It will be late February by the time you read this. 2025 is well underway (!), and I wanted to offer a few thoughts for your life with Jesus.

First, let me express the deep and profound gratitude of our entire team for your generosity. 

We are a small nonprofit that has a massive global impact at the epicenter of the war for the human heart. This happens because we are supported by the financial gifts of our friends––like you. Your loving support, whether it is monthly or annually, is what enables us to have this stunning global impact! So, thank you!!!!

Okay. Moving on…

I think most of you know that I started producing short “Friday videos” from me to you as a spiritual father. If you were already signed up for our daily reading and/or our weekly emails, you’ve been getting those videos by email. We’re going to try to get them loaded onto our app, but in the meantime, if you’d like to receive these videos, come to wildatheart.org, log in or set up an account, and sign up for the weekly emails.

Anyhow, I did a video a few weeks ago sitting at my kitchen table with my journal out, my phone (through which I listen to worship), and the Scriptures. I was reflecting on my need to reengage with my daily rhythms. Somehow the dizzying pace of the holidays and the start of what has been an exciting new year had caused me to let my practices slip away.

And the thing is, you can get away with it for a little while. But only a little while. 

The well begins to run dry, and we find ourselves living more out of self-effort than out of our union with Christ. (I remember our dear friend Craig saying that he could skip the daily prayer for about three days before he really felt the effects of it.)

I was surprised at the number of responses we got to that particular video.

Even the best of us fall out of our sacred rhythms, so you’re not alone in that. This is your reminder to take those things up again.

But the why is very important for us to keep in front of our hearts and minds. Why?

Years ago the brilliant Dallas Willard wrote a book on the spiritual disciplines titled The Spirit of the Disciplines. He wanted to move to the forefront of the conversation the why behind any spiritual practice, whether that be prayer, worship, fasting, Scripture study, etc. The spirit behind the disciplines, Dallas explained, is that we pursue these things in order to tap into the unending resources of the life of God in us. Flowing through us.

Without that why (the spirit of these things), they become rote and routine, and we begin to let them go.

But when they are for us the very source of our intimacy with Christ, the deepening of our union—out of which flow joy, love, strength, comfort, guidance, and all the wonderful things union with Jesus brings––we don’t need to be persuaded to keep them up. We can’t wait to get to our sacred practices each day!

The world is a withering place. The pace at which most of us are required to live, the inundation of content coming our way, all the heartaches––it’s very draining. Union with Jesus is the only thing that will see us through. And union, once we begin to savor it, is not something we have to be convinced to pursue. Our soul craves it.

I started a new journal this year like I typically do. In the front of that journal, I have a list of truths that I personally need to be reminded of each day. I journal when I’m praying, but normally to record encounters with God and important things he has been saying to me. I need to come back to them and see them in black and white.

I have my Spotify go-to worship list, which I update seasonally. Worship is a core part of both Stasi’s and my sacred rhythms each day. Especially at evening prayer.

And I’ve been enjoying the Jesuit prayer app Pray As You Go, a lovely daily meditation on Scripture with music and guided prayer. It’s simple, like our own Pause app, and I think you would enjoy it.

I’m putting these examples in front of you to help you return to your own sacred rhythms morning, afternoon, evening, and night.

Finally, I was asking Jesus if he had a word for all of us in 2025, and what I heard him say was,

Come Deeper

Oh, how beautiful. My heart says yes! “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek” (Psalm 27:8).

Come deeper, friends. Don’t coast. Don’t drift away. Turn the very opposite direction and come deeper into Jesus this year! You will never, ever regret it.
 

Download the Wild at Heart February 2025 newsletter here.