Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper, you are live from the Pathway Studios here in Johnston Proper. Okay, there's not a way to do this well. Hold on. Okay, I just had to cut it off directly. Here's the problem. We're doing technological wonders here tonight. Oh, buddy. Mike, so it's just Boov and I here in the studio. Dan's still in the Zimbabster. He's hanging out in Zimbabwe. He's going to be back in a few days. The Zimbabster? Yeah, yeah. He's just come to me. Can't you just say Zimbabwe? No, I use words and I bend and I twist them like magic. Hey, Dan, how's the Zimbabster doing? It was wrong of me, but I don't repent. So, anyway, rather than Boov and I be lonely and spend our time talking to the thrift store priest, we brought Mike on.

Mike's in the—Mike, I can't remember. Are you in Minnesota? Yeah, Minnesota. Are you running a fan? No, why? Should I turn one on? No, no, I don't care. Why would that be a request for you to turn one on, Mike? It felt like there was a fan there. I mean, here's the deal. If I was running a fan, it could be because I'm in the toilet. And you wouldn't even know because I'm over to Skype audio only. Oh, buddy. But that is not the case. I could be standing—I'm sitting by the air conditioner.

You want me to shut the fan off? No, no, no. It's perfectly fine. See, this is amateur town. This is my fault. I should never mention it. I don't know—I've not learned in 10 years of broadcasting not to do things like that. We have been doing this for a while. Yeah, yeah. No, we're still scraping the barrel. Anyway. But it left me. I can't find out where this fan noise is coming from.

I'll look into it. All right. So here's what we've got going on the show tonight. Buva, the Lord has dropped a psalm on you. What psalm is it? Psalm 104. I mean, what's the gist here? So it's actually—it's a really cool psalm just kind of regarding just the extent of God's power. And so the cool thing was is I was actually watching my girlfriend's story on Instagram, and a girl—a little girl had given her a painting or a drawing or something like that. This little Malagasy girl from Madagascar had drawn Psalm 104 and said that she loved her and that God loved her and all this stuff. It was really cute.

And so recently I've kind of decided that any time I see any scripture, like even referenced, or any time somebody says a scripture, for a long time I kind of just threw that off, and now I'm jumping at it. And so Psalm 104, and yesterday that kind of wrecked my day in a good way and actually helped through a couple situations with a couple other people. So it was a really cool thing from the Lord yesterday. Okay. So Psalmster 104? Yeah. We're going to get it. Psalmster in the Zimbabster from Live from the Pastor. All right. Mike, well, you've got some dear life in the path.

And then the Lord's been kind of after you, and I think both of us at the behest of someone else on prayer. Yeah, that's true. Okay. So we're going to talk about that. Mike and I both kind of recently read a book, and I think it was appropriately challenging on prayer, and I think it opens up a lot of really interesting questions on how people interact with God, whether everyone interacts with God in the same way, especially when it comes to how we think of the Holy Spirit. And so we'll get into that. And then where we have time, follow up to that. I've been doing a terrible job reading books, and then all of a sudden I got this one on prayer, and I burned through it, and I realized I just loved reading and hearing people talk about things that God is doing and ways that otherwise can shift and change me. And so I picked up another one that was about hospitality, and that one was kind of a butt kicker as well

because I'm way unintentional in my life, and there's people out there that are, like, super intentional, and the gospel does good work when you expose it to people. And I prefer to hide into my house and not do anything. And so that was bad. So we'll see if we can get to that. You can hear how bad I am, and maybe that gives you a chance to change your ways. And then we'll do those dear life in the path. That's the goal for today. Hold on. I might share one of those. Wait. No, no, no. I'll do it right now.

We're going to start ourselves off with a clean Christian joke. A clean? Oh, buddy. Where's that joke, man? Hold on. I just – the last one. So last time it was about the airlines. Remember they were throwing the frozen chicken at the plane? Yep. Okay, hold on. So I'm going to give you four categories. We got crime jokes, farmer jokes, heaven jokes, or Satan jokes. Crime.

Satan. All right, we'll do one of these. Let's start with the crime jokes. Here we go. This one is titled, Jesus is Watching. Okay. Okay, here we go. A burglar got into a house one night, shining his flashlight on the floor in the dark. He heard a voice saying, Jesus is watching you. He looked around nervously, shook his head, and kept looking for valuables. He again heard, Jesus is watching you. This time, he shone his light all over, and it rested on a parrot. He asked, did you say that?

The parrot admitted that it had. I was just trying to warn you, that's all. Well, the burglar said, warn me, huh? Who are you? What's your name? Moses. Well, what kind of stupid people would name a parrot Moses? The bird answered, I don't know. I guess the same folks who would name a Rottweiler Jesus. Hey, yo. Hey, yo. All right. Here we go.

Boova's choice. Boova loves Satan jokes. Oh, no. Here we go. Maybe not say that. Here we go. One bright, beautiful Sunday morning, everyone in tiny Jonestown wakes up early and goes to their local church. Why do they have to call it Jonestown? Before the service starts, the townspeople sit in their pews and talk about their lives and their families. Suddenly at the altar, Satan appears. Everyone starts screaming and running for the front entrance, trampling each other in

their determined efforts to get away from evil incarnate. Soon, everyone is evacuated from the church except for one man who sits calmly in his pew, seemingly oblivious to the fact that God's ultimate enemy is in his presence. This confuses Satan a bit. Satan walks up to the man and says, hey, don't you know who I am? The man says, yep, sure do. Satan says, well, aren't you afraid of me? The man says, nope, sure ain't. Satan perturbs says, and why aren't you afraid of me? The man says, well, I've been married to your sister for 25 years. Oh, man. That's rough. Under the following tags, clean Christian jokes, funny jokes, clean jokes and humor about

Satan. I've been married to your sister for 25 years. Wow. All right. Clean Christian humor. That's rough. I don't even understand that one. What? Is this Satan? It's Satan's sister. Yeah. Satan doesn't have a sister. Yeah, but they're saying like.

It's a joke, Mike. It's a joke. It's that his wife is terrible. Is he trying to say. Yeah. I don't understand it. I think it's funny, but I don't understand it. I'm going to let it go. Okay. Okay. We'll do one more. That one. I'm not.

I don't love that one. This one's called the fence. There was a large group of people on one side. Wait. These are the Satan jokes at Boobalax. There was a large group of people on one side of the group stood a man, Jesus. On the other side of the group stood Satan. Separating them, running through the group was a fence. The scene set. That both Jesus and Satan began calling to the people in the group, and one by one, each having made up his or her own mind, each went to either Jesus or Satan. This kept going. Soon enough, Jesus had gathered around him a group of people from the larger crowd, as

did Satan. But one man joined neither group. He climbed the fence that was there and sat on it. Then Jesus and his people left and disappeared. So did Satan and his people, and the man on the fence sat alone. As this man sat, Satan came back looking for something which he appeared to have lost. The man said, Have you lost something? Satan looked straight at him and replied, No, there you are. Come with me. But, said the man, I sat on the fence. I chose neither you nor him. That's okay, said Satan. I own the fence.

That's not funny. What? That's like a bad pastor anecdote. Right, exactly. It's okay. I own the fence. I own the fence. Ha ha. I got that one. Whatever. Okay, hold on. We're going to try one more. I don't like to leave these.

I feel like we should not be in the Satan joke. All right, fine. You chose the Satan category. You're right. I did it incorrectly, but let's hear the third one. We'll see if we can go one for three. Boova triples down on the Satan jokes. All right. A golfer is in a competitive match with a friend who is ahead by a couple of strokes. The golfer says to himself, I'd give anything to sink this next putt. A stranger walks up to him and whispers, Would you give up a fourth of your sex life? Two holes later, he mumbles to himself, Oh, wait. Sorry, so the golfer thinks the man is crazy and that his answer will be meaningless, but

also that perhaps this is a good omen and will put him in the right frame of mind to make the difficult putt and says, Okay, and sinks the putt. Two holes later, he mumbles to himself, Boy, if I could only get an eagle on this hole. The same stranger moves to his side and says, Would it be worth another fourth of your sex life? What are these good Christian jokes? The golfer shrugs and says, Sure, and he makes an eagle. Down to the final hole, the golfer needs yet another eagle to win. Though he says nothing, the stranger moves to his side and says, Would you be willing to give up the rest of your sex life to win this match? The golfer says, Certainly, and makes the eagle. As the golfer walks to the clubhouse, the stranger walks alongside and says, You know, I've really not been fair with you because you don't know who I am.

