Secrets of Man’s Soul Revealed
Brad Lindemann
Before writing his wildly successful book, Wild at Heart, John Eldredge stumbled into a used book store (by divine coincidence) and found something that changed the course of his entire life. While perusing one of many books, he found this quote:
"Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
— Howard Thurman
Thus the seed for Wild at Heart was planted. Having read the book three or four times now, I continue to ruminate upon the question it so profoundly begs — what makes me come alive? According to Eldredge, to find the answer, we must venture deep into the heart of man. There we will find three universal desires that are wired into the DNA of every man. Men long for: a battle to fight, a beauty to rescue and an adventure to live.
- A battle to fight: Most men are haunted by the question, “do I have what it takes?” In our high tech, post-modern world, the answer to this question is increasingly difficult to come by. After all, many of the historical means by which men proved themselves are at best politically incorrect or worse — flat out illegal. So, if a man is a warrior at heart, just how does he go about proving it?
- A beauty to rescue? Eldredge writes from a fundamental Christian perspective and supports most of his teaching with Scripture. However, he also regularly sites themes and clips from movies to show how prevalent the themes of his teaching are. None is more prevalent than the theme of the hero rescuing the beauty. What man doesn’t want to be the knight on the white horse coming to rescue his damsel in distress?
- An adventure to live? Real adventure takes more than courage. It takes faith. Man’s longing for adventure is graphically portrayed by a crusty old bush pilot in the movie, Never Cry Wolf. Having purposely disabled the plane, he hands the stick to his terrified passenger who’s never flown before. While he makes a pretense of fixing the problem, his passenger asks him what’s wrong. The pilot replies, “Boredom, Tyler. Boredom…that’s what’s wrong. How do you beat boredom, Tyler? Adventure. ADVENTURE, Tyler!”
I can wholeheartedly recommend Wild at Heart to any man or any woman who wants to better understand her man.