Pyrite is a pale-yellow metal that has the superficial appearance of precious metal. It’s been nicknamed fool’s gold. A prospector would be fooled thinking that it was the real thing, but would find out that it added absolutely no value to his endeavour.
I once wrote a blog that was called “Who is good enough for my daughter“. I think it was pretty good and encourage you to read it. I promise you, I’m not one of “those guys” that feel than no one is worthy of their “princess”… Actually, in that piece the primary focus was the practical qualifying and disqualifying expectations of males in relationships. These ideas flow from the concept of masculine identity found in The Genesis Man book in chapters 7 to 9.
So, how do the first two paragraphs connect? Stay with me a bit longer and I’ll show you. In the mean time I want to tell you about Jepthah, an old testament young man, who after unfairly being expelled from his home, fell into bad company of men concerned mainly with exploiting his gifts. To be accurate, these men (who were nothing more than pyrites -pirates???) were described as “worthless” and they gravitated towards Jepthah. The book of Judges explained that these men came and befriended him. They thought, “Hey, this is the guy that we need in our group…” Why? What was so special about him? Jepthah had a unique supernatural blessing of skillful strength stitched into the Reason of his life. He was one of the elite few who was given the title “mighty man of valour”. (He would have made Darth Vader at his prime look like Steve Urkle – the 80’s sitcom geek from Family Matters.)
Where am I going with this? Jepthah may have thought that he had found a gold mine of new friends and good relationships, but in truth, they were “worthless”. Now the Bible was not devaluing human life -for we were all created in the image of God- but the point was being made that they (those “worthless” men) added no positive benefit to Jephthah.
“Worthless men” refer to people who don’t add value to another’s life. They are people who bring out the worst and in another’s behaviour. They are people who take an individual further away from their purpose and path. They appear good on the outside at first glance or at first impression but they just aren’t.
As a Men’s Leader, I’ll always support men in their desires to be better and I will not condemn them for their failures and faults. The only thing is that as a man with three daughters, I firmly believe that women are not the ones commissioned to fix broken males. I discourage my daughters from entering DIY relationships. I discourage my daughters from being tied together with males who add no personal (and I’m not talking about money) or spiritual value to their lives. Women need to identify fool’s gold with wise discernment and make good choices when it comes to relationships. Men need to understand and live out true masculinity and teach it to their sons.
Until a man can add value to another man’s daughter, he needs to work on himself rather than pursuing relationships. Nevertheless, I have an enduring faith that God can transform Pyrite into something priceless. What do you think?
The Genesis Man Project 