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

Seemed like someone had hung up the phone on. Sorry. I got all disoriented. I didn't know it was people I here's what it's did you say something into the microphone? No. Wait. Here's actually, after that dial tone thing, I had an experience with the Internet company this week that I I just I couldn't believe who I was talking to. Right? So the the Internet, it goes out, like, three times a day at my house. And then finally, was out for, like, six hours at a time. And I I I I used to be thankful for this thing because they didn't have Internet at all where I live because I'm in the boonies. And then all of sudden, they show up with six meg Internet. I'm like, this is this is the best. I can't believe it. We could stream stuff. You know? And now it it's it's it's flighty at best. So I call them, and I am on hold legit for an hour. I mean, I it's an hour and five minutes. Someone finally picks up the phone, and they say, what do you blah blah blah, company company. What seems to be the issue? I said, one, I was on hold for an hour. And two, my Internet's not working. They said, well, we're aware of a service outage in your area. And I said, well, I feel like you've had an hour to fix it. And secondly, it happens, two or three times a day. Is there anything we can do? And she said, well, we suggest that you call us when those outages happen, and then we can go ahead and troubleshoot the problem. I said, I'll be honest with you. If it goes out twice a day and it takes you an hour to answer the phone, that's two hours out of every day. That's a waste of time. I don't have. And hers she goes,

can we send you a new modem? I said, well, is that gonna fix it? She goes, I'm not sure. I said, I feel like we're in a stalemate, man. I mean, you know what I'm saying? I'm calling you for help. If this with action. If these are things that I could put two thoughts together and fix the thing, I'd have done it. You know? Could send you new equipment. That's it. And so we sat there. I mean, it was awkward silence for, like, five thirty seconds. She goes, so should we send you the modem? I said, well, how much is it? She goes, well, it's free. I said, yeah. Send it this way. Send it out. K.

She goes, well, you're gonna have to send us the old one back. And I felt I said, well, I tell you what. I'm a keep the one ransom. I'm a run the new one. And if it seems to do better, then I'll send you the old one back. If it doesn't, then I'm a keep them both. And I wait. You're gonna send me another one. I'm just gonna keep hoarding modems until you send a guy out with a screwdriver that does something. She said, well, I'm sorry we couldn't help you, sir. I said, you don't sound as disappointed as I am. I'll call back later.

But I have an hour. Well, here's the deal. If you're gonna run a customer's ears, I you have got to arm your it's not her fault. Right? They're like, I wasn't rude to her or anything, but, like, it's not her fault that they have not armed her with any other techniques besides, can we send you a new box with lights in it? Yeah, I guess. Get it coming this way. I guess I'll put some stuff in and see what happens. So, anyway, that was it. That was my story. I've had the opposite thing happen. So I so I used to, when I was checking phone calls at the company I work for, like, when somebody had called in and they're they're, there was a prob we didn't process something. Right? And so I said, okay. Well, you know, I'll fix it. And then, you know, I'll try to rectify it as as best I can while we get it reprocessed. And frankly, I paid to have something overnighted. It would've got to them sooner than had they not called at all. And they said, well, can you also send me a hat? And I'm like, what? For my trouble, can can you send me a hat?

They asked specifically for a hat? Yeah. And I thought, you know, no. We're just not gonna do that. At least you're honest. We don't we don't have, like, a a souvenir cabinet.

This lady wants a hat. What do I do, boss? Here's where the awkward thing is is companies do that. They're like, hey. I'm sorry you had trouble. Here's a here's a cup with our logo on. Right? But, like, I'm sorry you're pissed at our company. Maybe it will help to be reminded of that with this souvenir mug that we were sending you on. Do you need a bumper sticker by chance? It's it's a terrible way to rectify a situation. It's to remind them of it every time they have a sip of sank or whatever. So with these people. So I thought these guys, this is a sweet mug. And here's the thing. Obviously, if we had something like that on tap, it's gonna be cheap. Like, we're gonna send you a cheap polyester hat. Right? With the rope in front of it and the Yeah. And the air conditioning in the back. That fits everybody. Right? Like, it's that type of hat. It's got the yeah. It's got the tug rope on it that hangs to the side because it's so big because it has to fit the guy with the biggest head ever. And that's that's what we're gonna send you. And this guy gets on the line. He's like, you know, could you send me a hat?

And I I respect that, man. Like, I thought, I wish I kinda wish I had something to send him. But I I said, no. You know, we don't we don't really do that. We just try to you you came to us with a problem. We try to solve that particular problem as best as possible, and, we feel like that's fair. See, I I find this funny that, like, people I I just I don't I understand how you can't look at the world as it as it is. Like, can you imagine the tunnel that you have to live in to think that the customer service man you're talking to is in charge of dishing out free hats to people? You know, this happens to me all the time. I work for a Caterpillar, dealership. Right? And every time I go somewhere, they're like, hey, man. You got a Caterpillar hat? Like, yeah. I no. He's like, I spend, like, $50,000 a year with you guys. I'm like, look. I you know, I just don't keep a stack of hats in my service vehicle. Have to call it a hat department. I fix the stuff. You know what? They don't let me just keep, like, $2 worth of hats in the back and chuck them out to people. And he's like, well, I feel like I deserve it. Hey, man. Isn't that like Jay Paul Getty looking for a free pin? Hey. I spend $50 a year.

Can I have a free shirt? Like, if you wanna just buy the shirt. That's the thing. Like, the hat outright, if you'd have bought it on Amazon was $6. But if I have to get it from the Caterpillar store, it's, like, 37. You know I'm saying? And so and I'm I'm gonna bill you for it. Right? I'll get you the hat, but I'm just gonna tack it onto your bill. You ain't getting no free hat. Just put it as miscellaneous. Yeah. I'm just gonna put miscellaneous shop charges. Hat. What was that? Like, oil or something? No. That was your hat. No. That was that hat you begged for. I'm sorry. That's just a weird thought process. They say, like, hey. As soon as I'm rich, as soon as I have enough money like, normally, I think when I attain enough money, I can buy things that I want. But this guy's thought process is when I have enough money, people should give me stuff for free. People should give me a hat.

Yeah. I didn't see that coming. That's weird. I'm gonna start using that, though. That's I very well. Kinda happens. Start going to random businesses and demanding some kind of merchandise outside of what they normally do. Well, that's the thing. It's gotta a working somewhere. Yeah. Right. He's going into the great clips and being like, I want some scissors. You know? I just gave you $12 for this haircut. I come to this Best Buy all the time. Where's my shirt that doesn't fit me? You want me one of them thinning shit scissors with the little grooves in it? I'll take them home right now. Can I get some clipper oil or something? I don't know. What? Clipper oil. Do you ever maintenance your clippers? Yeah. Oh. Well, they start snagging if you don't. Really? I just Can't you maintenance your clippers too? No. But I go I go places that use clippers, and they have to make yeah. Okay. I just turn the screw until it stops making that terrible noise, and then, like, yeah. It's working. How long has it been since you've replaced your clippers? What do you mean? My my point exactly. I bought the I usually buy the dog clippers, the ones for, like, 15 The dog clippers? Yeah. They show a picture of the guy shaving the dog. I'm like, those gotta be good enough for me. Look. The dog's hair is, like, six inches long. I feel like mine's only a couple.

Yeah. Just change your ways. Parley. Just just get a good set of clippers, man. Come on. I had so I ordered a set. Like, the last time well, two times ago when I ordered some clippers, I I did Two clippers ago. I did I did a net search finally, and I asked, what are other men using? Tell me what what are other It's a dangerous situation.

And so there was, like, some kind of sport clipper, and I thought, do we have to be so cliche, fellas? That's we have to have, like, a sport clipper. Exactly. Clippers for men. It's got it's it was yellow, and it had, like, a streak down the side, like, it's a pair of running pants. It's got a football player on the front going, yeah.

We just we have to be so predictable. Looks like it's got motion. Let it come by. Do do you have clippers that look like a beer? Because that would really be me. Was embarrassed, but I thought, hey, man. It's maybe it's just a design, but still dudes use it. You know? Yeah. And so I I took it, and it worked well for about four months. And then I took it to The Philippines, and I plugged it into the wall outlet And it and it blew it up. And it blew up. Yeah. It set it set it on fire. And I thought I didn't call it in, because I didn't wanna admit to the Filipino hotel hotelier

that I had started a fire in the bathroom. Because I it started on fire, and I just put it in the shower. Right on. What? Electrical fire right in the shower. It's all

yeah. That's where I threw my electrical plates. That's that's sleuthing at its best. Excuse me. You don't fix this. Shower. Lindner's overheating. They're ruining the shower. I was in The Philippines for a month and didn't light anything on fire. Hold on. Two things. One, it was already fried. Fair enough. So the the chances of it continuing to fry through toaster style in a bathroom, I think, are overdone. It's I feel like it it would not work again. Hold on. Before you move on to your second point, just as a quick counterargument,

based on you plugging it in incorrectly, I would assume your knowledge of electricity is low anyway. And so the information you put into, it'll stop frying once I put it in the shower, probably can't be trusted. I'm gonna call point to Mike. There wasn't a sign for, like, with the tall with the tall American with your sports clippers. Please do not plug these into a wall. Tall, dumb, white guy with

an x on it, plugs it into the thing. Kind of expected. You have to have a specific Ben don't do this sign. So, anyway, point two, I unplugged it from the wall. Mhmm. Doesn't that solve all problems? Yeah. Electricity doesn't jump like that. Yeah. It does. It was, like, four feet away, Mike. No. Yeah. That's that's on That's what I'm saying. Wisdom. Put point for me. I'm gonna say point to Mike on that one. Anyway point for me. Nope. Now I give you Anyway, I rebought,

sports clippers in a blazing orange. And do I feel Ben, sports clippers. You're listening live from the path on live from thepath.org. Broadcasting every Monday night starting ten ish.

