Scripture, Updates, And Invitations

Chris Grainger 1:34

Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders that God intends you to be. I'm your host, Chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right, fellas, this is your member spotlight time. But before you get to meet our awesome member, I want to share with you the scripture of the week, and that's Luke 6, verse 45. It says the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good. And the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil. For his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. So, guys, I took some time this week. I unpacked that scripture for you in the spiritual kickoff episode. Then we have my buddy Reagan Miller on. He was really unpacking his new book, Finding Virtue, for you guys out there who are having kids and sons, and you're trying to figure out what you can do as they're getting older to transition them from a boy to a man. I'm telling you what, go check out Reagan's book. He's awesome. He's a brother of mine. Just love him to death. This is his first venture as well. So we definitely want to support him. And if you enjoy the spiritual kickoff podcast, fellas, we do it Monday through Friday at the Lion Within Us. It's called the Daily Spiritual Kickoff. We really enjoy doing that. Like right now, I'm working through the gospel of John with the guys. So just go click on thelion within.us, sign up for the daily SKO. It gets you into the it gets you in for the daily SKO, but it also gets you a prayer request space that we full access. We have a prayer meeting every Monday. We'd love to pray for you. Let us know how we can do that. And if you're in the continental US, which I know a lot of you guys are, we've got a free gift. We'd love to send you. So look, it's a win-win-win. Like you got nothing but upside, babies. Just go check it out. The linewithin.us, get started with that today. So that's enough of me jabbing about that. Let's get to what you guys are here

Meet Tom Ma In Raleigh

Chris Grainger 3:10

for. Let's get to meet one of our awesome members. So, Tom Ma, what's going on today, brother? How you doing? I'm doing good, man. How about you? I'm going fine. I'm fine as frog here, brother. It's been a good day. It's hot, though. I mean, you're here in North Carolina with me, and and like, are we gonna ever get any rain? And this community is it's it's it's it's it's killing me, man.

Tom Monck 3:28

Yeah, I don't think we're I don't think I don't think we're allowed to have rain this year. We've had enough, we had enough last year. I don't think they're gonna let us have any this year.

Chris Grainger 3:34

Bro, it is unreal. I I live pretty close to Falls Lake, and it's like you can walk across this thing, man. This is low this year.

Tom Monck 3:43

I don't know I I don't think I've ever seen it this low.

Chris Grainger 3:46

Me personally. So crazy. It's been a tough, tough season to be a farmer, I can tell you that. So uh but but anyway, bro, welcome. And you're and you're in Raleigh, so uh in the Raleigh area, right?

Tom Monck 3:59

Yeah, just outside of Raleigh, near Benson area. I'm out near Willow Spring. There you go. There you go.

Chris Grainger 4:05

Well, man, yeah, love to share with our members, uh well, the listeners rather, a little bit about our members. So maybe tell us how you came to know the Lord, brother.

Tom Monck 4:14

Yeah.

Catholic Roots And Early Church Life

Tom Monck 4:14

So I'll start at the beginning, which is like I was a little baby and I got sprinkled with water because I was born Catholic. Okay. I went to Catholic school from kindergarten through fourth grade, got taught by nuns, got terrified by nuns, got my knuckles caught by nuns. Um, so I was basically going to church six days a week uh for basically six or seven years of my life teaching. I would go to Sunday school, and the teacher would, I would have just had a quiz on something, and she would say something like that's not right. She's like, How do you know? I'm like, here's the answer from the nuns, from the Bible. I took this is what I take in school. Um so that was kind of just my intro into religion. Yeah. And continue to grow. I thought I was I was a good Catholic boy. I enjoyed it. I was a I was an altar server, all those things, went to youth group, all of that. Was into sports, so I played sports a lot growing up. I played baseball, football, and hockey. Um was doing good in hockey. Something happened where couldn't go to a retreat or to a camp to try out. And this was all in North Carolina, by the way. All in North Carolina. Okay, okay. I I was raised out in Nike. Okay, gotcha. From there, when I couldn't go to the camp, I didn't play sports for a year, so I didn't get injured, so I could go to the camp the next

