What's a Spiritual Man Cave?

Photo: James Emery

man cave: A room, space, corner or area of a dwelling that is specifically reserved for a male person to be in a solitary condition, away from the rest of the household in order to work, play, involve himself in certain hobbies, activities without interruption. This area is usually decorated by the male that uses it without interference from any female influence. –Urban Dictionary

I never had a tree house as a kid, but I had multiple “forts” – hiding in washing machine and dryer boxes or sheets stretched from one end of my grandmother’s living room to the other, creating snow caves in my front yard, or sneaking away to large bushes a couple of blocks away that provided cover from the outside world.

As a bashful overweight kid, I was hiding from ridicule. If I could squirrel away somewhere, I was free to dream, think, and read unhindered. The old sticks and stones adage wasn’t true for me. Words hurt, and I sought an escape.

Your story might be a lot like mine, or maybe it isn’t. Maybe you just gravitated toward hideaways, forts, tree houses, and the like because you needed to get away from something else. You needed a place to pull away or to dream or to pretend – free from ridicule, or as Robert on the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” once called them, dream squashers.

As we get older, tree houses and forts aren’t all that cool anymore. So we build man caves in our homes. Some view this as a failure to mature, but I don’t necessarily believe that is true. I believe God wired men with the need to pull away on occasion. Jesus certainly felt the need when he walked this earth.

As men, we don’t admit it, but our egos bruise easily. We need a place to lick our wounds so we can recharge. Batman had his cave. So did the young men in “Dead Poets Society.” In fact, movies are rife with caves used as places of refuge. So is literature. But in addition to licking our wounds and recharging, we also need a place to meet with God, and others, who can rebuild us spiritually.

David was forced into a cave, fearing Saul would kill him. He wrote at least two Psalms (Psalm 57 and 142) in a cave, where he poured out his heart to God. After the apostles watched Jesus ascend into heaven (Acts 1), they returned to Jerusalem and entered the upper room – which, “was either a room in the temple, or in the house of one of the disciples, where this holy company was accustomed to meet” (Adam Clarke’s commentary).

Enter the Spiritual Man Cave – a blog where you can find refuge from the world while going deeper in your devotional life. That is the focus of this blog. As such, I’ll do interviews with the authors of men’s devotional books, and book reviews of men’s devotionals. I’ll also be writing about spiritual journaling and sharing stories about how saints of old spent their devotional time.

Subscribe via email or RSS feed, and stop back often. Tell your male friends, your accountability partner, your men’s group, or anybody else who might benefit from a few minutes in a spiritual man cave.