Ep 134 (Season 7): Rediscovering the Good Life

Rediscovering the Good Life

Episode 134 kicks off Season 7 of the Soil & Roots podcast, Deep Calls to Deep, with a simple but unsettling question: What kind of life did Jesus actually invite us into?

In this episode, Brian Fisher explores what Scripture and Christian tradition call the Good Life—what Dallas Willard famously named the with-God life. It’s a life marked by deep relational security, inner freedom, and a two-way, conversational intimacy with God.

And yet, for many Christians, this life feels distant, unrealistic, or reserved for “spiritual elites.”

Drawing on Scripture, Christian mystics, and everyday experience, Brian suggests that the Good Life looks surprisingly like the inner world of a healthy child—secure, present, free to love—and asks why so many of us quietly assume that kind of life isn’t actually for us.

This episode sets the stage for the entire season by reframing discipleship not as more effort or better techniques, but as the risky, transformative work of receiving God’s love.

If you’ve ever wondered why the New Testament promises feel richer than your lived experience, this season—and this episode—is your invitation to leave the shallows and begin the journey into depth.

TRANSCRIPT:

Rediscovering the Good Life

Hello, and welcome to the Soil & Roots podcast!  I’m Brian Fisher, and this is Episode 134, Rediscovering the Good Life, and it is the very first episode of Season 7.  We’re calling Season 7 “Deep Calls to Deep.”

It’s great to be back with you. We’ve taken a break between the last season and this one to do some research and writing, and hopefully that means there’s a lot to enjoy and dive into here as we move ahead.

If you are new to the Soil & Roots podcast, we always encourage you to start from the beginning, if you have the time and desire. The seasons build on each other, so if you are new and want the full experience, head back to Episode 1 and move ahead at your own pace.  There is nothing time-sensitive or news-driven in the episodes, so you aren’t missing out on anything if you start over.

If you just want the Cliffs Notes version of the first six seasons, the previous episode, 133, may just do the trick.  It was my best attempt to sum up all that we’ve explored over the past few years. But shame on you for cutting corners.

As always, if you want more information about Soil & Roots, just head to soilandroots.org.  We are also on FB and IG at soilandrootspodcast, and on YouTube at soilandroots.  I write over on Substack just about every week to people around the world, so if you are on that platform, you can find me at soilandroots.

If you’d like to reach out to us here, drop us an email at fish@soilandroots.org.  We do our best to respond to all inbound emails within one business day.  And if you happen to be in the Dallas area, get in touch with us as we’d love to connect.

Let’s dive in.

Introduction

This season will attempt to answer the question: How do we resolve the Great Omission?  How do we become deep disciples?  How do we become more like Jesus from the inside out?  If deep calls to deep, how do we become people of depth?

Seasons 1-6 outlined the core challenges of discipleship in our age, and gave us a vision of Jesus, the object of our formation.

This season will get pretty practical.

We’re going to begin our journey from 30K feet, and then we’ll drop down to sea level as we move along.

I’d like you to think about the complete journey into depth in three phrases.

Phase 1 is what we’ll call The Good Life.  This is the type of life Jesus lived; it’s what the New Testament lays out for us.  It is the type of life that is supposed to be normative for anyone who decides to follow Jesus.  It’s the life of someone who lives in the reality of God’s delight and love, every day.   More on that in a minute.

Phase 2 is The Great Omission, or what tends to get in the way of us living The Good Life.  This is where we’ve spent most of our time.  We’ve discussed what it is, how it came about, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. The Great Omission may be the primary reason we’re not living The Good Life. We may be saved, we may be Christian, but we may not be experiencing the type of inner joy, peace, abundance, power, relational security, and two-way conversational life with God that the Bible points to.

Phase 3 is The Journey into Depth, the resolution of The Great Omission, rediscovering the Good Life.  If we agree that our inner lives do not always reflect what Jesus promises, and we now understand why, how do we become people of depth, carefully attuned to God, others, and ourselves? How do we leave the shallows and dive into the abundant life Jesus invites us into?

The Good Life, The Great Omission (which impedes The Good Life), and the Journey into Depth, or the resolution of The Great Omission.  This is the grand journey we’ve been exploring.

The Good Life

However, as I put this season together, I realized we haven’t really fleshed out what a life with Jesus is supposed to be like.

We haven’t really explored the Good Life much on the podcast over the years. We basically jumped right into the Great Omission in Season 1, primarily because I assumed most people who follow Jesus have a vision for what life with Him is like.

I was wrong!  In fact, the more I interact with people, the more I realize we have essentially lost the vision of what life with Jesus can be like.  The truth is, when I started the podcast, I didn’t have a clear vision of what the Good Life is. I’m still wrestling with it!

So let’s spend a few minutes making sure we’re all on the same page.

The Good Life has been known by several other names, most notably what Dallas Willard termed the “with-God life.”

Although this term can be off-putting to some, “Christian Mystic” has been used to describe someone living this with-God life. The term may be odd to some because the word “mystic” has been somewhat abused today, but a Christian mystic is simply someone whose faith is shaped by experiential union with God, resulting in inner transformation and outward love. That sounds a lot like our normal Soil & Roots lingo.

