Okay, I know Challies does not like John Eldredge. I really appreciate Tim Challies and believe he is the most trustworthy book reviewer out there. I think he is right about John Eldredge. And I think he is wrong. He is wrong because I think he has missed the overwhelming good because of bad.<\/p>\n
Many of you have heard of Eldredge most famous book Wild at Heart<\/em>. 2001, proved to be the perfect time for that book to be released. It sold by the hundreds of thousands and continues to sell at the top of the Christian Manhood lists to this day.<\/p>\n I read Wild at Heart<\/em> right out of high school. At the time, I loved the book. It was one of the only books I had actually read completely through. But as the years went on and I grew theologically I left Eldredge behind.<\/p>\n A couple years ago I picked him back up. At first, I was frustrated by his blatant eisegesis. Then I was upset when he described himself as an open theist but then rejected that he was an open theist. But I kept reading.<\/p>\n I have read all but one of John Eldredge books. The eisegesis is still troubling. At times he is heterodox. Folks like myself are likely to read his stuff and write it off quickly. But if you do, I believe you will be missing out. He has thoughts and insights about fatherhood, manhood, and the heart that men like me need to discover. Even as I say that,\u00a0I know many my age will scoff. He is not for everyone. Some of his stuff is better and some of his stuff worse. I do not blanket endorse everything he has written. But I don’t blanket endorse C.S. Lewis either. Still, come on, its C.S. Lewis.<\/p>\n It is good to learn from brothers who are a little different than us. God has used John Eldredge in my life, and I am thankful!\u00a0My favorite book of his is\u00a0Fathered by God.\u00a0<\/em>I want to give you a sample of why I have come to appreciate him so much.<\/p>\n “We live now in a culture of\u00a0expertise, so completely second nature to us that we don\u2019t give it a second thought. Cutting-edge advances in science and technology\u2014ever sharpening, ever thrusting forward\u2014are now available to anyone with an Internet connection. If our doctor gives us grave news, we naturally get a second and third opinion from specialists. Businesses regularly hire consultants\u2014experts\u2014to help them get the edge over their competitors, and churches have jumped on the bandwagon as well. It\u2019s become one of our shared assumptions, this reach to \u201cfind the expert,\u201d and I wonder if it\u2019s part of the reason we do not under- stand or recognize a true sage. In business circles experts are sometimes even called sages.<\/p>\n They are worlds apart.<\/p>\n A sage differs from an expert the way a lover differs from an engineer. To begin with, expertise quite often has nothing to do with walking with God, may in fact lead us farther from him. For the expertise of the specialist gives us the settled assurance that he has matters under control, and that we will also, as soon as we put our trust in him. That is why we love him. \u201cThe reason your church is not growing is because you\u2019re not marketing yourselves properly to your intended customers.\u201d On a human level, that might be true, might produce some results. But wouldn\u2019t it be better to inquire of God why the church is not growing? The psychology of expertise comes indistinguishably close to the psychology of the Tower of Babel. \u201cWe have matters under our control now. Expertise has given us power over our destinies.\u201d And we know how God feels about that.<\/p>\n Now of course, there is nothing wrong with expertise\u2014per se. I\u2019d be the first one to find the best heart surgeon in the country should my son need heart surgery. And yet, why is it that we seem to have so few sages in our midst, that most of us have witnessed the sage only in stories like those I\u2019ve recounted? Is it that they don\u2019t exist, or might it be that our near-worship of expertise has pushed the sage to the sidelines? And what are we to make of the passage that tells us, \u201cEverything that does not come from faith is sin\u201d (Rom.\u00a014:23\u00a0NIV)? Whatever, whenever, wherever we place our hopes and confidence in something other than God, that is sin. Given mankind\u2019s inexplicable reluctance to rely on God, and nearly limitless ability to rely on anything else, can you see how the culture of expertise actually plays right into our godlessness, despite all our protestations to the contrary?<\/p>\n The sage, on the other hand, communes with God\u2014an existence entirely different from and utterly superior to the life of the expert. Whatever counsel he offers, he draws you to God, not to self-reliance. Oh, yes, the sage has wisdom, gleaned from years of experience, and that wisdom is one of his great offerings. But he has learned not to lean upon his wisdom, knowing that often God is asking things of us that seem counterintuitive, and thus his wisdom (and expertise) are fully submitted to his God. Humility might be one of the great dividing lines between the expert and the sage, for the sage doesn\u2019t think he is one. \u201cDo you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him\u201d (Prov. 26:12 NIV). Thus we might not know we have a sage at the table, for he will remain silent while the \u201cexperts\u201d prattle on and on.<\/p>\n The experts impress. The sage draws us to God. He offers a gift of presence, the richness of a soul that has lived long\u00a0with\u00a0God.” pg. 266-267<\/p>\n And<\/p>\n “It’s a matter of presence. A sage does not have to be heard, as a young man might, does not have to rule, and a king might. There is room in his presence for who you are and where you are. There is understanding. He has no agenda, and nothing now to lose. What he offers, he offers with kindness, and discretion, knowing by instingct those who have ears to hear, and those who don’t. Thus his words are offered in the right measure, at the right time, to the right person. He will not trouble you with things you do not need to know, nore burden you with things that are not yet yours to bear, nor embarrass you with exposurefor shortcomings you are not ready yet to overcome, even though he sees all of that. For he is wise, and compassionate.” pg. 270<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Okay, I know Challies does not like John Eldredge. I really appreciate Tim Challies and believe he is the most trustworthy book reviewer out there. I think he is right about John Eldredge. And I think he is wrong. He is wrong because I think he has missed the overwhelming good because of bad. Many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/gospelpost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}