Let's be honest, most men drift. We wake up, we scroll, we work, and then we just rinse and repeat. And we know we're softer than we should be. That's why I built the 31-day resilience reset. This is not a devotional. It is a field manual for men ready to stop drifting and start fighting back. So, for 31 days, you'll train your spirit, mind, and body with scripture, prayer, and daily challenges that forge real resilience. Go to www.undaunted.life/31days to download this resource for free. That's undaunted.life/31days. Start your reset today. This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it. Wherefore this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. That is 2 Timothy 1:6. Guys, I'm so thankful to have you on the show today. Thankful to all of our donors. Guys, if you want to see more content like this get out to people all over the globe undaunted.life/donate. It is guys like you. We don't have like super special like secret donors or anything like that. We're very forward. It's guys giving 20 bucks a month, 50 bucks one time, 150 bucks a month, that kind of stuff. Every little bit counts. Thankful for all of our donors and we would love to have some more. And also, if you've not reviewed this show with five stars and shared with a friend, please go ahead and do that. So, no quick hitters today. I want to get into something that is really important to me and I didn't realize it was going to be. Because, you know, I've I've covered a lot of news topics, I've covered a lot of cultural topics, and I know you guys really enjoyed the quick hitters and we'll certainly get back to that, but I've just kind of been not I don't know. I got I've been a little bit exhausted with the news cycle just a little bit. Like, I stay up on everything, I pay attention to everything, but every now and then I have something that comes down the pike that kind of takes me back to the old school way of doing it. Like, you know, my first you know, 100 episodes before my first interview. And so, recently I rewatched the movie The Road. And so, The Road was a movie that I watched back in college. So, this [clears throat] is that post-apocalyptic movie based on the book by Cormac McCarthy. So, he wrote that book back in 2006 and it actually won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007. And the movie and the book are especially brutal. But, I watched the movie back in college and it was just like a brutal dark movie. You know, I'm probably 19 or 20 years old and I was like, "Okay, yeah, that was that was fine. That was cool." Uh but it didn't like really hit me in the way that, you know, some others would do. But, I read the book just a couple of years ago. This is when I had two sons. And my reaction to the brook was to the book, rather, was way more carnal. It was way more focused because I could actually see myself in the character of the father in Cormac McCarthy's book. Because it's one of those things like I remember watching the movie Apocalypto uh back back in the day that, you know, maybe right after college thinking, "Oh, this is a really cool movie." I watched it recently after having kids. And so, when you see the protagonist, the main character, was a jaguar paw or whatever, trying to make it back to his family, willing to do anything he could to make it back to his family, it just hits different when you're a father. And so, last week I was, you know, I was a little down because, you know, I've got this ruptured bicep. But, it was the day I found out that I probably have a labrum tear in my shoulder as well. So, now I'm like, "Okay, what do I do to take care of the shoulder while at the same time taking care of the bicep?" Because lot of surgeons won't even touch it, right? You know, if you've got a bicep repair, it's a different modality entirely to do physical therapy for the bicep than it is the shoulder, so they don't really like touching them both. So, I'm like going down that. I'm already not doing the workouts that I want to do and all that. So, I'm you just feeling a little down, a little disappointed. And so, I told my wife, I said, "Hey, I'm going to sit on the back porch tonight. I'm going to drink some scotch. I'm going to smoke a cigar. I'm going to watch a really dark depressing movie. You're welcome to join me. But, those are the circumstances, right? So, she wasn't really into that entire thing, but I decided to watch The Road. And I don't know why I I just kind of came up I when I was scrolling on Prime Video or something like that. And the thing is is again, like I said earlier, it hits so much different when you read that book and when you watch that movie when you have children. Cuz you can put yourself in the place of the father and then you start asking questions like, could I do that? Would I do that? How would I lead? Cuz there's the relational aspect of that movie as well with his with his wife, which we're not going to get into today, but I realized pretty quick, maybe 5 10 minutes into the movie, I started like taking notes on my phone. And then I realized, okay, I want to highlight some things and I want to share some things with you all that I think would be helpful and pertinent for you. And so, I'm going to be basing my commentary on the movie as opposed to the book. I do think that the book is better, but I think [clears throat] for the majority of y'all out there, the likelihood of you watching a 2-hour movie is obviously higher than you actually going out and reading the book. However, I'm not going to give you space on that. I think you need to read the book. If you're a father of a son, if you have a son or sons, you have to read The Road, okay? Cormac McCarthy, The Road, 2006, go get it. So, there are going to be some spoilers ahead, but guys again, the book is, you know, 20 years old, the movie 17 years old, but and and for those of you if you're not familiar with the content, you might actually want to watch the film before listening to this, but I mean, you do you. But if you have some time, maybe pause this, come back to it, go watch the film uh the film. >> [clears throat] >> But as I'm watching the film, I was just struck with how many biblical themes there were really in the film and in the book. Like it's it's insane the number of biblical themes. And so, what I'm going to do today is I'm going to go through a bunch of quotes and situations from the movie and then I'm going to look at the biblical connections. And I'm also going to be shedding some light on how these situations relate to two different categories. So, how they relate to our heavenly father, and then how they [clears throat] relate to our earthly father. And so, if you are an earthly father, then you can think of it in those scenes in those terms as well. So, the first thing I want to get into is where the father has opened up his revolver, and he has two rounds in there. Right? How he got