Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper, you are Live from the Path. And you're listening to Live from the Path. My name is Ben Foost, and I'm suddenly bold and loud in my microphone. It's good to see everybody. It's a toasty evening here in the Path Studios. Toasty? I think it's toasty. Is everybody else not toasty? Oh, that's all right. I guess you're wearing short sleeves. You're wearing long sleeves. I'm wearing a sweater. Yeah, I'm comfortable. Anyway. Hey, we got a show coming up for you today. A show. A show is going to be put on here at Live from the Path. We may yet see a guest. I'm starting to take this personally, Dan. I'm starting to take this personally.

People don't like me, and they're not showing up to the show. Yeah, I think they don't like you. Yeah, so it means I'm taking it personally appropriately. Yeah, I think that's good. We're missing folks all over the place. Spike and Houser ain't coming in today. Nope. Nope. For no legitimate reason, I might add. Yeah. We can go remote, can't we? Yeah, you want to go to his place? Pick him up from work? I'm pretty sure the last thing I want to do is Skype him in from his couch. Oh, yeah. Got peanut butter on his face or whatever. Yeah, yeah, that wouldn't be good. Yeah, all right. So you're listening to Live from the Path. By the way, if you want to check us out on a brand new channel, you can go to pathway.churchonline.org,

and Live from the Path is broadcasting from there tonight, and we will be there. There's a separate chat function, which I will not be keeping up with, really, unless I were to push everybody to that place. But there you go. If you like it, go to churchonline.org. Churchonline.org. Let's see what it looks like. This is – there I'm in. I'm in. Things are looking good. Everybody's looking good. Wait. What did I do wrong? I did something goofy. You're in trouble. All right. WWDC. So we're hoping to hear from Adam Cates tonight. Adam was in the studio before. Excellent. A lot of great response from the YouTube channel on his tunes.

He's an excellent singer-songwriter, and he's got a – his CD is out. It's out and about, and – You know what it's called? No. No. You can go to – I usually rely on people to tell me stuff like that. That's all my content right there. Oh, yeah. Those would be solid interview questions. I say, tell me about yourself. What is it? What's the name of this album that you put out? If you go to – wait. I don't think this is the right guy. No. So here's the deal. If you go to adamcatesmusic.com, this is not the right guy. It's another guy who I think does do Christian tunes. In fact, he's praising Jesus on the front page. Oh, sweet.

He needs love as well. Yeah. But that's not our guy. That's not the same dude that we were going to have in. So – oh, yeah. So he's not here, though. I don't know. There's nothing I can do about that. I'm hoping he's not like off on the side of a road somewhere. Yeah. Well, I was trying to get hold of him. He could be sick, I guess. Mike, what do you think happened to him? I don't know. Speculate on him. No, he's probably just fine. He probably decided it wasn't a good idea. He probably talked to everybody else I talked to this week and decided they wanted to be on a show. Said, yeah, that's probably a waste of my time. Okay.

That's sad. So let me ask you this question. If you're looking to get married and the person that you've proposed to is not a believer, is not following Christ, because God can do all things, is it okay to go ahead with it? I mean, he can turn the person, right? I say no. So, okay, now let me ask you this. Like on that same thought, how many people do you know that one person was a Christian, the other person wasn't, and the other person came, like the one who wasn't, came to Christ as being part of that marriage? Now, would you say that was facilitated in God's overall grand scheme of things? He knew you were going to sin, and he knew that you were going to enter an unequally yoked. Is that how we categorize it, right? Yeah, that's how Paul would say it. Okay, so you entered into an agreement with someone who doesn't know God as the living God, and then he produced it for his glory. The person turned around and now loves Jesus and is firing on all cylinders. It happens. I know far more people who is the opposite, that they might kind of half play the game, usually it's the guy, because they like the girl, and they'll kind of half play the game, and then they get married, and they don't have to play the game anymore, and then you never see him again in church. I've seen tons of people in that situation, and usually I know it because the wife is in great heartache. They're trying to connect in a church and trying to be involved in a church, and the husband is against it, and it's just a difficult thing for marriage. You know, you have one spouse thinking, this is how we should spend our money, and the other spouse saying, oh, that's stupid, we'd never do that, and one saying, this is how we should spend our time, the other one, you know, it's just you're in two different worlds. So it's really hard. You know, if you think about that, and really why God has set it up this way, that you should involve yourself and be married with and live life with other people that know him as Lord and Savior, it really saves you a lot of petty, oddball conversations.

You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't have to go through and say, well, what's your opinion on money? You know, how do you like to control your money? Well, here's how I like to control my money. Okay, we've agreed on that. What do you think about kids? Here's how I feel about kids. How do you feel about having kids? Whatever. You know what I'm saying? And there's probably a thousand conversations that the Bible already answers for you as Christians that you don't have to fool with, you know, be responsible with your money, but not selfish with it, and don't worship it. Okay, good. We can cover that. We can be responsible, and, you know. And there's a lot of, you know, leeway in there and how that works out, but you probably don't have to have the discussion of, hey, do you think we should open up a strip bar? Right. You know, I'm thinking about doing a business. I think people are having trouble with that. What do we do? You know?

What should I do? So here's, let's see if we feel like this targets it correctly. So the assertion that there are only three ways that an unequal marriage can turn out. Here are your three ways, right? One, in order to be more in sync with your spouse, the Christian will have to push Christ to the margins of his or her life. This may not involve actually repudiating the faith, but in matters such as devotional life, hospitality to believers, missionary support, tithing, raising kids in the faith, fellowship with other believers, those things will have to be minimized or avoided in order to preserve peace in the home. That seems likely. Yeah. I mean, I see that a lot. Well, and if it's not, I mean, if it doesn't do that, it would question whether you're, there was like a devotion to Christ to begin with, right? Because those things should be impacted. If you find that you can spend 90% of your time with an unbeliever and have your spiritual life not impacted, you know, what are you doing? What are you doing with yourself? And that's what creates the pain because the one spouse is saying, wow, I entered this covenant, so I really need to stick with this covenant because, well, it's a covenant, you know? And at the same time, wow, they're trying to pull me away from God. Sometimes overtly, I mean, really just saying, hey, don't go to church or whatever, sometimes it's more of a subconscious thing. But still, there's a pressure there, and it's painful, painful. So on the other end, if the believer in the marriage holds on to a robust Christian life and practice, the nonbelieving partner will have to be marginalized. So if he or she can't understand the point of Bible study and prayer or mission trips or hospitality, then he or she can't or won't participate alongside the believing spouse in those activities. The deep unity and oneness of a marriage cannot flourish when one partner can't fully participate in the other person's most important commitments.

Because essentially, if you're following, you know, in the order of who to love, you're saying, I love Jesus first and my spouse second. You're creating a very difficult situation if you're walking into a marriage in which your spouse does not agree with that. Yeah. Right. In effect, it's not a partnership, right? Because, like, my wife can acknowledge that I love Jesus first and then her. But if my wife does not know and love Jesus, then I'm just, you know, I'm not, she looks at me as if I'm not committing to our marriage because I'm committing to Jesus first, a mythical entity in her mind. So I don't know. I don't know how that would ever work out. I don't know how that can. It can't. Yeah. I mean, in high school, I've talked about her before. I dated this gal for three and a half years, madly in love with her. We talked marriage, really thought about marriage, seriously talked about marriage. She wouldn't marry me. I wouldn't marry her. Had a great thing going. But it boiled down to the fact that my number one was Jesus and hers wasn't. Yeah.

And there was a lot of pain for me in that, trying to pull her along without being forceful and her half faking it and then going, no, that's really not what I believe, you know. And it was a painful separation. But at least we were smart enough to say, hey, let's go ahead and end this now because we know it will end later. Yeah. Right. You know, and that was a pretty rough period of time that I went through. I don't know who knows how affected her. I haven't seen her since. Yeah. But what a night and day difference. You know, it was over a year or so later, a year and a half, when I met Cheryl. And we'd be like, we knew pretty quick this is going to work. Yeah. You know, I mean, we were married 51 weeks after we started dating, you know, so somewhere in there didn't take long to go, OK, yeah, you're it. Yeah. And and we just to this day, you know, oh, we have disagreements. But spiritually on the big picture stuff, I mean, we're just we're just one, you know, I can't imagine not being in that, I guess, because I've been there. Well, make for an awkward, a lot of awkward situations, right? Like if I if I was having a tough week or I'm like, listen, I just I need more time to read my Bible just to just to sit down and connect. And and my wife wasn't a Christian, you know, after a while, that starts to look like he's just trying to get away from me.

You know, I'm saying where we're with a with a Christian spouse, it's legitimate. Listen, I need some time alone with God. I just I need it. And and they say, OK, I understand. You know, I OK, just like anything else, you know, if the more they understand, the more they they can back up with what you're saying. And and you tell that somebody who doesn't know Jesus, they're like, oh, OK, so you can go do your phony Bible and phony religion. If you want to get away, get away from me and go golfing, just say so. I guess from that perspective, too, it would be really awkward to be a tantamount to saying, you know, I've had a really stressful week. And you really need to sit down and get immersed in this Greek mythology. I mean, like something that someone doesn't believe in at all. I gave a hundred dollars on Sunday to who? Who are you giving all of our money to? You know, seriously, to what? That giant building over there with all the people in it? That to what, to some phony God that is just spending it on bread and cheese? You know, that sounds like a really hefty argument that you don't want to get involved in. Yeah, cheese. You know, well, we've got a step further in our family in teaching our our children is I mean, it's one thing to be in the worldview of faith. OK, but it's but even a step further, there are enough deeper differences in in churches that man, it would be hard like for me to be married to a Catholic. Now, we love the same God.

We serve the same God. But man, we're we don't do things the same. Yeah. You know, it would be hard to be it'd be an extra challenge. Not that it can't happen or anything like that. But but we just thought our girls, hey, just choose carefully. The closer you can get to what you truly believe in Scripture, how you understand Scripture, the more smooth your marriage is going to be. That that's one issue you want to sit there and argue about, you know, and I think that's big. Yeah, it's weird how that doesn't end up. It just seems like a conversation just like anything else. Right. Do you have like interests? Right. I mean, it's weird to treat, you know, what do I worship as if it's not up on the same level as do we like to go out on Fridays? Yeah. You know, like that's that's where the question is, you know, can I marry an unbeliever? It's kind of like the same thing. It's even if you want to ignore the salvation part of whether this person will be saved or not. If some person is worshiping one thing and you don't worship that same thing and you're going to spend all your time with that person, I feel like that's going to cause conflict. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, on top of the fact, you know, you know how much easier I shouldn't this is going to sound the wrong way to say it. Right. But do you know how much easier it is to call someone to accountability on actions that they're doing that are both hurtful to to their spouse and God when they're accountable to God? You know, I'm saying if someone is is is is is sinning. Or has a huge gambling problem or drinking themselves into silliness or being irresponsible at home, you know, the two way conversation with a man with with a man and a woman, you know, it can just end up with, well, I don't care what you say and I'm done. You know, but but but, you know, if they if they truly have a heart for God and they can be accountable for it, you can say, listen, you're you're not following what Scripture says. You're not doing what God has asked us to do. That's at least one more point of reference apart from I think I'm right and you think you're right. You know, I'm saying it's a reference that you can use back to back to an almighty God that if you both love and you both, you know, consider it at the center part of your life. Then it's it's a little easier to point some things out and get some things fixed without a person to person conflict. You know, it's an instant counselor. Exactly. It's it's a it's a wonderful counselor in there, an arbiter that you can agree on. Right. Yeah. Because otherwise, take God out of it. Even from a from a marriage standpoint, then all you do is looking for people that are in your corner. Right. You're going to find a guy that agrees with you.

