TRANSCRIPT:
Jey (00:10.051)
Our audience is so excited that this is finally happening. They've been waiting. They've been sitting in their seats and keeping them warm. Welcome to another episode of the Young Dad podcast. I'm Jay and joining me today is Isaiah. Isaiah, how are you, man?
Isaiah Keene (00:22.988)
I'm good.
Jey (00:24.511)
Good man. Isaiah, it's so good to have you on. Really excited. We've been trying to land this down for a while now, and I'm glad we were able to finally get together, get with the audience and sit down and talk. So I'm excited, but a little bit, a little bit about you. Go ahead and tell us a little bit about you, your platform and what it's about. So it's different. It's a bit of a change of pace. So.
Isaiah Keene (00:38.986)
Yeah, definitely.
Isaiah Keene (00:50.75)
Yeah, so I am not a dad. I am just like a young guy, still single. And my podcast and my platform is also for young men. So I work with young guys and I teach them stuff through my podcast, Making Men, and we go and talk about things like confidence, biblical masculinity, all the things that young guys need in this day and age after we've been through such a whirlwind and roller coaster.
of just complete insanity trying to get back to where we were to begin with after we've had such an attack on masculinity.
Jey (01:31.927)
That's awesome, man, because that is so important, especially for young men like today. Because it's true. Like I remember when I was when I was your age, well, you're making me feel old. But when I was younger, you know, I really struggled with it. You know, it was the late 2000s, early 2010s. So about 10, 12 years ago now, when I was kind of in that in that boat and.
really struggled with it because it was that's when it was really starting to change and it was really starting to open up like I lived in the Bay Area in California so things were things were different and it was hard to understand like what a man was because you still have a lot of our parents were all from the 70s and 60s 70s and whatnot so it's like that's kind of where they're at.
Isaiah Keene (02:05.9)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (02:12.087)
Yeah.
Isaiah Keene (02:25.964)
Yeah.
Jey (02:29.903)
You know, they're on the tail end of the hardcore masculinity, overly masculine. Don't talk about it, deal with it, move on. And then you have some progressive parents and whatnot that are kind of starting to progress and move forward with the times. And it's very few and far between. So it's really interesting, um, to hear it from a young man's perspective, like someone who's actively going through that transition from, you know,
young adulthood into adulthood in from you know young manhood into manhood and taking other men along the journey with them to help set them up for success to help them also become the best versions of themselves. I think that's really interesting and just like amazing work so.
Isaiah Keene (03:17.718)
Yeah, thank you.
Jey (03:20.491)
But how did you, what was the reason that you started it? Like what light bulb went off one day and you're like, I gotta do that. Like that's what I'm doing. Like what was it for you and how did you feel like it was the right thing to do?
Isaiah Keene (03:37.986)
So I have...
Isaiah Keene (03:42.23)
It can be a long story, but I'll try and make it short. Basically, my family... Tell the long story? Alright. So, from the time that I was born, my family has always had extra challenges with special needs. I was like a special needs kid back when I was little, and a lot of my siblings have been as well. And so, we always lived a very different life from the people around us. And I've grown up in the Christian homeschool community.
Jey (03:46.475)
You can tell the long story, you can tell the long story, that's fine. Yeah, 100%.
Isaiah Keene (04:10.342)
and all of the people in there are really awesome, but our life has always been very different because those people have like a couple kids, you know, it's kind of the standard thing. They got a couple kids, and there's not like a ton of challenge. So we had a lot of challenge, a lot of difficulty when I was growing up. And it's just kind of been that way. And that's normal for a lot of people. Everyone has their own struggles in life. So I just lived a very different life from my peers and the guys around me.
And I decided that I wanted to be different. I wanted to actually take the bull by the horns instead of just going along for the ride. Because when you look at the statistics for special needs families, a lot of them end up divorced and they're very bitter and there's a lot of victim mentality, mindset, a lot of crazy things. And most of the results that come out of it are bad because people just don't have, they're not committing to the resilience that they need to have in order to stick through it.
And so that's like 80% of the people who end up having special needs families. And so my family has always been different. We've always believed that, you know what, God made every single person unique and individual, and he gave us these family members for a reason. And so we're going to do our best to help and to take care of the people who need our help and care and comfort, um, around us in community and inside of our family. And so.
We've always stuck through things. We've always been a team. We've had a team mentality. And it's been like the key defining thing in our lives is that we're a team, no matter what happens. And a lot of things have happened. And seasons change. Things get easier, things get harder. Things get easier inside family. Outside family, things can get crazy around us with friends or with community, the world, the way the world works and the way that it is. And so I've always lived kind of knowing
that I had to do something because what I saw inside of my peers, I would sit down at lunch table in like middle school and I'd be talking to my friends and they just would not understand what I was saying. They just didn't get it. It was like their minds were on the next class and their minds were on like their soccer games and the video games. You know, Fortnite was a thing. And so I was like surrounded by guys talking about soccer and Fortnite.
Isaiah Keene (06:33.458)
And I was sitting here, this kid who was interested in neurodevelopmental sciences. And so I was like majorly different. I was, I was never a nerd and I was always actually one of the, one of like the cool kids. I had an awesome reputation and like a great standing with people and with my community. And so I always knew I was like, I need to do something to help these guys become more aware because also there was a lot of stuff that they were lacking and I could see that they were lacking. And
A lot of the time I would end up running into guys who had struggles with their own family lives because I've had a difficult life but I haven't had a difficult family life in the way that there's like abuse, there's addictions, there's crazy things like that. So those guys who are having those problems would always like gravitate towards me and I was like, these are the people who I'm supposed to be helping. And I know that and that's my calling. And so I decided...
I started my podcast in 2020 and I would just literally like record into my phone and be talking to the young men about the things that I knew I struggled with or that were important to me that I wanted them to be able to understand as well. Because there was, you know the saying ignorance is bliss? Ignorance is very blissful, but it also comes at a very high cost. And that cost is your enjoyment of life.
Jey (07:48.331)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (07:57.222)
And I've also heard that there's a certain loneliness that comes with having wisdom that other people around you don't have. And I would say that's also very true. And so I was like, I'm called to make a difference in these lives. I'm called to get these guys to come and step up and live to their fullest potential. Not just the guys who are hurting and broken, but all of the guys that were around me. And that's very true to my nature, very true to my personality type. And...
a lot of different things just throughout my own family history where it's like I'm one of the people who are enacting generational change and causing change for good from bad in ways that are healing for us and the people around me and for my future generations. So I've always wanted to do that and that wasn't what I initially wanted to do. Like I love art. I love
music. I love expressiveness. I'm an expressive person, which is like you were saying, where a lot of guys were like, you just don't talk about it, you get through it, and you're fine. That's not who I am as a person, and that's not what guys need these days. There is an element of you have to be able to make a... you have to be able to hold up these burdens and these mantles that you have. I actually just did a podcast interview where I was interviewing Jim Ramos and he was talking about that.
He's from Men in the Arena podcast. And he was talking about that, but we also need to be able to understand ourselves and understand what's going on inside of us. So whether that's through music, through art, through writing, I love anything that has to do with words. So music, I like poetry. Writing was always my favorite inside of writing and literature inside of school. I write books. I have a trilogy that I'm working on that's gonna come out. So, but understanding
who you are and then saying, I have such a great potential and I have this amazing thing I'm destined for, but I have to know how to do it in the first place to get there.
