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"This is a DAWSA Life Man's podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it."
1:15
"Hard times create strong men."
1:18
"Strong men create good times."
1:20
"Good times create weak men."
1:23
"Week men create hard times."
1:26
"Guys, that's a poem that I found a while back in really the first place that I saw that was
1:31
on Tim Kennedy's social media. So if you know anything about Tim Kennedy, he's a former UFC fighter.
1:36
Also a current Army Ranger in Green Berea. I believe those are the two branches that he is with
1:42
right now. But the thing about that poem, you guys, is you can't find source material for it.
1:48
So this isn't like some ancient philosopher or stoic or something like that.
1:53
This is just a quote that's just kind of made the rounds.
1:56
It's been on meme after meme after meme. It's been shared all over social media, Facebook,
2:00
Twitter, even Pinterest. It's just all over the place.
2:03
And you hear it quoted. Sometimes you hear it truncated down to hard times, create strong men,
2:09
weak men, create hard times. You hear it kind of truncated down a little bit.
2:13
But this is the gist of it right there. And I remember the first time that I saw that.
2:18
And I was just like, "Yeah, that's it. It's just like it was so simple. But you just needed somebody
2:25
to show it to you. And it was in a picture format." And then once you read it, you're like, "Yeah,
2:29
that makes perfect sense." It speaks to a lot of different things. It speaks to the cyclical
2:33
nature of history. It speaks to the cyclical nature of people and of manhood and all these
2:38
different things. And so what I want to do on this podcast episode, this is going to be a little
2:42
bit of a shorter episode. But I just want to flow a little bit on what this is and kind of these
2:48
thoughts that kind of come up. Because I'll be honest with you, I bet you the first time I saw
2:52
that was a couple of years ago. Had to have been at least a couple of years ago. And I've thought
2:56
about it ever since. So the first meme I saw again on Tim Kennedy's Twitter or Instagram or whatever,
3:02
I took a screenshot of it and I saved it on my phone and I saved it to my favorites.
3:06
And so from time to time, I'll be clicking through my favorites on my photos and I'll go right back
3:10
to that and I'll read it. And I'll say it in my head and I'll internalize it. And it really hasn't
3:15
lost any of its meaning. It just keeps gaining meaning with the more experience that I get as a
3:20
human and the more mature that I become. So for a lot of guys out there that are listening to this,
3:25
you you understand what it's like to go through different pockets and different seasons of your
3:29
life, right? So I'm 31 years old. Some of you guys that are out there, you might be twice my age
3:34
or half my age. I don't really know. But you look back on your life and you look back on things and
3:39
you can put them into chapters. You know what I mean? So this is a way that I think about and
3:44
this is how I've explained it to some younger guys that I've been able to have the privilege of
3:47
mentoring over the years is they have this thing that's going on in their lives at that exact moment
3:52
and there's nothing bigger. There's nothing bigger than that one thing. Maybe it's a breakup. Maybe
3:57
it's not getting into the college they wanted to. Maybe it's not making the team whatever it might
4:01
be. But what I kind of tell them to do is I say, you know what you need to do is you need to break
4:06
your life down into five chapters and five chapters only. Okay. And I get them to kind of work their
4:12
way through that because if they're, you know, 15, 16, you know, the five chapters are their lives,
4:16
you know, each chapter is only a few years long. And for some of those chapters, there's just not a
4:19
really a whole lot going on. So something like a breakup when you're a 15 or 16 year old,
4:24
it's the biggest thing that could possibly happen to you, right? But then I get them to imagine
4:30
of, okay, let's imagine that you're not 16. But let's imagine that you're 76 years old. Like,
4:35
let's put you way out there. You've been retired for a while. You got grandkids, maybe great grandkids.
4:40
And now put your life into five chapters. Then it's a lot different, right? I mean, is that is that
4:46
breakup with a girl when you're 15 or 16 years old, even going to register at that point? It's
4:50
probably not like you just got to think you have these big portions of your life where you learn so
4:56
much. And so that's where I kind of feel like I am at in my life and in my career and in my
5:00
friendships and in, you know, my development of my body and this ministry and all these different
5:04
things is there's these seasons and I can look back just five years ago and think to myself,
5:09
man, what was I doing? Like, what was I thinking whenever I did that? Well, you know, that work out.
