John Eldredge - The Way of the Wild Heart: A Map for the Masculine Journey

THE WAY OF THE WILD HEART

OTHER BOOKS BY JOHN ELDREDGE

The Ransomed Heart

Captivating
(with Stasi Eldredge)

Epic

Waking the Dead

Wild at Heart

The Journey of Desire

The Sacred Romance
(with Brent Curtis)

Copyright 2006 by John Eldredge

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Attorneys and Counselors, Orange, California.

Scripture quotations noted NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. The NIV and New International Version trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires permission of International Bible Society.

Scripture quotations noted NASB are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations noted The Message are from THE MESSAGE. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations noted NKJV are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, 1992 Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Scripture quotations noted NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright 1986 by Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Eldredge, John.
The way of the wild heart : a map for the masculine journey / John Eldredge.
p. cm.
ISBN 10: 0-7852-0677-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 13: 978-0-7852-0677-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 10: 0-7852-8868-6 (IE)
ISBN 13: 978-0-7852-8868-8 (IE)
1. Christian menReligious life. 2. MasculinityReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.
BV4528.2.E447 2001
248.8'42dc22

2006013989

Printed in the United States of America

06 07 08 09 QW 5 4 3 2 1

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CONTENTS

How gladly would I treat you like sons...

JEREMIAH 3:19 NIV

One of the most haunting experiences I have ever had as a man took place on an early summer day in Alaska. My family and I were sea kayaking with humpback whales in the Icy Strait, and we stopped on the shore of Chichagof Island for lunch. Our guide asked us if we wanted to go for a hike into the interior of the island, to a clearing where grizzlies were known to feed. We were all over that invitation. After a twenty minute walk through a spruce forest, we came into what appeared to be a broad, open meadow about four hundred yards across. Being midday, and hot, there were no bears to be seen. Theyre sleeping now, through the afternoon. Theyll be back tonight, he said. CmereI want to show you something.

The meadow was actually more of a bog, a low-lying jungle of brushy groundcover about two feet high, barely supported underneath by another foot of soaked moss and peat. A very difficult place to walk. Our guide led us to a trail of what seemed to be massive footprints, with a stride of about two feet between them, pressed down into the bog and making a path through it. Its a marked trail, he said. A path created by the footprints of the bears. This one is probably centuries old. For as long as the bears have been on this island, theyve taken this path. The cubs follow their elders, putting their feet exactly where the older bears walk. Thats how they learn to cross this place.

I began to walk in the marked trail, stepping into the firm, deep-worn places where bears had walked for centuries. Im not sure how to describe the experience, but for some reason the word holy comes to mind. An ancient and fearful path through a wild and untamed place. I was following a proven way, laid down by those much stronger and far more prepared for this place than me. And though I knew I did not belong there, I was haunted by it, could have followed that path for a long, long time. It awakened some deep, ancient yearning in me.

This is a book about what it looks like to become a man, and far more to our needhow to become a man. There is no more hazardous undertaking, this business of becoming a man, full of dangers, counterfeits, and disasters. It is the Great Trial of every mans life, played out over time, and every male young and old finds himself in this journey. Though there are few who find their way through. Our perilous journey has been made all the more difficult because we live in a time with very little direction. A time with very few fathers to show us the way.

As men, we desperately need something like that marked trail on Chichagof Island. Not more rules, not another list of principles, not formulas. A sure path, marked by men for centuries before us. I believe we can find it.

What you are holding in your hands is, as the cover indicates, a map. It chronicles the stages of the masculine journey from boyhood to old age. This is not a book of clinical psychology, nor a manual of child development. For one, I am unqualified to write that sort of book. Further, I find them unreadable. Ponderous. Boring. What do you recall of your psychology textbook from high school or college? But I do love maps. Most men do. The pleasure of a map is that it gives you the lay of the land, and yet you still have to make choices about how you will cover the terrain before you. A map is a guide, not a formula. It offers freedom.

It does not tell you how fast to walk, though when you see the contour lines growing very close together, you know you are approaching steep terrain and will want to mend your stride. It does not tell you why the mountain is there, or how old the forest is. It tells you how to get where you are going. I am keenly aware of the books insufficiencies. There will be those who say, But he did not address.... Fill in the blank. Moral development. Discipline. A map cannot answer all the questions a person might have. It is offered only to the traveler, who wants to know the path. Those who would take the masculine journey will gain a great deal by following the map. Those who want to analyze it will no doubt find cause to, and remain at home.

This is also a field report. It is an account of the masculine journey, offered mostly from within, from a man seeking further healing, restoration, and maturity, from a father doing his best to offer it to his sons. And so this book runs along two linesit speaks first to men, and their journey, but it also speaks to those who are raising boys, and those who are working with men.