‘Making Space With Hoda Kotb’: Pastor Michael Todd

[Music] come on you good come on i got my dog ears going on hey come on dog here in the book oh you're enjoying it so far loving it sounds like it was like it was as if you just spoke and it all came out on the pages it did it i mean we're living crazy faith right now so we're we're excited i gotta tell you i am over the moon to be sitting with you i'm over the moon to be making some space with you oh this is awesome thank you so much for having me i mean first of all welcome back to uh the planet earth i know you shut down you shut your phone down you you took a break from all things media all things phone i mean this is an important place i think to begin pastor because so many of us are locked in tell me what your big revelation was by just this simple act of putting all phone social media away yeah i think if i could sum it up in one word the word is margin and i think about like the greatest things i've ever did or ever done they came in the margin it didn't come when i was trying to figure it out it didn't come when i was trying to make it happen it came when i made space and it's so amazing that the title of this podcast has to do with making space it's it's i mean when you look at my life story um when i when i've met you before we were talking about my last book my first book relationship goals it went number one new york times bestseller first book crazy response helping tons of people but that message came when i came off of a month unplugged from all social media all internet and it blew up and i just feel like there's something that happens when you get revelation when you get ideas and when you get um um new thoughts when there's margin and so this year i did it um bigger than i've ever done before i took a hundred days and i was gone i was out of here we had a new baby wait oh i want to hear about the babe but can i just tell you something some people would say you know what would happen if i took off from my whatever i would lose my competitive edge people would be sprinting past me i took a break and i came back and the world went on without me and left me behind that's false and what it it really does is it puts you on a trajectory of unhealth that one day you're gonna look up and have all of these things and hate your life see what ends up happening is when you don't stop to enjoy what has happened to be able to look at all of the amazing miracles that are your life to enjoy the children that you work so hard for when you do it you'll look up and you'll run on that motor for 20 30 40 years and then look up and not enjoy what you've built yeah you'll get off of this treadmill and be like i've been running so hard to go nowhere and what happens when you take a break or from my beliefs a sabbatical or a time of extended um um withdrawing i i learned from the greatest leader i believe that ever lived with jesus when you just study him from a historical and a leadership um standpoint he's doing all of these miracles all around the world but like after these feeding 5000 and doing all of this stuff it says and he withdrew often he was and like if you were like claiming to be the son of god on the earth like why in the world would you have to withdraw like why in the world would you have but i believe there is something that happens in solitude that that makes you humble and for anybody that would say like you know what i'm saying they passed me by and this stuff you don't realize that each one of us come to this earth with a lane that we're supposed to run in and it doesn't matter what anybody else is doing what's for you is for you if you can stay healthy enough to run in that lane and every time that i take this break or make space what it does is it gives opportunity for me to recenter for me to refocus and me to remember who i am why i am and who i'm created to help you get messages you said you don't when you don't seek it out it comes to you when you make space it comes how does it like how does it come to you how do the messages res how do you receive them so something that's a practical practice for me every day is i have what i call quiet time where i do meditation prayer i read scriptures and um i write down the things that i feel strongly impressed on my heart and sometimes it's things like go take your wife on a special date like and i just feel like impressed to do that and other times it's like hey pray for that family or um go give to that person or read this scripture over and over and over and over again and i just followed those promptings you know the crazy thing hoda is people aren't still enough or silent enough to even listen to themselves to be able to see how they're feeling to be able to see what what um is being told to them by the people they love and by the the things that are speaking to them and when i make that space every day it's so crazy that one hour out of 24 hours can begin to set the trajectory for my life my family and miracles to happen in my life that um really make me feel like i'm just a part of something that's way bigger than me and i'm just grateful that i get to play a small part you know what's funny it's so funny you're saying this because lately in the mornings i i always write in a journal and usually it's gratitude journal three things but lately i've just been writing like what's on my heart it's a conversation i'll have with god by myself in the morning yeah and for me in the morning i get up at i'm a 3 30 a.m get up person to get to work but there's even space then like that 20 minutes because i try to carve it out and sometimes that's all it is and i'm wondering