Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper. You are live from the path. No. We're gonna use them. I'm still gonna I'm gonna do good. Mike, you can't sorry. Yeah. You're listening live from the past. Mike, stop talking. I'm talking to Phil right now. We're trying to run a program around here. Every time we get on the air, you're like, I'm Ben. I want to. Me and Phil, we're having legit real life conversation. Iron sharps are.

Not pizza now. Okay. Here's what I'm saying. We we got we got a we got a big show. We got a bunch of stuff to get in today. We don't have 10 time for your riff raff. Really big show. Okay. You're listening live from the path. This this is the you can bail right now. This is the time. You're, thirty seconds in. If you wanna bail, I've given you the opportunity. Everything past this is your own your own fault. K? Here we go. One on the show. First of all, Philip Ramsey. So we talked to Philip two years ago, maybe. It seems about that. It's it's been a bit Too long. So he's he's got he's here to talk about the uncommon. The uncommon. And it's like he's gonna explain it better than me, but it's like, it's a it's an intentional focused set of experiences and and community and accountability for people. I I think looking to get do be more, do more, have more something. Okay.

Wait a minute. Do you also have a, like, a monthly subscription box? For what? For the uncommon. Like, I give $20 a month, will you send me a box of, like, an axe or some kind of money? I could figure it out. We don't at this point, but we do have That would be awesome. It's not a mail order bespoke catalog. That sounds very much awesome like that. You know I mean? Well, I I think it's pretty awesome. See, that's what I'm saying. A monthly thing that shows up from the uncommon that says, look, man, this this is how you were meant to live. Mystery uncommon. Yes. That's what I'm talking about. Okay. Taking all suggestions. Okay. Okay. The ax for sure though. All right. So we're going to do, we're going to talk about that. Second of all, I heard something. I was randomly scrolling the Facebook and that was a mistake. However, bark Driscoll of all people shows up in my Facebook feed and I'll be doggone. If he does said something wise spot on and after me this week. And so I'm going to share that with you and I haven't been able to give it up. Now I'm going tell you fellows. You're going to like this. You're going to hate it and you're going to like it. I'm going to hate it because it's right on and I'm going like it. Am I going to find it suspicious because of the source? No, no, no. I think he's clean. I think, I think this particular action he's on. Yeah. It's a legit reference. Okay. I love it. Okay. We're gonna talk about that. We're also gonna talk about like, what do you want at a, what do you should be looking for in a church?

Oh, like, what does God say you should be looking for in church? That's the question is that like, because there's a lot of, there's a lot of churches out there. There's a lot of things that they offer. The question is, is it like, if you're trying to level the field and shake it all out, the question is like, what are you looking for? We keep an eye out for those. Holy spirit get a vote. I think tambourines have to rank pretty high. Okay. All right. Dan's dense seed in the pot with the Tambo. Okay. We're going to talk about that. Also there was most recently recently in Iowa, there was a a bill that passed that allowed funding to, traditionally goes to the public school system to cover students,

whether they're going there or not. So as an example, I've got kids who are homeschooled, our home district would be Southeast Polk. And so money goes there for my kids, even though my kids don't attend. So if you, but you, but this bill allows you to say, take it's not all of it, but it's most of it. If your kid wants to go to a private school, can you take those funds, put them in an account so that you can pay for the private schooling so that the parents have choice of winners and their kids question is, is like, mean, there's, there's, there's pros and cons from a political process. I think we want to talk about like, what should, how should we think about what it means for these type one, for these types of choices? Cause a lot, frankly, a lot of places could be diverted to say religious schools as an example. But also what does that, how do we think about what it is to impact or support the community,

regardless of whether your kids are in those particular institutions or not? And so just we'll round out to that. There's something else. Mike? No, I didn't have nothing. That's a lot of topics. Okay. We gotta move. Okay. That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna head for that. We'll, we'll see if we get to some advice on dear life in the path, at least one. Okay. All right. That's the goal. All right. So let's Philip, let's start with you. Yeah. Thanks. So we previously we talked to you. Philip is a financial advisor, but he's a, they're different kind of financial advisor. As a matter of fact, him and his partner, Brian run the uncommon wealth partners.

And, and the, the last time he was in here, I think it was super helpful because one of the things, a key takeaways was we're missing out on life if we're simply living it to try to get to retirement. So as opposed to looking at like, how do we live? I hate to steal a jewel old steam, but, like, how do you live the best life now? How do you like, are we trying to find as opposed to just say I feel gross. Know. Way to set me up. This feels really good, by the way. Philip loves that healthy, wealthy and wise.

Phillips slash Joel says, anyway, like I, it's, it's a super helpful way of thinking because it doesn't say like defer your life until frankly your bones start to give out, but you finally got enough money to go do something. And like basically how do you craft a life of which you get to live what you were made to be, as early as possible and like, you know, find your passion, find, see if you can structure your life in such a way that you could do that. So it doesn't feel like you're working. And then frankly, you're not running as hard for retirement because you don't want to retire. You like what you do. And so, that's an interesting conversation. You can totally go back, on the podcast to just search from Philip.

There's only been one on. I'm sure you'll pull them up in the podcast app. Disappointing. There's only one, but I it's only one so far. This will be number two, but they were mustachioed and very devious. Yeah. Yeah. We kept them off. There's no taxes talking there. So I don't get all that. But but now, like, you're kind of ex, I call it kind of an expansion of the thought where that is kind of, at least in some ways proof, like focused on how you think about, wealth planning to support that kind of thing. Now we're talking about something called the uncommon, which I think it takes that thought and blows expands it. So, why don't you just share a little bit about what you're, what you're thinking about or the value of something like the uncommon? Yeah. All right. So great setup minus the Joel sting. I, but we're going to have to pull out of the trash here.

Uncommon Wealth Partners, I felt like God really laid that on my heart. I never talked to a good advisor to actually help me with money. We're always just trying to take my money, put it into an account, leave me where I was at. And I just thought, man, it just doesn't feel right. So I was like, how can we make this a better deal? How can we make it something of like, how has God uniquely gifted you? How can you use your giftings and steward them well, to be able to pour into a way that you're uniquely gifted and get you to get excited about your life again. Oh, let's use your money to do that. And so Uncommon Wealth Partners was born about ten years ago. The brand, we really kind of got off about five years ago. But let's be honest, like financial perspective is only one part of people's lives. Yeah. There's so many other parts. And if I'm being honest, I get way more excited about the other parts.

Financial is fun because I love people. I don't really love finances. There's a news flash. There's uncommon wealth. But I do love where people are getting excited about what they want to do in the next day. I'm all about that. So what we've found is the uncommon is kind of a way for us to pour into other people in such a way to be like authentic, give people the accountability that they might need, and just honestly have an open dialogue of the responsibilities that we have in our day to day life, which honestly, we're all fathers here. Nathan, are you father? Of three. Okay, yeah, so he knows. But we just have responsibilities and they just keep piling up and there's never really a good place to be authentic and be like, you know what? This responsibility one has might been waned or I haven't put a lot of focus on that. And so I really need some help with this. Give me some authentic community and accountability to help us with that. So that's where The Uncommon was born. I feel like one of my unique giftings, if I'm gonna use my own advice on Uncommon Wealth Partners, is to

exceed people's expectation and give them an experience that helps them open up and be real with where they're at. And so the Uncommon started because I was like, I don't want it to be a different brand than Uncommon Wealth because I do have to be a good steward of people's money, and there's times where they give us all of their money. This is all my family's money be a good steward. And so if I'm like, and I'm gonna go over here and do this, I didn't want them to be scared because honestly, this is how I'm uniquely gifted and people understand like, Oh, sounds like Philip would do this. So The Uncommon was born and what we try to do is just give people experiences. Right now it's just guys, but eventually I'd like to have it where women can do it, where we give authentic community as well as accountability just to pour in. So we have six pillars. The radical relationships and all of these like my co owner or co founder Ryan Garvey loves these. I don't love them, but here they are. Radical relationships,

worthwhile work, there's another pillar, holistic health, stellar stewardship, victorious vision, and fervent faith. So relationships, tell me how you and your wife are. Like, are you guys alright? And usually whenever I meet with guys, that's what I'll start with. What? Did you wake up me when you Mike, you good? How are you and your wife, man? You are exceeding my expectations right now. Let's be honest about it. So just having an opportunity just to be able to talk about that is one, helpful. Two, how's your parenting? Right? Let's just talk about it. It's not easy. And as we all know, I feel like we're faking it till we make it. That's basically what my parenting can be tied up in a nutshell. And then friendships.

Do you have good people that you can just go to if you're having a tough time? So that's relationships worthwhile work. Just thinking about what you get to do in the morning. Does it give you life? And do you feel like God is honoring that and what you're doing? If not, let's talk about it. And that's another place where Uncommon Wealth Partners could maybe help a little bit more in that regard. Yep. Holistic health, thinking about not only your physical health, but mental health and your emotional health. That's that pillar. Do you feel like just real quick on that one? Do you feel like that is something that are two aware of and don't know how to talk about or like want to talk about and don't feel like they have an avenue to do it? Like what's been your experience in that? Yeah. I think both. I can see both. But it's one of those things like you'll get them to talk if you can just, Hey, here's the topic. Let's talk through this.

EQ or emotional intelligence. Let's take a survey and just talk through. Where do you think you're at? How do you think you're doing? What would your wife say that you are? Questions like that. Yep. Gotcha. Okay. So that's health. Stewardship. Think about your times, talents and resources and being able to pour into those things. Vision, like where do you feel like you are taking and leading your family? And how can I hold you accountable to that? That's one. Then faith. Where does faith come into where you're going? Obviously, it correlates with everything. But there's a lot of different platforms that are helping dads, front row dads, dad edge. Not a lot of them are talking about your faith, which I think is a huge importance.

And so this the in common we thought what better way to do this than have an experience where we get guys together. We have one coming up in February, February ninth and eleventh. And we're taking up to Minneapolis. When's this thing air? We know. Yeah, it'd be tomorrow. Okay, good. So we got time. Yeah. So we have five of us are going up there and we have some really amazing curated events to be able to articulate some of this stuff. We're calling it fire and ice. So I would love to go in through all of those things. I won't do it because no one knows what we're actually doing. Should say that the guys don't know what they're doing. Like a monthly subscription box. Kind of like a monthly subscription box. But what I'll say is I have called each one of these people's spouses and made sure that they are excited about what they're going to do because they don't know. They just paid the money. But I will say what we've done in the past. So we've done curling like

ice curling. Okay. I have a question about that because I watched it on the Olympics and I said, those guys are I could do that. Yes. I could totally. Am I right? Like, is it much harder than it looks? So much harder. Way more fun. Because watching it, you're like, how much am I doing? But yelling at your friends, you know, to do things Sweet more. Right. We've done a high ropes course with rucksacks of 30 pounds on, which was so symbolic of like our life because at some point, like we have to have a heavy backpack. And there's times where you just can't do the vent because you're like, I can't do it. Here's my backpack. Help me out. So that really stirred a lot of great conversation and great teamwork. How high are we talking? We were at 30 feet. So death. That's a death height. Yeah. That it got dicey. Yeah. Yeah. One person that went down and like, at one point, he was just resident, like, completely sprawled out, like, screaming. And we're like, well, what do we do here? You know, like, didn't plan for this. We didn't plan for this, but there's always something the Holy Spirit does. And so

just really cool things that guys would always wanna do. We threw boomerangs. I mean, when's the last time you threw a bang boomerang? Yeah. And didn't feel silly when you smiled. And you're like Right. This is awesome. Talking my love language. Yeah. We've done that. We went go karting. Just really cool things that, like, you probably wouldn't do if you're just like, hey. Honey, I'm I'm gonna go take out on the guy's day. It would be hard to explain. Right. Yeah. Woman, I'm gonna drop $70 on boomerangs. I'll be back later. Right. You watch the kids. Right. Right. But when you get an opportunity to be able to talk through this and like, well, what does that mean to your life? And how are we gonna you know, how is this practically going to change our life and how are going to hold each other accountable to become better? That's where the uncommon was kind of born. So yeah, we have this event coming up. I can't wait. We're going to do some amazing things that you would never think in your day to day like, wait, I'm gonna do what? Yeah. And all the wives that know about it are like, when do I get to do something like this? So Mhmm. This does sound awesome. Right. So before they get there, last thing I'll say, I've sent them all a journal that has five different questions that correlate with each one of the things we're gonna do, which is gonna be able to answer the questions. And then as we go through the experience, better go back and be like, let's talk about the people that you sacrifice in your life daily.

