John Eldredge's Blog, page 5

We simply must take care of our souls.

Dear Friends,

January was such a whirlwind, and so much information is always rushing at us, I thought it would be kinder to send a “January/February” newsletter. (The world has grown absurdly complicated, most people's lives are jammed already, so I want these letters to be oases, not more noise.) 

Really—this world we live in is constantly assaulting our souls. The pace of life, the complexity, the lack of any real margin, the tsunami of information and technology bombarding our attention, the heartbreak of the world. (And all the little chirps, beeps and vibrations that announce something new has come in.) The soul was never meant to process, navigate, or carry this much.

I’ve said it before but it needs repeating: This mad world requires a soul that is strong, resilient, rooted in God. And yet, this mad world is perfectly designed to prevent your soul from being strong, resilient, rooted in God. 

That’s called a double-bind. It’s what we’re all struggling with.

We need more of God. We want a soulful life. But we can’t find it, because of the chaos swirling around us, and in us.

About a year and a half ago I suddenly woke to the facts: I was asking my soul to live at the speed of a smartphone. And that’s really unkind, because the soul is not a smartphone, and was never meant to live like one. I began to seek Jesus for some practical changes to my life—simple changes I could sustain—which would help me recover my soul, my humanity, recover my life in God.

And I’m very glad to report that it’s working; it’s helping. As I began to share some of the things I was learning, I noticed how quickly it helped my friends, too.

I had a beautiful conversation with a man just last week, whose role is to provide care for a number of missionaries in the South Pacific and Asia. He wanted to report that he and his wife had been learning what I call “Benevolent Detachment,” the grace of truly giving everything over to God. "This has been a rescue for us," he explained. "We've been carrying everyone, and it has been crushing us. Your teaching has changed our lives and rescued our mission. Really."

Not two days later I received an email from another beautiful soul who is deeply involved in missions in a dangerous country I can’t name here. There was an accident; people were killed. He was writing to say that the practices I had been sharing were pulling him out of the trauma and back to God.

I wept for joy and gratitude.

And so it is with enormous happiness and excitement I can announce to you that I put everything I learned in a book, and that book comes out in about a week! It’s called Get Your Life Back - everyday practices for a world gone mad. A step-by-step report on the graces God taught me to recover my own soul in this crazy hour, and how to embrace these helps for yourself.

Benevolent Detachment is chapter two; it's also the centerpiece of the One Minute Pause app we created to help folks with the practice. Learning to take simple pauses in your day to catch your breath, give it all back to Jesus and restore your union with him. (You can download it for free in the app store!) And there is so much more!

God saturated our world with oxygen because we need it, every moment of our lives. He’s done the same with water—no one can live without it, so our planet is filled with water. Then I realized God did the same thing with Beauty—our world is absolutely saturated with Beauty, intimate and epic. From morning sunlight to drops of water on a windowpane, the song of birds, the laughter of a child, the intricate lace pattern of leaves. Beauty heals the soul; beauty especially addresses trauma. But so few people take it in. We might see it if we’re not rushing; but we merely observe, and think to ourselves, That’s lovely, and get on with our day. I want to teach you how to receive it into your soul for healing.

I also want to share the grace of Transitions—learning to allow your soul some room between things. We cram our soul through a number of gear changes every day (every hour). We go from a tender conversation with our child scared about school, to a business meeting, to a call about our parent’s memory care unit, to the news about a friend’s passing, to a phone call haggling with our insurance agency. No wonder we don't know what to say when someone asks us, “How are you?” We don’t know. We’re blowing through life so fast our soul was lost long ago. 

There is a better way.

I think Get Your Life Back could have the impact of Wild at Heart, one of those game-changing books so healing and refreshing people talk about for a long time. That’s my hope anyways!

There’s an audiobook, which I recorded because I know many people don't have the time to read but love to use audiobooks as they exercise or commute. There’s a small group curriculum and guide too so that you can gather with friends and explore the recovery of your souls together.

This is a brutal hour to live in, friends. We simply must take care of our souls. I hope you’ll pick up a copy or two of the book–one for you, and one for someone you love.

Offered in love,

John

PS. Our current podcast series is focussing on some of the practices from the book. I think you’ll love listening in!

Download the Ransomed Heart January/February 2020 Newsletter here. 

 

The Invasion Worked

December 2019

Dear Friends and Allies,

A very Merry Christmastide to you all! This letter comes with love and blessings from our whole team! 

Now, I know this is a ridiculously busy time of year for most of us. We take our already hurried lives, with so much going on, so much pulling at us, and we pile on the various pressures and obligations of the holidays. Like a camel, already carrying a maximum load, asked to bear a few more packages and pick up its pace for the last few miles.  

Mercy.

So I’m going to be kind, and keep this letter brief. 

