Masculine Journey Cowboy Ranger After Hours

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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. So apparently, you may have always wondered about this. I just now would bring it up since I get to host today, again, with Sam being gone, is that on our first show, we got to grab our gear and go on a quest. But apparently, you don't grab your gear when you go deeper.

It's already on, yeah. Your gear's already, yeah, you're already equipped since, you know, there you go. I don't know if, you know, inquiring minds, no need to know. But today, we talk about a quest. We're on the quest to be a cowboy ranger. So Andy, fill us in.

What is it? What is the cowboy ranger stage of the masculine journey? So it's that time between basically your teens, 10s to 10 to the 20s, mid-20s. Just that time when you're kind of discovering life.

You're not quite to the other stages like warrior or lover. You're figuring out life. You're experiencing adventure and nature.

I think Robby pointed out some of that on the last show. You're figuring out what it's like to work hard and really that life can be hard. You're just getting a perspective on life that's really, if I think back about it, I got tons of memories from that time, you know, because you were doing so much. You were going, whether it was playing sports or fishing or, you know, cutting up with your friends, you know, how many times did you spend the night and you just stayed up all night watching movies and that kind of thing. It was just a time of discovery.

That didn't happen for Harold, you know. What did you guys do all night because we know there were no movies, you know, back at the turn? Campfire. I guess you watched the campfire, saw the, you know. He did have movies.

There just wasn't any sound. We had a wonderful invention called radio and there were programs on there that I can still remember parts of. I remember being scared out of my britches by a program named Inner Sanctum. The Inner Sanctum. My dad talked about that.

You'd hear this screeching door, you know, like a tomb opening and stuff and the FBI and Peace and War. That was another one. That was a good one. So yeah, we had entertainment. It was just different.

So talking about different, it's a perfect segue. Yeah, we had Saturday morning movies. I got to see Alan Rocky Lane, Red Ryder. Oh yeah. Cisco Kid and Poncho.

Yeah, probably Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. They were regular stuff. Dale, yeah. Oh yeah. So anyway, speaking of different, I was afraid he was going to go back to that. I was hoping you distracted him enough. Thanks for trying, Harold. Now I bet I can name one you won't know.

Okay. Jungle Jim. I've heard of Jungle Jim, but I don't suppose I knew him. Got peeved on when I was young as Jungle Jim. He was Tarzan with pants on. Yeah.

Oh wow. Well, speaking of that, my English teacher in high school was a swimmer for Jane and she basically said Johnny was insane. They did a lot of crazy stuff, but.

And a great swimmer. Now for something completely different. Yeah.

Yeah. But moving on you, you've got your cowboy ranger phase. My cowboy ranger clip comes from maybe my favorite movie, except these guys, when they hear that love to pick on me, it is Princess Bride. And I don't know why it's perfect for a masculine journey. It's got sword play. It's got the adventure. It's got rescuing the beauty.

And I'm making Andy sick and I love it. And it has the adventure to live. And this adventure that we're going to listen to is climbing the cliffs of insanity. And Westley is pursuing his princess and the bad guys and Vincenny. Anyway, the ultimate bad guy cuts the rope that they're climbing up while Westley is still climbing up it. And the person I want to focus on here, though, is an ego who is waiting to kill Westley when he gets to the top. Because when he cuts the rope, when he cuts the rope, he grabs a rock. So he's tired, climbing up. And that's where we enter this.

But, uh, we'll talk about an ego when we listen to the clip here. I promise I will not kill you until you reach the top. That's very comforting, but I'm afraid you'll just have to wait.

I hate waiting. I could give you my word as a Spaniard. No good.

I've known too many Spaniards. Is there any way you trust me? Nothing comes to mind.

I swear on the soul of my father, Domingo Montoya, you will reach the top alive. Thank you. Well, wait until you're ready. Again, thank you. I do not mean to pry, but you don't by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?

Do you always begin conversations this way? My father was slaughtered by a six finger. I love my father. So, naturally, I challenge his murder to a duel. High five.

Six-fingered man leave me alive. When I was strong enough, I dedicated my life to the study of fencing. So the next time we meet... You've done nothing but study swordplay.