A Christian mystic lives in the reality of deep, profound relational security in God every day. They are very, very present. They are aware of God’s heart, the hearts of others, and their own because they are so tuned in to what is happening right now and who is involved.

Some ancient mystics include Paul and John, both apostles of Jesus. Augustine is usually considered one as well. Fast forward to the Middle Ages, and we find Bernard of Clairvaux and Julian of Norwich. Then there’s Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Ignatius, whom we’ve discussed here at some length. More modern examples include Dallas Willard, Frank Laubach, Henri Nouwen, Brother Lawrence, A.W. Tozer, and Ruth Haley Barton.

All of these people seemed to have led a different kind of life than the vast majority, including many who follow Jesus. In some cases, it was said that you could feel Jesus when they walked into a room.

As I’ve studied the Good Life, the with-God life, or Christian mysticism, there are certain verses that keep popping into mind.  The one that most inspires and haunts me is in Eph 3: “that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the Saints, what is the width and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.”

The only place in the Bible where eternal life is defined is in John 15: “This is eternal life, that you may know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.”

That term, “to know,” in the Bible generally holds a deeper meaning than how we use it today.  When we use the term, it usually means to possess certain information.  Do you know the way to Buccee’s?  Yes, I know how to get there.

In the Bible, “knowing” usually involves a fully embodied, experiential relationship, similar to the intimacy between a husband and wife.

To know God is to be in an ever-present, intimate, conversational, loving reality.  To experience a deep security, a binding relational attachment, and a sense that God has our backs, whether our present circumstances suggest that or not.  As Willard once wrote, anyone who follows Jesus is always safe.  A Christian mystic lives in the reality of that safety, so conditions such as anxiety, worry, questioning our circumstances, and attempting to bargain with God are not all that common.

This isn’t to say that someone living the with-God life doesn’t suffer, experience pain, or wonder what God is up to.  We aren’t talking about some Pollyannaish euphoria where the person is happy all the time. In fact, those who walk that close to Jesus often experience a deeper form of suffering and more emotions than those who don’t.

Rediscovering the Good Life is not about behavior modification or religious performance, but about learning to live in daily awareness of God’s presence and love.

The Life of a Toddler

As I’ve mulled over the concept of the Good Life over the past few months, the best example I’ve come up with is the life of a toddler.

Think about it.  A toddler in a healthy home doesn’t worry about her next meal.  She isn’t concerned about what she’s going to wear or what her parents are up to.  She lives in a safe, secure ecosystem that allows her to be extraordinarily present.  If you’ve had the happy experience of recently observing a toddler, you’ve noticed she isn’t worried about the past or wondering about the future, unless she’s in a car, asking, “Are we there yet?”

She isn’t worried about what people think about her.  She isn’t trying to perform, though she probably delights in delighting her parents, eager to share her toys, her adventures, or her hugs.

If she’s in a healthy, flourishing home, a toddler lives in a state of ever-present relational safety.  And that leaves her free to be herself, to explore, to wonder, to express herself, and to enjoy others around her.  She is unabashed in her emotions, her affections, and her opinions.  When she gets into an argument with a friend, chances are it’s over before it begins, and they go about life as if nothing ever happened.

When she gets hurt, she complains and cries, but it’s in a way that she knows, beyond a doubt, that someone is there to comfort her and care for her.  Her expressions of pain are also those of resounding hope.

Because she is so relationally secure, so free to wonder and explore, she is free to love.  And she does!  With reckless abandon.  Hugs, kisses, screams of delight.  If we’re watching a little boy, he’ll high-five, tumble, roughhouse, and constantly show others his artwork, crafts, or new Lego set.

Don’t these children remind us of the Good Life?  If we’re quiet for a few moments, don’t we find our hearts longing for this type of freedom, security, and delight? A life free from having to perform, please people, and simply be the marvelous creatures God created us to be.

Too Good To Be True

Yeah, but let’s face it. Somewhere between 10 and 15, we start to grow up, and life gets a lot more complicated. By the time we reach our twenties, we face a dizzying array of bills, problems, and stresses.  If you are parents of young children yourself, you are probably rolling your eyes and wondering how you can develop that type of intimacy with Jesus when it’s hard enough to drag yourself into bed at a decent hour each night.

When I describe the internal life of a toddler, the good life, many of us grunt in disbelief. Surely this type of inner life isn’t for adults – how can it be?

And yet, isn’t this the sense we get when we observe Jesus? He is the freest person ever to walk the planet. And isn’t this the life other writers describe? A love that abounds, a unity that defies explanation, filled with all the fullness of God, little children who cry out, “Daddy,” when we need help? So relationally secure, so unconsciously and lovingly attached to our Good Father that we just know, in our gut, that everything is going to be okay. And because we are so securely attached, we are free to love with a love that seems to defy description.

