Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path. You're listening to Live From The Path on live from thepath.org

broadcasting every Monday at somewhere around ten. I think we've hit it this week, boys. We put the we put the golf ball in the tee and we took a whiff, We we made some connection. Alright. So it it is around the 10:00 hour on Saturday night. We're broadcasting live on the interwebs. We're also if you're listening to the terrestrial radio, you're listening on 99.3 in Des Moines. And, so we're glad to have you with us. We got we got all kinds of stuff going on today. I was looking at an article earlier on, Christianity Today, which I will be honest with you, I do not peruse often. I only went there because Ben seems to pull some kind of stuff off of this place every once in a while. And so I took a look at it, and there was a there was an article that angered me. And, I thought they've written the headline just to irritate me, and it was entitled, we should expect non Christians to share our morals,

which I believe I've said the complete opposite multiple times. And so, we're gonna have a read through that and see, see where I disagree, along with you other fellows. I was also reading through a relevant magazine, had an article, entitled six reasons you seriously need to slow down. And, this one I found, a lot more helpful. It had a there's a lot of times when I I I think things are going a little bit too fast and everything's rush rush, and there's something wrong, but I don't know why. I couldn't really put my finger on it. I think they did a pretty good job, hitting that on the head. So we're gonna go through those two things along with, some dear life from the path. I think Dave Herrick's got some, I don't know, some things on how God's been fooling with your prayer life. Yeah. He's been turning it upside down and, just reshaping my focus, and it it's been pretty wonderful. It's a little bit terrifying, but all in all, pretty awesome. So I'll let you guys get a peek on that one. Yeah. I suppose when the Lord tries to turn you upside down, that's a good time. Yeah. You know, it's like a a spiritual roller coaster. It pretty much is. It sounds like it sounds like it's a good time. It's about like the an earthquake. It's like, know, the all of a sudden, this ground that you have always thought of as very stable is suddenly moving, and you're like, wait a minute. There's something dynamic going on that I was just not used to at all. You know, I never had that have had that reaction to an earthquake where I'm standing and I think, you know, something dynamic's going on here.

There's some there's some really big stuff happening in my life right now. I do like your calm approach to natural disasters, Dave. And, Bubba, you got some Pope style advice? I do. Hey, man. Every once in a while, I I have to stop and remind myself that I feel like I haven't given anything to God in a while. Like, I I honestly don't feel like I've given anything up or given anything to God in a while, and and that needs to change. He lacks presence. He does.

Okay. Good. I'm interested to hear boob's boob style advice on either giving stuff or taking stuff away. I also pair it that same way, so that's very good. Alright. We're gonna hit this. Before we get too far into the show, the show is brought to you by Bob Eisenhower with the Eisenhower team. It's eisenhowerteam.com for all your, real estate needs. They are easy to work with. Dot…dot. Hard to beat. And, that's the truth. I've used them personally, Bob in particular,

to help, sell my house and help me find another one. And, hands down, it it was super easy. I kinda had this thing coming into it where I thought it was gonna be a disaster. They were gonna have to be, like, 15 bloviated conversations about real estate that I didn't give two rips about. But I I really I showed up. I said, here's the house I want. He goes, great. I'll get your keys. Go look at it. I'll get the paperwork started. And it was just that easy. It was great. So, there's no reason to, you know, struggle with your house on the market for ten months trying to, you know, squeeze an extra $500 out of it. Just let them price it for you. Let them look at it. They know the market better than you do. It's it's the only way to go. So, that's, Bob Eisenhower with the Eisenhower team. He's always been a great friend of the show. So, here we go. We're gonna check out this article called, We Should Expect Non Christians to Share Our Morals, Found on Christianity Today. So I'm a do a little reading here, and then we're gonna have at it and see if we agree with what this guy's saying.

He says a common reaction among evangelicals to the June Supreme Court ruling on the same sex marriage has been deflection from controversy. First of all, what's an evangelical? Hit me again. What does it mean? Someone who's oriented their faith around the gospel. And that that is that is that more detailed than, say, if I were just to say Baptist Lutheran denomination style, or does that include all of those? It includes a a wide variety of denominations. I believe Baptists are in there. Some of the other, like, e evangelical free's in there. Generally, you're more conservative Bible churches. Yeah. They they're very Bible oriented. Some of the others are gonna be a little more church or tradition or or theologically oriented in in some way or another. Now see, always thought that the evangelical free was an odd name for denomination because it's very much like sugar free gum. That means there's no sugar there. And so when people say I'm evangelical free, I thought, well, that's a weird statement. Are you that against evangelicals? We're free of evangelicals in this church. You define who you are by what you're not. I thought it was weird. Anyway okay. So evangelicals include people that follow, basically, follow the Bible and center their faith around the gospels. Yeah. Okay. Love it. Okay. So, basically, a common reaction among evangelicals to the supreme court ruling on same sex marriage has been deflection from controversy.

This laissez faire approach has been most commonly expressed by closely connected beliefs about Christianity and morality. One, we should not expect non Christians to think and live like Christians. So why all this fuss among Christians over the legalization of same sex marriage? Two, since when do we depend on the government to enforce Christian morals? It's got me there. I agree with both of those. Mhmm. Many who express these sentiments do so with well meaning attempts to rightly keep evangelicals from panicking over misplaced trust in temporal earthly powers. Additionally, they want to remind themselves and fellow believers to be a Christ follower will always be, as Jesus promised, countercultural. Here comes the big old but. Yet, the two statements above reflect a poor understanding of how God ordered creation, morality, and the purpose he has given civil law. Assumptions like those above can lead to disastrous consequences for how we understand moral obligation. So let's get to let's see what his point is here. Alright. In one sense, the Bible does describe the condition of humans without Christ as lost and depraved, incapable of pleasing God. Apart from Christ, we are in a state of rebellion and until regenerated by the Holy Spirit, cannot understand the ways of God. It should not surprise us then when sinners act sinfully. Sin has been the human default since Eden.

However, by keeping the spotlight only on sinful humanity's inability to live live lives of obedience unto God, we overlook how failure to obey God shows that God's commands for human obedience are grounded in his good and holy nature, and therefore obligatory on all persons at all times. Morality reflects God's holiness. Thus, one function of the moral order is to expose our rebellion against God's moral law and God himself. Do we do we believe that? That morality reflects God's holiness? Actually, I kinda thought this was the center part of the debate is morality seems to be up for debate on what the source of morality is. Yeah. I think that's kinda what it comes down to is why would we expect a person to engage and agree with our sense of morality

if they don't agree with the base of our morality, which is ultimately God? So if they're already, you know, rejecting God in their lives, then why would they, by extension, follow his ways? I I think what where we I think evangelicals, I would put myself in that category,

confuse the issue sometimes is is we are not Israel. Right? That you look at the Old Testament scriptures, and there, sometimes you knew the voice and tell the country to get back to God because they were God's people. They were God's chosen covenant people with a purpose. We we are America,

which is not the people of God. We just happen to be a a country based on some ideals of god. That's really great but we're not like god's chosen people. Right? So,

to tell the country to get back to god is like they never were there. Yeah. Right? There happened to be some Christians, some Christ followers help form the place and there's always been plenty around here but we're not a Christian nation. Well, and actually, like like going from the basis of creation, you know, the Israel was always set apart, Right? Like Right. And so to say like the the like holiness, morality reflects holiness,

and like that is something new. That is not new. You know, the the otherwise, there would never been the Jebusites and the Hivites and everybody else that was not Israel. Right? And so, like, so, basically saying like, within your your your culture, within your sphere, let's let's say your your clan known as Christians, people that follow Jesus, yeah, morality is to be upheld. Very similar to Israel, Right? But outside of that, like, I don't I I I don't recall anything straight out of the Old Testament. It was like, and by the way, get the Jebusites. Because there you know what I'm saying? Like, impose these laws I've given you in, say, Deuteronomy and go impose them on the Jebusites. They were imposed to set those specific group of people apart. That morality was imposed to set those people apart and and very well reflect God's holiness. Right? But like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't see how how that reaches all the way out, to your culture in a in a healthy way. I mean, there were there were times you you were to go and like, you know, Jonah went out to Nineveh, pagan culture, telling them, hey, you'd better repent because because god, you know, has these expectations of you.

But not on the basis of morality. Right? Like, you need to know God and with God comes these Right. Right. This way, like, we we still have a voice, but we shouldn't ex we, you know, to expect them to to act like they love God when they don't even know him, you know, is is ridiculous. That's the thing. In the long run, they're just gonna shine it on. Right? Like, when faced with the choice of changing your life, in in hard ways to equal a good output or phoning it so people will leave you alone, nine out of 10 people will go with phony it, leave me alone. Mhmm. It's just easier. Right? It's the easier output. I want you to stop yelling at me and to think this way about me, so I will act this way in front of you, so you'll you'll stop with this beratement. And and and but we'll see. He's he's got more he's got more to say. I'm cutting him to the quick here. Here, let's see what it says. He says, we know the moral order is good because our guilty conscience indite us for failing to uphold it. This is the most basic of ethical principles. To say non Christians can't be expected to live like Christians and obey God ignores the fact that God and the moral order he implanted in creation are to be obeyed.

