The Field Guide to Freedom: Breaking Free from Destructive Habits

Imagine rebuilding your life from the ground up after hitting rock bottom. Our guest, Josh Drago, takes us on a remarkable journey from his conservative Christian roots, military successes, and musical achievements to confronting life-altering personal challenges. Josh bravely shares how his unfulfilled need for validation led him down a destructive path with addictions and infidelity, and how a pivotal moment in 2021 was the catalyst for his transformative journey back to healing through faith.

Navigating the tumultuous waters of rebuilding a marriage shattered by infidelity, Josh discusses the critical role of accountability and the power of support groups tailored for those battling unwanted sexual behaviors. We shed light on brain science in addiction and explore practical strategies like eliminating triggers to maintain sobriety. Importantly, Josh's story extends beyond personal recovery—highlighting how helping others facing similar battles becomes an empowering and integral part of his journey, illustrated through the practical resource, the "Field Guide to Freedom."

Throughout this episode, we draw inspiration from biblical stories, emphasizing the importance of community and authentic connections in one's healing journey. We explore how desperation can drive transparency and accountability, and serve as a stepping stone towards genuine change. The episode culminates in a heartfelt prayer for hope and healing, inviting you to embrace discomfort and authenticity while engaging with our podcast as you embark on your own path to freedom and transformation.

Check out Josh's field guide here.

Chapters

• 0:08 "Men's Journey to Healing and Redemption"
• 9:06 The Path to Healing and Redemption
• 20:15 The Power of Desperation and Accountability
• 34:03 Journey to Freedom and Healing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome to Foxhole Symphony, a podcast about the transformational value of men in authentic community.

Speaker 2: 0:14

In our foxhole. Men are equipped to build relationships that foster belonging, accountability and growth.

Speaker 1: 0:20

Stop believing the lie that you can thrive in isolation and instead join us on the journey from broken to whole.

Speaker 3: 0:28

Hello everyone, nate, call me the Maestro, and we are back in the foxhole where we actively pursue belonging, accountability and growth through authentic relationships. No masks, no agendas, just iron, sharpening iron. Steve and Mark are in the foxhole and they have a special guest with them today. We're about to get a peek behind this man's curtain and something tells me it's going to be a familiar territory to many of us. Let's open our hearts and our minds and our favorite notes app, because here we go.

Speaker 4: 1:00

Hey, welcome back to Foxhole Symphony Podcast. I'm Sarge here with my good friend and dear brother, mark.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Hey, how are you brother? Good man, good morning, which probably isn't the right thing to say, because it could be evening when you're listening, right?

Speaker 4: 1:14

It could be, but listen, I don't know about you. In my world, the birds are singing, they are happy and hungry, and the sun is shining, and it's not a steam room.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Hey, I'm really happy about that. Yeah, I know that not steam room thing was like 61 this morning here in Jersey.

Speaker 4: 1:32

Woo, unbelievable. That's chilly.

Speaker 1: 1:37

What a good day we have coming up for everybody. You want to introduce our guest.

Speaker 4: 1:42

Absolutely so. We've got a guest in the foxhole this morning, excited about this. His name is Josh Drago and Josh, you know, has had a call on his life, and his life's taken, taking some turns and he's doing some things to not only seek the Lord more deeply, but that he might use his story to impact the hearts and lives of men. So that's what we're going to unpack this morning, excited about that. And so, josh, welcome to the Foxhole.

Speaker 4: 2:09

Thank you, gents, it's a super pleasure to be here, Glad to have you and, yeah, we would love to jump right in and just introduce our listeners to Josh and just to learn a little bit more about you, your story, talk to us a little bit about your faith journey and then we can kind of get into what the Lord has brought you to more recently.

Speaker 1: 2:34

And the book the Field Guide to Freedom. Can't wait.

Speaker 5: 2:38

Yeah, yeah. So for me. I grew up in a conservative Christian home, like millions of other men around the country. My parents are still married to this day and, by all accounts, I had good parents. I've got many memories throughout my childhood of my dad teaching me how to ride dirt bikes and four wheelers, and I was in the marching band. My parents were always at my events and they were always there. What did you play?

Speaker 1: 3:04

What's that? What instrument did you play? What's that?

