Well, welcome back everyone to Rising 365, a podcast committed to inspiring and supporting
others to embrace the opportunity to rise with each new day.
I'm Mike Penny and I realize that Rising Daily can be a challenge because it has been a challenge
for myself and I hope what you hear in these episodes will assist you in rising every day
of the year.
We're on episode 32 entitled, Maybe God. So in preparing for this episode, it's taken
me a while to wrap my head around the way I wanted to deliver it.
And as tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I thought this would be the perfect day to get this
out to you all.
So wherever you're at, Happy Thanksgiving Eve.
You have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow.
Let's jump into this episode.
So I'm reading this book.
It's basically written by an anonymous writer and the author's name is A.Believer.
And what this writer is doing is he's unpacking the books written by Jordan B. Peterson, which
are Beyond Order and Maps of Meaning.
This book is called Jordan B. Peterson's Christ Revealed.
And in this, the writer shares his journey from growing up Catholic and to becoming a
Christian, more of a non-denominational believer Christian, wrapped around the gospels and
the teachings of Jesus.
Then he went to becoming an agnostic, an atheist.
Now he's back into a life dedicated to living for Jesus again.
And in this book, something that jumped out to me and that affected him to leave what
he once had of faith and an understanding of who God was as a Catholic and then as a
born and began believer, he read what Nietzsche said, that God is dead.
And he said, right when he read this and when you go and you study Nietzsche, Nietzsche knew
the consequences of believing in this kind of mindset.
It even says in his quote by Nietzsche, it says, how shall we console ourselves when
we take God out of the picture and God out of our lives and believe that God is no good,
that God, he doesn't care or there is no God.
This led to the nihilistic effect, which is the death of God came the death of purpose,
meaning and hope.
This is exactly what this writer shares in this book, that his life before grasping onto
what Nietzsche was saying, he had hope, he had purpose, he had meaning, but then he went
through some tough things in his life, loss of marriages, loss of kids, loss of career,
unfulfillment jumped into depression.
The devil works in those dark places and circumstances in our lives to get us to question if God is
really good, then why are these bad things that happen?
And then he presents something to us like Nietzsche's writing and claim that God is
dead.
So the writer jumps into a life of agnosticism, of atheist.
But when he did that, he found himself spiraling into a belief and a feeling that he had no
purpose and he had no meaning and he had no hope in his life.
This is the common effect of a life without God.
You can see in your own life and in the lives of those around you who don't have God, maybe
their purpose and meaning, they find it in their job and in their relationships and their
kids, but they're always trying to find different things to bring meaning into their life.
They never have a fulfillment.
And in the maps of meaning, the great lie is that meaning doesn't exist or that it is
impossible to find meaning or that it's not even important.
When meaning is denied, hatred for life and the wish for its destruction inevitably rules.
And this happened to me about 10 years ago when I left the military and became a civilian
here in central Nebraska, I lost meaning in my life.
Taking off that uniform and I didn't realize I had put so much of myself in wearing that
uniform and wearing the purpose.
I was in the Coast Guard and there was something tangible being in the Coast Guard.
What sets the Coast Guard apart from the other armed forces is that we are a life saving
organization first.
Everything we do, we do it in order to preserve life and to save life.
We go to people who are in need, whose life is literally sinking them down and they need
rescued.
We don't shy away from hurricanes and storms.
We go into them as members of the Coast Guard.
And then we spend so much time to prevent life.
And we have a branch of the Coast Guard called AIDS to Navigation where we're dedicated to
make sure lighthouses work, that when boats are navigating the navigable waters out on
the ocean and when they come into harbor that things are placed in the water or on the land
that will keep them safe.
So each day that ended in the 10 years I was in the Coast Guard, there was something tangibly
I could grasp onto that night when I laid down that I felt fulfilled, that I felt I
had a purpose.
Once that was gone and I left that, I spiraled down.
Just like this writer said, I had no hope.
I couldn't see a meaning in my life.
So what did I do?
I did what's common for most veterans who leave the service.
They look for another avenue of service to others.
And these are called the careers of death or the life giving careers, meaning that when
we sign up for these careers, we're saying that we're willing to give our lives for others,
for those who...
I see a lot of veterans in first responder careers, firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, you
see them as police officers, state troopers, as they're trying to hold on and we're trying
to hold onto that purpose, that meaning, trying to be the hope for others.
And again, I did that.
I put myself behind the badge and became a police officer.
That didn't work.
Once purpose in meaning, it was erased from my life.
I was still left with hopelessness.
I was desperate.
I was in depression.
And that became my constant companion.
And this is the same feeling that the writer of this book, Jordan B. Peterson's Christ
Revealed says when he jumped into believing that there was no God, there was no God to
live for, that his constant companion was depression and hopelessness and despair.
But then he said, I'm going to go back to my own way.
And as he unpacks what Jordan tries to do in his Maps of Meaning book and his Beyond
Order and even his 12 rules for life, he's saying there's something bigger out there
to live for.
Why couldn't it be God?
You know, Romans 15 13 says, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace.
So here Paul is saying that God is hope, that God is light.
When you think of that, if there is no God, then the opposite is true.
There is no hope and there is no light.
So when we look to the God of the Christian Bible, Jesus Christ himself, it says our hope
will fill us with joy and peace.
Matthew 7 7 says, ask and it will be given to you.
Seek and you will find.
Knock and the door will be open to you.
For everyone who asks, receives and the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks,
the door will be open.
What is being said here?
Jesus himself is saying, world, you are going out and looking for love in all the wrong
places to quote a cliche in the song.
You're not going to find it there.
You're not going to find hope and fulfillment and love and joy and peace in what the world
provides.
