Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path. And you're listening to Live From The Path. It's gonna be from the Pathway Studios, Kieran Johnston Proper. Live people would believe you. What do mean? You… Like, I could be making it up? Yeah. You have proof that a, we are live, b, we are in Johnston proper. You know you know what the funniest thing is? It's… We haven't been broadcasting for, like, I don't know, like, five, six weeks or something. And, like, I had numerous people ask, hey, when does the show broadcast and can I listen to it live? And I'm like, we have not done a live show for, I mean, years at this time. Yeah. Yeah. People are scratching, sniffing, looking for stuff to do. Like, we gotta open up to schools or whatever. Are getting getting all jazzed up. They don't know what to do with themselves. Said I scraping the barrel trying to say when can I catch the show live? Like I don't think you're missing out on anything. No. Get… Taking it the second day. No. Not… Yeah. Because here's the thing. It's not like I edit the show or anything. I gave that up a long time ago. There's a number of people who have done like some sort of podcast consulting for. And they're like, you know what? Okay. Now that you record a show, you do editing? Blah blah blah. Was like, no. You misunderstand what I do. The amount of time I have allocated to this enterprise is the time I hit record and roughly thirty minutes after after the show has stopped. And then I just don't have the time to do anything else. And so if we're gonna lay a… Lay an egg here on a Monday night, you getting that exact same egg Tuesday morning. Yeah. And so

you're not missing out anything not catching it live because you're getting the full brunt of it. There's no polish. And if we had a better Internet, we'd we'd have… We'd go live. That's true. I mean, that was really why we switched. It was just like, okay. It's choppy. Yeah. Right. Right. It wasn't keeping up with the Joneses. Have you guys… So I saw that that either John Acuff had interviewed Bob Goff or Bob Goff had interviewed John Acuff, one or the other. I I couldn't really follow exactly what happened. But but I I'd recently just started reading a Bob Goff book. Have you guys ever read any books by that guy? No, have not. I don't I don't know. Was it Love Does or Love Something? Love Wins? No, it's not Love Wins. I think it's Love Does. Yep. So mean, overall,

I don't wanna solely your opinion of it because the guy is, he's an amazing dude. But I was like three chapters in, I was reading it while I was gone, and he just, he keeps, he's just one of those larger than life characters that runs into people and just has this ability to just generously pour out love towards everybody. Like he just says yes to all kinds of crazy things gets involved in all kinds of crazy things just because merely he says yes and he's got time and he does it and he just… It's just an amazing book. And instead of uplifting me, it made me feel guilty.

I'm reading these stories and I'm like, are you married? How do you have time to do all this and not feel like you're being generous on the backs of your family? Once again, it's him that's probably doing this right and me that's screwing this up. But it seems like that if you are willing to get involved in these crazy… One of the stories he told was about this guy that he knew in high school and he was gonna leave and go be a park ranger.

Bob was. And all of a sudden, he goes to this guy he had met that was like a tutor for him in getting to know Jesus, knocked on his door and said, Hey man, I'm just telling you, I'm not gonna be around next week. I'm gonna go to Yosemite and I'm gonna learn to be a park ranger. And the guy leaves for like two minutes, he shows back up with a duffel bag and goes, okay, Bob, I'm with you. What? And he goes, no, no, man. I wasn't looking for whatever campaign or whatever. I'm just telling you that I'm not gonna be here next week. And he goes, wherever you're going, Bob, I'm with you. And the guy turned around and left and went with them all the way to Yosemite. They slept in their car or whatever. He figured out after two or three days that maybe this park ranger thing that he was 16 or 17 at the time, this park ranger thing wasn't gonna be for him. And he looks at that guy he grabbed and goes, Man, maybe we should go back. And he goes, Bob, whatever, I'm with you. And he takes the guy all the way back home and whatever, he goes on with his life and he goes, It turns out that morning that he came in and knocked on the door and grabbed the guy, the guy had just gotten married the night before. What? Like, it was the day after his wedding and he went in to talk to his wife and said, whatever, Bob's taken off and I'm gonna… Think I need to go with him. And tooled out for like three, four days after he first got married. And I thought, what? There's no way I would've gotten away with this. Like that is like… Even propriety tells me, goes, look man, I have a marriage that we're trying to grow and protect and I'm leaving my mom and dad and cleaving to my new woman and this is what we're going to do. And like this dude just like, well, yeah, we're leaving. And even the army exempted a dude from going out for a year in Israel just so they can, you know So be around his wife. You know? The book

is filled with stories like that story. Right? Like it's just story after story after story where the guy's like, hey man, can I use your? I wanna propose to my wife at your cabin. He goes, absolutely. Absolutely, you can do that. Just figure, no big deal. And then the guy comes back a day later and he's like, actually, I'd like to have like 50 of my friends over and we'd like to have dinner here. Can you cook us dinner? And he's like, yes. Yes, we would love to do that. And all

of a sudden, he's got him on a boat. He's got a boat and he's letting the guy use the boat and then he talks the harbormaster into blowing up fireworks during the boat proposal. Are you confusing this with the movie, with the dude has to say yes to everything? No. Right? Here's what I'm saying. I've read this book, parts of it before, and I'd always thought, man, I just wish that I had… I felt like I had the freedom to act in this way. And some of it is obviously the way that I structured my own life that causes some of those things not to be able to happen. And then on the other hand, I'm like, every time I agreed to one of these crazy plans, I'm saying, no, daughter. I can't do your math homework with you. I'm preparing for this crazy dinner that this guy is putting on. And maybe he's older, maybe his kids are gone, I don't know. I don't know the exact situation, you know. But it was just so funny, like, I'm reading a book that I know is purposely written to help uplift me and encourage me the freedom that God has given us to just live over the top generously.

And instead, I thought, I don't know, man. I don't know how you're getting away with this, you know? Wonder about your description there. So I have a personal, I guess, difficult to say. I'm trying to get people to stop overusing the word or stop using the word crazy to describe things that maybe are not crazy, like, or as a as a metaphor. So maybe, like, what… How could we better describe the stuff he was doing than to say it was crazy? Because he's not insane. He doesn't deserve to be institutionalized.

He doesn't need to be medicated. Did you take it that way? I know. But you're using it as a metaphor, we're trying to say, like, should we be like this or should we not be like this? Or what exactly is it that he was doing? Like, you're saying he was open and generous, right? Really good words. He's being super generous with his time, for instance. But it's also maybe eccentric or… I'm I'm really at at a loss. How would you describe that behavior if you were not to just use the word crazy? Which is really not crazy. So, like, what what could we… I mean, I would suppose abnormal, I guess, would be the… Because most normal people would not… Most people in the same situation would not do that. But we're told to be a peculiar people. We're told things like, if you're lukewarm, he will spit you out of his mouth and things like this. So we're kind of, in a certain way, for me, following Jesus means that I am going to be a little bit weird. I'm expecting that already.

And to say that you're gonna be open to people with your time generous and be loving, like you said, you know, like… Or maybe the point of being like a doormat sometimes, you know, that might be what I would also say is that maybe… Or or maybe sometimes you're manipulated to go on a trip to Yosemite or something like this or… But, you know, but I'm just wondering what what are some more, like, specific words we could use to describe… It's kinda like a writer's game too. Like, writers are always trying to do this. Like, what's a more specific way that I could describe this, you know? I don't know. I'm way more low brow than that. I guess I tuned it out the way that I that I had thought of it. I mean, I suppose if you're saying that you feel like crazy is not the applicable way to say it because it's demeaning and because he is not mentally unsound.

Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Is not… It's not not exact. It's not an exact enough for me. Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't know… Jay, I don't know what the format of the show is gonna allow the level of exactness that you're looking for. You got a whole bunch of tosses in here sitting for an hour and a half from whatever spurs to mind. So I don't I don't know if we have to ring that rag too tight. But I but I I think it is interesting if… To tease out the the direction it was going though, is like, what about these types of things is surprising or unexpected. It's unexpected to have that level of freedom with your time.

Level of freedom with your other commitments. Yes. Because it holds very loosely your responsibilities that seem I'm gonna say normal. So like just things that that are run of the mill, that are pretty basic. Everybody tends to have these. It holds those very loosely and then is willing to them embrace something else that may come along

openly. And that and that's unexpected. That's behavior that we otherwise don't expect to do that shows a level of openness to our own and freedom to otherwise pursue service to somebody else. And I think that that's probably one of the core points of the of of love being in… Of love doing, love being in action is that you have to… It it will it will ultimately cost you something. Like it's not free. It's not free to be able to to live your life the way that you wanna live it. That focuses on you and your needs and your family's needs or whatever. Like to to show some level of service or grace

or abundance or giving to somebody else, it will ultimately cost you something. And some of that's like your stability. Yeah. Like your your… The agreements that you have to be able to help your daughter with her homework because you decided to go run to the soup kitchen and do x y z. Right. Right? Right. Yeah. So so maybe that puts some more teeth, Jay, to your point on like what we're looking at here of of the behavior that's that's unexpected because we have this notion of of responsibility, good I think right responsibility to our families and to your whatever work agreements you have and like integrity and honor and those types of things that are related to your life. But then you've got the notion that the rest of the world can and will encroach upon that or you will pursue outside of those responsibilities and it means that you ultimately have to hold on to some of those things looser than what feels responsible. Yeah. You will have to sometimes do something spontaneous. The parable of the good Samaritan, the guy dropped what he was doing and helped the guy. You know, that was not a part of his life plan. That was not part of his daily agenda.

