S1: Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio.
S1: This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2: At Carl and crew. What we try to do is
S2: go right to the heart of the matter. So let
S2: me give this to you. Cogitating on this a lot.
S2: And I've thought about this for years. Even when I
S2: ran track and field back in high school. There's a
S2: common thread through all of life. There's things that we
S2: either feel called to do innately, or things that we
S2: aspire to personally. And with all those things, we can
S2: get a grand vision of what could be. But if
S2: you don't have a strategy to get there, you you're
S2: you get your proverbial cookie in a Squisher took us
S2: in a squishes. You weren't going to get there. Fair enough, guys. Fair. Absolutely.
S2: So and this is what I love about life. Because
S2: if you look at life and then you open up
S2: the Word of God, you go, oh my goodness. There's
S2: vision and strategy. That's the cool thing. So I want
S2: to make this so practical. Now the number of years
S2: ago I guess that's a fair way to put it
S2: over 40 something like that. I ran a dog sled
S2: race across Alaska. If you're new listening here, I ran
S2: a dog sled race called the Iditarod. It's 1100 miles
S2: from Anchorage, Alaska to Nome, Alaska. I still can't believe
S2: I made it. 21 days, eight hours, 12 minutes, 32 seconds.
S2: I mean.
S3: That's a feat, man.
S2: It was, it was, and I. Its history feels like
S2: someone else. You know what? Have you ever done something
S2: that feels like somebody else did that?
S3: Yes. Yes, absolutely.
S2: So I give all credit to my dogs. They were
S2: the athletes. In fact, I told people after the race
S2: was over, my team could have gotten there quicker if
S2: they'd had a better musher. I was a good musher
S2: for 18, but 18 is young. I had a lot
S2: to learn, and I knew that intuitively. But I learned
S2: something from my dogs that was just fascinating. So let
S2: me tell you about what it's like to have 50
S2: dogs in your kennel. 50 huskies. And what happens over
S2: a couple of years time. You go out on these
S2: training runs, and I would get some that would get
S2: on some, maybe get some laceration on their pad, a
S2: little bit of blood coming out of their pad, and
S2: I'd load them up in the sled and take care
S2: of them and put some ointment on them and bandage
S2: them up. And it was almost like they'd look at
S2: me like, thanks. Thanks so much, friend. I so appreciate
S2: that we're dogs, that we get tired at times and
S2: I'd load them in the sled because we're training, you know,
S2: and some of them just didn't have the stamina, and
S2: some of them felt the pressure and the shame of
S2: not being able to make it. I kid you not,
S2: they had shame in their eyes. And I would tell them, no,
S2: you're doing all right, buddy. You're you're all right. It's okay.
S2: We're going to get you back in the team tomorrow,
S2: and we're going to get some more wind in you.
S2: We're going to get a little more strength in you.
S2: Everything's going to be all right. And we'd go through overflow,
S2: open water, and I'd get out of the water and
S2: I'd dry myself off, and then I'd quickly dry off
S2: the team. Well, after a while, you start to build
S2: some real rapport with your dogs, and it's a sweet thing.
S2: Those dogs are born to run. They're born and bred
S2: to run. If you don't run an Alaskan Husky that's
S2: born this way, you're selling them short. And the way
S2: that I knew this best is when I'd walk into
S2: the dog lot and I'd start the cooker cooking for
S2: the feed, they'd get excited. But when I walked into
S2: the dog lot and I opened the door to the
S2: harness shed where the harnesses were that they put on there,
S2: I put on their body and then hook them into
S2: the gang lines. They went bananas, I mean bananas. Neighbors
S2: way down the lake could hear my dogs.
S3: That's so great.
S2: No way down the lake.
S3: That's why you got.
S2: There was a friend of mine had a had a kennel.
S2: He called it the, um, the Howling Dog Farm because
S2: that's a great descriptor of what happens when these dogs
S2: see a harness come out of a shed.
S3: And it's 50, 50 dogs all at one time, just
S3: losing their minds. Very vocal animals. Yes.
S2: It's one of the coolest things. It's one of the
S2: coolest sounds you can hear when you're standing in the
S2: middle of 50 dogs, and they're going bananas with the
S2: dog harness on, and you've got someone standing right next
S2: to you, you have to get in their ear and
S2: go grab that one right there, the one with the
S2: white coat and the piercing blue eyes. Grab him. Put
S2: this harness. You're yelling at them like that because that
S2: that is how loud the dogs are. You know, you've
S2: got a. You've got a God sized vision in front
S2: of you to be the man that God wants you
S2: to be. And you might think, boy, I know I do.
