Focus on the Family

John Fuller: This is John Fuller, and please remember to let us know how you're listening to these programs—on a podcast, app, or website.

Bear Grylls: My heart says, "Share the light." The world is desperate for love, light, connection, and peace. It's never been more needed. And like I say, it's 365 times in the Bible: "Be courageous, stand up." So I'm a soldier. I'll do as I'm told, and I'll do my best. I won't always get it right, and I'll fail, but my identity is found here.

John Fuller: That's well-known outdoor adventurer and television icon Bear Grylls. He's going to be sharing today about his personal journey of faith and why he is so passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Welcome to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller.

Jim Daly: John, I recently had a great visit with Bear Grylls on my podcast Refocus with Jim Daly. He was a delight to speak with. His story is so interesting—about how he came to faith in Christ and then his work on a great new book called *The Greatest Story Ever Told*. He's done some amazing things with the Lord's help, but this book is what he's most proud of.

My boys enjoyed watching Bear Grylls and *Man vs. Wild* for so many years. He's had many other successful shows reaching 1.2 billion people. That's amazing. He's survived parachute accidents, diving with sharks, chasing snakes, shooting rapids, jumping off cliffs, and the list goes on and on. So he is certainly one of a kind.

John Fuller: Yeah, and I've enjoyed watching him do that, knowing I didn't have to. Bear has won multiple Emmy Awards. He has hosted a number of shows, including *Running Wild with Bear Grylls*. We've got that book that you mentioned, Jim, *The Greatest Story Ever Told*, at our website. Just stop by focusonthefamily.com/broadcast to learn more. Here's part of that conversation that Jim had with Bear Grylls on his show Refocus with Jim Daly.

Jim Daly: Bear, thanks for joining me on Refocus. It's great to have you. Your dad was really important to you, and I love that because here at Focus on the Family, we're talking to people every day. Usually, it is heartache, and they're looking for help to fill that dad problem that was created when their fathers let them down significantly, divorced their moms, etc. Speak to the importance of fatherhood and then parlay that into the relationship you had with your dad and what he did to build into you as a son.

Bear Grylls: First of all, it's so critical. Fatherhood is such a critical relationship in all of our lives. None of us are perfect. I think that is the thing also to say. It's what's so beautiful about our faith—that ultimately we find true connection with the ultimate Father who will never let us down. So I'm always mindful of many people having such tough experiences of parenting.

I've been really lucky. I had a really beautiful dad who was gentle and kind. He'd been a former Royal Marines Commando, so he loved adventure as well. But he was good fun, always messing around, very cozy, and always encouraging me to go for things, not be scared of failure, and to follow the dreams. That was his thing.

The sadness in my life in terms of fatherhood is that he died too young. I felt woefully ill-equipped for life when he died. So much was unsaid, and I wish he'd lived to see Shara and me get married and our boys. We've now got three boys, and they look just like him.

The really important stuff he taught me when I was young was those things: to go for things in life, not be scared to fail, be kind along the way, be a "never give up-er," and follow those dreams. Even though I felt ill-equipped, those messages have gone into my heart. It's been a privilege to be able to repeat those every day to our boys.

Our hope and our faith say that it's not the end. That is the thing. It is not the end. I feel my dad's spirit through our boys all the time as well, and I know he's cheering them on. Fatherhood is difficult for many people, but our great hope is that everything's connected—us to the Almighty when we ask, us to each other when we need it, and us to those that we love and we lose. That connection is always there, too.

Jim Daly: How as a boy did your dad, particularly, but your mom and dad—what was your relationship like growing up spiritually and them pointing you to a God in heaven?

Bear Grylls: I didn't grow up in a church culture at all. I'd also hasten to say in this conversation I've been really lucky to have a wonderful mom who's still alive. They're often the unsung heroes in our lives. She's been wonderful, and I look at Shara as well. It's been so key to our happiness in life. She's been such a bedrock to our family.