Jey (10:04.947)
100% and I think that
Jey (10:10.263)
Go ahead, go ahead. Talk some more. But, no, so how did you guys, so I love that because there's so much difference in those different roles. And it's, sorry, this is the side of fatherhood that you don't see all the time. All right, come here, baby. Come here, come here. We get real time, real time fathering right now. But.
Isaiah Keene (10:13.334)
Hahaha
Isaiah Keene (10:28.218)
This... This is... That's very true.
Isaiah Keene (10:38.187)
Yeah.
Jey (10:38.403)
I think that's amazing, your platform, because it's from firsthand experience and you guys get to, you get to talk to people about the things that were relevant and difficult for you because if you were struggling with those, a lot of your peers are probably struggling with them. And you bring it from the perspective of having a, I know your parents, I've met them, talked to them. You come from a very, and you can see it in you talking to you. You come from a very sturdy, loving...
Isaiah Keene (10:54.968)
Oh yeah.
Jey (11:08.191)
home that was very supportive and very much cared about the special needs of their children. And even for me, you know, working with children who have special needs now, it's something I've always been, it's always people who I've gravitated to as well. And the people who I gravitated to with special needs, I've also always felt like the people who aren't supposed to serve and help. When I was in preschool, yeah, preschool, back when I was a wee little
My best friend in the preschool was, his name was Michael and he was in a wheelchair. And he was the only one in the wheelchair and he would only let two people touch his wheelchair at school. Our teacher and me. That's it. There's nobody else that was allowed to touch his wheelchair just myself and the teacher and that was really special and I clearly remember
Isaiah Keene (11:56.846)
Hehehe
Jey (12:06.187)
One day we were outside playing, I was pushing his wheelchair around and it got caught on something and he fell and the wheelchair fell forward. And I remember I was crying, he was crying, I was so upset, I felt so bad. Like I felt like he was never going to talk to me again and the next day he came back to school or maybe it was later that day. It was either the next day or the same day or the next day he came back to school and he was like, it's okay.
Accidents happen like he wasn't mad. He wasn't upset I was still like when I saw him that next day like I was crying because I felt really bad I was afraid to talk to him and You know, he came over to me and he's like he talked to me and told me how we felt So it was really Something that's important and I love what you said about being a team because I feel like that's important as you go into Life is you got to find your teammates
Isaiah Keene (12:42.762)
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
Isaiah Keene (12:54.358)
Yeah.
Jey (13:05.855)
you know, you're going to work in different fields. You're going to have teams there. That team mentality when you get into a relationship, when you start exploring marriage and whatnot and with the right person, um, it's going to be that team mentality when you have kids, it's a team mentality, you guys are on the same team. You know, and what do teammates do? Teammates help each other. They have each other's back to pick each other up. They cut, pick up each other's slack along the way. And that's so, so important.
Isaiah Keene (13:15.719)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (13:36.027)
and you having this platform for yourself being able to give that message back to young men who are struggling because it's so confusing out there in the world because there's soccer and fortnight for some kids and that's like their world and you know these different areas capture the capture our attention and for some kids it's very easy to capture their attention for this one specific thing and just make that their entire world
Isaiah Keene (13:45.27)
Yeah, totally.
Jey (14:05.831)
Obsessions, screens and games and stuff become obsessions and addiction. And people don't realize it, but that's how addiction starts. Because that's where they're getting their happy go feel dopamine hits from. It's from going and playing Fortnite or you know, if it's a physical activity, I think that's a lot better. Personally, if you're going to be addicted to something, go be addicted to a physical activity. So then you become really, you become great at it and you can make a future out of it. But.
Isaiah Keene (14:18.69)
Right.
Isaiah Keene (14:23.894)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Isaiah Keene (14:31.085)
Yeah.
Jey (14:35.099)
if it's just, you know, screens and Fortnite. That screen addiction leads to other screen addictions. And it's really unfortunate, but that's the path that it leads down because that's where what's what you're on. So, of course, that's where everyone else is going. That's like, oh, you know, we're going to talk about you're talking about porn, we're going to talk about, you know, these other websites and we're going to talk about.
Isaiah Keene (14:43.095)
It does.
Isaiah Keene (14:53.8)
Mmm.
Jey (15:04.019)
these things that aren't good for us and then that's going to lead you to poor physical and mental health and emotional health, spiritual health and those aspects are so important. And I don't think a lot of men in general realize that they have to take care of all four, their spiritual, their mental, their emotional and their physical health. It's so easy for most men, especially young men, because they're not taught it, they're not taught to take care of.
Isaiah Keene (15:11.968)
Absolutely.
Jey (15:34.123)
their emotional health. I think now a little bit more, but still not as much because even for me, when I was in school, I was, you mentioned you were into the arts and expressiveness and I was a theater kid in school for a lot of school and stuff. But I remember being in middle school theater and there weren't a lot of dudes or maybe a couple handfuls, maybe 10 of us. And when we would go out places, it was very obvious like some of them were
Isaiah Keene (15:35.863)
Nope.
Isaiah Keene (15:49.462)
There you go.
Jey (16:03.871)
were gay and whatnot and you know that's cool you know teach their own like do your thing but then you know they would group the stereotypical like theater dude is probably gay and it's like no like Shannon's gay
Isaiah Keene (16:05.631)
Yeah.
Isaiah Keene (16:14.922)
Right, right, right.
Jey (16:21.535)
The rest of us aren't or Brandon's by but the rest of us aren't. Yeah, no. Like it's good.
Isaiah Keene (16:25.666)
Right. Yeah. And so that's actually funny that you mentioned that because I get called that all the time too. Because I'm a naturally... So there is a misconception. Exactly. You know, it's so funny. Okay, I'm glad you just brought that up because people can be expressive and not be like weirdos or soft or whatever, you know? Because when we go and read the Bible, when we look at King David...
Jey (16:47.89)
Exactly.
Isaiah Keene (16:52.622)
King David was a poet, he was a musician, he wrote the Book of Psalms, it's amazing. But then we also read about his life. There's so many books that lead up to his life and through his life, you know, he has, Jesus is in his bloodline. And a lot of the prophecies through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets talk about David and Jesus. And those prophecies are right there in the middle between the books about David's life and the Book of Psalms and the New Testament. So,
Jey (16:56.139)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (17:19.915)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (17:22.102)
That's a bit of a tangent, but David was a warrior. And not only was he a warrior, he was like a warlord. He was like this guerrilla warfare style crazy guy. And he was honored even above King Solomon, which, or I'm sorry, King Saul, which eventually drove Saul to be jealous of him. But he was an expressive guy, and he was a crazy like war guy as well. And he was amazing. And he had...
Jey (17:33.527)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (17:51.27)
He had God backing him. And so we look at these things and one of the ways that I express myself is through dance. It's also through boxing. Like I actually really love boxing. Boxing and dance are very similar. But boxing is like a very macho, masculine thing to do, right? Dancing is one of those things where you look and you're like, ah, maybe not. And maybe that's a stereotypical way of looking at it, but they're not that different. And you can have both ends of the spectrum and still be a perfectly masculine guy.
Jey (18:03.095)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (18:31.399)
100% and I think there's a lot of different ways for young men and men in general to express themselves And whatever way you find that works for you is what works for you You know like I'm a big writer. I don't hide that at all You know I'll write I'll write about a bunch of different things You know if you look at if you look at my website you look at my blog you see dad blogs you see Faith related blogs you see sports you see
podcast, like you see a variety of stuff that I'm into and I think that's okay. Like find what's gonna work for you. Like I really like writing. I like singing off key on my own. You know I loved acting back in the day because it was just, it's an escape from what's really going on and you're on stage and you're focusing, you're putting all your energy into being this character and performing and whatnot and dancing is also another really good one.
um and so it's super fun but i think it's your sister's not a crybaby you're okay you're okay
Isaiah Keene (19:36.067)
It's so cute.
