The Seeker

Your phone can track you everywhere, but that doesn’t mean you feel seen. We start with a laugh about landlines, untied shoes, and summer slipping toward back-to-school, then we stumble into a bigger question that hits right in the chest: what if you’re not the one chasing God at all? What if God is the seeker, and He’s been looking for you the whole time? 

We talk through the moment that sparked it all, flipping through childhood photos and noticing how a parent naturally stands close, watches, guards, and guides. That becomes a lens for Scripture: God calling “Where are you?” in Genesis, Jesus’ mission in Luke 19:10, the hope inside exile in Jeremiah 29:11, the Shepherd who searches in Ezekiel 34, and the reminder in John 15:16 that we don’t choose God first. We also wrestle with the stuff we try to use as substitutes for God, the habits and distractions that never quite fill the hole in the heart. 

Along the way we share a personal story of God’s timing in marriage, unpack why struggle can actually form us instead of crush us, and use analogies like getting lost at the county fair and Rocky finally trusting Mickey to see the point. We end with Revelation 3:19-20 and the idea that discipline can be love, not rejection, plus a closing prayer for gratitude and strength in hard seasons. If this conversation helps you rethink what it means to be found, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can hear it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:41

Yeah, Dale and I were just uh right before we went on, we were discussing uh we wish we could go back in time, we wish we could live when uh everybody still had a landline, didn't have a cell phone in their hands. Um I'm not particularly one who uh likes the idea that I could be tracked every second of the day. I said, you know, if if you're out, you want to be out. You don't you don't want to be, you know, in the middle of something you're trying to enjoy, then all of a sudden, you know, your phone rings and it's somebody calling you to stress you out about something that really could wait till later. Whereas Dale was saying, you know, he just gets to a point where he's sitting down with his wife to have a conversation, they're in the park with the kids, and when you know it, that's when the cell phone will ring and it'll be the best friend or you know, another family member that just wants to chit-chat and just completely ruins the vibe. Absolutely. So yeah, I totally agree that you know the world could step back a little bit from this instant, you know, instant gratification and instant uh you know news. And yeah, I I just I will never allow somebody to track me. I told Dale, I said, you know, sometimes if I'm gonna go get ice cream, I don't want anybody to know that I want to go get ice cream. I just want to go get it. I don't want to share it. I don't want to road. Where have you been? That's nowhere. That's what I get. I wouldn't be able to say nowhere. Oh gosh. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

It doesn't say nowhere. Oh shoot.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Yeah, I just I don't like that idea. Because, you know, let's face it, you know, if your friends are doing it, if your family members are doing it, most likely the government's doing it. So it's just a really discomforting thought to know that. I'm rejoicing I found it. She's rejoicing. Another thing we were discussing is Dale was walking in, he's walking in a little bit late. And uh shoes are untied. Came in, shoes untied. Remember the old commercial? Was it Michael Jordan? Who was it that was shooting the basketball and kept missing the shot? And then they're like, oh, pointed down the shoe was untied. So then he tied the shoe.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

It was Michael Jordan because it was uh Was it an Eric Jordan? And then there's Spike Lee, and then he said it must be the shoes. Must be the shoes.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

Yeah. So yeah, he's been down, tied a shoe, then swish.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

I wish it was that easy. I'd have been in the NBA if it was that tie your shoes, Dale be a star.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

Yeah. And I want to divulge any, you know, personal information, but you know, Dale might have a big uh meeting come. Let's just say you might have a big meeting coming up. We discussed a few things. I said, well, Dale, I said, just make sure your shoes are tied. Yeah. And you'll be good to go.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

And what was that other that was oh, I think it was the Oreo commercial uh when we were kids. Like the dad was teaching the kid to break the Oreo and tried to do it perfect.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Try to get all the cream on one side. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

And so he shows him how to do it, and the kid gets it, and he's like, All right, now you gotta do is tie your shoelaces and you'll be all set.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Yep, I got everything but the shoelaces.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

It's all about the shoes, Dale.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Hey, my wife has been telling me for many years. Well, actually, not even many years, just recently. She's like, Can you tie your shoes?

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Just well, you know what's Forrest Gump said. You know, he said, You can tell a lot about a person by his shoes.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Oh, yeah. Yeah, so he said a lot of things I thought was funny. Well, actually, Bubba was the one that said a bunch of things I thought was funny.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Shrimp gumbo and barbecue shrimp, shrimp kebab, shrimp salad, shrimp stew. Yep, that's all the shrimps. I think that's about it. Yeah, I love that. Shoes and shrimp. Shoes and shrimp, that's how we're topic for tonight, people. Shoes and shrimp. Dig in. Yeah, so I don't know how we got on the topic of shoes and anything, but but yeah. Uh so Dale, what do you think? We're uh we're cruising into August now. Before you know it, we'll be in mid-August. So is is summer on the decline for you? What kind of person are you? Is summer in the decline for you, or or are you still hanging in there with summer? Like is it's not over yet.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

It's gonna sound kind of vain because my birthday is in August. So uh I treat August as De La Palooza. The entire month is mine. My wife was my birthday present. Um and whenever it hits whenever it hits August, I'm extremely happy because my birthday is on the 24th, and usually kids are back in school by then, or they're getting ready to go back, and I just consider that another birthday present. Not nothing against your children. Love you all, but uh but 24 hours a day is is a lot.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

So to get you can only hear I'm bored so many times.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

To be blessed with eight hours of you getting getting your education and making wonderful adults out of yourself. Yeah. That you know, that other there's no way I'm gonna get out of this without offending some children. Nah, that's okay. Love you guys, but get to school.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Yep. They're going back pretty early this year.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Elsa is August 20th, is when you're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

She'll be in tenth grade, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Yeah, we started the whole uh school routine with her, with um, she does a little homework and stuff. Like I played school teacher, and she does homework, then she has to brush her teeth, take her vitamins, uh, we read her a book, and then she she goes to bed, says her prayers and goes to bed. So we're trying to get back into that this last couple weeks before she starts school, so it's not like I went, I didn't have to, you know.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

So I remember as a kid watching, you know, parents would put us to bed. It's daylight. Yeah. And we would see kids out the window playing football and just kill her.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Yeah, it absolutely is, especially when she has this little friend that lives like right across the street from her name's Bella, and uh Bella is out until about 8:30 or 9. And Elsa has to get ready for bed, and she can and Bella wants to come to the door. Can she play?

SPEAKER_03 7:30

And I'm like, oh gosh. Yeah, that's tough.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Yeah, it is. But I happily and gladly say, no, she can't. She gotta get ready for bed. Bye, Bella. No. I sound so heartless today.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

It's just a shoes. I'm telling you, it's the shoes.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

It's the shoes. I'm gonna tie my shoes. She hasn't tied them yet, ladies and gentlemen. And I probably won't probably won't. Till the end of this podcast or many months later, I don't know. When the mood hits me.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

So then you're clearly on the so what are you then? So is summer on the decline? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Uh for me, it's like June, July, August. So when you hit August, and you hit like the middle of August, like about the 10th or so, which we're fairly close to that. It's, you know, the hours start to decline and you start the days get closer together. It's dark, dark sooner and dark longer. So it it it feels like the decline to me as far as seasonally getting.

