Beauty to Rescue

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio. We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Network Podcast.

This is the Truth Network. The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.

So how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now.

Welcome to the masculine journey. I know you're missing Sam immediately because you're like, where's that voice? This isn't Sam.

This is Robby. And you know, he's off in the Bahamas. You know, how often has he been at the beach when he's supposed to be here?

Too darn much. You know, he's probably all shriveled up by now. Definitely a beach boy. At least from the beach, he would occasionally call us.

He's not calling us from Bahamas. I don't know. I don't understand. And again, it's his topic. So he picks the topic and then the week before boot camp, he bails. He bails.

He bails. But anyway, we're really excited that you're joining us today. We have got a topic that's near and dear to our hearts because we've been talking for the last two weeks about the core desires of a man's heart.

So two weeks ago, we started out with which one, Andy? You were here for that one anyway. Thank you. Glad you noticed. A battle to fight.

There you go. And so the idea is actually every little boy when he was, you know, first on the scene, you probably would not have taken long before you noticed that he's wrestling with his dad. He's trying to make a gun out of his graham cracker. He's going pew, pew, pew, pew.

You heard something like that? If you had a little boy, I bet you did. Because it's in there. And the idea is that you have that heart because God has that heart. We were made in his image. And so, you know, we were born into this battle. And so we were given this wonderful warrior heart.

We did that. And then the following week, we talked about something else you'll see in little boys, right? Was what, Harold?

Adventure to live. See, and Harold was, yeah. And then so when you think about a little boy in adventure, what do you think about Harold?

Back in the, you know, when the Dead Sea was just sick. Oh, when I was a little boy, we used to go roaming through the neighborhood, through the woods, et cetera. Had a stick that we made into a sword, beat down the bushes. It was there. Right. And one of the neat things about going into the woods, it was like, man, who knew what animal might come out of the, you know, lions and tigers and bears, oh my, or where do these go and we can get lost and all these things.

Building forts. Yeah, challenging the young man's heart. So we did that.

So interestingly, the third core desire, which I don't know if you remember this one, but I think it's critical that we awaken these in our heart to see, wow, these were in us from the beginning is rescue the beauty or this desire for this really, really young lady. So, you know, to give an example of this, if we go back through the centuries, right? Harold, Harold, Harold. So, you know, you would think here he is actually, didn't you just turn to 80, right?

June the 28th. And so, but you can still remember, right? The very first young lady, that very young lady that smitten the heart of the Herald. Oh yeah. I was madly in love with Patricia Bucklew in Solingen, Alabama. Bucklew. You didn't share that on the first part. I see why you reserve that name. Now, sweetheart, don't get upset with me.

I haven't seen her in over 70 years. But you told us that you went to the movies with the Bucklewstom? Oh yeah. Yeah. She lived in a house that was across the street from the theater and we could go to the movies for a nickel.

Was it a talkie? Oh yeah. Most of them.

Most of them. Oh yeah. So the idea is like, can you think back for you, you know, as you're listening today, you know? And maybe it's, you're on the other side of this and you're, you know, you're thinking back to a young man that you were smitten with, this idea of crushing.

Like before you had to, when you were innocent, completely innocent, you know what that felt like. And of course, every young lady wants to be rescued. And so we have a clip here from, it's actually my favorite Rescue and the Beauty clip because it speaks so clearly to what a young lady's expectations are and to kind of give, you know, us an idea of men, of what, what it's supposed to be like. So here we go. It is from Shrek. And I'm sure, I'm sure, you know, the setup is that, you know, he's just rescued her from the dragon in the tower and here you go.

And I used to know how to operate the system because I'm in radio. You did it. You rescued me. You're amazing. You're wonderful. You're a little unorthodox, I'll admit, but thy deed is great and thine heart is pure.

I am eternally in your debt. And where would a brave knight be without his noble steed? All right. I hope you heard that. She called me a noble steed. She think I'm a steed.

The battle is won. You may remove your helmet, good sir knight. Ah, no. Why not?

I, I have helmet hair. Please. I would look upon the face of my rescuer. Oh no, you wouldn't. Durst. But how will you kiss me? What? That wasn't in the job description.

Maybe it's a perk. No, it's destiny. Oh, you must know how it goes. A princess locked in a tower and beset by a dragon is rescued by a brave knight. And then they share true love's first kiss. With Shrek? You think, wait, wait, wait a second. You think that Shrek is your true love? Well, yes. You think Shrek is your true love? Shrek is your true love?