Jey (19:44.45)
Um...
Isaiah Keene (19:45.398)
These are the things that make us actual men. Those little things right there, it's amazing. Yeah.
Jey (19:48.894)
Exactly.
Yeah, she's fun. She's fun. She woke up. She wasn't supposed to be awake yet. But you know, the little ones always wake up more. It is morning, you're right. Yeah, and I think pretty much that's her thing right there. But I think it's... Where was I going with this? So I wanted to talk primarily... I wanted to ask you primarily about how your platform...
Isaiah Keene (19:56.918)
Hmm, yeah.
Isaiah Keene (20:00.982)
Yeah. She's like, well it is morning, Dad. Sky's awake, I'm awake.
Jey (20:21.855)
and exactly why the choice of 1st Timothy 412 is the basis of your of your platform and what it means to you and how that verse became the foundation of what you do.
Isaiah Keene (20:30.839)
Yeah.
Isaiah Keene (20:40.078)
That is an amazing question. I'm glad you asked that. So when we read, when we're reading the book of 1 Timothy, it's the apostle Paul who wrote a large majority of the New Testament. He's talking to Timothy, who is a young man. And Timothy is inside of the church, and he's one of the people who's more of a leader inside of his church and inside of his community. But he's also a young guy. And something that happens to me a lot...
Jey (20:46.175)
Thank you.
Isaiah Keene (21:06.73)
I'll go, I'll talk to guys. Like I said, I was just talking to Jim Ramos and he is way older than I am. His kids are grown up getting married and he's done so much stuff with his life because he's been around longer and he's been an amazing masculine godly man. And I am just starting my life really. But Paul talks about it because it's the exact same situation. Paul is this older man. He was adamantly against Christians. He was going and killing Christians and then he stops and he...
Jesus literally comes and blinds him and knocks him off his horse and gives him a wake-up call. And then he goes and now he's teaching people about Jesus. And so he's talking to Timothy. And the books of 1st and 2nd Timothy are written to Timothy about being a young man. And so 1 Timothy 412 is him telling Timothy, hey, don't be ashamed of the fact that you're young. Don't let people look down on you because you're young and because they say,
What do you know? You don't know anything, you're a young kid. I get that a ton. That's probably the thing that bugs me a lot in my life is just trying to go and talk to people and they're like, oh, what does this kid know? And he says, instead, set a standard of faith, purity, love, and this call to greatness, essentially, for other people. You're young, but you can also set the standard and be an example to the others around you
Jey (22:16.723)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (22:34.638)
what you should be doing. Faith, love, and proper conduct. And so by living this lifestyle as a young person, we are expressing what Christ is, what the gospel is, what the Bible calls us to, which is ultimately greater life and greater purpose. And we're sharing, look at how this can transform me. I was one way and now I am the other way. And what happened in between was
And like you were saying, there's a lot of people who try and find their way of expressing themselves, and there's this massive search for truth. And what we really just need to do is read the Bible, because it's all in there. I made an episode the other day about why the Bible is the best book for self-improvement, because I can tell you right now, not a single one of us ever are going to actually perfect whatever you read in the Bible. Anything you go in and read there,
You're not going to be able to perfect it. And the Bible tells us that. That is literally impossible. And that's why we need Jesus. And that's the gospel, because those things are high standards. Paul says, by the law, I knew my sin, and by Christ, I'm saved. So by understanding that we can't do those things, but Paul still tells us, hey, it's okay. Do your best and Christ will cover you. Not because we're doing our best, so then Christ covers us. We're doing our best because we want to.
Jey (23:58.676)
Um.
Isaiah Keene (23:58.682)
And that's for us as fathers. I'm not a father yet, but I want to be someday. And so I'm living now in accordance with what Paul is talking about and with what the Bible teaches, because that is the way, the road, that will go further into being a good father, being a good husband, being a good role model. I don't ever want my children, whether I have men or whether I have women, to ever need another masculine role model.
Jey (24:16.555)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (24:25.57)
For my sons, if I have sons, I want them to say, look at dad, he is the masculine man that I want to emulate and be, and who is a role model for me in my life. And if I have daughters or a mix of both, I want the men, the guys, my sons, to be able to say that. I want my daughters to be able to say, look at how strong dad is, the things and the standards he uphold, because someday they're gonna go and they're gonna marry other guys themselves. And I'm not necessarily gonna choose who that guy is.
but I can set a standard for them by living in accordance with exactly what the Bible is telling me and talking about because it is in our best interest. It's literally a love letter from God to us because of how much He loves us. And He gives us the ingredients. He gives us the secret sauce for life. And everyone's trying to find their meaning and purpose, but they're missing the point because we came over here to America to... It was founded on God and the freedom to...
do whatever because that was important to us. It's important to Christians that—excuse me—it's important to Christians that everyone has a voice and that everyone is allowed to think things through for themselves and to come to their own conclusions. And we read about this. And we know, though, that God is the way. Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, the life. And He also says in the book of Matthew that—and I don't want to be like
Isaiah Keene (25:51.926)
why I do what I do. This is why I've been able to change the lives of so many young men who are coming from alcohol abuse, death, loss, narcissistic abuse, so many things across the board, and I've been able to help walk these guys through. Some of them were older than I am. I was in high school and I was still doing this. I had a friend once. I knew a guy. He was the most popular kid in school, because we were homeschooled, but we still went to a weekly co-op.
Jey (26:19.776)
Oh.
Isaiah Keene (26:21.026)
Despite being the most popular kid in the class, he still was teased so much. And I remember there was this one day after class, we'd all been sitting there doing our stuff. But the other kids around him, because you can be attending a Christian thing, you can be a homeschooler. Kids are still kids. And the homeschool kids can do a better job sometime, a lot most of the time. It's up to your circumstances whether you're able to homeschool or not. But this kid got so...
Jey (26:38.423)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (26:47.54)
Yeah, exactly.
Isaiah Keene (26:50.826)
beat up and they weren't trying to be mean. These kids around him weren't trying to be mean, but I remember sitting there watching this, like this poor guy, like, man. So I, much like your story with guy in the wheelchair, I went up to him after class and I was like, hey man, I actually think you're really cool. Like, and I was just genuine and I spoke my mind. I was like, you're an honest guy. You're an upright guy. You're a caring, loving guy, right? He started crying. He started crying and he gave me a hug, like right there at the end of class. I had never seen him do that.
for. It was crazy and no other guy had I seen do that inside of, you know, it's the school atmosphere. You still want to be like tough and you want to have a good like presence. And this kid was like having a breakdown trying to hold himself together just because I had gone over and genuinely shared with him like, hey, you're doing a cool job, an awesome job. And so those experiences were what was like, oh man, I got to do this more. Like how many people can I do this for?
because I came over and I changed this guy's entire day. And hopefully I actually made a difference for him because he was already on a good path, but he needed that encouragement. And how many other guys can I encourage and help lead? And so when we see that Jesus says, like narrow is the path that leads, wide is the path that leads to destruction. There's so many things we can do. I don't know if you've seen the movie, Jesus Revolution or not. We just watched it last night.
