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0:30
[Music]
0:40
This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast.
0:43
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
0:44
Let's get into it.
0:45
All right, guys, before we get into today's content,
0:47
just wanted to let you know, just in case you didn't already know,
0:50
I'm currently booking speaking engagements for the remainder of 2018.
0:54
So if you want me to come and speak to your church, your staff,
0:56
your men's group, your Sunday school, your team, your camp,
1:00
I'm booking all those things right now.
1:02
So if you would, reach out to me at info@undaunted.life,
1:06
info@undaunted.life.
1:07
And I can kind of talk to you a little bit more about the types of content
1:10
that I present and things like that.
1:12
But you can expect it to be a lot like what you hear here on the podcast.
1:15
So today's podcast, we are going to do another Q&A.
1:18
So this is our third installment of the Q&A podcast.
1:21
Again, guys, I'm never really at a--
1:24
I mean, I never really had a loss whenever you guys send me questions.
1:26
I get a lot of really, really good questions.
1:29
So in future episodes, I'm going to try to do a Q&A episode every,
1:32
you know, four podcasts or five podcasts or so,
1:34
just to keep the content live.
1:36
But also, there are certain things that I get asked that, you know,
1:39
don't really warrant an entire podcast episode,
1:41
but it's still something that you guys are wondering about,
1:44
something that I can give an opinion or a philosophy on.
1:46
So I'll continue to do that.
1:48
But just respond to any of the social media posts.
1:50
It doesn't even have to be something that you are responding to
1:55
that's like specifically meant for that post.
1:57
But just respond on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook or something like that
2:00
with your questions or you can send them to me again at info@undontadotlife.
2:04
And I'm going to try to work in as many of those as I can.
2:07
I get a lot of questions from you guys, but I try to work in the ones
2:09
that I think would be the most, I guess, readily accessible for all of you
2:13
and for me to be able to give a good answer to.
2:15
So without further ado, let's get into the first question
2:18
for this episode and see what we got.
2:21
Okay, what message would you put on a billboard?
2:24
So I thought that was, this was a pretty good question.
2:26
Like when you think about it, you drive by, you know,
2:28
hundreds if not thousands of billboards in a week,
2:30
depending upon where you live.
2:31
And there's all kinds of messages on there.
2:33
There's some billboards that have way too many words
2:35
and you can't really read anything.
2:37
So the messaging completely misses you or it's just a picture
2:40
and you kind of get the deal with the picture.
2:42
But after thinking about it for a while,
2:44
the thing that I was going to put on there is just this
2:46
and it's in big words, you're not a good man.
2:51
And that's it.
2:52
And then I may put the, you know, www dot undaunted dot life.
2:56
So maybe it would drive guys to our content,
2:58
but you're not a good man because we hear this a lot.
3:02
And we typically hear this about someone that's maybe older age
3:05
or maybe even someone who's just passed away that man,
3:07
he was just a good man or someone that you really admire in your life.
3:10
It's just, man, that's, that's, you're just really a good man.
3:13
But I feel like even us, and I'm not going to talk about society as a whole,
3:17
but even us, that our standards are almost too low for what makes a good man, right?
3:21
That, you know, it really doesn't take a whole lot.
3:24
Like what? Did he, did he pay all his bills on time?
3:27
Did he, you know, show up to church every week?
3:29
You know, did he do his job, you know, at a good clip of that made him a good man?
3:34
And again, if we, if we look at it in terms of how we look at scripture
3:38
and how Jesus even looks at sin, I mean, really, none of us can call ourselves a good man.
3:42
But I think the thing to hear is a lot of us think too highly of ourselves.
3:46
Like we really, really do.
3:48
And we even buy into the fact that, man, you know, I'm a good man.
3:51
You know, I haven't killed anybody, you haven't ripped anybody,
3:53
you know, all the normal things, but it's just like you think of yourself as a good man.
3:57
And the thing about it is, is I feel like once you get settled into the,
4:02
to this idea that you are a good man, that it kind of breeds this, you know,
4:06
malaise that kind of comes over your life.
4:08
And you don't think you really need to keep going and striving for better
4:11
and for greatness.
4:12
And so in our context, it's Christ-likeness, right?
4:16
You're not really striving for that.
4:17
You're not really going out for that.
4:19
So, and again, you know, it's kind of a bold statement.
4:21
You're not a good man.
4:22
But I think for a lot of guys, it's just like, you know, be a work in progress.
4:26
Like be working towards that end.
4:28
And again, we all know guys that even from a, you know, a secular point of view,
4:31
it'd be like, ah, that's a bad dude.
4:33
Like that's just not really a good person, right?
4:35
But, you know, I think that would get people's attention.
4:38
People that have maybe kind of gotten comfortable with where they're at in their lives.
4:41
It may shake them up just a little bit.
4:42
So next question, it is, what is your end game?
4:45
So obviously, I think this guy's thinking this in terms of the ministry, right?
4:51
Undaunted life.
4:52
What is the end game here?
4:53
You know, what is, what is my goal with all the stuff that we're doing?
4:56
Now, if you go back to episode one of this podcast, I kind of go into detail.
5:00
I think that's only about a 20 minute episode, 20, 25 minutes.
5:02
But I kind of give you a overview of why Undaunted life is even here.
5:07
And so within that podcast, you're going to get a lot of that same content.
5:10
You're going to get an idea as to why we're doing this,
5:12
why we're going to continue to do this, who we're going after.
5:14
So if you want more of an elongated answer, that would probably be the best place to go.
5:18
But just in general terms, men have to be better.
5:23
Like we have to be better.
5:26
We're losing in so many areas of society.
5:30
And I talk about this at nauseum and other episodes,
5:33
and even I'll just kind of drop in different ideas.
5:35
But the epidemic of fatherlessness, this epidemic of, you know, even societally,
5:40
not even knowing what men a man is or a woman is right now.
5:43
And you got the boy scouts that aren't the boy scouts anymore.
5:44
They're just the scouts, right?
5:46
And you got all this confusion.
5:48
And part of it is men are just allowing it to happen.
5:50
And men have to be better.
5:52
And so if men have to be better, the other thing I would say is the church has to be better.
5:57
And I mean the capital C church, not your church and your hometown,
6:00
necessarily, but the entire modern day church in the West.
6:04
We have to be better.
6:05
And the thing about it is I don't think that the church will change from the inside.
6:12
I mean, I just don't think that the church is going to change itself.
6:15
I mean, just thinking about for you, do you normally try to resist change?
6:20
Maybe if it's at work or in your family or just changes to your house or
6:23
those types of things.
6:24
For a lot of us, change is kind of something that just creates a lot of anxiety.
6:28
We try to get away from that as much as possible.
6:30
So if you're a church that's doing well and you're just humming along and things
6:34
are just going hunky door as far as you can tell, why are you going to rock the boat?
6:38
Like, why would you rock the boat?
6:40
Why would you [inaudible] off 70, 75% of the people that are in your church,
6:45
the women that are volunteering for everything and basically keeping everything afloat?
6:49
That number is probably a little bit high, but you kind of get the point.
6:52
And so the thing about it is, is I think a massive change in society is going to come
6:58
from within the church, right? And so I mean secular society and people that are non-believers,
7:04
I think that you're going to see a revolution of thought and a revolution of attitude.
7:09
And I think that's going to come from within the church.
7:12
However, like I just said, I don't think the church is going to do it on their own.
7:15
I think it's going to require a hostile takeover.
7:17
And no, I'm not saying get all your friends together, get pitchforks and start running
7:21
into your church and knock out all the pastors or anything like that,
7:24
although it may be kind of fun to watch.
7:25
But anyway, I think that's really what it's going to take.
7:28
I don't think the pastors are going to be leading the charge here, guys.
7:31
Unfortunately, I mean, you know, they've got to, you know, take care of the flock
7:35
and the overwhelming majority of the flock is now female.
7:38
And so they're going to continue to cater to that audience.
7:41
It's going to take guys within the church demanding things of their pastors.
7:45
I talk about that a lot.
7:46
Demand more from your pastor.
7:47
Demand that they talk about these things.
7:49
Demand that they direct the flock in a way that is biblical.
7:52
Like as a member of the church, you're able to step up and do that.
7:55
So again, to get back to the original question, what's my end game?
7:58
It's a change of church from the inside.
8:00
And that starts with all of you guys that are listening to this podcast right now.
8:04
Share this podcast, not just this episode, but this entire podcast.
8:09
Share our content, share our devotionals, share with guys that are like-minded
8:12
or guys that need to be woken up a little bit.
8:14
Like that's how it's going to have to happen.
8:16
You create these little pockets of influence within your church
8:20
and you're going to be able to have a massive effect.
8:22
Just think about the strength, it gets strength, right?
8:25
And I've talked about before on other podcasts of how men like to follow other strong men.
