Ep 946 | Jase Roots for Crocodiles in Men’s Gymnastics & How an Olympic Family Withstood Tragedy
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I am unashamed. What about you?

Welcome back to Unashamed. We've got some guests coming on later we're super excited about. We have been blessed with some guests.

Yeah, I've noticed that. I don't know that we're necessarily looking. It's just like people we've run into in life and stuff has happened. I've noticed God is real good. We've needed it because Zach is just AWOL. God's real good at orchestrating meetings, people. Divine appointments. The older I get, the less I believe in accidents. I agree 100%. Yeah, we've lost Zach. I'm not sure.

Well, he says he's doing a funeral today, so that's why he can't be with us. Really? Yeah. He's doing a funeral for somebody in Georgia, so we'll have to hear about it next time we have him on. So I preached yesterday, Jays. Yeah. My sermon, but I told the story at the beginning of the sermon a couple of weeks ago, or a month ago, the last time I preached.

Pearl, who's my little six-year-old granddaughter, she comes down and sits in my lap. And that's kind of good because you're tired. You just preach. And they were doing responses. And so I just kind of sit in there. She sat in my lap. Post-sermon? Post-sermon. And she looked up at the screen and it said, Jesus is greater, dot, dot, dot, and then whatever. Our whole series in Hebrews, which you started. And you even said when you started, it's hard to find a word that

When you're talking about Jesus, that really fits. Nothing seems like it's big enough. You said that when we were doing it. Like the NIV translation all those times says better. Better, right. But the more I read and the more you study deeper-

You're like, I think we're having trouble finding an English word to describe how better or greater this is. And in fact, I think we started calling it better, and when you made that comment, we changed it to greater. Anyway, she's sitting there. She's six, but she's very spiritually in tune. And she looked up at the screen. She said, Pap, why does that say Jesus is greater? Shouldn't it say Jesus is greatest?

Yeah. And I was like, you know, you know, it's a good point. I had the same thought. So when when you and six year olds are tracking to be really good or really bad, it says a lot about your mindset. But now you will like this one. Jesus is greater dot dot dot forever.

That was the name of my sermon yesterday because it was Hebrews 12, 18, which starts the section about the kingdom. You know, that picture of the kingdom. You've come to Mount Zion. You've come to heavily in Jerusalem, thousands of angels and joyful assembly. I think that's the theme of the whole. It is. And so I started with your favorite verse, the one you sign all your stuff with Hebrews 13, eight. Jesus. And this is the last verse, but I did it first. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

And so I even named the sermon for next week, even though I'm not preaching it. If I was, I would, my last sermon would be Jesus is greater for everyone. Cause you know, in verse right after verse 80 goes into that, him going outside the camp and the idea that it was outside of the system to be able to be available for all men. I thought, man, Jesus is greatest for everyone, which was the way I would look carefully. We've been studying Ephesians.

The Apostle Paul talked about some of his problems, you know, as a prisoner of the Lord. They've got him in jail. I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient. Bear with one another in love. That is what Jesus was all about. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

One body, one spirit, if you just want to just get it down. Just as you were called, one hope and you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of who's over all and through all and to all. That's a pretty good condensed version.

of what the apostle Paul wanted us to know. - Yeah, absolutely. So I went over to dad's class yesterday since I was there and I was preaching 'cause I wanted to meet people that they come from all over to dad's class, the Unashamed Bible Study.

And they were here from several different states. And then about, what, maybe four of them got baptized yesterday? Four, I think five. Four or five, yeah. Which is always great because this is how we start, you know, now with Dad and Joe. And anybody wants to come and be baptized, we're like, yeah, come on. You know, that's how we like to start things off on Sunday. So it was exciting yesterday. Well, it made me think your sermon made you...

You should have had that song by Chris Tomlin, that Holy Forever. I think it came out a couple of years ago. That was a good one. But that, when you talk about it being greater, we actually listened online. First, I heard a sermon. It was on the resurrection, by the way, which made me think when it said Zach was doing a funeral because the guy I was listening to,

He was basically talking about his life, and he took his kids, because he was from Australia, he took his kids on a little nostalgia, go back in time, let me show you how I was raised. And it culminated with showing his grandparents at a cemetery, and they didn't have a normal capstone, it was a cross. And at the bottom of it, it said, thy will be done. And so...

He spent a lot of time talking about what that meant. But in the process, it made me think, you know, when you think there's 8 billion people here or a little bit over 8 billion, but when you think of all the people that have been here, and I looked it up, they claim there's been over 100 billion people on the earth, which is kind of sobering. Because if you do the math, we're only, the people are alive or representing people

8% of the people that have ever been. That's why when you say, well, Zach's doing a funeral today, that's going to keep happening. You can do one every day. Yeah, the preacher said that his daughter, when they were looking, they were kind of making a few funnies at the cemetery, but his daughter said, yeah, I mean, look, because it was just as far as you could see. And his daughter said, yeah, Dad, people are dying to get here.