down to two rounds, we don't know. We don't really have all that detail, but he has two rounds left. And the father was previously telling the son at one point, he was actually showing him how to commit suicide if it came to that. Because at this time, there's obviously bands of roaming people. This is a post-apocalyptic movie. Again, all the animals are dead. You're scrounging for food. Everyone's famished. So, there are gangs of people that are basically cannibals. And the father was literally taking the pistol and showing the son how to put it in his mouth and how to point it up towards his brain. So, again, very brutal content. The book's even more brutal. But, the father said to the son, "Can you do it when the time comes?" "Can you do it when the time comes? Hey, look, we're about to be overrun. You don't want to be eaten alive. You don't want to be tortured. Can you take your own life when the time comes?" And I realize how brutal of a question that is. But, the heavenly father parallel here is God asking Abraham to do the unthinkable, which is to sacrifice his son Isaac. We see that in Genesis 22. So, this was God putting Abraham to the test. And obviously, we see this thing where it's like, "Hey, go to a place I will show you." He ended up going to Mount Moriah. Isaac, who's very likely a young man at this point, [clears throat] he's carrying the own wood for a sacrifice. He doesn't know that he is going to be the sacrifice, but he's trusting his father explicitly. And if we think about this as the substitutionary atonement, he puts his son Isaac down on the altar, and he's about to sacrifice him when he is stopped. Okay? And I don't want this to be lost on anybody, okay? Because you can you can really lose stuff like this. But there was a lamb, an adult lamb, which was a ram, who had its uh its horns stuck in a thorn bush, right? So, you could look at it as a literal crown of thorns. We have the substitutionary atonement of this father sacrificing his son, but at the last moment there was a substitutionary atonement, which was a lamb, which was created by God, whose head was stuck in a crown of thorns. So, there's obviously a direct corollary to what Jesus did on the cross of Golgotha. And then the earthly father parallel, I think every father is preparing his son for something he himself may not survive to see. Because if you're doing it right, you're trying to make sure your son can survive without you. And we'll get more into that here a little bit. So, there was a scene a little bit later where the father says to the son, "We got to keep carrying the fire." And the son, you know, the son's probably 9, 10 in the movie, says, "What fire?" And the father says, "The fire inside of you." And so, in the road parlance, the fire, that is moral identity, spiritual vitality. It's it's the thing that makes them different from the cannibals, right? Different than the bad guys. So, like we're drawing this line. And so, the heavenly father parallel, you know, the fire of God's presence, right? We see that in the burning bush in Exodus 3. We see the pillar of fire in the wilderness in Exodus 13. So, the presence of God is often described as a burning fire. And then we get to Pentecost in Acts 2, where we get the gift of the Holy Spirit, right? The you know, Jesus had to leave, but he left a helper for us, right? So, we have the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit now. And God himself, you know, we see this in Hebrews 12, God himself is a consuming fire. He's described this way a lot. And the indwelling Holy Spirit is the fire that the Father placed inside of his children. Okay? So, think about there's a lot of, you know, imagery of fire in those early chapters of Acts, and that fire is placed in us by our Father, right? And the Father says to us, "Don't quench the spirit." We see that in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, "Don't quench the spirit." But then we have the earthly father parallel that a father's job is to keep pointing his son back to what makes them them. For he and his son, who are they in reference to the other theys that are out there, right? What makes them them? This is their values. It's their faith. It's their identity. And when the world goes dark, you know, as is very dark in that moment, and the boy forgets who he is, what a good father says is, "Remember who you are." The fire that is inside of you is still inside of you. May have gotten tamped down, [clears throat] may not be as bright as it was at one point, but it's still in there, and you have to keep carrying it. And then there were several scenarios throughout the film where the boy is checking in with his father, right? Hey, are we still the good guys? And then the >> [clears throat] >> situations get a little bit hairier. Hey, are are we still the good guys? I mean, it's it's honestly one of the deepest, if if not the deepest lines in the in the whole story, is are we still the good guys? Have we gotten to a point where we no longer are, where we've crossed over, where we're like them, the bad guys? So, the heavenly father parallel here is that, you know, Israel was asking whether God's ways still matter in exile, right? Then we have the the Babylonian captivity. So, in terms of what was going on for the Israelites, the world has collapsed, civilization for them had fallen, and the question really becomes, do righteousness and morality still matter now? Because when we have grocery stores and street lights that are working and electricity and you know, people aren't having to fight and scrap for resources, righteousness and morality is a lot easier to deal with. But in The Road, we're post-apocalyptic now. Where if you trust anyone, you're probably going to die. And if you get overrun, you're probably going to be eaten alive, right? And that's you know, do righteousness and morality still matter? That's the same question in The Road. But then also look at the story of Noah. You have you know, the entire world became corrupt, yet Noah remained righteous, right? That's why he and his family were spared. And again, the boy is constantly asking, are we still the good guys? Are we still the good guys? And and that's just like humanity asking, are we still bearing God's image? Because at some point pre-flood, image bearers of God stopped bearing the image of God. They stopped recognizing and acknowledging God, right? And then if you read through the Psalms, obviously I think the Psalms should be part of your healthy biblical diet, it's full of cries like this, right? So if you go to Psalm 13:1, how long, oh Lord, will you forgive me forever? I mean, there's just so much lament and anguish in that question from David. And you know, he then he reorients on God's character, right? So God consistently answers his children's identity crises not by removing the trial. Again, the point of Psalm 23 is not