Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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 y'all, and welcome back to the Dad Tired podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by our partners at Range Leather. Their Cyber Monday sale is happening right now. You can get 15% off site-wide, but don't wait. It ends tomorrow, and starting Wednesday, December 4th, they're rolling out 12 days of gifting.
That's an extra big discount on different handcrafted products every single day for 12 days. Perfect for crossing off those Christmas gifts on your list. Range leather is based in Wyoming and they've got a faith integrated culture that really shines through all of their work. Everything is handcrafted in their workshop using full grain who we leather that only gets better with time, developing a rich, beautiful patina.
Even their hat patches are stamped and applied in-house, and one more reason to support them. Their COO. Tim is part of the dad tired community and a longtime listener of this podcast. So header@arrangeleather.com slash Dad tired and use the code Dad tired for 15% off. Don't miss the Cyber Monday sale and get ready for the 12 days of gifting starting December 4th.
Check 'em out today.
All right guys. I am so excited as we've been talking about devotion and the devotional life to have Bob Sorge on with me today. Bob is, um, a hero of mine and someone who's written so much on the devotional life, and I really think some of Bob's works will go down as devotional classics in the, in the years to come.
So excited to have Bob, um. Bob, will you introduce yourself, um, for the guys who maybe aren't familiar with your work, just give us a short synopsis of who you are and what you've been up to. Uh, no. I'll just begin, Caleb, by explaining about my voice. Yes, I, I'm holding a microphone on my mouth because. Of a vocal injury that I sustained 32 years ago, and, uh, I'm waiting on the Lord for his promised healing and, uh, seeking him for that.
And so as I'm waiting on the Lord, I, I need to use e equipment in a certain specific way to make it work for me, right? And so that's why my voice sounds weird, and that's why I've got the microphone. And, uh, yeah, I, uh, I, I was a pastor and a worship leader when this happened to me in 1992. And, uh, eventually had to, uh, let all that go.
And, and so for the last 25 or so years, I have been full time in. Writing and traveling ministry. So I, uh, I travel literally around the world. Just did my 50th nation this past year. Chile was number 50 for me, so cool. And, uh, and I've written now over 30 books. It, it's like the Lord has used this, uh, the sh.
Down off the voice to open up the writing and, uh, and, and so that's just, uh, it, it, it's a significant part of my life, my journey. It's what I do. And hopefully I'm answering your question. Okay. Yeah, no, that's great. Bob. I just, um, for six weeks we talked about wilderness themes, the way that the Lord will take us into the wilderness and shape us in the wilderness.
And it seems like you definitely went through that, like there was a. A purifying, a purging, and the wilderness imagery is very significant for me. And, uh, and so, you know, there's, there's several metaphors in scripture that are really helpful when you're in a season of suffer. During trial tribulation, the wilderness is one of those.
The refining fire is one of those. The pruning of the Lord is one of those metaphors, a variety of metaphors in scripture that just help us get a, a handle on the intensity out. Cross with the Lord. Yeah. You know, you go to guys like Job in the Bible. Uh, in my case, I went very heavily into the cross of Christ.
Yeah. Because when you're suffering, you just go to the cross. It, the cross makes sense of our sufferings. And so actually I've written a book on the cross and queue. When people ask me, they ask me, uh. Bob, what's your favorite of all the books you've written? And I say The cross. Yeah, because I just love the cross of Jesus Christ.
Uh, so yeah, wilderness is huge for me. Yeah, I'm preaching through the gospel of Mark, have been for over a year and I'm just getting to Calvary and meditating and thinking about his suffering and the endurance and um, it's beautiful and it is something like we miss in modern Christian life for sure.
Well, there's something about the cross that Peter brings out. This is first Peter 2 21, and, uh, I, I'm, I don't wanna get off, off track here. No, I'm enjoying it, so, okay. But in first Peter 2 21, Peter gives us the key that unlocks the cross. He goes, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps.
Yeah. So there's two sides to the cross. There's the side of the cross that he did for us so that we never have to, and then there's the side of the. Of the cross that he did to show us how there are two sides to the cross. Yeah. There is the substitutionary side of the cross that he did for us that we never have to, that's the horror side of the cross.
Mm-hmm. He took on what we couldn't bear and did the cross. For us so that we never have to endure condemnation. We never have to endure the wrath of the father. We are healed from our sicknesses. So there's what he, there's that side of the cross that he did. For us, so we never have to, but then there's the other side of the cross.
