Wild at Heart

Having returned from Colorado and John Eldredge's Wild at Heart boot camp, I can easily say this was the most significant spiritual time of my life. I cannot yet put words easily around what all I took in. It was simply incredible - God used this weekend to open my eyes in ways that have never been opened before.

I see my life in an entirely new context - my life is part of a grand design. We were born into an epic. We play a key role in the "play" and the enemy is looking for chances to take us out. I understand spiritual warfare better than I have ever understood it after this weekend. I see now - clearly - the ways the enemy has been trying to take me out all through my life. I see the battle for my wife. I see her struggles and see how the enemy is scratching away at her, wearing her down, attacking her in an attempt to take her down and, as a result, take me down. Satan went after Eve in the garden - not Adam. I see that he will come after my wife.

I see my role in my daughter's lives clearly. I learned how to pray for them. Frankly, I learned how to pray in general. I've been a "hey Jesus, you're great, I need ________" prayer person. John taught me how to pray - how to get on my knees, call the Spirit in and do business with God.

I see spiritual warfare oh so clearly. We are at war. We were born into a world at war. John uses video clips from secular movies to make his points. He showed the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan - perhaps the single most intense, graphic movie scene ever filmed. When I left that movie years ago, I said "every American needs to see the first 10 minutes of this movie to fully appreciate what our forefathers did for our freedom." I now say, "every Christian needs to see those first 10 minutes because it captures - perfectly - the image of being born (riding the boats symbolizes the womb and the doors dropping symbolizes the birth) into a world at war". If you will remember that scene, as soon as the doors opened, the men were slaughtered.

Satan sits on the beach with a machine gun looking to take us out. He'll use whatever he can and play on our sin to drive us over the edge. Guilt, shame, competition, anger, a father who didn't meet our needs, lust, the internet, television, alcohol...you name it, all is fair game as a tool for the enemy.

Perhaps the driving point of this weekend is our critical need for a band of brothers to walk with us through this war and help us "unpack" the battles we are facing. No wars are won by a single soilder charging up hills. Wars are won by men banding together to fight the enemy and watch each other's backs. So it is true for the spiritual wars we fight.

I will write more - much more - on this. What a weekend! We hiked to the top of the mountain at YoungLife's Frontier Ranch to watch the sun come up over the Rocky Mountains. We rappelled down a 125 foot cliff. We prayed together. Men wept as they came to terms with the wounds on their hearts, the agreements they've made with these wounds and their desperate need for a Savior. What a weekend!

I soar as never before!