WEBVTT 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:05.860 Welcome, this is the Men Church Stuff Podcast. 00:00:16.699 --> 00:00:19.219 This is the show where brothers -in -law DJ Culp 00:00:19.219 --> 00:00:23.000 and Brad Coleman talk about stuff from our perspective 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:26.480 as men. It's a show for anyone who wants to hear 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:29.039 how Christians interact with the world. And don't 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:31.670 worry, we're real. We've grown up in church, 00:00:31.789 --> 00:00:34.090 and we want to share our experiences with you. 00:00:34.549 --> 00:00:37.969 We'll talk life stuff, church stuff, man stuff, 00:00:38.229 --> 00:00:49.469 and stuff stuff. Here we go. Greetings, listeners 00:00:49.469 --> 00:00:51.329 here and there and everywhere all across the 00:00:51.329 --> 00:00:54.689 land. This is the Men Church Stuff Podcast. I'm 00:00:54.689 --> 00:00:57.810 one of your hosts, DJ Colt. As always, here with 00:00:57.810 --> 00:01:00.659 my beloved brother -in -law, Brad Coleman. Brad, 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:04.579 what is up, man? You know, sitting here, chilling 00:01:04.579 --> 00:01:07.060 with my brother -in -law, drinking some coffee, 00:01:07.219 --> 00:01:10.700 just enjoying this weather. Are you enjoying 00:01:10.700 --> 00:01:12.500 the weather, Brad? I mean, what do you think 00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:15.400 about this weather? What's the weather like down 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:21.640 there in Tennessee? It's pretty good. So before 00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:26.340 I explain, Brad, what the weather is really like 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:29.280 here in Tennessee. Listeners, if you have not 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:33.879 done so, we encourage you, please go to our Facebook 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:36.700 group page, the Men's Church Stuff podcast. I 00:01:36.700 --> 00:01:40.719 have posted a question, and we are going to start 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:43.299 with this. Name a song that you would like me, 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:48.280 DJ, to read dramatically. And the winner today, 00:01:48.700 --> 00:01:51.480 we've had four responses, and Brad chose that 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:53.879 the winner today, The Weather in Jackson, Tennessee. 00:01:57.700 --> 00:02:02.280 Just so happens Fred is raining tacos. So we, 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:07.219 Timothy Michael, Timothy is a fiance of one of 00:02:07.219 --> 00:02:09.780 my students. Great, great guy. I'm so excited 00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:12.800 for him and Natalie. Shout out to both of them. 00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:18.900 But we are going to start today's show with a 00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:21.680 dramatic reading. Of It's Raining Tacos. Now, 00:02:21.740 --> 00:02:23.900 Brad, here's the thing. When this show drops, 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:28.240 what I'm going to do is behind this, I will actually 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:38.520 add some mood music. So I'll have something going 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:41.740 on in the back. So let's go ahead and get that 00:02:41.740 --> 00:02:54.699 music cranked. it's raining tacos from out of 00:02:54.699 --> 00:03:08.080 the sky tacos no need to ask why just open your 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:16.219 mouth and close your eyes it's raining tacos 00:03:21.479 --> 00:03:30.340 It's raining tacos out in the street. Tacos. 00:03:32.139 --> 00:03:36.300 All you can eat. If this is a dream, I don't 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:49.280 want to wake up. Lettuce. And shells. Cheese 00:03:49.280 --> 00:04:03.800 and meat. It's raining tacos. Yum. Yum. Yum, 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:10.759 yum, yummity yum. It's like a dream. Yum, yum. 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:22.920 Yum, yum. Yummity yum. Bring your sour cream. 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:36.420 Shell, meat, lettuce, cheese. I say again, shell, 00:04:36.660 --> 00:04:40.519 meat, lettuce, cheese. Amen, brother. Shell, 00:04:40.759 --> 00:04:43.839 meat, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese. 00:04:46.459 --> 00:04:55.730 It's raining tacos. Taco Bell, we got your next 00:04:55.730 --> 00:05:05.350 commercial right here. Raining tacos. Raining 00:05:05.350 --> 00:05:13.470 tacos. It's raining tacos. It's raining tacos. 00:05:21.579 --> 00:05:31.279 Raining tacos. Raining tacos. Shell meat lettuce 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:42.459 and cheese. Shell meat lettuce. Cheese. It's raining 00:05:42.459 --> 00:05:53.519 tacos. That's the dumbest thing. That's amazing. Makes 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:56.860 me want to go to Tennessee. It's raining rain 00:05:56.860 --> 00:06:08.240 here. I'll get tacos. So dumb. I bet Taco Bell 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:11.500 hates that. We're not going to sell anything 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:14.920 today. Oh my goodness. Thank you, Timothy. Thank 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:24.300 you, Timothy. So if you have a song, listeners, 00:06:24.379 --> 00:06:27.339 that you would like for me to give a dramatic 00:06:27.339 --> 00:06:30.579 reading of, just go ahead and share it in the 00:06:30.579 --> 00:06:35.600 group. If a DJ's rendition of It's Raining Tacos 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:40.959 has touched you deeply in some way, please let 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:44.240 us know. We'd like to hear about it. And if anybody 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:47.399 knows the marketing department at Taco Bell. 00:06:49.060 --> 00:06:51.439 Love to get a commercial deal. That's right. 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:57.839 Yeah, I'll be happy to give you a voiceover for 00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:04.160 a Taco Bell commercial. Taco Bell in collaboration 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:08.899 with the Men Church Stuff podcast presents. You 00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:10.240 know, I don't know the answer to this question, 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:12.279 but I have a suspicion, Brad, that they probably 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:16.160 don't align with all the values that we represent 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:20.120 here. But I mean, could be. There are going to 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:24.279 be tacos in heaven. I wonder if there's going 00:07:24.279 --> 00:07:26.699 to be tacos in heaven. Dude, that would be the 00:07:26.699 --> 00:07:32.759 best taco cart in the world. You're just walking 00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:35.220 along with Jesus, just talking about all the 00:07:35.220 --> 00:07:37.279 mysteries of the universe. And Jesus says, all 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:40.180 right, hang on. You've got to try tacos from 00:07:40.180 --> 00:07:43.899 the stand. I mean, what is it? What do you think? 00:07:43.939 --> 00:07:46.500 Maybe Peter, Andrew, somebody, one of his disciples. 00:07:47.230 --> 00:07:51.689 Makes tacos. And according to you, Brad, they 00:07:51.689 --> 00:07:54.230 would probably be fish tacos. You know that. 00:07:54.230 --> 00:07:58.589 Matthew is very mathematical. Right, yeah. So 00:07:58.589 --> 00:08:03.209 he's taking the chef position. Yeah. The right 00:08:03.209 --> 00:08:09.149 balance. Every bite. Every bite. That's awesome. 00:08:10.110 --> 00:08:14.110 All right. Enough of it. Let's get to it, Brad. 00:08:15.339 --> 00:08:17.699 Oh gosh, that's funny. Thank you, Timothy. Seriously, 00:08:17.980 --> 00:08:23.600 to think that that's a song goes beyond me. Like 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:28.199 how on earth that became a hit, it makes no sense. 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:34.919 So today's topic, Brad and I, I think it's safe 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:37.620 to say that every single human being needs to 00:08:37.620 --> 00:08:40.419 be able to think through this, but Brad and I, 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:43.370 we just need this conversation today. The topic 00:08:43.370 --> 00:08:46.669 today is that the Lord does not waste a storm. 00:08:47.570 --> 00:08:51.350 So, Brad, let me get it kicked off this way. 00:08:53.450 --> 00:08:58.090 In your experience with, you know, as as I've 00:08:58.090 --> 00:09:00.309 heard it put before, and most people as a man 00:09:00.309 --> 00:09:09.919 of the cloth. In your experience. Do. Do. Most 00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:12.779 church attenders, most church congregants, or 00:09:12.779 --> 00:09:14.399 maybe even just maybe better yet, let's just 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:17.580 be more broad here. Just do human beings in general. 