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All right, welcome to the Ocean Water Podcast Day.

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This is a voice for Indigenous water rights.

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I have my good friend Cody Bren on here today.

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Cody and his family moved out with Ashley Jennings and her family out to the Red Rock

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area in 2015 and helped start Village Church.

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It's doing wonderfully well.

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They have a vision of five by five by five that's starting five new works in five new

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zip codes in five years.

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Really exciting.

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And then on a personal note, you've just been, it's really interesting how we met.

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I was encouraged to reach out for some potential partners in regards to ocean water and a very

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good friend of mine that I've known since 2012, Rick Dunn, encouraged me to call you

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and I did.

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I called you on a Thursday and in that phone call, I found out that you were actually going

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to be six and a half miles from where I live the following day.

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And then I actually met you the next day and then you invited me to a dinner and then I

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met a bunch of new people.

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So we just hit the ground running.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Just thanks so much.

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And you've just been such a good friend to Maria and I in the last year.

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Thank you brother for your time today.

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Oh, my pleasure.

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Yeah.

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So tell everybody when you're home, what do you like to eat?

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Where do you go and what do you get?

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Wow.

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Well, you know, we're in Southern Arizona and so Mexican is the name of the game, you

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know, and so there's some great Mexican places out here.

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My favorite is called the Guadalajara Grill and they have, I love music and so they have

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a live mariachi band that walks around and it's just a really cool atmosphere and that's

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my personal favorite.

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But it's also probably like 35, 40 miles away from where we live because we're in the middle

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of nowhere.

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So eating out is a luxury most of the time because we got to travel.

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McDonald's is, you know, 25 minutes away, the nearest one, you know.

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So it's good for me though.

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Eating out regularly would be a bad choice for me personally.

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So lots of good food at home.

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My wife's a great cook and baker and stuff.

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So yeah.

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Oh, that's great, man.

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So tell us, for those of you who are like going to meet you for the first time today,

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tell us what are you doing now and how did you get into it?

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Yeah, well, I am, you know, church planter and, you know, one of, you know, of course,

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we love pastoring a church.

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Ashley and I co-pastor and so we're big proponents of just partnership, you know, not just co-pastoring

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in and of itself.

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You know, we're huge proponents of that, of course, that model, but just partnership and

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not going it alone.

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You know, we have just seen a lot of pastors go through this kind of a thing alone.

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And I just can't imagine even this season, you know, dealing with coronavirus and all

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of the, you know, the tragedies that have been happening recently in Mont Arbery, Floyd

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George and stuff, like, and trying to navigate that stuff on your own would just be so difficult.

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And so, you know, I'm so thankful for partnerships in my life, so thankful for a co-pastor that

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we can navigate this stuff together.

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And so, you know, that's a big passion of mine for sure is just trying to be a partner

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for other people as well, you know.

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And so that kind of leads into, you know, Ashley and I also have a role.

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We are the district directors of Church Multiplication for the Pacific Southwest District of the Wesleyan

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Church, which is the longest title, I think, ever, right?

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But we really love that role.

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And it's just kind of, it helps us meet awesome people with kindred spirits.

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And we get to talk our passion, which is planting churches and seeing the kingdom grow, right?

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And so that's kind of our life.

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That's our life right now.

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And that's, you know, we're just always looking for the next place that God wants to move

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and that He's asking us to move into, you know.

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And so that's, yeah, that's where we're at right now.

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That's my life, yeah, in ministry anyway.

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Yeah, you did a great job.

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I mean, I did give you some great feedback.

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I think there's a wonderful culture of encouraging people to start things and providing a culture

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to do that.

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Someone that gets behind someone's ideas and empowers them and listens and how do we come

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alongside.

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And it's been, I would say, rhetoric free and cliche free and actually grounded in some

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really good stuff that actually helps add fuel to what people are trying to do.

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A lot of times people use the language, but they don't have any other culture.

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But what I love is you guys have that culture.

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It's really exciting.

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It's really fun.

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So glad to hear that, man.

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That means a lot.

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Yeah, that's awesome.

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I told Phil that, told you that, and told Ed that, and told everybody that.

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And that's a beautiful thing because like, you know, when I have lunch today with my

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friend, Speed, who's 23, you know, I'm able to invite him into that.

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You know, when I talk to my other friend, another guy who's 23, I'm able to invite him

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into that.

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And that's the power of having a great culture.

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You know, you're able to invite people into something without it being weird.

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Yeah.

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Kudos, brother.

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You're killing it.

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So what would current Cody say to 20 year old Cody?

