I Don’t Need A Boyfriend

Amazing, absolutely amazing. Tim, I once respected your intellect and simply disagreed with you. Although you criticised a book that changed my Walk and saved my family, I respected the tone of your review, if not the content. Your comments above are nothing but disguised mud slinging. You should be ashamed of yourself.

You take one statement out of a book, then miss the entire point of the book. The point of adventure, as described by Eldredge is preparation for the Critical adventures of life. Those critical adventures are selfless sacrifice for the lives and souls with whom God has brought into our lives. Your fixation on the casual adventures is interesting, to say the least.

The fact that you have taken the great Creator of the universe and decided that He can only communicate by your own standard is a shame.

You have already reviewed this book and found it wanting. Your comments here serve no legitimate purpose. Whether you disagree or not, John Eldredge is a brother of yours. An intellectually cute, [vulgarity deleted -Moderator] commentary like the one above may appeal to those who wait for your reviews to justify their biases, but it does nothing to advance the Kingdom. The family can certainly disagree, but belittling a family member serves no purpose. Eldredge would not waste his time belittling you.

Perhaps you should examine why this book bothers you so much. There may be a message in that irritation you feel. Maybe you need a casual adventure and some time alone examining your own heart.

Let me clarify-you ask an open question about those who read Eldredge’s books…by way of explanation..

The trips out into creation are a key element in inviting God into the life of a man. He is alone, in many cases that is a humbling experience, in a place where new things will be asked of him. He is only part of Creation out there. It is a place where distractions are minimized, where a man, if he takes the time, will see the beauty of Creation, the creativity of the Father, and the danger of taking things too lightly.

Too many critics stop at casual adventure. Casual adventure is important in the development of a boy as he moves to manhood. They require things of him that will be required no where else. Although those trips to the quiet of creation are important, they are preparation for the crucial adventures he will face as a man. As a man moves from casual (climbing, hunting, kayaking, etc.) he is prepared for critical and then crucial ones. The crucial ones are where he steps into his calling as a man. They are selfless, and because he has answered the challenges (sometimes failed, by the way) that were casual and then critical., he can confidently face them. He has learned to walk with his Father and is ready to step into his calling. He is indeed a warrior for the hearts of those the Father has placed in his care. He may enjoy those casual adventures, they may bring him into closer fellowship to his Saviour, but they are not the keys to his manhood any longer.

The message from God you question is part of the overall message from W@H. God is a Father who delights in His children. He is fully capable of communicating any way He chooses. He is omnicient and omnipresent, and interested in our individual souls. He can indeed communicate by placing a heart shaped rock in a stream. He is after all the artist who created the beauty that is that stream, and the untamed wildness of the deep wilderness. He created it to bring pleasure and life to His favored creation. The knowledge that He communicates in a caring way changes the view of Him for many men, by the way. I have seen men who have been poorly fathered refuse to see God as Father. I have seen those same men fall into the arms of a loving Savior who cares enough about them to send them a note of love and reassurance in the forest.

My comments above may have been impulsive, and for that I should apologize. There is an element in these posts of uninformed criticism, simply piling on out of ignorance. This book brought me back to God, and to the church. It made a new husband and father of me when I saw God as John introduced Him to me. Many of you take this too lightly, you should be careful. Your attitude, theological pride, and flippancy will keep men like me outside on the sidewalk, going back to work instead of being in your pews with their families. Generations will be effected by the writings of John Eldredge. I have no quarrel with intellectual and theological sparring. Uninformed opinion, and name calling are quite another matter. This format is not secular. The lives and souls of men women and children may be changed by our words-for good or evil.

I stand by my chief concern. To disagree with JE is one thing. To give one’s informed critical opinion is a necessary element to discernment. Belittling a fellow believer, and branding him a near heretic, as seems to be the intent of many of these posts, reveals an element of evil. That evil may be disguised as piety, and it may be unnoticed by the offender, but in my opinion it needs to be checked at the door. It appears many of those who post have no understanding of JE’s work, they simply delight in spiritual name calling. That is dangerous.

Tim, if you are serious about your question, try a walk in the woods alone for a few hours, and some of that contemplative prayer that seems to concern so many of your bretheren. You may find you see your Father God differently enough to understand that heart shaped rock.

Leslie:
No I do not. Could be he prefers as I do, looking at the victorious risen Jesus, and the evidence of that victory in the beauty of His Creation.

To Leslie:

None of what I have said or what JE has said would portray God as playing favorites. Certainly any revelation or communication must be measured against scripture. It cannot be God telling us to ignore His sacrifice, or for that matter, to date one’s secretary. We must exercise descernment when hearing God.

That said, just because one doesn’t hear from God in a particular way that is the same as someone else does not make he or she of less favor. I do believe He will speak to those who seek Him, many times through scripture itself. He of course, made us, and He knows how best to reach us.

Would the God who created romance and who described coming for His Bride ignore romance when persuing her? Could it be the Bride is not open to hearing His words of romance, that her heart is hardened by she does not perceive Him to be logical enough?