Making that claim leads to a consequence similar to what happens when we quit a book halfway in. We'll fail to see the full story and resolution. The seemed like the basis of his argument there was they feel guilty, so they inherently know that it's wrong or right based on guilt. I kinda have trouble with that. Yeah. I I believe that's what in Romans, kind of. I mean, I think that's where he's probably coming from the conscience. You know? Yeah. But Conscience exists, but if if we're basing that as as a as a human condition, then we wouldn't be in the situation we're in. Yeah. Because, really, if that was the truth, then the laws would never be Right. Exactly. Right? If your conscience automatically just convicted you based on God's principles, then we would never Yeah. We'd all be on the same page. It's like, oh, man. Whether you're my deity or not, I know I messed up again. Sorry, god or other thing. Yeah. It wouldn't be a shock that you can't have seven wives. You know what saying? And treat people poorly. Everyone would already know that, and we would have no reason to write it down. So wait a minute. Murder? Not okay? Alright. Fair enough. I mean, I I think I get what he's get what he's getting at, but, I mean, that's just flat out not true. Right? Like, the same behavior

that, hurts my heart when it happens does not hurt the heart of the man next to me. Mhmm. And he will continue engaging in said behavior without a a feeling about it either way. And besides, we always end up justifying ourselves in our own actions anyway. So even though we can see something wrong in someone else, when we look back at ourselves, we say, well, yeah, but I had to do it because of reasons. There was extenuating circumstances Yeah. Yeah. With my morality agreed with. Yeah. So let's see. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Every human, even in a fallen world, has some capacity to do good. This is often referred to as common grace. That is God's restraining us from being completely evil. And he's enabling us to do good, though not unto salvation. Now, see, I also disagree with that, because that was not my opinion of what common grace was. As far as I was concerned, common grace is, look, you've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You your punishment is death. The common grace is I have not killed all of you. That's kinda what I saw common grace to be. Because it really that's that that was really the breakdown of what sin is. The punishment for, being apart from God and and is the sinful behavior is death. That's laid out pretty well. And he says, I'm giving grace to everyone that I don't kill you immediately at say age two when you've decided to be or six months, depending on what type of evil you are. And you've made some kind of rebellion against God. And so I that was my not I did not think as common grace was restraining us from being completely evil. Mhmm. Okay. Excellent. We're we're hitting on all kinds of points here. I we agree with everything this man says. Hang on. We'll give him one more paragraph, and then we're gonna have to bail on him.

Let's see. He goes on to say, imagine we took the same approach with a different issue, say crime, that some do with marriage and family policy. What if our approach toward murder or theft was laissez faire? Why should we expect our neighbors not to murder? Why should we think non Christians will act like believers and obey the sixth commandment? But if the home of one of these advocates were broken into by an unbelieving neighbor, they would call upon the local, God ordained authorities and accusing the thief of violating a fundamental principle of justice that all of our conscious know to be true. It's just unjust to steal. Stealing is a violation not only of God's revealed law, but also of the basic concept of justice that is written on the heart of every person. If our unbelieving neighbor steals from us, we don't accuse their behavior because they don't follow a Christian code of ethics. We simply expect them not to steal. So how is that different? I think we can agree on certain issues. I think that that everyone's kind of on the same page for the most part with murder and with stealing. And Yeah. But why, though, Poova? That that I would agree with is a conscience. That is people understand the concept of what's right and wrong in some situations. Yeah. But it's not fair to say that across all avenues. It's not fair to say that conscience is universal enough for us to agree on everything. However,

I wouldn't say that conscience isn't universal to agree on some things. So so if I was sitting in his chair, my counterargument would be, well, where did this conscience come from? And if it came from God, why would it only hit, say, some of his, commandments and not all? Well, I mean, in that, in and of itself, you've got the social norms of of most people teach their kids that murder is not okay. Which is I don't want to die. Therefore, I should not kill somebody else. Right. So so

some of those things are environmental that are instilled upon us. Some of those are social that are instilled upon us. We would argue that conscience comes from God, but the nonbeliever would not argue that. And they would say that I have a conscience. I don't believe in your God, but that doesn't mean I don't believe that murder's okay. Conscience can cover some things, but it can't cover all. Whether it be a conscience that comes from from social norms, from your environmental norms of what you have learned is okay and is what is not okay from your parents or from your environment and surroundings in general. But conscience cannot be called to be, universal for all things or none of us would disagree. So I think some of the things are covered under conscience.

Just not everything. You know, I if if someone was trying to break into the house, I don't I wouldn't be looking through the phone book saying which one of these, governing authorities is actually God ordained and and pick that one. I think I would just call the police. Whether God ordained them or not. Well, this man claims that all authority is God ordained. So any any type well

I I've seen wigs of our government that I feel are not Yeah. I don't think that's true. I think that that's a naive statement that all authority is given from God. I I don't know that lawyers are from God, and people call lawyers a lot to resolve, conflicts as well. So Yeah. I can fire somebody at my job because I'm a manager, but that doesn't mean that my authority is God ordained. I feel like we just fundamentally disagree with this man on just about every aspect. Yeah. So far. Yeah. I mean, here's the deal. You know, I I think I I think I get

basically, what he's saying is that that we're not we're not made to roll over and and die. And the basically, he's saying that what the the morals that God has instilled, in creation, it would be to everyone's benefit if you followed them. Well, I mean, to be honest, that was it's kind of our sales pitch anyway. Yeah. Right? The god who created the world has said, look, I want you to be back in harmony with what I've done. I want you to be back to the to the world that I created for you that's gotten all fouled up. And the closest thing I can offer you is to follow what I'm saying until I come and straighten this out. And and and that's our sales pitch anyway. And so I I I I feel like there's not a lot of people I don't I don't think it's a cop out to say, listen, their behavior is reflective of them not knowing Jesus, aka what I hope to be in the Holy Spirit, what I hope to be my version of a conscience most of the time. Right? Like, the things that don't bother me in my, sinful flesh do bother the holy spirit. The holy spirit says, yeah, you you need to tone that down. That's gotta end. That part of you needs to die. And so, you know, the the point that he's trying to get across is is is basically the morals that God instilled with us are nothing to be ashamed of. And I agree. They are not anything to be ashamed of. Although, I would not expect people who don't know the source of the of that morality,

to follow it for any reason. Mhmm. Yeah. I I have this kind of muddy swirl in my brain. I'm trying to think this through. So so I'll say it out loud, and you guys made me help me clear clear the mud. I'm trying to distinguish what what he's really saying here. We know, as as the church, as people of God, we we unapologetically teach the morals of God, whether it be sexual purity, murder, lying, stealing, the whole thing. Alright? So so so within the community of believers, within those who call themselves the kingdom of God, that that is our standard. That that's what we teach. We also live in a culture that's outside of that kingdom.

It would be great and to their benefit if they followed those. However, it's not surprising to us. Name your vice. You know, we say, oh, everyone knows murder is wrong. Well, you know, but it's not surprising when someone murders someone. Because I was why wouldn't what you know, that's been happening forever since Cain and Abel. Right? You know, there there are people who disobey God. So it's not a shock to me that they would do that, but we still teach against it. Am I making any sense? You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to figure out it seems like he's kind of picking and choosing both sides of this.

He's he's having trouble with expectations here. It's like Yeah. He he's looking at the pagan world and still expecting them to somehow, on some level, connect with God's law even though they haven't connected with God. And it'd be great, but it's not why would you expect that? And I I wouldn't expect that, but that's exact but that is what I wanna present. After all, the law's a reflection of his character, and what I'm trying to do is just reveal God in who he is. That includes his law and his ways. And so, yeah, as I'm going out and trying to say, hey, here's how awesome God is, that includes a dis discussion on

morals and ethical behavior and how living in his will is better. And it's not gonna connect with everyone. I I I get that. But to go in expecting and assuming that it it must connect with everyone, I I don't know. It just seems a little bit weird. Yeah. Well, I'm frankly, if you wanna boil that down to an example that I think is a little bit more palatable, is is I I I try to do the exact same, thing with my kids. Right? If I just tell them, this is the rule. You will follow it. I expect you to do this.

All I will get is a blind obedience with no heart and with no with no lesson learned and no character built. Right? It will just be, I'm doing this because I don't wanna get in trouble. And really, when you when you hold people to standards that they don't understand, that have no root, and you could tie that into any number of parables that Jesus told. Like when you when you try to to, you know, give it something and make it top heavy with a bunch of rules that it doesn't understand, is not built to support, it will shine it on until it fails and then it will rebel against it. And so I I just it's just flat out foolish. Now I'm yeah. See, think what he's trying to say, on the opposite side that we're giving people a free pass to act how they will, and and that their behavior is maybe not acceptable, but it's understandable based on the fact that they don't know Christ. And, I would I would agree with the point he's trying to get rid of. I I I think that is completely true, is that that I while their behavior is not acceptable, I do understand it. I do understand that with, you know, the buckets that they're pulling from, the life experiences that they're pulling from, and and maybe some of the teachings that they've received outside of the word of God, yeah, I would probably have made the same poor, destructive decision.

And so, you know, I I I I I I just patently disagree. I feel like the first two, questions or the first two statements he made at the beginning of the article about what evangelicals usually say. That is what I usually say, and I still agree. Okay. Well, I think we're done with that then. That was for Christianity Today. You can you can read the whole article. I think that's about three pages long. It takes a lot of a lot of blah blah blah in there. I skipped most of it, to be honest with you. I think we got what he was fishing after. Or I've characterized it in such a way that we could mock it for fifteen minutes. So either way And that's a common passionately held view too. What's that? What what he the the point of view that article's written in.

