Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper. You are live from the math. And you are listening to Live From The Bath. We're coming from the Pathway Studios here at Johnson Proper. It's good to see you guys tonight. Hey. We got a heck of a show. Shoot. Sorry. I had to do a hard cut. Yeah. My bad. But, hey, it's a it's a great show on tonight. First of all, John Acuff is on, and we're gonna gonna introduce you to John here in just a few seconds, and I I'm really excited for this interview.

John actually had has and, so we'll get to talk to John in just a second. We have some, Buba's got some pope style advice. If you remember the premise is, someone's don't I know. Somebody at the bar lied and said that Buva was the pope, and so now there's 30,000 people on his lawn. And he's gotta give him some sort of, you know, pontiff type advice before they leave his yard. And so Buva's got some of that. We got some secular versus Solomon. We give you a proverb. You gotta tell me whether it's a secular proverb or, something from the bible. And, basically, do do we know biblical wisdom or, you know, are we just taking whatever shows up on the on the Twitter? It's, something from the lord. Or from the bar pope. Could be the bar pope. Dan's got some, what's trending with Dan? We'll see what's going on in the world. It seems like like it might be a little shifty. Dan, can you give us a quick preview of the stories? Yeah. Absolutely. There's, so many comp authorities confiscated $3,000,000 worth of, Nike shoes from a Kentucky home. K. We got Bruce Willis' daughter walking around half naked Wait. In New York the week, man. Okay. Alright. So, big,

first of all, you can't see me because I donated my camera, to John Acuff because he's worth it. John is a, is a blogger. He's a, a highly successful author, and and he has agreed to come on the show probably against better judgments. This is John Acuff. Hi, John. Hey, guys. So, you know, first question, just with that introduction, we were kinda talking before the show. And the question is,

what's on your business card? Or, like, if someone says, you know, hey. I'm Steve. Hey. What do you do? How do you answer that question? I'll show you one of my business cards. Okay. It's a miracle of technology. So this is my business card.

It is large, and it's designed like a library card. Uh-huh. And it is letterpressed, so it feels, you know, impressive. Yep. It got my books listed. So I don't really have a title that says, Acuff, comma, John. I mean, it's like a light like, you'd see in the back of a book. Oh, sweet. So I've worn it all together. I think the the the more awkward thing is when you meet people this happened just the other day. Somebody said, what do you do? And I said, I'm a writer. They they first think you're lying. Right. And they go, no. No. No. But, like, what do you do for money?

That's kind of what the state says. And then you go, I I and they go, what do you write? And you say, I write books, and there's still a lot of doubt and confusion or that that maybe I'm bringing that in my own insecurity. Uh-huh. But I I just say I write books and I speak. And

the the speak part's the part people don't understand. I think they're like, like, right now you speak or you go places with belts on and speak, and it's the latter. But, you know, the I I think their hesitation who write books that live on a bench. Like, there's just that that occupation does lend itself to wide extremes of society.

Yeah. It's I always I write books in the library, the public library, because it keeps you humble, Because you're surrounded by millions of other books that some author is like, the world needs this book. And it's ended up on a shelf where a man in sweatpants at 10AM on a Tuesday is thumbing through it. You're right. There is a wide swath of people that say I write books, and it's wider now because of self publishing. Oh, yeah. So, did you, is are any of your work self published, or did you kinda from the get go jump on on, a legitimate branding? No. My first two books are self published. They are horrible. And I did it myself, and I just basically

self published for me was copy and paste blog. 98% of everything I wrote was considered the best of. It's like when the Rolling Stone like, when Rolling Stone magazine does, you know, the 200 best Beatles songs, and there's 400. Yeah. Yeah. You know, 50% are on the best of list. You know, I feel kinda slighted actually because I think I paid money for one of the books. I don't recall which one it is right now. No. You you you did not, sir, because you are not my mom. I know for a fact that you don't own any of my self published books. Actually, she said that my son was a writer, I should pay for it. I was just doing what I was told.

What? If she was selling them to you, then I don't know who that woman was, but she was most definitely not my mom. Most of the story that I've just told there is not true. Let's Actually, I was I was gonna be quite impressed with Thakuff's guerrilla marketing. He sends out his mom with a bunch of books in his trunk. Hit the streets. Moving units. Not moving units. Blog called Stuff Christians Like. And it's it's interesting because

from my perspective, like, you carry a lot of influence. There's a there's a lot of people that that that follow you on on social media and stuff. And I I I guess one of things I was wondering was, have you, have you ever, like, felt the weight of that type of influence that you have with that many people kinda holding on to words that you send out there, even kind of passive things that you might throw out as a has the weight of that kind of kind of ever hit you in an interesting way? Yeah. It's funny you said the word interesting because that's one of those words that can mean horrible or great. Yeah. Like, if you ever tell a buddy your idea, they go, interesting.

It means they either hate it or they they like it. And, usually, it's it's the hate. But for me, no. I mean, I guess the the weight of it's a weird thing because I try not to look down. Like, I try to walk across it and just ridiculous stuff because I never wanna lose that idea of that it's just fun. And I you know, you should never take yourself too seriously. And so and I don't I don't like when when folks that get some influence just get drunk on it. I you know, and I I go through that every now and then. I needed, like, three followers on Twitter to become a jerk.

I have low jerk threshold. So I try to have fun with it. I try to remember it's it's the Internet. I try to remember that most of this stuff is temporary, so I try not to define myself by it and, you know, just have fun with it. Actually, I was gonna ask you a little bit, like, because with the with the sheer number of interactions on social media you have, like, every once in a while, I'll read one and think there's there's got to be days when you're just not interested in doing that. So do you keep, like, a like, 15 in the can, you know, that you can just throw out if the day's really not lending? You sure have been tweeting a lot lately, and I I wanted to say, well, I'm writing a book. Like, I can only do so many bear attacks jokes. And so, yeah, there's definitely days, you know, where where I I just there's nothing funny for me to say, and it's not that I I wanna write emo poetry that sounds like the cure. It's

not that I wanna write something sad instead. It's just there's some days where you just don't have it. I try to schedule stuff out to the best that I can, but I like the live in the moment stuff. That's why I live tweet stuff like the Grammys, because it's fun. I like that challenge. So yeah. But there's definitely days especially blogging. Blogging is fun for the first day you blog. Every day after that is hard. The first day, you're like, I gotta blog. I registered. Like, I already got business cards. And you're telling all your friends, and you're looking at Google Analytics and becoming a credible reading from, like, Guam. And then, like, day three, you're like, man, every day I have to do content. This is tiring. So, yeah, it it comes and goes.