We’ve talked a lot about the Great Omission over the last few years – the conditions in which we find ourselves that make becoming more like Jesus challenging. But what if, in addition to those conditions, we just don’t have a clear vision of the life Jesus deeply desires us to live? And, if we are even more honest, what if we believe that type of life isn’t for us?  What if we assume that the people I’ve mentioned are so-called “super-Christians,” and that the type of intimacy they enjoyed is only for a select few?

A couple of other notes on this. If we were to examine the theological positions of the Christian mystics I mentioned, we’d find many differences. It would appear that our God-given capacity to live the Good Life is not as dependent on our theological accuracy as we might assume. Some who walked that closely with Jesus were Catholic, some were Protestant, or perhaps, before the Reformation, something else.

Some of my Pentecostal friends may wonder whether this “with-God life” depends on expressing or experiencing the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  That’s probably the subject of another episode, but, in short, I don’t think speaking in tongues or prophesying is what we’re talking about.  The Good Life is an ongoing inner state, not an episodic event.  Those kinds of experiences may draw us into that kind of intimacy with Jesus, though I haven’t found any evidence suggesting that expressing the gifts is required. After all, what we’re talking about is a fully embodied, deep-seated love, and Paul notes that if we don’t have that, the gifts aren’t worth much.

Dinner with a Pastor

Some time ago, Handsome Kyle and I had dinner with a pastor friend who’s on staff at a mega church – a church so large our friend doesn’t even personally know the senior Bible teacher.  He’s been a part of this congregation for a few decades, so he knows the ins and outs of church life, the congregation, and how discipleship is interpreted in modern Christianity.

He’s also on the journey of deep discipleship, as you and I are.  We got to talking about the with-God life, and some of the verses I just mentioned. The pastor insisted that God invites all of us into this type of reality, and not just famous Christian mystics. He insisted that God desires a two-way, conversational, daily, intimate, secure relationship with us. He firmly believes the inner life of a toddler is what God hopes for each of us, though experienced as mature adults.

Handsome Kyle perked up and asked, “Yeah, but how many in your congregation believe this vision of discipleship? How many seek to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, and to be free to love with such abandon?”

The pastor responded, “Maybe a handful. I doubt the majority of people who attend on a Sunday even know Jesus personally at all, and we’re a firmly evangelical, Gospel-centered church.  When I talk about having a two-way conversational relationship with God, most people look scared or walk away in disbelief.”

Receiving, Not Doing

I’ve been wrestling with something for the past several months, and I wanted to share it with you. This isn’t settled in my heart, though it’s pretty close.

Last season, we discussed a quote from David Benner that, if true, would call into question many, if not most, modern discipleship programs.  Here is what he writes:

“The single most important thing I have learned in over thirty years of study of how love produces healing is that love is transformative only when it is received in vulnerability.”

“Genuine transformation requires vulnerability.  It is not the fact of being loved unconditionally that is life-changing.  It is the risky experience of allowing myself to be loved unconditionally.”

The first step into depth, in fact, the requirement for pursuing the good life, is not simply mentally accepting that Jesus loves me. It is the risky experience of allowing myself to be loved unconditionally. And this isn’t a one-time event – it’s a state of being.

Doesn’t this describe the heart disposition of a young child? The toddler lives in the experience of allowing themselves to be loved unconditionally, which is why they are so free to live and to love.

This sounds like a pretty good deal. If I want to live a life of intimacy with God, a life for inner freedom, power, and external love, all I have to do is be willing to be loved unconditionally, and I’m off on my journey into depth, into the good life.

But as it turns out, Benner goes on to say that most of us don’t actually want that!  Our hearts don’t want to be vulnerable or to be loved unconditionally!  As we grow up, we lose the abandonment of childhood and become cautious, controlling, wounded, and cynical, and so being so vulnerable, even to God, becomes increasingly difficult, not easier.

And so many of us get stuck, find these promises of an abundant life, a perfect peace, and a divine intimacy to be exaggerated, and turn down the Good Life in exchange for something far less vibrant and life-giving.

Let’s Tee It Up

Why in the world would we do that?  Well, that is the subject of Episode 136, so I hope you’ll come back. This episode invites listeners to consider whether Rediscovering the Good Life is truly possible—and whether they actually want it.

Before I leave you, I’ll just give you a brief overview of the season.  We’re going to keep exploring the Good Life, why so many don’t actually want it, and what it means to truly live it.

Then we’ll jump to Stage 3 – what does the journey into depth look like.  If we truly want to live in the daily reality of God’s delight, which He is constantly inviting us into, what are the next 5 or 6 steps?

Well, as it turns out, becoming a person who radiates Jesus is not as much about doing this or that, and there certainly is no program or system to get there.  It’s about intentionally living in four conditions that are deeply and mysteriously formative: self-awareness, story-sharing, suffering in community, and spiritual habits.

And that’s the framework for our journey this season.  I think it’s going to be life-changing, and I’m glad you’re with us.  Next episode, Handsome Kyle and Doc will be back, and we’ll launch into our first Greenhouse Episode of Season 7. Thanks for being here, and we’ll see you next time.