He did it to show us how, because in the cross there's this invitation to part participation with him in the cross. I call this the dignity side of the cross, where we have this. Dignity and honor of sharing with him in his sufferings. We don't have to do the horror side, but we get the dignity of identifying with him in his sufferings.
And when you see that there are two sides to the cross, for me it opened up the cross. It was like everything then made sense for me. Yeah, I read, um, I cheat coded, but I read your work on the cross. Uh, when I was younger, and so I'm still, I'm still young. You're still, you're still young. You're still young.
Do you see how much gray I'm getting though, Bob getting very gray. Um, yeah, and that was so helpful for me and I think, um, so much of your work, and I think through your suffering and through your endurance, has benefited my life and a lot of young guys like me who read and I was thinking about, um.
Dealing with the rejection and praise of man was so helpful. So helpful. Um, I grew up without a dad. That's kind of the context of this podcast, right? Is fatherhood and yeah, I think I just wrestled a lot with needing affirmation and what does it mean to be a man and trying to prove something. And so all that was good.
The I. Um, secrets of The Secret Place is what we wanted to talk about today. Shifting to devotion, but how much of that did you learn through suffering? How much was the secrets of the Secret place connected to your process there of fire? I.
Absolutely huge. I, I don't think that I would've really, I don't think I'd have ever written that book, Caleb, had it not been for the sufferings of my journey. I'm proud. I would've never written that book. Uh, because when, when you're suffering it, it kind of take, it, it, it'll push you in one of two directions.
Either you become cynical and hardened and full of pity and, uh, become a casualty. Or it drives you into the face of God where you're like, okay, Lord, I, I don't know how to make sense of this right now because you're the Lord that heals me. Why I, why am I in this affliction? You're the God that gives me abundant life.
Why do I have so much? Death working in me. And you know, these profound questions that drive us, if you allow it, will drive you into the face of God. And, and that, so that's, that's what my, my trial did. And so, yeah, I'm, I'm, if I, if I can say it to Caleb like this, because I live with chronic pain, every word is painful.
I am actually. Grateful for the pain. Because there is something about pain that you just can't, you can't settle in, you can't get comfortable in it. You, it keeps you on the edge, it keeps you pressing. And for 32 years, the pain, the sufferings in my life has kept me pressing into the Lord, which I'm actually grateful for because it's the pursuit of Jesus that produces.
Fruit in our lives. So I say to people all the time, do not despise the means God uses to press you into his. Yeah. Bob, for the, for the guys who might not be familiar with your work or from our kind of branch of Christianity, can you define just quickly what the secret place is so that they can kind of catch up with our convo here?
I, I'm just gonna let Jesus define it in the sermon on the. Mount. He talked about it. He talked about giving in secret. He talked about fasting and secret. He talked about praying in secret and he said, and the Sermon on the Mount is a great place to go to on this one. He goes. Shut your door. And he said, when you shut your door, your father is in the secret place.
And when you shut your door, you are immediately in the presence of your father because he's already there. He's been waiting for you. So the secret place is, it's a place where. We shut our door. Sometimes that's a literal door. Sometimes it's an emotional, uh, whatever kind of door, but we block out the distractions that want to rob us of a secret life in God and Caleb.
We have. Correction. This is a serious distraction, sir, in life today, and if you're gonna be a man of the secret place, you've got to be violent. You've got to be violent with your devices. You've got to be. Violent with your schedule, you've got to be violent with your priorities, and I'm using here the, the, the idea that Jesus said, where the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.
Rise up mighty man. God, and take your sword in your hand and hack it back. The tentacles that wanna wrap around your heart and squeeze out your secret life in God because we're in a war today, Caleb 2024 is just a massive war zone. Everything is militating against a secret life in God. That's so good.
Fight. Get in, get in the secret place. And, and to answer your question, for me, the secret place is simply a place of prayer with the word. It's so good. It's just that simple talking to Jesus through the word. So good. Bob, you talked about in the book at some point about having a gas station relationship with the Lord.
Can you, can you break that down, like the transition from, from that mindset? Yeah, I used to come to the secret place like a gas station. I used to come with this idea that I need to get filled up, but I. The thing with the gas station is there's nobody that really enjoys going to the gas station. You know, if, if you go to the gas station, it's like a necessary evil I've gotta fill up so that I can drive what you.
Really wanna do is drive and the gas station is that necessary evil so you can drive. And the Lord showed me that my secret place was like a gas station almost, if you will, a necessary evil. I've. Got to do it if I wanna have gas in my car so that I can drive my ministry. And when the Lord showed that to me, it really drove a knife in my heart.