A Turn Toward Drugs And Alcohol

Tom Monck 5:33

year. Um, well, in that year, started to take a left-hand turn. This is about when I was 13. Um, started to make a wrong turn, found uh all the all the things I shouldn't have, um, all the drugs, the alcohol, all that stuff, just started finding it and started down a different path. Um and so right after that, started high school, and that kind of just kept progressing my my path back. Not a Christian high school, right? Because you ran out. Not a Christian high school. At this point, I was in public school. Public school. Yeah, going to a public school out in Nightdale, Indell area. Um it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it, but obviously I had started down a path. I was still going to youth group, still hanging out with the friends, but doing all the wrong things. Um I got you're still in still involved with the church, so you didn't walk away. I didn't walk away completely yet. Okay. Um, so I kept going, kept doing all the things. I even got confirmed Catholic in ninth grade, tenth grade year of high school. Um, I took the name Doubting Thomas. So when you get confirmed, you pick a name. So I took Thomas. Um kind of funny. Everyone's like, why'd you do it? I was like, well, I want to be Thomas Thomas. Um, but the the other reason was is I was also of the mindset at that point, because I, you know, this is no knock on the Catholic faith. They do a lot of, they do have a lot of rituals and a lot of traditions and everything. And so there wasn't a lot of relationship. Yeah. And so for me, I wanted to see, like, I needed to be shown, like, hey, I I believe that he's real, and I believe that he did these things, but you know, like, let me put my hands in the holes, let me put my hands in his in his ribs, like let me, I need to see and feel in touch. Yeah. Um, it's part of the reason why I took the name Thomas. Um fast forward out of high school, and the moment I didn't have to go to church, I didn't. I just stopped. It was just I didn't want to. You know, my dad wasn't forcing me, my parents weren't forcing me, none of that. Right. Um I'll back up a little bit before I graduated high school um because of all the things I was doing. I got kicked out of my house from my parents, uh, both houses. My parents were divorced, so I got kicked out of my dad's house, then got kicked out of my mom's house. Man. And so my dad did the one thing that he he knew. Uh, he he goaded me into graduating high school. And I I say that intentionally because he knew that if he told me I couldn't do something, that I would prove him wrong. So he told me, you'll never graduate high school. Well, I graduated high school living in the back of a pickup truck. Uh because he told me I could. Um but joined the military after high school, not long after high school. Um, ended up doing that for a little while. Uh what branch did you go? Army. Army. Ended up in the army and uh got kicked out not long after because of alcohol. Uh I got an other I got basically a regular general discharge because I snapped my foot in half. So it was, you know, a lot of fun, right? Sounds brutal, bro. Yeah, I was I was I was having a lot of fun. Um let's just put it that way. Um and so like the drugs and alcohol kind of were a mainstay in my life until about 21. So mind you, all this is before I turned 21. So by the time I turned 21, my 21st birthday, I want to say it was, my 22nd birthday.

Third DWI And The Sobriety Line

Tom Monck 9:08

On my the like two days before my 22nd birthday, I got my third DWI. Um and so that one is the one that sticks out to me because you know, driving down the road and I'm so I'm I'm eight hours since I quit drinking, or four or five hours, in between four and eight hours since I quit drinking. So I'm sobering up, but I'm just not fully sober and I'm still tired. Driving down the road and there was a car, and I had a NASCAR wheel rub on the left rear, on the passenger side rear tire of their car, and the driver's side front of my tire. It was not hard enough to have anybody wrecked, but it was just enough to bunk, and then I pulled over. Um I tried to buy my way out of it like a good alcoholic. I tried to, like, here's some money, can we make this go away? They said no. Thing that messed me up was when a little girl got out of the passenger side right side, the passenger side rear door of the car. I took all my keys, took everything, and I set it on my hood of my car, and I started going to jail. Um, I had decided that just like completely messed up my head about like what had happened. Yeah. Cop took me to jail. I got out on my own recognizance, and then fast forward three months, so that was April by June 2008. Um, June 28th, 2008 is when I got sober. Um, I had friends take me to a treatment facility um and put me in for two weeks. Um, and I've been sober ever since. Wow, good for you. So you would think at this point I found God, right? I did not. Um, I don't know why. I kept trying anything and everything. You know, I called him Gus, Greater Universal Spirit, thinking that, oh, that's it. And I read a book called Denial is not just a river in Egypt. And there's a passage that says, uh, if you don't have a concept of a higher power, go to the ocean and try and hold back the waves. I was like, oh, okay, so the earth is my higher power. Cool, got it. You know, still completely missing the mark of admitted to God that I was powerless over alcohol and my life had become unmanageable. Um, so like all of those things. Then I met

Marriage, Fatherhood, And Spiritual Drift

Tom Monck 11:23

my wife. Uh, she's been sober too, which is great. Um, she was the first girl to tell me no, she wouldn't like just hang out with me like I wanted. So I was like, okay, cool. Ended up, we dated for a while. She got pregnant with my first son, and I was 25 at the time, thereabouts. And um that was about the first time that I had an awakening of like something's gotta change. Like, I'm living one way and I need to do something different. Um, and I snapped to it. She was she went to church. I did. Parents wanted me to get kids baptized. I didn't care.

