Bart's Blog

Paul Lavelle: A Hero for the Kingdom

So much of what is cool about Wild at Heart is the ministry that spins off of what Wild at Heart does. In the spirit of that, I want to tell a story about Paul Lavelle, who attended a Wild at Heart Boot Camp some 15 years ago—as an unbeliever, skeptical of Christianity. (As a matter of fact, Paul showed bias against believers in his career in the Air Force.) He only came to make good on a promise to a friend, and he committed to stay for just half of the event. As he was literally getting up to leave, the film clip being played on stage stopped Paul in his tracks—it was an echo of his personal story. The remainder of the boot camp brought Christ into Paul’s life, and his transformation began. Paul had just retired from a disciplined and successful career in the USAF that ended at the Pentagon. Because Paul had moved to Colorado Springs, we were able to get acquainted, and we at Wild at Heart were so intrigued by the transformation of his heart that we asked him to come and help fulfill resources at our Outpost. Paul’s transformation was at such a fast pace that he became part of our team and came to boot camps as part of the team. I recall one boot camp where I partnered with Paul to pray for men stuck in their seats following the wound session. That’s where we discovered that Paul has an anointed gift of intercessory prayer and hearing the Holy Spirit. I vividly remember how, as we approached men—many weeping, but our not knowing anything about them—Paul would hear from the Holy Spirit and make a very specific statement about their story that would astound not only the man we were praying for but me as well. This happened time and time again. Over the various boot camps we did here in the U.S. and overseas, Paul’s presence began to attract military veterans as well as those currently serving. I remember a group of former Navy SEALs who had lost several of their peer SEALs on a mission in South America years before and were still dealing with the trauma. They came seeking healing. In addition to what they received at boot camp, Paul spoke deeply into these men, praying for them one-on-one, bringing Jesus in the place of their need. As Paul continued to interact with veterans and military men, word began to spread among this group about our boot camps and Paul’s connection with these men because of his own military background. For two years, Paul served with Wild at Heart in our resource department. But what became obvious was his giftedness in relating to men who are serving or have served in the military. We all saw that Paul’s staying at Wild at Heart would impose a limitation on his gifting, and so we urged him to step into what he was called to do. In obedience to God, he did just that, birthing what has grown into the most effective ministry dealing with PTSD in all branches of the service. Operation Restored Warrior (ORW) has rescued thousands of men who otherwise would likely have ended their lives from the deep depression of PTSD. Tannah and I recently attended the tenth anniversary of ORW, where I met many of the men rescued by Jesus through Paul and his team. Every man I spoke with would say they owe their life to Paul, as suicide was their next and final remedy in search of relief. Paul and his team do an intensive every month where they pour into the stories of six attendees for five days. ORW has engaged over 1600 men, either veterans or active military, through their Drop Zone. As we have all heard from various sources, between 20 and 25 of these PTSD veterans are ending their lives every day; Paul has labored tirelessly to rescue these men from the darkness of suicide. The urgency is similar to watching a burning building full of men, and you can only save a handful. Paul is a true hero of the Kingdom, and we are honored to have played a part in Paul’s spiritual journey. This is one of the great stories of Wild at Heart! [Paul and ORW were featured in a documentary called Holy Ghost Reborn.]