Like, kind of things do you sacrifice? Things like I think Christ did all the time, which we can look back and see that now. But in the moment, don't see what he's actually doing. So kind of more thoughtful intentional things that we gotta do that pull out. Think something that as a guy I just need something to be doing and in that I get to be in the trenches with people and then like, you know what? Here's let me tell you what's really going on in my work or here's what's going on my marriage or here's the thing I'd like to be held accountable to become a better man than I thought I was yesterday. Yeah. There you go boys. So,

just based upon that, you're saying, boy, this is fantastic. I want to learn more here. I'm going to give you a quick tip and you can bail now. You want to, go to the uncommon.com. That's the uncommon.com. You can learn more about what they're doing. There's a link. They've got podcasts. I listened, I listened to a couple on the way in. Okay. Mike checked them out. Yeah, they were good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, and, and like, they kind of walked through some of the pillars and talk about personal experiences related to those also both Philip and, and Ryan Garvey have shared their kind of their, their faith background within that podcast list. So like, go, go check that out. You can just search for the uncommon as two Es and, and go, go look at that. And then if you you're interested, because I think one of the things that's compelling

is that like, especially for, for responsible, like fellas who, who, or just want to do the right thing. It is sometimes hard to pull out of the, of what the day to day right thing is. Like, so, so if you think like, I mean, who hasn't worked a job where you're like, boy, I don't love this job, but I want to take care of my family. Yeah. Well, you might what was that what was that from the with the Gru? The Despicable Me. Despicable Me. Remember that that villain? And he's like, his name was Victor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like magnitude and direction. Yeah. Response.

I would say the story of most responsible, God fearing, good dads, good good husbands I know, they they'll rock the magnitude. Mhmm. They struggle in the direction. Yes. Right? They're just feel like they're cleaning up as much as they can, holding up as much as they can, patching and fixing what they can. And so, like, one of the things I was gonna say is, like, just based on the things like, when when we talk about, like, pillars and, like, attitudes and, like, disciplines,

things that we wanna think about, these are all things that flat just patently scare me. I'm like, yeah. Okay. Well, it sounds like you put a lot thought in this thing. You know what I'm saying? Like, because the truth of matter is I can't I don't I don't subdivide my life that way. Don't think about it that way. And some of that is is like leads to a lack of direction. Yeah. Right? Like, it just means that, like, you're just moving and picking and going, hey, man. I'll just I'll do the best I can. We'll put on a fire over here. Like, my job has to have you know what I'm saying? Like, you just you get torn up and you intend to do great things. But, like, honestly, it's your life living you, not the other way around. There's an intentionality to And so, like like, if I can just talk to the to the the Luddite mic type fellas out there, listen. These like like, people people dividing things up into disciplines and pointing you in a direction, like, you're gonna you're gonna rail against wanting to be a part of this thing because you're like, I got this on my own. I'll read Romans again. Like and you can. Right? There's nothing unholy about reading Romans again. But, like, take some direction, take some community from people around you, some people that, like, God is gifted to think about this in a way that maybe you're not gifted in. Yeah. Right? Like, I like, I need lead into things like this. I wouldn't do them on my own. Right. You know? And so, like, I I would really recommend that you give it that you go give it a look and and have it a listen. Let me let me do this because no none of the guys that are going on this trip are probably gonna listen to it or I'm not gonna broadcast this thing yet. So here's the deal. Let me tell you. So the first night we're gonna go, drive up to Minneapolis. We have some fun things that we're gonna talk through before that in the car right up, so it's intentional.

But we're gonna go glassblowing. And we're talking about how has God shaped you in a trial? Great. That's just a fun question to ask. But then going in and then refining glass in such a way where at the end of it, the guys will be able to bring a paperweight or something. They get sent to them. But a reminder, we're all being shaped. And honestly, the harder experience has probably shaped us better than our great experience. That's right. Yeah. So that's the first night. The second morning we get up and we're doing a fire and ice. We're doing a sauna and then an ice plunge. Beforehand, we're gonna talk about who do you sacrifice for or who would you sacrifice everything for like Jesus would. Yeah. And what we're gonna do is kind of get a mindset of like, hey, let's just pretend

that your kids or family were whoever you wrote down were kidnapped. And all you have to do is sit in that tub of ice for five minutes. Like, we're gonna all do that. Right? Like Yeah. And we're gonna remember the sacrifice that one, we're gonna do this. It's gonna be a dumb mindset thing, but it's also gonna be reminding of the things that we gotta do every day and sacrifice like Jesus did. So pretty sweet. Also, too, what an experience to go into a trial that's like, I don't I'm super nervous about it, guys, and I'm doing it all. Like, I'm jumping in there. It's gonna be nasty. Yeah. But anyway, so that then after dinner or after lunch, we're gonna go dog sledding. Oh, nice. And we're talking about, like, who's in your pack? Which way are they going? We all have personalities. We get to talk about the dogs. Some of them wanna be leading, but they're not leading yet, or they screwed up and they're in the back of the pack, or are we pulling in the right direction? And who are you pulling it with? Yeah. And then that evening, we go out to eat at this really nice restaurant, paid way too much for it. And then we get a, end in an igloo eating desserts and kind of having some some talks and kind of I knew I knew Minnesota was holding tight on an igloo somewhere. Yeah. I knew it. Yeah. Knew it. Yep. So things that you probably wouldn't be planning by yourself, but in this, that's the kind of experiences we wanna provide is something that's gonna change and remember

for you to catapult your kind of relationship, one, with Jesus and those around you and yourself to the next level. So That sounds very cool. There you go. Now what is it? So let's say what's the idea that people come through and they they have these experiences and probably some good moments? Is it just kick them out to Volkswagen and say, Good luck, friend? Yeah. No. We have weekly calls that we'll go through, and then every month we go through a different pillar. So this one is your health. Next one's gonna be relationships because it's around the old, Valentine's Day. And

then we've already talked about being a good steward vision. We did it in November. Being a good steward was December and then health was January. And we just got done with EQ. That's why I took this big long quiz. And then at the end, we just shared of like, what did you learn from taking this, you know, EQ quiz? Yeah. And then next month is relationships talking about, you know, your spouse, kids, friends, and just kind of making sure it bubbles up to the surface. But for me, I just need reminded, hey, this is actually kind of important, Philip. And I need to be surrounded with some people who have taken me to the next level to encourage me to be like, oh, yeah, that's actually really good. Right. I need to do that for my wife or, you know, so Yep. Yeah. I think I think that that brings a lot of there's lot of wisdom in it. Right? Once again, like I said, I think most even the best of the dudes that I know, right, like, they're great at magnitude

and they struggle with direction. Like because they do like, they remember that, like, maybe they haven't been pouring into their wife as much as they should have after they had to have a big fight about it. You know? After they didn't they misunderstood what was actually going on in their house and how she was feeling. You know? And so, like, that stuff I mean, it's not all completely avoidable, but, like, intention goes a long way. We can find a lot of ways to to recenter our heart, not drift, you know, some direction. So it all sounds very cool. Yeah. So I appreciate that. And and Ryan has done a great job of giving tools and, like, the community some tools to be able to do. He and he just took his wife on kind of vision casting weekend where he asked her all these questions. I think there was, like, 55 questions that he asked her before they went. And then they got to go on this little weekend getaway to Kansas City and talk about, okay, what are the fun things we did last year that we want to do again this year? Yeah. So like things like this. So like hopefully not getting out of the doghouse, but keeping things on the top of your mind. Then you can pour out to the people around you. That's what the community's for. Speaker Yeah. My wife and I did kind of something like that a few years ago when our youngest moved out, you know, it was like, we're officially empty nesters type thing. And I thought, okay, we were both kind of bummed, you know, like his a whole new, like, you don't, you don't plan for that. You plan for having kids and stuff when you're young and all of a sudden you plan for it, but mentally

you don't. You don't. Lay as old people stuff, you know? And so, so I thought, okay, she's going be in a bad, bad spot. So we just went back to Duluth. Smart. Where are we? And we had, we spent a weekend and we just made it. What's our next five years? You know, we sat there and had a lot of those conversations. It was so cool. Cause we still have a little book. Printed up, you know, we look at it once in a while and we look at how much we've done already. It was made the transition so much better than we were just sitting around moping for six months. That's great. You know, we suddenly had new, new vision, new life, new reason, and it was really, I don't know why, how I did it. I just did it. It was just some one moment popped in my head. Hey, we're going to the loop. It's encouraging.

We're taking the dog. It's funny how like small moments of intention can carry for so long. It does. It does. It doesn't, it just doesn't take that'll preach. Doesn't take that much actually. And I'll be honest with you, like in the, in my day job, my whole gig is trying to say, look, can we just be intentional for like ten minutes so that we can do whatever we want for the next three years? And we fight it because people, because you just want to run and it feels like you're stopping and, and sometimes it feels, and I think this is where the like experiences like you're talking about are important because they stick with you because I think it does run the risk of, of feeling like, well, I let's stop and we can kind of cast all this vision. And then what tomorrow

I go back to the same because we don't actually know how to do the next thing. We're like, well, this would be great. And what do I know to do? Right. And so like, I think the, sometimes it doesn't feel like it's worth the effort because we, you don't have any belief that it can be tangible where I think the experience, even on the uncommon wealth side would say, look, a lot is possible way more than what you think. If you can, if you can get your mind in the space that says, look, I, this is what I want to do. Like, there are a lot of options on how to get there. And I think, I think having a moment like that and people around you gives us a bit of a staying power that it's hard to keep steam on your own. Some people can do it, but most people can't. And so I think like having just those experiences and forging them together and then sharing them with someone and then just being able to kind of have a path that doesn't have you just kind of fall off the mountain.