Because what you need is solace, and a moment’s sanity—not more media coming your way. 

Pause, and let it all go. What’s yet to be done, the news you just received, the disappointment you already feel creeping in, the fact that you’re behind on nearly everything. Just pause, and let it go. 

And now, ask God for a greater measure of his love in you, a greater measure of his life in you. For the supernatural grace you need for the holidays...and afterwards.

All I want to do today is to remind you that it worked. The invasion worked. The Incarnation worked. The entire plan worked. Jesus came. He overthrew the kingdom of darkness. He rescued you from sin and evil and this mad world. He has restored you to your Father. He is healing your humanity. Your future is utterly secure now...and breathtaking.

We celebrate our rescue. We celebrate our homecoming. We celebrate the fact that the Second Coming is just around the corner, and he will come, just as surely as he did the first time when nobody thought it would happen. O, it will happen...and soon. The best news in any story, ever.

So, Merry Christmas dear ones! We look forward to walking with you in 2020.

Love,

John

PS. I hope you get a chance to listen to our Christmas podcasts the weeks of December 16 and 23. There’s a special blessing for you during Christmas week I think you’ll enjoy. And it’s a short one, like this letter.

Download the RH December 2019.

 

Wild at Heart Turns 20!

A very happy beginning of the holiday season to you! I pray it’s filled with love and goodness from your God who adores you. 

Hey guess what—Wild at Heart turns 20 in December! Holy Cow!

On the one hand, it’s hard to believe—where did the time go? On the other hand, it is completely believable; we’ve spent a lot of years at the “front” and we’ve seen SO MUCH redemption in the lives of...well...probably millions to be honest. Which is a really holy thing to think about.

It all began with The Sacred Romance—the revelation that your heart matters to God, that we live in a Love Story set in a world at War. That your story matters to God. It has been a massive paradigm shift for many. Wild at Heart and Captivating soon followed—the revelation that gender matters, that God loves your feminine heart, your masculine heart, and he is restoring us as men and women. Which has brought such deep healing to millions all around the world. 

And so we are giving thanks for the favor of God on this beautiful work. Giving thanks for you, our friends, for partnering with us to rescue so many lives. What an incredible story this is!

Speaking of giving, we have a really cool gift for you.

Over the past eighteen months many of these letters have been devoted to counsel and encouragement on how to take care of your heart and soul in this mad world. (Not an easy thing to do, as you well know.) The pace of life has everyone spinning. The inundation of information and technology is assaulting our attention every moment of every day. And then there's the heartache of those we love and the world at large which we must gently navigate. If you've been listening to the podcast you’ve heard my new opening recently: “This is a gnarly time to be a human being. And God cares about your humanity…” 

So here's what we've done—we've developed an app called the One Minute Pause, a sanctuary in the chaos, a lifeline in the stormy seas, allowing us to pause and re-center in Jesus wherever we are in our day. Our team has been practicing this for about a year. It’s been so incredibly restorative that we want to share it with as many people as possible The Pause is built around three simple practices:

Benevolent Detachment, by which we practice 1 Peter 5:7. “Cast all your cares upon Him, because he cares for you.” Learning to let it all go. Learning a loving release of everyone and everything to Jesus. So that our hearts can come up for air.

Union with God, which is the deepest and greatest thing our human nature was created for. In John 17, Jesus prayed that we would be one with him in the same way that he is one with his Father. “One as We Are One” (vs 22). The mad world assaults our union with God on a regular basis, and so we need help restoring it daily. Union with God is what enables us to receive all of the resources of his strength and life in us.

Being Filled, as Ephesians 3:19 promises, “that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Asking for more of God, to fill more of us. 

The app is now available for iPhone and Android. You can get it for FREE in the App Store and on Google Play. Look for the One Minute Pause by Wild at Heart. Then share it with everyone you know! Your soul will thank you every day.

The world has changed so much even in the twenty years since we began this mission. 1999 was a time of profound gender confusion. By 2019 we have seen a complete gender collapse in the culture. Trauma is on the rise; the need to heal human hearts is greater than ever. And so we are planning for the next twenty years. God is moving us to bring our message to a new generation, and to push even further into every country on this broken planet. We have some exciting plans…

We are working to get Basic and Core—our Wild at Heart and Captivating retreats by video—into a dozen foreign languages. We are planning a major campaign to grow our podcast audience. Jesus is moving us to “represent” our core messages to a new generation with some new creative film projects. And lots more!

We are a supporter-funded mission, as you know. We don’t beg or borrow; we don’t create “crises” every month to move folks to help us. We simply reach out to you, our friends, and let you know we have a need.

We need to raise 50% of our budget here at the end of the year.  Which sounds to me like a lot of money, until I remember how faithful God has been every single year for the last two decades. Every year he provides exactly what we need. We have never gone into debt. You have always come through!