Chris Grainger 12:02

Um kept moving forward, all that. She thought I was gonna leave.

Tom Monck 12:08

I didn't. We've been together since then. Yay, I love her. Um then my second child, she's taking them to church, she's taking them to Sunday school, she's doing all the things, she's being the spiritual leader of our household. I'm making excuses of like the church that we go to is like an hour away. I'm not going, I'm not going an hour away. So did you when did you guys get married? Because I didn't pick that part up. Sorry. Uh my wife got pregnant in 2011. I told her that we had to be married before our oldest child turned one. So we got married in 2012, about two weeks before he turned one. Okay. Uh, because she didn't want to get married while she was pregnant. That was her thing. I'm not getting married while I'm pregnant. Okay, fine. We'll get married after you're pregnant. That's fine. Um, but that was we got married. Um, not we got married by a pastor, but not in a church. It was outside. Like it wasn't really because she's Methodist, I was Catholic, so there was disconnect there. Um and so it wasn't really through the church, but we it was a great service. We enjoyed it. The pastor was great. Um, and we did try and make it a spiritual way because we both did that's what she wanted. I didn't care. Um, and you'll kind of pick up on it. Like I didn't, they didn't really have a I thought of religion. I thought every every religion, Methodist, Catholic, Protestant, Nazarene, Baptist, all of them were just a religion, is what I like in my head, is what I thought. They're just religions. It's just there's nothing there. Like, it's just a thing. Um, so I didn't like it. And then keep fast forwarding about, let's see, we moved out here into Willow Spring area in 2018, and we were in Scouts around

A Church Invitation Through Scouts

Tom Monck 13:52

then. And so there was a couple kids in Scouts that uh my son was getting close with, and they invited us to their church. And so my son went there and he and he had a blast. So we tried to go there. Like my wife tried to get me to go. It was closer, it was like 10 minutes away, 10, 15 minutes away. So my excuse of an hour away was gone. It's like, all right, I'll go with you. And I went and I was like, I don't like it. It's not the same, it's it's not right. So I didn't go as much. Well, then the people that invited him to that church left and went to another church. Um, and that's Amplify church out in Will Spring, North Carolina. Um, and so he went for youth night and he was enjoying it. Like I could see, I remember the joy that I had in youth group and like how much fun it was and all that stuff. And I saw him having that, and I didn't something was telling me, don't let your rel like your thoughts of what you had with church and everything, don't let that ruin your son's chance at something good. Right? Like that was what was in the back of my mind. Right. So one day my wife got sick, or she was sick one day on a Wednesday, and she's like, I can't take him. I was like, well, it's it's five minutes up the road. I'll I'll just run him up there and I'll come back home and I'll go pick him up after youth. Um, well, on Wednesday nights they have classes, and there was one called Centered, and it's basically putting Jesus at the center of your life and making him the Lord of your life, and his throne is at the middle. All of your stuff is on the outside, and you looked at him first. Um and so I say that because drop my son off, I'm leaving. Well, apparently the kids saw me, say, hey, come on into the class with me. And I'm like, All right, fine. I'll I'll just go in there and sit. I like I'm not doing anything, I'm just gonna I'll just sit. I'll just listen. And man, I was so confused what they were saying. I was like, what you're saying makes a lot of sense. But that's not what I was taught. So I was in there raising my hand, asking a whole bunch of questions, and I came back the next week. I didn't attempt to go home. My wife was confused when I offered to take my son to church, and then I went back again, and I went back again. I ended up going back for basically the last I want to say five weeks of the class. And I was just asking questions. I was just inquiring. And then one day I looked at my wife and was like, Are you going to church today?

Chris Grainger 16:24

And she's like, Yeah. Can I go?

