Contentment

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So how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when 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 to the great adventure. 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.

Welcome to Masculine Journey. We're glad that you're with us this week, and we've had an exciting week. Weather's been crazy.

We had 70s over the weekend, and now it's in the 90s, mid-90s again. The things you think you can count on, you just can't, and that kind of leads us into tonight's topic if we think about it in the wrong way. So Harold, why don't you tell us a little bit about tonight's topic. We've been on a topic roll, Harold.

It's like three out of four weeks or something crazy like that. Well, I was looking at what's going on around the world and in our country as well, and it seems like there's just so much discontent. Nobody seems happy and satisfied with the way things are going, and actually there was a song that the Kingston Trio had back in the late 50s, and I realize I'm probably the only one that was living back then, but it dealt with the subject.

I can't remember the title, but one part of the lyric is, The whole world is festering with unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans. The Germans hate the Poles. Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch.

And I don't like anybody very much. Was that after World War II? So the idea of being content, I thought about Paul and so forth, but Job to me was an example. Naked I came from the womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord is taken away.

May the name of the Lord be praised. Job had it all, and he lost it all, and that was his attitude after that. So we need to learn from Job that our contentment shouldn't be bound up in what we possess. In Acts 4, chapter 4, 25 to 26, Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Without God, there is no contentment.

It can't be. And then Paul in Philippians, chapter 4, beginning in verse 11, I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. And Hebrews 13.5 says, Don't love money, and be content with what you have. So how could Paul be content after all the rejection and abuse that he suffered?

Because he had God, and that was what he needed. So I thought that perhaps a good topic would be for us to look at how do we seek out contentment in a world that seems to be offering just the opposite. I don't think he left anything. I think we're good to go home. Yeah, the show's over. Thanks for listening. We'll just keep going.

Good setup there. Yeah, well, and life keeps happening to us. We forget that we live in a world at war. And I'm not talking about the physical war. It's a spiritual war. And yes, it is, and we say it often. And John said it first, I think, from Wild at Heart. I still say it wrong.

We are in a great love story, but it's set in a world at war. So we're surprised when casualties happen. But Andy, you have the first clip. Oh, boy. No, I worked really hard for that.

I think Robby worked really hard for that. Well, it was true. Indeed. Indeed.

I posted the wrong one. So this is from The Pursuit of Happiness. And you think of happiness and contentment kind of being similar, but I love this clip.

I hadn't thought about the movie that much, but whenever we were talking about happiness, again, contentment came up with happiness. But here, Chris, I can't remember his last name. Will Smith plays him. But he's lost his wife. He and his wife, she called up and said she was leaving.

She took his boy. And then it quickly goes into he's trying to move from selling these bone density scanners into investments and a job with Dean Winter. But really what I'm trying to get here is there's a lot that you hear, but really he's just got a chaotic life. And as you watch the whole movie, and I encourage you to see it if you haven't, is his whole life is blowing up, but to continually to bring stability to his kid, to love him, to take the time for him, and to learn lessons and not get bitter, it is an example of contentment as you watch it go. Now, he doesn't always look content. He gets frustrated.

But ultimately, for him to be able to continue to function and move in the right direction, he is content. Hello? Hey. Yeah, sorry I couldn't make it home on time. Chris, I missed my shift.

Yeah, I know. I'm sorry about that. Look, I'm on my way right now. Are you all right with Christopher? I'm leaving. Chris, I'm leaving.

What? Did you hear what I said? I have my things together, and I'm taking our son, and we're going to leave now. I'm going to put the phone down. Linda, wait a minute. Hold it. We are leaving. It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking, how did he know to put the pursuit part in there?

That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue, and maybe we can actually never have it. Hello? Chris. Who is this? Jay Twistle. Hey.

Dean Witter. Yeah, of course. How are you? I'm fine. Listen, you still want to come in and talk? Yes, sir. Absolutely. All right. Tell you what. Come on by day after tomorrow in the morning.

We're interviewing for the internships. You got a pen and paper? Yes.

