[00:00:00] Right now, the world needs great men who will stand up and lead with honor, serve with purpose, and courageously fulfill their God given roles as husbands, fathers, leaders, and men. I'm your host, Franklin Swann, bringing you practical tools and powerful conversations you can use every day to build yourself into the man God is calling you to be.

This is The World Needs Men. Let's go. All right, welcome back to The World Needs Men podcast. I'm excited today. I've got two guests on my show, Derek Price, Josh Gonzalez, both with the Faction Foundation, of which I'm a part of. And both gentlemen have been on previous podcasts. But today we wanted to kick off part one of four of a four part series where we're going to kind of [00:01:00] deep dive these four pillars of life, these four different areas of faith, family, fitness, and finance.

And, and we're just kind of going to go deep on that. And we're going to roll with it. But I, you know, I think an important thing for us to say, first and foremost, none of us are pastors. We are not preachers. We have no theology background or seminary training. We're just normal men. who want to pursue what God has for us in our lives, lead our families better, build a, a deeper relationship with, with, with God and, and use our faith to guide us through life.

So with that, gentlemen, thank you all for joining today and excited for this conversation and I'll let y'all take it and we'll run. All right. Well, Franklin, thanks for, for having us on man. And I'm going to triple stamp your double stamp there is that, listen, if you're listening to this podcast and you think that, that I'm going to be able to drop verses in quote scripture, like Then you're sorely mistaken.

I am, I'm [00:02:00] newer to really stepping into my faith. I'm super open and transparent about it. And all I can speak to is the changes and the profoundness and the lack of absolute coincidence that I can witness and how it's moving the needle for me. So I hope that they come out of this podcast. It's just gonna, you're gonna feel what we're talking about.

So if you're ready to write down scriptures, like put your pen down and that's how it happens for me. I wish I could come back in a year, let's redo this podcast. I'll have that for you. What do you think, Josh? Yeah, so on my end, definitely. Newer to faith. I grew up, um, Catholic and organized religion and starting to more find what faith means to me and using what Derek calls having functional faith, like having a purpose, intention, and a felt understanding of what my faith is and what it does to my life, but definitely do not know or quote any scripture, but really interested in the wisdom that's shared in these stories [00:03:00] that have going across time for thousands and thousands of years.

And I think that's really where we start, Franklin, is functional faith. And I know that, I don't know if that's a term other people used. I don't know if it's already out there. Hell, it could be trademarked by somebody. I don't know. But when we think about it at our group, at Club Faction, functional faith means it doesn't matter to me what your faith is.

right? Whether it is from a very devout sect of a religion, if it's very like strong Catholic or Methodist or Baptist, that's fine, or Mormon or Jewish or Muslim, or that you have your own faith because you believe in some type of a different spiritual reality, it's fine. I think that when you boil them all down, at the end of the day, every, every say deduces down to be a good person, leave the world a better place, treat people like you love [00:04:00] them.

And if we all just kind of act on that, then we're at least, we're running down the same freeway, maybe in different lanes. And what Josh brought up is the term that I think that we really dive into because I think it's where we can put meat. this functional faith. And what, what I mean by that, when I set that up was prior to a handful of years ago, I would have said I was a man of faith.

I grew up Catholic, you know, baptized, CCD, confirmation, married in the church, Easter, Christmas, all the whole thing. But faith lived 10, 10 feet behind me. My life in front of me was, Business ego derrick's in control. I'm the alpha, I'm steering. I would not deny faith. I would've told you, yes, I do believe in God and I believe in Jesus and, and stuff like that, but I, I wouldn't have led with it, nor did it really have a focal point on the impact of, [00:05:00] of what was in front of me.

If I, if I said I was in the car of Derek, you would see faith in my rear view mirror. It was always behind me no matter where I went, but it was never in my windshield, unless I needed a favor. Dear God, I'm having a big test coming up. Help me out. Dear God, my, my, my mom is sick. I'm calling in a favor. So outside of the, the requests and the favors, I just lived in the back.

And what we've kind of moved to in this group, It's saying that we, we should all have functional faith. And again, I'm going to say it doesn't matter and my, my faith doesn't require you to believe in my beliefs and your faith shouldn't require my beliefs and validation in what you believe. That's what causes wars and hatred between human beings.

But functional faith is the scope on my rifle, right? It's, it's how I view [00:06:00] the world, how I target it. And now I get to use my functional faith. Which are the parameters that I established for myself within the what makes sense to me. And then I get to look through that lens forward, making it functional.

So all of my decisions, all of my thoughts, all of my processes, filter through the lens of a functional faith and my beliefs and as such it keeps me on the appropriate freeway. It keeps the lane lines here. There is no gray. Hey, his is black and white. This is where I want to be. This is, this is what is my moral compass.

