The Need to Lead
By Craig Pytleski | Guest Blogger
Let’s face it. Society has let men get by when it comes to relationships. There is no accountability in place to ensure that men are living up to a specific standard. (Any standard at all for that matter…)
As a young man who has been involved in various facets of church ministry for the past 5 years, I’ve had the opportunity to lead in various positions. From dating relationships to friendships, project management to individual mentorship – I was asked to lead and responded. Why? Because there was an invitation – a door of opportunity was open and I walked through.
For a plethora of reasons (society, poor upbringing, etc…) many of these doors of opportunity to lead for men have been shut. Now, we both know that our society glorifies youth, looking young, feeling young, etc. Now, I don’t think youth is inherently a bad thing – not at all – but when we promote youth and being forever young we sometimes forget that we need to grow up. I’ve seen it and so have you, our peers living the life of a Perpetual Spring Break with no cares, no worries for anyone but the party or the next hookup. But that begs the question…What the heck is next? Who is going to take the lead? Who is going to grow up? The bottom line is that our culture and society desperately needs masculine leadership – masculine leadership inspired by you, our female counterparts.
Speaking for the majority (if not all) the men out there, we have a desire deep down in our beings to lead and to have a sense responsibility. Why? Responsibility provides a framework to our lives; it structures our minds to focus on things beyond our Xbox 360 or next career move. Responsibility is what makes men, men. As some may say, It’s the thing that separates the Men from the Boys. When we have underdeveloped men leading in our Fortune 500 companies, politics, or more importantly our families – the world suffers.
Now, how does this have to do with women? It has everything to do with women. We need you.
Men need women to invite them to lead. I’m not saying to tell us what to do, or where to lead. I am inviting you to allow your femininity to inspire the men around you to lead. Most men have a desire to lay their lives down, but many haven’t been invited to do so, or have been laying their lives down for the wrong thing (career or money). It just takes a little redirection, a shift in their mindset. To clarify, I’m not saying that women should stop working or leading in our society. Female leadership is just as important (and necessary) as male leadership – but as we have seen throughout history; if men aren’t invited to lead, most of them won’t and that is a terrible place to be, a world with no male leadership.
Ladies, we need you. We need you to help us lead, help invite us back into responsibility. PLEASE, affirm us when we do lead – we need that too. I can’t speak for all men out there, but to have someone by your side that affirms, challenges, encourages, and invites you into something greater than himself, greater than his puny vision for his life, into something greater – a life of leadership for others. That’s what we long for, an invitation to something greater than…well, us. I am sure that there is a cluster of men out there that are just waiting for the invitation. Go ahead! Invite us, we need you, just as much as you need us. Try it out; the world will be a better place if you do. Let’s drop the past and pick up the future.
P.S. You are enough.
