Mantopia Life

Moving Forward... Again

2011-10-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

I want to be okay with “screwing up”, making a mistake. I want to be okay with the results of an effort or action even if results are opposite of what I wanted or expected. Not in the sense that I am resigning to being a loser. But, that I don’t allow undesirable results to devastate me. I want to have the confidence, courage and resiliency to stand up and move forward, again. I am not saying that I want “bad” results. I just don’t want to fear “bad” results. And I don’t want “bad” results or the fear of bad results or “bad” results to stop me from moving forward... again.

Seize The Day

2011-10-06T06:19:00.000-07:00

Don't be afraid of who you are,
I love the man I see
I'm not ashamed of you,
Don't ever hide from me

Don't hide from yourself,
Don't hide from others
This life is too short,
As you will discover

Come live and love,
Laugh and play
Today's all you have,
Seize the day!

Ought - Ode to the False Journey

2011-09-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Duty, Obligation – Behavior Modification
Leads to guilt and shame
A dead-end, no-win game

Rules, Laws – Cover up your flaws
Doesn’t help a damn bit
Leaves you in a dark pit

Pretend, Pose – Pinocchio Nose
Just an acting gig
Lipstick on a pig

Give more, Work harder, Sin Less
Tons ‘o moral striving but life is still a big mess

Drudge is all you got
When you live the life of ought

Identity - Who tells you who you are?

2010-06-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

I want to work hard at the things that my father, the King, gives me to do. I want to own them and pursue them with gusto but, I don't want them to own me or define me. I want to engage in the assignments that I am given to the best of my abilities and energies. But the tasks, roles and assignments can't be about my identity. When it becomes about my identity I lose perspective. Trying to prove myself through what I do distorts my thought and emotions. When that happens I lose my ability to think clearly and rationally. Then anxiety and fear take over and I am trashed.

As my identity is defined by my relationship with God I can live more freely and lightly as Jesus promised...

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (Mat 11)

Yea, that sounds good.

Inside World

2010-06-28T10:16:00.001-07:00

Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. (Rom 12)

We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good time with him. (Rom 8)

God's faithful love, gifts, grace and favor are not so much to change our external circumstances but more to change who we are on the inside. Our father wants us to live joyful, fulfilling lives. But those things are the fruit of a healthy inside world not "perfect" circumstances (outside world).

You're blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart - put right. (Mat 5)

Pete Wilson, senior pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN wrote this in a recent article in Relevant magazine:

"I’ve come to believe meaning and hope are more often found in embracing the difficulties inherent in a plan B rather than investing time and energy trying to get back to plan A. This isn’t an easy truth for anybody to learn. But sometimes God isn’t so much looking to give us a “miracle” in the form of changed circumstances, but is instead more interested in using those hard circumstances to change us—our goals, dreams, perspectives and meaning." Click HERE to see the full article.

Long before he laid down earth's foundations he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love (Eph 1)

I believe that everything he is doing in me and for me is motivated and accomplish by his love for me.

Keep Open House

2010-06-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

Do you lower your voice to keep non-Christians from hearing a conversation that you are having with another believer? Why? Is it because you think they would not understand? Is it because you would be embarrassed for them to hear your conversation? Are you embarrassed about your relationship with God or your religion?

I want to be comfortable with who I am and my relationship with God. Even in front of others that may not "understand". That is not possible if I am living some sort of goofy religious lifestyle. I want to be real and honest so that I can fulfill my purpose in being here.

Jesus said "Let me tell you why you are here... (salt and light)... Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Mat. 5)

I don't think that we should go out of our way to air all of our dirty laundry for the world to see just for the sake of being open. But, we should allow who we are to be seen, warts and all, so that others will see that we serve a loving, graceful and generous father who loves us through it all.

I am not perfect but I am perfectly loved by a perfect father. That is something worth being open about.

Tim Tebow - A man among men

2009-12-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

This is the kind of man that I want to be...

