Daily Readings by Wild at Heart

Name one thing in the entire created world more precious than a human heart.It can’t be done.You might say “love,” but that would be silly because we cannot love without a heart. You might point to some immortal work of art, or breathtaking sacrifice, or some noble feat of arms, but none of those could have happened without the human hearts behind them. Even the highest heights of worship cannot be realized without the heart. There is, of course, the surpassing greatness of the Gospel, and the Cross, but the Gospel is the story of God ransoming and restoring human hearts. Without the heart, the Gospel cannot achieve its intent. The heart is God’s most magnificent creation, and the prize over which he fights the kingdom of darkness. Want more? Order your copy of Love & War today

When Isaiah promised that the Messiah will come to heal the brokenhearted, he was not speaking poetically. The Bible does use metaphor, as when Jesus says, "I am the gate" (John 10:9). Of course, he is not an actual gate like the kind you slammed yesterday; he has no hinges on his body, no knob you turn. He is using metaphor. But when Isaiah talks about the brokenhearted, God is not using metaphor. The Hebrew is leb shabar (leb for "heart," shabar for "broken"). Isaiah uses the word shabar to describe a bush whose "twigs are dry, they are broken off " (27:11); to describe the idols of Babylon lying "shattered on the ground" (21:9), as a statue shatters into a thousand pieces when you knock it off the table; or to describe a broken bone (38:13). God is speaking literally here. He says, "Your heart is now in many pieces. I want to heal it."The heart can be broken — literally. Just like a branch or a statue or a bone. Can you name any precious thing that can't? Certainly, we've seen that the mind can be broken — or what are all those mental institutions for? Most of the wandering, muttering "homeless" people pushing a shopping cart along have a broken mind. The will can be broken too. Have you seen photos of concentration camp prisoners? Their eyes are cast down; something in them is defeated. They will do whatever they are told. But somehow we have overlooked the fact that this treasure called the heart can also be broken, has been broken, and now lies in pieces down under the surface. When it comes to "habits" we cannot quit or patterns we cannot stop, anger that flies out of nowhere, fears we cannot overcome, or weaknesses we hate to admit — much of what troubles us comes out of the broken places in our hearts crying out for relief.Jesus speaks as though we are all the brokenhearted. We would do well to trust his perspective on this.Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

More of God comes to us as we love God. The more that we love God, the more we are able to experience him. Part of this has to do with the nature of God, and part of it has to do with our own human nature.You understand from your own relationships, your story of love, that you don’t give your heart away to just anyone. You don’t give access to the deeper places in your soul to just any idle acquaintance — certainly not to someone who is at the same time keeping themselves distant from you. We know from our own experiences that when someone loves us, we are much more ready to make ourselves available to them. What we keep forgetting is that God feels the same way.For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9 NIV)The LORD says, “I will rescue those who love me.” (Psalm 91:14 NLT)The Father himself loves you because you have loved me. (John 16:27 NIV)I’m really surprised that the human race expects God to pour himself and his blessings into their lives when he is not even the slightest priority, let alone a close and dear friend. Would you give the best of your life to people who couldn’t care less whether or not you exist? God’s outpouring of himself is conditional. I know, I know — we’ve been told all about the unconditional love of God. Absolutely — his grace is unconditional; his forgiveness is available to all. However, intimacy with him, the treasures of his presence, the outpouring of his vibrant being into our thirsty souls—that’s for those who love him. Even in the best friendship, the act of giving and receiving love ebbs and flows with the willingness of the two involved to make it a priority, to invest themselves. God’s heart is very much like yours in this way, for your heart is made in his image. Want more? Order your copy of Get Your Life Back today

Resting in Jesus is not applying a spiritual formula to ourselves as a kind of fix-it. It is the essence of repentance. It is letting our heart tell us where we are in our own story so that Jesus can minister to us out of the Story of his love for us. When, in a given moment, we lay down our false self and the smaller story of whatever performance has sustained us, when we give up everything else but him, we experience the freedom of knowing that he simply loves us where we are. We begin just to be, having our identity anchored in him. We begin to experience our spiritual life as the “easy yoke and light burden” Jesus tells us is his experience.In Matthew 24, Jesus tells us that in the last days, people will have lost the Sacred Romance altogether. Having no anchor, their faith will grow cold and they will be literally swept away in panic, as all but what cannot be shaken is shaken. Only those of us who are securely anchored in him in our heart will be left standing to share the Sacred Romance with those who are lost.We have come to the shores of heaven together, to the border of the region where our Christianity begins to move from a focus on doing to one of communion with Christ, our Lover and Lord. The spiritual disciplines of silence, solitude, meditation (heart prayer), fasting, and simplicity practiced by Christ and passed on to us by the traditions of the Desert Fathers bring us through our emptiness and thirst into the presence of God. When we begin to abide in God’s heart, the blades of grass on heaven’s outskirts no longer puncture our feet. Here and there, a fresh and exotic scent reaches us from heaven’s very borders. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. (Mark 10:51)Recovering your true heart’s desire may involve facing some deep disappointment. Undoubtedly, it will require painful self-examination. But you do not need to fear what you will find.Many committed Christians are wary about getting in touch with their desires, not because they want to settle for less, but because they fear that they’ll discover some dark hunger lurking in their hearts. The father of lies takes many people out of the battle and ends their journey by keeping them in the shallows of their desire, tossing them a bone of pleasure, thus convincing them that they are satisfied. However, once you begin to move from that place, his strategy changes. He threatens you about going into the deep waters by telling you that your core desires are evil.Yes, you still struggle with a tendency to kill desire or give your heart over to false desires. But that is not who and what you truly are. If you really believe the new covenant, you’ll be able to embrace your desire. Jesus asks you a simple question: What do you want? Don’t minimize it; don’t try to make sure it sounds spiritual; don’t worry about whether you can obtain it. Just stay there until you begin to get an answer. This is the way you keep current with your heart.———————————This would be a good thing to journal about: What do you want these days? Don’t minimize it; don’t try to make it sound spiritual; don’t worry about whether you can obtain it. Just stay there until you begin to get an answer. Want more? Order your copy of Restoration Year today

From the place of our woundedness we construct a false self. We find a few gifts that work for us, and we try to live off them. Stuart found he was good at math and science. He shut down his heart and spent all his energies perfecting his "Spock" persona. There, in the academy, he was safe; he was also recognized and rewarded. "When I was eight," confesses Brennan Manning, "the impostor, or false self, was born as a defense against pain. The impostor within whispered, 'Brennan, don't ever be your real self anymore because nobody likes you as you are. Invent a new self that everybody will admire and nobody will know.'" Notice the key phrase: "as a defense against pain," as a way of saving himself. The impostor is our plan for salvation. So God must take it all away. He thwarts our plan for salvation; he shatters the false self. Our plan for redemption is hard to let go of; it clings to our hearts like an octopus.Why would God do something so terrible as to wound us in the place of our deepest wound? Jesus warned us that "whoever wants to save his life will lose it" (Luke 9:24). Christ is not using the word bios here; he's not talking about our physical life. The passage is not about trying to save your skin by ducking martyrdom or something like that. The word Christ uses for "life" is the word psyche — the word for our soul, our inner self, our heart. He says that the things we do to save our psyche, our self, those plans to save and protect our inner life — those are the things that will actually destroy us. "There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death," says Proverbs 16:25. The false self, our plan for redemption, seems so right to us. It shields us from pain and secures us a little love and admiration. But the false self is a lie; the whole plan is built on pretense. It's a deadly trap. God loves us too much to leave us there. So he thwarts us, in many, many different ways.Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

