First Steps Toward Make a Difference Living | Go M.A.D. | Hutchcraft Ministries

Jesse:
Hey everyone, this is Jesse, producer for Go Mad with Doug and Brad Hutchcraft. In our first episode, Doug admires Brad's November. Brad relives childhood sibling issues, and our very special guest, Ron Hutchcraft, reveals the origins of Go Mad. So, let's go mad with Doug and Brad.

Brad:
Hey everyone, welcome to the Go Mad Show with Doug and Brad Hutchcraft. We're excited to have you part of this and we are looking forward to the road ahead.

Doug:
We are Brad. I'd like the very first official thing I say here to be that is a November for the ages. You do the I don't know how you do this every year. Overnight, like totally clean shaven the next day, your duck dynasty.

Brad:
Doug, I appreciate it. I do notice every year though the the gray is encroaching more and more. That's right. Okay, the Go Mad podcast.

Doug:
Um yeah, we we just hope to talk about how we can make a difference. Get it, M-A-D, in uh the lives of the people in our world by being uh a Jesus hope bringer

Brad:
So this isn't about going getting mad. This is not the getting mad podcast. This is go mad show because we it is about making a difference. And in fact, in today's episode You're gonna hear where GoMad originated, why it's important uh an important thing for each and every one of us, and also we hope you'll hear one key step you can take this week. to make a difference right where you live.

Doug:
But but first I think someone I someone asked me how would I describe Brad. Now Brad is my brother. He has been since he was born.

I should leave the room Here we go. He's a dad, husband, loves and lives the word of God, but he's kind of a hard guy to peg. Like, yes, he's ordained, he's been a missionary, but thirty years in full-time ministry, but yet he has absorbed a surprising amount of life philosophy from the Muppets.

True. And the peanuts. And we're both in the peanuts.

And he's from New Jersey, but he doesn't everyone thinks if you're from New Jersey, you either hey you talk like this. Or I'm from New Jersey.

Brad:
And amazingly he doesn't talk like that at all. No, but I do love Jersey food, that's for sure. Uh you know what?

I j so people get to know Doug a little bit. Um, I have to tell you, he is passionate about truth. He is a fiercely loyal friend.

When I think of Doug, I also think he is a brilliant baseball card investor. This is kind of all over the place, but he actually used baseball card investment in high school to get his dream car. That is right.

66 Mustang. That's right. Uh he is generous.

He's been a teaching pastor. He's been a missionary. Uh he is a gifted musician and worship leader.

I honestly is one of my favorite worship leaders. And I don't say it because he's my brother. Uh there's plenty of things I don't like.

Uh but no. Yeah, but he is I I love uh the way he leads worship. And he is a master of many 80s arcade games, especially Galaga. Oh my god.

He could be there for hours. And we also, it's not just Doug and me, we have right behind the glass over there, our good friend Jesse.

Doug:
Hey Jess, can you give a shout out? How's it going? Our producer.

Okay, so the other day I was in my room absorbing the wit and wisdom of pawn stars. That's pawn Pawn stars and and one of the guys, Rick, he's he's like in his fifties and he decides he's gonna get an actual red fire truck. Not not a toy, but an actual red fire truck.

And and uh Chum Legos uh says to his friend there, he says, now how many midlife crises is this? for Rick. And as I was pondering this life altering question from Chum Lee, so my nine year old Sam comes bounding in the room and he's barely restraining himself.

He's cracking up about something, and he hands me this envelope. And it says in the corner of this envelope, A A R P. And I went, wait a minute. That's for old people.

Why are you handing me? He goes. He's he's just cracking up daddy when you're fifty you get these So I get like a week before I'm turning fifty, I'm sure my wife had nothing to do with him bringing this into I can see Sam doing that too, by the way.

But see, I always I I always thought when I was growing up, seriously, like 30, turning 30 didn't do anything, turning 40 didn't do anything. But man, when I turned 50, I was like, man, that's what I always considered old growing up. Um and so but I'm not I mean, I do sometimes have unexplained snaps, crackles, pops coming from knees and hips and joints when I get out of bed in the morning.

But I don't consider myself old, but um I have found myself No comment. Taking I ha that something seriously something has happened to me in the last six months And it is me really sitting down, staring into space strangely, and asking myself, what am I doing with my life? Kind of taking stock of things.

