454 | Adventure, Adversity, and Remembering What God Has Done (Pablo Ceron, Part 1)

Adventure & Creating Memorable MomentsIdentity & Living as Sons of GodRite Of Passage
Written By Jeff Zaugg

Episode Description

The life you're longing for as a dad is almost always on the other side of discomfort. In this episode, Pablo Ceron explains why adventure and adversity are the training ground God uses to father you and how you can guide your kids through both. You'll also hear why pausing to remember what God has done prepares you for whatever comes next.

  • Pablo Ceron is the Founder and President of WILDSONS, a non-profit dedicated to helping men recover their wild hearts and become the men, husbands, fathers, and leaders they were born to be. He has been a speaker, teacher, and leader in men's formation for over 15 years. Pablo and his wife, Juanita, live in Miami, Florida, with their two sons, Mateo and Lucas.

    • Maximizing comfort and convenience leads to a dull heart. Men come alive when they step into a story bigger than themselves.

    • Life is not a problem to be solved. It's an invitation into adventure with a good Father.

    • In the middle of conflict, your wife is not your enemy. Be fierce against the real enemy and tender toward her.

    • Your job isn't to remove adversity from your kids. It's to create a safe place for them to test their strength and discover they have what it takes.

    • You are not your child's only father. Offer your portion, then point them to the Father for the rest.

    • Milestones are mile markers. Pausing to retell the story helps you remember who God is and who you're becoming.

  • Intro

    Being a great father takes a massive amount of courage. Instead of being an amazing leader and a decent dad, I want to be an amazing dad and a decent leader. The oldest dad in the world gave you this assignment, which means you must be ready for it. As a dad, I get on my knees and I fight for my kids. Let us be those dads who stop the generational pass down of trauma. I want encounters with God where he teaches me what to do with my kids. I know I'm going to be an awesome dad because I'm giving my all.

    Pablo Ceron: The life that is found on the other side of the discomfort is worth it. Your true longings and desires as a man can be fulfilled, but it is always on the other side of the discomfort. We were created for adventure. We were created to risk. The heart of a man comes fully alive when he chooses to push through the discomfort and jump into the unknown, into a story that is much larger than himself, where he does not control the outcomes, where he has to rely on God coming through for him. There is no greater adventure than fathering.

    Jeff Zaugg: This is episode 454 of DadAwesome. Guys, welcome back. My name is Jeff Zaugg, and I am thrilled to introduce to you my friend Pablo Ceron.

    Many of you who have been tracking with our ministry for a long time are like, "We heard from Pablo six years ago. We heard from Pablo four years ago." I actually can't recall exactly when, but I have been so grateful for a friendship with Pablo and his wife, Juanita. They welcomed our family into their home when they lived in Colorado, and twice now that they live in Miami. He leads a ministry called WILDSONS. We'll talk about the ministry. You're going to hear a lot about Pablo.

    In fact, I will forever be a cheerleader and champion of any man who will risk taking time to go to the mountains and be a part of one of his Musters. He welcomes about 130 men at a time to take this four-day, four-night incredible journey, a deep dive into heart work, into courage, into sonship, into being the man God's called us to be.

    So I'm really thrilled to have this conversation. I'll explain more about the ministry in the conversation, but I want to remind you guys, we're coming up on just a week out from the deadline of our fall coaching cohort, the DadAwesome Accelerator. 110 dads have now graduated, about seven to ten at a time, through the six core discoveries of DadAwesome.

    The Accelerator is my favorite thing we lead as a ministry, but it requires a commitment. It's six weeks. It requires one hour a week of joining us live for coaching content. And then it requires a commitment to the homework of, "I'm going to be a dad who presses in." You can find everything about the Accelerator at dadawesome.org/coaching. We're right here at the edge of the last one we're offering in the year 2026, and we still have four spots available.

    I want to invite you guys to prayerfully apply. Let's jump in. This is the first half of my conversation, sitting in Miami, Florida, in Pablo's backyard. There's a little bit of background noise from vehicles driving by because we're out in the open, but man, this conversation is a gift. So buckle up, lean in. This is episode 454, the first half of a two-part conversation with Pablo Ceron.

