Notes on Wisdom W/John Walt

This episode is the second chapter of the audiobook for Every Man's Journey, which is currently in production. The print version of the book is now available on Amazon (Here is the link) . Chapter 2 is titled "The Monomyth," it explores the connection between the greatest stories of all time and the journey every man was born to walk in life. There is a deeper story hidden in our favorite myths, b...

One of the effects of industrialization and globalization has been a cultural obsession with scale. We can sell a product to millions of people on multiple continents and in many different countries. A message can be shared simultaneously with people around the world. Now, through technology, every person has the potential to take something to scale. From startups to manufacturing, packaged goods,...

These prayers are inspired by some of A.W. Tozer’s prayers in his book Knowledge of the Holy . Please join me in praying these powerful prayers as we seek God’s face together.

Recently, I have been studying Bonhoeffer and reading more of his work. I have been struck by the way Bonhoeffer observed Jesus and His Gospel being removed from the Nazi German church. During this same time in America, the humanist movement did the same thing. Two very different situations in almost every way, but both are removing Jesus and the Gospel from Christianity. At first pass, it seems i...

It is impossible to underestimate the role that storytelling has played in shaping communities, cultures, and civilizations throughout history. Before we had written languages, ancestral tribes relied on oral traditions, built around stories that passed down their collective wisdom and history. Our minds are created to learn through story, not just the passing along of information. Some people can...

I had the privilege of interviewing Eric Swithin, a former combat Marine and businessman who God called into a wild adventure. His journey has taken him from initiating young men in the Rocky Mountains to producing films and ministering in countries around the world. In this conversation, Eric discusses his transformative journey from a troubled childhood to discipling young men and addressing the...

If you don’t trust the surgeon, you probably won’t show up for the surgery” - Scott Dohner The original lie satan used in the Garden of Eden as his first attack on humanity was to cause Eve to doubt whether God was trustworthy. Ever since then, the deceiver has continued to use the same attack on all of us. What Eve did when she ate the forbidden fruit was her attempt at taking control of her own...

In this episode, I read to you the introduction and first chapter of my book Every Man’s Journey. To request a pre-release copy, visit johnwalt.com/books . 

Brian Schroller is a master at creating transformational experiences. He left an impressive career in banking to pour into leaders and help them build better businesses. Today, he leads SummitTrek with Paul Nadeau, and their work has expanded around the world, impacting thousands of business leaders on several continents.  I have had the privilege of learning from Brian, attending SummitTreks even...

Larry Mills started in the parts department of Holt Caterpillar when it was one of the smallest dealerships in the country. He later became Executive Vice President as the company grew into the nation's largest dealership. Larry worked with Ken Blanchard to launch Values-Based Leadership at Holt as it grew rapidly, eventually becoming a highly successful, multi-billion-dollar company built entirel...

Humility gets a bad wrap. Often, the way it is taught to us is a form of self-deprecation. Years ago, a friend of mine from Australia told me about “tall poppy syndrome.” It’s where some people criticize and undermine others who have accomplished something great or who are unusually talented. The idea is that they need to be “brought down to size.” Obviously, this isn’t healthy, and no one wants t...

I heard the term "Dark Night of the Soul" for many years before I really began to understand what it was and the critical role it plays in our spiritual journey. During a challenging season, I felt led to read The Dark Night of the Soul by Saint John of the Cross. But it wasn’t until years later, after going through a very long dark night of the soul, that I learned why this often misunderstood se...

Fraser Scott is the Executive Director of Bright Hope World, a New Zealand based ministry that works in 30 countries around the world. They focus on serving and ministering to the poorest of the poor. I recently had the privilege of hearing Fraser present and was very impressed with the wisdom he shared and how Bright Hope World approaches global missions and poverty alleviation. I asked Fraser to...

God’s order for creation.  “Good is that which all things seek after.” - Thomas Aquinas There is a growing trend in our information-saturated world to act like right and wrong are whatever we feel like they are. Truth has increasingly become a personal choice, like which sports team to cheer for. We have so much information and scientific understanding of the world that we think we are more enligh...

We weren’t made for the world we live in. We weren’t made for a Box-and-Line (Note 8) world. Yet we have to look around us and accept that the entire world is increasingly box-and-line. We weren’t made for job titles, careers in corporations, certifications, accreditation, employee handbooks, roles in organizations or political parties, to name a few. Somehow, we have bought into the lie we have b...

Man’s greatest battle has always been the battle to overcome himself. This simple truth has been all but forgotten in modern society. Before we dive into man’s greatest battle, let’s look at how we forgot one of the most important themes of human life and societal health. Scientific thinking has led to incredible advancements in tools, technology, and medicine that have completely transformed the...

Often, what's most important in life is not something new, but the things we have forgotten and must remember. We are all surrounded every day by endless new information in the form of podcasts, articles, videos, books, news, and AI. It is astounding how much information there is out there, and now it is more accessible than ever. Influencers are constantly selling us their opinions on how we shou...

Peace is completely misunderstood and undervalued in the modern world. Everywhere you look, people are stuck in stress, fear, and anxiety. Few people actually seem to live in real peace. The world is frantically chasing peace by other names all the time, and they don’t even know it. If you distill down the promises of most spiritual teachers, business gurus, social media influencers, and politicia...

Scott Dohner has been a mentor of mine for years and has had a profound impact on my life. We sat down and recorded a conversation recently that I would like to share with you. In this episode, Scott shares some of his story and what shaped him and his business journey. Click below to listen to this conversation on Apple Podcast or Spotify. 

Have you ever found yourself wrestling with things that you feel like you should do or ways you think you should act or look? We all have battled the “shoulds” of life in some way, shape or form. Often, this struggle is daily or perhaps constant. We are all unconsciously given sets of expectations for work, sports, community, faith, school, and every other area of our lives. We are told how to fit...

Encountering God is a challenging topic to write on. The last few months, it has become clear to me that it’s something we don’t talk enough about. In Note 12, I wrote on the separation of the sacred and the secular. We tend to see sacred things as different from the rest of life, and so they get relegated to church, retreats, and quiet times. We often struggle to see the spiritual overlaying ever...

Right before I turned 25, I was in Malawi, and the terrorist group Boko Haram had just taken 300 girls from a school in Nigeria. I was so mad about what had happened that I decided I was going to go there and find a way to help. I went on a run one day, to try and blow off some steam. A few miles in, something hit me. God spoke to me; it wasn’t an audible booming voice, but it might as well have b...

I have always loved stories and have studied storytelling for years. As a kid, I read about men who lived incredible adventures and longed to discover the adventure that I would live. I wanted to be one of those great men who stood up to injustice, dared to explore the unknown, challenged the impossible, built an empire, or discovered some secret wisdom. As I got older, I sometimes feared there wo...

I have never been good at doing what I am supposed to do. Because of that, I have caught a lot of flak over the years from the “keepers of order.” It seems that most people want a clear outline of how they are expected to behave, the more detail the better. If you give me a list of things to do I will struggle, but if you give me an objective to achieve, I come alive. In my early 20’s I found myse...

The greatest battle each of us must face is the battle to defeat ourselves. The world we have been baked in our entire lives tells us that we deserve to have what we want when we want it. The average person is hit with 5-10K marketing messages a day. Most of them we don’t even notice because of how many are coming at us, we have developed selective attention. So marketers work harder and harder to...