You know how we use that phrase, you know? But it was kind of sobering when I kind of thought about that. I mean, you get one life, and when we talk about Jesus is greater than the same yesterday, today, forever, I mean, what are your other options here? Yeah. I mean, you have one life, and it's actually moving a lot faster than

For some reason, the older you get, it seems like somebody pushed a fast-forward button. You relate to that, Dan? Oh, I woke up one morning. I said, I'm crowding 80. I said, Miss Kay. And it was today. Keep the faith because we're on the last leg of this thing. Yeah. But it sure is a fine, natural reality when you get right down to it.

Life's short, full of trouble. When you read that verse in James, it says it's a whisper and it's a vapor. Oh, yeah. That makes a lot of sense when you look at it in terms of that. You bet it does. Yeah, but I mean, when you talk about Jesus is great, I mean, you think about what he does for our past. I mean, you know, he shows his love in Jesus and just takes away our past. I mean, that verse in Hebrews where it says that y'all had done before, right?

where he remembers our sins no more. It's like done, over. And then when you think about the present, well, he's got a purpose for us. And you look around on the planet to the small percentage that's alive compared to the dead, and we're like, hey, there's a way off the planet. There's a way to live forever. There's a way to have purpose. And then when you think about our future, well, I'm saying whether you believe in God or not,

The future must be addressed at some point. Exactly. So my three points, Jase, were a new unshakable kingdom. Because you think about how shaken that's in that text. Everything else is shaky in the world. Kingdom, no. A new unashamed lifestyle, which was 13.1 through 6. It has a little practical run about it. Did you give them a little plug for the podcast there? Oh, yeah. Always. And then the third one was a new unflappable leadership. Because we...

put in New Elders yesterday and it was that text where it's about the leadership and imitate their way of life. That was the three points. I watched that age group play a little ball. Yeah. Out in there waiting on the school bus. I know.

I know it. You know, Jeff was with him. It's pretty neat. It's the first time, Dad, in our era of this whole thing of leadership that we actually saw a kid that grew up that now has joined the ranks of a shepherd. It seems so quick. It was a neat Sunday. We had everybody in one room yesterday, which made it exciting.

I was so proud of mom because when the elders and their wives got up on stage, she got up there. She tracked her way up on stage and made it, which was really good. She had to have a little help, but she made it. So I was proud of her. You read Hebrews 12.

22 through what? Yeah, it started in 18. Oh, you did the whole section? I did the whole section. 18 all the way through 13, 8. That was the section. It was a lot of text. But I'll read that 22 through 24. I really think it's everything culminating. It's so good. It says, You have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You've come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly.

to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. You've come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new and better covenant.

And to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. That's it. And then at the end of that, it says that you have now received an unshakable kingdom. It's just so powerful that the picture of it, the language, and of course we talked so much about it on the podcast and the power of it.

Somebody said, man, y'all did such a good job with that text. I said, that text did a good job on its own. I just needed to stay out of the way. But you know, it took me years even following Jesus to realize that when I saw kingdom and church, that it wasn't talking about a building. And that's the common theme to what we've been talking about in Ephesians, that Ephesians 2, 20 and 21. We rise, people rise up as the temple of

of god the the kingdom of god and it's a place where he dwells through his holy spirit but he did the writer did such a good job of that's why i include that first section jays of showing mount sinai and the gloom and the doom and the fear that comes from law and trying to accomplish it on your own versus what the kingdom does was so at the beginning of the sermon

I told a story because we had some guests there that are also here today. So we're about to have them on that were in the audience. And so I said, you know, I saw a great example of kingdom lifestyle in the Olympics of all places. And I told the story. So they're here today. So I'm going to say I'm going to save that when we have a moment. So we'll take a break when we come back. We got some very special guests that have made their way all the way to Louisiana. And we'll tell you more about it when we get here.

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Welcome back. We have the Malones here. J.D., welcome to Unashamed. Thank you for having us. And Brody, welcome to Unashamed. Thank you. So I told your story as it happened on the podcast, whenever it happened, I guess two weeks ago, and that I was watching the Olympics. And so we got into it because Jace was like, oh, the Olympics, you know, they had the opening ceremony, which a lot of people, unfortunately, were like that because it was so off-putting.

Yet they didn't give the Olympics a chance. Luckily for me, I didn't see the opening ceremony. So but I watched the Olympics because I love it. And so I was watching one night. It was the men's gymnastics, which Brody is a member of that team.

And so like everything else, I'm getting excited, you know, because y'all are just doing it, you know, and you're nailing everything and we're all into it. And then they pan up and show JD and he's wearing this hat he's got on here. So I start my phone starts blowing up. They're like, have you seen this guy at the Paris Olympics? He's wearing the gospel symbols. And I was and I had not seen you at that point.

And about that time, I look up and it shows you on camera. And I was like, man, these people are our people. The gospel message is being shown right now. And the men's gymnastics team is doing great. So it was super exciting. And I was like. How long ago was this happening for you? This was two weeks. Is it three weeks? Yeah, we're kind of like y'all. Three weeks ago. I had this experience this morning.

