BraveMen S4E105: John Arana - Endurance

Endurance might be one of the things that all of us think about talk about but how do you actually get it? How do you how do you pull endurance into your heart? How do you have it rise up in you as you hit tough things as you try to persevere life with everything that comes at you? We're going to talk about endurance today. I've got John Arana with me today. He's an expert in these things. Aren't you John like a total like you've made it because you've made it because you've endured. I'm a practitioner. You're a practitioner of endurance. So we'll be talking with John and kicking this around. This is the series set the season four where we're doing the go 15 go. Do we call it go 15? 15 go. 15 go. Yeah, you're right. 15 go and thanks for being with us today and brave man. We're going to hit endurance today. It's brave man with Paul Lewis Cole wisdom and courage for the journey. Hey, thanks for being with us today and brave man and with John Arana. John was born in in the Bronx and then raised in Puerto Rico. Yes. And he's a member of the board of Christmas Network and Pastor of Oasis Church. He and his wife Karen in Arlington, Texas. You're also a professor and an author which and then you have some wisdom in your beard. I see I got a little got a lot of wisdom in your beard. Got a little bit so but you've got a strong ministry to men and it's taking you across the nation. They're particularly across Latin America and but but as a pastor as a dad father of many and everything else you do in your life. You've had to practice endurance. What does endurance mean to you when we talk about endurance? How does that hit you? What what comes out? Boy, I tell you it's one of the hardest things that I've had to live through. It's enduring and when you're in the ministry when you're a pastor and when you're doing the things that we do. Right. You know, you you have a lot of setbacks. You have a lot of ups and downs and you just have to find a way to strengthen yourself. You're going to strengthen your mind to strengthen your your your your emotions and I think one of the things that the apostle Paul said that helped me a lot. He said I'm going to focus on one thing. Wow. I'm going to focus on one thing and I'm going to forget the things that are in the past and I'm going to look forward to what's ahead of me. And I think that you just have to keep looking forward to what's ahead of you. You know, the vision that is still not realized, the goal that is is going to be achieved and and I think that helps to renew my strength and my determination. So which means you have to have one. You have to have it. So you have to have a vision. You got to have. So endurance means that you walk through difficult times. Another word that we use today might be grit. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. And so that means you've got to have a vision because unless you've got some place you're looking to. Yeah. So how does that happen? I mean, I think a vision comes from a lot of different wells. Like for me, it comes from my inner inner inner life and my prayer and my time. Quiet time with God in which I feel that he awakens certain things inside of me. Certain desires, certain passions. And I think that translates into an objective. Something that I feel I need to be working towards. And that that propels me that promotes strength and that promotes energy to be able to go on when I feel tired. When I feel discouraged. When I feel that like, okay, things are not moving fast enough. Yeah, if you knew that you were actually headed somewhere, you would, Teddy Roosevelt said it this way, he said, a man fights harder when he knows there's an objective to the fight. I agree. Yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, that's so good. I think of, uh, when you mentioned prayer to me, that's like the basics. Yeah. And sometimes we forget that as men. We get so wrapped up, we'll get up in the morning and immediately we flip on our Fox news or, or we hit the BBC app or, you know, a drudge report, whatever it is. I don't know what's happening in the world. Yeah, what's going on in all of a sudden that connects us with stress and that connects us with anxiety. And we'll talk about that in another one of these. Yeah, yeah. And, and, and pretty soon, uh, we don't, we haven't really built up that place of vision. Yeah, and every man has a purpose on the earth. You know, one of the things that, that, um, I shared with some guys the other day, John, is that God's never regretted having you born. That's good. He's never had a moment where he went, Hey, Michael, come here. Where does God come from? Man, that's good. That's good. Where does