that the trial or the valley of the shadow of death is something we are delivered from, is that God is there with us when we're in the valley. And so, he doesn't remove the crisis, he just takes them back to their identity. He affirms who they are. And we see this also in Isaiah 43, fear not for I have not for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. And so when we lose sight of that, we lose righteousness, we lose morality, and we lose the direction, right? And so the earthly parallel here is that sons need their fathers to name them as good. Now, they can't name them as perfect because that's not possible, but name them as good. Not that we were born into it because we were born into iniquity, right? Which is a shock to some people. But, the opposite of a father who constantly shames and tears down his sons is the one that keeps calling them up into an identity of goodness, of morality, of of a godly way of doing things, okay? So, boys who never hear their father say, "I'm proud of you. You're a good man. You're turning into a good man. I love you." Like, they're going to spend their whole lives asking the world that same question right? Like, fathers, if you don't name your sons, someone's going to. They may get named by a gang leader or by some low-discernment woman or by culture. They're going to take on the brand of toxic, right? But, we have to name our sons. We have to bless them. And that, I mean, that's not soft by any means. We're calling them up into an identity. It's very Abrahamic, okay? And then, we have a situation in the film where it looks like that's it, right? The father and son are about to be overtaken by a gang of cannibals. Uh and at this point, the father only has one bullet left. There was a situation earlier in the film where he had to kill uh somebody in order to kind of keep them from being overrun. So, he's down to one bullet left. He has one round left. And so, in this situation, they are dead to rights. And so, the father surmises, "We're about to be overrun. We're going to be tortured. I can't let my son experience this." And uh >> [clears throat] >> as a father with sons, I mean, it's going to get I I lost it several times throughout this movie. But, the son points the firearm at the or the the father, rather, points the firearm at the son's forehead. Cuz he's about to kill him. He's going to use his last round to kill his son, which will give away his position, which means he's going to be overrun. That he will likely be tortured and and certainly killed. And the boy, in the panic of the situation says "When will I see you again?" The boy's not worried about losing his life. Right? He's scared. He's confused. He doesn't know why his dad's doing this, but he trusts his father. "When will I see you again?" I mean, it's it's brutal. Incredibly brutal. And so, the heavenly father parallels we see from Samuel or 2 Samuel 12, where David lost his child. This is after Nathan kind of exposed that he was the man, right? And after the child dies, part of David's lament is, "I shall go to him." "I shall go to him." So, David's hope was a reunion beyond death. And again, we can't know what heaven's going to be like, you know, where a place where sin isn't even possible, where pain and lament at a place uh it's like we can't even fathom it, but we do have this hope that we are going to see our loved ones again, and that's what David's longing in his heart is. And then we have the cross. So, the father did give his son over to suffering, right? Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for all of us, for us all." Then you have Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He essentially asks God, right, in his lament, in his prayer, "Is there another way? Is there another way?" You see that in Matthew 26. And the answer on Calvary was death. And it becomes the answer to the "When will I see you again?" question, right? Because all of Jesus's apostles, all the disciples thought, "That's it. There is the period on the end of the story of Jesus." But the answer to the "When will I see you again?" is in 3 days. So, the resurrection of Jesus, that is the Father's answer, right? Soon. When will I see you? Soon. Very soon. And Christianity transforms death from annihilation into separation with future reunion. Okay? I think we are guaranteed of that. And the boy instinctively asks the deepest human question, which is, will death end us? That's essentially what he's asking his father. Is will death end us? Will it end this connection? And in the earthly father parallel, every father will die before their son, usually. That's That's how it goes. The father will die before the son. And there will be a last conversation. Sometimes it's verily planned out cuz we know death is imminent, and other times, the last conversation you didn't know it was the last conversation, but it just was. And the boy's question, when will I see you again? is the questions that sons will ask at gravesides. Right? Depending on their worldview, trying to figure out is this it? But for Christians, and for Christian fathers, you can answer that question now. Like, you can answer that question to your sons while you're still alive. While you have direct access to them and while you have their attention, right? Cuz you should be raising them up in the nurture and admonition of the of the Lord, putting as much gospel kindling around them as possible so the Holy Spirit can do its work and have a little bit of a easier conduit to get to their hearts and their spirits. But you can tell your sons, "Look, son, if I die, I will see you in glory. Like, that's why I'm raising you, son, to know Christ. That's why I'm raising you up to be more Christ-like. So, ultimately, fathers are very interested in inheritances, right? We want to pass some money down. [clears throat] We want to pass down, you know, guns and knives and watches and, you know, land and all this kind of stuff and all that's great, but the greatest inheritance that a father can give their son is an inheritance of the gospel. A furtherance of the gospel legacy of their last name. Okay? Now, later in the film, they make it through that situation. The father and son escape, they survive. But the father's getting pretty exasperated with the son. Okay? He's just The son just doesn't get what they're going through. And the father says to himself, this is a thought to himself, "I'm trying to prepare him for the day I'm gone." Okay? So, the heavenly father parallel, we have Moses preparing Joshua. We see the example of Elijah preparing Elisha. And then we see all throughout the New Testament through the gospels, Jesus preparing his disciples. So, really all the biblical masculinity I get asked about biblical masculinity all the time, it all eventually asks the same question, which is will this man stand when I'm dead? That's That's the hope of progeny. The