You are Live from the Path. And you're listening to Live from the Path. My name is Ben Pooge. How's everybody doing tonight? Hey, can you guys behave yourself? We're trying to fire up something. Me and Dan are doing the… What's it called? Minotaur? The half man, half horse? Dan's the beast part. I'm the man. Half man, half beast. Dan is the beast part. I always hit the back half. I'm the hit at Halloween. Alright, you are listening to… I'll be the horse's head. I just need someone to come with me. I thought of you. Immediately. That's too bad, Dan. Anyway, you're listening to Live from the Path. Thanks for joining us. We are in studio as normal with Mike Fust and Dan Hudson. Also two very special guests with us today. CJ Michaels and Travis is in studio with us. Hey, fellas. Hi. It's good to see you. They're going to be performing for us a little bit later on. He's got a great story. He's got some nice music. I don't know. I'm pretty excited for it. You should see this operation he's got. He's got a couple keyboards in here. You're not getting the full effect with his camera. He has to kind of crawl under to get in and out of it. It's pretty cool. I'm pretty happy with it. It adds some class to the place is what it does. Yeah, there you go. I kind of felt like I didn't belong.

Yeah, I was noting. I don't know that the keyboard's done. I guess I've always felt that way. Where's my horse's head? I'm just alone. So we're going to catch up with them. Also, we're going to be talking a little bit about what kind of promises can you make or should you be making on God's behalf? And this has come up, I think, primarily when you're trying to witness to somebody and you're trying to reach out to them and explain who God is and the impact of knowing. Right. I think the conversation boils down to is what you can say that God's done can do for your life. You know what I'm saying? I don't know, what things can you say that God's going to do? It's a topic. Well, you know what Jesus said? In this world, you have much tribulation. He promised that. True. I promise you, life's going to really suck. I can't believe the church isn't filled. Here's the deal, boys. It's not going to get any better. Because you will have peace. Exactly. Exactly. I think that's the kicker right there that people don't get because they're expecting smooth roads and everything and the whole peace thing is huge if they can experience it. I'm going to give you something that can ride every storm. Yeah. That's what's really awesome. All right. We'll delve into that just a little bit more. Also, Mike lost his wallet today.

Oh, dang, no. Yeah. I'm going to tell you. Now? I don't care. I'm going to tell you what happened. So I went to the Burger King. I'm not supposed to be going to the Burger King. I'm on Ramsey. So I don't belong at the Burger King. I'm on a Ramsey. Is that a Dave Ramsey? We'll just say that I've ignored Ramsey for a good long time and it's gotten out of hand. So I'm hungry, right? And I think I'll go to the BK. So I go to the BK and I pay for my goods or whatever and then I stick by… I put my wallet somewhere. I don't know where I put it. And so I stop at the receptacle trash can and throw my garbage away and the guy behind me starts giving me the roast, you know? He's creeping up on me like I'm blocking him from getting places. So I peel out. Not on purpose. It just happens I have a little tire so it makes a lot of noise but really I wasn't going that fast. But apparently what happened is my wallet was sitting on the dashboard and it flew out the window. But I didn't know that. Right. What I thought had happened is somebody had thrown garbage at me or something had fallen off the roof because I peeled away and I heard… I'm like, something just fell off the roof of my van. I'm like,

what did I put on the roof of my van? Nothing. Okay, we're good. It's probably just random garbage. So I drive away, blah, blah, blah. Three hours later I decide I'm going to go home or I got some other things to do. So I roll up to the bank and I'm looking to withdraw big amounts of money. I need big money. And I go search for my wallet. I'm like, oh man, what have I done with it now? I tear the van apart. There's a lot of real estate in that van for me to junk up. I can't find my wallet. I'm sure it's falling in a crevice. So I spend hours in 110 degree heat looking for the stupid wallet and then I decipher Burger King. That's where I saw it. Maybe I threw it away with my garbage. So I go to the Burger King and tear open the garbage can and start skipping through and looking for my wallet. Oh, nasty. Wow. No go. No go on the garbage. So then I'm like, and then all of a sudden it hit me. That wasn't a piece of garbage. That was your wallet fell out of your van. So it was at the Burger King downtown by the Mercy Hospital. Not the best place

to leave your wallet. Bring it back. Yeah. This is not the area of town where you drop your wallet and then someone calls you and brings it back to you. So I decide, oh, I'm screwed. So I walk up and down the road. I can't find it. I can't find it. I went to the Burger King. Can I see my wallet? They laughed at me. They said, no, no one turned it in. I said, all right. So it's been three hours. So I call the non-emergency police department. I say, look, this is really weird, but on the off chance if someone's lost and found my wallet, who do I talk to? So they send me this guy. I leave a message. The guy calls me back while I'm at the bank canceling my debit card and calling the credit union to put a flag on me. And he calls me back and he goes, did you lose your wallet or was it stolen? I said, no, I lost it. He goes, where'd you lose that? And I said, down by the Mercy Hospital. And he goes, he goes, you can see your debit card? I said, I'm doing it right now.

He goes, no one's going to turn that in. He goes, you better just consider it gone. That ain't the right side of town to lose your wallet. I said, thanks, man. I appreciate it. He goes, well, I better get your case number. So I spent the rest of the day trying to scrounge up. I got a new driver's license. Incidentally, Warren County does not do the Monday sabbatical that Polk County does. Oh, the driver's license day? Yeah, and you can get your driver's license filled in any county at any time. It doesn't matter where you live. Oh. So it's best to just travel to Warren County. I was in and out 20 minutes. Wow. I didn't know that. Yeah, the DOT Polk County clogged. Terribly clogged. Yeah. So anyway, I have no wallet. I'm done. Spirit of Dave Ramsey's got it. I can't spend any money. I still Ramsey thought I took out wads of cash while I was at the bank canceling my debit card. I said, I'm going to need walking around money.

Give me $3,000. You don't have no $3,000. I don't have $3,000. They said, well, sir, we can only give you what's in your account. I said, well, that's way less than that. Just give me $20. Here's $228. Minus the $12.50 for the new debit. Here's $240. They charge you for a new debit? $12.50. Boy, that's stiff. Yeah. Well, they were going to charge me. I lost my last month. But I literally just, okay, great. Just put a block on it. Got a cashier's check. Changed banks. And then they gave me a new one. Well, you changed banks. I just walked banks. You were not going to pay the $3 for the new one. No. New bank. I like it. Yeah. I was going to pay $10, $12. No, that's okay. That's okay. But somewhere we'll give it to me for free. Just get a cashier's check and I'm on my way. Nice. I like it.

Well, the man that cleverly switched banks is CJ Michaels. Hey. Hey, CJ. Hi. Hey. How are things? Good. Good. He chose a balmy evening. It's a balmy evening to come into the studio. The air conditioning is not working on this side of the, this wing of the building. Smells of coons. You know, they didn't know that because it's radio. Thanks, CJ. We like to say that's a smell of money. No, that's pig. Never mind. That's a whole different thing. Go ahead, Ben. Well, CJ, maybe can you just tell us a little bit about yourself so people can get familiar with you. And just to preface, CJ will be performing at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival. So that's August 5th and 6th and just to remind you that we'll be broadcasting live from there both days, both Friday and Saturday we'll be out there and definitely

I would recommend going out and you can see a lovely man like CJ. So tell us a little about yourself. Well, I'll be playing Saturday at 10 o'clock in the morning. Plug, plug, plug. and I'm single, not because I want to be. My wife passed away with cancer in February and the Lord's just been really pushing on my heart and my wife before she died to really launch a music career and she even left it in a secret letter after she died for me to do that. So I feel like I'm just following orders and so God's just been on my heart about just taking this seriously. It's been a hobby from 27 years of age. I'm 46 now. But at 27 I picked up the piano and started playing. Got laughed at, you know, a lot doing talent shows when I started. You know, when you have faith to kind of believe when you're not even good it takes a little bit. And then, you know, just kind of kept with it and kept investing

and it's the place I'm at now. Well, now you have two keyboards. I know. That's pretty impressive. Whether you can play or not, I don't know yet, but they look nice. Dan, you're on censor tonight. They never let me speak. Something about the pig and the money and the, I don't know if you can play the piano, musical guest. Let's just see what you've got. I'll be the judge of that because I know music. Now playing the part of Dan Hudson, the rear end of a horse. That's why that worked. Well, I have two daughters just to finish the little general. I have two daughters here at 2320 all growing up. So I'm really at a good place in my life to launch out. And I live in Winterset. Me and my wife have moved there to do ministry. I hope her brother-in-law and her family lives down there. Yeah. So you're in ministry

now, correct? Right. I currently work for First United Presbyterian Church and I run the only after-school program in town. And I do college ministry all the way down to Sunday school. Very cool. Very cool. All right. Well, I'll tell you what. Let's go ahead and let's get to some tunes. Why don't you tell me a little bit about In Jesus? Well, this is really cool. When I moved to Winterset, I left everything, family, everything. And it was good that I did because my wife got to be close to her family before she died. But when I first got to Winterset, small town, here's a city boy, and I'm like, I just want to go back home. This is tough. And I didn't have a job. I was unemployed. And I had a word from someone that

this next year was going to be just, you know, the battle is the Lord's and God was going to take care of it. And they gave me that scripture from Romans 8, you know, that God before me who can be against me works all things for good. And I began to really muse on that all year and began to write the lyrics to this song. And I started to realize that what can be more than a conqueror? And it hit me that a conqueror has to actually manage getting his real estate and keeping it. You know what I'm saying? Like Alexander the Great. Yeah. But for us, God secured it and we don't have to worry about losing it if we're his sons. So, the joy of being more than a conqueror is that we're his sons. Awesome.

Well, this is C.J. Michaels and Travis. This is In Jesus on Live from the Path. Okay. There's like eight people playing around. Where are these things they're coming from? This would have been better last week. Yeah, no kidding. We had eight dudes who took up the whole studio. We have two people and like the sound of ten. Pretty amazing. You got a lot of the technology. I was actually, the story goes, I lost a fiancé before I lost my wife. She died on a plane. About a month or two later, I literally just couldn't cope and I was really losing track of stuff on my work. So, they said, you know, it's time to go and I said, okay. So, I lost my fiancé, I lost my job and my job was at a university so I lost my place to live. I had about a month to leave

and I'd seen this keyboard the day before and God said, buy it. I said, okay, great, I'll just kind of save up. I lose my job and God says, no, C.J., you have to buy this now because this is a testimony breaker. This is an investment. This is a faith thing. I think anything I've learned from life is like, you know, when my wife died, the day she died, I looked at her journal and it was the scripture where they had the priest and they were asked by God to literally step in the waters of the children before it even parted. Yeah. And so, I think God just wants to see great faith out of His children. You know, like, can you do this? Can you do this? Can you walk on the wild side? And that's been the joy of walking with God since, you know, even my fiancé died.

