Foxhole Symphony
Foxhole Symphony
Faith, Growth, and New Beginnings in 2025
Ever wondered how faith and personal growth can transform your life, even during the toughest storms? Join me, the Maestro, along with Sarge and our dear friend Mark, as we reflect on an incredible 2024 and step into 2025 with renewed hope and purpose. From moving homes and changing jobs to celebrating milestone birthdays and anniversaries, our journey is a testament to the enduring love of God and the unwavering faith that carried us through our personal ups and downs. We share heartfelt stories of navigating grief, embracing blessings, and witnessing profound growth while centering our lives on trust, faith, and development.
As we welcome the promise of new beginnings in 2025, we focus on aligning our lives with God's plan through the power of Psalm 51—a reminder of the joy found in a willing and open spirit. We share insights on balancing planning with surrender to divine guidance, revealing how prioritizing "faith, family, friends, fitness" can steer us amidst life's demands. Through prayer, praise, and the strength of authentic community, we underscore the importance of accountability and reflection, inviting you to embark on this spiritual journey with us as we embrace the joy of living purposefully and in harmony with God's will.
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Welcome to Foxhole Symphony, a podcast about the transformational value of men in authentic community.
Speaker 2:In our foxhole. Men are equipped to build relationships that foster belonging, accountability and growth.
Speaker 1:Stop believing the lie that you can thrive in isolation and instead join us on the journey from broken to whole.
Speaker 3:Hello everyone. They 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 it's all about their word for 2025. You just had a word pop into your head, didn't you? Well, get comfortable, open your notes app and let's get this thing started.
Speaker 2:Hey, welcome back to Foxhole Symphony Podcast. I'm Sarge here with my good friend, mark. How are you, hey bro? How are you? I'm doing great, doing great, and happy new year, oh you caught me off guard with that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, here we are 2025.
Speaker 2:Can you believe it?
Speaker 1:No, my goodness no no, not, not, not prepared Ill-prepared is the word I would use, but, but I'm optimistic as usual. Gum of glass, half full guy, as you know, and I'm going to look at it where God's this plan, this journey that we're on together, and the path that he has me on is a good one, a fruitful one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amen. For both of us together, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, yeah and wow 2024. I mean, what a year, my goodness. Bro, we went screaming past our three-year anniversary for the podcast Congratulations, I know, I know, we're in season four.
Speaker 1:Can you believe it? No, no, there are some great shows that only make it about this far, so it's so funny. You notice, when we have guests, they often say wow, congratulations. Some people do two of these and stop. You and I are on episode 83.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And our three-year anniversary was end of November, right after Thanksgiving. So Right yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they say that and we're like, really yeah, really, people do four episodes and quit, we're still talking. We don't know if anybody's listening, but we're still talking.
Speaker 1:Yes, there's somebody out there that needs this.
Speaker 2:So here's a question for you, right out of the gate, with no preparation whatsoever, none. Well, listen, I'm just going to ask you the question I haven't asked you yet. So first time coming at you, all right, going to ask you the question I haven't asked you yet. So first time coming at you, all right, you could sum up 2024 for you in your life, your walk with God, your family, your. You know this, everything you, everything you get to do. If you could sum up 2024 in a word or phrase, what would it be?
Speaker 1:His faithful love endures forever.
Speaker 2:What would it be? His faithful love endures forever. That's a. That's a good one man.
Speaker 1:That dude, it's almost like people are like wait a minute, he was prepared for that, that was so easy for me. I have goose flesh all over my arms. See, look, um, it's. It's the word rollercoaster comes to mind. But my Father in heaven proved his faithfulness to me over and over and over, and sometimes that means answering prayers with victory and sometimes that means walking me through some of the most challenging moments in my life, you know, with death, with grief, with good news, with positive things, either at work or at home, with health, with you know, things for Jack at school, whatever it is, it was a roller coaster, it really was, and maybe life is just like that for everybody. It's not just me, but his faithful love endures forever. The Psalm reminds me over and over that I can count on him. So that's my short answer. How'd I do?