I, it, well, let me ask you this. Do you feel like who is this, who is this right for? And then maybe who is this not for? Yeah. I think that like the 40 year old ish, the people who have lots of responsibilities, people who have like couple kids, not like you can't have a great experience without it, but the people who realize how many responsibilities they have on their shoulders and want to be intentional with their life to move forward. Because honestly, guys, this is the reason why I started it. I needed it. Yes. Yeah. And I'd like to have somebody curate all the content in the world that's out there already. We're not reinventing the wheel and just package it up really nice for me so I can take an EQ test and be like, oh, I guess I'm that. So I would say that, Ben, it's just somebody who's thinking like, hey, I do have a lot of things. I want to be more intentional, but I want a community to be able to help me and steer me in this direction. Yep.

So I like Yeah. I I because I think you're right. Like, it does become, like an experience, only an experience. Like, you are aren't carrying much weight for you, like, like, you're like the dog sled. You're like, wow, that was awesome. But like, if it didn't stick with you that, like, it purvey into your life after it was done, then it was just dog sledding. And dog sledding is cool. But like the odds of me wanting to go up and hang around with a bunch of dudes, I don't know, merely to dog sled, not as interested. Right. Right. Like, like, because, because what happens to people our age is like you go back and you're like, look, this sounds great. Like I've, I've had this conversation with people before. They're like, Hey, we need to go to a men's retreat. I'm like, wait a minute. You're telling me I need to leave my family, like with my wife. So she's babysitting the kids by herself again. Yeah. And hang out with you guys for three days to have a better relationship with my wife and kids. This don't sound right. Right? Like you're gonna have to do better than this. This sounds like I'm bailing is what it sounds like. Right? And so like what we, what we're holistically not just going dog sledding, right? Like we're holistically not just sitting in a cold bath tub with other dudes. What?

It's not what you want to do. Come on. Yeah. I will say this, and I'm not trying to try give us all their trade secrets, but after, because the spouses are a big thing and they feel more I don't know about more excited, but they're just as excited to get their husbands on this kind of little retreat because they know they're gonna be poured into and they know that they're gonna be talking about some really intentional things. Yeah. But one thing that we've done is all of the spouses have gotten letters of affirmation or just thank you letters of all the people that are gonna encourage them. Kinda like camp. Remember when we were in camp when we were younger? Hey, guys. That was great. But like, we almost need those more now that we're adults. Yeah. So

all of them have letters that I have for them. And again, I'm not gonna tell anybody about this because as soon as they read this. But so after their ice plunge, I get to say, hey. The people in your life that you sacrifice every day for wanted to say thank you and give them these cards. Like, how powerful is that? Like, there won't be man tears is what's gonna happen. If there is really good at this. Right? So, like, just being intentional with, like, hey. Be present because it matters. Yep. Like, I need this reminder too. So, anyway, so that's kind of a cool thing that we're doing. So it's just not just have fun, but it's like, now now we have responsibilities to go back to. Let's be better stewards of that. Yeah. So That's super cool. Okay. So do you still have room for people to go on to my February 1. No. Shut it down. Okay. Yep. Excellent. So we have a couple other ones, and there might not be as intent like, not as in-depth. We might not be going out. So we have three other ones planned. We have just an escape which is May nineteenth and twentieth. It's just like a quick recharge. Let's go do fun things. I kind of have some ideas. It should be a blast but we're not going overnight. So nothing overnight. Then we have another elite one that we're gonna do in Utah,

which is gonna be bananas. So we're going out to the Arches and doing some amazing things, rappelling, four wheeling, things like that. But that's a price point that's not gonna be for everybody. So probably business owners for that one. Yeah. And then we have one that is kinda we call this one an escape that we're doing in February. We have another escape on November second through the fourth. And it'll be similar to like this. Like, let's think trapezing, you know, things like that that might Stuff that can be done in Nebraska. Let's get in Nebraska. We're gonna do things like that. Snake wrangling. You know, like that. Mind in the Nebraska kinda Yeah. Yeah. You got it. So that's that's kind of the the four ways that you can engage with that. If you want to kind of get out of your comfort zone and be poured into would love to see you in one of those. Yeah. I appreciate talking about. I get passionate about it. I also get passionate about people using your God given gifts to be able to be a good steward of that. That's why uncommon wealth partners is there. So, anyway, so that's kind of the next. That sounds super exciting. Okay. So once again, how do people get, how to get, get ahold of this thing? Okay. So a couple of different ways. First of all, you're going to go to the that's2e'stheeuncommon.com.

And again, you can read more about the, about what they're trying to do. The pillars information is out there. If you can submit your email and they'll give you a free download, I'm not sure what I didn't do it. It looks suspicious. It's Pac Man. I did it. Did you do it? Yeah. It's a Pac man that eats all your responsibilities. It's awesome. That's a common right there. He jumps on a trapeze.

But then on that same page, or you can go to Facebook and just search for the uncommon. Have a Facebook page and you can kind of stay up to date with that. Go check out the podcast. Lots of interesting information out there again, about the pillars about about Philip and Ryan and kind of what they're trying to do. Super interesting. And they're, they're relatively quick. Like you can catch them in a, if you're back to driving to work, poor sucker. You can listen to it on the way there. Yeah. How are feeling about it, Nathaniel? Oh, I got a question. Okay. Let's have it. Yeah. Welcome to the party. Yeah. Why do you hate the pillars? Are you more of a, like, a columns type of guy? Love the pillars. What I don't like about is the two words, relationships, work, vision. I'm good with that, but no radical relationships. I guess that makes them uncommon. But like to me, it's just like, let's talk about relationships. And honestly, we kind of went to those pillars because every time I would meet with one guy, I would go through those pillars. Hey, how's your faith? Hey, tell me what you're working towards. Like, how's your work? Tell me about your wife, like those kinds of things. And so I was like, well, let's just start kind of

describing these in a different way. Let's use rhyming words. Yeah. That was, that was Ryan Garvey. Everyone. I love the guy. We're all different. I came up with a song or something. That'd be great. But that's a good question. Okay. Okay. The thing I don't know, Nathaniel, two questions. First of all, like, have you ever considered doing one of the polar plunges? Actually every morning,

I long for a polar plunge. I, I, after I'm done working out, I, I started it this month, January. Yep. Well, son of a gun. I, after I'm done lifting, I'll, hit the showers. Yep. And at the end of my shower, I'll stand there and I'll turn it to ice cold and I'll stand there for an account in my head thirty seconds. Have been meaning to, titrate my way up and I have not made it past the thirty seconds. You're still doing, still doing it. I'm I'm getting credit day two. You know, it's coming and you still did it. Yeah. Holy cats. And what like, is that just a, is it fortitude?

Well, I, I may have read some, some sketchy science. Wait a minute. Are you trying to, are you trying to highlight your soul? Yeah. Is that what you're trying to do? No, no, I would never. That sounds like internet wisdom. I'm not reading the bro science skins. I'll swore off it guys. If I catch YouTube videos of you like, show me cold man in showers, let me see if he's swole.

What's happening? Wow. I was listening to Andrew Huberman podcast. Okay. And, he was talking about, the neurological benefits of like doing, ice plunges and, you know, increasing Cold showers? Yeah. Well Well, ice ice,

plunges are expensive unless you live by an ice thing already. You know what saying? Yeah. It'd take you days to fill it up out of the fridge. And by the time you got to it, it'd be half it'd be half done. He gave, like, a list of I forget what the third one was, but he said, you know, the best is to be up to the neck in an ice bath. Second best is taking that cold, cold shower. I forget what the third one is. Are you feeling sharper? I feel sharper right afterwards. I focused for the day. I feel ready.

I I Wow. This is gonna be terrible because I don't I'm gonna agree with this. And here's why. It's like, I feel like we have no idea what we're actually capable of. That's do know I'm saying? Like, I feel like we bail out of things all the time. Like, I will stand outside. It's like six degrees out. And I I'm outside for twenty seconds, and I'm like, I can't take this anymore. Yeah. That's a bullfaced lie. I could probably be out there at least another fifteen minutes, and nothing would happen to me. I would just be cold. Mhmm. Right? And so, like, think of how many take think of how many things you bail on because you're like, I can't do this. I literally can't do this. You ever tried to do a plank? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I tried to do these planks and I was listening to some internet man, because he's telling me how long I should do the plank. And I think about twenty five seconds. I say I'm done. And he, he can hear me thinking. He says, hear your thoughts, folks. And he goes, you can do it. You can stay, keep doing for another fifteen seconds. I said, you don't have no idea what you're talking about, but I did. I kept doing it. And like, it's so small, right? Like this plank, I'm not impressive, but like how many times if under my own steam and under my own frame of mind, I go, look, I'm tapped out. And I just, because I didn't have some kind of like anabolic man, like steroid it up going, dude, you can totally do another fifteen seconds. Yep. And I'm like, well, okay, fine. Taking cold showers, eating goat hooves. That's the guy that you're taking advice from. It's always, it's always more like it's right. Like regardless, I think, I think it's a salient point to say like, you're, you're probably capable of more than what you believe you're capable of. Wouldn't that be crazy to go? Like, I know exactly what I'm capable of. Oh yeah. That would be wild. Cause that means you went all the way out there. Jason Bourne knows that Jason Bourne does know that. Yeah. I can run for eight miles before I get winded. Yeah. Before I blackout or something. Yeah. He knows that stuff. If I was an assassin, I would know more. He also hires a real shaky cameraman, so you can't see all the moves he's doing. I'm against that. And he he I am too. Yeah. I'm against that. I like smooth camera operations. If you're gonna if you're gonna jab at a guy with a ballpoint pen I wanna see and incapacitated. I don't wanna take it in. I wanna see how you did it. Okay. You've been listening live from the path. We got a lot of there's a lot of life wisdom coming at you today, friends. There's some pillars to look at. There's some community to get involved with so you can help you get there and flat out. Will you find out what you're made of? Stop sitting around like Plato going, I bet I can't do that. Be like Nathaniel. Be like Nathaniel.

Take a cold shower. Stand there at stand there at the buck wild, looking at the wall going, here it comes. And then turn it to straight cold. See if you don't get Tourette's. I'm I'm gonna, you know, after this conversation, I'm gonna crank it up. I'm go 40 It's finest.

No, you're not doing it 45. Here's what I hear is you're going to stay in there as long as you possibly can tomorrow and see how long it was. Did you take the whole shower? Oh, freezing. Now are you doing this with other other people in the gym? So if you pass out or something, will someone see your lifeless nude body? It's a possibility. Okay. Fine. As long as someone can rescue you. I don't wanna be resuscitated by an 85 year old nude man. That's not gonna happen to me. Don't worry. Just before I pass out, get out of there. Say stay away from me, Greg. Okay. Your wristband. Do not resist. Do not touch your grip. Speaker You

pulled me out tabernacle style, but don't be coming in here. Speaker Dan, have you considered a plunge? I tell you what, ma'am, there used to be a gym here on the East Side of town, Northy Northeast 14th Swanson's back when I was a kid. That's how long ago. But it was also there when I was a college. So I'd been there. It was there for a long time And there was a pool area. We had a family lifetime membership. So when college, I thought, yeah, free working out. So I still went out there and I'd go work out and stuff, but you go to the pool. It's a pool area. Then there's a hot tub and they had a cool, a cold plunge

already there. And these old dudes, would they be sitting there swimming labs and they jump in the whirlpool and you could just see the steam and then they jump in like, and I'd be like, I put my finger and I'm like, no, it was cold. It was cold. That's like, I was just fine. Not having a cold. So I've seen it, but knew that never attempted. Now we're find out what we're made of tomorrow. Boys. I'm taking a cold shower. I don't shower on Tuesday. You know what don't smell as good cold shower? I was spring. It's the heat that brings it out. Oh yeah. Plus, there's nothing but cancer in that soap, but, boy, it smell good. It's worth it. Cancer leather. Alright. K. We gotta move on. We got a bunch of tail cap in. Okay. Now here alright. Here's what I heard this week.

