Speaker 1: They don't want to admit they're bad. They want to
Speaker 1: say they're they're good, and they're trying to fight this
Speaker 1: world the urge. But the fact is, it's not the world,
Speaker 1: it's not the culture, it's not society. It's you. What's up, everybody?
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Episode two two three. Got
Speaker 1: my favorite man, Bernie here, one of my best friends
Speaker 1: for decades and a frequent guest on the podcast.
Speaker 2: It's an honor privilege every time. I don't take it lightly.
Speaker 1: I could tell you mean that because you drive an
Speaker 1: hour to get here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a privilege and it's so cool. I remember
Speaker 2: this whole invitation kind of started with me. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you remember this, Like me and you and
Speaker 2: Leslie and Amber were just sitting around and we're basically
Speaker 2: doing what we're doing now, and I think as Amber
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, you should have Bernie on the podcast.
Speaker 2: It's like you just do what you're doing. And I
Speaker 2: was like, okay, I'll do that, so yeah, man, And
Speaker 2: then it turned into.
Speaker 1: This, yeah, so y'all what we do? We answer y'all's
Speaker 1: questions and I do not know what I'm about to read.
Speaker 1: That's it's intriguing for me. I'm actually excited. Just as
Speaker 1: I said here, I'm like, man, I have no idea
Speaker 1: what we're about to get into on this episode, no clue.
Speaker 1: I don't see them at all. I used to at
Speaker 1: least sort them. I don't even sort them, forgot ant
Speaker 1: Man producing this thing now, so he sorts them, and
Speaker 1: I just literally pull it up on this little screen
Speaker 1: right here. And if you want to get on this
Speaker 1: little screen right here, email podcast at grangersmith dot com.
Speaker 1: Podcast at grangersmith dot com. Submit your questions. It goes
Speaker 1: to ant Man, and you may even want to tell
Speaker 1: him hey, But then everything after that is what I'm
Speaker 1: about to read. First question comes from Dalton and it says, Hey, Granger,
Speaker 1: I've been a long time watcher of the Smiths and
Speaker 1: been a fan of you for a long time. I'm
Speaker 1: interested to hear your opinion on tattoos as a Christian,
Speaker 1: since that could be a dicey subject. I'm aware that
Speaker 1: you obviously have some meaningful tattoos, and I also have
Speaker 1: one that I got from my best friend that passed
Speaker 1: away in a car accident in February. I appreciate all
Speaker 1: you do and look forward to attending another sermon. Next
Speaker 1: time you're in Columbus Burns. You got a tattoo? I do?
Speaker 3: I got a couple couple. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a dicey question subject.
Speaker 2: I think culturally maybe there's like I don't know, everything's
Speaker 2: polarizing these days. It's like, well, if you don't believe this,
Speaker 2: then you must believe that. And it's like, well, no,
Speaker 2: there's nuanced to life and there's so I think that's
Speaker 2: probably what he meant by dicey, Like if you say this, then.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you said if you believe this, and you
Speaker 1: must believe this. If you don't believe right.
Speaker 2: Well no, people tend to think, well, if you don't
Speaker 2: believe this, then you must believe that, and it's like, well, actually,
Speaker 2: maybe I don't believe either of those things.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And the other idea is similar to that is
Speaker 1: when hey, mister Christian speaking from you know, outside, Hey,
Speaker 1: mister Christian, you can't you can't pick and choose what
Speaker 1: you want to believe out of the Bible. And if
Speaker 1: you believe this, then you need to believe that. And
Speaker 1: if you don't believe that, then you shouldn't believe anything
Speaker 1: else in the Bible right, And that's a false statement
Speaker 1: because we're called from the Bible itself, as it testifies
Speaker 1: to itself, to rightly divide the word of truth. What
Speaker 1: does that mean, Well, it means we have to understand
Speaker 1: the context of everything we read. We have to we
Speaker 1: can't we God intentionally meant everything that's included in the
Speaker 1: Bible for an intentional reason, and that intention doesn't always
Speaker 1: go straight to us. For example, God commanded Noah to
Speaker 1: build an arc. That doesn't mean that we're commanded to
Speaker 1: build an arc. He commanded Adam and Eve not to
Speaker 1: eat from the tree. He doesn't have any trees that
Speaker 1: he's commanded us not to eat from. So there's many
Speaker 1: examples like that where we have to understand. Okay, hang on,
Speaker 1: let's divide. Let's rightly divide the word. It's all truth,
Speaker 1: all of it, but let's rightly divide it into what
Speaker 1: we're supposed to take today. And if we're talking about
Speaker 1: biblical tattoos, we'll start with the context of the Mosaic law,
Speaker 1: which has to be rightly divided into ceremonial and civil
Speaker 1: and moral. So if you take those three aspects of
Speaker 1: the old Mosaic law, then you have to go okay.
Speaker 1: There were certain parts of the law that were civil.
Speaker 1: It's like, this is the law of the land. It's
Speaker 1: like speeding, don't speed, okay, and then you've got the which,
Speaker 1: by the way, speeding changes over generations. A civil law
Speaker 1: is not the same in different civilizations. It changes to
Speaker 1: pay attention to the civil law in that place, and
Speaker 1: then ceremonial that the people at the time were under
Speaker 1: ceremonial law for certain reasons that we are just not
Speaker 1: under today. One of those reasons, there's many, but one
Speaker 1: of them, tattoos, is a good example of one. That
Speaker 1: they were called to be holy. The Bible says, you
Speaker 1: shall be holy for I the Lord your God, am holy, holy,
Speaker 1: meaning separate, separated, different, be you should be different, and
Speaker 1: and tattoos were a symbol at the time of the
Speaker 1: paganism of the nations around Israel. So one of the
Speaker 1: laws was don't mark yourself because that's what the people,
Speaker 1: that's what the pagans do. And you know how you
Speaker 1: want people to know you're different, and you want to
Speaker 1: know you're different. Don't get those tattoos because that deliberately
Speaker 1: means that you're one of them, not one of us. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's easy. And then there's the moral law. The moral law.
Speaker 1: Do not kill, do not commit a dirtary. Oh, it's actually,
Speaker 1: do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not lie,
Speaker 1: do not steal all that stuff, do not make idols. Okay,
Speaker 1: those are the moral law that still lasts today, and
Speaker 1: we still abide by that law today. So all that
Speaker 1: being said, that that's rightly dividing the truth. Understand the
Speaker 1: context of how this stuff was given, and that's why
Speaker 1: you might think that this is a dicey subject. It's
Speaker 1: actually not. But after all that, this is what I
Speaker 1: typically say. I'd get these emails quite a bit on
Speaker 1: the podcast. I typically say today, as I read this podcast,
Speaker 1: I do not want to get any more tattoos. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying I will not, but I'm saying I have
Speaker 1: no desire and I would not recommend it to anyone
Speaker 1: because not because it's unbiblical or because it it's not
Speaker 1: pleasing to God. I'm not going to go there. It's
Speaker 1: too deep. I'm not going to go there. But I'm
Speaker 1: going to say it's a it's a permanent mark on
Speaker 1: your body for probably a temporary feeling that you're having.
