EDICTS//001

Masculinity is endangered. I try to stay updated on the outflow of information into the world. Sometimes that takes me down rabbit holes. I cannot tell you how many times I have had the unfortunate luck of stumbling upon a grown man who is not only irresponsible for his own actions, but also has the safety and security of vulnerable individuals under his discretion.

If you’ve spent any time on blkhymn.com, you understand that we do not tolerate fragile leadership, and therefore we tolerate fragile masculinity even less, because we are men and understand the honor of balancing on the tightrope of life that we have been handed.

This honor is non-negotiable. You might ask, “Why is it honorable if it is non-negotiable?” The simple answer is that you, as a man, have been given a sacred job: to be both peaceful protector and vicious killer. You go through your days looking at every individual situation and deciding to be one or the other. You CHOOSE this path. You protect the vulnerable, and you destroy evil. This is the essence of a man.

“Peaceful protector and vicious killer sounds pretty exaggerated..” you might say. Conversely, I point you to all of human history. Men have been protectors and killers at the same time since the story of Cain and Abel. From the fields of ancient war to the quiet defense of the home, the role has never changed. Only the battlefield has.

A man who refuses either side of this calling becomes incomplete. A man who only protects is soft, unable to confront the wolf when it breaches the fence. A man who only kills is reckless, burning down the very things he was meant to guard. The balance between these two is where true masculinity lives.

And this balance is not a mood or a personality type. No, it is a discipline. You choose it when you get up in the morning, you choose it when you deal with conflict, and you choose it when no one is watching. Every choice shapes the kind of man you will be when it matters most.

We have boys raised by women who, don’t get me wrong, can be just as strong as a man. The issue is that these women lack the understanding of what masculinity is from a man’s view. On the flipside, there are men who do everything they can to avoid taking up the innate calling we have. Weak men leave women who frankly do not have the tools in their toolbox to raise a little boy to his full potential.

This is not the only situation I see in my daily “information recon.” I see men who choose the EASY ROUTE (notice the pattern?) of staying with a woman who carries trauma or life experiences that cause her to react with masculinity, and proceed to do nothing to lead her out of it. They accept the dysfunction and bring themselves down with her. A strong man builds her up and stays by her side until she heals and brings her side of the relationship to the table or proves she will not change. A weak man refuses this hard work, and in doing so, helps create the environment where trauma-filled, dangerous, at-risk children are raised.

Weak men rarely come in isolation, they carry patterns. You start to notice the same defects over and over again, like a sickness passed from one generation to the next. For the first time in human history, men can choose a life of pure laziness. Entire generations now sit on their asses, get fat, and throw away their natural drive in exchange for doomscrolling, porn, or anything that spikes dopamine for the least amount of effort.

To a strong man, the type we celebrate and extol here at BLKHYMN, a weak man is no better than the wild dogs mentioned by Paul

“Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!” Philippians 3:2

Paul used this image to describe false apostles and teachers, showing his disgust for those who carried the title of God’s servant yet denied the true work it demanded. In the same way, we have men today who carry the title of “man” yet refuse the labor, discipline, and sacrifice that name requires.

You train when you run races. You train for that yearly elk hunt. You train for your job. But you are also called to train your mind to think clearly under pressure, your body to endure hardship, your soul to resist corruption, your spirit to stay anchored in truth, and your hands to work, build, and defend. This is the training for a never-ending war, the war of choosing the right path.

Every day you are tested. You wake up to a choice. Comfort or the call. You will either protect or you will destroy. You will either stand or you will collapse. The man who wins this war is not the loudest, the strongest, or the most admired. He is the one who refuses the easy path, bears the weight without complaint, and meets the eyes of those under his protection knowing he did not fail them. Anything less, and you are already counted among the dogs.

- BLKHYMN HQ