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You’re tired.
Not just physically; though yeah, that too.
You’re tired in your bones. In your soul.
Trying to be a steady husband, an intentional dad, a man of God… but deep down, you feel like you’re falling short. Like you’re carrying more than you know how to hold.
Dad Tired is a podcast for men who are ready to stop pretending and start healing.
Not with self-help tips or religious platitudes, but by anchoring their lives in something (and Someone) stronger.
Hosted by Jerrad Lopes, a husband, dad of four, and fellow struggler, this show is a weekly invitation to find rest for your soul, clarity for your calling, and the courage to lead your family well.
Through honest stories, biblical truth, and deep conversations you’ll be reminded:
You’re not alone. You’re not too far gone. And the man you want to be is only found in Jesus.
This isn’t about trying harder.
It’s about coming home.
Hey guys, couple reminders for you before we jump into today's episode, which by the way, is one of the most powerful and funniest episodes I've recorded in months, if not years. Uh, you're in for a treat. Two quick reminders though before we jump into that. Number one, this interview is on YouTube and this is one you're going to want to go watch over there, uh, so that you can see all of Micah's hilarious expressions as he shares his stories today.
Make sure to go to YouTube. Just search dad tired. You'll find this interview. I'm also gonna give away one of. A copy of one of his books to somebody who comments in there and just says, what stuck out to you the most during that interview? So again, go to YouTube. Find this interview over there by searching dad tired.
Leave a comment, what stuck out to you the most? Make sure you're subscribed and I will pick a winner. We do that each week now on the YouTube channel. If you haven't gone over there already and subscribed. Also, you are listening to this and there are only days left and a couple spots left for our dad tired retreat.
If you want to come to this. It's the last minute now. But dude, we got guys coming from all over the country and even the world. If you wanna jump into a car, if there's guys carpooling near you or you wanna fly there, we would love to have you. You need to go to dad tire.com, click the annual retreat tab and try to snag one of those last spots before it closes up completely for the year.
Alright, that being said, let's dive into today's episode.
Micah Tyler, so good to be with you today, man. Dude, last time you were on, I feel like we were kind of acquaintances. We'd met each other a little bit in passing on a cruise ship. Yeah. I didn't, you know, the love boat. I didn't want to go there. But
you're the couple of guys hanging out on a boat, they put on Shirley Temples just talking about being dads, you know, classic guys to
work.
Yeah. Just stuff that guys do, you know. But now here we are. We've got some more time together, bro. I just feel like I get to hang out with my good friend now, which is, which is really fun, bro. What are you up to these days?
Man running. It been a busy summer. We've been really at festivals and running around doing a lot of events.
New single went to radio at the very beginning of the summer, so it's a lot of promo stuff to go along with Dash, shot a music video and put it out. I. And yeah, we're getting ready. I got two tours this fall. One's a headline tour. We're run up the east coast and for about 12 shows, and then I'm hopping out my buddy Matthew West for 20 shows, uh, kind of east ish coast kind of thing.
And so, yeah, we kind of a busy fall. So when December comes, we're shutting the world down, but. At this time, we're kind of gearing up and girding our loins for the next next run here.
Girding our loins. Yeah. Dude, you're so busy. You played at the Grand Ole Opry recently too, which is a big Uh, that's a big deal.
It was
a big deal. Yeah. How'd that feel? I tell people. Honestly the whole thing felt, 'cause you had to get asked. It's not one of those things like you can like call 'em and say, I'd like to book the Opry for me to play there.
Right.
They have to ask you either a member of the Opry has to reach out, there's all this like tradition that goes along with it.
But they're, the Opry board is now like looking out and I think a lot of crossover between Christian and country music or just even vicinity. A lot of Christian headquarters are in Nashville and Franklin, Tennessee and that's, you know, Nashville is where country music Mecca is over there. So they're trying to involve more Christian artists and so they kind of watch the charts and see what people are doing and, and they reached out, thought it'd be a good fit, and so they invited me.
And honestly, it was a dream come true that I did not even know was okay for me to have. I remember being like five years old, sitting next to my grandpa and watching TV and him turning on the Opry and saying like, that's real music right there. Wow. And so from Texas, you listen to country music age, you can't even help, but it's just coming outta everybody's stereo around here.
Yeah. And so, yeah, so I've known about the Opry for a long time. Been around the Opry a lot now. I've been doing, you know, music for the last decade or so. But still walking into that circle was just a, uh, it was an absolute dream come true, completely wild. And, uh, and we had an, it was an incredible night.
Very, very, very cool night. Very, and everybody that I did the Opry with, Vince Gill, Jamie Johnson, Ashley McBride, like all these, they were so kind, like it really does feel like they understand what it feels like to make your debut and that kind of thing. And so. Could've been more gracious. And so, yeah, it was like a Cinderella story for me.
A Cinderella story for me.
Well, that's the thing about you, dude. Like a lot of people I think make assumptions because you're on stages, you're on tour buses and you're on stage. You got lights on you and you're playing in stadiums. I don't know why some people could make the assumption like, oh, that this is his been his life.
This is like what he's always done. Bro, I know your story. I know everyone listening doesn't know your story, but like you weren't even playing a guitar for most of your life, you know, like that, right? This has not been like, yeah. Just rewind a little bit for somebody who's like, just now hearing about Mike Tyler and like, yeah.
What was life like for you even 10 years ago?
So let me, let me rewind a little farther than that. So when I was 17, I felt I had a youth pastor make this huge impact in my life. At the same time, was feeling this calling to step into ministry. I wanted to go into youth ministry because a youth pastor made an impact on me.
I thought, man, if I could do this for somebody else, another kid who you know is going through some things, I, I would love to be able to do that. And so I felt this drawing towards youth ministry right outta high school. My girlfriend at the time, who I've been married to now for almost 20 years. Her grandpa was the chairman of the Deacons at a little Baptist church that's like a mile from like where I live right now in Bona.