Speaker 1: So although I do have some and I don't regret them,
Speaker 1: I would say, don't get tattoos. Yeah, that was a
Speaker 1: long answer, dude.
Speaker 2: I'm sure this may be a time that me and
Speaker 2: Griz disagree.
Speaker 1: Great, what bring it? Bring it?
Speaker 2: No, I'm not really, but I'm okay with tattoos.
Speaker 3: You want to get one.
Speaker 2: I think that what you said is important. Don't make
Speaker 2: this a permanent decision based on a temporary feeling.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: I got buddies that have, you know, cartoon character tattoos
Speaker 2: that they just don't really love those cartoon characters the
Speaker 2: way they did it one time.
Speaker 1: It's like, I sure done that.
Speaker 2: Both of the tattoos that I have are very sentimental,
Speaker 2: very meaningful, and I do not regret doing them.
Speaker 3: And that's how you kind of want it to be.
Speaker 2: I I think they're awesome. I love asking people about them.
Speaker 2: You know, the connection that you can find with people
Speaker 2: in the conversation starters. And so yeah, I'm going to
Speaker 2: differ a little bit maybe and say yes, make sure
Speaker 2: that you know you're you know what it means, because
Speaker 2: if you get the Chinese writing that you don't know
Speaker 2: what it means, and it's like an insult to Chinese people,
Speaker 2: like that's on your body forever, So make sure you
Speaker 2: know like all of what it is that you're doing.
Speaker 2: But I think it's interesting that he's asking this, but
Speaker 2: he already did it or he already has Yeah, he's yeah,
Speaker 2: So hopefully he doesn't have like a cartoon or Chinese writing.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know. He says, it's his friend that passed away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, dude, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Dude, I've got I've got the same stuff. Man, we're
Speaker 1: you and I Dalton, We're in the same boat. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, I'm not saying I I don't agree with tattoo?
Speaker 1: Is it over spiritualizing tat I'm not saying. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying as a general advice that I'm going to get
Speaker 1: from this microphone on this chair, not yours. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna say, hey, just don't, sir.
Speaker 2: Are you telling me we're not going to get matching
Speaker 2: tattoos after this?
Speaker 1: We still I thought we still have to get tattoos.
Speaker 1: The next questions from anonymous is I'm a twenty one
Speaker 1: year old girl still living at home. I have three
Speaker 1: sisters and we have quite a few years apart in
Speaker 1: age between us. All I've especially never been close to
Speaker 1: my older sister, and it's been a burden to me recently,
Speaker 1: and I'm tired of putting energy or thought into it.
Speaker 1: She's a single, quiet, introvert, and we are quite different.
Speaker 1: She never has been the open type and doesn't put
Speaker 1: effort into my life. And what I do point out
Speaker 1: is that I just keep praying about it, and I
Speaker 1: want to let go of that burden, and it's all
Speaker 1: on me right now. I think a friendship needs to
Speaker 1: be a two Oh, I get it. I get it.
Speaker 1: I have the fear that the distant relationships in our
Speaker 1: family is going to continue when or if I have
Speaker 1: a family myself and I have quite a few hard
Speaker 1: things that have happened in my life and that have
Speaker 1: shaped the way I think. Here's the question, how do
Speaker 1: I move forward in a healthy way when I see
Speaker 1: things differently than my own family and I don't feel
Speaker 1: I'm heard when I share my feelings. I love your
Speaker 1: podcast and how you're not afraid to be brutally honest,
Speaker 1: but it's all in love. Okay, do you understand Anonymous? Here?
Speaker 2: I'm tracking enough to kind of answer the question. I guess,
Speaker 2: why don't you just recap and then hit the question.
Speaker 1: So she's twenty one, still lives at home, three sisters,
Speaker 1: she's the oldest, she's the oldest. They're all very different,
Speaker 1: and that difference and that distance is now a burden
Speaker 1: to her, a weight about that. But she's also tired
Speaker 1: of trying to repair things and trying to pull the
Speaker 1: family together. She feels like she's not heard when she's
Speaker 1: trying to do it, and she has a fear that's
Speaker 1: only going to get worse. And she also what is
Speaker 1: the one part she said she thinks she's the only one,
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to find the one part where she's
Speaker 1: she's going on about how this is all about her.
Speaker 3: Basically, Yeah, that's what it sounds like.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that I got it, I got it all right.
Speaker 1: What do you say to anonymous here? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think I appreciate where you're at and you care
Speaker 2: enough to email in.
Speaker 3: People are just weird, man.
Speaker 2: People are annoying, and family, especially like human beings, we
Speaker 2: are just like very different, annoying people. And if you
Speaker 2: live with somebody or get close enough to them, you're
Speaker 2: going to realize exactly how annoying they are and how
Speaker 2: odd and weird and challenging. They are just we're people.
Speaker 2: So I think my thought to her is, man, just
Speaker 2: try to put on that lens of gratitude and focus
Speaker 2: on the good in them, the gift of relationship and family,
Speaker 2: and maybe that kind of ushers in the grace that
Speaker 2: you can have for them when you're have different thoughts
Speaker 2: or different and really you're just as messed up as
Speaker 2: they are.
Speaker 3: So that's the bottom line line.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good. The thing is and so am I
Speaker 1: we all Yeah, yeah, we all deal with this. I
Speaker 1: deal with it for sure. The idea that I just
Speaker 1: want to be heard, I want so I want to
Speaker 1: ask you, like, do you want to be heard or
Speaker 1: do you want to fix this relationship? Because those might
Speaker 1: be two different things. You say, I don't feel like
Speaker 1: i'm heard when I share my feelings and I see
Speaker 1: things different than they do. Well, is it was this
Speaker 1: ever about you or repairing a family? Because you might
Speaker 1: not be able to get both of those things, like
Speaker 1: you can't you might not be able to repair this
Speaker 1: and be heard and share your feelings and they all
Speaker 1: think you're amazing. So repairing the family might be saying
Speaker 1: I'm going to deny myself a little bit here and
Speaker 1: just say I love you guys. How could I serve?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: What could my role in the family be?