We are very excited about our future. We feel as though God has been discipling us, maturing us, teaching us, so that we might be ready for the “more” he has...expanding the already stunning influence of Wild at Heart. He has our “yes!” We are planning for a brilliant future. But we do need your help.

We need your prayers. Really. We want you to partner with us in projects like Basic and Core, bringing healing to men and women in your communities. And we need your financial support. Would you pray, and ask Jesus what he’d have you do? I completely trust him with what he says.

Thank you friends. We are so profoundly thankful for you!

Love,

John

Download the Wild at Heart November Newsletter here. 

Ransomed Heart Turns 20!

A very happy beginning of the holiday season to you! I pray it’s filled with love and goodness from your God who adores you. 

Hey guess what—Ransomed Heart turns 20 in December! Holy Cow!

On the one hand, it’s hard to believe—where did the time go? On the other hand, it is completely believable; we’ve spent a lot of years at the “front” and we’ve seen SO MUCH redemption in the lives of...well...probably millions to be honest. Which is a really holy thing to think about.

It all began with The Sacred Romance—the revelation that your heart matters to God, that we live in a Love Story set in a world at War. That your story matters to God. It has been a massive paradigm shift for many. Wild at Heart and Captivating soon followed—the revelation that gender matters, that God loves your feminine heart, your masculine heart, and he is restoring us as men and women. Which has brought such deep healing to millions all around the world. 

And so we are giving thanks for the favor of God on this beautiful work. Giving thanks for you, our friends, for partnering with us to rescue so many lives. What an incredible story this is!

Speaking of giving, we have a really cool gift for you.

Over the past eighteen months many of these letters have been devoted to counsel and encouragement on how to take care of your heart and soul in this mad world. (Not an easy thing to do, as you well know.) The pace of life has everyone spinning. The inundation of information and technology is assaulting our attention every moment of every day. And then there's the heartache of those we love and the world at large which we must gently navigate. If you've been listening to the podcast you’ve heard my new opening recently: “This is a gnarly time to be a human being. And God cares about your humanity…” 

So here's what we've done—we've developed an app called the One Minute Pause, a sanctuary in the chaos, a lifeline in the stormy seas, allowing us to pause and re-center in Jesus wherever we are in our day. Our team has been practicing this for about a year. It’s been so incredibly restorative that we want to share it with as many people as possible The Pause is built around three simple practices:

Benevolent Detachment, by which we practice 1 Peter 5:7. “Cast all your cares upon Him, because he cares for you.” Learning to let it all go. Learning a loving release of everyone and everything to Jesus. So that our hearts can come up for air.

Union with God, which is the deepest and greatest thing our human nature was created for. In John 17, Jesus prayed that we would be one with him in the same way that he is one with his Father. “One as We Are One” (vs 22). The mad world assaults our union with God on a regular basis, and so we need help restoring it daily. Union with God is what enables us to receive all of the resources of his strength and life in us.

Being Filled, as Ephesians 3:19 promises, “that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Asking for more of God, to fill more of us. 

The app is now available for iPhone and Android. You can get it for FREE in the App Store and on Google Play. Look for the One Minute Pause by Ransomed Heart. Then share it with everyone you know! Your soul will thank you every day.

The world has changed so much even in the twenty years since we began this mission. 1999 was a time of profound gender confusion. By 2019 we have seen a complete gender collapse in the culture. Trauma is on the rise; the need to heal human hearts is greater than ever. And so we are planning for the next twenty years. God is moving us to bring our message to a new generation, and to push even further into every country on this broken planet. We have some exciting plans…

We are working to get Basic and Core—our Wild at Heart and Captivating retreats by video—into a dozen foreign languages. We are planning a major campaign to grow our podcast audience. Jesus is moving us to “represent” our core messages to a new generation with some new creative film projects. And lots more!

We are a supporter-funded mission, as you know. We don’t beg or borrow; we don’t create “crises” every month to move folks to help us. We simply reach out to you, our friends, and let you know we have a need.

We need to raise 50% of our budget here at the end of the year.  Which sounds to me like a lot of money, until I remember how faithful God has been every single year for the last two decades. Every year he provides exactly what we need. We have never gone into debt. You have always come through!

We are very excited about our future. We feel as though God has been discipling us, maturing us, teaching us, so that we might be ready for the “more” he has...expanding the already stunning influence of Ransomed Heart. He has our “yes!” We are planning for a brilliant future. But we do need your help.

We need your prayers. Really. We want you to partner with us in projects like Basic and Core, bringing healing to men and women in your communities. And we need your financial support. Would you pray, and ask Jesus what he’d have you do? I completely trust him with what he says.

