Become Good Soil

By Morgan SnyderReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Become Good Soil episodes

February 27, 2024 155: The Metanarrative of Feminine Love, with Cherie Snyder (Part 2)

As a man matures and increases in power, he is absolutely dependent on

the integration of feminine love

for him to flourish, mature, and thrive in God’s Kingdom.

– Morgan Snyder

Friends,

What if integrated masculinity dynamically engaging with integrated femininity was essentially designed by the Living God to communicate abundance, peace, dignity, and the endless safety of God’s extravagant and irrevocable love?

Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friends of both genders slowly and steadily maturing in ever-increasing union—all were intended to radically and creatively bring the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in the heavens.

Heaven's intention has not changed.

Men and women need one another, deeply.

Our world has perhaps never needed to see the loving and creative partnership of the masculine and feminine as it does now.

Let’s find our way together.

Join Cherie and me for Part 2 of this deep dive into the major theme of God and his Kingdom regarding feminine love: The Living God is relentlessly and lovingly pursuing us in and through the feminine. Let's dive in.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
37 min
February 13, 2024 154: The Metanarrative of Feminine Love, with Cherie Snyder (Part 1)

God loves you more tenderly and more irrevocably than the best of mothers.

– Stasi Eldredge

Friends,

What does the integration of wholehearted masculine love with wholehearted feminine love feel like?

For most men, considering the impact and role of feminine love—or its absence—elicits a wide range of emotions.

Simply put, we can easily lose heart in our ambivalence, unmet longing, or pain around it.

What if underneath the pain, confusion, and even mistrust is one of the great secrets to “Heaven on Earth” finding its way within our souls? What if the integration of the feminine and the masculine is a part of the redemption of creation and the path toward human flourishing?

Join Cherie and me for part one of a three-part series exploring the possibility and hope of the Living God pursuing us in and through restored femininity. Let's dive in.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
42 min
January 31, 2024 153: The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life (Part 2)

Any place you don’t find a track is not wasted, but part of refining where to look.

– Boyd Varty, The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life

Friends,

Boyd Varty’s life has enticed me into ever deeper waters of my masculine initiation. His stories of tracking animals in wild spaces offer stunning insight into the experience of tracking our souls as men during this bewildering hour on Earth.

Boyd's insight offers particular treasure for our community of apprentices to Jesus, inviting us to become men whose wise hearts and skilled hands can engage in our Father’s intention to share his power and authority on earth as it is in heaven.

One Kingdom irony is that our Father invites us into this risky endeavor of power-sharing through the unlikely doorway of losing track of our lives. As Boyd suggests,

“There is a last track, and then it's gone. Trails can be like life in that way. You are clear on a path one minute, and the next instant, it's gone. You get fired, you lose a loved one, the company fails, you retire, she dumps you, and you get divorced. Where you thought you were going vanishes. Who you thought you were is lost….More than any other part of tracking, losing the track might be the most metaphorically rich.”

What if losing the track—and what we do with being lost—is an essential practice to engaging in the unbroken line of God’s masculine initiation of our souls?

If we are to dare greatly and fail forward, we must practice accepting that losing the track is an essential part of tracking. We must courageously accept that to admit we are lost is to discover we are found by a good and strong Father lovingly leading us home.

Join Boyd Varty and me for Part 2 of this daring conversation.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

P.S. If you want to journey deeper with Boyd, visit www.BoydVarty.com.

54 min
January 16, 2024 152: The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life (Part 1)

I have no idea where I’m going. But I know exactly how to get there.

– Boyd Varty, The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life

Friends,

Boyd Varty’s life illuminated in and through The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life has been a steady stream of nourishment for my masculine soul in recent years. I’ve returned time and time again to the disruption and enticement of his life, wondering with hope and curiosity...

What does it mean to be a man in this hour on earth?

Where is the path to wholehearted, integrated masculinity today?

Amidst the poison and disintegration of postmodern life, is any of it concretely possible?

Masculine initiation is meant to be the interpretive grid and narrative arc for every relationship, aspect, and dimension of our lives.