It's just, God's been crazy amazing to me. He's just, let's go, let's do it. You have nothing to live for? Good. Let me show you how to live. Yeah, now I've got you where I want you. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the priest thing, that's always amazed me in that verse because you look at, they're going into this river, you know, and they're like, come on, everybody follow us, you know, and all they just, all they know is God said go, you know, and nothing happened. And I mean, I would think as I got about five steps away, I'd be like, well, okay, well, maybe God's saying no or something, but they kept going. And like you say, it wasn't until

they put their foot in the water, you know, not to the water, in the water, that everything happened. And that's huge, I think, in our lives. Sometimes you just got to do stuff. Yeah, to make that investment for when it's crazy still, when it doesn't seem like it makes sense. Yeah. You know, I didn't want to be three and a half grand in debt, but I just knew this keyboard could do for me as a songwriter Yeah, I'd say you're using it to its capabilities. Yeah. Yeah. There's drums and stuff. Yeah. There's like drum fills going on. Brum, brum, brum, brum, It sounds like there's a group of dudes hanging out inside the keyboard somewhere. Like, taking a look at each other. Let's see when you give them a week,

they switch stuff up. I'll tell you. I have prisoners in here. Let us out. In Jesus. I will soon. Not till you're done. If you play what I want. Well, the chat very much enjoyed the tune. Lots of good feedback from the folks that are chatting along with the show. Okay, I didn't know what's happening. Yeah, they do. Well, now they're in some kind of argument about people spelling things incorrectly. They're very tangential, that chat. Keep an eye out. They can't be trusted anyway. It's better than NASCAR's chat. No, I'm for Erhard. No, I'm for Scherner. It's really lame stuff. I tell you what, I was listening to they do NASCAR play-by-play. This ought to be classic. They do it on 98.3.

Yeah. And I don't follow NASCAR at all, but I am impressed at the production that goes on where those guys, they always got something to say and they're flipping between every 15 seconds and I'll go to Dale on turn four and it's Dale on turn four and so and so and so and they're talking about different packs of cars and different groups of cars. I don't know how they keep it all straight. No, that's the truth. It is the play-by-play that amazes me. Now we're going to Steve LaTrackside. Steve, we got a real smoking tire problem down here on turn three. Oh, that's really not. Okay, back up to you, Steve. And the other Steve's like, hey, thanks, Steve. So now we're up here at turn one and we're thinking we're going to stop

by the STP car of the week. And then they break into some kind of special somebody's mocked up for them while they were talking. And then we just heard from Carl's wife and Carl has a stomachache and that's why he's laying behind Johnny. He's over here with a fire suit You can see his passenger side is banking at a 32 degree to the left and we think that's because of the hamburger he had. What do you think, Bill? Oh, definitely. You know those hamburgers. You've got to stay away from the Tide car when he's had the hamburger. You guys have listened to a lot more than that than I ever have, I have to admit. It's really interesting to me. I've never in my life heard it. I've been impressed with it. Even though I care nothing about it, I'm actually pretty impressed with it. I've totally given up basketball, football, baseball, and I'm totally in a tour of France. These are the legitimate bachelor soap operas. Yeah. Listen, it's the same reason you watch the Olympics. Like, you give two bitties about the guy

that rolls the big ball and sweeps in front of it. You just want to hear the commentary and where they came from. They'll do a back story on Igz Laws who comes from Sweden. She was going through a really hard time with menopause. Yeah. And then one will show up with no leg or something. You're like, and they made it all the way to the Olympics and now you're pulling for the no-legged woman going, yeah, you can do it. Yeah. Brush that ice. Don't let that mustache drag. I've been growing up for my son ever since he was born. All right, you're listening to Live from the Path. Thanks for hanging out. That was CJ Michaels and Travis. Travis, how are you doing over there? All doing pretty. Everything all right? All right, good. Okay, good. Travis, what's your last name? Skeffers. Ben? I couldn't spell it so I just put it down as Travis. From now on

when you say Travis I'll just pop in with the last name. All right, all right. Skeffers. He's a Skeffers. Travis, how do you spend your days? Skeffers. Well, my summer days are mostly spent doing concrete work which I'm just not fed up with. I'm ready to get done with this work in 65 hours a week. Today, 95 degree weather. Feels like 120, but… Do you wear a turban? I don't actually. That's the secret. That's the secret to the turban. Does it soak up all the sweat? I'm not really sure. It's the turban the mustache. You've got to figure, I mean, the heirs would know, wouldn't they? They live in the hot weather. Yeah, yeah. You don't come up with a hot weather decision looking around in the Midwest. You look to the guy that lives in it and say, look, he's wearing a turban. They look awfully hot, though. Now, to shift subject, though, I mean, this guy's only started playing

in Harmonica three and a half months ago. And he's already on the rig. Look at that. That was fairly impressive. You were climbing the charts. Well, that's good to hear I was a little nervous. No, it was a solid performance. Yeah. I don't think… In fact, the Harmonica was actually the… It was a nice added instrument. If you'd gone with the accordion or the didgeridoo, it would have tanked. The Harmonica was the only one that could do that. Yeah, I think it was good flavor. I agree. I like it. Of course, CJ's playing eight is for us over there. He's got the rest of it. Go ahead. How did they get… Ask how they got together. How did you guys meet? See, the girl's weighing in with the real questions. That's the type of thing a woman asks. Boxers or briefs. So I asked her to be here. And now we're getting sidetracked from the turban. That's what happens when you get ladies in here. So how did you get together? That's the type of thing a woman asks. Travis is a part of my…

Travis is a part of my… Thank you, Danielle. You are so welcome. Yes. Travis is part of my college group. Okay. And he's going to want a desire to go into youth ministry. And so I said, shoot, I'll mentor you this summer. And we'll hang out and shadow each other. And so he's helped me try to get the college students in town to get their act together. That's a big job. Yeah. I mean, really. No, Winterset has never had a college group, so I'm really proud of that. We run the only after-school program, so I'm kind of proud of the things that we do different. And my high school does a devotion in the morning, and everything for high school is in the nighttime kind of meetings and stuff. Sure. Yeah. Cool. You almost need an industrial-strength shepherd's hook when dealing with college people. Yeah. What are you trying to say? They're feisty and hard to deal with. Well, our hometown

is found at the Aquatic Center, and most of our college students that are in my ministry are part of the lifeguard. Oh, yeah. So I think… That's awesome. That plays on a lot of levels. Yeah. Lifeguard. That really works. There's seven people every day. I'll keep an eye on it. Their sign is the cross. What else could you ask? It's a lazy cross. Are you really going to spiritualize this? It doesn't have a tail on it. No. No. No. It's trying, though. It's working real hard. It's even… Yeah, never mind. I didn't realize they had an aquatic center out there. Yeah, it's… That's where all the cool people hang out, man. Well, that's obviously why I don't know. People are coming from Adel, from all over. Really? It's the beeswax. Where is it at? Do you have a wave pool? No, we don't. No. Oh, dang. She's really looking for a wave pool. Did you say it's the beeswax?

Yes. That is awesome. No, no. Adventureland. It's coming next year. I won't go there until they have one. Okay. I'm excited. Well, I'm from Seattle, and they've got one up there. Let's go there. Are you talking into your microphone in the wrong way? Yeah, it works, doesn't it? Yeah, I mean, pick it up. I'm just asking. Yeah, I flipped it around. You're a seasoned amateur radio man. No, well, the chord's a little… It's a little light. It's coming around backwards that way. See what I'm saying? I'd like to introduce my next song. Okay, yeah, sorry. Go ahead. It's called 8000, I Believe in Love, and it's gone through an amazing transformation. In the last month, I kind of wanted to polish all my songs, and this one was ready to throw out. It was a piano song. It just sucked. So I had to rewrite some of the lyrics, and I had to redo the whole approach, and I went to guitar. The song's about

the fact that after my fiancé died, I went all the way to Australia at the end of my adventure with God. I ended up in Australia, and just why I went there wasn't really happening, and I ended up just meeting with God in Australia. and it was 8,000 miles away from all my problems, which was nice. And I was just trying to find courage to live again, and it was amazing. It was like I met God out there, and I realized that no matter who dies in this life, who lives, what bad things happen to us, it's amazing. The love that God has is eternal, and even with the women in my life who have died, they're there. The love I have for them is there. I never have to say goodbye to them, because we'll see each other someday, and the love that we have, I kind of believe that the love that we have in married life here on earth is kind of like just what we have

for everyone in heaven. It's just that great of love. So this is 8,000? Yeah, 8,000. All right. You're starting. I'm starting. Travis is starting. Travis. Skippers. You can do it. Skippers. Get the Skippers part. Travis' big moment, his big solo is about to happen. Yeah, go ahead. God's love is so mean. The harmonica's getting good reviews on the chat. You've either done very well or fooled them. Could be. We've got some mean dudes on the chat. I wouldn't give them too much credit. Yeah, I would agree. Well, in the air, it's actually my call to and they're actually like, hey, cool, look what I can do. And I'm like, wow, that really works well. So it's like, the Lord, you know, I just feel it's been God. Yeah. Bringing Travis into my life this summer. I can play the auto harp. Do you have any need for an auto harpist? You don't. You don't do the auto harp.

I can do a little. No, you don't. What is an auto harp? You ever see it where you hold down the button and go, ring? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're with me. Yeah. You did it in fifth grade when you weren't doing the recorder. That's when you did the auto. I rocked both equally. When I was, oh, early 20s, late 20s anyway, I was at a church and they had revivals come twice a year. Back in the day, they had revivals in this church. And I remember one couple came and they were on a bus and the gal, the wife, played the auto harp. and that was like their big music thing and he played guitar and they did all a bunch of stuff and they went into nursing homes doing the auto harp. And she just happened to sell them on the side too. Oh, yeah. People were always like, oh, I want one of those. But it just so happens. It was awesome.

You know, did we end up making contact with Hammered Dulcimer Man? He'll be here the day before the Spirit Metal Festival. He's not going to make it. Dulcimer's rock. He's not going to make it in the studio. I have a love for Dulcimers. They have a cool sound. Have you seen this guy? What's his name? No. No, that's a didgeridoo. Yeah, it's a didgeridoo. Oh, Dulcimers are the… Can you play it with mallets? It's like a piano with mallets. Rich Mullins made the Dulcimer. Exactly. He did a lot of Dulcimer stuff, yeah. So Ted Yoder is going to be at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival and he plays the Hammered Dulcimer and he is awesome. He's a maniac fiend. Ted Yoder. Ted Yoder is getting some great publicity today. He is. He is. We obviously don't have room for the Hammered Dulcimer in this studio but if we had to tear out a wall because he said he'd show up, I'd do it. Yeah.

How big is a Hammered Dulcimer? I've never seen one in my life. It's got to be the size of that window. Oh, really? It's not the size of the window. It's got to be size two of those windows. I mean, it's big. Not two windows. No. It's like a semi-truck. No. He can barely fit one in Ohio where he lives. So, in either case, he will be at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival which, by the way, CJ will be at Saturday at 10 o'clock. Which stage? I'm not at the main stage. Yeah, is there like a 10… I'm at the tent. Is there like a one-man, 10-person band stage that you play at? Yeah, that's… Yeah, I'm gonna… Like the symphony stage? You know, I like that stage though. It's a more intimate setting. I feel like closer to people than I play at the main stage. You can really connect with a musician and kind of feel like you're part of it. Yeah, I think I actually really need a band to play at the main stage because I feel like really lonely up there. Actually, we speak at the main stage

on occasion and… Hello! Anyone out there? You need a band. You need a band. I don't know whether it was our performance or whether you… I think it was us. Yeah, I think it was us. Yeah. So, anyway, as a reminder, we will be broadcasting from the Spirit Midwest Music Festival both Friday and Saturday. We're gonna be broadcasting the entire length of the festival. This could totally fall on its face. We have no experience broadcasting from anywhere, including here. But we're gonna do it. We're gonna set up… Can we get our own Kaibo set up or…? No. I know I got my back half of the donkey costume in. Can I be like NASCAR where people just kind of walk on and sit down and guests go… That's exactly what's gonna happen. It's like the Olympics. We're gonna try to put a couch out there so that people can swing in and we can do interviews. Oh, wow. And we're gonna… They're not gonna be fantastic, but we're gonna take

these cameras with us and set it up at the tent stage and the main stage and get 20-25 minute recording of the bands out there. Like, hey, if I do my performance and I can then go on the couch and some lady comes by, you got a five. We need a Raider. That's a good idea. Yeah, it's a good idea. Well, some of those… No, that's not gonna go well. We'll only give them one card. They only get the five. Everyone gets the five. Yeah, everyone gets a five. That's right. It'll be like T-ball. Everyone gets a nice… Everyone gets a home run. We're all winners. They swing, they miss, you take the ball and throw it. Go, Jimmy! So we'll be broadcasting. Come on! There are plenty of artists. Sanctified was in here last week. They're playing on the main stage. CJ's gonna be at the tent stage. Vance Lambert's gonna be in town. He's gonna be at the tent stage. Let me plug the tent a little bit. Yeah, go ahead.