Scrolling through the Facebook, doing stuff. I Is this Driscoll? Yeah. I was supposed I was supposed to be working. Marky D. I don't know what my internet behavior has brought on the Facebook goes. I think you're gonna enjoy the return of Mark Driscoll. Yeah. But but he says this thing. And I said, dog on it anyway. He says, you know what the Fox and the henhouse in your life is? It's your phone. Did you see this, Dan? I did. I did. I watched that little clip. Thought it's crap. He's right. Gone it. So here's what here's what stuck with me is the phrase, look at your phone. He says, you look at it more than you look at your wife. Yeah. You hear it. You listen to it more than you listen to your wife. You touch it more than you touch your wife. And I said, dog got it anyway. Freaking mark. I said good. Trisco. Okay. So

you, you tell me that's not true. You did hits harsh. Don't it? It does hit hard. I thought about recently switching to a flipper. Yeah. You're going to give a shot. I don't know. Spearheaded this thing. The, the there's one thing that was really holding me back. Yeah. And this was, it was this. I, without my phone, I never grew up driving without a smartphone. I would get lost.

Yeah. I don't I don't know my way around town. Yeah. That's the excuse you're using. No. Wait. Now I'm a here's the deal, though. I'm a tell you what's much more dangerous than someone looking at their their phone to see where to drive is the guy trying to maneuver a map while he's driving. I thought about getting a Garmin like a Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah. I see one of those. I bet you can get it cheap. Yeah. I bet. No. Every sucker's got their phone. No. Garmin has he they're gone with supply and demand. Those things have gone up 300 fold because they're like a guy that really has to has this. He's screwed. He really did. So we got them. I'm be asking though with with his his video is you could say that about a lot of things. Oh, true. I use my my truck steering wheel. I touch it more than I touch my wife. Yes. I mean, you know, I, I touch a fork more than I touch my wife. That might say more about my eating habits, but I'm just saying, but, but he had a great point that we do spend too much time even in my wife and I will be, she'll be on, on, on, in the couch and I'll be sitting in my little chair doing

three whatever. And then she's watching cat videos on her iPad and I'm going watching Mark Driscoll video. On the other side of the couch. He knows the cat. And, and yeah, we, we can go a whole night and then like, oh man, we should have been talking or something. I get it. It's it's it's sticks. Right? Yeah. I probably said that three times this week to myself and, and again, right. Because like, and I don't talk to my fork, Dan. I don't know what you're doing at your house, but, but like

the, the point was salient. And so anyway, I, the, the next day I thought that it popped into my head and I had my phone in my hand. It was actually a work email or something. And I put it down And I said, I touched this more than I touched my wife. I said I'm behind. And so I ran inside and I touched my wife and I said, woman, you're going to have to like, got you. She slapped you. I said, I'm, I'm behind. And so I know if you have to double pad your areas or whatever, but just know I'm coming around all day. And I did too. And I said, you know what? I like this advice. Just swipe her cheek. Oh, okay. So did you see any, like, encouragement at the end of the night? Like yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, this works. This works fellows. And I'm not like, I don't know what goes on at your place, but I'm not saying, Hey, I want to shake my wife's hand. That's not what I'm going for. I'm in for husbandly touches. Like, and I say, I want that more than I touch my phone. And so I gotta get in on it and it's been working. Yeah. I say it just gets to the right balance to me. That phone's a cruel mistress. Yeah. Yeah. It mistreats me. Yeah. Does. Yeah. How many of you Dan, this is probably a question for you.

Your kids have phones. Yeah. Do you feel like when they got phones, you were convicted of the use of your phone by watching them? Not so much because I put boundaries right away because I'd been around people who didn't. Yeah. And like, I like my phone's almost off probably 90% of, or like the ringer's off. Right. And I miss a lot of calls, but then I'll go back to them. You know? So like if I'm with someone, might have my ringers off. I don't even know if, I was home. I would just put my phone on the counter and just walk away from it. Not always, not always, but, but generally speaking. So they had a pretty, I mean, I don't think, yeah, Speaker I feel like I'm going to put a lot of restrictions on myself as soon as my daughter she's 14 gets the phones and I'm like, Oh no, no, we're not doing that. But then I'm basically just telling myself like, no, get off your phone Ramsey. You know, and they had to put their phones away before going to bed too. They go in there and Hey, I like that. And for myself. Right? Yep. Yeah. I actually, but my wife and I recently talked about, I need to go, I want to go buy an alarm clock because I use my phone as my alarm. And then as soon as I look it up, Hey, I mean, I, I use a part of my work. Like these big guy, offshore developers and people executives were up at like 05:30 in the morning. Mr. Ben, big board man talking with offshore developers.

This angels had enough of this. They moved in India. What do you want me to do? Anyway, like, they're working in the middle of the night. And so, like, it's just there. It's right there. As soon as I pick it up Boom. Like, there's something I could respond to or that maybe if someone's waiting for, and I feel like I'm holding them up. But like, I wouldn't know that an hour later. And so if I'd had just been downstairs, I could have, it would have been fine. I have a pretty sense of same as my phone for probably fifteen years, at least, because I used to have some guy named James who had my number and he'd say, Hey, hey, this is James. You pick me up like a two year? Like he was drunk and he needed to ride home. And I'm like, I don't know who you are. Oh, I was going say, was he legit looking for you or no, was whoever owned my phone that number before me. And, and, yeah, he, that happened like multiple times. Thought, yeah, no more. I just charged my phone in the other room and I'm not going to let James wake me up. Yep. And I think, I think we've done something we've discussed before, which is like, it feels like, but what if I miss out on the emergency? Like how many have you? Yeah, I haven't.

I mean, when Sean passed away, it was in the other room, but for something just told me I need to go get up for whatever. But that was like, it wasn't super late, but it was like 09:30, ten, whatever it was. And like, got that phone call. Other than that, I've never missed a thing. It's probably been twenty years. I mean, it's been somewhere between fifty. I agree. I think the only thing, I think one time it was like two in the morning and some, one of my, some of my family had texted that my, that my grandma had died. I don't need him to call us, but she'd have been just as dead at 06:00.

Right. Right. I just most things, most things. Yeah. There's no reaction. It's not an, I mean, it's sad. It's a huge life changing event, but it's not an emergency. If you were the heart surgeon who had to get there to do heart surgery. Yes. That'd be one thing. Yeah. But most of the most, even, even in the spiritual realm, most things, even like there's been suicides. It's been I've been able to catch it somehow. Yes. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, just, just I think that's valid. Yeah. And so like a Dan's right. You played out, play it fully out. It's going to lose some of its steam. So don't do that. Just let it sit and say, look, if comparatively,

what time, what kind of time am I spending with this device versus what time am I spending with my close relationship? Choose spouse, kids. Don't care. And then it just frankly helped me keep a right sense of balance. Like how three or three times in a row, pick up my phone to go check something. I thought like, I haven't, I didn't check my wife today. I'm gonna go and talk to her, see how her day is going. Like some it's just a good trigger. So anyway, it's been helpful for me this last week. Need to put a ringer on your phone, for an alarm that's marked Driscos voice saying you're an idiot. How dare you? Don't touch your wife. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Will do. Who do you think you are? Alright. Hey. Listen to life from the path. Maybe you hate that advice. Let let's hook us up on the life and the path complaint line. (515) 517-0085. That's call or text. I got a complaint about that. I did. I have text that number. Okay. Oh, yeah. I looked because I heard you say that, and I I see no evidence to this. Now Dan texted to say Dan is great. I saw that two weeks ago. I can't control what people send in. What's the phone number again? It's a 51551700850085. Yeah. All right. Life in the path. All right. Let me tell you, look at you. Just look at my phone, Ben. Okay. Yeah. I mean, it does say that. Yeah. What did I say? Mullet, mullet.

Mullet, mullet, mullet, forget my friend. I've said the mullet. I wanted a mullet. I know what that was. Was the picture of Todd Gordon. Yes. I wanted Todd to get the mullet. You did mention something a couple of weeks later that someone had sent in mullet. Okay. No, I think that was because he told me, I think because he told me that he had done it. I have the evidence that I approved that I'm And actually Todd owes us a picture. Yeah, he does. Okay. He will take care of it. I think we're gonna to ask his wife. Okay. I'll send you that just so you have evidence. Okay. This totally happened, Todd. Okay. Anyway, let us know life in the path, 5155170085.

Okay. Next week, look at the, look at the beastliness of this phone case. Let me see it. That's a real it's got like rivets in it and stuff. Oh, wow. I mean, it's going to be hard to switch to a flip phone. Well, he's got this like Superman of a case. That is crazy. You can throw in from his pockets. He's miles away. Hey. Let me ask you this question. Why he's not here. Do you think that's like a pick bowl, big truck type of thing? No. I think he bought it based on advertising. Oh. It's like he saw it and he thought, who's the kind of, like, a level top shelf dude would have a case. Somebody cold showers. Yeah. I'll say that right now. Showers drops Talk a film. About Bruno. He got a case like that. Yeah. Dude, I wouldn't buy a case like that because I thought it would come with that cold shower thing. Said, yeah, I can't keep up with the Joneses here. All right. Next big question on the docket.

What are you looking for in the church? Like, like the, so let's say you're a, let's say you're moving, you're moving and you're, you got, you're in a new town. You can't use your old confines. And you're saying, boy, there's like a million churches out here. What is it that, what are we looking for? What matters? What, what matters for you at a, at a core spiritual level versus what is, you know, if you got the stuff that matters, this stuff, maybe maybe you can take or leave. Okay. So let's let's let's bring in just a thought from last week when we talked about we were talking about, especially Western culture churches. Right? It's like like, is

what's enough? Right? So, like, if we were to lose the worship band or the suite building or comfortable chairs or even childcare, let's say your kids had to sit with you. Yeah. Right? Like, would you still come here? Is this is the community enough? Right. Right. Is this think to go one step further preference to like people just got through COVID. I'm not going to church anymore. Oh, I don't want to do video. Oh, you're making me do masks, this kind of stuff. So talk about like where do preferences go into your choice of churches? Yep. Two. Yep. There you go. K. So one, let's let's put a foot through the absolute first filter. Like, I think you have to pray on this. Yeah. I think you for sure have to pray on this because it's very possible God will weigh and measure your preferences and go, I don't care. I have a place for you to be, and this is where I need you to be. Yep. Totally could be. So, like, that that is definitely not off the table. And I think if you are actually want

the holy spirit involved in that choice, you know, he might very well put your preferences aside. So let's say let's say that he didn't. He said, I love you. I want you, you pick the community. We're fine. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Pick it. So now where you at? Okay. So the first one is, is the teaching of the word for me, like it's, and it's gotta be like, it's gotta be Bible, obviously. Like this is core Bible and that is Jesus it's Jesus's agenda.

