BraveMen S4E152: Chris McRae-Let Me Just Die Right Here

It's Brave Man with Paul Lewis Colm. Wisdom and Courage for the Journey. Chris, you got shot. You wrote a book called Shot in the Dark and sometimes we would look at that and think, well, it's just a shot in the dark like taking a chance, like trusting and luck. Well, this is bad luck. That's right. That's what they would call it. They shot in the dark. You got shot. That's right. What in the dark? In the dark. Yes, at that time. Well, it is quite a story. Paul, thanks for having me on. It's a pleasure and I am thankful for you and thankful for Christian men's network who has spoken into my life as a young man and continues to do so. So I just want to honor you and your father, the great Mr. Cole. And I just want to say that, but yeah, it's a quite a story. I grew up hunting my whole life in Arkansas with my dad as a young age. And so we, we the ends and outs of hunting. It's Saturday morning, consisted of us praying together and then going to the woods and learning that. That's what you said in your book. You said, man, sorry, mornings was before it was a whole dark 30. You'd be up and out there looking for something. That's right. We got around. We were, yeah, weapons and hunting and everything else your whole life. That's right. And so that taught us safety. Hunters, safety actually have taken hunters education because that was, it was, it was important. So we, and it is required. But at the same time, some people who have been grandfathered in, they didn't have to take it. But we, we've been hunting safety courses all our life. We know about hunting and pointing a gun knowing the main rules are know what you're shooting at and what's beyond your target. No, you're shooting at because the bottom line here's the latest cut to it. And we'll come back and fill in the blanks. You're, you're out with some, some friends. Yeah. And you're on the other side of a pond, sort of large small lake pond. And in the middle of the night, you got shot. Okay. Now we're going to fill in the blanks on this thing. But dude, here's the guy who's hunter safety knows all the stuff. And at number one rule, know what you're shooting at. Somebody just got a little too excited. Thought they were shooting it up an animal in the distance and hit you. I'm talking with Chris McRae. This is the Brave Men podcast. And I'm Paul Lewis Cole. And my friend pastor Chris McRae is going to share with us. He wrote a great book. I heard you share this. I heard you speak this at a men's conference. And it's just knocked out. I mean, mesmerized. And you had us this near death experience. And you had us laughing about it too. And then you ridden this book, which just came out called Shot in the Dark by Chris McRae at MCRA and it's available on Amazon. And anywhere, the best books are sold, because that's the only place this would be. And you passed a church in Texas, Dallas area, which that's a whole story. You know, you basically started sweeping, right? At that church. That's right. I was a janitor at Sojourn. I was 19 years old and Bobo College and I'm asking if I could where they need me to preach and where they need me to speak to the people that need to hear the word of the Lord. And they handed me a mop and a broom and a bucket and a gesture and said, have had a big boy. Yeah. Here you go. You ought to preach here. Hey, but you know what I'll tell you something, man? That's that's how you learn what servanhood is about. Jesus didn't teach a leadership that often. He taught servanhood, right? That's right. That's right. That's what he taught being a servant is put you where you are today. So I want to thank you for being on Brave Men. Brave Men is a is a outreach ministry of the Christian men's network and go to see men. Men, final tools you need for this cycling men raising up strong servant leaders like Chris McRae and you and your wife now have lived in Dallas for quite some time. Have how many children do you have now? We have four kids. We have two boys and two girls. Right. The girls are on the end. The boys are in the middle. Okay. And grandchildren? No grandchildren. No, not yet. Okay. All right. Well, that's that's coming sometime soon. Yeah, that's a that's an amazing thing. And so Chris, it's great to have you on and and to be here to things. But I'll tell you the reason that it's not just getting shot. It's what you did with that and what it did in your life. I think that makes the compelling story. So take me to that night. You're out with some friends. And in fact, you and I were chatting about whose ranch you got shot on and I happened to know the brother and it's an amazing story. But tell me how that happened. What happened at that point? Whether it's a pastoral retreat. And so friends of ours were there. And a shot on a pastoral retreat is a pastoral retreat. Every year we go we would go hunting. We call it a planning retreat, but we really were hunting. We were we would plan some, but we would get up in the morning hunt and meet together, then go out again in the evening. And the friends that I were that I was with, I told them some of it is a