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Speaker 1: Life audio find inspiration as close as your phone. Download

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Speaker 1: the Jesus Calling app and get started today for free.

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Speaker 1: Look for the Jesus Calling app in both the Apple

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Speaker 1: and Google Play stores.

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Speaker 2: Millions of people out there will never go into a church,

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Speaker 2: but the'll hold a screen in their hand and they'll

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Speaker 2: watch something. So it's my job, as a producer and

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Speaker 2: a showrunner and a studio head to make sure that

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Speaker 2: whatever goes on that screen is uplifting and is good

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Speaker 2: for people's souls and their spirit.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week, we'll hear

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Speaker 3: from Butch Hartman, the animator and creator behind some of

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Speaker 3: Nickelodeon's biggest shows, including The Fairly Odd Peers and Danny Phantom.

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Speaker 3: Butch grew up in a chaotic household in Michigan, where

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Speaker 3: television and comic books served as his primary escape. This

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Speaker 3: early passion eventually led him to California's top animation school

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Speaker 3: and then to a long career at Nickelodeon. Today, well

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Speaker 3: hear why he walked away after twenty years the network

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Speaker 3: to start his own studio. Later in the episode, we'll

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Speaker 3: hear from Matt Cooper, a country artist from Jacksonville. Florida,

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Speaker 3: who turned the worst year of his life into a

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Speaker 3: number one radio single. After losing his mother to cancer,

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Speaker 3: Matt found himself white knuckling his grief until a late

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Speaker 3: night group therapy session cracked something open and sent him

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Speaker 3: home to write a song in a single hour that

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Speaker 3: would change everything. Let's start with Butch's story.

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Speaker 2: My name is Butch Hartman, and I am known primarily

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Speaker 2: as an animation creator and sort of a showrunner. I've

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Speaker 2: created many cartoon shows on Nickelodeon. I'm best known for

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Speaker 2: that for creating a show called The Fairly OddParents, one

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Speaker 2: show called Danny Fandom, another show called Tough Puppy, and

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Speaker 2: a show called Bunsen Is a Beast. I worked at

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Speaker 2: Nickelodeon for over twenty years, not just drawing animation but

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Speaker 2: writing it as well, and I left nickel and after

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Speaker 2: a twenty year career. I left in twenty eighteen to

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Speaker 2: pursue my own animated projects in build my own studio.

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Speaker 2: I was born in Highland Park, Michigan. When I grew

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Speaker 2: up in the nineteen seventies, and obviously technology wise, there

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Speaker 2: wasn't as much technology as there is today. We had

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Speaker 2: a television and we had a radio. As a kid,

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Speaker 2: I loved watching television. That was one of my big escapes.

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Speaker 2: I grew up in kind of a chaotic home, had

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Speaker 2: a lot of chaotic stuff happened in my childhood, a

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Speaker 2: lot of struggle going on in the house, and so

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Speaker 2: TV and comic books and movies were kind of my escape.

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Speaker 2: Back then, you really can only watch what was on

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Speaker 2: TV when it was on. There were no VCR video

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Speaker 2: set recorders, there were no DVDs. There were certainly no

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Speaker 2: streaming at all, So if you wanted to watch the

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Speaker 2: Charlie Brown Christmas Special, you had to be there sitting

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Speaker 2: in front of the television at Christmas on Monday at

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Speaker 2: eight am or eight pm, whenever it ran. So I

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Speaker 2: just grew up sort of watching all kinds of fun stuff,

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Speaker 2: situation comedies. I'd watched those like Happy Days and Welcome

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Speaker 2: Back Cotter and things like that, and The Flinchstones, and

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Speaker 2: I just really loved TV. I didn't realize it at

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Speaker 2: the time, but I really loved comedy. I love stories,

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Speaker 2: things that made me laugh. There wasn't a ton of

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Speaker 2: laughter going on in my life, and the entertainment I

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Speaker 2: would watch would make me laugh, and I knew that

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Speaker 2: I wanted to make people laugh as well. Growing up

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Speaker 2: in Michigan, you sort of go to yourself, well, there's

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Speaker 2: that TV screen and there's people in there, and how

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Speaker 2: do I get in there? How do I get into

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Speaker 2: that EV screen? And again I'm thinking all this as

