Daily Readings by Wild at Heart

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

The religious technocrats of Jesus' day confronted him with what they believed were the standards of a life pleasing to God. The external life, they argued, the life of ought and duty and service, was what mattered. "You're dead wrong," Jesus said. "In fact, you're just plain dead [whitewashed tombs]. What God cares about is the inner life, the life of the heart" (Matt. 23:25-28). Throughout the Old and New Testaments, the life of the heart is clearly God's central concern. When the people of Israel fell into a totally external life of ritual and observance, God lamented, "These people ... honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" (Isa. 29:13).Our heart is the key to the Christian life.The apostle Paul informs us that hardness of heart is behind all the addictions and evils of the human race (Rom. 1:21-25). Oswald Chambers writes, "It is by the heart that God is perceived [known] and not by reason ... so that is what faith is: God perceived by the heart." This is why God tells us in Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." He knows that to lose heart is to lose everything. Sadly, most of us watch the oil level in our car more carefully than we watch over the life of our heart.In one of the greatest invitations ever offered to man, Christ stood up amid the crowds in Jerusalem and said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him" (John 7:37-38). If we aren't aware of our soul's deep thirst, his offer means nothing. But, if we will recall, it was from the longing of our hearts that most of us first responded to Jesus. Somehow, years later, we assume he no longer calls to us through the thirst of our heart.Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

Let's come back for a moment to original glory, the glory of God given to us when we were created in his image. So much light could be shed on our lives if we would explore what we were meant to be before things started going wrong. What was it that we were created to do? What was our original job description?God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule." (Gen. 1:26-28)And let them 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. We were created to be the kings and queens of the earth (small k, small q). Hebrew scholar Robert Alter has looked long and hard at this passage, mining it for its riches. He says the idea of rule means "a fierce exercise of mastery." It is active, engaged, passionate. It is fierce. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised. Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.” (Luke 11:37–39)Jesus has just entered this man’s home, having accepted an invitation to dinner. Every guest who has ever passed through those doors has washed their hands before being seated, slavishly observing a custom unbroken for centuries. It is a test of orthodoxy and solidarity. Jesus knows this, knows they are watching his every move. He walks right past the line at the washbasin and makes himself comfortable at the table. The Pharisee apparently is speechless. Jesus reads the look on his face and offers an explanation: “Oh — the washing bit,” he says as he takes a piece of flatbread, breaks a bite off, and chews it. “It completely clouds the issue. Outwardly you look sensational. But inwardly, your heart is full of extortion and evil.”The things Jesus says. Apparently, he’s not concerned about being invited back. Jesus’ three years of public ministry are one long intervention. That’s why he acts the way he does.Remember, Jesus is not strolling through the Israeli countryside offering poetry readings. He is on a mission to rescue a people who are so utterly deceived most of them don’t even want to be rescued. His honesty and severity are measured out precisely, according to the amount of delusion and self-deception encasing his listener. When a soul is encrusted with pride, bigotry, self-righteousness, and intellectual elitism— as was his dinner host — then that shell does need to be struck hard at times in order to cause a crack that might allow in some light. Jesus strikes with the precision of Michelangelo.Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

It was to the most religious people of his time that Jesus spoke his strongest warnings about a loss of heart.It is tragic for any person to lose touch with the life of their heart but especially so for those of us who once heard the call in our heart and recognized it as the voice of Jesus of Nazareth. We may remember him inviting us to a life of beauty, intimacy, and adventure that we thought was lost. For others of us, when he called, it felt for the first time in our lives as if our heart had finally found a home. We responded in faith, in hope, and in love and began the journey we call the Christian life. Each day seemed a new adventure as we rediscovered the world with God by our side.But for many of us, the waves of first love ebbed away in the whirlwind of Christian service and activity, and we began to lose the Romance. Our faith began to feel more like a series of problems that needed to be solved or principles that had to be mastered before we could finally enter into the abundant life promised us by Christ. We moved our spiritual life into the outer world of activity, and internally we drifted. We sensed that something was wrong, and we perhaps tried to fix it — by tinkering with our outer life. We tried the latest spiritual fad, or a new church, or simply redoubled our commitment to make faith work. Still, we found ourselves weary, jaded, or simply bored. Others of us immersed ourselves in busyness without really asking where all the activity was headed. At one point in my own spiritual pilgrimage, I stopped to ask myself this question: "What is it that I am supposed to be doing to live the spiritual life in any way that is both truthful and passionately alive?" Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