Yeah. I mean, I I I was just, it it has to be difficult, especially kinda with the with the type of type of stuff that you do. I mean, you could only see hacksaw Jim Duggan at the airport, like, once every few months. You know? Like, it just doesn't walk into your lap. And if there's gotta be times where, you know, you you feel like people have an expectation to be able to hear from you. And, and I don't know. You feel like you have to do something. And and I don't know. That just seems like it might be difficult at times. Yeah. I think it is. And I I think part of it's just taking breaks,

and part of knowing that, like, there's not there's never gonna be a time where you tweet something that somebody doesn't misinterpret or not like. You know? I tweeted one time. I think I said something like, if I was a pig, I'd be so upset on about how Renaissance. Like, do you remember ten years ago, we went through the mullet renaissance where, like, everything was a mullet joke, and there's, like, websites devoted to it, and they had, like, flash intros. And I was like, mullets. You don't you never hear about mullets now. They're they're kinda on the downside. So I said that about about bacon, and somebody is like, well, I thought only sinners should see your death. And they, like, turn into this deep sea of light. And I was like, are you talking about Christian pigs? Like, a demon pig? Like and so I try to remember that you can't write or create something not to offend or not to bother somebody because the you know? And and satire is like that. If you if you try to explain satire to somebody, you murder it. So there's times when I'll write something knowing some people aren't just gonna get this. And I'll do, you know, rap references, or I think Tomorrow's Post mentions it mentions Bobby Brown song. Yep. Not in that generation. And that that's okay. Like, I'll do a Zee Cabarrici reference, you know, or I'll mention Flight of the Concords and you know, or that Cinderella runs Disney like Jay Z runs New York. And I'll say that in a speech, and I'll know that there will be people that come up to me and go, I had no like, what did that mean? Yep. And so you try to again, I try to have fun with it, and and my wife keeps me sane and nice. I mean, I she the number of mean tweets she said, I don't think you should tweet that. I mean, I don't know if that's in Proverbs 31, but it should be. Yeah. Yeah. No. That's a good woman.

Actually, you know, I was gonna ask you about that too because, we talk about that on the show quite a bit. Like, it's, there's a lot of information that you can get out there, especially for, you know, information on how to live your Christian life or practical things or whatever. And, like, it seems like the cesspool of, the worst of the worst of Christianity shows up in the comment section. Hard to stay out of the comment section of your own blog. Like, yours is kinda actually tame. I look forward to see if there's fights brewing every once in while. And I don't generally run into them, but it seems like like, you did an article for this for CNN, a little while back. And and and the article was fantastic, and then the cesspool began inside the comment section. And Yeah. That that those are rough. Those comments were I try not to get into those.

You know, I that's an interesting idea in general, like, the shift in our culture. Like, fifty years ago, musicians like, thousands of people weren't commenting every day about the thing they were doing. Same same with authors. I had a friend say, hey. You wanna know what Kurt Vonnegut told me? And I thought that was a dope way to start a sentence. Yes. He said, well, Kurt Vonnegut said, you know, Mark Twain would have killed himself if he had Amazon reviews. You know, like, that that is the thing you create and can put one star reviews next to the buy button, like, right up next to it. That's new. And so I yeah. I try not to get too caught up in it, especially like CNN article, or like YouTube comments. I never look at YouTube comments. That's like the first rule of the Internet. And you I never try to change people's mind if they're you know, the times somebody

called me a name the other day in a Facebook message about something, and ironically enough, they were saying that I had been mean to somebody else, and they felt like calling me the name was the best way to be nice to me, I guess. And so I responded and not mean and kind of responded, and they never responded back. So 99% of the time, when I waste my time trying to go, oh, let's have dialogue, they don't want dialogue. They just wanted to throw a rock. And and the other thing is the Internet makes people book or some other, you know, big Christian. It's be people can get really mad because it's easy to hate somebody that you don't really know. They've never met Rob Bell. They've never had a coffee with him. They you know, they're not his neighbor. He's just an idea. He's you know, he's got you know, his his whole name is in bold letters to them, and so they can throw rocks. And so the Internet's been weird to change that. Actually, you know what? I I run into that quite a bit, and it's actually a real realization, I think, that I've been through myself here recently is, like, especially when it comes to,

you know, the differences in denominations and ideas on things and and all that kind of jazz. It's like everybody has some point in their theology that's just it's not right. And you don't know what it is, but we can't all be right and we you know what saying? There's gotta be some point in your theology right now. It doesn't matter what it is that it's it's it's not jiving. It's not correct. You just don't know what that is. And so, like and and, like, I think you're right. If you put it in perspective of he's a guy that that he's you know, have a coffee with him. See where he's coming from or even just talk to him and treat him and treat him with some, you know, a little bit of respect and dialogue, maybe we wouldn't have such the cesspool in the comment area. You know? Oh, yeah. And and I think the reality, to your point, none of us are gonna get to heaven and God's gonna go. You got it a 100% right. You figured me out. I'm mysterious and huge and massive and all creative, but you got it right. You batted a thousand percent. You got just the one. But but sometimes we have that ego, and sometimes I've written about this before. Sometimes Christianity for some people is like a bully learning karate. Like, they were already a jerk, and now they're a jerk for Jesus. And that just you know, all of a sudden, they have a new way to beat you up. And so that's that's something I try to I try to be careful conversations

to that. Has there, has there ever been a conversation that you've started that you wish you hadn't? Many. Like, most like, a lot of them. I would say that, look, one that really sticks out to me is I did this idea, which is complete satire,

about sometimes in music, people start in gospel, and then they move up to country, and then they move up to pop. Uh-huh. Like, that's kind of the latter. Like so, like, Katie Hudson became Katy Perry. You know? And Jessica Simpson's first album was gospel, and she moved up to pop. And she was now down in she had gone to country. And so I did this whole post about, are we ready to take her back to Christian? And and I did this whole thing like, you know, this is when her sister was married to the the the bass player from when she come you know, all this stuff. And people showed up out of nowhere to say some horrible things about her. And even though I hadn't said those things, I created an environment where people could say that. Yeah. So for me, that was one of those shifting points where I felt like I realized

there's two ways to do it. You can either seed the clouds for conversations, like meteorologists seed clouds for rain, or you can chum the waters for sharks. And there's enough shark Christian blogs out there that I I don't wanna be another one. So you know? And the other thing I'd say is that there are some conversations that are too big for Twitter. Some conversations are too big for a blog post. Right. Some topics where I won't take the thing you care most passionately about and try to cram it into three sentences and think I've captured your whole story. I'd much rather talk to you about it face to face. Right. There's things that belong

Yeah. So so with with the various things you got going on in life, how do you how do you find balance in what you're doing? Because, like, a lot of the things that you're talking about, I I think you're very successful in motivating people to to live more of the life that they're in. It's not, it doesn't always call them out of what they're doing, but but even to to just be more a part of the life that they're in. But but they're, how do you, with all the stuff you have going on, protect balance in your life? Poorly. It's my it's my whole life. No. I'm I'm trying to figure it out. It's I'm in a new seasonal life. You know, for the first time in sixteen years, I don't have a boss. Yeah. I don't work at a company. So that's that's new. I'm I'm only about eight months into that that experiment.

