Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the Path. And you're listening to Live From The Path. No. You're not. Yes. You are. No. You're not. Yes. Here's next thing. I

think they are. I'm gonna I'm not gonna lie to you. I thought it occurred to me on the drive in. This is wrong. But it occurred to me on the drive in that it's very possible the Lord has allowed the the COVID to happen so that we would consistently produce podcasts. Yeah. Oh, maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Wow. He said he said, you guys aren't turning them out. I have to feel like that is not linked together in the in the least. No. At all. You don't think so? That's a bucket problem. Like, we were just talking a guy say I saw a guy say it was punishment because people the marriages aren't staying together, I thought, hey. I got an illegitimate thing too. Yeah. Maybe I should go to the axe to grind store and see if they can sell me one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So then I thought, what ridiculous thing could could I think of? And there it was. Yeah. I've seen some weird things of, like, people are trying to equate it to the seven plagues of Egypt and I mean, all kinds. Gotta be one of the four horsemen. Exactly. Right? Like plague. Here's the deal.

Fuck. You know immediately that you're dealing with someone who does no idea what they're talking about when they call it the revelations. Oh, yes. Or revelations. Yeah. So it's just got an s on it. You're like, you know what? You've never read the book. Oh, yeah. Anytime I see a Facebook post that's like, man, we knew this was gonna happen in the end times. I'm like, nope. I'm not. It's been happening the whole time. Refuse to watch this. When the blood moon came out. Yes. Exactly. Amen. The blood moon. Hey, man. The Mayan calendar has something to do with the way that God predicted the end of the world. That's exactly what's gonna do. What? Yeah. What is wrong with The Lord works through the Mayan calendar. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So so I posted this this post an hour ago, whatever. That was really kind of vague either way. Enough that would like fire people up on either side just to see what would happen. And already I got somebody putting the conspiracy,

know. Oh, yeah. Watch this video. And I'm like, oh, this is great. I'm gonna watch the show now. Yeah. But do you realize back in the nineteen sixties, they It's like, come on, man. You're killing me. Yeah. Here's the thing. Here's what I'll tell you. People who are really good at conspiracy are smarter than you. That's the thing. So like I've had them figure out. True. If you ever look at it and you go, hey, man. I think I'm onto them. No. You're not. Because you're not that smart. People who have pulled off really good conspiracies, you're not onto them. Yeah. They're actually pretty good at it. It's actually what I was watching this documentary on the Freemasons yesterday. Mike, how's quarantine going?

I don't know why. But, anyway, I had watched one on the White House, and then I watched one on the Freemasons. And, like, this guy I mean, the whole documentary is this guy asking questions like, could there be something secret? Like, every five minutes. And then, like, he'd look at a layout of any map, and then he would draw a pentagram, like, putting together, like, points. And I'm like, I could do this on I could do this on the bottom of my shoe. It'd be like, it's a devil's foot. You know? Like, it just they pulled they're like, what what's their secret agenda? I'm like, I don't know. It obviously, they stink at it. There's been Freemasons around since almost the beginning of time, and, like, they haven't come up with the new world order yet. So, obviously, they're not that big of a force to be reckoned with. They're playing the long game, Mike. I mean, this super long game.

Alright. Anyway, you're listening live. Hey. Isn't isn't this this this our ten year? Isn't it March? Yes. It would be this one. This would be We gotta mention it before it's Anyway. Yeah. Hey. This it. So next week, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna play in this big celebration and be like, oh, man. A ton of people wanted to come, they couldn't make it because of the virus. Yeah. We had we had agreements from, like, the president and all the mayors and That way, because people wouldn't actually show up. They'd look like it for legit reasons. That's our new conspiracy. Yes. It was it was it was other podcasts that put this whole thing together so that people wouldn't show up to our ten year anniversary. Yep. Yep. Yep. That's what's happening. You brought that into the room, Ben. Yeah. I'm jealous much. You know? That's yeah. Take that, Joe Rogan. Alright.

Alright. So here's what here's the thing. I said we're gonna try to do no no corona this week, but Mike has and Bubba both said they got some impactful things they wanted to impart. I didn't say it like that. Yeah. Yeah. You said I might have said it like that. Change the world with me. No. You said, hey. Do we have anything else to talk about? I'm like, what else is there? I said, let my soul float into the microphone and connect with yours and create a symphony. Mike, you did say three seconds before show start. I love myself. I I in fact, I saw a memory of myself on Facebook earlier today that I just man, I'm funny. I just I say funny stuff. I wish I could look back on my memories and go, man, I'm funny. Do you know that my my wife writes down things that I say and keeps it keeps like a running diary on her phone of, like, stuff that Mike says? No. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. I mean, it goes back for for months, years even. Like, just random stuff that's come out of my mouth. And, like, every six months, she'll read me some of them, but I'm just I'm just ear to ear smiling. I'm like, I am the best. See, my fiance does the same thing. She remembers a lot of the stupid stuff I say. So my my recollection of those are usually not funny. It's like, I said that? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I said buffaloes are just hairy cows one time. No. Yeah. Yeah. Bubba, you gotta you gotta convince your lady to only catalog the hits.

Yeah. Talk. I feel like that would just be an exercise towards my pride, though. And so I kinda like the fact that she reminds me, hey. You think you're smart, but you say some pretty dumb things. It would not be an exercise to your pride because you would say, you know what, lady? Go ahead and play the hits. And she's like, I I didn't hear any. There are no hits. I did not log any hits. Oh, got it. Okay. Alright. Fair enough. I dig that. Yeah. Play the hits. Put on the collection of Okay. Mike, you were you were saying that important takeaway from all the stuff that's going on is is either pulling from a different bucket or recognize that you're sourcing your way of looking at the world from a very specific lens, and that's a risk. Yeah. So, I mean, all I could do is talk to it from from, obviously, my perspective, which has gotten me into this mess in the first place. Right? But like, all my opinions are coming from an extremely privileged bucket.

Right? Like, as of up to this point, I'm I'm not a food service worker or a surrounding industries. I'm I'm not I work for an essential business, and so, like, I am not economically impacted up to this point. So my ideas are coming from economically are coming from that bucket. As far as it goes, I'm a fairly fairly healthy, whatever, 30 year old dude. I'm not immunocompromised. I don't live with someone that is.

And so the rest of my, you know, stuff will come from that bucket. I also live out in the country and not in a, you know, 2,000 occupancy apartment building. Right? And so there, I'm pulling from that bucket as well. And and, like, the danger for me, which I'm I'm most certainly guilty of, right, is is using a big staff and and proclaiming this is the deal coming solely from that bucket. And, like, it it'll take This always happens with me. It takes me a week or two to to think about it and go, okay, I You know,

obviously, I'm I'm pulling only from my area, and I'm missing empathy for people that are coming from a completely different point of view. Right? And so, not to say that that the things that I that I how I view, like, how we're operating under the guise of of of the the virus and all that kind of stuff is is wrong. It's just self centered. That's all. It it's self centered, and and and that is not the heart that I think that I'd I'd prefer to have for people. And and and even even to that end, whether they should be calling social isolation and everybody just stay at their house and stop going out, no going to the grocery store and and lock it completely down, I

can't say that I'm completely for or completely against. I to be honest with you, I I just don't know. I'm just gonna I'm I'm sitting in the bucket of humility a little bit here and going, I don't know. It seems like it doesn't hurt to just enact the thing already, if that's what you wanna do. Right? If we think that that has actually helped with There's a We were just talking before the show started. There's perfectly healthy, you know, 30 some year old guy that got it, and and he's not doing great. You know? And so, like, it brings the reality back again that that it wasn't necessarily just a disease that goes after, you know, people who are older or people who are immunocompromised, but like, it's pretty unflagellating on the way that it looks at just about everybody. And when it starts to hit closer to home, like I I was just reading yesterday that that Joe Diffie had died, the the country music guy. And all I gotta do is got probably five or six solid hits from the nineties that were pretty darn good, you know. So I spent last night listening to some Joe Diffie tunes while I was driving, you know, and I'm thinking, it could've just been easily I Joe Diffie could've been my grandpa. You know I'm saying? Like, why do I look like that that it's any any different? Joe Diffie was somebody's grandpa, you know, like and the people that are dying are somebody's family and somebody's whatever. And and where the pragmatic side of me likes to look at things and go, look, as far as the numbers go, we're gonna shed, you know, the flu takes out three percent or whatever, or COVID takes out three percent, and I go, it's it's a disease, and and as far as the numbers go, there's no reason to get all fired up. But, like, if it's your grandpa or your sister or your uncle, then there's a complete reason to get fired up. And so, like I said, all that was being fed from

my own bucket. I grabbed from what's around me, and realizing that it was a selfish tactic, I guess maybe I just like to take a step or two back and and go, you know, I I don't I don't still don't know the right answers here, but I do know that I was pulling from a bucket just completely around me, and that's some pretty selfish living. And so, I I don't know. Maybe it's time to just take a step back, and I'm not promoting you do everything the president says or nothing the president says, or he's doing a great job or he's doing a terrible job. Neither one of those is what is what I'm after. I guess what I'm saying is, like, if you're saying that, like, none of this is a concern, and I'll do what I want, you're pulling from a bucket just around you, you know. And so, like, if if everybody stays home, then I suppose that's completely on the other end, and maybe I think that's too far, and maybe I don't. I just I just don't I do not know. I this is my first pandemic. And maybe I'm maybe we're surfing surfing the waves poorly, and maybe we're doing it great. I I just I I don't actually know. And filtering it through a screen that says Mike Foust on it. And like, that's not a world that's not a world view. That's not a

loving people view. Like, you gotta love God, love people, you're not even on the first two of the list. Right? You're people. But like, you're There God doesn't say, before I leave this earth, Jesus goes, and make sure you love yourself, Peter. Make sure you you do you do you. Right? God has no such commandment. And so, like, filtering through your own personal experience is not we're called to be more servants than that. Have a more servant heart and a servant attitude than that. So I don't know whether that changed anything for you or whether you rock at that and maybe I just suck at it. I don't know. That's fine. But I feel like that's kinda where I'm at today. Not you guys, though. Yeah. No.

