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Merry Christmas everyone.

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Before we get started into this episode of Faithfully Engaged, I wanted to encourage

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everyone to sign up for my new sub-stack.

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It is listed down in the show notes below.

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I'm really excited about unveiling some new aspects of the sub-stack, which includes a

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new segment called Faithful Feedback.

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This is where I'll ask questions and answer some of your questions and just help the audience

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be engaged in the show.

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So if you are interested in that, again, check out my sub-stack down in the show notes below.

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Hello and welcome back to Faithfully Engaged and also Merry Christmas.

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So as you know, I upload a new episode every Monday morning and this year Christmas happens

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to be on a Monday.

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So instead of airing my normal interviews like I normally do, I decided it probably wouldn't

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be very fair for my guests to air them on both Christmas and then if you didn't know,

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Christmas and New Year's is always on the same day.

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That's a week apart.

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So I will not be having a guest on New Year's either.

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So both today and on New Year's, they're just going to be myself, talking to the camera,

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talking to you guys.

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They're going to be fairly short and just be kind of some nice little neat wrap-ups about

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the year that I've had and I'd love to talk to you about the year that you have had.

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So Christmas, this has been a really interesting year for me personally.

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So I am a parent of three now.

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Some of you have known that I had my baby boy, our third boy, or sorry, our third child,

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second boy.

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He was born in August.

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So that's been a huge addition in our household.

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I'd love to know from some of you.

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Feel free to sign up for that newsletter, which I have down in the links below.

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And this is something that I'll be airing.

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I'll talk a little bit more in the New Year's episode.

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Really trying to make some more fan interaction with you guys.

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So I have a new sub-stack newsletter that is listed down below and I'm going to start

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doing some mail-back type of things where I'm going to answer some of your questions

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and try to get a little more feedback.

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I really like getting to interact with people that watch the show.

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So anyways, I would love to know some of the big events that have happened in your life

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this year.

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So yeah, my son being born, obviously a big one, but it's been a big year for me just

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professionally.

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I technically started my counseling practice, Truth and Grace Counseling at the end of 2022,

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but this is really the first year that things have really got up and running.

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So I've been getting my feet wet getting that business started.

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I just recently released some continuing education units, which all counselors are required to

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get.

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So doing some of my own continuing education there and also just been doing some other

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things with my counseling degree, contracting with some different places, just a lot going

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on.

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But for you guys listening, Faithfully Engaged has been such a neat project and community

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that's being starting to be built.

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And it's interesting because it's different than Truth and Grace Counseling for me.

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Truth and Grace Counseling, that came about fairly quickly, but it had been in the works

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for a while.

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So essentially, I wanted to make my own practice so I wouldn't be as beholden to beliefs and

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a worldview that the counseling field is going down that is just, I believe, quite godless

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and not very helpful as counseling either, which I'm super grateful for my friend, Soad,

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who has been on the show.

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She's got the conservative counselor directory that she just launched earlier this year.

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So I'll have that link down there too.

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So there's some cool things going on there beyond just Truth and Grace Counseling.

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But anyways, being making Truth and Grace Counseling like I said, that had been in the

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works for a while and eventually ended up getting that all set up like set the end of

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2022.

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And then making the podcast, those of you that have been around from the beginning know

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about the Truth and Grace Counseling podcast, which absolutely loved doing that.

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That was something that really, it's not like I came up with it and just did it all in one

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day, but much quicker.

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Essentially, running your own business, oftentimes you just, I guess, maybe you don't, but I

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look up different ways to advertise and I'm constantly learning, constantly just trying

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to refine the ways that I can market and just be being a better business owner.

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That's something I'm going to continue to learn on.

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Well, anyways, I'd seen some things about doing a podcast.

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Why not?

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Let's give it a shot.

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And quickly I found that the Truth and Grace Counseling podcast, while it was intended to

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really just advertise my practice, it was becoming its own thing.

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I had several guests on, like so out of that I mentioned.

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And we just were developing kind of our own, our own little community there.

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It's not what I had intended necessarily when I started doing podcasting.

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So I had that kind of thought, yeah, let me separate this.

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Let me get this out of the Truth and Grace Counseling name and make it his own thing.

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And I didn't know what that was going to look like.

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Like I said, me making my practice, I had a little bit more time to think and stew on

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that.

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Again, I didn't just slap together Faithful Engaged all in one day, but much quicker process

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there.

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And I ended up sacrificing the segments, those UOGs out there, you know, about the meat

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section and the water cooler and all these different segments I had on the Truth and

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Grace Counseling podcast.

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While they were great, they just took so much more effort and editing and different outtakes

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and things like that.

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So a little bit harder for me to do, especially getting busier with my own practice and now

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having, you know, three children, I don't have a ton of free time.

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So made Faithful Engaged to be more just one segment.

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The show is the interview.

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Be on the lookout.

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I'm still game playing as of this recording of how I would like to do this, but I want

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to make my own episode where, and maybe even doing it live, where I just do a live stream

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where I maybe discuss the interview I had on Monday and then on Friday we'll do a live

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stream where kind of discuss that interview in a little bit more in depth and maybe give

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my own spin on the topic.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

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I'm just trying to look out, work out some logistics.

