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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. Welcome back to the Dad Tired podcast. Glad that you're here with us today. If you're looking to step up your game as the spiritual leader of your home, one of the easiest ways to do that is to memorize scripture as a family. And one of the easiest ways to memorize scripture as a family is to use dwell.
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Again, go to dwell differently.com. Use the promo code Dad tired. You'll get your first month free or 10% discount on a membership for a full year. Pastor Louis, so excited to be hanging out with you today, man. For our audience who may not be familiar with you and all the great work you're doing, maybe just fill us in on who you are and what you're up to these days.
Yeah, just a guy showing up, uh, to try to lead a church, mostly here in Atlanta, Georgia. Passion City Church. We've been going for about a. 12 years now, born out of a movement to gather college age young people to live for the glory of God. We've been doing events called Passion in stadiums and arenas around the country and around the world for a little over 20 years now.
Hmm. And that's kinda life for me. My wife and I live here in Atlanta, Georgia. And, uh, really pumped to be on with you today. Yeah, man. Well, I'm glad you're here. I remember the first time I came across your ministry was the indescribable video that you did. I was, I was, uh, still a young man early in my faith, and I remember watching that message and that video and just, it was one of the first times it was, I was.
I really understood kind of the awesomeness of God and to be in awe of God. And that really shaped some of my early thinking about who God is. So you've been doing this a long time and you've been pointing to people to Jesus for a long time. Yeah. You know, you hope you don't have a one hit wonder. I don't know if you can apply that to serving God or not, but the indescribable thing I've been teaching around space and, uh, using pictures from the Hubble and doing.
You know, a lot of different integration of that and teaching, trying to just expand our view of God. The psalmist said, the heavens are telling the glory of God. Mm-hmm. So the best billboard for God's bigness and his greatness is to look up into the sky, which very few of us do anymore. Mm-hmm. And so. I'd seen the way God was using it.
But then my pastor at the church, we were going to, this is before Passion City had asked me to preach on a couple Sundays, and I finally put it all together into one message called Indescribable. And it was the whole universe, but it ended with the, the one who created it all. Jesus on a cross, given his life for us.
And man, it just, you know, it was a thing from the, from the Drop and Chris Tomlin and I went. Toured around, uh, the country together and I gave this talk every night, city after city, after city and went on to a DVD. That's the thing we used to have back in the day, and it just. Went like crazy. Yeah. I mean, all over the planet got translated into all these languages and just, you know, millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of views on YouTube.
It wasn't even on, we didn't even have a YouTube people putting it on the, all these their on YouTubes, and it just became a thing. I did a follow up called How Great is Our God? And. I don't know. I don't go too many places that somebody doesn't stop me every single day and mentioned indescribable. This is like 20 years ago.
Or, how great is our God and man. What an amazing way that God used that in that little story. Yeah. To introduce so many people to the bigness of God, the greatness of God. And apparently it's still going, you know? Yeah. Well, it's not surprising. I mean, I was gonna ask you how long ago? You said? 20 years ago.
That's crazy to think that. That was that, that makes me feel old. Uh, well, you know, the cool thing about it too is I met one of, uh, the heroes of the music world, uh, bill Gaither a few years back, and Bill Gaither is just a phenomenal songwriter and big influence on gospel music. And at the time he was seventies at least, and.
He maybe kind of knew who I was, but maybe not. And we met and he goes, Louie, he goes, I want you to come to my homecoming. They had these, these big events where a lot of the great gospel singers would come, and I think the maybe my age and UPC crowd would show up for these homecoming nights. He said, I want you to come to homecoming and do the indescribable talk.
And I was like, how do you know about the indescribable talk? He said, my grandkids. My grandkids went to school, they showed it in their science class. They came home that afternoon and said, granddad, we are watching this on the computer right now. They took me to my study, found it on YouTube, and we sat at my desk in my study and watched Indescribable.
And it was one of those things that it moved through the kids more than it did the adults at one stage, and they're the ones who started turning their moms and dads and grandmoms and granddads onto it. And uh, I tell the story. And one of the talks about how big you know these stars are compared to if the earth was a golf ball.
And I talk about how many Empire State buildings, you know, one of these stars is, and if the earth were a golf ball down here on the sidewalk, and I'm not kidding, there were a couple times I'd be in New York and I'd go by the Empire State Building. There'd be a family out there with a 7-year-old with his golf ball in front of the Empire State Building like we are here in the midst of it right now.