The spirit of our day is a soft acceptance of everything — except deep conviction in anything. This is where Jesus will suddenly confront the world as a great rock confronts the river flowing ever downhill. He is immovable. The cry used to be for “tolerance,” by which we meant, “We have very strong differences, but we will not let those be the cause of hatred or violence between us.” Now it is something else, where all convictions are softened to second or third place while we all agree to enjoy the world as much as we can. But truth is not like conviction. Conviction might be a matter of personal opinion, but truth is like a great mountain, solid and immovable whether we like it or even acknowledge it. Christianity is not a set of convictions — it is a truth. The most offensive thing imaginable. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

God has a battle to fight, and the battle is for our freedom. As Tremper Longman says, "Virtually every book of the Bible — Old and New Testaments — and almost every page tells us about God's warring activity." I wonder if the Egyptians who kept Israel under the whip would describe Yahweh as a Really Nice Guy? Plagues, pestilence, the death of every firstborn — that doesn't seem very gentlemanly, now, does it?You remember that wild man, Samson? He's got a pretty impressive masculine résumé: killed a lion with his bare hands, pummeled and stripped thirty Philistines when they used his wife against him, and finally, after they burned her to death, he killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. Not a guy to mess with. But did you notice? All those events happened when "the Spirit of the LORD came upon him" (Judges 15:14, emphasis added). Now, let me make one thing clear: I am not advocating a sort of "macho man" image. I'm not suggesting we all head off to the gym and then to the beach to kick sand in the faces of wimpy Pharisees. I am attempting to rescue us from a very, very mistaken image we have of God — especially of Jesus — and therefore of men as his image-bearers. Dorothy Sayers wrote that the church has "very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah," making him "a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies." Is that the God you find in the Bible?You can tell what kind of man you've got simply by noting the impact he has on you. Does he make you bored? Does he scare you with his doctrinal legalism? Does he make you want to scream because he's just so very nice? In the Garden of Gethsemane, in the dead of night, a mob of thugs "carrying torches, lanterns and weapons" comes to take Christ away. Note the cowardice of it — why didn't they take him during the light of day, down in the town? Does Jesus shrink back in fear? No, he goes to face them head-on. Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

Can it really happen? Can things in our lives be green again? No matter what our creeds may tell us, our hearts have settled into another belief. We have accepted the winter of this world as the final word and tried to get on without the hope of spring. It will never come, we have assumed, and so I must find whatever life here I can. We have been so committed to arranging for our happiness that we have missed the signs of spring. We haven't given any serious thought to what might be around the corner. Were eternity to appear tomorrow, we would be as shocked as I have been with the return of spring this week, only more so. Our practical agnosticism would be revealed. Pascal declared,Our imagination so powerfully magnifies time, by continual reflections upon it, and so diminishes eternity ... for want of reflection, that we make a nothing of eternity and an eternity of nothing.But of course we aspire to happiness we can enjoy now. Our hearts have no place else to go. We have made a nothing of eternity. If I told you that your income would triple next year, and that European vacation you've wanted is just around the corner, you'd be excited, hopeful. The future would look promising. It seems possible, desirable. But our ideas of heaven, while possible, aren't all that desirable. Whatever it is we think is coming in the next season of our existence, we don't think it is worth getting all that excited about. We make a nothing of eternity by enlarging the significance of this life and by diminishing the reality of what the next life is all about.Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

For today's Daily Reading, we encourage you to listen to a podcast on praying with passion, confidence, and authority. Click here to listen. We also invite you into other rich podcast conversations we've had in the past several months. The topics span everything from Parenting without Fear, Choose Your Hard, the Restoration of the Heart to Letting Go of Shame. If you've never heard our podcasts — or simply missed a few — we encourage you to savor these messages. Just click on any of the links below to begin listening.To Be KnownA Rescue Psalm Making Room for God - series Part 1 and Part 2Inviting Our Children into the Larger Story Choose Your Hard - series Part 1 and Part 2Restoration of the Heart A Powerful Life - series Part 1, Part 2, Part 3Parenting without FearA Fellowship of OthersLetting Go of ShameThe Journey of Now Trauma and Restoration - series Part 1 and Part 2You can automatically receive our new podcast each week with the Wild at Heart App. It is totally free and features the Daily Reading, Prayers, Blogs and more. Click here for the Wild at Heart App. Want more? Receive the Wild at Heart Weekly Podcast!

There are actually only a handful of accounts of Jesus’ getting good and mad in the Gospels, which is surprising given how much provocation he was provided. In fact, the specific Greek word for “angry” is used only once to describe him, and where does he happen to be at that moment? Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. (Mark 3:1–5) Do you understand why the vast, beautiful heart of Jesus rises in anger toward these clerical bullies? This is the same ferocity we see in the temple. Do you understand the personality of God now, and the horrible nature of religious falsehood? Maybe it is more revealing to ask: Do you share his anger at this stuff? This is what infuriates Jesus, so it ought to be what infuriates us. What was the last piece of religious nonsense you were angry with? Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Today's Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's Becoming a King In the masculine journey, our early years of manhood often begin as a season of exploration and discovery. In youthful exuberance, we tend to view the world with ourselves at its epicenter. Passing through this in time, every man is faced with this profound, essential transition. While it may not be easy to name, the shift is felt deeply in the masculine soul. I am not the center of the story. A significant portion of my life is behind me.And for better and worse, my decisions have deep consequences in the lives of others. Sure, we are important and affect the lives of others at every stage of development. But at some point, for many in young to mid-adulthood, we find our lives bound with others in inextricable ways. This shift is often initiated by marriage, having kids, and taking on a full-time job or other major responsibilities. Do you remember this transition from a season of exploration and discovery into the season of being consequential to other people? While it caught me off guard, there were a handful of moments in which it was crystal clear that I’d been catapulted out of one season of life and had landed with bumps and bruises in another. And I, too, found myself on a huge roller coaster. And it was all I could do to hold on. Want more? Order your copy of Becoming a King today.

Today's Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book Becoming a KingThe desire to be powerful transcends both social constructs and our boyhood dreams of becoming firefighters, policemen, NFL football players, Olympic athletes, fighter pilots, or soldiers. This longing transcends because it is the image of God in us. We need to look no further than the opening chapter of Genesis for this reminder. God formed us from soil into his image, then breathed us to life in order that we might rule and reign under the authority of his goodness. To share valiantly and effectively in God’s power was the first mission entrusted to humankind. With deep anticipation, God declared to Adam and Eve, “I want you to rule.” When we strip away the religious veil, this command is more rousing than we might first think; it is the invitation to become who we were meant to be. As bearers of God’s image, we were meant to embody God’s heart, character, and power, partnering with God to fulfill his purposes in our days. As John shares in Waking the Dead, we were meant to rule, “like a foreman runs a ranch or like a skipper runs his ship. Better still, like a king rules a kingdom, God appoints us as the governors of his domain.” A kingdom is, as Dallas Willard pointed out, simply the range of our effective will. It is where we have say, where our will is done. It is within the context of kingdom language and kingdom thinking that we must reconsider God’s design for effective power-sharing with created yet creative human beings.Want more? Order your copy of Becoming a King today.