Tom Monck 16:28

So I just tagged along to church one day. Mind you, their church, our church uh used to have a thing in the back where it had the time. And so for a little while I was like, It's 10 minutes over. And my wife, she made me move because like because I didn't know. And like, you know, but it was something was like something was changing. And then like we joined at a weird time, so like they had the men's retreat, and so then they didn't have any men's Bible studies for those couple of weeks because of the men's retreat when it fell. So for like a month I didn't see a lot of men, and it was like hard for me to connect, right? So I started seeing them net set of classes, and one of them was um dad tired. I was like, Well, I'm a dad, I'm tired, but I'll go, I'll see what this is about. Because I also wanted to meet other men. And so went in there and we took the I was taking the class with a group of guys at my in my church, and it was really, really good. I was learning a lot. We were learning about basically being a son first, son of God first, husband second, and a father third. That's the order that things kind of go because when kids leave, your wife's still gonna be there. When your wife leaves, it's best you and God. Like you have to have it in that order, and if you build your relationship towards God and she's building her relationship towards God, you're just gonna grow closer together. That's right. Um, and so these are all things that I was learning, and I was like, man, this is cool. Well, near the end, they told us about this retreat, and it was out in Arkansas that year, and I was like, I was like, all right, I kind of want to go. Well, the guy running the class ended up going, and so it was only four of us the

Retreat Breakthrough And River Baptism

Tom Monck 18:10

first year. Four of us went. We went out there, and it was life-changing for me. Um like go out there, we're sitting there listening to somebody talk about um a whole bunch of things that I heard before. Um, like I didn't know about Yom. Uh talked about a bunch of things I did know, and some things I didn't know. One of the things I didn't know was Yom Kippur and like what it is and when it is and all the things. And the guy was talking about Zachariah 3. I don't remember the exact verse number or the verse numbers, but it was oh, it was uh three through five, uh basically three through five, where it was basically talking about how Joshua shows up and he's supposed to be making his sacrifice for his whole community. And you know, the way it works is if you're not all clean, you're struck dead, and that's why the high priest always had a rope tied around their race, because when they went in to offer these things, nobody could go in after them, so they had to have a rope tied around them to pull them out. And then it's talking about all of a sudden he's just like completely dirty, and the angel's like, nah, you're clean. I've taken care of that for you. Talking about Jesus coming back and something that night just like I have never ugly cried like that in my life before. And I mean I had a friend, the guy who led the class, to this day, he he carried me up front. Like he asked me if I wanted to leave, and every other time in my life when I've had that choice to either face it and go forward to the altar or something along those lines, or run out the door, I ran out the door. And when he asked me, did I want to go up front and pray? I looked straight to the door to my left and I was like, I looked to the door to my left and I said, Yes. And he carried me up front. And so I didn't go out, I went up front and prayed. And then the next morning I decided to get baptized in the river in Arkansas. Um and that started uh a complete trajectory change on my life. Um I went from being angry, cussing, all these things, to now I catch myself cussing and I'm like, oops, and I immediately I have to ask for forgiveness because like it's I can't do that. You know, I don't want to go back to where I was. My wife and I took a class called Reengage Recently, where we review like it's the whole triangle thing. She grows closer to God, I grow closer to God, and we talk, kind of like JD does, right? Those those couples' nights and those 10 and 10s. It's a lot of conversations like that. Some of them are a little bit deeper, um, which is really cool. And in that class, mind you, I've been on this journey for about three years now. Okay. Um, I never knew what impact I had had on my wife and on my family. Yeah. Um, but like my wife in one of the things was sitting there telling me, she's like, it was like, what is the one thing that's been the best thing for her? And she's like, the day that you went to Christ. She's like, you have been changed. Our family has changed, it's been uplifted. And it's been amazing. Like it's just been an amazing journey to get from where I was to, you know, where I am now. I still have a lot of growing to do. I still have a lot of learning to do, which is why I hop into the SKO when I can, because I really enjoy the breaking down of the scripture because it's like there's a lot of words there, and they mean things, you know. All words have meaning, and it's just a matter of like, you do a good job of providing the context at times, you know. I'm like, who was he talking to? Why, why did he say it this way? That kind of thing, which helped me understand it and then take it because then I could be like, okay, this is what they had going on. How can I apply this to my life today? Right. It's it we're in a different time, but we have the same problems. Um, and so that's been my journey.