And so I'm trying to figure out, okay. How do I find community when I don't go to an office? I've always had at least a workplace community. You know, we try to run a couple times a week, and we're not gonna win any marathons, but it's really about I I can't speak for other guys, but I suck at friendships. Yeah. Like, I'm just it's not something I'm good at. It's not natural to me. And so I'm I'm working hard to be, you know, this guy's friend and have him be my friend. And so that's that's part of that balance. And then it's this constant kind of reinvention of at least every few weeks sitting down with my wife and going, okay. Am I traveling too much? And, you know, where's where's something that's out of balance? I don't believe in perfect balance. I just think I think that's a myth, the idea that you'll always have the same balance and it'll always be perfect. I think that I'll speak less during this season of my life because I've got young kids, and I wanna be around. And maybe when they they graduate high school, my and my wife can come with me, I'll speak more then. So I I'm I'm trying to figure out the rhythm of each day, and, it looks like like you're involved with, a little bit of of, you know, social media direction for for companies. Like, you're available to kinda help out in that area. Do you I don't know. Do you feel like the like the the social media thing is gonna saturate at some point and it's just gonna be too much for everybody, or has it got some legs that can run for a little while? No. I think I think it already is too much for everybody. Yeah. I mean, I personally speaking, I'm not saying myself, I hope another blog, you know, like, writes a thousand posts. I think peep yeah. I think we've reached some degree of social media saturation already, where you're seeing, you know, people aren't reading blogs the way they used to read blogs. You know, when I started Stuff Christian's Like in 2008, Instagram didn't exist. Pinterest didn't exist. Twitter was barely around. And so those things have impacted the way people read blogs. There's a degree of social media exhaustion with some of it. Some of it's gotten even better. I mean, I'm able to do more video now, and I've got friends helping me do that. Private Facebook groups. I've got two groups, thirty days of hustle and one called Dreamers and Builders, and I've been blown away by the things the people that are in those groups have done. And so I I think there's always gonna be something new people are excited about, but I I think that there are a lot of people that feel overwhelmed and and feel exhausted. And they call it, like, I've heard the phrase profile exhaustion, where people don't wanna sign up for one more thing like, okay. Plaxo. Now I have to be on Plaxo or, like, here's my 27 LinkedIn following. You know, there's there's always a new platform. So I think it'll balance itself out, but I think that today is the smallest social media will ever be. I think it's only gonna get bigger tomorrow. Man, I I Yep. Speaking of that speaking of that video, Jazz, it looks like you were live streaming. What is the the the six club, the 6AM club there last week? How'd that go? That was fun. We had about 75 folks, and it's it's

it used to be the five club, but we realized that to ask your friend at a church to open up the building at 04:30AM is a good way to lose a friend. And so we we bumped it back to the six club. And I liked five club as the name better because it sounded like fight club. Yeah. It kinda it kinda had a ring, and six club does not sound like that. No. No. It doesn't. Six club sounds like there might be muffins. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, John. Yeah. It it's a it's a different it's a different vibe. But, yeah, it was a lot of fun, and it's just it's 75 folks in Nashville that are all working on a dream. And if you can't get up half an hour early to figure out what you wanna do, then you you have to figure out the I've been I gotta get up earlier for fifteen years. And every time, I'm like, well, know, maybe not today. Here's thing. I'm a tell you I'm a I'm a tell you a quick story. That requires you to get up early? What's that? Your job requires you to get up early?

No. Not really. I don't have to be up early. I just I like, I don't know. I always feel great if I get up early in the morning. Like, it feels like something's been accomplished. Actually so I I in fact, I read something today. I don't know if you guys saw this, but there was that, there was a an an army officer or whatever giving advice. He said, make your bed. Make your bed till you accomplish something right away. And and I thought, yeah. I like to I like to get up and accomplish something. Even eating breakfast. I skip a lot of breakfast, and I feel like eating breakfast is, like, a big accomplishment for me. And I've conquered the day so far because I've eaten something. But most of the days, I'm like, well, maybe breakfast can wait. There's another couple meals coming around.

It's poisoning personality that I That sounded like there's gonna be some Taco Bell extra meals thrown in there. I dinner dinner meal. You know what happens, though? It's like, I don't really let breakfast go. I just shift it to, like, a 03:30, 04:00 stub meal of which I can't prepare for, so I have to eat out. So, like, it's the double poison. I not only did not get up early and eat, but then I bought something I shouldn't have purchased with money I didn't have and things that my body shouldn't use all at four in the afternoon. And so I ruined dinner that my wonderful wife has prepared. It's it's it's rough. It's like cheating on the other stone. Yeah. Yeah. It's meal adultery. It

really is. That's a slippery slope. Mike so Mike was telling us a story just before we actually got on the air with you about how you poisoned his phone. Yeah. Here's the deal. So I downloaded Quitter Quitter came available on an audiobook, and it was free. And I thought, heck, yeah. Free Quitter. And but I didn't playlist it. Like, I just kinda threw it in with the rest of my tunes. And so I listened through it, you know, while I was driving because I drive a lot for work, and and I really liked it. And and but it got it got cut in my shuffle. And so, like, I I put on my headphones to go mow the lawn or something, and I'd be rocking out to, like, you know, walk the dinosaur. And then here comes Acuff, and he's like, chapter seven. You need I like what you referenced. Rock the walk the dinosaur. That's That was the prequel. So so, anyway, like, I'm rocking out, mowing the lawn, and then Acuff is like, chapter seven. You can't quit your job. I'm like, whatever, Acuff. I'm mowing the lawn. You know?

And then They added it, Acuff. And I and I it it it actually progressively got worse. You know? Like, I'd go ahead and I'd skip past him. No offense, but I'd skip past him because I'm mowing the lawn. You know? Like, five songs later, come he rolling back in with, like, chapter eight. You don't hustle. Alright. You know? I tried to skip past, you know, his his the the quitter book, and, like, it just go to another chapter. And it was like it had taken over my phone, so I eventually had to take it over there. Well, I wanna tonight, live, apologize for giving you a free product that I put my heart into. Sorry. I cut into your lawn mower.

Richard, would your next question be how our generation's getting more entitled? Hey. This story was about me, Hecar. That's true. He redirected it. That's what you talk in the media. Media training. Redirect. You get it on Skype, suddenly you're a king.

Hey. So what's gonna be in the John Acuff store on your website that's yet to come? That is a great question. Probably, I don't know, probably T shirts. Definitely some digital stuff. I hear a lot curriculum. So I'm not sure yet. My my wife and I talked about that the other day, and she said, I feel like T shirts are just an ego play.

And I said, what do you mean? Said, I think you just want people walking around wearing something you've said. And I told her, I love you. Thank you for your wisdom. I said that eventually. Right. First of people need soft, buttery soft t shirts. There's a you know, there's not enough ways to get creative t shirts on the Internet. We need one more additional way.

So I don't know what's gonna be in there. Any suggestions? Were you about to pitch one? We were talking about it. We thought maybe some sunglasses with your face up in the right hand corner, but you're right. I mean, that kinda falls under the same line like your wife was saying. I was thinking above that. I was thinking barbecue apron, but, like, I I mean Somebody made as a joke, like, what do you call it? Cufflinks with my head on them, and they were, like, eight cufflinks.

I'm like, uh-huh. A lovely pun as an accessory. If it's bobble headed as well, I'd probably buy one. I don't, yeah, I don't have one. I have a I could show you that I have a, like, a cardboard cutout that my kids have decorated. Let me I'll move the camera to see what that looks like.

Let's see. Can you see it in the corner? Hold on. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There it is. It's got kick me on the face. And a quitter shirt. So they are pretty impressed by by me. Wait. I mean, did they have that made, or did someone else make that of you and you just brought it home with you?

Zonderman made them. Yes. You forget they exist, and then you come home late at night, and there's a thin, terrifying man in the corner of a room that you forgot is made of art. Help me. I'm being robbed by a handsome guy who looks just like me. Who's who's 90% to scale. Clearly, he's been kicked. I don't know what happened, but he dresses well. I said to Zondren, hey. Thanks for making me shorter. If there was a direction you could have overcorrected on, height.

Go up. That's true. Oh, you get a Photoshop, your cardboard cutout with a quick make it a little beefier. You know? Ship those to you? Like, did it come in the UPS? I don't I think so. I mean, they come in a flat they don't come put together. They're just technique. That's slightly less awkward than putting them in your cart. I that's I don't know. I feel like that's more awkward to have to put yourself together as a cardboard cutout. Like, you're spending time Like, there's some metanarrative there or something. People say that. So It's gotta be a real surreal moment when you arrive in the mail. Open up the package. It's me.

