Foxhole Symphony
Foxhole Symphony
Chaotic Joy: From Heart Attack to Holy Purpose
What happens when a successful businessman who views God as merely "a hedge against going to hell" suffers a massive heart attack that leaves him paralyzed with fear each night? Eric Bucher's powerful testimony of transformation takes us from that moment of crisis to an extraordinary spiritual awakening that changed everything.
After his heart attack, Eric found himself questioning life's purpose while driving to visit his critically ill father. Suddenly, he saw himself clearly—a "chrome polisher" presenting different versions of himself to different people while rusting from within. This moment of painful self-awareness led to a profound surrender on his knees, asking Jesus to either take his life or give him a new one.
What followed was nine days of what Eric calls "chaotic joy"—an overwhelming emotional and spiritual experience where he felt heaven touching earth. Most remarkably, despite being new to faith, Eric received what can only be described as a supernatural download of biblical understanding, allowing him to discuss theological concepts with a depth that astonished even his Bible-studying wife.
This transformation wasn't just internal. Eric immediately began putting James 1:22 into action—"Don't just be hearers of the word, go and do what it says." He founded multiple ministries, including reading scripture to elderly nursing home residents, prison outreach, and creating "Sons of Men," a father-son wilderness experience teaching intentional spiritual leadership.
Throughout his testimony, Eric emphasizes how authentic community with other men has been integral to his growth, providing spaces where he can be vulnerable about his failures without fear of judgment. His story powerfully illustrates how surrender, intentionality, and brotherhood create the foundation for lasting transformation from broken to whole.
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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. Mark and Steve are in the foxhole today with a special guest and they are talking chaotic joy. Yes, that's what I said Chaotic joy. You know what time it is? Get comfortable, open your notes app and let's get this symphony started.
Speaker 2:Hey, welcome back to Foxhole Symphony Podcast. I'm Sargege here with my good friend, mark in the foxhole. What's up, brother? Hey, what's shaking? Well, when you say shake, and I immediately think of uh, bacon and the thick slab maple bacon that you make for, uh, for the brothers in your house on a rare saturday morning black pepper, maple bacon, oh man oh yeah, well, mark, when you said shaken, I uh immediately thought about shaking bacon.
Speaker 4:I helped, so that old, that old ad.
Speaker 1:My, my, there's a, there's a joke that goes with that. It sounds something like this you say what's shaken and you say, um uh, two cheeks and a couple of chins. You know that kind of thing.
Speaker 4:That's the feedback you often get.
Speaker 1:But let's stick with bacon, because I haven't eaten yet today.
Speaker 2:Oh man, forget it. Well, let's dive in. Our guests have already heard a third voice in the foxhole, so I want to introduce our guest this morning. Eric Butcher is becoming a dear friend and here in Palm Beach, and you know he's, he's an incredible man of God. We're going to get to hear his story and his ministry.
Speaker 2:He's a he's a businessman, has a couple of thriving businesses in the the tech space, and but you know, you, you you kind of wouldn't know it because you know, when I met Eric and we had lunch, you know he's like I'm going off to this, you know, nursing home this afternoon and like, oh, what do you, what do you do there? Well, I read scripture to the elderly and I'm like, what do you, what do you mean? Like you just show up and read scriptures like yep, and so we're going to hear about that. I mean it's just, it's just wild, uh, being with him and seeing what God does in just about every environment that he walks into, and um. So, eric, I won't go too much deeper, cause we're going to learn all about you, but welcome to the Foxhole, brother. We're so glad you're with us.
Speaker 4:Thanks Sarge, thanks Mark, I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Sarge, Thanks Mark, I'm happy to be here. So let's dive right in and tell our listeners just a little bit more about you, your family. I mean, you've got a wife and son and I want to hear just a little bit about that. And then we'd love to jump right into your story of how you kind of came to the Lord a year and a half ago, because it's a pretty amazing turn of events. So why don't you tell us just a little bit about you and what you did a year and a half ago?
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. So. I've been married it'll be 14 years this year to my wife, yolanda, and we have a 10, almost 11-year-old son, xander, who is training every day for the NHL. So we're supporting his dream of peewee hockey.
