Seasons of Life

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 Masculine Journey. This is Danny, and we're here another week.

And forgive me, I may sound a little hoarse. Not because I rode one or maybe the Mr. Ed show. I don't know. But anyway, it's an effect of some of the medication I'm on.

But hopefully, when we get through the show, if not, there'll be silent radio or commercial break or something. I don't know. Act out your own masculine journey. Yeah. You're going to go live on Facebook and I'll sign something.

We're going to mime it because we're on YouTube, right? Yeah, we'll mime it on YouTube or something. We won't get in trouble that way. Or we might. We might get in more trouble.

We might get in more trouble anyway.

So, you know, we're here, and Andy, you have the topic this week, so we'll set us up. Before you get going, Andy, I don't know what's happening. Last week we were down about half the numbers. You know, we were down to six last week. You know, we're normally up at 10, 11, something like that.

It's masculine journey, and then there were none. Yeah, I think we're working our way there. Yeah. Yeah, because we're down to four this week. Yeah.

You know, I would say it's a team. You know, it's the available team. Like we are. Yeah, it's the available team. It's the available team.

But yeah, we're down to four. And so I don't know what next week looks like at this point, the way we're going. You guys used to barely get four. Yeah, that's true. There was a season when we'd have three almost routinely.

Season, you say? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow.

Sounds like a setup. Yeah, it does, really. Was that intentional or just a speaker? No, I heard of that. It's how I speak.

Yeah, it's how I speak. Just play Jim. Yeah, well, no. Do you have a solo example? No, no, mine's a two-letter word or two, whatever it is.

Two-something. Syllable word. See, even syllable is too big for me. It's a two-syllable word. Jim would have like a 12-syllable word.

It means the exact same thing. It's not sophisticated. Yeah. It's not long enough. Yeah.

So Andy, you want to set this up? Yep, so Sam mentioned season there.

So we have been talking about season.

So personally, you know, Sam and I were talking about this. A lot of sometimes our shows come from just. Straight from God, I think. Um yeah, exactly. But it may be something that's on God's heart at the time or whatever, that maybe we're not really going through it.

But I think a lot of times it's with God and what God's doing in our life personally at that time. And that's what this one is for me. I think the intimacy. Show we had last week was a lot has had to do with Sam popping the question. Mm Misty, so Um For me, for where I'm at, Um, this idea of seasons.

I never really looked at life like that. Life was just you just run it to the end. But then, when you look at the Bible, there's a variety of seasons in these Bible stories that we see, we see it in David's life, we see it in Moses. You know, Moses had. Grew up in Egypt.

failed delivering the Israelites. Went to the back side of the desert for 40 years, came back, led him to the promised land. Joseph, a lot of seasons in his life, a lot of disappointment, a lot of character building, and times of being alone. And so it just got me thinking about that. And then we talk about the stages of the masculine journey.

Anyone want to read those off? Yeah, it's Boyhood, Cowboy, Ranger. Right? It's Warrior. Warrior.

Are you going to let me do it or are you going to do it? No, I want to do it, Jet. The one I could remember, I want to do it.

Okay. No, go ahead. You have Warrior, Lover, King, and Sage. That's right.

So those are a way of looking at life in seasons. But. There's and I think there's more than that. You could just simply say the the natural or the way that we look at stuff in society is, you know, you you will go through high school, college, Get married, have children, be grandparents. That's another example.

So, anyway. How it came up to me was I feel like God is leading me into a new season in my life. Had the situation um Was married and been separated for quite some time. But I went to Boone for a while. My daughter went to school up there.

And. Um I've been up there. Hush. F uh I've been up there about eight and a half years. And this is away from all the people I know.

I love the mountains and I've made a lot of great friends and groups I'm a part of up there. But that's not where most of my friends and family are. And I feel like I've started feeling last fall that I wanted to come back and I just had to pray it out to whether I felt like God wanted me to come back. And so Anyway, I began to pray about it, and it really felt like it was supposed to happen this spring. A friend of mine approached me and said, Hey, you know, my daughter's up there.