S2: You know it innately. You know it. When you were
S2: born again, God stamped on your heart. You're a new
S2: man and you just need someone with a strategy to
S2: get you there so that when they pull out the harnesses,
S2: you go, oh, I know how to get there. And
S2: coming up here in a moment, I want you to
S2: know that this innate sense that there is more for
S2: men is real. But what if you had someone on
S2: the back of the sled that had a strategy for
S2: how to get there? So there might be some serious
S2: howling going on here in a moment. And that's for
S2: good reason, because we got a good friend coming in here.
S4: Doctor Robert Lewis with Better Man Ministries, with not just
S4: a vision, but a strategy for helping you as a
S4: man and the men in your life to really become
S4: what God's called you to be.
S1: You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't
S1: take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew.
S1: It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2: You know, I had a man tell me one time
S2: to know the will of God. You can read the
S2: book to know the way of God, to get to
S2: the will of God. You got to read a little deeper.
S2: The same thing is true with vision. You can get
S2: a vision of manhood and you can hear it talked about.
S2: You can have a grand idea of what could be
S2: out there, but without a strategy, we're never going to
S2: get there. What if the better man that God has
S2: designed you to be was within reach? It is. Doctor
S2: Robert Lewis is with us right now. It's fascinating, isn't it, Robert? We.
S2: I think we can get a vision for biblical, authentic
S2: manhood and get a rousing sense in our heart. But
S2: then we got to do something with that. We need
S2: a strategy, don't we, my friend?
S5: Absolutely. Because I think today, because of the breakdown of
S5: the home, most young men moving into young adulthood walk
S5: into a big fog and guess their way through manhood.
S4: Robert Lewis with us right now he is a pastor, speaker, author,
S4: founding partner of Better Man Ministries. You know, you you
S4: have a quote on your website. You cannot become what
S4: you cannot define. For so many men, the messages are
S4: very mixed as to what even it looks like to
S4: be a strong man. You don't want toxic masculinity, but
S4: you don't want to be passive. You want to pursue
S4: a woman, but you don't want to be intimidating, or
S4: make her think that she's diminished in some in some way.
S4: It's a it's a tough landscape to navigate.
S5: Well, it's gotten tougher in our day because when we
S5: remove more traditional roles and that kind of thing, and
S5: it's kind of every man for himself. Uh, a lot
S5: of men do not look to other men for help
S5: in their manhood. They think they should know it. So
S5: they try to guess their life and their manhood into
S5: the future. And oftentimes those hit tragic, hurtful, and sometimes
S5: even deadly dead ends.
S2: Yeah. You know, it's interesting, Robert. I was with 500
S2: men in Arizona, and I saw a common thread again
S2: that I see over and over. Sometimes those tragic dead
S2: ends are God's dinner bell to redeem something that has
S2: been wasted. Tell us about that.
S5: One of the things that I'm so excited about, what
S5: I'm doing and working with younger men, is the fact
S5: that there's a huge hunger out there. But you have
S5: to have someone that a younger man respects that starts
S5: speaking into his life. And if he takes the time
S5: to do that and he's genuine in his outreach. One
S5: of the great things about the day in which we
S5: live is younger men want to learn, but they need
S5: older men just to initiate towards them. And that's what
S5: we've seen with better man using older men to reach
S5: younger men. But there's a tremendous hunger of young men
S5: to help me think through this, because inside they know
S5: that they don't know, but they just don't want other
S5: men to know that they don't know.
S2: Yeah.
S4: You know, there's an insecurity, I think, in this generation
S4: of men. I saw this I saw this funny video, Robert,
S4: and it was it was talking about toxic masculinity. And
S4: they said the difference from, like, my dad's toxic masculinity
S4: was that my dad and this is they were just
S4: being honest. They said my dad could punch a wall,
S4: but he could fix it. They said this generation's toxic
S4: masculinity punches a wall in anger, but then has to
S4: call somebody else to fix it because they never learned how.
S4: So there's this sense of like, I want to break
S4: this cycle. I don't want this anger, I don't want
S4: this rage. But at the same time, I don't feel
S4: equipped to do some of the things that my dad's
S4: generation could do. So I feel less of a man
S4: because I can't do some of those things. You get
S4: where I'm going with this.
S5: Just think how imprisoning that is. If you don't know
S5: what to do, and you don't even know how to
S5: fight your way out of it, just kind of sit there.
S5: And that's why we see mental health issues, depression, addiction,
S5: all kinds of those things just skyrocketing among young men.
S5: I mean, we used the George Barna Barna organization to
S5: do a national survey with young men just to see
S5: where they are. Men under 40. And I remember they
S5: came back and said, this is the loneliest, most disconnected
S5: generation of young men in history. And it's very it's
S5: not just toxic to society. It's very toxic to them.