I'm the devil, and from now on, you will have no sex life. Nice to meet you, says the golfer. My name's Father O'Malley. Catholic devil joke. Catholics don't have sex. All right. Those are three. Okay, yeah, yeah. All right, the same category is not funny. Crime. Christ. Sticking the crime. All right.

So, Booba, talk to me about Psalm 104. All right. So, like I said, I was looking through the Instagram story of my lady, and she posted a picture of this just cute little card that one of the girls at the children's home she works at made her. And it was just all about, like, we love you, and God loves you, and all this different stuff. And it had, like, kind of a shield on it, and the shield had Psalm 104 in it, right? And so, like I said before, my, like, life decision I've made recently is anytime I see a scripture, whether it's the actual scripture, whether it's just the, like, place marker for it, I always go look it up. Because I need to spend more time with the Bible, and it's just kind of been the way to do it, rather than just, you know, doing a Bible study, right?

So, I jumped in, and I read the Psalm, and it wrecked me in such a cool way. And I'm going to read a little bit of it. And so, Psalm 104 starts with, Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He rides on the wings of the wind. He makes his messengers winds. He ministers a flaming fire. He set the earth on its foundations so that it should never be moved.

You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke, they fled. At the sound of your thunder, they took to flight. The mountains rose. The valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass so that they might not again cover the earth. You make springs gush forth in the valleys. They flow between the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them, the birds of the heavens dwell. They sing among the branches.

From your lofty abode, you water the mountains, and the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. And so it goes on to continue that kind of narrative of creation is taken care of by God, whether it's a living animal that's taken care of by the fact that he set the earth to be exactly how it is for them, or the earth itself moving to his will and being created by him. And it's this beautiful psalm regarding the concept of God is in control. The Lord is the one who ordained everything to be in its right place, who is the one who sets the waters where they go and sets their boundaries, and they respond to him and they answer him as their creator. And so I really love that because I'm kind of in this spot right now where trust is a big theme in my life more than ever before. I found myself kind of finding truth in being in the will of God and figuring out exactly what that looks like and waiting patiently and being steadfast in my obedience to him.

And it's been really cool. And so the last couple of days have been kind of rough for me because my job is just becoming more and more difficult. And I know from prayer and from what I've heard from God, I know God's moving me to where I'm going to be leaving my job soon. I'm 100% certain of that. I just don't know where I'm going. That's kind of the limbo that I'm in right now, right? And so I thought, what a cool way for God to kind of show up and say, hey, pay attention to this. This is who I am and reassure that he's in control, right? And so that was a really cool moment for me. But then it took it one step further because later on yesterday evening, I was talking with

a friend of mine from college and she just was in a rough spot and I saw that she had been crying. And so I just reached out to her and I said, hey, hope everything's okay. I'm sorry what's going on. I know we're not super close, but if you need anything, let me know. I'd be happy to help or just talk to you and be in the ear to listen. And she responded to me. She goes, okay, well, I'm okay. I'm fine. I've just been crying. It's been a weird time the last couple nights and I'm just having a rough night. And I said, okay. And so I knew from our conversations and from getting to know her that she's a Jesus person.

She loves Jesus. And so I said, hey, read Psalm 104 for me. And she immediately responds with, wait, what? And I said, just go read Psalm 104 for me. It's important. It's on my heart right now. God placed it on my heart today. Go read it. And she responds with, oh my gosh, I just did. I go, what do you mean? She goes, I literally just read that Psalm. And I go, wait, because I told you to or because it was on your heart? And she goes, I just flipped to it and was reading it.

And I'm like, that's weird. That's awesome. And she goes, yeah, I don't know if you know this, but I'm actually in the process of becoming a missionary to the Middle East. And I'm having a really rough time. Some of these nights are just really difficult because I doubt myself and I doubt the plans and I doubt what's happening. And I just, I have rough nights. Yeah. And I said, I think this is kind of perfect. Let's talk for a second. And so I just started kind of typing out just kind of the concept of that Psalm. That's, you know, you got to realize that all of creation cries out to him as creator.

All of it. If the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea and the stars in the sky and even inanimate objects like iron gates that move when Peter's trying to get out of jail, they all cry out to him as sovereign, as holy, holy, holy, and as Lord. If all of these things know in their existence and their being that he is creator, he is Lord, he is in power. And how much more so does he bless us as the creations that are in his image and breathe life from him? How much more so does he love us than them? Even our response to that has to be crying out to him and praise like when you really understand the concept of that of understanding, like God literally ordained every single thing that you physically see to be exactly how it is. God created the heavens and the earth and everything in between.

He did it all. And everything cries out of his magnificence. And that's so amazing. And she goes, I needed to hear that tonight. I'm thankful that you contacted me. That was kind of out of nowhere. Thanks for bringing up Psalm 104. I'm going to read it again and make sure that I'm keeping that in mind. Yeah. And so that on its own was a cool thing. And then I said, hey, just a heads up, by the way, my girlfriend is a missionary and has been working in Madagascar for four years. And she goes, what?

And I said, yeah, so if anybody understands what it's like to leave their life behind and go to a foreign country, it's her. I said, let me get you in contact with her. She could probably talk you through some of these rough nights from experience and talk to you about what it's like and tell you and encourage you and be there for you. And she goes, that sounds amazing. And I really appreciate that. And so I texted my gal and said, hey, this is going on. She goes, yep, give her my contact info. And we prayed for her. And so it was this weird concept of like, God keeps doing that to me in an awesome way. Like, I feel like I've been called to kind of share a lot of stuff for him recently. And I keep trying to figure out what that looks like and how that works.

And I keep doubting him from the perspective of like, I'm not the right person for this stuff. But then out of nowhere, he'll give me something in my brain and be like, this is what you need to talk about. This is what you need to tell someone. And I don't say that so that like, I sound like I'm doing great because I'm just here. But the way that he's been working through me has been incredible. Just like when I feel like I'm following him and when I feel like I'm in his will in his hands, it's not about my pride and it's not about my ego. It's about his glory. Beautiful things keep happening where in my personal life or in some random way, I'll see some scripture or I'll think about some theme and kind of break it down. And then within hours, usually within hours or minutes, I regurgitate that and I tell someone

else about it and then they go, that's exactly what I needed to hear. This is that that's an amazing story. This is exactly what I'm going through. And like, it's been so cool to find myself fighting for obedience for him and fighting to be in his will and in his purposes and his ways. And he's completely taken care of the fact that I was worried about not being able to do it and has just said, dude, I'm going to give you the words to say. I'm going to tell you what you need to tell. And I'm not even going to tell you when it's going to happen. I'm just going to let you. This is what's happening. And when you need to, you'll know, and it's been so cool to be an actual tool in that situation and live that out.

And so, so that's been that just on things we talked about in the past, that feels like a shift in your life. Oh, absolutely. So, so, I mean, folks, folks listen and they say, boy, I mean, that sounds awesome. And I feel like I've wanted to do that. What's what's with the shift movement? Like, like what, what's right? What's how? That's a good question. Um, so I've been asking for this for a very long time. I've been asking for God to, to use me, to, to show me what he wants me to do and things like that. But I never really responded in the right way because I started with that.

I started with the God. I want you to use me, but I never really put me in my, in a place, put myself in a place to be used. And so the most recent switch has been this change to understanding what a loving relationship with him is like, and needing him daily. When I found myself finally crying out to God every single day and not just once a week and not just when it's convenient, but understanding that like my relationship with him is the most important thing about my life. And a loving relationship with him is the most important thing. And because of that, I've started to be revealed who he is. He's revealed to me what his, what his character is, what he's like, uh, whether it's through, uh, revelations in, in, in scripture that I've read recently. And I'm a firm believer.

And when you're really doing this, the Holy Spirit reveals spiritual knowledge to you. That's, that's biblical. That is exactly how that happens. When I found myself truthfully, uh, pursuing a loving relationship with God and inviting the Holy Spirit into my life and into my heart through repentance and through, through, through the invitation, like scripture is making more sense to me than it ever has. Right. And the good news about that is, is the concept of that scripture is exactly understanding the identity of God. And it's just knowing who he is. And once I finally figured out that, that my love for him and my understanding of loving the love that I get from him, the trust that I have in him and the constant perseverance to having that loving relationship daily and working through it has led me to a place

where I feel closer to him. I feel closer to being in his will. I recognize when things are happening that are of him. And it's not like I have to pray every time. Hey God, is this what I'm supposed to say? I just know it. Right. And I know it's time to say it. Like last night, I just shared with this girl randomly, Psalm 104. And then we get into this long conversation that she needs encouraging as, as someone who's doubting the mission that she feels God's given her. And it was this perfect moment that God orchestrated that you needed to hear this. You read it, but you needed to hear it again.

