One Good Thing This Week
I was in Russellville, Arkansas, this week at New Life Church. New Life is a vibe—17 campuses and growing, with an incredible group of pastors and men. Good food. Good fellowship. Great worship and time in the Word. I felt at home.
But the best part was the trip there and back. I could have easily flown into Little Rock, preached, and flown home. Instead, I drove it. And I invited two men to go with me. One, my former pastor and mentor, Bill Eubanks. The other, a man I greatly admire, Dr. Brit Nelson. For ten hours round trip, I sat in a car where I was nowhere near the wisest, smartest, or most accomplished. Honestly, I am not worthy to tie their sandals.
The older I get, the more I realize it is a gift to be in the room, or in this case, the car, with wise men.
For 700 miles, I got to ask questions. Listen to stories. Talk about marriage, ministry, leadership, mistakes, victories, theology, and life. There was no agenda. No podcast microphones. No stage. Just miles of highway and two men who have lived enough life to teach me a thing or two…
And I listened.
Young men, hear me: you do not need an influencer nearly as much as you need an older man speaking into your life.
We have confused access to information with access to wisdom. They are not the same thing. You can Google information. Wisdom usually comes with gray hair, scars, stories, and a few miles on the odometer.
Proverbs says, "Whoever walks [drives] with the wise becomes wise." Not whoever follows the wise. Not whoever reads the wise. Walks with them.
Often, the most important part of the trip isn’t where you’re going.
It’s who’s sitting beside you on the way there.
Something Beautiful This Week
My daughter started high school this week. And my youngest started kindergarten.
I will be going to cheer competitions, football games, spelling bees, class parties, parent meetings, and school programs for what feels like the rest of my life.
And I am grateful for every bit of it.
There was a time when I thought these years would last forever. Diapers. Car seats. Sippy cups. Saturday morning donuts. Kids crawling into our bed. Then you blink, and one of them is walking into high school while another is carrying a backpack almost as big as he is into kindergarten.
Parenting has a strange way of making the days feel long and the years feel incredibly short.
I know there will be evenings when I am tired. Games I would rather watch from my couch. Competitions that last three hours for a three-minute routine. Class parties where I have absolutely no idea what I am supposed to be doing.
But I also know this: one day, no one will need me to drive them anywhere.
No backpacks by the door. No cleats in the garage. No frantic search for a missing water bottle five minutes before we leave.
So I am trying not to rush through what I will one day wish I could have back.
The calendar is full. So is my heart.
It was a beautiful week.
BTW… My fav day is the first day back to school. 12 years ago, we started a tradition: the dad clap-in. All the dads get together, line the walk, and wildly cheer the elementary kids as they come into school. So inspiring. So encouraging. For 20 minutes, all is right in the world.
Know someone who needs a lil' good trouble? Sharing is caring…
Something Worth Imitating/Remembering
My "Five Keys to Discipling Men…"
Be Authentic
On average, a man sees 4000+ advertisements a day. This has made us experts in detecting "BS." Men are keenly aware of what’s authentic and what’s not. As a disciple maker, the moment you try to be something you’re not, you’ve lost.
Be Patient
Discipling a man is like spiritual farming—results don’t happen overnight. I love what my friend Dr. Bryan Hurbutt says, "discipling men is like wind carving stone." The process takes time, but in the end, you’ll have something strong, substantial, and worthy to behold.
Cut Out The Junk
When discipling men, you must be a spiritual nutritionist; show men what they need to be spiritually healthy. Give them Bible, Belief, and Behavior. Walk them through the Word, teach them sound doctrine, and model for them good spiritual habits.
Be Selective
Jesus had 12 disciples but spent most of His time with 3. You’re not Jesus. Plus, you’re busy, and you have too many commitments. Not everyone you meet needs to be your disciple. Before moving to disciple, ask yourself three things:
Do I have something to teach this person?
Is this person teachable—willing to learn?
Can I commit—do I have the time?
Be Persistent
The sin that plagues all men is the sin of passivity. Adam succumbed, and so do we. Passivity takes hold the moment you let up, and you’ll lose those you are discipling. Be wise… don’t waste your time on deaf ears, but don’t be quick to throw in the towel.
My 3 Favorite Quotes of the Week
"Values are not what we do… they shape how we do everything…" — Todd Wilson
"Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength…." — Charles Spurgeon
"The average man in the pew isn’t looking for a philosopher. He’s looking for a shepherd. A man who can speak gospel truth into Monday morning pain. Who knows what it’s like to fail, repent, get back up, and trust God through real suffering.
If young pastors can’t relate to their people, they’ll resort to performance.
If they haven’t been broken, they’ll offer advice instead of comfort.
If they haven’t lived long enough to gain wisdom, their theology will be loud, but their leadership will be shallow.The sheep don’t need more quotes. They need your scars. The Church is filled with men starving for direction, drowning in quiet desperation. And too many are walking out the back door because their pastor preaches like a professor and counsels like a novice." — Anonymous
Something I Found Interesting This Week
So good from samluce.com this week: "The most subversive thing you can do is start a family… If you are young and married, do not save money to have kids. You don’t make enough money, and you will never have kids. Don’t wait to see the world. Don’t wait to buy a house. Start a family. You will never be ready. If you want to make a difference in the world, start a family.