S5: And a lot of health issues are escalating with young
S5: men because they don't know what to do. They're just
S5: in I call it the manhood fog.
S3: Yeah.
S2: You might be in this fog right now or wanting
S2: to help someone get out. You're in a good place.
S2: Coming up with doctor Robert Lewis. Credible author, great mentor,
S2: a mentor of mine for a number of years and
S2: still to this day. And we're going to tackle this.
S2: How do we know we're in the fog. And how
S2: do we get out? Straight ahead with Robert Lewis.
S1: She's a choreographer extraordinaire and everything is Greek to her.
S1: Super die is in the crew. It's Karl and crew
S1: on Moody Radio.
S2: It's called The Fog. So says Robert Lewis. We get
S2: into this fog of real manhood, wondering what is it?
S2: How do we walk forward? A lot of what we
S2: learned in manhood, Robert was learned in the locker room.
S2: That didn't work. And a lot of what we're learning
S2: today is even less than that. There's so much as
S2: you just cited loneliness and despair. And I want to
S2: give you a scenario here and just speak to this scenario.
S2: I've been mentoring a man at one of our campuses
S2: here in Chicago, and it's been fascinating because he is
S2: on the proverbial treadmill. Sin, shame. Repent, repeat. And there's
S2: a voice going on in his head that says, I
S2: can't do it. What do you say to that man?
S5: Well, one of the kind of Openings for young men
S5: that I do a lot is to get a group
S5: of young men together and just sit down for an evening,
S5: and we ask them to tell their story. And by
S5: telling their story, what I mean by that is to
S5: draw out a picture of the family you grew up in,
S5: not necessarily the one you were born into, because a
S5: lot of families change in those early days. But the
S5: one you grew up in and then tell us what
S5: role you played in that family, and then tell us
S5: about the relationship with your dad and what was something
S5: you really learned that helps you today? But what's interesting,
S5: most men have never opened up and told other men
S5: their story. And they start realizing how lost they are,
S5: and many of them with no dad or no instruction
S5: from dad. But the big winner is they're being honest
S5: with one another, and they're in a community of young
S5: men where they can talk about it, and all of
S5: a sudden they realized, this feels good. This feels good.
S5: And it's the start of that community. That is the
S5: opening to a healthy manhood. Because healthy manhood requires first
S5: a safe community and then biblical clarity.
S2: Okay, let's spike that for a second here. So you're
S2: saying a lot of the solution for this isolation and
S2: these cycles of despair and wanting to get out, can't
S2: get out, is just the lack of others to walk
S2: this road with.
S5: That's right. To open up and just talk about what's
S5: going on inside of me. It's just a huge pressure
S5: relief valve when you're with other safe men. It could
S5: be two. It could be three. It could be like
S5: in the case of the other night with my group
S5: of young men, it was ten of us. We're teaching.
S5: We're just talking and sharing where we came from to
S5: try to connect the dots of where we are and
S5: then talk about what do you need? So it's unveiling
S5: the past, cracking the lid, being honest and in that community,
S5: being open to say, okay, here's where I am. I've
S5: never had a relationship with my dad or just went
S5: through a divorce, or I'm in this addiction or I'm
S5: struggling with this issue. But I've discovered tonight there are
S5: other guys around the table who have similar stories who
S5: can identify with me. And so it sets the table
S5: to what do we do? And I always say, hey,
S5: the best thing to do is look for some enduring
S5: wisdom in the Bible is the greatest source of enduring wisdom.
S5: So let's talk about what the Bible has to say.
S5: So into that community of chaos, we bring biblical clarity
S5: that suddenly brings these aha's that I've seen change men's lives.
S5: As you know, Carl, for now, 35 years.
S4: Doctor Robert Lewis, our guest right now. Now, you have
S4: a passion to make this more accessible than ever. What
S4: you're talking about to actually become a reality. You've had
S4: now 500,000 men, 10,000 churches taking part in these better
S4: man teachings. Explain what you're offering up for free.
S5: Well, what we did is about four years ago, some
S5: men that I was close to down in Dallas, Texas,
S5: asked me if I would do some series where we
S5: could reach young men and they were willing to fund everything,
S5: and I said I would do it if you could
S5: offer it all for free. So we got together, formed
S5: better man. Uh, we did video series. We did what
S5: I call the ten Fundamentals of Manhood, and it's all online.
S5: We've got multiple teachers teaching those ten weeks. So we
S5: have different ethnicities, different age groups. But you can go
S5: online and see each one of those teachers teach those
S5: ten weeks and then off your phone or computer, you
S5: can download for free those ten weeks and the workbook,
S5: and then just get with a small group of guys.
S5: That's what we recommend. Usually having at least one older
S5: man in the group and go through the series together,
S5: and it has really connected with young men, and it's
S5: great to bring older men into it. And a listener
S5: today could download anything he wanted off our website for free.