Normally, it's about the honest faith, fierce grace, and sometimes this. And so, it looks like you've landed on to this week. Yeah. What do we got what do we got going on the show today, Ben? So, what we were talking about so the I had a I had a list of articles that I wanted to talk about, and then I've gotten I've gotten rid of them somehow. So I I was looking on there's a, the christianpost.com was carrying probably they have 10 guys that do regular commentary for this, thing. Now don't go to the christianpost.com. It is an ad fest. Like, it's like, I I don't know that actual Jesus people run it. I think they just sucker people in, and they then they infect your computer or something. Yeah. Like those, like those things on the Facebook that are like seven Christians that left Hollywood. I'm like, oh, who are they?

Mike, I've known you for years, man. I would not expect you to be the guy that gets suckered in on. No. I'm a closet gossip hound. A closet gossip hound. If it has to do with Jesus, I'm like, who it's Denzel Washington, isn't it? I know it's Denzel. It's You immediately go to Denzel Washington. Guy that I'm like, cool. And the other guy's like, who? Who's that guy? He's like, he used to be the second stand in Lassie, and his owner was a Jesus man. Oh, like, god. Crap. I didn't care about that. You know? That's where they get you in there. Yeah. Yeah. It is funky. Like, it was like seven relatives of Brad Pitt that subsist on mayonnaise alone, and you're like, I have to know. Is is his cousin or is it not? So anyway but on the Christian Post, got, like, 10 guys that do contribute

articles and stuff. And by my estimate, at least seven of them attended that meeting of evangelical folk Wow. With Donald Trump and had something to say about it. And and they were all terrible articles. Like, they didn't contain any bit of, like, here's how we can think about the world because we love Jesus.

It was just like, I was important because I went to this thing, and people talked to me, and now I don't know. Like, well, that's that's very helpful. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. I mean, do you do you run into wait. We're not gonna stay on this Trump subject too often. But, like, like, do you run into people that are legit struggling with this? Like, what they're gonna what they're gonna do, especially those from the evangelical camp? Yes. What they're gonna do because Trump is the Republican Yeah. And it's not a it's not a, like, four argument. It's a lesser two two evils type of discussion. That so yeah. I I legitimately, like, I think you can when when you're faced with two choices, yeah, I feel like you're gonna struggle with that with trying to make certain decisions, and I I get it. It's just that, like I don't know. People are just having weird conversations. It is. It's it is weird. Yeah. I've never struggled ever with with it's like, I I go look at the two, and I go, okay. That's the person, and then I just go on. Yeah. So I I decided, like, you know, months ago, I just know who it is.

What's the struggle? I mean, I I mean, everybody's looking for, like, the perfect whatever. And I I don't I I I don't get I'm like mister right wing wacky Christian. Uh-huh. I'm I, like, I I fit the stereotypes of the people who should be struggling. Uh-huh. I've I've never struggled with politics. True. No. I don't. I I mean, I struggle with what people do and stuff. I don't struggle with, like, my decision. Was like, okay. Well, that wasn't hard. You know? I mean Well, it's real pragmatic. Right? Like, you're just gonna look at something and be like, this is what it is. I can I can, think about it for ten more weeks, but it's not gonna change the plan? It doesn't change. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And people are more emotional on this one than than I've ever seen Yeah. On this this round.

Yeah. Do you do you insane. Do you think it's because the the definitions that normally define each party have just become gray all over the place? Yeah. I don't know. I I think it's because everybody has lied to everybody, the and people are kinda like, which is your all Well, see now, I feel like that's always going on, and they were just better at it. Right. Right. Like, we've so you always thought, well, this one won't lie. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the thing. You finally go, wait. No. They've all lied. Politics has always been this, but they used to be able to pull it off with some panache. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And that would just get, brute force liars. And you and you know they're doing it, and you're like They're just using this for a vote. I mean, know, that's their job. They're trying to get votes. You know? Well, I don't like politics. Yeah. I you know, actually,

maybe that is something ignore the politicians for a minute. I think there's a bit of a realization as an electorate. Right? Like, we're actually coming to terms with our own probably laziness, our own assumptions about how people act in politics and stuff, and frankly, our disengagement in in various things. Like, we kind of disengaged from the world a little bit and said these people will handle things, and they don't handle things how we want. And I think, frankly, some of the reality of you you kinda have to to do things in your own life. It's it's frankly, it's simple. It's very similar to discipleship. We're like, we kind of we kind of cast off like, if people can read the right books or you can listen to the right pastors or you can go to the right church,

maybe people will just love Jesus. And we kinda separated it and put it on kind of a machine as if we didn't have a personal stake in being the ambassadors for the gospel. And I think I think we're actually coming to that realization from a political standpoint as well. It's like every we we we expect people to kinda save the world, and we realize that, like, the the people that you elect into office are, you know, a a quarter of a percent of a population somewhere, and the rest of the people actually have to live in a world where you're helping your neighbor, where you are, you know, caring about the things that are going on in your local government, where you are fighting for injustice and to write morality and whatever it is that you care about, I think as they as the veil has gone a little bit from, what we expect out of politicians, it's actually landing pretty hard on on the people who may have bailed from some of these processes a little bit. And I don't even just mean things outside of, taking part in elections, but even actually taking part in elections. Like, instead of having groups otherwise defined, well, because we love this thing, we just pass this on, and this is who you vote for. Like, people actually haven't taken a little bit of control and say, hey, I'm a little bit more nuanced than x group says, vote for this guy, and I love it. And and that lands hard. Anytime that you land on more responsibility for yourself, and frankly, it otherwise implies that maybe you didn't handle that responsibility well in previous occasions, like, that actually lands pretty hard, and you you take it out on the politician. But frankly, a lot of it kinda sits on us if you weren't, you know, a part of that stuff. It's should just be a reflection of what it is that your values are as opposed to I and maybe this goes back to a little bit what Dale was talking about. I think our disappointment comes in is because we expected people to solve those types of problems.

And then when they don't, now now we like we're we're disenfranchised by that. Whereas, if I didn't expect that level of change in the world on those people to begin with, I'm not so upset when I find out that they can't actually accomplish it, then it it does become a way more of a pragmatic type of decision. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense to me. And and these guys are are so good. When I say these guys, the the political parties are so good at at getting the common people like us mad at each other, and they just sit back and watch. And then that that raises their money. That gets everybody fighting. Everybody's on the Internet screaming at each other. Yeah. You know? And they're sitting back going when they basically did the same thing anyway. Whoever wins is the same thing. It's gonna be the same thing. Yeah. Mostly. I mean, there's some there's some, you know, variation. And it puts it puts again, and again, back in kind of that discipleship mentality is that, like, we they're just you can't farm out your life. Like, you like, you just quit farming out your life, and and your expectations on something that's bigger than you. Live in live in your life. Live in your community. Live with your family. Control what you can control,

as opposed to fighting hard to control things that you may not be able to control. I definitely vote. I mean, here's the deal. Like, your local governments and even your broader governments, that's your community too. Right? You can't just bail on those things. However, you know, that when you move have moved your hope into that type of thing, especially as a Christian, especially as someone where where your hope is in is ultimately in Jesus, and frankly, watching the power of what he can do in your life and lives around you, like, just just hold it in the right frame of mind, as opposed to losing your your crazy eyes on it. So which, I don't know. I I that that I think that's why it's difficult. People, I I think, are struggling, but I wonder they're probably not struggling for the reasons they think they're struggling. I think a lot of times we're struggling is because we push too much hope onto certain,

government infrastructures or people or whatever, to otherwise change our lives as opposed to actually taking some level of responsibility and saying, look, I I am I living out my own the things that I can control to the greatest ability? And the truth is we're probably not. No. Well, I mean and that's I mean, that's true across the board with all like, it's true in the church too. Like, it's it's it's exactly the same thing. Right? Like, they people always try, like, to dump most of that responsibility on on, you know, feeding the homeless and taking care of widows and orphans. And we're like, we as a church should go do this thing and, like or or you could do it. Why don't you go do it? Yeah. You do it. You know what saying? Take a guy with you. And they're like, well, gotta print up shirts. Well, hey. We don't really need to print up shirts. We can just we can just get a guy, and then we'll go feed people, and then and then that's it. You know what saying? Like, you don't have to get a committee or get 10 guys to agree with you or try to find it in the budget numbers. Why don't you find it in your budget? You know, take $20 out of your own plate and and figure out how you're gonna do it. And I think if you if you you saw that happen and people take a little bit more responsibility and this is on me too. I'm not not preaching to people that aren't me. You know? But, like, if if if there's especially

when God starts to put something on your heart of the of the things that that he wants you involved with him, it doesn't necessarily have to be backed up by like 10 different guys. Right? If God's like, Mike, I want you to do this. My first instinct is like, gotta find some dudes and we're gonna go we're gonna tackle it by like 16 guys. Instead of looking at my wife and kids and going, hey, as a family, here's what we're doing. Here's why I feel like God's got us going. Let's let's do this thing. And and that's not my first move. And I'd really like it to be. Right? Because if everybody did that individually, the hands and feet are moving pretty fast. That's because we've well, a lot of times and again, true in both both, like, secular life and in the church, we've defined success by, like, brute force. How many folk? Was it successful? Were there 30 guys out there? Were there 50 guys out there? Like, can we call a success that a family

care for another family that needed it? Can we call a success that you met someone at work and you've had the ability like, that guy's going through through rough times and and for Jesus can shine a light on that guy's life. Can we call can we call that a success? And then bundle the cool thing is because we get to be part of a big capital c church, then we can put that all together and go, yay. We, as a large group of people, have been rightfully been ambassadors of the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. But but we stopped we stopped counting things like that. Like, we start we start, we started looking around and saying, it wasn't successful because half the people didn't go or quarter of the people didn't go. Like, they're all relative distinctions.