    Conversation

    Jeff Zaugg: Good morning, Pablo. Just out of the camera shot, what were we doing about thirty minutes ago together?

    Pablo Ceron: Good morning, Jeff. Taking a refreshing cold plunge.

    Jeff Zaugg: Cold plunging. And the picture that we took of you standing above me, well, actually we were pretty much seeing eye to eye. It's just a beautiful moment before the plunge, you on the platform. I like the cold plunge and the difference of the before and after. How would you describe it?

    Pablo Ceron: Well, the before is, "I don't want to get in that place. Why would I want to do this? There is no way. I want to be comfortable. Why would you want me to do this?" And the after is, "I'm alive, and this was amazing. I want to do it again."

    Jeff Zaugg: Yeah. After.

    Pablo Ceron: You feel everything differently. Your awareness of the wind on your skin and the sun and the blades of grass under your feet. It's hyper-awareness.

    Jeff Zaugg: I had a memory jump back into my heart when we were having breakfast together this morning, of the first time we met in person. This was six years ago. I had left a meeting in Colorado Springs and was driving up to meet you in Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado. I was headed up, I looked at my map, and I had a buddy checking because there was a wildfire, and he's like, "All clear."

    We had met a couple of times for phone calls, but I'd never met you in person. And I'm driving up through Winter Park, Granby, and right about in Granby, there's National Guard holding machine guns. Road closed. They take the fire seriously. So the reason I bring it up is, sometimes we have a path we think we're going on. I'm on time, I'm going to arrive on time to the event that I was joining you for, the Muster.

    And I was turned around because of a wall of fire and had to drive an extra four hours all the way around the range. I was three hours late to the opening session. Our friendship, our first time meeting, there was such resistance that it took a drive around a range of mountains because of a wall of fire. To me, that's a glad memory, because I have so much joy thinking back to that event. But I wanted to see if it sparked anything for fathers.

    For fatherhood, that story of our first time meeting, where we thought we were going this way, but we get turned around and there's a major detour. There are a lot of dads that feel that way. Does that stir anything in your heart around the theme of fatherhood?

    Pablo Ceron: Yes, but before I answer, what was that weekend like for you?

    Jeff Zaugg: Yeah. The Muster, which is an offering of your ministry, WILDSONS. The weekend changed the way that I walk through fatherhood. I mean, for six years of fatherhood. I've added another daughter. My girls are six years older. My grandpa passed away during the last morning. I woke up to six inches of snow on the ground and turned my phone back on, because my phone was off, and my grandpa was in heaven.

    And the beauty of driving where there was fire, the snow put out that fire. There are layers. There's a knife that was gifted to me that is a reminder that my heavenly Father is still fathering me. I can jump forward through six years of memories of times that I remember my identity, my knowing that he's with me, he's for me, we can get through this together. Men who are older than me that just spoke life, spoke words of healing, prayed over me.

    My story was received in love. There are so many pieces to that Muster, with about forty-five of us. The Hobbit hole. The tree fort. That property, even, the vision that was stoked, the fire that was stoked in me for vision of even what DadAwesome has become. I wasn't full time.

    That was right on the cusp of going full time into fatherhood ministry. So I could ramble for a long time, but those are some of the layers.

    Pablo Ceron: Since then I have watched a man who is deeply committed to turning his heart more and more every day and every year and every decade towards home, his Father's house, the heart of his heavenly Father, and who is very purposefully turning his heart towards his children and fathering your daughters in the way that you're being fathered.

    And I have seen you over the last five years grow exponentially in your depth, in your relationship with God as his son, and in your relationship with your beautiful daughters as a father. Since we met and became friends, I've watched you. We haven't been able to live close because we live in different places. First I was in Colorado, you in Minnesota. Now both in Florida, but on opposite sides of the state.

    But I have seen an incredible journey of growth and transformation and maturity in the kingdom that is unbelievable. Back to your question. I can watch the gifts that your Father had for you and how it was opposed. And how it would have been very easy to say, "I give up. I just can't make it. I'm just going to have to go sit at a hotel and come back home."

    But instead of that, you pushed through, and you went through what felt like a long detour at the time, to arrive what felt like three hours late. But from my perspective, you were right on time.

