Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path. And you are listening to Live From The Path. Tony from the Pathway Studios here in Johnston, Robert. It's beautiful.

Thank you. Yeah. I I worked on that. Was Hold on. Ten years of practice. Don't have my oh, man.

Always. Always something not working quite right. I swear I can't I can't can't pull it together. Alright. Hey. Path of, like, ghetto studios. This stuff looks like falling apart. Pictures are missing or whatever. Alright. Here's what we got going on the show. I found a a couple articles. I'm not I'm I'm not quite sure whether I'm interested in them. So the first one is the 20 most read bible verse found in Isaiah. Is this a surprise?

Does it I mean, does anybody have a guess on what it is? I should. Here I am. Send me. Okay.

Actually, I'm a man of unclean clum clean lips should be more popular than it is. Okay. Alright. So hold on. We we might as well go through this one now that I've landed on it here. Searches on the YouVersion Bible app increased by 80% this year. Oh, interesting. Wow. That's a significant movement. Yeah. Yeah. Nathaniel, do you use the YouVersion? No. No. No. Do you use another Bible app? Yeah. Which what do you use? I use the ESV app, and I use the Blue Letter Bible app. Okay. So combo of stuff. Yeah. Dan, do you use one on the on the phone? I I use my logos.

Oh, you just use the low the straight up logo stuff? Yeah. They have that. Even for, like, traditional bible reading on your phone or do not read? Yeah. Okay. Do you Nathaniel, do you do you use it for, like, any daily bible reading or anything on your phone? Yeah. Okay. You do. Dan, do you do it or just for looking up stuff? Both. Yeah. I mean yeah. Most mostly on my phone, I guess, looking up stuff. Okay. I don't do a lot of I mean, it depends if I'm, like, in a spot where I'm not doing anything. I'm like, oh, I'll read my bible a bit. But Right. That's not Okay. Mike, do you have an app? Yeah. Yeah. I don't like using it. But I've started

a little bit. To be honest, I like reading out of my bible. The like paper. I do. I do. But like but it was causing me to, if I did not have, like if I'd missed my time in the morning, I certainly would have time to make up for it if I used the Bible app And sometime during the I was refusing because I like my I like my regular Bible. And I thought you know, I said, you know, that's gotta go. That's gotta go. I I used to wear out my Bible, like, every couple years or something. And and then when the digital stuff started coming out, I just like I just I don't I I never read a paper Bible anymore,

Mostly because I'm cheap Yeah. I guess. Because they're, like, expensive, you know? Yeah. You know? And I saw I wonder if that's, like, hurt the bible market out there, you know? I don't know. Whoever makes super thin see through pages is like, man, we just got no business. We should get 80 for this thing. Yeah. I think it's a generational thing. I don't like it at all. I don't like reading anything on my phone, really. I'd really prefer just to read off paper. But

I've had it stared at me in the face and I thought I could look at Facebook or look at the news or I could probably read a couple chapters of Esther. So it has kinda helped throughout the day. It's funny, we were just talking before the show started, it's like the little bits of

what you take in and what you put in your soul and what you take in to refresh yourself. You'd be amazed on the change of your thought processes and the change of your heart if you replaced two times a day of social media with two times a day of Chronicles or something. I shouldn't really do that. Here's the thing, is the more you do that, like, you don't wanna be so out of it that you have no clue what's going on, but maybe you do. I mean, honestly, the things that that that that that God has for you to work on almost never have anything to do with what the news is talking about or what's going on on your social media. That's true. And so, like, the things that you're that that that God would have you

invest in, like your family or the people around you or your work or your integrity or missionary work or whatever, none of that is dependent on how the election turned out in New Jersey or that the coronavirus is spiking in Kansas. Like, I suppose these are things to know but like, did it really make you any more wise? Did you gain anything? Did you did you turn that into empathy and prayer? Or did you just take in information and go, well, I know that now? And then that's all the more it went because it's just not adding to you. And it's hard to advocate for that and go, hold yourself away and just listen to whatever God has to say and read the Bible and pray and keep yourself concentrated on where you're at. Because it sounds very not intuitive, but if everybody took care of their area, we would cover all areas. That's true. Right?

One of my biggest fears in life, and every once in while it kind of terrifies me that what if I get toward the end? It's not like a fear or a scare, I mean, just a disappointment. What if I get toward the end of my life and think, man, I could have read so much more from the Bible? Right. Right. And and I, you know, I'll spend an hour on the social media and not even think I can't even tell you what I read on it a week yesterday. Yeah. Let alone like I could tell you if I'd read Matthew. I mean even when you run into a good article or something that you find interesting, I mean, it's it's lasting impression on you is like a day. I might even tell a couple people and then it might last two days.

But I don't like this. Just stop this show. This is stupid. This is not begun well. Man, I just I hate it. Yeah. You know, I I I realized I had done a really good job at the start of the year of of just getting away from my phone. Setting it down,

keeping it away from me, and just not looking at it. And then over the course of this year and some of this like, I I hate it because what be because I'm working from home, like my phone serves as like my multifactor authentication to get into my work network. It's gotta buzz me or whatever. And so like I have to have it to do some of the main things that I do during the day. And so I feel like it has to be constantly around me and like over the last, you know, whatever six or seven months, like it's just piled up where suddenly I'm back into the same bad habits again. Like I always have it in my hand or it's in my back pocket. I I don't sit anywhere for more than a minute without having gotten it out. I'll look at it to see like if something is is come up. In fact, I got okay, this is creepy.

They started there was some articles and some news things about this over the last week but like Microsoft, if you if you if your company uses Microsoft, they're doing this thing where they're starting to track behavior of of employees. And like, generally, they'll tell you, look, this is try to to improve efficiency and stuff. It's it's big brother ish. It's not super comfortable. But then again, like, whatever they're paying me, I can I'll deal with whatever they throw out there. But like, I get this weekly thing that says, look, here's your here's the analytics on Ben Foost this week. And one of the things is it said was is that you open

90% of your emails within thirty minutes of getting it. And they're like, this is this is like once you pull your attention away from something, it takes on average twenty one minutes to get it back. And so they said, if you're opening, you know, your emails within thirty minutes of getting them, think of how often you're getting pulled away from doing work and focused work and then how long it takes to get back into doing it again. And so they were actually advocate where I'm like, hey man, I'm quick, I'm timely, I'm answering my emails. My my creepy big brother ish software says, look, you're opening your emails too often. They said you should just set up, you know, time every two hours and say, okay, check email or something like that. And so, like, I found the whole thing creepy but then I also the whole thing valuable. Thought, well, I mean, that's a good insight. I didn't realize I was doing that. Yeah.

And that what what you might consider a virtue keeps you actually from being productive. Yeah. Yeah. And like I actually got someone was mad. Was my I got a family member who's mad at me from yesterday because they're like, they texted me or whatever and I didn't get back to because I'm trying not to look at my phone and it took a number of hours before I saw it. And they were like, you know, you could at least acknowledge me or acknowledge my text. I'm like, I'm trying not to look at my phone all the time.

And this felt like I was doing a disservice to someone and I thought, boy, I kinda gotta change. I gotta reorient those expectations because it's not fair that someone should think that like you should have to respond to those things right away because it like, it's only only with the advent of modern technology has it given the right for someone to to kinda bother you. And we've talked about this on the show before that like it's the equivalent of of allowing someone to put their head in your living room window and be like, Frank. Right. And like like, oh, that's totally acceptable. No, it's not. You would tell Frank he's not allowed to come to you do that to your house. But like, this thing is like right in my butt cheek pocket all the time. And I'm like, yeah. You should have the right to pull me out of any conversation I'm having probably with my immediate family at any given time. Like I would if someone asked for advice and said, hey, my in laws keep butting in or my family or my friends keep butting in, I'd be like, you tell them to knock it off. But I allowed that very thing with my phone in my pocket. And so

it was a wake up call of of I didn't realize that I'd slid right back into it and then it was so weird. The first day after I said, look, I gotta stop doing this. And I'd set my phone somewhere. I remember standing in my kitchen and going, I don't have anything to do. Which is preposterous. Yeah. I have a million things to do. Like literally a million. I have a million things to do. But without my phone to like to log the the list Yeah. Or to look up something I was going to buy for the table I was gonna build or something or other. Like it's just been the thing where everything has to route through and I'm like, this has deceived me into thinking that I don't have anything to do. I was wash I ended up washing dishes. I'm like, I'm gonna wash the dishes. Like, it's a that's that's like the five hundredth thing on the list. I'm like, I don't even know what to do.