But in terms of culture growing up, it wasn't a churchy environment. But having said that, I had a really natural faith as a kid. I just kind of knew there was something out there and it was good. I couldn't articulate it more than that, but I felt free and loved.

I look back now and I realize God connects with kids in such a beautiful way. Then life makes us cynical and tougher and we want to go it alone. I wasn't alone on that route either. I went to school and suddenly we had to go to church every day. It was very formal. Half of it was in Latin, white robes, and I just thought, "Wow, if this is God, I've really got it wrong." I threw all of that natural faith out with the baby and the bathwater. I let it all go.

For me, it's been a lifetime of unlearning to realize, actually, as that little kid, I had it right. It's why Jesus just loved the little children. That was one thing. The disciples were running around trying to stop them crowding him. He was saying, "Let them be. The kingdom belongs to these."

I realized I was right as a kid and we shouldn't overcomplicate it. He's our Father in heaven, that perfect Father without the flaws that we all have, even in our own journey of fatherhood. I'm super aware of my flaws as well, but we do our best and we try and connect to something bigger and greater than us. That's for me where faith comes in.

Jim Daly: The child component of that—I had the privilege of interviewing your former Prime Minister Tony Blair. He talked about being in primary school and the headmaster came to his class and pulled him out. While in the hallway, he told him that his dad had suffered a terrible stroke. The headmaster said, "We need to pray for your father."

Tony Blair responded, "Well, you don't know my father. He wouldn't want us to pray for him." The headmaster, in just this incredible moment of wisdom, said, "Well, your dad may not know God, but God knows your father and He would want us to pray for him." Tony Blair said that was one of the core hinges for him in his spiritual journey coming to Christ.

It's the power of words and the power of encouragement. It's such a powerful story. The children tend to get it right. Let's move on with the story. I want to quickly give us the background there with the SAS. Again, I think we're all intrigued by Special Forces. I need to tease out that bit of that story—that you joined the Special Forces. What was that training like? What was your hope? What was your dream going into the Special Forces?

Bear Grylls: I think as a kid, I wanted to outdo my dad. My dad had been a Commando, and I thought, "I'm going to go one better." I always wanted to be a soldier from a young age. I got to try selection for the British Special Forces for 21 SAS when I was 19. I actually failed the first time.

I remember lining up day one of what was an 11-month process, looking to the left of me, looking to the right. 120 soldiers, everyone stacked and muscle-bound. I'm just thinking I'm dead, I'm never going to make it. I got about halfway through, and I just wasn't fast enough, strong enough, smart enough, or good enough. I failed.

Then they said to some of us, "Come back and try again." I started again, lined up another 11 months, long line, 120 people. This time I didn't look left and right, though. I knew what I needed to do, which was just to keep looking forward, give more when it's grim and it's difficult and everyone's complaining and everyone's throwing in the towel. Give more. Be the most resilient. Go fast. Give all. Be all in, total commitment. In life, there is a power to that. Eventually, four of us from that 120 passed at the end, still best friends to this day.

Jim Daly: In that training, you had a really good friend, Mick, who I think was a Christian. Describe that relationship and how did he help you in that moment, even to be stronger because of faith?

Bear Grylls: I joined up with my best buddy, and they always said to us, "Don't come with a buddy. You don't want a buddy here because the likelihood of you both passing is small." Actually, he failed the first time as well, and we both passed the second time. That man is like a rock in my life still to this day.

His nickname is Trucker. He's been an example of beautiful faith, resilience, humble friendship. I remember so many nights just across the mountains in driving wind and rain, carrying huge weights through these bogs and marshes alongside that man with him just quietly whispering verses to himself: "When I lift my eyes up to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from you, Lord, Maker of heaven and earth." That verse I'll never forget. I've heard it a zillion times out of his mouth at difficult times. You look at examples like that in all of our lives. It's very powerful. As I say, we are still best friends to this day.

