151: A Soul’s Review

Friends, it's Morgan and welcome back to another episode of Become Good Swale Podcasts. It is my joy and my privilege to pause and just take stock of this opportunity to walk with you as a fellowship of like-hearted into a new year. I want to begin with three simple questions. I want you to pause right where you are here and now whether you're on the road listening to this, you have this in headphones and you're on a workout where you're sitting, saboring a moment. Wherever this finds you, three simple questions, question one, do you remember anything of what God might have said to you a year ago, starting the last new year? Do you have any recollection of counsel or guidance and how that shaped your past year? Let's take 30 seconds and just see what comes to mind. You don't have to write anything down, but just notice what you remember. Secondly, I want to invite you to pause and think of a memory from this past year that a decade from now, you know you will savor, you will relive something that was deeply meaningful to you. Let's pause, take 30 seconds and recall that memory. And question number three for this morning, what an experience you had in the last year where you notice there was an invitation to grow through failure. Think about that for a moment. See what comes to mind. Let's take 30 seconds. Friends, the purpose of these three questions is to engage your heart and soul in the practice of redemptive remembering. It's interesting that first question, I noticed that there were things that God said to me in the beginning of this past year and they felt so important and so essential. And as the weight of the year went on, there was a sense of just losing hold of some of those precious treasures. And yet in the middle of the year in July, in some time of sabbatical, God gave me a very specific directive and counsel to orient the next season of my life. And because of the choices I made to daily come back to that counsel from July until now, when I'm recording this in November, it is forefront in my heart, in my imagination, in my orientation. And so I noticed the difference of how I handled something from God at the beginning of the year compared to how I handled it halfway through the year. With that in mind, I want to invite you to an annual experience. Last year we launched this concept of a soul's review where I curated and distilled some of my process over the last 20 years to pause to reflect, to notice what God did in the geography and landscape of my life over the last 12 months and allow Christ to speak through that, to inform me about the months, the year ahead. And as I reflected on it and prayed going into this new year, my sense was to make this evergreen, to make this a resource that you can go to year after year by way of coming to a close of one season and letting this be a sacred pause and entering into a new season. And so with that in mind, friends, this exercise can be as short as 90 minutes, but it's much better served as a sort of personal retreat, whether that's half day or full day or a group experience, maybe through one friend or maybe through a small fellowship, a brotherhood that you walk with. I would invite you to ask God, where and how can you take the time to engage in this reflection? It's a written reflection that's available as a free PDF and it's a guided audio journey. This audio is about an hour, but it's intended to be an audio where you stop, you pause, you reflect and you come back to the audio. And so you can make it anything from 90 minutes to a full day retreat, solo or as a group. And all of it, my invitation is to stop, to bless one season being over, to bless another season being next and to find yourself in this sacred, thin space in the in between. And so be sure to go to becomegoodsoil.com and to search a soul's review to grab the free PDF to walk you through and now we'll jump into the audio that was originally published as episode number one, 24. And so when you get time, you can return back to this podcast and engage in what I believe will be a very life-giving experience for your initiation. In the Passion translation, Paul's words read this way. The resurrection of Christ is your resurrection as well. And this is why we are to yearn for that above all else. For that's where Christ sits and thrown at a place of power, of honor and of authority. And so feast, friends, on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts of the things of heaven's reality and not with the distractions of the natural realm. Friends, it's Morgan Snyder and welcome back to a unique episode of the Become Good Soil podcast. The intent of this podcast is to offer some shepherding for a guided experience of looking back over the past year and inviting Jesus into that process, that reflection in order that God can speak to our hearts as men as we look into the year ahead. There's something very orienting towards the future by way of looking towards the past. And over the last 20 years as I've adopted a practice of reflecting and praying into the New Year, consecrating it, bringing it all under the authority of Christ, I've curated and distilled questions, activities, and ways of being guided by God through that process in order that I can come into a New Year with confidence, with peace and with an anticipation and an expectation of good things. And so if you're listening to this podcast, I want you to know there's a guide that I created a free PDF that's available at BecomeGoodSoil.com, just search for a souls review and you can print that out and it will take us through this process step by step. But everything for the most part that's in the guide, I will read through in this reflection. I'll be adding prayers and riffing on things, but the spirit of it is this podcast is meant to be a companion to shepherd you through the free PDF guide that's available at BecomeGoodSoil.com. This exercise will take