When the truth is, I think if you build it the other way around, if if you're just an excited person that's bringing people with you, people will come. People are attracted to that. I mean, there are people who, like, I don't I want to do something. I don't know what to do. And and, frankly, they'll jump on the first guy that's like, I'm heading over here and doing this. Go go ahead and come along. And then that those things that we otherwise write counts for success do do will happen. Like, they will automatically happen. I just you know, sometimes we just have this thought process that, like, success is means means big as opposed to being a cumulative nature of of many, many small successes. Agreed. Alright. You're listening live from the path. What else did I read on

no. I didn't care about that. That wasn't very important. Mike was riled up because she she well, we'll skip your second Donald Trump topic. We'll skip that one. Yeah. Shoot. I thought there was one other big thing that I thought was oh, I know what, Dan. I wanted to ask you. There was an article about

things people ask the pastor to do just before the sermon. And I was at distractions that happened. I was gonna see if these have happened to you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Alright. Here we go. Nine these were nine distractions that shouldn't happen right before sermon. Number one, oh, personal these seems some of these aren't like crazy people. Personal and family problems. It is difficult to be focused on the word of God when the pastor's dealing with problems of this nature. Please pray for your pastor daily for protection from these types of challenges and problems. Something that you've been impacted by?

Like somebody else's personal problem? No. I think you like, personal, meaning you. I mean yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Physical problems. My son, Sam, preached a sermon then threw up and passed out. Is that hard for you, Dan? You had the hefts on the on the stage? No. There there's there's times I've I I wondered going in, like, oh, I wonder how this is gonna go. And and so

so far, I've never That seems different, though. Right? Like, I could see throwing up and and feeling rough before because, like, you got some heavy stuff to say or maybe you just in general don't Or have a flu. Or you got there something something wrong with you. You know? Yeah. But, like, if after you've preached, you thought, I know. That don't seem right. Like, you didn't do it right or something. Maybe the maybe the communion fermented a little too long. Dang it, George. It's it's your week to change it. How old was that grape juice? No. But it was good.

George can handle it. Let's see. Someone who says, I need to talk to you after the service. Don't say that. Can you imagine what the pastor is likely thinking the entire service? Do people do that? I I've had that most of most of the prior what you're gonna say is, like, stuff that happened to me, like, prior to our current situation. Yeah. Okay. In in the neutral setting is is very different. It doesn't happen that same way. But but yeah. They yeah. There'd be people who, like, you know they're trying to get you fired. They're like, hey. I wanna talk to you after the service. You know? And and yeah. Yeah. So Oh. Dan, I'm gonna start doing that to you. Yeah. That'd be fine. Walk in a view right before the service. Dan, we need to talk. It's really important. We'll talk afterwards. Hey. Just for the record, that really creeps me out. Like, doesn't even have to be, like, something might be personal against me, but if you're like, hey. I got something going on. I need to talk to you. Service. I will worry about that for two the next two hours. It'll freak me out. I just I can't take that kind Is that is that what is that what neurotic is? Like, when people say that like like, if people say, hey. I need to see you later. And, like, automatically, your mind goes to, like, a thousand things, and you're like, this is gonna be bad. It has nothing but bad stuff gonna happen. Neurotic is more of a detail oriented thing. It? Suffering from or caused by relating to neurosis. Okay. Yeah. Hey. Really helpful definition. Hold on. Now let's follow neurosis.

Hold on. Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. Yeah. Okay. So that fits the bill. That could be. So yeah. I mean, you're not Your imagination's going wild. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It could involve anxiety, sadness, or depression, anger, irritability. I mean, that could be anything. Like, I get Yeah. Yeah. I gonna say that's more of an ank like, being anxious thing. Yeah. I do that when my boss jumps in erotic. He says that, hey. I need to talk to you upstairs when you get a second. I'm like, oh, no. Like, how many should I take? Should I pack up my stuff? Like, automatically just assume I would get fired. My mind goes crazy. That's what what you are you the type of guy that gets worried when you pass a police officer?

Like, you just assume that Totally. He's pulling something Yeah. Every time. I'm a 100% certain that I have everything correct. All my tail lights are fine. I've got insurance. Got my license. It's my vehicle. All my license plates are fine, but I'll pass the cop and, like, wait a minute. What's happening right now? Guilty. Oh, man. But then again then again, the second police officers see me, they immediately want to either put me in handcuffs or zip ties. I freak cops out. And I've actually I've asked people this, and police officers will go, yeah. You're big. I don't want to mess with you. I'm gonna put you in hand. Wait. But you got pulled over for, like, legitimate traffic violations? Pulled over in the church van because there was equipment in the back, and I didn't have a license plate on, and the guy zip tied me. Really? He zip tied me, took the van, and dropped me off at a Walmart. You he was a legit cop? I thought about that too. I was like, wait a minute. I did did I just get but some fake constable?

Like, come on, man. Yeah. No. Handcuffs don't fit. Alright. No. I I don't know if it's the setting we're in now, pathway, or if it's that I've gotten older, but that stuff at one time bothered me. Yeah. I can't remember the last time it bothered me. Now I'm just like, oh, okay. Yeah. Whatever. Okay. I'm just like Alright. If I just don't care, it's like, there's not you're gonna say it's gonna upset me. You know what saying?

I've never heard this. And then, like, thirty years later, you're like, we're having trouble with our marriage. Like, yeah. Everybody just So nice. You know? 6% of the room. Not enough sex and not enough money. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay. Hold on. Let me get a piece of walking on Dan doing some kind of marriage counseling where he's like, alright. I get what the problems are. Here's your fix. Goodbye. And he just walks right out. Which one of you is the sex? Which one is the money? Okay. Now that we know our people. Every once in while. The only one time, it's been, the the woman wanting more, the in my my experience.

Wow. You won't be I suppose that dude felt like a dude. I'm talking about shit. Yeah. I'm just not really that into it. You kidding me? How'd you get in here? Maybe you don't have the dude racer.

They must straighten it right out. They make it an orange. Have you did you get the orange one? Did you get the one that said sport in shiny letters on the front? Because that's the man's one. No. Has a lumberjack in the back of it. That's the one we're looking for. No. No. How about the dog shears? Is that where The dog shears. That where Christian counseling fails? We go, look, dude. I can't help you. There's something wrong with you. Eat some papaya or something. I don't know.

Maybe you've seen the mayonnaise like Brad Pitt's relatives. They seem to be doing alright. I was reading something on theanswers.com last week. Mayonnaise.

When Christian counseling fails. Let's see. Malfunctioning equipment. Every pastor in every church has many stories here. Dan, there's troubles with the TVs. I'll be on it. Yeah. It's just always something. There you go. That used to bother me a lot too. And it's just and he's going, you know what? Jesus is still here. I'm pretty sure we'll be alright.

He says, I now have eight different stories where a pastor was asked to unclog a toilet right before the sermon. Wait a minute. By the guy that did it? Because that'd be worse. It it didn't specify. I'd rather be the 2nd Street guy that's like, something happened here, but not the guy that's like, I did something in there, because that's bad.

Have you ever someone ever said, Dan, I need you to unplug the john? I know you're growing up, but can you See, generally, my response in that type of issue is, oh, why don't you go find the building person? You know? I mean, so I kinda I I kinda, you know, shove it off. So That's true. You can avoid a lot of these with rightful delegation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The TVs are broken. Even on top of that, like, if if it's a clogged toilet thing, why didn't that person just handle it? What that's the thing. Like, I don't understand why that person didn't just go, hey, man. This is the house of the lord. I don't work here, though, so I'm not gonna be the one who unclogs toilet. Say, do we have plungers? Yeah. Okay. That's more understandable than go down below bus. You're paid by this establishment. You're actually paid by Jesus. Can you go take care of that dad? You're my toilet guy. Right? Yeah. No. It's like, hey, man. Like after the age of eight, I tried to handle that on my own. Right. Exactly. So it wasn't real obvious that I'd just done something there. I think I was at my grandma's one time when I was, like Oh, no. Seven or eight. And, like, I thought there's too much toilet paper in this toilet. And so I just started putting it in the garbage can. Oh, grandma was mad. She

goes, listen, Mike. You can flush multiple times. You don't have to just, like, oh, that's the full amount, and then I just start putting it in the toilet garbage can. It just took a weird spin there. I never made that mistake again. Yeah. Life lessons. I did not know that story. Yeah. You have multiple points of family in here. They're just like, woah. Gross. That's why that's why grandma followed me to bathroom every time I was over there. I thought grandma just didn't take care of her bathroom well. No. Well, that changes everything. Whoops.

