Being a man who leads my family well can be challenging, especially when listening to what the world says is “right.” Join me with guest John Lovell as we discuss what being a Warrior Poet means and how we can live counter-culturally in this modern world and walk worthy of our calling as husbands, fathers and men.
About John Lovell
John Lovell is the Founder and CEO of the Warrior Poet Society – a values-based community dedicated to physical protection, the pursuit of truth, and living for higher purpose.
His message has garnered over 100 million views across social media and streaming platforms. John is a former war veteran and Special Operations soldier, having served in the 2nd Ranger Battalion.
After his military service, he served full-time as a Christian missionary in Central America. Today, he is a video content creator, public speaker, firearms trainer, and homesteader. John lives on a small farm in Georgia with his wife and two sons.
What Does it Mean to Be Prepared?
When I asked John what he thought it meant to be prepared, he shared that preparedness is like sanctification. We’ll continue the process of sanctification until the day we meet our Maker, but we’ll never be wholly sanctified on this side of Heaven.
The same goes for preparedness. We can continue to make strides and improve our systems, but they’re constantly evolving and improving as time goes on.
John shared about his experience with Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Living in the hills of Georgia, he never thought a hurricane would affect him much. After days of heavy rain, he found himself pumping out water from their finished basement, which had quite a bit of damage and needed repairs.
He still counts himself blessed based on the damage that the same hurricane caused others, but it did help him remember that preparedness is an ever-evolving journey.
The impetus for preparation for John isn’t out of paranoia or the desire for control. It’s because he wants to be a good steward, be maximally free and able to protect, provide, lead and love his family. This comes from being “unplugged from the Matrix,” as he puts it.
How Preparedness Helps Protect Your Family
When many people think about preparedness in the sense of protecting their family, the first thing they tend to think of is a firearm. However, the protection of our family goes beyond simple protection from an enemy.
We want to know that our family will be taken care of if the economy goes south with another depression (which both John and I agree is coming – not if, but when). We want to have food systems in place to know we can raise and grow our own food, water systems in place so we’re not reliant on city water, and power systems in place when the grid goes down.
Knowing our family will be well taken care of in times of emergency is the best kind of preparedness we can strive for. So, how do preparedness and being a warrior poet coincide? Let’s start by answering the question, “What is a warrior poet?”
A Warrior Poet
What is a warrior poet? In a nutshell, a Warrior Poet is someone who lives for a higher purpose and is ready to sacrifice in the defense of others.
To go deeper, a Warrior Poet can be defined as having the archetypes of both a warrior and a poet (with every attribute that would live under the two). To be fully warrior and fully poet at the same time, 100% of each.
John says you shouldn’t be a lover or a fighter. You should be both. Real love wants to protect, so one truly feeds the other. He says if you look at the United States Constitution, you’ll see this warrior and poet demonstrated. The first handful of amendments include the poetic aspects: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of assembly. Then, the second part of the Constitution is filled with the warrior portion that protects the First Amendment and all other rights.
When looking at scripture, it’s clear men were created to have both of these attributes. So why are so many men struggling to lead well today?
5 Counter-Cultural Ways to Live
John jokingly says that if you want to be healthy, find out what the culture is doing and do the opposite. It’s a generalization, but he finds it to be more and more true every year.
It’s because of today’s culture that men are struggling. So John has five counter-cultural ways in which he lives his life and they align with my own set of standards for my life as well.
“Visit” Online But “Live” Offline
Technology is like a chainsaw. It can be a great tool for getting a lot done, but it can also cut your leg off, meaning it can do a lot of damage very quickly.
When we prioritize our time and lean into discipline, we can limit our screen time and give real relationships their proper place in our lives.
John also points out that creativity comes most from a state of boredom. If we’re never bored, we’ll drastically suffer in the creative side of our lives. So, set rules about screen time and stick to it.
Love Your Spouse More Than Your Kids
If you’d like to raise healthy children, one of the worst things you can do is to make them feel like they’re the center of the universe. The healthy thing for our children is to see what a healthy marriage looks like and that your spouse is the most important person in the home.
Doing this both models a good marriage for your children and keeps the marriage healthy. It also ensures that your children aren’t raised to be so spoiled that they think the world revolves around them.
A couple of things that John and his wife do to model the importance of their marriage is that their boys have a set bedtime each night. Once bedtime rolls around, they’re not to come downstairs because it’s mommy and daddy time. They don’t necessarily have to be asleep, but they know not to interrupt Mom and Dad’s time.
Never Alone With a Member of the Opposite Sex
As a general rule, John doesn’t give a woman private access to his life and his wife doesn’t allow men private access to her life. This doesn’t mean they don’t have friendships with people of the opposite sex, but they don’t spend time one-on-one with those friends.
You shouldn’t need a relationship with a member of the opposite sex when your marriage is healthy, so opening that door at all can be a slippery slope. What you would gain from having a relationship with the opposite sex isn’t worth what you could risk.
Don’t Let Other People Raise Your Children
When you send your children to public schools, you send them off to be taught by a government-chosen curriculum. John states, “If you send your kids off to Caesar, don’t be surprised when they come back Roman.”
It’s hard to predict what our children will be like after 12 years of public education. But for both of us, we aren’t willing to risk it for the sake of our children.
Be Unplugged From the Matrix
Being unplugged from the Matrix is to do our best not to be reliant on government systems. Learn how to go off-grid with our power, water, food, the medical system, etc.
This summarizes what we discussed already in that we want to live healthy lives so we’re not reliant on government systems to get better. By growing our own food, raising our own meat, growing a medicinal herb garden and learning what to do in an emergency until help arrives we can be more self-reliant, outside of government assistance.
Where To Learn More
If you’d like to learn more about John and the Warrior Poet Society, head on over to his website, Warrior Poet Society. There, you can learn more about in-person training and online classes for rifles and pistols. They have apparel, emergency gear, and so much more to check out.
Be sure to also grab a copy of John’s book, The Warrior Poet Way. It’s an extremely good read that I think every man should read. You can also follow along with John on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
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