Podcast
Daily Readings by Wild at Heart
Hosted by John Eldredge · EN
Daily Readings are a daily excerpt from books and teachings from John and Stasi Eldredge and Morgan Snyder.
129episodes
Episodes
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Sharing in His Authority
4d ago00:01:42Tap to summarizeYou will reign, dear ones, over glorious kingdoms and realms within the great and glorious kingdom of our Father—a role we certainly need some preparation for. In another favorite Narnia story, The Horse and His Boy, the lost prince of Archenland is returned to his father—an orphaned boy, returned to his rightful role, just as we are. But he has some learning to do, some catching up to do before he can assume full responsibility. Shasta, now proclaimed prince, laments to his two horse companions: “It’s far worse for me than for you. I am going to be educated. I shall be learning reading and writing and heraldry and dancing and history and music while you’ll be galloping and rolling on the hills of Narnia.”A prince totally unaccustomed to the ways of the kingdom cannot be entrusted with the throne until he has had some preparation—just as we need “educating.” We really thought this life was simply about getting a nice little situation going for ourselves, and living out the length of our days in happiness. I’m sorry to take that from you, but you and I shall soon be inheriting kingdoms and we are almost illiterate when it comes to ruling. So God must prepare us to reign. How does he do this? In exactly the same way he grows us up—he puts us in situations that require us to pray and to learn how to use the authority that has been given to us. How else could it possibly happen?Want more? Order your copy of Moving Mountains today.
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5d ago00:04:07Tap to summarizeCamels have an Achilles’ heel. But their vulnerability is hidden by their legendary resilience: these famous “ships of the desert” have been crossing dune seas since before the time of Abraham. The stamina and strength of camels is truly impressive — they can carry heavy loads across leagues of burning desert sand, going without water for weeks while their human companions die of thirst. But the treacherous thing about camels is that they will walk a thousand miles with seemingly endless endurance, giving you little indication they are about to collapse. Then it just happens. As the Alchemist said to Santiago, Camels are traitorous: they walk thousands of paces and never seem to tire. Then suddenly, they kneel and die. But horses tire bit by bit. You always know how much you can ask of them, and when it is that they are about to die. (The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho)Human souls hide an Achilles’ heel too. We have an astonishing capacity to rally in the face of calamity and duress. We rally and rally, and then one day we discover there’s nothing left. Our soul simply says, I’m done; I don’t want to do this anymore, as we collapse into discouragement, depression, or just blankness of soul. You don’t want to push your soul to that point. Right now we’re in a sort of global denial about the actual cost of these hard years (which are not over). We just want to get past it all, so we’re currently trying to comfort ourselves with some sense of recovery and relief. But folks, we haven’t yet paid the psychological bill for all we’ve been through. We would never tell a survivor of abuse that the trauma must be over now that the abuse has stopped. And yet that mentality is at play in our collective denial of the trauma we’ve been through. We need to be kinder to our souls than that. Denial heals nothing, which is why I’m more concerned about what’s coming than what lies behind. In our compromised condition we’re now facing some of the trials Jesus warned us about as we approach what the Scriptures refer to as “the end of the age” (Matthew 24:3). Extraordinary times can be thrilling, but they also tend to be very demanding. Our hearts will need guidance and preparation. It would be a good idea to take the strength of your soul seriously at this time. There is hope, great hope. Jesus Christ knew that humanity would face hard times, especially as history accelerates toward the end of the age. He gave us counsel on how to live through such trials, and now would be a good time to pay attention to what he said. The Creator and Redeemer of our humanity has given us a path toward recovery and resilience. We would be fools to ignore it or push it off to “some other time.” Whatever you believe about the coming years, I think we can all agree that greater resilience of heart and soul would be a very good thing to take hold of. Want more? Order your copy of Resilient today.
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You Have What it Takes
6d ago00:01:31Tap to summarizeI am here to tell you that you can get your heart back. But I need to warn you — if you want your heart back, if you want the wound healed and your strength restored and to find your true name, you’re going to have to fight for it. Notice your reaction to my words. Does not something in you stir a little, a yearning to live? And doesn’t another voice rush in, urging caution, maybe wanting to dismiss me altogether? He’s being melodramatic. What arrogance. Or, maybe some guys could, but not me. Or, I don’t know ... is this really worth it? That’s part of the battle, right there. See? I’m not making this up.First and foremost, we still need to know what we never heard, or heard so badly, from our fathers. We need to know who we are and if we have what it takes. What do we do now with that ultimate question? Where do we go to find an answer? In order to help you find the answer to The Question, let me ask you another: What have you done with your question? Where have you taken it? You see, a man’s core question does not go away. He may try for years to shove it out of his awareness, and just “get on with life.” But it does not go away. It is a hunger so essential to our souls that it will compel us to find a resolution. In truth, it drives everything we do. Want more? Order your copy of Wild at Heart today.