SPEAKER_03 8:40

Yeah, yeah. I'm the same way. I kind of feel like it's over. Yeah, like I feel like it's kind of like the you know, the credits at the end of the movie. Oh, yeah. That's what August is. It's like they keep going and going like it's, you know, so it's gonna be around for a while, but you know, technically, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

August sink August signals the end of it.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

It's like September is like when you get those, is it locusts that you hear? Like is that what it is? Because some people say it's frogs. Sorry, Pastor Michael, but it might some people say it's like tree frogs, but you know, it's just like the that sound, it's like yeah, um it reminds me of it reminds me of being a kid, and that sound would would be my reminder that oh, yeah, it's gonna go. We gotta go back to school soon.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

I'm gonna say it's cricket.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Because it's that long sustained dream. You got me on that one, yeah. And uh that was always my signal as a kid that oh, summer's almost over and it's not done. Yeah. So yeah, I'm kind of the same way. And I walked into Mako's, we had uh we got chicken and jojo's from from uh the uh from the deli. Thank you. Yeah, deli. Yeah, I don't know why that was so hard. Yeah, but uh and I walked straight in the door and they had a huge display of Halloween candy already set up. And I thought, really? Like already? But it just kind of to waste no time. Yeah, yeah. So that that really makes it feel like, yep, we're on the decline.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Well, if you ever go into Walmart, they have three different displays at all times. They have like they'll have Halloween and they'll have a little teeny tiny Thanksgiving display.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

You might even find Valentine's Day tucked away in there somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Oh, they're they're gonna have some Valentine's Day because some guy has made his significant other unhappy.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

So you're like, look at our honed in on that 5% of business that nobody else is gonna grab. Absolutely. Yeah, it's crazy. But uh, all right. So um tonight um I was searching for an idea, and uh I don't know why this kind of was the was the seed of this idea, but I found two uh because you know we're moving and so digging through stuff and going through things, and so I found two little photo booklets, and these two booklets contain a bunch of pictures of myself when I was really young. Like, you know, we're talking like three through eight, just in that golden era, you know, of being a child. And so there was a lot of pictures of my mother in those pictures with me. And you know, I going through them, uh, you know, she would always be either holding me or standing beside me or standing over me. And I just got to thinking that, you know, you don't realize, well, number one, you don't realize how important your parents are. The fact that they basically, you know, they stand over and watch over you every second of your life when you're that young. Like you're you're their whole world. And you know, I was just going through all these pictures and that just hit me like, you know, you can just tell by my mom's posture and that yeah, like how important I was and and how much, you know, how much she needed to to watch over me. And and I so I got to thinking about God in that way, is that you know, I I think that's how God is with us from the time, you know, that we're born. He's almost the same, he he goes about the same way that you know that your own mother does, and we don't realize that a lot. And so I started thinking about the fact that you know, we we spend we talk a lot about finding God and seeking God, and you know, you know, what can you do to you know get closer to God, all of these things, not realizing that He's the one seeking us, He is the seeker, He's the one that's always looking out for us.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

And a lot of times we don't talk about that, we just talk about us seeking God and finding God. Most of the time that's the dialogue, you know, that you see. And there is a lot about that in the Bible about how you know we should seek God. But there's also a lot in the in the Bible about the fact that he's the true seeker, and uh and then the confirmation I got, Pastor Michael's message last week, he was talking a lot about us seeking God and all of those things. And so I walked away from that, like, well, great, that was so if you missed last week's message, um go back and watch or listen to that first, and then you can come back to this episode. And so this is kind of like the follow-up, and uh so yeah. So after I heard his message on last Sunday, I was like, okay, once again, I got that confirmation. I love that. You know, I always love that when I kind of have a germ of an idea and it's not quite formed yet, and then he'll do something, and I'm like, oh yeah, okay. Yeah, it's putting it all in perspective. So I truly love it when that happens. Um so yeah, so that's what we're gonna talk about tonight is God being the seeker in our lives. Um I'm gonna open up with this question, Dale. So, have you ever had the uh distinguished feeling that somebody's following you?

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Well, I'm gonna say yes, and leading me and beside me. I'm I've I I've had moments in my life where um I know full well that it wasn't me, that that somebody had me in in the hollow of their hand, and you know, there was nothing that I did or am doing that that brought this about. You know, I'm like when I met when I met Connie, that was absolute proof that even even though I had proof before, it was set in stone proof that God was looking over me. Because Connie had been married for 22 years. And I had been married for a few years, and we traveled in the same circles during our married lives, but we never connected. We knew the same people, we visited the same social settings, never knew each other. And then I had given up on ever finding once I had divorced, I had given up on ever finding anybody. I, you know, I God give me a woman that loves my kids. Found me a woman that loved my kids, didn't love me. God find me a woman that loves me, loved me, didn't love my kids. And I said, okay, I got to a point and I'm like, I'm done. I said, if you got a woman for me, have at it because I clearly don't know what I want. And that very same, I want to say, about a week later, I met Connie. And she sang, she sang a song, we did karaoke, and she sang a song before we met. She sang Rolling in the Deep. And long story short, which is already too late, we we got together, we karaoke. Year later we're married, and God brought us together through circumstances we couldn't have planned. You know, twenty-two years she was with somebody, ten years I was with somebody, and our lives are uh going in the same same areas but not the same direction. And all of a sudden he says, Okay, all the circumstances are correct. Boom, you two need to meet. And that's why it's in his hand, he's always the seeker. I wasn't seeking God's God's face in that situation. I was looking for someone to to take care of and take care of me. And God was seeking to put me with a godly woman and put her with a godly man, or at least I feel as though I'm a godly man. You know, others might disagree, whoever knows me. But um God just He does what He will and He's always seeking our heart because the moment we got together we realized we we were blessed by God and so we needed to be reverent to that. And it turned it turned our whole Christian life around because yes, we were both Christian, yes, we both believe in God, but he evidenced himself. He's like I'm always here, whether whether you know it or not, I'm always I'm always roaming for you. They always say, you know, Satan goes around like a roaring lion seeking who he will devour. I always feel that God roams around in the same manner, seeking who he who he will save. And anybody that that falls into his fold has ultimate protection. And so we we have to we give Satan a lot of credit for things and blame God for a lot of things that are part of the enemy because all he wants to do is make you doubt. He don't he I heard somebody say before, I don't need to make you believe in me. I just need to make you not believe in him.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Yeah. Yep, that's the end game. Yep. Yep. Um so I'm I'm a true believer that, you know, from the time you're born, God has a plan for your life. And sometimes that can be hard to see. You know, because then you look, sometimes you can look at your life and be like, how is this God's plan? Like, how how could this possibly be if if God is all-infinite and all wisdom and you know, all righteousness, like, okay, how could he plan this for my life? But once you kind of step back and get into the word a little bit, you could clearly see that, well, you know, you're born of this world, it's a sinful world, you know, and as as much as God has a plan for your life, you know, this world has a way of you know making there's a lot of detours, which most of the time, let's face it, we take those detours ourselves. We get off that exit, you know, because we think it it's a better route than the one that he set out for us. Yeah. Um and it's interesting that, you know, in Genesis, that um other than the words that he is saying as he's creating the earth in those seven days, you know, one of the first things he's gonna say to the human race, which is Adam and Eve, is once they take a bite of that apple from the tree of wisdom, um he doesn't scold them. You know, what does he say? He says, Where are you?