And they needed a youth director, like it was like a part-time thing. They had seven kids in the youth group, so I went over and interviewed and they hired me. And so I started in youth ministry at 18. For a couple of years, youth groups started growing. We had like 40 kids in the youth group and I started going like, man, what can I do to make these nights more special for these kids?
I'm just there preaching for an hour. I was like, what can we do? And I started looking at other youth groups and noticing like a bunch of 'em had like a 14-year-old punks who got a guitar for Christmas who's like their little Chris to up there leaving songs for youth pastor preaches. And I thought maybe if I get a guitar, one of the kids in my group will learn how to play it.
Well. This is pre YouTube, which dates me. But so you'd have to like get a book, which is a big. Commitment to learn the guitar with a, with paper, right? And so anyways, I had a book and had a guitar and the kids like did not pick it up. They didn't wanna do it, they didn't wanna mess with it. So for two months, like sat there and just like strum the same four chords over and over again, GDE, minor C, which unlocks the entire worship catalog, you know, of all Christian music the last 20 years.
But play those chords until I felt brave enough to start leading worship for the youth group that turned into. Other youth pastor buddies calling me up and saying, Hey, come lead worship for our camp, or our disciple now our retreat or whatever. So I'd go over and do it and really honestly thought that was like a really fun outlet for me to be able to worship Jesus.
For me to be able to, to, to do something outside of ministry. 'cause I was still doing youth ministry for, I did it for nine years, but that last year, man, it was like there was something coming alive in my chest when I was doing music. That used to be the thing that youth ministry did, and it just kind of felt like it was this.
Weird passing of the torch of like what faithfulness looked like in our lives. I, I had a guy say to me once, you know, you'll never stand before Jesus. And him say, well done thy good and successful CCM artist. Like, that's not, or singer or podcaster or speaker or dad or whatever you wanna put it. Like, our job is not to be successful.
Our job is to be faithful. There was this feeling in me that was like, if I don't do music, I'm not being faithful to the Lord. And it was scary because it wasn't a tour bus picking us up. It wasn't a. A booking agent saying, I'll book all these dates for you. It wasn't a record label giving us a deal, it was just us.
I had five Disciple Nows on the calendar and about three or four youth camps, and it was cra like my wife came to me first and she said, I had led somewhere, maybe she'd heard me and she just goes, are we supposed to be doing this now? And I just said, what? 'cause I was too afraid to say something to her.
But again, the power of the, you know, just the Lord's. Kindness. When you have a marriage that is really built on trying to follow after Jesus, you have somebody else, you have two, another set of ears that are listening out for the Lord's voice to lead you in those kind of things. So we talked about it and prayed about it and went and told the church like, Hey, I think I'm supposed to do this full time.
Will you give me six months where I can find you a new youth pastor to take my spot, but also so that I can start like working some odd jobs to make money to save and stuff like that. And so they're like, they're so kind about it. We lived in the parsonage at the church at the time, so we had to find somewhere else to live.
So we sold over half of what we owned. Uh, bought a single wide mobile home, put it on some borrowed land, and I started doing odd jobs. I was a substitute teacher at an elementary school. I drove a sausage delivery truck. I mowed grass for people, like I honestly eat odd jobs, whatever I could do, and played a few shows every once in a while and did that for another five years, six years.
I signed a record deal six years later. So, but again, the Lord taught me a ton through that season of trusting and, and those kind of things. But it was a really challenging, difficult thing to kind of be an independent artist, try to do your own thing and do that kind of deal. But that was 12 years ago and now I'm sitting here in the attic talking to you.
Yeah, dude, it's so cool. Like even just the little stuff you, you said there, a lot of people will never have that story, right? Like playing guitar and youth group and now you're playing. In stadiums, but there is parts of that story that's super relatable, just being faithful in the little things. Having a, a spouse that you're like, let's pursue the heart of God together and see what he would have for us.
Continuing to be faithful even when we don't, when there's risk involved. Like if you're listening to that, all of those points can be taken away as a listener. Like, what does God call me to, to be faithful for, not to be successful? I love the way you said that. He's not calling me to be successful, but he is calling me to be faithful.
I guess what's the difference now? Like. Between those days where you're driving a sausage truck, trying to play a couple shows and like, you know, now you're on a label. What are some of the differences?
There's some practical differences. I'll say spiritually. I'm trying to do the same thing right now that I was doing.
I. 12 years ago. I'm trying to do the same thing right now that I was doing when I was 18 years old. I'm trying to be faithful, like, and I, I've learned in my life so that I think that anyone who's listening right now can take away. Is that really going back to the whole faithfulness over success. Success has this like really quick.
You can feel or you can see the difference. Success makes a lot faster. I mean, and sometimes we try to mask the, maybe like the benefits of success to make people think that we're more successful. Like buying a nicer car makes you look like you've got your life more together. Having a bigger house, wearing nicer clothes, being able to have the watch, whatever that may be.
Or you having your kids put them in a, in a nicer school that maybe you can't afford because you don't want people to think that you can't afford that place even though you can't, which is a crazy in and of itself. But man, at the end of the day, faithfulness is what bears fruit in your life that is worth other people seeing because they're not seeing the fruit that you are making.
They're seeing the fruit of the spirit come out of you. Like they're able to see Jesus in the midst of what you're doing. And so right now, I am trying to, this day, whatever God puts in front of me, I'm trying to be so faithful to that thing, like being a man of integrity, like really looking down and going, okay.
I'm not gonna reserve my faithfulness and like hold onto it. Be like, okay, God, listen, I don't wanna just spin my wheels over here playing at these small churches. I'm gonna wait until you give me a really big stage. And when that comes, oh my gosh, I'm gonna be so faithful to that thing. That's not how this works.
My job is to be faithful to whatever God puts in front of me and kind of go back to the whole nuts and bolts things. One of my favorite stories to tell about like just trying to be a man of integrity. So 2015 is when I signed my record deal, August of 2015. So it's really like. Been 12 years now. Wait. 13, God, no, wait eight years.