    Jeff Zaugg: First hug, you thought I was right on time.

    Pablo Ceron: And your Father was pulling you with his love, drawing you closer and closer to himself, like he's doing today, like he's doing today with me as well. And because you were willing to continue saying yes and pushing through the discomfort and pushing through the detour and taking four more hours, whatever it took to respond to your Father's invitation to you, everything that has been unfolding over the last five years has taken place.

    There was one man at that retreat who, when the fires were announced, called and said, "Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it." I hope that his trajectory was wonderful and that God has shown up in beautiful ways for him. But when you're asking me the question, I see the difference between our Father extending an invitation to more, because there's much more to life than what we have come to experience, and you in your heart saying, "I'm in. No matter what, I'm in."

    "I want to draw closer to my Father, so that from the overflow of that I can draw closer to the people that matter most and become for them the man that I was born to be." The husband for your wife, the father for your daughters. And so it's basically a bigger metaphorical story that we could compare to the cold plunge this morning. The feeling of aliveness that we both experienced after the plunge.

    When before, all the resistance and the opposition, because it feels hard, because it's pushing me out of my comfort zone. But then the reward, if we say yes, is unbelievable. And that's what I've witnessed, five years into your journey since we became friends.

    Jeff Zaugg: The awareness that fires are burning in the wilderness, in the mountains, and the decision to cancel, I think the parallel is a dad today who is likely feeling resistance in pursuing the hearts of his family, leading, bringing his full heart to his family. I still think it's courageous for any man to sign up to go spend five days, four nights in the mountains at one of your events. The risk to say, "I'm going to go and be a part of the deeper heart work." There's risk. Even tuning in and listening or watching our conversation today, there's an "I care about this frontier." But you've seen this. Many, many are like, "It's too much risk. I'm going to stay where I'm at today."

    And there's an opposition that wants us just to stay where we're at, or take negative progress. What would you say to encourage, at the front of this conversation, the dad to press in? Whether that's finishing today's conversation or signing up for a future Muster or reading that book that you've been pushing off. What would you say to the dad to press in?

    Pablo Ceron: The life that is found on the other side of the discomfort is worth it.

    Your true longings and desires as a man can be fulfilled, but it is always on the other side of the discomfort. Most men, I would say, try to look for a life where we maximize comfort and convenience, and in doing so reduce our lives to a size that is manageable, so that we don't have to experience discomfort and pain. Which means, so that I don't have to change. And the result of that is a life of boredom, a life of monotony, a life of routine. Where things are more predictable, but where the heart goes dull.

    As men, we were created for adventure. We were created to risk. Society and culture are shaping men to become the opposite. But the heart of a man comes fully alive when he chooses to push through the discomfort and jump into the unknown, into a story that is much larger than himself, where he does not control the outcomes, where he has to rely on God coming through for him.

    There is no greater adventure than fatherhood. And so for the man that is saying, "Should I watch this? I can alternatively go and watch some shorts, something that entertains me in the short term," that's not going to lead him to the life that he wants. The path to the life that he wants is through the discomfort. By design.

    Jeff Zaugg: Discomfort, opposition. When we were talking last night about these domains, there are the four core ones. Could you paint another picture for our dads listening about these? That would be amazing.

    Pablo Ceron: Absolutely. The bigger concept that we were talking about last night is this: whatever story we're living in, the main plot of our lives is the story of a Father who wants to bring his sons back home, that's us, so that we can live the adventure of life with him. So the first thing is the shift in the paradigm, where most of us live life as a problem to be solved, when in fact life is an adventure to be lived with our Father.

    The lens through which he is inviting us to observe life is the lens of stepping into the unknown with him, stepping into adventure with a good Father who wants us to have fun, yes, but wants to take us into the unknown, into places where we are not comfortable, places that are not convenient, but places where our hearts can come fully alive in union with him.

    His intention through the adventure is to initiate us as his sons, to reveal himself to us, to reveal who he truly is, so that as a reflection of coming to know who he is, we can come to know who we truly are, as a reflection of his image, as his sons. And so that our relationship gets strengthened. So that we fall in love with him more and more and we can tell him, "I love you, Dad," so that he can say, "But I love you more, son." "No, I love you more, Dad." "No, I love you more, son." That giving and receiving of love is what this whole story is about.