Thank you friends. We are so profoundly thankful for you!

Love,

John

Download the Ransomed Heart November Newsletter here. 

A Shield Against Hatred

September/October 2019

Dear Friends,

You did not miss my September newsletter, in case you were wondering. Life remains insanely busy—for all of us—and I simply didn’t have the time to write something meaningful.

To tell the tale more accurately, I had no margin left after all of September's demands, and I chose not to force myself to do what we all typically do: find a slim piece of sacred space reserved for something else, and use it to cram more work in. Choosing not to is called kindness or wisdom or soul care or survival in a mad hour. Slowly, surely, I am learning. 

So here we are in October, and we’ll call this our September/October letter, for I do have something I want to share with you, something I think will prove immensely helpful in this moment we call our time, our hour upon the earth. It comes from the first epistle of the Apostle John. I was drawn to the letter for many reasons, but mostly by this verse:

“Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)

I know I need a deeper life in God; I certainly need more of God in me. Because of this mad hour. I want to live, abide, make my home in God, and I want him to thoroughly saturate me. So this verse got my attention, because John is showing us the actual path into that life.

As I got into the letter, reading it through several times, I realized John was writing at a time very much like our own. The theme of the letter is regarding the battle between death and life, darkness and light, hatred and love, foul spirits, untrustworthy people—and how lovers of Jesus navigate such a situation. (Sound familiar?) John was writing at a time which he and the other apostles (including Paul) believed was very near the end of the age:

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. (2:18)

Let me quickly point out that these authors wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We can assume they were not mistaken or deluded. I realize that nearly 2,000 years have gone by, and it is easy to dismiss John’s assessment by thinking, “Well...he wasn’t exactly right; I mean, it wasn't the last hour because so much time has transpired since then.” There is another, humbler, way to consider it: If the closest disciples of Jesus and the leaders of the church believed it was the “last hour” or the “end of the age,” then perhaps we are living in the last few seconds, the last fleeting moments. 

Which I believe we are.

However you slice it, John was writing to those who follow Jesus and find themselves living in a very dark time. 

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (5:8)

He focuses the spiritual battle around his disciples as the contest between love and hatred:

For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. (3:11-15)

I have written in the past that I believe Hatred is a major force rampaging on the earth today. Not just human hatred, though that is enough to wreak destruction. I am speaking of demonic hatred, foul spirits of hatred that do find cooperative human beings and get them to carry out things like bombings and such. But you don’t have to be in the direct or indirect path of terrorists to be under the wrath of Hatred. Jesus himself told us, “You will be hated by all nations because of me” (Matthew 24:9). 

What I want to put into your hands is an awareness of how real Hatred’s presence is on the earth—especially against the saints. The evil one hates you, hates your love of Jesus, and hates and envies your position of favor and blessing. Jesus has given us a shield, a power, and a way of disarming this in our lives. That power is the Love of God. The secret weapon is Love. “Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him” (4:16).

Here at Ransomed Heart we have found that praying—commanding—the Love of God as a shield against all Hatred in this hour is a wonderful, wonderful provision of God for getting out from under this darkness. What I mean is something very direct and deliberate, like this:

I bring the Love of God the Father, the Love of Jesus Christ, the Love of the Holy Spirit over my heart and over my life today, over my home and family [name them], over my household and domain. I command the Love of God to fill and shield my household and domain. I command the Love of God against all Hatred set against us—Love as our shield against Hatred in this hour. I command this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Try it for a few days...you’ll see. The effects are wonderful.

I simply wanted to extend that relief to you.

Love,

John

Download the Ransomed Heart September/October Newsletter here. 

The Gift of Memory

Well, summer is nearly past, though I hate to admit it. The neighborhood kids are all back to school. Our team here has returned from their family vacations. The local pool closes on Labor Day. Our grocer no longer has watermelon. But I’m eating peaches every day, ripe summer peaches, because I know that soon they too will vanish for a whole year. I love summer peaches.

 

Summer passes way too soon, before we’ve really had a chance to relish the gifts of it. I didn’t get the time with my grandchildren I hoped for; Stasi and I didn’t get to our beloved Tetons, either. I always enter summer with higher hopes than can possibly be met. Lest we despair, God has given us a grace to rescue our hearts when lovely moments pass too quickly, or when we haven’t had the chance to get the Sabbath we need. This grace is found in a surprising practice.

 

But before I name it, we need to be honest about this common occurrence of loss so near to us, so constant we’ve grown completely numb to it. It is our inability to make time stand still. And we can’t do it, not even for a moment. No sooner have we stepped into some wonderful life experience—a birthday, a wedding, that Christmas morning when you were six years old and the pond had frozen and you got your first pair of skates—but in the next breath it is completely swept away in the unceasing river of time, swept far downstream and out of reach.

