Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path.

And you're listening to live from the Path. We're coming to you from the Pathway Studios here in Johnston, Proverbs. What was that? Wait a minute. I am who I am. It just felt like you melted at the end of your statement. You're like That's how the peep that's how they do it. That's how you get the people in. Connect to that? Got it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Are you are you farming out our social media to other people? Because there's a lot of emojis and stuff in some of the reels. Hey. So that I've been looking at lately. Here's what I'm gonna do. I I got this I have a service that does this for me. My people. And and, like, I have to cut the clip. So I have to go between this time and this time, this is the clip I want, and then I give it a title. And then before you publish it to Facebook from the service, it goes, hey. Do you wanna generate,

use AI to generate your post description? I'm like, yes. I do. Oh, jeez. It starts with my it pulls in the description from, our YouTube video, which I write, and then it takes it. And it, frankly, it does a pretty good job and but really spices it up with a bunch of random emojis. And so here's the deal. It they're not from the it's not my cup of tea, to be honest with you, but, like, I don't know. Maybe they work. What they're doing? Yeah. Maybe the emojis work? Yeah. I saw I saw somebody rattling on AI because it's it's they got caught for plagiarism, and I thought, isn't that actually the point? It takes everything that's been written and learned from it? Isn't that

actually opposite, though. It should be actually, it should allow you to go around it because AI should not be using verbatim stuff. Kinda mix it up a little bit. Yes. Right. It basically learned. I guess that's I assume. I assume that's what it was. Remember when you did, like, a book report in, like, third or fourth grade, and, really, what you did is you read the encyclopedia Yeah. And then you found a way to reword it so that you didn't plagiarize it? Yeah. That's what we're talking about. Yeah. I've heard of people doing that. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan wrote his own encyclopedia entries. That's right. Oh oh, my mistake, Dan. Okay. You're listening to live from the path, so welcome to episode five zero one. We're very glad to to have you on the program tonight. Here's what we have going on the show. There are a number of articles.

Good. So so there was what Ephesians five really teaches about husband wife submission. Oh, boy. K. Yeah. That's up on the docket. I thought this I'm not there's I'm not gonna read this whole thing because I don't I don't know if I wanna spend a bunch of time on it. But, like, the opening of this article was your child attending public school in The US now has a one in four chance of declaring an LGBTQ

identity before the end of high school. I I was surprised by that. Wow. That seemed I don't know. I guess, Mike, you're kinda close to that. Does that seem right? One in four? That seems a little high. Okay. Yeah. A little just a little, Yeah. Interesting.

That's national averages versus Iowa. Yeah. I suppose. And that could be, like, they they declared it for, like, two weeks and thought, I guess not. Or, like I mean Permanent. Like, I was just what I am. Well, it says declared at some point in time. I'm getting wet. I mean Yeah. So, like That could be taken both those ways, be honest. Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. Well, to be fair, it's so normalized that, like, people just look at it as, an alternative

to the like, it's just when someone goes through their goth phase or I declared a lot in high school. Yeah. I thought I legit thought until I was probably 13 that I had a full shot at being Wolverine. Like, I would go home to my apartment building and jump over park benches, and I'm like, I'm halfway there. I mean, I can see kids doing that just to break up with someone that they don't wanna really tell them the truth to. Oh, I'm gay. Yeah. Then a month later, I guess I'm not. Oh, yeah. I found you. Yeah. My identity changed a lot throughout my my high school years and, like, what I what I thought I was. Not my gender identity by any means, but, like, lot of stuff changed about me. I did everything I could based off of, like, who I liked at the time on what they would want me to be. I love my music. I would yeah. Exactly. I love this stuff. I started smoking cigarettes so that I could get a date because I was, like, in sixth grade, and this eighth grader was smoking cigarettes at the park. And I said, oh, yeah. Smoke a pack a day. Yeah. And so she handed me a cowboy killer, Marlboro Red, and I lit that thing up and smoked it wrong the whole time. And we hung out for hours at the park, and she was my new girlfriend for about five minutes. Yeah.

What? Why? Cigarettes bring people together, man. Yeah. Started smoking at 11 years old for that reason. It didn't let them advertise on TV anymore. You know that. More things bring us together. Interesting. I my I I guess well, so I guess I've always thought that about cigarettes with people, like, bumming smokes off each other or smoking together in the cold. There's a, like, a sympathy to it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Everybody wants to be at the smoker shack. Yeah. Okay. But, Mike, but as you as as a man who took up smoking in your teenage years, do you feel like it brings people together? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I actually I don't know what I was thinking. I started I waited till I was 18 Uh-huh. So I was legal and could buy a pack of cigarettes, and I did. And then I thought, this will keep me from having to talk to people at bars because, like, we were playing in a band at the time. I'm like, I'll just go outside and smoke. And that way, this will be then it won't be awkward. Well, there's all kinds of people Yes. Out there

You know? And so then you're still talking to people out there. Then you realize that, like, if you smoke, you got a friend somewhere. Right? The truth. Hey, man. Can I have one of those? Sure. They'll go, it's a menthol. Like, I guess not. Yeah. Yeah. I'll have one. I guess so. If it's the only option. Yeah. If that's all there is. Yeah. Totally. I was yeah. I I became good friends with a bunch of people because I smoked when I was in high school, and everybody thought it was a cool thing to do. I mean, everybody knew it was dumb, but, like, when you're the smoking kid, it's You're the drug. Get off the bus and light up a cigarette. Would you actually, your story is interesting to me, Bubba, because, like, at eight at eight as an eighth grader, it would feel like you don't come across cigarettes very easy, and so I would be loath to share them. But is that that's wrong. The smoker's mentality is I I'm willing to buy a friend for a stick. If I if I knew the people that were that were the cashiers, I'd get cigarettes. No problem. Yeah. And if for some reason, I couldn't because I was a big kid, and so, like, they didn't ID me very often, to be honest with you, now back in Altoona. Yeah. But when I was, like, I I knew older people because I was a smoker, and, we'd hang out at the parks and smoke cigarettes. And so if I couldn't get one, they could get back. Did people, like, make a business out of it? Like, hey. Give me an extra buck. No. We're never smart about that stuff. We were just trying to be buddies and look cool. Yeah. And you didn't smoke a ton of them. You know what I'm saying? It's not like like, once you're a once you're a seasoned smoker, you're like you go through a pack a day or something. Like, when you're younger, it's, like, three. A pack would a pack would last me a week. Yeah. Because, I mean, that's expensive. Like, you're 5 to $7 at the time when I started smoking.

And it would be baby them. You'd really baby them. Oh, actually. It'd be one on the way. I I would smoke. I would get off the bus. I would light up a red, and I would walk down the street to my house where I would immediately walk inside and shower because I knew I smelled like cigarette smoke. Yeah. And I have a distinct memory of my mom getting home from work earlier one day, and I was walking down the road with a cigarette in my hand, and I saw her convertible turn the corner, and I flicked the cigarette away. And she pulls up. She goes, what was that? I go, nothing. And she goes, what was that? And I'm like, it's a cigarette. And she goes, okay, you're walking the rest of the way home. And I was a little fat kid. Yeah. And that was the most angering thing to me even though it was got dropped off at the end of my street and my street, my house was halfway down my street. So I was walking

three quarters of a block and I was furious that she would not let me into her car. She goes, no, you smoke, I don't want you in my car. And I'm like, let me in this car right now, woman, and she drove off and I was more angry about that than more most of the things that I was angry as a child about. And then she said, well, when I when my brother was caught smoking as a as a child, my parents made him smoke the whole pack, so we're gonna do that. So they had me smoke the whole pack, and I just went, okay. There you go. And I smoked the whole pack. You're gonna get sick to my stomach like crazy, and then I went back to smoking, like, a week later. Uh-huh. It's bad. Okay. Bad stuff. Alright. Also, there's a there's an article from Chris Lowen, who is the lead singer of Redding Collective.

And it was this was from February this year, and the column was was called proud to be a biblical Christian. Here's why that might be a problem. And I thought, oh, no. What does he mean? Is he putting me at risk? So we'll we'll cover that. Plus, we got advice on dear life and the path. Yeah. Smoke them. Okay. So let's let's start with this. Oh, boy. We might as well light the fires here. I tell you what. So so these these these articles from the Christian Post. I got in a tussle with the Christian Post six years ago because of their their pop up ads.

Like, the when you get on there, they're like, hey. You wanna register for the site? Or I the the option was, yes. I wanna register for the site. Or, no. I don't want truth in my inbox. And I said so I screenshotted it, and I put it on Twitter. I've used Twitter, like, four times. This was one of the times I used the Life From The Path account, and we tagged the Christian post. And I said, hey.

For a Christian outlet, you're forcing me into a lying box, and you should be ashamed of yourselves. Yourselves. Now they changed the pop up ad within, like, two or three days. It no longer said that anymore. But doggone it, they are they are aggressive Yeah. In this trying like, I I just don't wanna sign up for your freaking for your site. Okay. What Ephesians five really teaches about husband wife submission? The sentence including Ephesians five twenty two actually starts at five eighteen. Paul commands all believers, be filled with the Holy Spirit, followed by examples of what people do who are filled with the spirit, concluding with five twenty one, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Paul states that mutual submission is required of all believers. He continues his sentence in five twenty two, wives to your own husbands without adding the verb submit. The NIV paragraph break after verse 21 is in the middle of a sentence. This is not justified.