little bit of my fault. I told them I was going to bed, which I was, but I was taking a detour at the lake that that you spoke about that we it was upon the water area. It was a beautiful night. It was a it was a big old moon full moon listening on the water. And I just took the full wheeler out to set by it to pray just before I go to bed. And then all of a all of a sudden I could hear another ATV in the distance. And I was thinking well, surely they wouldn't come over here, but then they did. And so they stopped about 75 to a hundred yards away. And then I I could hear them talking. And I hear one of them say, do you see them? So I thought, well, they see me because they see something they see me. And right before I put my hand up, they let them know I was over here, the four shots rang out. And the first four shots, he shot me four times. And he's the AK 47, 7.62 hollow point bullet with a 1.6 twist rate. And so those are designed to kill. That's when he could make bullets that way. And so the first bullet went into my left side entered in there and and exited out my right side and my abdomen. And I and the next bullet went into my arm and lodged there. And then the other two as I'm falling off the four wheeler went by my head, I could hear them zipping by my head. And immediately, I could, I mean, the pain, you know, Paul was just unbelievable. I cannot, I mean, you can sit there and you've seen a lot of people see those movies on CSI. They watch the movie, you know, the different movies. It shows where people get shot. It is nothing like that. It absolutely hurts. There's a burning intense shooting sharp pain that does not stop. And so immediately, I felt blood running down my bursting out of my side and running down my, my hand. Now, they're sitting on the other side of this little lake. And they thought they saw a vomit or an animal or a hog or something. It was a hog. Yes. They thought they thought it was a hog. I've never seen one Paul drive a four wheeler before, but that's what they saw. I've been doing a long time. I've not seen one driver sit on the four wheeler before. That's news to me. But they thought you were back at the lodge. They did. And I and I had a black shirt on. It really was a setup by the enemy. I had a black shirt on. That's all they could see. They couldn't see the four wheeler. They saw a black shirt and a shadow. And when they shine the light, the shadow was intensified. So they thought it was a hog. And I thought I was a hog. And I pulled the trigger. But the only reason why he stopped at four shots was because the last shot sparked because it hit the full wheeler. And it stopped. And so they stopped shooting. Drove over to where I was. And by this time, I'm out of breath because it knocked a wind. I can't breathe, knocked a wind out of me. And when it came over to see me, the first thing that has was, what are you doing over here? And then the second question was they said, was where is the hog? There's no, there's no hog. It's me. I just told my, I'm shot. I am shot. That's all I could mother out. And so the fear, the torment, the grip my heart, grip my, my mind, my soul is intense. Thinking about you four children thinking about, you know, life. Yes, sir. Man. Am I, am I ever going to see them again? Am I ever going to see my wife again? And I called the names out. I said, tell my wife, Vanessa, I love her. I said, I could, in between breaths, I would say, just tell her that I love her. And I'm telling this was an accident. So I'm going down the line, tell Ainsley, tell CJ, tell Luke. And then at the time, my wife was pregnant with our fourth child, braiding. And so she was, she was six months, yeah, she was pregnant with her, with her. And so I'm thinking, I'm the fact, you know, they say your life flash before your eyes were my family flash before my eyes. Well, I'm, I'm talking to think about was where were them? Wow. And so as we're sitting there, and I'm saying that I'm, and in between breaths trying to catch my breath, I just, just, just told said myself, I'm going to, I'm not going to make it because a guy had gotten shot a week before sometime prior with it, with a smaller gun and died and shot. And he, and he passed away. And so I just knew that was my fate. I thought it was my fate. But I don't you go ahead. God has other plans. God has other plans. And man, so what, what happens next? They, they throw you in the pickup or what? Well, they tried to, you know, Paul, they tried to, they went try to get help. So they come back with another elder, with another, with one of the, another guy from the camp. And they could not pick me up and put, it's just dead weight because I can't handle it. And so they pick, they try to pick me up and put me in the truck and drop me twice. And they, and I just tell them, stop. Like, just leave me here. Let me die. You guys just let me hear. And, you know, that was a point there, uh, Mr. Cole, where I think about the fact that there's people, maybe listening to this podcast, you called on some of your friends. You called on some people that you knew. You called on some guys that maybe were trusted in the past. And