00:09:18.860 --> 00:09:24.039 Do we see value from your perspective? Do we 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:29.399 see value in storms? So I think that most people, 00:09:29.539 --> 00:09:34.240 most Christians, whether they want to own it 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:36.980 or not, and I think I have been just as guilty 00:09:36.980 --> 00:09:42.419 of this. Kind of play into the idea that if I 00:09:42.419 --> 00:09:47.720 just appease God, if I'm obedient enough, if 00:09:47.720 --> 00:09:50.840 I do the right things enough, if he's happy with 00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:55.899 me, then I will avoid the storms. The God won't 00:09:55.899 --> 00:09:59.179 send me the storms. I'll be coming in my boat, 00:09:59.220 --> 00:10:02.320 and the storm's just going to go away, which 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:06.659 is not biblical at all. very true um i think 00:10:06.659 --> 00:10:09.460 really it probably i mean some of it probably 00:10:09.460 --> 00:10:11.940 just has its roots in in human nature and our 00:10:11.940 --> 00:10:15.659 desire but i think you see kind of that idea 00:10:15.659 --> 00:10:18.740 in a lot of other religions that oh like yeah 00:10:18.740 --> 00:10:22.769 just don't make the gods mad Right. And you'll 00:10:22.769 --> 00:10:26.450 be happy. Yeah. And God does talk about how he's 00:10:26.450 --> 00:10:29.909 going to bless us. And he does definitely bless 00:10:29.909 --> 00:10:33.389 obedience and all that stuff. But I think sometimes 00:10:33.389 --> 00:10:36.429 we can't see that sometimes the storm is the 00:10:36.429 --> 00:10:40.610 blessing. Right. Because we don't want it. And 00:10:40.610 --> 00:10:43.190 I think it's okay that we don't want it. I don't 00:10:43.190 --> 00:10:47.169 want to be in the storm. I don't want that stuff 00:10:47.169 --> 00:10:50.950 to be the struggle and all that. But so I think 00:10:50.950 --> 00:10:53.549 most people will sit there and I think I have 00:10:53.549 --> 00:10:57.110 to find myself there, too, because I go when 00:10:57.110 --> 00:11:00.009 I'm facing storms sometimes. What's my go to? 00:11:00.610 --> 00:11:04.289 God, are you mad at me? Right. Are you mad at 00:11:04.289 --> 00:11:11.210 me? You know, and does God use storms as discipline 00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:14.509 sometimes? Sure. But I think God is a good father 00:11:14.509 --> 00:11:18.159 and he is. kind of out front about those things. 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:20.240 And I've used this example before. If I walk 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:21.860 into my son's room and I'm just like, you're 00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:23.879 grounded for a month. You get no technology and 00:11:23.879 --> 00:11:27.980 all that stuff. And I just walk out. Don't tell 00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:31.379 him what he's done. He has no idea. You know, 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:35.360 there was no context before. It's not helpful 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:39.639 for him. It's just frustrating because if I'm 00:11:39.639 --> 00:11:41.360 getting disciplined, I need to know what I'm 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:43.080 getting disciplined for. Otherwise, it's not 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:48.169 very effective because. okay, what do I need 00:11:48.169 --> 00:11:54.330 to not do again? Because, you know, versus he's 00:11:54.330 --> 00:11:58.509 in the middle of it, I catch him. Yeah. Or I 00:11:58.509 --> 00:12:02.230 say, hey, look, this is why. Not that I just 00:12:02.230 --> 00:12:07.049 regularly ground my kids for a month. You don't 00:12:07.049 --> 00:12:10.149 do that? I thought that was parenting. I thought 00:12:10.149 --> 00:12:11.950 that's what we're supposed to do. Once a year, 00:12:12.009 --> 00:12:13.850 I pick a month. It's like, I know you've done 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:15.990 some stuff behind my back that I don't know about. 00:12:16.669 --> 00:12:21.570 So this year, June, it's really going to be horrible 00:12:21.570 --> 00:12:23.309 for you. I'm going to have to just change my 00:12:23.309 --> 00:12:26.710 parenting style altogether then, Brad. Just keep 00:12:26.710 --> 00:12:31.649 on guessing. That's great parenting. Never let 00:12:31.649 --> 00:12:36.899 them have stability. I want to interject something 00:12:36.899 --> 00:12:41.179 real quick. I think it's very, very worth unpacking 00:12:41.179 --> 00:12:46.440 the way that you said that he doesn't discipline 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:52.720 us for no reason. And when I say I want to unpack 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:55.240 that, I think that's an obvious like, okay, so 00:12:55.240 --> 00:12:58.940 that means that God would have a reason for disciplining 00:12:58.940 --> 00:13:02.500 on any occasion that he would deem so. Okay, 00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:07.539 yes. It can get the conversation can get pretty 00:13:07.539 --> 00:13:10.620 hairy if, you know, skeptic if there's a skeptic 00:13:10.620 --> 00:13:12.259 that's listening or if someone's going through 00:13:12.259 --> 00:13:15.779 something that is that's not that's not a storm, 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:19.159 but like a monsoon or a hurricane. You know, 00:13:19.179 --> 00:13:22.779 I mean, I think that it's really easy for us 00:13:22.779 --> 00:13:28.220 to. I think it's easy for us to to to want to 00:13:28.220 --> 00:13:31.460 throw at people that want to talk to us about 00:13:31.460 --> 00:13:34.809 about. spiritual storms and and i'll use i'll 00:13:34.809 --> 00:13:39.570 use um my my wife's situation that that happened 00:13:39.570 --> 00:13:42.909 uh eight years ago as example of this right you 00:13:42.909 --> 00:13:45.470 know what i'm gonna say when adam when her brother 00:13:45.470 --> 00:13:49.269 adam died i think it's really easy for people 00:13:49.269 --> 00:13:53.049 to say so you're telling me through this conversation 00:13:53.049 --> 00:13:57.440 that god is disciplining me by By taking the 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:00.519 life of somebody else. No, no, no. That's not 00:14:00.519 --> 00:14:03.139 what I'm talking about. But I also think that 00:14:03.139 --> 00:14:06.419 it's very important for us to look at the storm 00:14:06.419 --> 00:14:11.259 not through the lens of, you know, listeners, 00:14:11.419 --> 00:14:14.220 if you're a parent, you'll get this. If you're 00:14:14.220 --> 00:14:17.259 not a parent, then think back to when you were 00:14:17.259 --> 00:14:25.279 disciplined in whatever stage of life by somebody. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:27.720 I think it's really easy for us. If you're a 00:14:27.720 --> 00:14:29.600 child, you may be disciplined right now. If you're 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:31.379 a child, that's right, listening to this show 00:14:31.379 --> 00:14:33.519 for whatever reason. Your parents are disciplining 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.700 you right now. This second, that's right. By 00:14:36.700 --> 00:14:40.039 making you listen to this show. I think it's 00:14:40.039 --> 00:14:45.139 easy for us to think back to the discipline as 00:14:45.139 --> 00:14:49.159 I'm being disciplined because I did this. And 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:53.539 so the discipline. I'm trying to think of how 00:14:53.539 --> 00:14:57.240 to word this right, but it is kind of the end 00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:01.919 of the transaction. It's the end of that little 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:06.419 stage. I don't think God, personally, Brad, I 00:15:06.419 --> 00:15:08.259 don't think God works that way. I don't think 00:15:08.259 --> 00:15:12.620 that he, like using spanking just as a generic 00:15:12.620 --> 00:15:16.799 metaphor, I don't think that God spanks us and 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:21.129 then sets us back down. I think that the storms 00:15:21.129 --> 00:15:24.649 that God puts us through, do they sometimes, 00:15:24.889 --> 00:15:26.889 if not always, I can't speak to that, but do 00:15:26.889 --> 00:15:31.549 they serve to discipline us as a loving parent 00:15:31.549 --> 00:15:34.059 would? Yeah. But I also think that there are 00:15:34.059 --> 00:15:36.799 things in the storm that we are supposed to learn 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:41.840 that will benefit us way beyond just, well, you 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:44.480 know, you really did this and sorry, but this 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:46.679 is happening. You know what I mean? And sometimes 00:15:46.679 --> 00:15:49.399 the storm is not a punishment or discipline at 00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:52.779 all. Like you look at Job. Job's doing good. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:55.820 Job's doing well. God is pleased with Job. I 00:15:55.820 --> 00:16:00.899 mean, God says, you know, he's bragging on Job. 00:16:01.019 --> 00:16:03.590 You know, there's none like him. Right. On the 00:16:03.590 --> 00:16:05.830 earth. You know, he's an upright man. He's mature. 