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. It seems like forever since I've seen you guys, and I only missed last week.
I haven't listened to the show yet, but I'm sure you railed on me at some point. I wasn't here either. Oh, well, I'm sure they talked about you. Yeah, I'm sure. You got to get a microphone, Darren.
It was pure silence. Was it?
Okay, we just sat here staring at you. Yeah, just waiting. What are we going to do? Sam's not here. Yeah.
What are we going to do? Robby's not here. What are we going to do? Andy's not here. I mean, we tried to get Harold to.
talk as much as possible and he he did use four. Words. All four? Yep. Yeah.
Okay.
So that's good. It was good, though. Did Art chime in? And we did make fun of you. Yes, he did.
Wow. I I gotta listen to it if our chimed in. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's good.
Well, welcome to Ascon Journey. We're glad to have you. Obviously, we enjoy being around each other, and we hope that you enjoy listening as we talk about what God's been doing in our life and in others' lives. And that's kind of where we're going with the topic today, isn't it, Andy? It is.
It is. Just some things going on in my family, my extended family recently. Got me thinking just about What this you hear us talk about the masculine journey and wild at heart and the impact of our life. And it's almost like we're talking about another gospel, but it is the gospel. To me, it's a gospel that's well researched and Studied And Articulated into a way that it's beyond what we knew the gospel as, the way we took it in ourselves.
From what I gather from talking with the guys. And in this way, this way of looking at yourself, looking at God, and looking at others. Um If it I mean, I've been uh I was talking I've been doing you know part of the team for ten years. If it hadn't have done anything in 10 years, I would have blown it off a long time ago. It impacts your life, and not only you, but the people around you.
And that's what we're talking about. How is. Mm-hmm. You know, wild at heart, masculine journey, what we do here, what we talk about on a regular basis. What the boot camps do.
What the boot camps do. How does it affect your family? Because I've heard testimonies from each one of these guys, and I know personally that I've experienced it, and I'll get into some deeper stuff later on. Of some stuff really current. But I'll just let the show go now.
But that's kind of what we're going to talk about. Yeah, we had some great discussion before we came in. Uh talking about it and and some good memories. And and so anyway, Danny, you have the first clip, and so if you'd like to tell us something about it or do whatever you want to do. Yeah, it's uh shockingly enough, it's from the Andy Griffith show.
No, yeah, it shocked all y'all that I would actually use a clip from there. Yeah, you know, but gotta get back in the groove somewhere, you know.
So, um, but it it's another life lesson. Andy and Opie are having a conversation, and they're always great, and you know. And he's teaching him some responsibility. And you can play the clip, and we talk. And there is, you'll hear another guy talking other than Barney, and it's Bill Bixby before he turned big and green.
So, go ahead. Pop? Hmm? You in a good mood. Yeah, why?
If I tell you something, would you promise not to get mad? Yeah. Well, they're not old pens. What is it?
Well, it ain't hardly worth mentioning. But I think I better mention it. You know that old window on Mrs. Pretty's back door? Yeah.
Someone threw a ball and busted it. Yeah. Would you by any chance be that someone? You mad, Paul? No, no, I'm not mad.
Promise you won't get mad. You won't get an allowance till that wind is paid for.
Okay?
Okay, but Make way for the ice cream. Oh, boy! And nowberries to go in. Come on up. Youngberry.
Stand up close.
Okay.
Sure?
Okay.
Wasn't she sort of rough on the kid? How's that?
Well Why why don't you bail the little fella out? Bail him out.
Well, yeah, it's just a window. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Yeah, yeah, I guess I could uh bail him out, like you say. But the only trouble with that If I was to do that, why, every time he'd get in trouble, he'd be expecting me to come to the rescue, don't you see? If this time it's a broken window, later on it'd be something bigger, and then something bigger than that.
Now he's got he's got to learn to stand on his own two legs now. I could keep that young straight. Yeah, he's telling this to Bill Bixby, who his father has bailed him out most of his life. And he's thinking his father's gonna come bail him out, but you know. Andy's impact on this this this scene has an impact on him, but And the reason I chose that is that this masculine journey and the gospel, and as you put very well, Andy, that Andy Thomas, not Andy Griffith.
Have to distinguish, I think. You have a son named Opie. And who says we need a Barney in here? Yeah, we need a Barney. Yeah.
But uh Impacted, you know, because there's accountability. And, you know, d for so long, I guess, I just kind of rode the waves. uh family matters, if you will. And you know, didn't dive into controversy at times, didn't stand up and be man, because I thought that was mean and cruel. But what I've learned through through, you know, this message and, you know, through you know, several other things is that there is accountability with love.