Um I've got some things I'm satisfied about, some things I'm restless about. I've had like 18,000 days on this earth and and man, how am I spending my time? I hope that here together with our friends, our listeners, we can think about that a little bit.

I mean, I've given the NFL a lot of my time. But have I given it too much, man? Am I making a difference?

I've been married twenty six years, I've got three kids, eighteen and under. So I I wouldn't call it a a spiritual midlife crisis exactly, but I am a point in my life where I'm asking these questions There's so much anger. There's so much despair out there.

You don't have to spend too much time on social media to see that, man, people are trusting a lot of the wrong stuff. Stuff that can't make them happy. There's so many misconceptions about Christians and who we are, what believers in Jesus are.

I just really want to be part of the solution. And not the problem. So man, I'm I'm hoping that our time on here with our friends leads to how we can be hope bringers in the lives of people we love.

Brad:
And that's really what we're wanting to do. I d I do want to point out a couple of things. As Doug mentions, the uh AARP.

I'm the younger brother. I just wanted to make that clear real quick. Uh two years.

The older buddy. Hey, hey, it's younger. Uh and but it's really true that when we get to certain points where w God brings us each to times where it's like, hey Let's take stock.

Let's take a look at stuff. And really, as we're talking here, we're talking here. See, there's the jersey coming out.

Only when we get excited. I know. So when we're talking about things on this podcast, it's not about some oh we've prepared a three-point sermon or anything else this it I can tell you uh that we have made we've had some victories along the way but we've made a lot of mistakes along the way mostly Doug But I we have made together.

But we've made a lot of mistakes along the way. And we just want to be able to have a conversation. and discover together and talk about, hey, how can we make the greatest possible difference with the rest of our lives?

Doug:
The discussions that that I hope we have here um are discovering about how you can make a difference in your conversations on social media and the things you already do to to be uh a Jesus magnet. Man, there is There's such a ravenous, what I guess I'd call a hope hunger out there. Like people are spiritually hangry.

I I I think that's why, I mean, so many people are lashing out from hurt and disappointment, man. Hope starvation. breeds despair, you know.

Um when I was fifteen, I I finally got serious about Jesus. Uh I wasn't the nicest guy in the world. Brad, you don't have to be nice.

I'm not it's So Brad would snore. We shared a room. He's literally like eight feet away from me, like a bear suffocating.

Uh and and so I would have comic books, some uh and and sometimes um what we might what we might call today uh novels and and I would throw them on Brad's chest.

Brad:
Can I be telling the story as the recipient? I mean, yeah, these would sometimes a shoe. Whatever was within reach of the bed. But it worked just long enough to get him to stop snoring.

Doug:
But anyway, uh I remember hopelessness. I I'm kinda I wish I'd gotten serious before I did, but one plus about that is that I do remember hopelessness. I remember my BC, my before Christ life.

Um, I remember being just floored by his love and and finally um getting serious and spending like thirty minutes on my face in a hotel room in tears before God. I couldn't even remember the last time I had ever cried. And I'm just so glad I look back at that and I'm so glad someone gave me a shot at Jesus.

Yes, I was raised in a Christian household. And and my parents were awesome at showing us Jesus and living for him. But there was something about that moment at this um at this event I was at.

And he explained Jesus and the Holy Spirit just landed in a big way in my heart. And I'm so glad someone took the time to do that. Man, if you're in God's family, And you're listening to this, you are uniquely positioned to be someone shot at the same Jesus that changed your life.

Brad:
Absolutely. Now, I do want to say before we get to our guest, you may be sitting there wondering what is Go mad. And maybe you figured it out by now, but here's the deal.

We are grown up, we're young, we're heading out to school each day, and we would get the you know, mom would make sure we've got our lunch and she'd make sure we're set for school And we would leave the house, and all of a sudden, there would be this crazy voice crying in the wilderness. No, uh there'd this just be this crazy voice that would say. Hey guys, go mad today.

Now our neighbors may have wondered why uh someone was yelling at us to get mad at school. But again Not get mad. This was to go mad.

We knew that that meant go make a difference. And that is where the show title comes from. And that is what we hope the outcome of this is, is just that you will be able to Go mad.

And the great thing is is that we have that voice that yelled that out the door to us every day without fail, sometimes while dropping us off at school out the car door Our dad, our hero, our friend, Ron Hutchcraft is right here with us. Oh man.

Ron:
Go man.

Brad:
There you go.

Doug:
All right. So two things. Two things.