Okay. I have now the NIV, especially the newest rendering of it, has been very dicey, not only on word choice, but, like, where they break things up that that give impressions of things that aren't that aren't right. Separation should Yeah. Like, you can blame the chapter split on a monk from, like, whatever, the fifteen hundreds. But, like, they are the sentence breaks, are are on the, Bible publishers. Yeah. So all right.

Let's see. Wives to your own husbands with no verbs. Splitting the sentence gives into two paragraphs separates wives to your own husbands from the context Paul gives it three quarters, namely mutual submission. That's true. I remember teaching through Ephesians and, like, that was one of the big risks because everyone's waiting for this husband, wife business. And, like, contextually,

he's talking about mutual humility and service as a church body and, like, almost calling out, like, wives to husbands going, yes, even in that relationship. Like, the place where we're most likely to get it wrong to the worst effect is places is the people we're closest to and to go, yeah. It's everybody, even that one Mhmm. Type of thing.

Originally, there was no verb in Ephesians five twenty two. The earliest manuscript of Ephesians five twenty two do not include the verb submit nor does it citations by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Atedi of Mos Pistia. I'm gonna stop you right there. I don't have any idea what's going on right now. Like, do you mean? I don't understand what this article is about. So so they're providing you context that, like, when people wanna talk about in Ephesians five about husband wife submission, they tend to start on verse five twenty one. What's the what's the what's the verse that's up for debate? I'll just read it. Or five twenty two. Do go Sorry. 22. That's that's the problem. Is that the thing you just asked? But go it's Ephesians five twenty two.

Ephesians five twenty two. K. But you're supposed to start at 18, they say. Yes. Okay. If I start at 18, it says, and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery,

but be filled with the spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior. Yeah. So so two things the two things he was getting at was one context and second is text itself. So the first one was context that we tend to focus on the husband wife stuff as a primary teaching or takeaway point when, like, the context of it is actual mutual submission among the church. Right. Like, among believers. Gotcha. So so we gotta be careful about overcranking on that. Secondly, and that what version was that ESV? Yeah. Okay. Interesting. So like, says that the verb submit, it doesn't actually exist when it says, wives submit to your husbands. Like, gives, that that verb submit isn't actually in there. Now I think it's implied that as a body, you submit to yours to to each other,

wives to wives to your husbands included. I mean, you separate it and put a title there, you have to remind them what they're talking about. Yes. Right. Right. So part of that comes because it's split it. Thought. Like, okay. Here. Take this stuff in. By the way, also, completely separate thought, wives, this husband. Husband. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So the so the so, like, if you were to read it in your bible, you would find a heading that says wives and husbands in between the talk of submitting to the holy spirit, and then you would see the wives and husbands as if it's a new thought, like, it's a subcategory. And so the the the

thing is is, like, if we're talking about what it sounds like you're saying, while we're on the subject of submitting, wives submit to your husbands. But what it should say, what it should more feel like is while we're on the subject of submitting to the Holy Spirit, this would fall in line with that. Yes. And

it's a type of relationship that deserves unique focus because this often comes up in my house. You tell me that you don't look at your household and oftentimes your children are harsher to each other than they are to their friends. Yes. You are not as gracious sometimes with your wife as you would be with somebody else, a friend, a friend's wife, something like that. Right? You tend to be hardest on and less graceful and merciful to the people that are closest to you. And so, like, contextually,

there is a there is a a consideration that says, yes, this is for everybody. And now I, like, I need you to apply it even to those close relationships where you may have actually caused the problem of niching out something that you shouldn't. Yeah. It's like the parable it's like the good Samaritan. Yeah. Right? Like, even this person would do x. Right? Like, so this principle applies even even as your mortal enemy or even as your closest ally or your closest relationship on earth. Okay. Yeah. I got it. So then he continues, and let's we'll get to the kind of his point. The command that wives submit to their husbands, therefore, should be understood in the context of mutual submission. This context requires that husbands too should submit to their wives. In this chapter, Paul's call calls all Christians to mutual submission and sacrificial sacrificial love. Since Ephesians five twenty one uses the reciprocal pronoun, it cannot refer to submission to superior rank. Rather, it's about submission in the sense of voluntarily yielding

in love. This includes husbands and wives within their marriages. Paul's words are crafted to fit the Greco Roman households he addresses. Paul encourages wives to respect the man who provides them with food, shelter, clothing, companionship, and love, but this does not exempt them from loving their husbands. Husbands then, like husbands today, could be emotionally distant and have their separate worlds. They needed to be told to love their wives, and this applies to husbands today. This does not exempt them from respecting their wives. Paul does not give any command here in Ephesians five that applies only to husbands. Now interestingly, this isn't the only teaching. Right? So I think it would be cautious about saying the full notion of how we think about relationships exist only in Ephesians five, but this is a right caution on reading your scripture carefully

and not proof texting or trying to grab things just to especially if you're trying to assert an authority. I find authority lazy, generally speaking. Like, there's a difference between responsibility and people who are looking for power because it allows them to be lazy and unthoughtful. The harder work is actually coming to things mutually. The harder work is sacrificing and being humble on both sides of things.

So, like, anybody that would reach for this as a bad is using it wrong. Yeah. Well, the hard hard at work is loving your wife as Christ loved the church. Yes. I I mean, that that's that's pretty intense right there. Yes. It's crazy big. Yeah. It's crazy big. We It's not sitting back saying, woman, get me a beer. Right. Right. Right. You know? I mean, interestingly enough, I think that that's a lot that's where a lot of the, I'll call it societal pushback comes from. Yeah. Kind of stuff. I misunderstand them. Well, I mean,

you when you have have, you know, freaking nincompoops run around as dudes that, are are are calling this out and going, hey. Your job is to submit to me, and you're a frigging schmuck in all situations. Don't love your wife very well, all the different stuff. Makes it really frigging hard Yeah. To look at this and go, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Because it's it's it's easy to call out the submission of wives to husbands. The husbands suck at loving their wives like the like Christ loved the church. Yeah. Just flat out. You can be a distant jerk who's self centered and selfish in every single Yeah. Way,

and then your wife has to do everything you ask. Right. That's good. That's got Jesus all over. Yeah. You are an awful husband. Wife, you remember what we read in Ephesians at church last week, and then it was also called out in what, first Peter or whatever it is. You know, you're supposed to submit to me, and I'm the I'm the head of this household. That means what I say goes and blah blah, like, foot down crap. Yeah. It's like, what a what an awful rendering of what that looks like. And and, like, here's the thing. I and I know, especially in our societal context, we get all rubbed up on this kind of stuff. But, like, you tell me that the that the the the scriptural direction, the letters that these guys are writing are are trying to get at things of which we tend to stink at by gender.

Like, men, like, just tend to stink at, like, loving and serving their wife at when they are at remember, we talked about this in the past, but it was like, what tends to be of benefit also can be our greatest weakness. What is beneficial for a man who a guy can who can be out in the fields all day and then who can defend his family and and all these types of kind of, like, like, aggressive using

power and authority to get things done, commanding the the people who work for him, that kind of thing can be misapplied to his relationship with his wife. He needs to be reminded to love sacrificially and humbly for his wife to treat her like, we get hyped up about that goblet thing. Don't boss your wife around. Don't treat her like a field hand. This is a woman that is supposed to actually complete you and refine you, make you a better person. There are things like from a lady's perspective where it

goes back to what God says back in Genesis. There are times where it's an overstep. It's a desire. Sometimes ladies have a this is true for everybody. Don't send the letters. But a

desire to control all the things and not allow someone to help them and help refine them. And, like, that's why they're the the Bible is talking about mutual things, and it tends to target let's just go with stereotypical if you need a word, things that men and women struggle with. And so be open to that. Like, that's what they're trying to get at. But, like, if the core if these core things are getting at stuff that we want anyway and that we that we all agree are probably best for everyone, like, we're gonna be super cautious about getting all tied up in some of the examples and words because they're not as nuanced as your personality.

It's interesting. I've never thought of, of of that perspective when it comes to those letters. Like, literally it's it's never meant to be an exhaustive list of here's how you live your life from a to z. It's literally, hey. I know what you've been doing. Like, I've heard about what's happening. I and Paul over here have knowing you in Ephesus, I know what you've done. And because of that, I'm sending you a letter of edification to go, this is the right way to do this kind of stuff. It's not exhaustive list of morals and how to live your life. It's I know this is happening, and I'm calling it out. Same as the letter to the Philippians is different. Same as this. I mean, there's common themes in some of them, but, like, it basically is knowing who you are. These are the kind of things you need to work on and stuff like that. It's not, well, I have to call this out because, you know, all women and all men will do this forever. It's just like it's something that is edifying to them to help them rightsize their relationship with each other as it's reflective of their relationship with the church and Christ.