00:16:06.389 --> 00:16:08.610 You know, sometimes we use the word perfect, 00:16:08.690 --> 00:16:11.330 but it's complete, you know, I think is a better 00:16:11.330 --> 00:16:12.929 term. Because when we think perfect, we think, 00:16:12.990 --> 00:16:15.549 oh, Jesus is perfect. And that's true. He is 00:16:15.549 --> 00:16:19.350 perfect and complete. But, you know, God's going, 00:16:19.389 --> 00:16:24.129 Job's a mature guy. And like, he runs from evil. 00:16:25.429 --> 00:16:31.000 All these things. And so, that's... Why he gets 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:33.340 sent these storms because Satan's like, oh, well, 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:35.080 he's going to, you know, he'll just curse you 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:37.659 if you if you take away the goodness. So it's 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:40.460 like, no, no, he won't. Brad and Brad, to that 00:16:40.460 --> 00:16:42.720 point, I know I've had I've had these moments 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:48.320 in my life where I feel like. I feel a storm 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:52.399 coming on and there have been points in time 00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:58.279 where. I'm going to I'm going to say it. assuming 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:02.139 that it really is this way, I really felt the 00:17:02.139 --> 00:17:07.240 Spirit letting me know briefly, this storm's 00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:09.880 about to happen, not because you did something 00:17:09.880 --> 00:17:15.500 wrong, but because your faith is strong enough 00:17:15.500 --> 00:17:19.660 to handle it. And God is ever -strengthening 00:17:19.660 --> 00:17:22.619 our faith. I mean, I just preached out of James 00:17:22.619 --> 00:17:26.849 1. which is, again, not one of my favorite verses, 00:17:26.990 --> 00:17:28.670 probably not one of a lot of people's favorite 00:17:28.670 --> 00:17:32.210 verses, where James goes, consider it all joy 00:17:32.210 --> 00:17:38.190 when you face various trials. Yeah. No thanks 00:17:38.190 --> 00:17:43.630 is kind of my first thing. Can I just not have 00:17:43.630 --> 00:17:46.930 that? But think about it. All right, so when 00:17:46.930 --> 00:17:49.650 these big, huge storms come and they cause these 00:17:49.650 --> 00:17:52.769 big waves, You know, there's a group of people 00:17:52.769 --> 00:17:56.009 that get excited about that. There's a group 00:17:56.009 --> 00:17:59.609 of crazy surfers. Oh, yeah. Yeah, dude. There's 00:17:59.609 --> 00:18:01.609 some of these guys. I'm not suggesting you do 00:18:01.609 --> 00:18:03.609 this to anybody. All right. And be like, hey, 00:18:03.730 --> 00:18:06.210 I listen to this podcast and I knew it was the 00:18:06.210 --> 00:18:09.250 Lord telling me to go surf that hurricane. No, 00:18:09.769 --> 00:18:11.309 no, no. That's not what I'm saying. But I mean, 00:18:11.309 --> 00:18:14.630 there are people that do. You go out and surf 00:18:14.630 --> 00:18:18.190 these hurricane level like waves where everybody 00:18:18.190 --> 00:18:22.190 else is. You know, like hunkering down and getting, 00:18:22.329 --> 00:18:26.549 you know, in their storm shelter, which is probably 00:18:26.549 --> 00:18:32.069 what you should do. Correct. Yeah. In the physical 00:18:32.069 --> 00:18:36.549 sense. Right. These guys are out being excited 00:18:36.549 --> 00:18:39.329 because here are these waves that don't happen. 00:18:39.529 --> 00:18:44.369 Now, what if we took that more trusted God and 00:18:44.369 --> 00:18:49.180 on that spiritual sense? Not the physical, the 00:18:49.180 --> 00:18:52.920 spiritual sense. When these crazy waves are happening, 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:56.400 we just got excited because we're going to ride 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:00.119 the wave. Because you don't fight the wave when 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:03.799 you're surfing. You ride on top of it. Yeah, 00:19:03.819 --> 00:19:07.119 the wave will win every time. So you just go 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:12.039 with the flow. So if God is sending the storm, 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:15.380 God is allowing the storm, what if we just ride 00:19:15.380 --> 00:19:23.880 the wave? And get a little excited. Now, I say 00:19:23.880 --> 00:19:28.339 all that going, I need to do that. I need to 00:19:28.339 --> 00:19:32.059 get excited. And I think on some level, that's 00:19:32.059 --> 00:19:34.500 what James is saying. Hey, it's not going to 00:19:34.500 --> 00:19:37.880 be fun, necessarily. But know what God is doing 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:39.700 through it is awesome. Where God is going to 00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:42.380 take you with that wave, he's going to work on 00:19:42.380 --> 00:19:44.440 your patience. Because that's the most fun thing 00:19:44.440 --> 00:19:49.849 to work on. You work on patience. You got to 00:19:49.849 --> 00:19:53.029 aggravate the patience. And that like right there, 00:19:53.069 --> 00:19:56.009 I'm going to go pop culture quote. I think that's 00:19:56.009 --> 00:20:01.609 one of the best points that ever came out of 00:20:01.609 --> 00:20:05.529 Bruce Almighty. If you pray for patience, do 00:20:05.529 --> 00:20:07.049 you think God's just going to give you patience 00:20:07.049 --> 00:20:09.009 or is he going to give you opportunities to be 00:20:09.009 --> 00:20:13.819 patient? I'm not saying that Bruce Almighty is 00:20:13.819 --> 00:20:17.400 scripturally sound, but theologically he's a 00:20:17.400 --> 00:20:21.880 little iffy. But nonetheless, I think that point 00:20:21.880 --> 00:20:28.559 is true. And, you know, if our faith is going 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:35.019 to be tested, period, then it is – it's so – 00:20:35.019 --> 00:20:38.940 dude, you're right. It's so hard. I mean, it's 00:20:38.940 --> 00:20:45.289 completely counterintuitive. To be joyful when 00:20:45.289 --> 00:20:48.589 all you want to do is say, my life sucks right 00:20:48.589 --> 00:20:51.910 now. You know, like this, I'm going through something 00:20:51.910 --> 00:20:57.250 that is, that is like, it's, it's permeating 00:20:57.250 --> 00:21:02.670 everything and I can't run away from it. I can 00:21:02.670 --> 00:21:09.589 try, but like it, it just follows me. And, uh, 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:13.480 And it is, it's completely counterintuitive to 00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:15.480 be joyful. I don't think that that means that 00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:18.220 we should ignore the storm either, Brad, you 00:21:18.220 --> 00:21:20.500 know, to that point, I don't think that we should, 00:21:20.500 --> 00:21:23.500 that, that, that, you know, that, that we should 00:21:23.500 --> 00:21:27.799 have the warm fuzzies by any means, but I think 00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:31.279 there's something to be said. And this, I just 00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:34.180 need to say this, man, I don't fully understand 00:21:34.180 --> 00:21:40.609 the psyche behind this, how the disciples. When 00:21:40.609 --> 00:21:43.970 they were being persecuted, they had these moments 00:21:43.970 --> 00:21:48.970 of epiphany like, we're being persecuted for 00:21:48.970 --> 00:21:50.950 Jesus' name. This is awesome. You know, like, 00:21:51.009 --> 00:21:55.549 I can't get there. That's something that's beyond 00:21:55.549 --> 00:22:00.630 me. I don't think that they were like, wow, I'm 00:22:00.630 --> 00:22:05.500 so happy this is happening. And I mean, there's 00:22:05.500 --> 00:22:07.779 a difference again. I just I guess it's like 00:22:07.779 --> 00:22:09.859 for my understanding. OK, is there's a difference 00:22:09.859 --> 00:22:13.079 between happiness and joy? Because joy is tied 00:22:13.079 --> 00:22:17.279 to the truth that look, this like whatever that 00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:22.190 truth is. Yeah. Like it is an honor to be. persecuted 00:22:22.190 --> 00:22:24.650 for the name of christ you know we saw yeah there 00:22:24.650 --> 00:22:27.589 you go we saw him resurrected and all of that 00:22:27.589 --> 00:22:30.930 we know that our our life here on earth is is 00:22:30.930 --> 00:22:34.130 temporal that god has promised us the eternity 00:22:34.130 --> 00:22:38.390 and that god is going to use this to you know 00:22:38.390 --> 00:22:41.390 in in his will and his way so i don't i don't 00:22:41.390 --> 00:22:44.589 think like on that level that like they're they're 00:22:44.589 --> 00:22:48.119 being stoned like they were like yes Ooh, that 00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:50.700 one hurt. Do it again. Yeah, like, no. I've been 00:22:50.700 --> 00:22:55.680 trying to get you guys to steal me or crucify 00:22:55.680 --> 00:22:59.400 me all day. Like, no. What's it going to take? 00:22:59.900 --> 00:23:02.920 Their hope is that these people will accept Jesus 00:23:02.920 --> 00:23:05.440 as Lord and Savior, that they'll come over. Like, 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:08.220 we're sharing this not so you'll persecute us, 00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:11.359 but so that you'll be saved, so that you'll hear 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:14.980 the gospel. Yeah. But we're going to go, like, 00:23:15.059 --> 00:23:18.089 it's not wasted. I think that is the thing that 00:23:18.089 --> 00:23:20.609 God is using this, the persecution. Paul said, 00:23:20.690 --> 00:23:23.650 hey, he recognized that there were other people 00:23:23.650 --> 00:23:26.670 that were being more bold in their sharing of 00:23:26.670 --> 00:23:29.890 faith because he was in prison. It's like there's 00:23:29.890 --> 00:23:32.049 something like their boldness is strengthened. 