They have a cafe, I think, right in the back, part of it. Is it Rosalind's Coffee and Delights? And Delights. And Friends. And Friends. And Friends. Don't they have couches, too? Yes. In fact, they said they're still taking couches, Dan. Well, there's one right now. If you wanted to get rid of one, like they were saying, they'll take them. Will they matter that now there's a side? Dan, don't say anything more about it. Just hush it. One side's stronger than the other. There's nothing wrong with it. We're keeping it. What's talking? Also, we'll be doing a live, live from the path, we'll be at the Truth Talk stage on Saturday. What time? For how long? I think 10. Who are these guys? I don't know. I don't know who's going to do our live broadcast from the time we're doing at the Truth Talk stage. We're going to be out there

doing a live from the path from the Truth Talk stage. From 10 to what? I can see it. See, look, we're already on the screen. Wow. We're booked, man. Yeah. We're going to be there. Friday, 10 at night? No, 10 in the morning. 10 in the morning. Saturday, Saturday, 10 in the morning. I'm playing 10 in the morning. Saturday. We're going to have to have a movie. You guys come out, 10 o'clock, Saturday morning, hear me play. Wait a minute. You're opposite us. You're a competing vendor. I know. Well, I don't want you to get me. I like this. This is awesome. Oh, look at that. Your camera's fading away. Don't get so close to the camera and demand the viewer just to go to your place. Actually, that might be the better choice. Yeah, really. You're not going to miss much. I mean, just being honest. Here's what I'm saying. If they've seen the show, they'll go check out CJ. So far, all we have planned is Dan in this costume.

That's the best we got. And we have that bowl still. We have that inflatable bowl. Indeed, we do. Well, when is your show going? Is it in the rain here? Is it a bowl? 10 to 11. Is it a bowl? At the Midwest Festival? Yeah, at the Truth Talk stage, yeah. Kirk Cameron's going to schedule to appear. So as soon as I'm done, 1045, I'm going to walk up on it. CJ's coming. I'm coming. All right. We'll have the congas there. Yeah. We're going to be ready for it. All right. All right. Well, I tell you what, let's get some more tunes because it's better than our chat. So you said that Meant to Stay kind of was born out of the same circumstances. Well, you know, you know, Meant to Stay was because my fiancee and I, she had pastors that didn't want us to be together for a period of time to prove that relationship. So there was this whole proving, and then she ended up dying. But God meant it for good. He used this whole thing, I think, amazing point in my life to really show me

the quality of love that is possible. And being grown up in a very dysfunctional family and being, starting out very codependent, I had to be untrained out of that behavior. You know, my fiancee was very good at always telling me, I don't need to be with you, I want to be with you. You know, I was like, how does that work? And so by the end of it, even when she died, God really released me from fear of abandonment and all kinds of things. But when I was going through it, I was really challenged to write songs about the quality of love that if it's meant to stay, which is the name of the song, then it will endure. It'll get through anything. And it really did. It's just that God had a plan for her and it stepped in front of me. Awesome. All right. Is that good? Yeah. Well, this is Meant to Stay by CJ Michaels. You're listening to Live from the Path. I like that, man. There's some funky bass action going on in there. Yeah. Yeah.

I was wondering where that came from. I hired a better bass player for that. Well, basically, when I'm writing music in this machine, it's not as simple as I'm taking things in here and I'm moving them around and sound engineering for the songs. Sure. I've got buttons from start to finish for how to move the song along. It's a lot of fun to do, but… I like it. Mike? Come on, man. Mike? Yes, sir? Can you hear me? Yeah, well, I'm down here at turn four with Troy Engelinger. Troy? Troy, what would you say has been your favorite part of the night so far? Well, I've been here for like 15 minutes and my favorite part so far has been getting off work. No, I'm kidding. Actually, I love the music, man. I love it. Thanks, man. Hanging out here and actually kind of

jamming out to the music. I'm loving it. Now, I see that you've got some bowls with water in it out here. What's happening? I'm not quite sure. I kind of came in today, noticed that there was drippage and decided to go ahead and put some bowls down just so it wouldn't keep going on the carpet. He's not putting… I noticed I had one over here. I figured I might as well help out on this one. He's not putting his feet in there, is he? No, that's just… Is he doing Epsom salts out there? Hey, can we find out what that tastes like? My foot? No, no, the water. Should we go? I really don't want to drink that. Can you get the camera off my foot, really? Anyway, that's what's going around here, turn four with Troy Engelinger. Back to you, Ben. Thanks, Mike. All right, thanks. There you go. Technology knows no bounds around here. That was a great pit stop.

We broadcast from eight feet away. This is going to work. You are listening to Live from the Path. By the way, if you want to check us out during the week, you can at livefromthepath.org. You can sign up for the podcast. You can catch archive shows including this… Well, not including the show from last week, Sanctified. God bless them, they were in here and they rocked and the computer dumped an hour and a half into the show. Wait, did we catch their first tune? The first tune… No. Oh. That's when… Oh yeah, that's when the whole thing reset, right? Yeah, we lost… So we got one tune that we were able to post but the computer just kind of blew screen to death on us and that's when we stopped broadcasting for about two minutes and then we were back on but we lost the recording. So we lost everything

we had done up to that point. Yeah. Oh wow. That stinks because those boys are very talented and I really dug in their tunes and we talked to them and they're in the midst of working on maybe recording a live album at a concert venue coming up here pretty soon so I'm really excited to hear that come out. Yeah. So anyway, and again, you can catch them at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival. So anyway, but you can find archive shows including on the audio podcast. Right now, you're able to hear the best of Live from the Path. We played that a couple weeks ago when we were on a, we took a break. It was our first Sunday, first Monday off, oh it was on the 4th of July. So it's on the audio podcast. You can listen to that. The video of it is not up. I'm not sure that we'll actually post it.

Yeah. But if you sign up for the audio podcast you can pick that up. Also, Mike and Dan and I are from Pathway Church. We meet Sundays at Wallace Elementary in Johnson. We have services at 9 and 10. 30. If you're looking for a church family we'd love to have it come out. More importantly if you're looking for a relationship with Jesus Christ we'd like you to stop by. Or shoot us an email at info at livefromthepath.org Actually anything at livefromthepath.org will get to me. The way it's been going they may need to call ahead and make reservations. Yeah. These are going well. It's been crazy. Yeah. The Lord is sending people in the doors left and right. Yeah. Yeah. How many of you have receipts? None. They're empty. I mean, they're full. Make up your mind!

He was doing so well. The space is empty. No, the space is full. I know what I meant. We've always got to add a bunch of folding chairs and stuff in the back. let you just go down and around the corner. Correct. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it's pretty flexible as to what we can… Does everyone have to sit in one of those little kid chairs? Bean bags. Bean bags. It's a lot cheaper. And we just throw them out and they can arrange them how they want. Or children's high chair stools like at restaurants. That's pretty low grade. We don't do that around here. high chairs that clip onto the table? Oh, yeah. Those are awesome. Yeah. They're only at fancy places, Ben. But usually… I go to the Cheddar's. Like Wendy's. That's where I go. Can we go to Romano's Italian Grill? Wait, is that not high class? Where are you talking? I'm talking high, high class. Well, I assume that places like that you can't bring your kids.

I don't ever go places that have standards. I assume any place that's really upscale is that it's frowned upon to bring your children. Is that not true? That's the best place to bring them. Why? It's a shock and awe kind of deal. I don't get it. Chuck E. Cheese? You get those looks. You know they serve alcohol at the Chuck Cheese? What? That seems wrong, doesn't it? Yeah, I think they are. I'm going to do like Julie Roberts. Just wrong. You do a Julie Roberts impression? Mike, I could have said that. If someone said, who in this room does a Julie Roberts impression? I would have picked him out. That's what she says? That's just wrong? She says that? Is she wrong? I'm going to be honest with you. That's the worst Julie Roberts impression I've ever heard. I think the music is working out for you. I'd shy away from that. I actually quite do it. I'll remember forever. Also, if you want more information about CJ and his music, you can go to

cjmichaelsmusic.com Correct. and learn more about him. What about some recordings? Are you working on recordings? Do you have recordings? Yeah. I've got a new machine so I'm doing some basic relearning of the new machine. We've got two done and I'll just keep going. I've got lots of space on this machine. It's just a matter of what to go to the studio for and how to get the product to mastering. We want to put out some really good sound now. We've been just doing demos. You've got a guy here who's just trying to take it to the next level. Sure. Like most of us trying to move out of hobby land. Boy, I have trouble getting out of hobby land myself. I can't even get in the door. Not without a wallet. You can't. Cease my D. I left at the Burger King. I think I've ever lost my wallet. Boy, I would… Had you already bought food at the Burger King? You said that, yeah? You already bought food? Boy, it would have been worse if you had not bought food yet and somehow

it lost your wallet. Because then you would… After you ordered and before you paid. Yeah. Yeah. You would have been salivating waiting on the eats. It smells so good. I can't. I'm terrible. If I even turn into the restaurant, sometimes I think, oh, I shouldn't go. And then if I turn in, I'm done for. I have to order something. Yeah. All right. Anyway, Mike's wife, did you catch that he was at the Burger King today? Oh, come on, man. She knows. We talked about it. You're in so much trouble. Her and Ramsey are very upset at me. Dave called earlier, by the way. All right. So can I ask you, going back to it, you were talking about your previous song you just did. It was just kind of interesting to me. You were saying that your fiancé's pastors wanted you to have some time apart. Apart. This is kind of a fascinating idea. This is a novel

waiting to happen. I've been writing the story little by little, but before we broke apart, we did this with the knowledge that we were already decided we were going to get married. Her parents had given approval, but her parents. So it's like you don't see each other, you don't talk to each other, it's just like complete no contact? We breadcrumbed through MySpace. See how that goes. Is that, is that, go ahead. What? MySpace is tricky. Well, MySpace is no more. I don't even see MySpace anymore. I never, yeah, I don't hear much about it. Yeah, it's Facebook now. Yeah. And that's going to be gone soon, it's Google Plus. Oh, is that the way to go now? Yeah. You need to do circles instead of friends. All the 20-somethings are all geeked out over it. You would, again, you would know? You're in on the Google Plus? I'm pretty in with all the crowds.