He's kinda hitting both sides of the coin here too. He's telling us to do things that we are stereotypically not good at, and it's feeding into what stereotypically

we want to receive. Yeah. Does that make sense? It's like, Husbands love your wives, but your wives need that. You're right, They need to know they're loved and that there's some security in the whole thing. Yeah. And wives submit to your husbands. Well, we we kinda we kinda have egos. We just want someone to feed our ego a little bit. You know? That just builds us up. We're building each other up. We're submitting to one another when we love each other the way Paul said to do. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a game of who's boss. It's it's how you love each other best. Yes. Yes. That's exactly right. So we were belabor this point because I think we we kinda touched some of this stuff a

number of weeks ago, but, like, two I'm gonna read these two other paragraphs just because he rounds it out. This passage highlights Christ's love and self giving, not Christ's authority. It teaches how much love Christ has for the church and, therefore, how much love husbands should have for their wives. The key point of the analogy Paul stresses is love your wives as Christ loved the church. Not that the husband has authority over his wife and certainly not that the husband's authority corresponds in any way to the authority Christ has over the church. That would be like deifying husbands. Ephesians five thirty two, this mystery is profound, but I'm speaking about Christ and the church expresses the mystery of Paul's analogy. This understanding of the submission of wives to husbands as one aspect of mutual submission fits Paul's instructions,

far more extensive and also radical in his culture for husbands to love, cherish, and nourish their wives. The following passages about children and slaves use a different verb, obey, which is true. Right. And so, anyway, I I just I I part of the reason this article stood out to me is that this guy's actually dealing with trying to rightly render the text as opposed to coming to it with a predisposition of I don't like what this says because it doesn't match me or my personality, or I think it's offensive in some way, and how do I change it?

I mean, you can people can, and I have tried to twist scripture even going back to, well, the Greek says this so that it means something, like, wild, and they've done it inappropriately. But, like, this is an attempt to at least render something wisely, and so I thought it was helpful. Yeah. Okay. Let's hit up that article. So the question is, are you proud to be a, this is in quotes, biblical Christian? Here's why that might be a problem.

Bov, are you proud to be a biblical Christian? Careful. I don't have a lot of pride in in what I do. That's fair enough. See, now you gotta be careful because you're like, well, rank collect a good guy. Seems like he might say I shouldn't be, and so now it puts me in a real pickle. No. I just know you guys will call me out if I say I'm prideful about anything. He said, I mean, that seems right. I recently pulled my Instagram followers asking them three questions. Is it important to you to be a biblical Christian? Is it important to challenge leaders whose worldview is unbiblical,

and have you actually read the whole bible? Okay. These are these three questions. I love it. I love the third question. Yeah. Was gonna say I'm glad the first two questions are there. They're just like, yeah. I'm a biblical Christian. Oh, no. It's finished it. I've never read it. Okay. So and and it's it's it did what you think it did. 75% answered yes. It's important to be a biblical Christian. 87%

said yes to the second. It's important to challenge leaders whose worldview is unbiblical, and yet only 51% replied yes to the third. I was gonna guess 32. So we'll never know. Yeah. We'll never know if you actually are. We get and think think of the indignance. 90% of people go, yeah. I should challenge people whose worldview is unbiblical, and half of them have actually read my What does that say exactly? I don't know. But he's wrong, I tell you. Somebody's got a job to do this.

He said, so if my poll takers and think of this. Think of his subsection. People who are followers of the lead singer of Wren Collective, that's the group. This is not including all kinds of other people. K? So of my poll takers, 24% of them find an important part of their identity in a book they haven't read, and six to 36%

are ready to correct unbiblical teaching without having given the source tech a once over. That is fantastic. He says other more official statistics tell a similar story. LifeWay Research found that only thirty two percent of churchgoers have read the bible cover to cover at least once. 32. Yeah. There you go. With a mere 9% reading it daily.

The point of this is certainly not to shame anyone. Spiritual disciplines are hard to cultivate. But perhaps we do need to change our relationship with scripture, and that starts with reading it. Historically speaking, we are in an incredibly privileged position. If you're reading this right now, you are at least literate, not something which could be said of many of our ancestors. You also have access to the Bible in your own language, probably in multiple translations. And, crucially, you are very unlikely to be beheaded or tortured to death for reading it. I mean, he's right. Dang. The man's not wrong. In the past, Christians were without access to scripture, meaning they had to take the word of their priest as gospel. Today, we can fact check the sermon in real time, yet it seems like a good portion of us are happy with blindly believing the preacher. If church history teaches us anything, it is that an uninformed congregation is vulnerable to abuse. Reading the bible ourselves offers protection from the danger of predatory power structures.

I you know, I was having this conversation with my wife because she was talking about a couple different, like like, studies for the kids or something over the over the summer, and I think some video series or something like that. Oh, I know. It was it was in reaction to guys who were were warning people about the prosperity gospel essentially and the dangers of Hillsong. K? That's what this thing was about.

And I remember I watched this preview of this thing. It was supposed to be like a preview. It was like eight minutes long. So like a Ben preview then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like the opening of something I might do. And, anyway, this guy's going on and on and on about stuff. And I thought, like, you know what solves this problem is reading the scriptures. It's the same reason and I I gave her the example because we've talked about it in here is that, like, this is why I can go, look. Maybe I don't love everything that gets taught from the pastor of Hillsong, but, like, we can listen to Hillsong music if you're discerning

about what it is and go, okay. That's biblically true. I can sing that. I don't believe in that. I'm gonna let that one go. I said that but, like, I don't need to watch a video on like, as if it's a separate set of knowledge to otherwise filter out crappy teaching.

If if you have the ability to read scripture, like, even poorly, I'm telling you, Even even if you're not good, even if sometimes you take words in and go, I don't even understand the three sentences I just took in. I'm telling you, some level of faithful bible reading, you will be able to sort some of this stuff out. Well, and you should be showing up with your own questions. Right? Because, like, where it it's not quite so simplistic that a regular Joe Schmo can approach the bible and understand everything that's going on here. Right? Cultural context goes a long way remembering that that, like, the Canaanites are trouble, right, like, from from earlier. And that you're like, these are the same people? Yeah. These are the same people. You know? And so, like, it it's some of it it's it's just a very large book. And, like, we don't read for deep information anymore. We skim everything. Right? You get through news articles on the on the Internet quickly.

You scan five paragraphs, you move on. You know? And so, like, we don't read deeply anymore. And so, like, it's it's not the same prescription as it used to be. Like, do I think people should should spend time in their Bible? Yeah. I do. Do I think that we get less out of it than we would've before the Internet was invented? Yeah. I do. I think we struggle with with how fast information is delivered to us and how we tend to take it in. And, right, if you do a cursory reading of Ephesians five, you're probably gonna be offended. Like, if you take it in the way that it is written in your Bible right now with the spaces and the subheadings, and you're like, oh, that's gonna go over poorly. I wonder like but, like, a faithful Christian goes, well, I'd like to understand this better because this does not match the character of God that I've read at all. And you don't have to deeply understand the origins of the Hittites just to understand god's character through most of it.

He says so after that, says, but why do you we want to wear the adjective biblical as a badge rather than read the book gathering dust on our bedside table? Perhaps it's about belonging. We know that saying we're a biblical Christian is a password to inclusion in the evangelical community. Who says that, by the way? I don't know. I think he does. I've never heard anyone say that. Yeah. You know, one of the interesting things I was thinking about this a few weeks ago. Is that, like, how do you know like, what feels normal to me? Like, how do I know whether that's normal to everybody else? Because I think of how many times we've heard like, read an article and we're like, we don't know anybody that behaves this way. Right? And, like, Dan goes Dan has a church that's different than the church that I go that I have. Right? Like, your background is is different, even even denominationally different than what my background is, and still, I don't recognize some of these behaviors. Mhmm. And so, like, it's very interesting. Actually, a traveling Christian band would be a super interesting group of people to talk to about, like, hey, man. Where are all the things happening? I bet you see the best of it and the worst of it. Oh, yeah. Life for sure. I could see that. So he says,

in fact, we might say biblical when we actually mean an evangelical interpretation of key verses. Okay. As a worship leader, I've seen firsthand that every denomination believes the Bible is God's word. It's not like there are nonbiblical Christians. Oh, interesting. There are Christians who differ in their interpretation of scripture, but that doesn't mean they hate the Bible. Reading scripture regularly in its entirety is important, but we also need to remember the fundamental reason why we read the Bible. For me, it is to establish a connection with the living God. It is the place where I first met him, and it's the element of my spiritual life that shapes and forms me. When I spend time with scripture, my soul shifts towards Jesus. It inspires me as a songwriter for sure, but also to become more like Christ, and I want that for the church. We should aspire to be known as biblical, not because we're ready to battle for it in theological debate or because we have the bumper sticker on our car, but because we look like Jesus. Yeah. That was my one of my favorite things is is I saw Rain Collective in concert recently, and he's introducing a song. He's like, this is right out of Amos. I'm like, who writes a song out of Amos? This

is awesome. Biblical Christians. Biblical Christians do. Yeah. I mean, he could've nailed it more. Right? Like, I just I I don't know how many times, like, I start to worry that it's actually not true that I'm like, are you reading your Bible? Are you reading your Bible? Are you in your God's word at all? Are you breathing or praying? Either one of these things. And and and, like, 95% of the time, it's like, you know, I'm doing the best I can. And I'm like, hold on right there. Like, I I was on board with the struggle, but, like, I won't be lied to. You are definitely not doing the best you can. Right. People I mean, because we got every excuse in the world why we won't do it, why we don't have time for it. But, like, there's absolutely no good reason to not have time to shift your heart towards Jesus. And that is honestly where it's done. Like, it's it's preaching is is helpful.

