Music
Hello and welcome to another episode of Upfront and Undivided with Luke and Dean'na.
Hi. Hey babe. How's it going? It is almost New Year's. It is almost New Year's.
Happy almost New Year. Yes. We had a good Christmas. We did. Did y'all have a good Christmas? I hope everybody out there had a good Christmas. Yes.
We had a really great Christmas Eve with your parents. Your mom is a Christmas Eve baby. She is.
And every so often I think that's sad.
And then I go, that's okay. That's right. It's okay. Your mom's a gift. She's one of my favorite people.
She's got the best laugh. You can hear her across the store. She's one of those people.
I know exactly who Luke's talking to on the phone when she calls. I can hear her.
No matter where I am in the house I can hear her. She's amazing. I love her.
But Christmas was good. We had a friend over. Got a chance to just sit and just fellowship and spend some time.
We ate tacos. Tacos for Christmas. I mean I like it. Yes.
Anyway, that's been our Christmas. It was good. It was.
But we're going to talk about kind of some New Year stuff. Yes. Real quick.
Not necessarily resolutions but just new thought patterns.
Yeah. New thought patterns. Yeah.
One thing that I was saying right before we started to record was I was telling you about that one guy
whenever we dropped off my car to get it inspected.
And he's like, you guys go have some breakfast. You know, whatever.
We do. And he's like, what? It's not even New Year's. What are you talking about? Why are you going to the gym?
And it's like, you and I have been going to the gym before we got married.
And most days were fairly consistent. I mean we're pretty fateful.
We try to do something at least several times a week.
And we try to do our best to do better
as far as drinking our water. Yes.
We're not always, we always laugh and say that we go to the gym because we like to eat. Which is true.
We do like food. Food is not a bad thing. No. Food is fuel.
So, but that was one of those things that you and I learned a long time ago that, you know,
that was one of those things we had to train our brains and train our bodies eventually to line up and start doing things.
And one of the things that we had to learn was the resistance is what makes you stronger.
That's right. And it's, it's been something that has bled into the rest of our lives.
When we come up against something hard, we see it as an opportunity to build as opposed to an opportunity to destroy.
And I think that that's what one of the things that we really wanted to kind of bring to the table to a lot of people.
You know, because in the 10 years that we have been together, we've gone through surgeries.
You've gone through several. Well, let's say a couple.
I've gone through C-section and a couple of surgeries and there's always been a setback.
It's like you had your rotator cuff fixed. What else have you had?
Knee knee. And these are some major things in your body that could really wreck out like your whole disposition.
You know, even just your thought pattern. If you know, it can bring on depression, depression, and it's in.
And then it can become incredibly frustrating because you know who you can be.
You know what you're capable of. And then some days you feel like you're having to go right back to square one.
But it was that one day. Remember when I said, babe, I have a revelation and I think it was right out.
Was it during my when I had my gallbladder out?
Possibly. And I'm like, God, I'm not where I used to be. This is insane.
And he goes, yeah, but you know what you're capable of.
And so it's like when we know what we're capable of, when we know that we have the ability to overcome and conquer,
it gives us a platform and it gives us almost that springboard to where we can start launching into what it is that we need to be for that coming season.
And we've also learned in these seasons that some days we heal faster than others.
We believe that God can heal us instantly. And we also know that there's times where you have to walk it out.
And in that walking out and that sitting still, he's so fateful to not leave us in the midst of it.
And I was talking to a friend just the other day and she's telling me about twenty twenty one and some pretty horrific stuff had happened over this past year for her.
Some stuff that would literally sucker punch you and probably take you out.
And we were talking about, you know, there's those days where you think, why on earth, God, am I walking through the valley of the shadow of death?
And all I could think was my response was because sometimes we need to be able to.
What did I say? So others can follow us out onto the other side because there's some people that are stuck in those valleys.
There's some people that are stuck in these situations and they don't know how to get out.
And because of of our faith, because of our hope, it's easier for us to grab them by the hand and say, I'm not going to leave you here.
If you just walk with me, I promise we're going to get to the other side because we know that that's what Jesus has done for us.
And we have that ability to do that for other people.
And so it's like if we walk into this year with that mindset that, you know, we're not walking this by ourselves.
You know, it even even if it looks like we've lost ground, the fact that we're still standing, we're standing steadfast and we and you don't stop.
You don't stop. We always tell each other, don't quit. Don't quit.
What happened? You know, I didn't work out really hard today, but you showed up.
You showed up. So don't stop showing up. So what were you wanting to say about that?
Well, I mean, I think, you know, because also it's it's recently been brought up, you know, talking about because you had mentioned how things were in 2021.
Yeah. You know, and I know that, you know, a lot of times when we talk about what does God do versus what is what we do and, you know, God works in seasons.