Jim Daly: The Scripture has so many stories about a good friend and what a good friend does for you. That's another thing that, unfortunately, in the culture today, so many people are isolated and separated. We're made for relationship, and it just doesn't seem to be happening the way it should for healthiness, mental, and emotional well-being.

Getting into the story of the book—so I think we've laid a bit of background. The only other thing you mentioned so quickly about those things that scared you at one point is the parachute accident that you had where the canopy didn't deploy or was cut while deploying, and you spiraled in Special Forces. What was the outcome of that jump, and how did you recover?

Bear Grylls: That was a different parachute incident from the one I described earlier with my dad. The irony is that I still do it all the time. To be honest, it's really hard for me. It's a real thing, but I've just learned: don't run from the scary things in life, walk toward them.

But that original accident was just a canopy rips, and I came spiraling down. It was in Africa. I broke my back in three different places and spent many months in military rehab in the UK. I was told I was a millimeter from severing my spinal cord, struggling just to reach a bathroom across this hall without excruciating pain and time, and just thinking, "What am I going to do with my life?"

I really just clung in that hospital to two things. One was this dream of Everest that I'd had with my dad since I was a kid. I had a big poster on my wall. I brought that to the hospital, and that was going to be the focus of my recovery. Everyone might think I'm crazy and I can't even get to the bathroom at the moment, but we're designed like this. There's power when we set—as men especially—our laser targets on goals. It's not a male thing, it's all of us, but there's power to that as humans when you zero in on something.

That became a real focus. And then the other thing was my faith. Everyone's strong when the sun's shining. Everyone's strong when it's all going well. When you feel great, you're unconquerable until you're not. I think when we're at the low points in our life and the dark jungles of our life, you learn what your foundations are. In that hospital, I just came to my knees and I said I want to build my life on solid foundations. I want a foundation that will never wash away.

It's that quote: "Man is never as tall as when he kneels down." I said a prayer just saying, "God, please be with me." I'd said that prayer before in my life. I first said it as a young teenager when I lost somebody very close to me, and I've said it repeatedly ever since in my life. Sometimes at church when they say, "If you want to say this prayer in your heart, please say the prayer," I'm the guy every time. I must have done it a thousand times. I renew it every day of my life because it's like checking sure my foundations are strong.

Nothing dramatic happened in that hospital beyond pain and a slow recovery of movement and confidence. But when I first said that prayer as a teenager, a fire was lit. A fire was lit that's never gone out. Sometimes it's a flame, pilot light, sometimes it's just low, but that flame's never left me. It's the greatest thing in my life.

John Fuller: You're listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, and Bear Grylls is our guest today sharing his inspiring testimony and the heart behind his book, *The Greatest Story Ever Told*. This program was originally released on *Refocus with Jim Daly*, and you can hear more of his conversation with Bear when you stop by focusonthefamily.com/broadcast. Now let's return to the conversation.

Jim Daly: You've mentioned this a couple of times, but I would imagine one of your life verses could be that He's close to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit out of Psalms. A good Scottish pastor, actually an acquaintance friend of mine, Alistair Begg—somehow went from Scotland to Cleveland, Ohio. I'm still not sure how that happened.

But I was listening to him in a sermon and he said, "If this is the prerequisite for becoming deeper relationally with God—being brokenhearted and being crushed in spirit—why do we choose not to go there? Why do we try to stay on the mountaintop? Because if that is where God will meet us, shouldn't we be running to that low place in order to feel and hear God there?" That's what you've been describing so much.

Bear Grylls: But it's very scary. It's super scary for people. Most of us spend our lives fighting to avoid that place. But the irony is it is a place of coming home. It's that beautiful Beatitudes verse in *The Message* version that I've always liked because it's my language: "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you, there's more of God."