Like, to be to be taught things is helpful. To worship is is God mandated. But, like, to know why you're worshiping or what you're worshiping about. Right? You can't know that without the scriptures. You just flat out can't know. And wouldn't you wanna know for yourself, like, so you're not getting bamboozled, not being sucked in by ridiculousness or not prone to flights of believing God is behind the thing that he's not. Right? I just I don't understand. Like, I know that I fail in this area, but I would never be like, yeah. I'm doing the best I can. This is the best I can muster. That's a flat lie. It is definitely not the best you can muster. If I told you Dilly bars were available in your basement 06:30 every morning as long as you get up and get them, Dilly bars and $15. I'm gonna pay you every morning. You know you know what you'd find? Mike Foose down there, 6625. Looking for Dilly Dilly bars stand and the $15 to come out. Yeah. And I'd be there all the time. You'd I would never fail. Every morning, I'd be. Yeah. Yeah. It's like

it goes back to, you know, all the for all the Christian content that's out there, like, 95% of the things that I might worry about my kids or the folks in the church or the youth group or something getting a getting a hold of and leading them astray, faithful bible reading and prayer at some level, basic level of understanding keeps 95 of the stuff at bay. 5% of the stuff is really subversive.

Like, it's it's so craftily intertwined that some guy could defend his position on something that I believe to be unbiblical, and he could support it using all the scriptures in the world. But that's very rare. The vast majority of the things are, like, easily sniffed out. So, like, treat your Bible as your as, like, that's your hometown pastor. So when you go somewhere else and someone starts talking, you go, yeah, but my pastor at home said this. Like, it's your Bible. Yeah. And treat your prayer life as your counselor. Yep. Right? Instead of discussing it ad nauseam with all Christians around you, did you even ask the living God?

Did you ask your dad what the deal was? Did you say, hey, This seems outrageous or, like, I'm super worried about my kids. Can you give me any peace or comfort? Can you show me what this is gonna look like? I'm in either way, but, like, can you help me understand this different? And, like, God's a God who gives good gifts. He's a good daddy, and you didn't ask him at all. You just kinda rolled around thinking it over for, like, six weeks, figuring you did just come to you. You know, what's interesting is and this this is kind of tangential, but I'm I will I'll try to sum it up quickly. In any of the, realms of the the junk that goes on in my brain, and when I'm at my lowest points, it's when I don't,

have a a good focus on truth is probably the best way to put it. I start believing a lot of lies, and a lot of stuff just goes crazy out of whack. Right? The exact same situation that helps me in my mental state and and my emotional trauma response thing is the exact same help and thing that I need in my relationship with God.

The bible is my root of truth. It is a collection of stories, and and teachings that tell us exactly who God is from his mouth and and his word come to life, and it is a a constant rightsizing in how things work. And when I'm in in the best strides of my relationship with Christ is when all the other crap can exist, but I always have that truth to go back to, and it is a daily thing that I can go,

I can believe that I don't trust God because of blah blah blah, but, like, nope. I'm in my Bible and I'm praying, and I know that's right because I've read it over and over again. God's shown me that over and over again. I've prayed through this over and over again. It's the exact same thing. My brain needs the same thing in my spiritual life as I do in my mental trauma life. I just need to be reminded of true things so that all the gunk goes away and no longer holds power. Yeah. So so Boob and I have been doing this lately. Last couple couple weeks. Right? We've been on accountability train with each other, make sure we're reading the scriptures. Tell me, has it made a difference in your life, Boob? Frigging huge difference. Huge. Insane. Huge. I know I know that I've screwed up. Right? And then and, like, I was down about it. Like, I don't know. I ran my mouth or something I shouldn't have done. You know? And I'm like, why do I always do this? You know? And, like, and, like, the old feeling crept in where I'm like, god has got to be so disappointed in me. Right? You know? And then Jude goes, you're called, beloved, and kept. Those three things are true for you right now. Right. And I'm like, man, that's true. Okay. That's this true. Book or the collection of books as a as a thing to go, like, hey. Point back to this. Yes. I'm still here. I did not leave. No matter what the world is doing, no matter what your earthly temptations or your fallen nature says, come back to me because I did not move. You moved because you started walking away, but I never changed or moved. I still love you. I still come to you where I'm at. I'm still the freaking dad that runs to you and hands you a ring and a robe. Nothing has changed. You tried to walk. I'm still here. So and and, like, you can only speak that confidently about it if you read it. You were just told that you know it. Yeah. Right? And, like and and it is like, it starts to get into the spiritual realm too. Right? You're, like, opening up to god and saying, hey. I I wanna be in relationship with you. It's very obvious you wanna be in relationship with me. Right? Like, what what do you want me to know? Like, what it's why people can read the bible a thousand times and have a thing pop out and you're like, mercy not sacrifice. The heck does that mean? I glazed over that last time I was in here. Why is this poking me in the eye right now? You know? And, like, the holy spirit does that. Yeah. Totally. I was we were doing a share week at church this week, and I was reading back through some stuff. And, like, the thing that I shared that we didn't wanna not, like, leave behind from Matthew one to seven, like, I taught the thing, and the thing that I shared wasn't even something that I taught.

As I was reading back through it, I thought, heck, man, that really sticks with me. It didn't even come up as part of the teaching. And so it's just makes me think about even my marriage. I feel like I cannot get more than one thing right at a time. Right? As soon as something gets my attention, I'm gonna let something else go and it's gonna fail. And so I'm constantly playing badminton,

like, trying to trying not to, like, suck in some way or another. And, like, there's a reason constant scripture reading, like, has to be there is because, like, as humans, we just tend to gravitate toward a, like, a thing, a one thing. And, like, this is how people can get on the we get all fired up on social justice, which you like, I again, right context, you should. I'm for it if you're doing it rightly and in the right thought. But, like, you become blind to everything else, like calling people to repentance.

Right? And and and recognizing how, like, you can you can change behavior, but it doesn't it doesn't actually shift the world unless you're actually changing hearts. Right? But, like, we can get so focused on something that in and of itself is a good thing that, like, without constantly reading scripture and having it, like, continue to build out and frame up your walls, you can create your own what seems like a really good blindness. Right? And so, like, scripture reading goes, god there's, like, a million things to know about god. You can't remember them all. And so you're reading These are, like, stuff too. That's why they put rocks places. Exactly. Like, it's it's you need the reminder

of all I don't know how many times, like, I, like even easier. I get on a trip about something, and then I read some different letter by some different guy. I was like, oh, yes. That was the that was the yang. That was the balance to the thing that I'm that I'm over here. Right? God says, sacrifice. Honor me as holy. And then he says, I want mercy, not sacrifice. If both are true, now what now how do I live? And so, like, yeah, it's totally it's totally important. Yeah. You've you've listening to life from the past. I just feel like we gotta get away. Like, I don't even feel like we do this anymore. It just feels like such an old school thought that, like, your daily bible reading is a measure of, like, your value or quality as a Christian. And, like, nobody thinks that. I don't think that. I think you're foolish for not doing it. I think I'm foolish for not doing it. Yeah. Right? You're missing out on a thing. This is not no one's measuring you. Right? We're talking about availability to the god of the universe,

and you're like, yeah, I'll see if I can swing by maybe sometime. I don't know. It's like going to your grandma's house where you know they're gonna talk for two hours. You're like, ah, I really should go, but it's just gonna be horrible. That is not my experience in Bible reading. Right? You get there and you're like, this is home. I love being here. And I've I've been putting this off for what? Right? So I could mow the yard again? I don't know. That sounds dumb. Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's similar to actually, let's see. Use your $15. Oh, make it $20 because it's a single bill. $20 and a dilly bar. Maybe that doesn't get people excited anymore. Let's call it a cool $75. $75 and two dilly bars? That's still pretty Two dilly about 20 bones. I'm behind you. No. No. Two dilly bars and 75 bones. Okay. Every morning, it's down there. You would be like I mean, it's not gonna harm you if you leave it down there, but, like, why?

Yeah. Like, why would you why would you do that? Like, you're being cost yourself. You're being foolish. Yes. All you gotta do is get your pasty buns out of bed and go get it. Actually, let me so this that metaphor breaks down because it's not it's it's harmful not to read scripture, actually. Like, if you go forever like, you're not interacting in that way. Yeah. Plus if they leave the dilly bars out of the fridge and start to stink, that's gonna be a mess. But well, but the but your neighbor's not gonna come over and yell at you. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That that's probably the right the right comparison. You're leaving dilly's on the table? Yeah. Many dillies. Leaving dillies on the table. I'm gonna put that on a T shirt. Yeah. If you want that on a T shirt, you need to let us know. That'll get you arrested in Houston. What? What? What? That's another T shirt in Memphis. One out of four. That's how this happens.