We're we're good. No. We're good. We've always been good. We're pretty compliant. Yeah. I mean, I I I it does seem like you like, you certainly run a risk that, like, you completely evaluate a situation from only your own perspective. Right? And that's they even beyond our current situation. Right? So it's it's a it's a height of selfishness that says, the world works how I take it in. It can't work and doesn't work different than that, and other people's experience don't inform the way that they actually go about anything. Actually, I think growth in our understanding of the New Testament

over the last fifty or sixty years has taken in a a greater perspective of what were those people thinking. Like, what was their life like so that you get your historical examples correctly and you understand the types of things they may be thinking when they hear hear specific types of languages as opposed to actually, just before we were talking about revelation, that's the exact wrong way to get revelation. Right? Is to say, how does it look for my shoes as if no one else has read that book over the last two thousand years and it felt like it might apply to them. And so yeah. Yeah. I I think that's in any situation, before you open your mouth, before you come to a conclusion, it seems super wise to say, hey, man. Just think of anybody. Let's go with 10 different people and go, how does this look from their perspective? It starts to broaden your world. We tend to be

arrogant and ignorant at the same time. Oh, yep. You know me. What? Not you? Not me. Well, it's everybody but Bubba. Yep. Here here here's how it works for me. Whichever video, five minute video I watch first, that becomes my hard opinion. Dang it. Yeah. I'm totally in this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I was like, and everybody else is stupid. Yeah. You know? And And I'm like, I don't know this guy's credentials. Right. And, you know, and I don't know the other guy's credentials. I just and then I then I draw lines and sides, and I think, these are the idiots, and I'm the smart people. I know nothing. I know nothing. I don't know anything medical. I don't know about a virus. I don't know how to catch it. They don't even know how to catch it. I don't know how many people are really dying or how many people have had it. You know? And but

but then we we we base everything off of that. It's like, I don't think it's that big of deal. I'm going to Walmart. Right. You know? Right. Whatever happens to anybody else. I saw a video. And, yeah, I I bet that we do that with everything. Yeah. So and and Ben said we're not gonna talk about this, but I just I don't care. So just so We do what we want. Like, I was I was the boss of us. You don't know me. Yeah. I was I was reading the article about the about the pastor that had service. Right? And they had to go they had to go arrest him. Right? Yep. And, like, the first thing that crossed my mind was, why are there so many people there? Why did you go? Why did you go? Just because he said to go? Right? Like, you don't have to rest him. You should rest everybody. Didn't he tell my communion was gonna, like, you buffer you from the the virus? I mean, I can't remember the word he used, but I mean It wasn't buffered. Oh, no. Seriously? Yeah. I just don't what I the guy the guy was It was the same guy. He he went against orders. Right? Like, shut down shut down whatevers. Right? But I could walk outside right now, and I could post on Facebook, hey. I wanna get a 100 people together in the park, and we're gonna hold hands, and we're gonna skip around in a circle, and we're gonna say great things about each other. And nobody would be there because it's stupid.

Because it's stupid. You shouldn't go. We're under quarantine. People are not supposed to be out and about holding hands, looking at each other. And then a guy says, hey. I'm gonna hold service. And, like, at least 75% of that congregation should have gone, what? No. We're not gonna go. Not gonna We'll watch the livestream. It's not a big deal. We're not we're not gonna go. You know? But we gotta do this. The Lord stands for it. He does not. He does not stand for that. He didn't say anything about that. Like, he way oversold it. And so just as much as the idiot that held the thing I called him an idiot. I can't do that. Just as the misguided fella that called the thing shouldn't have done it, nobody should have been there anyway. They shouldn't have shown up. So I and and maybe that's the thing with with pulling from your personal bucket here. If it's the right thing for you to do to not be there, definitely do not go. Right? You can bemoan the fact that that other people aren't where you're at yet. They're not seeing it right. Once again, I don't think they're doing it with malcontent.

I know I wasn't doing it with with malcontent. I I think it was probably misinformation and and and a narrow worldview from my perspective. Right? But, like, at the end of the day, you you definitely stay home. If you don't need to I know people that are quarantined for the last three weeks here. Right? Because they have immunocompromised people living at their house, and they just don't want the shake up or the trouble. And, like, that's pragmatic. If we're talking about pragmatic things, then that's the way to do it. There should have been no one in that sanctuary. That guy should have been preaching to two guys who were hardcore crazy, and that's about it. But everybody else got to go home without being arrested. Boy, I'm just creating silence today, boys. Sorry. I don't know. Is there there's no response to that either, It's just crazy.

I I did read an article today of in this when it was first starting out in America in in Washington, there was a choir that they were warned to stay home and don't don't do anything, the choir like, we're gonna go ahead and practice. And like 80 people showed up out of the 120 or something. And and then it wasn't long and they're like 40 people had the virus and two people had died and and they were like, oh, guess we shouldn't have done that. Right. Yeah. I And it it says something I suppose, like, you can't what would have it cost you to not go? Yeah. Like, maybe nothing. So you're a week or two late, you know, off on our songs or something that Right. No one's, you know, gonna pay that close attention to? I guess as much as as I as I have a hard time with people getting on social media and railing our response, where I struggle with that, where I say, look, just take a little bit of humility here

and and look at this thing. I'm guilty of the exact same thing. Right? Like, the whole thing is is almost made way more easier to palette if everybody showed up with a dose of humility. And it's the thing that our country struggles the most with. It's the thing that humanity struggles with the the most with. Having a humble attitude for towards other people and towards your lord and savior. These are two things that, like, it is the ruin of everything that's ever happened. Right? And so, like, I it's a big ask. But realize that the things that Jesus says were the fix are still the fix. Right? That Jesus says that the least of these are still the fix. Right? Like when Jesus says says love God and love people, still the fix. These are all the things that God's pointing us back to a world to operate the way that he designed.

And like, the things that we're saying are is like, but I gotta do my work. I gotta have my job. It defines me. It's who I am. I got the society, the way that America works, the way that the economy works, all these things are define our great nation and they that's true. They do define our great nation. They don't define you. And if they are your driving force behind the decisions that you're making, then you're sitting in the passenger seat and someone else is driving you. You know? And so, like, I guess maybe it's it's just a little bit of a turn in me that's starting to look at this thing and go, I you know, I I I think I could approach this whole thing with a little bit more humility.

And not to say that they couldn't as well, but, like, I definitely could. You know? Like, I probably showed up at the choir thing. I'm still trying to I'm still trying to roast up there was a church that burnt down last night in my hometown. Right? And I'm still thinking, what are they gonna do for Easter? How can we set up something so they can still get together for Easter? Wrong thought, Mike. Wrong thought. Right? Like, I mean, good heart. Wrong thought. Right? That's not what we're gonna do. And so so, like, it's still going through my head. It's not it's not a 100% landing, you know, that that that this thing is going on. It should be affecting, you know, almost everything that I do, and it and it does not. It's a tough thing to grab. You know? So I don't know, Buva.

Do you feel like you've been keeping up on your beard maintenance better? Sanitizing the beard? I I do the same thing I've always done, Mike. That's disgusting. I I clean my beard. I keep food in it. That's disgusting. No. I'm I'm one the big fat bridge troll. Nobody is not expecting me to have crumbs in my beard, so I have to at least live up to a little bit better than everyone's expectations. I was gonna say I I keep food in your beard. That's So that I can so that I can meditate. That is that is the grossest thing I've ever heard about. You have that? A half a chocolate granola bar.

Is it still Was that the Chewy bar? Was that what I found? The lower quadrant. That's that's gross. That's just not what I want associated with anything about me, Mike. Alright. Is that all we need to say about it then? I've said my piece. I got I got no more grandstanding to do. Buba, did you have something? I can't remember. I I appreciate that honesty, Ben. Yeah. I what I'm trying to figure out is this. So a lot of the times when it comes to

we talk about on the show and what we talk about in our personal walks and and how we do things, I I think that we at least, I I won't say we. I'll say me. I'm I'm pretty bad about calling out people that just show up to church at Easter and and Christmas. Right? And, like, the the checkbox Christians, you guys have heard me say that a bunch of times probably. I call them up for stuff, and I'm just like, come on, guys. Like, you gotta be digging with deeper wear right now. Like, you gotta be digging deeper than just the Sundays and figuring out how to how to walk with Christ every day of the week. Like, that's the whole point. It's not just about getting together on Sundays. Right? But, like, I'm not very good about taking a step back and going, well, how can I help with that? Like, how can I just how can I not just say those words, but then actually give realistic things that people could be doing? And so there are so many people right now that

felt up to this point, maybe not not necessarily felt that way, but at least thought that way that they had a relationship with God, and they've had a relationship with him because they show up on Sundays, and they're always there on Christmas and and all this different stuff, but, like, they're probably finding themselves at a place where they don't have that right now. Whether they're just taking in the podcast from their or the livestream from their church that they go to, or they're not even digging on that because if nobody's watching, there's really no point in going. And so nobody's gonna call them out for not going because nobody's going. Right? What can we do as people that know that there's something deeper than that? Like, how can we, as Christ followers, that know there's a deeper ocean than that, know there's deeper faith than that? How can we start directing these people that are all around us? Like, these people are are all around us at all times.

How can we start directing them in the right direction to let them realize that there is way more to your relationship than just showing up on Sundays? And now is a perfect time to start really investing all of your time and understanding what it's like to be in a real relationship with Yahweh. Okay. So let me ask you this. Let's let's nail some premises down because this is basic discipleship. Right? Yeah. Like and and and maybe maybe we've not done a good job at the just flat out basics of it. What is church for? Why do we do church once a week?

At Yeah. What's the purpose of it? As in coming together on Sundays? Yeah. Why do we do it? Well, I would call it as what people would say is being in community with one another and learning. Like, that weekly time you get a chance to hear about God from the bible and you're being taught

and you show up and and hang out with each other and have community and and have that relationship with one another. Ben, do you agree with Buva's assessment? I yes. In in addition, I would say it is a it is a time for remind being reminded Yeah. Of it is a pattern of which god has set out for us, and so we honor that pattern.

It is one of which we are should actually be more celebratory often. Right? It's a reminder of things of who god is and what he's done and ultimately what that means for who we are and what we get to do as we go. So, like, boy, it's true. This is it's it's true to say, hey. You get recharged and and built up, but, like, that that is just a consequence of otherwise being reminded of who got him and what he's done, which would we talk about teaching is that reminder

and then what the implication of that is. So so, yeah, I I'm ultimately, I think I'm agreeing with Moova. I may use different words to do it, but, yeah, generally speaking. Okay. Alright. So in general, when we're talking about why we do a Sunday gathering, one, God has set it out for us as as a pattern of of both Sabbath, rest, and celebrating the gift of salvation that we've been given as God's people. Right? Like, show up as a group. We worship. We're reminded of truths through the Bible, and and these are all good things. And we celebrate

a community. Right? These are all great things, and I think that's exactly what what getting together once a week is for. So what is Monday for? What do we what do we do on Mondays that's different? Right? Like, if we were gonna talk to a guy, the the the image that's always in my head is is like an old man who's 85 years old, and and and you go into his bedroom and you see them divots right by his bed where he prays every day. Every day where that man is is down on his knees praying. Right? And you go, what does it what does it look like to be a disciple of Jesus Christ on Monday? Because I think most people get because of the social norms within the building, they get how the flow of church is supposed to work on Sunday. Right? Like, everyone else goes to sit down, so you go sit down. Everybody else sings the tune, so you sing the tunes. Maybe the guy next to you raises his hand, you raise his hand. You're like, yeah. Okay. I get what's going on here. I get I can kind of to fall in with everybody else. Right?

