Gifts Or Surprises From Our Heavenly Father

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Welcome to Masculine Journey. We're glad that you're with us today. And as I look around this room, it's weird how perspective changes. You know, three or four years ago I said, wow, this room is packed.

And now it looks empty. There's only five of us in the room. And I know that sounds like a lot, you know, for a radio show, but a lot of times we have, what, like 10 people in here? It can be that big. Yeah, it can be that big. We don't have that many on the air, but we have probably eight or nine on the air. And so this week we're missing David and Andy and Kenny and Chuck and Harold and Art and Wayne and Grant. That's a lot.

Yeah, it's a lot different, like you said, than what it was three or four years ago. Yeah, we just got a triage team working today. That's all we got, just five of us. So hopefully we'll be able to get through it. But today's topic is one, it's a couple of weeks before Father's Day. And so next week we plan on talking about our earthly fathers, you know, as we lead up to Father's Day. The show will be aired on the day before Father's Day. And this week we're going to focus on our Heavenly Father. And so we're going to talk a little bit about the gifts that he's given us, the surprises that he's had for us, and just anything along those lines.

So that's going to be our topic as we start to turn our attention towards fathers for the next couple of weeks. And so we'll start with your clip, Rodney, if you'd like to go ahead and set it up a little bit. Yeah, so this is like a throwback show. We're supposed to have all our throwback jerseys on and all that. All the old school stuff.

Yeah, this is an old school clip. Alright, that means we're actually going to have to talk more this time since we don't have so many clips to play. But the good thing is we have Jim with us and we'll just get him telling us a story and then that'll carry us through the show. Just, Jim, just please wake us up when you're done.

Led Zeppelin, ramble on. Yeah, so I, again, so the backstory I guess for this show is Sam and Andy were up at a boot camp helping out another team and nobody else was willing to step up and come up with the topic. So Sam kind of threw one out at the last minute a couple days before the show.

I want to correct you on that Rodney. I threw one out and it got thrown back. It got thrown back because we did the topic two weeks ago. You said miracles sound good to me and we just did the show on miracles like two weeks ago. I must have been off on a cruise or something. No, we actually texted and you said, oh, that's a great topic. And then you went on a cruise and so I thought you were joking when you sent it out. And so I just, I'm like, well, obviously Jim doesn't listen to the show.

Or it makes that big of an impact. Okay, I'm the right color if you're sitting here. You can't see it on the radio. Yeah, it is radio still. Yeah, so it's back to you on the clip. Alright, well, we're feeling dead air. You know, that's what we do around here. Feel dead air.

That's about all we can claim around here. But I was like, okay, we only have a very short time. I'm just like, when it came out, I'm like, oh, I've got a few minutes. I can just pray real quick. I'm like, oh, where am I going to go with this in a short time in front of the clip?

Because I also knew that a few people were going to be here. And then it was like, well, salvation. Yeah, Lord, I know that's the big thing. And then I started thinking about my son's salvation and other things. It was just like the gift that keeps on giving. And that's just where then I couldn't get Cousin Eddie out of my mind. As much as I really was like, well, I'm going to go somewhere else because I can go get another clip and maybe come up with some of the same thing.

I couldn't get Cousin Eddie. Then I was like, well, you know, I've got a short amount of time. Sam's already done this before.

I know he has. Let me see if I can find it. So I just went and pulled it out of the archives and plugged it on over and thought, this one fits because it's exactly where God had me. It's gift after gift after gift.

And I guess we'll play this and then we'll talk on the backside. So this is from Christmas Vacation. It's Christmas in June. Here we go. I have a delivery for Clark W. Griswold. I was supposed to deliver it yesterday, but it fell between the seats.

I didn't see it. I'm sorry. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas. I can't believe it. What is it? A letter confirming your reservation at the Nut House? It's from my company. Your bonus.

My bonus. Open it, Clark. Open it. Yeah, I hope it's a fortune, Clark.

Don't say you do it. Ball all over it or are you going to open it? I was going to wait until tomorrow to tell you all this, but what the heck. With this bonus check, I'm putting in a swimming pool. That's it. That's the big one. Open it.

I'm sorry if I've been a little short with everyone lately. I've been waiting for this bonus to make sure the pool goes in as soon as the ground falls. I had to lay out the money in advance and until this little miracle arrived, I didn't have enough in my account to cover the check I wrote. That is so grossing, Dad. Drum roll. There's enough left over.

I'm going to fly you all down here to help us dedicate it. I can't swim, Clark. I know that, Eddie. Clark, what's wrong? Honey, it's bigger than you expected.