Can she rent your cabin? I've wanted to keep the cabin, and it kind of worked out. And then I had a place to land here, my mom's old place. But in all doing all that, I just felt like God was in it. And then I always like to get confirmation and hear from God.

And there's been three things. He usually speaks to me in three things. He'll give me the first word and then confirm. And that's kind of what happened without going into a lot of detail. Um But You know, I started thinking whenever I made this deal to rent out my place, I went and said, you know, that seems like.

When I bought my house up there after I'd tried things out for a year and a half. I went and looked at the calendar of whenever or when I actually bought the place, and then when I'm written it out, and it's seven years to the day that. That um I'll be leaving there.

So, you know, that God, I think you even uses stuff like that to confirm.

So, I just I have a um You know, I'm kind of apprehensive of what it'll look like and stuff. I've become comfortable up there, but yet I'm also excited about to see what God is going to do and what the purposes are. I mean, he specifically told me in a time of prayer that he has things for me to do here. And so I'm excited about coming back.

So that's where this idea of seasons comes from. But there's so much more. Everybody's got different seasons. And sometimes these seasons are, you know, time of being alone and growth and maturity.

Sometimes they're just basking in the glow of God and, you know, everything's working right. And, you know, there's just a variety of. Times in our life. I know each one of us has a story about what we're going through right now and the seasons God has us in. I just feel like it's.

Appropriate time to have this. Sure. Yeah, there was a time for me when I would look at: okay, there's what I'm doing now, and then there's the rest of my life. Yeah. Right?

But, you know, the rest of my life. Is broken down in so many things. Even when you're a parent and you have kids, you have the infant season when the kids are really small. Yep. Right.

And then you have toddler, then you have, yeah, yeah, those are all different seasons where I have to be a different type of parent. Yes, my yes is still yes, my no is still no. How I approach that with the child has to change to what they can hear. Then there's the crazy teenage years, right? Oh, yeah.

You know, but then there's also just financial seasons in your life where you go through some real struggle and then you get to the place where you're not struggling as bad and you're like, oh, I'll never struggle again. Oh, yeah, you probably will. You know, it's just another season that's coming. And realizing the good thing about seasons are they don't last forever. No.

Right, you know, they're going to pass. And so, you know, some are harder seasons, some are easier that you get some RR. Yep. Right? But the constant thing about life is it always changes.

Yep. To your point, it's very scriptural, and it came to pass. That's in the Bible quite a bit.

So. Yeah, hopefully we can just dig into this and get you to thinking about your life. I think another point that we made in the pre-show was: you know, I love this quote. I heard it first through the Wild Art guys, John Eldridge, I believe it was. Maybe it was Bart.

But he said, life has to be lived forward, but understood backward. And a lot of times we want to understand before we go.

Well, that's not walking in faith. And that's not really trusting in God. He doesn't want to give us all the details. He tells us to trust him and he'll order our steps. But it doesn't say, you go do whatever you want to, and we'll see how it works out.

That's not the plan.

So, anyway. Yeah, I think that was Bart that said that. Um talking about the uh calling. Yeah. Wanna you had mentioned in your text when you sent this out Ecclesiastes 3.

Right. And it's all right, unless you got a plan. I was going to read it. Go for it. Because it says a time for everything, and to everything there's a season and a time to.

to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born. A time to die. A time to plant, a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill, time to heal, time to break down, time to build up, time to weep, and a time to laugh, time to mourn, and a time to dance. Time to cast away stones, time to gather stones together, time to embrace, time to refrain from embracing.

A time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away. A time to rend and a time to sow. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time of war and a time of peace.

And it goes on done with a time, but there's a time for everything, and you know. There is the childhood, those kind of things. And there's everything to the season. I mean, you know, God laid out the seasons: winter, summer. I was picking it Rodney earlier: winter, summer, spring, and fall.

