The Tried and True Road
Midway along my life’s journey
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
the right road lost.
For I had wandered off from the straight path.
How hard it is to tell what it was like,
this wood of wilderness, savage and stubborn
(the thought of it brings back all my old fears),
a bitter place! Death could scarce be bitterer.
But if I would show the good that came of it
I must talk about things other than the good.
–Dante
It was over a decade ago that I found these words to be true in the deep wilderness of my interior life. I woke to find myself seemingly lost, alone, disoriented, and very, very afraid.
This blog and all things Become Good Soil were birthed out of the agony of that season and the ecstasy of subsequent moments when Heaven made its way to earth and I slowly began the process of inviting God to restore my (afflicted) soul.
Little did I know the accuracy of Louis L’Amour’s words:
There will be a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.
What appeared to be a dead end became a doorway into the most adventurous, risky, and rewarding decade of my life.
My heart exploded in desperate pleas for God to make sense of my life, followed by weeks of no response. And then… He came. Not as I expected, but He came.
In His brilliance, He led me to the feet of older, wiser men. Men who had found and taken the ancient road that God announces through Jeremiah:
Stand at the crossroads and look.
Ask for the ancient paths;
the tried and true road.
Then take it.
And you will find rest for your souls. (Jeremiah 6:16)
Their counsel became food for my ravenous soul.
Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years.
And over time, these older men marked out for me this new yet ancient way.
A narrow way.
A Kingdom way.
And in those disorienting, dark woods of the middle chapters of my masculine journey, I found my way home.
I became a son, and then received the promise of an ever-deepening experience of sonship.
And I began in earnest my training to one day become the kind of man whose heart has been so thoroughly transformed by the Love of God that he is the kind of king to whom God can entrust His Kingdom.
Years into my journey and training, a like-hearted ally lovingly prodded me to invite several peers who were also thirsting for sonship, training, and wholeness to Bart’s Globe and Anchor Ranch, to join me in soaking in the counsel of these older men and all that God had been revealing.
We sat under the leadership of wise and harnessed kings and rare and loving sages. We told stories, our stories. We fought for each others’ hearts. We laughed and we cried. We drank really good beers and smoked remarkable cigars, the smoke of which seemed to carry up into the Heavens the deep cry of our hearts to be made ever more whole.
God came. So deeply did He come that we committed to a similar gathering again a year later.
And again. And again.
Over time, that initial gathering aged like a rich and remarkable single-malt Scotch and became what we know today as the Become Good Soil Intensive.
After six years of annual Intensives, we sensed the Spirit’s leading to turn on the video cameras and hit record on the audio system.
“More men need to experience this.”
So we did it.
Raw.
Unedited.
I took a risk of putting it out there with this hope:
That men—and the women who love them—who find themselves at a similar crossroads in the dark woods of this sometimes excruciatingly holy decade of life would know this:
You are not alone.
There are other men who want what you want.
And who have to fight through the same shit to get it.
The offer is life.
And it is available.
If you’ve enjoyed this blog and any of the resources through Become Good Soil, we believe you are going to benefit deeply from the Collection.
It’s our hope that this resource provides you an onramp to come along with us.
Our mission is to offer you ongoing training in how to receive sonship, choose the narrow road, and become the kind of man to whom God can entrust His Kingdom.
And as a thank you to all the readers of Become Good Soil, we’re offering the Intensive Box Collection at half price through November 3rd.
It includes a thumb drive with all of the Intensive sessions, both in audio and video formats. And it also includes a custom engraved Kershaw folding knife.
Grab one for yourself to go deeper. And grab a second as a gift for an ally with whom the Father is leading you to share more of this adventure. Take the videos and risk inviting some men in to share the experience.
This path is for the few. It has always been. And it always will be.
It isn’t cheap.
It isn’t easy.
It isn’t quick.
But it’s worth the cost.
And the fruit will be life as it was meant to be, for you and for those you hold most dear.
Click here to find out more