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Speaker 2: a kid. I'm now verbalizing it as an adult, But

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Speaker 2: as a kid, I didn't know the first thing about

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Speaker 2: getting there. But what happened was this is way before

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Speaker 2: I was a Christian at all, I knew God had

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Speaker 2: his hand on my life. I ended up discovering an

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Speaker 2: animation school in California called California Institute of the Arts

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Speaker 2: shortened it's called cal Arts, founded by Walt Disney, and

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Speaker 2: at age like fourteen or fifteen, I determined myself to

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Speaker 2: get into that school. So I started finding out about

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Speaker 2: cal Arts, and I would actually write them letters. They

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Speaker 2: send me brochures. I had a couple of friends that

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Speaker 2: were nerd animators like me, and so we all kind

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Speaker 2: of determined to get into that school. And in nineteen

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Speaker 2: eighty three, when I graduated high school, I went to

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Speaker 2: cal Arts. I got my portfolio dean by them. I

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Speaker 2: looked at their requirements. I knew they needed to see

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Speaker 2: a lot of life drawing. What that is is when

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Speaker 2: you're an artist, instead of drawing a cartoon horse, they

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Speaker 2: want to see a real horse.

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Speaker 4: You're a real person. They want to see how.

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Speaker 2: Good you are at capturing life. And they would recommend

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Speaker 2: going to the zoo. So I would go to the

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Speaker 2: Detroit Zoo in the middle of winter. You could get

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Speaker 2: in for free. They wouldn't charge anything, and I would

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Speaker 2: draw like the tigers and the lions and gorillas, and

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Speaker 2: I would send my big puffer coat drawing and I

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Speaker 2: sent all those drawings in I got into the school.

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Speaker 2: That was my ticket to California. I came out to

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Speaker 2: go to school in nineteen eighty three, and the animation

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Speaker 2: program was managed by a bunch of former Disney animators

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Speaker 2: who would come to the school and they would teach

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Speaker 2: great people, and I learned a lot from them. I

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Speaker 2: was working at Nickelodeon. I got there because I sold

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Speaker 2: a show called The Fairly Odd Parents. I sold one episode.

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Speaker 2: You walk into a studio and you have an idea,

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Speaker 2: so you get to make one episode and a deal

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Speaker 2: is signed. We'll buy this episode. We'll buy the show

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Speaker 2: from you. So the studio is taking a risk on you.

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Speaker 2: So I got to make one episode of The Fairly

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Speaker 2: Odd Parents. They really liked it, so I got to

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Speaker 2: make about eight more. It's like seven minute episodes, and

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Speaker 2: then they liked it so much they did a thing

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Speaker 2: called a focus test where they put the show on

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Speaker 2: a screen in front of a room full of kids,

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Speaker 2: several different age groups, and you are behind a piece

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Speaker 2: of glass that the kids can't see through, and you're

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Speaker 2: watching the kids reaction. It's the most terrifying moment of

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Speaker 2: your life watching the kids watch your program. Fortunately, the

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Speaker 2: kids liked the show, so Nickelodeon picked it up for

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Speaker 2: a series. We first aired as a series in March

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Speaker 2: of two thousand and one, and the show was such

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Speaker 2: a hit, thank God, Praise God, that it ran brand

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Speaker 2: new episodes for eighteen years on Nickelodeon. It was phenomenally successful.

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Speaker 2: I was so blessed, and during all of this got

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Speaker 2: saved and found Jesus. At the beginning, there was no

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Speaker 2: doubt and there still isn't any doubt. I knew what

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Speaker 2: I was supposed to do. I knew the Lord was

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Speaker 2: pushing me to do. After being there Nickelodeon, I started

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Speaker 2: having this sort of a dissatisfaction. I'd been there for

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Speaker 2: so long and Nickelodeon was wonderful. They always treated me great.

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Speaker 2: I had a great time there. But after twenty years

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Speaker 2: in any place, it's a lifetime. I mean, I thought

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Speaker 2: it's time to go build a new life somewhere else

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Speaker 2: with my own way to do this, and I prayed

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Speaker 2: about it. I really felt strongly that the Lord was

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Speaker 2: leading me to leave my wife, and I agreed and

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Speaker 2: I left. And yeah, it was a bold move. When

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Speaker 2: you do leave the security of the let's just say,

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Speaker 2: the compound and you're out alone in the wilderness, it

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Speaker 2: can be a little challenging, that's for sure. The first

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Speaker 2: cartoon we did, but I'd been developing this Christian cartoon

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Speaker 2: on my own and my sketch pad at home, and it.

