Become Good Soil

By Morgan SnyderReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Become Good Soil episodes

December 04, 2024 175: Live to Rescue, with Greg Lindsey

I had always felt life first as a story—and if there is a story there is a storyteller.

– G. K. Chesterton

Friends,

The human soul craves meaning, just as the body needs food and water.

On our journey of masculine initiation, our souls long for the stories of others to illuminate our own. Stories are the language of the heart. They nourish us, bring meaning to our lives, and, most importantly, disrupt and inspire us to take heart once more, drawing us back to the ultimate Storyteller.

Our stories begin with God, are sustained by God, and are guided by him toward a flourishing finish. Through his grace, we discover an extraordinary truth: we are not called to avoid failure but to entrust it to God’s redemptive and undefeated story of love.

Greg Lindsey embodies this courage. As a husband, father, grandfather, and shepherd to his church community, he invites others into a deeper connection with God and their own stories.

Join me as we explore the universal and personal landscape of one man’s redemption story. You won’t want to miss it.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

P.S. For those interested in Greg’s work, he recently wrote The Rest of Your Story, a book for men and women to consider the depth and possibility of a life in God’s Kingdom.
1 hr 7 min
November 19, 2024 174: Fieldnotes with Pablo Ceron (Part 3)

Love, as Paul and the New Testament present it, is not action—

not even action with a special intention—but a source of action.

– Dallas Willard

Friends,

Thousands of years ago, Saint Paul penned his breathtaking discourse on Love.

It’s been misunderstood, watered down, and robbed of its beauty by overuse. Yet the life of God still pulses through, if we but let these old words visit us in a new way:

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.

Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete…but Love never dies.”

Love begets compassion.

Compassion begets connection.

Connection begets love.

And Love wins.

Let's dive into Part 3 of this series as we revel together in the consummation of compassion and love.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

P.S. Here are the resources mentioned in this episode:

088: Blurring the Lines of Family and Vocation

091: Soulcraft with Sam Jolman

Become Good Soil Comfort Survey
41 min
November 05, 2024 173: Field Notes with Pablo Ceron (Part 2)

Clothe yourself with compassion…

– Saint Paul

Friends,

If we come from the Trinity and thus naturally return to the Trinity, I want to lovingly ask again...What is in the way of our homecoming?

Perhaps better said, where do we find ourselves along the journey of home-going?

As a community of mature men who desire what is good, true, and beautiful, we often find ourselves pouring ourselves out on behalf of others.

We risk. We love. We serve. We sacrifice. We come through. We are warriors on behalf of love, consenting to a story bigger than ourselves. It is simply who we have become over the past two decades.

Yet as we come through for the desires and needs of those we treasure most, we very comfortably ignore and minimize our own desires and needs.

What do you want?

What do you need?

Deeper still, do you receive compassion for yourself to the measure that God is offering compassion to you?

Let's dive into Part 2 of this conversation with Pablo Ceron.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
44 min
October 22, 2024 172: Fieldnotes with Pablo Ceron (Part 1)

...we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts...

– Saint Paul

Friends,

Life is hard.

Damn hard.

And, brothers, with the convergence of the headlines, the violent speed of life, and the hyperindividualism of this hour, there is little hope that life will get easier.

Haunting the masculine soul with uncertainty, pain, and tragedy, we’re left with quite a predicament.

Before a man can even honestly utter what he must do to thrive in this hour, a deeper question cries out.

Who must I become to live and love well?

The answer lies in the depths of the image of God in us as men:

In times of uncertainty, there is a special breed of warrior ready to answer our Kingdom’s call; a common man with an uncommon desire to love. Forged by adversity, he stands alongside God’s finest warriors to serve his Kingdom and to serve the people God has placed under his care, and to protect their way of life. I am that man.

We are that man.

Though dormant in varying degrees and dimensions, this identity is nonetheless concrete. It is who we are, and who we are becoming.

Design indeed reveals destiny. And the intentioned destiny of our Father in and through our hearts and stories as men will triumph.

Let’s dive in.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
52 min
October 08, 2024 171: A New Birth

Discipleship is the process of restoring secure attachment to God.

– Morgan and Cherie Snyder

Friends,

In his thoroughly beautiful novel Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry writes,

Now I have had most of the life I am going to have, and I can see what it has been. I can remember those early years when it seemed to me I was completely adrift, and times when…it seemed I had been wandering in the dark woods of error.

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.

Friends, as Cherie and I seek to respond to the unbroken, God-breathed path laid out before us, we want to invite you into our emerging sense of what we are to steward in the season ahead.

It is likely the most unique BGS podcast we’ve offered in 14 years and 171 episodes.

In partnership with John and Stasi Eldredge, we invite you to an intimate conversation with our team to hear firsthand about this new birth.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
1 hr 2 min
September 24, 2024 170: Initiation of Our Parts, with Sam Eldredge (Part 2)

If you don’t like the person you’re becoming, you still have time to change that.

