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You speak often of my drinking, but little of my thirst.
– Scottish Proverb
In seven years of crafting the Become Good Soil podcast for you, no episode has infused me with more JOY than my time with Winton Nicholson as we explored Slow Is Pro.
Winton is a fiery, full-hearted Joy-Bringer who has found the treasure in the field and sold everything to possess it. He looks back to us from further down the narrow road and, with a wink and sparkle in his eye, says, “Buckle up…we’re in for a ride!”
Winton’s is a story of a thirsty man who sought to slake his thirst in countless ways until God revealed that his real thirst was for the radical, unconditional Love of his Pursuing Father. Through his story, Winton guides us to deep and daring waters, inviting us to reconnect with our true thirst and dive in with reckless abandon.
It was Brennan Manning who boldly asked, “Do you believe that the God of Jesus loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness? Beyond fidelity and infidelity...that he loves you in the morning sun and in the evening rain...that he loves you when your intellect denies it, your emotions refuse it, when your whole being rejects it? Do you believe that God loves you without condition and reservation and loves you in this moment as you are and not as you should be?”
Both Brennan’s and Winton’s stories bring us to a point of decision. Will we risk believing and receiving more and more of the utterly unconditional and intense affection of our Father? And will we risk loving God and loving ourselves?
How we respond to this invitation will dramatically shape our decade of becoming the kind of kings to whom God gladly entrusts his Kingdom.
Winton’s story reminds us that we mustn’t minimize our sin nature that attempts in myriad ways to distance us from our pain and inhibit our transformation yet fails to satisfy our true thirst. Below our compulsive reaching for another drink, our overeating, our constancy of activity, or any other medicating behavior is an unmet need. Noticing these compulsions and becoming curious about what is underneath can reveal the next layer ready for excavation in our process of becoming wholehearted.
Here is the good news: our medicators and their grip are not the truest thing about us. Our hidden self-hatred need not get the final word. There is a Father who is fiercely pursuing us, who loves us right now as we are and not as we should be. And none of the messes we have made in portions and seasons of our lives, nor the harm we have caused ourselves and others, are beyond the Love of our Father and his path forward to irrepressible joy and indestructible wholeness.
Join me and Winton in this episode of the Become Good Soil podcast as we courageously acknowledge the strategies of our sin—yet upend them, receiving the truth that the truest thing about us all is this: we are dearly loved sons.
You don’t want to miss this.
For the Kingdom,
Morgan