Boyd’s experience in the God-breathed and terrifyingly wild spaces of South Africa reveals to us a freshly discovered universal truth of masculine initiation: Too much uncertainty is chaos. But too little is death...and we are invited to track this narrow path of uncertainty under and within the heart of a Father who is extravagantly loving and wholeheartedly forging us into deeper maturity as men.

Join me and Boyd Varty for the first part of a daring conversation on all things masculine initiation.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

P.S. If you want to journey deeper with Boyd, visit www.boydvarty.com.
52 min
December 27, 2023 151: A Soul’s Review

“Where are you, Adam?”
– Genesis 3:9

Friends,

Something is over. Something is next. How do we choose an intentional pause in the in-between to recenter our soul in the heart of God and in his Kingdom, which is at hand?

Last year, we invited our tribe to engage in a soulful transition from one year to the next. As a result of the responses we received, we've made some updates to the guided exercise and are bringing it back to help you navigate the transition from the year behind to the year ahead.

This is another fresh invitation to slow down and thoughtfully consider the lives we find ourselves living in light of the generous offer of sonship to a good Father.

Together, we will look back to look forward.

You are worth your time. Set aside a day retreat or a half-day break from the routine to give yourself to this exercise. Better yet, invite your spouse—or a brother or three—to join you in this soul’s journey. Before you make a decision about what of yourself you’ll give to this, ask God. Because you’re worth it. And his invitation might surprise you.

You can download the free guided reflection here.

For the Kingdom,
Morgan
1 hr 1 min
December 19, 2023 150: A Christmas Feast (Part 2)

The only thing which we may take with us from our life on earth are those things which we have given away.

– Babette’s Feast

Friends,

The feast of Christmas is drawing near. In preparation, I invite you to share this gift for the soul with the like-hearted among our global community.

In Babette’s Feast, Isak Dinesen explores the riches of Christ’s grace in story form. This dialogue from one of his characters caught my attention:

“‘Man, my friends,’ said General Loewenhielm, ‘is frail and foolish. We have all of us been told that grace is to be found in the universe. But in our human foolishness and short‐sightedness, we imagine divine grace to be finite. For this reason, we tremble….We tremble before making our choice in life, and after having made it again tremble in fear of having chosen wrong. But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that grace is infinite. Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude. Grace, brothers, makes no conditions and singles out none of us in particular; grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims general amnesty. See! That which we have chosen is given us, and that which we have refused is, also and at the same time, granted us. Ay, that which we have rejected is poured upon us abundantly. For mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and bliss have kissed one another!’”

Let’s jump into Part 2 of a Christmas Feast. May hope rise fresh in our hearts with holy defiance as we remember together the trajectory of our God-authored stories:

God has the first word.

And God has the last word.

This is good news, my friends.

Merry Christmas,

Morgan
51 min
December 12, 2023 149: A Christmas Feast (Part 1)

All the stories we tell borrow their power from the Great Story God is writing.

– John Eldredge

Friends,

Isak Dinesen suggests God's plans run across the sea and the snowy mountain where man’s eyes see no track.

What if it is true?

It is true, my friends.

Everything is going to be okay.

God is drawing all of our stories toward the breathtaking restoration of all things.

Along the way, his bright Kingdom often breaks in through what seems at first only mundane and insignificant.

As his Spirit becomes the strength of our hearts and teaches us to feed on him as our portion forever, our Father readies us to love in ways previously impossible, becoming by day and decade vessels of a Kingdom outbreak in the lives of those around us.

As we immerse ourselves in Advent and prepare for the wonder and beauty of Christmas, I invite you to join me for Part 1 of A Christmas Feast. Together, let us remember the beauty, cost, and largeness of the Tale that has woven our ordinary lives into its surprise, delight, and power. I think you’re going to love it.

Merry Christmas,

Morgan
44 min
December 06, 2023 148: DadAwesome, with Jeff Zaugg (Part 2)

Then our sons in their youth

    will be like well-nurtured plants,

and our daughters will be like pillars

    carved to adorn a palace.

