Frodo Didn't Go It Alone!!

"What I am suggesting is that we reframe the way we look at our lives as men. And the way we look at our relationships with God. I also want to help you reframe the way you relate to other men." (From Fathered by God by John Eldredge - 2009, Thomas Nelson, p. 11)

One of my favorite movies is The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films. If you are familiar with the series, you know that - once the prologue has been presented - the story hones in on what some consider its main character...the hobbit named Frodo Baggins. Each time I watch these epics, I always come away with the sense that in his initiation and masculine journey, one thing is ultimately and most importantly true for Frodo: he didn't go it alone!!

It's absurd for me, as a man among men, to conceive of being initiated alone or traveling the paths of my spiritual and masculine journey by myself. Of course, in both crucibles, there are moments designed for solitude and reflection. This is good - Scripture, of course, bears out many instances where Jesus himself chose to go off alone to a place where he could pray, regroup, rest, grieve...you know, be human.

So, on this amazing sojourn known as the masculine journey, ask yourself a question: "Who is my fellowship? Do I have a company of men to walk with, talk to, trust in, and fight/live/love/play alongside of?" If the answer comes back, "No!" or perhaps, "What do I need that for?" you may look at reconsidering your options. Believe me, I've loved to go it alone in my life...but from this point in my journey, it wasn't wise.

A lot of that came from the pain of agreements I made: such as "I'm on my own and it has to be me to figure life out" or "I can't trust God to show up for me - he's too busy, doesn't care..." I believe what Eldredge is speaking to in the reframing encouragement is to come from that place in my masculine heart where courage meets vulnerability. It is a scary proposition for many men - who know God or don't - to discover that allowing for the fellowship of men to come around him in spirit and truth does really equal having the willingness to change the ingrained patterns of pride or stubbornness or ego of the go it alone myth of being a man. 

Here's a question I found invaluable at that stage I asked of myself: "What if ALL of what I've been seeking - love, wholeness, initiation, courage, living deeply in my calling/mission/purpose, peace, healing and faith is to be found within the fellowship of men...and having God father me?"

In one of the final scenes in the trilogy, late into The Return of the King film, there is a beautiful scene where Frodo awakens after being rescued from the destruction of Mount Doom. One by one, starting with Gandalf, he is reunited with the fellowship of men - his fellowship of men - and the joy keeps growing intensely as they share in the victory of what it took them all to do. Frodo didn't go it alone. God, in his wisdom and love, doesn't invite us to either. 

For more on John Eldredge and Ransomed Heart, click here.

To purchase a copy of Fathered by God, click here.

For more on John Fontaine & MAXIMUS HEART, click here.

Holiness Is Worth It

I truly love it when God smacks me upside both head and heart...especially in the early morning hours when my time with him is most precious and unencumbered by the pounding drums of the Matrix waiting for me to step out my apartment door and into a world at war.

This morning, I was reading a chapter from Free to Live, a wonderful book by John Eldredge (originally published as The Utter Relief of Holiness). In the chapter entitled "The Fruit of Holiness," the final paragraph was what struck me most deeply after the deep truths I had read on the pages leading up to it:

"So let me say one more time, the pursuit of a deep and genuine holiness is worth whatever it costs you. Because holiness is an utter relief. It is a joy and a healing of your creation. It will make you powerful in the Spirit, it will rescue you again and again, it will fortress you to the enemy's attacks, it will make your life a compelling argument for Jesus because it is of the same quality as his. Finally, in these last days, the saints are being sorely tested. Holiness is your strength and your safe passage through the trial. It is worth it." (p. 168)

Wow...let me pull a few words that light my heart on fire: "...relief...joy...healing...powerful in the Spirit...rescue...fortress...compelling argument for Jesus...quality...strength...safe passage through trial..."

As I continue my journey of becoming as a man, this masculine journey with God and others is full of risk, reward, honor wounds, and dangerous for good moments throughout each day. And to seek holiness, I know that whatever it costs me I become more and more willing to pay. The currency of holiness is to become whole - in me and for God. 

For more on John Eldredge and Ransomed Heart Ministries, click here.

For more on John Fontaine and Maximus Heart, click here.

Fierce Personality: A Review of "Beautiful Outlaw" by John Eldredge

It was December 2010. I arrived at the breathtaking Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista, CO to attend the Wild at Heart Advanced Boot Camp, led by author, co-founder, and director of Ransomed Heart Ministries, John Eldredge. During the 3-days in the Rockies taking a deeper look and walk with the interpersonal relationship with Jesus, this band of brothers over 350 strong from around the world was intrigued to hear Eldredge and his Ransomed Heart team (Craig McConnell, Bart Hansen, and Morgan Snyder) begin to talk about a new book about the life – and personality – of Jesus.