Speaker 5: 3:06

What instrument did you play? Oh, trumpet, okay, yep. And so then graduated high school, went into the Marines, spent four years in there and got out of the Marines, got married, moved from New England down to South Carolina. My wife and I have always gone to church Anytime the church was open. You know that, that story. We were there. So we got plugged in with the church here locally in South Carolina and then, around 2015, we started fostering.

Speaker 5: 3:36

And it was that season of my life when we were foster parents, when life got harder than I ever could have imagined, when my life imploded all around me.

Speaker 5: 3:46

The reason it imploded all around me was because I never addressed the earlier stuff in life, because I had good parents, I grew up in a two-parent home, I didn't have any obvious trauma, and so I didn't address the lacking in my life me pursuing validation, the lacking in my life, the me pursuing validation, even going back to high school. Now, looking back, you know I played the trumpet, but I was the best trumpet player in the band because I wanted that validation of hey, look at me, look how good I am. When I joined the military, I didn't join nothing against the Army or the Navy, but I joined the Marines because that is the hardest branch and I wanted that pride of look at me, look at how much of a man I am. And all of that came back to as a kid. I was never told that I am enough. I was never told that, no matter what I do or what I don't do, I am loved.

Speaker 5: 4:39

And so I brought that with me subconsciously, I didn't know I did, but I brought that with me. Then, when life got super hard, I was still searching for that answer of am I enough, am I loved? I searched for it in military service. I had searched for it in career accolades. I had searched for it in women. Wouldn't you know it? Women provided that answer more than anything else.

Speaker 5: 5:04

And uh and so, along the way, I became a member of the world's most non-exclusive club that nobody wants to be a part of. Men who fall to sexual sin. Uh and so, uh, through the process of fostering, um, I had become addicted to porn. Um, I could not stop myself, and when it got to a certain point, I was looking at porn quite often. The digital women were providing that need. As good as it was. How much more so would the physical women provide for that physical need, or not even a physical need, but the emotional need. And that bridge to cross is not very long at all to go from digital women to real life women.

Speaker 5: 5:47

And so I had multiple affairs on my wife. The whole thing came crashing down in early 2021 when I got found out, and I got found out to such a degree that I couldn't deny it. I could try and spin it, but instinctively I knew that I couldn't. And so in my worst moment, I had called my wife and I said honey, there's a lot of things that we need to talk about, but if you'll have me, I'll do whatever it takes.

Speaker 5: 6:20

And it was that moment when she said the five words that will forever change my life. She said I will always have you and you want to. You want to see a man ugly cry. You see him in his worst moment and his wife say I will always have you. And so I didn't recognize it at the time, but as as my wife and I began to heal because that was the catalyst for us to finally heal from all of our things that we had ignored for so long Um, and and I can share a little bit of kind of what I've learned about the healing process how to do that Um, but that phrase, I will always have you. It was like my soul was a sponge and I had waited my entire life to hear those exact words. I firmly believe that God used my wife in that moment to say those words at that exact, right timing because it wasn't her that was saying that, it was.

Speaker 5: 7:07

It was God himself that was saying to me God, I will always have you. Like you, you are finally experiencing now the unconditional love that I've always wanted to give you, because you recognize that you haven't earned it. You could never. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 7:23

Yeah.

Speaker 5: 7:24

Yeah, I was.

Speaker 4: 7:24

I'm so glad. I'm so glad you said that, because it's exactly what I was thinking when you said those words. You know what? What an incredible.

Speaker 1: 7:30

And we've heard you know, mark, and I've heard stories like that before you know, with no-transcript that several guests who have, be it porn or or other addictions you know could could be alcohol, could be drugs, could be any number of things could be work Right and splits the family.

Speaker 4: 8:39

so yeah, god bless you, josh. That, yeah, exactly, I mean it is a miracle. It is a miracle. It's a miracle to have that loving grace, um, you know, in in the midst of the consequences of that sin albeit, you know, perhaps divorce or what have you right falling apart but still have the love and and grace and have some semblance of a relationship salvage. But it sounds like, josh, you and your wife are still together.

