Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the Path. You're listening to live from the Path Committee from the Pathway Studios here in Johnston, Prummer. That's

that's what I expected to happen. If that didn't happen, I would have been disappointed. Here's what got going on the show this evening. So here's what I don't know if it's gonna work out this way, but last week, it was just me. And I think we're just gonna keep adding one guy a week until we get back up to normal staff. And so, Nathaniel Big Ron, Carson is in the studio today. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna catch up on

the mustard. We're gonna do the news, A news of the day. That's it. I won't talk about the Olympics, just a hair. And then we're gonna do some advice, but we're gonna alter the format just a bit. I mean, I don't wanna do give away the secrets of the show, but Dear Life from the Path may be ethically harvested from another advice

platform, Dear Somebody. And so we just just roll on the old dice, putting the old pork rinds in the fryer, and we're gonna we're gonna ethically harvest from elsewhere, much like all AI models on the social medias. And we're gonna do, am I

Am I the Donkeys Behind? Which, again, ethically harvested from elsewhere on the net. Interesting. And we'll see if we can give now wait, the problem is there's not a secular advice. There's like a billion secular advices. It's true. Are we gonna read those? Don't well, you're gonna that's something might be spicy. I didn't check those. It's yours to navigate. You'll have to maybe not. It could get a little bit wild. Maybe just a few. Okay. We'll have to figure out how that goes. So that that that's the goal of the show today. Thank you for hanging out on Live From The Path. You can catch us all back back shows on YouTube. You can sign up for the podcast. Just search for Live From The Path wherever your good podcasts are made available.

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Wait, Nathaniel, have you been did you watch any of the Olympics? No. You've taken any of it in? None. Now have you have you in the past? Are you an Yeah. Olympic I used to back in the day, but I think that's just because my parents were big into the Olympics. They were like, my parents are not into sports. Uh-huh. We don't watch football except for maybe the Super Bowl. We don't watch we don't watch anything until the Olympics come on. And then both my parents are like, It's Olympics time.

It's time to wave them the American flag out front, and it's time to watch some floor routines. The world shuts down. The world shuts down and we're tuned in to the Olympics. Man, I am all about that. I recall, I'm not sure this was like watchful parenting in my respective parents' households, but like, I mean, I'd take it in all day if I could. I just sit there and watch it and,

grab, sometimes you get ahold of some latent food stamps, growing up and you could ride up to the bicycle up to the old get and go and pick yourself up. You know, I could get a half gallon of chocolate milk and,

you used to be able to buy a Little Debbie box of fudge rounds. The whole box was like a 99¢. Wow. It's crazy. And so, like, you What time to be alive. This is what I'm saying. You could be sitting there pounding down fudge rounds, watching cycling or or the skeet shooting or whatever's going on there, and, like, I'm in. I'm easily taken in. How late into the night do the Olympics get broad is it, like, an all twenty four

hour broadcast? Can you wake up at 4AM and watch, like, shuffleboard? I feel like you used to be able to. I I I don't know if you can do it without having the, multiple channels. So like NBC, I think, cuts off, but you could go to the Peacock Network or MSNBC, and there might be some guy

doing the I watched a little bit of surfing. Was an Olympic sport? Yeah. I had no idea. Some of these things like, I was telling my kids, what we were watching, it the gymnastics, which you're like, Okay. This is popular. People know this. But, like, for the life of me, I don't understand the scale. Like, they need to help me out because I don't watch gymnastics all the time. And so when they go, Hey, they got a 13.5. I'm like, I don't know. Is that any good? Out of what? Like, what is the best possible?

I think they don't do that because it varies. It just depends how hard you decide to make the thing. But I also wonder, isn't surfing a fairly binary situation? What like tricks like there are in skateboarding? No. What the clips that I saw were just dudes cutting through. They were just roll like riding the wave. That was it. I don't know then. And then I thought, like, isn't it very subjective? Like, what if you don't get a sweet wave? What if you get a lame wave? That's right. Dude before The ocean lets you down in the Olympics. Yeah. The dude before you gets the big kahuna, and you got the big kathunk.

What are you guys supposed to do? Anyway, I I it was unclear. I didn't quite understand the scoring in the surfing. But okay. But anyway I forget what comedian said it, but I think it's true. They should have a regular dude just go out before every single event Yeah. And try it. Just you have a comparison. You're like, okay. There's a bunch of superhumans running, and then there's Dave in accounting. That's a great idea. Yeah. Some

comparison. Heck, even let him run the race, to be honest with you. He's right there with everybody else. Put him in there. He's in line nine. Dave, dead last. Here he comes trucking around. I like, think about that, especially with the gymnastics. You see these dudes on the pommel horse. Oh, yeah. I I probably couldn't even hold myself up. Them dudes are jacked. Aren't they? It's wild. And you see them, and it looks easy. They're they're they're pulling themselves up on the on the rings or whatever, and they fell off, and you're like, oh, he really biffed it. Like, dude, you couldn't even have pulled yourself all the way up on the rings once. And this guy's got one arm out, feeling his leg around. You'd get gassed after four seconds. Totally.

It'd be even better in a swimming event or at least take the that. So if dude just bombs off the side. Girls doing cannonballs. What a splash on that one. Oh, yeah. I yeah. They should totally do that. Okay. But you're not wait. You gonna watch? Like, there's plenty of time left. Are you gonna watch?