5:14
Why did I think that was a good idea? Or why did I think following this particular pastor's
5:19
way of thinking? Why did I go down that road? And so this isn't really a tangent here. It does apply
5:24
back to what we're talking about here, because it applies to the cyclical nature of who we are as
5:29
singular men and how that plays into how we are as manhood, like as overall humankind, right?
5:38
And so again, I'll read this and I'll read it several times just so that we can continue to go
5:42
through it. But it's hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create
5:48
weak men, weak men create hard times. So what I want to do right now is I want to look at all
5:53
four sections of that individually, and then we'll kind of come back at the end and look for some
5:58
parallels. So that first line is hard times create strong men. So this is probably the easiest one
6:04
for us to think of, right? Because we think of these times where people are forged, right?
6:09
And it's interesting. I use that word because the thing that comes to come to my mind is the
6:14
jujitsu gym that I go to here in Edmond, Oklahoma, where I currently reside is called the forge.
6:19
And so that that wasn't just kind of a haphazard name. You know what I mean? That wasn't just,
6:22
I'm sure the guys didn't just go, I saw this on a, you know, a t-shirt back in the day and I
6:27
thought it'd be cool. No, it represents something. You know, there's an anvil and a hammer on the
6:32
logo, right? Because basically, when you walk into the forge, you are forging yourself a little,
6:39
a little bit by a little bit, like you go in there, and no matter what your mindset is,
6:43
when you go in there, once you leave, you're a little bit better. You may have got your butt
6:48
kick, you may have had the best practice of your life, but you're forging. And what happens in that
6:52
room, when you keep coming back, is that all those hard times, turns you into a strong man.
6:59
That it's just what happens. I remember one of my, one of my favorite guys at the gym, he's a
7:04
guy that's taken a lot of time and effort into my game and helping me out. It's a guy named Tyler
7:08
Murrah. He's one of our purple belts. This is a guy who told me a few weeks ago, and he said it,
7:14
you know, with a smile on his face, but it's true. He's like, your job as a white belt is to get
7:18
your butt kicked and to keep coming back. Like that, that is your job. And so it's like, if you're
7:23
looking for a role, like everyone's always looking for their role, their role in the team or their
7:26
role at work or their role in their family, your role as a white belt is to get your butt kicked
7:31
and to keep coming back. Right? That's just kind of what happens. But the thing about it is, is the
7:35
whole time you are being forged. That that's what's happening to you in these hard times. So just
7:41
think back in history. So you think back in the things that we have recorded, where, you know,
7:47
you have the Great Depression, you have World War one World War two, you have individual strife,
7:52
you know, stuff that's not making the papers and, you know, not making the history books, but just
7:57
strife within families that when you're going through these hard times, it creates a different
8:01
level of compassion in you, a different level of strength. And so I even look back early in my
8:06
marriage. So, you know, obviously I don't want to compare what my wife and I were going through
8:11
early in our marriage to people that really, really struggle with poverty all across the globe.
8:16
But I can safely say that my wife and I were not living terribly comfortably when we first got
8:21
together. We didn't really have a lot. And so again, that this is a micro example. I'm not trying to
8:26
make myself representative of some sort of, you know, you know, charity case type of a deal. That's
8:31
not what I'm doing here, but just follow me along with this point. But the things that we experienced
8:35
early on in our marriage, and we've been married nine years this month, the month that I'm recording
8:39
this podcast, we had to do things very differently than than how we're doing them now. We made good
8:44
decisions. We let we got out of college without any debt, either one of us for any silly debt or
8:50
school debt or anything like that. But it's still things were a little tough. Like we had to do
8:54
things that we didn't think we were going to have to do that early in our marriage. And the thing
8:59
about it is we can look back at that time and think about how fun that time was. But it was hard.