This is what brings positivity to me. This is the things I can and can't control. Like, and I can't express, and I hope that's the goal of getting this podcast is they can't express the liberation that it's brought to me. It sounds like, and I'm going to say this for the listeners that are like, man, it just sounds like another, [00:07:00] another book to read, another thing to do, another thing to add.

Depression, fear, and all of that stuff. Because I have a functional way to overcome what's in front of me. I don't have to know where it's going to go. I believe there's a plan for me and I believe there's only two things I control anyway, attitude and effort. So if I supply those, that God has, Jesus has the wheel going forward from here.

There's a plan for me. And he has a will. And then I talk about behind and that's where we're at. Something I want to point out and to help us with an analogy, when you say functional fitness, because I don't know, or functional faith, if people really grasp what you mean by that, if you think of functional fitness, which is a term you hear, essentially what that means is it's fitness that can be used in real life in order to live better.

Picking up your kids, carrying in groceries from the car, like just normal everyday things. It's fitness that helps you and allows you to do that. When you say functional faith, what I take from that is a faith that is not just pigeonholed into Sunday [00:08:00] at 11 o'clock at church or, you know, just in a quick prayer, you know, to start off the day, but it's, it's a faith that is able to be utilized and guide you and support you through your day to day.

in all areas of life. I think, Franklin, something big, especially on the, the younger audience crowd, which is the crowd that's struggling the most of developing this idea of faith. And I think there's an element when you read biblical stories, you read other religious stories, you, there's this element of the faith in a good future.

Like, the future will be good despite evidence to the contrary. And I think what Derek was saying about having this functional faith is, in our program there's this gap. And the gap is where you are and where you want to be. And what fills the void in between that gap can be stress, anxiety, and depression.

Because [00:09:00] we can't, we can't predict the future. We don't know what's going to happen. And it's very easy for our brains to start interpreting that in a negative way. Like, I talk to a lot of young people, and they just see the future as this negative, horrible thing, when the reality is, objectively, we're in one of the best times to be alive.

So what I think a very good functional faith provides, if we're looking at the results, is the strength and courage to believe in a positive future. Despite having evidence, to the contrary, right? Because we can look forward and focus on all that negative. But having faith that like, hey, this world is going to be good.

I will get through this. This is a challenging time. I will prevail. All these stories and verses we hear in the Bible. And I think that's a strong element of the functional faith. How do you come at, at developing that functional faith? Like, how do you bridge the gap between someone who's like, I [00:10:00] hear what you're saying, like, and I, maybe I grew up in church, maybe I didn't.

And I think one of the amazing things is, is just even having, being able to have three men coming a little bit different in each respect to what faith is for them, but still having, being able to have that conversation, right? And having a healthy conversation around it so that we can all grow in our walk with, with, with God.

And so, like, how do you help men specifically develop some of the practices and create that functional faith in their life? Well, I'll tackle it first and then I'll give it over to Josh for intentionality, but So, to your point, Franklin, I'm kind of a meathead. And, um, you know, if you look at the way that I came up in my life as an athlete, it was very structured, but And everybody can think of a workout program, right?

You have a workout plan. And that, that prayer is Hey, it's a strength game workout plan. And I bet every single person that's listening to your podcast is going to [00:11:00] say, they can picture in their mind, look through their workout plan that says, On Monday it's bench press, it's four sets of ten, then it's incline three sets of eight, and then I'm going to do some push ups.

And they can look at that, and they can see what they're going to the next day, the next day. In fact, you can even look at a 90 day workout plan and say, like, in three weeks on a Tuesday, I can tell you what my leg workout looks like. Totally common. We can say the same exact thing for diet. For people that, you know, go heavy on, hey, don't want to do paleo, don't want to lose weight, don't want to gain muscle, they can have a plan and they build it all out.

But what I discovered, and this is my own self discovery, and I might be late to the party here, is that show me a faith plan. Like, awesome. If faith is our guiding principle, and I think I value stack them the way that they're most important to me. It's very, it's not finance, fitness, family, faith. It's faith, family, fitness.

Like, faith is the guiding lens. It is the guiding principle. It is, it is the three actionable items that I think are the most important. So basically to some, [00:12:00] yes, you have to have an action plan and we'll talk about what that looks like. But I think to start on making faith actionable is to start with the three basics.

Number one, be a good person. Two, love people like they're your neighbor or brother. Love your neighbor like your brother. Number three, leave the world a better place. You're like, cool, I've heard all that before. Okay, cool. Your next thought is, you just said you're gonna make it actionable. How do you do that?

So then you go back and you bring actionable intentionality to each one of those three categories. For example, under be a good person, I could say something very action stepped would be practice daily kindness. Start each day with an intention of performing at least one act of kindness for somebody.