God come from? Yeah. How'd that happen? I step away for a minute, get a cup of coffee. I come back and you guys do wonder sometimes. God, are you sure you're okay with me? Where does God come from? So God's never regretted having you born. And I don't care who the you is. Yeah, yeah. You are used. You know the whole identity piece. And that's like it from New York. Yeah. But the fact is, is that it doesn't matter. If you're a young man in Czechoslovakia or Czech, the Czech Republic. Yeah. It doesn't matter if you're a young man in the tip of Africa. It doesn't matter if you're a young man in New York or the Bronx or Indonesia. You are you and you were born with purpose, Ephesians 2 10. God thought of you. Psalm says the, the, the Psalmist says, God thought of you. He thought of you and out of his thinking, his dreaming, right? Out of his dream, he had you born. And he formed you. Yeah, there you go. So, so in order, so if he regretted you, he would actually be denying his own dream. Exactly. Wow. That's really good. Okay, so now what could I not endure? Exactly. Right? Yeah. So now vision helps us. I think you hit the basics word and prayer. Yeah. Psalm 119 verse 11 says, your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. And light always, always points us in the right direction. So we, we turn the light on and we can see where we're headed. That's good. A vision. You know, I asked some guys once, what's your dream? What's, man, I don't know. I don't know what my dream is. I'll go, okay, I'll tell you what, you see that guy over there? Help him with his dream because on the way of helping him with his dream. That's right. You're going to find yours. It may not even be in the same place. That's right. But here you are helping him and let's say he's doing a food program. So you go help him do the food program and you find out that you really enjoy the construction side of building one of the places, you know, a warehouse or whatever. And now all of a sudden you're doing construction. Yeah. Hey, it was Dr. Ed Cole that said, if you're faithful and that which belongs to another, then you'll qualify to have your own. Yeah, he said it, but I think it's biblical, right? Yeah, I think that's a Bible thing. And that's, and that's the fact. So read your Bible, get in prayer, be in the word and then go help somebody. Yeah, right? And a lot of that vision. I do. I think a lot of times we get caught up in the experiences from the past. You know, I didn't make it or I fell short and Hebrews chapter 12 verse one. It says, you got to let things go. You got to strip yourself. You got to unload some of that stuff, that baggage from the past. That's trying to affect your presence. Is that exactly what the Scripture says? It says, let us strip off every weight that slows us down so that we can roam with endurance, so that we can do exactly and endure the race and endure the race. In other words, get to the finish line. So there's always going to be stuff in life. It's always going to be bad. You can't think you got singled out for crap. No, no, no, I think we're all in this. Now you singled yourself out by becoming a pastor of a church. Yeah, right? That alone. Jesus, I mean, seriously, you told me once. This is a great story on John Aron. I'm with John Aron, a pastor of Oasis Church, a professor, and a specialist and author on leadership and leadership tools. Speaks all over the world. But John, you told me what are you saying? I said, when do you do staff meetings? And I, because we were talking about getting together for coffers. Right. And I assumed you were going to say, you know, Tuesday at 10 or right, you know, so Wednesday lunch meeting, which is like typical. Yeah, it's typical. And he said, you said to me, you said, oh, we meet Monday. Yeah, that's a really just right. I mean, Pam right after the whole weekend services. Right, right. You said, yeah, I don't want to feel this bad by myself. On my day off. I'm going to take it down as a day off. That's right, man. I don't feel like man, I didn't say that. I didn't pray over this guy. I miss that. And where was this family? Yeah, that's right. They were in town, but they weren't in there. Oh, what's going on? Monday's tough, man, when you're a pastor, you know, but it's like, I'm not taking that as my day off. That's funny. But so what do you do? How do you gird up your loins, the King James's? How do you suck it up? And just, okay, Sunday night, Lord, I'm going to get some sleep. Yeah. And I'm going to hit Monday. Yeah. And we're going to write some things that we didn't do right. We're going to rejoice in the two guys that came to Christ. Sure. How do you do that? You focus on what's working, obviously. And