Massaging The Scriptures

I gazed in horror at the many Tonka trucks laying beside the pathway, in various stages of destruction. Camp had a huge collection of the large dump truck type Tonkas for younger children to play with in the sand volleyball courts. The boys built roads, learned skills in excavation, and perhaps demolition, too. They built mountains, and valleys, and rivers. I imagine there was even some valuable lessons on teamwork that evolved while playing with the Tonka trucks in the sand.

But this one week the idea was hatched to use the Tonka trucks to sit on and ride down the asphalt pathway. The path had a perfect incline, as well as a nice banked curve to maneuver.  It was a goldmine for the boys’ creative use of the Tonka trucks. Only problem was, Tonka trucks were never designed for riding upon downhill by junior age boys. One by one, slowly but surely, the trucks became twisted, crushed, and useless. They were not repairable, and ended up in the dumpster.

Role confusion, in our modern world, is leading many into twisted and distorted lives. Many young people are headed for helpless, even useless lives. Some may even be headed for destruction, life’s dumpster. S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, made the statement, “It is better to raise boys and girls, than it is to mend men and women.” Unfortunately, many children in our culture are receiving such mixed signals, that the distortion in their lives will never by mended.

Mom and Dads, take note. You have the opportunity to teach and model truth for your kids that will mold them for life. You need to know God personally and model a passion to live in a trust relationship with Jesus. You need to know and believe the God-ordained roles for men and women, for husbands and wives. Boys need to learn from their Dads what it means to be a man-- not chauvinistically, but in very real and clear distinctions. Dads can model what it means to become a loving, caring, serving leader in the home and community. Moms can teach and model true Biblical female roles. They can model what it will look like for their daughter to one day trust the authority and leadership of their husband.

In the last fifty plus years there has been an ever escalating push by society to minimize the distinctions between male and female. Egalitarianism and feminism have blurred and eliminated God’s original and beautiful roles. “Girl power” is the rising tide of our generation. And sadly, the cultural thrust has been adopted by most of the church. The Scriptures are being re-interpreted, jettisoning the teachings on leadership and submission, substituting, instead, egalitarian roles, under the guise of mutual submission. Like stiff-necked people we massage the Scriptures to our own liking, making it say what we want it to say. We allow the world to squeeze us into its mold, to accept a new normal. The catalyst for change, here, is the desire for acceptance and praise from men, rather than God.   

And we wonder why we have children coming into adulthood, utterly confused about their sexual identity. We have young people in the church forsaking marriage because of the disaster they see in their families and in the church. We have an epidemic of single-mother families, dads excusing themselves from all responsibility. And families that are intact are totally confused – mom wears the pants and dad hides out in the garage or in his man cave.

The roles of man and woman may be one of the most important issues of our time for the church, more important than many of the theological issues that we love to debate.  In fact, a person’s view on gender roles probably reveals a lot about their theology, their views about God, and how the Bible should be interpreted.

Tonka trucks belong in the sand. Riding toys belong on the pathway. They are not mutually interchangeable, otherwise brokenness and destruction are inevitable.