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Ask a PODCASTER with JOBY MARTIN | March 2026 (Ep. 886)

March 3, 2026 40m 55s Full transcript available
Ask a PODCASTER with JOBY MARTIN | March 2026 (Ep. 886)
0:00 / 40m 55s
In this episode, Kyle Thompson and Joby Martin tackle listener questions, diving deep into the essence of manhood, faith, and resilience. They discuss the importance of emotional leadership, the struggles men face, and how to cultivate a life of purpose and strength.
Transcript
486 segments
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1:56 This is undaunted life a man's podcast.
2:01 I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
2:03 Joby Martin is good to see your face.
2:05 But here's the thing, guys, if you listen to the ask a pastor/podcast or from last month,
2:10 neither one of us came prepared because we didn't know who was supposed to be asking the questions.
2:14 But this month, as promised, you were supposed to be asking me the questions.
2:18 But it's so bizarro backwards world.
2:20 I forgot to even hit the record buttons initially just a second ago.
2:23 Because I was like, yeah, hey, you're driving, so let's go, Joby.
2:26 Well, I am ready. These are hot off the press, mostly from our staff members.
2:30 So people that listen to the show and have questions for you, are you ready?
2:35 Well, I'm ready. But just to give everyone a peek behind the curtain here,
2:38 every time I ask Joby questions on ask a pastor, he has not seen them.
2:42 Like if I ever have to ask him about an obscure passage of scripture, I give him a heads up.
2:46 But neither one of us see these questions.
2:48 And so there's nothing to prepare for.
2:50 So I'm a little scared, but I'm excited. Let's go.
2:54 All right. First question is for me. Why undaunted life? Why you, why now?
2:59 You asked that one all the time to authors.
3:01 Oh, OK. Yeah. So why the name or why undaunted life in general?
3:06 Yeah. Why the, you know, kind of the purpose of the mission of it and why you.
3:10 Yeah. Ultimately, it goes to when I was in my 20s and really started digging into the Bible
3:16 for the first time myself, this is around the same time I read, wow, to heart for the first time.
3:21 And I just saw this inequity between what manhood was portrayed as inside the church,
3:26 which was ultimately don't do that stuff here and what I saw like in real life.
3:31 And like Jesus seemed like a real dude, not, not like just in the flesh, but like a dude,
3:36 like a dude, dude, like a man, like a, like a bad dude, you know what I mean?
3:38 Like in a good way, don't clip that people on the internet.
3:41 But like that's, that's what I saw. And so I just got this burden in my 20s, Joby,
3:46 my early 20s for like tough guys for guys that like worked with their hands for a living or
3:51 fought or, you know, we're, you know, in the military or, you know, LEO or something like that.
3:55 I thought they might miss out on who Jesus was because his followers were so weak and soft.
4:00 And so again, you know, if you read scripture closely, that's not exactly how it works.
4:04 We don't have to get into all the elect and all the other stuff and irresistible grace and all that.
4:08 But that's where that all kind of came from. And, you know, in your early 20s, no one will trust
4:14 you with anything like, you know, potato gun, much less like a new ministry. And so I kind of
4:18 helped some other men's ministries get going. But they were kind of like camp based stuff and
4:23 all they wanted to do was just like, you know, repackage John Eldridge stuff, but for, you know,
4:28 an in person audience. And I was like, okay, that's fine. But there's so much more that can be done.
4:32 And it eventually became clear that I just need to kind of do something on my own just because
4:36 my engine and my brain just goes so fast. I don't want to have to have a committee meeting
4:40 every time we want to change the font on the website. And so like, you know, it's just kind of
4:44 one of those deals that I wrote the devotional for the uversion Bible app expecting it not to be
4:49 accepted and for no one to read it. And not only was it accepted, it was read and finished by
4:54 tens of thousands of people. And I was like, holy cow. And so it's like, I guess I have to keep doing
4:59 this. And so here we are. Yeah, but what I released that 10 years ago, Joby, that was in 2016 when
5:06 that devotional came out. So this is technically the 10 year anniversary of undaunted life. I should
5:10 figure out when that was exactly released. But yeah, that's ultimately it. Just an overwhelming
5:15 burden for men. And then, you know, people just kept listening. So I kept saying stuff.
