A Call To Leadership

EP296: The Prodigal Uncovered with Robby D'Angelo

• Dr. Nate Salah

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The story of the prodigal son is more than a parable, it is a mirror for our lives and a blueprint for redemption. In this episode, we explore the scandal of rebellion, the shock of forgiveness, and the love that redefines identity, together with Robby D'Angelo. We discuss surrender, father wounds, and the hope of unconditional love that still transforms lives today. Listen now and discover how this story might reshape your own journey.

 Key Takeaways To Listen For

  • Why the prodigal’s shocking request would have stunned Jesus’ audience
  • Repentance vs. regret, Why surrender is the key to restoration
  • How the father’s public self-humbling became an act of radical love
  • The “other brother” trap of resentment and works-based identity
  • How father wounds and cultural portrayals distort our view of God’s love

About Robby D'Angelo
Robby is a speaker, author, and coach passionate about helping people rediscover their true identity and purpose through faith, community, and transformation. Drawing from his own “prodigal” journey, he speaks candidly about repentance, surrender, and the healing power of unconditional love. Robby works with men, young leaders, and business owners to navigate life’s challenges, form authentic communities, and build lives that bear lasting fruit.

Connect with Robby

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[00:00:00] Dr. Nate Salah
Some things are beyond our physical world and that supernatural love that is really defies understanding that's available to us then becomes a supernatural love that we can, in turn, pour out to others. Hello, my friend, and welcome to this episode of A Call to Leadership. Today we're diving into one of the most raw, one of the most relatable, one of the most redemptive stories Jesus ever told. The parable of the prodigal son. It's a story of rebellion, sister. Of return. It's a story of running away, being welcomed home, and it carries a message for every leader in business, family, and life that we need to hear. Joining me is my new friend, Robby DeAngelo. He's got a powerful voice in ministry. He's someone who's walked with countless others through brokenness, identity struggles, and the journey back to the father's embrace. If you've ever wandered far, if you've ever. Out the weight of regret. If you've ever prayed for someone you love to come home, this conversation is for you. Robby, what's up, brother?

[00:01:11]
 Welcome to the show. Hey Nate. Thanks for having me today, man. Absolutely, absolutely. I'm so thrilled to have you on on our podcast As we wrap about. Your journey, your mission, if you will. And before we got started, we were talking a little bit about the prodigal. You know, this is like a really big topic. Every, just about everybody who is been in faith circles, Christian circles, they've heard the story. The prodigal son that Jesus tells the parable. People use the term prodigal all the time. My prodigal child, right? So, so it's a very well known term. This is an area that you are passionate about the before, sort of like, you know, before that prodigal. Let's unpack some of that where your passions for people for, in this area.

[00:01:59] Robby D'Angelo
My passion for this really just comes from my own story of living this out. And the reason I love the Prodigal story so much, there's really three lessons to me. That one story. Of course, the one most people are familiar with, the prodigal son of gets his inheritance early, goes and blows it comes back. And then you also have the extremely jealous brother that when he gets back has all this just negative emotion wrapped up. And for me though, the most important part of that entire story is the father's unconditional love. Mm. And that's why I love that story so much is. While I did have my own prodigal period of my life, it was the father's unconditional love that redeemed me back to purpose.

[00:02:50] Dr. Nate Salah
Come on. You know, the unconditional love is interesting and you think about it like, I think I'm a, I'm a parent. I don't, I don't know if you, are you a parent? I'm not. No, not yet. So I'm a parent. My son right now is 18 years old. Mm-hmm. So I think about this prodigal. The story that Jesus lays out, I was thinking he is probably about the same age, you know, younger guy, maybe 18 to 22 sort of age. Like, hey, I'm, I wanna just get out there and do my thing. And you know, when he asked his dad, Hey, I wanna go ahead and get my inheritance now 'cause I just wanna like do my thing. A lot of, a lot of messages he was sending to his dad, and I think about like, what if my kids said that to me? One of the messages he was sending to his dad. Hey, I don't really care if you're alive or dead because that's, that's the time that I'm supposed to get my inheritance. Let's just speed this process up. Yep. Let's just pretend that you have already croaked, so I can go ahead and go on my own. We'll see. We don't think about that. Like when I'm reading the story that would've been, especially in, in that culture and that time.