Can I stream it? Or do I have to stream Oh, I'd imagine. Yeah. I bet you can. I've been watching it on the old regular TV. Banana ears and or, like, rabbit ears and everything, pulling it in. I probably won't watch it. Okay. Okay. Okay. I've been watching. I watched a little bit of the we didn't get to catch the whole opening ceremony, but we got to see some of it, and then some of the of the coverage. I think I my I don't I don't think my I don't think my wife sees the wonder in it. Like, I could block off the calendar for it to do nothing and just check it out. I could totally do it. I think my wife looks at it like, Can't you just see who won at the end of the day? Like, get the medal count? Mike, it's not about the outcome. Yeah. It's about the experience. It's about the journey. I just wanna take it in. I wanna see the drama unfold

before me. I don't know. I I'm probably romanticizing it, but, like, I might I I don't know. Maybe my kids wanna watch it just because they can might get them out of doing something else. I don't know. Or maybe they really enjoy it, but like, it just feels like, there aren't that many things where everyone does it together. You know what I'm saying? That's true. The whole world is, is doing the same,

the same thing, or it's a shared visual experience, especially with like TV used to be like that because they used to show MASH at only one time a night. You got one time during the week and everybody watched it, so there's like a communal viewing experience, but like the Netflixation of media and streaming stuff, even if you watch the same thing, you didn't watch it at the same time. So like tune in. Right. It's only sporting events, so the Super Bowl and championships and stuff like that. Those are the only things that are really

broadly shared communal events that you're just not watching on your own time. The Olympics is that across the whole world. I don't know. I think it's overly romantic, I guess, but it feels special to me, which is why I don't like to do the networks that

record all the stuff during the day, and then they're like primetime Olympics, but it's taped. I could go online and see who won this thing already. I want to catch it raw. Yeah. I I want the live feed like, the CNBC on the floor of the senate. That's what I want. I just want you to stick a camera to the corner. C Span? Yeah. C yeah. That's what I mean. C Span. That's what I want. I want one camera in the corner of the of the pool, and I just get to take it in from the raw feed. Wow. Anyway I heard there were some heavy rockers at the because I follow a bunch of metal bands on the Facebook. Okay. Good. And they said they were all giving props to this band that was playing I didn't even hear who it was. This metal band that was playing at the opening ceremony. Oh, really? There was there was some heavy. Heavy. They threw it down hard. Yeah, they were rocking. Wow. I didn't see it. Okay. I didn't realize Paris was known for rock. I didn't either. Now, there has been no shortage of controversy at these opening ceremonies. Have you read any of these stories? I saw one about some sort of trans thing

in the Last Supper, and I didn't read the article, though. I just said, That's interesting, and I moved on with my life. There has been no you'd lost count of the kerfuffles related to this thing. Short long story short, there was a belief that there was a demonstration,

of which was meant to bring to image the Last Supper, of which was made up of, figures that may be controversial to the Christian mind, whether it be, transgender folks, cross dressing folks, outspoken

critics of Christianity. And, you know, the guy who designed the things like, Ah, that's not really what I was going for. I'm like, He probably was. And, like, in the midst of a controversy, he's probably not gonna say that because he's trying to, like, back away from a little bit.

But it's it's interesting the number of of folks that I've I've seen react to this, who were like actually, there was an article, a quick article from the the Christian Post. Let's see see what you think of this, Nathaniel. It says, Paris goes dark, after debauched Olympics opening ceremony mocks last supper. Parts of Paris, France were struck with a blackout over the weekend just twenty four hours after the Olympics drew global backlash for its opening ceremony that detractors claimed mocked Christianity and the last supper with drag queens. Approximately 85,000 Parisians in districts were affected by the blackout that last for about ten minutes at 11:40PM

on Saturday night with the electricity supplier, Anittas, chalked up to a technical anomaly. Oh. Oh. Footage of the blackout went viral on social media with many users also putting out the striking image of the Basilique De Sacre Coeur Des Montmartre, Basilica of the Sacred Heart Of Montmartre, remaining brightly lit amid the darkness. Many users suggested a symbolism in the timing of the blackout, which came a day after the widely panned Olympic opening ceremony in Paris last Friday. Oh, widely panned by Christians. Like, you're not being quite fair. I think there were a number of people who very much enjoyed the program, and so,

you know, at least say Christians very much disliked it or a good chunk of them. The the ceremony, which featured a bearded drag queen, exposed male genitalia, and he wasn't naked. He was mostly naked, the guy. He was like a painted blue Dionysus. I mean, he was he was close. It was I wouldn't let my kids watch it upfront really, but, he wasn't quite nude. And a self described fat Jewish queer lesbian woman named Barbara Butch in the place of Jesus at a tableau resembling the Last Supper drew widespread criticism for its pagan symbolism that many claimed was an attempt to mock God.