5:18 So shout out to you version. They just went over a billion subscribers. A billion downloads on a
5:24 billion devices. Yeah, a billion would be insane. Yeah. So shout out to Craig Rochelle and that whole
5:28 team. All right. Next question. I don't know who it's from, but I'm sure they're great. How do you,
5:34 Kyle guard your heart from chasing numbers instead of chasing faithfulness? Okay, you want to,
5:41 this is going to sound ridiculous. I just don't look at them. That's how, because here's the thing,
5:48 I like scoreboards, right? This whole concept of like kids, leagues where they don't keep score
5:54 and stuff like that. I'm like, that's ridiculous. I'm keeping score, right? The kids are keeping
5:58 score in their heads. So we might as well have a scoreboard that plays it. But the thing is,
6:02 is someone will ask me, they'll be like, Oh, you know, last year when Wes Huff came on, or recently,
6:06 when Willie Robertson came on, or like, Hey, do your numbers go up when Joby comes up? Because
6:11 Jacksonville's in like your top three audiences or, you know, Hey, is the forging table still standing
6:15 strong, you know, with your solo episodes? And my answer is, I don't know. Oh, in same thing with
6:20 money, like donations, like, well, I met dinner with my wife the other night. And she asked me,
6:25 like, Hey, how was January for on dawn? And I was like, like what, like downloads, like donations,
6:30 whatever. She's like, yeah, like donations, I have no idea. She's like, you have no idea.
6:34 And that partially goes to the fact that, you know, we have margin in our finances. So we're not
6:38 waiting for that extra $25 donation to come in so we can pay our electric bill or something like that.
6:44 But I just don't worship at the altar at numbers. So and to prove it, someone asked me in December
6:51 last year, they're like, Hey, where are you at year over year from 2024 to 2025 in terms of your
6:57 podcast? And I was like, I should go look that up. And they're like, dude, it's December. What do you
7:02 mean you should go look that up? I'm like, I don't know. And so I went in there and yeah, we were up
7:06 like, I don't know 30 or 40% from the year before. But the reason why I don't look at the scoreboard
7:10 as it pertains to this ministry is because I don't want it to influence what I talk about.
7:14 So like, let's say I do a solo episode on pick a subject and it gets a lot of downloads or not very
7:20 many that I don't want that to encourage me to be like, Oh, I should talk more about that subject
7:25 because it got me more listeners or followers. Like I talk about what I feel like God wants me
7:30 to talk about. And dude, before I record, I kind of just steal your line. I'm like, God,
7:34 this is your audience. What do you want me to tell them? Like daily blade God, this is your
7:39 audience. What do you want me to give them this week? And you know, lo and behold, you know,
7:43 for nine straight years of the podcast, he's given me something to talk about.
7:47 So if somebody did wanted to donate to Undaunted Life, how did they do that?
7:51 Yeah, so we have we have two ways to donate. So like if you if you need a tax ride off, you can
7:55 actually donate to the to the Daily Blade. And so if you go to New Horizons Foundation, New Horizons
8:02 with an S and search for the Daily Blade, you can actually donate to the work that Joby and I are
8:07 doing because it does cost quite a bit to pull that off because we're never going to do ads or
8:11 sponsors. So that is a 501(c)(3) thing. You'll get all the tax stuff or whatever. But if you just
8:15 want to donate directly to Undaunted Life, it's just undaunted.life/donate. You can find that on our website.
8:20 Very good. All right. Next question. How do you help men who feel like they've failed beyond repair?
8:26 Well, I do get a lot of those messages, unfortunately, like in the in the emails or whatever, like,
8:35 hey, I've done this or I had this behavior or I have this addiction, they talk in the present tense.
8:41 It's almost always sexual, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, I was trying to think of other examples,
8:45 but bro, it's, I mean, 75%, 80% of the time it's, you know, they had an affair or they've got a
8:51 porn addiction or they say they have a porn addiction, they don't. Like, you're not addicted to porn.
8:56 Like, if porn was deleted from the earth, you wouldn't die. Like, that's basically indicative
9:00 of what an addiction is. But I ask, I try to ask questions to surmise where exactly they're
9:04 coming from, but it all kind of circles back to the same place, which is, hey, bro, are you alive?
9:10 Which just seems like a really stupid question, but they're like, uh, yeah, podcast for guy, I'm alive.
9:15 I'm like, oh, okay. So I guess God's not quite done with your story, right? And so it's like,
9:21 what do you think the word redemption means? Right? I remember when Tiger Woods won a golf
9:26 tournament years ago, after he was slinging it all over the place, and I don't mean golf balls.
9:31 And you know, he here is, he's, you know, broken down and his whole world's upside down and everybody
9:36 leaves them except Nike, including his family. Everybody leaves them. He's on his own. And then
9:40 he wins a tournament and it was like redemption, redemption. I'm like, bro, redemption is a theological
9:45 term. We're not talking about golf tournaments here, right? Great. I'm sure it was great for,
9:50 for Nike, red polo shirt sales and for, you know, for the sponsors, for CBS, for whoever was showing
9:56 it. But at the end of the day, it's like, bro, you're alive. You're alive. This idea that you're,
10:01 what you've done is irredeemable is indicative of a misunderstanding of what the gospel actually
10:06 is. It's not, yeah, yeah, the gospel applies, but not for these people. It goes back to the
10:10 Lily Phillips stuff I was talking about on the show a while back. It's like, whoa, wait, wait,
10:15 you think the gospel applies for everyone except for professional whores? It doesn't apply for
10:19 those people. Those people can't be redeemed because they've had sex with thousands of men.
