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Welcome to The Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders, God intends you to be. I'm your host, Chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right, fellas, this is your fun Black Friday episode. How about that, fellas? Let's jump right into it. Okay. Scripture the week this week is James 1, verses 2 and 3. Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Those verses don't make sense. Just kidding, fellas. Totally makes sense. It's God's word. Are you kidding me? So go back, listen to your spiritual kickoff episode. I unpacked. These verses are my life verses. And then in the last episode, I tried to unpack how these verses, I've literally had to walk them out recently because I went from the mountaintop high of being serving thousands of guys at a conference with Pastor Joby to the absolute valley low of being admitted to a hospital for over a week and finding out I have a staph infection and undergoing two surgeries to remove hardware from the ankle that just is rejecting it. So, guys, you can't make this stuff up. I got a pick line in right now. I'm still doing IVs, antibiotics, all that fun stuff, trying to get healthy, trying to get better. But at the same time, God's called me to do this. Therefore, the lion is going to keep on roaring. That's what we're here to do, okay? So again, the lionwithin.us is where you find all our stuff, fellas. I know it's Black Friday. Most of you guys are off. Some of you guys probably won't listen to this. That's fine. But you guys that are, hey, head on over there now and get started with the either daily spiritual kickoff, community, or put in an application for a mastermind. How about that? All right. So really the whole meet episode this week was unpacking my unfortunate story of how I've been in the hospital and dealing with this uh staph infection and recovery from these two surgeries. It's been a trial. I'm not even gonna lie, it's been a trial. But uh hopefully you've uh had a good third Thanksgiving. You ate a little bit too much turkey. Maybe you're out for a walk and you're listening to the lion trying to walk that turkey off. So I've we'll we'll we'll help you uh pass a few minutes here with some tips, okay? So for our fun Black Friday episode, we're gonna do a health, wealth, and a self-tip. Okay. I'm gonna try to align these tips uh more for the season that we're in, okay? And uh the health tip is again how do we build stronger minds and bodies? Wealth tip is how do we steward our finances and our careers better? Self-tip is how do we improve as husbands and fathers. That's it. That's the lion we talk about those pillars all the time. So for the health tip, I talked about this a little bit at the end of the meet episode, but I want to really double down on it. Make a gratitude list. Make that list for each year you've been alive. Okay, so if you're 40, you got 40 things. If you're 50, you got 50. Got it? And that's how it works. And then share it with your family. Because if it's gratitude and you just hold it to yourself, you're missing an opportunity to bless them. Because it's one of the most powerful tools we have for emotional and spiritual health. So take it, I mean, really, take that step, build that list out. And maybe it's moments or peoples or lessons or even trials, whatever it is, if it's if you have gratitude for it, write it down. And if you take the time to intentionally reflect, you're gonna see something God's patterns showing up over and over and over. Remember, I was telling you, God, I tell you, 100%, He allowed, He gave me the strength and provision to go to that conference and to serve at an extremely high level. And then at the exact moment when I needed to get taken care of this leg, he made that visible. I had the appointment set up already with the surgeon. Our oldest daughter wasn't feeling well that day. So she actually stayed home with our little kids. So my wife, when the surgeon said, go to the hospital and take care of this, she could do just that. All these things fell into place. Not just because of a happenstance, but I fully believe God's hand is right there. So just use that, share it with your family. Take write, write the the the um the reflections down, and then let your kids and your spouse hear about them. Okay, I'm telling you, it's a great way to remember his goodness and how it never fails. All right, for the wealth tip, we just came out of Thanksgiving. So, what does that mean? Christmas, babe. We're we're here. Consider adopting a family for Christmas. Now we are I'm all about the Operation Shoebox and all these different ministries, but think about locally. Find a family and love on. And you won't have to look for it hard to find people, I'm telling you. You won't. They're local. Maybe you reach out to your church or your school. There's different ways to find these families. Here's what you do for them. Buy them groceries, buy them toys for the kids, uh, pay their bills, whatever the need is, meet it with generosity and prayer. And and and let them see you. Okay, let them see you doing it. Right. And so if you live open-handed, guys, you'll find that joy just flows generos, just follows generosity. It just does, man. So let this be a season where you teach your family that wealth isn't measured in what you keep, it's revealed in how you give. So I highly encourage you to do this, man. This is this could it could be a way that could change a family around you in an incredible way. It it could be the the pinhole that opens up the opportunity for them to hear the gospel and them to accept Christ as their savior. Now, you talk about a touchdown or touchdowns, but it starts with a heart of generosity. All right. Now, self-tip serve with your family this season. Okay, don't miss the opportunity to serve with your family. This is a great time of year, right? And to have to have chances to learn and find ways to serve together. And there are very few things that are as powerful as serving with your family, guys. Maybe it's volunteering at a food pantry or delivering meals or nursing homes or just simply just going to help a neighbor clean up their yard. I don't know what it is. Find it. And then you're gonna find that you're creating more than just memories, you're shaping their heart. Because when your kids see that you're serving and you're showing them what it truly means to lead, to be humble, to love, man, you're teaching them something right there, bro. Because it's not just about others, right? This is about uh it's not just about like a holiday thing, rather. It's about a kingdom thing, bro. This is what it's about. So look for them, create those opportunities. And then if you serve as a family, it's gonna deepen your bond. It's gonna build gratitude, and it's gonna reflect Christ in a time of year where people are very open and receptive to it, okay? All right, guys. There's