So here's what I'm gonna say about this. One, I I don't know why you'd be particularly surprised, that any anything like this, happened. And so I, you know, I would withhold in some ways, some of the moral outrage makes you look,

I don't know, like you don't keep up with the time. Maybe it's wrong that I'm not surprised. If I took it at the worst descriptions that some Christian folks are looking at it, they're like, they intentionally did this to be subversive against Christianity. Okay. I mean, what about this are you not seeing in your daily life in some of the stuff that may be taught in schools or it's happening at the library or is on the billboards around town? Like, I get it,

but like, I don't know where the surprise is coming from. But secondly, there's so many other things in the world that are like opposed to God's character, that an attempt

to mock or be subversive against someone painting a scene from the Bible, which doesn't match really all that closely to the scene we're given in the Bible

of a pale Jesus, like, don't I don't know. There's all kinds of things I would be I think we should spend more outrage about. Do you know what I'm saying, Nathaniel? Like, I I just because just because someone decided to pick a fight over

a Christian painting, I I I wouldn't if if if we were if you had a 100 Christians and they were spending their time clothing the naked, feeding the poor, sharing good news about Jesus, like creating deeper relationships with the world, demonstrating how much God loves them by how much we are loving them and helping spread and talk about true things. If a 100 Christians were busy doing that, and then someone set up an attempt to mock a Christian themed painting, how many of those 100 Christians would you divert to deal with that problem?

Zero. Zero? Yes. I would divert zero Christians from these problems to go deal with this problem, because the reality is, if the 100 Christians were busy doing those types of things, the people who they are also helping and interacting with and serving would look at that same thing and go, Hey, man.

I may not believe in that thing necessarily, but like my friend Bobby does, and like, I don't like you trying to hurt him with the things that you're doing. You know what I'm saying? People who are on the other end of Christian love, service,

and care would frankly fight the battle for you. They were like, I don't care for this. Why would you mock? Why would you mock that? What are you trying to pull me into here? All I here's what I know is Bobby shows up at my house with groceries every week, and it gives me the ride to the doctor's office when I can't get ahold of the service to do it. And he was very kind and helpful to me when I lost my mother, and I found a lot of comfort in the things that he was saying. You know I'm saying? Like, if those things were happening, they would be the mockery would be playing to an audience of the 13 people who were on the stage and the guy who designed the costume. Do you think this is on the same scale of, like, every year where, like, Starbucks comes out with a cup that doesn't say Merry Christmas and

people are outraged? Or do you think it's more subversive than that? I think the intent.

I saw a number of people, and these are like, it tends to come from the people who, like, have a church background or, like, know enough about it, but they're mad at conservative Christians, and so they've posted all this stuff like, Oh, well, they didn't really mean it, and this was supposed to be something else. You misunderstood this thing completely, and you're being naive.

There's an ignorance in that. Like, the defense of it that I read like, of course, like we've talked about on the show, I don't just I don't take in social media and go, Oh, well, this man seems right. Like, I read the things. I look at the interview. I watch the real clips of the source material. No. No. It was it was meant to be subversive, and so I do think its intent

was a little bit deeper than that. However, its practical implications for Christians is exactly the same. Yeah. The same. Not getting rattled up. We're still out here, you know, elbows, hands. Exactly right. Actually, I it's a very it's a good comparison, though, because it has the same relationship to me as this wasn't someone there was a guy there was an article on the Christian Post, let me let me find it real quick,

that was at the top. Lao pastor warned by authorities to stop Christian activities shot dead. Leaves behind wife, two children. Pastor theologian, Thankham Pilonva, was feeding his chickens and ducks behind his house in Vengue Village, Northwestern Laos, on Monday when two men on motorcycles, faces covered, arrived. After a brief exchange, one of the gunmen fired seven shots into his head and body.

The assailant's gun was fitted with a silencer. Okay. Who care I mean, they shot him outside. What what a weird detail. It's like they're they're looking for some sort of, like, James Bond ish treachery in here. They escaped as pastor Thuncom was rushed to a provincial provincial hospital where he died on arrival, leaving behind a wife and two teenagers. Pastor Thuncom was 40 years old. That, that is something that's worthy of your focus and time,

and pray for his family, giving of things to support the spreading of good news in Laos, the desire to bring these men to Jesus and justice in that order of importance. And so

like that, that I think you can drop the stuff. The innocent blood is going on there and get involved. But like, has you're right. It has the same relationship to Merry Christmas because Merry Christmas is not a scriptural problem, just like the Last Supper is not a scriptural problem. Although interestingly, don't know how I escaped this. I

saw someone who was talking about, I don't know why we're defending the Last Supper anyway. Someone has violated scripture by even showing an image of Jesus.

Obviously not making an image of Yahweh, I get totally, but I guess I had not heard anybody make a strong contention that you should not represent the human form, explicitly human form, fully human form of Jesus of Nazareth.

Weren't there, like, some really early church splits because of that? I think there was. Like Byzantine? I'm talking You think it went that was it the Byzantine? Eastern Orthodox stuff, I think. I don't know. But they've got pictures of Jesus now, the Eastern Orthodox. They've legged up. I don't know. I could be misremembering.

I do that all the time. It was part of some there's a catechism, I think. I keep wanting to say Heidenberg. I don't know. I'm making that up. I don't know why it's in my mind. I see in Creed. Just start saying words.

Someone talks about this kind of thing, they pointed back to it and said, Look, so maybe it's more like reformed theology, historical stuff. I don't know what the problem is. I think that's a weird interpretation. He was a human. Like, I get that he was fully God, but, like, this this is a human being, and so painting a historical reality that has Jesus in it. Like, you could paint the last supper, and there's just, like, nobody there. No Jesus. She's an aura. Yeah. Like, I, I don't know. Unless you're worshiping the painting or you're worshiping the image of, I guess people do worship the image of Jesus.

