Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the Pathway. And you're listening to Live From The Pathway. We're coming here from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. It's gonna be with you. I was afraid that you were gonna drop big news on me. Like,

you were you were leaving the show. You left a a very long pause that I thought. Either he's gonna say, look. I got some bad news. I'm leaving the show, or you were just gonna get up and leave. And then we would have been somewhere in the straights. Shoot. I didn't mean to create, like, excessive drama. There was tension. Definitely. Oh, okay. Well, I'm gonna keep that in mind for next time. That makes me feel good. I I know how to I know how to set a scene. I know how to deal in a moment of consequence. I am the man.

Bold, indeed. Too too much. Alright. You're listening to live from the path. Thanks for hanging out with us so far tonight. I really do appreciate it. The show is going to go uphill because Jane Block is in studio, and then it's gonna go downhill because Mike and I are also here. Yeah. I mean, there's just nothing I can do about that. That's the nature of the program, the guy that unlocks the doors. Hey, I feel like we're gonna investigate christianheadlights.com. We're at least gonna fish a bin. Okay. Alright. So here's here's what's on the the docket for the show today. We're gonna randomly fish christianheadlines.com. Okay. Now here's I How did you come across that site, Mike? Because I googled

Christian news. Here's the thing. It's like we've been doing the show how long, Ben? Seven, eight years now? It'd be eight years this year. Yeah. Eight years. Yeah. In our minds, we we've covered almost every topic known to man. Yeah. You know, like, we've already hashed through it. We've talked about it. And so it it leaves only current events and, like, the political landscape. Uh-huh. And both of which are detestable to me. It just really, we I mean, really, it's just gonna be we're gonna battle it out for, like, forty five minutes or so. It's really hard to find fresh content. Most of our content is derived from from a text written a day long time ago. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. I know. It not to say which is the reason we bring in guests. Right? The reason we like to have guests in is because God is a living and active God and he does big things in big worlds everywhere and he and and and the holy spirit is moving throughout the world doing crazy things. But if they don't write about it on christianheadlines.com, then we don't have anything to talk about. So we have to go find people and bring them in and so we can hear about about what God's doing in their life and that's kinda where we're driving our content. But in the in the in the mean cracks of the sidewalk between guests, we fish places like christianheadlines.com. I've been okay. Hold on. We're gonna talk about two. Okay. I'm gonna pick two out randomly from the top headlines of christianheadlines.com.

Chris Pratt attends Christian concert featuring Matthew West and Zach Williams. Crazy. I mean, that's the top headline. Dude attends Christian concert. I mean, I know I get who Chris Pratt is, but, like, he's just a felt like I don't even wanna click it to know the details of the article. If there's more than one paragraph there, they've overdone it. They've creeped on a concert somewhere and said, there's a guy, and then they wrote it up. It's a gossip hound, Mike. Yeah. It's a gossip ragging. I'm not saying it's I'm not saying it's righteous. I'm just saying this is what we did. Okay.

Who's who's who's what was the other guy? Zach Williams? Who's that? Yeah. He's the Is that old church choir man? No. Chainbreaker. He does the chainbreaker. Is that the same as the old church choir tune? No. No. Don't think so. Yeah. It is. No. I don't know. Old church choir chainbreaker. No. It's the same tune. Not the same thing. Alright. It might not be exactly the same, but probably written by the same guy. No. No. Okay. Alright. Alright. So we'll we'll dip into that. And we're also gonna do I can't find the intro. I and here's the deal. Most of all are gonna ain't gonna know the difference. But we so we there was a segment on the show called non biblical signs of the apocalypse. So you look around and these are things not contained in scripture anywhere, but it's a story in the news and you're like, know what? I feel like the world this has gotta be it. The end is near. Yeah. The end is near. Based upon based upon what's going on in the world today, I just I just The lord can't he can't tarry anymore. This stuff cannot be continued When I when I created for good, you've made for apory. And so I

so we're gonna talk about that. You can take your she apes back out of here. This is not gonna happen. So we'll go through those, and we'll go around the room and see if we can we're gonna decide whether this is sufficiently enough to bring the world to a close or whether we got some more time. There might might be hope yet. Yeah. Okay. And so the redeeming part of the show is is we're going to talk to Jane Block. Jane, thank you for joining us online from The Path. Thank you for having me. Well, you're very welcome. And so here's the thing. I don't I don't know how to say this, Mike. This is how I've come across Jane. I was creeping on the Internet. Yeah. Like like the christian headlines dot com. Yeah. Like, where they were waiting outside the show to see who went in there. I was creeping on websites. I think legit I think that websites are designed for this, right, to find folk. But I was out there I was out there looking for people to say, hey, man. We should we should bring some tunes onto the show Yeah. Because of the poor quality of the show recently. Yeah. And so and certainly, we needed someone who would be really good and could redeem the show. And certainly, this is when Jane shows up, and she'd I didn't tell her, like, the whole show was kind of riding on her shoulders. Oh. But it is kind of the it's I mean, that's the cut and dried business of this thing.

Is is I heard heard, was listening to some folks, and I'd I'd I'd saw the the stuff that she had out there, and I thought, well, hot dang. I think this solves everything. This is gonna change our fortune. Yeah. Here's the thing is we we front loaded all that on Matthew West, and he didn't come in. That's right. That's right. He split. He split. And when I what's that Williams character and Pratt? Chain breaker or whatever they do. Yeah. So anyway, we're gonna talk to Jane, and we're gonna get to know about her. She's gonna sing a few tunes and and generally raise

the level of the program. And then to end up the show, we're gonna do some advice on Dear Life in the Path. Mike, do you have you got a preview on this stuff? Yeah. Well, hold on. I I I had one ready ready in the tank, and then I'd I'd forgot about it because I got stuck on that Matthew West thing. What what is that a reference to? What? Have one in the tank. Like what? Oh, boy. I prefer not to answer. I I'm not sure. It's either has to do with a missile or or or a toiletry. It's either one. I'm just not sure. I wasn't prepared Alright. For you to ask more about it. Sorry. It just wasn't the phrase just caught me off guard. Okay. One was about, parents blaming,

the teenager's friends for their underage drinking. Okay. Obviously, that's that's definitely the deal. And then the other one was, someone that was upset. Oh, someone wrote in upset saying that a cruise is a hard earned vacation, not a shopping trip for your friends. What? Yeah. I can't wait to read this one. This one I'm most excited about. Okay. So that that's what we got going on the show today. Excellent. Let's let's let's get to this. So first, let's let's talk a little bit to Jane. Jane, so I'd already said thank you for coming on. Let's let's do this. Let's introduce yourself just a little bit. Tell tell the folks a little bit about your background

and and and maybe about, like, your, what you feel like your musical influences are. Sure. Yeah. So I'm from everywhere. I've traveled a lot in the past couple of years, even my whole life. Hey. That's that's true. I was asking just before the show started, and it was a Johnny Cash song, really. You know you know the one where he names all the places in The United States? That that's where Jane is from. Yes. Yes. I was originally born in Canada. I moved here when I was about six, And I started playing music in third grade. I've started playing flute,

and I went all the way to college. I was a music major in Oklahoma. And I got my bachelor of science and decided to pick up the guitar. That's that's quite the jump from the from the flute Yes. To the guitar. Plus, it's a bigger instrument. It's a little heavier. Yeah. But people think you could mean business, or you may have committed a crime. You very rarely see flute players enjoy a life of crime. But people play guitar, it could go fifty fifty. That's true. So so would you say that, like, hey. Yeah. So I'm now I'm really interested. Was it was it more that did you foray into into writing songs or whatever on the flute? Yes. So I started writing songs in 2008,

and I played them primarily for, composers concerts and whatnot, but I did I wrote for about seven different instruments, flute being one of them, clarinet, bassoon,

drums, and I used to write ensemble pieces. Yeah. Yeah. Do do I mean, do you, like, score them all out and have them on I did. Yes. That seems really cool. At least you got something to show for yourself. You're like, I scored this thing. Look at this. Yeah. Did you ever did you ever think that you could write tunes for movies? I think that would just be the tops. No. I never even thought about doing tunes for movies. I actually I was writing them for causes. So one one piece that I wrote that was an ensemble piece, it was written for Invisible Children. Yeah. And, just kind of the hardships that, you know, kids that don't have anything,