00:23:32.529 --> 00:23:34.809 So did he like being in prison? I don't think 00:23:34.809 --> 00:23:38.069 so. Do you wish he wasn't in prison? I think 00:23:38.069 --> 00:23:40.779 he did. I have a very strong suspicion that if 00:23:40.779 --> 00:23:42.440 you were to say, Paul, are you enjoying yourself 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:46.140 right now? His answer would be no. Yeah, if God 00:23:46.140 --> 00:23:47.160 would have been like, hey, Paul, you want to 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:48.839 get out of prison? He'd be like, yes. Yes, please. 00:23:48.980 --> 00:23:53.079 Yeah, I actually do. I mean, some of his letters, 00:23:53.180 --> 00:23:56.240 he writes like, you know, I hope to come to you 00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:58.140 soon. You know, some of those are like from. 00:23:59.039 --> 00:24:01.759 Wait, but Paul, aren't you supposed to, aren't 00:24:01.759 --> 00:24:03.819 you supposed to like love where you're at at 00:24:03.819 --> 00:24:07.750 all times? Yeah. I'm in a pit. It's dark. No, 00:24:07.809 --> 00:24:13.089 I don't enjoy being in dirt. This guy keeps smacking 00:24:13.089 --> 00:24:19.890 me. Yeah, sure, that's great. Paul is not a masochist, 00:24:19.890 --> 00:24:22.250 ladies and gentlemen. I don't think James is 00:24:22.250 --> 00:24:25.190 either. James isn't saying, hey, be happy about 00:24:25.190 --> 00:24:28.650 it. Your life sucks. You should be happy about 00:24:28.650 --> 00:24:30.960 it. Because God is using it. No, he's saying 00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:34.980 be joyful because you know that God is using 00:24:34.980 --> 00:24:38.119 those things. He's using those things like in 00:24:38.119 --> 00:24:42.099 your life to make you better. So to that point, 00:24:42.119 --> 00:24:46.059 Brad, I would then argue or like semantically, 00:24:46.119 --> 00:24:53.000 I want to start arguing that you can mourn, M 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:55.940 -O -U -R -N, you can mourn, you can have grief. 00:24:56.809 --> 00:24:59.849 And actually be joyful at the same time. Oh, 00:24:59.890 --> 00:25:04.930 yeah. And I think that semantically that we as 00:25:04.930 --> 00:25:09.930 people don't like to open that door. You know 00:25:09.930 --> 00:25:13.549 what I mean? Like joy, I think we want to limit 00:25:13.549 --> 00:25:16.549 its definition to being related to happy because 00:25:16.549 --> 00:25:22.809 we want to feel both. I think that joy is not. 00:25:23.720 --> 00:25:26.640 And for me, the way I understand joy and biblical 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:30.079 joy, and if I'm wrong, you know, you guys can 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:32.519 correct me or don't believe me or whatever. Any 00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:34.440 listeners out there, feel free to well actually. 00:25:34.539 --> 00:25:38.619 Joy is not an emotion. Correct. Happiness is 00:25:38.619 --> 00:25:41.380 an emotion. Now, happiness tends to tag on with 00:25:41.380 --> 00:25:44.759 joy. Right. But when I look at joy as the understanding 00:25:44.759 --> 00:25:47.680 of the truth and then the emotions that go with 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:52.559 it. Right. Like often that is happy. Right. But. 00:25:53.039 --> 00:25:58.519 But I can rejoice. Again, God says we don't grieve. 00:25:58.619 --> 00:26:01.420 In 2 Thessalonians, we don't grieve like those 00:26:01.420 --> 00:26:03.900 who have no hope. So when someone dies, we don't 00:26:03.900 --> 00:26:06.940 grieve like those who have no hope. So I'm grieving, 00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:09.980 but I can have joy. When my dad passed away, 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:12.539 it was one of the hardest times of my life. It 00:26:12.539 --> 00:26:17.960 was difficult. It still hurts. But I have joy 00:26:17.960 --> 00:26:22.960 that my dad is with Jesus. He's in heaven. One 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:27.619 day I will join him and we will serve and love 00:26:27.619 --> 00:26:31.500 and be in the presence of Jesus forever. So that 00:26:31.500 --> 00:26:36.420 brings me joy, even in the grief. Now, I wasn't 00:26:36.420 --> 00:26:43.980 smiling at his funeral. No. I was weeping. Like, 00:26:43.980 --> 00:26:47.819 yeah. But that joy was in there. It wasn't happy 00:26:47.819 --> 00:26:51.710 at that time. It was like, yes. My dad's dead, 00:26:51.970 --> 00:26:56.250 but he's in heaven, so I'm so happy. I'm joyful. 00:26:58.710 --> 00:27:02.250 And does that at times now, as the time progressed, 00:27:02.410 --> 00:27:05.109 produce some happiness in that moment? Sure. 00:27:05.769 --> 00:27:08.390 But in that moment, it sure wasn't. Like the 00:27:08.390 --> 00:27:12.450 first thing when I knew for sure my dad was gone, 00:27:12.569 --> 00:27:15.890 I wasn't like, yes, because he's with Jesus. 00:27:16.490 --> 00:27:22.329 No, I was happy for him. Right. Yeah. I'm still 00:27:22.329 --> 00:27:26.349 sad for me. I still have to go back to that's 00:27:26.349 --> 00:27:29.190 not fair. You know what my mom and dad taught 00:27:29.190 --> 00:27:34.509 me? Life's not fair. Yeah. Like, so I can't even 00:27:34.509 --> 00:27:38.579 say that. Like, of course it's not. Well, it's 00:27:38.579 --> 00:27:41.500 not fair that Jesus died for your sins. That's 00:27:41.500 --> 00:27:44.079 not fair. Oh, dude, I know we've said it on the 00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:46.339 show before, but one of the greatest lyrics ever 00:27:46.339 --> 00:27:48.759 written comes from Reliant K. The beauty of grace 00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:53.490 is that it makes life not fair. Going back to 00:27:53.490 --> 00:27:55.769 storms, right? We're talking storms. There's 00:27:55.769 --> 00:27:58.190 this quote that I've heard, and I don't know 00:27:58.190 --> 00:28:00.670 who this guy is. I don't know the context. I 00:28:00.670 --> 00:28:02.710 like the quote, all right? So don't put anything 00:28:02.710 --> 00:28:05.750 further than that. I'm not supporting or not 00:28:05.750 --> 00:28:08.289 supporting this guy because I don't know. I think 00:28:08.289 --> 00:28:10.609 there's some truth in the quote. Hard times create 00:28:10.609 --> 00:28:14.849 strong men. Strong men create good times. Good 00:28:14.849 --> 00:28:18.470 times create weak men, and weak men create hard 00:28:18.470 --> 00:28:21.650 times. I've read that too. Here recently, yeah. 00:28:21.890 --> 00:28:26.329 Yeah. And that's by G. Michael Hoff. Again, know 00:28:26.329 --> 00:28:29.250 nothing about the guy. Everything else he wrote 00:28:29.250 --> 00:28:32.089 could be horrible. Or it might be great. I don't 00:28:32.089 --> 00:28:37.990 know. But I say that to say that what we, I think, 00:28:38.009 --> 00:28:42.589 sometimes would want, if we had control, was 00:28:42.589 --> 00:28:47.440 for us to never face storms. Or kids. We'd shelter 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:50.180 them if we had the ability. I'm glad. I'm thankful 00:28:50.180 --> 00:28:52.599 we don't have the ability. We'd give them everything. 00:28:53.079 --> 00:28:58.039 We would take away every hardship. But in doing 00:28:58.039 --> 00:29:01.619 so. We're crippling them. We would. We'd create 00:29:01.619 --> 00:29:05.000 horrible human beings. So, Brad, I'm sure that 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:06.640 you've probably heard of this, but have you heard 00:29:06.640 --> 00:29:10.200 of lawnmower parenting? Yes. Okay. For listeners 00:29:10.200 --> 00:29:13.680 out there that are unfamiliar with this. The 00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:16.859 type, the style, I think the predominant style 00:29:16.859 --> 00:29:19.240 of parenting now in this generation is called 00:29:19.240 --> 00:29:22.000 lawnmower parenting. Helicopter parenting, which 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:24.839 is what we came out of, is parents that would 00:29:24.839 --> 00:29:29.180 try to keep tabs on everything that their kids 00:29:29.180 --> 00:29:31.420 were doing. So, you know, basically complete 00:29:31.420 --> 00:29:35.720 and utter invasion of privacy at all costs. But 00:29:35.720 --> 00:29:39.380 lawnmower parenting is where the parents – I 00:29:39.380 --> 00:29:40.920 don't know how this happens. I don't know how 00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:43.799 this works. But the parents apparently do everything 00:29:43.799 --> 00:29:46.900 in their power to remove every single obstacle 00:29:46.900 --> 00:29:50.359 out of their kid's way so everything is easygoing. 