Because I'm watching the Olympic. The change there was the Olympic. Backwards. Right. Like, I let it all happen, and now I'm going back and watching. I knew you were going to be on today, so I was like, check this out. Were you getting fired up when you were watching? Well, when my wife got – because I get up early, and –

When she came out, I was like, we just won the bronze medal. It was awesome. But they kept showing you so much also. I mean, you were getting so much airtime because I realized in that moment, it's one thing to be up on these whoever, whatever devious mind people

constructed these things that you are supposed to get on and do do tricks just think about have you ever thought about that somebody was sitting in a room and thought okay we don't want them to you know to die but let's just want to get them as close as close can we get how close can we get there yeah so uh but and then so then i can't imagine if i was a parent because i mean

I had the same somewhat lesser experience in like little league baseball, you know, when your son is up and there's two outs and we need the hit. All of a sudden I'm like, my kid's playing baseball. We're going to have fun. But I realized everybody's looking at me now saying, well, I hope he don't blow it here. You know, I mean, there's something about that feeling that creates drama. And I think that's what the. And part of it had been, and I, and I'll let you speak to this Brody is, is that,

In qualifying, you guys had not, you just barely got in, I guess, or how does that work? We qualified in fifth place and they take eight to the final. So, I mean, we. So you were well within the structure because I didn't see any of the early stuff.

But then they kept mentioning you in particular. They were like, he struggled in the preliminaries, but he's nailing it today. And I had not seen the earlier stuff, so I didn't know. So did you have a struggle bus? Yeah, don't go back and watch the first day. That was one of the worst meets of my life for sure. Agreed.

What were you thinking, J.D., when you were watching that? Because you were in tears. They kept showing a clip of you once the night. Brody's nailing everything. And it showed you, and you were crying, I could tell. There was some tears of joy. I've got four kids, and I think they're exceptional. But at this level...

you see your kid and you've spent so many hours going back and forth to gym and sitting and waiting and the whole family sacrificed for this and to see it actually, I mean, the goal this year was, was for the team to metal because we've not meddled in 16 years. Yeah. Oh, wow. So that was the goal that the team had set. And, and, you know, to see, see your son, um,

You know, with a team work so hard and, and, and achieve a goal. I mean, it doesn't matter what kind of goal, you know, when you're a parent, you, you get excited to see your kids achieve something, but yeah, they were tears of joy. The, the, the first day was amazing.

Tears of sadness. I didn't cry. I was like everybody else, what's up with Brody? Because that's not his norm. You're a three-time national champion? I believe so. I think so here. So, I mean, you're a very accomplished champion. Yeah, I saw a lot of achievements. Yeah, so you obviously have been great. And you went to Stanford, which you and I had fun with that yesterday. You know, Georgia –

this is a country boy jay's this guy likes to hunt as soon as we introduced ourselves to each other i was like he's he's from the country yep and his brothers are even more redneck than him they're here today too so you're a little more accomplished i think because you've been out there in the world a while so yeah but what was it like being in palo alto california for georgia what was that was that a shock to your system oh my god yeah that was a shock um

It's a different world out there than what I grew up with. I remember the first summer I went out there, I was talking to one of my professors. I kept saying, yes, sir, no, sir. And then finally, we were just having a conversation. He stopped me in the middle of it. He goes, Brody.

you do not have to call me, sir. This is California. And I was like, what? Like that would change for you, right? Yeah. I mean, I can't do it. It's habit now. That's exactly right. Or the lady that...

basically blessed you out for holding the door open for. Oh yeah. And he calls me like, what do I do? Keep holding the door open. Yeah. I held, I held the door to going into one of the cafeterias and this lady with three little kids, I held it for all three of them. And then she just walked in, didn't even look at me. And I was like, Whoa. Yeah.

Wait a second. That's weird. And, you know, it's so funny because women in the South or men, everybody's so appreciative when you take a second and do that. You know, they're just like, thank you for that. You know, I do it all the time. Every time I go to New York, I'm reminded they don't like it when you hold the door. Yeah. And they're actually offended, which I'm really not sure why. Yeah.

Doesn't make sense. But you're right. You just got to keep doing it. So, yeah, so super exciting. When you're watching it, as I was watching it that night, you could tell it was building to you guys meddling. And, of course, you never know where you're going to be. The other guys were the Japanese and the Chinese were so good. It was like then it kind of came down to us, the U.S. and Great Britain, as to who was going to snag that last medal. Yes, sir. But, man, just the –

excitement building it built in you because you were kind of stoic at first then you're just going nuts by the time you get to the last two things yeah i let it go a little bit there i'm usually not one to do that i'm pretty straight but the but the audience everybody was into you guys i mean that was that was the most fun competition i've ever been in because everyone in the audience i mean between every rotation i don't know if they

showed any of that on TV or not, but everyone was chanting for us. - I've not seen it. - You know, USA, USA. - Oh yeah, I could hear it. - It was awesome. I've never been in a competition like that. - Yeah, and you could definitely tell watching that the audience, everybody was building for you guys. - Yeah, and to have that in a foreign country, that was pretty incredible. - It was pretty exciting. - I was wondering how you, I mean, you're from Georgia, right? Originally y'all were- - Tennessee originally.