SPEAKER_02 20:39

Yeah, no, you're well where they're at.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

Yeah, and he knows where they're at. But it's that nature of him seeking you out instead of going right to uh some sort of punishment or to downgrade you or you know, any of those things. He's asking you. I mean, to us, if you read it, he says, Where are you? You don't read that deep into it, but if you really think about it, when he says, Where are you? he's asking you already to examine your heart of what you're doing and and who you are, and he's trying to find you. He's already like trying to, it's it wasn't like because God already knew they did it. He could be like, you know what, they did it, just let him go. Yeah, but he didn't do that. He he went after Adam and Eve to say, Where are you? Like, come back, you know, like I told you not to do that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

And and they're shrouded in they're shrouded in sin. And so that's a that's a darkness that you know the Lord doesn't look through because He can't He doesn't look upon sin. And so him asking, Where are you, is basically him saying, I know you're covered in sin now because before you you're you were clearly visible because you were walking with me hand in hand, you were following what I had to say, and then all of a sudden you're covered in sin. And so even though I know where you're at and I know what you're up to, I cannot see you the same. That's why that's why he is now asking, where are you?

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Who told you you were naked?

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Yeah. That and another uh sermon that uh Pastor brought up and was that was uh was an awesome one. It was like, Who told you? I was like that that sermon to be honest, that spoke to me. That's probably that's the last one I've seen for the last couple of weeks because I've been working on Sundays unfortunately. But um it's just that God wants us to be um more diligent in our seeking of others because we we can't we can't seek God just like in in in searching for him like we would do anything else like a quarter or or you know new job or anything like that. We seek him by by service, we seek him by being into his word, they're you know, doing those things that bring him into our heart, and that's that's how we seek him. And so a lot of a lot of people don't um don't want to do that. Yeah, they they would rather God just pop up in front of them, tell me what to do, who I'm supposed to be, where I'm supposed to go, who should I be marrying, all of that, you know, instead of leaning on God and and just flowing in His in His goodness and accepting whatever comes to you because we have a hard time with that, accepting what comes to us. We have difficulties like we have heartbreak and different situations come around and we want to blame him for those instead of praising him for getting us through it. Because anybody who's honest with themselves, when you've had a heartache, and and all of us have, we've all lost loved ones, we've all fell down when you know and hurt ourselves or whatever. Whenever you've had some kind of heartache, you've come through it. You you came out on the other side of it, otherwise you'd, you know, you you'd be nuts in my mind. You're just like constantly in pain and never never seeing the other side of it. And that's God. That's that's what happens when we don't we don't give him credit for that, though. We don't give him credit for taking his, I had such hard times. Nobody knows what I've been through. He does. He brought you through it. But sometimes we don't want to we don't want to associate in those moments with him. We're like, we would rather uh sulk more or less. It's like you nobody understands me.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

It's an odd thing about human behavior. Sometimes it's like we want to shine in our despair. Yeah, no one suffered like I have. Yeah, we we want that moment in the sun as we're covered in darkness sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

It's an odd thing, but yeah, we want to we want to feel like at some at times like we're the ones who have been crucified and we haven't gone through nearly what we've gone through. Yeah, we could take some little thing and whoa it's me, and I'm like, no. And we want people to see it and tell us they're sorry, or yeah, or pat you on the head and be like, oh, I I understand it, you're having a rough time. And yeah, like, okay, I'm having a rough time, but so is that other person. I've seen you know, people in wheelchairs. I watch this uh this video that always makes me cry. It's little boy, him and his dad. And little boy can't really can't really walk, so he has this like walking wheelchair, and his dad takes him out to this curb and sits him on the the wrong side of it so that he has to move his feet to get over the to get over the curb. And he's not helping him, and you can see the dad looking at him, and this and in my mind, this is the way God sees us. He puts a difficulty in front of us, and he's waiting for you to try and you know put your foot up there and get it on the curb and and push off and get up there with your other foot and bring your wheels up. And we think that we're doing it on our own. And that that's our that's the difference between this this little boy I saw and and us sometimes in our relationship with God. We think we're doing it. It's like I got my foot up there. I did it, I, I, I, and it's not. He he gives you the drive, he puts the obstacle in front of you, and then whenever you overcome it, you are so much better than you were before. Because now that little boy, whenever he comes up to a curb, he throws his feet up, pulls wheels up, and he's off to the races. You can't stop him.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

And his dad's reaction is the way I think God reacts when we lay it all down in front of him. It his dad is like, you can see him wanting to cry, but he doesn't. And he kind of like holds it together and he's like, You did good, and he gives him a hug. And it's the same way I feel like God is with us. It's like I put this thing in front of you. And a lot of people would break, but it didn't break you. And the whole time it didn't break you, you leaned on me. And you understood where it was coming from. You know, you understood what I was trying to do. You stayed in prayer, you stayed in love, and that's that's what God values, and that's what that's what makes him proud of us, is when we overcome and we don't get down on him, we praise him through our struggles, through our joys.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

And I I'm getting like long-winded, but Well, let me ask you this question and think about it a little bit before you answer it. Do you think we're all born lost?

SPEAKER_02 28:33

I want to say yeah. Um, because we're we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And it says all, and I assume that means even when babies are born, that they have that that ability for sin in them. Even though in my mind babies are perfect. Right. But um we all have that little seed that Adam and Eve gave to us. And um we are we are lost, and then as we grow, we either we either stay lost or we we allow God to seek us and allow our hearts to seek him. Because that's what happens. It's like um when I got a Bible, I didn't feel like I was I was seeking God. I felt like He had opened Himself to me, like He was already there. He was already there. I just see Him. Yeah, you know. Yeah Whereas I wish I wish some people would um not feel so downtrodden in their situations because God is in there. In in all in all those hard moments, He's in there. And you spend too much time groping and groveling about what's you know, grumbling about what what happened to you, you can't see his full glory.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

Keep talking, Dale.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

I will. I see you like leafing through there.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

I think I've I found it. But this well, it's the idea that uh the reason I asked that question, you know, there's a lot of people that say that everybody is born with a hole in their heart. And that and that, you know, this is the reason why, you know, every human being tries to fill it with something. And a lot of times they're choosing something over God to fill it with, and then that's why you just keep getting deeper and deeper, whether it's into addiction or just your own self-gratification or you know, whatever, whatever it is that you choose to fill that little space with, and you can't understand why you can never fill it up. And it's because it's like, well, that's your space for God. That's you know, you can't fill it and until you know, until you fill it with until you put the right thing in there, yeah, until until you let him in, more or less. And uh and I and I tend to believe that too. I I can look at human beings and you know you you can you can make that assumption that yeah, I I think you know, most of us human beings, we are that way. We whether it's it's a hobby, you know, or it's you know, it could be golf. I mean golf right now is just uh it's like taking over most men's uh any free time they got. It's you know, golf right now, it's just it's crazy how many people are interested in and play golf now, whether they're good or not. And I see a lot of that, you know, like it doesn't matter whether you're good or not, it's just you just get out on the links, just yeah, just get on the links for 18 holes and you know, and just yeah, hit this ball around. And really, it's like there's no I don't know. It's like you golf is like you have to work so hard at it to be any good whatsoever. But it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, but all that work, where's it gonna get you?