I was like, Lord, I have a gas station relationship with you. That's not what I want it to be like. I want it to be fiery and intimate. I want it to be about love, about desire. I want it to be personal. I want them to. Put a rope around my ankle and Greg, me out because, but it used to be Caleb, to be honest, I used to be relieved when my secret place was over because, okay, now finally I can do what I wanna do and, and I think the Lord wants to be not I.
Gas station where we stop to get filled up, although it will fill us up. Right. But I think he wants it to be an intimate, fiery, enjoyable, personal relationship. And I just wanna say to all the brothers that are listening, right, and watching right now. Fight for this. Fight for something that is intimate and fiery.
Don't be satisfied until you find yourself weeping, when you're in the word, when your heart is alive, when your spirit is energized. When your light is lit up, I was just reading, uh, in my secret place this morning. I came across the verse where, uh, Jesus says when they light a lamp, they don't put it under a mattress, they put it on a lampstand so that it will give light to the whole house.
And I think this is what the Lord wants to do in our secret. Please Kilo. I think he wants to put a, a light of a fire, a light inside of us so that when we come from our secret place, there is a light in our hearts and in our eyes that lights up our entire household, our entire family. So. You know, I, I want my kids to catch me with my Bible open.
Yeah. I want my kids when they stumble and they will, you know, catch me in a down moment and I'm on my face before God. I want them to see that this thing that I have with Jesus is. Personal and real, and it's a priority in my life. Going back to the Sermon on the Mount, he said, seek first the kingdom of God, and I want my kids to see, but I am someone who seeks.
First, the Kingdom of God. And since we're talking to dads in this podcast, Caleb, one of the things that I encourage Dads to do is to pull your kids in and do it with them. Now, it may not be technically your secret place because now you've got your kids with you. Yeah, but, but pull your kids in and teach them to have a secret place with God.
Your kids are not too young to have their own thing going with Jesus. Teach them, talk to them, help. Yeah, you'll do your children no greater favor than to help them find their own personal secret place connection with Jesus. Yeah. One of the, uh, one of the victories of my parenting, you know, I have a lot of failures and maybe six months ago I walked in the house and two or three of my little girls were in a closet with the door shut and they had drug their keyboard in, and they were, they were singing.
And they were trying to worship and, uh, man, for, for like a week, they would do it together. And that was one of the moments in my parenting, I was like, yes, praise God. Um, lots of failures. Um, but, but that victory was so huge. Thank that. Sweet. Yeah. So sweet. The, um. Bob again, the most of the guys like me. I have a pastor in a church and I have eight kids at my house.
Four biological, two adopted, and two foster. Um, and so a lot of us are just kind of in the throes. Yeah, in the throes. And there are these moments where. I have to find some motivation. I've gotta dig deep. I've gotta keep my fire and my soul burning. What would you say to that? Like, what would you say to the dad who's a little overwhelmed, but I need, I need inspiration.
How do I keep my fire burning? Um, you're a dad. You have three, four kids. I have three kids and six grandchildren, and actually my grandchildren now are ages 13 to 19. So I've earned my all that, this thing up here. Uh, but, uh, but yeah, I, uh,
finding motivation for the secret place. Uh, I'm, I'm gonna share with you what has lit my fire more than anything else, and when I wrote the book Secrets of the Secret Place, and by the way, if you don't mind, I'll just, I'm just gonna show a cover here just so that, uh, the viewers can kind of get a, a look of, you know, what, what the cover kind of looks like.
Uh.
When, when I'm, when I'm in the secret place, the thing that I am looking for above all anything else, is to hear the voice of God through scripture. Forgot to speak to me through the word. And when he speaks to me through a verse, it kind of happens like this for me. I'm in the verse and I'm just kind of talking to Jesus about the verse.
I'm praying in the verse and using the language of the verse to pray to the Lord and talk to the Lord. And sometimes I'll just hang out in one verse for 5, 10, 15 minutes and just talk to the Lord. And then. When the spirit of Revelation comes on me and I see something in that verse I've never seen before, and I see something about Jesus, it lights my eyes up, my cheeks flush.
I come alive. I'm like my. Faith is ignited and my love is inspired. This is what sets me on fire. And, and, and so when I wrote the book Secrets of the Secret Place, I'm like, Lord, help me to write it in a way that doesn't put a heavy on people like you. To spend time with God, you have to be disciplined to do, you know, crank this thing out.