And I'm like, man, that was crazy to be a part of. I don't want to get us too sidetracked 'cause I'm really excited about your new book. I do wanna talk about it, but one thing is, that's always fascinated me. I, I say this a lot, like I feel like we're not talking about death enough and we're not talking about space enough.
Like those two things in my mind show the grandness of God and how just futile are, you know, just puts into perspective really on both fronts, just puts into things into perspective how big God is and how small we are and how, how, just inconsequential so many of the things that we. Pour ourselves into our, yeah, we're all staring at this screen and you can find anything in space on the screen.
So why do I need to go outside? I can look up a nebula on my. Phone. God knew what he was doing and, and I know we're not on on a space podcast today, but one of the major reasons we have invested, I don't know, billions of dollars in study. The search for extra terrestrial intelligence, one of the major reasons is a valid reason.
And cosmologists look at the scope of the universe and then the size of Earth and they go, there's gotta be more people in here. Because this is just way too big. To be a habitation for humanity. And I think that's a valid point if you don't have a spiritual perspective, and I just would answer them and say, yeah, if this was just created for us to live in, it is extremely way too big, but it actually wasn't created.
Just for us to live in. It's primarily created to show off how big God is and to show his glory. And the way the Psalmist goes on to say it, he says, the heavens are telling the glory of God. Their expanse declares the work of his hands. Night after night, they pour for speech, and day after day they tell us what they know.
There's no place on earth where there is speech or language where their voices are not. Heard. And so God was like, Hey guys. And when you see it, if you can get to the Northern Lights, if you can get to the bottom of the Grand Canyon where I've laid down in the dark of night and there's no human light, and you feel like you can just pull the stars out of the sky with your hand, when you get into these moments, it right sizes us.
Yeah. In the very. Best way and creates awe and wonder in us that is not awakened by hardly anything else that we see on this screen. Yeah. Amen to that man. Hey guys, hope you're enjoying this episode so far. Just wanted to pause for a minute and say thank you for your loyalty and being part of this dad tired community.
We are on a mission to see a million new. Dads reached for the gospel through this ministry in the next year. I know that sounds crazy, but if you saw the way that God is using this ministry through social media and this podcast and books, it's truly incredible and we wanna see a million new dads exposed to it and jump into this community.
One of the easiest ways that you can support the ministry is by showing off the dad tired gear that we have in the dad tired shop. They're great conversation starters. It also just shows the world like you're a tired dad and you are. Completely committed to being the spiritual leader God has called you to be.
If you're interested in getting some of this wife approved swag, go to shop.dad tire.com or just go to dad tire.com and click the shop tab and you can find books, sweatshirts, t-shirts, hats, mugs, all kinds of stuff for you. Again, go to shop.dad tire.com, pick up the gear today. It supports the ministry and also helps you stay cool.
It's kind of a job perspective when God says, you know, brace yourself like a man. Uh, I have some questions for you. And then he just starts to go off on his grandness and yeah. I, I love the way you said that. That's actually, I think that's a good transition for this book that you wrote that really piqued my interest in why I wanted to have you on the show.
But I think if most people, when they think about God. In some ways, they kind of feel that that's who he is. This kind of mysterious, almost in the same way we'd view, view space, especially for a nonbeliever or maybe somebody who doesn't really know much about the Christian faith, they just kinda see, okay, there might be this kind of big guy in the sky.
He's mysterious. We don't really know much about him. If he were real, he wouldn't want to know me. And so I think even your title when you're of this new book that you wrote, when you're talking about God as father. I think that trips up a lot of people who really aren't familiar with the Christian faith.
'cause like what? How do you relate to that God who created space as a father that seem, that might seem weird. So that's one end of the spectrum. But the other end would be you have Christians who are like, I know those scriptures referred to him as father, but man, I still don't know if I really relate to him as father.
What would you say to that? Yeah, I think that you know it, it is a mysterious concept. That the same God who spoke the universe into existence. Could be in such close proximity to me that I could have a relationship with him like a father. But you know what, we're missing in, in sort of the grand scheme of things, and I agree with you.
There are a lot of people who actually, you know, don't go to church and got all these crazy concepts of God. We talk about a lot of those in the book, but there are a lot of people sitting in churches who have a lot of crazy concepts of God too. But the concept of God that we're talking about actually is rooted in the way that we know God because we don't know God, because we are part of a denomination, or we go to a certain church or we signed onto a certain creed or a certain set of beliefs.