Speaker 2: Yeah, grace and move on to a place where you
Speaker 2: do have a little bit healthier communication and you're in
Speaker 2: a better place, because then I think if you focus
Speaker 2: on that, you focus on them and serving them and
Speaker 2: listening to them, I think they may actually hear your
Speaker 2: feelings a bit a.
Speaker 3: Little bit better.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, Again, you got to find them where they are.
Speaker 1: And here's an example. Say one of them is like
Speaker 1: really into volleyball, and you're as far from a volleyball
Speaker 1: player as anyone could be. Well, what if she's out
Speaker 1: in the backyard hypothetically and she's just hitting the volleyball
Speaker 1: up against the house. You might want to walk out
Speaker 1: there and just go, hey, you need a partner, Hey,
Speaker 1: how do I put my hands? How do you do that?
Speaker 1: You put your thumbs like this, and you will you
Speaker 1: show me how to hit that. You're coming to her level.
Speaker 1: You're meeting her where she is, and you're just breaking
Speaker 1: all the barriers by doing that. And inside you're thinking,
Speaker 1: I hate volleyball. This is so stupid. It's cold out here.
Speaker 1: Why are we doing just deny all that and go
Speaker 1: this is about repairing a relationship. That's what you wanted
Speaker 1: to begin with. Meet them where they are, and then
Speaker 1: watch the barriers breakdown. When Amber and I started getting
Speaker 1: serious and dating, I wrote her a song. And then
Speaker 1: whenever we got married and we needed a first dance
Speaker 1: for a wedding, I wrote a song for that. And
Speaker 1: then I remember, we got pregnant with London, and I
Speaker 1: wrote London a song. And that's always what I've done.
Speaker 1: It's what I've always done and what I still do today.
Speaker 1: And those songs have been and still are so special
Speaker 1: to me. But I realize that not everyone can just
Speaker 1: write a song, but that doesn't mean that you still
Speaker 1: don't have access to an original song for a special
Speaker 1: event or for a special someone in your life. Let
Speaker 1: me explain. This is where song Finch comes in. They
Speaker 1: could actually write you a song. A real songwriter can
Speaker 1: write you a song unique to your own relationship. Whatever
Speaker 1: you need it to be written about, this songwriter could
Speaker 1: craft it special and unique for you. You know, even
Speaker 1: something as simple as I love you. That message can
Speaker 1: sometimes be hard to say, but you could say it
Speaker 1: through the gift of a song. Valentine's Day's right around
Speaker 1: the corner, and you know, flowers might not even cut
Speaker 1: it this year, and neither will bears, or chocolate or perfume.
Speaker 1: But with Songfinch, you can give the gift of a
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Speaker 1: For a limited times, Songfinch is letting our listeners upload
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Speaker 1: to your new favorite song anywhere you go. Go to
Speaker 1: songfinch dot com slash granger and start your song. After
Speaker 1: you purchase, you'll be prompted to add Spotify streaming for
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Speaker 1: This offer is only available for my listeners at my
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Speaker 1: Next question is from Travin. It says, Hey Granger, I'm
Speaker 1: thirty three. I'm from Florida. Just wanted to say it's
Speaker 1: inspiring to watch you battle through adversities. It's been a
Speaker 1: blessing to watch the Lord and his strength carry you
Speaker 1: through to where you are now. I enjoy all that
Speaker 1: you do to serve the Lord and preach his kingdom.
Speaker 1: I too went through a painful loss in January twenty
Speaker 1: twenty as my mom passed away. While it's far different
Speaker 1: from what you went through, it was very deep hurt
Speaker 1: for me and crushed me far greater than I ever
Speaker 1: could comprehend at the time. It came only a year
Speaker 1: after divorcing my college sweetheart, and losing my home to
Speaker 1: a Category five hurricane. For so long, I was in
Speaker 1: a dark place. I was angry with God. I couldn't
Speaker 1: make sense as to why he allowed me to hurt
Speaker 1: so much. By his grace, I currently see light that
Speaker 1: I'm running to. I honestly just need some encouragement. Man.
Speaker 1: Some days I feel so numb. I started back on
Speaker 1: antidepressants and they're helping me, but it's a battle. I
Speaker 1: could use some encouragement. Okay, let me back up here.
Speaker 1: I always always have to clear something up. Anytime I
Speaker 1: see this, and I see it quite a bit, I
Speaker 1: always have to clear up the one sentence you wrote
Speaker 1: where you said, while it's a far far different pain
Speaker 1: than what you went through, it's still a very deep
Speaker 1: hurt for me. I gotta say, hang on a second.
Speaker 1: It's always relative. Pain is relative to what you're going
Speaker 1: through in your life. I didn't know your mom, so
Speaker 1: therefore I didn't love your mom. You loved your mom,
Speaker 1: you didn't love River. I think that's what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: and therefore you can't understand that. So it's all relative.
Speaker 1: But pain is pain. So I I have not lost
Speaker 1: my mom. Bernie has I have not lost my mom,
Speaker 1: so I can't relate to what you're saying. But I
Speaker 1: do know that pain is pain, loss is loss, love
Speaker 1: is love, and losing someone that you love equals grief. Okay,
Speaker 1: So let's just establish that you didn't hurt less than me. Okay,
Speaker 1: you wrote it crushed me far greater than I ever
Speaker 1: could have comprehended at the time. That is a powerful sentence,
Speaker 1: by the way, that is powerful. And then it came
Speaker 1: after you divorced your college sweetheart, your home to a
Speaker 1: Category five hurricane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, did they leave the name.
Speaker 1: Travin?
Speaker 3: Travin? Okay?
Speaker 2: I think if what you're looking for, Travin is encouragement, man,
Speaker 2: you should be encouraged to be to go through what
Speaker 2: you have been through and to still, as you said,
Speaker 2: see the light and be walking towards it and moving
Speaker 2: towards it.
Speaker 3: I think that that's pretty awesome, man.
Speaker 2: And to be writing in to granture, to be able
Speaker 2: to have the courage to bevulnerable enough with your story,
Speaker 2: it takes a lot.
Speaker 3: And so I hope you're encouraged to just.
Speaker 2: Keep one day, one moment at a time, man, practice
Speaker 2: the presence of God at each step of the.
Speaker 3: Way for him to walk with you. Yeah. Man, I'm
Speaker 3: encouraged by hearing this.
Speaker 1: So we got a similar question last week. Bernie Travin says,
Speaker 1: I was angry at God. I couldn't make sense as
Speaker 1: to why he allowed me to hurt so much. Now,
Speaker 1: we answered that question last week Travin and I could
Speaker 1: send you to that episode. It was episode two twenty two,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to answer it a different way. Now
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a new answer that has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the answer I gave last week about
Speaker 1: why we should answering the question of I'm angry at God?
