Title of book: "THE MAN IN THE MIRROR – Solving the 24 Problems Men Face"
Author: Patrick Morley
Reviewer: David Loh

This book was given to me on Father’s Day last year by the church I attended in Washington, D.C., and it has helped open my spiritual eyes to the state of the Man in the Mirror – who is of course, yours truly. When I first saw the book, I immediately thought of Michael Jackson’s huge hit of the same title. Whereas his song is about changing the world by changing oneself (i.e., Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world’), this book aims to help men who are so caught up in the rat race that their lives are spinning out of control, almost inevitably with disastrous consequences for their Christian walk and families.

The author, a former businessman, identifies 24 of the commonest problems faced by working men as falling into 6 major groups: Identity, Relationship, Money, Time, Temperament and Integrity. Each chapter in the book focuses on a specific problem group. For example, one chapter examines the problem of Christian men leading unexamined lives (ie. the problem of Identity). The author asserts that “most men have not carefully chiseled their life view by a personal search for truth and obedience to God”. By drawing from the Bible (for example using in that chapter Lamentations 3:40 – Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord), and contrasting this with common vignettes of how such problems are actually played out in many men’s daily lives, the author reveals that most Christian men today subscribe to the impoverished values of personal peace (i.e., living one’s life with the minimal possibilities of being personally disturbed) and affluence (i.e., material abundance). He makes the point that in the pursuit of the “good life”, men all too often leave behind a trail of broken relationships and that there is only a marginal difference between the way such Christian men live and the way the broken, hurting world lives. Instead of finding their significance in Christ, such men try to find it in acquiring fleeting fame, possessions or worldly power.

Another area that I’ve learnt a great deal about from the book is that of the importance of family. The author says, “If you don’t have enough time for your family, you can be 100 percent sure that you are not following God’s will for your life.” According to the author, the average American father spends all of 37 seconds daily with his children, compared to the 4 – 7 hours of television the children have. Perhaps it is no better here in Singapore. The author quotes Proverbs 22:15 which talks about foolishness being bound up in the heart of the child, and he says that most parents today err on the side of under-protecting our children from worldly influences. The most important thing I took away from that chapter is that no single parental undertaking comes close to that of assisting in the salvation of our children.

The book does tend to have an American perspective, but considering how westernized most Singaporean homes are, the observations made are easy to identify with and the conclusions quite eye-opening. More importantly, the principles found in the book, I feel, are Bible-based and the 24-point attempt to draw men to lead rich, meaningful and abundant lives that glorify God is wholly relevant and applicable to all who live in the world, but who are called to be its light and salt.

BACK TO TOP