Dad thought it was funny. What a weird drama. It's because the phrase dilly's in Houston could go many different ways. I haven't been reading. No. No. I haven't been reading. Alright. Hey. May that'd be a good reminder. Maybe you had something to kick off the year for bible reading, and let's say it's failed and

people are tired of reminding you of it. Life from the Path is here to encourage you. Just pick it up, man. Start small if you have to. Get in the get in the habit of it, but like, it's it serves it's it's it's a ministering item to be in your scripture consistently. And so hop back on that train. And if you needed accountability, man, it sounds like Mike and and Boov are accountable. So, like We'll put you on the text string. Yeah. Yeah. So just send your like, give us a text message on the old Life from Path Complete line, and they'll they'll throw you in on it. You don't even have to identify yourself. You can be a mystery man if you wanna be. I don't care. Yeah. I don't care either. Okay. I'll make it happen. Don't don't put Mike on it. Okay. I'm doing a Jude study, and it's hard to write down the 20,000 verses I have to go cross reference. And so I haven't been saying read first Samuel.

So I've just been saying, okay. No. But do you wanna know what he has been saying? What? Nothing. Oh, he he's not he's not. You're being not a he's he's posturing as though the the other opportunity for him to say is just like, hey, man. Did the study again today, which interestingly enough is what he told me he would do Yeah. When he first said, I'm not really gonna be reading anything specific. I'm gonna be doing a study, so I'm just gonna let you know when I do the study every day. And I go, killer. That has not happened once. Heard from him. He will respond when I text him and say, got it. Yeah. Like, as in I received your text message. He texted 11:45. I'm in bed. Yeah. What? Really? I texted 11:45

one time, and that's because my phone didn't send it three hours prior. Amateur. I get up early. Is the right place for us to have this conversation. Amazon came to my house at four this morning and woke up my dog and delivered a package. What? Yeah. Four in the morning? I mean, fortunately, I was already awake, but I'm like, it it says, your your thing's on the map. You know? I'm like, what? You're 10 stops away. I'm like, what? And all of sudden, my ring doorbell, there's someone at your front door, and the dog goes, hey. Sorry. You just kinda triggered me there. Love that. That's an Amazon guy that goes, you know, if I get up early, I go home early. Here's Man, that was that's just Those are early. Damn that. Those are contracted. Do you know that? Yeah. Are independent contractors. I don't know that. They give you the van? Yeah. Like, the like, you can use the van. I think there's a rental thing related to it, but, like like, Pete, you can own a an Amazon route. So it so it does work the way. Like, guy gets up. If he can get his packages delivered by 03:00, he done. When do you guys feel like you got old?

I haven't. You haven't? Okay. Ben? I'm I'm Sprightly. Mike? No. A couple years ago. Couple years ago? Okay. I think I'm on the mic wagon. I recently had a long conversation about the anger I felt in my heart for how much it cost to get a cold cup of coffee at the Caribou Coffee, and I'm willing to call them out by name. Yeah. That's right. Because I pulled up to the joint and they said, are you a member? And I said no. And they went, what's your phone number?

Instead of would you like to join? And I've taught salespeople before. So I went, I know what you're doing. Yeah. I was very tired at the time and just gave them my number. Oh. Which was dumb. Admittedly, thankfully, they have not. But then I went, I would like a just a black iced coffee, please. And they went, okay. We have cold brew. And I went, I don't want cold brew. That's that's $5. Right? She goes, yeah. I was like, I want a cup of black coffee with just ice in it. And she goes, well, the the coffee comes hot. And I went, I'm aware of that.

I'm I'm aware of how coffee works. Yep. You have ice in need you. I I know you could that cold brew is gonna have ice in it. I need you to just start from a cup of black coffee and then get to that point. And it broke down so gloriously that, like, I I just went, just give him the cold brew.

And she went, great. That'll be $5.55. Oh. And I was like, I mean Thanks for joining the club. 5 right. I gave her my number at 555. My wife is you. My wife is sitting right next to me, and I went, 555 for a cup of black coffee. Oh, you done got got the I've I've got the best job I've ever had in my life, and, like, the lord has blessed me in many wonderful ways to where $5 isn't a freaking bank breaker anymore.

But, like, I feel like it was, and I was like, I can't do this. And so I pull up one car length, and I look at my wife. I go, there's nothing that is gonna keep me in this line to pay $5.55 for that Gold Brew coffee. I'm not doing it. And she goes, you can't just pull away. I was like, I absolutely can. She's like, if this person pulls it up for me and I have an out, I'm getting out of here. And she just goes, are you serious? I'm like, I'm dead serious, woman. This is my foot to the ground. I'm not paying $5.55 for a cold brew coffee. And I drove away, and it was, like, the greatest feeling in my life. Like, it was my way of putting it to the man, and I was like, uh-uh. You ain't gonna catch boob a penny $5.55 for no cold brew coffee.

She called you three times? And, literally, my wife was like, I think I just saw a gray hair forming your beard when that happened. And I was like, if this is what aging looks like, I'm fine with it. I'm fine getting old if that means I refuse to stay in line for the cold brew coffee. That means it took longer, and it sat in your fridge for three days. You should not charge me double for it. I'm tired of this. So that that brings up an interesting question. Are there anything that you behaviors that you do that you're aware of that, like, most people would consider socially awkward, but you insist upon it? I can think of one, but, like, do you guys have Self examination or are you saying for somebody else? No. I don't do anything like that. Yeah. Okay. I can tell a story. Okay. Hold on. I'll tell mine first. Okay. So, like, I don't I don't like social confrontation at all. Like I will overpay. Like I totally to pay. I had to pay if they said, look, $9.85, I probably wouldn't even have mentioned it. I'd be like, that seems a little stiff, but I would not have said anything. I would've just paid the $9.85.

I don't care. So I do not get into social confrontation. However, and my wife has noted this and surprise

is when you go when you buy anything from the Bass Pro Shop, they always go, okay. And what's your phone number? And I go, no. Thank you. And this doesn't feel wrong to me. I'm like, what what do they need to know? I said, it doesn't even tell them what it used to tell them. Right? Like right. Harbor tools. I'm like, I I don't need to know. No. It's not your business. Freight, whatever it's called. Yeah. Right. I don't give out my phone number for multiple multiple reasons. One, I don't wanna get may because they're not even doing me the courtesy of asking, do I wanna receive the mail or do I wanna be on the list? Right? And so I find it rude. And then second of all, like, it used to tell you they could figure out based upon your phone number, like, where you were driving in from. Right? So, like, where's our that's they were using it for for a geographical studies.

Like, your phone number doesn't tell you that anymore. Not anymore. It hasn't for a long time. So it's even it's useless. And so but it's weird. Like, it's where I put my foot down. And, like and and, actually, that's I was in the Bass Pro. Hey. By the way, this is local. So but, like, the the Bass Pro in Altoona has, like, one of those gun firing ranges, like, with the toy gun with the little laser thing, and you can shoot targets. It's free. Like, I think the change machine is broken, and so it's been free for, like, two or three months.

Oh, yeah. So if you're bored on a Saturday Just swing on in there shooting shooting deer and stuff with these with these rifles. Awesome. But, anyway, like, at that door, they got a lady who sells vacations. Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. Right? And, like, I just I I am so rude for a man who does not, like, deal I don't like to deal with social interaction very well. I'm like, hey. Have you heard about I said, no. And I will never will. Like, I was like, on it maybe it's normal. It just felt super aggressive to coming from me because I don't do that. But, like, everywhere else, like I said, I'd pay the $9.85.

I wouldn't even think about it. But, like, that, I draw a firm line, and I refuse. Well, they're kinda invading you there. That's what I feel like. It embarrasses my wife. It's it's all sales tactics. It's because if you can't if it's not a yes or no question that you feel you have power over, well, I do have a phone number. I guess I could call it out right now. They're not asking you, oh, do you have a phone number you'd like to use? Just what's your phone number? Right. So it seems awkward psychologically to say no. Now the Harbor Freight tool place the other day, I bought something, and they asked the number. I said, oh, no. No. That's I'd rather not. Thank you. And they're like, well, you can't return these without I'm like, I guess I won't return them. Right. I mean, I'm just like, oh. Oh, no. It's like, whatever you buy, you can't return unless you gave me your phone number. Give you this $7

receipt that you're gonna give me? No. You gotta get the phone number. I'm sure discrimination against people who don't have phones. Yeah. Like, there's always a way around that. Oh, jeez. So I called the I called the hotel because I I'd booked a hotel in my wife's name. Right? But it was with my free hotel points. So I called them to make sure that when she got there, that they weren't gonna give her a bunch of harassment. They're like, hey. While we got you on the phone and you're a premium diamond member, we we'd like you to talk to these people real quick. I'm like, yeah, I guess. I don't know. Yeah. Sure. And it's a vacation dude. Yeah. And he's like, blah, Mr. Foose, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I heard you're interested in taking a vacation on our dime. I go, no, I didn't say anything like that.

And he goes, well, here's the places. He's like Vegas or Tallahassee or Ohio or something rather. And he's like, which one of those sounds best to you? And I go, I don't I'm not going to any of those places. I'm going on my own vacation that I've chosen beforehand that had you weren't involved in. And he goes he goes, are you saying no to a free vacation? And I go, yeah. I'm gonna pay full price for the one that I want to go on, and I don't wanna go on any of your Vegas vacations or whatever you're saying. He goes, I I really feel like you're being foolish. And I go, that's little forward, isn't it? I'm like, you don't know anything about me, friend. And second of all, like, this whole thing sounds shifty. I go, do I get my 200 bonus points? They said if I talk to you, I got 200 bonus points. He goes, well, not if you're gonna take the not take the free vacation. I go, so you're a liar and a philanthropist. So you go take my money, give it to other people, and then you're not gonna give me my 200 points? He goes, do you wanna talk to my manager? I go, is he the same cloth as you? Because no. I like didn't feel like there's an innocent dude working at your place. I said, give me my 200 points or give me your full name. Click. He was done. I said, well, I guess Did I get my two points? Yeah. I did. Actually really like social confrontation. That doesn't bother me at all. I having witnessed

Mike's brand of social confrontation on many occasions, it is one of my favorite things to observe in the wild. It is literally like watching a National Geographic fantastic to see Mike in his element as just a general like he seems like the kind of guy that wears work boots and knows everything you need to know about the kind of generator that he's standing next to because he's like I don't I don't care about what you're saying. I have no desire to do what you want me to do and I'm not going to and I have no problem looking you in your face and saying to you, no.