Smaller? What is it? It's up to one year membership in the Jelly of the Month Club. Clark, that's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year. That it is, Edward.

Edward with the silver lining. The gift that keeps on giving the whole year. He's a glass half full kind of guy. Isn't he? He's just happy-go-lucky. You can't think of a character with probably worse circumstances, hardly, but he's just always happy.

Everything's good. He's a jelly jar half full. That's probably true. As long as you've got a half jar, you've got something. So where God kind of had me was just reflecting on all the good gifts that have even happened lately. Because that's one of those things where you don't always get gifts and to be able to recognize them as gifts. But in the last just a little over probably a year even, you go back a little bit further, my son coming to faith was a huge gift. I take my own kind of for granted because you don't know how bad off you are until the point that God kind of points it out. But when you watch other people in your life and people you're that close to, you just see so many stumbling blocks for them to come to faith because that's all you really want. You're constantly looking for that. Oh, come to faith, come to faith. And when they're struggling with other things and then you're like, ah, man, they're just not going to.

You just get this defeatist attitude. And when they do, you're just so elated and it's just wonderful. And then you watch the sanctification process where they're just working through things. They make mistakes.

They do other things. And you start to wonder, well, are they saved? There's just so many things in this walk. It's just hard for the Christian just to put things in context. But you realize, wow, it's just one gift after another watching them grow and watching them go through things.

Because that allows you also a chance to grow and do things with them. And then he finds a potential wife. He's dating and they're very tight from the beginning. And they get married. And then her family and her Christian family is just the gift that keeps on giving.

Because he kept mushrooming into more and more. Even though when I first became a Christian and shortly after starting to realize, wow, there's a big family available to me now. I didn't really think about it as a family at first. But now it's like, that's a huge family. And you get gifts there all the time from people. And it just keeps growing and growing. And that's where for me, you know, the jelly keeps coming in year after year after year.

And I'm just loving it at this point. You know, and that's where the other part I was just thinking about when we're talking about God and the good gifts. We can easily jump into the, well, yeah, God's great when he gives me good gifts. But even if I don't get what I think is a good gift, if I have to struggle through something, I have to learn.

I have to, you know, be in some tribulation or whatever. You go through that and that grows you as a Christian. That makes you realize how good God really is and how, you know, we are going to struggle in this world with other sinners and Satan, you know, fighting with us. And it's just one of those things that you feel good when you just kind of continually work through that life with God. And, you know, like recently one of my friends, his wife had got diagnosed with cancer and they just got the benign, you know, thing back. It's like, okay, the diagnosis is much better than what it could have been.

That's a great gift. But all I can keep thinking about is whichever way it comes out, it's still a great gift from God. Because something's going to happen through that that's going to make you grow and be better than what you were before. And you just have to keep looking and growing and working through those things and understanding that and trust. It's hard.

I always struggle with those kinds of things. But it is grace. It just gets better and better to be able to grow and live through those and see, you know, be more like Eddie was like, hey, that's a bad thing. Jelly of the month club rather than thousands of dollars to go put a pool in.

But you can turn around and go, hey, there's some good that's going to come out of this. And maybe it'll be boysenberry next month, you know, which would be good. I prefer boysenberry more than the ordinary jam.

I'm a citizen for boysenberry jam. Exactly. You got your shirt? Yeah. One of the great places to get gifts from God, you can get them all the time, right? But a great place to get gifts from God is boot camp. And we have a boot camp coming up in November.

And the reason I say that is I just got back from a boot camp this weekend. And it was really good for me in some ways because I didn't have any talks. I was doing one of the first boot camps I've been to in a long time other than I went to one of theirs in September of last year where I didn't have a talk to do.

And so it was a very different experience when you're not thinking about I got this talk, you know, I got this talk, you know. And you weren't a participant, which the one last time you were. And this time I was on team, you know.

And so I did do a couple responses. But thinking back, every boot camp, and I've got to be over 30 of them now that I've been to, God's always had a gift for me there. And I didn't know what the gift was going to be at this boot camp. But one of the things that was really cool was I was asked to respond to one thing, which was warfare. And then at the last minute they asked me to respond to another topic. And I have to think about it, what it was.

But anyway. Andy, where are you when we need you? Yeah, Andy can tell me. But what was really cool, the gift that came from that was the two kind of tied together. But what God really helped me see for the first time of all the healing and the restoration and the stuff that he's done for me. There was a, not a formula, but a very distinct reasoning for the way it happened when it happened. Because I was thinking back and, you know, some of the stuff that God, oh, it was the new name.