    So how does that happen? Well, it happens through what I describe as the four frontiers of sonship, of masculine initiation. The first one is adventure. We just mentioned it. The second one, which is the word you were looking for, is adversity. Because in every adventure we will find adversity. And we know that to be true.

    Jeff Zaugg: Like the wall of wildfire.

    Pablo Ceron: There will be adversity. There is opposition. Everything that we truly long for, that is worth it, we have to fight for. The life that we long for, the successful marriage, parenting our children well, developing our careers and our vocation and coming fully alive in all of this, all of that is opposed. It is highly opposed.

    And therefore adversity becomes the context through which our Father wants to initiate us and develop the warrior heart in us. So that we more and more reflect his image, the image of God, who is a warrior God.

    Jeff Zaugg: So in the adversity moment, I'm thinking about conversations in my kitchen with my wife where it's starting to take a negative turn. I could cause hurt to her heart in this moment. If I could just remember, this is adversity we're experiencing. It's not her against me, it's not me against her. This is a moment where we could have a stronger marriage because of this moment. I could experience more of the Father's love because of this moment. We could actually enter a new chapter of loving one another because of this. Adversity is good.

    Pablo Ceron: In that very moment, what it feels like, though, is, "I am in a battle, and the enemy's right in front of me, and she wants to push my buttons and set me off." That's the feeling. However, the first part is true. We do live in a world at war, and we are in a battle at the moment. The first shift is, my enemy is not my wife.

    Jeff Zaugg: That's the feeling. Not her.

    Pablo Ceron: Now, something is happening emotionally to her, something is happening emotionally to me, absolutely. But there is a third person in the room. There is one who is whispering and accusing and trying to turn her heart against me and my heart against her. And he knows very well how to do it, because he knows our stories. I'm describing our enemy, obviously. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy your heart, her heart, your marriage, and everything that flows out of it. Your parenting of your children.

    And so all our training in adversity, in the typical adversities of life, is simply the training ground so that we can face the capital-A Adversity, the capital-B Battle, which is against the enemy of our souls, the enemy of our hearts.

    Jeff Zaugg: So in some ways the cold plunge this morning, or deciding to wake up when the alarm goes off and go, or the courage to be a man of integrity when the moment comes, all those adversities are training. So that in the next adversity, in a moment with my wife in the kitchen, when it's the enemy at play, it's the third person, it's not her, I can bring strength in that moment.

    Pablo Ceron: So that I can offer my love to her sacrificially. Exactly. I think we may have talked about this in a previous conversation, but part of my journey of initiation, the way that God orchestrated it, included training in martial arts. Many, many years ago, it started with Muay Thai, and I had never gotten into a fight. So when I stepped into the ring to train and to spar with my trainer, my reaction when he began to hit me was to turn away.

    I remember my heart pounding and feeling like I was hyperventilating and using a lot of energy, because I was not comfortable. Talk about discomfort, having someone in front of me punching me in the face. Now, I had been training the technique, but my heart was not used to the reality of the world at war that I live in. And so he would have to remind me. He would hit me and say, "Face me."

    "Don't turn away from the adversity. You have what it takes. I have given you the technique. I have given you what you need. You can move to the sides. You can cover your face. You can throw a punch, a jab or a cross. You can kick me this way." It was him reminding me constantly, "Don't turn away from adversity. Don't avoid the conflict. Face it."

    "But don't face it reactively, out of emotion, because he's going to take you out. Think, breathe, watch. You can take a punch. You have what it takes, son. You can take a punch. And you have the technique. Move around." As I began to get comfortable with that, I would move around. And then suddenly I threw a punch and I actually hit him in the chin. I remember his reaction. He was startled, like, "What happened?"

    And the confidence that grew within me. My heart swelled with something. "I can take this on." A common friend, Sean Fey from our WILDSONS team, trained in martial arts for many years, and he often says, "The man who shows up on the mat is the same man that shows up in life."

