How Are You Spending Your Summer

Not key to cool off the Russian nightmare.

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I mean, it just seems like we're just in the studio and man, it's like a few minutes later. I know. How was your Independence Day everybody? Was it good?

That was great. Was it really? Yeah. Did you think about the topic from last week? A little bit. Yeah. What'd you think about it? I thought it was good. Wow.

That was pretty good. Many words. You're for it, right? You're exactly right, David.

I spent about 10 minutes meditating on it. Yeah, okay. Well, this week's topic. Yeah, Danny had the same shirt on last week.

We're in here. Yeah. That's your favorite shirt.

It's a nice shirt. Yeah. I feel like the dog's staring at me, but still. She is.

It doesn't matter which way you turn. His eyes just follow you. Yeah, it's kind of creepy. Of course, we can say the same thing about Danny.

As you look around, his eyes keep following you. Yeah. Anyway, Andy, you can tell us a little bit about the topic from this week. It's your topic.

It's my topic. Really? Two weeks in a row. Yeah, two weeks. You haven't had two weeks in a row since it was like a Braveheart.

About time somebody do their job. That was like a month in a row, though. Well, it was a long three months. Back to Braveheart again. What was it on the pillars? That was a great series right there. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm sure it was. So this topic is kind of following along with what WildArt has done a couple weeks back. Basically, you know, what are you doing for your heart this summer? A lot of times we go to vacation or some kind of rest.

That's part of it, but it needs to be more than that, I think, sometimes. Just really asking, God, what do you want to do in this season? Literally, this season of the summer. Because, you know, you're coming out of winter and spring. You know, it's been really cool.

Getting ready to fall. Yeah, I described the seasons, didn't I? But really, here in the Carolinas, May's been really the coldest May in a long time. And it's raining, it seems like, every weekend. But things are starting to get warmer. And we're getting outside and some of us have already taken some trips and stuff. And trips are definitely part of it. But it can be, you know, God's calling you to stay home and enjoy that time and not press into adventure and all those kinds of things.

Just depending on what you need. And, you know, we're coming out of COVID the previous two years. And a lot of people felt like they missed out on going and doing. And maybe that's what he's got called for you. But it may be just sitting still and being present, you know, wherever you're at. Just be open to that.

The point is, is lean into him and ask him. And we'll have some clips about that. But we'll have some, you know, we'll give stories of our own of how we're doing that. Chris Is it okay for me to be open to adventure? Sam Oh, yes, absolutely. Chris Okay. Sam Yeah, I've done some adventure.

No. And, no, I mean, well, be open to adventure. But ask God, I think. Chris Yeah, thank you, Rodney. Because, you know, he told me I could have the first clip knowing that literally the title of mine is called Vacation.

Right? And then he sets and talks about, well, it can't just be all about vacation. Sam No, no, no.

Well, go ahead, Sam, you have the first clip. Chris I'm just repeating what I heard from the Wild at Heart team. But it didn't make a lot of sense.

But a lot of it definitely is tied up. And we need that break. We were talking, if you go on an all adventure vacation and burn yourself out, there's no good in that. If you go sit down and do nothing the whole time, that's not really what I don't say. Chris Sit on your do nothing. Sam Yeah, sit on your do nothing. On your blessed assurance and do nothing, right? But, you know, the thing is, is just really asking God because he knows what your heart needs. That's what we're really getting. I mean, that's what we talk about every show is he knows what your heart needs.

And this summer is included in that. Chris Well, thank you. I actually do have the first clip.

But before I play the clip, which is only 18 seconds long, I'm gonna talk for a lot more than that. So I know you guys, I can see the excitement in your eyes. Thank you. Thank you for the support.

I feel better. This is coming off of a show we did a couple weeks ago on Word of the Year update. And so what God really kind of has in store for me this summer, and a little bit into the fall, is around focusing on family, and doing some things with them.