Speaker 4:And you know, I moved here in 2006 from Lexington, kentucky, a small town in the middle of the state, and you know I did not know the Lord when I came here. And you know, actually I came here to sober up. I was really caught up in drugs and alcohol in a pretty big way and I needed a lot of help to get out of that. And one would think that through that experience that I would come to know the Lord through surrender, because there's a lot of surrendering when you are getting out of the world of drugs and alcohol. But it wouldn't be until October 24th 2023 that I actually came to know the Lord. Up until that point, god for me and my belief in Him was a hedge against going to hell. Since a little child I had always been told if you don't believe in God, you're going to hell. I'm like well, that's easy. I believe in God and that was the extent of my faith. I did not live a moral life, even in sobriety, I fell flat on my face and grabbed on to everything the world had to offer, whether it be toys, whether it be lavish vacations, whatever it may have been I just consumed. I was a consumer of self and of others, really.
Speaker 4:But fast forward to April of 2023, I was standing right where I'm standing right now in my office on a conference call and I suffered a major heart attack at three o'clock in the afternoon and ended up right here on the floor and my business partner came and picked me up and took me to the hospital, saved my life, and the whole event was a 24-hour stay, which is kind of mind-blowing to think that you can suffer 100% blockage and be out of the hospital 24 hours later. But I left the hospital with three things. It was a stint, obviously, a fear and a question. The fear was going to sleep at night. I was afraid that I was going to die in my sleep and that was a terrible way to put your head on the pillow every night. And the question was what's the purpose of this life? Up at that moment, it really was to make as much money as I possibly could through these businesses and I was like there has to be more to life than that. We fast forward through.
Speaker 4:I took the summer off from work after the heart attack and, uh, took it easy. We went RVing and went to all kinds of cool places throughout the Midwest and came back to work. And, uh, october rolls around and, um, I get a call on a Sunday afternoon, finding out that my dad's colon had exploded. He was in really bad shape, he was septic, he was in ICU. I cleared my schedule and I was driving to the airport to go see him.
Speaker 4:Driving to the airport to go see him, and for the first time in my life, I saw a reflection of myself that I didn't like. I saw an image of myself as as a chrome polisher and I was just polishing this chrome. Polishing this chrome and to be able to present myself as however I needed to be presented in whatever situation I found myself in. Um, but the issue became that I was rusting the inside out. Um, and uh, this polish couldn't get rid of the rust anymore and this is all just kind of happening in my mind and I immediately call my wife and I'm just explaining this to her and she's like what do you need? And I, I just start bawling my eyes out, and I had a second kind of vision in my mind of myself in a dark pit with chains just wrapped around my neck and my whole life I've been able to navigate any situation that I found myself in, but this happening with my dad. He was my God and it was his self-will that I, I learned, I learned my will from his will and, um, I get you know, I clean myself up and I get on the plane. I get to kentucky, I walk through the room where he's at an icu and I see him and I, I break in half. I literally my soul fractures. Uh, because here's a man that's been able to neatly control everything, um, that's now incapable of doing so. Um, and I spent four days with him in the hospital.
Speaker 4:I pull out my laptop and I just start writing about my life, just getting all of this new emotion out of me that I've never had before, and it ends up in faith and religion. And I had none, really, but what little bit I had I just started writing about and deconstructed, and from there I came away with Moses being the answer, the commandments, something I could get behind boxes, I could check, so fast forward. I get home and I share this revelation with my wife, who's been a lifelong believer, and she thinks I'm going to convert to Islam, and I basically tell her Jesus isn't real, the New Testament's not real, and I can't support Jesus. And this was on a Saturday morning and, as I said, my son plays hockey, so we had to go to hockey practice. On the way to hockey there's a church that we pass every day by our house and it has a sign out front that they change randomly and as it says, jesus, question mark john 14, 6.