Jesus said that we know God by being born again, and so not physically but spiritually. When we put our faith in Jesus and the finished work that he did on the cross, we are spiritually born again. We go from spiritual death to spiritual life. We don't just become better people, a better version of ourself.
We become spiritually alive. We are born again. Well, guess what happens when you're born again? You get a father. Mm-hmm. Because who are you born to? Mm, not your mom and dad. You're born to Father, son, and Holy Spirit, and this triune God who lives in community with himself, equal Father, equal Son, equal Holy Spirit.
He's even showing us the relationship between father, son, and Spirit, and then he's. Birthing us as sons and daughters of God. So the fatherhood thing is right in how you become a Christian. It's right in the very nature of our faith. And so, yes, it is absurd to think that I'm a son of Yahweh. That is the craziest thing on earth that I have been born again by.
Yahweh, Jehovah God, the creator of the universe. But that's how he chose to do it. And so he chose to put himself into a relationship with me as a son, would have a relationship with the father. And I do call him Lord, and I do call him sovereign, and I do call him King, and I do call him Mighty. And I do call him holy, and I do call him master, but he also said I could call him.
Father. Hmm. So what's so interesting about that is you talked about it's really the premise of our Christian faith that we would be born again, and then we would have not our earthly father anymore. We're we're adopted into this new family and we have father, the father. But with that being the premise, why is it still so hard for the people that you described, uh, in the churches to really wrap?
Why is it so hard for us to grasp or to relate to God in that way? Well, for a lot of us we're. You know, we're projecting onto God. Our concept and experience of what Father is, and we talk about six fathers in the book, and, uh, one of them is a great dad. He's the empowering dad. A lot of the dads listening to us right now.
They, they get it, you know, they got three kids, but they go into all three of their bedrooms at night and tell 'em that they're their favorite. Child, you know, you're my favorite son. Then they go across the hall, tell their daughter, no, you're really my favorite in the family. And the other son heard that.
And then they go down to the last son and say, now you heard me tell them, but just between me and you, you're my favorite son. And none of the three children didn't like that. They all loved knowing that dad was telling every one of them. That they were his favorite because it was the blessing of the heaven of the father that they longed for coming on their lives.
But these other five dads we talk about that a lot of us have experienced, and most of us experienced a little bit of all these six dads, but some of these other dads were bad dudes. And they left scars and wounds on people's hearts. And if that's your experience from birth, then all of a sudden now you kind of understand.
Technically I'm born again and technically God is supposedly a father. I. But man, all I know is I was abandoned. All I know is my dad put the bar so high, nobody could go over it. All I know is my dad just sat there passively in the chair and didn't take any leadership and didn't set the pace for our family.
All I know is my dad chose another family and their kids, and he tells me it's not about me, but he's spending the rest of his life over there with them. And those moments in life and those patterns of life have. You know, allowed a lot of us to project onto God. That must be the kind of father he is.
Just a bigger version of that. And so what we're trying to unwind in the book is that God's not a bigger version of our earthly dad. He's the perfect version. Hmm. Of our earthly dad. He's not the reflection of our earthly father. He's the perfection. Of our earthly father, and he can restore our understanding of what it means to be loved sons and loved daughters.
If there's any, uh, wives or moms, uh, uh, listening out there today to the dad podcast, Hmm. But what it means to be a loved son, he can restore that and he can renew that in all of us. I think that's gonna be really, I have a feeling a lot of guys are hearing that right now, and it's hitting them a certain kind of way.
So just to reflect back on their dad and to reflect back on that, he's not a reflection of my earthly father. He is the perfection. That's a really powerful line, and I think if a lot of us do sat in that for a while, it'd probably stir up a lot of emotion. I know it does For me. I, my dad bailed on me, so that's, this has always been a.
A hard thing for me to relate to God as father. What was your, out of the dads that you described in the book, what was your dad? Where did he, what category was he in? Yeah, my dad, I would say was probably the passive dad. He was there. He loved me. But you know, I, I learned at the end of my dad's life, my dad was disabled at the end of his life, uh, physically and mentally, and for seven years he.
Never went to work, never dressed himself, never walked or ran, never played golf again, never drove a car. And it caused him to lose whatever filter he might have had. And he just, all of a sudden stuff started coming out. And I didn't know much about my dad's past, but I knew it wasn't great. And late at the end of his life, he's telling me things like, my parents never loved me.