But since they're not around you on Monday, do you look like a disciple of of Jesus Christ on Monday? And what should that actually look like? Right? Because when we talk about getting truths from the bible, I can do that on Monday. I can do that on Monday. Now maybe god has has led us as a people through our teacher, Dan, or our teacher, Ben, and is leading us as a people for something specific or something that our community is guiding towards or things that god wants to impress upon us. Right? Like, and pastors will do this. They will not only read their Bible and come up with the things that they wanna teach on, but the pastors that I know will pray about what they're gonna teach on. Sometimes they just you know, god don't answer, and so you pick Ezekiel or something. Right? But normally, like, you pray on it and you're like, what would you have us do? If there's anything you'd have us do, I'm willing to shove my plans to the side and do what you'd have us do. So let's do that. Right? So so overall, we're talking about the church being a community,

and it's led like a community. Right? Where if we turn around on Monday and say, what does your discipleship of being a disciple of Jesus Christ look like on a Monday? If it looks like nothing, then you're not a disciple of Jesus Christ. Right? Like, if it looks like nothing, if if there are if if there's no praying, if there's no bible reading, right, if there's no worship in your heart, if you don't have a have a heart for the holy spirit and open to what god has going for on for you today I mean, if we're being honest,

I don't know that you are actually a disciple of Jesus Christ. You're a guy that goes to church, which is a perfect place for you to meet Jesus and perfect place place to be surrounded by people that you know their first two tenets of life are love God and love people. So it's not like it's a bad community to be be in. But if your Monday has doesn't even have an echo of your Sunday, then that's probably an issue. Right?

Right? So so I guess what we're saying is, like, without the church to guide you and without that Sunday meeting, if you don't have any clue what to do, we need to talk to you about what being a disciple is. Right? Of of of of wanting to to be in God's word throughout the week. And I'm not talking about, like, a regimented unless you need it. Right? But, like, a regimented,

if you didn't do it on Tuesday, you're a sinner now. That's not what I'm talking about. But, like, there's a reason that, like, David's after God's own heart. Right? Like, he has a thirst for his righteousness and his precepts. Right? Like, he has a want to know more about what God has going on and what his heart is, and and being open to the fact that the that the good news of both of of of the creation of the world that we live in and the forgiveness of the world that we screwed up. Right? There's a want to be part of that and go, well, it seems like if anybody's got this figured out, Yahweh does and Jesus does. So why don't I I wanna know more about what they're doing. And so so if we put all that in a big old bucket as I've rambled on,

if we put that all together and say, if we are trying to figure out how to be disciples of Jesus Christ without our Sunday gatherings because there's no one to mirror, it's just you, then we need to talk about what it's like to be a disciple of Jesus Christ anyway.

But I I think I think the missing piece, whether you meet on a Sunday or not or in a building or not or or whatever, is what do you do with your faith? What's the hands and feet you put on with the scripture you've read? You know, is is that kind what you're talking about? It's like, okay. We're in this crisis pandemic. Everyone's you know, and it we're all the church is hunkered down, and we shouldn't be the ones hunkered down. We should be the ones serving the community. Exactly. Yeah. What does this look like for we need to be markedly different than everyone else. Like, there's a point to that. Yes. Yes. Like, how how do I respond if my what do I do with the nursing home that's down the street? Not just sit and think, boy, I hope they don't get it. Or or do I do something to encourage them somehow? And may may you know, when's the last time I've gone outside the window? It gets kinda maybe creepy going out and knocking on windows. Hey, you. My name's Dan. Maybe I so so the the thing is is that the the thing that you're talking about, I feel like are

thought processes for I would probably say 10% of the church. Yeah. So so yeah. So what is the disconnect? Why is it why would you feel lost that we don't have a Sunday morning service, that it's all digital? Does it matter that it's digital or that we're sitting in a in a chair? Does it matter? Does that affect my Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday? Shouldn't I still be the the church that is energized to go out into the world and say, hey. Don't worry, God's got this. Yeah. Even if you die, God's got this. Hey, you're

going to die, by the way, sooner than later. God's got this if you let him. And we're kind of like just freaking out. Right. Yeah. Like, oh, no. Toilet paper. You know? And That's the thing that's that's killing me is like our den I we should be the ones who are bringers of peace and joy right now. Like, have something that's beyond all of these circumstances through Christ. Like, we've got peace through this, and we've got joy through this, and we've got we've got steadiness. Like, there's there's there's no reason for for the craziness. We know who wins. Okay. So so so where are you getting that from? Why do we that's I I think that's maybe what I'm getting at here. Right? Like, if you only get to stop by and fill your and fill up your your red solo in the in the the church pool on Sunday, and you drink that cup for the whole week until you get to the next Sunday, you're out now. You're out because we're not there. Right? Even the teaching that you could watch online, you're still not there to dip the cup. Right? And so, I guess what I'm saying is is, like,

you have the cup at your house. You have the pond at your house. You have the lake at your house. You have the Bible at your house, and you a holy spirit that wants to talk through you to the the creator god. And I can I can guarantee you from every black shadow of my life where I felt like I was not connected with god, it's because I wasn't doing either one of those things? Right. I was not consistently reading my bible and I was not praying. And and and and mostly, to be honest with you, the praying part. The praying, the praying, the praying, the praying, validating through scripture, scripture, scripture, scripture. Right? Like, you can't there's not a healthy way to have an extreme or the other. God may have created you to find scriptural stuff very interesting or given you a ability to teach it or understand it in a way that is different than others, but doesn't mean it can be devoid of a healthy prayer life. And, like, I can tell you right now I don't pray enough. I I know I don't. So but I think that goes back to Dan's point is that, like, those things were true for you, and this is your first pandemic. Yeah? Yeah. Right? So it's it's not related necessarily to the fact that that the church can't gather on a Sunday. It's related to the fact that people are

consume the church gathering as opposed to allowing it to otherwise influence the week that comes ahead. And I think it has becomes more complicated now, or it becomes easier to consume because it feels like what we consume. So at least you had to go to the building, and it felt like you might be putting something into it. And maybe interactions with people and your situation may cause you to walk away and change something. I think the fact that the church cannot meet physically in our current environment, I don't think it causes here's the thing. I think it just draws lines that were already there. They just become clearer. The people who are gonna do something were gonna do it anyway and have been doing it. The people who are consuming from your church are still just consuming, but they're taking in the media, and they they don't even notice the difference. They're like, yeah, man. I took it in. And they feel very good good about themselves for having taken it in without making a distinction at all that you actually aren't following Jesus. You're just We're called to be transformed. That's right. And we're just consuming it. It would yeah. And so to that extent, it's like if you're showing up to if you're showing up to church and you're consuming and you're like, boy, I like to be educated and I like to eat donuts

and I like to sing, those are all good things, but that is not being a disciple of Jesus Christ. You're just you're peeping in the window. You're stealing things that belong to the lord and and then putting them on and going, boy, I look good in this. Okay. So take it take it from a perspective not from a guy who is shining it on and doesn't care. Right? Take it from the perspective of which I I maybe I misunderstood the heart of Boob's question here, but, like, from a guy that feels like without being able to meet as a community, he's lost and doesn't know what to do. This is a guy that does care, and, like, he just flat out doesn't know what to do. Okay. So so the question is I think it's a very niche person, I suppose. Maybe that's what I'm reacting to. Really? Yeah. Because here's the thing, is that, like, I don't know how you can attend

any church, most churches, I guess, and walk away from that and go, yeah. No. This really has no impact on my life. How can the holy spirit be in you and not see a need and think, oh, I'll do nothing? Now okay. Now now hold on. It I'm I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna back that up just a little bit because I think there are more than enough churches that that, without saying it outright, purvey themselves as being enough. Stop going there directly. I but that's the thing. The guy won't know the difference. Right. That's the no. Exactly. That's that's what I'm saying is that the people I I think but the same person that doesn't know the difference is the same person that doesn't wonder on Monday morning, what do I do? Because they don't know what's the difference. They were satisfied. They thought that's all they had to do. But so the thing is is like and and and I I think you this is gonna this is not a direct fire shot to bow here. It's gonna come off as this. I'm I'm coming after a lot of churches there. I'm really not. But, like, sometimes they like like, even church programming will fill their week so full with options to be at the church and to be and and multiple classes, and you're there five nights a week out of seven and whatever. And, like, you'll come to find out that that guy attended every single one, never cracked his bible open

home at all. Always prayed in a group, never prayed by himself. Do know what I'm saying? It's what you didn't do is create a disciple. You created a guy that shows up at church all the time because he believes that the church is enough. Or shows up to the men's breakfast or the small group or, like, what whatever or even things that say like, it doesn't require, a programming aspect. It'd be like, oh, I invite this guy out for coffee, and me and me and Ted have coffee all the time. Right. That's a Jesus meeting check. Yeah. Because I love Jesus, and I want him to love Jesus more. The fact that we drank coffee made us holy. I think there's great I there's a lot of people that have grown in their faith meeting with meeting as well, meeting them with coffee. There's lot of people that have made growth in church classes. Yes. I'm not saying bad things about that. Exactly. But but the the point is is that if we give the the if you set it up where people feel like, if I just attend, then I'm doing alright. And they may and then if you get in a situation where they can't attend the things and, like, well, I what do actually do as a disciple of Jesus? Is that that's the core question. Someone goes, look.

I this is I feel like I'm supposed to be doing more, and that's probably how we're gonna phrase it. Monday morning shows up and they say, great. Now what? What do I do? Is it is it like, is it realistic to say there's people who say, look. I love Jesus. I literally don't know what to do with myself right now.