Speaker 4:Now, of course, I don't know what that verse was at the time. Neither did my wife but my son, who goes to christian schools in the back seat, and he's like I am the way, I am the truth, I the life. Nobody gets to the father except by me, which was literally the verse I was questioning. That night we went to a friend's house. I met some missionaries there and they told me I would never know Jesus until he revealed himself to me. Of course I had no idea what that meant. Course I had no idea what that meant. Um and uh I forgot to mention. On the flight back from kentucky to come home, I sat next to a baptist preacher and I had a simple question.
Speaker 4:Of course you did, I did. I had a simple question for him. What a coincidence it was like. And he was busy. He was busy so he was preparing for a nonprofit speech. He was like the keynote speaker, but I told him about the heart attack, I told him about my question and I was like, hey, what's the purpose of life? We got 90 minutes, so maybe you can help me out with that. And he started laughing. He's like that's the easiest question I've ever been asked. And he said to glorify God in everything that we do. I had no idea what that meant in that moment, but fast forward, missionaries tell me that I'll never know Jesus till he reveals himself to me. Also didn't know what that meant. And they were legitimate disciples of Jesus Christ. They live by faith to fulfill the Great Commission and they've done so for 30 years. They travel the world. They're not affiliated with anyone but Jesus. So they're truly special, special people, the best.
Speaker 4:I get home and I go to bed. I wake up early Monday morning, I open the book, the Bible to the book of John, and I read the whole thing and for the first time in my life, the Bible opens up and I understand that. Wow, this is actually a relatable book. It came to life. I can't even really describe it. I was transported into it and I go to work and I get home, we put our son to bed, I come into my room and I get on my hands and knees and I have a conversation with Jesus and I ask him to take my life. I can't go to sleep in fear anymore and if you want to take me, I'm ready to go, I'm ready to die. However, if you don't want to take me, me, I don't want my life anymore, I want your life. And uh, and I ended with him asking for him to reveal himself to me. And if anyone has never done that, I encourage you, do so, but be ready for what will happen next, because he will absolutely reveal himself to you. I go to sleep and at 1.45 in the morning I'll pop up out of bed and I'm literally giggling like a little boy.
Speaker 4:It wakes up my wife Yolanda. She's asking me what's going on and I'm just surprised. I'm like what do you mean? What's going on? Don't you see this? Like we're going to be in heaven? I'm going to heaven. We're going to be in heaven together, like I was just in that moment the veil between heaven and earth, it was just like, spread wide open for me. And for nine days following that it was like when Moses came down from the mountain and I just was radiating this light of Christ. And I could talk for hours about the things that happened in that nine-day period, but I'll leave you with this. For nine days I was in a state of chaotic joy. Every one of those chains I spoke about broke. I had never cried so much in my life. I had never been so elated. It was a roller coaster of emotions.
Speaker 4:It all culminated the following Thursday with a massage of all things. It was my wife's birthday and I dedicate my day to her every year for her birthday birthday, and I dedicate my day to her every year for her birthday. And we did all kinds of fun, things like going to the hair salon for three hours and doing mani and pedis, and going to lunch together, and finally a foot massage. And this lady comes out, I lay down, she starts washing my feet and, um, a heat just wells up in my chest, unlike anything I've ever experienced, and then I'll start sweating and then I start freaking out because this lady's now washing my feet and I'm covered in sweat. And then all of a sudden it just goes away and the chaotic joy Became peace, and I walked out of that foot massage place a different human being and the year and a half that has been my life since that moment has not been my life at all. It's been his life through me, and that's what led to the father-son ministry and the nursing home ministry, the prison ministries and, I believe, when I was reading the Bible the only you know vision, if you will, or prophecy, or whatever you want to call it I've only had one of those.
Speaker 4:And I was falling asleep and was in a translucent in-between space of consciousness and sleep and I just see James 1.22 plastered on business cards all over this country. I didn't even know what James 1.22 was or if it was even a verse. I immediately pop up, open my Bible to James 1.22. And it says don't just be hearers of the word, go and do what it says. And it goes on to say not doing. That is like looking in the mirror, forgetting what, walking away and forgetting what you look like.
