And Sons Magazine

What do we do when, not if, we face criticism? Often the critique has truth in it, but the internal messages that go along with it aren't the most accurate. Our culture has become a dehumanizing and critical one, but even when the criticism is nothing more than a difficult conversation, there are ways we can learn to navigate well. Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

An elegant tool, from a more civilized time. Wait, that's not right. A simple tool, for a cluttered time? Better. Pursuing joy and life can feel like uphill and difficult choices in every direction. But what if joy isn't as far away as we think? Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

Dreams (and we mean aspirations) are difficult. They are, on the one hand, a way God tells you about your future. They are, on the other, vulnerable, sabotaged, and often unrealized. In this episode, Sam and Blaine unpack dreams. What does it mean to share part of God’s heart for creation? What does it mean to see an unrealized potential in the world no one else sees? Because dreaming is, in fact, meant to show God’s heart to the world. But, because we live in this story and not another, dreams are usually intertwined with deep pain. Sam and Blaine explore dream-care as soul-care, whole-heartedness, and the loving act that is making your dreams available to God. Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

FRAMING THE SEASON 1. What are you doing, Jesus, in me in this season? 2. What’s the theme of this season? 3. What do I need to know about my role in your larger mission for this season? 4. What prophetic words, images, or instructions do you want to call to mind to frame this season? 5. What are you doing in my (area of concern: work, marriage, house search, job search, etc) in particular? UNDERSTANDING THE OPPOSITION 1. What warfare is set against me in this season? What strategies is the enemy employing in an attempt to undermine your work, Jesus? 2. Who’s in charge (the ranking foul spirit)? 3. What is set against my marriage (or area of concern from above), in particular? 4. What in my flesh is vulnerable, or in the way of what you’d like to do? 5. What in the World is particularly opposed to your work in this season? TAKING HOLD OF THE PROVISION 1. What is your provision in this season? What is it in you, Jesus, and in your kingdom and work, that overwhelms and envelops the opposition as I take

Referenced in the show: Space, Time, and Incarnation Thomas F. Torrance Deus Caritas Est by Pope Benedict Fill These Hearts by Christopher West For Sigmund Freud, nephew Edward Bernays, and marketing, PR! - A Social History of Spin by Stewart Ewan Nephesh by the Bible Project Ruach by the Bible Project Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

Merry Christmas from And Sons by And Sons Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

In an effort to fight the creeping, medicating, overextended presence of our smartphones, the And Sons team and four Ransomed Heart team members gave up their smartphones for a month to see what would happen. The goal was to see if technology is really the enemy, or if we use other forms of medication in its place. It's an And Sons experiment. Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

The season of advent is evoking a lot of longing for us this year. It seems you can't say the word hope without feeling the pain of all the things not yet realized. There's joy to be sure, but the longing for Jesus to come again is getting to feel more like a cry for relief than any joyful carol. Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

"You will know them by their fruits" Matt 7:16 It's a litmus test Jesus gave us for false prophets, and yet it extends deeper than just teachings. The fruit of an action, the fruit of a train of thought, the fruit of an experience... they all tell us about the Good of the thing producing them. Can we use the fruit and work backwards, though? When we experience inner death, sorrow, grief... can we use those as breadcrumbs to find a deeper root that is producing them, and if so, can we change what's going on beneath the surface? Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

Friendships are one of the deepest places of pain for just about everyone these days, it seems. How do we become the kind of men who have friendships going back 30 years? What are the rhythms that sustain and invite such things? Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

Put on your Hebrew hat, it’s time to tackle one of the most productive concepts in the Bible. The Image of God. No single podcast can capture all that’s intended by that phrase, so in this episode, we focus on one dimension: the role. We are, in a word, tselem. Images. Idols. We are endowed with God’s authority to rule, and we affirm God’s ultimate right to rule his creation. Sam and Blaine dive in to our human ability to draw out potentials in creation that would not be realized without our intervention, and then explore the limitations put on our authority. It’s a view of humans that is both lower and higher than our everyday western view. And it’s a view that raises that stakes: the world needs you. Wherever you rule, you are able to raise the world to its highest potential, or else deeply destroy it. Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

In this episode, Blaine and And Sons team member Justin Lukasavige explore our idea environment as part of a continuing conversation on human nature. The team first unpacks what it means for an idea to be accurate in its essence, explores representationalism and Aristotelian hylomorphism, and finally begins to unpack the dominant views of human nature in the west. Because most people hold one of two assumptions: either human beings are rational free agents, with a mind that is separate from the body, or human beings are products of their environment, socially constrained, in which case society is the most real thing. The team explores the limitations of both paradigms, and prepares space for an alternative vision of humanity, centered in Jesus, that accommodates the insights of the two. Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

131 | Worldview 101 - Learning to See, Anthropology, and the Centrality of Human Nature (Pt. 1) by And Sons Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

This one feels like the title is the description. So, there you go. Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

It's too easy to focus on the damage of our story. Too easy to focus on what needs healing, or whats been stolen. We all have an innate glory in the image of God that we bare, which on its own should be enough to get our attention. But there's more: we bare a unique glory all our own, and we are called to witness the glory in the lives around us. Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

It's a common experience: we have a breakthrough moment with God, we see miracles, we get a taste of the life we wanted, and the next week, it's gone. In this episode, Sam and Blaine unpack practices that anchor your heart to the reality of the epic. From contemplation to the ancient practice of "tending," journaling tactics to cultures of remembering, this is an episode to keep the past present. Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

Inside the covers of the print magazine are things that we believe are important and somehow connected to the masculine journey, if sometimes loosely. The books inside Volume 2 are a little more obvious in that aim. They also demand a little unpacking. Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

We're betting you are lonely. It's something we can assume is the case for pretty much everyone on the planet, but even more so for someone trying to walk with maturity in their 20's. What do we do with it? What does community look like, and even more so, what is community for? Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.

"Do Not Be Ashamed" by Wendell Berry You will be walking some night in the comfortable dark of your yard and suddenly a great light will shine round about you, and behind you will be a wall you never saw before. It will be clear to you suddenly that you were about to escape, and that you are guilty: you misread the complex instructions, you are not a member, you lost your card or never had one. And you will know that they have been there all along, their eyes on your letters and books, their hands in your pockets, their ears wired to your bed. Though you have done nothing shameful, they will want you to be ashamed. They will want you to kneel and weep and say you should have been like them. And once you say you are ashamed, reading the page they hold out to you, then such light as you have made in your history will leave you. They will no longer need to pursue you. You will pursue them, begging forgiveness. They will not forgive you. There is no power against them. It is only candor that is aloof from them,

Back in the studio, Blaine and Sam talk about soul care these days. What are we doing to care for ourselves, and what do we think about to orient our story? Find Blaine's latest writing at blaineeldredge.com.Learn more about Sam's latest project at nobleworkshops.com.