That was, you know, something he… A good deed that he did spontaneously out of the goodness of his heart. And I think to follow Jesus, that's what Jesus wants of us at least some of the time. Some… Yeah. Think that's good. Because if you do it every day, that… That's that's where you get into trouble with, like, what what Ben was saying. And I mean, I could… There there has to be a balance. I… I'm just thinking that when my children are at home and younger, I I could have easily missed their entire upbringing and not did my job as a dad in training them because I I, you know, I get calls and texts and requests all day long to do all kinds of things. Can only do so much. Know? And I got… At some point, you've gotta guard

your family. You're number one. So I think you gotta continually prioritize. And there are times a Samaritan comes along and like, I I've gotta help this person. You know? But if you do it every day, the next one needs to be helped. So yeah, that's a tough thing to balance. To read a book where the guy's talking about it is like, gosh, does he really do that every day or are these just fantastic stories? No. It's true. Yeah. To be fair, it's probably a retelling of things he's done over the last ten years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, when I'm reading it, I'm away from my family at the time. So it's probably really smacking me in the face. But

it seems… I think the thing that I was I was trying to focus in on was, like, how can you do that without having other people pay the price? Right? Like, I go on a three day excursion in the middle of the week, I have to cancel youth group, which means I have to call Ben to have Ben go do it, which means I'm not around my family. Now Ben's not around his family. You know what I'm saying? Like, there are there are… I I don't wanna say consequences into that into that generosity. Cost. I think it costs. Costs you something. They're costs. And they're not they're not always to be completely avoided. Right? There's not… You can't say with a blanket statement, I will never cancel youth group when when God has me something… Doing something. Right? Like, and and not to say that Ben can't pick up that burden because that's what God has going on. In fact, him and I can both agree that if God has something going on, then we're fine with whatever. We'll pick it up. Not a big deal. You know, but but, like, I read, say, three chapters in one sitting, and I'm like, this guy does this all the time. Yeah. I'm the worst. Know? So, like What you say? It was… It's really… Bob Goff is, he's… If you ever read anything about the guy, like anybody he ever runs into, he just has this really big, really generous personality

that just seems to find that one thing that really will make somebody feel important and make them feel special and make them feel like he's fed into them. Like, that was… I was reading some articles on him, and everybody who's ever run into him at the backstage of a conference or he came and talked at their church, they're like, hey, part of his deal was I gotta have somewhere to stay, and they tried to set him up in a hotel and he wouldn't have it. He's like, I'm gonna come stay at your house. I'll bring dinner. I'll take care of dinner tonight. You know, like, has dinner break. You know, like, he's just one of those guys that, like, he just… He thinks of everything or he just has a mind and a heart that comes up with… You know, remember when we talked about grandpa, when I was telling you grandpa gave us that dog and he said, I can give you this dog to be a burden to you? That's this man in everything that he does. And so it's really… He loves Jesus. His personality is the opposite of mine. And so I find him very intriguing and I really like the way that he handles himself in most things. I haven't read the whole book yet, so I can't really you know, say that you should read it. I have to read it all first. But we don't know how it ends, right? So maybe it could Yeah. Maybe maybe at the last chapter, he's like, you know what? Poop on these people. I've got them all. It's the last chapter, he sends a bill to everybody. Yeah. Love cost. Yeah. Yeah.

Just like this book you paid for. Hee hee. Yeah, you'd give it away for free, Bob. He probably would. That's the thing, it's really unfair. You know what? Seems really, really… It only came to my attention because I just happened to be reading that book, and then I saw that him and John Acuff had done a podcast together. I like both those guys, and so it seemed like a pretty cool interaction. That's one of my biggest challenges in life over the last years is you read a book and you're like, Man, yeah, I need to do this every day. Or you see a speaker, oh, I just lost his name, a super popular guy that that that the… Who who quit his church and went out to do missions Chan? What? Francis Chan? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You see him, like, once ago, yeah, I need to go live in a ditch. You know? Exactly. I mean, he doesn't do that every day. I made a great book and a great lesson and

there's something we can value, learn from it. But I'm always like, then I'm on the hunt. I'm feeling guilty. It's like, oh no, I'm in a car that runs today. Yeah, And there's a ditch for some I haven't over sold it yet, you know. I'm not giving it to the poor. It's like, well, at some point, you've gotta eat too. Mean… Well, it's something someone's funding his ministry when he's in Burma and like, there's there's… Right. There's a there's a balance to it that I don't wanna see that we probably run the risk of… I think maybe the broad point is to say don't let humans cause the imbalance. Where God is going to tilt the scales, you follow the tilted scale. But where it is human

example, that shouldn't be the means of what you're trying to figure out whether your life is is imbalanced because like God is obviously… Like I think there's levels of orchestration where where God is going. Yeah. I got, you know, 5% of the church population who's basically living on nothing and they're going around everywhere and digging wells and crap. And then I got 95% who… They're working nine to fives, but they're supposed to be given money here so that we can keep those things to support. Because like, it doesn't make there's no reason to shift every Christian in, I don't know, Belgium and throw them over to North Africa. Like Right.

The North Africans can talk Jesus just fine. They do a great job. But oftentimes, where there's inequality in the resource availability or the amount of wealth in a given country and Christians can certainly… I can do way more with 10%, 15%, 20% of my salary here than I could go in solidarity standing next to a guy scooping a shovel who's already doing good work for Jesus somewhere. And so there's a reason for awareness because it then takes… It says what resources or talents or whatever that God has given you can help to support these things that are going on. But that shouldn't be the driver that completely says, This is how I'm supposed to end up in a balance. That's the thing where you go back to God in prayer and say, If I'm missing out on

where these things are supposed to be going on, if I need to give anything up or I need to keep trucking away here and support this thing, that's why I want you to open it up for me and let God kind of balance that out. Because otherwise you may just be chasing… Christians are weird because it's not like human glory but it's Christian glory. It's did I sacrifice? How far did I move from San Jose

so that people think that I'm a really faithful Christian? And like here's the deal, I don't mind. The Lord might very well send you 2,000 miles from San Jose. Or he might say, raise your kids, keep your butt there, and put a well in in North Africa. Send some of your money somewhere. Or the guy who did go 2,000 from San Jose needs about 50 a month. You know what saying? Like… And then plus your neighbor probably needs to be reminded that Jesus loves him. And so just make sure that people don't ultimately drive your balance. But even those stories though, I think every time is right to to drop us to prayer and say, my mind opened to something that my mind was missing. Is there something I need to be seeing and jumping in on that I'm not? And like, Mike, this may not flip your personality but it might have you catch a circumstance where you're like, boy, don't wanna get involved and then you go, well crap, maybe I should get involved. And then you end up in something, one out of 10. Yeah, that's the thing. It's not like it was a depressing conviction thing. It was a more an eye opener. Because I just don't look for stuff like that. It's just not generally my tune. Where I wish that it was. I think it produces all kinds of joy, Yeah. Right? Like for all the folks involved and all things that God has called us to anyway, there wasn't anything sinful in there. You know? And so like,

sometimes I think you can get lost in the sheep in, sheep out. Where as much as we promote integrity, humility, and fealty to Jesus in the sheep in and sheep out, I mean, every time… Once in a while, the sheep get away or a passerby comes by your place, and there's just no reason, you know, not to not to double down on it and and and say, okay. How how can I be just over the top generous in this situation? Yeah. I think a a lot of… We should all really have an internal compass to know… It's part of being an educated person and part of wisdom. Growing up in stature and wisdom is knowing what stage you are in life, where you are right now. And some people, that's gonna be totally full family lives to a full ministry schedule. Other people gonna have an open schedule and are looking for ways they can help. And I think that Jesus wants us to be, you know, here am I, send me type of person or

I am ready to help and protect those people who deserve it and need it, whether it's the weak, the good good shepherd kind of mentality. It might not be even that you can do it. It might be that you know somebody else who could do it. It might be that you could set up a network. It might be you just listen for five minutes. We should always be open to those kinds of ways we could affect the world in a positive way and do things that would reflect reflect well on the creator who we believe in. Mhmm. Yeah. Right on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We don't have to… And and I mean, that's actually find find a lot. If I've got regrets, I look back at the time when I wasn't… Mean, say being tied down by my family is really representing it incorrectly but like… Right. That's not what I mean. I know. But but like my faithfulness in following Jesus at that point in time did not

include four children that were my responsibility. You know what I'm saying? And so like my money was a little bit less committed and maybe my time and some of the things that I could have done with that time wiser and more faithfully, certainly I

think I could have used it better. And it's hard, it's hard, you always… Hindsight's real good for that because then you recognize like how much time you don't have or how much you can get done even if you're committed time. It's like, if I would have taken any 20% of this and put it to good work somewhere when I was 21, the world would have been perhaps a slightly brighter place. But I think that's… The season of life allows one, the ability to gain that wisdom and maybe the way to try to squeeze some of it out of what you haven't committed or what God's got you doing. But then also to be encouragement and to the extent there's ears to hear for folks who aren't tied down in the same… What's right word? Committed. Committed in the same way. Responsible. Yeah. There we go. There we go. Responsible in the same way

that there's opportunity to be able to do that. Although my time is a little bit more committed, but I'm making more money now than I was. Yeah, that's true. And I I suppose on that same vein, not just to beleaguer the point on the family, It is an extreme honor and extreme joy to have that privilege be able to life and speak

information about who God is to your children and to your family and to those families that hang out with your family and whatever. In fact, a lot of the people getting to know Jesus is people getting to know your family and watching you follow Jesus and go, yeah, okay. Okay. I see something different about these people. It's a completely legit way that God has called us to live and And so it's not taking away from that. There's just a lot more shine and sparkle, you know, to these big gestures.

People go… It's where people struggle following Jesus anyway, right? Like, they 'll get these hilltop moments where they'll feel the Holy Spirit moving in them and they're like, Yeah, it's great. And then when they're called to make changes to their life or God starts revealing things of the direction that you'd like them to move or where they can be useful, the day in, day out stuff, right? You still have people going to church who have known Jesus for thirty years, and they're cracking open their Bible once a week on their own. Because it's hard. It's a struggle. It's a consistency thing. It's talking to God on a regular basis and reading his scriptures on a regular basis,

and I struggle with that. I've been doing this a long time. Jesus has been nothing but good to me. And I still struggle on days where I'm like, I really should read my Bible, and I don't feel like it. I just don't feel like doing it, and then I don't. Right? And it's just that easy, you know, because the sparkle and the shine of this one time act of helping somebody, or the day in, day out of praying with your kids, praying with your wife, talking about who Jesus is and what he has called us to, what it looks like in comparison to the world, that's an everyday keeping your mind on the focus, getting your energy drawn from the Holy Spirit through prayer and reading God's Word, right? That takes a lot more effort than just going, here's a thousand bucks. Do Right, something right, right. It's not just that though. I mean, with the… Like

we're… What this guy is doing though, he's dropping down from like… Our normal everyday level of conversation is very superficial. And what you're describing is a guy who's ready to drop at the drop of a nickel at the spirit talk to the heart talk level of things. And I'm not sure if you've ever had that experience before where, you know, if you're talking with someone who's really spends their entire time on, like, the superficial, you know, day to day going to the store, talking to people level, and then you have a moment to drop down to the spirit talk, heart talk level with that person, and they haven't had that happen to them for a long time. Sometimes people just break down crying, and I know people have done that with me, and I've just, you know, they actually all of a sudden take a minute and listen to me. And it almost makes you… It can make people weep spontaneously just because they're not used to it. The transition from what we're expected to… What's expected in daily conversation and what actual human interaction can be if we're really listening to each other on that deeper level which is what we imagine actually where we like to talk with Jesus if we could. Is that he would just be right there, be so intense and he would, you know, he would almost break down in tears because he's so perceptive and