Absolutely not. And, like, you just see the customer service and sales training just crumbling off of them like a facade. It's makeup in the rain as as freaking Mike's like, no. I'm willing to look you in the face, and when you do that the trigger phrase of, are you saying no to a free vacation? No. I'm saying no to an idiot that's asking stupid questions. And it's like, that's Mike. Hate that. Power now. And it I'm the same guy that Ben can attest to the fact that I will make best friends with a frigging waiter for forty eight minutes for no reason other than I don't wanna not tell him about my tattoos to offend him, and I become best buddies with the guy that he needs to tell me about war stories and all the, like, weird details about his girlfriend. I put my foot down on that recently, and life has gotten better. I

stopped I stopped texting people back and going, hey, man. We should get together. If they say that, if I don't agree with it, I don't mention that part of the text. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you said, hey. We should get together. Wouldn't that be fun? I don't have to answer that. Yeah. I don't have to respond to like a general statement. Yeah. Exactly. You've made a statement that you feel is is in your opinion correct. I have no reason to tell you you're wrong, but I'm not going to say it back. So live your best life. Hope everything's good. Man, life has gotten better. For so many years, I was like, you freaking boobs. You're so angry all the time. Nowadays, I'm like, I think I need to be a little angry in this situation. Just be like, no. I'm not gonna do that. I feel like it's being more honest to people. It really is. Yeah. I stopped avoiding the people that try and sell me AT and T at the Costco. Yeah. I I used to walk around them Yeah. And avoid them and stuff. Now I just walk right past them. Yeah. They're like, hey. Do you have blah blah blah blah? And I go, have a cell phone, and I'm happy with it. And I walk past them, and I'm like, I I didn't have to lie to them, and I didn't have to freaking shysty go around the corner and pretend like I was getting a new membership to go in the other door. Your way out the door. Right. Yeah. Like, I'm gonna tinkle toes past anybody. Like, that's not a situation. I just tell them I have a company phone. They're like, oh, okay. Yeah. That makes sense. I'm on my parents' plan. They're like, you look like a grown man.

I tell you what, my wife will never go car shopping with me again. I'm so horrible. I mean, I was so mad at that guy, and I told him, and I was in the middle of describing how much I didn't like him when he was walking up. The guy goes, I don't think we can get this deal done. I go, well, I guess we're leaving then. And then I got my car left, and then he called me when I got home. He's like, I think we can make your payments work. I'm like, I don't know if I wanna come back in We had that chance. Oh, boy. Good stuff. Alright. You listen to life from the Hey. What I'm kinda curious. What socially awkward thing do you do that embarrasses your friends and family when you do it? When you're out and about, you can go hit the life from the path complaint line. (515) 517-0085.

Call or text the, Bob Eisenhower, Life From The Path, complaint line. And tell us those, like, the weird stuff too because there's some anonymity behind this. We're not gonna, like, look up your phone number like Bass Pro Shops might. Like, we don't know you probably. And so if you text us, tell us the real nitty gritty stuff. We'll talk to you about it. But what add you to the club? Right. I might I might get you involved in an accountability conversation. Life in the past. Just heads up. Yeah. Here here, Liv. If this may encourage you at all, Mike is responsible for the Life in the Path text club, which means when he says sign up for promotional material and daily updates, it ain't gonna happen. I go, Sid, you know, text. I tell you my family got me. They I gotta I got I was I I don't know. I wasn't paying attention. And then I heard my phone go off like a text message, and I'm like, that's weird. You know? It's kinda late at night. No one texts me ever. And so I go looking at it. It's, like, 08:30, I'm like, hey. This is Dallas Jenkins.

I'm like, them people signed me up for the chosen. So Dallas Jenkins, like, texts me every couple weeks. And, like, I don't have the heart to, like, get rid of him, but I respond to his texts. I'm like, stop texting me, Dallas. It sounds like you're talking to a thousand people. It's rude. He doesn't respond back. Okay. Ready? Oh, hey. That reminds me. How I

need some I I need some advice. It's not quite Dear Life From The Path, but I I got a I got a a text message from a man, I wanna say, like, four weeks ago, maybe six weeks ago, and it was a guy holding up a fish. Older gentleman. He had he had caught a fish and said, like, like, they're really biting today or something. And what I thought at the time, I saw this and I thought, I'm gonna go to the store and get some Vandy camps, and I'm gonna selfie myself with these Vandy camps fish and go said, the sticks are biting too, and send it back to him. I thought this was kind of funny. So I never do it. A week and a half goes by, I forget to do it.

He sends another text message, a nice one, something about me being his friend or something like that. I never did the fish thing, and so now I'm like, okay. I gotta figure out a nice thing right back to that man. I forget that too. Two days ago, he says, happy birthday. Is it too late?

Should I just ignore it, or do I do I should I respond to back to the Stop it. No. You're no. Boova, you say thanks, man. Appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like we're growing apart, though. No. They'll he'll figure it out eventually. I just happened to me a couple times. Somebody's texting me pictures of kids, and they're like, here's them opening the presents, blah blah blah. And I'm like, cool. And then they send me another picture of these kids later, like, with their grandpappies or whatever. They're like, I love these moments. And I'm like, I'm so glad you get to have them. I said all kinds of true things. So glad you did.

This is the same guy that couldn't take in a Panera Bread. I tell it's eventually, she's like, I think the gal ended up saying something like, do you ever get a chance to come out to California? We'd love to see you again. I'm like, I don't think I'm gonna make it. And so

I just I've actually never been to California. She's like, who is this? I'm like, this is Mike. I think I have the I let her figured out that she had a wrong number on her own. That's creepy. And then she why? Because you were responding this whole time, and they thought you were someone, and you knew you were not that someone. I don't know what they think. Maybe they send pictures of all kinds of people. When they sent those text messages, you said you've never been to California, and they went, wait. Who is this? And you somehow are still in the camp, and don't know what they think. I was taken back. I'm like, maybe they don't know who I am. I'm Mike, by the way. Oh, I'll stop sending you pictures. I said, so keep sending them. Them kids are good looking kids. And then then I never got no more texts. It's because you're a creeper. Yes. Agreed. Someone sent you photos of kids, man. That's weird. There are kids opening presents. Regular photos. Matter? People are too sensitive. I love people. You can ignore the text, man. Okay. I'm open to that too. Life in the bath. Bob Elijah's on a complaint line. Tell me your best missed

miss misdialed. How do say Missed or wrong number. No. No. So ask him if you say, like, hey. Thanks, man. Did I miss your birthday? And then he'll tell you when his birthday is, and then you put him on your phone, and then you can wish him happy birthday every year. You can ask this person if they need a pen pal if that's what you're looking for, Mike. You can just go, hey. You've got the wrong number, but do you wanna stay friends regardless? That is a more genuine way to do that than for you to just parade around like they have the right number Yeah. And just continue the conversation. I would definitely do that. I've done it before where someone has texted me something that very obviously wasn't supposed to come to me. I sent a picture of myself back and went, hey, Kate. My name's Troy. I'm not actually Alex. I think you've got the wrong number. But if you wanna be friends, this is what I look like if you ever see me out in the wild. That was a creepy thing to do. And I did that, and I wish I wouldn't have. Probably cool. Freaking ignored it. No. You should have totally done exactly what you did. You can block a number. It's very easy nowadays. Missed connections. Dear, life from the path. My in laws live out of state, and they would stay with us when they visited. Mhmm. Once my son was born, I told my husband they would need to stay in a hotel because we no longer have the room. Yep. They are also the most disrespectful house guests, and I have terrible insomnia.

