Podcast: 365 Christian Men

November 25. David Brainerd. When Brainerd turned 20, he met Jesus. Brainerd writes: “My soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellence, loveliness, greatness … of God that I had no thought … at first, about my own salvation, and scarce reflected that there was such a creature as myself.” 

Brainerd’s love did not grow cold. In his diary, he recorded this prayer: “Here I am, Lord, send me; send me to the ends of the earth; send me to the rough, the savage pagans of the wilderness; send me from all that is called comfort on earth; send me even to death itself, if it be but in thy service, and to promote thy kingdom.” 

On this date in 1742, a Scottish missionary society called Brainerd as a missionary to Native Americans in Massachusetts. And Brainerd went—with much success. 

But a little more than five years later, at the age of 29, Brainerd lay dying—in the house of his friend Jonathan Edwards. Edwards wrote: “He spoke to some of my younger children, one by one. When someone came into his room with a Bible, Brainerd said, ‘Oh that dear book: that lovely book! I shall soon see it opened: the mysteries that are in it, and the mysteries of God’s providence, will all be unfolded.’”  

Danger often surrounds the believer, but God is our ultimate protection. 

Brainerd never felt qualified to be a missionary. 

In health, he was weak, and after riding a horse, he could barely walk. Sadness plagued him, and man, was it hard to spread the gospel to the Native American tribes of New England. Seemed he ate every meal with a side-dish of discouragement. 

But within him, Brainerd had an undeniable fire. He burned to share the gospel. 

He had his eye on visiting a particular settlement, but the natives who lived there had already been badly hurt by “visitors.” Through alcohol and greed of some of the Christians, the natives had come to see them as false and hypocritical. The natives wanted nothing to do with Christianity and often attacked any new settlers who came too close. 

Brainerd’s friends begged him not to go. The settlement was far away in a dense forest, and they feared the natives would kill him. 

But he ignored their protests and packed a tent and some essentials and headed into the forest. The journey was long, but uneventful. 

Just outside the settlement, Brainerd pitched his tent, so he could pray and prepare for the first meeting. 

But—unknown to Brainerd—some natives had followed him the last leg of his trip and watched him set up his tent. They hurried back to their chief to report that another one of those Christians had dared to enter their land. 

It didn’t take long for the native council and their chief to dispatch a group of warriors to remove the intruder. 

The warriors hid among the trees and watched Brainerd’s tent. He was still inside—probably still asleep. So the natives decided that as soon as he walked outside the tent, they would attack with arrows. They waited for him in silence. 

But soon, they became impatient. Brainerd had been inside for too long. The warriors decided to slink closer to the tent to see what the missionary was up to. 

They inched the tent flap back and saw Brainerd on his knees. He was saying words to God and asking Him to help the natives realize He loved them and sent Jesus to die for them. Such words sounded too good to be true. The strange visitor was talking to an Invisible Being— 

Just then, from the ground, came a sudden hiss. 

There! A rattlesnake had slithered toward Brainerd. And the man was still all focused on talking to the Invisible Being. They knew they should have run, but they couldn’t stop looking. 

The snake slid in behind the missionary, ready to sink its fangs into Brainerd’s neck and poison him, but then it stopped. Head raised, it seemed to be looking around. It didn’t even hiss. 

Why didn’t the snake move? the natives wondered. Why didn’t it kill the missionary? 

Then the snake lowered its head, turned around, and glided out of the tent. 

The warriors were shocked, but the strange missionary didn’t notice anything had happened. The warriors ran back to the chief and reported. 

Later, when Brainerd went out to the village to meet the people, the tribe welcomed him with warmth. Led by their chief, the people seemed happy to meet him. And soon they told about the rattlesnake who had refused to kill him. Now, the tribe understood that the strange visitor was under the protection of the Great Spirit. 

Brainerd was awestruck at how easily God brought him to the once-unreachable village. They wanted to hear his message. He told how God sent Jesus to die for them and take away their sins. 