She's going to find a guy that a lady, hopefully, that agrees with her. That's a whole different issue. Steve from accounting thinks I'm right. He's willing to take me out to dinner and say so. Steve. Yeah. Yeah. The great. What's it? So it was interesting because there was an article on this. And the interesting part is the kind of the comments that came afterward here. I'll share one of them with you. This is from this is from Heather on the same topic. She says, well, I had this wonderful Sunday school teacher as a teen when I was a teen. Edith, her name was I'm not going to correct this. This is just what it sounds like. She was probably one of the most beautiful, capital, amazing Christians that I ever had the opportunity to meet. Her first husband died in a car crash. No period. Her second husband beat her.

They met in church. She's for she would never remarry. No comment period. But one Sunday she came to class with a story about a man that she had met at work. She was at work. He was a patron. Edith was not 60. I think it was either now 60 years old. Anyway, period. The man she met was Kurt Schilsler. And he loved Edith. Loved her so much. Was so good to her. So good. They were like teenagers. Beautiful and giggly. They whispered to each other like teenagers and smiled at each other like teenagers. He had three master's degrees, two BAs, and two doctorates. He had a lot of money. Made his fortune early.

He was 77. But, period. He was not a Christian. Matter of fact, he questioned the existence of God or any higher power. He did it gently and was amused when Edith would drag him to church. And she prayed for him. All the time. We prayed in Sunday school, too. She was so capital happy. It was like she was 20 plus years or younger. He was happy, too. But he was not a Christian. We all loved Kurt. He was an amazing man. Kurt died five years ago. Two months before he passed, he passed unexpectedly in his sleep. He confessed Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He was baptized and joined the church. He said it was because Edith showed him how wonderful it was to be loved by God. And through her, he saw God and saw how wonderful he was.

He told us that he could only imagine that if such love was needed, he had to know God's love. When I die, I will be able to chat with Kurt. And I will be able to hug Edith because they will be together for eternity. Because Edith chose to love Kurt instead of shunning him because he didn't know God's love. There are no absolutes. Articles like this preach absolutes to children, especially when they're young and pliable. So what about all the Kurtz? Now, listen, you can love somebody without marrying them. You can lead them to Jesus without getting into a marriage covenant with them. That's outrageous. I can only share Jesus if we get married. So, yeah, that's kind of… You know, I get what she's saying. Like, there's no reason to cut ties with people and say, hey, listen, we can't talk because you don't love Jesus. That's kind of your job as a guy that already knows Jesus is to find people that don't and say, here's why I'm worth anything. Apart from this, I'm junk too. I get you. So here's the deal. You know, I know Jesus. He saved me.

Let's talk about how much he loves you. By the way, let's get married directly. I mean, that's kind of a stretch. So I think this brings up the legitimate question, though, is dating in a world where someone doesn't love Christ. Because, I mean, the unequal yoke of marriage, I think I get that. But sometimes you don't get to the conversation or get to know someone enough to know where they're at with Christ or potentially be a positive influence for them in that until you get in the experience to be able to have kind of, you know, those types of conversations, something you would do on a date. You can only talk about that if you're dating someone? No, what I'm saying is sometimes that doesn't come up. I'd really like to talk to you about Jesus, but we need to date first. If it doesn't come up, it's because you didn't bring it up. What I'm saying is, like, this is you in the corner. But sometimes people don't want to share things like that unless they trust somebody, right? So, like, they don't trust you just because you came up and said, hey, I love Jesus. Want to know more? That's a good start. You know what I'm saying? I guess what I'm saying is, is it, should you have a Jesus checkbox before you, hey, you know, I really like to go out, but first of all, do you love Jesus? Is that necessary? Well, I think you could, you know, it's hard to do that without being judgmental, right? Like, you've got to try to get rid of your stereotypes on what a Christian is first and then take who they are and what they're doing in the context of how they're living as far as you can.

Like, you have to make a discerning decision, you know? Like, if you go out to a bar and find a guy that asks if he could get a ride home from you because his car isn't working right because he just got done, you know, selling all of his clothes for crack money, this is not the man for you to get involved with, you know? But, like, on the other hand, you meet a guy at the store, you know, say we can get coffee sometime and see where he sits. I guess that's what I'm saying. You know what? Even if it doesn't turn out to be a relationship viable because maybe he is not at a place where he should be or can be with Christ at the moment, tell him about him. You know, God puts this fellow in your path for a reason. Let's have a conversation about it. I guess that's what I'm saying is I think the wrong reaction to this is to say is to completely close down the process of starting to get close to someone simply because you don't know or you think that they don't, right? I don't think you get six months in and not have had that conversation and been honest with someone about it. But do you – can you go on a couple dates and have the chance to, like, have a conversation with people, get to know them, and then know where they're at? I don't see the problem with that. Well, that's different than – I guess when I think of dating, I think of, like, a relationship. I mean, yeah, I see what you're saying. You can – that's why you have a couple dates to see if you're going to have the third one. Yeah, let me ask you a question real quick while we're on that topic, though. How do you feel about witnessing for Christ to people of the opposite sex? Like, are you saying it invites – as a married man, it invites potentially – potential problems? Well, I don't know.

Like, I know – like, I know on the whole, it's not – Eh! Jesus, eh! I ran into this situation. I was out of town, and I stopped in a bar and grill because I was going to buy a gift card to take my family out when I got back home. And so I stopped in, and I was waiting for the gal to ring me up or whatever, and there's a lady down at the end of the bar, and she's sitting by two guys, and she's just asking for trouble is what she's doing. She's down at the end of the bar having a conversation that is just going to lead her to be not in a good position. And all I could think of while she's talking, like, I could just – all I could think of was, like, Jesus loves you more than that, than what you're putting yourself in, the situation you're getting yourself in, you know? And so, you know, whatever. I silently prayed for her, you know, I just – and I thought, man, I just don't want this to be the way it goes for her. And then I thought, well, maybe I should go over and talk to her, you know? And I thought, what am I going to say? Hey, would you like to sit down with me? You know? I already know what – Don't let me help you. You know what I'm saying? Like, I already know what she's after. I've already heard the half conversations she just had. And so, you know, I couldn't think of a way, even in the most innocent way, to walk over and get her out of the situation she's in.

But then on the other hand, is that a really easy roadblock for me to turn my back on her and not – and not talk to her about Jesus because of an awkward situation? You know what I'm saying? I don't know what you think. I think you've got to do it. I think – I mean, Jesus – It's still in a restaurant. It's still surrounded by people. There really is nothing funny, you know? Yeah. I mean, I think you have to be careful more on the other side, like especially someone who is coming from desperate circumstances, to make sure they don't transfer the redeeming qualities of Christ onto you as the person that brought them, right? As the person that, like, shared the information. It's like, Mike didn't save me from the bar. Jesus saved me from the bar. And I think there's a danger in that, especially when the lady in this circumstance seems like she might latch on to a lot of different things that come floating by. So I think you have to be real careful with that. But I don't think God will call you into a situation in which, if you're otherwise careful, you can't – he won't give you a way out of and a way to handle. And I think that's actually one of the dangers if you get into a – especially like a hyper-sexualized situation is that you – or society is that you have trouble sometimes being able to draw lines with people and know when you can – you know, what is a reasonable way to behave around another woman? No, well, that's true, right?

Like, the society is kind of blurred. Like, you can't have a lady that's a friend of yours, you know? And then so, like, this stuff kind of gets ingrained into you after a while. And then, you know, a little bit in the ministry, you know, the youth group, you always have to have a lady. So there's ladies with ladies and dudes with dudes. And, you know, so there's no – not even a potential of something looking kind of funny because churches get into situations like that. And so, I don't know, just one of the – it's just one of those things. And then, you know, when I was walking away, I was going back up to my room or whatever, and I thought, you know, Paul would have gone over there. Paul would have done it. What did he care? That short, stubby, fat man would have run right over there. You don't know that he's fat. He went down to the river saying, hey, girls, what are you doing? Hey, do you know about Jesus? I'm telling you, he'd have done it. And then I was so disappointed in myself. And anyway, that was bad. You know, and I think – I thought I should have done it. Yeah.

I think you should, but I think that's – I think it's just something to be mindful of, especially in a situation like that, that some – that may go wrong on the other end. Yeah. But, you know, but, I mean, sharing Christ is sharing Christ. I mean, sharing love is sharing love. And are you saving them from that situation that they're getting themselves in or from Christ? I mean, what was your main motivation? Because they'll be in the same situation tomorrow, you know. Yeah. That's what I understand. You want to give them – you want to show them Jesus. And say, hey, there's a higher way. There's a way. I think what you've got to be careful of is, like, a long-term one-on-one with someone of the opposite sex. Right. But, you know – Like an introduction, hey, how you doing? It's like a divine appointment thing. Yeah. You happen to be there. They happen to be there.

Kind of a Philip and a eunuch. Yeah, Philip, you have a thing. God said, Mike, Mike, this woman needs me. And you said, no, I'm just getting a gift card. I'm just getting a gift card here. I just, you know, just leave her to the hands of those squirrely men at the end of the bar. That's terrible. That's terrible. I feel so bad. Ah. The Lord gave me a solid opportunity, and I totally did not take it. Next time. Yeah. Thanks, fellas. Thanks for sharing. Mike, we're going to have to ask you to leave. This is about guys on the path. We're not live from the path. It's not called live from the throne. This is about guys on the rest stop.

I'm still bad. This is the guys on the path. Dang. You know, I think there is danger, however, in being throne-ish about it. Like, when you're talking about, should I be unequally yoked? Should I marry an unbeliever? No, it's just a plain bad idea for the health of your marriage, for the health of your walk with Christ. It's just a plain bad idea. And it's not because you're better. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess we've got to be careful when we're saying that, too. That's what I'm trying to make sure that we're clear on. It's not because it makes you a better person. It's just, frankly, a bad idea. You have different worldviews than someone. That's not the type of person that you want to get into a marriage with, because you're going to cause strife in your relationship. And in those circumstances, it, frankly, I think makes it less likely that you're able

to lead them to Christ. Now, you know, Paul talks about a wife that is married to a non-Christian man and to try to act and provide an example. And actually, the story that Heather gave does do that. But that's not the circumstance that Paul is encouraging. He's telling you how to deal with the circumstance in which you find yourself in. Generally, most people think that the situation would come up where you got married and were not Christians, and then maybe the wife becomes the Christian, and then to continue to demonstrate God's love through that relationship. But I don't think, you certainly don't think that you invite that trouble, because if you follow the rest of what Paul was saying, he says, you know, like, if he says, go, go, you know? And that's the situation that falls out of that. He's saying, you know, here's the circumstance. Try to hang in there. Or demonstrate God's love. But if he throws you out, it's go. And, you know, which he's implying the result of an unequally yoked situation is suffer through it or go. So, I mean, not good.

