A Call To Leadership

EP293: God's Adventure Awaits with Vic Miller

• Dr. Nate Salah

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What if the battles you face are actually part of your calling? In this episode, Vic Miller shares his powerful journey of faith, illness, and identity, and how the message of Wild at Heart reshaped his mission to rescue the hearts of men. From forgiveness to spiritual warfare, his story shows how surrender leads to strength and hope. Listen now and discover the adventure God may be inviting you into today.


 Key Takeaways To Listen For

  • Why forgiveness and identity are the keys men struggle to embrace
  • The three core truths of Wild at Heart: battle to fight, beauty to rescue, and adventure to live
  • How to recognize and engage in spiritual warfare today
  • How God radically rearranged Vic’s calendar through a cancer diagnosis
  • The urgency of living every day with vision and purpose

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

About  Vic Miller
Vic is the founder of Wild at Heart STL, where he leads boot camps and men’s groups dedicated to helping men discover their God-given identity, embrace forgiveness, and step into the spiritual adventure of following Christ. Drawing from his own transformative experience at a Colorado Wild at Heart boot camp, Vic has spent years mentoring and walking alongside men in St. Louis and beyond. His passion is to equip men to fight spiritual battles, pursue authentic strength from God, and live with vision and purpose.

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[00:00:00] Vic Miller
We don't believe we have what it takes, and we believe that we've messed up so much that if guys really knew our story, they wouldn't wanna know our story. And God's saying, No, you are forgiven and he pursues us even when we stray away. 

[00:00:19] Dr. Nate Salah
Hello, my friend, and welcome to this episode of A Call to Leadership. I'm Dr. Nate Salah, your host, and I'm so glad you're here. I've got a question for you, especially for the men who listen. What if the life you're living isn't the adventure God actually had in mind for you? What if manhood? What if it was never meant to be tame, predictable, or even safe, but perhaps wild, purposeful, and full of risk and reward? Well, today I'm joined by my friend Vic Miller. He leads John Eldredge's Wild at Heart Experience right here in St. Louis, Missouri. And if you've been exposed to John's Teachings, he's ignited a movement across the world. He calls men to recover their true masculine heart, something that, has been shunned in today's culture to face the wounds that hold them back, and to reject these false scripts step into the daring adventure that God has designed for them. And Vic, he doesn't just teach this, he lives it. I've seen him walk through struggles of his own life and manhood, and now guide other men to reclaim the strength, the courage, and the freedom in Christ. This conversation is about playing a safe friend. It's about rediscovering that wild, holy adventure that makes us fully alive as sons of God. Can't wait for your listen in. This is A Call to Leadership.

[00:01:52]
Vic. Hey, man. How are you, man? Good. Yeah, good to see you. Thanks for being here. Good to see you as well, man. We've shared some common paths with a mission that you've been on over the years, and we're gonna unpack that for our listener and then share a little bit about your story as well. This idea of what it means to be a man. That's a very contentious conversation. It's weird because it shouldn't be, but it is, yeah. In this, in this modern era, and you've been on a mission of reclaiming that identity, that understanding. And along with of course, those, who have pioneered some of these, some of this thinking, John Eldridge, who we both have been influenced by, his works. It's a timely convo. 

[00:02:45] Vic Miller
Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah. The book Wild at Heart has been a huge impact in my life. I didn't know it was gonna be, someone handed it to me at a, at a breakfast and I was a slow reader, and I was like, eh, you know, I'd read a chapter at a time and I was just like, some of that I wasn't getting. And I got to the end of that book and back in the day when they fir, he wrote that book 20 years ago, it said, sign up for a bootcamp. And I signed up for this bootcamp thinking it was gonna be me and John, and a few other guys riding horseback. And it ended up being, I got accepted, it was a lottery, and I got accepted, and it was, 450 guys. Frazier, Colorado at a beautiful camp up in the mountains of the Rockies, and God rocked my world there. It was just what I needed. I was kinda living the life of trying to be a good Christian. But one of the things I found at that bootcamp is you, you can BS other guys, but you can't BS God. And, he really kind of rocked my world there. But it took me about 14 years after that before we actually started doing the Wild Heart STL bootcamps here in St. Louis. 

