Free The New Eve by Robert Lewis

bed every night knowing every part of your life. I LOVE being your mommy and Chris, I LOVE being your wife.”
    Terry Jones … living from the inside out.

6
    The Power of Gender Vision
    V ision energizes life. It inspires. It clarifies. It harnesses the powers and abilities of one's life and focuses them on a prescribed end. That's because vision is a forward thing. It's out there calling you ahead to new growth and fresh opportunity. A life that is called forward by a positive vision is a life of health and passionate movement. Conversely, a life that is not called forward will stagnate or fall backward into trouble. Life becomes aimless, twisted, and disoriented. Without vision people naturally tend to wander. Bad decisions follow. We all know such stories. It's the friend we visit in rehab, the coworker whose life is in constant crisis, or the sister who doesn't come around anymore.
    One of Scripture's most powerful maxims says, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained” (Prov. 29:18). The word unrestrained is worth noting. In the one other time this word is used in the Old Testament, it describes what Moses observed when he returned from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. While he was away on the mountain, the people of Israel had turned to idol worship and pagan revelry.Exodus 32:25 then says, “Moses saw that the people were out of control.” This is exactly what happens when people lose sight of where they should be going in life. Where there is no vision, life gets out of control.
    The same is true when it comes to gender. Without a gender vision men and women have trouble separating life-giving pursuits from mistakes and mirages. There is nothing specific, male or female, to aspire to, strive for, or check ourselves against. “Am I a good woman?” “Did I behave like a man today?” We ask such questions all the way to our dying day. Unfortunately, where there is no vision, there are no clear answers to such questions. And today we are paying a heavy price for this gender darkness, as are our sons and daughters.
A Gender Vision of Manhood
    Several years ago I asked a group of men to help me formulate a succinct definition of biblical manhood. It sounded like a simple enough task. You would think we could have easily reached down and produced a statement of compelling clarity and unassailable truth, but in reality our efforts only highlighted our confusion. It was like nailing Jell-O to a wall. We simply couldn't do it.
    So for months afterward I searched the Scriptures for an answer. How does the Bible define a man, a real man? What I eventually uncovered was a vision of manhood inspired by history's two most influential men. Both are called Adam, the Hebrew word for man. Both have left indelible marks on the human race. At times Scripture plays them up as opposites—two men who made radically different choices and pursued equally different lifestyles. But when they are brought together as men , they provide us with a way to envision and define biblical manhood.
    The first of these two Adams is, of course, the Adam of Genesis. He was the original prototype male. He rolled off thefactory floor divinely fitted for masculine success. Strong, intelligent, favored by God—the whole earth was his to rule as viceroy to the King. He was set for a great adventure. All he had to do was get three things right.
Adam had a will to obey.
Adam had work to do.
Adam had a woman to love and care for.
    These were Adam's responsibilities as a man. But as we have already observed in our previous chapter, Adam failed on each of these counts in one fell swoop. Standing under the boughs of a forbidden tree, he refused to obey God's will; refused to do the work of manly leadership; and, in utter selfishness, despised his wife. His mistakes come down to one simple theme: he lost his masculine focus. And without this noble vision he became passive. Sadly, this visionless masculinity and the passivity that goes with