This could be as simple as holding the door open for somebody or sending a thoughtful message or helping a colleague with a task. But if you have intention about doing that, then it's going to be what we call in front of you. If I'm set out for the day and I say today I [00:13:00] want to practice my faith, and one of those categories is to be a good person, and that means to make it actionable, I have to practice a day or an act of kindness I'm going to go physically and cognitively seek that out today, as if it's an accomplishment.

Well then what did I just do? It's what I talked about. I put faith in front of me and now I'm viewing the lens through, I'm viewing life through like, how can I be impactful today in my faith and where can I seek out and find this opportunity? If I don't have that intention when I leave the house, everybody, and this is everybody, it's the warm blanket of, of bullshittery.

Where you say, yeah, man, if there's a chance to be a nice person, I'll do that. If it presents itself, okay, let me know if you follow a diet that works that way. If there's an opportunity to eat well today, I'll do that. Like, okay, you're not going to get the same results. You know, another one, uh, very easy [00:14:00] under be a good person would be like, be honest and act with integrity.

Right? Like it doesn't, it doesn't require a certain belief in Jesus or to be Jewish or to be Muslim to have that, like we all, all face, basically said, be honest and act with integrity. So how do you do that the next time that you're faced with a choice between what's easy and what is right? I want you to pause And choose honesty, even if it requires effort or has a short term disadvantage.

That is an actionable, functionable thought and action, physical action that you can take to better develop your faith. And I can go on to the other two, but Josh is going to get upset that I'm stealing the microphone in the conversation, frankly, because you know me, man, so. Josh, what do you think, brother?

I always go back to, uh, Starting with why, before anything, because I think once you solve the why, and once you solve the need of why should I do this plan, why should I do that, [00:15:00] is, is then the kind of that plan you start seeking out, you know, our, I began to get curious. I, I discover the information from other people and I start building that plan, but it all starts with that curiosity.

And I know for a lot of people, kind of more of the younger age bracket is, is developing that curiosity towards faith. And I think that starts with generally, a lot of people have that, that feeling of missing something. And it's missing some spiritual connection to God, and you can define God however you want to.

So I think it's doing some soul searching in yourself to see if you truly feel complete and fulfilled as a person. Because what I've noticed is once you start leaning into those actions, Derek has talked about. Once you start making decisions in that way, it starts building a flow state of [00:16:00] your life. It starts building points where you hit this critical mass and the world just moves a lot easier.

It's less sticky all the time. So I would kind of start with the why and the self reflection and intentionality of pursuing the faith journey. And if someone has that negative. Twinge with maybe an organized religion that they grew up in, to not automatically put up that brick wall and approach the situation with curiosity and a sense of adventure.

You know, in the, uh, Bible, there's, There's this reference, and it's really a principle, and it talks about faith without works is dead, right? And so, and I think from a couple of standpoints, like, if you do have a deep faith, there should be some visible result of that faith in your life. And if you want to, if you're like, I want to deepen my faith or want to grow in my relationship with [00:17:00] God, it's no different than if you say, Oh, I want a deep and meaningful and connected relationship with my spouse.

Well, if you never spend time talking with your, your wife, if you never take her out on dates or, or do something nice or, or invest in that relationship, it's not gonna, it's not gonna happen. And there's no difference. And with that, then there is with, with our faith that we've got to have some action behind that faith in order to build it, deepen it, and strengthen it.

And so I think that there's just a very practical element to it that, that can be real, I think, difficult for men to wrap their mind around outside of just going to church and, and being a good person. Cause I think it goes even further than that. I think that's really interesting, Franklin, that you brought up, you know, faith without words is dead.

And then we're tying it into this way because I think that the discussion is, well, what is worse? Right? And what is the result of that? Because I said we weren't going to get scripture or whatever, but some of them popped to mind. So [00:18:00] Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, For by grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not for you.

It is a gift of God. It is not from works so that no man can boast. Basically saying that it's not a competition. And I think that some groups have taken different elements of what they believe the works are and pedestalized them, if that's a word, and said, here's the steps that you have to accomplish to get to the gates of heaven.

And then some people come back and say, no, salvation is through grace, not works. And they're like, I don't need to take those steps because for my personal thoughts, you know, Christ took upon my sins and has opened the door through grace. And that's how I get into the celestial kingdom and live forever.

But to your point, what we're saying right now is functional faith. is about doing the work and the works are things that we do to enhance ourselves, which is what we're asked to do throughout like continuous [00:19:00] undertone of pretty much all religious scripture is be a good person, love your neighbor like your brother, leave the world a better place, forgive, let go.

So like one of the works very specific as opposed to what I said earlier was go seek an opportunity if it presents itself, act. Well, what if you're, what if you're bedridden all day? What does that person do? Right? They can't hold the door for somebody else. So everything I just said doesn't, doesn't come to fruition.