My two older ones were born in Tennessee. I'm from Northeast Tennessee, up around Elizabethan, Tennessee, home of Jason Whitten. Oh, yeah. His granddad was actually my football coach in high school. Oh, wow. Yeah, pretty neat, pretty neat. But we moved to Georgia, I guess, when you were in kindergarten, right? I was five or six. Yeah. My wife's family was from Marietta, Georgia, so we wanted to be close but not too close. So I found a little –

double wide and a spot of land and uh we lived there for a couple years and built the house right in front of the double wide so okay well i was just wondering how this gets started because usually you know guys from the south i mean you think they get into football or baseball i mean he was yeah i did all sports when i was growing up baseball was my big one i played i mean when did you make me 12 years old after that we we made it to the world series dizzy dean world series twice

And the last one, the parents, man, it was just, if they would high fence outside and put razor wire at the top and make a parents watch from the parking lot. Now we're talking. It would be okay. I've done multiple stories and episodes on this podcast about that, you know, which is why I became a coach in my son's last year. Cause I thought I'm going to give him one year where it should be done right.

And I stopped my life to do it for that year. Yeah, well, you do, yeah. Yeah. And I was like, the parents were, I said, you don't get involved. So I've told this story many times, but you'll find it funny. I made the parents sign an agreement that I had the power to throw them out of the game if I deemed they were doing something wrong.

That wasn't helping their kid. Yeah. And of course you think that's never going to happen. Five seconds into the first game, I called a timeout, pulled our starting pitcher and threw his mom out of the rent. And the umpire was like, what are you doing? I was like, I'm throwing this parent out of the game. I'm doing your job. You should have done that. So, but it had a happy ending because we all came back together. We provided a happy place.

for those kids, they got better. Our coaching staff was a guru filled with baseball minds that weren't affiliated with the kids. They just loved the Lord.

love kids and love baseball. And we just combined that. That's a good combination. Yeah, we never argued any kind of controversial call. Never. It was all positive. And we had a great year, won the league. So I sympathize with you on that. But it's very difficult even in that.

I saw with the parents, it was multiple conversations and tears. But then fortunately, we got into people's lives and then Jesus kind of entered the arena. And we actually brought several people to the Lord during that one year. Zach, when you were young, did you eat a lot of liver, like liver and onions?

Never did it. It wasn't my thing. Did you? No, I did not. It smelled so good when it was frying. It didn't taste so good. Every time we talk about this, I have a jingle. Don't be out on the river with problems in your liver. That's the new jingle. We had to tell our good friends at Liver Health Formula about that one. So, Zach, you and I had some high liver enzymes last year. How's your liver doing now?

It's really good. Back to normal. Really good. Really good. And it was because we took liver health formula. So here's what happens with the liver is sort of your body's filter system, but it leads to other issues. If your liver is not healthy, the American heart association says that adults with fatty liver are

are three and a half times more likely to have heart failure than those without. And this affects 100 million Americans a year. Obviously, it affected Zach and I because we throw everything at our liver every

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Yeah, it was awesome. So I was thinking about yesterday. So I announced yesterday when I said in the sermon they were here and then I had them stand up. I mean, it was a thunderous day.

in our church yesterday, which made me proud of our church because everybody was already aware of not only just the Olympians, but also you wearing this hat. Yeah. And so here's the question I got, and I don't know the answer. So who took – because I saw a lot of people over there meeting y'all and y'all were taking some pictures yesterday. Who took more pictures, you with the hat or Brody the Olympian? I think it was him. And I knew – I thought you would say it because –

You know, these were originated here. Oh, yeah. And so, in fact, I saw Kim Stevens there, which is her dad was Bill Smith. That was the highlight to me. I mean, so what Pastor Bill done was something so simple right there. Shared it with Phil. Bill converted me. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so that message right there, that's what, when I found out, because I

I can't remember which one it was. I think it was the trials I was at. People kept asking me what my hat meant. Well, it was a Salt Lake Cattle Company. A friend of ours got a cattle company, and I had it on. So when we went to the Olympics, I was like, you know what? I'm going to give them something to look at. If they're looking at my hat. And they're asking questions. Yeah, let's give them something. That's the greatest question ever is, what is that? What does that mean? Oh, man, you wouldn't believe the people that would –

you know, not text, but messaging on social media, you know, what's your hat mean? I see the cross, but it was...

It's just so simple. Yeah. And it is the entire message of the Gospels. I put it out when I talked to one. Donald J. Trump. Donald J. Trump. Yeah. That's what he is with Trump. I figured I set him up by showing him on a piece of paper. I just wrote it down, what's on your hat. Yeah. And he looked at it and he said, what is that? I said, I'm glad you asked. Yeah.