00:29:50.980 --> 00:29:53.299 And, Brad, you're exactly right, man. The problem 00:29:53.299 --> 00:29:56.200 is that, like, there is no such thing as a coping 00:29:56.200 --> 00:29:58.759 mechanism now, right? They don't learn how to 00:29:58.759 --> 00:30:00.619 do anything. They don't learn how to handle any 00:30:00.619 --> 00:30:02.839 problem. That's exactly right. They don't know. 00:30:03.379 --> 00:30:05.480 And dude, they don't know what to do with their 00:30:05.480 --> 00:30:08.779 own emotions under those particular types of 00:30:08.779 --> 00:30:12.420 environments. I've heard stories from people 00:30:12.420 --> 00:30:17.099 who are like managers, who's having people who 00:30:17.099 --> 00:30:19.460 are adult people working for them, like in their 00:30:19.460 --> 00:30:23.019 20s. And when there's a situation that person's 00:30:23.019 --> 00:30:27.440 mom calls. Oh my gosh. Like, I'm going to tell 00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:29.779 you 100%, if I was still a manager and somebody's 00:30:29.779 --> 00:30:31.599 mom called, I'd be like, well, you need to tell 00:30:31.599 --> 00:30:34.200 them to come talk to me about it. Yeah, go, like, 00:30:34.259 --> 00:30:39.180 uh -uh, grow up. Yeah. And, of course, me, I'd 00:30:39.180 --> 00:30:41.220 be like, well, ma 'am, you know, it's not legal 00:30:41.220 --> 00:30:43.299 for me to talk to you about that because you 00:30:43.299 --> 00:30:46.400 are not their legal representative anymore because 00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:48.160 they're an adult. They have to deal with these 00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:51.539 things, you know. But, right, but it's like, 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:55.700 no. And that's what you're talking about. That's 00:30:55.700 --> 00:30:58.720 a lawnmower parent. Yeah. Like, oh, did you get 00:30:58.720 --> 00:31:01.920 it? you know in trouble because you were late 00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:05.180 well i'll call your manager but you know he was 00:31:05.180 --> 00:31:10.359 like look look lady and i'll do respect stop 00:31:10.359 --> 00:31:13.380 yeah doing that but i mean i think you see you 00:31:13.380 --> 00:31:16.059 see that in school right you see these lawnmower 00:31:16.059 --> 00:31:19.579 parents too where it's like oh my kid got a bad 00:31:19.579 --> 00:31:22.940 grade why did you give my kid a bad grade because 00:31:22.940 --> 00:31:25.420 your kid earned a bad grade that's your kid because 00:31:25.420 --> 00:31:27.839 your kid didn't turn it or let me show you what 00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:31.539 they turned in For their three -page essay that 00:31:31.539 --> 00:31:33.160 they were supposed to write on Abraham Lincoln. 00:31:34.299 --> 00:31:38.240 It is a picture poorly drawn of Abraham Lincoln 00:31:38.240 --> 00:31:42.240 on what I can only imagine is a horse. Do you 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:46.279 want to see it? So I gave them an F. That's right. 00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:49.160 Because they did not do the assignment at all. 00:31:49.319 --> 00:31:52.539 Well, but it's obviously Abraham Lincoln. Look 00:31:52.539 --> 00:31:56.619 at that. Yep, you're right. I'm giving you an 00:31:56.619 --> 00:32:00.779 F, too. You also get an F. You get an F. That's 00:32:00.779 --> 00:32:05.079 right. I award like I'm Billy Madison. One of 00:32:05.079 --> 00:32:07.559 the things I realized, though, in fairness, though, 00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:12.299 our love for our kids, right, makes us want to 00:32:12.299 --> 00:32:15.799 do good things, makes us want for them not to 00:32:15.799 --> 00:32:18.960 hurt and those kind of things. So we have to 00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:22.660 understand that through wisdom. Right. Hannah 00:32:22.660 --> 00:32:26.039 was having an issue yesterday. Just she was just 00:32:26.039 --> 00:32:27.700 kind of emotional about some stuff. And then 00:32:27.700 --> 00:32:29.839 she was making like she wanted some cookie dough. 00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:31.920 I'm like, no, we're not going to go to the store. 00:32:31.980 --> 00:32:35.160 Won't you make some? So she went and looked up 00:32:35.160 --> 00:32:38.720 a recipe, but she gets like all of this together 00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:42.200 and it's supposed to be finished. And it doesn't 00:32:42.200 --> 00:32:45.240 look like it's supposed to do. And, you know, 00:32:45.299 --> 00:32:49.160 it's too powdery. And like she she broke down 00:32:49.160 --> 00:32:54.119 in tears. And was just, you know, it's not. And 00:32:54.119 --> 00:32:57.480 so Tabby just helped her. Okay, well, what? Did 00:32:57.480 --> 00:33:00.220 you do all the things? Yeah, I did it all. You 00:33:00.220 --> 00:33:01.900 know, and I'm not making fun of my daughter anyway. 00:33:02.140 --> 00:33:04.099 We've all had those moments. I've had those moments. 00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:05.640 It's exactly right. Where, like, it doesn't go 00:33:05.640 --> 00:33:07.279 the way it's supposed to. You're already having 00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:11.980 a rough day. So, but, you know, Tabby helped 00:33:11.980 --> 00:33:14.740 her figure out what she needed to do because 00:33:14.740 --> 00:33:17.839 she had followed the recipe. But, you know, sometimes 00:33:17.839 --> 00:33:21.660 the humidity and stuff. It changes that. I mean, 00:33:21.680 --> 00:33:23.420 it was simple. She just needed to add a little 00:33:23.420 --> 00:33:27.079 more milk or something. But to her, it was crushing. 00:33:27.339 --> 00:33:30.480 And the first time she walked back up to try 00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:33.380 what Tabby had said, I looked at Tabby, and I 00:33:33.380 --> 00:33:36.900 was like, this is so hard for me. I want to just 00:33:36.900 --> 00:33:40.019 drop everything, jump in the truck, and go buy 00:33:40.019 --> 00:33:44.599 her some cookie dough. But I've also lived long 00:33:44.599 --> 00:33:46.779 enough, and God has given me enough wisdom to 00:33:46.779 --> 00:33:48.759 know that is the last thing that she needs right 00:33:48.759 --> 00:33:52.890 now. But what she did need was for her mom to 00:33:52.890 --> 00:33:57.230 help her. Right. You know, and then she went 00:33:57.230 --> 00:33:59.029 back up and she came back down and it's still 00:33:59.029 --> 00:34:01.009 not right. It's like, well, just bring it, bring 00:34:01.009 --> 00:34:03.910 it down, show mommy. She brings it down and Tammy's 00:34:03.910 --> 00:34:06.369 like, oh baby, no, this is almost what it needs 00:34:06.369 --> 00:34:09.230 to be. We just need to just, just, she said, 00:34:09.269 --> 00:34:12.300 this is what you're going to do. She said, you're 00:34:12.300 --> 00:34:14.079 going to go upstairs, you're going to wash your 00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:16.320 hands, you're going to take this, and then you're 00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:18.559 going to knead the rest of it with your hands 00:34:18.559 --> 00:34:20.880 because the stirring is not going to work. And 00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:24.360 it's going to be perfect. And that's what she 00:34:24.360 --> 00:34:28.659 did. And I didn't hear another tear from her. 00:34:29.639 --> 00:34:34.400 Yeah. And so, like, I think kind of, you know. 00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:38.260 wrapping back in or looking back at the topic 00:34:38.260 --> 00:34:40.360 of you know god doesn't waste a storm the lord 00:34:40.360 --> 00:34:44.099 does not waste a storm i think you're exactly 00:34:44.099 --> 00:34:48.039 right that when a storm comes and let's see let's 00:34:48.039 --> 00:34:50.860 even say brad that it's not one of the storms 00:34:50.860 --> 00:34:53.119 that comes that we're not that we're not ready 00:34:53.119 --> 00:34:57.579 for let's just say that that we know that we 00:34:57.579 --> 00:34:59.940 are going to have storms right let's just let's 00:34:59.940 --> 00:35:01.739 just put in the perspective of someone not necessarily 00:35:01.739 --> 00:35:05.070 it's ready for it but that that okay, well, here's 00:35:05.070 --> 00:35:08.230 something that sucks. Let's just spearhead it. 00:35:08.250 --> 00:35:11.610 This is reality. Let's deal with it. I think 00:35:11.610 --> 00:35:16.170 that you're exactly right that what the Lord 00:35:16.170 --> 00:35:21.429 wants ultimately is for us to return to Him. 00:35:22.630 --> 00:35:27.010 I think part of that is one of the reasons that 00:35:27.010 --> 00:35:31.130 storms even exist is for us to realize we cannot 00:35:31.130 --> 00:35:37.489 do this without Him. But let me get to where 00:35:37.489 --> 00:35:45.130 I was here. In Romans 5, where is it? I lost 00:35:45.130 --> 00:35:50.000 it. There it is. Therefore, since we are justified 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:52.199 by faith, we have peace with God through our 00:35:52.199 --> 00:35:54.639 Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained 00:35:54.639 --> 00:35:57.719 access to this grace in which we stand. And we 00:35:57.719 --> 00:36:00.199 boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:03.920 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings. 00:36:04.059 --> 00:36:06.099 Obviously, this is a different type of a storm, 00:36:06.239 --> 00:36:10.480 but still a storm nonetheless. knowing that suffering 00:36:10.480 --> 00:36:13.739 produces endurance and endurance produces character 00:36:13.739 --> 00:36:16.980 and character produces hope and hope does not 00:36:16.980 --> 00:36:18.840 disappoint because God's love has been poured 00:36:18.840 --> 00:36:21.460 out, poured into our hearts through the Holy 00:36:21.460 --> 00:36:23.380 Spirit that has been given to us. And so like, 00:36:23.400 --> 00:36:27.960 like it's, it's the idea that, that the storms, 00:36:28.039 --> 00:36:33.219 yes, we return to God, but, but in, in, in, in 00:36:33.219 --> 00:36:37.199 really parallel fashion, I guess is the only 00:36:37.199 --> 00:36:40.659 way I can think of how to word it. He strengthens 00:36:40.659 --> 00:36:48.679 us. Yeah. And I find myself as a – listeners, 00:36:48.820 --> 00:36:50.820 if you're new to the show, I teach at a small 00:36:50.820 --> 00:36:52.679 Christian institution in Jackson, Tennessee. 