he cares and he would… You know, he loves you. But if you can give a piece of that to somebody, even just a fragment of it, to somebody who's been really stuck in normality, I guess you could say, there's that word again, of what we consider society. That might be all it takes to really give someone a strong nudge in the right direction. Yeah. 's a really key point is that where our lives run the risk of becoming just a series of mini

transactions one after the other, like points of intentional focus. Like even just… And this is… See now I'm thinking about this, this is even true with my own kids. It's like just even even a a five minute time where you say, look, I'm not actually thinking about anything else right now. I'm looking at you. I'm talking to you. What's going on? Like how how… You know, just something that that asks more of us than are you existing? Are you are you getting away with some of the motions and the rhythms? And that that just spins any time of

focus on somebody. Yeah, it can push past and get to something that is actually a little bit deeper, oftentimes a little bit heavier, but certainly feels like a reality that isn't allowed to bear itself that often simply because we're exchanging transactions. Even in movies, it's almost a cliche that you're like a teenager, like the parent who suddenly wants to reconnect with their teenage child

and they they say, okay, yeah, okay, let's sit down and talk, you know? And the kid just rolls their eyes because, oh, all of a sudden, you wanna get back to this level with me that we used to have when we were like five ten years old. It doesn't work like that. It's not transactional. You can't turn my heart on and off like a switch to fit your agenda and time schedule. And then you have to work at it if you want back into my heart. And the same thing with marriages happens I think also too. When people drift apart and you want to rebuild this, it's a totally different level. You have to be able to drop to or rise up to you, let's say. Superficial, it's not going to be transactional, it's not going to be trivial, it's going to take time and thought. And really, one of the best person in Germany, one of my English students told me he had been married for fifty years.

I asked him kind of trivially, How do you do it? What's your tip? What's your marriage tip? He got real serious and he was like, You have to totally be able to focus on another person and really take their entire life, mind, body into consideration with everything that you do. He one of the… He was ready. Shaking the man as well. Yeah, right. Don't ask me this question trivially. And the Germans are like that, they can be very intense And if you ask deep questions, you know, you have a chance to. And I was like, okay. You know, that's totally right. You know, you're you're gonna be committed to this person. You're share your life with them. You have to share your life with them, not draw them the picture on some… You know, and put it in your pocket or something like that. So considering another human life is,

you know, like a mega huge proposal. That's convicting. And Nathaniel is selfish. That's what Jesus is. I think we're all thinking it. Yeah. That's what Jesus is doing with all of us. Why are you the way you are? Well, I think the reason that people don't ask to stay at my cabin and use my boat is that I have neither a cabin nor a boat. And I think that's what… I mean, I was thinking about this, and people don't ask me for things. Maybe that's my fault. People don't ask me to do… Like, the… If I think about the last three weeks and people say, hey, Nathan, you want… Can I do this? Can I? Can you give me that? Can… You wanna do this? It was tonight where Ben texted me and said, hey. We're doing the show tonight. You wanna come? Yes. I do. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Percent of life is showing up. Just, you know, if you Maybe that's you do it, and that should theoretically lead to to more opportunities, more possibilities. But we also live in a society where people are under a lot of pressure to close down, to shut down, to lock down, to be less open, to be afraid of meeting new people, or to watch TV all the time and stuff like that. And I'm at least trying to be part of something that's going the other direction. Yeah. I would say a continue to fail at this. Like this conversation in general, is… What

you're saying is fairly convicting, right? Because I would say most conversations are transactional, even with my children, and probably with my wife, which is sad. But to be able to enter that conversation and do it well, you have to be bringing none of your own stuff into it. You're right. This conversation is not exactly… It's not about me. Because the transaction means there's two people we're exchanging. Right? But the conversations we're talking about is saying, no, really. What's what's up with you? And like, I'm gonna wait for the answer. I'm not just asking so you believe me to be polite or so you get the general feeling that I care for you. I legit care for you and I wanna know what's going on. We generally hope that there's no response to our, hey, if you need anything, let me know. Yeah. We're

just throwing it out there, I'm loving, I'm wonderful. Just know, I'm theoretically great. At funerals, I often will say to people, especially I'll address the family, say, hey, this doesn't end today. Your grief you know, is long term and and and there's issues. I I want to help you, you know, reach out to me, you know, some

type of thing like that. Yep. And so this this past week, get this opportunity from someone. I've done two funerals in their family in the last year, a year and a half or so. And then COVID has hit in here, and and there's just been huge anxiety in this family. And and there's… Like, they don't, you know, they don't come to church. Nobody knows them or anything. And but they reached out. Can you can you come over to our house? And and I'm like, well, yeah. Like, I was… A part of it was a joy of like, oh, they're actually reaching out. Yeah. Part of it was like, I'm really, really tired. It was Sunday afternoon. And I I already had scheduled with someone who's headed to prison and I was gonna meet with them first. And it's… And I But you know what? Yes. Yes, I And I went over there and spent an hour or whatever over there and had a great conversation. And then I noticed pictures popping up. And I don't know if it had anything to do with just that somebody came and cared

or what. But all a sudden, were outside and they were smiling. And somebody's been just in his house looking out the window afraid to go outside, literally afraid, holding onto a blanket and a protection, like a Linus thing. No. Yeah. Yeah. Linus. Yeah. And

and then they even said it that way. Security blanket. A security blanket. Yep. Yep. And it was just kinda cool to think, gosh, maybe just as… You know, because I didn't have any mad thing magic to say or anything, but but just the fact that someone cared and and engaged in I'm giving you an hour of my life right here, it was helpful. I don't know. It it was just kinda neat. And I was still exhausted. But… That's the magic. It's like… Yeah. The magic happens, you know. But but you got… Yeah. If you can't say that kind of stuff and not back it up Yeah. Reach out to me. Well, I mean, not really. I didn't mean it. To sit across from another person for a whole hour is already a very intense experience unless you're doing it kind of wrong, in my opinion. Especially when it's above my pay grade. Right? I mean, I don't know how to help someone with anxiety.

I mean, it's legit. There's some legit issues that he's trying to deal with. And anyway, someone loved him. I think the… And maybe the struggle is, is like, I know… Like when I say things like that, if they were to reach out, I would definitely say yes. Yeah. Yeah. You do all the time. Right. But I I want a heart that that wants them to actually reach out. Like I anticipate. I'm like, yes, please. Like honestly, yes, please do. And disappointed or concerned when they don't, you know. But instead, I go, phew, good. That seemed like a real mess over there. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and so, like, it's probably a revealing of… Because, like, that's obviously never God's heart. You know, God's heart is always, yes, come to me. No, really do. Yeah, seriously. Reach out. Open all the time. Let's do this thing. And so, like, it's probably just a helpful look back at who you are

and the way you're posturing yourself or the… Or at least a stance of humility that that hedges off the bet that you like, I got this thing formulaically figured out. But your heart is not… Your heart still has leaps and bounds and plenty of work to do. And and and a humble approach that goes, God, will you help change this in me? Will you help me actually… I want I want to mean these things, but you know that I don't. My sinful heart does not mean those things. I will say them out of propriety, but like, I don't mean them, and I want to mean them, so help me. And these are the exact kind of things that God deals with and goes, I can deal with this all day long. If you're asking me for help to do, to meet my heart and show people who I am through the way that you act, absolutely. And the Holy Spirit does do those things, exactly. Right, right. Way… Of the prime thing that has to die in order for for to to see God and the Spirit actively work in your life is your own sense of of

arrogance, right? It's like, I have this thing figured out, I set my priorities right, I know what to do. The more open you are both in in posture and prayer and in action and walking in humility, the the more God has… You've given him the space to move. Right? You've seeded the control, you've invited him in to to otherwise do those things in your life and and it doesn't feel like it cost you, it doesn't… You don't lose your own priority when you say, look, I'm gonna I'm gonna spend my time focusing on this person for this amount of time. As a human, you go, yeah, but I wanted to do these three or four things. But if God changes in your heart, then you're doing exactly what you wanted. You end up doing these things and you find joy in it and you find satisfaction in it. And like… And then you… Mike goes, hey, I gotta be out of town for three days. Can you cover youth group because I wanna do this thing? God's got me doing this. And like, heck yeah. If God's got you doing that, then God's got me doing this. And then we're excited about it, it's fine. And then we don't… Then it doesn't feel like you're constantly… Feel like if you're if you're following your human intuition of trying to tip the scales of balance of good, you will you will find yourself out of out of balance. You will rob your family to otherwise try to serve others or you will completely isolate yourself in this notion of responsibility for your family and not help anybody. But if you let… If the Spirit is governing that, if the Spirit will guide you,

that same spirit that says, Ben, you're gonna go do this thing this night where you had something planned, is the same spirit that will cause my wife to go, yeah, you know what, that sounds great. You should do that. I know we had this thing planned, but we'll do it some other time. Right? Because it's not like God is trying to get me in trouble with my wife or like, you know what I'm saying? Like, my wife is actively following Jesus as well. And so the two of us would say, hey, this thing came up, what do we think? And I fully expect us both to go, we prayed on this and it sounds great and we don't even care that we had something else going on. Alright. Hey, you're listening live from The Path. I appreciate you hanging out with us. Two two things I wanted to do. Just real quick. So he's… So Jay was with us in a previous week, but like as we are tend to do is we we completely hop over any formalities.

And so… Nathaniel, it's been a while. So Nathaniel Carson's here. Hi, Nathaniel. Hey, hey, hey. So you know Nathaniel You should've given own a heads up that this was gonna happen because he biffed I felt like I needed to be on the radio, a personality, oh! So you know Nathaniel from the conversation earlier when he was a rube. Yeah, that's

generally how I set up my life. So good. And so also because we didn't have the time to touch on it with any length, Jay Hudson is here. And so Jay, if you want to give folks just, I don't know, thirty, forty five seconds on… If they needed to know the quick biography or current dealings of Jay Hudson, what would they need to know? Sure. I just moved back to Iowa about a couple months ago. I'm glad to, you know, be working with Dan at the Pathway. My name is Jay Michael Hudson. I

I'm an author, and I'm inter… Interdisciplinary, though I do a lot of different things. I'm a musician also, and I've worked a lot in the information technology industry. I wrote a book over the last couple years called How to Build a Boat Out of Water. It's a collection of plays and short stories or short stories in play form. You can get on Leanpub and I like to… I don't know. I like to share it with people if you're interested in it. You can also find it for free if you search for it. What was the name of it? How to Build a Boat Out of Water. There you go. People have liked it so much that they've stolen it and put it on for free? No, no. Because when you're starting out as an author, your problem is obscurity, not money. Sure. So

it's a… And really, that's kind of the the self publishing way now. Everyone gets gets free samples of your work, and then if they want to support your work, they can go to the place to buy it. So you can find it for free at a website called Library Genesis, which a lot of people just upload their stuff on PDF there. And it's a collection of foreplays that have, I believe, a strong overtone of redemption and, I guess, Christian and religious values in a very general sense, even if it's not directly

Jesus And it's about, I guess, and also a metaphor for a society in which we live where people are really expected to, you know, build something out of nothing or they're made fun of for being poor kind of. Or you're in this situation like the, you know, you're like the Good Samaritan story where there's this guy and you're already in a struggling position and people walk by you and don't help you and then say, look at the person that, you know, can't do anything with his life or something like that.