Bart Hansen

I've Run out of Duct Tape

In the dream workshop my son, Kris, and I built with raw logs one timber at a time, we’ve accumulated a lifetime of gadgets and equipment. We have a lot of really great tools, some for very specific tasks and many that have multiple functions. When I consider the “general tool” category, the most valuable item that comes to my mind is duct tape. I know many people wouldn’t consider this a tool, but you can do unlimited things with duct tape! I’ve patched the inside of a tire with duct tape, then driven hundreds of miles. I’ve used it to hold things together for decades, like heating duct in an attic. I use it to keep things together temporarily until a more permanent attachment is made. I once used duct tape to hold a hernia in place on my lower abdomen until I could schedule surgery to repair it permanently. Duct tape’s uses are really too numerous to count—it’s invaluable in the environs of a workshop. I consider myself a resourceful guy who likes to fix things. But I take it too far when I bring the most trusted item from my workshop into my world of relationships and try to use my “duct tape” to mend a relationship—or at least to temporarily hold the relationship together until I can come back with more attention for a more permanent solution. Duct tape works wonders on inanimate objects, but when I think I can fix relationships the way I fix things, I need a gut check from God. In 38 years of marriage, how much figurative duct tape have I tried to wrap around my wife to attempt to fix the things I think need fixing in her? Most often I’m the one who needs attention, not with duct tape, but with something that comes not off a roll but from an infinite, inexhaustible source: God’s love. God has an endless supply of that for each of us to both receive and give to others. And as we seek to repair relationships, the key to that restoration and healing most often comes out of our surrendering to God what we think we can fix and giving to God what only he can mend with his infinite love. When it comes to rifts and wounds in our souls, God is the only source for healing—his love dispensed through us. God, forgive me for thinking my duct tape will work with the relationships in my life. I surrender my efforts here. I have run out of duct tape, and I turn to your love as the source of healing and redemption. Change my heart with your love so that I begin to trust in your love as the only agent able to repair what has gone wrong in the relationships of my life—beginning with my relationship with you.

Bart Hansen

Defensiveness or Repentance?

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do. –Romans 7:15, 18b I recently traveled to South Dakota to join a group of men in enjoying some of the finest pheasant hunting there is. At the same time, my wife, Tannah, decided to go to southern California to visit family and friends and to tie up some loose ends from our recent move from California to Colorado. I was to return from South Dakota and she from California the same day. Though I was scheduled for a late-afternoon flight, I had to get one of the guys back to the airport mid-morning for his flight. Hoping to avoid a long day of waiting, I checked on an earlier flight to Colorado Springs. It was full, but the agent said there’d likely be a cancellation, and I was first in line for standby. After the earlier flight boarded, there was one seat empty. The missing passenger was paged twice, with no response. Just as I was about to be given the seat, the passenger showed up. The plane was full. I really didn’t want to spend the next several hours there and called Tannah to express my frustration. As she walked to her gate to board her plane in California, I told her how disappointed and irritated I was to be stuck in this airport. Because of background noise, she had a hard time hearing me and kept asking, “What? What? What?” To which I said, “Do you not ever use those expensive earbuds I bought you for your phone?” To which she said, “WHAT?” My irritation at being delayed at the airport now turned on Tannah. When she arrived at her gate and was able to focus and better hear me, I repeated myself: ”Where are your earbuds?” She quickly detected my very critical tone. “I ask again, don’t you ever use them? Where are they??” She paused, then said, “They’re in the bottom of my purse. With the expensive battery charger you gave me.” And then, “I’m now waiting for you to criticize me about all the stuff I bring on trips that I don’t need.” I could hear her tears on the other end as she said, “I can never please you.” How many times have I done this to her in our marriage? I’m embarrassed to even guess. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do. Now comes the critical moment: Do I go defensive—hiding behind the fig leaf of my critical spirit—and start making excuses about how I am just trying to make her life better? Or do I pause, repent, and ask her forgiveness? God knew I needed several hours in an airport that afternoon to own my brokenness and take this to Him. The journey to healing is painful.