Yeah. You know, and I know some people will look at, you know, they'll they'll almost grab on, try to grab on to prophecy and say, you know, well, this is, you know, God said this is your year.
God said this is your year for for X or this is your year for for Y.
Right. You know, you know, how many times before I showed up, did people say this is your year to find a husband or church?
You know, seven years. Right. He's here. No, he's not.
I've looked.
And it's it's one of those things that it's like, I hear, I hear what people say when they say that.
And I also would like to say that, you know, setting a year timeline or a goal is really great for personal reasons for for your marriage, for your family.
Yeah. If you're a business leader or, you know, just even just in your job.
You know, hey, and, you know, in 2022, this is my goal as a man, as a father, as a small business owner. This is my this is my goal for 2022.
But I feel that we do. I feel that we do God a great disservice by putting him into the space of 12 months.
Come on, babe. Because, you know, because what what is it? What what a year is to us. What is that to God?
Right. He lives outside of time. He does. Yeah. You know, he is he is timeless. He is forever. He is eternal.
Yeah. He has no beginning and no end. Yeah. You know, people always say that we can.
The human mind can conceptualize and grasp onto something that has no end, something that is eternal. Yeah.
But how do you how do you comprehend? How do you hold on to the thought of something that never began?
It's it's yeah. Your brain goes on tilt. It really does. You know, and that's who God is. Yeah.
You know, the Bible said God created the world in six days. Yeah. Six manmade days. Right. Six God made days. Right.
You know. So so what what is a day? Yeah. You know, because, you know, a year to God could be a thousand years to us.
Crazy. You know, so I feel that, you know, there are times I almost feel arrogant.
You know, that it's a touch of arrogance in our on our part to say, God, you have to move. Yeah.
In this manmade, man created time frame. Yeah. You know, I understand.
I'm not saying don't ask God for signs. You know, yes. Ask God for a sign. Right. Dear God, you know, is is this a path I need to take?
You know, should we start a podcast? Give us the sign. Oh, dear Lord, is this the right step for us?
Please give us the sign. Right. Right. You know, I I get that.
I understand that that is that is prayer and that is how we talk to God, our father.
And he's gracious enough to do that, because, I mean, whenever you and I first started talking,
that was one of the things that I actually had asked God. I had asked him to do a couple of things for me.
And he was so gracious and so gentle with me. And he did it because he knew I so desperately didn't want to mess up.
I he knew who I was and he knows what I'm capable of.
And he knew how I wanted to so do this completely different. And he was so good to to show me things along the way to let me know that, yep, this is him.
You can trust me. I give nothing but good gifts. And he knows what we can do if we try to do it on our own. Oh, Lord, Lord.
That's when we go, Jesus.
You know, so I do. I just you know that that that recently that struck me, you know, as far as the whole, you know, this is this is your year, you know, because I mean, again, I know it's it's December.
It's we're about to start, you know, a new year. So a lot of people are talking about, you know, resolutions and goals.
You know, did did you hit your marks for 21 that you wanted to, you know, I I follow one gentleman on on on on Instagram.
Really great guy. You know, he said, why, why put off?
You know, if you're ready to start now, yeah. Why force yourself to wait for a mark on the calendar? Right.
That's so good. You know, you know, I've seen a lot of stuff, you know, start before you're ready. Yes.
You know, yes. You know, it's you know, right before you talk yourself out of it. Right.
You know, I mean, again, you know, the example of us sitting in my office recording a podcast. Yeah.
You know, I mean, how many times did I almost bore you with we need X amount of equipment and we need this stuff and we need that stuff and we need all this preparation and all this research and all this legwork before we even record our first thing.
Yeah. You know, we have a we have a simple setup. We have a simple mic. Yeah.
You know, we have free software. Yeah. We're talking. We're talking. We're sharing. Yeah. And that's what we do. That's it.
You know, and so I think start where you are. Start where you are. And and and God will honor that. Yes, he will.
You know, God will honor that more than, you know, God, I need you to move for me. Yeah. Or I need you to move this for me.
I mean, if it's if it's a major thing, yes, God's going to you know, God can do that. God's going to do that. He wants to heal us. He wants to he wants to do that.
But he's not going to be, you know, the he's not going to remove all of our obstacles. No, that's not he's not going to, you know, for for all the, you know, single people out there.
He's not going to, you know, mysteriously whisk a spouse right into their under their doorstep while they're sitting, you know, watching Netflix.
Right. You know, you have to go out and do something. You know, I never meet somebody. Well, what do you do?
Well, I sit at home and I stream. OK, you might want to change that up. Right. Right.
Unless DoorDash is going to be your future spouse. That's funny.
I mean, it's possible. It is possible. It is possible. Yes. Yes. You never know. That's true.