I mean, those aren't the good premises on how to start your married life. Yeah. But making sure that, I think also that you, it's not, I don't think, I think we're doing the wrong thing if you check the Jesus box. I think that if you say, look, you know, hey, would you like to go out sometime? If you say, yes, that you love Jesus, we can do this thing. Like, I think that's wrong. I think that's a bad move. I think it's setting yourself up as higher than somebody else. And frankly, not giving yourself the opportunity to be a witness, regardless of whether you end up in a relationship with him. But I think, I mean, I think there is a time in a relatively short period in which, you know. Don't you, I mean, it's been so long since I've dated, though. I mean, the people I ever dated, I knew them before I ever said, hey, do you want to go, you know, watch a movie? I guess I'm assuming a situation which I would never be in, which is like, I'm out somewhere. You, I'm kind of attracted. Would you like to go meet? You know what I mean?

You know, I'm pretty good looking, now that I think about it. I mean, I'm attracted to you. I didn't finish that. Look at me. You can have this. This is your lucky day. It's a wonder you were snagged up so fast, Dan. With your smooth talking ways. Yeah, yeah. You got it. Oh, man. You know, and there was a, there's a guy that wrote on here, and I thought, I thought this probably happens way more, and it goes, it goes into the, kind of the example that you gave, Dan. It says, I married a woman who gave me the impression that she was a believer, you know. However, he said, on the very first night, she started physically and verbally abusing me. Mike. Mike. It's a man.

And it happens. And his name is Leslie. Of their marriage? The first night of their marriage, or the first date? See, that's what I find is weird. Like, what kind of manipulative woman is, like, holds off on being physically and verbally abusive for, like, nine months until they decide to get married, and then all of a sudden they fist fly, and here comes the profanity? It's the honeymoon, and now she's throwing punches? Man. That's calculated. Be weary of this woman. That's sad. I mean, it happens. It happens, and it is sad. So, anyway, so he said her abuse increased. He lost his job and could not land a job quickly, and she asked him to leave. He left and has now filed for the divorce, and it's in its last stages. And so, and I think that's more likely, too, is in a situation where someone's being dishonest because they, for what they think is the right reasons.

We've been talking a lot in my house this week about doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, or doing the right thing also in the wrong way. You know, you can do what you consider would ultimately be the right thing, but you can also do it the wrong way. And so, you know, obviously thinking, you know, I think this is healthy for our relationship. I want to stay together. I really love this man. If I say that I'm a Christian, we'll be together. He'll agree to marry me, and marrying is the right thing to do. Let's do that. And, you know, that's… Well, I mean, how many Christian marriages start out that way, too? You know, the both of them, you know, believe, you know, they attend church. They're like, yeah, we're having a strong Christian marriage, but they don't have Jesus as the center of their marriage, just like we were talking about, right? Like, that happens a lot more often, too. You know, people get married and think that, you know, we got married in a church. We both attend church regularly. But, I mean, if you're not living like Christ is your Savior, you've not gained anything just because you attended a church on a Sunday, you know what I'm saying?

Even if you go every week, you haven't gained. You know, really putting Jesus in the middle of your, of not only your life, but the middle of your married life, that's the difference. And so there's probably a lot of people that get married under that same guise, you know, and say that they're Christians already, but they're not Christ followers. Dan talks about that a lot, you know? This Dan you speak up sounds very wise. He's got his moments. I'm attractive. If you want to date me, please refer to last week's show. I'd like to have that clip, please. You're listening live from the past. So the lesson here then is you're bringing on danger to unequally yoke, not because being a Christian puts you above somebody, but you're just putting yourself in a poor situation by having a different worldview and, you know, the same thing applies for marrying across religions. I did to your example of, you know, like between, you know, like being a Catholic and even a Protestant, but, you know, you know, being Jewish and then a Protestant or Muslim, you know, whatever I, I can't imagine. I can't, I cannot imagine to go, to go to bed at night and have me and my wife praying

to a different God. I just, I can't, I can't imagine it's a smooth transition. I feel like I've been going behind my wife's back trying to indoctrinate the kids. Yeah. It's Jesus. You better, it's Jesus. And that's it. Often young couples don't, they don't think that far ahead. They're thinking, hey, we've, we've managed it ourselves. We, we, we can maneuver around this in our relationship where we just don't talk about it or, or, you know, we go to each other's every other week or whatever, that kind of thing. Yeah. But what's, man, the second a child is born, not only is the couple at odds, but so are their families. If they both, if the whole family comes from a bad background, you know, well, of course you're going to baptize that baby, a Catholic, and the Baptist is going, oh, wait a minute, you know, we don't, we don't do that, you know, and, well, yes, you do. And then it, that's when it gets into the nitty gritty because, you know, the Catholic would baptize a baby because of, of original sin.

You've got to have Adam's sin erased and the Baptist would go, or whatever, I'm just saying Baptist because, you know, would say, no, wait a minute, you know, that, that's something you, you, you, you come to Christ for your own sin. You know, I mean, that's two different, very big, different things. And on the surface, it sounds like, oh, you're just arguing baptism. You're, you're arguing huge doctrine there. Yeah. As far as to have that close of an intimate relationship, husband and wife. And that's why I think it's, it's actually pretty important to make sure you're a similar faith. And it does seem unlikely that you're going to straighten out the differences between those two doctrines within your family. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to resolve this Catholic Baptist thing. We're just going to go get a wheel that says, you know, uh, sprinkle, dunk, delay, and spin it around and see what happens. He's three years old. Delay. I'm not a Baptist.

Entire denominations have split over this issue, but we've got it. We've got this covered. We'll let you know how we straighten it out. I'll send you the wheel. Let's all get together again, can we? I got sprinkle. Um, all right. You're listening to, uh, you're listening to live from the path. Don't, don't just, just be, be, keep an eye out for people. It's okay to reach out to people for Jesus. That's a thumbs up, but don't put yourself in a precarious position, but don't avoid the lady at the bar. Hey man, you're just going back and forth. You're like, do it, but don't do a crazy style. Do it, but don't do it like you're thinking to do it. Here's the deal is I find that the, um, the Bible always swims in the compromise area in a lot of ways. Like it always says, do this, but be careful. You like Christ's freedom is a, is a true freedom. Uh, but, but the freedom is, is it comes with parameters so that you can remain free.

And, uh, I think to that extent, you know, a lot of times the most, the biggest perversions that come with that people try to do with the Bible is they take one thing and they ride it all the way to the train and ignore the other parts that said, yeah, that's totally cool. Uh, but be careful for this and this and this. And, and, and those, that's where you get people who, you know, who can go off on tangents about certain things, uh, and certain beliefs. And like, they totally missed if they'd read two chapters more or, or, you know, read John instead of Mark, they'd have gotten a fuller picture of it and got God's full counsel. We, you know, my wife and I've been talking about this, um, like going through our Bible reading and stuff, um, whether it is fruitful to do more in depth Bible reading, um, read less, do more in depth as opposed to, um, kind of trucking along at, you know, 20 or 30 chapters a week is, is part of our LTG stuff. And, um, and I, I think where I'm at is I think the in-depth Bible study is, is, is the way to go. Um, but, but I think there's a benefit if you have not done it to kind of trucking through the full counsel of God. I mean, just making sure that you have to have both. Yeah. It gives you the bigger picture.

And I think I would start and I'm for starting for the big picture, like reading through because you're not going to understand it all. Um, especially if you're starting, a lot of people start in the new Testament and they go back and there's a lot of that stuff, especially, you know, Matthew stuff where you're just, you just don't have the full picture. Um, and so I, I think it's, uh, for me, I think it's all right to go through, go ahead, chuck through it, get the whole thing read, and then you can start focusing it in. Okay. That way you know where your questions are at. Cause if you don't have that, I think maybe you don't even understand where your questions are coming from. That's, that's what I was going to say. I think, I think you should, you should read until you pause and go, Hmm, you know, that could be the first sentence or it could be three paragraphs or four chapters, but you know, to try to force the first three paragraphs into God has something for me here. You know, and there's really not, there's just nothing there for you this time. You know, that doesn't work. Yeah. And neither does, well, no, I have to skip over that cause I got 14 more chapters to read.

Right. That doesn't really work either. Just read until you have to go, man, what? I need to know more. Yeah. You know, I was, uh, so I was, I was actually came from, I come from a Bible study on Monday nights and, uh, one of the things we were talking about was Psalm 51 and, uh, and it, uh, one of the questions was, is how do you get, uh, how do you get back under God's authority once you've left it? And I like, I've always had a, I've always had a big, uh, a big struggle with this, right? Like, like when I've sinned, when I've fallen short and, uh, you, you know, and you go through these things where you try to follow, you, I don't know, you try to make yourself feel bad enough. Like, okay, God, I've, I felt really bad. Can I come back into your love now? Or, you know, I've done something wrong. I've asked for your forgiveness eight times today. Can I, can I come back into your love now? You know, and, and these are all, these are all terrible, you know, perceptions of God. That is not the way God works.

That's not how he acts. That's not how his, uh, love and his grace set up. That's not what the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was about. It wasn't about me feeling, you know, bad and it wasn't about me having to beg him. You know, he already sent his son to pay for the stuff that I've done. And, and I think it's 51, 17, maybe, uh, that says, uh, it says what God's been. Do you have it? Yeah. The sacrifice of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise. Yeah. And so, and so what I took from that was is, is that because prior to that, he goes through and says, you know, God, if you, if you wanted sacrificed bulls, I'd do that. If you wanted, if you wanted sacrificed animals, I would do that, but that's not what you want. What you want is a broken, is a broken heart, a broken spirit and a contrite heart. And I thought, that's exactly how you get back underneath God's authority when you've left it is you, you come back to him broken, realizing that you're not a full person and you're not the person that he intended you to be without God in the center of your life. And so, um, I don't know. I did that.