All right. Well, so that is kind of a, would you say it was, it was effective or it did what it, is it standard? Do they, I mean, is that, is that normal, the separation thing? Is that, is that? Well, it, you know, it's all a jurisdiction thing to me. You know, they, she had given them jurisdiction and, you know, when she was writing her journal, I encouraged her to write a journal when we were apart. I got her journal when she was in the hospital because her parents called me when she got off the plane. I had such an in the parents. At that point, I had already read the journal and she had said that the pastors were trying to tear us apart. So, they had other ideas for her. There was something going on there and she had told me that she wasn't giving to me the ears so we, we knew the ball game but it was a good thing for both of us. Sometimes hard things, we just don't realize

that we think we want to blame God for something. God's actually trying to help us. Well, you grow through pain. Right. You know, I mean, you do get better or bitter, you know, and. But the interesting part of the story is she went to, on vacation and on the plane ride home she dies. She has cardiomyopathy. Kills over. No one knows she had a heart condition this whole time. But on the way out, God said, break the rule, go to the airport, see her, say goodbye. And then, that's when we were saying we're not going to cheat anymore. Going black. And I think it was God's way of having me see her and say goodbye to her. before she was going to die. I mean, he knew. Sure. Obviously he knew. So, you know, it's a great story. It's a good Hallmark story. Well, Hallmark's supposed to have a good ending. Hallmark's always had good ending. Well,

they have real fuzzy camera angles and everything looks a little twinkly. It used to be the new network, Hallmark 2. Yeah, maybe more for Oxygen. Hallmark 9. Right, the Hallmark Reality Network. Yeah. They'll cinch right on. But you know what? The main thing is our relationship to God is the most important one. Right. Whether we're married or not. I mean, for guys, we're supposed to cover the woman. So we need to know what it means to be covered by God. And a woman, she needs to stay pure and, you know, under the covering of her father and her pastor, whoever she puts there. And what I had to realize is that she had given jurisdiction that was her covering and God wanted me to respect that. So I really went through something that made me a man that really grew me up. So it was good. Yeah, I see that. Well, all right, I tell you what, let's, we're going to wrap up

the first hour here with one more tune from JC Michaels. I just want to say thanks, fellas, for coming in. I really appreciate, really appreciate your time. What? JC meaning CJ. Oh, shoot, I'm sorry. He's terrible about this. There's a guy on the chat with the handle JC and I was just looking at it because they're talking. Sorry. Well, shout out to JC from CJ. All right. Okay, that's what you sound like right there. Do not mock me. I'm under a lot of pressure here. I'm trying to put on a brush. Obviously, you've got it enough to comb your hair. I'm balding. Which man? All right, so I'll let you guys lead us out of the first hour with the tune. What are you going to do for us? Let's do a worship song. I do about half my music is just worship. And so this is called Shekinah for Shekinah Glory. and it's just about

wanting to be in his presence. That was CJ Michaels. Please stay tuned for the second hour of Live from the Path. Live from the REMAX Studios in downtown Des Moines. It's 6 a.m. and you are live from the path. That's a lot of pressure. It makes me probably the old guy in the room. I'm sorry. I got three chauvinists looking at me saying, what are you doing in the kitchen, Mary? What do you want? I don't go to a movie with whoopie in it. I mean, I'm a maggot. Bacon, I think. And cheese. You can buy this mouse for $19.95. And here's a little Jesus. Cerebral because I like to put my favorite things on my boxers. The hair you got. Where is American Samoa? I don't have much of a back hair problem, but I mean, if I did, I wouldn't want to have to ask my lady to take care of me. And it says I'm overly acidic. You seem to both have possum type characteristics that I can be all knowing. Can we say butt? That's why I go speedo.

Very nice. Very nice. The origami undies. You're way too intellectually invested in your underwear. I wore a hole in my pants. Right. I mean, my boxies were shown when I left at four in the morning. Your grandma's friend is really Ben Vereen. It's like holding a very warm dead fish. Oh, this will save me time later. I won't have to re-watch the show. It's a long delay. You know cars can't function on wall peanut butter. Does that help? It's very adult, Daniel. We tried to pick him up but he stopped to pee in the bushes and we couldn't wait. You spent your holiday season hawking pagan Christmas wares? I'm not in a chicken. Just saying branch out a little bit is all I'm saying. What? This has got to be the most interesting three minutes of radio I've ever heard. Men do not smoke Virginia slums. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You can't convince your mind to allow yourself to pee your own pants like it's out. Chicken, chicken, chicken. Olsen, Keith Olsen, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken. Well, I got this cat skeleton to me. I'm full. I'm hungry. I think I'll have that again. You're listening to Life from the Past. My observation in life is the whiniest people on earth tend to be Christians. Okay, first of all, you're not funny. So, don't even worry about it. No, I thought it was great. I don't need your approval, Daniel. Slowjack. Hey, slowjack. Look at that slowjack. Find me a slowjack. Come on, man. In either case, I'm growing my mustache in here until the world understands me for who I am. Not just a cool guy in a sauna, but a well-educated man who gets all his information from Life from the Past. There is a half-naked bust mannequin woman in the church office. He's afraid to have a ceiling. Along with a plastic BB handgun. And I say, what goes on in here? It's like that time you claimed that you created the peanut butter that rolls up like a deodorant. I've said too much. It gets hot and burns me. Where's them shady internet characters?

That's who I want. Giving my kid a pucker on the head. I've always been just freaky. Looks like the back alley, you know, used donkey beater. Who left my underwear outside in the rain? What's next? A bag full of aphids that eat your face? Christians don't have gas. That's the deal. Do not ever buy deodorant in an airport. Next time I find a naked dude out and roll around in my rock garden, I'm going to come look up for you and say, you caused this. What's up? I've got to do with it. Big sir, the best waterbeds, that's for sure. Big sir. Waterbeds. Funk kind of did that on that smelly politician question. Yeah, that's true. I've worn a dress. Oh yeah. I fell asleep at the wheel. We had like a gang of feral cats. What's a doobie? Hey, you know what? You're fat. Donkey rib cage, 30 bucks. Where'd you get that? There it's coming. Oh!

Okay. Anyway, you're listening to Silk Sheets and Rainbows. My name's Ben. I call it the street Jesus. Now, hold on, hold on. I'm not past it. Cassie, I'm sorry. You don't like any sandwiches? I've written Abby and said, Mike and Ben, they make fun of my shirt every single week. They say I look like a couch. What should I do? Hey Ben, the van's going to stink. I could have said it was Big Jagger if I'd have known him face to face when he was my father. This is good. This has been Live from the Path. Daniel, what did I tell you about that? We'll see you next week. Have a wonderful week. It's jazzy. I'm trying to put a little culture in here. It sounds like rage. This song is way awesome. It's funky. It's like That's more like a chicken thing. Dan, do it.

He's actually got it pretty good. You see that move that they do where like what is powder on the table? I think it's Portuguese. Stop it. I thought I lost something like my wallet. King de Guadal. You're listening to Live from the Path. Thank you for hanging out with us. We really do appreciate it. Hey, definitely give some love to CJ Michaels. Go check out his website and check him out at the Spirit of the West Music Festival. I'm jazzed to hear what it sounds like. We kind of cramped him in here. He was extremely accommodating for getting his rig in here. And I'm interested to see what he's like in full force at that 10 stage. I think it's going to be sweet. You know what? He's on Facebook? That's the truth with all the acts we have in here though, right? We pair them down. We make them kind of come in here bare bones. And I think there's going to be a sweeping difference at the festival. You know, everybody's plugged in and live and rocking.

There's a crowd. It's not just three doofuses going, who are you doing, dude? Yeah, I suppose there are more in their element when they have an audience and a stage as opposed to like us kind of gawking at them and sticking them in a corner. surrounded by equipment, kind of elbows, elbows to elbows. Yeah. What if it's sanctified? I mean, there's a million of them. I mean, they were crammed in here something fierce and they still did an excellent job. we lost that show. I know. They really did. We'd have to check them out. Lame. Fail. But it did fire right back up. We were back on the air quickly. Cool. Yeah. So anyway, check them out and make sure you check us out at the Spirit Midwest Music Festival. It's August 5th and 6th. Put it on the calendar. You got to make it out. Mm-hmm. So here's the thing. I was looking for stories this week,

like stuff to talk about, and I was looking at the CNN belief blog, which is generally where I go when I'm running low on stuff to talk about. and I was looking at it and every story that came up, I'm like, who cares? Who really cares? And then the whole concept of the belief blog then kind of hit me as a distraction. Its premise is to argue about either tenets of the faith or what people's faith is or someone who thinks somebody else's faith is wrong, which in that format, in that form, is never going to be resolved. Like it's not like anybody gets on there and their mind is changed by something that's come on the CNN belief blog. Right, right, yeah. So the more I read, the more I thought, I'm never coming here again. It was my staple. It's where I go. And I read it and I thought, this seems absolutely worthless to me. There's nothing to gain from it except starting a conversation or what Paul would warn us against about arguing among either trivial things or some of it's even like religious gossip. I just, I don't know. I really had hoped to come up with something. People love the argument. People who aren't Christians

look at us and say, why would I want to do that? Well, I think they use it as a distraction, you know? And actually for a while, like when you're a little young in your faith, you kind of like it. You kind of like the controversy and the differences that we have because you want to talk about it and you know you're ready to battle. You think this is a good time to stand on some laurels and really have at it. Yeah, yeah. And I think after you've mature in Christ a little bit, you're like, well, I don't care. You love Jesus. I love Jesus. Let's just call that a wash, whatever stupid thing we're talking about. Here's what I think happens. I think that, and I hear this a lot in different settings where some preacher gets up and he has his pet thing, whatever it is, and he talks about how great this pet thing is and how everybody who doesn't believe this pet thing is unspiritual and ungodly and they're just awful, terrible Christians and they're not as good as we are. So then Joe Blow was sitting there in the pew going, oh man,

that one thing, that must be important because that guy was all fiery and excited. So he goes to work and the guy in the cubicle next to him does that one thing and he's like, hey, I can't believe you're doing that one thing, that's horrible. And it's like someone in another, a dedicated Christ follower and they get in arguments and the guy, one more cubicle down doesn't know Jesus and they're going, really? This is what happens when I get to know Jesus? This is what's going to go on here? It's like, you won't, I'm looking for a church, neither one of you will invite me to your church but you'll argue with each other about who's less spiritual. right. So here's some examples. Here we go, Michelle Bachman officially leaves her church. I don't care. Like, have you ever switched churches? Do people print that and talk about it for a while? Frightening. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

It's just a goofy, here's what I don't understand. This is why I can never be a professional writer. They got four, five, six paragraphs here. What is there to talk about? I just don't understand the gospel. They got to make something up. The route she took from the church. Amid Bachman controversy, many Christians cool to conversion therapy for gays. First family to church, church there. The Obamas are going to church. Vatican's battle with China over church control heats up. Casey Anthony in the challenge of forgiveness. Obama meets with the Dalai Lama. Harry Potter in religion. Georgia delays new car tag over in God We Trust Confusion. Here's the thing is, I read through a lot of those and I didn't feel, I don't feel closer to Jesus for having read it. I don't feel stronger in my faith for having read it. I don't feel like I have something interesting to say to somebody that I meet for having read it. What's the point of reading it? I know. Yeah. I'm with Troy. What's wrong with you,

I guess that's what I'm saying is like of the stuff to read, you're like, hey, what's going on in Christ's land today? That's not it. That's not going on. Yeah. It's trumped up information. No, really. You know what's going on with Jesus? The same stuff he said in the Bible. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Fish is a man. That's what's going on. That's what we're about. At least we not know of yet. I can get on board with apologetic stuff, trying to explain stuff that's tough in the Bible. I can get on board with that. I can get on board with modern day application. I can get that. But I guess I'm getting more and more turned off of just your general, let's talk about religion. Because that's the last thing Jesus is talking about. And it certainly doesn't speak well of anybody, any of us. It's more let's talk about what the people of the church are doing,

not let's talk about Jesus. Let's talk about what Jesus is after and what the people of the church, people of Jesus' church should be doing. Yeah. You know, not so much of what they're currently doing and what they're wrapped like the In God We Trust license plate. I don't know. Does that get you fired up to go down to Georgia and stampede the courthouse and try to throw something up? Maybe you're just lazy. When I was in college, I've had an opportunity to visit a lot of different churches like in college groups, singing group, whatever, preaching, different things. And so we would go to their Sunday school classes and a lot of these were like small rural church settings. I was amazed at how many of those little Sunday school classes, all they did was talk about the Methodist church down the road or you know those Methodists, you know those Baptists, blah, blah, blah. I'm just like, really? Yeah.