9:04
Like it was hard to make these decisions and you have these expectations about what marriage is
9:08
going to be like and and how you're going to be able to operate. And it just doesn't always
9:11
end up that way. And I can look back at that time in my early 20s and man, that was a hard time.
9:16
But man, it was forging me and leading me towards greatness. Like it was leading me towards a deeper
9:21
level of strength. And I'm so thankful for that. So we just think about in general, and in terms of
9:27
this poem, hard times do create strong men. That's just what happens because in order for you to
9:32
survive, you have to be strong. And this isn't some sort of wink or nod to to Darwin or anything
9:38
like that. But this, that's really the reality of it. If you're weak, you will not make it when
9:41
times are hard, you won't make it. And again, if you think you're if you're like a naturalist
9:47
or an evolutionary biologist or something like that, then you know that to be true, right?
9:51
Because that's your entire worldview. We're just stardust out there, you know,
9:54
you know, bumping into each other. Like we're just meaningless clumps of cells that happen to have
9:59
eyesight and good hearing and opposable thumbs and things like that. You know what I'm saying?
10:03
So if that's your worldview, and that's the way you're thinking about, then of course this makes
10:07
sense to you. Hard times would absolutely create strong men. So let's go into the next part.
10:12
Strong men create good times. So this is kind of what happens once you once you've
10:17
thinned the herd, right? For lack of a better expression or phrase. Once you've thinned the herd,
10:22
you've gotten the weak, the stupid, the lazy, and you get all those people out of the sources
10:27
of what you're going to be doing, you can allow for people to create good times. So you have your
10:33
front runners, you have your alphas, and then you have all your other people underneath them
10:36
that can kind of help them do what they need to do to continue to place that trail to give them
10:41
some momentum to give them some forward motion. And you allow these strong men to create good
10:46
times. And we've seen this over and over again, even just look at our history in our own country.
10:52
Think about the men that that became what what was the founding fathers, right? So just think about
10:58
whoever your favorite one is and just think about those types of individuals. What they were able
11:02
to do is these were strong men that created good times. Because again, if you've read anything about
11:08
the Revolutionary War and kind of what was happening during that period of our history,
11:13
then the 13 original colonies and things like that, there's actually a really good book on that
11:17
of Washington's crossing. It's in our 100 books that every modern Christian man should read list.
11:21
If you've never really thought about what those men were going through during the
11:24
Revolutionary War, that was a hard time that allowed strong men to rise to the top. And then a lot
11:30
of those strong men were able to create good times for this country. It was able to put us on a path
11:35
of freedom and liberty that literally the world has never seen before. But the thing was is it
11:40
couldn't have happened if it didn't have the hard times, because these men would not have been
11:46
forged the same. It doesn't mean they wouldn't have been smart. It doesn't mean some of these
11:49
liberties would not have come to the forefront. It doesn't mean that we wouldn't have experienced
11:54
a tremendous amount of success as a country early on, or even as we experience it today.
11:58
But it wouldn't have been the same. It just wouldn't have been the same because you didn't have as
12:03
much resistance that you needed to push up against, right? But in reality, that's exactly what happened.