I just wrote it for them. Wow. I'm I'm really smart based on what you've said. I wanna write two or movies. She's like, yeah. I did something real with my life. So that's cool. So how do I think most people when they think of folks writing songs, like, when you have words at your disposal Mhmm. I this is this is not gonna sound right because it's gonna sound, like it's easier. But, like like, that's how most people are able to communicate emotion

or or ideas and things. And so having to do that without that kind of at your disposal to be able to do it musically, like, seems like a really interesting process. Can you, I don't I don't know what I'm asking, I guess. But that that like, that seems like it would be hard to do. Like, how do you how do you do that? How do you create a connection and emotion,

for, like, an ensemble piece Mhmm. Versus being able to just, you know, use words that otherwise people could connect with? Well, honestly, words were always hard for me when I was younger, so I never had to had to express my feelings through words. And I've always had my music, and that's the way I would get over, you know, tough days at school or, being yelled at by a teacher or something. I would go and play my flute for hours on end. Right. And so it was easier for me to write them down on a piece of paper, and that's where my music came from was just all the frustration, all the sadness, all of that went into my pieces instead of into words. Gotcha. So so what caused you then to to pick up the guitar? Honestly, it was an instrument I hadn't played before, and it sounded like a challenge and

sounded like a lot of fun. And my pastor was actually encouraging me to pick up the guitar so that I could play with the children at church. He really wanted to start a music group, and that's where I came in. I was willing to do it. So he had me pick up the guitar. Do that. My pastor encouraged me to become a plumber because he needed some work done at his place. That's not what happened.

What the heck? That actually I that is I got roped into to that's how I learned to play bass. They needed a bass player for the jazz band at school. Mhmm. And and I played the clarinet at the time, and they say, look. You we'll give you the bass over the summer. You learn how to play the bass. We need a guy. And I thought, well, okay. And there you go. Did you find that it was was a difficult transition or different than you expected moving to the guitar and, like, songwriting? It was definitely very difficult. My fingers were obviously not accustomed to the strings. Right. And,

even now, they're still not really accustomed to it, and I had nobody to teach me. So it was all on my own. Alright. Well, so let's do this. Let's, let's listen to a tune. So the the first song that you're gonna play is Sands of the Sea. You wanna tell me a little bit about that? Yeah. So Sands of the Sea was the second song I wrote on guitar. And I went to Facebook, and I said, hey. I'm trying to write a song. I'm I'm bored. I'm sitting at home doing nothing. And my friend actually messaged me. She's also a composer, and she said, you know, don't worry about it. You know, it'll come to you. All of his blessings are like the sands of the sea.

And it kinda just sparked something, and I was sitting on my washing machine and wrote a song. On the washing machine? Yep. I was doing laundry. That's how I ended up writing this song, was doing laundry. Was it, was there anything about the rhythm of the washing machine that was helpful? Or I don't think so. I don't remember. No. No. Ben, come on. That's ridiculous. Well, I don't know. That seemed kinda reasonable.

Obviously know. It could have sparked something. I I don't really remember. I just sat down and decided that I liked the the phrase the sands of the sea. Yeah. Don't tell Ben your secrets. He's gonna steal them and try to put album out. I don't shoot. I you know, I have this, though. I feel like every time I pump gas, I'm gonna write a tune because there's a there's a chugging going along with the never mind. Never mind. I've embarrassed myself. Alright. So let's, what what,

yeah. Let's just go ahead and listen. This is, Jane Block with Sands of the Sea. You're listening to Live From the Path. On restless nights. Hold me tight. Surround your love closer

to me. Bring your love when I'm in need. Because your blessings are like the stars

Thank you for loving someone like me. When I'm in doubt, I run to you. And when I'm scared,

you pull me through. Hold my heart Nice job. Thank you. Was a cool tune. Thank you. Here's what I well, okay. So, I have a really hard time with that posture, and and that's actually what I like most about the song. Right? Like, there's there's just a presenting yourself before god thing that says, I I just thank you for all the stuff that you've done. And, boy, howdy, am I really bad about forgetting that god has done all those things for me. That's a very cool song. Thank you.

You said that was the second the second one? Yes. That was the second one. Interesting. Just so, like, do you have, on the washer? Everything happened on the washer? Yes. At that one time? Yes. All at the same time. It took me about, I'd say about ten to twenty minutes to write that song. Holy cow. Words words and all. Was were were you surprised by that? Yes. Very surprised. I was gonna say. Yeah. You know? I mean, I spent four hours writing a song about donkeys one time, and I thought I had really had this thing licked.

But apparently not. I wasn't sitting on the washer, though. I tried it in the regular chair. Who who looks a fool now? Mike Foust. Excellent. So that was that was Jane Block. That was Sounds of the Sea, and you can find keep keep up with what Jane is doing by going to her Facebook page. She also has a Twitter,

and both are legitimate. Like, she keeps them keeps them up to date, post things out there. You can keep up to what she's doing and, her thoughts on life. Maybe, she's gonna write another tune, and she needs you to say, hey, something or other. And then she'll go sit on an appliance, and, then the song will come out. How many how many Twitter followers do you have to have before you get one of the blue check marks? It's a lot. Is it? Yeah. How many we got, Bill? Less than that. Okay.

Chips. Yeah. I mean, I only have so many family members. I'm running out of uncles. Actually, every once in a while actually, every every once in while, someone I don't know likes something or, like, retweets someone. I'm like, what the hell is going on here? That is scary, actually. If you check your Facebook and someone likes something, you're like, who is this guy? And then you start then you turn around and and reverse creep them. You're like, what's your deal? And they're like, he lives in Colfax Mingo. You're like, Colfax Mingo? Where is that? How do I know you? Do you do you still find, do you still, like, write songs

instrumentally? Like, do you still find yourself go go into that? Are you primarily writing on guitar now? Or Sometimes I go back, and I use a program called Finale. Uh-huh. And sometimes I go back. I think the last one that I wrote was I think it was called, like, Rocky Mountain Reflection or something like that. Yeah. And it was all about this being in the Rocky Mountains and how majestic they are and, you know, my dad telling me that we're running out of gas at the top of it. Oh, right. Thinking that we're not gonna come down. So it's it's a very interesting piece, and it's it was a lot of fun to write. Do you have any recorded, like, versions of these tunes that you've written? I do on some of them. I think I have a YouTube page for them. I don't keep up with it very often. And I think it's like SJCB

compositions or something like that. And, I have some of my instrumental pieces that I wrote. I had to get that YouTube page in college. So Oh. They told me I had to have an outlet for my music so that my professors could see it. Oh, that's a weird thing to say. I mean, it doesn't sound encouraging the way they're saying it too.

They're like, we're gonna grade you on your on your performances. I'm like, great. Oh my gosh. This is gonna be terrible. Oh, man. Boy, Ben Ben, we're gonna creep on that YouTube video. Yeah. We're gonna check it out. Alright. Sure. Yeah. Can you still download stuff off of YouTube? Yeah. Okay. Excellent. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, let's so let's let's check back in with the christianheadlines.com. Okay. Professor may have solved the Amelia Earhart mystery. Hey. There's a is is the was did she fly the Spirit of Saint Louis?

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's Is that the name of the plane? Yeah. There's a there's a girl one of my daughter's friends was over at the house this weekend and she said she was doing a report on Amelia Earhart or whatever. Then she claimed that that Amelia Earhart was related to one of the presidents, and then but then she didn't know the name of the plane that she sailed in. And I I I thought she was making up things, and I couldn't tell. And so I need that piece of information to rebut a 10 year old later. Yeah. No. I think that's the one. Okay. Excellent. Related to a president. Hey. Do we talk about this Maryland church gives away five cars? You were gonna Maryland church gave five used cars to raffle to raffle winners at the church this past weekend. Wait. That's not giving them away. It's a raffle. You're taking in money. Somebody bought it. Just super cheap. It's like one of those deal sites.

Let's see. One of our founding values as a church is that we are outrageously generous. Okay. I love that. And we strive to live that out in everything we do. We wanted to mark the celebration with an act of generosity that overshadowed the great blessing of the building we received. The cars included a Chevy Cruze, a Toyota Corolla, a Nissan Sentra, Ford Escape and a Dodge Journey. Now here's the thing, I I I mean, this is going to sound bad, Mike. This is gonna sound real bad, I'm gonna say here. I'm I'm ready for it. But, I mean, I don't consider a Toyota Corolla outrageously generous. I mean, I mean, I drive a 2003 Blazer at 280,000 miles. Right? So it's not like I drive the height of anything. But if you're gonna say, hey. We are outrageously generous. I mean, you should give away Suburban stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if people found out that you were giving away midsize sedans, you know, you're giving away some four wheel drive monster. That's cool. Yeah. I mean, it's still cool though. Yeah. It is. I dig on it. Maryland. Maryland church give away five cars. Okay. Right on. That really is the best we have to offer, though, Ben, as far as Christian news goes. What else?