8:30
That's why you see these great military heroes have such huge followings,
8:34
even long after their deaths, right?
8:36
And so that's my encouragement to all of you is to be part of that resistance.
8:40
Be a part of the hostile takeover that it's going to take for the church
8:44
and for men overall to get better.
8:46
All right, let's go to the next question here.
8:48
How/why do you take your knowledge in one part of your life and relate it to the others?
8:54
Are they relatable?
8:55
And the examples he gave here was masculinity and church or exercise and politics/modern culture.
9:03
So those are a couple of different examples, but that's kind of two questions, right?
9:07
So there was the how side of it and then there's the why side of it.
9:10
So how do you take your knowledge in one part of your life and relate it to others?
9:14
I mean, the thing about it, guys, is if you can kind of take your life on the ground level
9:18
and then kind of come out to the 30,000 foot view, we live in a crazy interconnected world.
9:23
And I don't mean in like a avatar hook your ponytail to a tree type of a way,
9:28
but like everything is connected.
9:30
And the lessons that we can learn in life are very, very related to one another.
9:34
So it's like this almost always is connected to that, I guess would be a way of saying it.
9:40
So like this and that can be things and they are connected.
9:44
But the thing is is you can take lessons that you learn from this and apply it to that, right?
9:50
So let's just look at the examples they gave.
9:52
So masculinity and the church.
9:53
So you can take lessons of how you were able to apply masculinity in a certain part of your life
10:01
and then bring it into the church.
10:02
So think about if you've gone through a rite of passage.
10:04
I know I'm kind of obsessed with rites of passage and having that for young boys.
10:08
Think about if you were on a masculine journey from your dad, but your dad wasn't necessarily
10:12
like a believer, but he took you on this journey.
10:14
And think about how you can relate that within the church.
10:17
If you're helping in a youth ministry capacity or routine ministries or singles ministries or
10:21
men's ministries, those are things that you can look at.
10:23
Okay, so let's look at exercise and then let's look at politics, right?
10:27
So something that you've learned from exercise, like sometimes it doesn't matter how hard you work,
10:32
you're not going to have the body of somebody that has way better genetics in you.
10:38
I'm just kind of making an example up off the top of my head.
10:40
But then the same thing in politics is you can do everything right.
10:43
You can pull all the right strings.
10:44
You can pay off all the right people.
10:45
You can do whatever you need to do.
10:47
And you still may not win the election, you know, i.e. Hillary Clinton.
10:50
But I mean, that's just kind of one of those things is like you could do everything that
10:53
you need to do and you can have a buffoon on the other side of the ticket.
10:56
And it just may not work out for you, right?
10:58
And so there's there's corollaries between all parts of life.
11:00
So that's kind of the how part is you just make sure you log that in your brain
11:05
so that you can recall it later and assist in other ways, right?
11:09
And so the why part of it is guys really the only way that we get better
11:14
is if we can leverage good for ourselves and for those around us.
11:18
And so I'm using the collective we here that like we get we getting better,
11:23
like all of us getting better at the same time.
11:26
You have to be able to leverage yourself in order to create that for other people.
11:31
The ways that you can do that kind of going back to the how is if you're interconnected in
11:36
your understanding of how things relate to one another and the things that you're able to learn
11:40
from different pockets of society.
11:42
You don't want to have your brain siloed where, you know, the things that you, you know,
11:46
I guess some other examples would be like school and work.
11:49
So think about how you took things in class, right?
11:51
When you were working on a group project and even 10 years later when you're working an actual job,
11:57
like the things that you learned then are applicable at the current moment,
12:01
like the things that you're trying to go through.
12:03
Think about it in terms of, you know, a relationship with a difficult coworker and parenting of a child,
12:09
right? Those are two separate things.
12:10
But just think about how you have to work through a situation and love somebody in a work environment
12:15
and you're trying to do the same thing while you're parenting a child.
12:18
So even as frustrated as you get and as much as you want to just like go nuts on this little kid,
12:22
you have to find other ways to get them to understand that there are issues in terms of,
12:28
you know, how you react, how they react and how you're all going to end up getting better, right?
12:32
So that's really kind of the how and the why on that in terms of my perspective.
12:36
All right, next question.
12:37
I know a Christian that swears, did Jesus drop the F bomb?
12:42
Okay, so I guess there's kind of two issues here within this question.
12:46
And so the latter one, did Jesus drop the F bomb?
12:48
I mean, no, like there's no indication obviously in the New Testament, you know, revelations of
12:55
his life and the things that were written down in his life that he ever used foul language like
13:01
that. So no, that's that's ridiculous. And what we get in terms of an understanding of his life
13:05
is that he wouldn't do that. That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. But let's go back to
13:09
the first part is like, I know a Christian that swears. Okay, this is kind of a weird thing for me.
13:16
This is kind of like one of my one of bothersome issue for me, I guess.
13:20
So this is seemingly an epidemic with men, right? So just look at men in general with with no
13:26
classes, no breaking them down into different socioeconomic statuses or backgrounds or believer
13:31
nonbeliever men just kind of do this. They use foul language. They, you know, talk dirty. They say,
13:39
you know, off colored jokes and different things like that. But it's definitely an epidemic within
13:43
Christian circles as well, right? And so think about it. I'm sure all of you can think of somebody
13:48
and you may be that somebody that when they're in church, it's all blessings and raising their
13:52
hand, you know, while they're singing Hillsong and all that. But then when they're outside of
13:56
church, it's just it's a different ballgame. They use a different set of language when they're
13:59
watching the ballgame, you know what I mean? And here's the other thing about this is no one
14:03
really seems to care. Like, I kind of feel like I'm on an island by myself. I gotta admit,
14:08
most of my Christian guy friends use foul language. Like they just do. And they don't really care
14:14
about it. And the other guys around them don't really seem to care. If they do, they're certainly
14:18
not expressing it. It seems like it's almost like a rite of passage of sorts. Like, okay,
14:23
now I am X years old, so I can use these words without any any repercussions. And here's the other
14:29
thing guys is I've even seen lead pastors of churches in my area, like big churches in my area
14:36
that do this and do this on a routine basis. And that is use foul language, right? And I've kind
14:41
of talked with them about it. I've talked with other guys that have talked with them about it.
14:44
And the thing that they cited as the reason why they do that is they claim that it helped them
14:49
connect with non believers. Like, as in, it helped them, you know, seem more authentic,
14:55
which I understand the argument. It's just a really stupid argument, right? Okay, so if they're
15:00
into like cocaine, you're gonna like snort a line with them. Like, if they drink to excess and get
15:04
blackout drunk every weekend, are you gonna go get blackout drunk with them just to show them,
15:08
you know, how much you're like them, if they, you know, swing on their wife, are you gonna take
15:12
the next swad out or like, I just don't really understand that. It's just really, really bad
15:16
argumentation to say that. Even one of my good buddies, like I brought this up, we were having a
15:22
drink and cigar and we were just kind of chatting with one another. And, you know, I kind of brought
15:28
this up how I thought it was really inappropriate that he used such bad language so casually. And
15:33
it was specifically at an undaunted life retreat that we had. You know, I basically said, guys,
15:38
we're gonna control our tongues while we're out here. We're, we're not gonna say any,
15:41
any language any that would be of condemnation to our brothers. We're not gonna use foul language.
15:45
We're not gonna do that while we're out here. And pretty much as soon as I was done talking,
15:49
he said, you know, a bad word in front of everybody where everybody could hear it. And it was almost
15:53
like he was challenging the authority of the event and different things like that. And so I
15:57
kind of brought it up to him and confronted him about it. And he got really, really angry about it.
16:00
Like I was coming down to him like in this really judgmental manner. And that's really not the way
16:05
I came at him. It's just like, how do you think that this is okay? How do you think that this is
16:09
appropriate? And it was clear in his mind that he was completely justified in how he acted,
16:14
that the vulgarity that he uses in his normal everyday language was completely okay. And so the
16:18
thing is, is you have to go to scripture here and guys, you can find dozens and dozens of different
16:23
scriptures on this, but I'm really gonna narrow it to three that I think are incredibly helpful for
16:28
us. And again, guys, I'm talking to myself here as well, right? So I'm not like a casual
16:33
cursor or swear. It's not really something I do, like in casual conversation, just to kind of fit
16:38
in. But I'll be honest with you, like when I'm when I'm driving in somebody's not driving in a way
16:42
that I think is appropriate, like I don't always have the greatest reactions, like if I stub my toe
16:48
or you go get tapped out in jujitsu or different things like that, you know, I'm not sitting here
16:52
trying to say I'm a choir boy, but it is something that we should work towards having a certain level
16:56
of purity. So the three scriptures that I found, the first one was Colossians 38, I'm just going
17:00
to blow right through these, these three and then talk about them. So the first Colossians 38,
17:04
but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
17:11
Ephesians 4 29, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building
17:18
up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. In the last, these are Jesus's
17:24
words as recorded in Matthew 12 versus 36 or 37. I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give
17:30
account for every careless word they speak for by your words, you will be justified and by your words,
17:37
you will be condemned. So, so again, guys, just to reiterate, I'm not holding myself above the
17:42
fray here. This is something that I have to deal with as well. But it's very clear here, you know,
17:48
in the in the scriptures that we get from Paul from his letters, but also with the words of Jesus,
17:53
that even if you have a different view of obscenity, right? So some guys think certain
17:58
words are obscene and some are not some guys think some words are curse words and some are not
18:02
the Bible doesn't provide us a comprehensive list, right? That's not things that we see, but
18:07
Jesus says every careless word they speak. So just think about it. If you let something slip out
18:13
casually or you say a bad joke or you get angry at somebody and you call them a name or you use
18:18
swear words and traffic again, I'm talking to myself here just as much as I'm talking to you.