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Oh, man.

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A lot.

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Yeah.

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Boy, I think the first thing honestly would be just be yourself.

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You know, be who God made you to be.

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Stop trying to be somebody else.

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Stop trying to pretend that you're something that you're not.

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You know, I felt a lot of pressure for a long time to be somebody I wasn't.

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And when I finally started coming out of that, I had to it took a long time for me to figure

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out who I was, who God made me to be, you know, and not who I was trying to copy, you

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know.

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And, and man, I wish I would have figured that out sooner.

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I'm so thankful that God got my attention enough to figure it out.

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You know, now I'm still you know, I'm still working on that.

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You know, I'm not I'm not arrived.

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I haven't arrived there by any means.

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But, but man, that's a big one for me is just learn who you are.

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Be confident in the giftings and the and who God made you to be specifically and just be

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that, you know, like, you know, I hear a lot of times people talk about and I used to talk

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about wearing hats, you know, like all these different hats that we wear.

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And that's kind of a been a huge lesson for me is that I don't need to wear different

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hats.

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You know, I'm I'm I'm supposed to just be Cody, because God created Cody, you know.

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And anyway, that's that's a big one for me.

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You know.

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Yeah, I'd say that's probably the most important one that I've learned, honestly, since since

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my 20s, you know, and I mean, that and of course, figure out trust the Holy Spirit,

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ultimately, like, learn how to learn how to just trust Him and stop.

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Stop trying to do things on your own, you know, on your own power, your own ability,

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like that surrender thing, you know, that we all we all work towards and stuff.

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But I wish I would have figured that out a lot earlier to just surrendering to the Holy

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Spirit and trusting that, you know, he's he's going to go through every time, you know,

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anyway.

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You know, I always said about being yourself, you know, one of the things that you and I

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have both have in common is we're both we're both small town guys.

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I'm a small town beach person slash small village person.

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That's what I eat, sleep and drink.

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You're a small town desert guy.

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We have an affinity for for smaller groups of people, smaller areas.

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And there's there's a beauty in that.

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And it's it's wonderful when you find the thing that you really love and you really

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click with.

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There's such a there's so much grace, you know, I was talking to somebody the other

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day, it's kind of like you find like it takes a lot of kind of find like your race, like

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kind of what you're supposed to do.

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And then you find your pace, you find how you're going to run like how how you run,

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you know, your race and your pace, that's where you get God's grace for your life, where

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God comes up where you kind of develop this walk with the Lord and think you start to

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see fruit.

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A lot of good comes out of this.

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Those are just super wise words.

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So what are you what are you curious about these days?

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What are you interested in?

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You know how you know how it is as a leader.

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That's a really important thing to have.

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You know, what are you curious about these days?

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Yeah.

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Wow.

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That's a that's a great question.

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You know, you know, Ashley and I like have a lot of conversations about, you know, bringing

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up the next generation, you know, like and it's funny because I you know, I just had

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a recent realization, you know, I just turned 35 and that it was a big number for me, you

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know, like realizing that and that I'm not the young young kid anymore.

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I'm not the new kid on the block, you know, like and so, you know, I've always tried to,

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you know, raise up leaders and have that as a mentality.

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But now there's like an urgency to it that I never really had before.

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Just a realization like, man, my time in ministry is not long, you know, it's not going to be

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this super long time.

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And so Ashley and I talk often about like how to really properly believe and raise up

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new leaders while not putting expectations on them that they don't deserve.

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Yeah.

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You know, that's that's kind of right now where I'm at with that is just really figuring

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out how to how to not put expectations that I've had for myself on other like new leaders,

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you know, and to let them be them, you know, and make sure that I'm not perpetuating what

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I got caught in.

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You know, like, you know, I want to make sure that, you know, I'm helping people become

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who God's made them to be, not who not who I think they need to be based on these rubrics

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and these lessons and these nine week courses and all that stuff, you know.

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And so I don't know if that answers your question well, but that's what's been on my mind a

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lot lately is just how to do that.

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Well, you know, in this season, in this culture, you know, anyway.

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No, you did.

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You know, there's something that should be on the radar of every person whose leader

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is people that people that are coming up.

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You know, I get that.

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That's just front and center, especially for for younger people who really want to make

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a difference, but don't want to waste their time on people that are going to patronize

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them.

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Yes.

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And not treat them like a real leader and not give them any autonomy and not give them

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any any empowerment.

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And then and then people in the religious world wonder why.

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Well, it's like when you treat people like they're idiots, how do you expect not to have

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any leaders?

