It's our monthly roundup of all the happenings at YOB! Pardon my almost-swearing in the intro. We had a great month of stories and content to kick off the new year!
You might have heard there's a new Gillette commercial about "toxic masculinity." The commercial has garnered a lot of attention, both positive and negative. Since masculinity is a cornerstone topic in this community, we thought we'd enter the conversation, too. Did we like the Gillette commercial? Hate it? Want more of it? We had a conversation with several of our featured authors.
I didn't realize it at the time, but I'd made brotherhood my idol. Looking back, I see it so clearly now. So madly obvious. I made this pursuit of brotherhood and even ministry my idol. And I got the wind knocked out of me on the asinine climb.
What is good self-care? How do we commit to healthy practices across all areas of our lives, not just physical ones, as men? Join Tom, Ryan, and Dean for a healthy discussion on self-care to start the new year! We talk about new year resolutions, one-word themes, and bring back good ole SPERM counts (spiritual, physical, emotional, relational, mental) for checking in with one another. We also add another letter to our SPERM count acronym and talk about what good sexual health looks like as men.
Whenever I struggled, I sent my friend a message and he encouraged me. By all accounts, I started doing better with my depression. But that's how codependency can look at the start -- a "healthy" accountability relationship.
I hadn't wanted orientation change out of a desire to please God. I'd wanted to be straight because I simply wanted to be normal. I had been scared. I was internally homophobic, hating myself and especially other gay men.
The guilt was overwhelming. How would I tell anybody what I had done? What would they think of me? Beyond other people, how would these events impact my faith? Where was Jesus during all of this?
I don't wonder to myself: Have I, as an adult, ever embraced another man shirtless like this before? This isn't that kind of intimacy.