18:22
Those are careless words, guys. Like it's just careless and it's also just ignorant. I remember
18:28
back in a time I used to work in Manhattan, I used to work for Major League Baseball and I was
18:32
kind of confronted in a social setting. There was a guy that worked for Major League Baseball,
18:36
he was kind of a tool and he just always looked for he was always kind of looking for opportunities
18:40
to make embarrassed people in social settings. And so I guess I was the guy that was up at this
18:45
particular moment. And so I'd been working there for five months. This was during the 2012 season.
18:50
And you know, in a casual kind of social setting with a bunch of other MLB employees, he was like,
18:55
yeah, I've never really heard you cuss. What's the deal with that? And you know, I was kind of
18:58
taken aback by it because we weren't exactly talking about that. And my response was pretty
19:02
simple. I said, well, I mean, if you have to resort to cussing, it shows that you don't really have
19:06
a dominance of the human language, right? Or the English language, not the human language.
19:11
Like that, you know, if you have to resort to those words, it's like you literally didn't have
19:14
anything else you could say. There was not another phrase, you know, rattling around in your brain
19:18
that you could just, you know, say at that moment. And I also said that, and there's a lot of social
19:22
settings where, you know, there are people in that social setting, it tends to be a lot of women
19:27
that are uncomfortable with that language. And I said, it's almost, you know, beholden to you that
19:31
you need to be at least say something and just say, you know, you know, maybe this isn't the right
19:35
setting to talk like that. And he probably just thought, you know, this crazy Oklahoma simple
19:39
turn on what does he know about anything? But you know, the story didn't change there. That,
19:44
you know, it's very careless to speak in a way that could cause death. Now, now again,
19:49
that may seem fairly extreme, but some people think, Oh, if I'm just using, you know, swear words
19:53
or cuss words and just kind of normal everyday conversation or just busting my buddy's balls
19:57
or doing whatever like that, it's not really hurting anybody. But again, you're not just,
20:01
it's not just the words that could hurt others. It's hurting yourself as well. Like you're gonna
20:04
have to give an account for how you've treated people, but also how you've treated yourself and
20:08
the things that you've done. So again, this is I kind of spent quite a bit of time on this one
20:12
issue. But I really think that's something that all of us need to talk, think about and talk about
20:16
because I've talked to way too many people that are in vocational ministry that think this is okay,
20:21
but they can't really give a good reason why they can't really point to a scriptural anything and
20:26
say, Oh, well, that's not really the way it is or, Oh, you know, Christians in Europe, they drink
20:30
and smoke and, you know, cuss all the time. And it's no big deal. It's a cultural thing. It's really
20:35
not. I mean, when you start making the cultural argument, you're really skating on thin ice at
20:39
that point. So all right, we'll hop off that question. We'll get to the next one. What was the
20:43
most influential book you ever read? Why and how did it impact you? Okay, guys, this, I really got
20:49
to give two answers to this. And they're really significant and influential to me for different
20:55
reasons. And I think I've talked about these a couple of different times, and I'll probably end
20:58
up doing full podcasts on both of these at some point, because these two books are not only the
21:03
most impactful and influential books that I've ever read, but they're also the books that I gift
21:07
the most often. So I like to gift books to people that I think are amenable to the content that's
21:13
within that book. So in both of these books are obviously on our book list that's on our website,
21:18
the hundred books that every modern Christian man should read. So it's just undaunted dot life
21:22
backslash book list. The first is a book called Fearless by Eric Blem. So the book Fearless is
21:28
about a Navy Seal named Adam Brown. And he's a deceased Navy Seal. That's not really a spoiler
21:33
of any kind. But this was a biography that was written by Eric Blem based on the commentary and
21:40
stories of, you know, his surviving friends and family. And it was just an unbelievable
21:46
account of someone's life and his ability to overcome. And really, this story of this guy
21:53
really led in a lot of ways to what we even talk about and undaunted because the things that he
21:58
overcomes to become a member of seal team six is absolutely astonishing. If you have not read
22:05
that book, I cannot recommend another book on the planet higher than that one again, Fearless
22:11
by Eric Blem. Again, I don't want to speak too much on it because I'm probably going to do an
22:16
episode here within the coming months just on this just on this guy, but just an incredible,
22:22
incredible life like it's it's one of those things when you read certain biographies,
22:26
you think, you know, how much is this tall tail or, you know, how much of this has been passed down
22:29
and we don't really know. It just seems to be real. And I know a guy pretty well that was, you know,
22:35
actually worked with this guy in the seals. And they worked very closely with one another. That's
22:40
about all I can say about it. But all these stories are just true. Just incredible, incredible book.
22:46
I just got to tell you guys. And that's one you should just read. Like, I know a lot of you guys
22:50
do do ebooks and things like that or not e books, but audio books. This is one you really should read.
22:56
You should really let the content of that book kind of wash over you and just let you know,
23:01
chew on it for a day after you've read a couple of chapters or something like that. And guys,
23:04
I'll be honest with you, I'm not much of an emotional guy. I don't really cry a whole lot.
23:08
I'm like a once or twice a year type of cryer. And it's it's got to be something pretty,
23:11
pretty outstanding. I've read this book twice. I'm going to read it for a third time.
23:15
And each time I get to the end where this guy dies, it's like, it's uncontrollable. It's like,
23:19
I can't like stop being upset. Like, it's just an incredible, incredible story. Have I sold this
23:24
book enough to you guys yet? Okay, all right, let's move on. So that's the first book. I did
23:28
mention that I was going to talk about too. The other is reason for God by Tim Keller. Okay.
23:33
So if you haven't heard Tim Keller, he's a pastor out of New York City. He's had a Presbyterian
23:37
church in Manhattan for a lot of years. I think it's over 20 years or something like that. And at
23:42
the at the time that he moved there, people were like, why are you going to open up a Presbyterian
23:45
church in New York City? It's like one of the least Christian places on the planet. And it's just
23:49
like, you know, he just went up there and did it. But this guy is so deep and so thoughtful.
23:54
He's been called by some to be the modern day CS Lewis, which I'm not sure you could get a much
23:59
higher compliment as a pastor. But this is a book that looks at the top seven arguments for why God
24:07
could not exist, right? So one thing that he did, I don't know if he still does that at his church,
24:11
so I'm not really familiar. But he would stay after his sermons and he would talk to people.
24:16
And he would go over their objections. And again, he's in New York City. So it's a very left leaning,
24:20
very secular, very materialist, you know, evolutionary biology type culture, right? And he would
24:25
literally answer people's questions about, you know, why God couldn't exist, how the story of Jesus
24:29
is absurd, you know, virgin birth and all the whole nine yards and Old Testament stories of blah,
24:33
blah, blah. And so he basically brought all those things down and kind of distilled them down into
24:38
the seven biggest arguments as to why God cannot possibly exist. Okay, that's the first part of
24:44
the book. But then the last part of the book are the seven biggest arguments as to why it is
24:49
reasonable to believe that God does exist, right? And inherently that Jesus is his son,
24:54
right? And so it's just a very well laid out book, right? It's just incredibly well done and very
25:02
well thought out. There are very, very few scriptural references in this book. And I'm saying that
25:08
as a positive, I think that's a positive, because if you're a non believer, if you're an atheist or
25:12
an agnostic or, you know, you believe in another religion, and you really the you read this book,
25:18
if it's just basically proof texting using the Bible, if you already think the Bible is horse
25:22
crap, then you're not really going to believe anything that's said, right? You're not really
25:26
going to go along with with the things that are being said by Tim Keller. So he appeals to reason,
25:31
again, the name of the book is reason for God, the reason for God, like he's appealing to to reason
25:36
and, you know, cognitive thought, like really deep cognitive thinking. And so it's just a really
25:42
well done book, but it's it's something that every time you read it, I think I've read it three times
25:47
now, because I've gone through it with some some other guys that you get a little bit deeper,
25:51
and you find something that was like, oh, man, like there's just these nuggets in there that can
25:54
just send you down a rabbit hole. You know, I've read through this book with a couple of young guys
25:59
and one guy in particular, that's a good buddy of mine. That's, you know, stuck somewhere between
26:03
atheists and agnostic. And this book, you know, we just read a chapter or two a week, and then we
26:08
came together and ate lunch and talked about it. It provides a great primer for that type of
26:12
conversation. So this is a book that I think is very giftable for you as well after you read it.