Speaker 2:That's pretty good man, that is pretty good.
Speaker 1:Do I get to turn it around back at you?
Speaker 2:Unbelievable, okay. So yeah, let's see for me 2024. I mean, I could come up with a number of different words, but what comes to mind is growth. I feel like man God just stretched me and grew me and matured me and sharpened me and refined me and drew me close to him and showed me more of who he is. I mean all these things I mean. So it's in one word, I would say. I would say growth, but you know, I what comes to mind as well is, you know, there were, there were some storms. I mean, the year started out with a wicked storm and, um, uh, you know, storms can be devastating but they can also clear a path, cleansing for what's to come. Yeah, right. And you know, of course, here I am a year later and, and I believed that along the way, like you're going to clear a path, you're going to do something new, you're, you know, just the trust, learning to trust him, learning to have faith through all of that, and, um, uh, and struggling with that, as you know, I mean, along the way.
Speaker 1:Oh, bro, I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you, but let's just set this record straight for everybody. You physically move your family, you change jobs, sold cars, but you made, like, all the big decisions in this year in the last nine months, yeah, yeah, Turned 50, celebrated 25 years of marriage.
Speaker 2:It was a it was a milestone year. It was a milestone year and one of I mean completely being completely uprooted.
Speaker 1:And you grew, and your word was growth, totally.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 1:You know you got to work those muscles hard to grow them and you did. You worked your change, you're wow. Your paradigm shift was epic.
Speaker 2:Yes, big time.
Speaker 2:And you know. So I would say growth and peace. You know, growth and peace, I mean, those are the two words that come to mind. So, what about 2025?
Speaker 2:As we look ahead and before we even get there, right, like and listeners may have heard us talk about this, and maybe you listeners do this yourselves, but Mark and I like to choose a word or phrase you know to focus on for the year, to bring before the Lord, and maybe it's an area we need to grow, maybe it's something that some aspect of God that we want to experience more. Or, you know, uh, something that we just sense God doing in us. You know, in prior years, I you know, one of mine was embrace solitude, um, you know, mark's was chiseled right, and so, you know, deeply meaningful, something that just we can come back to over and over again and ask the Lord to do a work in us. And so, yeah, that's what we'd like to talk about today and encourage you all to spend some time in prayer If this is not a normal practice to maybe start practicing this year and find a word or phrase uh, that, uh, uh that you would like to focus on for the year. So, so, mark, what?
Speaker 2:Uh? Yeah, I know, uh, you know we're just getting started with. Sometimes it takes a month or two to to solidify, but, um, what are your thoughts at this point as far as a word for 2025?
Speaker 1:Well, let me start by stepping back a little bit. Chiseled. Chiseled had dual purpose for me last year. The easy one was that I wanted to challenge myself to a new level of fitness. I think chiseled is a bit of a stretch for where I am, but still doing well on that side. I'm active. I'm reading and listening more to podcast blogs and reading articles about health and wellness.
Speaker 1:I'm all hyped up about not only what I'm putting in my mouth now which, by the way, over the last couple of months has not been great Too many Italian delis in my past, but I'm the nitrate king but I am now learning more about what my body's absorbing right, as opposed to I can put things in my mouth and they're good, but if your body's not absorbing them, well then it doesn't matter. So, yeah, but that's the chiseled side. On the physical mark part, what it really was about and I'm looking at the book over on my desk right across from me is God's Chisel, is the skit guy's book and the DVD of God's Chisel, and that's really where that came from. For those who haven't heard me talk about this a hundred times, you know, god's Chisel is just simply about the fact that I choose to put on layers and layers and layers of garbage crap. The world pours things onto me, other people pour things onto me and before you know it, I don't look anything like the masterpiece that God made, and so I needed to give him a chance to chisel away some of the world, especially the noise and messiness of the world in my life, and I did do that. I think I was successful in trying to make that happen. So that's a step back, stepping forward.