Anyway, but it has to be jacking with your brain. It it's not right. There's something messing me up. Alright. So so twenty twenty's most read bible verse, do not fear. And fear shows up again. So you you know what's funny is that, like, on this Christianity Today is carrying this article. And so on the left hand side, it shows related articles. Twenty twenty's most read Bible verse, do not fear. From December ninth of last year, the Bible app's most popular verse, do not worry. 2,008

2,018, do not be discouraged, YouVersion Bible app tops 3,000,000 downloads. Wow. Discouraged Marie Fear.

We have a running theme here. Now I wonder if there's something unique about okay. Two things. One, I'm gonna give you the very shallow. I mean, I can't find the right word I wanna describe what I'm thinking. But like, I do wonder if people are searching that so that they can put it on social media. Right. Yeah. Yeah. They're looking for the snippet. Yeah. Do not worry. Hey, for you today, friend, do not worry. So actually, a friend of mine from work sent me

he sent me a meme. Uh-huh. And here's what it says. It says, The phrase do not be afraid, in quotes, is written in the Bible 365 times. That's a daily reminder from God to live every day being fearless. He says, you're the only one I know that can verify this. Count them, please. Yeah.

You gotta send them each verse. Yeah. I said, I think that's probably missing some context but possibly factually accurate. Yeah. I mean, they're saying do not fear when I mean, almost always when the presence of the Lord is actually there. When like, you have a choice, you're like, I could crap my pants and this would be acceptable. That's not just an everyday wake up. You telling me that's not if so, let's say, Nathaniel Cartham. Let's say you get pulled up you get pulled up into the heavens. Mhmm. Alright? And you see the Seraphim with the six wings or whatever Yeah. And the and you can't catch anything but God's toenails because that's what you're looking at and there's a robe and a fire and whatever. Yeah. And he's gonna speak to you and you don't think to yourself, I think crapping my pants might be a reasonable option here. Yeah. I'm pooping my pants. This is what I'm saying.

Okay. That's what I'm saying. And then the god says do not be afraid. Like, well, that didn't preclude me from messing myself. Well, every every time an angel shows up, that's like the first thing they say. Because you would. Yeah. You would reasonably be afraid. You know, it's kinda funny. I've been preaching for thirty six years. Right? You think I'd especially at Christmas. I've done this 36 times. What? This thirty thirty seventh time. And and this year, I'm just kinda going through the story. So I'm going through just the announcement to Zechariah and Elizabeth Yeah. About John the Baptist. You know? And I thought I'd preached on that before.

But I just started really looking into it. And and and I've never actually evidently preached on, like, the moment Gabriel shows up to him. And, course, he says the do not fear thing. Yeah. But it's like he's he's in the holy place. He's his job is that day, that week, is doing the incense. So he's right before the the veil, which is lighting the incense. The the prayers of the saints are going into the holy of holies. Right? So he's in there, and he's praying. He's praying for the people. They've gathered outside to hear him come out after the the lighting of the incense and then and the the prayers. And he would go out and give them the blessing of Aaron from Numbers. And

and he's sitting there having, like which is a bucket list thing for him. Right. They're saying there's, like, 20,000 priests at the time. So it's like, you you went twice a year and just buy lots. There's a good chance you're a lifetime. You never you never have this job. But he has it this time. And then he's there in the holy place, and and and Gabriel pops up. And he's like, craps his pants. You know what mean? You can see that. But he does say, do not fear. You know? Because, yeah, of course, you would. You would. I mean, there's so many things going on right there, and an angel pops up. And it's like yeah. So he had to be startled. Yeah. I can't imagine. I mean, I'm fifty fifty on p I'm I get jump just, like, scared real easy. Uh-huh. If somebody just pops up, I there's fifty fifty chance I'm pooping my pants anyway, angel or not.

Poop them sometimes. It's just kind of the deal. Duly noted. That's true. It doesn't tell how smoothly the angel has entered the scene. I know. That's why I was like, did he did he slide through the veil? Did he just kinda materialize like a Star Trek thing? Did he just walk in here? That's a great question. What are doing? The Lord plays it up for dramatics. When you go down there, I mean, sachet slow. Let the light just shine real bright and kinda kinda land like you just got off the borg. Yeah. I mean, make this a deal. Well, that's like I I was wondering, know, thinking through this last week of, like so all of a sudden, he's in the holy place next to Zachariah. And I'm like, at at first, he's probably ticked off like, hey. You can't be in here. Yeah. Right. I mean, don't just walk in here. Yeah. That's true. I mean, and he's like, woah. It's an angel. I I mean, yeah. Would want it to be a fly on the wall among these events.

So do not fear is a pretty good word. Then the fly can't talk either. It's like, what did I do? Sorry, man. Everybody gets the same deal. I can't I can't shake it. I I had what popped from my mind was was the angel shows up and he he looks at the mercy seat and go, seat taken. Like, I don't know if he's able to sit on it or whatever. Sorry. It had no relevance. I just couldn't let it go. That would be that and that and they probably wouldn't put that in there. You know, God's like, leave this stuff out, but the angels cracking jokes like, hey, man. You left the door unlocked again. But see, that would have been in the holy of holies. That's like one step

further. So but he wasn't in there. Yeah. That's true. He was in the holy place. He could be pointing He had the candle pointing through the veil. The table and the incense. Can angels go in the holy of holies? High priest just does once a year. But not angels. Oh oh, I thought you meant. I mean, can angels go in there? I mean, it's big hairy deal. It's not good. God I don't think God mentions it. No. Yeah. I mean, they're in his presence. A couple golden ones. They're in his presence up up in in God's space. So I mean, yeah. Who knows? I would say yes. I vote yes. Yeah. Why not? I'm gonna vote yes as well. Okay. Isaiah forty one ten ranked as the most searched, read, and bookmarked verse on the app. So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous hand. Through every hardship, people continue to seek God and turn to the Bible for strength, peace, and hope, said YouVersion founder Bobby Grunwald. He's a little on the optimistic side, I think. While 2020 is a year so many say they'd like to forget, we see it as a year to remember how God used the Bible app to help so many people who are searching for answers.

Bible searches spiked corresponding to major events with fear becoming the app's top search term in the first few months of the year, justice in the spring, and healing trending throughout the year. The Bible Gateway site reported similar search trends. Pandemic related verses about God taking away sickness got around 90 times more queries than average when US COVID nineteen lockdowns begin in in March. Oh, now remember that list from, like, two or three years ago where it it separated them by a country? Oh. I'd be I'd be curious to see the relative nature of those sickness searches in The US versus like, I don't know, everybody else. Oh, Here we go. Four key themes people turn to the bible for.

Okay. Check this out. Key themes. This is from this isn't from YouVersion. This is from Bible Gateway. Pandemic. The worldwide COVID nineteen pandemic dominated global news. Key topics were disease, pestilence, and plague. Oh, no. That doesn't feel like you're using it right. Key verses, worship the Lord your God and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, Exodus 23. And nevertheless, I bring health and healing to it. I will heal my people and let me enjoy abundant peace and security. Jeremiah 33.

Yeah. If they're searching for pestilence and plague, I feel like they're not using it right. I mean, I know why they would do it, but like I Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Secondly, political. Governmental governmental response to the pandemic as well as The US Presidential Election increased interest in what the Bible says about politics. Key topics, praying for government. Okay. There's a guy trying to prove something on Facebook. Obeying government, same.

Key verses, I urge then first of all that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives and godliness and holiness. And let everyone be subject to governing authorities for there is no authority except that which god has established. The authorities that exist have been established by god. Romans 13. So yeah.

I mean, I don't do you think people are searching that really because they, like, didn't know what it said? Because that seems like someone trying to prove a point to me. Yeah. They know they know it. They're trying to figure out where it's at. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then there's end times. Let's see here. During troubled times, people often look for signs that Christ will return. Key topics, signs of the end times into the world. Key verses. But mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, and blah blah blah.

See here. Most popular keyword searches, love, peace, hope, joy, faith, fear is number six. Well, you need to pick there's one verse covers a good chunk of that. Pray, heart, light, spirit, prayer, holy spirit, grace, truth, children, fear not. Chicken? Does that say chicken? So no. No. Chicken is not on the list. No. Comfort, rest, and rest. Yeah. Nope. Nope. Most popular bible verses in 2020 in bible gateway. So these aren't so so John three sixteen and then Jeremiah twenty nine eleven, I know the plans I have for you.

Is c h r Corinthians or Chronicles? Gotta be Corinthians. No one quotes Chronicles. Yes. O n c r o n Hold on. Chronicles. Yeah. Second Chronicles. Really? Really? Yeah. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will hear their land. I love that. I I mean, I I gotta be honest with you. I just read through both Chronicles, I don't know, maybe two, three weeks ago and like I found it I so loved it. I absolutely loved it. You just forget God's character.