I You know what? I'd say it's less surreal when your wife goes, where are we gonna keep all of these? Like, which one do you get? Which kid do you love the most? Am I right? Shoot. Does I didn't I didn't catch it. Does it go down to your shoes? Is that, like, gonna seriously date your style three years from now? No. It's pretty my style is pretty simple. So they're, like, white shoes.

Their the jeans are baggier because I didn't live in Nashville when they made it. Uh-huh. You have to wear skinny jeans in this city. And then it's got a V neck and no ring on the fingers. So, apparently, he's single. This is a bachelor John. We'll see the edits. Thank you so much for joining us here on live from the path, and, you can check, you can see John all the time by going to acuff.me. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's a king that's a king of Skype type of web address there, John. Acuff.me,

or you can go to to Stuff Christians Like. Thanks again for hanging out with us, and we hope to talk to you again. Well, thanks, guys. They were they were fun questions. They were unexpected. You really I felt like we brainstormed some good ideas for the store. And was able to apologize for sliding one of the one of the hosts Yep. With a with a gift. Yeah. It wasn't real smooth, but I accept it.

You're dicking the apology. It wasn't the best apology you guys heard, but I'll take it. Thanks, John. That was John. Thanks, John. Alright. Thanks, Pat. See you. Bye. Did we did we did we ask everything? I don't know. I tell you what. Here's the deal. We have the interview skew interview skills of, like, a a two legged lizard. You know I'm saying? But the the legs are on the opposite. They're on the diagonal. Yeah. It's true. We live it along. It seems like it's gonna be interesting because it's two legged lizard, but it has the opportunity to fall on its face at any time. No. Here's the deal. That guy makes anybody look good. You know what I'm saying? Like, he's a he's he's a good interview on the other side. We could have been totally lame and partially were. I like marshmallows.

What do you think? We rescued it. What do want, John? That's a skill. You've listening to live from the path. Again, go go check out John. Go to stuff Christians like or a cuff.me. There there's a lot of, this is you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook and stuff. There's a lot of humor in what he does. There's also a lot to get out of it. So Yeah. You know, approach it with a with some being ready to be entertained with some grace for the conversation. I I think Ben's right. Like, the the actually, the whole reason that I wanna invite him on the show is because, you know, our tagline is honest faith, fierce grace, and donkeys. And I feel like John does a very good job of representing an honest faith. You know what I'm saying? He, you know, he he presents a lot of a lot of humor and honesty and even when it even when when it makes him look silly. You know, it's from a from a humble perspective, and I think he does job. And that fierce that fierce grace actually, and I didn't get to tell this while he was on, but, fierce grace was actually from a blog post that he had. So when we first started the show, like, we have no skill or anything, and and we don't know how to it's Internet radio, so anybody's put on there. And so we're like, we don't know what to talk about. And, so we we kinda just started looking at John Acuff articles, and this would have been three or four years ago, and say, okay. What's he talking about? Because, obviously, people are interested in that, and we'll just kinda talk about that. Yeah. And one of his blog posts was, was was fierce grace.

Was kind of the context of this book. It was it was an excellent art. What we're actually pursuing in our conversation, are we representing are we being gracious in our conversation in in representing the grace of Christ in those discussions, even when we're having the honest discussions that frankly can can rub up against some people's comfort level. So, anyway, very, very cool. Alright. Dan. Yeah. What's, what's trending in the world? Alright. Let let's start with a a nice one. This is this is a pretty simple one. Authorities confiscate $3,000,000

worth of shoes from a Kentucky home. Police are investigating after finding $3,000,000 worth of missing shoes at a at home. Like I said, officers with the Radcliffe, Kentucky, police department confiscated thousands of pairs of Nike shoes. They were scattered in front of the home. The shoes were supposed to be shipped in 2009

from a Nike distribution center in Tennessee to another one in Texas. They never made it. They were gonna take them to a flea market. Okay. I mean, how do you have, like, a semi truckload full of shoes? Yeah. This all sounds legit. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm thinking. It's like, do you buy that from? And what makes you think they're anyway, here's the question. Heck of a trench coat. Know? Hey. I've got some shoes. Mister Fantastic is just going, hey.

Here's the question. Is it ethical to buy or sell something that may have been stolen by someone else? Mean, they had to assume. They they probably bought these cheap Right. And there were a lot of them. So a, no. It's not ethical. Jesus whipped the money changers, and he'll whip us too. B, what's the big deal? I steal stuff from work all the time. Or c, why not? They already receive the insurance money. It's a win win for everybody. These are some rough choices. Yeah. I feel like all three encapsulate me on some of them.

I know you But I I have to answer a. Like, I I gave up my favorite pastime of downloading illegal music off the Internet based off that exact premise. I didn't know where they got it from or whether it was stolen. And frankly, I think I stole it. And so Whoop you. Yeah. So it it wasn't for the fear of the money changer rebuke, but I think I was a straight I'm an a on that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a I'm a straight a. You gotta on the side of caution there. I'm gonna go a. Likewise a. But was that whip money changers? Is that what we're doing? Well, I I just had to make it sound sensational. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's got a motive motivation, you know. It's like, Jesus made a whip. You won't believe what happens next. Number seven really changed my life.

You won't believe it. That's awesome. Well, I mean, I think I think that we we we steal things all the time or people do. I shouldn't say we. But, know, they you just take stuff and not think about it. Something from war Thief. Like terrible. Terrible time thief. Yeah. I mean, that that someone's paying your salary to be there. Then it's Of course, they kinda figured it in that I wouldn't work. You know, as Acuff would put it, I wouldn't hustle the whole time I was there. So you're like, it's the win win thing? Kinda like insurance. I'm That's saying I may be slightly convicted with the c. Like, hey. They pay me anyway. They kinda figured it in productivity. Say no I'm no robot. 30%.

You know? So anyway, I was wrong about that a. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably the proper the proper answer. Maybe not necessarily the motivation behind Jesus whipping, but, you know, don't don't if it's if it's stolen somewhere. Gotta gotta put Jesus in the show somewhere. Put just well, be some sensationalists. Alright. Here's another one. This one can look a little risque here. Alright? Bruce Willis' daughter protests social media by walking topless in public. Alright? Mhmm. Scout Willis recently walked around the streets that he called instances of abuse. Uh-huh. And the abuse was she had posted a picture with a couple friends who were topless, also a picture of herself that was in a very sheer top, so it must have been pretty see through. In her protest, she walked around topless pointing out that it's legal to walk around New York state, which I didn't understand that. Topless. Never heard that. And but it's not in social media, and she thought it was ridiculous. She claims back in the nineteen thirties, men's bare chests were considered taboo, but society changed and wonders why eighty years later women can't achieve the same for their chests. She says, why can't a mother proudly best breastfeed her child in public without feeling sexualized? Why should I feel overly exposed because I choose not to wear a bra? And she concluded by saying that

it should be a woman's right to choose how she represents her body. I'm sorry. Was she breastfeeding at the time? No. She just overused in in our It is. That is. Yep. Generational difference for sure. Yep. On the young younger's how they look at that. Anyway, here's the question. Is there a difference between publicly exposing a man's chest and publicly exposing a woman's chest? She's really saying there's no difference. Uh-huh. K. A, of course not. We're all created in God's image and should be able to appreciate the beauty and innocence of the human body without thinking sexual thoughts. Mhmm. B, absolutely.