Yeah. Like, you gotta you know, you walk into a church and there's like a big old Jesus hanging from a cross. Yeah. I guess, yay. Here's another thing. Sorry. This is taking me on lot of tangents today, Nathaniel. Sure. What do you feel how do you feel about this? Take it in. I I saw on the Facebook, there was a guy, a a a younger feller who is still in high school, went to a church camp. And I see there's a pictures that were shared with this camp. And part of the pictures, there were, three kids, like, hung

on crosses. I don't know if it's, like, a reenactment of the crucifixion at this camp. Sure. How do you feel about that? I don't know if it's, a play, if we're doing, like, a, you know, like a passion of the Christ, but as like a, you know, for the youth. Yeah. If if okay. We're come back to that. Like,

we if the church may have had a problem with painting images of Jesus, what do we think about, say, a movie like The Passion of the Christ or kids at a youth camp portraying the crucified Jesus?

I know. I don't know. I know. I would tell I didn't care for it. Had a very visceral reaction to this situation because, one, I'm cautious, and I think we talked about this on the show a while back, that there's a glorification not in, I love it, but an infatuation with the violence of it, of the crucifixion. I think it's necessary,

but I think you have to understand what happened, but the gruesome detail and the can you it it almost evokes, like, can you understand how much you suck by how much pain Jesus had to endure for your rescue?

But, again, it's a theological problem for me because the two guys on either side of them went through the same thing. Now, weren't whipped the same way. Like, I get it. They likely weren't scourged in some of the ways Jesus was, but, like, other prisoners were. Some people even died by the scourging. They didn't even make it to the cross. I just heard a Paul Washer sermon. He was railing against the same thing. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. You're in line. Maybe I'm in good company.

Well, the most shocking was it what's the ball washer? Well, that it it wasn't that one. It wasn't that one. But what what what's the one I'm thinking of? The shocking youth message. Shocking youth message. Okay. That's his big hit. But, like, yeah, like, I think it's an infatuation a little bit with the vines as if we have to be revulsed into appreciating what was done on the cross. And I, like, I don't think you don't skip it because we're sensitive about it, but, like, I I think there's an infatuation with it. And, like, I'm not sure I'm not sure what the actual acting out of it would be and how that would add to a message at group that age. And maybe, it's not fair. Like, I'm able to ask someone who'd put something like that on and, like, why why was this important? And are we sure

at that age that it actually portrays the right thing? Because I actually have a little bit of an issue. It's the same thing I have with with some of the children's stories is that like, makes them feel like stories. It makes them feel like fables, the way that we talk about them. The cartoonist Jesus in the book,

a smiling donkey somewhere, just the way that we kind of skip things. And I get it, they're kids. Teach where there's kids in the room. I will alter language to try to make it something that they might understand, but not content.

And maybe that's just me, I could be hypersensitive to it, but I don't know. I'm not saying I don't know that it's wrong. My gut reaction is I don't like it, and I wonder what it is filling and if it ultimately communicates the right type of thing.

If it feels like the image is necessary primarily because it draws us into the physical reality of it, which I don't want to miss, but I just worry that we hyper focus on. I don't know. Would you do it if someone said, Hey, we're putting on a crucifixion reenactment

and we need a Jesus? Would you do it? Yeah. You would? Yeah. You'd say yeah because it's important to do. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if it's important to do. You just think it'd be it sounds like fun. It sounds like fun to be a crucified Jesus. I'm in it for the theater.

I don't know. Don't presume I'm judging. Like I said, I it's a hard no for me, but I'm not sure. I'm I'm not sure why. Can I be one of the brigands? Is it okay to be a brigand? Is it like, it was okay. Well, like but I wasn't actually Jesus, and so it feels like it's alright. Yeah. I don't know. We'll get Stan to be Jesus. He's way better than me. I don't I mean, I don't mind a retelling

or allusions to it. I just I don't know. May maybe Do you find the passion of the Christ too much? No. No. I don't. Or the what's that show that Mike loves? The Chosen? The Chosen. I've not seen it. Oh. Have you seen it? I saw, like, one episode. And you gave up on it. It was too much. It's too I can't what? Like, too violent? No. Or too familiar? Like a No. It's too slow. Oh, to switch it. It's it's not up to my storytelling speed. But also, like, I don't take in TV. I take in reels because I'm a a a no attention span doofus. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I see. I see the troubles here.

You're face to face with greatness and estrange. What? I know how you feel. It's adorable. It's nice to see that humans never change. Okay. It's from the Moana. I don't take

in the movies unless they do Moana, I I really actually just watched a movie, like, for the first time in a long time because I was out with the kids at a movie theater, and I was forced to sit through this whole movie because I'm there with my kids by myself. And did you hate it? I mean, it was okay. It was but most of the time I spent, I get a I'll say this. Don't take a 18 year old to the movie theater. After they get bored with the popcorn Yeah. It's all over. It all turns out from there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Hey, I'm curious,

listeners. What would you do? Like, again, I'm gonna restate, I'm not sure it's wrong. I just know that I don't like it, but I can't quite articulate well or formulate what exactly my problem is, except for the fact that it feels like such a caution to me. Like, there's probably a way to do it right. There's probably situations where it's okay, but maybe in my mind, I feel like they are so narrow that,

it would fall under very heavy scrutiny to me before I would, before I would, think it's okay. And like, and I'm a hard no with it. I like, I probably wouldn't act. I wouldn't, I wouldn't take part in it. I don't think so. I would do, but I would do his birth. I don't have any problem with that. I don't have any problem with someone playing Jesus, baby Jesus. New double standard. Put your 18 old in the old carriage on the donkey Except for so cold. You can't use a real baby.