Brainerd was kind and loving, bringing them a message of hope. 

“‘Because he loves me,’ says the LORD, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name’” (Psalm 91:14 NIV). 

Has there ever been a moment when you were in danger, but God protected you? Danger often surrounds the believer, but God is our ultimate protection. 

Calhoun, David B. “David Brainerd: ‘A Constant Stream.’” Knowing & Doing. Summer, 2011. https://​www.cslewisinstitute.org/​David% 20Brainerd_​A_Constant_​Stream_​SinglePage. 

Edwards, Jonathan. “The Life and Diary of the Rev. David Brainerd.” The Revival Library. Published by Tony Cauchi. Accessed August 19, 2020. http://www.revival-library.org/index.php/catalogues-menu/1725/the-life-and-diary-of-the-rev-david-brainerd. 

Story read by: Daniel Carpenter 

Story written by: Darren Sapp, darrenlsapp@gmail.com 

November 23. Sujo John. It’s been about two decades since Sujo and his wife Mary left Calcutta and moved to New York City. 

In 2008, Sujo started “I Am Second,” a Dallas-based nonprofit experiment. His question was: What would happen if he cast a vision of a life lived for something greater than himself? 

To answer that, his group started by telling twenty short-film stories about real people who had adopted a vision of a life lived for “something greater” even though they had gone through life-shattering events. By 2020, Sujo offered more than 130 films—stories told by actors, athletes, musicians, business leaders, addicts, and survivors plus written content and even free access to coaches to help people embrace this mindset. The content has been viewed more than 120 million times by people in more than 230 countries or ​territories. It helps a lot of people. 

When Sujo and Mary first left Calcutta and moved to New York City, both were able to get good jobs. But it was 2001, and their offices were in the World Trade Center. Here’s what happened. 

Eternity poses one question with only two answers. 

On September 11, 2001, sitting at his desk on the eighty-first floor, Sujo was lost in thought. He was struggling with the reality that as a Christian he wasn’t sharing the gospel with others. He didn’t know what to do. What was God’s purpose in his life? 

Those questions would have to wait. He got up and headed to the fax machine— 

Then the world around him exploded. And the concussion knocked him down. The air filled with smoke, dust, and office debris. Shattered glass pelted him. 

Sujo stood, and the entire building tilted. Through the windows, he could see fireballs shooting out from the floors above him. Fires broke out all around him, and jet fuel from the upper floors seemed to feed the fires. 

Sujo picked his way around the jumble of office furniture heaped around him. He had to get to his coworkers and get down to the exit. He had to get out! 

The stairwell was already packed with office workers from the floors above the eighty-first floor. It was slow going as the office workers flattened against the wall to make room for first responders heading up to the higher floors. Sujo wondered if those firefighters and medical teams would ever come back down. 

It took fifty minutes for Sujo to reach the ground floor, and he rushed to the main entrance. He had to get to the South Tower to find his wife Mary and their unborn child. 

But outside the situation was worse. The air—thick with soot and dust—made it hard to see where he was going. Then another explosion rocked the ground. 

Right in front of him, the South Tower started to collapse. Turning back, Sujo joined a group of fifteen or twenty people. But nobody knew which way to go or what to do. 

Standing there, Sujo’s heart was filled with a burning thought; did these people know about Jesus? Anxiety for them—for their eternal wellbeing—overcame him, and he started to yell, “Call upon the name of the Lord, and you will be saved!” 

Even though he was hollering in his own voice, Sujo felt the assurance of the Holy Spirit speaking to each person there on the crumbling plaza. The entire group of men and women of many different faiths and perhaps some with no faith at all joined Sujo and cried out to Jesus to save them. 

As the South Tower continued to fall, the soot and ash made it almost impossible to see. Falling debris piled all around, and somehow Sujo lost touch with the group. He couldn’t see them. Wasn’t sure of the direction. He was desperately trying to locate them—when the world around him erupted … the North Tower was collapsing. 