12:08
There was a ton of resistance for our country as we went that direction. So again, it was the hard
12:12
times that allowed these strong men to be revealed to the world and these strong men created good
12:18
times and they created it for all of us. So let's move on to the next part. Good times create
12:24
weak men. So I want to talk about this a little bit because basically this can be summed up in the
12:30
phrase fat and happy, right? So you've experienced good times and so you start to kind of level off
12:36
a little bit. You know, you lose your edge. I forget who who really put it this way. But
12:40
it was somebody that was really paying really close attention to the Chicago Cubs. So when the
12:45
Chicago Cubs finally broke the curse and they won the World Series beat the Cleveland Indians in seven
12:51
games, it was, it was all this century plus attention and, you know, failure and sadness and emotion
13:00
that came down to this one game and they win it in dramatic fashion. But then it was over. They
13:05
had won the World Series. And so they're going around and, you know, they're doing, they're doing
13:10
all the late night talk shows and they're doing stuff on YouTube and they're doing all the stuff
13:14
on social media. They're doing all this crap all over the world. And then someone kind of commented
13:18
rather quietly, they go, this team's kind of lost their edge a little bit. They came into spring
13:23
training really loose, not like effectively loose, but really, really loose. And, you know,
13:28
this isn't to demean that team because obviously if you know me, you know, I'm a Cardinals fan,
13:32
I'm really not hating on them. But they just didn't have the same edge the season after they won the
13:36
World Series. Now the game of baseball is a game that has a ton of parity. Like the last time you had,
13:42
you know, two teams in the World Series in back-to-back years, I can't even remember. We're on the fourth
13:46
year in a row where we have the same NBA finals teams, the Cavs and the Warriors. So you don't really
13:51
see that in baseball. But the point is still made that you have to kind of continue to have that
13:55
edge if you're going to make your way to the World Series and especially if you're going to win it,
13:58
right? And so this is a team that kind of got fat and happy. This was a team that had reached
14:04
the pinnacle and there was nothing left for them to do, right? So think about it this way. One of
14:08
one of the easiest corollaries for a lot of guys to listen to his podcast is look at mixed martial
14:11
arts and specifically the UFC. I mean, you talk about these people that all they can see is that
14:16
belt. It's that 12 pound gold belt and they're going to get it no matter what it takes. They're
14:20
going to train hard. They're going to find the right team. They're going to get the right diet.
14:23
They're going to make sure they're in the right weight class. They're going to make sure that they
14:27
get the right kind of fights and say what they need to say on the mic afterwards, just so they
14:30
can get to the pinnacle and get that belt. But then what? Right? They had hard times in training
14:37
and it made them strong and now they're strong and now they've created good times. They're making
14:41
more money and they're getting better fights and they're on better paper views and they're doing
14:44
better, better interviews and they're getting more sponsorships and they're doing all these
14:47
different things. But now what? They've attained what they need to attain like they got what they
14:54
came here for. But now it's time to stay on top. But we don't really see that a lot in mixed martial
15:02
arts. And like I said, aside from baseball mixed martial arts, that's my jam. That's one of my
15:05
favorite things to watch and follow. But can you name the people that had title reigns of more than
15:11
three defenses? I mean, you're looking at George St. Pierre, you're looking at Anderson Silva,
15:17
you're looking at GSP, you're looking at, or I already said, George St. Pierre, but you're looking
15:21
at these types of guys, you know, Jose Aldo comes to mind and BJ pin and guys like that. But you
15:28
don't really have a lot of guys that have done it for a really, really long time. And it's because
15:35
they get to the good times and it makes them weak. I mean, that's, that's what it does. Like,
15:42
there's nothing else to strive for. I mean, what are they going to do strive for additional greatness?
15:47
Because think about it, there's a gigantic chasm from deciding, Hey, I want to be an MMA fighter,
15:53
and I want to be a UFC world champion, and then becoming a world champion, right? That's not a
15:58
short process. Like no one just, Hey, I never really hit a heavy bag before. And then six months later,
16:04
they're the champion, you don't really see that, right? There's no, there's no real prodigy status
16:08
in there, right? But then the gap between becoming a UFC champion for the first time,
16:14
and then becoming an all time great might be even longer, right? And so I'm not really counting on
16:21
the front end like, Oh, you know, I wrestle when I was a little kid, and then I started to box a
16:24
little bit in high school. I'm not, I'm not counting that. I'm talking about the moment you
16:27
decided mixed martial arts, that's what you were going to do. And that's what you wanted to try
16:31
to do on the amateur level and try to go professional from there to getting UFC belt as a long time.
16:35
But from getting the belt to becoming a legend, like that, that's almost unfathomable for most
16:41
people, because you've reached the pinnacle by getting the belt. But but man, now I have to defend
16:46
it. Now I have to do even more media. Now I have to have even more responsibility, you know,
16:52
more money, more problems, you know, whatever the thing is for you. That's why we don't see those,
16:57
those all time greats, those people that can have the belt for a long time and just keep it and
17:03
solidify their legacy. Here's another thing for mixed martial arts fans. How many guys have you seen,
17:08
seen been long term champions and come back and win a title again after they've lost it?
