God has just done something marvelous, which I want to share with you who have been part of my spiritual journey — some for a week, some for decades.
At age 37, everything has come together for me, and I’ve found my calling!
The first hint was at age 13, when pastor Greg Speck — speaking at a Moody youth conference in Chicago — looked me in the eye and told me “The Lord needs men!” During my single years I took this as a curse, as all the Christian groups I belonged to were overwhelmingly (and uncharacteristically) male: fellowships at MIT, Caltech, even Lake Ave Church‘s TwentySomething.
Yet it was during this time that I penned the second hint: my tongue-in-cheek translation of the gospel into Calculus where I appropriated the title “Apostle to the Nerds.”
The third piece was my discovery/invention two years ago of Radical Centrist philosophy, followed by Transformational Christianity, which gave me a whole new perspective on what it means to be human.
The final piece, though, was a Gordon Dalbey conference last week that explained what it means to be a Man, in the context of reconnecting with — and representing — Father God.
As God brought an extraordinary number of Christian and non-Christian men into my path this last week, I suddenly realized that all the problems I care most about — i.e., technology, politics, philosophy, and theology; not to mention my own marriage and happiness — depended critically on one single issue:
Geeks not being Men.
I’m a Geek. Most of you on the “To” field would consider yourselves geeks. The intellectual leaders of our society are geeks, in one form or another (e.g., nerds, boffins, wonks, gurus, pundits, etc.). And while I love geeks, and geeks embody many admirable traits, I’ve come to believe we share one negative attribute in common:
We’re afraid to be Men.
We denigrate strength. We avoid the reins of power. Humanity annoys us. We shun the physical and undervalue the emotional, while obsessing and fantasizing over the abstract and childish. We don’t know how to effectively Husband women or Father children. Sure, few of us do all these to extremes, but “geek culture” — which seems to include most scientists, professors, consultants, analysts, and writers — rewards rather than punishes geeky immaturity. And that imbalance taints both who we are and what we do.
I want to change that. I want to reform geek culture. I want to turn geeks into men.
Starting with myself.
Then my friends, and circle of influence.
And from there transforming the fields of politics, education, theology, psychology, and technology.
Yeah, its a tall order. But I believe God wants to be Father to emasculated geeks, to raise them into Men and turn them into Fathers over their area of expertise; where they can bring forth wholeness and sanity rather than mere intellectual innovation. Which in turn will bring the Kingdom of God into un-Fathered areas of our culture and world.
And that implies someone like me — a lifelong geek, saved by the blood of Jesus and Fathered through the Spirit into growing completeness — showing them the way.
And perhaps also someone like you. If my story resonates with something deep within you, drop me a line, and pass this along to others who might be interested. I’m starting a private email forum – “Geekz2Men ” – to explore these issues as they relate to our faith, our selves, our families, our ministry, and our careers. I’d love to have your fellowship in that journey.
Yours in the love of Christ, and the Power of the Father, by His Holy Spirit.
— Brother Ernie
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Geekz2Men is a private sharing and accountability forum for Christian men from a geeky, intellectual background who desire to experience authentic manhood as reflected in the writings of Gordon Dalbey. Our goal is to encourage one another to develop and manifest the wholeness of Father God in our faith, our selves, our families, our ministry, and our careers.
Radically Happy 