Men are pigs and cannot be trusted. No matter what the context, even if it's breastfeeding, men tend to be turned on sexually by sight. Or c, as long as you call it art or natural, you can do whatever you want and it doesn't matter. There's a Dan play Dan play is coming to the runway. Buba, what are your thoughts? Here's my mind on, lady nudity. Sadly, I'm gonna have to go with b. I think that that men are are

in general, men are pretty much pigs. Myself included in that sometimes, and I I that's just me being being real. I'm a pig. Yeah. I'm I'm a total pig. I'm I'm a joke. I know I am. And when this stuff comes to temptation and things that that maybe it shouldn't affect people, and and that's an absolute understandable point to take that it shouldn't, but it does. And that's the real reality of it. And as long as it does, that it needs to be stopped, because the fact that that's bringing on unnecessary temptation.

I get that some ladies think that's unfair. I get some dudes think that's unfair. But when it comes down to it, if you've got that situation, most of those gals are gonna be completely upset when the man does sexualize them. So I'm a go Guys, but I know zero exceptions to the b rule. We're all pigs. B. I mean, I I'm going with b with the caveat that I I actually would support public breastfeeding. So do whatever you want with that. Because it can be done without being out and about. You do it modestly. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and there are some who are pretty not modest. And a lot of times, they're they're protesting something. But, like, like, the the the people that I that I know that are strong advocates for that are are

they just wanna be able to feed their kids. They there there are there's not an agenda to say, I also wanna breeze. And the last thing in their mind the last thing in their mind is being sexual. I mean, that's just I'm not saying I mean They're not thinking that, but but every guy is going, who? An ankle in an Arab country will do the same thing. I mean, actually, there's women can do Moving on. Boy. I expected more from you guys.

You're all bunch of pigs. Alright. You are too. I am. There we go. Persecuted church. K. There's a lot a lot of different news, but the one heading right now that's kind of trending as the the sets. I'm trying to add an extra syllable in here. Sudanese, how you say that? Okay. Yep. Sudanese. Yeah. Officials told the media that a 27 year old woman imprisoned and sentenced to death for being a Christian refusing to renounce her faith would be set free a number of days. They they changed their mind basically since, like, yesterday. Her her father, which she hasn't seen since for years, evidently was was Islamic. She married a guy who was a Christian.

The court decided it was not a real marriage, gave her a 100 lashes. She's she's in jail, gonna be a persecuted church from various countries, various places. It's been going on since, you know, Stephen and Axe. So it's not like new. Isn't it? You know? It's been going on. So here's here's my question. What is the most appropriate way for Christ followers in America to respond

to the growing persecution of our brothers and sisters overseas? A, pray for them to be strong, faithful, and have peace through the persecution. B, create a hashtag campaign that tells everyone's calls everyone's attention to their pain. Yeah. C, pressure our government to get militarily involved in protecting innocent people. And I threw in a a bonus d.

Nothing we can do. Let's not talk about it and hope it'll never come here. Ben. Ben, what's your go? Yeah. I I think it's straight up prey. I'm not sure our our government inserting themselves into that isn't necessarily a will of God item. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You I think you pray for them.

Yeah. I'm gonna go with a as well. Obviously, we're we're called to expect this. Jesus called us and told us that this is going to happen. We no one should be surprised by this. Obviously, from a human perspective, are and we don't want to see it. But at the same point in time, from a biblical perspective, we are called to expect it. Dave Herrick, you've spent time outside of this country?

Yeah. I'm inclined towards go join them. That's actually what I was actually thinking. I I didn't pray, certainly, but yeah. Go join them. Be persecuted as well, like jump in jail with them. Is that what you're saying? Remember them in chains as as though in chains with them. Uh-huh. I mean, unpack that. What do mean? What was that what does it look like to me? It means getting to know their story. It means not just setting up a quick prayer and then going on and eating your happy meal, their story. Meet with their family. Meet with the people who are involved in the situation, the decision

makers. I mean, in this case yeah. I mean, I I know more to this story than than I can really say at this point. But Mhmm. Yeah. Mhmm. Right. So sorry. Well, feel like he knows more than I know. So actually, it's it's it's actually stories like these where I get, I don't know, convicted of my American

existence, I should say. I don't know that it's ever that I've ever let it come to fruition. You know what I'm saying? I don't know that I've ever let let that truth sit on me and actually bear something out apart from apart from the prayer. You know? And but I'd like to think that that's a work that God is changing in me. You know, like, there has to be real and going, you know, I prayed. I feel like it's in the lord's hands. You know what I'm saying? I'm good. Now now granted, I don't I don't think you should go hauling over there warrior style without the holy spirit's blessing, but, like,

I don't know. I I try I guess when I when when you pray about that, I guess I'd leave that door open as wide as possible and say, I'm up to whatever you want me up to. I don't know why you have this on my heart. I don't know why I'm praying for there's so many things in the world that I should be praying for. I only hit the specific ones that I feel like the holy spirit has laid on my heart. So, I mean, the question goes, I don't know why you're laying this on my heart or what's going on, but, you know, if you gotta hit me with something to help help me realize what you got going, then I'm asking. Hit me. Because it's hard to to get to know the the story. Like you say, you get to know their family. I mean, you know, here I am sitting in Johnston, Iowa. I I can't go to where those 30 children have been kidnapped. I can't go to where this woman is. I can't go to where this guy I mean, I don't know their language. I don't don't know their culture. I don't know the circumstances. All we know is what we read in the media, which was manipulated in some way to say something. You know? And they don't necessarily know everything. They they you know, the whole game. So it's I think that's that is tough, but we are called to do something, I think. And Do you think we rely on that too much as as maybe the a more modernized nation where we're like, we we do bank on prayer, which is which is obviously, you know, not against biblical teaching at all.

But, like, do you think that's where our buck stops most of the time? Do you think that that that we think that our involvement is to pray for it in almost every situation and then be done? I have a personal conviction to not pray for things that I'm not willing to get involved in. I feel like that's The answer is no. And that'll really suck people. But

it's it's part of that conversation of, look. I've only got so much head space. I've only got so much time and so many resources, and, I'm not just gonna throw up a a quick and cheap prayer and and hope that, you know, whatever. I I I'm only gonna ask God to get involved in things that I myself would want to spend my time on. Right. I wanna get involved in. Dear lord, can you send hands and feet that aren't mine to somewhere else to do your work? Yeah. It it it seems hypocritical, and, I mean, I can't do that. So Dang. But will you ever run into that?

