When I look out at the world that I live in, I can see that it out of sync with “being itself”. It has gone off of the rails. It has departed from the underlying truth of reality in fundamental ways, and because of that, it will “cease to be” at some point.

I’m not a doomsayer—I”m actually pretty optimistic—but it’s clear to me that modern civilization is not well aligned with Love, with Wisdom, with God, with Being Itself.

We (as a culture, as a civilization) have swallowed…

I started to notice the pattern that kept repeating itself in the Old Testament stories: there was a long succession of good and bad kings on the throne in Israel. There were a few things I noticed about this succession.

When there were “good” kings on the throne, the people flourished. The enemy kings did not succeed in their attacks against God’s people. The individuals in the community were able to be more fully “human” and become more alive. Things were oriented in proper relationship to each other.

The farmer took me up to the haymow and explained how the hay was going to come up the elevator and drop down into the haymow, where I would stack it. He would be down below, feeding the hay from the hay wagon onto the elevator.

I had to be careful because their wasn’t a lot of hay in the haymow yet, so the hay had a long way to fall from the top of the elevator to where I was stacking it.

If one of those bales came down on top of me, it could be the end of me.

He explained how he wanted the hay stacked, then he climbed out of the haymow, the elevator rumbled to life, and the hay bales started thundering down on me.

I remember this like it was yesterday.

The smell of the haymow, the hot, sticky, humid air.

Men: this is the adventure of your life!

Wake up and see that you are in a love story, in the midst of a great battlefield.

You find yourself in a foxhole far to the East of Eden.

Mortars are exploding all around you. Enemy snipers are waiting to pick you off.

The enemy wants to destroy YOU because YOU are an image of God, you are the light of the world.

The enemy knows that if you find your way back to the Tree of Life in the Garden (which is union with God), then he has lost you forever.

Many Christians believe in God like they believe that 2+2 = 4 or that the sun rises in the East. A fact, among other facts.

Perhaps THE fact, but a fact nonetheless.

When they read John 8, where Jesus said “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”, they take some satisfaction in knowing the proper facts about God, and having their mental furniture properly arranged, so as to avoid going to hell after they die.

They defend these facts, argue them,…

Deep down, every man wants to feel powerful.

When we walk into a room, we want to carry a weighty presence.

There are some people that when you meet them, when they walk in the room, there is just an “x-factor” about them that makes them “weighty”.

They carry a presence, a light, a power, that transcends their physical stature, wealth, or status. You can’t look away, but you don’t really know why.

There’s just something special about them.

“When you started telling yourself a fear story, your body responded to that fear story. Your body can’t tell the difference between being chased by a lion or the fear of failing your driving test. When you started giving energy to those thoughts, it activated your sympathetic nervous system. You went into ‘fight-or-flight’ mode. Your body started dumping cortisol and adrenaline into your bloodstream.”

“Guess what cortisol and adrenaline are good for.”

“Running away from lions?” she ventured.

“Correct.”

“Guess what they’re really bad for.”

There is NOTHING that teenagers are interested in as much as experiencing what is REAL. It’s why they are tempted with sex and cigarettes, because these things give them a sense of transcendence.

An sense of something real.

When you immolate your old self on the burning pyre of transformation in Love and the real YOU arises from the ashes, they can’t look away.

If you want to turn over a new leaf, start a “new day” in your life and in your marriage, start in the morning, before the sun comes up.

Don’t let the first hour of your day happen to you.

You are made in the image of the Creator.

You are a creator too.

You have created the current life that you now….

You are waking up to the fact that you have been living out of sync with your true design.

Like many men, you have been asleep. Unaware that the outcomes of your life are being shaped by unconscious patterns that you can change.

But your suffering is waking you up.

“There’s so much that needs to change in my life, but I don’t know where to start.”

I confessed this to my wife as we were driving down the interstate more than seven years ago.

I wasn’t ready to confess the big sins, but I was starting to wake up to the fact there was a lot about my life that wasn’t the way I wanted it to be.

Hey man.

Today’s the day.

Yes, it’s just a random Thursday in March, but dad’s throwing a big shindig at the ranch tonight and he would LOVE for you to be there.

One of the patterns that I’ve seen in myself and in other men is that we don’t say what we think.

We don’t speak the truth.

The good king never complains.

About anything.

Ever.

Complaining keeps you from the life that you want.

When you complain, you’re off-loading the responsibility for the facts of your life to something or someone “out there” and you’re avoiding the thought patterns and…