Like if you were to do a Bible overview of a guy that's been in and out of the church since I was a kid, you know, and maybe really started paying attention to him when I was like 25. It was it was still like this heavy handed, justice focused

Old Testament God. And then Jesus comes along and like breaks everything and then cleans it up a little bit on his way out and then Old Testament God seems to meld into Jesus by the time the tail end of Revelation shows up. That's how that that's what a gross generalization and not at all true of God's story. But that would be probably how I would would say it from what I knew, you know? And like, if you actually read through Chronicles, I mean, what what a disaster. Right? Everything that happened to the nation of Israel was because God said, I will be with you. And the nation of Israel said, yeah, but we're not gonna be with you. We're gonna do this instead. Even the more outrageous things, I think I was talking about this a couple weeks ago, but my favorite thing is was one of the kings, right, that went into battle and had like 300 dudes against a million And like, totally won. No problem. Right?

God had the two opposing the army split into two factions and do an end run then around like this, around the Israelites. The Israelites just moved and then the two factions ended up just fighting each other, lost track of what was going on and killed himself. And like God says, I will be with you. Then tail end of the chapter, the guy goes out with, he's got the leading army, he's got enough people. You know, and he didn't ask God for nothing. And they got swiftly defeated by a lesser army because they went out without God and I thought,

man. And it just went on, it's back and forth. God says, hey, if you'll listen to me, I'll be with you. And then God does amazing things. Brings the whole nation to repentance. Everybody is happy and joyful and it's great. And then that king will die and then another one will show up and he goes, he didn't do at all what God asked him to do, and the whole thing goes in the toilet. And like from a macro view, you'd figure that maybe somebody could stand back and go, you know, I think we should stop doing the things opposite of what God has. It's ruining us. And one king would figure it out and fix it and God would go, look, as long as you want me, as long as you will humble yourself and be my kids, I'm here. And I'm I'm a God. Just wait. Just wait to see what I do. And still, folks are like, nah. Yes, it's not for me. And it takes all kinds of destruction and people are getting washed away in the process and you're like, holy cow, grace and patience are just never ending here, never ending. And

only when he's calling them to repentance does he allow the full And it's not even the full weight, but a good amount of the weight fall on them. Like I told you, if you do this, I'm going to have to get you in a place where you will listen to me and as the spectator, the reader, you're like, no no, fellas, please listen to what God's saying. And then they're like, and then we installed 75 Asherah poles. And you're like, ah, no. No. No. And then off they go. And you're like, holy cow, this is just hard to watch. And then find out when you if you read Chronicles, all that to say, when you read Chronicles and compare it to the things that Jesus is saying, it's the same heart, it's the same thing. It's grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. And God says, look,

grace has no weight without justice. And every once in a while, you're gonna have to see that it gets metered out. And then Jesus shows up and goes, that's all the justice. All the justice goes on, Jesus. And like, you can't understand that full weight. And that's the thing. It's like someone doing something good for you whether you will actually understand it or not. Right? Like, do I really understand the transaction that had to happen when Jesus died took on the full weight of God's wrath and punishment of sin? It's above my head. It's above my understanding. Right? But someone but but the God of the universe didn't bend the rules for himself. He said, look, it's gotta be paid. And so, you know, and I don't want it to follow my kids. I'm offering them a way out and so I guess I'm gonna have to pay it. And then he does. And like And that's why we struggle to feel the full weight of what was paid for, right? As much as I still get the feeling, especially during worship songs or when I'm praying about it, I still get like a gut feeling that I know this was a big deal. But like, if it stuck with me, my life would look totally different. And it doesn't. It fades in, it fades out, I get it, I don't get it. You know what I'm saying? And the weight never stays on me, which is a gift. But like, holy cow. If you really understood what had to happen there,

boy, your your day to day would be way different. You wouldn't take two steps without, hey, what are we doing? What do think we should do today? You paid for the day. What do want? You know? Yeah. Actually, I've you'd you've been talking about it. And so I went and started reading I don't know if I started Chronicles or or or Kings. Maybe first Kings. And, like and I kinda was getting the same impression. Like, you just take it in with some fresh eyes and like take it in and not and not the and not a Sunday school way. Like, oh, here's David and Bathsheba and here's David and blah blah blah. And like these they're not microcosm. Just look at them big picture and like watch how often God expressed what the what the what the consequence to something was and then relented. Like, think about this way. The the consequence

even at the very beginning, God's relationship with his people has always been one of exile but and not destruction as a means to call to repentance. Right? Like, Adam and Eve shouldn't have survived the very first thing that happened. Mhmm. Like and god's and so the the first thing god god gives them a place and then they they get exiled. Same thing happens to Cain. Right? You've done you've you've done something wrong and, like, he deserves punishment. He deserves death. He gets exiled. Right. He's classic black hat. Classic villain. Right? That shows up in this story that was already you're like, you could kind of side a little bit with Adam and Eve. You're like, oh, I get it. Sorry you screwed up. You know, but we're coming around. And then here come Cain, and he's obviously the mustache twister of the story, you know? And God's still like, exile, not destruction. Right. You killed a man. You straight killed your brother. And you're like, this definitely has got to be the end of God's patience. And it's not. Well, and like and like Tower Of Babel, same thing. People are trying they're actively trying to basically prove that they can they can act without God or that they're gonna reach God under their own human initiative.

Spit in the face. What do they get? Exile. Distribution. Right? Nation of Israel, obviously, much bigger picture provided land, screwed up. What do they get? They get exile. But, like, over and over again, like, we see you even see this in the in the Genesis story where Adam and Eve where, like, the consequences of what they're doing is, like, if you if you do this thing, you shall surely die. And we're like, well, he didn't die. And, like, I think from a theological standpoint, we're like, oh, well, he meant they would eventually die. But, like, I actually am not sure that he didn't he wasn't expressing that what they were owed is instant death. What they got was mercy. What they got was God not actually doing it. And think of how many times that happens with the with the Israelites grumbling and Moses. And God will say, look, I'm gonna wipe him out. I'm gonna start over with your with just Moses' people. And, like,

I think God is trying to communicate that is what is owed. That is actually the right consequence. And then Moses says, hey. You can you not do that? And he relents. But, like, it isn't because that wasn't the right it wasn't just to do the thing that he did. And that happens over and over and over again where where Moses petitions on the people's behalf and, we are made privy to what the just what the actual just thing was, what the rightful consequence was. And so, like, this picture of an Old Testament God of wrath is simply without proper like, it's not without it's not without context at all. Right? But, like, the times when god acts like, even even the destruction of the Canaanites, the Amalekites, and you're like and and, like, the bible goes, hey, man. It's been four hundred years. Four hundred years and they're sacrificing their kids to to to fake gods.

And so it's something has to be done. Or, like, think about the times he says, like, hey. You need to the command is to wipe out basically everybody, including women and children, and then they actually don't do it. Like, the the Israelites don't follow through, and God doesn't go through and subsequently wipe them out. Like, there's notions of mercy even in those things where we're getting pictures of what God says is just, and then you are constantly getting pictures of his mercy within those those things. Because, like, if they didn't follow through and God wanted it done, he could have just done it. Could He have just followed up and said, look, said to do this. I'll do it myself. He's not above that. So, anyway, it's just I I think it's a

it's an interesting reading if you take in the full notion of what is what justice is and what we'd be crying out for if we were on the other side of the sword. If we were the ones being defended by the sword, this is the justice we'd be asking for. And when he doesn't do it, we're like, what kind of what kind of protector are you? Because you're not doing these things. But when that sword is pointed at you, you're like, this is so unfair. I should be given mercy. And like to even potentially to to God's shame, like some prophets will make this case that God, you are being shamed. The book of Revelation makes this case or the the guys under the altar make the case like, hey, you're being shamed. Your people are dying. Your name is being drugged through the mud. And, like, always always,

God is willing to sacrifice whatever potential dishonor to his Yahweh God name is for the cause of mercy, for the cause of of what is ultimately just in the face of repentance, but it's ultimately also mercy. And so it's it's just interesting if you can take it in well, the picture that you actually get of God versus the shallow representation that I think sometimes comes across. Yeah. That that mean, that's even true in the in the the smaller stories, you know, the woman caught in adultery. Yeah. You know, he'll he'll he'll accept the I mean, what she should have is to be stoned, you know, and he's like, go on, you know.

And yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good good point. Alright. Well You know what? Do you find it starkly different? Do you think they're taken in differently? Because Jesus seems to talk in a much more philosophical

way, I guess. I don't know. Like like, where where in the old testament, God is answering very specific things most of the time or calling on, you know, very specific people groups or saying this and this specifically. Jesus is not real big on specifics or, you know, like people are trying to trap him into saying real specific things or answering certain situations and he tends not to do it. You know, where where the God of the Old Testament is like, here's what's gonna happen. Like like, it's more than events, event driven. You know, here's here's the circumstances and here's what's gonna happen. Right? And so do you think that it comes it plays off that way as you read it more how it was written? It's not like God doesn't have the nuance to be able to have philosophical conversations, but it's way more a of a chronicle. Right? A fact based, here was the conversation, here's what God said, and boom, here we go. Some of it, I think, is the the posturing of the original audience. Like, you wouldn't have to tell

a Jew being retold the story in two hundred and fifty BC about Adam and Eve that God had been merciful to them. Like, you wouldn't have to spell that out. They they recognize what God has done and that they deserved otherwise and that God was merciful. Like, you could tell the whole narrative of of Israel up to that point and they recognize the points of mercy. They complained about it. But they would at least recognize it. Whereas like, we would read it and go, yeah. Okay. Like, we like unless it's unless unless the narrative narrative stops and goes,

and thus you will know that God was merciful, then we're then we we'll miss it. We'll miss it. We're like, yeah, they got kicked out of the garden. I'm like, but they should have been killed. But no one brought that up. But it would take pains to point it out. Whereas Jesus is a little bit more it's weird because he's more direct in that way, but vague, generally speaking. Like, talks about in in broader principles.

But it is he is much more of a of a teacher rather than just giving you history and expecting you to digest it correctly. So actually, I asked a couple fellows this a week or so ago, and I never got a response. But it was I was considering the way Hey. I I'm here. I'm in the room. You don't have to treat me this way. And I never got a response. And Buva you know Buva don't respond. You don't answer this stuff. But like, it was for some reason, I couldn't shake this thought that like, what is Jesus' personality? Right? Like, what what is his I don't even know how to sum that up. Right? But I was thinking, like, I know it's not the same as mine. Yeah. You know? And so, like, are there parts of the way the Gospel

you know, Jesus talks, the way he interacts with people, is there some parts of it that, like, it's his personality or that's God's personality, which is kind of kind of funny sometimes and pretty straightforward and and and, like, always knows what you don't know and goes, in fact, I do know. You know? And Yeah. I I know what you're thinking. You know? And like and and just just even the way he presents information like that, like, there's just a personality style to him. You know? And I thought, what what is it? There's a thousand personality quizzes, you know? What what personality style is is Jesus? You know? That's what makes it so difficult to watch in film people portray Jesus because we all have a different slightly view. Right. You know, I suppose we project some of our own personality or or maybe a holier holier version of what we think, you know, it should be. Yeah. Yeah. I I that's that's why I did not answer it. It's not Yeah. It's like, is there I don't think there's right or wrong. But you're right. Like, if you go watch, like, old school King of Kings,

it's the super series or whatever, right? And you catch any version of Chosen, you know, and and like Jesus is smiling at kids, like a warm, full of love smile and you're like, that seems more right to me, I And then he's talking to That's somebody kinda over the top. I you know? But you don't but you don't I don't actually know. You know? Yeah. That is and I I think that's the deal is that, like, he's I mean, I say this and then you think to yourself, as he would be, but, like, he's, like, super well rounded. Right? Like Right. He's he's expressing various parts of the human experience and, like, people will identify

with different parts of those. Like, oh, the guy that that made made his own whip and and chased people out of the temple were like, heck yeah. He's a brute. He's a brute. And then the guy's like, send the children to me. And like, because we don't know people, we don't know very many people. A very rare person who has such like a unique blend of kind of all those things in a very in a pretty good balance. Mhmm. Right. They're angry when anger's appropriate. They're warm when warm is appropriate. They're you know, like they're Yeah. They're they are well rounded to the point where I think most people,

they're playing a a character of themselves. Right? Like most half the time, most actual humans have no idea what they're supposed to to do better. Like, no one has ever like, very rarely are we saying, this is me. I'm being myself. What I'm trying to do is be a better version of myself. Right. This is what I wanna do. I know that's probably wrong. So So we should shut that down and I will try to do this. And at that point, you're playing a part, a better version of yourself Uh-huh. Because that's not what you wanted to do. What you wanted to do was this terrible thing and you either let the Holy Spirit or your own brain talk yourself out of it. You know, you're like, it's not the right move. And so, right, Jesus is never doing that. He's never playing the part of Jesus. He just is. Where I think most of humanity, when they say, what is your personality type? What we're talking about is, what are you trying to do on a daily basis? What are you what are you try because that's not your your your gut always tells you to do like this weird thing and you're like, no no no no. I can't do that. I have to do this thing, you know? So I don't know. I was trying to figure out what is what oh, no. Did the internet do it? I'm checking. So someone certainly has done like Jesus' Enneagram. What's an Enneagram? It's like a

there's like nine it's a type of person you are looking for like the motivation behind your personal actions. 1234. Okay. 567. Hold on. 9.

What does it say? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's what I expected. He's all of them. Yeah. Yeah. Because like so like the the the Enneagram, like, you can be a perfectionist, a helper, achiever, individualist,

investigator, loyalist, enthusiast, challenger, or peacemaker. Yeah. And he he ends up being every one of them. Okay. Good. That's what I expected the outcome to be. Oh, good. Well, that's that's settled. What I thought was was spun around in my brain for a couple days trying to come to a bottom of something. Turns out the Internet figured it out already, I guess we're good. Yeah. Yeah. They've straightened this all out. Okay. So so are you

what's the what's the what's the verdict then? Like, is it to have your phone on you so that you can pick up a bible verse or by, you know, bible reading here and there? Because it's you will have it on you and it's convenient. Does that outweigh the risks of otherwise being caught into the thing? I think it depends on who you are.

What if you're Dan? Dan. It comes and goes, it really does. I mean, like anything else in your faith, sometimes you're heavy on prayer and then you all of a sudden say, gosh, you haven't really prayed for two months.

Same with Bible reading. Same with paying attention to your family. You know? Yeah. Boy, those one, two months are rough, man. I just go completely off the wagon. You know, our children are gone, right? So it's just Cheryl and I, Empty Nesters at home, and my wife and I. And we'll we'll the other day, looked over and I thought, we we've sat here for an hour both looking at our iPads and not saying a word. Mhmm. You know, I thought, I mean, it just

wasn't anything to say, I guess. They weren't they weren't upset. We weren't happy. We weren't we were just looking at our iPads, looking at all the important news out there in social media world, you know, I guess. Yeah. Now the last pretty pitiful. I was like, put my thing away and say, hey. How you doing? Actually, I found that over the last number of months,

I keep I keep well, my wife and I, we've gotten the kids to go to sleep or whatever, we're sitting on couches or something. And then like someone starts to fall asleep and then someone else starts to fall asleep. And then I keep I keep opening my eye going, hey, man, are you falling asleep? Because if you're falling asleep, let's just go fall asleep together. Let's let's go into the bed. There's no reason to sleep on this couch like a couple of dummies. Like, let's just come to agreement to fall asleep. But no one wants to to go, hey, we should go to bed because it's at like 11:30 and Like waiting up for somebody or something. Yeah. Like, oh, well, we don't wanna waste this free time that we have without the kids. But, I mean, if we're both going to sleep, we'll just we should just go to sleep. Yeah. Maybe. Let's do it intentionally. I and you know, I've I've had a consistent change over the past it's probably been two months now, that like, I just I just hate the world.

Right? I just I hate it. Hate what I took a turn, Mike. Well, I mean, and here's a So Merry Christmas. Here's what I guess I'm getting at, is like, I try about every three days to read some kind of news article. And I get like two a paragraph in, I'm like, this is a me thing. I don't I hate this. I know what you're trying to do. I I I like, it's just the whole everybody's just mad all the time,

upset, complaining. This is this. This is going on. This is whatever. And I think, if I know this, what will my tomorrow change? And it's nothing. It literally only adds fear and anxiety to your life. Like, this

is an oversimplification, right? If I was to walk out this door and get hit by a virus that I had no idea existed, I would prefer that than fearing a virus

for months and months and months and more months. Maybe that's just me. And that's not to make light of what the virus is. Right? But like, I mean, honestly, we talked about this as like, you can lose you can lose one day to an event or you can lose years

fearing the event. Hey, a meteor could fall out of the sky at any moment and take me out. I Don't worry about it. And and the thing is is you're adding to that. Yeah. You're adding to that. You're you're and you're allowing it. You're allowing all that to happen. I think you should probably keep abreast of how the virus is going. It's affecting a lot of people that you know and care about. I'm not saying that's a waste of your time. And so But I guess what I'm saying is, is like, if they're having a problem in a fancy California neighborhood with dogs overrunning the place.