God works in the serious way. You never know. Through Chipotle. That's hysterical. Oh, now I want Chipotle.
So but no, it's one of those where I think just taking it all the way back even to some of the podcasts we've talked about before. And we say this a lot.
You know, it starts today. You don't have to wait till tomorrow to to stop drinking.
You don't have to wait till tomorrow to break off that unhealthy relationship.
You don't have to wait till tomorrow to to start feeling better and start working out and making better decisions.
You know, we talk about a lot of times even in our own health that, you know, when you when you remove a negative, replace it with a positive.
You know, make sure that you're always constantly putting that balance into your life, that you're pouring in more good than bad.
And then watch the results start happening. I mean, when you started your journey, you were a smoker that was drinking Mountain Dew and Dr.
Pepper's all the time and eating Burger King and and all of this stuff.
Yeah. And somebody came to you and you walked through a program and they said, if you change one thing every day, one thing,
or even just one percent, one percent of whatever it is that you do every day, you're going to start seeing a difference.
You know, stop stop drinking all the sodas or cut back half of it or maybe even one. And then and then again and then again.
And it's like with relationships, our mindset, what are we fixated on? What are we focusing on?
Are we focusing on the negative? Because it was like when we were talking to our amazing friend on Christmas, you know, we were talking about like,
I can literally because she's asking about my subbing. And if I enjoyed the teaching and I said, you know, if I'm a one person, one person that day,
that literally speaks something good into you. I'm one person more than that than there wasn't, you know,
and I can literally remember all the teachers, all the people, you know, the positive impact that I've had over my life.
Can I also think of the negative? Yeah, but I'd much rather focus on the positive, you know, because that will take you a lot farther.
That will help you overcome whatever it is that's sitting in front of you. That might be a life and death situation in that very moment.
I'm going to I'm going to remember the hope. I'm going to remember that somebody actually believes in me.
Even if it's a complete stranger that said, you have the most beautiful smile, you know, oh, you saw me.
I'm not just out here by myself, you know. And if we do that to other people,
if we make a point of seeing the positive, seeing the good and other people,
seeing the gifts that people may not even realize they have or completely forgot,
then we could start spurring something inside of them.
We can start reigniting that flame inside of them to want to make them want to live again, like live to the fullest again.
Yeah. Yeah. Kind of back to that, you know, realizing the full potential of heaven in all of our lives.
Yeah. Because it's there. You know, again, that I'll stress it again.
That's how we were created. That's right. You know, and it and I know it gets messy.
I know it does. I mean, I've lived through it. You've lived through it. We've lived through it. Yeah.
It gets messy to, you know, just not put on blinders and just start walking through the forest,
but to know that God's got us. Right. You know, and we have to, you know,
you know, we have to just put our faith and trust in the Lord. Yeah. And we have to trust His process.
Yeah. You know, again, not not just sit, not just sit there and say, God, I know you got this. Right.
I'm going to trust your process. Right. And not do anything different. And then not do anything.
You know, again, how many times have we heard it's it's a lot easier to to steer a moving ship.
Yes. Or a moving car. Yes. You know, if if you're moving in a direction, you know, it's a lot easier for for God
or for a good friend or your spouse to say, hey, we need to make a small tweak. Right.
You know, versus, OK, here's all the things to start. You know, like if we are talking about a fitness routine
or, you know, going to the gym, eating healthy, you know, it's a lot easier to to tweak and make adjustments
if you're going to the gym. Right. You know, if you're if you actually have that as a habit of going to the gym
and trying to eat better. Right. You know, hey, I'm making a conscious effort. OK, well, hey, let's let's let's
let's tweak this a little bit. You know, instead of this exercise, try this exercise. Right. Or try to add just a little bit more weight.
You know, add another pound or five. Right. You know, hey, for food, maybe maybe do a better ratio of of veggies
versus, you know, proteins or something like that. You know, right. But it's it's it's those small tweaks.
Yeah. That, you know, that that one percent change that it's a lot easier to do if you are doing it.
That's right. You know, they're a lot easier to change if you're doing it, you know, versus I'm going to sit here
and I'm going to wait for somebody to write me out the perfect fitness plan, the perfect meal plan.
Yeah. And, you know, bring me my, you know, bring me my perfect spouse and set me up with the perfect job
while I'm sitting here streaming. Right. And you know, my cheetahs. Right. You know, because you can, you know, I mean,
it is I don't know. I'm going to talk in circles and I'm going to keep going back to it. But yeah, no, I like it.
I absolutely like it because what is it? The saying insanity, the definition of insanity is what?
Doing the same thing multiple times and expecting different results. OK. So walking into 2022,
if we want to see different results in our relationships, then we need to start sowing different seeds.