No one ever wanted me. No one ever loved me, and I don't believe God loves me. And so that's what he had. And given that he was a great dad to my sister and me, but he was working through all that. And then looking backwards, you know, from the time that he was dying now in his sixties, I'm like, oh. Now I understand why our relationship was like this.
So he was there, but my mom was kinda the leader of our house and my dad didn't have a, a relationship with the Lord and or, or one that I could see. And so she was the spiritual leader of our house and she kind of was the leader of our house and he was the creative of the house, but she kind of ran the show and you know, he told me that he loved me.
And he did his very best, uh, for my sister who he, who was his favorite and, and for me, but at the end of the day, he was limping the whole time. And I didn't realize it until it was almost too late. And, you know, then I spent my last few years trying to send back up the family tree stuff that my dad never got.
Down the family tree. Mm. And uh, 'cause I had another tree. I was born again into a different tree. Yeah. So, yeah, I had to work with my earthly family tree, but I also had another family tree and my dad only had one tree that he was working with and it was a really bad tree. Mm-hmm. I want to get to that redemptive part 'cause that's good news.
But first thank you for sharing that piece of your story. At what age you're in the season of life. Maybe just ahead of me At what age I. Did you start to connect dots between your dad and your childhood and like the way that it's impacted you as a man? I asked that with kind of a hidden agenda. 'cause I, I'm in my thirties and I, and that's for me in my thirties is when I started to make those kind of connections.
And I think a lot of our listeners are kind of in that, you know, late twenties, thirties, age range. And so I, I wonder if there's a lot of guys right now who are just like. They're just now stepping into that conversation in their own mind of how their dad impacted them, whether he was there or not, absent, you know, whatever the relationship was that it, it did have some kind of impact on the way he's living today.
Yeah. You know, there's that really weird transitional moment where you go from people telling you, God, you look just like your dad. And you not wanting to hear that. That's like when you're 14 and 16 and you're like, no, no, I don't. You know, I'm not wearing dress socks with tennis shoes, you know? But then there's a moment, and I think for me it was in this window, and I don't remember exactly what moment it was, but probably mid to late twenties, somewhere around 30, you see yourself in the reflection of a storefront in the mall, and you go, whoa.
It is my dad. Mm. And somewhere in that zone, it hits you for the first time that you, you are becoming him. Mm. And you know, for, we can talk all we want about the spiritual, and I think it's all that's great. And we should aim for that. You know, we have new genes inside of us. We become partakers. The Bible says, of the divine nature.
We're not God, but we've got God's genes in us. But I'm telling you, I got Louie Giglio's jeans in Me too. Mm-hmm. And my wife looks at me pretty regularly and says, what'd you say Big Lou? Because that's what we called my dad. He was Louis Giglio also, or just a smirk. And then now I'm, I have a birthday this week.
I'm turning 65 years old. That's the age my dad was when he died. Mm. And I mean, you just, I am my dad, so I have this regeneration side going on over here. And then I got all these other issues going on over here and as time has gone on from about 30, when I started realizing I have some fears that some things like dad might be in me to like 50 when I had a nervous breakdown and realize that a lot of my dad's worry and fear are.
Way down inside of me. Mm. And so I think my life has not only, you know, for the last 30 years for sure, been a realization that, wow, I am this guy's son for sure, but I'm also Martha Jean's son and she got a stack of stuff too. So we're all working through a lot of stuff, um, at the end of the day and trusting God, you know, to redeem.
Hmm. And restore. But in some ways, uh, there are things about my dad that have shaped my life that I love and I'm so grateful for. And there are other things about my dad that have shaped my life that, you know, I've been fighting against all my life. Man, I appreciate that honesty a ton. When you say, when you had that mental breakdown, there was stuff deep down in your dad, you know, about your dad that you didn't know was there.
Was that like one of the main takeaways during that mental breakdown? Well, you know, in that time, and I've written about this a lot, uh, there weren't any takeaways. It was survival, you know, and then you kind of come out of that. You get back into the black again and you start functioning and then you start living again, and then you kind of move beyond that.
But I had such a crash. It still, you know, makes an impact on me. It's still a part of my story, not something I just, oh yeah, that happened way back there. Do you mind, do you mind sharing? I don't mean to you, but I'm just, again, I feel like you're just, you're in the next season and so I just, and my dad wasn't around, you know, and so I'm like.
