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. We're glad to have you with us today, and we are talking about a topic that I'm really looking forward to seeing where everybody goes with us.
We are talking about mentors in our life. The people that have meant something to us, that have really helped guide us along the way, that have Given us a proverbial kick in the backside when we need it. You know, just those things kind of helped us get back on the straight and arrow, whatever words you want to use, but have helped guide us along the way. And so we're going to each play a clip and talk about a person that mentored us and kind of go from there. And Jesus meant for us to have mentors.
You know, he talked about go make disciples.
Well, disciple literally has a mentor, right? And so people mentor us. We're called to mentor others. I'm trying to use the word like you do, like presence, Andy, or you know, as many times as I can in a sentence. Yeah, right.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you just, I use just yeah. Yeah. Repetition they get that makes the point, right?
Okay. Anyway, but we're. I'm watching Andy battle the microphone. It's kind of comical. I wish we had that on the video here.
Anyway, going on, there he is. The first person to play their clip is Darren. Darren, we're glad to have you here with us today. And tell us a little bit about either your clip or the person or whatever you want to do first.
Well, I I I I would say this about the clip and then we'll play it. I just think it's always a really great opportunity when you have the chance to. To Um lift up somebody that Has gone before you, done more, been there. has gotten the scrapes on the knee, all of those different things that you've gotten or the heart breaks or maybe fired from a job, who knows. But those kinds of guys that go ahead of you And can kind of pat you on the back.
And maybe you said kick in the pants, but maybe it's. You know, put their arm around your shoulder and say, Hey, it's gonna be okay, son, and you know, help you move along.
So, anyway, um, we all kind of need a grandpa in our life, right? And this is from what movie? This is from We Were Soldiers.
Okay, here we go. When Crazy Horse was a baby. He nursed from the breast of every woman in the tribe. The Sioux raise their children that way. Every warrior.
Called every woman in the tribe mother. Every older warrior, they call him grandfather.
Now the point here is that they fought as a family. Take care of your men. Teach them to take care of each other. Because when this starts Each other is all we're gonna have. And he just calls me Grandpa.
I'll kill you. Yeah. Yeah. I I love that movie. I love the story of it, all of those things.
But it is about older guys that have been there and done that, helping younger guys hopefully make it through. And so Harold is kind of one of those guys in our group. He's one of those guys that he might even say, you call me grandpa again and I'm going to kill you. I don't know. But we give him a hard time a lot about his age.
But here's the deal. At a boot camp, There are We've had guys as young as 13 maybe, even younger perhaps. All the way up to however many Harold is. I can't count that many, but. That's how many he is.
He got another number added recently. They do come faster as you get older. Yeah, I know they do. But anyway, Harold, you're kind of one of those guys that's cool all the years that you've been. Um Married.
Fought the battle. Served in church, done all the cool things that. I, as a guy who's now 60 and thinking, how do I want to finish out? Um I hope it's as well as guys like you.
So Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, and we want to celebrate Harold's 84th birthday yesterday. Yep. 84th birthday.
84th birthday. You know, we talked about being to you. Yeah, well. Celebrate, not make it sick. Definitely sing solo in it.
It wasn't. Just cut off at four. Bad voice. You know, it wasn't great. But a good voice.
It was right. Yeah. It was right there. It was close. Anyway, we are a band of brothers and we love each other a lot.
But to be honest, we forgot. None of us texted Harold yesterday and told him happy birthday. We all forgot about it until this morning, and then it's like we blew up the text string.
So, Harold, we apologize. We hope you had a great birthday yesterday. It was good. It was a good one. When you get to be this stage, they're all good.
I was thinking it might have been better without us bothering him yesterday.
Well, it could have been. Could have been. That's true. But at 84, did you remember it was your birthday? Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Did Jan have to tell you? Yeah, it's. You guys don't. You don't really understand how much I enjoy The teasing that you give me.
I mean I I was telling somebody recently that I laugh as much or more than you guys when you do tease me. It's fun for me. That's awesome.
Well, you get plenty of opportunity to laugh. It's like going every time he comes to a radio show, it's like a roast, right? It can be. That's exactly what I was thinking. It's kind of like, I don't know when the first roast was in Hollywood.
It was probably, I don't know, in the 40s or something. But. I remember like You know, those guys doing it. And as a kid, I was like, why are they talking bad about that guy?
Well, now I know. Yeah. Probably the funniest meme I've seen in a long time was our friend Wayne, which we haven't seen in a while. Wayne, we miss you. If you're listening, we'd love to see you.