Speaker 1: Why would he allow me to hurt? And I'll answer
Speaker 1: it in the form of one of my favorite psalms,
Speaker 1: because I personally have found so much peace in the
Speaker 1: psalms and so much encouragement through the psalms, partly because
Speaker 1: we're listening to David, who is what we know is
Speaker 1: a man after God's own heart, and he just struggled,
Speaker 1: but he had a godly struggle. That's a good model
Speaker 1: for us. He suffered, but he had a good godly
Speaker 1: suffering and he suffered well. So you're not promised as
Speaker 1: a Christian that you're not going to suffer. In fact
Speaker 1: that if you ever hear that, that's a huge lie.
Speaker 1: If someone says, follow Jesus and all your suffering will
Speaker 1: be over, Christians laugh, It's like no. Sometimes a lot
Speaker 1: of times it's the opposite. In fact, giving up your
Speaker 1: life for Christ, denying yourself, which offers eternal life and
Speaker 1: offers so much hope and peace joy, giving up yourself
Speaker 1: stings a lot. So there's a lot of pain and
Speaker 1: suffering that goes through that. Let me read Psal. I'm thirteen,
Speaker 1: and you can hear. David. I want you to hear
Speaker 1: how he suffers. Well, I also want you to hear
Speaker 1: how he asks the same questions you're asking. And then
Speaker 1: I want to show you how, even though that's the
Speaker 1: way he feels, I want you to see how he
Speaker 1: reconciles the way he feels with what he knows of
Speaker 1: who God is. It's just six short verses. How long,
Speaker 1: o Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will
Speaker 1: you hide your face from me? How long must I
Speaker 1: take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my
Speaker 1: heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be
Speaker 1: exalted over me? Consider and answer me Oh Lord, my God,
Speaker 1: light up my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death.
Speaker 1: Lest my enemies say I have prevailed over him. Lest
Speaker 1: my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I trust
Speaker 1: in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
Speaker 1: I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt
Speaker 1: bountifully with me. And you see these kind of psalms
Speaker 1: throughout all the happy psalms, you see the lamenting ones,
Speaker 1: and you see the ones that attempt to question God.
Speaker 1: And it's just great how the Bible gives us this
Speaker 1: road map of Oh, you think you're alone. You think
Speaker 1: you're the only one that has suffered through loss and
Speaker 1: loss of a home and loss of a loved one,
Speaker 1: a sweetheart. You think you're the only one that has
Speaker 1: felt anger maybe at God, and wondered why he would
Speaker 1: allow you to hurt so much. And then we get
Speaker 1: back in his word and we go, oh, man, not alone,
Speaker 1: We're not alone. We're so far from it.
Speaker 3: Man, So I'm thirteen. That's a good one. That's a
Speaker 3: good one to point in to.
Speaker 2: I'll just give you a practical from that, because I
Speaker 2: know from experience that what we look at and what
Speaker 2: we listen to really dictate a lot of our heart
Speaker 2: posture and our minds right what we think about. So
Speaker 2: one of my favorites, Shane and Shane did a Psalm
Speaker 2: album a long time ago, and they did Psalm thirteen.
Speaker 3: They wrote a song and.
Speaker 2: Just listen to that album of songs of all of
Speaker 2: these SOMs, because that is a similar cry, you know,
Speaker 2: throughout that throughout Psalms and throughout that record, but that
Speaker 2: that song in particular of Psalm thirteen. Just put it
Speaker 2: on repeat when you're driving and let let that just
Speaker 2: kind of like be what you meditate on, what you
Speaker 2: think of. So when you start to kind of go
Speaker 2: here and you're like, no, he's been good to me,
Speaker 2: like and you're not the first one to suffer and
Speaker 2: all those and just be open like, man, what is
Speaker 2: God gonna like speak to me through through that?
Speaker 3: So easy way to just keep it.
Speaker 1: That's a great the.
Speaker 3: Front of mind.
Speaker 1: That's a great idea that it's a great record. What's
Speaker 1: interesting is that when you when you think about Psalm
Speaker 1: thirteen or the mini Psalms that are laments or questions
Speaker 1: to God are wrestling with God's what's interesting about it all.
Speaker 1: It's like you go, how could these people? Why is
Speaker 1: that good to wrestle with God? Well, the answer usually
Speaker 1: is you're in communication with him. You're bringing it to him.
Speaker 1: That's what he wants. Bring it to me. You got questions,
Speaker 1: don't go try to find it in the world. Bring
Speaker 1: it to me. Ask me, how will I leave you forever?
Speaker 1: How long will I hide my face from you? Ask
Speaker 1: me come to me, join me in fellowship, Get on
Speaker 1: your knees, because when you do that, you're in a relationship.
Speaker 1: We're directly talking, we're communicating, and that's often forgotten.
Speaker 3: Oh for sure.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's like God, why yeah, why yeah? But you're
Speaker 1: talking to him.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's almost like there's this we're presenting a lack of
Speaker 2: faith if we ask the hard questions and it's like, no,
Speaker 2: I want to believe even deeper. And if I ask
Speaker 2: in I wrestle. That's how I'm going to get to
Speaker 2: the deeper. So go and ask those questions, for sure, wrestle.
Speaker 1: Bernie and Bernie asked a question earlier on where do
Speaker 1: the word podcast come from? I have no idea. I
Speaker 1: looked up a history of the word podcast, and I'm
Speaker 1: not that I can't immediately see the answer. So I
Speaker 1: would say comment below. If you're listening on a on
Speaker 1: a platform that allows you to comment, someone look it
Speaker 1: up for us and find out the history of the
Speaker 1: word pod cast. Be interested speaking to podcast. If you
Speaker 1: have a question for me, email podcast at grangersmith dot com.
Speaker 1: And this question comes from Alex says, Hey Granger I'm
Speaker 1: a longtime fan of you and the podcast. I'm thirty
Speaker 1: years old and in twenty eighteen, I married my wife,
Speaker 1: whom I was with for ten years at the time,
Speaker 1: and we had a beautiful little girl together. Throughout our relationship,
Speaker 1: I had a hard time being faithful to her and
Speaker 1: we ended up getting divorced. In twenty twenty, I met
Speaker 1: the love of my life and the most amazing woman.
Speaker 1: We are so happy together every single day. After being
Speaker 1: together three years, I went to a concert with some
Speaker 1: of my buddies and there was a woman that was
Speaker 1: sitting next to me and we were having a good
Speaker 1: time during the show and I ended up getting her
Speaker 1: number and some things were said. My girlfriend saw these texts,
Speaker 1: knowing my past, she left me. She is the love
Speaker 1: of my life and all I want is to be
Speaker 1: with her. Some just comes over me and I make
Speaker 1: these horrible decisions and they end up flipping my world
Speaker 1: upside down. I'm not a bad man, I just know.