Climbing over and around the rubble, he finally found them. They were all lying dead in the debris—in the spot where moments before they had called on Jesus to save them. 

“Jesus, they just called upon your name. Why didn’t they make it? What had happened to them?” 

Sujo stood there all alone, and the thought that he would soon join them overwhelmed him. There seemed to be no way out. 

Then he heard that still small voice. “Son, they made their peace with me in their dying moments. They are resting with me in glory.” 

Just then, through the dust and smoke, Sujo saw a blinking red light. He crawled over the rubble, and kept his eyes fixed on the red light. When he got to the street, there was nothing but a tangled wreck of vehicles. At the bottom was a crushed ambulance with one blinking red light … shining directly in his face. 

“I know that God placed that light there to lead me out of Ground Zero that morning.” His wife Mary was also spared. She had been late and had never made it to her job in the South Tower. 

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26 NIV). 

Eternity poses one question with only two answers. What have you chosen? 

John, Sujo. Do You Know Where You Are Going—One Man’s Story of September 11 and the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ. Hendon, VA: Lantern Books, 2002.  

John, Sujo. “I Am Second.” White Chair Film. YouTube video. Published August 29, 2011. https://​www.youtube.com/​watch? v=CryxwzBuldc. 

Story read by: Blake Mattocks 

Story written by: Thomas Mitchell, http://www.walkwithgod.org/ 

November 22. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. On this date in 1851, Jackson proclaimed his faith in Jesus publicly. He was 27 years old. By this time, he had graduated from West Point and had demonstrated his bravery in the Mexican-American War. He was promoted to Brevet General and then to Lieutenant General. Today’s story shows a little bit of how he began his career. 

When a man is determined to learn, a poor start can become a rich finish. 

Jackson arrived at West Point wearing Virginian homespun clothes and a felt hat. To hold his gear, he had slung saddlebags across his shoulders. But the other cadets were all well-dressed. His stance was awkward, his appearance “uncultured,” and “he felt like a duck in the desert.” 

As an Appalachian orphan, compared to his classmates he had too little education, and his appearance underwhelmed. But what he lacked in spectacle, he made up for in grit. 

He set to work right away, studying and trying his best to learn, but everything was a struggle. His lack of background education made his work harder, and he had always been a slow learner. His class ranking hovered toward the bottom even though he worked hard just to pass. 

Whenever the teachers called him to the blackboard to solve math problems, he pressed so hard against the board that his face and clothes got covered in chalk. French class and drawing class challenged him terribly, and in infantry tactics, he was barely above middle grade. His first year, he felt so sure he was going to fail that he prepared a speech for his friends back home. He wrote that it was so hard they would fail too. 

And then came the taunts. 

His classmates saw Jackson as different. They hazed him for it, put him through rough exercises, forced him to run drills. They would make sure he failed. 

But he kept on. He would not give up. He would not lose his temper. He would not let the doubters get under his skin. He wasn’t at West Point for his classmates or for his teachers. He was there to be the best soldier he could be and to learn, no matter how long it took him. 

As lights went out at West Point for the night and Extinguish Lights was bugled, he put some coal in a grate, lit a tiny fire, lay on the floor, and huddled close to the light, so he could continue his studies as the other cadets slept. If he didn’t understand the previous lessons, he wouldn’t force himself forward until he was ready. Even if he was behind a day, he kept at it. A slow pace was better than skipping the lessons altogether. 

His perseverance kept him on a focused path, and things began to change. Even his classmates noticed it. One, Dabney Maury, said that Jackson “looks as if he had come to stay.” Improvements didn’t happen immediately, nor did they happen in great jumps. 

But as each month and year passed, Jackson’s marks took a steady climb, and when the four years of study ended and he graduated, he finished seventeenth out of seventy-two and was appointed a Second Lieutenant of Artillery. 

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4 NIV). 