It's also kind of, I guess, a metaphor for capitalism as well, that if you don't have any capital, you're gonna have a problem in capitalism, which means you can't start a business, you can't buy a house, you're relying upon other people to give you the leg up, so to speak. You can't give people on your boat? You can't build a boat. You're just sitting in there the water. Everyone's like, why don't you have a boat? It's like, wrong with you. Marriage proposal. No, man. I'll even have a boat. Right. It's the metaphor. So, I'm, you know, J Michael Hudson. J is initial. It stands for Jeremy. But I prefer to, you know, keep things simple and easy to say. So I just like to go by Jay or Jay Michael. Awesome. That's it.

Okay. Hey. Thanks, Jay. We appreciate you taking the time and and getting some introduction in. And if you're interested, you can go… I I found it on Leanpub. That's where I found it. Yep. So you can hit that up. And if you… Hey, if you read it and you got any thoughts… Hey, Jay, if someone wanted to contact you, what would they… What's the right way to do it? [email protected]. Okay. There you go. That's just j michael with no periods, dots, dashes. Wait. A e l or e a l? A e l. Okay. That's the only American. That's the only That's the only American. That's how we do it. Yeah. Yeah. Also… Did… Jay, close your ears. If you ever wanna sign up for a newsletter but you don't wanna actually receive the email so you can get that coupon, you can use Jay's email address. He said that's alright. He loves that stuff. He's a he's a man who I'm trying be open and spontaneous.

That's right. Spontaneous coupons. Send me a message. Send me a note, and maybe maybe you'll get a response if it's within the bounds of, you know If it's not just an advertisement. Reason and kindness. I can't guarantee our audience doesn't bend that way. I don't think… I like your optimism. Hey. So here's the other thing. So we… This is… This has been, I mean, forever ago, but we we we were asking people to call in and do impressions Mhmm. On the complaint line. Okay? And so I got three phone calls over our… You know, the time of which we've not broadcast anything. And so I'm gonna play I'm gonna play them out loud, and you guys, we gotta try to guess the character that's being represented or the person of which the impression is from. K. I'm ready. Okay. Now hold on. There's… This is a sketch… This is a sketchy business because I gotta turn this up in the studio without causing the feedback. So

Alright, here we go. Here's number one. Wait, wait, wait. I don't know. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Intertestamental literature. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Got them! Nope, we didn't learn. We didn't… Nope. Hey, can we read and introduce me?

I've got my material. Hey. And and also in the studio today with us, as sometimes is true, we have Nathaniel Carson. Hey, guys. It's good to be here with you. Mhmm. Yeah. I just wanna tell you a little bit about me. I'm a maintenance tech. I turn wrenches, and that's that's about it. I'm also a dummy. Well well, you're right. That's a rich biography of the thing. I loved it. That went much better. Is that your regular voice? Yeah. That's me. That's me, guy.

And finger pistols. And finger pistols… Excuse me, sir. What I believe that I'm supposed to tell you is that if you were to be faithful in the means, then God would most certainly be handling it. Yes. Well, was fantastic. Yeah. It was. Very good. It was droopy. It's droopy. It's droopy the dog. Wait. Hold on. You gotta play it again. That way. Really good. Okay. Well… Okay. Go ahead. Excuse me, sir. What I believe that I'm supposed to tell you is that if you were to be faithful in the means, that God would most certainly be handling the ends.

That's from Rocky and Bullwinkle. Right? Okay. No. No. No. No. Droopy? You know the dog? Yeah. What what show is Droopy from? He's he's of of the general cartoon fair. What's his universe? I thought it was the Looney Tunes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Alright. That's… Rocky and Goldwink for some reason. That's one. Okay. Let me get to let me get to number two here. Okay. Alright. Here we go. Droopy number one. We nailed it. Here's here's number two. You are a beautiful lady. Did you know that? Hey, baby. I just wanna call and tell you that, you know, if you are faithful in the means, that god don't handle them in. I just I just want you know that. Alright. You have a great one of your day. Bye bye. Don't

know who that It sounds good. That feels like a generalized character. Do it again. Hold up. Mix mishmash of three or four characters. Oh, ho. You are a beautiful lady. Did you know that? Hey, baby. I just wanna call and tell you that, you know, if you are faithful in the means, that god gonna handle them ends. I just I just wanted you to know that. Alright. You have a great one of your day. Bye bye. I don't get those channels. I I don't know. Okay. Alright. So whoever that was, I'm gonna need you to tell me… I don't… Does anybody have a… I mean… I think it's Will Smith. What? No. What do mean? Is it is it… But is it… Who's who's the guy… Is it Tyler Perry's Madea? I don't get those terms. No. Okay. Okay. Oh, so I… Yeah. We don't know. We don't know. You're gonna have to you're gonna have to follow-up. Let's see if we can get the third one. Hello there, laddie. It's Shameless. Oh my god. Sorry. I've got to tell you that if you're faithful in the means, then god will most gradually handle the end. Alright, boy.

That was Seamus. Yeah. That was Seamus the leprechaun. What… What's the name of the Lucky Charms guy? Seamus. It's him. No. It is not. I don't know. I I don't know. What is the name? I don't know about that. The leprechaun. It seemed kind of generic to me. A a generic Well, they applaud both the commitment and both the impressions. They really went out all in, you know, and gave us a performance that was unforgettable and memorable. I feel like I should eat some Lucky Charms. Horseshoe. What… Did you find the name of What is Lucky the Lucky Charms and Leprechaun's name? That is a… What is the Lucky Lucky Charms, Leprechaun's name's donkey's mom's name? Oh. Callback to Juan Valdez from last show. Elvira. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Asking some real obscure questions now. Okay.

So we got one. I think we're… I'm I'm gonna give us credit for three. Two seems like a miss on our end. So if that was you, one, thank you for calling and leaving stuff on the complaint line, Booba, random person. And and also, Booba, we don't we don't recognize that second one. It could be any number of people. We don't we're not… We don't get all the memes that you get. And so you're gonna have to tell me which meme character you're… We don't… I don't understand. Yeah. I've heard that before somewhere. To our shame, the the leprechaun from Lucky Charms is named Lucky. He's Lucky the leprechaun. Oh. Never would have guessed that. I mean, what I feel foolish.

Yeah. What a what a boat full of deafness. Mean, that's the dark. His charms. Man. Can I do it? Phone real quick. I I was gonna call in, and then I didn't. Okay. Okay. Okay. How do you feel about that? Yeah. It's me.

Let me give you some advices. If you are faithful in the means, God will handle the ends. It's a it's a Bruce Willis. No. No. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Don't don't… It's me. Gobble made the John Travolta. Give us a… To the It's the gummy bear candy corn. Gavin Newsom. I gotta be honest. I'm over. This is way more fun than I thought it was gonna be.

I mean, it has a one way ticket to Lamesville, and it's not gotten there. Okay. Hey. So if you have I could do one if you want. An impression. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. See, a stone that the builder refused will be the chief cornerstone. So you gotta take that into consideration

when you're building your church building and tell you, wowie zowie. The stone that was rejected really is the one you're want. Alright, man. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Lifting… This is the ocean that lifts all boats right here.

Okay. Alright. So anyway I even know. These are top tier. So let's say you you… See, now now you were probably sitting on the sidelines. You guys were listening. You're like, mine are too good. I don't wanna fish in that in that cesspool. But look at this. We done skim the pond. Yep. And now you're fishing in fresh waters. There's bass at the bottom, alright? So I want you to call the complaint line. It's (515) 517-0085. That's (515) 517-0085. That's the Bob Eisenlauer Complaint and Impression line. And you call and give us your best shot, and we'll see if we can guess it. And if we can't, it's okay. It doesn't mean it was a bad impression. It could just be, like, you're, you know, you… Your audience ain't too adept. But anyway, I appreciate these. I think these are funny.

Okay. Where are at here? 1021. Let's let's do… Mike, what did you… So sorry. You had something. Okay. I saw a sign. Oh, that's right. I saw a sign at a at a a Jesus thrift store this weekend. What do mean it's a Jesus thrift store? Like a church? That doesn't sound like a thing. The prophets go to Bible missions or something. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. I wasn't I wasn't… How were the prices? They were a little high, actually. Mhmm. Yeah. They were like Goodwill ish, maybe a little north of Goodwill ish, but Oh. Way way above Salvation Army. It's a mission. Quit complaining. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. So so they're They're high they're high priced, damn. So so I was I was walking through the store, whatever, looking for some shoes for for my daughter, and and, like, they have this sign on the on the mirror or whatever, and it goes, God is watching God is watching this store. And so if you're thinking about stealing, it's a much better idea to pay our prices than to pay his. Oh. I don't I don't love that. And so I… It is funny, though. I mean, here's the thing. It's like, I I looked at it for a minute, and I I had, like, a a corner smile, and I thought, a better sign is God is watching this store. If you find something that you can't pay for, please let us know. Yes. Yeah. Mhmm. Please let us know. This is a mission store. We love it. Yeah. Yeah. Because everything

that you have here was donated to you for free. Yeah. Right. For free. You Fort Knox ed stuff that people dropped off out of their own good heart. Yeah. Yeah. Because they wanna support Bible Missions, which I think is fine. There's a couple of really good thrift stores, especially in in our Greater Des Moines area, that are that are… I I know exactly where the money's going. I know the guys that run it. And they got just really good hearts, really good intentions. Most of the money goes back into the community for counseling,

