Latest / 4-Freedom Podcast / 223. Jeffrey Rybold Interview On "The Warriors Compass"

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223. Jeffrey Rybold Interview On "The Warriors Compass" · 4-Freedom Podcast

0:00
Welcome back to the Four Freedom podcast.
0:02
Thank you for being with us today.
0:03
We've got a great show ahead of you.
0:07
James has been telling me about it.
0:08
We'll talk about that more about that in just a second.
0:11
But man, things have been really good lately.
0:14
We've got some things coming up in the near future.
0:17
James, I don't know if you know this, but I mean, it's, it's
0:21
crazy how close Orlando is. I mean, it's like right around
0:25
the corner and it kind of snuck up on me.
0:27
I wouldn't expect it. Yeah, at the time of this
0:30
recording or when the recording comes out, we are, we're less
0:35
than one month away right now. This comes out the 7th of May
0:40
and we'll be in Orlando June 3rd is when we're getting there that
0:44
Wednesday. So man, we are t -, 20 something
0:48
days our kids have. My kids have one more full week
0:52
of school and then we're going to take a quick little beach
0:56
trip before the summer begins. And so, man, yeah, we are ready
1:01
for Orlando. I'm ready for a busy, busy, busy
1:05
summer. It's going to be crazy.
1:08
We've got two more weeks of the podcast before we take a summer
1:10
break and we break for June and July.
1:13
And we are excited about the content that we have been
1:17
putting out and also about what we've got coming up in the
1:20
future. Thankful for all those who
1:22
listen to the James Spurgeon episode to the Bryson Davis
1:25
interview. Just had a lot of a lot of
1:29
views, a lot of content there and several reached out to me,
1:32
which was a blessing. But man, I I'm excited about
1:35
today. We'll get to that in a minute.
1:37
Brett, your oldest graduated. How does it feel?
1:41
Has has graduation happened yet? Or recording what?
1:45
What time? What day is graduation for you?
1:47
May 17th is going to be. 17th So yeah, two weeks or a week away,
1:53
you're about to be an old man and you're about to senior.
1:57
I can't imagine my son graduating.
2:00
So what's, what's the emotions going through in the life of
2:03
Brett right now? You got a senior about to kick
2:08
him out of the house. What?
2:08
What's going on there? Well, in my main concern is, you
2:12
know, not, I mean, I guess emotional little bit, you know,
2:15
Collins, he's my buddy, he's my best friend.
2:18
And so he, you know, Caleb 2. I got two boys.
2:22
Colin was our oldest. And my thing about Colin is I
2:26
just want to set him up for success.
2:28
You know, I want him. We're trying to figure out
2:31
college and what he's going to do.
2:33
And he kind of flop, flip-flopped on what he told me
2:37
he wanted to be. And so we had to change what
2:40
college he is going to do, what courses he's taking.
2:44
And then we're still trying to work out the financial part of
2:47
it, you know, how we're going to pay for it and trying to get
2:50
FASFA and all that stuff together.
2:53
And so it's a lot of moving parts and so having to deal with
2:56
that. And then also my own schooling,
2:59
which I've got maybe 2 1/2 weeks left.
3:02
So it's getting down to the wire where I have to turn in finals
3:07
and I have to turn in term papers here in the next week.
3:12
And so it's just a lot kind of all together.
3:15
Really hadn't really had time just to process the fact that
3:18
he's graduating. But you know, he's ready to go.
3:22
He's looking forward to it. He's trying to get his school
3:24
work done so he can walk across and get that diploma.
3:28
And so we're having our greatest graduation service on Sunday
3:32
morning at church since he's home school.
3:35
And man, we're just, we're just looking forward to it.
3:38
You know, it's my my wife's real emotional about it.
3:40
You know how women are. But she is, I'm just kidding.
3:44
But but yeah, so, you know, things are things are, you know,
3:48
having a senior it, it's different.
3:50
He's my first one. And so we're just looking
3:54
forward to it. Yeah, man, that's awesome.
3:56
I I'm excited for you. One way you can support Brett in
3:59
this endeavor is go buy a Four Freedom cigar so that you can
4:02
fund his college expenses that's go about to come into him by
4:06
sending his son to college. It is not a cheap thing.
4:11
My wife came to me this week and said, James, they've changed
4:15
some of our pay scale up and they're actually incentivizing
4:18
her. If she gets a master's, she'll
4:21
actually make more money. It's the first time this has
4:23
ever happened for us where our degree actually matters.
4:26
She said, do I go back to school and get my master's?
4:29
And so we're weighing the cost benefit analysis right now.
4:32
Do we invest in getting her master's pay, the difference of
4:38
what that would be? And then with how many years
4:40
would we recoup would it take to recoup that money in, in order
4:45
to, would it be a benefit at all?
4:47
And so we're, we're looking at that right now, but I'm, I'm
4:50
just looking at the bottom line. And that's another couple ten
4:53
$15,000 to get her master's at Southeastern in education.
4:59
So what would that look like and how would that be and and all
5:03
those stuff. So I definitely know what you're
5:05
talking about there. Was trying to figure out college
5:07
expenses, so. I, I mean, I'm, I'm sure you're
5:11
going to investigate scholarships and what, what you
5:14
can get off and stuff, but you know, there might be some
5:16
available out there for you. Well for North Carolina Baptist
5:20
in South Southeastern they allow pastors to go for free and get
5:24
their masters just like you're going they've got a grant at
5:27
just like a New Orleans theological seminary, but she's
5:31
not a pastor. We don't affirm women pastors in
5:33
the convention, but she's a teacher.
5:35
But so they they do it SBC discount couple $100 off credit
5:41
hour in a couple of the ways I look this that Luther Rice.
5:45
They don't do a master's of education that I could see.
5:48
We have to reach out to her, my buddy Marcus, and figure out
5:52
what they're doing. And but yeah, we're exploring
5:55
those options and maybe fall semester, she may be returning
5:59
to a student. So we'll see what that looks
6:02
like. Now Speaking of, you brought it
6:04
up, women pastors, do you think that the convention this year is
6:09
finally going to say no? Women pastors, are we going to
6:14
flip flop on it again? What?
6:16
What's I can't, I can't remember his name, Mohler.
6:20
Mohler had said something about it in a podcast recently and I
6:24
had wanted to get your opinion on that.
6:26
Yeah, we need to. I'm for it.
6:29
I like how Heath Lambert the other day on a podcast made this
6:34
statement. He said anytime it's a bylaw
6:38
change, it gets voted down. We never have enough to vote it
6:40
for, he said. But when a pastor or when a a
6:45
church is brought forward from the credentials committee that
6:48
have women pastors, they always get voted out.
6:52
They're not in friendly cooperation with us anymore, he
6:55
said. So in practice, we're against
6:58
it, but in principle, we won't vote for it to be part of our
7:01
documents. And he said, you know, he said
7:05
something to the fact of, you know it.
