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. Art, you want to tell us what we're talking about today? No, I'm just kidding.
I'm kidding. He was ready. Go ahead, Art. You you tell us what we're talking about today. We're talking about life changes and how God helps us through those, and we all have a lot of them.
We've talked about. Life changes at work, with our health, with our relationships, and now we can turn to God, and He can He can carry us through those. He can help us through those things. Wow, that was really good, Art.
Okay, I'm gonna start bringing every show now. You're gonna have to do the recap when we come back in. You don't usually put the the audio visual man. Yeah, but you know, he put the video still of me. You know, he didn't point it at himself.
I can set and move my lips.
Well, I'll get camera shy there. There he is. There we go. There you go. Yeah.
Just don't look in the mirror.
Okay.
So, so speaking of work smart, there on your diet, there, Robby. Robby has been eating eggplants a lot for his diet, and that is—it wasn't one of the seven foods in the Bible, but in Jerusalem, it's very popular. Is in several parts of the of the world, but in Jerusalem it is a common food eaten regularly. I grow them there in Davy County, and they're they're the best eggplants you can get. It's grown in Davy County, and everyone likes them except Darren.
You know we don't we don't know. Darren's just I will ask the price. Yeah, that's Darren. You know.
Okay.
Anyway, yeah, you had some thoughts on the topic. I was going to say something about you know a life change that came about for me. I was kind of i kind of worked a career off off in the city and. I got where I to where I could retire, and my father was aging and needing help. I came back to the farm, and I was kind of helping keep things going there for his sake, mostly to you know to help him and to keep him active and involved in things, and and and then well he.
He he fell down and broke a hip, and he went to stay with a brother.
So, you know, I was kind of there, and I had, among other things, about twenty cows I had to take care of, and they they weren't terribly friendly. They were they were they were partially wild when I got there, and. I had a man that would help me. He kind of lived there on the farm. He was retired from a job, and we kind of gave him a place to live.
And he'd help me with the cows. And then, and then he died. And I'm like, well, you know, I don't, I know I can't be in this cow business. I can't handle these cows by myself. If you've ever tried that, and and they aren't, you know, really tame, really accustomed to being handled.
You try to drive them one way, and they go the opposite way every time. And you know, and and then. And then around the same time, I had this neighbor's dog started coming and kind of hanging out with me during the daytime. And then they would come and get him, take him back. And I got the idea that I wanted me a dog to just just a pet.
And I got I contacted a man in the dog business. And after a while, he heard about a out of state. Dog that needed a needed a home. His his home was breaking up, and she needed a place to go. And he went and got her for me.
And this dog, you know, she took right to. Handling those cows, she was. She's a German Shepherd. She's a shepherd, and and if if you're with cow handling cows, and you've got a dog with you, they they mind you. They mind you.
They do.
So, she took right to it. She she she is now an excellent cow dog and help to me. And if she hadn't come along, I I probably I said I couldn't handle these cows by myself. I was just going to have to sell out or something. And But but I didn't, and now I'm glad.
I'm glad I have them. We have something to go do every. You know, I'm retired from a job, but we have something to get out and go do every day to check on these cows. And there's some structure in my life for for from that. And and it's it's because you know you know I I think God sent me this message with this dog coming and visiting me, and and then found me an excellent Excellent dog.
I just had in mind, just kind of getting. A pet at the time, but I got a working, herding, best friend, everything kind of kind of dog, very good one.
So, I give God all the all the credit for that, and I'm enjoying my place and working with the cows now and having something to do. And growing eggplant. And growing, yes, yeah, that's right. Eggplant farmer, yes, he's an eggplant farmer. Yeah, I'll take the beef.
Yeah, milk and eggplant go really.
Okay.
What's his dog's name? Bella Claire. Bella Claire. Grant has met her. She knows Grant will.
Yeah, she bit my arm off. Yeah, yeah. You would have been hurting. Not some dandy about that. You have to mind art, or otherwise, Bella doesn't like you.
Yeah. Yeah. Don't don't dish on art when Bella's around.
Well, we will go to our first clip, and this is a clip. Honestly, we've used lots of different times, but as I thought about a clip that I really wanted to use, something that kind of stated, you know, when in your life during these life changes you need God, this one just kept coming up. And so it's from City Slickers, and it's from the the dads come in and talk about their workday to the kids, and Billy Crystal, in part of his little tirade, you know that he goes through, and he he talks about changes in your life. And so, as you listen to this, just think about your life and say, "Yeah, I probably needed God's help there, or I'm glad I had God's help there, and I didn't know it, and I definitely need it here, and and what may be coming for you in the future, me, me." Exactly, from a different movie.