Yeah. Go back and read it. And this is exactly what God's talking about. And so the, the, the, the, the cool thing is that invitation to a loving relationship that I've gotten from him recently and understanding that like the creator of the universe that literally holds everything in his hands has, has said to me, son, I love you. And I want you to see what that looks like. Like it's more than a word and it's more than feeling it is. It is something that should encapsulate everything you do in your entire life and existence. And once I started to understand that things have just been falling into place and it's been beautiful. It's been absolutely beautiful. Boy, that's, that's awesome.

And I think it's, it's something that, uh, uh, I think I, when you were talking, what, what, what, what it reminded me of is like, I can't, it's countless times. Like I've, um, I felt I was being lazy because I thought I read this thing this week and then it just so happened to come up like, uh, someone was having some kind of problem or situation or whatever. And then I would refer back to the scripture that I read that week or the thing that I was studying to preach on coming up soon or whatever. Uh, and I always thought, boy, I, it's, I, it's just laziness because it's the first thing that came to mind because I've been looking at it. But then, but the truth was is I suppose that could be the case some of the time, but more often than not, it, it's, it wasn't misapplied, right? Like it was, it was there and then it was useful. It was both like, God had me doing this thing.

Uh, and to the extent that it was then valuable for me and someone else within the very near future. Uh, and as opposed to looking at it and saying, boy, that's a human coincidence, I start to recognize that God is doing things that otherwise that what I was missing out on is recognizing his hand in it, right? Like giving God the credit for something, something that otherwise brings glory to him and comforts me to know that God is using your life to do X, Y, Z. Uh, and instead we're like, boy, look at him, crazy coincidences or my own laziness. And like, what a false attribution. Right. I, I've recently given up on coincidences. Um, the first couple of weeks of this whole deal where, where God's been calling me back to him for the first time in a long time.

Um, possibly the first time ever, if I'm being, if I'm being fully honest, um, I, I started off by counting coincidences in life. Like I, I started off with this prayer of Lord, help my unbelief because I know the things to say and I know the words to use. And I, I've read your scripture enough that I have a basic understanding of a lot of it. Uh, but I don't trust you and I never have. And I realized that. And the second I started saying that and asked him to help my unbelief first, that I've asked him for blessings, instead of asking him for miracles, except instead of asking him to change my entire life, I just asked him to, to help me to trust him. Yeah. And he absolutely showed up. And so in the first week I lost count at about 10 coincidences that were happening.

And I'm just like, okay, you know what? If I'm, if I'm asking for trust and I'm asking for you to reveal your nature to me, if this is how you're revealing it to me, I need to stop counting coincidences and start counting the ways that you're showing me that I can trust you and, and, and start counting the ways that you're showing me that yes, you love me unconditionally. Yes. You're trustworthy. You are faithful. You keep your promises. You are exactly who you said you were thousands of years ago in that Bible. And you're exactly who you said you were every day when you talk to me and, and Lord, you do not change. Yeah.

And I'm so thankful for that moment. And like I said, I stopped counting coincidences and just started recognizing it. God, this is you moving. This is you working. Make sure that I keep myself aligned with you and obedient and a loving relationship with you so that I can stay here and be attuned spiritually to what you have to say and where you're moving. And I'm just going to go when you send me. So, so that sniffs a lot like, um, I think some of the prayer stuff, Mike, that, that you and I have been talking about. So, so, I mean, how does that relate to some of the stuff? I don't know, like, um, what hit you from, I can't remember the name of the book, but the book you're reading and then kind of how that interacts with your prayer life.

Um, I think the thing that, that really, I don't move me in a, in a, in a pretty wild direction is like that. And I, and you're right, I can't remember the name of the book, which I think is probably a good thing, um, uh, something fresh fire, fresh wind, fresh fire, something like that. Oh yeah. Fresh, yeah. Fresh wind, fresh fire. And so basically he was talking about, you know, he drew this, this, this nothing church that God had called him to and they did nothing but, but pray for, for God to bring people and, and God to renew their spirit and God to do things. And that's how he did it. Like it was no, in fact, he took most of the emphasis off the Sunday morning, um, service and moved it all to the Tuesday, Tuesday night prayer circle.

And, and like, I remember that was my favorite line out of that book is, is one of the, uh, a missionary had come to the church to speak or whatever, and he gets up on a podium and he says three things. He's only there for like two minutes, you know, he gets up and he goes, he goes, the, the attendance on your Sunday morning service attests to the popularity of your, uh, of your worship, uh, attendance at the Sunday night service, uh, attends to the, to the popularity of your preacher and the attendance on the Tuesday night prayer circle that attends to the popularity of Jesus. And, and then he left, like the guy left the podium and walked out the door and no one ever saw him again. That was super creepy. But it was, it was, it all pointed to this thing where like, uh, you know, the, the modern path to, to Christianity, the modern path to following Jesus is, is it so, it's such a

structured thing and it's all based on knowledge, you know, on what you know about Jesus. And, and, and the truth is, is like, you only kind of have to know one thing, right? You just basically have to know that God is good and he can be trusted. And that's exactly what Buva was saying, right? And so like, if you're, if your heart attunes that way, then you say, well, God, there's, there's no people in my church. Do you want to send people? I'll pray. I'll, and I'll have everyone else pray because that's the only way I know to get things done is to ask you to do them because you could be trusted and you're good. And we need money for, to build a new building or we need, we need more people to volunteer to help with a, with a drug addicts that surround our church building, right? Like all we need, all we, it's not a, it's not a, a repentance thing on Sunday where you

yell at everybody and say, we got to have more volunteers. It's, you just, you pray and you talk to God about it. That's his job. That's what he does. And he's good and he can be trusted. And like, it's funny that like, like your prayer life, and this is true of mine, even, even now is your prayer life is, it's, it's almost proportional to how much you, you believe that God is good and can be trusted because if you don't believe that, then you don't pray much. Right. And I used to not pray much. Right. And, and maybe I still don't, not as much as I'd like.

Right. But like, I don't, you know, I'd say a good chunk of my, of my walk towards, uh, you know, following Jesus up to recently, maybe I didn't believe that he is actually going to do anything. You know, like I had this, this vision of him that like he will do, I did believe him to be good, that he would do what he's going to do. And me praying either way, despite even an example from Moses, you know, that his heart can be changed or his decision can be changed. I thought, well, I mean, even if it could, who am I? Right. Who am I to say, God, I believe you should change this thing, you know? But that also led to not asking him for help because you'd basically look at it and go, well, if God wanted to help, he'd be doing it already. And so it, it, it, it, it led to a very, uh, non-existent prayer life.

You know, like I, and, and I was talking to Ben about this last week. Like I, I was, uh, getting ready to, to pick out the songs for worship and realized that I had never actually asked God what songs he wanted me to play. I always would just pick them. I almost did the same thing. Like for a youth group, I never, I never prayed much on what, what I should be teaching. I just picked something and then worked at it. And it was, it was, it was all knowledge base or, or, or from a teaching someone else had done. And then like, I gave God no room to do anything. And, and after reading that book and, and, and praying over it and, and, you know, trying to involve God in some different things, that's some things that I had kept him out of. Um, it's just like Buva says, it's, it's huge.

