Masculine Journey Cowboy Ranger

Not key to cool off the Russian nightmare.

No, the devil's nightmare here. From its time to man up. Challenging men to step into their true manhood. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it. Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network.

Life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for. Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now. Whoa, we are grabbing our gear. As the volume came up, we enjoyed that. So I always have loved that in the in the beginning, don't you Andy? Like, grab your gear and come on a quest. And that speaks actually to the stage that we're at today in the masculine journey.

How cool. On the masculine journey, we're talking about the stages of the masculine journey. And last week we did the boyhood, you know, the beloved son. And so today, where are we at? So today we're at the cowboy ranger stage.

And I'll pass it around and let some others talk about it. But to me, it was just it's that stage, you know, that teenage year is pretty much a big part of that time. And, you know, when you're just kind of figuring out what adventure is like, it's just that life learning to fish, learning to, I don't know, just just enjoy life. According to the stages sheet, I think Sam references some last week, just some of the identifiers as you just have a more understanding and a connection to adventure, nature, hard work.

Yeah, we can scratch that one. But and then this the idea that life is hard, it's just not as easy. But yet, there's a there's just a lot of discovery that goes on at that age. So yeah, and for those of us who were little boys, we want you to think back to when you were 10, 11, 12, 13. In that age, you know, what was going on that was literally testing your mettle to find out that you had what it takes to be a man, you know, as you begin this, this journey, and as things would test you even hard work, right, to see what you could do. How about for you, David, what did what did you happen when you were 10, 11, 12, 13? I mean, that's really, you know, the fun stage of childhood, that's when you're old enough to understand things, but still young enough to not really care about them.

So, you know, there's no bills, or anything like that. And, you know, led up to the warrior stage, it starts preparing you for that. But for me, you know, like one of the identifiers in there was hard work. And it really started to prepare me for as I got older in life, and realize that, you know, hard work is still a thing even in, you know, 2022, even though we still have issues with that around the workforce. But, you know, I just I really enjoyed that time, regardless of the wounds that I got from it, looking back at it now, you know, that was one of the best times of my life outside of, you know, my wife and kids.

How about you, Jim? That was a period that I know there were disappointments, but I look back on it with joy, I would be first of all, when I was in scouts, we blows on into scouts, and that was quite the adventure. Isn't that cool, though, by the way, that I think that's Boy Scouts for us, we're at the perfect time for that, because it was hard work. And it was a way to prove you had what it takes in certain ways. And but yet there was a leader and a scout master, all those people that were helping you guide you into that and showed us that and yeah, when you first camp and trip, you roll outside and you get frozen into your sleeping bag because of the sleet.

That's hard work to get up and go back do that. And that was quite an adventure. And it was also a time when I was regularly going flying with my dad. He had a passion for flying had a small plane. And I got to go on that adventure with him and ran into a kid I knew and we were talking about places with adventure and it took me back to that boyhood stage and some of the trouble I got into and adventures we had was young so it's a great time for me growing up.

Danny. Yeah, it was a good time for me too. I can remember and it's been neat going back through some of this and, you know, obviously there was some wounding, but you know, grew up on a small family farm. So work was part of the deal.

But you know, lots of adventure. I think you got to tell the story of the of mowing the greens at your grandfather's or your grand uncle, however, that works. You got to tell that story.

Oh, there's nothing that doesn't make it to the air. So one of my first one of my first jobs was my great uncle had a par three golf course. And I got the job of mowing the greens. And I always lost it the first day I had it because it was this self propelled greens mower that had a big lever that you snatch it and it goes into gear. And me being the 98 pound weakling that I was, I snatched it into gear, it drug me down.

Rodney's not here to point that out, but he will be back. I'm pretty sure. So but, uh, and the mower carries on without me down the fairway and mows the fairway the same height as the green for about 30 yards. So, and so I'm picture.

So at first it's dragging young Danny, which with your curly locks that you once had and your skinny body once had and, and, and, and when most of drag, and then all of a sudden you, you turn loose. I did. I let it go.

It goes to mower. And what were you thinking as you're watching it? I'm dead. I'm dead. And so then what happened? We got to know. Well, I mean, I got the job. I mean, what happened to the mower? I mean, why didn't it go chomping down the rest of that? Well, my uncle caught it.

He was pretty fast for an older guy. He called it, stopped it and brought it back. And you know, we, we revisited what we were doing. So it was adventure.

Tyler, obviously, every time you mowed those greens, you felt like you had what I mean, it was hard work. It taught you something. It was a test. Yeah.