As 2011 winds down, I was asked to review Eldredge’s latest novel, Beautiful Outlaw (Faithwords, 225 pages), I was actually at a point where seeing that Jesus (or meeting with him in Scripture and more often than not misconnecting) was becoming difficult, labored, without much desire. I wasn’t 20 pages into the book when Eldredge – talking about how essential it was to discover the personality of Jesus…undraped by what might be happening in church or Christianity or churchianity or, worse yet, through the religious haze of what characterized most of what, Scripturally, were the arenas in which most of Jesus’ most awesome heart-to-heart cage matches took place – put a deeper truth on the tip of the sword:

‘What is missing in our Gospel reading – and in our attempts to “read” what Jesus is saying and doing in our own lives right now, this week – is his personality, undraped by religion. Let’s see if we can find this.’

Eldredge, author of such bestselling books as The Sacred Romance (co-authored with Brent Curtis), Desire, Wild at Heart, Waking the Dead, and co-author with his wife, Stasi, of Captivating and Love & War, exhibits courage and boldness deftly blended with a fluid and winsome narrative early on. In the pages of his Introduction, he uncorks a fine bottle of context:
“We don’t need further speculation or debate. We need Jesus himself. And you can have him. Really. You can experience Jesus intimately. You were meant to. For despite the vandalizing of Jesus Christ by religion and the world, he is still alive and very much himself. Though nowadays it takes a bit of uncovering to know him as he is.”

And, sadly, perhaps the drapes measured by most churches to fit the windows looking onto the personality of Jesus miss such things as his playfulness, fierce intention, his human face, extravagant generosity, and disruptive honesty. “The man shoots straight,” Eldredge says in a chapter about the honesty of Jesus. “Sometimes he’s playful; sometimes he’s fierce; the next moment he’s generous. This is the beauty of his disruptive honesty – you can count on Jesus to tell you the truth in the best possible way for you to hear it.” (p. 71)

This is the Jesus many, including myself, have been searching for. I thought I met Jesus six years ago for the first time. Eldredge, with a joyful wit and razor sharp (yet perhaps accurate) sting to some of his projections on the church, invites the reader into the scandalous freedom with which Jesus – as fully God and fully man – lives, the cunning he has (…and, oh man, does he use it, especially against street gangs like the Pharisees…), how his heart overflows with humility, trueness, and beauty, and how loving Jesus – really loving him as he is and is meant to be – letting Jesus be himself with you and through the daily encounters can fill one’s life and be the powerful winds to clear away the “religious fog.”

And the reader is invited to know Jesus in a revolutionary way, and Eldredge’s writing – and the challenge behind the questions – does drive some stakes into ground: Why does false reverence replace loving Jesus? Does knowing about God substitute for knowing God? Why shouldn’t power displays be confused for intimacy with Jesus? Isn’t the stereotypical ‘Christian service’ really just a substitute for friendship with Christ? Does the church offer – or prevail – under a trivial morality? I found Eldredge’s style to be a courageous blend of unvarnished aim for the heart of his readers and the unmistakable revolutionary images of Jesus that have been covered over by so much religious coatings. As the chapters unfolded towards the Epilogue, Eldredge is wistful yet compelling: “I am groping for the words that will somehow move you to hold on to this. The train blows its whistle; the mother chokes up and the father clasps the last handshake ever so tightly, because they know what is at stake. My friends, so much is at stake.” (p. 211)
While others may aim low to find fault with a sense of Eldredge (or other authors) positing solutions for the church if only it would listen and take action, a majority of voices seem to be queuing up to say, ‘Hey, yeah, this is the Jesus I ache to know and am ready to meet.’ In a sense, it’s a Gospel that needs to be read.

In conjunction with the release of Beautiful Outlaw, Ransomed Heart Ministries (http://www.beautifuloutlaw.net/) is offering a free download of a companion 18-part video series for the book, along with a free participant guide for small group study. As Wild at Heart (2001, Thomas Nelson) impacted so many men for the battle, adventure, and beauty in pursuing the heart of Jesus, Beautiful Outlaw and Eldredge so brilliantly and bravely challenges that “…a true knowledge of Jesus is our greatest need and our greatest happiness.”