It is simply diabolical, despicable, downright evil that the heart should be so misunderstood, maligned, feared, and dismissed. But there is our clue again. The war we are in would explain so great a loss. This is the last thing the Enemy wants you to know. His plan from the beginning was to assault the heart, just as the Wicked Witch did to the Tin Woodman. Make them so busy, they ignore the heart. Wound them so deeply, they don't want a heart. Twist their theology, so they despise the heart. Take away their courage. Destroy their creativity. Make intimacy with God impossible for them.Of course your heart would be the object of a great and fierce battle. It is your most precious possession. Without your heart you cannot have God. Without your heart you cannot have love. Without your heart you cannot have faith. Without your heart you cannot find the work you were meant to do. In other words, without your heart you cannot have life. The question is, did Jesus keep his promise? What has he done for our hearts?The answer will astound you. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Back to the drama in the Garden of Eden.Remember now, God gave us this story of the first marriage to help us get our bearings. It provides some very essential categories for navigating our marriages — like how gender is so fundamental to our identity, and how we were made for Paradise. How mankind fell and what that Fall did to our lives as men and women. And it also makes something else absolutely and utterly clear — we have an enemy. Now there’s a thought.I mean, we all feel from time to time that we have an enemy, but who would we say that is? Our spouse — right? Sometimes you just walk into the room and see them and they feel like the enemy. “One day out of three,” a friend cynically said to me.But they’re not the enemy. There is another.We confessed earlier in the book our naïve view of the story when we got married. We thought the plot was, “Love God. Love each other. And everything will work out!” Our naïveté nearly cost us our marriage. We learned the hard way (do any of us ever really learn any other way?) that there is a whole lot more going on here. We had to face our brokenness. That was a shock. We had to confront our style of relating. That was humbling. We needed to learn that this is a far more dangerous story than we thought, that there is so much at stake. And maybe the biggest eye-opener of all — we learned we had an enemy.Want more? Order your copy of Love & War today

The madness about grief is you think you’ll feel better in a few days. Certainly in a few weeks. The average bereavement leave in corporate America is four days for a spouse or child and three days for a parent. Three days. That’s complete insanity. It communicates an illusion that’s totally detached from reality. At three days you haven’t even begun to breathe. At four days you are still in total concussive shock. So I suggest three months of margin and soul care to someone in grief, because it shatters that illusion and suggests an open space of time where real grieving and healing can begin. Begin. Because who knows how long it really will take.This cannibalistic world isn’t going to say this to you, sure isn’t going to act like it, so allow me to say it: Your losses matter.O what kindness we begin to practice when we act like our losses matter.This is why part of my soul-care regimen now includes a baseball bat and plastic trash bin. Our neighborhood requires the bins provided by the trash company; they are large, awkward, and nearly indestructible. Which make them perfect for hammering on with a baseball bat. Loss, disappointment, grief, and injustice provoke anger, and you’ve got to have somewhere to take it. (As a therapist, I’ve found suppressed anger morphs into fear, which is no better.) I like to go out and give my bin a good thrashing when I’m in touch with the hurt and anger, the thievery and loss. (I do recommend closing the garage door if you can; you might alarm the neighbors.) We must do something with our rage. And let me add — of course you’re angry. Your rage is not a sign that something’s wrong with you; there’s something wrong with the world. In some ways, everything is wrong with the world. We’re often embarrassed by our anger, but it’s simply proof that our hearts are aching for things to be right. Want more? Order your copy of Get Your Life Back Today