Really? You're wasting my time to, I mean, maybe they're theologically different or whatever. Well, they gotta be, right? Yeah. They are for some reason, but really? How about if you just open the Bible and say, here's what God says? Right. Rather than worry about everybody else and what they're doing. You know, a lot of those differences in the denominations are almost a stylistic difference. I mean, some are doctrinally different, but are they in the category where you're gonna cause a division over it? You know, like if they say, you know, the Trinity's not real, then I suppose you've got some doctrinal issues. There's some issues, yeah. You know, but I mean, this church speaks in tongues, this church doesn't like it. You know, is it divisive? Is it a reason to say that you don't believe in Jesus and I don't believe in Jesus and now we have problems? You know, like doctrinally, maybe theoretically,

we have issues, but I don't think it's enough to not look at them as Christ followers and say, whatever, we're batting for the same team here. You know, it's just not worth battling about. Right. I know, it's weird to me. You know, I guess to that extent, the real question is, is what are we reflecting to a world of people who don't have Jesus? Like ultimately, that's the question. Even if you win a minor battle, what did that look like to the guy? You remember, we talked about the non-biblical signs of the apocalypse. We had like two in a row where there's dudes getting in fistfights outside of the church. Deacons, deacons, elders, like people that are supposed to be high standards up in the church, fistfighting outside the church door. I mean, what possibly could it have, I don't even remember what it was over. They wanted to throw somebody out and some guy thought, you know, we should keep them.

Yeah. But, you know, what does that look like to, you know, people that aren't following Christ and they're looking and say, yeah, that's the life. That's the life I want right there. I want a piece of that action. I don't know. Although, you know, that's kind of a hard sell too, right? Like, hey, come join the life. Jesus doesn't really promise all that much from a worldly comfort standpoint. But, you know, that's the truth and I've actually run into that over the last couple weeks. I've been talking to a guy about Jesus. He called and he was kind of out of nowhere, really. And, you know, we started talking and he wasn't real happy with how his life was going and things weren't working out and he's, you know, gotten some drugs or whatever and, you know,

he started talking and that's where that question kind of came up for me is what can I, what can I promise Jesus, what can I promise God will do for him? You know, and I thought about it and I, basically he said, you know, I just, I want to change. And I said, well, you need to ask God to do that. I said, I can't, I can't help you. I said, and frankly, up to this point, you can't help you. You know, I said, what you're doing is not working. I said, what you got going is not happening. I said, I said, I can tell you that, you know, God's never let me down and I said, if you want a different way of living, not just a temporary feel good, you know, if you want a different

way of living, I said, you need God's help for that. And I said, you need to pray about it. And he, you know, he said, I've never prayed and I don't know how it's done. And I said, okay, you know, so we talked about that a little bit and then, you know, we talked about Jesus a little bit and who he was and why he was here and all this jazz. And, you know, I heard back from him this week and I was really excited because I was a little worried because I had said, you know, I didn't, I didn't go all the way and say, Jesus will fix your problems because it depends on what his problems are, you know? And, you know, I don't know. I was a little uncomfortable guaranteeing that Jesus wasn't going to do anything. Like if I was going to say,

you know, if he said, hey, I want to quit the drugs and I say, well, Jesus can help that. Jesus is the answer. And then he doesn't stop doing drugs. Yeah. You know, and then he says, Jesus didn't help me. You know, I don't know, like I was fearful of saying Jesus will help you do that. Yeah. You know, I know he will. I know Jesus will do that. But, like if he doesn't, if he doesn't fully invest in what Jesus has got going, you know, live the life and, and, and, and put your sin to death and let Jesus take it from you, you probably won't stop doing drugs. It's, it's the process of, of being transformed and, and submitting to his lordship. So it's not necessarily, you know, bam, you're off drugs. You know, some people, you hear stories like that.

God can do what he wants. But the typical person, the situation, I think is, as I bow to the lordship of Christ, his desires become stronger in my life than mine. It's not that I don't have the temptation. It's not that I don't say, man, I really like some of that again. Right. It's not that you ever, until your dying day, you know, have no problem with it. It's that suddenly, you, you have a different way of thinking and a different way of handling it. You know who to run to, so to speak, when that temptation's there. Right. There's a reason to go to, or there's a reason to not do it, as opposed to before Christ, there's no reason not, why not? Well, and this was, this was the really amazing part, because I had a conversation with him just a couple days ago, and he called, and he was supposed to have, come to church Sunday, he didn't make it, you know, and no big deal, you know, so he called that night, and we talked about him, and he said, boy, I just had a terrible day,

I got in a huge fight, and I said some things I shouldn't, and I really wanted to do drugs, and he goes, but I didn't, because I promised my lady that I wouldn't, and my word is all I have left, that's all I have, is my word, and I said, I said, that's it, huh? And he goes, and I said, have you prayed this week? He goes, yeah, I prayed specifically for the drugs, he goes, I don't want to be on them, and he goes, I felt better after praying, and I said, and this is where I saw God show up, and it was very cool, and I said, so let me get this straight, I said, your word is what kept you from doing those drugs, that you really wanted to do, and he said, yeah, and I said, you told me you were going to be at church on Sunday, and I didn't see you, and I said, now I'm not, I said, I'm not upset, I said, I understand you had some stuff going, you know, it's not a big deal, I said, but you're not exactly sturdy oak,

with your word, right? I said, now are you telling me, that your word is what kept you from the drugs? I said, I'm not saying it either way, I said, but I want you to look at it, and realize that, you said a lot of things this week, not only just to me, I said, but to a lot of other people, now how many times did you keep your word? And he goes, not very many, and I said, did you ask God to help you on the, oh, with the drugs? And he said, I did, I did, and I said, do you think your word can hold up against God? Who do you think is running this situation? And he stopped for a second, he didn't talk for like 10 seconds, and all I heard is, 10 seconds later he goes, wow, and I said, I'm not coming down on you, I said, I just want you to realize, I want you to realize who your dad is, who God is, and what he does, and I said, I'm not doubting that your word means a lot to you, and I'm glad it does, it should, you know, your word is your bond, I said,

but it doesn't look like it holds a whole ton of water at the moment, and I said, just evaluate on how much you can do that against what God can do, and just look at it, and honestly evaluate it, and tell me what happened, and then he just said, wow, and that's all he could say, and I thought, that's awesome, that's awesome, because I think, because he goes, now, just after the pause, he goes, you know, I just, I felt something right there, it was just, it was odd, I felt something, and I just felt, I don't know, I just felt really good about what we just talked about, and I said, I said, there's a next step for you, and I said, you tell me when you're ready to take it, when you want to talk about it, we'll talk about it, that's awesome, and, that is awesome, the whole thing scares me, and it doesn't scare me because of, that I don't have faith that Jesus will take care of these things, right, but I've never put myself in a witnessing situation before, and I'm very excited about it, and I pray on it, something fierce, and I like it, because I've always been like,

we talk about this all the time, right, I'm like, I want, I need a strong witness buddy, I need someone to teach me how to do this, you know, and it turns out, Jesus will help you, He's called the Holy Spirit, if you just, if you just let him, and you just have to listen, and like, I'm scared to death, when I'm talking to him, because I'm like, just don't say the wrong thing, I'm half listening to him, half praying the whole time, like, just don't screw this up, don't say anything stupid, don't swear, you know, we're trying to keep this on an up and up, trying to keep yourself in line, and it's been a very amazing week, on that front, and that one moment, where we were talking about the drugs, and him not doing them, and then he said, wow, and I thought, man, God showed up, not that I doubted that he would, but I very rarely get to see it in that capacity. There's nothing in life, I don't think, nothing, that's more exciting, than delving into someone's eternal soul, and thinking you've had a difference, that God's used you,

it's not you, it's not Mike the hero. no, I'm just excited that God would even choose to use me in any aspect like that, because I've never done it, like, I've never done it before, it's always intimidating me, I don't even like people most of the time, and God knows that, and I think he's had enough of it, frankly, I think he's had enough of me not liking people, and so, you know, he's taken a guy that I've, you know, haven't talked to in years, and put back in my past for some reason, so I don't know, it was very, it was a very cool experience, and that's where that question that came up was, you know, how much can you promise somebody, you know, how much can you say what God will do for you, you know, and we talked a little bit about that, not so much, and I said, you know, he's like, I just want to be happy, and I said, I could promise you peace, you know, and I can promise you a way of life, that you can always refer back to, I said, happiness, I don't know, I said, I don't know if I can say, I don't know what God's got in hand for you, and I said,

but you can at least feel some comfort in that, you're doing what God has asked you to do, and there's a lot of comfort there, a lot. That's solid, I mean, what you're saying, I mean, the temptation is to offer things that God doesn't promise, because we so badly want them to just, come on, jump over to our zone, you know, yes, and we'll promise things that God's like, I never said that. Well, that's the scary part, right, is because I don't ever want to present a false Jesus to somebody, you know, I don't ever want to say that you're going to feel great, and things are going to be on the up and up, and you're going to get the best job you ever found, you know, maybe God likes you homeless, maybe he wants you to talk to other homeless people, I don't know, you know, but I can say there's going to be, you know, you won't have that hatred for yourself that you have, that'll go away, because you got Jesus, you know, and that I can promise, so I don't know, it's been, it's been, it's been very exciting, very exciting, that's pretty exciting, that is awesome, man, good for you, so I guess,

what is the answer then to the, what can you, what can you promise, what can you promise when you're witnessing for Christ, what can you promise that person you're talking to? I like the fact that you promised him peace, I think that is really cool, because I agree entirely, you can't promise happiness, like, you really can't, that's not something that I believe you have any power over, to be able to promise. That's a person's choice, rather than happy. I think you can go to Galatians 6, and the fruits of the spirit, and you can promise that, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, you know, as, as you submit to Christ, I mean, even some of that, it doesn't come automatically the next day, but the more you submit to Christ, the more peace you have, the more you submit to Christ, the more self-control you have, the more you submit to Christ, the more love you have, and that's a growing process, I think, throughout your belief, your Christian life, and you're safe, you're solid with that, God does promise that. Well, you know, and I thought the real danger is, is that a lot of,

a lot of life problems, like, like drugs, for example, you know, I can say Jesus can help you with that, but you still need to go to rehab, you know, you still have things, you still have things you need to do, you know, you need accountability, I mean, there's a, there's a chemical dependence of your body on that stuff, you know, you can straighten out your spiritual life, but that doesn't mean your body's not going to stay. Right, and people, you know, and we ran across this, this too, you know, and some people, he goes, you know, rehab doesn't work for me, I said, I said, rehab works for you if you want to quit, I said, that's when it works, I said, it's, it's, it's, it's a help, it's, that's exactly what it is, but if you don't want to stop, you know, rehab not going to help you, and so, I don't know, and I,