SPEAKER_02 32:22

Other than it being a hobby, yeah, like you know, like a fun relaxation or whatever. Yeah. What to do for you, you know.

SPEAKER_03 32:31

Yeah. You'll play the same 18 holes over and over and over. Go to the same. And maybe the sixth hole, it's like, yeah, you got you got it in three strokes. But then, you know, the next time you play that same hole, you know, it took you five, and the next time you play it, you might you might get it in two. And it's I don't know. It's to me, it's just uh, you know, there's only a selected few that can take that to a level of greatness. Yeah, and the rest of us are just like chasing it and filling our time with something like that. And it might not be golf, it might be something completely different. Um, but all of all humans do that. We we have it's almost second nature for every single human being to gravitate towards something that fills your time, that makes you feel more valuable. Absolutely, and a lot of the times you don't realize like you like I said, you can never fill that up. And the only thing that can fill it is is letting God into your life and you know um realizing that you do a lot of silly things for the short time you have on this earth, you you you just do a lot of silly things as a human being and you waste a lot of time. And so it kind of reminds me of in Jeremiah, um, you know, God exiles the people from Jerusalem to Babylon. Um But he doesn't, but it's funny though, he doesn't most of the time when you exile somebody, it's for good. Like, you know. Yeah. Like you're if if if you're anybody who plans to exile somebody, like your your plan is not to bring them back later to greatness. Your plan is to do away with them and you hope you never see them again.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

Yeah, and you know it's what a lot of people consider a mercy. It's like I could have killed you, but instead just get away from me.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

Yeah, yeah, and you can never return. But in this example, um, God is almost doing the opposite. He's exiling them in the hope that, you know, he he's God is even though you're exiled, he's gonna continue to seek you, he's still going to look after you. And in that moment, when he finds that, okay, you guys are ready to come back into the fold because, and I'll and maybe I should just read it, but it's more or less once he sees that you recognize him and the fact that he's been seeking you all this time and that he's been after you, that you will start to seek him. You know, when you finally realize that, and I'm like, okay, yeah, that kind of makes sense. Yeah. As you were saying, you didn't feel when you bought your Bible like, I gotta find something, like, because I didn't feel that way either. I almost felt like I would it was being pressed upon me, like it was being called I was being called on to to get into the word.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

And it was like as you're as you're reading it, it's like uh he's reveals himself more. I I've always found, and I could be wrong, that people that read the Bible a lot and and and meditate on it, because there are some people who just read it, put it down, and they're off to the races, but people who read the Bible and meditate on it and try to have a relationship not only not only with the word but with with God as they're reading it, you know, Father God, bring these, you know, bring these pages to my understanding and and seek a legitimate, you know, presence of the Father moment, those people experience God, I think, more often than people who just kind of wander through their day and just, you know, occasionally pray and occasionally do this. People who diligently seek him. And, you know, they're they're looking for something. And the more they look for it, the more he is in their face, the more he is right there. They don't have to necessarily actually go out looking for him. He's he's in his pages. Yeah, he's not hard to find. No, he and that's that's something else we don't understand. He's not making this hard. He's not hiding.

SPEAKER_03 37:03

Yeah, he's not honest with that. Yeah, because I talk to a lot of people, or sometimes I'm not even talking to them. I'm listening to their conversation, and and this can be at work, particularly with younger men, and they'll talk about God, yeah, as if uh like they'll just make it sound like so difficult. And and and my thing is always like, guys, this isn't this isn't some deep meditated mantra or something that you got to like set yourself up for and Yeah, throw the pillows in the corner. Again, yeah, it's not like you gotta go on Amazon and buy the prayer kit and work your way through the levels like you're playing one of your video games or however you choose to look at it. It's not this complicated thing that you've got to work yourself up to. You don't have to work yourself up to this level and try to figure it out. And it's like, no, all you gotta do is get into the word and put it to your heart and believe it. And then it just, it just, it's that easy. Yeah. It's just that easy. I'm sorry, but it but it is. Yeah. And there's nothing else like it.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

And and I won't I won't apologize for this, but um when you when you do that, when you it's the feeling you get from it is really is really different. And it's it's how you know you've made contact with him. It's because your heart changes. Your heart absolutely changes page by page. It's just it's different, especially when you've been lost and you first get in, because I say this all the time. I when I was in Dayton, I I felt like I was absolutely lost. I was nowhere near my parents, uh, nowhere near my brothers and sisters, it was just me trying, you know, trying to go to a trade school, I was at a job corps, and uh absolutely lost. Kids all kids all cussed, they're all taller than me, they were all meaner than me, they were all whatever it was that I didn't think I had, just better equipped for this rough work. They were all ready, and I'm like, I I got nothing. What what what do I do? You know, he's more real in those moments when you when you get something and you can that you can hold on to, like his word, it it it it changes everything because I no longer looked at those kids like they're better than me, they're smarter than me, they're tougher than me, they're taller than me, they're any of that stuff. It was I love you and I'm gonna pray for you. I and whether they already were born again or not, everybody I met, that was my feeling to them. I love you and I'm gonna pray for you. No matter what, no matter what you're going through, you have somebody in agreement for your better. And and God was in those moments. Whenever I whenever I uh went to that church that I went to and I came out of it, and my Bible was in front of me every time I read the Bible, every time I read the Bible, he he makes he stands front and center. It's really funny because nobody else does that because you can have a conversation with your wife and TV's on, and her attention is on the TV, even though you're you may think you're saying something important. We're gonna get these bills paid, this is due, and she's like, Did you see what she you know? So yeah, so our attention isn't always fully on what's being said, but God's attention is always fully on that.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

Yeah, and and I think that's what you know better classifies him as the seeker because he's not gonna start talking to you and then go, oh hey, do you see the you know the Falcons meet the Saints? Uh, you know, my yoga. Uh he's he's never gonna be, you know, he never has a squirrel moment. Like no. Exactly. Um, but what uh what year did you graduate high school? 79. 79. Okay, so I was born in 79. But in 79, yeah, right. That was unnecessary. It really was.

SPEAKER_02 41:55

That was hurtful. How do you look at that today? But you're still with us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Still, I'm sitting here thinking, I'm graduating, and I'm just coming into this. Nick comes into the world.

