The Storms Of Life

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Welcome to the masculine journey. We are glad that you're with us this week. With us?

I couldn't really say that. With us? I've got to say that slowly.

We're glad that you're with us this week. How's that? Is that better? Slow down. Yeah, slow down.

We'll slow down. So this is the post-Mother Day edition. No, I just said that because we just did the Mother's Day show last week, right? And so this week, Danny, the topic is all yours. So you want to tell us a little bit about the topic?

Yeah, it's called Surviving the Storms of Life. Okay. And kind of came to me out of a song that I dearly love.

We'll hear later part of it. From Mario's Speedwagon, right? No, not from Mario. Oh, okay. And not from The Doors.

Okay. But from Keith Whitley, you know, I'm no stranger to the rain. And, you know, because life is full of storms and, you know, you have to learn to navigate them or get sunk by them at times. And, you know, we were talking in the pre-show about, you know, Jesus in the boat with the disciples. And I'm going to read that scripture. It said, When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep. And they went and they woke him, saying, Save us, Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, Why are you afraid, O you of little faith? And he rose and rebuked the winds in the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, What sort of man is this that even the winds and sea obey him?

And, you know, it's easy to sit and talk about how you navigate the storms of life and how you find victory in them, unless you're in the middle of one. And, you know, just like the disciples, and I think there's some of God's humor in this, is because Jesus is in the boat, same boat they're tossing around in, and he's asleep. And they go wake him up, and don't you even care, we're dying.

And he should have said, Hey, guys, I'm in the boat, too. But, you know, he takes care of it. And it's a reminder of, you know, he's always in the boat with us. Whatever we're in, he's there.

And so, you know, learning to navigate that way. And, you know, we talked about it some, but you know, because he's in your heart. And he has the answer, even though the waves are crashing around me. And, you know, my boat is being tossed all over the place. God's got this, and that's kind of the heart of what we want to talk about tonight. So, is the right takeaway there, Peter, that you're rebuking Jesus?

Probably. Well, before we go much further, there are a couple of people who aren't able to be here with us tonight. We need to definitely pray for David, who's not feeling well. He's not feeling well, that's all I'll say. What's he doing, Chuck?

I'm going to respond to that. I'm sure Sam will tell you. Yeah, we need to pray for Andy, because he's in the middle of misery. I'm sorry, it's pronounced Missouri.

I always get that one wrong. But yeah, no, he's on vacation in Missouri, and so hopefully he's having a great trip. And they'll be back hopefully next week. And so, yeah, if you could pray for them, if you enjoy praying. If not, then just don't. That's up to you. Always an option, huh?

It's always an option. So, who's the first clip? Jim has the first clip. Jim has the first clip. Jim, have you ever had the first clip? If I have, it's not been in the last couple of years. Yeah, it's been a bit, yeah. I don't get the first clip very often, unless I host.

Well, I can't host anymore, because the host gets to pick where we eat, and nobody will eat where I want to eat anymore, so we're done with that. My clip, and it's really kind of funny, because I was asking Sam what the topic was, and he told me, and within a second or two, I already knew what I wanted, and I knew we had it. This is from Forrest Gump, and it revolves around Lieutenant Dan challenging God in the midst of a hurricane that put both of them on the right track. And Rodney had already clipped that a while back, and this was an excellent job in the clipping, because it added more than I even realized was there, so let's listen. And so we pick up the clip. You find out why Lieutenant Dan's mad, right, and then it goes into the storm and then after the storm, okay? You listen to me. We all have a destiny.

Nothing just happens. It's all part of a plan. I should have died out there with my men, but now I'm nothing but a cripple, a legless freak. Look, you see that?

Do you know what it's like not to be able to use your legs? Yes, sir, I do. Did you hear what I said? You cheated me. That was the whole clip, actually. Somehow we don't have the rest of it.

So we cheated you. Well, after this, we have him sitting at the top of the mast and challenging God, is this the best you got? Because he still wants to die. He's in that place in his life where he's lost everything he had planned for his life, and he wanted to go out gloriously in combat. But at the end of the clip that we don't have, he comes around, he thanks Forrest for saving his life, and he recognizes that there was peace, calm, joy beyond the storm, and they've both been up through a major one and handled it very differently, but both of them ended up going through it with God, or at least that's the way I like to interpret it, because that's the way it should be.

That's actually one of the clips, or the clip from the movie that I actually like, is the scene of him up in the crow's nest. It's similar to like we talked about a few weeks ago with Robin Williams on the side of the mountain sharing his anger with God. I think as Christians, a lot of times we take the stance, oh, we can't do that.

