Become Good Soil

By Morgan SnyderReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Become Good Soil episodes

July 16, 2024 165: Unpacking the Daybreak Prayer, with Cherie Snyder (Part 3)

Pray without ceasing.

– St. Paul

Friends,

It's been said, “Prayer is not about changing God, but being willing to let God change us.”

What if cultivating a practice of prayer that teems with life and connection with God is much less about what we do and much more about who we become?

Through a slow and steady practice of prayer, we are reformed into the kind of people who truly do pray without ceasing. Even more, over the decades of our apprenticeship, we become people whose very lives are an act of prayer.

Join Cherie and me for Part 3 of this Daybreak Prayer series.

We think you’re going to love it.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
50 min
July 02, 2024 164: Unpacking the Daybreak Prayer, with Cherie Snyder (Part 2)

Prayer is never the first word; it is always the second word. God has the first word.
– Eugene Peterson

Friends,

As we continue to explore the Daybreak Prayer, let us immerse ourselves in these God-initiated and God-sustained realities:

Father, thank you that our story begins with you, and we will return to the restoration of all things.

We choose to trust that you love us with the same love you have for Jesus.

Therefore we will not give way to fear.

We agree with who you are. We agree with what you are doing. We agree with how you are doing it.

We ask for a revelation of your affection today.

We ask that you would make the impossible possible.

Pause.

I invite you to reread these phrases again, but slower.

Linger with each line. Notice the impact on your soul.

Friends, I want to suggest that the truths of our Father’s heart and his Kingdom highlighted in the Daybreak Prayer beckon us ever homeward, reconnecting us to ground on which it is wholly safe to rest and live and move and have our being: We are in God’s life, and therefore we are fully and forever okay.

We have enough.

We are enough.

We are loved.

It’s from this secure ground that Cherie and I invite you to come along into Part 2 of this series as we seek again to participate in God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

For the Kingdom,
Morgan

P.S. If you want more, consider these resources to take a deeper dive into the Daybreak Prayer:

Daybreak Prayer PDF

Daybreak Prayer audio (male voice)

Daybreak Prayer audio (female voice)
1 hr 1 min
June 18, 2024 163: Unpacking the Daybreak Prayer, with Cherie Snyder (Part 1)
God is perfectly capable of saving the world he created.
– Dallas Willard

Friends,

In the section of his Gospel known as the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew tells the story of Jesus drawing his apprentices away from the crowds and up a mountainside to teach them about the heart of our Father and the way of his gracious Kingdom.

On the subject of prayer, Jesus says this:
And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either….Here’s what I want you to do: 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. (Matthew 6:5-15 MSG)

What a breathtaking invitation to honesty, simplicity, and connection in prayer.

In this podcast series, Cherie and I invite our fellow apprentices to join us in exploring this posture of prayer in fresh ways.

Rooting ourselves in the spacious architecture of the Become Good Soil Daybreak Prayer, let's explore deepening our prayer life together.

For the Kingdom,
Morgan
48 min
June 04, 2024 162: The Great I Am, with Jared Anderson (Part 2)

There is no power in hell

Or any who can stand

Before the power and the presence of the Great I Am.

– Jared Anderson

Friends,

Jared Anderson penned these arresting words over a decade ago. His song has become a rallying cry and a lifeline to Reality for the friends of God.

But behind the song is a story.

And behind the story is a soul.

Jared is a husband, father, risk-taker, and renowned soul-poet-musician. Serving in a megachurch during a time of heartrending fallout from failures of leadership and culture, he has traversed essential miles of his initiation.

And he still has heart.

He still has God.

Deeper still, God still has him.

In Part 2 of this studio session and conversation, we consider the intersection of Jared Anderson’s hidden life and the years of becoming a wholehearted leader in the Body of Christ.

Let’s take another deep dive together.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

You can explore more of Jared’s work on Instagram and wherever music can be found.
36 min
May 21, 2024 161: The Great I Am, with Jared Anderson (Part 1)

The male must be taught "the tears of things" before he is given any power.

Friends,

The goal of masculine initiation is always God.

It is not ultimately healing, though that comes as well. It is not even wholehearted maturity.

Above all, the goal of masculine initiation is God himself.

Though our Father’s aim is always to connect us more deeply to himself, the chaos, losses, failures, pressures, and complexities of our lives obscure the brightness of his good heart.

So in the midst of seemingly incoherent pieces, our soul whispers,

Where is God?

What is God doing?

Why is this happening?

Where do I go?

God, ANSWER ME.

In these bewildering moments, let us borrow faith and hope from a man who, in passing through his own initiation, has blazed a path for many to follow.

“I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face, questions die away. What other answer would suffice?”

Jared Anderson is a husband, father, risk-taker, and renowned soul-poet-musician.

But it is his hidden and unique story that clarifies our central aim: to gaze into the eyes of our Father and discover who we are.

Let’s dive into Part 1 of this studio session and conversation.

You can explore more of Jared’s work wherever music can be found.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
54 min
May 08, 2024 160: The Metanarrative of Masculine Love (Part 3)

Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.