10:24 No, that's just their flavor of depravity. And it's at a different level than yours.
10:28 And you're placing yourself above that person in the sin hierarchy. That's not how any of this works.
10:32 Amen. Amen. Preach it, buddy. All right. What do you wish more men understood about emotional
10:39 leadership in the home? Ultimately, that they should strengthen the lion inside of them
10:47 while working more on the lamb, right? Now, I don't typically have, well, actually, I was about to
10:54 say something that's actually not true. There's a lot of guys that need to work on the lion,
10:58 right? Because they are weak-willed. They're weak-bodied. They're weak in terms of leadership,
11:04 in terms of headship, in terms of pursuing the hearts of their lives and their children,
11:08 especially their daughters, for whatever reason. And so they really need to work on the lion,
11:12 right? They need to learn how to fight. They need to have more of a kind of like a grisled
11:16 body that's ready for the work of the gospel and everything else. But at the same time to the guys
11:21 that are aggro, to the guys that freaking love deadlift, and they love all the intense stuff and
11:25 the fighting, and they're just waiting on the day for the perp to come in their front door like
11:28 all the things, those guys need to work on the lamb a little bit more. And I'm in the process too,
11:35 guys, of how do I yo-yo that? Because like right now, like peek behind the curtain even in my own
11:40 marriage, this is going to be shocked to everybody, but I'm fairly direct in how I talk to people,
11:44 right? And I try to get to the point as quickly as possible, even though sometimes I tend to
11:48 blow the eight, but I try to get to the point, try talking to your wife that way, where you just get
11:54 right to the point. Here's the truth. Well, dad, go, man, like let's just get right to the truth. Well,
11:58 that doesn't work. So I've kind of shifted over to the, all right, let's tip toe through the tulips
12:03 and let's kind of weave in and around the point that I'm trying to make. And then I
12:07 exasperate my wife a little bit because she's like, what is he trying to tell me? And so it's like,
12:11 I've gone to two or direct to aggressive to aggro to the other side, which is like,
12:16 la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, like meandering around the point, trying to find that that middle
12:22 thing. It may seem like a communication thing that I'm needing to figure out. But no, that's an
12:26 emotional thing I'm trying to figure out. How do I regulate my own emotions to where I don't like
12:32 scare someone to death while at the same time communicating something that is important to the
12:37 household. And so I think for a lot of guys, it's just emotional regulation, Joby. It's like,
12:43 why do they look at porn? It's because they're lonely and they feel like they're owed something.
12:48 And so they pull out their phone and they look at porn and masturbate. Why do men drink alcohol
12:52 to excess? Even though they know they have an alcohol problem, why do people use nicotine and
12:56 excess? Even though they know they're addicted to it? It's because emotionally, they think they
13:00 deserve it. And they don't know how to just regulate their emotions. They don't know how to tell their
13:05 brain, Hey, shut up, dude. Get your, get your gym bag, get your shoes on and go work out.
13:10 Like stop feeling sorry for yourself. And they try to, you know, use Cam Haines clips and David
13:15 Goggins clips and they try to use clips of me or 31 day resiliency reset to like get them in the
13:20 mood. It's like, bro, just go do it, regulate your emotions, make them some servient to your
13:24 discipline and the things that you need to do. Yeah, commentary I would add is the two extremes,
13:31 the some men are afraid of the emotions of their wife, right? Yeah. And they let her emotions rule.
13:37 That's not good, dude. But then the other extreme is you advocate, like you don't care at all about
13:42 the emotions of your wife. So the kind of down the middle of the fairway is you understand you
13:47 are responsible. And simultaneously, you've got to take into account, like the emotional state of
13:53 your wife. But I agree with everything you say, Hey, by the way, thanks. Apparently, I haven't done
13:58 your 31 day reset, but yeah, a bunch of people have because apparently you said write your pastor
14:06 like, thank you note. Yeah, I got 1000 or something this week, or whatever the day was,
14:11 I don't know what day we all hit on one day. So everybody started January or everybody started
14:15 having many days ago. Yeah, January one. Yeah, you got hit with a bunch of them, bro. So
14:20 that was cool. That's really neat. To be on the back end of a ministry that you're doing. You
14:26 know what I'm saying? Well, Joby, so the thing was, is I had a daily challenge because there's stuff
14:30 that you had to do every day, where you had to listen to the daily blade, you had to read, you know,
14:34 a couple of passages of scripture, you know, you couldn't drink alcohol, you couldn't masturbate,
14:39 you couldn't, you know, eat sugar. There were, you know, do's and don'ts that were every single day.