And that was what, that was what the deal was. Some odd shaped greens at times. Cause it did get away from time to time. They weren't completely round all the time. There's it putt putt too. I've seen them.

They're out of shape. Anyway, Andy, it's time for you to set up the quintessential clip. We always use this clip at bootcamp.

Yeah, it is part of the bootcamp package. And we use it in the sonship talk, but this is a part of that sonship. It's an important part. It's when William's father dies, after he's been killed in battle, we, we talked about his son's sonship last week, but his dad is killed in battle. And then there's just a sequence of events that are shortly, you know, just are together in the movie that really kind of spell out a lot of what he's experiencing in that cowboy ranger.

And I'd rather just talk about them after the clip. William, I'm your uncle. Argyle, you have the look of 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 blessed you 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 blessed 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 it. What are they doing? Saying goodbye in their own way.

Playing out loud tunes on out loud pipes. It was the same for me and your daddy when our father was killed. Daddy, when our father was killed. First, learn to use this.

Then I'll teach you to use this. So just starting going through there, I gotta go through this real quick, but there's so much into that. So the first part is, you know, he's lost his dad and his uncle from his dad's side comes in and he doesn't really want to be with him, but as the guy goes along. He was kind of a socks guy. Yeah, he was.

How long? I should have known. I should have saw that one coming. Uncle Argyle. Yeah, I always thought the greatest line come back for that was, you know, you have the look of your mother.

You have the look of me sweater. All right, so we usually have a funny clip. I guess this is the funny part of the clip. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you.

It's a very spectacular clip on all sorts of levels. It is, but you know, you got this weird guy coming in and he's got one eye pointing out the other way, you know, but really this guy comes in and is like another father to him, his uncle. And you know, you hear as you go through that, you know, he was like, did you hear the benediction? Well, I don't. No, I didn't understand it was in Latin. Well, you don't.

Well, we'll have to remedy that. So he speaks to his mind, right? And one of the things that you do is as a cowboy ranger is you start developing your mind and then he's praying. He's praying for his dad and he brings in the spiritual part of it. And then you hear his dad, this, the part that you hear that other voice come in, that's his dad on his deathbed. And William is having a dream and his dad says, um, to, to, uh, acknowledge his heart to, uh, your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it. Well, you know, you see the rest of the movie.

Is there any question? He followed his heart, right? And then, and then you get into where they're listening to the bagpipes. This one of the things that happens after a warrior dies and their dad had, um, Argyle and his dad, uh, William's dad, their father had died in battle and they're kind of, you know, memorializing them.

But then there's, he's sitting there and Argyle's holding the sword and, and William looks over at the sword and that's when he says, you know, you know, take care of this pointing in his head and then I'll teach you how to use this, the sword. And you look at it and that's the whole, the whole complete cowboy ranger there in that encapsulated in that. And you know, just how that ties to my story. I didn't lose my father from a death, but I did lose my dad. He moved out of state and he did a lot of things for my heart before he left, kind of like William's dad did before he left. And he, you know, he told him he was a beloved son and I had those things going on and that did need to build onto that next stage. And a lot of those things that I did, I did became a cowboy ranger. I can remember when I found out my dad was, my dad and mom were divorcing and he was going to be leaving the state. And, uh, I had fishing planned that night and I just went ahead with some friends and both of those guys had been through divorce and we kind of shared that pain with one another.

But that's where you were at as a kid. You were trying to experience life as a cowboy ranger. And, um, anyway, it was just, but my dad came back and did some really important things. He took me on some trips. I mean, we were talking on the show before then about how God wants to take us on an adventure.

Well, he did that to me and that him sowing that into me years later, it made an impact on my life. Well, you can see how fun boot camp is going to be and you got to come. I mean, well, we've got an entrenchment coming up, which is free. We might've mentioned that. And that's only a couple of weeks from now.

It starts September 30th through February the first. What has boot camp meant to me? That's a really tough thing to articulate. It's so deep inside me. It's ingrained in every part of me. Understanding woundedness. That's where God really caught me at my first boot camp and also helping me step into healing and restoration from those wounds. It's kind of cool.

It's like an onion. He keeps peeling back layers and it's, it's exactly and sometimes frustrating to go there with him, but I enjoy the process and the way God leads me to freedom. Register today at masculinejourney.org. For me, describing boot camp, when I heard the stories from the stage that the other men had, and then during my prayer time, I'm getting a download from God on where my life is and how I have wounds and I have a place in His story. To know how I heard from God is one of those things. He really does communicate with us.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. For those of you who don't know Gene and Roy, I'm just letting you know that was Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Did you know that Dave? No, I definitely didn't know that. You didn't know it was Gene Autry and Roy Rogers? How many in this room did?