But then we come up with programs like, I think, practicing the heart of gratitude. You see, goodness isn't just about how you treat others, right? It's also your attitude towards life and a good person appreciates what they have and sees the positive in their circumstance. And then so, as we teach by practicing Gratitude, you can help shift your perspective towards positivity and contentment, making you more open for doing good for others.

So all good. That's gratitude. [00:20:00] How do I actualize that? Very simple. And these are the programs that we have at Club Faction, which seems super simple. Like once you're here, you're like, I could do that. Like, well, then show me your plan. But to access that gratitude at the end of each day, just go write down three things you're grateful for.

Practice. Practice. Practice helps. You stay grounded in appreciation and it's naturally going to lead you to treat other peoples with kindness and generosity, which is be a good person, be a kind person. So the faith without works is dead because of is it works or faith that gets me, you know, into the celestial, into heaven.

And as we continuously converse, as I get deeper into it, I'm starting to realize that the works are actually having intentionality about striving to become that person and doing things to become. that person, more than just religious traditional things like get baptized here or do take the community here or get sealed in this church or whatever, but like, about just the basics of being good and actually having intention towards that, that might [00:21:00] be the functional works that we're talking about.

It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. Yeah. I mean, based on Christian belief, you know, Christ died for you through grace. Accepting that you're, you're in, but there should be a, a, an addition to that, which is because of that, you live this different way. Like there is, it is obvious through how you live that there's something different about what you believe and those beliefs are lived out in your life.

I think this is one of the fundamental ways that we can lead our families and, and, and model to our kids. It's like, Hey kids, here's what I believe. And because I believe that. Here's what it does and how it shows up in my life practically on a day to day basis. Totally. I wholeheartedly agree. I do think, I hate to use the word dogma because it comes off so negative, but I think that a lot of, a lot of us come from maybe a particular religion where the shoe didn't quite fit the foot, so we left because the ask, the juiced in, [00:22:00] it just didn't make sense.

But when we step back and say like, let's stop looking at the granularity of like the written law of that particular religion. Where when you're in that particular spot, you basically have to make the agreement that, that mine is right and yours is wrong. Which has led to like, pretty much every war that's ever existed on the planet.

And to say, well if I keep following that, I'll keep coming up with hatred, I'll keep having divisiveness, I'll keep staying separated. And I don't think that was ever the message that I followed. I don't think that was ever Jesus message. His was, I'll leave the flock to go find the one sheep. Right? Like, I'll give empathy to love my neighbor like my brother.

I will extend forgiveness. I will extend grace. And I think that one of the missing pieces, I'm going to go back to that word, in functional faith, is having empathy. And like I said when we started, my faith doesn't require that anybody else on planet Earth thinks I'm right. And [00:23:00] nor should your faith require that you think that you have my buy in for you to be right.

And I think when we do that, we pigeonhole ourselves into these dogmatic situations, which eventually turns people off because of almost a societal or cultural pressures, and we remove the genesis of what this whole thing is about, which is what Josh talked about. We have a collaboration of stories dating back thousands and thousands of years, written by thousands of different people, all canonized into multiple different renditions.

That all say the same dang thing. Be a good person, love your neighbor, leave the world a better place. And then when you bring up, faith without works is dead, I now take that as, as an internal challenge to keep faith in front of me as my moral compass and just following the compass alone is an act of work.

And just waking up every day and saying like, how can I be a better human being on this planet, is an act of work. And to make it simple like, yes, I'd like [00:24:00] to have a program. So yes, I have a, I have a weekly program where I could tell you every day if you said, Next Thursday, what are you doing? I could look at my book and say I have to extend an act of forgiveness to somebody that I have wronged or wronged in the past via text or phone call.

Awesome. Now let me tell you something. Do I want to do that? No, I do not want to do that. It is uncomfortable. It takes me outside my comfort zone. I have to admit and be open and, and be vulnerable. All of the most non alpha ass kicking things I've built my life to become. Like, saying a prayer for people might be, I would rather run up a mountain with a 100 pound boulder on my head in the freezing cold with no shoes on, than say a group prayer in a public setting.

But I'm leaning in on becoming that person that can do that. And I'm finding massive growth. And for many of us alphas and men in this [00:25:00] world, it's inherent to us to seek challenge. The easy challenge is the challenge that I can see, touch, taste, feel, and satisfy is ego. Me going out into the jungle with a wooden stick and killing a lion.

I'll take that challenge. Me covering my body with honey and standing on an anthill. Me doing the Agoge. Me. doing the Masogi Meteor, any of these things from different cultures, right? Going back in time, we've all done that, like trials, crucibles to overcome them, but they all have like a physical and mental, but we do that, what happens after you've done it?

Where are you going to get bigger than this? Like once you've swam across the ocean, where are you going to swim after that? Like there's, there's a, there's a finite end to this. So what I'm finding for me is, similar to pursuing functional fitness back in the day and now feeling very comfortable in that space is functional faith of saying like, I'm literally, if I'm going to be about this, [00:26:00] then be about it, go all in.

