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(Auto-generated)Greetings and salutations, you wonderful people who matter so very, very much.

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I'm WS Walker and this is the Laughing Matters Podcast.

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Just a quick reminder out of the gate to subscribe if you're enjoying the show, or to reach

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out to willhelpmail at gmail.com if you have any questions or want advice on anything.

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And my advice game is on point y'all, seriously.

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So you gotta try it out.

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Send something in and just watch me work.

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Not that I haven't been giving advice on the show, I mean.

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And to speak to that, I do have some more advice for you on how to feel closer to God.

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I'm sorry guys, I'd get it all out in one show, but I got a few tips here.

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You see, there's this distancing that happens naturally.

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And I say naturally because, well, we can't see God and we can't hug Him and we can't

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understand Him fully or visit Him and our conversations with Him are pretty regularly

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one-sided.

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So it makes sense that a lot of you have struggled with that divide.

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I mean, how am I gonna know someone that I can't get close to?

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Well, as it turns out, you're a lot closer than you think.

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And I have something for that.

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Now most of you, hopefully, have listened to season one of the show, have quote unquote

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read the book, and know how I feel about a big part of the relationship between God and

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man.

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I've already explained why I believe the theory of the Big Bang to also be the story

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of God making everything out of Himself.

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I mean, if at the beginning there was a singularity in nothing, and then everything that made

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up that singularity blew outward, becoming all the energy and matter that would ever

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exist, and if we simply place God in the role of the singularity, it still lines up.

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After all, what is a more appropriate explanation of God's first creation, light, than the explosion

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of the Big Bang itself, releasing all the energy that ever would be?

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And if in the beginning there was God in nothing, then it stands to reason that we're all made

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of God.

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Every tree, blade of grass, air molecule, every strand of fur on your puppy's head,

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all of it is made of God.

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In this sense, you can be near God anywhere, because He literally makes up everything and

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everyone.

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So are you mentally prepared for the best news you've heard all week?

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You can, in fact, hug God through a dog.

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And you know what, if you don't have a dog to hug, you can hug yourself, because you're

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made of Him too.

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And one of the many ways I like to utilize this is I talk to this tree in my front yard.

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I have this one tree in my yard that lines up perfectly with the front porch, and when

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I sit out there and talk to God, I use that tree as a constant reminder that I am surrounded

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and enveloped by God, that I exist within Him.

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I use it as a link in this world to the more omnipresent idea of Him.

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Let me explain.

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It allows me to have a grounded conversation with Him, where I'm not searching the sky

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with my eyes when I talk, and staring at my hands.

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In the episode, Talk Like Friends, I suggested being more informal at times with God, to

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speak with Him as a friend or confidant.

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It's because of this grounding technique that I've been able to speak to God in this

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way.

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Both are very useful techniques and have helped me to feel a lot less lost in what to say

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to Him, and have connected me closer to Him.

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So give it a try sometime.

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See what you think.

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And when you look at the tree of your choosing, or bush, or whatever you choose, let it stand

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as a representation of a piece of God, a part of Him, and expand your view to see all the

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other parts of God in action all around you.

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See how it connects to them.

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See in your mind's eye the tree's roots spreading out and downward, parting the soil

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and rock, stretching its fingers into the planet that your perfectly designed toes and

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feet are holding you upright on, as that planet spins through the orbital solar system, and

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as that galaxy hurtles through the universe, and know that He is every part of that connected

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together, and that all of that leads right back up through the soil and up through that

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tree.

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And when you feel Him, latch on to that feeling.

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Speak to that feeling.

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Aim your questions and conversation at it.

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You'll move closer and closer still to Him.

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I promise, it helps a lot.

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Which actually brings up one more thing I wanted to touch on.

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If God is everything, then that which you have done unto the least of you, you have

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literally done unto Him.

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And not only that, but you did it while wearing God, and had Him do whatever unpleasantry

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to Himself through your choices.

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I mean, come on.

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No wonder it's the golden rule across the religions.

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Think of the number of ways that we abuse and hurt each other and then realize that

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we subject God to the experience of being both the victim and the enactor.

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And then we often cover up our guilt with the use of the sound of love on aim, one of

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God's greatest gifts to mankind.

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I know that would be way more than enough to devastate most if they experienced even

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a small sampling of that.

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Now that last little bit there, I'm pretty sure that probably created some conflict in

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you.

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Good.

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I want that conflict in you.

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I want you conflicted about it, thinking about it later.

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I want it keeping you up.

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I want it to bother you, because when it doesn't anymore, yeah, that's bad.

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That is real bad.

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You may think that I'm just trying to create problems for you.

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Not really.

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I'm not creating them.

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I'm pulling the veil away so you can see the problems when they occur for what they are,

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giving you a much better view from which you can see what is the approach that deals with

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this problem the best.

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So yes, we're going to want that compassion active.

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And yes, I want it to bother you.

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I want you to remember what brings real happiness, genuine laugh into your life and what brings

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you closer to God and all the others.

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To remember what's on the line.

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To stop chipping away at society's compassion and start helping to build it back up, to

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give them another reason to trust again and to see for yourself, yes, I can trust openly.

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You don't know how many people there are that are struggling with trust issues.

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And how many of them out there that aren't even struggling anymore.

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They've just given up on trusting.

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And I know how easy it is to let fear lead and to not hear it until later.

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That voice saying I should help or that I should reexamine something or remember the

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concepts it is far too easy to lose sight of it and forget in that moment.

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In fact, it's so seductively easy to forget that I've often had to be shaken out of a

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stupor.

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A lot of times I have to have a little reminder happen to be like, oh yeah, God is everything

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and I can love the soul part of them and talk to the soul of this guy that's being a real

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asshole about something instead of engaging his brain.

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And I can love him and I can, you know, this is the way that I should do it.

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I don't let fear lead, let God lead and trust God that there's nothing to fear.

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And a good way to be reminded regularly is to find your extension of God, something that

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sticks out a bit, but in some way leads back to all the rest of him, to feel him in it

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and have conversations with him through that.

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And every time you see that tree or bush or field or whatever it is that you choose to

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see him in, to feel him in, you're going to get just enough of a reminder to make a choice,

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to remember that all of this is his and to remember that he is all of this and that we're

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doing these things directly to him or we are doomed to keep going from distraction to distraction.

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The choice is yours.

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He may be all things, but he gifted you with the ability to choose among them.

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So choose to be good to them, to be good for them, and you're going to be magnificent.

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This is W.S. Walker, choosing to do the same.

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Be sweet.