Behind Every Man is a Woman

DISCLAIMER: I am not saying or supporting the idea that everything is a woman's fault, responsibility and problem. Nor am I saying that women are bad or any such matter. The topic just happens to focus on girls and their power.

This blog is actually based of a devotional that I gave to my youth group a couple of weeks ago. It was my second attempt at giving a devotional and it went well enough had some discussion questions that I and the other leaders tried to answer. I wanted to make this blog before the devo, as it would have allowed me to put more study and focus into the idea before presenting it. That obviously didn't happen as I am writing this as an after thought.

I started thinking about this topic a couple of months ago. We all know the old adage “Behind every great man there is a great woman.” This phrase is thought to have been coined during the feminist movement during the 1960s and 70s where similar slogans such as “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” also started. This of course is a very literal interpretation of the quote. I have slightly changed the original quote and came up with a new one. “Every great man can fall to the power of women.” My first thoughts on the topic immediately went to three famous great men: Samson, Samuel, and David.

1 Kings 11 tells the story of Solomon's fall. Earlier on God had told the people to refrain from marrying women from foreign nations. He knew that they worships false gods and idols and He wanted to protect His people from such evils. The Bible tells us that Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines that led him astray. This passage also repeats that God had told the people not to intermarry women from certain tribes “because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods” (verse 2). So what? Some guy fails because he has a bunch of wives, whats the big deal? Well, Solomon wasn't just some guy. First of all, he was the son of the great King David, a man who God said was after His own heart. David had served the Lord faithfully and diligently . . . though not perfectly as I shall mention later. Secondly, Solomon was given the chance to ask God for anything he wanted. His choice, was wisdom. Solomon was the wisest person who had ever lived. If the wisest person to ever live was influenced and lost his way to women, how much more so can the every day guy of the 21^st century? Knowing God and the Bible more than any other person does not make you invisible.

The story of Samson's fall can be found in Judges 16. Samson was given physical strength from God. The only catch was that Samson could not cut his hair. (Sound a little like the modern day Rapunzel story eh?) If his hair was cut, he would lose his strength and be like a normal man. After a while of ruling the people and killing hundreds of evil Philistines, Samson meets a girl by the name of Delilah. It should be noted now that Samson is quite possibly one of the least wise people of all time. He quickly fell in love with Delilah, but she was evil and bribed by the Philistines. She told Samson that if he loved her then he would tell her the secret to his strength . . . because apparently there had to be a secret to his strength? Ever wonder where authors and producers get all their ideas – the Bible. Anyway, Samson lied to her three times telling her different ways to remove his strength. Each time Delilah tried it and found out it didn't work. Samson, being the idiot that he was, knowing that she had already tried his other three lies, eventually tells her the truth on the fourth round. She again tests his word and this time Samson loses his strength. He thought that he was in love and gave her everything, including his sacred gift from God. Great physical strength was taken by a seductive woman.

I already mentioned that God considered David as a man after His own heart. In 2 Samuel 11 we can find David's downfall. Prior to this David had become the second Kind to God's people. He slew a giant named Goliath, and married a princess. He was famous and successful. Unlike the other two stories, it can be argued that David's downfall was all his fault and the woman was more innocent. David had actually been setting himself up to fail. His men were out fighting while he stayed back. I found out that David had actually done a number of things prior to his fall that he should not have done. Anyway, the Bible does not provide with a lot of details of how it happened, but David saw Bathsheba bathing from his roof. He asked about her and discovered she was married to a man in David's army – Uriah. This did not stop him and David summoned her, slept with her, and got her pregnant. Some Bible scholars say that Bathsheba did not have a choice in the matter. David was king, and what a king wanted a king got. Could Bathsheba have done something different? Perhaps. Was it her fault this all happened? Perhaps not. Regardless, it was a woman that took a mighty God loving king and made him an adulterer and a murder (he later killed Uriah to hid his sin). Even the most God loving man fell to the beauty of a woman. How can a normal man be expected to act any differently?

Matthew 5:27-28 essentially tells us that looking is lust. This is where the devotional got a little shaky. Teenage girls have a hard time understanding why guys act the way they do. Men are very visually stimulated. It's why the porn industry is so big. I wrote a satirical paper about how women often dress too immodestly even if they are being unintentional. It is hard to explain to a teenage girl that the way she dresses is not helping her Christian brothers. Try getting around the idea that bikinis are probably never a good idea and strapless or low cut dresses and shirts perhaps equally as much. I have heard people say to guys use your imagination in an innocent way. However, it is my belief that probably all guys have an incredible and evil imagination.

The purpose behind all this is to try and let girls know that they have power. Power that they can easily abuse. Obviously, encouraging females to abuse their power over a man is not the purpose of this topic. Instead, it is to make girls wary of what they might be doing to their Christian brothers. It was also difficult to explain that yes, men do need to step up and be men and control themselves. Men should not be looking in the wrong places or setting themselves up to fail. But I just mentioned three gifted extra special men selected by God who all fell to a woman and/or her influence. Is it fair to women who are trying to innocently dress in something they find comfortable or something they think they look good in? No. But a fair is simply a place where pigs go to get ribbons. Being unfair does not change the reality of the situation. Women need to be conscious of what they can do to men, no matter how smart, strong, attractive, or “perfect” a man (or boy) is.

My challenge this time is simple. Are you living in a way that is uplifting and encouraging to your peers and brothers and sisters in Christ? Though it is less common, the opposite is possible and a man could be the one influencing a girl.