Speaker 4:And then in 1.27, it goes on to say to be religious is to take care of the widows and the orphans and that really hit me which leads to the nursing home ministry. They're orphans, they're forgotten about, somewhat discarded part of our society who are seeking salvation. Same thing with prisoners. 80% of men in prison have one thing in common the lack of a father in the home. That goes to the father-son ministry. Malachi 4.6, the very last verse in the Old Testament, says he will bring the hearts and the minds of the fathers to the children and the hearts and the minds of the children to the father. He will come and smite this land. Matthew opens up 42 generations of fathers and sons. This signifies the importance of the father-son relationship. Father God, son Jesusesus christ, it's, it's biblical so, but it all kind of goes back to james 122. Go and do so. I've said a lot, so I'm gonna take water yeah, man oh thank you, brother, great thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, brother, great Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, so so good. Um, so much there. The main takeaway for me is that churches need to keep putting pithy uh sayings and verses on their phones no, obviously.
Speaker 4:One word so many other takeaways, but how? Cool.
Speaker 2:How cool that God, yeah, I mean puts this Baptist preacher next to you on the plane. And you know this. I mean you know, sign out for it. I mean all over, right, god was just pursuing you and you know you sort of alluded to this. But like the other piece that I'll just add in here, like that people may not realize, like god, like god downloaded the bible to you, like, as you can hear, mark and and listeners I mean eric's just you know quoting scripture, like like crazy, I mean this is a year and a half ago and Eric, I had said to him I was like how do you know the scriptures so well? Like I don't even understand, because I spent time with him and I listened to him, like it is amazing and like not only is he in the word and study it, but you know, on one of those evenings I don't know exactly which evening, but God just downloaded the Bible to him and he just do it.
Speaker 4:That night of my surrender, um, and that you know, that's something that still blows my wife's mind. So my wife has studied the Bible since 2016,. Like, studied, studied, like, with the likes of, like, chuck Miesler and other men like him uh, that are deep theologians that you know, can, can, can spend hours on a single verse, um, and we would sit up for hours. I'm, I go to bed at eight o'clock and it gets eight, eight, 30. I'm in bed and by nine I'm usually out. We were staying up till twelve one o'clock in the morning and she was just help me, help me, help me with questions about you know what's the spiritual meaning behind this and some of these things I hadn't read yet, and she would just tell me a parable or whatever, and I was like, would just talk about that. It is a miracle, like I mean, I read the Bible every day. It's been over 500 days now since I have stayed in the word, and that is our outlet. It's our Holy Spirit battery charger. It is our outlet, it's our Holy Spirit battery charger, it is our sword, it's part of our armor to stay protected, and every day I read it I find something new.
Speaker 4:Just today, and I was in a rush this morning I only had like five minutes to read the Bible. You know what I hit this verse in Hebrews 12 and you know. Go straight to my father's son ministry and let me pull it up and I'll share with you what my, what the revelation was today, and Hebrews 12, 11. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful Later on. However, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained in it.
Speaker 4:Well, just last night I was in a situation with my own son where I had to be the man of discipline in the home and it was hard and there's moments where I second guess myself am I doing the right thing? But it's a tough pill to swallow, discipline, especially with our children. But I needed to hear that verse in the moment that I read it. And that's the power of the word of God he shows up exactly in the moment that you need him to, not on your timeline, on his timeline, but it seems the more that I say in the word of God, the more he tends to show up in and around the world.
Speaker 1:If you don't mind me saying, pardon me, I think you're called. We are called to be as demonstrative in our talk of faith and discipline with our kids as the world and social media and Hollywood, etc. The world and social media and Hollywood, et cetera is in yelling at our kids about the darkness and not listening to their parents and not worrying about their faith and being self-centered, et cetera, et cetera. So here's a vote for whatever you did.