Wear it on your sleeve. Talk about it because it's uncomfortable. Live it out because it's uncomfortable. Write plans and follow it and tell people what you're doing. For me, it's all uncomfortable, but it's a constant growth pattern. And that growth into my own faith has provided an absolute safe harbor for me to have old feelings like anxiety, stress, you know, well, what's going to happen?

What's going to happen? What's going to happen to say like, Hey man, I only control those two things, attitude and effort. So I'm going to work my ass off with a good attitude and keep it positive. I'm going to try and be a good person, and at the end of the day, like, what happens? Like, I believe that God has a plan.

I believe there's God's will. That's my belief. And it's not my will be done, but His. So if it's gonna, if this is going to go right, it's going to go right. If it's going to go left, it's going to go left. All I'm going to do is show up with attitude and effort. And it's made my life so much easier. It's hard to have the con I wish I could have the conversation with the Derek before he saw it this way and have it compare contrast, but [00:27:00] it's what it is.

Derek, I think you're describing really well what faith is and a misunderstanding. Some people get caught up in the faith science thing. Well, did this person do this and just get down our big rabbit hole? But what faith, what scripture does very well is it teaches you to how, how to live a life of meaning and purpose.

And I think a lot of people get stuck in the trial and error of solving life. Like, I'm going to try this and maybe it works, I'm going to talk to a person this way, maybe it works. But when you frame things through this act of this intentionality of faith, of being that bigger person, of loving your neighbor like your brother, it's providing you the how.

It's the guide, it's the roadmap of how to live a good life. And I think it's really important that what your story is right [00:28:00] now is you're on that path of living that good life and you're seeing the results, the practicality of faith in action. And I think that's a, that's a really beautiful thing. I appreciate that, Josh.

One of the things I look at today, you know, very specifically to making a functional faith and doing the second part of loving your neighbor like your brother. And then I have on my workout today is to practice empathy and understanding. So this is my actual today is I have to take a moment and put myself in somebody else's shoes before I react or make a judgment.

I have to ask myself the question like, how would I feel if I were in their situation? So this, this helps me foster that compassion, deepens, deepens my ability to connect with other peoples on that human level, and it forces me to practice active listening, which again, Franklin, I believe you could take that and put that into that is a works component of developing your faith.

[00:29:00] listening before you speak, having empathy for somebody else's position. Listen, we're in a political season right now where it's the Crips versus the Bloods, right? It's the, it's the Cowboys versus the, the Redskins, like we're, we've become vehemently opposed and the world tries to separate us like this.

And if I just go out in this world and say, like, let me tell you why I'm right and you're wrong and you're, they're doing the same thing, we never, we, there's no come together, nothing ever works, right? But what if I did this? What if, like, Franklin, what if I really cared about you, which I do, and you have a different opinion on something that I do, you're, let's just say you're on this side of the political fence and I'm on this side, and you, you absolutely wholeheartedly believe your party line and I believe mine.

We could come together and do this like everybody else does, or I could do this. I could practice what I'm talking today and say, you know what? Today I'm going to have empathy and I'm going to call Franklin. I'm going to say, Hey Franklin, I love you like a brother. And I want to really help me understand.

how you see the [00:30:00] world because you're so passionate about it. I respect that. I respect your convictions. I don't think I understand it because I don't see it that way. So, so step me inside your life and let me see what you see through your eyes and explain that to me because I'm open to whatever's the best, not whatever I have currently.

And having, like, can you imagine, just imagine every person listening to this podcast, If one time a week, one time a week, you reached out to somebody with the intentionality that they saw things, did things, or something was different, and you had that conversation, tell me who you'd become in a year from now.

That's like the guy working out every week, like, what happens to the guy that works out every day for a bit? Find him in a year. He's going to be a totally different human being. But we don't take those things, is the whole point of this, Franklin, is we don't, we don't live with a functional faith. Most of us don't.

We live with it in our rear view. Right? Right. And if you ask me about it, I'll be like, it's right here. Look at my wall. I'm a Christian. [00:31:00] I go to church on Sundays. You find me on a Sunday and be like, cool. What are you doing Monday? Oh, you don't be a good person. If the opportunity presents itself. Okay.

There's no workout plan that says, if the opportunity presents itself, go get your sweat on. There's no growth in a business model that says, Hey, just show up for work and sit in your chair. And if an opportunity presents itself, we're going to build our business. So why do we think that that happens with faith?

Okay. Like why, why do you take the assumption that you're going to actually do the works that you talked about that satisfies all the conversations and not have a plan and not have an intentionality? And I think, I think I'll have to go back to Josh on intentionality because that's, that's what he's, he's helped us create it over here at Club Faction.