14:43 But then there was a different daily challenge. And yeah, that's hilarious, because for the guys
14:47 that started on January one, the day where it said, write your pastor a note or an encouragement or
14:52 something of some kind. So I guess it hit a bunch of them at the same time. Yeah, my inbox,
14:57 I was like, man, I must have preached good this week. Look at all these things, but it was actually
15:00 you know, my fault. You're all you. All right. Next question. What is the enemy's main strategy
15:06 against men right now? This is kind of a generic answer, but I think you'll, you'll follow me
15:13 whatever has a hold of you. That's his main strategy. And so because you take a room of 100 men,
15:21 your best guess is that probably sexual sin, as we've already talked about in this conversation,
15:26 sexual sin is probably going to be at the top for the majority of those men. But I've literally
15:32 Joby talked to men that are like, yeah, I don't really get porn. It's just kind of weird and gross.
15:36 And they mean it. And they're, it's not like they're suppressing same-sex attraction. They're like,
15:39 yeah, I've just watched it. I'm like, why do people watch this? This is weird. I think a lot of that
15:42 is kind of conditional and habitual. Yeah. Like if you have it looked at it in a really long time,
15:49 and it is not a part of your normal life. When you see it, you're like, what are people even
15:54 thinking, you know? So yeah, I agree. It shocks. Yeah. It shocks the central nervous system. But
15:58 like for some guys, it's like it's going to be the chemical. You're going to get pulled into the
16:03 chemical side of things. And so it's like what Satan's looking at you. He's looking at your game
16:08 film. And he's like, what is going to distract this person from the work of the gospel? I'm
16:11 specifically talking about Christian men. Because if you're busy getting drunk, not only are you
16:16 destroying your witness because people typically don't get drunk, you know, by themselves, even
16:20 though that is a problem as well. But if you're an abbreviated or you can't wait for that next
16:25 cocktail, then are you thinking about sharing the gospel with the bartender? No, you start checking
16:30 them out. Like that's a little bit different. Dude, my college roommate, I got him the drunk
16:34 evangelist. He like grew up in church and all that. And he would come to some Bible studies with me
16:37 and he hardly ever drank. But dude, when he had a few in him, he'd be like, Jesus loves you, man.
16:42 And he'd be I was like, Hey, man, I don't think this is doing what you hope. If you do get drunk,
16:48 if you were quiet, it might go better for your witness. All right. How do you prepare for interviews?
16:54 Because I will say I've done as many podcasts as a guest as a human can do, I think. And there's
17:03 some really good ones and there's some that are less good. But the first time I ever met you,
17:08 part of the reason we connected is your you were different. And it had, I assume it was because of
17:14 your preparation was a part of that. So how do you prepare for an interview? I know the answer to
17:19 this, but I want people to hear it. Yeah. So funny thing is, is the very first book that I was given
17:26 before it was released. So this is the arc copy, the advance readers copy was actually take heart
17:31 by Matt Chandler. Okay, I remember getting it in my inbox and being like, Oh, no one has this.
17:38 I'm the only person that has this. Like the sky has opened up and the muse has given this down
17:43 to me and all that. And I thought it was, it was precious to me. And guess what? There was no
17:49 interview forthcoming. But I also remember the, you know, the next time I had an interview coming up
17:55 with an author that had a book coming out and I was sent a PDF copy and I cherished it
18:01 because I was like somebody put a lot of effort into this book. And I remember my mindset,
18:06 Joby, this is, I mean, my first interview was episode 100, right? And we're 800 and some
18:10 odd episodes in, right? I remember thinking at the least I can do, the absolute least I can do is
18:17 read this book before I talk to this person, because they gave years of their life thinking and writing
18:23 to make 250 pages happen. I might as well read it. And I just kept doing that over and over and
18:30 over. And the problem with most podcasts is they're lazy, right? They either take the PDF, throw it
18:35 in a chat GBT and say, give me podcast questions. But they're very, very generic. I understand I'm
18:40 a little bit of a weirdo, a little bit of a psychopath. My brain just works differently. I see patterns
18:44 while I'm reading stuff that wouldn't, you know, a, you know, a large learning language model would
18:51 not give me or something like that. And so for me, if it's, if it's a book, I will read the entirety
18:57 of the book. And then I make, I make notes as I'm reading it, right? And hey, well, I should
19:03 probably ask about this. Hey, this didn't really jive with what, you know, was later on in the book.