00:36:52.820 --> 00:36:56.340 But one of the things, Brad, that I teach is 00:36:56.340 --> 00:37:03.079 studio drum set for drum set majors. And I actually 00:37:03.079 --> 00:37:07.079 end up – Talking about like I parallel to to 00:37:07.079 --> 00:37:11.519 weight room mentality often because really You 00:37:11.519 --> 00:37:15.599 know When when you're in the weight room, which 00:37:15.599 --> 00:37:18.260 I'm not but I mean if I were right if you're 00:37:18.260 --> 00:37:19.760 in the weight room and you're lifting weights 00:37:19.760 --> 00:37:25.000 you are you are exposing yourself to a number 00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:28.320 of Uncomfortable things like lifting weights 00:37:28.320 --> 00:37:30.739 is not comfort. It's not it's not convenient 00:37:30.739 --> 00:37:34.309 lifting weights is hard and It's a lot of times 00:37:34.309 --> 00:37:37.090 it's painful, maybe not necessarily effective. 00:37:37.369 --> 00:37:40.010 It has to cause stress. That's exactly right. 00:37:40.050 --> 00:37:42.750 Yes. And, and, and like, when I say it's painful, 00:37:42.849 --> 00:37:45.570 maybe not necessarily why you're, you're lifting, 00:37:45.670 --> 00:37:48.590 even though that's true, but, but the, the effects 00:37:48.590 --> 00:37:54.530 of it can be painful, but like the result is 00:37:54.530 --> 00:37:57.329 worth every bit of going to the weight room. 00:37:57.650 --> 00:38:00.789 And so I, like, I often tell my students, look, 00:38:01.150 --> 00:38:03.289 You know, when when your body does this, you 00:38:03.289 --> 00:38:05.269 got to pay attention to it. And just like the 00:38:05.269 --> 00:38:06.849 weight room, you can't do this. You got to do 00:38:06.849 --> 00:38:08.789 this. And so I walk them through, again, kind 00:38:08.789 --> 00:38:12.210 of that weight room mentality. And the idea is 00:38:12.210 --> 00:38:16.409 not just the here and now, but rather there's 00:38:16.409 --> 00:38:18.730 there's like these last long lasting effects 00:38:18.730 --> 00:38:20.570 that I'm trying to get my students to understand 00:38:20.570 --> 00:38:23.750 that, you know, if you were if you were to incorporate 00:38:23.750 --> 00:38:25.710 this technique, if you think about this muscle 00:38:25.710 --> 00:38:28.090 group this way and so on and so forth, I'm trying 00:38:28.090 --> 00:38:31.829 to instill in them. These these these these technique 00:38:31.829 --> 00:38:35.489 lessons that will actually not make them better 00:38:35.489 --> 00:38:38.309 players today, but better players in three years 00:38:38.309 --> 00:38:42.469 that better players in 10 years to where if you 00:38:42.469 --> 00:38:45.469 do this right, you can still be playing in 40 00:38:45.469 --> 00:38:48.690 years. You know what I mean? And I think I think 00:38:48.690 --> 00:38:51.869 that's that's what God wants for us. The crazy 00:38:51.869 --> 00:38:53.889 thing, though, with our human mentality, right, 00:38:53.989 --> 00:38:58.130 is is oftentimes the thing that we need. To be 00:38:58.130 --> 00:39:01.130 really successful in something three or five 00:39:01.130 --> 00:39:04.070 years down the road. Yeah. We need to start doing 00:39:04.070 --> 00:39:08.610 today. And we're not going to see the immediate 00:39:08.610 --> 00:39:12.590 value of it. Right. And it's going to just suck. 00:39:12.969 --> 00:39:17.150 It's kind of the wax on, wax off, Mr. Miyagi. 00:39:17.309 --> 00:39:21.349 Why am I doing this? But if we acknowledge that 00:39:21.349 --> 00:39:24.030 what those things are going to produce is going 00:39:24.030 --> 00:39:28.860 to make us. Be able to do those things well in 00:39:28.860 --> 00:39:31.519 three to five years and then continue to do that. 00:39:31.840 --> 00:39:35.960 If we could own that and we do it. I mean, here's 00:39:35.960 --> 00:39:38.059 one of the realities and I struggle with it. 00:39:38.239 --> 00:39:40.420 You know, in college, I learned that if you stretch 00:39:40.420 --> 00:39:43.690 out your muscles. Just stretch your muscles. 00:39:43.889 --> 00:39:47.150 You take this time to do these, you know, 30 00:39:47.150 --> 00:39:50.130 second stretches and stuff like before and after 00:39:50.130 --> 00:39:53.110 your workouts, like it will increase. And I don't 00:39:53.110 --> 00:39:54.929 remember the number. So I'm just making it up 00:39:54.929 --> 00:40:00.789 like it's significantly worth the stretch. Like 00:40:00.789 --> 00:40:03.510 if you do that effectively before and after your 00:40:03.510 --> 00:40:05.769 workouts and even on days when you're not doing 00:40:05.769 --> 00:40:08.630 those workouts that your strength. will like 00:40:08.630 --> 00:40:11.210 just increase in a crazy amount. But you know 00:40:11.210 --> 00:40:13.949 how many times I did that? I didn't because it 00:40:13.949 --> 00:40:15.869 always felt like I wasn't doing anything. And 00:40:15.869 --> 00:40:20.030 because like when I was pressing up this heavy 00:40:20.030 --> 00:40:22.570 weight, it felt like I was doing something. But 00:40:22.570 --> 00:40:24.329 when I was just stretching that out, it didn't. 00:40:24.610 --> 00:40:28.309 And so it's like how much opportunity I wasted 00:40:28.309 --> 00:40:33.010 knowing I knew the truth, but not doing it. You 00:40:33.010 --> 00:40:36.429 know, when it was simple, but it was, oh, well, 00:40:36.489 --> 00:40:40.340 I don't have time for that. And I think that 00:40:40.340 --> 00:40:43.159 a lot of times it's those things in life. It's 00:40:43.159 --> 00:40:46.519 we want the McDonald's. Well, I said on Sunday, 00:40:46.619 --> 00:40:48.800 like we're not even McDonald's anymore. We don't 00:40:48.800 --> 00:40:50.539 even want it right now. We want it yesterday. 00:40:51.880 --> 00:40:54.960 Like I decided today that I want to be strong. 00:40:55.119 --> 00:40:57.760 And so why am I not strong already? Why am I 00:40:57.760 --> 00:41:00.940 not strong? Come on, buddy. Yeah. I want to be 00:41:00.940 --> 00:41:04.840 strong. He's like, okay, you want to be strong? 00:41:04.900 --> 00:41:09.780 I'll make you strong. Get ready, buttercup. Right. 00:41:11.360 --> 00:41:14.920 Go ahead. Well, actually, I was going to say 00:41:14.920 --> 00:41:16.039 something, but I forgot what I was going to say. 00:41:16.099 --> 00:41:19.380 So by all means. Well, we're talking about suffering 00:41:19.380 --> 00:41:22.539 and stuff, too. You know, storms and suffering 00:41:22.539 --> 00:41:26.159 in God's way. I will point this out. You know, 00:41:26.280 --> 00:41:30.719 I recently read a book by a fellow pastor, John 00:41:30.719 --> 00:41:34.059 Kirkendall. And one of the things that he pointed 00:41:34.059 --> 00:41:37.699 out, and we're. We're planning on in the future 00:41:37.699 --> 00:41:40.519 having him kind of on the show to probably talk 00:41:40.519 --> 00:41:43.579 about his book. But one of the things that just 00:41:43.579 --> 00:41:46.159 really fits with what we're talking about was, 00:41:46.300 --> 00:41:50.400 and I'm going to paraphrase him, but he was talking 00:41:50.400 --> 00:41:53.219 about Paul and Paul's thorn in the flesh, which 00:41:53.219 --> 00:41:56.099 he had asked God to take away from him three 00:41:56.099 --> 00:42:00.099 times. And God says, no, my grace is sufficient 00:42:00.099 --> 00:42:04.199 for thee. Strength is made perfect in weakness. 00:42:06.090 --> 00:42:13.670 But he pointed out that by our mindset, that 00:42:13.670 --> 00:42:15.869 we would think, well, Paul would have been more 00:42:15.869 --> 00:42:17.550 effective if he didn't have this thorn in the 00:42:17.550 --> 00:42:20.769 flesh. Like, well, God, if you just take away 00:42:20.769 --> 00:42:23.670 that thorn in the flesh, he would have been more 00:42:23.670 --> 00:42:30.429 effective. But God knew that our mindset's wrong. 00:42:32.150 --> 00:42:35.250 One, we're putting the... Our faith in Paul, 00:42:35.369 --> 00:42:40.369 not our faith in Christ. Right. So it may have 00:42:40.369 --> 00:42:43.610 been very destructive for Paul not to have that 00:42:43.610 --> 00:42:47.150 thorn in the flesh. I think Paul talks about 00:42:47.150 --> 00:42:49.849 his humility. I was trying to look where I wrote 00:42:49.849 --> 00:42:54.130 it in my notes. But again, just the idea that 00:42:54.130 --> 00:42:59.210 God has purpose in suffering. It does teach joy. 00:43:03.210 --> 00:43:07.449 But God's purpose through that storm, you know, 00:43:07.449 --> 00:43:12.730 again, it wasn't to make Paul less effective, 00:43:12.829 --> 00:43:18.250 but more effective. Now, it did cause stress 00:43:18.250 --> 00:43:20.469 on Paul. It did cause suffering. But God was 00:43:20.469 --> 00:43:22.789 teaching him through that suffering to rely on 00:43:22.789 --> 00:43:29.289 him. My grace is sufficient. My grace. But, I 00:43:29.289 --> 00:43:30.949 mean, that hit me because, right, I'm saying, 00:43:31.010 --> 00:43:34.300 okay. Because that's what I've said before on 00:43:34.300 --> 00:43:36.320 different things in my life. God, if I could 00:43:36.320 --> 00:43:40.320 just, with my ADHD, gosh, if I didn't have some 00:43:40.320 --> 00:43:42.659 of these negatives from the ADHD, I could just 00:43:42.659 --> 00:43:44.380 do this, and I could do this, and I'd be able 00:43:44.380 --> 00:43:47.139 to accomplish so much more. I'd be able to be 00:43:47.139 --> 00:43:49.900 so much better, you know, a father and a pastor 00:43:49.900 --> 00:43:53.659 and all this stuff. And it really hit me when 00:43:53.659 --> 00:43:57.019 he said that, like, that Paul probably would 00:43:57.019 --> 00:43:59.960 have thought, and we certainly would think, well, 00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:03.380 Paul would have been more effective if it wasn't 00:44:03.380 --> 00:44:06.659 for that thorn. But really, the reality is God 00:44:06.659 --> 00:44:09.980 knows best, so it's probably not true. He wouldn't 00:44:09.980 --> 00:44:13.480 have been more effective. And so, again, it just 00:44:13.480 --> 00:44:18.099 hit me with my ADHD when it's like, okay, so 00:44:18.099 --> 00:44:21.320 maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I wouldn't be more effective. 