[00:03:54]
That would've been like totally dishonoring, totally devastating. His listeners who are listening, by the way, this is a story, it's parable. It's not an actual people. This is what's beautiful about Jesus' stories is he tells 'em such a way you think they're real people. So his listeners would've been like aghast. They would've been like, oh my goodness, this should never happen. Never like, ever should, a child dishonor their family name by wishing that their father was already dead so that they could take the inheritance and. To even divide that inherit and say, I'm gonna go ahead and do that, would've taken massive work on the father's part from a, a legal perspective, if you will, to do all of this work. Yet he does it Interesting. That's like that, that point, just like right there where he does it, I was like, would I do that? 

[00:04:40] Robby D'Angelo
And it brings up like so many questions of is he allowing his son to go fail and learn that lesson the hard way. Is he doing it out of just, you know, spoiling, like what's the motive behind doing that? Because you're right in that custom time, it was extremely, extremely dishonoring to ask for that early. And you're right, Jesus is trying to get that point across to really hit the emotional home. Of the power of asking that at that time. And it brings up so many like parenting questions. Did he do a good job of raising his son where, why is his son even asking for this? Right? And this is where like my rabbit hole brain goes when I read these kinds of stories. But I, you understand like what Jesus is trying to teach, yet I look at so many other questions when I see these kinds of things. 

[00:05:32] Dr. Nate Salah
Right? Yeah, exactly. You look at all these questions, and of course, Jesus keeps it simple, and we know the heart of this message, heart of this story is that unconditional love, that that love that God has for us, that we can receive gladly no matter how far we've drifted away, no matter how far we forsaken God, no matter how much we've said, Hey, look, God, I wish you were dead and to the next level. One another because Jesus teaches that not only in his words, but in his actions and his deeds. He teaches that radical love, really. And so as I'm thinking about that, even for my own life and my own son saying, dad, you know, just gimme my stuff. I'm out and I do that. Okay, here's your, you know, here's your inheritance and all this other stuff. And of course this, the story goes right. What happens next? Robby? Tell us, you know, tell us the cliffhanger. He, he goes out and does his thing, right? 

[00:06:27] Robby D'Angelo
He goes out there and does his thing, like, let's be honest, a lot of that age group is doing right now in this world. Been there, me too. That's why I identify the story so much and you know, while I didn't get inheritance, that was definitely, Hey, lemme go live life to the fullest for a, a while. And then what's beautiful about the other side of him absolutely blowing his inheritance is he's covered in plop. The, the visual of how dirty he is after this journey of blowing everything. And we both know in that culture that being covered in the mess of the pig is about as low as it gets. That is about as dirty as Jesus can describe it.

[00:07:14] Dr. Nate Salah
It couldn't be any any worse. Correct. The, the, the, the Jewish culture, they, they didn eat pork. They consider the pig a dirty animal and diseased animal for that, for that matter. And it indeed, it, it was, and, and, and still is. Of course, now we have different methods of, of cooking and things like that. But the point is, is that being even associated with swine is a, almost a a, a wretch. It's a wretchedness. I mean, like you said, it doesn't get, and far, as far as this, this depiction goes, doesn't get. Any worse. And the father's, you've honored your family's name. Yeah. You've dishonored yourself, you've dishonored God because you've dishonored the pathway, if you will. Mm-hmm. And now you're starving, starving and dirty. And you wonder, Robby, you know, sometimes it has to get there. That's, that's what I, what I had to do. 