And you if you treat somebody's heart well. Then you know, you can still address issues. and not have to be the be the big mean cop, so to speak, or or whatever and, you know, And when you do things differently with people, especially with family members, 'cause family, I mean, to be honest, they're the ones who know you the best. You know, on this side of heaven, they know you the best. You you can pose all you want to outside, but come to the house, ain't no posing, they know.
And so. But when you begin to act differently, they have to react differently. And the positive impact of that far outweigh any negative stuff that comes back. And you I've got some pretty tough things going on with several family members. you know, at present time for different reasons.
But In essence, what I've learned through this and what you, you know, watching you guys who've. going ahead of me in this journey. you know live life out well. and go through tough stuff. and you know and come out on the other side.
is that you know what, it ain't gonna kill you. And that, you know, it's okay. It's okay. And you're not alone. And, you know, so I mean, I've had to give some family members some space.
which wasn't easy to do 'cause come from a family that, you know, all up in your grill sometimes. You know, whether it need to be or not. And, you know, or and my mom, bless her heart, she was the peacemaker at all costs. You know, it didn't matter what it cost and tip Cost a lot sometimes, you know. And but, you know, when she was gone, The peacekeeping force was gone, so the country went to chaos.
I'm just saying. But you know but you know, those are the kind of things that you have to back up and go, okay. What does this really mean? And if you bail this one out or somebody bails you out or whatever, that kind of thing. Is that really teaching you anything?
Are you really learning anything? 'Cause God's not in the business of bailing us out, so to speak. He wants us to learn life lessons and he'll take you round the mountain several times. you know, for you to learn the lessons. And, you know, that's okay.
And, you know, I can remember, I'll tell a story on my son when he was teaching him to drive. His granddaddy gave him a. No Nissan pickup, it was a straight drive. And so there's a law. stop sign, just a little ingray down near where we lived.
It wasn't much at all. He went down there and he could not take off from that little incline. You know, and his poor little leg was just a shaking. And I think he finally said, Son, you've had enough.
So we had to go get gas and we swapped driver and we didn't got gas.
Well couple days went by and you know he'd practice a little bit more so When he got good at changing gears, I said, go back down to the stop sign down there. And you hear the air come out of his lungs. Yeah. Yeah. So we went back down the same place.
I said, all right, now take off. And he nailed it. I mean, he didn't spin the tires any day, he took off. And he looks at me and he goes, why did you make me come there? I said, because you needed to win that victory.
You know, you were defeated here, you need to win that victory. And it's okay. It's okay to be defeated, but get back up on the horse. And you know, those are the kind of priceless things that we go through life. And, you know, sometimes we ain't careful.
We'll get in our own little story and we'll miss them. But, you know, thank you guys for being the examples, you know, ahead of me. The same thing with Jesus. We thank him after the trial. Sure.
We do. Danny, I wanted to follow up on something you said before the show. Right, about recognizing that other people are in the smaller story. you know, is pretty key that it's okay that they're there. not to share names or anything, but there's not a lot of people that walk so deeply in the message that they understand and it's hard for us to separate the smaller story from the larger story, which we've done shows on that if you don't know what we're talking about.
But uh that was a key thing for you, wasn't it? Yeah, d I've got a situation where you know it has kind of unfolded over the past couple of years. And you know, I won't share who or what, but I had to acknowledge that this person. was living in a smaller story. And they didn't have the capacity to process what was going on.
You know, part of it was my cancer diagnosis. And it came out in ways that were shocking to me, and I wanted to respond in different ways. but you know that were not appropriate and it would not have been well for my heart or theirs. And you know, God had to father me through that. You know, but yeah, you know, to recognize somebody, okay.
They're in the smaller story. You know, and you have to love them from there. Yeah. You can't drag them out, you know, although you'd like to grab them by the ear and say, Come on, you know, a bit of larger story. But, you know, that's you know, might get whipped.
But the but that's the whole idea of you know, being able to recognize these things in my own life and in other people's life is okay. you know, and I love the fact that me and Michelle sit around talking to my wife and I think and every once in a while she goes, I've made an agreement. And I go.
Well, look at there. Absolutely. You know, that's cool. I think that. As we see, you know, I didn't know much about the larger story, right?
What that was. And God had grace for me through that. And so He lets us have grace for others when we recognize, oh, okay, I've been there. You know, I've been and some days I am there. Right.
And so I can relate. I'm not pointing fingers. I just need to have more grace and more understanding. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, anyway, uh, Harold, have you thought anything you'd want to say?
