This is the Truth Network.
The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus and Jesus is really missing here today. One of my favorite stories is what is And the first says, I don't see her. It's only logical that she's not here. To which the second replied, sometimes when you're in silence and you really listen, you can perceive her presence. You can hear her loving voice calling down from above. So what's that have to do, you know, with faith?
And I listened to it, and to me it was really moving from the standpoint, it sounds so ridiculous, right? But you got one baby in this case that's speaking from a heart point of view, from a hope, from a heart point of view of, hey, there's gotta be more. I have faith that there's more, which, you know, we all know there's more than outside the womb, right? And so, you know, it's equivalent to talking about the afterlife, but then you have the other person that uses at least twice, and the other baby uses logic.
Right, and so when we look at that, you know, if we're using just our mind and we're not engaging our heart, anxiety's gonna be an outcome at some point. Right, because faith comes from the heart. Faith comes from walking with God at the deepest, intimate place, and that's in your soul, and it's in your heart, right? When we get back to the Garden of Eden, there's a tree of life and the tree of knowledge, right?
Well, logic's all about choosing the knowledge. But if you keep going in that vein, it's going to lead at some point to fear and anxiety and the worry and those other things that there's no room for faith in that, because that's really a heart thing for me, and you guys can chime in, but I wanted to play that because when I think back at this, you know, part of the things, I've been battling some anxiety and I don't really know why. I'm not typically an anxious person, and I really think that's what's been going on, but I think it's I'm living too much logically, and I'm forgetting to engage my heart and let God lead. Right, you know, it's back at boot camp when I had prayed, you know, in the prayer to feel. You know, because I was living in the smaller story, and that's what logic is, is a smaller story and not living in God's story, the larger story that God's constantly doing something, that God's constantly working in our lives. You know, when we know that that to be the truest of the true, we don't know the outcome, but we know God does and God's handling it, right? And at least for me, that helps move away from the place of anxiety and into that place of faith in this fallen world, because when I listen to that clip, if all we have is this world and there is no afterlife, there is no God, wow, that's pretty hopeless. I mean, that's, there is no hope in that, right? But anyway, that's all I got about that.
Robby? And no belly button. No belly button, yeah, that's true, yeah. I mean, the thing with anxiety, I used to struggle with that even when I came to this, the ministry and I was getting some of the healing, there was still a lot of focus on finances or relationships and outcomes, and a lot of times, I wouldn't have anything necessarily pressing on an issue, but I would just wake up at night and just have a heaviness on me. I think it was the enemy, I think it was a certain amount of oppression, and you know, the more, you know, I got so much relief, and again, it can come back, you know, no, I'm not, I haven't experienced a lot of that lately, but I will say this, that, oh, okay, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. Go ahead. Shall we shift?
No, go ahead. But you know, just really, I think, where I've gotten the most victory is really seeing God as Father, and because there are things that we all deal with of whether something is going to interrupt our life and not be, it'll be the thing that takes us out. Do I have what it takes?
Probably is where this comes back from. I mean, if you, and again, do I have what it takes? Is it, do I have what it takes? Is it, do we, do I trust him that he gives, that he prepares me to have what it takes or whatever? So it's just important for me, anyway, to lean into that, but again, you go through life and you always got stuff popping up, kind of like the whole whack-a-mole and stuff, but I just remember the way things used to be, and I used to experience that all the time, and you know, life can be that way. It's constantly challenging us, but I do believe also, and John Eldridge talks about this.
I know Robby listens to podcasts quite often of just this, where these things come up and manifest in multiple people at the same time is a move of the enemy to try to take people out with the same spirit of just putting that dread or fear or anxiousness on them and just standing against it as a group, I think, helps, so. It does, it does. Harold, you wanted to add something? Sorry.
No, thank you, Andy. Yeah, talking about being anxious and how it affects you. Many years ago, when I was living in Columbus, Mississippi, and working as a computer programmer on the old mainframes, there was no such thing as dialing in from home and so forth, and I inherited a program developed by other people, and for night after night, somewhere around two or three o'clock in the morning, my phone would go off, and it was the computer operator telling me the program had blown up, database had to be restored, et cetera.
