Hello and welcome back to another episode of Upfront and Undivided with Luke and Dean'na.
Hi.
Hi baby.
How's it going?
It's good, how are you?
Good.
For the people keeping track at home.
A, for a small season, yes we are going to every other week for releasing new content.
And B, this is officially episode number 80.
Shut up.
Yep.
Is it really?
Yeah.
80.
I'm trying to look at your book.
Yeah.
Sure enough.
Yeah.
Dude, that's legit, babe.
Yep.
High five.
That's epic.
Yes.
Good job.
Way to go, babe.
No, seriously.
Yes.
Because there are some days, listen, it's real.
You don't want to show up.
I mean, what is it?
In a couple, in a couple months?
Yeah.
We'll be celebrating 100?
Well, I mean, hopefully yes, we'll be celebrating 100, but also in a couple months we'll be
celebrating two years.
We've been doing this.
Aww.
Yeah.
We should have a party.
We should.
We should have a party.
We should have cake.
What kind of cake?
I prefer spice cake, but that's me.
Do you really?
I do.
We've had this discussion.
Have we?
Yes, we have.
I'm sure we have.
Yeah, because it usually hits around sometime in early December of what kind of cake do
you like and it's un-iced spice cake.
Yes.
That was the first time we were together.
Yeah.
The first year of your birthday, because your birthday is December 11th for anybody that
cares.
Or if you want to forget that, it's okay.
No.
The students send money.
So, no, that's right.
Gabriel and I made you one.
Yeah, you did.
And we had a little Yoda in the middle.
Yeah, and you looked so confused at me the fact that I like it un-iced.
You're like, what's wrong with you?
You are special.
I am special.
Yeah.
And then our sweet girl made you cinnamon rolls, because we had some friends that ordered
her some cinnamon rolls.
Yeah.
Because listen, that girl knows how to bake.
Yeah, she does.
It's legit.
So come Christmas time, seriously, those that are local.
I encourage you-
Place your orders now.
Place your orders now, because first of all, our girl is a college student and she needs
funds.
Yeah.
But she absolutely loves to bake, and she gets in there and she gets it done, and she
goes scratch.
She comes from scratch.
Yeah.
It's not like any nothing, like nothing.
And she made you your special batch.
She did.
She made me my own.
Yeah.
With what was it?
It was ice?
It was plain icing, because she normally makes it with cream cheese frosting.
And you do not like cream cheese.
And I don't like cream cheese.
Uh-uh.
Yeah, I'm weird.
I'm special.
It's fine.
Everybody's different.
Yeah.
But she was, and it was so cute, because seriously, I wish I had had a video of it, because you
go, okay, I'm going to go try it.
And she's just, go try it.
And it was late at night, but you came and you did it anyway, because you're a good daddy.
Yeah.
And we know how legit-
And I like cinnamon rolls.
And you like cinnamon rolls.
And you come in, and you're just like, you're my favorite.
You put your arm around her, give her a big hug, and she's grinning from ear to ear.
And it was just, it was cute.
Yeah.
And you look like you were three.
Yes.
And you should just be kicking your legs off of a pier somewhere, just hanging out.
My legs aren't long enough to reach the floor.
Yeah.
That would be me.
That would be you.
It's hard for me to find a chair where I can't reach the floor.
But when we find them-
When we find them, it goes.
Might have to sit on a table next time.
Yes.
All right, babe.
So what are we talking about?
So today we're talking about The Journey Continues.
Okay.
Because again, for those listening from home and following us, it's like, I want to say
following us live, but we don't really stream live.
No.
Not yet.
We will.
Maybe one day we will.
Yeah.
Maybe we will figure out some way to go a paid level, like a subscriber level.
Literally, one of our sweet families had, she caught me at church Sunday.
Yeah.
And she says, I'm listening to you guys, and I'm loving every minute of you guys laughing
and giggling.
I'm ready for the video though.
She's on me.
Yeah.
I know.
Hold tight.
And I keep mentioning it too.
Hold tight, guys.
And we're working out some stuff.
So again, The Journey Continues.