Okay. And so, I would prefer personally, I, I prefer like exegetical stuff. And so like Cohen, you know, book by book, more so it's not because you can't do it the other way. It's just, and maybe actually just me, because that's what I would teach that. But like, I feel that's where,

it runs the least risk for me into like, Hey, here's how you live a better earthly life, which I think Jesus actually does. But I think it runs a risk. It like it runs the biggest risk of blending like life coach with Bible teaching. And so I think that's, that's the strongest for me is that I'm that I would be getting like solid Bible teaching that people actually we we've, I've run into this a few places because like every once in a while, house church will be like, Hey man, something goes on at a church somewhere else. Everybody go. And so we just go visit there. And like, I agreed with like 90% of the thing the guy said, but he, but he justified it from the wrong passage. Like he didn't execute the text very well.

And it was like, well, I mean, yeah, that's, that's right. But like that isn't what that piece of scripture means. What, even though it was okay in the moment, it creates a risk. Cause I'm like, I mean, that you could then pull out all kinds of things of which the scripture doesn't justify. You should go find scripture that does justify it and say that. And so, I I'm pretty, I'm pretty persnickety when it comes to, with, sorry, this is percent or percent true. We went to a church last week because someone we knew was getting baptized. So house church goes and visits this church. And like the guy is, I ain't kidding you two minutes into the sermon and Ben has pulled up the blue letter Bible app Greek and is tapping me on the shoulder from a pew behind me. Look at this.

Alright. You're not using that right. I'm like, alright, Ben. Alright, Ben. I'm like, he didn't. He didn't use it right. Again, though, like actually in that example, again, 90% of the things the guy said was right, but he just used a goofball text to do it, which also then kind of missed the point of the text. Like, this is your tie. This is your chance to teach the text. And so, that for me is is pretty, that's that's I'm pretty firm on that one.

K. I have I have mine. Yeah. And it's, I think I think, dedicated prayer time. Yep. I mean, like big, expansive prayer time. I don't know that you necessarily have to nail this on Sunday morning, but, like, I love the thought of a Tuesday prayer meeting, and that's all we're doing. Like, that's it. You just show up, and we're gonna pray about stuff. And it's gonna take as long as it takes, and we're gonna pray through all of it, and we're gonna nail this thing. Yep. I that's where that's where all of obedience and humility and,

listening for the holy spirit shows. It's all through prayer time. So, like, I think I I'm I'm with Ben. Like, I I God said a thing. I think we should probably do our best to say, God did say a thing. This is what we're gonna talk about. But like, I think we we lose a lot of people when it starts to get into relationship and prayer time. And so, like, I think that's really important. Dan, think, and that goes to something you were talking about just as you were preaching through first Timothy, like when the early church thinks, Hey, let's gather. They're thinking prayer. Like that's a big chunk of what they're thinking. Verses of chapter two, I convicted myself in studying going crap. I've let some of this slide. Cause this whole thing was on the public assembly, the Sunday assembly and prayer, and it being a major part of what you're doing. I'm like, yeah, we use it for a transition in between. So we're going over here and this is a good way for the band to leave the stage and we'll do a civil prayer. I even like for a hundred years, I used to always have just a pause, before preaching. I've just have, okay, everybody just pray. You know, just spend this God's time, not mine, you know, blah, blah, blah. And we'd pray like, I even quit doing that at some point. And I don't know why. I don't if know it was like, Oh, the video is going on. It's dead space. I have no idea. I don't remember when I started it again last week. I thought by golly, we're going to read that text. We're going to do it. Good for you. Yeah. I mean, it's like, it was embarrassing to me to, to see that we had slid

to prayer being a token as opposed to like Yep. It is hard to do, like, in the way that we run our church services. Right. Especially when we talk about like, think a bigger church, you know, like all the lights are on stage people. It's set up like a concert. Right? It's hard for people to, to, to not like be brought into that mind space. And so like asking for their participation or like stuff to pray about, you know, like it could drag on forever. Like, and, like, we've we've run into this problem all the time at house first. Like, we we do a prayer time right after worship. And sometimes Ben doesn't get to preach that Sunday because it was just prayer time. I lost one, like, five weeks ago. Like, I just, it didn't happen. I mean, it's we've been in Matthew five for I and Kenya two months. We can't get out of it because we keep having prayer time and it's just like praise and and prayer and like, blah, blah. And like, sometimes it gets to be like, then you got about five minutes. He's like, well, dang it. I can't talk about lust and divorce in five Yeah. We're gonna have to push. Yeah. You know? And so, like, I'm not saying it's like the prescription for doing great things, but, like Mhmm. It it's so amazing to hear, like, what God is doing in other people's lives Mhmm. And and, like, what he has designed for yours and the way that he's moving in your community. When you got to see see what God's doing with you as a body of believers, right, you would never know that if you didn't get to pray together. You would never know. People are holding, like, these awesome silent things that God has done and, like, you didn't get to know. You know, that stinks or

struggles. Like, I think, you know, we get the opportunity. And again, this gets harder and bigger context. But like, I mean, sometimes the type of kids are in the room and our thing, and like some of these questions they're asking as like, as I want, there's a burden on their heart about something. And they're asking like a hard question. How do I think about this relationship with people? How do I support these kinds of folks? The stuff kids are going through at school, the types of things like, like what a chance for like their whole community to be able to pray on them and pray with them. Like, it's just, it's just, it's hard to do. And like, I've always struggled with like, how, how do you do that well in bigger context? And I think there's ways to get there. But like, yeah, I actually, I think the first few times that happened where we're at, I felt like, oh man, like I was supposed to, I'm supposed to teach. It took me a little bit to get over that. Hey, you know what? It's okay today that I didn't teach through this particular

set of phrases. We'll get to it next week. And we got to spend the time in prayer and like, have that not feel like I've like, we didn't, we didn't fail. Was a success. This is the right way to look at it. And so it's like gathering to God's people doing their thing. Mean, that's right. It's a, that's right. I think another thing that some pastors, especially nowadays, will go straight to the application. Like, Hey, let's talk about how we can apply this. Yeah. And I would say, yeah, I guess maybe sometimes the texts will go to a good application, but let the Holy Spirit do the convicting

and do the application and then let that be in your community groups. What do you have? Or the next week of like, hey, here's how the Holy Spirit convicted me. I haven't talked to my brother in five years and I called and I just asked him to forgive me, you know, Woah, like I never was going say that in the pulpit, but I'm grateful that the Holy Spirit did that for you because we were just talking about Paul being in prison, you know, who knows how it's going to do. And I think this day and age, it's all about, well, this is how you apply it. This is how you apply it. Well, yeah, maybe, you know, but Yeah. Maybe it is. And frankly, like, sometimes it runs the risk of sounding like, human advice. Right? Like and if you do let it simmer, like, the holy spirit just sat there and poked and poked and poked, you're like, alright. What is this? What is this? You know? You're like, okay. And then, like, like, the the the preaching planted a seed out of God's word and the holy spirit just sat there and beat you with it for like three, four days until you're like, okay, right. I get it. And then you're, and then that's it. But if like, if, if Ben would've just said, Hey, you need to call your distant relatives and fix those relationships. I'm like, what do you know about it? Yeah. I mean, honestly. Right. Then it's under my authority. Like, what what do you care about? Under what? Ben's authority? Hey. I had to call you. Ben's after me. No one cares. But when I call that re that relationship and go, look, man, God's been after me about this, which means you and I need to figure this out. And like, that's way different. No one gives two craps of Ben says, that's what we're supposed to be doing today. Right. I found that to be true.

Well, and also like, not everything. I don't know. I'd I'd have to think about how to, if I have a quantification for it, but like not everything in scripture is actually a life application. It's telling you something. Tells you something about the character of God. It may tell you something about the character of people, but it doesn't mean that you go out and do something in reaction to it. Some of it is, is like a revealing that then starts to filter and change other things, but it isn't a one to one correlation of I heard. So I go do something like I heard, I understand the true Nate, the nature of God. And so maybe I pray differently or something like that, but it's not Sometimes I think we stretch it a bit. Yeah. Well, so I, when I ended Sunday, you know, I was just like, okay, there's no action step here. We needed to know this though. Yes. Right. Mean, Maybe the glory. Mean,

True. Like what, Like like pre pre prescriptive and descriptive. Right? Yeah. Like, you don't read the Psalms and go, man, I wish I could lament like David. I wish I could just conjure up the Lord to kill all my enemies. Like, it's just there's not a good application there. You know? Yep. Yep. I think that's right. Okay. What, like, was we've talked about, I think some of this stuff before, like when it comes to, here's maybe my encouragement when it comes to like music and things is, is like, I'd find a way to find joy in whatever's going on. Like if the other things are hitting like, I just like, it's just such, it'd be such, it'd be too bad to get turned off by the tunes to tunes, like, and the nature of it. Like, if, if, if, if you can connect with the words, if you can try to worship and like, really listen to what's going on and, and, and embrace it, I'll tell you this. One of my, my core encouragements when it comes to worship is to sing and to sing loud, even if you think it's terrible because

there's a connection to my kids keep making fun of me because they go because because there's a connection between what you feel on the inside and what you express on the outside. So if you're like, Hey, I'm praising Jesus. And you're not singing at all. You're mumbling to yourself and you, and you feel real awkward about what to do with your hands. Like you don't want this kind of disassociation between what's on the inside and what's going outside. Same reason why it's okay. To, to posture and prayer, it's the same reason we annoy it with oils. It's connecting something you're asking internally with an action you're taking externally so that you're a holistic being. And so I would say that like,

you know, as you approach worship in any context, like the first thing I try is like, at it with some gusto, get yourself involved in it, regardless of whether you heard the song before, regardless whether you liked the song or not. Give that a shot first and and see whether God meets you in it. That's hard, Ben. That's been my experience. That's hard. No. It's not. Like, I legit well, I'm not saying, like, the singing out loud part. That's no problem. But, like, once again, we went and visited a church. Right? I don't know any these tunes. I know. And, like, I'm I was ready. I mean, I was I was primed. I love it when I'm not leading worship because, like, I'm like, let's sing the tunes, boys. I'm in. Both hands. Let's rock it. And then I kept singing songs I don't know. I'm like, well, I can't even sing loud because I don't know what's coming up next. Yeah. And then by the second verse, I think I got it, I was wrong. And I took a big detour, and the guy in front of me kept looking behind me like, hey, man. Why don't you pick a key?