As one of my mentors put it, the interpretation you use to understand your reality and your role in it will be the single greatest force in shaping what becomes of your next decade. In the words of Dan Baker in What Happy People Know, “The stories we tell ourselves about our own lives eventually become our lives. ... The choice is ours.” Our life will be significant in proportion to the stories we choose to interpret our reality. What stories are you using to interpret your reality?The world, the flesh, and the evil one tempt us to settle for the smaller story: a narrow quest to arrange for the happy little life. Yet something deeper in us knows that a life arranged only for a sense of comfort, security, and personal happiness is far too small to hold the expanse for which the masculine soul was designed to thrive. We must remember Peter’s urging: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:8–9). If we are to interpret our lives and understand the times, we must recognize the unseen war being waged for our soul as a man and let this be a central theme of our apprenticeship in warrior training for our unique place in the kingdom of God.Want more? Order your copy of Becoming A King today

Today’s Daily Reading is an excerpt from Morgan Snyder's book “Becoming a King”What is the Enemy’s plan for your life? It’s an important question for each of us to ask and keep asking.There are daily strategies, cultural strategies, and geographical strategies set up by the Enemy to “steal and kill and destroy” us (John 10:10). And then there are brilliantly and deviously crafted personal strategies that take into account our stories, our woundedness, and our most vulnerable places. The goal of these strategies is to destroy us before we ever become whole and holy, unstoppable forces of good in a broken world. That’s why Peter implored us to be on the alert — the Enemy prowls like a roaring lion seeking to devour us (1 Pet. 5:8) — and Paul urged us to be aware of Satan’s schemes (2 Cor. 2:11).Much of the treasure hunt for the restoration of our masculine soul is hidden in the story of our family of origin. Have you noticed the themes that so often run through family lines — passivity, infidelity, betrayal, violence, addiction? There is more going on than meets the eye; there are personal strategies and tactics that work against us over time. The Enemy learns how to weave a storyline that can cause division with distinct parts of our hearts. But he is not equal in power to God. He can be exposed if we will pursue a deeper awareness of how he’s operating. He overplays his hand.And you can be victorious. This is immensely helpful to understand. Yes, we must be trained. God is raising up kingdom warriors, his kingdom equivalent of Navy SEALs. He’s creating a culture of seasoned warriors, trained with live ammo, to see this battle through to its end. Want more? Order your copy of Becoming a King today

Eternal life — we tend to think of it in terms of existence that never comes to an end. And the existence it seems to imply — a sort of religious experience in the sky — leaves us wondering if we would want it to go on forever. But Jesus is quite clear that when he speaks of eternal life, what he means is life that is absolutely wonderful and can never be diminished or stolen from you. He says, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). Not, "I have come to threaten you into line," or "I have come to exhaust you with a long list of demands." Not even, "I have come primarily to forgive you." But simply, My purpose is to bring you life in all its fullness. Dallas Willard writes in The Divine Conspiracy:Jesus offers himself as God's doorway into the life that is truly life. Confidence in him leads us today, as in other times, to become his apprentices in eternal living. "Those who come through me will be safe," he said. "They will go in and out and find all they need. I have come into their world that they may have life, and life to the limit."In other words, eternal life is not primarily duration but quality of life, "life to the limit." It cannot be stolen from us, and so it does go on. But the focus is on the life itself. "In him was life," the apostle John said of Jesus, "and that life was the light of men" (John 1:4). Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?" (Ps. 4:2). These blows aren't random or incidental. They strike directly at some part of the heart, turn the very thing God created to be a source of celebration into a source of shame. And so you can at least begin to discover your glory by looking more closely at what you were shamed for. Look at what's been assaulted, used, abused. As Bernard of Clairvaux said, "Through the heart's wound, I see its secret."Let me put it this way: What has life taught you about your God-given glory? What have you believed about your heart over the years? "That it's not worth anyone's time," said a woman. Her parents were too busy to really want to know her. "That it's weak," confided a friend. He suffered several emasculating blows as a boy, and his father simply shamed him for it. "That I shouldn't trust it to anyone." "That it's selfish and self-centered." "That it's bad." And you ... what have you believed?Those accusations you heard growing up, those core convictions that formed about your heart, will remain down there until someone comes to dislodge them, run them out of Dodge. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

It is a matter of the heart, my brothers. There are many offices a man might fulfill as a king — father of a household, manager of a department, pastor of a church, coach of a team, prime minister of a nation — but the heart required is the same. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases” (Prov. 21:1 NIV). The passage is often used to explain the sovereignty of God, in that he can do with a man whatever he well pleases. Certainly, God is that sovereign. But I don’t think that’s the spirit of this passage. God rarely forces a man to do something against his will, because God would far and above prefer that he didn’t have to, that the man wills to do the will of God. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Josh. 24:15 NIV). What God is after is a man so yielded to him, so completely surrendered, that his heart is easily moved by the Spirit of God to the purposes of God.That kind of heart makes for a good king.Most of the men I know in some position of power and influence are not holy enough to handle even what they do have, and they are doing damage as we speak. They operate out of their business training and “principles of leadership,” they operate out of a great deal of their own brokenness, but they do not, on any sort of regular basis, check in with God, submit to him, live as a man yielding his plans to him.Watch how Moses leads Israel out of bondage, and guides them to the Promised Land. Notice how every chapter telling the story of the Exodus begins, from chapter 6 to chapter 14: “Then the Lord said to Moses...” (NIV), and the rest of the chapter is Moses doing what God told him to do. Is this how the men you know run their corporations, their churches, their families? I’m stunned by how little daily guidance Christian men seek from God. They have a good idea, and they just go do it. Not the great kings. Look at David. “In the course of time, David inquired of the Lord. ‘Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?’ he asked. The Lord said, ‘Go up.’ David asked, ‘Where shall I go?’ ‘To Hebron,’ the Lord answered. So David went up there...” (2 Sam. 2:1–2 NIV). In his heart, and in his daily practice, David is a man yielded to God. He is called, may I remind you, a man after God’s own heart. (Learning to walk in this sort of intimacy is a good part of our initiation, but it begins with a yielded heart.) Want more? Order your copy of Fathered By God today

God knows the danger of ignoring our hearts, and so he reawakens desire. You see a photo in a magazine, and pause, and sigh. You see someone with a life that reminds you of the life you once thought you would live. You’re channel surfing one night and see someone doing the very thing you always dreamed you would do — the runner breaking the tape, the woman enjoying herself immensely as she teaches her cooking class. Sometimes all it takes is seeing someone enjoying themselves doing anything, and your heart says, I want that too.God does this for our own good. He does it to reawaken desire, to stir our hearts up from the depths we sent them to. He does it so that we don’t continue to kill our hearts and so that we don’t fall prey to some substitute that looks like life but will become an addiction in short order.He sometimes does it so that we will seek the life we were meant to seek. Isn’t this just what happens to the prodigal? He wakes one day to say, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!” (Luke 15:17). “Look at their lives,” he says. And he is stirred to head for home. To seek life. Want more? Order your copy of Walking With God today

Life, you'll notice, is a story.Life doesn't come to us like a math problem. It comes to us the way that a story does, scene by scene. You wake up. What will happen next? You don't get to know — you have to enter in, take the journey as it comes. The sun might be shining. There might be a tornado outside. Your friends might call and invite you to go sailing. You might lose your job.Life unfolds like a drama. Doesn't it? Each day has a beginning and an end. There are all sorts of characters, all sorts of settings. A year goes by like a chapter from a novel. Sometimes it seems like a tragedy. Sometimes like a comedy. Most of it feels like a soap opera. Whatever happens, it's a story through and through."All of life is a story," Madeleine L'Engle reminds us.This is helpful to know. When it comes to figuring out this life you're living, you'd do well to know the rest of the story.You come home one night to find that your car has been totaled. Now, all you know is that you loaned it for a couple of hours to your teenage daughter, and now here it is, all smashed up. Isn't the first thing out of your mouth, "What happened? " In other words, "Tell me the story."Somebody has some explaining to do, and that can be done only in hearing the tale they have to tell. Careful now — you might jump to the wrong conclusion. Doesn't it make a difference to know that she wasn't speeding, that in fact the other car ran a red light? It changes the way you feel about the whole thing. Thank God, she's all right.Truth be told, you need to know the rest of the story if you want to understand just about anything in life. Love affairs, layoffs, the collapse of empires, your child's day at school — none of it makes sense without a story. Want more? Order your copy of Epic today

