JOHN ELDREDGE | How a Man Can Truly Experience Jesus
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 15 minutes
Words per Minute
176.87756
Summary
John Eldridge is a best-selling author, counselor, and founder of Wild at Heart, a ministry dedicated to helping people experience faith on a personal level. In this episode, John and I cover what faith and spirituality really look like, how the distraction era has hampered our ability to draw close to Christ, whether or not church is necessary on the path of spirituality, why finding truth is challenging but also worth the struggle, and how maybe for the first time ever, you can experience Jesus.
Transcript
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Out of the millions of men we've worked with over the past 10 years, I've heard everything
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from a deep level of disdain and animosity towards God and Jesus to a rich and abiding
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For me, I tend to fall somewhere in the middle as I personally wrestle with my own relationship
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with him and towards my faith and spirituality.
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And that's the reason I really wanted to talk with a huge influence in my life.
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Today, John and I cover what faith and spirituality really look like, how the distraction era has
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hampered our ability to draw close to Christ, whether or not church is necessary on the path
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of spirituality, why finding truth is challenging, but also worth the struggle, how the doctrine
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of popular culture gets it all wrong, and how maybe for the first time ever, you can experience
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You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path.
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When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong.
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At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
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Gentlemen, welcome to the Order of Man podcast.
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As of a couple of days ago, we hit our 10-year anniversary, and I'm so grateful for you tuning
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in over the past 10 years, and most importantly, applying all of the information, or at least
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some of it, hopefully a lot of it, in your life for the betterment of yourself and your
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careers and your family members and friends and colleagues and everybody else.
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So thank you, very grateful, and on the eve of our 10-year anniversary, we just opened
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This is our brotherhood of men, excuse me, our brotherhood of men, 1,100 men from all
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over, not only the country, but the world, banding together, and I've got a couple of
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testimonials that I wanted to share with you because we are officially open for enrollment.
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He says, I joined in December, went through the Forge, and joined Team Edge.
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Since I've joined, I've already become a better man through accountability from my team, being
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proactive with many of the channels, and developing connections with a lot of Iron Council members.
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I learned to finally open up about the things I thought I would never have mentioned to anyone,
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and the Iron Council has helped understand, excuse me, helped me understand and learn about
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myself, and you get the help I've needed to be a better man.
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This one comes from Steven Rager from Battle Team Eagle.
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He says, I've been a member for more than a year now, and I'm genuinely grateful for the
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When I joined, I was seeking accountability, and I found that and so much more.
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By constantly leveraging the resources available, I've achieved tangible results, including weight
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I like the various channels for specific topics to discuss things from cooking, battle planning,
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So guys, if you're interested in joining, you can join us at orderofman.com slash ironcouncil,
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or tomorrow night, March 19th at 8 p.m. Eastern, we've got a preview call to pull back the curtain
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You can go to, let's see, that is theironcouncil.com slash preview, theironcouncil.com slash preview.
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He's also the founder of Wild at Heart, which is a ministry dedicated to helping people experience
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He's very well known for his groundbreaking book, Wild at Heart, one of my personal favorites,
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in fact, which redefined Christian masculinity.
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He spent decades guiding men towards deeper transformations, but he's got a passion for storytelling
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It all shines through with his writing, where he blends biblical truth with real-world wisdom
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to help believers cultivate a closer relationship with God.
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And he challenges the modern struggle with distraction and disconnecting and invites men
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to encounter Jesus in their everyday life on a deep and personal level.
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It's got a lot of insights, practical steps, and a call to reclaim childlike faith.
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This is a very, very powerful guide to hearing God's voice and feeling his presence when it
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may be hard at times because of the era in which we live to feel it.
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I told you I was going to tell you some things only after we hit record, though.
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So one of the things I was going to tell you is about 10 years, maybe a little over 10
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years ago, I was on an airplane reading Wild at Heart.
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And it was about the time that I made the decision to start this podcast in movement.
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And so I was reading the book and really enjoyed it.
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Then eventually I put it down and was going to take a nap.
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Not that the book bored me, but ready to take a nap.
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So I put it in the front seat of the airplane there.
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So I bought another one, read the book, and wanted to tell you it's really interesting.
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So I started this podcast on March 15th of 2015.
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And here we are 10 years later, talking with you from a book that was really instrumental
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in helping me start this movement, almost 10 years to the day, because I think it's
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So it's amazing how this all comes around like this.
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Well, I'm excited about this conversation because we were talking a little bit about
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this beforehand, but it seems to me like there's dwindling numbers of men when it comes
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But I imagine with spirituality, that seems to be the case as well.
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It's always been tough to get men in through waves and seasons.
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Obviously, the first guys that decided to follow Christ were a pretty rough group of
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And they changed the world through their lives and through their death.
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But there is a fascinating thing going on right now.
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But before I go there, let me say a big reason why is the Christian church in the West, at
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And, you know, getting people around in a group to talk and share their feelings, like,
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Even the picture of Jesus that they've presented to the world, you know, gentle Jesus, soft and
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mild, you know, not super attractive to guys, not a guy that they would follow.
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So there's been this collective sort of feminizing, not because of a feminist movement, but just
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because, you know, women are more eager to serve at church, right?
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So they tend to fill all the programs and run the Sunday school classes.