So here we go. When you're a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, "What happened to my twenties?" Forties, you grow a little pot belly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud.
One of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. 50s, you have a minor surgery. You'll call it a procedure, but it's a surgery. 60s, you'll have a major surgery. The music is still loud, but it doesn't matter because you can't hear it anyway.
70s, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. Start eating dinner at two o'clock in the afternoon. You have lunch around ten. Breakfast the night before. Spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate soft yogurt and muttering, "How come the kids don't call?
How come the kids don't call?" The 80s. You'll have a major stroke. You end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can't stand, but who you call mama. Any questions?
Now, in listening to this, all except for the last one. I can say I've known people that I've thought of in every one of those scenarios, either myself or a family member. We talks about you know eating breakfast the night before. I think of my mom telling me one time that they had to get to the cafeteria by four o'clock to eat dinner. If not, the red potato salad to be gone.
You know, their whole life was structured around getting to the cafeteria in time for the red potato salad, frozen yogurt. Yeah, exactly, and so. As I think about that, it just makes me laugh. But I also look back at my life and say, God, I wished I would involved you more here. Right, and I definitely needed to hear, and I hope that I am now.
But I know that I'll need it even more in the future, because as you get older, things just randomly hurt. It didn't hurt the day before. It's just you never know what you're going to wake up with, and it's just I'm not on the older part of our team. Yeah, I'm mostly there, but not at the far end. I want to say I'm in the middle, but that wouldn't be fully accurate.
That's called education. Yeah, yeah, about two thirds, but. Anyone else have any thoughts before we get on to another clip? Yes. Yeah.
In the past, after a bad accident, when I couldn't my coordination, I had had none, couldn't walk. But four years after that, I was a very very good good drummer, and played in Christian rock band. I've done that for. On and off for over six years. That's awesome.
Life change. Yeah, absolutely.
Something you could not. Doctor said he became paral not paralyzed for life. Yeah, and here you are working on air conditioning units and all sorts of other things. And for sure. Yeah, absolutely.
The radio. Yeah, and God's been three with those life changes for sure. My my speech is a little shaky, but.
Well, you know I'm doing good. You do well. You do well. Andy, you have the next clip.
So this is another highly used clip, yeah, from Braveheart. Repurposed, yeah, repurposed, yeah. Actually, kind of is on this instance. This is when William's dad passes away, and this crazy looking uncle Uncle Argyle comes into his life, and You know, it's what he needs. Then, and and you can tell he doesn't really.
And it's a big life change to lose your parent like that. And his mom was already passed, and his brother that had died. He had no family. And this guy comes in, and and he doesn't want to go with him because it's nothing he's ever known, and the dude looks pretty darn weird anyway. That's an understatement.
Yeah, but it ends up being exactly what he needs, and I think God gives us what what we need. And it may not look like it's what we need. It's not what we think we need, but he ends up being that way. And you'll hear, you'll hear him basically saying, "You don't really have a choice in this matter." You know, you have to come with me. But then he goes on, and you hear them building a little bit of a relationship here.
Here, and then. You hear the wisdom that Argyle speaks into his life, and it—you know—you don't see much of Argyle after this, but you can tell in William Wallace's life after that how much actually Argyle had sown into his life and how God had arranged it. Yeah, he talks about it on the mountain with Muron. Yeah, right. You know about going away with his his uncle.
Here we go. William, I'm your uncle, Argyle. You have to look at your mother. We'll stay here tonight. Tomorrow you'll come home with me.
I don't want to leave. You didn't want your father to die either, did you? But it happened. Did the priest give a poetic benediction? The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
It was in Latin. You don't speak Latin.
Well, that's something we shall have to remedy, isn't it? The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord causes light to shine on thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Your heart is free.
Have the courage to follow up. What are they doing? Saying goodbye in their own way, playing outblood tunes on outblood pipes. It was the same for me and your daddy when our father was killed. First, learn to use this.
Then I'll teach you to use this.
So you see, Argyle stepping in, and there's father, and what I didn't explain in the middle there was, after his dad had passed, William. Had had a dream, and his father had came came to him and told him, "Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it." Which, if you watch the rest of the movie, there's no doubt that he followed that advice. He was, he was free, and he was, you know, having he had the courage to follow it and encouraged a lot of other men. But how that, how that speaks to so many times.