like what's that what am i supposed to be doing today how am i supposed to be of service then i the next morning i'll reflect i'll say did i do did i carry out those things that i felt like i should have that day but boy and that's 20 minutes at 3 30 in the morning that's it that's that's what it was and it doesn't matter what the time is it's that you set intention for that time yeah and i think that's one thing that um in today's society we let media social media uh our schedules our children we we're ran by all of the things and we have not taken charge and prioritized the things that actually help us be healthy and whole and present to the moment and for me that's hard for me to say like i even saying this to you right now i sound like a completely different person than i was three years ago because i found that my motor of running and going and making things happen and grinding and all of these words we we have uh um idolized in 2021 you know what i'm saying all of those things were coming from and listen to me say this an unhealthy place from my childhood and i was trying to outrun insignificance and insecurity from something that was so long ago and now it's the thing people look at me is like man that guy has a crazy i mean he he's always going and everything works and what i was really doing was running from pain and it came out looking like so much drive but it actually was a an unhealthy route that i was trying to um compensate for and so when i see people that are so driven and can't take a break and ha and think it's proud to have vacation days they didn't use in this year and all this other stuff it's a telltale sign that there may be something unhealthy in the past that they're actually trying to work and run their way out of boy that's very very profound i need to sit in this i need to make space for that comment but you are so right because people are like i only need five hours of sleep i worked saturdays high five high five so one of the other things i love that you do that i try to steal because you have so many good things and i want to get into the background of your life but i just want to get a couple of nuggets before we go there which is let's go you set intentions for your relationship with your wife for your relationship with your kids for your job okay help me because i want to do this so what how do you do it what are you doing how are you improving your relationship with your kids your wife your job what do you do i think the first thing that you have to understand is when you say what you desire it begins to move your life in that direction and most people are scared to even say what they're hoping for they're scared to even say like you know what i hope to be working a job that i have time for my family like they won't even say that and what i've designed my life around is being voice activated steeped in my faith and that's why i wrote the book crazy faith that's why i've i've started to try to give away the plays that i've used and so the first thing i did honestly is got a vision and wrote the vision down and made it plain and i believe that a lot give me an example give me an example okay like like very basic like i will date my wife for the rest of my life i said that out loud but it wasn't enough to say it i had to write it down and i had to write it down to the point where it became written down in my calendar every week so every tuesday night we have a babysitter no matter what happens and i am going to date my wife we're going to go to the movies we're going to go on a walk we're going to go swimming we're going to do something together because there's no way that i can commit my life to all of these other things and then by the way kind of make my wife fit into the picture and when i wrote it down when i said it out loud when i let my intention be known and i put that vision down on paper it's been two and a half years and every week we've had a date night some weeks twice and me and her are closer today than we've ever been that's my high school sweetheart i met her when i was 15 years old and we've been married 11 years we got four kids we run a bunch of businesses together but it did not happen by accident right i do not let anybody come in between what i say and what i do so that i can get the end result that we're looking for did something like a lot of people have problems in their marriages yours wasn't perfect either nobody who i've ever spoken to has had had a perfect one so did this intention come from uh oh our relationship isn't working and unless we do something yes so our our intentionality came from if you're married more than five years you're not married to the same person you married like and we got a revelation that you keep changing every five years and i needed to relearn who she was what she used to like she didn't like anymore and so i would do certain things and i was like man that used to really work like that used to really get you going like what what happened and so we made an intentionality that i am not going to pause your growth on the frame that i remember you and i'm going to keep learning you and out of that you know i think it was we had two kids and our our son um we found out he had autism and when we talk about crazy faith like i'm sitting here and i'm believing for a change in his diagnosis and we're going to therapies and all this other stuff and in the midst of all that i realized that that situation changed me and my wife a bunch and we had to go into a level of intentionality and making space for the new version of who we were to each other and fall in love with that person and as we begin to