they tried, you know, they picked you up. They tried to pick you up and the only to drop you, only to have you fall down again. And you, maybe give it, maybe at a place right now, you listening right now, you, and you wanted to give up and just say, just leave me here. And it was at that point where, uh, the, the man came over and bent down and he whispered in my air, he said, Chris, we can't help you. He goes, if you, if you are going to get help, you've got to get up yourself and getting that truck. And I was like, there's no way. And somebody listening right now, maybe thinking the same thing, there's no way I can't do it. I've tried everybody else's tried. There's no way. But I put my, I folded my arm over my wound and I picked myself and threw myself in the back of that truck. And here's the thing. I, I love this part because this is, this is true. You can get up because the one who got up out of the tune is on the inside of you. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us and quickens our motorbike. Whatever is listening to this, you can get up because the one who got up is get up inside of you. So there's some get up. You can pull yourself up. Get yourself up out of that place. And not just by yourself because greater than that is he that's in you than he that's in the world. And so you guys, so I did, I put myself in the back of that truck. And I, and so, and then they hit, they pulled, they hit every bump and the ranch they could find. I mean, they were hit every single bump. I mean, they were looking for them. And I'm tossing around back there. But I got up. And so, well, you know, that, I'll never forget when you spoke that and you mentioned that part where he leaned down to the Chris, if you're going to make it, you're going to have to get up. Got to get up. And I thought, you know, the resilient man, every man falls down. It's the resilient man, the slower man who gets back up. That's right. So nobody rides a bike the first time he falls down. You get back up. And I think in our culture, what we've done is we've celebrated staying on the ground. Yes, Ryan. And we've basically said, well, that's just the way it is for you. And so we're going to design a bunch of services and a bunch of things. And we're all going to take care of you. We're going to feel sorry for you. We're going to help you be a victim of the rest of your life. But you got to get up. You got to get up out of that. But you can't stay in the same place. Well, I sit here with till we die. That's what the, the, the lippers man said, well, sit here at the gate till we die. We move. I mean, it's hard to hit a moving target. And so don't ask me how I know. But anyway, the truth is that God has designed us to get up from that place. You know, it is, it is time for the men to get up and to stand up and to rise up. And I know that God's giving us a backbone so that we can stand up. He's giving us a tailbone. So that we can be up and he's giving us a jawbone so we can speak up. So he's giving us what we need to be the men of God that he's called us to be. So they rush you to a local hospital. They did not. They rushed me to the field where the foreman, the foreman had called the ambulance. Okay. And as I'm, as I'm sitting in the ambulance now before this, I thought I was going to die. I'll tell you this is a quick part of it. It's in, it's in this book. But I was just like, okay, Lord, I know I said goodbye. You know, they're going to say goodbye for me to my family. And I just said, okay, it's time that I'm ready. And I'll say this, you know, Paul, there's something about knowing where you're going and something about knowing when you die that there's a piece that comes over. I know my redeemer lives. I know that he died for me and I know that I'm going to heaven. So I know if there's anybody listening and then does not know the Lord, you can know where you're going. So I'm landing back at that truck and I'm just like, okay, God, I'm ready. And so I just said, I'm going to do what Jesus did and say into my hands, I commit my spirit. Because you know, we get religious sometimes when we, when we're dying. And so the second time I said it, Lord, enter your hands. I commit my spirit every prayer that my mother prayed over me, my grandmother prayed over me, my dad, every dream I ever had about my life, everything came flooding back prophetic words, dreams that I've had about what I thought God wanted me to do was came flooding back into my soul. And I'm telling you what my soul began to be flooded with hope. I had hope in that moment in the back of that truck while they were waiting to get me into the ambulance and and everything that I that I had given up on in that one moment began flooding back in the next of hope into my soul. And so I began to speak to myself and say, you know what, you're going to live and not die. You aren't you are going to live. You're not going to faint because you've seen the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And so I began to speak to myself and tell and speak life over myself. Because sometimes you got to do that. Don't you think that? Oh, you got to speak life to yourself. And so that's when when I write it as I begin to do that, I came to the ambulance. You know, I believe right now there's a man listening who needs to speak life over his family and speak life over his job, speak life over himself. Ezekiel 37, the the prophet's been taken to a valley and have dry bones and and God says to queries him and says, could these bones live again? He says, only you know God and God says, what are we to them? And so who spoke? He spoke. He spoke. And the bones came together and the story is that then they became living and breathing. But it was the breath of life. And he said to the prophet, you speak life. That's right. 