And why? It's not biblical. There are times in the Bible where people express their displeasure over situations, and we're authentic with God, and God needs us to be authentic with him so he can work with us. And so if we're upset, he already knows we're upset, what's the point of not telling him?

And if you aren't willing to accept that, there are an awful lot of books in the Bible you've got to quit reading, so that's not just one or two places. It's throughout. Exactly. So, Danny, we haven't enough time for another clip. Would you like to get a clip in, or would you like to talk a little bit?

What would you like to do? Would you like to have a microphone? We can play Chuck's clip. Oh, so Chuck's up.

Chuck's up, yeah. Okay. Not the other way around.

Not the other way around. That's what David's doing. Well, when Danny presented this topic, my mind immediately went to the movie The Impossible, just because it's a perfect illustration for what I went through, and I'll get to that a little bit more after the clip. But it's just a story about a family, and as Jim told me before, I need to say spoiler alert here. Basically, the entire story centers around a family that is involved in a tsunami back in December of 2004. They're on vacation. The movie starts off, it's just like a typical vacation.

But the thing is, they're not expecting the storm is about to hit. And the tsunami comes through, and it just leaves utter chaos, destruction everywhere, and the family is separated. And the entire story is just about them trying to reunite themselves. It's a father and two sons, and then a mother and a son.

They're two different groups that are separated. And I'll let you go ahead and play the clip, and then I'll get into it a little bit more. Yeah, I think the clip's the trailer.

Yes, it is a trailer. Okay, so you'll get a little bit of everything in it. Yeah.

Okay. Boys, come and see this. Isn't it great? Dad, can we swim in it? Yeah, we can.

Yeah, we can swim in it. Yeah, nice. Go get it, Lucas.

Lucas! The most scary bit for me. And the water hit. And I came up, and I was all on my own.

And then I saw the two of you. I didn't feel so scared anymore. If Mummy and Lucas are on their own right now, I'm gonna keep looking for them. I'm scared. I'm scared too. Thank you so much. Lucas, can't help people.

You're good at it. Agda Yusef Mortens. You're looking for your family? I look in all the hospitals, and I look in all the shelters. I will find them.

I promise you that. The thing that I'm reminded of here, and many times, you know, any time we're faced with tragedy, I don't know about you guys, but I can remember the date of that tragedy, just like I can, you know, a lot of the circumstances that I face, the good times as also. So when I look back through my life, you know, in December of 2011, you know, my family was hit with much like what you would call a tsunami. It just devastated my family. You know, it resulted in divorce, and that was a storm in my life I wasn't prepared for.

I wasn't expecting it. But the one thing I could count on was God. You know, I can think back to when God brought me into his family, when Christ chose me. You know, that was very powerful for me.

If I didn't have that, you know, I don't know that I would have made it through that storm. You know, and it also kind of points to the fact, you know, what's on the throne of our heart, you know, and that's what it just kept saying to me. You know, and at that point in my life, I had placed my family on the throne of my heart, not necessarily God, you know. So when I went through that, I looked at God.

I was a little angry. You know, I was like, you know, I feel like I'm doing all the right things. You know, why am I facing this? Why is this coming upon us? You know, but it brought me back to God in a deeper way, you know, in my entire family, you know, from, you know, my ex-wife to my children. They're stronger today because of what we went through, and that's kind of all about, you know, the whole message of surviving that storm.

You know, we look to God for that guidance and support, and we look to a band of brothers around us, and that's what's going to pull us through. That's good. Thank you. I liked in that clip, you know, when he's talking, the hopefulness that stays in his voice, because it'd be very easy. If you notice he said, I'm going to look in the shelters, I'm going to look in the hospitals.

He didn't say he's going to look in the morgue. Right. You know, and I think that's important to keep the positive outlook that, yeah, I may have to go there eventually. I mean, that may be the outcome, but I'm going to start with hope. I'm going to start with that there's hope here, you know, and let God work in the hope first, and then if I need to go to that other place, then God will lead me there, you know, if I need to go to that place. But even in that, there's still hope, right, and going from there. Danny, you want to add anything before we go into break?

No, I mean, I like that clip, because it does say and speak to the topic at hand that, you know, and I love what you said, Sam, because, you know, there's always hope. As long as you're living, breathing, and as long as Christ is in you, there is hope, and we can't lose sight of that. Yeah, well, go to maskongourney.org to register for the upcoming boot camp in November, also to register for the upcoming weekend that we're going to get away with the team from Ohio.

In West Virginia, maskongourney.org. We'll talk to you 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. Well, what kind of inspired you to come up this weekend? Oh, my goodness, just my faith in general.

You know, my father, you know, has passed down that heritage of just that Christian life, that Christian faith, and just godly morals and principles, and he's instilled that in my life, and, you know, I have children as well, and I want to instill that in their life. So, you know, when I get an opportunity to do something like this, I jump on it. I just want to be here, and I'm glad to be here.