Speaker 1:I think my word or phrase for this year is going to have something to do with my prayer life, and I'm reminded by a senior pastor of the church I go to uses the acrostic for pray I'm reminded by a senior pastor of the church I go to uses. The acrostic for pray was praise, repent, ask and yield. P-r-a-y praise, repent, ask, yield. And I even had a chance very recently to deploy that in my prayer life and it was really fruitful for me. I had a few things on my heart that I wanted to confess and needed to repent for, and, starting out in a position of praise and knowing you know what repentance looks like in my life, you know the turn away falls into the category of too easy to say and not easy to do, for me.
Speaker 1:I'm just oh, turn away, sure, no, that turning is, or should be, painful. I think in some way it sounds like a stretch I do in yoga when I'm screaming and then asking, asking for God's forgiveness and yielding to his almighty power. Um, I think that's where I'm headed. This is not fully baked, but pray, p-r-a-y, praise, repent, ask and yield seems to be what I'm feeling. I need to spend, as I mentioned to you before we started, I do need to spend some dedicated and disciplined time in a quiet place with the Holy Spirit and ask God what he wants me to focus on and I have to admit to you, I haven't done that yet about this, but that's what I'm thinking. So that's my head answer. My heart answer will come in, maybe the next episode. How about you?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm a little torn. I'm a little torn. There's been a handful of things that have come up Um, I mentioned earlier. You know, uh, for me, you know the the, uh, the act of embracing solitude has been um monumental in in my life and um, that being a phrase of mine, looking back, uh, kind of like you referenced chiseled and man, have I learned to really embrace and enjoy solitude and just extended periods of time being quiet and alone with the Lord?
Speaker 2:As I go into this year, I've got two words, and one is very practical and the other one is more of a state of being, and uh, and maybe it's both, maybe it's both. I'm, I'm kind of asking God, what, what do you want to do with these here and how can I maybe put them together? Um, I think, maybe, maybe they can be put together, maybe the words, the phrase is simple joy, simple joy. Um, you know, very practically speaking, uh, you know I'm a complex person, you know. I mean, I mean ask, you know my darling wife and my family, like you know, everything's intense and complex and you know, um, it's just who I am.
Speaker 2:Um, but going into this year, um, I feel like God is calling me to really simplify, um, you know to, to lead just more of a simple life. Uh, being more of a simpleton, um, you know, I think about my parents. I was mentioning to you, even before we pressed record, I'm going to go visit my parents and you're like oh, what are you going to do with them? And it's like I'm going to sit with them.
Speaker 2:You're going to be present, I'm going to go visit my parents and you're like, oh, what are you going to do with them? And it's like I'm going to sit with them, you're going to be present, I'm going to be present, but they, they sit like they don't. You know they're not world travelers. You know they, they don't, they don't need to. You know, go go to fancy places or have fancy dinners. You know they, they, they just they, they very they love routine. They're just simple people, right, and I need more of that in my life. I need more of that in my life and I and I believe that will lead to more contentment. And and on the joy side, you know it's just um, I'm going to need, uh, strength and encouragement for this year, like self-sustained strength and encouragement to combat discouragement. I know this to be true.
Speaker 2:God is calling me to something that I'm stepping into, that I won't talk about just yet, but I'm excited about that and, as I do, I know it's going to be. It's not going to be quick, it's not going to be easy, and so it's going to require consistency and discipline and patience and, again, just strength, and so I want that to come from the joy of the Lord, like the joy of the Lord is my strength. I'm not talking about happiness, but amidst anything and everything that might come my way, you know, just just being filled with joy and exuding that joy for others around me, that I, I need to. I need that, and I and those around me need that, and so I want to do that. I want to be that for my family and and be steady in that.