I want it to be something that I'm drawn into that I desire. And the thing that has lit my desire more than anything else is it's what the Song of Solomon calls the kisses of his mouth, the Song of Solomon one verse two, when he. Kisses you with his word. You are just meditating in the verse. You're talking to him.
You're taking time with the verse, and suddenly the spirit of revelation, it comes off the page, it lights you up, and you're like, oh my. Goodness, there's something sweet Caleb about getting it straight from Jesus. Yeah, for yourself. I appreciate folks, I appreciate podcasts. I appreciate YouTube clips. I like to hear a sermon.
I like conferences, but there ain't nothing like when he gives it to you. For yourself because when he kisses you with his word and the secret, please, you don't have to imagine to yourself, how does this apply to my life? It comes with your name on it. It enables you. It identifies you. It feeds you. It lights your fire, it sets you on.
It makes you come alive. You become light and. Yeah. And so that, that for me, that's, that's what I'm always fishing for when I'm in the secret place. And I'm gonna be honest with you, Caleb, I don't get them every day. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna be honest with you. They're a little bit rare, if that's the right word.
Sparse. I don't get. Stuff every day in the secret way. Sometimes it's dull and boring, but I know a secret. It's the secret of Galatians six, eight. If you'll sow to the spirit, you'll eventually reap to the spirit. And if we sow to the secret place, we will eventually. Rape to the secret place, and if you will just keep sowing.
I just wish I could say this to the whole global body of Christ. Keep sowing. I don't care if today was hard, if it was boring, if you nodded off and fell asleep in the middle of the chapter, I don't care. Keep sowing because if you'll make the secret place a priority in your life so that every day you are just sowing to the secret place, I have a prediction for your life.
You. Are going to eventually reap. It's impossible to keep sowing to the secret place without eventually reaping. And when you reap to the secret place, and I'm talking about when he kisses you with his word, when you get living, understanding in the word. Excuse me. You become a secret place junkie. Yeah.
You used the language, um, a survivor of the secret place. Um, what did you mean by that? Yeah, I call myself a secret place survivor because if it were not for this secret place, and I'm sorry. You're totally fine. Excuse me. It is just. Sometimes I'm just, I just struggle here a little bit. Yeah. But when, when I was in my darkest place, thought I was gonna lose my mind, the secret place saved my life.
I am here today because of the secret place I am here today because of the kisses of his mouth. I am here today because in my darkest hour he pulled up a chair, invited me to the table, and this is Revelation three is saying, he says, I'm knocking at the door. And sometimes his knocks are a little bit invasive and it's like, whoa, I just got knocked.
I, I got knocked pretty hard, but I realized he was knocking at my door because he wanted me to open the door so that he could come in and we could have a dining relationship together. I thank God for the. Yeah, the, sometimes we use the imagery of digging wells with God, but for me, and I'm, I'm younger and but carrying a lot of responsibility.
I've been through some things that are weighty already in my life. Um, there have been these flashes of intimacy with God that seem to make everything else worth it, and I can recall them. I can draw on them. When things get really messy and hard and frustrating and I'm exhausted, it's like I can think back to these moments where Jesus met me and it.
Carries me, it sustains me. That imagery of the, of, of drawing on the Well have, have you experienced that? Does that idea make sense? Yes. And Caleb, those moments with God are so precious. They are like, it's like gold. It's like two. It's like the treasures of the kingdom. And, and to use another metaphor for that, it's like sometimes if you're gonna go digging for gold, you're gonna have to mine it.
You're gonna.
The, the, the real treasures of the kingdom of God are not just sitting on the surface like, man. Yeah. They are like, like veins of gold. That must be pursued in the secret place. Yeah. Um, I. I definitely feel like I've experienced that. The, the mining, the digging, and one of the things that I'm trying to help, um, my church, but the guys on the, on the podcast too with is for some reason, maybe as men in, in general, we become so practically minded that everything is kind of, I always use that analogy of.
We think of everything like a workout plan, do A, B, and C. And there's a part of the devotional life that is disciplined and you have to just get up and do it sometimes. But there's an element of Christianity that's not so formulaic, and I think that's what you're describing is everything's not practical and formulaic.
And. There, there's an element of mystery to it and of sometimes misery even in it, of, I'm exhausted and I'm tired. I can't find the spirit of God. But isn't that the common experience of church fathers and men who have gone before us, is the, the seeking and finding the digging and, uh, pushing and persevering and, and finding him.
