Become Good Soil

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download Eugene Petersen, author of The Message, makes this observation: The two most difficult things to get straight in life are love and God. More often than not the mess that we make of our lives can be traced to the failure in one or both of these areas. Sages have a capacity to see our lives illuminated with a glow that can only be app...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download I've lost the ability to bullshit. It's the me I've always wanted to be. It's one of my all-time favorite film quotes, spoken by Jerry Maguire as he sheds the Poser and becomes more and more the kind of man to whom God can entrust His kingdom. The film is a modern parable of a transformational process being made available to us ever...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download It was Dallas Willard, in The Divine Conspiracy, who suggested, Jesus’ enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak, to heal, and empower the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ORDINARY human beings, living ordinary lives and coping in their daily...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download How we relate with other people is one of the greatest indicators of our spiritual maturity. This was the counsel offered by an older, wiser man years ago as he helped untie the knots in my rope and my marriage. One tough conversation began the beautiful and life-changing process of understanding how our predominant style of relatin...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download "Deep calls unto deep..." the Scriptures suggest (Psalm 42:7). There is in every moment of every day an accessible onramp to the narrow road that leads to Life. Often the onramp is hidden in the ache and longing to ever more wholly experience life as a son.  And when we pause and let this ache rise, we begin to sense the voice of ou...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download C.S. Lewis, in The Problem of Pain, once said this, What can be more a man’s own than this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him? And what shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the Divine beauty better than any other creat...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download It is rare that we pause and pull back far enough from our daily life to observe and wonder about the who we have and have not yet become. At  Wild at Heart  we produce a weekly podcast, and Craig and Allen recently invited me into the studio to reflect on how we've each changed over the last decade. It was the first of a series of...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download The soul searches for a Father. It was John Ortberg who put those words to me in a way so succinct it cut to the core. I see it in nearly every action of every day. Every reaching. Every ache. Desire reveals design.  Design reveals destiny. It is the intention of the heart of our True Father that we would become sons in ways beyond...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download For centuries, Celtic Christians have identified a "thin place" as a location where the veil between heaven and earth becomes especially sheer; a place where the unseen reality of God’s Kingdom is made vivid to the senses; a place where the Presence of God is unmistakable as it rouses the deepest spaces within the human heart. I can...

There are few men I respect more than Dave Tolman. He is one of the giants who served as a sage and guide at the most recent Become Good Soil Intensive .  I had a rare chance to turn on the microphone and record a conversation with him that I think you'll enjoy.  Dave is a Kingdom strategist. It's been said that a good king cares far more about your heart than he does your gifting.  And it has als...

Podcast:  Subscribe in iTunes  |  Play in new window  |  Download A few thoughts on discipleship from Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard to begin: Who teaches you? Whose disciple are you? Honestly. One thing is sure: you are somebody’s disciple.  You are learning how to live from somebody else. There are no exceptions to this rule, for human beings are just the kind of creatures who have to learn...

"Never let the truth get in the way of a great story.” – Craig McConnell Nearly a decade ago, I had the privilege of seeking wisdom from Craig McConnell, a man who's seen many miles, fought many wars, and conquered death more times than I can recount. It was an even greater privilege to circle back with him on another conversation, this time recorded for the benefit of other men like you.  Join us...

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 frie...

C.S. Lewis was right when he summed up the dilemma of modern masculinity: "We castrate the gelding and bid him be fruitful." It's painful.  And it's true. Become Good Soil is committed to helping men find an alternative path—a narrow road—that doesn't "remove the organ and demand the function." Join me for a conversation with Jon Dale and Adam Paulsen , two of my peers, allies, and role models, as...

To every relationship, to every circumstance, at every given moment, we are either bringing our question or our strength.  Our search for validation and identity as men is the root of all that we do and all that we become.  This was at the center of a great conversation I had with Allen Arnold, Director of Content for our Special Ops team here at Wild at Heart.  Jeremiah was right: it's good, real...

Dan Allender makes this bold suggestion regarding peer friendship in this decade: Find like-hearted kings living in the same direction. Sign treaties.  When one kingdom is at war, both are at war. Join me in a conversation with two "like-hearted kings" who have chosen to give a decade to Becoming Good Soil.  These men have chosen to fight for the hearts of their wives and kids and to become sons o...

Welcome to another Kingdom experiment.  This is the first episode of the Become Good Soil Podcast.  The BGS Podcast is a combination of interviews with sages, conversations among peers, teaching and more; all aimed at providing nourishment for men choosing a decade of Becoming Good Soil. By way of introduction to the heart of the message, this first podcast is a teaching from The Intensive . [powe...