And this is what I was going to go to when I first heard this topic. I've gone to it, and I'm like, people are probably tired of hearing my same story. And I'll just relate back to them a little bit of his broken relationship with my wife, and then. Shortly after that, not shortly, but a little bit after that, got invited into the ministry, got a new job. All through that, man, I was really leaning into God, and He was there.
And it's hard not to go there because it was such a prominent time of life, and it was life-altering. But then I got to thinking about what other life-altering moments have I experienced, and and I think about about when I moved to North Carolina from Missouri when I was eleven, and I came here, and I was a big fish in a small pond there, and I got here, and I was a small fish in a big pond, and really kind of lost my identity. There's pictures of me played football for the first time, really enjoyed it, but I was walking the home. You know, as during like a homecoming thing for, you know, little little league football or whatever. And the girl I was escorting, I had my head down.
My dad remember him mentioning it to me. My life just changed to where I was pretty. You probably as a kid, I was I was considered an extrovert in my former former where I lived. But when I moved here, just was it wasn't different. I I had to.
I had to reestablish myself, and and it was it wasn't that easy. And I had a lot of friends, and I was I was blessed. God brought a lot of friends in my life, Christian friends, but it was still a really difficult change. And I don't know that I necessarily leaned into God. I had I had gotten saved when I was nine, so there was some relationship there.
And our family went to church, and and I know I prayed and stuff, but. Just something that I remember is like I was a kid who grew up on the farm. Not much of it was a small family farm, but didn't have anybody around me when I got down here. I was around all kinds of kids and had a lot of bad influence. We lived in an apartment complex and we were always getting into something.
But I remember there was a time and I hadn't really thought about God that much, but I did know that I liked to stand up. And I did it back when I was living in Missouri. I want I I defended those who got picked on and stuff. And this big old boy who was just ran over our whole neighborhood was, um, just pushing some kids around. And I finally had enough of it and made him mad enough to where he jumped on my back and I flipped him and got on top of him and pretty much won the fight.
But something come over. I mean, I felt like it was like it was like the spirit of God or whatever. I started preaching and cussing them at the same time, and it was just out of nowhere. And it was like I think that pulled me back. It was just reminded me who I was as a Christian.
Even though you know there were a lot of times I wasn't walking with the Lord, and all through. My adolescence, I'd have different times where I would, like a lot of us, I think, would rededicate our life and then go back to the way we lived and and all. But there was a presence of God there, and I did need Him. And there were there were times when I realized that I needed Him, and you know, those are the times we think the least about Him as you're trying to figure out life. A lot of times, I can't say that about everybody.
Some kids find God and really move with Him, but but I did know that I needed. Him and I look back in retrospect. I think you were saying this earlier. We always need him, whether we are reaching out to him or not. But I don't know.
That just made an impression on me, and it's not something I talk about a lot. I talk a lot about, but it's definitely a part of my life of. How I ended up the way I am. I mean, it's a part of my experience, and I love this state. I would never go back to Missouri and live.
I don't think I love this state that much, and God's given me a love for it. And there's no doubt I'm here for a reason to be on this show to all the different stuff. But I had to go through some stuff in that move and just experience a lot of different stuff. I just know he was with me.
Sorry, I know that was a little bit of a rant, just a slight rant, just a slight rant, wasn't bad. You know, when I when I look back, the in the different life changes, I think it's amazing to me that. You know, sometimes we talk about you know we need Jesus, but sometimes I really need Jesus with skin on him. And it's amazing to me how many times it never fails when I need somebody in my life to speak into my life. They're there, and you know, I mentioned in the first show you about you know this cancer diagnosis and everything.
When I look back now. The I was telling a guy we were going to church in King before we moved back to Ashburn. That you know, I had I was diagnosed with you know appendix cancer, which is very rare. And I think, and he says, I know another guy who had appendix cancer, which one in two million people get it.
So he knew two, and so he gave me his info. And this guy was you know it wasn't a Christian, but he had been through what I was about to go through. And so he and I had conversations, and and and you know that kind of thing. And so every step of the way, you know, when it, you know, when I got sober in '94, there were people there. When I transitioned from Ashboro to King, and didn't know what I was going to do, you know, involved and and lead a men's ministry, didn't know what I was going to do.
But we decided as the last two rods to go to a boot camp. And I hadn't been able to get away from you guys yet. You know, I'm prisoner. You know, blink twice if you're in trouble. Let's get the camera off of him.
Yeah, yeah. But you know, that's the kind of thing is that you know, you guys were there when I needed you, and you know, it was just literally. I I describe it as you know, unplug from one and just plug right into the other, and you know, so every time there's a life change. God has somebody there to make the transition with you. It's amazing to me.