Jesus will return. Swiftly, unexpectedly. Any moment. His return will usher in the renewal of all things. That includes the execution of justice, rewards, the feast, your “estates,” your appointed role in his great kingdom — along with the restoration of everything you love. This has some pretty staggering implications.For one thing, it ought to radically transform our attitude toward death.Losing someone you love is an earthquake; it is traumatic. Because what we see is the death, what we experience is the massive sudden and ongoing loss, death is filled with tragedy and mockery. It seems to have the last word, whatever our creeds may say. We do not yet see the resurrection; we do not yet see the renewal of all things, and so we are vulnerable to massive agreements with loss and devastation, even with grief. But the moment we allow life to win, the moment we accept Jesus’ “I’m just going away for a bit,” it changes everything. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

Our God has provision for us!I know, I know — most of you think that what you need right now is three months at the coast. Walking on the beach, drinks on the deck, and with all my heart I hope you find that. But for most of us, a sabbatical in some gorgeous refuge is not available. What is available is the River of Life, God himself, in ways we have not yet tapped into.God wants to make his life available to you. Remember — he’s the creator of those beautiful places you wish you could go to for a sabbatical. All that beauty and resilience, all that life comes from God, and he wants to impart a greater measure of himself to you! The life of God is described in Scripture as a river — a powerful, gorgeous, unceasing, ever-renewing, ever-flowing river.Ezekiel was given a number of beautiful visions, glimpses into the kingdom of God that permeates this world. He saw the temple of God in Jerusalem, and out of the temple was flowing the River of Life. As it flowed forth across the countryside, it became so deep and wide it wasn’t possible to swim across it — an image of abundance! I love how the passage ends: “Where the river flows everything will live” (Ezekiel 47:9).Everything will live. This is what we want — to live, to find life in its fullness again.The apostle John was given a revelation of the coming kingdom and the restored earth, and he saw the River of Life flowing right down the middle of the city of God:Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:1–2)There is so much life flowing from God that it flows like a mighty river. Isn’t that marvelous? Follow me now — the River of Life is not just for later. Jesus stated clearly that the river is meant to flow out of our inner being right here, in this life: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:37–38).The mighty life of God flowing in you and through you, saturating you like a river.Now let me pull all this together. We have a capacity and drive in us for living. It’s a precious longing, and it’s taken a beating. God is “the fountain of life” (Psalm 36:9). There is so much life flowing from God that it flows like a river no one can even swim across — a superabundant outflow of life! This life is meant to flow in us, and through us. Want more? Order your copy of Resilient today

“Healing prayer,” said Leanne Payne, “is not the ‘instant fix,’ nor the bypassing of slow and steady growth. It is that which clears the path and makes such progress possible.” This type of prayer is beautiful and indispensable in our journey toward maturity, toward holiness, toward wholeness. But the journey requires other things as well — often counseling, certainly discipleship, and, to borrow Eugene Peterson’s phrase, “a long obedience in the same direction.” There is no “zap” that suddenly makes a person as whole and beautiful as Jesus Christ. Wholeness is something we grow into as we walk with Jesus through the years of our lives. Knowing this actually takes a great deal of pressure off — that pressure to find the instant fix or have the One Defining Moment. It releases us to walk with God and allow him to personalize our healing journey. Want more? Order your copy of Moving Mountains today

Another way to begin to seize hope with a good, firm grip is to ask yourself, What have I done with my kingdom heart? Where am I currently taking it? You have a heart for joy — where is your hope for joy set right now? You have a heart for redemption — where are you taking your heart for redemption these days? You ache for restoration, yours and those you love — where is your hope for restoration these days?What I am suggesting is that we need to begin to make conscious, deliberate decisions to give our hearts to the return of Jesus and the renewal of all things. Every time you find yourself getting anxious about an uncertain hope, stop and pray, Jesus, I give my hope to your true and certain return, and the renewal of all things. Every time disappointment strikes again, you can pray, Jesus, I give my heart to your kingdom; I am made for your kingdom and nothing else will do. When you wake in the morning and all your hopes and fears rush at you; when you come home at night beat up from another long day and all you want to do is medicate; when you hear of someone else’s great joy and something envious rises in you — make the conscious decision to give your heart to the return of Christ and the restoration of all things.And especially when you experience loss. Oh, friends — can we remember that life is a long series of good-byes? You have suffered so many losses already; we hate to admit it, but many more are yet to come. But now we can say to ourselves, Nothing is truly lost. This is going to come back to me; this will be in one of my treasure chests Jesus will restore to me.Friends, it is as simple as this: if you do not give your heart over to the renewal of all things, you will take your kingdom heart to something in this world. You will do compulsive things, like collecting way too many shoes. You will be tempted into far darker things. It is inevitable.But if you will begin to choose the kingdom — “seek ye first” (Matthew 6:33 KJV)—if you consciously and deliberately give your heart to the renewal of all things, you will notice the effects immediately. So much pressure will be lifted off your current hopes; when things don’t go well, you’ll find yourself less angry, less dejected. As your heart and soul become anchored in the Renewal, you’ll find yourself freer to risk, especially love. You can love people, because God will do everything in his power to make sure you will not lose them; the good-byes of his children are only momentary. You can love beautiful places and cultures and things like wilderness because even though it looks like they may be vanishing, they will be restored.For nothing is lost. He renews all things. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

When our hopes are in their proper places, attached to the right things, not only do we flourish better as human beings, but we are rescued from a thousand heartbreaks. For not all hopes are created equal; there are casual hopes, precious hopes, and ultimate hopes.Casual hopes are the daily variety: “I sure hope it doesn’t rain this weekend”; “I hope we can get tickets to the game”; “I really hope this flight is on time.” Nothing wrong with this brand of hope; it is human nature to have them. I think it is the sign of a healthy soul when we often use the words “I hope.” My wife does. “I hope this pie turns out,” meaning she cares about the dinner she is hosting. “I hope we get to the Tetons next year,” meaning she cares about dreams and family memories. Hope shows your heart is still alive.But of course, those casual hopes are nothing when compared to our precious hopes: “I hope this pregnancy goes well”; “I hope God hears my prayers for Sally”; “I hope the CT scan turns out to reveal nothing at all.” Precious hopes are far deeper to our hearts, and they tend to fuel our most earnest prayers.Deeper still lie our ultimate hopes, our life-and-death hopes. I would suggest that the only things that belong in the category of ultimate hopes are the things that will destroy your heart and soul if they are not fulfilled. “I hope God can forgive me.” “I hope somehow my mistakes can be redeemed.” “I hope I will see you again.”You’ll notice that many people have let their hopes go wandering — they have made casual hopes into precious hopes and turned genuinely precious hopes into critical or ultimate hopes. The person who commits suicide because their loved one chose another has taken a precious hope and made it the outcome of their very being.I would say that when a casual hope is deferred, we are disappointed but no more. We are downcast for a moment or a day. When a precious hope is dashed, it can really break your heart. You may not recover for a week or five years, depending on the loss and the other resources of your life. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12). Doesn’t it, though?But when an ultimate hope goes unanswered, the result is devastation from which you will never recover. Ultimate hopes that suddenly seem uncertain shake the soul to its core. And I will be forthright with you — very few things deserve the place in your heart made for ultimate hope.Here is my point: the renewal of all things is meant to be your first hope in the way that God is your First Love. If it isn’t the answer to your wildest dreams, if you aren’t ready at this very moment to sell everything and buy this field, then you have placed your hopes somewhere else.Nearly everyone has. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