Blessed Contentment

2009-11-13T21:23:00.001-08:00

Man do I need that. I have tried so damned hard to be “somebody”. I feel driven to gain the approval of others. The striving and posing make my life miserable. I want to stop trying to be somebody and just be who I am. I am a son of the high King. I have the birthright of a prince. I am an heir to an unbelievable inheritance. If I could just get that I would own a peace and a freedom and a confidence that can’t be bought.

Paul got it. In his letter to the Galatians he wrote:

My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion and I am no longer driven to impress God.

The Most Valuable Thing In Creation

2009-11-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

Relationship is the most stunning and valuable thing in all of creation. Relationship is an eternal treasure that outshines any other conceivable thing of value. The most beautiful, fulfilling and profitable relationship available to us is our relationship with God.

In this relationship...

we are Free
we are Known
we are Understood
we are Accepted
we are Included
and we are Loved

Through this relationship we are Transformed, Empowered and Fulfilled.

Recalculating

2009-09-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

Guest Blog by Gary Barkalow

Several weeks ago I took my wife to Sonoma, California for our 30th wedding anniversary to celebrate the beauty of our marriage in the beauty of wine-country. It seemed very fitting since Jesus' first miracle of turning water into extraordinary wine was His demonstration that He could turn what is ordinary into something extraordinary and intoxicating. (John 2)

We flew into the San Francisco airport where we picked up our rental car. Once we located our car in the parking garage, I set up my new GPS devise which my family bought me for my birthday earlier that month. Shortly after turning it on, it gave me the message, "unable to acquire satellites." The signals my guidance unit needed were blocked by the structure around me. As I pulled out of the car rental garage after showing the attendant my paperwork, I noticed that I had just a few yards left before I would have to turn either left or right and choose a lane for different highways. I pulled off to the side to allow the GPS to start working but the attendant started yelling and signaling me to get going. As I moved up to the stop light, I was faced with a decision without adequate information. I picked a lane and started moving. THEN, the GPS spoke up - It had connected with the satellites and calculated my position.

The GPS promptly instructed me to take the next left, but I couldn't. I was stuck in the right lane with a barricade on my left. As I drove past the on-ramp I should have taken in this unfamiliar, chaotic place I started to go to panic, anger and shame. And then I heard a calm, re-assuring voice say, "recalculating". The GPS realized that I had missed my turn and was recalculating a new route for me to take to our destination. After a few tense and uncertain moments, I realized that this was not a disaster and that I could relax, enjoy conversation, music and beauty as I simply moved forward as instructed.

What started out as an anxiety and regret-ridden road-trip, turned into an exhilarating, adventuresome journey to a beautiful destination, and all because I was able to get out from under the obstructions and trust the guidance of something that knew where I wanted to go and how to get there, even with the mistakes I had made.

God is so kind and forgiving with our blunders, misunderstandings, reluctance, over-ambitiousness, immaturity and sinfulness. So many times I expected Him to say to me, "You blew it, you're on your own now, I'm done trying to help you." Instead, God invites us to out from under all the obstructions (wounding, sin, warfare) to His guidance. "Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress." (Heb. 12:1 NLT) I have come "to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners." (Isa. 61:1)

But then, when we blow it and have a repentant heart; God says, "recalculating." In other words, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." (Psa. 32:8) "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Jer. 29:11 NLT)

Let us keep our heart free to hear His voice and relaxed with the faith that He will "recalculate" our way when needed.

Gary

To learn more about Gary and The Noble Heart visit http://www.thenobleheart.com

Where do I go to church?

2009-07-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

There is an institution that is commonly called “church”. I like to refer to this as the institutional church or IC for short. It does not seem to me that the IC is what Jesus and the apostles were referring to when they spoke of the Church. When I read passages referring to the Church the New Testament they don’t make sense if I think in terms of the IC. I am writing this because, in later blogs, I will be discussing the effect the IC has had on my life and where I currently am in relation to the IC. And, I want to be clear that I am writing about the Institution and not The Church.