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So everything's filtered through a female lens is really what it comes down to.
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And there was a very, very soft view of Jesus that was promoted.
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And guys are like, yeah, not interested in that.
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What's fascinating is that there's a shift going on right now.
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The largest growth movement in the Eastern Orthodox Church is young men.
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I know, I don't know the term, a father, I don't know his official title, but it's pretty
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And there's something about the rigor, I think, that young guys are gravitating towards.
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They're like, yeah, give me the real deal, man.
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So of all movements, the Eastern Orthodox, like, that's very rigorous.
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I wonder if, like you said, it is because it is the intensity of it, maybe, that has to
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Do you think there's, what about the distinction between spirituality and religion?
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Because I think that's a thing that, a distinction that a lot of people make.
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And you hear guys, it's like, I feel closest to God when I'm in the mountains.
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I understand the sentiment, but sometimes I feel like that's a bit of an excuse not to maybe
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To me, it would be like being on a football team and saying, I feel like I'm the best
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when I don't go to practice and I just kind of do it on my own.
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I mean, where do you come and fall when it comes to spirituality and religion?
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So the evil one tried to stop the revolution that Jesus started by killing him.
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Then he tried to stop it by killing all of his closest friends.
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I mean, all of them, but John, you know, were killed.
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And so what he came up with, he's like, man, I got to figure out a way to stop this thing.
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He came up with a brilliant counterfeit called religion.
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And I can warehouse millions of people in a sort of quasi connection, but they don't actually
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And they don't experience the profound restoration of the human soul that Christ was all about.
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So they get into these religious huge movements and the cults as well, and they just sit there.
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So if a guy, if that's all he's seen, or that's all he got a taste of growing up as a boy,
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It doesn't speak to, give me battle, adventure, and beauty.
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But there is a massive resurgence of spirituality.
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So you know that one of the growing podcasts in America is a podcast called Blurry Creatures.
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But what they've opened up is, hey, what about the rest of the spiritual world?
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What's all, you know, these different paranormal?
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Well, they kind of started it as like a sort of a kick.
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You know, it's like a Saturday afternoon thing.
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Because guys are looking, the human soul is made for a spiritual life.
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And what you do experience in the woods or on a river or in a really phenomenal moment
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So where can we get a genuine spirituality that allows the thriving and, frankly, the
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When you are out and you know, you hear guys say, and I felt those, I would say, spiritual
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moments on, we were talking a little bit about our hunts and things like that.
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And also simultaneously, I question, is this divine?
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Or is this me being a human being and just appreciating, tying back into my roots or something
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Well, this is what happened is we separated the sacred and the secular, so to speak.
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But scripture says that the whole world is filled with the glory of God.
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So when you experience God's presence saturates nature in a way, it does not saturate your
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Well, guys, yeah, they get out of the digital and they get out of the crazy and frankly,
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You get out of the artificial world where you don't like the weather.
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Just change it to 68 instead of 70 or whatever.
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Well, you can just get it delivered to your door.
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You get out of the artificial, you get out into the real, something happens.
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It responds to the presence of God, I think, in creation.
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Now, creation is not God, so I'm not a pantheist.
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And so for us to experience those moments, right, it might be beauty.
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And like, whoa, we barely made it through that.
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And there's just a sense of, oh, I think we were protected in that.
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That's far more alive and living than most guys get anywhere else in their life.
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I think the distinction that sometimes is hard personally for me to make is if you were to go to church, for example, you were going to be instructed.
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But if you go out into nature, there's no instruction.
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I had no idea this was the direction we would end up going.
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And I know a lot about like medicinal plants and mushrooms that heal and mushrooms that kill you and that sort of thing.
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And I'm walking through the woods and I'm looking at it going, Father, you're – first off, the natural world is wild.
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That is – there is a submission that you have to make.
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If you're not going to die out there, you got to kind of get your stuff together.
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I mean, even with mushrooms, you eat that one, you're dead.
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The kingdom of God is wild and beautiful and it is full of danger and full of healing goodness.
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And we are meant to learn to navigate our way through that.
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The natural world was supposed to be our tutor.
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You learn to navigate through the natural world.
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Here's a basic lesson every boy needs to learn.
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Every boy needs to learn there is a way things work.
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You cannot turn that canoe sideways in the river.
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Like, there's a way things – and it's very frustrating for boys because they want the quick.
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So, we learn a humility in nature of – you can't just do things any old way you want to.
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I mean, you go out there with a 22, you're not going to kill an elk.
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And there is a – this is so deep in the formation of the masculine soul, which is why I think the best thing you can do for young boys and men is get them in nature because it teaches them reality.
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It teaches them you have to accommodate yourself to a world that will either bless you or kill you.
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You know, we've had mountain lion encounters, tons of bear encounters.
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That is interesting because you see the modern world and what we try to do – I've called it the doctrine of popular culture – is that we try as a culture to manipulate and distort and contort all these concepts and principles to fit whatever makes us feel good.
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So you think about the confusion with transgenderism and all these different things that are happening and trying to confuse reality and what unequivocally just is.
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Like you can literally just live in a false reality.
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Well, you just go try and pull that off in a weekend in the desert.
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I was thinking about one where my oldest son and I – I'll spare you the story for now.
