Purpose

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast. On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds.

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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 Masculine Journey. This is Danny hosting in absence of Sam, and we can just roast him the rest of the show, I think. So anyway, we're glad you're out there listening to us, and we're going to try to unpack another topic this week. What's the topic, Danny? The topic is created for purpose, and I kind of found this or just kind of came in my spirit, I guess, and basing it on the scripture from Psalms 139, which is, for it was you who created my inward parts. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made.

Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. And the basis behind it is we hear a lot about purpose-driven lives, but my heart behind this was more so the journey of purpose more so than this is your purpose. Because we talk about it at boot camp and, you know, that we were born into a love story, but it's set in the middle of a war, and there's lots of things going on. And, you know, we talked a little bit in the pre-show about how, you know, the devil gets credit for a lot of things that he really didn't do. God gets the blame because we do live in a fallen world, and, you know, we were born and everybody around us is damaged good, so to speak.

If not, we wouldn't need redemption. And so, you know, those kind of things play into what goes on. You know, and I use the example of, you know, my father bought me a bike when I was a kid, and his intentions were that I enjoy riding a bike and learn to ride a bike. He knew that I was probably going to wreck that bike, and I did. I met his expectations there pretty well. But the reality was he couldn't control that, but it wasn't his will that his son get hurt. And, you know, we have to look at that in the bigger picture of God's perspective of our purpose in life. There are going to be some bumps and bruises, and so that's kind of where we're going to go and see what it goes.

And Rodney has our first clip tonight. How about that? I gave you the spot because I took this seat, I guess.

I don't know. I know. I'm just shocked you're not calling out your own first clip. I thought about it.

I'm sure you did. Yeah, this clip is from the Carol Burnett show. I've used one, I think, before, because Andy was like, hey, I think we got a first.

I was like, actually, it's a second, but I had to do Mr. Tuddball one time before. But this is Harvey Korman and Tim Conway, I can't think. Because I want to get the because the name of the clip is like tough truckers. So they think they've got a purpose and they're going to come into the truck station to have a meal there.

And Vicki Lawrence is the waitress. And they think they're tough men. Harvey Korman, he's been in this clip, divorced for about a year.

Tim Conway is going to get his divorce in the next day. And boy, they think they are two tough men with a purpose in life. Do you think they might be posers? Just possibly.

Okay. Hi, Sally. Your two boyfriends are back. Oh, I bet you've been dreaming about us.

Well, if it ain't Don Juan and Don half a Juan. Honk, honk. Keep your paws off, Pete. I just wanted to touch something big for good luck. Yeah, well, why don't you grab your nose? Well, she got you on that one, didn't she? Oh, shut up. Yeah, I'll tell you something. Come tomorrow, I am going to be a free man.

And the competition here between you and me is going to get pretty stiff. Shoot, boy, you've got a lot to learn yet. Remember, I've got a whole year of single life under my belt. Boy, has it been a year already since you've been divorced? Yes, sir.

And I've enjoyed every minute of it. Here's your menus. You can read English, can't you, or do you need this translated into gorilla? How's about a little kiss to start off with? Come on, just one. I'll be back. You know something? I think you've got her motor running.

Sure. I tell you, the day that Penny walked out of my life was the happiest day of my life. I really started to live.

Yeah, well, my happy day is coming tomorrow because my divorce will be final. And I don't have to look at that, Natalie, anymore. And you and me, you're going to start hitting them night spots, you know what I mean? I'll tell you one thing I learned. There are plenty of fish in the ocean. Yeah. Come on, let's face it. I'm a man's man.

I don't need no cute little house to live in with a little picket fest around it. I don't need to come home and talk to some woman, confide in her. Right.

What am I going to talk about to her anyway? Right. I'm Pete Harlan.

I'm a loner. And I like it. Right. Oh, what do you have in there, Hank?

What? I'm going to have that hamburger. Hamburger?

