Fathered by God

Fathered By God
By: John Eldridge
(C) 2009
ISBN: 1400280273
$9.99 on author's website:

To say that I enjoyed Fathered by God would be as big of an understatement is saying that Jesus made some sort of impact on the world by coming to earth. I am not a newbie to John Eldridge's writing, having previously read Wild At Heart and Epic. Neither of those books prepared me for what I would read in Eldridge's latest.

Eldridge starts the book with a theme common to many of his works; namely that there is one specific question that all men want answered. Whereas Wild At Heart attempted to help us answer that question (Do I have what it takes?), Fathered by God helps us understand that path. We start in the boyhood era, where a boy needs simply to know that he is the apple of his father's eye. This meant a lot to me because that is where my son is right now. It made me ask over and over again, "What can I do to show my son this in our relationship?"

He then moves through Cowboy (or Ranger), Warrior, Lover, King, and finally the Sage era of a man's life. Honestly, the only part that was truly difficult to read was the lover stage. I had bought into the idea that men don't get smitten by God's love, and for some of us we don't even get smitten by a woman's love. That chapter was truly difficult, and I look forward (kind of) to reading through it again.

I believe I am on the sunset side of warrior at this time, although I am trying to regain that stage so that I can fully live it (and perhaps not have a midlife crisis later!). I especially want to live that stage spiritually. I will share more on that in future posts.

As I alluded to above, I have already started applying these principles to my relationship with my son, as evidenced in this post. I can't wait to live additional parts of this life, both for my own sake and the sake of my wife and children.

You need this book. Buy it, borrow it...get it.

Toward the end of his book, Fathered by God, John Eldridge says that "the best thing you could do at this point is read it again." It's not because John teaches obscure thoughts or that he confuses the reader. Indeed, if anything, the problem might be that I soaked up the writing so fast that I need a second reading through in order just to get everything! So stay tuned, for I plan to go through the book a second time, with John's accompanying workbook, and write a second review in the future!

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