Discipling Kids And Practicing Gratitude

Tom Monck 22:16

Um, and trying to lead my kids to Christ in the same way, right? Letting them make mistakes, but also like letting them know, like, hey, you can pray. You can pray all the time, right? Because I I didn't used to pray. And now I I just told them somebody this last night. I was like, man, there's times where I'm just sitting there talking. I'm like doing something, and all of a sudden I'm like, oh, and I just start praying. Like, I don't know why, I just start praying, like, thank you for this. I'll be in the shower and I'm like, God, thank you for hot water. That's right. Like, I don't know why. It just like it says, I'm grateful for this hot water right now. Like, thank you. Because like I don't want to come to, I don't want God to be my ATM. I want to thank Him for everything. Like the heat, I'm grateful for the heat. Why? Because I like it. Would I like us to have some rain? Yes. But you know what? God made the heat, He made the sun, He made all these things, and He's knows He knows what He's doing. So, like, and that's the kind of positivity that I've been trying to teach to my kids about like we can be grateful even in the bad times, right? Like if we weren't having bad times, God wouldn't this is God trusting us with some of the stuff, right? Um and so that's kind of that's where I'm at in my journey now is like working on it with my kids and trying to Disciple them because I talked to my pastor probably a year, year and a half after starting on the journey, and I was like, Man, how do I know if I'm a good disciple? How do I know if I'm ready to disciple somebody? And he looked at me, he says, Well, you know where you start with your discipleship journey, right? I was like, No, he's like, Your kids. He's like, discipleship starts in the home. And I was like, Got it. I could do that. I need it simple, you know? Like so that's kind of where it got to for me. Um that's kind of how I went from where I was to where I am today.

Chris Grainger 24:08

That's really cool, man. I mean, most guys miss that part of discipling at home, bro. We want to outsource it. So I mean hassle to you. Sound like you're doing a great job with that, buddy.

Tom Monck 24:18

Trying. It's it they're not they don't listen all the time. I still I I I send uh I send some uh other brothers in Christ to my kids every so often. I'm like, hey, I've told them this. Do you agree with me or not? Yeah, hold on. When they go running over there, I'm like, all right, cool. So um so it's helpful to have other men or other brothers in Christ that'll like come alongside you with the kids too, which is been that's awesome, bro.

Chris Grainger 24:43

I mean, and the fact that your wife is recognizing it, and I mean you guys are just on such a good path now, but so very happy for you. Thank you. Now, how did you find a lion?

Finding The Lion Within Us

Chris Grainger 24:54

I'm just share that with the listeners out there. How did you get connected with this, man?

Tom Monck 24:58

I found you in a park, I just found your podcast one day. And I was and I was like, I listened to it and I was like, man, I like I said, I liked how you broke down, like, look, we're just gonna take this chapter and maybe not even the whole chapter, we're just gonna take these verses and let's let's break it down. Like, let's let's understand what it's saying. Um, and so I was like, okay, and so then I joined the the Lions Den because I was like, okay, there's a lot of good content here. I'm like, I want to know, I want to get engaged here and understand. And so that's why like I started joining the SKO, listening to the podcast. I bought your book, um, which I'm looking for a group of guys at my church to go through this with me, the line within this book. Um, because I mean you saw I read it on the flight to San Diego in April and realized that I was missing a few things. So I had disconnected from the SKO for a couple of weeks. My message, I was like, man, that first chapter, it really hit home, you know. Um, so like that those kind of things. That's the book and the podcast is how I got connected with the lion.

Chris Grainger 26:00

That's really cool, man. That's so cool. I mean, and you're using the resources, and we're now we're using the book in a big way with our mastermind groups as well. And I mean, I know you're headed down that path. I'm excited to get you one of those. I'm just so so thankful to have you in here with us, Tom. And it's just it's really cool. And you're a North Carolina guy, so I mean, we'll always love like to have these Carolina guys, right? Exactly.

Tom Monck 26:21

And then we can't forget about the uh I know I'm shameless plug for you, the reclaiming the wild trip. I can't wait for that in April. I didn't get to make sure this past year, but that's gonna be awesome. Um, trying to coordinate a group of guys to go out to that with their sons. Yeah, but like the one thing that I noticed at churches is we always have the men's retreats, the men's conferences, the women's conferences, and the women's retreats. There's never really one where it's like the fathers and the sons, the wives and the daughters, or the fathers and the daughters. Like there's there's just not a lot of those. And so like reclaiming the wild trip in April, like that that's something I really, really want to do with my kids. So I'm excited.