Gross. I may have told unsensitive stories about grandma's bathroom with the table. I need to write that one. Actually Mike's fault. Yeah. Grandma never mind. Let's see. Last minute request. I was in a church two years ago where the pastor showed me a handful of written notes. All the notes were last minute requests for him to make announcements. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then that was you need to tell the world, Dan. You can see it's like, oh, that's why like having that done ahead of time. It's like, oh, we don't have a slide for that. Sorry. You know? Hey. The slides are the great excuse. Sorry. PowerPoint is save Dan's sermons. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've used that one before. Nice. Our broken technology has gone beyond the ability to just say things out loud.

That's not gonna work out. Alright. Well, it sounds like a few of those have happened. What was the last one? No. That oh, criticism. Yes. It happens. Too many pastors are criticized right before they preach. Hey. Hey, Dan. You've done poorly in the past. Good luck today. Expectations are little. Awesome. I hate what you're about to say. I I had that, though. Really? Historically speaking, what you're about to say is awful. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I mean,

It wasn't that, but it was good. Seems like rough times. I don't understand people. Like, in general. You know what I'm saying? Like, there's a there's a right time. Let's say let's say Dan gave a sermon. I'm like, I don't know, man. None of it. You know, I didn't like any of it. I which has happened before, and we've talked about it, but it's always been, like, a day later. Because, like, you would get an instant reaction to something, and I've I've hated something Dan has said. And then Sunday night, I'm like, you know what? Alright. It was it was alright. Like, I was just making a bad decision. I was not in the right place to hear what he was saying. Right? But I've held on to it for twenty four hours and said, Dan, when are you talking? I don't like that at all, and here's whacking. Right? Like, you there's a way to have a converse it's not like Dan is not a or your pastor is not a human being Yeah. Of some kind that you can't have a reasonable conversation with. He's like the for some reason, they look at him, and maybe the Catholics have done this. Right? But, like, a uniformed like, it's just the way you treat the Walmart customer service guy. You're like, you work here. This place is your fault. Everything about it is you, and I wanna talk to you. And, like, it seems like sometimes we do that to the to the pastors. It's like, everything about this joint, your fault. You're the uniform guy here, and and I wanna talk about it right now. So here's what we're gonna do. No. Hey. Actually, so here's here's something to think about. It's like, broadly, we have become a,

our opinion matters, culture. Right? Yep. I buy things because a group of, 8,000 people have reviewed it on Amazon, and it's, like, four and a half stars instead of four stars. The other thing sucks. It's four. Four and a half, I think, is fantastic. But, like, what it has caused, though, like, hearing other people's opinion is a positive thing. Right? But it has shifted the way that we look at the world. We now we now look at the world because we have a a a phone with a pocket full of apps on it that says, let me review this restaurant. Let me review this boat shop. Let me review this bike, repairman. Let me review this church. Like, you can do it on Facebook. I this church gets five stars. This church gets four stars. Right? So,

it it has created probably some unhealthy sense that, we don't actually get to receive things, services from people without feeling that that we are in the appropriate spot to rightly judge it and review it. And I I'm not sure it's an implicitly bad thing, but what it does is it it does separate us from things a little bit. Right? Like, causes you if you are judging something, or if you're the person that gives feedback or review on it,

you do actually disassociate yourself oftentimes from that. And it doesn't allow you to then, like, give over part of yourself, which a church service would be part of those things, to be able to kinda take it in full. And so it it does, it it doesn't mean that that, like, things the that go on in a church or things go on that have any type of religious affiliation are above reproach and should not contain some of them. So, hey, I think we could do that better. Everything wants wants to do that better. But I I I would maybe caution how we interact with the world in such a review driven culture that says, this thing requires my opinion so that now I have my eye out for it. Just like if I'm if I'm casually walking by my kid's room, I might be like I might glance in there and it doesn't strike me. But if I'm going in this if they said, hey. We cleaned our room. I'm gonna watch it with a lot stricter eye and be like, no. You I can see that thing sticking out from under the bed that you stuffed there, where I wouldn't know it if I walked by, and it wouldn't have harmed me at all. And so, like, if you're walking into something for a critical eye, it feels like a success to find it. And so a a lot of times, our reviews or or interact with something where we feel like we have to review it, we actually don't get the right experience because we brought into it a critical eye that we wouldn't have necessarily had if we would've just taken it in.

So maybe it's just a caution, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a church specific thing. It's just in general, just because you can doesn't mean you have to bring into something, the nature that says, I am here to critique this. Maybe you just maybe you just went to the bike shop. You needed a bike fixed and so on. You don't have to have a strong reaction either way. You paid the guy to fix the bike. You fix the bike, it's fine. You know, do you feel like that wears people out? Like, in general, people are the they always say that people

modern like, the modern generation just they're just sluggish and tired all the time. And you know how much emotional effort takes to judge everything all the time? Right? Every time you do something, whether you stop at the subway or the gas station or the bike shop like Ben said, and, like, you're like, hey. I don't like this place. Click click click click click. Go. I didn't like that. This place was alright. Click click click. Go. Right? And so, like, now you are you it doesn't seem like it would be much, but if you take that and multiply it by 20 times a day, every interaction you had like, even the interaction you had with your friend or the guy that wasn't your friend, you're gonna judge them on the Facebook or the Twitter, and you're like, oh, dude. I didn't this guy said this to me. Click click click. You know I'm saying? Like, you have basically put yourself in a seat of judgment throughout the whole day, and it has got to be exhausting. Right? Like, not only did I find this deplorable, but I hate to have other people have to experience the same thing, so I'm a let them know. It seems like an altruistic motive in the beginning. I'm just trying to help people out or they should be aware of this thing. But, really, you spent your whole day judging everything that you did and then telling everybody about it. I don't know how you have time for an original thought or be able to take in, like like, basically, instead of going to the poetry contest and taking in the art, you're you you said, I wanna be on the judges' table. Right? And you miss the whole experience of just sitting in the crowd going, man, that's got some raw stuff going on when you're just sitting there looking for for right right rhyme, right flow, right whatever. And then, like, you did that through your whole day, and you multiply that by some years. That's exhausting. Yeah. I I, I just joined Goodreads. You guys heard of that? No. Because goodreads.com,

it's a it's a place where people kinda share, you can see what everybody's reading, the things they wanna read, the things they're currently reading. When they finish a book, they'll generally give it a rating, provide a little feedback, and that you can kinda hook up with your Facebook friends, so the people you know and trust, or whether you can kinda see the books that they've had, and maybe, you know, you read it too or read along with them or whatever. So, somebody had posted a, had rated a book that I had read, and they had rated it like three stars. And I thought, I wonder what the review was like. And but you couldn't, read it without actually signing up for Goodreads. And so, I I I signed up, and and then I thought it's trying to add books that I'd read. And I I was I noticed that my I stink at review. Like, I love to read. I love to write. But I can't review anything very well, because I'm like, yeah. No. That's pretty good. Four. Yeah. Four. Care about that. Yeah. Four.

Four. And then and then, like, for something to be fantastic or, like, a three, I'm like, well, I don't know. That seems a little harsh. Seems alright. Four seems alright. It was okay. And I thought, like, I'm the worst Middle of the road. I had that when I was when I was flying to The Philippines. I I for some reason, decided I was gonna keep some kind of diarrhea I was there. And so I was trying to write, hey. I watched three movies, and I I was writing them down, I thought, yeah. They were alright. I wouldn't watch them again, but I wouldn't turn them off if they were on, if I sat on the couch. So, like, I just like, I I cannot provide any type of, actionable,

insight on life. I just everything's pretty much alright. Well, is that mean, is it in general the world is not set up for people that are easy to get along with? You know what I'm saying? You wanna do that? No. You wanna do that? I don't care. Yeah. Okay. Whatever. People are irritated. Like, make a decision. What's wrong with you? Love or hate it? I'm I I need a decision. I I guess even, like well, remember we read we did a review of Tim Timmons CD. Yeah. His latest album. And, like, as as, I didn't feel like we had to assign a rating or anything for it because, like, I listened to it and I thought, well, here's kinda what I heard. But, like, there were some parts of it that weren't my cup of tea, but it might be somebody else's. So what am I gonna say? Like, I give it a three because I hated this song. But if you dig on it, like, That's right. Why do I have to give it a three? You dig on bad things, then I guess the song's for you. I just don't I like it's just I I have a hard time assigning

assigning value to something or putting a rating on on things, because I feel like it might be alright for somebody else. Or I know it was alright. It it wasn't awful, and it wasn't fantastic. Most things are just like, meh. It was okay. It was it was worth spending my time. I'm either way about that conversation. I feel you. Okay. That's good reads. What? Why did you give me a snake face when I was when I kept a diary? Imagining you keeping a traveling diary of your time over in The Philippines. I did. Lit electrical fire on my razor today. And then I watched Notting Hill.