Uh, just selfishly and I, I just think there are a lot of guys who are listening who are like, tell us Louis, like, what, what did you go through, man? And like, are there things I can avoid? Yeah. Well, I just went through a complete collapse. You know, I had overnight had all these physical symptoms of, you know, what I think would be a nervous breakdown.
It's when your, you know, brain shuts off and thinks that you're trying to kill yourself. And so it shuts everything down to preserve life. You know, your adrenaline is running at such a. Such a high RPM that eventually your brain just says, we're gonna just have to shut off. Mm-hmm. And I started having, you know, I thought I was having a heart attack, thought I was dying.
Eventually had all these convulsions and. You know, ended up in the emergency room a couple times. My wife drove me down at two in the morning. Mm. And um, I walked in and I didn't realize how many people are in emergency rooms at two in the morning, but it was jammed. And I was like, man, I, I need to see somebody right now.
So I just walked right up to the counter and this girl, she says, can I help you? I said, yeah, I can't feel my face. Uh, this is way before the weekend. I can't feel my face. My arm is numb and my legs are convulsing and I, I can't get 'em to stop. And I'm 50 years old and she's just like, come right this way.
Mm-hmm. So, I mean, I'm hooked up to a bunch of stuff. They ran all these tests. I didn't have anything wrong with me. All the tests fine. Mm. Blood pressure's off the chart, but heart's fine. Brain's fine. Everything's fine. So they knew right away you are having some kind of a, a mental episode. And um, and I was, and it everything shut down.
And for about four months I tried to figure my way through this thing. And I don't wanna really get into all that. 'cause that's two or three more podcasts. But I got help, got, uh, help from friends, got spiritual help, got a doctor's help, and eventually, about six months later, I, I was functioning and it took all of that six months for me to really get back to, uh, my brain kinda resetting back to being a normal person again.
Uh, but I kind of pinpointed later, not right then, but a year later, two years later, three years later. The two main things I think pushed me over the edge. I think it could have been 20 things that pushed me into that hole, but a couple of them were, uh, not understanding how much I needed people's approval and an unhealthy desire to be in control.
And the reason those two things smashed into this moment where we planted a church in that season, we were already leading a global movement, but. We backed down a little bit and planted Passion City Church. There were only 30 of us at the time meeting in someone's living room. We hadn't even launched a public gathering yet.
I. But man, I learned right away if your issues are an unhealthy need for people's approval and an out of balance need for control, I don't recommend that you become a pastor of a local church, uh, because you're not gonna get to be in control of everything. For sure. 'cause this is God's, and you definitely aren't gonna get approval on every single decision that you make.
And I think. At the root of a lot of that was the spirit of worry. And my dad was a world class worrier. And of course he would be. His parents told him when he was two years old, you're gonna go live with your aunt. And then after he lived there for a while, they told him, you're gonna go live with these other people and then you're gonna go live with these other people.
So my dad, his whole life had a sense of, I don't know what's around the next corner. And that got in me, that root got in me. I didn't even know it. But I had to start untangling that. So I've written a lot about this, and Goliath must fall winning the war on worry. Don't give the enemy a seat at your table.
I've written a lot about my journey to unwind the root of worry, which really ends up producing the fruit of control. And worry and control are a bad way to live, especially as a parent because you cannot control much at all. And life. You can control your reactions and your attitude and a whole lot of other things happen in life that we cannot control.
We want to, but we can't, and we have to learn how to live in that place and release the worry that produces the control because those two things at the end of the day send you down in a real dark hole. Man, I really, really appreciate that wisdom and sharing that piece of your story. I. I imagine a lot of that season of your life and coming out of that shaped the way that you view God as father and kind of that restoration piece of it and influenced the reason you wrote this book and the content you put in the book.
Like, can you make, tie those dots for us? How did that Yeah. Well, fortunately for me, a long arc in my life way before being 50 years old and planting a church and having a breakdown. I had a, a revelation of God as father. I had a father figure in my life spiritually named Dan Han, and when I was in late high school years, early college years, he was my mentor and pouring into me the most into a lot of young guys my age in Atlanta, not just me and Dan was teaching us this axiom.
What comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you? And that's the premise of this book. And the reason for that is 'cause we were created for God. And so we're looking for God, whether we know it or not. And if our view of him, like you talked about earlier, is cracked, then we're gonna be pursuing this cracked God or running away from this God because we don't want anything to do with the God that we think is.