S2: Today's the day, guys. I'm telling you right now, I
S2: got a boiling passion inside of me. This is real. Uh,
S2: it's desperately needed. You know it. And most I would
S2: say Ali. I mean, it's anecdotal, but we get how
S2: much feedback here about how do I get my way
S2: out of this thing now, we've got something here, don't we?
S4: Absolutely. And this is going to be content that you
S4: can do with the small group that you can bring
S4: to your church to help them get on board with it.
S4: We've got it for you. Just text man to 855
S4: five 7898. If you want to explore more of this
S4: free content. This video teaching. This is very much a
S4: plug and play option where it has been prepared for
S4: you so that you can engage with some brothers in Christ.
S4: Go ahead and text man to 800 555 7898. Man
S4: to (800) 555-7898.
S2: Robert, before we let you go, give us a story.
S2: Give us a story that's fresh on your heart about somebody,
S2: a young man. He may not have arrived, but he's
S2: got some breakthrough right now.
S5: Well, it's funny you said that because the other day
S5: I got a text from a young man in Saudi Arabia,
S5: and somehow he had gotten hold of the better man material,
S5: downloaded it with another guy and walked through it. Because
S5: you're not going to fix your manhood by just a coffee.
S5: You've got to have some time where you sit and
S5: soak in the truths of the scriptures made relevant through
S5: this kind of video technology. And he had done that
S5: by himself with another guy, and they had just talked
S5: through it and he wanted to contact me, didn't know
S5: how he had worked through our better man resources. But
S5: basically what he said, He said, I grew up a Buddhist.
S5: I didn't know anything about manhood. I went through the series,
S5: I was introduced to Jesus with my friend, and we
S5: talked about it through the series. And he said, I
S5: wanted you to know at the end of that time,
S5: I gave my life to Jesus.
S2: Oh my goodness.
S5: Now that's a guy who is as far out from
S5: my ability to influence him as you can possibly get
S5: another country, a different religion. He's using technology, but the
S5: truths of the Scripture made relevant to his manhood in
S5: community with one other guy. They came to Christ just
S5: by listening to the Bible made relevant to their manhood,
S5: and they went from a foggy manhood to Jesus's life
S5: giving manhood. And that ended up with them walking with
S5: Jesus himself. That's why I'm in the game, Carl. Because
S5: I've seen that happen thousands of times.
S2: Wow. You know, I've always known you to be a
S2: passionate man. From the time when we sat down, I
S2: was in your small group when you were writing this
S2: core curriculum, when it all began. And yet, Robert, that
S2: fire's not gone out. I feel like it's building here,
S2: my friend. God's doing something.
S5: He is doing something. And we've got a lot of
S5: great speakers on board who do our video series. But
S5: these guys really connect with younger men, and we use
S5: older men just to sit at the table as table guides,
S5: just sharing honestly their life, going through these experiences. I mean,
S5: we have multiple curriculums, but the basic curriculum on the
S5: fundamentals of of manhood, called core, is the one we're
S5: offering today for free. And just telling you some time
S5: in that soaking in that curriculum with a community of men,
S5: just talking and being real, it brings you out of
S5: the cultural fog, the woke culture that we're in. That's.
S5: Offering dead ends. And it will provide for you an
S5: escape hatch to life giving manhood.
S2: Love it. Robert Louis is his name. He's a good man,
S2: and he's got some phenomenal content again. Ali. What's that link, sister?
S4: Just text man to 800 555 78, 98. Man. Man (800) 555-7898.
S1: A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is
S1: in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
S2: It's Wednesday. It's the bottom of the hour.
S1: It's time making herself laugh. No matter who joins her,
S1: it's time for Ali thinks it's funny.
S4: Today's been a good day of jokes.
S3: We do?
S2: Yes. It has.
S4: Let's hope I don't mess it up.
S3: Finish strong, finish strong. Come on, come on.
S6: I shouldn't have set myself up.
S2: Oh, yeah.
S3: You did.
S4: All right. What do you call a fly without wings?
S4: This is not philosophical. What do you call a fly
S4: without wings? Anyone? Anyone?
S3: What do you believe? He can't.
S7: I believe he can't fly. I don't know.
S4: Oh, wow. Carl's coming with the alternative punch lines today.
S4: A fly without wings is called a walk. It's called
S4: a walk. Ladies and gentlemen.
S2: Pretty straightforward.
S3: Pretty good.
S4: Yes, yes. And then we like to give soar around here.
S4: So I would like to give a bit of a PSA.
S4: I think that my account was hacked.
S3: Oh, no.
S4: Unfortunate when that.