7:07
It does take up a lot of convention hours to deal with
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this. If we had a committee that would
7:12
do it, which we do, they just need to be empowered through the
7:14
chance of the bylaws. I want it done.
7:17
I think it would make our convention a little more
7:19
stronger. We'd have a a firm stance on
7:22
what we believe and why we believe it.
7:23
Or we're we're credo Baptist, right?
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We believe in confessions and, and statements of faith.
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And so that is part of our statement of faith as we affirm
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male only pastors. And so, yeah, that that's that
7:36
We'll see what happens. I know there'll be a motion this
7:38
year to bring back up a resolution or the amendment.
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And so we'll see how far that goes and what that looks like
7:46
it. And really it's just about the
7:47
support of the people that are behind it to see whether it goes
7:51
forward or not. But yeah, I think it's going to
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be a great year at the convention.
7:54
The Pastors Conference are doing a micro conference.
7:56
Are you doing any of that? Are you sending your wife to any
7:58
of the micro conferences or you just going to the the Pastor
8:02
conference? Did you see that?
8:03
I didn't see that, I'll have to look into that.
8:06
They're doing A4 micro conferences with the pastors
8:09
conference, a worship conference, a youth conference,
8:12
a children's conference and a discipleship conference with the
8:17
pastors conference. So they're encouraging you bring
8:19
your whole staff, bring your deacons, send them to the
8:22
different ones. Maybe you've got a Deacon that's
8:24
over the youth. Send them to the youth micro
8:26
conference or a youth pastor or a discipleship pastor or worship
8:30
pastor. Send them to those conferences
8:32
so they can begin to get a little more out of it.
8:36
I'm just going to the pastors conference.
8:37
I'm a pastor. The other people to the places,
8:40
you know, doesn't bother me much.
8:42
I enjoy the the preaching that's done there at the convention,
8:45
the the pastor's conference, so looking forward to that as well.
8:49
I might talk to send my wife to the you know, I just asked if
8:52
she wants to go to the women's thing.
8:53
I think that'd be pretty cool. So I'll, I'll look into that.
8:57
What what when is your y'all ready for Bible school coming
9:00
up? Vacation Bible School right
9:01
around the corner as well. I'll tell you this, our Bible
9:04
school starts on a Sunday. It ends on a Wednesday night and
9:09
Thursday morning I go to Orlando.
9:12
So we're we're having it right before we leave.
9:15
It was really the only way we could, we could work it out
9:18
because I was going to be gone. My music director, who's also
9:23
our VBS director, she's going to be gone around the same time.
9:28
So this is about the only week that we could do it.
9:30
So we're doing it Sunday through Wednesday and then the next
9:34
morning I'm waking up going to Orlando.
9:35
So it it's coming up quick, but. I'm going to have one night in
9:39
Orlando without Brett. Let's go.
9:42
I didn't know that. So yeah, are.
9:44
Y'all in there Wednesday? Yeah, Wednesday is when we're
9:46
getting there, Yeah. Thursday evening.
9:48
OK, yeah, so y'all are May 31st through June 3rd is your Bible
9:53
school right? Yeah, ours is 2 weeks later.
9:56
So I come back from the convention on that Thursday in
10:00
that next Sunday is when we start our our Bible school.
10:06
So yeah, it's going to be interesting, but this is so lots
10:11
of things going on, man. I'm excited about what what
10:13
we've got going on the podcast. Like I said, we've got an
10:16
interview today we'll talk about, but we've got Orlando
10:19
coming up. If you're going to be in the
10:21
area, let us know. We'll come hang out with us.
10:24
We're also right now in the middle of March, we're
10:26
celebrating our freedom not only through Memorial Day or May not
10:31
March, May through Memorial Day. That's coming up.
10:34
We're running a May sell on all of our products on our For
10:38
Freedom podcast or cigar company, all 15% off.
10:42
You just have to use the code May 15 Freedom.
10:46
I made a mistake on last week's episode.
10:47
I said May for Freedom. It's May 15 freedom, all one
10:52
word. You can put that in at checkout
10:54
and they'll give you 15% off of everything we've got on our
10:56
product line. Just want to give you
10:59
opportunities to buy Father's Day gifts, graduation gifts that
11:04
are coming up, ways that you can support our podcast, but also be
11:09
an encouragement to those that are around.
11:11
And so if you would mind going and helping us out, that would
11:14
be a blessing for us. Brett, anything else as far as
11:19
housekeeping before we get started with our interview?
11:22
I think that pretty much covers all the bases.
11:24
You know, we're looking forward to Orlando and I think that
11:28
pretty much gets us covered. All right, well, yeah, we've got
11:31
today an interview with Jeffrey Rybold.
11:34
He's a chaplain for the Air Force and man, I had a awesome
11:38
time interviewing him. Brett wasn't able to make it to
11:40
the interview. He had some church things going
11:42
on, but he is just recently put out a book called The Warriors
11:46
Compass, part one of seven books.
11:49
And he is very, the podcast has been influential in the him and
11:54
so it was great to connect with him and you're going to hear
11:57
some of that on the podcast as well.
11:59
But I hope you enjoyed this episode and enjoy what we have
12:04
to offer today with the Jeffrey Rybold interview.
12:07
For freedom set me free. Not for change, not for guilt,
12:10
not for Pharisee. Bracelet the flame.
12:13
Now I'm puffing peace cigars and Victory Justified released.
12:19
Welcome to the For Freedom podcast.
12:21
This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for
12:25
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I ain't saved by dress codes, not by what I eat.
12:31
I'm covered in the righteousness washed from head to feet.
12:34
No tally of tradition, no man made code.
12:37
Blood bought my freedom. Now I ride that road.
12:39
They clutch pearls when they see smoke rings rise, but my praise
12:42
still ascends past the legalist cries.
12:45
Christ plus nothing. That's the real math.
12:47
So miss me with your fence laws and your extra path.
12:50
He sat with sinners. I'm sitting with Saints, sipping
12:53
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12:55
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12:58
Every ash of sermon. Death has lost its sting.
13:02
For freedom He set me free. Not for change, not for guilt,
13:05
not for Pharisee. Grace let the flame now I'm
13:08
puffing peace, cigars and victory justified release for
13:12
freedom. He set me free, not for change,
13:15
not for guilt, not for bearers. See grace, let the flame now I'm
13:19
puffing peace, cigars and victory justified, released.
13:23
Let grace begin for freedom dead me free.
13:26
Not for change, not for guilt, not for Pharisee Grace.
13:30
Let the flame now I'm. Puffing James Seyfried and Brett
13:34
Martin Well, we are excited about having Jeff Rybold here
13:37
with us and Jeff is an Air Force chaplain with the military and
13:42
he has done some great work over the last couple of years.