Bart Hansen

Our Motives for the Kingdom

Recently I dropped in on a group of men I used to pray with weekly years ago. They are active in a business men’s ministry in Southern California where I came to faith back in the early 1980s. These are such good men, pursuing the Kingdom in their respective worlds of business. I visited and participated in a discussion where the question on the table was something to this effect: “How can we become more engaged and intentional in the Kingdom work available to each of us?” It’s really quite astounding that men (myself included) who have walked in their faith for decades can become deer in the headlights when confronted with such a question! Men quickly began telling stories of all they ways they had shared the Gospel, from speaking in pulpits to one-on-one encounters. These stories went on for several minutes, until the facilitator said, “Yes, but how do we have more passion and excitement in what we do?” He—and we—could hear in the voices of these men a kind of defensive tone as they described how they were actively and personally involved in sharing their faith. When I was asked for my thoughts, I began by saying that when I share my faith, I have to search my heart for the motive out of which I am attempting to advance the Kingdom—sometime my motives are honestly not as noble as I might like to pretend. Some days I really suck at my faith, because my motives are really more about me and how I can exalt myself in appearing to advance God’s Kingdom. But to get my heart into a motive that brings acclamation to God rather than to myself, I have to stop and ask, “What is motivating me in this opportunity?” It becomes pretty simple, as I have learned to name my motives in generally one of two categories: a motive centered on myself or a motive centered in love. The motive of love is not turned on by some switch or lever; acting out of my flesh is what compels me to keep trying to find that switch. But the reality of this search comes only out of the truth of 1 John 4:19. “We love because he first loved us.” I cannot really love others until I experience the love of God. Can I repeat that? I cannot love others until I experience the love of God. Experience is key—and not just knowledge of God loving us. Experience comes out of a relational intimacy with God, and when we experience the love of the Father as a beloved son or daughter, that is where the noble motives of love live. Again, I suck at this many days, but as I can name my motive, it sends me back to the Father to experience Him. And that is where the Kingdom can advance. Father…Son…Holy Spirit, keep me close and give me eyes and ears to see and hear the ways You are throwing Your love toward me, that I may be aware of Your love and receive the capacity to act out of the motive of love.

Bart Hansen

No B.S.

We here at Wild at Heart are still in a season of grieving over Craig’s departure to the Kingdom. The mission goes on and there are things we must do to sustain what God has called us to do as a ministry; however, we are still—as a fellowship and individually—grieving the loss of Craig. In times of grieving and loss, God is speaking to us as we lean into him in those tender places. Although none of us relish loss and grief, it’s a unique time not to waste what God can be screaming at us. The challenge is to have the intentionality at such tender times to ask God what the grief might be surfacing. God has taken me back into conversations I had with Craig years ago, and this has produced some gold in my life going forward. It has come not as I try to chase away the sadness of loss, but rather as I lean into God and ask, “Do you have anything for me in this moment?” During one of those times, God took me back to a conversation with Craig years ago when he had just discovered the cancer in his body. He was not yet suffering from this dreadful discovery. We were having lunch and some time together, and Craig, in the soberness of this cancer discovery, said to me, “No bullshit.” When I ask him to expound, he said, “I feel the reality of my days being numbered (not to make any agreements with death or assume God couldn’t heal me) and I want to live each day with ‘no bullshit.’ I want to be intentional with the value of every day from here to wherever the finish line is for me. I want to live courageously in love and in honesty with how I relate to people, not hold back what I need to do or say as I encounter the lives of other people.” He said to me directly, “If I see you posing, I’m going to point it out, and I expect you to do the same with me.” Now, it wasn’t like Craig was not already living with intentionality, courage, and honesty before this declaration, but he drove a stake in the ground that day. I saw something shift in him and in his walk with God, and I experienced this shift in Craig over the next years as he battled cancer. I remember him, in love and courage, confronting me about how I was not fighting for my marriage. Conversely, I remember him coming into my office one day and telling me how proud he was of me for fighting well for my marriage when I could not see it. I experienced his love and his courage in those hard-to-hear conversations and also in his love and affirmation when I did not have the eyes to see it. That was the shift to “no bullshit” in Craig: he was very intentional in his relationship with me, rather than being passive and unengaged. As I experienced Craig, I want to live my life with “no bullshit” and relate intentionally in love and strength and honesty to the people around me. And I want to discover this without the threat of some terminal illness to soberly remind me how our days and the relationships we are involved with are too valuable not to be honestly engaged. So thank you again, Craig, for your sacrifice and courage to bring me to this reality. Though your physical presence is no longer here, the effect of your life still is in many ways and...no B.S.!

Bart Hansen

What Makes A Fierce Warrior?