More pursuit than a study like this. You see, I cannot find him. It's been 20 years now. I started to lose confidence. I just work for Ficino to pay the bills.

There's not a lot of money and revenge. Will I? I certainly hope you find him someday. You're ready then? Whether I am or not, you've been more than fair. You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you. You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die.

Take aim. And this follows with a very exciting three-minute swordplay scene, but ultimately, Wesley is on his quest. But so is an ego, and his is to avenge the death of his father. And he's been looking for him for a long time. But he got cut off in the cowboy phase, or the ranger phase, by losing his dad. And at 12 years old, he challenged this other evil dude and got scars on his cheeks.

And he basically, ultimately, does get to that goal. But his whole life has been, he has not had anything to focus on, which was why I didn't see him in the warrior phase. Because in the warrior phase, you're basically fighting for a cause. But in the ranger phase, it's more a matter of you love warfare because God put us together that way. And an ego has become very good at it, but he doesn't know which way to go.

And in this movie, he does come around. So how does that speak to your life? My losses really didn't come until probably the warrior phase. But a big one during this time, in fact, I still consider it the biggest tragedy in my life, is I lost my best friend at 14. He was killed in an automobile accident. And he was my best friend, but he was the kind of guy that a lot of people said that. Guys would say it because Steve was wonderful. And that having happened at, well, I can tell you how old I was, but it was between ninth and 10th grade. So I was 14, was about right, 15. And he and my cousin were the closest guys I was to. And most of my adventures took place with them.

My cousin and I did far more, but losing Steve was really half of my support. And while I had wonderful relations at home, or as much as any teenage boy does, losing him had a big impact on my life. And I did become an abuser of alcohol at a very early age, which ultimately was kind of weird because that became my status symbol in high school, as I could drink more than most of the other guys.

But fortunately, it wasn't an addiction because when I quit, I never missed it. Wow, I've known you a long time. You didn't know I was a heavy drinker at 14.

No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about I didn't know you lost your best friend when he was 14, which really, I remember I lost a friend somewhere around that age. And death is really hard to understand. I mean, it's really, really a hard thing for somebody in the cowboy ranger phase. And I can't imagine what it would be like to lose your dad.

I mean, literally have him be killed for, you know, the person that you talked about, but your friend. And that was part of the struggle, I'm sure. And it was denial. And when another good friend, Richard, told me about it, and I yelled at him, I said, you're lying.

It's not true. Steve's not dead. And he was, and it was... How did he die? Automobile accident. It was a wonderful family of six, and only two of them survived, the dad and the only girl.

All three boys and mom died in the accident. That is, you know, tragic. But that's another part of the story that, you know, is something I did not know. I'm really glad you shared that, Jim. So Danny...

I'm glad you drug it out. So these are the voyages of the Starship Danny. It's a five-year mission.

Set sail on a three-hour tour. My clip is from Star Trek Next Generation, and it also has a guy named Wesley in it. Wesley Crusher, who is the son of Dr. Crusher, who is the doctor on Captain Picard's ship. And Wesley is in the Starfleet Academy, and he has to take a site test. And part of this is to face his worst fear. And so they, the clip is part of that. But, you know, Wesley's lost his father at an early age.

And so he didn't have his father to carry him through these stages, Robby. So, and when the clip will play, and then we can talk about it on the backside. Mr. Mordock will be finished with his site test momentarily. Mordock, are you all right? I will be. Mr. Crusher, you're next. Good luck. Evacuate immediately.

65 seconds to seal off. Hey, somebody, help! There's something wrong in the environmental lab! Oh, shit! I can't move!

Please, help me! Come on! I'm sorry! Officer Chang, this... Wesley, it's all right. Thanks.

An excellent performance, Mr. Crusher. That was the test. Yes. A man could have died.

Theoretically, yes. You had to make a choice, and you did. But there's no right or wrong about it. Your greatest fear has been that you couldn't make that decision. Because of my father?

Because Kat... Because someone made that choice. And my father died. You know, the thing that on the worksheet we've talked about, one of the things that it says about the cowboy ranger stage is that you learn that life is hard. And, you know, looking back, as I said earlier, you know, it was a joyous time in my life, but it was also a hard time, because there was lots of wounding and lots of different things.