Speaker 5: 9:05

Yeah, so it took us. Statistically, on average, it takes about two and a half years for a marriage to recover from infidelity. But that assumes during that two and a half year period that you're hard at work, you're being diligent in the steps you need to take. So if you have that moment of coming clean but then you don't start those steps, the recovery process is exponentially longer. So for us, yeah, it took about two, two and a half years for us to get back to kind of normalcy and of course we had glimpses of normalcy and intimacy and bonding together fun moments throughout. But really to get back to a deep level of intimacy where we are beginning, she's beginning to trust me and I am beginning to be permanently okay with the level of submission that I need to have in my life.

Speaker 1: 9:56

So you got found out in 21, two to three years. Right, You're here, it's 2024. And there's a journey connected dots from that, this moment and when God put the field guide to freedom on your heart, and where that's going and turns, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Speaker 5: 10:18

So initially, when everything happened for us and I said to my wife, joy, I will do whatever it takes, and I was committed to that. And so I joined a 12-step program that was more geared for chemical addictions, which is not always as helpful for process or behavioral addictions. So over the course of a few months I realized that that wasn't right for me. So I switched to another recovery group that my church hosted at the time that was specific for sexual addictions and the term unwanted sexual behavior. So not just addictions, but, uh, many who have had affairs or they've gone to um the massage parlors, you know things like that. We've heard it all. And so I went through that curriculum and it was in that curriculum where I learned a lot about the brain science, of why do we do what we do. Why is it so hard for men to break free from this? And not just men, but 40% of American women also qualify as being addicted to unwanted sexual behavior. We think it's a male problem, but it's very quickly becoming universal.

Speaker 1: 11:25

Yeah, dopamine is a ubiquitous drug, right.

Speaker 5: 11:28

Exactly, and it's self-produced in the brain, so you don't need a dealer, you are the dealer, which makes it so hard to beat it. And so it was in that curriculum, where it curriculum where, uh, it's called the conquer series. Um, I really started to uncover the why behind my behavior. But if I, if I didn't implement the accountability that I needed to keep it at bay, it would be kind of like, if you've been diagnosed with cancer but you keep eating and doing all the things that have caused the cancer in the first place, you can't expect your body to rectify itself. Um, if you continue to put the toxins in. And so you need the accountability you need to keep all the things away. Um, and so I started doing that. I I love the movie Braveheart, one of my favorites of all time, but it's got a nude scene in it, so I had to throw it away. Band of Brothers I love it. It's got a nude scene in it. I can't watch it.

Speaker 3: 12:26

I had to get rid of everything.

Speaker 5: 12:27

I had a clean house. I had to have a clean slate. I had to have the accountability on every device that I have access to to make sure that there's visibility. That way it forces the awkward conversations. If I were to have a relapse and there's been some awkward conversations if I were to have a relapse and there's been some awkward conversations, not always because of a relapse, but you know, maybe something came up on my YouTube feed and I lingered on it a little bit too long and it's not quite a red flag, but it's a yellow flag and so having those awkward conversations, you know. And so I did that, and then I started leading a recovery group and it was in that leading of the recovery group where I really started to see a pattern as my focus shifted from me to others, and that is a natural progression of the healing process. It needs to go to that Through and through.

Speaker 5: 13:17

There's been study after study that has shown, of the 12 steps in every recovery program, the one that has shown of the 12 steps in every recovery program, the one that has the biggest impact on long-term sobriety, is the 12th step helping others. And so helping others has to be a part of our healing process. And so once I stepped into that, I discovered the unfortunate reality that most men, when presented with reality, that most men when presented with, uh, I guess, the hard truth that they need to get rid of this in their life. And it doesn't have to be sexual sin, it could be anything right. But when you're, when you're presented with that hard truth of getting rid of it, whatever it is, uh, we resist it, we don't want to do what we have to do, or we don't know practically how to do it, and so we don't do it. And so, over and over again, week after week, I heard men come back and say you know what? I relapsed again. It was the box of old phones that I've got in the garage just in case my phone dies. I don't have accountability software on that, and that's I had a relapse. So I'd say, okay, well, throw away, throw away the phones. You'd come back the next week and say it was another phone. I only threw away one of them. There's seven more, and so the hardest deceitful, yeah. And so that's why I wrote the field guide to freedom.