You know, sometimes that's on the weekend, just getting together with the kids, you know, I've been trying to do something with one of my kids almost every weekend, you know, if they're available and have time that we are trying to spend time. My Word of the Year last year, as we talked about, was talents. And God really called me out of the shadows, and said, I want you to use the talents I've given you in certain ways. And it was a very productive, very busy year that did come at a cost of not being able to spend as much time with my family as I wanted to. And so when he gave me the Word of the Year for 2023, which was family, he told me a couple things. It's time to reinvest there, and also expand my thoughts of what family is, not just, you know, my kids and my siblings.

And, you know, what other family do you have? And I talked a little bit about that last week, but he was reminding me early in the summer of a practice that we had as parents when our kids were little, you know, we had at one time four kids at home, three of them very active, one was a baby, which is active in their own right, you know, very demanding in their own right. But they all had activities. They had two teenage girls, a six-year-old son, seven-year-old son and a newborn, you know, and then for the next few years, add a year to that, right? And so we were very busy in the fall and in the winter because of school and the kids could be in one thing other than church, you know, each season.

And so if they each had one thing, if one ran track and one played football and one was in drama, you still had a lot of things you're doing. And so we used to make it a practice in the summer, nothing. We're not doing anything this summer. You have nothing other than church and going to the pool or whatever, you can hang out with your friends, but we're not playing summer baseball. We're not doing lots of things.

We're not doing any organized activities because it was time for our souls to get some rest. And God was reminding me of that this year saying, you've had a busy year, you've had a productive year, you've had a very fruitful year, but you also need to let yourself rest. And so for me, it's going to be around some vacations. And so this is a little bit of me when I used to go on vacation that I've been trying to change. And this is from the movie Vacation. And this is Chevy Chase has taken his family across country to Wally World. You know, they're a thin disguise of Walt Disney, you know, in the movie, but they stop at the Grand Canyon.

And I want you to listen to the total time that Clark Griswold takes to look at the Grand Canyon here in this clip, and then we'll come back and talk about it. Okay, let's go. Come on. Where's Eva?

She's in the car. Good. Come on, kids. Get your butts in the car.

Don't you want to look at the Grand Canyon? It was literally that long, you looked at it and said, Okay, let's go. And they hopped in that car and they took off. Now there was something that was driving them to do that. But, you know, that was me so much of the time when we do family vacations and do things like that, it was all about the destination, you know, how quickly can we get to the destination, how we can get to the next thing, the next thing, the next thing.

And really, there wasn't a lot of joy in it sometimes. And really just looking at the opportunities I have, I have three trips lined out with different family, I'm going with my daughter to Vegas, to visit with what is now become some extended family, not by blood or marriage, but by love, you know, to go to a baby shower out there for some of them, and really enjoy that and spend some time. It's a very quick trip from Thursday to Saturday. I mean, it's not much, but it's enough, you know, and then taking a trip down to Florida to see my oldest daughter and my grandson in September and to see my siblings and that's gonna be a great trip. It's my brother's and his wife's 50th wedding anniversary. So it's going to be a great time of celebration.

And then October, going with my boys to New York and going to the Niagara Falls, gonna see that and really, we've not really planned a whole lot other than that, because we kind of want to let it be a little bit more free-flowing, not be scripted, kind of get up there and see what we want to go do, you know, just kind of enjoy the time together. Yeah, some people think exhaustion is a badge of accomplishment. Instead of just really like blowing by stuff and not really seeing the beauty of what God's done, or the beauty of the relationship you have in with your children or your family or your friendship, you know, to me that's a thievery Satan uses, that we get burned out and then frustrated and everybody gets frustrated because he's pushing, he was pushing so much to see and do and say, I put that, I got the checklist, I got the checklist done, we accomplished that.

But it's not a badge of honor. One thing God's been working with me on, and I'll move over to somebody else to talk, but that God's been working on me with is just because the word should is not necessarily a good word. You know, I have some time here, I should be doing this, right? And instead saying, God, do I really need to be doing that right now? And there's times he's like, nope, I just want you to relax. You know, and yeah, I have things to do for work or things to do for ministry or for other things I'm involved in. And he's just kind of like, nope, you need to just take some time and unwind. And that's been hard to do when you've been on a season of go, go, go, go, go, get stuff done, be productive.

