Homeward Bound

The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.

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 in what we call The Masculine Journey. The Masculine Journey starts here now. Welcome to Masculine Journey and we're glad you're back with us this week and we have paid Sam to go on vacation.

We paid him no attention like we normally do. So, and we are going to have another topic and I happen to be hosting it. It happens to be my topic and we'll probably play my clip first, so. Is it your birthday too or something? Well, if we wait a couple of months, you know, maybe I can do birthday year.

I will have a birthday this year. Does that count? So. Yeah, that will go. Okay. Yeah. We can run with that.

So the, anyway, we have a topic this week and it's something that's been on my heart for a little while. We were kind of in a nomad state for a few months. We were going to relocate back to Ashboro and then we weren't.

Then we were. And then, you know, really didn't feel like I had a home cause had our home on the market and anytime I'd stay there, they won't mess anything up cause they don't have to clean it up and somebody might come look at it. So it was kind of like a Airbnb that I was paying a huge mortgage on and hadn't really settled into the place in Ashboro. So, and we were kind of between churches, between homes, you know, and I did have the same job and hung out with you guys. But in that process, I got to think about what home was and, you know, I jotted a few things down and, and it was just thinking about it and, and, you know, God laid some things on my heart. And so we were going to talk about home tonight and my thoughts behind it. Well, you know, growing up as a child, you know, most of us had, you know, if we had a decent childhood, that was home. It was a place of security at somebody else's expense because Andy, I don't remember thinking, man, I wonder if there'll be groceries in the house this week. Mom usually wondered that cause we, she had two boys and we ate like horses. You couldn't tell it, but you know, but that was home.

Why do you say that Danny? Could you not gain any weight back in the day? No, I was like 125 pounds of whistling, you know, had to run around and get wet in the rain. Spending a little overtime on it now though, huh? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Make you up for lost time. You caught up.

I've told y'all. Yeah. Yeah. I was a curly haired, skinny boy and I've overcome both of those things. I am an overcomer, Jim. But you know, thinking about those things, there was a security and a place that you were just, you didn't have to put up with anything else.

Yeah. I remember dad tells his son, home is where you don't have to put up with anything else. Anybody, this is your castle. And you didn't, you go forth and you turn 18 or whatever and they say, get out.

We're not feeding you anymore or whatever they do. And you know, you go create a home of your own with a wife and you know, children or whatever. And the, and we'll talk about it a little bit, you know, family becomes that, that's where home is, is where a family is. And you know, and then there's the spiritual aspect. You know, home is heaven. Home is uninhibited.

I think is a word I'm looking for. I ain't like Jim and Harold are using big words. You know, you get beyond, oh, and I'm, I'm, I'm lost, but heaven is home.

It's, it's that, that total union with God. And you know, I've had a few friends, my buddy, Chuck Powers, and then as early as Sunday, good friend, pastor Wayne Eller have gone home and you know, in that process, you know, you used to say, well, we lost them today. Well, no, we lose them. We're just going to see them a little while later. And, but they're home. They, they've completed their journey and they made it home. The mission on earth, as we were talking about right before the show, this dirt is, is over.

And so they're home and you know, there's all kinds of different aspects of that. And you know, I think it'll be an interesting show and we're going to take off with a clip. And this clip is from Apollo 13. And the clip is the, the families are watching cause these guys are pretty much stranded in space and they're trying to get a plan to get them home. And they're showing an interview of Tom Hanks with a guy. The guy's asking him about his travels and has there anybody at the time, you know, where he's had some troubles or whatever. And, and he tells this very cool story and pay attention to what he says at the end of the clip. And then we talk about it on the backside.

Apollo 13 commander, Jim Lovell has more time in space, almost 24 days already than any other man. And I asked him recently if he ever was scared. Oh, well I've had an engine flame out a few times at an aircraft and was kind of curious as to whether it was going to light up again, things of that nature.

But they seem to work out. Is there a specific instance in an airplane emergency when you can recall fear? Well, I tell you, I remember this one time I'm a, I'm in a Banshee at night in combat condition. So there's no running lights on the carrier.

It was the Shangri-La. We were in the sea of Japan and my, my radar had jammed and my homing signal was gone because somebody in Japan was actually using the same frequency. And so it was, it was leading me away from where I was supposed to be. And I'm looking down at a big black ocean. So I flip on my map light and then suddenly zap, everything shorts out right there in my cockpit. All my instruments are gone.

My lights are gone. And I can't even tell now what my altitude is. I know I'm running out of fuel.

