We have got to recover the wildness of spiritually – especially, masculine spirituality

Most boys and men share the perception that God is to be found in church, and that the rest of life is  . . . well, just the rest of life. The tragedy of this is that the rest of life seems far more attractive to them, than church.

God embraces the physical world and loves Creation; he pronounced it good. He speaks through it and uses it to teach us many things. We’ve lost many boys and men from the church because we’ve given them an unspeakable boring spirituality, implying that God is most interested in things like hymnals and baptismal fonts. We’ve made the spiritual very small, sanctimonious and often effeminate. And yet, most the stories of men encountering God in the Bible do not take place in church!

Moses in the desert, in the burning bush. Jacob wrestled with God in the wilderness, in the dead of night. David wrote most his psalms out under the stars. Paul is met on the dirt road between Jerusalem and Damascus. And most of the stories of Jesus with his disciples don’t take place in church. Not even indoors!

I make no distinction between taking a man on a wilderness adventure and, say, teaching him to pray. The adventure – rightly framed – can be a powerful experience of God. Prayer or Bible study – rightly framed – is meant to be the same. Both can be used to awaken a man’s soul, draw him into contact with the masculine in himself, in other men, in the world, and in God our Father.

Some friends invited me and my family to go with them to see the work of Compassion, (a child sponsorship ministry) among the poorest of the poor in Guatemala. Men need to know that life at its highest is found when we give it away on behalf of someone else.

There is nothing like the disruption that comes from being in a foreign country, especially a third world country. If adventure is meant to call a man out, take him beyond his normal life, beyond his comfort zone, cause him to rely upon God, then this sort of adventure is prime for the masculine journey. A foreign language, foreign foods, sights, sounds and smells. We were honoured to be invited into the homes of some Christian families there. They had no running water, no indoor toilet and shared but one meal a day. Later, my boys commented how happy the people were despite having so little – much happier and far more loving that their upper-middle-class buddies back home.

The ritual of a day of prayer and fasting, seeking God in the wilderness is found in nearly every culture. Jesus goes alone, into the wilderness to be with God. As did David, Elijah, John the Baptist and Paul. Men who would know God intimately have followed their example ever since.

We must put ourselves into situations that will thrust us forward on our spiritual journeys. So much of our daily lives is simply routine, and routine by its very nature is numbing. Get out of it. Break away!

God honours our intentionality as men, and while he will arrange for much of our spiritual journey, he asks us to take part as well; to engage. Ask, seek, knock, as the Scriptures urge. Be intentional about your own masculine journey.

Christianity is not a spectator sport.

“The Way of the Wild Heart” – A Map for the Masculine Journey. John Eldredge.