26:17
Send it to guys that are skeptics in your life. Like, what? Again, you're not like going to hold
26:22
them down at Chick-fil-A and like, you know, pour holy water on them as you're going over this book.
26:27
Like, you're just talking about it. And I've sent this book to a guy and he was like, man,
26:31
I didn't really didn't really think it was that good. And this guy's an atheist. And it's like,
26:33
you know, it is what it is. But at least, you know, entering into that conversation kind of go in
26:37
that direction. So again, the two most influential books I've ever read. Number one is Fearless by
26:42
Eric Blim. The second is The Reason for God by Tim Keller. Pick those up. Cannot recommend those
26:47
more highly. Okay. Next question. How do you explain the love of God as a father to men who
26:53
didn't have a father or their experience with their father was a negative one? You know, either
26:57
they were abusive, angry and addict in a way that makes God appealing to them? I think this is a
27:03
really fantastic question. And I think the guy that sent it in, you know, you can almost tell
27:08
within the question that maybe he has some issues there. Maybe there's some father wounds there. So
27:14
I'll certainly be cognizant of that as I answer. But here's the thing. I'll just talk about my dad
27:20
first. My dad is freaking awesome. I love my dad. Like my dad is my biggest fan and biggest
27:29
support. Like, if I'm feeling down and feeling like I'm really struggling at this whole life
27:34
thing and I'm just kind of sucking it up, I can just call my dad and I don't even have to say
27:37
anything. And he just busts out with how, how proud he is of me and you know, how, how much he likes
27:43
what I'm doing and how interested he is and the things going on in my life. And I think that's
27:47
really, really awesome to have. This is a man who, you know, kind of worked his work schedule. He
27:53
worked at a factory his entire life and it still works there. He worked his schedule to make sure
27:57
he didn't just not only miss not any of my baseball games, but in my early childhood, he didn't even
28:03
miss any of my practices. Like this man was at all of my practices. And you know, he wasn't the
28:08
helicopter dad, you know, trying to, you know, get with the coach, trying to get me more playing
28:12
time or running out on the field and trying to tell me, stand this way, swing the bat that way.
28:16
He was just there. He was just present. Like, I remember one time I hit a walk off home run in
28:21
ninth grade. I had a really good ninth grade team, you know, playing for the school and we were
28:25
undefeated. And this was a game against a cross town rival. And I hit a walk off grand, I think it was
28:30
a grand slam actually, but a walk off home run. And I remember my dad was parked. He parked his
28:36
truck out in a right center field beyond this beyond the fence. And he was watching from there.
28:42
He was like sitting on the hood of his truck, you know, watching his boy play ball. I remember
28:46
coming around first base. And I'm like jacked, right? Because you know, I'm still at that point
28:50
when you get a hold of a ball, you don't really know if it's going over or not. So I'm like sprint
28:53
into first base. And finally, when I see the left fielder turn around and realize the ball is gone.
28:58
I look out at my dad and he is flipping out. Like, he's like jumping up and down on his
29:03
truck. I thought he was going to fall off with his truck. He was just going so crazy. So I kind of
29:07
say all that to say that I really, really love my dad. My dad and I have a great relationship.
29:11
But my dad's not perfect. Like he was never abusive to me or anyone else in our family.
29:16
Um, you know, he wasn't an addict. He wasn't an alcoholic or drug addict or anything like that.
29:21
But you know, he did kind of have his angry spells. Like, I could see how he wouldn't be the most
29:26
approachable and most loving guy. Like, I can see some of those things. I can see the flaws in his
29:31
personality, the flaws in, you know, his worldview and in his thinking like I get it. Like, you know,
29:36
he's one half of a failed marriage. You know, he and my mom, they didn't really try to save their
29:40
marriage. It just kind of is what it is. And there's a lot of things that kind of go on with that.
29:44
But the point I guess I'm trying to make here is that no matter how good your dad is,
29:50
he was not a perfect father, right? Like, and I know guys that have good dads, just, I mean,
29:57
all around superstar, you know, Captain America type dads, right? And this is out in the public
30:03
and behind closed door, just super solid in every way possible. But they are certainly not perfect
30:07
dads. They are not at all. And I certainly know guys as well that have the other side of the issue.
30:13
You know, they don't know who their dads are. They never met their dad. Their dad just bounced
30:17
when they were younger. They didn't really give a crap about him, right? Or, you know,
30:20
they were so unlucky that their dad actually stuck around. He was just such a piece of,
30:24
you know, human excrement that he just, you know, gave him all the worst parts of humanity as a
30:29
father, right? Didn't protect him. Didn't try to help him. Didn't, you know, father them towards
30:33
manhood, any of those things. But the reality is guys is that God is a perfect father.
30:38
He is like, he's the perfect father. And so I think the best way to answer this question
30:45
is to point those things out. Because this is a story that everybody can get behind. Like,
30:50
you know, basically, if you've had a good dad or a bad dad or somewhere in between,
30:54
he wasn't perfect. But our God is perfect. And he knows about us. And I was, as I was thinking
31:00
through my answer to this question, a couple in quotes in Matthew came to me. And these were both
31:04
by Jesus. So the first ones in Matthew six verse 26. And that's, look at the birds of the air.
31:09
They do not sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them.
31:14
Are you not much more valuable than they? And the next one was Matthew seven. And this is
31:19
verses nine through 11. This is again, Jesus, which of you, if his son asked for bread will give him
31:25
a stone? Or if he asked for a fish will give him a snake. If you then, though you are evil,
31:31
know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father in heaven give
31:36
good gifts to those who ask him? I think these are very, very important things when we think
31:41
about the concept of a father, because our fathers will always let us down, right? But let's, let's
31:47
see you even live this, you know, super, you know, leave it to be your lifestyle with your family.
31:52
And you go through your whole life and your dad really never let you down. He's gonna die.
31:55
Right? You know, if we all live to our normal ages, you know, your dad's gonna die before you do.
32:02
That's gonna let you down. You're gonna have a question for your dad and he won't be there.
32:09
I mean, my dad lost his dad when he was 13, got hit by a drunk driver. So during the most
32:14
formative years of his life, he didn't have his dad. Like, that's a disappointment. Like,
32:20
it wasn't his dad's choice. He didn't choose to get hit by a drunk driver and die that night.
32:23
But you know, it's just kind of one of those things. It's just kind of how it goes. But that's
32:28
the thing that I would talk about whenever you're talking to people that have those issues with
32:31
their dad is it's just like, dude, it's okay. Like, it's okay, man. Like, you're, you're one of many,
32:37
but you are unique and you are special and you're worth something. Even if your dad didn't think so.
32:42
All right, guys, it's going to the next question. What makes a man a man? Okay, so that's pretty
32:47
straightforward question. I guess I should have expected that this one was coming. And this is
32:51
something that you hear talked about a lot. So you hear this talked about in non-believing circles,
32:55
believing circles. There's certain podcasts. I think where there's this guy that asked that at
32:59
the end of his podcast of all of his guests, you know, you know, what does it mean to be a man?
33:03
That's kind of what he asked at the end of one of his podcasts. And normally people think of the
33:07
caricatures of modern man who we talk about those a lot, you know, the four-wheel drive trucks and
33:11
chasing women and drinking, drinking beer and doing all those crazy things. But in terms of our
33:15
definition, so for undaunted life, a man is someone that cultivates spiritual, mental, and physical
33:20
resilience daily. That's it. That's it, guys. Keep it simple. A man is someone that cultivates
33:26
spiritual, mental, and physical resilience daily, because that is freaking hard. Like,
33:31
these are not easy things to do. Guys, we have so many issues. There's issues in culture. There's,
33:36
you know, we again, like I mentioned earlier, you know, society can't even tell us what a man
33:40
is anymore. Like, is a boy a boy or, you know, at the age of three, can he pretend he's a girl
33:45
or think he's a girl or those different things. There's so much craziness going on. And then you
33:48
have all these caricatures of horrible manhood. You have people looking up to these morons in
33:52
Hollywood or their favorite team or something like that. And it's just like, these aren't guys that
33:56
are going for it in multiple areas. They're just awesome. And one thing that you also think is
34:00
awesome. Right? But are they cultivating spiritual resilience? Are they seeking after things in the
34:06
spiritual realm? Are they fighting on the front lines of spiritual warfare? Like mentally, are
34:11
they striving for better? Are they trying to make themselves better? Are they trying to have a
34:15
deeper understanding of where they're at in the universe? Right? How about physical resilience?