a minimum of 90 minutes. Some people have found, like myself, at least three hours is really worth setting aside to really sink in in a distraction-free context to allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate what it was like for your soul to journey over the last 12 months in order that that can then be the foundation to prepare us to lean in, to listen for God's heart, for instruction, for counsel, for direction as we look into the New Year and become the title of the of sons that are being led. So with that in mind, if you're not in a place to practice that now, I would just invite you to pause and come back to this podcast. But if you're ready, I'm going to begin walking us through the shepherded experience. Having walked with God as a kingdom apprentice across seven decades, Wendell Barry offered these words through the voice of his character, Jaber Crow. Now that I have had most of the life I am going to have, and I can see what it has been, and remember those early years. When it seemed to me, I was completely adrift, and at times when looking back at earlier times, it seemed I had been wandering in the dark woods of air. But now, it looks to me as though I was following a path that was laid out for me, unbroken, and maybe even as straight as possible from one end to the other. And I have this feeling, which never leaves me anymore, that I have been led. And I will leave you to judge the truth of that for yourself. Friends, how can we enter a new year as those being led, rather than those who have to hustle on our own to make life work? And though I find the metrics of a day and a decade more helpful than the metric of a year, the new year remains a brilliant pause, an opportunity to reset our imagination and our heart upon God and His kingdom. As I shared earlier from the passage translation, to feast on the things of the kingdom of God to align our thoughts with the reality of heaven, here, now, in the midst of our everyday ordinary life. Decade by decade, I am more convinced that masculine initiation is intended to be our primary narrative arc and interpretive grid for understanding our lives as men. As a collective and as individuals, ours is the story of becoming the kind of trustworthy men who can steward creative and relational power in union with Jesus, our brother, and our high king. And so slow down and linger with that thought. That is a big idea. It is a bold suggestion. Let's visit it again. Masculine initiation is intended to be our primary narrative arc, our interpretive grid to understand our lives as men. What if finding your soul as an apprentice and son on his way to becoming a king under the wise and worthy authority of heaven, or the primary interpretive grid for your story? What if you used that lens to look back in order that you might tune in and listen to God's heart looking forward? During this sacred pause between one year and the next or one season and the next, what would it look like to engage these questions from the security of sonship and the spaciousness of ongoing initiation? Reflect with me just for a moment these three questions. Father, what have you done in my life in this past year? Father, what are you doing here and now? And Father, what is it that you want to do in my coming year? Friends, what would it look like to receive fresh and reliable clarity from these questions and firm footing around them as we set forth into the new year? And with that invitation, I want to guide us through a four-part reflection. And so part one, I'm titling the year in review. And again, as mentioned, you can print out the PDF, a soul's review at becomegoodsoil.com, and now we're turning to page three. Trusting that taking time to look back over the previous year is the foundation for looking forward into the new year. Let's engage this guided reflection together. Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit, I ask for eyes to see and ears to hear who you are and what you are doing. I consecrate my reflection over the past year in this decade of my initiation. Help me enter into this with my whole body, with my soul, with my emotions. Help align my heart, my memory, and my strength toward your leadership in every dimension of my apprenticeship. Amen. So let's begin with some central data points from the past year. I find it most helpful to take at least 30 minutes, more if necessary, to go through my digital photo archive for the year, and about 15 minutes to go through my calendar. And you might have another avenue that helps you recall and return to the predominant experiences the past 12 months. Whatever the context is, I invite you to engage in a way that works for you. And here's the spirit of it. I like to think in terms of events that took place, experiences that I engaged in, roles that I had, relationships that were central, and all the themes that surface as I engage my soul in this reflection over the year. And here's also what's important. It may not be the highlighted things that are supposed to be the big things of your year, but it may be secondary things. It may be things that at the time seemed more insignificant, but as you look back over your pictures, as you look back through your calendar, the Holy Spirit might bring to you something where the Spirit says, this is important. Pay attention. Tune in. Jot this down. So it's really important not to self-edit. Just go with your instinct. And as you journey through this year, make a list of all of these highlights, this collective experience of your year in chronological order. Pause and immerse yourself in this exercise. Take as long as you need. And begin to notice your soul's reaction, both positively and negatively to various experiences and events in your past year. My encouragement now is turn off your phone, remove distractions, and give yourself fully to this. This God-led, God-breathed exercise for your soul. You're worth it. And so is