A Book all about Masculinity written by the great John Lovell
I had no idea what this book was about when I first picked “The Warrior Poet Way” up. I litterally saw “oh hey John Lovell wrote a book”, and I bought it. But I really didn’t know what to expect until I actually dug into the book.
Warrior Poet Way
The Warrior Poet Way is an excellent read. In many ways, it has already impacted my life. I’m excited to write a short review soon.
And in a sense I’m really glad that I did it this way. The book couldn’t have come at a better time personally for me. This book is not what you would expect it to be, and I think that is a good thing. I think most of us know John for the gun guy stuff, and if you pay attention to his content you’ll realize he’s been making more of a shift into talking about masculinity and just being a good man.
The Warrior Poet Way is all about Sanctification
At the end of the day there is so much noise out there and this is what the world needs. Good men. There is a saying by the great theologian John Owen, “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you”. As part of a process we Christians know as sanctification, that is, as we live and learn and as were being disciplined and learning discipline, we should on a path that we begin looking more and more like Jesus Christ. So that is the premise of this book, becoming a better man. This is not a Christian book. But it has Christian themes in it throughout, much in the John Lovell style.
If Jesus Christ was the ultimate warrior poet, that is roughly summarizing John’s words, before Jesus took on flesh and dwelt among us, He was the commander over armies of angels, doing war that we can’t even see against the demons and evil powers of this world. Having complete dominion over them.
The one that as we see in the New Testament, the demons shake, beg, and run away at the mere mention of Jesus’s name.
Jesus was the ultimate warrior poet, lion and lamb
Clearly, Jesus is the ultimate warrior.
Yet we know Him best and most personally for the poetry, lowering himself to become a human, dying on the cross, taking on the penalty of our sin, so that we could be redeemed.
The great high priest who intercedes for us, but who can understand us, because He was human. The one who would terrify us should we remain enemies of God, but who gave Himself as a peace offering on our behalf.
That is Jesus Christ, the ultimate Warrior Poet.
Warrior Poet Way
The Warrior Poet Way is an excellent read. In many ways, it has already impacted my life. I’m excited to write a short review soon.
Living a Christ Centered life
If we start to live a life that resembles the Warrior Poet ethos, we start to look a little more like Jesus Christ. We start exhibiting more and more of the Holy Spirit, love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self control. We will stand for everything that is good and right. We have a desire to protect people, and yet we also have a deep desire to love well. Jesus was the lion and the lamb. This book pushes that as men who are striving to be forces for good, we need to be doing both.
So I really love this book. It has so many life lessons in it, all summarized from a man who is exemplary of all the values of this book. I liked that the focus of this book is really about living well. Its about becoming a stronger, more resilient man. A man that can be trusted in your circle of influence. A man that can be depended on. This man is safe. His family knows they are safe with him. He can trusted in both public and private life. But he’s also dangerous, because he is bold. He lives by a moral code and everyone who knows him knows that is true.
Not safe, but Good
It reminds of one of my other favorite authors, Greg Morse, who wrote an article “not safe, but good”. This is a man who is comfortably able to battle dragons, but is also comfortable sitting with the ladies for tea time. He isn’t lazy, he sleeps in his armor. He is both, warrior and poet. That is his life resembles a follower of Christ. Jesus was gentle enough to welcome children, and yet he’s also the lion who conquered sin and death.
Killing your inner coward, Rediscovering love for your wife
So John breaks this down into basically chapters about making sure that you’re a capable and dependable man. That is we need to be killing our inner coward and making ourselves stronger.
Then he moves into how to find your muse. He talks about how to be vulnerable enough to romance a woman, but warrior enough to continue to pursue her.
What really wrecked me the most in this book personally was being a man who is almost a decade into marriage was the point that John made about marriage not being about happiness, it is about holiness. It immediately brought my mind back to Paul who compares mystery of marriage as being a picture of what Christ has done for his bride, the church. This is a reminder that every married man needs
John also gives great parenting advice
Especially when you get into this season of things slowing down, kids, all that sort of stuff.
I was deeply convicted that I need to be pursuing my wife just like I did when we were just teenagers. Not 2 days after finishing this book my wife expressed that she felt like things were off between us, and I’m not kidding, this book helped me put that ship back on course rather than making excuses because I was already convicted that she was right.
The next part of the book that really stuck out to me was in regards to my children and our roles in marriage.
My wife and I already had this clearly defined because to be frank, we both have a Biblical view on marriage.
But I think John helped me make sense of it more, even putting to words what I already held true from experience. He helped demystify why my wife and I handle situations with our kids so differently. My wife’s goal is to nurture, mine is to discipline.
She wants to make sure our children grow up knowing they are loved, I want them to grow up to be capable. There’s certainly overlap between those two things for each of us, but we each gravitate towards one or the other.
I won’t lie, society has made me feel like I was wrong for that approach despite it being the reality since the beginning of time. John helped me realize, that no, the old way is proven. The thing is I love my kids dearly, but because I love them, I want them to be tough but I approach it with gracious love in my interactions with them. My wife nurtures them, and they need that as well. Both have their place, children aren’t made whole without both.
Warrior Poet Way
The Warrior Poet Way is an excellent read. In many ways, it has already impacted my life. I’m excited to write a short review soon.
Your wife’s job is to keep your children alive, your job is to make them hard to kill
John summarizes it like this, your wife’s job is to keep your children alive, your job as a husband is to make them hard to kill. It is so true, and were not talking guns and tactics and all that, we’re talking about instilling values in your children that make them tough and resilient, but also empathetic and loving. Raising warrior poets.
Kids who grow into adults that will be self sacrificing, always acting in love for others, those are the types of children my wife and I both desperately want to raise, and both of our approaches to parenting are absolutely neccesary and work together to make them whole, balanced people.
This book is primarily about living life well
Only 10% of this book is about what you think this book would be about, that is home security, financial stability, preparations and all that kind of stuff. I think that’s rightly so, because the proportion is close to reality in terms of how much those things matter in the grand scheme of things.
Are they neccessary components to life, yes. But what is life if you aren’t living it well. Those things safeguard the other beautiful things. Those things are not the prize, living life well is the prize. So I love that that is where John is focusing his attention.
The Warrior Poet Way isn’t an explicitly Christian Book
My only fear with reading through the warrior poet way is that beacuse this isn’t a Christian book, and John make it clear that it isn’t, as much as he points back to Christ many times in the book. If someone doesn’t know Christ, they may think that doing good works is good enough.
That is the way that man thinks, and my fear is that people who have that viewpoint might find themselves standing before God on judgement day, trying to justify themselves by their own goodness rather than leaning on the grace of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, one can follow the Warrior Poet Way, and they will live their best life right now. But if Jesus is not in that equation, they will not be living for eternity.
I know it is not a Christian book. I know the Warrior Poet Way is not a Christian organization. However, I just would have loved to have seen that point made more clearly, because I know that John believes that himself. Eternal life, salvation, is not based on works, its based on Christ alone. He is the only way.
Warrior Poet Way
The Warrior Poet Way is an excellent read. In many ways, it has already impacted my life. I’m excited to write a short review soon.
Final Thoughts
Yet still, I love this book. I will likely read it again next year. I have already recommended it to many friends family and even strangers. Every man should read this book. Go check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
Oh and I’ll leave you with this, don’t just get the hard copy, the audio book is incredible. John’s not just a great author, as you know if you follow the warrior poet society, he is an excellent orator, and its really a great listen. Get both formats, enjoy it both ways.
Thats it friends, pick up the book, and then go live it out.