Sider House rules right after my sports razor caught on fire, and I threw directly into the shower. Was that entry in there, or did you skip that part of your travel diary? Don't lie. I know. I don't remember. I'd have to go back and check it. It's still on the You kept it? It's still on the net. Oh, you Oh, you published it? Yeah. Yeah. You wow. This was not just for you. You published your own travel diary. I did. I got a lot of action. Yeah. What? People people made comments on it? Yeah. Actually, so here was the funny thing. I don't know anything any of this part of you. This sounds ridiculous. So no. Yeah. This is this sounds like a terrible decision from start to finish. Now here's what I didn't wanna do. Watch three movies on the plane over. I was I was gonna be gone for six weeks. Yeah. And I thought, like, I don't wanna be posting Facebook updates and stuff all the time

on things that I had going on. So what I did was is I said, I'll just keep, like there's, like, a a website where you can kinda keep keep a travel log. And so where were you at that day? Upload pictures, and then, like, write what was going on. So I did that. I did that. And then Just like Facebook. Yeah. Exactly. Just legitimately like Facebook, but for not your friends. Like, for people who don't care about you personally. Just wait on it. Okay. We'll let you finish. Wait on it. I would have ended up posting, hey. You remember when Boo Boo was in The Philippines, and you knew that he was swimming, like, eight times in the same day? Yeah. Heck yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that's what I was I trying to I posted something, like, once every couple days. Yeah. Bu was in The Philippines be like, breakfast. Hey, man. Don't even lie. That breakfast buffet was insane, and that's why got pictures and stuff. Alright. Bu was swimming with whale sharks once, and that's the one time I pushed him to keep going. Boob is taller than everyone. Hashtag big white and loving it. Like, whatever it is. Big white and loving it. Whatever it like the most racist hashtag I could possibly put. Hashtag my hand comes to The Philippines. To be a big white man in The Philippines.

Couldn't be winning more today. There's nobody putting me down. Just make a trade. Hashtag. Like, really? That's pretty low rep, Bubba. That's why I didn't do that. I've got actually,

I've got a little teen spirit because I'm a man. Immediately great. White, awesome, big, wonderful. So

oh, shoot. Now in that context, this story's gonna sound bad. See? Yeah. Exactly. So there was a restaurant in The Philippines that was named KKK. Oh, man. And I took a picture of it, and I said, perhaps we should have rethought the name of this restaurant. Hey, man. There's some funny stuff. This seems really offensive. And so some guy who's from The Philippines

got on and said, you shouldn't say things like that. It was like a very honored title of a military thing. And they were very upset with me for having said that. I thought, like, hey, man. It's just it seems culturally insensitive. And I get that maybe they didn't have the same they didn't have the same problems we had, so, like, it's I get it. But, like, I it was just an odd thing, and this guy was really mad. But when not a friend of mine, he had caught it looking at my, open to everyone travel log, and he was very, very upset. I don't sound like nothing but a mistake to me. I don't know why you would keep a travel log on the Internet. Yes. And so you so you're saying that I posted a bunch of pictures and hashtag myself as a big white man, all this different stuff. Right? Yeah. And posted stuff to people that that I love and I want to see what I'm doing. Is your first time living in Koch? Public? Yeah. Well, alright then. It's the same problem. Whatever your point, you're No. No. No. No. It is not the same problem. I posted my deal for people to be able to look at it because they're my friends. Uh-huh. I don't think anyone searched, hey, big white guys in The Philippines and then popped up my profile. I don't know how this However, you had a public journal

that you kept. Apparently, you offended half the Filipinos. Entire country. Now hold on. I don't understand how he found it. Like, I this is not any different than you posting stuff on Facebook from a It is more likely for a man to find a public travel journal than he is to stumble upon my page. You couldn't find it if you wanted to, and you know me. Because I'm not in The Philippines. No. It's not a Just like a YouTube video. It's not a Filipino only travel log. It probably is. That's why they got upset. Man, Boob, I was with you until that was that was a poor You embarrassed yourself. Yeah. I'm sorry. It's right. Your Facebook profile is disgusting.

I need stop hashtagging big white man. Batman. Batman in The Philippines. Hey. Admittedly, there was a time when I posted way too much because I first had Instagram, and I was like, hey. Now I could put pictures on both these, and I went crazy. I will admit to that. I was a 22 year old dude that was just like, yeah. Social media. Yeah. I get it. And then I decided to back away from that and then stop taking selfies in general. Tell me when you're done,

and then I will I will refriend you onto Facebook. Are we not friends with the Facebook crap? You didn't even notice, did you? No. I didn't notice. Alright. Fine. Hashtag defriend. I changed my profile picture of me unfriending you. Just a screenshot of a click shot, Fred.

Buba, no longer. Alright. You wanna do some deer live for the past? Yeah. Yeah. What do you got? Oh, hey. Real quick. I went to Bash on the Farm. Oh, yeah. We're our our setup was to it's a it's a music festival up in Forest City, Iowa, And it's a two day festival, and we were all geared up to we're gonna we're gonna broadcast from this thing, and it did it ended up shaking out that way. I think we really wanna try to do it next year. Maybe we'll we'll see if we can get our ducks in a row. But I me and and the youngest daughter went or the oldest daughter went. And I was a little hesitant because my my oldest daughter, Grace, is she's like me. And so it's basically two socially awkward people going to this festival full of people. And I thought, well, we might have a great time or we might totally hate it. We'll see. And so, we went up there and and here's a couple things that I that I that I liked that really went very, very well. Is, first of all, the the the the hard rocking stage,

was excellent. And every band that that Grace and I watched, we happen to walk in right when Silverside was playing and we we know Silverside from the show. And, Laura from Silverside tends to give a a a pretty honest straight up testimony, that she was in she was in a bad place and she was doing some rough stuff. And and she came to one night and it was she had to make a decision and she yelled out to God and God showed up. And, but it it was stuff that, like, my daughter knows nothing about. Absolutely nothing about. Just some really heavy life stuff.

And, she's sitting there, you know, giving her testimony because she's talking to a bunch of of grown ups and I've brought my eight year old, you know. Yeah. And and and my daughter's just sitting there listening to it and her eyes are kinda getting wide and she's starting to kinda look at the floor a little bit. And, like, I I really loved it. I I love that that we had a fact to have that that we were able to have a conversation about it because I said, hey. I you know, can we talk about what she just said real quick? Because she's like, I I I don't understand what she's saying but it sounds really really bad. And so we talked to her for a little while or I talked to her for a little while and I said, here's what we're gonna do. I said, I'm gonna explain a little bit of what she's talking about but I want you to she go she basically said that that story scares me. And I said, I want you to always remember that story. Like, look at me right in the eyes. And I made her sit there and stare at me. And I said, always remember that story that Laura told.

I said, because it shows you the depth of of God's grace and that you cannot outrun it. And I said, there's there's a certain life that you're not gonna know anything about because God's grace grabbed you early. And you live in this family and we follow Jesus right now. And so hopefully, you will never run into some of these things that she's saying. But the people that you're gonna meet and the people that you're gonna get to know will absolutely have run into that. And I want you to know that God's grace covers all that and we're gonna meet Laura. And so after Silverside got done, me and Grace went up and met her and and and whatever. And I had her talk to her a little bit and and she wrote she she signed an autograph for us, you know, whatever. And it said like it said I can't remember what it said. Was always, thank you for coming. You're you're so beautiful. Love Laura, you know. And like it just meant the world to Grace. And and like everyone in that hard rock stage is not Johnny 50 year old, Republican Christian. You know I'm saying? Like, they're in a regular looking dude in the house. I'm the most white bread suburban dude in that room. And

so, it it was really cool that Grace got to because and I purposely it starts getting cheesy towards the end of the end of the day, but I'm like, see that guy? He loves Jesus. See that guy with the shovel and the zombie mask on? Loves Jesus. You know what I'm saying? And we got to go around the whole festival. And, like, these are people that she's not going to run into coming to this church or the circle of friends that I normally hang out with apart from what comes in here for the show. Right? And so that part was very, very cool. We did get handed, bible tracks,

gospel tracks on three separate occasions, me and her. So they would hand one to me and say, here you go, brother. And then they look right at Grace and say, here you go, sister. Good news. And then Grace would look at me and say, what is this? And I said, well, it it's it basically tells, you know, that that God is good, and and Jesus is who he says he is, but it's on a piece of paper. And it's it's so people can get to know him. We call it a waste of money. It's Chris looks right at me and goes, does that work? Yes. I said, no. Oh, I'm I'm so proud of her right now. I said, but here's the deal. The guy that handed him out thinks that it does. His heart's in the right place. And he's kinda wasting his effort. But, you know, he's trying to do the right thing. Right? And so we we leave this stage, go do something, come back. Same dude come up, give me another one, and her another one. He come back five minutes later and gives me I'm still holding the original what he gave me. Right? So we're at the gospel track round round three. Here comes the exact same guy. He's like, have you heard the good news, brother? And hands me a piece of paper into the same hand. I'm holding the one he gave me five minutes ago. And I thought, you know what? You're doing the best you can, bro. I hear yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Take them. Grace goes, what are gonna do with these? I said, we ain't giving it anybody. I said, if you feel like you wanna talk to somebody about the gospel, I'll go with you. We'll do it as a team, and we'll do it verbally because that's how I feel like it works best. And so, anyway,

the the the event as as a whole was very, very cool. Taking Grace was I'm I'm really, really glad I did it. I'm glad I took her and not the whole family because then it turns into a thing. You gotta kinda watch both the girls, make sure my wife's not bored and all this jazz. You know what I'm saying? Like, me and her got to sit and and to listen to some music and meet some very cool people that love Jesus that look and act nothing like the people that she normally meets. And so that was that was very, very cool. The gospel track thing was but it was cool because I got to explain to her the gospel tracks really I mean, maybe they work. People say they work. I don't understand. People are like, read a gospel track one time, changed my whole life, and I'm like, I feel like a fool because I would immediately say, that doesn't work. But, we got to talk about that a little bit. And so, overall, the the music was very, very cool. The, the heavy metal stage is where it's at, bro. That's where you gotta go. That's where all the cool folks are hanging out. They are absolutely, toned down religion and all Jesus.

All power all all power of God, all power of Christ. And and and they will it comes from a very unlikely source. You see, I mean, literally, there were four guys wearing zombie mask, carrying shovels, singing a tune. You know what I'm saying? Because they were called grave robbers. You know? And, like, I can't remember what the lyrics were, but something were like, you think you've seen ghosts? I know a ghost. He's the holy ghost. You know? I'm like Oh, that's I'm like Awesome. It's tying in, I guess. You know? But here's the deal. I got I got 20 guys right in the front row. Yeah. I'm like, you know what? Okay. Love it. You know, this this will work for me. And then, you know, they'll stop, and they'll and they'll tell how how Christ changed their life. And I'm like, first of all, I'm prude, and I've gotta I've gotta I've gotta open my eyes wider than they currently are. Because when zombie man come up, I'm like, I don't know about this. This can't be from Jesus. Don't know. Zombie man with a shovel. There's gonna be it's these are my internal thoughts. Right? I'm like, this can't be it. And then, you know, they sit there and talk about, the same God I know, the same Christ I know, the same grace that I know. And I'm like, okay. Right on. Forget it. I'm in. You know? And so that part was very, very cool. On the whole, the, the the music was pretty awesome.

Someone's saying good good father, which I caught, which was pretty good. Other than that, the general contemporary stuff, I can give or take it. But it was it was a very cool event. Of course, it was free. And I I I don't know. I I think if you can get the chance to if there's a safe place to do this with your kids is to to get them somewhere to to meet people that they're not normally gonna meet. A Christian music festival is probably the place. Find all the guys with the tattoos and pink hair and follow them to whatever stage they're going and go hang out over there. I I promise you, most of those people

know God's grace like you wish you did. And, like, I'm not saying subject yourself to some real poor stuff just so you could see it, in what it is. But, like, if you wanna if you wanna understand the power that that God has and and what Christ can can pull people away from, You can get that a lot of places, but those guys got some stories and they are brutally honest. And they are very cool people to know because they know Jesus like you like you'd hope you would, you know, just attending regular, whatever, Wednesday night meetings or something. So overall, it was it was a very cool experience. I'm glad I went. Cool. You you and you can go find Bash on the farm on on Facebook. That's where they post most of their update updates. Excuse me. And you can kinda see is have that flag so that you can get updates as they position for next year.

So hey. So it's literally on the farm, though, Mike. Like, I haven't been out there. No. I was at a fairground. Oh. A part a big park. Oh, not a farm. Yeah. There wasn't, like, cows and stuff roaming about. Well, dang. I kinda I mean, the towns the towns rule rule rule Yeah. Dave, do do chickens have ears? Oh, yeah.

It's in their beak. That's the hole in the beak. That's the ear? Yeah. Okay. I was trying to decide if you could have chickens in Sit. Hold on. Wait. I I can connect this for you. I was trying to decide whether you could have a bunch of chickens roaming around in the heavy metal stage and whether they would know it. Like, would they be irritated by the noise or not? Don't know. If they hold I think if they hold more sense, Buba. If they hold their nostrils up in the air, they're digging on it. If they hold them down, then they might not quite get it.

That's my experience with chickens. Do you what you have you talk to chickens? Do I talk to my chickens? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, I have a I have a rooster, and he come up, meets my truck every time when I get home, and I salute him and say, good afternoon, cockroach.

What? His name is cockroach? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And his his hair his hair flows in the wind like Fabio. So, like, so, like, when he comes running up to you, he always does this number, and his hair is, like, flowing behind him. It's beautiful to watch him. He's very majestic. And so I felt like I should start saluting him. So I get out of the truck, and I go, cockroach, and then he goes about his day. He's a good man.

Okay. Here we go. Ray. Hey. Incidentally, just in case you're listening at home, that, that nostril thing with chickens is I'd made that up. That's not even true. What? Do they have ears or don't they? Yeah. I'm I'm sure they hear something, Ben. Dear, they thought the these legitimately thought the holes in their beaks was their ear. It's their nostrils, Ben. That seems viable to me. It works. Like, I saw Mike's face at the same time I saw Ben's face. Mike is going, that ain't true. Ben is going, yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Totally. Ears in the nose. Sure. Hey. So I so I've I've started do chickens have into the Google. Oh, no. Do chickens have ears is the top suggestion. Do chickens have

nipples, tongues? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Anyway. Other people are looking for weird stuff too. Hold on. Most birds, including chickens, hear well. Birds have ears on both sides of their heads in their nostrils. It doesn't say that. Oh, really? I'm looking right at it. And that's a big part was convenient. That's a picture of a turkey. Yeah. It's it's under hearing ability of poultry.

All poultry. There is an article written on hearing ability of poultry. This is what the Internet does to people. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That's because it's a giant platform To to send where you can post your travel diary, and then some random Filipino dude is just like, hey. That's a sweet that's a war thing. You're a jerk. How dare you? And you know what? I'm an expert on poultry hearing, and I'm gonna tell you something. You see those holes inside the beak? Yeah. That's theirs. Here we go. We gotta get some advice here. Okay. Yeah. You're alive from the path. I'm moving in a few weeks, and I've asked my girlfriend of two years to move in with me. She's considering it, but I suspect she's unsure about it because I am pretty messy at times. Underwear tossed on the floor, plates piling up in the kitchen every other day, etcetera. I bet etcetera covers a lot of ground. I know if I could get my act together, she would happily move in, which is something I really want. Can you please give me some tips on becoming better at cleaning? I would hate for her to move in and feel like my maid or worse, not move in at all. Seems like the basis for a solid relationship. Yeah. I hate to make you feel like my maid, but I'm not gonna clean this stuff up. So if you want it to look better, you're have to do something. This this ties directly back into the conversation from last week where I'm guessing this is a younger dude that's just a straight up fool. Yeah. Absolute fool. First off, I'm glad your girlfriend is unsure about moving in with you. She should be for multiple reasons because she's your girlfriend, first off. I covered that one for you, Dan. Thank you. Second off, you know that feeling you get when you're about to go to bed and you think to yourself,

dude, there's still dishes in the sink. I know that my undies are on the floor right now, but I'm super tired. Shut up. Stand up. Go do it real quick, and then go to bed. I promise you that will be the start of you figuring it out. Hold on. I sorry. I just it's my minor technical question. At a time when you've discarded your underpants, what is it that you were doing afterwards that had to take so much time that you looked at them on the floor and be like, you know what? I'm too tired now. Here's the deal.

I've been there. Like, I'm gonna openly, I'm gonna admit this on the on the radio show right now. I've totally been there where I'm just like, man, I know that, like, my dirty clothes are right there, three feet away from me. But it's just this is a comfortable bed, and it just it feels like the amount of effort it's gonna take for me to get up right now and take care of that is unnecessary. Because it's gonna be there in the morning, and then I can make the decision then. But then the morning comes, and I'm just like, you know,

I know that There's dirty clothes piles. Right now. Yeah. Exactly. It's like, man, I know that I can get that done later on tonight when I'm back from work. Could probably do that later. And then six months later, you're like, I know that I just got in trouble with the health inspector. And I feel like he's overreacting. I had to burn all my clothes. Probably voting for probably voting for Trump, I'd guess.

No. Stop being a joke. Figure out the fact that there's responsibilities you have to take care of. First off, love Jesus. Second off, pick up your dirty laundry. Here here's the deal. Dear, dear. Fellas. I and this is where fellas get into trouble. We always talk about, Jesus is is is pretty awesome in the way that he says, look, come and follow me. And you look at the things in your life that are that are making that difficult, and you and and God allows you to put up your own fences to say, I have a problem straying from this yard and this yard. I'm gonna put up my own fences, and I'm gonna find people to help me with these fences. So here's the deal. Single fella, here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna get one cup. That's it. Don't buy like 10 cups. Don't buy a whole sleeve of plastic cups. Ruth. You get yourself one cup. And if you're lazy bum, leave it on there with orange juice in it for two days. You gotta drink out of the sink. But you know what you didn't do? Dirty another cup. You get one cup. You get yourself enough clothes to get through a week. That's it. There's no re you don't need 17 towels. You don't need three bed comforters. You don't need multiple anything. You are just one man.