The point of that place is not a place of darkness; it's a place of light. What is darkness? It's just the absence of light. So it's actually finding light. So many of us look back in our lives at those moments where you feel very alone, and it's that footprints in the sand analogy again. But we're never alone.

I spoke yesterday to a maximum-security prison in the UK. A lot of hurting souls in there. It's a privilege to say that you are not alone. However dark that cell is, you are not alone. It's a great truth. It's not like God might come to you, or if you do this, He potentially could come beside you. It's the only guarantee in life—that you ask and He will be there. You might not feel it, but it's a truth. What a great privilege in our life.

Jim Daly: So good. Now let's move to *The Greatest Story Ever Told*, this wonderful book that you've written. My wife has actually read it. She loved it. And of course, I did the prep. I haven't had a chance to read it completely, but it is solid. What inspired you to write about Jesus as the greatest story ever told?

Bear Grylls: Because I get asked every day what's helped me in tough times up mountains and in jungles. This is the answer. The answer is my faith. It's like a hand and glove. The glove on its own is limp, it's weak. But with the hand inside, it was strong. Whether you're that prisoner in that prison yesterday or whatever, where do you draw from the well? Where do you go? Do you go somewhere where there's amazing living water, or do you go somewhere that's going to leave you with shaky foundations?

But I also realized how few people know the story of Jesus. I was like that myself as well. We grow up with stories. We know the story maybe of the Good Samaritan or the Nativity or maybe the crucifixion. But the whole story is incredible. It's the ultimate story of friendship and risk and adventure and love and sacrifice and courage.

I realized nobody's ever written the story of Jesus as a short, punchy thriller—100% theologically accurate, but as a thriller. I just had a real sense in my spirit about a year and a half ago. Just clear the decks. We were still filming. We were in the middle of the jungle for a month filming a Netflix show. It was like, "Just wrap this up, clear the decks, and write this."

I worked with a brilliant team of theologians from *The Chosen* who helped me, and we did it. This pastor wrote to me when I first sent a first copy out and he said, "Wow, this is like John Grisham's been tasked with writing the Jesus story." I always feel that's the best description of it because it's hard to tell or ask people or for ourselves sometimes to read the Bible. It's pretty daunting. Where do you begin?

But the story itself is why I get so many letters now. I've done so many of these TV shows over the years, but I've never had a response to anything I've ever done that is even close to the response I'm getting from this.

I get people from every country, every culture, every faith, every age. I have Muslims writing to me, I have Hindus, I have atheists—thousands of them. They all basically say the same thing in different ways, which is, "I had no idea." I had no idea of the real, unsanitized, un-Western, cozy, nice Nativity version of sweet Jesus. I had no idea of the real story.

That's why I wanted to start from the beginning. I call him Yeshua, his Aramaic name. All the names of everyone is local. It's written just from five eyewitness accounts of what he was really like. Why did everyday people just fight to be close to him, to try to touch his cloak? Why? Why? And why did the elite, the religious elite, fear him so much? What is behind that? As I say, it's been the hardest thing I've ever done but the best thing I've ever done.

Jim Daly: Let me ask you this: the characters that you chose to write about—who are they and why did you choose their description, their relationship with Christ to write about?

Bear Grylls: Like I say, I wrote it from eyewitness accounts from those closest to him that knew him best because all of our stories are wrapped up in here. It starts off from Mary, his mother, aged 15, terrified, pregnant out of marriage, outcast, becomes a refugee from her country, raising this boy in poverty. And yet her motherhood—like we said at the start of our conversation—the power of that motherhood encouragement.

Then it goes to different tones, of Thomas, who's observing him and just going, "Hold on," and he's not going to be easily persuaded. He's skeptical, he's cynical, he can't understand what's going on, he's unsure of himself and the whole situation.