This may come as a surprise to you: Christianity is not an invitation to become a moral person. It is not a program for getting us in line or for reforming society. It has a powerful effect upon our lives, but when transformation comes, it is always the after effect of something else, something at the level of our hearts. And so at its core, Christianity begins with an invitation to desire.Look again at the way Jesus relates to people. There is the Samaritan woman Jesus meets at the well. She has come alone in the heat of the day to draw water, and they both know why. By coming when the sun is high, she is less likely to run into anyone. You see, her sexual lifestyle has earned her a "reputation." Back in those days, having one partner after another wasn't looked so highly upon. She's on her sixth lover, and so she'd rather bear the scorching rays of the sun than face the searing words of the "decent" women of the town who come at evening to draw water. She succeeds in avoiding the women, but runs into God instead. What does he choose to talk to her about — her immorality? No, he speaks to her about her thirst : "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water" (John 4:10 The Message). Remarkable. He doesn't give a little sermon about purity; he doesn't even mention it, except to say that he knows what her life has been like: "You've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now isn't even your husband" (John 4:18 The Message). In other words, now that we both know it, let's talk about your heart's real thirst, since the life you've chosen obviously isn't working. "The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life" (John 4:14 The Message). Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

Several years ago I went through one of the most painful trials of my professional life. The story involves a colleague whom I will call Dave, a man I hired and with whom I had labored several years in ministry. We spent many hours on the road together, speaking to churches about the Christian life. A point came when I needed to confront Dave about some issues in his life that were hurting his own ministry and the larger purposes of our team. In all fairness, I think I handled it poorly, but I was totally unprepared for what happened next. Dave turned on me with the ferocity of a cornered animal. He fabricated lies and spread rumors in an attempt to destroy my career. His actions were so out of proportion it was hard to believe we were reacting to the same events. He went to the head pastor in an attempt to have me dismissed. The attempt failed, but our friendship was lost, and several others were hurt in the process.In the midst of the crisis, I spoke with Brent one afternoon about the turn of events and the awful pain of betrayal. He said, "I wonder what God is up to in all this?""God?" I said. "What's he got to do with it?" My practical agnosticism was revealed. I was caught up in the sociodrama, the smaller story, completely blind to the true story at that point in my life. Brent's question arrested my attention and brought it to a higher level. In fact, the process of our sanctification, our journey, rests entirely on our ability to see life from the basis of that question. As the poet William Blake warned long ago, "Life's dim window of the soul distorts the heavens from pole to pole, and leads you to believe a lie, when you see with, not through, the eye." Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

The book "Killing Lions" is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face.[John] I was watching a remarkable documentary on the Dorobo hunters in southern Kenya. Their bows simply aren’t strong enough to bring down big game, so they steal the kill off lions. In a stunning display of courage and cunning, they walk right up to a pride devouring a wildebeest; their unwavering confidence causes the lions to run off. In the next scene the men are roasting wildebeest flank over an open fire, talking, and laughing. One of them says, “But not everybody fights lions; some people are cowards.” That is the campfire you want to be at — the feast of the daring. This is going to take courage, because fear is the number one reason men give up, sell out. It will take perseverance because nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight. It will take cunning because most men-who-are-really-still-boys move into the world with a childish naïveté, ignore the lions, fail to reach their dreams, and then blame the world or God when in fact they were simply insisting that life allow them to remain freshmen forever. You have a number of lions to slay — fear is one. Despair is another. Entitlement—the entitlement of adolescence — is a third. Either you kill them or they eat you and your dreams for dinner. Courage, perseverance, cunning — that’s how you kill lions. Live that and you will have a story worth telling. Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today

The mind takes in and processes information. But it remains, for the most part, indifferent. It is your mind that tells you it is now 2:00 A.M. and your daughter has not returned, for the car is not in the driveway. Your heart wrestles with whether or not this is cause for worry. The heart lives in the far more bloody and magnificent realities of living and dying and loving and hating. That's why those who live from their minds are detached from life. Things don't seem to touch them very much; they puzzle at the way others are so affected by life, and they conclude others are emotional and unstable. Meanwhile, those who live from the heart find those who live from the mind ... unavailable. Yes, they are physically present. So is your computer. This is the sorrow of many marriages, and the number one disappointment of children who feel entirely missed or misunderstood by their parents.Yes, the heart is the source of our emotions. But we have equated the heart with emotion, and put it away for a messy and even dangerous guide. No doubt, many people have made a wreck of their lives by following an emotion without stopping to consider whether it was a good idea to do so. Neither adultery nor murder is a rational act. But equating the heart with emotion is the same nonsense as saying that love is a feeling. Surely, we know that love is more than feeling loving; for if Christ had followed his emotions, he would not have gone to the cross for us. Like any man would have been, he was afraid; in fact, he knew that the sins of the world would be laid upon him, and so he had even greater cause for hesitation (Mark 14:32-35). But in the hour of his greatest trial, his love overcame his fear of what loving would cost him. Emotions are the voice of the heart, to borrow Chip Dodd's phrase. Not the heart, but its voice. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Talking about the Self Life is a difficult thing to do, because there are teachings that sound very righteous and holy, which basically say that anything connected to your humanity is the Self Life and must be crucified. Any desire, any dream, even your own gifting is something essentially contaminated and needs to be killed to get on with your Christian life. I’ve seen this interpretation cripple many earnest followers of Jesus, and I’ve seen it turn away many possible seekers. That is not how God feels about your humanity.Why would your Father say things like he will give you the desires of your heart, and please protect your heart because it is the spring of life in you, if what he wanted you to do was kill your desires and dreams? Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4 NIV) Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. (Prov 4:23 NIV) In the chapter on kindness we saw that Jesus never said we’re supposed to hate ourselves, for how can we love our neighbor as ourselves if we hate ourselves? (The way you treat your heart is the way you will treat everyone else’s.) Jesus always handled broken and misguided people graciously and with a view towards their restoration. The Incarnation itself ought to remove every doubt that God loves and cherishes your humanity, because he took on humanity himself in order to redeem yours. Your personhood is not the problem; the issue is who is at the helm? What is fueling and motivating your faculties? Who gets to drive the bus?When we let Self rule, it obscures our awareness of God, thwarts our ability to receive him. And the Self Life is a crushing burden to bear.For the Self was never meant to be master, and when we make it so, we fall prey to a thousand heartaches. Countless pressures, to begin with, because life is now up to us; we are masters of our own destiny, and that's a crushing load.The Self is a mighty poor Savior and an utterly empty god.Which is why being rid of the exalted Self is such a glorious relief. Want more? Order your copy of Get Your Life Back today

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. ...“Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone — like jasper as clear as crystal. The city wall was broad and high, with twelve gates guarded by twelve angels. And the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were written on the gates. There were three gates on each side— east, north, south, and west. The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles. (Revelation 21:2–3, 9–16 NLT)A massive, stunning, glorious place, whose presence allows us to think about the renewal of the arts and sciences, education, and the trades. The promise is that God will make not “some things new” but all things new.Begin with the obvious — we know there is music in the kingdom. Just think of what the music will be! The intimate and the grand; music played on a single violin, music played by a massive orchestra and choir. Drums. A capella voices. Think of all the talented musicians who dwell there! We get to hear the work of the great composers, played by their own hand. We will hear the angels sing in their own tongues as well. I expect the city will be filled with music; I’m sure we will be dancing on the tables. Follow me now — but who makes that music? Who makes the instruments upon which that music is played?You do, my friends. At least, those of you who want to will. I’d love to learn to play the cello; it’s always been one of my favorite instruments. I’d love to let loose on some taiko drums too. We’re not just talking about organ and choir here, for all the ethnic music from around the world will dwell in that place and joyful hearts will want to make music day and night. I wonder what instrument Jesus plays. I wonder what our Father’s voice sounds like, how far it carries. (You will hear your Father sing!) Oh my. The thought of it brings me such happiness.And what of the trades? We know we have homes and dwellings in the kingdom — who furnishes those homes? Who makes the chairs, the tables, the tapestries? I’ve always wanted to work with my hands. I would love to have the time and skill and mentors to build boats with hand tools and sail them, learning to navigate by the stars. Again, I am not being fanciful; I am utterly serious. You are healed and restored as a human being, with all the faculties of personhood given to you by God. So the question is, what have you always dreamed of doing? What gifts have you yearned to express? What have you always wanted to be great at? These things are part of your personhood; they are how God created you, and they will be even more glorious in the re-created you. Dream, my friends.Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

