Wild at Heart (PART 1: Made Just Like That)

I'm tired and bored with men who are tired and bored.

I believe that one of the main reasons men fail to step up into healthy and genuine masculinity is that they choose to be ignorant of what's true to their hearts.

I am looking for my heart. Are you?

For the next twelve weeks , I invite you as a man -- Christian or not -- on a journey with me in search of the masculine heart. My inspiration for this particular path of my sojourn is based on the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge (2001: Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

Read this book. Buy it and read it. Borrow it and read it. Check it out from the library and read it. Eldredge, the founder of Ransomed Heart Ministries (http://www.ransomedheart.com/) and author of many books concerning a man's journey to find himself as made in the image of God, pulls absolutely no punches. As men, he challenges us, we need permission to be the men who were made in God's image, living from the heart He created, not from the lists of should or ought to that the world constantly hammers us into shape with.

Men (and I'm not shy or afraid to claim "I am a man -- made just like that!") are hard wired for adventure -- not cubicles, cappuccino, or cable TV. The authentic masculine is built and designed by God for all the danger, wildness, and spiritual longing deeply embedded into our souls.

Doesn't sound like the Sunday school Jesus? I'm talking about the Jesus, led by the Spirit, out into the wilderness. (Matthew 4:1-11 NIV) And out there, I can only imagine some of the questions, as a man, He might have been asking:

"Who am I?"

"What am I made of?"

"What am I destined for?"

And Eldredge is also asking the hard questions about men in the church. "What is a Christian man? Don't listen to what is said, look at what you find there. There is no doubt about it. You'd have to admit a Christian man is...bored. (Wild at Heart, p. 7)

In my judgment, there have been far too few invitations for me to know and live from the deepest parts of my heart. I am not alone, but I also cannot ignore the invitation God offers through His creation of the masculine heart. He created me, and He created Men. "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27 NASB)

The foundation of what Eldredge invites us, as men, to look at is what creates the true desires of our hearts and what makes us, as men, come alive. He proposes the major yearnings have been misplaced, forgotten, or misdirected -- but they are still there, hard wired into us:

In the heart of every man is the desire for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.

A Battle to Fight

"If we believe that man is made in the image of God," Eldredge challenges us, "then we would do well to remember that 'the LORD is a warrior; the LORD is His name.'" (Exodus 15:3 NASB)(Wild at Heart, p. 10)

There is a power in healthy and genuine masculinity, and many of us, as men, have lost that power. Life needs fierce men, for the world heaps wound upon wound on us. The call to battle, for some men, is something they run from instead of run to. The desire still lives in us to answer the call to battle, wherever the fight may be.

Eldredge reminds us that every man needs to know his power -- and discover the fierceness in his God-created heart.

An Adventure to Live

If you want to see an example of men at different stages of acceptance and levels of struggle with their hearts, watch the movie Legends of the Fall, starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Aidan Quinn. In this riveting tale of fathers, sons, brothers, and men, we can find a display (in Pitt's portrayal of the middle son, Tristan) of what a man can be when he is wild at heart. Adventure, Eldredge tells us, is written into the heart of a man...and it requires something -- a testing of who we are as men.

"Do I have what it takes?"

During the years I've been associated with men's work (through The ManKind Project™ -- http://www.mkpky.org/), this question always brings me to a place in front of life's mirror -- a place that invites me to look past the flesh and into the heart. It takes me to the doorway of desire.

"If a man has lost this desire," Eldredge notes, "says he doesn't want it, that's only because he doesn't know he has what it takes, believes that he will fail the test. And so he decides it's better not to try." (Wild at Heart, p. 14)

And so I ask: What adventure are you not living only because you don't know you have what it takes?

A Beauty to Rescue

A beautiful woman is inspiring to a strong man. Adam and Eve. Romeo and Juliet. Arthur and Guinevere. Aragorn and Arwen.

"A man," Eldredge says, "wants to be a hero to the beauty." (p. 15) It's not just the battle to fight -- a man needs someone to fight for, and the romance of the woman he loves to inspire him.

The passion in our hearts, as men, also comes from our God-created inspiration and model to love. God knew that it wasn't good for man to be alone, so He created woman -- perhaps the pinnacle of His creation, replete with beauty and mystery. Eldredge notes that a woman's heart yearns to be fought for, desires to share in our adventures as men, and holds a beauty she longs to unveil.

We, as men, in power and strength, have what it takes to engage the heart of such beauty.

Way of the Heart

"What if?"

Eldredge, as he concludes Chapter One of Wild at Heart, asks this amazingly powerful question:

"What if those deep desires in our hearts are telling us the truth, revealing to us the life we were meant to live? God gave us eyes so that we might see; He gave us ears that we might hear; He gave us wills that we might choose, and He gave us hearts that we might live." (p. 18)

As a man, do you know you are powerful? As a man, do you know you have what it takes?

The journey continues...let us continue, as men, to seek our hearts.

Next Week: Wild at Heart (PART 2: In Whose Image?)