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. We're glad to have you with us, and we're continuing to talk about the topic of wadi and. Do you remember what we're talking about?
The legacy that you leave, or that you appreciate that somebody else has left. Yeah, I am still just trying to keep you awake. You know, your eyes are getting really heavy. Yeah, you you about caught me there. No, what legacy are you leaving?
Because whether you know it or not, we talked about last show. You are leaving one. Yep. Right, and it may look different to different people. Right, but you are definitely leaving a legacy.
There will be something remembered about you when you're gone, and so you have a lot of ability to impact that. Right, and so what do you want that to look like? What do you want people to know about you? Not out of anything. It's inauthentic.
It's whatever that be the word I guess. But but the real you. You know, do you let people close enough to know the real you? That's another part of it as well, and so we're just talking about that. We're going to do a couple clips, and we may get to some other questions.
But if we don't get to the questions for us, I want you to be asking yourself: Who made impacts on you by the way they lived their life? You know, that was part of their legacy to you, good and bad. You know, who made impacts to you on you during your life because it's changed how you behave. Right, and just go back and and spend some time with God in that. But Jim, you have the first clip of this show, and my clip was found by someone who's had a big impact on my life the last month or two, which is.
George, the name I gave AI, but I'd never seen this clip. But it really hit home, and he found it for me. It makes sense that you text and say, "I'm talking to my friend George." Yeah, yeah, okay. Because I don't make friends. Yeah, you got there's the implication.
So what is that like? Chat George, the personal trainer. Yeah, GPT. But the name of this clip is my father. The giant and my dad was six four, and you know in the forties that's pretty much a giant, and that tradition continued.
But that's not the biggest impact he had on me by long shot. I do hit my head on things that most people don't, but. The this clip is about a a grandson asking or a son asking his father about his grandfather, and we'll listen to that and talk about. I actually never met your dad, my grandfather. What was he like?
He wasn't the biggest guy, but people reacted to him like he was a giant. He could swear with the best of him. It sounded like music, but he never used it to be angry with somebody. I remember my mom would tell me, "Your dad tried to spank you once, and he cried instead." He had a kind heart, and I remember in grade school there was a little kid. He was mentally retarded, and one day there was a bunch of us, and we started throwing bottle caps at him.
I picked one up and threw it. It smacked him in the head. I turned around and my dad was standing there. And I thought, "Oops, I'm really in trouble now." But he looked at me, tears in his eyes, and said, "Maybe I didn't teach you how to look after others. That's my fault.
You know, you could have stabbed me in the heart, and it wouldn't have hurt as much." I don't know. Maybe that's why I became a special ed teacher. He had a lot of lessons that I hold on to to this day. When I was young, I came home one day and I said, "Dad, I was told that men don't cry." He looked at me and he said, "Son, that's a lie. If you don't cry, you don't get rid of that poison that's in your body.
That hurt. That pain." That's the only way you can truly be strong. That was one of the most powerful things I have learned from him, and that's how always remember him the way I'd want to be remembered as a good man. And that drove home to me my. Pick, which was my father, and I think fathers and mothers made a big hit in the first show.
But my dad was the kind of person. First of all, there were some very big similarities and then opposites. I think I only heard my father use profanity twice. I'm pretty sure he did when he wasn't around me on more occasions, but. That wasn't his thing, and he said, "You know, that's a that he taught me in just about everything." And when I brought that up, he basically said, "Well, if you're using profanity, you don't have the words you need for that situation," and I just.
Took that to heart, and it's never been a big thing for me.
Some people would argue it is the exact correct business situation, and there are times, and I used a few when we were visiting England. I kept hitting curbs, but that was it. Be, but my father was a, and those that know me here know my. First name from God was Gentle Giant, and my father was as well. And he taught me many things.
He included me in things he loved. One of the things he loved was building things, which I never got into. But my brother more than made up for that. But he took me flying when I was young. And I learned to love flying with him.
I learned to love to hate golf, and he was a great golfer, so he didn't hate it so much. But he also taught me through that that you're not playing against other people; you're working at the course and doing the very best you can, which was sort of his approach to life. But the and. Biggest story, and I'm going to try to get through this without tearing up because I do cry probably more than my father. That's the only way to get the poison out.