 

Every precious moment will suddenly be last week, last month, last year before you can blink.

 

Few of us remember the taste of our first ice cream (what flavor was it?), the first book we read ourselves, our first kiss. We can barely recall that vacation we planned for so many years; it was over in mere weeks. 

 

I name this loss because it is loss—tragic, sweeping, and expansive. Your entire life, every dear moment, is currently being swept downstream from you even as you read this sentence. It does such harm to the soul, and our life with God. “All good things come to an end.” I hate that phrase, hate it like the sound of sirens, or dirt falling on a casket.

 

To rescue us from despair, God has given us “a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). To be specific, it includes the restoration of every precious day of our lives. But I wrote more fully about that in a book called All Things New, so I will only mention it here. All good things do NOT come to an end. Not even close.

 

In the meantime, God in his mercy has also given us a grace for this recurrent, incessant, unavoidable, daily experience of loss, and that gift is memory. Through which—if we make use of it—we can go back and drink more deeply, savor, take in the full gift of wonderful moments great and small. (For the full gift can never be taken in during the moment.)

 

I was in-between errands yesterday, between picking up some groceries and getting a tire replaced. The temptation was to grab my phone (this is what we all do now, without even thinking) and scroll through news, posts, messages, my inbox. But that wasn’t what my soul needed, and I knew it. My soul needed summer; it needed joy and happiness. I needed to choose not to just surrender to the mad pace of life, but to go back and drink more deeply of a sweet gift of summer that passed too quickly.

 

I set my phone down, and let my heart go back to a day on a creek I loved.

 

It was high in the mountains, in an evergreen forest. The stream was cascading down in fall after fall, filling the canyon with the wonderful rushing sounds of roiling waters. There were small pools now and then where trout lived, and I snuck up on them and caught a few. But mostly I just hiked, and drank it all in, sat by the waters and dunked my sore feet in their bracing iciness.

 

As soon as I began to remember this day, this gift, my heart settled down. I let out a deep sigh. I was aware of the goodness of God again. Thank you for this day, I whispered in prayer. Thank you for this sweet gift. I was seeing again so much goodness in it—the butterflies, the smell of damp moss, the contrast of hot day and cool forest by the stream. I remembered how tired I was—not stress tired, but that healthy been-in-nature-all-day tired. What a wonderful gift it was.

 

And the beautiful thing is, more of the gift came to me through this intentional practice of memory. I could go back, linger, enjoy it again.

 

Memory allows us to savor the many gifts God has given. I suggest you establish a practice of it. (Here’s a redemptive use of your phone—it’s a library of memories in photos. Pull out your phone during a break, but instead of checking the newsfeed, browse your photos, let them take you back into precious moments. Linger there, savor the gift.)

 

Hope this brings you a kind of rescue as we say goodbye to summer.

 

Love,

 

John

 

PS. By the way, this letter is more fully unpacked in a new book I have coming out in February called Get Your Life Back – everyday practices for a world gone mad. I think you’re going to love it!

Download the Ransomed Heart August 2019 Newsletter here. 

 

The Care of Our Hearts

Warm summer greetings to you! (Maybe a bit too warm in some places!) I hope this letter finds you well, enjoying some of the glories of summer. Evenings on the porch. A walk in the park or woods. Popsicles. Fireflies. Pool time. 

What’s on my heart this month…is the care of our hearts. 

You know we regularly circle back around to the heart. That’s because nothing in this world encourages you to care for your heart. The world has gone mad, and so someone has to be that voice in the wilderness. I’m happy to. But more importantly, I feel God’s heart for you, his deep concern for your wholeheartedness. 

I’m just hearing too many stories of solid lovers of God who suddenly seem to unravel. Divorces in mature couples, anxiety disorders popping up out of nowhere, heartache, and way too many suicides. I lost a dear friend to that darkness last week. A terrible reminder that it is dangerous to leave unhealed places in your soul unattended, especially in this hour. 

I think this is one of the reasons we were given the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. The story is told in Matthew and Luke, but let me remind you of the basics: Following his baptism, at the start of his three-year public mission, Jesus is led into the wilderness for forty days of fasting. Satan comes looking for an angle on him, some vulnerability, some point of access. Given what he tries, he seems to have some idea of what might work with this man Jesus—Do miracles; reveal yourself; rule the world. Things Jesus is poised to do, but only in the Father’s timing and way. So the testing doesn't work, but I think we miss a critical piece of the story at the end. It reports that afterwards, angels came and ministered to Jesus:

“Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.” (Matthew 4:11)

Jesus needed ministering to. Now, this is the Son of the Living God. The Prince of Life. Majestic. Powerful beyond description. He created all angelic beings. Satan is no match for him. But being tested by the enemy was so awful, Jesus needed help afterwards. Wow. 