I'm going to have me that man-sized steak, french fried potatoes, pie all up. Hey, what's wrong with you? So you've got one of them breaking down already, Harvey Korman, because he's been divorced for a year. He's realizing that this tough guy exterior in his pose, like Jim was calling out, is already breaking down.

Tim Conway is holding on strong for right now, but within about a minute, he starts breaking down. They're both crying because they realize that their purpose isn't to be single. Their purpose is to be at a union, the union with their wife, which is basically the union that we're supposed to have as the church with Christ. And that's where I really went with your theme, Danny, was more like on the created side and then trying to think through the purpose, which is obviously to glorify God. But here you've got two men who are trying to glorify each other.

They're trying to hold each other up and be really tough. And it's just one of those funny clips that just takes you back to thinking about our current world where how we've just shattered things that God has created, like marriage, like men and women. And that's why I just want like, you know, obviously in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

It talks in Genesis also about sea monsters, everything that lives and birds and all those kinds of things. And then, you know, the big one for us is God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female. He created them. I mean, things like that don't change.

I don't care what spin we do with something and call something it's not. It's very simple. God created us this way and that's the way we are. And then we talk about purpose again. You go to First Corinthians, you've got, for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake, that helpmate, that somebody to help us to walk through life with us and bring us along and make us stronger. And then you get in Colossians, for by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him, which is really tough for us sometimes to think through the rulers and authorities that we live under and to think that God has put that in place.

And he has, it's just, that's where his word goes. And then when you get to Revelation, to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be the blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever, which just solidifies the part that we're here to glorify God. And we don't do it perfectly, we struggle at it, but that is where we constantly need to point ourselves and then point others is to the Savior. You reminded me of a phrase that I heard once that said, God created a perfect world and we've been trying to make it better ever since.

Yeah, exactly. That's kind of what we do. Look at all the wonderful things God gave us. And we think, oh, that's not good. We got to call it bad so we can make it good.

And it's just, it's just, we lie one after another to make something else into so I can make it better because I'm my own God. Yeah. And we, we have a clip. I think Sam did a first. I have, I don't remember anybody doing submitting a clip, but not showing up.

I know you can have a topic and not show up. That's kind of the masculine journey way. That's the norm. So now we have another level of this, I think, but, but we've used in the clip and I think Harold's going to set it up and use it this clip. Yeah, this is a clip from the movie Patch Adams. And it's a movie I saw a long, long time ago, but I thought it was a great movie.

A lot of really good messages in it. And there's one, I think, in this clip, if you'll play that clip, we'll go after that. That makes them doctors. I use that term broadly, gentlemen, but is not a doctor someone who helps someone else? When did the term doctor get treated with such reverence as, oh, right this way, Dr. Smith, or, excuse me, Dr. Scholl's, what wonderful foot pads, or pardon me, Dr. Patterson, but your flatulence has no odor. At what point in history did a doctor become more than a trusted and learned friend who visited and treated the ill? Now you asked me if I've been practicing medicine. Well, if this means opening your door to those in need, those in pain, caring for them, listening to them, applying a cold cloth until a fever breaks, if this is practicing medicine, if this is treating a patient, then I am guilty as charged, sir.

Did you consider the ramifications of your actions? What if one of your patients had died? What's wrong with death, sir? What are we so mortally afraid of? Why can't we treat death with a certain amount of humanity and dignity and decency and, God forbid, maybe even humor? Death is not the enemy, gentlemen. If we're going to fight a disease, let's fight one of the most terrible diseases of all, indifference. Now I've sat in your schools and heard people lecture on transference and professional distance.

Transference is inevitable, sir. Every human being has an impact on another. Why don't we want that in a patient-doctor relationship?

That's why I've listened to your teachings and I believe they're wrong. A doctor's mission should be not just to prevent death but also to improve the quality of life. That's why you treat a disease, you win, you lose.

You treat a person, I guarantee you, you win. That, to me, in that short spiel there, points out two things that I think they made a mistake in. Number one, oftentimes they'll define a person who has reached advanced age and has a serious illness as being terminal.

