Gain Through Loss

Male relationships: that’s what I miss the most in our move to Kentucky from Idaho. Oh, I could list much more and many people, male and female, but there is nothing (except a great marital relationship) that compares to a small group of men meeting weekly. really getting in to each other’s lives. Praying for, encouraging each other, challenging world views, and helping carry each other’s burdens. I miss many of the groups I was in, but that Wednesday morning group of 5 achieved a deep level of emotional/spiritual intimacy that was so rewarding. I miss you guys.

My dear friend, John Vawter, is co-authoring a book on male relationships. He has given me permission to use some of his material for my blog. The introduction to the book begins with: “Men commonly experience life without deep meaning friendships. The aim of this book is to help men achieve high performance friendship. We consider high performance friendship to include respect, selflessness, intimacy, trust, support, and heartfelt constructive criticism void of jealousy and disparagement. Striving to develop high performance friendships is a powerful enhancement to our lives.”

I’m so excited about his book, co-authored with Jim Wetherbe, that as they find a publisher, it will be used as a great study guide for men' s groups. Drs. Vawter and Whetherbe state, "There doesn’t seem to be much self-reflection or introspection for many men. They rush from activity to activity but they do not look inside themselves. In the high-tech knowledge economy we live in, much time is required just to keep up with our daily work demands, and therefore many of us hope we will be able to retire before we become obsolete and can no longer keep up!"


The next posts will continue in this theme. Hopefully I can figure how I lost the ability to paragraph and fix it.