This is the Truth Network. Coming to you from an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours. A time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast. So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here, now.
Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours. We are talking about a really cool topic today. At least I think it's cool.
And I think you guys do, too. But we're talking about what is our relationship individually, not collectively, but what's our relationship with Jesus? How would you describe that? How would you put words to it and why is that important? And so that's a topic that we've been talking about so far on the show and will continue in the after hours. And a question I'd ask you, what is your relationship with Jesus?
And why is that important? And so you just figure that out. I'll let you ponder on that this week.
But Jim? Well, you said you think we like it, too. Why would we not love a topic about our best friend? Well, that's what I'm saying. I don't know. I'm not making any assumptions here. I'm just thinking that you probably do. The truth. The truth. That's right. Danny, you actually have the first clip in the after hours if you want to tell us a little bit about it or just play the clip, whatever you want to do.
I'll set it up a little bit. It's from the show The Big Bang Theory. And when I first was introduced to this show, I really wasn't sure I was going to like it.
Just simply the name just kind of bristled something in me. But learned to love the show and still do. But one of the main characters, if you're not familiar with the show, is Sheldon. And he is a genius. And he's a very self-centered. The world revolves around him. And a lot of the antics that go on in the show are based with him in the center of how life affects him.
And his friends around him protect him somewhat. But they're annoyed with him through I think it was seven seasons. But the particular clip we're in is in the last season.
I think one of the last shows. And Sheldon has gotten married and him and his wife won a Nobel Peace Prize. And so he's giving his speech. And so the scene you're going to see and what you don't see is he comes up to the podium and he talks about the speech that he had written. The self-centered speech about his accomplishments. But what he shares afterwards is what we're going to hear because he throws the speech to the side. And he really embarks upon something that is really precious, I think.
So you can play it and we can talk about it afterwards. I was under a misapprehension that my accomplishments were mine alone. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have been encouraged, sustained, inspired, and tolerated not only by my wife but by the greatest group of friends anyone ever had. I'd like to ask them to stand. Dr. Rajesh Kuthupalli, Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, astronaut Howard Wolowitz, and my two dearest friends in the world, Penny Hofstadter and Dr. Leonard Hofstadter. I was there the moment Leonard and Penny met. He said to me that their babies would be smart and beautiful.
And now that they're expecting, I have no doubt that that will be the case. Thanks, Sheldon. I haven't told my parents yet, but thanks. Oh, sorry. Don't tell anyone that last thing.
That's a secret. Howard, Bernadette, Raj, Penny, Leonard, I apologize if I haven't been the friend you deserve. But I want you to know, in my way, I love you all. And I love you.
Thank you. He comes to the realization that those people around him helped him get to where he was at. And that was a huge leap for him, and it was a huge leap for me, I think. But in that, he talks about friendship, and we've talked about it some in the previous show. And where I have been probably the last year has been with the friendship of Jesus. You know, there's a couple of scriptures, and I wrote them down, or put them on my phone. I don't write anything down anymore.
Because I can't read more than writing. Proverbs 18, 24 says, a man that has friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother, referring to Jesus. And in John 15, 15 he says, henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known unto you.
So he calls us friends. And, you know, I told the story of the pre-show, and I'll tell it again, and I had one to it, that, you know, almost 30 years ago, I'd gotten sober to come out of treatment. And, you know, if you're familiar with 12 step programs, the milestones are marked with a chip.
You know, one month, three months, six months, and I was at a year. And at a year you get a chip, and you get to say a few words in front of a group of people you know, you know, a large group or whatever. And so I had come to that moment, and, you know, there was a meeting, and there was a speaker who probably told a great story that day, but I don't remember anything, because I was so self-absorbed with, here we were a year later, I didn't think I was ever going to be able to do it. And I was preparing my Grammy Award winning speech back in the room, and contemplating, you know, how I had gotten where I was at. And as the time come to walk up there and get this chip and say a few words, it hit me somewhere between where I was sitting in a room that I didn't do much of this.
There were people around me, and most importantly, God was there putting people in my place, and in my way to help me get out of my own way, so to speak. And by the time I got to the podium, I mean, I am weeping, and I know that's a stretch for some of y'all to believe. But if anybody knows me, knows I'll cry at a sappy movie.