It was just like one of those things that you were talking about. I was reading through, you know, some stuff last night and I read, I read through that and, and for some reason that verse really struck out at me because I've, I've always struggled with that. I've always struggled where I've fallen short and I'm like, how do I, how do I get back here? I can't just say, you know, God, can you forgive me? And then act like I haven't done anything, you know, just be a happy guy again. You know, I'm like, I have to at least feel bad about what I've done or, or attempt to repent of what I've done. You need to rip your clothes and put ash on your head. Well, that's what I think. Go back to it old school. Well, a lot of it is, a lot of it is, is I think, uh, the human perception of sin is not near of what God's perception of sin is. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? God, I mean, God makes it very clear throughout all of the Bible that, that, that, that, that the separation is, is, is huge. It's, I mean, it's not just like a separation, like, Hey, we're now we're five feet, feet

apart. We can still wave at each other. You know, when it, when he says separate, that means that you're not in this house anymore. When you sin, when you sin against me, when you've, when you've take the things that I've asked you not to do and you rebel and you do them, that's not, Hey, you hang out in the next room. That's, Hey, you're not allowed in here anymore. And then because of that separation, you know, God sent his son to die for that separation for the things that I'd done. So I can come back into that house and come back into his presence and be with him. And so it's foolish to try to bargain with God and say, Hey, my sadness should equal that. I feel bad enough that you'll let me back in here because that's not the deal. I didn't, God's doing all the work to bring us back together. Not me. I've, I've, I'm doing nothing except for acknowledging that he's done all the work already. And, uh, and that's the thing is, and that will break you. And when that, when that makes sense to you, when it makes sense to you that God loved you so much that he sent his son to die for you and that there is nothing that you can do to bring you and God closer together, that God has already done all that legwork.

All you have to do is turn around. Like there's, there's nothing more grandiose to it. There's turning around and looking at God and realizing what he's done and, and talking to him about it. That'll break. That'll give you a broken spirit and a contrite heart. That, that exactly what that verse. And I don't know, that was, that was one of those things that I ran across this week that I thought was, uh, uh, pretty cool. Yeah. It was, um, you know, when you were talking about, um, you know, not understanding the fullness, uh, the full impact of, of our sin. I think that's true. I think that sometimes we treat it in a very casual fashion. I'm, I know I'm guilty of that, uh, especially the, the, the one things that are persistent. Um, they tend to, to degrade and, and how bad they are. Um, but I was reading something from a guy and he was talking about, you know, as a, you should really think of your sin, um, and protection from it as, uh, you see the old wolf man movies, like where the guy, like feel like he's going to turn into a wolf and he's like, chain me to the wall, you know, bar the door, do whatever you have to do.

This is not going to be good. Um, you know, and we don't, we don't protect our, we don't protect our minds. We don't protect our hearts or eyes, our souls with that. It was like, you know, do it, do whatever it takes to keep this thing out to, to make sure that, that it's not being, you know, not being exposed. It's not, it's not taking over my life. Um, you know, and, and, and I think sometimes it's just a little too, it's a little too casual. We are, um, we don't, we don't fight sin. We just, you know, are casually disappointed in it. I can't believe you made me do that. Right. You know, Oh, you, it's terrible. You know, as opposed to like, I will like, seriously, if you, if you woke up tomorrow and you said, I will do absolutely anything today to not sit, to not succumb to a temptation, to not, uh, you know, to not gossip, to not steal from that guy, to stop murdering cats, whatever it is, right? You're saying I got a real problem with murdering. I don't even know where all these cats are coming from. I've killed thousands, you know, so like, but if, but if you woke up with the mindset is like, I will, I will lose my job.

Uh, you know, I will drive my car into the ditch. I will do whatever I have to do today to not sin. We're more in the right category. Well, and, and, and Jesus almost spoke to that, right? When he was, when he was talking, uh, you know, metaphorically, but right. You know, if your right hand offends you, cut it off, you know, get rid of these things. You know, it's, it's better that your whole body make it that, that, that most of your body make it to heaven than to spin hell in hell with your hand. You know what I'm saying? And, and so I think that's God's exact perspective on it. You know, like if it's causing you to stumble, get rid of it and not metaphorically like, or not literally like cut off your hand and gouge your own eye out. But are you doing whatever it takes to keep you out of that, out of that arena? Um, you know, uh, there's another Bible first, uh, it was, it was in the beginning of Proverbs where it says, uh, wise men, why it was talking about wisdom. And it was says, you see the path that fools are on, just stay off of it. Don't get on that path with those fellas. You know where that path leads. They'll do anything, uh, to stay on that path of, of, of wickedness. Don't even talk to people that are on that path.

And, and, and, you know, a lot of people take that offense. We're like, well, just cause I love Jesus. And just because I'm trying to be a Christian doesn't mean I still can't have my secular friends and we can still go out and party and do all this stuff. To a certain point, there's truth to that. You know, you can still have these people as friends, but when they start to cause you to stumble and to get you pulled off the path to Christ, these are not people you want to keep in your life unless you're bringing them more towards you, not you towards them. Well, so, so, to, to kind of hit that distinction, you can't be salt and light to the earth if, A, you're, uh, to the world if you're hiding in a cave, right? Right. But you also can't be salt and light if you're no longer light because, because you've succumbed to darkness. Right. Right. People have to see the light and, and, and, and taste the salt to know that it's there. But on the other hand, you know, if you're not either one of those, it doesn't do you any good. Yeah. I'm with you.

Dan is in agreement. Amen. Well, you listen to, you listen to life in the path. Wolfman. I don't know, man. Like, here's the thing is that should be every day, right? Well, you can't celebrate the day in which I stood firm and said, I will not tolerate sin. These 16 hours of daylight. But, but I mean, it's, and I think there's, there's some like over masculinity to the, you know, I'm the sin warrior. You know, I'm, but, but there's a reason that God talks about it that way because we don't have the right mindset. We're so, we're so far back from a culture that is, that is used to war and like trying to preserve your way of life, trying to fight for the freedom of your family. Like we are like so softened by that. We are the Charmin culture. And, you know, so like we, we, we don't have to fight for stuff like that. Somebody else did it. Someone else continues to do it, right?

There's people that are still protecting those things. And I sit back and I'm like, I'm going to stand for freedom today by enjoying it. I've got a t-shirt. It's got a flag. Well, you know, I mean, they gave it away because I made it look like I was going to join the army reserves. Think of the difference though of, of, of, of, you know, if you had to start putting sin in perspective, think of the way they used to have to pay for it in the old Testament before Jesus was there, you know, there was blood like, like, like you had to kill an animal. And like, I read those things, you know, I read the old Testament. I hear, you know, you had to kill animals. I'm like, yeah, whatever, you know, I'd kill animals. That probably took up a lot of time, but, but on the other hand, like think that you, I mean, think about looking at your family dog. Cause that's exactly what these animals were. It's not like they had dogs and cats as pets. They had a sheep and, and, and oxen and, and bulls and, and, and, you know, all the animals that they were killing were animals that they owned, you know, that, that your children are out and played with, you know?

So now you got to look your family dog in the eye and say, look, I made a mistake. You got to go. And then you got to kill him for it. I mean, sir, it is just like that. And that's a lot harder to do than just some nameless animal that just happened to fly onto your property. And it was, I mean, it was even more extensive than that. Cause like you had to take the animal and you had to like walk it up to the temple and everyone's looking at you, no one, that guy, that there's the sin for that guy. He's, he's got the goat. He's got two pigeons. He's right. I know what he did. Well, that would stink if you had to have someone help you get off, wrangle all the animals to pay for your sin to get up there. Hey, look, Steve, I've had a real bad week. Can you help me with these cows? Seriously. They don't wipe me out. Pigeons got to be rough too.

I mean, you're like, you know how pigeons are trying to hold on to it. It's flying around. He's got like eight, eight, 10 strings with all pigeons flying on like a pack of balloons. Yeah. I think the thought though, of, of you taking the life of that animal has to be a lot more visual than us just saying, Oh Jesus, we're really sorry. Yeah. You know, really, really this time it's not going to happen again. It's the end. We're done. Yeah. Yeah. I'll never do it again. It's for every time, if every time you did that, a, there's a scoreboard that shows up and shows you with negative 10 points. And then it says, then you have to go buy a pigeon. You know what I'm saying? Like how bad would that be to look in the, I mean, animal over or not to be sitting there looking at this animal that you drug from your house, put it on the altar and said, this, this animal has, has no responsibility in this at all.

I did this, this animal dies because of what I did. That's terrible. That's a terrible thing. And to think that, I mean, that was a pretty, that was a consistent sacrifice because people are crazy. Yeah. Well, and the animals were their livelihood as well. You know what I'm saying? It's not just like they were just family pets. Like that's how most of them made their money. They were sheep herders. They were shepherds. They were, you know, they were, they were farmers or whatever, you know, the animals were part of their livelihood as well. Well, and it was, um, um, and it had to be a good one. I mean, it's not like, you can't take the lame one from the back, you know, who that you couldn't sell or eat or whatever. I mean, a big bulbous thing hanging off his neck was like, well, that one will take me my responsibility. You know, I mean, it had to be a good one.

It had to be a prestige, had to be a good sacrifice, had to be acceptable to God. Uh, and the thing is, is, is, is we are, um, as a, as a, again, as a new Testament, right? That's, that's, you get the new Testament first. And generally speaking, you get the Jesus stuff and then you get flighted back into the old Testament. But like, um, I don't, I don't think we get a real vivid picture of Jesus is that sacrifice until you understand the basis of that sacrificial system. Like, think of this, take out the lamb, take out the goat and you, okay, this seems always you pick up Jesus. And I mean, but seriously, think about Jesus sitting there knife in your hand and saying, I screwed up. You're paying the price. I mean, that's what it was. Yeah. Right. And I think we don't get that because we think, well, I mean, he's God, uh, you know, he knew he was doing it for everybody. I would probably make the same decision if it was for everybody. I mean, how could you not? Uh, you know what I'm saying?

But like, seriously, did nothing wrong, completely innocent. I'm standing there. That guy's taking it for me. And I, you know, and, and, and I'm the same guy who's always going back to the sin wagon, you know, going back to the bucket. It was like, well, I'm sorry, Lord. I'll, you know, I'll try to keep that under wraps or whatever. Make sure it doesn't happen again. And every time we got to look Jesus right in the eyes and sorry, it's lame. It's lame. And there's this, there's this, um, tendency in, uh, the Christian community these days to just have this flippant attitude about sin of, well, I sin every day, you know, I sin all day long. And every time I hear that, I'm like, no, why have you ever thought to ask yourself why? I mean, really? You're that weak. I mean, it's not that you can't sin every day and that it's not possible. I'm just saying you're that flippant. There's, there's a difference between admitting that you're a fallen human and then reveling in it.