And Phil, that's amazing because you'd think, you know, Trump has the persona of knowing everything. But when he's asking you, what is that? He actually didn't know what I was talking about. He did not know that. He wouldn't have known. And I turned to walk away after I went through the gospel with him and showed him each arrow, what it stood for. I said, whatever happens, I'll vote for you. I said, whatever happens, don't forget that. So I started walking away and he said, hey. I said, yeah. He said, can I have that?

I said, sure. So from there, you know. Yeah, he gave him what he shared. I kind of hijacked the first question, but I was wondering how you got into gymnastics. I mean, what? Oh, yeah, that was a question, wasn't it? Yeah, we never answered that question. You were three, right? I was three. He could probably tell the story a little bit better. You were three years old? I was three, yes, sir. And you said, gymnastics. No.

No, no. I mean, look at me, Jason. I was kidding. 90% of what I'm going to say. They have a horse for it, Jason. So some friends of one of the guys I rope with, good friend of mine, his wife and my wife were good friends. Well, he played football in college with a guy that opened a gym in Johnson City, Tennessee. So the wives got together, decided to sign the boys up for gymnastics. And I was like, whoa. Because, you know, as a kid,

as a guy growing up. I mean, I was a three-sporter up until high school and then played football and baseball, but... One of those sports was not gymnastics. It was not gymnastics. I mean...

I'm kind of like everybody else. The only time you see it is during the Olympics. But, man, we signed him up. And he had broke his arm, jumped out of the crib and broke his arm. And Tracy was like, got to do something. That's where it really started. He was trying to land that double back flip out of the crib and broke his arm. So there you were in the crib. And you said, I think I

I can stick this in. Oh, yeah. That's what I was going for. Yeah. Isn't that amazing, though? I think that is a true side. Well, they were telling me yesterday, because Doc, one of my grandsons, he has a proclivity to, I think he would be a good gymnast. Oh, yeah. Man, after he spent 10 minutes with Brody, he was doing things he's never done before. So we were all remarking about that. But I said, how many times did Brody climb the walls and wind up at the top of the seat? Because that's what Doc does all the time. Look over and he's...

Up in the corner of the house, you know. Yeah, any kind of door frame that was big enough for any of the kids, really, to get their feet on. They were, you know, you'd look up, you'd hear something, you'd look, you'd have to look up because they was in the door frame, you know. Way up in there. You would climb like Spider-Man? Yeah. Oh, wow.

See, I was curious. I was wondering if there was a story. I think jumping out of the crib. We have a little one that we keep now. And, of course, he'll bang on the wall very loudly. It's like, come get me. I'm awake, you know. Yeah. But Missy...

She said, I need to get him a regular bed. And I was like, why? She's like, well, I don't want him to jump out of it. And I actually said, well, who would jump out of that? I mean, I'm going to go straight home and say, buy the bed. You better get a little bit of a thing over the top where you can't get in there. Well, I was wondering that because, I mean, we were talking about before we got started.

I guess I didn't really appreciate gymnastics until I saw these apparatuses and I did an event somewhere. I was telling you about it. And they had the balance beam, which I know y'all don't do that, but the women do. But I'm going to be honest. Now, this is a few years ago when I was in a lot better shape and younger. I couldn't get on it. And I was going to try to get on it and just go.

I got on it. That, you know, how you at the end. Ta-da. Yeah. I stuck the, no. And so I realized, man, there was some devious minds coming up. Oh yeah. With these. Yeah. The beam is four inches wide. Yeah. That's pretty crazy. And it's higher up there than you think. Oh yeah. And I don't know. So I got a lot of appreciation because it's one thing to get on it, but you do all these, you know, you're doing all the tricks and the drama is,

because deep down you have a possibility of danger i mean how many injuries have you had during your career yes i've had one major injury so and that was just which is pretty incredible that it's just one yeah so i was very blessed uh to not deal with a lot of major injuries but last year i was uh in germany competing and i had a it was like a it

it was a fluke. I was doing a high bar routine and on my dismount, my hand peeled off the bar and I did like a weird double back with a half turn. And then I landed on my right leg and dislocated my knee, um, fractured my tibial plateau, tore my meniscus, LCL, uh,

a posterior lateral corner, which is like the back of your hamstring. - Those words, I don't ever hear those words. - You never even knew you had that. - When you start hearing those words, that means it's not good. - That means a blowout, you blew it out. - Oh yeah, it was blown out for sure. - And they actually mentioned it when you were doing the high bar.

last night, they mentioned the little guy so excited. He said, this is where he blew his leg out last year. We were all anticipating. I said, man, I hope he nails it because he was making me nervous. So weird you're bringing that guy up because I thought, man, this guy. He was into it. Yeah, the guy calling all this. I mean, we get it, this drama field, but then he...