But he sent out, and it was Moses saying, Hey, I remember when we celebrated your first birthday together. One of the funnier ones. Obviously, it's funnier to see that. But, hey, Jim, I'm going to go ahead and have you do your clip if you would like to do your clip next.
Well, to be honest, that's your clip, but I immediately claimed it.
Okay. Put it out there. It was a spare clip. And yeah, I think your decision is just brilliant. And I'll have to mention you when I'm talking about it.
This is my mentor, someone. That, first of all, they have to be brilliant to impress me, because I'm a pretty sharp guy. And this is someone I very rarely, Andy, I know you're not even in the club, but that's okay. Sam touches on it occasionally. And Darren, I used to have him in that position, but I haven't known him for a while, so he might have gotten old and changed.
I'm definitely dumber than I used to be. But this mentor is someone that we agree so often. That I Wanted this as a counterpoint. This is a major thing that we disagreed on. And I can't really.
You know, appreciate someone until I got in an argument with them.
So, this is it. Here we go. Come on, man. Come on. Oh, baby.
Merging is required when two lanes are reduced to one. In light traffic, a simple lane change to blend in with the flow keeps traffic moving at normal speeds. When there are low traffic volumes combined with high average speeds, an early merge makes sense and drivers should do so. As traffic volumes increase, most drivers continue to believe that the earlier they get out of a blocked lane, the better. This is not the case in moderate to heavy traffic, as it begins to create a backlog and possibly bad feelings, as early mergers believe other drivers are bypassing the line and cutting in right before the lane ends.
This is not the most effective or safest way to merge in heavier traffic volumes. The zipper merge is the best way to merge in heavier traffic volumes. The zipper merge is when drivers use both lanes fully until they reach the end of the lane. then alternate into the open lane. This maximizes road space and can reduce congestion by as much as forty percent.
Best of all, everyone gets to where they're going faster. And who doesn't want that? I know I do. There's a story behind that.
Well, at this point, everybody in this room, I think, recognizes that our mentor is sitting here with us. And this is my disagreement with Harold. And for someone as brilliant as he is to not understand fluid mechanics, and that things do work better if you use both lanes all the way rather than have one line that's seven miles long. And I'm going to give him a chance for a rebuttal here. But that was a fun.
conversation among our our crew years ago, I think.
Well it's been going on for many years. And you can't say you don't learn something on the masculine journey. You learn why it's more effective. Everybody, Zipper Burge. That's right.
Until you talk hear from him. Hello, Harold.
Well, I I don't have a an algorithm that can prove it. You're a programmer, you should. But I got a lot of years of experience and eyes that are open on the highway.
So, you know. I'm still not convinced. Can we play it again? Because if I can be moving at 55 or 60. rather than being stopped, totally and an inch forward at fifteen.
For a while. I I don't I don't see it. Harold, if everyone were as smart as we are, we could make it through with one line. But they're not. The world is full of idiots that want a zipper merge.
Oh.
Well That's two people I used to think were quite intelligent. Boy, how are we offending somebody today? I know that. Yeah. I hope this zipper merch guy's not listening.
Well, as Christians, we have to give people the right to be wrong. That's right. Yeah, okay.
Well, I I don't like zipper merging. Uh I don't enjoy it. But I don't know, maybe it's more effective. I got no position on this officially.
So, Andy, you want to explain why we're laughing about this? You started to, and then we started talking. Laughing about the zipper merge. The zipper merge. I don't think I was here, but I heard about it.
But there was a big debate after a show, I think, about the most effective way to. Merge. Harold go on a rant. He kind of did that day. I think I missed it, but I've heard enough about it that yeah, it's very controversial in our group.
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. The first one, I had no clue what I was walking into, and then realizing that other people are in the same boat and how open everybody was to share their struggle. It was a great group, and a lot of talking was that's going to be done. It is a tight bond of men.
Everybody's the same. And each and every time that I've come to food camp, I've learned something different. And not one man that's ever been there neglects not to take time out to talk or to share. It's serious business, and you need to come one time to break bread with the men and fellowship. Feel the atmosphere.
Hear the people pray and get down to earth about what's going on in life and get real. Register today at masculinejourney.org. On me when you're not strong, then I'll be your friend. I'll help you carry your arm for it. Won't be long till I'm gonna need somebody to need.
Welcome back to Masculine Journey. We are talking about mentors in our life and and and that song really just came to me as a perfect song for that because we all need somebody to lean on. But then again, there's times that people need to lean on us. Right, and realizing that it is a circle. Right?