But I continue to do research.
You do.
I continue to do research.
And it's one of those things, it's like how many cameras do we want to get?
Am I going to sit here with a little video switcher while we're running audio?
You do audio, I'll do video.
Yeah.
Or something.
It's like, do we need to get to the point where we're hiring a production assistant?
Our daughter.
Yes.
She just needs to do it.
We just need to get her, she just needs to get in here and do it.
We'll make her full time.
It'll be fine.
Once we start making money off of this.
But in the meantime.
It is.
It's all of a sudden, it's like, okay, so we do the audio, we do the video.
Yeah.
I mean, I've seen some people, it's like a full on production.
Seriously.
They're at the level where they have like $400 mics.
And they also have what?
Over a hundred thousand followers.
Oh, at least.
I mean, at least.
And it is, it's a situation of, it is okay.
Where we are is where we are.
And it's good.
Yeah.
It's really good.
I mean, the fact that we're doing it.
Yeah.
You know?
But they also followed up with the compliment of how amazing we sound.
Oh, thank you.
Kudos there, baby.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Sincerely.
No, you rocked it.
I said it's Amazon mics.
Yes.
For those of you curious, Amazon mics.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, we got them through Amazon.
They're not an Amazon brand.
We did get like an actual like name brand good mic, but special pricing through Amazon.
Sure.
Not like sure.
Yeah.
Sure.
All right, babe.
And I will say, you know, a couple of guys that I've had for my side project, The Equipman.
The Equipman, go find it.
They have a couple of guys have really complimented our setup and they're like, wow, this is like
legit.
I'm like, thanks guys.
Appreciate that.
We do appreciate that.
Yeah.
It is good.
It's a lot easier to set like this than it's like putting your head on a swivel.
Yes.
For sure.
Okay.
So you said we are, go ahead.
Yeah.
So, so yes.
So I'm, I kind of off the cuff handle labeled this one, titled this one, The Journey Continues.
Yeah.
Because again, for those of you that know and that are local and that have been following
the past couple episodes, we are recording this Monday night, tomorrow, Tuesday morning,
you are having a procedure.
You are having your lumpectomy.
I'm having my lumpectomy.
Yeah.
Because there is a cancer.
Yes.
There's a tiny, tiny tumor.
Tiny tumor.
And it's one of those where, again, God helped me find it really fast.
Yeah.
And I am incredibly grateful that he was able to, I just listened, right?
I just took the time to listen.
Yeah.
And that's the way that I've been kind of telling the surgeons, nurses, different ones.
There's maybe a couple of people that we've had along the way that I've just directly
said God or just today as I'm leaving.
Yeah.
Because as you so sweetly say it, I got low jacked.
Yes.
Once they put the locator inside me.
There's a video out.
I put a video out.
And I'm putting these things together, guys, not to be morbid, not to be anything.
Yeah.
But just to kind of hopefully bring some hope to kind of, and also to kind of keep everybody
in the loop.
Again, whenever we started this, we weren't sure if we were even going to say a lot about
it to anybody.
Yeah.
And we really felt in our spirits that we were supposed to tell people.
And one of the main reasons was it was supposed to create a hope, show people along the journey.
What does that look like to even fight or to stand in victory?
What does that look like?
And I have learned, and this is what I had come home with to him.
And then he has this most amazing sentence, like he had one sentence to say.
But before I got home, I went and celebrated one of my best friend's birthdays this morning.
And I, from the drive home, I had it on speaker, y'all just relax, talking to them through
my car.
And I had one friend checking on me, didn't even realize really what was going on.
And then I had another friend that she had told me about.
She said, okay, well, this is why I apparently am calling you because have you heard the
news of our other friend?
And told me a friend that's going through a journey.
Similar, not the same, but similar.
Questions.
And the whole time I'm like, every time I get zapped of energy, because you had even
said like, babe, this is making me tired.
It's wearing me down.
I'm a little zapped.
Every time I think that I just can't do it anymore, God gives me somebody to speak into
and to tell the testimony of what God has even done in the midst of this, right?