It does amazing things. All the things that are God sized things and not Mike sized things, um, you know, he shows up into after you start actually asking him what he wants and talking to him about what, uh, where we need him to show up because it's a, it's a him deal. So, uh, yeah, I, I think that's, that's all it fits in perfectly with what Buva's saying. And I think, you know, what's interesting is that if, as we look, um, when we talk about kind of the knowledge piece. So what I found, I, so I read the same book, um, and I was convicted in similar ways in that, um, I took something that God had meant for good and I have used it at times to tie everything up, right? So, so like the problem isn't, the problem is that knowledge isn't the problem, just like money's not the problem, just like sex as a whole is not the problem, right? The knowledge and biblical knowledge and wanting to know and learn and study more about Jesus,

um, is not the problem. But like, if we continue, if that is our only means of which we then express our faith, um, not how we know our faith, like I'm not, I'm not fighting for the thought that like I'm getting, uh, what I think is false that like special revelation is coming from God, um, for like humanity at large that might work through someone else's prayer life. Like I, individuals, yes, groups, no, because I feel like the Bible covers this, these things. Like we're, we know what we should know. And so like, I'm, um, I'm not saying that, but like how we, how our faith is otherwise lived out faithfully cannot just be in the consumption about, um, from, from, uh, about God from scripture that is not one either lived out in an active relationship with God and with the people around us. And so like, if, if we've got, we've got this sense, in fact, the scripture points us to this sense that God does interact with his people and we avoid the interaction with

God specifically as consumption of knowledge about him. And like Paul very much prays that we would know God, but his, his no is not knowledge like book knowledge alone, right? His no is kind of like the, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's like we know our husband or wife. Um, and there's, there's a reason that, that Christ is described as, as, or we're, we're brides of Christ, um, the church is. And so like, I think the, the, the point is, is that this is not, this is not, Kay, can you be saved on what we know and are faithful in, in our, uh, in our relationship with Jesus? Yeah. Yeah, sure. But we miss out on heaven. We miss out on God's space, the ability to live in his current kingdom actively and excitedly

and all the gifts that come with it. If we are not willing to otherwise, uh, engage with God, um, in prayer that opens up our life and still allows him to have be the spontaneous God that created the world. I guess that's the thing is that like, if I box him up and say, um, this is exactly how things are going to go. It is, it is indeed, like Mike said, limited to my human thought. Here's what I thought of. Here's what I'm going to walk faithfully in Lord. I hope you like what I might, I'm my sacrifice to you as opposed to saying, God, what do we got going on? Like it's the same God that looked out and said, I'm going to create clouds and salamanders. And then like, I've taken away all his creative capacity to do cool things in my life because I'm just not interacting with him in that way.

And that feels like a super big miss. And if I never expose my life and say, God, I wish to see your hand move. I won't notice it. And it was like that, like that, like that example I was given earlier, like times in which God has used me. Um, and like whatever, I don't care. Like a God will use who he wants to do. It's nothing special about me. Right. But like, man, to miss out, how many times, uh, if you, if you hear a celebrity, like let's say you were at a gas station, right? You go to the quick trip or whatever. And then like someone goes, Hey man, five minutes earlier.

And Tom Cruise was here. Tom Cruise was buying a roller dog and, and, and a decaf coffee. You missed Tom Cruise. And you're like, dang, I wish I wouldn't have missed Tom Cruise. And so now take it now, amp it up, uh, 10 million times up and say, look, the Lord was here in your house. The Lord was in your life doing stuff. And you're like, Oh, I missed it. You'd be like, boy, I can't believe I missed out on the Lord doing stuff. Like what a bummer because to, to have confidence, one, that the Lord is good, the Lord is real and that he's interacting in your affairs. What a, what a cool thing. And you missed it because I didn't, Oh, I wasn't open to the possibility that it could

happen. You know, it's, it's, Oh, go ahead, Mike. I mean, I don't mean to derail it here, but like that example about the Tom Cruise gas station, that just fell real flat for me. I've never had that ever happen. I totally thought the same thing. I'm like, wait, is Ben, is, is Ben, what? Ben comparing the Lord to, uh, to Tom Cruise. Then you said, blow it up 10 million times. And that still didn't cut it for me. No, no. I understand. I've never narrowly missed a celebrity at the gas station.

Never one time. Okay. It's not relatable. So, uh, the, the funny thing is, is, uh, so the Bible study that I'm doing right now, the entire day today was all about this exact subject. It was literally talking about the concept of, of, of our plans versus God's plans and understanding what it means to be in his plans rather than either way around. There is no Bible story that worked well because someone brought a plan to God. Like it literally never went. Noah did not bring a plan to God and God went, that seems right. Let's do that. You know, Isaiah didn't do that. Abraham didn't do that.

Jesus didn't do that. It was never us bringing our ideas to him and hoping that he's aligned with them. It is the exact opposite is us aligning ourselves with him so that we can hear what his plans are. And I told you this Ben early, but before the show is, is Proverbs 19 21 has been hitting me today, which is many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. And that's absolutely true here is we need to find ourselves in the will of God and in the hands of God. And that's when cool stuff happens so that we don't miss him in our home and so that we don't miss him in our lives. And prayer is such a huge portion of that because that's literally our communication line with him.

We are asking him to tell us exactly when things are happening. There's a passage in Amos, I think it's 3-7, and it's talking about the concept of God reveals his plans to the prophets before he will do them. And that's an important thing in our individual lives as well is because if we don't find ourselves constantly seeking his will and his plans in our lives, we may be worldly successful. We may do things that work out. We may have a job that pays us well, and we may have a family that loves us. We may have a business that works out or even a charity that does well because we had the right heart on it. But if we have the right heart on things and we're moral through it, and we miss the heart of Jesus and we miss the plans of God, we're still in the wrong spot. And it's so important to find ourselves in his hands. He's the potter.

We are the clay. We just need to make sure that we stay there so he can move us and meld us, and we stay with him. Which, you know, it makes me think of the scene in Isaiah 6, right, where he gets taken up to the throne room, right? And then there's a discussion that says, you know, who will we send? Who shall go for us? Right? And Isaiah goes, here I am, send me. And the truth is, is that for that to be true, for that situation to make any sense, you have to be in the presence of the Lord, and you have to be listening to him, right? If I'm so bottled up, and my prayers are transactional prayers with God about my plans, really what I'm saying is, God, I'm just checking in.

Don't worry. I've sent myself. Right. Yeah. Right? And you're thinking, but that is just not as compelling of a story to be like, no worries, Yahweh. I've sent myself, as opposed to, here I am, Lord, send me. Right. And do we not still serve a God who says, who will go, and which we can respond and say, here I am? Yeah. And I believe we do.

Absolutely. And I think, and I've been, and there's parts of my life that I feel like I'm missing out on the potential of that, because I've already sent myself. Right. The trust in that situation is literally one of the most important things. Like, we walk into this in trust with the Lord, knowing that his plans are good, his ways are good, he's going to take care of us, and no outcome that he ordains will be against us. It's for us. In his will. And that's such an important thing that, like, that's why, yeah, my prayer life has changed recently as well. Because once I found myself finally trusting in him, and in a loving relationship with

him, I couldn't stop myself from talking to him. Right. Like, it is a natural outpouring of an active relationship with the God of the universe. Like, when I'm constantly finding myself in the throne room, I have two options. I either continually sing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come, or I talk to him as my father and make certain that I'm listening. Like, I praise, and I listen, and I act. Those are the three things I can do in the throne room of God. So, Mike, this doesn't seem like natural behavior for a man of your demeanor. What does this look like in your life? Mike. I said, so, you can't be asterisk on the, on the side. So, so, Boo was talking about, hey, man, like, praying, feeling like you're in the presence

of God, and, I mean, you're, you're a, you're a, you're a less ethereal dude. So, like, how does, what does this type of interaction with God and prayer look like in your life? So, actually, I was just thinking on, well, I can't remember what, I was looking for that Amos verse that you brought up. What was it? Amos 3.7. The Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants and prophets. That wasn't the one. That's not the one I was thinking of. Shoot. Anyway, what I was thinking of is, like, we're talking about, like, like you said, the ethereal things, or the things we're missing out on, like these great God-sized things, you know?

And it occurred to me that, like, I have, I have prayed multiple times, but where I told God my plan, and my plan was to follow him, right? And so, that's what I prayed on. I'm like, Lord, I plan on this day, I'm going to follow you with this day. And it seemed like such the right thing to do at the time, is to say, it was still me dictating what the plan was, right? Like, it wasn't me saying, God, what's your plan for today? Because, obviously, intrinsically, I'm saying, if I'm asking you what your plans are, then I care what they are, and I'm going to follow them. But, like, my total presentation to the Lord was, I have a plan for the day, Lord. I'm going to glorify you and follow all your ways, and I'm going to not do that one thing I said that I wasn't going to do, right? And, like, none of these things that I had listed can actually be accomplished without

him, without letting him do them, right? Like, they're still all on my own steam. That's me saying, I'm going to follow you with the best of my ability. That's all on me. I'm going to stop sinning in this way. That's on me. That's the best of my abilities. I will take care of you. These are all the things that I'm going to do for you. And, like, it's really a very arrogant stance when you're talking to God in that way, right? And it doesn't seem that way at the time. It seems very humble. But the truth of the matter is, it's you basically still dictating what your relationship

with God is going to look like, and that this thing, I will take care of it so you will be happy. And that's still not me asking him what he wants to do. This, I'm going to follow you with today, meaning if I see sin coming, I'm going to avoid it. And if I see someone crying, I'm going to try to pray for him silently as I walk by. These are all the things that will glorify you, right? Like, they're all ideas in your own head of how to follow Jesus. And I think this is actually where the whole thing that we're talking about is where people get frustrated, and they never actually end up knowing Jesus because they don't know what to do. Like, that's the big thing we talk about all the time is, like, yeah, okay, so I'm following Jesus.