Billy Graham, Billy Graham, Billy Graham. Yep. Israel, Israel, Israel. No. That's about it. Man, that's rough times. That's the headlines. That's the news right there. Okay. Hey. So I've I've been telling you we wanted to catch up with Matthew Loftus' two parts on

it was the the fallout from, the Harvey Weinstein stuff and, like, a culture of the Me Too movement, the sex culture of sexuality. Basically, what's the what's the way forward here? I like Loftus. I think he's a pretty reasonable dude. And we we we're gonna talk about I think we'll talk about the second

the second blog post next week. Okay. It is out there. In fact, I I didn't even pay attention. I looked at it, I think, just this past week, and he had published it two days after the last time we talked about the first session on the show. So if you go to mereorthodoxy.com and just do a search for Matthew Loftus, and you can see his articles out there. He's got some good ones on health care that we talked a little bit with him about. But just read through those, and I would say it is full of like, there's nothing revolutionary in there. It's just an emphasis on, basically, what we understand biblically on how to interact with folks. Yeah. Right? Like, you you stop bad things from happening. There's

you don't overreact. You don't underreact. You just react in the appropriate fashion. You put the right protections in place, but don't overdo it. And so, like, and there's it's like a combination of everything that people on all sides are talking about. And he's like, yeah. That all this all kinda makes sense. Let's let's put it together. Yeah. Actually, we were just talking about that before the show about trying to fix problems, you know, with with, gray problems with black and white answers, you know, and and Loftus has always been pretty good. When we talk to him about some of the health care stuff, he's pretty good about about saying, look, some of these concerns that people are bringing up, they're legit. You know, you can't you can't just push them off the side and act like they're not issues or that the things that they're saying don't have a little legs to them. And so it is a it is a gray it is a gray problem. There are there are some some mindsets that have to change. There's some tolerance that isn't not necessary, and and there's some some overall, I mean, for heaven's sake, some humanity in here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I think that's the I think that's the thing. To your point where people are trying to give a, what'd you say? Would you gray answers to a black and white problem? The other way around. Black and white answers to a

problem. I think we get so focused on trying, not not talking through the actual ways to solve a problem, but because of a typical kind of way to solve a problem is attached to a belief system, whether it's a political affiliation or something to do with the dominational distinctions or whatever it is, like, it's it's the opposite of pharisaical behavior. Well, no. It's it it is. It's like pharisee behavior. Yeah. Except for what you're doing is you're finding the thing that's two steps away from the thing you're trying to defend,

and you're defending it through kind of that outer wall. And so you don't even have to actually you don't even actually have reasonable conversations about things because you're so afraid that if you give an inch, it will imply that your core belief system is wrong or the other thing that you're fighting about that's related to it is wrong. And, like, it's it's stupid blindness. Anyway, I think he does a fairly balanced job. The, the name of the article is Moral Formation and Sexual abuse parts one and two, learning to love what is good by loving one another. It's it's nothing here's thing. It's nothing you you ain't read in the bible already, and that we don't know except for, like, we we recognize the impact of not practically following. Yeah. Of not having it reflect in what we do and having kind of a moral backbone to some of these things. They express themselves in ways that are, often horrific,

for us not guarding the line. And I don't mean, like, necessarily saying conservatively guarding the line. What I mean is is that we're just not holding true to the character, of the god we we serve. And, to the extent that that's reflected in these types of situations, like, is where our moral groundings come back to. So there it's a good article. We'll talk about it next week, but I just wanna give you a heads up that it was It's actually I've I've had a conversation with a couple of people. We've been on this this spiritual discipline kick. Ben and I have been have been battling this back and forth for two or three weeks now. And I I I don't know. Like like this, it just keeps coming up and up and up and up and up that if you a lot of things that we argue about, a lot of the stances that we take, a lot of the decisions we make in our own lives,

good, bad, or indifferent, they're all they're all filled with our own effort. You know? Mhmm. And and and I think a lot of it has to do with not being able to feel like if if if God's not gonna show up, then I'll fill in the gap until he does. You know, I'll just keep keep handling these things until he shows up and and does what what God does. Right? And It's like the it's like God's the runner of a the night manager at a get and go or, like, a convenience store, you're and acting like like he he steps out for whatever, you feel like you are now the manager. Yeah. God's out having a smoke. I'll I'll take care of this place until he comes back and starts running the store again. Right? I'm assistant manager Mike. I'll manage it until he shows up. Right? And and and if you're not careful, not a condescending way I say this, but an an omniscient way that includes myself. Right? If you're not careful, and it turns out that you never actually had Jesus working at your place. Right? Like Right. You never you you didn't. And then this is where it starts to sound fair saical. Right? But this is where it started where the rubber starts to meet the road. Right? Like, you cannot continue to have this this life, as a Christian or life, lifestyle as a follower of Jesus Christ if you spend zero time with him. Zero. Or even, let's say, ten minutes. Or let's say, you studied for the bible study because you have five dudes you're supposed to meet with or a home group that you're supposed to study for. So you went through your half a chapter of Romans or whatever and so you're like, I'll study up on that. You studied to learn and you studied to be able to interact in a conversation in a group of people. Those aren't bad things. Right. Right? But, like, don't fool yourself into thinking that you spent time with this god that you're serving. You you you didn't. You learned something about him, which is always good, And you learned how to be with his people, which is also good. But, like, you you you missed the flagstaff. You know what I'm saying? You missed the the center part of this thing. And insert everywhere I said you, and then I'll put my own name in there. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I do that. Right? And so, like,

I don't know. It just keeps coming up and up and up that we've got to carve out some time for this. And and and you shouldn't even have to carve. We should start with that and then let everybody else fill in. And that might make some hard decisions for you. Right? Like, you got there's there's some stuff you gotta drop, some stuff you gotta say no to that I you just gotta set some priorities here, but it just I I was talking to somebody else today. It was about the presidential election. Right? They're all geeked up about it. And they're like, you know, I didn't know if I made the right decision or blah blah blah and all this. And I said, you know, how have you spent any time with God this week? And they're like, what's that have to do with the president? So I I said, here's the thing. Is is is some of the decisions that I've made over the last couple of years, I've I've just been really worried about. Like, I am I handling this right? Am I interacting with these people in the right way? I just feel like everything's a struggle. And then I pray about it, I'm like, god help me. Did I do this thing right or whatever? But, like, I showed up five minutes to bedtime, said, god, I did all this stuff. You saw it. What do you think about tomorrow? And then I'll then I fall asleep, and then that's it. And and there's nothing wrong with talking to Jesus before you go to bed. I do it every night. Right? But, like, I you know, rarely do I touch in for any amount of time. Do I read the bible just to read it? Like, just to say, look, I don't understand the Psalms. I can't read like this. I can't write like this. His poetry is blank to me. Right? But if that if if that's the section of the Bible that I have to read to let him speak into me, for a lot of people, it's, Numbers. You know? People like to skip over Numbers like I said. I hate this by you know what saying? It's just a bunch of blahbity blahbity blah. Right? Well, good. That means Numbers is a book of the Bible where you're not reading to learn anything. You're just reading to be with God. Like, give that a shot. Find a find a book of the Bible that legally it's just not your it's not your gig. You don't love it. It doesn't jump off the page to you. It just it's just kind of there. And that's the time you're gonna spend with God and say, look, speak whatever you want to be. I'm gonna read Numbers, and then I'm gonna kinda gray out like I normally do when I read Numbers and just come my direction, and I'm gonna hang out and to try that for a while. But I I think it's really important that that, you know, of all the things that we that we look at and that we sometimes measure,

the amount of time that we spend actually in in God's presence and interacting with him is probably very embarrassingly small. Yeah. And it's a lot of it's just time to time tied to a, a worry about doing. We have a lot of stuff in our minds. We are not called to, not to just think life abundantly. Right? Like, we we've we've been we've been saved into an abundant life, and I feel like we don't know how to live it very well, nor do we we've put any practice into it. Yeah. Right? Like, we know how to think about what it should look like. We ponder it a lot. We want our soul to jump. We wanna feel one way or another.

