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 the Masculine Journey After Hours. We are continuing our conversation on interruptions. And Jim, that was your topic.
But, you know, it's about how God kind of gets our attention in the midst of those, correct? It it really is that And it was said in the first program: most of our ministry takes place. in the interruptions. We can be doing what we're supposed to do and things go along fine. But until God interrupts, It may or may not be got when we're doing the things we should do.
and I was interrupted by a smile in the airport. On the way back and made a a family that was from Africa very happy. just by giving them bracelets and a a little Jesus. And that was an interruption. But I saw her smile and I sort of challenged it.
I said, you know, you did something. And she looked at it. She was still smiling. And this was maybe an eight year old girl. And I said, You're smiling, so I have something I want to give you.
And the whole family got into it. Turned out they were believers and they were They appreciated it. to the level of I knew. God wanted that to happen. I mean, it was almost like I'd given them a bar of gold or something.
When you say that you gave them a little Jesus, you mean a little figurine? Yeah.
Okay, I kept thinking, I gave them the whole Jesus. Yeah, I gave them a little bit of a picture. I just couldn't handle the whole Jesus. They couldn't handle all of Jesus. Yeah, they handle all of Jesus ad or.
Well, and it was actually the older brother, because that's all I had left when I gave the girl bracelets that have the heat. Oh, I thought you meant Jesus' older brother. I don't remember reading about that. He passed out James. Yeah, well, that was younger brother, but no olders.
Kind of defeats the whole page you are. Yeah.
So back to the topic. I'm pretty good at saying a lot of words and not communicating, so I apologize. No, and I half-listened.
So between the two, it's no wonder that you didn't get a clip this week. Jim only sent it to me like four days ago.
Somehow I misunderpreted after I told him I would do it.
So, this clip we're going to play was not originally intended to be on this show, but apparently, God wanted it on this show. And so it's not really anyone's One in particular's clip. But it really speaks to This topic. It does. It's a father and a daughter.
Um trouble with the curve. I'm guessing the Holy Spirit prompted Keith to either accidentally put it in there or on purpose put it in there, but it was a great clip. Um And one of the things we were talking about it just before the show, and One of the things that hit me was, God knows he can interrupt me with my daughter or my granddaughter differently. Than he can my son or my grandsons or anybody else for that matter. I mean, even my wife.
Um I might get frustrated with her. I might even get frustrated with my daughter at an interruption. But I will typically handle her heart differently than I would. a son or one of you guys or you know whatever And I think God knows that. A Beauty calls out masculinity.
and there is no beauty that calls out masculinity. anymore. Than that of a daughter or a wife. And so. Um in this Clip, there is no wife anymore.
But The daughter is definitely interrupting the dad's world. And God uses it to Get a lot of healing for both of them. Yeah, there's two clips put together.
So, what you hear on the first part of it is her interrupting him. Right. And then him having time to process it, get worked on in my world by the Holy Spirit. And then you hear a conversation that happens later on after he's had time to process the interruption. Do you know what, um Therapy is What?
Therapy. I've been going Since college, it's a long time. Just needed to Talk to someone to help me deal with why you left me. Did I say something wrong here? Needed to, um...
understand why after mom died you took a six-year-old. to live with an uncle that she barely knew and you left her there. for a year and you didn't even call, not once. What came we heard to? Watch baseball.
We didn't come here to... Talk, I know. Everything is okay as long as we don't talk, but there's... There's no T V and there's no game on, so. It's just you and me, so I...
I need to check here. And then you did it again. I had you until I was 13, until you sent me away to boarding school, and then nothing. You were gone. Middle school, high school, college, nothing.
And for a long time, I thought that I had done something wrong. And that's why you left. But then I figured out that's just how you wanted it and so I acted like it was okay because I didn't want you to know how bad it hurt There's never a time or place. What are you doing anyway? Why did you start all this?
Okay. You're amazing. That's not what I wanted for my kid.
Well, I guess what I wanted didn't matter. You don't even like baseball. I love baseball. You know I love it. I never even wanted to be a lawyer.
I did that for you so that you would be happy with me and that you would approve of me and then maybe you'd keep me around. I did what I thought was right. I just didn't want you to have life in the cheap seats. Spending every waking moment with my dad watching baseball, eating food that was no good for me, playing pool, staying up too late, those were the best seats in the house. Yeah, it's it's a great clip.