I'm sorry. I've been a crazy week. Eight years. I've had a record deal now, but eight years ago, like literally almost to this week, I get a phone call. I just signed a record deal. I just signed a management contract with a guy named Brickle who manages Mercy me, and he was it. If you watch the, I can Only Imagine Movie Trace Atkins is Scott Brickle, who is my manager, and they are the same person, which is wild.
But so Brickle calls me and I'm still gonna know this guy. Like he had just, we just, the, the ink was still wet on the contract. And he just calls me, he goes, Hey man, how would you like to open up for Mercy me at the Texas State Fair in two weeks or in in October? And I said, so here's the deal. When you're a Texan, there's, I mean, we checked a couple boxes with that one statement.
The Texas State Fair. That's like Redneck Mecca. That's redneck is what that is. Jared, like that's like, that's the peak. If you can get to the Texas State Fair, like, I mean, gimme a corn dog, I'll probably go to heaven like this. It's over at that point. Right. So Texas State Fair. Opening up for Mercy of Me, who is anyone who, who picked up a guitar from the years 1998 to 2012.
Those are your guys. So like I'm opening for them. It's, and, and Denise told me how much money I would make, and it was literally twice whatever I had ever made as an independent artist and as an indie artist. I was traveling almost 200 days a year and I was, if you saw me somewhere, it's because you booked me through me.
I made the travel preparations, I drove myself there. I was plugging in cords to set up the pa like. Everything was on me. Well, I'm still learning how to like hand things off to a booking agent, have them book things, but whenever I signed with a booking agent, they just kinda said, Hey, look. Anything you've got on the calendar, leave it there.
Communicate those things to us in the next month or so, and then we'll block your calendar off and blah, blah, blah. Well, I had not done that yet, so this offer comes in and Brickell calls me and stuff. He goes, Hey, do you wanna do it? And I was like, are you kidding me? Yes. Tell me the date. And he said, it's October 17th.
And I was like, get my phone out. He's just talked about the details. And I look and right there. I had something booked October 16th of 17th. I had a, a youth retreat in the woods at a, at a camp called Piney Woods, and it was on my calendar. Now when I first started doing this. 12 years ago, I had a pastor in my life who just said, Hey man.
I was like, gimme some wisdom. He had been, he had done some itinerary traveling, speaking stuff before. I said, man, I don't know anybody. I have God's calling me to a thing that I don't know how to do. I'm just trying to be faithful, like, whatever that looks like, that's what I wanna do. He said, well, hey, you gotta be a man of integrity if you put something on your calendar, if somebody calls you with a better offer.
And you've got on your calendar already mean you're chasing after what God's hand could give you and not following after what his voice is telling you. Like he, he told you to put in the calendar, you committed to something, stick with it.
Geez.
And that voice is ringing in my ears with Brickle telling me all these great details about how Yes, most guys are just gonna be like,
you know, just cancel the youth event, bro.
No, that's what I was,
get to
my heart. My heart was in a trench that day. I was, I was battling, I'm sure, but I told him I, and I just kinda said, Hey man, I can't. He said, you can't what? I said, I can't, I can't do the date, man. And he goes, why? I said, I've got something on my calendar already. He goes, is it better than this?
And I was like, no, it's not better than this. And he said, well, why don't you like, is there a way to get out of it? And I said, Hey man, I'm gonna be a man of integrity. And he just goes, huh. And I said, and here's the deal. I had a record deal for a week. And so I, I just told him, I was like, man, I've had a record deal for a week.
If this offer's come around now, it'll come around again. Right. He goes, I don't know. And he hung up the phone. Okay. Just left me out there, which, knowing his personality now, he was being funny, but at the same time I'm going like, what did I just, yeah do. But I thought, all right, Lord, this is gonna be a great weekend.
It's gonna be great. So, fast forward, like a month later, I get a phone call from a church in Huntsville, Texas, and it's this church that I'd never played at before, but I, I knew a lot of the guys who went there and they called me up and said, Hey man, I know you've never played it before, but Sanctus re when Matt Hammett was, so the lead singer, Sanctus real.
This is their farewell tour. Matt's getting outta the band and they're coming through, they're playing in Huntsville. Do you wanna come open on this farewell tour at this show? And I was like, oh my gosh. Yeah, dude, I'd love to do that. Tell me the date. He says, October 17th. And I pull my calendar out and I was like, oh wait, that's that youth retreat.
And then all of a sudden I'm going like, man of integrity. So I said, man, I can't. He said, oh, that's a bummer, man. I was like, yeah, next time they come through, I'd love to do it. He said. This is a farewell tour. Oh yeah, yeah, exactly. So I said, so I'll, I'll, I'll be praying. You guys have a great event. Get off the phone and I'm just going like, Lord, something incredible is gonna happen at this youth retreat.
Yeah. I just, I just know it.
Yeah.
So fast forward to the 1st of October, I get a call from a guy named Michael Fer. So Michael Faron is a songwriter over in Nashville's, but he was a really, really kind guy to me when I first started doing music. He's written some big giant mega songs and uh, he just called me and said, Hey man, I'm doing this worship conference and.
And here's the deal, dude, we just decided to do something kind of fun. What I want to do is I wanna have a brand new artist who just signed a record, dude who's kind of walking into this world and I wanna have a veteran on stage together. And you guys will kinda like give your stories and then do a q and a and you guys kinda like bounce off each other.
He said, I've already got Michael W. Smith on the book. Do you want to be the new guy? And I said, Michael, this is a. Unbelievable. Of course I wanna do it. He said, it's kind of short notice. Do you have October 17th available? And I said, I know. I know that. I don't. I know, I know, I know that I don't. I said, I'm gonna be in the woods on that day with a bunch of kids and I think we're all gonna get doves on our shoulders.
Like something amazing. Holy Spirit filled, incredible. It's just gonna happen. Like, you know, Jesus gonna come back not for good, just for a little bit. Say hey, and then pop back out. 'cause he doesn't wanna end the whole world. But he, it's gonna be something really spectacular. And so I said no. And dude, I, I'm telling you, at this point I'm battling a feeling of either great expectations.
