Hank Smith:                      00:03                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, we are in the book of Psalms this week. It’s the first of three lessons, and I have a story for you. Have you ever heard of Admiral William H. McCraven?

John Bytheway:               00:19                   Yes.

Hank Smith:                      00:20                   He gave a speech at the University of Texas graduation in 2020, and it went big.

John Bytheway:               00:27                   Yeah, I have his little book. It’s a three-word title. Imagine a General giving a talk that starts like this, make your bed. Are we talking about the same guy?

Hank Smith:                      00:36                   The same guy. The same guy. He gave this speech at the University of Texas. He talked about all the lessons that you learn in Navy SEAL training and it sounds so hard. Like, when I was listening to this, I was like, oh, oh! Well, for Favorites today, I wanted to do one of the lessons that he learned. He says, “Basic SEAL training is six months. Long, torturous runs in soft sand, midnight swims in cold water, obstacle courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep, and always being cold, wet, and miserable. It’s six months of being constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy SEAL.” Holy cow. This is where he starts to go through the lessons. He says, “The ninth week of SEAL training is referred to as Hell Week.

                                           01:31                   It is six days you don’t get to sleep. Constant physical and mental harassment and one special day at the mudflats. The mudflats are an area between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the Tijuana Slews, a swampy patch of terrain where the mud engulfs you. It’s on Wednesday of Hell Week, which you paddle down to the mudflats and spend 15 hours trying to survive the freezing cold in the mud. The howling wind and incessant pressure to quit from your instructors. The sun began to set on Wednesday evening and he’s with training class. They’re ordered into the mud. The mud consumed each man until there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit. Just five men. We could get out of the oppressive cold. When he means quit, he means quit like the whole program.

                                           02:35                   They won’t be a Navy SEAL. Looking around the mudflat, he says it was apparent that some students were about to give up. It was still over eight hours until the sun came up. Eight more hours of bone chilling cold, chattering teeth and shivering moans of trainees were so loud it was hard to hear anything else. Then one voice began to echo through the night. One voice raised in song, because we’re studying Psalms this week. They’re songs. The song was terribly out of tune, but sung with great enthusiasm. One voice became two and two became three. And before long, everyone in the mud was singing. The instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing, but the singing persisted. And somehow the mud seemed a little warmer. And the wind, a little tamer and the dawn, the sunrise, not so far away. And he says this, “If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope, the power of one person that can change the world by giving people hope.” So, he says, “If you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.”

John Bytheway:               03:51                   There’s power in music. I’ve heard people say that. I’m thinking of, you know, the handcart pioneers singing W.W. Phelps as they went.

Hank Smith:                      04:00                   Absolutely. John, do you ever hear any songs and it reminds you of like your mom or your dad? Whenever I hear the Cougar Fight Song, I think of my dad early on a Saturday morning wanted to wake us up. Rise and shout, the Cougars are out. It was his idea of like, let’s build some enthusiasm. Let’s get going.

John Bytheway:               04:18                   Yeah. And I remember being on camping trips and having somebody that was way too cheerful that early in the morning start walking around the camp singing to try to wake everybody up. So, oh, it’s good to get up in the morning when the sun begins to shine, one, two, three o’clock in the gold summertime… stop it!

Hank Smith:                      04:35                   Oh, that’s so great. Oh, what a beautiful morning. And you just start singing. But I love it. Songs, like what we’re going to read this week in the book of Psalms, they can bring hope, maybe when nothing else can.

John Bytheway:               04:49                   That Hank, somebody mentioned that Psalms was like the hymn book of the ancients. Those were all songs.

Hank Smith:                      04:55                   Yeah. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. We are with Steven Sharp Nelson this week. He’s a member of The Piano Guys. You’ll know him. The cellist in The Piano Guys. And wow, can he teach! Oh, you are going to love what he does in the book of Psalms. Then come back here next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorites.