More to This Life

Summary

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The Wake-Up Call – "More to This Life"

Host: John David Walt
Date: March 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this Monday episode, John David Walt invites listeners to shake off the Monday "struggles" (not "blues") and awaken to the deeper, transformative life available through Jesus. Drawing inspiration from Philippians 3:10–11 and Stephen Curtis Chapman’s song "More to This Life," the episode explores the difference between knowing about Jesus and truly knowing Him, sharing personal stories and spiritual insights to encourage listeners to pursue the “more” that Jesus offers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Monday Struggles & Community Awakening

• John greets listeners of all ages beginning their day—kids heading to school, parents at work, shift workers ending a long night—recognizing the shared need for community and spiritual awakening.
• Quote: “We don’t want to sleepwalk through another day, especially this one.” (01:06)

Consecration Prayer (01:27)

• The episode opens with a reflective prayer, focusing on belonging to Jesus, setting minds and hearts on Him, and offering one’s body as a living sacrifice.

2. Scripture Focus: Philippians 3:10–11

• John reads and reflects on this central passage, highlighting Paul’s desire to know Christ, experience resurrection power, embrace suffering, and attain resurrection life.
• Quote: “I want to know Christ, yes. To know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (03:53)

Encouragement for the New Year (05:05)

• John encourages those who haven’t yet found a guiding word for 2026 to consider this passage, pointing out the year is still very young and full of possibility.

3. Donut Diagram: Knowing vs. Knowledge (05:25)

• Recaps last week’s illustration:
  • Left Circle: Knowledge / Information / Religious practices / "A PhD in donatology" / Knowing about Jesus
  • Right Circle: Knowing / Revelation / Experienced relationship / "Six donuts later" / Actually knowing Jesus
• The overlap—what happens when knowledge becomes real experience—he names “Awakening” or “Holy Discontent.”
• Quote: “Here’s how I would label the overlap between the two circles: Awakening.” (06:46)

4. Personal Story – “More to This Life” (07:00)

• John shares a formative moment from law school—driving on empty, listening to “More to This Life”—experiencing a deep sense of emptiness and the search for meaning.
• Relates the lyrics, especially this line:
  • Quote: “Life just goes on.” (08:12)
• Recognizes the universal tendency to “keep up” or “get ahead” without clear purpose, and the danger of “going through the motions.”

Seed of Awakening (09:35)

• Chapman’s refrain resonates:
  • Quote/Song Lyric:
    “Oh, there's more to this life than living and dying
    More than just trying to make it through the day
    More to this life
    More than these eyes alone can see
    And there's more that this

Transcript

[John David Walt]

Foreign.

It is Monday, March 2nd, in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm John David Walt and this is your wake up call. Delighted to be with you. The second day of March and let's dive right in. It's Monday.

[David Walt]

Let's know we've got the. I'm not going to say they're the, I don't know, they're not the Monday

[John David Walt]

blues,

[David Walt]

but they could be the Monday struggles.

[John David Walt]

There's a difference.

[David Walt]

So let's, let's get our coffee, let's open our Bibles

[John David Walt]

and let's wake up together to Jesus. That's what we're doing here every single day. We have to wake up to the

[David Walt]

day, our bodies have to wake up.

[John David Walt]

We've got to just get going. Same thing, our souls. We gotta wake up to Jesus. We don't want to sleepwalk through another day, especially this one. So, consecration, you ready? Deep breath.

[David Walt]

Wake up, sleeper.

[John David Walt]

Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you.

[David Walt]

I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

[John David Walt]

Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[David Walt]

Just a special word of greeting. If anybody has the Monday blues, it's going to be all you kids out there who are getting up and going to school today. And I see you riding in the back of that van with your mom or your dad or maybe you're in a truck or maybe you're wherever.

[John David Walt]

But you're probably on your way to school and I just want you to

[David Walt]

know I see you back there and

[John David Walt]

I got good news for you. Spring break is coming. Okay?

[David Walt]

Just hold on. You're going to make it and it's going to be worth it.

[John David Walt]

And I'm so. It just gives me joy to know that I'm talking to, to a 10 year old and a 5 year old and a 15 year old and a college student and young mom and I. I just see you all out there. I know I'm talking to grandparents and parents, talking to people on their way to work. People maybe just getting off the shift and they're on their way home. But we need each other. We need Jesus together.

[David Walt]

That's why we say that we in

[John David Walt]

the consecration prayer, because it's not just me, it's us. So how about we dive into today's entry? Let's get the word of God open and let's win this Monday. Today's entry is entitled More to this Life. Our text is Philippians, chapter 3, verses 10 and 11. Hear now the word of the Lord. I want to know Christ, yes. To know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. I know I quoted that a little bit different than what's seen in the Wake up call entry.

[David Walt]

That. That's the. I call it the OG niv. And the one I learned it in.

[John David Walt]

This is a cortex for me. And. And I just thought, even as I was going through it, there's some of you who haven't yet landed on a new word from God for the new year 2026.

[David Walt]

It's not too late.

[John David Walt]

There's so much more of the year ahead of us than behind us. This could be that word. I commend it to you. It is so Core. Philippians 3, verses 10 and 11. And if you want to go with the version I gave, which I think is the best one, that is, that's the NIV 1984, the OG NIV. All right, now consider this. I'm still thinking about the overlap of those two circles from last week. You remember the two donuts? You're still thinking about them, too. Remember we labeled the left hand circle knowledge and the right hand circle knowing.

[David Walt]

Of course there are.

[John David Walt]

There are other possible labels.

[David Walt]

Here are a few. Left hand

[John David Walt]

information. Right hand revelation. Left hand religious practices. Right hand experienced relationship.

[David Walt]

Left hand a PhD in donatology.

[John David Walt]

Right hand, six donuts later.

[David Walt]

Left hand knowing about Jesus.

[John David Walt]

Right hand actually knowing Jesus. Jesus.

[David Walt]

So here's how I would label the

[John David Walt]

overlap between the two circles. Awakening.

[David Walt]

Surprise.

[John David Walt]

Awakening.

[David Walt]

I still remember it like it was yesterday. It was back in my law school days when I was searching for the way forward. I was driving down a country road with the windows down, probably because I

[John David Walt]

was running out of gas. And dad always taught me, when the

[David Walt]

needle gets down on empty and the light comes on, you better turn off everything in the car.

[John David Walt]

Air conditioner, radio, all of it, to

[David Walt]

get where you're going before you run out.

[John David Walt]

Well, I didn't have the radio off because Stephen Curtis Chapman was singing.

[David Walt]

He was singing a song that was

[John David Walt]

new at that time, more to this life. And in that song, he reflects on watching people walk by. He says, today I watched in silence as people passed me by, and I strained to see if there was something hidden in their eye. But they all look back at me as if to say, life just goes on the lyrics deeply resonated with me and reflected what I was seeing around me, even to some degree, feeling within myself. For sure. Everyone and everything around me seemed to lack meaning and purpose and destiny.

[David Walt]

Most people around me were just trying to keep up.

[John David Walt]

Same with me. Did I mention I was in law school? I was also.

[David Walt]

Yeah, they were trying to keep up. And the rest of the people who weren't trying to keep up were like laboring to get ahead.

[John David Walt]

But for what? I kept asking myself. They had lost the movement of life and were just going through the motions of it all. That's when I heard the chorus to the song. And it cries out that there's more to life than just getting by or getting ahead or getting everything you want. This song became the seed of my awakening.

[David Walt]

He would sing, oh, there's more to this life than living and dying More than just trying to make it through the day More to this life More than these eyes alone can see and

[John David Walt]

there's more that this life alone can be. That song became the seed of my awakening. I'd been in church all my life, appreciative of it, yet not markedly impacted by it. I had enough knowledge about God and I had religious practices. The problem I had is I only knew what I knew. I knew going to church and reading my Bible or. Or at least a shallow devotional most mornings.

[David Walt]

I knew trying harder to do more, to be better.

[John David Walt]

I knew what most people I knew knew. I knew a form of religion without the power. The other problem I had is I did not know what I did not know. I didn't have a category for a real living and dynamic relationship with God, or an experiential faith, or the dramatic reality of knowing Jesus and the power of his resurrection, or I didn't know most of the things the New Testament describes as the Christian faith. Something tells me at least some of

[David Walt]

you know exactly what I'm talking about.

[John David Walt]

And more of you once camped out there with me for longer than you care to remember. There's another word I might suggest for that overlap right of the two circles, the two donuts. It's the condition preceding the reality of awakening. Holy discontent. I know that's two words. Holy discontent. Holy discontent is the sense of having a splinter in your soul.

[David Walt]

You know, you just trying to get it out, you know it's in there,

[John David Walt]

you can't quite get to it. It's driving you a little bit bonkers. You know there's more than you got.

[David Walt]

You know there's gotta be more. And there's More than you got.

[John David Walt]

And that's what awakened in me that day that I was driving down a country road and heard that song. More to this life than living and dying. More to this life than just trying to make it through the day. More to this life than just living for the next big game or the next big vacation or you just fill in the blank. But the bigger question is so what? So what? So what if there were more to this life, even your life, more than just more of what you already have and know. Would you want it? We're, we're, we're edging into the big question Jesus asking would you want it? Let's pray.

[David Walt]

Our Father, how we thank you for

[John David Walt]

your son Jesus and Lord Jesus. You are the more to this life and we want more of you. Come Holy Spirit, and fully awaken me to the more that you have for me. Praying in Jesus name. Amen.

[David Walt]

Couple of journal prompts.

[John David Walt]

Have you ever sensed or do you

[David Walt]

know

[John David Walt]

that there is more to life than you presently know or experience? And where have you sought to find that more? That's a question. Where have you sought to find that more? Second home, Third home.

[David Walt]

Fourth home.

[John David Walt]

Nothing wrong with having more than one home. But that's not going to be where you find the more better. Vacation Marriage. Okay, good as it is. You can find a lot in marriage, for better or for worse, for richer, for poor. But that's not the more that is the more to this life. Yeah, you're going to need it there.

[David Walt]

Here's the question.

[John David Walt]

Could do you think Jesus could be.

