Transparency, Trust & Giving It to God

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Wolves & Wisemen Reignited — Episode 14

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About This Episode

Trust sounds simple until you're actually asked to give it.

Trust someone with something you've never told anybody.

Trust your friends enough to let your guard down.

Trust yourself enough to admit where you're struggling.

And maybe hardest of all:

Trust God enough to give up control.

Cameras.

Microphones.

Lighting.

Sound effects.

Missing hosts.

Buttons nobody should have been allowed to touch.

Basically, the guys built a new studio and decided the best way to learn how everything worked was to go live and figure it out in front of everybody.

But underneath the chaos is one of the more personal Check In conversations they've had.

Using James 5:16 and Psalm 56:3–4, the guys talk about transparency, confession, fear, friendship, brotherhood and learning to trust God with the parts of life they normally try to control themselves.

Because transparency requires vulnerability.

Vulnerability requires trust.

And trust doesn't happen overnight.

The guys talk about having a small circle of people they can actually open up to, why men often carry things they never talk about, how their own friendship has grown deeper through their faith journey, and why being honest with God sometimes starts with finally being honest with yourself.

Then, because this is still Wolves & Wisemen, the serious conversation eventually gives way to Sacked, Folks on Fire, Boners, Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a bat and a Fringe Files rabbit hole about time travel.

Tesla.

Einstein.

Time travelers hiding in old photographs.

The Kozyrev Mirror.

The Mandela Effect.

Alternate timelines.

JFK.

Predestination.

And the most important question of all:

If you could travel through time...

Would you actually try to change history—or would you just bring back the winning lottery numbers?

What We Talk About

The Check In — Transparency & Trust

James 5:16

Psalm 56:3–4

Confessing your struggles

Being transparent with people you trust

Why vulnerability can be difficult

Building a circle where people can talk without judgment

Why men often carry things they don't talk about

Brotherhood and friendship

Earning trust instead of blindly giving it away

Taking small steps toward trusting someone

Knowing who should—and shouldn't—be inside your inner circle

Being honest about your fears

Being honest about your mistakes

Being honest with yourself

Being transparent with God

Fear and faith

Giving control to God

Trusting God with work, family, money and everyday problems

Doing your part without carrying all the worry

How the hosts' friendships have grown through their faith journey

Why trust takes time

Scripture From This Episode

James 5:16

“Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

This verse launches the conversation about transparency.

The guys aren't suggesting that you walk around telling every person you meet your entire life story.

Trust has to be earned.

But having a few people around you who know what's actually happening in your life can be powerful.

People you can tell:

I'm struggling.

I'm afraid.

I screwed up.

I need help.

Without worrying that they're immediately going to judge you.

The guys recognize that their own friendship has changed through these conversations. They've known each other for years, but talking about faith, Scripture, fear, mistakes and personal struggles has opened another level of their relationships.

That's especially important for men who are used to keeping things buried.

Sometimes healing begins when somebody finally says what they've been carrying.

Psalm 56:3–4

“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”

That sounds easy.

Actually doing it is another story.

The guys talk about trusting God when facing fear, uncertainty and situations they can't completely control.

For Robert, one of the biggest struggles isn't necessarily trusting God with death or physical danger.

It's trusting Him with everyday life.

Work.

The house.

Problems that need to be solved.

Responsibilities.

Things where the natural instinct is:

I'll handle it myself.

That leads into one of the most important conversations of the episode.

Giving something to God doesn't mean doing nothing.

You still have responsibilities.

You still do the work.

You still make decisions.

But maybe you don't have to carry all the worry at the same time.

Key Takeaways

Transparency requires trust. Opening up about the things you're actually struggling with isn't easy when you're used to keeping your guard up.

You don't owe everybody your story. Transparency doesn't mean trusting everyone. Build relationships first and pay attention to who has earned access to the deeper parts of your life.

Start small. Trust doesn't have to happen all at once. Sometimes it develops through small moments where people repeatedly prove they're dependable.

Men need people they can talk to. Fear, pain, mistakes and insecurity don't disappear because you refuse to discuss them.

A judgment-free circle can help people heal. Having friends who will listen, challenge you and still stand beside you can make difficult conversations possible.

Being honest with God starts with being honest with yourself. Sometimes the hardest confession is admitting that something in your own life needs to change.