We have one young student. That's okay. It's perfectly okay. So, you know, this weekend, I got a chance to, for my first rodeo ever to speak at the Pro Bowl Riders Rodeo there, and I had this outfit. I got to tell you, talk about the cowboy ranger. It wasn't banana colored, was it? It was like that. My wife, she shuddered me.

She hated it. See, back when I had the West Side Chrysler Dodge Jeep, I used to do these commercials. You might remember in beautiful downtown Moxville, you know, and I would dress up like a cowboy to do some of those commercials. And I had this Dodge Rodeo shirt. It was bright red with silver Dodge Ram.

You would love it, Danny, because it's like your truck. And then it's got, I had a black vest, you know, like a cowboy would wear. I had the hat and the boots and all this stuff.

And the boots even have little gold things that come out. My wife was like, you're not going to wear that. I said, well, I'm going to speak at a rodeo. I'm going to look the part. I mean, this is my first rodeo. This is my first rodeo. So anyway, I got to, you know, and who didn't do that? Right. When you were little, man, you had the six guns.

I don't know about you, but I had to have, you know, one of those Winchester lever action rifles, like the rifle man. I know Rodney, wherever you are, you're appreciating this, but the idea of, you know, we're looking forward to being a man and we're going to try to figure out if we got what it takes. And hopefully we got a good man to take us along that journey. And so, David, that leads us up to your clip.

Okay. So this is from the movie Hook where Robin Williams played Pan. This is around the, so he left Neverland due to some wound that the story really doesn't portray in it. But ultimately as this thing comes in, he's coming back to Neverland and starts to unfold what he ended up being as the post-hoc we use it at bootcamp.

The poser is ultimately what he was doing up until this point. So we'll go ahead and listen to this clip and then talk about it. It's helpful to know that the Robin Williams character, I think in this clip is actually Peter Pan.

Yeah. He's like an older version of it. You can imagine the lost boys, you know, all of a sudden this old geezer, Peter shows up on the scene. And so, you know, he doesn't appear to be a cowboy ranger at this point, but nonetheless, here we go.

That ain't Peter Pan. He's oh, he's fat. Not so fat to me.

He's an old fat crap-on man. Okay, Mr. Show's over. Now you put that thing away. Now put it down before you poke somebody's eye out.

You're not old enough to shave. What do you do with a sword? It's flying around.

This is an insurance nightmare. What is this? Some sort of Lord of the Flies preschool? Where are your parents? Who's in charge here? No, no, Mr. Skunkhead with too much moose. You are just a punk kid.

I want to speak to a grownup. All grownups are pirates. Excuse me? We kill pirates. I'm not a pirate. So happens, I am a lawyer. Kill the lawyer!

I'm not that kind of lawyer. So, as you heard, there's a lot of descriptions of Pan in that. One of my favorite ones is, he's an old fat grandpa man. And, you know, Sam, when you're listening to this, if you think I've said that towards you, I absolutely did. That's what happens when you get your clip in the first show. You get a chance to stick it to the man.

Or the man's not here to, you know, stick it back to me. So I'm definitely going to regret that one on a later show, I'm sure. Keep listening down the road and we'll see where that goes. But, you know, for me growing up, the Cowboy Ranger stage, as far as what the storyline of this version of Peter Pan says, is that the Lost Boys were in Neverland because they wanted to be at a place where there were no parents. And, you know, growing up, I can look back at my ages between, you know, 10 and 12, right before preteen, that, you know, that's what I wanted, is I wanted to go to a place where there are no parents. And I think a lot of kids go through that as they're growing up.

But it's ultimately a protection on whatever wounds we may be getting, whether it's from both parents, no parents, maybe outside of that. And really, I think Robin Williams does a good job as this movie goes on, because he ultimately blocked out all of his memories of being actual Pan. And he goes through that process to come back to Pan is where it kind of shows what God does to heal our hearts as we're working through the wounds to get back to who we truly are and what God's purpose for us is. Ah, that's beautiful, David, really, because the idea is, you know, as Sam points out about these stages is you, you know, you go through them, and you get back what you lost, but you're always a cowboy ranger. You're always in the boyhood, you know, the beloved son. And getting back these stages is a big part of what that's about, Harold. I was just gonna say that that's perfectly illustrated by the fact that Michael Jackson never left Neverland.