19:06 I need to get some clarification. But I just always have my audience in mind. And the way I
19:11 prepare my questions is if this person is just right down the middle, super basic answers exactly
19:18 what I say doesn't get off on any tangents, then here are the questions that they're going to answer
19:22 in a row that's going to lead to an overall narrative arc for this interview and be a service
19:27 to or a minister, a ministry to my men that are in this audience and my five percent or shout
19:32 out to the five percenters. But then it's like, all right, some of my best interviews are where I
19:36 don't get to a third of the questions and we just bounce all over the place. Like I recently did an
19:40 interview with Brad Thor that I'll probably be out before this comes out. You know, one of the best
19:44 selling thriller authors of all time, we didn't get to most of my questions because we just kept
19:49 going off on tangents and it was awesome. But the reason I was able to go off on those tangents is
19:52 because I knew the material, right? I was, I was familiar with the material. It's like jazz
19:57 musicians. They know all the notes, right? Then they can just kind of flow and go nuts, right?
20:02 And so that's how I approach it. It's like, look, it's the least I can do to consume your material
20:06 and then it typically leads to a more unique interview for them and for me.
20:10 And you read all, even if you don't love the book, you give it a real gracious rendering, right?
20:16 Yes. And here's the other thing. I say yes to the interview before I read the book
20:21 because I don't have the time to risk reading a book because I am a slow reader and a slow
20:27 absorber of information through the written word for whatever reason. And so I can't take
20:31 the risk of spending five to 10 hours reading a book to realize, man, this is a heaping pile of
20:35 garbage. And then, you know, go, go from there. I just say yes to the interview. I try to find
20:41 something in the book that's not awful. And most of the time, you know, we can make that happen
20:47 pretty easy. Yeah. And then you don't, you also don't mind challenging parts that you need clarity
20:52 or you disagree with. I like that too. All right. Yeah, because I don't, yeah, just a one quick
20:57 thing. I just, I don't want to do gotcha stuff. And so I have done before where before we start
21:03 recording, I will tell them, Hey, a few parts of your book, I didn't really understand it.
21:08 And or I just flat out disagree with with your assumption. If it's okay with you,
21:13 I'm going to very lovingly and fairly push back on you. I'm not looking for a gotcha or anything
21:18 like that. But I have to ask the question that my audience would ask if they were in my seat. So
21:22 as long as you're cool with a little bit of tension during the interview, we should be okay. And it
21:26 typically works out fine. Hey guys, real quick, you may have noticed a lot of companies out there
21:31 that are advertising and marketing that they're American companies. But guess what guys,
21:35 all of their manufacturing and all their jobs are overseas, right? These companies are manufacturing
21:41 overseas in order to increase their profit margins. But they're allowing globalism to put America
21:46 and Americans behind. And I've been wanting to partner with an American company with really all
21:51 across the board American companies that prioritize American workers, their families and keep their
21:56 word. And guys, I've been working with this company for so long, we're going on, I think four or five
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23:14 All right. Next question. Ask Kyle about the story of his father and about his relationship
23:20 with his dad, like growing up and now. Yeah, I mean, the first thing I think about when I think about
23:27 my dad, Mr. Thompson, is he's just my biggest fan. Like, since I was a little kid, like,
23:34 he came to every single ball game, every single practice, he worked his butt off in a factory,
23:40 like, so that, you know, we never went hungry and we're never cold. When it was cold outside or hot
23:45 when it was hot outside. And so he just absolutely busted his tail and worked his worked his butt
23:49 off to just do the best that he could. And so, you know, like with any father, he's got a lot of
23:55 faults, but I just try to not focus on those as much as the things that he did spectacularly well.
24:00 And well, I, I'll think of one, one story in particular. So this would have been my freshman
24:06 year of, so this would have been ninth grade and in Lawton at the time where I grew up,
24:10 ninth grade was still middle school. So you weren't in high school until 10th grade. So
24:13 our ninth grade baseball team was unbelievable. Like we had several guys that went on to play
24:17 in college. We were undefeated that year anyway, but somehow, some way I led the team in home runs.
24:21 So I was the home run hitter. I was a cleanup guy or whatever. Let's go. And so at the time,
24:26 my, you know, my parents sort of arms you have, dude, I have the dumbest body ever. I've got the
24:32 torso of a midget, but I've got like the arms of a basketball player, like nothing makes sense.
24:37 And so if my mom was at the game, she would usually sit in the bleachers, right? And then my
24:43 dad didn't want to be anywhere near her because of course they hate each other and blah blah.
24:46 And so he would park his truck out beyond the right center field fence. And he had like this
24:54 old, it was sweet. It was this gray, Chevy step side four by four single cab truck. And he would
25:01 just sit on the hood of his truck with some corn nuts and some sunflower seeds and a Pepsi.
25:06 And he would just watch his boy play ball. And I do it. I will remember this until the day that I die.
