John's Blog
Today's The Day!
Well, Stasi and I have been up for most of the night. Not because of excitement (today is a big day!). Not because we ate too many bratwurst (they were really good, especially with mustard). The reason was attack. The spiritual warfare in our home and bedroom last night was palpable. You could feel the presence of evil. After a few rounds of prayer, we did get to sleep. Sometime after 3am. It's a compliment, really, in a back-handed way. The enemy is freaking out. And well he should be. Well he should be. Today is the official launch of Love and War! Stasi and I wrote the book in the spirit of, "What would we say to help other couples find their way through the minefields of marriage to something really beautiful together?" This is not a book of principles. We do not present ourselves as marriage "experts." I don't enjoy those kinds of books, frankly. This is a field report from a man and woman, both very human, of what we have learned. We think you're going to LOVE it! We KNOW it's going to be very helpful! So we hope you'll grab a copy for yourself, and give a dozen to couples you know for Christmas. I mean, what better gift? "Here is hope and healing and joy and a battle plan for your marriage. Things will never be the same!" That is why the enemy is freaking out :) O, and don't forget to join us tonight for the webcast! 7pm Mountain Time. Log on at http://livestream.com/WaterBrookMultnomah. Let's go save some lives!
John Eldredge
One Week from Today!!!
December 15 is a big day for Stasi and me. It's the release date for Love and War, our new book! We're also doing a live webcast that day. We've been looking forward to this for a long time! Our hope and longing and earnest prayer is that God uses this in a HUGE way. To help marriages. And to draw folks into the beauty of this Gospel. We know the book has the power to. Our marriage has been rescued by all that we write about, all that we divulge. It certainly is the most vulnerable book we've ever written. A couple weeks ago I was reading in Augustine, when I ran across the phrase "a new song of deliverance," and the Spirit grabbed me, and said, "This is what Love and War is - a new song of deliverance!" Wow. Now that has hope written all over it. Join us in this move to rescue hearts. Here's what you can do: Pray for us! Log on to the webcast next Tuesday, December 15 at 7pm mtn time. Here's the link: http://livestream.com/WaterBrookMultnomah. Give Love and War to your friends. Hey, it's Christmas time. Perfect. I ran into a young man a week ago who said, "My wife and I were praying, and we felt God wanted us to give Love and War to the married couples we know, for Christmas. It feels like a risk, because we are only newly married, and the budget is tight, but we sensed this is what God wanted us to do." They ordered 15 copies to give away. How cool is that?! How loving. And how powerful for the Kingdom. Those homes are going to be singing a new song of deliverance! That's what it's all about. That's the work of the Kingdom. Join us!!
John Eldredge
The Best Present I could ask for
Well, we crossed the threshold into Advent on Sunday. As my thoughts have been turning towards the Advent season, and the coming of Christmas, I found myself thinking about gifts I would like to give, and gifts I would like to receive. After a good bit of meandering, I landed on what I most want to ask from God, the greatest gift he could give me. Himself. That's what I want. That's what I most need. I thought of something CS Lewis wrote: "God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." All else that I long for is either found in God, and only good in him, or, I can do without if I truly have God. This is really the greatest gift we could ever receive. Then my thoughts turned to some dear souls who live with diminished views of Jesus and the gospel he preached. I see how sad their experience is, how limited, even bound, and again I found myself realizing what an enormous gift it is to have God as he really is, have his gospel as it really is. The torment of misunderstanding can be awful, as those who live under the common Christianity-as-guilt know very well. As do those who live without his nearness, or counsel, or deliverance. To know God truly, to have him truly is the only life there is. Which then led me to something I'd read recently in MacDonald (this is how my quiet times go, one thought leading to another): "The God and Father of Jesus Christ could never possibly be satisfied with less than giving himself to his own." That is what I want. This is what I'm asking for. O Jesus, give us yourself, as you truly are.
