I have been working in the field of technology for about 30 years now. You may be asking yourself why that is relevant to the topic for today. Let me see if I can connect those dots.

A lot of the work that I do involves solving problems and improving processes. Any time the aim is to improve a process, it has always been the case that my starting point has been to try to identify the one thing that I can focus on that will give me the biggest benefit in the least amount of time, or least amount of effort. The low-hanging fruit, as the saying goes. 

Outside of my work, I tend to spend a good deal of time bouncing between the world of theology and the world of culture. Part of our culture is our political landscape and, there has been a saying going around for a number of years now about the idea that politics is downstream of culture. This is intended to convey the idea that culture influences our politics and informs what sort of policies ultimately get put into place.

While I agree with this to a certain extent, I also think that, at least in recent years, politics also seems to have a certain degree of influence on the culture. I have a lot more to say about that, but that will have to be for another time or else I’ll get way too far off track here.

What I did want to get to today is the idea that both culture and politics are downstream from theology. Our theology has to do with what we believe about mankind, what we believe about the foundations of morality and what we believe about our obligations to one another, to name just a couple of things. 

When I look at our culture and the world around me and try to view it through a holistic lens, understanding theology as the starting point, and I ask myself what is the one thing that could have the most significant impact for the good, what I’ve ultimately arrived at is this.

This world needs more godly men.

There it is. I’ve said it. And, in doing so, I imagine that this statement probably has the ability to make a LOT of people angry.  

Before some of you jump ship and go over to listen to Joe Rogan, let me explain. I mean, really…my stuff is usually done in 12 minutes or less. Rogan goes for three hours.

First of all, there a few specific things that godly men do that worldly men do not necessarily tend to do. Some may do a few of these things and, rarely, perhaps even do all of them. But godly men necessarily strive to do all of these:

• They don’t sleep around
• They wait until their married before having sex
• They are open to starting a family
• They stick around, even when things get tough
• They are involved in their children’s lives
• They discipline their children
• They love their children
• They love their wives

These are a handful of things that a godly man does. And, when you look at the research on these kinds of things, the results are stunning!

Since they don’t sleep around and they only sleep with their wives, abortion rates plummet, as do sexually transmitted diseases. Their children do statistically far better in school. They tend to make more money. They tend to live happier, more fulfilling lives. Their children tend to stay away from drugs, gangs and crime. They contribute more to the community in general.

One publication on the website for the International Journal of Child, Youth & Family Studies has a fairly well documented report about the impact of fathers on academic achievement that goes into many of the benefits of children being raised in a home with a father. They include step-fathers and adoptive fathers in the study, as well. 

According to the National Census Bureau, children who grow up without a father are four times more likely to live in poverty and seven times more likely to experience teen pregnancy. Children raised with a father are also 80% less likely to be in jail, according to the National Fatherhood Initiative.

The data seems pretty clear. A godly man, living with and loving his wife and living with, loving and teaching his values to his children can have a tremendous impact on our society, our culture and, by extension, the entire world.

I know that this is a pretty high-level overview, but you can do more research about this. I’ll include links to various organizations where you can find relevant studies and other information about it.

But with all that, if what I’m saying is true (and it certainly seems to be), I want to encourage you to ask yourself this question. What would happen to our world if we could increase the number of godly men by just 1%? That seems like a fairly modest goal. I’m not looking to change the hearts and minds of everyone all at once. 

I want just 1% more men to realize why God put them here on this earth. I want just 1% more men to submit themselves to Jesus and let the Holy Spirit guide them (along with Bible study and discipleship) how to live a better life. I also want to be one of those 1% as I don’t always exemplify this as well as I would like. On that note, heck, I’d be OK with people just striving toward being a godly man. After all, we don’t really ever get across that finish line on this side of eternity.

Now, how much would that change the entire world if that could happen? If you are a praying person, I encourage you to include that in your regular prayers. Pray that God would draw men to Him and increase the number of godly men in this world who will live faithful, sacrificial, generous, people-loving, truth-loving, God-loving lives in a way that they can influence other men to do the same. 

The idea of the impact of that 1% just gets me fired up! Lower rates of divorce, single-parent homes, teen pregnancy, abortion, STDs, crime, drug use, school drop-outs, suicide, gang affiliation, depression, anxiety and the generally thin-skinned, entitled, easily offended attitude that seems to be more and more ubiquitous. Imagine a world with less of all of those things!

What an amazing world we could have with more godly men leading godly families and raising godly children to live godly lives!

Let’s get to work…

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Other Links & Resources:

https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ijcyfs/article/view/18073

https://americafirstpolicy.com/assets/uploads/files/Issue_Breif_-_Fatherlessness_and_its_effects_on_American_society.pdf

https://journal.scidacplus.com/index.php/jgs/article/view/516

https://www.proquest.com/openview/a501f1533ee0e1586d948df2fc280ea8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7452000/

https://www.fatherhood.org/