Speaker 5: 14:37

It's it's uh, it kind of it's a short read. Um, it's intended to be a short read. It's intended to be a short read. It's also intended the design of it is. It looks like a military field manual, so it's totally ambiguous.

Speaker 5: 14:48

You can read it on an airplane and the person next to you will not know whether or not you're struggling with a sexual sin or you're just trying to form healthy habits habits, um, so it's not like uh, you open this like every man's battle, right? You open that up and everybody around you knows you're trying to find freedom from unwanted sexual behavior. You read this book, nobody would know, um. So I designed it that way to kind of lift that veil of shame, um, so that guys can read it and not feel that shame, um, cause who, who doesn't want to have good habits? Right, um, right and uh.

Speaker 5: 15:22

But really the design of it is is it's laid out so that we kind of we cover the brain science of it and how did we get here? And then lays out why we need to change. Because God, god's word, is clear. If you read the book of books of Joshua and judges, it lays out basically Joshua's fight for freedom into the promised land and then how it all went wrong in the book of Judges, and that's the story of all of us. We have to fight for our freedom and we have to continue the fight and it has to be thorough and it has to be complete, wow.

Speaker 1: 15:54

All right, I'm going to grab a couple of things. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you just I can't help myself. So in the middle of your journey, the brain this is, you said. This is where I got into the brain science and the why, the behavioral part. And let's just together, for fun, dive into our brother Paul's story in Romans 7.15, right, which I will paraphrase for brevity, and say why am I doing this Right? That question we have all asked ourselves. So can you distill your message to men in community about that? Why do we find ourselves doing things we know that we should not be doing?

Speaker 5: 16:36

Yeah, oh man, that is such a complex question, yeah.

Speaker 4: 16:41

Oh man, that is such a complex question, I know.

Speaker 5: 16:49

So we only got like 30 seconds. Yeah, no, it's so good though, because Paul understood this. We all have this conflicting nature within us. We want to do what is right, but we can't do it. We keep gravitating towards what is wrong, towards what is unhealthy, and that's because what is unhealthy is so appealing, it's so pleasurable, it's so, it feels so good.

Speaker 5: 17:08

But the reality is that good habits never feel good in the moment, but they feel good in the long term. Bad habits always, always, feel good in the near term, but they have deadly consequences in the long term. Amen, and so we don't have a long-term view when it comes to bad habits. So that's number one. We need to think long term, we need to think eternally. Where will this habit lead me? But within the brain itself. It's so fascinating We've been able to actually map the brain synaptic pathways.

Speaker 5: 17:40

Fascinating We've we've been able to actually map the brain synaptic pathways and, uh, you can trace a thought and a feeling as it, as it travels throughout the brain, going across synaptic pathways and all the different neurotransmitters that are produced within the brain and reuptake inhibitors, and you know all these different things. Um, but essentially, if it's kind of like, uh, uh, an old farm road. The more we do, the more we perform a habit, the more that old farm road gets entrenched, until a certain point when, if you've ever driven on it on an old farm road, you don't even have to steer anymore. All you have to do is tap the gas and the tractor will go exactly where you need it to go, because that is so ingrained in the dirt. And that's the way our brain works too. That's we.

Speaker 5: 18:21

We call it muscle memory. You know Tiger Woods? He's. He's out there hitting the club thousand times a day. Tom Brady, whoever your athlete of choice is, they practice as many times as they do. Uh the, the 10,000 hour rule. Uh the, uh K? Uh. Kevin Anders I think his name was who came up with the 10,000 hour rule. That's the premise of the 10,000 hour rule that the more we do something, the better we get at it.

Speaker 1: 18:44

And master it, yep.

Speaker 5: 18:45

And that's what Paul is talking about. I believe that he has done something so many times that now he's doing it automatically.

Speaker 3: 18:53

Why do I do this?

Speaker 5: 18:55

It's because you can't stop it.