17 says in the last days, I'll pour out my spirit and all the flesh and sons and daughters will prophesy. Well, that word prophesy doesn't mean the gift to prophecy. It actually means to speak life into culture. Now speaking life into culture isn't merely just standing back and speaking. It's doing something. That's right. When you're speaking life, so you had this, you had to get up. You had to get up like David in his in his Zicklag experience. That's right. He's lost everything. His friends want to kill him. I mean, if they could have shot him on an ATV, they would have they would have they were thinking about it. They talked of it. The Bible says they talked of stoning him. And but it's finally he says, Lord, I can't do this. He said, well, God told him, rise up. And he had, but he had to stand up. That's right. He had to speak up. And have to speak life over our family. And we have. That's right. Over your finances. Over your family. Over your life. Over your future. Have to speak life. I mean, the Bible also says in that stories, one of my favorite stories, how I'm glad you brought that up. He says that he encouraged himself and the Lord, his God. And so he had to encourage himself. He had to pull himself up emotionally. He had to pull himself up spiritually. He had to pull himself up mentally. He had to pull himself up so that he can he could go just he had to. He encouraged himself. And what I love about that is it did not say what he did and say put on a CD didn't say did he turn on a music and just said that he encouraged him. So because it's not the same for everybody. And so he encouraged himself. Some of us have some Zicklag moments, don't we? Oh my goodness, man. Yeah, we all do. We've all we've all messed up. I mean, we've all been in that place. In fact, it's I feel like all of us in some ways have been shot. You know, unexpected things happen. Randomness happens. That's right. And yet in the middle of the chaos, the Bible says in the act of creation says the spirit of God was hovering right there in the chaos. And I believe even today's chaos, the spirit of God is hovering for those who will speak life. So you get to the ambulance. They take you to a hospital. And at this point, people are starting to make phone calls. People's phone calls. Well, they they give me an ambulance, but I I am before that, I'm in the ambulance and they're trying to find a vein so they can give me some pain medicine. Yeah. And they couldn't find a vein. And that's when the story where the young man said that he was going to try to go through one of my toenails to get me to get a vein. And I that's where I say, why don't you just go back and get the gun and cock it and shoot me in the head. Nobody's going through the vein in my toenail. And um, this brother, this brother thought it was a good idea. I don't know where he got his medicine practice. I don't know what he was thinking, but I remember him distinctly saying, we're going to go through his toenail. I'm like, there's there's no way we're going through anybody's toes tonight when I do that tonight. I'm under my toe there. Yeah. We're going to find a vein under there. Like, no, let's let's not do that. Let's let's let's let's stay. Stay the course, gentlemen. Um, and then, but in it was that so they didn't it was a call over the over the line over the wire. Just said, don't give him any pain medicine. We don't know the extent of his wounds. Right. So they wouldn't give anything, but that's when someone that they had called a helicopter of care flights. So I was careflighted out of that out of the Blackbrook Texas to Tyler. And uh, so I could hear in the distance to helicopter, I could hear the helicopter coming. And I remember listening to the, uh, the blades beat against the wind coming. And the, um, the one of the MT said, he said, Miss McCray, do you hear that? I go, yeah, I hear that one. And then he said, that's, that's your rescue. That's your helicopter helicopter coming for you. And I remember and I said, it's in the book as well. And that is that, um, your rescue doesn't sound like a blade's beating against the wind, but it sounds like nails being beat into the hands and feet of a savior who loves you. And it sounds like him saying it is finished. And it sounds like a stone being rolled away because he has come and he has busted out of that tomb. And he's given us life and given us life eternal. And he defeated death. And so that's what the sound sounds like for us. Sounds