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. No. Welcome to the Masculine Journey After Hours podcast. We hope that you've listened to the.
regular show, um, that is aired every uh week on the radio, but you can also find it on podcast as well, on any of the podcast apps or places that you want to to go, it's out there. Um just do a search on Masculine Journey Radio. And you'll find it. But we are talking, Andy, about the foundations of being A child of God, and how is that different than what we talked about last week? Sure, yeah.
Last week we focused on just being. not just, but being a a son of God, that fellowship between a father and a son. what that looks like and and we we have That's what we talk about most. I mean, that's part of the boot camp curriculum. That's what part of.
a big part of Wild at Heart. But you know, Sam suggested this as a being a child of God, of That identity. It's they're dual identities to me, they're kind of one and the same. But one of them I just look at is a little bit different. I think as a child, you know, Jesus, the scripture about.
were to come to him as a little child. We can't see the kingdom of God unless we come as a little child. And that's where we are born into the family. That's when maturity begins to start and where all growth opportunity is moving forward. Um But it's not limited, I guess, to the things that you would typically think as a father-son.
Um of Whether it's Hanging out or providing wisdom or giving guidance. I mean, it's all of those too, but. Just the unique idea that you were a slave, that's what Romans. 8:15 says, We were a slave. We were born as a slave.
We were under the control of Satan, but then when we receive him, we become his children. And just the start of that, the beauty of that transaction. That transaction when we say yes, when we actually become a new creature. Is incredible. It's a start to a new life.
And that's where a lot of people talk. In general, about the gospel. We've made it more specific with the wild art message, but. I guess what I'm trying to say is is I love the idea of going back and thinking about what it was like when I received Jesus for the first time, or when he made certain moves in my life at a particular time when he came through. All those were like new things that a child would experience.
as he learned who his father was.
So I don't know. I remember uh growing up, so you know, uh I I loved my dad, I loved my mom, I had I had a really, you know, pretty cool family life. Um but my dad was handicapped and so he had no muscles from his knees down and he had no muscles between his thumb and his forefinger. And Um an index finger and and almost no muscles in kind of that area. And so he dida not grab a nut.
to screw onto a bolt with a finger and thumb, like You and I do. He had to put two knuckles on two fingers together as. almost like a monkey. you will often see, you know, doing something. And I grew up Seeing dad do that.
I didn't know that wasn't the way you did it. You know, I mean, and literally, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world to go out and work on the car with my dad. And, And when I would, you know, come in the house, mom would, you know, make a big deal out of her. Yeah, they're helping dad. And I would show her my hands, right?
With all the grease on them, and, you know, and everything else. And yeah, you know, I mean, that coolness of being the child that I am walking with my father, I'm walking with my mother, take it either one. In this instance, but I'm with my parent who I believe. Is wonderful. I believe they're good towards me.
Their heart is good towards me. I believe I'm safe. Um I even know that when I mess up and I do something wrong, They haven't quit loving me. And so. I asked the question, what makes you feel childish in the first show?
And then we follow that up with, well, How do we respond when we feel childish, when we've been caught in the childish feeling? And I I would love to say, as you were kind of pointing out, Andy, that I would Respond by saying, Oh, wait, I am a child of God, and so this is how I act as a child of God. Unfortunately, I don't always do that. I haven't always done that. Um and so we're gonna play a clip real quick.
From the movie or the TV show Young Sheldon, where Sheldon is on a plane. He just heard for the first time, oh no, this plane might crash.
Now, that's not what he heard, but that's what he heard, right? He heard: if this thing happens, take the mask. If. Flotation device, all this stuff, and it is freaking him out. And so this.
This kid that's normally very, very mature is now freaking, and his dad is. in the bathroom with him on the plane trying to talk him. Out of the bathroom and back to their seats so that they can move on before security shows up, which back then was not nearly as bad as it is now, but you don't want security to show up.
Okay. Sir, please, they're gonna call security. Just one more second. Mr. Spock.
He flies around all the time in that spaceship. He's not afraid, is he? I'm not, Mr. Spock. No, but but I've seen you pretend to be him.
Could you do that right now? You be Spock, I'll be Kirk. Maybe.