Author Wayne Jacobson has this to say about Church…

“Asking me where I go to church is like asking me where I go to Jacobsen. How do I answer that? I am a Jacobsen and where I go a Jacobsen is. 'Church' is that kind of word. It doesn't identify a location or an institution. It describes a people and how they relate to each other. If we lose sight of that, our understanding of the church will be distorted and we'll miss out on much of its joy.”

To read the full article (Why I Don't Go To Church Anymore) by Wayne Jacobson follow this link http://www.lifestream.org/bodylife.php?blid=32

How you doin?

2009-07-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

The journey, sometimes it feels good, sometimes it feels awful. How it feels is not the point. The point is to engage in the journey. If you are actively engaged in the journey then it is good. There are aspects of everyone’s journey that are unpleasant but must be experienced. And, there are times in the journey when you will not be happy with your own behavior.

So, if you ask me, “How are you doing?” The best I can say is “I am on the journey” It‘s not going “good” or “bad”. It’s the journey. What I can tell you is how it feels and what I am going through right now. Being honest about what you are experiencing and how it feels is liberating for you and others and it enkindles participation in the journey. “By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” (Mat 5:16 The Message)

But to judge yourself or others by what it feels like or what you are going through is just religious bull shit.

Buuuttugly

2009-07-13T17:43:00.001-07:00

I have noticed that it is easy for me to go from self confident to smug and arrogant. Self confidence is a heady drug. It feels good but it can distort my perspective. If I am not careful it becomes arrogance. And that is buuuttugly.

Why the destination

2009-06-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

The destination is the goal that you share with the Father. It's where you want to go and where He wants to take you. It motivates the journey and gives purpose to the relationship.

Why the relationship

2009-06-24T20:45:00.001-07:00

The relationship is the real goal, the real treasure. The journey and the destination are context for the relationship. The benefits of the relationship are worth every step of the journey and totally eclipse the value of any reward the destination produces.

Why the journey

2009-06-23T15:29:00.000-07:00

Photo by Nick Nicholas

It is tempting to want to bypass the journey and just get to the destination. Keeping the destination in mind is important, but I don’t want to despise the journey. Without the journey I would not be prepared for the destination. Without the journey I would not develop the character or the depth of relationship with the Father necessary to thrive or even survive at my destination. The journey is vital.

Welcome to the real world

2009-06-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

I want to be free from all the crap that wraps itself around me; free from all the crap that I grab hold of and hang on to. I feel as though I am living in a lie. I feel as though my life could be so much more free, powerful, fulfilling, significant and joyful. I feel as though I am entrapped by my possessions, my memories, my emotions, my attachments, my habits and my addictions.

Lord, how do I get outside of these things? How do I find freedom?

Stay on the journey with me. You are being awakened. This is a process. I know how to take you where you want to go and I am taking you there. We are taking this journey together. The journey, the relationship and the destination are all vital and cannot be separated. None can be achieved without the other.

Please Tell Me Who I Am

2009-06-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him! Romans 8:15-17 (The Message)

Who am I?

I am a son of the High King of heaven and earth. My elder brother is the creator and redeemer of all things. I have the birthright of a prince. I am an heir to an unbelievable inheritance. My true heart, the center of who I truly am, leans in to know, love and follow my Father the King.

Warriors Don't Run From Suffering*

2009-04-25T08:34:00.002-07:00

* Because it makes them stronger

The US Marines say it this way... "Pain is weakness leaving the body"

Finding life, finding yourself, finding Christ involves pain. But, so does just living. You are going to experience pain in this life. When it comes don't waste it by trying to run from it. Instead, embrace it and let it bring you life.

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? Mat 16:24-26

Here is the formula if you truly want to find yourself (life, freedom, joy, peace, fulfillment)

"If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me. Mat 10:38-39

There Is No Spoon

2009-04-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

Your enemy (devil/world/flesh) wants you to think that you can become right with God by following the rules, but that is impossible. "If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily." Gal 2:21

You can not become righteous by trying to be righteous. Jesus said that in order to achieve righteousness in your own strength you would have to mutilate yourself. (read Mat 5:29-30)

Instead, only try to realize the truth... You are already righteous. Then you will see that it is not you that makes yourself righteous, it is Christ.

