God is so good. You are about to read the answer to a question I’ve been asking for many years.

The Question

Why does a man not emotionally know himself?

Men who do not know themselves are also known for being emotionally distant, detached, and “hard-to-read.” The answer is found in some of their comments.

• I’ve ran away from myself my whole life.
• I try really hard to live in the present.
• I leave the past in the past–where it belongs. The present is all that matters.
• I try my best to stay present.
• I want nothing to do with my sad, painful past.

Can you hear the answer in those comments? Here are more of their thoughts.

• I’ve spent my whole life running from my past.
• I’ve been running away from myself my whole life.
• Please don’t ask about me. What you see is what you get.
• Childhood was difficult. That’s when I started not liking myself.
• I want nothing to do with my sad, failing self.
• So just love me in the present and everything will be fine.
• Why can’t you let the past be a mystery? It’s a faded mystery to me.

Two Choices

In life, you have two choices.

Choice #1 Be the man who rejects his past. He only lives in the present and does his best to ignore old emotional pain. Let’s call this a surviving lifestyle. He lives in the present, copes, and survives. He lives emotionally disconnected.

Choice #2 This man looks back into his past. He makes an emotional connection between his past and present feelings. He knows the past will educate him about current thoughts and behaviors. Let’s call this a connected lifestyle.

You have this choice. Live a surviving lifestyle or a live a connected lifestyle.

Prayer

Father, thank you for this wonderful insight. It is a major puzzle piece to understanding a disconnected man. And thank you that I can share it with my friends. I also love that you said, “seek and you will find.” You are a treasure God, full of fun findings. Thank you for teaching me new things every day. Amen.

Bible

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7 (NIV)