Speaker 1: I just don't know how to stop these mistakes. I
Speaker 1: don't want to cheat. I don't want to be this man. Alex.
Speaker 1: That's a good one man. So no real question in there, right,
Speaker 1: just to like confession, that's a good question. It's a
Speaker 1: good confession because I don't think I've ever seen a
Speaker 1: question quite like this one. And and the it's impossible, Alex,
Speaker 1: it's impossible for me to give to give you a
Speaker 1: good it's not a question. So it's I don't know
Speaker 1: if I should say answer or analysis of this without
Speaker 1: heavily leaning on my biblical worldview. Same with Burns and
Speaker 1: there are there are a couple of things from my
Speaker 1: biblical worldview that just scream at me from this email.
Speaker 1: And one of them is and probably not definitely not
Speaker 1: the thing you're thinking about, but here it is. This
Speaker 1: one line says I'm not a bad man. Now. What's
Speaker 1: crazy about that is that that's the common understanding. In fact,
Speaker 1: Luke Bryan has a song. Have you ever heard that song?
Speaker 2: It's like Greater Smith's the only country that I used
Speaker 2: to listen to he retired though Luke Brian is a.
Speaker 1: Song called gets called something like I Believe All people
Speaker 1: are good. It's this idea like I believe all people
Speaker 1: are good. We're mostly good, and that is, it's a
Speaker 1: common idea, and most people think that most people that
Speaker 1: think they're good are most people that think that most
Speaker 1: people are good. And Alex is one of them. And
Speaker 1: he says I'm not a bad man. And and so
Speaker 1: he's trying to reconcile this, like as I'm watching the
Speaker 1: struggle in the in the email, It's like, man, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to wrestle with the idea that I'm not bad.
Speaker 1: I'm good, But I just don't know how to stop
Speaker 1: making these mistakes. What's going on? I'm not crazy, Granger,
Speaker 1: but I you know, I I don't understand how a
Speaker 1: good man like there's bad men out there. That's that's
Speaker 1: what he's insinuoud.
Speaker 2: That's what he's It's almost like this standard of good
Speaker 2: and bad that is, And he doesn't mention anything about
Speaker 2: God or Jesus or a biblical worldview, right he doesn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he doesn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So his standard or his idea, his worldview of
Speaker 2: what good and bad is is probably going to be
Speaker 2: very different than I know.
Speaker 1: It's great and hey, Alex, I love you, bro, and
Speaker 1: I'm really glad you asked this in this way so
Speaker 1: that we could answer it in this way, because it's
Speaker 1: it's really important to talk about you say, I'm not
Speaker 1: a bad man, insinuating that there must be bad men.
Speaker 1: There must be people that that are like child traffickers
Speaker 1: and rapist murders, the bank robbers, there's there's there must
Speaker 1: be some guys like in the hills of South America
Speaker 1: that are doing really bad things. Hey, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to a concert getting the girl's number, and I just
Speaker 1: I like beautiful women. Hey, how do you fault me
Speaker 1: on that? Guys? I love beautiful women. That's what That's
Speaker 1: what he's saying, Okay, And it's it's really important for
Speaker 1: us to kind of reel this in because you emailed
Speaker 1: this podcast under this biblical worldview. And here's what the
Speaker 1: Bible says. No one is good, not even one. The
Speaker 1: Bible says, all of you have gone astray, all have
Speaker 1: sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all
Speaker 1: of you. That is a crazy thought in the opposite
Speaker 1: of the world and so instead of like this grating
Speaker 1: on a curve, Like there's these really bad men in
Speaker 1: South America that do these horrible things in child trafficking,
Speaker 1: and then there's these men that like rob banks. That's
Speaker 1: the second tier, and then there's like the third tier
Speaker 1: that's like the drunk dad that neglects his children. And
Speaker 1: then here's where I am. I'm like the fourth tier,
Speaker 1: and that's like just kind of just can't really stay
Speaker 1: faithful to a girlfriend. So I'm not bad. The Bible says, no,
Speaker 1: all of you bad, all of you, all of your sinners,
Speaker 1: oh even you priest, even you monks, even you Buddhist
Speaker 1: climb in the mountain in the Himalayas, You're all bad,
Speaker 1: And we go, what what about our own conscience agrees
Speaker 1: that this is true, because the reason the monks climb
Speaker 1: those mountains is because they feel it in them. They
Speaker 1: feel the evil in them, and they're trying everything that
Speaker 1: can to eradicate it and try to meditate long enough,
Speaker 1: or try to be good long enough, or try try
Speaker 1: to sacrifice enough things, or to try to try to
Speaker 1: read enough of scripture, or try to deny themselves. Women
Speaker 1: like that. That's another bad thing to try to say
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be celibate, you know, like I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be with any women ever.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be seeing. These are all things that
Speaker 1: man creates to try to fight against the urge that
Speaker 1: they are bad. They don't want to admit they're bad.
Speaker 1: They want to say they're they're good, and they're trying
Speaker 1: to fight this world, the urge. But the fact is,
Speaker 1: it's not the world. It's not the culture, it's not society.
Speaker 1: It's you, Alex. You need to hear this. You are bad.
Speaker 1: And I could say that because I have the same disease.
Speaker 1: It's called sin. We inherited it from our ancestors. And
Speaker 1: there's no way you're born. Not one human is born
Speaker 1: without it. In fact, if you've do you have kids, yeah,
Speaker 1: you have a beautiful little girl. I guarantee you. You
Speaker 1: saw her at two years old, you knew she was
Speaker 1: a sinner, and she was born with it. There is
Speaker 1: no not even a child that is good. There's innocent children.
Speaker 1: There's a difference between innocent and sinful, and children are sinful. Man,
Speaker 1: They're born with it. So that's the worldview that that's
Speaker 1: like the groundbreaking idea that's gonna just shatter this whole email.
Speaker 1: Right at the bat, we go, Yeah, we knew you
Speaker 1: were bad. You're the only one in this table right here, Alex,
Speaker 1: that didn't know you were bad. You didn't know that
Speaker 1: your flesh, this lustful idea, that your flesh is reaching
Speaker 1: out to these women. You thought that was something the
Speaker 1: world was doing to you because of culture. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: blaming it on porn. Are you blaming it on Instagram
Speaker 1: because it showed you? Are you blame it on this concert?