So get yourself one cup, one set of silverware, and you'll figure out. You'll wash them. Yeah. Two towels. You can have an air and a spare. That's it. Yeah. Air and a spare. Air and a spare. That's it. That is you should create a company that's, bundles of towels and call it air and spare. Yeah. That's it. The only other option for a single man is to buy a bunch of disposable crap. You're just gonna spend a lot of money that way. That's bad stewardship. And do and do it. I mean, because I know how guys are. Right? Like, you get if you're gonna get one cup, it's gotta be an awesome cup. You know I'm saying? You gotta love it. And be like, this is my cup. And no one can use it, and no one can come over. Because here's the deal. As a single man, you don't need people at your place. Seriously, what do you need people over name one time where that ended not poorly. Right? Where someone's head didn't get through a wall or somebody didn't spill crap all over the floor or like, hey. I didn't ask, but is it cool if I bring my dog over and the dog pee everywhere? Yeah. Yeah. Either you're gonna have a bunch of hooligan friends over or you're gonna put yourself in a situation you probably shouldn't be in with your lady friend. Nope. Either way, you don't need to have folks over. No. Agreed. People don't need to be in fact, if you wanna learn how to do life, you need to have yourself over at over at a married couple's house so you can see how marriage works. And then a married couple's house that has some kids so you can see how that family works. And so if that's what you're striving for, those are the people that you can hang out with. Go hang out with your buddies who you are known to cause trouble with, even if it's not against Jesus kind of trouble, but just I lit fireworks off in the bathroom kind of trouble. You don't wanna be doing that at your place. So you say, hey, man. Let's meet at the park or over at your house. Because you ain't coming here. I only got one cup. Now now wait, man. See, here here here's the problem with this

is the guy's immature and lazy. He will never get beyond that because he only has one cup. He's need to learn he needs to learn how to wash his cups. No. I disagree. Yeah. No. I completely disagree. It's just what it is. Needs to grow up and be a big boy. And here's and here's why. Wash his clothes. Be responsible. I run into this with my kids all the time. I go up into their rooms and I say this place is a disaster. Why is it every time I come up here, it's a disaster? Well, I helped them clean it one time. It's a disaster because they don't have enough room to put all the crap they have. They have way too much crap. Yeah. You can have too much. I'm saying that. You tell me why a single man needs more than one cup. Tell me. There is no reason for that man to have his cup. Girlfriend ever he is he ever gonna have his girlfriend over supper? She can bring her own cup. Oh, yeah. That's that's probably where you lost me, Mike. I I think I'm gonna say to my lady, hey, sweetheart. You know I love you. You want dinner tonight. Right? Make sure you bring your plate. You better bring a plate and a cup. I got a Superman cup. Bring out in. We're we're not having takeouts. You might need to grab a fork. Hey. You know And a knife. You can take her out to the local establishment and say, pick out your own cup, babe. It's on me. Is that the fancy deal? And I will instead of keeping fancier to go to a gas station and grab the $1 deal and then take it back to your place for like this. And drink all the soda real fast? I got you a cup.

44 ounces. It's better than my 12 ounce cup. You ain't using that one. Hey, man. Here's the deal. Okay. So so there's two part parts to this is, a, that is completely true. I inherited all my parents' dishes. There's no reason for me to have this much dishes. Nope. Like, I have a whole cupboard full of cups. I use one cup. Like, legitimately, all those cups have been sitting there for two years and have never been touched by me. I don't remember the last time. I have this flour mug that was my mom's. It's never once been used by me. And then, apparently, my mom had an infatuation with lids because I've got, like, 40 mug lids, but whatever. Sure.

So that's totally fair. I have one pitcher that I use because I could pour a little bit into it, and then I can have a normal drink of OJ. Or I can fill it and then drink a liter of water at night. You drink out of a pitcher? Yes. Hey. I barbaric, but it works. Problem with this. It works, man. Because if I want ice water for, like, the whole night, I could fill this thing up with ice and then fill it up with water and just set it next to my bed. Wake up gasping, drink half a, like, a pitcher of water Yeah. And then set it back down. Wake up 06:30AM. It is still cold. What's that? Rick Harris, you do that stuff? Nick Harris acting like, that's fine. Seems pretty normal to have a giant pitcher of water. Yeah. Because, like, if I wanna drink them, like, milk or something, I'll I'll fill I'll fill a little bit up. Like, I don't drink the whole pitcher of milk. This is ridiculous. Hey, man. Like a serving pitcher.

Like a mist like an iced tea. There was a pre Jesus buva that that may have taken it from a local drinking establishment. You you stole a pitcher. Wait. I did not steal it. I said I took it. And I say that because I asked the waitress if I could have it. You mean the lady that is not in charge of the restaurant just someone who works to help buy that pitcher in the first asked her boss. He had no idea what to say other than, well, yeah. I guess he can have it. And so I have a I have a giant pitcher that has a Bacardi logo on the side of it because it's from a local drinking establishment. Then I drink milk and orange juice. But

not once have I ever had Bacardi in this picture. It's only normally water. But it works. Okay. But the second thing is, to piggyback off of what Mike said, if you're a single dude or a single gal, like, seriously, if you're if you're at that point where you still have a lot of stuff to figure out, find a couple to hang out with. Totally do that. I agree with Mike. Find a couple that may not have kids and just watch them. Not creepily. Not like like Back from the window. In the inner webs. Window. Just like Hey, guys. Ben, can I read your travel diary? Befriend a couple and just like, a married couple and be like, here's the deal. I have no idea how to exist in your realm, and I need you to you to show me, but I don't want it to be like a class. I wanted to show up and hang out with you. And, like, I'll bring dessert, we'll do dinner every once in a while. Right?

Also, find a married couple that has kids. Go hang out with them. Find somebody who's got 20 kids because if they can figure that deal out, you with two is nothing. Yeah. Right? Go watch them, figure it out their life, ask them questions if you need to where you're like, I don't get how you're a father in this deal because I would go insane. They go, well, yeah. You kinda figured out after a while. And then story, story, story, story, story. Find somebody like that. Yes. Do that. If you're a single person, figure that out right now. Find people that are further along in their life and figure out how they're doing it successfully. Okay. So our the the man's question was, can you please give me some tips on becoming better at cleaning? And our short answer is no. We can only give you tips on becoming a better man in general. And the cleaning will just come on the wayside. True. Alright. Secular says, your problem may be less that you're messy than that you're a procrastinator.

Excellent. The Same thing. Oh, hold on. Here's some best here's here's some basics. Buy a large wicker basket and keep it in a corner of your bedroom or closet. When the underwear and socks come off, toss them into the basket instead of on the floor. When you remove your pants and shirt, instead of throwing them over a chair, hang them up. Novel. And since you're a child, paint a target on the bottom of it, and then you could make it a game. Maybe we get some Cheerios. Can pull it the red dot. I get myself Hey. That that's how I get rid of my socks every night. Wee. It's a wicker basket as well. Dan's got a bull's eye hamper And a little basketball hoop that goes, congratulations, Dan. You did something adult today.

Did you pay the water bill? Shucks. We we joke about that. That is totally gonna happen. Five years down the line, people are gonna be like, man, how do we get single dudes to be adults? And then we go, let's give them some kind of encouragement, like a basketball hoop that says congratulations. You're one step closer to being an adult.

Hold on. The advice continues. After you're finished eating, either put your plate, silverware, etcetera, into the dishwasher and hand wash them immediately and put them where they belong. Try it for a week, and you'll be amazed about how tidy your place will be. So true. What? It's the advice Completely true. Clean for clean for a week. No. Seriously. Place will be clean. You guys joke, but seriously, if you're struggling to the point where you have never done this before, after a week, it becomes normal. Yeah. It totally does. After a week of cleaning every single night and making sure the dishes aren't sitting in your sink for three days, if you just do them, immediately put them away. When you wake up the next morning and you don't have to do them, it is a feeling you don't even you're not even expecting right now. No. No. I agree with that. I just I I'm hesitating whether it makes any sense to continue to date a man who needs step by step instructions where he takes off his clothes and goes, now what do I do? Yeah.

I know that they go into the washer eventually. Who's but what will I do with them between now and then? Agreed. You're definitely running into a situation where you're gonna be dating a joke of a dude, but at the same point in time, you know, if they're actually working on that, like, you you can't just avoid these people forever, there's a chance that that this is a norm. Did he get a diploma? Yeah. Believe it or not, you guys laugh about this, but this is a normal thing. Like, this is not as abnormal as you're thinking it is. To use a hamper? No. If I'm talking if I'm looking at if I take 50 dudes my age right now and I were to question either single dudes or the guys that are in relationship but aren't married, if I were to question how many of them actually either have a hamper or do their dishes every night, you would be astonished to have No. And I've never done that. No. It's it's not so much whether they do it. It's whether they can put two rocks together and be like, you know what? I could do some bucket of some sort to hold this until I put it into the washer. Yeah. Okay. That I agree with. Okay. Mean, what kind of dude gets completely buff naked in his room and goes, well, man, I'm out of ideas. This is all the farther I thought into it. I'm just placing some mess. Some confused and naked man like Yeah. I mean, generally guys really don't know what you know. I know where them things are going before I take them off. You know I'm saying? Like, I got a pretty good idea where they're heading for. I don't just get bare naked and go, man, I'm tapped. This is the best I have. I don't I don't deal with problems I don't got.

