Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul.
Starting at the part of the post which introduces Wild at Heart:
A friend e-mailed the other day asking me to recommend a book on what it means to be a man. He needed some help with a talk he had been assigned. I suggested one he will not be able to put down, a book which can change forever how he looks at himself. "Wild at Heart," by John Eldredge, ought to be read by every man who is in danger of forgetting what he was created to be, by every woman who needs help in understanding the person she married, and by every parent of a son.
"When all is said and done," Eldredge writes, "I thnk most men in the church believe that God put them on the earth to be a good boy." So, we strive not to drink and smoke and swear, to help with the dishes and be a good provider, and think we've done it.
Eldredge asks his men readers, "In all your boyhood dreams growing up, did you ever dream of becoming a Nice Guy?"
Being made in the image of God, Eldredge writes, must mean something special. God has put three desires so deeply inside my heart that to disregard them is to risk losing one's soul: man needs a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.
Here are a few quotes which Eldredge sprinkles throughout his book.
Philip Yancey: "How would telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo?"
Howard Macey: "The spiritual life cannot be made suburban. It is always frontier, and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed."
Proverbs 20:5: "The heart of a man is like deep water...."
I've seen Paul Harvey in person once in my life, in 1963 at a large auditorium in Birmingham. One of the greatest public speakers of our generation, Mr. Harvey began by describing an island in the Pacific, a veritable paradise where the natives provide food and drink and clothing and safety to everyone at no cost whatsoever, an eden where you would never have to work another day in your life. No passport needed, money unnecessary, available to everyone. "Want to move there?" he asked. After a long pause, he said, "Alcatraz."
Paul Harvey's message that day ploughed a furrow down the center of my life. "Man's search in this world is not for security," he said, "but for insecurity." Man is driven to explore, to climb, to take risks, to battle enemies, to achieve at great cost. To be and to do, not to watch others and cheer. Man was made for bigger things than La-Z-boy recliners and overstuffed couches in front of high definition televisions. He was blueprinted as an achiever, not a spectator. A player, not a fan. A worker if you will, rather than a retiree...
Read the full August 29, 2005, McKeever post here. It's also got some tips on how to build a men's ministry, and it definitely doesn't include just getting together for breakfast...
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