It's a great opportunity. Oh, we're definitely glad to have you here as well. Any talk that stuck out to you this weekend that's really just kind of made your heart come alive, put that fire back in you?

Probably one thing that just stands out to me is John 15. It's just not being alone. Know that I have Christ on my side.

I can't do anything without him, and I need him in my life. I'm a very private person. I like to do things on my own. I don't like to ask for help, so that's hard for me to know. I've got to ask Jesus for something, and then also just to rely on a band of brothers that I can look to and turn to and say, hey, guys, I need help. I can't do this alone.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. I'm a stranger to the rain. I'm a friend for London.

Friend as any wonder, language drives me. But I'll put this cloud behind me. That's how the man beside me.

Ride the wind and dance in the hurricane. That was actually your bump. That was my bump. You didn't sing it, but you picked it.

No, that wasn't me singing. It was too low for me to be singing it. Or too high, one or the other. Or good. Or actually good. I have no musical talent.

Six lessons and still can't play the radio. That's right. Exactly, yeah. So that is Keith Whitley, I'm No Stranger to the Rain. And interestingly enough about that song is that I looked up, and the guy who wrote the song said when he wrote it, they just thought they made a good song. And he said he really had no emotional attachment to it. It was just a song. And 20 years later, he's going through a tough time, a storm in his life. And this song comes on the radio, and he realized, hey, that's the song we wrote, and it encouraged him. And it was kind of like he set a pat on the back for myself that reminded me that there is some hope is basically what he was saying. And the guy who sang it, Keith Whitley, if you don't know who he is, he died in 1989, and he had a storm-filled life. And due to some of his habits, took him out. But I love what the song says, is that the end phrase there in that verse is to ride the wind and dance in a hurricane.

Because the whole song is about overcoming the storms of life, because he's no stranger to the rain, meaning I've got some storms, but I see some hope. Well, good. What clip would you like to play next? I'm guessing yours. Yeah, that was a good guess. Yeah, we talked about it in the break. We talked about it in the break, yeah. I wasn't clairvoyant. I was just remembering, yeah. Your name's not Claire, anyway. It is not. No, I don't think so. Yeah. My middle name is Avoyant, though, so yeah.

Well, we have other names for you. My clip is from The Count of Monte Cristo, and I've never seen the movie, which that is not a qualification right here, from what I understand. And if I spoil it for somebody, well, it spoils it for me, too. But the scene is a scene at a birthday dinner, and a guy stands up and gives a toast to, I think he's the son of The Count of Monte Cristo. And he's talking about a time when they met, and there were some criminals who had the guy. But he's talking about life, and the phrase and the way he lays this out was just beautiful for the topic.

So we can play the clip. We'll talk about it afterwards. Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately my husband has been detained by business, and so it is left up to me to introduce you to The Count of Monte Cristo yet again. You see, I had the audacity to beg The Count to allow me to give the birthday toast to Albert. I was so insistent, and such is the graciousness of our host, that he reluctantly gave up his fatherly right in order to accommodate a guest, even one as boorish as myself. Young Albert has made far too much of the assistance I gave him in Rome.

When I arrived in the catacombs, I watched as the criminals who tied Albert to a wall threatened to cut off his finger and send it to his father as evidence of his abduction. The boy's reply to all this was, Do your worst. Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome, Do your worst, for I will do mine. Then the fates will know you as we know you, as Albert Mondego, the man.

The statement is so true. You'll bask in the sunlight one day, and then you will be crashed on the rocks the next. And I heard years ago a sermon from T.D. Jakes, and he was talking about the storms of life, and he said, You're either heading into a storm, in the middle of a storm, or coming out of a storm.

And I thought, Man, you're encouraging us today. But that seems to be life, and in my own life, family issues and those kind of things are just personal turmoil at times. If it didn't have hope in something, that it was going to get better. And I had some dear friends that used to say, This too shall pass. And ultimately, that's true. You know, no matter what the sickness, the diagnosis or whatever, it's going to pass. And we just have to hold on to that hope that this storm is not going to last forever.

So sometimes it seems like it will. Thank you. Robby up next?

Yeah, Robby's up next. Robby, you want to tell us a little bit about your clip? So it's from the movie Charlie St. Cloud, which is a sailing movie, and we talk about being crashed on the rocks.

The lady in this clip is named Tess, and she was crashed on the rocks. And she didn't know it, but her spirit was kind of meeting with Charlie St. Cloud in the meantime, and they fell in love. But she thought it was all a dream, but he knew it was real.