[00:04:07] Dr. Nate Salah
What if you can recall? What was it about that experience that floored you? 

[00:04:14] Vic Miller
Oh yeah. That bootcamp is, they go from Thursday night till Sunday noon, and I was there all by myself. It was August and, the Rocky Mountains are right to our, would've been to our east. And I love, I love the mountains, and it was a beautiful day we were there, and I was just going, okay, thank you, Lord, that I'm here. Next morning I get up and there's no mountains. It's raining, it's misting. And I felt like God say, said to me, mountains are still there. Just like my power, just like my strength. But you can't see them. And he, and I felt like he was saying, and this was unusual to hear this in, in my heart, I'm going, what's going on here? And I felt like he said in the the rain, the mist. Our, like teardrops for the, the broken hearts of the men that are here this weekend. But I've got great things in store that it rained all day. And that night we went into a session talking about the new name, what's the new name that God gives you? And that was probably the chapter when I was reading that book, the Wild at Heart book. I, I really struggled with like, eh, God doesn't give you a, a new name, you know, yet there's plenty of scripture that talks about it.

[00:05:30]
I really struggled with that. And they said, after the session, they said, go out and ask God, what does he think of you? What does he call you? And I walked outside and I was blown away. it wasn't raining anymore. Now remember, it's August. There's no snow on the mountains. And I look up and the, the mountains are snow covered, the rain's gone, snow covered mountains, and there's a full moon shining down. On the mountains, and I'm like, wow. And then I looked at the question, what he think of you and it, and it, and it's, it's almost like he says, I love you, stupid. Don't you get it? I, I love you and I forgive you, the, the stuff in your past is forgiven. And then he says, and look at the snow. I wash your sins as white as snow. I went, okay, I get it now. It over, like I said, it's taken me 14 years almost like, the Apostle Paul. You know, before he went into ministry, that to realize not only did did he love me, but he's saying, I forgive you. Let's move on. Let's, let's move forward. And so we, we were, during COVID, we led a, a Bible study on Zoom at our church.

[00:06:48]
And, I found out that there was a Wild At Heart Bootcamp in Clinton, Missouri, and I had two guys go with me. And on the Saturday night we were at the bootcamp there. One of the guys looks at me, he goes, I can do that. And I said, you can do what? And he's pointing at the audiovisual stuff. He says, I can do that. And what Wild At Heart has done is they've given us the material, and they said, go lead boot camps locally. Free of charge. Here's everything you need, go do that. Well, I'm not an audio visual guy. I, I have no clue how to do that. And all of a sudden, this guy Scott, standing next to me going, I can do that. And it's like the Lord was saying, take this to St. Louis and lead bootcamps. 

[00:07:38] Dr. Nate Salah
Interesting. I love that. Yeah. The, the, the, you'd mentioned something that I think strikes a chord forgiveness. Yeah. Yeah. Why do you think it's difficult for us to grapple with that concept?

[00:07:52] Vic Miller
Guys struggle. Well, the big question that Eldridge talks about in the book, wild at Heart is do I have what it takes? And we, we don't believe we have what it takes. And we believe that we've messed up so much that we, if guys really knew our story, they wouldn't wanna know our story. So many guys, I, I tell my guys, I lead groups on Tuesday night and Thursday night, and I tell them, I said so often. This was true of me. I wanted to find my validation, what I would say, I call it horizontally. I want to get my strength from my job, my wife, drugs, alcohol, women, sports, you name it. We go horizontally. We, we become what I call strength suckers. It's like, I, I need my strength from here, here, here, here. And it wasn't until later in, in the last couple years where I realized I need to go vertically and get my strength from God, and then I can take my strength and offer that as opposed to trying to get it from, I'm offering it to my wife. And so, and she appreciates me offering strength. Strength, as opposed to trying to suck the strength from her, you know? And so I think so many guys just go, I do my duty. I go to church 'cause mama wants me to. And I might serve in the kids' ministry or the parking ministry, but do I really want to go deep? Do I really want to go? I still think I'm a bad person. If everyone saw my video, you know, my life video, and that's, and God's saying, no, you are forgiven. What I love about what the Lord does is he pursues us even when we stray away. He pursues us and he, and he is challenged me to pursue others as he pursues me. And that's been a, sometimes I go, I don't wanna pursue them. You know, your kids sometimes you go, ah, they're kind of, you know, and, and you go, no, pursue them as I pursue you and as I love you. And that's, that's amazing to me. 