[00:08:12] Robby D'Angelo
And I talked to so many, especially men. We were ju joking yesterday as I was having this beautiful afternoon with a couple Christian men. We were talking yesterday about just like the question, like, why do we have to learn lessons that way? Why can't we stand on the shoulders of giants and learn from other people's mistakes like we know we should be doing? Why do we have to be to that point where we're at rock bottom or back against the wall to say, okay, you know, I, I think now we want to change. Hmm. 

[00:08:44] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I think sometimes, at least I know for me, I was very prodigal. I was the black sheep of the family. I was the one who was just, you know, I just did what I wanted. I didn't care about what anybody thought. I was testing all the boundaries, all the possibilities for life, and did a lot of things that hurt my family, that hurt me, and I was foolish. Truly foolish. I mean, you know, I'm 52 now. Yeah. It's, you know, life's different. However, looking back, you know, looking back at that time, I'm, you know, I'm putting myself in the prodigal's shoes right now, and none of that mattered as much as it did for me to test out life and see where it would take me and. Even in that, like no matter who I hurt, it took me a while. It took me a while to come to, to the realization that, Nate, you're making a lot of bonehead moves that are leading you down a one-way road to nowhere. If only we would read the book of Ecclesiastes earlier.

[00:09:55] Robby D'Angelo
Yeah. And learn from those lessons. 

[00:10:00] Dr. Nate Salah
Ecclesias easy. Just throw Ecclesiastes and Proverbs out in there and boy. Talk about heartache, but we don't always, and maybe we do and we're not in the right head space, we're not in the right heart space at the time. Maybe those lessons need to be learned. And here's the thing about it too. Like, would I be who I am today had I not learned those lessons? You know, and there's just, there's like the two different tracks, if you will. There's the preserved track. That's the person who didn't really get into a lot of trouble. They, they stayed preserved in terms of, they, they made wise choices in their parents. All of that. They, they, they heated their, their parents' instruction and there's a place for that. And there's a good place, like I long for that, for everyone who will respond to that. There's also a place for those of us who have had to learn from the school of hard knocks. We've been in the dirt and the dust and we've had it in our mouths, in our face. And at the bottom, literally at the bottom. And where you think, okay, I can't go any lower, and nobody's gonna want to redeem this. But you know, the story turns.

[00:11:13] Robby D'Angelo
Absolutely, it does. And I, I think a great point to add here is that's where we're able to really look someone in the eye and be like, Hey man, I know what it's like to be exactly where you're at right now. I know what it's like to be going through what you're going through right now. So as hard as those lessons are, they do make you who you are today. They do teach you to have compassion for people that are going through it. We were able to sit down yesterday and talk about some hard subjects because most of us have been there, and we not only know the theory of how to fight the good fight, but we also know the realism of the emotions you're battling as you're fighting that fight. And being able to do that, I think just gives you a, a depth. To being able to truly help people. That the theory alone, the protected life, I don't know, gives you, 

[00:12:06] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, and that's where, us as, as people who have been there, can point someone in the direction and say, before you go there, here's what some of the things wish to expect. Have you ever had that conversation, Robby? 

[00:12:24] Robby D'Angelo
I have, I have, but I've, I've spoken at high schools, I've spoken at colleges, and you, you try to have that conversation and even, you know, you're talking to someone and they're on the precipice of making that prodigal decision. You're like, Hey, I know what you're looking at right now. I, I know how good you're thinking that's gonna feel. Let me, let me give you an alternate perspective on that for a minute. 