 

It helps us realize—to be tested by the enemy is a really awful thing.

 

Jesus passed the test, because as he later says in John, the enemy has “no hold on me,” or in another translation, "he has nothing in me" (John 14:30 NIV, NASB). Jesus is wholehearted, and therefore the enemy can’t find any access to trap, snare, deceive, or take him out.

 

The rest of us, however, are broken people, at various points in our healing journey. Our humanity has many rifts in it, sometimes very deep rifts, and those provide the enemy with access. Through testing, and cunning observation of us, he finds those chinks, those cracks, and he strikes there. Now remember—to be tested is awful without the rift in the soul. With the rift, it's brutal and often results in some serious collapse. This explains the high-level ministry scandals we are all familiar with. It also helps to explain the breakdown of otherwise very good people. 

 

Jesus insists we take our restoration and wholeheartedness seriously because we are all unfinished men and women; we each have rifts in the soul, and those areas are where the enemy aims his most brutal attacks. We want to get to the place, through the healing ministry of Jesus in us and our ongoing discipleship to him, that we are strong and well whatever comes our way. “Like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither” (Psalm 1:3). I long to be that flourishing tree. I know you do, too, so let me ask…

 

What are you currently doing to pursue wholeheartedness, your internal restoration?

 

If you don’t have a fresh answer, ask Jesus what he has for you this summer in the direction of wholeheartedness. Personally, he told Stasi and me to use our vacation time for very simple soul care—daily walks, quiet rest, prayer, good books, and beauty. Still waters and quiet meadows, so he may restore our souls (Psalm 23:2-3). We have to participate in the process.

Just about everything we do at Ransomed Heart is designed to help you, God’s dear friends, towards wholeheartedness—through intimacy with Jesus and life in his Kingdom. (I hope you had a chance to hear our recent podcasts—the Warfare series in May; Rest, Suffering, and Play in June; and now Hearing God in July!) Thousands upon thousands of people around the globe are reporting stories of breathtaking rescue. Despite the dark hour, lives are being healed, saved, restored.

I’m hoping you might be able to help us carry on with this glorious mission. A few times a year, I reach out and remind you that we are a nonprofit, and it is your gifts that help us bring the ministry of Jesus to so many precious souls. Our reach continues to expand across the world because of your love and generosity. Would you be able to make a gift this month? Large or small, every measure of support helps! You can give online at www.ransomedheart.com, or use the enclosed envelope.

There just aren’t that many voices in this mad world guiding people gently into intimacy with Jesus, reminding them how much their hearts matter, showing the way towards wholeheartedness and lives of restored resilience. Thank you for being our allies and partners, for helping us carry on!

And do take care of the treasure of your heart this summer. Follow Jesus into what he has specifically for you.

Love,

John

Download the Ransomed Heart July 2019 Newsletter here. 

 

The Value of Our Lives

I love summer; it’s my favorite time of year. The world is so brimming with life. It’s warm and beautiful, the flowers are blooming, all the earth seems washed with color and radiance. The grass is green, the trees are leafed out, our hummingbirds are back from their winter in Costa Rica! 

Summer is when nature seems happiest.

And there’s something so reassuring about beauty in abundance, life abounding, all nature at play. I need to be reminded that life and goodness win. 

If you watch any news at all, if you are involved in the lives of even a handful of people, you know that brokenness and struggle are always trying to have the last word. Hardship and heartache are always trying to steal the show, rewrite the story. They are real, no question. But they are not the major theme. They are the minor theme. The major theme is life, beauty, redemption, and the goodness of God.

And we need to be reminded of that. Often.

Which is one of the reasons God sends us summer in its glory.

I talked to three different people today, who were all trying to sort out something in their story. Two people yesterday. And two the day before. And none of these were clients; they were just regular folks in my world. It reminded me how often we are looking for understanding, interpretation, for some clarity or redemption in our stories.

We need reminding that our life has meaning, that our story makes sense. That we are not an accident, we are not forgotten. We need reassuring that our story is not out of God’s keeping.

If you’ll look around, you can see the desperate search for meaning in people’s lives. Mostly by trying to make small stories seem like big stories. If you watch any sports at all, you’ll recall the anthems and graphics used at the top of the show. Dramatic music plays while epic footage montage unfolds, followed by the monumental graphics making it seem like this is one of the most profound things taking place in the world. And yet, all it really is, is a group of adults chasing a ball around a field.

I think you also see the search in the tattoo craze. They used to be something only sailors came back with from overseas. Now they’re as common as flip-flops. But they are permanent, stained into your skin for the rest of your life. The tattoo is not like going out and buying a new pair of shoes. I think we see here a glimpse of the search for permanence, stability, identity. Meaning.