But that's life, too. There's a time that you're profitable, and there's a harvest, and then there's a time of. You know, the land is resting or whatever, and that kind of thing. And so everything kind of rolls that way.

So I like this topic.

Well, there's seasons of your faith. Oh, yeah. Right? And so you have the milk season when you're barely getting sustenance, right? And then you get to move into more of the solid foods.

Right. Right. As you walk in your faith. And then there becomes a time when you're Become more, um, God is my father, right. And all these build upon the other.

You never get out of one, because in some areas you're still getting milk, some you're into more meat, some, you know, God's definitely living as your father. And then there's times where God is a friend. And these seasons, as you grow closer in that intimacy, the relationship has different seasons. And our faith does. That's right.

I mean he Even in what your heart goes to when you hear a different worship song, there are certain things that resonate that I had that I liked years ago, but then there's new stuff that came comes in that I like. Aren't you glad that God gives us a variety and a life life isn't the same thing over and over and over? I think he knew that our hearts would need that, and that's a big part of this, the idea of this. He definitely knows what a heart needs and provides exactly what we need when we need it. And we start going through it, and it's just never.

Easy to always look back and understand where he was at exactly and know exactly where he's going for the next season. But You do know there's another season. You know that you're in, like Sam was saying, several at one time because you're, I'm starting in this one, I'm mature in another one, and you just live it. Yep. You live it for sure.

Yeah, going back to Ecclesiastes, the thing is, I think that where we get in trouble is when we try to rush into the next season. Yeah. Right? Or we try to stay in a season that we're not supposed to be in any longer. Yeah.

And then we wonder why things kind of fall apart. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not moving from here. I'm comfortable. Yeah, I'm stuck here.

I'm going to stay here. And God, I'm not listening. Yeah, I like it here and I'm planting my feet here. And he's taking the rugs out from under you, moving the furniture. Yeah, absolutely.

So yeah, we're coming up on a break. We've got a boot camp coming up November 20th through the 23rd. Go to basketjourney.org. Check us out. 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 think sometimes as men, we feel like we're on our own and we've got to do everything ourselves and the weight of the world is on our shoulders and it's our job to fix everything and make everything right and have all the answers. And I think when you come here, you just get really honed back in and reminded that God really is for us. That a good father helps you. And a good father makes sure you have all the tools you need.

And a good father comes through for you when you need him and you just feel less alone. Register today at masculinejourney.org. We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun But the stars we could reach Could just starfish on the beach We are joy we We had fun, we had seasons in the sun. But the wine and the song, like the seasons, have all come.

So I was gonna tell who that is and I'm still looking it up.

Somebody the listeners probably know. We can talk about it. I'll look it up. Yeah. Terry Jacks, or something like that.

But that actually came from Harold. I mean, when we were talking about the topic last week, he suggested that. I thought it was a great one. Harold's not with us. He's not feeling well.

Today, but uh anyway I mean, seasons of the sun. I mean, that It it touched on it. There's three choruses back to uh back to back there. that it goes through and you know the first one being Um What was the first one? We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun, and you're talking about being at the beach.

The beach, yeah, yeah. What's that? And there's other things in there. Yeah, right. Yeah.

I'm just going to quit. Messing this. No, no. That song, actually, though, takes me back to a season of my life. They used to play that at Fort Recovery Skating Rink when we were at skating, you know, for youth as a kid.

And I remember that song quite clearly. And so when you played it, it takes me back to that place of a different season in my life. And that's kind of the cool thing about movies and memories and things. They take you back to where you were. And movies will do that, songs will do that.

Sounds will do that. Smells will do that. How God created our brain to remember some of the seasons we've been in. Either to be grateful that we went through them or to be glad that we're not in them anymore. No doubt.

It is Terry Jacks. It is. And I don't know the significance of all those course lines, but they are pretty cool. I had a season in the sun last week. And you did.

You did. And it was come back. Did you see any starfish there? I think you mentioned starfish. No, I didn't see starfish.