But, like, a a lot of the I I I won't even limit to the New Testament. Like, it's a very tangible faith that we have. That's why we follow a living, walking, living, dying Jesus, resurrecting Jesus. Right? Like like, the he's, the core reason that we have a direct example on how to live, and a lot of our stuff is just trapped up in the attic of our mind,

or in the chest of our heart, and and it doesn't express itself in the in the way that we actually live. And then, of course, you're gonna feel a a a dissonance here. God has given you a physical body, through which to express goodness of his kingdom, to bring people in, to demonstrate joy and worship and all kinds of cool stuff. And and and it just it doesn't seem to make it past the the the blood brain barrier up there Yeah. Into what we do. And and and the thing is we're not very good at it because we don't over practice. Right? Like, we don't spend time talking. We don't spend time, doing those like, disciplines just it feels harsh because of the word discipline. But, like, we just don't do the things that otherwise Jesus did,

to stay connected to the to the father. And then we're surprised that, like, we can't just, you know, talk to someone about Jesus. We get freaked out. It's because we've never we literally have never done it. Like, we don't know what it's we don't know how to do the thing because we never practice the thing. We don't spend enough time, like, engaging with God and and that kind of stuff. And I think it's yeah. People back away from it because they're afraid that it's like a workspace righteousness, but, like, it's it's part of the means of being able to live abundantly. Yeah. I mean, if you looked at your at your relationship with your spouse the same way, you'd be like, look. I I don't have to spend time with you. You know what I'm saying? If you keep trying to make me, like, it's a big deal in this marriage. Right. You know? Like, that's a foolish way to look at it. I would like to spend time with you, and I would like to be in relationship with you. Yeah. And, like, that that is a a direct outpouring of of God and his church. And so I was I was just reminded of this today because I was talking to a guy about giving money to the homeless guy. You know, he's like, man, you shouldn't give it to him. I'm like, why? And he goes, what if he's gonna buy booze with it? I'm like, here's the thing. If I spend time with Jesus, I feel like he's just gonna straighten this out for me so I don't have to struggle over these decisions so bad. Right? If I'm supposed to give this particular man money, then God will be like, yeah, give him money. If I'm not, then God will like, no. Not that dude. It's not the right time. You know what I'm saying? Like, we just wanna make a set ground rules like, I never give money to homeless people or I always give money to homeless people. If they're God's people, it's for him to decide. And maybe if I had hung out with him that morning, maybe he would say, yeah. That sounds like a plan. Right. Alright. You're listening live from The Path. We're hanging out in the studio with with Jane Block. And, again, you can find her on Facebook and Twitter.

Also, in the nethers of YouTube No. I'm a find it. Got compositions. I'm gonna I'm gonna add 10 views of that thing. We're plan. I'm gonna listen to it. Alright. So here's the thing. I could not find I couldn't find the intro music. So we're gonna have to do non biblical signs of the apocalypse without the appropriate introduction. Do you want me to at least say the say the phrase? Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. Non biblical signs of the apocalypse. Okay. That's it. Okay. That's it. Congratulations. So here's the premise of the of the quiz here. I'm gonna give you a story, legitimate news story from the day. And, I mean, here's the thing. The the what was it? The Thunders. Seven Thunders of Revelation. Right? You don't know everything. No. Or or when he's talking to Daniel, he says, shut up the book. You don't know one gets to know. That's right. And so is it possible that some of these news stories are the things where where Daniel was seeing them? He's like, you know what? This is this harkens the end of the time. Yeah. What if they're in the book? Okay. Yeah. I'm ready. Yeah. This could be it. So that that's the question. Is this a non biblical sign of the apocalypse? Jane, are you ready over there? Sure. Let's do this. Okay. That's right. I knew you'd be excited

This is from the mirror from from London. Super rare mustache cloud spotted over town. Okay. Hold on. Hold on. Let me me show you a picture of this cloud just so you can dig on it. Oh, come on. That's Hulk Hogan, bitch. No. No. No. No. Hold on. I got this.

There it is. Okay. Can you see it? Oh, no. You can't see it. There it is. Look at that mustache cloud. Oh, wow. Okay. Alright. So hold on. Let's let's now let's go back to the story and see what we got about this. Hulk Hogan's mustache has been spotted in cloud form. Also known as a horseshoe cloud, the formation is one of the rarest around, oh, and appears only for a, oh, matter of minutes before dissipating before the end of the world. It didn't say that part. I added it for effect. The wispy handlebar shape was spotted by Christie Grimes in Battle Mountain, Nevada, US on Friday and shared online by the National Weather Service. Wow. Let's see here. To truly understand how mustache clouds are formed, we recommend you extensively study meteorology.

What? What the heck? That takes all the fun out of it. I don't go to read the news to give me a to do. They must have grabbed a dude, like that's bitter against his own college ways because he's like, you should go to meteorology school like I had to. Otherwise, no mustache information for you. Let's see. The Farmer's Almanac, there we go. Franklin's got this. Elsie has a handy explainer. Horseshoe vortex clouds, also known as mustache clouds, form at the edges of horizontal cylinders of rapidly rotating air, essentially tornadoes tipped onto their sides. Dual tornadoes, Mike. That's cool. Vortices vortices form from updrafts created by powerful supercell storms. The energy of the vortex shears away a small amount of water vapor from a nearby cloud formation, then bends the small cloud into a semicircle

around itself as it rotates. I don't know. It looked pretty happy and sunny when you showed it, so no double tornado wisping nuttiness. Yeah. I mean, I hear what you're saying, but it maybe it's it's it's disguised like an angel of light, Mike. You ever think of that? Oh, I mean Mustache cloud looks happy and stuff, but really, it's some sort of some demon cloud. It is kinda creepy. Okay. Anyway, so we got a there's a mustache, handlebar mustache, foreman in the sky. The words such as vortex and rare and tornadoes and such. What do we think? Sign of the the end is near or we have more time, Mike? Boy, man, I feel like we have more time. I mean,

it could be a staple. It could look like it could be a staple or a what's that game where you hit the balls with the with croquet mallets? It could be a croquet stake. If it was indeed a mustache only, then I feel like the end here. The only way you would know that is if there was also a man attached to it. That's what I'm saying. If there's a floating cloud, man, we're in that mustache cloud, the end is indeed near inside the Daniel book. But otherwise, the lord did not speak to it. Alright. Alright. Fair enough. Jane, what do you think? End is near or we have more time? I think we have more time on that one. I I mean, it's kinda it's weird looking, but I don't think, if those tornadoes were touching the ground, then, yes, I would say the end is near. Okay. So if there was whirling dervish of a mustache attacking the ground Boy. End is near. You're right. Probably. If it hangs out happy in the sky, Bawro style, you say no worries. Yeah. Probably not. Oh, there's nothing that says Hasatan like a spinning mustache cloud. Alright. Here we go. Here we go. Smoking orangutan riles anger against zoo in Indonesia. Okay. Great. Hold on. Hold on. I will get you a photo of this orangutan.

Okay. Alright. You got him? There he is, he's smoking a cigarette. How did he even get that? And a lighter. He probably got it from that what was that? Three year old smoking indomision kid from a couple years ago. Yeah. Yeah. The meme the meme of smoker. Okay. Ozzer, here we go. Here's the story. A video of an orangutan smoking has brought more criticism to a zoo more criticism to a zoo in Indonesia. They've had infamous for past animal welfare troubles. In a video shot Sunday, a young man flick oh, a young man flicks his half smoked cigarette into the primate's enclosure. It's picked up by the reddish brown primate who expertly puffs on it to laughter from the crowd. How does he know what to do, Mac? Oh, he's probably watching the guy. Or or don't they say the orangutans can mimic dudes or whatever? I guess. I mean,

you you would think that they would be able to mimic it. Yeah. What do they mean by expertly smoking? I've never ran I've never seen a dude outside a restaurant being like, man, there's no one smokes a cigarette like that dude. He's got it under control. I mean, I suppose if you're allowed to smoke in the zoo, people might be smoking there all the time. Yeah. He's probably well aware. And so he's probably seen it all, I guess. Let's see. Activist Marison Guciano said Wednesday, the smoking ape is further evidence of a lack of supervision. I mean, what are you gonna do? I mean, you do what we do and put up no smoking signs in the in the zoo.