And I will read that. I'm like, Dogs tearing up a neighborhood? Boy, that's super instinctive. And then there it went. There it went three minutes. I can't get it back. I won't change anything. I'm not on the lookout for dogs at my place. I don't have plans to send them money to help with the dogs. Like, literally will have It's just a complete hamster wheel of wasted time. And so, I've tried. I've tried the same thing with Facebook. I've been on it for, accumulatively, a half hour in two months. Because I'll read two things and I'm like, you know, I just have I I just I I really don't wanna waste any of my brain or emotional power on any of this. It just seems like a hamster wheel of waste to me. And like, I consider that a blessing. That was not my thought. Two months ago, I'm like, I like getting on the news sites, I like seeing what's up, I like to scroll Facebook for a long time and find out I ain't done nothing, like, here's the 24 best actors from 1987. I'm like, no kidding, who's in there? And then there I am for ten minutes reading a stupid article I don't actually care about, you know? And I'm like, I I don't know why that change showed up. I didn't ask for it. I wasn't looking to be some kinda, you know, outside of society jerk ball who hates news. But, like, it's it lost all of its all of its joy to me. It's it just feels like weight. All of it feels like weight.

I don't yeah. I don't know. Like, I'm sure someone has done a good job thinking through this but like the people connections that come with our ability

with our connected world seems super valuable. But like the amount of information that we are I don't wanna say responsible for, but like

are able to carry like I wonder if we were even built for it. Like, are we even built to be able to handle or consider all these things at once? You think they felt the same way when the printing press showed up and local newspapers started coming out? So. You know? Probably so. And, you know, I that's the I wonder if there's even some relevance to that

when the when the bible was first printed or even after the protestant reformation where you're like, you start putting scripture into the hands of the people. Like, prior to that, you're just, like, you just got to be told. Someone will tell you. And, like, they can only tell you so much at a time, and so you're only responsible for what it is they're willing to tell you at that given time. But as soon as the whole Bible is at your fingertips and you have the ability to read and understand it, like, I mean, that's a heavy that's a heavy burden Yeah. To be able to take that in. And I suppose, like, maybe that's similar to the amount of what, like, not to say moral impact, but, like, the the amount of information that we have at our fingertips, like, when we would say the the reformation was a good thing because it allowed the every every man and woman to be able to take on scripture. But, like, that means scripture is now the responsibility

of every man and woman. Right. And that probably seems like a very big load to carry because you're not because I don't know. I feel like as soon as it came out, I would feel like I have would have to read all of it. Yeah. When when otherwise, you don't have the burden of reading all of it because you can't have it and it's not written in a language you can do anyway. So you just take it in whatever small steps old professor or old pastor man is gonna tell you. That would have felt like a crazy big burden.

Maybe that's our today. I don't know. Once again, I think I'm getting to the age where I've tried now I have to try to discern between generational issues that I because I'm not the current one, you know I'm saying? I'm the older one, you know? And so generational issues that exist and are just not my preference, and then things that are actually being harmful, you know? Like Basically, we need a new game called Cranky or Righteous?

Yes. I like This is right up your alley, Mike. Yes. We need to find out, hey, this this thing is going on. Are you cranky or righteous? Yeah. It could be my day. You know, as a as a pastor, that's been on the forefront of my mind since my twenties. Because often the battles of the church at that time were between, you know, the older people and the younger people over styles and different things. And I always thought, okay. I I just don't ever wanna be that guy who who is battling for this is how we did it. Right. When maybe there's

okay another way to do it. You you know? And and, you know, I don't know if you know it until you hit blindside, like, oh, woah. But I have been fighting something that wasn't really worth fighting. Right. You know? So no. I've been consciously trying to not participate in the cranky side.

Now have you have you has that happened to you? Where like you you felt like it came to light and you thought, oh, I was on the cranky side of this thing? I I'm sure it has. I just I can't think of an example at the moment. But it it often is part of my my thought process though. Yeah. Facing challenges, facing even just, hey, what do we do next? I'm often thinking of why why why do I say we should do this next? Yeah. And, you know, does that speak to the current generation? Yeah. To the current culture? I mean, forget generation. We did the change you know, language has changed. Yeah. How we communicate.

And sometimes I feel a little lost in that, you know. The thing is is is like, do you ever consider that the way that you deliver God's word has not changed, but the way that people take it in has.

And you go and like and that's how that's how we end up following trends around. Right? That's how we end up with top 10 lists and take homes and and because people won't they won't grab the take home for themselves. Ben's right. Like the the any Jew would have been able to tell you that God was gracious. You know, if we don't spell it out, they'll be like, God seemed angry and kick those people out. All he did was screw up one time. That seems like an overreaction. You know? And so I I I don't know. That's it's cranky, you're righteous. You know? Like Yeah. Like, is it is it my fault that you take everything in so shallowly? Or is that generationally,

look, they're used to getting the information they want in like zero point two seconds. And so you take any longer to get to your point, they're gonna stop listening to you. So now what? Do we gotta change it to drive through church where we just kinda hit you with some quippies and out the door? That's so that's where I was struggling. Like, we we were talking a little bit last week and you guys don't know this because I have not released a show from last week. But like, just talking about churches and

meeting in person, not meeting in person. And like, this is a cranky or righteous thing for me where like, I don't know. Like, I felt like it just feels like there's something about meeting. And, like, although you have Fortune 500 companies, my company completely runs on we're Fortune 100 and completely runs on video conferences. Like, we're not allowed to travel anywhere. We've got, like, five locations. I haven't I used to travel once every three to four weeks, maybe six weeks, and, like, I haven't gone anywhere for eight months. And so nine months. And so, like, it can be done and the culture is getting used to it. But, like, I feel just Ben's personal gut, intestine feeling is that there's something about meeting. I don't know if that's crank your righteous. I don't know if that's me going like you can't do it right unless you do it in person because I don't know if I believe that. Like I think you make do. I think you do the best you can but like

I I get crank your righteous is is if you do you move the goalpost completely? And that's where I get, I don't know. Like I'm worried about thinking that like, oh, it's just how we do it and I just think it's right because it's how we've done. I'm not it doesn't feel like that but I'm I'm worried it is. I've wondered like in the corporate world that like so much working at home and everything like that, that that works if you had a current environment and now suddenly you shift it to home. But what happens as there's turnover in employees and you bring a new person in? You can't get the culture on a Zoom meeting. Right. I don't think. It's harder. Yeah. It's certainly much harder. There's so there's

pieces you're missing. So what happens if you're all fragmented like that? At some point, you've gotta get people back together to to bring that culture and create that culture again. Yeah. I I think corp that that'll be something the corporate world we'll have to figure out. And I think there's way I mean, there's smart people who like other people and who build cultures who I think will figure out means to do that. Will it be as good as people together physically?

Again, I don't think so. I think you're missing something there. But I and then maybe it'll just bear out over time whether it's cranky or righteous but like, I feel like it's righteous. Well, and like the way that the the remote communication, like like when there's a lot more stuff done through email and video and whatever, like it it really is you you do miss giving people benefit of the doubt. Right? Especially email, I find to be a snaky form of conversation. I don't like it. It's not my favorite. I'd rather just talk to a guy, you know, but like, text message can can cause the same problems. Right? Like, I send an email out and it goes four hours by and you don't answer it, I'm like, hey, you either sought and prioritized me pretty low,

or you didn't come to work today and didn't put like a, hey, I'm not gonna be here email on. Either way, I'm irritated with you. Like, what's going on? Know? And like, but if the guy was in the same building, I'd just walk down there, go talk to him. Hey, man. I wanna do this. I wanna buy this. Can we get this ordered? Sure. You know? And so, like, it it it's That that that type of communication and not being together, it does breed some parts of discontent easier. I don't know whether it should or not. That's probably just me being a jerk. It does breed that, because you don't actually know what's going on, and you're trying to solve a problem that should've taken you know, a two second walk and a three second conversation, and now it's drug out over six hours because you can't get a guy to pick up an email. Yeah. You know? It's like, that is difficult.

Hey. Maybe you got something, and you're like, hey, man. I don't know if this is cranky or righteous. Shoot us a phone call or a text on the complaint line. It's (515) 517-0085. It's (515) 517-0085. That's the Bob Eisenhower complaint line. And again, phone call or text and say, just give us the situation and say, here's what I think. Am I being cranky or righteous? And maybe we'll take a go at it, and we'll see if we can help you out. Obviously, although our examples, we've not really solved our own problems. No. But I mean No. I mean, obviously, you're desperate By the time you submitted to the Bob Eisenhower complaint line. That's right. We can solve we could we can't solve our own, but we can solve yours. We're here for your desperate Because we don't have to deal with any of the consequences.