Okay, Mr. Spock. Your first order is to return to your seat. I captain. Flight attendants prepare for takeoff.
You okay, Mr. Spock? Doing my best, sir. The captain and Mistress Walk don't hold hands. Sure.
Okay, maybe just this once. Nothing like a little turbulence to make you want to hold the hand of the Father a little bit tighter. Yep. Um. Jim What Where do you find yourself going when you're feeling childish?
And the bigger question is really, how do we get out of that? How do we respond in a way that's good? The I almost feel compelled to share the story I shared with you guys, but the short version of that. Wh once you realize You're being childish. You do have to transition to, okay, I need my father.
when this is happening. And uh I Again, the short version: I challenged God. I said, if you love me, you'll do this for me this morning. And he did in a major way even though I didn't think there was any way. And that And this was about a a cat that I go ahead and tell the story.
Okay. I think that's why it happened, part of the what reason. But a cat I'm very fond of, that's very fond of me and would wake me up early in the morning scratching on the door to get attention. I would normally do that. The cat quit a couple weeks ago and has been wandering around the neighborhood a lot more.
and this morning I woke up with a terrible dream that the this as a kitten, the cat, was in my hand. And my immediate interpretation was Yeah, Coley's dead. And the enemy planted it and it seated and that's when I said, God, if you love me That isn't true. And He hadn't she hadn't scratched at the door in quite a while, but This morning at about five, and that's fairly normal. And I'm usually up around that time, so that's okay.
I heard the scratch I hadn't heard in a couple of weeks, I think. and went and got loved on by the cat and by God, and I immediately thanked him. And I think thankfulness is a big part of being a child. When you recognize that love God, Jim had the catch scratch fever. It did.
That wasn't a great song, but it was a song. Go ahead, Grant. He'd be able to learn. Yeah. Yeah.
But then you got to remember it too. Yes. I'll give you one more quip from that story as long as I've been a girl before, I'll be a child today. If you're one of those that hates cats. Remember if you Steer your car to take one out, you might be breaking the heart of a child, and that child could be 72 years old.
I will admit there was a black cat. On the road in front of me today as we were coming into the studio, and I did steer towards it.
Now, I wasn't trying to hit it. I was trying to get it off of the road. I was like, okay, cat, you're going to get hurt if you stay there.
So I was in, there weren't any cars coming the other way and all that stuff. It was kind of a dead end streak, but I was just trying to shoo him out of the way because I knew Andy was right behind me. And he was in a hurry to get it to the studio.
So I was protecting the cat. But anyway, from Andy, big bad Andy. That's right, Cat. Thank you. Yeah.
So one of the other clips that we want to play, and again, I think Sam put this in the vault, but we've used it a lot. We've played this, we've used a lot of clips from this movie at our boot camps. Um and it's a movie called The Martian Child. Where Um an a father has adopted a son, or at least is in the process of adopting a son who's his foster child. And the child has had some pretty serious woundings in life and chooses to live in a world in which he thinks he's a Martian.
or wants to believe that he's a Martian, because that would mean that his parents were off on a big space adventure and they would eventually come back to him. Which is not the case. But he is adopted or fostered early on by this. gentleman who really needed something like this in his life at this time. Um because he had lost somebody that he loved dearly.
And So the two of them kinda need each other, but At some point, father's working in the study, writing a book, doing something, writing an article, and the kid comes in and accidentally breaks something. And so this little event takes place. Tennis. Was I back? No, you weren't bad, and you gotta stop saying that, alright?
I don't want you to cut your feet. And daddy's I'm in here working. We gotta put this camera away for a little while, okay? But I haven't finished my mission.
Well, you have for today. Flash! I haven't finished my mission. Give me my. Camera back!
I need it! Gotta calm down. I have to go to work or you can go to your room. You're gonna send me away? Aren't you?
Dennis, why would I send you away? Is you're mad at me. Because I broke your stuff. Tennis, I don't care about any of that stuff. Got it.
This is stuff. There's nothing you can do that would ever change the way I feel. Do you understand? How can I ever send you away? This just stopped.
Come on, break it like you mean it. One more. I'm gonna put it up. Just two, not just one. I And they're both gonna feel pretty childish here in just a second when the social worker, you know, peeks his head in the window to see this event where things are broken and ketchup and mustard are flying all over the kitchen.