Think of a task that has been difficult for you. How can perseverance help you accomplish your goals? When a man is determined to learn, a poor start can become a rich finish. 

White, Henry Alexander. American Crisis Biographies: Stonewall Jackson. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Company, 1908. Internet Archive. Accessed August 17, 2020. https://archive.org/details/stonewalljackson01whit. 

Chase, William C. Story of Stonewall Jackson. Atlanta: D. E. Luther Publishing Company, 1901. Internet Archive. Accessed August 17, 2020. https://archive.org/details/storyofstonewall01chas. 

Story read by: Chuck Stecker 

November 21. Mike Ratliff. Today’s story is about the time back when Mike was 37 years old. He was a loving and conscientious pastor who spent his time and his prayer caring for others. Then this happened. 

Anxiety doesn’t mean your faith is weak. It means you have work to do. 

Mike was in a deep sleep when he was suddenly jolted awake. His heart raced. The air was stifling. His breath felt like it was being pulled from his lungs, and he gasped to get it back. A terrible sense of doom hovered over him, and his mind felt overwhelmed with fear. 

Mike felt like he was going to die at any moment, and he raced outside in the middle of the night. Settling on his porch, he forced the fresh air into his lungs. Though he had felt the panic before, it never came on him as strong as that night. He had never felt such an impending sense of doom that overtook all his senses and demanded relief now. 

The next day, he saw a doctor who diagnosed him with panic disorder. The doctor said Mike had had a nervous breakdown. 

Panic attacks? Anxiety? Nerves? He had rarely even thought such words. It was 1992, and he was a pastoral leader in the church. Men like him didn’t have problems like that; he was the one who helped others with their problems. What would his fellow church-goers think if they knew the man they saw at the pulpit struggled like this? He was a man of faith, not fear! 

But the doctor could see that—despite his faith and love for God—fear was plaguing Mike. He reminded Mike the panic he was feeling wouldn’t kill him or make him stop breathing, but it was still a serious issue. One that warranted a visit to the psychiatrist. 

Mike agreed, desperate to feel like his normal self again. After some tests and talks, Mike learned that he also had some depression. But the psychiatrist repeated what Mike’s family doctor had said. The panic wouldn’t last forever. It wouldn’t kill him or make him stop breathing, despite how he felt during an attack. 

But the psychiatrist went one step further. He asked Mike if he wanted to overcome the anxiety. 

Of course, Mike said, “Yes.” He wanted the panic attacks to stop. 

The psychiatrist prayed with Mike at each session and told him to remind himself daily that he had the strength to overcome the panic. Even though others in his family struggled with panic, Mike still had the strength to fight the fear. 

Mike had to tell himself, “I know what this is. I’ve been through this before, and it’ll pass. It won’t last forever.” Mike repeated those words daily, even on days he didn’t have panic attacks. The psychiatrist also gave him some temporary medications to help with the fight, and he continued sessions with the doctor to check on his progress. 

“You can conquer it,” the psychiatrist said. 

And Mike was determined to conquer it. 

Recovery became a daily practice—not always easy. But within time, relief began to show. After two months, the anxiety lessened. Within five months, Mike was no longer on medication. Within six months, Mike was anxiety-free. 

For 13 years, the panic had been gone. But in 2005, it returned. Mike had another panic attack. At first, he dreaded feeling the terrible anxiety again. He didn’t want to repeat his experiences from more than a decade before. But he remembered his old routine. “I overcame it before,” Mike told himself. “I can overcome it again.” 

He repeated the same words he did before. Once again, the panic went away. 

Mike’s struggle with panic disorder wasn’t easy to overcome. And a lot of people didn’t understand how he felt or how he could feel such fear despite being a man of faith who loved God. But Mike learned that feeling anxiety didn’t mean his faith was weak. 

Rather, his faith gave him the strength to overcome anxiety. He and his psychiatrist had prayed before his sessions, and he was reminded that even though he was getting medical help, his faith could work along with the doctors. 