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Speaker 4: Was called The Garden.

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Speaker 2: It was about a little lion named Lenny and a

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Speaker 2: little lamb named Lucy who worked and played in a

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Speaker 2: miraculous garden where anything can grow. Any idea can grow.

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Speaker 2: You can plant an idea, you can plant a pizza,

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Speaker 2: It'll grow a.

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Speaker 4: Pizza tree, anything.

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Speaker 2: But they work for God. He comes down as a

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Speaker 2: rainbow and they talk to him and they call him

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Speaker 2: the Boss because they work for him High Boss, and

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Speaker 2: so they get an assignment from God and every day

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Speaker 2: they kind of screw it up and then during the

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Speaker 2: course of the episode, through a scripture or an original song,

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Speaker 2: they learn how to do it better. And so that's

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Speaker 2: what we're working on now. Season one of the Garden

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Speaker 2: one in Angels Studios and did really, really well. It

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Speaker 2: did fantastic. The marketplace is huge because millions of people

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Speaker 2: out there will never go into a church, but they'll

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Speaker 2: hold a screen in their hand and they'll watch something.

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Speaker 2: So it's my job as a producer and a showrunner

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Speaker 2: and a studio head to make sure that whatever goes

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Speaker 2: on that screen is uplifting and is good for people's

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Speaker 2: souls and their spirit. I don't want to put something

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Speaker 2: on there just for shot failure or just to make money. Well,

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Speaker 2: that's why I do these cartoons because there's kids out

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Speaker 2: there I will never meet, but I know that the

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Speaker 2: content I'm producing is going to somehow affect their life

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Speaker 2: in a positive way.

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Speaker 4: For the Lord.

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Speaker 2: I go to comic conventions all the time. Now, I'm

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Speaker 2: always appearing at comic convention signing autographs and things, and

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Speaker 2: it's such a joy. I mean, so many great fans.

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Speaker 2: But they'll come up to me and they're in their

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Speaker 2: twenties and their early thirties, mister Hartman, I grew up

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Speaker 2: with your show. It meant so much to me. And

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Speaker 2: they're shaking. They'll be kind of trembling because they're so

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Speaker 2: emotional about the effect the show had on them as

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Speaker 2: a kid. And I'm so grateful to meet them. And

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Speaker 2: I'm all about legacy, and so we have to be

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Speaker 2: very wise about the decisions we make, especially when it

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Speaker 2: comes to entertainment, because it lives forever. It will live somewhere,

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Speaker 2: and that's why I want to be very careful about

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Speaker 2: what I do. And I'm not perfect, of course, I'm

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Speaker 2: not saying I'm perfect, but that's why I need a savior.

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Speaker 2: But I am doing my best to put the best

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Speaker 2: product out there that I can that hopefully someone will

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Speaker 2: watch in the future and it will affect them positively.

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Speaker 4: For the Lord, that's my goal. That's my legacy.

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Speaker 3: To learn more about Butch Hartman, visit Butchhartman dot Net

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Speaker 3: and be sure to check out The Garden cartoon streaming

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Speaker 3: on Angel Studios, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and more.

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Speaker 3: Stay tuned to Matt Cooper's story after a brief Message.

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Speaker 3: With more than fifty million copies sold, the original classic

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Speaker 3: edition of Jesus Calling is your daily guide to living

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Speaker 3: a more peaceful life. Experience a deeper relationship with Jesus

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Speaker 3: as you savor the presence of the one who understands

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Speaker 3: you perfectly and loves you forever. With scripture and personal reflections,

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Speaker 3: Jesus Calling is your year long guide to living a

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Speaker 3: more peaceful life. Its price and size also make it

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Speaker 3: the perfect gift for anyone who needs encouragement. Find Jesus

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Speaker 3: Calling wherever you buy books. Matt Cooper is a Jacksonville

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Speaker 3: based country artist whose debut single, Highs and Lows hit

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Speaker 3: number one on US country radio. He wrote the track

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Speaker 3: in a single hour after a group therapy session while

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Speaker 3: processing the loss of his mother to cancer, an experience

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Speaker 3: that ultimately secured him a record deal.