Yeah, so You know, it incorporates a lot of clips we've been talking about recently. And that there's a peace that only comes on the other side of war. And This is the kind of introduction, I mean, interruption, disruption, it's both. Yeah.
Um. That causes an Tremendous amount of stress on both people. And having had recent conversations with daughters, I can assure you. that it is extremely when it when it it goes close to home like this does. then unfortunately The fathers have no idea how the daughters interpretate interpret how we don't speak into certain things.
how we don't communicate as often as we should or as we should. And The daughters by the same token, they interpret that. and put it and and Satan helps put a spin on that that says, my father doesn't really care about me, he doesn't really he and you know, even the conclusion that she came to, that he sent her away because he wanted it that way. Which nothing could be further from the truth. As you find out in the story, that actually he sent her away because there was a guy that was going to try to molest her.
He caught him and dealt with him as only clinics would. He kind of made his day, I can say. But the idea was he realized that his daughter was in danger in the cheap seats, and he wanted to protect her. And when she found out the whole truth, then there was a great deal of healing there, but just points to the fact. From my standpoint, That these discussions, as painful as they are, and Clint Eastford does a great job of showing how difficult it was to go into that.
The intimacy of it At a chance to truly understand each other and how you feel and where you're coming from, because if you don't talk, Then both sides are assuming things that are just so far from the truth. And Satan is so there to interpret that for you. And so I'm more convinced than ever, having listened to this show, that John Lennon really understood that ministry is what happens while you're busy making other plans. You know, when I listened to this clip, then this movie. We talk about in other shows the cycle God constantly has us on.
He's always doing four things in our life, right? Disrupting, dismantling, healing and restoring. That movie does every one of them. It shows when the disruption happens. They dismantle what they've believed, right?
And then they move from healing into restoration of relationship. But you can't get to the restoration and the healing without going through. the interruption, disruption, whatever you want to call it, and the dismantling of something. Yeah, you're. I mean, we've said it a thousand times, probably, but you will never get to deeper intimacy unless you're willing to go through.
The fight. Doesn't mean you have to go around picking fights. That's not what I'm saying. But if every time life gets hard, you back away. You're never going to get to the other side.
You're never going to get to that intimate. relationship that you want and You know, Satan has, as Robby said, a very special hatred for women. And for the relationship of a father and a daughter. Um a husband and a wife, and so he is going to help interpret those things. Um And yeah, it's a disruption.
I mean, it's and it's oftentimes an interruption. I'm it's a neat topic, Jim. In the last year, all of us in this room have had some pretty significant interruptions in our lives. Um And There were a few of them that I was ready to just go, nope, nope, not going to do it, not going to enter in. Um or man, I wished I had not said I would do that thing.
Um 'cause I'd really like to back out now. But Yeah. pushing through and saying, Okay, God, I'm not going to be able to do this by myself, and I never could. But that's the point of the interruption, right? It's to bring us to our knees, to the point where we go, okay, God, I really need your help here.
Um, which he's going, yeah, um, you know, that's why I interrupted you. Um By pushing through that and trusting in him, It was kinda like for me it was like a David you know, dealing with the lion or David dealing with the bear or David dealing with the giant. Um You gotta go through some of that stuff. In order to mature to the place that God wants you, so do your relationships. They have to go through that stuff.
Yeah, it's definitely when you look back, you have eyes to see things more clearly than you did when you were going through them, right? Um it's a Monday morning quarterback of our life. You know, we can look back and see some things. I'm going to use a clip. Um I don't think God caused my interruption I'm going to talk about.
Thank God allowed my interruption because of my own stuff. Stubbornness. my hardheadedness and some other things. But I'm gonna uh talk about my divorce. You know, um For my wife, when we moved down here, we'd been married, we were married 23 years.
And so I'm going to play this clip because it's from the jerk. And it's kind of I thought I knew what I needed when the divorce happened, just like this character thinks he knows what he needs. And I'm not going to play it all because it goes on for a long time, but you'll get the flavor of it.
So here we go.
Well, I'm gonna go then! I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff. I don't need you. I don't need anything.
Except this. This is Jaya. That's the only thing I need is damn. Honey, look at this! Just disaster.
See, I'm sure the palgator, that's all I need. And yeah. Remote control. The S-Trade, the power game, and the remote control, and that's all I need. Uh But these matches.
Yeah.