Well, I that's an interesting conviction. Only because, for the last how many ever days, how many ever weeks, how many ever months, I I've really been working,

on I I realized I am very good at pharisaical prayer. I'm very good at it. When it comes to standing in front of some people and and praying for for just crazy big stuff and really saying the right words and things like that. I'm awesome. In my own eyes, obviously. But when it comes to just, you know, driving along and and bowing my head in prayer,

praising God every day, or just spending time with God in prayer and and listening and things like that, I'm awful. And that's an interesting conviction to hear because of the fact that that one of the things I've been working on is whenever Facebook posts happen, and then people ask for prayer. It's really easy to write the praying comment. Right? Sometimes you open up and you see 30 comments and all of them are praying, and there's no punctuation because there's no time for periods. And, just praying, praying, praying, praying, praying. And I find myself sometimes writing praying. That just kind of takes a sec or it takes a different conviction portion for for my prayer life. I've never heard it put, you know, I'm not gonna pray on something praying on something if, if I'm not physically or mentally

willing to get involved in it. And that's interesting to take. I would agree with the base statement of, prayer is just kind of the first thing we can do. Obviously, it's an incredibly powerful thing. It's our way to speak with God, and and it's our way to to to bring things to God in our own our own words and things like that. But, action is is

a lot of the times the way that God answers your prayer. And I think we look past that because we think to ourselves, oh, well, that's obviously not what's going to happen because that's me trying to get involved. That's not God. But sometimes that could be God saying, we're going to go do this now. You're going to do that now. Here's where you're going to get involved. And I found myself guilty of that. So so it's just interesting to hear that that, that thought. Dan, your thoughts. That was your question. I think that, if we're going to to like pray

over a situation, we we it should be an earnest prayer. You know? I I think that the little I mean, there are there are there are times you have maybe that little, quick little prayer, and those aren't necessarily bad or evil. I mean, you can pray for certain people, but but especially the bigger situation. I mean, these people's lives are on the line. I I just I just don't feel right about just like, okay, god. We're blessed and just bless those people. I mean, really pray. You know? I mean and part of that might be trying to figure out, like like David said, you know, getting into this the story, but in in what feeling helpless at the same time knowing what we have the god of the universe on our side. But then I I I struggle. What do you pray for? You know, that's why I kinda worded things pretty careful here, for for them to be peace, to have peace through this, to be strong through this. They're not asking for for the an out, generally. No. You know, if you're again, it's only for me reading stories.

They're not asking to be saved from persecution. They wanna be strong in persecution. I think that's probably part of our hindrance in in the church today is we have no persecution other than, you know, oh, they told me at work to stop wearing Jesus shirts. I'm really being persecuted. It's like Right. They're coming after me. Yeah. I don't I don't really think Yeah. Sometimes Ben and I talk about this a lot. But like some of this has to do with the like Christians and they're asking for advice, you know, they're having a tough time and they're like, and I feel like the devil's really coming after me. And and and this legion of demons, they're a finite number of folks. You really gotta be I feel like that just if you're gonna if you're gonna, you know, use your resources correctly,

that you really gotta be kicking some waves in his area for him to even come after you. You know what I'm saying? But like, they're like, yeah, you know, I went to go get a soda and the come and go was out of soda and I just feel like the devil is just trying to beat me down. He's like, you know, listen, Fred. I mean Maybe you're just making some poor choices. I feel like you're not at the front lines maybe like you're thinking. You know, like I I was trying to get the kids scheduled for swimming lessons and and, you know, they cut me down to thirty six hours instead of thirty eight. And I'm just I can't take much more of that. So I'm like, you know, I feel like you should pray on this thing and and maybe try to get a different perspective on life, you know. And but I think that happens. That's that's the that that's the mentality that I feel like and I I make fun of that, but like me. Why is mail not delivered on Sunday? I really feel like Job today. I feel like you're just you're coming after me. You can see I'm down. I'm down. I'm not feeling right, you know? I'm not saying that he's not there to, like, personally care about you and lift you up, but, like, I mean, seriously, like, you're not kicking waves in the devil's direction. He's like, I think Mike will destroy himself. I'll just leave him alone, you know. There's no reason to send the guy. I feel like he's on it, you know. And and, like, I think we have that opinion a lot in our culture where, I mean, we don't know anything about persecution, and so we grab on to the closest thing, you know, which is they canceled as the world turns, and we're having a rough time. You're listening to life from the path on life fromthepath.org. Listen. We got to what do we got? We got a little bit of time left on the KTIA broadcast? Just a little bit. Yeah. We just got a few minutes. Okay. I I feel like we're gonna hit a a dear life from the path real quick, so get ready to participate

in your in your vehicle. And I are young newlyweds and adjusting to our new life quite well. However, while we both come from deep deeply religious backgrounds wait a minute. Wait a minute. Religious families. We're both nonbelievers, which has caused some strife within the family. Uh-huh. Mike has several nieces and nephews ages four to nine who have asked us repeatedly why we don't go to church with them since the whole family goes together. Their mother has made it clear that they do not want the children knowing there is another option besides Christianity,

and I understand since their faith is so important to them. But I don't wanna lie to the kids or ignore their questions. Is there a tactful way to answer these questions without stepping on toes? Up first, Dave Herrick. Dave Herrick, here's the deal. There's a family members. They have kids, and they're asking questions about religion, and the and the and the and the parents are just a bit So nonbelievers or or just one of the parents? The both parents are believers. They take their kids to church religiously. Okay. And they're not interested in this couple who grew up in a religious background, but is not really feeling it right now. They're not interested in them telling their views

to the children. The children ask why you don't go to church or what's going on. And they they don't wanna lie to the kids on why they don't go, but so they're asking for a tactful way to tell the truth. I well, I don't know what the issue would be. I mean, tell the truth. You know? So

you so so, like, if if it was you were put in that shoes, then you would say, like, you know, your daughter asked somebody why they don't attend church, and they're like, look. I just don't believe in in god like you do. And you and you say, look. My my child can receive that. We can have going lifestyle has made it very hard to start a conversation. Sorry. Your thoughts. I shouldn't let Harriet go first. Yeah. So if you say anything more than he did, you're gonna seem bloated. I'm just saying.

Go ahead. Yeah. I I I'm interested I'm trying to think of how to how to look at this because I think I'm trying to give advice from the parents perspective, not the couple. So the couple yeah. I I agree. I think they just need to be honest. I think that they can go very in-depth of why they don't believe in things like that, and that would be completely inappropriate.

But just I mean, even saying, well, we just don't believe the way that that you and your parents believe, and and that we just don't go to church because of that. I think that's not gonna But parents don't want you to I get that. I don't think you're really I don't think you're really saying anything. Yeah. Four to nine. Yeah. I don't think you're you're opening a conversation of, well, I just don't believe the way you believe. Well, what does that mean? Well, I believe that there's no god in existence and blah blah blah. You're not really opening yourself to that kind of conversation. I don't think anyway. So I don't think by saying we just don't believe the way that you believe would be going against the parents too much. Well, here's the deal. Like, I feel like my kids would not let it stop there.

Yeah. I feel like my kids would say, what do you mean? I would unleash my kids. I feel like. Make them explain themselves. I feel like they they'd have right at them. I, here's the deal. Like, Abub is right. We can't talk from the from the the aspect of the parents. I actually think it's the the the church going Christian parents who are in the wrong here. I I I feel like, you know, if if your faith is is one that you're supposed to proclaim to the world, then you wanna meet the people that don't know Jesus right now. Right. You know I'm saying? Bring them on. I'll stick to six year old on them and actually ask honest questions. She she won't be all cloudy and No. She'll be straightforward. She's a bold evangelist, really. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, and so I think I disagree with the parents, but from where they're coming if you let's put it on another foot. Let's say that you, you know, your family is nonreligious, and they say, why do you go to church all the time? And the and the parents don't want you explaining God to them. I do it anyway. Yeah. I mean, we have that care. Yeah. We have that with, like, friends and stuff. My kids are are well, I have one a little younger than nine, but otherwise, that age range is just about right. They they know people that we are friends with that don't love Jesus. Yeah. You know? And

they handle it how they handle it. That that's part of the conversation of them growing up is not everyone believes. Yeah. Right. We we explain our children very, very young. Hey. There's a wide road and a narrow road, Jesus said. Not everybody's on our road. You know? And and not everybody's no longer in church that had fallen away and say, okay. Let's be honest. What's going on? Why where where did your faith get weak? You know? Where where did you finally where did you start to Is it a church thing? What is it really? Are you mad at God? You mad at people? You just have not found a good fit for a church. You don't have to go to our church. Go to another church. Mhmm. You know? If that's they're trying to make it a family church thing. Maybe maybe they grip and said, yeah. This isn't really for me. Well, then then find a different one, But don't give up your faith. You know, let's find out what happened. I'm gonna find out their issue so we can help them because we want them to go to heaven. Okay. Which doesn't answer their question. Thanks, Dan. Secular says Secular

says, you could never respond by saying or you could respond by saying, your uncle and I have other plans. And if the kids ask what they are, tell them what you plan to do that day. If they ask why you don't come to church like they do, tell go or not. What? I'm sorry. What? Bad advice. You're a child. You must learn about your religion. We don't have a religion. When you're adults, you may abandon it like we have done. What kind of advice is that? I could write my own call. Here's what I Yeah. I could write my own column. That is saying a lot. Have to do is say something in response and you have a call. You know I'm saying? Just have to be good, solid, anything. You know? Hey. Here's what I wanna do. You know, Kettler.