You know what? My experience has been Caleb and I'm, I'm now 67 years old. My experience has been that my, my secret life in God has not always been the same through the years. Yeah. There's elements in it that change and, and in my youth, I was just a little bit more. Emphasis on discipline, and actually I think that was good.
I think in our youth, an emphasis on discipline is really helpful to get us grounded, but as you mature and get older, I just find that love does not always flow out of discipline. Sometimes it flows out of spontaneity and relationship and love. But, okay, let me just say this about the discipline part. Uh, there is one element in my secret place.
But I, as, as I was preparing for this podcast with you, I was like, you know what? There is one thing in my secret place that really helps to motivate me and get me there and make it consistent. And it's this, I have set for myself a Bible reading goal. Hmm. It's just that simple. I have a goal for my life and it's not that aggressive, uh, compared to what some people do, but I have a goal of reading through the Bible every year.
I. Yeah. And then in my case, I actually do the New Testament twice a year. So I do the Old Testament once a year. I do the New Testament twice a year. And, uh, and, and it, you don't have to do the twice thing. I, you know, wha wha, but, but when you set a goal for your heart to say, I am gonna read the entire scriptures.
Every year when you have that simple goal in front of you, and in my case, I really wanna meet that goal. I. It helps to get me to the secret place. Just something that simple as setting a goal of reading, uh, the, the scripture and then the way I do it now. Now, what I'm about to talk about a little bit here, Caleb, is actually if you want, if, if our listeners want to get this in writing, it's on my, uh, on my, on this page.
Prayer reset.com. So if you go to prayer reset.com, which is based, if you don't mind, I just holding the cover, a prayer reset. I've got a written little practical book on prayer. If you go to prayer reset.com, I talk about my Bible reading plan and here's how I do it. And I do, I, I do, I read my Bible on my iPad.
I actually prefer digital because my eyes are a little bit older and, uh, if my eyes were better, I would actually prefer paper, but the way it is, okay, so what I do is I divide, I, I count the number of pages, for example, that it takes in my iPad for the Old Testament, how many pages. Are in my, my app. To get through the whole Old Testament and, and then I divide that number by 300, and that's how many pages I try to read a day because I'm like, you know, out of 365 days, there's probably gonna be 65 days in there.
It's a struggle and miss. Yeah. So I'm gonna divide it by 300. That gives me the freedom to miss a day here and there. No, Peggy. I divide it by 300 and. So, for example, in the, in the size of font that I read, it means that I read 10 pages in the Old Testament on my app every day, and I use that with the New Testament, know the various I.
Places that I wanna read in the Bible. Now, if I'm gonna use a paper Bible, I actually count the pages in my paper Bible. How many pages are in my Old Testament? I divided by 300, and now I know how many pages. And when I was reading from a paper Bible, I would use paper clips and I would paper clip the pages so that I would know where I am in sequence and, uh.
Yeah, and I actually keep track of it. I keep track of the dates of when I finished the Old Testament and I just, I look at the dates, okay. I got the whole testament and this year I did it, and I, so I watch the dates and I, I try to, you know, keep in that simple device. Is so helpful for me, and I'm gonna tell you, Caleb, why I like to read the whole Bible through.
It's a, it's a very simple truth. I want every part of God's word to have a shot at me. Yeah. I love that. I love that. I don't wanna miss something that God wants to say to me because it was buried in a book that I never read. I. Yeah, I'm going to go through every Bible book once a year and just with a bullseye on my chest.
Here I am. Have a shot at me. Lord, anything you wanna say to me from any part of your word? I want, I want to, I want it to hit me and challenge me and feed me and nourish me and help me so. That's so good. There's an, there's an element of relationship with Jesus in general, um, that can cut you, right?
You're, you're kind of signing up to lay on the operating table and allow him to cut you. And for me it's like at some point you gotta learn to just enjoy it. Just to, just to love his correction and, which can be challenging, but it's good. It's always good. And his corrections that Hebrews 12, his corrections are because he loves us.
Thank God he doesn't leave you to yourself. Yeah. If he left you to yourself, you would wander off into a wrong direction. Thank you Jesus, that you did not leave me to the path that I would've chosen for myself. You know, every, everybody's talking about, Hey, you know, I got five year goals, and figure out what you wanna do with your life in chart.
Of course, if I had taken my life in the direction I wanted to go, oh my goodness. Thank you Lord for interrupting my visionary self determinations. And saying, Bob, you will not go this way. You will go this way. So I'm grateful for the corrections of God in my life. Yeah. Yeah. Bob, the. We're getting close to our time, but we had kind of talked about how, how old are your kids?