like a great sound. That's chapter 10 in the book, uh, shot in the dark one man's story of surrender and survival. I'm talking with my friend, uh, pastor Chris McRae, sojourn church in, uh, Dallas area and very active in the, in the community. And but you didn't just start out as a pastor. You, you started out as we talked about right to start. You talked to, you wanted to preach and they handed you a mob. They did Paul. I'm telling you what I was, I thought I was the best thing for ministry since sliced bread. And, uh, coming out of Bible school, I was ready to give it. And pastor Terry handed me that mob and that broom and that duster. And, uh, he said, have had it, be boy. And I, and I, for three and a half years, three and a half years, Paul, I, I served that way. I vacuumed the, the worship center. And every time I'd have a bad attitude about it, this was funny. And I say this in the book, every time I have a bad attitude, he would show up for, just out of the blue, just show up. And he would say, Chris, this is the most important job in the whole church. What you're doing right now is, uh, as the most important is one of the most important job in the whole church. I was like, what do you mean? He said, because you're the first one in this room. You know who's going to come in here? Is your setting up the chairs and setting up tables and cleaning? He goes begin to pray for the meetings that you're going to have in this room that are going to happen, begin to see faces and begin to pray over them. And I'm telling you what that is. I'm, I'm telling anybody who's listening. When the Bible says the way up is down, which means the greatest among you should be your servant. I remember praying over the, the worship center, praying over the meetings, their fellowship hall and different ones. And he said, you would set the tone and pray. And that's what gave me a heart for people. See, I had a heart to get up and preach, but God was giving me a heart for people as I was serving the people of God and helping them get the purpose of God as I serve the people of God. It was, it was transforming. Bible school doesn't teach, they don't teach that. I didn't learn that at Christ for the nation. I don't learn that at different places. That's it. But it's a great school, CF and I. It is a great school. I'll show connect people with those guys. We can fall in love more with preaching than we're in love with people that I'm telling you. Yeah. And the truth is, there's no one cares about what you have to say till they know you care. Come on. Yeah. It's, we can fall more in love. In fact, it's part of one of the things we have to guard against as men who the Lord isn't trusted with being a servant leader. We have to guard against being, if you will, more enthralled with the mechanism or the, the ministry more than we are with Jesus. That's right. Yes, sir. That's true. You know, the making of a leader, J. Robert Clinton, that came out in 1988. It was one of the core things he said that happens to men because their, their deal was only 30% of pastors finish strong and of leaders finish strong and that stats seem to hold true through the ages. And, and he said in there, he said one of the key core elements of a man not finishing strong is he loses that explosive awe, that, that amazing, if you will, that, that captured joy of knowing Jesus. That's right. Stop, stop. You know, you, if you will, you can, you can become a professional. That's right. Doing it, just doing the deal. You know, the right things to say, now you have, and we're going to get you out of the hospital in a minute, but you have a, you have a great background. You have a father, parents of love, Jesus, as a young person, they, they basically matriculated through John Osteen's church, the church. And which is now a pastor by his son Joel, a Lakewood church, great church, one of our partners and friends down there and Houston. And, and then, but your dad, you didn't just, he didn't just teach you hunting. He taught you life. He did. My dad taught me great, great aspects of a living life. He, he was wanting me to be a man's man. And so he would say things like, when you work, leave it better than you found it. And he would say, when you, when you, as you're working, do that as you're, and be the best employee you can be. Work hard. Don't let, don't do the handout thing. Don't, don't let people give you a handout when you can get a hand up. Um, be, be better. Don't, don't be a victim. You're not a victim. You're a victor. Don't let, and so he would, he would say that he, he was in no nonsense. Uh, dad, I mean, he's changed some because he's so soft and now, and I never saw, I thought I saw him see him cry and stuff like that, but he's, but he's, um, but he's not soft on the gospel. He's, uh, he's soft on, he's soft on his grandkids, but he's, he's, and I'm like, wait a minute. I want to see that crazy that I saw when I was anyway. That's, but he, but he's a man's man. He's, he's actually, I'm going to preach for him now. This coming Sunday night. Really? He's open to church. He's, he's, he's 72 and he's getting ready. He just opened his