Let's see. Guciano said the man committed a crime, but the privately owned zoo is mainly responsible because of its because of its ignorance of supervision and education for visitors. I mean, you can't reasonably have a guy station at the Ape Shack all the time just in case someone chucks a smoke in there. No. I mean, that is unreasonable. You just it's an agreed upon community thing. Right? Like, people agree not to throw cans of beans in the in the zebra whatever place. You know? I think that's what people just find a place that they all enjoy, decide they're all gonna take care of it, and then not provide nicotine to to their rantans. It says signs at the zoo warn visitors to not feed animals or give them cigarettes. It's a common item that they need a sign. That's that's rough. Indonesian zoos are in rough shape. Alright. Let's see.

I don't know. This it smoking orangutans, end of the though end is near, we have more time. What do you think, Jane? I think if he keeps smoking on that cigarette, the end is near for him. Oh. Oh, man. Oh. Personal responsibility in Apeland. Yep. That's a double edged mustache cloud coming your way, orangutan. Okay. So the world's fine, but the orangutan's in some trouble. I think so. Okay. Alright. Mike? I don't know, Ben. I feel like the end is near. I mean, here's the deal. Back in the eighteen hundreds, orangutan used to be able to smoke without everybody giving them the business. Now all of a sudden, it's like, health this, health that. No smoking in the orangutan enclosure.

You know? When will it end? I mean, tobacco's organic. Until the until the lord Jesus tarries this rigged tent. He just wants to smoke in peace in his habitat. You took everything else away from him. All he's like in a prison. And what's fame prison famous for? Smoking. Alright. He's probably been watching a bunch of old movies. This is why creation groans right here for the return of the Lord. Lord says return. Until then, Orangutan's taking up Marlboro. That's the the Greek for groan is a subtle exhale of tobacco smoke. That's right. You see a big smile on his face. He's like, that's a wisdom. I love Wisdom. Okay.

Alright. Alright. Okay. So so far, nothing nothing too terrible. I called the Engineer, Ben. Okay. That's right. Alright. Here we go. This is from Kansas woman reportedly sued by bank after ATM dished out a $100 bills instead of fives. This is a capital mistake here. A Kansas woman is facing a pricey lawsuit after a bank accused her of making dozens of withdrawals from a faulty ATM that was dispensing a $100 bills instead of $5 bills. The Central National Bank in Wichita claimed in a January 22 lawsuit that Christina C. Okoa knew the ATM wasn't functioning properly, no doubt, and used it to receive as much money as possible. Okoa reportedly made more than 50 withdrawals over five days in mid January, several of which were done in the middle of the night according to the documents obtained by the Eagle. The bank wants her to pay back $11,607.36

plus interest. The lawsuit also names Okoa's mother, Christie, since she reportedly drove her daughter to the bank. A getaway man. Here we go. The first time the ATM dispensed more money than what was due, Christina and Christie wait. That's the mom's name too? They're both named Christie? Boy, that's that's rough. Alright. Christie and Christie had a duty to return the surplus funds to the bank. Not only did they fail to do so, but they capitalized on the situation by making a series of over 50 structured withdrawals.

What's that? What's a structured withdrawal? Don't know. Within minutes of each other and transacted at all hours of the night. What does that matter? In order to expose oh, in order to expose Central to more loss. What do mean? I mean, don't you lose the $100 whether you do it at 2PM or 2AM? I'd like to see an unstructured withdrawal. Yeah. I mean, did they stammer up and fall backwards into it? I mean, what does it look like when you when you do a pretty loose? Like an erratic $78. Let's see. Let's see. And don't they have an ATM limit? Oh, they thought it was five. That's why. Was I was gonna say, like, my bank won't let me withdraw more than $300. This woman pulls out 11 k in a couple days. Okay. Check this out though. The Wichita Eagle spoke to the Achilles who said they did nothing wrong. She has no problem with this. The bank claims that instead of the $14.85, Christina should have received, she actually was given $14,120.

Christie Ochoa, I think the older one, told the outlet that her daughter never received larger bills and has receipts as proof of her transaction. Receipts that show the fives Yeah. That's right. Okay. I got it. It's a perfect crime right here. Yeah. It is. You go through the ATM, they dispense hundreds instead of fives. Christie claimed that her daughter made that many transactions in a short period of time because she wanted enough $5 bills to create a money cake as a gift for someone. You can't type in the number of fives you want at the ATM, so that's why we did multiple transactions, Chrissy told the outlet. She also said her daughter had to use the ATM because the bank was closed. No. Now hold on. That doesn't make any sense. You would have to you'd have to ask for for $15.

Does the ATM dispense in in 15? No. I don't know. Mine I don't I only use ones that you I don't use the ATM, actually. None of this makes any sense. A $5 money kick? Yeah. I've seen money cakes. It's a dollar. What the heck? Yeah. Who makes a money cake out of $5 bills? That's nutty. That's a heck of a cake. It says after the ATM's issue was acknowledged by the bank, they told Christina to give back the extra money and she wholly refused to do so. The bank reportedly then held the remaining money in Christina's account in order to settle some of the deficit in addition to a direct deposit received on January 30 totaling more than $600. Central National Bank is also trying to seize two cars that the Ochoa has bought while the ATM was malfunctioning. Holy cow. Alleging that $3,000 down payment for one of them was made up entirely of $100 bills. Christie Ochoa maintained that the cars were bought with money acquired in a car wreck settlement and a student loan.

Oh, I don't know, Ben. So ATM ATM dispenses a $100 bills in place of fives. Christie and Christie and Company, the Ochoa's, say there's that's not really what happened. We were making one whiz bag of a money cake. Wow. I don't know. End is near or or we have some more time, Mike?

Yeah. I mean no. The end is not near. That's all just regular. I mean, if Monopoly called us out years ago, that was a bank error in your favor. Yeah. But Monopoly encouraged it. I get to take keep the $200. Well, I mean, that's not my fault that Monopoly wants to do seedy things. I mean, obviously, it's theft. Right? Like, I can't even think I was trying to think of an example while you were talking to to to make it seem how ridiculous this is. What's a what's a good example, Ben? Like a lady going to the ATM and getting hundreds instead of fives. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Milton Bradley has corrupted me. Imagine if that happened.

Wouldn't that be so ridic I mean, it's it's obviously blatant theft And and and it's the lies that continue to to spew forth. This is just regular human behavior. It's it's originated from the fall, Ben, and it's just continuing as it is. No. We have more time. Alright. Jane, what do you think? I'm gonna have to agree with him on that one, but maybe I missed this. How did the bank know it was specifically them? I don't I I assume they had maybe some Maybe a camera or something? Footage?

Okay. Yeah. Let's see here. I mean, I assume that they don't have, like, if they got the receipt that shows that acts like they took out fives Yeah. They they had to fig figure out the mistake somehow or other, and then they just go back and look at anybody who took things in $5 increments and then notice that, the Ochoa's have been at the ATM a million times. Yeah. How often do they audit ATMs? Do you know anybody in the ATM business? I have no idea. I mean, that's a

no. But that's a heck of a mistake. Oh, Greg's in big trouble. Yeah. Yeah. Five finger Greg, who's been stocking the thing for years, decided he's gonna phone in half his job that day, and he put Hundies in the $5 slot. He's in big trouble. I mean, don't they don't you think they monitor the number of Hundies in there? Or can't do they not count? Like, is it a still physical job at the ATM? They can't tell how much money is in there, so, like, they have to the guy once a week goes by and and checks how much money is there? Wouldn't that be a complete joke? Because the because, I mean, the the soda machine knows if I try to chuck a five in there. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? The the the soda machine and candy dispensary can say, look. You put in a dollar. But the ATM that's connected to the bank can't distinguish what kind of paper money it's handing out. That's outrageous. That's a good point there too. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? The end is near. We put an entire bank in a three by three machine, and then we can't tell what kind of money we spent out of it. No. That's ridiculous.

I mean, the lord shut down the Tower Of Babel, but he didn't say you had to be an idiot. You know, we gave you skin the money. End is near bid. I changed my vote. Wait. Jane, are you holding tight one more time? No. I might be might be switching too. Yeah. That's right on. You

know you know Elijah up there talking to God right now. He's like, how long can I put up with this? Just let me get in the chariot and go take the take care of this business. I'm gonna go pick some guys up. Money cake? I don't mean, I've not I mean, I've not heard of that. That's actually my first exposure to money cake. Whatever. It sounds expensive, though. I well, I I may have I spoke too too far into it. I've I've seen a diaper cake, and I just assumed they replace diapers with money. It could be or it could be for, like, a wedding or something. Yeah. Okay. Like like they like, you just have five sticking out of the cake? Yeah. Maybe. I wish I could make big money at weddings selling $1 bills to people for the dollar dance. Who forgot? You know what I'm saying? Like, I bring a I

bring a stack of singles with me. And then when guys are like, oh, man. I don't have any ones for the dollar dance. I say, I'll send you this one. For, I mean, for at least a 5. Right? Yeah. You don't have ones. Because you don't wanna look like a duo at this wedding. You know? I bet I could make at least $25. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's a good idea. Unless I went to the ATM beforehand and then I make millions because Greg works everywhere. You know you know what's suspicious about this though? It's like the bank does seem like it's really overstepping. Like, to the extent that they that they got too much money, I feel like you can certainly sue them to get it back. But, like, I don't know how you can seize two cars.