Yes, Trey, and these matches and the remote control and the paddle ball. Never mind. And it goes on for another like 60 seconds or 50 seconds. But you know, Steve Martin's character has in mind what all he really needs, and he has absolutely no clue on what he needs. You know, and Uh when the divorce happened I was completely lost.
Um I never wanted to be a parent that wasn't in my kids' lives every day. And that was going to change. You know, and there was a lot of things that I thought I needed that God later showed me I what I really needed was him. and let him lead. You know, I think God tried in his own way to save the marriage many times.
And for whatever reason, I couldn't Do what he asked me to do, or I didn't I was afraid to do what he asked me to do, and I don't know how it was for her. I'm assuming it was the same. You know, along the way, that God had tried to do the reconciliation. But I knew it took what was a horrible thing, and there was a lot of good things that came from it. And for me, My relationship with him changed.
a lot. I had to I had never lived by myself. And I was scared to live by myself. My whole life I'd never lived on my own. I was the youngest of six kids, always had a roommate.
Then I had kids. You know, I'd never lived alone. And so the first few weeks that I was there by myself. You know, it's like, okay, what I do now? Right.
And so it made me face some things and to talk to God a lot more. And He worked over the next 10 years on me, you know, breaking down a lot of those things, dismantling. helping me get healing and restoring and and and made me into a different person. That he really wanted me to be more of the person he designed me to be. I still got a long way to go.
But if it wasn't for that, it also deepened my relationship in ways with my kids. You know, because they got to learn who mom was outside of mom and dad. They got to learn who Dad was outside of Mom and Dad. you know, and and any marriage, you have different ideas on how kids to be raised and you have to come to some unity. But, you know, it it could just be I could totally be myself with them and they got to see dad for the first time fully.
And it led to some really healing in my kids' lives at boot camp with my son Eli and times with Caleb. And so I'm just really grateful that I've gone through that. Not necessarily grateful that it happened and my kids had to go through it, but I'm grateful for the restoration and healing that I got from it. that hopefully I continue to get. And so, anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
I was sitting there listening to your story, and I was like. Have I ever lived alone? And I have. After my divorced to my first wife, but that was the first time I had ever lived alone. as well and It is a very different um existence because Ex Your emotions might be divided, but your your time and attention when when you're truly present aren't, you know, and that was the time.
That probably began some healing for my daughter and I because we had had some really rough, tempetuous years. And had some more after that. But God used some groundwork in there. Um. I think to uh to do some work that he needed to do and I've often said it kind of the same way you did: that God basically said, Look.
I need to do some things with you that I can't do while you're. More worried about her than me. While you're, in essence, worshiping her rather than me. Um and I need to do some things with her that I can't do while she's Running around trying to be perfect for you. And not that, again, I don't think God, you know.
set up the divorce, anything like that. I we chose that. But I believe that when I went back to God and said, okay, what do I do now? That was in essence a consolation that he consoled me with that. That, hey, look.
Yeah, it's it's gonna be tough. But there are some things I need to do when I don't have to compete for your attention. Yeah, when I went through stuff and I look back, especially through this message, right, I was trying to get her to answer questions that only God could answer. You know, to help heal those hurt places from relationships before. you know, and and put a lot of pressure.
There and she had her own things that she brought in in the same way. And could God have healed us in the midst of that? Absolutely. But somehow we didn't allow that to happen, right? And so he was able to start that process when we were no longer together.
And so I'm grateful for that. I was doing what he did. as well. And I have never lived alone. And I have a feeling the two oldest people in this room have never lived alone.
Have you lived alone, Harold? For any time at all? No? I have.
Well, you're not, you're a third oldest. You don't count. Oh. Step back from the mic there. But God uses that too.
I mean, there. There were times when at best we were angry roommates, but we stuck together. And and Harold Bless them. Bless them with having very little of that other than Harold's anger, but we've talked about that before, right now. No, I've I've not had to live alone.
And to be honest, That that's a fear that I have. Oh, it's it's odd odd, but uh one of the things that we were listening to on the radio and and that was talking about, you know, What what do you fear? And she said, I I know what yours is. And I said, Really? What?
And she said, That I'll go before you. And that is true. Sixty-two years and Yeah. That's a pretty long time. It is.
She's still the the apple of my eye. Mm. Yeah.
During that time, and I've shared it on the air before, but God opened my eyes to beauty in different ways. You know, I became an old person, started watching birds, you know, got real interested in birds and got the bird feeders and hummingbird feeders and truly just love looking at God's creation and did some horrible painting, but I loved painting, you know, and stuff like that. But God didn't let any of that time be wasted as long as I didn't waste it, right? That the times that got wasted was 'cause I did it, you know, not because God was doing it. And so I'm really grateful for that.