That it's that's not a a line down, right? You know, that there are other people that need you in their life to lean on when they need to get through some things. And maybe some of the experiences you go through are so that you can talk them through it. down the road. None of us like some of the things we have to go through.
But it gives us opportunities to talk how God got us through it. What God did in it. Those kinds of things and can help others as we go along the way. And so, so far, we've been lifting up our friend Harold, who had his 84th birthday yesterday.
Well, mostly lifting up. Lifting up and slightly tearing down, but that's kind of how Banda Brothers work. But, Robby, you had a thing to add to that last Zipper merge conversation. Actually, it was I, the Christian car guy, who was. Teaching a lesson on zipper merging.
When we discovered that Harold, not unlike Sam, who comes off like the nicest, sweetest man, you know, but given the right provider. Provocation, you better be prepared and make sure that you have all your fingers outside of biting distance. You know, as we'll demonstrate with this next clip. Although, you know, Harold and I have been friends a long, long, long, long time. And I, you know, that zipper merch thing, the reason why it tickled me so much is because I'd never seen him like.
All of a sudden, he just took off, man, and you could see that this zipper merging thing was a hot button for him.
Sort of like Jesus in the temple. It was, yeah, he was ready to turn over some tables. And then just later this year, I had a similar experience, which we happen to have right here for Harold to listen to, where I made a mistake of, you know. He usually sits next to me, and I made the mistake of grabbing the mic. Oh, yeah, when he was in the middle of something.
Yeah, it was. It was. I tried to play it.
Well, here we go. Jeremiah 10, 23, I know, O Lord. that man's ways are not of his own choosing. Nor is it for a man to determine his course in life. I was going to add, you know, the Gospel of John Lennon, you know, 1020.
You missed Robby stealing Harold's bike. Oh, it's on the video. Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. Like, you had other things you were going to say, Harold, but you know, obviously he was. You weren't in control.
He was making plans not long ago about having a beard this morning and this afternoon. But Jan had plans of giving him a haircut.
Next thing you know. I say this calls for action, and now, nip it in the bud. You got to nip it in the bud. Nip it. You go read any book you want on the subject of child discipline, and you'll find that every one of them is in favor of bud nipping.
Take care of it. Only one way to take care of it. Nip it in the bud. Set up a checkpoint, nip this speed, and right in the bud. Forget about her.
Nip it, nip it in the bud. Barney's in jail.
Now, the minute it looks like there's going to be trouble. We got a nib it! Lip it in the My hero! Yeah. Was that What Harold did, unless you saw the video, you wouldn't know, is I reached for the mic.
He went to bite mine. Oh, that's what nip it in the bud. Oh, yeah. It was like a rabbit dog. I mean, he was going to get him.
It was pretty bad. And he would have deserved it. I would have deserved it. But it just shocked you. Like, whoa, where did that come from?
You know, it's really, um I am convinced. that that one of the love languages and the band of brothers i you know is I guess giving each other a hard time about something or other. That's how you know you're loved. And we were talking about it earlier that. Um you know, in the book of Revelation they talk about that the the the Church in Philadelphia was going to be given the key of David, which has to do with brotherly love, Philadelphia being brotherly love.
And when you see a band of brothers that are truly Uh you know, and Leaning on each other, just like you talked about, then that group is virtually unstoppable. And you know, Harold and I have worked together for many, many, many, many years. And to have a friend Again, with his, like, like Darren said, somebody that's. Walked that many years in that, but also that has a relationship with God that He has, that's praying for you, that is rooting for you, that you always know in any situation. And I got people that are going to lock arms with me, and my war is their war, and their war is my war.
And You know, I I one of the greatest gifts God gave me. was this group. Mm-hmm. to to be able to walk. Arm and arm width.
I think you need to talk to Gary and see if he'll do a love language for men. I mean, I think there are half a dozen of them now, but that should be in that book. That should. It would be. It would be.
Well, I guess I'll go next with my clip. And so my clip is from Wizard of Oz. And it's uh when Dorothy and the Scarecrow uh find the Tin Man. And so I'm going to go ahead and just play the clip. I thought you didn't go with the munchkins.
Yeah, I thought about munchkins. Yeah. We represent the Holly Polygons or whatever it is. I didn't want to go with that one. I wanted to go with the Tin Man for a different reason.
Good one there, Robby. I thought about that. I also thought about going, oh, yeah. But I didn't either. The rose continues.