17:13
I mean, this isn't pro wrestling, like this isn't some sort of like Ric Flair 20 something
17:18
time world champion. Whoa, like that's not what this is at all, right? This is mixed martial arts,
17:23
right? This is this is completely different. So can you imagine someone that has, you know,
17:28
won the title, he has three or four or five different defenses? How many of them even make it back?
17:34
I mean, really think about it for all you MMA fans out there. How many people even make it
17:39
back to a title fight? I mean, Jose Aldo comes to mind right now, he went years without getting
17:44
beat like just and he wasn't even close to being beat Chad Mendez had him in a really,
17:48
really tight fight. But you know, he gets starched in 13 seconds by Conor McGregor. And then he just
17:54
kind of reeled for a little bit, right? You know, he comes back and has a good fight against Frankie
17:58
Edgar at UFC 200. You know, he's right back on the horse and he's a he's pretty much annoying
18:03
to the champion again. But then he loses to Max Holloway. And then he gets a rematch in Holloway
18:10
pretty much beats him worse the second time. And we're never going to see Jose Aldo in another
18:14
championship fight. I mean, you can almost guarantee it. But just think about that's that's one example,
18:18
but there's a ton of different examples out there. Because when they get through the good times,
18:23
they get to the good times rather, and it makes them weak. And again, I know there's father time,
18:28
and I know I'm using a lot of athletic examples here and father times completely undefeated.
18:32
But the point is the same. They got through the hard times that made him strong. When they were
18:36
strong, it created some good times for them and the people around them and the good times made
18:40
them weak at some point. They lost something. And that doesn't mean they're a bad person.
18:44
It doesn't mean they're a punk. But it does mean that they got weak over time.
18:48
So let's go to the last part. Weak men create hard times. Weak men create hard times. Guys,
18:55
to be honest, I feel like that's where we're at right now. Like, to be honest with you,
18:58
I'm still just kind of flowing through this podcast. Is that not the feeling that we have
19:03
right now? We live in a culture that is celebrating beta males. I mean, I I'm going to do a podcast
19:10
episode on that at some point in the future, just talking about that concept. But society
19:14
doesn't want strong alphas anymore until they do, right? Seems kind of ridiculous to say.
19:21
But we don't want these strong testosterone field dudes around until someone's trying to attack us
19:26
or until something needs to get solved or until someone needs to be defended or until someone's
19:32
rights have been violated. Then we want the alphas. We want the sheep dogs. But society as a whole
19:37
it's like, I don't really know what to do with all this testosterone. And I don't really know
19:42
what to do with all this action and all this yelling. Why is he yelling? Like, I just don't
19:45
know what to do with all these things. And so it's easier to repress them and to push them back
19:50
to make them weak. And here's the thing that I know about you guys. And I know this about myself.
19:56
For a lot of guys, if you keep telling them they are something, they will become that something.
20:02
Right? So if you're a woman listening to this podcast, thank you so much for listening.
20:06
And if you're married and if you constantly nag your husband and say, oh my gosh,
20:11
you're just like your father. Well, he's going to become just like his dad. Oh, my gosh,
20:16
you're just never going to provide for this family in a way that that would be appropriate.
20:20
Well, guess, guess how motivated he's going to be to provide in a way that is appropriate. And
20:24
who's defining appropriate? You or him, right? Just think about that. The more you say something
20:30
to somebody, the more he's just going to be like, all right, screw it. That's exactly what I'll do.
20:35
So the more that you tell guys, get out of the public square. We don't need you right now.