[David Walt]

The more.

[John David Walt]

Are you ready to cross over from knowledge about him to actually knowing Him?

[David Walt]

That doesn't mean learning more about him.

[John David Walt]

Okay, that's temptation and the trap. Just keep doing more of the thing we're doing, expecting to get something new out of it. Here's the secret. You just get very real with him. That's what Paul was doing in the Bible, in our text, in a letter to the Philippians. I want to know Jesus Christ

[David Walt]

and

[John David Walt]

the power he says of his resurrection. I don't want to just know it as something I say in the Apostles Creed or something I believe in my head. I want to know the power of his resurrection. Kids, you can know the power of Jesus resurrection. The same spirit that rose Jesus from the dead would live in.

[David Walt]

You

[John David Walt]

just needs to wake. You just need to wake up. And the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. You know what? He'll take what you're suffering through and

[David Walt]

he'll bring it into the fellowship of his suffering.

[John David Walt]

And he'll begin to give meaning to your suffering that you can't make sense

[David Walt]

out of not saying. He's going to say, here's the reason. I got a reason for that.

[John David Walt]

No, no. He's going to say, I'm in it with you. I understand. I know what you're going through. And we're going to go through this. Now, that's fellowship. I'm going to show you what it's like to be me as I learn from you what it's like to be you. Because I already know.

[David Walt]

Becoming like him in his death, which

[John David Walt]

means letting go of all that is broken about our life and somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. It's like all this in forever. Yeah. All right.

[David Walt]

I could go on all Monday morning. You know that. I'm way past. I'm over time. We're going a little long this morning. Hope the car line just kind of goes slow for you kids today, so we can sing with me and dad, but that's where we're going now.

[John David Walt]

Let's go sing together on this Monday.

All right, everybody, It's Monday. It's a new week. It is a new month. March 2nd.

[David Walt]

You know what March 3rd is?

March 3rd. Somebody's birthday.

[John David Walt]

Who?

[Singer 1]

Yours?

[John David Walt]

That's.

My birthday's tomorrow, guys. And I will be 59.

[David Walt]

59.

[John David Walt]

So easing on up there more day of me being 58 and you being

85,

because that's been a special time. I think these songs have had something to do with that. Well, we're going to sing out this Monday. We got a. This is a wake up song. And, you know, that's what we've been talking about in the entry today was more to this life. Like, sometimes I think we just have a blurry view of Jesus or we see him in black and white and something happens. And all of a sudden we're like, oh, I can see clearly now. I stand amazed what are we singing today?

[David Walt]

I stand amazed in the presence.

[John David Walt]

Yes. So we're going to sing that one today. You probably know this one.

And

bring joy to our hearts. You ready?

[Singer 1]

I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me a sinner condemned Acclaim

[Singer 2]

how marvelous, how wonderful and my song shall ever be how marvelous, how wonderful

[Singer 1]

is my Savior's love for me for me it was in the garden he prayed not my will but thine he had no tears for his own griefs but sweat drops of blood for mine

[Singer 2]

how marvelous, how wonderful on my song shall ever be How Marvelous how wonderful

[Singer 1]

is my savior's love for me he took my sins and my sorrows he made his very own he bore my burden to Calvary and suffered and died

[Singer 2]

alone how marvelous, how wonderful and my song shall ever be how marvelous, how

[Singer 1]

wonderful is my savior's love for me Last verse. When with love ransomed in glory his face I last shall see Will be my joy through the ages to sing of love for me all you got, Church.

[Singer 2]

How marvelous, how wonderful How I sound are shall never be how marvelous, wonderful

[Singer 1]

is my savior's love for me.

[John David Walt]

You hadn't sang that one in a while, have you?

[David Walt]

I haven't. That's the first time for me.

[John David Walt]

Well, it won't be the last time.

[David Walt]

No, that's. I like it.

[Singer 1]

And moves right along.

[John David Walt]

Moves along. We've got good work to do today, guys. There's somebody in your life.

I just want you to, before we

break, just to ask the Lord, say who? Who would you have me to reach out to today? And be ready to write down that name or names. He'll bring them to you. It may be somebody you'll already see in the course of the day, maybe somebody you hadn't seen in years, but pay attention. Trust that this is how he's leading you. You know, it might be somebody that you've had a broken relationship with, and it's not worth it.

[David Walt]

Mm. Mm. That's over.

[John David Walt]

That's over. Let it go and just make the reach. Send a text, make a call, write an email. Just do it. That's sowing for a great awakening, and it always starts with me and with you. So gather your seeds up. There's good to do in this world today, and people are longing to see it.

They're longing to meet up with Jesus.

And you are going to be the

person that he encounters them through today.

[David Walt]

So it'll change your life.

[John David Walt]

It really can be that simple. Just you being awake and alert and moving toward them, as Andrew Forrest teaches

[David Walt]

us, because they're not looking for it.

[John David Walt]

Go first. Love goes first.

All right, for The Awakening.

I'm J.D. walt.

[David Walt]

And I'm David Walt.

[John David Walt]

We'll see you on the floor. Feel.

Get your seeds, guys. Here we go.