I had a seven-mile drive to get in there and try to walk on water before eight a.m., so it reached the point after several weeks of that that I could be sitting at home on a Sunday afternoon to watch a football game, and the phone would ring, and I would almost upchuck as a reaction to that phone. It was like the dogs that were trained, but the thing that I really wanted to get across is that when you trust in God and he helps you, you grow, and you become confident to the point that if the phone rings, you don't have to worry. You know you're gonna fix it. You just gotta get there and do it, and so it makes a big change when you have that kind of attitude that God, you gave me the ability, and I'm gonna use it. Yeah, and I wanna make sure I say this a little differently. I think we can still have anxiousness while we're leaning into God from the standpoint because we don't get growth unless we have more challenges, right, and so the enemy helps his game, and so you can still be leaning into God on these issues, and then you have a new one that makes you anxious, and it's like, oh, here's another opportunity to lean into the Father on this, right? You can walk intimately with God and still battle it from time to time because life keeps coming at you. You know, something happens with a family member or a diagnosis you're not expecting or somebody passes away or something.
I mean, there's lots of stuff that's going to hit you in life that's going to push you there, but to your point, when you get energy from having had victories, right, that you can have faith that I can have victory over this as well, you know, I just don't wanna imply that we would never be anxious again, right, because the enemy's gonna keep dialing it up and trying to get us there, right, but when we do, try to remember what has worked, right, and that's leaning into the Father and saying, okay, I need you to guide me through this or to father me through this. Well, I think you had mentioned logic earlier, and I think it's illogical to not believe in God because if I believe in God and then it turns out that there is no God, what have I lost? Right. But if I don't believe that there is a God, and there is, oops. Yeah. What have I lost then?
Yeah, it's not a great plan B. So there's a great big huge mountain of, hey, this is good, and there's a big hole that said this is bad, so where do I wanna be? Absolutely.
On the mountain. Absolutely. And you'll never convince me that there wasn't a lump in David's throat when Goliath stepped out. Oh yeah. Yeah, so. Absolutely.
Yeah, he had killed the lion and the bear, I was thinking about that, but yeah, I'm sure there was anxiety going on then. Go to masculinejourney.org. You can register for the fall boot camp in Georgia. We'll talk to you after the break. What we have in 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. I listened to a Morgan Snyder's book, Driving to Work, last year, and that was a very profound experience. So this kinda culminated into it. I'd been invited to it several times, and 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 bad, 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, so we're all going through the same struggles, and when you hear somebody else went through it, too, it kinda gives you an encouragement that, hey, you can make it through this, and God's got you, and he's gonna hold you up through it, and he's gonna carry you to the next level. Register today at masculinejourney.org. ["Keeping the Faith"] Welcome back to Masculine Journey.
I could've cut that off earlier. I do realize that, but sometimes you have to continually tell yourself, I'm keeping the faith. I'm keeping the faith. I'm keeping the faith, right?
You may have to tell yourself that a thousand times. I'm keeping the faith in what God's told me. I'm keeping the faith in God's promises, right? Robby made the point before the show that this would've been our friend Vinnie's favorite bump, more than, well, second favorite.
If we would've played Frank Sinatra, that would've probably been his favorite, but Billy Joel was apparently our friend Vinnie, who passed away during COVID, his paper boy, back on Long Island when he was a youngster, and so he used to talk about that quite often. So anyway, that was Billy Joel with keeping the faith, and that's what we're talking about, how to keep faith in a fallen world, because it's not easy sometimes. But to be fair, it's not easy most of the time, right? You know, especially if you don't have a relationship with God, what's your faith really gonna be in? Your bank account, your job, your spouse, all things that can change, right? The only thing that's unchangeable is God, and I'm not meaning divorce or anything. Something can happen and your spouse passes away, whatever, but all those things are temporary compared to God, right? And so Danny, we're over to your clip, so you can just do whatever you want with it.
