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Man on the Run: Helping Hyper-Hobbied Men Recognize the Best Things in Life - Softcover

Pipher, Zeke

 
9781451617214: Man on the Run: Helping Hyper-Hobbied Men Recognize the Best Things in Life
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1451617216 ISBN 13: 9781451617214
Verlag: Howard Books, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

An avid outdoorsman and popular pastor shows men how they can pursue their passions and still maintain a balanced life.

Do you have a hyper-hobbied man in your life? Maybe you are a hyper-hobbied man. Hobbies and adventurous pursuits are good for the soul, says author Zeke Pipher. In fact, the human spirit was designed for challenge, stimulation, even risk. So why a book about hyper-hobbied men? Because too much of a good thing can pull men away from the even more important things—like family, friends, and church.

But there is another way. Men are capable of living with passion and zeal while at the same time remaining balanced and faithful to their most important relationships and priorities. They can learn to run hard and run well, while running after the right things. To do this, men need the help and support of their wives, children, friends, and greater community. If these basics are in place, watch out. Everyone wins when men are on the run.

Passionate, pursuit-driven men can make great husbands, fathers, friends, and colleagues precisely because of their tenacious tendencies. Yet the qualities that make men pursue adventure above all else can wreck their lives; overzealous men end up losing out on the best things in life. How to have the best of both worlds is what this book is all about.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Zeke Pipher is the senior pastor of Heartland Evangelical Free Church in central Nebraska. His sermons are broadcast each week throughout central Nebraska, northern Kansas, southern South Dakota, and western Iowa. His articles and photos appear regularly in several national sports magazines, including Deer and Deer Hunting, Bow & Arrow Hunting, and Petersen’s Bowhunting. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Talbot School of Theology and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He speaks regularly to men on issues such as marriage, friendship, parenting, and the life of the sportsman.

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1

MAN OVERBOARD

“Great, because that’s exactly what you need . . . one more pursuit!”

The playful sarcasm in my wife’s voice was thicker than the syrup on my pancakes. It was a blustery, cold day in January. Jagged ice crystals like ornate daggers crept inward from the corners of our windows. My son, Aidan, and I had snuggled under a quilt to eat pancakes and watch a bow-fishing video. The guys on the screen were seated backward as their boat raced down the Mississippi River. Thousands of Asian carp, stimulated by the motor, jumped back and forth in the wake. The shooters launched arrows, one after another, piercing fish mid-jump. To an adrenaline-seeking boy, and his seven-year-old son, this was pretty awesome stuff.

Between our “oohs” and “aahs,” I’d shouted to Jamie in the kitchen that Aidan and I were “definitely trying this bow-fishing thing next summer!”

She poked her head into the family room, made her comment, then playfully reminded me that this would make passion number thirty-four and counting.

I deserve every bit of Jamie’s ribbing. As I write this chapter, I’m sitting in our living room, less than a hundred feet from evidence of my thirty-three passions. My garage houses a sixteen-foot aluminum bass boat, an old surfboard, and a closet whose doors won’t shut because it’s overstuffed with footballs, softballs, and smacked-up golf balls. Our upstairs closet looks like the shoe department in a sporting-goods store, housing river sandals, hunting boots, and several worn-out pairs of running shoes. The back corner of our basement stores my bow and arrows, chest waders, and numerous decoys. In a month or so, this area will likely contain bow-fishing gear.

Something must have happened when I was a kid. At some point, perhaps around the age of two, the Lord must have looked down into my toy box full of rubber balls and action figures and said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Multiply they did. Today, our three-story home, which appeared spacious before we moved in, is cramped and overrun with the fruitful multiplication of Zeke’s playthings.

I’m a hyper-hobbied man. Yet I’m passionate about more than just sports. The number of books in my library hints at a book fetish. My Internet history reveals an inordinate amount of time spent researching coffee growers and distributors. Our kitchen cabinets store my end-grain maple cutting board, a couple Santoku knives, and aluminum-core cookware, all evidence of a wannabe chef.

I’ve lived the first thirty-nine years of my life by Irishman Laurence Sterne’s creed: “A large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything.”