We're saying that that you don't think that guy exists. No. Know. I think he does exist. I think it I think it is it's hard to the realization is difficult because most of the time, if you're going if you felt satisfied with attendance alone is driving, oh, yeah. I have a good relationship with Jesus, it wouldn't it's not occurring to you because you felt like it was satisfying. But but there are times in which you say, look. If this this this this is life or death. So it was we we teach it in Luke seven this week, and Jesus shows up, and he touches Luke's the only guy who tells this story. He shows up, walks into the town of Nain, and a

man has died, only son of his mother who's a widow. K? It's a small town, like 200 people, and they're carrying the body out on the beer and going to go bury him. And Jesus just shows up with a crowd of people that's following him around, and he says he goes up to the woman and says, you know, stop crying. Don't weep. And I think in his crux, like, this is either the best he's either bringing the best possible hope or he's a jerk. Because, like, they don't know who Jesus is. It's not that they pick him out by face. And, like, who are you as a stranger to show up to someone and go, hey. I know your son died, but you could you should stop crying. It's don't weep. And, like so the the but it puts the crux of if Jesus brings the best possible news, then there's no way he's a jerk. This is awesome. If not, the behavior that he's presenting is not good at all. And, like, it was it was a weird story for for it to hit me over the last, like like, on on Saturday is I thought, like,

it expresses it in different ways where your faith actually means it. Like, this means a lot, to be honest. Like, if the thing we believe is true, then it brings the best possible news. If it's not true, then, like, the way that we're going about things and the life change we're trying to call enforcing in our own lives and trying to get our kids to believe, like, it's it's it's oppressive, frankly. Like, if it's not real, then it's just then it feels like behavioral control. And, frankly, there's lot of places where it feel where it feel jerky. And so I say that to say, if you are if if I think there are times of when it would just hits people where they're like, you know what? There there has to be some consequence. If this is true, then it has to mean more than what I think than what I'm feeling, than my level of interaction, than the fact that my day to day life doesn't change. And so I think that does happen. I think it does hit people every once in a while where it just says, look. This can't be all there is. And that's not a fault of anything that they've been going to. It's not a fault of the guys having coffee with. It's not a fault of the of the the cool discipleship class. It's not a fault of the of the teaching that's going on. It's just that sometimes, like, it just god has to knock people over the head to say, look. This is of consequence, man. Like, either this means absolutely nothing or it changes absolutely everything.

And, like, if you've if it's changed absolutely everything for you, it's you look at people who treat it like it it can't mean much or it's just like a social gathering and you it's it's it's perplexes you. You're like, how could how could you not commit any further than this? How how how have you not opened your bible for three months? How how how have you not prayed forever? And how does this thing not move you? But but, like, to a certain extent, the god does do that. God works through people, and god has moments of which it hits somebody. But so if that's the setup for the premise, which makes sense to me, now the question is the guy goes, you know what? This does change everything. Now it's Monday morning, and I've realized it. Now what do I do? That's the thing you're asking, Bouvah. Right? Yes. Okay. What does he do? What do you tell he calls you and says, look. It's Monday morning. I I I I I I finally understand. This changes everything. What am I supposed to do today? Let's read our bible. I'll start I'll do it with you. Let's start in Mark. Start number one. Mike, get fired up. Mark Mark chapter one. Yeah.

No birth narrative. Moving on to Jerusalem. Yeah. We're going right in. K. Number two, you need to find some alone time to be with god. What does that mean? That means that means you need to sit, and you need to spend some time realizing who he is before you start get ramping up into prayer. Realize who you're talking to. What does somebody tell me? You go through the alpha alphabet with attributes of God. Right? Like, you start out with a, and you're like, God, you are awesome. You know what saying? And, like, get all the way through the alphabet. Get yourself nice and prepped up to realize who you're talking to. It'll kinda filter out some of the the stupid things you were gonna try to talk to about. Right? But it also puts you in the right perspective to realize that you're talking to a king and a creator and a and a and a redeemer. You may not know that. You may not be able to get to the alphabet. No. That's okay. Skip the ones you don't know. Okay. We're firing up.

I was gonna say I've been doing this for I don't know if I could do x and z. You are a zucchini. Yeah. They they don't even they don't put that on this. I I would limit to Lord, you are zany. You are the X-ray to my soul. Stick to the Scattergories dice. There's only 20 letter or numbers on the or letters on the Scattergories dice. Nice. You can skip the other six. Yeah. I think that's fine. Okay. So oh, okay. Great. That's it? Disciple of Jesus? I'd start with those two things.

I I think I I oh, I'm sorry. No. Go ahead, Ian. I I I think it's if you overcomplicate it hopefully, you're already there. They're already there. That's kind of the idea that they're already anyway, I'm not gonna downplay what you said because those are the two things I would always tell people. I was gonna say, you're gonna downplay reading the bible and praying? Don't do the bible and pray thing. That's dumb. That's sick of life. Yeah. Are just precursors. Absolutely dumb. No.

But let's say you have all that, you get who he is, everything. What do I do? I think the simplest things you start out with, okay, god. What what do you got for me today? Give me opportunity. Give me open doors. Prayer yourself. Paul said. Right. Pray that we might have open doors pretty boldly. Right? And then look for them. And you'll find them. They're everywhere. Open doors are everywhere. We usually walk past them and allow the holy spirit to

show you, to speak to you, and listen to him like, oh, I should go talk to that person who's petting their cat. You probably wouldn't have got that from the bible scripture reading that day, but you would from the holy spirit who who is if you're looking for open doors, you're looking for opportunity, he will guide you. Right. Present your day as if as if your faith This is your day, God. I'm just your servant. Right. I'm out doing servant. Whatever. That you being a disciple of Christ has consequence today. Yeah. Like, it has consequence. Something something can or will happen. Yeah. Don't you don't check it out till next Sunday. Uh-huh. You know, it's like, no. Today today, I'm a believer. Today, I'm a follower. Yep. Tell me where to go. I'm following you. You lead the way. I would expect that from your bible reading too. Like Yeah. Like, if you're gonna read if you're gonna read something, say, look look, I I'm either learning everything you're gonna read in bible is gonna tell you something about God or something about you or something about the world that surrounds you. Either way, all three of those things can otherwise contribute to the notion of what do I do today. Right? Because if I learned god's character, then I say, god, you show me. You taught me this today. I want you to open my eyes on how I can reflect your character in my action today. How can I take this thing? There was a I was reading Psalm one nineteen

this morning, and it was, like, all about every I love your precepts. I love your law. Your law protects me. Help me to to to in my righteousness even as people try to tell me otherwise or make fun of me or whatever. Help me cling to your law. And so, like, if I'm praying this morning, I'm saying, god, you've reminded me that your precepts are good. K? That what you lay out and say is good, I believe is good. I need you to show me how to live that out today. And whether it's because I run up against someone who's saying this precept is not good, or it's a reminder that when I have a path to choose, that god gave a path is good and I need to be faithful to it. Whatever. I got a clean path to it. You have to be open to vagaries here because the odds of a man rolling up to you at the local gas station going, by the way, god's precepts are not good. Well, I've heard otherwise.

I've heard they are good. Who is this man? So so, actually, this this is a good it's a good opportunity. Just as a reminder that that this on how this works. So I've been praying over the last, I wanna say, three months

for a particular situation, and it was a particular person that they might wanna know Jesus. And, like, as far as I knew, they had no interest in it. They dipped their two, toe in and said, nah. Yeah. I'm not interested in this at all. And so over the last three months, I've been I've been saying, look. Anything I try is not gonna work here, God. I need you to send the spirit ahead of me. Please send the spirit ahead of me so that what we're doing is responding to someone who wants it as opposed to trying to dredge people out who simply don't want anything to do with it. Yesterday,

I got a call and that person that I had been praying for and said, god, god sent the spirit ahead of me said, hey. We we wanna know more. I wanna know more. Can we get together and get some more? And I'm like, freaking awesome. And that had nothing to do with me at all. Mhmm. No no slick wording. No no other attempts. I said, just send the spirit ahead of me and prepare a heart, Lord, so that I can say the things that I know to be true because I that I can do. And so it's it's just a reminder that that that it's an active. It's it's an active. We've talked about this multiple times, guys, and and it it's worth a salt at all when you see the words love, when you see the words faith, when you, see the word believe. All three of those things in the bible are action words. They're very I it I'm not even aware of a Dan, maybe you would know. Is there a Greek word that is as passive as we talk about things like faith and believe in the English language? Like, almost all those things are active in some form or another.

Yeah. I I yeah. Okay. Too bit too long. Dan's gonna have to get the good chords out. Yeah. So, like, I I I'm not even aware of a Greek word that that reflects I believe, but I don't do. Like, that's foreign.

It's a foreign concept for us to think that that we have well, I mean, I guess James is addressing it. Right? Have Facebook network. Some studying James that that Yep. Has something. Strong's g forty seven fifty two. Exactly. And welcome to open forum. So, anyway You gotta be at least 35 to get that joke. Okay. So so so I guess if you're you're waking up and you say, look. Great. I've taken it in. What am I supposed to do? I mean, ultimately,

the the your life should reflect faithfulness. It should reflect your identity in God. It should reflect Jesus is saying go and do likewise, and so go do the things that I do. And so you you use prayer to guide that. You use scripture to inform you of things you don't otherwise know so that you so that as you are faithful to that, it changes how you interact with people. And then recognize that if you don't find opportunity every day, then I I think we're probably not looking at it right. I can't cannot imagine you're going a full day and not having the opportunity to demonstrate a faithfulness to Jesus and things that you're doing. So I I I and maybe this is why I bang this drum so hard, but, like, I am

constantly in conversation with people who are feel like they're failing at this, and the same people are not reading their bible and not praying. That's it. They're not doing either one of those things and they're like, I don't feel like the holy spirit's really making any difference in my life. I don't feel like I'm following Jesus. I still follow the same patterns of sin. And I say, how's your bible reading going? Well, you know, I don't really do How's your prayer life? Do you feel like you're you're you're talking to God on a pretty regular basis? I mean, I I do my best. I try, you know, I I I try to fit it in. And, here's the thing. If you're not doing those two things, I just feel like all the other stuff that we talked about. I I I I've not run into this mythical creature. Whereas, like, I'm reading my bible every day and I'm praying all the time, and I feel like the holy spirit's not engaging with me. I've never met a guy that said that to me ever once. They always come up to me with the problem. Right? I feel like I'm disconnected. I feel like God is not making a change in my life. I feel like everybody's got these great stories about how God turned their heart inside out and made them into a new creation, and I'm just not feeling that way. How's your bible reading going? Well, how's your prayer life? Nah.