[00:12:48] Dr. Nate Salah
And someone who has been there, or is. Currently there. That's another conversation based on this story, because what's so beautiful about this story, one of the many things that's beautiful is when the son comes to his senses. Yeah. Right. And he is, you know, of course, there's a famine in the, in the town that he went to. And he's like, you know, my, even my dad's servants have better food to eat than me. I'm gonna go, oh, I'm gonna go. And, and it's not that he, here's what I part about this, this part of the story is he doesn't go, he doesn't, his mindset isn't on, oh, I'm gonna go, and tell my dad that I need more cash. Yeah. Loan me some more money, dad, I need to get, you know, I'm gonna go back and party some more. I'm outta cash. Because sometimes it's like that you think, oh, how can I manipulate dad into more money? He's not in that place. He's in a place of utter destitution. He's, he's in a place of repentance. That's true 

[00:13:56] Robby D'Angelo
Surrender. True surrender. And that's, that's where we all need to be. Yeah. That's where we operate the best from, is true surrender and true repentance. It's just, you know, hopefully we don't have to get dirty with the pigs to get there. 

[00:14:11] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, and, and the beauty of how this story continues to unfold. Is that his dad sees him far off. Right? And what does his dad do? Does he say, oh no, he's coming back. Oh boy, I better hide the jewelry. I better hide the good, the good, you know, the good silverware. I can't wait to give him a piece of my mind. Finally, he's back. I can tell him off and I can show him, you know, how shameful he should be. None of that. What does he do? He does something. Again, in that culture, you would've thought, no way. He runs to meet his son. Now here's a part of that. What's interesting, contextually, I love context. We need to spend time in context. Here's what's beautiful about that. When he goes to meet his son, he runs well. In order to run, you would've had to have pulled up your tunic. In other words, many of them wore, they didn't wear pants necessarily. You would've to have shown your legs, which is, which is dishonoring to do that. So he would've had to dishonor himself, and it was a dishonor even to run to son who had already dishonored him. But to walk in that level. And what does he do? He, he loves him. Wraps his arms around and puts a ring on his finger, says we're gonna have, we're gonna have a celebration. My son is, is found. 

[00:15:37] Robby D'Angelo
He was lost. He's now found and in the son's dirtiness, the father still takes his best and covers him with it and says, you're home and I love you and it's okay. I got you. And the beautiful thing. That I tell a lot of, especially men, this story because so many men struggle and women too, we struggle with a father wound and we don't understand that true unconditional love that is available with the surrender and repentance that the sun showed. And we let this earthly definition of father interfere with the true unconditional love that our heavenly father has for us. And we're always putting, we're always projecting that earthly definition on the heavenly definition, and it just gets in the way. Hmm. Why do you think that is? We were talking about this yesterday. Why do so many of us, I mean, yes, we do have a fatherhood problem in this country right now. Just by the sheer statistics of it.

[00:16:45]
 We have a problem of fathers just not knowing how to be fathers really, really started after the war generations, of course. So we have this epidemic of just fatherhood getting worse over time. We're seeing a little bit of a resurgence now. Hopefully it gets a lot better. But so many have this father wound that we're just creating generational curses because of, and now even in the media, they, the way they portray fathers with the, Homer Simpsons of the world, it's not a good image of what father looks like. So we don't have a really good working definition for the most part. I'm talking about on a macro level. Of what a healthy father looks like. Mm-hmm. And so if that's the only thing we know of what our father's supposed to be, of course we're gonna have a struggle with the Heavenly Father.

[00:17:30] Dr. Nate Salah
Amen, brother. It's so true. And this is where Jesus comes in and he resets. He resets our understanding. He resets our vision. Because it's not just about them back then, it's about us today. You know what? What Jesus is saying is no matter what you've done, no matter how you've wronged me, how you've wronged God, no matter how deep and dark your secrets are, no matter how much you've wallowed in the mud with the pigs, no matter how much you for saken life. You can never do anything that will take my love away from you. Not only that, but when you return, I will give you my very best. We'll clothe you with it. I will love you with it, and I will honor the commitment you've made to return and return home.