And the, you know, Wesley gets some revelation and some healing in that. It sounded like to me that he learned something that he knew about his father, because his father was killed in a decision just like he had to make. But he understood that more. And, you know, but he had somebody to take it to, and he wasn't so prideful and so independent. And one of the things God's been coming after me is my independence.

And independence is a double-edged sword. That, you know, it's good to be independent and that kind of thing, but sometimes my pride has not allowed me to take my questions to weigh things and unpack things properly. And one of the stories that kind of was prompted in this was, you know, I remember coming to know Jesus when I was 11, and we were part of a Southern Baptist church, and, you know, on fire, and we were evangelizing. And I rode my bicycle past the traumatic golf course to a friend's house to, I found out he was, we were about 13, and I found out he was smoking pot. And I was going to go save his soul. And I rode my bicycle with my Bible over there and went into his house and began to present the gospel to him, and he threw me out. And he said, don't ever come back here again. And that was bad enough on my heart because he was a good friend. And, but what really, where the enemy done the most damage was, I've heard the whisper, see, you can't even do that right. And I never took that to my pastor or to my dad or to any adult, because I was so ashamed that because I just knew when I presented Jesus to him, that he would just accept it and everything would be fine.

And the world does not work that way. And so it, I carried that for a long time. And then I think we're still unpacking some of that, but, you know, the, the wounds that you carry from those times, because you learn that life is hard and this isn't a cakewalk.

And, you know, this masculine journey's not for wimps. There you go. And we have Sam with us. We understand he wants to revenge, um, several of the comments that David made earlier. Welcome, Sam. Hey, welcome guys. And, uh, you too, David. I, uh, I think you're breaking up there.

I can't, I don't think you have that great a signal. There was something about fat grandpa. I'm just saying specifically what that was. Yeah, that's okay.

You just got to take David's stuff with the green assault. It's not a big deal. Anyway. Hey guys, how are you doing? We're good.

We're good. We know that this, this phase of the masculine journey is a really important thing that, that you have taught for years. Yeah. This phase actually, you know, I struggled a lot with finding, you know, a lot of my, the wound stuff, it was definitely in the boyhood stage. Some just after that, you know, when I was, um, starting to drive, you know, which I think that, you know, that's in that same frame.

You know, I think the age range, if I remember right from the, uh, um, cowboy ranger is like early teens up to 20. Um, but probably one of them that I remember, uh, just being a wound was, you know, my dad had had a stroke by the time I was able to drive and I had an old car that, uh, you know, that's the only thing I could afford. And the water pump went out and, uh, um, I didn't know how to change it.

You know, I didn't know how to do it. My dad came out and he couldn't articulate how to do it. And so we were at a real impasse and he went out there very long. He just, he, you know, tried to say a few things cause he'd had a stroke and he couldn't really talk. And, um, so I remember reaching out to a friend of mine's dad who was a, um, like, you know, hoping that he would kind of come over and I didn't have the term for it at the time, but, you know, to bother me kind of through that. And, uh, he tried to talk me through on the phone on how to, how to change a water pump.

And when you don't know what anything is called and you don't know what anything looks like, that's just not going to happen. And, and just, I remember being so angry, um, you know, cause I really wanted to have, but there was no one there to really show me, you know, how to have what it takes. And so that was the one story that really kind of came to mind for me. Um, on, you know, during that time and, you know, as far as like, that's a stage where you do, and I know you guys probably covered this, where you do a lot of hard work. You know, growing up, I always had chores, I always had to mow the yard, I always had to do other things and then I mowed other people's yards and shoveled drives, did stuff in the winter to make money. If I wanted to do anything, you know, I had to make the money.

There was no allowance in my house. My, my parents probably didn't have the money, but they, they claim they didn't believe in it, but I think it was more, they didn't have the money to give out allowances. And so, you know, during that time I did learn to work and, and learn the value of money a little bit.