“Faith requires work on our part,” Mike said. And his victory over anxiety led him to a new ministry that went past the pulpit and into the classroom. Because Mike had struggled with panic attacks, he was able to relate to others who suffered and to help them overcome their anxiety and other mental-health disorders. Mike spent years working as a counselor. 

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV). 

Do you see any signs of anxiety in your life? If so, what is the next step in dealing with it? Anxiety doesn’t mean your faith is weak. It means you have work to do. 

Based on an interview with Mike Ratliff, July 17, 2019. 

Story read by: Daniel Carpenter 

November 20. Ron Sandison. Early on, Ron was diagnosed as autistic, but Ron is not disabled; he is differently abled. He never had it easy, but he had parents who loved him and knew enough to teach him to pray. 

The day Ron was baptized, his pastor told him: “I feel this verse is for you: Joel 2:25, ‘I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.’ Your blessings will begin today.” 

Ron went to college on a track scholarship and then to graduate school on an academic scholarship. On this date in 2016, Ron taught a Michigan audience how to build self-esteem in their children with autism. 

In the right hands, a challenge can show off God’s greatness. 

Ron was still young when experts heaped a bunch of imaginary limits on him. One expert advised Ron’s mom, “He will never read beyond a seventh-grade level, he’ll never attend college, he’ll never have meaningful relationships, and he won’t excel in sports.” 

But these dire predictions didn’t hold Ron back. “My mom was determined to prove the experts wrong,” said Ron. The relentless belief and committed support of his parents lit a fire in Ron that caused him to excel. And Ron saw the world through the belief: “God empowers us with grace to overcome every obstacle.” 

At the 2002 Commencement at Oral Roberts University, thousands of attendees streamed in. As Ron stepped into the Mabee Center to be honored as a 4.0 Masters of Divinity graduate, his keen memory played a mini-movie of the lifetime of investment in him his parents had made, the many years of his own hard work, and the impossibilities that God had made possible for him. 

He remembered: “Mom gave up her career as an art teacher to become a full-time ‘Ron teacher.’” She educated herself about autism while she taught him how to see his uniqueness as a gift, rather than a limitation. She inspired a valuable perspective in his uncommon mind, which caused him to conquer challenge after challenge. He wasn’t taught that he couldn’t; he was taught that he could. And he believed it. 

He remembered the prairie-dog toy he had bonded with during his seventh Christmas, and he remembered learning how to read and write like his friends. Then, in the fifth grade, he had entered an art contest with one of his prairie-dog posters—and he won. 

He remembered the rush of pride he had felt during his first brush with notoriety as he smiled for his photo with the captain of the Detroit Pistons basketball team and future Hall of Fame inductee, Isaiah Thomas. 

In the theater of his mind, Ron heard the crowd cheering him on as an eighth-grade track star at Heart Middle School while he set his third school record. 

As he sat down in his seat for the commencement, Ron took in the moment. 

After the opening ceremony, rows of graduates made their way toward the stage to receive their diplomas. Ron watched in anticipation until it was time for his section to go forward. He stood and joined his peers in this extraordinary moment. 

Ron stepped onto the stage and approached the podium with a wide smile. His Master of Divinity diploma was placed into his hands, and he held another confirmation of his belief that obstacles can be overcome by the grace of God. And a life that could have been defined by limits became an example of God’s strength made perfect in weakness. 

“Thanks to the help of my parents and the grace of God, I am living my dream,” he said. 

“He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (Isaiah 40:29–31 NASB). 

A problem can become a turning point if it lands in the right hands. How’s your catch? In the right hands, a challenge can show off God’s greatness. 

Sandison, Ron. “I Am Able.” Spectrum. Posted in 2015. https://www.spectruminclusion.com/videos/. 

Sandison, Ron. “Value Everyone | Special Needs | Ron Sandison.” Posted February 11, 2018. https://vimeo.com/255271381. 