Human beings crave meaning. When we lose the meaning of our lives, we lose our way. Our footing. Our perspective and orientation. We may not be able to interpret what’s happening in our stories right now; often, interpretation takes some time. But we can hang onto the truth that our lives are filled with meaning, and that meaning is secure because there is God. And he is good. And we belong to him.

So let’s return to a few of the scriptures that remind us of the value of our lives in the eyes of God. Scriptures that speak of the deep and profound meaning we have in him:

For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

    when I was made in the secret place,

    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:13-16)

The very hairs on your head are all numbered. (Luke 12:7)

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10)

What do these scriptures make clear? First that you are not here by accident. You were planned on. Wanted. Needed, even.

You are intimately known, and have been all your life. You were carefully and very intentionally crafted. There isn’t a detail of your life that escapes the attention of your loving God and Father.

You are, in fact, a masterpiece. Yes—there is brokenness and struggle. But you are being renewed in Christ in order for you to fulfill the things he has for you to do. So that you can rejoice in the purposes of your life. Which means, your life has exquisite meaning.

Reread these passages again, out loud. But put your name in them. “You created my inmost being; you knit me—David, Anne, Sue—together in my mother’s womb….I —David, Anne, Sue—am God’s masterpiece. He has created me anew in Christ Jesus, so I—David, Anne, Sue—can do the good things he planned for me long ago.”

I think this will do your heart great good.

Offered in love,

John

Download the Ransomed Heart June 2019 Newsletter here.

 

Summer Sabbath

Dear Friends,

I hope I’m not too late.

This is my annual “sabbath” letter, more commonly remembered as my “What are you going to do for your soul this summer?” letter.

I’m guessing you’re making plans for the next several months, even if they are plans that you can’t make plans this year. And I’d like to step in as an advocate for your soul—which probably needs some advocating, if you’re like most adults. The pace of life, the constant demands, the drone of media coming our way make any kind of soul kindness hard to come by. Our lives are so full we lost track of our souls long ago.

Thus, my letter.

You have a soul. It is a lovely gift from God. Your soul is what enables you to enjoy your life. When you find yourself laughing at something in a carefree way, that’s your soul feeling happy. When you are moved deeply by someone else’s story, that’s your soul too. When beauty makes you worship, when stillness allows you to exhale deeply, that’s your soul doing well. Your soul is an extraordinary gift from God. And it needs some care.

As Jesus said, “What does a man have if he gets all the world and loses his own soul? What can a man give to buy back his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). You can lose your soul long before you die, by the way. It’s lost quite easily in the mad rush of life, the unrelenting pressure, hurry, worry, fear and lack of any real space to simply be human.

So—what will you do this summer to be kind to your soul? Where is your sabbath this summer?

To clarify, family “visits” do not count as sabbath or soul care. I understand the need for family visits; they play an important role in our relational networks. But they are not sabbath, not even vacation, for the simple reason that they require from us. Often they require a great deal. When we enter into the gravitational field of family visits, we encounter all the dynamics of family ecosystems—everyone’s brokenness, their demands, their disappointments, and their warfare. It’s just the way it is in a broken world. I’m not disparaging family visits; I’m simply trying to point out that they do not qualify for sabbath in any form or fashion.

Notice—what’s the condition of your soul when you return from a week with the inlaws? Don’t you typically say to yourself, “I need a vacation?” And if you could choose between the obligatory family visit or two weeks in Tahiti, which does your heart leap at? Well...there ya go.

Banzai weekends also do not count for sabbath, vacation, or soul care. Rushing out the door to get to some destination where you go-go-go all weekend can be loads of fun, but again—notice the condition you’re in Monday morning when you return to work. You’re exhausted; you need caffeine to even keep going.

You shall know them by their fruits.

Allow me a personal story. Last summer Jesus invited me to take a road trip with him. No agenda, no deadlines, no one to take care of, or come through for. I brought my fishing gear because I thought I would spend my days fly fishing and my evenings in leisurely time with God. As my soul began to enter rest, I realized that the adrenaline rush so central to fishing was not what I needed. My soul needed care, which meant it needed quiet. Ease. A very slow pace. I ended up hardly fishing at all, which at first was a disappointment, but by day three was a rescue.

This is very simple really—sabbath makes you feel rested. It makes you feel renewed. It restores your soul, to quote the famous Psalm.

Sabbath reconnects you to the God you love, and allows you time to linger with him unhurried. It also reconnects you with your own soul, allows you to feel, to think about stuff you normally don’t get to think about. By its nature, sabbath is not an adrenaline experience.

So—as you make your summer plans, when is your sabbath?