Now what do I do? And we try to answer it with classes and Bible reading and book after book after book. And, like, the books are all great. And the Bible reading is totally enriching and lets you know the God that you're promising to trust and follow, right? But, like, you will never actually follow Jesus unless you actually follow Jesus. And you can't do that without knowing where he is. And so, like, the ethereal thing doesn't, you're right, it doesn't really speak to me. But the following Jesus thing does. And logically, it makes absolutely no sense for me to guess where he's at or tell him where I'm going to be and wait for a sign of whether, yes, this is good or this is not good. It makes way more sense to say, where are you going and what time do I need to be there?

And so, like, you can't do that without having a conversation with him and trusting that he's going to answer and that you're going to follow and turning more and more things over because you can't follow if you don't know where he is. And, like, the Bible lays out a fairly good idea of where he might go and where his character goes. But it doesn't cover the crevasse. It doesn't cover the afternoon, you know, break. It doesn't cover any, you know, it just gives you general directions. And so I think people get frustrated at their continued failures and their lack of any evidence that Jesus is living and active in their life. And it's obviously not true. He's living and active all the time. And you're just not paying any attention to it or you weren't there to see it.

Let me give you, like, a super, okay, so that Tom Cruise thing fell. Let me give, let me try something else. All right, Ben's attempt number two. I'm going to try it. So at my job, we were evaluating, we're trying to solve a business problem, okay? So I go through and I say, here's my understanding of the problem. I write a series of requirements that say, look, here's how I think the problem gets solved. If we were to find a new piece of software, it needs to do these 40 things in this way to otherwise solve the crux of this problem, okay? And so we go out and we start asking. So now that we've defined what our problem is, we go out to a bunch of different companies and we say, great, can you help us solve this? And so I ended up with two core solutions, and you guys tell me which one is better.

The first one was we had a company come in and say, you know what, we read through what your requirements are and we will build to that. We're going to deliver you exactly what you asked for, and it's going to cost whatever X amount of money. I say, I mean, that's everything I wanted. I defined what I said, what I wanted, and you're a great job. And so we were going to go with this particular option. And within the last week or so, we brought in, there was one other option that came in, and this company was like, we didn't know much about them, but they were going to kind of present their software solution. And so we had them come through and present, and here's the thing, they nailed, they did not see what I asked for, but they nailed everything that I needed, plus, I mean, probably 50 more.

Yeah. 50 more. And, like, things that I hadn't even thought of or things that, like, I would have thought of or figured out about three years down the line. After I started behaving and did the thing that I wanted, about three years down the line, I would figure out, oh, you know what, we probably should address this and we'll make iterative changes or whatever. These folks had already done that. And so my two options are the thing that is exactly what I asked for and the thing that comes from folks who understand the problem and have thought through it way better and showing up not only with exactly what I needed without me telling them, but, like, everything else on top of it that I never thought of and that's, like, ten times cooler than what I ever expected.

Right. That's the difference of me dictating to God and saying, God, here's what I'm going to do, so I want you to bless this, curse this guy, try to keep this thing from happening. Right? Or I say, God, you know that there's things on my heart and mind. I think I know how they're solved, but, like, I'm just going to put it in your hands and say, can you work on these things and you solve them how they get solved, and I'm going to beg you to let me see it. Right. Let me see where you step in. And then I can either get the thing that was just enough that's been sized or the thing that's been sized plus a million that otherwise delivers things I never could have thought of.

Right. I mean, if you take biblical example for what it is, like, there are so many stories, Old Testament, New Testament, abounding, of God showing up, God's plans being the best way it could have happened. Like, I'm certain that there are many of the Bible character stories in the Old Testament that the people that were involved probably had a good idea of how things would have gone and had a good plan for how things would have gone. But when God shows up with his plan, it is so much better. Like, when Abraham was told, hey, I'm going to give you a son, his plan was probably not, hey, wait 25 years, be faithful to me, understand what it looks to learn to be a loving father based off of my example and my identity, and then I will give you a son and it will be good and right. His plan would have probably been, hey, God, you told me I'm going to get a son.

How's nine months from now sound? Yeah, can I have it now? Right. Can I have it now? Right. And the Old Testament is full of that. The whole Bible is full of that, where if the Bible was full of humans' plans getting perfectly fulfilled by God, it would be a much less impressive book than if it was full of stories where God's plans were fulfilled using people. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. The point is that you, if I had to take it down to two things, if I combine kind of what you were talking about, back to my software example, I could have gotten, if I went to

the company that delivered exactly what I asked for, I would have been happy with that. Right? Absolutely. I would have been like, hey, this worked out. It would have been fulfilled. And they built it, and it was okay. And here's the thing. If I never talked to company number two, I wouldn't have known the difference. Right. And I would have just gone about my life. I wouldn't have been disappointed. I would say, oh, yeah, things are good. And so God gets some credit from that.

But the thing about option number two is that, one, I want the best. If the best is available, the best way to do it, regardless of whether I thought of it, that's what I wanted. And two, I want to know the difference. I want to know that it's the best. I want to know that what I got was actually better than the other things that were going on out there. And those are the things that if we never talked to company number two, I would never have known it. And I would have missed out completely. And it would have been a bummer. I just wouldn't have been – my ignorance would have allowed me to get away from it. And the question is, how much of our lives then are we satisfied with too little?

We're satisfied with like, yeah, fine, I thought of something and executed and okay. But like if God offers the deeper well and I'm okay with just the shallow dip of my hand in the pool and like, boy, that's refreshing. And the Lord's like, you don't know refreshing. Cut me in here. Right. Yeah. It's Jesus showing up and saying, yes, you have bread in your hands right now, but I'm the living bread. Like you have something that may fulfill you right now, but I want to fulfill you for eternity. Yeah. It's so cool.

It's so amazing that he offers that. So I mean a slice of the conviction pie is when's the last time you prayed about this show? When's the last time you prayed that this show was going to do what God wanted out of it? No. It's been at least five, six years. I was going to say it's been a while. Yeah. As a matter of fact, go ahead. I was just going to say that like I used to do it probably for the first two years we ran this show. I prayed every, every Monday night on the drive in about whatever was going to happen on the show, even if it wasn't specific, you know, and like, I just, it occurred to me that I

have not done that. I mean, probably seven, eight years, I would bet. Yeah. I was going to say the same thing. I used to pray for it on the way in, but, but I can tell you that I was, I was dictating. I, the generally what I would say is, is God, you know, you know who we are. You know, the, the limits of our skills and talents. Um, uh, can you bless what we do and may it be used for your kingdom? And so like, there's nothing wrong with that. Right. But I, I, I wasn't, there's a, there's a door number two that wasn't open, which was what do you want us to do? You got, I mean, you got anything you want us to do?

Um, and, and here's the thing is that because, because it opens a door that says, how would I even know? How would I know that he's got anything in particular, uh, that he wants us to hit up? And because I don't want that to fail, I don't want to say I opened for God to speak and he refused or he doesn't do that. And either that says something about him or me. Uh, and so, uh, maybe, maybe, maybe us, us, uh, let's a spiritual type fellas, uh, more tangible, uh, faithful, obedient type of guys. Like, Ooh, that's the track that we're on. Um, I don't want to open that up to not work. And so I don't say, God, you know, you got anything. What do you got? Open into what you got?

And like, I think that's moving to some of the stuff you're talking about. And I think some of the stuff, to be honest, that I'm starting to see in my prayer life, I don't expect that, that I'm going to get booming voices here. As a matter of fact, one of the things that my wife and I have been, we've been praying about this together, specifically about our own prayer lives. Um, and, and there's, there's different folks in the kingdom. Ephesians tells us that like, there's, there's, there's teachers, there's preachers, there's prophets, um, like there's people that do different things. And so like, um, do I expect that God will respond to my prayer? Yes. Um, both my wife and I have got an affirmation that is not any, any specific like, um, thing, individual thing. It's an affirmation that he is God.