    Meaning, the way in which I was reacting and avoiding this guy's punches was actually a perfect picture of the way that I was facing adversity in life. Trying to avoid it. Looking for comfort, looking for something that would make me feel good just for the moment, whether that's a cookie or the third beer or anything else. When in fact what God is inviting me into, as my Father, is, "Turn around. You have what it takes, son. I will coach you, I will lead you."

    And in the particular case of your example of marriage conflict, your enemy is actually the one who's trying to destroy her heart and your heart. And you have what it takes to turn against him and use all of your mighty power against your enemy, and in doing so protect her and give your strength on her behalf. Fierce against her enemy, but tender towards her.

    Jeff Zaugg: There's more to these first two frontiers. Adversity. Let's go back to adventure for a moment. A dad who is joining in adventure with his kids, uniquely, individually, according to their calling, the things that stir their hearts to be alive. Let's set school aside for a moment. This can be supplemental: before, after, summer, weekends.

    I'd love for you to share, maybe a second pass because I know we talked about this earlier this morning at breakfast, how to take an educator, adventure-guide approach to curiosity and learning and frontiers. What are some things you're currently doing with your boys, but also some of the things that are just stoked up, like, "I want to do more of this"?

    Pablo Ceron: Okay. A couple of bullet points by way of worldview again, so that the specifics make sense. The first one is this: life is not a problem to be solved. Life is an adventure to be lived with our Father. Now, when it comes to our children, we are the primary picture of the heart of the Father for them. Regardless of what we show them Sunday morning when we take them to church, they are learning who the Father is through the words that they hear from us and the actions that they see us take, either in front of them, on their behalf, or simply what they see of us out there.

    Then the second one is this, which I briefly mentioned already. Whatever is happening in the circumstances of our lives, the main plot is the story of a Father who loves his son, each of us, and wants to initiate us, wants to lead us in a journey of transformation so that we become the fullness of the image of the Father. So that we become more like Christ. Meaning, we have become our Father's son. So that we can reign with him for eternity. Everything that happens on this side of heaven is preparation for ruling with our Father in the kingdom forever.

    If that is true, our Father is trying to initiate us into becoming who we truly are as image bearers of God at any given point in our lives. And because we are our sons' earthly fathers, we are the primary conduit of that same intention from our Father to them. Meaning, in the life of both my sons, one is fifteen and one is ten, the main plot of their lives today is the Father's intention to initiate them into the men he created them to be as image bearers of God.

    And my role as an earthly father is to participate in that journey of initiation with the portion that I can offer them, and then point them to the Father so that they can receive the rest that I cannot offer them. Which, by the way, removes the weight from my shoulders.

    Because how can I father these two guys and offer them everything that they need when in fact a big part of me feels inadequate? I've never done this before. I've never raised a fifteen-year-old boy. I've never raised a ten-year-old boy like my ten-year-old boy. Because he's unique. Everything is new. Everything in fatherhood is frontier. Well, that's not my role. That's my Father's role. My role is to participate in what the Father is doing as an earthly father, and to create a space where they can receive the rest directly from him, through uncles and friends and the community that they need to be raised.

    So all of that by way of context. Your question was, how is it that I am participating with God in the journey of initiation of my sons? It starts with this: "Father, give me eyes to see. What is it that you're doing right now in my son's journey of initiation, and what is the role that I can play to participate in that?"

    All of that is conceptual. Let's bring it to the practical. My fifteen-year-old finished ninth grade, his first year of high school, last May, a few months ago. He experienced a lot of blessings at his school, with his friends, academically, but there have been some challenges. And those challenges have been hard on him.

    We know that the enemy comes with his own interpretation of events, his own whisper on reality. He begins to bring messages about my son's identity through the successes or the failures that he may have in the world. As a result of that, he was not feeling that excited as he ended his year. He successfully finished, but there were things that he was not happy about. Places where he was actually questioning his own identity in light of what he was experiencing at school and what his friends were experiencing at school.