13:46
Me and him came in contact. He reached out to me while he
13:49
was in Texas, I believe a couple of years ago and had started a
13:52
small group of men and just continued to disciple men and
13:57
women in his role where he's at. But recently, he has written a
14:01
book called The Warriors Compass, and it's going to be
14:04
coming out in just a couple of weeks.
14:06
And so I want to have him on just to talk through that.
14:08
And so, Jeff, welcome to the show.
14:10
Introduce who you are to our guest, to our audience, and let
14:13
us know who you are and what you do in the real world.
14:16
Awesome. Thanks, James.
14:18
Yeah. So my name is Jeff Rybold.
14:20
I'm a captain in the United States Air Force, active duty
14:23
chaplain here in Okinawa, Japan. It's been fun to connect and
14:28
trying to get trying to get a time where it fits for both of
14:31
us. But yeah.
14:33
So I joined the United States Air Force by enlisting back in
14:38
2002. I joined because of September
14:42
11th, got into enlistment only planned on doing 4 years.
14:46
And here I am 24 years later, crossed over from enlisted side
14:51
to officer side back in 2018. And it's, it's an interesting
14:57
story for sure. I won't get too much into it
15:00
right now because it's actually a pretty long story and it
15:02
actually has a lot to do with kind of my faith journey as
15:05
well. So yeah, let's, let's, let's get
15:08
this thing going. I'm excited to be here with you
15:10
guys. Yeah, my, my heart always goes
15:12
out with military men and women. My father pushed me to go into
15:16
the military to be a chaplain. I'd already surrendered to
15:19
preach. And so he said, hey, if you go
15:21
and you join the Air Force, you can be a chaplain and you can
15:24
preach every day and you can be around guys.
15:26
And my mom was like, no, it was O 7.
15:29
So we were in the middle of the Afghan, Iraqi freedom and all
15:33
that. And my mom's like, my boy is not
15:35
going to war. She was dead set on that.
15:37
My grandpa served in the Air Force.
15:39
And so he he pushed all three of US boys to try to go.
15:42
Neither, none of us went. But my heart always goes out for
15:46
military men and women that that that thankfully serve us, but
15:50
thanklessly do that all the time with training and the rigor they
15:55
go through. But you originally wrote a book
15:58
called The Warriors Compass. And tell us why you wrote the
16:02
book. Tell us sort of your inspiration
16:05
to write the book and sort of a brief Cliff notes version of
16:08
what it's about how it's there for.
16:11
I'm going to be purchasing a copy for a an army guy who just
16:15
started coming to our church that's sort of a self-proclaimed
16:18
atheist. And so he's went through war, he
16:20
went through some things and he sort of turned his back on God.
16:24
And so I've read the the pre release copy and I've already
16:27
told him, Hey, I'm getting this book for you.
16:28
We're going to start talking through it and going through it.
16:30
So. So tell us a little bit why you
16:32
wrote it. Awesome.
16:33
Yeah. So it's, it's kind of funny
16:36
because I never thought about writing a book.
16:38
It wasn't something that was ever on my radar or anything.
16:43
I'd say probably about a year and a half ago, I started to
16:46
thinking through, hey, what am I going to do next after the
16:49
military? And I got connected with a
16:53
retired general who's a keynote speaker and he does a lot of
16:57
leadership advisement and coaching and stuff like that.
16:59
I was like, that's what I want to do.
17:00
I like coaching. I like speaking.
17:02
And so I got connected with him. And so we had a conversation and
17:06
I was like, hey, what what do I need to do to start preparing
17:08
myself for that next step? And he's like, write a book.
17:11
And I was like, I'm not writing a book.
17:13
Like what do I, what do I got to tell people?
17:15
I mean, you know, there's great writers out there, all this kind
17:17
of stuff. And he's like, just just write a
17:20
book. You have a story, everybody and
17:22
and people need to hear it, right.
17:24
And I was like, OK, yeah, I'll pray about.
17:26
I said, I'll pray about it. You know, like sign of kind of
17:28
sarcastically didn't really intend to hung up on hung up the
17:32
phone and I sat down. I was like, you know what I
17:34
said, I'm going to pray about it.
17:35
So I might as well actually pray about it.
17:38
And you know, I, I actually put some prayer in and I was like,
17:40
Lord, if this is the next step for, for my life and I am to
17:44
write a book, what in the world would I write about?
17:47
And it just came to me and, and, and it's really based off of the
17:54
times in my life whenever I felt like I was lost and had no
17:57
direction, right? I'm not lost as in not saved,
18:00
not a Christian lost as in I'm doing something.
18:03
I think it's what is expected of me, but I feel like I'm just
18:07
turning my wheels, not doing anything.
18:09
Like I'm not where I'm supposed to be, right?
18:13
And so it kind of developed into getting back to that foundation
18:17
because there was a point in my life where I was a pastor in a
18:20
church. I was a reservist in the Air
18:22
Force and I thought I was doing what I was supposed to be doing,
18:27
but I just felt like I was just turning my legs.
18:31
I was running in place and I was, it was just a very
18:35
uncomfortable time in my life. I actually, I would say it's the
18:39
the most depressed I ever got in my life was actually as a pastor
18:43
in a church where I wasn't supposed to actually be.
18:46
And as you see, in the introduction of the book, I
18:49
mentioned that I, I, I decided I was gonna step down from that
18:53
position. And I was like, Lord, I'm
18:57
stepping down. I'm quitting today.
18:59
I have nothing else to go on. You've got to provide something
19:02
'cause I literally have nothing to step into.
19:05
I said Amen. And this is not a joke.
19:07
This is not an exaggeration. Less than 5 minutes later, my
19:10
supervisor and reserves called me and was, she was so
19:14
apologetic. It was, it was so funny.
19:16
Just the timing of it. She's like, I'm so sorry, but
19:19
are you able to come on long term orders because such, so and
19:23
so is deploying and we need someone to step in and, and
19:26
you're the first one because you're assigned here.
19:28
And I was like, I don't, I, I'm not going to use her name
19:32
because I don't have her permission, but my supervisor
19:35
said, can you do this? And I said, Sarden, you don't
19:42
understand what you just did. Like you are literally an answer
19:47
to prayer. And it was that moment that I
19:50
read, I got redirection in my life and found what God truly
19:55
wanted me to do. It was ministry, but it wasn't
19:57
the ministry that I thought. It wasn't the ministry that I
19:59
thought was expected of me. It wasn't the ministry that I.
20:02
I envisioned it was something far greater.
20:04
And so it it just, it just worked out that way because I
20:08
felt so lost in that moment. But then just just surrendering
20:14
to God and saying you got to take the reins.
20:17
I don't know what I'm doing. I'm lost in the woods.
20:19
I thought I had this plan, this map of my life, but it's like
20:24
you're standing in the middle of the woods in the dark.
20:26
You have a map, but you it makes no difference.