Yeah, but anyway, I went with Dorothy and the Tin Man, and we're going to listen to it, and I'm going to talk about why I chose that.
So here we go. And it is for Harold. Yeah. Why is the man? A man made out of tin.
Yeah. Yes. Oh.
Did you say something? He's an oil can. Oil can what? Oil can? Oh!
Here it is. Where do you want to be out first? Uh he shut his mouth. The other side. My goodness, I can talk again.
Oh, why are my arms, please? Why are my hands? elbows. Did that hurt? No, it feels wonderful.
I've held that axe up for ages. Goodness. How did you ever get like this?
Well, about a year ago I was chopping that tree. when suddenly it began to rain. And right in the middle of a chop, Okay. I roasted solid. And I've been that way ever since.
Well, you're perfect now. Perfect. Bang on my chest if you think I'm perfect. Go ahead, bang on it. Beautiful.
What a necklace. It's empty. The tinsmith forgot to give me a heart. No heart? No hat.
Okay, so what does that have to do with Harold?
Okay, well there's a couple of things there that it has to do with Harold. First of all, if you've listened to the show for very long, whenever we move the microphones around, you hear, yeah, I was going to make it that I wasn't sure about that. Yeah, and so you hear the microphone move around and one day Danny was hosting and I was sitting next to my friend Harold in the chair and and he moved the microphone around and I'm like, was that the microphone or your arm? You know, because at his age I wasn't quite sure if he needed the oil can. Or not.
And so whenever I thought of Harold, I obviously thought of that clip because he said they're going, Oh, okay, right? And he needed that, right? But the other thing that doesn't remind me of Harold, but well, another thing that reminds me of Harold is obviously the tin man is a warrior. And if you know Harold, he's a warrior. He is a fighter.
Yes, he is a lover. He writes poetry. He does all those things, but he is a warrior poet, right? And he is very much that. But he is going to, if he's on your side, man, nothing's going to take him away from that.
He's like a dog with a bone. You know, he's got your back. The thing that isn't like Harold in that, though. Is Harold has the biggest heart of anybody I know. And he has a lot of compassion for everybody, and he does a lot in the community, and he helps others, and he'll take somebody in and help them out, and do things that others aren't willing to do because it's the right thing to do.
And Harold, that's a real motivator for me on the times of things that I don't really want to go do.
Well, I know it's the right thing to do. You're a good role model in that, that makes me want to step up and go do the right thing.
So I appreciate you doing that and taking our humor because I throw a lot of it at you and so does the rest of everybody here. I love it. Oh, sorry, I didn't know if you were going to say he said, I love it. I'm very impressed that you turned that clip around because I had no clue where you were going with that one. Oh, I knew all along where I was going with that one.
But Harold, you have meant everything to this group. You know, just from boot camps, running the computer, doing the stuff there, helping us get Carolina Bible Camp, you know, for the many years that we were there. Many years, yeah. You know, and helping us have that relationship and introducing us to Randall. You know, and the people that were there that took such good care of us over the years.
And so, we're very grateful for that time we had with Randall and the team that was there at that time and your involvement in that. And so, again, it's been an instrumental thing for this ministry to have you apart in many ways, not just the weekly things you do for us. And your quiet, strong presence is very much felt, and it's missed when you're not here. And so, we're grateful to have you here. I'm just blessed to be a part of the group.
I benefit more than I. Yeah. That's for sure.
Well, we appreciate it. We are going to continue in the after hours to talk about our mentors. And yes, surprise, it's probably still going to be Harold during the after hours program. Chances are. Chances are, we're thinking to my several people we haven't heard from yet.
We all have had other mentors out there. And I would encourage you over this next week just to pray to God and say, God, please give me, help me. Remember the people you've brought in my life when I thought maybe you weren't even there, that you put somebody in my path that said, okay, hey, maybe it's just a little nick in the right direction, a little shove of the shoulder that gets me kind of off on a better path. Maybe that's all it took to get me going a step in the right direction. Because you go long enough in the right direction, you're going to get there.
And so we're always so worried about getting there now. But along the way, God puts lots of people in our lives, like our friend Harold, and would encourage you to do that, to go ask God about that, and ask who He's got in your life right now that you may not see as that person. And then if you feel called to it, go thank that person and tell them what they've meant to you. Because I promise you, they have no idea that that's how you feel about them, and it would do their heart a world of good to do that.
So go love on them this week, and go register for the boot camp, masculinejourney.org, November 20th through 23rd. Talk to you next week. Mm-hmm. This is the Truth Network. Yeah.