Speaker 2:So that is, I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:Well, it sounds like you might have to turn off the immediate gratification button. Oh, 100% I didn't say that so hard.
Speaker 2:I took a hammer to it. I took a hammer to it, it's, it's. No, this is, this is long haul stuff. You know, this is long haul stuff and and it's kingdom, it's kingdom stuff, and so it's not about me, it's about those that I'm serving and will be serving, and that's it, period. And it's about him, it's about him, it's about the Lord and his movement, and so then, I want to be still enough to recognize that. Get out of the way, um, and and know that, like the lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need, more than I need, and um, and he will be my strength, and part of that too. Like um, I think it's.
Speaker 2:Is it Psalm 51 where it says restore to me the joy of my salvation? Um, I forget exactly which Psalm. I think it's Psalm 51, but, um, like I think of that too. You know, walked with the Lord for many years now and you know, no matter how many years, like I, I, I want to cling to that joy of my salvation, that joy of the freedom we have in Christ, and never, never, take that for granted and have that just light me up, day in and day out, in a way that's contagious, in a way that draws people not near to me but near to him and, um, you know, that's it, that's it, period, just just. Uh, you know a unified heart focused on on him and um so simple joy Got it Simple joy.
Speaker 1:51.10 is one of our favorites. It created me a clean heart, oh God, and put a new and right spirit within me. This is NIV. Yeah 11 is do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 is restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit. Yes, 51.12.
Speaker 2:51, 12. Oh, and sustain.
Speaker 1:That's NRSV.
Speaker 2:NRSV and sustain in me a willing spirit. Yeah, man, that, right there. Oh man, just that word like willing. I'm going to look at some of the other translations and see what, see if that's a different word. But man, a willing spirit, like that's. When I even just say those words and I ponder those words, I meditate on those words, I feel free, like it's freeing. Think of a willing spirit versus a resistant spirit. Right, oh man, god, god, you know, boy, what God could do with a willing spirit.
Speaker 1:I'm just sitting here thinking of some of our Bible heroes. You had guys like Joshua and Jacob and others who were like so anxious to go where God they were willing like, show me, send me, lord, right Samuel. And then you had guys like Job and others who are like, no, not going Nineveh, no, going to take a left, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. Just spending time in the word makes my anecdotes. My anecdotes used to be Calvin and Hobbes and now they're biblical heroes.
Speaker 2:It's interesting that willing spirit and the NLT says and make me willing to obey you. Make me willing to obey you, Wow, Then I will teach your ways to rebels and they will return to you. Man, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:It is 51. It's a good one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sustain me with a willing spirit, anyway. So those are my words and, man, it's exciting. You know I love a new year, the turn of a new year, you know. A fresh beginning, new hope, it's. You know his mercies are new every morning and I feel like, you know, many years ago, I stopped partying on New Year's Eve and you know, gosh, it's been many years that Christine and I are in bed by probably nine.
Speaker 2:I know, I know people give us such a hard time. They're like you don't even stay up to watch the ball drop. I'm like, no, I have no interest, like I literally have no interest at all. Um, and you know, I started going to the gym the last few years on new year's day. There's like four people there, right, and it's like you know there's if that you know at like 6am, you know 7am, and it's such a great way to start the year and I'm not sitting here boasting about it, Like I believe me, I did plenty of damage for plenty of years on new year's eve, right, especially as a young, young man.
Speaker 2:Um, but boy, does it feel good to start the year off, right, and um, you know, uh, just be focused on him and his creation, uh, and, and him in me and just just being a good steward of all that he's, he's given me, including my body. But yeah, I used to be so depressed, new Year's so depressed, it was so depressing to me, and now there's like so much hope and it's just I don't know. I love it, I love the turn of the new year.
Speaker 1:Well, so do.
Speaker 2:I.