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Killing Desire May Look Like Sanctification
1w ago00:02:56Tap to summarizeYou may recall the story Jesus told of the man who entrusted three of his servants with thousands of dollars (literally, “talents”), urging them to handle his affairs well while he was away. When he returned, he listened eagerly to their reports. The first two fellows went out into the marketplace and doubled their investment. As a result, they were handsomely rewarded. The third servant was not so fortunate. His gold was taken from him, and he was thrown into “outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” My goodness. Why? All he did was bury the money under the porch until his master’s return. Most of us would probably agree with the path he chose—at least the money was safe there. But listen to his reasoning. Speaking to his master, he said, “I know you are a hard man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it” (see Matthew 25:14–30 NLT). He was afraid of the master, whom he saw as a hard man. He didn’t trust his master’s heart. The issue isn’t capital gains—it’s what we think of God. When we bury our desires, we are saying the same thing: “God, I don’t dare desire because I fear you; I think you are hard-hearted.”Even though we may profess at one level a genuine faith in him, at another level we are like the third servant. Our obedience is not so much out of love as it is out of carefulness. “Just tell me what to do, God, and I’ll do it.” Killing desire may look like sanctification, but it’s really godlessness. Literally, our way of handling life without God. The deepest moral issue is always what we, in our heart of hearts, believe about God. And nothing reveals this belief as clearly as what we do with our desire. Want more? Order your copy of The Journey of Desire today.
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Ask Away
1w ago00:02:31Tap to summarizeGod calls us to run away to Him, not from Him. He asks us to not fix our gaze on other people’s lives and compare them to our own but to look to Him for the source of our worthy life. He asks us to find our rest in Him. He is our resting place. When I am exhausted, the temptation is to turn from God, thinking that He requires more from me than I have to give. I may believe I need to muster some passion from a dry well and focus on improving my performance. I may think I need to pull myself up by my bootstraps when I’m too tired to put my shoes on. I am wrong. We are called to be honest and to bring God our authentic selves. He asks us to come before Him in the state we find ourselves in. Look at David. The Psalms are filled with his passion. He comes before God when he is desperate and when he is rejoicing, when he is overcome and distraught, and when he is exultant and victorious. We are meant to do the same. In every moment, God does not ask us to share life with Him as anyone other than the person we are. We are not meant to be anyone else. We are to come to Him with child-like trust that He will not turn His face away. He invites us to tend our hearts in His loving gaze. His arms are open wide. He is the greener grass in which we will find solace, soothing, refuge, and joy. As we choose to draw near to Him, to rest in the safety of His gaze, the redemptive work of God gains ground. Joy begins to bubble up, and the kingdom of God advances in our lives, inevitably spilling over onto others’ lives as well. Open your heart to it: to Him, to life, to vitality, to the power of God moving within and through you. Ask God to grow your capacity for joy. He can do it. He is a good Father who knows how to give good gifts. Remember in Matthew 7:9–11 when Jesus asks, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Ask away. Ask in faith, knowing that He is the Father we all wish we had. Want more? Order your copy of Defiant Joy today.
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Given a Choice
1w ago00:03:07Tap to summarizeMany awful things have been done with the doctrine of hell. “You’ll go to hell for that” has been used to condemn all sorts of things that God does not condemn. You know… “Don’t smoke, don’t chew, don’t go with girls who do.” Furthermore, those who have swung the idea of hell around like a club give you the impression that they’ll be glad to see you sent there. But not our God, who “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The Lover of our souls, the One who has pursued us down through space and time, who gave his own life to rescue us from the Kingdom of Darkness, has made it clear: He does not want to lose us. He longs for us to be with him forever.Nonetheless, simply because certain people have abused the concept of hell doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.First, you must understand that hell was created not for mankind, but for Satan and his angels (Matthew 25:41). I’m sure you’ll remember with relish the stories where the evil one is destroyed in the end. Commodus being slain with his own knife in the arena. Darth Maul falling to the saber of Obi-Wan Kenobi. A great chasm opening in the earth to swallow Sauron and his army of Orcs so that Middle Earth might be free at last.Hell is not God’s intention for mankind.But remember—he gave us free will.He gave us a choice.We seem to forget—perhaps more truthfully, we refuse to remember—that we are the ones who betrayed him, not vice versa. We are the ones who listened to the lies of the Evil One in the Garden; we chose to mistrust the heart of God. In breaking the one command he gave us, we set in motion a life of breaking his commands. The final act of self-centeredness is seen in those who refuse to come to the wedding banquet of God (Matthew 22:2–3). They do not want God. They reject his offer of forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus. What is he to do? The universe has only two options. If they insist, God will grant to them what they have wanted—to be left to themselves. Want more? Order your copy of Epic today.