arrows we're shooting on into the next generation. It's will this man stand when I'm dead, when I'm gone. And really Jesus spent his entire ministry preparing the disciples for his departure. Now, we go back cuz we know what happens at the end and we read the story and we're like, "How dumb are the disciples? He said he was going to die." He said he wasn't going to be there anymore and they're shocked the whole way. Guys, rest easy knowing you would have been that dumb, too. I guarantee it. And then really John chapters 14 through 17, that's essentially Jesus saying to his disciples, his closest apostles, "I'm going away. But I'm equipping you to continue. You will not always have me, but I'm equipping you to do what you need to do. And I will give you your marching orders at the appropriate time. And so, the Holy Spirit, you know, from Pentecostal on, that is the comforter sent precisely because the father knew we'd need someone when Jesus physically left. Cuz we're looking around for the physical entity of Jesus, and we still need the helper. Then we have the earthly father parallel. A father's job is to make himself unnecessary. Right? Maybe you've never thought about that context, but ultimately you What What is it? You'll hear this from like management gurus is the best way to do your job is to make it to where you are no longer necessary to do that job because you've been elevated to a different job, right? Work yourself out of a job. Sometimes that backfires, but for a lot of people it's like, "Look, I'm training up someone else so that I can elevate to the next position." And I know that that sounds painful for fathers. Like, your job is to make yourself unnecessary, but it's the truth. But the thing is the goal of fatherhood is not dependency. If your son is an adult and still depending on you, you really have not done your job. You really haven't. You need a son that can stand without you. You want to prepare your son as Jordan Peterson talks about to be the strongest man at your funeral someday. Right? We see that throughout the Proverbs like you really want to pass that on. And then in Deuteronomy 6:7, teaching sons as you walk and sit and rise, you're always preparing them for the day that they bury you, right? That's part of the Shema. That's part of what the earthly father needs to do. And then we get this really amazing moment. So you have all this darkness and depravity and all that, but then we get this incredible moment where the father discovers an underground bunker. Okay? And they go down in this underground bunk bunker. It's full of food. Full of food, there's electricity. At one point, you know, they're able to kind of use gas. There's gas canisters, so they they heat up some water, and then they go down, and they they take a bath, right? This is first time probably in the narrative in months that they've been able to bathe, like truly bathe with warm water, right? But then they're sitting down. They kind of get, you know, dressed up. They get gussied up for the evening, right? They, you know, the father trims his beard, cuts his hair, he cuts his son's hair, and they kind of like get dressed up. He finds like a a suit jacket down there and he puts it on, maybe he already had it, or something like that. And they're about to feast, something that they hadn't done in a considerable period of time. And the boy naturally stops, and he wants to pray. Like his his natural inclination is towards prayer and Thanksgiving. Like he specifically wanted to thank God for the people that he had never met that prepared the place where they were at. A safe place stocked with food. So, the heavenly father parallel, obviously you saw this one coming, Israel receiving manna, manna from heaven, just enough for the day. We see that in Exodus 16. God constantly provides in the wilderness. Like the bunker scene is manna from heaven. And then we see in first Thessalonians first Thessalonians 5:18, give thanks in all circumstances. Again, think about this. They're being chased by ravenous cannibals. There's there's no animals to kill. Like there's no like easy sources for water. They're in a constant state of crisis. And this boy's natural inclination is to give thanks. So, the boy models something most adults forget, which is when God provides, the right response is gratitude. Not just ah, whoo, shoo, not just relief. It's gratitude. Gratitude in all circumstances. Right? So, you got the manna in the wilderness, and then you got God's provision, which is meant to cultivate dependence, right? Not on our selves and our ability to to garner materials for ourselves, but it's depending on God, and then we worship him. Right? We don't just worship him when our stomachs are full. And then in terms of the earthly father parallel, children who see their fathers pray and give thanks to God, they become men who pray and give thanks. Okay? I wasn't around any prayer growing up. Okay? Basically, there weren't many people in my family that I was exposed to that spent a lot of time in prayer. Spent a lot of time on their knees thanking God. This boy didn't learn this behavior in the classroom. Implied in the text and implied in the film is he learned this from his father. So, he absorbed it from a father who even in hell on earth has continued to model the posture of gratitude. So, for the fathers listening to this, your sons are watching you. They're watching you how you respond in moments when God provides, in times where you're in your own dark night of the soul. So, guys, like it may seem like kind of a, you know, a a curt thing or something that can be easily avoided, but at the very least, when you get to eat, thank God and do in front of your children. Again, I'll repeat what I've said on the show so many times, let them see you pray for the server. Let them see you pray for the Uber driver. Let them see you wrap your arm around a stranger who's in pain. Let them see you do that. Let them be exposed to that because they will emulate it. Then we have a situation where the boy is really trying to uh it's just he's wanting to help others even when it doesn't make sense. Okay? So, there's the this there's situations where he thinks he sees another boy. He's wanting to leave materials for other people when they have so little cuz eventually they had to leave the bunker cuz they had kind of been, you know, someone had found them and all that, so they had to get out of there. But this boy still wants to help other people even though he has so little. And so, the heavenly father parallel, like this is the image of God. This is the imago Dei, right? It's still operating inside of this child. Because children before the world has a chance to harden them, they often naturally reflect God's generosity. Don't you notice that with a lot of children, right? So, we are born into sin and we're we're rotten from the beginning, but children