This is the Truth Network. Coming to you from an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours, a time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast.
So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here now. Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. Andy, it's your show. Go ahead and talk.
No, no, no, no, no. Andy's under the weather.
Okay. Andy was quiet last time. We'll give you a pass. We'll give you a pass. He's under the influence of NyQuil.
Yeah, we'll call it that. The. Yeah, well, I think it was more all the carbs and sugar you had at dinner.
Well, we won't talk about it. Yeah, maybe that. But welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. We're continuing the conversation based on a passage in Ephesians, Ephesians 1, 17 and 18, where Paul prays for the eyes of the people's heart that he's writing to be open to God and all the things that God has done in their life or is trying to do in their life. And then that was followed by a song by Paul Balacci that we used that Open the Eyes of My Heart.
And so we've been talking about the topic of. How has God? Open the eyes of your heart. Whereas Jesus, the Holy Spirit, you know, they're all the same. They're three separate.
You know how it works. Yeah, yeah. The Trinity. And so, Andy, you actually will start with a clip 'cause you have the first clip for this or the only clip for this show. Yep.
So When I got to thinking about this, this just kind of came to me as that. You know, I've walked uh with Jesus for quite some time, sometimes much closer than others. And um You know, I I think about when getting a vision of Jesus of where he enlightens you, when he brings revelation, when he the word comes alive whenever your heart is quickened. to the truth of the gospel. And all that happened, but there are times, you know, when it reminds me of the parable of Jesus when he, or not the parable, the story where he's healing the blind man.
And he prays for him one time and he said, I see men as trees. It didn't fully take. And I think that's where You know, you get some vision of Jesus. To the wor I don't know the point about men's seeing men as trees is maybe it's either you don't have a full vision of who God is, so you look at man bigger than what he is or whatever. But then a second time it it comes and it takes and And I believe that I look at how I came into the masculine journey as a man that was still seeing men as trees.
And, you know, again, it's not just the masculine journey, but it's a big part of it. That's when a lot of things that I was unaware of. That I begin to be able to see things that I hadn't seen before. And we've been, I don't want to just go rehash what I've always talked about. But with that said, Um There's insight that you get that you just have a spiritual, and you begin to grow with him, and he guides you into more truth.
You have more confidence of what he's teaching you, you feel the leading, the conversational intimacy that we talked about.
So Anyway, that's just kind of my journey. And I was trying to think of a clip that really expressed that, and I couldn't really think of anything. But this is a clip that we've used quite a few times at boot camp and the radio show. And it's from the Mask of Zorro. You've got Don Diego, this guy that's.
going after Alejandro, this guy that's His brother's been killed. He's ready to go kill this guy. To avenge his brother. To avenge his brother, right. And In a and he's drunk and he's not thinking in his right mind and Don Diego kind of intercepts him there and prevents him from it.
And I'll let the clip play as uh uh let us you know, we'll listen to the clip, but You know, it just makes me think about How God just kind of comes in and steps into our lives, and Jesus comes in and steps in to where we can see this guy had no vision. and he needed somebody to step into his life and give him vision.
Okay, when this opens up, they're talking about a medallion, right? They are. Yeah. Yeah. Where did you get that?
It's none of your business. Fuck. Where did you get it? Who's my brother's? Yeah.
Oh. I'm sorry. Uh You're sorry? Why should you be sorry? You should not trade something like that for a mere glass of whiskey.
Why not? Think I could get two? Who's that? That's the man who can. My brother.
You're drunk and you're angry, in no condition to fight a professional soldier. Get out of my way, old man. Would you care to try again? Oh. You're welcome.
For what? for saving your life. Good. I would have kissed him. No, not today.
He is trained to kill. You seem trained to drink. Yes, my friend, you would have fought very bravely and died very quickly, who then would avenge your brother. They would have found their way. I've never lost a fight.
Except to a crippled old man just now. What is your name? Alejandro. Alendo, you know there is a saying, a very old saying: when the pupil is ready, the master will appear.
Now if you want to kill this man, I can help you and I can teach you how, how to move, how to think, how to take your revenge with honor and... Live to celebrate it. It will take dedication. It will take time. Why are you so eager to help me?
Because once a long time ago, You did the same for me. And that's how I felt like Jesus, the Father, stepped into my life. um in this journey. I was fighting bravely and dying quickly quite often. It was a repetitive process, it seemed like.
