OMM’s Campfire Talks Part 2: Dangerous

This is part of a series of posts about our Campfire Talks. While on our wilderness adventures, the young men participate in biblical discussions about Christian Manhood. Based on the book, ‘Wild At Heart’ by John Eldredge, the talks focus on the 5 things that every man must be or do. Below are those 5 things, along with the outline notes for the facilitator. Today we discuss the first thing a man must be: Dangerous

• Dangerous
• Battle To Fight
• Warrior/Protector
• Beauty To Rescue
• An Adventure To Live

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DANGEROUS

Video: Maximus (Gladiator)

Boys and girls are different.  God built us this way.  God made a feminine heart and a masculine heart.

Ask them what games played as a boy.  Games girls play.  

Girls – dolls, babies, house.

Boys – cowboys, soldiers.  Every stick is a gun, every branch a bazooka.  Aggression is part of masculine design/hardwired for it.  Ride sleds down stairs.  Blow up things.

Ask them their Halloween costumes.  Star Wars. Soldier. Cowboy. Not costume but identity.  Little boys yearn to be powerful, they are dangerous, to be reckoned with.

Why God design men that way?  Life NEEDS a man to be fierce and fiercely devoted.  Protect/defend.  Who want defending you?  Mr. Rogers/really nice guy or Call of Duty/Braveheart/Gladiator?  Ice cream truck driver or Special Forces soldier?

Ask them how they hoped to be described.  “Billy’s a really sweet guy,” or “Billy’s dangerous, in a really good way.”

Difference between being a mean brute and a warrior (will talk about it).  God designed men in his image.  “The Lord is a warrior, the lord is his name (Exodus 15:3)

“The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.”  Matthew 11:12

“And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and He who sat upon it called Faithful and True, and in Righteousness he wages war.”  Revelation 19:11

(Jesus clearing the Temple.  Read portion from Beautiful Outlaw chapter)

Not ALWAYS dangerous and fierce.  Man needs to be tender at times and a woman sometimes needs to be fierce.  But if a man is only tender and woman is only fierce, we know something is deeply wrong. 

A man is a dangerous thing.  So’s a scalpel.  It can wound or save your life.  You don’t make it safe by making it dull; you put it in the hands of someone who knows what he’s doing.