And they won't have anything to eat on tonight unless he's got some paper plugs or something or something. Yeah. But that's the beauty is. If you take this as the picture of God in our life, right? A good father.
who knows his child is broken, couple of things happen. Daddy Comes down to his level.
Now, we talked about Jesus bringing these kids up to a little bit out of their level earlier. But this is. Jesus transcending which we're told he does, right? He condescends. Not in a negative way, but in a wonderful way, that he makes himself like a child.
um in order to reach children and at at this point That's the childlike faith that we have to have: that, okay, I messed up, I broke something. But daddy comes along and says, Yeah, that's not really all that important. Your heart is more important to me right now, and that we can enter into that play. With Daddy. that fast.
Now that's hard to do, guys. I mean, it's easy to talk about on the radio. That's hard to do when I really blow it and mess it up. Man, entering back into that playtime is not easy. Yeah, it reminds me that I don't know, it's just saying somebody was Said, you know, it's like this perspective.
Say you have a teenage son and it was like He wrecks the car and calls home. Dad, I wrecked, uh oh, I'm not gonna call Dad. I wrecked the car. I mean, he'll be he'll he'll kill me. Versus Oh man, I wrecked the car.
I got to call dad and get his help. It's that difference, you know, it's and it's a shift. And it's a shift that I don't think is just binary, just one or the other. As you progress through life, you got different things, and some things are much easier to take to God right away. and some aren't, but you always have that decision.
And he's always there. And I think a lot of times, in shame and failure, and all that, mine was. Uh he's gonna kill me. Yeah. Yeah.
You took me to the perfect clip for that Christmas story. Dad's going to kill Ralphie. All right.
Well, I mean. Jim, you've talked a lot about how unconditional love was a big part of your growing up and and it it was for me too, but I As much as I want to say that, I can also say that there was a lot of shame involved in. the rearing that I had as a child because my mom was Struggling to figure out how to deal with a rambunctious little boy. Um And I didn't understand why at the time that that scared her so badly. But I do now.
Um Her father died when she was 12 years old. She had to become kind of the mother of the house so that her mother and her older sisters could go work in the. in the Store that they owned and run that, and she became the mother to three. Little kids who hurt themselves a lot, one of which caught on fire. And almost burned to death.
And so when she's raising this little boy, me, Um all of those things are going h through her mind.
Now she's not gonna tell me that. But The whole time, she's scared to death. When's Darren going to catch on fire? When's Darren going to drown? When's Darren going to run out in front of a car?
When's Darren going to jump out of a tree? There's a lot of first. Yeah. And so to. To say that mom sometimes used guilt or shame.
to uh correct behavior. Would would be true. Um as much as I hate that. What's it like? To To not have that, Jim.
I mean, and maybe you didn't have it, I don't know. I, well,. I had a lot of same. I had Two wonderful parents and four wonderful grandparents with. You know, no broken marriages, the best possible examples.
uh as my mother learned. All were Christians, all Norman Rockwell scenes. Yeah. It really was. He walked around with a painting on his forehead.
And part of my. Shame was I knew May. And the big The biggest father wound I had, and I worked hard on that, and my first reaction is: I didn't have any father wounds. My biggest one. The first one I came up with, sometimes things were conditional.
Jimmy, you did. A great job on this, but if you'd have done this, it could have been better. But it wasn't ever conditional love. If that was ever there, I'd never felt it. But the biggie was, I will never be able to be like my father.
'Cause he was I mean, there were Probi I don't know the number, but there were hundreds. of people at his visitation. And I heard about how many wonderful things he'd done for many other people. And I was crushed that I'd lost him. I was in my 40s.
And somebody said, Oh, you're really lucky to have had your dad as long as you did. I didn't feel that. But in retrospect, I had that. and really disappointing him. was my shame, and my mom too, but it was mostly with dad.
And uh the worst punishment I ever got from him is, Jimmy, I'm so disappointed in you. It wasn't the switching, which I got regularly because I deserved it. And going to pick my switch was a psychological torture. Mom never made me go pick my own Hot Wheel track. They were handy.
She was at our best. Those were effective. Not as much as switches, but pretty close. Yeah. Well, I I predate Hot Wheels.