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Son of the Living God
1w ago00:01:12Tap to summarizeThe book "Killing Lions" is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face.A man whose identity flows out of deep validation doesn’t wilt under criticism. He enjoys applause when it comes but frankly isn’t desperate for it. He can walk away from work at five o’clock; he doesn’t measure his success by how much money he makes. We grow into this man, to be sure; I’m not setting a new standard of perfection. But what I am describing is not out of reach, not for any man. We must ask God what he thinks of us. That famished craving for love and validation must be spoken to in a defining way—like he did for you. This is one of the places where Christianity really shines. God steps into the picture to help set us on a firmer foundation than the scripts we’ve bought into. He tells us to put off the “old man” and put on the new. He calls us his sons. He assures us we are deeply loved and chosen. Let those facts sink into your heart, and it will set you free. Really—spend a single day holding on to, “I am a son of the living God. I am chosen. I am deeply loved.” You will feel things shifting deep inside. Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today.
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Perseverance
2w ago00:02:04Tap to summarizeThere’s a passage in the book of Hebrews we don’t like very much.“Although he was a son”—it is speaking about Jesus Christ–“he learned obedience from what he suffered” (5:8).Dang. If Jesus needed to learn through suffering, well, it just doesn’t leave any room for complaining, does it? How are we going to skip this class if he had to take it? Suffering will be a part of our education as God’s children.This is NOT to say that every bad thing that comes your way is God’s discipline. It does not mean that marital crisis is some sort of retribution for past sins. That is bad theology and it has hurt a lot of people. A friend was suffering from a terrible flu; she said, “I sure hope I learn what God has for me in this, so I can get over it.” I didn’t want to be unkind, so I kept my mouth shut. But inside I thought, You think God made you sick!? There are others things at work in this world. Germs, for instance.We live in a broken world; disease, accident, injury are just part of life east of Eden. This world has foul spirits in it, too; they cause a lot of havoc. The sin of man is also enough to sink any ship. Stir all these together and you got plenty of reason for suffering. So don’t go thinking that every bad things happening is God punishing you.As Dallas Willard reminds us, “What we learn about God from Jesus should prove to us that suffering and ‘bad things’ happening to us are not the Father’s preferred way of dealing with us—sometimes necessary, perhaps, but never what he would, on the whole, prefer.” Not his preferred means—keep that in mind.Want more? Order your copy of Love & War today.
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Depth, Mystery, Complexity, and Beauty
2w ago00:02:09Tap to summarizeOne of the deepest ways a woman bears the image of God is in her mystery. By mystery we don't mean "forever beyond your knowing," but "something to be explored." "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter," says the book of Proverbs, "to search out a matter is the glory of kings" (25:2). God yearns to be known. But he wants to be sought after by those who would know him. He says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). There is dignity here; God does not throw himself at any passerby. He is no harlot. If you would know him you must love him; you must seek him with your whole heart. This is crucial to any woman's soul, not to mention her sexuality. "You cannot simply have me. You must seek me, pursue me. I won't let you in unless I know you love me."Is not the Trinity a great mystery? Not something to be solved, but to be known with ever-deepening pleasure and awe, something to be enjoyed. Just like God, a woman is not a problem to be solved, but a vast wonder to be enjoyed. This is so true of her sexuality. Few women can or even want to "just do it." Foreplay is crucial to her heart, the whispering and loving and exploring of each other that culminates in intercourse. That is a picture of what it means to love her soul. She yearns to be known, and that takes time and intimacy. It requires an unveiling. As she is sought after, she reveals more of her beauty. As she unveils her beauty, she draws us to know her more deeply.Whatever else it means to be feminine, it is depth and mystery and complexity, with beauty as the very essence. Every woman has a beauty to unveil.Every woman. Want more? Order your copy of Captivating today
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Receiving Identity and Validation
2w ago00:02:02Tap to summarizeThe book "Killing Lions" is a conversation between John and Sam Eldredge about the trials young men face.Almost all initiation rituals handed down for centuries involved physical trials for young men. After finishing their training in a secret valley, the young warriors of Kauai had to swim home—miles in the open ocean. Sioux braves spent nights out on a mountain alone. For centuries the Maasai killed lions. Our elders knew that men learn by doing. It is one thing to be told you possess a genuine strength but another thing altogether to discover for yourself that you do. This is why hard work is so important for young men. If your friend could see his work in “hell” not as failure, not as a prison sentence, but as his lion to slay, he could come at it with a whole new perspective. Even if he only sticks it out another six months, he can walk away with blood on his hands and the sense of “I did that. I won. I can handle it.” Our starting place is to ask God what he thinks of us, to allow our Father to speak to us as sons. Then from there we begin to get active in the process of seeking and receiving identity and validation. God always treats a man like a man; he honors our involvement, invites our participation. Get active in the process: Where do you feel weak? Where do you need some shoring up? “Killing lions” is all about finding validation through genuine victories fought out of our true heart, from which we emerge with a genuine strength and sense of self. When you know you have accomplished that, it settles some important questions deep inside and allows you to move into your world with courage. The most fearsome lions will be the ones that roar with the sound of our historic shame, trying to cower us back into the false self, back to the script we were handed not by God but by The World (and ultimately by the evil one). Want more? Order your copy of Killing Lions today.
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