Like, there's no way for you unless you can tell that the if they could put it together that the money that came out of the ATM was the one that they had, they wouldn't have to sue them. The Ochoa's would be in jail. Yeah. Right? Like, why is this a criminal matter? I here's the thing. I mean, like, people businesses that have do make mistakes all the time. An $11,000 mistake, not really that bad. I'd let it go. I'd I'd have filed insurance against it and not brought it up again. That's true. This is it's more embarrassing, really. Yeah. I mean, they probably got 15 ATMs in that town. Now everyone's gonna be hitting them up for multiple transactions. We're not the the cash motors that are pumping out bills all the time merely because they think the same thing's gonna happen to them. That's the the the worst thing you can do in the banking industry is let people know that you are untrust trustworthy to be able to sort money correctly. Would've let this one completely slide and not ever brought it up. Yeah. And that this article is kinda

written weirdly. Like, who who is it they were talking to here? Was it someone at the bank? The first time the ATM spends more money than what was due, Christina and Christie had her duty to return the surplus funds to the bank. Not only did they fail to do so yeah. Yeah. It it was that was that capitalized on the situation, structured withdrawals, transacted at all hours of the night in order to expose Central to more loss. Like,

it's overly amped up language. Yeah. And you exposed yourself to more loss when you hired Greg. Yeah. That's true. Boy, he's inept. He's a poor guy. He should he should go smoke at the zoo. He's prop he probably got up early that day and thought, this is a great life. And then and then over the weekend, all this stuff happened, and they called him up, and he goes, I had no idea.

I was out smoking with his orangutan. I didn't think there was gonna be a big comeuppance. I mean, here's the thing. Would you feel like I mean, would be your gut reaction to seeing orangutan smoking a cigarette? Orangutan.

Is it said orangutan? Yeah. There's no g on the end of it. Would you I mean, like, said people were laughing. I feel like gut reaction it's just because it's so odd. Right? Like, I feel like it might take you about ten seconds and you're like, hey. Wait a minute. Someone should put a stop to that. The orangutan's probably harming himself. Certainly, he's not a tobacco smoker. Or you should find out if Greg gave him some smokes or whatever. But, like, I think at the at the offset, I don't know that you can blame

a man for seeing the orangutan expertly puffing away on his cigarette and not have a at least a mild guffaw on it. Do you get do you begrudge Jane, do you begrudge a man having a laugh at that for just at least ten seconds? Maybe ten seconds. Ten seconds. Anything past that, you think he's overdone and he's cruel. Maybe. There's a thin line to cruelty and, general enjoyment, and it's at the ten second mark. I think I would be the one to, like, stop and stare for a little bit and go, what what am I witnessing here? Yeah. Those are non filters. That's both. I feel like if I saw a giraffe smoking, that'd be way different.

You know? I mean, orangutans have opposable thumbs. They can they can pick stuff up. But, like, if if I saw a giraffe tooting by smoking a Worley, I bet that's just a weird deal. You know? I'm gonna say, it might take a little bit to I mean, I I know I know, like, if you're an animal rights activist, you're like, man, they they they do not keeping an eye on the place. Agreed. I mean And the animals are smoking. And, like, I totally understand what you're saying. I'm just legit human behavior is, I feel like you gotta give a man a a ten second pause here to to just react. Yeah. To process it and try to figure out, is this real? Is that a orangutan smoking a smoking a do it? Yeah. I can't make it out. I think it was yeah. Okay. Alright. Anyway, that's non biblical signs of the apocalypse. It sounds like the world might Things aren't good. Yeah. The scales tip towards the end. Yeah. That that portable bank with its misdeeds is I mean, can we really live on, Ben? Bring on the bulls. Bring on the bulls. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's it. That's it. That that's the end of that. Alright. Let's let's let's check back in. Now that we've tanked the show with that smoking orangutan bit, let's check back in with Jane. So we wanna hear another tune. So this

is this the first one you wrote, or have you wrote written subsequent ones after Sands of the Sea? I've written ones after Sands of the Sea. This would have been my third or fourth one. Okay. Awesome. So this is this is called Bring Me Closer. Tell us a little bit about this one. So Bring Me Closer was actually written for one of my friends. He was going through a tough time. He just had a baby girl, and, she was in and out of the hospital. They didn't think that she was going to live, and his faith was

dropping. He was like, I don't know why God would do this to me, to my family, and he was very angry. And, you know, I was trying to write something to him to let him know, hey. You know, this is not the end. And you have options,

you know, pray about it, and he'll help you out through anything. Perfect. It was it was a very hard song for me to write. This one took me substantially longer than Sands of the Sea. It took me, I would probably say a good three, four days to write this one just because it was so hard for me.

Okay. Well, let's hear. This is, this is bring me closer Yes. With, Jane Block, and you're listening to live from the path. Welcome. I got out and you heard me calling.

Pull me out of Hades' grasp. Eyes are failing. I'm sinking fast.

I'm sinking fast, come. Be my refuge. Save me

from the world I know. Help me understand you come. Excellent. Thank you. That is a that is a beautiful song. Thank you. Did you

shoot. Okay. It it left my mind what I was thinking. But, like, it is it's a very that is a that is a difficult thing. Right? And and some of it goes to, a little bit what we were talking about earlier, think, is when your faith rests, in your mind and in your heart, it is a that that is a that is a thing,

and it is a good thing. And then there are times in life when it when it that stuff gets just so exposed. Right? Mhmm. And and it becomes much more of a reality. And it wasn't that it wasn't real before,

but you're you're taking the full brunt of, I think, of of what it is that you had in your mind. Yeah. And there's there's a lot of people that go through a lot of tough things and, you know, they feel like the weight of the world is just on their shoulders and that, you know, he's just forgotten about you. And that's that's something that I wanted to change for my friend. He was just like, I'm done. I don't know why I ever believed, and I'm going, well, you know, you're sinking, and I know you're sinking really, really fast, but you want to ensure that, you know, you can still feel his love. He is working with you. And his his baby girl is now six years old, so,

you know, she she pulled through all the medical issues that she was having, and, you know, he he wants a copy of this song, and, I've let him have all the chords and everything for it. So this is this is one of his songs that I wrote for him, and he's very thankful that, you know, I stuck by him and that that I just let the the Lord go through my voice and my music to touch his. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, that's a cool gift. What a cool gift to be able to to use your talents in that way to to provide support and encouragement,

and for God to work through you in that way. Very, very cool. So you can find more about Jane. Again, you can go to her Facebook page. You're looking for Jane Jane Block and on the Twitter. And yeah. Yeah. You can you can check that out. And, obviously, the clips from the show will be posted at livefromthepath.org, so you can dig on those at any time. Hopefully, sometime either this week or next week, we'll have those out there, and you can listen and share and

help people get to know Jane and her music and the the things that she's up to. Hey. Real quick before I forget, we're gonna close out the show with a cut from Egypt Ali. Mike, you remember Egypt was in here with, Driven Eleven? Oh, yeah. And here's the deal. I'll I'll say this about Egypt. She's got the most, interesting

Facebook feed. Like, the stuff that she ends up doing and the people she ends up doing doing it with, I mean, you just you just can't be can't comprehend it. Oh, she wild. Yeah. Yeah. The stuff that she's got going on is just impressive. And so, definitely follow Egypt on Facebook. But she has a a new album coming out called Cathedrals and it's releasing April 1. And, so what what we're gonna do is we're gonna debut one of this one of the, the tunes for you called As I Am, and we'll close the show out with it. So we're gonna do some, advice on Dear Life and the Path, and then we're gonna let you, to dig on that song. And then we're gonna talk to Egypt next week, about the album. And We are gonna do that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We we we're hooked up. Is she calling in? Or She's gonna yeah. We're gonna Skype in. Okay. That's cool. I gotta work that

Wait a Did you ask her already? It's not gonna be that Matthew West thing all over again. No. No. No. No. She asked. She's Who did I write and I got completely denied on coming on the show? Man, I can't remember who it was. It was a flat out denial too. Like, as soon as they found out it was us, they're like, yeah. You know, he's Oh, it's Perry Noble. Yeah. It's Perry Noble. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not gonna happen. That was the best. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, I I I've got to listen to a few of the tracks off the Cathedrals album. It's it's it's very good. It is very good. So yeah. You can she'll she'll be here she'll be here talking talking with well, not here, but we'll do a Skype interview with her next week. Did you ask ask her if she wanted to be on the show, Ben? No. No. She asked me. She was she wanted to did she wanna be? I don't know. They sound like lads. Yeah. No. No. No. Or it's an impostor. It's somebody else. Either way, I'm very excited. What if it's Palestine, Ali? You won't even be able to speak. Here's what we're gonna do. So so, anyway, that's how we'll close out the show is one of the cuts from her album, upcoming album, Monday, but first as I am. And so we'll talk about that then. In the meantime, Mike, we have people still need some advice? Yeah. I'm ready. Are you ready? No. I think I'm ready. Dear life from the path.