    My role is not to remove adversity from him, because it's in adversity that his warrior heart will be trained. But I don't want him to suffer. So there's obviously this conflict as a father. And so, pause. "Father, what are you doing in Mateo's journey of initiation in this season, and how can I participate in what you're doing to bring your goodness, your love into his heart in the way that you want to in this season?" And the answer was, first, adventure. Take him into adventure. We had the opportunity to go on an incredible adventure this summer with a few friends. We went out into the Caribbean to go spearfishing. This is the type of trip that I've always done with my brothers.

    But this time, now that my son is fifteen and turning sixteen, he's joining the company of brothers. He joined the bigger group. And so with my brothers, the men that I do life with, he got to experience incredible adventure and to see healthy men walking in union with Jesus, in the pursuit of God, in the pursuit of becoming more of who we were born to be. And I saw him come alive in ways that I had not seen him come alive in years.

    The parts of his heart that were assaulted by the evil one through the issues that he had at school, the Father completely healed, because I was able to bring him into the context of adventure. And my role, again, through the adventure, was to take a couple of steps back and look at him and say, "Father, let me see your son," meaning my son. "Let me see how he reflects your image. Let me see how he's an image bearer of God. And let me champion that."

    We just did that for a week. I was calling it out. "Buddy, the way that you're coming alive, the way you're doing this, what does that tell you about God? What does that tell you about who you are?" By the end of this adventure and by the end of the summer, the posture of my son's heart was completely different. He was alive and free.

    And the problems that he came back to school to face were now in the proper proportion. "I am facing a difficulty, but I know who I am and I know who my Father is, and I have what it takes to tackle it."

    Jeff Zaugg: I love it, because instead of removal from opposition and adversity to safety, you actually took him someplace that was dangerous. In some ways you brought him into a frontier of adventure that actually had risk in a new way. And he got to see you and your friends, and one of his friends came along.

    Pablo Ceron: And he got to join and to take risks and to put his heart and himself to the test, in an environment of safety, which is my role: to create an environment where he can test his strength and come to the conclusion, "I can do this. I have what it takes." It's the equivalent of the Muay Thai coach for me. That's what I was able to do for my son.

    But most importantly, more than spearfishing or doing the adventures themselves, that's the conduit of what God is doing. The most important part is for him to discover who he is, his identity, and that he has what it takes, that in union with his Father, he can go through any difficulty. The beautiful thing is that without this part, without the training in adversity and in adventure through the summer, he would have very likely come back to school saying, "I don't want to go. Please pull me away. I don't want to face this adversity."

    Instead, he came back knowing, "I know who my Father is. I know that I have the support of my dad. Even though I feel highly incompetent, I'm taking just one more step in risk with God." He knows that he has what it takes. And he knows that he's not on his own, that we can walk through the adversity together. That's the picture of what our Father is inviting us into every day.

    Jeff Zaugg: Adventure, adversity. Before we go into these other frontiers, I want to talk about milestones for a moment. I took a moment about a month ago, mid-year. Actually, you were part of the catalyst of this, as you guided some of the community from WILDSONS through a mid-year review. From that, I took another pass at all my photos and my calendar and got three to five per month that I put on one sheet of paper. Memories, gratitude, moments, miracles. And I have this one sheet that makes me feel, "Look how God moved in six months." It's only six months. It's half the year.

    Milestones to celebrate for a moment. You're celebrating fifty years. You turned fifty. Happy birthday. Ministry: from the first big offering of the Muster, ten years as a ministry, WILDSONS. Your son, fifteen. That's a milestone of halfway through this decade of initiation. We didn't even talk about that one. And your marriage: twenty-five years with Juanita.

    These are a lot of milestones, and I may even be missing a few others. So milestones. Why do milestones matter for dads? I brought up remembrance. Clearly remembrance matters. But is there anything you would want to encourage the dads with around milestones?

    Pablo Ceron: This is part of my personal walk with God. He speaks through the milestones. With each one of those things we could simply say, "Let's go have dinner, have a glass of wine, celebrate, and move on." There is much more to it. They are mile markers. This journey of initiation that we're describing is long. And we forget.