John Eldredge
imotives 2: things I would not be caught dead doing
singing onstage before a live audience getting a pedicure wearing a clown suit to the next Wild at Heart retreat having my personal journals read aloud at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention yodeling on Oprah in a tutu There are certain things that simply strike fear into our hearts when we given them even a passing thought. The fear is gut level. It has nothing to do with what is rational. It is primal. You have your list, and I have mine. Just to make sure you are tracking with me, jot a few down. Begin your list. “You could never pay me to…” fill in the blank. Wear your pajamas to church. Roller blade in a Speedo through the mall. Grow a neck beard. C’mon. Fess up. You have your list. We like to think of ourselves as above this stuff. We are free from the opinions of others. We are secure. We are no slaves to fashion. We find our identity in Christ. That is, unless we are asked to do several of the things on our “list.” In the next ten minutes. Can you sense the fear leap up? “There’s no way. I’m not gonna do it.” This fear runs deep in the human race. It is ancient. Genesis 3:10 stuff, the fear of exposure. It is far more powerful than we like to admit. It is the origin of every fig leaf and fashion trend. It’s what gives power to culture, by the way. And peer pressure. We long to be praised. We dread exposure. I’m convinced that until we have a healthy appreciation of how deep this actually runs in us, we won’t have a true grasp on our motives. I long to be esteemed. I have an allergy to being laughed at. Now yes, we might point to pop culture or some group and say, “That has no power over me. I don’t care what they think.” That may be true. You won’t get gages in your ears. Or you won’t wear a tie. But you have a group that you do care what they think. Very much. (The irony, of course, of the “rebels” in every generation, the punkers or grunges or goths is that while they give the finger to society they carefully dress and speak and act to impress the one group they do care about. They desperately want to fit in.) We flatter ourselves. But the truth is, we know exactly what our particular group esteems, what they consider utterly distasteful, and we play to the crowd. Or at least, do our best not to stand out. (University professors typically do not wear cammo to commencements). The same fear drives us. This is no cause for shame. But it does beg a little humility, and honesty. Our fig leaf is not quite as noble as we assume. It cracks me up how much I think about this, while pretending not to think about it. I am about to order a pair of shoes on line. I know what I like. I also know what my peers would think was cool, and, more importantly, what would invite quite a bit of grief. Can you guess which shoes I am not going to buy?
John Eldredge
i Motive
Most of you have probably seen by now the commercials comparing the Mac to the PC. “Hello. I’m a Mac.” “And I’m a PC.” (If you haven’t, you can watch them on the Apple website.) They are funny; they are clever; and they are absolutely brilliant. The Mac is hip, laid-back, dressed for the times, tolerant, “authentic,” the ultimate postmodern. The PC is awkward, dressed for the office climate of the 50’s, goofy, overweight, fumbling, and clearly not authentic. C’mon now, admit it – you want to be the Mac. Even if you don’t own a Mac or ever care to own a Mac, in that commercial, you want to be the Mac. Who wants to be the idiot? Let me back up. Let’s begin with motives. I was just reading a passage in the Gospel of John, how many of the Jewish leaders actually did believe in Jesus, “But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God” (12;42-43). It is a very human passage, so true to life. Think high school peer pressure. I mean, c’mon. You know it’s true. Look at everybody jumping on the “Green” bandwagon. Green is in, Green is enlightened, Green is the cause de jour. Every corporation from coffee to cars now sells itself as Green. Huh. They didn’t do this five years ago. How come they’re suddenly touting their Green credentials now? Do you honestly think this is all in the humble interest of a better world? Then why don’t they just do it, and not tell anyone about it? (Isn’t that what Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount?!) So, motives are essential, and motives are often shall we say, questionable. According to Jesus, anyone wanting to pursue a true life, anyone wanting to live with integrity and authenticity has got to be honest about their motives. This is core to his teaching. Back to the Mac ads. Surely you are aware what a powerful motive “wanting to be liked” is. It shapes what you wear every day. The way you talk. The way you present yourself to the world. What you say. What you won’t say. How you want to be seen. Your opinions. This defined high school. Did you really simply wear whatever you wanted and say whatever you wanted when you went to school? Heaven’s no; you’d have been eaten alive. Cast out. We made sure we dressed like and spoke like and held the opinions of the group we wanted to be part of. It might have been the jocks, the cool kids, the academic crowd. Regardless of the details, we all lived a very calculated life. We still do. Good grief, the Jewish leaders in John 12 choose fear of man over confessing Christ. “What people think of me” is a VERY powerful motivator. Thus the brilliance of the ads. In the powerful riptide of current opinion, laid-back is in; uptight is out. Tolerant is in; dogmatic is out. Enlightened is in; holding onto old ways is out. This goes way beyond computers. It shapes our theology, our politics, our values. It is shaping you more than you know. Call it i motives.