Christ is not joking when he says that we shall inherit the kingdom prepared for us and we shall reign with him forever. We will take the position for which we have been uniquely made and will rule as he does — meaning, with creativity and power.The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. (Rom. 8:19–20 The Message)All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. (Rom. 8:21 NLT)What would you like to do first? Paddle a canoe down the Amazon? Learn to play an instrument? Discover a new universe? You’ll have plenty of time for that and more.And in the perfect time, O perfect God, When we are in our home, our natal home When joy shall carry every sacred load, And from its life and peace no heart shall roam, What if thou make us able to make like thee— To light with moons, to clothe with greenery, To hang gold sunsets o’er a rose and purple sea! (George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul) Want more? Order you copy of Epic today

But doesn't Christianity condemn desire — the Puritans and all that? Not at all. Quite the contrary. Christianity takes desire seriously — far more seriously than the stoic or the mere hedonist. Christianity refuses to budge from the fact that man was made for pleasure, that his beginning and his end is a paradise, and that the goal of living is to find Life. Jesus knows the dilemma of desire and he speaks to it in nearly everything he says. When it comes to the moral question, it is neither simply yes or no to desire, but always what we do with our desire. Christianity recognizes that we have desire gone mad within us. But it does not seek to rectify the problem by killing desire; rather, it seeks the healing of desire, just as it seeks the healing of every other part of our human being."Two things contribute to our sanctification," wrote Pascal. "Pains and pleasures." And while we know that our journey is strewn with danger and difficulty, "the difficulties they meet with are not without pleasure, and cannot be overcome without pleasure." Where do you find Jesus saying, "The problem with you people is, you want too much. If you'd just learn to be happy with less, we'd all get along just fine." "My commands are for your good," he says, "always." Something has gone wrong in us, very wrong indeed. So wrong that we have to be told that joy is not found in having another man's wife, but in having our own. But the point is not the law, the point is the joy. Need I say more than this: Modern Christianity has brought an entire group of people to the point where they have to be told that sex is, in the words of one book, "intended for pleasure."God is realistic. He knows that ecstasy is not an option; we are made for bliss and we must have it, one way or another. He also knows that happiness is fragile and rests upon a foundation greater than happiness. All the Christian disciplines were formulated at one time or another in an attempt to heal desire's waywardness, and so by means of obedience, bring us home to bliss. Walter Brueggemann suggests that faith on its way to maturity moves from "duty to delight." If it is not moving, then it has become stagnant. If it has changed the goal from delight to duty, it has gone backwards; it is regressing. This is the great lost truth of the Christian faith, that correction of Judaism made by Jesus and passed on to us: The goal of morality is not morality — it is ecstasy. You are intended for pleasure! Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

It all begins with a couple. Not some hero standing alone against the rising tide of the world. A marriage. A man and a woman, given to one another at the dawn of time. The human race is about to enter into its great adventure and its great struggle. As God begins the wild, terrifying, and beautiful story, we are introduced to the hero and the heroine. And they are ... married. Well, what do you know. That’s unexpected. Marriage must play some essential role in the unfolding drama. Now flip to the end of the story. The epic tale reaches its climax with the end of the world as we know it. After the white horse and its rider appear, after the legendary battle of Armageddon, as the whole creation reaches its dénouement, suddenly we find — a marriage.Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth ... and I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ... Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:1–2, 9) Want more? Order your copy of Love & War today

God is the source of all masculine power; God is also the fountain of all feminine allure. Come to think of it, he is the wellspring of everything that has ever romanced your heart. The thundering strength of a waterfall, the delicacy of a flower, the stirring capacity of music, the richness of wine. The masculine and the feminine that fill all creation come from the same heart. What we have sought, what we have tasted in part with our earthly lovers, we will come face-to-face with in our True Love. For the incompleteness that we seek to relieve in the deep embrace of our earthly love is never fully healed. The union does not last, whatever the poets and pop artists may say. Morning comes and we've got to get out of bed and off to our day, incomplete once more. But oh, to have it healed forever; to drink deeply from that fount of which we've had only a sip; to dive into that sea in which we have only waded.And so a man like Charles Wesley can pen these words: "Jesus, Lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly," while Catherine of Siena can pray, "O fire surpassing every fire because you alone are the fire that burns without consuming! ...Yet your consuming does not distress the soul but fattens her with insatiable love." The French mystic Madam Guyon can write, "I slept not all night, because Thy love, O my God, flowed in me like delicious oil, and burned as a fire ... I love God far more than the most affectionate lover among men loves his earthly attachment." Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

Most Christians desire very deeply to be known as gracious, kind, patient, and forgiving. We feel we “owe” it to Jesus to be seen on our best behavior. This is even truer for those of us in “the ministry,” whose lives are publicly attached to Jesus. Now, some of the motivation behind this is beautiful (we’ll look at the rest in a moment). We know how horribly religion has distorted the world’s view of God, and we want very much to gain a hearing for Jesus, so we go to great lengths to reassure the wary that those aligned with Jesus are really great people. In fact, nowadays most Christian leaders bend over backward to come across as very cool and hip and in no way whatsoever judgmental or condemning. It’s the new PR campaign for Jesus.The problem is, in our efforts to be good poster children for Christianity, we have sort of hidden or left off this other side of Jesus’ personality. The man is dead serious about holiness.“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” (Matthew 23:25–26)I would love to have heard his tone of voice, seen the expression on his face. I think we can be fairly confident that when Jesus thundered, “Woe to you,” everyone just about peed their pants. And what is the issue here? Shallow holiness. Faking it. Ignoring the deeper issues of the soul. As far as Jesus is concerned, holiness is a matter of the heart. “Clean the inside of the cup and dish, and the outside will be cleaned as well.” The model of personal transformation that Christianity offers is internal to external. It’s a transformation of the heart, the mind, the will, the soulV—Vwhich then begins to express itself externally in our actions. This is absolutely critical in order to understand Jesus and his genuine goodness. Want more? Order your copy of Free to Live today

Too many men hide behind reason and logic. A man must grow beyond mere reason, or he will be stunted as a man, certainly as a lover. No woman wants to be analyzed, and many marriages fail because the man insists on treating her as a problem to be solved, rather than a mystery to be known and loved. David was a cunning tactician as a warrior, but he was also a poet of the first order. Jesus could hold his own in any theological debate, but he is also an artist (the Creator of this world of Beauty) and a poet (by whose Spirit David wrote the Psalms) and a storyteller. When he says, “Consider the lilies of the field,” he does not mean analyze them, but rather, behold them, take them in, let their beauty speak, for “Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are” (Matt. 6:29 NLT). He appeals to their beauty to show us the love of God.The lover is awakened when a man comes to see that the poetic is far truer than the propositional and the analytical, and whatever physiology might say, I’ve seen it happen in many men.I came to Christ not because I was looking for a religion, but because I was looking for the Truth, and, having found it, I knew it must be true across the realms of human culture. I yearned for an intellectually defensible case for Christianity, and I found it first in Schaeffer and then in the Reformed writers, to whom I remain very grateful. There are reasons to believe. My head was satisfied, but my heart yearned for something more. While I found logic in my theology (and went to war against my philosophy professor), I was being wooed by Beauty in the mountains and deserts, in literature and music. Why did they bring me closer to God than analysis? Why did the dissection of systematic theology cut all life out of the living Word? Then I discovered writers like Oswald Chambers, C. S. Lewis, and his sage, George MacDonald. Smart men, all of them, quite capable of making a good argument. But that is not the essence of their glory. They speak to the mind, but also to the heart. More so to the heart.Want more? Order your copy of Fathered By God today

