You Were Never Meant to Be Quiet
Jesus had twelve disciples. But He only gave a nickname to two of them. James and John. Sons of Zebedee. Fishermen from Galilee. He called them Boanerges — Sons of Thunder. Not Sons of Patience. Not Sons of Politeness. Not Sons of “Let’s not ruffle any feathers.” Thunder. I’ve been sitting with that for a while now. Because I think a lot of men have been told — by the culture, by the church, sometimes even by the people closest to them — to be quieter. Smaller. Less. To dial it back. To soften the edges. And somewhere along the way, we listened. There’s a version of maturity that looks a lot like passivity. We call it keeping the peace. We call it being the bigger man. We call it wisdom. Sometimes it is wisdom. But sometimes — and I want to be honest with you here — it’s just fear wearing a spiritual costume. James and John weren’t perfect men. There’s a moment in Luke 9 where they ask Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven on a village that didn’t welcome H...