20:28
The map is pointless. So I had to just get back to
20:30
that compass and get in those those next right foundational
20:34
steps in my life. And that's kind of what started
20:37
it. And it, and it's funny because I
20:39
want, I decided on just the one book at first, but then as I
20:43
started praying about it and started writing things out,
20:46
it's, it's, it's going to be 7 books.
20:48
So it's a whole, it's a whole warrior series that I'm that I'm
20:51
building. I'm actually on my second draft
20:53
of my second book, which is called the Warriors map.
20:56
That's the map part. But yeah, so this book really
21:00
gets into, you know, getting to the foundation of who you are
21:07
and which direction you're supposed to get back to going.
21:12
And it and it really does tie into just my personal faith as
21:15
well. Because so I grew up as a
21:19
Catholic. And then in high school, I had a
21:22
close friend of mine who kept inviting me to his little
21:25
Baptist Church in in Fulton, MO. And finally, to get him off my
21:29
back, I was like, OK, I'll go. And I heard the, the truth of
21:32
the gospel for the very first time there.
21:34
And so that's, that's when I became a born again Christian.
21:39
And so I grew up in an independent fundamental Baptist
21:42
Church in Little Podunk Town in Fulton, MO.
21:44
And it was a great church, great pastor, great people.
21:50
But as I, as I grew up in that community, while it started off
21:54
great, there was a lot of things that started being demanded and,
21:58
and, and put on me that I was like, why do we do this?
22:01
And there was never an answer to the why, right?
22:04
And so whenever me and my wife got married, she was actually my
22:09
pastor's daughter. I'm one of those guys.
22:13
Fell for the pastor's daughter. Come on man.
22:17
So, so we, me and my wife, probably about 10 years, 15
22:21
years in our marriage, we started thinking, OK, why do we
22:23
believe the things that we believe?
22:25
And so we really started examining that kind of stuff and
22:28
saying, we're going to go back to the scriptures and we're
22:30
going to do what the Bible says. We're going to follow God's
22:33
truth. The rest is preference, right?
22:37
And, and so that really did free us up.
22:38
And it was around that time that all this stuff started happening
22:41
right when I was a pastor in Georgia.
22:43
I was a an associate pastor at a small independent fundamental
22:48
Baptist Church. And it just did not work out
22:51
that way. And, and so God really opened up
22:54
our eyes through his word. And actually that was around the
22:58
time that we found like the RFP and then got connected with that
23:02
community and then found your podcast.
23:05
It was actually Phoenix, AZ whenever I contacted you, not
23:07
Texas, where I started a, a small worship service for Airmen
23:12
in the dorms and I called it the four freedom worship service and
23:17
it went great. We had pretty, pretty big
23:19
building. We started off with three
23:20
people. It grew by the time I left that
23:22
particular ministry to about 27 or 30.
23:25
So but yeah, that that all kind of connects it all together into
23:30
the book. And so that that's kind of where
23:35
it, it, it came from, where it goes and all that.
23:38
So that's that's kind of the inspiration that that happened
23:42
there. So Arizona not man, I I just
23:46
told a guy here that was Texas, not Arizona.
23:48
So hey, it's all. Desert, you know.
23:52
It's all desert, it's all crazy. But yeah, man, that's awesome.
23:56
And to know that those pieces connect together, especially
23:59
with the RFP and through our podcast.
24:02
And it's just great to to be able to see that, hey, there's
24:05
there's a reason I sit behind a mic once a week with me and
24:08
Brett. And we talked like there, there
24:10
are stories out there that people are helped by.
24:13
So it's encouraging for us to hear that.
24:15
But but one of the questions, so I skimmed through your book and,
24:18
and I got to the end and I saw that you did say that, hey, if
24:21
you're wanting more, look out for the number 2.
24:23
And I'm like, oh dude, he's going to hold like #2 I didn't
24:26
realize it was going to be 7 perfect number of perfection
24:28
there. Again, it's not intentional, OK?
24:32
That's that's just how it happened.
24:35
So in in one of your parts of the book, you said that most of
24:38
us gets lost slowly. We, we, I used the illustration
24:41
and used it as a drifting like a boat, I don't know, water that's
24:45
sort of drifting downstream. What does the drift actually
24:49
look like for someone in the real world and why?
24:52
This is one of the things that that we look at often and I look
24:54
at in the pastor, even faithful, disciplined disciple people end
24:59
up drifting off course if they're not careful.
25:01
Why does that happen? What, what insight would you
25:04
give as you write this book? Oh, absolutely.
25:08
So because the the title of book the Warriors compass, it's all
25:11
about navigation, right? And if you've ever done any type
25:14
of navigation, one thing that you learn is that if you start
25:19
walking on your azimuth that you shot with your compass and you
25:22
don't look at it often, you're going to be walking and you're
25:24
going to start maybe going around a tree here, going around
25:28
a Bulger here or something like that.
25:30
And and you're slowly getting off.
25:32
Of course you don't realize it. You think you're going straight,
25:35
you think you're walking a straight line, but if you don't
25:39
keep looking at that compass or setting a mark in the distance
25:42
that you're walking to that you can see, because sometimes it's
25:44
not possible, depending on the terrain.
25:46
You can get off, of course, and then all of a sudden you look
25:49
down and you're like, I'm not where I'm supposed to be, right?
25:53
I, I never found this, this mark I was going to on the map
25:57
because I drifted. What that looks like in real
25:59
life is, you know, we can be, we can be faithful, we can have the
26:03
right intention, we can be disciplined, we can do all these
26:06
things, but if we aren't in the right place at the right time,
26:10
it's all about God's timing in our life.
26:12
You know, and you see this a lot with Paul.
26:15
He, he intended to be certain places, but God had different
26:18
plans. And any time that he kind of
26:21
pushed against it, he would be he, he would have something
26:24
occur in his life that he would write about, right?
26:27
We see him being imprisoned. I, I guarantee you that was not
26:30
his plan. We see him getting shipwrecked
26:36
on an island again, probably wasn't his plan.
26:39
You know, all these things that happened to him and and the same
26:42
happens to us. Now.
26:43
We might not be at the same extreme that Paul had, but those
26:47
do occur in our lives. Like we're going along.
26:49
We feel like we're we think we're we're supposed to be.
26:52
And a lot of times that's because of what the expectations
26:55
that are put on us right. You like if for the majority of
26:59
my young adult life, I thought I was supposed to be a pastor and
27:03
so I did things trying to work towards being a pastor.
27:07
Well, God was calling to be a minister, but not a pastor.
27:11
I didn't know at the time it was called to be a chaplain.
27:14
And so I was forcing myself to be in the ministry.
27:17
I love the people, I love the ministry, but I know that wasn't
27:21
where I was supposed to be because of that discomfort and,
27:23
and and and and the further and further I drifted without
27:27
looking and getting back to the true north.
27:29
That's where I started knowing that I was drifting and off
27:33
course. It's just, you know, it's what,
27:35
what I thought I wanted, but I wasn't continually looking at
27:39
the one who was supposed to be guiding you.