Speaker 4:Oh, mark, you're right and it really is. And this is, you know, is something I speak about often because it's simple and it's easy for our children to receive the world, because the world is an inward flow of love. You go to any bookstore. They have a self-improvement section. Well, all of it is telling you how to feel better about yourself, self-empowerment, self, this, pick yourself up by the bootstraps. You got it. Go get them all of this self-empowerment culture and then all of the things of this world that we have available to us to feed that, to fill whatever darkness that we have inside of us, and our kids are wide open to receive it. But the character and nature of jesus christ is the antithesis of that. It is the outflowing, the outpouring of love. It is the greatest commandments. Love thy god with all your heart, mind and soul and love thy neighbors. You love yourself. We already know that we love ourselves. That's assumed. Don't fill that. Use that self-love and give it away. Amen, it's free.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey, sarge, you notice that little tidbit when Eric was talking about James 1.22. So I know why you like him. Now it wasn't hard to figure out why you two were magnetically connected about the don't just be here are the words, but go and do it. Yeah, see, you said do. Eric and Sarge and I are such do oriented. We're human doings, we're not human beings, so that that fits really nicely with us. Thank you, you can join the club Welcome to the box.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, exactly, that was easy. So, eric, here's, I have a question for you and I really you know we talk a lot about this, obviously, where you know, the podcast is about the transformational value of being an authentic community. You are like a doer, you're out there, you're serving, you're loving, you're going, you're doing your promptings, your obedience to the promptings of the Spirit. I've witnessed and I've watched and I participated in and it's, it's, it's awesome. Um, my question is you know, in this last year and a half, what, what role, if any, has you know community played in? You know, your growth? Like you're, you're, you know you've clearly, like you know you heard from God. He pursued you, you're you're, you know you've, clearly, like you know you heard from God, he pursued you, you're, you surrendered. You know holiness begins between you know God and us as individuals, god and our soul, and then you know the, the full expression of holiness plays out in community. So what does that look like for you, you, you know, in the last year and a half? So, um.
Speaker 4:Before christ I had one friend and he was awesome because he would tell me everything I wanted to hear, but mostly it was about him, uh, but when I did have a need he would be sure to tell me what I wanted to hear. After Christ, after getting saved, was really the first time I became vulnerable in front of other men. I wasn't taught to do that with my father and I was afraid of fear and judgment. With the friends or acquaintances that I've had throughout my life. I wasn't a popular kid, so I would always you know, hence the chrome. I would always polish that so no one could ever really see who I was. Um, but to have a friend or actually a brotherhood that, um, I could go to and say I failed as a father, I am failing as a husband, without any fear of judgment. For them to come around me and speak encouragement over me, pray, pray into me, pray for me, pray over my family, it has been integral to every aspect of my faith. I'm surrounded daily by either men that I'm discipling or men that are discipling me, and it's not just one that there's like, it's I don't know, it's countless at this point, and it reminds me. This is so important to remember.
Speaker 4:When we, when we start reading the book of Acts, so much is happening and like Jesus is transcending the heaven, all the disciples are gathered around, they go up in the upper room, like what's you know? Right before they go up in the upper room, 10 days before that jesus transcends to heaven, and he's like, oh, by the way, guys, hang tight, my father's gonna give you a gift. And and like what do they do? They're like, okay, just put yourself in their shoes for a minute, just see Jesus transcend to heaven. He's like just, be cool, chill out, dad's going to give you a gift.
Speaker 4:Well, for 10 days, from that moment to the day of Pentecost, they just hung out together, arm in arm, side by side. They didn't go off and do their own thing, they didn't go into their own little silos. They stayed in brotherhood and unity and in that community and it grew. And then they went up to the upper room. The Holy Spirit came down, it touched them and it transformed everything. Had they not stuck together in that brotherhood, everything, had they not stuck together in that brotherhood, we probably wouldn't be here today talking about this, because I'm not sure what would have happened to christianity because it could have been lost in that moment, and that is I. I would go far, so far as to say that family and community, our immediate family and our close, close friend groups, all of this community is the fabric that holds society together. Staten wants to rip that apart because it's a lot easier to pick off one than it is to pick off 12.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's awesome, thank you. Thank you for sharing that Sorry.