Simple Clarity? - Guest blog by Gary Barkalow

2009-04-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

I remember one evening watching a nature show about lions in Africa. It was one of those amazing productions where you observed a lion's life from birth through adulthood. I watched the lion as a cub rolling in the grass, wrestling with his siblings, pouncing on his father, his mother grooming him. As the cub got older, I watch him on his initial hunts with some success, but mostly failure. In the lion's later life, he found a mate and had his own cubs. His days consisted of guiltlessly resting in the shade in the heat of the day, confidently hunting for food and valiantly defending his family from predators. Something about the simple clarity of his life and the sense of "being", untouched by the nagging, shaming question of, "who am I" and "what should I be doing with my life" stirred a type of jealousy in me. It wasn't necessarily a simple life that I was wanting, but instead it was his simple clarity - he was just being what he was ...a lion. If we were created to be something, to do something, to contribute something why is it so hard then to figure out what that is?

In C.S. Lewis', The Chronicles of Narnia, we read of a great prince who had been imprisoned under an enchantment by a witch. While under her spell Prince Rilian would lose all recollection of who he was and where he came from - "while I was enchanted I could not remember my true self." And during his brief moments of clarity, being told that those moments were actually times of insanity, the prince would be voluntarily bound to a chair until he would come back into his "right mind" which he later described as a "heavy, tangled, cold, clammy web of evil magic."

This is how life feels for most of us - we are lost in a fog of confusion and dullness with brief moments of clarity and desire which seem so hard to hold on to. And when we are able to capture those moments that have a ring of authenticity about them, we quickly start to doubt their legitimacy. Could we be under some web of evil magic?

"I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people." Eph. 1:18 NLV

"I press on (strenuously pursue) to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." Phil. 3:12 NIV

In the pursuit with you,

Gary

For further information about Gary or The Noble Heart go to http://www.thenobleheart.com

What's A Boy To Do?

2009-04-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

Mat Kearney
What's A Boy To Do

I'm sure that I'm moving to St. Louis
Three long years wandering here in New York City
I guess I'm looking for the right way to do this
I guess I'm looking for the right things to call pretty

Young boys playing in the park
Turning their backs to take a shot
You know I'll stay sharp around here
'Cause they're stoning and leaving type
It's the kind of love that comes and goes
When there's company coming around

What's a boy to do who knows no man now
What's a boy to do who knows no man now

Daddy's been looking down his nose at all of them
And I've been looking 'round for someone to tell me who I am
He kept saying I was too young to finish a fight
I'd die each time they came
I never got to draw my knife

Well it was just a pair of shoes in a middle school room
With the world watching in
An angel is crying
I'm dying just a little inside as they ran away
Funny which words stick around twenty years down
When you're driving alone

What's a boy to do when there's no man at home
What's a boy to do when there's no man at home

Well I'll stack all my books into perfect rows
From the biggest down to the smallest ones
And I buy all the perfect clothes
Bullet proof and black
Where I look like a son

Well it was just a rainy night at his house
A bottle spinning around the room
And everybody's singing
And slipping down the bottom of a halfway rush of blood
And I was grabbing Missy but I was trying to find the light switch in the dark

What's a boy to do with no man in his heart
What's a boy to do with no man in his heart

It's all quiet for the first time
With no voices left to fall
I saw a boy at the bottom of the bridge
His car was left there on the top

It's four o'clock in the morning
Didn't need to be like this
There's a white sheet left to cover up what should have been a holy kiss

It's not like those days
It's not like I'm scared of you

What's the Son of Man and a boy to do
What's the Son of Man and a boy to you

Fathered By God

2009-04-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

God will do for you what your father could not...

Click on the banner above for the Fathered By God tour schedule.

Would You Be A Man?

2009-04-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

From the movie Australia

At some point in a boy's life he must leave his mother and enter the company of men. As John Eldredge says, masculinity is imparted to a boy in the company of men.