Speaker 1:Love the turn of the new year, so do I. The midnight thing is not a—we do it with our boys. If they're home and they often are they'll be around and we'll celebrate and hug and welcome in. You know, we'll thank God for the past year and say thank you for the new one. But I mean, I could have been asleep from 10 to 1150 and then get up to see whatever ding-a-ling on TV. I just want the countdown. I just. I have no interest in the music. I don't have interest in the shows. I don't. I'm sorry, I'm just not hip at all.
Speaker 2:Right. So here's a question Do you remember where you were for the for Y2K, 1999 to the new millennia? Do you remember where you know? No, no, oh man, christine and I were in a, a, um, a chalet in Vermont, um, like, hunkered down, we literally thought the world was about to end, right, like I mean, it's just y2k mania, right, new millennia, everything's gonna stop, the grid is gonna right no, watches won't turn over the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah nothing, right everything credit cards melt yeah, and we and we, literally we were like hunkered down and we took pictures not with our phones, because I don't think we had cameras then but with film and we took the clock off the wall and it was nine o'clock and we turned the hour hand. So, like right before midnight, took a a picture of ourselves like pointing at the clock yeah, like, yeah, right, and uh, yeah. And then we, we woke up and everything was fine. We're like, oh, okay you look outside, yeah everybody's still here, car engines still work.
Speaker 1:Wow, I have no, zero, zero recollection of that that time. But, um, I think this F what we're going through now, just this few minutes talking to you. What a great process to actually dedicate time to be thinking about what. What might God be up to? How do I get in line with his plan? Right, yeah, there's, you have a list right. You're, you're. You'll be talking about this in upcoming episodes, about changes in your life, and I can't wait.
Speaker 2:That's another great word. Just alignment. Yeah, just alignment. Like getting man, I might need to swipe that one. Nope, sorry, maybe that.
Speaker 1:I'll sell it to you.
Speaker 2:It's like a URL. You know, being aligned with his will, with calling mission purpose. Um man, that that's a beautiful place to be, that's a beautiful plan. I'm writing that one down alignment, yeah, I love, I love to journal this time of year especially, you know, late December, going into January and just journaling and journaling my prayers and spending a lot of time just thinking about you know where I've seen God at work in the last year. What's? You know what's changed? You know how have I changed? How has he changed me? How have I changed? How has he changed me? And then, looking ahead, you know where am I anticipating seeing him work and in my life, and then mapping out my year with the perfect year, the perfect year with the Lord and my family and I and I, just I love it. I love doing it. Again, that doesn't need to be extravagant, but what are the things, what are the areas of life that you know need to be planned out, maybe require some prioritization?
Speaker 1:I've seen your book a couple of times. You've carried it around with you or I've snuck into your backpack. I'm teasing, but I've seen those plans.
Speaker 1:So you, literally, your penmanship is terrible and so you have nothing to worry about anybody, anybody copying your notes, but I've seen you dedicate that time in a, in a book, in a journal, to plan out, and I will tell you. When I saw you do that, I think, wow, that is so like me, cause you know I'm a planner and I love organizational tools. And when my, when God opened my eyes to the holistic mark, the relational, physical, emotional, spiritual, nutritional, on and on and on all the parts of me, and I'm thinking how are you doing in each of these areas? Where have you surrendered? Have you surrendered that to God? And seeking that alignment, I have to tell you, I'm reminding myself now, and I'm looking at you as closely as I can on my iPhone to say that I really need to focus and be disciplined in turning that conversation in my head over to him, because I could easily do this in my own power and come up with the Vesper 2025 plan for every one of those five or six categories I just mentioned.
Speaker 1:I'm sure there's four other categories that you know. Smart people will tell you you need to plan out, Um, but I, ultimately I, I, I want all of me to be surrendered and aligned to him, but I struggle. I struggle with Putting him first. Yeah, I put me first.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And my family first, and so on and so forth. But you know one of my mottos, my little silly phrase, right, it's faith, family friends, faith, family friends, fitness would be my Fs, my four. I try to stay there, I try to keep it simple. I try to say faith, family friends, fitness. Right, that's, those last two are interchangeable for me. But that's it, bro, that's that's what I try to offer to him and try to keep God in the middle of every day. And there's work here. Right, there's heart work required here. Yeah, not an easy lesson really isn't, but it's all good.