My 15 year old daughter, Jenny, went to a sleepover with her two best friends from school last Friday. Mhmm. Parentheses, Penny and parentheses, Ginger. Holy cow. Okay. Her friends name phony names concocted by mom, I'm guessing, are Penny and Ginger. Okay. Penny's parents went out and left the girls alone. Mhmm. They drank some beer. Okay. Jenny and Ginger were sober, but Penny also drank some hard liquor and got very drunk. I found out about it following the Monday after Wait a minute. So sorry. Penny's her kid? No. Her kid is Jenny. I wish she'd have chose farther apart fake names. Yeah. Jenny, Penny, and Ginger. Okay.

Sorry. Go ahead. Okay. Jenny is is the is this the lady's daughter. Okay. I found out about it the following Monday after Penny texted my daughter and Ginger to tell them how upset and disappointed her parents were and that they were demanding letters of apology from all three girls. I thought it was over the top, but realized Jenny was in the wrong. Really. That same day, Jenny wrote them an email with a heartfelt apology for disrespecting everyone by drinking in their house, for drinking their beer without permission, and for allowing their daughter to get drunk, not being a true friend and trying harder to stop her. Uh-huh. Now, the fifth day after the email was confirmed, received, my daughter's disappointed that it was never acknowledged. Penny's parents have been known to be dramatic in past dealings with other students and parents. Will you advise me on what I should do? I feel I should I feel I should let it go and let Jenny figure out how she should choose her friends. She has ditched a friend who has wasn't a good influence on her without us forcing her to.

Love Jenny's mom in Canada. What the heck? What's the question? Yeah. I'm not even following what she wants help with. She told a very long story and then seemed to be upset that the the parents did not return a, hey. I got your email about your apology. Love it. And then asked her what she should do because her daughter Jenny has ditched Penny as a friend. And it made it sound like that's a good idea. So I would say if you're okay with her ditching her as a friend, then what are you concerned about whether what the other parents think? Or, like, whether you got a response or not?

Well, I just I I'm sorry. The world police. I mean, just you don't have to let it go. If they've severed ties, they've severed ties. If you're if you think they should, continue the relationship and it's just something they need to work through, then, yeah, I'd follow-up with the parents and and, frankly, it just seems like something we're talking about anyway. Yeah. I think this is this whole thing is said very weirdly. If it's if it's maybe Jenny is the one who's upset, then I would just say talk to her about it. Because, you know, there are people that aren't gonna answer you in life, but it's how you deal with those experiences. Yeah. I mean, what are you gonna show up back at their house and say, look, I I I got Did you get my email or didn't you? I drunk at your place.

You know what? And here's the thing. I I this this is slightly off subject. Right? But, like, you should have made that apology in person. Apologies are best delivered in person. Yeah. Email apologies are lame o. And so, I mean, it's just better to eat that stuff right face to face. And so you wouldn't have this problem if you went over to her place and and said it to and told the parents. That's right. No ambiguity because you would have been there. Yeah. And if and if they here's the thing. If they stubbornly refused to open the door and act super childish, that would have answered your question. You'd be like, you know what? I can't deal with this. They're not answering I mean, you did everything you could, you know. Yeah. I don't know. Man, this was disappointing because frankly, I just didn't feel like there's a question to be had. Alright. I'm gonna give you a secular secular's about it. Secular says, there is plenty of blame to go around. Penny's parents shouldn't have left three teenagers alone with liquor available. I think that's not true, actually. I mean, how old are the kids? 15.

I mean I mean, you left a pot in you left a a pot and some spoons in there. They didn't stab themselves with the spoons and then kill a dough with the pot. I I mean, you just you gotta teach your kids stuff. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean yeah. I mean, I don't have liquor in my house or anything, but No. I'm I'm yeah. I'm not cons I wouldn't be concerned about it if I did. No. No. Anyway, blah blah blah. While I can't blame them for being upset after coming home and finding their two daughters smashed and the other two tiddly, they were wrong to expect Jenny and Ginger to have prevented their daughter from misbehaving.

I do not agree that asking for a written apology was over the top. And under the circumstances, I don't think your daughter's letter needed acknowledgment. Let it go with a firm lecture to your daughter about underage drinking and the consequences that will follow if you find out it happens again. Wait a minute. Did they say that the other parents held, like, her daughter responsible? Yes. Yes. For allowing Penny to get drunk. Like, I should have been a better friend and and put the kibosh on. I mean, you should have been a better friend, but, like, I wouldn't bring that up being the derelict parent at the moment. Yeah. I mean, it this is I mean, not a derelict. It's not even fair. Like, I I just think it's yeah. I don't know. I mean, it's a life it's a life lesson. Right? Like, how do you deal with things that that are going on that shouldn't be? Right? You try to step in. You try to get them to stop. If they absolutely refuse, then you go, look. I you know, I guess it's your choice, but I'm not gonna be part of it. And then you bail. Right? That's basically how it works.

She chose to do none of those things. She got, according to secular, tiddly, which I assume means a little drunk in old lady old lady speak. Next? We're gonna do one or two more. Let's do one more. Okay. One more. Hold on. I gotta go back to that other one that I like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's about people being upset about vacation cruises. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That sound good. Okay. Here we go. Dear life from the path, my husband and I have only recently recovered financially from the economy crashing. We lost our car, our home, and filed bankruptcy.

Holy cow. Thankfully, we now have some savings and no debt other than our new home. It has been ten years since we had a real vacation, so we are planning a cruise. My problem is, I mentioned it to some friends and family members. Four of them have now asked us to bring back souvenirs for them. I feel it's presumptuous. I don't wanna spend my vacation running around buying other people's stuff. Am I being overly sensitive, or are they being impolite? And how can I politely refuse? Hey, try this phrase. I politely refuse.

Hey, Ben. Ask me if I can get you a souvenir while I'm on my cruise. Hey, Mike, you pick up a souvenir for me while you're on a cruise? I politely refuse. Look. Look. I did it. Hey. But you're going somewhere. Doesn't that entail you buying me something? Yeah. Noted. Who wants this it's kind of I mean, here's the thing. It's different. If someone goes somewhere and then is thinking of you and brings you back a souvenir, that's one thing. But to use you as an international deal broker to pick up magnets and crapola from other parts of the world, like, that just doesn't seem to have the same, you know, the same benefit.

Hey. My friend Ted bought this for me at my behest when he when he went to Pakistan. Told him to. Hey. Can you pick me up juicy fruit duty free? I have a lot of sentimental attachment to this man. Like, it's just you seem not the same. Yeah. I I think us as a society has missed the point of the souvenir. Like, hey. I was thinking to you, and I brought you this back. Not, hey. Can you pick me up some stuff? Do they have cheap blankets? Right. I've mistaken you for an international peddler.

Give me a trinket. Yeah. That's that's I mean, here's the deal. If you wanna drop hints that you love magnets and hope that they show up with one, I mean, well played, sir. Yeah. But, like, I don't asking for stuff just seemed real goofy. Have you ever had anybody asked to pick you up for so them to pick you up something while you were you went to The Philippines. Right? Yeah. And you'd be like, hey, man. Pick me up with this while you're in The Philippines. No. I mean, I hear every once in a while someone said, like, try to get me to get them to to buy, like, one of those knock off iPads Yeah. Where I is spelled, like, e I y or e y e or something.