"The ancient societies believe that a boy becomes a man only through ritual and effort-only through the 'active intervention of older men,'" Bly reminds us. The father or another man must actively intervene, and the mother must let go. Bly tells the story of one tribal ritual, which involves as they all do the men taking the boy away for initiation. But in this case, when he returns, the boy's mother pretends not to know him. She asks to be introduced to "the young man." That is a beautiful picture of how a mother can cooporate in her son's passage to the father's world. (From Wild at Heart by John Eldredge page 67-68)

We live in an age of uninitiated men. We are not sure that we are men because we have not been tested. Most of us are walking around looking for the answer to our question... Am I a man? Do I have what it takes?

Keeping The Rules

2009-04-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

Here is an idea that you could try...

Beat yourself into submission, follow all the rules,
duty, obligation,
behavior modification.
Submit to peer pressure - join an accountability group.
You know - Moral striving.
But that will not take you on the journey that God has for you. That is a futile journey. It leads to guilt, shame and a hidden life. Life like a bug in a bottle.

The real journey, the one that leads to life, joy, fulfillment, significance and peace comes by walking with God in honesty, vulnerability and transparency.

Galatians 2:19-21 (The Message)

^19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

Mantopia Life- Resurrecting The Masculine Heart

2009-04-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Henry David Thoreau - Walden

No-one wants to remain a prisoner of an unlived life. John O'Donohue - Beauty

Mantopia Life is...

Adventure Park
Learning Place
Mentoring Resource
Training Ground
Launching Pad
Healing Force
Rally Point
Freedom Pass

be...
informed and inspired
challenged and encouraged

Taking It To The Edge Of Crashing

2009-03-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Push it to the place where you are frightened. Then when you are no long afraid there, push out again.

The Unseen War: Winning the Fight for Life

2009-03-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

Most of us simply endure life, trying our hardest to just hang on until Jesus returns, oblivious as to why life seems so hard. Consequently, much of what happens to us (much of life for that matter) produces in us a kind of frustration and confusion.
The Unseen War: Winning the Fight for Life was written out of the context of those daily battles.
It addresses three key issues:
First, it outlines a paradigm shift, as such, shedding light on the reality of the battle around us and the enemy at the root of that battle.
Second, it reminds us from the Scriptures who we are and the power that every believer has in Christ.
Then finally, it offers tools that we will need for the battle, so that, as Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 4:16, we do not lose heart.

“Few people have the courage to communicate what they see, even fewer persevere through the battle to write it all down. David has captured an essential but misplaced truth for this chapter in history for the body of Christ in his book, The Unseen War. David, thank you!”
Gary Barkalow

David's book can be ordered at: http://www.knightvisionministries.com/Resources.html

Battle for Freedom

2009-03-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a good question...

In the battle for a whole and free life, what is my part?

The apostle Paul answers the question this way:

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Rom. 12:1-2, The Message)

Paul says that you will attain the maturity that you desire (maturity = whole and free) if you make God the center of your live instead of the culture, embrace what he is doing for you, fix your attention on him and respond to his counsel. In other words, walk with God.

Gerald May, in his excellent book, Addiction and Grace, tells us how to find freedom from addiction by this process of engaging with God.

Addiction cannot be defeated by the human will acting on its own, or by the human will opting out and turning everything over to divine will. Instead, the power of grace flows most fully when human will chooses to act in harmony with the divine will. In practical terms, this means staying in a situation, being willing to confront it as it is, remaining responsible for the choices one makes in response to it, but at the same time turning to God’s grace, protection and guidance as the ground for one’s choices and behavior.

An Adventurous Life

2009-03-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

What's next, Papa?

God intends for us to live an adventurous life.

Romans 8:15-18

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

Asking The Right Question

2009-02-24T16:37:00.000-08:00

Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what
makes you come alive, and go do that, Because what
the world needs is people who have come alive.

Could someone make it as professional skateboarder? Tony Hawk sure did. What are you really passionate about?

"...Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (The Message)

What you are passionate about is exactly what you were created to do. What are you waiting for?

