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 Masco and Journey After Hours. We are continuing our topic on mercy. And we're trying to figure out what it means.
Now, we've gotten a couple different definitions, which has been really cool, and we'll visit those probably briefly again. But if you hear a voice you're not used to hearing on the talk today, on the radio show, it's our friend Mitch from Mission Uprising in Indiana. Mitch, welcome to the show again. Hey, thanks. Glad to be here.
Yeah, a little bit later, Mitch will tell us about a father-daughter weekend he has coming up in a few weeks here in North Carolina.
So, if that's something that interests you, we'll get more information on that a little bit before the show ends. But we're going to continue to visit the topic of mercy. And, Darren, you have the next clip. Yeah, so. Uh this clip is comes from Schindler's list.
And it's a brutal movie to watch because it's true and it does demonstrate the evil that we face in the world. But it also demonstrates some mercy and some grace and some humility, and this is towards the end of the movie where. Schindler. is getting close to getting caught, found out, and he's um making preparations basically to give every last thing that he's got away to help. Jews that are in This Horrible.
evil place. Um escape. And He has been insulated because he was wealthy and and different things. And in this clip you'll hear Schindler and a couple of other voices as well, but you'll hear him repeatedly say I didn't do enough. I could have done more.
I could have done more. Which you may be asking, what in the world does that have to do with mercy? Um. And ultimately, I think we've got a picture here. Yeah.
Not h he's doing something That by all stretch of our imaginations, we would say these people deserve someone to do this good thing for them, right? But why him? Um He chooses to make it him because he understands one definition of mercy, and that is that there's a kinship in humanity. at the most general. Um but there's more.
and these are employees that work for him and he's Doing everything you can to help them out. But you'll hear him. this person who's done imaginable I mean, unimaginable grace and mercy and gifting to these people. begin to basically stress out and say I didn't do enough. I could have done more.
I should have done more. I wasted so much. And they come back to him and say, no, you did a lot. Thousands will be alive because of what you've done. And the thing that I want us to understand from this is that There is no way To show mercy to someone without the humility, really, that's shown on both sides of this coin.
So just listen for that humility in both of the different. groups talking. As soon as peace occurs, I want I want that cloth distributed to the workers. Two and a half meters each. Also, each person is to get a bottle of vodka.
They won't drink it, they know its value. Likewise, those who give you cigarettes reorganize. It'll be done everything you ask. We have written a letter. trying to explain things.
In case you're captured. Yeah. Every worker has signed it. Thank you. This Hebrew from the Talmud it says whoever saves one life saves the world entirely.
Yeah. I could have got more. And we won't find chosen. Um I couldn't have got more. If I'd make more money.
Yeah. Um Nice. Threw away so much money Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You have no idea.
If I just generations because of what you did. I didn't do enough. You did so much. Yeah. It's pretty easy to have that kind of heartfelt desire to give mercy to your children or maybe give it to your wife or your husband or A good friend.
It's totally different to give that kind of mercy to a total stranger. or somebody that's not a total stranger and that has hurt you dearly. And I've shown mercy in the very secular definition of mercy to people before. But it wasn't because I loved them and it it wasn't because I was humble. about my own needs for mercy.
It was probably because I didn't want to be inconvenienced or any number of different things. But the point that I that I want to make there is that true biblical mercy A. It doesn't happen without sacrifice. But B, it also doesn't happen without an immense amount of humility, understanding what it is that God is giving me, and that not just God. My friends.
I mean, the two guys sitting in here, you guys have shown me probably more mercy. Then Anybody other than my wife or my children, you know, in my life. And so because we've. done a lot of things together and we've we've hurt each other at different times. Not intentionally, but we have.
Some kind of intentionally.
Well, okay, Sam. I was talking about me. I never heard a Jew intentionally. No. I mean, yeah, there was that one time.
But seriously, that's where we're at. And it's easy to talk about mercy. It's totally different. um to really bestow it upon somebody. You know, as you were talking, I was thinking, I don't In some ways it'd be easier to show mercy on My kids or my spouse.
Um But you have to live with them. And so it might be easier sometimes to show mercy on somebody you never have to deal with again. Yeah. Right? Because am I going to continue to have.
Patience. as they're trying to change. I think it may be tougher for me, you know, to someone really close to me like that. It's brilliant, I think, and you know, extremely helpful. Yeah.