25:12 So I had this thing that even though I led the team in home runs and even though I had hit quite
25:15 a few home runs, I never knew if I got it all. And I never wanted to be the guy that hit the ball
25:22 stare like was staring at it. And then it lands like at the bottom of the fence. And here I am
25:26 just rounding first base. And so boom, I hit this ball. I mean, I crushed it, but I didn't think
25:32 I crushed it. And so there I come. And I'm, you know, peeling out around first base. And I see the
25:37 left fielder turn around. And you know, the ball's like long gone. And immediately, when I realize
25:42 it's gone and I start my trot, I look out to right center field. My dad is losing his mind so much.
25:48 He about fell off the hood of his truck. Right. Like an audience of no one, no one else is sitting
25:54 out there. Right. And he and I just kind of had a moment where I was just like, at least did you
25:58 get in my life? I hope so. Like I'd have to ask him. But like, I think I did something to acknowledge
26:03 dad like out there like, yeah, let's go. But at the same time, I never wanted to show up the
26:07 pitcher and all that, you know, just run the bases act like you've been there before. My dad
26:11 taught me that, you know, it's a Barry Sanders approach to life. And so yeah, that's the thing
26:15 with with my relationship with my dad is he's just he's such a fan. He loves everything I do with
26:19 undaunted life. He's just so proud of me. And so that's helped me with my boys just to let them know
26:24 any chance I can to tell them that I'm proud of them that I love them or to just be there.
26:29 I'll be there like I will inconvenience other people in order to make space to go to practices
26:35 and go to games. And that's just the way I want to be. What's the last time you went to see? It's
26:42 been about a about a month or so. So I need to make sure I get back down there pretty soon.
26:47 Yeah, I'm going to hold you to that. I know you had a plan and snowpocalypse ruined that. But yeah,
26:52 it sure did. All right. I'm only on the on that one. Next time we talk offline. All right. I like
26:56 this one. What disciplines or habits fostered your maturity and credibility as a young man
27:03 in professional space is the most. And which ones did you wish that you had started earlier?
27:08 That's a good question. Yeah. Ultimately, I would say
27:13 because of there's there's a dumb one and there's a not so dumb one,
27:19 which one you want first do dumb so we can end on a good note flossing. So nobody likes to floss.
27:26 It's a discipline that nobody wants in their life. And I started the discipline of flossing
27:32 before I before they had like little flossers that you could put in a cute little bag and just
27:35 pull it out and there's a one use and you chuck it. This is when you had to get out the string
27:39 and wrap it around and cut the circulation off on your fingers. Get in there and clean up your
27:44 teeth or whatever. But like, I didn't grow up flossing. I was just kind of like an afterthought.
27:49 But then as an adult, so I got blah, I should probably be an adult and floss. And you know,
27:54 inconvenient it is when you're like hunting or camping or something like that. And then it's like,
28:01 you know, all you want to do is roll into bed after you smoke a cigar around the campfire or
28:04 whatever. But it's like, no, I go and get my floss because it's part of the daily discipline
28:08 of doing that. Like even if it's inconvenient, even if I don't want to, I'm gonna. And then the
28:13 other side of it is just exercise. The exercises and the workouts that I put myself through are
28:19 fairly preposterous. Ask people that that come and train with me like they're just they're dumb.
28:24 Like I just like I try to like just push myself to the absolute limits. And here's the thing,
28:29 people like, man, you must really love exercise. It's like, nope, I don't. If I could just boop,
28:34 hit a button and magically have all of the benefits of exercise, like cardiovascular,
28:41 you know, how you look in a t-shirt, all the different things, I would take it. I hate it.
28:45 I hate the process this morning. I just I was staring at the air dime bike. Like it was like
28:50 it was an enemy that was trying to take my cattle from me, right? I was like, and you train in your
28:54 garage, and you don't have heat in there, right? Yeah, there's no there's no heat. There's no air.
28:59 So when it's hot in there, it's hot in this morning. It was about 20 degrees or so outside.
29:04 And so it's really cold in the garage. Like at one point, I'm like grabbing the barbell, like,
29:08 I'm I think my hands are about to stick to this thing. Like, you know, in here, I am trying to get
29:13 my my session over with, but it's it's that daily discomfort. And you and I talked about this,
29:18 there are a lot of pastors out there that don't have a hard hobby, right? And so they get pulled
29:22 toward monies and honeys and all that. But it's like, you know, how easy it is to say no to a
29:27 porn temptation when you just got through doing a 20 on 10 off for 10 minutes on an air dime bike.
29:33 Like that's way harder than, you know, having to prepare for a daily blade or having to, you know,
29:38 you know, do something that's a little bit difficult on the business side of things or family side of
29:42 things. And so that's just such a discipline in my life that unless I've been injured or, you know,
29:47 coming off surgery or something like that, I'm just in the gym. I'm just making it happen.
29:52 All right. Next question, kind of in the similar vein, what do you do for endurance on a super busy
29:58 and exceptionally long day? How do you keep up your energy and focus?