– Sam Eldredge

Friends,

It was Dallas Willard who wrote, “Spiritual transformation in Christ is the process of all of the essential parts of the human self being effectively organized around God, as they are restored and sustained by him. Its result is love of God with all of the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and of the neighbor as oneself.”

In Part 2 of this conversation with Sam Eldredge, we continue to cover the terrain of organizing both parts and stories of the masculine soul around one unified story as we discover again that which is most true:

We are safe.

We belong.

We are loved outrageously by a God who is creatively crafting our lives into the ongoing redemptive Story he is authoring.

Let’s dive into Part 2 of Sam’s story together.

For the Kingdom,

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35 min
September 10, 2024 169: Initiation of Our Parts, with Sam Eldredge (Part 1)

The fundamental human experience is that of compassion.

– The Hero's Journey

Friends,

A wise man once said that a warrior's true mark lies in his capacity to treat his own heart with compassion.

Sam Eldredge is a brother and friend who is leading others to become true warriors and kings out of his unique recovery of the Gospel.

He’s been quietly and faithfully working toward becoming an increasingly initiated man. As one mentor suggests, Sam is among a like-hearted few “steadily being initiated into his true self, initiated into the flow of Reality, initiated into the great patterns that are always true, initiated into the life of God.” From his reservoir of initiation, he’s helping others recover the path as well.

Sam is a brave and loving husband and father who recently established Noble Workshops, an outpost of the Kingdom offering counseling and five-day immersive workshops to help heal and integrate the human soul.

Join me as we dive into Part 1 of Sam’s story.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
50 min
August 27, 2024 168: Reflections on the Praxis

It starts with God.

– Proverbs 1:7

Friends,

A wise man once told me, “More is better. Except when it’s not.”

We can see this in our spiritual formation. The myth of more has co-opted even the ancient practices meant to root us in the Kingdom of God.

More teaching.

More study.

More content.

More events.

More healing.

More….of everything.

Yet more is neither the point nor the prize. As our older brother Jesus winsomely announces, “God alone is good.”

Jesus reminds us that there is treasure along the path of his Kingdom more valuable than all growth, transformation, ministry, and miracles. It is the treasure of God himself.

What if the invitation today is to simply enjoy the gift and opportunity of friendship with God? What if God himself is the point and the prize?

What if the goal is simply being with God, enjoying his personality, presence, and outrageous affection…and nothing more?

Come along. Let us enjoy God, together.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

Find out more about Denver Seminary's Praxis.
1 hr 7 min
August 13, 2024 167: Age of the Sage, with Brett Davis

The only tragedy greater than the deep fatherlessness our soul experiences is that we have come to accept that sense of fatherlessness as normal.

Friends,

It's been written that “when there are no kings, young warriors become brutal, magicians behave as charlatans, and lovers are soon addicts.”

But what happens when there are no sages?

It’s a question entangled in pain yet brimming with possibility.

In our fast-paced, ever-changing, hyper-individualistic landscape, we find endless content: many experts, loads of pep-talkers, and infinite curricula to re-engineer the smallness.

Yet the masculine soul remains starving for connection…connection to men who have gone before us, connection to men who have confronted suffering, life, death, and loss and have come out the other side with hearts alive and living generously for love.

The masculine soul craves the wisdom and joyful rest of the sage’s presence. Rest and wisdom are critical for the young man to become who he is meant to be.

Brett Davis has become a sage. In my life and the lives of countless others, he is bringing a sage’s presence to the next generation.

Having founded Christian Surfers International over forty years ago and led it since, Brett has received his next promotion. Entrusting leadership to the next generation, he has stepped forward into a new season of offering loving engagement to those God brings him as a wise man of peace.

He’s a risk-taker, father, surfer, husband, friend, and leader.

He’s become a Sage.

And he’s inviting us to come along.

Join me in the lineup, trusting we need only ride the wave given to us to live more freely and lightly through the winsome care of the men ahead.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

P.S. If you want to explore more on the Age of the Sage, prayerfully engage this PDF compiled by Brett Davis: The Age of the Sage.
58 min
July 30, 2024 166: Unpacking the Daybreak Prayer, with Cherie Snyder (Part 4)

Above all else, trust in the slow work of God.

Friends,

Jesus modeled and taught a scandalous and inviting life of prayer.

In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house and went off to a lonely place to pray… (Mark 1:35)

“Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.” (Matt. 6:5-15 MSG)

The invitation of Jesus into this sort of intimate prayer life is a radical path of discipleship.

And I want to suggest that discipleship is the path back to secure attachment to the heart of God.

Daily prayer as a practice of presence paves this path and can slowly and steadily root us deeply into God.

But where to start?

How to continue?

The Daybreak Prayer is nothing new. Its heart is the foundational realities of our common faith collected together as a trailhead, a rallying cry, and an anchor for the soul.

It’s simple.

It’s powerful.

And it's meant to be accessible.

Let’s pick up our communal path of prayer again as Cherie and I conclude this four-part series.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
53 min