Yes, I do. Hold on one second. All right. Hello?

Chris? Go ahead. I have one. Okay. Write this number down so you can call my secretary, Janice, and she can give you all the specifics. Yep.

Okay. 415. 415. 864. 864. 0256. 0256. Yeah. Extension 4796. 4796. All right.

Call her tomorrow. So why I left that in there about the whole taking the number down and all, if you watch the scene instead of just listen to it, it's chaotic. As he's going from one thing to the other. But really what I wanted to focus in on is when he talked about that whole idea of pursuit of happiness. It almost sounds like he's lost his hope.

Because he's like, yeah, you can pursue it. I'm not going to guarantee it. And there's some truth to that. With that being said, I believe happiness is definitely possible and probable with obviously putting God first. But I think it's more of joy is definitely available.

It's constantly talking about that in Scripture. But the whole thing, when his life was so chaotic, there was a transition, I believe, that took place from contentment to joy. Contentment, I feel like, bridges you there.

It's being able to praise God regardless of what's going on. I remember when me and my wife separated the day that it happened and it was one of the most hardest things in my life when I went through that. For a good while, I never thought life would be the same.

I never thought I would smile again, to be honest with you. I've heard other stories similar to that. But as you continue to press in, not just press in, he comes after you. He comes and loves you through it. And as you get further away, it's not just time heals pain. God heals pain. It's that time with God that the pain is healed. But it is a process. But finding contentment, the longer I fought it and this isn't fair and all that, the more I suffered. The more I'd learned to be content in the circumstance I found myself in is when I really began to experience some joy and healing.

That's true. You said some of it, but what gets in the way of us being content in these situations? Expectations is the biggest thing. Expectations. We have wrong expectations or we have things that we should have or we wish we would have or those types of things, the coulda, woulda, shoulda stuff that gets in the way. And that's not promised to us either, but we also have an enemy that's in the midst of it.

And he's whispering those things of it's not fair or you should have. Those types of things that gets in the midst of it. And what he's ultimately trying to get after is dividing you and God, dividing you from the life source. You're talking about contentment, but peace is another one we've talked about. But peace is found in the midst of chaos, not an absence of chaos. And happiness is found in the midst of its own type of chaos as well. I hate to use the same word, but I couldn't think of another one.

We need Jim here. I'll just say it. He would have used the word I would have understood. Thesaurus. Get a thesaurus.

Got a dictionary. Yeah, exactly. Well, the idea of happiness to some extent is based on what's happening, right? That's the root of it.

And joy is a completely different idea than is happiness. And so if you pursue what's happening all the time, it ends up in a pretty carnal place, really. Yeah, and very transitory or very temporary.

Wow. Oh, yeah. I knew as soon as I got to transitory. Yeah, transitory. Yeah, it was going to that go well at that point.

Yeah, that's why I gave up the temporary as well. Yeah, well, that works. It helped me understand.

I appreciate it. So you dumbed it down for me. We did.

We didn't know what was going on. But we do have a boot camp coming up, and it's coming up November 21st through 24th. You would go to masculinejourney.org to register.

I'd like to say that more clearly. Masculinejourney.org. If you're having trouble financially going, don't let that stop you. Just reach out to one of us.

Our first name, add our email at masculinejourney.org, and we'll help you with what we can to get you there. But we'll talk to you after the break. And I hope you have a wonderful 30 seconds or minute. We'll talk to you soon.

Bye. What we have at our boot camp 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. The first one, I had no clue what I was walking into. And then realizing that other people were in the same boat and, you know, how open everybody was to share their struggle. It was a great group and a lot of contacting with everybody. It is a tight bond of men.

Everybody's the same. And each and every time that I've come to boot camp, I've learned something different. And not one man that's ever been there neglects not to take time out to talk or to share. It's serious business. And you need to come one time to break bread with the men and fellowship, feel the atmosphere, hear the people pray, and get down to earth about what's going on in life and get real. Register today at masculinejourney.org. When you don't move the mountains, I'm needing you to move. When you don't part the waters, I wish I could walk through.