30:02 So, I mean, I know most guys are like, they're drinking coffee or they're they're crushing energy
30:09 drink or they sick, like 17 zins in their upper lip, like our boy Hunter Hanks or whatever, shout
30:14 out. But like, I don't ever want to think to myself, man. So, so let's say you're a Zen person,
30:22 right? And you're out and you're in the middle of nowhere and there's nowhere to get you a new can
30:27 of whatever winter green zins or something like that. Are you just going to quit whatever you're
30:32 doing? Are you just going to sit there like a child in the dirt and wait for someone to bring
30:38 you a can as in so that you can operate? Well, of course not, you're just going to make it happen.
30:42 And so it's the same thing I do when I work out with people. Like this one guy, we're working out
30:48 and he's dying like we're running sprints and I love it because he's dying. He's over there like
30:53 huffing and puffing. He's looking at me and he goes, Hey, can you at least look like you're tired?
30:59 Like he could. But the thing is is I'm dying too. But I don't look like it. I'm trying to have
31:06 stone face, right? Hey, this ain't bothering me. This ain't nothing. And so I'm trying to convince
31:12 myself that this ain't nothing. So let's go back to the scenario day started early for whatever reason
31:17 and it's going late for whatever reason. What am I supposed to do? Just tap out on the day?
31:21 Just be like, Oh, this is a hard one. I'll try again at life tomorrow. No,
31:25 you're saying mindset is like the the foundation of it.
31:29 Yeah, because the thing is, is if your mindset is fueled by caffeine or nicotine or some other
31:36 stimulant of some kind, Oh, I haven't taken my new tropics today. So I'm not going to be able to,
31:39 you know, finish my thing for work or I ran out of Adderall. So I guess I can't take this college
31:44 test or whatever your excuse is. Like, well, no, like you, you set your mind to it and you just,
31:50 again, you tell your inner whatever. Hey, shut up. Like, I understand you've got some things to say,
31:57 but I got some things to do. And so let's work on the doing part.
32:01 Yeah, I was offended by the question and it comes from somebody on my staff. Like,
32:05 I want to go find out who this is. Like suck it up buttercup is what I would say.
32:11 But also, if you were habitually, you keep running out of gas, you need to pay attention to the
32:16 rhythms of your life. But sure, you might have some hormones that are off. And if yeah, if every
32:21 day at 11 o'clock, like you're, you're out of gas, you might have something, yeah, you need to
32:25 supplement in your life or change your change your diet or, you know, change something like that. But
32:29 most people don't have that problem. It's kind of like most people that are fat don't have a
32:33 thyroid problem. They have a moving to a little eating too much problem. Okay, good. I want to
32:38 talk about that more. But we're not going to. I guess I would just say, well, one of the things,
32:45 especially that I'm talking to pastors, man, the magnitude of the impact of your ministry will be
32:49 directly related to the amount of pain you could endure. So you, Matthew chapter 20, see Jesus,
32:55 like, that's just it. So if you can't handle it, then you're just going to be a one talent guy.
33:02 That's just what it is. So hey, Joey, shout out to those preachers that are like, like our boy
33:09 Chandler going and doing something like jujitsu. So Chandler sticks out like a purple hat with a
33:15 yellow bill. Like that guy can't hide anywhere. Like he's too loud. He's too well known. He's too tall.
33:20 And at the age of what? Well, when did he start jujitsu at the age of 45?
33:26 I mean, he's 50 now. So 48. So my guy, probably. Yeah. So he's, yeah. So he's, he's passed his
33:33 physical and athletic prime, as all of us would be at that age. And he walks in as this accomplished
33:39 preacher, maybe the preacher, the Charles Spurgeon of this generation, you could say,
33:42 Amen. And he goes, and he goes in there and puts on an ill-fitting ghee and a white belt
33:47 and says, all right, let's go. And he's at four megas. He's at double five. Yeah,
33:52 those are kids. That's a lion's den over there. And they don't take kindly to soft people.
33:58 He didn't need to do that. And so, but he's, he's making himself subservient to that. He dominates
34:05 every area of his life. And he's, he's having the blue belt blues right now. Like he and I've kind
34:10 of talked about, he's like, I just keep getting smashed by the same guys and things aren't working
34:13 and blah, blah, and takes me back to my blue belt days to where it's like, Hey, man, you know what
34:17 you need to do? You need to pop in at some crappy gym and go smash and white belts, right? Just go
34:21 like throw them all over the place and walk out with your head held high and you'll feel better.
34:24 But do the endurance that he's learning right now and do he's a cancer survivor. So it's like,
34:29 that's not harder than jujitsu class, but it's like at the same time. Yeah, it's like,
34:32 do some hard stuff and get that resilience. Good. All right, rapid fire. Are you ready?