Not, well, the tracks anyway.
Okay. They were starting to come out. Andy. The next clip? Yeah.
Okay, so just making sure. This clip is from Heaven is for Real. There's a young fella, probably five, four or five years old. Um named Colton Burpo. His dad is a pastor.
Um He gets acute appendicitis, ends up in the hospital They think he's gonna die. and he does one of those trips to heaven And while he's there, he begins to see some family members of his dad, Kind of brings some clarity to the situation. This gets, to me, into the wonder of a child and receiving God in the faith. That a child has even when During this whole time, as the kid comes back and he's explaining his experience to the congregation, they can't believe it, and put so much shame and all that on the family. But this is a rescue from this child to his father, and it's amazing.
You had a grandpa named Puck, right? That's right. Was he your daddy's daddy or your mommy's daddy? He was my mom's dad. He died when I was about your age.
He's very nice. You saw Pump? You saw my grandfather? You saw him. Where did you see him?
In heaven? I love my grandfather very much. He was there with me when my father couldn't be. He taught me to weld. He gave me that slingshot.
I know. You play with it. That's right. And he was a good man. He was a really good man, but I don't know who believed him.
One was dead. Yeah. He's one of the reasons your dad became a minister. I was hoping. I get a break into heaven and...
You don't have to worry that. He's there. He came up to me and told me he's your grandfather and you called him Pop. And he holds me in his lap. Just like Jesus did, he told me everything was alright.
Okay. Look at this. Yeah. Is this him? Is this the man you saw?
No, that's not who I saw.
Okay, but just look. Are you sure? Colton. Nobody wears glasses in heaven. Can go play because when my- No, no, no, no, but are you sure that's not him?
No, okay, okay, okay, okay. Wait, mom gets home. Yep, mom will be home in a second. Just wait one second, please. Yeah.
Come That's him. That's pop. And having everybody's young. Are you okay then? An awful lot happened to you in heaven.
Yeah, it was amazing. Amen. It was amazing. Yeah. And just the beauty of that, you know, the whole idea of.
Uh He saw in heaven the reality of what Pop looked like in his youthful state. You know, God, you know, I've heard plenty of testimonies about that. I don't doubt him one bit. I think God in his. Grace does that for us, and but it's really about just that child of being able to receive it.
I mean, Again, you go back. You've got to receive the kingdom as a child. And I don't believe that's a one-time thing. You know, you continually receive the kingdom in different ways, and we have to do it as a child. And that tells me it has to be done in a spirit of wonder, a spirit of humility, a spirit of innocence, of not knowing everything, of not being.
Um too puffed up to what you know from your own spiritual experience or knowledge. Yeah, that I mean I I was a pastor once, I guess. Once a pastor, always a pastor, but. I wouldn't have believed This kid at that time when I first came out of seminary, and I, you know, I knew all the answers, or at least one of them. And The doubt that an adult, and I've seen some of those testimonies too.
And what's funny is when an adult comes back, They doubt it. They're like, okay, I know I saw this, but man, did I really see it? I mean, I you know, I don't know. And then they're struggling with was it real? All of those things.
Well, the childlike spirit doesn't even ask the question. Was it real? The childlike spirit just says, Yeah, that was Jesus. I sat on his lap. It was amazing.
And It is with that spirit that we have to approach God. It's harder. When you're stuck in sin, when you've been wounded and hurt, maybe by church. Maybe by church people, maybe by a parent who thought they were teaching you about God. Um the harder life has been for you, perhaps the harder it is sometimes, but that's not always true.
Yeah, I think s hope, the lack of hope steals that sometimes. And but I think that's where God's attempt is, is to reach it out to us, to put that hope back in us. Yeah. My wife Sheila will tell you, having grown up in a very abusive home, Jesus was always there, always there with her. And she didn't necessarily know who he was, but he was always there.
And that's a good question. Don't doubt it in anybody else. No, no. Maybe their experience. Yeah.
When I was 17, I had one, and that was more real than anything that I'm experiencing right now. Please go download this podcast and any other. You can find the Masculine Journey Radio podcast on all the different stations. And if you'd like to know more about a boot camp, go to masculinejourney.org.
