Transcript
You talk a lot about purpose, why we are created as humans and why we're here. What is the purpose of life? Why have we been given life? I think we're here to struggle and to learn.
I don't think we're here to be happy. That's why when we keep going back to the happy argument, I've always found that kind of frustrating and annoying. And someone goes, Oh, but I want to be happy. Why? Why? Why do you want to sit there and laugh? Like you were happy your entire childhood. That's your happy days. You're allowed to be happy as a kid. It's all over now, right? You're a man, you have responsibilities. I think we're here to do important things and important things are going to be difficult and they're going to be hard and you're going to get frustrated, but that's what gives you purpose. I think we're here to struggle. I think we're here to endure pain. I think we're here to endure pain. I think we're here to do important things.
here to just see how hard we are to kill. I think that
going through terrible things and living through them and coming out the other side is one of the most fantastic things about being human. I think that it's almost like once you understand what life is really about, there's no emotion which isn't enjoyable.
The only emotional state which can be seen as detrimental is feeling nothing at all. But if you're sitting at home and you're feeling truly heartbroken, at least you're feeling something, right? And I think that's the whole part of being human. I think we're here to struggle. I think we're here to go through pain.
I wake up each day and go, "What can I attack? What problem can I solve?"
and and look at history why did angus khan wake up and want to conquer the whole world why did napoleon conquer the world why did alexander the great conquer just male just you just wake up and just say give me this give me that i want all of him there's an army there they're really big we're better it's intrinsic you need to go and conquer that's that's the purpose of life do you believe that god created us so why did god create us to struggle because if you don't struggle you don't learn god created us to learn and understand ourselves and understand other people and understand the world and what did i say earlier i said that you don't learn a lesson without pain
to struggle to learn anything. There's only two ways to learn things, the hard way or the harder way. If you're smart, you can learn the hard way. But in my experience, 99% of the planet only learn the hardest possible way. If you want to feel happy inside of yourself and you want to feel content and you want to feel stable inside of yourself, you need to live true to God. And I'm not saying you can't drink a little bit of alcohol or not party or not have a little bit of fun, but you have to be a good person.
in which they have tried to construct this idea of happiness. I don't believe or subscribe to the way that happy and sad is currently understood by the masses of the population. I think if you are anything less than absolutely distraught, you are happy. You're a version of happy. It's like saying gray is a version of black, right? No matter how light the gray is, you can still call it a version of black. And unless you've gone through an event, which hopefully doesn't happen too often,
family member or something that's truly destructive and detrimental to your mindset. Besides these events, which hopefully only happened a few times in your life, you should be happy if you're not crying or, um,
paralyzed in silence due to the absolute magnitude of a detrimental circumstance or the absolute magnitude of a negative event then you are a version of happy so i am always happy is the short answer i don't believe in not being happy i don't believe in not saying to myself i'm happy i'm always a version of happy and this chasing this idea of chasing happiness and always being concerned and preoccupied with how happy you are is actually the biggest mistake that a lot of
men who wake up and go, "I don't really feel happy, so I need to get happier." And that's how they end up down a hedonistic path of drugs or alcohol or gambling, chasing pleasure. I don't care how I feel. I don't care if I feel happy or sad. It doesn't really affect what I do each day. I do the exact same things. I act the exact same way. I don't care. I don't put weight to the significance of the emotion. So I always consider myself a happy person. But if I woke up and I was slightly less
happy one day than another. It wouldn't affect anything I do and I wouldn't put any relevance to it. I'm human and that's life. So yeah, am I any happier now that I have hundreds of millions of dollars than before I was broke? Not really, but I was never unhappy. I'm the same state that I was then that I am now. I have work to do and I will do it. It's as simple as that. Well, also there's no light without dark and there's no joy without pain. You can't have a
How hard you chase pleasure and happiness, there's going to be dips and troughs in between. There's going to be comedowns and downtrends. And you're going to have the juxtaposition between that time you were laughing your head off and acting Giddish like a child.
and the time that you feel depressed as such.
and I think it's much better to just adopt a very disciplined
Stoic mindset. I'm always the same base level of happy regardless if I lost all of my money today I would be the same happy if my net worth quadrupled I'd be the same happiness But as long as I'm alive and the people I care about and love are alive and as long as I get as long as God gives me the honor of doing my Duties and providing for the people I care about as long as I get to wake up and know that there's a whole bunch of people in the world Who need me and I get to work hard to please them and do good for society and good for the world then then I'm a vessel of God and I'm happy
enough to survive. That's all I look at it as. I don't ever consider how do I feel. That doesn't cross my mind. I have things to do. I'm too busy. I have things to do every single day. I have very important things to do and how I feel really is not going to affect how I complete those tasks.