34:19
You've seen a lot of guys that, you know, like we talk about all the time, they're spiritually
34:23
adept, you know, mentally strong, but they couldn't sprint to the end of the block to save their life
34:27
or or someone else's life. They're they're not really working towards anything in those areas.
34:32
And so that's something that I think is really, really important is everyone's got their own
34:37
definition of manhood. Every men's ministry out there has their own definition. Every book that
34:40
you read on manhood, whether secular or otherwise, they've got their own definition, right? I'm not
34:44
saying there's a wrong and I'm not saying a mind's right or anything like that. It's just kind of how
34:48
it goes. Like, in terms of how we look at it, a man is someone that cultivates spiritual, mental,
34:53
and physical resilience daily. That's really all it is there. Okay. Moving on to the next question.
34:58
Why should we care about the Bible and Christ? Aren't we called to be nice and accepting of everyone?
35:04
So I think what this guy's trying to get out of this is, you know, why did we spend so much time
35:08
worrying about the Bible and Christ? If if all we're called to do is just be nice. So the scripture
35:13
that kind of the came here and I bring this up a lot, but again, it's john 114 and the word became
35:17
flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only son from the father, full
35:23
of grace and truth. Okay. So guys, here's the reality. I know that people have issues with the Bible.
35:29
Most of the people have issues with the Bible have no idea how the Bible even got here,
35:33
right? They have no idea how the Bible got to 2018. They don't know how it was transcribed.
35:40
They don't know how it was maintained. They don't know how it was originally written down. They
35:44
don't know anything about it, right? And then if you don't believe in the Bible, you're certainly
35:47
not going to believe in Christ. Christ is just basically the purple spaghetti monster in the sky
35:51
that, you know, basically rains down blessings if you give enough money in church, right? That's
35:55
what they that's what they think. But we are called to be nice and accepting, right? But we are not
36:01
called to do is to be accepting of sin, right? So again, I think it's an important concept to talk
36:08
about in terms of grace and truth, that Jesus was 100% both. I've talked about this a lot, but
36:13
if you've missed other episodes, most people think that Jesus was like 50% grace and 50% truth.
36:18
That's not how it was. It was not that type of a breakdown. And he wasn't 70% grace in some
36:23
situations where he was 30% truth. No, no, no, he was 100% grace and 100% truth. This is an
36:29
incredible thing for us to realize, right? It's it's really, really good to exit Jesus for us to
36:35
understand what is going on in this scripture. Okay. And so yes, we should care a lot about the
36:41
Bible, right? It gives us everything that we know about Christ and about the things that went on
36:46
in these moments that are so integral to our faith. But just being nice and being accepting
36:51
of everyone does nothing. It's it's popcorn muscles. So like it's not real, right? So so
36:58
you get to the end of your life and you were just nice to everybody and accepted everything.
37:02
But just think about how useless that was. So so let's break it down to an easy example. Let's just
37:07
say diet, right? So you're just accepting of every diet, every diet out there. So let's say for you,
37:14
the best diet you could possibly be on was, you know, Atkins, like the Atkins style diet.
37:18
But you know, you're you're okay with vegans and you're okay with vegetarians and you're
37:22
okay with people doing keto and you're okay with people doing high carb, low carb, you're okay with
37:26
people doing carnivore diet, you're okay with all these different things. Like that that's really
37:30
stupid. Like there is a there is an answer to what is best for you and what will help you run at the
37:35
most optimal level within your diet. Like that's obviously the best way to do it. But how much more
37:40
important is that when it goes to your worldview, like how you view the world and the people in it
37:44
and in your relationship to those people, right? So this idea that we just just be nice and be
37:49
accepting just smile as we watch people go towards damn nation. No, like get out of here, man. That's
37:54
ridiculous. So yes, care about the Bible and care about Christ. Those are obviously big things,
37:59
but this idea that we just need to walk around and be in zombie like nice guys, like get the heck
38:03
out of here. That's terrible. Next question. Men don't like to admit fault or live in accountability.
38:09
Is there an effective way to reach transparency with brothers you are living life with or doing
38:14
life with? Yeah. Here's the thing guys is guys that won't admit fault. It's a pride issue. And you
38:20
know, as I'm saying this, I'm saying this myself, I get it. But if you're not admitting fault,
38:24
you've got a pride thing going on. And then if you have guys that won't live in accountability,
38:27
that's a cowardice thing, right? A guy that avoids accountability at work or in social settings or
38:34
in their home life or in their relationships elsewhere in their friendships and family and
38:38
all those different things. It's just cowardly. You know, they're gonna try to make it seem like,
38:42
Oh, you know, I'm, I don't need somebody telling me what to do. I can take care of myself and I can
38:46
pull it up on my bootstraps. But it's just like, that's all just bravado. Like it's just posturing.
38:52
Like, it's just, it's just not real. Right. So, but, but the question here was, is there an effective
38:57
way to reach transparency with brothers? And the answer is clearly yes. But it's incredibly
39:06
uncomfortable. Like for them and for you, right? So, so here's the thing, like my experience with
39:12
accountability is I've been a part of a bunch of different accountability groups. So when I was a
39:15
single guy as a married guy, even even now, and it's all kind of been different depending upon the
39:21
crew that you're with. But the thing with accountability is everyone has to be dedicated to the process.
39:26
Right. I had this group of guys, we called ourselves a warriors or something like that. I think we were
39:31
in our early 20s, but even some of the guys in the group were in their their teen years. And if you
39:37
brought something to the group, like, Hey, guys, I want to stop looking at porn or guys, I want to
39:41
stop cussing or, you know, I just, you know, I feel like I've been lazy at work. I want to fix that.
39:45
Like, if you brought it and you said it to everybody, you had better be prepared to actually go through
39:51
with it. Because the consequences were bad if you didn't, right? So there was much more of a
39:57
being scared of the stick as opposed to going towards the carrot thing, if you guys know what I
40:01
mean. And so I've had accountability that way. I've had guys that were just way more cerebral. So,
40:06
and just how they talked with you. That's kind of how they did their accountability. But the thing
40:11
is, is everyone has to be dedicated to the process or you're not going to have accountability? Because
40:14
you just can't force accountability on other men. Like, you just have to show them that it has value.
40:20
Like, just think about it. Like, have you ever tried to talk to somebody that was like really,
40:24
really overweight? Like, and you were like trying to convince them not to be so fat and terrible.
40:28
Like, convince them that they're going to die early. Like, that may have an impact on them,
40:33
but it's not your decision. Like, they have to decide to start taking care of themselves.
40:38
They have to decide to stop, you know, put down the Twinkies and the Kit Cats,
40:41
pick up some kale and go for a run, you know what I mean? Like, those are things that they had to,
40:45
they had to choose for themselves. The same is true with accountability. Like, there are a lot
40:49
of guys that I wish I could have an impact on from an accountability standpoint, but they don't
40:53
want to be held accountable. So there's not a whole lot I can do other than show them that,
40:57
hey, I'm a guy that lives in accountability. And here's how I'm progressing in these very,
41:01
very important areas. Hey, I'm a guy that's living in accountability with, with my wife.
41:04
And so this is the transparent, the transparency that we have in our relationship.
41:08
Hey, I'm in a, you know, group of Christian men that will call us out on our crap and, you know,
41:12
snatch us up by our shirt and, you know, tell us when we're doing wrong, right? You need those guys.
41:17
But some guys just don't want that. You know, that's just, it's just kind of how it goes.
41:21
So what exactly are we supposed to do? So do what you can to impact your brothers around you,
41:26
but, and to show a good example, but, you know, if they're not going to be willing to be dedicated
41:31
to the process of accountability, it's just not going to work out. Next question.
41:34
Jesus sewns the law up into two points. Question, how well do you love yourself?
41:41
So obviously this person's making mention of what Jesus says in Matthew 22. So I'm going to go
41:45
and read Matthew 22 versus 34 through 40 starts out without the Jesus' words and then he'll come
41:51
right in. So here we go. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they
41:55
gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer asked him a question to test him, teacher,
42:00
which is the great commandment in the law. And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God
42:05
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first
42:09
commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two
42:14
commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Okay, guys, I'm not going to go into like the
42:20
incredible importance of this, because this is one of the most commonly referenced scriptures,
42:25
really, and all the Bible, like go to any church really of any denomination you're going to you're
42:29
going to hear about this, because this was a one part answer looking for or one part question,
42:34
looking for a one part answer. And Jesus obviously gave them two. And you know, the part is he says,
42:39
and the second is like it. That means it's equal to it, right? So love the Lord your God with all
42:43
your heart with our soul and with all your mind. But also, you know, love your neighbor as yourself.