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Speaker 2: Hi.

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Speaker 4: My name is Matt Cooper. I am a country singer, songwriter,

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Speaker 4: slash artist in Nashville, Tennessee. I'm originally from jacksonl Florida,

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Speaker 4: and moved out to Nashville three years ago to pursue

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Speaker 4: this music career. Music first grabbed me back in middle

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Speaker 4: school around sixth grade is when I started seeing that

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Speaker 4: my mom actually knew how to play piano. I remember

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Speaker 4: we were at my grandma's Christmas party. We do like

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Speaker 4: a Christmas Eve dinner, and she starts going over to

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Speaker 4: my grandma's piano and starts playing Heart and Soul. I

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Speaker 4: was like, wait, what didn't tell me you were chill

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Speaker 4: like that? It was really cool and I had never

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Speaker 4: like kind of seen her in that element. I remember

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Speaker 4: I went home that night and I started just learning

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Speaker 4: on YouTube, like how to play and how to play

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Speaker 4: Heart and Soul. And we had a little digital keyboard

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Speaker 4: in my brother's room and so I learned how to

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Speaker 4: play that on YouTube, and then fast forward the next Christmas,

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Speaker 4: I actually got to be on that piano and play

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Speaker 4: Heart and Soul for her, which was kind of cool.

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Speaker 4: So I was first introduced to music with my mom,

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Speaker 4: and I ended up learning how to play guitar really

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Speaker 4: just to impress the middle school girls. That was kind

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Speaker 4: of my first introduction of guitar. I just wanted to

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Speaker 4: be Sean Mendez and Ed Sharon and just sing them

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Speaker 4: love songs and date all them all that, but that

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Speaker 4: didn't last too long. I realized baseball was now going

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Speaker 4: to be the path when I got cut from the

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Speaker 4: University of Central Florida baseball team. After I got cut

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Speaker 4: from the baseball team, I started really diving into music.

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Speaker 4: My family and I we grew up leading worship and

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Speaker 4: singing worship at church and singing just with each other,

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Speaker 4: and that's a big part of her family. And then

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Speaker 4: once I got come from the team, when I was

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Speaker 4: in college, I just started writing songs my fresh and dorm.

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Speaker 4: It was like it was probably a couple of nights

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Speaker 4: after I got cut on the baseball team. It was

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Speaker 4: kind of like a holy spirit moment. I just wrote

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Speaker 4: five songs in like an hour. I had these five songs,

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Speaker 4: and I ended up during COVID going to Nashville to

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Speaker 4: get those songs recorded. I lost my mom two years ago.

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Speaker 4: My mom was number one a fighter. She was the

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Speaker 4: strongest person that I've ever met in my life, emotionally, mentally,

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Speaker 4: even physically. She always had a half cup full mentality.

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Speaker 4: I mean even in her cancer when they were like, hey,

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Speaker 4: you got like three weeks to this, She's like, uh uh, now,

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Speaker 4: I don't know. You lie and watch what God can do.

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Speaker 4: And she ended up living like six more months after that,

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Speaker 4: and I truly think it's just because she knew that

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Speaker 4: she served a great God. There's just those people when

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Speaker 4: you walk in the room and you just feel the

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Speaker 4: love of Jesus, and that was her. She decides up

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Speaker 4: a room and it's kind of a big part of

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Speaker 4: the ministry that I do now with music, I kind

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Speaker 4: of want to exemplify that that same thing that she

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Speaker 4: out to so many people. So I have a song

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Speaker 4: cut Good Gut, and I started writing that when my

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Speaker 4: mom was rediagnosed with her pancreatic cancer, and it was

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Speaker 4: really just my story of what I was going through.

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Speaker 4: It was almost my grief story. And I started writing

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Speaker 4: the first verse, the second verse, and the chorus all

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Speaker 4: throughout her cancer journey, and that she kind of progressed

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Speaker 4: it and it was kind of getting worse and worse.