When my boys were teenagers, we badgered them into cleaning the windows one day. Come dinnertime, our family seated round the table, the brothers began — as all brothers do — to give each other grief about the day’s work. Sam and Luke had each taken halves of a divided window in the dining room; Sam was now bragging about how much cleaner his side was, appealing to the evidence like a trial attorney. We turned our attention toward the window in question — at that exact moment a robin smacked into Luke’s pane, fell to the ground stunned, shook itself, and flew away. We looked at one another, mouths open, eyebrows raised, and burst into laughter.Nature had voted. God had voted.His timing could not have been richer. “Whose window is clean? Who slacked on the job?” Thwack. Brilliant. You couldn’t have asked for a more choice reply. The whole episode was hysterical. Now, if you have any belief in the sovereignty of God, you discover that these moments are orchestrated. Not a sparrow hits a window without your Father knowing it, or something like that.Haven’t you seen something in nature that made you laugh? Perhaps you did not make the connection — that you were meant to laugh. That it was God who made you laugh. That he laughed with you. Now you know something very important about Jesus. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

Theodore Roosevelt is thought to have said, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” and boy, was he right. We tend to compare our worst to another person’s best, and we come out poorly. We compare another person’s smile with our inward sadness, and we hide in shame. We compare our body to another person’s fitter one, and our joy shrinks. We compare what we imagine another person’s life to be like with our known reality, and we grieve. We compare ourselves with others, and our hope melts, our sense of value dissipating like the mist. Comparison is a problem.It is easy to believe that someone else’s life is better than our own and that if we only had “fill in the blank” we would be happy. Judging another’s green field of a life from the view of our dusty brown patch is tempting, but comparison is a faulty lens. Letting our imaginations run away with us through unhealthy and untrustworthy comparisons steals our joy rather than increasing it.We may choose to “jump the fence” of our lives through myriad means, but ultimately we will return and find our hurting and unsatisfied places are still waiting for us to tend them. But here’s the good news: oftentimes that longing deep inside our hearts for something better is an invitation from God to bring further healing in those hurting and unsatisfied places. It is our lives’ own grass that God wants us to be able to enjoy as green, and to get there we must spend some time taking care of it. Until we do, our hearts will continue to clamor for soothing. We need to learn — I need to learn — that the clamoring isn’t the problem. It is, in fact, the calling card of grace. Want more? Order your copy of Defiant Joy today

The Arrows strike at the most vital places in our hearts, the things we care most about. The deepest questions we ever ask are directly related to our hearts' greatest needs and the answers life gives us shape our images of ourselves, of life, and of God. Who am I? The Romance whispers that we are someone special, that our heart is good because it is made for someone good; the Arrows tell us we are a dime a dozen, worthless, even dark and twisted, dirty. Where is life to be found? The Romance tells us life will flourish when we give it away in love and heroic sacrifice. The Arrows tell us that we must arrange for what little life there may be, manipulating our world and all the while watching our backs. "God is good," the Romance tells us. "You can release the wellbeing of your heart to him." The Arrows strike back, "Don't ever let life out of your control," and they seem to impale with such authority, unlike the gentle urges of the Romance, that in the end we are driven to find some way to contain them. The only way seems to be to kill our longing for the Romance, much in the same way we harden our heart to someone who hurts us. If I don't want so much, we believe, I won't be so vulnerable. Instead of dealing with the Arrows, we silence the longing. That seems to be our only hope. And so we lose heart.Which is the truer message? If we try to hang on to the Romance, what are we to do with our wounds and the awful tragedies of life? How can we keep our heart alive in the face of such deadly Arrows? How many losses can a heart take? If we deny the wounds or try to minimize them, we deny a part of our heart and end up living a shallow optimism that frequently becomes a demand that the world be better than it is. On the other hand, if we embrace the Arrows as the final word on life, we despair, which is another way to lose heart. To lose hope has the same effect on our heart as it would be to stop breathing. Want more? Order your copy of The Sacred Romance today