He was taking it to another level. I need to watch it. I haven't watched it. I think you'll like it, you know. Oh, I think it was Justin Spring. You can actually tell he's rooting for America. He loves the U.S. He just can't help it. So, Jace, our good friends at Helix Mattress remind us of the importance of sleep

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The only thing you share with the women is the floor routine, right? Floor and vault. Vault. Oh, that's right. That's right. And then the pommel horse is kind of like their beam. Yes, sir. And then you've got the one bar for y'all and the two for them. Yes, sir. Yeah. And then we also have parallel bars and rings. They've got, oh yeah, rings. So we have six events total. Yeah, the rings look extremely difficult. Yeah, rings is hard. What's the hardest one out of the six? Uh,

for you the hardest one for me is definitely palma horse so I don't have a very good body type for palma horse I mean if you look at have y'all seen Clark Kent guy yeah so that's all he did yeah so if you look at me and him

I'm a lot bigger than him. He's kind of skinny and lanky. That's kind of the body type you want for a horse. That's why he's a specialist. Right. But yeah, that's that's a hard one for me. Yeah. And he's gotten a lot of attention for it because he did the. Oh, yeah. He did the last one that kind of sealed the deal. Yeah. Yeah. He blew up. That was that was kind of crazy. I don't think anyone was. What's he like? Is he? I was curious because he looks like.

Like nerdy. Is he like that? Yes. He's very nerdy. Okay, good. Who sent a gymnast with glasses on? It just didn't look quite right. Yeah. Is he the one that would kind of sit by himself over there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because he just had the one thing, Jase, that he did. He's a special. I know. But then they were like carrying him off. And it was such a cool thing because it was like the little nerdy kid that always gets picked on. And here he is like the- There was one scene where-

I think it was after one of your, when y'all were trying to win the bronze and everybody would, yeah, let's go. Yeah. But he was just sitting there, but then he looked at the camera and, yeah, it was pretty funny. I like that was right after. I was wondering what the camaraderie was among the team and how that works, you know? Yeah. Um, I mean, we're all over the country. Yeah. So, uh, man,

Men's gymnastics is kind of a small sport. So we've most of us on national team have grown up together since we were little. Oh, so you've been knowing all these guys for years. Yes. And y'all have competed at a ton of stuff because people don't realize because you only watch the Olympics every four years. It's like, hey, they all got together for the Olympics.

But you guys have been doing this. We do it. Every year. Every year. I always like it when they say, I didn't know that. Yeah. And it's actually a lot of it like world championships and all that. They'll televise it. It'll be on. But just people don't watch as much because it's not the Olympics. Yeah, exactly. And we haven't won a whole lot.

Yeah. And we haven't won a whole lot. The girls, the women have been very successful. Yeah. So they're in the U S they're a lot more popular. Um, a lot more publicity and stuff. I mean, rightfully so they, they do their job and they win. Um, so how long, how much do you try? How much training goes on this on a yearly basis? I mean, the last four years of your life. Um, I mean, you don't,

take time off really it's year-round it's year-round it's like seven eight hours a day or i mean what uh i mean i'll train anywhere from like three to six hours a day that's not including the extra stuff that i'll do like uh getting treatment on all my body parts that hurt um physical therapy has been a big one for me this year with my knee injury um

I mean, I would spend, you know, four or five hours at practice and then do PT for another hour and a half. So when you were first coming out of that, were you having to wear a brace and stuff like that when you were? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I was, uh, I mean, I, I'll just give you all the rundown of it. So when I, when I got injured, I had a surgery in Germany, um, to put an external fixator and my legs had this giant hunk of metal sticking out of my leg to basically lock it in place. And I flew all the way back to Stanford, um,

Um, where I got my, my second surgery where they fixed, I've got, uh, nine screws and two plates in the side of my knee where they fixed the fracture. And then they also fixed my meniscus. And then they did, uh, uh, they called a micro fracture procedure to repair some of the cartilage, um,

And I was on crutches for six weeks then. And so, I mean, the first couple of weeks, I couldn't even hardly get out of bed. It was pretty bad. But once I was able to get a little bit more mobile, I was kind of back in the gym doing, you know, strength and conditioning, doing pretty much whatever I could. And then a couple months after that, I had my third surgery where they fixed my LCL and the back of my hamstring. Yeah.

And I was on crutches again for four weeks. So I basically had to relearn how to walk twice. Wow. Yeah, it was. Pretty amazing. A year later, you're out there competing for the Olympics. Yeah. They didn't even think he was going to be doing gymnastics. When we were out there at Stanford, the doc, I heard him. And man, they had just some outstanding surgeons and doctors. But so I heard him out in the hall talking to, I think it was Coach Tom.

His collegiate coach was with him over there at Worlds, and he was just tore out of frame. And the doctor's like, look, he probably won't do gymnastics ever again. He's going to be lucky to walk normal. And I got the doctor out in the hall.