John Eldredge
Our New Website is Up!
Have you noticed – things always seem to take longer than you expect (and certainly longer than I ever want). But finally we are getting to release some new great stuff out of Wild at Heart I think you’re going to love. First, check out our new website! We’ve been working on it for some time now, and though this is a “soft” launch (we have a number of new pieces yet to come) we are really excited about it. Some of the new things you’ll want to notice are: Love and War! Stasi and I wrote a marriage book (yikes) that releases December 15. Friends who have had a sneak peek tell us they love the manuscript (whew). With that, we are also doing a Tour in January and February, and we’ll be podcasting and so lots of great stuff for couples coming your way. New resources! One of our deepest passions here at Wild at Heart is to continue to provide you with great teaching to help deepen your intimacy with God, and through that find the healing, freedom and life he intends for you. We’ve just released a new batch of wonderful stuff, including a teaching on The Life of Jesus that’s my personal favorite, along with five other audio projects. Stories! The best thing about Wild at Heart is the phenomenal stories people have to tell of how God is coming for them. We’re going to start featuring those on our new home page, which will be so encouraging to you, and, you’ll find there a way to share your story, too! More to come, as we seek to uncover the treasure buried in the field and share it with everyone we possibly can.
John Eldredge
Memory
One of my favorite quotes comes from Nathaniel Hawthorne: “Our Creator would never have made such lovely days and given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal.” I love it for a couple of reasons. One, it reminds me that the beauty of the earth and the golden days we do experience are gifts from a loving God, telling us what his heart is like. It also helps me with the dilemma of “but why do they pass so quickly?” I have a photo on my cell phone. It is an evening shot of the Tetons, taken during our summer vacation this past August. Like so many other things in my life, I have already grown used to the photo and don’t see it anymore, even though it is there every time I pick up my phone. But I saw it again the other day, actually saw it, stopped, took it in, and was taken back to the lovely evening. A sweet summer moment with my family in a place I love. I was reminded of how good it was. But I was also struck by, “and how quickly these beautiful moments pass.” It got me thinking about memory. I think God gave us the capacity of memory to help us enjoy the moments that in and of themselves pass so quickly. I mean, summer seems so long ago already, and though the time in the Tetons was a sweet gift from God, life has swept us downriver and the event itself is way back upstream, already faded from view. Except, I have the photo, which stirs my memory. And there I can enjoy it again, drink from it, linger longer than the event itself. We are immortal, meant to live above time, beyond time. But we live in time while we are in this chapter on earth, and we are uncomfortable with it. Stasi and I dropped off our middle son, Blaine, at college a month ago, and it was such a bitter sweet moment. His boyhood is over. The river has swept on and all those sweet days are upstream now and we are racing further on. Why must the days pass so quickly? I want to enjoy them far more than I am able to. Which brings me back to memory. I’m beginning to realize that I do not take advantage of this gift from God, this capacity that enable me to “linger at the table” in the moments of life I long to draw more out of. For they are always with me, and I can return there if I will make room for a moment to do so.
John Eldredge
Epic and Intimate
I have been thinking about the Christian life, and my own life, thinking about the essential themes, experiences and needs, and I have landed on these two words to describe it: Epic and Intimate. Somehow these resonate deeply as the core of life with God. As I thought about this, I remembered something that happened more than ten years ago, when my best friend Brent was killed in a climbing accident. I went to the mountains to seek solace, and solitude, beauty, and time with God. I was high in the Holy Cross wilderness, surrounded by majestic peaks and valleys. But the grandeur – the Epic – did not meet me as it normally does. I walked; I wandered. As I was descending back to my camp one afternoon, I came across a very small patch of very small flowers, tiny little white flowers so delicate and intricate they could have been lace. The dam broke; the grief poured out; I wept for the first time deeply. Because what I found in those flowers was the Intimate – the love of God, the mercy of God, the tenderness. Intimately. A few weeks ago Stasi had some music on the stereo, a soundtrack to a movie and it was very sweeping, moving, Epic. It stirred me deeply, woke me from the mundane, called my heart up. It was just what I needed. But on the whole, I tend to spend a lot of time in the Great Battle, and relish the Epic, find in it my life’s purpose. So again this summer, as I took to the mountains, I found it was the Intimate my soul most deeply needed. We were hiking in the Flat Tops; there was a 100 foot waterfall. It was awesome (Epic). I loved it. But what I lingered over were the smaller things – dew in the meadow, the tiny flowers (this time pink ones), the particular leaves and bark on a tree. Epic and Intimate. I think you could take these two categories and find them helpful in many ways. Those of us who tend toward the Epic need to balance that with the Intimate. And the opposite is also true – those who tend towards the Intimate need to awaken to the Epic and live in it.