What makes a fierce warrior? Recently, I found myself taking a day to do nothing but watch college football. (I cannot remember ever doing that other than on a New Year’s Day.) The season was in its last two weeks of regular schedules, with conference playoffs to determine who were the “chosen” four teams to advance and play for the title of college football national champion. There were a couple of games I watched from beginning to end, and others I followed while channel surfing during commercial breaks. All of these teams were playing with a great purpose: to display their worthiness to be selected as one of the “chosen” four teams for the national championship playoff. The first game I watched was the Ohio State/Michigan game. Though I’m not a proclaimed fan of any team I watched that day, I was particularly intrigued with Ohio State. I had recently watched an interview with their head coach Urban Meyer who was asked how he’d won the national championship the previous year. Ohio State amazed everyone with how well they played as the fourth seed of the “chosen” four for the 2014 season. He quoted G.K. Chesterton: “The greatness of the warrior is not defined by hating what is in front of him but rather loving what is behind him.” Coach Meyer went on to say that he formed small communities on his team based on their positions (linemen, defensive backs, quarterbacks, linebackers, etc.) and from that, these guys became bands of brothers who deeply loved one another in the context of their mission to play out a winning season. The power of that love motivated them to play at an amazing level that led to their national championship. In other words, it was the love these guys had for one another that proved so powerful in their mission. Next, I watched the Oklahoma/Oklahoma State game that determined the Big 12 Champion, in which the Oklahoma Sooners handily overpowered the OSU Cowboys by five touchdowns. I saw a similar thing in the post-game interview with the Sooner quarterback. They asked him what it was that caused them to play at such a high level of intensity and fierceness. His reply was, “We [his team] just love one another and there is nothing we wouldn’t do for one another.” Later that day, I watched the incredible Stanford/Notre Dame game where Stanford, behind by one point, with less than a minute to play, drove down the field and kicked a 45-yard field goal with time expiring to win the game. This was one of the best games of the year. The most valuable player was interviewed following the game and asked, “How did you do it?” His reply was, “I’ve never been closer to a group of guys as I am these men. We are really really close and we love one another.” Now let’s go to a larger story… As our country has been at war for almost 25 years, beginning when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, we have paid a very high price in many categories, including the thousands of lives lost and tens of thousands traumatically injured both physically and psychologically (PTSD). What I find fascinating is that the line of volunteers who choose to serve our country in the face of these risks is almost endless. It says much about the character of men and women who have carried this burden for our country now for two and a half decades. Their motives for joining are varied—wanting to be part of something larger than themselves, fighting against evil in the world, protecting our freedom threatened by jihad, and many more. We owe much to these who have chosen to fight in defense of our freedoms and our way of life. As in any war, there are many told and untold stories of heroism and valor of those who have both died and survived in the course of war. What is it that causes one to risk their life in war? Sebastian Juenger, a war correspondent assigned to the U.S. Army in the remote mountains of Afghanistan, wrote of this experience in his book War. His assignment was with our troops in one the most dangerous locations that suffered the highest casualties in the long war in Afghanistan. Juenger was amazed at how courageous these men were day after day in prolonged firefights. He stated his observation like this: “Courage is love...in war neither can exist without the other.” There it is again! What made these men so courageous was their love for one another in the context of their mission, which echoes John 15:13. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” The depth of that love, “Greater love has no one than this,” explains why so many of those men would volunteer again and again for such dangerous assignments: it is the depth of that love for one another. And it is why such men who have experienced this depth of love sometimes find it difficult to assimilate back into everyday life. So, it is love that is such a key part of the heart of a warrior. At our last Wild at Heart Boot Camp debrief here in Colorado just last month, one of the men on the team was sharing about our team time together on mission during Saturday night at boot camp. I am paraphrasing as I share what he said: “After doing a decade and a half of boot camps together as a team, for tens of thousands of men here in Colorado and all over the world, we have found a deep love for one another that is hard to describe.” What drives this love so deep is that we as a team have fought side by side for the hearts of tens of thousands of men on the battlefields of our boot camps. The rescue of men out of spiritual darkness into redemption and restoration is an intense battle between darkness and light. It is fraught with demonic spirits of darkness that have bound these men in prisons of bondage. Freeing these men opens us up to intense warfare as we enter these battles together; however, our team also becomes more deeply bonded in love with one another as fellow warriors. This is the same kind of love I described above with the football analogy, as well as the men fighting together in Afghanistan. What makes our battle unique and the story so significant at boot camps is the eternal spiritual consequence of the men rescued. By facing the consequences together of rescuing the hearts of men in this great spiritual battle, a deep bond of love has been created and continues to grow and deepen within our team. What makes a fierce warrior? LOVE.