And and you get tired of that. And and I had about you know, just going through what I was going through at the time with the separation. my wife and just life seemed to be uh just slipping through my hands. And he stepped in like that. And I really had become finally, in my brokenness.
A um A pupil that was ready to hear the master. And and he did, and um, you know, Uh I don't really have anything specific to talk about other than that fact of. Of how he stepped in, and I began to see things. I began to see myself. I think that's what Don Diego did with Alejandro: he helped him to see more, not just a who he is was as his teacher, but really And all that he could learn from and the wisdom he could glean from that, but about himself.
He taught him about himself, and that's what God and His grace has done for me through this process. Andy, I'm not going to let you off that easy.
So. I know that God's probably opened your eyes in relationships with family, things like that. Anything come to mind where you could share that. You know, God's helped you really get to a different place. I was thinking like some of the work with your brother and things that you've done or some of the other things.
If you feel like sharing, if not, that's fine. No, that's fair. I I know we try to stick to specifics.
Sometimes I spink speak in generalities and sometimes I really have good examples of specifics. You know, to to Sam's point about my brother is Is um my brother had a probably a lot more he had a much worse parent life than I even did or and when my parents broke up. My he had He just had a really bad situation and and it affected him and and all through our lives. Um we had been Yeah, not off and on. We didn't get along real well.
There was some very m mean and hard things that we Just really bad. And Years ago, God told me just to love him. God had begun to work in my heart, and I did. And then I recently went back about two or three years ago, and my brother was talking to my younger brother. My older brother was talking to my younger brother about me.
And it was like, yeah, he's into the spiritual stuff and all. And um You know, it's not really like that's, I mean, we love God or whatever, but we don't really pursue it like He does or whatever. And it was kind of hurtful, but it was like, well, that's a good thing. But I just didn't think He really understood me, and I hadn't really talked to Him in depth. And I gave Him, God told me to write Him a letter and give Him at heart.
And it had a. an unbelievable impact on him. And he was able to read it and get in some insight into himself. But I wouldn't have done that typically or I d I'd you know, I wasn't always good at doing things like that. And I think God led me into that.
And again, that's just a way of seeing relationships and helping me to see Garland. God helped me to see how he saw things. Absolutely, yeah. It changed your relationship. Right.
Yeah, absolutely.
Sorry, I'm having problems here. It says sugar. It says sugar so far with your sister. Yeah. Uh Harold, you you'd like to share something about God opening the eyes of your heart.
Well, to me, opening the eyes of your heart enables you to see God. When you look out at the world just through your natural eyes, You see the trees? You see the rocks, you see the water, all that stuff. But when you look at it through the open eyes of your heart, You say God. Mm-hmm.
You see the why. Ohio. You can't see that with your natural vision. You can see what's there or what you think is there, and what you think is real. But through the faith that you see through open heart.
As You see the reason why it's there. God made it. and he enabled you to experience it. One of the things that I think was thinking about with respect to. ways that he's opened my heart to see things is has to do with um The Bible says it's more blessed to give than to receive.
And then Malachi says, you know, Test me tired. and see if I won't open the doors of heaven and pile it on you. Uh I have a way of describing the relationship of giving. is uh I'm I'm ju I'm real generous. I've got my little teaspoon and I'm digging into the treasure and parceling it out.
And all of a sudden I hear this beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. And I'll look up. And God's there in this great big huge dump truck fixing to dump on me.
So to me That's one of the things that I think he opened my heart to see was that the truth of the scripture that talks about Give Mm-hmm. And uh The the truth that the the joy that's there. Through the giving. is not to be found in any other way. Absolutely.
Thank you, Harold. Art, do you have anything for us? Anything came to mind you'd like to share?
Well, you had suggested I talk about dogs, which I usually do.
So, yeah, I have a dog story. I have uh you know, we had a big snow here. The snow was on the ground for over a week, snow and ice and um I opened up my hay barn, which was mostly empty of hay. I got some other hay somewhere else, but opened up my hay barn for the cows to go in there and have a place they could lay down and tromp around out of the snow. And uh But the wall for the it the the wall or the what kept them in from going out of the hay barn and going out to the highway or something was a couple of lines of of uh bales of hay.
It was like served as a barrier to them.
So so one day I was I wanted to draw them out of the barn I was gonna put a bale of hay in there for them to eat and I climbed over this wall of bells and There were several cows in the bowl. He was in there and I was gonna drive them out and uh My dog Max, he came with me. He was right there, and he was. looking at me like I was doing something not terribly smart. And he was he was there between me and the cowls at all times and he was a little worried for me, but I'm just going to say, you know, you can learn a lot from your dogs and your interactions with your dogs and how they act.