I don't know, they're very, they're very heavy, that's the thing, is the, the transformation from the life that he's living to Jesus is huge, you know what I'm saying, it's not just changing one thing, or, or realizing, you know, what God's done for you, it's changing everything, it's changing absolutely everything, and the, and the thing that scared me is, is, you know, I was talking to him, I thought, I, I am not, the, I'm not the guy for this, I am not the perfect guy, I'm not the perfect example of a Christ follower here, you know, I, I can't, talk with, are any of us, well, that's the, I was going to say, you can't find a perfect, well, that's the thing, I'm pretty good, is that, well, as a matter of fact, let me show you my list, that's the thing that hit me when I was praying that night, was, I'm not the perfect example of a Christ follower, but I am a perfect example of God's grace,

and that's all I can offer, like, I can, I am a perfect example of what God can do, I am not necessarily a perfect product, but I am a perfect example of what his grace covers, I think you are an accurate example of a Christ follower, you are not a true example of Jesus, like, you are not Christ, but you, but I mean, you are an accurate example of someone who is trying to follow Christ, and it's implicit in that, that you will fail, that you will, you know, like, that's, that frankly is just true, that's the truth about a person following Christ, is that they will fail, and that they needed the grace, and you know, and they continue to get better day after day, as opposed to getting worse, but I mean, that's an accurate picture of someone following Christ. It is, and you know what, the cool part, the cool part that I found out was very easy to, to meet eye to eye on, is if you really look at, is that there's just bad people in Jesus, then boy, we got a lot in common, doesn't matter what bad stuff you're doing, you know what I'm saying, if, if, if he's doing drugs, and killed a guy, and robbed a liquor store, and I told a lie that day, well,

we all, we both deserve hell, we're in the exact same boat, you know what I'm saying, and so it makes it, it makes it really easy to, to relate, you know, on a one on one, when you really honestly get the picture that, we, we all fall short, you know, and we're all sinners, and we all need, we all need Jesus just as much as the next, there's not one guy, that needs Jesus more than the other guy, you both need Jesus the exact same, and Jesus is just big enough, to cover both of those plus more, I like it, I like it, that's exciting, yeah, that's exciting stuff, there is, like I said, there's nothing more exciting, my most satisfying times in my life, are when I'm, in a situation like that, with an individual who's just soaking it up, you know, who just wants to know, whether it's a new believer, or someone who's almost there, you know, I mean, I always get a weird rush, yeah, I don't know why, I get really excited about it, I, it's kind of thing, it's weird to think about,

like, you know, I'm not perfect, none of us are, sure, but, God's put me there for a reason, yeah, like, you know, I may not think that I'm the perfect situation, or the perfect person, to be talking to this person, and I can think of a thousand reasons why, you know, Dan Hudson, or Joel Kahn, or Mike and Ben Foose, would be so much better in this situation, but, generally it's true, yeah, they're not here, it's generally true, especially in ski ball, and finger painting, and they're not here, both of which I rule, I'm the one that's, here, and there's a reason that I'm here, it has nothing to do with how many other people could be better at this, God has me here for a reason, so I'm going to do whatever I can, well, and I think that kind of thing is important to keep in mind, is regardless of who you think would rock it, whatever's going on, you know, that atmosphere, that environment, is created for you, I can be way more effective at my office, for example, than Dan ever will be, Dan does not know any of those people,

he doesn't pass them in the halls, he doesn't talk to them on the phone, he doesn't help them out with stuff, like, there's no relationship with them at all, I have that relationship, and so, who, who would be more effective in that situation, it's going to be me, regardless of my skill level, or how effective I think I am at witnessing, and, and the thing is, is like, everybody has that environment, everybody has an environment, or a situation, of which, you are the perfect person, to influence that circle, the Google Plus circle, yeah, exactly, well, you know what's cool, is if you start considering yourself, to be, uh, the Jesus representative, for where you're at, you know what I'm saying, like, if you go to work every day, just consider yourself, you're the guy that Jesus is sending, Jesus has decided, well, you're here, I, I put you here, you know, or, do it, you know, I really don't care where you work,

but I want you doing things, when you go there, you know, you're the representative, for me, in this place, get to doing it, get to doing your job, you know what I'm saying, who do you work for, you work for the man, or you work for, the man, you know what I'm saying, do your job while you're there, I mean, you could only, in fact, it's, that's, that's way more prosperous of a situation, than even the, the, the church on Sunday, because the fallibility of a Sunday church, is the person has to go, the person has to, has to get up, drive their car over, feel confident enough to go in there, and I mean, people do that, but you gotta really want it to do that, you have to be like, majorly seeking to do that, or be, being dragged, yeah, you do not have to be in that same situation, when you're drinking coffee at the thing, and you, you know, you overhear somebody talking about, something, that grabs their attention for Christ, you're saying like,

like, we can be way more effective, than just opening the church doors, and saying, come in if you want, yeah, I mean, we have donuts, there's a, there's a role for that church, and there's, there's growth in the church, and that's, and there's a, you know, there's a way to invite people in, and then help them to become better, at what they do, but I mean, really, if we're talking the trenches, you don't ask the trench, to move into the safe harbor, you get down in the trench, and that's, that's basically what we're talking about, is you have to live in there, and not, not wait, I sure hope Dan comes down in this trench, right, people need saving, yeah, right, Dan, why haven't you come to my work yet, I mean, there's a lot of people there, that could really, really use to talk to you, I know it, I know it, I don't like them, I've been asking for years, and you still haven't come, I have a picture of Dan,

like calling a taxi, and going, take me to the pagans, wherever you know, there are some, you can drop me off here, thank you, there's a guy named Mike Foose, second avenue, and university, I hear there's a billboard, I went to hell, but they sucked me in, dude, it will be interesting to see if that shows up, like people that are trying to use your debit, you should have let it go for a day, just for the entertainment value, I checked it for three hours, while I was at the BK looking for it, I lost my wallet, what, everything, flew out my window, oh, it flew out my window, no, no, no, someone took a hard lefty, and it shot out the window, because he set it on his dashboard, you know, my wallet doesn't fly out the window, because it's in my pocket, yeah, did you not immediately notice it, and that's why you didn't go back and get it, yeah, I got my brains on it, my wallet doesn't go anywhere, I'm guessing you went back and checked your wallet, and like that, I don't care, it wasn't there, I don't care,

okay, okay, there might have been a couple bucks in there, but, oh, I did find a Jesus hundred, while I was looking for my wallet though, nice, I was out in the media, looking for my wallet, I'm like, dude, I have so many, no kidding, I have so many of those, it's not even funny, I, my dad bought thousands, of those things, I was, I was very, I was very disappointed, that's cheesy, the Jesus hundred is cheesy, I'm sorry, it's cheesy, that whole thing was cheesy, it's pretty cheesy, and I love my dad, with all my heart, I think he knew it was cheesy, of course he knew it was cheesy, I mean, if it wasn't cheesy, he wouldn't have gotten into it, he probably gave it to Christians, that's just going, I can imagine my dad sitting there like, take this, a faithful steward of the fake hundreds, that's the funny part, is what if some guy sees the hundred, the hundred dollar Jesus, thinks it's a hundred bucks, and be like, I have a perfect,

this will go great, in our children's ministry, they finally needed the new, oh, a Jesus hundred, I was going to do God stuff with it anyway, here's your tip ma'am, thanks for the service today, I saw my dad do that, so many times, like we'd be sitting there, my dad would be like, oh here's your tip, and then slip it underneath, the other dollars, and I'm just like, dad, dad, dad, take it back, dad, seriously, he's like, no man, watch, she's going to get over there, she's going to read it, and she's going to either laugh, or come over here, and ask me what it is, let's see, and I'm just like, why do you get such a kick out of this, and he'd literally sit there with me, like, she's got it, she's looking through it, she sees it, oh, she looks disappointed, I'm just like, really dad, there's all that coming, and I'm just like, should I go over and talk to her about it real quick, since she's not going to come to me,

and I'm just like, yeah, that's not going to be awkward, that's how you open up a door for Christ, like, hey, did you see that fake hundred dollar bill that I gave to you, and that's for you, there's a hole in your heart in there, that wasn't a mistake, that's a Jesus sized hole, so hey, speaking of your dad, what did you think of the fun run the other day, oh my lord, that was a pretty neat deal, it was awesome, yeah, great to be there, no, no, seriously, he's upset because me and Mike did not attend, it was a neat experience, it was awesome, I had a lot of fun, a lot of people, I mean, I kid you not, when I saw that guy that was in first place, he was a beast, I was like a quarter of a mile in, with Shelly, it was me, Shelly Carson, and then the Edomas, because they were the caboose, yeah, and we're walking, please do not refer to the Edomas as the caboose, that's what Rodney called himself, he was like, no one gets behind me, to hand his caboose around here, but we're walking, and this guy just comes sprinting back,

and I'm like, you've got to be kidding me, I'm like, this guy is making me look like a jerk, oh, he was way ahead of everybody, I was at the halfway point, where'd he come from, just some random, I think it was some random guy, they put him on some websites, the people who do runs, and that's, in all honesty, I was talking to him, 15 bucks is a cheap run, yeah, like it really is, for the guys that love doing runs like that, people pay money to run, yes, we're going to do it earlier next year, and we'll have a ton of people, that are just training for like the big runs, and they just love to get into, and 15 bucks for a training 5k, is not bad at all, like that's really good pricing, but he's just, more than just out, jaw for a, I mean you're actually part of a thing, and it's, you know, and he doesn't sound like, it sounds like this dude's on his own, rocking the whole race, well they were first and second, I'm pretty sure, they looked like they'd do it all the time, was there prize money? no, of course not, no, what? who are these dudes,

that you're just grabbing off the street, to pay 15 bucks, to run down the road, this is the church, they saw the signs, and saw the stuff on Facebook, and decided to come, Mike does not understand a culture, where someone runs for nothing, people realize, you don't realize, that's where we're at, and pay you, all the time, they love to do them, it's like a jogging addiction, they were obviously athletes, I'm going to tell you something, this guy, if I could, if my wife would let me, park my car by my front door, I would drive to the mailbox, and back, I wouldn't walk 10 feet, if I didn't have to, Mike let me ask you, does this echo your comment, from the chat, it says, people pay to run, if it weren't for charity, why would anyone do that, I can run for free at home, anytime I choose, I understand, okay, you're talking to me, I'm not the guy, that goes to those, I'm not the person, that's just like, hey man, what did you do on Saturday, I was, you were at the fun run,

obviously, okay yeah, I'm not that man, let's see here, the Sean Engeldinger, Troy Engeldinger, my dad, obviously it wasn't, forced to tend, it's been and I didn't go, do you realize, how many people, would have been calling me, and would have been mad at me, if I didn't show up, well not necessarily mad, a people pleaser, a fear of man, I totally understand, no I wanted to do it, I've been training, for the last four months, to be able to do that, for myself, in all honesty, I wanted to do it for my dad, but I realized, the day that I got there, I wasn't going to be able, to do it for my dad, I had to do it for me, and that's exactly what I did, can we get back to the, the crazy fun run guys, that's fine, these I literally, this guy's running back, as I'm literally, still able to see, did you high five him, yes I did, but I asked the Edemas, if it was okay, if I accidentally, shoulder check the guy, because he was just making me,

look like a jerk, and I'm just like, oh that drives me nuts, I'm like wow, I'm really putting a lot of effort, into this, this guy's like, almost back, and I'm just like, can I like, shoulder check him, to see if I can like, kind of get him to go down, for about 45 minutes, and see if I can beat him, sure, and the Edemas, were like no, you're not doing that, I was like fine, good question move Edemas, I know right, but they're checking their times, I mean they're, you know they're, it's a, it's serious business, it was basically, the first wave was the, people who wanted their times, who were actually doing the run, and then the rest was people, who were just doing it leisurely, for the charity, I mean obviously these guys, paid money for the charity, but they were in it, for the run itself, yeah there were like three waves, the serious runners, the hey I kind of like the jog, I do this, yeah I like this kind of thing, and the, yeah I'm pretty much going to walk, and then me,