20:39
Guys are just going to acquiesce. Be like, yeah, sure. Why not? I'll go play. I'll go play video
20:44
at Fortnite. I'll play Call of Duty. I'll go do some fantasy football with my friends. I'll go
20:48
far round. I'll add another round of golf every week. I'll add another fantasy or not fancy team,
20:54
but like another intramural basketball team or softball team. I'll just keep adding. They'll go
20:58
do things that they want to do. I talk about it all the time. If they can't dominate in certain
21:02
areas of their life, they'll find a place where they can have fun and be part of a community and
21:06
and dominate. They'll do it. So our society that we're living in, especially in this country and
21:12
especially in the West, you know, it's really bad in Europe and in Canada, but it's really
21:16
seeping into the the fabric of the United States as well is we're wanting weak men
21:20
and we're celebrating them. I mean, just think about the things that you've seen go on on college
21:25
campuses, right? I mean, and again, you know, we'll get into the transgender stuff at some point. I
21:30
know a lot of you have asked my opinion on that and I want to make sure I have a very measured and
21:34
specific philosophical, you know, points that I'm able to bring to you guys. But just think about
21:40
all the areas where we're trying to stamp out any expression of viral, strong manhood. Think about
21:46
it. It's happening all the time. And it's hard to see right now for a lot of guys, whether you're a
21:53
Trump person or not. And when you see what's going on with it with the economy right now,
21:57
when you see what's going on in business, what do you see what's going on with the unemployment
22:00
numbers, things are looking good. And for all intents and purposes, when all things are considered
22:06
together, this is one of the greatest times ever to be alive. If you think about it, like just just
22:12
think about a hundred years ago, what would you have to have done to know everything you could
22:18
possibly know about the the pyramids of Giza, right? Think about all the things you would have had
22:23
to have done. I could stop recording this podcast, go read for 10 minutes and come back and know more
22:29
than that person could have done maybe in a year's worth of research. Like we live in an amazing
22:33
time of of progress and amazing time of affluence and of understanding and of information.
22:41
And people still just complain all the time. They don't have anything to complain about,
22:46
so they make something up. You know, they don't they haven't been mad at somebody online for a while.
22:52
So they they wait for somebody to say something a little bit off color and then they just destroy
22:56
them for it. They don't have a group that they belong to that can be outraged enough. So they
23:01
become vegan or they or they they join antifa or they start going to different rallies and they
23:06
wear pussy hats and they do all these different things. And it's just like, Oh, now that we have a
23:09
group that that can fight up fight against whatever it is that we're needing to be fighting against
23:14
at that time. They don't even know they can't even fully think about it. But when you look at
23:18
everything considered, we live in an incredible time in history. And this incredible time in
23:23
history has been created by strong men. Okay, that's how we got here through innovation
23:31
and through industry and through entrepreneurship and overall strength. That's how we got to the
23:37
point we're at right now. And we are actively doing everything we can as a culture and as a
23:42
society to undo that. It's it's like we're undoing the fabric of our country and of who we are like
23:50
one fiber at a time. And we just continue to tell guys that you're no longer part of the story.
23:57
This is our time now if you're on the feminist side. Or you know what I know that we built off
24:02
this through through industry and through capitalism and through open markets. But now we're going to
24:07
try these other ways because government knows how to do it better for you. And I'm not getting on a
24:12
political soapbox here. So don't tune me out if this isn't really your thing. But I just want
24:16
us to really think about where we're at as a country and where you're at as a man. Okay,
24:22
think about where you're at. Because again, we talk about manhood all the time. This is obviously
24:27
a men's ministry. This is a podcast meant specifically for men. It's called a man's podcast. Like I get
24:32
it. Think about yourself. I mean, people ask me all the time, what's your definition of manhood,
24:37
man? If you're going to be talking about all the time hurt. This is my definition manhood. It's a
24:41
guy that cultivates spiritual, mental and physical resilience daily. Boom. That's it. Are you doing
24:48
that? Because here's the thing guys is if you're cultivating those things daily spiritual, mental
24:54
and physical resilience, if you're doing that, how hard is it going to be for you to be weak?
25:01
It's going to be pretty damn hard. It's going to be really hard. If you're doing that. I mean,
25:06
it's if not impossible. You can't cultivate all those different areas and do all the things that
25:12
is required in order for you to be strong in those areas and be weak at the same time. It
25:17
just doesn't jive. It just doesn't work. But I just wanted you to think about the times in
25:22
your life where your weakness created hard times for you as an individual. I mean, we're on the
25:29
micro right now. This is the micro example. Your life, the worst decisions that you've ever made,
25:34
the worst deed you've ever done, the worst sins that you've ever done against God,
25:37
have all been when you were weak, right? If you cheated on your wife, it's because you it wasn't
25:44
because you were found in a moment of tremendous strength and resolve. And you just tripped and fell
25:49
and landed in your secretaries of vagina. Like that's not what happened. You were weak.