It was the thing I was responding to. And in my first boot camp in 2002, I asked God for a name. And he gave me a couple little things, but my real first new name came in 2010. I mean, it was a long time away and I couldn't figure out, God, why did you take so long?

You know, I mean, did you not know I wanted it? But there was healing and there was stuff that had to get out of the way so I'd be in the place where I could hear it. And what he helped me to see, which was a real gift, was this was the path that I took you on.

And it was very intentional. It was very set up uniquely for you to where that was the right time for you to hear your name. We'll come back, talk more about it. We've got a boot camp coming up in November. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God.

It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. I want to read the dictionary meaning of vulnerability. It's the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.

I always had a negative aspect of vulnerability. But at boot camp, it's really different because we come and there's seven or eight guys here that speak and they all get vulnerable with the rest of us. And what comes from that is encouragement, just building up and knowing that, hey, I'm not by myself in this battle and warfare and growing up stuff. You guys have all had similar experiences and it's great to know that.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. You're a good, good Father. It's who You are. It's who You are. It's who You are.

And I'm loved by You. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am.

Welcome back to Masculine Journey, and that is Chris Tomlin with the song Good Father, and that's probably one of the easiest ones to hear all the part of the chorus to. I mean, it's just like six words. But it's good to talk about God being the ultimate good Father. You know, that's a really cool thing that we're talking about today. We're talking about the gifts that God's given us, the surprises that He's given us along the way.

And so, Jim, that leads us to you next for your clip and your story about God's surprises or gifts for you. Should I start rambling now or wait till later? We got a little bit of time.

You can ramble whenever you want. Actually, I wanted to react to, while Rodney was talking about his, I was thinking, well, you know, if you want a perfect light, you're going to have it eventually. What's the point of having everything go right here?

There isn't one. I mean, we have to go through struggles to appreciate what's coming. When you were talking about me picking a topic that was two weeks ago, it was miracles, and I just realized, well, that's sort of what my topic is. I love Julie Andrews, but this is not Julie Andrews. It's from Mary Poppins Part 2, Return. I couldn't remember the word, and I never knew the movie existed. Does this one not have Julie Andrews in it? I don't think so. Oh, I thought that was her voice.

It did sound very much like her, but I think it was an imitation. Okay. But I chose this one because it is about losing things, and I've loved this joke for a long time, if I can remember it. It's, of all the things I've lost in my life, I miss my mind the most. And this does kind of speak to the fact that, you know, until you lose something, you really don't appreciate it. I got to thinking about the losing the coin, the widow losing the coin, and finally getting rejoicing. And that's what my story after this is going to be, but the clip itself is kind of self-explanatory.

You just listen to the words. Here we go. Don't listen to the three of you.

You're all worrying far too much. After all, you can't lose what you've never lost. I don't understand. Well, do you ever lie awake at night, just between the dark and the morning light, searching for the things you used to know, looking for the place where the lost things go? Do you ever dream or reminisce, wondering where to find what you truly miss? Well, maybe all those things that you love so are waiting in the place where the lost things go. Memories you've shared, gone for good you feared, they're all around you still, though they've disappeared. Nothing's really left or lost without a trace. Nothing's gone forever, only out of place. And particularly the last line of that appealed to me because we have it all eventually.

We don't lose anything that's not going to be replaced probably by something better. And it triggered in me a... I am not a worrier.

I mean, I even keel most of the time. Rodney doesn't believe that and he thinks I'm feeding you something. I'm not sure based on the gestures, but I don't really worry much. But I was enjoying myself with my wife in Cozumel, Mexico a few weeks ago. And we were driving Jeeps and I left my phone and I presumed my glasses in the Jeep. We went back to the ship. We had about 45 minutes before we had to leave and I discovered I did not have my phone. So I tracked it with Carolyn's phone.

It was still where the Jeeps were parked. And after searching it, I called it to see if they would pick up. And what happened was the phone got turned off because it would no longer track and I immediately started worrying. I said, well, I'm not going to see my phone again.

And I was whining as I was getting ready to run over there hoping anyway. And I said, my whole life's on that phone. And my wise wife said, you may want to think about what you just said. She didn't tell me I was wrong, but she did tell me what I was doing wrong.

So I started praying, but I did not hope of any good outcome. Ran to the pyramid where we met. It was a long enough trip that I was running out of time. And I was talking to the people that were talking to other people that had my phone. And they said, well, you got to get to the office to get it. And the office was still at least 10 minutes away from where I was. And I had like 20 minutes.