00:44:21.699 --> 00:44:25.429 So to that point, Brad, I would argue, You know, 00:44:25.449 --> 00:44:27.869 the topic of the show is that God doesn't waste 00:44:27.869 --> 00:44:31.030 the storm. The Lord does not waste a storm. I 00:44:31.030 --> 00:44:33.829 would argue that we have the ability to do that. 00:44:34.329 --> 00:44:37.670 Do we waste the storm? Do what now? Do we waste 00:44:37.670 --> 00:44:41.250 the storm? Yeah, we have the ability to either 00:44:41.250 --> 00:44:44.349 refuse to acknowledge what God is trying to do, 00:44:44.429 --> 00:44:50.920 or we go to the weight room once, twice. Shoot, 00:44:50.980 --> 00:44:55.900 let's get New Year's resolution -ish here. Let's 00:44:55.900 --> 00:44:58.840 go to the weight room for two weeks. When are 00:44:58.840 --> 00:45:00.420 you going to get done in two weeks? Nothing. 00:45:01.239 --> 00:45:04.559 You know what I mean? Not measurably. Not measurably. 00:45:04.559 --> 00:45:06.280 It's exactly right. You've laid a foundation, 00:45:06.420 --> 00:45:09.980 but if you quit. And again, to me, I think that 00:45:09.980 --> 00:45:13.670 we have the ability. to waste a storm. And I 00:45:13.670 --> 00:45:18.110 think it is unbelievably mature of Paul to, as 00:45:18.110 --> 00:45:19.949 you mentioned, I love the word that you use is 00:45:19.949 --> 00:45:24.429 ownership, right? He owned that God was not going 00:45:24.429 --> 00:45:28.250 to take the thorn away. Why? Because Paul acknowledged 00:45:28.250 --> 00:45:31.849 every time that I want this thorn to go away, 00:45:31.969 --> 00:45:36.849 he retreats to God rather than saying, well, 00:45:36.949 --> 00:45:40.570 you know what? Screw it. If this is what the 00:45:40.570 --> 00:45:43.269 thorn is, then it ain't worth it. And Paul even 00:45:43.269 --> 00:45:44.849 goes farther than that, and I love this about 00:45:44.849 --> 00:45:48.090 Paul. He goes, well, I'll just boast in my weakness. 00:45:48.489 --> 00:45:50.849 Yeah. Stick it to the man, Paul. That's the case. 00:45:51.090 --> 00:45:54.369 Yeah, just boast in it. Ooh, I'm weak. Because 00:45:54.369 --> 00:45:56.789 now you're strong. You know, what you're saying 00:45:56.789 --> 00:46:00.110 sounds a lot like James 1. And when he's saying, 00:46:00.170 --> 00:46:01.929 consider it all joy, brethren, when you encounter 00:46:01.929 --> 00:46:03.989 various trials, knowing that the testing of your 00:46:03.989 --> 00:46:09.739 faith produces endurance. And verse four, and 00:46:09.739 --> 00:46:13.340 let endurance have its perfect result so that 00:46:13.340 --> 00:46:15.079 you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. 00:46:15.519 --> 00:46:21.639 So let endurance. So I would argue there, James 00:46:21.639 --> 00:46:25.519 is saying, you can waste the storm. You can enter 00:46:25.519 --> 00:46:27.480 the storm from doing what it's supposed to do. 00:46:29.219 --> 00:46:31.840 Yep. We're going to face the same storm again 00:46:31.840 --> 00:46:35.900 if we don't learn. Oh, Brad, you just opened 00:46:35.900 --> 00:46:38.539 Pandora's box. Oh, I don't want to. Yeah. No, 00:46:38.719 --> 00:46:45.519 no, no. I would say this, that I don't think 00:46:45.519 --> 00:46:49.480 it's necessarily a guarantee, but I think the 00:46:49.480 --> 00:46:52.460 chances are extremely high that if we waste a 00:46:52.460 --> 00:46:56.340 storm, we will revisit it. I think the chances 00:46:56.340 --> 00:46:58.880 are very high. Somebody said once, I think it 00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:00.559 was in a book I read, I can't remember for the 00:47:00.559 --> 00:47:02.539 life of me who it was, but they were saying, 00:47:02.639 --> 00:47:05.920 if you continue to find yourself at the same 00:47:05.920 --> 00:47:10.599 crossroad with the same scenario, storm -wise 00:47:10.599 --> 00:47:15.179 type, maybe it's time for you to ask God, why 00:47:15.179 --> 00:47:19.420 am I here and what am I supposed to learn? And 00:47:19.420 --> 00:47:23.860 maybe he just says what he says to Paul. You're 00:47:23.860 --> 00:47:25.280 supposed to learn that my grace is sufficient 00:47:25.280 --> 00:47:27.780 for you. And so maybe you're going to keep coming 00:47:27.780 --> 00:47:30.039 to this crossroad because it's going to keep 00:47:30.039 --> 00:47:32.880 teaching you that my grace is sufficient. But 00:47:32.880 --> 00:47:36.139 maybe there's scenarios where God's like, yeah, 00:47:36.139 --> 00:47:38.980 I've been waiting on you to say that so I can 00:47:38.980 --> 00:47:41.500 teach you. This is what I'm trying to teach you. 00:47:41.880 --> 00:47:46.599 And maybe it's patience. Like you've got to learn 00:47:46.599 --> 00:47:49.440 to not get angry. Or when you start to get angry 00:47:49.440 --> 00:47:53.250 in this scenario, I need you to check yourself 00:47:53.250 --> 00:47:58.329 or you'll wreck yourself. Otherwise, we're just 00:47:58.329 --> 00:48:00.170 going to keep circling back until you learn this. 00:48:00.369 --> 00:48:03.489 So we don't want to oversimplify it and be like, 00:48:03.570 --> 00:48:07.710 okay, just learn what God wants you to learn, 00:48:07.769 --> 00:48:10.329 and then you'll never have to be at that crossroad 00:48:10.329 --> 00:48:11.969 again. No, that may not be the case. But I think 00:48:11.969 --> 00:48:18.110 sometimes there's some value in asking God, right? 00:48:18.849 --> 00:48:23.349 All right. What am I supposed to learn? And and 00:48:23.349 --> 00:48:27.170 I think this whole conversation is is a way that 00:48:27.170 --> 00:48:30.250 another way, Brad, that we can unpack again, 00:48:30.329 --> 00:48:32.789 referencing Paul. I think this is another way 00:48:32.789 --> 00:48:35.110 that we can unpack Paul's running the race. Right. 00:48:35.190 --> 00:48:38.190 I mean, like the race that he's talking about, 00:48:38.309 --> 00:48:40.869 obviously, he's using the the athletic metaphor, 00:48:40.949 --> 00:48:43.750 but we're talking about the race of living life, 00:48:44.010 --> 00:48:49.940 which. Unless God takes us home tomorrow, I mean, 00:48:49.960 --> 00:48:53.159 all of us are living life on the premise, on 00:48:53.159 --> 00:48:55.519 the assumption that our lives are going to be 00:48:55.519 --> 00:49:00.219 80 plus years. So if you go to the gym for two 00:49:00.219 --> 00:49:02.579 weeks and you're going to live 80 years, that 00:49:02.579 --> 00:49:06.780 means that the gym does absolutely nothing. You 00:49:06.780 --> 00:49:08.599 know what I mean? And again, that comes back 00:49:08.599 --> 00:49:17.030 to the idea of... god not wasting the storm but 00:49:17.030 --> 00:49:21.469 we have to be willing to to see not the storm 00:49:21.469 --> 00:49:24.789 for what it is in the moment but rather for um 00:49:24.789 --> 00:49:30.210 five six years down the road can we look back 00:49:30.210 --> 00:49:36.829 and and see um you know like i i i'm trying to 00:49:36.829 --> 00:49:40.070 figure out how to word this I relied on God or 00:49:40.070 --> 00:49:43.789 I sought after God during this moment in time. 00:49:44.829 --> 00:49:47.989 And now I understand. Like one of the things 00:49:47.989 --> 00:49:50.530 that it occurred to me at some point while you 00:49:50.530 --> 00:49:55.429 were talking, when you mentioned Job, I always, 00:49:55.550 --> 00:50:00.849 Brad, I love to think, I love to think, why is 00:50:00.849 --> 00:50:03.530 it that our perceptions are the way that they 00:50:03.530 --> 00:50:07.239 are? I like to play the what if game a lot. And 00:50:07.239 --> 00:50:10.000 one of the, like, if you go back and read Job, 00:50:10.039 --> 00:50:11.860 listener, if you, you know, if you go read Job, 00:50:11.900 --> 00:50:14.159 if you're reading Job right now. Or if you're 00:50:14.159 --> 00:50:17.099 not familiar with the Bible, it's Job. It's Job, 00:50:17.119 --> 00:50:20.239 right? Yeah. Job. Job. It's pronounced Job, but 00:50:20.239 --> 00:50:24.480 yeah. So if you, if you, if you skip to the end, 00:50:24.579 --> 00:50:31.300 the narrator, right? The author of Job jumps 00:50:31.300 --> 00:50:35.780 to. And then Job, like Job received all of this 00:50:35.780 --> 00:50:41.480 stuff. Like we learn in very slow motion, really 00:50:41.480 --> 00:50:44.760 almost like play by play, Job's suffering and 00:50:44.760 --> 00:50:48.880 experience. But once that's over with, it's just 00:50:48.880 --> 00:50:51.599 kind of this, it's just sort of this conclusion, 00:50:52.340 --> 00:50:56.840 right? It's an enormous summary. I say enormous 00:50:56.840 --> 00:50:58.699 summary. It's a summary of an enormous amount 00:50:58.699 --> 00:51:03.179 of time to where we don't actually get to see 00:51:03.179 --> 00:51:06.800 what Job's experience was like coming out of 00:51:06.800 --> 00:51:09.420 the storm, living the rest of his life. For all 00:51:09.420 --> 00:51:12.519 we know, he may have walked around going, okay, 00:51:12.579 --> 00:51:14.760 God, look, what the heck? You brought me through 00:51:14.760 --> 00:51:18.639 this stuff. What are we doing? He may have, for 00:51:18.639 --> 00:51:20.500 all I know, he may have just been walking around 00:51:20.500 --> 00:51:22.659 like on cloud nine going, you know what? Whatever 00:51:22.659 --> 00:51:24.960 God does, God does, and I'm good with it. I don't 00:51:24.960 --> 00:51:28.260 know. I think you see, again, everything he lost, 00:51:28.559 --> 00:51:33.039 God gives him back multiples of. Now, you can 00:51:33.039 --> 00:51:35.280 argue, again, he loses kids. So, I mean, there's 00:51:35.280 --> 00:51:38.420 that grief that's going to be ongoing and maybe 00:51:38.420 --> 00:51:41.960 some post -traumatic stress. How could you not 00:51:41.960 --> 00:51:43.719 have post -traumatic stress after that, right? 