Bart Hansen

Blessed Are The Risk Takers

God calls us into risk. Before I began my time at Wild at Heart almost 15 years ago, I was toward the end of my 25-year building career as a home-builder and developer in Southern California. Our rather small company built in multiple sectors of housing, but we had become known for creating well-designed product for the first-time homeowner and low-income renter. Given our experience, I was asked by an association of some 50 city planning directors to come and speak on why building for sale affordable housing in the high priced real estate market of Southern California was so difficult. My opening statement to these government officials, some of whom we had to deal with in order to secure all land and building entitlements for our projects, was, "Blessed are the risk takers for without them there would be no projects." This group of government officials often looked upon builders and developers with skepticism concerning our motives to profit, and lacked the understanding of the risks involved and the exposure taken to derive a profit. I described to them that we builders have to navigate through considerable risks in this marketplace, such as: interest rates, land costs, building costs, financial exposure, risk of being attacked by all kinds of no growth advocacy groups, environmental groups seeking to stop development, and local politics. I explained, that as a builder, there had to be a profit incentive in the face of the risks we encountered. Furthermore, while profit is necessary, it was not our only motive. We were also compelled to build a community that would meet a basic need of humanity and offer dignity, desirability, and affordability. I think of the "Parable of the Talents" in Matthew 25, and the motives of the three servants who were entrusted property of the master. He gave them an opportunity to use their giftedness and enterprising spirit to risk and invest in order to bring gain and profit to the master through their efforts. Two of the three had a trusting and good relationship with the master; however, the third servant did not trust his master. He, instead, was fearful or cynical and not willing to risk. What is God revealing to us as he asks us to risk? I believe he is asking us to love and trust his heart in the opportunities given us that require risk. I often wonder in the parable what would happen if one of the two good and faithful servants had a risk that did not pay off? As I think of our own situations, where we took risks that resulted in substantial monetary loss, (even after much prayer and reflection with God about the opportunity) I realize how God used those situations to teach us and love us into the direction He was leading us toward. It’s an example of Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. When I look back on all those risks that did not turn out the way I had hoped, I see that God used those in his love for me as a beloved son to bring such good things and great blessings far beyond the reward I thought I was seeking. Without the relationship with the Father, I can easily become the man full of fear or cynicism, like the servant who was cast into utter darkness. Our Lord is very serious about our taking risks from the place of our loving and personal relationship with Him. So… "Blessed are the risk takers" for without them our world would be lacking much in enterprise, reward, and adventure. God requires we become risk takers with what he entrusts us in the context of being his beloved son or daughter. Down the road, we'll discuss how motives do matter in the risks that we take and how they reveal so much about our hearts and our relationship with God our Father.