That's true. So I'm going to go on to my clip, which is from the bucket list, which you may think, what? These aren't cowboy rangers. Well, what you got here is two old men that have just been diagnosed with cancer. And as they get that cancer diagnosis, all of a sudden, when their days are numbered, you know, all of a sudden living life, which has a lot to do with having that cowboy ranger boyhood, you know, love of discovery is here.

So it's just, there's a lot of wisdom in this clip. I'm going to play it. We'll talk about it. What are you doing? What is this?

Come on, give it back. What is it? My freshman philosopher professor signed this exercise in forward thinking, and he called it a bucket list.

We were supposed to make a list of all the things we wanted to do in our lives before we kicked the bucket. Cutesy. Help a complete stranger for the good.

Laugh until I cry. Not to be judgmental, but this is extremely weak. It's pointless now.

I would argue the exact opposite. All right, that's it. What are you doing? A little rewrite, that's all. I mean, don't you want to go out with some guns blazing, have a little fun? It was not supposed to be about guns blazing or anything like that.

You're missing the point. What does witness something majestic? Have you ever been to the Himalayas? Driving a Mustang Shelby, not bad. I got one. All right.

How about skydiving? Now we're onto something. We're onto something? 15 seconds. No, no, wait, wait. I can't do this. Sure you can.

No, I can't. Really. It's not the jump you're afraid of. You're just afraid your shoe won't open and you'll show up at your own funeral as a Denver omelet. No, I'm pretty much just worried the shoe won't open. So absolutely. I really do love what the Jack Nicholson character says when he says, I would argue the complete opposite because what seems so ridiculous actually is life-giving, especially if you only have two or three months to live as the case may be. When are you going to go back and be that boy, you know, that Neverland pan, right? However, there's another aspect to this which is critical and that is Jesus as the cowboy ranger was totally connected to his father.

Remember even when he was in the temple, right? I'm about my father's business. So the idea of being able to go on these adventures together with your father is really something that I think is believably connected to this. So recently, for those of you who may listen to the John Eldredge podcast, which is awesome, Wild at Heart, they've been talking about the rule of life and how we set up our lives to do things that would give them structure and a way to get more God in them, right? And one of the things they suggested this this week, and I've been doing it about four or five months, is to go for a long walk every day. As a matter of fact, I go for about an hour walk every day, but I'm not just walking by myself. What I've been trying to do is stop and wonder about everything I see on these walks, and I try to go back into as much woods or get us back in the forest nature. I actually even went up to Hanging Rock and climbed and did that.

But as I do this, I'm taking God along like Andy talked about when he went on his adventures. And then the other day, I was coming out of the woods, and I just smelled this incredible smell, like, man, what is that smell? It just smells awesome. And as I started to look around, I saw these yellow flowers, and I grabbed one of them, and I sniffed. I was like, man, that's the most beautiful smell I've ever smelled.

And so, you know, I got this little WhatsApp app, you know, and so I snapped it in my camera, and it comes back, and it says, well, that is a bearded beggar tick, all right? Have you ever heard of that flower? Well, if you've seen, there's a zillion of them this year in North Carolina. Everywhere you look, there's all these yellow flowers. Well, if you will go smell one of those yellow flowers, you will be shocked. And so, I was just sitting there smelling that thing going, how did I miss the smell my entire life?

How did I miss all these flowers? So then, I actually clipped the little rascal and took it home to my wife, and I just felt the smell. Oh, man, that worked out good, too. I'm just telling you that, like, as I started to really, you know, go on that adventure with dad, right? Experience that feeling with him and sense his pleasure as we go exploring every day, whatever that may look like. What that does for the rest of my day is like, you know, every day having a, you know, a covenant of silence in its own way, like you're at boot camp, and you're going out there, and it's available to everybody, but guess what? You got to structure your life in such a way to go, okay, this is something, you know, besides my quiet time, those kind of things we're going to do. So, Cowboy Rangers, you're still in there.

It's like Prego spaghetti sauce. You know I was going to use it. It's still in there, and so, you know, call it up and call it up and go register for this boot camp because we're gonna have all kinds of fun like this, or you can come to the entrenchment. It's coming up right at the end of the month or the week before Thanksgiving on the boot camp. Go to maskonjourneyradio.org. We would love to see how you have no idea how much we would love to see you there. This is the Truth Network.