Jey (28:17.857)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (28:19.95)
And back in like the 70s, 60s and 70s, it was all about the drugs. And it was all about all sorts of things because all these kids were trying to find what it was that made, that was their truth, that was their, right? That was the entire idea. I'm finding my truth, giving up war. It was post-World War II. Everyone's done with war. No one wants that anymore. We want peace. And it's historic, like historians, American historians are like, this is the biggest...
Jey (28:26.525)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (28:47.71)
revolution and mass change in American history, at least. And it's because that was the love of Christ that was moving through and doing that. And so I don't know where your podcast stands fully on those kinds of things and on those topics, but that is me. That's why I chose that verse, because even as a young man, we can still see these things. We understand these things. It's stupid to assume that just because you're young, you don't know anything.
All of us have our perspectives. All of us have our life stories that we've lived. And all of us have reasons for doing the things we do and reasons for feeling insecure in the places that we do. And when we read the Bible, we get the self-confidence because we know, hey, if Christ has got me, then I don't need any other external validation. I can have confidence. And I have an entire, like, if someone hands you a map of America, are you gonna...
throw it out like your phone, you use Google Maps, Apple Maps all the time. It's literally just Apple Maps and Google for your Bible, for your life. And so that's what that is for me. That's why I did this. And I talk about it fairly overtly inside of my episodes, but even if I don't, if you go and look at the statistics studies, if you go and look at any of these things, a lot of the things that make a guy, there was this one that was done for leading to success and basically...
It was something like, graduate high school. As a young guy, if you want to have a higher chance of having a not ruined life and a higher chance of having success, graduate high school, don't get pregnant, get a girl pregnant and have a kid and have your finances in order. And we read all of those things in the Bible, literally like everything's in there. And so,
Jey (30:37.375)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (30:39.358)
It's the easiest way to just live a peaceful, solid, happy life, reportedly, statistically, by the polls, by everything. That's the way. And Jesus says that overtly. So that's why I do what I do.
Jey (30:53.619)
I love it man and I can tell you're so passionate about it and what gets me and if the listeners don't understand it, you were able to give amazing context to that verse. What was going on before it? Which should tell the listeners that you studied, you've taken the time, you've mulled over these things, you've talked about these things with others that you trust and that you've talked to. And I think that verse is great. I'm pretty sure that's also...
Jey (31:21.959)
I think it's a TNT verse with Awana, or at least it was at one time, but it reads, at least from the NIV, it reads from, don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but send example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity. And then 13 reads, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, and to teaching. And then I think 14 is really important as well to add.
Isaiah Keene (31:45.614)
There you go.
Jey (31:48.751)
14 and 15 I'll read those do not neglect your gift which it was given You through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you be diligent in these matters Give yourself holy to them so that everyone may see your progress Goes on and on 16th of raising will just read it because that's the end of the chapter watch your life and doctrine closely preserve Persevere in them because if you do you will save both yourself and your hearers And again the context to that
That whole chapter, chapter four, you know, like you said, it's pointing these things out. Like Timothy was being spoken to, he was being given life advice, basically, when he was young. And I think that's so powerful. A lot of the things you mentioned, because you...
Isaiah Keene (32:33.057)
Yeah.
Jey (32:41.023)
The Bible is a great way to live by, 100%. I'm Christian, very obvious, I think. At this point with some of the conversations I've had, I've said it openly, it's an independent podcast. I say what I want. If they don't like it, they don't like it, but that means it's not for you, but it's really interesting because we are tasked to honor God in this role and to show our love and devotion and to increase our relationship with
with him through the things that we do. And like you're saying, these other people who are preaching the message of, don't get a girl pregnant before you graduate high school, get your finances in order. Those are just what the OG place where all those came from. It didn't come from this guy. He's not that creative. He heard it from someone else and he just has a, you know, an energy or someone told him one time that he has an energy or a voice about him that
people want to listen to, so he's running with that. Does he actually know what he's talking about? Probably not. If you ask him why that message, he probably doesn't have one. But for you, you have a very detailed reason why. Because it's so important for you, just as an individual, to learn these things, to know these things, to practice these things, and to apply them to your day-to-day life, to where, and you can talk about them with other young men and whatnot.
to help them. You know, because I feel like a lot of young people are lost, not just young men, but young people in general are lost, like especially ones that are going through or have gone through trauma or have gone through a broken home. Like I mean, that's one in every half of homes now are the subject of divorce. That means half of kids are the subject of divorce at this point, where we are compared to 10, 15 years ago was about 20, 30%. That's a skyrocketed number.
Isaiah Keene (34:17.248)
Oh yeah.
Isaiah Keene (34:21.34)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (34:24.886)
Yeah. Yes.
Isaiah Keene (34:30.691)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (34:38.167)
And divorce has a lot of trauma that comes with it with kids and whatnot and it's really hard on kids. It's hard on men It's hard to really find your path if you don't have somewhere that you're rooted if you don't have something that you know you can rely on and Then from there after your divorce if you don't understand kind of where you are with the with the creator with the Savior then you're kind of in a place that
Isaiah Keene (34:52.127)
Yeah, exactly.
Isaiah Keene (34:57.496)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (35:07.607)
is difficult to overcome because you're putting yourself further and further behind. And with that, men by nature, and I was talking to a church leader about this, one of the pastors named Pastor Matt, he's one of the associate pastors at my church and I met with him just because I was feeling like I'm really struggling right now, you know, things aren't going the way I want them to be.
I feel they should be going. I feel like I'm missing something somewhere. Like what am I missing? Because I'm reading, reading my Bible. I'm praying. I'm living it. I'm doing all the things. Like what am I missing? Like what, you know what I mean? You know when you feel that way sometimes you're like I'm doing all the things. I feel like I, but what am I missing? Like I'm trying really hard to not like
Isaiah Keene (35:55.122)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (36:03.371)
to give it up and to let it rest, but I can't do that. I'm struggling doing that. And it's not making sense why I can't do that. So I called him up, I was like, hey, do you have time this week so that we can meet? You know, all these thoughts are going through my head. Emailing him, I'm like, I need to meet. Like, I don't know what to do. So we met and he's like, okay, so what's going on? Talk, you know, exchange some numbers, some words and all these things. And he's like, well, you're not lazy.
That's the problem when most men come into my office, they're lazy and they wanna fix for them. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not lazy. No, I work full-time job. I do all these things. I'm involved in my ministry. I know my ministry. I know my priorities like God first, spouse second, kids third, ministry fourth kind of thing. And I'm involved in my ministries. I'm doing my ministries. I'm taking care of my kids and taking care of my fiance. And
Isaiah Keene (36:34.561)
Yeah.
Jey (36:59.403)
taking care of my relationship with God and Savior and whatnot. And there's, what am I missing? And I'm like, he's like, well, you know, you sound like, you know, what you're doing, you got the things down and he's like, what have you been? I think he asked me like, what have you been praying for? And I'm like, I've just been praying just to try to figure it out. And so then we talked, we pulled up James one five.
And the context around that and this is a very controversial verse at least in my life Because it's because I used to be LDS Mormon Back when I was younger and whatnot and this is a very big verse in the Mormon community because it talks about trials and temptations and It's one that a that Joseph Smith apparently read and then he had the golden plates revealed to him and all that what not total respect to the
Isaiah Keene (37:44.203)
Okay.
Jey (37:58.191)
LDS Mormon people not going to bash them at all. I don't bash other religions for their beliefs. That's just not my style. But James 1.5 and the context around it is I finally he explained the context really well to me and we went from verses 2 through 6. Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters whenever your trials you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation, since they will pass away.
like a wildflower. And it was really the end there. I read through verse 10 and the end of verse 10 there, believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. That's what really resonated with me because I was, the plot really hit me. I was like.