[00:18:24] Robby D'Angelo
I was talking to a client this past week and he was struggling with that. I said, Hey, let me tell you two stories. And I was like, first of all, here's David, a man that committed murder to cover his adultery, right? Because he was not being on his mission, his mineral fighting in the war. He said, I'm not going to, I'm gonna be lazy. Stay at home. Idle hands got his butt in trouble. He. Has his general killed yet. God says, this is a man after my own heart. Okay? Point number one. Point number two, Paul Paul's literally out there murdering Christians and Jesus's like, hold on. Time out. Now you're on my team. Now you're coming with me to do my work. So I was like, Hey man, I know you. I don't think you're a murderer. He's like, no, I'm not like, okay, so if. The father can show unconditional love to those two men. One's probably the most influential guy in the New Testament. The other one's a man after his own heart. What's keeping you from fully accepting and realizing the love that he's already given you? It's there. You just gotta accept it. Mm-hmm. 

[00:19:46] Dr. Nate Salah
And what's beautiful about those stories is there's also the other brother. We can't forget about the other brother. No, the other brother who was the devoted, dedicated one in every family. I suspect there's those two different brothers and sisters here and there, and he was upset. He was beyond upset. He petitioned his day. He is like, you know, I've done all these things like I, I'm, I take care of everything that you asked. I'm like, dutiful. I check all the boxes. And I have a feeling that Jesus may have been talking about the Pharisees or the religious folks and the who may have been listening, and he says this, and I, I have a feeling he, he looks at a Pharisee in the eye as he is, as he is sharing this part of the story. My love was always yours. You never had to earn my love. You can't earn it. You can't maintain it. You can't ascertain it. It's a free gift. You always have it. And it can bogle the mind to even think about that. Well, what do you mean? It's just that simple? 

[00:20:58] Robby D'Angelo
It is. And if we really look at the other brother, that is a very easy human emotion to have. I'm working hard. I'm doing all the things you tell me to do. What about me? It's, it's a very visceral emotion to feel at times, and I always go back to when we're looking at that works-based love that a lot of us suffer with. Mm-hmm. And that was probably the number one reason why I never truly had a great relationship with God, because I needed to earn it. I needed to be good enough for it. And then I read the story of Jesus getting baptized hasn't done one miracle yet. Just beginning his mission yet God said, this is my son, who I'm well pleased. I'm pleased. And you haven't even gone to do the mightiest things of your life yet? I think we overcomplicate it.

[00:21:53] Dr. Nate Salah
Which is probably an, an understatement. We overcomplicate it and I think that's because we, back to your point earlier, we often see conditional love are all around us. Mm-hmm. We, we just, it's, it's very common. And we often exhibit it. So it's, it's difficult to even wrap our minds around that. However, when we do and we accept it, how freeing is that, Robby? 

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[00:23:01] Robby D'Angelo
That's the peace that Jesus talks about so much that's beyond all understanding. When you accept that love, like it took me some really hard circumstances to really accept that love. And I, I did after full surrender experience that supernatural peace of, okay, I just need to surrender, obey and abide and I'm gonna get through this. And it was, it's, it really is hard to describe the supernatural aspect of. That love and it's one of the things I wish that more people would experience.

[00:23:45] Dr. Nate Salah
It's important you bring that up. That's, that is a supernatural love and I think that's, we, we have to like come back to, some things are not in the physical world. Sometimes some things are beyond our physical world and that's supernatural love. That is really defies understanding that's available to us. Then becomes a supernatural love that we can in turn, pour out to others. 

[00:24:09] Robby D'Angelo
We always confuse our earthly perspective and the heavenly perspective. They're absolutely different how you view the world. Jesus just talks about this a lot, how you view the world as not how I view the world. Yeah. Yet I had a coach of mine tell me a couple months ago, he said, Hey Rob, you know what your problem is? I mean, I know a blunt, but what's another one? Tell me another one. And he said, your problem is you're human. Ah. And I was like, yes, you are absolutely right. And these things called emotions get in the way sometimes. I think that is the purpose of abiding and always being in, scripture and just doing the things that we know we should be doing to keep those perspectives where they should be.