life skills, and Jesus based stuff, it's really impressive. Right? I would not doubt that if you earnestly walked into the store and said, Look, I just really need this suit. I have a job interview coming up. I am I am way excited about it. I don't have a suit, and I also don't have any money. They would give you the suit, the shoes, the socks, and probably $10 to go, you know, get yourself some lunch on the way in and say, best of luck. Let us know how it goes. Right? Like, bam, that's God's heart. So here's the thing. It's like, I recognize the sign is just kitschy. It's just a you know, whatever. And I thought, but like, I know Jesus and so it's kitschy to me. But if you don't know Jesus and you think that's how he looks at you, that's too bad. Right? That's… You really missed the mark there, you know? And there there was more than one of them. Oh, man. And so, like, once again, they didn't they didn't mean anything by it. They were just trying to cut down on theft. But like, at the end of the day, it was like that doormat thing that we thought of earlier. People gonna steal stuff from Christ centered thrift store? I don't care. Let's give it away. I don't care. They can't steal what you gave them. So if you need it, take it. Most… Your business will survive. The missions will survive

based on honest people paying you. But people that really need it, that can't afford it, that feel like they have to steal it… I mean, it'd be nice if you told me that you needed it, so we could at least market out inventory and be like, whatever. But whatever. Just take it. If you need it, take it. So we're thinking, like, ways to improve this sign. What would we say that would be less, I don't know, threatening of damnation? You know? Like, we need to pay the prices or go to hell. Which one's it gonna be? No. It's kinda like… Think it's not what the type of emissions we wanna be. Like, God is watching this store. If you feel like you need something that you can't pay for, please let us know. Yeah. I think that's the If you really can't pay for it, there's a very, very good chance we will just give it to you if you have the need for it. Yeah. And here's thing. Some people are gonna take advantage of that, and that's fine. Right? It's really not a big deal. It's… They're worldly goods. I don't care. I don't know what you think you're gonna get from the thrift store anyway that's gonna put the hurt on us. That's pretty low. Know? Take homeward bound VHSs out of… You know, you need a couple alarm clocks at your place or a or a crappy Mr. Coffee from 1984. Whatever. Have it. It's not a big deal. Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation, don't steal the Homeward Bound DVDs. Yeah. Don't steal the Homeward Bound DVDs.

Or or you'll burn it, or it's gonna be very bad. You know? Put them down. Good. Thank you. Thank you. That was exactly what we needed. Yeah. So anyway, as you… I mean, as you… Especially, like,

community facing stuff. Right? Like, just think it through a little bit. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, if you're… Here's the thing, is if your business succeeds but the mission that you're trying to ultimately communicate fails in the process, then your business sucks. You know, like… Right. If your if your whole goal of getting money is for bible distribution, but when you hand them out, you hit a guy in the face with it. Know what I'm saying? You missed it. You missed the heart and the thing. Like, point is not whether you got the Bible out the door, it's whether someone met Jesus through it or you got a chance to have a conversation about it and talk about who your savior is. Actually, that's funny because in most thrift stores, and even the ones that are tied to Christian organizations, they charge for the Bibles. And I

just feel there's no reason there shouldn't just be a stack there. The thing that I would hope they would walk out the most with is this Bible, except for they're worried about Joe Christian down the street who's gonna pick one up every week fresh for his protocols. Like… Mean, God knows that. That's not my problem. Right? I gotta deal with him. That's right. That's right. Actually, I remember that from… You remember some… During some of the Levitical laws and stuff, is they'll go through and there's like clear punishments for, you know, you steal a guy's ox if you did it accidentally or something. You think you gotta give a one and a half. But like, there's a few different things where it'll be like, look, the consequences this is is to turn them over to God.

Is to bring it in front of the… Is basically, you're gonna do it. There's a sacrifice involved, and then the consequences are up to God and what happens. And the notion was is that depending on whatever was going on, what could actually come from that, it was a wide variety of stuff but ultimately it was gods to handle. It's not a prescribed human thing to do. And like I think a lot of our attempts to curb human behavior, one, it's like asserts too much belief in our own control of that, one, that it's our thing to control. And I'm generally in on this anyway where a lot of the even the major things were like, boy, I don't know if you can be a Christian and believe, think or do this thing. Most of those I feel like are the Holy Spirit's… God is going to have to change that in somebody.

You saying, Hi, I'm a fairly pious looking dude and I think you should knock this thing off, isn't likely to just cause someone to modify their behavior or they're gonna try and not be able to succeed. But like those are certainly things that the Holy Spirit can transform in you. And so as people meet Jesus and they get closer to him and they start to see and feel his love tangibly through the people around them, like then the Holy Spirit's work just starts to make sense to people and they go, You know what, I would never have considered letting go of this thing but you know, if God is who he says he is and what he has for me is good and I've got supportive people around me, then I think I can give this thing up. I don't even know who I am without it but I think I can… I think that's right. And so like, it's just sometimes… I remember my grandpa

who was a pastor at Southern Baptist Church and he had like this strict no shorts rule. No, I mean, you could not come. Even the hip Wednesday night service, it went like hip because everyone had a fake one. But like you couldn't wear shorts and it was the time where either the word processes were new but there were still eight exclamation points about this no shorts business. And like for the life of me, even at that time, I just couldn't figure out. I'm like,

the Lord hates a breeze? What is the deal? Is the guy who this isn't a problem, who wouldn't even consider wearing shorts, the guy you're not worried about anyway. And like the kind of person who would just wander in there, maybe in shorts, is the person who doesn't know about your rules, doesn't know everybody, is not sure of the protocol, and doggone it if that's the person I want there. Like And it's a completely wrong person to try to exclude with a big sign at the front. And like, I'm so disappointed in the sign. And it's just a human's attempt to like to try to get the ends that God

has in order by human means. And that like it's why we end the show every week with be faithful in the means and let God handle the ends. Our faithfulness is gonna be your own faithfulness to things you know God said. It's not like God doesn't have things that he says, look, this is the right way to go and that you should always, you should submit to that. But like people who don't know Jesus and Lord aren't gonna submit to it. And so what do you do? You introduce them to Jesus. And like, but some of that stuff we just got to let go out of our own fingers and they're not ours to solve. Our big solve is to introduce people to Jesus and then let Jesus and the spirit do the work where humans kind of… We always get the balance wrong. We either way overdo it or go, yeah, you know what, you can be naked in the sanctuary, no problem. And David's like, hey. But like you're the only one example. So like all nudity is God honored just cause David ran once nude through the street. Nude. That's what I'm saying. There's whole colonies of Christian nudists who are like, David did it. I'm like, this is the foundation of your belief system, one thing. Right. I wanted to be naked. I found a religion that's gonna let me do it. This is fantastic. Right? Well, I I mean, the Greek circumcision discussions that Paul had, like, this covers this. Right? Like, can you imagine that it says, look, there's a holy God who loves you. Jesus died to redeem you. Come on in. You're 40 years old, and you're like, oh, man. I didn't do that thing. Right. Can I still? Can I come in your place? You know? And and their stance was, no. You're gonna have to have some alterations.

Yes. You know? And Paul goes, hold hold on. Hold on. Now listen. I talked with the Lord about this. We're gonna we're gonna make a thing, you know. And so, like, that's us. Once again, we we… You wanna cut and carve them and make them look like you and like, what do you mean you haven't heard a Hillsong? Get out of here. You know what saying? Like, that's that's what we do to people. Yeah. Or what you do mean you've listened to Hillsong? You dirty heretic? Yeah, exactly. What's the matter with you? Well, these these Hillsong discussions, I just find sad, really. Because, like, there's there's there's guys that are like, they're so enveloped in… Not to say that there's not some theological discussions to be had, but they are deep on upper echelons and like, most of them can't be heard within the the songs that really mean a lot to people. And frankly, there's some really good Hillsong songs out there that are simple, they're worshipful,

they're God honoring, they put they put humanity in humility, And, like, it's… They're really good songs. And we're like, one guy or two guys in the organization who are theologically out in the middle of Boston somewhere, and we're like, I hate everything that comes from these guys. Nothing can be trusted. Which is true of all the hymns written two hundred years ago too. I mean… Yeah. Right. Exactly. It is well with my soul. Right? I mean Yeah. You don't know anything about that, That's not in the Bible. That's right. Here's what you you'll just surprise you to know is Fanny Crosby was a Southern Baptist. She's a hell and damnation person. Like, she would come to your door. She's the type of person who would come to your door to pamphlet. And we love Fanny Crosby. She does the hits. But like, I'm just saying, like, right. Like, Dan's Dan's right. Like, if

if you can't… If we can't figure out a way to allow God to redeem things that even just have a rough association with some guy who doesn't believe the things that we believe, like, then I don't know what kind of God you're following. Like, that's just silly to me. I mean, be discerning. If someone goes, hey, here's my song about a number of heresies. Then I go, you know what? Not in the worship playlist. Not going to make it today. Right. But there's also, there's plenty of… Every hymn was written by a fallible human. Welcome to the world. Every person sits under a fallible pastor. Welcome to the world. My theology is wrong somewhere. I'm just not quite sure what it is at this moment. I'm sure like it's changed over the last ten years. It'll probably be able to be refined and sifted and peel out something better ten years from now. And so let's just all agree to that and be a little bit gracious with this kind of thing. That reminds me of actually of our conversation that we were having before the podcast started, right, about that, saying that I was kind of processing myself from that monk. We're all fallible, right? That is kind of the same point, like, these two dangerous ideas. One that I can never be saved, I'm permanently damned, there's nothing I can do. Fatalistic,

you know, this is the end for me, I'm doomed, etcetera. Satan is one, etcetera, etcetera. And then the other one is that I'm infallible. I'm already in a permanent state of grace. I've already been permanently… Like, there's nothing I can do wrong or something like this. It's really kind of an an arrogance that I think that Jesus teaches us… Warns us against. And

so, yeah, like, this is… We're all fallible. I mean, then we're gonna, like, come up with a sign to put, you know, in the thrift store or something like this. And it's not going to be a Bible verse. Well, we're already in some dicey water there. What are we all going to agree that belongs in the church but that's not in the Bible, specifically word for word? And I guess the best plan is to always be building consensus, you know, do what brings people together, what we can agree on the most, and those things which are divisive and nonspecific,

fringe to the topic at hand, not necessarily central to salvation, then, that's a choose your own flavor maybe sometimes that we don't need to drive people away because of the clothes they're wearing specifically or something. But at the end of the day, there have to be some things that we agree on that are the truth and that

are the way to salvation and that are what Jesus taught us to be like and wants us to be like. So you can't let anything go either. Yeah. I I think the liquid as it rolls up, answer to that piece is is far less about our personal behavior than we make it. I think is the risk of like of of our incidents… Incidental behavior, let me put it that way. Like the notion of don't do this or that thing at this moment.