34:36 Let's go. Uh, beach or mountains? You kidding me? The sun lives at the beach. That's my mortal
34:44 enemy. Put me in the mountains and put me in a coat with an umbrella above my head.
34:48 Early bird or night owl? Uh, I am a natural night owl, but I forced myself to wake up early.
34:54 Me too. Text or call? Uh, I would rather call. That's, I do the in between. I send a lot of
35:01 voice memos. So it's like, Hey, I don't want to type this and have 74 typos and have to redo it.
35:06 So you're getting a voice memo, baby. And I can never listen to them. This is always the meetings
35:09 with people. All right. Plan it out or wing it. Plan it out for sure. Uh, super strength or super speed.
35:18 Ooh, super speed because you can dust half Thor Bjornson while he's over there, deadlift and
35:25 510 kilos. You're just out there like a mile away. Catter dogs.
35:29 Ridiculous question. Give me dogs all day long. Casser from the devil. I agree. Sunrise or sunset.
35:36 Sunset board games or video games.
35:44 We'll go board games. Movies or TV shows. Movies. Uh, have you come around on Lord of the Rings yet?
35:52 No, it's fricking stupid. I hate it. It's the dumbest thing in the world. All you nerds that
35:56 are out there watching the seven hour edition of each one of those films in theaters right now,
36:00 you need to repent. Yeah, I love it. By the way. All right. Podcast or music. Podcast for sure.
36:05 Classic or brand new? Classic. Never have to sleep or never have to eat.
36:14 Never have to sleep. Yeah. Why would you not want to eat? Like God gave us taste buds. Like,
36:18 let's go. I want to taste all that. Yeah. Also, Jesus said, come to the table more than just about
36:24 anything else. He rarely said, come sing songs with me or come listen to this Bible teaching.
36:28 He said, come to the table. Oh, I thought about that a bunch. Thought about that a bunch where
36:31 it's like, what could I do with an extra seven or eight hours? Like a day where everyone else is
36:36 sleeping and like, think of the stuff you can knock out. Calvinism or Armenianism.
36:41 You just want to get me in trouble. I will tell you this right now. If you had to pick one,
36:45 man, all in on either one, if yeah, if I had to pick one, I see more biblical precedent for the
36:52 foundations of what we see in the five points of Calvinism, then again, Calvinism, those five
36:58 points are were five, were five responses to Armenia's and what you know, the Armenians were
37:04 believing in all that. And so there are many, many passages of scripture that is just like, all right,
37:10 there's what I want this to say. And then there's what it just says. So if I had to stick a flag in
37:14 one camp and be that great answer. All right, Kyle, that's 30 minutes, 34 minutes. Anything else
37:20 you want to get off your chest? Man, I was, I should have thought of like a dad joke or something at
37:25 the end, but I hit you with my butane one last week. And I don't have one that's like immediately
37:30 present in my brain. So do you got a dad joke? You're the one I mean, you're, you're super experienced
37:34 at this point. You got to have something. I'm over the hill. Now I get like, I told you there was
37:38 that bell curve and you were still like your boys. They were so great. I called you yesterday and
37:42 your boys answered the phone. They were like, I made a Star Wars ship. I was like, awesome. That's
37:47 so great. They're still at that age. If my kids enter the phone, they'll be like, uh, dad's on the
37:52 pot. I mean, you know, it's not, it wouldn't be good. And I don't mean like, I meant the bathroom.
37:57 Right. But you don't have like, there's not a go to like when you're, because I got some go to
38:03 jokes that I probably can't say on here. But like, there's not like a go to like super ridiculous
38:07 dad joke, just sitting there somewhere. No, I had all these sermons, content things. And you've got
38:13 all these, you know, made up preacher stories, but you can't give me a dad joke. Not one.
38:18 We're going to do it live. I'm going to chat GBT right now. And I'm just going to type in,
38:23 give me a good dad joke, give me a good dad joke. And that's how we'll sign off.
38:28 All right. Here we go. Let's see what this stupid robot's going to come with.
38:31 Oh, that one's dumb. It says, I told my kids I'm on a seafood diet. I see food and I eat it.
38:37 All right. Terrible. Try again. That's one of my dad said that all the time.
38:42 All right. I asked my dad for help with my math homework. He said, that's a problem.
38:50 You'll have to figure out yourself. This is terrible. That's it. That's what dad jokes are.
38:55 What? No, they're good ones out there. But yeah, that was, that was a pretty bad ending.
39:00 That one's on me. But no, I don't need anything else to get off my chest. I appreciate your staff
39:04 for sending you all those questions. No doubt, man. Thanks, buddy. See you.
39:34 Tim. The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua, which is off their self-titled debut
39:39 album on Face Down Records. The links are in the description. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
39:44 Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental and physical resilience.
39:50 Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
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