[00:10:03] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. This journey of uncovering God's strength in and through us isn't a journey of us. Wearing the mask. Right. Or being the poser or checking the boxes. Right. Because that's often what we think is the most appropriate thing to do. And it also can validate us with the world. Right. And what God is saying is it's not about how the world validates you, it's about how much I love you. Right, right, right. And that love is not about shaming you. Yeah. It's about shaping you. It's not about condemning you, it's about consecrating you, making you holy, making right. Raising the standard, not from mediocre to excellent, from a sinner to a saint. Right? And it's like, oh, what does that mean that I don't send anymore? No, it's not the point. Yeah. The point is, is that you are focused on me and my relationship with you, that it then pours out into other relationships because I believe you can't give away what you haven't received. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And if And if you want to give that love away. Yeah. Yeah. Start with opening your arms and knowing it's okay. It's risky, though. It is risky. That is very risky. Yeah. Right, right, right. Yeah. It's risky because there's a potential for loss. Right. Right. And so we have to let go of some things, right. Because in order to open our hands, when we do, naturally, things fall out of it. Right. Whatever we're gripping. 

[00:11:37] Vic Miller
Right? That's true. 

[00:11:38] Dr. Nate Salah
And so what are we gripping power. Mm-hmm. Prestige position. Yeah. And God's saying it's okay. Yeah. Let it go. 

[00:11:50] Vic Miller
Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. And in Eldridge's book, if I were to say the premise of Wild at Heart is there's a battle to fight. There's a beauty to rescue and there's an adventure to live. And what I've discovered in that, and he says that's true in every movie you watch, you see it on, in almost every Bible story that you read, there's always a battle of fight. There's always a beauty to rescue. There's always an adventure to live. one of the guys in our, in our, on our Wild at Heart, wild heart, SCL team, he's a former brigadier general. Helicopter Pilot and Desert Storm. And he said to me, he said, this adventure you're talking about, he says, I've lived every adventure there is, but this is a different adventure. He says, this is Jesus calling us in to the adventure with him. And it's a spiritual adventure that you go, oh, this is, you know, the rescuing of of men's hearts. And we have guys that come to the boot camps. We have guys that come to our, our bible study. And oftentimes we'll ask the question, was this what you expected? And they go, no, this is way more than what we expected. Where, where God kinda is tugging at your heart and going, dude, I wanna, I want you to be forgiven. I want you to accept my forgiveness and my love. And that's heart. You know? It is. And, but it's, you know, there's that battle of the fight we're in, we're in such spiritual warfare right now.

[00:13:20]
I mean, I was telling you earlier, my, my team, um. We've, and the, we have eight guys on our team, and then after, and we've done eight bootcamps, in the St. Louis area. After our last bootcamp, we had, two guys diagnosed with leukemia. We had, two guys lose jobs. We've had all sorts of, sorts of battles going on, and we go, it's real easy to go, okay, Lord, why are you doing this? But you know the scripture, John 10 10, the American church says. I've come that you may have life and life more abundantly, but they forget the first part. And the first part says the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And we've got an enemy that's, you know, that's screwing with us. And, and I think we're in end times where the enemy's going. It's a free for all and, and there's a battle going on. And, but to know and recognize that it's. The thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy. It's not God that's going, oh, I'm not gonna bless you. There's a battle going on. It's a real spiritual battle going on. 

[00:14:25] Dr. Nate Salah
It's a real battle. Yeah, it's a real battle. It's, it's one of my favorite, scripture verses in snapping me out of the, the illusion. Yeah. That there is no enemy. 

[00:14:38] Vic Miller
Right. 