Chris Grainger 27:00

We're gonna have a great time with you, man. No doubt about it. Yeah.

Tom Monck 27:04

I'm sorry. From what Gideon and uh his uh his dad told me about it, it was a lot of fun.

Chris Grainger 27:09

Yeah, man, they the boys had a great time at it for sure. Well, man, I I'm excited to have you here in the lion, Tom, and just so thankful for what you know God's doing in your life and how you're being obedient. I know it's not easy, and but man, you're taking the steps and you're doing the work, brother. Thank you.

Tom Monck 27:28

Yeah, it'll get better. I I know it's it it's not supposed to be easy. I don't think I as people have told me they're like, if it's easy, then you're not doing it right. It's like I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. But then when you get into it and you start realizing about the spiritual battles going on, it it really is true. If you're not getting attacked, you're not you're not uh you're not a danger to the enemy, and that's yeah, I don't want to be I'm not saying that I want to be attacked, but I also don't want to not be attacked.

Chris Grainger 28:01

Yeah, like I know that's how I get it. I get it, man. I think there's a lot of Christians when we get to heaven, if we get to see our spiritual armor, it's gonna look brand new. And I don't want mine to look brand new. I want mine to just be beat up and banged up, and that's just that's just part of it, man. It really is.

Tom Monck 28:18

Exactly.

Why Men Should Join The Den

Tom Monck 28:19

Exactly.

Chris Grainger 28:20

Well, keep doing the work, brother. You're doing a great job. And and may and maybe there's a a listener out there right now, Tom, who they haven't, you know, they've been listening to The Lion, or they've maybe they've read our plans on the Bible app, or whatever ways they connect it with us, but they haven't taken a step to to join anything that we offer, man. What would be your encouragement to that guy right now?

Tom Monck 28:39

Just do it. Um, as a guy who is I make the joke that I'm introverted, but extroverted because like I like being near people. I just don't like being in front of people. Like this is this is nerve-wracking for me being in this podcast. Right. Um, but like just join, even if you're sitting there and reading and joining along in the daily SKO, you can engage. The one benefit, this is this is a benefit of the internet, with it being there in the lion, you can put something out there, and it can be somebody that is 5,000 miles away from you that can help you. You can like it, it's weird how much more honest you can be with somebody that you're not going to see tomorrow at work or on Sunday at church. You could you just have is there's a freeing thing in being able to talk to somebody like that. And so I would highly encourage anybody to join the lion, join the prayer request group. Like, I mean, I just put out a prayer request the other week for me and my my scouts on the way to Georgia. Like, there is a number of men in the lion that want to support you and want to help you and help you grow in your Christian walk. Amen. I I know this for a fact. I've seen it every day in the line in the chat, in the SKO chat. Just join, come and talk, spend 10 minutes, like spend a week in there. Like as they as the saying goes, like I'm I made that my son do this. There was a period in time when he didn't want to go to church anymore. I looked and I was like, look, just go on Wednesdays and go for 52 weeks. He's like, well, what if they don't have church that week? That counts as one of your weeks for 52 weeks. Like we're just gonna go from this week to last week next year. That's it. Just do it for 52 weeks. Like, I'm not asking, and I would tell anybody on this, don't do it for you don't have to do it for 52 weeks. But get on daily for at least two weeks. Watch what happens, see the men engaging you with each other. Try and join some of the events, like the Friday Forge, the the Lion Lunch. Like, try and join these things and listen to these men. They will encourage you.

Chris Grainger 30:43

Yeah.

Tom Monck 30:45

Amen.

Chris Grainger 30:45

Amen to that, bro. But you definitely make us better just by being a part of it. And it's an honor to have you in and definitely look forward to seeing you at the Reclaiming the Wild, Bud. It's gonna be awesome. I'm excited about it. I really am. Like I want to go. I was I was sad when I didn't get to go last year. So it's gonna be a good time. It always is.