Story read by: Joel Carpenter 

Story written by: Shelli Mandeville, https://worthy.life/ 

November 19. Bill McCartney. When Bill was hired as head coach for the University of Colorado’s Colorado Buffalos, he said, “I promise you we will have a program built on integrity, honesty, and character.” 

That’s how Bill ran his whole life. As a coach, he won ninety-three games, three Big Eight championships, and a national championship.  

In 1990. Bill founded Promise Keepers— one of the biggest movements of God in history. In 1997, more than a million men assembled to take a public stand for Christ. By 2020, Promise Keepers has influenced seven-million men.  And it is still helping men “fulfill their destinies as godly husbands, fathers, and leaders.” 

On this date in 1994, Bill resigned as Colorado University’s Buffalos head coach. Here’s what happened. 

Climbing the ladder of success only works if there’s room for your family on the way up. 

In 1994, at the pinnacle of his coaching career, Bill had an undefeated football team, a monumental men’s ministry, and a marriage scarcely fastened to reality. His next critical play was as a husband and father. 

As if running the football program at the University of Colorado and taking the team to new heights in victory weren’t enough, Bill started an international men’s ministry, Promise Keepers. 

And at Promise Keepers events, tens of thousands of men gathered to be encouraged, to become better husbands, fathers, and men of God. It became the largest men’s event of its kind in America. 

Life’s back seat, a place to which Bill’s wife Lyndi had grown accustomed, was taking a toll on her emotionally and physically. Battling an eating disorder, she lost eighty pounds, rarely came out of her bedroom, and fought suicidal thoughts. “I just felt like I was getting smaller and smaller.” 

Bill, unaware of his wife’s trauma, failed to practice at home what he had been teaching at those stadiums full of men. Lyndi said he was like a plumber. “A plumber never fixes anything at home,” she said. “He’s always out fixing everybody else’s plumbing.… I felt like God was the only one I could trust.” 

But on most Sundays, Bill and Lyndi sat in their customary seats at their home church and worshiped together. This particular Sunday, a guest preacher stood in the pulpit. 

He had a message that he said he considered the most important lesson he had learned in all his years of preaching. “Do you want to know whether a man has character or not? All you have to do is look at his wife’s countenance, and everything that he’s invested or withheld will be in her face.” 

“She was sitting right next to me,” Bill said. “I turned and looked at my wife, and I didn’t see splendor, I saw torment. I didn’t see contentment, I saw anguish, and I tried to defend myself to myself, but I couldn’t. That’s really the reason I stepped out of coaching. I realized that before God I was a man without character.” 

“Escorting my wounded wife out to the church parking lot, I began to pray about the timing of my resignation from the University of Colorado.” 

On November 19, 1994, Bill called a news conference, and with Lyndi at his side, he announced his retirement from coaching to spend more time with his wife and family. 

In that brave moment, their healing began. 

“What a real man does is he lays down his life for his wife and that enables her to blossom and become everything she could be,” Bill said. “Whenever a man takes time to really listen and serve his wife, she blooms like a flower. I didn’t always understand that.” 

“For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:23–25 NIV). 

If life slaps you in the face, how will you respond? Ignore it, or change? Climbing the ladder of success only works if there’s room for your family on the way up. 

Morley, Patrick. “The Next Christian Men’s Movement.” Christianity Today. Posted on September 15, 2000. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/september4/6.84.html. 

Lanferman, John. “Marriage Problems? Biblical Marriage (Part 1).” Posted March 7, 2011. http://johnlanferman.blogspot.com/2011/03/marriage-problems-biblical-marriage.html. 

Goodstein, Laurie. “A Marriage Gone Bad Struggles for Redemption.” New York Times, October 29. 1997. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/29/us/a-marriage-gone-bad-struggles-for-redemption.html. 

Story read by: Chuck Stecker 

Story written by: Shelli Mandeville, https://worthy.life/