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But essentially, I almost died on Father's Day falling off a cliff when I was hunting goats, wild goats with him in Hawaii.
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And there was a moment I'm like, this might be over and there's nothing I can do about it right now.
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And so as much as you would say, I don't want that to be my reality, it is your reality.
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The comfort culture and the delusion is we can just create any reality, including changing our biological gender to take some drugs.
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But that is a fundamental denial of the world God made.
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So God is in the reality as opposed to the artificial or the self-created reality.
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That's why it is such a great tutor for the masculine soul.
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So to come back to – I'm going to come all the way back to the first question.
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Yeah, why don't men seem to have an interest in spirituality because they haven't made the connection that God is in the things you love.
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You're a cyclist and you're out there and you're cranking 50 miles this weekend.
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He will meet you there if you give him your attention.
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If you like lifting, if you like fishing, like early mornings, calm water.
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God created that, created me to love that, and he wants to father me there.
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They think, oh, no, no, it's – you go to church, you learn the lessons.
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That's all God's in, and the rest of the reality is just –
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Yeah, but he saturates all of his created world, right?
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And particularly, he pursues our soul through the things that we resonate with because some dudes do not have any interest.
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And God will meet him in the things that he loves and draw him in.
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Because the whole thing is the father-son relationship.
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Just like we are with our boys and our daughters.
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I want the same – I want a relationship with my children.
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I think it has to be done for men primarily in the physical realm.
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And I'm not saying it needs to be weight training or fishing.
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Because, again, cooking is filled with reality.
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You can't just throw a bunch of stuff in there and hope it's great.
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Unless you're in, like, Boy Scout camp and, you know, then you just all throw whatever you can in there and whoever eats it wins or something.
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And most guys just haven't made the connection.
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Why do you think – this is a really deep question, one that's been on my mind for a long time, actually.
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Sometimes I wonder, is he the puppet master up there dangling all these little – like, doing the play and trying to entertain like they – I think they talk about in, like, Greek mythology where the gods need to play things.
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But what is the purpose for God creating this and everything?
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Because his heart is very much like yours with your children.
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And you can earn a living and have a meaningful life, right, to some degree, but not totally and completely out of relationship.
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Because we are highly relational beings created in the image of a highly relational God.
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He's looking for human partners to join the great story and to be co-creators with him.
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God gives the gospel to the church to get out to the world.
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And I'm like, you could just zap human consciousness.
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So, what a man's experience is, is learning first to come into sonship.
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What do you mean by, how would you define sonship?
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No matter what your earthly father experience has been, and mine was not good.
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And I came in the doorway to spirituality first through Eastern mysticism.
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We used to eat peyote and go out in the desert and look for God.
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But actually, I'll tell you what happened was, we opened the door to the kingdom of darkness.
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And I saw my best friend get totally demon-possessed.
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He got picked up, thrown around like a rag doll.
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And that night, I knew, we have found the spiritual realm.
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Do you think it, what do you attribute you opening that realm to?
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So, hallucinogens, which is why as a therapist, I am not on board with the use of hallucinogens
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When you mess with human consciousness, you open the door to the kingdom of darkness.
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So, because of my brokenness, I didn't want anything to do with Father God.
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I came in the door through Jesus because I was like, okay, he's cool.
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Not gentle Jesus, meek and mild with the sheep, you know, and that sort of thing.
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But the guy who, like, literally descended into hell to rescue us.
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I didn't want anything to do with Father for years until I was able to heal the father wound in me and realize, wait a second, I'm projecting onto God all of my father's stuff.
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So, the first step of coming home is that a man realizes that you were created.
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Psalm 139, all the days of mine were written in your book before one of them came to be.
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He gets baptized in the Jordan and the father speaks and he says, this is my son.
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I mean, isn't that, you know, every man listening to that wants to hear those words from his dad.
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And I want to be able to share that, those words with my children.
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And your creator father, your true father wants to speak that over your life.
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When you realize that he really does adore you, he really is proud of you and he has a plan.
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He's got a role for you to play in the big story.
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I mean, your mission for the last 10 years, right?
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But you felt like, no, no, no, I'm made to do this.
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That's, that's the, did you look at when you were talking about Jesus versus God, the father, did you look at God, the father through the lens of, of your own dad?
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And I know a lot of people have some real animosity towards God, even believers, because why would he allow certain things to happen?
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And then did you look at Jesus, the way you're saying it was almost more brother-like.
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Men who have a hard time with the Holy Spirit didn't have a good relationship with their mom.
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Well, just because, yeah, well, it's just because the Holy Spirit is described as comforter, counselor, alongside of you.
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It doesn't resonate because of that, you're saying.
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I don't think the Holy Spirit is a feminine spirit.
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I'm just saying that there's a more tender side.
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So, yeah, I projected father onto God until I realized, wait a second, they had two totally, completely different people, you know, beings.
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And you asked, because it's related to God loves human partners.
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If you want a world in which love is real, you have to allow free will.
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You don't want your friends to hang out with you because they have to.
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I want you to, I want you to come with me, whether we're rafting or whatever we're doing.
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I want you to come with me because you want to be there.
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And so God allowed free will for angels and men.
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And angels and men, some of them decided, screw you, man.
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He allowed agents free will, humans and angels.
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And we drove the plane into the side of the mountain.
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I also feel like that's why, that's part of the reason I feel like we have such a responsibility as men to ward that off.
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You know, you think about horrific things, you know, sexual perversion and sexual violence against women.
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And atrocities and wars and Christian persecution in Syria going on right now.
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And that is part of the reason why it's so crucial that we as fathers and husbands, leaders in our communities, owners of businesses are so vigilant.
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Because we have to fight those things off that just are, to your point earlier.
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People sleep peacefully at night because rough men stand ready to do harm against those that would be violent.
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My boys would make guns out of every stick they picked up in the list.
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Because the warrior heart, God put into every boy because one day he's going to have to be that for his family and his community.
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And it was, okay, so this is back to why the church thing wasn't appealing.
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He doesn't want to, you know, give me that lightsaber.
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Or I even think about conflict with young boys.
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And my youngest in particular, he wants to fight physically.
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And I actually think it can be a healthy thing.
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If you let boys solve a little bit within reason.
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Let them, if they need to fight it out, let them fight it out.
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Because at some point, and you know the interesting thing about, that I've seen with boys fighting, probably more so than women who, young girls, I'm talking primarily, who fight, is they'll, with women, they'll remain mortal enemies forever.
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And with boys, you see two boys get in a fight, and they're punching each other and hitting each other and biting, doing whatever they can do to win.
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And then an hour later, they're like, all right, we're square.
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If we can affirm the warrior heart in the boy and hook it up to a good cause, right?
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And so when Sam, our oldest, used to wail on his younger brothers, I would not punish him for being strong.
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He wants warriors to join him in his fight against evil.
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And you need to be hardened to be able to do that.
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And what's so fascinating right now, Ryan, is look at all the cold plunging and the ultra running and the heavy lifting and all these programs, the meat diet.
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So you get guys like Jordan Peterson that get these huge followings.
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And Jordan Peterson shoots straights with guys.
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He is an interesting phenomenon because he's not somebody I would generally consider to be in the physical warrior realm.
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But from an intellectual perspective and the way that he communicates, he has that presence about him.
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Because then you take somebody like Jocko Willink.
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And he is more, he's also an intellect, but that's often overshadowed by his physical presence.
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And, oh, man, guys, like, if you will look at the wilderness, you will learn so much about the nature of God.
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Man, I'm just going to step away from my conversation with John briefly.
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Many, many men are drifting without a clear mission, without a brotherhood to push them forward.
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And the world has fed us a lie that we should figure out all on our own, that asking for guidance is weakness, that mediocrity is acceptable.
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But deep inside, you know that's not the life that you were meant to live.
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More strength, more purpose, more discipline, even more impact.
00:35:21.960
And the Iron Council is not just another group.
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It's a battle-tested brotherhood of men who refuse to settle.
00:35:28.020
They demand excellence from themselves, and also they demand it from each other.
00:35:33.540
You need a tribe that sharpens you, that challenges you, and holds you accountable to the man that you're destined to become.
00:35:38.960
The Iron Council gives you the structure and the tools and support to reclaim control over your life, your fitness, your mindset, your relationships, and ultimately your mission in life.
00:35:49.660
So no more excuses, no more waiting, step up, and stand shoulder to shoulder with driven men, and really at the end of the day, forge yourself into the leader that you were born to be.
00:36:01.100
Check it out at orderofman.com slash Iron Council.
00:36:05.180
Again, that's orderofman.com slash Iron Council.
00:36:08.080
Well, you know, as we were talking about people that we naturally gravitate towards as men, there's another one that comes to mind, but doesn't harness it and channel it through, I think, real virtuous living, and that's somebody like Andrew Tate.
00:36:33.240
He hasn't channeled that towards something virtuous.
00:36:36.460
But it is still attractive to a lot of men who aren't able to differentiate what is righteous and what isn't.
00:36:48.060
I mean, obviously, follow Christ, follow God, sure, but there's other people that we should be looking to for guidance and inspiration, I think.
00:37:02.620
You'll know it by—you can test a school, a government, an idea, a company by that basic idea.
00:37:23.340
And if it doesn't do that, no matter how much hoorah is there, guys, it's narcissistic.
00:37:31.820
A lot of that stuff is turned inward to, I just want to feel better.
00:37:42.860
That one of the—this is, again, the nature lesson for boys.
00:37:48.320
The big lesson is you're invited into a wonderful world, a world full of adventure.
00:38:07.700
This isn't about the next car, the next motorcycle, the next, you know, stoke.
00:38:12.160
Like, there's a narcissistic version of the warrior life.
00:38:26.200
Well, I think there's this big thing in society.
00:38:28.380
It's just like this happiness movement, maybe, where it's, you know, I just want to be happy.
00:38:36.100
You know, go—like you were saying, go change the thermostat.
00:38:46.360
I mean, there's all sorts of ways to be happy in the moment.
00:38:57.960
No matter how much they buy, no matter how much they eat, no matter how many vacations
00:39:03.840
they take, how many women they sleep with, they're like, why am I not happy?
00:39:12.380
So you're saying that the better pursuit—or what are you saying?
00:39:28.880
And when you deny reality, you begin to move into really bad human behavior.
00:39:38.940
It's one of the first big sort of wake up, hey people books.
00:39:42.360
And Scott Peck says, emotional health is accepting reality at all cost.
00:39:49.900
You know, I thought about this with all the transgender issues.
00:39:52.180
I just saw a study the other day, because the big talking point is you're doing this
00:39:59.580
And they're less depressed, anxious, suicidal, et cetera.
00:40:02.560
I just saw a study the other day that they had reviewed these individuals over, I think
00:40:08.940
And lo and behold, people that have assumed they're another gender or even taking steps
00:40:16.240
in surgery towards being another gender are less happy, more anxious, more depressed,
00:40:27.520
So Peck's thing was emotional health is accepting reality at any cost.
00:40:31.800
And emotional disease or mental disease, mental unwellness is denying reality at any cost.
00:40:42.460
So the first thing we have to do is come in alignment with him.
00:40:49.440
I'm sorry for living such a self-centered life.
00:41:02.420
And guys, like that life, that life is phenomenal.
00:41:18.080
He's got a huge group of cows with him, some satellites.
00:41:21.900
And I'm standing on the edge of the canyon waiting because normally what they do is in
00:41:27.680
the evening, they feed up into the meadow that's behind me.
00:41:38.800
And I'm just like, dang, man, I've been here all day waiting for them to come up.
00:41:57.000
You're saying God or you're saying your father?
00:42:06.800
I'm like, Father, I'll obey because you are in charge, but they're gone.
00:42:21.220
And the entire herd turns around and works their way back into the woods.
00:42:37.840
So with that, I want to ask a follow-up question.
00:42:40.360
Is that, how is that relevant to God's design and purpose?
00:42:49.980
You know, it's like sometimes I wonder, like, does it matter?
00:42:54.120
I remember when I was, and I'll share one quick story.
00:42:57.560
But when I was playing baseball, when I was a kid, we were, I think it was my junior year
00:43:03.360
and we were in the playoffs and it was a very close game.
00:43:06.360
If we would have won that game, we would have went to the state championship.
00:43:10.060
And I remember sitting in the dugout and I said, and I said a prayer, God, please help
00:43:19.760
I thought to myself, well, all the other players on the other team are praying for
00:43:33.860
Just like the last thing you want to lose is relationship with your daughter and relationship
00:43:46.660
And what those smaller lessons teach us, because yours wasn't a question of obedience.
00:43:53.580
Yours was a question of, we'd really love to have your blessing here.
00:43:57.080
And who knows why those things do and don't work out.
00:44:05.940
I'm sitting in my office one night and I'm in a marriage session.
00:44:11.540
And after the session, I just lingered there because I just felt like God wanted to say
00:44:18.520
And he said, you're only talking to two people.
00:44:30.640
You know, so then I kind of pursue it, which is the relationship.
00:44:33.820
And over the course of a week, I'm like, what do you want me to do?
00:44:50.940
I'd written an initial book with my colleague called The Sacred Romance.
00:44:55.220
They called and they said, hey, we'd really like you to write again.
00:44:58.980
And I said, well, one of the books I want to write is a book for men called Wild at Heart.
00:45:02.500
And that launched what has now been a 25-year wild story of adventure.
00:45:11.240
I mean, they're using Wild at Heart in the Medellin cartel drug prisons.
00:45:17.740
Yes, they do Wild at Heart Bible studies down there all over the world.
00:45:28.740
Well, because you hook up in obedience to the wild one, right?
00:45:34.580
So I would say that the idea is, what's the first move you said?
00:45:45.060
Well, I also think as you were saying, I didn't consider that.
00:45:47.660
The obedience part versus, hey, bless me with what I think I need or want versus, I'll follow you.
00:45:55.700
I also, as you were saying that, I was thinking, he's not going to give you something grand like leading millions of men across the planet if you can't walk down the canyon and go sit by a tree that he told you to.
00:46:15.700
You go from beloved son to the cowboy stage to the warrior, the lover, the king, the sage.
00:46:24.420
But there are stages of development and you see it in every boy's life.
00:46:41.600
Because something's shifting from the Lego years, right?
00:46:45.380
Into what I call, I call them the cowboy years because he needs hard work and adventure.
00:46:50.540
That's what trains the young man, hard work and adventure.
00:47:04.380
And that's why they blow up their worlds, right?
00:47:21.040
A lot of times, God will withhold his blessing because you aren't ready to handle it.
00:47:27.840
I've thought about that in hardship is that, you know, whether it's, you know, I went through a divorce.
00:47:35.280
And, you know, everybody has things they've gone through.
00:47:39.580
And one of the thoughts that has helped me get through those challenging times is if you can get through this, then something better, greater, grander is on the others.
00:47:51.940
If you can't get through it, you're just going to have to repeat it.
00:47:55.660
And I don't want to repeat what I'm experiencing right now.
00:47:59.800
Yeah, my friend Dan says, don't waste your pain.
00:48:04.420
Learn the lessons so that you don't have to repeat them.
00:48:09.700
Let's say we move from the Lego stage, like you're saying, to this King stage, without that Cowboy stage.
00:48:21.600
How do we recognize it and infuse it into our lives?
00:48:23.880
And conversely, how do we do that for our boys?
00:48:28.240
First off, among men, all of us are unfinished men.