The fact that we caught it at such a teeny tiny rate when it's small, that they're not
going to have to do really a whole lot of anything.
We're still believing that-
I was going to say, between size and location, it's-
Yeah.
There's not going to be any reconstruction that's needed.
It's going to be an incision.
They're going to go in, get it, get out, and we're going to move on.
And yeah, I mean, we're even still believing that God can absolutely restore and completely
heal it to where they go, oh, it's not even there, right?
But it's one of those things where it's like, how do you have faith?
A lot of times people go, well, tell God what you want.
I think there's a part in your life where you eventually have to say, we have our 18-year-old
daughter.
She can tell us what she wants, but it's like, hey, have you asked me what I want?
Have you asked me what my perspective is?
Have you asked me my advice?
And it's like, I feel like on this leg of this journey, that's almost what we've done.
We've said, okay, God, you're taking us on a journey.
Instead of me sitting here even praying certain things, I find myself just under my breath
or even just out loud shouting, I trust you.
I trust you.
How do you want to do this, Father?
I'm not going to dictate.
I've had people come up to me asking me if I actually believe in healing or, well, why
aren't I doing something else?
And I just go, wait, slow down.
I'm just following my dad's lead.
I'm following the footsteps of my father.
I'm going to stand so close that I literally continue to stay under the shadow of who he
is, because that's where my protection is.
That's where my peace lies.
And again, it's one of those things that as much as I love to, with this situation and
when the morning before Sebastian was born, I brought up the story of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego.
Again, this is what's going to happen.
You're going to get thrown in the fire.
Renounce God.
It's like, no, we're not going to.
Again, our God will save us.
And even if our God doesn't save us, our God is God.
And it was like the other day, because I'm dealing with some I'm not 100% issues of my
own, all of a sudden it was, I don't know if it's heavy air quotes, like impressed on
me through the spirit.
You need to read Job.
Or it was just one of those like whatever, but it's like, I want to read Job more, because
again, it's man of God.
And God said, okay, I'll lower my hedge of protection.
And the devil ran rampant on him.
Lost his family, lost his crops, lost everything.
And his friends were just, and he even grumbled and complained a bit.
God scuffed him upside the head.
Hey, were you here when I created all this?
But at the end of the day, he never turned from God.
And God restored everything back to him.
And so it's one of those things that it's like, even at these times where it feels like
it's crap, these times where it feels like you're just going through the suck.
You know, again, it's not God did this to me or God's teaching me a lesson.
You know, I mean, there's possible God might want you to learn some stuff, but it's because
he's a good father and good parents want you to learn stuff.
You know, but it was, it was one of those things that it was just.
You know, focus on God, you know, even in the midst of life falling apart.
Focus on God, even if life's falling apart and it doesn't get fixed in the next five
minutes, 10 minutes, 24 hours, one week.
Focus on God.
Yeah.
You know, I brought it up the other day and that's kind of where the sentence that I said
earlier.
You know, we always talk about, we want to fight from a position of victory, not to a
position of victory.
Because again, the funny line of we've read the book, we know we come out on top in the
end.
You know, we know God's got this.
We know there's no way that the enemy can beat God and there's no way the enemy can
beat us.
Right.
You know, unless we surrender, the enemy cannot beat us.
You know, again, it's that scripture of nothing can separate us from the love of God.
That's right.
Except for us.
That's it.
You know, so it was one of those things that, you know, thinking about all of that, it was
when you're going through something, you know, you want to start declaring and telling your
testimony now.
Yes.
You know, even when you're in the midst of your story, in the midst of your journey,
the midst of your struggle, you want to start declaring your testimony now.
Yes.
You know, because again, cancer diagnosis, tumor testing, imaging.
God's got this.
Yeah, we're fine.
We're good.
You know, we're going into these hospital appointments.
Who can we encourage?
Who can we bless?
Who can we talk to?
You know, who can we just put a smile on their face?
You know, and it's just, you know, our friends at church, our friends wherever, you know,
any kind of conversations, you know, hey, how can I make your day better?
You know, how can we lift this up?