Mine, mine was, uh, and this was in like something that happened to me a few years back was just an affirmation that Jesus is Lord. And like, uh, my wife's was something to the extent of a child I'm here. And like, it's, it's, it's not, Hey, this thing's gonna happen to you next Tuesday or you're on the right path or like nothing like that. And then there's other people who are like getting hyper specific things. And like, that's their gig. And so the thing is, is that like, I wasn't even open to the, I think the other thing, the thing that I actually got, the thing that my wife got, um, because like, I get, I didn't even dictate what it looks like for God to respond to me in prayer as opposed to him saying, I see what you're after. I dig your heart in it. I want you to know that I hear it.

I, you don't get any more than that. Cause either that's not what I have for you. It's not time or whatever it is, but like, it's God saying, yeah, I got you. Yeah. There's a reason that not every single prayer story in the old Testament ended with a burning bush, like literally that was one specific person that was spoken to that way. Yeah. God, God answered prayers in countless different ways. And, and when we come to our prayer life and when we come to our, our asking him things with expectations of answers, that's where that's, again, that is our plans that we are dictating rather than listening to him. Right. You know, when we come to him and go, here's the deal.

The only way that this is going to work is if I find myself in a relationship with you and listening, not listening for something specific, not, not watching for a sign, just listening. Yeah. There's not a single story that doesn't end with him speaking. He always does. He does not change. He always speaks. Now it's not in the same time intervals every time. And you may be praying the same thing for 15 years, but that doesn't mean that he's not going to speak to you. Right. Right.

And so, so here's, here's what's difficult, I think for, um, for some of us, and I'll put myself in that category is that like the notion of this isn't what do I need to start checking off my list? The notion is really is an opening of your mind and of your heart and saying, I believe that God can and does speak, does, um, direct his people in things and in ways. And like, without saying this is what it's going to be and this is how it's going to work or this is who I'm going to use it with. It's, it's waking up in the morning and saying, God, I'm open. If you got stuff for me, uh, I'm open. What, what do you have? And it's like, um, this happened to me actually multiple times over the last two weeks is that usually, um, I, I, I, I've, I've listened to Bible study stuff or sermon stuff on my drive to work and at home.

And I found myself at least on three to four occasions that I went and I started it playing and I got about 10 seconds in and I thought, no, uh, I want to, I'd rather, I'd rather talk to God right now. And that's what I'll do. Uh, and like, I mean, I still listen to a son of sermon content, right? Um, but, but it was, uh, I just, I just, I want to talk to you right now. And so I'll do that. And then the Lord escorted me to the Starbucks the other day. And like, and it's, it's things like that where I, as opposed to like just chucking stuff up and I'm like, boy, I hope this works out because I trust that God is faithful. My mind's right. But, but like, it's not, it's not open-ended like a relationship would be. Right.

Um, and so anyway, it's, it's, it's going to feel, it's going to feel like you're acting is the deal is it's going to feel like you're acting, but like the reason we feel like that is like, anytime you try to do something that you wouldn't normally do, it's, it's an act. It's a bit of a posture. Right. Uh, and let me put it this way. Every fight of temptation that's ever happened in my life is an act. Right. Because if my, if I had at the core of me, I would like to go, heck yeah, I'm in. That's what, that's what I want to do. Right. It's an act to say, I don't want that. Yes, I do.

But, but that's, it doesn't mean it's false. Right. It means it's intentioned. Right. I'm intending, I'm purposely choosing to, um, speak this way to, about, and with God. I'm purposely, um, going to take, going to focus what I'm doing and not say, this is one of the things that helps in my prayer life is, is, is to try to release some I statements. Is, is, is just, just let them go. Let's not spend so much time on I or me or, uh, can you, um, generally I'll pray for my enemies first because that helps me orient my life correctly. Uh, and as soon as I can exhaust people, um, then, then it's, it's kind of just a broad thing and say, look, I, I'm, I'm listening. You got something for me.

I'm listening. Help me to be quiet when I need to be quiet. And I, I don't expect things, things to be firing in every day about everything. But like, if you're open to that, you will start seeing the opportunities that are around you. All right. Okay. So let's, let's, um, let's, let's follow this because I think this is something that has come up in, I think Mike's right in, in themes and problems and questions that we've got, I've been going on the show for a very long time, live in this realm of like, what does it actually look like to do something that is more than just the shape of American Christianity? Right.

Um, and, and, and without, without abandoning what I know to be right and good, which is God's revelation to his people through the scriptures. Those scriptures even point me to an active Holy spirit that is here to help us do things, do God's good work into the world of which I should not be the sole determiner as to what that work is. That's, that seems the mistake. Every God has empowered us to up to everything except for his execution is limited by what I thought of today. That seems wrong. And I think it is wrong. And I think we're missing out on seeing God actively work in the transformation of his world. We miss out on it.

And I think this is where the crux of it lies is within kind of abandoning of the restrictions of ourselves, um, and a, a faithful, not just, I go through the motions prayer life, but one that actually says, God, I believe that you do these things. I'm open to them. Help me see it and help me walk in, in obedience and faith as I, as I walk and wait. And so let's, let's, um, let's keep checking in on this. Yeah. On how things are going. Absolutely. Okay. Um, I, I'm going to forget to my hospitality stuff next, next week, uh, because we have used our time wisely. Mike, you got some, uh, people need some advice.

Yeah. You ready? Yep. Dare, lie from the path. In the last few years, I have had a string of failed relationships. Nothing bad happened and there are no fights or arguments. The ladies tell me I'm great and an amazing person, yet they don't want to be in a relationship or they cheat or lie to me. I'm a very open, understanding guy. I believe communication is key to success in any relationship and that together, there isn't much a couple can't overcome. It seems many women come from abusive relationships or just plain toxic ones, and they are scared because I don't exhibit any of these traits.

What? I'm a kind, caring, supportive partner. If you had a bad day, I want to hear about it. You had a good day? Let's talk about that. You want to go out with your friends? Go for it. Have fun and be safe. You want to go out with me? Don't worry about bringing your pocketbook. I got this. I'm looking for a partner, someone who eventually may become my queen. These women love that about me, but then do everything to distance themselves.

It appears nice guys finish last. I'm not bad looking. I'm 34, go to the gym regularly. No kids, no marriages. I was engaged for four years previously. I'm ready to give up on relationships altogether. The pain just doesn't seem worth it. After a while, though, it gets lonely. Please give me some advice. Boy, there's a number of things going on in there. I'm going to say some things that I feel like may not land quite correctly, but be gracious with me. First of all, I think Boob and I both kind of raised eyebrows at this four-year engagement. Yeah.

I don't believe in that. I don't know. I don't know. That seems like a long time and potentially indicative of something about your personality. So here's the thing, is that people do like nice folks. There is a reality that some people have rough relationships and it is difficult to be on the other side of it. They don't know how to act in a proper relationship. You will take the brunt of whatever other relationship problems they used to have. That's very, very true. I am afraid. I don't know how to put that. Again, I don't know how to put this. I'm afraid that you're a bit of a pansy.

Yeah. Like, um, that there is, there is a need for strength, um, for, um, someone who is willing to, to, to, to, to not be passively helpful. And just here's what, let me tell you this. It is not beneficial necessarily to be in a relationship of which, which you are completely passive to what someone, someone else is choosing to do. Hey, you want to do this? Don't care. Hey, you want to go with me? That seems fine. Like, um, I think that there's probably a need in some of these relationships for someone who says, hey, look, I'm here to, I don't know what people are like this. I'm here to lead you. I'm here to help, um, to make, to help you be a better person by us being together. And that requires at times for me to actually, you know, interject in your life a bit. And so, uh, I expect that to, to go, uh, both ways, um, in a relationship.

But like, um, I think you flipped the switch where they've made, may have been kind of walked on before. Um, you're trying to overcompensate for that. Um, and they need support. Um, not, and, and to be honest, like they need, um, folks need good, this, this is both men and women. That's why I'm saying days. Cause I think there's, there's, there's not a bunch of crazy distinctions in here, but like, um, I think you're running into people who need strong, uh, support systems. Um, and you're more of a passive counselor. And that's, that's, that's just my guess on how you, and on how you've explained it. Um, and I know that doesn't seem fair. Um, but to, to be honest, I, I do believe it to be right. I think there is, um, uh, there is a need for people for, uh, in relationships for people to feel protected and to feel cared for. And someone like who to protect somebody, just like you would protect, if you protect relationships, it's, it sometimes requires you to step in and say, look, this is not good. Um, and I, and I'm really going to ask that you not do.