John Eldredge
A Quart in my Tank
So, we try and build some margin into our “season” at Wild at Heart. We are very aware of the danger of burn-out in ministry. It seems like the number one occupational hazard for Christians. So common it seems inevitable. But no. We set a calendar that has some margin in it, and we do our best to stick to it. But try as one may, you can never predict the inevitable crises that come our way. Or the intensity of warfare. Or the myriad of other draining things that show up unexpectedly. It has been a brutal year. I arrived at June spent beyond all reason. Running on fumes. Thank God, we do build a sort of sabbath into June and July, where not all activity shuts down – still gotta pay the bills, answer email, finish edits, carry on – but we do get some breathing room to rest and recouperate before our season kicks in again mid-August. What will I do with this time? I feel like a man with three dollars in my pocket. Maybe a quart in my tank. And what astounds me is how quickly I think about spending what little I have. I get a little bit back in my soul and I start thinking about advancing the Kingdom. People that need my help. I get a little bit of God back in my tank and I start thinking about who I need to pray for. Lord have mercy. I made it to the station on fumes, but the process of re-fueling takes time and I’ve got less than a gallon in my tank now, and here I am thinking about hitting the road. No wonder God commanded sabbath rest. He had to demand it, insist on it, make it an issue of moral consequence, otherwise we wouldn’t do it. It is so easy, dangerously easy to get caught up in the pace of this crazy world that rest feels uncomfortable; doing nothing feels awkward; as soon as we feel even a little bit refreshed, we’re back out on the highway, blasting ahead. No. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to listen to God. Let him set the pace. Let him re-fill me. There is a time for action, and a time for restoration. God give us the mercy to accept the time he has us in. Especially when it is time for restoration.
John Eldredge
Old Friends
I was looking for some reading the other day to feed my soul, to supplement my time in the Scriptures. Browsing the bookshelves in my office, I sort of picked up one book then another, opened it, read a little, and set it back down. Nope, that’s not what God has for me. I can’t altogether say why I knew. Partly because it fell flat; partly because I wasn’t interested. But over time you recognize that gentle prompting of the Holy Spirit. Here, this is what I am saying. I found myself moved to grab two books: No Little People (a collection of sermons by Francis Schaeffer) and God in the Dock (a collection of essays by C.S. Lewis). I hadn’t picked up either of these volumes in a long time. For Schaeffer it had been a very long time. Both have played a vital role at different points in my spiritual journey. They feel like old friends. Schaeffer was huge for me nearly thirty years ago, when I first became a Christian. I came to faith in Christ out of a very pagan background, and I wasn’t looking for a religion or a church. I was looking for the Truth. Schaeffer gave me a worldview, showed me how the truth of the Bible applied to every area of human culture. But he also gave me a beautiful understanding of “true spirituality” (the name of one of his books). Over time I moved on. I would recommend Schaeffer to thoughtful friends, but they didn’t seem to resonate with his philosophical approach. Anyhow, back to the moment. I was preparing to go on this whirlwind Tour we’ve been doing across the US, and stepping into it already tired from a Boot Camp and an Advanced retreat for men and many other projects. We had prayed hard about this schedule; I did not trust it at all. I’ve preached against busy-ness and drivenness (in a CD called The Spirit of the Age) and I hate that way of life. But over and over I felt Jesus say, “This is what I want you to do.” So I sit down, flip open Schaeffer to no place in particular, and begin reading. This is what my eyes fell upon: “Both the Scriptures and the history of the church teach that if the Holy Spirit is working, the whole man will be involved and there will be much cost to the Christian. The more the Holy Spirit works, the more Christians will be used in battle, and the more they are used, the more there will be personal cost and tiredness. It is quite the opposite of what we might first think. People often cry out for the work of the Holy Spirit and yet forget that when the Holy Spirit works, there is always tremendous cost to the people of God, weariness and tears and battles.” It was a consolation. There certainly have been weariness and tears and battles. The consolation was that this is part of the deal, part of what I signed up for when I gave my life to God, and when I asked to be used. The consolation was also Jesus saying, “You didn’t blow it; I asked you to do this. I am in this.” God used the words of this old friend (I had long ago underlined this passage) to speak to me what I needed to hear.
