See: http://the-m-blog.blogspot.com/2006/03/imperfect-vision.html
And: http://the-m-blog.blogspot.com/2006/03/more-on-that-man-thing.html
Back in March I wrote that Imperfect Vision post and then the second one a few days later. While it's been stewing in my mind, I hadn't gone back and read those again until just now...it's fascinating the ways in which those way-out-there vision casting posts have proven, in fact, to be prophetic. But what I really wanted to talk about was more
of the same.
This last week I had the opportunity to take a DAWG day and it was awesome. 30 or so acres of Washington State park, closed for the winter and deserted except for the quail and coyotes, snug up against the grand Columbia River - an excellent place indeed to seek the Lord of Angel Armies. I got out there and found the gate closed, which meant the firewood in the trunk wasn't going anywhere unless I carried it, and that wasn't going to happen. But God, surprise surprise, is faithful. I trekked back to the far corner of the grounds and found a giant fire pit with all the wood already laid out for me, all I needed was a match. (Once again Michael - the normal rules do not apply to me...)
The Lord had a lot to say that day but I specifically wanted to talk about where I see all of this Wild at Heart business going. It's really a development of the posts mentioned above but the details are starting to come into focus.
The point that came clearest to me was this - the real purpose of all the Wild at Heart type stuff I've been working on is not really about rescuing these men's hearts. Of course that occurs, and it's glorious to behold, but that isn't the reason What's really at stake here is the next generation of boys who will be raised by fathers with ransomed, restored, and deputized lives.
It's about Odin.
It's about Will and Ben. (somehow, I think it's very much about Ben...)
It's about Poncho and Denver, Cameron and Christian, Micah, Christian, Andrew(s), Evan, Austin,
Ethan and a million other little boys to be ready for the moment they were made for. So when their cue comes - in
fifteen to twenty years - they'll know it and be ready.
You see, when we reach out and pour into a man's heart, we change a life and the Word tells me that such a task is as Christlike as possible. Leave the 99 to save the one, sell everything to secure the hidden treasure, party with the Archangels at the redemption of a single soul.
But...
Raise a generation of men who have known God's voice since they were born, men powerfully confident in their faith, mightily armored against the enemy, and you can change this country - perhaps the
world. And that, my brothers, is also as Christlike as possible.
There's a lot going on up here with BootcampNW these days and I can't wait to see what God's going to do, but it's certain that some big things are afoot. That said, I can really see this movement/ministry building momentum and starting to reach back to younger and younger men with exactly this mission in mind. Camps for adult men grow into camps for college age men, then high-schoolers...at each phase we're deepening the bench and building a sort of secret army within the body of American Christians. I don't know about anybody else, but seeing just one guy find his life and look up as if he was suddenly, right before my eyes, is truly born again, would be worth a whole lot of misery and strife. To see hundreds has been almost too much to bear. To know thousands...I can't imagine.
I feel like I should say something about our daughters...but I don't have anything. I don't doubt for a moment that God has something up his sleeve on that front as well but He hasn't shared it with me. I could certainly say something uplifting and all that, but a huge amount of damage gets done by folks who feel compelled to answer every call,
even when it isn't theirs...but that's another story. For the time, suffice it to say that God's been talking to me about guys and about sons and I need to stick to what I know. :)