Am I done now? Two things real quick. First of all, mom gave you lunch.

You took mine. I took yours, I was gonna say. And uh and second of all, yeah, I mean I'll bet a lot of you listening.

No Ron, no dad. I never know which one to call him. I kind of call him Dad slash Ron, so I might be referring to him.

Uh in that way. But I I mean, Dad, uh how many year a word with you, um, one of the biggest radio programs uh for decades, uh you may have heard it's a word with you. It's on like over eleven hundred outlets.

um in the US and it's all over the world and it's in I think six or seven of the world's uh biggest uh largest speaking languages. And uh been in in ministry and youth ministry was the executive director of Youth for Christ.

Brad:
He's an author and In fact, he has written a an amazing new book called Hope When Your Heart Is Breaking that that I has just had a huge impact on life. So We are excited that he is able to be here with us as our first guest. And Dad, uh you remember yelling that out the door to us, don't you?

Ron:
I do, but you don't remember how it started. I don't. No, it started with your sister. Your sister was probably in second grade and she was kind of upset because she said, Daddy, all the kids at school all all I do is talk dirty and they don't m they don't like their mommy and daddy and they disrespect them and they lie a lot and they call you names and she said it really makes me sad And I thought, well, what am I going to tell her?

And I said, well, honey, you know why they act that way? I I think one of the big reasons they act that way is they've never seen anybody act any other way. And so they think there's only one way to be.

So if you went to school and said, well, I'm I'm there's somebody not everybody's lying. I'm here. Not everybody's talking dirty.

I'm here. Not everybody's putting everybody else down. I'm here.

So you could be sort of a choice for them, and some of them may decide they like what they see, and they would like to be like that. So why don't you go to school and instead of just going to make grades or make friends or whatever, m go make a difference. And maybe you could remember it this way.

And it just came out. And you know, I said, go mad, goes out the back door, and if she's going down those steps, I'm going, go mad today, honey. I'm pretty sure the next door neighbor is going, Gladys.

Gladys, I think we should call someone. That Hutchcraft and Income Poop is telling his children to be insane.

Brad:
I did wonder why we had so many neighbors move growing up, but that was I don't remember Gladys. They moved real quick. And that has been for for our lives.

It has been something that has been shared by you, shared by us. with so many because it is so practical. But uh we live in a world today where if that was true when Lisa was in second grade, I it is exponentially more true and more needed nowadays.

Why as you're talking to people, when you say go mad today, what does that mean to you as you're saying that to others?

Ron:
Well, first of all, here's why it's important. Jesus really said this. He said to the people who want to follow him.

He said, you are the light of the world. And you are the salt of the earth. A lot of people have heard that salt of the earth thing.

And I thought, well, what do light and salt have in common? You don't put light on your popcorn. uh or on your steak, you know, to make it taste better.

And e let's see you don't throw salt into the air to, you know, get get make it be able to see. The thing they have in common is that they both change their environment. So you you go into a a dark room and it stays dark till you hit that switch.

And it only takes a little light. You don't have to have a light as big as the room. And that whole all that darkness goes away when you turn on the light.

Salt in those days, and it's still used like our bacon has salt in it and different meats. It was used to preserve things. They didn't have any refrigerators back then.

So uh it it kept things from rotting. What else does salt do? Makes you thirsty?

Makes you want to want to drink, right? So if you think about it, Jesus is saying, I want you where it's dark, where people are lying, where people are hurting everybody else, where everybody's angry, where it's a put-down world, where it's all about me. Uh well wait a minute.

Why don't you turn on the light in that room? Be different be be a difference. Don't be an echo of everything around you.

Be a choice for everybody Well, and be salt. You can keep it from being totally rotten by being the salt of the earth. And you might make people thirsty for something better.

Even Jesus, who was the ultimate make-a-difference man.

Doug:
That I remember something you told me when I was in high school that I that I still remember today. Uh we were having some conversation.

Ron:
This is fantastic.

Doug:
We were having some conversation about how uh how I I uh could shoot my mouth off every now and then. But but it it it turned serious for a bit and and um and I s uh you looked me in the eye and said, Doug, always remember you are someone's best chance at Jesus. You are someone's best chance at Jesus.

And and I think I think maybe we I know I have in my life, we go, well Okay, um I'll leave that up to the Billy Grahams of the world, the the kind of the professional God salesman. My my pastor will do that for me. I mean, you know, Dad, you you you kind of instill the love of God's word in us This scripture, one of my one of my life scriptures, we are Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us.