John Eldredge
Quite a Beginning
So, we take to the road tomorrow for the Fathered by God tour. Really excited to be heading out. Except, a blizzard is descending on Colorado, so we are scrambling to get to Denver tonight, in hopes of still catching our (re-scheduled) flight to Atlanta in the morning. Provided they don’t shut the airport down. I thought driving up tonight would be safer. Except, the storm has hit and it is hailing really hard right now. Then the washer broke down with the two pairs of pants I was going to wear in it. Tried rinsing them off in the shower. While working on my talks this afternoon my computer froze. Went to my laptop. It froze. You know, when you get this much opposition, you know you are doing something really important for the Kingdom. SO, I hope you can join us at one of the Tour stops!! Check out www.fatheredbygod.com for tickets and info. Oh, and a few prayers our way would be mighty appreciated. I mean, we’re two days away from the event and the battle is heating up. Must be something mighty good coming.
John Eldredge
Air Travel and Sanctification
Stasi and I were flying back from New York’s La Guardia airport last Friday, scheduled for a 10:30am departure. Foul weather grounds our plane, due in from Washington Dulles. First an hour goes by, then two. Okay, we can handle a delay. But at four hours we begin to grow weary. It’s such a roller coaster when hopes are raised every time they announce the plane will be here at such-and-such a time, but then that times goes by and they push it out another hour. At five hours a rainstorm hits New York, and it’s coming down so hard the roof of the old terminal begins to leak. “You folks will want to move; this ceiling tile here sometimes caves in.” A rank odor fills the crowded terminal, now crammed with passengers from many delayed flights. It smells like cat piss. Six hours go by, then seven. After eight hours of waiting the plane finally gets through and we board. Part of the tension is that we are trying to beat a winter storm into Denver, get home to re-pack and pick up our boys for a 9am departure Saturday morning for the west coast, to see our son Sam. We take our seats aboard the plane. Then they hold us at gate for another hour. Nine hours now we’ve been sitting, waiting, praying. Did I mention we slept poorly all week, and we are utterly exhausted to begin with? Then the captain comes on to announce, “I have some good news and some bad news.” The good news is we get to depart. The bad news is that we will have to make an unscheduled fueling stop in Omaha because we can’t take off with a full fuel load. That means another hour and twenty minute delay. Will it never end? We finally reach Denver. As a sort of last cruelty there is no gate agent there to open the gate, so we simply sit on the plane for another half an hour, freedom so tantalizingly close. Then we can’t make it home because of weather, and have to stay in a hotel in Denver. After 17 hours of travel we fall into bed so tired we are almost delirious. Sleep sounds like the best thing all day. Certainly the easiest, given our condition. But warfare keeps us up most of the night. Now, everybody has bad days. The question is, what do we do with stuff like this? Well, for one thing, you pray like mad. When a pattern like this begins to develop (and I spared you several other stories just like it from the past two weeks) we must look for the enemy’s hand in it. This is not coincidence. Pray. Ask others to pray for you. But we did pray, and still had the day from hell. The enemy would like nothing more than to not only make life miserable but to also tie us in knots, to discourage and dishearten. So, we also have to let it go. Just give it all over to God. Find joy in the things he is giving. Perplexed, as Paul said, but not despairing. Struck down, but not destroyed. If we can keep heart, and receive the mercy God is giving, the enemy loses whatever our circumstances might be. So deliver us, Lord, from every trial that can be shut down. Teach us to pray and not lose heart. And give us the grace and mercy in those we cannot change.