Yeah. Or I'm going to lose my salvation. Like I'm going, like something, something remarkable is gonna happen either way. Yeah. So we show up to the event on the 16th, and this is where it starts getting interesting. It's a band event. We go there, they have this big giant stage at the, it's a really nice camp, and there's this big giant stage.
And so we poke to the auditorium and they're like, oh no, you guys are not in this one. You're over in this building over here. And I was like, oh, cool. Okay. So we walk in and it is like, it holds about a hundred chairs. There's this little stage, it's like literally six inches off the ground. And I start looking and I see some speakers and I see a soundboard in the back, but I see no wiring at all.
Oh God.
And I
said, ah. Yeah, we were we gonna start hooking up and everything, like, do you guys have the wiring for everything? And they said, oh my gosh, we forgot it. And I was like, well, I'm not an electrician, but I believe that to connect all of these things together, we're gonna need some copper of some sort somewhere.
I said, you know what? It's okay. It's okay. We're gonna have figure this thing out. They had no in ears, so we couldn't use tracks. So all of our songs now are just out the window and we're leading worship, so it's not even my music. So we're going like, we're gonna figure this out. We're gonna persevere.
Minimum integrity. So I literally plug my microphone straight, my microphone cord goes straight into a speaker that just faces the kits, and then my guitar player goes into his guitar amp, my acoustic goes into his amp as well. We're both coming outta the same thing. Drums have nothing. And then the bass player, 'cause it's a tiny room.
Yeah. Bass player's playing through the cab. We're gonna persevere. There's, we have no click. There's no way for us to stay together. We're just gonna try to figure this thing out. Then the kids start showing up and I quickly realized by the smell of it, it's a junior high retreat. I have no idea. So there's a bunch of junior high kids who are just slapping each other and they smell like Axe body spray already, like don't lie to match.
The whole place's gonna go up. And so then we get in there and play a treacherous. First worship set. 'cause really we're on a tight rope without a net. Yeah. And it's windy. And so we're, we're just like, I mean, just battling each other and, and we're like, if we can just get through the day, it'd be fine. We get through the service.
It was awful. But we're like, let's get, we'll get up early in the morning. We'll practice, get a good night's rest. We go to our cabin, they're like, Hey, we put you guys into your own cabin. We're like, that's sweet. We got there. Well, this cabin had not been messed with in about four months, so the water was backed up inside, and when you turned on water, I'm not kidding at all, full blown rotten eggs is what it smelled like.
You smelled worse getting out of the shower than getting in the shower. So I'm laying in my bunk. Smelling like I am two weeks too late in the refrigerator, just going like, what in the world is happening? But the next day is October 17th, the day of glory. It's gonna be incredible. I go to sleep dreaming of all the amazing things gonna happen.
We get it. The next morning we play a worship set. It was bad but better than what it was the time before. But that night comes around and this is the worship set. This is where it's all gonna go down. Yeah. And I remember
just having, this is, this is like the, the big night for camp, like the, the camp night?
It,
yeah. Yeah. And, and it's a little weekend retreat thing, so it's only two days. But it's also the night where I'm supposed to be on stage with Mercy. Me becoming best friends with Michael W. Smith and saying Farewell to San Real. These are, these are all the times where, this is the moment, this is all supposed to be happening on.
Like, if Dr. Strange was here and he got to kind of put it together of the timelines, I mean, I, I could be doing four different lives at this point.
Yeah.
But I'm here smelling like an egg to lead worship with no track. We do the worship set. I would say, I would describe it as a c plus. Like it was passing, it was fine, but it wasn't like something where I'm going like, yeah, this feels worth it.
Yeah. Yeah.
So I'm not, so this is not a joke. I'm badly in my heart, this feeling of expectation. Okay. In a positive way, an expectancy in a. You owe me one way.
Mm.
So I go, I try sitting and listen to the sermon. This guy's preaching, and we gotta come and do an invitation P song. And I can't. So I slip off and I find a broom closet, and I get inside this closet.
I reach my eyes to heaven and I say, Hey, this is not fair. Mm. I've done everything I'm supposed to do. I've been a frigging man of integrity every single step of the way. You owe me one. I'm talking two. The Lord at this point. Okay? And I said, when I walk outta this room, I better see something that I've never seen in my entire life.
I did not. No dove on my shoulder. No voice of God telling me, yeah, you got it. Nothing. Okay. Yeah. Walk outta the closet to hear the youth pastor say, with every head bow. With every eye closed, well ask the band to come up. That's our cue. I go on stage, I slip my guitar on. It's plugged into the electric amp.
I'm looking at these little kids. There's a hundred kids in the room. And I'm ready to sing. Great. I Am Okay. Which is one of my favorite songs to lead the whole thing. It's like this is an ace in the hole. We're, we're just gonna go and crush this song. The youth pastor says, so as you continue to pray, you can come talk to somebody, whatever, as the band leads us, you come.
Okay? And that's my cue. And I walk up my guitar band and I say, I wanna be close. Close to your side, and I open my eyes and, and I just fix on this little seventh grade girl, this very sweet, sweet little girl. She's dead set right in front of me, right in front of the stage, four and a half, five feet from me.
And we make eye contact Jared. And it's like this moment where we're going, like, what is happening? And I see her eyes get a little bigger and bigger, and all of a sudden she just bends over, not blinking while maintaining eye contact. And vomits two days of camp food right on the ground. Wow. Okay. Okay.
And I, I. Quickly dart up and I find the youth pastor and he gives me, he just circles his hand and says, keep going, keep going. And I just say to heaven, Israel say that is a lie. At this point. Kids are gagging all around. This little girl, a youth sponsor, comes from the woodworks, just whips in there, grabs the girl, whisks her off to the back, to hose her down.
Then another person comes in, they've got a whole roll of paper towels. They start un spooling, a whole roll of paper towels piled four feet high in front of me. All of the youth in the building at this point are either whispering about it or trying not to toss their corn dogs as well, and we're just, hallelujah.
Holy, holy. And I'm going, what are we supposed to do right now? We finished the whole song. It's over with. Kids are literally white, pale. Giant pile of paper towels. Youth pastor comes up, puts his hand on my shoulder and goes, can we give a hand for the band for being here? You guys go and get your stuff.