It doesn’t have to be that gorgeous cottage in Hawaii, or villa in Tuscany (which is good news). Sabbath is so much more available, attainable. It can be a choice to simply set aside evenings every week this summer, where all you do is sit on the porch and enjoy the sunset, let the breeze caress your face, do absolutely nothing at all. A friend has a hammock on her porch; she said to her husband, “I’m going to lie in the hammock and do nothing; I get to be human again.”

Sabbath can be long walks in your neighborhood, the park, or “open spaces” common now to most urban areas. (Notice I didn’t say a run or mountain bike ride, because sabbath has a nonchalant nature to it. It’s slow, kind, easy, simple. Sabbath walks let you notice flowers, birds, a stream—all the things we normally rush by.)

Nothing in this mad world is going to encourage you to plan, and protect sabbath. It’s something you’ll have to choose, and fight for. But it’s utterly worth it, I promise.

So—before you set this letter down and go on with the ten other things currently demanding your attention, stay with the question for sixty seconds—What will you do for sabbath this summer? Block it out on your calendar.

Offered in love,

John

Download the Ransomed Heart May 2019 Newsletter here. 

The In-Between Times

Stasi and I attended the memorial service of a family friend last fall, a beautiful young man whose life was cut short in his twenties. But that is not my story to tell here. Our family needed to be together afterwards—you can’t just go home after something like that—so we planned on lunch. But I simply couldn’t make that transition quickly. While most of the congregation filed out of the church, I sat in my chair looking out the window, allowing my tears to continue, not requiring myself to bounce back. To rise up for the conversations I knew were waiting in the hallway outside. My soul needed God, and he was waiting right there for me in a more gracious transition. 

We are so accustomed to moving pedal to the metal in our own world, the thing we overlook in the Gospels are all of the in-between times when Christ and his followers were walking from one town to another. When the record states, “The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee,” (John 1:43) we project our own pace upon it, not realizing it took the boys three days by foot to get there. Three days just strolling along, talking, or sharing the silent beauty; the pauses for lunch or a drink from a well; the campfires in the evening. Christ doesn’t move immediately from one dramatic story to another like we try to; there was “down time,” transition time between those demands. Time to process what had happened; time to catch their breath before the next encounter. 

That was the pace Jesus felt was reasonable for people engaged in important things and wanting a life with God. Time we would categorize almost as vacation time, for those are the only periods we allow ourselves a stroll, a lingering lunch, a campfire conversation. We highly progressive moderns try and keep up without any of those intervals and transitions. The things that we require of ourselves. 

We go from a tender conversation with our eight year-old anxious about school, to an angry phone call with our insurance company as we drive to work, followed by a quick chat with our sister about our aging parents’ “memory care unit,” straight into a series of business meetings (during which we multitask by trying to bang out some email), make dinner reservations for our spouse’s birthday, fit in a conversation with our boss because we can’t say no, and show up late and haggard for the dinner.

And we wonder why we have a hard time finding God, receiving more of him, feeling like we’re overflowing with life.

We are forcing our souls through multiple gear-changes each day, each hour, and after years of this we wonder why we aren’t even sure what to say when a friend genuinely inquires, “How are you?” We don’t really know; we aren’t sure what we feel anymore. We live at one speed: Go. All the subtleties of human experience have been forced into one state of being.

Mercy. No soul was meant to live like this.

Your soul is the vessel God fills. God cannot fill that vessel if it is wrung out, twisted, haggard, fried. Your hands cannot receive a gift while they are still tightly clenched. Which brings us to how important transitions are. Do you allow the grace of transitions in your life—or do you simply blast from one thing to the next?

Notice that in the Gospels, it was during those transition times the disciples got have Jesus to themselves; the intimacy was in those moments. God is in the mission, too; of course he is. He meets us in crisis and action. But there is a sweetness to the down time, even if it’s brief. We can find more of God there.

I’m suggesting you intentionally create space for transitions.

It’s new for me—and so gracious to my soul—to pause after I hang up the phone and before I turn right back to email or make another call; pause after one meeting before I go into another; pause when I arrive at work after my morning commute, and pause when I pull into the driveway at the end of my day. 

Simply unplugging from even 30% of our media consumption will create more room for the natural transitions in every day. If you have five minutes waiting time, don’t look at your phone. Just...be. I was at the department of motor vehicles the other day, updating a car registration. Realizing it was going to take some time before I was served, I instinctively reached for my phone. Then I stopped, and simply chose to sit. Look around. Breathe a little. People watch. It was alarming to me how much discipline it took. We truly don’t know what to do with “down time” any more.

“I’m allowing myself to be human again,” is how a friend put it. “I sit on the porch for a few minutes; I enjoy making a meal.” That’s perfect. We were never meant to run at the speed of technology. You get to be human, friends.  

Offered in love,

John

Download the Ransomed Heart April 2019 Newsletter here.