[00:24:53] Dr. Nate Salah
And that's, that's part of the things. I'm glad you brought that up because it's a good time to talk a little bit about application because of the things and you know, we, the thing that this story teaches us first is when we fall and we are in surrender, we repent. That's the term we had to actually make change, turn. People don't realize. So much of what Jesus taught, even when he was healing people, you would often hear him say two things. Your faith has made you well, okay, so that's an action. And then go and sin no more, you know, Hey, by the way, it's time to turn and change and practice different behaviors and habits, not again, just because it's duty. Because I'm giving you a supernatural love that will change you from the inside out. There's a difference there. Like today, you're a different person than you were, I'm sure, before you fully committed to receiving and then letting that love change you. Same a hundred percent. 

[00:26:02] Robby D'Angelo
And Jesus commands us to stay attached to the vine. And that is a, if we look at it through that perspective, that is a command. It's to stay attached to the vine. Then he also, what I, what I love is, you know, him and Paul use the word fruits a little different. And when Jesus talks about it, my, you'll, you'll know my people buy their fruits and you can't produce fruits without action. A lots of different actions. A lot of different actions. It's, it's total surrenders. Total biting. And from the abundance, the overflow, you'll see those fruits. 

[00:26:36] Dr. Nate Salah
Think about like all the different things that have to happen for a tree to bear fruit. First, it has to be planted on good soil. He talks about that in one of his parables. Then it has to get the right nutrients from the soil. Then it has to get the right nutrients from the conditions of the, of the, of the quality, of the context around it. IE sunlight and rain, and wind, and all of these different aspects of the journey toward bearing good fruit. By the way, it has to be a fruit tree. That's another thing, right? And so when you apply all these metaphors to our own lives, what you begin to see is an unraveling of a process or a system to bear good fruit, right? So what's the good seed? Well, obviously, what is that? That's, that's the word of God. That's what Jesus talks about. So abiding in, starting with, Hey, how much time? Not just by the way. Time from the perspective of like, I checked the box, but like the depth of time that I immerse myself in the word. I mean, think about like the word immersion. Like when you go into the swimming pool and you have full immersion, like you come out, there's no way you can't be wet when you're fully immersed in water.

[00:27:58]
 When you're fully immersed in the word of God, there's no way that you'll leave that immersion. Not fully covered by whatever it is you were immersed in. That's the, the, the beauty of it is like, how am I, in other words, don't just dip your toe in the water and say, oh, well, you know what? I got the word of God today. I'm, I'm done. No jump in. People might say, oh, it's too cold. 

[00:28:25] Robby D'Angelo
We go to church, we check the box, right? We read some scripture, we check the box. And that's a big question. I always ask people like, are you just checking the boxes? Or is this coming from like a true hunger to learn not only what the word's trying to teach you, what God's trying to teach you through this word, who is he trying to mold you into? What is actually being accomplished by you spending time abiding 

[00:28:49] Dr. Nate Salah
Yes and living in it? Here's a, what we do at our, our G three community. Is, it's, it's one of our programs in our Great Summit Leadership Academy and we, we have what we call our weekly word, and that weekly word sets off what we call the Daily Dose, and it's a daily dose of that week's teaching in leadership. And we go into that particular sentence, if you will, in scripture that Jesus taught and like, go deep. What's the context? What's the language? What does it mean? What did it mean then what does it mean now? And, and then the weak is the practicing of it. And our four, we call our four relationships. So we have four primary relationships, relationship with God. What does that mean with our relationship with God? The relationship with our family? What does that mean with them? Our relationship with our community, our social community, our church community, our civic community, political community. What does it mean for that? And then lastly, for our vocation, our business, what does that mean? And so this, as a week unfolds. That seed of whatever it is, that God's word we're fully immersed in, becomes part of our life. It changes us and you. 

[00:30:01] Robby D'Angelo
And so that's what I.