Can't I don't think of the I'm trying to think if we've ever gone through an advice where we're like, oh, we don't know. Has that happened? No. I don't think so. No. We we had a conclusion. Yeah. We've always we might have cut the room in half a couple times, but not very often. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You ready for the advice? No. Hold on. I got I got one thing. We're gonna do I got a we got I got a couple clean jokes Okay. From jokes.christiansunite.com. A new missionary recruit went to Venezuela for the first time. He was struggling with the language and didn't understand a whole lot of what was going on, intending to visit one of the local churches. He got lost, but eventually got back on track and found the place. Having arrived late, the church was already packed. The only pew left was the one in the front row. So as not to make a fool of himself, he decided to pick someone out of the crowd to imitate. He chose to follow the man sitting next to him on the front pew. As they sang, the man clapped his hands so the missionary recruit clapped too. When the man stood up to pray, the missionary recruit stood up too. When the man sat down, he sat down. When the man held the cup and bread for the Lord's supper, he held the cup and bread. During the preaching, the recruit didn't understand a thing. He just sat there and tried to look just like that man in the front pew. Then he perceived that the preacher was giving announcements. People clapped, so he looked to see if the man was clapping. He was. So the recruit clapped too. Then the preacher said some words that he didn't understand and he saw the man next to him stand up, so he stood up too. Suddenly, hush fell over the entire congregation.

A few people gasped. He looked around and saw that nobody else was standing, so he sat down. After the service ended, the preacher stood at the door shaking the hands of those who were leaving. When the missionary recruit stretched out his hand to greet the preacher, the preacher said in English, I take it you don't speak Spanish. The missionary recruit replied, no. I don't. It's that obvious? Well, yes, said the preacher. I announced that the Acosta family had a newborn baby boy and would the proud father please stand up. That wasn't a clean joke. It implied hanky panky.

Okay. Hold on. We're gonna do one more. Okay. Okay. A young boy, about eight years old, was at the corner of corner mom and pop grocery picking out a pretty good sized box of laundry detergent. Grocer The walked out and trying to be friendly asked the boy if he had a lot of laundry to do. Oh, no laundry, the boy said. I'm gonna wash my dog. But you shouldn't use this to wash your dog. It's very powerful. If you wash your dog in this, he'll get sick. In fact, it might even kill him. The boy was not to be stopped and he carried the detergent to the counter and paid for it even as the grocer still tried to talk him out of washing his dog. About a week later, boy was back in the store to buy some candy. The grocer asked the boy how his dog was doing. Oh, he died, the boy said. The grocer trying not to be an I told you so said he was sorry the dog died but added, I tried to tell you not to use that detergent on your dog. Well, the boy replied, I don't think it was detergent that killed him. Oh, what was it then? I think it was the spin cycle. Oh.

He put the dog in a laundry. Now now the the joke itself aged itself when I talked about a box of laundry soap. That took me back. Oh. Back in the day, you buy the big old Tide or whatever boxes. Yeah. And we don't do that money hey. I use boxes. What? So they still do them? Well, here's the thing. I make we make our own. It's a combination of Borax and washing soda, both which come in boxes. We buy our our we buy some kind of pod or something. For the washing machine? Yeah. Which we use, Dan? Yeah.

Or do you use, like, the the pour in stuff? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which one the pod? I don't know where the pod goes. Right? They have a pour in. I I struggle with this with the dishwasher as well. It's like some people are like, just chuck it into the dishwasher anywhere. I'm like, but they have special compartment to put the soap in. I wanna put it in there. Yeah. No. No. No. You gotta put it just out in the open, otherwise it won't whatever. I'm like, why do gotta make this so hard? I just wanna put I just wanna do this right, you know? So like every time I get the pot out, I'm like, does it go all directly in the washer to break open on its own, or do I put it in the detergent cup a roony and it disperses itself through some type of whizbangery? And I don't know. What I don't like about the dishwasher pods

is, you know, your hands are all wet after washing some dishes. And then you reach your your wet mat in there, and then it makes all the other ones wet, and then they all congeal together. Then you just have one massive pod. No. That's true. Yeah. You gotta dry your hands. You ever think about that, Nathaniel? Adding an extra step in there? Amateur? Just the thought. How long you've been struggling with this? I never thought of that. Well,

not long. I I normally don't do dishes. I feel like you had a pretty lax high school that just kinda let people pull through classes because this is a pretty quick problem solving, Nathaniel. Well, I wasn't a good high school student. Let's say that. You know, I took Spanish one twice and Spanish two twice.

Have you you ever opened your dishwasher, like, mid cycle and looked at the bottom? Like, where all the water has kinda pooled up after, like, starting to halfway rinse your dishes? Okay. It's disgusting. Yeah. I've opened it before and I said, are dirty people. Where's all those people yeah. Where's all this stuff come from? Yeah. Didn't look that dirty. It was yeah. Yeah. It was disgusting. And which, I mean, it kinda makes sense. It has to go somewhere. But then I feel like the dishwasher, that's what it does. It rinses it all out and then kinda continues to cycle it all about. And

I don't know. It doesn't seem productive. I gotta tell you, my dishwasher went out, like, three months ago. Mhmm. And I ordered one, but because of COVID, it's back ordered. Mhmm. So it's not it still even haven't shipped yet. Oh, wow. And so we're on three months of hand washing dishes. Oh. And boy, my family hates it. And I think it's great. I actually don't mind hand washing dishes, plus I get a chance to talk to my kids. Some of the best conversations happen when washing dishes come I'm telling you. Like, like we just I mean, we spent a solid forty five minutes together realizing that, like, we should've washed these two days ago. We can't let it get this bad. Yeah. You know? And then and then and so, like, I've had a lot of really good talks with my kids washing dishes because what are we gonna do other than that? Right? If we're not washing dishes, then everybody's looking for we wanna watch a movie or something. Everybody wants to sit down and do something else. I'm like, we can all huddle together behind the handwashing because it stinks. No less on its thing. So it's been a blessing to me. Everybody still hates it. But I don't mind it at all.

Why is it such a backorder? I don't get it. Because the factories are on half whatever. Getting the materials is on half. Getting them delivered is on half, you know, and You so know what? That happened to me. I put in two new windows in this outbuilding I have, and, like, I got them all unwrapped and, like, sitting up in the holes. And I'm like, wait a minute. There's no screens here. And so I thought they'd hosed me. And so I got a hold of the the Menards, and it took them like I had a special I had to get custom sizes for these windows. And normally, it's like four weeks, and it took twelve or fourteen weeks or whatever. It finally showed up. And then the the the screens were missing. I thought, oh, I'm just I'm just hosed here. And so I I got ahold of them, and they're like, yeah. The the Joldwin factory,

because of COVID, is it they're, like, three months behind on screens. I said, well, I had no I had no idea. Yeah. I don't know what what the screen process is that they don't have them, but they don't have them. I mean, I think there's one whiz bang screen man, and he's he's not coming in. Yeah. And so the whole place fell to a sneeze. Yeah. They're like, everybody's replaceable. Well, yeah, not Sean the screen guy. Yeah. He tears it up. That's rough. I called Dyson today because my vacuum broke, and I wanted to get a part number from them. And they said because of COVID, we don't have people here for you to talk to,

so you gotta send an email. I said, dang it. Dang it. Yeah. See, I mean, they're answers. But they're answering emails. No. Well, I was hoping to get the the I mean, maybe this is just me, you know, with my entitlement and all that, wanting answers right now. Right. But, you know, I could not wait a day for for to find what the flange part number is. Well, That's what I'm saying. That the the point is is that, like really, what they're saying is we don't have the infrastructure to route your phone call to somebody's house. Because, I mean, if they're answering emails, they obviously have people on staff. I guess. I don't know if they'll answer the email because I just sent it today. Oh. So, like, it could be it could be months. Yeah. Wow. It disgusts me. We just got a new dishwasher, like, three months ago, probably. And this time,

we intentionally it's been, like, years. Everything we have is, like, twenty years old, you know, so they're all going out. And we we thought we're gonna go local and and so we just have that local service and everything. And then and and and I'm I'm really glad I did because last week, like, all of sudden, it stopped pumping the water out. And I thought, oh, I got a drain plugged up or something. And I'm taking stuff apart. And I'm like, no. Everything's fine. Everything's good. And so I call them, and and they're like, oh, yeah. Those those pumps are going out. We'll we'll get your new pump in there. So they're coming tomorrow to put give me a new pump. Oh, nice. Wow. That's kinda weird. Yeah. They I mean, they're like, they just knew. They knew already what I was calling. Yeah. We know what you're about. It is I mean, it is so nice to know people that know something. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Of dealing with a faceless company. You know? Yeah. That really is it it's it's huge. So there's something to go through, know, the big box store and it'd be like, hey, big box store, like, we don't this, we just sold it you. We don't care, you know, and and or sign up for this plan or something. I don't know. We do all that stuff. Right. But, yeah, I was just we've gotten several appliances lately from the same place, and and I got one left to go. But that that made me feel like, yeah, that was worth it. This is the right place to push money. I helped the local family, and they're gonna help me back. Right on. Alright, yeah. Let's do some advice. Okay, here we go. Dear Life From the Path, I am a 46 year old woman about to be married for the second time. My fiance lives with me and my two children from my previous marriage.