I mean, that's just the way it is. But when I got my eyes cleared and looked out, the whole room was crying. They were rejoicing as well. And it was a moment I'll never forget. And, you know, 29 years later, I just won't forget it, because I think that was the beginning of a journey of learning what friendship was. And also, I think the beginning of a journey of how God takes you different places, and there are people there. I love the phrase, when the student's ready, the teacher will appear.
And I believe that's God putting flesh on himself again through other people. And my life is just full of people like that. I mean, I am overwhelmed when I revisit that a lot.
You know, current company included. I mean, you guys were a plug and play deal for me. I poked up stakes in Asheboro and, you know, land in King, North Carolina, but land right in the middle of you guys in the process. But Jim made me think of, you know, there was a song come out several years ago called I Am a Friend of God. I can't remember who sang it.
Kirk Franklin, I think. But anyway, and our pastor at the time preached a message on being a friend of God. And up until that moment, I had called myself, I'm Danny and I'm an alcoholic.
And I owned that for a long time because of my history and that kind of thing. But it had become a label and an agreement and a limitation. But he preached on being a friend of God, how God calls you friend. And that moment of that day, I realized that he calls me friend. And it's a different thing to say that I am Jim's friend. And I can tell anybody I'm Jim's friend, but Jim may go, I don't even like the guy. But if Jim says, Danny's my friend, to me that means something huge because he has acknowledged that.
And what Jesus is saying in his word, and it's in red in some of the Bibles. I no longer call you servants, I call you friend. And what that has meant to me, especially over the last year, is that he's not just with me when I go sit in the pew wherever I'm going to church. He's with me when I ride to work and he's not watching to see if I'm going to mess up. He's fully engaged and fully excited about the things that are going on in my life. He's fully sad when I'm sad. He's there with me regardless of what's going on.
And one of the beautiful things about it is, and I know I talk about it a lot, but it's because I absolutely love it, is fly fishing. I learned more about Jesus standing out there in the stream realizing that he's right there with me. And you're quoting Barry Vance, I'm right there with you. And he's excited about the things that go on. He's engaged in my life. He's not some god that's aloof somewhere that doesn't have a clue and just waiting with a lightning bolt or something. He's my friend. And I say that with more confidence today than I've ever said it. I don't understand it. I don't even know why you guys hang out with me sometimes. Don't acknowledge that.
That was a high volley right there, Eddie. Yeah, it was just too easy. But that's the reality of life is that that's not based on feelings.
That's based upon the truth of God's Word is he's my friend and he is fully engaged and he sticks closer than a brother. That's awesome. Danny, I not only love you, I do like you.
That's sometimes harder. You reminded me of when I graduated from high school, I didn't even care I was graduating from high school. It was just a little step on the way to the big one. I wanted a PhD in chemistry. And the pinnacle of that career would have been winning a Nobel Prize. But the prize you won and the freedom you gained from yours is worth more than a Nobel Prize. I tell everybody I have a PhD too. Where I come from is post hole diggers.
I always heard piled higher and deeper, but this is the after hours. Getting back to your fly fishing analogy, I was thinking about what you talked about during the break. How our hands have this sense of a gift of feeling, right? But when you hook that trout, right, you don't see it. No. But you're connected to it in a very, very unique way.
Whatever fish it is you're catching. No, you are. Now we've got the two berries in front of you. Very, very unique. Very, very unique.
We doubled down way to go. Extremely very unique. Throw that dart, I'm sorry. But nonetheless, I love certainly the fly fishing thing, but experiencing that and realizing the connection your hand is to your heart, it just is. And when you can feel something that you're accomplishing with your hands, it's like what it says, work with your own hands.
It's an amazing journey, but the connection to God is remarkable. Well, what's been really cool, and to double down on the hand thing, is that you taught me, Robby, how to, because I have fish with regular, reel them in, but you have to finesse the line with your hands. Right. And the whole- Drag, right. There's no drag on a fly. But it's so cool to- It's a drag.
