“I wasn’t mean; I wasn’t evil. I was nice. And let me tell you, a hesitant man is the last thing in the world a woman needs. She needs a lover and a warrior, not a Really Nice Guy.”

My heart matters to God. My heart has always mattered to him.

A man does not go to a woman to get his strength; he goes to her to offer it.

But a wound unfelt is a wound unhealed.

We don’t live in the Garden. We live far from Eden. Every life is full of heartaches. Every life, frankly, is unspeakably sad.

Every man carries a wound. I have never met a man without one. No matter how good your life may have seemed to you, you live in a broken world full of broken people.

There is something about human nature that just doesn’t want to face the reality that we live in two worlds. We live in the physical, material world where we have jobs, read books, and go about our business. And we live in a spiritual world – and that is a world at war.

We are made in the image of God; we carry within us the desire for our true life of intimacy and adventure. To say we want less than that is to lie.

If we can reawaken that fierce quality in a man, hook it up to a higher purpose, release the warrior within, then the boy can grow up and become truly masculine.

A man’s calling is written on his true heart, and he discovers it when he enters the frontier of his deep desires.

What strikes me about Jesus is that he is a remarkably true person; he never changes his personality to fit in with whatever crowd he finds himself. He is simply himself, and he never plays to his audience.

A man must have a battle to fight, a great mission to his life that involves and yet transcends even home and family.

When a woman forsakes her vulnerability because she’s been hurt or because she lives in a dangerous world or doesn’t want to be used, she loses something essential about being a woman.

Security is not found in the absence of danger, but in the presence of Jesus.

You live in a world at war. Spiritual attack must be a category you think in or you will misunderstand more than half of what happens in your marriage.

Caring for your heart is also how you protect your relationship with God. The heart is where we commune with him. It is where we hear his voice. Most of the folks I know who have never heard God speak to them are the same folks who live far from their hearts.

Faith looks back and draws courage; hope looks ahead, and keeps desire alive.

The uplift of a fearless heart will help us over barriers. No one ever overcomes difficulties by going at them in a hesitant, doubtful way.

You can’t be hesitant about who you are.