Speaker 1: And these friends took me and this girl is so
Speaker 1: beautiful and I'm gonna blame it on her. The Muslims
Speaker 1: blame it on the women, like you shouldn't dress like
Speaker 1: that cover up because I don't want to look at you,
Speaker 1: because I don't want to indulge my flesh, because I
Speaker 1: can't help it if I see you, if I see
Speaker 1: more than your eyeslits. And so with that, this is
Speaker 1: taking a long time, sorry, but under I love this
Speaker 1: idea though, because it's this is this is what the
Speaker 1: world says, and the contrary to the world, the Bible says,
Speaker 1: because of your sin, you can't be with God. You're
Speaker 1: you're out, you're disqualified. You want to be with God.
Speaker 1: Here's how you get to be with God. Be perfect.
Speaker 1: Your heavenly father's perfect, so you should be perfect. That's
Speaker 1: how you get to heaven by being perfect. Oh wait
Speaker 1: a minute, Alex, you've already failed. I'm sorry, man, You're
Speaker 1: not going to make it to heaven. Bernie, are you perfect? No? Neither.
Speaker 2: So we failed one thing you just said, though, you
Speaker 2: said this is how you're gonna get to heaven.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't know if he wants.
Speaker 1: To go there, that's true.
Speaker 3: I don't know if he believes in that. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think all he's trying to do is not cheat
Speaker 2: on his girlfriend or like get a girlfriend.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's go there, so so so build that. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: we're slowly building.
Speaker 3: I can without the one without the other.
Speaker 1: Alex, We're slowly building this story for you. And what
Speaker 1: we're trying to say is you're screwed, dude, because you
Speaker 1: got you want to live. You want you want to
Speaker 1: have eternal life in the presence of your creator in heaven.
Speaker 1: You got to be perfect, and you've already failed it. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the only alternative to going to heaven is hell.
Speaker 1: You don't want to go there. This life is short,
Speaker 1: it's fleeting, it's a vapor, it's gone, So you better
Speaker 1: get it while you can. And you might as well
Speaker 1: just cheat on every girlfriend and get it where you can,
Speaker 1: because you've already screwed and you groot yourself out of
Speaker 1: any opportunity after this besides eternal punishment, eternal wrath. That's
Speaker 1: what the Bible says. Is that good enough to get
Speaker 1: maybe get him thinking about it? Yeah, so I got
Speaker 1: something to tell you, though, I do have good news.
Speaker 1: I'm in the same boat, Alex, and so's Bernie, and
Speaker 1: so's every other man and woman that have walked on
Speaker 1: this planet since Jesus. No one is perfect. We're all bad.
Speaker 1: So God knows this. So God, in his love for
Speaker 1: his people, because he knows that he's perfect, he can't.
Speaker 1: If Heaven is this perfect place, it can't have you, Alex.
Speaker 1: That would ruin it. You're a cancer. You can't be
Speaker 1: in heaven. You're a disease that can't be there. Otherwise
Speaker 1: it's not heaven anymore. It's corrupted. So God knows this.
Speaker 1: He knows you're corrupted, he knows you have this cancer,
Speaker 1: this disease, and he knows I do too. So in
Speaker 1: his leve he goes all you people, all you sinners
Speaker 1: that have rejected me, that have turned from my way.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a way to get to me.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a way that you cannot
Speaker 1: earn to get you in heaven without you being perfect.
Speaker 1: You need to be perfect to get here. I'm going
Speaker 1: to give you perfection a gift. It's a gift of grace.
Speaker 1: It's I'm gifting you. The Bible calls it righteousness. We
Speaker 1: can call it goodness. I'm going to give you the
Speaker 1: goodness that it requires to get here. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it through my Son, through his righteousness, his perfection,
Speaker 1: his goodness, not yours. You don't have it. I'ma give
Speaker 1: it to you through him. If you believe, turn from yourself,
Speaker 1: turn from your ways. Look to him. He died on
Speaker 1: the cross for the sins of people just like you, Alex.
Speaker 1: Look to him, and he forgives, he heals, he redeems.
Speaker 1: And then what happens after that, it's crazy. If you believe,
Speaker 1: if you are a child of God, after that, through repentance,
Speaker 1: which means turning from yourself and looking to him. If
Speaker 1: you do that, something changes in you in a way
Speaker 1: that you start to hate that sin. It doesn't totally
Speaker 1: go away, at least not at the beginning, but when
Speaker 1: that girl at the concert shows up and you start talking,
Speaker 1: something inside you goes, oh, this is disgusting. I hate this.
Speaker 1: My flesh wants to do it, but I don't like it,
Speaker 1: so I gotta I got, I can't do it. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. I gotta tell you, girl, I actually
Speaker 1: have a serious girlfriend, someone I love. So I'm so sorry,
Speaker 1: but no, I'm not gonna take your number. And then
Speaker 1: you're gonna go what has happened? Why am I so different? Now?
Speaker 1: What's going on with me?
Speaker 2: And also before you would even get into that situation
Speaker 2: that you would have to tell that girl that what
Speaker 2: he also gives us is community, biblical community of you know, accountability. Yeah, well, grazier,
Speaker 2: what if I told you, like, oh, yeah, man, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go to this concert by myself and there's gonna
Speaker 2: be a bunch of pretty girls there and probably gonna
Speaker 2: drink and like just dance with them, and you're.
Speaker 1: Gonna be you have a history.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you're.
Speaker 2: Gonna be like, bro, no me and you are going,
Speaker 2: you know, to do whatever else that we could do.
Speaker 2: We're gonna go fishing, we're gonna go camping, and we're
Speaker 2: gonna do something different because you know that that's a
Speaker 2: bad idea. And I'd be like, dude, you're right, man,
Speaker 2: that's a bad idea. Iron sharpening, iron boom. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I think that hear that message. And I think that
Speaker 2: there's a hopefully a community that.
Speaker 3: You are a part of.
Speaker 2: If you're not that you become a part of that
Speaker 2: can walk alongside you in that journey.
Speaker 1: So next I as can come from anonymous, it says
Speaker 1: I have had a crush on a girl for almost
Speaker 1: three years now. I haven't told her. I know her
Speaker 1: for years. Yeah, that's a long time to not tell her.
Speaker 1: I know her family well, and I've spent time with
Speaker 1: her a lot. There's a lot that won't fit into
Speaker 1: this email that would help the story more. I am
Speaker 1: feeling like it's time to tell her since I'm positive
Speaker 1: that she likes me because of many different things that
Speaker 1: have happened, and we could start dating shortly after. My
Speaker 1: question is this, should I tell her parents that I
Speaker 1: like her? For them to tell me to do what's
Speaker 1: best and since they deserve to know, since it's their daughter,
Speaker 1: or should I just tell her? Also, there are so
Speaker 1: many different things that have happened to me that makes
Speaker 1: me think that she likes me. I still have a
Speaker 1: fear of her rejecting me, which would cause me so
Speaker 1: much heartbreak and pain because of how much I truly
Speaker 1: love her and everything that I've done for her. How
Speaker 1: should I go about.