It feels good to be there, but it's very taxing, very tiring, and will lead to burnout if you're not careful. And I know God's trying to protect my heart this summer by saying recoup, reinvigorate, you know, and be ready for the next season because there is going to be a next season, you know, and who knows what that's going to hold, but let's just live through this one right now. Any other thoughts real quick and we'll kind of go from there?

I just resonate completely with the, excuse me, with the charge to get to the destination. Let's get there. Don't take in any sites. Don't do anything on the way. No fun. Just go, go, go.

Right. And, you know, now being able to be way more content in Christ, I'm like, I really resonate with like what you're saying. Don't make a lot of plans.

Just make a couple of things, leave time open and do those kinds of things. It's just, it changes your whole attitude towards the vacation. Like as soon as I get to where it's, I have to be somewhere by a certain time, if I'm on time, I'm like, that's just the way I approach life. And it really becomes a real problem where it just, it controls and grips you rather than being free. Like we're talking about last week a little more.

Yeah. The one thing God really showed me last week, last week, last year on a trip with my sons is we had a lot of unscripted stuff, things that we wanted to do, but we also had one thing that was scripted. It was going to a football game. The only thing that I stressed about that whole trip was a scripted thing because I had some place to be at a certain time. You know, when we're going up to Mount Rushmore, we get there. When we get there, you know, as long as they're there before they close, it doesn't really matter.

Daylight helps. Yeah. It takes like five minutes to see it.

It's not, but there's four presidents. Yay. How much time did you spend there? I didn't spend a lot of time at Mount Rushmore.

There's not a lot to spend there, but it was beautiful. It was worth seeing, but that was relaxing to saying, Hey, you ready to go? Okay, let's go.

You know, let's go do something else. When we come back, we're going to talk more about this topic and hear from the rest of us on what's going on to restore our hearts this summer. In the meantime, think about coming to a bootcamp coming up the weekend in November, right before Thanksgiving, the weekend before Thanksgiving in November, masculine journey.org to register. What we have at our bootcamp is something that makes you stronger and it 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've been coming regularly and it's just such a blessing. When you guys invited me, I was at the worst time of my Christian walk. I was going through some things. The first time I came, I don't know if you remember, I was going to walk.

I couldn't stand up straight and I'm walking now. I ain't running around the lake yet, but you know, the greatest things is just being around a group of men that love the Lord and sharing his kindness and his love. All of you guys, I done sat and talked with all of you guys, different occasions, different conversations, and it's all been unique and refreshing. You guys gave me a whole different perspective in life and you can't hide the true genuine love of God.

You can't hide it. Register today at masculinejourney.org. Welcome back to Masculine Journey. What the heck was that? Did you see how much joy that song brought him? He was smiling like a little boy. That was your bump, Andy. What are you telling me? You're telling stories. What were those words?

Okay, so truth be told, I look into the folder, which we have a folder where we put our clips. That's the best you got? No, because if you listen to the words, it just says summertime and then something else that I remember it was. Kick back and enjoy, I think is what it says. And the reason I like that clip, I don't necessarily like the song, but the reason I like the clip is sometimes we put so much in our summer, we don't take time to just sit back and relax. And so that's kind of the point of what we're talking about. So they were relaxing on that song because they didn't bring a lot of words or anything. So it was just a relaxed.

So you have to listen, you'd have to listen to know what that said. But yeah, just in case you weren't, which you weren't. Yeah, yeah. That's called being 15 degrees and cool. Yeah, that's at least 15.

Yeah, maybe more. Okay, so you have the opportunity to go to masculinejourney.org to go to our Facebook page and go ahead and vote on the best bump that we've ever had. I'm going to throw that that's one of the more relevant bumps that we've had, unlike some of the others. I think Jim's is going to the top on this. Jim's is going, if you're looking at the list upside down, his would be at the top. Yes, you are correct.

Yeah, it's hard enough for me to take his bump sometimes. No, I'm just kidding. Jim, we miss you. We are in an inverted reality world.