Like, I think that's what they really mean. I'm a fallen human. You know, I, I do things I can't stop myself, you know? Oh, poor me. Uh, you know, the truth is, is that you, you, you can, you can stop yourself. Now you are, you are going to legitimately fall. Yeah. That's going to happen. And, uh, and, and hopefully the, like when you're falling, hopefully you think about a situation later and go, you know, I think I was wrong there. You know, that's different than this is wrong. I'm doing it. That's way different, you know? Yeah. And so I, I think actually a lot of the, uh, especially kind of like the new, like the new cultural cool thing to do with Jesus is to be like, I am a sinner, but it's cool, but it's cool because Jesus loves me, which is true. These are all true things, right? But people revel in their, revel in their sin and revel in the fact like it makes, uh, Jesus look cooler because he forgives you of your constant sin, which is the thing that

Paul expressly warned about. Right. Paul said, should we, should we keep on sinning? You know, no, I'm just creating glory. That's right. Like there are people, people say, look at me, look how bad I am. Jesus loves me anyway. And like, people are going to go, oh man, that Jesus just must love just about anybody. You know, that guy is junk. Here's the deal. Jesus rocks on his own. He does not need your assistance in the matter. Yeah. Right. You could have not been born at all and Jesus would still be awesome. You know, he didn't get better because of your sin. You're not the co-author of the awesome book that Jesus is writing. Just trying to bolster the old argument. Don't worry, God, I'll really screw this up. So you look good.

You're like the, you're like putting yourself as the hired fall guy on God's behalf. See, that's the thing. This is the type of idea that a fallen humanity comes to. Like a, like a guy. Yeah. That's the kind of thing. And Paul can anticipate the type of thing this guy is going to think. He's going to think, you know what? I'm going to help this deal out. God's going to look cooler if I look worse. That's it. Everybody wins. It's ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I realized it's, this is weird that I've been thinking about this over the last few weeks. I deny myself very little. Very little. There's like the things that I, that like irritating tendencies in my life.

You know, if I want, if I want to pop from the gas station, I'll stop and get it. We're 10 bucks under the bank account. It's only two bucks. I'll stop and get it. Go ahead. Find me, bank. I'm not afraid of you. You know, they got an overlying, you know, draft line of credit. More money will come later. Two bucks, they say. That's two bucks. I deny myself very little. It's, uh, it's 70 degrees in the house. I'm cold. I could put two shirts on or beep, beep. I knock it up two notches. Is that a sin? No. Except for the fact that I deny myself very, very little. Could I have tolerated a 70 degree house instead of 72?

Yeah. Could I put a sweater on? Sure, I could have, but no. Beep, beep. You know? Yeah. I just, I, I don't, I, I, I, I don't sacrifice much. I don't live a, uh, you know, exorbitant lifestyle. I don't have the money to do that. Like, sometimes they'll cut you off, right? But even in the small things, I just don't. I don't, uh, I bring pop for work. I'll drink a pop there. If I want another pop halfway through the day, how often do I actually cut myself off from that? Eh, I'm getting better. But it's not consistent. And these are the struggles, this is ridiculous, right? The struggles the American man has. Yeah.

I had a second pop in the afternoon. It's outrageous how pathetic that is. It's, it's just, it's very, very pathetic. Um, and I, that's been on me this week. I'm like, are you serious? You can't just not do that? Just don't do that. It's, it's stupid. But then, I don't know. It's, it's, uh, it's one of those things where like, is it a biblical sin problem? Like strictly defined, not on its own, right? But, but, but generally speaking is, does it reveal something about my character that says, uh, if I can define it as small, even if it's not good, I might still do it. You know, that's bad. That's like, that's, it's a flaw. That's a, it's a thing that exists in my character that continues to expose itself across numerous things. And it's, and it's completely ridiculous. Well, right. Well, I mean, let's be clear here.

You don't, you don't have to suffer just because it's suffering doesn't make, mean it glorifies God. Right. You know what I'm saying? Just because you're denying yourself a pop does not make you a holy, fantastic man. Right. But I think on the whole, what, what, what you're looking at is you're looking at a pattern to your life, you know, like what, what, what parts of my, of me am I willing to give up and hand over to Jesus to use, you know? And if I'm not willing to give up a $2 soda, I'm probably most certainly not going to give up my job or where I live or, uh, or where I worship or the sin that I like or the sin or my favorite sins. You know, if I'm not willing to give up a $2 soda, I'm probably not willing to give up much for Jesus. And Jesus didn't ask for your $2 soda. But what he did ask is, is for your life. And so he could use you, uh, to do things to further, to, to further him and to further his kingdom. And you're unwilling to even start with the soda. That's what I'm saying.

It's like, it's like, God could give a flying hoot about the soda. I'm sure. Right. I, all, but, but I think one of the, I, you know, I think one of the issues is just what am I willing to do? What am I willing? Um, you know, I don't know. I'm saying that, that, uh, my, my resolve is not worth anything. You know, it's just, it just isn't, it doesn't, it doesn't do anything. I upon my own resolve, um, you know, to do anything for me. So, dang. I don't know. Oh, man. What'd you run? This week? Give me a hold of it. Nothing? Damn? Oh, what? Bible?

Read, read? Read Bible? Oh, damn. I've been reading. It's only Tuesday. Dang. I did that Sunday. Nothing, huh? That's not good. You know what? Actually, the, the class we did on Saturday, I thought was, was, was pretty good stuff. Just a lot of discussion and stuff. And as, uh, they were reading John 15 about the whole vine and the branch thing. You know, of course I've read that. But I thought, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to talk about, I'm going to use that for Sunday. It just, it just, because I'm talking about service and ministry and, and, and, and passion. And I thought, you know, if you look at that in, in that context, I don't know if I usually don't look at it in that context, I guess. And I thought, you know, that, that's it.

The more connected you are to Jesus, the more you're connected to the vine, the more fruit you will have, the more productive you are. It's just the natural part of being connected with Jesus. And you cut yourself off and you wither off and dry. And it's the difference between, you know, putting in a volunteer hour and like serving Jesus is huge. I think it's very different, right? A lot of people just throw in an hour to do a little help. And that's good too. We need both really, but we need people that, uh, in, in the church, I say we need, God's looking for people who are connected to him and remaining in him or abiding in him, depending on what version you read that, that you're, you are, are connected with him, this relationship stuff. And, and as a result of that, all kinds of things come out of it. And part of it is, is, uh, serving him and, and serving people kind of the serving both thing. It really gets right into the mission, you know, of, of what we do. It's been a verse that would have, uh, that would help just about, uh, anything you've ever wanted to say, Dan. Yeah, I think so.

Hmm. Thanks. Um, yeah, I, I would, and it's, it's weird how, um, just something the chat was saying, say, I love to see Bible scripture come to light at different times of your life. It is, it is interesting, like how some things will not hit you at all. And then, you know, some things just kind of like totally, totally smack you just depending on, you know, what, what time of your life it is. Um, yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Hey, you're listening. How about now? Can you hear me? Can everybody hear me? How about now? Okay, good. All right. I'm going to fix it. Anyway. I'm never afraid to traverse the roads. Like, I, I feel like I, uh, uh, I, I just don't check the weather and I feel like if

you go slow enough, you'll be fine. Yeah. Is that, is that wrong? Is that, uh, is that dangerous? I suppose it could be, but I don't know. I'm kind of the same way. I don't, I just don't let weather affect me unless it's like super nasty. Then you just kind of like, you know, stay inside. But, um, I can't think of the last time that's happened to me. I don't know. Oh, man. Usually when it's really bad, I like to go out. That's because it's kind of fun. All right, Mike, what do you got? Dear Live from the Path. Are you supposed to ignore an acquaintance when you notice she's in a doctor's waiting room with you? Especially if it's a specialist office that makes a particular condition obvious to an otherwise non-privy person? This has happened to me twice recently.

Keep going. Privy. This has happened twice, uh, has happened to me twice recently. One time I avoided the acquaintance. The other, I broke the side and said, is that you so-and-so? Both times it was awkward. I can understand why someone wouldn't want to be seen at certain doctor's offices. Should I have played dumb? Um, so, let's say you're both going to a specialist. Uh, put it in dude's, uh, dude's relationship-like. Where they only do vasectomies. Right, right. We're at the, we're at the, the dude, the dude-automist. The, the clippers. Yeah, we're at the clip. We're both in there for the slippers. Right where they are. So, so you see, uh, you know, Bob Thompson you used to play, uh, basketball with at junior high. And you're just hanging across the room. Do you say, hey, Bob, what's up?

And he's going to say, I'm here getting a snip. What do you think? I'm getting a snip. Yeah. Like, I suppose guys, it's not as big of a deal maybe as girls. Nah, probably not. Because I do that. I do it. Like, hey, dude, getting a snip today? I mean, you know. Well, but like, I mean, the other lady's obviously there too, right? I mean, isn't it, isn't it pretty, pretty obvious what's going on? I mean, it's, it's not like, there's not too many things that are like that rare that, you know, oh, it'd be embarrassing. I don't know what would be, what would be a girl? I don't know. I probably shouldn't go there, but. Well, let's just say it's the lady doctor, all right? I mean, don't you both know what you're there for? Yeah.

I feel like it would just come, like, it would be awkward to not say hi. You could, you have to ask the ladies on the chat. Is that, is that weird? Ooh. Is it weird to go to the, uh, to run into another lady at the lady doctor? The gynecologist? Yeah. Do you make conversation in the waiting room or are you just kind of, oh, here for your pap smear? Act like no one's here? I don't, I don't understand. I mean, it's just, I feel like that, yeah. It's just like. Now, if it was a fella coming up to a lady, that would be weird. Well, what's he doing there to begin with? I don't know. He's a weird dude. Someone should be asking him questions. He thought it was the dude's office. What are you thinking of?

He made a mistake, I guess. I'm just here to read Ms. Weekly. You don't have it at my doctor. Now, let me ask you this. Let's say you accompanied a lady to said doctor, and then she was in the place, and then you saw a female acquaintance of your wife's there. That would be kind of awkward. I guess it could be. Hey, how you doing? No. What's awkward is that you went with your lady to the lady doctor, and they didn't even go in. Can I hold your head? What are you supposed to be doing in there? What are you going to do in the waiting room? Wait in the car. Stop freaking people out. Call me when you're done. Seriously, get some friends and go make some phone calls or something. You don't want to hang out in the waiting room?

What's wrong with that? The only time I've ever felt awkward at a doctor place was a year ago when they sent me to a cardiologist, and I'm still a fairly young guy, and all these old people are walking around, and I'm walking in, hey, I'm here to see the cardiologist, and they all look at me like, oh, to be like him. I just felt like, hey, I don't really belong here. I'm here to drop off some samples. I mean, that's what I felt like saying. I'm here to drop off some samples. Good one. Hey, is Alan in? I'd like to give him a talk a little bit, all right? So that was a little awkward for me. Other than that, I've never really felt too awkward because you're… Okay, so according to what the chat's saying, I guess I don't know the difference here. Maybe I'm not even going to ask, but I didn't realize that the gynecologist and the OB-GYN are two different people. One's for when you're actually pregnant, and one's when they're checking you out. And that's not the same guy? I mean, once you find out what's going on, it's like me saying I'm a left-arm specialist

and the other guy's a right-arm specialist. Once you get how the arm works, that's pretty much all you need, right? Men are in there all the time? That seems unacceptable. There's single men looking for women. Are they creeping in here? What are you doing here? I think I'd ask her to leave. I mean, I'm all for supporting my wife, but I would certainly hold her hand until she got into the thing, and then I would say, okay, I'm going to go outside. Call me when you're done. It's getting awkward now. I'm going to leave. Ladies, is that unsupportive? Is it unsupportive to escort you into the room and then kind of ditch out until you're done? Or, I mean, I stay in the room if you feel comfortable, but I certainly don't want to hang out in the waiting room by myself. That's all. Is there a men's restroom?