Hey, man. Here's the guy with a hat and then he bought a duck one. So that's what I'm gonna tell you to do. And that is the world. Continue along with secular's advice. While respect your in laws desire to practice their faith, I think it's unrealistic to try to keep children in the dark because as soon as they hit school, unless they're homeschooled or in church run school, they're going to meet other kids who worship differently or not at all. You've been listening to live from the path. Hey. We gotta let you go if you're on 99.3 KTIA. Thanks a lot with the Eisenhower team. Make sure you check those guys out and give them big thanks for sponsoring the show. Buy a house from Bob. Have your dog fixed by Westfield. That's what goes on in those places. Big thanks to John Ackop for hanging out with us. You can find more clips online at lifeinthepath.org. And if you're on the podcast, we'll take a quick break, we'll be right back with you. Thanks for listening to

Life in the Path. So I got a little distracted. We're having some broadcast problems. We are? Yeah. The YouTube I had to cut the YouTube broadcast short. What? It wasn't playing nice. Well, that's very disappointing. There were at least three people that were mad. I won't stand for this. Oh, man. Then we got then we got some Pope style with Buba. Okay. One more life in the path then Buba. K. Dear Life From Path, I'm 20 years old. My boyfriend and I don't drink. Almost every person my age does and it's starting to get to me. I love to have friends besides my boyfriend I can hang out with, but I find that I can only connect with him because everyone else is always wants to go out and party. He is an introvert, so the seclusion doesn't bother him. I, on the other hand, am greatly bothered by it. I've always been ahead of the curve in terms of people my age. I have more in common with a 30 year old than with people in college. Unfortunately, I would feel weird spending time with 30 year olds, and I'm sure they'd feel some weird about spending time with me. Most of my spare time is spent with family. They just seem to get me. How can I find people my age who think the way I do? I don't want to be the kind of girl who only spends time with her boyfriend. I would appreciate other relationships. Liz.

Hey, Liz. I'm not sure I understand the premise of the question. Drink. She wants social outgoing active friends. Yeah. Who don't drink? I I wanna I wanna be with cool people that drink. Who don't drink? I'm a cool person who doesn't drink. I need to find cool people that do. I I here's what I'm not I'm having a hard time figuring out. Like, is she not willing to hang out with people to drink at all? That's what it seems like. Is it a temptation or is it I don't know. She just said she didn't do it. She didn't say why. She's gonna compromise? Okay. Here's the deal. She's a little lofty.

She's got a little bit of a lofty attitude. I've always been ahead of the curve. Like, by nine years. I've always been with 30 year olds. Yeah. She's saying she has an old school like 10, I was hanging out with college people. Yeah. No. I think what she's I I think there's a little bit of judgment in there. I wanna hang out with people that are lively, but not my age that that You know, here's how you cover this. You show up. You hang around them for two hours before and before it gets all crazy, you hop Man, when it gets crazy, that's the fun stuff. Like, that's what

and think to yourself, I that. She seems like a loft I didn't suggest snarky

That was your decision. So some of it though is just that it's a very different worldview and different lifestyle. I mean, it's just not Well, but she's asking to be part of it. She doesn't know. She doesn't wanna be a part of She wants people, but just aren't doing If I'm understanding the question correctly. She wants a higher level You need find a church for people her age. The prior full of people that are maybe in the same

way. I I think she's like, is there a thing that I can go to that there's gonna be age that are all hanging out and not drinking? Where's this building at? And can I go make friends? No. There's no way to do it. You just need to go. I'm sorry. Is she asking the someone that she's never met find her friends? I don't know. I'm not understanding. That's what it seems.

I'm 20 years old. I'm a little my age. I don't just wanna hang out with my boy but I don't wanna hang out with people my age that are out go to find new friends is where what I'm getting the boys' house. Yeah. Exactly. It's like go do yoga. I mean, don't know. There's there's different places you meet people. Go I have talked to other people who are in a similar sit

I mean, it is a frustration. Just not in there there's like a party scene and a non party scene. If you just wanna have some friends and socialize, but you don't have to just go out and just party.

I don't I do not think the world's even close to that black Right. I'm not a drinker. Never have Never struggled to find peep Well, this is not a comparison. We attract people. I'm just saying, like like, I I There's this crazy party animals, and then you got the up uptight You haven't looked in the right very Yeah. The world. The greasers squares. Yeah. No.

It's ridiculous. You're one of the Socas, aren't you? No. It's ridiculous. But it is like, you go to a play job and everybody, hey, we're going out drinking tonight. And then pretty soon you you realize they realize you don't do that, so then you're just not part of the group. That doesn't happen that way, though. Okay. So my group so my group of friends, I've got a good group of about 15 really

close always have been from couple of them hardcore drinkers that go out downtown two three times a week. Yeah. There's other people that refuse to go refuse to go out everything like that. And there's people that so people that don't go out to drink can never hang out people that do. Like, we It's not like the lushes and the blushes Yeah. Exactly. Options. Like, the there there are people I hang out with when it's almost always they're going out to work, and they're they're having a having a I drink soda. Exactly. I probably stay for an hour and a half, it's

not like I don't have interaction conversations or don't Mhmm. I I go home to my family. Yeah. If people are getting hammered at the barbecue, going I can't go and have Yeah. I just I it's I it's that big of a Yeah. It's not that fine line that, like you're either in or you're out I just it's not that I don't think that there's a way tell this gal well this is yeah meet people based off of the daily events that you have in your life yeah think how you feel it thing on her part agree with her. I'm saying this perceived. Okay. Yeah. Yes. You are not going to go somewhere and just find friends there, or excuse me. You're not just gonna go and

find a bunch of friends that are tailored to your needs. Yeah. You're going to find people and relationships and connections based off of the things that you do. The activity if you find yourself the you're different, you know, bar or not a bar, you're going to a grill, whatever. All these different places you're gonna make connections there. That's where you get friendships from. It's not like you can just go buy them at the Costco. Friends section.

It's like Aisle 7 is like drinker eight is non drinkers. That's not how it works. Mike looks befuddled. I don't know anything about the fire I you lost something. I remember the Panera. You look bad. Yeah. What? What? I don't even know I don't even know what you're saying. Here we go. That's why I'm advising you to join a gym or some other physical activity group and start beating people who are Whatever. If that be your day to day, what do you care how they get there?