God already knows. Hiding a mistake from God doesn't make much sense when He already knows what happened.

Trusting God means surrendering some control. For people accustomed to handling everything themselves, that can be extremely difficult.

Giving it to God doesn't mean giving up. You still do the work. You simply don't have to carry every ounce of fear and anxiety by yourself.

Faith grows through experience. The more the guys recognize moments where God has been present in their lives, the easier it becomes to trust Him the next time.

Rebel Report

Episode 14 opens the news portion with the guys reacting to several international and domestic headlines making news around the time of the livestream.

The conversation moves through geopolitical tensions, protests, international relationships, security concerns and even geological news about the East African Rift.

As usual, Rebel Report isn't presented as a traditional news broadcast.

It's the guys reacting to stories in real time, questioning what they're hearing, disagreeing with some of it, joking about the rest and occasionally discovering breaking information directly from the live chat.

Rebel Report reflects the hosts' reactions and opinions to news and political topics at the time of recording.

Sacked

The internet continues providing an apparently endless supply of reasons for Sacked to exist.

Episode 14 includes:

A painfully placed party popper

A baseball shot that leaves everybody questioning whether the player can continue

Another baseball-related hit where protective equipment would've been extremely helpful

A man managing to kick himself directly in the goods

A robot immediately mimicking the man's reaction

Which leads to an important technological discovery:

Artificial intelligence may not have testicles, but apparently it understands the pain.

The guys also begin planning the inevitable:

The Sacked All-Star Team.

At the end of the year, the greatest hits may need to return.

Literally.

Folks on Fire

The Football Fighter

One of the clips has the guys watching a football player who apparently decided the game needed significantly more boxing.

Forget blocking.

He's hooking.

He's jabbing.

And the guys are impressed enough to give him a place in Folks on Fire.

The clip also launches an unexpectedly long investigation into one of America's greatest mysteries:

What the hell is a Hoosier?

Nobody really reaches a satisfying conclusion.

Sean McDermott

The guys also discuss Sean McDermott after his departure from Buffalo.

Whatever they think about the decision, the larger conversation becomes about how quickly coaches can be blamed when a team falls short—even after sustained success.

And naturally, it becomes another excuse for everybody to argue about their own NFL teams.

Justine

Robert's personal Folks on Fire goes to Justine.

Building the new studio required multiple days of equipment, cameras, cables, trips, rearranging rooms and three grown men attempting to figure out technology.

She let them take over the house anyway.

The live chat agrees:

Justine is the real MVP.

The guys joke about everything she unknowingly signed up for when the podcast started, but the appreciation underneath the jokes is genuine.

The new studio wouldn't have happened without people behind the scenes willing to support what they're building.

Boners

Episode 14's Boners cover a little bit of everything.

The guys vent about political protests, destructive behavior, social-media outrage and how exhausting it can become when every platform seems consumed by the same arguments.

The conversation becomes heated at times and includes strong political opinions from the hosts.

The broader frustration underneath it is something considerably simpler:

Disagreeing with somebody doesn't require destroying everything around you.

Another Boner goes to the early branding unveiled for the 2034 Winter Olympics in Utah.

As people with backgrounds and interests in photography, design and branding, the guys are less than impressed.

Very less than impressed.

That conversation naturally becomes an unsolicited design critique, a discussion about the old 2002 Salt Lake Olympic branding and several suggestions nobody involved with the Olympics requested.

Then comes one of the stranger sports rabbit holes of the night:

Did Bo Nix really break his ankle simply taking a knee?

The guys examine the footage and jokingly develop their own NFL conspiracy theories.

And finally:

People who scroll Facebook on a desktop computer.

Apparently that's weird now.

Some of the hosts disagree.

Strongly.

Today in History

Episode 14 gives us a couple of solid entries.

Ozzy Osbourne Bites the Bat

On January 20, 1982, Ozzy Osbourne famously bit the head off a bat during a concert.

The moment became one of the most infamous stories in rock history.

Exactly the kind of historical event this segment was created for.

Marvin Gaye — “What's Going On”

The guys also mark the anniversary of Marvin Gaye's legendary What's Going On.

Which immediately leads to attempts at singing it.

Those attempts will not be discussed further.

Fringe Files — Time Travel

Can humans travel through time?

More importantly:

Have people already done it?

Episode 14's Fringe Files jumps into one of the biggest rabbit holes the guys have explored yet.