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I don't want to jump into things that I can't do consistently.

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I don't want to over promise and under deliver, but that's something I really want to do.

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I want to expand this show.

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And again, that's kind of what's been interesting about this journey in 2023 is this wasn't

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on my radar at all in 2023.

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And now I see Faithfully Engaged as almost as being more of a longer term thing than

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my own counseling practice.

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Truth or Grace Counseling is not going anywhere.

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I want that to be there for a good long while.

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But Truth or Grace Counseling originally was like, that was my backup plan.

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And that was if I couldn't find a job elsewhere or whatever, at least I had my own practice.

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And now Faithfully Engaged is almost like my backup backup.

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But I just see it as such lasting power and it's something different.

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I think that's why I like it so much.

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I like getting to talk to the camera with you guys.

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I like getting to meet new people, getting new contacts.

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I've gotten new books sent to me and talked to authors and people in different walks

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of life.

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I really enjoy that and getting to ask questions and bring that out to you guys and help challenge

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you all to be active.

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I do want to take just a little bit of time on this kind of Christmas episode and thank

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two specific people.

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They're actually brothers that there's no way that I would be able to do this without

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them.

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One, my friend Dan, he made the logo, Faithfully Engaged logo.

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He made the Truth and Grace Counts in logo.

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Does an excellent job doing that.

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So super grateful for the kind of the branding and things like that that he helped provide,

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especially in a fairly short timeframe.

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And then his brother Ian, who does all of my editing, there's absolutely no way I could

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do a weekly, especially video podcast without that help that Ian gives me.

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So super grateful for the both of them.

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And yeah, that being able to have that type of assistance is just so important.

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And that's something that I really want to leave you guys with on this Christmas.

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Being engaged in culture is not a one man job.

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Again, I didn't come into 2023 and think, yep, I'm going to do XYZ.

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I've got to get it done.

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It's all because of me and the hard work I've put in.

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Now don't get me wrong, I've put a lot of work into this, especially looking into Faithfully

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Engaged because put a lot of time and effort and money into something that has lost me

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money.

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I don't say that for you to pity me.

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That's just when you're building something, it takes resources and it's resources that

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I've not seen returned yet.

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I'm very hopeful and I'm very confident that there will be financial returns, but more

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so just returns on people enjoying the content.

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That's part of why when I ask for likes and subscribes and things like that.

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Yeah, it helps the algorithm and spread the show, but it shows it's making some positive

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impact.

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And yes, I eventually want Faithfully Engaged to be more so my full time job at some point.

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I would love that.

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But even before then, I wanted to make some form of a difference.

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And I want to emphasize even on the production end of things, I can't do this alone.

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Even as me in front of a mic, there's more things going on behind the scenes than you've

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realized.

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And I emphasize that to you as again, being engaged in the culture, being engaged in your

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life.

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You cannot do this on your own.

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You can't.

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It's not a matter of effort.

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It's not a matter of you saying, I'm going to put in all this effort and work so hard

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and eventually I'll make it.

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No, you got to work hard.

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Again, I've had to work hard here, but you've got to be with other people.

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You've got to have a community.

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This is Christmas Day.

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Those of you that are listening that are Christian, I know the majority of you are, if you're

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sitting there and you've not gotten plugged into a church, what are you doing?

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You can't do this on your own.

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It's not just you and Jesus doing this all by yourself.

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You got to be around other people.

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You've got to be connected.

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God made us this way.

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God made us to be connected with other people.

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So don't don't fall into the lie that I just need to work harder and everything will be

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be given to me.

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Everything's going to fall in place that way.

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Now, again, don't fall into another lie that says you don't have to work hard at all and

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whatever happens happens.

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You need to work hard, but have community, have people around you.

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It's your family.

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Maybe you're not seeing your family today.

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Maybe you have a strange relationship with your family.

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I know there's difficulties that people go through, but can you reach out?

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Can you call your mom or dad, your sibling?

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You haven't talked to in a long time.

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Just reach out.

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See what happens.

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Can you go back to church?

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Try it again.

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You haven't been in a long time, but give it a shot and reach out and be open about your

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struggles.

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Do you have some friends that you haven't hung out with in a long time or just you feel lonely?

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You don't know where to go.

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Is there a way that you can reach out?

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Be a little vulnerable.

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Maybe maybe go on a date with that girl that you've been thinking of asking out for a long

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time.

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Do something, but you've got to be connected with other people.

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That's what I want to really emphasize today on Christmas.

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The gift that God gave, that Jesus, God himself came down and flesh came down as a man.

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That was connection.

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He gave us connection.

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He gave us forgiveness.

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We don't deserve that.

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We don't deserve that at all, but he did it anyways.

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God gave us a wonderful gift and he's given us the gift of connecting with other people

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here on earth as well.

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So don't negate that.

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Don't fall into the lie that you can do it on your own because quite simply you can't

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and that's not a bad thing.