Josh, intentionality of like, of that every day that, I mean I'm not talking about hours a day guys. I'm talking about like sometimes my faith intentionality is like a minute, two minutes, five minutes a day. Yeah, I think the [00:32:00] big part is sometimes we see, you know, the big elephant we have to eat or it's this big Herculean effort to approach this idea of faith, but really just finding where you're at.

And depending where you're at, that little intentionality is going to look very different. So to someone who. is listening to this and it is all new. This listening to this has been a massive intentional step for you. And then it's just stacking little tiny 1 percent steps. on top of that. And that's approaching the scripture with a new lens.

It's approaching these acts and intentions, planning something out once a week and starting from there. Stange does not happen with large efforts if you want to sustain it and have it consistent over time. So I would say having a smaller amount of consistent intention versus doing one big action is the way to start on that.

[00:33:00] I love the analogy of driving, right? So it's in the rear view, but then how do you, how do you, um, explain using it as your, as your windshield versus just your rear, rear view mirror? And I think that faith can really be something that, um, becomes this, this filter or a framework that we look through, not as just a rule book of what to do and what not to do.

I think that's, that's kind of like thinking about, you know, put it in football terms, but, um, No one wins the Super Bowl by, by following the rule book, they follow the playbook, right? So, if it can be this playbook where it's in front of you and it just helps you filter through life and make better decisions and take better actions and then you're a better husband, you're a better father.

Like, to me, that's really what we're talking about too in terms of the, you know, the functional, how does this actually look in your life, lived out. on a day to day basis, not just, well, here's the rules I gotta follow, which is not a real [00:34:00] enticing way to, to even promote your faith, right? Like, who wants to sign up for a rule book, right?

But if it's like, look, this isn't meant to be just a bunch of rules for you. This is a, a framework to think about how you can live life better. Yes. And we, we also take very solid principles. I've never seen any one. Let's take fitness. I've never seen anyone who said, you know, I never went to a gym, but I prayed really hard and you know, God just blessed me and I'm, I'm ripped now and I'm really grateful that he did that.

Like, we know that that's just a silly thing to do, but yet we apply that to so many areas of our life. And then it's like, I'm sorry, the principle works no matter where you place the principle. So take that and run with it. Yeah. So if you're like a little OCD, like me, you heard earlier in the podcast, I said that, Hey, there's three places that you can dive in on, like be a good person, love your neighbor and leave the world a better place.

I think we've hit on two of them. So like the back of my mind, you're like, you better hit that [00:35:00] third one or something is going to be ticked. So to your point, but before I go there, you brought up rules. And I think that the misstep, at least the way I see it, is that people supplant and surplace the word rules with works, works with rules.

And I don't see it that way. The way I see it is like, I was, I was given a gift I didn't deserve by God made man, Jesus, who, who atoned and sacrificed and became the lamb of the world and took upon all my sins and basically said, Derek, there's nothing you can do to buy a ticket to, to enter into here.

You're, you're human, you're mortal, you're, you're flawed from the beginning. Like you could, you could sacrifice goats every day. You're never going to live up to it, so check it out, I'm buying your ticket. Now, for anybody that's like super sophisticated theologian, again, football, Brazilian judicial instructor, like, beat up, concussions, this is just how I see it, so just absorb it for what it is.

But what that does for me [00:36:00] is what great leaders do. I want, I was given a gift, and now I want to do the works. As a thank you, as a tribute, as a like, let me dive in on that. I don't feel obligated. And I think my prior religious upbringing, upbringing was a little bit more guilt and shame. I grew up on the Catholic side too.

It was a little bit more of like, you have to do this, you have to do this. Now I view it as like, Oh man, I want to do this. Like, let's take that third principle, leave the world a better place. You see, faith, in my opinion, calls us to a stewardship or whether it's caring for the environment or lifting up the less fortunate or simply just making the world tighter to actions.

You see, we're tasked with leaving the world better than we found it. And that is for all people that would, would ever listen to this podcast, The World Needs Men. It's because you have taken a stand, you want to rise up, you want to be the difference, and I'm telling you, this is where it starts. You see, [00:37:00] this principle of leaving the world a better place, you are tasked with it because where much is given, much is expected.

If you're blessed enough to be on this, as we've been called to be on one of these shows or listen to it, you're that person. And it's this principle that motivates us to think beyond ourselves and consider the legacy we're going to leave behind. The world needs man, because I need to make the generation of the world ready for the next group.

Right? My kids. Maybe I don't have kids. Maybe it's just the, the youth football team that I support. Maybe I don't have a youth football team. Maybe it's the kid that watches me at the grocery store do the right thing and say to himself, I don't know that man, but I can follow that action and someday I'm going to do the same thing.