Speaker 1:I want to just spend a moment talking about pray, because I'm why, why would I pick that, that word game, p-r-a-y praise, repent, ask and yield. And it has to do. And I mentioned this to you before we started about just updating my prayer life, which already is a very conversational, open relationship I have with God in prayer, I've decided to adopt a very vocal yeah, I just I talk out loud to my God and I get chances to do that every morning, so I really enjoy that. While I'm grounding or walking or doing something else, I stay there. But there's another level here required, and it's the converse of me throwing out my praise, my repentance, asking and yielding. It's the listening part.
Speaker 1:The other side of a healthy, thriving prayer life is, I think, not only offering up to God, sometimes in the fetal position, what my needs are and my you know, my requests are, but also giving the Holy Spirit real time to work on those things with me and guide me. I think it probably has to do with that alignment, but that's where I'm, that's what I'm going to be dedicating time to. I just wanted to kind of flesh that out for a minute.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it and I want to come along for the ride. So I look forward to doing that with you. And man, it's, it's I just the words that come to mind are better together, you know better together. Doing that in community, you know, with others, is so critical for encouragement, accountability, you know, all of those great things that you know set us up for success. You know versus, you know failure for any number of reasons, right, any number of reasons. And so I look forward to doing it with you and, yeah, you will be right in the middle right in the middle, but Better Together our 2025 kickoff.
Speaker 1:I want to pray for you and for everyone that's listening, that I understand that this prayer, life, this plan that we have, the choosing of words and phrases these are all the game that you and I play to dedicate ourselves to our God, to say that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equally important relationships in our lives. And we are going to be challenged. We know by doing this, we are putting a target on our chest. Yeah, and there's going to be challenging times this year. We just are man. I faced them last year with work challenges and health challenges and death in the family, challenges and things like that. And there's things you've got to steel yourself up for and be prepared and have people around you that will support you and stand by your side. You are that for me, I am that for you. I pray that for everybody involved that you would steal yourself up so you're strong when those tough challenges come.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, thank you, brother, and I want to wish everybody a fantastic 2025, a blessed 2025. Everybody a fantastic 2025, a blessed 2025. And if you've been walking alone, man, I just want to tell you you don't have to. And so get plugged in, get connected and and maybe commit to, you know, doing 2025 in authentic community with others, and it will be better, it will be better, and so, and maybe you're doing that already and I pray that you continue to do that and continue to get sharpened and uh, uh, and may God use you abundantly as a result.
Speaker 1:Who's in your foxhole?
Speaker 2:Amen. Hey, good talk, brother, and uh, may it be an awesome year for the Lord. Amen, peace, peace.
Speaker 3:It's a fresh start, waiting on your first move. I don't know about you, but I'm going to set up some purposeful time with people I love and trust to talk about this new year. I'm going to be asking some questions, sharing some dreams and see where God wants to move in my life and in the lives of the people around me. Man, it's an exciting time. I pray that you grab hold of it and make it your own. 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, lord. Meet them right where they are and reveal yourself to them like only you can do. In Jesus' name amen.
Speaker 2:If you enjoyed today's episode, please share it and invite others to the Foxhole. You can find us wherever you download your favorite podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you know when new episodes drop, and please rate us and comment there too, as it'll help us get found by others who could benefit. Find, follow and like us on your go-to social media networks by searching Foxhole Symphony or visit foxholesymphonycom to make it super easy to find us. Drop us a line with feedback, questions, topic requests. Who knows, maybe you'll be a guest on a future episode. In the meantime, prepare to move, embrace discomfort and just be you.
