“‘I have killed many people,’ he said. ‘This is all I’ve done in my life–kill people.’ I noticed that there was no pride in his words. Then this apparently ruthless murderer surprised me with the depth of his thinking. He compared and analyzed our lives.
‘You do these humanitarian projects because of what your father and your family taught you when you were growing up,” he said. “The reason I do what I do is because it is what my father showed me. He taught me everything that I know. This is all I watched my father do until I was five years old–kill people’” (Joseph and Lund 75).
By: Mrs. Holland
We watch our fathers. We want to do what they do. I’ve watched boys mimic their fathers’ actions and men seek their fathers’ approval.
In the above conversation from the new book Kidnapped by the Taliban, we hear Wallakah, Dr. Dilip Joseph’s Taliban kidnapper, compare himself and Joseph as men–not as enemies–who do what they do because of their father’s influence.
Satan’s black blanket doesn’t reveal our Father’s influence. On the contrary, it blocks all Light from the room. It emasculates men.
When I view society through a lens rooted in Biblical morality, what saddens me the most is how far the devil has succeeded in destroying God’s men, and His intended figure of a man.
Instead of women praising men and encouraging them to be spiritual leaders and leaders of the home, many women in our feminine world devalue men and think they can do it all without them. A popular little girl’s t-shirt reads, “I’m the Princess, My Mom’s the Queen, my Dad’s around here somewhere!” And the media doesn’t help. No longer are boys and men emulating Andy Griffith and Charles Ingalls but sloppy, ambitionless cartoon characters who are the butt of jokes.
A few days ago I was talking with a friend of mine about this issue, and she brought to light how by emasculating fathers, Satan is erasing the acknowledgement of a need for a relationship with our Father. The further society grows in the direction it’s headed the easier it will be for people to laugh at the need for a relationship with our Father. And not only will it become easier for non-Christians to laugh at this, but I’ve seen it become easier for Seventh-day Adventists as well.
Satan can outsmart the world. But he cannot outsmart God. Our challenge comes when we try to live in this world knowing that we were created for the world to come. My prayer is that our men will be the men God has called them to be and that our women will support their men so that no matter how deadening Satan’s black blanket becomes, we will have the strength and foresight to “get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” (New International Version, James 1.21).
Joseph, Dilip, M.D., and James Lund. Kidnapped by the Taliban. Nashville: Thomas Nelson,
- Print.