Other than cooking breakfast and some quick snacks, he does not contribute to the household. My issue is, I pay all the bills, and he complains about the temperature inside my home. My children and I need it to be cooler. If it's too hot, we sweat and become congested, which we hate, and it makes us irritable. I tell him to put on more clothes if he is cold, but he complains to the point that I turn off the fans and air. My question is, don't I have a right to be comfortable in the home I pay for? He doesn't pay, so he should adjust to our climate. Right? Oh. Wait a minute. I what was the introduction? What's their relationship? 46 year old woman about to be married for the second time. Her fiance lives with her and her two kids. Ugh.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So there's so many layers to this. I mean, for one, it's you can't you can't play the budget game. Right? I mean, so if if he were the breadwinner, would you have to just do everything he said? Yeah. That's not You know, it's like, yeah. Don't play that game. Yeah.

And that's not even addressing the spiritual issues of go ahead and get married or get him out. Know? Do the one. Right. May may maybe you're not ready for marriage. That's why this is your second one because there's some over, you know, arching themes here that seem to be coming out of selfishness and and and Right. Pride and and I mean, you have an us versus them mentality

Yeah. Between, like, bringing a man into your home. Like, this is a bad this is a bad idea. Either it's all your monies as a pool, as a family, or it's not. And and, yeah, that's a big Do you know how how much trouble the man would be if he was talking like this? Yeah. You know? Mhmm. I make all the money. I decide what the temperature's gonna be. What the what?

That's ridiculous. Tomorrow say, woman, we're having chicken for dinner Yeah. Because I paid for it. That's right. I don't like that rug. Get a new rug that I love. For having ham. It's terrible. I mean, it it seems like such a small issue to overreact on, but, like, I don't think this is gonna work. Yeah. This does not have the telltale signs of a marriage is gonna work. I mean, there's there's there's divvying up your

marriage responsibilities. And if it just so happens that one of you works and one of you stays home and one of you handles the outside, one does the inside, whatever you there's no holy or unholy way to divide that up. But when you decide that because of this x responsibility or x job that you've taken within your marriage, now it allows you to control all of your marriage, then you're misunderstanding marriage. Mhmm. That's just not quite how that works. So

yeah. I think you should This is this is only irritating you because of selfishness. Otherwise, you you guys would figure that out. I mean, how hot is he looking forward to? Like, you get sweat and congested? Yeah. Like, is he trying yanking it to 85 in there? I mean, 74 is probably a bit steamy, but, like, does it make you sweat? That's 74? Yeah.

There's something weird about the heating in your place. I don't think it's that bad. I mean, this guy is either sick and doesn't know it that he's requiring the temperature to be this hot, or you guys are sick and so affected. I mean, what? I I wish they would've included what temperature he was shooting for. He insists on 76. Okay. Well, that's outrageous. Yeah. I mean, I think you could swing you could probably swing two to three degrees either direction and just say, look, someone's gonna get used to this over time. Yeah. Right. Because you're coming from a house of which, know, wherever he lived before in his luxury or whatever, and he loves it at 75. Like, just give him six months. He'll you know, his body will get used to it. It won't be a problem. But, like, if you're claiming sickness because he Bahama mamas himself in here, like, you know, I've never heard anyone claim this before. It's so hot in here. I'm getting congested. Yeah. They're they're irritated with each other, and they need to separate. Which is bad. Yeah. This is bad. You're not married. He put it this way. Yeah. Boy,

I think Nathaniel? Yeah. I agree. Okay. Yeah. Someone shows up for simple heating and cooling advice, we're like, your marriage is Separate. Yeah. Done. This is not gonna work. Over. Yeah. I here's the thing is it feels like we're saying, hey. You have a minor infraction,

and so you should separate. But, like, the presence of this minor one, her obvious territorism around not only money, but, like, her existing family and newcomer Charlie is bad. He seems either unreasonable

if he's being described correctly or, like, open to being pushed around, which is not a healthy relationship for either one of them. So I think that all culminates in not gonna work out. Yeah. Yep. So is her problem that she pays for everything or that, like, he's trying to bump up the heat so that's gonna cost some extra de Niro? I well, so I think I think it's both.

And so, like, she's just saying it in a weird way, like, look, I want this heat problem fixed. Now if anybody was gonna be able to choose the temperature, it should be the person that's paying for it. This dude is literally mooching off me. She's bitter that he's not working. Correct? Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Split. It's time to split. Segler says, the answers to your questions are yes and yes. The questions were,

he doesn't pay, so he should adjust to our climate. Right? Oh. She says Secular. Yes and yes. And your fiance, not you, should invest in a portable heater, which may solve his problem. He's gonna bring up his own personal heater everywhere? Yeah. This dude's gonna get a propane buddy and put it on wheels and and tune it about wherever he goes. Like, I like it. Like like dragging the Eden Pure upstairs every night before he goes, Blake, are you not gonna be in the same room with him? Like, what? If he's always by himself, this may work. I mean, I have a house full of ladies that gets his way. Like, they think everything's freezing, you know? And, like, I work outside most of the time, so I think it's boiling beast hot in my house, you know? It's not really. It's like it's just what you're used to and and and, you know, whatever, like, this is rarely an issue. And frankly, if this dude knew anything about ladies, you say, what temperature would you prefer? And then you just grow yourself accustomed to that. Because you'll let this go eventually, she will not. Get a beard and a hat, man. Yeah. This temperature is the deal. You you need to just you need to love your wife this way and figure out how to keep yourself put some long johns on. There's all kinds of options. This happens to me all the time. It is it is,

you know, 30 degrees outside, 35 degrees outside. And, like, it never fails that there are two windows open in my house. It could be, like I mean, do you remember last year's last winter or whatever? And, like, it was below zero for, like, a week straight. And I would come into my kitchen and the kitchen window was open. And I say, what is going on in here? And, like, I know exactly what's going on in here. My my wife loves a fresh breeze. She wants fresh air. And she does not care how cold it gets to get that fresh air. And she doesn't even notice it. I walk in, like, I'm within 20 feet of this thing and I'm, it's cold in here. Someone has left something open. I can tell.

And, like, no one in my family notices but me. And so it took me about the first, I don't know, eighteen months of our marriage where I thought, it's just the cost of being married to this pretty woman. Is you know what? She's gonna have the window open at negative five. Now I haven't ceased to mention it. I'm not that mature in my marriage yet. It still comes up. But, like, you know, this is how this is how she is. She she she doesn't she doesn't notice the cold, and she likes a fresh breeze. And, like, if someone said, look, to to to spend the rest of your life with this woman, you're gonna it's gonna cost you an extra $4 a month in heating because she likes a fresh breeze at all times. Is that gonna work? I'm like, heck yeah. It's gonna work. Yeah. That's fine. I'll find the money. I'll get a paper route. I don't care. This is gonna be fine. So I let it go. She says, incidentally, PS. Are you absolutely sure you want to be married to this prize? Nowhere in your letter did you say you love this person. Not once did you mention his endearing qualities. Frankly, from your description, he seems like a third child. You seem like a child. Good one, Ben.

I nailed it. Oh, you're a child. That to the lady or to secular? To all everybody. Everybody's a child. Deborah gave bad advice. This guy seems like a lump on the stump, and this woman seems like a real something else. Okay. We gotta do this one and then we're done. Okay. Boy, I've only read the the start, but we'll see what happens. My husband had they're alive from the path. My husband and I are in our early fifties and married for nine years. I hate to say this, but the way he dresses embarrasses me to tears, and it's hurting our relationship. I love this one already. Is it acceptable for a man to wear tights and nothing else? I'm not

I'm not talking yoga pants. I mean ballerina dancer sheer tights that leave nothing to the imagination. He he mainly wears them in our garage where people who drive by can see, but lately, I've caught him standing talking to neighbors like that. Am I overreacting by telling him he can't wear things like that outside the house? If it isn't the tights, it's skintight biker type shorts or shorts made from mesh material that shows it all if there's a light source behind him. We have gotten rounds over this almost daily. He promises he will stop, but it's only a matter of hours before he's back in costume. Is it okay to wear things like that now? I don't see women wearing tights that show off as much as his do. I'm at the point I want to gather up all offending clothing and head to the dumpster.