Getting into the holiday season, we are inundated now with commercials that says this next item
materialistic thing will bring you hope, will bring you peace, will bring you joy and happiness
and love, but it won't.
It leaves you open here.
So Jesus himself is saying, ask for me, ask and seek after me.
Knock and I will be on the other side of the door.
He's waiting to meet you there.
What do you have if you don't believe in God?
You don't believe in Jesus, the God of the Bible.
You have nothing.
You have what this writer says and you have what Nietzsche says.
You have no purpose.
You have no hope.
You have no joy.
What do you have if you do believe in God?
It was a Christian Bible, Jesus.
You have love, you have hope, you have forgiveness and freedom and peace and joy and purpose.
And you'll have it to a point that you don't understand it, but you know it's coming for
the Lord.
Jordan says that if we have relationships and if we have a job or career and if we have
a service outside of ourselves, but we miss the point of something bigger than us out
there to honor and to serve, then we're still going to be left feeling that there's one
piece missing and maybe it's gone.
So the past 31 episodes, what have you done with God?
And again, when I share of God, I mean, what have you done with Jesus, your relationship
with him?
Have you denied it and put it off?
Is it something that you once had before, but due to life circumstances and the things
you've faced, you've neglected it and let it go because the results of those situations
didn't lead to what you desired for yourself?
Maybe give God a chance again.
Maybe give God a chance for the very first time because I know that if it wasn't for
me refocusing my life into a relationship with Jesus and opening up the scriptures and
seeing everything he did for us and their historical facts, you can go and unpack it.
See, Jesus, man, he laid it all out there.
He was there at the beginning.
He, from the very beginning of time when God created this world, he created in such a way
that he describes it and being very good.
And in that very goodness, he wanted us to experience so we knew what very good relationship
with God was like.
And even in the beginning of the Bible, Genesis tells us that before we chose to find hope
in something else besides him, our relationship was incredible.
We walked with him.
There was no sickness and war and hate, but that everything was very good.
Since God gave us free will, we desire to seek our hope into something else.
And since then, mankind, including ourselves, has been fighting this internal battle.
God is saying, hey, you're not meant to live that way away from me, away from my relationship
with me that I desire to have with you.
And I promise you, when you rekindle your relationship with the Lord or you start a
relationship with Jesus, he says that all of heaven rejoices when we turn from our wicked
ways.
When we come out of the darkness and we start walking into the light that is only found
in God, that is only found in his son, Jesus.
Amen.
And everything we were missing is now given to us.
We have hope.
We have forgiveness.
We have freedom.
We have peace.
We have joy.
We have meaning and purpose once again.
And that purpose is to go and tell others that, hey, God is real and he loves you and
he has meaning for your life and he wants a relationship with you.
So wherever you're at, may you give God a chance.
Maybe God's the missing piece in your life, walking with Jesus to help you rise 365.
Well, thank you for tuning in.
I hope each episode brings you inspiration to embrace every new day.
To support this podcast, consider booking me as a speaker for your next conference,
school assembly, youth event, Bible study, or any special occasion where I can share
the message of Rising 365.
It's simple to arrange this.
This message me at rising247365 at gmail.com or drop me a DM.
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Hey, join the Rising 365 Facebook community.
The link will be provided in the show notes.
The link to the ministry I'm a part of, of CEF of Central Nebraska is in the show notes.
The book Jordan B. Peterson's Christ Revealed by a Believer can also be found in the show
notes.
I'm so thankful for each and every one of you who took time out of your day and pressed
play.
Maybe you just stumbled upon this podcast.
I hope that what you hear challenges you, but also inspires you to keep going.
To Rise 365.
You are meant for this.
Until we meet again, I'm Mike Pena, reminding you to rise and seize the gift of a new day.
You are destined for this moment.
Merry Christmas, everybody.
Oh, not Merry Christmas.
Oh yeah.
Hey, Merry Christmas here shortly in just a couple of weeks.
But happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you.
Before I close and depart, yesterday I was at a nearby elementary school just sharing
with the kids.
It's a Christian school.
So every Tuesday they have a chapel and I'm lucky enough to go in every now and then and
share with the kids.
One thing I shared with them is during this time of year can be hard for us to be thankful,
especially those of us who have been through depression and we have anxiety and we're lonely
even in the midst of crowds and family and friends.
Maybe it's hard because we don't have family and friends around and you're sick, you're
in the hospital.
So I shared them what I did starting five years ago after coming out of attempted suicide.
It was my thankfulness journey, my thankfulness journal.
This came from the play of Every Beautiful Thing.
If you're not familiar about it, it's usually a one man play where the main character shares
how he went through depression and he wanted to commit suicide but then he was challenged
to look for one beautiful thing a day and keep going to live.
In doing that, he challenged himself to find a million beautiful things.
There's a website, everybeautifulthing.com I think, and I'll find it and put it in the
show notes, that helps individuals when they're struggling to go access this website to find
something worthy of living for.
That's what a thankfulness journal is.
So may you start a thankfulness journal.
It can be anything.
Like I shared with the kids yesterday, McRib is back so I'm thankful for that.
Maybe you don't like the McRib, but I do, but it can be something as small as that.
It could be as big as the glory and the love of Jesus Christ that he hasn't for us and
that he's shown for us.
So may you start a thankfulness journal.
Make it easy, accessible for you on the hard days.
You can open it and find something to keep going.
May be easy, accessible for when you meet somebody or you've come into a relationship
with someone who's struggling, you can share your thankfulness journal with them so they
can find something for themselves to be thankful for.
And hopefully that will inspire them to keep going and to rise 365.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Have a good one.