Sure. We if we want to see different results in our health, we need to make better choices and habits.
If we want to succeed in our relationships just on a general basis, then we need to start speaking,
even taking captive the thoughts in our own minds. You know, oh man, 20. I mean, good, good Lord.
We said it last week. The last two years have been rough. Yeah. There's a lot of people that are gun shy.
There's a lot of people that are already in this. Oh, woe is me. 2022. And it's like, wait a minute.
No, this will genuinely could be the absolute best year. This could be the thing that will that will shift your pendulum swing to the other way.
But you, you are the one that ultimately has the controls on this. You know, God is very much in the mix of it, but he is a covenant God.
He's one that wants to work alongside with you, not just your genie in a bottle. That's not who he is.
He knows what you have the ability to do. So I know you and I said it Sunday that we both feel this, the stirring inside of us.
Like it's almost like that one more time of God saying, OK, I want to start. I want to I want to refine some stuff inside of you.
I want to go ahead and purge some stuff that, you know, that's been good for this season.
But the season coming up, I need something a little bit different.
So if you're feeling even kind of a crunch or if you're feeling a bit of unsettling, then maybe just be still for a little bit.
Allow yourself some time to just sit and think and listen and listen to pray to listen and then and then do it and know that you don't have to do it perfect.
You don't have to do it perfect. That's right.
And I mean, you know, in talking about purging, you know, not only purging stuff out of our own lives, but, you know, I remember we were talking to friends that that live up in Canada.
And they were talking about how, you know, over the past two years, people have been sifted out of their church.
And we've noticed out of our church over the past several years, people get sifted.
Yeah. And and sometimes that's yes, you miss the people.
You miss the relationships. Yeah.
But that's not always a bad thing. No, you know, because then they either move on to a better place or sometimes they do get knocked out of the race.
But but go ahead. I interrupted you.
I mean, that's kind of what I was going to say, you know, because sometimes it is, you know, sometimes you get sifted out of where you're at.
Yeah. To move on to bigger and better. That's a good word. Or at least to move on to different.
Yeah. You know, again, you know, your your season of of doing this, you know, let's let's say your season of being a youth pastor at this location is over.
Yeah. You know, God will sift you out of that location and place you and plant you in another place.
That's good. So that you can move on to different to you can move on to your next season. Yeah.
You know, and sometimes God will sift people that you view as leaders so that other people can take up that new leadership mantle.
I love that. You know, because that there is something about fresh, you know, that that fresh blood, that those new ideas that can come in and take over.
And I know you and I have talked in our own lives, you know, that all of a sudden we are some of those people at our church that have been around for, you know, 10 plus years.
And all of a sudden it's like, oh, no, that's us. Yeah. You know, not saying that we're trying to be leadership.
We are not leadership and we're not trying for that. But it is, you know, there's something about love people.
Yes. And there's something to be said about longevity. Yeah. In a location. Yeah.
But yeah, I so it is. I want to say to those people and I want to give comfort in a way to those people that, you know, when they do see all that sifting and all this purging, you know, that God.
Enjoys doing, you know, kind of tongue in cheek. Yeah, he does. Because I mean, as as a parent, we enjoy doing that for our kids so that we can see them grow so that we can help improve their lives.
Yeah. And again, I mean, you know, just like with a parent, you know, because God is the ultimate father. That's right.
That they're they're doing this to to improve our lives. You know, they're they're doing this purge, the sifting so that we can be better, so that we can see a better destiny.
Yeah. So that we can better see the path before us. Yeah. You know, so that we can become who we're meant to be. Right. With God. Yeah.
You know, I've I've experienced it, you know, with pruning trees. Yeah. You know, you prune a tree and, you know, it doesn't bear much fruit.
It doesn't bear much fruit. And all of a sudden you prune it and you feel like you cut down half the tree. Yeah.
But all of a sudden, the next season, it is bearing more fruit than you've seen in the previous five years. Yeah.
Combined. And it's you know, that is that is what God wants to do with us. Yeah.
And if we keep trying to push the shears away. God, not this time. God, not this time. God, I don't want it to hurt. Yeah. God, I don't want to hurt to lose that limb. Yeah.
You know, and so it the longer we put off that pruning, that sifting, the longer we could possibly be delaying our growth.
And then ultimately the growth of everybody else around us. Right. Because we people are eating from that fruit of our tree.
And if we're not bearing stuff, we could cause we could be causing some deprivation in other people's lives.
We're all connected together. We are. Wow, babe. Good word. Thank you.
All right. Happy New Year, guys. Happy New Year. Don't be afraid of the pruning shears. Yeah. Don't be afraid of the change.
Start now. Start now. Yeah. Yeah. Don't wait for the ball to drop. That's right. Start now. Yeah. Love you guys. Love you.