I'm in a circumstance right now where I have everything being provided for me. Is it going as fast or in the timeframe I want it to? No. But do I have a roof over my head? Yes. Do I have food in my fridge? Yes. Do I have clean clothes in my bag? Yes. Do I have a car that works really well? Yes. Do I have money to fill up my gas tank? Yes. Do I have the means to provide for myself and for my kids? Yes. Like everything was a yes. I wasn't being let down in any area.
And the message that came from that overall was just be patient, you know, rest in the Lord, give it up, and you know there's a plan for you. And I was being told this by Aaron, my brother, by my grandma, by church leader. My dad was just telling me the same kind of message of sorts. My dad's not a believer of any kind, more so spiritual and whatnot, but I was getting the same message from all these people and it wasn't clicking. That was the message.
Jey (40:16.627)
I was looking for something else. It was something beyond me. And so then I was sitting in church that next Sunday or maybe the Sunday after and our parking lot was being redone so we were at a convention center. And then the worship songs just like they just hit because I wasn't I didn't have to help in children's ministry because it's still the summer. And normally I teach children ministry class. I teach fifth grade. I didn't have to do that because it's summer. I got the summer off because I teach all school year.
Isaiah Keene (40:17.036)
Yeah.
Jey (40:45.255)
And so the worship songs, they were just for me that week. I don't know if they were for anyone else, but I know they were for me. The first one was, you've already won. The second one was raise the hallelujah. And the third one was king of my heart. And the lyrics that just stuck out to me all coincided with each other. The first one is I'm fighting a battle you've already won. No matter what comes my way, I will overcome it. I don't know what you're doing, but I know what you've done. Next one, I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar. Lastly, you are good.
Good, oh you're never gonna let me down. And that's the point of so many things is that God's not gonna let us down, He's not gonna fail us, He's not gonna let us struggle if we're constantly going to Him and we're working to improve that relationship with Him. And in that, like you said, if we're constantly working, aiming, He's gonna give those opportunities for us to love someone that needs to be loved.
Isaiah Keene (41:16.895)
Yeah.
Jey (41:39.403)
He's going to give those opportunities for us to witness to someone that needs to be witnessed to. He's going to give us those opportunities to help if we're allowing him in to do so. And that's part of the whole thing here. So.
Isaiah Keene (41:48.106)
Yeah.
Isaiah Keene (41:51.47)
Absolutely, and we read in the book of Philippians Paul says, you know, I found the secret to true contentment and he was writing that inside of a jail and so When we look we see There are times of waiting there are seasons of being down and that's okay David like we talked about David a minute ago and he was down a lot and we talked like okay David was literally being pursued through
like the countryside through Israel by King Saul, because King Saul was trying to murder him. And he was Saul's son-in-law. And Saul was so jealous of him, and it was such a bad position because, and everything that happened there, that entire position was because the Israelites weren't listening to God. They said, all the other people of the world have a king, a king to rule over their country. And God says, well, I'm your king. You don't need a human to be your king.
And they're like, no, we want a king. It happened over and over. When people stray away from God, crazy things start happening. Like you mentioned, and again, I have a heart for every single person on this planet because we're all people and we all.
Jey (42:47.827)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (42:57.559)
Mm-hmm and that right there is so important like and That's what I feels and is missed in so many other religions especially coming from the LDS culture is that it's It's missed not by all By some though some make it very obvious that they're missing the message And the ones that get it get it
Isaiah Keene (43:02.974)
It is very important and we-
Isaiah Keene (43:08.568)
It is.
Isaiah Keene (43:12.236)
Yeah?
Jey (43:24.091)
I love them. Those are the people I still talk to that I'm still close with that are still friends of mine. The others that just seem to not get it and are now judging me for my life choices or for getting tattoos and drinking occasionally or having my life the way I want to live my life while still having a closer, I feel like I'm closer to Jesus and to God now than I ever was before.
Isaiah Keene (43:27.818)
Yeah.
Isaiah Keene (43:35.202)
Right.
Isaiah Keene (43:41.207)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Isaiah Keene (43:52.44)
Yes.
Jey (43:52.863)
And that doesn't make sense to them, but it's really because like, there's love. There's love here. There's love that I know that I can take back into my other circles because I feel confident to just love people for who they are, for what they are, you know, for, for all that they've been through. But when before I would feel like I would have bias towards certain groups of people, like I would have more bias toward the LGBTQ plus community.
Isaiah Keene (43:55.339)
Right.
Isaiah Keene (44:09.631)
Absolutely.
Isaiah Keene (44:16.568)
Right.
Jey (44:20.223)
I would have more bias toward, I'm biracial, but I would have more bias toward myself in terms. Or I would have more, you know, I would feel a certain type of way about Democrats, or I would feel a certain type of way about other people, or just whoever. I would feel a certain type of way about them. If I saw them smoking a cigarette, I would feel a certain type of way toward them. If I saw them drinking alcohol, or my friend said they were going to the bar, it was like, oh my God, why are you doing that? Don't do that. And it was like, now I'm like...
Isaiah Keene (44:32.513)
Right.
Jey (44:50.567)
Hey, you know, I love you regardless of the choices you make or what you do. If that's your life, that's on you to get right with your maker. I'm not going to that's not on me. I'm not your pastor. I'm not your bishop. I'm not your anything. I'm your friend. And I'm someone that loves you. I'm your brother. I love you for who you are, no matter what you do. And that love is translated far and deep and wide, especially into my parenting. It's like I'm going to love.
My kids, I was actually asked about this one time when I was streaming on Twitch. You know, I was talking about it. I was talking about something and this person just randomly popped in my stream. We ended up becoming really good friends and talking multiple times since then. And he was like, um, what does this, what does your church teach about, you know, being gay or worshiping Satan or things like that? And I'm like, those are going to be your choices. I'm, I'm going to love you. You know, my, my stance personally is that like,
Isaiah Keene (45:34.114)
That's awesome.
Isaiah Keene (45:40.849)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (45:49.911)
need to love each other. Jesus is going to love you regardless of the choices that you're making right now. You're still loved. Don't forget that. You're still loved. Don't forget that. And then he asked me, what if one of your kids was gay? And it's like, I'm still going to love them. That's not going to change. Cool. Do you? I'm not going to verbally or openly disapprove towards you, but I'm going to love you.
Isaiah Keene (46:07.702)
Yeah, absolutely.
Isaiah Keene (46:18.186)
Yeah. And...
Jey (46:18.623)
Like that's ultimately what it is. Like, I don't, like, you're my kid. I'm going to love you the same. Like it doesn't matter what your life choices are. Like I'm so going to love you. That's what it's going to come down to. That love, having that love, that pure love of Christ is so important. And that's applicable to a lot of things that you talk about. Your masculine mentality, love, health and physical fitness for men. You love yourself, love your health, love your wellbeing, love your emotional, your mental, your physical and your spiritual health. Love those different parts of you.
understanding and interacting properly with women. There's a certain love that comes along with that. Loving them, caring about them, being gentle with them. Relationships, love your people, love your peers, love your friends, love people unconditionally, no matter what, love them. Setting goals and achieving them, that's a form of showing love for yourself. There's love in all these aspects and who was the most full of love person?
Isaiah Keene (46:53.91)
Yeah.