Anybody can be steady when there is no storm. The true skill set of a leader is to be steady in the storm, not hysterical.
not anxious
but steady in the storm.
you are closer to there
than you have ever been before.
But God is not big on details.
He tells you we're going to the other side. He does not tell you what's going to happen on the way. There are things that scare the living daylights out of you on the way.
It's not the takeoff that you have to be concerned about. Because most things take off good. Most business ventures take off good. Most little babies start out good.
The takeoff is always great. It's the things that happen in the middle that challenge your ability to be steady.
are in a crisis in a storm and you're trying to get to the other side. Wherever there is, wherever God has predestined for me to go, I want you to know that He determined the end from the beginning. He knew where He wanted you to go before He formed you in your mama's belly. He had predestined for
process of getting there.
Storms shall rise.
The one thing that we all have in common, black or white.
rich or poor, short or tall. The one thing I can guarantee you that all of us will face, male or female,
is a storm. There is nobody you're going to meet or fall in love with
that will avoid the fact that storms are built into God's plan. You have to know that he equips you.
with a fire extinguisher and an emergency exit and an automated system that even when you can't see him, you can hear him and if you will follow his voice, you will get to the other side. The first thing we do when we get in the storm is to try to fix the storm.
The storm is not yours to fix. You cannot fix the storm and this drives you crazy, but it's particularly difficult for men. Because we are raised to fix stuff. And there are some women who feel that way too. You feel like you failed if you don't fix it. You lose self esteem because you feel like it's your fault.
Because you can't fix it.
And I came to tell you, every storm that comes your way is not your job to fix. Storms don't always warn you that they're coming.
Oh, once you get so high in the air, the pilot is going to pass out and you're going to almost lose your mind. Your husband is going to leave you for your girlfriend, your sister, your mama. You don't get to pick.
And how do you sit down and tell your boys you lost your girl to a girl? Oh, you think that's funny? Yeah, you think that's funny, but that's happening. You don't get to pick.
The storm!
Your face.
You don't get to pick what life is going to hand you. And to all those control freaks, you have a special degree of trauma because the only time you feel safe is when you're in control. And I confess to you.
I hate it!
I don't want to be in something I can't control.
And when you're in a storm, the big question in your mind is, do I have what it takes to stand against this storm? Can I make it through at my age? Can I make it through at my stage? Can I make it through after all the other stuff we've been through? And the worst time to have a storm is when you're already tired. That's why the enemy waits till you're tired. He waits till you're frustrated.
going to lose it up in here. And that's when the storm comes.
And it came to pass. And it came to pass.
Every storm that ever hit the planet.
came. No matter how fierce, no matter how devastating, no matter how many homes were destroyed, they always come. And no matter how severe, no matter how terrible, no matter how many lives were lost, families were lost,
It still comes.
Tobias.
Bye.
How many times in your life have you gone through something you thought you wasn't gonna make it? Where are my real people at this morning? I'm never gonna make it out of this. This is too bad. I can't handle it. I can't take it and half of the stuff that broke my heart and almost drove me crazy. I can't even remember. It's in my rearview mirror, but in that moment when that storm hits, can I be steady in the storm?
I've had some tough storms and I learned that what I have to do is be steady in the storms. Can I talk to you this morning? Stop wishing for other people's stuff because you don't understand all the things they have to put into it to be ready to handle it.
else ever got to have. You want an uncanny anointing? Go through an uncanny storm. You want an uncanny influence? Endure an uncanny storm. You don't get this by wishing for it. You get it after you've suffered a while. There are no shortcuts to the storm. Oh, do you hear what I'm talking to you about? And this is not a time to faint. And this is not a time to give up. And this is not a time to die.
No matter what happens to you,
It ain't over.
- Right. - Ain't no such a thing as over. As long as God wakes you up,
THAT MEANS HE AIN'T THROUGH WITH YOU YET.
Every painful time
It's developing something in you
that can only be developed in the tough times.
When you get into a tight spot and everything goes against you,
Never give up then, but that is just the place and time
that the tide will turn.
Now you have to receive this by faith.
and say, God, I believe what you promised, that a turnaround is coming.
Hang on, winters don't last forever.