What if you put I mean, just because we don't have to swaddle. If we could swaddle like a Middle Easterner, we could put that baby outside. Does it get as cold over there? At nighttime, I think it does. I think it gets real chilly. Okay. All right. Swallow them up. So anyway, tell me, what do think? (515) 517-0085, call or text. Either,

if someone asks you to be Jesus, a crucified Jesus in a reenactment, would you do it? I suppose that kind of gives away the What do you think? What's the level of appropriateness for doing it in general? Some of those guys, there's countries where they have a guy who does it, drags the cross around, they tie him up. The Philippines. Yeah, that's right. That's right. It's meant to be an honor. So again, I don't want to critique necessarily the faith of the folks.

I don't know. Maybe I just am too much of the reality of it is not I know. I don't know what the deal is. Just let me know. I'm curious in your opinion. (515) 517-0085. Call or text. Let me know. Would you be

a crucified Jesus in a reenactment? Would you say yes? Nathaniel's in. He'll do it. Yeah. I'm in. He'll do it. But I don't have a good reason why I'm in or why I would not be out. You know what I mean? You're just I'm just in. The guts just you're like, you know what? I would do. I would do it. With no extra thought, and I know this is a program where you kind of want me to think, but You're

gonna give it the reels treatment. You're like, Gut reaction? Gut reaction? I'm in. Heart. I would do it. Okay. I might regret later. Like the reels. Yeah. Wait. Do you ever go back and unlike a reel? Because you're like, that was a mistake and I don't want YouTube thinking I love it. No. I don't ever like anything. Oh, you don't you don't provide any interaction? No. I just I I lurk. You're a you're a consumer. You just eat in the shadows.

You eat the media. I'm just eating pudding. The pudding of media. Okay. Alright. Well, there we go. Also, I mean, I suppose if you had any thoughts on on the Olympics, like, am I under reacting at this last supper business? Again,

I just want you to before you say anything, I want you to rethink the proposition that I made, which is 100 Christians doing like, I can point to them, like directly biblical things with their lives, and how many of those guys do you want to take off the work to go deal with this problem? That's the level of which I'm curious. If you're like, I need to put five guys on it because we're losing the culture, okay, I'm interested in that assessment. Because if you think we're going to win the culture and what are those guys gonna do to combat it because they're gonna play it online, I guess I'm curious to think whether there's a value in it somewhere. My vote, a 100 guys stay doing the thing that they were doing.

We let that dog lie. That would be my vote. 515517085 call or text. All right. All right. That's it for the news. You gotta read the rest of your news elsewhere. I'm sure there's other people giving commentary. Nathaniel, has has, brought us a MI the donkey's behind. I'm ready when you're ready. Stand by.

Standing by. Should I start with, Dear, lie from the path? No. No. You gotta say, yeah. Yeah. Am I the donkeys behind? Dear, lie from the path. Am I the donkeys behind? Okay. I'm ready. My sister-in-law booked a three bedroom Airbnb for the end of summer break and invited my husband and I to join them. We agreed to pay for half

of the Airbnb K. After she showed us pictures. We asked questions, and all seemed clear. We figured she'd probably be inviting her boyfriend. And when we asked about the need for three bedrooms, she said

that it was all that was available. Okay. Yeah. Whatever. Right? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Then a few days later, her boyfriend comes over for dinner with her and let slip two other details previously left off. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Drama. One was that his six year old daughter would be coming.

We actually don't care about this at all. We have met her, and she is adorable. Nice. Then, however, he mentioned detail number two. The third bedroom is actually just a small office space they threw bunk beds in, and they planned on having my husband and I stay in it. Oh. We giggled Oh. And asked why we would take bunk beds when there were two bedrooms with queen mattresses. Apparently, because they wanted to give their six year old her own room, and the closest one to the master suite was the other queen room.

Husband and I were quiet and said nothing. It was obvious we were unhappy. Uh-huh. Sister sister-in-law explained, their reasoning and just said it wasn't a big deal. Well, we molded over and decided it made no sense to pay half the Airbnb cost for the room we were getting Yep. Let alone for the fact that we're staying in one third occupied rooms.

So we respectfully asked her to cancel, which is it's early enough to do still do so. Yep. And even offered up the cancellation fee if for some reason they still got charged. Yep. Sister-in-law is now angry and saying we ruin we are ruining six year old vacation.

I don't feel we are wrong. This is actually not the first time she's done something like this. Husband is kind of fluctuating back and forth on whether we should just suck it up, but I'm still unhappy with the arrangements. The last bit,

I'll add last as it's significantly smaller. Uh-huh. We both are pet owners. She has two large dogs and a small dog, and we have two small dogs. Everyone said they were boarding the dogs. It is expensive to do so in Florida where we let live. The boyfriend let slip, they plan on bringing their small dog along as they are bore as the boarding costs are crazy for them since it's only two dogs per kennel. I suppose I'm just feeling like the costs are mounting for us and the expectations are that we will suck it up and go along with every little demand. Are we,

while they bend rule after rule in their favor? Should I suck it up? Am I being a witch? We normally get along so well. Am I being

the donkey's behind? No. You're not being the donkey's behind. She no. She is she's she's just using you to try to get a better situation. Yeah. Especially if you're you're saying no in time before the

the like, the thing could get canceled without the cancellation fee. Yeah. I don't I don't who wants to go on vacation with their spouse and get get in some bunk beds? Yeah. Nobody wants to be in a bunk bed. Yeah. Not even by yourself. A bunk bed's small. I mean, don't make me do this, but a couple don't go on vacation to be in no bunk beds. You know I'm saying? True.