Speaker 4:So one word answer integral.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's helpful. So I want to make sure we have time to, you know, touch on the father and sons ministry, because I know how dear that is to your heart and there's. You know there's been a lot of um work that's gone into that and you know it's it's, it's um forming and shaping and I know you do a lot of different things with you know, uh, with with dads, but tell us a little bit about that ministry and you know, and, of course, how people can find out more about it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely so. Uh, the ministry started out of my failures, um, you know, just like my businesses started out of. I think I can do that better. That's how these companies, how I started these companies. Well, as a father, after I got saved, that was my exact thought. I think I can do this better than I have been doing.
Speaker 4:So I became intentional and that's such a key word, being intentional about every aspect of being a husband and being a father, especially the father of a boy. And what became evident to me is for me to succeed, I would have to become a son of Christ. I did that. I did it through humility and vulnerability and my son witnessed that happen and he goes to a local Christian school here called the King's Academy. And I approached the administration and I was hungry and thirsty and asked them do you have a father-son discipleship program that me and my son can join? And they said no, we don't. And I asked if they would mind if I did some research and could find something to bring to the school. I said go for it. And I went home. I did a bunch of research. I couldn't find anything. I woke up the next day at 3 am and I wrote a six-week father-son discipleship program and just the framework of it and built around the prodigal son and flushed it out over the following weeks and submitted it to the school and at the end of the school year, administration met and agreed to roll this program out. Now, literally a miracle that this happened. And, um, we ran the program in the fall of 2024.
Speaker 4:Uh, I partnered up with the elementary principal and we had a total of about 50 fathers and sons joined the program and a couple weeks in, um, my wife and I are sitting in the parking lot of the school and she's like you know, this is a really cool thing that you're doing. You should probably think about, you know, packaging it up and taking it to churches and taking it to other Christian schools. I'm like, yeah, sounds like a great idea. And being that she's from a marketing background, she's like, well, you need a name for this. So here I am, she's coming rattling off names. I'm on godaddy, everything's taken. And she's like, oh, I got it, I got it. Sons of men like, oh, yes, that is a really good name for this. Godaddy says it's taken and I get immediately indignant. I'm like who has this domain? This is my domain and I go to sonsofmencom and come to find out an author owns it.
Speaker 4:They wrote a book called Sons of Men and it's about raising biblical sons and becoming a biblical father. It's not available on Amazon. It's only available on amazon. It's only available on sons of men. And he has a comment section. And I was like hey, I'm eric, we're on the same path. Give me a call, I can't wait to read your book.
Speaker 4:I get the book and I start reading it. This is before we have our conversation with, before I have a conversation with the author. And I start sweating. Because here I am. I'm like Mr Dad, right, I wrote this program. I'm rolling it out. I'm like I got this fatherhood thing figured out. I'm reading this book. I'm like thinking to myself, oh man, I've got a lot to learn. Sanctification makes me visibly sweat. So I'm like sweaty and I'm like I, I gotta put this book down. Like that's like I went, like I'm in a little like neurotic in my head. I was like, oh man, I'm so wrong.
Speaker 4:Anyway, I ended up speaking to the author, brett Ernest. We have a three hour conversation and I find out that he's in Dahlonega, georgia, small town, georgia, up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We have a home up in the mountains of Georgia, about 40 minutes from where Brett lives. We've been into Dahlonega, georgia, probably 20 plus times in five years since we've owned the home. Never I mean he couldn't even he could have been in Walla Walla Washington. Never, I mean he couldn't even he could have been in Walla Walla Washington.
Speaker 4:So I asked Brett if he's willing to come down and speak to the school. He says sure. The school says yes, they hire him. He spends a week in South Florida. He wraps up our father-son discipleship program.
Speaker 4:He does the closing week and ends up speaking to a bunch of parents and uh, we've become super close and we're sitting at dinner one night and I'm like Brett, we have an opportunity to raise men together.
Speaker 4:Why don't we do a rite of passage? And he agreed. So that was right before Thanksgiving, the week before Thanksgiving last year. And since then we've been working diligently on a father-son rite of passage camp for seven to 13 year old boys and their dads to go out into the wilderness, just as Jesus did, to get away from the world and give dads an opportunity to be intentional with their sons, to experience a little suffering together, to learn new skills and then come together with those new skills and put them into use to learn how to navigate land, to build a shelter, to build a fire out of nothing, to build a trap and a snare, just like a world. I mean we fall into traps and snares because of this world. Why in Christ and learn how to use the word of God in our daily lives as that sword to protect our children and our families and be intentional about it and take away some great skills and lifetime memories Awesome.