They they can open your heart to becoming a better person yourself and But um So Yeah, so to fini to go on with a story I was gonna help Max get back out.
So I was going to pick lift him up and put him on the hay and have him go back over the barrier and He he he was uh resisting my efforts. And finally I got a good hold on him and he he put his foot down across my arm and prevented me from picking him up. He he was going to stay there with me To protect me from any cows that might get angry at me or something. Mad cow. Yeah, mad cow.
Mad cow. So then I think, well, I'll go first.
So I started to jump up on a belt and he. jump between me and the b bale of hay and he w he was just gonna stick right to me and Well, we both came back down then. But anyway, that's the story. And the other thing on my heart, I felt it in my heart and. And um there may have been a young woman's uh involvement involved also to go and see the traveling monks on their walk for peace when they were in North Carolina.
And They they I listened to a message and and I think the main main thing I got out of it was kind of to let go of your past and find peace in your present and future and That's kind of a theme here where not so much let go of it, but kind of resolve it and work through it with God and what happened and forgive yourself and all.
So Uh that was really interesting and also one of the monks gave me like a peace bracelet. He said to wear it whenever I see Terry.
So I put it on, and I had to walk around behind him here. And he started grabbing my arm and pulling me. And I just held up this bracelet between us here. And I found peace then. I found peace.
You got a pickup coming at you, you're going to get a piece of Terry. Do you fish? Because that's like a fishing stick. The fish is huge.
Well, back to your point on the animals, you know, as you see the loyalty. Right, God created those beings as well, right? And He created to show us something. in their loyalty and their their fierceness to protect. and how they love regardless of who you are.
You know, and so I mean there are things you can learn from them. Darren, what about you?
Well, in in the context of the masculine journey, in the context of just a band of brothers and fellowship and stuff, I mean, there's lots of ways that God's opened my eyes to things. But the the one of the ways that I appreciate the most right now in life is Deep conversations. Um with other people that are also walking with God in similar depth, right?
So my wife, obviously. is one of those people and probably the the most key of those people. But also, you guys, you know, I mean, it's not always when we're joking around and having fun here at the station, but. You know, after hours, there are times when we really go after each other's hearts and and There have been multiple times. Um in the long past and in the very immediate past.
that God has used you or Andy or um, Robby or any one of you guys. Um To open my eyes to see something that I wasn't seeing, right? And one of those things is often. We you know, we talk about the fact that God Creates us as image-bearers, right? And we bear the glory of God in some unique way, and usually that's a.
unique way specifically to you. And then there are general ways, right? That all men bear the image of God. And then there are very specific ways. But we often are the ones that lose sight of that faster than our friends do.
And so when you're walking deeply, if you're walking intimately with other men, and you start losing sight of. the way in which God has called you to bear His image. uh the way in which he loves Watching you bear his image, in essence, and your brothers go, Oh, wait, wait, wait. You're you're forgetting who it was that God created you specifically to be as opposed to Andy or as opposed to Robby. You know, Sam, you're supposed to be XYZ.
And reminding us Of the new name that God has given us, perhaps, or Maybe the very specific general names, you know, that he's called all of us. But those types of things. You know, a lot of men talk about, you know, I'm very spiritual, but I can do it on my own. I don't go to church. I don't do this.
I don't do that. I just, you know, God and I have this thing. And that's awesome. That's great. That's where it needs to start, honestly.
But you miss out. when you don't have a band of brothers to walk with. That also knows you intimately. I see a lot of guys walking with other guys. But they're cutting up, they're joking, they're having fun, they're...
They're Kind of staying surface level and never really going deep, deeply authentic. And Yeah. You know, at our last boot camp, I said to you, man, that was one of the talks that you gave. was Literally, kind of like watching your best friend hit a home run, right? I mean, it was just like, okay, that was Sam in his glory, bearing the image of God in his glory.
And But when you don't walk Out. deeply enough to know Sam's Intimate fears, issues, sins. uh desires, wants, joys, you know, all of those things. You have no idea, right? And you can't speak into that.
And if you've not shared that with someone else, then they have no idea, and they can't speak into it for you.
So one of the ways that God has opened my heart the most, honestly, is through deeply intimate, authentic, masculine friendships. Mm, that's good. Yeah, absolutely.