your three tips. Quick reminder, make that gratitude list. That's your health tip. That's your health tip. Wealth tip, consider adopting a family for Christmas. And your self tip, serve with your family this holiday season. Okay? Now, book of the week this week. Shamelessly, I'm gonna plug The Lion Within Us again, okay? Unleashing The Lion Within, the book that I wrote. Uh Pastor Joe B. Martin wrote the Ford. Again, I know it's two weeks in a row, but this has been a big deal. I'm gonna be honest. Just writing the book was hard. Getting it published is hard. There's been nothing easy about this. So if you don't, if you're not even a reader, but you like what the lion has done for you in some small way, please buy a copy of the book just to just to give to someone else. Okay, just to give it to someone else. Get copies for friends and for and for your men's group and give it to them for Christmas. Go to your church and ask them, say, hey, I like to do this for my men's groups. You'd be surprised. Churches would jump all over this. I had a guy in Florida who bought a ton of them because he's at a church. He's like, I'm gonna use this for my men's group. So just reach out, fellas. Everything's found on Amazon. I'm prayerfully by now, the audible version is out. But if not, I know the the ebook as well as the print version is out. Unleashing the lion within, please consider getting it. Again, we don't make a lot of money off these books at all, fellas, but it's a lot of value here that I want to get in your hands and uh be praying because I'm already thinking about the next book uh of what I feel like God's laying on my heart. And hopefully you guys are gonna like that. But for now, right here, unleashing the lion within. Again, super thankful for Pastor Joe B for writing the uh forward for it. So consider getting that, guys. All right, now, dad jokes, but they have to be Thanksgiving related. So I went and got two Thanksgiving dad jokes, okay? So even though it's Black Friday, you can still use them. We're close enough to the turkey, okay? First one is why did a cranberry turn red? Okay. Hmm. Well, I think it's because it saw the turkey dressing.

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There you go. That's number one. Number two, what sound does a space turkey make? Space turkey. Well, that'll be Hubble, Hubble, Hubble. There you go, fellas. So that's number one. Number two, not gobble, gobble, gobble. Got it. So number one is why did the cranberry turn red? Well, because it saw the turkey dressing. And what sound number, and number two is what sound does a space turkey make? Hubble, hubble, hubble. There you go, fellas. So let me know which one, number one and number two, lands best. And as always, dad jokes, it's all about getting an eye roll, a sigh, or just having them turn around and walk away. You know you got a good one. So, question of the week this week is how do you respond with joy when trials hit, fellas? And it's all up to you. You have the opportunity to turn that into your response and how you respond. You can't control the trial. I couldn't control the hospital and the infection and all that stuff, but I could control the response to the trial. And that's my encouragement. That's my challenge, and that's what I really want you to think about as we go into this weekend, okay? So, I mean, it's a big weekend, it's kind of kick off the Christmas, big deal for sure. Lots of people are are amped up and excited for this time of year, as you should be. But we're excited about Jesus all year long, right? It's got nothing to do with December 25th, right? We're we're excited for him, 24-7, 365. So at the Lion, thank you guys for listening. Thank you for the support. Give us a rating and review if you don't mind. Hey, you're maybe you're off on this Black Friday and you actually have time to write that rating or just give us that review. That'll be awesome. Uh, reach out to us, guys, thelionwithin.us. Like all the resources there. Open the Bible app up, search for the Lion Within Us there on the Bible app. Uh, maybe you want to check out the Daily Spiritual Kickoff or the Community or the Leadership Mastermind, put an application for that. Guys, we have lots of ways we serve. We're trying to help guys, uh, but you can't find any of it unless you head over to the Lion Within Us. Okay, so that's thhelionwithin.us. Maybe you're looking for things this year that you want to support. We have donors. If you want to be a donor of the Lion Within Us, we would greatly appreciate your support. Maybe you say you can set it up as a monthly, a one-time or annual donation. Just help us out there. Because I can tell you it takes a lot of resources to pull all this stuff together that we're putting out on a regular basis, guys. But I'm committed to it. Whatever it costs, whatever it takes, we're going to do it because I know guys need this stuff. They need these resources, and I know how it's helped me, how it's helped so many brothers in Christ that I've that I'm thankful to be connected with. And again, we could definitely use your support. So thelionwithin.us is how you can do that. You can do/donate to connect with us there. All right, guys. So I did hope you have a great, great Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of people space out the meals. Maybe you got some more meals coming up. You know, remember those uh those those those holiday calories don't count so much, but I'm just kidding, they totally count. So be careful there, right? Uh it's the first plate's okay, it's the second or third place where I get in trouble. See, anyway, fellas, enjoy it. Have a great weekend. Look forward to seeing you guys next week. We'll have some guests, we'll have a guest next week. Uh appreciate you guys hanging out over the last two weeks as I've unpacked the conference as well as the hospital. So keep the prayers coming. Let me know how I can support and serve you. And guys, you know it's coming. Just keep unleashing the lion within. If you're like me, you don't need another book just sitting around collecting dust. What I enjoy is something to help guide me when my feet hit the ground in the mornings. And that is why we put together Unleashing the Lion Within. It has honest stories, scripture you can apply, and simple steps to help you lead at home, at work, and everywhere in between. So if you've been feeling stuck or scattered lately, you may find this resource encouraging. Read a few pages. Take one step and watch what God does with your obedience. Hey, and if reading's tough for you right now, no problem. The book is also available in audible version. So you can listen on the go. So if this sounds interesting, check out thelion within dot us slash book or search for unleashing the lion within directly on Amazon. So there's no pressure here, just a resource that many guys are finding helpful. So grab the format that fits and take your next step.