Well, really and it seems like a selfish point of view because you wanna because you have an agenda you wanna push. Right? Like like, generally, they they they hold that point of view because they have a group that's willing to say, we're gonna impress this in an organized way on your local government, on your federal government, on your any institution that you're part of. Get behind our organization. Like, that's how I generally see it being done. And I think for the I mean, I've I've been there. Alright? So so I can identify with the the passion and and the heartbreak of watching some of these big laws change in society completely changing and flipping upside down and calling evil good and good evil. I mean, it's it's totally right before eyes happening. And at some point, I had to look at that.

This is what's going on and and and say, I'm looking at it all wrong. You know, I'm I'm more worried about the law than I am the kingdom of God. I'm worried about protecting some some written documents that maybe were influenced by godly people in the past that culture wasn't following anyway. And and instead of making disciples, which will get them back to god in the first place, know, my my my I had to come to terms with the fact that that I'm looking at the wrong thing,

and that that's what helped me. And and that's probably where the other side comes from, you know, because I'm on definitely on the other side now saying that I I don't really care what the law is. You know? It doesn't affect me. It doesn't affect my mission as a follower of Jesus. It doesn't affect anything other than it's just telling culture, go ahead and do what you're doing anyway. It's a reflection of of where we're at. Yeah. Too often, we see people that are trying to turn America into to into God's kingdom, and that's not the way that it is. We we need to realize that we need to completely betray, America, run away from it, and run to God's kingdom. It's it's the lazy way. Yeah. This is what the law making to people so I don't have to. Yeah. Exactly. If we spent the time we did in in trying to make some kind of legislature happen to where America is a more moral America, we spent that time making honest disciples out in in the world and spending that time seriously talking to people about Jesus, we would no longer be having these conversations. We'd no longer try and fix the legislature. We would no longer try and fix, you know, what America looks like. We would be fixing the hearts of the Americans and turning them to be people of of God's kingdom rather than the kingdom that we call America.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, so I you know? Yeah. We should expect non Christians to share our morals. Probably not. Mhmm. Probably not healthy. You know, we'd like to teach them more about our morals. What I here's the thing. It's like, godly people don't replace god, and I think that's where we get screwed up. And sometimes we wanna see, you know, what godly people have done in the past and say, well, that guy loved Jesus. He obviously did the right thing. Blah blah blah. And maybe it was the right thing when it happened or still the right thing today, but it's still not Jesus. Right? So, like, people who follow Jesus don't replace Jesus. And and the same thing is true about a marriage as is true, about a society. Is if your entire society is looking towards Christ and Christ alone, you'll all inherently go the same direction because you're following the same ends. And and and and that's the truth is if you want them to establish the type of morality that you're talking about, a, you have to know the source, and b, you have to agree it is the source, to be following if that's how you want to do it. Otherwise, you really, you're just, you're setting up a straw man, and it it won't support its own way. So anyway, go check that out at, christianitytoday.com. Probably the first time I've looked at that in ever.

So let me know what you think of the site in general. Let's see what else we got. There's a article on relevant about six reasons you, you seriously need to slow down.

And, I I don't know. This one hit me a little bit closer because, you know, everything does seem kinda be moving kinda fast. And I, for the life of me, couldn't figure out where if any part of it was sinful. It was just the way our society rolls. Everything happens now. Information is now. Actions, reactions are all now. And, this dude summed it up. He's got six points that I thought we'd roll through real quick and, see if we agree or disagree. So here we go. In 1967, experts on time management delivered a report to the US Senate. 1967 now. These experts believe the speed of technology, satellites, and robotics would present a big problem for the American workplace in the years to come. The problem? People would have too much free time. They concluded that by 1985, people might have to choose between working twenty two hours a week, twenty seven weeks a year, or retiring at 38.

Good call, experts. If I had a time machine, I would fire all of you. Almost fifty years later, we're moving faster than ever. We're obsessed with being busy and getting things done quickly. Our pace is out of control. If we compare our pace to the pace of Jesus' life, there aren't many similarities. Jesus was never rushed. He wasn't overwhelmed by life even though he had an enormous mission to complete in a very short period of time. Jesus never rushed because he moved at god's pace. You see, hurry isn't from god. It's the world's pace. Do we agree with that? Hurry is not from god? Yeah. I like that. God don't hurry. He does things in god's time. Maybe it might be fast.

Maybe not. Here we go. Culture's obsession with busyness and hurriedness isn't just a scheduling problem. It's a heart problem. Dang it. Everybody says it. Everything's a heart problem if you forget it. It's time to consider what a hurried life is costing you. Here we go. Number one, a hurried life destroys your relationship with God. Wing Mandao, a Chinese pastor, said we have so much to do that we never really commune with God as he intended in the Garden of Eden. Wait a minute. Does he pronounce it? Does he say it that way?

Sound angry. Wing space Mandao. I said it with the appropriate inflection. He's a wingman. Wingman now. He basically said we have so much to do that we never really commune with God as he intended in the Garden of Eden. Intimacy with God requires stillness, attentiveness, and silence. You must get off life's busy freeway to grow closer to God. Jesus frequently removed himself from the world. He spent time alone in prayer and solitude.

And in these moments, Jesus received the strength to fulfill his mission, the confidence to continue his mission, and the wisdom to discern the ways of God from the ways of the world. Unless you spend extended periods of time alone with God through prayer, solitude, Sabbath, the speed of the world will skew your understanding of God. Anxiety, unrest, and discontentment will hover over your life like a dark storm cloud. How much control does the average man really have over this? Complete. All you gotta do is say no. To say working. To your schedule. I mean, you know, you you So to say a job. I I mean, your typical person doesn't work. I mean, they they they work a lot, I mean, usually your boss chooses your schedule. Well, right. But the the the it's you're using that working a hundred hours a week. I mean, you might get forty, fifty, sixty. Yeah. That's a lot of free time, though, after that. I well, I mean, now take that free time and start, and then spend it with your

wife and kids. Yeah. That's what I'm That's about the right thing to do, though. That is not solitude and and and being alone and communing with God. That is spending time with your wife and kids. Not the same. Well, you can do both. I mean, you you have the choice to to schedule your day how you want it to go beyond the boundaries of, you know, your your work. I I guess what I'm saying is, like, I understand what he's he's saying, and I agree with him,

that it's necessary. It is not the magic picture he's making out to be. This is a very difficult thing to do. There's a lot of the as far as I know, and you could stop me if you disagree, but, like, if a man in in our current culture is trying to do the right thing by his wife, his kids, his employer, and his community, there is not that many free hours in the day

at all. They gotta use it wisely. I think you're counting it in the minutes before you're counting it in the hours. True. Dan agrees. BUVA. Buba ponders. I'm pondering. Yes. One eyebrow betrays the other. I've got an idea. So so, yes, I I would agree with that. You have you have your responsibilities that you have to get done. You have to, have your responsibilities with God. You've got your responsibilities with wife and and, and or husband and kids and all the good stuff and your church, the community. But

I think that that we still are able to spend that time in solitude. Now you're right. I'm not saying you're able to spend ten hours a week doing that every single week. However, you know, are you are you really doing a bad thing by telling your wife and your kids that, hey. You know, we're gonna spend in the next hour talking to god, but we're gonna do it alone. Not

in in community as a family. We've done that. We've we've been doing that. We had dinner earlier, blah blah blah, but we're gonna spend, you know, hey, wifey. Love you. I'm gonna spend an hour with God. You should do the same thing, but we're gonna do it alone. Not together at the same time. Now I'm not saying that happens every night. I'm not saying that happens once a week. I'm just saying it it can happen. It can. You choose that. Here's the thing. I think I know one or two people that I think actually do this and do it well. That's fair. I mean and their life reflects it. I mean No. That's fair. I I I can't impress enough that I agree with what this man's saying. Yeah. But it's it's a with

the amount of people that I know to do it, it's almost mythical. The amount of people that I think actually do this and do it well, remove themselves, from situations, spend time, commune with God. Like like for most folks I know, and this includes me, a ten minute a ten minute prayer is excruciatingly long. It's just by ten minutes in, I'm like, I feel like I've now I'm starting to fall asleep. Now I'm starting to disrespect God in the way how long this prayer has gone on. And, like, it's it's an obvious, lack of vibrancy in my prayer life. I get that.

And I I I recognize that to be true. And I think, actually, this would help change that immensely and would turn that around to be something very different than what it is today. But it is I it's much harder than I think that he's he's laying it out to be. It's harder to do. I'm not saying it's not worth it, and I'm not saying it doesn't need to be done. I'm just saying it's not it's not as simple as the guys that I know, I'm not asking them to put down, Xbox Live. You know what I'm saying? I've you're looking at saying no to,

some other things that, categorically, you would say a good Christian man would do these things. Right. These are things that you also need to say no to, not just, hey, he plays video games all night, or he's out playing foosball in his garage by himself. This is not the caliber of dude we're talking about. We're talking about actually saying no to, overtime at work sometimes. And Right. And saying, putting the kids to bed and not feeling guilty by saying, I need to go spend some time with God. I I I I am your spiritual leader in this house. I am helping to raise you to know Christ, and I will do that by example, not just by what's coming out of my mouth. So, I'm just saying, like, you know, I think there's there's that's a little heavier than what he's saying. Although, I agree. It's it's pretty important. Number two, Dave Herrick, you have anything to say about that? I was just thinking. I I I feel like I in a lot of ways, I I pursue at least. I don't know if I'm exactly successful on it, but,

I I definitely carve out time and and spend probably hours with God throughout the week, if not at least an hour a day or so. And, you know, I I still experience anxiety and and fear and things like that. It's not like this is a magic bullet type of scenario. And Sure. It might just be a weird exception to things going on, but I don't think it's a it's exactly a cure all Sure. Of a thing either. I mean, I'm still experiencing struggles of life and and

and whatnot, but I I guarantee it's a lot better with God than without him. No. It's probably a given. It's true. Number two, a hurried life decreases your capacity to love others. It's not it's not a coincidence that the great love passage, first Corinthians 13, begins with love is patient. Love isn't easily angered. Love doesn't leave at the first sign of trouble. It doesn't rush to judgment.