“Everything” might be a slight overstatement. There are a few pursuits that I haven’t thrown myself into. But then, they involve knitting needles, scrapbooks, and shopping malls, so they don’t really count anyway, right?

I’m a simple case, really. Like many men, I don’t handle inactivity well. My lowest lows—the times when I feel blue or despondent—come to me when I’m sitting on my hands wondering what to do. I keep busy in order to keep sane. On my days off, I fish, exercise, or clean the garage. In the evenings, I write, wrestle with my kids, or play basketball at the fitness center. I even started cooking because it gives me something to do during that restless hour between when I get home from work and when it’s time to sit down for dinner.

Some people enjoy large blocks of time with nothing planned. I don’t understand those people.

I need more than busy-ness, though. I need to be challenged. An after-dinner stroll around the neighborhood holds little appeal. But I’ll walk for hours if there’s the chance a pheasant might flush or the next swing might be the golf shot of my life. Likewise, I can’t sit for fifteen minutes and do nothing. But I can plant my rear in a tree stand from sunup till sundown, listening for the snap of a twig, the faintest indication that a deer might be walking in my direction. In order to enjoy time, I need something to do, and that something must hold the power to thrill me.

Perhaps this is why I’m always looking to pick up another pursuit—all the more opportunity for adventure. This morning at church, a man asked me if I liked to ice fish. I replied, “You know . . . I bet I will. Ask me in a couple of weeks.” With that, I went home and researched ice fishing online. Sigh.

My one consolation is that I’m in good company. Not every man has thirty-four hobbies. Some have twenty-one. Some have eleven. Some have only two or three. It’s not about the number. I’ve known several men who need only one endeavor to consume their lives. Every man is different when it comes to what jump-starts his heart. He’s unique, but not alone. He’s surrounded by millions of pursuit-driven men scurrying around the offices, lakes, ballparks, and kitchens of our country.

I am not anti-pursuits. In fact, I believe very deeply that the human spirit was designed for challenge, stimulation, and even risk. Men were made to be on the run.

It’s hard to be a man today. Our culture’s expectations for men are confusing and contradictory. Men are called to lead at home, in the office, and in the community, often simultaneously. They’re expected to be rugged and masculine yet gentle and tender. We want men to maintain a solid presence at work, and in the home, and in society, and in the church. Our culture has a thousand ideas about masculinity.

Men sense these fragmented images and expectations, and they feel overwhelmed. But the external messages aren’t the only source of tension. Most of the men I’ve encountered put tremendous pressure on themselves to excel. They want other people’s respect. They want to respect themselves. They believe that these two outcomes only come when they achieve greatness in all things. Most men I know cut themselves very little slack.

The demands from inside and out, along with the everyday stress of ordinary living, can foster toxic stress levels. I worry about guys who don’t have a way to get swept up in the occasional adventure. Men who don’t have healthy ways to experience risks, rewards, and challenges tend to find harmful ways.

The movie Fight Club perfectly illustrates a man’s need for the occasional thrill. Ed Norton’s character, the narrator, is an automobile-company employee struggling desperately with boredom and insomnia. He doesn’t know how to deal with a life void of risks, rewards, and challenge. He tries faking various terminal diseases so he can attend support groups. There is something about hearing others bare their souls and share their pain that awakens him—for a little while. Joining the support groups helps him sleep and feel alive for a few weeks, but eventually, his boredom and insomnia return. He returns to feeling sterile and dull.

Then the narrator meets Tyler Durden, a soap salesman. One night, outside at a bar, Tyler demands that the narrator hit him in the face. After some coaxing, the narrator does, and the two men have a fistfight in the parking lot. Fists slam into cheekbones. Blood flows. Bruises form. Yet when it’s over, they realize that the fight made them feel alive. Tyler and the narrator start up a “Fight Club,” giving other bored, under-adventured men a chance to experience the same adrenaline rush. By the end of the movie, fight clubs are operating in every major...

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Verlag
Howard Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2012
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1451617216
ISBN 13 
9781451617214
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
256
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
Niederlande