Well, guess what? From the moment we're born, we're terminal. It's just not yet determined how long. But we are terminal from birth until death. The other thing is, what's the whole purpose of treating somebody? Have you ever heard of bedside manner?

A lot of our doctors haven't. Well, we'll come back to that after the break. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. I've been coming regularly and it's just such a blessing. When you guys invited me, I was at the worst time of my Christian walk. I was going through some things. The first time I came, I don't know if you remember, I couldn't even walk.

I couldn't even stand up straight. And I'm walking now. I ain't running around the lake yet, but you know. The greatest things is just being around a group of men that love the Lord and sharing His kindness and His love. All of you guys, I done sat and talked with all of you guys, different occasions, different conversations. And it's all been unique and refreshing. You guys gave me a whole different perspective in life. And you can't hide the true, genuine love of God. You can't hide it.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. That song is by Sean Groves and it was 2001 when that song came out. But it's just a perfect picture to me about what we're talking about. It's how we take our lives and we decorate it with the stuff that we're trying to find meaning in.

You know, material stuff or whatever. And we need Jesus to come in and redecorate because I'm not a good decorator apparently. But when we left for a break, Harold, you were expounding on this clip that we stole from Sam. Yeah, one of the things that I do remember about that movie is that he acted in such crazy ways to bring joy and humor to the patients that were there. And while a doctor may not be able to completely ease somebody's pain or kill the disease that's wracking their body, if you were like Patch Adams, you could at least bring some joy to them in spite of it. It's just a really good movie, I think. It's been a long time.

It makes me want to see it again because it's so contrary. Typically today, if we get 15 minutes with the doctor, you know, we're lucky. And Patch Adams became their friend and got close to them.

And that makes a big difference. That's good. That's good. So Robby, as Barney would say, you got a montage, I think, for us. Yeah, I mean, how fun.

I got to take – I have two daughters being married this year, so I took my future son-in-law's salmon fishing – or, excuse me, steelhead fishing in Ohio and had a chance to kind of take them through a boot camp. There's nine different talks that we do at boot camp. And so, you know, three times a day we did a talk. And so I got a chance to see all these clips over the weekend. And so when I saw the topic was purpose, I went, wow, you know, so much of what we teach has to do with our purpose.

I mean, it really, really does. And as Rodney pointed out so beautifully, that one of the things John Eldredge starts with is you were made in the image of God as a man. Not a generic person, but a man. And so you reflect God with a masculine heart. So number one, God is, as he would say, I am. In other words, he is to be. And so what are we going to be when we grow up or what are we going to be? And so as I was sorting through these clips, it starts out with what have I become, right?

Just another shark in a suit, which speaks to the poser that a lot of us are a lot of the time, unfortunately, and that comes in layers. And then it goes on to William Wallace who says, as you listen to the clip, he says, just be yourselves. And, you know, that is kind of like the mission to God did make us uniquely, very uniquely in our mother's womb. He made you very uniquely. Most of us are just uniquely. And so to be able to be ourselves would be just a remarkable thing.

Find the new name that God gave us and those kind of things. And then we move on to an amazing clip from Secondhand Lions where, you know, there's a young boy who needs an uncle. And the boy is trying to convince his uncle to be his uncle. And what a cool thing that sometimes we get to be a father, sometimes we get to be a son. We definitely are always called to be a son, and that's a big part of it.

And then the next thing we'll hear is from the movie Open Range where your man ain't shit, and there's things that gnaw at a man worse than dying. And the idea of being initiated as a man is so much of what, you know, I got a chance to see this weekend with these two young men that we're going to marry. There was a lot of initiation going on for me as well as them, right?

Me being initiated as their father-in-law and them being initiated to an extent as my son-in-law's, really, really fun stuff. And then it ends with this tremendous—one of my favorite clips of all time is from Les Miserables where the bishop shows Jean Valjean grace for stealing the silver. And so that idea of the silver is this grace that the bishop is going to show him that makes all the difference in our initiation.

It starts out with grace. We don't deserve any of the stuff. I didn't deserve to come to the first boot camp. I didn't deserve to have you guys as brothers.