    Because I know myself, the moment I face the next adversity, I'm very likely going to feel, "Crap, how do I fix this? How do I figure this out? No one is going to come help me. How do I do it?" I will very, very quickly forget that God has been delivering me from all these things, and I forget who he is, and I forget who I am, and I don't even know how to spell his name. And so milestones are the way to recount the story. Story is the language of the heart. We come to know who he is, we come to know who we are, as we retell the story of what's taken place in our lives. For me, this particular summer, thank you for the congratulations, has been an incredible opportunity to pause and say, "I'm turning fifty." Best-case scenario, I'm in the middle of the halftime show.

    Jeff Zaugg: You're so healthy, I'm sure you'll go past a hundred.

    Pablo Ceron: Thank you. Hopefully in a healthy way. But regardless, I am in this midlife turn, and it's a great opportunity to pause and reflect: who have I become, and who is God inviting me to continue becoming? Same with our marriage. Who have we become? Because our marriage is like its own individual person. The invitation in marriage is to come and become one.

    I don't fully lose myself. I am wholly Pablo, and my wife Juanita is wholly Juanita. But when it comes to our marriage, there's a third entity that over the years and the decades begins to be formed and shaped, and has its own quirkiness and its own identity and reflection. So we're pausing to reflect: who have we become, and who is God leading us to become? Who do we want to become, as a reflection of who God is?

    The same is true for the ministry. Ten years of doing our retreats and our programs and watching what God has done. It's a great opportunity to pause and reflect on who we have become as an organization, as a reflection of the image of God, and where God is wanting us to go. But most importantly, to remember who God is, and how he's shown up time and time and time again.

    A question that my friends asked me when I turned fifty is, "If ten-year-old Pablo could come and sit down with fifty-year-old Pablo and watch the man that you have become and your relationship with God, what would he witness? What would he learn about who God is? About who you are, who you have become? What would be his questions? Would he be happy?" If ten-year-old Pablo could say, "Show me. Show me who I get to become," what would that conversation look like?

    The same is true for marriage, the same is true for our ministry. Milestones are the ways in which we can pause and turn back and watch and witness what God has done. In Revelation, you know this verse really well, it says that they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. That's what these milestones allow us to do: to pause and look back and say, "Look at who God is and what he has done."

    And therefore to strengthen our confidence and our faith, so that we can continue facing the challenges, continue saying yes to his invitation into adventure, continue trusting him through adversity and into the rest of the frontiers.

    Outro

    Jeff Zaugg: Thank you so much for joining us for the first half of my conversation with Pablo Ceron. All the conversation links, the links to the ministry WILDSONS, and some of the other offerings from Pablo and his wife, Juanita, are in the show notes. I am so thrilled to send you to their ministry. In fact, just last Saturday, my wife and I had the opportunity to do a day-long marriage intensive with about twenty other couples, hosted in Melbourne, Florida.

    Once in a while they have other offerings that I want to keep sharing with you guys. So get on his email list, follow, and press in to what God is doing through Pablo and his wife, Juanita. The conversation links are all at dadawesome.org/podcast. Just look for the most recent conversation, episode 454. One quick reminder on the coaching cohort: jump to dadawesome.org/coaching and press in.

    I would love to have some of you guys prayerfully apply and join us for this next cohort. So press into that. I'm praying for you guys. You can look at the show notes for examples of key takeaways and key action steps. Let's press in and grow. Let's press in and take action. Let's not settle for intent. Praying for you guys. Have a great week.

    1. "The life that is found on the other side of the discomfort is worth it. Your true longings and desires as a man can be fulfilled, but it is always on the other side of the discomfort." (9:27)

    2. "The heart of a man comes fully alive when he chooses to push through the discomfort and jump into the unknown, into a story that is much larger than himself." (10:30)

    3. "There is no greater adventure than fatherhood." (10:55)

    4. "Everything that we truly long for, that is worth it, we have to fight for." (13:50)

    5. "You have what it takes to turn against him and use all of your mighty power against your enemy, and in doing so protect her and give your strength on her behalf. Fierce against her enemy, but tender towards her." (19:30)

    6. "My role is not to remove adversity from him, because it's in adversity that his warrior heart will be trained." (25:10)

    7. "Milestones are the ways in which we can pause and turn back and watch and witness what God has done." (34:30)

 

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Jeff Zaugg
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453 | Building Deep Friendships as a Man, with Wayne Francis