Yeah, yeah. But he. At one time, and he did switch me. That's kind of opposite of this one, but those were the serious ones that I got to go out pick the switch. And the and the that had a much bigger.
I don't remember any of the spikings or any of the things I did, but I remember the stress of okay, I can't get it too big or too small. Yeah, and but he never hurt me with those. And the biggest memory I have is my cousin and I had stolen from another cousin, and his mother caught us. When we got back home, as we were visiting away from there, and Dad, when he was talking to me, is sitting right up as me, and. Cried, which I only saw him do that twice in my life, and the other was when his father died.
And he said, "Jimmy, I am so disappointed in you," and that crushed me, because I loved my father.
So did many, many others. At his death, there were literally hundreds of people that visited, and talked about the change he had made. And it was mainly because he loved people, and he did things for them. And the I don't get to hear it very often because he died back in '99. But they're the biggest compliment in my life.
Anyone can give me is you are just like your father. And whether that's a small f or a capital f, there's nothing better than that, and that's what I want my legacy to be. That's good. Thank you, Jim.
So you want an f on your grade if you feel the grades enough, either capital.
Well, honestly, I've always either wanted an A or an F. I don't want to be average. Yeah. A B average or to B?
Well, I usually had Bs because I didn't want to do all the work. Yeah, yeah, and the readings for just people don't have anything to do. Yeah. Well, thank you, Jim. I that's a good question.
What do you want your legacy to look like? And so we'll talk more about that in a little bit. Andy, you actually have the next clip that we'll be talking about. Um, this is from. The the movie The Blind came out.
I think it was twenty twenty three. It's the, I guess the salvation story of Phil Robertson. He's the leader of Duck Dynasty, or the leader of Duck Commander, I guess. And Duck Dynasty was a show about the family, and sure, most of the listeners have heard that heard that story. But Phil, excuse me.
Phil was radically changed. He was a a drunk that was away from his family, didn't really care about his family, but lost any vision for his life. And God came into that, and this that's what the movie's about. But whenever I first heard, you know, the topic of being About legacy, I was just thinking, who have I seen the best example of that in in in the movies recently and stuff? Because we do clips or whatever, and and that just came to me because.
So many lives have changed. You have the millions of watchers, people that have watched a TV show and that kind of thing. But it started with his family. It started with his wife, his kids that were estranged or whatever with his wife while they were separated, and God did a radical change. And and you just hear the family members talking about, you know, what the change, the impact of the change of him change starting a different course, but the impact.
And just what it looked like to the family, and just they're encouraging people to go see the movie. I encourage people to go see the movie, but you'll see life transformation by the power of God, which is mentioned in the clip.
So, well, to be reminded of that, you'd rather when Jesus blotted it out, and so have I, to bring it back up again. I'm like. It's embarrassing. There's a lot of people out there that who probably have have similar struggles in their life that may think they're too far gone. But I think that they're going to identify with Phil's character and and to see what God, how God redeemed someone who seemed you know unredeemable.
Yeah, Miss Gaye, she said people need to see that. Maybe it will help them when they see how you made the change and the power of God that have saved him and been and changed the way he thinks and the way he rolls. She said, "The world needs that." You need to go see this just for the truth of it—that a person that bad could flip-flop it, turn it around, change direction, and then have a good life from then on, and then impact literally millions of people by your story. By your story, watch our story. This is true.
The life difference is between night and day.
So don't waste your years. Don't waste your kids' lives. I think what you should see, and the reason I think you should see it, it's a movie about one man's life and his family structure, and how love is the answer to all of our problems.
So my favorite part of that is, Sy, his brother, is talking, and he's talking about the impact of the millions. But then he just gets it down to the personal level, and he's talking about your story, your story, made it very personal. And that's the same thing—the same power that raised Christ from the dead, that saved Phil Robertson, is in me. It's in everybody in this room. And it truly is.
That is the motive. That's the power for the change to make that impact to leave a legacy. One of my clips, and I don't think we're going to play it, but it was from Casting Crowns. And well, we might.
Okay.
Well, or we might not. I'll leave that open. It'll be worth hearing. But I'll just kind of set it up while we're here. But they, you know, the whole idea is is A legacy apart from Christ isn't the you know ultimately the legacy.