Speaker 2: We jump from having a crush on her to like
Speaker 2: deeply really quick?
Speaker 1: Man, how should I go about doing these things? Telling
Speaker 1: her these things? If she is going to reject me.
Speaker 1: I try to trust God, but it just the thought
Speaker 1: of her rejecting me still concerns me. Thank you Granger.
Speaker 2: All right, bro, I love you man like I hear
Speaker 2: the youth in your voice, and I love it. I
Speaker 2: love your asking the questions. I would have never thought
Speaker 2: of that question that you asked. But man, I think
Speaker 2: it's brilliant. Talk to her parents, like I think Vodi
Speaker 2: Bacham says that. Yeah, Like, talk to her parents and
Speaker 2: tell them your intention. A lot of people wait until
Speaker 2: they're gonna ask them to marry them, to ask for
Speaker 2: the hand. It's like, well, shoot, I wish you would
Speaker 2: have asked me whenever you started, because I would have
Speaker 2: said no, And now I got to tell you no.
Speaker 2: Now it's gonna be awkward, and no. I think if
Speaker 2: you go to the parents and you share with them. Look,
Speaker 2: me and Jenny, we've been really close for these three years.
Speaker 2: I feel like she likes me. I got these little
Speaker 2: you know, she's flirting. She did this, and I kind
Speaker 2: of want to tell her how I feel about her
Speaker 2: and maybe date her. What are you guys thinking about that?
Speaker 2: And that's gonna tell you a lot. Yeah, because they
Speaker 2: know their daughter and mom may look at you.
Speaker 3: And be like, bro, now, don't don't do that.
Speaker 2: She she likes Johnny. She's been in love with Johnny forever.
Speaker 2: And you're gonna save yourself a lot of embarrassment. And
Speaker 2: you can just tell the parents, okay, keep this between us,
Speaker 2: and then you just go on being a friend and
Speaker 2: looking for somebody else.
Speaker 3: But they could also affirm and be like, she talks
Speaker 3: about you all the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you probably should totally tell her, and you, guys
Speaker 2: date and we appreciate you. You're gonna, let's say you do
Speaker 2: go on to marry this love of your life. You're
Speaker 2: gonna build some trust with those parents and a foundation.
Speaker 2: It's going to be great.
Speaker 1: So yeah, man, if in doubt, just tell him.
Speaker 3: Uh there is.
Speaker 1: Vodie Bacham actually wrote a book about it, but I
Speaker 1: think he speaks a lot like on YouTube about it.
Speaker 1: But but I remember when I first got into that idea.
Speaker 1: I was telling London this my daughter and from the
Speaker 1: perspective that Bernie and I both have daughters. From that perspective,
Speaker 1: it's like it's like a no brainer. Oh yeah, I
Speaker 1: would love that, like selfishly as a father, Yes, tell
Speaker 1: me first, don't tell her. So Vodi says he has
Speaker 1: trained his daughter to say to answer a boy that says,
Speaker 1: do you want to go on a date? And the
Speaker 1: girl says, what did my dad say? I'm taking that
Speaker 1: for sure, So I started just putting that into London.
Speaker 1: So that's like, yeah, that's her reaction, what did my
Speaker 1: dad say? Next question comes from Megan says, Hey, I'm
Speaker 1: a junior high school student, which is the age at
Speaker 1: which everyone and their mother seems to be asking the
Speaker 1: dreaded question, so what are you going to do with
Speaker 1: your life? Whereas I am forced to reply each time,
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure yet I've gotten so much advice
Speaker 1: from so many people about my future, but I'm still
Speaker 1: left feeling uncertain and a little afraid to commit. I
Speaker 1: have put much prayer and tears into this topic, but
Speaker 1: I still feel as though I'm a loss at a
Speaker 1: loss for the answer. How can I clearly hear what
Speaker 1: the Lord wants me to do? Does there have to
Speaker 1: be a deadline on this decision? And how do I
Speaker 1: know when people ask me about what my future holds? Sorry,
Speaker 1: that was a long question, but I know you'll do
Speaker 1: your best to answer and understand my side of things. Sincerely, Megan.
Speaker 1: Great question for Bernie today.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not sure if anybody listened to episode two
Speaker 2: twenty two, but a very similar question led to my
Speaker 2: first breakdown on the podcast and left me in tears.
Speaker 2: So what s Granger seemed to think about this?
Speaker 1: Well, Okay, I'll just I'm gonna let you talk because
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of stuff to say, Burns, but
Speaker 1: I'll just jump in quickly and say, let me give
Speaker 1: you an answer. This is a good answer. This is
Speaker 1: the good answer to quickly answer the question when someone says,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do with your life? Or what
Speaker 1: does your future. Hold those are the two ways you
Speaker 1: worded it, And if you're a Christian, I love to say,
Speaker 1: my future is none of my business. It's good. It's
Speaker 1: all in the Lord's hands. Hey, listen, Meg, I hope
Speaker 1: I can call you Meg. I knew Bernie at a
Speaker 1: pivotal time in his life, and he knew me in
Speaker 1: a pivotal time. You younger, younger versions of ourselves, and man,
Speaker 1: I mean, neither one of us we're doing what we're
Speaker 1: doing now. Neither one of us planned on what we're
Speaker 1: doing now, and we couldn't. So knowing what you're going
Speaker 1: to do with your life and your future is irrelevant
Speaker 1: to what you're actually going to do. I know, I
Speaker 1: recognize that the world wants to tell you that you
Speaker 1: need to have a plan, and look at your age,
Speaker 1: the plan should be just make good grades, diversify your hobbies,
Speaker 1: love the Lord, plant yourself in a really good church,
Speaker 1: surround yourself with godly girls. Do those things like that's
Speaker 1: enough of a plan for a junior high kid. Make
Speaker 1: good grades, diversify your hobbies, plant yourself in a good church,
Speaker 1: and surround yourself with godly girls. Do that. That's your future.
Speaker 1: Everything else you say it's none of my business. M h.
Speaker 3: That's good.
Speaker 2: She said something about still feeling uncertain, and I think
Speaker 2: that that may just be a common thing that you feel.
Speaker 2: Like in life, there's just things. Sometimes we just feel uncertain.
Speaker 2: But God does call us to be bold and courageous,
Speaker 2: So there's in that uncertainty sometimes you have to walk through.
Speaker 3: When I'm making decisions or.
Speaker 2: Trying to figure something out, sometimes I walk through these
Speaker 2: three different questions.
Speaker 3: What does the Word say? Okay? Is there any between
Speaker 3: my options? Is?