So I'm thinking about, about ditching in the ocean. And I, I look down there and then in the darkness there's this, there's this green trail. It's like a long carpet that's just laid out right beneath me. And it was the algae, right? It was that phosphorescent stuff that gets churned up in the wake of a big ship. And it was, it was, it was just leading me home.

And now if my cockpit lights hadn't shorted out, there's no way I'd have ever been able to see that. So you, you never know what, what events are going to transpire to get you home. You never know what events are going to transpire to get you home.

Cause, and that's the reality of life. I think is that, you know, Jesus is trying to get us home and boy, he's got a job cut out for us, you know? And so, but you know, I love that clip. I love, you know, cause what he's describing is panic would have set in if Marsh would have been the pilot of that thing.

The, that, you know, the lights are going out, you know, on the same signal with somebody else and, you know, just my luck. And, but what he, what he describes is somewhat of a miracle. And so, you know, that's home. That got him home.

That got him, you know, God sent him a trail. And Harold, I believe you said you have actually seen that in the air like that. Yeah, we were flying over to Europe and so we were up at altitude and I looked down and saw that trail and I had, previously I had no idea that there would be something like that.

And it lasted for so long because the ship was pretty much out of sight. So I know it had been there for a good while and it was just, like he said, it was like looking at a highway line out in the ocean. It's pretty amazing. It's pretty good. You know, there are so many things that, you know, things happen and you wonder at that moment, why is this happening?

And then the fluorescent trail lights up and all you do is follow it home. It's pretty neat. Yeah, the whole point about his shorting out of his compartment lights, you know, to be able to see it.

He wouldn't have been able to do it. So it was timely too and that's the way God works, you know. There's a combination of things, right?

Yeah. A quick thing, you know, back several years and years ago, there were so many things that happened. My grandfather passed away and my ex-wife had taken my daughter up to New York and so there was my cockpit lights had went out and I had lost my way, to be honest. But I found out later that there was so much that I didn't know, but it was God trying to get me home because those events transpired and later on they became very important to me. And, you know, because I was, you know, singing the sad song, why is this going to happen to me and that kind of thing. And I remember my grandmother saying that it was a good thing that grandpa died when he did because it would have broke his heart to see, not be able to see that little girl because, you know, my daughter was his great grandchild but boy, that was his favorite. And so you never know what's going on. So Rodney, you want to share?

Sure, get me a microphone over here. So I started thinking about this a little bit and I was just kind of interested in what do I think about when I think about home and just kind of going through everything where you have so much that you're looking to either do or to have. And that's one of the things that I wanted to make sure I stayed away from. But there are so many wonderful memories of growing up in your home. And my mom still is in the same house we've lived in since I was five years old. And I love it. I think that's great. Being in that neighborhood, going home, I know where everybody lives.

I know, you know, at least where they used to live, you know, because everybody's kind of moved since then. But so many friends and family and things like that that just brings back great memories of whether it was Christmas time or Thanksgiving or things like that or birthdays or me or other people. It's just there's a lot of memories that come in that are wonderful. But again, the saddest part about thinking about all that is wow, I was never a believer.

You know, I didn't become a believer until I was like 45, 46 years old. And finally, it's like, oh, this, my whole life changed at that point of coming to the realization that there is God and He is in control and just thanking Him for calling me at that point in time because, you know, I was lost and just bringing me into His world. It was wonderful to be able to go through that and be able to now do things where I can share my experience and my faith with other people, with doing other things, being in a great church where you get other believers and you get to experience your faith together and do all these kind of things where it's just wonderful to live out that kind of life. And to be able to do that and like this radio show with all the men here tonight, you know, we have many men now that are a part of the show and doing things and not doing things. It's just a great time to be able to share what we're doing with each other. And we get to do that, you know, each and every week.

And I think it's just wonderful. I was going to bounce off of something you said earlier about feeling it was safe to go home. I pushed the limits when I was a young boy, as most boys do. I didn't always feel safe going home because I lived in a community where I'd be in trouble before I got home.

But I had unconditional love at home. All right, we'll see you after the break. What we have in 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 listened to Morgan Snyder's book, Driving to Work last year, and that was a very profound experience. So this kind of culminated into it. I'd been invited to it several times and just it never worked out. And God really had it set up that I came last time.

So coming into this one, I knew this one went deeper and I really wanted it. It's a break for me to get outside of things I've got going on. And I just needed a break from it and needed to reconnect.