How can we glorify God in this situation?
How can we glorify God in this day, in this moment, in this conversation?
And I think, I don't want to say that this journey has taught us this, but this journey
has reinforced that.
I think that's a good word.
Yeah.
You know, that it is.
It's from victory, declare it now.
Yeah.
And I think that what has been really neat for me, specifically today, was when I was
speaking with a one friend and it was so sweet.
It was sweet because it's like you have two different friends that have kind of two different
personalities, but believing in two different spaces, but at the same time, knowing that
God is very much on the throne and in the midst, right?
And I'm talking to the first one and I'm like, God's not scared of my emotions.
He's not scared of, he's not even scared of my swearing.
He's not scared of my anger.
He's not scared of me throwing a fit.
He's not scared.
I keep telling people, I've gone through all of these things.
I just choose, and this is where it came into the second friend, because I'm telling her
kind of the same thing, but in a very softer space because she's like, but you know, like,
do I, but I don't want to have to just, you know, fake.
And I said, don't fake it.
Like this isn't a fake it to, faith it to your fate or fake it to your faith.
That kind of such scenario.
This is a allow the Holy spirit to come in and navigate those feelings, help him walk
you through the tears.
Yesterday morning, I grabbed two of my other friends, like, listen, do you keep hearing
what I'm saying?
My friends, my friends, my friends, the people, make sure you have a people surrounding you
that you don't walk these, man, you don't walk these crap shows by yourself.
Don't do it.
Right.
Because I'm grabbing them.
You saw me.
I mean, Jesus, I'm just like, we're just having a good time and I'm celebrating and father,
I know, I know who you are.
You're a Christ triumphant and it's going to be good.
And then it's like, the Holy spirit goes, come on, let's go to the front.
And we're way in the back on Sunday.
Like you had the time off and we're just spaced and it's just nice and we're not having to
look at anybody or see anything.
And it's like, go up front.
And I'm like, no, it's good.
I'm good.
God, you and me, we're back here.
It's good.
I don't have to, I don't have to show off for other people in front of.
But it's like, again, in those times of, of dark, when you dance in the midst of the dark,
knowing that you're very much in the light.
Does that even, did that even make sense?
It's like you're, you're dancing through the shadows, knowing that you are very much in
the light.
I don't even know if that makes sense, but it, it made sense in my brain.
Go ahead and say it.
Because you're dancing in celebration and the knowledge that he is still God.
Yeah.
So even if it's dark, you know, you celebrate that God has got that God has gone.
You celebrate that God is still in the throne.
Yeah.
You celebrate that your creator is the creator.
That's it.
I, because I mean, I could sit here and I could worry.
Yeah.
I mean, even again, it's like everybody keeps saying, well, yeah, you have like the best
case scenario.
I do.
And, but it doesn't matter.
It's, it's like, we've said it.
My prayer is that my attitude and my praise would be still this, this intense and this
positive and this excited that if this was a stage four situation or some sort of manner,
or they're having to take away my breast because I've had friends that have had to do that,
you know, and, and the thing that I saw with those friends, one in particular, she praised
in the midst of it.
She danced and worshiped her God knowing he was well able to finish the fight.
Right.
And so it's like having those kinds of people surround you.
I'm grabbing them.
I'm grabbing my friends, taking them to the front with me because I was not going to do
it by myself.
God was very gracious.
He's like, grab this one and grab this one.
Yeah.
And then they took me to the ground and we just cried and ward and they loved me.
Yeah.
It just reminded me and spoke the goodness of God over me because as much as I know that
I can, when you have somebody outside saying, you got this, you got this, it does make the
difference.
It's like, was it Erin and her holding up Moses's arms?
Yeah.
I'm getting tired, man.
Like I'm tired.
But then having friends come alongside you and say, I got you.
I'm going to hold up your arms in the midst of this and we're going to win the war.
Yeah.
Because as much as people talk about, you don't want religion, you want relationship
because it's all about relationship with God, but it's also the relationship with your community.
I agree.
Absolutely.
Because again, we could be out in the middle of nowhere and have a relationship with God,
but God talks so much and wants so much a community.