Isaiah Keene (47:03.498)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (47:14.763)
there ever was. Who stood in front of the woman that was getting stoned. Who met the woman at the well that was a sinner. Who loved the lepers and healed the lepers and healed the sick and healed the blind and loved people unconditionally for no matter who they were, what they were, how dirty or diseased or how broken or how sinned they were to the world, they were still these perfect amazing creatures. I guess humans are creatures, but they were still these perfect amazing people to him. And what did he do? He loved them. And that was it.
Isaiah Keene (47:41.186)
Yeah, and the beauty of that is that if you love someone, you're willing to tell them they're wrong. And so you can love someone, the book of Leviticus, for example, specifically says like, don't be homosexual, that is a sin. Like all of these things that you are practicing here, those are sinful. And when you love someone, you're willing, you can love someone and you can have respect for someone.
And that doesn't mean that you agree with them or that you affirm these things. Because if we do that, then we're guilty of not sharing the gospel with them and sharing the truth with them. The Bible says like, these things are wrong. They're wrong. And I still love you, but they're wrong. And I am going to help lead you to what is right. And that when we love people, we say, I accept you exactly as you are. And I don't agree with that, that you're doing right now.
I want to lead you to where you should be, where you will actually find fulfillment and contentment, which is in Christ, which is in the words of God. And like you said, the women who was being stoned, like he said, and actually China's rewriting all of this stuff now, that verse specifically, they rewrote it to say that Jesus publicly addressed, like said that he was a sinner and that then when everyone is left he stoned the woman who was caught in adultery.
Which is terrible because that's wrong. Jesus was perfect. He was not a sinner. He said, let the person who hasn't sinned cast the first stone. And so, he would be the person that would cast the stone. But he didn't. He forgave the lady. But what we see is that she stopped what was wrong. She did not have adultery anymore. They caught her in the act and she wasn't just... She didn't just apologize because she was...
Jey (49:07.602)
Yeah.
Isaiah Keene (49:33.89)
She was like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry because I was caught. She was genuinely grieved in her soul and in her spirit of the things that she had just been doing that she had done of the life choices she had made. And what Jesus saw was that she actually was apologetic and sorry about those things. Like I genuinely like, okay, well, and he forgave her. And inside of that, then she'd stopped living in that way. So you have to...
If you actually, Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey my commands. And so what are his commands? The Bible, the entire Bible, all 66 books, Old and New Testament. We read, don't be a drunkard, don't be adulterous, don't be homosexual. We read these things. And if we actually love Jesus, then we are going to follow what he is telling us we need to be doing. And if we don't, then we don't love Jesus, we're not.
Jey (50:08.842)
Uh-huh.
Isaiah Keene (50:28.03)
showing Jesus for who He truly is because He accepts you right where you are. You don't have to clean yourself up to get into the shower. You take the shower to clean yourself up, but when you step out of that shower, you are clean. And you don't go get dirty again. Like, you know, if you're doing work, obviously you're going to get dirty, right? Like physical work. Like if I go to a construction site right now...
Jey (50:37.719)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (50:51.846)
I'm gonna go get dirty. But for the sake of this, you're not going to get dirty again just to come back to get back in the shower. That doesn't make sense. You just got cleaned up. And so we love the people and we show them where they're wrong and where they can do right, and where they can actually find that healing, actually find what it is they were looking for over here. Like Jesus' revolution, the drugs, the homosexuality, all of those things.
Jey (51:10.199)
Exactly. And some of those things, 100%.
Isaiah Keene (51:18.442)
Those are of the old life, but when you love Christ, your desires become renewed, and you go and you're not chasing those things anymore. You give those up. Those were a past life. And you don't have to be ashamed of those things. If we try and shame people, then shame is not from God. God does not shame people. But...
Jey (51:23.403)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (51:37.227)
What the? Mm-mm.
Isaiah Keene (51:39.894)
The devil shames people. And so if he gets us to say, we're holier than thou and we shame these people, they're not gonna wanna listen to Christ because that's what they think Christ is gonna do. But that's not like we're saying here. He brings people from right where they are and he loves them and then he transforms them and says, here are the things to stop doing, to lay down, to leave in the past life and to come and step into the new life. Wide is the road that leads to destruction and narrow is the road and the gate that leads to eternal life and few find it. That's in Matthew 7.
Jey (52:09.943)
Mm-hmm, true. And I think that's so important. Like just the caveat with that is we can't Straight men in occasions you can but we can't often straighten minister to someone or witness to someone who is actively making those choices, you know, we can't just walk up to our Our gay friends and be like, you know, look, you can't be gay anymore. God said no. No, you that's unrealistic but it starts with love and it starts with
Like you mentioned without really mentioning it, it goes in meeting them where they're at. Where are they at right now? And I'm going to love them exactly how they need to be loved right now. Knowing like, if I love them enough, they're going to feel it and they're going to get curious because they're going to know my beliefs. They're going to know where I stand. We're going to have these conversations and I'm going to witness to them and I'm going to help make these changes. I'm going to plant the seeds in their lives without really saying or doing anything.
You know, it comes more naturally than that. Sometimes you do have to, you know, verbally say it to certain people after, you know, when it feels right and appropriate, of course. So don't hear that if that's what you're hearing, like, you know, we're not trying to change you today. We don't want to change you. We, as people do not want to change you because we cannot change you. We cannot, there's nothing we can do. We. Yeah. Exactly. It's going to be up to you to make those choices and to change. We cannot do anything for you, but we can.
Isaiah Keene (53:24.65)
No, there's nothing we can do. That's the Holy Spirit through us. Yeah.
Jey (53:35.483)
love you. These are the things you can do. You can love someone, you can meet them where they're at, you can pray for them and over them, you can be supportive, you can be a friend, you can be a genuine friend. You can love someone for exactly who they are because especially if you have friends in the LGBTQ community, they feel so alone. If you have friends or people of color, they also feel alone.
Isaiah Keene (53:51.677)
Yeah.
Jey (54:04.691)
Everyone needs more support. If you talk to middle-aged white men, guess what? They feel alone, too.
Isaiah Keene (54:05.155)
Which-
Isaiah Keene (54:09.142)
Yeah, everyone feels alone. We all have this emptiness and this hole in our hearts. And you can love someone for where they are and for who they are as a creation of God. And then the way that you continue loving, people don't care what you know until they know that you care. And so you have to show genuine care. And that does take time. If you just...
Jey (54:11.315)
Everyone feels alone.
Jey (54:22.976)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (54:29.471)
Exactly. They're not going to hear your message, or they're not going to hear what you want to say.
Isaiah Keene (54:36.942)
I have had amazing conversations that have led people to Christ and I've had the blessing to be able to see what comes after the joy, the fulfillment, the love that they have and them coming back and saying, it's been a year and I can't believe how far I've come just since that time that we had this conversation. And that's the best thing for me that like I get emotional about that because that is the best thing that could ever happen to anyone.
Jey (55:06.103)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (55:06.742)
And for me to be able to experience that and then for God to allow me to see the benefits, you're not always going to see the seed that you plant grow into a full tree. But I've been able to plant the seeds and watch them grow into the full trees, coming back watering it, giving it the sunshine it needs, and being that light for these people that then they ask, what's different about you? And when you, if they don't ask, like I've not been asked, but when you share it,
because they know how much you care about them as a person. Not, I care about you right here, and I'm gonna leave you in the sin you're sitting in, but I care about you as a person. And then they come and you can talk to them and they'll listen to you because they know that you care. And so I remember I asked my pastor about that. And that's what he told me and I was like.