Speaker 1: 19:02

Your brain is wired to do this Right. Well, I I I think Paul hinted at this and I've heard you say this before, and where I go with with Paul's message and yours, both in the book and just listening to you and other podcasts is part of the reasons I do this over and over is because I don't have a community around me, I don't have an accountability partner, I don't have other men there with me so that I can turn to them. I see, often enough I do it because, oh, no one's watching, no one will know, right, but if you commit what one part of authentic community that Sarge and I have recognized and hope flourishes is look, sometimes you just have, you desperately need someone next to you, right, To just look. It could be a hug, it could be a pat on the head, it could be an attaboy, it as well could be a kick in the ass. You know that's like whoa, stop right there.

Speaker 1: 19:58

You called it yellow flag, red flag, what having those guys around us, what Sarge and I do for each other in our lives? Whether there's 1500 miles between us or a cup of coffee over a table, the distance doesn't matter. What matters is our hearts are connected and God's in the middle of it. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Speaker 4: 20:18

Let me jump onto that real quick, because I think you know you said a word that is so key to this, and it's desperation. Right, and Josh said earlier like he was brought to his knees when he was found out and he was 100% committed to do whatever it is he needed to do. It was out of sheer desperation. Right, I will do whatever it takes, because what's at risk? My marriage, my family right, Like this is it?

Speaker 4: 20:49

I'm found out that desperation is a beautiful catalyst to commitment, right? Because, short of that, I mean, just like the phones. Just like the phones, right? Like, oh yeah, I got rid of all the phones except this one. It's the same thing with accountability. Oh, yeah, I want accountability. Do you really want accountability? Do you really want connection? Do you really want authenticity and transparency? Are you truly ready to bring down the veil and be completely seen? Well, if you're not in a place of sheer desperation, the truth is you're probably not. You're probably going to hold back just enough to go back to the vomit, like a dog does, If you really want to, if you really need to, just to reserve or conserve. So, Josh, go ahead. I'm sorry to cut you off, but it's just that I wanted to jump on that word desperation.

Speaker 5: 21:48

No, that's so good man. Yeah, Desperation creates submission, that's the only way that I can put it. And to your point, Mark, about the accountability and community yeah, I mean, look at the story of Nehemiah the city had been ransacked.

Speaker 1: 22:03

I love it.

Speaker 5: 22:03

The walls were destroyed and Nehemiah did not rebuild the city by himself. No, if you read I think it's chapter three in Nehemiah he details this family protected this section of the wall. This family rebuilt this section of the wall.

Speaker 1: 22:21

That's all that chapter is is hey this is the community of people that rebuilt the city. I'm sorry, I just love that story so much because Nehemiah had a vision right and it was mainly to rebuild the city, but he knew that if there were four men in the family, two had to build and two had to have swords and protect the two builders. I just think it's such a great like common sense story about real life. Thank you for bringing that up. I love that.

Speaker 5: 22:46

Yeah, absolutely. And even like Jesus, when he sent the disciples out, he didn't send them out one by one, he sent them out two by two. All throughout scripture we see authentic community, brother watching brother, and the reason that I got into the mess that I was in is because of a lack of community, a lack of authenticity.

Speaker 1: 23:07

Yeah, well, how important is that in your life now? Why don't we just jump there, tell us about what your life is like now? And do you have accountability in your life beside your wife?

Speaker 5: 23:18

I do, yeah. So, um, in in the calling that God has placed on my life. So, uh, just for brevity sake and there's a whole story behind how God has spoken this into me, and and why not but, um, uh, god has called me to speak life into the hearts of men and to use my story to help them change course. And so, in that calling um, I don't do that on my own, I submit that to other wise, holy men in my life, and so everything I do podcast interviews, speaking engagements, things like that, books that I have planned is submitted to men around me, to my wife and to God. We have to have submission to all three of those, and if you're not married, that's fine, but you still need to be submitted to other three of those. And if you're not married, that's fine, but you still need to be submitted to other men and to God.

Speaker 5: 24:03

For me, what that looks like is, at least once a week I have an accountability conversation with my accountability partner, and we're not just accountability partners. He just came over last night to my house and he's writing his own book, so we kind of worked through the structure of it and I'm helping him to write that book. So it's not just accountability. We're brothers, we're friends, but once a week we do have a devoted conversation to say hey, how are you doing with the temptation? How are you doing with the yellow flags, are you? Do you feel yourself getting distracted, reverting back to old habits? Is there anything that you've hidden from your wife this week? Let's make sure we rectify that. We do have those devoted conversations and we need to.

Speaker 1: 24:43

That's hardcore.

Speaker 5: 24:46

But it needs to be hardcore. When I told my wife whatever it takes, I meant whatever it takes.

Speaker 1: 24:52

I love that, love that Interesting you mentioned in passing early on out of high school into the Marines, in passing early on out of high school into the Marines. And I have family and my son's best friend is in the Marines, now nephew in the Navy, so on and so forth. So a little experience and we've had guests that have been in the military. So you're in the Marines where they teach you a whole lot about self-control and discipline, and you come out and it's just like right, and I'm I'm not pointing out your flaws. What I'm saying is that even someone who traveled the path that you were on, where discipline and self-control are literally drilled into you, you can still wander out. You know it happens to everybody. It doesn't matter who you are or what your profession is or if you know we.

Speaker 1: 25:43

We hear about people falling all the time in the news. Even though I don't listen to the news, you can't miss it, right? Whether it's a sports star or an actor or somebody, or in politics and in crashing and burning. Crashing and burning I think you use the words dumpster fire in another podcast I heard you talking about which is a good. That's a good visual. I get that one, but I guess I'm this is more commentary that I'm here to say it doesn't matter, the enemy will take a shot at you, no matter where you are or what you're doing, and you need to be prepared. Wouldn't it be great, josh, if somebody listening to this podcast actually said you know, before I have my dumpster fire, I'm going to take action, I'm going to go to my wife and tell her how important this is to me, that I am faithful to you, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 5: 26:32

Yeah. So I was just having a conversation recently with a man who that's where he's at he doesn't want to put in the risky effort, and it is risky, especially if your wife, like me. I had told my wife for years, oh no, this isn't something I struggle with, and it was, off and on something that I struggled with. And so how could I then backtrack and say you know what? No, this is something that I struggle with, and so I think we need to just accept that this is something every man struggles with, and so I think we need to just accept that this is something every man struggles with, specifically sexual addiction. But we've all got something, even if it's not unwanted sexual behavior Right.

Speaker 5: 27:08

But the way I described it to this man is I live right near a forest and the forest management service for that particular forest, every few years they do a controlled burn to get rid of the underbrush and make sure that the forest is healthy. If they don't do that, they risk wildfires. And that's exactly what getting healthy in this area of our life preemptively, proactively, looks like. It's a controlled burn.

Speaker 1: 27:33

That's a good analogy.

Speaker 5: 27:34

Yeah, you need to get rid of this stuff in your life. If you don't, you're risking a wildfire.

Speaker 1: 27:39

I like that.

Speaker 4: 27:39

Yeah, and I and I would just uh, maybe, as a little bit of an exclamation point, um, you know, I think there's, there's this trap right Of, uh, maybe, what success looks like, Right, and if and if success looks like the absence of a certain behavior, right, we're, we're, we're probably at risk of continuing to fail, and and so, you know, um, you know, and, and you know, michael, right, uh, mark, you know, michael, michael talks about this, right, uh, michael Cusick, and um, you know, uh, it's, it's, it's more about seeking God's face above everything and everyone else. Right, it is success. Success is measured by personal intimacy with God, not production. It can't be production, just like in our work lives, right, just like in every area of our life. It's no different. It's no different, it's what Chris Bruno says presence over production. Right, just like in every area of our life. It's no different, it's, it's no different, it's what Chris Bruno says presence over production. Right, success should be measured by intimacy with God and it should be the only goal of our lives.

Speaker 4: 28:47

And so, surrendering, you know, we, we talked, you talked about surrender and the requirement for surrender. You know, it reminded me that surrender is to the accomplishment of God's purposes. Right, it's to the accomplishment of God's purposes. Right, it's to the accomplishment of God's purposes in our lives and that comes through intimacy with Him. And there's a cost. There's a cost, but we live for. You know the returns beyond what we can see, and you know as devoted followers of Jesus, and so, yeah, I don't know, just some thoughts from my end around. You know surrender and success, right.