27:41
Yeah, that's that's a great thing to look at and think
27:43
about. And and one of the things you
27:45
mentioned in the book is the distinction between burnout and
27:48
disorientation. You know, we can, if you're like
27:52
me, you're you're a go getter. You're a type A personality
27:56
where you got to go, go, go, You know, I, I, I give an extra hour
28:00
or so of my, of my day back to me and I'm like, I'm filling it
28:03
up with other things. I've got enough read.
28:06
I've got another commentary to study.
28:07
I've got another sermon to prepare.
28:10
And, and those restful times are needed.
28:12
And I understand that I take Fridays off just to, you know,
28:16
meditate and to help my soul out.
28:19
But there is a difference between burnout and
28:22
disorientation. And, and you said this in your
28:25
book, it's not just that people are tired, but they've lost
28:29
their bearing. How can someone recognize that
28:33
they're not just exhausted, but they're actually off course?
28:37
And because they're off course, that's causing them to get
28:41
frustrated and exhausted even more.
28:43
They're just not on the right path.
28:44
How can someone understand that that concept?
28:48
Well, so first let's let's kind of talk about the
28:51
distinguishing, right? So burnout is typically
28:54
something that happens when you're doing something you don't
28:57
like, right? It, it happens really fast.
28:59
Like for example, when I was a radio maintainer, when I was
29:02
enlisted, I didn't want to do that job.
29:05
And so it would be really easy for me to be burnt out and
29:08
exhausted whenever things would come my way because I'm doing
29:11
something that I don't want to do right.
29:15
And that that usually occurs when you don't have the right
29:17
purpose, you don't have the right mindset, you don't
29:18
understand the bigger mission. That's that's often times where
29:22
burnout occurs. Disorientation is more like you,
29:27
you know, you would like that job, you're doing something that
29:30
you feel and you have purpose with, but it's the wrong timing
29:33
or in the wrong place. And so it's not that you don't
29:37
love the work, it's that it just, there's something just
29:40
off. It's, it's like one of those
29:41
things it's hard to describe, but you're just going along and,
29:44
and, and it just feels like you're not accomplishing what
29:48
you're there to do. So it's usually recognizable
29:55
whenever you're going into work, you're putting in the hours,
29:59
you're doing the ministry and you're like, man, am I really
30:02
making a difference? Am am I really doing what God
30:05
called me to do? And so you start questioning
30:08
everything and it's a, it's a, it's a really difficult place to
30:13
be. Whenever you, you start the
30:15
drift, you when you start to feel the disoriented, usually
30:19
it's easy to just kind of push off.
30:20
You're like, you know what, I'm fine.
30:22
I just got to change some things up.
30:24
And so you start doing more right in, in an effort to try to
30:28
appease that feeling or that, that, that, that position that
30:32
you're in. And so you say, you know what, I
30:34
need to change these things up. Let's add this ministry.
30:36
Let's add this thing. Let's add that thing and you
30:38
start adding things to it and you're adding more work.
30:40
Well, more work doesn't fix it. What it does is it starts to
30:45
drift you farther away because if you don't get back to
30:48
following Jesus and His calling and knowing what God's calls for
30:52
your life, then you're just doing ministry.
30:54
And we aren't called to just do ministry.
30:57
We're called to do His ministry. And that's where I was like when
31:01
I was that pastor in that one church, I was like, OK, we got
31:04
this youth group. Let's start a, let's start a
31:06
Friday night Bible study. Maybe that'll get us going.
31:08
I mean, we started that Friday night Bible study.
31:10
It went great. I'm like, man, I'm still feeling
31:12
like there's still got it, feeling like something's missing
31:14
still. So we would add something to the
31:17
bus route. We'd hey, let, hey, we got bus
31:18
kids coming like, let's do this, let's do that.
31:20
And we started adding more and more.
31:21
And then finally I just got to the point where I was like, man,
31:24
I, I just feel unaccomplished. I feel like even though I'm
31:28
doing all these things, I feel off.
31:31
And then it came to a head because I wanted to do these
31:34
things. It didn't align with the senior
31:37
pastor and it and then it came to a big explosion.
31:39
And yeah, that kind of goes to where I ended up deciding to
31:43
leave the church there in that particular moment, so.
31:47
And that can happen so easily and so often with just that all
31:51
zeal, not a lot of knowledge, just trying to get things done.
31:54
And often times we do associate life as busyness as success.
31:59
If I'm busy and I fill my calendar up, I'm good to get the
32:03
satisfaction of actually seeing life changed because we're going
32:08
for the wrong purpose. We're not seeing hearts changed
32:10
because we're just trying to stay busy.
32:12
And God doesn't our busyness. He cares about doing things
32:15
effectively and for what he has for us.
32:19
One of the lines you use in the book is called God is not a WOL.
32:24
And maybe that's a a term that you use in the military.
32:27
Because as I'm reading through, I'm like, man, this is some
32:29
words I'm going to have to study.
32:31
But all for Lamb because I looked it up and it means absent
32:35
without official leave, I think is what that means.
32:38
Correct. So AWOL is absent without leave.
32:40
And so that basically what AWOL is, is someone that goes outside
32:45
and leaves their mission without approval, right?
32:49
Without the authority to actually leave.
32:51
And so I use that term because from a veteran standpoint at
32:56
least, I wanted people to understand that God is always
33:00
there. He's never going to leave.
33:02
He's never going to be away. He's always present, always
33:04
there, and he's the one that should be guiding us, right?
33:09
The the if you if you read the beginning of the book, I use my
33:12
life verse as kind of the guiding scripture for the entire
33:16
book and that's Proverbs 3, five and six.
33:18
I love that verse. I've used that verse every phase
33:20
of my life. And you know when it says trust
33:23
in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not in the thine own
33:26
understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall
33:29
direct thy path. That's what this whole thing is
33:31
about is getting back to him so that he can guide your path.
33:35
And so getting back to that and, and, and, and knowing where and
33:42
who God truly is is where we need to start, right?
33:46
Because if you don't have that foundation, you're not going to
33:48
be able to find your true north. That's really the the the bottom
33:51
line of that. That's really good on your
33:54
shirt. There you got with us.
33:55
You talk about the idea of the true north and and often times
34:00
the the question. I'm going to get to it in just a
34:02
minute, but but how does someone to find their true north before
34:05
life gets hard? Often times we go through life,
34:08
we try to figure out what's going on.
34:10
We don't meet our goals, we don't meet our aspirations.
34:13
And when we don't meet those things, we often times will fall
34:17
back on our values, will fall back on where what we have
34:19
defined and who has made us our foundation, right?
34:22
A wall falls in the foundation still there.
34:24
You just got to rebuild the wall.
34:27
So the idea of the true north, how does someone define that
34:31
true north before the wall falls in, before you get off track and
34:35
you're heading South when you're supposed to be heading north?