Something different than he is. And Dan had unpacked this whole idea, this really isn't my idea. I have to give Dan credit. But then I got older and started reading a W Tosser and realized the generation before, that's where Dan was getting all the stuff he was teaching us as high school kids was from a W Tosser.
And a w Tosser was the one who said that quote. And so then Dan made the connection of the fact that God is most. Wanting to be known as a perfect father. Jesus uses that word for him, for God 189 times in the Gospels. So yes, he calls him Lord and master and creator and Father is the thing that he calls him the most.
'cause Jesus is trying to show us of all these things that are true about God. The way that you know him is as a father. And so that revelation happened for me 20 years old. My relationship with God completely changed when I was 20 years old. Went from a lot of information to relationship. Yeah, an intimate relationship with God.
So I've had, praise God, that arc helping me navigate all these things all my life. But it's the, it's the both end, isn't it? That's the honesty in the podcast today. It's being real and saying, yes, I've had that kind of intimacy with God, but I'm also working through. The reality of my flesh and what it means to be the son of Louis Giglio and the grandson of Louis Giglio and the great, great grandson of Vito Giglio.
And there's a lot of stuff in that. That little family tree right there. Yeah. There's a lot of guys I imagine, who are listening who are gonna, there's a part of them that just deeply longs, almost intrinsically longs, man. I want to know God like that. I feel as a man that I so badly wanted my dad to be X, Y, Z, and he wasn't, and he probably never will.
And so I need a better dad. I need to turn to the Heavenly Father and to relate to him in that way. How does a guy, like, what's your advice for starting to relate to God in that way? How do we start to walk that path? Man, I, I think, uh, I agree with you. And I know there are, and you know, I think a just saying that the average guy is gonna dig a hole and bury that a hundred feet in the ground and say, I'm never talking to my dad again.
I'm not gonna be like my dad. And I don't want to go there and I don't want to deal with it. And honestly, I don't even want to get into that with God. It's just too much work and it's too much pain, and I'm okay. I'm all right. I'm okay. I mean, that's what we say to each other. I'm good. How you doing? I'm good.
I'm good. So the first step is saying I'm not good. The first step is saying, I really need what I didn't get. I need a father, I need a dad. I need someone to say I. Way to go, son. I need someone that I can count on. Somebody who's dependable, somebody who's honorable, somebody who's a great example. I need a dad and I need a father's blessing on my life.
So a, you gotta just open up and say it. And yes, it means you might have to go back and walk through some stuff, but it's either gonna be a wound or a scar. And. I got scars right now. You know I got a big one right here because I used a knife away. My dad told me not to, but it's not a wound. It's just a story now.
And we gotta go back and go back to some of these wounds and let Jesus come back with us. 'cause he's got wounds also. And let him heal what's been wounded so that we can have a story to tell of the faithfulness of God. So we gotta start by just saying, I want it, I need it. God, I don't know you this way, but I want to know you this way.
I don't know what it means to have a Father's blessing, but if you can give me one, I want to know that kind of blessing. And I wanna be a good son. I want to grow up and look like you. I want to live the life that you want me to live. I wanna reflect you. To the world. And I just think starting with that honesty and that openness, God will rush into that and he will, he will take us into the word.
He'll take us and show us who he is. He'll take us and show us who we are. And that's what I love about this book. It's seeing God as a perfect father. But the tagline says, in seeing you as loved, pursued, and secure, amen. There's a lot of dudes. Listening to us, and I'm stubborn as any guy out there, so I'm, I get it.
But there are a lot of guys listening to us and they're like, I don't need to be loved. I don't need to be pursued, and I'm fine. I feel secure. Instead of going, man, I really feel like I am free floating out here, and I need an anchor real bad. Yeah. I, I don't know how to raise my kids. I need a father to show me.
And I don't know if I've ever really, truly felt loved. But I'm asked that by succeeding and by accomplishing, and by pleasure, and by my golf swing, and I just need to sit still for a minute and go, you know what? I really would like to be loved. I really would like to have a, a father tell me that he loves me and this is what God is wanting to do, and this is who he's wanting.
To be, and that's available to every single one of us. And I know it sounds like a preacher saying it, but every single dad listening to us right now needs a dad. And every single dad listening to us right now can have one. Hmm. That's good news, man. For the guys, in your experience, for the guys who have leaned into what you just said, who have something's clicked, they've been humble enough to say.