42:46
Those are equal in Jesus's eyes. So that's equal within the triune. But but what's interesting
42:51
about the question is how the question was typed out to me was like this. How well do you love yourself?
42:57
So that's how it was typed. But how I read it was, how do you love yourself? Well, initially. And so
43:06
when I went back and reread the question, I was like, Oh, shoot, I made a mistake. But I think
43:09
it's interesting to kind of look at it from both both sides. So how do you love yourself? Well,
43:14
and how well do you love yourself? So how do you love yourself? Well, again, I'll go back to our
43:20
definition of what is a man, you know, someone who loves himself. Well, as someone who cultivates
43:25
manly resilience, right? Spiritual, mental and physical resilience and toughness, like a guy that
43:30
does that that's how you love yourself. Well, because if you're challenging yourself spiritually,
43:34
and if you're getting on the front lines of the spiritual realm, like that's that's good love,
43:38
that's good love for yourself, right? Mentally, if you're reading opinion pieces and books and
43:43
listening to podcasts that are challenging your point of view or helping you learn about things
43:46
that you're interested in, man, you're making yourself better, you are loving yourself, man,
43:50
you're loving your mind. And physically, I don't talk about that enough on this podcast. I need
43:54
to do that more. But physically, like you need to take care of yourself. It affects every bit of
43:59
your health, like your mental health, physical health clearly. And so taking care of your body
44:04
is loving yourself, like allowing yourself to recover, but also pushing yourself. But then the
44:08
next part is how well do you love yourself? So this is obviously a little bit more personal.
44:13
So I had to look at, you know, how do I love myself? So Kyle, how do you love yourself?
44:18
And here's the thing guys just in all honesty, like I'm, I'm a harsh critic, right? I have a very
44:24
critical bend in my personality. And it's been really, really helpful for me in my career.
44:28
It's been helpful for me every time that I develop content, whether it's this podcast,
44:32
or devotional, or something like that. I'm kind of shrewd. And I want to make sure
44:37
that things are airtight. I want to make sure that things are good. If things can be better,
44:41
I want to make them better. So sometimes I have to make sure I don't just wait for something to
44:44
be 100% done before I launch it. Like I just got to get it good to where it's good enough and then
44:49
go with it, right? But I'm a very harsh critic and the worst, the thing I'm most critical of is myself.
44:55
So a lot of times I had already ripped myself a new one before my coach got a chance to, right?
45:00
I was already, you know, getting on myself for, for, you know, missing that ball or for, you know,
45:06
not getting the pin or not getting the choker. Well, whatever the thing was, like I'm already
45:10
working on my own brain, right? So the thing is, is I allow Satan into my head sometimes, right?
45:15
And I think we all do that, but I'll just talk about me. And you hear those things in your brain,
45:20
you know, those things that say, ah, you suck. Like you're not good enough. Like, you're just not
45:24
doing a good job. Like, why are you even doing this? Like, you should quit. You should do something
45:27
else. You should just take the day off. You should just do all these different things. And the thing
45:31
is, is for all of you guys, and you may have ever heard this before, I can't remember where I heard
45:34
this first concept. Well, actually, I think it was Bill Hybels. Is that yeah, I think he was
45:38
talking about this on a sermon that I heard is basically like, that's a whisper. And you can
45:44
tell where the whisper is coming from, because you just put it through the filter of would Jesus
45:48
be saying this to me? So if you just, you know, struck out in beer league softball, and you're
45:53
going back to the dugout, because that's, that is actually pretty embarrassing if you strike out
45:57
in beer league softball, but to digress a little bit, and you're just like, ripping yourself up.
46:01
And then you hear this thing in your head, it's like, yeah, man, you're terrible at softball,
46:04
but you're also terrible at life. You're not a good father. You're not a good husband. You know,
46:07
you're, you're just not good at anything. You should probably end it, you know, you shouldn't come back
46:11
and play. And you know, your life's just pretty much worthless. Just think about all those different
46:15
things. Is that something that Jesus would say to you? Like again, he's full of race and truth. So,
46:20
but do you think that's how he would word it? You think that's how he would say that to you?
46:23
Like telling you, Oh man, you know, you think you should pray for somebody and you think you should
46:28
bring it up in a social setting, you know, that you're going to pray for somebody. And you have
46:31
that voice in your head that says, and don't say that that that's weird. That's actually really
46:36
strange. Like you're already not making too many friends here. Why would you keep that going? Okay.
46:40
So just think about where that comes from. So how well do you love yourself? I would say for me,
46:44
if I had to get myself a one through 10, I think I'm doing well, you know, cultivating mental and
46:50
physical resilience. But sometimes I struggle in the spiritual realm. You know, I think I've talked
46:54
about before, I don't really have the most robust prayer life. It's one of it's just kind of like
46:58
foreign to me a little bit. And so, but I think that's important for all of us to realize is
47:02
to kind of do a self check. Like, you know, when I was asked this question, again, I read it wrong.
47:07
Maybe I'm not, you know, cultivating as much mental resilience as I think I am. But I read it wrong,
47:11
but it was helpful, right? Because I kind of had to do a mental check to be like, man,
47:14
am I really loving myself right now? You know, I'm really fitting. I'm in good shape. So I feel
47:18
like physically I'm loving myself. But man, there's some other areas where, you know, maybe I have
47:21
some blind spots. So I think that's good for all of us to kind of do some checkups from time to time.
47:25
Next question. How do you manage the addictive dopamine rush you receive from social media and
47:31
other distractions that consume the people of our generation? I think this is a good question,
47:35
kind of change of change of pace here, change of subject matter. And here's the thing guys is I
47:39
kind of succumb to this, right? I check my social media way more than I should. So, you know, I got
47:44
Facebook, I have Twitter and I have Instagram. I don't really mess with anything else. And, you know,
47:48
Instagram, you know, there's a lot of, I follow a really, a lot of really cool people, you know,
47:52
with my personal Instagram, but also the ministries Instagram. And so there's a lot of really awesome
47:56
things that go out there. There's some funny stuff, some good sports stuff. You know, I kind of get
47:59
my news, at least just kind of the keep up with the headlines from Twitter and Facebook is kind of
48:04
how I stay connected with people that are in my network. I guess LinkedIn, if you consider that,
48:08
I'm on that as well, but mainly for work purposes. But the thing is, I still come to guys and in
48:13
it's just, it's one of those things, like before I go to bed, I know you're supposed to get rid of
48:17
of screen time right before bed so you can more easily fall asleep. But you know, I'm just checking,
48:21
you know, it's FOMO. Yeah, fear of missing out. You don't want to miss it. But the one thing that's
48:24
interesting is my wife and I have actually done quite a bit of international travel. And normally,
48:29
when we travel internationally, like, you know, our phones won't work, like we don't get the
48:32
international plan. And there's a lot of times where we don't even need it. So our phones are just
48:36
off and they're in our suitcases. And the thing that's interesting about it is after like halfway
48:41
through the first day without my phone, I really don't miss it. Like at all, like, it's kind of
48:45
weird that it's not in my pocket, because normally I can just reach right in there and boom, there
48:49
it is right in my pocket. But it doesn't really bother me that much. And there's not this anxiety
48:54
of how I can't wait to get back on American soil. So I can turn my phone on and hear all those
48:58
ding, ding, ding, like hear all those notifications. Like that's not what it is. So I feel like to a
49:03
certain degree, I don't get those withdrawals that some people do. Like if they drop their phone in
49:06
the toilet, or they break it or something like that, or it gets stolen, like they are literally
49:10
like flipping out and they can't really like operate at a full clip for the next day or until
49:14
they get to fixed up or something like that. But I think the corollary here for all of us is,
49:18
we just have to control it, guys. Like, and by by controlling is you have to set limits.
49:23
Like for some of you guys, like when you drank a lot in college, you became a jerk. And so now
49:28
that you have a family and kids, you don't need to drink like that. Like you've set limits, you've
49:32
set parameters, right? Any of you that dealt with any type of serious addictions, and I know there's
49:36
a lot of guys out there in my podcast, because you tell me about it, like you set parameters and
49:40
limits around your life, you know, maybe you're living in an accountability type of setup to where
49:44
you're not going to get around those things that are really hurting you or the people around you,
49:47
right? So that's just kind of the deal is like you've got to have controls over it. And if you
49:52
if you feel like you're out of control there, there is technology to help you stay off of your
49:56
technology. I've heard a lot of people that they have these blockers that, you know,
50:00
if your own social media during work, and it's like affecting your ability to get work done,
50:03
that you can actually block certain apps on your phone or certain websites on your browser
50:07
during certain times of the day. So block them during work hours. If you have family time every
50:13
night from like seven to nine o'clock or something like that, that you put those blockers up then.
