223: 10 Years Later—A Decade of Apprenticeship (Part 1)

“Our deepest formation is often of the slowest variety.”

—Kirsten Staton 

Friends, what can God form in a life that gives him a decade?

Ten years ago, alongside Rob Porter and Ryan Ruebsahm, we gave God our yes. Not to become more successful, but to become more wholehearted men. None of us knew where that consent would lead or what it would cost.

In this episode, we look back on ten years of apprenticeship: the cost, the surprising kindness of God, and the particular ways he has taught us we are seen, loved, and led.

Looking back, we can see the slow and steady work of God. Pressure has given way to peace. Self-reliance is becoming sonship. The need to arrange for comfort is being replaced by the lived experience of being comforted by God.

As we reflected on what this decade has required and what it has produced, Rob reminded us of these words from Becoming a King:

“The good soil is rich, teeming with moisture and nutrients. The good soil, Jesus suggested, stands for the portions of us that—by cultivating, tending, and maturing—“Hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8:15). Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, a genuine wholeheartedness—and wholeheartedness produces inextinguishable hope (Rom. 5:3–4).”

We have lived the suffering. We have had to persevere. We have experienced the death of old ways of living built on performance, control, self-sufficiency, and fear. Yet we have also discovered that none of it is wasted. In the hands of God, even the most painful ground can become good soil.

It’s all been prologue. The best is yet to come.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan & Cherie