Well, he was out there and I went out there and I don't think you heard that. I didn't hear that. But like I told him, I was like, look, you don't understand my son and you don't understand what God's doing right here. So that's not going to be mentioned back in this room.

Have you talked to him since? Uh-uh, no. Well, tell him right now. Hey, Doc. Yeah. Remember that conversation we had? Yeah. About what? I was kidding. Well, that kind of stuff, you know, you're like. It was funny because I was at a volleyball. My daughter plays travel ball. She plays travel volleyball. So I was watching on my phone.

And I couldn't like, you know, when I seen it happen, I mean, I like to think that all my kids have a pretty high pain tolerance and they're tough. I mean, I've seen, I mean, Cooper tore his ACL bulldogging and,

Won the bulldogging and then limped out of the arena, you know, finished team roping that night. Tyler's, you know, I mean, you want to think old fields like who's a man. So they got a little bit of that growing up. Put a butterfly on it. Yeah. Yeah. So tell the truth. When you were training them as a little kid.

When he had to stick the landing, you would put all these stakes around. And it's like you got one spot. Fall down. That would be pretty good motivation there to stick the landing. I thought that it would make it more interesting. Yeah. You were running and you jump on the board. If they just had a big tub of crocodiles and alligators. Nobody would step out of bands or fall off the mats then. I mean, yeah.

I mean, y'all being from the South, this is my kind of gymnasium. If you want to get it to catch on, do this. There's always got to be a death element involved. So, you know, we want to be able to support businesses that love America, right? That's kind of one of our goals, Chase, that we try to do as much as we can.

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You know, when he did that and I'm watching, as a parent, that's a pretty helpless feeling because I'm watching him in pain and I saw it happen. So I knew it was bad that he didn't get up. So I'm texting the coaches, texting the coaches, trying to get a hold of somebody. And so I get out of the bleachers. I'm going down praying, of course. And all of a sudden, it was like a peace just hit me.

And it was God just, it was like, look, I'm doing something here. Just,

Just, I got him. Yeah. And, uh, I think we've talked about it before, but I think you had that same feeling. I did. Yeah. Laying on the, on the mat. Yeah. So, I mean, all this leading up to the, you know, it's what we call an Olympic year and you, you know, that's the goal that you want to see. And then all of a sudden, wow, here comes this trial, uh,

But, you know, the parenting, I mean, the flesh side of it was like I was wanting to get to my kid to see what was wrong. Oh, yeah. And then that peace, man. I mean, I can't – I'm sure y'all have had it. That's how I know usually it's God speaking to me is just that calm peace, you know. But then when I talked to him, he actually called me in the ambulance ride and said, you know, those weird sirens over there. Yeah, yeah. And I was like –

buddy all right he's like it hurts dad it hurts but i could tell just by talking to him it wasn't like he was a panic yeah yeah no not at all and then then he you know that's pretty amazing for a young guy though you know i mean yeah i mean i don't know i don't think anybody would have thought

yeah they're like well that's a career in an injury what did you like did you have the same thoughts as dad did yeah i remember like as soon as it happened um i mean i i my knee dislocated i remember i grabbed it um like this because like ow that hurt and then like all the i like wait for the medical to come over and they finally come over and they had to straighten my knee back out and

They had to like put a wrap on it to stabilize it and then, you know, getting on the gurney and everything. Like just going through that whole process, I was like, it just went through my mind. I was like, why, why did this happen?

Because it was a fluke accident. It's something that doesn't happen often. And one of the best highball routines he's ever done. Yeah, it was a pretty good routine. It was a gold medal. Another gold medal. When you landed, you just went down. It just collapsed. Yeah, so it collapsed, and the video's pretty gross. I mean, I was laying there, and all these doctors, and everybody's trying to get me to get on this ambulance, and I was just thinking, why?

Like, why did this happen? Like, and then I just, I was like, you know what, God, I know this sucks in the moment, but I know you've got a plan for me and I'm just going to trust you. And then immediately I just felt at peace about it. That's so good. Wow. And that is so kingdom mindset living because he did have a plan. Yeah. And I think just like even in the Olympics, when you're talking about having a bad night and then coming back and having an amazing night when it really counted. Yeah.

You know, it's just, I mean, God did that. And then that led to, you know, people seeing and you, I mean, it's just, you see how it's all happened for the reason. Oh, you've single-handedly brought me back to the Olympics. Well, yeah.

Because Jay and I were arguing about it because he was like, I didn't even watch it. I said, Jay, and this is before I even knew y'all, but I was like, these kids, they're American kids. They're competing. Who cares what the stupid French do? Al, you were right, and I like a lot of people in the world. I underestimated spirit-filled people out there doing this for the Lord. And the fact that y'all are duck hunters and what I would deem as

Sure. Yeah. I realize globally, we're all known as weirdos, I guess at this point of our lives, but that's okay. You know,

Because, wow, what a heart. I mean, to me, I just immediately think, you know, the fruit of the Spirit is joy and love and peace. And these are the kind of things. And we know that we were talking before about how much there is about suffering and struggling. I mean, God never says you're not going to struggle and you're not going to suffer. Yes, we will. My favorite verse that kind of kept me going, I've got it pulled up right here, is James. Yeah.