seem to have this inclination to help others. And then we see in Luke 10, this is the very famous parable of the Good Samaritan. This is a story of mercy in dangerous conditions, okay? So, just a you know, recap the story. We have the victim. This is a man traveling down a notoriously dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He's attacked by bandits. They strip him, they beat him, they leave him half dead on the roadside. And then he starts having people pass by. So, we have the religious elites, right? We have a priest that happens to walk down that same road. He looks down, sees a wounded man, and passes by on the other side. Oof. Ooh, don't want to deal with that. Then we have a Levite, which is a another religious official, comes along, looks at the man, also passes by on the other side of the road. But then we have the Samaritan. So, he comes upon the man uh in that era, Jews and Samaritans shared a deep-seated bitter cultural and religious hatred that is even hard for us to fathom in modernity. Yet the Samaritan, the natural enemy of this man, feels deep compassion for this man. He bandages the man's wounds. He pours oil and wine on them. He puts the man on his own animal, right? Takes him to an inn, cares for him, pays for it. Like, the next day he gives the the innkeeper two denarii, right? That's about two days' wages. And he promises to cover all the extra expenses on the return trip, right? Had a natural inclination to help, and then he followed through with it. That's the thing I talk about all the time. I don't care what your intentions are, I care what your actions are. I don't care if you don't really want to do the thing, I care if you do the thing. Because the Levite and the the priest, they may have wanted to care for the guy, but they didn't. And we can't know the motivations of the Samaritan. Again, this is a parable from Jesus, but we can assume that that was just something in there that he knew he had to care for this man. And then we have the earthly father parallel. The father in the road, he he sometimes reigns in the boy's generosity, right? Understandably, like, "Hey, you know, no, we we can't give that guy our food. Like, well, we can't go chase after that person. Like, it's got to just got to be us." But the tension is real for the Christian fathers. Like, how do we raise sons who are simultaneously strong and generous? Right? They're resilient, but they're still tender-hearted. Like, and the answer for us dads is not to crush the propensity for generosity. Like, we do want to channel it with wisdom. We don't want our kids to be taken advantage of. But my my caution to you is just, please do not beat the compassion out of your sons. Well, like, in some vague attempt to try and toughen them up. Push them towards that, but make sure you give them wisdom as well. Hey guys, real quick. So, I remember back in high school, I was training with these guys, and they all got super jacked. But they were training and using these supplements that they were buying online, and a lot of them had crazy side effects. These were not good things. There's no telling what all was in these supplements. And so, I've always kind of been scared about what supplements I'm going to put in my body, and I decided when I do start taking supplements, I want to make sure I'm using products that are certifiably clean, and also using only high-quality ingredients. 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But, I also use their krill oil, I use their fish oil, creatine, vitamin D, magnesium, joint warfare, and their sleep aids. And they have new stuff coming out all the time. Guys, if you take your health and wellness seriously, then you simply cannot afford to put cheap and inconsistent and dirty supplements inside your body. Try Jocko Fuel out today by going to jacofuel.com. That's jacofuel.com. Use the promo code Undaunted to get 10% off your order. Again, that's jacofuel.com. Promo code Undaunted to get 10% off your order. All right. Then, we have the father and the son. They're walking on the road, and they see a very, very old man. We find out later that the man is 90 years old, played by the great Robert Duvall, Robert Duvall. And so, they run in into him on the road. And so, obviously, the father, his initial reaction toward this man is distrust and let's create distance. But, not the boy. He naturally gravitates towards this old man. Okay? Old man's almost blind. Clearly not a threat. But again, as a dad in that situation, you treat everyone as a threat. But, it's like the boy naturally recognizes there's something important in a man that's of age, that's been tested, his manhood has been forged over this long period. Like, even though the father is understandably concerned about this man, as any man would be, the son just had this natural trust. At one point, you know, they they start walking along. The the father asks if they if he'd like to, you know, have dinner with them. And you know, he just reaches up and instinctively grabs this old man's hand. Right? He's got like a a walking stick, but he just wants to hold the man's hand. Right? So, the heavenly father parallel we see in Proverbs 16:31, "Gray hair is a crown of glory. It is gained in a righteous life." So, God actually built honor of elders, which is something we don't really do in a modernity, but he bought he brought, you know, honoring elders into the law. So, we see that in Leviticus 19, "You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God. I am the Lord." And so, there's something sacred in generational transmission, right? Not just of assets, but of wisdom, of grit. So, it's it's the young that are sitting at the feet of the old. Okay, we see so many examples of this in scripture. I mean, just think about Paul and Timothy, you know, someone that's older, more experienced, but then you have someone sitting under that person, learning, developing, right? So, the the boy seemingly instinctively knows that this is a valuable time. And then the earthly father parallel is this is really a a devastating indictment of the fatherless culture that we're now in, right? You see so many boys without fathers, but they always find a father figure, right? For good or for ill. It could be a coach or a teacher or a pastor, but it could like it could be a guy that's running a gang, could be someone that's wanting to take advantage of them, it could be, you know, a homosexual man that's trying to like groom this young boy. Like, boys will find a father figure, right? And the boy in the road, he gravitates towards an old man because it's written in him. There there's just something like if you had a great relationship or still have a great relationship with your grandfather, doesn't that feel differently to you? This isn't just an old guy in your life. It's so important, right? And men, >> [clears throat] >> for us because some of you