Yeah, it's a drag. But the things that, that's part of the deal is I fell in love with fly fishing. God put fly fishermen in my life and all kinds of different things. The trip to Ohio was just incredible. You and I got to hang out. We got to up there and back and all that kind of stuff. It's just so cool how God engages and lets you engage with people, because I am a people-loving person.
That's just who I am. You know, you guys were talking about the connection of hands to heart, and a couple things came to mind. I remember at one point with each of my kids, and I don't even know where I was, but I remember them reaching their small little hand up into mine to hold my hand and what that did for my heart. It wasn't me grabbing theirs. It was theirs reaching for mine, where the first time you fall in love and you hold somebody's hand. There's definitely a connection between hand and heart that bypasses the mind altogether, which is really pretty cool. It is. Well, Jim, you have the next clip and the clip after that, so you have a couple clips coming up.
I'm going to go from fishing for fish to fishing for men. The first clip is Jesus inviting Nathanael to follow him, and if you're a little fuzzy on who's who, this is the guy that Jesus called a Hebrew in whom there is no guile, depending upon your version. And my name is James, which is Greek, Jacob, which is deceiver, so this might be one point where we don't have a lot in common. But he's one of my favorite disciples because he was a thinker. He wanted to prove things. He wanted to see how things worked, and this is his invitation from Jesus, if you want to play that. When you were in your lowest moment and you were alone, I did not turn my face from you.
I saw you under the fig tree. Rabbah. There it is.
You are the son of God, the king of Israel. I knew it. Well, that didn't take long.
He doesn't mess around. Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, you believe? You are going to see many greater things than that.
Like Jacob, you are going to see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. That's me, by the way. I got that. Good. I know you like to be clear.
And the rest of that I do identify with Nathaniel. I want to know. When I was growing up, I wanted to know everything, and I pursued that. And they make fun of me for reading encyclopedias and dictionaries, and if you don't know what those are, look it up online.
Google. But I just loved learning. I also, when I tried to do something, I was successful.
Pretty smart guy, and when I put my mind to something, it would happen. Until it didn't, and that's what took me to that low place where Jesus invited Nathaniel into a closer relationship. And like Nathaniel, I mean, I grew up with God. Some of my earliest memories were of God. But I didn't have that personal relationship with Jesus. And when he got hold of me in that depths of, oh, there was a great line, but I won't remember it, from Deep Purple, but I was wallowing in a morass of self-despair, made only more painful by the thought that all I was was of my own making. I like that line.
Deep Purple sent morass? Yes, they did. They're a pretty good grid. No, I'm not going to say that. Anyway. So, I mean, I know the rest of the world is like me. What in the world does morass mean? Well, as our good friend Andy would say, get a dictionary.
He recommends that everybody have one. Think of wading through a bad marsh and not even having trees to grab. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, stop. Yeah, that's a bad marsh over there. A bad marsh. Yeah, there's no such thing. Oh, a Danny Marsh is not a bad marsh. I don't want anybody wading through me either. I'm just saying that.
Think of a swamp without trees to hang on to. I knew what it was. I know you did. You did. You're painfully aware of what it was. You know what morass meant?
Oh, we argue all the time. You had marsh meant, but did you know what morass meant? No. I thought he was cussing. I saw it too.
I was just like, what? I don't know why I remember that. I said I won't remember it. It suddenly came out of my mouth. And I'll never forget it now. I'll try.
I'll try. But anyway, I was in a bad place, and Jesus was right there with me. And in the end of that clip, Jesus is laughing and having fun with him. And that is a big part of my journey with him. From the first time when I swore I'd never step foot in another Southern Baptist church, and I ended up ordained as a Southern Baptist minister, and God laughed and I laughed, there's been a lot of humor. And that often I know it's God, because he's just playing with me like my buddies do here.
Sometimes as mercilessly as you guys do, but it is always something that lifts me up, and I love that. Which kind of leads to the next clip, which is Sam's. He cut it, but we share that recognition of God speaking to us a lot through humor. And when he's not being funny, he's asking me questions.