So it was 25 minutes to get back to the boat based on that. And so I started heading that way. And they said, we'll send somebody to guide you to the office. And I had her name. I saw somebody and she was coming my way and we were about the only ones there. So I hollered out her name and said yes. And we met. She actually had my phone, which saved me about 10 to 15 minutes. And I thanked her. I tipped her.

I'm cheap, so I won't say the denominations, but I tipped her twice what she asked for. And I was really thrilled. I had also lost my glasses in the Jeep, but other than the fact I wouldn't be able to read very well for a couple of days, that wasn't a big deal. But I zipped back to the ship, got on board. Four or five people got on behind me before they closed things up. And I went up to the scanner.

And I was thrilled. I threw my stuff, which was two phones and my passport and wallet, which was it. And they scanned it and it started going through. And they wait till they see that before letting me get scanned. So I'm sitting there waiting. And the conveyor for that freezes up. And they have to move it out to free it up. And when that happened, my glasses, which had been there for 45 minutes, fell out.

They had just started blocking the thing from moving. And she motioned me to come through the scanner, but I was bent over double laughing. And I kind of clearly heard God say, well, you trust me now? And that story got repeated multiple times, but that was my vacation miracle.

And sometimes getting something back that you've lost is better than other gifts that you receive from your father. But I am going to back it up now because it's been a couple of years. But that was my story, and it was told several times to captive audiences and elevators for the rest of that trip.

Well, thank you. And it was actually Emily Blunt that played that part. And it surprised me when I just looked it up, but I didn't know she could sing. If you don't know who Emily Blunt is, if you've never seen The Office, she's married to the guy that played John. Not John. Played the lead guy character. It wasn't Steve Carell. It was Jim. She played Jim.

That's Jim's wife in real life. But she's been in a lot of things. But, yeah, it was kind of surprising. I didn't know she was that talented. But, Danny, we have enough time to get your clip in, I believe.

And if you want to tell us a little bit about it. Yeah, the clip is from The Lion King, and it's toward the beginning. And it's a scene with Mufasa and Simba. And they're talking about the kingdom, and Mufasa is explaining to him about, maybe, his time. The sun will set on his time, and this will be Simba's. And, of course, Simba's being a real kid and going, I can do whatever I want to and everything.

But the words that Mufasa has given to him as a son is what struck me about it. And we can talk about it on the backside. Okay, here we go. Look, Simba, everything the light touches is our kingdom.

Wow. A king's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here and will rise with you as the new king.

And this will all be mine? Everything. Everything the light touches.

What about that shadowy place? That's beyond our borders. You must never go there, Simba. But I thought a king can do whatever he wants. Oh, there's more to being king than getting you away all the time.

There's more? Simba. Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope. Dad, don't we eat the antelope?

Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so, we are all connected in the great circle of life. So, I got to thinking about it, and, you know, my dad has poured wisdom into me, and I know we're talking about our Heavenly Father, but I got to thinking about it. I've been involved in a program, it's an app actually, to read the Bible chronologically over the past year.

And I'm about to finish that up. And in Raphael like this, Psalm 119, it says, The unfolding of your words gives light, it imparts understanding to the simple. And what it made me think about is the things that God has told me over the years. And I've spent a little time over the past couple of years visiting, revisiting some of those. But as things unfold, you know, those are where the surprises come in, because you realize that, you know, Dad told me a long time ago, he said, Son, get paid for what you know, not what you do.

And I always jokingly tell him, so that's paid off pretty well, Dad. But it's those kind of things that, you know, if I listen to God's Word, and I listen to what He says, and I think Jim said it well a while ago, was that it ain't easy for things, and life isn't always just, you're not going to skip to the loo, you know, to heaven kind of thing. There's going to be challenges. And, but in those, some of, I had a friend who used to say that some of God's greatest gifts are wrapped in some ugly packaging. And, you know, those are the kind of things that I thought about that, you know, as those words unfold, when I try to live out what he said in his Word, the surprises do come because you don't think it's going to work out, and it does.

So, you know, all those things you said was really pretty cool. But you said skip to the loo, and I started thinking about, isn't a loo a bathroom? Yes. So, just thinking about skipping to the bathroom. Not always certain how that came up, but anyway. And then my darling. Yeah, skip to the loo, my darling.

Not sure how that came out either. Anyway, we do have a boot camp coming up. It's coming up the weekend before Thanksgiving in November, so you can look that up. Thanksgiving doesn't move. You know, it's that same Thursday every year, but it's the weekend before that. Go to masculinejourney.org. This is the Truth Network.