What is so funny? Let's just say I'm not your type. Okay. Of course you are.

You're my rescuer. Now, now remove your helmet. I'm not going to. Take it off. No. Now. Okay.

Easy. You're an ogre. Oh, you're expecting Prince Charming?

Well, yes, actually. You're not supposed to be an ogre. But I have to be rescued by my true love. Not by some ogre and his pet. Well, so much for noble steed.

Look, Princess, you're not making my job any easier. Yeah. So, you know, those of us who were married, it wasn't long before the helmet came off and they were like, but you're not supposed to be an ogre. Did you experience that, Danny? Yeah. On more than one occasion, I think.

I want a refund. But think back, Danny, in your case, right? The very first time that, man, you just were crushing.

What did that feel like? Can you remember it? Well, I was thinking about the premise behind, with the Shrek clip, the desires of being a knight in shining armor, you know, no matter who the girl was, because as we discussed earlier, they seem to change, especially in Jim's case.

He's still in touch with them all. We'll get to that later. But the premise behind what we're talking about is that desire to be someone's knight in shining armor, that, you know, to rescue the beauty, to ride away in victory and that kind of thing. That was always there.

Just see how he was trying to avoid the question. So let's get back to it. What was her name? What was her name? I think her name was Michelle in first grade.

Okay. And what did that feel like in your heart? Like, do you remember? Did it burn some? I think it did. I told you there was some drugs tween here and there. There really was. Brain cells went up in smoke.

But I think it did. Just wanting to impress the beauty. Right.

Right. And so, you know, I don't know if you're aware of this passage in the Bible, but it's absolutely one of my spectacular ones, favorites. I love to think about it often. It's in the Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verse 9. And the way it reads is, My love is like a young gazelle or a young stag. See, he is standing behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

In other words, Jesus is stalking you. Like, we have the heart that we have that—I don't know if you ever had a young girl that you just had to get on her street because you were hoping she would come out the front door or you would, you know, so that you could just get a look at her. And it was just something that just absolutely, you know, built a fire in your heart. You really didn't know what to do with that.

And you were totally innocent, but it was just really this great feeling. And why do we have that? Because Jesus has it. And he has it for his bride. And so, every man has this.

And so, if everybody's sitting here, would everyone agree at the table that what has gotten us into more trouble? Right? It's this particular desire. So what do a lot of men do? They bury it. They bury it.

Right? And they don't, you know, they find anything because that one can really hurt. And it can really get you in some bad places. And who was it that said one of the core desires was not to mess up? One of you guys. It was you.

It was Andy. Well, yeah, I mean, I think that's the thing is you do have that core desire. And when you do mess up, you know, you don't want to go there again. But that desire is in there. I think part of it, too, is we talked about this, and you'll maybe see on some of our other clips that, you know, a lot of times that we take our question to the beauty, and we don't really take it to God. And we get things out of balance.

I mean... And so, when you say, for those tuning in, they don't know what that means. You take your question to the beauty. Really, it's where do I get my validation?

Where is life really coming from, to be honest with you? Yes, God's there in a lot of our lives. And quite frankly, I think sometimes we make those relationships with the female an idol in our lives.

I think I probably had. Not really intentionally, but not, you know, you don't know really what you're doing sometimes with that. But any time you put, we know this, any time you put anything before God, so if you're having to make a decision about whether I do what she says or what God says, you'll probably have an idol. Or if you get more satisfaction from their time with her than him. And I think this is critical. We are talking about rescuing your beauty, but we have all been hurt by not handling the feminine heart properly and getting things out of whack. So you almost have to go start there in this conversation of getting priorities straight.

And to your point, Jesus has, he does look at us and desires for that for us. Well, to reject him for that woman is an affront to him. So Andy, what was her name? I won't use, I'll use Kelly. We'll go with that. No, that's what was her name. I know you've got that one. It's in your own mind, and you can just say it yourself. Okay.

Her name was Patty. We got, there's a boot camp. What if one weekend wasn't up to you that you could go and God would orchestrate it all? Masculine Journey Boot Camp. Basic training designed to give men permission to be how God made them. Passionate warriors for the kingdom based on John Eldridge's Wild at Heart. Experience four days purpose for God to come after and perhaps reawaken dreams and desires he uniquely placed in your masculine heart.