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,
-Zach Haas

It's Everywhere Lately

So during the past few weeks or less I have been coming across a similar concept.  It's an interesting concept that has been following me around lately.  It has come in different words and forms, but the best word I can use to describe it is 'influence.'  I actually talked about this a little bit in a recent post. Due to the amount of times this has recently come up in my life I have decided to write about it.

Right now the word influence has been coming to me in the form of a challenge.  The places I have found the concept are: church, chapel, class, a book I read for a class, and maybe from a professor.  Each place may have talked about it differently but the idea was still the same -- how am I influence other people, and what are they seeing in me?  How am I reflecting God?

This concept has really be challenging my character and my thoughts.  I am not really sure what to do about it.  For the most part I am a pretty strange, and ridiculous guy.  I probably influence people to be stranger and more ridiculous when they are with me.  Am I reflecting that God is strange and ridiculous?  I hope that this absurdly not so.  I haven't felt guilty or convicted in anything that I am doing to influence people, but I wonder if something is missing.

One of the things that I really envy in some people is their ability to encourage.  I am a terrible encourager.  You have got to be really needing encouragement if you are coming to me.  I can lift your spirits and help you fell better, but I am not likely going to encourage or congratulate you.  My personality just doesn't give praise and encouragement to people very well.  Encouragement is a spiritual gift, one that I fully accept I do not have.  People who have the gift of encouragement are amazing, but I hope they realizing they are working my shift as well in that area.  The point is, sometimes I worry that my inability to encourage is a personality turn-off to people.  I feel like people who are gifted with encouragement are easily seen as a positive influence.

I want to be a good influence for people.  I want to be someone that is seen as godly.  If my goal is to glow, then I believe reflecting God is precisely how to do it.  I am just a little lost with the whole concept of my influence and what people see on me.  At church they called is "Swag."  Perhaps one way to think of it is spiritually clothing.  How can I dress in clothing that will reflect God and have a positive influence on others.  I struggle with negativity.  Though, most of the time my negativity and complaints are unwarranted, over exaggerated, and/or for show, I think sometimes they rub off on people in the wrong way.  In an attempt to make light of a less than optimal situation, I cause people to feel less than optimal.  Trying to always be positive is something that I do internally and not externally.  I used to actually think of myself as mostly optimistic.  I know too many people that would describe me as anything as an optimist.  It is ok to be pessimistic sometimes, but I probably take that too far.  Sarcasm is a vile thing when used too much, as is pessimism, and complaining.

When people think of me I don't think they think exactly what I want them to think.  If I had to describe myself in one sentence from another persons perspective, it would probably be something like "Zach Haas is an often negative, weird person who complains about everything -- he's funny, but he hates everything"  Yuck.  I think that somewhere along the line I learned that negativity and complaining can be funny.  Using a similar structure I think that I wanted people to think "Zach Haas is a pretty funny guy, he always has some ridiculous problem or story to talk about -- he makes me laugh with his weirdness."  If I were to give these two sentences describing myself to my friends I think most would pick the second, but I can't help but think they really mean the first.

I believe God created humor.  I believe God loves humor.  To me, nothing in the world is as good as making someone laugh.  Seeing someone smile and hearing them laugh because of me fills me up more than anything.  I'd do anything for a laugh, which unfortunately leads to things occasionally going to far or not funny.  Nothing is worse than trying to be funny and failing.  Well, there is one thing worse, being funny one minute and offensive the next.  Thats the worst.  The bad things are what are kept and remembered most, the good is all too often forgotten.  Is the influence I am leaving with people good or bad?

We are called to be like God and like Jesus.  I don't know if it's just me, but this seems like a very vague idea.  What exactly does it mean to be like Jesus?  Does it mean walk around in robes, grow a beard, tell parables, heal people, and walk on water?  I don't think so.  I think that we are simply supposed to try and live blameless like Jesus.  Then what is blameless?  Not sinning.  What is sin?  Not following God's commands. What are God's commands?  We want specifics, but God gave us a book of commands we break daily.  How can we get more details when we fail to focus on what has been given to us in the first place.

I feel like I just got somewhere.  In case you haven't figured it out, this post was more impromptu that normal.  Most my posts are pretty impromptu, but this one was really just me thinking in writing format, kinda like a devotional "the tables open God" time.  Anyway, perhaps you haven't been following the disorganization of this post, but thats ok.  I think that I have come to some conclusion for myself.

Conclusion:  I have been thinking and perhaps even worrying about my influence and "appearance" (appearance in the way that people see God reflecting from me, not trying to look good and show off to people) to others.  I have also been trying to figure out if there is something that I have been doing wrong or something I could do differently.  It has almost been bothering me and the more I hear it from places the more I think about it.  Then it hit me while I was writing the paragraph about being like Jesus.  My devotional life sucks right now.  Beyond occasional focused prayer (I pray constantly throughout most days, but thats different and not special dedicated time to God), I haven't done much at all.  To try and think of the last time I read the Bible just to read it, is too depressing.  I do more Bible searching and studying than just time dedicated to God and reading.  Why shouldn't I be worried about influence, my reflection, my "Swag", when I am not getting enough influence from God myself?  It's all starting to make more sense to me now.  I need to work on my devotional life.  Period. And then see how things change.

My challenge for this post is to check yourself.  How are you influencing people?  How are you reflecting God?  How is your devotional life?  Perhaps you should make some changes to.

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,
-Zach Haas