In the rhythm of life, Matthew Kelly says relationships can only thrive under carefree timelessness, and this is something hurried people don't have. The more you increase the speed of your life, the less capacity you have to love others. Concerning the two greatest commandments are to love God and love others, you need to consider whether your hurried life is costing you more than you realize. Yeah. Once again, I I I understand what he's saying,

but maybe it's just for me. I just I feel like I have a, if if if I can find something that I'm always consistently disappointed within myself, it's how I've managed my time. I always feel like whatever I thought was the the best idea at x time always turns out to have been a mistake. There was always somewhere else I probably should have gone, and I never choose the right place to be. Like, time management is just about something that just makes me feel terrible just about every day. Like, I've I've spent the wrong even when I'm at work and I know I have to be there. I don't wanna be there. I wanna be somewhere else. And it's not because I hate work or I don't need money. I need both of those things. Right? But, like, in the grand sweep of things, if I could have just gone down to visit my friends who are in the hospital, that's what I'd rather have done. You can keep your money. You know? That obviously doesn't pay for a house where my kids live in, but, you know what I'm saying? Like, I I always look at what I'm doing and think I'd rather have been doing something else. And maybe that's just an opportunistic way of life, but, like, I don't understand, like, this characteristic rush rush lifestyle that he's talking about. Like, is it, from from, sporting events, baseball games, PTA meetings, a bunch of auxiliary groups that maybe you don't belong in, youth group to LTG to,

you know, some other whatever self empowerment group that you are masking through your church. I mean, what is he trying to say is exactly going on that's the rush? It sounds like the guy is trying to categorize the people that don't understand their tasks very well. I I think that that, Mike, you've you've

done a good job painting yourself in a picture of someone who does at least grasp the task that they have, which is, you know, God first, your family second, your wife and your family second, and the community, you know, third, whether that be, you know, your church community or community in general, like, actually as a citizen. The person that does not understand those roles in life very well could very easily find themselves much more hurried than I think that you're seeing. It could be someone that's that's constantly caught up in extracurricular activities for the kids and then stuff that they're involved in, whether that's a, you know, a a bowling league that they're in or whatever. I mean, the the the I do like a good bowling league.

Who doesn't? That's where I fellowship. The specifics aren't aren't aren't the big thing that's important. It's the fact that someone that doesn't spend their time figuring out those those four roles in their life. And if they don't know that, I can see that as being a huge problem when it comes to fostering relationships. You've made it a a point to foster the relationships you need with your family and with your kids and with your wife and stuff like that. Those are your pretty much your most important relationships, and I think that that the person that doesn't understand that could very easily

lose out on those relationships because they're too hurried. But you've carved time out for that. So maybe that's why you're not seeing that as as big of an issue. Here we go. Number three, a hurried life increases the power of temptation. Through temptation, Satan tries to decrease the time between impulse and action. And in our instant gratification culture, Satan has masterfully deceived people.

So many of my mistakes, sex before marriage, stealing, drunkenness, porn addiction, are the result of looking for instant gratification. When you nurture patience and learn to wait, you trust God to give you the things in time that Satan says you need now. I would agree with that. Yeah. I'm a 100% with him on that. Yep. I think I'm on the opposite end. No. What? Okay. I'd say an idle life leaves more room for temptation because you're laying around with nothing else to do. If you're if you're busy, you don't have time to what what? You're you're you're really, really busy? Whoops. Had premarital sex. I mean, what? I mean Oh, no. How did that happen? To We make a plush doll where you pull that and Dan says that. Oops. I've had premarital sex again. Understand he's talking more about setting up the the the instant gratification thing. But

whatever your schedule, like, we're still in that instant gratification society. Yeah. So maybe it's when you're eye directly with hurriedness. Your mind starts wandering, and and you think, well, I got nothing else to do. I'll go beat the neighbor or something. I think the guy is trying to make the point that hurriedness is the the enemy of patience. And, therefore, if if you lack patience, therefore, you're willing to give an instant gratification, which which I think is a weird

line to draw. Yeah. You know, actually, I I I think this is a this is telltale of maybe maybe our instant gratification society. But people have no patience for uncomfortableness or any type of any type of itch that like, I mean, they just they just gotta scratch it. They can't let it sit for, I mean, ten seconds. Anyway, so, I mean, I I can watch the same behavior in my eight year old and five year old daughters. I could watch in grown men. I'm

hungry right now. I wanna have sex right now. I will do it with anybody that is available. Now. Now. I need money. Now. I will do what I need to do to get it right now. Like, no patience, no best way, no best practices, no morality that is supposed to be, rampant throughout our agreed society just now. Let me do this thing now. And, yeah, guilty as charged. Me too. I do this exact same thing. But, like, it's it's almost embarrassing. You know what I'm saying? Like, there's some dudes that used to be able to take some pain now. We don't we can't take any pain. Ouch. I'm going to the doctor right now. I just can't take this anymore. Same guy that, you know, seventy five years ago walked around like that for ten years, and the worst you heard about him was a grunt when he got out of a chair. There's a nail sticking out of your head. Yeah.

Whatever. I noticed. My granddad too. Yeah. Yeah. I I I agree with him on, I don't know, broad point maybe. The instant gratification thing, I think Dan's right. I think that comes with, with laziness or hurriedness or regular living. That's just kind of our deal. Just existing in the world. Number four, hurried life numbs you to injustices.

This one I find very true. As Kirk Jones, who I have no idea who that is, said, Hurry is a desensitizer, snuffing out moments of intimacy with life to the point that we get used to living day after day with little deep feeling. When your life moves at freeway speed, you have no time or energy to consider the world outside of your lane. You become desensitized or unaware of brokenness in the world. Your heart becomes callous to the things that break God's heart, the Syrian refugee crisis, the abortion of millions around the world, the heinous treatment of God's people by ISIS. God's heart breaks for injustice and oppression. If your heart doesn't break for the things that break God's heart, it's time to slow down and consider the world outside of your life. I I think there's a sense of self importance that kinda comes along with the hurriedness that that contributes to this one. I'm not sure hurriedness alone will do that, but, yeah, the self importance that usually goes with it very much so.

Now see, I can grasp what he's saying here, but I I have a hard time putting that in practical terms because, I feel like if you if you got on top of the things that breaks god heart, if, you know, and spent time on all the things that breaks god's heart, you would literally never do anything in your lane. You would spend all your time doing that. That's why he's God. He can handle those things. You know what saying? I'm not saying to be calloused around everything that involves with you, but I feel like that's more of a prayer figure figure out where God's got me, you know, where my heart where he's ingrained my heart to be opposed to jumping on every sad sack story that comes flying by it. You just can't you know, I you'll never do anything that way.

I think that, that that I would agree with that with with trying to to spend all of your time figuring out god sized issues. You're not able to see you size issues that you can fix. You know, if your heart is is constantly breaking over homelessness in the entire world and all you're trying to do is feed everybody in the world and you're trying to do that and and spend so much time on that, did you just pass the the guy that's on the side of the road that that you could have gone and helped? That one dude. Yeah. That's not a god sized thing, in the in the spectrum of, like, it being huge, but that one person's life that you could have affected that is in your lane,

where you're so worried about the kind of huge things that God needs to affect that you miss the things that God has you there to fix? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I feel like Jesus is probably the example on this thing. Right? Like, there's people he did not heal. There's people that he did. Yep. All were at the direction of the father. And, like, that's an easy cop out. Right? And we will and we will use it just as that. And if you are using it as that, then you are sinful. You are purposely not doing anything, and I'm not exactly sure why. But, like, if you are earnestly praying on, god, give me your heart for whatever it is that you've you've implanted in mine, I think you can't go wrong with that. And I feel like if if you are not doing anything, then you're not listening. That probably completes the circle of what he's saying, though. Because we're so busy, we're not praying, we don't have the heart of god. So we're

ignoring the mission of god. He's it's kind of the whole package. Yeah. I think I probably agree with that. And and there are times I'm definitely guilty. Yeah. Well, you know, it's it's it's almost a the the hypocrisy that I'm capable of is blows me away sometimes. Right? Because these are the exact same things I will say to, you know, people who I'm talking about Jesus. Like, new you know, Christians who just got to know, who Christ is and and and like some of the the folks in our youth group and stuff, I'm like, listen, if you wanna know who God is, you have to have a prayer life. You have to know who you're dealing with. You have to talk to him and allow him to speak back to you, and and you can you can get a broad character from the Bible and

examples of who his people are and how they interact with him. But if you want to know him, you do that through prayer and through people around you, that have that relationship that you can that you can learn about with him with. And I will say these things all day long, and I will be just as guilty of not doing them, as anyone else I know, you know. I will make no bold bold statements or changes to get that straightened out. And and, like, the downfall of most, people's relationship with God is is always prayer because it takes up time, and silence is, is a blaring horn in most people's lives. They would rather be irritated by train whistles and stopped at a stoplight than have to deal with any amount of silence,

and allowing God to speak through it. It's just, it's it's grating. Here we go. Number five. What what have we got? Two more here? Number five. Here we go. Number five. A hurried life increases narrow mindedness and legalism. I don't really care about that one. Number six, a hurried life clouds your purpose and diminishes your passion. Purpose is a trendy word in today's culture. I don't think so. Feel like purpose has been around a long time, and I feel like it's not.