Fall Boot Camp coming up November 18th through the 21st. Go to masculinejourney.org and register today. Hi, this is Sam with Masculine Journey.

I'm here with my son Eli. We're going to talk about ways that you can help support the ministry. One way you can go to smile.amazon.com.

Go to smile.amazon.com. There's information on our website there on how to do that. You go to facebook.com and click the donate button, or you can go to masculinejourney.org and find the donate button. Masculinejourney.org. Or if you want to mail something in, mail it to P.O.

Box 550, Kernersville, North Carolina, 27285. Sandy, that was your bump and it spoke to you on the level, several levels. Yeah, so it was, it's really one of my favorite songs by Journey, but probably not what exactly we're trying to convey here on, you know, the Risky and the Beauty. But you know, you know, a lot of times of the very first part of that, those lyrics is, she needed so much more than I could give.

And I think a lot of times we, you know, in that rescue, it's important to rescue, but we cannot try to put ourselves in the place of God. And then there was, you know, talks about, you know, that broken hearts can always mend, you know, and that they knew that their love couldn't pretend. And there's some truth to that, you know. That's not the most edifying song or whatever, you know, and really the way love relationships should go. But I think there is some truth in it.

So anyway, I like that song. Yeah, and you know, it speaks back to the original desires. You don't want to pretend. You want to be in the real deal. You want what originally that meant before you started piling all the stuff on it that we are trying to hide. Yeah, good point there in the fact that we, I think there's so many relationships that are shallow or they're not deep and they're not necessarily true. And I know I've, you know, been one that's partaking in part of those and, you know, I want something true. I want a true relationship with God and I want a true relationship with my wife, whoever that is to be.

So that's good. So my friend, Jim, you know, what was her name? Kathy Scholl.

What was the one of Harold's? Buckaloo. Buckaloo. It's just Scholl. Scholl.

Like Scholl with a U. So you still are following her on Facebook as we learned earlier? No, that was discovered she was up in this area.

I suspect some guy may be listening and pass this on, but it was totally innocent. I think this was the summer after kindergarten. I was a whopping five years old. And I remember sitting in the grass in front of the Charlotte Country Club sign, which was closer to her house than ours, but she was a playmate and had been. And I just said, well, someday I'm going to marry Kathy. Didn't happen, been going to, but it was just a crush that I had with somebody that I spent a lot of time with.

So, you know, I'm sure that you're all wondering like, Robby, what about you? Well, you know, here we go. There was this young lady. We really were. If you weren't, when I was in sixth grade, let's hear it the second time.

No, we did want to hear that. So what you're saying is you flunked a grade to get back with your girl? Sort of. Anyway, when I was in second grade the second time, I grew over the summer to six foot five. Like the current height I'm at, I just got this crazy growth spree and there I was. But you know, I was about 150 pounds. And so a walking string bean, if at best, if you could picture the scene, who had very small feet and I tripped over him constantly and totally uncoordinated, just not a pretty picture.

I resemble that remark. So anyway, but there was this girl. She sat in front of me in math class. Oh my goodness.

That was it, man. The heart was on fire. And all I could think about was we were going to have this dance at this Perry junior high school. And it was a sock hop.

So, you know, you're in the gym with the socks, you know, scooting around. And so there's Sue over there and I'm working up the, you know, I'd been outside with several flowers. She loves me. She loves me not.

So funny. Had the courage to walk up to the girl, you know, and she's there and, you know, I forget what song was playing while I was walking towards her, but I know what the song was once I arrived was Hey Jude. Now it's a beautiful song by the Beatles and it kind of gives you the era, but what you're not putting together as Sue was maybe three foot, nine inches tall. And I was six, five. Okay. And Hey Jude is a slow song.

Okay. That means that I was bent over, you know, sort of like a weeping Willow trying to hold onto this girl. And this song went on for seven endless minutes. And all I have to say is no, no, no, no, not anymore.

I can't take it. You've since had a relationship with a chiropractor. A lot of people say, Robby, you look hunched over when you walk. It all had to do with I walked up straight till I met, you know, Sue and dance to Hey Jude. Anyway.

So some of this stuff goes wrong. And so we got another clip, Jim, you were going to set up for us from another great movie. What movie was that, Robby? A Groundhog Day. Oh yeah. Well, this is a fellow that is trying to, uh, pursue a woman and he has the advantage of finding out more and more about her because he's reliving the same day.