S3: Happens.
S4: So if you receive a message from me about investing
S4: in canned meat, investing in canned meat, don't open.
S3: It. Ignore it. I already opened it.
S4: Don't open.
S3: It. Oh, no.
S4: You want to know why?
S3: Why? Why?
S4: Because it's spam. It's definitely.
S3: Spam. As soon as you.
S4: Said canned meat, I thought.
S3: That's awesome.
S7: That's great. That's great.
S4: If you want today's jokes, text jokes to 800 555 7898.
S4: Jokes to 800 555 7898. Super die always sees the
S4: punchline coming.
S2: Yeah she does.
S4: She always gets it.
S2: Is that why she grumbles when it lands?
S4: Because she gets like in her mind. She has all
S4: of them answered before I get the get it out.
S2: She does. Can I tell you a quick spam story?
S3: Sure. Yes. All right.
S2: All right, so here's the deal. I was 18.5 years old,
S2: and so I'm still relatively young on a crazy new adventure.
S2: I had bought a 32 foot gillnetter wood plank gillnetter
S2: that had all kinds of problems, not least of which
S2: was the fact that it leaked like a sieve.
S4: Okay, what is it, an eight? Yeah. Back it up.
S2: Gillnetter a wood plank. Gillnetter. It's a 32 foot commercial
S2: fishing vessel. It was kind of old school. It had
S2: a gasoline engine, which is, like very dangerous. They don't
S2: do that at all anymore. It's just for commercial fishing.
S2: It's just not wise. Catch a wood boat on fire
S2: in a heartbeat. So we're. We're fishing in Togiak Bay
S2: on the west coast of Alaska. The ice has just
S2: come off the water, and we're fishing for herring. So
S2: we're putting gillnets down into the water in these herring
S2: schools that come fill it in. Boom. We load it
S2: on board. But the funny thing about spam is that
S2: we we didn't plan food that we needed on this trip,
S2: and we ate up all of our good stuff ahead
S2: of time, and all we had left near the end
S2: of the season was a huge bag of potatoes and
S2: many cans of spam and Grey Poupon mustard. That's it.
S2: That's what we.
S7: Had.
S8: There's a combination.
S2: Yeah, and that's what we had morning, noon and night
S2: for about a week. We had potatoes, spam and Grey
S2: Poupon mustard.
S3: Oh my goodness.
S2: And I found ways to cook spam. Like you can't believe, man.
S2: I mean, I would I was trying to air dry
S2: it to make it jerky.
S3: Frying it in.
S4: Air. Dried spam.
S3: Yeah.
S2: It was. It was outstanding. And and I cooked. There's
S2: gelatin in the spam, you know. So you pull that
S2: out and I'd get that all sizzling, and then I'd
S2: do thin sliced spam, and then I'd, I'd, I'd, I
S2: wrapped it around and put, uh, put little toothpicks in
S2: it to make little potato spam. Little.
S4: That's creative.
S3: Like little sliders.
S2: Little sliders.
S3: You gotta do what you gotta do.
S2: But the the the secret sauce to spam if you
S2: don't like it. I happen to like it. But if
S2: you don't like spam is Grey Poupon mustard man. It
S2: covers over.
S3: A.
S2: Massive amount of iniquities of sin. It's just really good stuff.
S3: So you got some spam?
S2: Do people still buy spam?
S3: Oh yeah, I had spam, I don't know, a couple
S3: months ago. You did? Yeah, for the first time. So
S3: I didn't think it was all that bad. No, it's
S3: pretty good. Not that bad.
S2: Who knows what's in that thing?
S3: That's all. That's also very true.
S2: I don't know what's in that sucker, man. It's like, oh, boy,
S2: you see those mass processed videos of the goop that comes.
S3: Out, and then.
S2: You realize, oh.
S3: Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to. Yeah.
S2: How hot dogs are made. You don't want the answer
S2: to that one.
S3: Nope.
S2: Yeah, there's lots of. You're getting horse innards or cow
S2: innards or whatever it is.
S3: Thank you Carl.
S2: All kinds of stuff.
S4: Thank you.
S2: Carl. I just want to bless your socks off. But
S2: the good news is, Ali, a little Grey Poupon.
S3: Here's the secret.
S4: See my jokes. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
S3: Yeah.
S4: You would not have.
S3: Gotten.
S2: That.
S4: Story had I.
S2: No I wouldn't. Thank you very much.
S3: Come on. Love covers a multitude of sin. And mustard
S3: covers a multitude of spam.
S4: Oh, boy, it's Grey Poupon.
S2: Oh, I got some good news for you, Ali. Your favorite.
S2: One of your favorite stores, Costco, sells mega packs of spam.
S4: Oh, yeah.