Why does every story have a villain?It's hard to think of a tale without one. As children, we learned to fear the Big Bad Wolf and the Troll under the bridge. As we grew older, we discovered more serious villains in the Star Wars series — Darth Vader and Darth Maul and Darth Sidious. The Wicked Witch of the West hunted Dorothy. Wallace fought against Longshanks, and Maximus went hand to hand against Commodus. The trinity in The Last of the Mohicans had to eventually face Magua, the black-hearted Huron who betrayed them all.In The Fellowship of the Ring, we come to dread the Dark Lord Sauron, the Orcs that do his bidding, and the Black Riders who hunt poor Frodo and the ring that will give the evil one power to enslave the world.Every story has a villain because yours does.Though most of you do not live like it.Most people do not live as though the Story has a Villain, and that makes life very confusing. How have we missed this? All the stories we've been telling about the presence of an evil power in the world, all the dark characters that have sent chills down our spines and given us restless nights — they are spoken to us as warnings.There is evil cast around us.War. Famine. Betrayal. Murder. Surely we know there is an evil force in this world. Want more? Order your copy of Epic today

We must forgive those who hurt us. The reason is simple: Bitterness and unforgiveness set their hooks deep in our hearts; they are chains that hold us captive to the wounds and the messages of those wounds. Until you forgive, you remain their prisoner. Paul warns us that unforgiveness and bitterness can wreck our lives and the lives of others (Eph. 4:31; Heb. 12:15). We have to let it all go. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Col. 3:13) Now — listen carefully. Forgiveness is a choice. It is not a feeling — don’t try and feel forgiving. It is an act of the will. “Don’t wait to forgive until you feel like forgiving,” wrote Neil Anderson. “You will never get there. Feelings take time to heal after the choice to forgive is made.” We allow God to bring the hurt up from our past, for “if your forgiveness doesn’t visit the emotional core of your life, it will be incomplete,” said Anderson. We acknowledge that it hurt, that it mattered, and we choose to extend forgiveness to our fathers, our mothers, those who hurt us. This is not saying, “It didn’t really matter”; it is not saying, “I probably deserved part of it anyway.” Forgiveness says, “It was wrong. Very wrong. It mattered, hurt me deeply. And I release you. I give you to God. I will not be your captive here any longer.” It might help to remember that those who hurt you were also deeply wounded themselves. They were broken hearts, broken when they were young, and they fell captive to the Enemy. They were in fact pawns in his hands. This doesn’t absolve them of the choices they made, the things they did. It just helps us to let them go — to realize that they were shattered souls themselves, used by our true Enemy. Want more? Order your copy of Captivating today

Endurance is what you need now. ... Then you will receive all that he has promised.“For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved. (Hebrews 10:36–39) You are one of the faithful ones, dear reader. We are taking hold as best we can of the strength that prevails, the glory of God in us, so that we might have all we need to navigate these days victoriously. That strength, that beautiful, overcoming strength comes from the source of life himself, from Jesus Christ who dwells within us. It makes sense, then, that we would practice turning our attention to Jesus within us, learning to draw from his strength in the depths of our being.It’s important we remember that the strength that prevails is a strength given to us by God. This is not something we conjure up. It’s not gritting our teeth and doubling down. You’ll hear athletes talk of digging deep when some great contest is upon them. Soldiers use the same phrase, and it’s good in the way it describes tapping into our deepest resources. But the similarity ends there, for the strength we are after is a supernatural strength that rises up from the God who not only created us but dwells within us.“God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26). How wonderful, how life-changing it is to experience God as the strength of your heart!We are talking about the beauty, strength, and glory of the oceans, forests, waterfalls, thunderstorms — all the wild power of creation. This is the power of God made available to us. Imagine if that beauty, strength, and glory not only dwelt within you but could be tapped into whenever you needed? Let your imagination go there for a moment.The God of the open ocean dwells inside of me. His power is mine to draw upon.This is Christianity as it could be: For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. (Ephesians 3:14–16)In order to tap into that wild strength, we tap into God.Like a tree sends its roots down deep into the subterranean world, we must learn to tap into the presence of God where he resides within us, deep in our inmost being. Want more? Order your copy of Resilient today