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Speaker 4: The song was kind of mimicking that in a sense,

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Speaker 4: and I didn't have the last verse until she ended

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Speaker 4: up passing away and I had kind of like a

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Speaker 4: holy spirit movement where like words just kind of started

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Speaker 4: flowing out. And the special part of that song is

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Speaker 4: that I got to sing it at her funeral, and

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Speaker 4: final verse I kind of had it a few days

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Speaker 4: after she passed and says, good God, can't you tell her?

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Speaker 4: I said, Hi, that Danny David dadd or even fine,

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Speaker 4: And I'm staying strong because good God, how could I

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Speaker 4: feel sad knowing that she's finally dancing now with you?

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Speaker 4: So is this so wrong that I'm doing good God?

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Speaker 4: Because I've got a good God. I'm only doing good God.

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Speaker 4: I tell everybody kind of the same thing. Nobody really

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Speaker 4: teaches you about grief, especially as a man. I think

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Speaker 4: it's really hard, just especially as a man, to deal

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Speaker 4: with grief because you know, you try to white knuckle

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Speaker 4: everything as a dude, and then you realize the white

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Speaker 4: knuckling actually doesn't work. I don't really have a way

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Speaker 4: to describe how to deal with it, because I do

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Speaker 4: think everybody's different. At my mom's funeral, going back to

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Speaker 4: the white knuckle, I've always been a guy that just like,

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Speaker 4: don't cry, good and move on. Life goes on. It

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Speaker 4: is what it is. But at my mom's funeral, it

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Speaker 4: was kind of interesting because me and my brothers, we

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Speaker 4: were standing at the front of the church and my

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Speaker 4: mom's body was there in the casket, and it was

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Speaker 4: kind of interesting because when we were standing out the church.

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Speaker 4: I wasn't really thinking about my mom at the time.

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Speaker 4: What I was more focused on was how many friends

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Speaker 4: kept showing up through those doors, friends that I had

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Speaker 4: accumulated over twenty three years of my life. The first

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Speaker 4: one that showed up was one of my best friends

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Speaker 4: in middle school, a guy named Jason, who was the

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Speaker 4: first to come down the church and give me a hug.

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Speaker 4: And I was good, and I ended up seeing another

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Speaker 4: friend from middle school knew I had to talked to

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Speaker 4: in years. He walked down the ann he gave me

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Speaker 4: a hug, and it was awesome. But I kept noticing

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Speaker 4: just this kind of little voice in my head that

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Speaker 4: was just like saying, like, I know what you're going through,

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Speaker 4: and I'm sending you one more. And I kept seeing

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Speaker 4: one more just show up, just dudes that I had

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Speaker 4: accumulated over twenty three years of my life that were

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Speaker 4: just coming to love me and support me and it

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Speaker 4: was going to be okay. And I just started breaking

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Speaker 4: down for the first time through all the journey. I

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Speaker 4: just started breaking down and it was okay to do that,

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Speaker 4: And so that was kind of the first sort of

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Speaker 4: recognizing of my grief realizing that it's okay to just

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Speaker 4: let it out. I'm a big believer in therapy. It

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Speaker 4: was really really great for me. It was a way

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Speaker 4: for me to just kind of talk through the emotions

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Speaker 4: that I had just been hiding a lot. And one

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Speaker 4: of those meetings that I had with the therapist, he

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Speaker 4: recommended a group therapy class, which leads me to the

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Speaker 4: third way. I kind of handled grief in that ways

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Speaker 4: group therapy. One of the group therapy classes, I walk

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Speaker 4: in the room and I didn't want to nobody really

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Speaker 4: wants to go to group therapy. But you know, he's

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Speaker 4: in a circle and stuff, and this guy stands up

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Speaker 4: and he says, Hey, my name is so and so,

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Speaker 4: and he says these words. He says, I get high

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Speaker 4: all the time when I feel O. I've done drugs

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Speaker 4: for me to zee and the Lord's been good ever since.

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Speaker 4: And after that class, I got to share my story

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Speaker 4: with him of what brought me in that night, and

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Speaker 4: he shared a story of what brought me in that night.

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Speaker 4: I went home, it was probably one or two am

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Speaker 4: in the morning, and I wrote my song Heighs and

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Speaker 4: Lows in one hour. It was the fastest song I

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Speaker 4: ever wrote. And that was the first sense of like

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Speaker 4: finding music kind of as a way of dealing with

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Speaker 4: my grief as well. And the music was different now,

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Speaker 4: it was just like the Holy Spirit kind of speaking

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Speaker 4: through me. Highs and Lows is my very first single

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Speaker 4: in country radio. It's what got my record label dealing.