It's basically the narrowing where God's salvation looks out at a humanity, at a broad arc of can I the core of Jesus' message and this comes out more clearly in I think Luke than some of the other Gospels is basically like what you need to join the kingdom? Well you need to say, look, I know that I need Jesus. That's it. Like that's the core thing. Like it's not a work, it's a recognition. It's an acknowledgement that says, look, I know that I need him and I recognize him as king and I submit my life to that. The fallibility of your inability to do that well and perfectly is the very notion of why Jesus came. And so let's not let's not act like we have a surprise. I think where Christians, when we start to get this askew is to want to want good for people which is to snuggle up and be faithful to some of those those firmer things that Jesus says, Look, is this is the way. This is the way in which we are to behave.

But but act like that that is a human work to do and not the spirit's work to do. Yeah. Because here's the thing, even even the the teaching of any given biblical truth still requires someone to actually submit to it, right? Like the notion of taking in a reality or even or a true thing or a fact, it doesn't implicitly change people's lives. I mean how many like take how much of the church especially guys in the church are struggling with pornography? You telling me that no one ever brought that up in a sermon anytime? What? It comes up all the time. This is not allowed. Right. It's like, oh, I took it in. My life totally changed. Like there's still a there's

a personal thing. There's a God working sanctification in a person. There's a humility that says I'm willing to be changed here and I'm willing to follow God here and not me. And so I think as we approach some of these things, we just need to be humble in our recognition that although we are often the bearers of example and the bearers of true things,

our ability to control anybody else's actions, belief structure and commitment to Jesus is basically nil. Like they're going to have to do that on their own and the Spirit will do that in them and so we don't have to take the level of responsibility we often take to say, you change this behavior or I'm going to have some sort of like human consequence to it. And you know, that's actually been tried. We were talking briefly about Calvinism,

Puritanism and stuff like that. There have Christian theological societies. And most of those places that I've read about do not sound like very fun places to live. Get in the stocks, get ready to get whipped or something like this. For me to be an American also, there's this whole other level to it where we have to get along with people of other religions and try and focus on finding a way to have a society that's as good as we can be without

pounding people over the head with the doctrinal specifics of what we think is going to happen in the eschatology at the end of the world or something like that. So I'm always looking for the good parts in other religions that I can find, wise sayings, wise things that people say that I can incorporate that I think maybe Jesus would like. At the end of the day, in the point of history that we're at, there were no video cameras in the Bible.

There weren't. So there's a lot of things that we can see on television, whether it's pornography or whether it's really just something that spiritually brings you to a lower level of whatever kind that might be. Like whatever Boob was watching with that second impression. Not to be too judgmental even in We other can vote. At the end of day,

will vote. We're in an area of new technology where the Bible is not going to have spoken on all of these things. We've got to fill in some blanks one way or the other, not just with people who we go to church with, but with people in our society to be the most positive force that we can be. If we say first, Okay, until we agree that we all need Jesus to be saved, then we're not going to vote in Congress on the bill about gun control or something like that, that's absurd. But

there weren't even guns in the Bible, were there? So last I checked… Yeah. That's right. Yeah. No no guns. Well, think that level… I mean, to to be honest, like, to to what Mike was saying earlier, like, the the scripture is intentionally vague. Right? Like, where Paul where Paul says, look, we're gonna speak on… Look, you can't you can't indulge in sexual activity and we're not worried about circumcision. I mean, past that, go about your business. And so I think

God has always, with the provision of the helper, with the provision of the Holy Spirit, I think we have to be open to how things are navigated and trust that God will come and provide answers where we're asking for them. And then recognize that sometimes, like, matters of conscience or wisdom can and will differ even between Christians. Like, again, for places where we need hard and fast, there's some people who can, not to overly weight into this, but like, I personally don't think there's a particular problem with tattoos. I don't think the way the Scripture talks about them is

an issue. Is it something where someone prays on it and like they might say, look, just feel like I'm not supposed to do this. I think that's very possible. And I think it's also very possible somebody else could and it could be fine. As long as we're clear that our interpretation of Scripture doesn't point us to that, but whatever your personal consciousness is, as long as it's within the bounds something that's not against something that Jesus has taught,

I'm not sure that I particularly care. Well, is also the case though, to add on to that, not to disagree with what you're saying, that we're up against actually an actual spiritual force that's opposed to Christianity, that's opposed to goodness, that is seeking to divide all of the people who are good hearted in the world and also push this agenda that anything goes as long as it's, you know, really, actually anything that you can get away with goes. This force is out there saying that… I mean, when it comes to tattoos, I'm also totally agnostic. I don't think the Bible has anything to say about it one way or the other. But there's a lot of things where the Bible wasn't clear about it, something like pornography,

where it says something specifically, but where there's this giant force in society pushing this agenda to make this thing normal, to make it accepted, when I think Christians should be able to agree that no…

No, agree. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Think we've got some… Where there's clarity, I don't see any reason why we can't get on board with clarity and speak to the truth to that clarity. I just don't… I think we gotta be careful that we don't become pharisaical in the shorts because… As an example, right? Like, we picked something three steps away just because we're worried about snuggling two of them being casual in the sanctuary. You know? So… And like, I… The freedom… I am always amazed at the continued freedom that God has given his creation, especially one that he said, You were to be my idol, my representative on the earth and to take care of it. I probably would have locked it down, the place a little bit more. But I think as humans, we've got to be careful to not

try to protect God farther than he has otherwise laid out in scripture to protect himself. Well, I I think you can probably gauge if you're in a place where you shouldn't be, when you can start comparing how much time you've spent actually praying on that on behalf of other people opposed to how much you've been running your yap. Right? And I I I think that's legit. Right? If you… If it's your axe to grind, you'll know it because you'll realize you didn't ask God about it. You didn't say, I can't do this without you. I I just real… I'm asking the Holy Spirit to get involved here and help change minds and give them ears to hear and let them see, you know, because I can't do it without you. And if you're not praying that, then it it probably is just your thing. Right? It's your thing that you're gassed up about and you're plowing ahead without them. And now, if it's equal or you feel like you've turned this over to God and he's got stuff for you to say, I think you should, by all means, do it. But, like, I would say nine out of 10, that's not the case. Yeah. You have not submitted it to the Holy Spirit. You're not asking God to to rule over his creation and change the lives of people. You're asking for you to be right and for somebody else to be wrong, and that's no that's no no good. Lacks humility. Alright. Hey. Again, you're listening live from The Path. Hey. If you wanna check out the show during the week, bless you, you can sign up for the podcast. And if you wanna leave us a leave us a review, it sounds like that's helpful. I've listened to other podcasts where they said you should leave us a review. That seems quasi legit, So I'm gonna say that because we might as well pick up those legit behaviors. So leave a review. And here's the thing, I don't care whether it's a good one. I just want you to be honest. So if the show stinks, you might as let the world know. They don't need to walk into a trap. We're gonna be here anyway. Second to that, you can catch up on the website, which I do not keep up to date with any frequency. Oh, no. I saw that. Yeah. Yeah. Again, the thirty minutes that I've been allocated doesn't get me around to reposting the video of the show as often as I can. You can always get it on YouTube at the Life on the Path YouTube channel and the podcast is generally up to date within a week mostly. The website is super duper dicey. I'd apologize for that but

I don't know why you're offended. Here's the deal. You want to keep that up to date, you let me know. I give you the password directly. You can go ahead and take care of that. Google Ads me. Pick up some dollars for the old show. Alright, Mike, we need to give out some advice before we head out of this joint. What's been stockpiling while we've been out of the tank? Oh, boy. There's a there's a ton of them. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure. Pick a few select ones. Yeah. Okay. Dear, life from the path. Dear, life from the path. My cohost is a rambling doofus. A co He often makes weird goofy noises when you say his name. Are you talking about Nathaniel or Oh. I don't know. Hey, Mike. Dear, Die From The Path. No. You didn't make that noise. A coworker moved into into my town about eighteen months ago. Because we have the same schedule, he asked for… He asked me for a ride to and from work one day. So did Well, now it seems that I drive him about three times a week. When he works and I'm off, he takes an Uber, which costs around $25 round trip, but he has never even offered to buy me a cup of coffee. I stopped by to buy gas one morning and mentioned I was only going to get $10 worth because it was all the cash I had. He didn't even blink. My daughter says I should charge him a weekly amount or quit taking him. What do you think? Change your ways or change your heart? You got two options there, bro. Yeah. Stupid. You're going anyway. Yeah. Yeah. What do you… I mean, you only got $10. That's not really his fault. Is he really weighing the joint now? What would Bob Gap say? You know? Yeah. Yeah. You have company on the ride. Yeah. That golf wouldn't put up a debt jazz. Yeah. He'd probably buy him a car. Hey, man.

Two cars. You'd give him his wife's car. And I got you a gift card for a free sandwich for the next month and a half. That's the kind of crap he does. Maybe… I would say, really, ask a hard question. This guy felt to me… If I felt like he was scamming me, if I felt that guy had his attitude was that he was scamming me and that he was playing some kind of

min max kind of get the most out of life for the least cost type of stuff. If I thought he was that type of person, I probably would stop driving him, you know, because… But that's because I don't like him, not because I'm not being generous or because I need the money or something. But if the guy could be oblivious, you know, really of asocial or improperly socialized… And then also,

Ori really could need the money and not be too ashamed to say it. So those are three different possibilities there. The way to get to the bottom of it would be, why not be direct? Why not be like, hey, if you're going be riding with me, could use some gas money. What do you think about that? He didn't even mention this type of… All this is still in the total subtext of this whole interaction. He says, floated to the surface. I used to give a guy a ride. We went to the same school, but we lived thirty minutes away. And

he he claimed to be a Native American, and he did not look like a Native American. I see. Looked he looked more Jewish than I do, and… Was just saying something. And he was very stinky.

Okay. He smelled terrible. Okay. He also used to be homeless. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. He was… He would… Before he moved to the town I was living in, he was living in the school parking lot in his car. Okay. And then he got a lady friend and moved in with her. Mhmm. In in my town. Is it a high school student? No. No. This is college. Okay. And so he's like, hey, man. We're living in the same town. I gotta take the bus if… But the bus is an hour late, so could I just… You give me a ride? And I said, sure. You know, no problem here. But I didn't realize how stinky he was. Oh, I see.

I didn't realize the scent of this man. And so, you know, I I… Afterwards, I came to a realization. I started buying those little Renewzit things. Oh, yeah, yeah. Know, the things that are supposed to refresh a whole room. I put one in the cup holder of the Buick. Wait, wait. Had he ridden in the car before you did that? No. Okay. Good. So he couldn't tie together the consequence of that Renews It was him? No. He… I think he knew. Oh, okay. I don't know. Okay. Anyways, we were short on… I was I was… I didn't have my wallet with me one day. Uh-huh. And we we were on e, like, low e, like, not gonna make it all the way to school e. Yeah. And I stopped by the Casey's, and I I was didn't realize I didn't have my wallet. I was like, oh, no. Don't have my wallet. Blah blah blah. And he had a tent spot on him. And I said, hey, man. You got a tent spot on you?