The buses are on their way. Shook my hand, handed me a check, said thank you. Now, part of the story that's kind of funny that it really, this is just more fun. I turned around to the band guys 'cause they've got a front row view to this too as well. It's, it's just the four guys on stage. I look at the guitar player and he looks at me and he just goes, what just happened?
I look at the drummer, he say. I've never in my life. I look at the bass player who's one of my best friends. He has been my road manager now for the last five years. If you see me anywhere over the last five years, this guy named Jackson, who's with me every single step of the way, Jackson looks at us and as serious as he can say, he just goes powerful.
And I said, what? And he looks over and like does a double take and goes. What are all those paper towels on the ground for? And I said, buddy, I'm gonna tell you something right now. I love that you worship with your eyes closed. But if a fire breaks out, you gotta be able to get outta here. Keep your head on a swivel man.
Like, what are you doing? You missed the whole thing. I tell those guys goodbye. I pack up my guitar, I unplug it outta the electric camp. I grab the microphone off the stand, I pack it in my truck. I sit inside and I start to drive home in the dark. And here's the deal. It's so fun to tell the story right now, but in that moment it was like I was in complete shock at that point.
Yeah,
30 minutes on the road. And I just remember just, it was not this big booming voice. It wasn't even a voice, but it was like this still small, still small, just whisper to my soul of. Being, having integrity doesn't always produce the scene that you wanna see. And I remember just going like, at the end of the day, I started my heart off with having integrity.
And then what happened was I just started trying to. Build up some sort of a currency of results and I just wanted to see the results at that point. And here's the deal, I wasn't running around bragging to everybody 'cause I think people would think that I was an idiot if I'm passing up all these amazing things because I've got, I mean, the people who are calling me to do it are going, are you, are you sure you don't wanna like be sick that day or something like that.
But I remember integrity sometimes just is doing the right thing. It's not. You having to have the results that you need. Here's where the story gets really wild, if you thought that was the wild part of the story. So I get signed the record deal. We'll put a song on Christian radios. Never been a moment goes number one.
Incredible. A year later I. I find out that I'm nominated for a Dove Award for a new artist of the year. Okay. Huge honor. It's amazing. Knew I was gonna lose, but it was like I was one of the five that they mentioned on this ballot. It was really cool, and I remember just being like in awe of what God was doing in my life, and it was just so, so sweet.
And then we got our tickets in the mail and when I opened the tickets up, I could not help but just roll around laughing. The Lord had given me a complete. Long con 'cause there on the tickets, the date of the show was October 17th, the next year. Wow. And I would've, that date would mean nothing to me.
Right. If I had not, so here's the deal. So in that moment I could talk to myself. I really did think to myself, I was going like, oh, okay. So the Lord is doing something, even when it feels like that, he is nowhere to be found. Yeah. Even when it feels like that. Because, because the thing is he's not a promise maker.
He's a promise keeper. Mm-hmm. So when he promises that he is near the broken hearted, sometimes your heart has to break for him to be near you in that moment. Mm-hmm. One of the greatest gifts God can give us is need. And in that moment I felt like I was trying to muscle my way through a situation.
Yeah.
As opposed to going, God, I just need you right now.
Yeah.
I needed him to show up because I needed to feel like I made the right decision. Not I need you to move in this room because there's a bunch of kids here who need to know who Jesus is. Wow. And a little girl who made to go to the infirmary. But I'm telling you man, like and, and the thing is, the Lord has chased my life with stories like that, in fact.
So can I tell you one more story? Is that okay? Please bro. You got all day. So, so kind of going back that little gap of a year out there where I was trying to figure out, so when you sign a record deal, you're basically signing a bank loan. Because the record label, what they do is, is they invest money into you and your job is to go out as an artist and make that money back.
And then once they make their money back, then you can start making money. But you have to invest a lot at the very beginning. And so it's not this cha-ching situation where they just write you a check and say, Hey, you're set for life. Now go be an artist and make all the music and try to make some hit songs.
Yeah. It is like, okay, here's. You keep working really hard. In fact, now we'd like for you to work harder and we're trying to give you more opportunity for your hard work to maybe turn into something else.
Mm.
So I get invited to go out on a tour where I'm paying money to be there. It's, it's called a buy on.
You have to pay money to be out on tour. But it was an amazing tour to get to go learn from great friends. We're out there, but we're broke, man. I'm like, honestly, we are just. Strapped because now instead of me being able to do Disciple Nows and camps, I have to go out and do festivals, or I have to go out and do like, meet radio stations and do these deal radio tours and go meet people that you don't get paid for.
In fact, you're having to go pay to go do these things. Mm-hmm. So Casey and I we're living off of an elementary school teacher's salary. At this point it's, we real deal talk.
Wow.
So we're just broke, broke. Anyway, we end up, oh no, sorry. Actually, I lied to you right before the record deal. Six weeks before we found out we were getting offered a record deal, my wife had been praying about her stepping away from her job as a teacher, and we prayed about it every year that our kids have been born.
So we've been like 10 years into praying for this, and all of a sudden. The Lord just gave us a peace to step away, uh, and for her to turn into resignation, turns his resignation in, and the next week is when I get a call from Brickell saying, Hey, I think there's a record label that wants to meet with you.
And this is before I'd sign. I only met Brickell one time.
Mm.
So it wasn't like we were like, oh, we're gonna get a record deal. Go and quit your job. There was nothing on the radar. All of a sudden it was like, Hey, you have a meeting to go to. So she had quit her job. So we're living off of me. Just whatever, you know, vapors I can put together from a schedule.
So when you go out on tour, you hop on a tour bus, you ride for four days, you come home for three days, and you do that back and forth for the extent of the tour. I live two hours away from the airport, so like you're parking at the airport, you're paying for that, you're paying for your plane ticket. You get out there and then you're on the tour and I'm going like, man, I can't afford to fly back and forth.