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You don't get to do both.

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Not if you want real leaders, you have to, you know, so that I love that.

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I resonate with that.

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I'm really glad you said that something that's should constantly be at the front of our minds.

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So what's something in the last 12 months that maybe you've you have you failed that

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part of, you know, part of being a leader is the ability to reflect in in the self aware.

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So what's you know, what's something you feel like you could have could have done differently?

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Taking care of myself, you know, in the last 12 months, you know, I you know, this whatever

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this is like a I had a back injury and and then I developed into like a sciatic issue

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and stuff.

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And and that was I think a lot of that was on me, you know, not not taking my not taking

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care of myself the way I need to.

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You know, I I kind of grew up with this mentality of needing to be he man and like, you know,

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I'd be the strongest one in the room.

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And like, you know, I'm never going to ask for help asking for help.

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I failed at that over and over and over again, asking for help in my life and even just like

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simple things like lifting a heavy object, you know, like and so that that has been a

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big failure for me for sure.

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And that has caused, you know, I'm thankful that I'm learning that lesson in this season

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where, you know, where everything's kind of paused in this new way of doing things.

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And, you know, we're not meeting in person and there's not as much physical things that

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I'm I have an option to do.

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And so it's a good time for me to learn this lesson.

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And and honestly, like every time I deal with the pain, you know, I get frustrated at it

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right away.

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But then I'm like, you know what?

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I asked for this.

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I asked for God to keep growing me.

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I asked for him to show me where I'm weak and to and to to build me up to who I need

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to be for the future.

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And man, it's been a really hard lesson, but I'm really thankful for it, you know, and

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and that realization that I have to do a better job.

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If I want to be a better leader, I have to do a better job of taking care of me.

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You know, I've I've I've done that spiritually and I've done that mentally, you know, counseling

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and having mentors and stuff.

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But but physically, I haven't been great at that.

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And so this has been a good season of God teaching me that.

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Yeah.

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Well, I love the humility, man.

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I love it.

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I appreciate it.

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Marie and I, you know, we had we have made a meal on Sunday and then we watched my my

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message and we got done and I shared something that I got out of it.

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And then my wife said to me, she said, Wow, you you really need to listen to your own

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message.

236
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Yeah.

237
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Yes.

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Yeah.

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And we talked about it for 45 minutes for 45 minutes.

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And there were three or four things that was wow, you're absolutely right.

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And we we prayed and it ended up being a really powerful time, even though it was just it

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was just myself and my wife and Aubrey this week because of the way things have been with

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this pandemic.

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But I love the humility.

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I think I think when we're when we keep it in the front of our mind, you know, how do

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we lead ourselves?

247
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You know, that's what I heard from you.

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You know, you're like you.

249
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And I asked the question, hey, what's something you failed at?

250
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You took it directly to your own responsibility for yourself as a leader.

251
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And to me, you know, that's what makes the best leaders.

252
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So I appreciate that, brother.

253
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I appreciate the humility.

254
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I'm right there with you.

255
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It's like, what do I need to work on, man?

256
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Let's go.

257
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And then it's like, man, should I have prayed that I didn't realize this is what it was

258
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going to be?

259
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So that's the what comes.

260
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But it's like it just you know, you have to get through these seasons of God teaching

261
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you lessons with gratitude.

262
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And if you have any other mindset about it, it's man, you're just going to delve into

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such hopelessness, you know, like and taking care of yourself is such a you know, I just

264
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look at you know, I don't know if you saw the lead singer and guitar player for Hawk

265
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Nelson.

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I don't know if you're familiar with the band Hawk Nelson, but they're a fairly popular,

267
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well known Christian band.

268
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And he just he just announced yesterday that he no longer believes in God.

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And you know, he was just posting, you know, all about, you know, his struggles and stuff.

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And it just you know, it just grieved me that like, you know, he's on People in People magazine

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and ABC News is picking up the story of this, you know, you know, big time Christian musician

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that doesn't know no longer believes in God.

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And like, it's just so sad because his message about Jesus was and hope was never picked

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up that way.

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And you know, that's, I just I just grieved because he also said like, I'm open, I'm remaining

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open, I'm not closed off, but I'm just struggling.

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And I'm always kind of just stepping down from all that.

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And it just grieved me that like, you know, that was his platform.

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Now is a message of hopelessness.

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And after he dedicated such a huge portion of his life to trying that, you know, to just

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to spread Jesus, but now like what he's going to be known for is that and if he ever comes

282
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back around Jesus, I just grieve for him as how much he'll hurt.