God. So friends, let's pause here and take as much time as you need. And then when you're ready to proceed, you can come back to this audio. Friends, welcome back. If you're pacing with me on this, you've just taken a long time away from this audio where you've immersed yourself in a sort of chronological collection of the things that moved you and started tuning in to what did you notice, what was positive, and what was negative, and what was on your heart to capture. Now that you've completed this first exercise, I want you to transfer all the notable elements of your year to the two columns on the printable PDF. If you don't have the PDF, you can use a blank piece of paper. But either way, you'll want to physically write these down. Don't edit yourself. You may be surprised by how you feel about an experience. For example, an experience you think should be positive actually feels pretty crappy when you give yourself permission to be honest. Something that should have been aggrined was actually life-giving in some particular aspect or dimension. Go with your gut reaction. Don't edit. Take your time. Record each experience in one or both of the columns below on the PDF. Note that some elements will fit in positive and negative. It's important to pay attention to this as well and let it be honestly representative of your soul's experience. And then once you've completed these lists in their entirety, then go back to the beginning of the list and circle the top five positive and the top five negative elements of your year. Let's pause here on the audio and come back after you've completed this exercise. Friends, well done. You've already done the lion's share of looking back over your 12 years. And so I want to congratulate you and encourage you to continue to stay engaged because now we're moving into even a deeper level of the soul's experience. So Holy Spirit, refresh us, rejuvenate us. We bind distraction. And we ask God that you would give us the grace to stay present. To what you are illuminating through our stories for our own soul. So friends, I want you to pause and reflect on these lists of the negative and the positive. Notice your unedited reaction to the events in each column, and notice your unedited reaction to the top five, most positive and most negative. And here's where I want you to invite God to reveal themes and patterns. Write a few description words in the margin, noting more about what you experienced negatively or positively are both. What is God reviewing to you through these observations? And friends, I'll just give an example. I noticed in my past year's reflection, there was a regular pattern of events that should have been really fun, different adventures that I'd taken on. And a lot of things that could have been really joyful, but I noticed that there was a lot of pressure. And as I tuned into the spirit, what I noticed was there was just this constant theme of coming through for people that I felt pressured to come through for. And as a result, both their experience of the adventure and my experience of the adventure just felt like it made a collective weight of something of where my spirit went. I wouldn't want to do that again. And it wasn't until I saw the pattern where I went in an environment with lacking margin where I squeezed too much in. And I didn't give the experiences, the space they deserved on both the preparation and then the return end of those adventures. And then also this compelling pressure of wanting it to be good for those that I was serving. I could feel this dread. I could feel this disappointment in my own soul. And it was really helpful to notice the pattern that there were things that I really felt God was in. But the experience was really negative because of some pattern of brokenness in my own soul that I was missing when it actually went down. So that by way of example of notice the theme, notice the pattern, positive and negative. What are these lists revealing in your story? Just pause here and come back to the audio after you've done the reflection. Friends well done and welcome back. Now we're going to move into part two, the deeper reflection. We've now looked back and immersed ourselves in this past year. And now after reflecting on themes, I want to dig a little deeper and ask these questions of your last year. What do you notice needs to be celebrated? It's so easy to skip over these things. For me this past year there was deep and profound healing in my relationship with my daughter. There was this deep breakthrough when Paul says to live is Christ and to die is gain. And at 46 and 28 years into my apprenticeship, I think this is the first time where I can genuinely say I passed through some sort of initiation or to live as Christ and to die is gain. And my soul knows that in some fundamental level. This past year I broke through a deep lifetime battle against overwhelmed and received some deep integration of a young three year old in my soul. I broke through these deep agreements that I had made with fear of man and false humility and came through receiving a deeper power of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. I said yes to this adventure that made no sense. But after praying for two weeks and going against my knee jerk reaction, I followed the wild one and through it I received not only such intimacy with God in a bunch of training rides of riding my bike in these hidden and supernatural blocks of training through the spring. But I had one of the best weeks of my life. Adventuring with some like-hearted men, most of whom I had never met before on an epic ride from Tell Your Ride to Moab on a seven day mountain bike adventure. That was highlighting those sort of things for me that I had really failed to celebrate in the depths that God wanted me to celebrate. So with that in mind, what needs to be celebrated? Let's pause and reflect on this question. Friends well done. Jesus