Maybe it has a different social, group of people, but, it's not a buzzword where I hang out. Purpose is a trendy word in today's culture. It is it's also more elusive than the Loch Ness monster. Really, really getting on all cylinders. In a hurried culture, your life's purpose is determined by what you do. It's all about what you can see, what you can hold. But God's idea of purpose isn't about doing. It's about becoming. Up in the clouds we go. You can do god things for you can do good things for god, but if those good things don't flow from relationship with god, discovering your purpose will feel a lot like looking for a two legged unicorn. So think about these questions. Are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control increasing in your heart? Are you a man or woman of integrity?

Are you trustworthy? Do the people who know you most respect you? A hurried life looks externally for answers to life's big questions, but a life at god's pace looks internally for these answers. Your life's pace matters. Unless you move at god's speed, you won't see the world through god's lens. Some upsetting, I don't believe god is impressed with an exhaustion. He isn't glorified when you take on so many responsibilities that your soul floods with unrest and discontentment. Feeling burnt out isn't a badge of faithful faithfulness. Take your foot off the gas and slow down.

Overall, we think fairly solid? Yeah. I I agree with most of it. Yeah. We really agree with the major principle of you need to you need to throttle back your life a little bit and the pace of what you're doing things. I don't know independently if each one of the six, you know, runs its own car. I think their carpooling if everybody's together in a minivan, all these six these six things, make good sense to me. But driving their own Volvo a piece, I don't know if they hold their own water. You've been you've

listening live from the path on live from thepath.org, broadcasting every Monday night, from ten to whatever's. We got a little bit more show to go. I think we we do have a little bit of Pope style advice that I thought we were gonna hear from. Buba, did you have some Pope style? I did. I did. Yes. You better throw down on it. Alright. Here's the deal.

So, with with Pope style advice, if you didn't realize, so what's happened is, a couple of my buddies have decided to start messing with me and have gone around to the local, the local crawls and have, started telling people that I'm the pope. And, what's happened is there's a group of, people that have shown up in front of my house. Yes, Mike? Is the pope evangelical? No. Got it. I'm just trying to make I'm trying to figure out what's going on. A bunch of people are outside of my house and are now refusing to leave unless I come out and give some kind of papal wisdom from the Popemobile.

So, my Pope's advice is, if you can't remember the last time you gave something up for God or or really gave something to God, you might wanna take a step back and and take a look at that. Now I'm not saying something just physical, and I'm not saying you have to to to give something up as in, hey. I gave up pop recently for God. I'm not saying that's the only thing, but but if you completely have a relationship with God that is nothing but take,

I think it's time to take a step back. Because I think we very easily get involved in in that shallow of a relationship with God where it's God exists as this eternal and universal

gift giver. And and he exists to hand me things that I'm looking for, and he exists to give me things to bless me in my life. And if your relationship is is solely based on that kind of dynamic, you are missing out on so much of what God is and so much of what God exists to be. He's not just some genie in the sky that wants to grant what you want. He he exists to have an open relationship with you, and that alone as a statement is incredible.

The perfect being that created everything in the world has decided that he loves you enough and knows every one of your flaws, but still wants to have a relationship with you. There's people here in the world that I don't like because they said something to me once, and I want nothing to do with them. Yet God knows everything about me and still wants a full relationship with me in honesty and and in communication and in gift giving and back and forth. Very recently, I ran into a situation where I I had to stop and and and look at that of in the last three months, six months, year, what have I honestly given to God? What have I given back to his people? What have I given in devotion

and and in trust with God, and I couldn't answer that question. I didn't know. I was very comfortable, in a place where I'd I had not recently done anything that made me step out from where I was and honestly give something to and give something up for God. And it's something small for me, and it's it's something that I'm planning on doing. I realized that that,

one of my one of my idols is food, and and one of the things that I love and run to is food. And I realized that I've never trusted God enough to completely give that up. I've done a day fast. I've done a couple days where I didn't You're completely giving up food, bro. No. What I'm saying is is is that's my idol. So I can't give up food entirely, obviously. I mean, I I if God wanted me to and he told me to, I'd do it, but I'm not I'm not feeling that from God right now. I think I'd pray on that. Are you sure about this? Exactly. God, are you certain you want me to just go that forty day fasting because I want food? You want me to like, everything? No. I I I recently realized that I hadn't given anything to God, and I and I started praying on, you know, what's what's constantly in my mind? What's that one thing that I'm saying I couldn't do? What's the one thing that keeps popping in my head that I could not do? And it kept kept popping up my head. Dude, there's no way that you'd be able to give up meat for God. You couldn't do it. You couldn't do it if you had to. And I started thinking to myself, you're right. I couldn't do it, but God can. He's the one that can completely sustain me through that situation. And that may be something that that doesn't mean a lot to anybody else, and that's fine. I'm no offense to you. I'm not doing it for you. I'm doing it for me and and god, but that that was the thing that kept popping up in my head. And

and that's what I'm doing. I'm giving up meat for however long. Like, I I think I'm just gonna keep going until I feel like it's no longer an issue. I originally set a date on it, but I decided maybe that's me trying to run god things, and and I don't wanna do that. So I'm a let god be the one who tells me when I'm done. And if that's in a day, that's in a day. And if that's in a week, that's a week. If that's a year or the rest of my life, that's god telling me, hey, buddy. This is when you're to stop. And that's the specific situation that I'm in, but I I want you to step back and think to yourself, what is the last thing you really did and you gave up or gave to God? And and and if you can't answer that question, maybe it's time to ask him what he wants.

Maybe it's time to ask him what he wants you to give up. And that's a hard conversation for some people to have. And it's not an easy thing to just walk into and say, hey, God. Good morning. What am I giving up today? You really need to come to a place where where you are humbling yourself to the fact that God is the one that sustains you and controls you. He he is the one that should provide for you. And if you think you're providing for yourself, maybe you need to give something up for God. And maybe you need to reconvene with him as your creator and as the the God of this universe and the one who who ordained your your life. He's the one that completely set you in motion, and maybe it's time to get back to that.

Well, that's, really kinda amazing. I mean, I feel like I was just having a conversation earlier today with my wife about how, our prayer lives just often seem so just very flat and that we're constantly asking God for things and thanking him for things, and that's pretty much about 90% of what we communicate communicate to God. And it became kinda evident to me, today when I was hearing my daughter praying, and that's kind of what she communicates to God as well. It's the same dynamic of, you know, hey hey, God. Please give us this, and God, thank you for this. And and it just kinda reinforces this type of relationship where we just I I mean, yeah, it's good we're we're dependent on on God as our father, but is that the sum total of our relationship is he he gives us things and we just say, hey. Thanks, God. Can you give us give me something else? And and it's like that it's such a it's such a small part of what a relationship could be. And

I don't know. Recently, God's really been just rocking my prayer life and just expanding on some of these things. And so if you guys got a few minutes, I'll I'll go through some of that too and listen. Actually, I I think I'm pretty excited to hear about that. We're probably gonna have to hit it right after the Okay. That's cool. You've listening to Life From The Path on lifefromthepath.org. Look. Thanks for, thanks for joining us. If you're on the KTIA broadcast, we're gonna have to let you go. We got a ton more stuff coming up on the podcast, especially,

I'm I'm pretty jazzed up to hear about Dave's prayer life shaking. So hang out for that. I don't know. Ben says a bunch of stuff at the end the program, and I ain't got it. So, thanks for listening. Be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. We'll see you on the podcast. You're listening to Life From The Path. The podcast ramps up again. Okay. Well, here's the deal. That's the worst thing that happens when Ben's not here,

you know, that's a win. Yeah. Things usually We'll call that success. Yeah. They completely derail and and catch on fire. And so so far, you know, we got every batter in the lineup hitting and getting on base. So no problems. So Dave Eric, God's been shaking up your prayer life. You wanna tell me more about Yeah. I I mean, I I talked about it a little bit last week, but this the short version is, you know, I've been just going through a lot of strange anxieties and and things, especially at night, when I'm alone. And and, I'll just go to God with prayer, and just just talking with him. And, you know, I I've I've been trying out a lot of different things, including finding rest in him, and that's been amazing, and just kind of focusing on today and and not be thinking about tomorrow and and being worried about tomorrow, which

kinda is reminiscent of what Jesus told me to do to begin with. So maybe I should just be listening to him. Right. But, you know Can you can you can you unpack when you say resting in him? Resting in him. Someone listening to the Oh, yeah. Yeah. Weren't here last week. Okay. So a quick review. I I I've discovered recently that at the end of my day, my my normal routine is think about responsibilities that I have left to do, just kinda what are the last details on my on my to do list.