00:48:32.640
We're all still, we're houses under renovation.
00:48:41.220
There's things to be healed, things to be strengthened.
00:48:44.100
So if you are biologically at the age of manhood, but you don't feel very well formed inside.
00:48:53.260
You're going to want to get yourself in the context of some men who are chasing that.
00:48:58.320
I mean, anything and everything from join the Y, man.
00:49:01.560
Go down there and play hoops every Thursday night with guys.
00:49:09.200
And you learn a lot about yourself and those types of environments.
00:49:19.040
Get yourself in the context of some men who are chasing that.
00:49:24.820
And so that's why we built, finally, like we've got this thing on our website now.
00:49:31.040
And you can get on there and it literally shows you the world.
00:49:33.800
You put in your address and it shows you here are men in your area who are chasing this.
00:49:51.460
So their initiation into manhood is a big part of my job.
00:50:01.040
He needs to know you adore him and he needs to know he has what it takes.
00:50:08.940
You've talked a lot about do I have what it takes?
00:50:15.260
Because otherwise it's fear and performance then.
00:50:31.420
And this is something that you communicate over a thousand lessons.
00:50:43.060
Every time you're like, oh, I got that book that I got to write or that project or the game.
00:50:56.180
And so I will deliberately pursue my adult sons.
00:51:14.140
And then you both tell him you have what it takes.
00:51:18.300
But the more important thing is that you lead him into experiences where he discovers it for himself.
00:51:25.620
Does there have to be opportunities of failure in those experiences?
00:51:35.100
You know, so he takes the training wheels off, you know, and he gets the bike.
00:51:40.640
If dad's there to pick him up, those don't end up being shameful lessons.
00:51:45.360
If dad's there to pick him up and say, you're all right, son.
00:51:54.220
And then you don't do the hardcore stuff first.
00:51:57.260
And I think this is why my youngest son doesn't like hunting, was I took him into it too young.
00:52:05.260
You know, and killing that first deer and all that.
00:52:12.100
And so age-appropriate challenges where he discovers, whoa, I do have what it takes.
00:52:25.200
You know, I signed up for speech class and I crushed it.
00:52:29.620
Like it doesn't always have to be outdoor stuff.
00:52:35.160
And so you're initiating your son into young manhood with the confidence that you are loved
00:52:42.100
And then the big lesson we've been talking about today is you have a strength and it's
00:52:47.960
Figure out what it is and who you're supposed to serve.
00:52:58.800
I was going to ask if it's the same for daughters.
00:53:03.620
But what would you say is, for lack of a better term, the initiation process for a
00:53:13.300
Obviously your mom needs to be involved and do things that you can't do as a man.
00:53:27.220
And it goes all the way back to you are worth feeding.
00:53:40.740
And you can't do absolutely anything for me and you're still worth it.
00:53:50.900
So the little girl, when she puts on her twirling dress, she says, daddy, do you see me?
00:54:01.000
And if she, the number one predictor of whether a girl's going to sleep with boys in high school
00:54:08.020
I've heard that because I think Dr. Warren Farrell talks about this and Dr. Leonard Sachs
00:54:13.920
talks about this and he, I'm paraphrasing, but they said that if she can learn to be valuable
00:54:21.460
in a man's eyes outside of her sexual attractiveness, she won't have to use sexual attractiveness
00:54:41.900
The question for her is more, am I worth fighting for?
00:54:48.400
And then, yeah, courage lessons because little girls need to learn bravery.
00:55:00.540
So if you are athletic, let's go into athletics.
00:55:03.300
But if you're not, I'm not going to force you there.
00:55:10.040
And there's an initiation she goes through, but we haven't written that book yet.
00:55:16.900
Because that is one of the questions I get a lot.
00:55:19.000
Obviously, this is a men's movement and I speak to men and boys are easier than my daughter.
00:55:28.400
But I do get a lot of questions about, I've got this girl and I don't know what to do.
00:55:40.900
For one thing, I would say, make sure she has women mentors.
00:55:53.800
One thing I've often thought about too is in those contexts is let them do womanly things that you don't understand.
00:56:14.040
But conversely, the women need to let the men go do what the men do.
00:56:19.400
And you don't need to understand why we like going to wrestle or fight or fish or hunt.
00:56:37.460
Because they don't want to go out and ride motocross.
00:56:50.340
And then same thing back women to the men is I respect who you are.
00:56:54.860
And the big test is if you come back from that outing, a better husband, she's going to dig
00:57:13.140
Or the potential of stepping out on her or a jerk or more distant, of course she doesn't
00:57:26.740
Yeah, I think about this idea of athleticism with my daughter.
00:57:30.120
You know, she never really had much desire to play sports or anything.
00:57:36.280
And then she got into dance, specifically ballroom dancing.
00:57:39.340
And she had a performance two, three months ago.
00:57:45.640
I was like, I didn't realize you were this good.
00:57:51.180
And she had got up there and did her thing and she's tall for her age.
00:57:55.180
And I'm like, okay, like, so the traditional sports that I think of weren't her cup of
00:58:05.740
One of the guys on our team has a daughter who, you know, got into the Irish dance thing.
00:58:18.340
You know, and, but he saw delight in what she delights in.