SPEAKER_03 42:11

Yeah. So so you're you were a little removed from, you know, I'm thinking a little farther back to like the late 60s. And and I'm sure, you know, you you know enough that you know, kids of that time, you know, were really looking for deep answers, you know. Uh when they talk about the summer of love, and you know, some of the mind-expanding drugs people were getting into, just that whole area of the 60s. Yeah, freedom. Yeah, that's kind of the example that I have in my mind is you know, those kids worked so hard to find this other level of understanding. Like they they were reading like the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and they were, you know, trying all these mind-bending substances, trying to either find God or find the answer to the you know, the world and and to to find love freedom, yeah, and all the answers of the universe, and uh just you know, working really hard to, like I said, to level up, I guess, into this other plane to where they could see it have understanding because they couldn't find, I guess they couldn't find it on their own. Um and you know, it's not again, as we said, it's not that hard. You know, it never it was never designed to be that hard. Um but i teenagers of that era could get really deep into this thing, and it actually actually reminds me of a Beatles song, Tomorrow Never Knows. And I'm a and I and I love the Beatles, I know their music very well. In fact, a lot of the lyrics to their songs I know, you know, like verbatim.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

And you know, the Tomorrow Never Knows song, this was in like '66. Um, and John Lennon was really starting to write all these kind of mind-bending, you know, songs that was designed to get people to love each other, to understand each other, and in some ways to tell people don't don't worry about all these problems you have. Just just relax, just you know, space out more or less. Just just come down to a more, you know, uh another level. And um, you know, one of the Lines was like turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream. Um things like that. Um lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void. So they were trying to do all these really deep, deep things in order to get to this spiritual level. And of course, as you know, like the summer of it didn't last very long. It ended up being just a phase, which of course, then the Vietnam War would come and kind of change the whole perspective of where we were in America at that time, and things kind of did turn dark and got ugly. And but so there was just that little window where everybody had thought they had found the meaning to life and the meaning to love was in either these controlled substances or just how they or just how their general feelings. And to me, it's because, yeah, because it was all built on this uh, you know, just this extra sensory idea that we really had we really had to come up with these, you know.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

Well, and it has tried more and more, you know, um exotic, exotic drugs and more more exotic ideas about relationships and just trying to have a full experience and you know, kind of trying to be spiritual, but at the same time trying to be free and flowing and not going with any particular, you know, any particular sect or any particular, you know, they were like against government and for government, and they were it this everything was everything was open. Yeah. And it was it was in my mind an attempt to find God without knowing where to look. Because you're desperate for something. You're desperate because you're like, all these things are going on, these things I don't understand, these things I want I want clarity. But instead of um turning to anything that could actually bring you any clarity, aka the Bible or aka God, they've you know, substances that dull the mind or expand the mind, and and it turns out that like you said, it was just a small window. And the opportunity that that wasn't that wasn't the way. And and they I feel like they quickly found out because it things still intruded into their life that they didn't want, didn't, you know, didn't know how to deal with control. Yeah, it didn't know how to deal with them, and so it came to them that, you know, well, you know, the same kids who thought they had found the answer were now being drafted in into the Vietnam War, and you know.

SPEAKER_03 47:42

So yeah, they were kind of just disillusioned by that whole idea. Um yeah, uh again, the point is here is that it shouldn't be that hard, and it's not designed to be that hard. Um, and when we're talking, we'll go back to this exile. Um, that yeah, in life sometimes, um and and I've been kind of building on this idea when I'm asking you these questions that you know, do you feel we're all born lost? You know, do you you know, do we all have this hole in our hearts that only belongs to God? Because in some ways to me it almost feels like when we hit this planet, it's almost like we're in exile, like we've been exiled because we're not home. No, you know, home is with him. Yeah. So when we get here, for whatever reason, for whatever plans he has for our lives, it's almost as we have been exiled. We have been sent here. I mean, we've been sent here almost like Superman, you know, in the from crypto. Like we all get we just land here and we don't get to choose when we land here, you know, such a time as this. So we all get here at you know, his proposed timing, and then we have to figure out what to do with it. So it's almost like, yeah, we are an exile on this planet. Uh and he he has a plan for our lives, and it's almost as soon as he sets us out, he doesn't just set us free and then go, well, I'll check on him later. Yeah. You know, I'll come, I'll come back around sometime and see how he did. Yeah, I'll see how he did, you know, and or you know, I'll have somebody report back to me how that one did, how'd that one go? It's not that way. It's like when he exiles you, it's almost as he's he has a plan for your life, and he's calling you to the point of he's going, he's gonna continue to call on you until that light bulb goes off in your head, and you're like, I need to find him. Yeah, well, I need to find him.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

Yeah, his exile is a challenge. It's like it's like anything else that he does for us. Everything that God does for us is to expand us as Christians, is to to bring us understanding. Because if, and and people will argue this, if everything was sunshine all day, you you would never find him. Yeah, you would never find him because what do I need him for? I'm happy every day. I have no stress, no, can you imagine? That's that's heaven. Yeah but it's not heaven without him. So you have like, and and that's why billionaires, trillionaires struggle. Yeah. Because you have everything. There's nothing that I can't look at and say, I want that, and they say, Oh, no, you can't have it. Everything is at my disposal, and that's why they're still unhappy, because and I won't say all of them, because some of them, you know, they do, you know, worthwhile things that uh fulfill them in their heart that have nothing to do with money, even though you know money plays a small role, but they they they get empty because you don't have what you actually need. You can't find what you actually are looking for because it's never in money. And and without saying like m love of money is the root of all evil, it's not in money. It's not in things, it's not in possessions, it's not in anything that you don't have inside you. Because everything you have inside you is all that God wants. He wants your He wants your heart, He wants your love, He wants your affection, He wants your kindness, He wants you to be the person that you can be before you got lost, before you, you know, wandered into whatever situation, and now you're like, How did I get here? Mm-hmm That's because you took your eyes off of him. And and like I like we've been saying this whole day, it's not difficult. He doesn't make it hard. It's uh for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. How much easier.

SPEAKER_03 52:13

Yeah, he's done all the hard work.

SPEAKER_02 52:15

Yeah, he said, I I've laid out my son and forgiven you all your sins. All you gotta do is believe on me. And we struggle with that. And and it's like we would rather stay with the blindfold on than take it off and go, I see you, Lord.

SPEAKER_03 52:33

Yeah. Yep. So in Jeremiah 29, 10, um, I'll read this and it kind of sums up what we're talking about. The exile um when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you. That's really important. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and to not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you and will bring you back from captivity.

SPEAKER_02 53:29

Kind of says it says sums up what he's saying about his love for us and about who's who the seeker is. But I had something as well, and I kinda I was gonna read one or the other. I think I'm gonna read Luke. It's Luke 19, 10. And because we're talking about who was who's the seeker, and it says, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost, and that which was lost is us. Not that's adding to it, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:07

And that's another reason why I asked that question. You know, are we are we good when we hit this world and then we get lost, or are we are we a sh are we, you know, a sheep that has when we hit the earth, have we left the flock? Have we left the flock? Yeah. Because I mean it's one of those, yeah, I probably I forget who said it. He goes, but there's two things you do in this world alone, and that's like you come into this world alone and you die alone. So you come in, you go out. I mean, not excluding God, but you know what I mean, as a human. Absolutely, you know.

SPEAKER_02 54:47

You yeah, you don't, I mean, even even if you were born a twin, yeah, you still come in alone.

SPEAKER_03 54:54

You're you're like, it's just me. You don't come out holding hands.