So if I had an actionable on leaving the world a better place. That's the responsibility that the world, you know, leave it better than we found it is it. And then that's at the heart of many faith traditions. It encourages us, obviously, to be mindful of our actions and lasting impact. But here's, here's a couple of points like caring for the environment.

So I'll tell you a very quick story about my brother Cody, who I hope listens to this [00:38:00] podcast. So Cody is along this journey recently, same with me, you know, we're about the same place I maybe started an hour before him and I just called him up I said here we got to go do this faith thing together And so he's really taken seriously to leave the world a better place.

And so he went out he was in pristine North Tahoe He's up at the lake walking around and he's out in nature and he says a prayer and he's like, um, you know this and the other thing Just feeling really good and just really enjoying the world and the landscapes and the beauty, keep Tahoe blue, the beauty of it.

And he comes across a used, wet, soggy baby diaper and a bag of like, chick fil a trash that somebody before him went out there and was in the beautiful world and said, I'm gonna leave this trash here and I'm not gonna judge him. He left it, who knows, maybe a bear chased him away and they had to drop it and couldn't figure it out.

So, Cody's faced with that dilemma because he's decided to take on functional faith [00:39:00] and within that has decided to take on leaving the world a better place, and within that has decided to live to the action of caring for the environment, and as he finds himself at the crossroads of change in the caring for the environment, he's, he prays for the power, conviction, and strength to say, I will take action.

And he prays for that, and then he comes across a dirty diaper 2 3 miles in on a trail, and he's like, you gotta be kidding me. I can either pretend I don't see it, walk away and say this is somebody else's problem, not my diaper that's gross, but then would he be living to what he's asking to be living towards?

What he did do, was he gritted his teeth, picked up the diaper, put the trash in a bag, continued his hike, carried it for X amount of more miles until he found a trash can and put it in there. Now, that is a tiny, tiny action, but do you know what it did for that man named Cody Price? Is it built [00:40:00] in the conviction and the faith of the reality of like, I wanted to do something, I prayed for it, I said open my world up to this, I want to be that steward, I come across a situation and I acted on it, and I accomplished it.

Do you know what that did for his faith? It compelled him to want to do more, right? Do you know what running a 5k does? It makes you want to sign up for a 10k. Do you know what happens when you complete a 10k? You're like, what does a half marathon look like? Is there any secret to everybody that thinks this is a half marathon?

Their immediate thought? Let's go do a marathon. And anybody after that is just ridiculous. So if you go beyond marathon, like, I can't be friends with you. Josh goes beyond Marathon, but for Cody, taking the time to pick up that piece of trash and having that win and that feeling of like, I answer the calling to what I'm looking to do now, he's like, maybe I can start a clean Tahoe platform and [00:41:00] bring some school children out here and we'll take them on a field trip and we'll pick up trash.

You see what I mean? It's like, it's one pebble and, and, and Josh is going to talk about here in a second, what we call Herculean effort. But growing your faith and growing your fitness, growing your business, and growing your family and growing your emotional health is not about Herculean efforts. It's about tiny micro actions.

And these micro actions just stack and they make you who you are. There's no one workout that you and I could do today right now, Franklin, where it's like, Hey, man, let's go to the gym. We're going to do this workout and we're going to get really strong. We don't have to work out anymore for the next year.

It doesn't exist every day. Josh, what do you think? Agree. And I think. Part of this is, is, you know, the, just generally the instant gratification cycle of wanting things right away and having a bias towards that present moment. But [00:42:00] I think if you also go to like, where do I want to be, you know, imagining that future self, like let's use the way As an analogy, if I'm a hundred pounds overweight, imagining what I would feel like with a hundred pounds less, imagining how I'd look like, how I would see myself in the mirror, and at a crystal clear level, defining who that person is, what they like, how they talk to people, and how they do all of this.

You do the same thing with your face, like, who could you be? If you went through the world with intention, who could you be if you made the environment, the earth, a better place, if you were that instrument of impact for others? And then suddenly, if you have that well defined, Those one step, those 1 percent actions a day that we advocate a lot for in Club Faction is to just do something a little outside your comfort zone, just a tiny bit, just a little bit every day, like Derek today, having empathy, listening with intention to someone, that compounds [00:43:00] over time, and the way you stick with it, the consistency, is you have that well defined future self, that, that version of you with a hundred pounds less, that version of you without the stress and anxiety that version of you who doesn't look forward into the world and see a dark future that that clear windshield that you look through when you drive down the road.

So I think defining that end state of who you, who you want to be, and then you have that gap we talked about of, of that darkness and throwing faith over it and just taking one step along the way, it's like. An ultramarathon, when I do those, one step, next aid station, breaking it up. You can never finish it by just solely looking at the enormity of your task.

But I know that end state, I know what I want, and I can slow, I can walk there if I need to. You know, there's three things I want to point out for [00:44:00] the listener. Number one, no matter how small, insignificant, The thing is, if it helps you personally deepen and strengthen your faith in God, then it counts and it's worth it and you need to do it.