Okay, we'll play it eventually. But the clip is from Facing the Giants, and the movie, it's a 2006 movie, so no spoiler alerts for something that old, but here's a coach who I think the community wants to get rid of him, and him and his wife are trying to have children, to no avail, lots of different things, and this scene is a scene where he's actually praying through a passage of scripture, and then he's pouring his heart out to God, and then he and his wife have a short conversation at the end, and he's just, you can tell it's a crisis of faith, but he's foundational in the truth, and we can play that now, talk about it afterwards. I will love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God and whom I trust, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be safe for my enemies. Lord Jesus, would you help me?
I need you. Lord, I feel like there's giants of fear and failure just staring down at me, waiting to crush me, and I don't know how to beat them, Lord. I'm tired of being afraid. Lord, if you want me to do something else, show me. If you don't want me to have children, so be it. But you're my God. You're on the throne. You're going to have my hopes and my dreams. Lord, give me something.
Show me something. If the Lord never gives us children, will you still love him? You know, what a tough question to ask his wife as she walks into the scene. You know, if the Lord never gives us children, you know, if the Lord never gives us children, will you still love him? And a couple of things when you threw this topic out, Sam, that kind of came to mind, and I thought about, the term fallen world and what that means, and you know, the fact that there is disease and there are hardships and all that stuff, and you know, Jesus said, in this world, you will have troubles, some of which we bring on ourselves. I've been guilty of that many times, some of which is just part of the fall. You know, and you mentioned earlier, you know, about diagnosis and stuff, you know, a month ago, you know, I had a little pain around my belly button, and I try to keep it short, but you know, go to the doctor and you know, he mashes on me, does all the things that doctors do, and he says, you know, you got no signs of no appendix stuff or nothing like that, but you know, probably just a hernia development or whatever, but just in case, let's do a CT scan. Well, CT scan showed a mass on my appendix about the size of a walnut, which led to, didn't want to take my appendix out, which when they biopsied it, it was an aggressive form of appendix cancer. You know, my whole world began to spiral somewhat, and you know, I was really faced with a crisis of faith, if you will, because you know what, if I believe what I say I believe and the things I love to talk about, then I have to focus in on what's true, and that's the only thing you can hold on to, and right the night before, you know, we were going to have appendix surgery, and you know, some friends of ours from church wanted to pray with us, so we met at a lady's house and that kind of thing, and God showed me his hands cupped together, and he told me simply, Danny, I've got this, and I've got you, but don't look through the cracks in my fingers, and the first two parts of that was great, but then we said don't look through the cracks in my finger, well, what are we going to be looking at? And then they biopsy the, you know, they biopsy the thing, and it comes back an aggressive form of appendix cancer, and then they start talking another surgery and chemotherapy and you know, you've got this, and the reality of it was that there's no feeling I've ever had where a doctor looks at you and says you've got cancer, and then if you go logic form, that's a stamp of death, and you go, my God, is it over?
And you've had to process those kind of things and those kind of thoughts. Now the prognosis looks good at this point. Get ready to face another surgery.
I guess I'm going to collect them in 2025, I don't know. You know, I'm meeting more surgeons than I've ever met in my life, but you know, the reality of it is is that God said, Danny, I got this, and I got you. The reality of it is is that, and Michelle and I were talking about it, you know, because my wife is just, and we were talking about this over dinner, has been, you know, she watched her dad die of cancer four years ago, so that's the only reference point she has, and so she hears the word, she hears these trigger words, and she, you know, spirals and that kind of thing, but we've had to face the fact that God said he's got this. Don't know what that means, but reality is, you know, if it was or it is the end of the road, then on the other side, I won't have any cancer.
You know, it'll be an awesome homecoming. I know that, because I know what I believe. I know that Jesus is Lord. I know that I believe that, and I know what scripture says, but the ones in the wake are the ones that, you know, the look in your wife's face, and know that she's looking at you with pain in her heart.