And that's, and we should be fine with that. If we can't, you can't trust someone to be able to say those types of things into your life, you should not marry them. Right. So anyway, that's, uh, I guess without trying to be too crass about it, I think you're, you may be a bit of a pansy, um, and they, they need stronger, they need a stronger support system. Yeah, absolutely. From a, from a, from a super worldly perspective, uh, you are, you're their best friend. Like that's what you are offering in this relationship. The fulfillment that you're offering is that of a very good friend. A very good friend is there to be, uh, a listening ear at the end of a hard day. A very good friend is one that, uh, offers courtesy when it comes to paying for, for dinner or not being a schmuck. Like, just because you're a nice person does not mean that you're right for that person. Anybody can be nice to everybody in the world and, and, and it doesn't mean that you were meant to date everyone in the world. Like literally, you're just being a buddy.

And from, from personal experience, I say that because I've, I'm fairly good about being a buddy in relationships. Like that was, that was what painted the first, you know, 10 girlfriends I ever had was I was really good at being like a big brother to them. Um, it was, it was, um, I fulfilled their, their emotional needs through being a nice guy and listening to them and all the different stuff. But like, I wasn't there to, to fulfill them as a partner in life. I was there to fulfill them as, as, uh, social and emotional needs. Right. And so it's difficult to find yourself that way. Um, and it's really easy to put yourself up and say, yeah, I'm, I'm great in all these different ways. And I'm, I'm not a bridge troll, so I don't know what's wrong, but you got to realize that the good news is you're, you're not, you're not supposed to be compatible with every single person in the world. You're supposed to be compatible for the one and don't give up, uh, seek Jesus. Uh, uh, honestly, when you, when you find yourself trying to find yourself in a loving relationship with him and seeking first the kingdom, if he's got a lady for you, he's going to give it to you. Yeah. And, and truth, and this shows up in all relationship advice to the extent that the two of you agree on Jesus, uh, you have a foundation to work through things.

Um, past that, like you, actually this guy's probably nailing every, every quality that your modern society expects of a man. Right. Uh, and, uh, I, I, I find it to be insufficient. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And it sets them, it sets the dude up for failure. It's okay to be a dude. It's okay to have prerogative. It's okay to, to want to love and protect people. And so, um, I know you feel like you're, you're, you're ticking the boxes of the cosmopolitan, uh, red book looking for a dude. Um, but I, I think that's not all that's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop, stop trying to be in relationships right now. Maybe just work on you, learn how to love Jesus and learn how to walk that way. And then if God's got you in a place where you're going to have a lady walking with you, he's going to ordain that and he's going to make it work. Mike, are you reading the newspaper and using an abacus? Cause that's what it sounds like. I'm doing, I'm doing, I'm doing neither one. I'm not, I don't have either of the abacus or the newspaper. All right. All right. Go ahead. What do you have for our man here?

What's secular? Hang on. Hang on. Now listen, the glaring red flag in this man's submission is, is that him and the women both agree that he is amazing. That's a very valid point, Mike. I mean, it's, it's, it's a bit over the top. Here's the thing. If you're going to walk into a relationship already sitting on the horse, you're already on the high horse. When you got there, look, it's obvious before you met me that you were mistreated or abused or in a toxic relationship, because frankly, any relationship that wasn't with me was probably terrible. I'm the answer to all of your problems. You have met the right man and a string. He is. He says, I've been in a string of failed relationships and they think, they say I'm amazing, but they, they still want to have a relationship with me.

And I think to myself, you know, fella, I think you might be walking in already looking, devaluing the other person and their experiences because, because you're better than every, every person that meant something to them in the past. That's hard to take in. Right. Well, and I kind of wonder if his, if he's 34 years old and he's talking about a string of relationships, I wonder if his threshold of relationship is like two Tinder dates or something, right? Like he's, he's, I mean, I, you, I, I, I get that I'm not everybody, but like, if, if it's not like eight months or a year, I don't, I don't know that I'd put it in kind of like my string of relationships category. Wait, really? Yeah. You're just, you're just hanging out. Oh man. I've been in one relationship then. Yeah. Well, so here's, so here's the thing. When you were saying like my first 10 girlfriends, like I had one and I married her.

I think Mike had one. He married her. Like, I just don't have experience in this area. You know what? That's okay. Fine. That's a valid point. Deal. Yeah. I've, I've, I had a string of, of get togethers, I suppose then. Yeah. That sounds terrible. Yeah.

I've brought, I'll never say that again. And that's what it was. I apologize to every other, every get together I ever had. Oh, I'm going to stop saying that. Yeah. Remember when we got together? Oh no. No. Bad. Yeah. Yeah. Get togethers aren't seeking Jesus. Don't do it.

That's how we should talk about it. Like eight months or less. They don't even count it. It doesn't even make, it doesn't make the log book. If he was, he was engaged for four years. That means he's piled amongst a string of relationships. He's probably reacting never to the engagement. I just, you need to find some friends, buddy. All right, Mike, what's the, what's the secular advice? Secular says, something is clearly wrong here. Yes. Where are you beating these women who cheat and lie? You may need to go fishing in different waters.

And has it occurred to you that in your loneliness, you may be trying too hard, but you may be doing wrong. If anything, it's time to start asking your married friends. Why they, why they think this is happening repeatedly. Perhaps they can just suggest some tweaks or introduce you to women who will appreciate the fine qualities you possess. What, what about tweets? Tweaks. Small change. Tweaks, yeah. She's basically saying, you know, you should have some of the people that you know that are married evaluate the things that you're doing wrong. I thought you said tweets like Twitter. Yeah, yeah, that's what I said. That makes way more sense. I know, that's why I was confused.

I'm like, wait, what? Have people that you know who are married tweet about you. Well, that, I thought it said, show you some tweets. That's why I was like, what is going on? No wonder you don't have any long-term relationships. Yeah. That's the worst advice I've ever heard. Agreed. Yeah, this is terrible. That's why I have a string of get-togethers. So, so here's the deal. Like, I kind of like this advice and then I kind of don't like it. The way that she said it made it, made me think of a guy like standing in his underpants in a living room before a husband and a wife who are then writing down critiques and delivering it to him.

Like, nope, you're going to have to tuck that in. That belly hair has got to go. No one wears tighty-whities, especially not 34. Sorry, friend. That's awesome. So, I mean. Let me show you some tweets. But, like, I don't know. So, and having them help you fight, like, if they find a nice girl to, like, join you out for a date with, maybe that's a good idea. If you have good, decent friends, like, that seems all right. Right. Because, like, if you're picking up ladies in places where you're more likely to find rough folks who can't handle your personality. Right.

Yeah. Okay. Keep going to plenty of fish for these ladies. Yeah, get off the plenty of fish. Yeah. Although, I mean, here's the deal. When you start getting to – okay, this is going to sound morbid. But I was thinking about my wife and I. And, like, if something were to happen and, like, I was to die or something. Or, like, she was to die. This is what I'm thinking about. Okay. It happens to me.

I think about it all the time. Keep going. So, like, generally, you know, folks will be like, yeah, I want you to remarry. Go ahead. And what was occurring to me is that the likelihood that at my age I'm nearing 40. Okay. So, like, at my age that you're going to find somebody who hasn't already been married, doesn't already have kids or, like, some kind of really interesting circumstance in their life is getting lower and lower and lower. And so I guess when I think about this guy at his age, like, hey, you know, they've had bad relationships or they've been, you know, gone through marriages or whatever. I'm like, I mean, that's just going to keep getting that way. The older people are, the more likely they have lived life before they met you. Right. Exactly. And so, you know, I don't know that you can say, from the secular advice, to be like, hey, you need to fish in different waters.

I mean, the water is going to keep in and up that way. And so I can't just be, unless you're, again, spending all your time at, like, you know, the bar and Tinder. But, like, anyway, I guess I say that to say, like, some of this is you and then some of it is maybe your expectations. And so, yeah, maybe get some friends that can help that you look in the right direction. All right. One more. Ready? Yep. They're live from the past. My friends and family constantly ask me when I plan to get a new phone. Yes. I have a slide phone. I used to have a flip phone, which also drew the same question.