And you don't need to worry about other people's judgment or their approval. If like, like you take the analogy of picking up a diaper and some trash, like if you're doing that from the perspective of, you know, I feel like God is calling me to make the world a better place. And that's in the smallest little ways.

If that act of picking up that trash and throwing it away helped you deepen your faith, then it's worth it. And it, it, it counts. It just counts. And then the second thing is, I think it's interesting how sometimes, you know, not that God places those things there, but we pray for, for an opportunity or for God's wisdom and direction.

And it's funny how [00:45:00] things just show up in our path. And I think it's almost kind of like, well, Okay, here's, here's an opportunity and let's see what you do, because if you pray for that and then you walk by and there's that piece of you internally that, that's telling you to pick it up and you just walk on by, well then the, that's no different than walking by the gym, walking past your wife and not connecting with her, walking past that person in the business that needs to be talked to, like, It's not building, it's actually weakening that area of your life.

And then the third thing is when you do those things, you now have an opportunity to share with someone and actually witness in a, in an interesting way and say, you know, here's a story of what I did. I was out on the trail, I saw this thing, you know, and I've really been convicted and really been talking to God a lot about how I can just make a little, you know, make a difference in small ways.

And I know this sounds silly and crazy, but you know, I feel like in that moment, I was able to do that and be faithful [00:46:00] and I'm hoping he's going to give me something a little bit bigger next time. And so then through that story, and we're all, we all want to hear stories, like you can actually share that with another person just like you did with us.

And that benefit keeps on going down, down the line. Yeah, I think that you nailed it, brother. I think that, I love how you talked about, there's nothing insignificant so long as it matters to you. And you don't have to cross compare, like, look what I'm doing versus somebody else's doing. When we start doing that, we go back into that ego and we get into that jealousy.

And, and the way that, the way that I see it is, faith is not just a, like a belief system, but it's actually a way of life. It's a, if it's a belief, then it might live in the back, right? Right. But if it's a way of life, then I'm looking at it as I move forward. We see, because it's a way of life, it gives me my moral compass, literally to navigate the complexities of rights and wrongs.

And it lights our path. It lights my path when I [00:47:00] face uncertainty. And which way do I go? Like, well, let me put my moral compass on in front of me. But if it's already there, I don't ever have to ask that. And it comforts me in the knowledge that, you know, I'm not alone on this journey, which, which means I have, I have a teammate at all times.

Like for, for those, listen, I've been a CEO of mental health hospitals. I've seen what depression, anxiety, PTSD, I understand it. So when I'm speaking to this topic, I'm speaking from a very high level of understanding. There is a prevalent feeling of depression and anxiety. And because we're so connected on this right here today, we believe that we have so many friends, but we've lost human connection at the same time too.

So. that we feel more alone. We statistically feel more alone now than we ever have in recorded history. You can look it up. So if that's the society and that's the way that we're going, obviously be a force of change and try and get out of that. But also know when you bring faith in and you walk with your faith every day that you, you stop walking alone.

And I know it sounds like [00:48:00] cliche or whatever, but you'll feel it when you feel it. And if you haven't felt it yet, I ask you to dive in a little bit deeper, but when you feel it, you'll know what I'm talking about. You see, it all starts with that power of surrender and prayer. And that love transforms not only us, but also the world around us.

So by living in functional faith, and we're honoring the core principles that all faiths share, which is to be a good person, love one another, leave the world a better place. I think it sets us up to be a better human being. And if we all do the little bit to become the better human being, I think that moves the needle for society and cultures.

And while I think it is a little grandiose to say we're going to change the whole world. I'd rather try and change the world and end up changing the community than starting much smaller and not making it from there. So, that's kind of my nutshell, Frank, and I think that we're all tracking the same animal here and I love the conversation and I'd love to continue this conversation.

I think we can talk about functional, [00:49:00] safe over and over and over again and you know, you can find clubfaction. com. And kind of join Josh and I and Franklin. Franklin's one of our, our big chieftains over there. So yeah, I appreciate, I appreciate both of y'all being on today and you know, the, the hope and, and all is just for someone listening to this, especially men, just give me a little bit deeper perspective or different perspective.

and maybe look at their faith in a little bit different light and, and help them just consider some new things to help them maybe lean in and step in. Like, this isn't as much for someone who's like super solid in their faith and living it out every day. I'm, I'm really thinking more of the guy that's just not sure.

He's, where do I even start? How do I get into this and, and make this a part of my life? And so I really appreciate y'all's time, the conversation, and then we'll go into the next one on the, uh, on the next podcast. But that, that concludes how to develop. Thanks for having us, Franklin. I really appreciate it.

Yup. Thank you, Franklin. Thank you, gentlemen.[00:50:00]

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