Speaker 1: 29:24

I love it. Josh, tell us a little bit about I'm thinking about the catalysts in your life. You've been very kind and honest and thank you for your vulnerability and candor about your life and the journey. So now, now you feel that our Father, our Lord and Savior, our God, has called you to speak into men's lives. Right, I think those are the words you use. What does that look like? Just tell us your vision for the future and help us understand how men can engage with you. I mean, obviously, buying the book would be a good idea it sounds like but just help us see your trajectory now.

Speaker 5: 30:07

Yeah, uh, so I have my own plans.

Speaker 5: 30:10

whether or not they are God's plans are yet to be seen, but uh, nice of you to admit that but my plans, uh, you know what I, how I see God using my story so far in whatever gifting I may or may not have is. You know I've spoken at my church a number of times within the ministry and I go to a really large church here in South Carolina. So I've spoken to, you know, two to three hundred guys on topics from shame, how we all wear a mask. What do you do with what God says to you? That kind of those kinds of topics.

Speaker 5: 30:45

I've spoken at a couple of men's conferences, written this book. You can engage with me on social media, so Instagram and Facebook. And, by the way, if you're in the realm of unwanted sexual behavior, there is a way for you to have social media in a safe way. So I have discovered that I have kind of restored that in my life. So you can engage with me on Instagram and Facebook and then at the my website, the field guide to freedomcom, just kind of keep up with everything that I've got going on. I will have, I think by the time this episode comes out, I'll have the small group study guide that is coming out to uh, to go with the book. Uh, because really to to your point, mark uh, freedom does not exist. It will never exist in a silo. You know, you, to use your your analogy of the foxhole. I was in the Marines for four years. I never was in a foxhole by myself. You always have a brother beside you.

Speaker 1: 31:41

Right.

Speaker 5: 31:42

And so if you, if you want freedom from whatever behavior, habit, addiction, whatever you want to label it, if you want freedom from that, you've got to do that in community, and so I've got the small group study guide coming out That'll walk you through the field, guide to freedom and really help you overcome the shame of whatever it is, cause that's what's keeping you held hostage.

Speaker 4: 32:03

Yeah, yeah, Amen. And we'll have all those resources in the show notes. So take a look, check it out. And, yeah, support and connect with Josh and maybe, maybe, forward forward along. You know some of those resources to you. Know a man or woman in your life that might be blessed by that? So beautiful, really awesome, Josh, great to have you in the Foxhole, brother. This was awesome and just really celebrate the work that God has done and is continuing to do in your life. And we are on the sidelines cheering you on, brother, and wish you continued success, and when I say success, I mean just deeper and deeper intimacy with God and uh and those around you, and uh, and also, uh, also in this world, earthly, earthly success as well, that, that, uh, you would, you would flourish and thrive in, uh, in the very things, the ministry that God has called you to, and uh. So, yeah, Uh, thank you, brother.

Speaker 1: 32:57

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 32:58

We'll continue. We'll be continuing to pray for you.

Speaker 1: 33:01

Amen and ditto. Josh, I hope someone has told you and if they haven't, I'm happy to do it because, as Sarge will tell you, I'm in charge of the obvious, but your message is so wildly important, like, first of all, thank you you, thank God for you, thank you you, thank God for you, and the fact that you've heard the call, answered the call and are pushing it out. Look, there's nothing more important in the world today, and I believe this podcast episode has a chance to achieve our goal of reaching one man with a very important message. We hope people will connect with you however they want to In the list of ways that's possible. If God is in the middle of that, there will be a connection. So we wish you all the best and I echo what Sarge said about you and for you.

Speaker 5: 33:52

Well, thank you guys. It was a pleasure to be here today.

Speaker 4: 33:56

Thanks so much.

Speaker 3: 34:00

God bless you, brother. I am grateful for Josh and his obedience to God and the calling on his life. You know, what really stuck out to me today was when Josh said desperation creates submission. Man, this has been so evident in my life and God has shown his face to me in the midst of those times of full submission, when I bring nothing to the table except for all of my brokenness a filthy rag before a holy God. Lord, please help me, help my brothers. You know every bad habit and addiction begins with a choice. Go, grab a field guide to freedom and let that be the first choice of many on your road to freedom. Lord, please continue to use this podcast to impact the lives of all who listen. I ask that you would bring hope and healing to each and every one of them. Meet them right where they are and reveal yourself to them like only you can do. In Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 2: 35:07

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