Lately I have had this simple thought regarding the spiritual search of men in our day.  “Men desire to know experientally the love of God.”  There is a quiet, hidden, and at times desperate longing in the soul of many men, crying out, “there must be something more to the Christian life then I am experiencing.”  They question how they can connect what they know about God’s love in their minds to an experience of the love of God on the “inside,” a knowing the goes beyond the mind to an inner awareness of the heart.  The reality of God’s love is able to be an experience of the heart, so that a man can say,  “I know that I know.”  It is the experience of Romans 5:5, “For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”   But making the connection is not always being made by men.

I know I struggled with the head and heart connection for years.  It was not until I discovered the “contemplative” element of Christianity in the early 80’s,  that I could begin to make the connection with my heart.  I had to unlearn a lot of theological assumptions and assumed ways of knowing God.  Since my cognitive skills were not my strongest gifts, I had to really work through the “mindfields” of what I assumed to know about God and my experience of God. For me it was hard work, but I kept at it.  Slowly the awareness of God’s love in my heart became a reality.  I am more integrated between my head and heart.  I know today that, “I have a Father in heaven who delights in me.”  I sincerely believe there are many men who struggle with the same connection.   This blog site, is a result of my journey thus far.  I have a passion to help men make the connection between the head and heart.  It will not always be a easy, but the journey is worth the effort of making the connection. 

I am glad to report that in the evangelical world today, there is a wonderful blending taking place between what I would call “biblical spirituality” and “the classic spiritual tradition.”  I have spend almost 30 years in coming to a synthesis of the two in both my head and heart.  For me it is an exciting time in the life of the church.  While there are men who either don’t care to take the “inner journey” of making the connection or they are simple opposed to such a journey, I know there are many men who are ready to make the connection.  They just don’t know how take the next steps nor do have another man to share their struggles.  This becomes a matter of “soul care” and be able to find “spiritual direction” that is unique to the journey of the masculine soul. 

So in the next few posts I will try to help with the connection between head and heart.  I openly admit that my struggle will be making what I have experienced clear enough so that a man who is reading this blog can be helped on the journey.  In trying to provide some “soul care” by means of this blog site, I am making several assumptions.  First, that the men who read my blog are men who are interested in the head and heart connection.  Second, that I need to tell my story of the struggle of making the connection, knowing that each of us is unique with our particular personalities and backgrounds.  Third, I need to keep each of the post sh0rt, thus making this subject a series of posts.  Fourth, because this is only a blog site, there will be questions that will go unanswered at this time.  This is part of the journey.  So if some of you are helped you can e-mail me so that I can set up up as a responder to my blogs.  So this is all for today.  Keep posted.