S2: Says one of our listeners.
S3: That's gone on over there?
S4: I love Costco, but I don't love spam. Sorry.
S2: Oh goodness sakes. Okay. Coming up. We got a lot
S2: going on. Oh, before we go a step further, it's
S2: almost mom's day.
S4: It is. And we want to make sure you know
S4: about a great giveaway that ends this week with Mother's
S4: Day coming up this Sunday. So make sure you get
S4: your entry form in to win a $550 gift for
S4: your mom. This is going to be a spa gift certificate.
S4: A restaurant gift certificate. You can win it for a
S4: mom in your life. You can win it for yourself.
S4: If you're a mom, just get the entry form. Tell
S4: us what makes your mom so special and unique. Fill
S4: out a couple of lines so we have your information
S4: and we will contact you. If you are the winner.
S4: Just text mom to 800 555 7898. Text mom to
S4: 800 555 7898.
S1: He was sharing the gospel on the radio and then
S1: he got saved. Young thunders in the crew. It's Carl
S1: and crew on Moody Radio.
S2: Nothing inspires. Spires. Like seeing someone overcome. Really? But when
S2: it's your mom, it's something special, isn't it, Ali?
S4: It is. And so we asked you, what did you
S4: see your mom overcome that inspired you? 805 55. 7898.
S4: Let's go to Jane calling in this morning from Illinois. Jane.
S4: Tell us.
S9: Hi, there. Well. My mom. Oh, my. Oh, boy. She
S9: was pregnant with my 11th child. Her 11th child. When
S9: my dad died, I was almost three. And she had.
S9: So anyway, she carried the birth, and, um, she raised
S9: all 11 of us. All 11 of us by herself.
S9: No food stamps and all the wonderful programs that they
S9: have nowadays. Just lots of good neighbors in a small
S9: little town. Plus, she took in a gal when she
S9: was in high school at the gal was in high
S9: school that just was having a hard time at home.
S9: She said, Will you come and live with us?
S2: Jane took in a gal. Are you kidding me? Your mom.
S2: What an inspiration, huh, Jane?
S9: Oh my, oh my, oh, my. We all live by
S9: her inspirations today.
S2: What's her. What's her name?
S9: Neva. My mom's name. Neva.
S2: Oh, I gotta tell you, Jane, that is. That is
S2: so beautiful. What a story. My goodness. Hold on the line, sister.
S2: I know you got to hustle. Thanks for calling in,
S2: but I want to get a Carl and crew prize
S2: back into your hand. Can you imagine that?
S3: Listen, guys.
S2: Can you get this? She's with child, her 11th. Wow.
S2: And her husband passes away, and she rears those kids
S2: and takes in. Sorry, but I think we got. Game set.
S2: Match on something like that story.
S3: I mean, that's amazing. I can't imagine.
S2: Oh my goodness. Phillip in Illinois. What's your story, my man?
S10: You know, my mother, Hattie Lou Jean Warren Van Lear.
S10: Handicapped woman. She had her right leg was eight inches
S10: shorter than her left, so she wore a built up shoe.
S10: Single parent. My dad, rolling Stone, was never around. She
S10: raised two boys in the 50s and 60s. Black woman,
S10: handicapped black woman. Worked two and a half jobs, paid
S10: off the house, raised us knuckleheads that we were. And
S10: I never, not once ever saw her without a smile.
S10: Without a gospel song on her lips, without joy. She
S10: would call other people to encourage them. She helped single
S10: moms through their pregnancies. I have never complained. Not at all.
S10: I mean, she's been an inspiration. She was an inspiration
S10: to so many people. She's she's in glory now. She
S10: she passed in 2006, but, uh, I, I, uh, I
S10: wasn't going to call, but man, I had to, I said,
S10: because mama would be saying, boy, what's wrong with you?
S10: Didn't you tell anybody?
S2: Yeah, I got to tell you something, Phillip. That's moving man.
S2: That is absolutely moving. Thanks for calling in this morning.
S2: Those two stories rattle my cage.
S3: Wow. You all day long.
S2: Oh my goodness. Oh, I don't even have words for that.
S3: No.
S2: I don't know what you're up against today, but the
S2: reason we've got the Hall of Fame of faith in
S2: Hebrews 11. It's for one specific reason to keep going,
S2: to keep going. It's why it's there, guys. It's why
S2: it's there. Yeah. I mean, in Hebrews 12 one. I
S2: forget talking about it. Let me open it and read it.