Your kids are probably my age. Huh? My oldest is 41, my youngest is 35, and then my grandchildren are 13 to 19. Yeah, so you're probably, most of us probably lie somewhere in that bracket. Um. If you could talk to us from the season of you, you've been through the mud that we're in, what's the, what's the one thing you would say?
What's the one big takeaway that you would say to me if I was your son and in the middle of raising kids and still trying to keep a fiery heart while I have lots of responsibilities? Okay. Um, but hard, hard to just come up with. Uh, you know, the one thing I would say, but lemme right, lemme say this. Know what rejuvenates you.
Mm. Be aware of what really feeds you and nourishes you and rejuvenates you, because if you'll pay attention to it, I'm gonna guess that you'll figure out it's not vacations. Yeah. Sometimes we come home from vacations. And we're more, you know, like, oh, I've gotta rest up now. I just had a family vacation.
If you are really, if you'll examine it carefully, I'm gonna guess it's not playing golf. Mm. Now I play golf. Golf is a fun distraction. I get it. But golf does not rejuvenate me. I have identified what rejuvenates me. Fasting and prayer, and the secret place. Mm. That's what gives me life. That's where I re, I find.
Uh, I find myself actually renewed. That's what, uh, and, and I will usually do, I usually go on a fast right around the end of the year or the beginning of a new year, somewhere around the December, January area. I. Because I'm like, I've got to reset here. I've got to Right. And I know what rejuvenates me. And, uh, and it's fasting and prayer in the secret place.
I personally like to take extended fasting retreats with the Lord. And, and, uh, I, I, I know that's not really the topic of, of what we're, where we're going here, but. Find out what rejuvenates you, what actually fills your cup, what actually renews you, so that, uh, so that you can step into the warfare with a full cup, with a full heart.
Uh, another way to say it. I wanna burn oil and not wick when our lamp gets low on oil. The, we start to burn the wick. It's called burnout. I want lots of oil in my lamp so that I'm running on oil, not wick. And so find out what puts oil in your lamp, what actually fills your cup, what renews you in the Holy Spirit so that you can step into the warfare because.
Being a dad in, in this hour, it's, it's a battle. It's warfare what fills you up. And I think you're gonna find when you really analyze it carefully, it's gonna be something about the secret place. Yeah, I've been so blessed. I, um, I'm the kind of person that gets my head down and work, and I get busy and I'm just working.
But my, my best friend who's a worship pastor, schedules our prayer retreats, and I, I don't, I don't schedule it. It's just like, Hey, you're doing a prayer retreat. Then I. And we're gonna fast. And sometimes friends can be so helpful to have a friend who reminds you and pulls you. And that is Oh yeah, Caleb.
I love that. Yeah. It's been such a joy for my life. Um, yeah, the, that I try to tell guys, and I don't know that I've learned this myself. I think pastors pressured me this way, but as much as you schedule vacation, if we could, especially his dad, schedule one prayer retreat a year, just two days get away, and man, it's so valuable.
I, I just, I just wanna say a big amen to what you've just said. Caleb can. If now you have to muscle it down, you have to actually look at your annual calendar, right? And muscle it down and get it down. Sometimes even, you know, 10 months in advance, but muscle it down and say, okay sweetheart, talk to your wife, sweetheart, on this weekend when I get off work Friday.
I'm going to get away. I'm gonna go to such and such a place. Can, can you line up the ducks so that I can be away and I'll come back home Sunday night. That'll give me Friday night, all day, Saturday, most of the day, Sunday, come home Sunday night, and. Have the weekend for fasting, and I believe in water fasting, by the way, uh, for fasting and prayer and coming aside in just me and Jesus in a quiet place with the word.
Oh my goodness. Caleb, I love your idea here. I wish that we could set the whole body of Christ onto this. Yeah, and the, what I've found, and I'm sure you can echo, is that my wife is usually very on board with me burning for Jesus. You know, the two days away she's like, yes, if you come back with a fresh zeal for Jesus, go for it.
Um, and so I think sometimes we tell ourselves that it's too much work or we can't get away. And man, that, that's the sharpening of the Axe. Swinging a dull ax only gets you so far. You sharpen it and you get a lot more work done, you know, that kind of imagery. Alright brother, we'll stop it so we're not all day, but.
That, um, that was great. Thank you so much for your time.