[00:14:38] Dr. Nate Salah
That there is no adversary, Right. That it's all, we live in a peaceful time. Right? In the history of life, there's, there's, we're at war. It's a battle. And we know this is a spiritual battle. And so, you know, whether you, you know, the, the, the thief, the enemy, the adversary, the one who gets between the divider, any way you look at it, whatever it might be, we know that the. Route is to steal, kill, and destroy. Yeah. 

[00:15:04] Vic Miller
Eldridge says, we live in a love story set in the middle of war. Yeah. There you go. Beautiful. It's well said. Yeah. 

[00:15:10] Dr. Nate Salah
And, and and, and I love the way the next, as you said the next half of that sentence is, but, but it's a big, but it's a big but Right. And the but is what I have come, I have come that you should have life. Step one. Yeah. Step one is life. And most of us have seen Braveheart and I, I know, I know Eldridge talks about Braveheart as well, and one of, one of my favorite lines, of course, paraphrase that all men die if you live. Right? Yeah. And that hit me when I first, when I first saw that on screen. Of course, what does it do? It says, Oh, which 1:00 AM I right? Am I one of the ones who live and never or die and never live? Yeah. I wanna live. Exactly. I wanna live. And that's what Jesus is saying. I have calm that you should have life and that, but then he doesn't just stop there. The rest of the sentence is as beautiful, if not more, and have it to the full fullness of life. Right. Abundant life. That doesn't mean that you're going to have no trouble, right? Right. That doesn't mean you're not gonna have any trial. That doesn't mean that you're not going to have. The world cares. He says that himself, look, you're gonna have trouble. Right? Right. But I have overcome.

[00:16:30] Vic Miller
But in the end, we win. We win, we win. Yeah. Yeah. The, we have a coin that we do for the Wild At Heart Bootcamp and it, the, one of the quotes, is Isaiah 61, 1, he sent me to bind up the broken-hearted. Mm-hmm. And you know, there's so many people that, you know, were talking about men before that are broken-hearted. But Jesus had been sent to bind up the broken-hearted. And that's a powerful reminder as well. I, I think we just don't realize that we win in the end, like, like you're talking about, you know, and so 

[00:16:30] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. That's the important piece. Yeah. Yeah. It's always begin with the end in mind. Yeah. Right. I think 99.9% of our decisions would be made more effectively. If we began with the end in mind. Yeah. And, and, and if you think about that, for example, when people make judgment errors or send mistakes mm-hmm. I remember watching, this movie years ago, with the Tina Turner story. Okay. what's love got to do with it years or years ago, and there was a scene in the movie where Ike, her husband, had committed infidelity. Angela Bassett, I believe, played Tina Turner, and she did such a wonderful job of portraying that feeling a, a wife would've felt in that moment of betrayal. It hit me and I was, I was a young man. I was in my, I don't know, I was still maybe a teenager, early twenties, I can't remember, but it hit me so hard and said, you know what? I'm married. I never wanna make my wife feel like that. Right, right. I'll never do that. I will never, there's, there's no, and it's you, you say, well, you could, no, you, you make the choice. Right. Because I began with the end of mind. The end was what? Destruction. Right. Steal, kill, destroy. Right. Right. That's what the enemy wants to do. Right. Wants to get between those relationships that God has put in place and instituted for his glory for you to prosper in life. Right. And so. That's why the proverb 29 18 says, without vision, the people perish. Right? Yes. What is the vision? The vision is the end game, the end story. And Jesus is always pointing us to that, by the way 

[00:18:42] Vic Miller
He is. And , and you asked the question earlier and what comes to mind about why do guys not grab onto this? Part of it is the enemy keeps us busy. You're talking about the end game and the vision. We don't take time to look at the vision. We don't take time to slow down. And the enemy gets you so stinking busy. Yeah. That you go, why? I just don't have, I don't have time for that. 

[00:19:09] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, that's, that's the first, so if we, we've got three different parts of this steel kill, destroy. Right. 