And it's been absolutely that, this process. The covenant of silence, silent prayer, those are some of my favorite parts. This is real connection with the Lord. You hear Him speak, you can get direction, guidance, anything you're missing is there.

You always learn something new. It's fun experiencing it with other men. It's fun standing for them and what they're going through. We're all different and unique, but we're all going through the same struggles.

And when you hear somebody else went through it too, it kind of gives you an encouragement that, hey, you can make it through this and God's got you and He's going to hold you up through it and He's going to carry you to the next level. Register today at masculinejourney.org. That was Chris Daughtry and one of the reasons I chose that was he's the homeboy. He's from North Carolina, right around Greensboro. And the song is great, I'm pretty sure, as we discussed in the pre-show, he was singing to a girl, which a lot of our bumps ended that way.

But he is a Christian. But the phrases that he used in that, I'm coming home, I'm going home, and I don't regret the life that's been given to me. And you can look back, and I've had a pretty checkered past, and I probably have made a mistake or two, Harold, this day. But I don't regret my life anymore. I don't regret and just hide in shame of the addictions.

Could have done it better, probably so. But the things and the gifts that God has made out of it has brought me home. And I feel about as comfortable anywhere I go as I ever have.

Which, if you'd have known me when I was skinny, curly-haired boy, that was not the case. But that's home. I'm home amongst you guys, because home is kind of the place where you, if you catch me at home on a Sunday afternoon, I'm probably going to be in sweatpants and a t-shirt, kickback in recliner, and if you show up at the house, I'm going to be comfortable. I'm going to be comfortable.

And probably have a Corgi on my lap, more than likely. But that's home. And that's kind of what that meant to me.

So Andy, you have the next clip. So I wasn't sure what to use, but I got to thinking about just some of the scenes of some of the epic movies or whatever we watch for boot camp and stuff. And you've got these guys, a lot of them are war type of movies. And obviously these guys are off fighting war so people can have their safe home. But they all want to go home. I mean, I don't know there's many guys out there on the battlefield that says, I want to stay out here forever.

You know, they want to go home. And so this is about Saving Private Ryan is the movie. And from the D-Day experience, you got a group that hit the beaches and this is a unit that's actually moving and they've completed their mission. And then they were given another mission to go find this guy, Private Ryan, who's lost three brothers and the military brass don't want to see a fourth one die. So they went to rescue him. And all these guys that are with him, this Captain John Miller is leading them, but these guys under him are kind of a rough group and they all have different ideas of what they should be doing. They can't believe that they're having to go save this guy instead of just fighting. So they're in a situation to where they take on another mission on the way there and one of their guys gets killed and then the German that killed them, they're trying to debate whether they should kill him. And he's, you've got this chaos going on. And so then there's all along, Captain John Miller, everybody wants to know what he does for a living and all that, and he won't share it with them. Well, they start doing a kind of like a lottery or whatever or a pool.

And the money keeps going up the longer it goes. So we find him here in that situation. You'll see what he does to kind of shift the chaos that they're in.

But he gets into talking about what home means to him and his desire to get back there. We'll talk about it after we get back. Are you letting this happen? What's the pool on me up to right now? What's it up to? Wait, is it $300? Is that it?

$300? I'm a schoolteacher. I teach English composition in this little town called Adley, Pennsylvania.

It's the last 11 years. I've been at Thomas Alva Edison High School. I coach the baseball team in the springtime. Back home and I tell people what I do for a living, they think, well, now that figures. But over here, it's a big, big mystery. So I guess I've changed some.

Sometimes I wonder if I've changed so much, my wife is even going to recognize me whenever it is I get back to her and how I'll ever be able to tell her about days like today. Ryan, I don't know anything about Ryan. I don't care. Man means nothing to me.

It's just a name. But if, you know, if going to Ramel and finding him so he can go home, if that earns me the right to get back to my wife, well, then that's my mission. You want to leave? You want to go off and fight the war? All right. All right. I won't stop you.

I'll even put in the paperwork. Just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel. So you hear that. Every man he kills, the farther away he feels from home. And he wants to get back there to that place that you're not warring. I mean, they had an opportunity to take this guy out and they didn't.

They didn't want to do it. He didn't want to be a part of a needless killing of this prisoner. And again, that takes him away from what home is, a place of peace, a place of who he is and knows what kind of a man he is. But I guess the thing I was trying to make about the point of this is that we are all in a battle.

