Becoming a Snake-Handler: The Friday Five with Brian Goins

You tour the country with Family Life Today speaking on marriage. What positive trends are you seeing in the church and culture when it comes to marriage and family?

As bleak as the statistics about men are, I'm noticing a new hunger. Men don't want to be average. They don't want an ordinary marriage. They want to step up to the plate and get in the game. We just need to fill that hunger with a gospel-centered message for husbands rather than a guilt-driven message for husbands. God wants to turn ordinary marriages into a picture of his glory here on earth.

How did your role as a pastor prepare you to write this book?

I heard a pastor friend of mine say the most damning preposition in all of Scripture is found in Genesis 3. The snake seduced Eve with a fruit plate. Then she offered a bite to Adam, who was "with her." In other words, when the snake slithered up to his wife, Adam didn't grab a hoe and cut off its head, he just stood there. When it twisted God's words, Adam didn't argue, he just nodded his head. When Eve grabbed the fruit, Adam didn't slap it out of her hands. He just watched.

God made us in his image. God's image in Genesis 1:1-2 portrays one who hovers over a chaotic world "without form and void." Instead of ignoring or being irritated or being intimidated by the chaos, God moves into it and creates order.

He turned on the sun and moon. He corralled raging waves. He made a starry map in the ink-black night. He created a food chain. Then he laid out a schedule for when you punch in for work and when you take a day off. But in Genesis 3, when Adam sat back in his Barca lounger to watch his favorite episode of "When Snakes Attack," he let chaos disrupt the order. We don't know if he was intimidated or irritated by the snake, but we do know he ignored it. As a husband, I've discovered that most of my problems happen because I'm "just standing there." I don't move into the chaos of conflict. I don't answer the call to spiritual leadership. I don't diffuse awkward moments. Though God made me as a man to move into chaos and create order, I repeat the sins of Adam every time I "just stand there."

Even in a perfect world, God allowed something to threaten the unity of Adam and Eve. Even in the happiest marriage, conflict and issues are unavoidable. The question is, "What will a husband do when issues slither into marriage?" Move into the chaos and bring order and clarity? Or slink into the background? As a pastor, conference speaker, and a husband, I've discovered that marriages so often get stuck because we men abandon our role as "image-bearer."