True. Is this? Find they're being pretty gracious with the six year old. The dog thing, again,

like, frankly, she's just being dishonest by not being forthcoming. I wouldn't appreciate that. Like, on its course, I'd be like, why are you just not telling me like, I don't like the feeling that I'd be being conned. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, that's the posturing of, like, I'm gonna spend a vacation with someone who is intentionally withholding information from me. Like, that's not cool. And you're only getting the info from the boyfriend who's letting it slip. Yeah. Like, he's not even just telling you straight up. He's just, like, in casual conversation, oh, whoopsie.

You have to Plus, it's like one, they shouldn't be doing it in the first place, but there's two things that six year olds love. It's cotton candy and bunk beds. Yeah. No kidding. Right? What does she care? They're in the same house. The kid's six, not 2.5,

and so if it's slightly farther away in the condo or whatever, this bunk bed office room, to what big of a deal could this be? Yeah. No, you're not beating the donkeys behind here. Think you're I think you're in the right. Think you're totally Cancun. Take the hubs,

go to somewhere else. I don't- Cancun. You don't have to- By yourself. Here's the thing, is that like, it is an option. It's optional. This is not like they're in a pickle, there's a weird life situation,

and you have to sacrifice so that things can go well for them. Have to be she's presented you like there's only one option. It's never true. There's not only just one option here. She probably liked this one. The price worked out. They thought they could split it with someone, and they're still trying to bend the thing. So basically, vacation

they want, and they're using you to get there. I would be more offended, that they're trying at their posturing of our relationship that they would try to use me. I would frankly much rather they come out and say, look, we're in a real we're in a pickle. And, this is the only, if it was the only thing we could find, can we borrow some money? Or could you give us a couple $100 rather than you trying to like con me into getting the outcome that you want with, while being dishonest That I wouldn't appreciate that at all. So no, I don't think you're being the donkey's behind. Do you want me to read the top rated secular advice? Yeah, yeah. Let's have it. With

With editing? 3.8 k of votes. Okay. Alright. I'm ready. It's kinda long. I'll I'll I'll just read the first part. Okay. A room with bunk beds is literally literally made for children.

Huzzah. She's being absolutely insane about this. It's not like the kid is four months old. She's not even a toddler that might need them in the middle of the night. She's old enough to be in school. She's old enough to be in the kid's room. Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. Yeah. I was trying to think if there's any place where I'd be like, you know like, you could suck

it up, but when it comes to something that is superfluous, like, it's not a mandatory thing. This is about, this is about vacation. Yeah. It's not like they've got three other adults

or three other adult couples coming also. Like, who who how are we gonna split up three rooms between Right. 12 people? Right. This is just plain old self centeredness, and I don't yeah. I don't think you have to do that. Okay. On your way. Got to we got one more? We got one more. Okay. We're ready.

We're thinking about it. This one's a doozy. Sorry. It takes a minute. My phone is slow. I'm not on the Wi Fi. Okay. Here we go. K. I'm ready. Dear life in the path, am I the donkey's behind? Get ready.

My father-in-law is a generous man, but he has what he refers to as the a hole gene, meaning that he doesn't stop to consider what anyone else wants in many situations. Mhmm. Since my husband and I have been living with my husband's brother,

father-in-law decided that he that when the neighbor's house went on the market for a steal, he'd buy us the house. After consulting with his financial planner, the decision was made to have both father-in-law and my husband on the title,

or deed to the house. Okay. We would pay all taxes and utilities, and when father-in-law passes, husband would inherit the house. Here's where it gets messy. I'm ready. The house needs a lot of work. Mhmm. Originally, husband and I were going to be responsible

for improvements and repairs. So I started meeting with contractors contractors and getting estimates for the work. My husband doesn't know much about home repair or renovations, and I do. My family has renovated multiple homes. So he's been letting me handle all of the work with the contractors.

Even so, father-in-law will not speak directly to me about anything related to the house. My poor husband has to play messenger, telling me what his dad wants to do, then telling his dad that I've actually got it handled

and want to do something different. The final straw came today when my husband relayed to me that his dad had said that any permanent changes to the house that cost more than $5,000 have to be approved by him. Even if we're paying for them, he wants to still sign off on all and any decisions,

including tile colors, light fixtures, etcetera. So I forwarded all my communications with the contractors we'd chosen. Haven't signed anything yet. And still,

and said that if he wants to make the decisions, then he can make all the decisions. He will own the house and will sign a rental lease when the work is done. He'll have to pass a city inspection for rental units and abide by all state and local rental law. Now he's mad, and I'm ungrateful, selfish, and controlling. At this point, I don't even want the house anymore. I'm ready to take the cat and go stay with my brother,

but I don't actually want to leave my husband. I'm sick of catering to his dad's whims. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You're like half the donkeys behind, so you handled this poorly.

So let's maybe let's, this is a goofball arrangement. You you and and and if you know this about the father-in-law, and this and your husband should know this already if you already know it, which is, you shouldn't have agreed to this at all. Like, there's just some people where you're like, I don't their their money comes with stipulations,

and you don't want anything to do with it. And regardless of how enticing the situation is, like, you don't you don't don't take learn to play the guitar off of the devil's skill set, man. Like, it's like, you don't sell your soul to this man, to just to get a house. And so you should have said no. Your husband should have said no. He should have known better. You also even if you were gonna do this, you should have said all this stuff up front. Like, if it's just if it's just a facade, like the guy's willing to be he's trying to be generous. He just sucks at it. Then you say, look, fine. We'll take it.