What does subversive parenting look like?
Ask your spouse how you can serve them today.
Tell your kids no.
Train your kids to pray in difficulty.
Bring your kids to funerals.
Read the Bible out loud to your kids.
Kiss your spouse in the kitchen with your kids walking by.
Find a church that expects your kids to be sinners, not perfect.
Find a church that confronts your kids in love.
Apologize to your kids when you have wronged them.
Train your kids to resolve conflict in a godly way.
Pick your kids’ friends for them when they are young.
When your kids walk into a room, put down your phone.
Eat dinner together.
Listen to your kids even when they are small.
Read the rest below…
Book(s) I Read This Week
Still in Brother Karamazov, and reading the latest from Ligonier and R. C. Sproul [RIP], Heroes in the Christian Faith. Grateful for Sproul…
Need to highlight my brother Knotty by Nature. He dropped an incredible piece titled These Are My Credentials. So good. He tells the story of Brigadier General Charles D. W. Canham…
"In September 1944, some of the most bitter fighting of World War II centered on Brest, a heavily fortified port city on the coast of France. The German army had turned the city into a fortress. For weeks, American soldiers fought through artillery fire, concrete defenses, and brutal house-to-house combat.
The German forces were commanded by Lieutenant General Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke, an experienced and highly decorated paratrooper general. As the battle reached its end, Brigadier General Charles D. W. Canham of the United States Army confronted Ramcke and demanded his surrender.
Canham was already well acquainted with battle. Just a few months earlier, he had landed with the 116th Infantry Regiment on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion. An enemy bullet tore through his wrist, but Canham refused evacuation and continued leading his men off the beach.
Now he stood face-to-face with Ramcke, a higher-ranking German general whose defenses had cost the Americans dearly.
Ramcke demanded to see Canham’s credentials. He wanted official papers proving that Canham had the authority to accept his surrender. Ramcke may also have been offended that the Americans had sent an officer who held a lower rank than he did.
Canham did not reach for a document.
Instead, he turned and pointed toward the armed American infantrymen standing behind him. They were dirty, exhausted, unshaven, and hardened by weeks of fighting. These were the ordinary soldiers who had pushed through every German defense and forced Ramcke’s army to surrender.
'These are my credentials,' Canham said.
The men behind him were the document. Their courage, sacrifice, and victory were all the authority he needed. The statement later became the motto of the U.S. Army’s 8th Infantry Division."
Honest question: Who are your credentials?
Song(s) I Listened To This Week
2026 has been an INCREDIBLE year for music for me. Discovering Ben Fuller is easily a highlight…
And then this week I found this… Ben leading worship at a Salvation Army recovery center. So good. So real. At 5:18, it gets incredibly real.
What God Taught Me This Week
"Give us this day our daily bread." — Matthew 6:11
God continues to meet my needs. Not all my wants. But certainly my needs.
This week was expensive. My daughter needed an emergency root canal. My dad’s AC went out at his house. Tuition is due. And, like most families, there are always a dozen other things waiting in the wings.
Some weeks, money feels like margin. And there are weeks when money feels like manna… just enough for today.
This was a manna week.
I found myself thinking about how easy it is to call something "provision" when there is plenty left over. But maybe provision is most visible when there isn’t.
Maybe provision is the dentist being available when your daughter is hurting.
Maybe provision is being able to help your dad when the air conditioner dies in August.
Maybe provision is writing the tuition check, even when you wish the number on the other side of the ledger were bigger.
Provision does not always look like abundance. Sometimes it looks like enough. Enough for the bill. Enough for the need. Enough for the day. Perhaps maturity in Christ is learning to recognize enough as grace.
Jesus taught us to pray for daily bread. Not yearly bread. Not a warehouse full of bread. Daily bread. Just enough.
Something in me wants God to give me more than enough, so that I no longer have to trust Him. But that is not how He works. He gives enough to remind me that He is Father. Enough to keep me dependent. Enough to keep me grateful. Enough to keep me from confusing the gift with the Giver.
I would still prefer fewer root canals, cheaper tuition, and air conditioners that never break. But I am learning this: God’s faithfulness is not measured by the absence of need. It is revealed by His presence and provision in the middle of it.
And once again, He has met me there.
Daily bread. Daily grace. Enough for today.
Looking to connect in person? Here are some places I’ll be in the next few weeks:
North Valley Men’s Night, August 24, North Valley Church, Phoenix, AZ
KC Men’s Conference, August 29, Graceway, Kansas City, MO
Sunday Service, August 30, Graceway, Kansas City, MO
Men’s Round Up, September 11-13, Camp Tadmor, OR
Texas Men’s Discipleship Forum, September 17, Arlington, TX
Brothers, my pledge to you…
"You will never suffer at my hands. I will never say nor do anything knowingly to hurt you. If you're down and I can lift you up, I'll do that. I will always, in every circumstance, seek to help and support you. If you need something and I have it, I'll give it to you. No matter what I find out about you, no matter what happens in the future, either good or bad, my commitment to you will never change."
For the King,
—Harp
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.