Maybe you could just sit in there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's not awkward at all. I'll be in the public men's bathroom. Text me when you're done. Until you're finished. That's creepy. We play in Angry Birds. That is pretty awkward, though. Like, if you're in a public bathroom and the next stall over, that's the idea. Woo-hoo! The advice from Secular was, no, you should have not played dumb. In the future, you should acknowledge your acquaintance, but refrain from asking questions. Any questions, including, how are you? Hey, what are you here for? Well, that's even more awkward, because if you can't ask any questions, you're just like, Steve! Hey! That's it. You can't even, you don't say, hey.

What you reading there? How's it been? They got a good magazine on kayaks. All right. I, I, okay, okay. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that I would hang out. I don't know. I feel like the weather would be off. Sure is snowy. Glad you could make it. Tough time driving in. So, how was it before you came in here? Ed Wilson sure got that one wrong. Hey, buddy. Well, I don't know. I suppose that could be all right. If you weren't coming from the mindset that you might be awkward. Okay. Dear Life from the Path,

I have very nice neighbors who believe in leaving the wild and natural growth on their property. Yes. I like them already. They have posted a sign that claims it to be a certified natural habitat. They never weed or cut anything back. At first it was cared for, but now it has become an eyesore, and people who visit our house have made comments. I've tried to grow border plants to hide the mess, but nothing seems to help. I believe it affects the value of our home. My husband doesn't want me to say anything for fear of hurting their feelings. They're nice people, but we don't live in a rural area where this might be more acceptable. Have you any suggestions? Privacy fence. That was it? Privacy fence? I'd let them grow it. What do you care? Seriously, what kind of stuck-up neighbor are you, man? Just, you know, they like to not cut anything. Cut your yard and call it a day.

How big is it? What? How big is the growth? What do you mean how big is the growth? Is it their yard? Is it like five acres? No, no. It's in a suburban neighborhood. Suburban. I'd say if you don't like it, just put up a little half. Wait until they're on vacation and mow. You're probably going to hit some wildlife. Do you think someone could sue you if you mowed their yard while they were gone? Well, in most cities, the city will come mow it for you and then give you a bill. Unless you were a certified habitat, I guess, like they were saying. They probably figure they put a sign up that makes them certified. I don't know. Oh, man. I don't know. What do you care?

I don't know. What do you care? I don't care. I don't know. Maybe it's for people who care a little bit more. I don't care. People can grow their yard all they want. That's what I'm saying. If it bothers you that much that you don't want to see it, hide it. Put a fence on it. Okay. What if it wasn't just a crazy yard growth or it was a bunch of garbage? I mean like certified garbage. There's not like even half a car, but like milk cartons and jazz. Are they and they're leaving it like that because they want it like that? Yeah. Dirty diapers. They love it. Yeah. I don't know.

That's disrespectful. I mean here's it. Like it's okay to be like a wacky dude, but like sometimes you have to recognize that your wackiness is impinging on others. And so you'll move out. So the chat says, look, their crazy yard mess is bringing down my property value. Now what do you do? That's how the roulette wheel rolls, man. You may or may not move next to a crazy man. I mean because if it's the same guy, let's say it's not his yard. Let's say he instead of using curtains, he hangs his He-Man sheets. Like that also brings down property value. Or brings it up depending on who. Or moving in. Hand paints a skull on his front door. Or you can't help what people do with their lives. You can't make him paint his door or not use He-Man sheets. I don't know. I'd move next to a guy that uses He-Man sheets. What if he does a nightly man silhouette dance in the curtain at 9 o'clock every night?

You tell me that doesn't bring down the volume. That's the guy I saw at the office today. Steve. What's happening? Secular says, have you any suggestions? And Secular said, yeah, yeah. Who certified your neighbor's yard as a natural habitat? The city? If so, call City Hall and find out if their yard still qualifies. What you've described may be a fire hazard. That's ridiculous. A live vegetation? A live grass fire hazard, just like the entire plains of the United States. That might be a bit much. As opposed to mulch that is in the normal person's yard, dried wood. If there is a homeowners association in your neighborhood, it should also be contacted to ensure their house is in compliance with the codes, covenants, and restrictions. Those are modern day Pharisees. Those homeowners associations. They are. They sit on the high council.

Someone who is close to these neighbors should volunteer to help them with their yard. That'll go over well. A natural landscape can be beautiful, but only if it's properly maintained. I see you have poor taste in landscaping. How do you bring that up? You've really let your yard go to pot. I'd like to help by mowing it completely down. Here's what you do. Most likely, if you know these guys at all, you have a mutual neighbor of which you both do not like. So you prepare a note written by him that offers to help and then wait to see whether that neighbor gossips to you about it. Is that wrong? That's fairly elaborate. I spent a lot of work into it. Let me help you mow your lawn. Love, you know, 309. And then the cruddy neighbor comes over and he says, hey, man, that guy offered to mow my lawn. Can you believe that stuff? I know how to take care of my lawn. That's how I like it. And then you know.

Then you'll know. Do an open or do an open letter to the local paper editorial or write the derivation. What? We've come to a resolution. We've solved the problem. That was easy. What else? I'm doing the best I can here. I'm trying to fish up ones. Hold on just a second. All right. You're listening to Life in the Path. We are on every Monday night from 10 to midnight here at lifeinthepath.org. Coming up next week, Jeff Arendale will be in the studio. Jeff has got an album coming out. He's been in here. I've played with his band Certainty before. Also been in here on a solo mission. And so anyway, him and a couple guys are going to be in here next Monday performing some cuts off his album. I was able to hear one of these cuts.

And it's interesting. It's interesting for us to have him been in here and he played them acoustically and then get kind of a different angle on it when it gets full production and everything. So it'll be fun to have catch up with Jeff, see how things are going. And it's weird. I run into Jeff every once in a while. He works downtown in the same general area. And I wink at him because I know that he loves Jesus. I know you. And that's what I do to Jesus lovers downtown is I give him a wink. It's like a secret handshake thing. Hey, man, what happened to Mike? I think he's gone. He was supposed to be. I think he got mad. He didn't like our response to his dear life in the past. Well, I think we gave the right answer. I don't know what else to do about that. Well, we're going to play music, some music from our guest. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was.

I was going to. Let's just play a song. Since he didn't make it. Let's hear a little bit. Let's see. Hold on. We'll let him be here whether he's here or not. Everybody loves Adam Cates. Actually, I feel bad because I think I cut this one off. Like, I think there was a rocking part. Let me see if I can. I got a Charlie horse or something. I can't get my legs to stop hurting. Yeah, okay. Here we go. So this song, this is called. Here it comes. This song is called January. This is by Adam Cates. He was in the studio late last year.

And he's got a new album out. And he was due on the show tonight and has been, let's go with detained or something. So I'll let you have a little listen. This is Adam Cates. You're listening to Live from the Path. Oh, strength and used it all up. Then I prayed to you to take me in your heart. Then I saw your face. You chased my demons. You restored my faith. You kept me warm that January. No longer scared of you. No longer on my soul. I ran from you that night. I won't let you take my life. You couldn't catch my breath. Tears fell down. You lifted my face. To open your arms. January.

Longer scared of you. No longer on my soul. January. You take me. That was Adam Cates. This is him rocking about some more. I reckon this is the whole thing. I just, I thought I'd let you know. I don't know this song. Same tooth. This is probably not a good idea. You better shut it down. He's too good. We should find somebody else. That's what you get for not coming on the show. We're going to do, what is that big question mark, Ben? Oh, man. He persists. I don't know. He's in my head.

There's something wrong with my camera. I show up as a big backwards question mark. Like, it's not even facing the right direction. That's weird. There it is. Ben Foos. Life in the path. Maybe the camera's upset that Cates didn't show up. Maybe so. Oh, man. What? Proverbs 10.10 says, he who winks the eye causes trouble. Is that true? Did you claim to wink at Jeff Arondale? Yeah. Yeah. Dan, is that accurate? Is that a way to pull out the scripture, Big Ron? Oh, man. Ron.

Ron's after me. We're going to verify that. You've been listening to Live from the Path on livefromthepath.org. Whoever, whoever winks the eye causes trouble, but a babbling fool will come to ruin. Okay. Oh, man. So you're a troublemaker, but you're not to ruination. You're just a guy that causes slight trouble. Well, yeah, but I mean, what do I spend? I spend two hours a night here. We had no plan and everything for tonight. That makes me a babbling fool. Yeah, bummer. I wish we wouldn't have read the rest of that verse. Yeah, bummer. Things were really looking good there for a day. I fit all characteristics of Proverbs 10.10. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.

Look at that. Oh, no. You're listening to Live from the Path. You guys are participating in our device. I don't know what that says about you. All right. Hold on. I had something else for you. Here we go. Okay. So Mike's going to die. He's not in good shape over there. I can't sit up. I think you need water. I'm still rolling with my legs. You're drinking too much pop. You're dehydrated. Oh, man. Okay. So check this out.

You got two. Dr. Dan. You got a couple that's having a tiff in your. You got to figure out what you would say in this situation. Okay. Okay. There's a couple comes in. You're in a group situation. Yeah. Yes. They're married. They know Jesus? Yes. Okay. Okay. So here we go. So you start the way you're kind of talking around. People are kind of sharing what's going on in their lives. And, you know, the guy goes, the couple says, you know, well, the high moment this week was our anniversary dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant this weekend.

We're celebrating nine years together. Oh. That's nice. That's sweet. I was able to get chicken limon, my favorite. But Rachel chimes in with a slight spot. The low moment, though, here it comes, is up for debate. I believe it was when Rachel's father called repeatedly asking me to help out with some projects around the house. He calls all the time and demands I do free work for him, even though I told him I couldn't help him anymore after we finished the patio last summer. Rachel was irritated. And I believe the low point was when Jacob left the dinner dishes in the sink all night. They were really difficult to clean the next day. I mean, who cares if my dad wants your help? He's my father, after all. One of the women of the group says, have these requests for help been a pattern in your married life? Only a woman asks that. Because the guy knows that's a troubled question right there.

The lady's going to step right into it. She says, oh, long before we were ever married, he's always wanted me to do his work for him. And even when he says he'll compensate me, he never gives me exactly what he promised. I've been working for years, and I'm beginning to think he's taking advantage of me. Mike. What? How do you help him? Did they ask for my help, or did they just battle him? I want to know. I think you're just whining. This seems like an awkward situation. Generally speaking, a couple is fighting in front of you. How do you, is it best to, do you try to explore the situation, try to help them out, or do you just kind of, you tail in, huh? No. You go. Boy, that sounds like a rough week. You guys better figure that out. That's rough. But this woman stepped into it.