SPEAKER_02 54:56

No, you can't so it it's we have a have an odd dynamic as Christians. We come in covered in sin. And I I consider us butterflies, uh like like butterflies. Um we have this cocoon, this cocoon of sin, and we're all we're all we're all born into it. And so we're all born into this sin, and then slowly as as God reveals himself in whatever manner, because all all roads are different, even though Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, how you get there is different. So we're all in this cocoon, and we're all trying to shed our to shed our our cocoon and come out as these big beautiful butterflies. And I learned something about butterflies that they need the struggle. They need the struggle because if they don't have the struggle, if you cut the cocoon, you break it open early and break it open early, their wings don't develop because they don't pull all the the fluids off of their wings so they come out deformed. And so the thing is the butterflies need the struggle. We need the struggle because without the struggle, we don't become the full Christian that God plans on us being. We don't become the full person that God plans on us being. And um He's He seeks us through that through that struggle. He's like, come through this, come he's like He would be like a butterfly that's already made it out, and he's coaxing. Come on, you can you can be like this too, just you know, and so we're struggling. And it's those one to give up and say, you know, somebody else cut this, cut this loose for me. So and without that, um without that struggle, we are not going to be the person or the that that God plans on us being. We're going to um be resentful. We're gonna um maybe do not take it for granted. Yeah, we're gonna you're gonna make choices that you wouldn't ordinarily make. And we're not going to live in in God's good graces if we don't if we don't acknowledge and praise him for the struggles that he puts us through. Yeah. Because those those struggles build you. And different different people go through different things and they develop differently. But the reasons we develop differently is because not everybody's a head, and not everybody's a hand. We're all different. We all come together through our various struggles to become who we are to help each other. And that's that's in my mind, that's why that is in there that um not everybody can be a head or a hand or a foot because all are part of the body. And when we're all one body and we're all striving together, like like this church or any other church that's you know um speaking out in the name of God, when we have um a good amount of people, when we have people, but it doesn't even really matter the number, when we have people striving together to do something, it becomes beautiful. It it's way way better than if I were to walk into church one day and go, I'm doing this.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:41

When you get like a whole group of people going, we are doing this, this is what we want to do to help our community.

SPEAKER_03 58:48

It's it's to me way more beautiful than you know why does everybody love an underdog story? Whether it's that underdog team, because they everybody wants the underdog to win.

SPEAKER_02 59:01

Yeah, because they're climbing out and they're unexpected, unexpected to win that. They're unexpected to go the distance. Yep. That's why I loved Rocky one and two.

SPEAKER_03 59:11

And you know, they struggled and nobody expected them to be there, and there they are.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

And next thing you know, you're cheering for them.

SPEAKER_03 59:19

I was you I'm happy you brought up the Rocky reference because a few minutes ago I was gonna say, like, God is our Mickey. Like, you know, he's just like he's just he just he just wants to be our Mickey, like you know, he just wants us to see you know that's Rocky's problem. Like he's this great fighter, but Rocky doesn't see it. Oh no, and Mickey sees it, but of course, Mickey's getting to the point where he's like, I've been waiting for you to show up here at this gym like you're the champion fighter you're supposed to be, not coming in here, like all these other stumble bumps, yes, yeah, and just acting the fool and running your mouth and you know, just trying to be flashy. He's like, You're better than all these fighters in here, but you don't believe it. So it's like until you believe it, I can't help you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:11

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:11

But the second that he gets him to see that, and and Rocky wants to start working with him, that's like, okay, here we go. Now we're we're gonna bring you to your full potential. Yeah, but it takes it takes Rocky seeing that Mickey's been waiting on him to realize his worth, not the other way around. It wasn't that Rocky was a straight fighter and he just needed a manager. No, it's like no, he it was the other way around.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:36

And and God, um, unlike Mick, fights our battles for us.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:44

So and uh I I don't know. I just that's to me just a a great analogy because um because Mick was there for rock when uh when nobody was. Nobody really thought anything of him, you know, he's just uh goofy guy from the neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:03

Well they thought, you know, those guys hired him to go break the guy's thumbs and then you know pay up. And and they thought, yeah, that's Rocky. That's that's his role in life. That's what he's gonna do, is he's gonna be our you know, yeah, he's gonna be our uh our our bulldog, just to go out and threaten people and and you know, get people to pay up. Break kneecaps, yeah, or least threaten to yeah, of course they're you know they were like good to him and whatever, but but they weren't like, hey, you know, you need to quit working for me, quit being on the streets and become this prize fighter you're supposed to be. Exactly. They weren't telling him that. They were, you know, they were.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

Yeah, there was only one person that really saw him, even even uh his wife on it, yeah. She wasn't she wasn't seeing him that way. She's like, you gotta quit doing, you know. So she wasn't seeing who he could be. The only one that really saw it was Mick. And that's the way God is with us. He's like, I see your worth, I see your value.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:00

Yeah. And Rocky's like, I want to know why every time I come in here, you're on my case. And you're and he's like, Well, because you're the best fighter in here, and you know, you're just you're acting like a bum. I think that's what he tells us.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:14

But uh, and he just wanted him to take things seriously. And and God is God is the same way. He wants you to to steward your life, he wants you to, you know, to be more considerate of what you do with your time, of you know, of your praise, of your any uh anything that you do, do it as unto the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:38

But maybe some people just need to hear that, Dale. But God doesn't want to keep seeing you acting like a bum.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:44

Yeah, we all we all we all need that. I'm like, because we talk about coming into this world lost. That's Rocky. You know, he comes in the world, he's you know, in the boxing world, he's lost, he's dirty Philadelphia. Yeah, he doesn't think he has a neighborhood. Yeah, he doesn't think he has anything. We're this we're the same way. We don't we don't think we have anything. We don't think we don't think we have value.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:09

And and and I think it's a we can gleam into it a little further and think, okay, in the movie, he doesn't have a mom and dad like pushing him. There's no mom and dad. Like, where's his mom and dad?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:19

Yeah, there's nobody.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:20

Yeah, it's just him and that stinking apartment.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:22

Yeah, and it's it's not and it's not uh so in a way he's in exile.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:29

Yeah. He's in that little, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:30

And it's it's not uh it's not a hero story until he believes what what Mick, aka God, has to say to him. It's the same with us. Until you grasp what God is doing in your life, until you grasp that he's diligently seeking you, and he's after you like nobody else. No one else is spending day and night trying to find you. No one else. I'm like, it it's uh sometimes um people confuse me. Well, I know that too.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:10

Well, and I don't want this to sound terrible, and but if you think about it, most people don't really care. No, they don't one way or the other if you're successful or not, if you survive or not. I mean, you know, it's hard, let's face it, it's hard to come into this world with two great parents that are committed to your upbringing and to see that you get everything out of life that you need and that you be successful. It's hard to get one out of two. It's some people just you know, like I say, this you come into this world, it is not an even playing field. No. There's some people get a great set of parents, there's some people, yeah, might have one great parent, but there's a lot of people that don't have don't even have one good parent. They get pushed around from here to there, and you know, um, I was fortunate enough to have two great parents, but yeah, but I knew a lot of kids and a lot of people that they didn't have it, they didn't have a chance to get off on the right foot.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:15