[00:30:02] Dr. Nate Salah
That's what we're talking about. 

[00:30:03] Robby D'Angelo
And you brought up the same thing twice now. I love the fact you're bringing this up because it's, honestly, what made the biggest difference in my relationship was depth and context. Once I actually started studying in the context of this first, where it was written, who was speaking to the original message, to the original audience, and then studying the etymology of the words in that verse, I'm like, oh, this is coming alive. Now I actually starting to understand what's going on here. This is immensely deep and powerful. It just keeps getting better. That's when the Bible came alive for me, is when I started going deeper than just some helpful words on a page. 

[00:30:50] Dr. Nate Salah
Amen. There's a version of the scripture, the amplified, oh, I have to look it up. There's an amplified version. It's different than the message. You know, the message kinda like changes things, but the amplified takes the original language and ex expands. The scripture in parentheses to the original language in its original context. So it's very robust and you learn what these terms mean, or at least what they would've meant to the original listeners or readers. And it creates so much more, as you mentioned, depth and vibrancy and connection to the word. Even our story of the prodigal, like digging into that culture and how they would've understood it and, and relaying it to how we understand it today. It, it makes it alive, like you said, and attainable. And then we can live it. It changes. 

[00:31:45] Robby D'Angelo
I went through one Corinthians 16, 13 and 14 with my men's Bible study this past year, and it was by far the favorites. Thing we've done this year is when I was leading that. And it's basically that, be watchful, be strong, stand firm of faith, act like men do everything with love, and we take each one of those five commands and took a week to go as deep as we could on each, like what does be watchful actually mean? That's right. Let's go down that rabbit hole and learn the military terminology that that actually is and what it means to be a, a watchman on the gate. 

[00:32:24] Dr. Nate Salah
We have a. We have our very first, we call it our G3 summit, our event that we go through, our leadership model, if you will, grow, give, go, and just a one day event. Coming up. And I had a question. We were initially gonna do it for three days. We decided to do it for one day, this first, first round. And, the question was, well, do you really have enough material for three days? And this sounded kind of, maybe it didn't sound, it sounded maybe arrogant, but it's not me saying it, it's not because of me. I was like, we could all take a one-year sabbatical, and I could teach from the scriptures for an entire year, every single day, all day. And we wouldn't even scratch the surface of the, the depth and meaning. This isn't Nate Salah’s, you know, exposition. It's just there's so much richness. Then it, it would take lifetimes. Yeah. And I think that's what the beauty of eternity is. I think part of eternity is like, I'm gonna finally get to really study the word and, and I get to live with the word. Right. The living word. 

[00:33:29] Robby D'Angelo
You're absolutely right. And I, I, that's one of my favorite things about talking with other people about the Bible is there's so many things that yes, we try to get as close as we can to that original interpretation, original context. But there are certain things that aren't exactly black and white, and we don't have a hundred percent clearance, or yes, this is what God meant by putting that in the Bible, and to your point, it getting that up there and having and saying, Hey God, what did you mean by this in the Bible? Because we've been debating about it for, you know, 3000 years now, and we don't really know. I would love some clarification on what this actually means. 

[00:34:13] Dr. Nate Salah
Amen. Yeah. And that's the, that's what's exciting about the journey. Yeah. Well, we never arrive, we always are on the journey, and you're passionate about that. And I, I want to affirm you in your, in your passion for serving in this way and helping others to illuminate the light, whether it is they've been on the front end of it and they've not quite been in the swine-infested. Ties or if they are in a place where I need help. 

[00:34:47] Robby D'Angelo
It's like I said, it, it just comes from my own journey of going through it and then helping so many others. The same thing, I, it just, it gives you that just emotional passion to help people. Even a couple business owners I'm working with right now in more of like a leadership context, I just see 'em struggling with the chaos of not being firmly grounded. And that God-centered identity and operating from that, and you're just like, I just wanna help. It gives you that passion because you know what's on the other side of that, and you really just wanna grab a hold of them and kind of shake them up like the snow globe and get 'em back to that identity, you know, they should be operating from instead of this identity they're operating for and trying to perform.