Well The impact that I think it's had on me and my family is the understanding that that we've gained about these things called agreements. and about other things. It really helped me deal with a problem that I've had. with my father and his drinking.
So Learning about one. Harold, let's pick that up after. I always do this to you. I ask you something when I go to break. Go to masculinejourney.org to register for boot camp.
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.
So personally, I had no clue what I was walking into. And then realizing that other people are in the same boat and, you know, how open everybody was to share their struggle is a great group, and a lot of packing was to be done. It is a tight bond of men. Everybody's the same. And each and every time that I've come to boot 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, 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. Come. Our golden rule have faith in you and the things you do.
You won't go wrong. Oh no, this is our family joo. We are family.
Well, Andy, that was your family. Yeah. Um What is it? 75, somewhere around there. Yeah.
Sister Sledge. And uh.
So the the words that you heard there Here's what we call our golden rule: have faith in you and the things you do. You won't go wrong. Oh no, this is our family jewel. We are family.
Hey, hey, sing it to me. I got all my brothers, brothers with me. Yeah. That's not what I heard. That's not what it heard.
Yeah. Yeah, Jim's not here. Yeah, brother and sis, brothers and sisters. That's right. The Carolina girls.
Yeah. But uh you know just Just that um Idea. We are family.
I mean, you know, you can repurpose these songs, so many of these songs. This wasn't written to God, but you know. Have faith in you and the things you do. This is what we're talking about: how He, how He's not, it's not the masculine journey or anything. It's the God.
It's allowing, it's opening ourselves up to God and allowing Him to father us through this stuff. But He's the one that does these things. And yeah, that's our golden rule. When you were talking earlier about. Masculine journey about wild at heart.
That's not the answer. It's the vehicle that gets you to God in a deeper way. Oh, absolutely. Right. In a more intimate way.
And that's where our heart found God, and God found us in a much deeper way, and that's why we're passionate about it. Wherever God meets you, you have passion. That's right. There's people, I've got other parts of my family who are. Thrive in God, and they were a mess.
And they didn't go through all this stuff. A lot of it can come in different ways. But a lot of us, this seems to be the package God has chosen for us to receive the message. And it all makes sense. And You know, this it just gets back to the heart.
Literally, the heart. Yeah, it does. And so that's why it's so important and resonates with us. And this was written for men. Yeah.
You know, it really does. We're not that hard to understand. We're pretty simple. One knob. One knob, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Well, when we left, our buddy Harold was talking about the impact on his family. From the Mascon Journey.
So, Harold, as usual, I cut you right in the middle of what you were saying and had to go to break. No, Biggie. Uh yeah, the insights that uh come through this program really are helpful. Especially if you have problems with temper, which I did. road rage, which I embraced.
for way too many years. But because of a lot of the things that we can learn about our nature, as being masculines trying to follow God. It helps.
So I would say it's had a very positive impact on me and my family, my association with this group. And then you were talking a little bit about the the with your dad. Yeah, uh oh, I had tremendous resentment growing up because my dad had an alcohol problem and uh I resented that greatly. And it affected me and impacted my relationship with other members of the family. And uh Things are different.
Yeah, God's done some healing there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you, Harold. Um Darren, it's uh your clip time now.
Yeah, this clip comes from the movie Saving Mr. Banks. And I mean, there was like 732 clips that I could have used. or however many thousand we've cut over the last, you know, Long time. Sixteen years, fifteen years.
Um But this one it articulates the message that we're trying to articulate. But it but it's real, and it's even a true story. In Walt Disney is talking to Mrs. Travers, who was the writer of Mary Poppins. And that's what the the book is about.
She's writing this. message because she's got some massive father wounds. A father who was a severe alcoholic and And so she's grown up with a lot of resentment and she's trying to repaint the picture. But she's trying to do it falsely, kind of, you know, and just cover it up, if you will, just put extra paint on it. And Walt has Gotten some healing with his relationship with his father.
And so he's in this. He. She's basically backed out, and I'm not going to produce the movie. I'm not going to give you anything else. You can't do the movie, blah, blah, blah.
And so he's gone to her to talk to her. personally about this and and try to get her to understand, look, This is a gift to people if you can, you know, do this. But he uses his own story. Um his dad was a very hard man. Um Uh my kids could say that about their dad.
And so it relates to me personally. I. I didn't have a father that struggled with alcohol making me resentful. My kids had a father who was resentful, causing them to be alcoholics. No, they're not alcoholics, but they could have been, and they could have blamed me, and they would have been okay doing that.