James 1:2-4, "Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect, that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing,

Um, it's weird to think about things like that trials. I mean, especially like in my situation, what I was going through, it's, it's hard to turn that into joy. Yeah. Yeah. Like consider it a joy that this happened to you, that my leg is broken and I'm not going to be able to walk for, you know, a month and a half. Um,

So it was like this verse really helped me reframe what I was going through. And even though I felt a piece about what had happened, that didn't mean that, you know, I wasn't still frustrated. And, you know, I mean, because going through this process, I'm a pretty active guy and I was.

bedridden for about a month after my second surgery. Had to pee in a bottle. I had to pee in a, like to get up to pee was too much. Like I couldn't do it. Oh, wow. Um, so I wanted to mention that we only got a couple of minutes left, but the, cause you guys have been through a lot anyway. You lost your wife to cancer. Yes, sir. Uh, 12 years ago. So you were just 12. Yes, sir. Yeah.

So obviously, and I mean, now I've gotten to meet with three of your boys and met your daughter, but obviously you did an amazing job as well as she did.

before she crossed over. But I think for people that hear that and then see the kind of kids you have, and especially Brody more in the spotlight, I mean, it just says what God can do because you did it too. I mean, you were having to be both, and you're having to do what you did. And I think you see the results. You see the fruit of what happens when someone gets it. Oh, absolutely. Which just has to make you feel good. Yeah. You can't.

So I was talking to Lisa. I don't know how people get through stuff in life without, without having God to rely on. I mean, I just don't, I mean, you, you know, I can remember, uh, you know, when, when, when a lost trace, when she passed away, I can remember, you know, there's certain things that you just, it's painted in your, in your mind. And I can remember trying to figure out how I was going to tell these boys, you know, that what, what,

what are we going to do? You know, just trying to think how I was going to do it. And I walked them down to the chapel there in the, and I, man, I was praying the whole time, just walking my three boys down there. And Brody was 12. Cooper was 10. And Ty, I don't even remember six.

seven years old. And, you know, my daughter was so small. Yeah, she's little. Yeah, she wasn't understanding what, you know, mom was sick. Yeah. Tracy had been sick her entire, you know, Briley's entire life. But I remember going down there and the only thing, the only place I could think of was the little chapel in the hospital and having to tell them that, you know, look, you're going to, you know, this is it.

You need to say your byes to your mom that she's not going to be here. So I'm telling them that and trying to muster up that strength to do it. And, you know, in my mind, I'm just talking to God the entire time. And so I tell them and, you know, I think it sinks in.

with them, you know, but they're, they're still young, but they go up and, you know, they, they, we've made pallets in the floor with, and the kids slept, you know, in the floor and they'd be really good at the hospital. But from that point on, you know, my, my life was kind of, it's funny how during the trials you're, he brings you closer to him. And then after the trial, uh,

your flesh side kind of gets you, you know what I mean? So my walk has been, it's been up and down and way smoother when I've put God first in it. But there's no way we could have got through that without God. What a story. It made me think of this verse because we started this podcast before y'all came talking about why Jesus is better, why he's greater. This is Proverbs 21, 30,

and 31, and there's a little part for you I have in here. It's kind of funny, but I want to read 30 that says, there is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. The horse is made ready for the day of battle.

But victory rests with the Lord. I like it. So next time you see that pommel horn, you think of Proverbs 21. Well, I wanted to hear what's next before we end. Well, you're getting married and next mate. And your fiance was next to your dad and she got some airtime as well. Is it Serena? Serena. Yes, sir. So you got a lot of good things ahead. Yes, sir. Yeah, which is going to be great.

And at this point, you can just show up and wave.

I mean, I'm telling you. Before we leave there, show your medal. You got your medal in your pocket. We forgot to show that earlier. Oh, wow. It's a lot bigger than I thought. It feel heavy. It is. Oh my goodness. All right. So there it is. Uh, unashamed nation. We are first and probably last Olympic medalist on the other shame podcast. There you go, dad. Check it out. Yeah. The bronze medal. But anyway, thanks so much for y'all coming on for your witness. Uh,

for willing to put our gospel symbols out there for the world to see. What a blessing. And Brody, just for being who you are. Thank you very much. So we're going to have you all back in Duck Hunt this year. So we're talking about, we're working on a trip. So they're into Duck Hunt in two days. They love to shoot the ducks. Wouldn't that be something if, I mean, who needs a dog with him around? He could do a double back flip over the top of the blind stick. Y'all hear that? Brody's the retriever. Brody is now the retriever. Your brothers are high five.

You want to see a retrieve? Watch this. Just out of the blind. All right. So we love meeting them alone. God bless you guys. Thank you very much. Thanks for listening to the unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes,

And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV at blazetv.com slash unashamed.