When you don't give the answers as I cry out to you. I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in you. Welcome back.

Welcome back to masculine Journey. The reason I put the microphone in front of Dana, I can't say that lady's name, so you might know what it is. Oh, Lauren Daigle? Lauren Daigle, yeah. I just think bagel with a D. I got it now, but we use a lot of her stuff for bumps actually. She has some great music out there.

For sure. So I love that song. It just talks about basically when things don't happen that we think should, what are we going to do with it? And the answer is trust in God. Right, that he's got it. He's got something more going on than what we know, that the rest of the story's not played out yet. Right, that we only see this little snapshot of it when he's got eternity in mind. Right, and so just trusting in him that he's got your back and he's doing something for you in the midst of it, even when it doesn't feel like it or you can't see it. Like putting this show together tonight.

It's coming together quite nicely and we're content in that because it was a last minute stuff right there, so. I have no idea what you're talking about. Giving up all our secrets, my bad. Transitory. Transitory, yeah. It was very transitory, our hardship.

It was. So Robby, you have the next clip. Yeah, I love this. It's from the movie The Man of Steel and that's Superman for most of us. One of the many series of episodes, but I know that when the developers of Superman developed it, they developed it from Jesus. In other words, they were Jewish young men, they were talking about what the Messiah would look like.

And actually the S on his chest was the letter Zaddy, which would be the righteous one in Hebrew. And so I find it fascinating, this particular clip, Superman is actually surrendering to mankind. He's trying to help him out, but they won't put themselves in a position to be helped out, so he essentially has to surrender, which is very Jesus-like, by the way.

And you can see that he's in complete control of the situation in spite of how they're all reacting, they're terrified, they're scared to death. But listen to how he tries to speak into that and actually surrender, and then we'll talk about it when we come back. Why are you surrendering to Zod? I'm surrendering to mankind. There's a difference. You let them handcuff you? It wouldn't be much of a surrender if I resisted.

And if it makes them feel more secure, then all the better for it. What's the S stand for? It's not an S. On my world, it means hope. Well, here it's an S. How about... Sir. Sir. Hi. My name is Dr. Emil Helt.

I know. I can see your ID tag in your breast pocket. Along with a half-eaten roll of wintergreen lifesavers. I can also see the squad of soldiers in the next room, preparing that tranquilizing agent of yours.

You won't need it. Sir, you can't expect us to not take precautions. You could be carrying some kind of alien pathogen. Been here for 33 years, doctor. Haven't infected anyone yet.

That you know of. We have legitimate security concerns. Now, you've revealed your identity in this lane over there. Why won't you do the same with us?

Let's put our cards on the table here, General. You're scared of me because you can't control me. You don't. And you never will. But that doesn't mean I'm your enemy. Then who is?

Zod? That's what I'm worried about. Be that as it may, I've been given orders to hand you over to him. Do what you have to do, General. Yeah, you can't help but miss the note on 33 years he's been there just saying. You know, if you miss that little tag, you kind of miss the situation. But, you know, Oswald Chambers does this amazing devotional. And actually this week, he talked about that when Jesus came, he said, my peace I give to you, right? And his peace is phenomenal, but you have to go get it to some extent. And then when you seek his face, you can imagine his face in your current situation. You know, in the happenings of happiness, so to speak. You know, all this stuff is happening. Well, how's Jesus reacting?

Did you catch him by surprise? You know, does he not know what's in your pocket there? And does he not have the situation under control? But by the same token, you can hear the compassion. And you can hear, you know, I'm trying to convey to Lois it's going to be okay. But by the same token, there's this unbelievable strength under control, right? And so that idea of this peace is at our disposal. Whenever we want to get our look off of ourselves and off of our trying to control our situation and allow the person that actually can do something about it to give us peace and to control it, I think it's a wonderful opportunity he gives us minute by minute. And, you know, it's amazing to me how many times I don't turn towards him when it would have been so easy, you know? Yeah, the enemy is really good at pulling us into the small story. And not, you know, we don't see the larger story that's going on around us.