listen to this, you're in your fourth quarter of life already. Be the kind of elder that young men are drawn to. Like, so many guys get to this point in their life where they're, you know, they retire and they're just sitting [clears throat] there. Sitting there watching television, right? Complaining about traffic, complaining about, you know, what's happening on the news, complaining about whatever people are saying and screaming about on Fox News. And they're wasting the years of their life and their experience cuz they're not transferring it to anybody. Even with Christians, you've had guys that have served God and and served people in their 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s, but now as they're in their 60s and 70s and 80s, they're just getting old. They're not discipling anyone. They're not passing on their wisdom to teenagers or to men that are young in their marriages, right? And so for your men, raise your sons to honor and not dismiss older men who carry wisdom. Like I'm going to do what I can to encourage my boys to honor and learn from older men, men that have been Christians longer, men that are more experienced in in business or in fitness or in law or any of those types of things. I'm going to push them towards them because of the things they're going to be able to gain. Again, boys that are raised in a modern culture or raised in a feminist culture, if they go through, you know, natural schooling, almost all their teachers are going to be women. And so their exposure to the right kinds of men can just help you as a dad. And so as I mentioned, the [clears throat] father actually invites this old man to join them for dinner. And so they're sitting around the campfire eating or whatever and the boy eventually goes to sleep and the father looks at the old man and he asks him a question. Do you ever wish you would die? Kind of a tough question, but given the circumstances, he's old, post-apocalyptic, you would think what how the old man would answer, but his response was this. No. It's foolish to ask for luxuries at times like these. So think about the earthly or the heavenly father parallel. So we have Elijah under the juniper tree, right? He's complaining about his circumstances. We see this in 1 Kings 19 and he says, "It is enough. Now, oh Lord, take my life." And and God's response was not rebuke, it was not, you know, taking him out, smiting him. It was, "Here's some food. get some rest, and then he gave him that still small voice to continue to guide him. So, God doesn't shame men for wanting to quit. I think we all get to that point where we want to quit. But, he also doesn't just grant the request. Like guys, if you're still taking breath into your lungs, it means God's still not done with you. God's still got work for you to do. And so, the old man really echoes this, I don't get that luxury. I have to stay. That's what he's saying. And so, for the earthly father, there are men listening to this right now who have wanted to die before. You're suicidal. You're at the end of the dark night of the soul, the deepest part of the darkest part of the dark night of the soul, and you thought that's curtains for me. And for most of us men, we know men that have gone that route. I know men that have gone that route, unfortunately. And >> [clears throat] >> these are fathers that you maybe you're crushed under the weight of failure, maybe financial ruin, maybe there's some sort of shame in your life. >> [clears throat and cough] >> And the answer to that is not you know, toxic positivity. Oh, it's all going to be great and don't worry about it, it'll all be good in the end, right? Like it's that old gritty realism, which is stay. Stay in this moment. Remain strong. Rely on your father, earthly and heavenly. It's not your time to go. That's a luxury that you don't get yet. Just hang on. Just hang on. And then we have later on in the movie where the boy's asleep, and he wakes up from a bad dream. And the father kind of consoles him, gets him back to sleep, and then the father says to himself in his head, I tell him when you dream about bad things happening, it shows you're still fighting. You're still alive. It's when you start to dream about good things that you should start to worry. So, this is the father reframing nightmares as evidence of survival and resistance right? So, our heavenly Father parallel here, Romans 5 verses 3 through 5. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us. So, the suffering itself isn't the enemy. So, it's the absence of feeling that is. Right? Like, when a man stops dreaming, when he starts stops having that positive aspirational identity, like, he just kind of goes numb. And that is way more dangerous than a man who has nightmares, right? Because for some of us, our nightmares are spiritual attacks. Satan's having trouble getting to you while you're conscious, so he's trying to get you in your subconscious, right? Or while you're sleeping. And God uses those darks and dark nights of the soul, right? To to keep his people awake. He wants you to stay fighting. He wants you to stay engaged, okay? And then the earthly father parallel. You know, fathers who tell their sons, you know, man up, stop feeling that, you know, you're creating men who dream of good things. Right? They're dreaming of good things, better days. It's going to lead to numbness. Okay? Now, I'm okay with a little bit of stiff upper lip, with a little bit of stoicism, like, hey, this is an overreaction, you need to control that, but you don't want a kid that emotionally checks out. You don't want a kid that just stops fighting, right? That is not going to redound to their benefit or the people around them when they get older. And so, a wise father teaches his son that look pain grief nightmares it it means that you still have feeling in here. You still got that fire inside of you. You're still alive. Like, don't train your sons out of feeling things, right? Train them to interpret their feelings through truth, through a lens of wisdom. And then we get toward the end of movie and the kid gets sick. At one point he's running a fever. He's talking to his father and the son says, "What would you do if I died?" The father says, "If you died, I would want to die, too." And the son says, "So you could be with me?" And the father says, "So I could be with you." I mean brutal. Just a a brutal conversation to have with your young son, but this is raw fatherhood here. I mean, the heavenly father parallel here is the most famous verse on the planet, John 3:16. The father loved the world. He loved his children so much that he gave up his own son. But the inversion here is powerful as well. The father gave his son to death so that he wouldn't lose his people permanently. He gave up his own son, Jesus, so that he wouldn't lose all of humanity, all of his image bearers. And so the love is the same, the