And so I was like, I guess I'll just have to like, I. Maybe they'll let me stay on the bus. So we played a show in California in San Diego and I just asked 'em, Hey, do you, you guys mind if I stay on the bus for like till Wednesday and then we will roll out? I can't afford to fly home. They're like, yeah, that's fine.
That's fine. So we to bed on Sunday night. Everybody gets off the bus on Monday morning. Well, everyone got off the bus and no one told the bus driver, so he kills the bus. Bus is dead. He turns it off. Keys are going, I wake up completely sweating in an un-air conditioned, un electrified bus, and I'm just going like, what in the world?
I'm, it's like nine o'clock and I look at my phone and I, my phone had been blowing up and I'm going, what is happening? I start looking. And I had my Brickle, the record label booking songwriter friends, artist friends of mine, they're all text me going, oh my gosh, congratulations. Never been a moment, just cracked the top 20.
You did it. You made it. Your hard work's paid off. This is the moment I'm going, oh my gosh, this is happening right now.
Wow.
And then my wife calls me, I'm going, who told her? How did she know I was gonna surprise her? Yeah. So I just said, hello. And she goes, what are you doing right now? And I said. Kind of sweaty, but just kind of hanging out here on the bus.
And she just said, she goes, don't spend anything. And I said, what are you talking about? And she said, we have 87 cents. And I said, where? And she said to to our name and I was like, have you checked couch cushions? 'cause surely we can put them more together. She said, we only have 87 cents in our bank account.
She said, I accidentally paid a light bill early and I went grocery shopping yesterday, and I'm so sorry. I said, no, it's okay. It's okay. I said, so you have everything you need? She said, yeah, I've got everything I need right now, but you're out there. I said, don't worry about me. I've got $40 in my pocket from merch.
And then what I'll do is I'll just go buy some food and I'll eat it here. Anyways, I told her about the song. Congratulations. Get off the phone. My phone's still just, people just congratulating me. I walk a mile down to a Food Lion grocery store. I grab a pack of ham, a pack of cheese, a case of water, and a loaf of bread.
And I walk it a mile back to the un aircon conditioned, un electrified bus. Get on there. I'm sitting as the evening sun is going down. It's almost dark on this bus. And I remembered sitting there sweating, eating a ham and cheese sandwich, drinking a lukewarm water. And I remember out loud just going. I made it like that was the, you know, but dude, I'm gonna tell you right now, I trust Jesus more because of that day.
Yeah.
I trust Jesus more because of playing at a camp whenever other offers came along. Mm. I trust Jesus more because of the hurricane we went through in 2017. Mm-hmm. With Hurricane Harvey. I trust Jesus more because of my brother's battle with cancer. I think sometimes we try to equate as men, especially, we're fixers, so if things aren't fixed, something's wrong, but sometimes God will put things in our way so that he can give us one of the greatest gifts, which is one of the hardest gifts for us to receive as men as dad sometimes, which is simply I.
Need The gift of needing Jesus is such a fruitful gift because he will meet our needs. Paul says that I will boast all the more, not in my strengths, not in my successes, not in the ways that I'm killing it. I will boast all the more in my weakness because in my weakness, your strength is made perfect.
Wow. So like right now, I tell these stories not to brag that we've come up from those things. 'cause listen, we have more than 87 cents now. I don't typically have to plug into a guitar player's amp anymore. People bring the wires where I go do shows nowadays. Right? But then I'm just telling you, I'm still trying to be faithful the same way that I was on those days.
And the Lord has been so kind to give me the opportunity to need him on and off so that, because it's, it's carving something out and building something. So if somebody's listening right now and they're having a hard time with it. They're going through a season. They're going through a real long couple of years worth of seasons.
Here, man, God's doing something.
Wow.
God's building something. God's carving, something outing you so that whenever you got 88 cents in the bank account, whenever somebody does show up with the wires, whenever you do get invited to go do the thing that you turned down before because God was calling you, do something else.
I appreciate so much more than I would've if I went without, if I didn't go through a hard season. You don't appreciate the view of a mountain unless you're in a valley sometimes. Mm. You don't appreciate being on top of the mountain unless you've been down to that valley before.
Mm.
So like, and here's the deal.
There's no such thing as a mountain without a valley. If everything was a mountain, it'd be flat ground.
Right?
But the thing is, for us to have this ebb and flow and these, it's this change in elevation, in, in our landscape here, we have to walk through tough things so that when we get to the point where we can look back on those things, we can see the grace of God and the mercy of God and the kindness of God and, and the beauty of what it looks like to actually walk with him, knowing that we never took a step along.
Whew. Brother had me laughing and crying, man, in one, one conversation, bro. Holy cow. Dude. Man, I, I, I have chills, bro. I just, you're preaching the gospel. Blessed are the persecuted. You know, like there's, there's just something about that desperation. I think I could not have said that better myself. There's this beautiful blessing of just being absolutely desperate for God.
There's a scripture in, in John, sorry, I interrupt you. Sorry, go ahead. No, no, no. Please tell us in John, Jesus says, Jesus throws down a haymaker and it's one line and it has two very distinct promises in it, and one should crush us, and the other one holds all things together. Okay? In this world, you will have trouble.
Like that's a guarantee from Jesus. This is not a fisherman who became a disciple. This is not some guy who's just spouting off of the mouth that you, this is Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith said In this world, I promise you, you're gonna come against hard times. You're gonna have, you're gonna battle fear.
You're gonna battle stress. You're things are not gonna work out. The car's not gonna start. The cancer's gonna come back. Like these things are going to happen and that should crush us. Accept. The same guy with the same breath, in the same sentence. With the same voice says, but you take heart because in this world there will be trouble, but take heart because I have overcome the world.
Wow.
He literally sets it up on a tee for us to be devastated and then just knocks it outta the park. Mm. And says, Hey, you get to share in this victory with me. If you look at the story in David and Goliath, a lot of people think that we're supposed to be David at the bottom of the hill holding our little stones ready to take on the giants.