I did see a white egret that was the game warden said wasn't supposed to be on the pier. And I asked her, did she tell the white egret? It was kind of funny. Because he's been there six years. She's been there six months.

Guess who's winning the battle? Yeah. That was funny, so.

So, I guess I'm playing my clip. You are, yeah. Yep, go for it.

Well, my clip comes from City Slickers and. It's a movie clip we use at boot camp that is not my favorite, to be honest, but there's a section of it that was just perfect for this topic for me and where I'm at and kind of one of the stories I'm going to tell.

So is there in a classroom is Career Day, and Mitch, who is Billy Crystal. I got it right. Oh man. That he's His son tells a lie and didn't but he's He's supposed to be telling what he does and you can just tell this guy's just checked out. And he's not happy where he's at.

And it used to be one season, and then he goes on this, I'm going to use Jim's words, soliloquy of the eras of life, the 20s, the 30s, and everything. And part of it's just kind of perfect what I'm going to lead into.

So we'll play it and talk about it.

Well, like uh Danny said, I work for WBLM Radio. Are you a dish jockey? No, I'm not a dis jockey. You know the commercials that are on the radio? Do you make all those commercials?

Yeah. Other people make the commercials. I sell them time. on our station for the commercials to be on.

So you decide which commercials to use and when. That's right.

Well, no, it's not right. It used to be right. Seems now that I even have to check with the station manager if I want to wipe my nose. The minute he took away my authority, I should have quit. Mr.

Robbins. What? Value this time in your life, kids. Because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices. And it goes by so fast.

When you're a teenager, You think you can do anything and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Thirties? You raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, What happened in my twenties? Forties You grow a little pudd belly, you grow another chin.

The music starts to get too loud. One of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. 50s you have a minor surgery, you'll call it a procedure. But it's a surgery. 60s, you'll have a major surgery.

The music is still loud, but it doesn't matter because you can't hear it anyway. The seventies? You and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale? Start eating dinner at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, you have lunch around 10, breakfast the night before, spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate soft yogurt and muttering, how come the kids don't call? How come the kids don't call?

The 80s will have a major stroke. You end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can't stand but who you call mama. Any questions? Any questions? What's interesting about that clip is that he's so checked out and his son's named Danny, so I immediately was the poser.

Well, what I usually do when somebody sends out a clip, Michelle will always ask my wife, what's the topic this week? And I read it to her. I said, can't really think anything season-wise. Can you help me? She said, really?

Really? You know, so because I mean, y'all, I've mentioned it some on the show and everything. But, you know, right now the season, we're battling stage four appendix cancer. And this was not what I signed up for. It was not in my resolutions, you know, first year.

Hey, I think I'm going to have all these goals.

So in March, I had a procedure, an appendix procedure. It was a surgery, but we called it a procedure. And then we had a surgery where it was going to happen. That did you call it a surgery? And now we're heading into a major surgery.

And, you know, we got chemo going on, which is part of my voice thing. I also have chemo brain that I'll go on screensaver, if you remember screensaver days. And the train will derail, and there'll be no survivors for please don't do that. I'm trying not to. I'm really trying to stay on topic.

And, but, you know, this is the season we're in. And what's interesting, Andy, when you brought it up, you know, when you hit something like this, I mean, there have been times when I feel like I've been hit in the face with a 2x6. You know, just, you know, they say this is incurable. This is, you know. And they give you time frames, and we've been through all that, and you just walk out of the doctor's office just stunned.

Hmm. And you know, not a season anybody really wants to be in. But in this, I have found God at new levels. Sam, you were talking about how, you know, He's your friend, He's your, and those things of intimacy. And since this has begun, it began last year when my word for the year was beloved.

And, you know, he really spoke into my sonship a whole lot last year. And unbeknownst to me, we talk about how words of the years. you know, kind of merged together.