[00:35:37] Dr. Nate Salah
So, Robby, what's the future look like? For your ministry, for how you're helping people, what's your, what are some of your goals you'd like to see happen? 

[00:35:46] Robby D'Angelo
My goals, I'm, I'm constantly living in the paradox of progress. As I get better, my goals seem to keep moving with that. And right now we have a consulting business where we're working in the m and a world, and my area of expertise in that is talent development, human capital, working with the human side of the m and a world. My passion outside of that is men's ministry and we were talking earlier, I've had the pleasure of working with a lot of men and I'm now kind of refocusing that on wanting to tap into this younger generation of coming of age men that are really, I always say my, my favorite time to get a get a man is when life punches him in the mouth for the first time. Yeah. He's really faced with those first like adult problems and helping him navigate through that so they don't make a lot of the mistakes probably you and I made, and really giving them a FA firm foundation and roadmap of how to navigate through that. And one of the biggest problems I'm seeing right now, Nate, to be honest with you, is really for men and women, both we, we lack tribe, we lack community. We, we pay for amazing, you know, communities like yours. We pay for leadership summits, we pay for these things, but who are you gonna call at two or three in the morning? And I just see such a void of that right now. And just trying to help men form those close tribes. 

[00:37:22] Dr. Nate Salah
Men, of course, women are important, and I think with some ways that we've forgotten. We've forgotten our young men, and they need us desperately. To affirm them, to encourage them, to challenge them, to be there for them at two or three in the morning, and simply listen to them, not necessarily have all the answers for them, walk with them. They are in desperate need of our love, and more importantly, of God's love poured in and through us.

[00:37:56] Robby D'Angelo
I think it's Isaiah three that talks about this when the older generation. Is no longer in a leadership role and they abdicate their responsibilities as leaders and that younger generation takes over. And then we see the fall because of that. And we, like you said, men and women both we're missing that transference of wisdom. From the older generation, which the Bible absolutely calls us to do, especially like that is the role of the elder woman, is to train up the young ones. And men are the same way. Iron sharpens iron. But we've lost that respect and admiration for the older generation, the older wisdom that used to be such an integral part of our world. Think about how we don't have any kind of initiation. Anymore into adulthood. Oh, men and women. 

[00:38:49] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. Amen, brother. Well, I, I am one who stands with you and by you and our community will be praying for you as you're working through with the men's ministry and helping of course, as you're, as you labor. By vocationally in a way. Right. We're, we're, we're just like Paul, right? He was making tents and he was preaching the gospel. Absolutely. And so, so thankful for you, thankful for you sharing and just opening up this with me today. I know someone is encouraged, someone is blessed. We'll make sure to, to make sure that you, your message gets heard and that, those who are in the darkness will step into the light. 

[00:39:30] Robby D'Angelo
Thank you, Nate. Man, I, I, I appreciate it and I know this was the direction of our conversation today, but I, I did pray right before we jumped on. Just said, Hey God, remove us from this conversation. Whatever you wanna speak today, that's what we need to have happen. 

[00:39:42] Dr. Nate Salah
Amen. And it sure did. Right. We don't script any of this. We just let the Lord lead us and and guide us to just be obedient for what he is in store. A hundred percent. Nate, I appreciate you, man. Thank you, brother. Thank you so much for supporting our program. We couldn't do it without you. I want to just take a moment to honor you in prayer. We don't wanna build anything without you. God, we not a business, not a family, not a future. So we invite you into every room, we walk into this week, board rooms, living rooms, prayer rooms. Let your spirit lead us. Let your voice guide us and let your power move through us to bless everyone we encountered. We are yours and your holy name. Amen.



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Dr. Nate Salah

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