What? These are the things. These are the things. Right? Like, there's there's plenty of of other Christians who are have been through the things that you're going through and can help you navigate the way on on how we disciple and how we get get through life. Right? But, like, I can promise you, if you are not reading your bible and you are not praying,

they're gonna sound like empty words. No matter You could talk to the greatest teacher of of of of of Christianity and they will sound empty and hollow, like they're coming through a microphone that's unhooked. Unless you're actually reading your bible and praying. Like, it won't mean anything to you. It will have nowhere to land. There will be no fertile soil. It will just be you taking it in and going, dang, I wish I could do better. I'm not I'm terrible at this. God must not be helping me at all because I still suck.

And you're missing it. Right? So, like I said, I I feel like that I've I've not run into this guy you guys were talking about, that I can't figure out what to do with himself, though, person does interact with him. Andy's nailing his bible reading, Andy's praying all the time. No. Yeah. I don't know anybody like that. I can't I've I've just I've not met this guy. But but it was that did we help or no? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I think you guys did. But here here's where I'm at is I I have this I have this weird dual feeling because I'm worried, but I'm also kinda hopeful for this situation. Because I I'm praying for the comfortability of people

that are so used to their entire walk with Christ being on Sundays, and that's it. And and the consumers, like we've talked about a couple times now. The consumers rather than doers. Right? I I'm I'm fearful for that kind of situation because they don't have that right now, but I'm also kinda hopeful for for that destruction of comfortability. Like, I'm really hopeful for that destruction of of of routine in a good way where they recognize that they can they see the the chasm that is is

created when they don't get to consume, and they don't get to consume the way that they're used to doing it. They've gotten into this this pattern, this this this place where they're constantly going on Sundays and even habitually going on Sundays. But that's it. That's the extent of it for them is is they consume on on Sunday and hope that that's gonna be enough sustenance for them to get them to the next Sunday. And if they're not getting that right now, I I worry, but I'm also hopeful for maybe they go, well, there's gotta be more. There has to be more. And and

I I really hope that's happening. And so that's what I'm worried about, and that that's where I think that it it's big on us right now for people who do have a relationship and people who do understand what Tuesdays look like and people that do understand what Thursdays look like and what's it like to wake up on a day that isn't Sunday and and and recognize that today is the Lord's day also. It's not just Sunday. Every day is his day, and I need to act that way. And and I hope that there are people that are taking up this mantle in a way that that they can help communicate those to those people that are feeling that chasm

and and guiding them towards what's right and understanding that, like, yeah, you you're you're feeling that you're feeling that that empty hole there, because you don't get that consumption because there's more to this than you were taking in. There's a lot more. Well and and I wonder if, a lot of the root of that is just is just a it's a it's a misunderstanding of of what it is you're doing when you say I wanna follow Jesus. Even the think of what you're doing when you're in a baptism. There's a sense of a death there. Like, your your life, your choice of life, though the your kingship over your own life is dying, and you're resurrecting under a new king who leads you in a specific way. And if the thought of you swapping out kings,

you're gone, new guy in charge, and new guy in charge does not care anything that you do except for a few hours on a Sunday morning, you've mistakenly you're mistaken. That doesn't make any sense at all. And so and I that that's the thing is that, like, Jesus it's not you plus Jesus. That's that isn't how it works. And it's just it's just we have a a low

a low understanding often or low conception of of Jesus as a king, as a ruler. Right. I mean, it's it's the same thing where most people I saw was watching a a video this week of some guy who was an atheist who was upset that god Freemasons? Caused people Tiger King? No Freemasons. No. No. No. No. No. Anyway, he was upset because god chose to drown people for during the flood. Like, couldn't he just poofed them out of existence? Right? Why did he to drown? Thanks, Thanos. But but here's the thing, though, is that, like,

where I believe that god is who he says he is and that he's good, I don't question his ways of going about things. Yeah. Right? But if you don't, if you're trying to decide whether he's okay, whether you you will accept what he does or does not do, whether he's real or not as to whether he does the things that you agree with or not, like, you've you're not thinking of him as as a creator god or as a king. You're just thinking of someone who are like, well, it's an objective measure as to whether I care what he does or does not do. And, like, I care whether he's consistent because that that would make sense to me that he says he is. But past that, how he goes about things, like, again, if I assume

that he's true, that he's real, and is good, then there it must be justifiable. Like, there must there must be a way to think about that. And so I say that to say when we talk about Jesus as a king, that, like, if you don't accept the premise that Jesus is a king, if he's anything else than the person that gets to totally dictate how your life should go and what way you should behave and what your day in and day out should look like, you're gonna struggle with this. Because you're you're basically saying, how can I

it's not built in for you to say, god, whatever's going on today, it's yours? You tell me what you want me to do. Mhmm. Because if it's so foolish to think that it's only a couple hours. Right? That that's a false god. That that that's the I brought the I brought the meat to Dagon, and that was it, and we were happy with it. And, like, that's a fake thing. If either there's a king or he's not. If he's not a king, then you shouldn't bother worshiping him. If he is the king, then he wants your whole life, and that that's Monday, Tuesday, everything that ends up with a y. He's he wants it. And so I I I think it's just a misunderstanding. Like, would we we would would we agree to that on paper? Maybe we would. But, like, if that doesn't have a consequence into your life, then I you're just saying it. Mhmm. You're just saying it for with your words. And, frankly, if if then I have to if I agree to that's the premise and say, well, then what does what does god want me to do? And I think I don't know. Well, then how could you not be compelled to do the things we're talking about? Reading your bible, praying,

and say, what is it? Yeah. You wanna know the will of your king and what he wants in your life. But, like but but that's that's where it starts. Like, if you if you don't otherwise meet Jesus as a king, as a lord, yeah, that you're gonna struggle with this. If he's otherwise here to serve you, then it's not gonna seem like a problem. It's never gonna occur to you. Man, in all honesty, I still struggle with that.

I still struggle with that. Like, I I do my best to to be reverent to God and and and to to put myself in in a lowly place where I recognize the the enormous distance between myself where I'm at and his perfection and holiness. And, like, I'm terrible at understanding of of of what it means to be subject to a king and what that looks like. And so dang. Yeah. Like, think of, like, all all the really cool movies where there's a good king and he asks you to die in the battle and people are like, yes. Right. I'd love to do it. I for for honor of the kingdom. Yeah. And, like, look at this. We're just skeptical. We're like, I don't you know, is this really worth the fight? Is this, you know Yeah. Is this what everybody's saying? Wanna die for my king. Well, do you wanna talk today? No. I'm good. No. I'm alright. No. I'm fine. Hey. There's a whole book about me, and it tells nothing but truth, and it recognizes my identity that's gonna help you live. Do you wanna read it? Nah. Nah. Tiger king. Nah.

Tiger king's on. Tiger king's on. Dang it. And it's here's the thing is that, like, the it's it's funny, but, like, it's I don't think what it's off it just doesn't often occur to us. Like, on a given day, what did I tie what did I choose? What did I Tiger King instead of whatever that god may have in front of me? Tiger King don't ask nothing of me. He just asked me to he just asked for my vote then. And dropped. As a guy who's

been teaching this stuff for thirty six years, that's probably been my number one frustration in life is I don't know. You can't make people want that. Right. Mhmm. You can't make people

acknowledge him as lord. Right. Because they all play the game and everybody's, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool god. Yeah. Right. But you know, you just know from the fruit that it's not real. Right. And it's like, if there's any isn't that what Paul wept over? Like, I'd give my own life if if my own countrymen would just get this. Right. Know?

But they didn't. And so he just you just preach, you just teach, you disciple, you do what you can and you know some are gonna catch it and some are not going to. But I wish there was some button. I wish there was some, you know, some man. I can't make it happen. You know? Here's the thing. I used to I used to be a bouncer downtown. Okay? I used to I used to work security in in nightclubs and bars. This is new information. It's new information. People call me biscuits. Was the biggest guy in the room. I could've No. I was actually, you'd be proud of me. I wasn't immediately gonna start putting myself up like I was the toughest guy. I was a monster. Guys, you're right. I wasn't gonna say that. Thank you. I I hope Hogan traded blows. Yeah. One time I got in a fight with a seven foot nineteen guy. It was crazy. He weighed eleven thousand pounds. Oh, man. It crazy. Last. I threw up a truck and hit it at him. It was no problem for me.

I caught a bullet with my teeth. It was crazy. Yeah. I've I've been shot at by AK 46. It's whatever. Okay. No. I'm actually proud of myself. I wasn't gonna say anything with that. No. I was working security, and and all the time, I would have people come up to me drunk out of their minds and would, like, want my cell phone number or would wanna give me their Snapchat or would wanna connect some way. Right? And and I'd always take down their number, but I'd pretend I was writing it. And I would always be like, yeah. I'll call you. Like, we can hang out next week. Like, yeah. Absolutely. You seem like a super cool guy. You've you've almost vomited on me, like, four times now, but whatever. Like, yeah. We you seem super cool. Let's hang out. Let me get your number. I'm gonna call you. What? You're the Carly Rae Jepsen of the bouncing world? Oh, absolutely. You're the call me maybe? Yeah. I'm the call me maybe. Okay. No. I'm the guy that gets said that. So

I treat god like that constantly to where I'm like, yeah, god. I got your number. I got I got your number. I promise you on that. I'm a give you a holler. Right? Like, I got your number. I'm a give you a call. I promise. Sounds cool. Dude, we're best friends. We are besties. We have this what? This fantastic connection from this interaction. I'm so excited, and I feel value from meeting you. I'm gonna call you. I promise. Yeah. I got it written down, and I'll even show them. Like, I got it. I got it. It's in. I'm a call you. And then I've never even written the number down, and I've never called them once. And I've never been like, hey, man. Do you remember do you remember anything from last Saturday? If you don't, I'm boova. I've I literally treat God like that constantly where I'm like, dude, I'm a call you. I I promise you. I'm gonna call you. We're gonna chat. We're gonna have a relationship. This is gonna spark a a relationship

between us, and I never do. I'm so fickle when it comes to that. Like, that's ridiculous, man. That is absolutely ridiculous. That's a good metaphor, Buva. I hate that. We treat god like a like a drunk frat guy. I do. It kills me. We come to his party on Sunday. We're like, yeah. We'll get together this weekend. We're best friends. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I can't believe we met. This is the greatest greatest day of my life. I'm super excited. Do you like furniture? I love it. Let's party. So this is a this is the crazy god we serve. Right? It's like you drunkenly roll up there to him, and you're like, I'll call you this week. Right. And he smiles and puts his hand on your shoulders. Not gonna call him. Him. No. You're not, son. Right. No. You're not. He knows I'm not gonna call him, because guess where he'll be next week? Yeah. He'll be like, hey, man. Why don't you call me? Yeah. I'm a call you, God. I'm a give you a holler. I I promise you. I got your number. Turns around. Right. Exactly. He's like, man, I just wish he'd call me. Yeah. Just like, Jesus, you vouched for him. What's his deal?