you focus on what's good. You focus on where you need to go, what you need to do. I think I don't know what drives everybody, but what drives me is the next thing and the next goal. And the next thing we need to accomplish. So we get together on Mondays and we review what happened on the weekends and we tweak and we do this. But then we focus on, okay, the things we've got to work on, the things we're doing, the things that we want to see happen. And that's based on vision. And that's based on vision. So you've got a vision somewhere. Okay, you're going somewhere. So you got a vision, here's destination. And that's the role of a visionary. Yeah. And every man is a visionary for his own life. Every dad is a visionary for his family. Here's where I want the family to go. I'd like my children to follow Christ when they're 18 or 17 or whenever it is that they head off to college or whatever they do, trade school, whatever it may be. Exactly. Going to military, I want them to have a foundation of faith. Yeah. So now that becomes a vision. That's actually for my family. Exactly. So now in between there and here, I set goals. Absolutely. Right? Yeah. So those goals actually not only help me navigate. Tell me if I'm on a right track. Sure. Exactly. But they actually help me endures. Right? Yeah. They motivate you because you know you're working towards something. You know you're working towards a final destination. Right. And even though you have problems and ups and downs, at least you know, hey, we're moving. We're moving towards a direction, even though it might be difficult. They might be challenges that you, you don't even know how you're going to overcome. But they're there and you are passionate about where you're going. And so you just keep on plowing. You know, I was years ago, and it's in a book that's coming out called A Stall Work Man. And it's about grit, basically. Talking about endurance. You have a goal that you want to go after. You'll endure a lot. And I was in, you know, this goes back years ago. It was a 1979. And so that is a few years ago. But I happened to be doing a documentary on the Los Angeles Rams. And in a very wild and crazy thing that happened, they ended up in the Super Bowl. And I think it was against Tampa Bay the week before the week before that. There was a lineman. He was basically a Hall of Famer now, Jack Youngblood. And I was in Ray Malaveci's house and who was the coach of the Los Angeles Rams at that time. And Jack Youngblood limped in. I mean, literally limped in to the Bible study that I was covering. And it was, you know, like, man, are you okay? And Wendell Tyler was seeing next to me. And then Youngblood sat next to him and Tyler said, man, you okay? And Jack looks like a big tough guy goes, yeah, I'm good. I'm good. So they end up crazy enough. They end up beating Tampa Bay like nine to nothing, which is a crazy score, right? Nine to nothing, which is the final championship game before the Super Bowl. And they end up in the Super Bowl. So this Bible study was just before the Tampa Bay game. Okay. And they end up in Super Bowl. And it was cool because I was on the field. It was in the Rose Bowl. And I'm on the field with the team and shooting the documentary. It's a powerful thing. They ended up losing in the second half to Pittsburgh Steelers. And it was an amazing game because it was a comeback. And they were playing a backup quarterback. Anyway, after that game, so it's two games later after that game, Jack Youngblood goes into a, to the doctor, okay? Has a, he wouldn't let him treat him. He said, just just wrap me up. Wrap me up. You know, it's tight as you can, just wrap me up. And tape me up. And, but after the Super Bowl, he went in and had X-rays done. And he had a cracked leg. His leg was cracked. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it was crazy. That's enduring. Yeah. So he, he played, he had a broken fibula. Oh my word. Yeah, a broken fibula. It was cracked. He was in pain the whole time. Lamping, you know, stuff, but he was in the game. He's banned. He's hidden guys. Yeah. Here's my deal. He had a goal, John. I think that, when you hit that, I think when we talk about endurance, endurance isn't just like, man, I got to tough this moment out. Why are you tough in this moment out? Why is it that you're walking through counseling? Yeah. You know, and if you're listening right now, and you haven't been willing to go to counseling, bro, you need to go. Shoot it. Absolutely. Right? Yeah. Find a good Christian counselor. Not somebody that tells you, yeah, go do whatever you see. Go sit on a beach somewhere, hold your hands out, see if the universe brings an answer. Yeah. Most often, the universe is bringing a seagull. That's right. It's good. Dump on you. It's right. So the fact is, you've got this goal. You've got this thing. You know, do what it takes. Jack did what it took. He worked out his body. He was in a place. I couldn't do that. I couldn't. But he had worked his way and he had a goal. Yeah. He said, I'm after winning this game. Sure. And I think, John, I think that hits good. When we talk about endurance, find that place. It says, okay, I want to go here. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be, hey, my life goal is 20 years from now going to do such and such. Sure. It could literally be, hey, six months from now or 12 months from now. I want to be a real estate agent. Yeah. Okay, well, what's that take? I talked to my neighbor yesterday. He said, when he got motivated to get his real estate license, he's a pilot, but he does real estate also. Okay. Because he has times, time and training and stuff. Yeah. So he said, once he figured out, hey, this would be a good thing to do. He had his license in two months. Wow. Like, dude, you were motivated. He goes, yeah, I killed it. Yeah, I just crushed it. Yeah, yeah. That's six month deal, maybe occasionally. Yeah. So the thing is, is that you find that deal and you go, okay, I'm going to do this. Sure. Over the next six months. Or I'm going to go on a short term missions trip. Right. Next August, a year from now. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So what do you do now? Now you got to go. What does that mean? Well, I've got to get my shots. I've got to do this. Yeah. I got to start raising funds. Yeah. I've got to save money. I've got to make sure, you know, if you're going to a particular place, learn some of the language. Yeah. Learn how to things that have to be done. Right? Okay. So now you've got that thing. A year from now. Yeah. Now the thing is, let's say this week's tough. Let's say this week at work, you know, your boss is like dumped on you, man. It's like unfairly. You're unfairly singled out. And you're like, man, forget it. I'm done with it. You know what endurance does? Endurance says, you know what? I've got a goal. Yeah. And no matter what this is, I'll endure it. Exactly. I have another friend of her name, Talisha. And Talisha is talking about the job she's in right now. She was talking about it. In fact, she had an incredible word on Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. Yeah. And she was talking about how the Lord was leading her. She knows there's a direction in her life. But for six years, she's been in a job she didn't like. And she was complaining to the Lord a few years ago. Okay. And God said, what if this job is the provision towards the next vision? What if going through here, learning to be kind? It's going to get you ready. What if, yeah, what if getting up in the morning and putting your prayer and timing the word together and attacking the day with a good attitude? Yeah. Yeah. What if this time is actually preparing you for something more difficult? That's right. And larger and bigger down the road. Yeah. Right? Sure. And all of a sudden it changed her attitude about the job and she went, okay. Yeah. Okay. Of course. Dude, we hit the minutes. Because there's purpose. There's purpose. Give me the last, give me the last thing Hey, endurance will increase your ability to get done. Get things done. It will reduce the risk of feeling sorry for yourself. Wow. It will lead you to a healthier and stronger person and it will improve your confidence in how you feel about yourself. Okay. Go again. Dude, again. Endurance is going to increase your ability to get things done. Number two is going to reduce your risk of feeling sorry for yourself is going to lead you into a healthier and stronger person and it's going to improve your confidence in how you feel about yourself. Bam! Bam! That's exactly it. What a way to close this session of brave men. Thank you for being with us. You can find all our tools and materials on C-M-N dot men. C-M-N dot men, Christian men's network. And our goal is to equip you in your life for you to have the best life that God designed you to live for. But I say that right. That's right. Yeah. You know, that works. Yeah, I think we did. And C-M-N dot men, you'll find the tools and materials for disciplining your family, being discipled yourself or helping disciple other men. Our goal is to build strong men, strong families, and strong churches. Thank you, John Aronner, for being with me today on Brave Men. You've just experienced Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is president of the Christian men's network. Connect with Paul at C-M-N dot men or write to them at Paul at C-M-N dot men.