283
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You know, that that was such a huge message for him.

284
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And nobody's going to pick up the story about him coming back to Jesus.

285
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You know what I mean?

286
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Nobody's going to come back to that and that again, that's a self care thing, you know,

287
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and we as leaders in the in the public eye, no matter what level you're at, right?

288
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You know, you have to be so careful to be taking care of yourself again, and to have

289
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people in your life that can help you work through those questions so that you don't

290
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have this big public meltdown all of a sudden, because, you know, being a leader is lonely.

291
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You know, we see that all the time.

292
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It can be such a lonely thing because you just you feel like nobody can understand and

293
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you feel like you have to be this lighthouse of hope for the world.

294
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And so if there's something broken in me, then what's that sand of the world, you know?

295
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And so we feel like we have to put on the show so often.

296
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And so that just grieves me when you see that, like, you know, who was around him?

297
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You know, who was in his life?

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You know, asking just, hey, how are you?

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And actually meaning that, you know, and that's a thing that I think, as Christians, we too

300
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often assume that our Christian brothers and sisters in general, but also especially in

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leadership that we just assume, oh, they're they're OK.

302
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They're doing fine, right?

303
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They know they know all the answers to the questions.

304
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I go to them for advice, right?

305
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So I'm sure they're they're doing fine, you know, and it's just a question that we we

306
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don't ask enough.

307
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And that would prevent, I think, a lot of these public moments that just, you know,

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grieve us so much.

309
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I think it's I think it's very hard to reconcile.

310
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Celebrityism and servanthood is very, very hard to there to post their paradox.

311
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So you know, navigating.

312
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You know, that's a very hard thing for people to figure out, you know, because the culture

313
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that the culture that wants to put people on a pedestal is very, very unhealthy.

314
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And it's actually the exact opposite qualities that help you actually grow, you know.

315
00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:56,320
Yeah.

316
00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:58,680
You self aware.

317
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Choosing to be humble and and choosing to be humble and self aware is is the hard work.

318
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,200
Right.

319
00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:10,200
Absolutely.

320
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:11,200
That's great.

321
00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:14,880
You know, so that's what we're talking about today.

322
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:15,880
This is a good stuff.

323
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:21,040
The good stuff is stuff we're talking about here where you keep it real and keep it close

324
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and keep it personal.

325
00:21:24,360 --> 00:21:26,760
That's good, man.

326
00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:30,040
So we'll take a little bit of a right here, a little bit of a right turn.

327
00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:38,040
Anna, what is your what is your understanding of the world, what's happened in the world

328
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:40,040
with water?

329
00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:42,400
Well, you know what?

330
00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:46,480
It's funny because like I've learned so much more about that.

331
00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:51,360
Just knowing you, you know, to be honest, like, you know, I, you know, I lived in California

332
00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:59,560
for eight years and so droughts and the understanding that like, you know, water is a finite resource.

333
00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:05,640
Like really became a reality, you know, came came into my head at all, you know, to be

334
00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:10,280
honest, like while living in California and just realizing, you know, I moved out of there

335
00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:13,800
before all of the really bad wildfires hit.

336
00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:18,960
But even in Arizona, you know, there's there's talks of mega droughts and all these things.

337
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:22,760
And so really only in the last couple of years.

338
00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:24,520
I mean, well, I realize it then.

339
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:29,600
But, you know, in the last couple of years and knowing you just realizing how much of

340
00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:33,880
a worldwide issue it is, you know, and how many people are without it.

341
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:39,320
And to be honest, like, that's why I, you know, that's why your vision for ocean water

342
00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:41,440
is so compelling to me personally.

343
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:46,680
And you know, I tell everybody about you, you know, because of it's such an awesome,

344
00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:52,000
powerful vision of using something as, you know, the world understands their need for

345
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water.

346
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:54,000
Right.

347
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,960
And sometimes that that's we have to have water to survive.

348
00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:57,960
Right.

349
00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:02,880
But then so to use that as a method of going and practically meeting needs in the world

350
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:04,040
all over the world.

351
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:05,040
Right.

352
00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:11,960
But then, you know, always injecting kind of using using that need for water as a platform

353
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:17,600
to be able to build a church and to and to lead people to the living water of Jesus is

354
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:20,320
just the coolest thing to me, man.

355
00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:22,640
I just love I just love it so much.

356
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:30,280
And so and so yeah, I mean, but but before you, I didn't have like a great grasp of like,

357
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:35,440
you know, the kind of dire state of a lot of a lot of countries in the world, including

358
00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:36,440
the U.S. right now.