I will be your God, you will be my people, not you will be my person.
Again, Jesus said, where two or three are gathered in my name.
Where one can put a thousand to flight, two can put 10,000.
As much as people are like, well, humans are social beings.
It's like, I get that.
Sometimes I'm not a fan, but I get that.
But we are, we're designed for community.
We're not designed to do this life on our own, especially when it comes to the kingdom.
We are not meant to do the kingdom on our own.
He's called us to be the body of Christ.
There's multiple members.
We can't, we cannot do it by ourselves.
I think of even the story of Nehemiah where he gathers the people to rebuild the walls
of Jerusalem.
It's like, hey, your family, you're going to stand in this gap.
This family, you're going to stand in this gap.
Because it took all of them to not only rebuild the wall, but watch out for what was coming.
Again, that tool in one hand, the weapon in the other.
Community.
No matter how big, how small.
And see now I do, I got all these stories.
I got all these stories.
I'm like, big community.
You know Gideon, hey, you don't need that big of a community.
We just need a tight knit community.
For this particular battle, tight knit community.
Taking down the walls of Jericho, you need the whole fam.
Everybody, all 12 tribes.
Everybody's marching.
Yeah.
I love that.
Some of these battles, some of these journeys, some of these stories, some of these things
that we get to go through with life.
Some you'll need a small tight knit community.
Some you will need everybody surrounding you.
Yeah.
But regardless, we are not doing it on our own.
No.
And I would say, I would even just say the ones that maybe don't quite have that community
yet or they feel very lost.
Luke, Deena, I don't really even have anybody.
You have a great cloud of witnesses that are cheering you on.
You literally have a heavenly host army that is coming.
So even if you feel isolated, I mean do everything you can to find community, but even in the
moments of the isolation and the despair and the times of I am literally by myself, the
enemy will try to psych you out and you'll have to say, no, I am not alone because my
God promises he will not leave me.
He will not forsake me.
I am not abandoned.
I am not an orphan child.
And if you do feel that way, reach out to us.
Absolutely.
Upfrontandundividedatgmail.com.
Absolutely.
Reach out to us.
We're also on Twitter, Upfrontundivided.
Yeah.
We're on Instagram, Upfrontundivided.
We're not on Facebook yet.
But if you feel isolated, if you feel like you don't have anybody around you that you
can go to, reach out to us.
Absolutely.
And not only will we do our best to be your community, but we will do our best to find
others that can be part of your community.
Absolutely.
So that's where we're at.
That's what this comes into.
Oh.
I did.
I all of a sudden I'm like, is that going to be, are we building a community?
I believe we are to a place.
Yeah.
It's all right.
We all need more people to fight with.
I agree.
So that's where we are, guys.
Yes.
That's what's happening tomorrow at 730 a.m. Central time.
Yes.
Y'all pray.
Yeah.
And know that the battle's already been won.
That if you guys could pray some extra peace.
Yes.
Over my six foot three amazingness over here.
Yes.
I would appreciate it.
Yeah.
Because we know that he comes so close in these moments.
He's a good father.
Yeah, he is.
He's a good father.
And so if you guys are going through any kind of thing of this nature, anything that might
try to still kill or destroy, allow the Holy Spirit to navigate.
That is a lot of what I am getting out of this journey.
Holy Spirit, let me.
Is it time to cry?
Is it time to wail?
Is it time to war?
Is it time to be still and just know that you're God?
Yeah.
How would you like to do this today?
Keep me in check because you're the one that holds my tomorrow.
Yeah.
You're already in the tomorrow.
How crazy is that?
That is amazing.
Like literally, we have that on our bathroom.
So if you guys look at the video that I put together, that's literally the very last frame
is our very last picture is it's a frame in our bathroom.
Yeah.
Fear not tomorrow, God's already there.
Yeah.
So whatever's going on with you, just know that God is already in the midst of it.
It doesn't take him by surprise.
Just follow his lead and he'll get you out.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right, guys.
Enjoy the journey.
Yes.
Have the best week.