00:51:43.840 --> 00:51:45.400 The thing about this, though, but if you just 00:51:45.400 --> 00:51:49.579 look at the Instagram, right? Let's just say 00:51:49.579 --> 00:51:52.639 Job was Instagramming after it's all over. Yeah. 00:51:53.119 --> 00:51:57.760 And you were to say, oh, here's God. You're reading 00:51:57.760 --> 00:52:01.219 the first chapter and the last chapter. Oh, God 00:52:01.219 --> 00:52:04.599 and Satan are having this conversation, and God's 00:52:04.599 --> 00:52:06.179 going, hey, have you considered my servant Job? 00:52:06.360 --> 00:52:09.320 And Satan's like, you know, you've got a hedge 00:52:09.320 --> 00:52:11.519 about him. Oh, I'll take it away. Oh, well, he'll 00:52:11.519 --> 00:52:15.059 just deny you. No, he won't. And then you just 00:52:15.059 --> 00:52:18.699 skip to the end, and God blesses Job. Right. 00:52:19.230 --> 00:52:21.949 All of these camels and wealth and all this stuff, 00:52:22.030 --> 00:52:24.570 you're like, oh, wow. Man, that's awesome. And 00:52:24.570 --> 00:52:27.809 you miss everything in between of all of the 00:52:27.809 --> 00:52:32.889 suffering and all of this stuff. And I think 00:52:32.889 --> 00:52:34.349 sometimes we do that in other people's lives. 00:52:35.130 --> 00:52:38.969 We see God's blessing on them. We see their obedience 00:52:38.969 --> 00:52:42.849 to God. We see God's blessing. And we miss their 00:52:42.849 --> 00:52:45.849 times of... Of like sitting there with the pot 00:52:45.849 --> 00:52:51.809 shirt, like scraping their wounds in agony when 00:52:51.809 --> 00:52:53.489 the people were supposed to be their friends 00:52:53.489 --> 00:52:56.829 are being like, why'd you bring this on yourself? 00:52:57.110 --> 00:52:59.389 And your wife's going, just curse God and die. 00:53:00.170 --> 00:53:04.170 You know, so I think we got to be careful that 00:53:04.170 --> 00:53:08.250 we don't just watch the Instagram reel of people's 00:53:08.250 --> 00:53:12.570 highlights, their highlights. And then we... 00:53:12.760 --> 00:53:16.659 We go, oh, I'm the only one facing storms. I 00:53:16.659 --> 00:53:18.260 was actually talking about that this morning, 00:53:18.420 --> 00:53:22.699 Brad, in a music ed class that I teach, that 00:53:22.699 --> 00:53:26.519 I don't remember what it was called, but I think 00:53:26.519 --> 00:53:30.380 it started before COVID, but I know it inflated 00:53:30.380 --> 00:53:33.059 drastically during COVID, but I'm going to call 00:53:33.059 --> 00:53:35.179 it the Facebook facade. I don't remember, again, 00:53:35.300 --> 00:53:40.920 what it was called, but in middle school and 00:53:40.920 --> 00:53:46.349 high school, Aged age kids. There was an enormous 00:53:46.349 --> 00:53:50.070 spike in in bouts of extreme depression and suicide 00:53:50.070 --> 00:53:55.989 because and the theory was because everybody 00:53:55.989 --> 00:53:59.389 on Facebook and on Instagram, everyone, everyone 00:53:59.389 --> 00:54:03.070 was posting all of these extremely curated pictures 00:54:03.070 --> 00:54:10.510 of how good their life was. And. kids would see 00:54:10.510 --> 00:54:12.809 that and they would look at their own lives and 00:54:12.809 --> 00:54:15.510 they would think, but I don't have those moments 00:54:15.510 --> 00:54:18.190 when in actuality. Yeah, they do, though. They 00:54:18.190 --> 00:54:20.650 may have been massively overshadowed by negative 00:54:20.650 --> 00:54:23.690 ones. Well, what what they weren't seeing, as 00:54:23.690 --> 00:54:25.130 you were saying, what they weren't seeing was 00:54:25.130 --> 00:54:26.750 all the negative moments that those people were 00:54:26.750 --> 00:54:29.250 going through. They only they only saw like, 00:54:29.329 --> 00:54:31.510 here's my smiling face on a beach. You know what 00:54:31.510 --> 00:54:35.289 I mean? So anyways, we're off topic. But but 00:54:35.289 --> 00:54:40.760 the idea is, is that is that. Again, I want to 00:54:40.760 --> 00:54:43.199 recap. I really do believe, Brad, that we have 00:54:43.199 --> 00:54:49.139 opportunities to waste God's storms. But God, 00:54:49.159 --> 00:54:54.000 I believe firmly, will not lead us through a 00:54:54.000 --> 00:54:57.900 storm in vain. There is no such thing. God doesn't 00:54:57.900 --> 00:55:02.099 exist in vain. God doesn't make decisions in 00:55:02.099 --> 00:55:08.159 vain. He gives us the opportunity to... really 00:55:08.159 --> 00:55:14.360 blow it but i mean uh if we retreat to him i 00:55:14.360 --> 00:55:18.960 i i firmly believe that he that he is is faithful 00:55:18.960 --> 00:55:23.260 and and just not just to forgive us our sins 00:55:23.260 --> 00:55:27.800 but to also reveal to us in time and when i say 00:55:27.800 --> 00:55:30.480 in time it's not up to us but it's but i think 00:55:30.480 --> 00:55:33.719 that he will show us eventually you were brought 00:55:33.719 --> 00:55:38.250 through this particular storm for this particular 00:55:38.250 --> 00:55:43.230 reason. So let me, and this is very vague, because 00:55:43.230 --> 00:55:45.690 I need to be very vague in what I say right now. 00:55:46.849 --> 00:55:51.550 I was visiting with a friend the other day, and 00:55:51.550 --> 00:55:53.750 I was kind of trying to help him walk through 00:55:53.750 --> 00:55:59.610 a situation that he's dealing with. And as I 00:55:59.610 --> 00:56:05.349 was leaving, I think I was just reminded of, 00:56:06.269 --> 00:56:09.070 when I went through a very similar situation 00:56:09.070 --> 00:56:15.230 years ago. And it was not fun. It was very difficult. 00:56:15.909 --> 00:56:22.869 It was very much a struggle. And I teared up 00:56:22.869 --> 00:56:29.630 a little bit. And I said, thank you for letting 00:56:29.630 --> 00:56:34.420 me go through that. So that I can be... Do it 00:56:34.420 --> 00:56:36.880 for my friend. That's deep, man. Because when 00:56:36.880 --> 00:56:39.519 I think of, if I hadn't have gone through that 00:56:39.519 --> 00:56:45.599 thing and similar things, I might present differently 00:56:45.599 --> 00:56:49.099 or try to help differently. And sometimes if 00:56:49.099 --> 00:56:50.900 we're not careful, we end up like Job's friends. 00:56:51.679 --> 00:56:54.059 And my mama would say, with friends like that, 00:56:54.119 --> 00:57:03.269 who needs enemies? Do I want to go do that again? 00:57:04.269 --> 00:57:08.170 No. It didn't make me happy. But I can rejoice 00:57:08.170 --> 00:57:12.190 because I see here's just one of the ways that 00:57:12.190 --> 00:57:15.210 you're using having me go through that. Yeah. 00:57:15.650 --> 00:57:21.170 So that when I'm trying to just help others who 00:57:21.170 --> 00:57:24.610 are going through a similar situation, I can 00:57:24.610 --> 00:57:29.079 say, yeah, there is. There is hope. There is 00:57:29.079 --> 00:57:31.599 light beyond this. And, yeah, it sucks right 00:57:31.599 --> 00:57:35.699 now. And I'm sorry. And I try not to tell people 00:57:35.699 --> 00:57:37.900 I know how you feel because we all feel differently. 00:57:38.280 --> 00:57:41.940 I usually just say we can compare notes. Yeah. 00:57:42.880 --> 00:57:45.679 Yeah. I mean, it's exactly right. But, yeah. 00:57:46.360 --> 00:57:48.980 Well, I hate to bring this to an abrupt ending, 00:57:49.059 --> 00:57:53.699 but I teach in nine minutes. So, listeners. Yeah, 00:57:53.699 --> 00:57:56.480 I know. Right. Listeners, hope that you've enjoyed 00:57:56.480 --> 00:57:58.579 today's episode. Hope that it has resonated with 00:57:58.579 --> 00:58:01.840 you guys. You know, and if you are in the midst 00:58:01.840 --> 00:58:06.360 of a storm, we just want to we want to remind 00:58:06.360 --> 00:58:10.800 you that God has not forgotten about you, that 00:58:10.800 --> 00:58:14.190 he loves you. um there are people if if it's 00:58:14.190 --> 00:58:16.750 this podcast then it's this podcast brad and 00:58:16.750 --> 00:58:19.489 i we love you guys we really do but he has given 00:58:19.489 --> 00:58:23.010 you people um around you to help to to to help 00:58:23.010 --> 00:58:26.570 you um be supported in in those moments sometimes 00:58:26.570 --> 00:58:30.110 and again i don't want to this this we're closing 00:58:30.110 --> 00:58:33.800 the show here but sometimes It requires us to 00:58:33.800 --> 00:58:37.440 open up about our situations to get sort of that 00:58:37.440 --> 00:58:41.739 support that we might need. But just please don't 00:58:41.739 --> 00:58:44.500 lose sight that God has not forgotten you. He 00:58:44.500 --> 00:58:49.619 does not abandon you. And we appreciate you hanging 00:58:49.619 --> 00:58:53.639 out with us. We love that you listen in, that 00:58:53.639 --> 00:58:57.440 you tune in every week. And, yeah, follow us 00:58:57.440 --> 00:58:59.360 on our Facebook group page, MenChurchStuff. You 00:58:59.360 --> 00:59:01.360 can follow us on Instagram, at MenChurchStuff. 00:59:01.380 --> 00:59:04.539 You can email us, ready? MenChurchStuff at gmail 00:59:04.539 --> 00:59:07.719 .com. You can even see our pretty faces on YouTube 00:59:07.719 --> 00:59:09.460 now. Our pretty faces on YouTube. Thank you, 00:59:09.480 --> 00:59:10.820 Brad. I appreciate that. Yeah, I almost forgot 00:59:10.820 --> 00:59:15.380 about it. And last thing is, again, a reminder, 00:59:15.519 --> 00:59:21.309 if you want me to dramatically read a song, then 00:59:21.309 --> 00:59:24.269 submit it on our Facebook group page. Find the 00:59:24.269 --> 00:59:27.369 question, what song lyrics would you like DJ 00:59:27.369 --> 00:59:31.190 to read dramatically? So listeners, we love you. 00:59:31.250 --> 00:59:35.369 Brad, I love you, buddy. Love you, too. Listeners, 00:59:35.369 --> 00:59:39.329 we will catch you next time. Go be his church.