Wild at Heart | Week 10

Week 10 | A Beauty to Rescue

Weather | 69° F | Humidity 81% | Wind: 13mph SE

6 Pax continued the book study at Adventure Park at 6:15 for the tenth week of Wild at Heart. Thank you to all the HIM that posted. All Pax are still encouraged to attend. Even if you don’t have the book, just show up to fellowship and grow spiritually with us. Shout out to Drake who joined us and provided some sage wisdom to the discussion. There were also a couple of Pax hovering. I won’t call you out, but thanks for posting that early. Feel free to jump into the discussion, or just hover and sponge. Either way, we love having you!

Reminder: We will not be meeting next weekend 12/8. I will be away at the Ragnar event along with several of the other regular attendees of this book study. Complete reading the rest of the book by 12/15.

The reading assignment was Chapter 10 – A Beauty to Rescue.

Do you know what your wife’s wound is? As men, we simply want to move on after we conquer something. We plant our flag and move on to the next battle. How long after you planted the ring on your wife’s finger did you stop fighting for her heart, pursuing her and move on to the next battle?

A champion rescues the fair maiden from evil sorcerer and rides off with her in to the sunset. Why is this story so deep in our psyche? This fairy tale is written into our hearts, one of the core desires of every man and woman.

What happens between “Once Upon a Time” and “Happily Ever After” that makes us want a divorce? What happened that romance ends with an evening in front of the TV?

We have NOT been poisoned by these fairy tales, we have not taken them seriously enough. We have overlooked two crucial aspects to the myth:

None of us believed the sorcerer was real. We thought we could win the maiden without a fight. We thought our biggest battle was asking her out.
We have not understood the tower and its relationship to her wound. If masculinity has come under assault, femininity has been brutalized. Eve is God’s crowning creation, and so she is a special target of the evil one.

Eve’s Wound

As with men, every woman has a wound: violence, abuse, neglect…
Girl’s also have a question: Am I lovely?
This is the core of her identity and the way in which she bears the image of God:
- Will you pursue me?
- Do you delight in me?
- Will you fight for me?
Her wound says: No you are not beautiful. Nobody will fight for you.
Like men, her wound is also usually from her father, but continues through men she may encounter or date. The tower is built brick by brick through her life.
Men sometimes marry women that don’t challenge them, the woman adores them and so they are an ‘easy rescue’. Men don’t have to bleed to save them and so they expect they should never have to.

Offering Our Strength

The beauty of a woman arouses a man, to play the man. The strength of man is offered tenderly to his woman, allows her to be beautiful and it brings life to her and to many.
When a man withholds himself, he leaves her without life that only he can bring.
Proverbs 18:21 (MSG) Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.
A violent man destroys, a silent man starves.
Consider the story of Joseph, and everything that it cost him socially to fight for Mary and stay with her and marry her. He fights for her, stands in there with her.
The masculine journey takes a man away from the woman so that he might return to her. He finds his strength and returns to offer it. He tears down the walls of her tower.
Because most men have not fought the battle, most women are still in the tower.

Using Her

Most men want the maiden without any cost to themselves. They want all the joys and beauty without the battle. Thus is the nature of pornography. Man uses woman to get the feeling that he is a man. He offers nothing and wants to take everything.
Genesis 38 | Story of Judah and Tamar | Example of what happens when men selfishly refuse to spend their strength on behalf of the woman.
Men when trying to fight for the woman: “What if it doesn’t work?” “What if she doesn’t change?” …. In a day? Men are looking for validation from the woman. No matter how good you are, you can never be enough.
You don’t love a woman to get a good grade, to get validation, you love her because that’s what you were made to do and that’s what a real man does.

Eve to Adam

A woman who is living out her true design will be “valiant, vulnerable, and scandalous”.
The book of Ruth: How does a woman help her man to play the man? She inspires him.
- Boaz needed help to get going as a man, Ruth could have whined, complained, or emasculated him. She doesn’t.
Women should arouse, inspire and energize their men.

It is a Battle

Will you fight for her? Some men are willing to go in once, twice or even three times. Warriors are in this battle for good.
Marriages are a battle, they are under constant attack from the enemy. Satan likes to take small campfires and pour gasoline on them with subtle thoughts and signs that can turn it into a bonfire.
Take your battle to God for help with fighting for your beauty. You cannot fight against the evil one alone.

“Beauty is not only a terrible thing, it is also a mysterious thing. There God and the Devil strive for mastery, and the battleground is the heart of men. ” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“You”ll be glad every night, That you treated her right.” — George Thorogood | “Treat Her Right”

“Cowboy take me away, Closer to heaven and closer to you.’” — Dixie Chicks | “Cowboy Take Me Away”

Homework for 12/15 | Read Chapter Eleven: An Adventure to Live, Twelve: Writing the Next Chapter (one page) and the Epilogue (two pages).

Reminder: We will not be meeting next weekend 12/8. I will be away at the Ragnar event along with several of the other regular Pax. Finish the rest of the book by 12/15.

Thoughts for the week:

In what (unique) ways does God speak to you? What makes you come alive? Do you take time to escape life’s distractions and noise to get away and spend time alone with God and your soul?