It's good. I think. Don't ask for awards. You won't. We'll get them.
Yeah. Yeah. Danny, you're right. I look back and you can see where God was touching our hearts through other people, helping guide us. It's good.
Robby, something you want to add, or you just looking at the microphone? I'm just well, you're setting up tall. Maybe had something to say. I have another clip that I'll go to. It this one is one we've used at times.
It's from the movie Evan Almighty, and what's happened here is Evan has built an ark. If you haven't seen it, God told him build an ark, and everybody's ridiculing him, and his wife is getting kind of lost in that. She loves her husband. She. Doesn't know what to think.
This whole situation, she's kind of moved away from him—not like physically, but she's, you know, emotionally away from him. And she goes to this restaurant and she meets this waiter who talks to her, whose name is Al Mighty. And well, there's one thing I would add in this particular case. Yeah, that at the very beginning of the movie. Yes.
She prays this prayer that only she would know that God would do something to bring her family closer together. Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you. It's a vital point.
So here we go. Oh, excuse me. Can I get a refill, please? Coming right up. Excuse me.
Are you all right? Yeah. No. It's a long story. Wow, I like stories.
I'm considered a bit of a storyteller myself. My husband, you heard of New York's Noah? The guy who built the ark. That's him. I love that story.
Knowing the ark, you know, a lot of people miss the point of that story. They think it's about God's wrath and anger. They love it when God gets angry. What is the story about then? The ark.
Well, I think it's a love story. About believing in each other, you know, the animals showed up. Pairs, they stood by each other, side by side, just like Norwood and his family. Everybody entered the art, side by side. But my husband says God told him to do it.
What do you do with that?
Sounds like an opportunity. Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience, or does He give them the opportunity to be patient? If they prayed for courage, does God give them courage, or does He give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings, or does He give them opportunities to love each other?
I got a lot, a lot of people to serve. Enjoy. The reason I chose that clip, as I said before in this show, in the last show, I've learned to invite God into many, many more aspects of my daily life. I'd like to think more than I don't invite him into things, and the one place that I've really seen just tremendous fruit is inviting him into relationships. You know, like any family, as your family grows and changes, and you have these life changes, and kids get married, or I got divorced, or you know whatever these situations are, dynamics change, and even though they're the same relationship, they're a little different.
And so you can't always approach them the same way, or maybe you have a relative you're estranged from, right? And you don't know how to approach them. And I know that I don't have those answers, but God does. You got how can I best love on this person? God, how do I interact with this person?
Yes, I may know them very well, but they're a different person than they were, and I'm a different person, and you know us both intimately.
So so, how can how can I do that? And I've really seen a lot of good fruit in that because God knows. And even on times, I've learned to trust Him when He tells me to do something doesn't seem to make sense. I've just been doing it, and it eventually makes sense, and it usually works out well. I'd say that's probably the biggest area that I've been inviting Him into.
But another season of my life, and I talked about it on one of the other shows. Is when I got divorced a little over ten years ago. I talked about before. It was the first time in my whole life I'd ever lived on my own. I'd never, you know, I'd spent nights on my own, but I'd never lived on my own.
I always had a roommate, had something, or I had somebody, and then all of a sudden, every other week, I was by myself, and I didn't know me. You know, I mean, I knew what my sin was. You know, I I knew me as a dad in ways. I knew knew me as a spouse in ways, good and bad. I knew all those things, but I just didn't know who I was.
You know, and and it was a big thing for me to say, God, show me right. And over the next few years, He really did that. You know, brought me into seasons of doing things I never thought I would enjoy. But learning that I get a lot of joy out of those, and not just those things, but why those things, God? Why is it that that that brings me this joy?
You know, we talk about at boot camp the lover stage. You know, God, why do you give me this love of animals or this love of birds or this love of nature? Right? What is it in there that makes my heart come alive? And just spending those times in conversation with Him and learning who I was, and more so how He saw me.
You know, and that changes how I am with everyone else as well. And so, for me, those are the fundamental things. And yes, inviting them into my health and inviting them into work situations, all those things. But to me, it's going to have to start and continue in those relationship areas because I hope to have those rest of my life. We've been talking a lot about this today on life changes, and you may be in the middle of one right now and know it, or you may be in the middle of one and don't know it.
Or just came out of one, or getting ready to head into one. They are constantly coming. Are you inviting God into those? And if you have, how's He been there for you? And looking back, get some clarity on how He's always been there.
We'll talk with you next week.