It's rare I get to do this, but I got half a dozen of those over the last several weeks that, and we're talking about obedience and break, and I obeyed in the right time for each one, and there was joy and laughter in that, even though some of it was very serious. So this clip will, and one thing about Bagger Vance, he really represents God, the Holy Spirit as he's training him. And this is a clip of how he joked around with Juno in a way that drew him to himself and to growing. Yeah, the one thing I will say, if you haven't watched, and Robby said it on the last show, if you haven't watched Bagger Vance, it's a great movie. You think it's about golf, there's golf in it, let's just put it that way. It's about life and a lot more, but Bagger is the caddy, meaning he's supposed to help the golfer in Juno. And this is a help that he gives him. At one point in the middle, he's asking him about a club when the caddy's supposed to know everything, and he just kind of fumbles through them.
And so let's listen to the clips and then a little montage and we'll talk about it. Beach. Go, ball, go. Yep, beach. We sure got lovely weather for it this morning, though, don't we? Let me get that for you, sir. Any ideas? About what?
Could you give me a club? Yeah, that's a good one, now. This is becoming embarrassing. Oh, no, sir. It's been embarrassing for quite some time now. I think I found my game.
Well, good news, Mr. Julie, now all we got to do is figure out what game that is. The one part of that that really caught me is while I was in divinity school, I took a semester off because of some of the new issues that were going on in my life. And when I came back, I was interviewed to see if that was acceptable to come back. And the dean of students said to me in one of those sessions, you know, we just want to make sure you're not going to be an embarrassment to Jesus Christ. And I was crushed going home and actually prayed on the way home, Lord, if I'm going to embarrass you, take me out right now. He didn't, obviously, and complete silence. There was no response to that.
But they did take me back, and six months later, I was driving at about the same spot. And I clearly heard God say, Jim, you embarrass me every day, but I love you. And that's obviously that to me was absolutely from God, and I laughed the rest of the way home with him. And that's a big part of who he is to me is his infinite sense of humor. Yeah, as we talked many times, he often uses humor with me. And it's a, A, it hits the point, just in those clips, you know, when he says, oh, it's been embarrassing for quite some time, or, you know, we just have to figure out what game that is, Mr. Judah. You know, it's those little comments, those little quips that just make it so deep, that makes you really ponder and think and lean more into it. And that's what he does is he asks questions, or he makes little statements that really draw me into the depth of where he wants me to go.
And so we've got a little bit more time, but I'm going to ask you something. You can only use a one word response. How would you classify your relationship with Jesus in the season of your life right now? What would your one word be? So I'll start, and it would be sustainer. Right now, I'm in a season of him sustaining me through whatever I'm in, whatever that is, whatever the situation is, I know he'll help me get through it, he'll sustain me through it. And so I'm leaning into him as a sustainer. So that's the word I would use. Who'd like to go next? Adam? Faith, or faith building?
I use two. I said faith. He said faith, okay. And you could hyphenate it and theoretically consider it one.
But it is. I mean, it's a matter of faith that there are so many things that I can't see right now, and there's no possibility of seeing it. And I love the line from the beginning of You Make Everything Beautiful by King & Country and Rebecca St. James. It says, give me the serenity to see the things that I can't change and accept them.
And the wisdom to know what I can. And you know, I didn't say that in the right order, but nonetheless, the idea is constantly there's all sorts of things that I can't change. But God gives you the grace to walk through that and no one trying to figure out, okay, that's something that I've got to say, okay, God knows what's best, and I'm going to accept that.
And then there are other things that he really wants me to take part in the change process, and what does that look like? And at the end of the day, I've got to have faith that I'm where I ought to be. Thank you. Grant, would you like to share a one-word answer to it? Work. Work.
Yeah, Bobby's done the work, but you have to have faith to work. Okay. Camaraderie.
Camaraderie? Yeah, because it's just been a friendly adventure right now. Good. And mine, I'll give it to you in Hebrew, because it means more, chassid, God's love, which he expresses through me.
Okay. So what would your word be, right? What would your word be for your relationship with Jesus right now? So take some time this week, lean into him, spend some time with him, and just enjoy the relationship and try to deepen it and ask him how he wants to deepen it and how you can move closer to him in the season of your life, and I promise you there's some place you can go. One place you can go is masculinejourney.org to register for the upcoming bootcamp November 21st through 24th. We'll talk with you next week. Love somebody well this week. This is the Truth Network.