I didn't know that. But he says, well, you know, kinda who… I was like, listen. I'll get you back, but we're not gonna make it. And he forked over the tent spot, and he eventually, after much… I felt kinda, like, weird in my spirit

because I was like, I drive you to school every day. You're like, oh, can you get me that 10 spot back? But eventually, was like, oh, whatever. He said forget it. But I think I got it back to him. I don't remember the full story. But I can kinda see where this guy's coming from. You're helping a fella out. He's stinky. I don't know if he's stinky. Did he say that? He didn't say anything about the man having a funk to him. So it's a… But also, I regret it, And and I… You know, feeling that way about old Zachary. Well, the… I think the question is is it starts to draw a line between generosity and enabling. Right? Like, as long term…

First of all, we we generally try to live by the premise that they can't steal from you what you gave them. And so, like, we give the guy a ride. It's up to us. It's our… If if we decide that that is no longer the thing, you don't have to be upset about it. You don't have to be angry. You just go, look, man. I will be no longer giving you a ride. I'm sorry if that puts you in a predicament, but that's the And and you can keep emotion kinda kinda bait out. But on the on the second half of it, $25 for an Uber is ridiculous. Feel like I can up with a different… That is stiff. I mean, are you are are you…

It it starts to be a tough call. Right? Like, there's… I I think you have to put a bunch of thoughts together and decide why you're actually upset about this. Does it make sense that you're going… He's going to the same place, he's just sitting butt in the seat. Economically, does this bother you? No. That's stupid. You don't have any reason to be upset about that. If you use that morning time, that drive in, to, like, refresh, if it's a… You know, to try to prepare yourself for the day and what's coming ahead whatever, and you need that time. You either need to move that time to earlier in the morning, or you need to ask him to not ride with you, because it's it's impending. The fact that he is not finding his own ride to to work, not taking charge of his own life, I mean, you're not his dad. Just tell him the deal. Either he could ride with you or he can't. It's not… I don't think there's a big emotional decision to be had here. You can't accept consequences for the way that people live past the decisions they make. If he chooses not to get a car or he chooses to pay the $25 for an Uber, these are all his choices. You just need to make yours and and make sure your heart is in the right place when you make it. And that's pretty much the best you can do. Dan, did you ever get… You find yourself in a position where, like, you agreed to help somebody be… Somebody out, and then, like, it extended way farther or way beyond what you would expected and you had to kinda cut ties on it?

You know, I I can't think of a time that that is… I'm sure it may have but it didn't bother me enough that it stuck, you know, that I'm… I have have lost any sleep over it. Yeah. Because I love people unlike you guys. Ouch. Stabbed in the heart. Honestly though, this this dude, he's he's he's going to work every day anyway. I mean I mean, there's… He's losing nothing by taking him. Issue… What he spends on the days

that you don't go to work is irrelevant to the conversation. That's just a selfish Yeah. Right. It doesn't matter. On your part. Yep. I mean, it's none of my business how he gets there other days and what it costs him. If if I'm going to work anyway, it's like, yeah. Go ahead. Whatever. I mean, it does… It cost me nothing more unless he weighs a whole lot and he's slowing down the car or something. I don't see that happening. So I I just don't… You know? And and it's okay. I like like like I like I like what you said, Mike. I mean, like, it could be like, hey. That's just my kind of mellow out time. It's like, If that's legit. Yeah. Protect it and just be firm. Yeah. Regular, you know? But if you're just listening to tunes or news or staring out the window, picking your nose, and you're driving to work, I mean, it's like, just take the dude, you So the only thing I can have that I can relate to this is

I'm an electrician. Right? And so, like, I hate hate hate working for people that I know, especially if they're paying me. And so I don't. I just refuse to do it. I'm like, look, if I have time to do it, I will come over and do it for free. If I don't have time, I won't touch it at all. Right? But like, don't… I'm not gonna come work for you and you're gonna pay me. Right? And so, like, there… I mean, I do run into this situation where, like, I'll make time, I'll go over and do something, and then, like, I can't… They won't stop calling me. Hey, by the way, let's do… I wanna put this thing in, you know, you got any time? I'm like, I don't know. Seriously, we just… We gotta have this done. I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah, fine. And then I'll come over and do it again, and, like, after a while, I basically gotta shut it down, because they're completely oblivious to the fact that, like, once again, they're taking time away from my kids, like, and, I'm not gonna start charging you now. You know, I… The the thing was, is like, I wanna help you. I wanna do the thing. If I have time, I always say, like, I'm I'm forced to do my regular job for money. And so when I have free time, I get to decide what I wanna do with it. And I wanna help you with it. When I have time, that's what I wanna do with it. I don't want the money. I just wanna help. You know? But there are folks that are just seemed oblivious to the whole thing, you know? Like, the fact that they start, you know, taking advantage of you, and and if you're feeling that way, you're not in the right position to give the man a ride anyway. Right? Yeah. Like, if you if if you can get that straightened out and realize it is what it is, Dan laid it out perfectly. This is a very simple decision. If you're if you're in the right mind frame to do it, there's no reason for you not to do this. If you're not, then say no and do both of you guys a favor. Because you're just gonna get more and more angry, and that guy's gonna feel slighted at the end of the time, and you're gonna end up busting a relationship open for no reason. You could've just said no and done everybody a favor. Yeah. Okay. Secular says… Oh, the question was, my daughter says I should charge him a weekly amount or quit taking him. What do you think? I don't think those are the only two options. Secular says, shame on him. Feel free to tell your coworker that providing transportation on a regular basis three times a week is not a free service, and in the future, you expect compensation for your efforts. Frankly, he should have offered when it turned out he needed transportation so often. If he gives you an argument, quit allowing him to use you because that is exactly what he is doing. Yeah. I mean, here's… It goes back to that people

can't steal from you what you're giving away. People cannot take advantage of you if you are purposely giving them that advantage. And so if you say, hey man, I stopped three times… Of those three times a week, every other time I stop and I get coffee and and he… I buy one for him and he never pays for the gas. I'm like, well, you could if if your heart is in the right place and you want to be gracious about it, what a cool opportunity. Yeah man, I got the chance to take… Like I I get to take this guy, he doesn't have to pay the money and I'll buy him coffee and boy, I'm really glad to do it. That sounds like a mutually beneficial situation. He's only to… And even if his mind… Even in his own mind, he's like, totally taking advantage of this dude. And here's… It's it's just like you can't control, although I I don't advocate ever giving money to to the homeless, but like if you're going to give them anything, people can do nefarious stuff with all kinds of crap that you give with good intent. Mhmm. I I cannot be wholly responsible. You need to be wise but you're not wholly responsible just because someone can find some kind of nefarious way to handle a good a good attempt to to serve them. Okay? And so like,

they're… And sometimes people's motivations start out that way and then after six months, the guy goes, why isn't this guy bringing this up? You know, like it's it's… Even that might be something where like he just sees you smiling at him and never asking and he… And it just feels like something different and so like not only is it… I mean, it could be an opportunity but wouldn't I even have to think of it that way. Just say, look, if you're… If you can do it with a glad heart, then do it with a glad heart. And don't spend your time trying to balance the worldly scales. It's just not your problem. It's not… And it… I I think it like… We just have this this weight that says, oh, I have to figure out justice in here. No, you don't. If you… You don't. It's really not your problem. People set your own boundaries. You're, as an adult, have to… You're responsible for that. If someone's walking all over your boundaries and you're not standing up for yourself, well, yeah, that's kind of your problem that letting them give you, I guess. Yeah. But I guess my advocation here is you can either set a firmer boundary and make sure you talk to them about it, or you can just open up your borders a little bit more and not care. That's true. Good fences make good neighbors. This comes up over and over and over again in life, in my experience.

If you… If this boundary is this huge gray area, there's just a real tendency for people to walk across that boundary and then until they're, you know, turning you into your doormat one way or a problem if you care. See, that's why I don't think this this situation's got even any boundary issue. It's like you're already going to work. You're going at the same time. You're going to the same place. You're parking in the same parking spot. You're not adjusting your life in any way. You're just going to work, and now you have someone to talk to. It's a hypothetical extra $20 that it's not even yours, and it doesn't matter. Yeah. It's a banking $20 It's not real. Yeah. And on the percents basis, if your job's a decent job, then that's what? Point 05%

of your monthly income or something like this that we're talking about? Yeah. You're getting all hyped up over But once again, it's point nothing of nothing. It's a theoretical income. It's not… There's no income to be had. You're not a bus driver. You're a taxi man. You're just… People sign up tips, please. Now a guy wants to sit his butt in your car. Right? It's it's not your job. You don't take money for it. And so, like, the car's going the same way no matter what you do. Gas prices are gonna go up, gonna go down. You're gonna pay it. Yeah. So, I mean, end of the day, if your heart can't take that, if you can't do it without feeling like you might get ripped off or you want something from them, then I would suggest you not do it. But my stronger suggestion would be figure out a way not to care. Be glad to take him. Now if you're starting to say, hey, I gotta go in an hour early. I gotta stay an hour late. Hey, I gotta go make my dry. It's like, now got boundary issues. Yep. Or the guy's like, yeah, this dumb Christian, I can put one over on him, you know. He believes in Jesus, so he's gonna give me a bunch of free stuff. Man, that guy, you probably wanna… I might say… That's a bad spiritual I energy. Tell you what, if that came out that way, I would say, just to be super clear, dude, you're not putting one over on me. I'm glad to do this for you. I'll be there here tomorrow. I… Because I mean, what do I… That's the heart. That's the heart. Heart.

That's Right? I'm with you, Bob. Wherever you go, I'm with you. Yeah. That's right. That's the end. That's right. Except for your dry cleaning. You're not It's too far. Is too far. Wait. Who dry cleans? You're not giving me the ride to work. Wait. You're not… I'm not driving you to work. You're driving me to work. This is this is your car. I just pay the insurance and keep it like actually a liability issue too. You know? Some people… If there's even a fender bender, they'll sue the living daylights out of you. You know? So that's the… That's something I didn't even think of until just now. Unreasonably. Yeah. Let's let that go. It's so small. It's so small. I think it's fine. I think give the guy a ride. Yep. Got one more. Ready? Yep. Dear life from the path. My husband of thirty four years has really bad table manners. Mhmm. He smacks when he chews, makes gulping noises when he drinks liquids, and stuffs huge amounts of food in his mouth. He once swallowed a whole hard boiled egg all at once and almost choked. It's this a woman named Cheryl?