How Martial Arts Can Supercharge Your Man Spirit

2009-02-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

In the link below, blogger Rodney King, creator of the world famous Crazy Monkey Defense Martial Arts Programme, explains how martial arts nurtures the warrior spirit in a man. He concludes with these words...

Because you are free to fully explore anger, frustration, and fear as a man in martial arts without shame or embarrassment- something wonderful happens. You begin to feel the confidence rise inside you. You feel alive. At times you are in flow. You become intimate with the present moment.

As you leave the mat and as you look down the long road of the martial arts of everyday life, you know that you are prepared, because you are a man once more!

To read the whole article go to here

A Battle to Fight

2009-02-22T10:28:00.000-08:00

Men need a battle to fight we are wired that way. We need a cause that is larger than our own self-preservation. There is a reason for that: We were born into a world at war. We have an enemy that hates us and wants to destroy us. In Wild at Heart John Eldredge illustrates the “Warrior Heart” with the story of Civil war soldier Major Sullivan Ballou…

I have in my files a copy of letter written by Major Sullivan Ballou, a Union officer in the 2nd Rhode Island. He writes to his wife on the eve of the Battle of Bull Run, a battle he senses will be his last. He speaks tenderly to her of his undying love, of “the memories of blissful moments I have spent with you.” Ballou morns the thought that he must give up “the hope of future years, when, God willing we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood around us.” Yet in spite of his love the battle calls and he cannot turn from it. “I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter… how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution… Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break” and yet a greater cause “comes over me like a strong wind and bears me on with all these chains to the battle field.”

Eldredge’s conclusion…
A man must have a battle to fight, a great mission to his life that involves and yet transcends even home and family. He must have a cause to which he is devoted even unto death, for this is written into the fabric of his being.

Excerpts from Wild at Heart by John Eldredge

Mandels - Candles for Men

2009-02-20T07:25:00.000-08:00

A Tale of Two Men

2009-02-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

(The Noble Heart, Gary Barkalow, February 18th, 2009 eletter)

Jeff Andrechyn, a friend and former US Airways pilot sent an email to his friends sharing his heart's reaction to the CBS 60 Minute interview with Captain Chesley Sullenberger, known as "Sully". He was encouraged to submit his story to the Charlottesville, VA newspaper which he did. It appeared last Sunday and Jeff has been overwhelmed with emails and phone calls. It is a great glimpse into the glory of this man: Sully and Jeff.

Let me tell you something about Jeff's story before he gets into Sully's. Jeff was a successful 757 pilot. He loved his work: the responsibilities, the skills, the money and status. But, he developed an eye condition which forced him out. So he started to pursue his heart's desire, as best he understood it at the time, by meeting with men to help them navigate their life through this world with God. Jeff's passion and skill in "navigation" transitioned/deepened from airplanes to men. His loss became his gain. It is as Andrew Murray said,

"He brought me here. It's by His will I am in this straight place. In that fact I will rest. He will keep me here in His love and give me grace to behave as His child. Then He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends for me to learn. In His good time, He will bring me out again; how and when He knows. So let me say: I am here by God's appointment, in His keeping, under His training, for His time."

Jeff has started an organization called Expeditions of the Heart (expeditionsoftheheart.org). And now, his article:

Sully's Opus

There is a wonderful movie you may have seen, Mr. Holland's Opus starring Richard Dreyfuss. Mr. Holland is a man who believes his destiny is to be a conductor who writes symphonies, but as life has it, he reluctantly takes a job as a high school music teacher at a public school. Holland then has a boy who loses his ability to hear. The boy is deaf to his father's glory. The redemption in the movie comes at the end of Mr. Holland's career when the community celebrates his life with a surprise party where his former students venerate him with stories of how he changed their lives. It's a tearful moment when Mr. Holland finds out what his real "Opus" was. It was not a sheet of paper with notes on it, rather the hearts of all his former students who went on to be leaders in their community.

I was surprised watching 60 Minutes the other night at being moved to tears with the interview of Sully, the Hudson River pilot. Pilots are the least likely people to move your heart while telling a story, but there I was, in tears. There was this transcendent moment when Sully said, "I knew that all my life's training was for this moment".