I do need a dad. I do need to be pursued and loved and find my identity in this father who says he's proud of me and stop looking for my identity and all the things that the world is offering that keep failing. For the guys who are leaning into that, what changes? Like how, what's the fruit of it? Well, the fruit of it is that you move, you know, in a different rhythm, and I, I want to be, uh, successful, so I'll just put it out there.
I guess this is being recorded forever. Uh, I wanna be successful and I would hope a lot of the dads listening. Do you know, successfulness is being devalued a lot in our culture, and I, I wanna be successful, but the, the tricky part of it is whether or not I'm moving for acceptance or I'm moving from acceptance.
And I think this is one of the big, big wins I. That comes with knowing God is a perfect father. And we saw it in the scripture when Jesus was baptized. The heavens opened. Apparently a dove came down and a voice spoke and it was the Father, and he said, this is my son and I love him. And in him. I am well pleased.
Not just pleased, well pleased, and I'm just looking at it on the timeline, and I don't know what would've happened. It didn't get recorded before he got baptized, but as far as we know, hadn't healed anybody, hadn't walked on water, hadn't fed 5,000, hadn't raised the dead, hadn't died on a cross, hadn't been raised from the dead himself.
And so why is the father so well pleased? Well, he had come from heaven to earth. That's a big deal. But I think what the father was trying to say is, I'm pleased 'cause he's my boy. I'm pleased because he's my son. I am pleased because he's mine. And then Jesus did go walk on water and he did heal the sick and he did raise the dead and he did go through difficult times and face temptation.
He did die cross and. He did come out of the tomb, but he didn't do it for his father's approval. He did it because he already had his father's approval. And that's what you wanna teach your kids, right? You want your kids to go to school and you want them to be the best in school, but not so that when they get home, dad will say, oh, now.
I approve of you now. You wanted to walk out the door going, my dad already approves of me today. He told me before I even went to school and took the test how much he loved me. And so I'm going to do my best and I'm gonna be my best, not so that I can get the approval. I'm gonna do it because I already have it.
I'm moving from approval, not for approval. That is a huge, huge, huge change, and it is a beautiful way for a man to live. His life changes everything I imagine. It'll change everything. The way that you love your wife, the way that you parent your kids, the way that you operate at work and in your community.
It changes everything. When you. Start to lean into that identity. There's so much wisdom and good news and gospel truth there, man. Thank you. I think for our listeners, if, if you're listening, I, I, you know, I think the two. Prayers that might be helpful. It's something I'm thinking about as I'm listening to Louis talk, but just asking God like, holy Spirit, show me where the root is that needs to be untangled.
That really stuck out to me, like what root from my dad and his dad and his dad is in me, and just help me untangle that. God helps reveal it to me and help me untangle that. Find people who can help me untangle that. And then what you just said there, like just really asking, being. Vulnerable enough, humble enough to say, is my daily actions life motivation?
Is it for acceptance or from acceptance? And I just think, man, I want to add that to my morning prayer and my daily, like as I'm going out throughout my day, God, I want to do everything for your glory because you love me. Uh, I I don't want to do it to get you to love me. 'cause I, I know that's not how it works.
So. Man, that's such good Holy Spirit truth. I think we just scratched the surface, but thankfully you wrote it all down. Seeing God as a perfect father and seeing you as loved, pursued, and secure, it's out. Now. You can get it wherever books are sold. Highly encourage all of our listeners to get it. And I just wanna say, man, I, I really appreciate you being vulnerable and honest with us and just brother to brother.
Thinking about you stepping into this week of your birthday, knowing that's the same year your dad passed away. Like I know that's probably gotta bring up all kinds of stuff. Personally, I know you're in front of a lot of microphones and on stages and I. Doing recordings like this, but I imagine the enemy you would use whatever he can just to get your thoughts and heart tripped up.
And so bro, I just, brother, brother, I'll be praying for you this week and happy birthday, man. Thank you. Would, would you rest more deeply in Jesus than you ever have, and would you rest in your sonship? Wow. That means the world, man. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you for your wisdom. Appreciate you. Thank you.
Hey guys, hope you enjoy today's episode. As a reminder, we have our dad tired annual retreat coming up in September. We're already halfway full on that, so if you wanna secure a spot, go to dad tired.com, click the annual retreat tab and get signed up today. I love you guys. We'll see you next week.