Gross. His pajama pants don't fit him. Wear his sweatpants. And it's hard to take in. I love him, but his lack of manners is embarrassing, especially when we are invited out or over at a friend's house. What could I do? What? How long have you been married? Thirty four Thirty four years.

Look, man. Now she's now she's really had enough. He's way past to give him a crap. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You should've really beat him down when he was, like, 25. Oh my god. I don't know. I don't know what you're gonna do with this. What does she mean? Like, is there a class you can say? No chewing. Just… Put it straight in. Right down the gun. Like, put a good… Set a microphone next to him. Just his jaw. Listen to yourself. That's true. It's like watching a bow constrictor on National Geographic. Eating a bison with this guy. He just drops his jaw down and in goes the egg. I… Okay. Here's the thing.

I I think your… First of all, he has obviously has no notion of being self aware. Guilt is not gonna change anything here because he doesn't recognize the problem. He's not gonna come to it on his own. I cannot imagine that in thirty four years, this conversation has not come up Right. Once. Surely, he's aware of that you don't appreciate his behavior. And for some reason or other, he does not care. Yeah. So let's say your boundaries. Then say, okay, if you… Like, until something changes, then you eat in here, I eat in there. Everything else is fine in the marriage, but this whole listening to you eat thing, can't handle, so I'm gonna be eating in a different room until you withdraw. You you could do that or you withdraw yourself from the situation. Make a boundary where there wasn't one before until someone changes their ways and, you know, realizes how they're having an effect in your life. We could put a mirror in the chair across from him, make him eat with himself. Maybe he's comfortable with it. What do you do for somebody that don't take the world in right?

What was I saying before about my German friend, totally take the other person in the relationship into 100% consideration. And he's not doing that. He's noticing his effect he's having on other people. And if he were asked in a kind way, would he change? Maybe not. And that is indicative to me of

larger, deeper issue. Yeah. Not gonna divorce. And she really holds dear the time that they spend together during the meals. Now what? Now what do we do? Is there a class you could… You go to? Like, where do you… I mean, where do you even learn that stuff? You eat at a… I did not eat like a caveman. Community college. Look at everybody else and go, I think I'm different. Here's here's what I'm gonna tell you. You do eat in at Popeyes. No one else eats in at Popeyes. Then it's… Then you won't expose him to everyone else. Hair. That's

the only plan. Consistently eat. Or Baker's Square. I don't think anybody goes to Baker's Square. Oh. You can go to Long John's. Oh, no. See, here's the thing. It's not like… I'm I'm a bit on defense of this because I hate ultimatums. But like, I also… I think it's not on… It's not on… It's not wrong to be like, hey, man. Seriously, we've talked about this and I find it embarrassing. And so no, I don't… We're gonna eat in. We have to order in. We're not going out. Like, I just… I can't do it. And, like, I I really… That's true. I don't appreciate that you that you aren't even trying for me. Mhmm. Yes. You married the man. You're gonna have to deal with his crappy eating habits at home. There's nothing you can do. Now you can try to stifle your embarrassment going out and about. And you could tell him so. Like, look, man. I'm just… I'm not gonna go out with you acting like this. I have to put up with this at the house of you scratching, farting, and then eating like a complete hoodlum. But when we go out, I expect the rules to change a little bit and for you to behave yourself. And if you're not even willing to do that, then I guess we're not going out. We're not going out. Here here's what I think. I I think this is this woman's pride issue. If they're out, let's say they're out with some friends, everybody knows who Chuck is. Right? Everybody knows Chuck's a slob. Yeah. Yeah. And nobody's thinking, oh, it's Sally's fault. Right. They're just thinking Chuck's a slob. Right. I mean, that's just what it is.

And so she needs to get over herself and just realize, guess what? I married a slob. I mean, you can have the conversation, try to improve. But if he doesn't want to, after thirty four years, he doesn't want to. He's not willing. It's not important to him. And it doesn't reflect poorly on you. And that's too bad. I mean, it's poor on him, but it's not my issue, you know, if I'm Sally. Right. And

I say that with a little context of I love my wife dearly. Right? She chomps her gums so loud. I mean I mean loud. I mean, loud. Loud. Loud. I mean, if she were here downstairs four

hallways down, I would hear It's peaking the d b's. You can pick it up. And she has a habit every single night at a certain time, she'll get the gum out. And I see her walking, Oh, man. You could get a footsteps down the hall. And I said it a few times, man, you… Can you really… Like, can you tone? I said, oh, my mom tried to get me to do this. I mean, like, it's like… I mean, she just does. And and my my daughter is in dental school. She's like, I can fix that someday. And I'll text her, can you fix your mom, please? It is… Pull something…. About the gum chewing. Every night at a certain time, pulls out the gum, and it is literally like chalkboard fingernails. Every every… And I will sit there. I'll put my finger over my ear, hoping that can kinda at least definite, you know, a little But I've decided at a certain point, I'm just not every night. That's not the battle I'm gonna die on. It's like I love my wife and she's over there just enjoying that gummy. Just have a big league chew. Oh, please. And you know what? I I just suck it up. I just suck it up because I'm just not willing to ruin a relationship over gum. Yeah. You know?

And What about what she knows. She knows. What if it was a whole egg, Dan? If it was a whole egg Eight thirty every night, your wife whole eggs. I wouldn't look and I wouldn't know. Yeah. She purposely comes in and goes, hey, Dan. I mean… This guy is a character. Now, she knows her gum limitations enough that in public, she doesn't chew much because she knows she'll just start chomping. She just she just… It just does. Right? And and so at least I'm not embarrassed. I don't know what I would do if she went out in public all the time and we'd be… She'd be, know, I'm with Dan.

That's true. Here's the thing. Let's say that you're dating Teen Wolf. You you make sure that you're back home before the moon come out. There you go. That's the thing. You know Teen Wolf is gonna… He can't… He just… He's gonna wolf it up. My wife pulls out the gun, oh, look. We gotta go. 11:30, you go. Come on. We gotta go. It's home time. I think I think this man is Team Wolf. Right? You don't let him out in public if you don't have to. If someone happens to catch you wolfing out, you go, yeah, he does that. Right. I think I think Dan's point is a super salient one, is that at thirty four years yeah. It's it's your pride, no one is blaming you. Everyone… Dan's right. Everyone goes, not Chuck and not Chuck and Nancy are gross. Nancy can join in with the friends and everyone agrees that Chuck is gross. Yes. And Chuck's okay with being gross, so whatever. Yeah. And here's the deal, you've you've found a friend for life. Alright? You you married to Chuck, you're gonna be with Chuck forever, and so it's not like you're on the hunt for someone else who is… You're gonna pull it off because Chuck's gross. And so, like, your bed has been made, Figure out the most comfortable way to sleep in it and and move on with your life. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. You're making this too big. Okay.

Wait. Hold on. Just to refresh my memory. What was the other example beside that whole egg? What was what was the other stuff? He smacks when he chews, makes gulping noises when he drinks liquids, and stuffs huge amounts his mouth at once. He's the ghost of Christmas presents. This guy… Something traumatic happened to this man when he was in junior high. Come in, man, and know me better. Holy

cow. Okay. Segular says, have you talked to him about this? No. No. If you have, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Oh, hand him a mirror or record a video of him eating so he can see for himself how unappealing he looks when he does this. If that doesn't persuade him to slow down and take smaller bites, consider putting less food on his plate before serving it. Yes. That's gonna work. Yeah. And this gonna…… And go, we're out of food. I can't guarantee this will work, but it's worth a try. PS, a whole egg? Ouch.

Now hold on. Did he did he not peel it? He once swallowed a whole hard boiled egg all at once and almost choked. Does that mean he didn't take the shell off? I think he took the shell off. Yeah. Had to have taken the shell off. Yeah. That's ridiculous. You could say that. He doesn't take the shell off the eggs and eats them would be just the thing you say. You know? Yeah. Yeah. That's true. He eats eggshells, like, with the egg. Now that would be a whole new issue. Yeah. Then we're in a different level. It's like not taking the skin off a kiwi. What? You de skin a kiwi? Similar. No. I don't have time for that. I eat I eat the skin, but every time I do it, people go, you're yucky. Do you eat those sunflower seeds whole, do you break the shell out? I break… I can't do it. Oh, you guys are getting married. There's something… Before you before you get married, you should have this discussion, I guess. I would also say it to the young couples out there. There is… We should put together a small questionnaire of stuff that you didn't think about. From our years of giving out marital advice over the show, we should say, look. These are the five things you need to consider. You ever watch out, you eat eggs. Oh, yeah. The Path Advice book. Yeah. Life from the Path marriage advice.

That would… Yeah. Okay. This is an idea. That's a hot seller. Yeah. Yeah. Business idea. Sorry, Jeff. If we needed another way to lose money, this is definitely We haven't lost money for a while. That's true. That's true. Actually, this was the first year that that anything paid for itself. No. No kidding. Yeah. The show the show was net net neutral this year. How did that happen? I did some side work on podcast, whatever, helping people with podcast. The show didn't make any No. No. We don't make any money and then used it. I paid for the website. Yeah. Yeah. We're good. Yeah. Anyway, net neutral this year, boys. Alright.

Well well, last year. We're behind, I guess, already this year. Yeah. Well, we only do a show once every month and a half. Yeah. Whatever. That shouldn't even cost us. We should be sailing… Dan's running the lights in here anyway. Hey. You're listening to Live From The Path. I thank you guys for hanging out. It's good to be back in the studio. It's hot as all business in here, but you don't know that. I'm just sharing what it's like to be me. I had a meeting earlier. I turned the heat up, I forgot to turn it back down. Well, you're trying to you're trying to put the screws to somebody, Dan? Like, you turn the heat up and you put them in a chair and stuff? No. It's because it was cold down there. Thought, oh, they probably wanna be more comfortable. That's far less exciting. Yeah. I proposed something a lot more like… Did you bring the NIV translation in here? Did you? I smelled it. Is that gender neutral language? Anyway, if you got some complaints about the show, that seems totally right. Give us a call or a text, (515) 517-0085. You can leave your impression. And if you hate the show and wanna tell us that in an impression, I think that's double cool. So feel free to do that. Anyway, we we may or may not be here next week. I I I like to think that we have good plans, but I I like the gray area. Yeah. Let's leave it open ended. We might give you ride to work or show up for a show next week. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will hand to the ends. You've been listening to Live From The Path.