Things for the day, things maybe that, I need to take care of for tomorrow. Did I mail whatever envelope? Something like that. I'll just go through this mental checklist, make sure that I've got a plan for whatever responsibilities are still outstanding. And that's typically been the way that I'll end the day and then find rest after that. And,

recently, that has not been working out so well, and God's actually been eliminating that from me, which is strange because coming up with pretty good plans has been one of my strengths. And so God's removed that from me and said, no. Instead, you're simply gonna trust in me. Those are the things that you wanna plan on. You've got time tomorrow to plan on those. You're not going to plan those things out before you go to sleep tonight. You're going to rest. And and so I I've been trying to work through this dynamic of switching from finding rest essentially in my plans,

and saying, hey, I've got a plan for these things. I've got a way of resolving things and checking my plans. Instead, now, I'm checking with God at the end of the day for permission to rest, and just say, hey, have I accomplished what I need to do today? Have I done the work that you need for me to do today, God? And can I take my rest? And so instead of checking with my own agenda and checking with my own plans, it's checking with God and saying, now can I rest? And it it very much correlates the beginning of my day where I I start off and say, hey God, what do you have for me today? What what would you like me to accomplish? And so at the beginning of the day, I'll start asking God, what do you want me to accomplish? At the end of the day, I'll I'll ask him, you know,

I wanna go I wanna go to bed. I wanna tuck up the day. Otherwise, the the to do list is never ending. Can I take my rest now? And, you know, so sometimes it'll surprise me, like, I mean, one day I asked him, hey, you know, I've got work later on tonight. Can I go to work? And he said, no. And it just it threw me off. I'm like, wait a minute. So do I need to call in and say, hey, I'm not coming, or how do I resolve this? Eventually, I I kinda asked God, okay, can I

go to play? You know, same location, meet with the same folks, but can I go to play? And he's like, yeah. You can go play. And I was like, okay. So I went to the same place, did kinda more or less the same type of activities, but played, and made sure that I didn't cross the line between,

just the enjoyment and the joy of play, and and what might be considered work. And God was alright with that. And so he he's been kinda setting up my day, and he's also been helping me to tuck in at night. One of the things recently, that that's changed is, as I've been calling out to him,

especially when in the middle of anxiety and, you know, I I'll recently, I've been able to find just about anything to be afraid of, and that's very uncharacteristic of me, but just it's the time that I'm going through. And and so I'll I'll be calling out to him, hey, you know, with whatever my fear is, and and it's like, god, can you take this away? Help me to help me to trust you, because I know that ultimately that's the issue that's going on is that. And I I found,

it's happened frequently enough that, I find that the resolution finally happens when I take my eyes off myself and and take my eyes onto him. It's when, to put it this way, it's when I stop asking, for myself,

and I start just looking at him and and talking to God about him, and saying, look, God, I I know you're bigger than this. I know you've I know you can handle this. And and it's like almost immediately, peace comes right then, just realizing that, you know what, he he's big enough, he can handle these things. He loves us. He loves me. And and I can trust him with what's going on. And it's when I start looking at him and who he is and his character and what he's got going on,

that's when the peace comes. It's not in me going to God and requesting, hey, God, please give me peace. It's when I actually look to him and essentially, he his character and who he is kinda enters my mind and occupies that space that normally would be occupied by fear. And I guess whatever if it's spiritual and, you know, there's some kind of crazy fear demon going on, apparently, he's really uncomfortable being in the same head when the head is occupied with how awesome God is, and he just splits. And so then I'm just left with peace. And immediately, joy always follows. Whenever God gives me peace, it's like just I I can't help but just laugh and enjoy life. So

if I wanna summarize it, what's what's changed just in this last week is is not praying so much for myself. And hey, God, please take this away as much as just fixing my eyes on God. And just, I will talk to God about him. I mean,

some of you guys have been on dates. You know that girls like to hear good things about themselves. Well, guess what? So does God. You're gonna have to tell Buva more about this. Okay. Yeah. What is a what's a a date? What is a lady? So you you you're out with another person. And Yeah. You know, you you wanna talk about them. You don't wanna just talk about yourself all the time. That's rude. Oh, that explains a lot. Alright. So apparently, that that has now seeped into my prayer life. And so I it's strange because I'll talk to God and I'll say, God, you are just plain awesome. And, you know, God loves to hear that. And it's also great for me to hear myself saying these things because it reminds me that, hey, guess what? God is in fact awesome, and I can rest in his awesomeness. So wait a minute. So what you're telling me is the ladies don't like me talking about how great I am and giving them reasons to date me?

And God also doesn't like me sitting there talking about how great I am in my prayer life with him? Apparently, no one does. Oh, man. Sorry, boo. Boy, tough roll today, booba. Yes. I gotta change some personality flaws, guys. Actually, this kinda this kinda helps reorient some of the the thing that I think I struggle with, a lot when I pray is I I know how to handle a two person conversation

because I can always deflect to what's going on with you. Mhmm. How are you feeling? What do you think of this situation, other person? Even if I don't have anything else to say, I can and I I don't have to say anything about myself. I can just keep asking you questions and say, how are things with you? You know? Conversation continues on. Now with God, I always got to, you know, kind of a stalemate where I would say, hey, God, how oh, I suppose they're probably pretty good, I guess. So anyway okay. About me then. You

you know what I'm saying? Why not just talk to God about things that you appreciate about him and just go from there? I mean, make up a list. It it might sound a little cheesy. It might sound a little like a love letter. But guess what? That's kind of a cool thing to have in your prayer. And maybe it'd be a good idea to stop trying to be the voice of God in your own prayers. Well, here's the deal. I like to imagine what God would respond to. That's what I say. Let him respond. Like I say, lord, here's what I'm thinking about. Maybe I was gonna get involved with tomorrow. And I hear a voice that says, sounds good, Mike. Thank you.

Hey. I'm willing to bet that some weird posturing dude that says something like, sounds good, Mike, is probably your head, not god. Like a Hallmark Santa. Good one, Mike. Glad I made that sense of humor. Help the homeless every day. Uh-oh. Did you ask me first? Careful careful of Jesus Santa.

Can't be trusted. Jesus only, not Jesus Santa. Yeah. I I have a hard time orienting my prayers in in that way. And and, like, we've talked about this on the show before, like, sometimes I think I have a hard time orienting my prayers because I don't know how to deal with the king Mhmm. Correctly. Someone who's in authority that really, appreciates

and loves me fully, but does not is not dependent on that being the case in reciprocation for him to love me. You know what I'm saying? He will do it regardless because he's a good king. But, like, I don't know how to handle someone like I've never met anyone like that. I've never met another human being that that that will love me regardless of how I treat them. And, like, that's that's hard to look in the face. You know I'm saying? It's hard to look in the eye and go,

you you honestly love me no matter how many times I ignore you or or say that I think my way is better than yours or neglect the love that you've given me. And you still show up with eyes that say, I I love you anyway. And, like, I don't know how to take you, to be honest with you. I don't know how to deal with you on a regular front. And so that's where that's why we use prayer. Right? Because if he can be dealt with in a way other than prayer, we would do that. But he can't be because he's just different. He's a good sovereign king, and you can't talk to him the way that you talk to the guy who runs the deli. It's not the same conversation. So, anyway, take that. Alright. Let's do some thanks, Dave. I I appreciate that. I think that does help reorient just a little bit. Anybody have you know, is anyone else struggle with that? Like, how to approach God in prayer and either not sound like a phony baloney or, or or come off as like,

you feel like you're talking into a tin can of where you feel like, I'm not really connecting with God. I am just speaking in a dark room like a jackwagon. You ever had that friend that, that never thinks they should be your friend? Like like, they're always willing to beat themselves down and and make it seem like you shouldn't really talk to them. I have I have some friends like that that are just kinda like I make everybody feel appreciated, Pooh. I don't have this problem. Well, I've got some self deprecating friends that, like, almost every conversation we have, we have a conversation of, hey, man. I don't understand why you're my friend. You're you're just kind of a good dude and and and all this different stuff. I feel like that's kinda sometimes my relationship with god. Like, I I I have difficulty stepping back and realizing god loves every one of us wholeheartedly and isn't some guilt trip god that's trying to make us sit there the first ten minutes of our prayer talking about how crappy we are and then getting into the the nitty gritty of the prayer. Feel like sometimes I spend way too much time in the whole and I'm not saying don't do it. I'm saying, like, I I spend way too much time in the whole, hey, god. Well, man, I'm a joke. That's the thing. They suck. You do. You spend the first minute and a half, two minutes explaining to god on how much you realize what the situation is. Here's the situation. It's like, I am this, and you are this. Like, hey, God. I know you know everything, but did you know about this? Like, I did this recently. I feel like you shouldn't talk to me for a while, but I will. Hey, God. You know I messed that up too. Right? Like, I don't know if you were, were you watching it that one time? Know that I know

that I understand why you think it'd be the way that you do. Because I've done things. I feel like I feel like I waste so much time in my prayer life with with this weird self deprecation where I break myself down rather than building him up. But it but it's true. It it's true. But Yeah. Like and there's and there's a point that you can reach. Like, I feel like I crossed that point. Like, I understand that it's good to have a healthy humility when when talking to God and realizing, yeah, I am the flawed creature in in this in this relationship, and I'm the one who messes up. But, like, to the point where you kinda sometimes miss out on your prayer time because all you've done is sit there and go, hey, god. I really screwed up on this day. That's right. Sometimes And he's sitting there with his hands in his lap going, yeah. I know, son. Let's talk. You've got we've got other stuff to talk about. I no. I know, son. You messed that up. But, seriously, Troy Let's go on. Let's talk. Let's get on to good things. Let's talk about some seriously good stuff. Hey. Did you notice how you did this great? Or did you notice how someone else around you did something great and you could have watched the hey. Pay attention to that stuff.