You guys have seen the advanced boot camp Um videos that Craig McConnell was speaking on the idea of About a battle to fight. And he responded to to John. It may have been it may have been an original boot camp. But anyway, he said, what battle are you fighting that's worth dying for? Yeah.
Schindler Was giving mercy worth dying? In other words, if he'd been caught, and any of those people, they were talking about the letter that they'd written. Yeah. They're. And they wouldn't die an easy death.
I mean, it would be unbelievable the torture like that. And it wouldn't just be them. It would have been their families too. Right. Right.
And so, you know. I remember Craig asking that question, what battle do you have out there that is worth dying for you, that is that important. That would be that, and you realize, and we had talked about it earlier, this idea of compassion, that this. That we're showing passion based on us being united to people through a situation like this. What?
The compassion you could hear the The grief that you could hear in his voice because he'd experienced the death of so many. Good.
Okay. you know, dear people. And You know, obviously, it's bringing out the best for him. And the beautiful part of it for me, if you go to the Holocaust Museum in Israel. Um They have an amazing memorial out there for the people that helped the Jews during World War II.
And one of the high spots of that memorial, it's a garden, and it's got these pine trees, is the pine tree for Schindler. And um it's in a whole special section and You know, they remember. They remember Corey Tenboon. They remember the people that risked their lives in order to do it. Um But to some extent You know, that's...
it's mercy on a different level that Is Christ-like? Because what did Jesus? He literally. was dying. Or in the case of a clip we'll hear later, right?
Yeah. Yeah. So Sam, you you have uh The La Mes clip that we've often played with regard to grace. Um And you looked at this a little bit differently this time, as I think all of us have at different times. We've not used this necessarily in a merciful context, but it is.
I mean, the mercy's there because of the grace. Yeah, when you go back to the Not getting what I deserved. The definition of mercy, that is exactly what this is. And so, what's happened before this, this is when Jean Valjean had been a guest at the bishop's house, and I can't remember the. Madame Gila, or whatever it is that you said it right.
Yeah, lives there as well. He's their guest at night, and then he robs them of all their silver, and then he leaves. And when we pick this up, the bishop and Madame Gila are just kind of snipping back and forth at each other about it. And then the police bring in Jean Baljan again, and so I'm going to pick it up from here. I'm sorry to disturb you.
You caught him! But I had my eye on this map. The god. I'm very angry with you, Jean-Berg. What happened to your eye, Monseigneur?
Didn't he tell you he was our guest last night? Oh, yes. After we searched his knapsack, and found all this silver. He claimed that you gave it to him. Yes.
Of course, I gave him the silverware. But why didn't you take the candlesticks? That was very foolish. Madame Gilot, fetch the silver candlesticks. They're worth at least two thousand francs.
Why did you leave them? Hurry! Monsieur Valjean has to get going. He's lost a lot of time. Did you forget to take them?
Are you saying h he told us the truth? Of course. Thank you for bringing him back. I'm very relieved. Release him.
You're really letting me go? Didn't you understand the bishop? Madams, you know, offer these men some wine. They must be thirsty. Thank you.
And don't forget. Don't ever forget. You've promised to become a new man. Promise. Wh why are you doing this?
Jean Lajean, my brother. You no longer belong to evil. But this sober. I bought your soul. I've ransomed you from fear and hatred.
And now I give you back to God. One of the things I didn't point out on the visual part of this is when you hear that swooshing sound, Jean Baljean has his hood pulled up and he's kind of trying to hide himself. And the bishop, the first thing he does when they're alone, is takes that off of him so he's fully exposed. And then it kind of goes on from there. You know, when I hear that clip, I just hear.
Mercy. You know, Jim was actually, who was going to be here tonight, but he couldn't make it, was actually wanting to use that clip as well. And his point to it, Aaron was he thought that, you know. Potentially, in his humanity, the bishop didn't necessarily want to give. that mercy.
But out of obedience to God He does. And so I don't know where the truth of that lies in there. But as I was thinking about this topic, about mercy and grace. And when it's been shown to me, You know, initially I wanted to you know maybe think my mom or somebody that I just really loved a lot, and not that I didn't love this person as well, but who has probably shown me the deepest mercy and grace was my ex-wife. Um I had been battling, struggling with pornography for years.
uh during our marriage and God had told me, you know, long before I got the nerve up to talk to her about it to talk to her about it. and I kept putting it off and kept putting it off. And and when I did talk to her about it, She had incredible grace. and was kind to me, and she never once shamed me. Even through our divorce, any of that there was never once shame that came from her, there was never once condemnation.