Bart Hansen

I Am A Grateful Man

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving [gratefulness], let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 Well, it is September and, as you may have noticed, I decided not to blog for the summer. I was looking forward to a summer that I had calendared and planned with great anticipation. As things sometimes go, it didn’t turn out exactly as I had intended. The summer began with a trip to Chicago to officiate the wedding of my nephew and his fiancée. We stayed in the city and went to see the Cubs at Wrigley Field with close friends and family of the bride and groom. It was a great time of celebrating and bringing the gospel to both those we knew and those we did not. As I remember our time in Chicago, I realize how a wedding presents many spiritual opportunities and offers a glimpse of the wedding feast of the restored Kingdom, a picture of which unbelievers are unaware and many Christians have forgotten. I am so grateful to have had that opportunity to share the gospel and experience a taste of the coming Kingdom! Our next anticipated “joy bomb” in the early part of summer was a long-awaited trip to San Francisco, where Tannah and I have been many times in our 35 years of marriage. We had planned to join some friends on a three-day supported bicycle ride up the coast, into Sonoma and finishing through Napa. The first day was a long, hard ride up the coast against the wind, but it ended at a picturesque, seaside boutique hotel where we got to celebrate our beautiful and challenging ride together. I was so grateful for this day as I got to watch Tannah achieve this great accomplishment. At the end of that first day, I got a call from my brother back in Texas, saying our 90-year-old mother was slipping away quickly, and if we wanted to see her lucid, we would need to come immediately. My mother had been doing well in an assisted-living facility near my brothers. We had recently moved her across Texas to this facility for this last brief chapter of her life. She had lived alone for 44 years, working as a self-employed art teacher in the home studio I had built for her when I was 20, shortly after my father died suddenly. We left early the next morning and arrived to hear the last words she spoke, which also included Tannah’s name. After a couple more days, she was gone. It was one of the most holy experiences of my life as so many of our family were gathered around her bed, praying her into the Kingdom. I am so grateful to have been there, as hard as it was at the time. A few years before this time, my mother had asked me to speak at her memorial, requesting that it be a simple graveside service. I smile and shake my head when I remember her words: “Don’t gawk at my body…just throw me in the ground.” She laughed. “And then go have a party.” My mother was a very strong and independent woman, a survivor through her hard work and her dependence on the grace of her Lord to sustain her. She was also a very talented artist who used that giftedness to support herself after being left with my younger brother still to raise after my father died. Memorializing her was an easy opportunity to bring the Gospel as displayed by her decades of faith, but it was difficult for me as my heart was so vested in the fresh loss of my mother. I thought I had prepared myself the last few years for this time, but when your mother is around that long, her sudden absence still draws an ache in the heart. However, I am so, so grateful for the circumstances of her passing and her wanting it just that way. And we did have that party after the graveside memorial. I look forward to that reunion with her one day! What I am most grateful for as I reflect on her passing is the much deeper love for her that I experienced in the last three years. About that long ago, three years, I was seeing a counselor when my relationship with my mother came up. Through the skill of the counselor and some prayer time over his counsel, I discovered I had a soul tie to my mother. It was not of her doing, but is was the mix of her strong personality and my brokenness that left me feeling obligated to her care when that is the last thing she would have wanted and it would have broken her heart if she had known. But, nonetheless, it was a real issue. The reality of this unhealthy attachment surfaced when I realized I had a very short fuse after being around her for a half an hour. I was mystified by that and could never figure it out, but when I took that obligation to Christ and broke that tie in prayer, it was like a light switch turned on and the irritation was suddenly gone. For the last three years, I deeply enjoyed the company of my mother for hours when we were around her. I got to love my mother as never before and as she took her last breaths, I thanked God for those three years! I am so grateful! Again, not the summer I planned, but I am so, so grateful for these experiences and the countless other things the summer brought. What I am learning about gratefulness is that it can be found in both joy and sorrow. More on that to come later….

Bart Hansen

Defensiveness

Defensiveness. What does that word stir in you? About a year ago, my wife and I were talking with a counselor I’d spent some time with when my wife said, "Thank you for giving me back my Bart." I turned to her and replied, "Sweetheart, I have always been here." Our counselor friend interjected, "STOP! Do you realize how defensive that statement is?" Having no idea what he was speaking of, I replied, "No." I was totally clueless as to his point regarding the statement I’d made to Tannah. What had started as a conversation of gratitude soon turned into a counseling session for me. Our counselor said, "Defensiveness is one of the most egregious and seductive sins we can commit. We become our own advocate rather than allowing Christ to be our advocate." I was so deeply seduced by and submerged in defensiveness that it was unrecognizable to me! It got me pondering the defensiveness l exhibit. As I became aware of this new category of brokenness and sin and how it played out in my life, WOW—I was shocked. I realized I am defensive in so many areas of my life and personality; it shows up in most of my conversations with people. When I become defensive, I have to ask myself, “What is my motive?” In the story above, my motive was self-justification; I was trying to deflect my wife’s comment by defending that I am and have always been the person she wants. The counselor discovered otherwise from my comment. Sometimes defensiveness is justified and holy, but I now ask myself these questions to qualify mine: “What is my motive for being defensive?” and "Am I being my own advocate or am I allowing Christ to be my advocate?" I’m finding that asking these questions eliminates such things as manipulation, argument, and self-exaltation (things I am repenting of). I’m learning that defensiveness is very deeply ingrained in my being, and I have much left to discover in this area with God. So I ask you again, what does "defensiveness" stir in you?