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Speaker 4: I wrote it in an hour by myself. Can't really

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Speaker 4: explain that stuff. You just can't. You just can't explain

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Speaker 4: that stuff other than that, that's like that was just

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Speaker 4: divine intervention, the Lord just speaking through the words, and

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Speaker 4: I just wrote the truth. I just wrote the encounter

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Speaker 4: that I just had with this man. And now it's

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Speaker 4: like I get to play it at festivals. If I

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Speaker 4: was to recommend anything about grief, I'd say, you know,

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Speaker 4: therapy is good. Prayer and surround yourself with community and

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Speaker 4: all the things, but therapy is great. I think just

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Speaker 4: the biggest thing that I've taken away from grief is

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Speaker 4: just I have understood more of the love of the

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Speaker 4: Father than I've ever had in my life. To connect

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Speaker 4: with the Lord daily is super important. I call it

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Speaker 4: spiritual rhythms, and not in a sense of like checking

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Speaker 4: off a box, even though it definitely in my own

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Speaker 4: life can feel like that at times where I'm just

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Speaker 4: checking off a box. But I think taking time to

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Speaker 4: just be stealing quiet and just read the Bible or

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Speaker 4: just connecting prayer, it is probably the most important thing

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Speaker 4: that I do in my life. I can't love my

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Speaker 4: wife well if I'm not doing that. If I'm not

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Speaker 4: doing that, I can't even go on a stage and

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Speaker 4: seeing well or do most of this thing we call

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Speaker 4: life about it. And that is not like a crutch

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Speaker 4: to my life. It is like a necessity. And if

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Speaker 4: you are not reminding yourself of the grace of Christ

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Speaker 4: and the Gospel daily, those little voices and those things

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Speaker 4: in your mind, you start to believe them. This is

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Speaker 4: Jesus Listens by Sarah Young, and I am reading May nineteenth.

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Speaker 4: I want you to know how safe and secure you

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Speaker 4: are in my presence. That is a fact totally independent

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Speaker 4: of your feelings. You are on your way to heaven.

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Speaker 4: Nothing can prevent you from reaching that destination. There you

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Speaker 4: will see Me face to face, and your joy will

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Speaker 4: be off the charts by any early standards. Even now,

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Speaker 4: you are never separated from me, though you must see

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Speaker 4: me through eyes of faith. I have a walk with

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Speaker 4: you to the end of time and onward into eternity.

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Speaker 4: Although MY presence is a guaranteed promise that does not

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Speaker 4: necessarily change your feelings, when you forget I am with you,

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Speaker 4: you may experience loneliness or fear. It is through awareness

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Speaker 4: of my presence that peace displaces negative feelings. Practice the

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Speaker 4: discipline of walking consciously with me through each day.

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Speaker 3: To learn more about Matt Cooper, visit his website at

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Speaker 3: mattcoopermusic dot com. If you're interested in hearing more personal

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Speaker 3: stories about grief, check out our interview with Jimmy Gravity.

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Speaker 3: Next time on the Jesus Calling podcast, we'll hear from

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Speaker 3: author and speaker Sarah Jakes Roberts, who reveals how online

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Speaker 3: criticism after a twenty five thousand person women's event almost

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Speaker 3: derailed her and the moment she realized she couldn't define

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Speaker 3: herself by the court of public opinion.

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Speaker 5: What I know now that I didn't know then is

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Speaker 5: that strength is not our tolerance for whatever comes our way.

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Speaker 5: It is our ability to stay focused regardless of what

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Speaker 5: comes our way.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Jesus Calling Stories of Faith

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Speaker 1: podcast on the Life Audio Network. Every week we'll bring

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Speaker 1: you stories from people who share their journeys of faith

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Speaker 1: and how prayer and a relationship with God transformed their lives.

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Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts, and leave us a review

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Speaker 1: so others can be inspired weekly by these stories of faith. Finally,

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Speaker 1: you can find encouragement resources and more on the Jesus

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Speaker 1: Calling website at Jesus Calling dot com