S2: I mean, this is this is what we're called to
S2: do and to be. And sometimes, sometimes we get a
S2: glimpse of this and we go, oh my goodness, a
S2: hall of fame of faith. Therefore, since we are surrounded
S2: by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also
S2: lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely,
S2: and let us run with endurance the race that is
S2: set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter
S2: of our faith, who for the joy that was set
S2: before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is
S2: seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
S2: The reason we have Hebrews 11 is because we've got
S2: a call on our life of Hebrews 12. And that's
S2: to run the race well. Hebrews 11 is there to
S2: inspire us and keep us going when it feels like
S2: we just can't do it anymore. And we had two
S2: stories here, back to back that if that doesn't put
S2: fuel in your belly. Well, of course it does. Of
S2: course it does. God had an appointment here this morning,
S2: didn't he? Guys, God had an appointment.
S8: Always.
S2: This. This just proves that every once in a while,
S2: we keep in step with the Holy Spirit around here
S2: on the topics that we want to tackle. Because the
S2: fruit was born out of that big time 11 11th
S2: child on the way. Husband dies. Raises them all alone.
S2: Are you kidding me? Another mom with a disability? That
S2: would be discouraging to most gospel. Always on her lips.
S2: Raising two boys alone. My goodness, is our God able?
S2: He's able.
S11: Did you ever know that you're my hero? And everything
S11: I would like to be. I can fly higher than
S11: any of. You are the wind beneath my wings.
S2: What'd you see your mom overcome that inspired you? Moms
S2: can be so inspiring. What do you think, Allie?
S4: You know, there's a specific story that stands out in
S4: my memory. My mom. There was a season of time
S4: where she was a home daycare provider. And so we
S4: would welcome anywhere from, like, I don't know, 5 or
S4: 6 kids. And they would come and they would spend
S4: the whole day with us while their parents were working.
S4: And that was her way of providing helping provide for
S4: our family. And so there was one particular family that
S4: had made an agreement with my mom that she was
S4: going to watch their son for a period of time,
S4: and at the last minute they kind of bailed and
S4: left my mom in a lurch. And so she tried
S4: to come to an agreement for the payment that she
S4: was owed. And the the dad was, was very dismissive.
S4: And he said, I'm not going to pay you. She
S4: was like, well, what do you mean you're not going
S4: to pay me? You you made this commitment. We had
S4: an agreement. And so it kind of escalated. And he
S4: was very he said, I'm not paying you. And she goes, well,
S4: I'm going to I'm going to have to take you
S4: to court to get the payment. And he said, you're
S4: a home daycare provider. The judge is going to laugh
S4: you out of court. So my mom was like, oh, okay.
S4: So I remember on the day of the court hearing,
S4: I had to go stay at my grandma's house. I
S4: didn't get to go to court, but I remember being
S4: in the backyard. I can picture the swing set, the
S4: little boneyard ditch that ran along the backyard, this little
S4: creek and my grandma's yard. And I remember seeing my
S4: mom walk forward in her suit by the hedges, and
S4: we could see on her face as she emerged. She
S4: had one. We knew it. Yes, she had been victorious.
S3: In small claims court.
S4: Against this man who said, the judge is going to
S4: laugh you out of court and I don't. That for
S4: me was such a core memory. My mom was a fighter.
S4: She stood up for what was right, and she never
S4: let someone diminish her because of her position or what
S4: they thought she lacked. And that stuck with me. My
S4: mom was an overcomer. I was so proud of her.
S8: So many people would.
S2: Have caved at that moment. Yeah, I'd say nine out
S2: of ten would have caved and said, yeah, we'll let
S2: this one go. That's so good. And it was frankly
S2: healthy for the dude who lost.
S8: It was he.
S4: Needed he in that moment. He needed the humbling of going, no,
S4: I can't just treat people any kind of way.
S2: And he put it up in her face.
S8: You're a home daycare provider.
S4: The judge will laugh you out of court.
S2: I'm sorry, but sometimes overcoming stories make you go, yes.
S8: You know what I'm saying?
S3: Yes.
S8: Yes. Yes, mom! Get him! Mom! Of course. You did
S8: so great.
S2: Oh my goodness! What do you got? Super nice. Something
S2: on your heart?
S8: Yeah, I remember my mom especially talking when she was younger.
S8: She really overcame what would probably be decades and ages
S8: of just family culture for her. She was the oldest
S8: of four daughters, yet she was the third one to
S8: get married. And she actually pushed to go to college,
S8: which was I know, sounds like what. But for her,
S8: that was a very huge deal to stand up to
S8: this very Greek family, you know, firstborn daughter should have
S8: been married. This is who you're supposed to be married to.
S8: She said, no, I'm not going to marry. I'm not
S8: going to marry that person, at least right now. And
S8: I want to go to school. And it was it
S8: was a huge fight. It caused a lot of of
S8: walls to go up for a very, very long time.
S8: But she went to school. She got a couple years.
