Become Good Soil

To be a man, a boy must see a man. – J. R. Moehringer, The Tender Bar Adultery. Rumors. Scandal. A growing cloud of suspicion. God invades humanity through the womb of an unwed 14-year-old Jewish girl? Mary had been betrothed to Joseph in a romance fit for a fairytale, but her story suddenly appeared to be going sideways. Joseph could’ve bailed; it was his right given the alleged adultery. How does a woman get pregnant without having sex? If he had chosen this path, would Mary have been left, like most unwed young mothers at the time, with no recourse but to sell her body as a prostitute in order to ensure the survival of her child? But he didn’t.   What was going on in the heart and soul of Joseph that caused him to risk everything on God? G. K. Chesterton observed that Jesus made three promises to those who consented to being his disciples: they could be completely without fear, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble. No story highlights this trinity of experiences more than the circumstances of the Incarnation.  Friends, as we draw closer to Christmas and the celebration of the Rescuing Creator’s great invasion of our raw and fragile human scene, may this creative rendering from Joseph’s perspective grant you pause. May his story slow you down and draw you afresh into the Deep Magic of the Kingdom of God.  May this story strengthen you with wonder, and may you find yourself newly awed before the invitation that your Father in the Heavens extends to you to play an irreplaceable role as his apprentice in the greatest Story of all. Christ has come. Christ is coming. Christ will come again. For the Kingdom, Morgan P.S. To reflect even more on the paradox of this "Average Joe," take six minutes and dive into this video created by one of our BGS allies. P.P.S. Much of this episode is drawn from a compelling Christmas book, The Indescribable Gift. Blending tradition, biblical story, historical fact, and sanctified imagination, Richard Exley uses words like chisels and scalpels to unveil the heart of the Incarnation. You don’t want to miss a chance to add this collection of beautifully imagined eyewitness accounts to your holiday library.

What will they say about you when you're gone? What is the most important thing? What if you had another chance? What if there was an ancient path that led to life as it was meant to be? Would you take it? What if it wasn't easy? What if it wasn’t cheap? What if it wasn’t quick? What if there was a way to be good again? ...to become who God meant when he meant you? What if you could have your whole heart restored? What if you could be strong again? ...courageous again? ...and learn to love with a ferocity that outlives your life? What if that's what they remember? Brothers, it's happening.  More and more men are saying yes to God in this hour, consenting to a process of inner transformation and slowly and steadily becoming men who are deeply good. Men who are true. Men who will be celebrated when they cross over from this life into eternity as men who built and lived legacies of love. Don’t miss this invitation to the Becoming a King Experience as John and I explore the heartbeat of authentic masculine initiation and provide a relevant and fresh context to use this resource personally or with a group.  As you turn the corner into a new year, we invite you to pray about how this free resource can personally fuel your masculine initiation and strengthen the souls of the men in your world. After listening to this BGS podcast exclusive, find out more about the Becoming a King Experience here. For the Kingdom, Morgan

Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download We see the things we want to see, the things that confirm our assumptions and our preferred way of looking at the world. Our masculine initiation was intended to be an interpretive grid and narrative arc for every moment of every day of our lives. However, the transformative experiences at the heart of the process often come in forms contrary to our preferences. Here’s the good news: God at times gives us what we want, but at all times gives us what we need. Reckoning with our unconscious biases is a form of initiation that is often unpleasant. Yet in order to become the kind of men who can increasingly see more of how God sees, the interrogative process of engaging our own bias is essential. Have you ever wondered why God chose to record the story of Jesus through four distinct and intentionally biased Gospel accounts? Through each writer's highly designed story-telling of the teaching, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, what do you think is lost, and what is gained? Turn your attention back to your own process of transformation. How are you becoming a student of your own bias?  I want to suggest that our biases were intended to be habitually explored and scrutinized, then consecrated and, over time, brought more and more into alignment with the vision of Jesus. Here are a few questions, by way of example, to begin to engage us in this process: How has your social location or your family of origin affected your bias?  How about your consumption of information? Who and what are your sources? Most importantly, why is this so? How does the information you choose to engage form your way of seeing? These questions lead us to deep waters, and engaging them takes both humility and courage that few men ever choose to exercise. But the offer of freedom and joy in becoming the kind of men who can see through the eyes of Christ makes all the discomfort and effort of challenging our biases more than worth it.   Come join a fellowship of rare and remarkable men from across the globe as we dive deep into these foundational questions of becoming. For the Kingdom, Morgan Taking Action WATCH: Crash (2005 film) Fill out the reflection sheet, then prayerfully enter into each character’s story and ask God for one thing from each story you can learn that will help you further crucify and consecrate your personal bias. READ: Four Gospel accounts of the resurrection Matthew 28 Mark 16 Luke 24 John 20-21 Observe the impact of bias and how it shapes the story in which we find ourselves. What is lost and what is gained through each Gospel writer’s unique storytelling that is not captured by the others? What might God be bringing to us through these four distinct accounts of the resurrection? If you were asked to write an account of the resurrection, drawing from the four Gospels and your own walk with God, what would you choose to include? What would you choose not to include? How would your bias have shaped those decisions? TAKE HONEST INVENTORY: What is your bias? Begin using these gateways for your excavation: family of origin social location my consumption of information – Who and what are my sources? (silo bias) fear and shame The “unforgivable sin” in which I operate in relationships is_____. “I tolerate this but I value this.”

Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Christ from the very first moment of his existence virtually bears all men within himself....For the Word did not merely take a human body; he incorporated himself in our humanity, and incorporated our humanity in his humanity. – G. K. Chesterton As a man, what does Advent mean?  What is a winsome onramp to engage in the practice of Advent for our own souls and for those entrusted to our care? And what is the fruit of a wholehearted preparation for the Coming of Christ in the final days of our calendar year?  As we explore Advent, we might be pleasantly surprised to find it is not only a celebration of Christ’s cunning entry into the landscape of humanity, but a rousing call to prepare for his Return and the Restoration of All Things he promises.  And so we are invited not only to seasonal readying of hearts and lives, but to become the kind of men who urgently desire and ardently prepare for his Coming Again. It has been said that when the will of God meets the will of man, one must die. St. John the Baptist expressed this holy exchange between himself and his God in this way: “I must decrease, so Christ can increase.”  Advent is yet another powerful context for our masculine initiation, an opportunity to relinquish our inferior self-will in order to joyfully receive more of our King and his Indestructible Life. Christ has come, and he is coming.  Behind it all is a Person. And that Person is God—coming for us.  Pause with me and Simon Kyne as we wonder together how we can be men who are ready to receive the God who is coming.  For the Kingdom, Morgan P.S. If you want to go deeper, engage these calendars, Scriptures, and prayers, inviting God to illuminate a deeper meaning of Advent.  Advent as considering the Incarnation: Isaiah 40:1-4 Isaiah 60:1-3 Isaiah 61:1-3 Micah 5:2 John 1:1-12 Luke 1:26-38 Advent as preparing for the Second Coming of Christ: Matthew 24:37-44 Matthew 25:1-13 Mark 13:33-37 Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 Advent Wreath and Prayers for Lighting Tradition of Hay in the Manger Pray or Sing the O Antiphons

Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose. – C. S. Lewis In the twilight of his life, Parker J. Palmer, one of the last great elders of our day, penned these words: “Clinging to what you already know is the path to an unlived life. So cultivate a beginner’s mind, walk straight into your not-knowing, and take the risk of failing and falling, again and again—then getting up to learn again and again. That’s the path to a life lived large in the service of love, truth, and justice.” – On the Brink of Everything What if you were to turn with an open heart and a beginner's mind toward the Bible for a fresh revelatory quest? Join Cherie and me for a third and final episode where, with confession and curiosity, we dive into our one-year journey through the Bible. Above all, this episode is a final invitation to join us and a fellowship of like-hearted women and men around the globe for a one-year quest through the Bible, cover to cover, under the care and leadership of the wise guides at the Bible Project. We launch January 1, 2022. Register now to find out more. In order that we can build cohorts for participants shepherded by BGS Intensive alumni, the registration deadline is November 22. With a beginner's mind and an expectant heart, let's dive in. For the Kingdom, Morgan

Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Reading is the first thing, just reading the Bible. As we read we enter a new world of words and find ourselves in on a conversation in which God has the first and last words. We soon realize that we are included in the conversation. The Bible is not only written about us but to us. – Eugene Peterson, introduction to The Message David Brooks, the author of The Second Mountain and The Road to Character, offers rare transparency into how his experience of the Scriptures transformed during his later decades of life. He suggests that we are created yet being created still. That the Bible stories introduced into his childhood as myths were later transformed into wisdom literature on which to build a life. Yet later still they become more. In "simple yet endlessly complex ways," the Bible became a living script. He goes on to say, My old ideas were not adequate for the extremes of joy and grief I experienced. These [Bible] stories kept coming back, but they changed as if re-formed by the alchemy of time. They grew bigger and deeper, more fantastical and more astonishing. Wait, God asked Abraham to kill his own son?  I suppose this happens to most of us as we age; we get smaller, and our dependencies get bigger. We become less fascinating to ourselves, less inclined to think of ourselves as the author of all that we are, and at the same time, we realize how we have been the one shaped—by history, by family, by forces beyond awareness. And I think what came, in the most incremental, boring way possible, is that at some point I had the sensation that these stories are not fabricated tales happening to other, possibly fictional, people: they are the underlying shape of reality. They are renditions of the recurring patterns of life. They are scripts we repeat....These stories provide the horizon of meaning in which we live our lives—not just our individual lives, but our lives together....We are created and being created still. Wisdom is not always knowing more, but knowing with more of you, knowing more deeply.  Friends, buckle up for another conversation and invitation to read the Scriptures afresh.  There is a narrow road to know the Scriptures—and the God who wrote them—with more of us, more deeply.  This three-part series is, above all else, a personal invitation to all Become Good Soil listeners, women and men alike, to join me for a year's journey through the Bible together. For the Kingdom, Morgan

Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download There are two ways of seeing. One is to look at a forest, and take in a landscape, and the colors, depth, dimensions, and nuances of all of it. But there is also the act of getting on your hands and knees and looking at one flower, and one petal. – Walt Harrington, The Everlasting Stream What do we do with this collection of ancient texts called the Bible? For many of us, even the word “Bible” elicits mixed feelings. As I talk to men, these sorts of words often surface: pressure, “ought to,” disdain, guilt, pain, delight, gratitude, anger, and awe. Let’s face it, the Bible can be intimidating, inaccessible, or less relevant to life than we might hope. To cope, we might stick to the parts that seem comprehensible, positive, and comforting, avoiding the rest like an ominous forest from which we aren’t sure we could find our way back.  For some, the complexity and strangeness of the Bible has demanded a rejection of the whole thing, along with the One whose voice is said to be found within.  But God is not on trial.  Neither is his story.  And neither are we.  What if there were teachers and a community willing to engage our questions and face the strangeness of the Bible head on with us?   What if we could start at the beginning again with a posture of honesty, openness, and curiosity? What if we could follow wise guides right into the forest of these texts and find a compelling revelation of  the Living God and Reality afresh, one that would stir our hearts, expand our imaginations, and renew our whole person with Beauty and Mystery as never before?  In this first episode of a three-part series on “Through the Bible,” Cherie and I are stepping under the shepherding care of the wise guides at the Bible Project and engaging texts that have troubled and intimidated us for years. Friends, this is the beginning of a treasure hunt. You don’t want to miss this.  Spoiler Alert –  This three-part series is an invitation to join me and a tribe of like-hearted allies as we walk through the Bible as a community beginning January 1, 2022! From my experience, having traveled this journey all of 2021 with a few different groups, the bar is low and the fruit is immense. All BGS subscribers, young and old, women and men, are welcome. More to come, but if you’re interested, sign up. Referenced in this podcast are Eugene Peterson's introductions to each of the books of the Bible. You can find a link to download that PDF in the ARSENAL section (under MORE) of BecomeGoodSoil.com. For the Kingdom, Morgan

Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download Who will cry for the little boy, lost and all alone? Who will cry for the little boy, the boy inside the man?  – Antwone Fisher Our initiation as sons is a wildly intimate process that travels terrain both universal and unique. One universal feature is found in our origin story from Genesis 1 and 2, when God bestows on man the deeply seeded identity of very good.  So what's gone wrong?  It was Chesterton who said, “Every man has forgotten who he is....We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are.”  With our true identity stolen, surrendered, wounded, and disfigured, we find ourselves reaching to anything and everything except the Living God to stabilize our reality. We set out on a path committed to avoiding God and the truth of the rupture within.   Along the way, most of us unconsciously agree with the lie of original shamefulness and that at all costs, we must and can cover our shame.  Yet denying our pain and determining to deliver ourselves from shame and fear need not be the final word on our story.  There is another ending the Father is committed to provide, an ending of redemption, love, and joy beyond our wildest hope. Sam Jolman has become a craftsman in the restoration of the masculine soul. For two decades he has personally sought to become a wholehearted man and has professionally shepherded hundreds of men into new freedom, deeper strength, and greater wellbeing through his counseling practice. Though he operates off a waitlist for engaging future clients, in this episode we each get a rare and blessed seat in his office to dive together into the masculine journey. This is a treasure chest for the few. Let’s dive in. For the Kingdom, Morgan P.S. You can connect with Sam and learn more about what he offers at SamJolman.com.

Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download It was the Beauty I longed for, beyond the beauty that I longed for in her... – Frederick Beuchner Sex is never about sex. It’s always connected to places hidden deeply in the souls of men and women. Where have we taken our longing for love?  What have we done with the glory and complexity of embodiment in a fallen and being-redeemed world?  And how does the story of our sexuality connect with these questions?  Friends, I'm inviting you to dive with me into the deep waters of sexuality, love, beauty, and intimacy—and the hope of restoration in both this age and the age to come.  Join me and Christopher West, a leading voice in a theological exploration of the human body, as we unpack the mystery and wonder of original design and the compelling intersection of body, soul, and the life of God. You don’t want to miss this.  For the Kingdom, Morgan P.S. If you want to dive deeper, take a pass through Christopher’s book Our Bodies Tell God’s Story and look for many other life-giving resources at tobinstitute.org.

Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download When I look at him there is a collection of awful memories. Memories I have spent most of my adult life trying to forget. – The Kid  Some of our most determined energy is poured into forgetting the sights, sounds, and locations that harmed our souls. At best we acknowledge them but minimize their significance; at worst we bury them, laboring to convince ourselves that our painful experiences play little role in the kind of men we have become. Yet a wound ungrieved is a wound unhealed. The relentless mission of Jesus is to heal and restore every aspect of our personhood. To rebuild what has been devastated. To befriend the young, dismayed, and lonely parts of us that have never been welcomed home. How do you treat the little boy inside of you?  What are your knee-jerk reactions when circumstances expose young places in your soul that have yet to be healed?  What would it be like to join God in seeking and shepherding the young places within, receiving the relentless pursuit of a Loving Father? Join Cherie, John, Stasi, and me as we discuss the importance of knowing our woundedness and actively receiving the healing that God longs to bring.  May this conversation be an encouragement to your heart today, and may it also be a fresh invitation to join us for the Wild at Heart Experience and Captivating Experience made available free to you and others. For the Kingdom, Morgan