says one of the great dangers of the human experience is to fail in the invitation to laugh and to cry. There's something that's just baited to live more in the middle in this kind of mediocracy where God gets muffled and we lack the on-ramps for the deep integration and maturity that God's after. And so with that in mind, I want to ask the opposite question, what in this year do you need to grieve? Friends, this is so important, especially as men. We minimize the things in which we need to grieve. And so often the present door of grief is actually meant to take us into the entire house of all the things in our soul that carry the reality of grief in our story. In other words, whatever the clear, present grief is, that event or that relationship, is merely a doorway into a deeper grief that God is wanting us to revisit. And so this is a bold and brave and essential question. What is it that you need to grieve? What is the loss? What is the lack? What is the disappointment? Let's pause bravely and go into this question. What is our next question is, if you had to label your year or if you had to label parts of your year as a season in your masculine initiation, what season would it be or what themes surface? Another way to ask the question is, if your year or your seasons were defined by a word or a sentence or a label that God was after to sort of be a mile marker in your masculine initiation? What might it be? Mascual initiation is always synonymous with risk and risk always involves a sort of death and every gaining of life comes through a passing of death. And there was a certain death that I was unwilling to travel. And it was a place, a stronghold of evil that was rooted in a brokenness in my story of scarcity and self-sufficiency. And Jesus visited it again, which was not his first time, but it wasn't until 46 that I passed through a new level of death to achieve a greater sense of the reliability of the life of Jesus Christ. And I think that that was the great theme of my year of leaning in to the various parts of my soul that were disintegrated, the younger parts of me. And in fact, I reached a point this past December where unbeknownst to me, the father said, "Congratulations, son, you're graduating." And I was just really shocked by that. So what do you mean? Like I'm 46 graduating from what? And I realized over the last 28 years and then specifically over the last 10 years and over the last three years, God had been integrating various younger parts of me. And it wasn't until this year that every part from in the womb through zero to three years old, through 18 years old, that each of the part had been able to come to Christ to be reintegrated. And so do I need more healing? Absolutely. Are there places that need to grow? You bet. But never before had every part of me from age zero to 18 in my soul, been genuinely brought to Christ for integration, for salvation, for restoration. And there were parts of me that were three years old. There were parts of me that were an infant. There were parts of me that were a teenager over the last several years that each of come home to God as a father. And so this theme of kind of graduating from boyhood and from teenager is a really predominant theme in my story. And it wasn't until I did this exercise that I could see that with great light and celebration. And so how about you? What are the labels? What are the themes? Let's take some time and visit it here. Now friends, let's go a bit deeper. How did you respond to God in each of these themes or these words this year? And what ways did you participate with him? And in what ways did you resist what he was up to, what he was intending for your year? Let's engage. and some honest reflection. Friends, one of the great dangers and the great harms related to masculine initiation in our age is the modern era removes us from a sort of daily failure. Failure was intended to be one of the primary building blocks for the integration and the maturing of the masculine soul. We were meant to work with our hands and labor on things that were constantly putting us in the place of failure, but in a world that celebrates gifting and moves us ever increasingly into specialization, we lose touch with failure as this essential part of initiation. And so it's very important to pause and ask the question with compassion, with optimism, where did you fail during this past year in big ways and in small? And God, what are you wanting us to learn from these failures? See us Lewis talks about the twin thieves of the spirit of regret and the spirit of anxiety. As you look over this past year, notice what regrets surface and notice what anxieties regarding the future have surfaced. Take some time, pause on regrets and anxieties. As you look back on your year, it's so important to gather to name the milestones of maturing in the deep work of becoming a wholehearted man. My son's been walking through his vision quest from age 12 and it's now concluding because of his story about age 18 and his entire room is getting filled with initiation badges. Once a year we go up to the peak of a local mountain and I celebrate these milestones with him. Myelstones of his masculine initiation as these signposts to his becoming wholehearted. It's so important to celebrate these milestones, to name them, to see them and to know that you're not who you were and God as at work. And so what are the milestones in your maturing? Let's name them and write them in the space. In the heart of every man is a tug of war between acts of courage and acts of fear and shame. As you look back over the year rather than just what have you done and focus on activities, notice where fear and courage have surfaced. You might revisit your list of activities, themes and pattern experiences, relationships and just look for here was an act of courage. And then in contrast, here's how I acted out of fear and out of shame. Take some time