And so it's good to take the focus off of the person in the mirror, the person you're mad at or whatever and look towards Jesus in the midst of it. Danny, you actually have the next clip if you'd like to tell us a little bit about it. It's from a series called Designated Survivor and stars Kiefer Sutherland. And the premise of the show is Kiefer Sutherland becomes president because there was an attack on the Capitol and it killed the sitting president and all of Congress, everybody just wiped everybody out and he was part of the cabinet and so he by default became president in this whole chaotic scene. And the scene that I pulled out of this series was they're going to have the funeral for the president and he's going to do the eulogy and he's had an interchange with the president's son. And he pulls him into the Oval Office to apologize to him. But he also, what we're going to discover is that this young man has a wrong view of his father who has now passed away so there's this chaos scene of all that's going on, you know, dealing with death and all the chaos. And in the midst of this is an interchange between Kirkman, Kiefer Sutherland, and this young man and he learns something about his father and we can talk about it on the other side. I actually have a story for you. I like the time my dad fired you. No, no. This is when your father took almost an hour out of a cabinet meeting to tell us all about your spring recital at Williams last year. No, I think you're mistaken.

Art Talk Violin Concerto No. 2, I think. Yeah, but my father wasn't there. He had a cabinet. He was. In the back of the room.

I think I would know. He had one Secret Service detail. He was wearing a baseball cap. He didn't want to take the focus off of you.

No, that's just not good. He went on and on about your craft, your diligence, your work ethic, your talent. He was so proud. It was nice. And at the end, he gave everyone a program. I asked my assistant, Wyatt, to go to my old office and bring it here for me. He was there?

Tyler, I think he was always there. I'm sorry, he couldn't tell you himself. Do you mind if I?

That would be my honor. It's why I asked you here. The phrase in there was, I think he was always there.

Of course, he's talking about his earthly father, but when we take that in the spiritual, our Heavenly Father is always there, no matter what the chaos is going on. There are so many times. We were at an event a few weeks ago.

I heard somebody. We were praying for a guy. Somebody asked him to visualize Jesus in the room of a traumatic event in his childhood. It made me realize that if I can visualize whatever was going on in my life or whatever is going on, that Jesus is in the room because he's always there.

He's always there. It changes my view of everything. I can find that contentment in chaos or whatever I'm looking for. I was thinking about when I saw this topic was years ago when my daughter, her mother, took her to New York for four and a half years.

I didn't see her. My life was total chaos. What I didn't see was God's hand in any of it because I was pretty rebellious and pretty much walked away from the faith and all kinds of different stuff. It was years later when I got to see some of the rest of the stories Paul Harvey used to say. I could literally see God's hand in lots of different things because he was always there.

That's kind of where I went with this topic. No matter what's going on, I mean, I bet if we went around the room, there's literally chaos going on in all of our lives in some way, shape, fashion, or form, but reminding that God's always there. Yeah, he's allowed this, that, and the other, but he's always there. He's like the Man of Steel.

He's in full control. It's funny. I didn't know exactly what you were going to say, obviously, but I was thinking about what helps you get to that place of contentment. It's looking at the past victories. That only through time you now have clarity, as you were describing. Sometimes I can't see it when I'm in the midst of it, as we were saying, but when you look back and say, okay, now I have more clarity on it, and I can look at that and say, okay, I will also have clarity down the road, hopefully, and see where God's hand was in the midst of it and learn about all the people that were praying for me and all those kinds of things. But any other quick thoughts before we wrap up? I think a lot of our discontent stems from the fact that we're selfish and that we have the wrong vision. We're doing too much navel gazing and being disappointed when we find length, when we ought to be looking out at the world, the people that need help.

Okay. When I did navel, I was thinking about the Navy. I was confused for a minute.

A different kind of navel. Yeah, yeah. I was like, all right, that's English language for you.

If you have an Audi, you don't have length. Yeah, it's transitionary. Anyway, we'll talk to you. Love somebody well this week. I wanted an orange. We'll talk with you next week. Have a great week. This is the Truth Network.