And in this particular encounter, uh, his motives are wrong and he is after her, but it's a funny scene and it's something that a lot of us can relate to that kind of silly pursuit. What are you looking for, Phil? A date for the weekend? No, I'm just interested in you. You know, what do you want? What do you like? What do you think about what kind of men are you interested in?

What do you do for fun? Is this for real, Phil? Are you just trying to make me look like a fool? I'm just trying to talk like normal people talk.

Isn't this how they talk? Close. Okay, so talk to me. Let me buy you a cup of coffee and a donut.

All right. So what do you want out of life, anyway? I guess I want what everybody wants. You know, career, love, marriage, children. Are you seeing anyone? I think this is getting too personal.

I don't think I'm ready to share this with you. How about you? What do you want? What I really want is someone like you. Oh, please.

Well, why not? What are you looking for? Who is your perfect guy?

Well, first of all, he's too humble to know he's perfect. That's me. He's intelligent, supportive, funny.

Intelligent, supportive, funny. Me, me, me. He's romantic and courageous. Me also. He's got a good body, but he doesn't have to look in the mirror every two minutes.

I have a great body, and sometimes I go months without looking. He's kind, sensitive, and gentle. He's not afraid to cry in front of me. This is a man we're talking about, right? He likes animals and children, and he'll change poopy diapers.

Does he have to use the word, poopy? Oh, and he plays an instrument, and he loves his mother. I am really close on this one.

Really, really close. And he really, really isn't. And she sees right through his pose, which is another thing we'll talk about at boot camp. But he is trying, and it ultimately, in his pursuit, he becomes less sensitive.

In his pursuit, he becomes less selfish and has a better motive in his pursuit of love with her. So getting Rodney on the hook for a minute, what was her name, Rodney? See, that's where I don't remember having one that young. I'm trying to remember, that's where I've been ever since we started asking this before the show, I've been like, who would it and could it have been like you guys are trying to get like before like the fourth grade? I'm like, I'm coming up blank. I can't come up with one. I can loan you one of mine. You had one every day of the week.

I usually win a year or two. So you're a late bloomer. It's okay. So in high school, what was her name? Kathy.

Kathy. Yeah. And it was crushing time? Oh, yeah, absolutely. That's all you could think about.

That's all you could pursue. The way it goes when you don't know what you're doing and you just got that honest crush in your heart. It's real. It's just what it is.

And they can sometimes go as fast as they come. Yeah. But it's certainly something that you're coming to what, probably your sixth boot camp, maybe?

It's at least six, if not seven or eight. And so as you've had these, I'm sure you're like most of us, man, I had no idea what to do with that. In other words, yeah, I've got this desire, but man, every direction I ever went with it, I ended up in deep trouble. And I may have been married for 22 years or whatever when I came to my first boot camp.

I don't know, something like that. But I was still like, man, I have no real sense of what God has for a direction of what to do with this particular area of my life. And so has that awakened some of that stuff for you, Rodney? Yeah, because I would say I'd be more like Phil Connors there in Groundhog Day where I'm like, hey, I would love that. I have no consequences for my actions.

I could just learn and ask every day and learn and finally get her for the wrong reasons. That was me to a cue. Put me in a real life situation. It's running high, get me the heck out of here. Get me away. I do not want to engage in this because it's too real. It's too much on the line. And going through boot camp after boot camp and being with other men that know how to pursue the heart of a woman and understand what your role as a man is to love as Christ loves the church completely changes your whole outlook on life not just even with the beauty but in rescuing period and living for others and even your daughter right how many times have you seen because yeah she's had issues where you know like hey I see her heart's breaking so you know you can jump in and talk to her to where it really works out well because we just had a talk last night even where she's she took a job out of college and she's it's just not been what she was promised it's not been good and she took the leap of faith kind of really said okay I'm not gonna pursue this job any longer I'm gonna leave and then on to the next job and she's landed another job we've talked about a lot of things during this transition and doing this and it's just been I know it's been great for my heart I hope it's been half as good for hers all right nandy you had a discussion with your daughter not long ago because she was like I don't want to be you know the feminine thing yeah yeah yeah I mean it's just a lot of them I feel like it's uh it's just like what I want I was just wetting their appetite for the after hours because we're gonna get into that and so much more coming up in the after hours so you can go to masculine journey dot o-r-g register for the boot camp coming up next week we would love to see out there we hope to all awaken you know what it is that christ went to do for the church and see what that looks like so register for the boot camp tune in for after hours this is the truth network you