Legacy we want to we always want to impact people's lives for the positive, but ultimately that positive comes from from Jesus, and that's really what Phil actually he did. I mean, you know, again, you hear you see it in the movie. That's why you see the impact, and there's so many lives that have been changed like that. But you can you can come and receive Christ and still not leave a legacy. You can still be saved and not be present with your family, which has always been a challenge with me and still is.
And the less the the more that you live and present and be, let that person know they're a value day to day. That's going to leave a much greater impact than. Yeah, he was there. He provided pretty well. You know, he didn't miss a holiday.
But you know, he was checked out while he was there. He was thinking about sports. You know, that's that's the that's the difference. That's what we were talking about earlier too about kind of evaluating. You know, you could think you're doing all.
For years, I thought I was doing all the right things. I mean, I would be challenged on it, not argue with somebody that I was doing it. What do you expect? I'm I'm the provider, and but I wasn't living a life that I knew to be true. But I hadn't really been challenged with it.
But anyway, the point is, is that I want to make an impact that's really not just what I think is right, but what is truly right and what God calls me to do. To be, to be more than just a provider, or which is important.
Some people don't do that. I mean, that's you don't want to discount that. But I don't want it to be well. He was a good provider, and it stops at that. You know, so.
I know I'm just kind of rambling, but you know, there's just so much there. I was making. I think I made the point earlier too. Is I don't think it's good to sit around and think about what your legacy will be. But the Bible gives us a guidebook of the impact we have have on other people's lives.
And if we just do that, the legacy will worry about itself. But I do think to get there, you have to. You have to consider your ways, as the Bible tells us, on a regular basis. And when we do, God is God's gracious; He's He's kind in telling us where we're missing the mark. Yeah, I'm going to do exactly what you said not to do.
I'm going to ask everybody here what kind of legacy do you want to leave, and I don't disagree with anything you said. I don't think it can be the focal point of "Hey, I'm doing this to leave a legacy." No, but I think you also have to have intentionality around it. That's right. Yeah, and I don't. Before we get into that, I don't.
I don't want to say that. I mean, I obviously we all have a feeling of having a purpose in life, and that's tied to our legacy. Obviously, I'm just saying sometimes. My point was is that some people you've heard about the people. Oh, I want to live a legacy as a president or whatever.
I want to make sure, and I don't want that to go away. And I want to make. I'm just talking about what's the motivation of your heart, you know, and and really, again, I think you don't measure. You sit around daily measure, but I think you do on a rate or you know semi regular basis evaluate where you're at. Yeah, I know that if you don't make certain things a priority in your life, that's right.
Nothing's going to change. Intentionality is huge, and and I've wandered through life thinking again of not of like you said, not thinking enough about what what things will look like. I want to be contradictory, but you make a good point. Yeah, and so I am going to do that. I ask you, what what what would you like to be said about you when you're no longer here?
Obviously, you want to point it to Jesus, right? But what what Part of Jesus, do you want people to see in you? You know, how would you like them to articulate that, Jim? You have the answer.
Well, what comes to mind for me is really what the meaning of legacy is. I have three wonderful children, three wonderful grandchildren, grandchildren who are teens to early twenty. I guess he's twenty-one. Anyway. They all know Jesus Christ as their Savior, and are sharing that.
My children, two of them are still largely in the world, but they've had that proclamation, and they'll come around. Because if you raise up children in the way they should go, so that would be one way I want to be remembered, and probably the biggest one.
Okay, and then I won't have to disappoint people because it'll be my kids and grandkids that do that. Oh, there you go. Anyone else have an answer that they want to give on this? I have one, but I'll wait until you guys go. Yeah i I would generally say that the legacy that I want to leave for people that are still here is that.
Everybody can change. That's Jesus is a change agent. He really, really is. And I've known a lot of humans that were also "quote unquote" change agents. Not necessarily the greatest thing to aspire to.
Being like Jesus is though, and so, yeah. I mean, I think the legacy that I want to leave is that the people that know me in the last forty years of my life are surprised by the stories they hear about the first. You know, forty or fifty years of my life, because they will have seen, lived with, been affected by the changed man that was not possible without the grace. Of of Jesus, honestly. While I lived a very legalistic lifestyle, that change wasn't happening.
