from beyond them. It comes from his Word. It comes from living to the glory of God.
I keep it simple. I can’t live up to God’s standards without God’s resources. I become the man I am made to be by living to the glory of God.
This gives us Mansfield’s Manly Maxim #4: Manly men live to the glory of God.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭6:5‬ ‭NIV‬‬


“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3:17‬ ‭NIV‬‬