Nanny, you got something? Yeah, I was just going to interject. I did live alone for a short period of time and married my landlord, and you can become homeless if I go south, by the way. You can. Just saying.
Yeah.
But, you know, but it was a time, and I realized that. you know, the disruption in it was that I never liked being alone. I am a people person. I love people. I love being in crowds of people.
That's always been me. And Michelle and I were talking the other night. She loves solitude. Matter of fact, she loves Tuesdays because I come to Winston Central Work and I'm not home till 9 something. She loves the solitude of it all.
Me, it's not a great big deal if I'm not home alone very long or whatever that kind of thing. But there is a difference between being lonely and having solitude. And then, you know, we had that discussion the other night. But, you know, God is able to. move some things and and I was thinking of that song There's a Christian song out there.
I will make room for you. And it isn't until you're willing to. Make room for him that he moves in and does anything because he's a gentleman. Absolutely. Absolutely.
The other, the final point that I wanted to make. Oh, I'm sure it's not the final point.
Well, probably not. But it was before Danny took his mic back, which I've been hoarding the whole time. But the. God uses We're all, we are all unique. Not very unique, just unique.
Where no two people are the same. And God uses what you go through. If you let him and will get your attention with the interruptions, if you're trying not to let him. And either but either way, he loves us enough. to interrupt us to get to something we need to grow.
And and Harold, I'm almost the opposite on the I mean, I I've been married a mere 53 years. And rookie. And. I want Caroline to die first. Not because I want to do this.
Yeah, I think so. Not because I want to be alone. I desperately don't. And that we agree on. But I think it is a gift of love if that happens because she won't have to go through losing me.
And She is terrified of that more than I had. you know, I'm terrified too, but I'd rather meet my terror. Then have her Have to take over my accounting, which that alone terrifies her. Absolutely. So guys, any other interruptions you can think of, or how do you look at interruptions now when they occur?
I know I still get frustrated initially, but I see it quicker. That, you know, okay, God, what's up here? Yeah, I I don't see them The big ones, I mean like the cancer, you know, illness, um, major upheaval at, you know, in a job or something like that. Those I'm pretty quick to be able to go, Okay, God, what w You're going to do something cool here. I don't know what that is.
I'm not happy about this. I mean, you know, it's not a, oh boy. It's. It is Okay.
Alright, got my attention. And not that he necessarily caused those things either, but I know this is going to be an interruption to my life. And so I'm going to go ahead and push in right now. It's the small ones that get me. It's the little foxes that Solomon talks about.
Those are the ones that get me. It's the. you know, the stupid person. Um that I'm you know death by a thousand cuts instead of getting decapitated.
Well, one of our friends, Dewey Hilton, said it like this one time. He said, It's like being killed, being Peck to duck. Pecked. Peck to duck. He said it better than I.
I'm thinking it was. He said it's like being pecked to death by a flock of ducks. You know, I mean, it's just so annoying after a while and you start to lose heart.
Well, That's the stuff I'm working on now, is trying to catch things sooner. I drive slower. I try to leave in time to not be in a hurry. I mean, you know, different things like that, because there's a lot of things that can set me off pretty quickly to get me into a very un-Jesus-like state. And finally, I'm only 61.
I'm not even as old as Harold is married. But. That being said, I'm finally starting to feel like, okay, maybe I'm starting to act my age, you know, and I'm okay with that. Yeah, it for me when I'm uh Driving, I I like to think I'm doing better. You know, I don't tap my brakes when somebody's riding up on me, but I do drive as slow as I possibly can just to let them get infuriated.
And I know that's not any better, but somehow it feels a little better. One wonderful thing about being in the British Isles Yeah. 95% of the drivers are very courteous. Wow. Unlike the U.S., where that's kind of reversed.
Yeah, we're pretty aggressive, depending on where you're from. Go to mascoinjourney.org. When we have some events coming up, it'll be posted there. We are retooling potentially our fall boot camp, so we'll maybe do an announcement on that coming up. But let God work on you this week and ask Him, God, what about the interruptions I'm in right now?
What are you trying to do there? What are you helping me get to? And look at the ones in the past and see how you brought you through them. We'll talk with you next week. Love somebody well this week.