That's in 2 Corinthians. So if we go by what he's communicated to us, As his children, you know, I feel like you're saying to the people around us, through us, look, I love you more than you could ever know. You're fearfully and wonderfully made.

You're my masterpiece. I've made a way through my death and my resurrection for you to be forgiven and free and in an amazing eternity with me. So we've got all this awesome stuff as believers that that we can do to bring hope to people.

And then we see Jesus saying, oh, by the way, when you're living in the last days, you're going to see the love of most believers growing cold. When what so wait a minute. We're we're in this this moment in history where there's so much despair, so much anger, so much disappointment.

And they're checking out And we're checking out. So so what is that what is uh I mean, wha how does that resonate with you? Uh what what does that mean?

Do you love most people growing cold and and what better yet, what we can do can we do about it?

Ron:
Well and Jesus said there's going to be an explosion of wickedness, he said. What it uh there actually means in the language the Bible is written in is it means that there's going to be multiplied lawlessness, just everybody acting like there's no authority. Everybody's their own law.

Everybody's their own. Did you watch the news at all lately? So that's gonna make it just gonna kinda numb you know, people who follow Jesus.

At the time when the difference is more needed than ever. Hello. And so they're uh they're sitting on the in here, you know, fourth quarter and they're in the bench or they're up getting a hot dog or they're sitting on the ball or whatever.

instead of getting in the game and putting points on the board, which is what you do when timers running out. So anyway, I think it's exciting to think, 'cause everybody wants to feel important. Ever all of us want significance with our life.

You're like, I get one shot at this thing called life. What different what what what difference will it make that I ever lived here? Did I just take up air, breathe you know, breathe air, take up space, and die?

You know, or did I make a difference? Did I leave a trail of lives I have touched? One question you can ask is, how do I make people feel?

You know Uh, when your when your mom passed away, boy, the all the stuff I got back from people was like she made me feel. Well, ever thought about how you make people feel? You when you you make them feel some way.

You all of us do. We leave some kind of feeling behind with us. So do you make them feel important or like they don't matter?

Or do you make them feel uh cared about or ignored? Do you make them feel uh bigger or smaller? Uh do you make them feel respected or dissed?

You know, uh you're gonna make people feel some way. And that's part of making a difference, is to even analyze it and say, how do I want to make people feel?

Brad:
Well, and I think one of the things I remember vividly growing up that now because someone may be listening to this and If they know you, it's like, oh, well, hey, Ron Hutchcraft, he is, of course, he tells people about Jesus, and that's what he does, and he's gifted at that, and you are. But what we saw in you from the very first days that I remember was a man, a father who is just living out the love he had for Jesus. Now what I I I want to brag on myself for a moment.

I aced first grade. That's right. I did.

I aced first grade. Anyone could after three tries.

Ron:
Doug Brad's nice. Brad's bragging on himself If you want to take a break, this should be good.

Doug:
It took me four, so I guess that is pretty good.

Brad:
One of the things that I remember was you had to do well with show and tell. You had to do well with that because you had to both not just show something, not just tell about it. You had to bring something in and talk about it.

And Dad, that's what we saw in you. We were I Huge memory. We were in a taxicab and it was a short ride.

It was not a long ride, but maybe 10-15 minutes. And within that time, you had shown the cab driver that you cared about him. That you were talking about where's he from, ask questions about his family.

And then you told him about the hope you had in Jesus. And this wasn't a big, hey, I'm on a stage preaching moment. It was Like you were saying, I want to make people feel important.

You made him feel important. You made him feel special. And then that opened a door for you to be able to say, and hey, you know what?

I want to tell you about my best friend Jesus. So I I want people to know that this is something you can go mad right where you are. It's not Some special you have to have this this certain gift or talent or whatever.

Everybody can make a difference for Jesus.

Doug:
Can I ask you uh uh another question here, Dad? I mean here here's the thing Um the scary thing is I've recognized myself in that verse. The love of most growing cold.

I look around me There's so much junk going on. There's so whether it's in it's in in uh politics or entertainment or the news or whatever, there's just so much always going on. And I just go, you know what?

Maybe I should just there's so much junk on. Maybe maybe I should just shut down. I'm gonna huddle up in my home with my family.