34:37
Like how do we begin to work through that?
34:41
And we're going to get to the real framework and, and this may
34:43
be a part where we segue into that, but tell us how we what,
34:47
what, what advice would give on that?
34:50
So True North is based off of the foundation of which you
34:56
identify yourself. Right, not frozen. 2 Right, not
35:01
what? Not frozen.
35:02
Two. Yeah.
35:03
No, no. It's one of my daughter's
35:06
favorite songs, so I listen to it all the time.
35:09
Yeah. So, so the the foundation of who
35:13
we are is, is is where it's all going to come from.
35:15
Like our identity is what and helps us find that true north
35:23
and you should be able to ever any person should be able to go
35:27
back when everything else is stripped away.
35:29
They should be able to go and, and identify who they are not
35:33
based off of their role, not based off of their rank, not
35:36
based off of their position, based off of Jesus Christ.
35:40
And when we when we strip everything away, when we, when
35:45
we take, let's say that you lose your job, let's say you lose
35:47
your finances. Let's say that you are in
35:49
prison, shipwrecked, just like Paul, right?
35:52
Who are you and what is the next right step, right.
35:57
And so that true north is all based off of your identity in
36:03
Christ. And so in order to find that you
36:06
have to 1st go back to Jesus scriptures.
36:11
I mean, he says it himself in Matthew seek ye first the
36:13
Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto him.
36:17
And so you need to get back to that because he is the one that
36:20
gives us that direction in our life.
36:22
And so even though you know, you think about a compass of the
36:24
mountain north. I use the term true north
36:27
because it's the, it's the direction that you are called to
36:30
head to. And so that's what that's what
36:33
you need to get back to. And so like, whenever I, I, I
36:35
talked about my situation as a pastor, thinking I was doing the
36:40
things I was supposed to do, I was doing ministry.
36:42
I mean, you would think that would be the happiest time in
36:45
your life, you know, as a minister in a church.
36:48
But if you're not in the right position, in the right place for
36:51
the right reasons, you're going to be miserable.
36:54
And, and I tried to force myself to stay there until finally it
36:58
just came to that breaking point and I had to take a step back.
37:01
I had to pray and just submit to Him and He opened up the pathway
37:06
and I had to get back to that. Trust in Him and He will direct
37:09
my path. Yeah.
37:11
Now as we walk through this, we've just got a couple of
37:14
questions left. You introduce near the end of
37:18
the book what's called the Real Framework.
37:20
And so I'm going to let you talk about each one of those acronyms
37:23
and sort of talk through and discuss these 4 pillars and how
37:28
they can help someone recalibrate when they've
37:30
drifted. Because that's, that's one of
37:32
the hardest things is when you're off course.
37:34
How do I get myself back on the course?
37:36
I used the illustration that I use often of when I was a kid.
37:40
And we went to Myrtle Beach and I was out in the water and I'm
37:44
out there and my, my brothers were with me and they had left
37:47
and I'm playing with some friends that we had made.
37:49
And I looked up and I couldn't find mom and dad.
37:52
And come to find out, the water had slowly drifted me like a
37:56
mile down the, the, the beach. And so I'm panicking as a like a
38:00
5, seven-year old kid. I'm trying to find my mom and
38:03
dad and I'm running up the beach and, and I get to them.
38:07
And this is what I said. Why did you move?
38:11
In my mind, they got up and they moved.
38:14
It wasn't my fault that I was that, that it was their fault.
38:17
They weren't in the right place. But what actually happened is I
38:20
was off course. I had moved down, not even
38:23
realizing that I had drifted, but in my mind, they were the
38:27
ones that changed. I didn't change and I had to
38:31
begin to recalibrate. Oh, the the water was pushing
38:34
me. The life was pushing me off
38:35
track. I've got to get back on on track
38:38
and I'm going to stay digital diligent on knowing where I'm
38:42
supposed to be at at all times. So walk through the real
38:45
framework and sort of how we can recalibrate this idea.
38:48
Awesome. Yeah.
38:49
So this, this whole book is actually broken down into four
38:54
parts with each three chapters in each of these parts of the
38:58
framework, right? And so the, the real framework
39:02
has been developed over years of different counselings, both as a
39:06
pastor, both as a youth director, but also as a
39:11
chaplain. And this framework is kind of
39:15
the, the, the pillars that help a person to recalibrate, right?
39:19
And so this is broken into those those four parts.
39:23
So real is an acronym in the military.
39:25
We love our acronyms. You mentioned earlier a wall,
39:27
you're like, you got to look up some of these acronyms, find out
39:29
what they mean. So real stands for redemption,
39:32
excellence, authenticity and legacy.
39:36
And those are the four areas that we need to look to in order
39:40
to get back on track and to be be be pointed in that right
39:44
direction and take that that next right step.
39:46
So the redemption part is all about the hope we have, right?
39:50
It's, it's not a passive type of hope.
39:52
It's a forward-looking expectation of hope.
39:56
It's, it's rooted in Christ. It's, it's, it's about
40:00
redemption making us a new person.
40:05
And so redemption is that first part, and I would argue is
40:08
probably the most important part, because if you don't have
40:11
that foundation, everything else is going to be kind of fluid
40:14
right now. Excellence.
40:16
We're not talking about being perfect.
40:17
We're talking about. Being faithful, we're talking
40:21
about striving for the better version of yourself.
40:27
In the Air Force, we have 3 core values, right?
40:30
Service before self, excellence, all we do, and then integrity
40:34
first. And so those 3 core values kind
40:38
of help us understand us as human beings.
40:41
That's what the they're, they're there to do.
40:43
They're there to guide a person's values.
40:44
And so excellence is one of those that helps you to be
40:48
steady in and through whatever it is that's going on.
40:53
Whether you're going through hard times or you're going
40:57
through great times, you should be have excellent character in
41:01
in it all. And then authenticity.
41:03
This is about being real, being true about who you are in
41:07
Christ. It's about being genuine and
41:11
having the type of posture that stands firm for others to see
41:15
and be able to lean on as well. One of the most difficult parts
41:20
about leadership is being authentic.
41:22
So many people get in the leadership positions, they want
41:25
to look like a good leader, right?
41:27
But you have to be a good leader.
41:29
That's that authenticity part. And it, it, it prioritizes
41:34
people instead of just positions and things like that.
41:39
And so there's, there's often an argument about what's more
41:44
important mission or people. And it's not that easy of a
41:48
question to just say, oh, it's people, oh, it's mission.
41:51
It's both there. There needs to be a symbiotic
41:55
relationship because if you take care of people, they're going to
41:58
take care of the mission. So the better you take care of
42:00
people, the better you take care of the mission.
42:02
So they work together. It's not one or the other.
42:05
And then the last one is legacy. This is that part that is about
42:09
pouring into and investing in others.
42:11
So so that whatever it is doesn't end with you.