And so now they're going to meet up afterwards. And of course, this clip has a lot to do with what went on in the storm, but also talks a lot about how Charlie St. Cloud handled the storm and how Tess might be able to handle it this time. You have a good memory. Well, there's one thing I'll never forget.

That's that you saved my life, Charlie St. Cloud. She's a blue water cruiser. Where are you headed?

Everywhere. As soon as she's sound, I'm going to sail her around the world. Well, good luck. You want to go for a spin?

Um... Last day. Come on, Tess. You're going to have to get back on the water eventually. I will.

I will. It's not the water that I'm afraid of, Charlie. It's you.

Wait. The way you make me feel, I... I don't know, I've been having these visions or maybe dreams, but they're more vivid than any dreams that I've ever had, and you're in them, and we're in them, and... Never mind. They're not dreams, Tess. They're memories. Trust your heart if the seas catch fire.

Live by love till the stars walk backward. How did you know that? It's E.E.

Cummings. It was your dad's favorite. It's about taking chances. Just take a chance, Tess. So, I mean, I just think that's phenomenal, and when I look back, you know, in the rearview mirror through some storms I've been through, that, you know, trust your heart when the sea's on fire, and, you know, those who know my story know that my family, we lost everything through, um, you know, dealerships, and, you know, we lost everything, and, you know, those who know my story know that my family, we lost everything through, um, you know, a dealership that had a grand theft, I guess, would be that we have millions of dollars, and the next thing I know, we have nothing, and that year, my son wanted to play Division I basketball, and he got a recruiting opportunity at the University of Northern Arizona, and they wanted him to play, but they couldn't give him a scholarship, so we drove all the way to Northern Arizona, no money, no credit, no nothing in cars that really may not even could make it that far, and they needed $20,000 to keep him there, and my wife was looking at me like I'm crazy because we dropped him off, and we drove back to North Carolina, and the whole way, my wife said, you do know we need $20,000, and there's no way that we have $20,000. I mean, I know, but God, I just sensed, I was trusting my heart, the sea was on fire. My son, this was his dream his whole life was to play Division I basketball, and here it was, and I was trusting my heart, and right, living by love, and when we got home after, you know, a nearly 3,000-mile trip, we stopped at the mailbox, and if I hadn't lived this, I wouldn't believe it, but it happened.

In that mailbox was a check for $20,000 from, actually, it's so funny to me that it was from the state of North Carolina for a bunch of taxes because the office manager that had stolen the money had written them a big check, and as a result, they owed me a bunch of the tax money that they hadn't, you know, and so here was this check that we never would have dreamed in a million years, but we watched the stars walk backwards, and my son got to live his dream because, you know, we trusted our heart when the sea was on fire. It's awesome. Harold, you had something you wanted to add. We got a couple minutes left if you want to add a little bit, and if we don't get to it all here, we'll talk about it in the after hours.

Okay, it shouldn't take long. I've seen the aftermath of both hurricanes and tornadoes. I've never been in it when it hit, but I've been there shortly afterwards, and it's pretty devastating, but to me, most of us are not going to have to survive those kind of storms. The storms that most of us are going to fight occur between our ears, is my opinion, and I wanted to share part of the lyrics of a favorite song of mine. You Jackson Brown fans will recognize it. What with all my expectations long abandoned and a future I no longer saw my hand in, how I found you is beyond my understanding, my stunning mystery companion. As long as we have that mystery companion, we can get through these storms, whether they're between our ears or if we survive a hurricane or a tornado, Christ is there. So what song is that?

My stunning mystery companion. Oh, so I didn't know that. I don't know the Jackson Brown song. That's the name of it? Yeah, you got to hear it. Okay, yeah, thank you, Harold, appreciate that. Danny, we got just a little bit of time left. Anything else you want to add on the topic before we wrap up? Well, I was thinking about Harold's comment about the storms between our ears. Some of us have more room for the wind to blow than others. That's true, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But the storms of life come, and thank goodness I'm surrounded by a band of brothers and family and that kind of thing to help me through the storms, because, I mean, that's priceless stuff. That's it. That's all I got. That's all I got. I got nothing. That's all you got.

All right, then we'll keep going. We do have a boot camp coming up, but before our boot camp in November, which is the weekend before Thanksgiving, so if you don't know when our boot camp is, just look up Thanksgiving, and it's the weekend right before that, right? And so that's Thursday through Sunday. You can sign up at masculinejourney.org. Between now and then, we are having an event with the Wild at Heart Ohio group up in West Virginia in a beautiful camp right on the New River Gorge, so we encourage you to do that. That's the first weekend in June. Again, go to Mascon Journey. You can click the link there and go to their page to register, but go to masculinejourney.org. We'll talk to you next week.