Until until I'm nude, I don't have a problem. Alright. One more. Ready? Yep. Dear life from the past, two teenage boys who live on our block frequently ride their skateboards in the street. They wear no protective padding or helmets and pay no attention to their surroundings. They stay out all hours in the summer, come flying into the street, swerve over both lanes of traffic. I've seen cars narrowly avoid hitting them many times, and I hear cars honking at them and drivers shouting. Their parents don't seem to care. They also let their dogs run loose around the neighborhood and into the street.

I often back out of their driveway without looking. I know I'll get nowhere speaking to them. I'm terrified I'll hit one of the boys with my car. I have come close twice and got dirty looks from them both times. I warn my visitors to watch out for them. I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before something awful happens, and I don't want to go to jail or live with a lifetime of guilt because of their irresponsible behavior. Any ideas? Yes. One. You're you stop being a crotch of the old woman. You are an angry old curmudgeon. Right? That's exactly what you are right now. Oh, you boys on your skateboards. Look, Henry. There goes the youth. I I'm imagining the conversation. Alright, Myrtle. You coming over for lunch the other two days

from now? Yes, sweetheart. Hey. Watch out for them old boys. They're gonna be swerving through traffic on their skateboards and dogs running around. Just a heads up. It is. It's a total picture of Armageddon on her block. Like, you drive up to it, it's picture perfect. Drive up, all a sudden, you hit her a block. It's nothing but dogs and kids and boards tooting around everywhere, throwing monster energy drinks at each other. You kids with your candy cigarettes. I'm sick of you. Using words like butt and crap. This neighborhood is never the same.

Yeah. Listen. I I mean, realistically, don't know what you think you're gonna do. There's no winning. Welcome to the two thousand tens. I mean, this is like you're painting a caricature of a child. You know, I mean, like, everyone can envision some flannel wearing Nirvana shirt with a stocking hat on when it's 95 degrees out, boarding his way down the street going, hey, old man. You know? Short short of that. I mean, you could you could trip him or something. I mean, I don't know what you're gonna do. Just go, hit him with your car one time. One time. They will never do it again. Hold

on. Practical thing. You could park your car over your own sidewalk. No. True. That makes him less likely to come cruising. Eventually, he'll just start going around you. Well and here's here's the deal. Give give give him two or three years. I don't know how old he is. Pretty soon, he's gonna be driving cars really fast up and down the road too. Then you can call them they'll be gone. Yeah. I mean, they'll it it it's not gonna be long. They're just gonna be gone. He's got I mean, it's just kid behavior. I know plenty of, like, 22, 23 year old dudes that will still skateboard. Buva, do you feel like you should up the amount of people you hang out with? Because every No. No. Hang out with I don't know how to do laundry and drive the skateboard. I do not hang out with anybody who skateboards in the road. Like, I just know they exist. Now see, I have I have more trouble with ladies in strollers tooting around the middle of the road like they own the place than I do with punk jazz or something. With their kids? Yeah. They're, like, walk three ladies wide with everybody got a stroller and kids on leashes, and they're like, They're just roll and then I, like, I go to back up, and they give me this sneery look like I had to cross into their territory known as the public road. And, like, I have way more problems with grown ladies and kids No. Yeah. Than with punk kids on skateboards. That happens in my neighborhood too. You got That's where it happened last time. It was on your street. Yeah. Couple ladies astride, and they look at you, and they're like, don't look at me this way. I'm a mom. I'm like, if you were a mom, you wouldn't put your kid in the middle of the road. Yeah. You know what a kid's skateboard is? Smoking weed in the basement. He ain't causing nobody any harm at all.

So anybody have any practical advice for the man or lady? I don't know who it is. It doesn't say whether it's a dude or a lady. Dan? Yeah. There's real there's nothing you can do. Try not to let it bother you. Try not to hit the kids. That'd be great. Maybe you should hand him a Yeah. Gospel Here here's a you can hand him some gospel tracks on the way by. Can you give him a class on how to use a hamper? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Here's the thing, Joe. She she her overdramatics on I'm afraid I'm gonna end up in jail. Right. Here's the thing. What kind of what kind of stealth meister is this character? Okay. But you're backing out, all of a sudden, he's just there. Here's the answer right here. Get yourself some bags of pea gravel.

And every time you go down the street, you throw out a couple handfuls. They're they're gonna stop skating there. You wanna send these kids flying off their skateboards. I'm not so much against what Dan said. They'll be discouraged after a while. Yes. That's the deal already. The youth from being kids. That's the best way to do it. Keep the children down. Just just throw in the wherever you don't want them. There's something very sounds like everywhere.

If it's road, she does she or he does not want them there. It uses pea gravel like rodent repellent except for urban hipsters. Wherever you don't want an urban hipster, just just struggle. Pea gravel. Where do you guys keep the kid be gone?

I thought you were gonna say something like quicklime or something. Something implied that, like, shoveling quicklime would just have it sitting out. Like, I might use this. I started setting out homework and rocks, and all of sudden, kids were nowhere to be found. Setting out homework and rocks. I put a piece of paper with responsibility written on it, and they finished.

Eagle Ford, Humperdinckert, it just keeps them away. I blasted out the front door. They never show up. These old people crack me. I mean, I can think of a I can think of a 100 ways in which it would be fun to attempt to dissuade them. Like, dress like them for a while and stand out and always always be on stuff like, rock on, dudes. You should take up skateboarding and flannels and beanies. Become one of them. Try and join their skateboard troop. Yeah. Join your game. I'm just imagining this urban warfare where this, like, old lady is trying to figure out how to, like, connect with the youth, and then they stop showing up. Yeah. There's plenty of ways to creep them out. Yeah. Like, frankly, that's a little bit of a turn the other cheek. Right? Just, like, just give them the old give them the old a little bit more than they were asking for, and it weirds them out.

What? What do you mean? Mike and I just both gave each other the weirdest look. Give him more than one

Yeah. I'm so creeped out by the possibilities of that statement from an old woman or an old man. Here we go. Moving on. Sweetie way. I'm I'm still sticking with Dan's kamikaze, laissez faire pre gravel.

Like like you out there at two in the morning going, You see him tripling. Score one always. Now that we're padding.

You could you could keep a scoreboard on your house, like, with the old school flip numbers and stuff where you take them off. It says old lady and punks. Old lady one. Here we go. Secular says, regardless of whether you think it will get you anywhere, talk to the parents about how dangerous their teenager's behavior is. Yeah. And when you do, explain that there may have been a couple of near misses.

After that, if the boys continue to ride in the street, mention it to your local police department and perhaps the boys will be cited for their recklessness. Some communities have ordinances, requiring the use of helmets. If the dogs create a nuisance, contact animal control. After that, case or ah, sirah, and your conscience should be clear. So Secular's advice is pretty much, just just call the authorities. Give them a take care of it. Be the worst possible neighbor you can be in this situation. Why don't you just fit the stereotype of a commercial old person, sit inside your house, and call the law? I'm a call the law.

Classic. This is why we have a hard time loving each other anymore. You know I'm saying? The cops show up, what's up with his pea gravel? That's littering, man. You're gonna have to clean all that stuff up. You need a street sweeper or something. This is getting ridiculous. But the dogs were always bothering with my ficus. Yeah. They come sniffing. They come sniffing all the time. They wanna lift their leg. They don't, but they want to.

Okay. That's it. Alright. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. You've listening to live from the past. I don't know. I I hope we solved your problems in life. I feel like this is this has covered just about everybody, really.

Oh, man. This is a real bug that worked out right at the end of a tune. Oh, yeah. That's that's Okay. Here we go. Bad radio. I can't help what goes on. Alright. Anyway, check us out during the week. Go to lifeinthepathof.org. You can find past clips from the show, interviews. Hey, Wayne Wayne Stewart's book is out tomorrow.

You still have a chance to preorder. Go to amazon.com. Do a search for Wayne Stewart, you wanna get pick up Wind Totem's Fall. I finished it yesterday, and delivered on his promise. Very solid book by Wayne, and you can go hook up with that on Amazon. And then you get the paper copies, I think, from his website. Just go like Wintoten's fallout on the, Facebook, and, he'll post updates and stuff there. Let's see. There were, Connection Music Festival went great. We talked about that. But you can, remember that CD from Arendelle's out there. Make sure to follow Tessa Johnson on Facebook. We just had a lot of cool artists and we got more coming up. Hey, Light forty five is gonna be in next month. They were at Bash. Mike Mike didn't get there in time, but, like, those guys are awesome. Go check out their their one of their songs on their EP on iTunes is called Steeped, and it's it's an excellent tune. So you're looking for Steeped by Light forty five. Go check that out this week. Yeah. They're and they're gonna be in studio, I think, July 11. They're gonna be here, and so we'll have them in then. And let's see. Duncan's coming in. Yeah. King MC's or not King m c. Bending Hope. Yeah. Bending Hope's gonna be here. Yeah. So lots lots of folks coming in, and that's it. I think that's all. If you need some advice, shoot us an email at [email protected]. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to live from the back.