It begins with strange historical photographs.

People who seem out of place.

Clothing that appears too modern.

Objects that look suspiciously like technology that shouldn't exist yet.

And the famous “hipster time traveler” photograph.

Are they actually evidence of people moving through time?

Or are we simply interpreting old photographs through modern eyes?

From there, things get considerably stranger.

The Kozyrev Mirror

The guys discuss stories surrounding the Kozyrev Mirror, an experimental concept involving curved reflective material that has become associated with claims involving altered consciousness, unusual experiences and even perceptions of other points in time.

One story discussed involves someone allegedly experiencing an encounter with his younger self.

But the guys raise the obvious problem:

Was somebody actually traveling through time?

Or were they experiencing some kind of psychological or altered state?

Nobody knows.

And that's why it's in Fringe Files.

Is Time Actually Linear?

Then comes the bigger idea.

What if time isn't moving in one straight line?

What if the past, present and future somehow exist simultaneously?

Instead of imagining time as:

Past → Present → Future

what if everything is already there and we're simply experiencing one piece of it?

That possibility leads into discussions about:

Albert Einstein

Relativity

Nikola Tesla

Theories about Tesla's research

Stories involving Tesla's papers after his death

Donald Trump's uncle John G. Trump and his examination of Tesla's papers

Alternate timelines

Parallel universes

Doppelgängers

Historical photographs

Whether the past and future could somehow coexist

And then somebody asks the question that always destroys a perfectly good time-travel conversation:

If time travel exists, why hasn't somebody used it to win the lottery?

Fair point.

Can You Change the Past?

Suppose you could travel backward.

Could you actually change anything?

The guys discuss one theory that history would essentially protect itself.

Try to stop a major historical event and something else prevents you from doing it.

That brings up:

JFK

Hitler

Predestination

Fate

Alternate timelines

The multiverse

The Mandela Effect

Whether changing one event creates an entirely new reality

Whether time would somehow “push back” against major changes

The conversation also brings up stories like 11.22.63, Back to the Future, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Avengers and other fictional versions of time travel.

Because apparently Hollywood has already prepared everybody for every possible outcome.

Would You Go Back or Forward?

Then comes the question everybody eventually asks:

Where would you go?

The guys aren't particularly interested in becoming heroic guardians of the timeline.

Their plans are much more realistic.

Go into the future.

Write down sports results.

Come back.

Bet accordingly.

Or go backward knowing which companies, technologies and investments are eventually going to explode.

Apple.

Google.

Bitcoin.

Basically:

Biff Tannen with better investment diversification.

Time Slips, Forests & Missing People

Near the end of Fringe Files, the live chat brings up another possibility.

What if some people who mysteriously disappear aren't simply lost?

What if certain places act almost like doorways?

Forests.

Vortexes.

Strange staircases.

Unexplained locations.

Could someone accidentally step into another time?

Probably not something the guys recommend testing.

And under absolutely no circumstances should you climb the random staircase you find sitting alone in the middle of the woods.

We've all seen enough horror movies to know better.

The Bigger Conversation

Episode 14 starts with trust and ends with time travel.

Somehow, there's still a connection.

Trust requires stepping into something without knowing exactly what's going to happen.

That's true with people.

It's true with friendship.

And it's definitely true with faith.

The guys talk repeatedly about wanting control.

Wanting to fix the problem themselves.

Wanting to know what's coming next.

Wanting proof before taking the next step.

But faith doesn't always give you that.

Sometimes you do everything you can...

And then you have to trust.

Trust the people who've earned it.

Trust yourself enough to admit when you're wrong.

Trust God with the things you can't control.

And keep moving.

You don't need a time machine to go back and fix every mistake you've made.

You can decide what you're going to do differently right now.

Maybe that's the better use of the time you've actually been given.

Watch & Listen

Watch the full episode and join the conversation.

Follow Wolves & Wisemen Reignited

Wolves & Wisemen Reignited is three imperfect guys trying to strengthen their faith while talking honestly about life, family, brotherhood, current events, the unexplained and whatever rabbit hole they fall into next.

We don't have every answer.

We're learning as we go.

And you're invited to be part of the conversation.

New episodes every Tuesday night.

Like. Follow. Subscribe. Join the chat.

And remember:

You don't have to control everything to trust God with it.