which was the fourth wave, so it was the fourth, yeah, but it was awesome, I was really hoping to do it, but you know with Tony and Jody, and their motorcycle accident, we took their jobs, so I stayed at the, it's like a straight line, so they go halfway, there's a line they go back, someone has to say hey, 1.55 miles one way, 1.55 the rest, yeah, and in all honesty, I was tricked into thinking, that a 5k was 2.5 miles, for some reason, even though I'm a very, I pride myself, of being somewhat educated, and probably should have been able, to figure out, that that wasn't going to be 2.5, that's a mistake, it comes before the fall, I know right, so as I'm getting there, they're like yeah, it's 3.1 miles, I'm like I've been training at 2.5, I'm like oh no, this is going to be bad, I just, it was a good time, I am totally flabbergasted, that people run, you think you were, for a fee, I was sitting there like why, do these guys do this, I mean granted, it sounds like a great cause, but like if you were doing,

bumper cars, I could see people paying, but people pay to run places, yeah a bumper car is not a bad idea, I just don't understand it at all, do you think the guys, that run marathons, don't like it, I just assume, that they have a problem, with their inner self, and they're running, I don't understand, why people run at all, it becomes addictive, not that I know from experience, I mean last time I really ran, was when in college, I used to run every day, but people that cyclists, the cyclists I feel the same way about, I just don't understand it, people that commit their lives, to physical activities, is that what you're saying, yeah I don't, obviously it's real, or we wouldn't have the Olympics, I mean that's people, committing their entire life, every fiber they're being, being towards a sport, or an athletic, talk to them, action, I can't, what am I supposed to say here, I don't know, well you're acting like, you're so surprised, that people do these runs, and stuff like that, but I'm sure you've heard, of the Olympics haven't you, I've seen it, yeah you've seen it,

so this is people, dedicating their lives, to one thing, that makes money, that they do for a living, you have to be an amateur, to be in the Olympics, oh no you don't, no you don't, because they do the dream team, and the basketball, see, they make big money, the endorsements, the cash, free Nikes, that guy with the bolt, you say bolt, do people make money, off the Boston Marathon, I don't know, I don't follow running, but it's there, it's not like, this is the first time, you've ever heard about, competitive running, and then people doing it, no I've heard of it, I just said I don't understand it, well you're acting like, you're completely flabbergasted, at the thought of it, I'm flabbergasted, that anyone does it, yes, why, I just, maybe I'm just not understanding, why that's so surprising, because it, I, it just doesn't seem like, there's a purpose to it, right, like if I want to go to the store,

I just get in the car, and go to the store, I don't enjoy the drive to the store, I just want to go to the store, get my stuff, and then return, but, but they're running for the, enjoyment of just, physically running, I love working out, really, I absolutely love, working out, and going and lifting weights, I do too, it's not like it's fun, to not be able to lift my arms up, I would rather take a turtle, out of his own shell, and put it on my head, and run around in traffic, than run anywhere, that, okay, like that seems just kind of excessive, I'm just saying, that's how much I hate running, wow, that's kind of intense, if there was a car coming at me, and I was in the middle of the road, I would ask that it would stop, before I would move, I obviously didn't get this body, by loving to run, I mean, clearly, but I mean, I understand where they're coming from, because I love to go to the gym, I absolutely love it, it's therapeutic for me, it is, and that's what it is for some runners, it's therapeutic for them,

it's a way to clear their head, and the children's ministry, got some cash, and that's the biggest thing, look, I'm not saying it's evil, I'm just saying, it's not for me, I don't want to hear it, what do you, and I got a cool shirt, what do you do, what do you do for therapeutic, I don't even know, Troy therapies himself at the gym, what do you do for therapy, nothing, I don't know, do you play piano, does that, no, music isn't in any way therapeutic to you, I don't even play the piano, except for on Sunday mornings, that's it, I don't have one at my house, because it's in the church trailer, I don't have any, I don't do anything, Doritos, I don't have anything that calms me, or anything, no, really, no, I'd go insane if I didn't, no, I don't have anything like that, I don't do that, when I'm really mad, I go to the gym and work out, to balance your inner self, I don't know if it's going as deep, as balancing my inner self, and I've got aggression, that I'm not proud of,

that I try and get rid of, in healthy ways, and working out, gets rid of my aggression, like when I'm really angry, after a day of work, or having to deal with someone, that I didn't want to have to deal with, obviously, if I were a better Christian, I'd be like, oh, I don't get angry, but I do, and, my way of getting away from it, is I go and I work out, and being able to, I mean, I'm not just saying this, just because we all know, I'm an ankle dinger, so I'm strong, but, being able to push a lot of weight, and then pushing my body to it's limits, helps me relieve stress. You should know that about people, Michael. Well, I just blanked out, like everything you just said, like pushing to the limits, and working out, it's just, I've just, maybe, I just don't think like that, I don't know. It's all good. It is all good, I just don't. And do you do anything calming, to calm yourself? I used to love working out, and I really haven't this year.

I've got to kind of think of, find a new thing. Last year? Last year? What? How is that an alternative? It's calming. Mike, the chat has insinuated that you're not a real man. What's your definition of a real man? I don't know. Some doofus that doesn't go anywhere, runs in a circle? Samson. I just, I don't, I don't, I don't get it. Now, if they'll take that same workout, and build a barn or something, can't you find something to accomplish? Something useful? Why you're, why you're working out? You know what I'm accomplishing? Why don't you paint the, why don't you paint the lines in the road? Do you want to? You could be the guy. We could get rid of the trucks, and you could just carry a spray can with you, and run, run, you could accomplish something. What I'm accomplishing, though, with you're working out, is I'm losing weight. I'm getting myself in a healthy state. I can insinuate you can do both. Do something, like why you're. But I don't, I don't normally run. I go and I lift weights, is what I do,

to get myself strong enough, so that I can do something. You always do this, Troy. Take yourself out of it. It's not a personal attack on trueing there. I'm talking about runners in general. Okay. Like just running to run seems like a total waste of time. You could run and accomplish something. Well, it's doing some, you know, little cardio work. Carrier messages? It's a healthy thing. Yeah. Deliver some letters for the postal service. Look for one of the criminals. Pick up some litter. How do you know there's people who don't do that? I haven't seen any of them. There's an awful lot of litter still out there. I've never seen anybody run after litter. I've never seen Adopt-a-Highway runners. It's always the old folks on that's picking up the trash. Let's propose it. I'd say so. I just, I don't know. Come on runners, run along the interstate and pick up trash. I just don't, I don't see it like that. $15 register. I don't know. Maybe you need to pick something up, Mike. Maybe I'm just, maybe I need to find something that calms me. Some kind of special place or whatever. It's foreign to me. It's foreign to me saying,

I don't know anything about this. I need to calm myself down. I'm just a, I'm a youthful guy so I have a lot of anger. It's just, I'm a teenager. I can't help it. It's testosterone. But no. So, there you go. That's what I'm saying. I have to have my calming things. I like a motorcycle ride. I enjoy that. No, Mike, no motorcycle ride. You're just not doing anything. I don't, I, if, do you find it stress relieving when you build a house? Yes. Okay, then build more houses. Then that's your stress reliever. I'm not saying what I do is, You're saying you don't have a stress reliever. That's it right there. I tell you, I find stress relief in accomplishing things. And I'm not saying that what you're doing is incorrect. I'm just saying that I just, there's no point in that point of view that I can relate to. And I don't know why. Like, I can't imagine doing anything.

You have to, you have to see things getting accomplished or you just think it's absolutely pointless. Yes. Okay. Yes. It has to be a tangible accomplishment. Yeah, like if I'm moving, if I'm moving the mower from one part of the yard to the other, I will turn the blade on. So at least I got something done while I was driving it. It looks ridiculous because you just It doesn't matter. kind of mowed it half. at least that one strip really looks nice. Like, I couldn't just move it. And the rest is an eyesore. It's just that one. I don't know. I'd like to talk more about this with you off air because maybe I will try some of these things that you're trying. If tangible accomplishment is what you, what gets you stress relief, then that's what you need to stick to. I don't, I can look at, and I'm bringing myself into it again, I'm sorry. Sure. But I can look at myself

and working out and getting myself into a healthier state and I see me being sore as my tangible accomplishment. Yeah. My dad instilled that in me is that you work out until you can't lift anymore and you're almost in tears. You work out to the point of failure. That is tangible to me. When I can't move my arms anymore because they're so tired and so sore, that is tangible. What if you want something to drink then and your arms won't work? I stop dogging it and I do it anyway. There's been times when I've worked out so hard I could not lift food to my mouth. Did you lick out of a bowl or something? Nope, I didn't eat. No, no eating. See, that sounds miserable. Yeah, that sounds like a mistake. Oh, trust me, I didn't do that again but there was one time when I pushed myself that hard because my dad was pushing me. He told me to stop dogging it. So I did. And I pushed it to the point that,

I mean, when we went to the ministry, when we went to South Dakota a couple years ago it was me and Joe Poland and then Jay Lucci and then Jared, we were outside building the fence and they gave me a 20 pound post driver and told me to pound all these posts in and the next day I couldn't lift my arms. Yeah, that was pretty intense. That was a lot of fence posts. And you and Danielle were out there too. That was a big fence. The second day I kind of gave up because I couldn't lift my arms but then the third day I was back out there but that was fun to me. That was a blast. I loved doing that. You've been listening to Live from the Path. Thanks for joining us so far tonight. Mike, is anybody looking for advice from us? We're on a… Yeah. Yeah. Dear Live from the Path, I'm a cyclist. What should I do with myself? There's a stationary bike at that. I'm not even going there. I don't even turn on the TV. Dear Live from the Path, I loaned money

to a couple of family members when I was overseas. They had fallen behind on their bills so I sent them each a thousand dollars to get caught up. It's two years later and I've yet to see a dime from either one of them. I've sent them both letters asking to have some money paid back. Both sent me excuses about why they can't pay anything. However, on Facebook they write about how they went shopping, joined a gym, and so on. I feel like I've been taken advantage of. What can I do to get this settled? I would have started a contract in the beginning in all honesty. Have an agreement. I would not have even put myself into that kind of situation where it was on people's honor to pay me back because I don't care who it is, your family, your friends. I mean, nobody here. I would put a contract down and have them sign it before I sent anyone any money so it didn't come down to… Or assume they're just… Yeah.