But God shows that that allows us the initiation process. And then as the bishop points out to Jean Valjean, you promise to become a new man. Who would I become? Just another shark in a suit?

Find the speech. Now what do we do? Just be yourselves.

What about the dogs and the pig and the lion? We all need you. I need you. No, you're just being silly. No, it's true.

You're being silly. It's true. And I know you, Miss Jasmine, an awful, awful lot. But if you go, we'll miss you just as much. It's true.

All right, damn it, you win. I'll stick around for your damn uncle. No one's starting to be happy about it. It's a shame what this town's come to. You could do something about it. We're freighters.

Ralph here's a shopkeeper. You're men, ain't you? I didn't raise my boys just to see them killed.

Well, you may not know this, but there's things that gnaw at a man worse than dying. Don't ever forget it, you've promised to become a new man. Promise?

Why are you doing this? Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I've bought you soul. I've ransomed you from fear and hatred.

And now I give you back to God. So as you said at the beginning of the show, Danny, the cool thing, the amazing thing is it's a journey, right? It's an adventure that God has called us into and as he initiates us more as men and as sons.

And in community, as you talked about, as everybody's talked about. You know, as I've watched each of these guys in this room grow, it gives me a chance to grow with them because they're growing in ways that I've never seen before. And then, wow, you know, all the adventures that we go on, it's amazing.

Yeah, I love what you did with that. And I got a feeling we should solicit donations because that was a high dollar clip with all those actors in there at once. So I'm pretty sure that cost us something. So there's some big names in that clip. But it's so true, and I wrote down in my notes, that we're exactly what our parents needed and they're exactly what we needed because God's plans and purposes are in play.

Now, we're all damaged goods, so we've talked about that a little bit. But how needed it is to walk along beside other men and see them come alive, and see them discover things about themselves that they've never seen before. And that leads me into a clip I chose, and I, like Jim was talking about, I struggled, you know, you come up with a topic, I struggled with a clip and all that stuff. And I remembered this clip from Coach Carter, and it's a scene where they've unlocked a gym and the guys are in there doing their homework.

They've got desks in there and everything. But the key phrase in this is what this one kid who has struggled through this whole movie, he gets it, and you see his soul come alive. And so, and he recites something that the coach had been asking him about the whole movie. So we'll play the clip.

We'll talk about it on the backside. So they can cut the chain off the door, but they can't make us play. We've decided we're going to finish what you started, sir.

Yeah, so leave us be, coach. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same as we are liberated from our own fear. Our presence automatically liberates others. Sir, I just want to say thank you. You saved my life. Thank you, sirs.

All of you. You know what's interesting about that movie, if you've never seen it, is that not only do these troubled basketball teams find some purpose in their life, but Coach Carter does too. And it's fascinating to watch. And I had never watched the movie, but one thing about hanging around with this crowd is you discover movies, you go, man, you know, I've never seen that.

And you go watching movies that I've never seen before, never thought about watching. But those are the kind of things that we talk about. And I've come to the conclusion that if God is good, and we say that, some churches recite that on a regular basis, if God is good, and he has my best interest in mind, then it takes a different perspective to look at. And that's what we talk about the smaller story and the larger story.

And as Robby says, and I love it, looking at life from 20,000 feet rather than right down in the middle of the waves, so to speak. So that's kind of where we were with the thing. Yeah, I like the fact that in that clip you start getting men that overcome fear. And the fear they've overcome is that earthly fear, fear of man, fear of the basketball coach, fear of others speaking in their lives, fear of heights, whatever it is in an earthly sense. But when you have the right fear, the fear of God, it drives you to your purpose instead of away from it. Everything that Satan wants to do, everything that man wants to do to you drives you to fear away from God.

But the fear of God drives you to him, to have that love for him. Yeah, and we appreciate everybody listening. And check us out on the web. We've got an advanced boot camp. If you've ever been to a boot camp, you can come to an advanced March 30th to April 2nd. And if you like what you hear, then share it with somebody.