Bart Hansen

Best Days Ahead

I have a good friend, Jim Horsley, who once said, "When your memories exceed your dreams, you are headed for the grave." In other words, your best days are ahead. Living with this mindset is really the only way to truly live. Jim, whom I greatly admire both as a pilot and as a man, flew two hundred combat missions off the carrier Midway during the Vietnam War. He then flew with the US Navy's Blue Angels from 1980 to 1981. Jim's aviation resume of accomplishments in combat and precision flying is one few can rival. A pilot myself, I have always attempted to pry out one of his many riveting combat or Blue Angel flying stories, in hopes of relishing the details of his vast experiences of high adventure. But when asked if he'd share a story or two, Jim would often quote, "When your memories exceed your dreams, you are headed for the grave," and then talk about something else. He would rarely share from his stories of high-speed adventure. In Jim's story, the pursuit of his faith in God followed one of the final air shows he performed with the Blue Angels in front of 750,000 people in Washington state’s Puget Sound. It was one of his best performances, with near perfect weather conditions and a record crowd that enthusiastically worshipped the prowess of the Blue Angels. In a moment of feeling the highest adoration and success for his skills and talents, Jim found himself standing alone in front of a mirror, asking himself, "Is this all there is to life?" Something greater was calling to the emptiness he felt inside. Seeing that all the accomplishment of his flying could not fill the emptiness inside him, Jim left his flying career and soon discovered what it meant to have faith in Christ and find his validation in God. He eventually became the development director for World Vision and went back to Hanoi, bringing humanitarian aid and the gospel to the people who were once our enemies and whom he’d bombed in Hanoi during the Vietnam war. To my point—Jim is looking ahead to where God is taking him, with the knowledge that regardless of what has happened in the past, God is bringing him, His beloved, into better things and into a larger story (Rom 8:28). If we live in the memories of the past, we limit where God can take us in the days ahead. I’ve known this to be true when I find myself discouraged about how the current things in my life look. I then begin thinking about things in the past, how much better they were and how I long for those times. It is such a stealthy ploy of the enemy to cause us to burn up the days of our lives longing for the past, when God is always moving us toward a larger story where we have an invitation and authority to bring His Kingdom. The past is good, as it defines so much in our lives and is a place to go for the context of our healing and restoration, but God doesn’t want us to live there. The story of the gospel is God bringing restoration and His Kingdom to us, and we are invited to live in that rhythm with Him. So I choose to agree with my good friend Jim. Indeed! My best days are ahead.

Bart Hansen

Holiday Family Kryptonite (JuJu)