And I'll put my name on it so you can it's easier for the state to handle, eventually. But like for all practical purposes, this is our house. If you can't, I would agree to that upfront. There's nothing about how you're gonna negotiate this contractor and choice business that's ever gonna work out. Heck man, I'm cautious about doing major renovation projects with my own wife under the control of our own money, just because it's difficult to find two people to agree on a given thing. So

adding this fella into the room, it's just a bad idea. Here's where you're at least half you're a cheek. You're a donkey's cheek.

Just one. But you can't go from zero to 90. You should have had a conversation with the dad.

Great. I get it. He tries to talk to your husband. I mean, make it as awkward as possible then. Make him schedule some time for all three of you to meet at the coffee shop to walk through something or in the living room or something like that. If he doesn't show up Or a Mexican restaurant. That's right. Yeah. Old fellow open up over a free basket of chips. That's true. Well, yeah. Get some crunchies and some guac and settle this thing out. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, whatever. But like, I mean, he doesn't like, you're allowing him to act ridiculous and so kind of force the matter. If he goes, if he refuses to show up and to, and to up to that meeting, then you know the whole thing's over. If he does show up, then you can at least have right, like good conversations as if he's not a complete idiot. And so don't just forward all the stuff and be passive aggressive and like stamp your foot. Go. You understand why this is this is difficult for us because we're going to live here. The house is coming to us. We're paying for the renovations. The question is why? Like, why do you need to approve the thing?

It feels like a lack of trust in a contingency. Well, maybe if my son doesn't keep up on the payments, I would still want to be able to sell it for top dollar. Again, I don't really want to get into cahoots with someone who It goes made it sound like the father-in-law just paid cash for it. Like, he straight up paid for it. Right. But do you think he's charging rent to the I don't think so. Maybe not. Mean, maybe. Well, then what the heck could go wrong? Yeah. I don't understand why he even cares. So maybe it's just I'm notoriously cheap. Yeah. Yeah.

And I think it kinda depends on how old the dad is. Okay. Because, like, I can live in a crappy house Uh-huh. For ten years before, you know, pops dies. Yeah. It's like, what what what do I care if you paint pink tile? You know what I mean? And then he dies and Then you get to do what you want. Do whatever you want. You're gonna give a whole decade Yeah, of your

for a free house? Think of all the wealth you could build with a free house, Ben. Yeah, but you're to be wealthy later on in life not to enjoy the ten years that you had. I mean, I can enjoy myself other places than my house. I don't know. It depends, and I might maybe hate the whole place. I mean, right.

There is something to be said that the father in law's generosity, if you just straight up give it in the house But why is she talking about the rental agreement? I think she's saying if he wants to control everything in the house, then she she'll just rather rent from him. She's willing to pay it. Right. And have it be, like, an actual contractual agreement rather than having to deal with the back and forth of

like, the rigmarole. It feels un American. You lack you lack freedom in your own place. It does feel un American, but a free house also is pretty un American. You know? Yep. Yep. Ain't no thing as a free lunch. Yeah. Well, right, it comes with you dealing with the father-in-law. It comes with the father-in-law, and if you're I guess it comes down to, are you willing to make the sacrifices? Like, I would be.

I don't know if my wife would be. So, you you gotta kinda have that spousal agreement. Like, you know, who cares what our house looks like? It matters more who's in my house with me. Yeah. No, I'd be out totally. I'm the complete opposite of what you're saying. I would

be telling, so I'm not taking this free house, but then I can't do anything to otherwise improve my situation. But I enjoy it, but we enjoy it. We like painting the walls and changing the tiles and improving the thing that we're in. It feels like you're doing something substantive. I don't. I hate it. Yeah. You don't want anything to do with it. I'd only do it because my wife wants it. You're crafting something that your family enjoys and you're like, Nah, I'd rather live in a squalor. Squalor,

not squalor. It's like, Sure, I've got cabinets that are from the '80s and they look like they're from the '80s. But don't they hold the dishes? They hold the dishes. This is all I'm asking. Yeah, right? Right? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I understand, but like

okay. Mean, not to dive too deep into your personal situation, but like, you didn't marry an ugly woman. That's true. And so like, you could I have been like married a looker. Right. And so your wife also goes, I don't want a kitchen. Who's the UGGMO that no one would date? That's true. I also I found it that, truth be told, I'm not only cheap. I found it difficult to spend money on things like home improvements

when it's like, I could be spending this on doing some work of the kingdom or something. Are you doing the work of the kingdom with Some. A bunch of your Okay. Okay. So what's well, well, now see, I find that different because you can look at your cabinet and go, I chose Wells.