I’m thinking about love this morning.I’ve been noticing that most mornings I don’t wake up super happy, and I’m not sure why. I’ve also been noticing for some time now that when I first wake up, I find myself racing through the coming day in my mind, bracing myself for what’s required of me, but even more so searching to see if there is anything to look forward to. It’s not really voluntary. It’s almost as if my heart has a life of its own, and it wakes up before I do and begins to assess the prospects before me. “I slept but my heart was awake” (Song of Songs 5:2).By the way, I think this is how our addictions get their claws deeper into us. Our day-to-day grind isn’t anything close to Eden, and our hurting and desperate hearts look for something to which we can attach all those yearnings. We’ll settle for a doughnut if that’s all there is to look forward to. We have to be careful what we give our hearts over to.I don’t want to give my heart to just anything that looks like hope, so I turn my thoughts to God, knowing, at least intellectually, that the only safe place for my heart is in the love of God. Love. It’s about love, remember? I say to my heart. Come back to love, my heart. To the love of God. My self-talk helps, in that I begin to realign my heart with God. This turning in the right direction is almost like turning a ship around. It takes time for the soul to realign itself with God, and things are creaking and groaning, but slowly I am tacking into the wind. Want more? Order your copy of Walking With God today

As we seek to convert our unconverted places, and take hold of the strength that prevails, we need to bodyguard our faith and our Eden hearts back to Jesus. We turn from all other comforters — even benign things like remodeling projects and vacations — to give our heart fully to Christ.Where are we chasing life? We must make sure that this tender part of our heart belongs to Jesus.I love summer. It’s Stasi’s and my favorite time of year. But here in Colorado we’re now deep in the transition to fall, and all of our beautiful flower baskets are going to die. We made our front porch a little Eden refuge this year, a lush botanical garden, and I feel the clock ticking. Something in me rises up in a desperate, No! I’m out there everyday pruning, feeding, coaxing them along. (There was a freeze predicted last night, so all those flowers are currently in my living room.) I can feel the desperation in my body as I write this. Please, not yet. Not yet. Don’t die yet. I need you for as long as I can have flowers.My longing for things to be good again is at an all-time high, so I’m bringing all our flowers into the house like beloved pets, desperate for them to stay lovely just a little longer. Jesus in all his kindness comes along with such loving reassurance and says, You don’t need to do that, John. Everything is coming back to you. There’s no need to grasp.Yes, God our Father — our generous Father — will provide us with the “hors d’oeuvres of Eden” even in times of intense madness. “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies” (Psalm 23:5 NLT). If we can recognize these moments as gifts to sustain our hearts — if we can hold them with an open hand — they can support us, even bring healing.The trick is to not make them the focus of our life. Want more? Order your copy of Resilient today

This is why we accept the false reverence — it’s like having a relationship with someone out of state. It doesn’t intrude into your life like a spouse or a good friend does. There is safety in the distance. We secure ourselves against a fuller experience of Jesus’ presence because he is so unnerving. There is no faking it in the presence of Jesus; there is no way we can cling to our idols and agendas. We sense this intuitively, and so we keep our distance without really looking like we’re keeping our distance. By using false reverence. “The Good Lord” probably isn’t going to show up at your New Year’s Eve party.So, when it comes to experiencing more of Jesus in your life, much depends on what we are open to experiencing — what we have been told we can experience, and, what we are comfortable with. Are you willing to let Jesus be himself with you? Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

There is something mythic in the way a man is with a woman. Our sexuality offers a parable of amazing depth when it comes to being masculine and feminine. The man comes to offer his strength and the woman invites the man into herself, an act that requires courage and vulnerability and selflessness for both of them. Notice first that if the man will not rise to the occasion, nothing will happen. He must move; his strength must swell before he can enter her. But neither will the love consummate unless the woman opens herself in stunning vulnerability. When both are living as they were meant to live, the man enters his woman and offers her his strength. He spills himself there, in her, for her; she draws him in, embraces and envelops him. When all is over he is spent; but ah, what a sweet death it is.And that is how life is created. The beauty of a woman arouses a man to play the man; the strength of a man, offered tenderly to his woman, allows her to be beautiful; it brings life to her and to many. This is far, far more than sex and orgasm. It is a reality that extends to every aspect of our lives. When a man withholds himself from his woman, he leaves her without the life only he can bring. This is never more true than how a man offers — or does not offer — his words. Life and death are in the power of the tongue, says Proverbs (18:21). She is made for and craves words from him. Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today

Then from on high — somewhere in the distance there's a voice that calls — remember who you are. If you lose yourself — your courage soon will follow. (Gavin Greenaway and Trevor Horn, Sound the Bugle)You are going to need your whole heart in all its glory for this Story you've fallen into. So, who did God mean when he meant you? We at least know this: we know that we are not what we were meant to be. Most of us spend our energy trying to hide that fact, through all the veils we put on and the false selves we create. Far better to spend our energy trying to recover the image of God and unveil it for his glory. One means that will help us is any story that helps us see with the eyes of the heart.To live with an unmasked, unveiled glory that reflects the glory of the Lord? That's worth fighting for.The disciples of Jesus were all characters. Take James and John, for instance, "the sons of Zebedee." You might remember them as the ones who cornered Jesus to angle for the choice seats at his right and left hands in the kingdom. Or the time they wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy a village that wouldn't offer Jesus a place for the night. Their buddies called them idiots; Jesus called them the Sons of Thunder (Mark 3:17). He saw who they really were. It's their mythic name, their true identity. They looked like fishermen out of work; they were actually the Sons of Thunder. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Allow me, then, to review what we have encountered. First, our lives are not a random series of events; they tell a Story that has meaning. We aren't in a movie we've arrived at twenty minutes late; we are in a Sacred Romance. There really is something wonderful that draws our heart; we are being wooed. But there is also something fearful. We face an enemy with vile intentions. Is anyone in charge? Someone strong and kind who notices us? At some point we have all answered that question "no" and gone on to live in a smaller story. But the answer is "yes" — there is someone strong and kind who notices us. Our Story is written by God, who is more than Author, he is the romantic lead in our personal dramas. He created us for himself, and now he is moving heaven and earth to restore us to his side. His wooing seems wild because he seeks to free our heart from the attachments and addictions we've chosen, thanks to the Arrows we've known.And we — who are we, really? We are not pond scum, nor are we the lead in the story. We are the Beloved; our hearts are the most important thing about us, and our desire is wild because it is made for a wild God. We are the Beloved, and we are addicted. We've either given our heart to other lovers and can't get out of the relationships, or we've tried our best to kill desire (often with the help of others) and live lives of safe, orderly control. Either way, we play into the hands of the one who hates us. Satan is the mortal enemy of God and therefore ours as well, who comes with offers of less-wild lovers, hoping to deceive us in order to destroy our heart and thus prevent our salvation or cripple our sanctification. These are the stage, the characters, and the plot in the broadest possible terms. Where do we go from here? Want more? Order your copy of the Sacred Romance today