Why is it that the holidays when families gather are often fraught with warfare? I contend, in the context of spiritual warfare, this is a front where the enemy enjoys his greatest victories against what we deeply desire to enjoy with our families. And yes, we are quick to make the agreement that family gatherings during the holidays are minefields to either carefully negotiate or avoid altogether. Among the New Year’s desires and themes I’d like to focus on is the desire to break the above agreement and to pray early on against the enemy's assault on my family relationships. I think the weapon to disarm the various spirits Satan uses to influence family gatherings—such as envy, pride, confusion, distortion, defensiveness, misunderstanding, getting the last dig (whatever that spirit is called), and all other unnamed spirits—is to choose love and to always examine my own motives as I interact with family. I want to choose to move toward honest communication in humility. That doesn’t mean making peace at all cost, but rather offering strength in relationships the way Jesus demonstrated in dealing with the people He encountered. Even Jesus’ own family had questionable motives as they inquired about His mission, and there may be encounters with certain family members that should be wisely avoided due to their poor choices beyond our influence and control (Matthew 7:6). Yet, when we should engage, He promises that our prayers are effective against such spirits of sabotage, and His authority is available to us as His followers (Luke 10:19). This past December, my wife and I spent Christmas with my older brother and his wife for the first time in many years. We have decades of history of not getting along, and so I have avoided holidays with them. Well, this year it could not be avoided, and we ended up staying with them for well over a week. (Pretty risky!) On the backside of those days in such close proximity, I have to say it was one of the most enjoyable Christmas holidays I can remember. I recognized two things in my control that helped redefine my experience. First, I chose to love rather than be contentious. My initiating this caused my brother to respond in love as well. Although he and I have disagreements, the spirit of love in our communication allowed us to voice our thoughts without stepping on a mine and opening a door for warfare. Second, my contentious nature toward my brother, at its core, is due to my own brokenness that I need to take responsibility for and disengage. As I prayerfully surrendered a lifetime of offenses from an older, stronger brother and disarmed that contention through forgiveness, I had the ability to act and engage my brother in love. Maybe next year we will begin family gatherings praying in the spirit of what I just said! I'm tired of the enemy destroying family fellowship, and I no longer want to just agree with the lie and vow to avoid my family during future holidays. All relationships involve risk, and maybe there is some element of truth that family relationships have more risk, but choosing to love and owning my brokenness has produced—and hopefully will continue to produce, through God’s grace and power—a reward of great family time well worth the risk.

Bart Hansen

Accountability???

Recently at a Wild at Heart Boot Camp our men's team was confronted with a question: “How do you men stay ‘accountable’ to one another?” When I hear the word “accountable” I think of either business discipline or a religious legalistic attempt to control behavior and sin. I have a long history with this; I have been in church “accountability” groups for decades. Once I was in a group of six men for several years where we came together once a week to pray for an hour or so, thinking this was how we would be “accountable” to one another. We would pray for each other about whatever each one chose to throw on the table. Then at the end of the hour we would go off to work thinking we were “accountable” and really had visibility over one another. The thing we didn’t realize—and had no category for—was our posing. Each of us would hide behind our fig leafs (me included), withholding anything we really did not want to reveal to our accountability partners. We later discovered that one man in the group had been involved in an illicit affair during those years of meeting and praying together. You see, the problem was that we approached this as sin management, thinking that if we somehow met frequently and prayed together, it would somehow make us good men and minimize our sin. We never told each other our life stories, and as a result we were pretty much strangers, even though we had a long history of being around one another. When I came to Wild at Heart and began to walk with this team, right away they asked me about my personal story—what was my marriage like, my childhood, my relationship with my father, mother, and siblings? And if they sensed any pose or something unusual they would ask, “What is that about, and where did that come from?” We would then stop as a team and ask God, staying with it until we heard and picked up the trail to its origin. Within a few months they knew me better—as I did them—than decades of previous relationships and so-called “accountability groups” I had taken part in. That describes our relationship with one another. Two years ago (when we'd been together as a team for ten years) these guys did an intervention on me, with courageous love. They saw I was not taking care of my heart and was driving myself in an unhealthy way, both physically and spiritually. They told me to go take a sabbatical at a critical time of the year when my responsibilities at Wild at Heart were at a peak. Although it was difficult, I knew they were doing it out of love because of the long miles we have traveled together. I experienced breakthrough, deliverance, and healing in the ministry of Christ with these men. This is better than being “accountable.” It is loving one another courageously.

Bart Hansen

005: (Video/Audio) Risking Love – An Interview with Bart Hansen [Podcast]

An old, wise man, Jeremiah, suggested this: Go stand at the crossroads and look around. Ask for directions to the old road, The tried-and-true road. Then take it. Discover the right route for your souls. (Jeremiah 6) There are few things in which I find more life than asking older men the hard and holy questions, helping to illuminate the tried-and-true road. Join me for a conversation with a friend and hero, Bart Hansen, and together let’s discover more of what is right for your soul and mine. (We captured this conversation as both an audio podcast and a video.) Click to Listen Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in browser | Download

Bart Hansen

#005: (Video/Audio) Risking Love – An Interview with Bart Hansen [Podcast]

Bart Hansen