and write these down and look for these themes in your year. We are all unfinished men as Lewis has encouraged us that heaven and the restoration of all things is the consummation of our earthly apprenticeship. We are unfinished. We are under construction. As we grow in our initiation, this should be a really good thing. These are the signposts that are meant to be evocative in places that we are saying, Father, I need to be led. I want more of you into more of me. And so as you look back over the year with simply this question of what is unfinished, what is lacking in your initiation, what categories present themselves, what issues or what needs to be noted, write that in this space. As I mentioned before, much of becoming a king is learning to die to the self-life. As Lewis reminds us that pride is really the core sin of fallen humanity that simply is rooted in this idea that we want to be God. We want to exercise self-rule. And friends, I want to use that as the invitation to simply ask, where is this idea illuminating things that need to be put to death? In order that we can grow in practicing our trust and our confidence in the Father's love, what needs to die of the self-life, looking back at the pictures, at the words, of the themes, of the relationship, where is God inviting you to die? This next question is borrowed from the evocative passage in John 15, where Jesus says, "I am the true vine and my Father is the keeper of the vineyard. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit and every branch that does bear fruit. He prunes to make it even more fruit ful." Friends, even Jesus needed to go through the pain of being pruned, the pain of his life demonstrating to him in his initiation into maturity, that there were branches of him that were bearing no fruit. And so with that, in mind, Holy Spirit, what needs to be pruned? What branches need to be cut off that are not producing fruit and which branches are producing fruit but need to be pruned in order that they can even be more fruitful? Let's pause. Friends, way to go. And now I want to ask two relational questions to surface more of what God's doing. Notice the relationships over this past year, and if you had to list the top five that brought you the most life, write those down, which five relationships are bringing you the most life. And now pause and ask which five relationships in your story are most energy draining for you. Friends, this takes full authenticity, this takes courage, but your life is speaking to you. And so take the time, acting courage, which five have been the most costly relationships in the most draining in your year? And now friends, what is God saying to you through the relationships of this past year? Noticing the ones that brought you life, noticing the ones that drained you, Holy Spirit, shine your light. What are you saying through these relationships? Let's pause. Friends, this next question is borrowed from the book of Hebrews. I think it's a very important physical image in sort of our sanctified imagination. We tend to keep a very tight grip on things. And the challenge is when our hands are clenched on the things that we are unwilling to let go of, we aren't able to release them and make room for the next treasure, the next gift, the next invitation that God is bringing to us as sons. There's a really beautiful verse that I enjoy from the living translation, but it's rooted. It comes as a therefore from the passage in Hebrews chapter 12, where Paul says, endure hardship is discipline because God is treating you as sons. The idea is we often misunderstand discipline as hardship because we come to it as an orphan or a slave. But the invitation here is begin with such a trust that our Father is generous, that he is leading our initiation, that he is the initiator and our first act is one of response. And it's from that basis of heart and mind and imagination that then we get to verse 12 that says, therefore strengthen your feeble arms and your weak knees. Make level paths for your feet so that the lame may not be disabled but rather healed. If you think of this on the level of soul, he's saying, there are places in us that are young that are uninitiated that need tender loving kindness. And God is not being harsh to those places, but he's asking us to risk as sons. And with that in mind, the living translation of this verse says, my invitation is take a new grip with tired hands. The idea is our old grip on old things is often not serving us. But there's a new shift to open our hands, relinquishing things that are tired hands of held onto for far too long. in order that we can receive by the supernatural life of God that what she wants to bring to entrust to us. Friends, with that in mind, what is it that you are holding on to that needs to be relinquished? Let's pause. Friends, the indicator of lack is a beautiful open door to begin to have clarity on the promises of God in the provision that he's wanting to bring to us on the road ahead. And so as you look over these last 12 months, what is lacking in your year that you know as essential for what you need or for what God wants to do in you and through you? Use the lens of lack. And just notice in your heart, what is essential for you to thrive in God and His kingdom that is lacking? Take some time and make those notes. As you look at your year both thematically and in specificity, how would you describe what is set against your life in God? Friends, remember the battle against our hearts as man is always universal and always unique. The enemy has age-old strategies to take us out. Like I said, that original, that deep-seated sin in the heart of man, commonly known as pride is simply the reality we want to be God. And the enemy says, we get to be God. I mean, that was the invitation of the fall of Eve, right? In the beginning of the fall of mankind is you get to be like God. And so as you look back over the