I'm gonna protect them. Maybe wait for Jesus to come back. And uh, but as I'm thinking about that, I'm like, man, whether you know it or not, that verse that you always shared with us about being Christ's ambassadors keeps coming back to me and Doug, whether you like it or not, you're his ambassador.

You're an influencer. For him. Now, I'm not talking about the kind of influencer on social media that tells you what kind of sneakers to wear this week to look cool.

I'm talking about a life influencer that has an impact on the lives of people around them, co-workers. teammates, family members, every follower of Jesus has this in their job description, to be an an intentional influencer. So so that's all great and well and good, but what are some practical things?

What are some steps? I can take even today. I'm done listening to this podcast.

I would really like to take a step today or this week. to be that kind of influencer, to be that kind of ambassador. What can I do?

Ron:
Yeah, because I think everybody's restless and they don't know why they are and they want to make Really, I think they want to make a bigger difference with their life than they've made up until now. We don't know how many days we have. See, I'd like the rest of them to really count for something.

So, and you are an influencer already. You've got influence. You make people feel some way.

And so a couple ideas. Number one, when they wake up in the morning, a little prayer. Lord, who needs me today?

Show me who needs me. You know what you just did? And you started right at the beginning of your day.

Getting the focus off of you and being all about yourself and your little world and you've said I want today be be about somebody am I I'm gonna be looking for that person Somebody needs my smile. Somebody needs an encouragement encouraging word, a compliment, somebody needs an email, a post, something that is going to lift them up. Somebody needs some sympathy today because they're going through something tough.

Somebody needs to be celebrated today because it's it's a big day for their life You have a chance to, okay, who needs me today? Great question. Secondly, another prayer you can pray is say, Jesus, would you help me see what you see When you look at the people in my world.

I know who I see when I see my friends, and we think of categories people are in. There are this, there are that. Wait a minute.

You know what Jesus sees? First of all, somebody who's been made in God's image, that helps you treat them right. When you say, whoa, that person literally is made in the there's nobody in 8 billion people on this planet was not made in the image of God.

Number two is to look at them as Jesus does and say, they were worth my life. They were worth dying for So there's somebody handmade by him and somebody he thought was worth dying for. Whew!

I better treat them like that. I better make somebody today. Feel like they're the most important person in the world.

And because I'm not looking at other people, I'm not checking my phone. I am I am literally totally focused on them. Who can't do that?

See, this is not like I gotta go get a college degree or, you know, I gotta have a class in psychology. This is just be about other people, be for the people who need you. They'll never forget you.

Doug:
I I heard you say one word. Compliment. Think about when someone has given you a great compliment.

I'm not talking about, hey, you're pretty cool. I'm talking about like something specific. Make your day.

It'll make your day. It'll make some people's year And, you know, if we could be that for people, you I remember you said it to encourage somebody is pouring courage in to them. And even if you just found three people in the next week and said, I'm gonna give them a great compliment, maybe you end up being that person when they're when there's something hard going on in their life When they're looking for hope, they go, I'm gonna go look for Brad.

I'm gonna go look for Ron. I'm gonna look for Doug because at least I know they care about me.

Ron:
You know what's in it for you? Proverbs in the Bible says, he that refreshes others will himself be refreshed. Here's the crazy thing.

If you lift up other people, you yourself will be lifted up by lifting them up. It you say, well I feel kinda lonely, I feel kinda depressed right now. You do what you don't feel like doing.

Be there for somebody else and you'll be amazed. By refreshing somebody else, you'll be refreshed.

Brad:
And that's really what we want to be about here is encouraging people how to go make a difference. Each podcast We're going to take a look and get practical steps. Dad, thank you for being here to be our first guest.

And I just want to try to wrap us up with a couple of key action steps that dad just mentioned for your week ahead. There, we want to leave you each time with some practical that we can do, not just that you can do, that we can do together. Two things you can pray.

Who needs me today? And God help me see what you see in others. Great practical things we can take with us as we head out into our workday, into our work week, into our families, wherever.

we are at. So I want to thank you guys for being with us here on our very first podcast, uh, the Go Mad Show with Doug and Brad Hutchcraft.

Doug:
And I want to thank you, Brad, for that november. I'm very impressed. I am uh thinking about doing this myself. If I could just grow whiskers.

Brad:
You know what? You're doing pretty good. Those three.

Those three are really good. Encourage uh we encourage you guys to subscribe to the podcast, to share it with friends because we want to help be about building a community. of God's family that is all about going mad together.

Doug:
So until next time, don't be mad.