00:58:26.880
And so he invested a lot of money over the years.
00:58:41.780
So part of, part of the woman's journey is, you know, that one of the fundamental things
00:58:48.380
Shame is just pernicious for women and a failure of confidence.
00:58:53.260
So it's the same kind of thing of you have what it takes.
00:58:55.820
You know, you put her in situations where she's going to succeed and not be shamed, where
00:59:19.680
So what you're imbuing in her is you have power to bring life.
01:00:02.820
Brokenness, Isaiah 61 talks about, because you and I both came out of brokenness background into healing, right?
01:00:23.860
Well, and under that spreading oak tree, things can take refuge and flourish, right?
01:00:34.420
And maybe he intentionally hires single moms and he gives them a safe place, right?
01:00:40.060
To earn a living and to be protected and not be used by men, right?
01:00:48.440
Do you know a gentleman by the name of Jason Wilson?
01:00:56.560
He just wrote a book called The Man the Moment Demands.
01:00:59.780
And he talks about the concept of being comprehensive.
01:01:03.340
And he is working with young men in Detroit that come from broken homes, a lot of single families, fathers, mothers in prison.
01:01:15.200
It's funny when you're talking about letting your children find their path because I was, you said your youngest doesn't like to hunt?
01:01:34.780
And he gave me the best answer I've ever heard.
01:01:45.000
Cause you are going to experience all three of those.
01:01:47.960
And he started to get into sneakers, tennis shoes.
01:01:51.380
And I don't, I don't care about, but he loves them and he loves cars.
01:01:57.480
Two things I don't really care a whole lot about.
01:01:59.800
And he tells me about this model and that model and how this one is this, and this one has this engine.
01:02:07.000
And, um, we've had a rocky relationship in a lot of ways, but I see as I pour more interest into him and those things that I am personally not interested in, he opens up.
01:02:16.900
And a couple of weeks ago, he came to me and he's like, dad, can I show you something?
01:02:21.660
And he had this book and he opens it up and he's been drawing and I had no idea.
01:02:29.540
But for him to open up that way, I think speaks to what you're saying.
01:02:33.020
When you pour into what their interests are, they become interested in the relationship.
01:02:41.320
I do want to go back to something you said on the, you were, I think you were talking about a scriptural reference in Isaiah, if I remember correctly.
01:02:49.860
And you were talking about every page, I'm paraphrasing, has been written for you.
01:02:56.840
Psalm 139, all the days of mine were written in your book, oh Lord, before one of them came to be.
01:03:03.660
Which is not meaning God micromanages your life, but it means you have a story.
01:03:10.040
You have a place, you have a purpose, a destiny, a calling, you have an identity.
01:03:16.300
And where guys really get off the rails is when someone in their life, influential, gives them identity that's not theirs.
01:03:24.940
Either through shame, violence, abuse, where it's like, you suck, you're nothing, you'll never be anything.
01:03:31.060
And that guy was actually supposed to end up, you know, being a president of a multinational corporation.
01:03:39.960
Or when they reward him for the wrong things, you know, it's like, well, I don't care about your drawing.
01:03:47.620
Well, instead you affirm the drawing and you go, oh, maybe part of his destiny is in that, right?
01:04:03.800
And another thing that you said, what you were talking about, I'm paraphrasing again, but that a man wants his agency.
01:04:12.440
He wants to be able to make decisions on his own, have that autonomy.
01:04:15.260
And I know there's a debate whether or not in the concept and conversation of God, where everything has been written and is, and maybe even destiny, compared to free will.
01:04:32.000
I've had some deep thoughts about this personally, but I want to hear what you have to say about it.
01:04:42.840
You don't get to choose whether the sun comes up tomorrow.
01:04:51.820
You choose whether you're going to obey or not.
01:04:56.240
So we make absolutely, Pascal called it the dignity of causation.
01:05:01.800
God gives every man the dignity of choices that matter.
01:05:05.340
You get to cause things to happen, good and bad.
01:05:08.340
And you have to live with whatever the consequences of those decisions are.
01:05:13.040
That's part of that training of the boy in the woods, right?
01:05:17.460
You know, if you choose right, you're going to flourish.
01:05:19.620
You choose wrong, you're going to get hurt or maybe hurt others.
01:05:23.440
I thought about this concept of consequences because I think, you know, when we see our
01:05:27.940
children, your children sounds like, oh, everybody's out of the house.
01:05:37.180
I don't think there's very many people who enjoy that.
01:05:40.480
And so we oftentimes will rob our children of consequences.
01:05:45.480
And I use rob deliberately because if they don't get to experience the hardship of bad
01:05:51.020
decisions, they'll just keep making bad decisions because there's no consequence.
01:05:57.920
This is the most difficult lesson of parenting because for two reasons.
01:06:02.980
One, because usually their pain is much more painful than your pain.
01:06:12.540
Whether it's rejection or failure or loneliness or, you know, school and maybe a learning disability
01:06:22.440
We also have more reference on, you know, your first broken relationship.
01:06:35.260
And we have to treat it like it is for their sake, right?
01:06:44.360
The other reason we want to spare our children hard lessons is because we don't want the hassle.
01:07:00.400
He gets fired from another job at the burger place.
01:07:04.520
You're like, oh, man, I thought we had something rolling here.