25:55
Maybe you were weak physically like you hadn't had sex in a while and you're feeling sorry for
25:59
yourself. And then that was your outlet. You're weak mentally because you didn't set up parameters
26:04
that wouldn't allow for you to do something like that. You didn't have accountability
26:07
partners that you talked to about, Hey man, I'm kind of attracted to this lady at work.
26:10
You you spiritually weren't resilient enough because you weren't allowing the gospel to cover you
26:15
in the blood of Christ and understand that what he did for you is so much bigger than what you
26:20
feel like your need is at that moment. But you did it anyway, but it wasn't because you were strong.
26:24
It was because you were weak. And that's the point guys. Think about you as an individual. You know
26:30
that. And for a lot of you guys, that's not that's kind of an extreme example. But for some of you,
26:34
it's not. But just think about whatever it is for you. And then now multiply that by the number of
26:41
men that we have in this country. And then multiply that by the number of men that we have in the world.
26:49
Add that all up. Weak men across across the globe are creating hard times for people across the
26:58
globe. And the people who are affected the most are the weak, the people that can't help themselves.
27:04
The unborn, the young children, women, the old, those are the people that are affected the most
27:13
by weak men. So for me, for everyone that considers himself an adopted life or for everyone listening
27:21
to this podcast, you play a role in this. Okay, you play a role. If you allow yourself to become
27:31
weak, you are going to create hard times. And if enough people around you all shirk their
27:40
responsibilities and become weak, hard times will be created all around you. And you'll be surrounded
27:46
by death, literal and figurative. So here we go again, guys, hard times create strong men,
27:52
strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create hard times.
27:59
And one last thing before we wrap up, fellas, think about what Jesus did. Think about what He
28:06
did for us. Some of you are right now listening to this podcast. You know, you might even be an
28:11
atheist or an agnostic listening to this. And I understand that I'm so happy that you're here.
28:14
I'm like ecstatic that you're here listening to this. But Jesus was a real person that lived
28:19
who did ministry for around three years, who died on a Roman cross was resurrected three days later.
28:27
And he's been alive ever since guys. And the Holy Spirit is something real that all of us can
28:33
attain and all of us that we can have. But once we receive Jesus in the Holy Spirit and were marked
28:38
by Him, that doesn't mean that the story's over. There's still a lot of life left to lead.
28:43
You're still six. You're still above ground, right? You're not six feet under yet. You're still above
28:48
ground. There's still a purpose for you here on this planet. God's going to make sure of it, right?
28:52
Jesus was an incredibly strong man and incredibly strong man. Go back to episode four of this podcast.
29:00
I really kind of detail out the different things that he did to show his strength. And those are
29:05
just the things that we see that are recorded in the gospel accounts of his life. It's an incredible
29:11
thing that for us as Christian men and even those of you that aren't Christians, we have an example
29:18
of perfect manhood out there that we can follow. I mean, just think about that in your work.
29:24
Is there a perfect mentor? Like, is there a dad out there that's like, you know, you're about to
29:29
have your first kid and he's like the perfect dad and you can just follow in his footsteps so you
29:34
can become another perfect dad? Like, you know, is there a sports figure that's like, all right,
29:39
if I can learn to throw the ball just like him, I'll be just as good at this sport and I'll be a
29:43
perfect quarterback or a perfect pitcher. It doesn't happen that way, guys. But we have that
29:48
example in Christ. We just do. This was a guy that went through hard times and it made him strong.
29:55
He was he was a man like all of us spent 40 days and 40 nights being tempted by the devil in every
30:01
conceivable way. Don't you think that made him strong? Don't you think that was a hard time?
