Men (and women): Read This!

I'm reading "Captivating" from John and Stasi Eldredge. Again. I wrote something about it before, but it's just such a good book. I wanted to share this passage with you:

John is talking about how he didn't really want to co-write a book about the "mystery of a woman's soul" because he was scared to delve into that part of a woman's life. So he writes this:

I knew it would require me to enter into the world of women - and into my woman's world - in a far deeper way than daily life requires of me. To do any sort of justice to a book for women would require me to go deeper, listen even more carefully, study, delve into the mystery (okay-bloody mess) of a woman' s soul. Part of me just didn't want to go there. I had what felt like an allergic reaction. Pull back. Withdraw.
I was keenly aware of this going on inside me, and I felt like a jerk. But I also knew enough about myself and about the battle for a woman's heart that I needed to explore this ambivalence. What is this thing in me - and in most men - that just doesn't want to go deep into a woman's world? You are too much. Too hard. It's too much work. Men are simpler. Easier.
And isn't that just the message you've lived with all your life as a woman? "You are too much, and not enough. You're just not worth the effort." (And why is it such an effort? There must be something wrong with you.)
Now, part of a man's fundamental reluctance to truly dive into the world of a woman comes from a man's deepest fear, failure. Oh, he may joke about "the differences of men and women." Mars and Venus and all that. But the truth is, he is afraid. He fears that having delved into his woman's world, he won't have what it takes to help her there. That is his sin. That is his cowardice. And because of her shame, most of the time a man gets away with it. Most marriages (and long-term dating relationships) reach this sort of unspoken settlement. "I'm not coming any closer. This is as far as I'm willing to go. But, I won't leave, and that ought to make you happy." So there is this sort of detente, a cordial agreement to live only so close.
The effect is that most women feel alone. Some of this is simply selfishness on the part ofmen. Lord knows men are selfish and self-centered. When Eve was first assaulted, Adam didn't do jack squat. Men sin through violence and through passivity. It's that plain and simple...and ugly.

Okay, this was not meant as an attack on men! I just thought it was very interesting and helpful. If you want to learn more about women, read "Captivating". If you want to learn more abot men (who doesn't?) read "Wild at Heart" by Jon Eldredge.

Just an idea...