Like, whatever, dude. I don't know. Okay. I will tell you this. The and this is for kind of worship leader esque folk is that like, mean, you gotta, some of these modern, the modern tunes, the Christian tunes people coming up with are kind of difficult to sing. Like just because it's a good song doesn't mean it's a good congregational song. That's true. Just, the cadence isn't right. Like you just got, I mean, there's a reason, like some of the hymns are super, like they're super predictable. That's why people can get on board with them. And we talked about that a few weeks ago. It's not that they're more holy, but just like know what a congregation can handle. Not just because you thought it was like a Kurt Cobain Christianity. And it's it's like you really figured it out. And you can listen to that on your own time. You can worship that action on your own time. But listen here. Like, I I've been guilty of this a couple times, but I'm really cognizant of, like, if you can't listen to it once and be able to mimic it back by the second verse, it's probably not what we're gonna do. Yeah. There's just no way. People can't confidently worship, right, if they can't figure out how the tune goes. Yeah. You don't want any barriers in the experience, basically. That's exactly right. Yeah. Let me ask you this. Communion. Yeah. Have it. Do you like to have worship music happening in communion, or do you like to be like, this is like an internal I really need to,

like, think about what what's gonna happen here. Yeah. I think there's there's a lot of, history and philosophy built into it. My personal preference is is, like, we do it because Jesus said to do it. And, like, the contemplating stuff and all that crap, we go through that during prayer time. And, like and, you know, before we take communion, we pray over it. But, like, it always felt really hard to conjure up a moment. You know, like, when it's communion time. Sure. Like, I'm like, people are like, this is your time with Jesus. I'm like, this is the only one? Like, I haven't spent any time with him all week, which I was guilty of at the time. Right? Okay. Like, I don't know. I I'm not spending any personal time reading the word or praying, and then here comes the big thirty seconds before communion. I'm like, oh god, I've really messed this up this week. And like, you know, I'm a big failure and everybody's drinking their juice already. We got them all on. Right? And so like a huge mistake. Right? Like, what it felt like is like, I can never rise to the holiness that the occasion was asking of me. Uh-huh. Right. And so, yeah.

And so like the, the music was cool. But like, it also, it just, it fed into more than I had to offer more than I had to offer for the, I like having just a little background, just tune or whether I'm singing along with whatever it is or it's just there as I'm praying. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. Yeah.

Love it. I think I married either one really. Like, wouldn't think less people that want to rock out on a commuter. Also wouldn't want to think less of anybody that wants to monk it up and sit there for eight minutes and rethink their whole life. I don't know. You know, like it's like, Jesus says, you need to remember me and this is how you're going to do it. And we're right on. Yeah. We will do that. You know, one of the things that's interesting is that like, I think we do run the risk of over sombering communion. Because like, think of the, the, the context of what Jesus is saying in this, he's saying my body was broken. My blood was shed. Right. But for what? Yeah. The new covenant, right? Like, like this I'm making all things new here, bro. That's right. And like, we're stuck in the, I mean, you're supposed to know the moments and you're supposed to recognize the sacrifice, but like for heaven's sakes, like let's, let's point where he's going. Yeah. And some of this points back to the reverse worship of sin. Right? Like, just before you take communion, they're like, remember all the crap you did and bring that into this conversation. And Jesus is like, what are you doing? I bring in all the grace, man. This is what we're talking about. I think it's well meaning people that kinda get a little little caught up. Yeah. We we I think we have quite a few folks that are guilty of that. They're like, I I need to get it's it's like the if I didn't repent before I got hit by the bus thing, I'm out on a technicality. People like, I gotta think of all the worst crap I did this week and throw it in here before the communion gets done and make sure that we're we're right living. Jesus is like, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, like, there there's an attempt but what they're trying to protect is is Paul. Right? Paul goes like, hey, man. Be careful that you're not trying to do this in an unworthy manner. Like examine yourself. Like, you can over you can over you can miss the bus on that. Well, the context there is that you you're not accepting his blood as the atonement. That's right. That's that's the that's what makes you unworthy. Yeah. Not that you, you know, swore three times and, you know, I mean, you know Right. Notion of unworthy to take it is the very presence of sin that Jesus died for and that is representing in the symbol. What if you swore four times, though, Dan? You feel

Well, you do that, then one guy takes communion twice. You have to drink both of Pass it around again. Oh, man. This the church that we were at had the prepackaged Oh, yeah. With the wafer. I didn't know how to work it. I felt like a real idiot. And if you, if you take it off and you got the juice, it's hard to get to the wafer. You've got a problem. We threw those puppies away. Oh man. Oh, it was terrible. I felt really nice. Yeah.

It was embarrassing. Ben goes, Hey, I didn't get a cracker. I'm like, it's in the list. He was about ready to go talk to the Hebrew man about his misuse of the scripture, but then the simple lid proposition had him befuddled. That's like the time that we were at a conference and Ben ate the mint, but it was actually a pat of butter. Okay. It was shaped like a like a a mint that you would get at a graduation. What are you doing? I hope. I threw it right in. It was pretty gross.

These are the worst mints ever. I try I I could have played it off cool, but Dan totally saw it. Like, no. Hey. Did you did you break this guy down? He's he's eating all the butter. Put him on my table. Okay. So round it out. Like, there's a lot of things that are up to preference. Right? I think what we're like, you know, worship can certainly be up to preference. Right? Like, just don't get lost in the fact that, like,

the sheep hear the shepherd's voice. Right? So, like, if it's the wrong instrumentation or you think the worship guy wears gross pants or whatever. Right? Like, this is your community. What if he's causing people to stumble? If he's causing people to stumble in their pants, then you should have you should iron sharpen iron. Although he sounds a little zoe to me. Actually, remember remember Matthew five because we've stuck there so long. Jesus does hold the luster accountable. So if he's causing you to stumble,

it's it's you. You say you need to get behind the podium, Elvis. Can't sit here. Here's the thing too, though, on this is there's ebb and flow to, you know, who's the worst leader, who who's the preacher. So it's, it's like, like the non negotiable for me that at the, at the peak, it would be the scriptural, like that the church is founded in a scriptural doctrinally solid place. That way they're not going to hire someone in the next preacher who is not in a doctrinally solid place or, or they'll, they'll, they'll vet that. Right. So, but, so I won't have to worry about that. So I'm going to be part of a community

where, where I feel like I'd be part of this family, but it's bigger than what the particular style of music is today. Cause it might be different next week, next year, or what the style of preacher is his personality. I don't know. I think the average still is three years per per stay, you know, of a, of a, of a preacher. So a lot of them are a lot longer, but, so that's, you know, there's gonna be a new preacher probably. You're gonna probably outlast whoever the current preacher is. And so you gotta look beyond

that like, oh, that's where we get these celebrity preachers. You know, we're all, we gotta go here, whoever, you know, and then that guy gone and the church implodes because they, and I'll podcast that guy. I just don't have to go to church. Exactly. You've got a good message. I'm weak. Let's do it. So, so there are, you know, you somehow have to dig in a little deeper than, than those things of what you hear, what you experience on a Sunday morning and get into to that actual,

I don't know how much time, how to even say this. I've never looked for a church. I've been a preacher for territory. Mean, no one can do this better me. Yeah. Oh, okay. Now, one of the things I'd like to think about then is kind of like peripheral, like a programming and groups and other think for me, elder led is a big thing. So multiple like plurality of leadership two is a big thing for me. So it's just not one guy who's like, here's where we're going. Like, well, run that by anybody or is that where that's part of the solid

base? Cause they're going to be vetting. Who's who's doing things. Yeah. I think that's huge. Well, eliminate it eliminates risks. And I think, you know, there's sometimes, especially when you're playing new churches, like it takes time to find, make sure you got the right guys. Right. But I think like where you're rejecting the possibility that there might be elders in there, I think you, I think you have a problem, right? Like where you don't want any, where it feels like I want to be able to take this thing wherever and I don't want to be constrained. Like, you know, if the spirit is talking, I feel like the spirit's going make sure that people got their heads on. As long as you get the right faithful folks that are in there. And so, I would agree. I think that is important.

Yeah. The, the, I was going to say that the thing on, on some of the peripheral stuff for kids. And again, our situation is different. Our kids are there like our kids from the house church thing. Everybody's in the same room for the most part. I think the toddlers would go wander off and do other things, but for the most part, the kids are in the room. But to that effect, I would want to make sure that if I were going to a church that it treated my kids,

as if we were actually trying to, to, be faithful followers of Jesus and respects their intellect, respects their ability to understand concepts and, like, doesn't just send them home with with drawings of things. Water it down. That's right. Like, I find this. I've said this before, but, like, that's one of the key takeaways from me pastoring in a house church context

is, how much kids are actually able to, to take in what they can take in, how thoughtful they're being, how things apply to their lives. Like they are able to do much more than often we give them credit for. And there's no reason to set a low bar. They need to know it's one of the things I've always worried about when it comes to like high school, schools, especially, but even high school into college is that like, if they spend all their time away, and then suddenly they're an adult and they, they have no idea what it means to be a grownup person in a, in a faith community where like everything that they were taught now is coming to like to harsh, like it matters what you decide based upon the things we said were true. And so, like, without allowing that type of thing or even just having kids always around kids their own age,

like, it gives them a different view of the world. And so I I I think that I would expect a church to be thoughtful around what are you actually introducing your kids to, to what is real about a faith community? Not just, Hey, they're, they're, they're entertained or they're elsewhere, or maybe they learn something, but like, I, I, they probably can do more. Yeah. It's, it's not fair to spring responsibility on them when you raise them in the church to act like they didn't have any. You know what I'm saying? Like, if you spend we put a lot of money, like, against youth programming and you and, like, the youth cost a lot of money. They need a lot of pizza, a lot of pop. They need a lot of sound. They need a lot of games. And the truth of the matter is, like, they don't need any of that stuff. Like, they honestly don't. Like, we can love them in that way because they actually do like pizza and soda pretty easily. But, like, the truth of the matter is is, like, it's really unfair to, like, entertain them in the church until they're 17. And just as they're trying to get their mind wrapped around the fact that they need to go to college and they gotta figure out how to really live, boom, you should be a constructive member of the church and take on responsibility here and start pulling your own weight and you should be tithing and blah, and all this stuff. And we're like, well, wait a minute. I I just feel like there was a really cool guy trying to connect with me for, seventeen years. And I got a bunch of candy and my parents all seemed like, man, they were trying to make major changes in their life, like fasting and redistributing their money to try to be more faithful. And I'm like, I didn't give a crap about any of that because I was back in the cool youth service. Right? Like, I just don't do that. Just plea I I understand what Just be thoughtful about it. Be thoughtful. Just don't do that. They they really deserve more than that. Yeah. Yep. Mhmm. It's good. Alright. I wish I don't know, Nathaniel, these ticking the boxes. What are you thinking?