I don’t think we’ve admitted to ourselves just how much belief is a choice.Some mornings you wake and feel God is near; the day looks hopeful. Next morning God seems far; the day has no color to it. For years I wrote this experience off to the ins and outs of the spiritual life, clouded by the weather of my emotions. Then Jesus began to show me something.Innumerable times in the past several years, I’d be in a time of prayer, asking God’s help or guidance with something or other, and Jesus would reply, Believe me. Just that — a direct command. Believe. So simple, yet it cut straight to the core of my problems. Either my wayward emotions had taken charge, or my circumstances had completely arrested my attention, but I was not settled in believing God. Nor was I operating from the position of believing God. Believe. The instruction revealed that I was caught up in my emotional state. Taking the simple command as the doorway back to experiencing God, I would simply say, “Okay — right. I believe you. I believe you.” And Jesus would come again into my awareness. I was startled by how direct the connection was.We wait to be struck by lightning. We wait for an epiphany. In our therapeutic age, we’ve become so self-conscious, so deeply entangled in our personal experiences, we think belief is also an experience, something we mostly feel. It is not. It is first and foremost an act of the will. A choice. Why else would Jesus handle the doubts of his dear friend Thomas with the command, “stop doubting and believe?” (John 20:27). Thomas had a decision to make in that moment, a decision he was quite capable of making, a decision our Lord was waiting for him to make. Thomas’s experience was waiting on a choice.Faith, or belief, can only be rewarded if it’s something we’ve chosen. You don’t reward your child for finishing their homework if you did it for them. Faith can’t be rewarded if it simply falls on us from above. Belief is something we muster, set ourselves to, and practice. Especially when the “data” before us seems to argue against it. Our faith in God is our most precious possession, and God is committed to deepening and strengthening it. Want more? Order your copy of Get Your Life Back today

The right words at the right time can prove a valuable lifeline. We thought it would be helpful to spotlight some key conversations we've had on the Wild at Heart podcast. Whether for the first time or a second pass, we hope you savor these stories and insights.Simply click on any of the titles below to begin listening.The Story You ChooseNo Divided AllegiancesDepleted ReservesProtect the EpicenterHearing God in the Everyday (part 1)Hearing God in the Big Things (part 2) Want more? Click here to sign up for the Wild at Heart Weekly Podcast

This is the point of encountering those things in your life you cannot handle — you are forced to turn to Christ. Did you really think you could be kind for the rest of your life without the inner help of Jesus? One day of kindness is a miracle. What about forgiving? Generous? Honest? Did you really think you could overcome your lifelong strongholds without some sort of Lazarus-like breakthrough? It simply isn’t going to happen — not without the life of Jesus in you.This realization was an epiphany for me.I have spent most of my adult years trying to find those keys that would enable people to become whole. Like an archaeologist raking for buried treasure, I’ve combed through the provinces of counseling, spiritual discipline, inner healing, deliverance, addiction recovery — anything that would help me help others get better. Like Schliemann when his shovel struck the buried ruins of Troy, the epiphany I have come to is this:Jesus has no intention of letting you become whole apart from his moment-to-moment presence and life within you.Your brokenness and your sin are not something you overcome so that you can walk with God. They are the occasions for you to cry out for the life of God in you to rescue you. Not God outside you, up in the sky somewhere. Christ in you, your only hope of glory. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

As I was praying about my disappointments the other day, I noticed something lingering beneath the surface. I realized that somewhere along the way, I’d come to an agreement of sorts — I need this. Not that I want it, and very much. But that I need it. It’s a very subtle and deadly shift. One that opens the door to despair and a host of other enemies. I was coming to believe that God’s love and God’s life are not enough. Isn’t that what Adam and Eve were seduced into believing — that God was not enough? He had given them so much, but all they could see in their fateful moment of temptation was the one thing they didn’t have. So they reached for it, even if it meant turning from God.What was so compelling that Adam and Eve could turn from the living God to reach for the one missing thing? I think I am beginning to understand the answer to that question for myself. We start out longing for something, and the more we come to believe this is what we have to have to be happy, the more we obsess about it. The prize just out of reach swells far beyond its actual meaning. It begins to take on mythic proportions. We’re certain life will come together once we achieve it. We think, If only I was married. If only we had children. If only I was rich. If only I had ______ (fill in the blank). Everything else in our lives pales in comparison. Even God. We are falling to believe we need whatever is just beyond our reach, and when we fall to this, we are miserable.I am not minimizing the sorrow of our disappointments. The ache is real. What I am saying is that the ache swells beyond its nature, dominates the landscape of our psyche when we shift from How I long for this to I need this. The only thing we truly need is God and the life he gives us.Want more? Order your copy of Walking With God today

The book of Hebrews describes the prayer life of Jesus in the following way: “While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him” (5:7 NLT). That doesn’t sound like the way prayers are offered up in most churches on a typical Sunday morning. “Dear Lord, we thank you for this day, and we ask you to be with us in all we say and do. Amen.” No pleading here, no loud cries and tears. Our prayers are cordial, modest, even reverent. Eugene Peterson calls them “cut-flower prayers.” They are not like Jesus’ prayers, or, for that matter, like the psalms. The ranting and raving, the passion and ecstasy, the fury and desolation found in the psalms are so far from our religious expression that it seems hard to believe they were given to us as our guide to prayer. They seem so, well, desperate. Yet E. M. Bounds reminds us,Desire gives fervor to prayer. The soul cannot be listless when some great desire fixes and inflames it ... Strong desires make strong prayers ... The neglect of prayer is the fearful token of dead spiritual desires...There can be no true praying without desire. (Man of Prayer) Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

I (John) just let out a deep sigh. That we even need to explain how beauty is so absolutely essential to God only shows how dull we have grown to him, to the world in which we live, and to Eve. Far too many years of our own spiritual lives were lived with barely a nod to beauty, to the central role that beauty plays in the life of God, and in our own lives. How could we have missed this?Beauty is essential to God. No — that's not putting it strongly enough. Beauty is the essence of God.The first way we know this is through nature, the world God has given us. Scripture says that the created world is filled with the glory of God (Isa. 6:3). In what way? Primarily through its beauty. We had a wet spring here in Colorado, and the wildflowers are coming up everywhere lupine and wild iris and Shasta daisy and a dozen others. The aspens have their heart-shaped leaves again, trembling in the slightest breeze. Massive thunderclouds are rolling in, bringing with them the glorious sunsets they magnify. The earth in summer is brimming with beauty, beauty of such magnificence and variety and unembarrassed lavishness, ripe beauty, lush beauty, beauty given to us with such generosity and abundance it is almost scandalous.Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful. Stop for a moment and let that sink in. We're so used to evaluating everything (and everyone) by their usefulness, this thought will take a minute or two to dawn on us. Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful. Which is to say, beauty is in and of itself a great and glorious good, something we need in large and daily doses (for our God has seen fit to arrange for this). Nature at the height of its glory shouts, Beauty is essential! revealing that Beauty is the essence of God. The whole world is full of his glory.Want more? Order your copy of Captivating today

Our false self demands a formula before he'll engage; he wants a guarantee of success; and mister, you aren't going to get one. So there comes a time in a man's life when he's got to break away from all that and head off into the unknown with God. This is a vital part of our journey and if we balk here, the journey ends.Before the moment of Adam's greatest trial God provided no step-by-step plan, gave no formula for how he was to handle the whole mess. That was not abandonment; that was the way God honored Adam. You are a man; you don't need me to hold you by the hand through this. You have what it takes. What God did offer Adam was friendship. He wasn't left alone to face life; he walked with God in the cool of the day, and there they talked about love and marriage and creativity, what lessons he was learning and what adventures were to come. This is what God is offering to us as well. As Oswald Chambers says,There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also. The call of God can never be stated explicitly; it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because his call is to be in comradeship with himself for his own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what he is after. (My Utmost for His Highest, emphasis added)The only way to live in this adventure — with all its danger and unpredictability and immensely high stakes — is in an ongoing, intimate relationship with God. The control we so desperately crave is an illusion. Far better to give it up in exchange for God's offer of companionship, set aside stale formulas so that we might enter into an informal friendship.Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today