– Goethe

Friends,

Years ago, as a father in the faith led a group of young, thirsty apprentices and me through a series of exercises and questions for our masculine souls, we came across this question:

What is your dream assignment in the Kingdom?

In other words, if you could be charged with any task, vocation, or work in God’s Kingdom, what would you love it to be?

My peers and I sincerely (and rather hastily) shared our responses:

Author

Life coach

Film producer

Professor

Real estate agent

Counselor

Our teacher benevolently received the desires of our hearts.

He paused.

And then he answered the prompt himself:

“My dream is to become a grandfather.”

You could hear a pin drop. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. He had my attention. The stark contrast between my peers' and our teacher's answers revealed a gap between our souls' unfinished places and the geography to which God was beckoning us.

Somewhere in this man’s initiation, he had taken a radical path that transplanted his soul from the narrow field of self-centeredness to the vast open place of wholehearted others-centeredness.

He had become the kind of man who had nothing to fear, nothing to prove, and nothing to hide. He had more than enough. And he had become more than enough, in and through the One who made him.

In a phrase, he was full, secure, and free to love with the unconditional generosity of heaven.

The Father is inviting us along a path to become this wholehearted.

Join me for Part 3 as we conclude this series on the metanarrative of masculine love.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
49 min
April 23, 2024 159: The Metanarrative of Masculine Love (Part 2)

Home is both an origin and a destination.

Friends,

When the time is right, a man must leave his father and mother to find his True Father and Mother in God's heart. Returning home to God is the destiny of his soul and the consummation of his initiation.

Linger.

Every man must leave his mom and dad to find his God.

On a soul level, most men, to some degree, still haven’t left home.

In walking with men for over two decades and paying attention to my challenges, resisting leaving our “home” is one of the inhibitors to becoming mature and more fully united to God.

Most of us know this resistance and challenge all too well, though we may not have been able to name it.

If a man has never entirely left, he can never come home again and know it for the first time.

In it all, our Father does not pull away from us. His affection never leaves us, and his daring invitation remains:

Receive the kingdom afresh like a little boy, innocent again.

Free, here and now.

So often, we mistakenly conclude that our boy-hearted innocence is the source of our pain, stirring us to open our hearts and only to be so deeply let down.

Yet along the path of recovered innocence, we will find ourselves finally at home with God.

Let's take another deep dive together.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
33 min
April 09, 2024 158: The Metanarrative of Masculine Love (Part 1)

I came from the Father. Now I come home to the Father.

– Jesus of Nazareth

Friends,

We come from the Trinity.

We will return to the Trinity.

So what is in the way of our homecoming?

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

The mission and message of Become Good Soil reach thousands globally, nourishing men from 18 to 83. Men of different ages and at different stages of masculine initiation. At first glance, the diversity of our stories is outstanding.

But there is a universal ache informing and uniting us all:

We hunger and thirst for the love, validation, and intentionality of a man who is stronger than us.

In a phrase, we hunger and thirst for God himself.

Brothers, we do not hunger and thirst for this wild and generous Father in vain. We find him, realize him, feast on him, and, from this nourished place, carry him with us into the dearest relationships of our daily lives.

The Father is undefeated. His love is winning.

His goodness is prevailing.

His intentional and scandalous validation of us is immeasurable.

And he is just getting started.

Let’s pick up the next first track of our masculine initiation and be visited again by this ancient truth:

It all starts with the Father.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
58 min
March 26, 2024 157: From Success to Failure to Sonship

God’s cheatin’ in our favor.

– Shia LaBeouf

Friends,

It’s been said that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

Over decades, alongside like-hearted brothers, I've discovered a profound revelation in this idea. Perhaps even more essential is this truth:

When the son is ready, the Father appears.

My longtime ally, friend, and like-hearted brother Ryan Ruebsahm is a man who has lived into this very truth.

Ryan's personal narrative is a compelling invitation. He has embarked on a journey from orphanhood to slavery and, finally, to rebirth as a son. His story challenges us to take risks, let go of our old selves, and embrace a new life infused with the unbreakable spirit of Christ.

Let’s dive into this story together.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
43 min
March 12, 2024 156: The Metanarrative of Feminine Love, with Cherie Snyder (Part 3)

He trusts her without reserve and never has reason to regret it.

– Proverbs 31:11 MSG

Friends,

To say the proverb another way, masculinity trusts femininity without reserve and never has reason to regret it.

Femininity trusts masculinity without reserve and never has reason to regret it.

What if this is intended to both include and transcend marriage, plunging us into the possibility and finally the scandalous destiny of Galatians 3?

“...you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (3:28 NIV)

In The Sacred Romance, Brent Curtis goes as far as to say that Heaven holds for us “multiple intimacy without promiscuity.” Oh, to plumb the depths of integrity and recover even more of what might be intended when we wrestle with what it means to be formed in the image of a Trinitarian God.

What would it be like to truly embody the New Testament vision of the Body of Christ and become creatively unified in whole-hearted interdependent relationship with one another, as men and as women?

Let’s dare to discover together.

Join Cherie and me for Part 3 of the Metanarrative of Feminine Love. We think you’re going to love it.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
30 min