She says, have these requests for help been a pattern in your married life? She'd stay out of it. That's none of her business. Read the rest of that proverb. You don't want to get involved in this business right here. Because here's the thing. They could just be having an off week, right? So you go chiming in, trying to pick sides, straighten things out. The next week, they're getting around like peas and carrots again, and you're the jerk that was trying to meddle in their marriage. Remember when Mike had blah, blah, blah to say, stick his high and mighty nose in here? No, sir. You don't want to get involved in someone else's marriage like that. If they're going to vent, and they're foolish enough to do it in a public arena, you just look at your wife and go, ha, ha, ha, we have times, too. Or just say something really generic. Good one. Yeah. Yeah. Don't say anything crazy.

Big Rod says, help the old man out. Jesus would. I'm really looking forward to son-in-laws, because I can just say, oh, you know, ever since the doctor said I can't lift my heart, I don't know, could you come and move my refrigerator from the basement to the attic, please? That'd be really sweet. Please. Dan, you're going to be the new Laban. Yeah. You're the new Laban. The new Laban. Please visit your Old Testament. I believe somewhere in Genesis about Laban. I know, so, I mean, Big Ron says Jesus would step in. I don't care what Big Ron says. It's not the way to do it. Wait, you don't agree Jesus would step into that? No. No one complains about their marriage in front of Jesus. Oh, give me the biblical example of someone complaining in front of Jesus and how he handled

it. Let's see, the disciples complained that there were children being brought to him. Jesus told them to be quiet. Rebuke! It was a full rebuke. Strike one for a complainer in front of Jesus. Peter was complaining and Jesus said he was going to die. No, no. Or he was going to wash his feet as well. Peter was a complainer. What? Can I wash my feet? Hey, I actually was thinking about Peter today, and here's why. I was thinking people that questioned the validity of the scriptures, and I thought, if they were false, why would a guy like Peter permit himself to look like such a boob? Because, I mean, he comes off looking real, real goofy in a couple of situations. A three that I can think of that are pretty bad. Maybe Matthew just didn't get along with him very well. But I'm saying, like, these perpetuated, these are scriptures that people taught out of, discussed, and I'm saying, like, in fact, the whole lot of them look really silly, right

up to Jesus' death. As a matter of fact, when Peter wrote his book, he would have corrected, oh, you know, Matthew said, but let me just set this straight. I was the good one. Yeah. Jesus loved me, not John. Yeah, yeah. I was the smart one. It was John that ran away when his cloak fell off and chucked in the nude out of the garden. Hold on. Listen here, chat. But here's the deal, is that there's a difference between praying and asking for God's guidance in your marriage and then saying, God, you know, my husband's a doofus, and I'd really appreciate it if you take my side on this thing, because he's not right, and he should really help my old man build this patio, because it's the right thing to do. There's two differences in telling Jesus what to do, and attempting to get him on your side, and then bending your will to his and saying, Lord, help me make the right decision here. Because then you can admit that you're wrong, which both these people are not doing. What is that? What are you rusting me for?

That's funny. I can't over it. Unnecessary, but totally funny. Last time someone complained. Well, so far the biblical examples of people complaining to Christ is a rebuke. Always. It actually has been consistently a rebuke. Okay. The point is, is that if people are going to vent their marriage woes in public, it's best for you just to stay out of it. How public is public? Because, I mean, we're seven, nine people in. You may be getting the wife treatment. You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is a lot of times I'll have couples come to me, and they're just having a little spat over the silly little things. I'm sitting there going, why did you come to me? I don't care. I don't care if you go help Dad. I don't care if somebody left their dishes out. I mean, you guys work it out.

I mean, you're looking for some, what, authoritative answer from me or something? Well, you know, you need to be washing those dishes. I mean, what am I going to say? Don't tape that, by the way. There's no worse way to lead your house than to take your problems to another man to resolve. I know, I know. Hey, come on. Let's go to the Arbiter of Justice, Dan Hudson. Yeah, exactly. He has wisdom. He can tell us who should wash the dishes. I don't care who washes the dishes in your house. What's the Chad agreeing with? What are you agreeing with? Is the taking, I think, taking your troubles elsewhere. In which case, so how do you defer that, Dan? How does that generally go? Do you just say, go handle it on your own? You're just kind of like, well, you know, that's something you guys need to figure out. This is your marriage, and you've got to live with it.

Do you think it would be more effective if you acted as outraged as you did just a minute ago? Like, I don't care. I don't care. This is silly. I don't care. Instead of saying it in your preacher nice man voice, where you say, now listen, I really think this is something you should work out between the two of you? Really not my place? I know you're trying to figure out how to serve Jesus in the highest capacity. But the both of you are ridiculous. I feel like I would just keep cards in my pocket to give to the man when he came in, and he would be talking, and I would hand it, and I would say something to the extent of, like, do you want me to run your household? Or maybe just go ahead and take the guy's man card. Hand it over. Obviously, you can't handle this. Well, but once you take him from him, then you have to help. You emasculated him in front of his wife. He did it himself. Now go home and earn your man card back. You encouraged it. You nick yourself, you said.

All right. You're listening to Life in the Bath, aren't you? Are you? Mike, did you come up with any more? Of what? I keep coming up with stories. You keep coming up with nothing. I did the Dear Abbey's. All right. All right. Hold on. You want to see if I got any more? Yeah. I haven't done any game shows for a long time. No. Been supposed to be doing that. Ah, we'll set one up for next week. Yeah, right. You're supposed to be. I was going to do a Secular Solomon this week, and I decided against it.

You're supposed to do the best of Troy. Oh, yeah. I didn't get around to that. No. No, no. I'm going to do it. Dear Life in the Path, I've been accepted to a school that's the alma mater of several of my relatives. My mom, several aunts, and other family members all belong to one sorority at this college. They are urging me to pledge there and uphold the family tradition. They say they had some of the best times of their lives as members of that sorority chapter. The members do well academically as the sorority insists on it. They made lifelong friends, and their sorority contacts have been extremely helpful personally and professionally. Although this chapter is very exclusive and accepts only the best of the best, I will have no problems getting in, not only because I'm of my academic record, but also because I'm a legacy. So what's the problem? This sorority chapter still uses the paddle. Technically, they don't haze, that is, have any initiation stunts, but they do use the paddle for disciplinary purposes. When I mention my concerns about the paddling… I'm sorry. Hold on just a minute.

Like, we're college, right? Sorority? Yeah. Okay, really? Go ahead. When I mention my concerns about the paddling to my mother and aunts, they say I should suck it up, as the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. One of my aunts says she thinks the rules and the discipline would be beneficial for me because she considers me kind of a wild child. Abby, I don't know if I know anything about sororities, but I'm asking for an objective of opinion from someone not directly involved. A paddling? A paddling. How awkward does that have to be? College girls with a paddle. I don't know who's doing the paddling and the context. Right, because it sounds like a webcam thing. Is this some kind of old woman? You know, here's the thing. After the age of, say, 17, good luck paddling me.

You know what I'm saying? I'm going to put up a fight or I'm going to go away. I can't believe you made it to 17. I mean, you really got to be some kind of mammoth that you think you're going to hold me down and give me a whooping with a paddle at anything past the age of 17. I mean, I assume that it's actually happening. Like, that's why this has come up, right? I mean, because if you just had one hanging symbolically in the hallway but never used it, that would be different, right? But, like, I assume people are actually getting the paddling. I don't. That's creepy. I'm out. Yeah, me too. It's just creepy. No, you're doing the right thing the wrong way. I don't care what they provide. It's a big paddling for a college-aged ladies is bad. It all depends on who's doing the paddling and what's the line that crosses that you cross when the paddling comes.

Give me an example of when you think it is completely normal to paddle a 19-year-old girl. The curfew was… That's what I'm saying. It doesn't matter who's doing the paddling. I don't get it. The curfew was 12 o'clock. They came in at 1 o'clock. And for the record, I also don't get it if it's dirty, okay? Paddle. So what I'm saying is, like, it doesn't matter who it is or for what reason. I can't think of the justification to paddle somebody. And an IT, a college-level person, hey, I'm going to… This is a childification of our culture. This is why people don't grow up until they're 50. It's because we're still doing things like paddling a 19-year-old. It should have been seven years in. Listen, hold on now. If you don't plan on breaking the rules, what do you care if they paddle? That's like saying if you switch the paddle out for a cattle prod. What do you care?

Well, the problem is that they probably haven't been paddled in their whole life, so maybe they need to paddle it. You think it's going to… Do you think it's going to straighten somebody out, a 19-year-old paddling? I do not. That's pretty embarrassing. I mean, at least… Like I said, it depends on who it is. It's not going to hurt very much. It doesn't matter who it is. It's ridiculous. I mean, is it a grandma or a motherly, grandmotherly figure? Or is it, what, the sorority mom? I mean, I don't know. If it's a coast… These are irrelevant distinctions. What if the lady is 85 years old? Does that make it better because she's paddling? No, that's funny. I would disobey just for the comedy.

Go ahead. Go ahead, Ethel. Take a swat. Do we agree with the chat? Our sororities and fraternities, are you just paying for friends? Does it cost money to be in one? Oh, yeah. I was never invited. That's not free. You're playing room and board, if you stay on the campus. It's probably the same type of thing. I don't know. I wasn't invited. I got offered one, but they were for paddling. Yeah. I didn't do the paddle. No, no, no. That's terrible parenting advice. No, no, no. It's all wrong.

Parenting advice is terrible. Mike, your kid comes up to you and says, Dad, I'm thinking of going into this, spending four years in this house, and their disciplinary action is paddling. You say, yeah, that's a good life choice. That's the kind of choice. If I find out my kid has made that choice, I pull them out of the school and say, you obviously shouldn't be allowed in public yet to have made a choice like that. I've messed up. I'm putting you back under my house until I straighten it out. Right. I've led you astray. You're joining some kind of paddling place, a place that paddles you way after I've given the authority to no longer paddle. What kind of flying squirrel says, I want to be in the paddling sorority? I would seriously make a better choice with your life. Sounds like a cult. It's big money, though.

Big friends. We guarantee professional success. Yes. Just all you have to do is not disbehave. No. And then you don't get to woofing. What's the matter? Just do the right thing. Then you don't have to get paddled. What do you care if they paddle? No. No. No. No. Road paddling is outrageous. It's time to break the tradition and start a new sorority. How are they still even allowed on campus? How is that not a cult? Stop breaking the rules, rule breaker. Then you won't get the paddle.

What are you so worried about? Just do what you're told. I guess that's the question. Do they ever actually do it? Or is it just a rumor? For people that misbehave like this, it's like a joke or something. The guy that looks at the rule and says, I'll do what I want, then you get the paddle. Fine. Swap out the paddling for a punch in the face. You say that's okay? Behave yourself and you won't get a punch in the face. When you sign the paper and says, I hereby agree that when I screw up and they're going to punch me in the face, then you get a punch in the face. That's what I'm saying. The problem is the guy that signs that.