50:17
So, you know, if you have to look up something on social media, you have to basically get rid of
50:22
this app, which is like a pain in the butt. But I guess in the event of an emergency, which I don't
50:27
know what kind of emergency would mean that you need to get on Twitter really, really fast and
50:31
check something. But that's just something you can do. So just make sure you can set limits and
50:34
parameters. All right. Next question. What about body weight only versus basic dumbbells exercises?
50:41
Okay. So this was pretty easy guys. It's like, whatever you like, whatever you do that keeps you
50:46
from being fat and worthless, like do that. Like, there's so many different philosophies out there
50:52
on different workouts, right? There's CrossFit people that you're doing CrossFit or you're basically
50:56
not in shape or you got to be a super ultra marathoner or you're not really doing it right or only
51:01
barbell stuff or hey, just do body weight. That's all you need. Just do some hot yoga. Who freaking
51:06
cares, man. Like, just do what you like to do. Do something that's enjoyable. Do something that's
51:11
safe. So in terms of this question, like, you can get a lot of value out of body weight only workouts,
51:16
right? A lot of value. I think most of my Tuesday workouts that we post on our Instagram,
51:21
most of those are body weight. Because I know a lot of you guys don't just have a gym in your
51:24
garage like I do. Like, and so if you don't do that or if you're in one of those global gyms
51:28
that you can't even like move through because there's so many people when you're trying to work out,
51:32
like, you know, maybe it's hard for you to do a bunch of barbell stuff. You know,
51:35
some global gyms won't even let you deadlift. So it's just kind of how it goes.
51:38
And yeah, so basic dumbbells that that's great. Like, if you get a good workout with dumbbells,
51:42
that's great. If you're if you're a kettlebell guy or a girl, fine. Like, just just do whatever
51:47
is going to keep you from being out of shape. Like, do whatever it takes to keep you cultivating
51:51
that physical resilience. Okay, next question. Do you see a parallel with the liberalization
51:55
of our current culture and the trends within the modern church structure? I think this is a really
52:00
good question. And yes, I certainly believe that the liberalization and kind of the left-leaning
52:05
side of our culture is really having an impact and an effect on the modern church, right? And
52:09
just look at it this way. So I'm a millennial. I'm 31 years old. And so I'm, I guess I'm an old
52:13
millennial and there's like young millennials. So millennials kind of make up the majority of
52:17
the workforce now, like they definitely do. And millennials tend to peeing a little bit more
52:21
liberal than conservative, even though in the last year or so, that's kind of kind of coming back
52:25
to the center, but it's still definitely more left-leaning. And millennials make up a majority
52:30
of megachurch staff. So if you think of your megachurches around your area, like millennials
52:35
are making up the majority of that staff. And you know, most miniature churches or smaller,
52:39
more traditional churches, they're kind of borrowing or slash stealing from the megachurch
52:44
playbook, right? And so the modern day church has been downstream of culture for a while now.
52:49
And so is our politics, but it's downstream of culture. And so you have these millennials that
52:54
have had, they've had helicopter parents, you know, they lived, they grew up in the generation
52:58
where everybody got a trophy, got to protect these kids. We can never let them, you know,
53:02
experience, you know, negativity, we can never let them experience failure or anything like that.
53:06
And then, you know, they're, they go to these colleges where there's pretty much everyone on
53:11
the staff, especially in the social sciences, they're all left-leaning. So there, there's no
53:16
conservative thought, there's no right-leaning thought. There's certainly not a Christian thought
53:19
being brought in unless you went to a Christian school or something like that. And even at Christian
53:22
schools, it's, it's maybe a coin flip, but it's kind of an issue there. So we are seeing a liberalization
53:29
of churches. And if you think about the big churches, so think of your megachurches, and I'm
53:34
not going to say any by name. I don't anybody write me an angry email because I mentioned their
53:37
church or something like that. But think of the big ones, most of these are Gracie churches,
53:42
like very, very grace-filled churches, right? So think about grace and truth, right? So you
53:47
think more traditionally, some of the more traditional churches, it's a lot about the truth,
53:51
like truth and justice, that's what they want to do. Whereas some of the more we churches,
53:55
they're just very much so like, ah, grace, grace, grace, everything's grace without the truth, right?
53:59
That's kind of the thing that millennials like to hear, right? They like to hear that they can
54:05
have grace for anything that goes on and that there's no judgment, like at any point, like those
54:10
are the things that make them feel fuzzy and warm and comfortable, makes them feel like they're
54:14
back in T-ball, right? Things just kind of work out. I mean, if you go back to episode 14 of my
54:18
podcast, so that was the review I did of Matt Chandler's newest book called Take Heart,
54:22
and just kind of talked about how, you know, we're in a post-Christian society and the church has
54:28
thrived the most in its history when it was on the fringes. And so these are things that are
54:32
very important, but the parallel that we're seeing with modern church structure is it's
54:36
appealing to the masses, and the masses are leaning more liberal, right? That's pretty much the most
54:43
cogent way you can say, and there's not really a way that you can argue against it. So if you're
54:46
going after things from a more liberal perspective, that's just kind of what's going to end up happening.
54:51
And so the only way that we're going to see this change, I guess, is if we see
54:57
a big shift in thinking from the next generation. So Gen Z, there's some statistics out there and
55:03
there's some people that have like thought about what's going on with Gen Z, but they can't really
55:08
peg what type of church this is going to or not what type of church, but what type of group this
55:12
is going to be like, how they're going to vote, how they're going to think. So it's kind of to be
55:15
determined, but the more that we stay downstream from culture, the more we're just going to reflect
55:19
it, obviously. Let's go on the next question here. How do you feel about people who stream
55:24
church on television and never make their presence consistent at church? So this is a good question.
55:30
And so we're talking about kind of being downstream of culture. But here's the thing is I don't have
55:34
a problem with online church. Like I really don't. Like I think it's actually pretty, pretty incredible.
55:39
There's a lot of ministries that use church online very effectively. And you know, this shows that
55:45
churches can be on the cutting edge of technology. Like there's a church here locally that, you know,
55:49
invented the U version Bible app. And I think they were one of the first to market, if not the first
55:53
to market on, you know, having church online and they've gifted that technology to a bunch of
55:57
different churches around the world. And so it kind of shows that they're standing relevant.
56:02
But guys, don't fool yourself. I mean, communities don't occur by accident. So can you be a part of
56:08
a real online community? Like, sure, absolutely you could. You know, but can you be a part of a real
56:14
online community with little effort? Like, no, not really. Like you really can't. So I know there's a
56:19
lot of these churches that they try to create, you know, home groups or, you know, whatever they're
56:23
calling their their community group or whatever they're calling it. And they do it via online means,
56:29
but there's still that disconnect. Like you have to connect with people, right? Yeah, in person,
56:34
face to face like those are things that you need to do. And so but here's the other thing about it.
56:38
And again, I'm talking to myself here, there was a stretch when my wife and I were going to a local
56:41
church here. And there are two campuses of this church. This is a multi site church. There are two
56:46
campuses that are within 15 minutes of our house in either direction, right? One west and one east.
56:52
And there were a lot of weeks when we would just say, I don't really want to get
56:55
dressed and showered up and all that. You just want to watch it here. Right? So we were just
57:00
basically checking the church box without leaving our couch, which is convenient, which is pretty
57:04
cool. But at the same time, we weren't developing community. And that's what the church is. The
57:08
capital C church is not a building. It's a people. So yeah, you know, if you're watching church online,
57:13
especially if you're if it's not your home church and you're just kind of listening in,
57:16
like that's fine. It's totally fine. But if if it's part of your community,
57:20
like that's that's what the church is is just think about these these towns back in the day
57:25
where there was just one church. So there wasn't church shopping. You were like, I'm going to go
57:29
try the Presbyterian church down the street or oh, there's two non denominational churches down
57:33
down the other way. And they've got two different worship services. So I can go to the one that,
57:37
you know, fits my personality better. Like there was none of that. You just went to your local
57:40
church and you served in it, right? So I just think about it from that point. You got to get
57:43
plugged into some point. All right, guys, last question here. How do you read all the books that
57:48
you read? I heard you mentioned you read digital. I'm a huge physical book lover. I love flipping
57:52
the pages and holding the physical thing that have completed or will complete weird, but I even
57:58
like the smell of them. If you read digital, what do you like to read on and what pros and cons do
58:03
you see? Okay, so kind of a longer question, but you know, just kind of gets back to how I read so
58:08
many books. And here's the thing guys is I again, I don't read that many books, right? I'll likely
58:13
read somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 books this year. And some of you just heard that and
58:17
you're like, how is that even possible? And other guys, you know, there are guys that, you know,
58:21
read 50 75 100 plus books a year, and they're like legit reading them. They're not just skimming them.