direction [clears throat] is just reversed. And in God's love for his children is his sustaining motivation through all history. And then for the earthly father parallel, sons need to know that their fathers would die for them. Okay? Not as some sort of a sentiment, but just as truth, right? You know, it's lying for them, laying with them. They need to know that you're willing to sacrifice for them, which would include the ultimate sacrifice. That you would lay down your life so that the boy can go free. And when a boy knows that his father's whole heart is wrapped up in him, it shapes his identity. Like it it shapes his identity in ways that nothing else can, really. And this is also a warning. A son who doubts his father's love will spend his life trying to earn it. So he may try to earn it from you, Dad, but then he's also going to find other avenues where he might be able to earn it. Other men, other women, other, you know, validation systems and you don't want him going down that road. And then there's a an interaction between the father and son, you know, it's after a very dramatic moment towards the end of the film. So, you have the father, he is he is lamenting, he is so frustrated, fed up and he's screaming. He says, "I'm scared." It's the first time we hear him admit that to the boy. He says, "I'm scared. You're not the one that has to worry about everything." And the son yells right back at him, "Yes, I am. I am the one." You know, we talk about rites of passage, we talk about when a boy becomes a man, this is the moment where the boy becomes a man. Okay? The boy rejects his father's attempt to carry the burden alone. He's not just reacting in ego, like he's insisting on sharing the weight with his father. And so the heavenly father parallel, so look at the disciples in Gethsemane in Matthew 26. Jesus says, "Stay and watch with me, okay?" Jesus, part of the Godhead, doesn't want to be alone in his [clears throat] darkest hour. He doesn't want to be alone. There's something in the heart of God and in the heart of a child that refuses to let the father suffer alone. Right? I even think about this with my boys after I got home from surgery, the tenderness that they wanted to show me, the you know, the little things they made me out of Legos, the little things that they they you know, decorated and the artwork they made for me to try to make me feel better. They wanted to try to alleviate some of the pain that was on my shoulders, right? This is Galatians 6, bear one another's burdens, right? They're modeling it before they even understand the concept. And the earthly father parallel, fathers who never let their sons in, they carry everything alone, they don't share anything with their their kids, they don't share their fears, their desires, they're actually robbing their sons of a chance to become men. Because we should never burden our children with something that they can't bear. All right, I saw my buddy once, he lost his job and he was going home to tell his kids. I was like, "Bro, bro, don't don't no no no. Don't do that. You're emotional, you're crying. Like, you can't do that yet." Like, you can't place a burden on them that they are incapable of carrying, right? But the boy's insistence here in The Road is holy, right? He's not asking, "Dad, call me. Dad, you're scaring me." He's asking to share the weight. That is showing his formation. Like, let your son see your fear sometimes. Like, you don't want to destabilize them, but invite them into the struggle. Invite them to struggle alongside you. And then we have the emotional climax of the film and the book, right? Again, [clears throat] this whole thing's been a spoiler. But the father's been sick this entire time. He's been coughing. He's starting to cough up blood. He's not doing very well. And in the film, he suffers a a terrible wound. He actually gets shot by somebody with an arrow in his calf. And, you know, his body's finally failing, right? And then eventually his body does fail and he dies. But the uh the father's last words on this planet were to his son. He said, "You have my whole heart. You always did." So, that's the the final benediction, if you will, of a dying father to his son. Some of you out there, maybe you had a similar experience with your dad. Or maybe you didn't have that experience and it's still weighing on you. But these are the last words on this father's lips. You have my whole heart. You always did. So, the heavenly father parallel, you will see Matthew 3. This is Jesus's baptism. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. So, the father spoke this over the son before he had done a single miracle. No public ministry had been done yet. He hadn't done anything to earn it. It was an identity declaration. Not a performance review. He said, "You are this." >> [snorts] >> So, the dying father in the road really does the same. You have my whole heart. Not, "Congrats, son. You earned it." Not, "Hey, you performed well enough for these words." It was always his. James and Elijah, they have all of my heart. They don't have to perform. They don't have to jump through hoops to get it. It's theirs. In the earthly father parallel, this is the benediction every son needs to hear from their father. Like, ideally why the father is still alive, still healthy, not just at the deathbed right? Men, I mean, just say it now. Say now out loud. If your son's in the car, say to him, "You have my whole heart. You always did." I said it last night when I was praying over my eldest, "You have my whole heart. You always did." You have my whole heart, son. And again, it's not because your son's perfect. He can't be. It's because he's yours. Okay? That's grace. Like, that's the gospel in a sentence. And then the father's passed away. The boy's walking along the beach by himself, and there's a man in the distance that's coming up to the boy. Okay? And the boy immediately pulls out the revolver. It's got one round left in it, and he's pointing it at the man. And the man, he's got shotgun. He's He's not scared. He just walks right up to the boy, gets close to him, and there's some tense moments. But eventually, the man kind of is able to calm the boy down. And, you know, [clears throat] the man eventually offers to this boy, right? This orphan, to come with him. To come with his wife. They have two children, a boy that's roughly his age, and a girl. And the boy asks this stranger, right? He's still hesitant. He's still protective. But he asks this stranger, "Are you carrying the fire? The guy kind of looks at him he's just like I What do you mean? And then he starts pounding his chest he's like, are you carrying the fire? It's this boy giving this man a litmus test. He wants to know if this man is one of the good guys or one of the bad guys. Right? And and honestly, like this is a perfect ending. It's a brutal, rough movie the whole way but it's just perfect. Because after the father dies, the boy doesn't ask the new man if he has food or weapons, right? He doesn't ask the new man, hey, are you going to protect me? Right? He asks if he's carrying the fire. And the film actually ends with that man introducing the boy to his wife, to the kids. They said they've been following him along and even the mom's like, look, we've been so worried about you and your father. But but now you're with us and we don't have to worry about you anymore. It's just a beautiful ending to a brutal movie. So the heavenly father parallels this is the boy doing exactly what his father disciplined him to do and discipled him to do. Like let's evaluate others by their spiritual and moral identity. Not just their utility, but whether or not they're carrying the father or or the fire rather and the father I guess you could say. And in Matthew 7, uh we see this in verses 15 through 20. This is Jesus. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. This boy is testing for the fire. He's discerning. He is trained for this moment. His father has trained him for this moment. And he's showing that the lessons his father taught him while he was still alive have taken root. That leads to the earthly father parallel, last one. This is the ultimate payoff of faithful fatherhood. Being a good father is really, really hard work. It takes a ton of time and it takes a crap ton of effort, right? But for those of you that have adult sons now and you see them faithfully living out the gospel in their lives taking care of a woman, taking care of your grandchildren you're seeing the fruits of your labor, right? Because being a father can be fairly thankless, right? Some of you in horrible marital situations, some of you aren't married anymore and you're still trying to do your best as a dad even though the state has basically taken most of your rights as father away. I get it. I get it. But the time and effort you invest not in your phone not in fancy football, not in Netflix, not in watching sports it will pay off in the lives of your children. Again, those are the arrows you're shooting in the next generation. Right? So, in the scenario in the road, the father's dead. But his question, right? Are you carrying the father? It lives Are you carrying the fire? Are you carrying the fire? It lives on in the son, right? So, the son asked the question the father always asked. Hey, are you carrying the fire? Are you carrying the fire? And then he asks it to this new man. That's discipleship, okay? That's true legacy, okay? You know, when I talk about raising up children in the nurturing admonition of the Lord, look at Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it." Is that not the goal here? Like this scene here, that is that proverb fulfilled. So, the boy did not depart from the way he was trained. He couldn't. Right? The father had made that part of him. So, for the dads out there listening this, okay? If you have not given your life to Christ, much of the last almost hour of your life doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Because if you still have self elevated above the importance of God, then what is this What is any of this matter? You don't have a moral scaffolding to your life. You just have your decisions. And so, if you have not given your life to Christ, let this be the time that you do so. Like, take your faith from you and your ability to do good and to live a good enough [clears throat] life and to work hard, not kill nobody, or whatever you say to yourself. You have a sin debt that has to be paid. But, the reality is is you can't pay it. You can't pay it with enough good deeds. You will never be able to clean yourself up enough. Okay? You have to have the imputed righteousness that comes when we place our faith onto the finished work of Jesus at the cross. And so, if you haven't done that, do that right now. Do it right now. Give your life to Jesus. And for those of you that have already given your life to Jesus, and you're raising Yes, I know some of you have sons and daughters, some just daughters, but specifically ones raising sons. Are you carrying the fire? Because your son's watching. Like, you know, a pithy statement is more is caught than taught. Well, guess what? Stuff is caught and taught. Are they catching on to the fact that dad's carrying some fire in him? Are they being taught things that display dad is clearly carrying the fire in him? Are you transferring those stories? Are you discipling that child so that one day he can carry the fire when yours is extinguished? Cuz it's coming for all of us. Right? Now, if you have if you're a believer in Christ, you have the gift of eternal life. Whether you die before rapture or whether we get all raptured up, right? Be cool to just not die and go straight there. That'd be neat. But for a lot of us, that's not going to be our story. Your fire will be put out. Will it be transferred? Are you even trying to transfer it? Are you even trying to figure out ways that you can transfer? Cuz let me tell you, some of you got littles like me, 6 and 4 years old. I got a lot of time left with them. Some of you have adult sons. Some of you haven't seen your sons or talked to them in forever. You can still transfer the fire. Right? There may be bumps along the way. There might be some resistance. You can still do what you can to transfer the fire. But again, if you're not even carrying it, there's nothing to transfer. So, are you carrying the fire? All right, guys, that'll do it for today. Before we let you go, we are going to do a quick Resilience Boost. Undaunted, our mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience. So, I've got an Amazon link to where you can buy your copy of The Road Less Traveled. Guys, it's a book that you can buy just about anywhere. Go support your local bookstore. Go buy a used copy. Just make sure you have a copy physically. If your son is of age where he can understand a book like that, I highly, highly, highly recommend that y'all read that together. And then again, I've got some links where y'all can donate to support The Daily Blade. That's where you can do a donation and get a tax write-off. And then also, the link to where you can donate to Undaunted Life. Thank you everyone for listening to this episode. Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and leave us a positive five-star review. If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, just shoot me an email to info@undaunted.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming. www.undaunted.life. The music on this podcast is the song Conqueror by the Christian metal band Void Awaikin. Be sure to stream their music on Spotify, Apple Music, and wherever else you get your music. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical resilience, keep seeking the lion of Judah. >> Conqueror. >> [music]