Disappointment, beard man. This is just Oh, one play Okay. Oh, you're judging they're at. As if, like, I never change behavior. Can only friends if I never changed my behavior. I apologize. I was not trying to judge the place. It's not the gym that I'm I'm laughing. So go to the gym. Yeah. That works fine. I've

made friends at a gym. I've made enemies at a gym. Go ahead, Mike. No. K. Alright. It's Go to the gym.

Yep. Forget it. You guys have derailed this thing. The point of being thought Well, the secular Yes. I forever says. There you go. Hold on. I gotta find it again. People don't know Disappointed. I know that. Okay. Here we go. Back in Says join a gym or join a gym or other physical activity group. Start meeting people who love physical

None of the ones I know want to spend their drinking and partying because they are more interested in eating and living healthily. I'm sure if you try it, you will meet others who think the same way you do. What? You don't believe that, Buba? I'm ex that's secular advice. Hope this gal is is our comments. Fitness. Okay. Alright. What's your pope style?

Okay. So don't remember from the beginning of the show or weren't listening at that point in time. What, the premise of Pope style advice is, some dude that doesn't like me at the local gym, he's hanging out with non drinkers, decided that he was gonna spite so

there's about people that have mistaken pope. They're on my front lawn and now they're refusing to leave until I get give them some, nugget of wisdom. So here I am trying my lawn. Very and this ties into to prayer like we were talking about earlier. I found myself

of really myself and I promise I'll I'm an awesome person and it's very difficult to humble me. I'm just

things. At one point in time in my prayer life, my prayer life consisted of prayer. So I'm gonna ask people for prayer all the time. That's what I'm gonna do.

Open ask people about their prayer. I'm gonna ask to pray for me. Uh-huh. Step of, hey, by the way, you know, if we're gonna pray, throw in my this is what you could pray for me for. About a year and a half ago, two years ago, I realized shallow that could be taken as.

Not saying that everyone who does that is I'm saying that the way that I was doing it and the way that my heart was at the time was was shallow. So I kinda and I kind of switched up to where I was going to ask for prayer. First thing I was gonna do is

person if they need to. So I wanted to ask them and give them a chance to tell me what they need to prayer for. Ask them for prayer for me. It was to make it more of a mutual connection to make it for more of a two way street. Looking for it, but I was actively asking other people for, thoughts on on what I could pray for them. Okay. And at the time, I thought very mature thing to do. I thought it was then really

derive, more of a connection with people, more of a connection with God. And it went really well for a while. My honest intention was the my honest intention was to figure out exactly what people need a prayer for because I wanted to connect

them did. It was easy for me. Very recently,

I realized that I'm kind of at the next stage or I I'm at the end of that stage because that has turned from to build my prayer life of, you know, making sure that I was praying for the people, The checklist to more of I'm asking people for their prayer so that I can get to the point where I can ask them for prayer for me. Uh-huh. It was no longer about the connection. It was no longer about I'm really getting people's needs out and really figuring out, you know, what the whole with them and things like that. And I kind of

where I really need to humble myself again, because I realized that my prayer life has really started boiling down to for me. I getting out of it. It's not about my my connection with God, and it's not about, my connection with other believers and nonbelievers and trying to intercede in their life with with my to God and getting

prayers heard. Really boy to, well, I've got things that I need. So fake ask for, people for prayer. Mhmm. And I I if anyone hears this and and if anyone's, you know, recently heard this question from me, please don't feel like I I

can feel like I'm a jerk. Maybe I probably am. I promise you that we're we're but, I've really kinda I'm really trying to figure that self. But what I am trying to give advice to is is

life easy to make yourself one one benefit or the number one, benefit of of this. It's easy to put yourself as number in prayer,

whereas you're not. You're not sole person in prayer. Reason for prayer. First off, it's you're praying to God for a reason. He's the person that's gonna hear it. He's the person that, that gets these prayer things like that. And if you're praying for other so that you can get prayed for, you gotta check yourself because I I hopefully, I I I may be the only one that deals. I'm not. I'm gonna I'm gonna tell about it because I want to our prayer life

glorifying to God, and I feel like mine hasn't been. So if you're dealing with it tale. Don't ever let your prayer life make you Don't ever let your prayer life make it about you getting things

rather than you speaking to God first and foremost and second off, speaking to God for other and and asking for his guidance and asking for his blessings and asking for his his, his intercession on a lot of different things. So make sure that you're not number one in prayer would be my my postdoc advice today. We've actually been talking about that a lot with our, with our youngest daughter. And what I you know, the kids will pray. I, you know, pray with them every night and stuff. And then, you know, get older, start kind of them pray. We'll rotate a little bit. And for the most part,

try to resist the reaction to tell them how to pray. Like, tend to talk to God as they would. So, like, some of the things they pray Yeah. In the world. And I don't and, like, that's what's on their mind. And it some of it's posturing because they're not quite sure what to talk about. So some they don't have that many things that are, like, burdening people around them. They don't hit they don't hit their friend in the hospital. You know? And so sometimes they'll, like, steal some of my and pray for that. But our youngest daughter has been she's on a kick where, like, it went on long enough and old enough where, like, I actually have have tried to talk to a little bit to under a little differently because pretty much every

I hope that we have a good time we have a good time, that we go to sleep when we wake up, and then we have a good time, and daddy have a good time tonight sleeping. Tomorrow that he will have a good time. Amen.

So we don't But stuff. All the stuff's great. There's some other things that that there's some things that you could talk. Like, I don't want you to say like, that's what's on her mind. I I don't I don't wanna tell her how to have a relationship with God. Like, we try to share some of the depth that's like, other things that that you can that you talk God about as opposed to just that focused thought.

Because to a certain extent, Boobah, I mean, I hear what you're saying. I mean, it's not wrong. It's certainly not wrong to petition God on Right. You know, I mean, it depends what you're trying to do. What know, it's just him as a as a jukebox. That's a problem. But, I mean

if that's what I came off as I apologize I'm not trying to say that that you shouldn't have a that's as a to you that's not what I'm saying at all obviously it's there for a reason that is one of the reasons we can ask on petition for ourselves and you know asking God to in a right exact thing is to make sure that you're not the only person being benefited 100%

of the time. You know, yes, you can self. And I'm not saying that every prayer should have something to something someone else. Yeah. I'm just saying be humble in your prayer life also because realize that if the only thing you ever pray about is for you to get more money. The only thing about for you to get, you know, something else. I wanna do what's gonna happen. And you never take a stand on anything else.

Maybe that's where you're at, but but think about how else you can interact in prayer. Think about other things you're leaving out. You need to grow to a relationship. You know? Right. But, you know, if my children, every time they talk to me was about what they want next, at some point, it's like, this relationship. This is just You're the things.

But I wanna have a relationship. You know? I wanna commune with them and and and talk back and forth and and watch them grow up, be a part of their life. And that that's, you know, what you're really reaching for. It's it's not the gimmick of, hey. I wanna make it look like it's cool. Hey. Great. What can I pray for you? You know? And just just relationship.

And and there are times you you you do have something. Hey. I got this issue. Would you go to my father for me? I'm praying about this, but would you join or were they to you know, that's okay. That's nothing wrong with that. Oh, absolutely. No. I don't Yeah. Okay. Pope John Bubba. Mike's got nothing.

What? Alright. Hey. You can listen to yeah. Make sure you check out the website. Go live from pat.org. Clips of past show. For us, though, we some big news on the horizon. Really. We do. Only for our benefit. On the horizon. Pray for Dan.

Weeks. Thank you. Love you. Have a good one. Think of others.