It's been key, you know, uh all of us have had times that we just can't see. Right. You know, we want to see what we want our eyes to be open, but the enemy's got us so blocked and crowded. you know, covered. You know, that uh We can't see the light because of all the darkness that we're in.
Right, and so just to have somebody come along and lead you back to that light. You know, it's always the light that m makes a difference, but it's the friends that help you get there that's also key. Because without them, you may not find it very quickly. Yeah, I mean even an ogre needs a donkey. Oh, absolutely.
So I mean It's okay that I have you and you have me. I don't know which one's the ogre and which one's a donkey, but either or. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to make waffles.
Parfait. Yeah. Perfect. Parfait. So, anything else you guys have on this topic?
I still have some stuff, man. I think about my first boot camp, and God was opening my eyes to Him in lots of ways. This is in Colorado, such a beautiful setting. It's majestic out there. The mountains are just incredible.
But I'm out there, and I'd talked about it on the show before. I'd read Wild at Heart over a year earlier. And I uh It got stuck on the wound. And just couldn't Process the wound. You know, yeah, my dad did this, and he didn't show up to my games, and yeah, that hurt.
Yeah, my sister. But God, what's the one you're trying to get after. And finally, when I let down my defenses, and listened He opened my eyes. You know, and help me really It was almost like one of those movie things where you see all of a sudden your life flashing. You know, I could see all the ways very clearly how this had kept me in bondage.
Now it took a lot of work with him to break that. And there's still times that he has to step in on rare occasions and break it. with me because you know we are uh creatures of habit sometimes or we have the same triggers. Right, you know, and as we said in the last clip, you know, of the last show, Jesus said, There's a time for that, and we'll get there. Right?
And on the way. But that was such an eye-opening thing of what God is willing to do and wants to do and is happy to do in your life. You know, how how could you not If you have a a kid, how could you not want The best for them. Right? And God wants us even so much more to have things.
And so just seeing his goodness In a way that was so personal and vulnerable. That was amazing. And many, many more stories. of that happening along the way. I think all of us kind of have that experience, especially those of us who have been to the types of boot camps that we've been to.
I mean, there's lots of different cool events. Honestly, there are church events, retreats, whatever. Um But th the whole point of our boot camps. The whole point of the boot camps that you and I went to before we started doing these was To get you out of your comfort zone a little bit. Not by making you sit naked in a teepee smoking wacky weed or something.
Not the chair chain. Yeah, not the chair shame, none of those things. But just to basically put all the churchy church stuff away, not that that's bad stuff. But that's what we're used to.
So you get it and you go, oh, yeah, I know where we're going from here. I know what's next, right? And we We're kind of intentionally put in a place where God was in charge and we were listening for Him. We weren't really listening. Yeah, men are going to do some talks and they're going to tell some stories and you're going to see some clips and different things like that, and we watch those clips and But The real power comes When we go outside and say, okay, God, I don't even know where the eyes of my heart are, but you do.
And I I am willing to risk letting you open them. And that's kind of what it boiled down to for me. It wasn't so much. Did I want him to do it? Yes.
But I was also scared because I was not real sure what I would see about myself. Back to your point. If he did do that. How scary would that be? Yeah, i you want to get the victory on the other side but the pain to get there.
It is intense. I think about the talks we do, and we don't often talk about the titles of them, but you could go title by title by title. Warfare. Yep, God, you opened my eyes the eyes of my heart to warfare. to my wound, to how I pose.
To you as my father. Every one of those were times that he's opened our eyes, not at every boot camp, but at this boot camp or this boot camp or a little bit more here. You know, and walking away with a fresh nugget from God, yeah, it's more than enough to chew on for a long time. Yeah, yeah, living in the larger story instead of the smaller story. I mean, you know, smaller story is that guy is going really slow in my lane.
Yeah, that's small story. Um larger story is God and I are on a journey together, you know? to be able to put that into perspective. a thousand times a day. When You're feeling the pull towards living in the larger in the smaller story and let God take you to the larger story.
Yeah, I promise you, the smaller story is not anything less than frustrating. It always ends up there at some point. Like they call it the cares of this world, I think. Yeah, that is a smaller story. Absolutely.
Go to masculinejourney.org. We do have a boot camp coming up again in March. It's only, gosh, just a month away, right? It's March 12th through 15th in Royston, Georgia. MasculineJourney.org.
If financially it's going to be a challenge for you, don't let that stop you from coming. We will find a way to help you get there. If transit is keeping you from coming, we'll help you there too. Talk with you next week.