Dad Jokes And The Pressure Test

Chris Grainger 31:04

Well, brother, uh a couple things we'll do here towards the end of the podcast, bud, is I always like to just remind guys of the book of the week. And again, it's called Finding Virtue. So, guys, go get a copy of book, support, support Reagan. And then I got some dad jokes, and then you have you may even have a dad joke or two, but I I'm gonna run these two by you and see what you think. Or uh Doug, he gave me these two dad jokes, so I always like to see what uh you know what tickles your fancy on these, okay? I like them. All right, all right. So why didn't my family laugh at my barbecue dad jokes, Tom? I don't know. Because they said they weren't well done. That's good. All right, so that's that one. That's that one. I like that one. And I'm getting so I'm leaving tomorrow morning, I'm flying flying out to Cincinnati. And did you know that pilots, there's a specific way they like their cheeseburgers? No, I didn't know that. Yeah, they like them plain. Yep, that that is true. I like that one too. Doug, I mean, you're gonna get me in trouble with these jokes. They're so bad. So anyway. So which one do you like better, the bar barbecue or the uh the pilots?

Tom Monck 32:15

I mean, I'm from North Carolina, I gotta go with the barbecue. That's it, bro. That's it, bro. That's right. That's it. Say no, but I'm from North Carolina, it's gonna be barbecue all day.

Chris Grainger 32:24

Love it, love it. So look, guys, the dad jokes, we put them out every Friday. You get to vote on them if you're in the line stand, and then you get to pick on the guys who vote wrong. I mean, that's the best part, you know. So, so so jump in there. And did you have any dad jokes, Tom? I mean, I've got a I've got a whole calendar full. We don't have to go through them, but you know, I yeah. I mean Well, send me some and I'm gonna use them on future. I'll I'll use some of them on future uh member spotlights, and then we'll uh we'll give you credit for them on how bad they are. No worries. I like it. I like it. Awesome, brother. Awesome. Well, the question of week, guys, is what constantly spills out when life applies pressure to you? Like I tell you guys all the time, man, whatever's in is gonna come out. Just like that water bottle that's sitting by me right now. I take the top off, I shake it up, what's gonna come out? Water, because that's what's inside of it. So if you got anger and just and wrath or or just you just lash out, and that's just coming out when pressure builds up. It's not because it comes out anywhere. It was there the whole time, fellas. So we got to work on that inside to make sure that when pressure builds up, the spirit comes out, man. So submit that stuff. So anyway, Tom, thanks for so much, brother. Anything else you want to share today? No, I don't have anything else.

Tom Monck 33:36

Thank you for having me on, Chris. Thank you so much. I really am grateful for the lion. And I I highly encourage any of your listeners to try and join today. Like it it's it's been a blessing.

Closing Resources And Integrity Support

Chris Grainger 33:46

Amen, bro. Well, thank you for that. Guys, everything Tom just talked about, thelionwithin.us is our website. Check it all out. Daily SKO Lions In. Put an application for the mastermind or open up the Bible app right now, fellas, and go check out all the plans. Like we got like at this point, I think 70-something plans on the Bible app, guys. It's crazy. Guys from all over the world are downloading them and reading them and enjoying them. So uh you can do that. Follow the Lion Within us on the Bible app too, and uh, it's a great way to get connected with us. So the events that Tom was mentioning, if you go to the LionWithin.us slash events, uh, you'll be able to see those events right there as well, fellas. Other than that, guys, thanks for listening. Thanks for hanging out. We'll see you next time and just keep unleashing the Lion Within. It's time to stop battling pornography, lust, and temptation alone. We're done sitting on the sidelines, seeing shame win, and hearing from guys that are fighting private wars with no backup. So we decided it's time to fight back. We have our sexual integrity support group, which is a confidential space inside the lion's den for men who are ready to step into the light and pursue real freedom. This isn't just for guys in crisis, by the way. It's for any man who's tired of the cycle, who's tired of living in secret, who's tired of saying this is gonna be the last time. Look, most guys don't need another app or some rules. They need some brothers to come alongside them to say you're not the only one. This doesn't define you. And freedom is possible. So look, inside our group, you're gonna find a confidential, judgment-free forum to engage and ask questions. You'll have honest conversations without commendation. And you'll also have a monthly call with a trusted guy. So look, this isn't just about stopping pornography, it's about becoming a man of integrity, a man aligned, a man who lives in freedom, not secrecy. And you don't have to clean yourself up first to come. You just have to step in. So our sexual integrity support group is found inside the lion's den. And you can start that today with a 30 day free trial. So if you're ready to stop fighting alone and need that extra support, start your 30 day free trial right now at thelionwithin.us. That's thelionwithin.us, and step inside the lion's den.