church and pond love. Uh, and he is, it's taught me godly principles. And what's crazy is, is he and Pastor Terry, who's my spiritual father here, were born on the same day, the same year, and had the same football jersey in high school. Yeah. That's a true, that's, that's, that is crazy. And they are, uh, they're good friends. And so they, they, I'm telling you, they've, they've been, you know, there's only time you can say that you, you have two dads and it's good. But yeah, they are, they are, they are great men of god in my life and have, and have, and have blessed me and encouraged me and made me the man I am today, along with your father, Ed Cole, who's spoken to my life as a young man struggling with looking, looking at, and pornography and different things like that. And, and, and realizing that Christ's likeness and, and manhood are synonymous, uh, hearing things like that, that those are the things that shaped me. Paul, those are things that shaped my thinking, shaped my, the reason why you can become, and I'll just be honest, you can become a janitor. And 25 years later, be the senior pastor of the same church is because men like Ed Cole and my father and Terry Moore, you know, and, and, you and different ones and, and Dale Bronner, who's a, who's a mentor of mine, uh, preaching in Mark Rutland, just men in my life, you cannot do this man thing alone. You can't. No, you can't. It's, it's all about brotherhood. And that's what we talk about a christian man's network often. In fact, they are hashtag is hashtag cmnbrotherhood christian man's network. And talking with the christmic ray, the book is shot in the dark. One man's stories rendered survival. Got shot. And then you take these stories and, uh, you make them somewhat humorous. I mean, the fact is, it, other people have died from the same injuries. God spared your life. Uh, and, you know, you take this in the book shot in the dark christmic ray m c r a e. And you can find this book at amazon and other places. What's your website for ministry? Uh, where would they find your messages and those kinds of things, Chris? Well, there's two, two websites is christmicrayministries.com. And then there is, uh, the sojournchurch.org. I preach every, you know, preach on Sundays and, uh, our church. And you can find messages there. Uh, I love to preach, but more so than I love preaching Paul. That's what I learned. More so than I love preaching. I love people. I love the people of God and me more so than that. I love Jesus. Uh, but I love one on one. I love this. You spent in time with me. Uh, you know, I'm telling you what, and here's what I want to say. As you, as people, men, men get the book. I want to say this to you, man, whoever's listening to this. I feel like this is a word from the Lord to you. And it's from the word. It says, when he says, no weapon formed against you, shall prosper. But every talking that rises up and gets you in judgment, we condemn whatever weapon that the enemy has aimed at you, has his crosshairs on you. Maybe he's got his crosshairs on your marriage. I was in the crosshairs once. He's got his crosshairs on your, on your life, on your finances, on your children. Maybe you got a wayward son that's out there. Uh, and he's not an, or a daughter or whoever, whatever you, whatever you have where the enemy has put his crosshairs on you and on your life. It won't work. I mean, he may get some shots off, but it will not prosper because the Lord God, the God that we know is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask her think, according to the power of God that lives in us. So I don't know who you are, whoever, whoever needs to hear this. But I do know that your life is not a shot in the dark. He's got promise and he's got purpose and plans for your life. So you get, you got to the hospital. How long was the recovery period, Chris? Uh, the hospital recovery, well, I was in hospital for, for weeks, but the whole recovery process was about seven months. Wow. And um, seven months and then, you know, I'm in there with this, this nurse, her name is Bertha. I remember Bertha coming in there the next day trying to get me out of that bed. You know, after you've been hurt and wounded, the tendency to stay in the bed. Come on. You want to stay there because it's comfortable. I like that bed because it made me, they were, you know, I had the, the drugs or whatever and all that and they were, but she said, you're getting out of this bed today. And I'm arguing where I said, no, I'm not. She said, yes, you are. You're going to get up out of this bed. It's like Bertha. I'm not getting out of the bed. She goes, yes, you are today. And the next thing I know, I swung my feet around and as I'm telling her that I'm not getting out of the bed, she is helping me up. Wow. And so I, I know that the difference between the gowns, the doctor is that one ties in the back and the other one ties in the front. In order for you to get out, get out of the one, the gown for the patient is the one that ties in the back. And so in order for you to get out and become the one that helps somebody else, you got to be able to tie the gown in