Guess what? That is not us in the story. We are the damals in distress. In this hero and villain story, we're the Israelites on the top of the hill who are too scared to come down. I. That's right. Who were too weak to face the giant who had the armor strapped on, but could not defeat it and needed a shepherd to come in their way and knock out the giant for them.
And guess what? The great shepherd of Jesus descends the hill on our behalf. He slings the stone, he slays the giant. And here's the thing in that story. Lemme tell you what my heart's been before Jared. There's times where I'm on top of the hill and I see God topple a giant for me and I stand up there and I feel ashamed 'cause I didn't do it.
Or I feel jealous, I, I could have done that myself. Why wouldn't I just be strong enough to go do that thing? I would feel the shame of feeling like I messed up. 'cause listen for days and days and weeks and weeks, the Israelites are on the top of the hill with a giant down there yelling up and saying, who's gonna come down?
Who wants to come and fight me right now? Where's the Lord at? If he's on your side, bring him down too. You know? Mm-hmm. And all of a sudden, this boy comes down and one stone slays the giant, grabs the giant sword. The enemy soared the weapon that was formed against him and knocks off the head. Guess what?
Jesus comes down the hill. He stands there in front of the giant. That is our sin and death. He takes the weapon that was formed against him of a cross, and he uses that thing to defeat our death, and the giant is slain. And the Israels could have stood up there and said, gosh, why didn't we go down there and do that?
Why we're so ashamed, we're so mad, but that's not the story. The story says all of a sudden they come running down the hill because they get to share in the victory that was given to them by the shepherd. I. And who are we to stand back? That's why we boast all the more in our weakness, Jared. That's why we say in this world there's gonna be trouble.
But I take heart because Jesus has overcome and we share in that victory. That's incredible. That is like, that's the reason we raise our families the way that we do. Yeah. It's because we share the victory of Jesus in your deficiencies. He has made strong and what a gift that in the places we need somebody to be strong.
There's strength there.
Amen.
Even if it's not our own.
Bro,
that is gospel truth. And that right there, that message right there is the whole, uh, heart behind dad tired that guys would capture, get captured by the gospel message that you just shared so beautifully.
That's why we're friends. That's why I caught you on a, on a cruise ship.
Okay. To be fair, we were working. Yeah. Lemme go a step farther. We were, it wasn't a cabaret show. We were on a K Love cruise. Yeah, you were speaking. I was doing musical on the cruise. Yeah. I messaged you on Instagram or something. I just said, dude, I, I listened to your podcast. I read the, you had the articles I was reading the articles on, on your website.
Yeah. And so we ended up connecting then, and I told you then, and I, to this day, I tell people all the time, like, dude, your intentionality. I love when people are purposeful.
Mm.
And what you've done is you're not trying to bend the gospel to fit inside of something that you're gifted at.
Mm.
This whole ministry started because you had deficiencies as a dad.
Yeah. This whole thing started because when you were weak, God provided the strength to teach you how to walk and to lead your family. Yeah. That vulnerability has challenged men for the last, how many years you've been doing this for. To not pick up the sword and run down the hill and try to do it themselves, but instead to share in the victory that Jesus gives to us, that we have this father, we have a father already, that if we pattern our lives after him, everything's gonna be fine.
If we pattern our lives after the father that has been set before us. Knowing that we have a brother in Jesus who has gone before us, made a way, knocked out the giant, turned around and said, come down the hill now.
Mm,
come run with me. Geez, I'm tossing dad tied around like it's confetti out here. You know, I tell you all the time, like if I had a paper route, I'd slip a, I'd slip an insert.
Just everybody needs to hear about because really, man, like that's, that's the thing as dads. We need help.
Yeah. And as soon
as we can realize that and understand that you're 20 people back towards what the gospel is doing. Yeah. That's a reason for us to celebrate and say we're not by ourselves. We're a bunch of guys on the top of the hill looking down.
No, we can't do it by ourselves. But with this community that you've built and with the gospel that inspired the whole thing, we take it one step at a time.
Bro, I told you before we hit record that. So I hurt my back being trying to be a tough guy, you know, working out and hurt my back and I was literally.
Crawling on my hands and knees to the bathroom today, like just, uh, I'm in so much pain and so I came into our conversation today just like physically. Beat down, but bro, like, God, just the way that you have filled my soul and just, and hearing what Paul says this too, like we preach the gospel like constantly, consistently.
I don't remember the passage. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm not quoting well, but it's like, it's not just the one time thing. It's not just the camp experience, which by the way will always be one of my favorite stories in the history of stories. That's the funniest story. Yeah. But it's not just like a camp. I heard the gospel, I raised my hand, I made a decision, but it's the gospel that keeps changing me.
It changed me then and it keeps changing me, and even bro, just sitting across from you and hearing you share the gospel again to me is still after 36 years of life and decades of trying to follow Jesus, the gospel is still refilling soul a lie. And somehow makes me love Jesus more and want to go downstairs and love my wife better and my treat my kids better and all of it, dude, so like you're just Exactly.
God knew exactly what I needed today and it was to spend time with a friend and be gospel again today. So
bro, I'm so thankful for you. Well, my dude, my hope is that, that there's a man listening to this right now who is not sitting across the table from you and I, there was still a conversation between you and me, but we're trying to include everybody in the conversation here too.
Yeah. I mean, my prayer is not that he would hear that. Go try to do it by himself. Like, find another man who, who you can sharpen iron with, that you really can. Like you, you're a guy who I can text and just say like, struggling with this. Can you pray for me about this thing? Yeah. I know it's not gonna be something that is in vain.
Like, I know that you, you understand what it's like. To travel the way that I do. And for me, I live in Bona, Texas. While I'm doing this, everyone in my industry lives in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm a unicorn out here. Like no one knows. I mean, there are people that I run into. I may have the number one song in the country.
I could walk into the local Walmart and they're like, Hey, you still doing music? I got a track tractor. If people come see my new tractor out here, like they don't, they don't care, which is very refreshing
for me.
But also it, it had its own challenges and stuff, but man, I'm, whenever I get to sit across from somebody and, and talk about the Ministry of Reconciliation, 'cause dude, I, I don't know if you've ever heard the most archaic, broken down version of reconciliation, like what that word means.