That's the issue. It's not the premise. Punch in the face? Well, that sounds like a good idea. Stop breaking the rules. That's how they should do to filter out people to college. Like the ones where they said accepted, and then you get a guy that signs up for that. You say, dude, we had to revoke your acceptance into the school because you're obviously an idiot and we're not allowing you on the ground because you'll poison everybody else with your thoughts. Just don't do bad stuff, says Big Ron. No. Ron's a smart guy. Stop doing bad stuff. You don't got to worry about the paddle. Don't wink at anybody. You know why I'm not afraid of the electric chair?

Because I don't do anything to deserve the electric chair. I don't care. Boo. Behave yourself. Here we go. Here's what Secular says. I joined a sorority in college and I'd never heard of a sorority hitting pledges or active members. Some fraternities may have allowed it, but certainly not sororities. Whether your aunt thinks you could use the discipline is beside the point. Striking someone with a paddle is assault with a weapon. A young man died of a short time ago in Florida because of the kind of hazing this national organization is winking at. Are young women… Winking. Now that's going extreme. Are young women who behave that way really the kind of people you would like to be lifelong friends? If not, then pass on that sorority.

Other than that… That's extreme. That's going too far. What? What do you mean? You could die if you go to this… Come on. Just behave yourself. What do you care? Why are you so afraid of the paddle, Bill? No. Why are you so afraid of it? Just don't do the wrong thing. It's the premise, right? You're being guided in this house. I'd assume there's some sort of home authority or whatever who administrates the paddling. This is the person under whose tutelage you are now under. You're under the thoughts of a person who says, I deal with the world by taking a big paddle to a 19-year-old girl.

A person who obviously doesn't see the world correctly. So no. No. No paddling. So when I was in college, my freshman year, I was so nasty in breaking all the rules that literally caused the dorm parents to weep. That is most certainly making the best of year two complication. I was so nasty. I mean, they wept and then they resigned. And it was… I mean, it was… Yeah. It was me, basically. I mean, they said so. It wasn't like, oh, I'm sure that was me. Yeah. That's terrible, Dan. I was a terrible person. Mostly because at the same time… It's like, we're going to paddle.

You're not going to paddle me. I had basically that attitude. They didn't paddle. But they had campus scene where you had to stay in your room. I'm like, I haven't been grounded. I've never been grounded in my life. I'm not going to go to college and pay you money to ground me. Yes, exactly. And they had all these ridiculous hours. I'd be in 10 o'clock weeknights and midnight on weekends. And then, you know, I didn't do that in third grade. That's for nerds. And so I just kind of… That's the kind of stuff where I built. I mean, I wasn't like out doing, you know, unbiblical things. Right. Other than rebelling them would be unbiblical, which the president often reminded me of. They made that case, too. Yeah, they did. Whatever.

I was put on probation. One more thing and you're out. Oh. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. No. No penalty. It goes good on a resume. I don't know, man. Why is that? No rules for me. Why do people being in a fraternity or sorority look good on a resume? Because I think that's true. I think that is accurate. I think it just shows you were like the cool people or something. You were like the elite. But you're not the normal fuddy-duddy like me in a dorm. Just follow the rules, man.

You were… Hey, is that what the future employer is looking for? Hey, we need a guy who's willing to subject himself to a paddling. Yeah, that's what an employer wants for you. Hire him up. Humble servitude. That's not servitude. It's idiocy. What kind of proud man walks in and goes, no one ever swats me because I am Ben Foost. No one will swat me with a paddle. You won't. I won't be paddled. What if you deserve it? I don't deserve it. You do. You will only swat once. Okay. There we go. Dear Life on the Path, my fiancé, dig this guy, Kip, and I are being married next year and we have only one disappointment.

It's about my keeping my last name. I don't want to take Kip's last name. Oh, man. I've had the same name for 33 years and I do not believe a woman has to take her husband's name when they marry. However, the biggest issue for me is my fiancé never knew his father, who left when Kip was a baby. I do not wish to take the name of a man who neither of us knows and who had no positive influence on our lives. I'm part of a close-knit family. I am proud to bear the name of my father, a hard-working, dedicated Vietnam veteran. Am I on a line? Well, we will accept your answer because we are unable to resolve this ourselves. Man, that's putting it all on the line there. Hard-working Vietnam vet father, solid family, Kip's loser dad, been nowhere to be found. Take the loser dad's last name. Madeline, what do you say, dad? Well, it's not really a biblical issue or an ethical issue. It's kind of a cultural issue. I don't care. I mean, I kind of follow the cultural traditions of taking the father's or the husband's name. And that's it. She's not taking his dad's name.

She's taking his name. She's marrying him, not the dad that she's never met, nor him. I mean, she doesn't like that. Go with the grandfather. Maybe he was an outstanding World War I vet. I mean, who knows? I mean, you know. Actually, I believe that does have a biblical slant to it, right? Like, leave your mother and your father and the two shall become one. Well, but it doesn't say you have to use a dude's name. You can become one under the ladies moniker. Well, that's not really the head of the household, is it? I don't know if that's an issue of headship. I mean, I would only do it simply because, of course, it's so messed up now. Just like genealogy records, it's, you know, just follow the pattern. And 14 generations from now, they can look back and figure things out as opposed to how hip we are now and we're messing everything up. But I don't know if that maybe doesn't matter. I don't know. So, I'm not that worded up about it. So, you think they should be whatever, you know, keep your last name.

I don't care. We had some people at Pathway a few years ago who, the, how did this work? The wife, there were no other children. And so, the name was going to end after this generation. And so, the husband hyphenated his name with hers. Like, he took her name, which I'd never known, I'd never heard of that before. But it was more out of an honor to her and her father to say, we just want to keep the name going. And they did a hyphenation thing. I thought it was interesting. I personally wouldn't do it. But it doesn't matter. I mean, I have two daughters. My name's going to be gone after my generation. But I figure I'll be dead. I won't care. Yeah, you know, I haven't really had that thought of, like, my legacy will not continue. My legacy is in my children. I'm going to pass it on to their children. And whether they have the name or not. I will be forgotten because my name is forgotten.

Like, that's kind of goofy, right? Because no one, no one remember. Oh, Foost. Oh, yes, Ben Foost. Of the Ben Foosts. You're of the Foosts. I don't know. Mike. Oh, man. Here's what I'm telling you. You need a bottle of water. So, what was our decision? We don't really care. No, I don't think so. Well, that can't be helpful. They're asking for advice, man. You can't just say, I don't care. You've got to give them advice. I say her reasoning is flawed. What if Kip's dad was a solid dude?

Would that make a difference? No. No. Who gives a poodle's behind? I don't know what it matters. Like, you're not marrying your father or his father. You know, unless his father passed on the name Adolf. I don't know. I don't know what it matters. Your dad was a jerk, so I'm not taking your name. Yeah. That's true. Seems a little childish. There's a lot of dads that are jerks. No one ever take it last. What if both their parents are jerks? Then no one gets to take any last name? Hey, you know, and if you look through the genealogy of Jesus, there are women in there mentioned, which means the guy's not even mentioned. So, well, that depends on which genealogy.

Right. Yeah. What are you looking for? I don't know. Settle this dispute between Dan and I. Okay. We're at odds over this genealogy. Here's what Secular says. We'll see if we agree. While most women still change their names to their husbands or hyphenate them, those who don't usually have established themselves in a career in which they are known by their maiden name. Others fear that if they change their names, they'll lose their identity. No one can or should decide this for you. However, if Kip did know his dad and the man was fine, upstanding citizen, would you feel differently? Remember, you are marrying Kip, not his dad, and I assume your fiance is a wonderful person. Given your logic, because he had no relationship with his father, should he change his name to yours, please make no decisions about this until you two have talked this out more fully. There you go.

I think the thing is, she was just older, and she's like, everybody knows me as his name. But everybody gets used to it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it doesn't so much matter. I don't know if your face changes, and all of a sudden you drive 50 new cars, and you don't act the same way anymore. You just have a different last name. It's not an identifier like people make it out to be. You know what I'm saying? It's just a way to follow you when you get to the doctor's office, and you're trying to avoid Steve sitting on the cross from you. Now, what is awkward is if you get married, change your name, get divorced, change it back, get married, change your name, get divorced. Like, every five years, you have a different… That conversation is kind of awkward. It's like, hey, Joan. How's it going? Joan Stevens, right? Oh, no. It's Joan Piper again.

We've re-divorced. Oh. Oh, okay, Joan. Sorry. You know, I mean, when you've got to play, name that tune with the lady because she's been married eight times. That does get to be a little awkward. That doesn't happen to me. I've got a friend in my contacts that I just go with the maiden name. I'm not sure what the current one is because there's been a few, you know, and I'm like, I'd get the wrong name pops up. I won't know who it is. Is it appropriate to get… Can you give a nickname to another woman? That seems too intimate. What do you mean? Like, like… Like, Mrs. Mary's a lot or what are you going to call her? I was just thinking that would solve the problem. If you could give her a nickname that you wouldn't…

That she would expect for you to use, you wouldn't have to be in that situation. But like, so I mean, I know a guy at work who I just called Orlando. I just decided that's what I was going to call him. And so that's how I refer to him. But I think it would be different if there was like a girl at work and I just said, you know what? I'm going to call you Betsy. And then just… Because that's… I don't know. That seems like a… I don't know. Is that a problem? No big deal? I just ran… I mean, that's not her name, right? I'm just going to say, you're Betsy today. Unless you're like Mesh and call him Hot Lips or something. I won't. I'm not going to say that.

That's a good move. Hey, Hot Lips. All right, Dan. I said I wasn't going to say it, Dan. That's it. That's it for the Dear Life from the Past. We solved all the world's issues. We did. We did. Everything's all straightened out. Chad, how are you guys doing? Everybody hanging out all right? You guys all look good. You're all so handsome. I really don't want stuff, Mike. I don't have anything. I don't know. What do you want to do? Okay, here's the deal. Let's just be honest about this deal.

So we had… Adam Cates was supposed to come in today, right? So he was going to fill, oh, an hour, an hour and a half worth of content with an interview slash song playing, you know, a good amount of the show. And so… We've done quite well for ourselves. Yeah, so he didn't make it. And we've been without material before and lasted five minutes. And this has gone fairly well, considering that we had plans on nothing else to talk about. Yeah, so let's just cut this deal. Yeah, let's call it out. We're going to head out. Sweet. All right. Well, hold on. Hold on. We might as well do this. All right, man. I'm going to send you out with a little… Adam Cates.

You were listening to Life in the Path. We'll catch you next week. Jeff Arendale will be back in the studio with a couple of buddies, playing some cuts from his new CD. I'm excited to hear from Jeff. And we will see you next week. Thank you for listening to Life in the Path. Why don't you just leave to save this one? I lift my hands to you. Take me, take me, Jesus. I give my life to you. Take me, Jesus. Take me, Jesus. And you save me.