– Psalm 144:12 NIV

Friends,

The Psalms were penned by regular men walking through the real and raw depths of the human experience. With body and soul, animated by the life of God, these brave authors invite us into a God-permeated vision of Reality more visceral and personal than our often emotionally reserved contexts reflect.

In Psalm 144, the psalmist vividly depicts the robust well-being of future generations as they stand on the shoulders of men and women seeking and interacting with the Living God.

What depth and breadth of life in God would prepare the way for our children and grandchildren to experience this quality of soul-flourishing?

“What story are we inviting our kids into? Is the story they are watching us live big enough to contain all the hopes, dreams, disappointments, and fears? Is the story that our lives tell filled with life and promise? Or do our lives tell a small story, a religious story, a limp and narrow story that is painfully less appealing than the competing narratives they’re also being offered? Sports achievement, mind-altering substances, unrestricted sexual expression, a girlfriend or boyfriend, and followers on social media—these are powerful stories. If I’ve learned anything, it is this: our kids’ hearts will gravitate toward the biggest, best, and most life-filled story they can find. If we don’t model a Christianity brimming with life, it simply won’t be attractive enough to captivate their hearts. So our first mission must be to come home ourselves to a Gospel and a God so vibrant with life that we can’t help but model the joy and vitality of what we have discovered. And then we must find ways to give our kids direct access to the Kingdom of our Father for themselves in order to cultivate their own faith journey.”*

Join me and longstanding Become Good Soil like-hearted apprentice Jeff Zaugg for Part 2 of this conversation as we recover another ancient stone in the narrow road that leads to life.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

*BGS Father's Day devotional PDF
36 min
November 21, 2023 147: DadAwesome, with Jeff Zaugg (Part 1)

The glory of children are their Fathers.

– Proverbs 17:6 KJV

Friends,

Our sacred Scriptures whisper to us the invitation God has woven into reality for men to once again consent to the path and process of becoming fathers. The Proverbs winsomely teach us that the weight of the lives of our children points back to the headwaters of our faithful Father.

Who is he?

What is he like?

Is he available?

Deeper still, is he interested?

These questions, though often hidden below the surface, haunt us. They beckon the male soul to stop and think. They invite us to reconsider the impact of our own becoming, not with shame or regret, but with hopeful curiosity of the possibility of participating in a Father-initiated restoration. A God-orchestrated initiation. In a phrase, a story that is far larger than us.

As I’ve suggested before, “Parenting, like everything else in masculine initiation, has no shortcuts. So I want to suggest that the first questions in raising wholehearted children turn right back on us: If I can only lead my child where I’ve gone myself, what’s next in my initiation? What is the frontier of my masculine soul? What is it that I am intimidated to engage, but that I know is essential to wholly enter the life that I was meant to live? Thankfully, God is the great Initiator, and our great work is simply and bravely to respond to his particular invitation. When we give him our yes, we become what we most want to offer. And in becoming, we will find the path to shepherd our children in the way that is good and right for their souls. Only on this path of responding to our Father for the initiation of our hearts as men can we release outcomes in our parenting and find joy in whatever unfolds. For them and for us.”

Come along into a conversation with like-hearted son, student, and father Jeff Zaugg, founder of DadAwesome, as we consider fatherhood and return to curiosity, hope, and strength in a Good Father.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan
40 min
November 07, 2023 146: Wild Courage, with Jeremy Morris

I have no idea where I’m going. But I know exactly how to get there.

– Boyd Varty, The Lion Tracker's Guide to Life

Friends,

In the Kingdom of God, we are never behind and it is never too late to consent to our unique version of the universal pattern of masculine initiation.

We are always on time.

What if that were true?

What if we believed it?

What if we lived it?

Masculine initiation as apprentices to Jesus of Nazareth is the only story big enough to anchor our hearts and hold the collective weight of our suffering and triumph. It is the only story that releases the shackles of regret and worry and delivers us into the present-moment possibility that we are right on time. That we are being led. And that the affection of our Father will, in the end, win.

Come along into a conversation with like-hearted apprentice and ally Jeremy Morris of the Wild Courage team as we encounter afresh the gift of consenting to the slow and steady process of masculine initiation.

For the Kingdom,

Morgan

1 hr 3 min