It means something was good, it became bad, and it's made good again. Mm-hmm. Okay. So Garden of Eden, God created all things. Everything's good. God said it was good, rested good. All of it's good. Sin enters the world. Everything's broken. Everything's in chaos. Everything hurts now, everything's wrong. But then Jesus comes and gives reconciliation through dying on the cross, rising again.
It's made good again. And then Paul says, Paul's just like the all star of this cast of this podcast, because he's, I mean, he's the veteran Christian. He's the, he's the, he's the varsity player, right? He's a, he's a quarterback. Paul says that we are ambassadors for Christ. We have been given the ministry of reconciliation to call out to others and to say, turn away from your sin.
And like this is the same guy who's boasting I, I will boast all the more of my weaknesses. He's the one who's called himself the chief of sinners, and he's the one saying, follow me as I follow after Jesus. I. And he's also saying like, we've been given the opportunity because we've been made changed. Not to just be changed, but to try and call out to others to turn from their ways, love Jesus more.
And so, man, you're doing that. You're one of those guys who I just, I, I'm so grateful that you just keep loudly proclaiming. Weakness loudly, pro claiming strength loudly proclaiming Jesus over all of it to the hearts of men there. But if you're listening to this podcast, it should not stop with you feeling the warm fuzzies of this conversation.
Now go find some men to go be men with. Yep. Go to your family and put into practice loving them. Your first ministry of reconciliation is inside of your home. Yeah. To the one that you married, to the, the kiddos that you've been given. And then, you know, just, just keep trying to build reconciliation from there.
That's, that's the beauty of what we get to do. We. Get to do that. It's such a neat thing.
Yeah. I'm thinking too, just as we close out here, I'm thinking too for the guy who can relate to that feeling of you in the broom closet, God, I've done my part. Why aren't you doing yours? And so many of us as dads feel that like, God, I'm doing my best here.
I'm trying, I'm showing up, I'm going, taking to church. I tried the devotional thing. I'm just doing whatever I can. I put the Christian music on and I just, I throw
a couple bucks in the offering play. Yeah, yeah. Throw a
couple, like, God, come on. Why is my wife like this? Why is my marriage like this? Why is my job like this?
Why are my kids like this? Bro? God doesn't owe you anything and and maybe it's stopping and saying maybe I'm right in the middle of the blessing. Maybe the blessing isn't coming. Maybe I'm right in the middle of it. Maybe God is trying to teach me. What it looks like to be a man who is desperate and maybe desperation is actually the, the best possible place that we could be.
Uh,
you're you're in the perfect position. Yeah. If you have all this need on you, if you are desperate for something, praise God. Because there is someone who can meet the need. There is someone who can cure your desperation, and it is Jesus. I mean, honestly, before my music video different, I, I had a quote on there that's get gotten passed around a lot.
It's something that God really taught me. We have this God who if he says, peace be still, the storm will stop today. I know that if there's a hurricane barreling down the way, if he puts his hand over the water and says, peace be still storm's done, the Bible says there is healing in the name of Jesus. I know that cancer or or whatever ailment is going your way right now.
If God wanted to heal you right now, Jared, your back would be nothing. A chiropractor could touch the way that the great physician could put you back together, but sometimes God wants us to ask him, will you stop the storm? I. Will you help my situation? Will you change my circumstance? Will you change all this stuff around me?
And there are times where he says yes and he stops the storm, and there's some times where he says, no, not because he's not kind, but because he wants you to ask a better question, which is if you won't change my circumstances. Will you change me so I can weather the storm? Can you change me so that I can go through this situation so I can learn how to hurt?
But for you to believe that it's not for nothing, that you're growing something here. So if you're that guy who feels like you've done everything and you don't, you're waiting for the ex, you're expecting something to happen, that's one thing. But if you're the guy right now who's like, I don't know what to do anymore.
It feels like God's being mean to me. It just feels like everything's barrel around me. What if God's putting you in a position for the real miracle for your soul to be able to weather things that you don't know that you can, for you to be able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death so that you may look back when you're to the other side of it and call others and teach them how to walk through it too?
God is not for nothing. God is always, it's not worthless. Your hurt is building something that is eternal. In you, and it doesn't make sense right now and it's hard right now, but. Our job is just to fix our eyes, cast off the weight, and to keep walking in the same direction. Long obedience in the same direction is what this Christian life is all about.
Wow. I want to end it on that powerful note. I want guys to walk away with that. Micah, I'm so grateful for you, bro. I love you and I'm grateful for our friendship. And if you're not careful, you're gonna be a co-host of the dad type podcast here with this much truth, man. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, bud. Love you, man.
Love you too, bro.
Hey guys. Hope that episode was helpful for you on your journey of becoming more like Jesus and helping your family do the same. I got a message this week from a guy who came to our retreat last year, our annual retreat, and he also ended up joining our family leadership program and he text us and he said.
As a result of those two things, the ministry being part of the retreat, being part of the family leadership program, and God just really using those things to capture his heart. Again, he was in the middle of a divorce and his wife was seeing change in him. So much so that she. Decided that she wants to pursue full reconciliation in their marriage.
She had moved her and the kids back five hours from where they were living to be down the street from him so that they can pursue counseling and reconciliation together. I tell you that because. This isn't just a podcast. We don't just have a podcast where we're trying to share funny stories or helpful dad things.
We are on a mission to see the gospel change families around the world, if you believe in that, which, uh, man, I get so excited about it because I get to hear these stories every day. I wish I could just. Pour all of them to you. The story I just shared with you is one of dozens that we hear every single week of guys who are being captured by the good news of Jesus.
And as a result, they're turning around and they're loving their wives better. They're loving their kids better. They're loving the people around them better. And so if you wanna be part of that kind of thing, and you want to chip in a few bucks to see that message spread all around the world. We are a nonprofit funded by our listeners, and we would love to have you partner with us.
You can do that by going to dad tire.com/give. Become a partner in this ministry so that we can continue to see it grow. We love you guys. We'll see you next week.