And I said, no. I'm not gonna do that. But I was like a joke. But there wasn't anybody who's like, oh, you know what I love from The Philippines? Shoes, everything I buy from the Kmart. You know, like, I yeah. No. It just it just didn't it just didn't come up. So so what do you say to this lady? She has two questions. Are they being is she being overly sensitive or are they being impolite? And how how can I politely refuse? What do you think what do you think is the deal?

So I would say here's legitimately, here's what I would say. If if I it was a friend that was close enough to me that was asking me to buy them something when I was over in The Philippines, I would say, friend or specifically, boova. Yeah. That's tacky. That's tacky what you're doing. Yeah. And so, no, I will not do that. You can order Philippine stuff from the from the online. Yeah. Like, That's what do you want me to shepherd it here for you?

It all makes me see. I'm not a I'm not a goods mule. Yeah. Yeah. I would here's yeah. If they're close enough to me, I would say that's techy. If they're not close enough to me, I I like, I I I don't know. I'd probably say the same thing. It's like, dude, we don't even know each other that well. You asking me to pick you up stuff from overseas. I just it's not gonna happen. Why don't you look on Amazon? Yeah. Yeah. Everything yeah. Jane, what are your thoughts? Are they being impolite? Are you over are we overly sensitive to this? No. I don't think I don't think you're being overly sensitive. No.

I think that if they were a good enough friend, they would know not to to expect anything. And, you know, if you were like, I went to Mexico on a cruise, and nobody asked me bring them a souvenir, but I ended up bringing my brother something just because I know him. He's very he loves specific things. So, of course, yeah, I bought him a souvenir. But I think if it's a friend, I don't know. It depends on how close my friend is.

I had one friend that I actually I did bring her a souvenir as well, but it's because she's she can't travel outside The United States. She has medical issues. So, yeah, I brought her something because it was it was personal. Yeah. So I I don't think that she's being overly sensitive. No. Yeah. I mean, there's a difference between you being generous and then you becoming someone's employee. Yeah. Forced forced generosity or part of their distribution network of worldly goods. Yeah. Right. Plus, with Amazon shipping, you can get it pretty quick. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. You wanna hear Secular's advice? Yeah. Yeah. What's up? Secular says, you are not overly sensitive. Tell those folks that your excursion schedule will be tight and you won't have time to do much shopping. Don't lie. Yeah. I hate lying. No. That's a lie. You say, I politely refuse. Listen here. You go on a I've I've been on a cruise. You got time. That is the nature of the cruise is so that you have time. Have you sit about and do whatever they you have gift shops right on the cruise ship too. So Yeah. Yeah. See, now you are insulting them. They're like, I had plenty of free time.

I was just not willing to spend any of it on you. Right. Right? That's that's totally unreasonable. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's the deal. So it says, tell those folks that your excursion schedule will be tight and you won't have time to do much shopping even for yourselves. It's the truth, I'll bet. No. P s. And when you return, be discreet about flashing any souvenirs you pick up for yourself along the way. That that's crap living. Yeah. Don't do that. You know what I'm saying? Show people what you got. That's the cool part of going. I went there. I brought back this to remind me of my time. What kind of low level friends do you got that are like, ugh, I can't believe you bought yourself a shirt and didn't bring me anything, you jerk face. You need new friends. Whoo, man. Yeah. I would agree. I would agree. This this is, this is how you separate wheat from chaff right here. Exactly. Souvenirs on your cruise. Yeah. I heard you went across town. You didn't pick me up nothing? Yeah. Not even a stick of gum? Could at least stop by the ATM and got erroneously a $100 bill. You cut me a couple of hunty? You know what? The Feldmans are out. We're no longer dealing with the Feldmans.

Well, that's rough time. Hey. This is end of times. You know what saying? This yeah. The end is dear. Why would the Lord even put up with this? He's like, humanity's gone afoul. That's right. I created all things for good, and look at these fools. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Alright. That's that's good advice. We're changing the world one piece of advice at a time in our life from the path. If you'd hey. If you need advice, good night. Do not it to late night Internet radio. No, man. But I mean, if your level of desperation knows no bounds, shoot us an email, [email protected], and we will do our very best to answer that question. And

yeah. Yeah. I mean, seriously, get get some accountability guys or some legit friends, church family, random nice looking lady from the street. Certainly, we'll do a better job, higher quality than what we're gonna come I mean, here's the thing, Ben. The the the folks of old, at the worst, they were like, we should build a really tall building up to the sky and maybe touch the Lord's clouds. And this is what humanity this is the depths of humanity. Let's build a building. Let's build a real tall building. Let's build it so big that we don't need God anymore and then we can look upon it. And this was our imagination. Now we got people sitting around at their place and be like, did you know that Phil went to Canada? And guess what? He came back with nothing for me? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, this is terrible. We used to try to build our own kingdom. Right. Now we try to get other people to do it. Right. This guy's like, I sat on my butt this whole time Yeah. And got nothing for it. Yeah. And Phil's out there sweating it out across The United States and bringing me nothing. This is terrible. Couch just increased itself.

Alright. Hey. You're listening to live from the Path. Big thanks to Jane Bach coming for in the studio. Thank you, Jane. You're welcome. Welcome back anytime. You can find out more information about Jane again by going, searching for her on Facebook or Twitter, and, I'll post a link to her, her Facebook page on our Facebook page. What's the what's the Twitter handle? It's just jane block. B l b l o k. Yep. That's it. Hey. That's a sweet way to say it. I'm jane b l o k. Bim? No. No. It's not the hip at all. Don't use you. If that was cool, that's how Jane would've done it. Yeah. She would've done that. Longer than I am. That's right. Trying it on. And you're wearing it wrong. Mic block. Okay. B l o k. No. It's not right. It's not right. Alright. We're gonna cut you loose here, but as you go, I want you to leave you with this new cut from Egypt Ali. And you can find more by her if you go to Facebook and search for Egypt Speaks, and you'll find her page and give that a follow, all kinds of interesting stuff generally going on in her world. But the Cathedral's album is coming out on April 1, and, I'm gonna give you a listen to,

the track As I Am. And so dig on that, and we will see you next week. In the meantime, be faithful in ends. Nope. Nope. Be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to Live From The Path. I am. Coming as am.

Coming as I am. I was always just that little kid dreaming of all the things I wish I did while all that I was clashed with what I was and dreams planted in my heart got dropped to my stomach. Sprouting roots that grew into a grapevine, sprouting upward through the darkness and into my mind, waging a fight behind and inside my brain, waning under pressure to make sure that I wasn't caught in the wind of all of my thoughts and all the boxes, locked away and buried like corpses, negotiating with memories to determine what type of land that they'll own and what the headstone on their real estate will read. But these stones are heavy, weighing endlessly on the back of someone with enough baggage to make even Southwest Airlines cringe

at the best of my packing arrangements, staring at labels and wondering about their placement. My heart is a compartment of chests and cabinets ornately hanging from their arteries and marked appropriately for their contents, with comments under tents in the refugee camp placed perfectly above my throat, waiting to be sent to somewhere better with more hope, but trapped in the disarray of the siege warring behind my face that keeps pace with the machine gun fire of my thoughts ambushed in the nighttime, praying for quiet within my mind. I'm still looking for an armed assistant assist in the peace negotiations. When will the fight finally cease?

Letting the blind finally see. Where is the person who is willing to accept me? Are reawakening and aching from the shaking of the breaking of earthquakes that ring the barriers between the fractured cells of my being. So I will run on casted ankles, pointing broken fingers towards the cure, the great physician who forces away any condemning pair of splinting soul spending for themselves after having their heels crushed the head of the opposition by the will of your hand. I think I understand. I get it now. I was never meant to use glue for you to stick around because I am stuck in the presence of your love like surround sound. Divorce papers thrown on the ground now. You have taken all of my confessions,

and you have made me whole, accepted my handshakes, and called me beautiful. You gave an orphan to choir, told her that she's home. You've taken all of my brokenness, unafraid of my mess, and made it a message, your monument from the wreckage. Take it all away till it's only you inside. I know I'm still a mess, but I know that it's in you I will find peace when the world isn't stormed. Refuge when I'm not sure where I belong. You will take all of these boxes and tell me I'm still lovely. You saved all of my messages. You told me you were proud of me. I come to find you and healing because I know that you still can. I am here because of all that you are and nothing that I lives. And