I've been recently captivated by the awareness that the current generation of youth is largely "fatherless."
So many young men and women seem to be drifting through life, searching, probing, wandering; looking
for something elusive and unknown, unidentified - searching for a father. The following is a call for the
fathers to rise up, to realize their purpose on the earth and to father those whose sometimes raucous and
grating cries beg for a man "to stand in the gap" for them.... This, then is for The Men.

 

It’s the way we were made, wired, formed.
We didn’t choose to be this way.
It’s not because dad or mom bought us toy soldiers or toy rifles

Or because we watched The Sands of Iwo Jima
Or Platoon
Or Saving Private Ryan
Or Band of Brothers

Or because we read Sgt. Rock comic books
Or read Guadalcanal Diary
Or We Were Soldiers Once, and Young

Or because of images or profiles or the demands or the expectations of a pressing society around us.

It’s the way we are; the way we were put together.
It’s in the assembly and not because of the neighborhood we grew up in.

We are “cause” oriented. We want to be rescuers, heroes, achievers, doers.

But we have so few role models;
So few to look to.
The examples we’ve seen are largely defective, damaged, destructive.

Our dads didn’t turn out to be the heroes we thought they were, or if they were heroes, They never told us.
They lived busily and died quietly.

We feel alone, unaided, unaccompanied

And we need a Cause, A rationale for
Why we are,
Where we are,
Who we are

We want to stand up and cry “Give me liberty or give me death!”
We want to shout “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country!”
We want to gather with Roosevelt’s Rough Riders at the foot of San Juan Hill
We want to join with brothers, shoulder to shoulder on the summit of Mt. Surabachi, atop Iwo Jima, raising
Old Glory. We want to jump into the skies of France on a June night in 1944 with the Screaming Eagles,
crying “Curahee!”

We want to save a damsel,
Slay a dragon,
Defeat an evil

We want to be Defenders, Liberators, Victors
We want a Cause; our Cause;

A Cause worth living for,
Investing in,
Dying for.

We’re made that way. We don’t just decide one day to find The Cause
We live our entire lives looking for “it.”

And some of us stumble,
Lose our sight,
Lose our way,
Squander our time,
Our energy,
Our lives

Some of us surrender to the grind, relinquish the call, submit to the day to day, lose our passion, get in line
and become just another number in a numberless company moving in silent procession between the cradle
and the grave, wondering all along, where “it” is –

The Promised Purpose,
The Anticipated Action
The Fruit of Boyhood Dreams

And some of us die, having never lived.

But still The Cause is there
And The Cause beckons
The Cause awaits

And for those few, those blessed few who find it, the Cause becomes

The reason,
The rationale,
The purpose,
The point of life

And so, stirring within us,
Awakening from it slumber,
Rising from its stupor

Is the memory of the Dream
And the recognition of the Hope
The Desire
The Need
The Cause

And The Cause beckons.
It Calls.
It Whispers and Shouts and Cries
To those who will hear
To those who can hear
To those who, though dying, are yet alive

“Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will
save it.”
“For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to
the truth.”
“For this purpose I have come forth."

"In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who
works all things according to the counsel of His will,”

And to those who are dying, yet live

He calls
He beckons

His Spirit Awakens
Pursues
Woos

He bids us come,
Follow Him,
Learn of Him,
Imitate Him

“And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”

For the Cause
For the Call
For the Purpose
For the Reason we were Fashioned
Made
Assembled
Born

“stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”

And answer the Call
For the Cause

Rise up, O man of Destiny and of Purpose and of Promise!
“Rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city: for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.”

On July 1, 1898, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt saw that his attack was stalled. The Americans appear to
be stymied - unwilling to move forward and unable to retreat. Suddenly, Colonel Roosevelt emerges on
horseback from the surrounding woods and rallies the men to charge: He cries, “If you don’t wish to go
forward, let my men pass, please!”

And the men rallied, they sprang into line and they charged....

If you don’t wish to go forward, let My men pass, please!

It’s time
It’s the hour
It’s the moment

It’s the place
And we are the men.....

For the Cause

In His Grace,
Greg