He's saying, lord, lord, don't you know him? Oh, man. God, I'm sorry I haven't called you. Dang it. Need to start calling more often. Excellent. But but, you know, think it's that's the realization, though. Because now you're gonna make it a check off list. You know? I needed to pray four times. You know? It's it's that attitude of understanding

who you are and who he is and where you are in it. I want to inherently want that. In that. That's right. You want to want that. Yeah. I want to be in a place where I I crave that. That's that's gotta be my breath. That's gotta be my water, man. Like, I gotta recognize that that my relationship with Yahweh needs to be more important to me than my next breath. So And if it's not, then I'm missing it. Let me ask you this. Right? So, like, there's a lot of people that feel that way. Like and and and there's hills and valleys. Right? But, like, there's a lot of people that feel So when you are let's say you're in that valley, and you're like, I want to want to read my bible, but I don't want to. Right. Is our is our advice, read it. Yeah. I do it anyway. Do it anyway. Yes. And so here's the thing. It's like Take a little bit. Right? Before before we denounce the checkbox as being the worst thing right. Not the worst thing. I mean Yeah. Not the worst That's that's that's the play that you Yes. That we got a problem. Right? But, like, before because here's the thing. It's like, given my my American ways of freedom, I'm like, I understand the bible pretty well. I don't know if I have to read it every day. I just read Deuteronomy.

I feel like that buys me at least two weeks off because I struggled through the dudes. I made it through the Torah. I think I'm okay for a while. So but the thing is you'd be amazed on how far back the tug is when you stop. When you stop doing that and you and you count it as not a thing. Right? Like, once again, you you your red solo cup runs out, and then you're like, I don't even know if I need this solo cup. I'm a stop carrying around and making such a big hairy deal. I know where the water is if I wanna come back, you know. And then you find yourself not not two, three weeks down the road, and you're like, I I haven't even been to the well. I haven't even been to the well. And and and, like, it does slip that easily. And so, like, I don't wanna say that, like, you have got to read your bible every day or Jesus doesn't love you or you don't you gotta pray every day or Jesus that's not true. You know Jesus loves you. That's a fact that you can't change. That's that's based on his agreements, not yours. Uh-huh. So you can't change that. But for your betterment and for the richness of your life, you you should stop by the well every day. Yeah. You just should. Even when you think I'm not gonna be thirsty today, you should go to the well anyway. Right? And so, like, I've gotten in more trouble taking breaks from that well. Right. More trouble by saying, you know what? I'm being too legalistic about my bible reading and too legalistic about my prayer life. And then, I ain't kidding you, four months will go by Uh-huh. And I ain't touched it. And then I go,

why does my life feel weird? Something doesn't feel right. I still know all the truths of Jesus. Mhmm. They're backed by nothing. Right? They're backed by what I used to know, not what I currently know. And so, like, it does happen that fast and people are gonna rail. They're like, well, I only read my bible once every two months and I'm fine. Maybe you are. I don't know that. That's not my call. I know Jesus still loves you. I know he still died for you. Right. Right? But what I do know what I also know is like, I know what it feels like when I do that. And like, the well's better. Right? The rest is better. The Sabbath is better. It's the truth. You don't need to wait till you're dehydrated to take another drink. That's that right. Right. You can just stay on the level. Right. It's okay to just continue to drink your water. You don't you don't have to be in the middle of a desert and thinking to yourself, man, I'm so thirsty. You can be in a place where like, I just had to drink a water. I should probably drink some more water. And how much more open can you be to what the holy spirit has for you that day when you have water on you? Right. Right? Opposed to being two months from the well and god's like, hey. I need you to go do this thing, and you're not gonna wanna do it, but this is where I need you to go. And you're like, man, I just don't don't have any Right. I don't have any water. Don't have the water to go. I got I don't know. Maybe I should go back and learn more from the scriptures, and then I will go do the thing. Yeah. It's it's super immature to only drink water when you are dying of thirst. Yeah. I've never done that. Yeah. Like I've never gone that far with without drinking water. I usually get a little parched, and I'm like, alright. It's time to drink water. I'm totally guilty of this right now, fellas. Yeah. Yeah. That's the same. This minute. Same. Yeah.

I started reading James last week with my lady because I just wanted to. Like, I I realized I'm like, I'm I'm marrying this girl in six months, and I I wanna just read something. I need to make sure she understands James. No. And and it it actually it had nothing to do with her. I thought to myself, I need to understand James. I I have heard too many things about James to never having actually walked through it by myself. Yeah. And, like, it was just random. We just picked it. Right? And so I started reading. I was reading a chapter a day, and I read chapter one, and the next day I wrote chapter one and chapter two, and then one, two, and three. And I didn't read today. And, like, it feels weird. I feel sad that I didn't read today, and I'm I I wanna keep that. And so I'm gonna make sure I read that today. But how many times have I been here Been, oh, man. I'm sad I didn't read today. And it's freaking four months goes by. Yeah. And I'm like, hey. You remember when I was planning on reading James? Yeah. I read it for three days and then gave up. Oh, I'm such a boob. I'm glad James only has three chapters. I was great for three days.

Oh, man. Was just six chapters, James. I was gonna know that. I only read three days. I was I was gonna say, thought it five or six. But If I didn't have to do it, like, for a living, I probably wouldn't either. That's, you know, that's terrible. It's just it is. You know? I get it. You know? Yeah. It's just like yeah. Man, why don't we crave him? I saw so I instituted I I I I I fit in that same bucket. And so I I started reading a Psalm a day for that reason is I thought, like, I can't I there there was a number I was reading like Luke and reading Numbers because of you doing a study on that. And so like I was reading decent amount of bible, but like I was just doing it because there was an outcome for it and I thought, I I don't it's not wrong really, but like Mhmm. I feel like I'm probably missing something. And so I put I started the Psalm a day and I thought this will

this should help. And it has frankly, has been. I I it's been it's been great. But I I like, it's it's like exercise. It's like anything. Right? There's you know it's good for you. God has created it for good. It's not legalistic. It's faithfulness. God says it's good, and you and you agree whether you feel like it or not, and you do it anyway. That's right. Not smacking your wife around. If it isn't legalistic, it's faithfulness. Hey, man. You know I'm saying? Like, not doing the wrong thing is not legalistic. Right? Like, and and sometimes we put doing the right thing in that bucket. Because you did the right thing every day, now it's legalistic. But because you didn't do the wrong thing, like, haven't killed anybody up to this point in my life, I'm not legalistic.

I'm just faithful to not killing a guy. You know I'm saying? And so it's funny that we tend to turn it around in a weird oppressive way when it's something that you view as a as a choice or as a It actually goes back to the stuff you were talking about at the very start of the show, which is like, it it it's to be there's no reason to rail against something that someone that is good that requires your adherence. You're not being deprived. Right? Like, I'm not being deprived. It does not lack honor for me to be able to read my bible daily if I said, hey. Look. I'm just gonna do this. I intend to do it. I don't feel like it every day. It's it doesn't it doesn't diminish your faithfulness to god because you didn't feel like it. It's because you did it anyway. Because your feelings are so fickle. And, like, you know that you could easily chase a squirrel or watch the Tiger King or whatever it is that you're doing once you're done. I'm Tiger King. Yeah. Like, I did that too. Yeah. So right. So, like, you have the option. And, like, just because

just because it's consistent and just because you're doing it, it feels like maintenance doesn't mean it's not faithful. In fact, most of God's setup, if you look look in the Torah, it's it's a faithfulness. It's a scheduled faithfulness. Here's how you demonstrate to me. There's no question about it. You don't have to feel any particular way. This is how you show your fealty to me is you do this thing when this thing happens, and then I will know that you you honor me, and then I will respond in return. Like and we're like, boy, that's so restrictive because Jesus doesn't require us to do that, but, like, he replaced it with a different type of faithfulness. It's your whole life, and it's how you treat people, and it's how you follow God faithfully in a realm of which you don't have to do this specific thing because you have to do kind of broadly everything.

And, like, you need the spirit's help to do it, but, like, it's just it's just the wrong it's the wrong thought. Like, to to to I think to quote Mike something that you've you've said, like, what are we actually giving up here? Like, if I said, look. Rain or shine, I'm gonna read my scripture every day, and I'm gonna focus and give focus time to prayer even if it's five minutes. And and we're fighting it like, oh, yeah. But it seems so legalistic. What are you fighting, really? Yeah. What are you gonna do with that five minutes that this is not acceptable to you? Well, I don't feel like it. And maybe maybe starting to talk to Jesus might change your attitude about it. No. That's true. And and and to put that in perspective, there's all kinds of days I don't feel like going to work, and I go every day. Right. Every day. There's all frankly, there's a lot of times when whatever shows up my dinner table, I'm like, oh, boy. I just don't feel like eating that. I eat it anyway because I need to and to honor the person that provided it. That was hold on. That was my that was my comedy onto Facebook a couple years ago. I'm a read it to you so you can laugh. Maybe not. Hold on. Okay. We won't do it then. It was great, though.

You ready? Yeah. I'm ready. Okay. What I thought was said. The girls, what's for lunch tomorrow at school? My wife, pork meatball soup? Mike says, sounds like a cold lunch kind of day. What was what was actually said? Girls, what's for dinner tomorrow? Made by beautiful wife. Woman says, pork meatball soup.

Mike says, sounds like a cold lunch kind of date. That's rough. Dang it. That's rough. No. Never made cold lunch ever since.

That is the best. I'm so dumb. Hey, man. BUVA said no to that story. Yeah. BUVA hates good stories. I do. Okay. You ready? Yeah. Let's do them. Dear dear life from the past, I am an 83 year old mother of four. I've been living with my second husband now for twenty one years.

Nineteen years ago, my husband loaned one of my daughters and her husband a large sum of money so they could buy a house and pay off bills and judgments. All the necessary paperwork for the loan was signed at the time of the closing with a lawyer present, and it was agreed they would pay us back a certain amount every month. After a few years of mostly regular repayments, the payments dwindled, although they continued to buy expensive electronics and other items. Mhmm. Several years have passed now, and a few checks and cash payments have arrived, but only after much begging. Our lawyer sent them a letter a few years ago telling them to pay up or we would sue them.

