I hope Christians could all begin to think of it rather as a man finally coming into real manhood – when he learns gentleness, meekness, self-control, etc. A position of true strength is demonstrated by a person who has the power to give in and let another have their way (and by this I am decidedly NOT talking about a woman letting her abuser have his way – no such nonsense as that.) I like to explain it this way when it comes up: if a jogger approaches an older man walking with a cane on a narrow sidewalk, the jogger (if he/she is a decent person) will yield sidewalk to the other, not because the jogger is the weaker party, but precisely because they are not weaker. Those who are least able to let another have their way are demonstrating a weakness, not a strength (and that isn’t always a bad thing as in the example above.) If the stronger are doing their job, the weaker should never have to ask because it would have already been volunteered to them out of kindness. [and we will all be strong in some situations and weak in others … nobody always has only one of those hats on.] And this turns on its head the juvenile idiocy (that some men struggle to grow out of because our society perpetuates it) that strength is shown in dominance. Jesus permanently put the lie to that whole mistaken notion of power and he turned it on its head.
But we don’t easily let go of our enculturated and mistaken notions of “higher manhood” or “higher womanhood”, so your patient tones go a long way toward healing and learning. Thanks for that, Christy.