A Fresh Perspective

I recently finished a book by John Eldredge titled "Wild at Heart". I’m only a couple days out of this book, and I’ve already started the next book: "Fathered by God"; a kind of sequel to the first one. I know a lot of people say things like “You must read this book, it changed my life”, or “This book was a great read, I highly recommend it!”. Well, I’m here to tell you this book will change my life, and I highly recommend it.

I do not know the author, and admittedly have never heard of him. I happened to stumble across him through a recommendation video I saw on YouTube about great books to read. It seemed interesting enough, so I checked it out. Hardly put it down, and finished it in about a week. I should have started this by saying that I am not much of a reader other than the Bible. I usually have a desire or a “want-to” to read, but I either never find the time, or if I do start a book I never end up finishing it. But there was something about this book that gripped my heart, especially as a man, husband, and father. Although the book, and the remainder of this blog post, is not just geared towards men.

I am not going to spend this post going through the book, or in any way try to convince people to read it. I think I already did that in my first few sentences. Instead, I want to explain how I have a fresh perspective on life; not just because of the book although that played a part, but because I believe the Lord is working something out in my heart right now.

I believe God is teaching me what I need to do to be a better pursuer of Him, a better husband to my wife, and a better father to my children. I am not perfect, and obviously none of us are. But we can improve, right? I want to be better. I want to be a better man, husband, and father. And I don’t just want that for my family, even though of course I do want that for them as well, but I want that for me. I want that for my relationship with Christ. I want to be the man God designed me to be, not a man the world pushes me to be.

If you’ve listened to any of our podcasts, you may have noticed I talk a lot about how we need to slow down every now and then and consider the things truly important in life. The world pushes us so hard in our jobs, our relationships, our commitments, and our responsibilities. We can’t avoid that though. We need our jobs to sustain our lives. We also have obligations as spouses and as parents. But we must never forget that our first priority must be to have a strong relationship with Christ.

If we do not have a strong relationship with Christ then our flesh will seep in. And nothing good dwells in the flesh. A stronger relationship with Christ is what makes us better believers, spouses, and parents. If you recall back to the story of creation we were designed to live a certain way in the Garden of Eden, but our sin separated us not just from God, but from the original design of our lives. And now we live in the wilderness of life. How we navigate the terrain depends on our relationship with God. At least that is this man’s opinion.

So, this fresh perspective has opened my eyes a little more to the beauty of God’s creation, and to want to know more about the Creator. It’s put a desire in me to spend more time in His creation acknowledging the beauty. I don’t worship nature though, let me be clear. Nature only reminds me of the majestic nature of our Creator. Nature, to me, points back to Him. And when I step out on a clear night and look up at the stars, I acknowledge the awesomeness of the Creator. When I go on a hike and see the creeks, waterfalls, and forest, I look around and recognize that God created this for us to enjoy!

Recognizing this, (and I have always acknowledged this to some degree, but it is even stronger now) has really planted in my heart a desire to want to know more of Him. It has really made me want to seek Him out more, and it has humbled me in a sense to recognize that He created all this with a spoken word. If we seek Him out, and I mean really seek Him out, what can He create in our hearts? What will He show us about ourselves and our lives? And what will He show us about Himself? That’s the question I desperately want to seek out.

This fresh perspective has also opened my eyes on what it means to be a husband. Song of Solomon is a great spiritual picture of the love Christ has for His bride, the church. And I know a lot of people feel uncomfortable reading that book, but it is also in the natural a picture of the intimacy between man and wife. Marriage is an awesome concept that Christ has given to us, and it also mirrors His relationship with us as well. The secular world has reduced the significance of marriage throughout the years. We must revert back to His design on how we perceive our marriage relationship, and the intimacy He’s given us through our partners. It’s a symbol for the love Christ has for us. He gave us men a partner to share this life with. And He gave the women a warrior to fight for her beauty. This was something John Eldredge pointed out so well in his book. Too often, men are emasculated these days but as husbands we should never stop being a warrior for our wives. We pursued her while we courted her, and after marriage we must never stop fighting for our wives. The vows shouldn’t be a “I made it and am content” mindset. We must never stop pursuing. We must be a warrior for our wives, just as Christ continues pursuing us to want more of Him, and just as He is a warrior for us.

This fresh perspective has also opened my eyes on what it means to be a father. Again, God is the perfect role model. Are you surprised? All of these important elements in our lives always point back to Him. God wants nothing but good for His children. God raises us, disciplines us, and helps mature us. Why? For our benefit. So we can tackle the wilderness of life, and be successful in our journey - so we are prepared for the battle that will inevitably come our way. We must do the same for our children, as God does for us. As fathers, we must prepare our sons for battle. We must teach them what it means to be a man. Does that mean just teaching them to fish, fix cars, or hunt? No. Does that play a role in the mix? Absolutely. But my wife will be the first to tell you I know nothing about how to fix a car.

Instead, what I want to depart to my son (and daughter, but she’ll come more later) is a desire to want to know The Father more; to want to have an intimate spiritual relationship with Him. Not religion; a relationship. I want to guide him, to show him the importance, so hopefully he can ultimately make the decision for himself. And, of course, I want to teach him how to be a man in the world as well. But to me, spiritual growth is so important to young boys. I want to teach my son to be a spiritual warrior.

I can’t force this desire on my children, and I don’t want to. I want them to want it. And as a father I must show them why. I want to teach them how to recognize spiritual warfare. To know how to put on the Spiritual Armor (Ephesians 6). I want to teach them the wounds I have encountered through my life are real, yet it has been The Father who has healed them. And it is The Father who can heal theirs. To my son, I want Him to know these truths, so he can lead his family when the time comes.

To my daughter, as a father, (and obviously through the help of her mother since I am not a woman) we hope to teach her the true essence of femininity. I want to teach her the beauty she has to offer. Fathers must adore their daughters. Without this adoration from her father what do you think will happen when she blossoms? You know the answer. She’ll find it in the world from other boys. Isn’t that the heartburn of every father? I want to teach her to be strong, courageous, and independent in the world (and the same goes for my boy). And most of all, I want to be the true picture of spiritual masculinity for her, so that when she seeks her own partner in life, she will hopefully want the same. At least these are my prayers for my children.

Will I fail in these endeavors? Yes, I already have. Do I want to do better? Yes, absolutely. And this fresh perspective has hopefully opened my eyes to the importance of these facets of my life. I’m not a perfect believer. I’m not a perfect husband. I’m not a perfect father. But my hope to anyone reading this is that you, too, will have a fresh perspective: To not be too bogged down with the cares of this life. But instead, invest the necessary time needed to develop your walk with Christ; to develop your relationship with your spouse; and, to develop your parenthood with your children. My hope is that this fresh perspective with chart us on a course to be better believers and followers, spouses, and parents.

These areas I’ve mentioned are not just the role of a father. We need help. All men and women need help in these endeavors whether we want to admit it or not. These are important, I believe anyway, for men and women in their Christianity and all their relationships. Relationships is what is important in the Kingdom. And I believe as followers we’ve got to do a better job with our relationship building skills. The world today needs better relationships with each other. But people are flawed. God isn’t. And the more Christ shines through us, the less we will get in the way, and the better relationships we are prepared to build with each other through love.

#freshperspective #wildatheart #improvinglives #christiangrowth #chris #jesussaves