"In this world you will have trouble." No kidding. Jesus, the master of understatement, captures in one sentence the story of our lives. He adds, "But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Why aren't we more encouraged? (Sometimes we'll try to feel encouraged when we hear a "religious" passage like this, but it never really lasts.) The reason is that we are still committed to arranging for life now. Be honest. Isn't there a disappointment when you realize that I'm not going to offer you the seven secrets of a really great life today? If I wanted to make millions, that's the book I would write. The only thing is, I would have to lie. It can't be done. Not yet. And that yet makes all the difference in the world, because desire cannot live without hope. But hope in what? For what?Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:13, emphasis added)I read passages like this, and I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. Fully? We don't even set our hope partially on the life to come. Not really, not in the desires of our hearts. Heaven may be coming. Great. But it's a long way off and who really knows, so I'm getting what I can now. For most Christians, heaven is a backup plan. Our primary work is finding a life we can at least get a little pleasure from here. Heaven is an investment we've made, like Treasury bonds or a retirement account, which we're hoping will take care of us in the future sometime, but which we do not give much thought to at present. Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today

The next chapter of our story is precisely that — the chapter that follows all the chapters before and fits them perfectly. God is still telling a story; the next chapter is not disconnected from the rest. (I know it feels totally disconnected, but it is not.) If we will look at our future in light of the story God has been telling, it will banish the fog like a strong summer sun. In the next chapter, our powerful and creative Father re-creates us and the earth. He then tells us to do exactly what he told Adam and Eve to do: reign. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). Do you follow the story? Do you see the exciting connection? Glorious men and women are once again given a glorious world in order to do the very things it is in our nature to do. Only this time around with far greater powers, magnificent even. We have within us a latent potency, talents and gifts unrealized, soon to be made new; the renewed earth will be even more responsive to our leadership than the first time around. So Dallas Willard invites us to use our God-given imagination: We should think of our destiny as being absorbed in a tremendously creative team effort, with unimaginably splendid leadership, on an inconceivably vast plane of activity, with ever more comprehensive cycles of productivity and enjoyment. This is the “eye hath not seen, neither ear heard” that lies before us in the prophetic vision (Isa. 64:4). What will you do in the coming kingdom? The simple, stunning answer is, you will do everything you were born to do. Want more? Order your copy of All Things New today

You will not think clearly about your life until you think mythically. Until you see with the eyes of your heart.About halfway through their journey — following a great deal of hardship and facing a good deal more — Frodo's devoted friend and servant, Sam Gamgee, wonders out loud: "I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into?" Sam is at that moment thinking mythically. He is wondering in the right way. His question assumes that there is a story; there is something larger going on. He also assumes that they have somehow tumbled into it; been swept up into it. This is exactly what we've lost. Things happen to you. The car breaks down, you have a fight with your spouse, or you suddenly figure out how to fix a problem at work. What is really happening? David Whyte says that we live our lives under a pale sky, "the lost sense that we play out our lives as part of a greater story."What sort of tale have I fallen into? is a question that would help us all a great deal if we wondered it for ourselves. After my friend Julie saw The Fellowship of the Ring, she turned to the girl with her and whispered, "We've just gotten a clearer view of reality than we usually see." Yes— that's the kind of "seeing" we need; that is our reality. What grabbed me was the theatrical trailer for the film. In a brilliantly crafted three-minute summary, the preview captures the essential mythic elements of the story. As scene after scene races before the eyes of the viewer, and a narrator describes the tale, these lines cross the screen:Fate has chosen him.A Fellowship will protect him.Evil will hunt him.Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Jesus points to a field of wheat. Imagine trying to count the number of kernels in one acre. Immeasurable abundance. Turning our gaze to those luxuriant fields, he says, “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over” (John 12:24, The Message). The point he is making is that he has come to share his life with us. But again, as soon as I say that, the old religious associations rush in to fog the reality. Imagine walking through a rain forest. Diving over a coral reef. Simply look through a microscope at a drop of pond water. Creation is pulsing with life. It is the life of Jesus, given generously for the life of all things. He is called “the author of life,” who personally “sustains all things” (Acts 3:15; Heb. 1:3 NRSV).This is the life he offers us; this is the extravagance with which he offers it. Jesus doesn’t only give his life for mankind, he also gives his life to mankind. It is showered upon us daily like manna. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