I am not a phone person. I have a landline at home with an answering messaging machine in place. I am sick of the questions about my phone. I don't want a smartphone. I have my little phone for emergencies. Not so everyone I know can reach me immediately. I wouldn't dream of asking people when they are going to get a better TV, newer shoes, a more expensive car, a bigger house. A more expensive handbag. Why is it that people feel the need to shame me about my phone? It is to the point now that I may turn it off and turn it on only when I want to use it. It is becoming difficult for me to remain civil about this subject. I envision myself throwing it in the trash can next time someone asks. That's it.

I mean, okay, so I'm of two minds. I'm of two minds on this. The first, of one mind, like, you're significantly overreacting. Right. They're asking you because you were an anomaly. Like, you were a freak show. Yeah. People don't behave this way, and so it draws attention. Especially, like, if they see you whip it out and hit the old slide ola. Ooh, yeah. And then start talking on it. So, like… Check out this Nokia.

It's like how they talk to, like, my kids go to their great-grandma's house, and she's got, like, a rotary phone sitting on the wall. It's an interesting thing to talk about. And then at the point that, you know, they've asked about it once, now it becomes something that you share, unfortunately, and they will likely keep asking you about because it's continually funny to them. Right. And so you're bringing joy to their life at why they make fun of you, and I think you're just going to have to live with that. It's okay not to be a phone man. Yeah. Societally and technologically speaking, like, you are very anachronistic in this situation. Like, smartphones define our society right now. Like, everyone has access to everything through their phones, whether it's banking or social media or the internet or so many different things. Like, it is literally a crux of our society right now. It's not surprising that people are going to ask you when you're not involved in it. It's the same reason that people are confused by mountain men that live in the wilderness.

Like, yeah, you don't live in a home, you don't have plumbing, you don't have electricity, you literally live out in the woods and just catch your own food and grow it. Yeah. Like, you're weird because nobody else does it. And as long as you want to hold out in that decision, those two things are going to be held in the same. You have the right to not want it, but it's going to be weird to people, and they're going to ask. Right. If you're walking through the town square dragging a grandfather clock in a wagon, it's going to come up, bro, and, like, maybe you dig on it, and that's fine. And it's the same reaction everyone gets when they finally see someone Amish. It confuses them. That's right. We look at it. We're like, look at that Amish guy. Right, exactly.

That's a person in a horse and buggy carriage. Like, that's crazy to me. That person has never existed with a technology. That's insane. I remember the first time my family went up to Minnesota, there are signs for horse and carriages because the Mennonites and Amish up north. Yeah. My brother freaked out so much he wanted to get out of the car to take a picture with the sign because he was so confused by it. He was like, I've never lived in this. You are the Mennonite. You are the Amish person. Learn to live with it or get a smartphone. What an opportunity you're missing out on, right? Like, if this is not the best way to possibly spread the gospel of, A, Jesus Christ, and, B, your reasons for not having a smartphone.

Right. And you certainly don't do it by throwing it in the trash can, you know, and giving everybody the stinky all the time. You know, that's not the way. Like, actually, if I were to lean one direction, I actually think this guy's got this world licked. Yeah. I don't think anybody needs the smartphone. They're a disaster. And as much as we depend on him now, me included, I wish I didn't. I wish this thing would get away from me. It's like a dead weight that brings dirty things to my house and things that I don't want to see and a bunch of phone calls from people I don't want to talk to. And so the best way to do it is, like, people say, why won't you upgrade to a phone? He's like, I love it. I got so much freedom without that phone.

You can explain all the great things that come to you for owning a slide phone. And instead, you just keep a big old bag full of black hats that you throw on everybody else for not having a slide phone. It's stupid. Yeah, yeah. Here's the thing. You explain that once. People will stop asking. Right. Like, remember the lecture I got the last time I asked about that? And then, like, yeah. Because by that point, you just explain it one time, and you don't even have to be harsh about it. You can just, like, explain it thoroughly. And then, like, it's not funny to keep bringing it up.

Right. Because they heard your legit reasons and, like, oh. Yeah, Earl gave me the business about how he didn't want to be tracked by the CIA anymore, and I really don't want to hear that long, drawn-out story again. I'm not going to ask him. I mean, well, even if it's legit, it was like, oh, well, I guess, yeah, I guess I do suffer from that, and I guess that's a wise decision. But, like, hey, remember that wise decision you're making? Ha, ha, ha. Like, it's just not going to happen. And so, yeah, I would just, you know, you're going to have to let it go, fella. Ben, I love the way you bully. That's what he's setting himself up for.

He's missing a huge opportunity to explain freedom to people and not being a slave to anything, and he's wasting it on being angry. Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. What's that going to say? Embrace your life. Secular says, Some people view having the latest model of a cell phone as a status symbol, which is why so many feel compelled to buy one as soon as the new one is released. However, while that dreaded question may be posed in terms of when you plan to buy a new phone, I suspect what the askers really mean is, when are you going to make it easier for us to communicate with you? I don't think that's what they mean at all. She's old.

If you shut your phone off and use it only when you wish to use it, you won't be alone in the practice. While it may frustrate those who want immediate gratification, it will allow you to manage your time without unwelcome interruptions. Yeah, I think we should do that more anyway. That's good for you. Do you think there's no merit to we want to get a hold of you more often? Right. That may be some, but I don't think that's the majority vote. I don't think that's the main reason people are asking why he's got a slide phone. Yeah, no, that's not the reason they're asking at all. But I'm saying that I don't think there's any – nothing good has come with the ability to get a hold of anybody anytime you want. Oh, yeah, I think that's true. I mean, the only reason you continually answer your phone is because it's like gambling, right? Like it's a thought that like if I don't play, I can't win.

And so if I don't answer the phone, what if it's something big? How many something bigs have there been in the last year you've done picking up your phone? That's a very valid point. One of my fears is that like I'll miss an emergency. I don't remember the last time I missed an emergency. No. I do, but I'll tell you after the show though. Okay. So I do, and actually that sits on me, and that is the reason. You know what's fair? I totally would have missed an emergency on Friday. Yeah. Oh, man.

See? Yep. Like what? It only takes one. You're like, oh, no. Yeah, that's true. I'm glad I had – I actually – my phone had just died, and I had a thought to leave it dead because I didn't want to get any work calls. Yeah. But then 15 minutes later, I got a call from my little sister asking to take her to the emergency room. Yeah. Yeah. See, Mike, you suck.

You don't even know life. Boo and I are important. No, here's the thing. Yeah, you're picking – that's the thing with an emergency though is you're picking the one exception. And here's the thing. That same emergency would have occurred 30 years ago, and it would have been the same – it would have worked itself out, right? Someone would have got a hold of you somehow. It wouldn't have been the immediate blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It wouldn't have been so horrible, right, if it would have been five minutes later that you picked up that phone. No. Or you didn't have that phone in your pocket, and you found out 30 minutes later instead of right now. No, that's a good point, and I think that that is the mistake. Like what feels like progress, like unless we're going to cop to, hey, anything that happened prior than 40 years ago was for barbarians only.

Right. Like it gives us the impression that our opportunities are bigger without the reality that that actually is the case. Like someone's going to call and say, oh, someone got in an accident. Like what am I going to do? Like they're at the hospital just like they were, and whether I found out in half an hour or whether I found out in five minutes, I'm not sure it's changing. So, yeah, I mean that's a good point. Like there are limited circumstances of which it makes life and the night and day difference, and then there's most circumstances in which it doesn't. All right. Well, and actually, look what you're giving up on the other side. You're basically saying whoever you're spending time with right now, you're saying I am literally open to anything interrupting us. Yeah. I am open for just about anything to be more important than you. Right.

Something I don't care about. I bought a pair of pants from the Duluth Trading Company six months ago. One of their advertisements, of which I will refuse to buy anything else in the next year or so, I will let interrupt me from my conversation that I'm having with you because I have my phone on and I will look at it. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. All right. You need to change your ways. Thanks for listening to Live from the Path. We appreciate you hanging out. You got any comments for us? You can hit us up on the complaint line, 515-517-0085. We don't get a lot of action there, which tells me no one listens to the show.

It is not believable that you don't have any problems with the program. So that's 515-517-0085. We do appreciate you guys hanging out with us. Thanks, Mike, for hanging on the Skype, and we will likely, very likely see you next week. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to Live from the Path.