the front. And so God is changing that. And so I got out of that bed. I got up out of the, I mean, it was tough and hurt. It was painful and somebody listening right now, we would say, perhaps Chris, you don't know what I've been through. You don't know where I've been. You don't know the pain in there. And what I've suffered, you don't know the things I've done. Here's what I do know. You got to get up out of that bed. And if you can argue with me and argue with, I'll stick big Bertha on you. That'd be the Holy Spirit. Yeah. That's a good. I ain't big Bertha on you. That is a good Texas night. And she, she, she got me up out of that bed. And so I took two steps that day. That's all I could take. Wow. And then the next day, I took a little bit more. And the next thing you know, few, few weeks, a month, I had walked all the way down to the front door and out of that hospital and back home because God had a plan. You know, we so often want things to happen so quickly. In fact, we, we think of God so often as a, as a magician. And but he always works in process. And it's that one small step that makes all the difference. Get out of the bed. Take two steps. Then tomorrow, then the next day, take a couple more. And then maybe the next day after that, you can only do two. But at least you got out of the bed. Got out of the bed. I'm telling you what I can, yes, that's great. You should, some of you just, you've got out of the bed and got back in the bed. Got out of the bed. But here's a deal. You got to get up. You can't stay in the same place. In the spirit. I want to go wherever the spirit of God is moving. What is God saying? What is he doing? I want to move with him. Hey, man, you know, I'm going to take this. When I preach this as a sermon, the only thing I won't have is I didn't get shot. But I can preach the rest of it. You can preach all of it. You could do it, too, Paul. You could do it. I'm telling you, man, this is Chris is an incredible story. And I thank God for Chris McCray, who's a pastor who doesn't just want to preach sermons, but wants to see men discipled. That's right. You know, most, we talk about Bible college. And I think all, I think education's fantastic. I know you've worked on your masters. And I'm working on a, on a doctorate right in the program right now. And, and so I'm into that. I'm into all of that and getting astute and learned and building wisdom. But, but you know, the fact is the rubber meets the road and the presence and the atmosphere and the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit. That's right. Yes, sir. And that's where it's at. And that's what changes a man's life. And so I thank God for a pastor who not only wants to preach, but loves people, loves Jesus and it just sticks out all over. I've been talking with Chris McCray on today's Brave Men podcast. And there's more in here. The book is called Shot in the Dark. Sojourn has spelled s o j u r n sojournchurch.org. And then chrismacrayministries.com. And Chris, what a blessing to have you with us on the podcast. I look forward to times together and look forward to seeing you at lion's roar the first weekend of November. Yes, sir. You know, I love, I look forward to hanging out even more with you, Chris. You've got that thing on you, man. It's called the joy of the Lord. It's called it's called being shot laying on the ground and knowing who your Redeemer is. Yes, sir. Well, I'm looking forward to it as well. Thankful for you, Paul. Thank you for Christian men network and what it's meant not just to me, but to all the men who have been connected. And I am thankful for you guys. I'm telling you what there is. I mean, there's not just believe the best is to continue to come as men continue to join. I'm thankful to be a part of Christian men's network. And I'm thankful to get to know you all and all that you're doing. You are inspiration to me and a blessing to me. Joe's you men that are that are listening. I know you know this. Paul calls a real deal. And I'm thankful for him and his ministry. So you can get all the resources for disciplinary men at cmn.men.cmn. Don't go to CNN. Go to CNN dot men, Christian men's network, CNN dot men, resources for mentoring men, tools for pastors to help raise up leaders. And our goal is I tell people all the time, Chris, who were Christ centered in church centric. Yes. We believe that the local church is a hope of the world. And Jesus set that up. And we seem to be an easy target sometimes where people can can hammer at us. But do you got to remember who's bride you're talking about? That's right. And I love the local church. Christian men's network is about that. And over 100 over 100 nations around the world were helping pastors and leaders raise up strong men to build strong families to build strong churches transform the future of the world. God bless, Chris. Thanks for being with us on brave men to the end. Thank you so much. I appreciate it very much. You just experienced brave men with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is president of the Christian men's network. Connect with Paul at cmn.man or write to him at Paul at cmn.man.