It was just grace and love, even though I had hurt her deeply. Yeah, and that's That's such a special feeling. You know, that it speaks to her character was. You know, that's the one that kind of came to mind as I thought about this topic this week: you know, I've known what that's felt like. And you know you deserve so much worse.
You know you deserve everything that's coming at you. And more. And when it just doesn't come, and there's not the anger and the, you know, I'm not talking to you anymore kind of thing that goes with that, um. It it changes you. Yeah.
And we've, you know, we know that we have as many women listeners as men, if not more. And I think we've all heard at one time or another A wife says, My husband better not have an issue with that, because I mean, if that's I'm just not putting up with it, I'm going to leave him or you know, whatever. I've heard that from a lot. of ladies who Yeah, that that's That is what they say, and it may be true. in some cases, but most of the time It's not.
Um figure out a way to show mercy and grace. Um if you're a lady and you're listening. I would beg you To wrestle with that. You and God talked that over. because the fear your husband has right now.
of your reaction. is probably the single biggest factor of why he's not Admitting That he has a struggle and that he needs some help. And I'm not putting that off on you. That's not your fault. It's not your fault at all.
And you're not to blame for that in any way. Yeah, you're not lacking anything. No. No. None.
Period. Not a. But You do have the ability to give him a tremendous gift. If. You and God can work that out.
And you can find the way to do that. Yeah, my wife said those words. I mean, which was part of the reason I never wanted to talk to her about it. She was like, if I ever walking out of fireproof, the movie, you know, I can hear it like, oh, yes. We go to see if I ever knew you were doing, I would leave you in the, you know, and I'm like, yeah, that's the same thing that happened.
And so, you know, as as it was when I got healing and and actually from this message and from Um working with you guys. I would consider it the greatest gift I ever got. Oh. was You know, unfortunately, you know, there was no doubt I had to tell her, and I had to see the look in her eyes as I broke her heart. And unfortunately, there were consequences, and there should have been.
However, She never loved Robby because she never even knew who Robby was. And so the false Robby was the one who'd been getting love for 20-some odd years. And at the point in time, And there. I was forgiven. I really felt love from a woman that I had never felt in my entire life, like she loves.
the real me, not the one that I pretended to be for however long or whatever period of time. And To me that makes the connection. Between love And mercy.
So if you look in the 23rd Psalm, it says, Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
Well, the word that's used in Hebrew there is one of the two words of mercy, it's Hesed. And Hesid It could also be translated loving kindness. And the the first letter, and you can hear the H sound in Hesed, is the letter het, the Hebrew letter het, which has to do with the marriage word begins with the letter het, and the self it the letter itself looks like the wedding hupa. If you could picture a hoopa, that's what the hat looks like. And soompa loopas.
Yeah, I got no arbor. Yeah, you were married under a hoopa. It's a hoopa. You can call it an arbor, but it's a hoopa. You can call it an arbor, but it's a hoopa.
And you can hear the h and hoopa because that's the idea of this marriage between if you just take an h and look at it, you've got two things coming together, right? But this idea of Hesid Is through this union. With another human being comes this supernatural. The S sound and the Hess it is Isamic, and it's a powerful, unbelievable letter that has to do with actually the force of gravity. And so this idea of a supernatural, godlike thing to bring this unity together and loving kindness is something that is brought out through your ex-wife and through my wife.
in that moment that was completely like there is no way That I can imagine somebody forgiving something like that in their own strength. You knew it came from God, and you knew. you know that it it was Um Oh. you know, a gift of gifts. Yeah, absolutely.
Mitch, we haven't known. It seems like can I share something? Yes, just going to ask you to share. That's good. Yes.
Well, I was I was thinking as you guys were talking about I mean, isn't that why we all relate so much to that clip? To that part of the movie. I mean, for me, I think about him inviting him in in the first place as the first act of mercy. Is he saying, here's a criminal holding up a paper saying I'm a criminal. Um And they let him in and beat him.
And so he offers mercy. And then out of his fear, out of Jean Veljeansphere. He just does it again like he he's like you can't help but go back to the fear. and run and then to get mercy again. And you know that that.