[00:19:15] Vic Miller
Well, so what Is he stealing your time? Yeah. Your energy, your Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[00:19:18] Dr. Nate Salah
Your focus. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah. And hey, look. I'm not like, I'm not, I'm, I'm preaching the choir here, bro. Yeah, same here. He, he's, it's not hard. It's not difficult to do. Right. But that's one of the vice. Oh, wow. And this is why this year I've made it a point and I'm still working on it. It's a working pro. It's gonna take the whole year really, if not longer, to turn my calendar over to God. Mm. Right. Yeah. Think about that for a moment. I live on my calendar. My Google calendar is how I make all my decisions during the day, during the week. Everything is, I'm very meticulous, right about even the half hour or the 15 minute slivers putting in what I'm doing as a record for understanding, accountability, and as this year is about to start, I was convicted in that way, stealing my time to imagine if God got ahold of my calendar, God got ahold of your calendar, Vic. Right. And you gave God permission of if you would have to give God permission. Right? Right, right. You give God permission to rearrange your calendar and whatever. However, it was rearranged, you were obedient to follow no matter what it did. No matter what. It can be a scary. It could be a scary proposition. For some they say, oh, liberation. Great. Fantastic. For others it may be like, what's he gonna change? What am I gonna lose off my calendar? 

[00:21:30] Vic Miller
I've kind of gone through that this last year. 

[00:21:31] Dr. Nate Salah
Tell me about it. 

[00:21:32] Vic Miller
Well, last June I was, I was sharing with you earlier that, we were on vacation in Colorado and we discovered I had a blister on the side of my tongue. My wife is a nurse at Mercy, and she said. You need to go check that out. Did some blood tests and long or short version of that story. About a year ago, they diagnosed me with, twice. They said I had acute leukemia and then said, just kidding. And then they said, two doctors came up with different diagnosises and then the one doctor sent me says, I'm, I'm transferring you to Barnes and you're going to see a bone marrow transplant specialist, when you go to see a bone marrow transplant specialist, you go there because he does bone marrow transplants and you know, it's not just to see a specialist and, and so God kind of got ahold of my calendar and said, I've got something different in store. But trust me, I just read an article the other day where a guy was doing a GoFundMe. I was diagnosed with MDS, which is myelodysplastic Overlap Syndrome. What I've discovered is there are very variations of that. Yeah. You can have low red blood cells, you can have low white blood cells, or you can have low platelets. If I can say I was blessed with the low platelets from the aspect of, of is that I've never felt terrible. I've had chemo a couple times. I've never been nauseous. I've never been. the only negative is I, I would bruise easily. I was shoveling one day, and I got done shoveling. I knew I couldn't lift more than 30 pounds, took my shirt off, and my whole right bicep was purple. So it's bleeding on the inside.

[00:23:27]
So that's a, that's a danger of low platelets. So I've, I've been, for the last eight months, twice a week, going in and getting a, a lab test done and then getting platelets. Every time I, I was low on platelets. I'd have to get platelets. When I was first diagnosed, I, I, when the doctor said I had acute leukemia, I thought, okay, Lord, you're changing my calendar and why are you changing my calendar and what's going on here? And, a matter of fact, the new name for Wild at Heart. I was downtown in, St. Louis area, and there's a, there's a, an apartment complex on Olive and somewhere downtown off of Olive called the Victor. And I, I really feel like God has been saying you're gonna be the victor, through this whole thing in January. The doctor had been talking about a bone marrow transplant in February, and he walks in in January and he says. You're the mystery man. And I'm like, how about Miracle Man? Oh, there you go. I like that one. And, and he goes, I said, tell me more. And he goes, we're going to try something totally different.

[00:24:43]
We're not gonna do a bone marrow transplant. We're gonna try to take your spleen out and have your spleen removed and , we're gonna do a splenectomy. And so March 31st, I had that done and I have not had platelets. Since that time, it's been over 110 days since I, I've gotten an infusion of platelets. And so it, it, it's been, okay, Lord, what are you doing? and there's all these questions. Why are you doing this now? And, and, the phrase that he keeps saying is, I'm not finished with you yet. Mm-hmm. I'm still. There's still much to be done. Mm. But there's that part of me that goes, you know, where I go back and forth, like, okay, when's the shoe gonna drop? When's, you know, all that kinda stuff. But, at the same time, we've got another bootcamp coming up in October. We've got, stuff going on that I'm just going like, work plowing straight ahead until he says, nope. You know, not yet. Or I'm, I'm, I'm finished with you. Let's, I don't know if you'll ever be finished, but you know what I mean. It's just been that that process of the calendar got changed. Yeah. I hated it. But at the same time, you were talking about on one of your podcast relational currency, and I've got to see. God worked powerfully through people praying for me, people reaching out and helping people, walking with me people, and also people going, okay, how can I go further with this? That it's not just you doing it. How can we also like passing on the baton. And I'm passing on the baton to other guys and going Run with this baby. Yeah, man. You know, you know, keep going with this. This is, you know. 