Cold shower, cold shower, shower rooms. Yeah. I don't have anything to add on to a what's already been set. Okay. Classic. Yeah, I know that was a, a real heavy, heavy hitter for you fellows, but you don't care. You'll just wonder it anywhere. I

would say, I would say that I'm in agreeance, which isn't a real word, but I I'm in agreeance with what has been spoken by me. I think by the group, but Ben specifically, this is the most, the fanciful way of going, I don't know. They tell me, why are

they going to call you out? You calling me dope? Here's the deal. He out masculine everybody with that cold shower business. That's true. That was kind of boss. All right. You're listening to live from the path. Thanks for hanging out with us. Holy buckets. The time has gotten away. Oh, oh, we, we, we were gonna talk about the, the school, the

school money. You want make it quick, make it fast. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so I, as like the question, like the ability to pull your, to not have your kids go to public school, like you have the choice to do this already, but now there's a monetary hit to it. Mhmm. And actually, what my my oldest daughter and I were kinda talking about it because, like, is there is there something very positive about saying a parent gets to side and have some freedom to be able to choose how their kid is educated? Yeah. Because to be honest with you, like, we've talked about this in the past and even during the, some of the COVID stuff too, they're like, it's a real hard gig to run a public school, Like, and think of all the various things you, you don't have the option to not accommodate all kinds of things. Right. You have to teach everybody that comes into the door. Like if they put 30 kids in the classroom, you don't have a choice. Like you got to figure out how to give those kids the attention they deserve. There's all kinds of different, beliefs, all like a wide variety of parental interaction or non interaction,

backgrounds of acceptable behavior. It is, I mean, that is just a microcosm of a, of a mess to, to try to handle that. And so a parent saying, Hey man, if I have the option to be able to, you know, have my kid go somewhere else. Like I would like to do that, because I don't want to be fighting worldviews that I don't believe in. And that can cause, cause my kid to go a different direction or influencers or whatever. And so, that's strong. Obviously I homeschool. So like I have a belief in some of this, the ability to say control some of that on your own. And so I think personally that there's a strong pull to that. I think we do need to recognize though, that there is, it isn't as simple as that because

like, think of this, if it helps to, to connect it to like a church service, let's say you have a church building and bathrooms and janitor and clean the parking lot and all the things it costs the same to do all that stuff, whether there's a 100 kids and a 100 people in the building or 200 people in the building, base costs and like of, of being, of having to do that don't particularly change. And so it's not as easy as, Hey, money went and shifted to this new religious school or something like that. Shouldn't they just be able to run the public school system on the money that was left because there's only that many students. It isn't really how the overhead of things works. And I think we do need to be cautious about that because here, there are some distinctions, a religious school or actually any private school can say no, they cannot accept somebody if they don't want, they can have criteria that says, look, we don't have to take every student. We're just going to say no. The public school doesn't have a choice. Like whatever your learning disabilities or,

like cultural, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The public school has got to take it in. So, right. They have to be prepared for every situation. Private schools can kind of, niche out the situation. Okay. Do you have any idea how the utility company sizes your transformer for, like, say, your business? Yes. But I'm gonna see whether you know. Go ahead. So so they they there's two types of power. One is called, like, resistive power, and one's called reactive power. K? So the transformer that you get power from your utility line, it goes into your business. Every bit of copper, motor, lighting, whatever you have in your building has reactive power. Right? It has to build a magnetic energy, and then it has to collapse it, build and collapse and build and collapse. Right? Yep. The power company does not charge you for that. Right? It's just because because it comes and goes and comes and goes. You don't actually see it. It's just building a magnetic field of which electricity can travel in. Yeah. Right? So they have to size the transformer, not only for the load that they're going to charge you for, which is the resistive load, that's actually turns the watt meter and the does the light do the lighting,

but also their ability to turn on or to be able to facilitate a magnetic field in your place. Right? So, basically, some places, like, look at the a manufacturing plant or something. They have to build a big enough driveway to fit a giant bus, but they only get to charge you for the car that you parked in it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Does that kind of make sense? Yes. Right? And so, like, public schooling is a little bit like this. Right? Like, they have to build the place as a service to be able to handle this

even if it turns out there's only this going to be there, or they will only be able to collect money based on which was never the case before. Right? So what was always before is they built a bus sized driveway. They collected enough money for the bus to park there. Yeah. That's the way that worked. Whether you got on the bus or not was your call. Yep. But like they got enough money to do it. Now we're talking about making it the arrangement where we still have to build the driveway big enough in case y'all decide to show up, but we might only be able to collect enough money for the car for the car. Yes. Right. Yep. Yeah. So, and so if you run and there's, there's, I think there's additional considerations in there again, like once you, once you're taking, I don't like to say government money because it's obviously it's taxpayer money. Right. But it's not all your money. Like it's, the, the allocation per student is probably more than you're paying taxes. Some of, some of you are paying $10 a year for property taxes. It's not very many of you. And so like, there's a notion of kind of the pooling of, of those resources. Like, once you start taking that and putting it into private institutions, one of those private institutions, aren't regulated in the same way. And so there could be a risk in there, but again, they'd say that about homeschooling too, which is true. There, there is a risk in there. And so, you know, but as you run it up, I would say personally, I think it is a good thing that

parents have responsibility for their children's education, especially when public services run the risk of having to be very expansive, on the types of things that your kids are exposed to that I'm not sure are always age appropriate. And so you don't have control over that. You don't have a choice. And frankly, they don't have a choice. If you don't have sympathy for people trying to manage, teach within public school systems, you're not thinking like, but I would tell you even, I think it's a good thing, but it's not as clean or as easy as you think. And you do run the risk of then leaving what is a public good, like a public school system

underfunded and unable to care for groups of students or types of students who otherwise, private institutions may not take in some way or another. And so like, there is an impact in that way that I think is, has to be addressed. It doesn't mean that the other thing isn't good. It means you have to be thoughtful about what's on the other side of that.

And I would say like a lot of the competition that goes in the public schools, I'm not sure it's particularly healthy. Like the amount of money we're spending on some of the athletic programs, like they say, oh, well, we can't keep up with that. Well, maybe we shouldn't like, maybe we don't have to do that anymore. Although I did think that this actually might encourage people to specifically go to a private school simply because they're trying to build up the baseball team. Like it can cause some behavior like that. That is probably not student wise. But what, I mean, those parents are their parents all the time. This is just a reflection of that thing. So anyway, long story short, I, I, and I find this is true for most political things is that like, I I I'm I'm probably on both parts in some ways, and says there, there's probably a 100 ways to get it wrong, but it doesn't mean there's not a way to get it right. And it's probably a thoughtful balance that recognizes one choice does act, does have an impact on someone and you're, you need to be real thoughtful about what that means for what's what remains public schooling. That's where I'm at. I, well, I mean, I, this is not my area because I'm a bit of a dummy. Right? And so like, I'll get lost in my own words here, but like I do, I struggle a little bit with,

pulling good kids out of public school because I think they need them to be there. Right. That's and I Todd Gordon made that. I would I think was similarly made that point. And, like, you will not find me like, I mean, almost everybody I know homeschools or or sends their kids to a private school and, like, you're getting no no judgment from me. I totally get it. Like, I I totally understand what you're trying to do. Mhmm. And I don't and, like, I I don't know whether it was right, wrong, or indifferent. It's just not on me to know that. But, like, I just hate to see this, and this is specifically Jesus kids. Like, I just hate to see, Jesus kids being pulled out of there because they need them there. That was, somebody asked my wife like, oh, are you going to send your kids to private school? Cause our kids are in public school. And my wife's like, no, still gonna go to public school. Like now, will that change? Who knows? We're not like diehards. We used to be a homeschooler and then we were going to public school. So we're like all over the gamut. But I do think it's interesting to see what the ramifications of things like this will be. Yeah. And like you got to kind of go to states that have already done this and like what is their school system out like now? Has there been what is the backlash? Like there is something that'll change

and we might not know for a while but right now we're gonna go to public school, but I think there's a lot of people who are thinking, okay, I'm going to change the course of this because of this. Yeah. See what happens. Right. And I think, I think even the estimates that I saw, I mean, it's, you're, it's not like a 50% exodus, like most people. And I mean, I'll tell you this, even this is as a family who chose to homeschool. There are parts of just, we have a 16 year old and like, there's communal events that my kid is not involved in that most people would look like, I mean, at least kind of fondly, but like the benefit is it's like, it was shared.

It was shared. Right? So like, Hey, oh, we did a prom with you and your old and your younger sister in the living room. It's not the same thing as you had 300 people from your graduating class. You share a night to like that. Everyone could remember and talk about the time the guy spilled the punch and Ted got drunk in the parking lot and somebody set fire to the trash can, right? Like communal events like that are, are something. And so, like, even then I think, well, you know, I wish there were things like that. And I think there is a draw to that. And I think there should be, I think there is something about that kind of thing, a communal experience. And so, like, it's just it's just never super, super black and white to me. I think there's, like you're always trying to make an imperfect decision with a lot of variables and go on to I I hope this seems like the best I got right now. And, like, what are you gonna do? And would you like and if you look at, like, of all the things that that I think our government probably screws up and even our school systems. Right? Like, if you could just think about it in an odd space for a minute and go think that they are they have good intent. Like, everything they're trying to do, they're doing with the best intention. Right? When they put an addition on the school That's helpful. They were like, hey. The population's gonna rise by this. We're probably gonna have to get tax money for this. Right? Like, they're they're not instantly thinking, I wanna indoctrinate your kids with the worst of humanity and and try to say everything's okay. And, like, this is was not their intent. Right? Some of them, they're put in this situation. They're trying to do the best they can. Right? And they're also, like, basing their

the way that they're gonna buy curriculum and update facilities and feed kids based on how many kids are in the community. And it just, it feels a little, just a little crappy, just to me, just a little crappy that goes, yeah, I hear what you're doing, but like, I'm gonna we're, we're out. We're just gonna out. We're just gonna be out. Alright. Well, so, but, but that does solve though. Like if, if there's some level of predictability, like you're not owed all the children in the district to go to a public school. Right? So like, if you knew that 10% of the kids were gonna do something else, then you should just, you shift your numbers based upon what we expect. We order fewer lunches. Yeah. Those smaller restaurants don't turn they just don't turn corners that fast. Right? No. That's true. It but The lunches do. But, like, the gym doesn't or, you know, like, they're adding on a half of the elementary school or something. You know? Yeah. Totally. I'm saying but it it will settle over time. And so it is it is a wrong thing to go, oh, all exponential growth within the community will be in the public schools when you know that there's a program of which 10% most people do. And so at you give it a decade to shift out, It should be more productive. And what's the first thing they're gonna cut when they lose budget? Right? That we can't pay the teachers any less, and we'll find out a way to do it because they have to sit somewhere, and they have to eat. There's things that, like, the budget can't change. And so the only thing that moves is, is how often we buy textbooks and how much we pay teachers. Yeah. So what's interesting though, like, I bet you you're in a small school district. Right? And so like, how dare you? You got a, you got a pool? No, we're not a pool. Okay.