It was beautiful.

Sully had some clarity on his life. Tragedy has a way of introducing us to ourselves and our deepest desires. Sully knew, even if for just a moment, the "why" of his life. When a life comes into that much clarity and things begin to make sense, it's like a broken bone gets set in the universe and the anguish is over and you have perspective.

It's what we all long for in our lives.

When I watched Sully talk about that five minute flight, I saw a man in his glory. We all have a glory to our lives. God is the father of glory and he doesn't mind passing that on to his kids. It is often hidden in the mundane routine of life but even though it might be obscure, it is still there. This event gave Sully a role to play, and he played it well and because of it his life's passion became known.

At the end of the interview, Sully and his crew met the passengers of US Airways flight 1549. It was Sully's "Mr. Holland's Opus" moment when the people, in tears, hugged him (which is unnatural for a former military pilot to hug someone) and thanked him for saving their lives.

I can only imagine what he was hearing;

Thank you for the months of training that took you away from your family.
Thank you for bearing the heart ache of missing significant events in your kids' lives while you were away at work.
Thank you for flying after the chaos of 9/11.
Thank you for staying sober when your retirement was taken away.
Thank you for the sleepless nights in strange hotels and answering the 4 am wake up calls.
Thank you for staring down that line of thunderstorms and prevailing yet again.
Thank you for sacrificing your body to cross all those time zones while eating airport food on the run.
Thank you for keeping it all together and being there for me when I needed you the most.

We can get so beaten down with life's daily assaults that we become deaf to the symphony of people that we have loved, forgiven, affirmed, validated, taught, and included in our lives. The world around us does change when we live like that.

I want to encourage the heroes out there who are covered with the dust of the mundane and are trying to keep it together. There is a weightiness and splendor to your life that for the most part is unseen.

You have a role to play in this great symphony of life. It's an important note; play it well.

Your day is coming.

Jeff Andrechyn
Airline Pilot and president of Expeditions of the Heart.

Adventure II

2009-02-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

Casual adventure to the max.

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Adventure I

2009-02-16T08:30:00.000-08:00

Adventure, as men, we crave it. What does adventure mean to you? Backpacking? Sailing? Trading Stocks? Travel? John Eldredge says that there are three levels of adventure. There are casual adventures. These are the diving and hang gliding adventures. They are important because they stretch us and prepare us for crucial adventures. Crucial adventures are the adventures the scare us. These make us feel like we are in danger of great loss if we fail. Then there are critical adventures. Critical adventures are the ones on which we stake our lives. A critical adventure requires more than you have to give, it require the resources of heaven. If God does not come through it cannot be accomplished.

Mantopia Manifesto

2009-02-11T16:29:00.000-08:00

Mantopia is a place where a man can feel comfortable discovering what authentic masculinity looks like and apply it to his life. It is a place where a man can discover why his life is the way it is and learn how to alter its course. Mantopia will facilitate the fathering of men through small groups, adventures, teaching, and training in a nonthreatening, nonreligious environment.

Mantopia will create an environment that will attract men that are not interested in church or religion, as did Jesus. Men will be welcome to participate at the level that they want to participate. Always telling the story of freedom and offering more.

The end purpose of Mantopia is to facilitate positive and permanent change in a mans life; move him towards being whole and holy. So that he can be the son, father, husband, friend, leader that he longs to be in his heart of hearts. Learning to use his strength to fight for the freedom and protection of the weak and innocent rather than to use them to get what he wants. To make his mark upon the world by stepping into the life-fulfilling role that God created for him to fill.

Everything done at Mantopia will illustrate or teach some aspect of the desires of the masculine heart (Battle, Adventure, Beauty) or stages of a man’s life (Beloved son, Cowboy, Warrior, Lover, King, Sage)

Teaching men to following a set of rules or principles could not accomplish the purposes stated above. Duty, obligation and behavior modification will not work. Moral striving leads to shame, guilt and a hidden life. That is why this is not possible in a church setting. This is only possible in an open and honest journey with God and others.