42:18
Scripture talks a lot about discipleship in the military.
42:21
We talk about mentorship and development.
42:23
Whichever direction you look at it, it's about investing in
42:26
others so that the the message you have, the the values you
42:32
hold, those things carry on and carry forward more than just
42:36
your lifetime, hopefully for generations.
42:40
The goal is to influence and impact the next generation so
42:44
that they too will influence and impact their next generation so
42:50
that it multiplies. That's that's the whole idea of,
42:53
I mean, Christian discipleship anyways.
42:55
And so it's all about building that legacy.
42:58
Yeah. So that's.
42:59
That's great, yeah. Yeah, I was going to say, and
43:02
and so you put those together and when you have that framework
43:05
done, you're able to look at yourself, do a self evaluation,
43:09
say, OK, where am I off course and, and how can I get back on
43:13
course? And, and the book has a lot of
43:15
tools that I developed because I wanted to be a helpful resource,
43:19
not just me talking about things, but how can you apply
43:22
those things? And every chapter has a tool,
43:25
every chapter has questions that you can do either either as an
43:28
individual or as a group. And, and, and, and you're able
43:32
to work those things out so that you can apply those truths into
43:37
your life as well. Yeah, One of the takeaways that
43:41
I got from just reading through what I got to read through was
43:45
it almost felt like a counseling session through a book, which is
43:49
how me and John wrote. The book that we wrote recently
43:51
From Brokenness to Freedom was sort of in the counseling room,
43:55
right? We're walking through things.
43:56
There's homework assignments, there's scripture there for you.
43:59
There's question ask yourself. And that's sort of that, that
44:04
that meat and bones that we need when we read something, not just
44:08
reading information, but how can I apply this to my life?
44:10
How can I allow it to penetrate my heart?
44:15
And so often times, sort of the last question before we close up
44:18
today, I had a guy I worked with when I was 18 years old.
44:22
His name was Dan. He was from New York.
44:25
He was in the Army. He was a military guy.
44:28
He had gotten off track a little bit, but he always made the
44:31
statement. He said, my mom told me.
44:34
And then he had his Yankee accent.
44:36
He was so much of A Yankee that he wore blue on home games and
44:42
white on away games and then that he wore when there wasn't a
44:47
game. And he his outfit for the New
44:51
York Yankees was based on their schedule.
44:53
I mean, he was a die hard Yankee, loved it.
44:56
But he would always say, my mom told me when when things get
44:59
tough, just to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
45:01
And that was the idea that he always pushed forward is I've
45:05
got to work harder. I've got to work better.
45:07
I can't let adversity come against me.
45:10
But in the book you said it's not about pushing harder, it's
45:13
about slowing down, recalibrating and figuring out
45:17
what this problem is to be able to get you back on track.
45:20
So what does that look like practically?
45:23
Because in our world, it's we got a stronger, better.
45:28
We've got to do everything to the best we can.
45:29
Nothing can slow us down. If you're slowing down, you're
45:32
going backwards, but you're pushing it the opposite way.
45:35
You're saying slow down, figure out some things before you move
45:40
forward. So what does that look like
45:42
practically on an everyday sense for someone's life that's got a
45:46
busy life, That's a pastor, that's a, that's an office,
45:49
that's a, a doctor that's got to have 10-15 patients in one day
45:53
and they're going from one surgery to another and life is
45:56
chaotic and busy. How does that look like?
45:58
What does that look like practically?
46:01
So there's a term that special operators use.
46:05
They say slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
46:08
And so when I talk about slowing down, it means sometimes cause
46:13
'cause when, when we're in a fast-paced, high tempo
46:15
environment. So here at Kadena, we're a high
46:18
OPS tempo base. Like we've got China on our
46:22
doorstep. We got South Korea on our
46:23
doorstep, we got rush on our all three of those are right here.
46:26
We're what's known as the gateway to the Pacific.
46:29
And so we're constantly moving and I'm I'm, I'm, I'm reminding
46:33
them, hey, just because you're moving doesn't mean you're
46:35
right. All right, Sometimes you need to
46:38
take that step back and make sure you're moving in the right
46:40
direction because if you're like, oh man, I got to push
46:43
harder, but you're pushing through the wrong direction.
46:46
All you're doing is getting further in the wrong direction.
46:49
So when I talk about taking that step back and recalibrating, I'm
46:53
trying to help people see, hey, just because you're pushing
46:56
somewhere doesn't mean it's right.
46:57
You might be. And if you're in the right
47:00
direction, push hard, push fast, get in there and do what needs
47:04
to be done. But if you're feeling lost or
47:06
disoriented and you continue down that path, you're just
47:09
getting further and further away and that feeling's not going to
47:12
go away. And so when I was talking about
47:15
slowing down, sometimes we need to take that step back.
47:18
Like, again, whenever I was back in that pastoral position back
47:22
in Georgia, I kept pushing and pushing and pushing and doing
47:25
and doing and doing, but I wasn't going the right
47:28
direction. And so no matter how much I did,
47:31
all it did was have me drift farther and farther away.
47:35
It wasn't until I surrendered it all took a step back and said,
47:40
all right, God, you're in control and redirected to the
47:44
right direction. It wasn't even a drastic change.
47:46
I was already doing chaplain assistant stuff in the chaplain
47:49
4I was already had my foot kind of in the door in the right
47:53
direction, but I was trying to still keep myself in that wrong
47:56
spot and continually pushing. So taking that step back is so
48:00
important because we need to make sure that we're practicing
48:05
and training the right things that were maybe even developing
48:09
the right people, whatever the case might be.
48:11
And so in order for us to practically start getting back
48:17
to that the right direction, we need to take that step back.
48:22
Sometimes it just means taking a step back, taking a deep breath,
48:25
praying, maybe taking taking a couple days, right?
48:28
You're like, you know what? I I need a couple days off.
48:30
There's a reason why pastors specifically are told to take
48:35
sabbaticals, take some time off because they need to
48:37
recalibrate, they need to refresh, otherwise they're going
48:40
to keep going and then they're going to get disoriented or
48:43
burnt out, one of the two. And so it's a great time to take
48:47
that step back and examine whether you're whether or not
48:53
you're doing the right thing. I mean, you think about the life
48:55
of Jesus before he went to the cross.
48:56
What did he do? He took a step back, went out
48:59
into the wilderness, prayed, right.
49:01
And, and the way he said it, it, it kind of makes me think.
49:04
I tried to put myself what it would be like if I was in that
49:06
position. And, and he says, you know, if,
49:08
if a beer will take this cup from me, but if not, then, you
49:12
know, give him the strength to do it.
49:13
And, and, and that's how we often are, or at least should
49:16
be, we should go into those places of, of solitude or maybe
49:22
with one or two close people and pray and think, OK, Lord, is
49:27
this what I'm supposed to be doing?
49:28
Is this the path I'm supposed to be on?