[00:26:17] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, that's, that's the beauty of surrender. Yeah. At some point you surrendered. Your calendar, your, you said something maybe voluntarily. I volunteered. It, it, the Surrender is a, it's an interesting concept. It's the first beatitude. We've been going through a series, a couple of the guys on, on the show, Joe and, and Travis with me about and going through the Beatitudes and this idea of life joy because Jesus says that life joy is a product of God's outpouring, of his grace and love. We can walk in that and he explains through the eight beat attitudes, the process of them, the very first one is blessed of the poor in spirit. Mm-hmm. And we understand the poor in spirit to mean it's a dependence, it's a total, total dependence on God. 

[00:27:24] Vic Miller
Yeah. What do you have for me now, Papa? You know, kind of that's, you've gotta just, every day you gotta start out with that dependence 

[00:27:29] Dr. Nate Salah
And he starts out the beatitudes with that. Yeah. And I think that's on purpose by design. Mm-hmm. That he says, let's start with your posture of who's really in control. Hmm. Yeah. Let me walk with you, right? Let me guide you, by the way, not as an advisor, because you can always tell an advisor, I'm not gonna take your advice as the authority of your life, right? The author and the perfecter. Of your life. You say, well, my life's not perfect. Sure it is. Use the right terminology. What is per, what do we like to say by perfection? It's maturity, completeness, wholeness. In fact. Well, we talked about this when, when Jesus in Matthew 5:48, where he says, be perfect, as as your father is perfect, as our My father is perfect. It's not flawless. It's fulfilled. Yeah. And where's the fulfillment come? Fulfillment comes in release, say God. The only plan, and I've said this before on this show, the only plan that ever works, you've been, you know, you got gray, I got gray, right? The only plan in this long journey of life that ever works flawlessly is obedience. Yeah. And sometimes we're forced into it. Say, okay, God, here we are. What inspires me about your story? And I've got another buddy who has, we talked about this earlier, stage four pancreatic cancer, and that moment he found out complete shift of perspective and priority, right? 

[00:29:02]
Like you find out that you've, you've got a terminal illness and the doctors are like, okay, maybe a year tops, right? Everything changes, all priorities change, and that change is what essentially reframes what's valuable and important and necessary. Life. Mm-hmm. And so walking through this with my friend, it's like, oh wow. You know what's important and valuable in my life? It, it causes you to naturally take inventory because I believe, Vic, that we have one moment that's guaranteed on this side of eternity, and it's this moment.

[00:29:41] Vic Miller
Right, right. 

[00:29:43] Dr. Nate Salah
Exactly right. Yeah. No other moment is guaranteed. Every moment someone has a last moment, sometimes expected, sometimes unexpected. Every moment of every day. Exactly. So if that's true, then how am I living these moments out? Yeah, yeah. Right. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. What's important, and what are we sweating daily that isn't important in the grand scheme of life? I, I've had so many situations in the last maybe month that in the past, Nate Salah would've been more stressed out, or I would've been like. Not in a great mood. Mm-hmm. At an event or something like that. My wife would be like, what's wrong? I'm like, oh, I'm dealing with this thing. I'm trying to think it out now. It's like in the grand scheme of things, h ? Right. Irrelevant. Yeah. That doesn't mean I don't approach it with the gravity that's necessary, but I don't approach it anymore with the kind of anxiousness or the kind of worry that doesn't lead me to the fullness of life that Jesus says, let it go. Does it mean that you're gonna have an answer right away? Does it mean that you may ever have an answer? It just means that you walk in obedience and you're satisfied. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. In whatever happens. 