S8: I had talked about her being, you know, a phenomenal
S8: secretary and things like that, and she earned those skills
S8: and even worked in Chicago for a while. But for
S8: her to take that step back then was huge. And
S8: I just thought very brave to do. Very brave to do. Awesome.
S8: It was a very big deal at that time.
S2: Yeah. My my mama kind of broke a tradition. It's funny. Uh,
S2: one of the, you know, there's unspoken traditions. Sometimes it's
S2: like these. This is kind of the code. Well, there
S2: was a Johnson code back in the day. In fact,
S2: I was out at an event here last night talking
S2: with some women that were about my, you know, nearing
S2: my mom's age. She passed on and went with the
S2: Lord here a year and a half ago. Two years ago. Um,
S2: but my mom was raised in Chicago, was down here
S2: on the Moody campus. My grandma sang on air a
S2: lot down here. Live. Isn't that wild, guys? My grandma did.
S3: That. Crazy. That full circle, man.
S2: But what's really interesting is so my mom goes to
S2: Southern Cal because my grandpa couldn't handle the cold of Chicago,
S2: and he went and actually started a whole chain of
S2: gas stations for Atlantic Richfield Company. And so they moved
S2: to Southern Cal. And my dad and mom met at
S2: a rose parade. Lo and behold. And my dad saw
S2: my mom and had the same experience I had with
S2: my bride, Jubes. I'm like, that is God's will for
S2: my life right there. And my dad looked at mom
S2: and he called her Eva. And he said, Eva, I
S2: want to marry you. And they were married, but they
S2: they broke the code. And the code was you stay
S2: near family. But my dad and mom had a real
S2: missionary mindset. And they moved to Alaska before it was
S2: a state. So they were breaking codes. Kind of like
S2: your mama, super dad. They were breaking a code. And
S2: and for years as a young boy and then into
S2: my teen years growing up, my mom would get cards
S2: that my family. I'll go ahead and say it. My
S2: grandma used as an opportunity to take a shot at
S2: the code that was broken. You get what.
S3: I'm saying, I got it.
S8: Exactly. Yes.
S2: And my mom would just cry, and my dad would
S2: put his arm around her. And, I mean, it was
S2: hard for her because she didn't want to break her
S2: mom's heart. Didn't want to break code. But, boy, they
S2: were called to Alaska before it was a state to
S2: be missionaries. Tentmakers my dad had his teaching degree, ultimately
S2: became a principal. The state became a state and it
S2: was a mission field. My dad did great work across
S2: the state of Alaska. My mom paid a price for
S2: it and full circle on that one. Guys is my
S2: my dad. As you can imagine, he was the chief
S2: villain because he broke the he ultimately.
S3: Broke the.
S2: Code, right?
S3: Exactly. He stole her. Yeah.
S8: You're the problem.
S2: Took her away. And? they had to be fair with
S2: my grandma and grandpa. They had a mixed feeling because
S2: they they loved God and they understood missions. But it's like.
S2: But not my kid, you know?
S3: Yeah, sure.
S2: Here am I send someone else from another family structure.
S8: Especially the daughter. Like you're taking.
S3: Her? Yeah.
S2: You know, and and she was the firstborn. And so it's, like,
S2: really breaking the code. Yeah. Uh, but what an amazing
S2: thing to see in my own dad. Mom. The inspiration
S2: that they were to me. My grandma was ultimately bad.
S2: Health at a time in her life. Lay in latter years.
S2: My grandpa had passed away. And none, none of the
S2: other siblings could take my grandma. So guess where grandma
S2: had to move.
S3: Alaska to Alaska.
S2: She had to move to Alaska.
S3: Wow.
S4: Wow.
S2: The very place that she probably loathed for all those years.
S2: And one day I walk into the home I'm working
S2: in the oil fields of Alaska. Came down for a break,
S2: walked into the home and said, hey, where's, uh, where's dad?
S2: Mom said, oh, he's around the corner taking care of grandma.
S2: I walk around the corner, my dad's changing my grandma's
S2: diaper and I mean cleaning up a mess. And by
S2: this time, she didn't have her faculties at all. And
S2: I thought, wow, what an inspirational thing. That's my dad
S2: and mom overcoming. But it's inspiring when people overcome. It's
S2: a beautiful thing, man, and that's forever etched in my mind.
S2: The tears of my mom, the servanthood of my dad
S2: and mom, and the love that they showed, even when
S2: maybe reasonable people would have said, you don't have to
S2: do that. They said, yeah, because of Christ in us,
S2: we we do and we will. And it's just a
S2: beautiful thing. I don't know what that does for you,
S2: but the book of Hebrews illustrates that it's inspiration in
S2: the Hall of Fame of faith are overcomers, and we
S2: can as well today.