We are sometimes Yes, we are. So Danny, you actually have the next clip on this topic of summer. And what are you doing to restore your heart? Well, Michelle and I talked about it. And we have been on a journey this year to kind of pour more into each other. And one of the things we love to do, we just took a vacation down the surfside beach. And we wanted to fish something this summer because she loves to fish and I do too.

As one of those things that kind of makes my heart come alive, especially to see my wife hook into a nice catch or something like that. And so we've been booking some vacations. And we went down there, we booked a fishing trip down there and a a murder mystery dinner, which was kind of cool. And we didn't pack a bunch of stuff into the days that we were down there.

We just kind of played it by ear and you know, just kind of leisurely. And she said, probably one of the best vacations she's ever had. But one of the highlights of it was the fishing trip. And thus the clip and we played a clip of talk about it on the backside is from the movie Jaws.

Okay. So if you hadn't seen it or ever heard of it, you've been missing for the past 30 some years, I think so at least 30. Yeah. So yeah, it was in 70s. I think when it Yeah, it was. Yeah.

So it'd be like 50 years. Oh, yeah. Well, we'll work on math later.

I was told there'd be no math. All right, here we go from Jaws. Thank you, daddy. Here we go. You're gonna need a bigger boat. Shut off that engine.

Yeah, the iconic music. If you don't know that, you know, the scene Jaws is coming up. But um, we were out on the boat with a little 26 foot pontoon boat with the captain and Michelle and I. Tenille?

Yeah, Captain Tenille and Michelle and me. And we're out, just out in the ocean just a little bit because it's supposed to be an intercoastal fishing trip. And so we're catching, Michelle caught four Spanish mackerel on the same rig that he had up there.

And so she pulled in all four of them were keepers. And so we go back into the intercoastal waterway. And the first thing she and I both get she catches a little shark about, I don't know, maybe a foot long. And then I hook one, it looks like a hammerhead shark was actually a bonnet head shark.

And he was a little longer than that. So when I flipped him up on the deck, of course, I said, we're gonna need a bigger boat. And my wife looks at me not smiling and says, Don't you ever say that out here again. And but so that was the joke. So when we started talking about summertime, I said, honey, I need a clip.

She said, do Jaws. And I'm like, Oh, this is a no brainer right here. But you know, the joy that we've got from that. And you know, we're going in August up to the mountains trout fishing. And so but in all of that, we get to spend time with each other. And you know, we are like school kids. A lot of times if you've ever seen us together much, I mean, we laugh and giggle all the time, just us and a dog, which is on my shirt, by the way, case y'all didn't know that. And well, considering it's an over staring at all of us, it's kind of hard not to forget. Look, I won't go and tell my dog y'all pick it on her. So don't tell her that we're kind of picking on you.

Well, yeah. Anyway, the but that's, that's the that's the thing that kind of God's got us in this season of, you know, just loving on each other, you know, loving on family members, and you know, having some stuff go on, but kind of pushing back from the business of life. And just kind of, you know, because we do need that. And, you know, I think john elder said in one of his podcasts that you know, we're not made to run 90 mile an hour all the time. And, you know, I've tried that, you know, tried to add sometimes ministry is the worst culprit of it all, is, you know, you're, you got to be here, you got to go here, you got to do that. And then, you know, you go on vacation, and you got to do this, and you got to do that, you want to do this while you're down there, and you come back exhausted, like we've talked about. But, you know, we've decided that's not going to be our life. And, you know, God, tell us what we need to do what we don't need to do, you know, open the doors that need to be open and shut the ones that need to be shut and nail them.

Because I will get a hammer and open them anyway. You know, that's just kind of the way I've lived my life. But, you know, it has been very restorative, restorative, I guess would be the word. Did I get that right? You did it right. That's good. Anyway, I was trying to mess it up, and I got it right. But that's been, you know, our hearts.

And, and it's just, just the love that we share, but you know, and love that God pours into us, because we are beloved. So that's my word for the year, too, by the way. That's all you got?

That's all I got, dude. Yeah, so I was waiting on that. I thought, Tessa, you're going to finish it up. So Danny, are you gonna wear that shirt again next week? Because I just need to know, I'll bring treats for your dog. I thought you said you needed sunglasses.