You know what I'm saying? And then that becomes a source to go, here's the money it would cost to replace these cabinets. There's $2 we got in our pocket right now. We are going to choose to go build the thing in Tanzania, and then every time we look at the cabinet, I don't think ugly cabinet. I think this is this we chose something else, and actually that's I think that's good. Choose a better thing. Yeah. I think that's okay, but if one, you don't actually do that, oh, and it's not it's not like it's wrong to replace your cabinets either, but, if you mutually agree to that, I actually don't find I don't find that to be a I don't find that to be a problem at all. But if you don't do it because you're just being cheap, you're just like Just because I'm Scrooge McDuck? Yeah. You're sitting on top of your swimming in your coins,

and neither of those two things are happening, then you're just using the God thing to not actually do something that your family might enjoy. Do you wanna read this top Yeah. Well, wait. What did I miss anything? What was what was your advice? What's your counsel? My counsel is Stick it out. Stick it out. Well, it, like, it depends. If he's you know, if you're 25

and he's, I don't know, 50 Yeah. He's got he's you got thirty years of this fella Uh-huh. Hanging around more than likely. Uh-huh. And if you don't think you could tough it out for a thirty year, I mean, that's a full mortgage you could pay on your own Yeah. Over that time. Maybe cut a trail or just finesse the situation a little bit. Like, hey, pops. We kinda like this. What do you think about it? Just going soft foot it. Yeah.

Yeah. I get now here's where I would agree with you is that when I say it's not American, what I mean is the version of our own freedom does happen to often express itself in our focus on the materials and the wealth of which we're surrounded.

It is a privilege to swap out my floor tile. Some people don't have a floor. I'm scrutinizing whether I like to look at the floor that I have. Do I like beige or white? Right. Noted, totally noted. I suppose But this is where I've always struggled with the old live like no one else so that you can live like no one else. I'm like, but how much time do I have to give up to that? Because my life is happening now. It's the same thing where you'll see and sometimes you'll see this in husbands and fathers who are trying to be virtuous. They're like,

I'm going to work two jobs and do extra things on the weekend to make sure I can pay for college for my kid. I'm willing to break my back so they can go to college. And then maybe that works out. You raise the money and you save it. They don't have to pay for college, you hope that it sets them on a good academic and career trajectory, except for, you know what? You weren't around, dad. You weren't around for the fifteen years while you're working your balls off to get this person into college, and they were missing their father at all the moments. And so, like, it's I think that same way about

about retirement money and all kinds of other things is, I recognize that there's a prudence in it, and I'm not against it holistically. But there's a line of which it skirts over to go, am I saving? When is it to my life to begin? After my kid goes to college,

watching that kid tumble around on the ground and taking in the Olympics for a few hours together and deciding that we're just going to go grab some ice cream as a family tonight because I'm around for it. Yeah, could save the money or I could enjoy ice cream with an age at which my kid will never be again. And so you can over romanticize that too, but I'm having trouble deferring goodness until some later. You give me twenty years from now, I

won't move the same way. I don't move the same way now. I'm creaking around. My body makes noises when I bend down to get something that it wasn't making ten years ago. You need to take your Ginkgo Balboa. I know it. I got to do better. I got to care for myself better. But you know what saying? It's not the same. There's something unique about age eight and also unique about age nine and age 10 and age 14.

And frankly, I'm 40 years old, my wife is not quite that, but like the things that we are able to do and the energy we have to do them as a couple now is not the same thing it's going to be when we're 50 and when we're 60. And so,

I don't know, maybe you go on a vacation now and you don't wait and you go hike the thing now because you're not going to feel like it fifteen years from now. And so it's a balance for sure. It's it's it's both and it's not either or, but that's, that's the thing where I get, I get cautious about all this deferring for what? Life is unique and precious in the moments and like, it presumes that things are gonna be the same and you can take advantage of it ten years from now and like, what are all the things? Can money and I

value to the time that I missed trying to plot for a ten years that's better than the future? And I don't know. I don't trust it. I don't trust it. It seems too frail to me to defer, including what tile I have in my kitchen. That brings my wife joy.

Okay. What's the top Top one. Top one one. Point six k likes. Oh, it's not as popular as the top one elsewhere. No. They said, not the donkey's behind. You figured it out.

This is how he will control the both of you until he dies. Oh my. Oh my. First is fixing the house, then it will be living in it. You will need permission to have more than two guests over or if you get a pet or how you do the gardening. Worse, he bought this house for you, but you can't have it until he dies, which you can hang over your head as leverage for the control. If you don't do x, I will take you out of the will and so on. I wouldn't even rent from him. If he is next door, your privacy and your life will become his.

Do you how do would you think that's a legitimate risk, or do you think it's oversold? Maybe. Yeah. I think if he's already acting like this, it might be, you know, something for them him to keep keep his, thumb on his son. Yeah. Say, if you, if you don't act straight, boy, take care of the wheel. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That could totally Tighten up. Tighten it up. Tighten up, homie. Yeah. We want you to we want you to cut the lawn at three inch. You don't do it at three inch? Is that bermuda grass in there? I only like Kentucky blue. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I understand. I think that's a risk. I I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. And maybe that's wrong. Maybe maybe I I shouldn't so quickly be sure that I wouldn't do it, but I wouldn't. I know I know that to be true at this moment. Change my heart. Alright. You've been listening to live from the Path. Thanks for hanging out with us. It's, Steven Hotten here, and, just just like, just like the podcast coming in hot. Hope you enjoyed this week's show. Again, we were adding to due to week. Hunter, maybe we'll be up to three fellows next week. We'll see how it goes, but thanks for hanging out with us on live from the path. Hit us up on the complaint line if you've got any legit complaints about the show or just random musings or rumblings or if you wanna play Jesus in a reenacting crucifixion. We'd love to hear from you. (515) 517-0085. Call or text (515) 517-0085.

We hope to see you, I don't know. It's up in the coming weeks, maybe even next week. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to live from the Path.