I was a little kid and I wanted to witness to some people I knew who were having a really hard time in their lives and it's only gotten harder for them since and I didn't have that chance because they left before I had been able to establish that to the fullest and We still worked like we're still in communication with them and that's still been a gradual process But it does take time sometimes and we know that that's on us
Jey (56:16.363)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (56:23.466)
If people don't like it that we're telling them about Christ, if people don't like it that we're telling them it's wrong, then Jesus said, like, blessed are you when you're persecuted in my name, when people slander you, call you things, when people don't like you or what you're saying because of me, because you're sharing me and witnessing about me. People don't like that, but take joy in that because that means that you're actually, even if people hate it, they're still listening. It's better.
I would rather personally be hated by everyone on this planet because they know that I represent Jesus, than stand on the sidelines and be one of the people watching as the other guys are getting beat up. And as all of the people around me are also living in ways that are wrong, instead of being the person on the stage or in the arena where I'm the one, and they're seeing my message, even if they hate it, even if they kill me for it.
They still are seeing it and hearing it. And then they have had access. How do they know if we don't tell them? Excuse me. And so.
Jey (57:27.319)
Exactly. Someone's got to tell them and someone has to share these things with them. And it's so important, you know, some things are going to take time, but they're going to know exactly where they stand. And they're going to be able to know, like, if I keep interacting with this dude, I know he's a really good dude. He's a really good friend. He's smart. He's a good friend. Like, he's a loyal friend. Like, he's there for me when I need him. Like, you know, I can't just give that up. You know, it's going to be harder for them.
Isaiah Keene (57:32.542)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (57:57.099)
They're going to hear the message without you really having to tell them the message. Because they're going to see it through your actions, through your conduct. They're going to see it in how you treat them. They're going to get curious. They're eventually going to say, dude, why are you so nice to everybody? The questions, those are the prompts. Those are what's going to give you the opportunity to share the message in general from my experience, from what I learned. You can't share the message with someone just straight out.
Isaiah Keene (58:01.998)
That's the hope. Well.
Jey (58:24.447)
Let me shove the Bible in your face. No, that's not gonna work. That doesn't work, no, it doesn't work. Let me drop a scripture on you the first time I meet you. No, that's not gonna work. If it's relevant and it's part of the conversation, yes, there's a whole silver lining there. But most of the time, generally speaking, it's not gonna work, so that's kinda my take.
Isaiah Keene (58:26.878)
No, that doesn't work. No.
Isaiah Keene (58:37.636)
Yeah!
Isaiah Keene (58:46.466)
And if we're being honest with ourselves about... So as a Christian, and as Christians, plural, for us to share the gospel is the best thing we could ever do for someone. And it does have to be verbal at some point. They might ask, they might not ask, but we have to share it. And to do that, if we hold that...
Jey (58:55.098)
Mm.
Jey (59:06.857)
Exactly, no it does.
Isaiah Keene (59:13.154)
Why would we hold that to ourselves? It's the best thing. It transformed our lives. My life is radically different because of Christ. And so to share that with someone else is a joy. And it's the best thing, from my perspective, if we're being honest, everyone these days is about find your own truth. It's about speaking your own voice. And yet they contradict themselves by canceling the people who they don't want to hear. And those people that they're canceling are the people who are talking about Christ. Point blank, period.
Jey (59:14.679)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (59:41.419)
Exactly.
Isaiah Keene (59:41.982)
you cannot, you can't change that because that's their actions speaking louder than their words. And so if their actions are speaking louder than their words, I should have my actions, which line up with my words, be heard all the more. And so I should be given that fair treatment and that fair equality, and then I get to share with you what actually genuinely radically changed my life and not only changed my life,
but changed me from the inside out. My soul is different. I do not crave the things anymore. We talked about porn. We talked about the digital stuff we get sucked into. You're like, it's better to be addicted to a sport than addicted to a screen because at least you're using your body. But all of these addictions, all of these things get changed and morphed and we do not desire them anymore. We still struggle with them, but we also have a grievance inside of us and a longing to not do those things anymore because the spirit is willing.
Jey (01:00:09.751)
Exactly, exactly.
Jey (01:00:29.164)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (01:00:35.357)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (01:00:37.694)
the flesh is weak. Paul says that. He talks about this directly. And my voice and my message is, I am a sinner. I make mistakes. I am not perfect. And that's why Christ is so important for me. And he's so gracious and merciful. And so I can go make a mistake. Not that I should. Not that I want to. But if I make a mistake, it does not contradict my message. Whereas these other people are saying, my voice, my truth, your voice, your truth. If you try and share your voice with me though...
When I say, oh, my voice, my truth, just like you're saying, my voice, my truth, if I share my thing with you, which you're saying I should be able to do, if I'm speaking out for myself and proclaiming it, if you're shutting me down, that's contradictory to what you just said and what you're pretending to live like. And so there's this unbalancedness. But if I'm living in this way according to Christ, then everything lines up and it is all congruent. The Bible, from start to finish, is
Jey (01:01:10.387)
You're wrong, I'm right.
Jey (01:01:21.822)
Exactly.
Exactly.
Isaiah Keene (01:01:36.014)
perfectly congruent. So that is the entire basis of everything I do. It's why I am who I am. It's why we're sitting here talking right now. So yeah, it's all very important stuff. And it's so magnificently simple that it creates a piece inside of us, a piece that passes understanding inside of us when we actually live and believe and listen to these words and these things.
Jey (01:02:02.503)
I love that man. And so I think that's exactly you hit the nail around on the head there. I love that. I wanna wrap up here with the YDP3. YDP3 are three questions I'm gonna ask you. First one being, where are you rooted? Like where do your roots come from?
Isaiah Keene (01:02:11.404)
Okay.
Isaiah Keene (01:02:20.682)
my roots, as in...
Jey (01:02:22.551)
It can be physical, it can be metaphorical, it can be mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, like where are you rooted?
Isaiah Keene (01:02:29.665)
Alright.
I would definitely say, obviously, I'm rooted in the Word of God. I'm rooted in living for God and that lifestyle that is a calling for all of us that we can live out. And I would also say that I'm rooted inside of the Christian music community. That's something that I really love. I love making music and a lot of the people, there are things that happen. No one's perfect. But...
I love music and that's something that's been passed down to me and I make music, I create music and I create writing. So I'm rooted inside of the Bible and from that my cup overflows into and waters my roots of creativity. So end of end of sharing and it's always of me expressing exactly what I'm talking about right now.
Jey (01:03:23.239)
I love that. I love that. I can tell. I can tell. And it's great. It's great, man. Uh, what grounds you?
Isaiah Keene (01:03:32.394)
That is an important question for a lot of people. What grounds me when I get outside of...
Isaiah Keene (01:03:45.094)
If I start living in a way where I'm not focused on the Bible or the content that I'm consuming is not coming back to Christ, then that creates instability for me. That's building my house on the sand and it will get washed away. But when I ground myself in the Word of God and I ground myself in prayer, that is when I am happiest. That is when I am most stable. And that's when I have mental peace and mental clarity. And anxiety has always been a big thing for me.
that I've had to struggle with through some health issues that created the anxiety inside of me. And so to be a confident, calm, grounded person is an achievement for me. And it's something that I have practiced through the word of God and through prayer and through, like I said, music's been a big part of my life to help calm myself, the Christian gospel message inside of music and those things.
So I'm grounded through those things, and that gives me stability.
Jey (01:04:46.859)
Lastly, what advice do you have for a young man who's in a very dark place, really trying to pull himself out of it, and he comes up to you and be like, yo, Isaiah, I'm really struggling right now, dude. I need some help. What can you tell me? Or I need some advice. I'm really struggling. What would you do to get yourself out of this place? Because I don't know what to do anymore.