Do you know that uh He feels violated. You know that the bishop feels violated. They both do. And yet, again, like what you just said, which is so powerful, he's like. compelled by the heart of God in him to offer mercy again.
And And he says that the mercy is to ransom him. I mean, you know, like you said, the exposing of pulling down that hood. and to ransom him And give him back to God with. I mean, think about it. That silver is their That's all they have to eat on.
It's a highly valued thing, but also probably nothing. I mean, they needed wooden spoons, right? Isn't that what you're saying? Yeah. So we'll use wooden spoons.
Right. And it's like, wow, who I am that guy. I am Jean Valjean in so many ways with my wife, with. But my friends You know? Yeah.
Absolutely. Anyway, I was just really moved by that every time. Yeah, it's such a powerful scene. There's some really powerful scenes in that movie. I don't know about the musical, but still.
That's good. Yeah. I'm with him. Yeah, yeah. We'll just keep that was the best scene.
They're almost as good as sheep detectives. Yeah. Mitch, while we have you talking about some things, tell us a little bit about the camp you have coming up. Oh, yeah.
Well, our father-daughter camp's coming up in just a few weeks, and I just wanted to. I really appreciate you giving me a chance to share about it because it's in September the 11th through the 13th. It was kind of the last week. of registering for it.
So we offer a father daughter camp at Camp Harrison. In Boomer, so not too far away. And it's just a way, you know, so many times, dads. struggle to connect with their girls. just open the communication line, just get One Often brings you to the same level as your daughter and then builds an open line of communication.
So we try to have a really fun weekend. and around other Um Men who love God and who love their kids. And so from 6 to 16, they come. It's Friday night. you know, six thirty Friday night till Sunday at noon.
They really have an incredible time on Saturday, but this camp Camp Harrison At YMC Camp is a beautiful place in the mountains, and it's just an incredible experience.
So, we'd love to have guys come, bring their kids, bring grandkids. Um my daughter, who's twenty five, comes still and wants to hang out with me, so. Yeah, that's the offering. They can go to MissionUprising.com and check it out. And just go over to our events and the father-daughter camp is right there if somebody wants to register.
And also, I think I said this earlier: is that If somebody's struggling with the financial end of it and they need some help, make sure to let us know. We do have some. scholarship dollars available, and we want to make sure people can go who really want to.
some time with their kids.
Well, thank you, Mitch. My daughters and I went to Father-Daughter Camp through Girl Scouts, and there wasn't really anything like this around, but we still talk to this day that some of their favorite memories are the weekends that we would spend at Father-Daughter Camp, you know, doing the silly plays, you know, when you did skit night or doing all these things that they still laugh at the stuff that we did back then, and it's been thirty years. Yeah, more than thirty years that since that happened. I have girls who have been going, you know, from the time they were six until they graduated from high school and they you know, their last camp, they're crying with their dad and they're trying to figure out what they're going to do together moving forward 'cause it's been, you know, that anchor That isn't a year where they just get to spend time alone with each other. No other kids, no mom.
No other people around. and it makes all the difference, yeah.
So that that's why it sticks and it it means the world to these girls and and to and to us as dads, you know, we love our girls.
So Absolutely. And and it gives you some structure around so you don't feel like you have to figure it all out on your own. Right, right. It's all done for you. You just have to show up.
Absolutely. That's awesome. Final thoughts, guys, on Mercy. Anything you'd like to add that we haven't talked about? Or revisit, potentially?
Well, I think I would like to add one thing. And we didn't play the clip from Saving Private Ryan, but the. there's a phrase in in the movie when the captain is trying to justify how in the world did I deal with you know do I deal with all these men that I've lost and and that's where that phrase the mission is a man comes from And the the thought that I would like to throw out there is Mercy is not without risk, not just to yourself, but you may show mercy to others. And that risk is to the other people that love you too. They were doing something to be merciful to one guy, and it cost other people their lives.
And many times when we show grace to other people, the cost will go beyond us. And so don't be surprised. At the backlash that you might get from someone else who's been affected. Seemingly negatively because of the mercy that you're showing someone else. Yeah, or they're they're seeing a lack of justice.
Go to masculinejourney.org and go to missionuprising.com if you want to go to the father-daughter camp. We'll talk to you next week.