Yeah. I think that's I I think that's sometimes where I buck up against, the thought of of realizing that that we are innately bad and sinful. And I get that. Right? But, like, if you're stuck there your whole life, you missed out on such Right. A blessing and and to being not only to other people, but for what God wanted to give you. And the possibilities were so huge, and you couldn't get past the fact that you're not him. Right? That was in the first page, man. You open the Bible. First page one, you are not him. Okay. Like, I I I realized that's a standing tenet of whatever, and you gotta you gotta realize you're depraved and and blah blah blah. Okay. But once you get there, you really wanna focus the next fifty years of your life on that? God doesn't want to. Once you it's a perspective. Once you gain that perspective, it's not a daily thing. Like, I will never lose the perspective of I'm I'm from the Midwest. Right? It's ingrained in me. It's not going to change now. And so the same is true about your depravity. Once you realize that, I don't know that you lose it. Unless you completely walk away from God as a whole and have to reengineer it back in. But, like, once you have that perspective, I don't know that you need to be bogging your prayer life down. And and with the precious time that you get in your hurried lifestyle

that you can that you get to to dissociate with everything and spend time with God, and you wanna spend a good portion of that describing how crappy you are. Duly noted, he had actions that would rectify the situation. He's done them. Let's move on and let and and get moving for what God has us to be doing. That's I think it's an excellent point, fellas. I I think one of the the challenges of prayer, though, is that you look you read through scripture and just your relationship with him. You know? There there are sometimes he shows up as this as your buddy. You know? Hey. I'm with you. You know? We're brothers.

And sometimes he's this sovereign god who, you know, is unapproachable practically. And then and then then there's Paul saying, but we approach the throne with boldness. So you have all these different images of of god, and he's big enough. He's like all at once. Right? But I can only, like, process or handle one of those at a time. I agree. So sometimes I come up, hey, buddy. You know, how you doing, Jesus? Hey. And the next time I'm like, oh, sovereign lord. You know? I mean, see, and and part of that's my my problem, I guess. I know I deserve to smite when I walked in. Thank you for that. Greatest thou holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. You know, I mean, you got angels who've been with him with for centuries that that that fall before him in his presence. And it's like, really? You're not used to that? Yeah. And I was boldly strolling in. Be like, okay. Hey. Hey, buddy. I'm so you the teen number of years. Right. So Opposed to the millennia, these other fellows have been here. Hey, god. Did you see what I did yesterday? Yeah. Did you put my picture on the refrigerator? You know? It's Hey, dad. Did you see that A plus I got? What do you mean I I got moved to the deep freeze? I feel like I need this over.

I've moved to the deep freeze. Alright. Here we go. Ready? Dear life from the path. I have been friends with Quotations Janet for eight years. We have been very close, talk often, and go to lunch three times a month. We are like two peas in a pod and have always been honest with each other. Our relationship is open and above board. On a recent holiday, I went to her house for a party, got drunk, and made an inappropriate comment to one of her friends who had also had too much to drink. Janet called me out in front of the others, demanded I apologize, told me that what I had said was disrespectful, and said she doesn't wanna see me again. Life from the past, she tossed me out an eight year friendship over one comment. Don't understand.

Do you? Stupid guy out west. That's a dude. Guy. Janet's friend, the dude. Eight years. Pretty above board relationship as far as this guy's concerned. Obviously, made a sexual comment judging by say. Not including it in the message. Right. Yeah. If he would have been like, hey. I don't like your dress. I think he would have included that, but that is not what he said. And it sounds like if I had to guess,

it's at her house. It's a party. He probably said it around a bunch of other ladies where she had no choice but to call him out as the chauvinist drunk fool that he was acting. Well and she knows that, words are the overflow of the heart. Whatever he said, although it was inappropriate and he normally would have boundaries up to keep himself from doing that, he said it. Yep. And, it was hurtful. Yep. The middle load on tap just went ahead and moved that valve open where there was nothing restricting what was coming out of his out of his mouth. Moova?

I'm I'm just imagining, like, either she has no idea how to handle confrontation and and did this and now never wants to speak to him again, or he's totally downplaying what he said. Yeah. And she she had every right to to destroy an eight year relationship. Maybe she was doing a little drinky too, and she Right. Way over it. Well, in that case, hey. Maybe give her a call real quick and say, hey, Janet. Obviously, I said some stupid stuff, and I'm sorry about that. Eight years, though? Three times a a a month lunch?

Right. Like, I imagine I've she's overreacting like a monster. Well, that's all are under reacting to what you said, you jerk. Or there's just plain strain in the relationship, and that was, like, the last straw. I bet I mean, it was like I bet there's some romantic stuff that hasn't been addressed between the two of them, and she got jealous. Three times a month for eight years. And he said a he said a raunchy comment to some other lady. Yep. I'm willing to I'm willing to think that it's a possibility where she got she got a little jealous. Here's the deal out west, man. You're leaving out details that would be very helpful for us to make a solid determination here. Yeah. We don't know what's up until you tell us the truth out west. Either way, I think you need to go talk to Janet and and just apologize and and seriously fix it. Just even ask her, hey. What do I need to do to put this right? Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, it's an eight year relationship. Why you know, don't let it go. Fight for it. Secular says, not knowing what you said, I can only guess it was so far off the charts that you offended not only the person to whom the comment was directed, but also Janet and the other guests at the party. The worst. What did this guy say? He said something bad. Man, I mean, that's just have to be outrageous. There's some raunch tastic stuff that happened at that party. She may have reacted the way she did because you have done similar things in the past. That's a reach. Yeah. You'll have a clear understanding if you talk to her about it when you call to apologize.

Yeah. Basically, same advice. Look. You have to call up to Jenna. Here's you know, I said bad stuff. I was a fool. Mhmm. And I'm still a fool. Accept me. Yeah. Well, I like what Eric said. You know, it's it's worth fighting for. I mean, that's that's a strong word, but it's true. Yeah. Yeah. It's like an eight year relationship. Go after it. Yeah. I mean, three times a month, this is not a casual. We're trying get married. Eight relationship does not come without some sacrifices and some serious effort. You know, maybe Keep it going. Maybe she's in a relationship with another fellow, he's like, look. I don't like this dude. I don't know why you're going out to lunch with him three times in a month. Hey, man. That might be a stretch too. Really? Okay. Dear life of the path. I I disagree with Buva. I feel like I was right there.

Dear life of the path. What can I do about my boss? I have worked at a bus company for twenty three years. My new boss started six months ago. He jokes and laughs with all the other ladies in the office, but when it comes to me, he's all business. He talks to me only about things that are work related. And when I try to talk to him about anything else, he gives me a forced grin and walks away. Any suggestions? Wow. Here's the deal. Please submit a picture. Yeah. I mean I feel like I feel like if I am gonna be open and and outgoing with a bunch of people and then there's one person that I just force a grin and walk away from, there is a real reason why I do that. Like, there's a legitimate it's not just, oh, I don't like that scarf, Janice. Yeah. And then walk away. Like, there's a there's a legit thing that he does not in any way like about you. Yeah. I mean If you're willing million thing. Yeah. If you're willing to really push this and and have that relationship with your boss, you can ask him. Yeah. Be like, hey. What hey, boss man. I noticed like, I've seen some stuff around the office where everybody else, you kinda have a joking relationship with me. It feels like we kinda we kinda have some some strain between us if you're willing to to go that far and figure it out. If not, he's your boss. Leave it alone. Do your job. Go home to your actual friends and live your life. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you could have the personality of a saltine. You could be known as a whistleblower. Right. You know I'm saying? There's a million things that you could have done that and and and really, you've left out any personal culpability here. Like, I've I've I've heard this exact argument with people that I've worked with and around. Yep. And they completely leave out the part where they, you know, ratted out the last guy they worked with or got the last manager fired because they didn't like how many paper clips he had on the desk and thought he was over abusing the HR department. Donald, you're the one who gives me the creepy eye every time. You never make that statement. Like, yeah, there's some there's some weird going on between the two of you that you're not willing to talk about. Like and the fact that you've taken time to write this down and ask somebody about it means you've tried to talk to someone else in your office. Like, don't you feel like he stands around talking to everyone else and laughing and having a good time? Well, does that sound like someone that I can hang around with and be openly friendly with in a workplace environment when you seem to be stickler for the rules and don't permit a whole bunch of lot of office fair? I don't know, man. I feel like you've played some culpability in here and not really owning up to it. There's something she's leaving out. You're the only one. There's obviously a reason, and you're usually the last person to know. Mean wear ugly sweaters, and he just cannot find any common ground with you. Maybe his family has some weird family vendetta against your family. Yeah. Maybe you are to the Hatfield, and he is indeed the McCoys. It's a possibility. Secular says, your new boss may be intimidated because of your seniority and experience. That's a nice way of saying you're a jerk. Yeah. It may also be because of your age.