You find me a school in the Metro. It doesn't have pool in it. Yeah. They flaunt it. Honestly, what I'm saying is that like, I think there is a notion of like what the high school experience is. And that that's, that is taxpayer money. And the, and there is a, so even, even within school districts, like the types of things where like, Hey, look at the difference between a private school and a public school that exists between multiple public schools. As a matter of fact, you're more likely to see the movement of people to private institutions in like urban areas. Like it's, it's not very likely that like everybody out in Greenfield, like that they're going to pop up a private school to, to like wage war against Greenfield. Right? Yeah. Like it's, it's likely to happen on commute where there's more money in the communities anyway,

because the transportation makes sense. The building costs make sense. And so like, there's a, there's going to be an imbalance. It's going to feel like there's an imbalance on how people move regardless. I think that's going to take a while to flush that out. Like, the only example I can think of is like, let's say there's there's like a mile country road to this dude's house. And he's like, stop taking my tax money. I own a plow. I will handle this on my own. I'll get myself in and out. And the county's like, okay. I totally get it. Right? And so until the guy moves and someone else moves in who doesn't own a plow. Yes. Now the county's back in charge of running this entire one year. You know what I'm saying? Yes. And he and they haven't been collecting any money to pay for it for the last six years because plow man moved in. Yes. I agree with it hard. Yeah. I think it does make it hard. And I think it's like the predictability and that's fiscally, but to, to your point, I think as you think about the intentions of people, I think that is mostly true, but the intentions of the teacher who is using like pronouns

and not telling parents is because they think it's for their kid's own good. That's the thing that people are trying to protect is like someone who says this, this teacher, this school district, something in there says, you know, better than me. No, I know you didn't want your kid to look at the sex ed thing, but like you're depriving them. And we showed them the penis. And so like, is it a, is it a right caution? Of course it is. It doesn't, does it make sense to then not be a part of that at all? That's where I think it's difficult. I think that's a much grayer area. Yeah. I agree. Alright. You're listening to life of the path. Hey, I'd, okay. I'm interested in your thoughts, but not your lobbying. (515) 517-0085. If we're not thinking about this wisely,

how can we take this in from, people who love Jesus and love children? And actually, think, I think, and love communities and love communities. I do. And I think that's the one of the things is don't be too narrow minded when it comes how you think about your community. Like, yes, maybe you're gonna, you think it's wise to take your kid and put them in the in a private school. Okay. I can respect that. But like the rest of the people who are still going to this public school, like, they're gonna be the people who are running for mayor later on and opening the gas stations. And, like, it's in everybody's best interest that people are well educated regardless of how efficiently you think the government uses the money. And so what I'm saying is you can't bail from the conversation. You can work your best to improve it. It is not in anybody's best interest to bail from and go, well, my kids are covered. I'm out. And so, my encouragement is, is, involvement.

That's where I'm at. I'm at like data collecting mode. And I love asking people this because they seem to have a great, powerful, passionate perspective. I want to hear them like, tell me why this is bad or tell me this is why this is amazing. Like, I'm just that's where I'm at. Data collection mode. Yep. Yeah. I don't know where I can fall. Yeah. And like the embeds, right? Like, it's just like everything else. It's it's always gray. Like, there's always gray in there. There's you can't just throw your foot down and go, here's the dang deal. So I totally get it. Like going at it from the perspective of they're trying to do the best for

these kids. Like nobody's like, yeah, we're going to screw the science. Well, we're to do their best is wrong. It's it's it's well intentioned, but incorrect, but still right. They're trying. Yeah. There's usually only a minimal, amount of,

people in there trying to. With an agenda to teachers. I mean, my wife works in a school, right? So I hear some of the stories and there have been situations where there's someone with an agenda. Usually at least still in this area, they do get rooted out at some point. But I don't know how much

damage, you know, they do. We have always, our kids were raised in the public school on purpose because I always figured one of these days there'll be adults in the public world. They should know how to withstand right now. Yeah. Let's process it together. Yeah. I, and now I have a grandson who, you know, is two and I'm like, boy, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what I would do now. I'm like softy grandpa, you know, I'm like, Oh, I don't know. Get, keep him out of there, you know? But

yeah, it's, it's tough though. Yeah. There is no black and white answer. There's no cookie cutter. This is how to do it. It's it's a, you gotta use discernment and wisdom and pray. And I prayed, man, I prayed a ton for my kids every single day. We did debriefings every single day from school, and that's a lot of work and lot of effort, but it was worth every moment because I didn't want anybody teaching them stuff that was contrary to a godly worldview. And so I would correct that immediately. Yep. Yeah. Alright. You got time for one question? Yeah. Let's do it. Here we go. Dear life from the past. What's

the best way to decline handshakes? In social settings, I often find myself ready to dine, hands washed, and sanitized only for someone to thrust their hand toward me expecting a handshake. The last thing I want before handling my food is to shake anyone's hand. In one instance, a man who was hosting the gathering with his wife returned belatedly from a bike ride as we were approaching the dinner table and offered me his sweaty hand, refusing elicited a dirty look from my partner and an expression of bewilderment on the face of the bicyclist. Please advise. The audacity.

Yeah. Shake my hand. You should probably stay at home all the time, Frank. You're hard to get along with. I can say what people do to me, because no one wants to shake my hand. What? No. I just wanna make sure I'm understanding this story here. How do you politely not shake the person's hands? They're they're reaching it out to you. Well, kind of, but like he was at an event where the host and his wife were on a bike ride. He was about ready to eat the food at the event being hosted by people that aren't there. Yeah. And then they come troll it in off a bike ride, sweaty and gross. Kind of the predator, like go to. Whatever. You doing buddy? And out for the handshake goes to sweatiness. Now wait a minute. Is this guy eating with his hand? One:

What does isn't he using utensils? He doesn't make Unless it's a taco bar. I don't know that this, I mean, unless you're like ham fisting stuff and throwing it in your face, just use the utensils. Okay. His issue is the shaking head. Just, just do a fist bump. They're doing the hand, just do the fist and they'll say, oh, okay. And then they'll fist bump. Yeah. Is that acceptable? Sure. Doesn't that gross sweatiness all over your fist hair? I mean, I don't want that stuff dripping onto my chicken breeze. That'll get all mixed together. So Speaker do your elbow and look really weird.

I'll tell that people did the mail. Are you serious? I was like, okay. So I licked him on the cheek. This public school then. Okay. So Dan says, just like go Judo with it. Off of the fist bump. Switch to a fist bump. I'd say shake the hand and wash your hands. That's where I'm at. I mean, that's you. Come on, man. Act like a regular. He was politely declined. He's trying to, he's asking how you decline. What would Jesus do? Not politely decline. He wouldn't politely decline. No, I think you'd call him a Viper. He'd psych. He'd do the psych. Oh, long flowing locks.

Who's the king of Kings. All right. By the way, sitting in the back of the room. So I call you up here. Okay. All right. So option one, fist bump option two, you shake hands and then go wash and rewash. Does that feel awkward though? Hey, thanks Tom. And then he sees you leave and come back. I mean, once again, put a couple of thoughts together. Hey man, I gotta run the bathroom real quick. You don't have to say whether it's a juicy. He just came to the party. He might know that. What does he know? He was out on a bike ride when people meet in his place. I stopped beating with this guy. You could faux sneeze into your hand, like shake his hand and then go, and then say, oh, I gotta go wash my hands. I mean, why don't you be honest with it? Right? Like, it depends on how know how well you know the guy. If some sweaty dude come up to me and try to shake hands while I'm trying to eat dinner, he's like, hey, man. How's going? He's like, I'm trying to eat dinner. Go wash yourself up. We can we can shake hands after I'm done. I think these are all short term short term solutions here. Mike, come in for a handshake. Okay. Do it. You have a little smooch on the hand. Okay. You become the smooch on the hand guy. Nobody knows. I mean, there's there's something to Problem solved for life. Let's say it was not wrong. You go the Gaston route.

The Pope, just the ring Pope. I can't believe I fell for this. I didn't see that coming. Hey, a man who takes like a crazy cool showers has ideas. Here's the thing. He's not wrong. I'll never do that again. I will never shake the Thagos hand again. Long as I live. Okay. I think I've said this before, but I'm gonna reiterate it for the purposes of this illustration. Even if the guy didn't come from a bike ride, that man has feces on his hand. People's hands are disgusting. Keep going. You hear me? Everybody's hands are gross. Even

people who think their hands are gross. Their hands are gross. Okay. And so what I'm telling you, just like you, you look at your kids and you go, Hey, I didn't have to tell them to stop eating junk today. They just, because I ate it when you weren't looking, everybody's licked to poop. Everybody has done all kinds of like all kinds of eating stuff off the floor, touching all kinds of garbage. Like the amount of even post COVID the amount of our, our attempts at sanitation are feeble at best. Okay. There's everybody's hands filthy. And so the sweat is just obvious. And frankly, it's got a lot of salt. It's probably cleaner than a guy who came up to you on sweaty. And so I get that it feels gross to you, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not any worse. And so either suck it up or go wash your hands or guest on him or give him the, give him the kiss. Or I mean, if you're a fist bumper, then you can keep with it. I think any of these are viable options, but I'm just telling you like the ground you're trying to hold, it's a, it's a fraud. That guy's got poop on his finger. That's what I'm telling you.

Gaston's the winner for me. Yeah. Never go shake his hand again. That's a long solution. 48 points for Nathaniel. Here's what you do. Everyone Dan says, I licked the guy, and everyone's like, oh, Dan, that's crazy. And here come Nathaniel. Kissing hands. It works. Okay. Ready? Stickler says, if if this is of any comfort, you are far from the only person who dislikes shaking hands. That means you're not the only unpopular doofus around. No one wants to deal with you. Over the years, I've received letters from many others who share your concern. Some are afraid of the COVIDs. Others simply dislike physical contact. In some cultures, hand shaking is never done.

Okay. Some individuals mean It's a kiss on the cheeks. Yeah. What do you do? Unless you're from that culture, it does it does Yeah. You moved to Mozambique. You won't have this problem. Yeah. Exactly. Some individuals avoid it by placing their palms together, leaning forward a bit, smiling, and saying something like, great to see you. Wait, like a bow? Yeah. Like a, like a, one of these? Yeah. No. That's weird. Great to see Johnny Wonder bread. Agreed. Continues. You could say great to see you, or how was that bike ride? Yeah. If you don't do this already, keep a small bottle of hand sanitizer on your person to use when you're out of office. Oh, yeah. That don't look weird. You go to your Manny pack and take a couple squirts. Everybody loves that. Every time you shake their hand, they get out this thing last week. Go to the bathroom. It's way less obvious. That guy's got feces on his hands. Life from the. Okay. I bet bow when things weird. Oh, it's straight weird. Welcome. Welcome, Daniel, son. Like, there's no reason for that. Can we do that from here on now? Yeah. Whenever we see each other, just bow to me. Welcome.

How was your car right here? Or if it's Nathaniel, I know he's going to kiss my. Would you, Hey, would you kiss the guy? If guy came at you with palmed hands, would you try to give him a smooch? Oh, I don't think so. No. I'd give him the Texas whopper. I'd come around on both sides. And then I shake that. Yeah. Nobody gets away with acting like this. Here's the thing. That ain't iron sharpens iron. Right? That's hot dog bun. We we can't help people like this. We're like, look, man. I'm gonna touch you all up in your armpits and give you what Willie and you gotta get over this thing. It's handshake time. Come on, bro.

It's it feels like the Matthew McConaughey. Yeah. It is. That's what it feels like. Alright. You've been listening live from the path. Thanks so much for hanging out with us tonight. We really do appreciate it. Big thanks to Philip Ramsey from the uncommon. Go to the uncommon.com for more information to sign up. Listen to that podcast. Also, you can look for the uncommon wealth podcast. That's also Philip's. Lots of good interesting information on there. And yeah. Yeah. Enjoy. And make sure you hit him up. You got any feedback for him? You wanna talk to about the uncommon? What's a what's a good email address someone can get ahold of you at? Yeah. Philip, phillip,@UncommonWealth.com. There it is. Hook him up, and you can always let us know. Let's say you wanna say something real negative about Philip, but you're not man enough to say it to his face. We'll say it to him. Yeah. Use the Life in the Path complaint line. (515) 517-0085. We appreciate you hanging out with us, and then we'll probably be back next week. Yeah. I got a couple weeks where I might not be here. We'll see how it shakes out. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to live from the path.