Like it's a gift. I would more likely assume that it's a gift. Yeah. And if I get it back, cool. If not, I wouldn't only worry about it. You're a cold-hearted snake, Hinglinger. I'm not saying I wouldn't give out money. I've done that before. My friends have asked… you got any gum? Contract. Sign it. I'm not talking about loaning a buddy 10 bucks, but when it's $3,000 altogether, maybe this guy's rich and $3,000 doesn't seem like that much. And if it didn't, he probably wouldn't be asking to pour it back now. I bet it's the principle of the thing. If you have a thousand… He basically loaned out $2,000, a thousand to two separate people. I don't keep that kind of money around. So I assume if he did, he could probably stand and lose it. I'd give it up. I wouldn't give it to someone, especially family like that, unless… I mean, I loan money sometimes to people and family,

and I just assume it's gone. If they give it back, great. If not… Right. It is what it is. It is what it is. Yeah, I'm unlikely to hand out to borrow, to lend somebody money with the expectation that they would give it back. If I had to have it, I would most likely say, no, I don't have it. Exactly. I've got to make a house payment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that's awkward. I mean, it's going to get awkward. A guy that has to borrow money from you either has trouble with his money or he's in the straights. Either way, that's not a good guy to expect money coming back from. It's the wrong guy to lend money to. The guy that's in the straights. Have him go through Ramsey and then give him some money and then you know you'll get it back. Otherwise, you're just putting money down

a rat hole. Give it away. On that grounds, I mean, it just depends on if these people were asking for the money to be given to them or if they were planning on paying him back because it seems like they're making excuses to not pay him back. They could just say to him, hey, I thought that was a gift. Nobody in their right mind is going to come up and say, hey, Dan, I need some money. Can you just give me some? You know what I'm saying? Borrowing is the pretense because it's pretty assumptive to say, you know, I just want you to give me money. Yeah. Borrowing seems like the cordial thing to do is say, I'd like to borrow it with the intent to pay it back. I don't know when I'll be able to get it back to you but I want to, but I just really need money at the moment. It seems like if people wouldn't shroud so much with niceties and just get down

to the brass tacks, like, I don't know when I'm going to give it back to you and then people say things like, oh, don't worry about it. You do it when you do it when really that's not what you mean. Well, because like two years isn't all that outrageous to say, look, get it back to me when you can. Two years later, if you actually intended to pay it back, two years seems reasonable to me as you should have been able to come up with some money. Right, $1,000 is not that much in the real world if you're making some cash doing some work. You know what I'm saying? You should be able to scrape together $10 a month, $20 a month, whatever, having paid off in a legitimate amount of time. So, I mean, does it matter that they can see on the Facebook that people are going shopping? I think that depends on the kind of person that you are and where your maturity level is. Like,

the thing is, like, you know, let's say you need, let's say you needed to borrow some money because something bad happened. You know, like, I don't know, your car broke down and you needed $800 to fix it. So, you borrowed $800 or $500 to get it until you were flat broke plus you borrowed $500 from somebody. And then, the next couple weeks, you know, you get an extra $20 for something and so you take your wife out. But the guy that you borrowed the $500 from says, you owe me $500, what are you doing taking your wife out to dinner? You know, and in your mind, you thought, look, I don't have the $500 and, you know, we've obviously had a real rough time, you know, we thought it would just be, you know, it's just $20. We thought it'd be nice. You know, are you the guy who loaned the $500

that's going, hey, wait a minute? Yeah. You know, like, are you assuming that people are spitting in your face while they're doing this or do you care? Do you care? Hmm. I would say, I don't care. Is the $20 person wrong? Is the person who, who, you know, somebody fortuned them $20 and they just happened to get it and said, you know, do what you want. You guys need a break. Here's $20. You know, are they in the wrong for not turning it around directly and giving it to your debtor and saying, here, you know, I'm working on this thing. I don't know. Where's the, where's the stand? I don't know. That's, maybe that's why I don't loan people money. I just give it because then if I give it to them and then they spend $20 because they got it later on,

I was like, good for them. Things seem to be turning around. Like, money is most effective for me when it means nothing to me. Yeah. And that's problematic for the old budget. But generally speaking, that's why I'd give for the $5 to the homeless guy. Like, it's better if it means nothing to me because I don't, I don't do well enough with my own money to feel like I can hold other people accountable with like giving it to them. I don't want to be a loan shark. That does not interest me at all. So yeah, I would say I give it away and then I don't have that problem. I don't have a problem finding out what they're doing on Facebook. See, this is what I love about being the voice of the youth because you guys have an uncanny knack to make me feel like a jerk because I'm the dude that would totally be like, well, not necessarily on the $20. I understand, you know, you had car troubles. Here's $20. Take your Wi-Fi.

You guys need some me time or together time. But I mean, if they're going out spending this much money on shopping and then are making up excuses about not being able to pay you back, I mean, if they came clean and said, hey, we got some money, we did this with it. I'm not going to make excuses for it. We had the money, we did this with it. I would respect that person a lot more than I'd respect the person that's just like, oh, well, this came up and this came up. Oh, yeah, well, that, don't worry about the shopping I did, but this came up and just tried to dance around and make excuses. I don't respect that at all. It seems like there's no winning in that situation. If someone owes you money and even if they're telling you the truth, like, hey, we had enough to pay back but I bought jeans with it

or we had enough to pay back but our ferret got sick or the guy that's coming up with lame excuses like, ah, you know, one of the windows is kind of bad and we were kind of saving up for that but we'll get you your money when we can. Like, there's no good coming from either one. Like, there's no, you're still going to be like, why aren't you paying me back? You know, it seems like the long and short of it is don't loan people money. Don't loan people money and you either give it to them or that's it because loan it, especially, unless you're, you know, if you need a loan, go to a bank and get one. If you need funds, cash, a gift, you know, find someone that you trust and say, here's the situation, what do you think I should do? And either they'll give you the money or they'll say, I'll help you borrow them. Would it be better, would it be more appropriate to co-sign on a loan for someone or is that also a terrible idea? I think that's a horrible idea. I think it's a terrible idea. Also a terrible idea.

I would never do that. Yeah, I wouldn't do it. What about, what about your own kids? I don't think so. Still, no co-signing with the children. That's what I say now, but, I don't think I do that. What if they looked at you? Dad, please. Okay. Yeah. All right, we'll get that licking. Hopefully, you know, I've taught them well enough to, before they get some type of big loan like that, that they would be financially stable enough that they wouldn't need me to, you know, co-sign. Sure. I don't know. You want to hear Abby's response? Yep. Let's hear it. It's a classic. Dear, taking advantage of, try this. Post on your Facebook page. It's funny what short-term memories some people have. Oh, no. I loaned Tom and Jerry $1,000 two years ago when they fell behind on some bills. Instead of repayment, I received nothing but excuses. And all the while, I see their postings about shopping at the mall

and going to the gym. What deadbeats? Holy cats. Wow. Abby said to do that? Maybe it will shame your relatives into paying up, or not, because some people have no shame. How about give them a call and say, hey, here's the deal. I gave you $1,000, and I see you're doing all this. Yeah, let's go ahead and put this on a social networking site and just completely break these people down. What a chicken-livered response. That was a terrible response. That's terribly passive. That was some staff. Abby, that was horrible. that was some staff writer. Yeah, it was terrible. Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Yeah, it was not, not ex. I, yeah, I'm kind of. Abby, you're fired. Yeah, Abby, she's just mailing it in. She gave up a long time ago. That's, I mean, that's not sound advice for anybody. She just wanted to sound hip and throw the word Facebook in there.

Or she's, or someone owes her money, and it's, it's leaning on her. And maybe that's Tom and Jerry. She was actually, vicariously getting her money back from Tom and Jerry. Oh, nevermind. I thought your camera froze, but you were just sitting still for a while. Oh, got it. Okay. Ready? You got four minutes. Make it happen. Dear Life on the Path, my daughter and granddaughter are going to be in a wedding schedule for the summer of 2012. The bride seems to have watched too many wedding shows on TV because she keeps scheduling bridesmaids' luncheons and has required her attendants to go to many bridal expos with her, even though the vendors have all been booked. The shop where the bridesmaids are buying their dresses is ultra expensive. I understand the bride wants it to be a special day, but it's more than a year away and my daughter's a stay-at-home mother of two. She doesn't have the time or money to continue participating in these events. She asked me if she should back out now or level with the bride that some of her requests are a little over the top. My daughter wants to support her friend

and doesn't want her to think she's trying to run the show by suggesting the alternate places to look for less expensive dresses, since she'll have to purchase two. What do I tell her? I don't even want to get involved in that. I can't. Ann watches that Bradzilla show and I just get sick to my stomach. I'm just like, that is absolutely ridiculous. You want to know the two most prevalent problems in today's society as when it concerns as to Jesus? Yeah. Pride and fear of man. Every question that comes into Abby is a fear of man question. I'm scared of saying what I think to so-and-so because I don't want them to be mad at me. Yeah. My whole life's falling in ruins and I can't actually say anything about it. What should I do? Right. Let me ask for someone else's advice on how I should just tell the truth to somebody. I can't afford to go. This is ridiculous. It's your wedding, not mine. Let me know how the bridal affair thing went and just tell me what I'm supposed to do. I love you. I don't have any money. You picked the wrong gal. That's why I'm never getting married. I think you've missed the point, Troy. No, I understand that. That was a side comment of my own board, but ugh.

But doesn't the bride's family pay for the bridesmaid dresses? No. Each individual does? Yeah. Really? I think in the day, back in the day. Well, that's gone. Yeah. Well, that's pretty tacky of someone to say, hey, I want you to be in my wedding, I want you to buy this $200 dress and you'll never wear it again. It's a very odd situation, the wedding. A very odd situation, indeed. I'm very happy not to have been the woman because it's hard to put your friends in that situation. If it was up to me, I'd let my dudes wear jeans and t-shirt for all I care. Actually, I think that's what I had. My wedding was you had to wear a white shirt, but otherwise you could wear shorts and sandals. Nice. Dude, I loved my Nana's wedding. I got to wear a Hawaiian t-shirt, some khaki shorts, and some flip-flops. And then she bought me, never mind. We're going to do a sermon series on that. That's just ridiculous, though. I think weddings are out of hand. They're crazy. They've gotten completely out of hand. The fact that they can make an entire series called Bridezilla's is ridiculous that they're able to do that. Okay, from the preacher point of view, I think it's interesting that a couple will go through this whole process of booking all these things, and they're spending thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars,

and the last thing to think of is, oh, we should probably try to find a preacher. It's like, that's who's doing the ceremony. I think you're funny. Wouldn't that be step one? I think you're funny as the preacher man watching the show and goes, well, where's the preacher in this whole thing? No, I'm not going to watch the show. I'm talking about people who call me. Where's the preacher? I've never seen the show. I mean, if the girls are watching it, I believe. I just don't care about the show. But I'm just saying, in real life, I'm surprised at how many times someone will call me, well, here's the date, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, well, I'm sorry, I'm booked. But blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, I don't care if you have a DJ and a place and a location and food, and you should have called me first. Yeah. I can't do it. Was I the DJ? Probably not. But I'm just saying, there's been a lot of times things like that happen. I'm like, well, you'll have to, if you need to find a different preacher or find a different date, you know, if for some reason you want me, that's great. But it's just kind of interesting. It's like, well, hey, that's us. Yeah. It's like… Yeah, no, I agree with you. I just, I think it's ridiculous. I'm not a big fan of all the pageantries of everything.

And I've seen a lot of weddings. I've seen a lot of weddings. And I know you have too. And I just, some of them I literally walk around and I'm just like, really? Like, you spent how much on that? And it's like, those are flowers that you could pick. And you spent how much on that? A lot of it is to convince people how great your upcoming life is going to be. Yeah, it's like, oh. And it's not. I'm marrying into this family and this is what I have. Did you see my florist? It's like, what? How is that judgment of happiness? Did you see our caterer? Yeah. I'm going to be happy. There's been some good food at the wedding. The chat is wondering why a bunch of guys are talking about weddings. I don't know what's happening. Maybe we're the last people to ask. I don't care about the caterer. One of my favorite weddings of all time, we had little deli sandwiches. We had make your own little Hy-Vee deli sandwiches that you could buy like 8,000 for six months. We had mints and nuts. Nice. In the basement of the church. I think my parents had like beef burgers. Yeah. I don't remember what we had. I split.

We had a wedding and then I think me and Amanda might have been there for half an hour or something and then we left. See you all later. We're heading out. All right, you've been listening to Live from the Path. You can catch us during the week at livefromthepath.org. Make sure to mark your calendars August 5th and 6th, the Spirit Midwest Music Festival. Come out for the Live from the Path show. Stay for the bands. We will see you next week. See you later. Go back like stones on the rushing wall.