My mother-in-law speaks to me only when my husband is around, and my father-in-law complains about everything, our streaming services, saying I need to buy more towels, and complaining that we don't have soda. I've tried to explain to my husband that they send my anxiety into the next dimension, but because none of this happens when he's around, he doesn't understand. I've had to ask my doctor to give me a small supply of medications for my nerves. Woah. What? Since they've been staying in a hotel, they complain about the cost and the accommodations. I've offered to pay for a rental. Now she's telling my husband she will buy a sleep sofa for when they visit. I've tried telling my husband all the reasons why this is not a good idea, but it always ends up in an argument. Am I being unreasonable,

and should I just suck it up a few weeks a year, or should they respect the fact that having them as a houseguest does not work for our family? A few weeks. Weeks. I mean, I suppose one week vacation two or three times is a few weeks. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. Would I well, if you went on two Twenty one days long vacations a year, would you use both of them to go stay with your kid? No. I don't I don't have a kid, but most of my vacations I mean, I like my kids, but I just don't

I don't know. Yeah. Hey. Can I impose on you for a week? That seems weird. I feel like every vacation I've ever taken has been to go to a relative. Do you stay at their house? Most of the time. Yeah. Yeah. Buy a is this proposition that they wanna purchase a couch

for their personal use while they're at their house? Yeah. That's really couch. This no. No. This whole thing needs to go away. That'd be a hard no. Also Yeah. What kind of boob of a husband? Like, just because he's not there when this happens means that he just does not believe in it at all Yeah. And, therefore, it couldn't possibly have happened. Totally used to this. Like, he grew up this way, and so this doesn't, like, ring deal. Yeah. Funny to him at all. It is overall terrible. A lot of angles here. Yeah. Like, be more generous if it's a couple weeks. Yeah. Don't be nearly as generous because the the parents are weird and are expecting way too much. Your husband's a bit of a boob and may not be understanding where you're coming from, but it's because he might suck in general at like, if that turns into an argument and also

what's going on with the point that this gets you to the place where you need to get extra medication too? Like, there's a lot of I like the boundaries of of okay. If you're gonna come, you gotta go find your own place. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's fine. And then then they can decide how long they wanna stay. That's how much it costs. I think it's perfectly logical based on the fact they have a kid. We don't have the room. Sorry. Yeah. I Dan's right. It's self limiting. If you can only afford three days, then you only stay three days. You get three days. Yeah. Mean Or get an RV. I I yeah. I think you'd have to cut some of the the chaff away from here. Like, the fact that you had a kid and have no more room in your place, like, this is hard to believe. Like, those kids don't take up any reasonable room until they're, like, 12. I was gonna say they also can sleep in your room. All you have to do is be like, hey, man. You gonna sleep on the couch tonight? Yeah. You know? Hey. You wanna have a camp out in living room? Yeah. Hey, you wanna sleep in the tub? We'll put a bunch of blankets in there and stuff. You can keep your iPad. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like They go to school, realize they don't actually have their own bed. Dad just always makes weird camping stories up. Yeah. I mean, these kids are not a burden in taking up a bunch of room, you know? And so that's not quite right. And I realize they kind of put you on edge. And so before we result to medication, it's probably better just to take care of the situation.

But we could also learn some coping responses to some things so we're not overwhelmed by the fact that, like, two people are there for a short period of time. Like, there's an end in sight. They're not, like, degrading your place or vandalizing the place. They're they complain all the time. People do that when they get older. Yeah. Like, some of this stuff goes into it's okay to have conversations with people. You just need to not be angry about it. Right. So if a guy goes if the if the father-in-law is like, oh, there's never any soda around here. It's like, well, you know what, Dale? There's a pig wig wiggly on the road there. Yeah. Yeah. You've to the HEB recently? Recently? It's right down the road. Yeah. I mean or you could just pick up soda for the guy. You know what I'm saying? Like like, these are these are fifty fifty questions. Do I think the guy's probably overcomplaining and not reading the crowd? Yeah. Obviously.

You know? But, like, sorry, man. We don't keep any soda around because, generally, we don't drink it. If you run into the store later, you can grab some or I can get some while I'm out. You know, either way. Here's the biggest thing that that I I'm gonna tell you. If you're in a place where, like, just the the presence of your in laws being real pains in the butt are are so much so that it's causing you to need to be medicated, I think you need to take them off a bit of a pedestal and maybe even not just a pedestal, but, like, stop giving so much weight to what they say. Like, they're your freaking in laws. They seem like cranky people in certain situations. I'm sure they're just fine. Whatever. But, like, if it's hitting you that hard for them to be around and go, well, you don't have, you know, towels and, oh, I really wish y'all got HBO instead of stars. It sounds like whatever. Okay. Thanks, dad. Yeah. Thanks. We have. Thanks, Phil. Really appreciate it. Hey. Guess what? We have the same subscriptions we had last year. You wanna pay for it? Yeah. Like, great. Hey. Did you bring your own towel this time? I told you to, didn't I? Whatever. Yeah. It doesn't need to hit you like a freight train. You can just meet people. And so it doesn't get diagnosed as this. Right? There's people like, hey. You got you got high anxiety or high depression and, like, honestly, you have high arrogance. Right? Like, you've put yourself in the middle of problems that are their problems. You have the right amount of towels for your family. Yeah. Yes. So what are you worried about? The streaming service seems to be fine at your house. They're obviously wrong. Right? So like when it's jovial. As people come in and go, hey, man, this studio that you guys have, why isn't there like 50 microphones?

And I wouldn't personally be offended and be like, because we don't need 50. Like this request you're making is ridiculous. Yeah. And so, like, if you're of a reasonable mind and you're not putting yourself in the line of personal offense and going, hey, obviously, I am so important that I should have furnished 50 microphones for a studio that needs five. Right? Like like, you're not looking at life correctly. Like, there's a level of arrogance in there that you're inserting yourself in situations that are also obviously have nothing to do with you. Yeah. Like, there's enough towels for your family. The streaming service works fine and you don't drink soda. That's why you don't have any of those things. And so you should rest easy at night going, yeah. It would be ridiculous for me to keep 48 cans of Coke Zero in here that no one will ever drink. That would be dumb. You're gonna go bad by the second time this year you showed up to our place for a week. That's right. It's it it's not anxiety. It is arrogance. It's not anxiety. You are thinking too highly of yourself that you would put yourself in the middle of someone else's problem. God, that is a right but tough cut.

Yeah. I think we should soak I feel like we should soak it in. A lot of times our anxiousness is related to our like, it's a lack of humility

or, frankly, yeah, or in allowing investing in the thoughts of fallible humans and allowing them control over your life. It sounds harsh. I hear what you're saying. Yeah. But I think it's Go buy Phil at Dollar General towel. It's good, I think it's right. Yeah. Yeah. It is it is it is right. And like

the and I think I've said this recently in relation to things like that. It doesn't mean that it's easy to let go of, but you do still need to deal with the reality that it is that. Like, you you can all the all the medication does is tamper down your physical reaction to this. But the core problem is is that, like, you are worried about the opinion of people who seem to be fickle and are trying to and you feel like you have a burden in an unreasonable way of service in your house that just doesn't make any sense. And so you need to be able to sort that out logically and be able to let like, keep what's good. Like, hey. If they expressed these things and maybe they were cranky about it. But but, Mike, to your point, if it's a way that you can show love and service to them, then maybe pick up a few things or whatever. And that's alright. And so if there's a way to grow from it, then do so. Otherwise, you gotta be able to let it go. You gotta be able to not allow it to to invade your life like that.

Zechuler says, your in laws appear to be quite a handful. Your solution about them staying in a hotel or rental when they visit is sensible since they are unpleasant to be around when their son is absent. If, however, your husband won't back you up, consider spending as much time away from the house as you can during these visits. It will give grandma and grandpa more time to bond with the little one and save your sanity. Hide from the hide from the vacation guy. Day I leave Sandra's never here. The day I leave my own house because someone is coming to it, and I don't stand at the door and go, look, I live here. So, you know, this place is tuned to me. That's when you look at them and go, hey. Rent's seven twenty five this month. It just ends up. Like, there's just there's no possible all because you're afraid to have

a conversation with them. Right? And and, like, I this is your husband's problem, and he's a bit of a weak liver puffball as far as your description is is, like, not being able to have a conversation with his own mom and dad. Like like, you can't stay here. And frankly, they're not taking the world in right either. No freshly married couple with a newborn kid wants a bunch of people hanging around causing a bunch of ruckus. Like, I always take it back to my like, Jared's grandpa gave us a dog. Right? And he said, when this dog needs to go to the vet, you have them bill me. I did not give you this dog to be a burden to you. Right? That's what generosity looks like. Right? So, like, if they're showing up to help or bond or be around, then you call and go, we don't wanna impose on what you got going on. We know you got lives and families and work and whatever. When's a good time for us to stop by? Otherwise, me and Harold are gonna be hitting the town, eating croissants down the road, whatever. You know? Like, you just don't show up and blow the place up imposing your will on your kids. That seems unnecessary. Right. Like, I would I would choose the hotel unless one of my kids insist. Like and then which they might. They might go, Lou, we'd love to have you here. It means something for us to have you stay. The kids don't mind. We'd love okay. Then I would totally do it. Right. But, like, I would probably enter it going, look. We got a hotel close because we don't wanna we don't wanna disrupt your lives. Yes. Yeah. Mhmm. Okay. Dear last one. Dear life from the past. My mother passed away years ago. I have one older sister, Nadine.

Following my mother's death, with the blessing of my father, Nadine and I divided up mom's jewelry. My sister almost immediately began digging through closets and drawers and removing items from our parents' home every time she visited her father. Dad asked if I wanted any particular items that belonged to mama. I mentioned three things but told him I didn't wanna take anything from his house until he passed on. I thought it would be disrespectful to do otherwise. Nadine threw her future daughter-in-law a wedding shower and gave her two antique items that had been mom's, items I recognized immediately.

I felt upset that she hadn't at least mentioned them to me before she gave them away. I have only the one granddaughter and may have wanted to pass those items down to her. Following the shower, I spoke with my dad. He agreed that before Nadine gave them away, she should have asked him or me if either of us wanted them. Am I wrong to be upset over this, or should I just let it go? I think you're wrong to still be upset about this. Yeah. I think the initial offense was like Yeah. Absolutely. Hey, man. I'd be like, what the heck? What's happening right now? Conversation for sure. Yeah.

What was the point of the dad agreeing? He's heavyweight. He has weight to the story. Is he gonna do something about it? No. He's just gonna agree. Yeah. This seems like something a bit ago. It happened. I mean, if she if she's like if you talk to her and said, hey. There's certain feelings. Okay. Fine. You've said your peace. Move on.

Yeah. This way, she can't do anything about it, but just say, hey. From now on Right. Exactly. Like, if there's more stuff Let's let's inventory this stuff. You know? And Yeah. I know you feel like this. Like, it's so awkward when, like, you know, siblings get in these, you know, little heirloom battles or whatever. You know, just stuff like this where, like, you could tell right in the offset, even if you had this conversation, it's not gonna go right. You know this is not gonna go very well. They're like, well, I have just as much right to these heirlooms as you do. Why would you get it to pass to your granddaughter and I don't give it get to give it to my mother-in-law? And then it's just this big annoying thing. You know? And so, like, I mean, if they mean the absolute world to you, I suppose it's worth standing up about, but, like, these are just things. Right. Take a thing that reminds you of your mama and keep it close to you. And then, like, I I feel like unless you wanna battle this out, I would try to let as much of this go as you can. Yeah. Like, I'm like, there was there have been some some heated battles, one-sided admittedly, heated battles between me and my brother on a lot of the stuff mom and dad had. And, like, I just 98% of the time, I end up just going, whatever. Like, if that's what you wanted with it, fine. I don't care. Yeah. And, like, some of them, like, I I I have my dad's wedding ring, and I'm excited about that. It makes me happy to be wearing it. My wife has my mom's. That's cool. Trey has, like, our grandparents and stuff like that. So great. But everything else, like, I don't like, fine.

And if he would have fought me on this, I'd be like, okay. Just take it. Yeah. I guess whatever. It's not the end of the world. But practically within here, yeah, I think we'd just keep echoing the whole I think it's past a place where, like, you need to be angry about it. If you've never said anything, say your piece, not with emotion, not being all angry trying to fight it out. Just be like, hey. When you did this, this is how I felt. And in the future, if you could talk to me, that'd be great. And if it happens again, deal with it then and go, hey. You well, we talked about this already. You did this before, and I asked you not to again. We agreed. And then that's a whole new instance that you could just walk in together and realize that you don't have to freaking butt heads on everything. You think this is the dad's business to correct this thing? Like, it's the it's the she's rifling the stuff out of his place. Yeah. Mean, yes. It's his wife's stuff. Yeah. Well and it sounds like I I don't know that her what she felt like was prudence was even necessary. Like, hey. I don't wanna take this out before your like, before you die. I like, I've had numerous grandparents,

either in laws or otherwise, who are, like, you know, getting in their twilight years. I mean, they are, like, giving crap away all over the place. So, like They don't wanna carry it around anymore. And, like, I mean, like, tomato soup or something. You're like, I was no one's gonna use this. But, like, oh, you think you could let's get this out of here. Like, they the the the mindset is, I don't wanna I don't wanna burden upon my family. I wanna try to get all this stuff kinda sorted out while I'm alive. And so, like, it sounds like there was a sentimental thing that goes, oh, it should stay in the house while dad's still in the house. Maybe dad cares, but, like, it's quite possible that he doesn't you're you're setting up a sentimentality that he doesn't actually care about, and you should probably just go split this stuff now. Said said, so this doesn't happen in again, let's get all this stuff down. Let's just figure this out right now. That's the truth. That also sucks when you're funeral planning to have to go through the entire estate and figure out what goes to what. It's perfectly fine to have the conversation now to go, hey. This is what I care about. What do you care about? And then you've already walked into that kinda hit situation knowing, well, I really love that lamp because I remember one time I broke that thing and it has a chip in it, but then mom taught me how to fix it, and it means the world to me. And, well, I care about mom's cast iron. Like, fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Segular says, I will be direct. Most young people today do not want heirloom items. They prefer new, modern, and contemporary things. What is this? Commodity. What does that have to do with? It gives them crap. These newfangled people really don't understand

permanence. There's a story to go along with it. I was recently at the memorial of a wealthy older gentleman. He had spent most of his life, not to mention millions of dollars, on rugs, antique furniture, and other collectibles. I overheard an antique dealer talk about how over the last twenty years, the market for those things had taken a dive. Your sister was wrong to grab your mother's possessions without consulting you or your father first, but this will cause a rift in the family. Let it go. I don't understand that that finger wagon at the modern generation. Just it sounds like an opportunity to just, like, get on the same page as the reader or the the person that's that's sent in. But, like, those are it's it's weird because, like, an heirloom like, take the rings. Yeah. Like, those make sense to me. These things they had now. Thing I cared about. Right. These rugs might be ugly as crap. Like, the the those are two

different things. My parents my parents had paintings of ducks. Uh-huh. Like, a stupid amount of paintings of ducks. We found out they were actually worth a good chunk of money. They were did anybody know who Maynard Reese is? Like, he's a apparently, amongst the waterfowl conservation people, he's a very well known painter. Yeah. Painted like a lot of the stamps that Unlimited has put out over the years. We even had some of the mints for the original stamps. The Hill's vintage Reese in the living room. And so but, like, we we, like, sold off, like, 25 of those paintings to, like, the Maynard Reese Foundation or something because they were a huge deal. Yeah. We did not give a lick about a single one of those paintings. Like, that was my parents. Like, we had them all over the place. My my grandfather was big into Ducks Unlimited, all that stuff. We're, like, honorary green wings for life as the Engeldinger boys. It's insane.

I could not tell you what I don't even know what happened to those. We sold them off. I don't know how much money we got out of it. I didn't care. At the time, I've I mean, we threw away most of mom and dad's stuff. Like, we were just like, thanks. I mean, I'm glad they have this stuff. Like, that's fine. I don't care. Yeah. Because most of the house like, when someone passes away, right, most of the house is, like, just stupid living things. Right. You know? Who who wants mom's can opener? Yeah. I don't what am gonna do with this? I don't need double can opener. Goodwill is is alive because people have died. Yeah. Okay? Like Dan, was there anything, like like, when your mom passed and you had to clean out her things, like,

were there some, like, really sentimental items that you came across that, like or maybe that surprised you that you didn't know were sentimental to you? I mean, in the beginning, first of all, I have, like, 10 totes. I just piled stuff in, and and, like, nine of them are still in my garage. And I opened one three years ago, and I think it threw 99% of it away. By the time I was like, Oh, I can't get rid of this. I

just need to take time to do the others. Then there was the coach she was wearing. I'm like, I don't know. I I just hung onto it. It just, like, just Yeah. You know, I just had to hang it up. I I don't know where it is now, but, like, for a long time, I'd had that. I could see it. At least it smelled like like there's an association. Yeah. Yeah. I kept my dad's clothes out of grief. Right. Right. And that was just me trying to to to hold on to him Exactly. Little bit longer. It was it was close to him. Yeah. Right. Exactly. It's like I feel like I'm he's near me because, like, I can even identify based off. Like, people, you look just like him. I'm like, I'm losing my clothes. Was like, these are his shoes, actually. But there was no there was no furniture, really, like, in her setting. I mean, she didn't have any Was, like, assisted living or something like that? Was she in front apartment, but it was a low income apartment complex for elderly. You know? Yep. So

I can't remember anything I kept. A radio that she bought off a WHO radio, she like, Oh, this is great. Vanity Bonnie sold this. I thought, Okay, I guess I'll hang on to that. Yeah. Nothing really. Yeah. Yeah.

It's interesting to think about, like, the things that that you're like, that my kids might care about. Yeah. Right? Like, I what did I think? I thought like, I don't think my Bible's gonna make it another five years. It's in rough shape. Yeah. And I thought, like, would I keep it? Like, would one of the kids care to keep it? I kinda would like, of all the crap around my house, like, like, I'd like it if they Yeah. I don't know why. My dad's Bible. Yeah. Right. But, like but then I look I was looking around the other stuff for the house, like stuff that, you know, we bought and we thought was great. And I'm like, well, no. I don't they probably don't care about that. Nope. Nope. I've a I've a library table that my great great I think great great great grandfather built. Oh, So it's been passed I remember my dad, you know, sitting at his desk, you know, but my kids are like, oh, that is stupid.

You know, I'd paint it right away and I'm like, hey. You can't really close this. Please don't ever do that. Like, that's not yeah. This is so I don't know. It probably look like landfill probably when I die. I don't know. Yeah. Kept my dad's bible and then I replaced the bible out of after after a couple years and I still have the bible cover. So, like, the brown leather bible cover he had, I still have. And I think that might be the mean, I've got his ring in that. That's probably it. And if I can think of anything else, maybe a mug that I made him in high school because I, like, laser engraved foghorn leghorn onto a mug for him once. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I have that, and that's it. Epic. Okay. Hey. You're listening to Live From Path. Thanks for hanging out with us this week. We really do appreciate it. If you got anything for us, use the Bob Eisenhower Live From The Path. The complete line, (515) 517-0085.

Call or text. We'd love to hear from you. And, we'll plan on, I guess, seeing you when we see you. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to live from the path.