John Eldredge
Time Out
It’s been Spring Break for my boys this week, and our family has been trying to catch our breath and just take it easy. Get some r & r. Watch some basketball, eat out, sleep in, goof around. It hasn’t gone so well. The city decided this was the week to do major digging outside our house. Starting at 7am each day. The weather has been lousy. While there has been some rest this week, there’s also been a lot of disappointment. And a ton of warfare. Our plans haven’t gone the way we wanted. And I’ve noticed something crucial about the way I see the world. I’ve been more than a little peeved about the way life turns out. As if I could say when and where the battle will come and go, and more importantly, as if I could simply take a time out from life. What I’ve realized is that I believe there are three kingdoms in this world instead of just two. In addition to the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, I think there is a third place that is sort of neutral ground, “normal life,” that place we can go to when we just want to get out of the fray. There’s God stuff, there’s the darkness, and then there’s going out to eat or taking a day off and all that stuff we call normal life that doesn’t really impinge on God or the enemy. I’m embarrassed by the naiveté of my thinking. And by how deeply ingrained it is. Really, I think I can jump into Kingdom stuff like ministry or writing or Bible study, fight the necessary battles involved there, and then jump out into this third place where I just get to watch the NCAA games or go get some tacos in a sort of benign reality that is neither really about or with God, nor evil. A kind of time out place. Then I get miffed when life doesn’t work out like that. I know I have this mindset all the time, but it is especially noticeable during those times when I think I ought to be able to check out. Like during Spring Break. Really, for some odd reason I think that because I want to check out the collision of the kingdoms ought to pass me by. But instead I have to pray because the enemy is coming on strong and we can’t sleep, let alone sleep in, and I’m ticked about it. I don’t think I’m alone in believing (or wanting to believe, holding fast to the belief) that there are sort of three places in the world: the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of darkness, and this third place we call “normal life” or just living or especially time out. But you can’t find that third place in the Bible. The view of reality presented there allows for only two kingdoms. Any life or joy or rest comes only as we abide in God, and walk with him. Not through this mythical time out I want to cling to.
John Eldredge
Blog Shame
So, I try and call my parents every Sunday. We live states apart. (Actually, we live worlds apart, making even a phone call kind of weird.) So over the years we’ve kind of fallen to Sunday evenings as the best time to catch up. I think a lot of people do this. Call your parents Sunday. But then you know what happens. Life gets busy. I travel all weekend and get home late and just don’t have the energy to call. Or, some friends invite us to dinner and the evening slips away and suddenly it’s too late to call. The same thing happens the following week. Then I feel guilty. I’ve missed two weeks. Which makes me hesitant to call because I’m ashamed I haven’t called my parents. Suddenly three weeks go by and it becomes really hard to pick up the phone because you’ve got to start with the apologies and the explanations. It’s hard to get back on track. Now I have blog shame. I know I’m not the faithful blogger. Life sweeps in, sweeps me away, and I forget. Then, I have SO many flippin stories to tell of so many ways God is working I don’t know which one to share. My brain overloads. Two (or three) weeks go by and blog shame begins to set in, making it even harder to blog. “Hi, it’s me. I know, we haven’t talked in awhile. The kids have been sick and I’ve been on the road but I’ve been meaning to call and well…how are you?” So, this is my act to overcome blog shame. There. I blogged. I’m even feeling better. I won’t wait so long next time.