If you say let him wear what he wants, I will, and I will keep my eyes and mouth shut. Mortified. I feel like we've had to address this before, but old dudes are old dudes. Now he's but he's in his fifties. Yeah. Yeah. He's not like he I don't know if he's earned that. If I was a friend of his, I'd say, look. It's not you're too early. He's got fifteen years to go. Exactly. You gotta wait a little bit before you're allowed to do this. Ballerina dancer sheer tights that leave nothing to the imagination. No. Now here's the thing. Think of the average this may or may not be offensive. Think of the average body of a 55 year old man. Nope. Just average dude. There is nothing that isn't gonna feel like that.

What? You know what I'm saying? I don't think there's any out like like anything that that prepares to be proposes to be remotely tight is going to look like it's revealing stuff because he's a proportion fella. No. His belly gonna be hanging out. His butt cheeks are gonna be hanging. A a pair of solid sweatpants solve this problem. Right. But that's what Pair of jeans. But I'm saying anything anything tight will do this. It doesn't have to be ballet shoes. Okay. I see what you're saying. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He could be wearing he could be wearing a union suit. And it'd be like

No. It's I I think there's nothing much left to the imagination. I don't know what kind of freedom you think you need. I don't know. I there's no explanation for this. I think there's some perversion thing going on here. I mean, you think there's a legit I think he's sick. Perversion thing. Yeah. Yeah. He's looking at his own self. It's not other people. Oh, yeah. Oh oh, I did not funny funny. This is this is grody grody. I think I think so. Oh. Oh. Oh my. Well, that takes all the comedy out of it. Yeah.

Ma'am, your husband is a pervert. I think so. I mean, especially if he's talking to people. Yeah. Yeah. There's a difference between, hey. Look. I just walk around in my house like this and subject my poor wife to it. Like, okay. I mean, I would just say you you should I mean, you you should've done a larger questionnaire before you tied the knot. But, like, if he's intentionally going out, when she's talked to him about it and, like, he's obviously aware and is not embarrassed of it and, frankly, has no concern of subjecting others to it.

Yeah. That's wrong. I don't know. I've been in a lot of locker rooms, and there's definitely some some older fellers who are just walking around in the buff. And Which is kind of a joyous Yeah. They'll strike up a conversation. It's not like they're being weirder in it. Hey. Those things down at the plant, I heard they were getting some new fork trucks. Yeah. It's like, yeah, I guess. Yeah. How about you put some pants on?

Sure thing, Bill. That is you know, that is it it is always striking. I think I was at the I had a membership to the Y for like a year, and boy, you ain't never met the confidence that exists. I mean, like, I'm I'm 40 years old. I still change in a corner behind the locker. I'm like, I don't know. Just gotta get in and get out. And like, these dudes are like sticking a leg up on the bench and being like, how was your workout today? I'm like, woah. Woah. World War two dudes, it seemed like. They're probably a little younger now, but I mean Yeah. Yeah. They don't It's like, hey. Yeah. Yeah. They got nothing. They don't care. It doesn't even cross their mind. Yeah. Right? They're I don't even think they're doing it on purpose. They literally are not taking it in that this is a problem of any kind. This is how we did it in the wars. Like, dude, that was sixty years ago. Yeah. I mean, you whichever war they were in. Yeah. Yeah. But so but but he again, like, mean, but but they don't walk out of the locker room like that. No. Sure. He doesn't come out of the a walking around the the y. But he's in his garage. You know? Except for with the door open talking to people. Yeah. Well, I mean, people probably maybe they just came up and talked to him. No. The wife is giving the impression that no one would do such a thing. Yeah. But, also, you know, wives, you know, like to blow things up a little bit. You know? Well, that's a lot. When they're annoyed. That's a risky generalization. Sure. I don't have that problem. I guess.

I guess. You know, wives blow things up. Am I right, boys? Am I right? No. No. No. That's a mistake. Nope. I've never even experienced it. I mean, I'll have, like, small stain on my shirt, and my wife be like, you can't go out with small stain on your shirt. There's a huge stain. That's true. Like, you know? I I continually am lobbied with you have a giant booger in your nose and, like, I can't find evidence of anything. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And never mind. I'm with Nathaniel on incidents minor incidents. Now I I

have slightly embarrassed myself. I think it was today even. Now now that my children are all gone and they're they're they're married and it's just the two of us living at home, Cheryl goes to work early or I don't like what the story's going. Yeah. Don't

feel bad about walking around the house with nothing on. Your bingo card has in the buff, you just gotta score. I just, like, I took a shower, and I'm like, hey. The dog wants out. I'll go let the dog out. You know what mean? You gotta open the door to the outside, Dan. Well, no. But it's it's it's a enclosed deck. I mean, it's like, no one could see me from there. But it's Christmas time, and and I realized today as I was driving up that that my wife has the shades, the blinds open to So people can see the tree of your Christmas tree. Yeah. And, baby, I tell you what, if it's, like, nighttime and the lights on, it's a clear it's you can see stripes. Everything is clear as day. Into the land of Hudson. I'm not I'm not sure. I'm not positive. I mean, does this mean that, like, you were constrained almost all your life? You really just wanted to walk around in the bug wild? I just it's it's my naked house. You know? What what was the the quarterback dude? Oh, the naked room. The naked room. Filled it off. Whole house. Yeah. Terry Bradshaw? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So

I'm gonna have to go ahead. Ahead. I'll have to find some tights now, I think. Ugh. I am with Dan on this, by the way. Like, if I stay in a hotel room or something at work, like I mean, right? Because you can't do it anywhere else. Place in the nude. Yeah. Who's gonna stop me? Mean Yeah. Yeah. You know, fellas, I I I just feel like you need more thrills in your life. Unless this is the top of the list. You know what did? I walked around in a buck buck wild today. But at my own place, fell to pitches. Only knew. Yeah. Looks like they do. Yeah. This is how Lewis and Clark felt. Yeah. Just we're just we're rewriting all the stories. You should try hang gliding or gambling. I don't know. Stab a guy. See what happens. Do try something different. That's what I it. I refer to it as hang gliding.

Wow. You're welcome. Here we go. Secular says, we're done with Dan's story time hour. Let me show you. That's great. This is great. It seared into my memory like a bad steak. Dear hold on. A secular says, your husband appears to be an exhibitionist who cannot control his urges. Frankly,

I am surprised the neighbors haven't complained after seeing him in that attire. Mhmm. Ordinarily, I would advise you to let your husband wear what he wants. But in a case like this, it might be prudent to check that the ordinances regarding indecent exposure, what they are in your community. I don't know if that's gonna help. Is it okay to wear tights in the garage? Here are the ordinances. Here's the thing. As I would be more like like, brass tacks, I'd be more upset with him that he said he was gonna take care of this and he's not doing it. That you said, hey, this needs to stop, and he goes, okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's a problem. And then he continues doing it. Right? And so, you know, it might be time to say, look, gather them up and chuck them, and I'm gonna watch you do it, and we're gonna be done with this. I'll get you the softest pants available at the Target that don't show all of whatever you're trying to do here. But, like, this has to stop. You're embarrassing me. Right. Yeah. And you're you're making healthy. It's just Yeah. You're and you're making everybody else uncomfortable. Yeah. And you're food doing better. Yeah. Yeah. So I, you know, I think that that that it's continuing to happen. Right? I mean, we can act like he's just some kind of goofball old man, but, like, at the end of the day, everybody knows that this is a line crossing behavior. I mean, if I suppose if he wants to walk around his house that way Yes. I'm for it. There's nothing you can do. Let's Let's go hang gliding. Right? But as soon as it crosses the threshold, as soon as other people are assaulted with it, then then it's too far, and it needs to stop. Yeah. So Yeah. That's fine. Correct. Alright. You've been listed alive from the past. Hey, man. Is that cranky or righteous? Let us know.

5155170085. How often do you go handwriting? Go ahead and let us know. 55 is not our complaint line. You know what? Don't don't let us know. Nobody needs to know that. I wouldn't like to know. No. We're just taking a quick survey. Alright. Hey. Thanks so much for hanging out with us this week. We really do appreciate it. We're all towards the end of the year, and we hope to see you at twelve seven. We might see you a couple more times when the day is up, maybe. But, hey, in the meantime, if you listen to the podcast, if you could do us a big favor and give us a rating and maybe leave some feedback if you enjoy it, or that you don't enjoy it. I don't really care. Just be honest. But, you know, get the numbers up, and that would be much appreciated. And if you're a subscriber on YouTube, I'm very sorry. I rarely get to post in the video. It takes up a lot of Internet bandwidth, and I just it's just not happening. But I I'm gonna do my very best to catch you up before the end the year, if you're a YouTube watcher. So thanks for hanging in there with us. I'll I'll try to get us caught up. We'll see you as soon as we see you. But in the meantime, be faithful with means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to Live.