359
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:37,440
So yeah.

360
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:38,440
Yeah.

361
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:43,080
You know, we we mentioned earlier about about passing the torch.

362
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:48,320
And one of the things that I'm I'm excited about as we head into year two for ocean water

363
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:58,760
is starting to to mobilize young people for this purpose.

364
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:05,200
People coming out of high school, people that are in college and taking some of the leadership

365
00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:10,800
stuff in and taking it away.

366
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:24,080
I think there's one of my observations is just been how how how bored and and disinterested

367
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:28,440
people coming up are with traditional institutionalized church.

368
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:36,080
There's something very compelling if you're young and you think about traveling the world,

369
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:42,400
solving a problem and then putting your leadership to the test instead of talking about it and

370
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:45,720
quoting cute quotes on Instagram.

371
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,440
You can actually put your leadership to the test.

372
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:54,320
You get your hands and feet dirty, actually leading something.

373
00:24:54,320 --> 00:25:01,480
That's a much more compelling case for someone's adventure and leadership and solving a real

374
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:02,480
need.

375
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:06,440
And then taking the gospel to get to churches and places where they don't even happen.

376
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:12,560
So I'm really very I have a written front and center as things I'm great about.

377
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:21,160
And you know, it all starts with prayer, you know, we get with good ideas or a dime a dozen,

378
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:25,840
something God's in and that all starts with, you know, that all starts with a lot of prayer

379
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,960
and a lot of conversation and trying to try and do things.

380
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,040
So it's been fun to be thinking about that.

381
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:34,040
Yeah, yeah.

382
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:38,800
I also just want to say thank you.

383
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,840
How we met was I just laugh.

384
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:51,280
I mean, I literally I met you two days in the starting ocean.

385
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,000
Yeah, two days.

386
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,440
I didn't realize that.

387
00:25:56,440 --> 00:26:03,120
And I said this before I said it again, I did not want to leave Saddleback.

388
00:26:03,120 --> 00:26:07,920
I get along wonderfully with Kurt Johnson.

389
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,400
I like love Pastor Rick.

390
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,760
My wife says too much.

391
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:19,560
And I got like cried out of that place.

392
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:24,320
And then I liquidated my retirement.

393
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:29,320
I went all in and I met you two days later.

394
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:35,920
And so I want to say thank you to you because what I have found is that God always brings

395
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:39,200
the right people at the right time.

396
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:44,720
And but you don't get to meet the right people until you take the step.

397
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:45,720
Yeah.

398
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:55,280
You got to take the you have to take this step of risk and then and then it happens.

399
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:56,280
Yeah.

400
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:58,320
Easier to tell the story later.

401
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:00,320
Yeah, yes, absolutely.

402
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:04,680
Yeah, harder, harder to harder to harder to tell.

403
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:05,680
And it's been wonderful.

404
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:10,960
So I just want to thank you for you have been a really great friend to me in the last year.

405
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:11,960
So I appreciate it.

406
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:13,840
It's been my it's been my honor.

407
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:16,680
I've gotten so much out of getting to know you as well.

408
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:21,200
So I'm just so pumped that we get to work side by side.

409
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:23,640
You know, it's it's it's an awesome thing.

410
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:24,640
Yeah.

411
00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:25,640
Awesome, man.

412
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:26,640
Well, we'll have to do this again.

413
00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:28,280
You've got a lot to share.

414
00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:34,200
And thank you for your time that any last any last words, man, anything anything we need

415
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:38,880
to hear from you, bro?

416
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:45,960
I mean, always just, you know, in this season right now, like there's a lot of uncertainty.

417
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:46,960
There's a lot of fear.

418
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:49,800
There's a lot of anger, hatred going around.

419
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:55,920
And like, we just just keep being the light of Jesus, you know, like keep loving people,

420
00:27:55,920 --> 00:28:01,080
keep showing that love and compassion that only can come from Jesus.

421
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:04,200
And that's what's going to get us through all this.

422
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:09,280
And yeah, just that's my prayer for myself.

423
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:15,760
My prayer for everybody is let's just let's just show the world who Jesus is in this time.

424
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:17,680
You know, it's such a such a great opportunity.

425
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:18,680
You know, yeah.

426
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:19,680
Well, thank you, brother.

427
00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:20,680
Thanks for your time, man.

428
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:21,680
Thanks, Ryan.

429
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:22,680
Love you, dude.

430
00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:23,680
And have a good rest of the day, bro.

431
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:24,680
All right.

432
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:25,680
You too.

433
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:34,320
Yes.