30:05
And because of his strength and because of his resolve on the cross, he created good times and
30:10
good capability for all of us. But here's the thing. Some people accept the gospel. They accept all the
30:17
good to get out of the hell free car. They accept all that. And then they allow themselves to become
30:21
weak. They don't evangelize. They don't spiritually lead their families. They don't spiritually lead
30:27
themselves. They don't seek Christ on a daily basis, right? These are these things that they
30:32
just don't do. And that weakness creates hard times. I want you to avoid that. This isn't some sort of
30:39
like, who are, let's get all excited and get motivated, you know, podcasts or anything like that. Again,
30:44
I'm very much so in the Jocko willing camp where it's discipline over motivation, motivation will
30:49
wane discipline will not. But but we have to look at the words of this poem, even though we don't
30:54
even know who wrote them, we have to look at these words and think about how they apply directly to
30:58
us and how we can make sure that we don't end up in the last part of that being a weak man that's
31:03
creating hard times. All right, guys, so before I let you out, we're gonna do a quick resilience
31:07
boost. So as you know, by now, we are a men's ministry in our mission is cultivating manly resilience.
31:12
And we do that by providing content like this podcast that for just spiritual, mental and physical
31:17
toughness. So today I want to focus on mental resilience. And so did a little bit of a shorter
31:21
episode this week, because I want to make sure y'all had ample time to take down a mammoth podcast
31:26
that Jocko willing released last week. So if you're listening to this on time, he would have released
31:31
it last week. This is episode 127. It's called hell, yes, I do it again. Leadership lessons from
31:37
Iwo with T Fred Harvey. So this was a about a four hour long podcast. And again, if you listen
31:45
to it, two times speed, you can cut that hat. But yeah, four hour long podcast. And it was by
31:49
Jocko willing and his co host, Echo Charles, and they are interviewing T Fred Harvey. And he was a
31:56
guy who grew up during the Great Depression. His father left his family when he was really young,
32:01
and he ended up fighting at Iwo Jima during the World War. So this guy went through it. You know
32:07
what I'm saying? Like this guy went through it big time. And so I think this is a perfect podcast
32:13
to couple with the one that you're just listening to now. This is a guy that definitely went through
32:19
hard times. And just to hear about the things that he was able to do and to hear him, you know,
32:25
now I think he's in his 80s or 90s when you just hear him talk about it. It's just kind of old hat.
32:30
It's just like, ah, yeah, whatever. Yeah, I kind of did that thing. But when you when Jocko reads his
32:34
commendation, whenever he received his his military medal, like, Oh, dude, it's amazing.
32:40
It is freaking amazing. So I provided the YouTube link. So if you want to watch it,
32:45
that is here in the description and also I'll provide the link to the episode on Jocko's podcast
32:50
so that you can make sure that that all gets gets there to you. So go ahead and give that a listen.
32:55
Let me know if you liked it. And again, I appreciate y'all listening today.
32:58
If you would, please subscribe on iTunes SoundCloud or Google Play. So you don't miss any of our
33:02
future episodes and refer your friends to listen. If you share this on social media, be sure to use
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star review, please, please, please leave us one because that is how we will continue to end up in
33:15
searches and continue to grow this. So we just really appreciate if you guys can do a five star
33:20
review. I'm booking speaking engagements for the rest of 2018 and the beginning of 2019.
33:25
If you'd like me to come speak to your church group, to your Sunday school, to your team,
33:29
to your retreat, to whatever, feel free to hit me up info at undaunted.life info at undaunted.life.
33:36
Our website is www.undaunted.life and follow us on Instagram and Twitter at undauntedlife
33:41
and facebook.com/undauntedlife. You can also check out our free devotionals on the U version Bible
33:46
app. Just search undaunted life under plans. And as always, we want to thank the band August
33:50
Burns read for allowing us to use their music library for our content. The intro outro track on
33:55
this podcast is their song King of Sorrow, which is off their latest record entitled Phantom Anthem.
33:59
Links to all this are in the description. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Remember,
34:05
keep cultivating mainly resilience. Keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical toughness.
34:10
Keep seeking the Lion of Judah.