58:27
Um, and here's the thing is out of those 30 books, maybe one or two of those will be actual physical
58:33
books. And it's usually because maybe the book isn't available in any version or I got it as a
58:37
gift or something like that. Um, but I read almost exclusively, clearly on digital. And I do that
58:42
for a lot of different reasons. So number one is they're cheaper than physical books. So if a brand
58:46
new physical book is 30 bucks, you know, the E version might be 13 bucks or something like that,
58:52
like it's just they're not very expensive. But also I can read them on any of my devices.
58:56
So I'm a Mac guy. So I have a MacBook Pro. I have an iPad and I have an iPhone. And so it's just
59:01
easy that I can read it on any of those devices. Um, and another reason just because this way,
59:06
because I read digitally, I always have my books on me. Right. So here's the thing. If I'm waiting
59:11
in the lobby for a meeting or if I'm waiting, you know, get my old change or something like that,
59:15
you know, I've got 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes, maybe a half hour. Well, I've got my books right
59:20
there in my pocket. So I can just read my books and just go on. So it's not like, oh shoot, I left
59:25
my book on, you know, my, I don't know, I left, I left it at home. I left it in my office at home
59:31
or I left it in the car or something like that. And now I can't read or something like that.
59:35
So, but the thing, I get more reading done because my books are just on me. Right. And the same
59:40
thing is true as I do most of my reading at night after my wife goes to bed. And so, you know,
59:44
I'm sitting there and I don't want to have like a book light on or a flashlight or something like
59:47
that. I can just read right from my phone. And it's just right there. The other thing is it's
59:52
really easy to make highlights in, in an ebook. Uh, and nothing drives me more crazy that when
59:57
I borrow a book from somebody or get it from the library and someone's got all their highlights
1:00:00
in their notes and they're just like, dang it. Like, I don't want to know what you thought was
1:00:03
important. Like, I'm trying to figure out what I think is important. So that's kind of distracting
1:00:07
to me. So, uh, and I don't want to ruin my books that way. Like outside of textbooks,
1:00:11
like I can't stand writing in a book myself. I just, it's Sully's it in some way. And so, I just
1:00:14
don't like doing that. Now, the other thing I really like about reading on ebooks is the search
1:00:18
capability. So, I mean, just think about if you've ever had a moment where you're trying to recall
1:00:23
a story from a book, but let's say it's like a big book and you're like, man, I don't really,
1:00:26
you know, I don't really remember what chapter was. Maybe it's years later and you're trying to
1:00:30
remember, well, I can just go into the search function within my ebook. I read it on iBooks.
1:00:34
And if I'm like, oh, man, it was a story about, you know, a lobster. And then you just type it in
1:00:38
there. It's like, boom, it just brings up the page number, all the pages where lobsters are
1:00:42
mentioned. And then you can find it there. So it's just very easy, very functional that way.
1:00:46
And here's the other thing is physical books just take up a crap ton of space, right? If any of you
1:00:50
have like libraries at your house or bookshelves full of books and you've moved, you realize it's
1:00:54
like, well, I have all my things, which makes up about half of what I'm going to have to move
1:00:58
because I have all these freaking books. And so the thing is we have a big bookshelf at my house
1:01:03
and it's full up. And I just couldn't imagine getting another bookshelf and weighing that down and
1:01:08
having even more stuff. I mean, just think about it, if you need to take off in a hurry, I mean,
1:01:12
how many of your books can you take with you? So the only con I potentially see is if someday
1:01:17
Apple is bought out by a larger corporation, and that company just decides that, you know,
1:01:21
iBook libraries need to go away. It's like, oh, iBook libraries just don't exist anymore. So
1:01:25
that's really the only thing I can think of that's a con from my perspective, like, which I don't
1:01:29
think is very much of a con. Like, I don't think anyone's buying out Apple. And I certainly don't
1:01:33
think because there are people that have thousands and thousands of dollars worth of iBooks. I just
1:01:37
don't think that's really going to happen. So the thing is, I'm sure there's really other good
1:01:42
reasons, but those are really the main ones for me. But the thing about it is in terms of how I'm
1:01:45
able to able to read so many books, like in terms of how you would define so many, I can really
1:01:50
sum it up in one word, guys, and that's discipline. Like, almost without fail, I read at least some
1:01:56
portion of my book that I'm reading at the time every day. And every now and then, I'll do two
1:02:02
books at once and just kind of switch back and forth. But I usually do it right for bed, like I said.
1:02:06
And I'm not the kind of guy that can just, you know, my wife's, you know, out with friends on a
1:02:10
Friday night and, you know, I'm going to come home from work and I'm just going to read an entire
1:02:14
book, like, just sit by the fireplace and get a good cup of coffee and read a book. I can't do that.
1:02:20
Like, most of the time, if I'm reading for more than 30 minutes, like, I'm just like, I gotta
1:02:23
do something else. I gotta, like, get up and, you know, jump up in the air or something like that.
1:02:27
So I just can't pay attention that long. So I just have to do a little every day every now and then,
1:02:32
I'll go on this marathon. You know, it's normally if I'm got three or four chapters left in a book,
1:02:36
I'll really like try to sprint through the ending and kind of get the gist of what's going on in the
1:02:40
book. But that's really how I get so much stuff down. So for a lot of you guys, I mean, again,
1:02:44
you haven't really set a goal around reading. So you just kind of read here or there. So you'll
1:02:48
start a book and you won't finish it or you'll just read a book or two in a year and you're not
1:02:51
really getting, getting a lot out of it. And guys, I haven't heard a guy yet. That's literally
1:02:56
described to me such a busy schedule that they couldn't fit in reading. And if you do feel that
1:03:01
way, like, try, try doing ebooks, right? Again, like I said, you find times during the day where
1:03:06
you're sitting on the crapper or you're, you're waiting for something or you maybe you're in,
1:03:09
you know, bumper to bumper traffic and you know, you're going to be stuck there for a while,
1:03:12
you know, pull the book out of your pocket and, you know, get after it. So guys, those are all the
1:03:15
questions for today. So again, thank you so much for sending me those questions. If you do have
1:03:19
any other questions, like I said, respond on social media to any of our posts or send me
1:03:23
a email at info@undauntedlife. So before I let you guys go, I just want to point out with quick
1:03:29
resilience boost. Again, we are a men's ministry. Our mission is cultivating mainly resilience.
1:03:34
And we specifically do that by providing content that forges spiritual, mental and physical toughness.
1:03:38
So our quick resilience boost today is going to be a mental resilience boost. And so I heard a
1:03:42
podcast recently that was really, really good, right? Just I've shared it with a lot of people
1:03:46
and I've talked about a lot. So the Joe Rogan experience podcast. So the JRE podcast, you can
1:03:52
find that really anywhere. It's one of, if not the biggest podcasts on the planet. And so episode
1:03:57
1109. Yeah, he's done a lot of episodes, but 1109. So this was an episode he did with Matthew Walker.
1:04:03
So he's a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of Cal Berkeley. And so he's
1:04:10
a guy that really has done a lot of study around human sleep science. And it's a two hour long
1:04:16
episode. You can listen to it at two times speed. Both of these guys talk pretty slow. But man,
1:04:20
just a super interesting podcast. Like as soon as you get done with it, you're gonna think to yourself,
1:04:25
man, I've got to like go to sleep right now or I'm gonna die. Like it's just really, really
1:04:29
incredible stuff. So I think that would be a very interesting thing to a lot of you guys,
1:04:33
because you know, the point that was made here is most guys think about their health. They think
1:04:37
about diet and exercise, but there's a third thing and that's sleep recovery, right? So diet,
1:04:42
exercise and sleep, they're all equally important. So thank you guys will dig it. So thank you again
1:04:46
for listening in guys, please subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud or Google Play and refer your friends
1:04:50
to listen and share all this on social media. If you tag us in it, we'll be sure to find it and
1:04:54
give it a like guys. If we deserve a five star review, we currently are five star rated. Keep
1:04:59
leaving us review. So don't just hit the five stars, leave us a quick line or two. Let us know how
1:05:03
this is going. This is going to continue to grow and so we want you guys to be a part of that.
1:05:07
And again, I'm booking speaking engagements for 2018. So if you want me to come speak to your group,
1:05:12
make sure to shoot us an email. Our website is www.undaunted.life and you can follow us on
1:05:17
Instagram and Twitter at undaunted life and facebook.com backslash undaunted life. Check out our free
1:05:22
devotionals on the U version Bible app. Just search undaunted life under plans. And as always,
1:05:27
we want to thank the band August Burns read for allowing us to use their entire music library
1:05:31
for our content. The intro outro track on this podcast is our song King of Sorrow, which is off
1:05:36
their latest record entitled Phantom Anthem. The links to all of this are in the description.
1:05:40
I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep cultivating manly resilience, keep forging spiritual,
1:05:47
mental and physical toughness. Keep seeking the lion of Judah.