do that we like that person better than the one we married like you know what i'm saying like we begin to understand like man i love you even more now because we've been through this together and because you're still here and because we can still laugh about that and again making space made us love each other even more and i don't know i i'm right after we get off this podcast i'm gonna go find her i'm missing her right now i need to give her a hug and a kiss right now by the way i think that what you said was so profound the person who you're with now is a totally different person than you were with five years ago although they still sleep on the same side of the bed they still use the red toothbrush they still do what they've always done they are different and you're right it is relearning actually it's funny i've been having these conversations with joel lately about this is who i am today i used to enjoy doing that stuff and now i'm this person never felt something from god and you thought to yourself like is this my gut or my soul talking or is it god because i was wondering how do we and i've wanted this just for myself how do you figure out if it's your will or him i have this chapter in the book called maybe faith and i think it's my my favorite part of the book because people was like how do you know it's god how do you know it's the right thing and most pastors won't tell you this but i'll tell you very straight you don't like you don't you don't know at the starting line is this god it proves to be god and this is why i tell people i live my life at 51 faith if if i'm 51 sure it's god i'm going for it okay and because i have the heart to be able to be corrected and i'm humble enough to say you know what i miss that that i thought that was it but i hate my bad guys really going on and that's where i i've been able to see so many amazing things happen because some people stand at the starting line is like okay how long is this going to take how much is this going to cost are we going to win is this worth it and they end up living their life paralyzed at a pause at the start and what i do is it's very i tell people this i said it's it's a lot easier to direct the moving car than it is to to direct or steer a car that's standing still i really do believe that as you start making the step like i'm not sure that this is it but i'm gonna at least start looking up homes in this city yeah as you make that step then there's either confirmation or denials or checks or your piece is not there and then you'll know like well maybe i need to go back to prayer maybe i need to do something else and as you live on maybe faith like maybe this is yeah i see so many good things happen and um it just takes being humble well i do like that you talk about change because i think a lot of people say whether they're in a relationship um or friendships or whatever like people are who they are you either accept them or you don't people don't change they can change around the edges but in reality that's who that's how they were raised that's the way they're going to be what's what's your answer i don't really believe that because i know who i am and i know who i was and i know who i'm i'm trying to be i was a liar i was a manipulator i was somebody who was addicted to to pornography and wrong images and i i had a lot of evil in my heart i i i only looked out for myself i was very selfish like that's who i was it wasn't it wasn't what i presented but that's who i was on the inside and now today i look at my life and how i give everything that uh i have to help people to serve other people to make exceptions and allowances for people's faults and shortcomings how i like that was not me like like that was not me i i had a a potential uh what was it called uh i had a case um in court for car insurance fraud and like all like i was a crazy guy and the fact that i'm sitting here today and i am i am all about spending a message of hope love faith and really helping people become their best versions i know that transformation is real i know that change is possible and i am acutely aware of the grace that we all need to be able to make those decisions did your change did your moment did it come like a lightning bolt did your moment of change come in baby steps and take years like yeah my one of my greatest sayings and if you come around our church our organization you'll hear this all the time progression not perfection i think that this if this could become people's mantra they would be able to do so much more when they allow the little movement forward to be the win instead of this big like you said lightning bolt moment it wasn't that for me it was like this year i'm gonna become better at listening and keeping my word and next year i'm going to try to stop eating up a gallon of ice cream every night before i go to bed and this year i'm going to open my scriptures and i want to read at least 10 minutes a day like it just has been like babies baby steps baby faith just making moves and i look up 10 15 years later and it's like you're a pastor of a church and you're talking to hundreds of thousands of people weekly and like i'm like who are you like that's how i feel do you ever drift away from god do you ever you talking big language right here right now you used one of my trigger words drift oh this year our word for our church is anchored and we we are trying to get anchored spiritually emotionally physically like and in every area of our life but the tagline is this is the year of the anti-drift oh and the one thing about drifting so you said drifting and it like went through my whole body right there