And you see that too, because you you you know these people and you look at them and you're not down on them or anything, but you look at them and you're like they are struggling with so much. They they they don't have a chance. But we all have a chance. And that's that's what we have, that's when you have to become the prize fighter. That's when you have to become who God has called you to be. That's when you got to get up off the mat and say, I've I've had a crummy situation, but I believe that God can turn this around for me. God's in my corner, and if God's in my corner, we can we we got this. And a lot of people they they don't do that, and that's why I said, um people confuse me because I would much rather believe that there is a loving God who is waiting for me to come home, who is waiting for me to make the right choices, that is waiting for me to be the son that he's he's called me to be, uh, as opposed to saying, Oh, I'll I'll get by. I'll do what I I'll do whatever I need to do, I'll get by. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:29

Let's just cruise through this.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:30

Yeah, I'll just cruise through and it's like, you know, we'll see at the end. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm like, why would you? Why?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:40

And and and again, we we say it all the time. It's not hard. But it's a matter of, again, like you said, sometimes we just don't care. It's like it's so much easier.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:53

Well, and think about this. Like, if you're this let's just say if you're small and you're lost. And I remember this because I every year we would go when I was little, we'd go to the Tuscross County Fair. And wouldn't you know it? Every year I'd get separated from my parents because I'd get looking up. I'd see all the flashing lights, I'd see the cotton candy. And my mom would have hold of my hand, and if she let go of it, like I would just keep looking up because I'm small. I'd keep looking up, and then all of a sudden I'd turn around and oh boy. Mom's gone. A minute, dad's gone. I've done I did it again. Like, and then wouldn't you know it? I always ended up at the sheriff's uh booth with them calling. You know, we got a little Mickey on the folder up here. And but what but that's the point I'm gonna make here is when you're lost, when you're small, when you're lost, you're always looking for the person that is looking for you. Like all you want to find is a person that's seeking you, and you know who that person is.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:01

That familiar face.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:02

So it's your mom, it's your dad, but as we get older, guess what? You can't cling to mommy and daddy, they can't keep holding your hand every time you walk away. The only person that can do that as you get older is God. So that's another thought I've had is oftentimes, you know, imagine yourself when you're lost. What do you hope for? You hope you're hoping that there's one person out there that's looking for you. You know, because that's your only hope sometimes is I hope somebody's looking for me because I don't know where I am. Like I'm lost, lost, lost, lost. Yeah. And I'm hoping somebody comes and finds me because if they don't, I don't know what's gonna happen. And so I think that sometimes that in our spiritual walk with the Lord, it's like I thank, I thank God He knows where I am all the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:54

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:54

Like I so I'm never truly lost if He knows where I am, if He's always seeking me, then it's much easier than if I'm always trying to figure out where He is. Yeah, you know, have that perspective of He's always got your eyes on you, He knows where you are no matter what you're doing. So you don't have to look very far. So don't ever get in a situation where you feel completely lost, and you're like, I don't know where He is, I don't know what to do. It's like, yeah, you do right there.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:20

Yeah. And that's that's the I think that's the main point is that he is right there. He's he's seeking you, he's always seeking you. And so if you want to find him, just turn around. Yeah. It's like that uh the dog owner and he's he's can't find his puppy, and he's walking all over this dog park looking for the puppy, can't find him, and he turns around the whole time. He's been falling the whole time. That's like that's like God is. You don't have to you don't have to look far. He's right, he's right behind you, he's right beside you. He's always gonna be where you need him to be. We just have to remember that he's looking for us, and all we have to do is just stay there. It's like when you do get lost, like if you get lost in a department store, they're always telling you, well, just stay in one place. Yeah, stay in one place, don't keep roaming around. And somebody will find you, but no, we want to roam around and and go down here and go down there. And mom is like, Well, I went there and you weren't there. I was like, because after I went here and I was hoping you were no, stay in one place.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:34

And I have a bad habit if I'm driving, and for whatever reason I get off track, I keep driving instead of stopping. Oh, yeah. And my wife would be like, Will you just pull over and figure out where you are? No, I know if we just keep going down here, there'll be a big sign that says you're lost this way. You know, it doesn't, you know, but it's just like, no, stop a minute. Yeah, just stop.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:56

Just see where you're at and see something familiar and then go from there. But yeah, no, that that's that's a guy thing. That's that's not just to you, that's a guy thing. You know, I was like, my dad used to be real bad at that before they had GPSs and all that other stuff, and you had to rely on a map. Yeah, and my dad would be looking at the map, and I was his little navigator or whatever, he'd be driving, he's like, We're looking for exit, you know, 77 south, and I'd be like, It's right there. We just passed that. Yeah, we just passed that, Dad. He's like, you know, you should have told me and have all kinds of excuses and adventures, but we don't, we once you get lost, then as guys, we don't want to ask for directions. We're like, oh, I'll I'll just hit the next exit and next exit, and then I said there'll be a big sign.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:54

Or as my mom used to say, she would be like, Why don't you just uh stop and ask somebody for directions? Oh no, no, no, no, no. We're not doing that. I don't want anybody know I have no idea where I'm at. So we're not asking questions.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:12

But all those things are it's the simplicity of of where God is with us at all times. And he's he's that GPS. So we just, you know, it's like I'm not lost, God's right there.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:26

Yep. Uh, and I've got one that goes along with that, uh, Ezekiel 34, 11. Uh says, For this is what the sovereign Lord says, I myself will search for my sheep and look after them, as a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so I will look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:00

That's funny, because I uh I almost wrote that one down or copied that one as one of my own. But uh I have one, and it is um John 15, 16. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that fruit you should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in his name, he may give you. And that's uh to me, that is him saying that I'm not far away from you. But whatever whatever you need, if you ask for it, I'm gonna give it to you. And we we don't we don't uh we don't rely on that. We don't a lot of us I think it'd be really nice one time if we have an episode on the promises of God. Because I don't think a lot of people know what God promises us. They un they know that you know the promise of eternal life. But beyond that, um I think there's a lot of people that don't know what God promises us, and you can't stand on a promise you don't know you have.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:24

It's a great point. I thought so. Just like you can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:32

Never winning the lottery. I I have this theory I'm not giving other people my money. Because every time, every time I've ever played the lottery and somebody else wins, I feel like they're walking around with my dollar.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:46

Yeah, I know. I'm not a I'm not a gambler of any sort.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:49

No, I didn't play those numbers, but you won't.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:51

I bought my wife uh just a whole bundle for I think it was her burton. No, what was it for? Valentine's Day. I think that's what I bought them for. I bought her a whole bundle, went down to Buellers, and and oh, she scratched him, scratched him, you know. And it was like it was fifty dollars. One dollar tickets, so fifty tickets. So wouldn't you know it? We win like fifteen. So then I go and trade them in, and then we won like ten. And once you know it, I traded them in, we won maybe five. So now in my drawer, we've got like three, four tickets left that might have a couple bucks that we won, and I haven't done anything with them. And what does that tell you?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:34

It's like it's not a big deal.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:36

It's just like, yeah, like at this point, okay, yeah, maybe I could take them two tickets in and that'd be the win big winner. But do I want to live my life that way? No. Like you said, do I just want to uh live live my life by chance and just keep scratching tickets, hoping for the big the big payoff?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:59

Big payoff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:00

Nah, not interested in that. No. Um so the last one I have, maybe this will be a little thought-provoking, we'll end on this one. Uh Revelations 3-19. Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. So he's saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:35

He's saying, I'm seeking you. Yeah. We don't pay a lot of attention to his still small voice because we expect him to shout. That's that's the thing about God, is we expect him to shout.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:48

Well, what do you think he means when he says, Whom I love, I will rebuke in discipline?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:52

Well, like any like any father or mother, if you if you love your kids and you see your kids out ripping and running and doing all kinds of things they shouldn't be doing, and they come home and you don't give them any kind of authoritative discipline, aka you know, harsh, harsh talking to about whatever it is they got into, in my parents' case, a good stick to the behind. And say that, Dale. Hey, I'm sorry, that shaped me because I I realized what was good and what was bad, what I should do and what I shouldn't do. I'm not telling people, you know, go out and spank all your kids, but I'm telling you for Dale, it worked.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:38

But um You know, I never I never thought it was the whipping, really. It was the fact that you had to go out there and and pick your own. That that was the worst part. That was that walk out there to get it, bringing it back in, and handed it to him.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:52

Oh, my mom would go out and go out and get me a switch to beat your butt with. And so I go out and get one. And of course I thought I was being smart, and uh, probably a lot of kids have done this before. Go out and you get the youngest branch you can find. It's a teeny tiny little twig, probably about three feet long, but covered in covered in leaves, which is a sapling basically. And you're like, I got it. She can she can't beat me with that. And you bring it into the house tour, she rakes all those leaves off of it, and she's got a whip.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:27

Cat tail.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:27

Yeah, and that bad boy is not breaking or nothing because it's young, so it's not breaking. So it's like, I'm like, oh my gosh, I've armed Zoro. You know, Carva Z in mind. But you know, and it discipline is something that that God does for us, but we we remember the discipline, but we don't remember the love. Because that's what comes with it. He he rebukes us out of love. He's like, you shouldn't be doing that. And because you're doing that, this is the penalty. You know, and we forget that actions come with consequences. A lot of us think when we do something there should be no consequences. I'm just I'm just being me. But in the kingdom of God, decisions come with consequences, and those can be good consequences or bad, depending on what you choose to do in the kingdom, whether you choose to follow him like you should, or whether you choose to rebel against him. Satan didn't escape without penalty, and and we won't either. Judas didn't escape without penalty, and we won't either. So you need to need to understand that God is a supreme authority. All his all his decisions are just. Whether you think they're fair or not, they're just. It's what we deserve. And so I don't know, probably run us over a little bit here, but um we need to honor him. We need to honor him by realizing that he's standing there. And we don't have to we don't have to seek him because he's seeking us already.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:22

Yeah, absolutely. It goes back to what we were talking about last week, just just worship and gratitude and having that mindset, giving all the glory to him. Because yeah, it it's it goes a long way. And I told you, I've been trying to keep more of that mentality this week as we continue to move and have all this stuff going on. And you know, I felt better this week. Just anytime things get a little, I'm like, no, no, no, no. I'm grateful, I'm grateful for this, what we're doing, because I I know where you're leading me on this. So just get those negative try to push all them negative thoughts out of my mind because it they're temporary. This is this is gonna pass and this is for a reason, it's all gonna be good. Absolutely. But that doesn't mean we we don't have to sweat a little. It's just you know, we'll get there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:11

Yeah, but when athletes sweat, they get stronger. When you're working out and you build up a sweat, you get stronger. So if you're sweating, if you're putting in the work.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:23

There's no growth without pain. Exactly. Yeah. All right. So does that do it? I think we covered it. I think so.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:30

I think we hammered her about as much as we can. This nail is in the board. I don't know why I said that. It's accurate, but I still don't know why I said it.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:44

So uh yeah. Um moving forward, Dale, we need some uh we need some inspiration. We need some new ideas. Um I think this will be episode third. I think this will episode 30. Let me see here.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:01

I think this is gonna have some people join us when we get a Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:05

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:08

Get a breakthrough.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:10

Um, tonight's episode is episode thirty.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:16

Oh my gosh, that would have been nice to have somebody. Yeah. So we'll maybe like in the next ten episodes, uh, when we hit a fortieth episode, we can have um, I figure maybe, you know, since summer is on the downturn, once we get uh Sadly.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:33

Once everybody can slow down with the lawn. My lawn's still going strong. Yeah, so it's not slowing down, but uh so once maybe every everybody's a little less busy.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:44

I was blessed that we have a little neighbor since I have two jobs now, is blessed to have a little neighbor who uh went over and cut our grass for us. Oh that's cool. He cut it like he owns a landscaping business or something. He was he he did everything. He weed ate and just cut my grass, trimmed everything, and it would it was beautiful. So I'm blessed and I just wanted to give him a little little shout out.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:16

Yeah, I got a shout out of my own. I had a little blessing this week. There's this young kid that works for UPS. And this kid's just a fireball. Like he comes in, you can tell, like he wants to make his deliveries and be on it. And he's got such a great attitude, and he always just tells me thank you, and just so polite and professional. And uh so he walked in and I was like, Hey, how you doing today? And he's like, Good, good. He goes, But I got all these deliveries today. He's like, There's four of us, so I don't I don't know why they gave all these to me. And I said, I'll tell you exactly why. I said, I see you. I said, it's because your attitude and your work ethic, I said, they know you can handle it. I said, I just want to let you know that I even told my wife about you that you come in here, I said, and you just blow me away for as young as you are. You you've separated yourself from most of the youth that I'm surrounded by. You just come in here, you're doing such a great job, you're professional, you can tell you're just on it. And I said, I told my wife, I said, you could probably run the whole company someday if you keep doing what you're doing. Absolutely. And he and he was just like, I really appreciate that. He goes, I really needed that today. And he was like, God bless you and have a good day. And I was just like, Yeah, you know, just sometimes that's all it takes. Sometimes is just letting somebody know that you see them and what they're doing, especially young people, that you see what they're doing and you appreciate it because then because then you can you step back and be like, you know what? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:46

Oh, it it stokes that fire. Definitely does, because they can they just like us, they can get run down and think, What am I doing this for? And why do I put the extra effort in? And then when somebody says, I see you, I see what you've done. Yeah, it it just it boosts a microphone.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:03

Yeah, you you're separating yourself from yep. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:09

So I do think that'll kind of put a wrap on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:12

That'll put a bell on it, Dale. Yes, sir. Alrighty, it's time to go home. Okay. All right, praise out.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:17

We'll do. Father God, thank you for for this time together with my brother Nick. Um, and letting everyone know that you are the seeker. Yes, we may seek you in our various and different ways, but you are always seeking us. You have never stopped. From Genesis to Revelation, you seek. Give us traveling mercies, Father God, as we leave here and keep us, you know, safe as we travel about. We do those various things from day to day. Bless our family and friends, and be uh that we may be an encouragement to them and an encouragement to those within the sound of our voice, Father God. We thank you for this platform, we thank you for the work that you are doing through this microphone. Not us, but you, Father God. We pray all these things in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.