[00:30:50] Vic Miller
Yeah. Yeah. The, the, sense of urgency, all of a sudden you start to realize is don't waste time. But I've got three, wonderful adult kids, and I've got two beautiful granddaughters that I love chasing, and it's like. I've been married 44 years and it's like, okay, what do we, how do we make the most of, of all this? How do we do, you know, God, what do you want me to do? That the, the word pursue? How do I pursue better? How do I, like you said, not waste time. Just recently, I, you know, like I said, that phrase, I'm not finished with you yet. It just kept kind of ringing loud and clear and it's like, okay. What does that mean? 

[00:31:34] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, like what are my action times? Every morning I wake up, Vic, my prayer is, okay, I'm still here. Mm-hmm. That means my work isn't finished. Right. Lord, what is it today? Yeah. When the disciples were asked, how should we pray, and Jesus said, give us this day our daily bread. Yeah. Interestingly, it wasn't, Hey, give us this week or this month or this year, or this next season or decade, our bread. Right. Right. Hey, hook me up, Jesus, for the next iteration of life. No, it's this day, like today. Now granted, yes, we should consider the future, and we just talked about vision and all that. However, look, man, I got this day. 

[00:32:19] Vic Miller
But you know, when you're struggling with your buddy that's got the cancer, I've got the blood cancer. If you're not looking to him this day. There's no hope, and you've got, I, I don't know how people go through the crap of the world without him, and by going to him daily and, and going, okay, Lord, I do the same thing. I start off the morning, you know, there's a, the Pause app that Eldridge has I listened to in the morning and in the evening, and it's, it's saying, Lord, I, I release my grip on things. I release this all to you. Walk with me today and, and what's that gonna look like? You know? And it's without hope. I don't, I like that phrase Give, give me this day this. That's a I like that. Thank you for sharing that. 

[00:33:16] Dr. Nate Salah
That's, Yeah. A, a critical word. It is, it's a critical word in, in the understanding of our heart head. Position and of course our hands position, right. Of how we approach the day ahead of us. Mm-hmm. And by the way, it's enough to satisfy. Yeah, yeah. It's, it's enough to satisfy. And I think that's a game changer, Vic. It's a game changer in how we approach our challenges, our trials, and that we don't have to do it alone. Right, right. Exactly like you said, because the, the lone road is no road at all. I mean, it's so dark. I dunno if you've ever been on it. I have. I wasn't always a person of faith. I was a person who was lost, man. I, I was, I was on a one way road to nowhere and I was doing all the wrong things. I was getting in trouble with the law. I was depressed. I was without hope. You talked about it, you know, so I believe that there's at least two kinds of hope. There's hopelessness and there's hope full. I like that. Yeah. And so hopelessness sees things only as they are and in the moment, right. Things can look bleak. Dark, yeah. Alone. But if you could see things as surely as they can be with God's presence fully in our lives. Right. Loving us. Loving us, not only through his word, but also through the people he sends.

[00:34:40] Vic Miller
Yeah. It's kinda like, take my hand Papa, and walk with me. You know, with my granddaughters, I love pictures that I have when they were little and they're, they're looking up and they're holding my hand. Yes. And they're, they're trusting you. And it's like, hold my hand, papa. You know? And, and that's that hopefulness. 

[00:34:57] Dr. Nate Salah
There's a difference there. There's a portrait, I've can't recall the name of it right now, but there's a portrait where it shows the, the, the father and the, and the child's. Together and holding hands. And I remember this even when I was, my son was young, there would be times where I would let him hold my thumb. You remember, you know those days where your, your young one can wrap their whole hand around your thumb, and you would allow that going down on maybe a couple steps or something like that. There were other times where. It was much more treacherous. Mm-hmm. And you wouldn't dare do that. You would wrap your hand around theirs. Yeah. And I think that's the idea in part in how we describe our relationship during trials. Mm-hmm. Like, you know what? It's okay to let go of what you think you can hold onto even on God's hands, and just let him grasp you. Right, right through the trial. Yeah. It's not gonna let you go. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's good. That's good. He's not gonna let you go. And so today, today, your journey continues on. Mm-hmm. How can we be praying for you? 