And I wanted to live life of just being at home for the longest time, not engaging in the war. We have to engage in the battle. We also always have to – I mean, David went off to fight in the spring, but he didn't stay out there on the battlefield. You have to come home. You have to retreat.

You have to get back to your family. And that's what energizes us. And it's the same with the Lord. That's what we're doing every day when we spend time with him. That's what Jesus did when he went to the Father. He was battling all day, but he went to the Father and he found his place, his home with the Father. He says he goes and prepares a place for us where we may be also there with him. And we have that on this side of heaven.

He said, never leave us or forsake us. So you've got the spiritual aspect. To your point, Danny, about going home, I mean, I grew up in Missouri and I've recently started going back there. And I've always done that, but recently I'm going back. And I'll go and I'll drive those roads as I did as a kid and the memories just flood back of what it was like. And I believe that that's healing to the soul because, first of all, you've got to appreciate and embrace the home you've been given, the family you've been given, and to kind of avoid it. We were pretty darn dysfunctional all through my life, and there's a lot of pain and hurt there. But I also have to trust that the family that I was intended to be in and where I was born, there was a purpose for that.

And whereas I kind of used to avoid it because there was some pain there, now I step into it, and God's done some amazing things there. So that's what I got. That was another Tom Hanks. We had a hankering for Tom Hanks, didn't we?

Yes, we did. Yeah, hankering for home. Yeah, hankering for home.

So we got over the top. You got something you want to share, Grant? Yeah, that's called love. The home is a place of love, personal love. Something that did bring to mind, though, is it can also be a battlefield. Retirement has changed our situation to seeing each other an hour or three a day, to seeing each other most of our waking hours. And that has been adjustment, but it's an adjustment you make in love.

So if you've got that, then the battle's worth fighting. There's been a saying that you can't return home. And yeah, you can, but it may not be what you thought it was. I lived the first 12 years of my life, pretty much lived in my maternal grandmother's house. And after not having seen that house for, gosh, over 40 years, we were back that way. And what I had thought was a really big house was not.

I was amazed at actually how small it was compared to what I remembered it being. So you can't always trust your memory, especially if they're formed when you're young. I always tell everybody, I got a good memory. It's just short.

I don't have many short memories. Well, something for me, too, along that lines, I've moved up to Boone and that became my home for the last seven, eight years. And man, I've fallen in with love with the nature and that place up there. God, I've met him.

I mean, I've told people when it's burning up down here in the triad and I drive up that mountain and it's 70 degrees and low humidity, I just smile. There's a part of it. But I think part of finding your place in this world is you can make that home wherever. Jesus said foxes have a hole.

Somebody help me out here. Foxes have holes. Birds have a nest. But I have nowhere to lay his head. But he knew where he was with God, the Father, and he had that home. And I'm looking forward to eventually moving back here to the triad. Family, friends are here.

But there is something to be said for wherever God puts you to be continuing with that. Darrell Bock Which is a great segue into my clip, except we may not have time now. Darrell Bock Yeah, we'll probably be doing that. Darrell Bock Then we'll have time at this point. Darrell Bock Yeah. Darrell Bock We'll get it. Darrell Bock You wander, are you? Darrell Bock You reminded me of something real quick that when my grandmother, I grew up a quarter mile away from my grandmother's house. Darrell Bock Yeah. Darrell Bock And I was grandma's favorite, because I lived right there. I was there all the time. I was either her favorite or she just couldn't get rid of me.

I'm not sure. But I remember when she passed away. This had been seven, eight years ago. And mom said, if you want anything in your grandmother's, you go out there and get it and wander around the house. And I realized what I want is not here. Darrell Bock Yeah. Darrell Bock I wanted some homemade chicken and dumplings.

Made with love, Robby. Oh my God, things are good. And I wanted those, but it wasn't there. It was no longer a home. It was just an old house. But what has happened is some people have bought that house. And they moved in from up north. And we were kind of skeptical about that.

I won't get into all that. But they've made it a home again. And some mighty fine cooking comes out of the house now.

They feed dad pretty good and that kind of thing. But it is a home again, is my point. So it is wherever you make home. Darrell Bock Wherever you make home. Darrell Bock Yeah, we've got a boot camp coming up March 13th through 16th. And we're going to be in- Darrell Bock Royston, Georgia. Darrell Bock Royston, Georgia. Darrell Bock Camp Little Rock.

Darrell Bock So you have to look it up like I do. But come join us. You can go to masculinejourney.org and register and get more information. Or you can email us at any of our names, danny at masculinejourney.org or any of the rest of us. But we'll see you next week.