It resulted in them they're not seeing or talking to us for a couple of years. We really need the money now. Maybe she's hoping we will die. What do you suggest we do at this point? Her brothers and sisters don't want to get involved. Yeah. I I would guess they wouldn't. I wouldn't wanna get involved in that myth. Okay. It's too late to take it back. Yeah. The loan's already happened. Right. I'm gonna assume it's a large sum of money. Yeah. 84. Get a house? They need it. And judgments? Yeah. You you never loan money and let without assuming it won't come back. And if it comes back, it's a bonus. I mean, even

though you have an attorney, it's your family. It's just that's just know? Yeah. They need the money, Dan. I know they do. They can't eat. They were over generous. They probably spent it on electronics and whatnot. Yeah. And booze. Yeah. They they they fixed the symptom, not the problem. They didn't you know, they needed to teach them some wise financial stewardship

along with that. Twenty years ago? Holy cow. What a long ago. Years ago was Nineteen years ago alone. Okay. Let's just get the big things out of the way. One, should they just sue them and get the money? No. What if they're going to the poor house? Like, they're gonna have to sell their main residence and move into a smaller shack. They made the risk. Yep. That's it. Suing them's off the table. You can't you're not gonna it's not worth it. Yeah. Yeah. No suing them. Okay.

Is it try to get the brothers and sisters to go talk to them on your behalf. I find that to be the worst idea. Not the problem. That's worst You've created a big mess, and now you're trying to get everybody else involved in it. It does stink for you. Yeah. That's really unfortunate. Yeah. I mean, it's yeah. No one's saying that you're not wronged here. I think you're very wronged here, and it really stinks. But trying to drag everybody else into that mess. I'd say in the will, whatever will you have,

that child's already had their inheritance, so just make sure they're not part of it. Because that's kind of a cheating on the other ones with siblings. I mean, the other siblings should be mad on their own because obviously if they're moving to the poor house, there's gonna be no inheritance. Right. If my brother did that to my parents and their livelihood was in fact, like to the point that they like they went to the poor house, I'd be furious Yeah. With my brother. I'd be furious. Furious. Yeah. I wouldn't ask them to step in, but, I mean, if they decided Oh, no. I'd be the one that stepped in. Yeah. I'd be like, you've gotta be kidding me. You are treating them like dirt. Are you you're kidding. You stopped talking to them because they asked you to do what you said you would do? Yeah. But look at this TV.

I break the TV. I'm I'm a real angry guy in that situation. I'd probably bust the TV. I mean, does it make enough sense that, like, the relationship is strained to the point where you're having the lawyer send letters anyway? Rough. That it's alright to sue them? Is that what you're saying? I now is the time to just I mean, here's the thing. Show love. Even when it stinks, show love. That's love. The same way if it was to

the guy's friend? Yeah. You loan money to your best friend twenty years ago and his wife, and they did the same thing to you. And you go and after they got the money from you, they kinda stopped talking to you. They didn't really have a relationship with you anymore. They kinda got what they wanted. They moved on. So the question is in what situation would you be willing to take someone to call small claims court? Give me an example.

Let's put a figure on this thing. Let's say it's 200 k. They did not loan them $200,000. It had to have been the down payment. It's probably $20. Listen to me. Listen to here. Not $200.

And her husband a large sum of money so they could buy a house and pay off bills and judgments. Okay. 30, $30. 75. 32. 50. 34. I'm going no lower than 50. It's 50. 35. Break. 50 k is what it is. Alright. So let's say it's 50. At 83 years old, let's say it's 50. Okay. So it's 50. Is there any good reason they've and it was an official loan. It wasn't a, hey. Pay us back when you can. It was it was it was like just like loaning from a bank. It's got a contract, and there's consequences with it that were already laid out.

Why is the wrong thing to do to enact the consequences? This is standard disciplinary action that you have with your children. Listen. If you eat that brownie, you get no other brownies today. And they come up at 09:30 at night and say, I would like another brownie. You go, no. You had the brownie. These are the consequences. No more brownies. This was a it's a completely legit set forth deal. It's not done out of vengeance or spite. It's a contract, and they broke it. Is there any reason that you can't sue them to get it back? No. There's no reason that you can't. I think you shouldn't.

So you give the kid the brownie at 09:30? Well I've been to your house. I don't have I think you never lend money that you can't you're not okay losing. I I mean, so here's the question. Is that you're going to like, legitimately, you're gonna die soon. Regardless of the state of your relationship now, it it has got to be completely severed by the time that you send the lawyer. And so Yeah. It's already done. Is it what right. But, like, what if except if you turn around go Just go get the money. If you say, look. We're gonna stop all the lawyer stuff. You know that we you know we could really use it.

I hope you can get around to paying it back. Yeah. That is that not a move of just, like, forgiveness and loving on them? That's what I meant by that. It's like you you get to be the person that just goes, okay. 100%. You I'm your debtor. You owe me money. Right. 100%. You owe me a lot of money. Let's call it a 185.

Okay? You owe me a $185,000. I love you. I miss you. I wish we were still family. You've never not been my family. I I'm done coming at you. I'm not suing you. I'm not sending lawyers. I this is whatever. I'm in the straits and I could really use the money, but I'm I love you. And and I'm I'm tired of it being a thing. I feel like you might as well do that because you're not getting it anyway. And by the way, you can send your response to my new address at the poor house.

Well, that felt like a little bit unnecessary. Here's the thing though. Is that like you live at South Beach and have big electronics. So but but I do wonder, like, if you re if you reengage the relationship in such a way that they do this on their own. Right? Because you you can't force it. There's no good path from the force it. Right? But but to the extent that you show that you show some some mercy here to something you wrote because, like, it's not mercy if it's not something you wrote. If you right. Like, it has to cost you something, and it's costing them something. Right. It's costing them everything. Right. And I don't know if it's costing them everything. You don't know. They get Social Security. They're doing fine. Yeah. Ben, it's $385.

They $385,000, Ben. They can move to Alabama. Things are cheaper. I'm in Oklahoma. I don't know. I just I'm here's the thing. I'm not I'm not begrudging what you're saying. I just don't know why you're letting them get away from get away from this. It's it's you have to think awful highly of yourself to feel like you're taking the higher road on this thing is gonna change everything for the best. Isn't that everything Jesus did? Yes.

Is that Was take away all the consequence that we 100% deserve? Oh, no. That's true. Isn't that the shrewd the shrewd steward? Like, isn't that the whole deal? The shrewd steward gets extra the shrewd manager gets extra money by do by being conniving. No. No. Selling goods at half price. Who am thinking? I'm thinking of the guy that shakes down everybody else after his debt is forgiven. Yeah. Oh. No. That's not the shrewd manager. That's the other guy. That's the steward? Yeah. I'm mixing two stories. And then he doesn't

Right. He doesn't show Yeah. Yeah. I mean in jail. I mean, you can forgive him, but you can also get the money back. I forgive you. I'm gonna have to sue you to give my money back. Really, though? Can you? I don't know why I'm asking. No. I don't think you can. I don't think that's full forgiveness. I think you could pretend like you forgave them by going, well, in my heart, I don't feel that anger towards you anymore, but I'm still gonna completely hold responsible for all the money you owe me. That's right. There's a there's a direct there's a direct correlation between responsibility and relationship. The prodigal son would would not fit that description.

Right? Because the, yes, I accept you back and and I love you. However, no, you I can't I will not give you back things that otherwise treat you as a son because you don't deserve it. Yeah. But that situation was different because he gave money that was owed to him in the future. And so a debt wasn't actually carried. He was gonna get that money either when the guy died or when you I mean, yeah. Yes. But at the same point in time, I still think that you're you're making the right move by by doing the the forgiveness here. Legit forgiveness. You're giving away the consequence because it's not your thing to hold on to. And the dad did not have to sell the farm in the meantime. The son had a farm to come back to and work. I don't know that that story is dependent on the means of the father. I don't know why you would think that. I mean, if you if he if the kid's gotten because then the kid can't come back from working into pigs because his his dad doesn't have a house to even have. If the kid would've left and put

put the remaining son and the dad in the poorhouse to the point where they didn't have a farm at all, then the kid wouldn't have a place to come back to. Yeah. Would just be a poorhouse for him to come back to. Yes. And that's not a problem. You think Jesus' teaching on the nature of mercy is entirely dependent on how whether you can still run your own farm? No. I'm just not I'm I'm I'm just not a 100% I'm not disagreeing with you guys. I'm trying to figure out where responsibility comes in here. Right? Like, this was all laid out ahead of time. Uh-huh. This is a perfect this is just a regular deal. Right. Right? Like like, hey, I'm buying a candy bar. It costs $2. Here's the $2. This is exactly what this is. It's straightforward. Didn't you just get done reading Deuteronomy? I did. Or or Luke? Yeah. That was that was literally the entire thing of Deuteronomy. Was these the laws that I'm setting out for you? If you mess them up in any way, shape, or form, you are not worthy of of me. Right. And well, but that's the thing. And then Jesus came in, took away all of that. I mean, look at the Deuteronomy. I'm trying to figure

Wait. David, you got something in Luke? Luke six. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back for the same amount. But love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. You will be sons of the most high. Yada yada yada. I look that's that's why I never I would never lend money. Okay. I lent

probably $80,000 to my girls to go to school. Both of them swear they will pay it back. One of them yesterday we had a conversation, and I just kind of smiled and nodded, said, we'll see. I am not expecting that. I'm not expecting I don't mean that like, yeah, we'll see it. I'm just like, I totally and that's what would explain to my wife when we were alone. It's like, I totally do not expect them to pay a dime. If they do great, you know A counter joy. Yeah. Great. I did this as a gift. It was to help them in their next step. I will be in the poorhouse. I mean, they're in situation. I'm

not that far from retirement, so I'm gonna aggressively try to have that paid off before they even get out of school. But I have to be really aggressive, but I'm not right now. Yeah. So I I but but you know what? I lent that with full expectation of, well, whatever. I'm just doing it. That's my daughter. And I would guess that they did not lend it on the premise. Like the story that we're reading, they did not lend that under the premise. They'd lend it on the premise that they were gonna get paid back. Yeah. So so I I think, like, technically, you're right that, like, if there's a contract there, there it's the fact that their family is not really relevant. It's any other party. You could try to execute it. You could try to sue your children into the small claims court or the large claims court and get the money.

