There is something about this word, STOUTHEART. Psalm 138:3 says “When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.”
Something in me jumps at those words, BOLD and STOUTHEARTED, I want to be bold and stouthearted.
This Psalm was written by King David. Was he bold and stouthearted? God called David “a man after his own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22). So, in my mind, David is claiming to be bold and stouthearted, and God is calling David a man after his own heart…God’s heart then is bold and stout.
How do we develop this stout and bold heart?
On our man hike, Seth was talking about David being an archetype for us as men. I can’t think of any man better, God’s word devotes 66 chapters to him. Seth shared that David’s life shows a pattern for us to follow. This pattern looks similar to the stages that John Eldredge shares in his books. I also see this pattern in John Maxwell’s “Put Your Dream to the Test”.
Eldredge’s stages are: Beloved Son, Cowboy, Warrior, Lover, King, and Sage. I believe that Eldredge draws a lot of parallels to David in his book “The Way of the Wild Heart”. I haven’t read this book in a while, but I believe Eldredge says it is rare to find a true Godly King and Sage, but I believe Seth fits this description, and spending a few days hiking with him was awesome for all of us (hopefully warriors and lovers, kings in training and future sages).
Seth’s thoughts were that we as men have to learn to walk with God and defend ourselves first. We have to know our identity and walk in it, that is step one, which I believe lines up with Son, Cowboy, and Warrior. David’s school for this was while he was watching his father’s sheep and had to defend himself from the bear and the lion.
The next phase is learning to defend and lead our own family (wife and kids). I believe this is the Lover and King in training stage, where my wife and son are really the first real bits of God’s kingdom that I have been given dominion of. Again, I guess David learned this while defending the sheep.
Stage three, according to Seth, was a stage of learning to be a leader and defender in your tribe. I guess this includes extended family and friends. This would be a warrior and king in training stage (?). I guess this is done by walking in God’s anointing and influence among friends and family, God’s kingdom. Maybe not positional leadership, but people are influenced by the man in this stage? I am guessing this was David’s time from battling Goliath up until he actually became king. David fought many battles here.
Stage Four would be kingdom. Leading and defending the territory God has given the man to serve, while also extending the kingdom, taking more territory. Seth says that we start learning to do this by taking forays. By stepping out and trying, taking a mission trip might be a good example.
The reason I am including the Maxwell book here is because Seth suggested for us to read that one before we went on this hike. I guess this hike could be called more than a “man hike”, maybe a “vision quest”, maybe an initiation, absolutely some of the best disciplship and fellowship I have been a part of as an adult.
Maxwell asks if our dreams benefit others. He says that our early years are spent discovering our talents, exploring our possibilities, and searching for our purpose. As we get older we begin to focus more outward. Maxwell says this is a process, like everything else I have just written about.
This process starts at level one: I want to do something significant for myself. Maxwell says it is impossible to help others if you haven’t taken care of yourself.
The next stage is “I want to do something signigicant for others”. Maxwell uses Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, William Wilberforce and Thomas Edison as examples here. Maxwell says “just try to help someone!”. St. Francis of Assisi said “Start doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
The third stage is “I want to do something significant with others.” This brings fulfillment, this pursuing the dream in community. This is a stage I want to get to, but often have trouble with the community aspect. I guess this is one of the highlights of our hike, that the 7 men pursued this together. We pursued this dream of becoming men after God’s own heart, bold and stout.
This blog is getting long, and I still have so much to talk about, but I will save it.
We have another one of these man hikes in the works, leave a comment here if you are interested and I will get back to you (leave your email).
