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Morning, guys. Welcome to the Sunday edition of the Mike Force Podcast. I hope you're having a good day, a good week. The Thousand Yard Stare. I had this idea last night when I was thinking about some experiences that really shaped me. Ranger school was one of them. There are many of those experiences, by the way, but Ranger school is one of them where I gained some perspective on this idea of how experience shapes us. You know, Ranger school is a 60, I think it was 70 plus days of simulated combat, sleep deprivation, and you eat. At the time that I went during the wintertime, it was one meal a day. And I describe a thousand yard stare because it was something that we often said. I remember sitting at Fort Benning, Georgia, at 4th Ranger Training Brigade, 4th RTB, and we were packing our rucks out, setting them in formation, getting ready for the trucks to move out to the field. Because every phase, three phases, there used to be four. But three phases of Ranger school are broken down into different environments. You have the mountains of Dahlonega, Georgia, Mount I believe it was Yonah. You have Eglin Air Force Base and the surrounding area where it's swamp phase. What? Fort Benning Sand Hill. There's a whole bunch of pine and poison ivy and oak, a lot of sand. The least favorite phase of Ranger school. As we were getting ready, we were only days from showing up. At the time, I was probably 220 pounds, really fit, really lean, less than 10% body fat. In hindsight, I should have been a lot more fat because I would have been a lot more happier. The food deprivation is what hurt me the most. I can get through the sleep. I think everybody typically does. It's the food, especially for bigger guys, that hurts the most. But we were fresh. We had our heads freshly shaved. We didn't look seasoned. I remember this perspective going to Eglin air Force Base. 6th RTB Ranger School. The, the last phase of Ranger school, when I took my special forces detachment, my ODA with my team leader, Craig Copic. We went to 6 RTB to kind of hang out and check out the area. And I remember looking at the Ranger students going, man, they look like kids. Well, that was me because I was 18, 19 years old. I look like a kid. And so I was for sure a cherry. I had a stem on top of my head. But looking at these Ranger students that showed up in a truck, they offloaded the rucks, they put them in formation, and they were just hanging out. They looked different. Our uniforms, for example, were nearly new. I mean, they were used woodland camo but they looked nearly new compared to theirs. Theirs were super faded, almost like tethered, like it looked like a prison of war, pajamas that you would give somebody. It was real thin, real light, faded. It didn't have the saturation that ours had. And their faces were different. They had facial hair almost like they had wrinkles in their face where they look more weathered and worn. And it's because they had. They had gone through all three phases of Ranger School. They were coming back to 4th RTV to out process and graduate. They were done where my journey had begun, and it was just kicking off. Their journey was coming to a close. But I noticed something in their stare, the way they looked off in the distance. They were changed. They were different men. Throughout phases of Ranger School. You go into the field for longer durations of time. You're sleep deprived, you're starving to death. I lost 30 pounds in Ranger school. And it's difficult, it's adversity that you are living in real time at the same time you're trying to patrol, make decisions under these stressors. Ironically, that's life. The lesson learned for me in Ranger School was that it was a shortcut for a real life experience. It's what training is. It was modeled after an idea of we need to be prepared as soldiers if our leadership is killed in combat like in Vietnam. We need to be able to understand the plan, the mission, the objective, and continue that mission, accomplish that objective and get home. So it's all these experiences from World War II, Vietnam, Korea, consolidated into a training experience in a short duration of time. But you learn so much about yourself, about others, and it changes you. Ironically, that's how life is. You go through a difficult time or an experience, and it changes you. You know, it's like when you see old men that you would consider to be wise. Across different cultures, age is associated with wisdom not because of intelligence alone, but because of lived experiences. Time under pressure produces discernment. Wisdom is often visible before it's spoken because they do have the thousand yard stare. And I've seen it. I see it in myself now, when I look in the mirror, when I look at myself in the camera, I am a changed human being from all the experiences that I've gone through. And so there's a lot of biblical framework in this. In Job 12:12, it says, Wisdom is with the age and understanding and length of days. In Proverbs 20:29, it says, the glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair. It's like you've earned that, which I don't have much of that yet, but I'm going to earn that. Many of us are scared to get old. It's intimidating. But it's a part and cycle of life. That's very significant because as you learn lessons, as you are learning from mentors and leaders and friends, it's your responsibility to give back. Whether it's a friend, father, whatever the role is. Teaching back to younger generations is always going to be a part of the cycle of life, of this life. God designed wisdom to come through endurance, not shortcuts. You know, God rarely grants perspective without hardship, without a journey. Scripture repeatedly shows God shaping people through long, uncomfortable processes. It's something that I've seen in some of my friends where I know they're calmer in their demeanor, they're more calculated, and I wonder why they are that way. And it turns out they had a hard childhood or a difficult upbringing or a significant professional journey or plenty of hardship. Romans 5, 3, 5 says, Suffering produces endurance. Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character. Character produces hope. Such an impactful, impactful scripture, James 1, 2, 4, says, testing produces steadfastness, so that we lack nothing. The process is not punishment, we often think. I thought many times over that this was punishment for something I did wrong. My mom thinks this might be punishment for the life that she lived and the difficulties she's had to overcome. And it's generational trauma, and it's just a cycle. It's a perpetuating cycle. No, it's our journey. The process is preparation. It is our preparation for what's to come. And it's hard. It's difficult for me to wrap my head around this, I'm telling you now with conviction, but it hasn't been so easy for me. The thousand yard stare often comes from losing control. When you don't have control over timing, outcomes, comfort, or even reputation, then we have a thousand yard stare because we've let go and control the strip so dependence can be built. The same thing that happens in life when people with complete conviction and commitment give their lives to Christ, to God. We let go and we have that thousand yard stare because we're not trying to control their narrative. God removes control not to weaken us, but to reorder the hierarchy of our personal needs and desires. I have no desire for alcohol, no desire for social media, no desire for popularity, no desire for toxic people in my comment section. I just don't deal with it. I move on with my life. More convicted in My commitments, my faith, my family. In that order. And I'll tell you from personal experience, men shaped by experience are less reactive. They are less emotional, more patient, more discerned. They speak less, but with more weight. Calculated. You guys know exactly what I'm talking about. It could have been your instructor or professor or a teacher or your father, somebody in your life who had been through it. And it takes us to go through it, to gain that perspective. And perspective shows up in how a man carries himself. So if you're going through it right now, what you could stop doing is resisting the process you are in. Because it's God's plan, not yours. You have intentions, you make choices, but the overall overarching strategy is his. So stop trying to control every outcome. I know you want the control. I do. It's natural. And recognize that discomfort may be the shaping phase. So instead, ask the questions, what is God teaching me right now in this moment? What perspective am I being formed for? And who will I be able to guide because of this season? 2 Corinthians 4, 16, 18 says, Temporary affliction producing eternal weight. The thousand yard stare is not something to fear. It is evidence that a man has walked through fire and learned to see clearly. I saw it the way that we looked at those men who had completed this journey just in Ranger school. In this phase of our life, we had profound respect for them. And then 70 plus days later, I was that man. Understand that perspective is a gift earned through obedience and endurance. Lastly, Isaiah 55, 8, 9 says, God's ways and thoughts are higher than yours. Really simple. If we just open our heart and listen. What is that saying that I learned in my I began experience. Trust your gut, listen to your heart, and question your mind. Thanks, guys.