Isaiah Keene (01:05:14.39)
I've had a lot of those conversations before. And it's a very like thing for me to think about and recollect on those conversations. And the thing that I always encourage, the thing that I always do, I sit and I listen to those people because they're having struggles and they're having difficulty. And I acknowledge that difficulty and that struggle. And then I say,
look up. It will get better. And the beauty, I think, there's a specific beauty inside of men that I have been pondering and I've found. And that is that we naturally desire to be better. We desire to be great. We love superheroes. I have, my favorite superhero is Spider-Man. And so like obviously here's my Spider-Man action figure.
And that's from when I was like a younger kid. And I love that because it reminds me just of how we as kids really loved, maybe you weren't into superheroes, maybe it was Star Wars, whatever it was. But we always want to find this place of greatness. We want to be the hero. We want to be on top. We want to be the king, the alpha, right? We want these things for ourselves. And when we're in those low places, it's like we have none of those things. And that causes a...
Jey (01:06:31.607)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (01:06:43.618)
disparaging inside of us. And the only way we can get there, get back to there, is by looking up. I don't know, the movie Sing is one of my favorite, it's my favorite kids TV movie. Isn't it? It's like, ah, the theater, the music, the animation, the colors, I love it. Yeah, all of it.
Jey (01:06:56.479)
Sing's a good one, Sing's really good. It's so good.
Jey (01:07:04.283)
The message, the colors, everything, like, it's just so, it's so good, like, through and through. Um, that's a whole nother podcast.
Isaiah Keene (01:07:10.698)
And the message of that movie is... It is! But do you know why the message of that movie is so powerful? The message of that movie is, and they overtly state it in the beginning and the end of the movie, when you hit rock bottom, the only way left to go is up. And so, it's like, look up and see Christ, see God. You're in a bottom, you're in a pit right now. You're at the bottom. Like, you might be even considering ending your life right now.
Jey (01:07:26.943)
This is up, yeah.
Isaiah Keene (01:07:39.81)
but you can look up. Just crane your head upwards and see that the sun is in the sky. It's above the clouds and it'll take time for the clouds to pass. We can't dismiss it. We can't say, oh, I'm pasting scripture over it. I'm pasting this over. It's gonna be fine. That's like, I don't know. That's like trying to patch a dam and that's not gonna work. You need to actually fix the dam. Take the time to fix it. And that comes through processes of healing. That might come through therapy.
that might come through reconciliation with people. Time and distance. I'm speaking, all of these things are from personal experience of other people's lives that I have seen. It might just take time and distance from the things that have hurt you to be able to collect yourself and have the time to just breathe. And all of these things culminate back into being a man chasing after God. Just being that guy.
Jey (01:08:08.917)
Yep.
Isaiah Keene (01:08:38.638)
who is because when we do that, it doesn't happen immediately. We have to go on a journey of transformation. It is just progressive sanctification. We're not gonna be perfect. It's always gonna hurt in some area. But for those guys, you can do it. And it's not the end of the world because if you're at the bottom, and I know it sounds cliche, but I don't ever say it. Like I'm telling you right now because you asked and because it's a condensed timeline. But.
I listen and once you've gone through that process of acknowledging and listening, because those are the things that are genuinely important to me. Those are what I genuinely have a heart for and the ears for. And then once they know that I care, I can tell them what I know and I can tell them this truth. And then they listen. And when they listen, their lives become better, radically different. And to the degree that they listen.
Jey (01:09:16.214)
Mm-hmm.
Isaiah Keene (01:09:35.954)
is the degree that they find healing and find transformation, because it is that simple. So that's what I would tell one of those guys at the end of the conversation.
Jey (01:09:39.167)
Mm-hmm.
Jey (01:09:44.327)
I love that man. I love that. That's beautiful. 100% was it. Thank you so much for your time today. It's much appreciated. I love the conversation through and through. Go and tell the people where they can find more of you, more of your podcast and more of what you do.
Isaiah Keene (01:09:59.542)
Yeah. So I have, if you guys are interested, for the people who are listening, we talked a lot about faith stuff today, but those are the groundworks and the foundations. And once we understand that and that becomes a given, there are so many things that we unpack, and that's what I do on my podcast. I talk about the things, the different, how do you actually go talk to girls? How do you become a masculine man? How do you, all sorts of things, from workouts to health to your faith to.
relationships, finances, all the things like that. I talk about those things. And you can go and find three of my core masculinity traits at makingmenacademy.com slash traits. And I think I gave you a different link. But if you go to makingmenacademy.com slash traits, then you can find my three core masculine traits. You can find the podcast inside of there as well. It's a free download for you guys. And I have spent so much time scrutinizing the Bible.
and life and in all of these experiences that we talked about today. These are the three things I found that actually make a difference and that made me, because I just understood them, like I've grown up in a naturally grounded stable home environment, I have these things naturally and the people see that and they feel that and it just creates, you become a magnet of masculine frame and mentality and energy and people feel that. So you can go there and check it out. MakingMenAcademy.com.
And that's where you can find all of my stuff.
Jey (01:11:28.351)
I love it man. Well thank you so much again. Much appreciated, much appreciated the time. Let's see, are our audience awake? Is our audience awake? Oh they are. Thank you man. There they are, I appreciate you. We'll talk again soon.
Isaiah Keene (01:11:38.917)
Bye bye.
DESCRIPTION:
Today, we are discussing manhood and what that transition looks and feels like for young men. It's a confusing, scary, and great big world out there for our young men today, and any guidance that is good, faith-based, and from first-hand experience is worth a listen. If you're not a person of faith, believing in God and the Bible, this episode might not be for you. However it is for us, it's a part of our lives, and we are proud to talk about His word and its impact on our lives whenever we can. Today, we dove into Isaiah's message with his channel, which is fueled by 1st Timothy 4:12 (N.I.V. translation): "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, faith, and purity." Digging a little deeper, we talked about honoring the masculine role God has tasked us with- being an ambassador and soldier of the Kingdom of Heaven. That might mean marriage for some, the blessing of singleness, and the sole focus on God for others, regardless of the end goal, is the same. Listen in as we talk about the above, along with masculine mentality, health and physical fitness for men, understanding and interacting correctly with women, relationships, setting and achieving goals, and much more. Find more of Isaiah - Youtube: @MakingMenAcademy - Instagram: isaiah_awake - Facebook: Isaiah Keene - Tik Tok: isaiah_awake - Website: makingmenacademy.com/traits From Your Hosts- Jey and Aaron: Jey is a published Children's book Author! Yes, our very own! Check out his book- A Baseball Game with Dad, LIVE on Amazon right now! https://a.co/d/6ZXYGGr We partnered with Fore Fathers Clothing; click the link, read the story, and you will only leave the website with a new polo for yourself or a dad you love. https://snwbl.io/fore-fathers/Youngdad JOIN US over on the Young Dad Podcast- Facebook Page. We would love it if you followed and supported us as we grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify Listeners: Ask us ANYTHING, and we will answer it on our next show. Also, leave five stars if you would be so kind. YouTube Audience: Hit that subscribe button, like the video, comment, and share. Apple Podcasters: Leave a 5-star rating and a review for us to read on our next show. Other Platform: Rate, review, comment, and share the Podcast with a friend. Follow us @youngdadpod on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter You can find us on our website at ballboymedia.com Remember to hit our linktree for all our deals: https://linktr.ee/BallBoyBl