The book "Killing Lions" is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [Sam] What we want right off the bat is a map of some kind, a plan, a clear path to begin walking down. Something that makes it clear what is important for us to do, and how to start doing it right now. [John] Right, and God doesn’t give one. Nobody gets the master plan, not even a five-year overview — have you ever wondered why? The reason is simple and massively disruptive: God wants us to seek him, draw near to him, learn to walk with him, and frankly we won’t do it if we have a plan to follow instead. Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today

The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [John] I believe you young men are the warrior generation this world needs. I believe you will see very trying times, perhaps even the end of the age. The timing of Halo, the film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, the resurgence of superheroes in film, and all the games and movies like these is curious indeed. Their epic, urgent, heroic battle cry was spoken at this moment in history — your moment. Perhaps it was orchestrated by an unseen hand. You have the strength and the courage to handle what is before you. You do. But you must not try to play Switzerland in this savage war; there is no neutral ground. The only safe move is to boldly take sides with the kingdom of God, take your position in the line. Make the decision to be fully in — to become the warrior, live in the larger story — and everything else will fall into place. “All things shall be added unto you.” Really. As I think back on my years as a young man, the words I longed to hear were the very words I still eagerly listen for today:You’re going to be okay. You’re going to find your way. You are not alone. [Sam] That’s really, really good. It’s exactly what I need to hear. Maybe I’ll tape those words to my bathroom mirror, because they are true, they are our birthright as sons of the Living One. “I’m going to be okay. I’m going to find my way. I am not alone.’’ Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today

Personally, I find one of the most startling things Jesus says tucked away at the end of the fourteenth chapter of John. He is preparing his closest friends (and soon-to-be-successors) for his departure. They still don’t believe or don’t want to believe he’s leaving. Here is what Jesus says to them (and to us):"Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:27)Wait — do not let your heart be troubled? I thought to myself, We have a choice? We let our hearts be troubled? I’ve always assumed it was the other way around — that trouble strikes in some form or other, and our hearts simply respond by being troubled. I’ll bet this is how you look at it, too. Trouble descends upon you: your house is robbed, your daughter gets pregnant, you lose your job. In that moment are you thinking, "This doesn’t have to take me out. I’m not going to let my heart be troubled. No way". We think “troubled heart” is unavoidable, appropriate even. But Jesus is talking about his coming torture, his death, and, following that, his departure from them. On a scale of personal crises, this is a ten. Yet he says, don’t let your hearts be troubled.Friends, this is important.You have a say in what your heart gives way to. Want more? Order your copy of Free to Live today

After his resurrection, Jesus sends us all out to do what he did: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21 NRSV). And he gives us his authority to do it: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go" (Matt. 28:18-19). Why else would he have given us his authority if we weren't supposed to use it?The attitude of so many Christians today is anything but fierce. We're passive, acquiescent. We're acting as if the battle is over, as if the wolf and the lamb are now fast friends. Good grief — we're beating swords into plowshares as the armies of the Evil One descend upon us. We've bought the lie of the Religious Spirit, which says, "You don't need to fight the Enemy. Let Jesus do that." It's nonsense. It's unbiblical. It's like a private in Vietnam saying, "My commander will do all the fighting for me; I don't even need to fire my weapon." We are commanded to "resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). We are told, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him" (1 Peter 5:8-9); "Fight the good fight" (1 Tim. 1:18); "Rescue those being led away to death" (Prov. 24:11).Seriously, just this morning a man said to me, "We don't need to fight the Enemy. Jesus has won." Yes, Jesus has won the victory over Satan and his kingdom. However, the battle is not over. Look at 1 Corinthians 15:24-25: "Then the end will come, when he [Jesus] hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet." After he has destroyed the rest of the Enemy's works. Until then, he must reign by bringing his enemies under his feet. Jesus is still at war, and he calls us to join him. Want more? Order your copy of Waking the Dead today

Consider the natural human longing to be loved and admired, how deep it runs in you. It is practically an aching abyss. Remember how rare it is for love and admiration to come to any soul in this jealous world. Now, add to this poverty the insight that very gifted people actually have a greater need for affirmation than most (it’s true). You begin to feel how intoxicating it is to have thousands of people holding their breath for the next word you have to speak.Now, mix into this high-altitude experience two other seductions. Given the horrible things that do go on in the name of Jesus Christ, it is deeply seducing among Christian leaders to come across way too humble and hip and genuine for that. While at the same time it is rather nice to have your audience think you are so very cool for having introduced them to such a cool Jesus. Heroin and pornography are child’s play compared to this stuff.Jesus cuts to the heart in one sentence:He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. (John 7:18)Ouch. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

The book “Killing Lions” is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [John] A man faces many forks in the road as he journeys through his life — each choice determining what kind of life he is going to live. Will he sell out for money? Will he pursue the girl — and having won her, will he continue to fight for their relationship? Will he risk for his dreams or succumb to fear and resignation? Will he let his health go? Will he fight for friendships? But this one — Will he face evil? Will he become the warrior? — this one will have dramatic repercussions for the rest of his life, because everything else he wants in life he will have to fight for. This is the fork in the road that divides the men from the boys, whatever their age might be. In fact, I have hope that your generation will be the one to finally deal with this on a global scale. Yours is the generation raised on Halo and Call of Duty — all those video games that so clearly portray a world at war, great evil powers that must be fought. While a number of church leaders with tight underwear wrote essays denouncing those games, I found myself wondering — perhaps this was God’s way of preparing you to understand and accept the reality all around you. But let me ask: How would you live differently if life was as epic, mythic, and urgent as Halo? Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today

Francis of Assisi was called “the second Christ” because his life was so totally given over to expressing the life of Jesus. What can we learn from this man devoted like no other? “As Saint Francis did not love humanity but men, so he did not love Christianity but Christ,” wrote Chesterton. Wow. Just let that sink in. Francis didn’t fall in love with church; he fell in love with Jesus. “His religion was not a thing like a theory but a thing like a love-affair.Who even remembers him for that? If people know him now it’s only as the statue in the garden of the friar with the birds and bunnies. He’s been made a cartoon by the religious fog, just as it happened to Jesus. Which brings us back to something essential for loving Jesus, for making your faith more like a love affair — you are going to have to break with the religious. If you want Jesus, you’re going to have to end the relationship with the religious glaze. Want more? Order your copy of Beautiful Outlaw today

The book "Killing Lions" is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face. [Sam] I feel like I blunder into success as much as I blunder into downfalls. That Susie really values connection. That I think the world of her, and she receives love in a completely different way than me, through words both written and spoken. And that she has a really hard time believing what I think of her. [John] Exactly. As you get to know a woman, you want to know her story, the things that have shaped her, because you want to know who she really is. Where did she experience shame, and for what? Where did she experience being prized—and for what? Because everything you say and do is being filtered through her way of seeing the world. Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today

This is a love story, dear friends. God is love, the apostle John tells us, and then he says it again so that we don’t forget, “God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God” (1 John 4:16). Love is the single most defining quality of his character and his life. God is a passionate, and jealous, lover. (Is there really any other kind?) Out of his love he creates us for love. “We love, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). The Scriptures tell us we are made in God’s image. You’ll notice that we human beings are, above all else, deeply and profoundly relational. Because he is. God is Trinity, a fellowship of love. Love and intimacy are the core of his being, and so he gives to each of us a heart like his. When God does this, he reveals our deepest purpose — to love and to be loved. Want more? Order your copy of Love & War today