49:30
If it is, give me the strength to do it.
49:32
If not, remove it from me and show me where I'm supposed to be
49:35
going and what I'm supposed to be doing.
49:36
So that that's kind of the direction I want people to take
49:39
with that Is it? It's, it's not about just
49:41
whether you're pushing hard or not.
49:43
It's about whether you're going in the right direction in the
49:45
1st place. And sometimes you got to slow
49:46
down to make sure that you are. Yeah, that's so good and I
49:51
appreciate you saying that's a good word there.
49:53
Last question we've got before we close it up today is I'm sure
49:58
there's people there listening. I'm sure we've got an audience
50:00
out there that feels lost. They feel tired, they feel
50:04
unsure of what's next. And I'm sure there's some that
50:08
are out there that were like you and and like me as well, like I
50:11
was in this place where they may say I'm drifted.
50:15
I'm so far off course, I'm so far gone.
50:19
I don't know if there's a way back for me.
50:21
Like I've, I've gone so far down the rabbit hole that I don't
50:26
know if there's even the light at the end of the tunnel or when
50:29
I get out of that tunnel. Is there even going to be a
50:31
place for me? What would you give the advice
50:34
to someone who's listening that feels that way and how would you
50:38
sort of advise them of what to do next?
50:42
The. Hardest part of being in that
50:45
position is trusting God with what's next there there the the
50:52
reason I have Proverbs 3 five and six is because it's so
50:57
helpful for me to know that I don't have to know what's at the
51:02
end of the tunnel. I don't have to know what's on
51:04
the other side of that forest or that valley that I'm walking
51:07
through. I just have to know that I'm
51:08
taking that next right step. And so surrendering is so hard
51:13
to do when you when you're in that position because of the
51:17
unknown. But when you think of it from a
51:20
navigation standpoint, if you're lost in the woods, that map
51:24
isn't going to help you. If you're lost in the woods, the
51:27
only thing that you have to get you to the other side is a
51:31
compass, right? You have to get back to that
51:34
compass. You have to get back to finding
51:38
that you're, that you're going in the right direction in the
51:40
1st place. And that might mean you got to
51:42
go back some steps to where where you came from to be like,
51:46
all right, I need to take some steps back here.
51:48
Let me recalibrate here and then let me keep my eye on the
51:51
compass as I as I converse this forest, this fog, this nighttime
52:00
expedition, whatever that whatever circumstance or
52:02
situation you're going into, sometimes you need to just keep
52:05
your eye on truth and that compass to get you through it.
52:09
And when so when you're feeling lost, tired or unsure what's
52:12
next, that's what you got to do. You got to be like, OK, I don't
52:15
know what's next. I don't know how I'm going to
52:17
get there, but I do know this God is in control and I can
52:21
trust Him. And so whatever it is, God has
52:24
something greater for you on the other side of whatever
52:27
circumstance you're in. Just trust in Him and He will
52:31
direct your path. It's like that, that song, Firm
52:34
Foundation, right? He, he hasn't failed me yet.
52:37
I'm going to keep him, not going to fail me.
52:40
I may not know what's going to happen, but I'm just going to
52:42
keep taking those steps in the right to know that he's going to
52:46
take care of the rest. Jeff, thanks for coming on, man.
52:50
Thanks for sharing your time. I know you're busy with where
52:53
you're at, but any closing war words or thoughts?
52:57
Where can they get your book? And I'll link these to the show
52:59
notes. What, what, who's your
53:03
publisher? Like?
53:04
How can they find that? Find your your information here.
53:07
Oh sure, Yeah. So my my project is published
53:10
through Trilogy Christian publishing.
53:15
They're a branch of TBN. So you can you can get it any,
53:20
any bookstore. It's actually on pre-order now
53:22
through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Book.
53:25
So you can pretty much go anywhere.
53:27
Just look up Jeff Jeffrey Rybold.
53:29
That's JEFFREYRYBOLD. You look it up in any major
53:34
bookstore. They're available there.
53:36
You can do pre-orders online through Amazon Books through,
53:39
you know, all those things. So those are the ways to get
53:44
through it. You can follow me on any of my
53:46
social media outlets. I've, I've been posting content
53:49
daily trying to get the word out.
53:51
I've got an advanced team as well trying to get again, the
53:55
word out. I don't have a lot of followers,
53:56
so I'm really relying on the community and I can't go around
54:00
the country doing book signings because I'm in Japan.
54:02
So I'm like community, help me get the word out.
54:05
So yeah, anybody that's listening, if you would like to
54:08
help help out a poor chaplain out there in the middle of
54:12
Japan, by all means, pre-orders launch week, which is June 2nd,
54:17
and then reviews, reviews for the oxygen of the book world.
54:21
So any of that would be super helpful.
54:23
And I'm just trying to get this message out to people that need
54:26
it. So if you read it, you like it,
54:29
share it, get more people to take part in the message as
54:34
well. Because I, I know it's going to
54:35
help people because it's the same message that helped me.
54:39
And so, yeah, it's super helpful.
54:41
But yeah, Trilogy Christian Publishing.
54:44
Love it. It's about 3-3 weeks away from
54:47
when this episode comes out, so you've got time to go find it.
54:50
I'll link that in our show notes as well.
54:52
Man, thank you for coming on. Thank you for being a part of
54:54
the podcast today. I hate Brett couldn't be here.
54:58
You haven't even heard it yet, I don't think.
55:00
But Brett is actually changing his MDF to not just pastoral
55:04
theology, but pastoral and chaplain theology to get
55:08
chaplain certified. He said, you know, in the in the
55:11
avenue that I'm at with pastor and I'm, I'm doing a lot of like
55:15
Hospice care and chaplain work. The where I'm at, there could be
55:19
an opportunity. And it was like two classes that
55:21
he had to add to do that. And so he's going to be chaplain
55:26
certified as well. So I know he wanted to come on
55:28
here and talk with you, but he couldn't do to his schedule.
55:32
But thank you for coming on. Thank you for sharing your
55:34
heart. And if you, if you would do it,
55:37
do me a favor, go find his book, find Jeff's book and the
55:41
warriors compass. I know it'll help you.
55:43
It's helped me. I'm excited about sharing this
55:45
with some of my friends and getting this out to some people.
55:49
So I believe in this 'cause I believe in what Jeff's doing and
55:53
I know it'll be a blessing to you as well.
55:55
And so until next time, I think he could turn tuning in today to
55:59
God be the glory. Great things He has done.
56:02
Amen. Found my new name, Found that
56:07
good grace, Found that healing. And the tears fell down my face
56:12
when I found my beginning has no ending.
56:15
Find my second chance. Find my best friend, Find my
56:17
forgiveness, Find my happiness. I've been singing ever since
56:20
about my. Freedom.
56:35
Thanks for listening to the Four Freedom Podcast.
56:38
If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking,
56:41
subscribing, or sharing our podcast on whichever podcast
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