[00:36:10] Vic Miller
It's a good question. to lead properly, to lead effectively, to walk with other men and continue to pass on that baton. You know, we've got our, I mentioned the bootcamp in in October. We're praying for guys to come to that. There's actually, we also have a. A group of ladies that through one of our boot camps, they decided they're gonna do a captivating, which is the female version of Wild At Heart. they're doing that in September. So both of 'em are at an amazing church camp called Eagle Sky Camp of the Ozarks. It's a church camp on steroids. It's, it's like Bass Pro. 5,000 acres. Oh wow. There's bison on, on campus there. But, you know, pray for those boot camps. Pray for continued healing. I've got, you know, the amazing thing when you said relational currency, some people will hide the fact that they're sick. And they go, oh, I don't want anybody to know about it. My wife and I decided we were gonna do a Facebook page, a private Facebook page, and just ask, let people know what's going on. One so we could share that information without having to take 400 calls. Yeah. You know, and we have over 900 people praying for us, and I want people that are praying for us to see that God is real.

[00:37:32] 
And that God is powerful and that God is, is a, a healing God. I also know that he's not gonna heal. He doesn't heal everyone. Yeah. I've known people with MDS and they're going through a whole different stuff and I go, okay, Lord, why are they going through that? And I'm going through it in a different way. And you have to realize God's working on on me. Differently than he is maybe on you and maybe, you know, so it's always gonna be different and, and just to go, Lord, how can I be effective for you through this? You know? And so yeah, that's a long answer to a short question that you ask. 

[00:38:15] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, and thanks for being vulnerable and transparent. Yeah. Someone will be praying for you. I am certain that's who's listening as well as our community, our G3 community. We just launched our. Grow, give, go. Can you grow purposefully, generously. I saw that. That's amazing. And go love radically. Yeah. Because the goal is what well done. Good and faithful servant.

[00:38:35] Vic Miller
Exactly. 

[00:38:36] Dr. Nate Salah
That's the goal. 

[00:38:37] Vic Miller
Yeah. 

[00:38:38] Dr. Nate Salah
And, and, and living it out together in community, is an essential of finishing strong. 

[00:38:42] Vic Miller
Right. 

[00:38:43] Dr. Nate Salah
The, the adventure. 

[00:38:46] Vic Miller
Right. You know, over the last year, so I'm still working as an insurance agent. The agency that I work for is based off Springfield, Missouri. Those guys have been amazing. I've, I've not had to, they're doing everything for me, which when you're going through my, my wife said she's a nurse. She goes, I don't know how people go through this kind of stuff, you know, with the health insurance. And we've had health insurance battles all over the place. That's probably the thing that drives my blood pressure the highest is it's, but you know, just that through this last year, all of a sudden I've realized I still need to provide, and God's been gracious in that he's really said, go out and, and, and, minister to men and rescue the hearts of men. And so that's, I I guess from a prayer aspect that's. Really my goal and my, you know, to get outta the way and, and go, okay, Lord, how can we go rescue the hearts of men and, so that they're not just sitting in a pew doing nothing, you know? So, yeah. That's. That would be my prayer. 

[00:39:56] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, we will support you and pray with you and for you on, your rescue mission.

[00:40:00] Vic Miller
I appreciate that. And, and if, just for your information, go to wildheartscl.com and you can find out more information on that or the, the women's site is, captivatingretreat.com. Awesome. And so they can find that stuff as well. 

[00:40:17] Dr. Nate Salah
So yeah, we'll make sure that's in the show notes. Yeah. And, awesome. Thanks for being here, brother. 

[00:40:20] Vic Miller
Yeah. Thank you for having me. This has been great. I, you've, you've poured into me. Well, thank you, sir. 

[00:40:27] Dr. Nate Salah
Amen. You know who gets all the credit. Amen. Amen.Thank you so much for supporting this program. I'd like to pray for you for just a moment that God realigns the heart away from pressure, pride, performance back to his presence. Let us grow in God's wisdom. Let us give from our overflow, and let us go love radically in every place God sends us. Us, holy Lord, set us apart, not just successful, but surrendered in Jesus' name, Amen.

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