Well, this year was restoration. And I had all kinds of ideas. There were lots of things going on the first of the year that we were moving into my mother-in-law's house, and there was lots of restoration that was going to have to happen down there on many levels. But that wasn't it. We were a part of a church that had some disrepair and Spiritually, physically, and I thought, okay, God, this is beginning to make sense.

He said, nope, that's not it. Then we come into March and I realize, oh. Oh, you got something all together in mind. We're doing something. And so, but in this journey, all the prayers and the prayer warriors.

And it just keeps expanding and seeing God's hand do different stuff in this season because Michelle and I were talking about it on the way to the beach and the way back. That you get put in a position where you have no choice but to know all you've got is God. And that's that's it because I mean, reality is I may not be here in five years. That's reality. Doesn't mean that's the end game.

God's got this in control, but you have to face those things in a season. But what it has done is it has drove us into a deeper direction with Jesus that just, and you know, I'm not some super spiritual saint. You hang out with me for a little while, you'll know that. But I understand that he's my friend. He's the one that sticks closer to a brother.

And it has caused me to invite him into places that I've kind of kept to myself. In those certain seasons. And like, God, you may as well have this too. And He's like, finally, you know, been waiting on that. You know, and those kinds of things.

But it begins to open up and it begins to peel away layers. And it's really, strangely enough, has become a very fruitful season, I think. In the fact that literally you're battling for your life, your wife is on the verge of a mental breakdown about any time, sometimes. Variably so. I mean, the man she loves.

You know, it's sick. But I'm the healthiest sick guy you'll meet. And, you know, but I've had encounters with people. Random seem like random encounters with people. And this season, God is just like, hey, watch this.

Hey, you need to meet this guy. I'm just going to bring him right into your life. Hey.

Okay. The my friend from Pakistan called me now, his family's praying for me in Pakistan. Really? And and it's just a fascinating thing. And and I know all journeys don't go that way.

But right now, and this thing may turn, I don't know what it's going to do. But I trust him. And I'm learning to trust him even more. But sometimes I have to pray. God, I know you said you got this and you got me.

But I'm waning a little bit today. Can you help me? Mm-hmm. And he usually shows me some white egret amongst a bunch of pigeons or Some guy shows up, we have a conversation.

Next thing you know, we're talking about, hey, I survived, I've had two forms of cancer, and I've survived, you know, and that kind of thing been shot at and everything else. I'm like, shoot, I just got a little bit of appendix cancer. I think I'm good, dude. Appreciate it. You know, those kinds of things are just crazy.

But they're God. That's God. Amen. People talk about supernatural Christianity. I got news for you.

I think, and John Eldridge said it when I'm all supernatural because God's supernatural. Right, right.

So, anyway. Yeah, it'd be sad the day we we look at God as Common and natural. Oh yeah. Yeah, y I think the the yes and no. I agree and disagree.

I think that we should never look at him as common, but hopefully he becomes a natural part of our life. Yeah. Right. That was given and stated in a different context, but yeah. Oh, no, I just wouldn't mess with you.

No, I think, you know, common as an everyday man, absolutely. But I think the more, at least for me, that I make him common in my life, the better things go. It doesn't always turn out the way I want it to. Right, but I'm in a better place. I'm in a better Mental space, you know, all those kinds of things when I know that I'm there with him, regardless of where we're going on that journey.

And common's always different for everyone. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, that flew back.

Speaking of common, we have a boot camp coming up, which is very uncommon most of the time. November 20th through 23rd, you can go to masculinejourney.org, register. You can get more information about us. You can watch us on Facebook, YouTube, live on Tuesdays. And so check us out.

And we hope to see you at boot camp. Yeah, if you want to listen to past podcasts, you can go to any podcast location. You can go to our website, listen to it. Any information like that, if you want to reach out to any of us, it's our first name at masculinejourney.org.

So Danny at Masculine Journey, Andy at Masculine Journey, you got the rest. Talk with him next week. Yep. Yeah. This is the Truth Network.

Yeah.