year, what was God up to, universally these themes against your heart as a man? And what was evil intending, either through success or failure in his scheming, but what was evil intending, both in a universal way and just your heart against you as a man? And then also uniquely, praying on places of vulnerability, what was the theme of what the evil one wanted to do? Let's pause here. Friends, as this part two comes to a close, I want to ask one final question. Now just step back 15,000 feet, fresh wind, holy spirit, bring your life into me. Is I consider this year? What are you saying? What observations would you like to bring to my attention before we move on? Let's pause. Friends, well done, you're doing great. I am proud of you. You are worth it. And so is God. We are moving into part three, which I'm labeling, turning from looking back to looking forward. So now after having looked back on all of these positive and negative experiences, and the themes and these reflections of all that you sense God speaking to you and bringing to your attention, how might you allow all of this to inform your courageous action in the coming year? In other words, in all this looking back, holy spirit, how would this inform me as I consent to my masculine initiation and as I turn towards this new year, friends, let's pause and journal on that question. If you use the last year as a trail marker, where and how is God inviting you to mature and pursue deeper integration of soul and deeper union? In other words, what is the primary frontier in your masculine initiation for the new year? It might be that God has a particular word. It might be He's naming a season. It might be He's highlighting a series of activities or practices where He says these will root you. It might be that He's shining His light saying, "Son, it's time. Are you ready? Will you risk in this space?" Friends, it's always synonymous with risk. And so let's pause, holy spirit, shine your light and let's reflect on this idea. In many years in the past, I have asked God for a word to define a season. And now, over years of curating and distilling this reflection, for me, one word often is insufficient because it's just too general because there are multiple layers of what God's doing in His healing work and His maturing, His initiation of my soul. But having said that, it's sometimes very helpful to have simply a word or a piece of counsel for simply the next first track. It may not be for the whole year, but it might be the next thing, the next building block of your masculine initiation. And so one word, one idea that He wants to speak. Let's pause. And now, friends, if you could only do one thing with your life this next year, what would you do? Before we go any further, I just have to say, on this question, it helps me think in categories of my life and God, my marriage, my children, my most intimate friendships and extending into the kingdom and trusted in my care, particularly expressed in my vocation. However, to be both brave and fair to the core question, my invitation is to get to simply one thing. And so it helps me to start with those categories, but in the end, this question is meant to require our soul to boil down to one thing that we would do with our life. If that were so in this next year, what would you do? Let's write that down. As a closing exercise, consider a calendar of the year ahead. You might keep it as simple as just using the space on the PDF to journal this, or you might go as far as printing out a calendar of the entire year, month by month, and lay it out on a table or place it on a wall. But regardless, sit in front of a piece of paper. And let's pray into our next year. Holy Spirit, I want to learn. I want to learn from my past year. I want to grow and mature from all the miles we have traveled together in my masculine initiation. Help me see what needs to be put on this calendar for the year ahead, what needs to be protected to ensure that I move forward with you. Maybe it's a rhythm of activities or practices that I know I need in order to stay rooted in you. Maybe it's daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly. Maybe it's simply some must-have activities or relationships or experiences. Maybe it's things that need to be pruned, that need to be removed in order that other things can be protected. Maybe it's a series of yeses. Maybe it's a series of no's. Jesus show me how to act courageously in love as I look toward this year ahead. What is on your heart for me to know in order that I can respond to how you are leading in this next season of my initiation? So friends, let's pause. And let's fill in that calendar simply as we are led by God at this time. Friends, well done. Now, let's take some time to linger as you look back at the calendar and your experience of writing those things down. Let it speak to you. Encourage and in love in this place now. Make the notes that are necessary to act more deeply as the kind of man who has nothing to fear, nothing to hide, and nothing to prove. Notice those themes. Notice where fear and hiding and some requirement, some beckoning, some pull to prove something to yourself or to others or even God. Friends, notice what's surfaces here and looking at this calendar compared to the last calendar of your past year. And what would you like to write down before we move on? Friends, well done. You have completed part one, part two, and part three of a soul's review. And now we've come to the fourth and final part. And this is simply named taking action. So brothers, the intent of this fourth and final section is to curate and distill part one, two, three with this idea in mind. We want to come up with a simple one-page summary using as few words as possible. Again, if you're going through the PDF, this is page 16, but if you're not, you can just write these down anywhere you'd like. And the first is simply what experiences, themes, or