There were so many parts of this puzzle for me that is real, and the reality is this. We are all Nothing but The result of our wounds. Pause for effect. If We don't allow God to redeem those wounds.
So that's the key, though. You have to allow God to step in and start redeeming those wounds. And when you allow Him to start redeeming your wounds, magically you start living in the larger story. Yeah. And start understanding that everyone, including those people that have hurt you the most, also were very wounded.
And so this allows. One To look at those people that have hurt them: father, mother, brother, sister, friend, whatever. And say, yep, God has given me grace, and now I'm living in the larger story. that person wasn't an evil person necessarily. They were broken just like me and I'm tired of remembering it, you know.
towards the negative. And so just play the clip and There we go. It's self-explanatory. And old Elias, well he didn't believe in new shoes until the old ones were worn through. Honestly, Mr.
Travers is a snow drift, sometimes they were up over my head. And we'd push through that snow like it was molasses. Cold and wet seeping through our clothes and our shoes. Skin peeling from my faces.
Sometimes I'd find myself sunk down in that snow. Just waking up. Because it must have passed out or something, I don't know. Then, well, it was time for school and I was too cold or wet to... figure out equations and things and Well, then it was right back out in the snow again to get home just before dark.
Mother would feed us dinner. And then it was time to go right back out and do it again for the evening edition. You best be quick there, Walt. You better. Get those newspapers up on that porch and under that storm door, Pop's gonna lose his temper again and show you the buckle end of his belt, boy.
I don't I don't. Tell you this to make you sad, Mrs. Travers. I don't. I love my life.
I think it's a miracle. I love my dad. He was a wonderful man. But rare is the day. When I don't think about that eight-year-old boy delivering newspapers in the snow.
and only Last Disney with that strap in his fist. And I am just so tired. Mr. Drivers and I'm tired of... remembering it that way.
Once you're tired too. Mrs. Travers. Now we all have our sad tales, but don't you want to... Finish the story.
Let it all go and have a life that isn't dictated by the past.
So there you go. I mean, there's the difference between living in the larger story and the smaller story. The smaller story is: I got hurt. This person hurt me. The larger story is we've all hurt somebody.
And God being the number one person that we've hurt. And yet he looks beyond, according to John thirteen, he looks beyond our blamable behavior. which is Horrible. And he looks to our need. and our need is forgiveness.
and our need is unconditional love. And so he supplies that. Even while we were dead in our transgressions, according to Ephesians, that is when he chose to make us alive again And so we get that same dignity, honestly. When we Forgive Harold's father We get the dignity. of bringing him back to life in a different way when we forgive our mate who may have had an affair or may have hurt us, may have physically abused us.
Um When we forgive, we have that same opportunity as Jesus. Yes, we're not raising them back to life. Spiritually, as Jesus does us, but we are. resurrecting A new life. And we don't have to keep remembering it that way.
And that's, I think, one of the huge messages for me: it taught me. to be able to do that for my kids and to be able to say, hey, yeah, I blew it, kids. Love you.
Sorry. Um try not to do that again. And today my kids are amazing people and you know blessing people in the kingdom every day. And so that's the I wouldn't have been able to do that. I wouldn't have been able to restore my relationship with my daughter, had I not been walking through this message um with you guys and learning from you know, obviously scripture first and foremost, but But then having others to help me understand and interpret life.
as it comes. based on the scriptures. Yeah, one of the things that's consistent in all of our stories is we've not been wounded the same way, but often the messages are very similar. Right. And when you see someone else.
Get healing, you get hope. Right? And you know, okay, this can happen for me. You know, it it's horrible what happened to us, and it's a real shame what happened to every one of us and everyone listening. The bigger shame is when we stay stuck there and let it dictate the rest of our life.
You know, because the story you're staying in is a very painful story. Right? People either get bitter or they get better, right? And that's the two choices you have. And that's what I look at.
There's a lot of times I don't want to have to deal with things from my past. But I don't want to become that person or be stuck there. Right. And you don't have to be because God's offering that. And when it changes you, it changes everybody around you.
Amen. You know, and that's what we're talking about. Go to Masculine Journey for the upcoming boot camp. It's the weekend before Thanksgiving. Andy, do you know the dates?
19th through the 22nd. Thank you. 19th through 22nd of November, if you didn't know where Thanksgiving was. It is an advanced boot camp.
So if you've not been to one of our camps or another camp and you want to go, reach out to us. We'll try to find a way for you to get there. We'll talk to you next week and let God work on your heart. Let Him heal you and love others well. Uh