It is kind of loud. No, David, you have the next clip, actually, if you'd like to tell us a little bit about it. Yeah, so to be fully transparent, you know, we're talking about taking a break over the summer, you know, for ourselves. You started early?

Yeah, way early. So my buddy Andy, you know, he took care of this clip for me. I've never actually seen the movie, but I know we use the clip a lot at boot camp.

It's River Runs Through It. It's a Brad Pitt movie. This is the point when the two brothers, they're talking, they're actually fishing together with the dad. And then it comes into play where the dad's sitting there just watching them. The other brother comes up and sits down with the dad. And they're watching the older brother, which is Brad Pitt, kind of break into his own rhythm. So we'll talk about it, or we'll listen to it, and then we'll come back and talk about it a little bit. What are they fighting on? What? What are they fighting on? Louder!

I said, burn your butt! Perhaps we wondered afterwards which one of us was tougher. But if boyhood questions aren't answered before a certain point, they can't be raised again. So we return to being gracious to one another, as the church wall suggested. I then saw something remarkable.

For the first time, Paul broke free of our father's instruction into a rhythm all his own. Okay. Okay.

They're both marbles. It's just that he's been particularly good to me. I do want to throw an indendum in there. He did say that any of the questions from the boyhood stage couldn't be raised again, and that's not true. If you are going through the stages and you miss something out, whether it's the cowboy ranger stage or any of those as you were coming up, you can absolutely go back and revisit those and answer those questions with God. It's God fathers you, yep.

Yep. I really like how Andy picked this clip. I've really been trying to take a break and work on my Word of the Year. If you listen to any of the shows back in December and in the fall, you would have heard us talking about hunting and how patience went into that for me and everything like that. I've never really been a huge fisherman.

I've always been the type of person that I'd like to go sit in a tree stand with a gun or bow, and it's a little bit more my speed. So this summer, I've really been fishing a lot with a buddy, and it's really cool. The first couple of times we went fishing, I didn't catch anything but maybe some brim, which we use to bait fish. I finally one day was sitting there and invited God into it with me, a lot like we do when we went hunting. Ultimately, it went right into that where we started having the adventure of the fight with the fish. Some of the times that we went out fishing, it actually gave me the opportunity to minister to other men and ultimately was able to minister to some younger men in their teens and early 20s that had heard about the radio shows through my buddy that we go fishing with, and so we talked about it a little bit.

The most memorable time so far this summer, which I'm sure you guys could have guessed it by seeing the pictures. Unfortunately, you can't see it because we're on the radio, but a couple weeks ago, I went fishing with my buddies and ultimately was able to reel in, it was probably somewhere between a 30 and 40-pound flathead catfish. By far, my buddy asked me, he's like, is that the biggest fish you ever caught? I was like, absolutely, 100%, definite, the biggest fish I ever caught. But ultimately, it's leading back into my word of the year with patients because they call it fishing, they don't call it catching, right, Danny? So if they call it catching, everybody would do it. So a lot of patients with that. Yeah, but you hunt and they don't necessarily mean that you're going to gather when you hunt, you just may be looking for it.

I don't know, might want to ask Arthur about that. There's a little bit different out there. Most times you went, you didn't get anything. How many times do we go? Like three or four times? I got one out there though. Okay, your memory's not great. We'll just keep going.

No, I'm just joking. So what things are you doing this summer to restore your heart? Not just on your own, but leaning into God and saying, God, what is it that you want me to do to restore my heart? Not what you think you need to do, but what does he tell you to do? All right.

Andy started out with that. That's the key thing is maybe it is a vacation. Maybe it's not a vacation.

Maybe it's a staycation as David was saying earlier a little bit that I don't think you've maybe heard him, but maybe it's that maybe it's something totally different, right? We're going to hear more in the after hours, but if you haven't listened to the after hours, go to any podcast outlet. I don't care where it is. Spotify, YouTube, any of them. It's there. It's called mask on journey radio. Go to listen to the after hours. We'll talk with you next week and go to register for bootcamp mask on journey.org. This is the truth network.