Speaker 1:And the first one's coming up in May.
Speaker 4:May 2nd, 3rd and 4th and uh, such as Georgia, which is in the blue Ridge mountains. You can go to sonsofmencom and uh, that's obviously you can buy Brett's book there, uh, and then at the top you can see, you'll see a link for the right of passage camp.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at it right now. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I just encourage you to check it out. This is something that has been lost. It's something that needs to be brought back. It's so easy to hand our kids one of these phones, a video game, tv. It's hard to take our kids by the hands and lead them outside and do something as simple as pulling weeds out of your backyard together, and I can tell you that 30 minutes of intentionality on getting on your hands and knees with your son or daughter and pulling weeds will change their life and your life. That's simple, it costs nothing and it'll make your yard look better them, and it'll make your yard look better.
Speaker 1:Amen, amen. It's just an incredible coincidence Also there's a phase one of the same days that the father-son group is.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, you know, there there is a phase one, Markman, for Christ weekend in Pennsylvania. That weekend there's, um, you know, gosh, I mean there's there's so much going on and there's so much opportunity, and so really, I mean there's there's no excuse for I don't know where to go, or I don't know where to start, or, you know, I don't know who to cut, Like we've been saying now for 90 episodes, um, hey, if you don't know, reach out to us. We'll give you a long list of resources that are right in your neck of the woods, in your region, and so incredible opportunities. And so I'd encourage people to check out Sons of Men, sonsofmencom, and this was great. I mean honestly, Mark. Any final words?
Speaker 1:Well, just quickly, and uh, this was great. I mean honestly, um, Mark, any final words? Well, just quickly, Eric, thank you. Um, I, I heard words, the words that resonate with me the most, because you've, at the end here, intentionality, of course, but I heard heart. I heard you're on your knees, I heard sweat over and over, and these are those that formula your heart being down on your knees in front of our God. You know sweating, because it's our natural physical reaction to what the hell am I getting into, but I love it and those words really resonate with me and that's what I'll take with me from here. Thank you for that, and I think that the name of this episode, Sarge, is chaotic joy. I think I love that more than anything else I learned today.
Speaker 2:Chaotic joy is beautiful, beautiful, eric. Thank you, brother. Thank you for being with us in the foxhole, thanks for sharing your heart with us, thanks for sharing your story and for all that you do. We're cheering you on, man. We're cheering you on Press on. Keep going. I want to highlight I know how much time you spend abiding in him. You're not just a human doing, you really do practice being with the Father as his son. That's important to note.
Speaker 4:That's, I think, a good point for for me to close on that that abiding because it's through our abiding in him, he will dwell in us and that's how he shows up. And that that is a daily routine. And that looks routine. And that looks like waking up every day and surrender, surrendering your will, dying to that, dying to yourself, renouncing the things of this world that are going to attract you and pull you, that will create your anxieties and fears. That's you know those two. Surrender and renounce. That'll create your anxieties and fears. That's you know those two. Surrender and renounce. That's emptying out. Then you fill yourself with the Word of God, reading the Bible every single day and then listening to Him to speak to you and he will do that and then becoming obedient.
Speaker 2:Amen Brother, thank you for being with us. We appreciate you Absolutely. Thank you, guys, peace. Amen Brother, thank you for being with us. We appreciate you.
Speaker 4:Thank you guys, peace, peace.
Speaker 3:I shouldn't be amazed when I hear about God doing incredible things. He's God. That's what he does. Eric Butcher was spared from death by God. He was ministered to by God's people. He received scripture as if it were a downloaded mp3 file and now he regularly reads God's word to the orphans and widows. And he developed a retreat for fathers and sons to live out their relationships with each other in ways that glorify God. Wow, the words that come to mind when I think through Eric's story set apart redeemed, obedient, humble righteousness and blessings in action. 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: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.