I the question is is does that actually help or improve anything that you really care about? And if it does, well, then you'll get your just rewards. If you care about other things, you're gonna have to approach it differently. And I think the the right means is to say, look, I don't wanna fight about this anymore, and so we forgive the debt. Yeah. We made a poor choice. You know, we expected this to get back, and now we're disappointed. That's on me. Yeah. I take responsibility for putting us in the situation and putting you in that situation. Because alright. Because the time to not take the kid to the kid to have the brownie is that she shouldn't have let she should've done it in the first place. Like to note that they're responsive they're not responsible enough to handle the situation,

they probably shouldn't have done it. But knowing that that's past and knowing that you cannot control someone else's behavior, you can at least control your own. And here it would say, you made a mistake. I just don't hope to it as a mistake. And then that may improve the relationship, that may try to help out, it may give you a few years where you get some reconciliation, which I think is probably worth more than where you're at, even if you're in a poor house. But yeah. It's it doesn't it's not reasonable, but I think it is practical. I think it is the right the right situation. Okay. K. Secular says,

I am truly sorry. But because your other children refuse to become involved in convincing your deadbeat daughter and her husband to pay what they owe you, you have no other choice but to contact the lawyer who drafted the loan agreement and instruct him to follow through. Jenkins, fire up Yeah. The I I mean, here's the thing. It's like that's an overall hard I think it's a hard word. Yeah. Really. Because, like, you can look once again, you can look in Deuteronomy. Right? And you can find direct consequence for action.

And action produces I mean, there's some things that that that even god will you just will not tolerate. If you do this, will you be put to death. That's it. We're not gonna allow it. You know, these kind of things are are no. And so, God does not appear to be without

setting standards and consequences for those standards when when when they're not met, when they're not followed. But then, on the other hand, you look at at Jesus' teaching, he goes, that's true. You could definitely do that, and you're well within your rights. Right. Same thing when he when he talks about divorce. You could get a divorce. You are well within your rights to do that. I'm gonna admonish you not to do that. I think that that that you can go through this another way and look at people the way that I'm looking at people and and and realize that there's more joy to be had in the way that the world has intended. I've had to set these restrictions and these consequences in because of the cracked world. But on its face, and in its original design,

these wouldn't have been things that we would have to have dealt with. But I'm having to give you these criteria because of the crack that happened. So, like I said, I I I'm not in disagreement with you, and I'm not saying that I would not do the same thing, but I know that coming from like, that's just a that's just a hard that's a hard lesson to watch. Right? As someone as someone who took all took money from you, continues to prosper even, or we'll say, look like they're prospering, as you dwindle into nothing. And, like, you it's all a you kingdom thing. Right? Like, slowly

end up in dirt and nothing as you get older when that was not your intention. You didn't work that way. You didn't save that way. You had prepared something well, and someone took advantage of you, and you are going to forgive them and smile and really love them and go, you know what? Not only is the debt forgiven, but my heart against you is also forgiven. And so, we're we're we're gonna we're gonna cancel this thing. And like, it's really hard to convince people that there's joy to be found there even if Jesus says there is. Right? Like, that's just hard that's hard to take in. See, I don't even know that I would forgive the debt. I would say, here's the deal. If you can pay it, pay it. We're gonna keep this open, but it's not gonna affect our relationship. I'm gonna love you no matter what. It was our choice, not yours. I mean, was yours too, but Right. We made the mistake. You didn't.

Well, you did too. Right. But you know what I'm saying? You took the money from me, but I probably should not have offered it up. Yeah. Realizing that I could have said no. If you weren't going to pay that I was going to act this way. Mhmm. And, like, that that is something to be said to be so having some forethought and go, if this goes sour, I don't know that I'm gonna handle this well. So Let let the bank be the the the heavy. The arbiter. Yeah. Gotta a be reason the bank wouldn't give them that money. Get the loan from the bank. See, I've been on both sides of this. When I we were Atlantic, there there was a fam we had we had some medical stuff and all whatever. Stuff. Life. You know? And this family knew we were struggling. He came and said, hey. We'd like to lend you $50,000. I'm like, that's insane. They Why do you have $50,000?

Yeah. First of all, people have that much. Just sitting in an account. Yeah. I make 24,000 a year. It's just like, I didn't know people could have that much just sitting there. And yeah, so they set up an amortization thing and we signed documents. But you know what? It's an integrity thing too. That was the first bill we paid every month. We never missed. That was the happiest day of my life to say,

you. You saved me, our family. It was great. We paid you, even gave them interest. And, yeah, it was a win win for everybody. Yeah. Right. So it can be done well. This can done. Okay. One more, Ben. Ready? Yep. Quick. Dear life from the path. My husband retired four years ago. At first, he seemed to enjoy not having to go to work. Then he got bored, he needed something to do. For some reason, he bought an old Corvette to restore. Yep. I was supportive until I found out it's an expensive hobby. That was a shock to you? Okay. Finding and buying Look at that. He's a crappy. He had cost anything. It's only the second most expensive thing at your place. You thought this was gonna be a collecting flowers?

Okay. Finding and buying all the replacement parts cost money. He's been working on that car for three and a half years now. Soon as he gets it ready to drive, something else breaks. Meanwhile, he has bought four more old Corvettes, quotes, to work old. Our backyard looks like a junkyard. Yes. It does. We haven't had a vacation trip since he retired, not even a weekend to the mountains. He argues that we won't we can't afford it, but he spends thousands on those old cars. It has become an obsession for him, and it's, quotes, driving me crazy. Any suggestions? Yeah. You're married. Have that conversation. Here's

the deal. Take it away from him. He'll die in three months. You're good. Sweet Moses, Dan. Take away his reason to live. That's that's good. Holy crap. I was not expecting that. Yeah. Take away his ability to have joy in this, and then hopefully he withers soon. Purpose. Collect the life insurance afterwards. Oh,

man, Dan. I didn't say it was good advice. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Alright. As long as you're not fronting, that's the good deal. I think Yeah. Have a conversation with him. You should hit him with a stinger. Say, look. You either need to get better at this or you need to quit. Yeah. These are your options because the amount of money that's costing ain't gonna continue. So you either need to become a better mechanic or you need to stop working on cars. These are your options. Yeah. I mean, is That's fair. It's not unreasonable. Just do one at a time. Yeah. Like, quit buying excess cars. Like, I I you gotta have a hobby. You gotta No. He's buying them for parts. Well, can't you just go can't you just get it from the junkyard? Yeah. But, I mean, if if you look at a car and you're like, hey, man. I bet I could probably use the rear quarter panel off this thing and probably buying a Right. Just buy the shell. I'll just buy the whole thing, and then I can rob parts of it to get the ultimate Corvette, which still has not happened yet. And the bunny's got a place to live in the summertime? Yeah. You have every right to have budgetary conversations with your husband. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. You're just gonna have to yeah. I mean, there's no unless the guy's like a a a total moose, like, he's gonna have to react to the fact that you say, look. All my money's going out the window here, and I'd like to go on vacation, and you live in a marriage. And so we gotta figure this out together. Perfectly fine.

Not You're being selfish. You're fine. Have the conversation. Yeah. I mean, I would begrudge him his hobby, but, like, I mean, dudes get tunnel vision. Right? You know what I'm saying? They're like, I gotta do this thing. I gotta do this thing. I gotta do this thing. Unless it's bible reading. Right. Unless it's bible reading, they're like, I don't know. Every couple months you just find. We seem to move on that tunnel vision thing there. Yeah. And then all consequences go to the wayside, and you forget things and whatever, you start acting a fool. And right? Sometimes someone you just need to give them a quick lasso, pull them back in, and go, look. I I gotta tell you, from 2,000 feet up, this looks ridiculous. And you're acting like a like a fool. Oh, yeah. Okay. I hear what you're saying. I mean, you you owe him that. You owe him a stern conversation. If you're not willing to have that, then you don't care enough. Or even a compromise, hey. Why don't you get, like, a part time job and use that for the budget for your cars? Yeah. Not not our planned retirement money. Yeah. Right. You know? It's like, okay. Yeah. You could drive that hill to go wagon into Walmart every day, and you could be a greeter if this is what you're gonna do. Exactly. Right? You gotta do something to support the thing because you're pulling from a well that it wasn't built for. Yeah. Okay. Segler says, healthy couples discuss large purchases before making them. What your husband is doing is destructive to your relationship.

It also seems as though he's using his hobby as a way to avoid spending time with you. My suggestion is that you and your husband find the money to consult a marriage counselor because that's what's going on, because what's going on is unfair to you. And if you need a vacation, consider taking one by yourself or with a friend. She does this all the time. Her her constant advice is, screw that guy. You'll go do whatever you want. That's her fix for everything. Yeah. Take the take the cruise to the Mediterranean with your buddy. Yeah. Don't take Hank, the guy that won't wear a blazer. I don't like that advice. That is completely missing the problem. Right? That's not the problem at all as whether you can make it to Ireland or not. The problem is that you wanted to go with your husband. Right? You had this thing in mind, and then it's not gonna happen. And, like, you going by yourself is not near as fun. That sucks. Yeah. And I would also say that, like, especially when you're talking, the the dude being the wrong party here, just don't assume that he's put thought into it. I think I Yes. Agreed. I mean, I know that you would like to believe that about him, but he probably hasn't. There may be no underlying nefariousness. Yeah. He thought, yeah. I'll do that. Yeah. That seems alright. Oh, this is kinda fun. I'll just go do this thing.

I wish that we weren't such daft creatures, but we we just are. Like, we just you just get to the point where, like, it did not even I don't know how many times my wife has said something to me and I said, look, babe. Seriously, it did not even occur to me what you're saying. And I am very sorry that it did not. Right. And she's like, well, I want it to occur to you next time. I said, I I don't know how to control that, to honest. I I wish it would pop into my mind, but I just the synapse is a good old fireman. And so I want it to occur to me, and I will do my best. But I you know, it just does not occur to me. And so I I I'm I wanna say that a lot of dudes are just like that. Whatever it is that might be grinding on you, just say it out loud. Feel free to say it five times. He probably didn't even he's not gonna notice. You're gonna feel like you're nagging him. You're not. He doesn't know. And so just have the conversation. For heaven's sakes, you got money problems. The first thing you don't do is go give your money to a third party to help you have a conversation you have for free in the garage next to the Corvette. Just start talking about it. We're broke. Exhibit a. Yeah. Alright.

You're listening live for the Path. Thanks for hanging out with us. We really much do appreciate it. Besides the fact that, Dan called us heretics on the complaint line What? We didn't hear anything else. Dan. Who? What? Shoot us a a phone call or text, (515) 517-0085, and feel free to leave the reviews about the show out on your favorite platform in which you get it. Even if it's a bad review, we appreciate your honesty. And yeah. Anyway, we will see you next week. In the meantime, be faithful means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to Live From The Back.