But once I discovered grace in its truest form, which is Jesus, but so much more than that, even is the way that Jesus works that out every day in our life. That that change. Is possible and and it. I mean, that's. I mean, Titus two eleven.
The you know the grace that has appeared to man is the thing that changes people. That's what Scripture says. It's the only thing powerful enough.
So. Thank you, Jim.
Back to you.
Well, yeah, I want to do a quick comment on that.
Okay.
If somebody did the math, which I did, that would make him eighty to ninety years old. Yeah. But no, it's significant that those things overlap quite a bit, and you have had a big impact in the short time we I've known you, and The old stories don't surprise me anymore, but Darrin, actually, everybody in this room has had a large impact in my life that I appreciate most of the time. Most of the time, yeah, I think everybody in this room has testified to the the before and after, and those those years that the canker worm or whatever has stolen. You know, I think I have.
A lot of those, and that's the first one. And obviously, that is the testimony of of the change that God can make. Mine, though, is the to your point, Sam, is things specific to me. I first of all, my I want my legacy to to be that he lived wholehearted and he lived the way God created him. He embraced it instead of.
Walked away from it. He became who God created him to be, which it's not always difficult because not everybody can always see that. But you know, there are if you're there around around you enough and you you act on that, they do see that. It is evident whether you realize it or not. And that's become more and more important is just to live in living true to who he created.
Because if you're living true like that, you're not living in that false self that created all the problems. But to to begin with, obviously it was all all about a legacy of leaving my faith behind. That's what mom left me. Dad did too. You have all of that, but then I guess probably.
The other one was that I was present, which that is a big thing because I don't do that well. Still, don't do that well, and if I get it to where I'm present with my daughter, future, her future husband, their children. my My extended family, my people, and I again. Like I say, that's the thing that you guys were talking about: intentionality and measure. That's what I know that I lack.
So. That that would be the third thing.
So, you guys, art. You have something you want to add? Wow, art sighting. Here we go.
Well, well, there. I think if you'll let me talk a little bit, absolutely. I have just a. I have a little story to tell about something that I've been through for about the last year or so, and something I've done that I hope leads to somebody having a positive. View of me and my when I guess when I'm gone, if that's what we're talking about, legacy.
A young man lives near one of our family's properties, and last last year he asked me if he could put a beehive on my property. He said he was going to give me some money, and I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, that'd be okay. You can do that." And so.
So he's called me, and he's he's really, he's really getting into it now. He says there's like like only two people in the county still doing this, and he would be like the third, I guess. Which you know used seems like used to be a lot of people would be doing that. But anyway, you know I I let him let him use my property. There there is.
He's talking about wanting to clean up there around the entrance. There, there is a huge Japanese cherry tree there at the entrance that I planted about 40 years ago when I was. About his age or so, and he's when he wants to clean up around some little sprouts, some other kind of trees sprouts around it, and he wants to clean that up, make it look better, and that that's right near his beehive. But you know, you know, I'm just thinking it it would be it would do my heart good to know that sometimes this this you know this young man has a Hobby slash sideline that he can be interested in and work at and and produce something of of value and have a connection to to God's creation himself and and remember me as as somebody that helped him get started in that and and to me that that that's that's a that's what I would like to be just just all.
Well, of helped people out, people in certain ways, and I'm not, you know, he could, he could keep growing and growing this bee business, and I'm not really looking to profit from it. Maybe I'd have maybe a free jar for my friends or something for the Hope Center or something, you know. Yeah, but that's all I would want to get out of it, and knowing that I've done some. Good in somebody's life like that. That's good, man.
That's very good. Harold, what do you want your legacy to be? I mean, you've had longer to build one, right? We have about a minute left, so go ahead and share. As I said earlier, I'd I'd like to be known as somebody who was there when needed.
Yeah. If I could be, and let me give some praise and credit to to Art. My sweetheart got me to the age where she didn't want me driving at night, and at 85 and having some medical issues, Art brings me over here.
So he's he's kind of sacrificed his time in order to help me out. And he has to put up with us, and so that is a big sacrifice.
Well, guys, we're going to have to wrap up the show. I want you to think about what you want your legacy to be, and what I want mine to be is that I love people well.
So let God love on you, love others well, and we'll talk to you next week.