01:07:09.600
So we just need to be honest that a lot of that has to do with our own personal comfort.
01:07:15.800
How does a man become acquainted with some of what we've been talking about, specifically in the realm of the spiritual experiences that you say, you know, we're craving, we desire.
01:07:31.260
Like, how does a man, especially those who are very pragmatic.
01:07:38.660
Like, prove to me that that's the way or that's what is.
01:07:49.800
Let me first describe the moment that we're living in.
01:07:54.440
So we've just come through the ashes of the enlightenment and like 400 years of just the worship of the left brain.
01:08:03.960
And if you can't explain it through critical reasoning and the latest science.
01:08:28.360
Because there's no good reason to be out there when I can be in here.
01:08:35.040
Because there's other parts of you that need to come alive.
01:08:38.740
So let's just start with let the other parts of you show up.
01:08:50.620
There are songs from high school that make you cry when you're driving.
01:08:56.760
So I listen to some hair metal mostly when I'm running.
01:09:15.920
You were made that way by a profoundly spiritual being.
01:09:28.960
He's going to talk to you through wise men and women.
01:09:32.000
He's going to talk to you through good podcasts.
01:09:37.680
He's going to whisper to you through transcendent moments.
01:09:44.060
So the cup of coffee in the morning, you're looking out the window, the snow softly falling,
01:09:57.140
So you just start, begin to open up to something that's beyond critical reasoning that I would
01:10:02.060
just call a little bit of the transcendent, right?
01:10:13.660
Some people like the Eastern, you know, traditional Orthodox thing, liturgy, right?
01:10:21.860
God is going to speak to you in your native language.
01:10:24.820
He will speak to you in the tongue that your soul gets.
01:10:29.940
So he's not going to shove you into a church experience that you're like, this is killing
01:10:37.200
That's interesting because most people will say, this is the only church that you should
01:11:02.160
Don't go eat ayahuasca, you know, and try and do transcendent things.
01:11:09.580
I guarantee you what you invite in is a whole pack of demons.
01:11:12.180
Stay within the protective Christendom that, you know, the family of God.
01:11:27.200
The guys out of Portland that have something called the Bible Project.
01:11:40.880
I want to know about the stories and the lessons and the experiences.
01:11:48.560
Well, we're going to link people up to your work.
01:11:52.100
And so talk to me about the book and let the guys know where to go because it's out right
01:11:56.660
And a lot of what we talked about is woven throughout the book.
01:12:02.180
So the book is called Experience Jesus, period.
01:12:07.020
Because the big bait and switch offer was, hey, if you come to our church, that kind
01:12:15.360
You know, you're meant to experience God deeply.
01:12:19.280
And so this is like from a spiritual mentor guiding you through, hey, let me just describe
01:12:29.980
Let me describe how God comes to you and speaks to you.
01:12:34.000
Let's walk a little bit in that direction together.
01:12:36.260
So yeah, the book is called Experience Jesus, Really.
01:12:40.220
You talk about some other concepts that we just didn't get the chance to talk about, which
01:12:47.200
I can actually feel my phone vibrating at me right now.
01:12:51.100
I should have turned it off and put it over there.
01:12:53.400
I've done pretty well at limiting distractions to the degree that I can, but we're highly
01:12:58.880
And you talk about the concept of the ordinary mystic, I believe, as well.
01:13:03.400
So there's some interesting concepts that are new to me that I've enjoyed learning more
01:13:09.000
That's letting, like, you just tell the left brain, just put the gun down for a minute
01:13:18.040
The part of you that's singing while you're running.
01:13:29.340
So that's the idea of being ordinary mystics is we're letting a little bit of the transcendent
01:13:34.760
When I'm in the woods, I realize, oh, my gosh, you are so here.
01:13:48.020
Well, this has been a real privilege to be here and talk with you.
01:13:52.700
Obviously, as I started the conversation, your work has been instrumental in my life.
01:13:57.100
So I'm very grateful and, in turn, instrumental in the lives of other millions of men who
01:14:02.400
have listened vicariously to your message through some of what I've been able to share.
01:14:14.420
You're offering your strength on behalf of others.
01:14:24.380
I know that was a little bit different, a lot bit different from
01:14:26.860
the other podcasts that we've done, but I found that the most interesting conversations,
01:14:32.600
the ones where I don't necessarily see eye to eye on every aspect of it are the ones that
01:14:38.520
I don't want to continue to have all the conversations with everybody that I agree with on everything.
01:14:44.260
The real purpose of what we do here with Order of Man is to equip us with new information
01:14:50.020
And so not all of this may have resonated with you, but I hope you're taking some of
01:14:54.900
it away and that it will apply in your life and will help you become a better man and better
01:15:11.080
And then also make sure that you check out our Iron Council.
01:15:15.600
I shared with you a couple of testimonials and what we do, but really this is an opportunity
01:15:19.920
to you to stand shoulder to shoulder with other driven men and make yourself into the
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type of man and leader that you have a desire to be.
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You can check that out at orderofman.com slash ironcouncil.
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All right, guys, those are your marching orders.
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We will be back tomorrow for our Ask Me Anything.
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Until then, go out there, take action, and become the man you are meant to be.
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Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast.
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If you're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be,
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we invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.