relationships in the past year is God wanting to bring to your attention above all else. And so what is it of this past year that God wants to highlight most and bring to your attention? Let's pause. And now secondly, in as few words as possible, as we turn toward the New Year by reflecting on the past year, what do you sense as best you can tell today is the predominant theme of your masculine initiation that God's light is shining upon as you turn towards the New Year. What is the word? What is the theme? What is the invitation? What is the next first track looking forward? Let's write that down here. Friends, well done. And now third, I want to invite you to write down three primary action steps, things that are in your power to do, to begin, to engage in this year that help you walk more and more in step with the Spirit of God as sons of God. Let's write those here. Three practical action steps. One, two, and three. Let's take some time. Friends, well done. We are coming ever closer to the conclusion of a soul's review and this guided reflection exercise. And as we do, I want to invite you to remember the wise counsel, St. Francis, who reminds us that we must always begin with doing what is necessary, what is essential right in front of us. And from there in time, we will find ourselves doing what's possible. And from that place in time, we find ourselves together through the power of God doing what is impossible. Friends, do you hear that? We start where we are. It's two degree shifts. It's one small act of courage and love towards the things that matter most to God. Courage and love towards our own heart, towards the heart of God, and towards those entrusted to our care. We start by doing what's necessary. And in time, we find ourselves doing what's possible. And in time, from that place, we find ourselves doing what's impossible. I want to leave you with a staggering idea to ponder as we step into this next year of our decade of initiation. It's this idea from Dallas Willard. He says that God's intention for all of his sons and daughters is that they grow to the point where he can empower them to do what they want to do. Friends, I want to read that a second time because it's so vital to take this in. God's intention for all of his sons and daughters is that they grow to the point where he can empower them to do what they want to do. God, we are ones being led by love. You are a good, good father. You are faithful. And our infinite need is constantly matched by your infinite capacity and delight in providing. May we continue to attune our masculine souls to your fathering heart. God, I'm asking that you would increase our grace to practice placing our trust and confidence in you. I ask that you would refresh and strengthen our orientation and consent to become your master of apprentices in kingdom living as men. I pray that we will courageously respond to your leadership of our year and continue to take even greater risks in bringing more and more of ourselves under the care and guidance of more and more of you. Attune us increasingly to your wisdom and revelation. I am your son. I am your student. I am your warrior. And I am your king. Help me become who I am. With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, my fateful dilemma is resolved. As I enter into Christ being here for me, I no longer have to live under a continuous low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing me from a fateful life of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. If God himself has taken up residence in my life, I can hardly be thinking more of myself than of him. I choose to experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason that if the alive and present God who raised Christ from the dead moves into my life, he'll do the same in me that he did in Jesus, bringing me alive to himself. God, you can do anything far more than I could have ever imagined or guessed or request. In my wildest dreams, you do it not by pushing me around, but by working deep within me, your spirit deeply and gently within me. And therefore, my response today is to be on my knees before you, Father. You are magnificent. You are generous. You are attentive. That's who you are as my Father. You parcel out all of heaven and earth. You are my Father who names me. You are my Father, the one who knows me best and who loves me most. And so I'm asking you to strengthen me by your spirit, not a brute strength, but a glorious inner strength that you, Jesus, would live in me in this year ahead, even deeper as I open the door and invite you in. And I ask you, God, with both feet firmly planted on love, that I'll be able to take in with all my fellow kingdom apprentices, the extravagant dimensions of your love. Jesus, to reach out and experience the breadth, to test its lengths, to plumb the depths, to rise to heights. I want to live a full life, full in the fullness of God. I consecrate this year. I consecrate my life of fresh. I declare your rule and your authority over my days and over my decade. Brothers, may we stand as one this year contending for the restoration of all things. The kingdom here and now in us and through us. Glory be to God as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen. Brothers, what an honor. You are brave to engage in this sort of path and process. My invitation is share this guided reflection with those entrusted to your care. Let this be a gift for them as they go into the new year. The guided reflection is free. You can find it at becomegoodsoil.com under a soul's review. And this podcast is episode number 124. I'd love for you to pass this on to others that would be strengthened and encouraged by it. Thank you for joining me in this invitation to receive more of God's life into more of us. And as we enter into this new year, I'll see you again at becoming a king.com. Let's keep going. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]