“Dan Allender makes this bold suggestion regarding peer friendship: Find like-hearted kings living in the same direction. Sign treaties. When they're at war, you’re at war.”
Morgan Snyder
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts this morning. They were replaying the audio from a recent men’s event where Morgan Snyder was talking about like-minded kings. This concept caught me differently this morning coming off a Boot Camp weekend I just finished leading with some of my mates. I believe it was the twelfth event we have led with the same team over 7 years.
I was reminded of the intense faith-based leadership life I was leading a dozen or so years ago. I was a leader in virtually everything I was involved in, but was also living in more isolation than I had ever known. I had never felt more alone and it was never more desperately important to not be living that way.
At a men’s event in Colorado thirteen years ago, I made a solemn vow: I will never live life alone again as a man. From that day forward I would fight for and not settle for anything less than deep and lasting friendship. That sent me on a very challenging journey. Apart from a brief window in college, I had never experience deep fellowship of the heart with any men. This journey turned out to be full of fits and starts, great hope followed by crushing failure. It felt more opposed than anything else in my life.
Now, I understand why. Despite all that our Western culture encourages, we were not meant to walk alone. Having circles of deep fellowshp with other men has changed everything. My wife, children, and virtually everyone I encounter knows me as a different man.
That quote above helped me realize why my current friendships are so deep and so transforming. Why they continue to stand the test of time.
I’ve made treaties with like-minded kings living in the same direction.
I’ve banded together with several aggregations of good and like-minded kings who want to change the world. They are freedom fighters who will settle for nothing less than advancing the Kingdom by awakening the hearts of other good kings and encouraging them to live the life they were intended to live. Whether it is in my coaching life, avocational ministry life, or personal life:
When these men go to war, I go to war with them.
For their children, for their marriages, for their businesses, or whatever battle or challenge they are facing. When they go to war, I go with them. To be living and fighting alongside good kings who will settle for nothing less than changing the world, is a far more invigorating and victorious life than I ever thought possible.
The other thing I have come to realized is that this isn’t just an exceptional way to live…
…it is the necessary way to live.
When our enemy realized he couldn’t stop the coming of Jesus, he…”went off to make war with the rest of (God’s) children, the children who keep God’s commands and hold firm to the witness of Jesus.” His plan is to get us isolated and take us out. This morning, I restate a vow I made thirteen years ago. Today, I understand much more clearly the depth of that commitment and the implications if I don’t fight to the death for it… one life, one marriage, one family, one organization at a time.
I will live every day of my life alongside like-minded kings. I will sign treaties with them and when they go to war, so will I. Our destination is nothing short of restoring the hearts of men and helping them fulfill their roles as co-heirs of His Kingdom here on earth.