Absolutely. That could be. I'm unsure of his reason for treating you differently, but your next move should be, to have a talk with your boss to express your feelings about this. I disagree with that. Here's the deal. If obviously, the the person's older has been working there twenty three years. Right? Yeah. You know, it might be time to just cash this thing in. So, look, give me work out your days at this place. I mean, I don't know. Does do you really have to have it all? You had a job that was good enough when you got it. Now you want a job and an active social life at that job. You know, now you're just grasping for everything. Give me the whole whole bucket of oysters, friend. Yeah. You have to be willing to have the conversation of, hey, boss man. There's something weird going on between us, and you have to be able to to handle the brunt of the consequences from that, good or bad.

Or you just decide, well, it's a job. Been here for twenty three years. Don't give a crap about this young whippersnapper. He's only been here for six months. I'm just gonna keep doing my job and get my paycheck. Yeah. I can I can like this man? He don't have to like me. Yeah. That's fine. Yep. Love it. That's fair. Here we go. We got time for one more. Here we go. Now this is When you say here we go, that's normally when you would follow with dear life from the path. Yeah. But someone would often up their suggestions on how to do Thanksgiving better, and I don't really care about that. No. We need to move to a different one. That does sound here we go. Dear life from the path. My 25 year old sister, quotes Laura, who has four children with her deadbeat, quotes, boyfriend,

lives at my 57 year old mother's house and cheats on him. Mom is suspicious. I indeed. Because Laura sometimes doesn't come home from work, and she's always using the excuse that she's, quote, again, going to a friend's house. Classic lies. This leaves my mother babysitting Laura's children. Should I keep it out, should I keep out of it while watching my nieces and nephews suffer? I don't know what to tell mom when she calls me to vent. As Laura's brother, should I say something to get the message across?

Yes. Yeah. Your siblings. Are you helping, dude? Seriously, have a freaking conversation with your sister. How difficult is that? Yeah. You're different genders. I get that's that's maybe a little weird. But at the same point in time, have a conversation with her. Say, hey, Laura. You know how you cheat on your boyfriend and how mom sometimes gets weirded out by that? Hey. Maybe you can fix that and not be a shyster. Yeah. I'm not really sure what you're protecting.

You know what saying? Yeah. He doesn't have a stake to be, like, not have this conversation with his sister yet. And here's the thing. Dude just kind of a pansy and won't have it. I I know some moms. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Moms are not these naive creatures that you're painting her out to be. She knows exactly what has going on. Exactly. Right? I mean, she's not a fool. She she knows exactly what's happening. So it's not like she's waiting on your revelation to straighten this up. She knows what the deal is. She doesn't know what to do. She doesn't know what to do about the deal. Because, I I mean, really, you have to own up to some pretty ugly realities, which is that your your daughter that you raised seems to not give two craps about her kids, does whatever she wants, seems to not have much integrity for the raise relationship she's in, and you're hanging around with her would be, parentheses boyfriend who's living at your place. The mom's in a very weird spot, and I think she just doesn't know what to do. And Go ahead, Dan. I would say I I have talked to people in this exact position before, and generally, they they they get it. They know. Like you say, they know, okay. My daughter something's just not right, you know, whatever. That's set the point. Their biggest concern is the grandkids now. Yes. It's like and and there's no easy answer there. What do you do? You kick them out and say, I I can't support you anymore. You you're on your own. Well, we already know how much she cares about her kids. So what does that mean? Where's she gonna leave the kids now? Where are the kids gonna be just laying around at home? I mean,

that is a tough situation. I I don't have an answer because there's too many nuances to to, you know, too many things to know. But but she's being taken advantage of. They need to fix that somehow. And I I don't know. That's above my pay grade. It's gonna be awkward, but you need to man up and have a conversation conversation with your Oh, yeah. Think that's gonna help? It won't help. Because you just blow up. If you can look at your kids in the eye, you think you give, you care what your brother has to say? No. However,

we're not we're not that that's not the problem right now. The problem is this guy is holding this in and is trying to find some way to shirk it off somebody else because he knows exactly what's going on. It's bothering him. He knows it's bothering the rest of his like his mom. But right now, so far, he is not willing to go as far as to have a have a conversation. That's true. He's probably the most stable element in the family at this point because, you know, mom feels weird. Sister is compromised. He's the only one who can have this conversation right now. But but someone fix it. I mean, it's it's gonna blow up, and that's good. They need to have it. I I think you should have it. But but, I mean, you're talking about a mother who is, let's just say it, abusing her children and doesn't care. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, she's she's beyond. She's she's she need and then what do do? You call DHS. Well, then they take the kids away. Where do they go then? Who knows? Not to you. They used to go somewhere else. Right. Even though your grandma or uncle, whatever. It it is a no win situation. Yeah. But I think the I think we can all agree on the next step. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's him having a conversation. I just wish we could fix it. I wanna fix it. And and Yeah. You can't fix it with it sometimes. He's truth? Yeah. I

here's the deal. I think I kind of agree with you, in principle. But, like, I'd I I just don't have the same love for this man to need to get this off his chest. Like, he's he's not the guy that's that's fighting in the weeds there. He's standing on the third parties like, this is hard to watch. And I'm like, okay, dude. You know, like, you're barely affected by this. Like, if you're gonna be in there to affect some kind of change or that you wanna be helped be part of the solution, that's one thing. But just because you want to vent because it's eating you up, you're like, I mean, you're out in the peripherals, man. Like, I have I just don't I don't have the same sympathy for this dude, I think. Yeah. But, I mean, you look at it one of two ways. He has two ultimate choices. He can either back out and then not do anything, stop caring, or he needs to get in and and start doing something. Well, that's about his nieces or you know? If he's gonna go there because it's about them, that I can get down on. Agree. Yes. If he wants to speak up because he feels Yeah. That it's hard for him to hold it in. Righteous. I'm gonna Yeah. This is something for

your heart, get out get stop being so full of yourself. There are kids in the situation that you need to start caring about more than you, more than your sister, that more than your mom, unfortunately. And it won't fix until that mom, the the daughter, he was is ready to fix it. Yeah. And yeah. She may not think anything's wrong right now.

Four kids, deadbeat boyfriend who they cheat on him too? Yeah. Why don't they understand her morals? Yeah. Exactly. She right? Conscience. Yeah. It's ingrained in everybody. You see that tree? Doesn't that tell you to stop doing that?

Man, I mean, could I not find a better example of why that article was stupid? Here we go. Oh, god. That was a podcast statement. Secular's response is, your nieces and nephews aren't suffering. They're safe and supervised by their imposed upon grandmother who seemed to be unable to tell her daughter that she refuses to be taken advantage of any longer. I see no reason to hesitate to say something. The next time your mother calls to vent, by all means, speak up. I think that's extremely one-sided. She knows the deal. She knows she's being, imposed upon, and she knows she's being taken advantage of. But actually, sometimes, that's just what you're called to do. Yeah. That there is parts of life that are ugly. Yep. And there is a God that says, I'm there in the ugly. I knew it was coming. I'm sorry. It's ugly. But like sometimes being taken advantage of is just part of your gig because it's it's better for someone else. I was you know, I was talking to my kids about this this week. And I asked them what love was. And I and and really what it could boil down to is when you choose someone over yourself. Yeah. Otherwise, people don't even know. Like, how do they know that you love them unless you chose them over you at some point? Whether that be, like how you spent your time or, you you know, that that you used your money to buy them something or the way that you spoke to them, like, there there's just an element of an unselfishness

there is what love equals. And so and and that's the truth of it. Like, the the grandmother is is loving on some kids and being imposed upon and taken advantage of is her choosing them over her. That's what love is, and she's doing that. And while while it's unfortunate that has to be the way and the conduit of which love is delivered to those kids, right now, that's how she's doing it. And it's it's it's not, a terrible thing for her to be taken advantage of in that way. And we characterize that, of like a a pride issue, a self respect thing. It's like do not allow yourself to be taken advantage of. Well, know, sometimes that's the best way to love on somebody. And so depending on the person that you want to be,

it's it's not necessarily a bad thing. Anyway, you're listening to Life From The Path on lifefromthepath,.org. Here's the deal. Sometimes we like to pick up the podcast, wrap it up in a tight little bow, put it in a bowling bag, and send it to people we don't know. And today, that's what we're gonna do. So you've been listening to Life From The Path on www.lifefromthepath.org. Be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. And

what does it matter with you, baby? Hey, man. You got creepy quiet in this ending. I know. You said, alright. We got everything from There's the deal. It's like I didn't prepare anything to say, and I have no, you know, reflexive memory where I've been saying it x number of ways for x number of years, and so I have to make it up as I go. All of you who are still here, we appreciate you being here on the podcast with us. Yeah. I don't even I don't do you believe that? You've been listening to Live From The past. Wait a minute. Have you put any thought into how much you appreciate them, or you're just saying that to me? I do. Appreciate that. Like, how much time have you devoted to that this week? I don't know. Probably this week, maybe two or three minutes. Two or three minutes. Over the last couple of years, that's a lot of minutes. I don't know, Boomer. That doesn't feel like love to me. You spent most of this week on yourself. Very few amounts of time. I never said I love everyone who's on our podcast. I said I appreciate them. Here's the deal. Favorite boob of this week.

Favorite boob He has some he has some issues as well. He's got some good stuff on his talk. Be faithful. The mean Scott will handle the end. Thanks for listening to Live From The Past.