You didn't cause it, but you know that she's, you know, there's all kinds of things going on in her mind. Those are the things that navigate, and you realize, yes, this is a fallen world, and there's no fluffy Christian phrase that's gonna make it okay. You just have to put one foot in front of the other and walk, and, you know, that's what we're trying to do. Now, there's still some bumps in the road ahead, and there's still some tough navigation, and I know that, but one of the things that God has revealed to me is that, you know, I'm usually the guy that likes to pray for people.
I'd rather help you than you have to help me, because it's pride, but he says, Danny, he says, if you can't learn to receive from others, you can't receive anything from me, because you don't know, and, you know, people have poured out, and the only thing you can do, and I heard a song this morning, is, you know, people say, well, just hold on. No, you don't hold on. You let go. You let go of the outcome. You let go of everything, because it is truly in God's hands, and, you know, if he can use it some way somehow, then so be it.
I don't know what that looks like. Not my call, but I can sense him deeper than ever, because I know. Well, you also have had, if you're okay with me, Sharon, you know, God's put some medical personnel with you that have been very faith-oriented.
Oh, yes, oh, yes. Which, you know, is not necessarily a normal thing, you know, and so he surrounded you with people to help you in those times. And what was incredible is the day that they said the word cancer and wanted to test me, before I left the doctor's, or as I pull out of the doctor's office, and before I got back to work, which was a 10-minute drive, 15-minute drive, I got a call from my friend Harold, and then the next guy who calls me is a guy who went through this same adventure a year ago. He's my brother-in-law's brother-in-law, and he said, I'm with you all the way.
You got any questions? I'm praying for you. It was immediate. God said, I've got this, and he showed up nurses praying.
Doctors praying. And the mass of people that had just been incredibly outpouring of love and support and, you know, list of people that said, hey, if you need anything, call me, and they mean it. You know, and, you know, our friend Andy already showed up, calls me breakfast, but you know, and he don't eat light.
No, I'm kidding. But, you know, but it's that. That was your last supper, I mean your last breakfast. Yeah, yeah, that was it, but that's the reality of life is that there are people who love you, and I don't know how people who don't have faith, who don't engage in a spiritual family or even family get through life because I would be lost without it, and there is such an abundance in my life. I can't tell you, you know, time after time after time after time, the outpouring that is just so incredible. Well, thank you for sharing, and that actually, as you shared with us, and I think you shared on the air, that goes at an agreement or a wound that you had. God's just like pouring all over you. Oh my gosh, yeah. You know, saying, you thought this, and I'm gonna show you different.
Yeah, yeah, he has shattered lots of agreements and vows in the last three or four weeks. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. And I even miss boot camp, so you know. Yeah, well, we got one coming up in the fall, so you know, we do have one. I'm planning on being there. Yeah, that's gonna be November 20th through 23rd, right, Robby? Yeah, and that's the weekend before when, Andy? Christmas, I don't think, I'm sorry.
Thanksgiving, my bad. Okay, note to self, get a calendar, man. Get a holiday, man.
Get a holiday. The way you can sign up to go to boot camp is you can go to masculinejourney.org and register, and it is open. This is the earliest. Andy, thank you for getting that open. This is the earliest I think we've ever had it open before camp, and so there's no excuse. You have nothing planned the weekend before Thanksgiving.
I can promise you, unless maybe you're gym and you have a cruise booked somewhere, more people don't have plans the weekend before Thanksgiving. So go ahead and just make a plan. Go, put in for the boot camp.
If you're financially challenged with that, let us know. We'll help you get there, but we want to see you there. It's an amazing place.
It's a lot of fun. Royston, Georgia, it's our new home for the boot camp this fall. We're gonna go there and kind of go from there, but we'd love to have you there. Anything else you guys would like to add? Nope, all right, well, let God love on you this week and love on others well. We'll talk with you next week. This is the Truth Network.