John Eldredge
Finding Church
One of the most common questions we are asked here at Wild at Heart is, “What do you do for church?” Sometimes the question is posed as a sort of test – somewhere, somebody got the idea we are opposed to church. Not at all – we love the Church with a capital C, the people of God; we fight hard for the bride of Christ. We also believe in church with a small c; we attend church and we encourage others to do so. But where, when, how – I think that is behind the question when most people ask it. The question reveals a dilemma for the asker; a dilemma I think many people share. It is something we have wrestled with ourselves. What is church supposed to look like? Where do we find the kind of fellowship church was meant to provide? The question usually comes following a re-alignment. When we turn to God from the heart, seeking to recover our first Love, we awaken to the Gospel as a romance. Not a set of principles to be mastered, not a roster of programs to get involved in. First and foremost, the Gospel is a love affair with God. What a wonderful revelation; it opens up a whole new world before us. We soon discover that the heart is absolutely vital to the Christian life – the heart of God, and our heart, too. We begin to taste a bit of what Jesus meant when he said he came to give us life. A second revelation usually follows hard on the heels of the first – that we live in a spiritual war. Anyone seeking to know God deeply and truly suddenly finds that the romance is opposed; we have an enemy. Which leads us to wonder, “Where will I find allies? Who can I take this journey with?” The dilemma is that what you get when you walk into a church depends on what they believe the Gospel is. There are many “gospels” being preached out there (as there was in Paul’s day) and they are not all the same. Many churches do not make the heart central, do not believe in warfare, do not see the Gospel as a romance. They do not actually teach people how to be intimate with God, or hear his voice. Intimacy with God is not promoted; most folks don’t know how to find it. We’ve spoken to a number of good people, mature believers who sincerely love God and dearly want to join him in his battle for this world, but who have found church to be an exercise in frustration. The number of these folks continues to grow; it is a very significant trend. These are not simply malcontents, who really just want to sleep in on Sundays. These are sincere followers of Jesus and they want a genuine place of church; they just don’t know where to find it. So they ask us, “What do you do?” Let me first say what we have done – we have been a part of many different church expressions, from liturgical to conservative Bible to charismatic. And we have benefited richly from all of them. God can be found in many different expressions of “church.” Most recently we have found the house church model to be particularly focused on what we believe are a few of the absolute essentials. Read the various urgings toward “church” in the epistles, and ask yourself, “How could this take place in an hour on Sunday morning in a group of 500 or 5,000? How can we pray for one another, really? How can we encourage one another, really? Bear one another’s burdens?” It can be a rich experience to worship with a large group of people, and hear the word of God taught by a gifted teacher. But there is simply no way that the fellowship urged in the Scriptures can be expressed without involvement in a small group. Look at Jesus – he had an intimate fellowship in the twelve (and even more intimate in the three). If Christ lived this way, maybe we need it too! The Battle is heating up, dear friends; whatever you do, you do not want to walk alone.
John Eldredge
Those Sneaky Agreements
So, Stasi and I have been writing a book together for the past many months. (It’s on marriage). Through the holidays I was pretty much chained to the computer, trying to get it done by January 15. I took Christmas Eve and day off, and New Years day (which is my son Blaine’s birthday), but the rest of the time it was write, write, write. I felt like I barely saw the holidays. Now, I love writing. Of all the things I do, I enjoy it the most and I think it might be where I shine best. But I noticed that my heart was getting heavy when I woke up in the morning; I found my energy to write had slipped away. I was sitting at my desk, feeling blah. But instead of just muscling through the malaise, forcing myself to write, I stopped and asked God, “Lord, have I made some agreements here about this book?” Bam. Right away I could sense the Spirit revealing some things to me. “That dam# book” was one of them; not said in malice or cursing, but more in the spirit of resigantion, “Well, I’ve got to get back to that dam# book.” Another agreement was, “I don’t really enjoy this.” A third was, “I don’t really like the subject of marriage; I wish I was writing on something else.” NONE of these were true. But they had snuck in, over time, and I had very subtly made an agreement with them. Sneaky. Very sneaky. Knowing how damaging agreements can be, knowing how they pin our hearts down and give the enemy a place to work in our lives, I stopped and broke them. Each of them. Out loud. “I do like this; I love writing. I do care about marriage; I reject that agreement” and so on. The effect was almost instantaneous. In but a few moments, my heart was light, I was looking fortward to the day, my inspiration for writing returned. Take agreements seriously, dear friends. Ask God to reveal to you the ones you’ve been making. Sometimes the “revealing” will come when you make the agreement again, you catch yourself saying it out loud and you realize, “Wow – that’s an agreement.” Sometimes it’s something that plays “in your head,” in your thought life. Sometimes the Lord will speak to you what it is, or show you the topic you’ve got to look at. However it comes, he will show you. Then, break them. It’ll do you a great good. We finished the book, by the way. On time, even.
John Eldredge