So it was, it was a hard stage, but at times a good stage. Yeah, that's really a cool thing that the, that the idea of testing in, you know, there was the testing that Abraham went through, the testing that you go through in this cowboy ranger stage, actually go through to an extent and all your whole life. It has to do with this idea of the, of the letter Nun, which is faith. Like you're, you're learning to have faith in your father or, you know, hopefully it's, you've got somebody there who's farther than you, but you've got to have faith that you have what it takes as well. But interestingly, the second letter is the Psalmic and that letter has to do with this unbelievable force that you really don't have much control over. In fact, King David himself said that he's trembled with fear over that letter, Psalmic. And, and the idea is you have to an extent, you know, the thing I picture as a sailboat, like you can hook up to the wind if you want.

Okay. And in certain circumstances, it's wonderful and beautiful and comfortable. And you go down the ocean that looks wonderful, but that's, that wind can come on. And then we're going to separate the men from the boys just really quick. And, and, and so as God begins to test that sailor, you know, he becomes more and more seaworthy and that's what, to me, that the cowboy ranger, you know, phase is a big part of going through that. Jim, you had something?

Yeah. When Sam said that they didn't have money and, well, he assumed that was the case and he had to work for everything. My parents did have money, but it was very important.

I had chores that I had to do at our house, which included mowing our lawn, but I had opportunities at my grandparents' house to earn money. Dad would take me to office and Harold and I both had the joy of doing the old-fashioned, no-motor lawn mowers and, well, actually that's the rotary ones. Those were fun. I liked those ones. Yeah.

They are kind of dating and I just heard they still make them, so I might have to look around. But, and when I got married at 18, my father and I never questioned his love. He said, well, if you're old enough to get married, you're old enough to support yourself.

And those sort of things done in love are very important because it does get us through that work is as part of life and life isn't easy and you make decisions and you learn how to deal with them or you whine and complain and cry and think that you're entitled to anything and everything. Sandy, you had said that we were going to revisit your cowboy ranger phase, so you wanted to go a little deeper with us, so go. Well, one of them, I've used this story quite a few times on the boot camp and probably on the radio show, but just the fact that this idea that the adventure my dad started me out on, when he knew that he was going to have to leave the state after he had, you know, he and mom had divorced and he was going out of state, he took me on this adventure. We went to three different places in North Carolina or this area, and it really made an impact on me.

I didn't think about it at the time. I knew I enjoyed it at the time, appreciated dad doing that, but he knew that he wasn't going to see me for a good while. He's going to stay in touch remotely, but he was going to another state and it really made an impact. And then years later, as I was allowing God to father me, and the point of this is that God can go back and fill in those places. See, when dad left, it was a very, that's one of the most important times. As much as I needed to know in the boyhood stage, I was as happy as I, I needed him there for the guidance of my adolescent years.

I really did. And he was gone. And my stepfather that my mom married, he was a good guy. He taught me a lot of stuff, but it wasn't really good for my heart. But anyway, dad took me on those adventures and really impressed upon me the love of beauty. And I can still remember when we would drive up, you know, the parkway, anytime we got on the parkway, he would just get almost giddy because he just enjoyed that beauty. And so I think I told, I've told though, when, you know, me and my wife had went through the separation and I was able to travel some and I went out to Yosemite and the thing that God, it was like, dad took me to three places and God gave me these three gifts of just these natural things that happened. But that I guarantee, I mean, I just know that he gave them to me down deep. It's kind of like what you were talking about, Robby, where you're just going out and taking a walk and he shows you stuff and it was just being available to him as a personal God beyond heavenly father out there in the ethereal, a God right here that was really met me where I was at and it just, it had something to do with filling in what I missed in that stage of my life. And he became the father to me like just as much to me as my earthly father was. So I think we all want to go back to Alabama in the late 1940s, early 50s, you know, and, you know, see what it was like for Cowboys and Rangers.

That's something that sticks out for you. We got about a minute left, Harold. Well, growing up in that little small town there in northwest Alabama where I was born, we had freedom to roam. Our parents let us loose and we didn't have to report back until we were ready, which could have been all day, but it was safe, unlike what we face today.

I bet it was beautiful. So I know you're thinking about your Cowboy Ranger phase that you're still in. And so you need to sign up to really expand that whole idea and come to the entrenchment that's coming up here in a couple of weeks, start September 30th through the 1st. That's all at masculinejourney.org, as well as the boot camp coming in November. You can always email us masculinejourneyradio.org.