Then it goes to Peter, who's this fisherman and this impulsive guy, and he's raw and disrespectful and wild and brilliant. Then it goes to John, who takes us through the final week of Jerusalem and that torture and eventually execution. Then Mary Magdalene, this broken young girl whose life was healed by being close to Christ, and she takes us through to the end. I feel it's all of our stories, whether we are that innocent or that broken or the skeptical or the hurting or the clinical or the wild ones.

So I wanted to take us back to the real story. I wanted to write something that's really easy for people to read. That's the other thing. I can read about two pages a night and then I'm done. I really struggle reading. So I wanted to write it like that. Every chapter's about two or three pages. I want to not be ashamed of reading this story in a mosque, a hospital, a prison, a temple. Because the real story is unashamedly beautiful. It's not religious; it's a story of love. So that's where I've taken it from because I want to be something people can share with anyone. It's hard to say to a friend, "You should read the Bible," which, of course, we know is sensible, but most people are like, "What are you on about?"

Jim Daly: Right, exactly. In going through this process, it seems to me that you've become more emboldened sharing that faith in the construct of what you've described—yesterday being at the prison in the UK and talking to people that have been tried and convicted of crime, but you're there telling them about eternal life, salvation, what Christ came to do for all of us as human beings, the whole strata. You seem again to become more emboldened.

Speak to that energy that you have now. Not only to be a great persona on television—and it's good to work your craft well, and that's a good thing—but then the bigger thing, which is to share Christ with as many people as possible. What has given you that energy?

Bear Grylls: Well, like you say, I love my day job. My day job's wonderful, and it's right to work hard and to follow your heart and go for things. But the thing is, that's not my identity. My identity is found elsewhere.

In the early years, you'd always try and do anything to protect your work and that you wouldn't want to take any risks with that outside of the risk of the job. You wouldn't want to stand up, maybe. But I just realize there's no power to that. All I want to do is stay in the place of power, and the place of power in our faith is on the front line. Therefore, I've got nothing to hide and try and protect because it's not mine anyway. Everything's been a gift.

Surely the journey of life is to learn to have the courage to try and follow your heart. My heart said write the book. My heart says share the light. The world is desperate for love, light, connection, and peace. It's never been more needed.

And like I say, it's 365 times in the Bible: "Be courageous, stand up." So I'm a soldier. I'll do as I'm told, and I'll do my best. I won't always get it right, and I'll fail, but I'm just going to live for something beyond just trying to get. I've been super lucky at work. It's been a wonderful blessing. We're still filming lots. We've just wrapped up season nine of *Running Wild*. We're starting season 10 in the new year. But like I say, that's my work, and I love it, but my identity is found here.

Jim Daly: Amen. Bear Grylls, this has been awesome. My boys will be jealous that I had a chance to talk to you and they weren't here to say hello because they really appreciate you.

Bear Grylls: Say hello to them. Send them love and encouragement.

Jim Daly: God bless you, God bless your family. Take care.

Bear Grylls: Thank you, Jim. All the best, buddy. Take care.

John Fuller: What a fun conversation, Jim, that you and Bear Grylls had on your podcast. We heard only a portion of it today. You can hear the entire conversation at refocuswithjimdaly.com. We'll link over to it as well from our website. Do that and then share that episode with others who might need the encouragement that Bear offered.

Jim Daly: Well, you can tell he genuinely loves the Lord, and I am eager for people to read his book or get it as a gift for someone. What a perfect gift for an unbeliever, a teen, a 20-something, or someone who needs to grow in their faith. The book's title is *The Greatest Story Ever Told* from Bear Grylls.

Make a donation to Focus on the Family and with a gift of any amount, we'll send you a copy of the book as our way of saying thank you for being a part of the ministry. And if you don't know the Lord, we also have a free download for you. It's called *Coming Home*, and it explains how to become a Christian.

John Fuller: It's all about the Christian life, and that free *Coming Home* document is linked from our website. You can call us if you would like to connect with us and find out more or make a donation. Our number is 800-A-FAMILY. All these resources and more are at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast. Thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller, inviting you back as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ.

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