because um drifting is natural if there's not intention say that again that was good drifting is natural if there is no intention yes if you put a boat in water there does not have to be a storm for that boat to drift if you just put it there with no anchor it's going to be out to sea in an hour and a half because there was no intention of dropping an anchor somewhere and yes to answer your questions there are tons of places in my life that i have drifted because i was not intentional so one of those areas was in my health very practically the church is blowing up i'm having all of these kids and as the church is blowing up i'm blowing up like i'm eating everything i'm fat and happy i'm i'm eating ice cream i'm doing all the different things and this year when we talk about anchored i looked at myself and i was 264 pounds i was completely out of shape all of those different things and in a quiet time i really felt so strongly that this was an area that i had been drifting yeah and i made a decision that if if i was shown something i was going to start in crazy faith making steps toward that so we started eating better got a trainer like i literally just finished working out i'm 100 i'm 229 pounds today from that was four months ago and and i'm 229 pounds almost lost 35 pounds since i made the decision just one last question because i want to hear a sermon right now i feel like i wish i could hear one but but is there is there and i'm not gonna i don't wanna pin you down right now in case you can't sometimes you can't remember you've done so many great sermons but was there one that really resonated with people in a way that surprised you i mean i know like i'm i mean i'm feeling like we're having one right now and we're just having a podcast but but was there was there one that sort of sticks out in your mind that if that you could share with us for a little bit yeah i i think it would be the first message that i ever did of crazy faith um i i came off sabbatical like literally this was my first message after being off for six weeks and when i got up and spoke i told people i brought two chairs out on the stage and one was a kitty chair and one was like an adult chair and i was telling them i said most of us don't have faith in situations circumstances and places if it doesn't look strong enough to hold us up and i brought this big guy out on stage and i said which chair would you want to sit in and he of course said the big chair and i said what if i told you that the small chair was manufactured to hold you up what if i told you this was god's will for your life what if i told you that it can carry your weight which chair would you choose and he said i'd still choose the big chair and i said doesn't this sound like many of our lives that we would rather choose the thing that looks good than the thing that was built for us the thing that that really other people would say is not really the best for us but the manufacturer or god tells you like i know this doesn't look like what you thought but i want you to sit in it i said what if i sat in the chair then would you sit in it and he was like maybe and so i sat in the kitty chair and we're about the same size and i said now would you sit in that chair he said i don't know and i said sit in the chair i said look how much time you've wasted being able to stand on your own when something was designed for you that looked different yeah but really was designed to hold up your way and then when that man sat down in the chair yeah and it held him up like he was being cautious the whole uh auditorium began to shout and you know what i'm saying and because it was a picture of what so many of us are living we're living this idealistic life like if god would give me this and my chair looked like that and i had this husband and i had this job and i was able to work at this city and all this other stuff and god said no this chair is different it looks different it's not probably what you would have put but i designed it specifically for you would you have crazy faith and put your weight on it see the whole thing was he didn't care if somebody else put their weight on it but faith is actually putting your own weight and believing and trusting that this thing will hold you up and i don't know somebody may be listening right now that has an idea of what you want your chair or your life to look like and god may have a different chair for you yeah that you're going to have to step in crazy faith and put your weight on it but when you put your weight on it how much more exciting is it to be in something that was manufactured for you your life your family and i didn't know it was going to resonate with so many people wow but we put that up online and millions of people have watched that message and um just started living a life of crazy faith after that well you are such a unique pastor you're all by yourself i mean you help people with relationships you talk about people things that that you don't expect a pastor to talk about and i love that because it's all part of us this book crazy faith is beautiful and i love the subtitle it's only crazy until it happens michael todd man what a blast thank you oh we could do this once a week maybe we need to start the mike and hoda show we can we can hey listen let's let's let's do an hour every week or every two weeks let's do it i'll be your sidekick any day of the week thank you honey appreciate you love you so much all right take care tell your wife hey

Channel: TODAY

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Length: 24min 57sec (1497 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 04 2021