Speaker 2: Is there an explicit direction that's given, Like I want
Speaker 2: to do this? Well, the Bible specifically says like don't.
Speaker 2: So it's like, okay, well I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Most of what you're probably dealing with is, you know,
Speaker 2: what does the Word say about these options? What does
Speaker 2: the church say?
Speaker 3: So if you are.
Speaker 2: Amongst you know, a community of people and you get
Speaker 2: to share with them, Hey, they you know, want to
Speaker 2: do this or this, I don't know what to do,
Speaker 2: feel uncertain and just listen to what they say. And
Speaker 2: then the last thing is what do you want to do? Like,
Speaker 2: what's what's really like? You feel your heart kind of
Speaker 2: like drawn to that thing and then work towards being
Speaker 2: really good at that thing, whatever that path may be.
Speaker 2: I think what I said on the last one to
Speaker 2: a very similar question, though, it's the hardest thing. And
Speaker 2: I had a conversation with Stella, our ten year old,
Speaker 2: last week about this when we don't know what to do,
Speaker 2: and what I was telling her is like, we really
Speaker 2: need to just remove ourselves from distractions, find do what
Speaker 2: Jesus did and he often retreated to desolate places alone
Speaker 2: to pray, So find places to be alone, and you know,
Speaker 2: she was it was an honest question, like sometimes like
Speaker 2: I just feel like hearing God's voice is hard, which
Speaker 2: makes praying hard. Like I totally understand that I don't
Speaker 2: know that solitude and retreat and meditation with God, and
Speaker 2: I don't think that that is like a pill. It's
Speaker 2: not a place you just go to like get a
Speaker 2: quick answer. It's just it's a place that you constantly
Speaker 2: go to. It's a place that I like long to
Speaker 2: just go to because I'm like kind of I don't
Speaker 2: get it. A lot of times I'm like, God, you
Speaker 2: gotta like help me here.
Speaker 3: I don't get it.
Speaker 2: So I go back to that place. And the more
Speaker 2: you go back to that place, the clearer that voice gets,
Speaker 2: the clearer that direction gets. If you go once for
Speaker 2: a prayer and an answer, it's just it's not going
Speaker 2: to be the same. So it's this habit of getting
Speaker 2: to that place of quiet and still in prayer to
Speaker 2: give you some guidance.
Speaker 3: So I hope that's helpful.
Speaker 1: I've recognized that I might have said something wrong at
Speaker 1: the beginning of this email, I might have read it wrong.
Speaker 1: But as I'm seeing it now, it says I'm a
Speaker 1: junior in high school. Did I say that wrong? I
Speaker 1: don't know if I said junior high school. I'm in
Speaker 1: junior high.
Speaker 3: She's in junior high.
Speaker 1: No, she's a junior in high school. And I think
Speaker 1: I read it as she's.
Speaker 2: In junior Yeah, you mentioned something, Okay, so I.
Speaker 1: Just want to clear that up for you, Megan. But
Speaker 1: but the the answer still doesn't change. And yeah, So
Speaker 1: what Bernie says is so profound, and he always motivates
Speaker 1: me and encourages me to find that wilderness and what
Speaker 1: you're gonna hear when you when you get into this wilderness,
Speaker 1: whatever that is in your life, where you're gonna hear
Speaker 1: to the to the to The answer of what does
Speaker 1: the Lord want me to do is always a lot
Speaker 1: simpler than you think, because you think you're thinking in
Speaker 1: terms of college or nursing school, or do I take
Speaker 1: a year off, or you're thinking all these things. And
Speaker 1: that's why my my counsel of just get good grades
Speaker 1: and you can kind of pivot on anything later. If
Speaker 1: you don't get good, good, good grades. That's so that's
Speaker 1: not the end of the world either. But what you're
Speaker 1: gonna find with the Lord, what he wants you to do,
Speaker 1: is he wants you to glorify Him and enjoy him forever.
Speaker 1: Like in the most simplest way, everything we do revolves
Speaker 1: around that. Everything glorify Him and enjoy him forever. That's
Speaker 1: what he wants you to do. And within that you'll
Speaker 1: find all kinds of peace and hope, joy and understanding,
Speaker 1: and these feelings of uncertainty just kind of go away
Speaker 1: when you glorify Him and enjoy him forever. And that's
Speaker 1: that comes in all different forms. It comes in the
Speaker 1: and all of his things that he wants you to
Speaker 1: do are all in the Bible, and you'll see him
Speaker 1: everywhere ways to glorify him. Telling people the Gospel sharing
Speaker 1: the Gospel to someone on the street, to a stranger,
Speaker 1: to your mom, reading your Bible, like coming up with
Speaker 1: a reading plan, singing and praising on a Sunday morning
Speaker 1: with all the saints in the pews around you, singing
Speaker 1: and praising in a quiet time in your own car
Speaker 1: with your headphones on, by yourself. There's all. There's a
Speaker 1: thousand weeks. Bernie and I could sit here in a
Speaker 1: thousand ways and tell you ways to glorify Him. And
Speaker 1: that's what He wants you to do. And you can
Speaker 1: do it through jobs, you could do it. You could
Speaker 1: do it through hobbies. But I want to tell you
Speaker 1: don't over spiritualize this question. What does the Lord want
Speaker 1: me to do? Is it community college? Is it? Stop it?
Speaker 1: Unless it's like Bernie said, unless it's a sin, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like morally wrong, then the answers obviously know to that.
Speaker 1: But I don't think you're asking anything that's morally wrong.
Speaker 1: You're just trying to You're trying to know, Lord, what
Speaker 1: do you want me to do? And I think that's
Speaker 1: the great place to come from. You were in the
Speaker 1: perfect heart position to just get on your knees and
Speaker 1: go God. I want to serve you. I want to
Speaker 1: love you, I want to praise you, want to tell
Speaker 1: others about you. I want to be all of this,
Speaker 1: not for me, but for you. God show me the path,
Speaker 1: be the light to my feet, so I know the
Speaker 1: way to glorify you. If you're in that kind of
Speaker 1: heart position, you got nothing to worry about, no uncertainty
Speaker 1: in your life because you never know what phone call
Speaker 1: happens tomorrow, what email happens tomorrow, what new relationship comes
Speaker 1: into your life today. You don't know what he has planned.
Speaker 1: That's why at the very beginning I said, you tell
Speaker 1: people the future is none of my business.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's so good man.
Speaker 2: You as you were talking, you just kind of gave
Speaker 2: me this image of this person standing in front of
Speaker 2: this like huge brick wall and Meg, Meg, Yeah, Meg
Speaker 2: is coming down a ladder off of the roof of
Speaker 2: this really tall building with this huge brick wall and
Speaker 2: she gets down to this person and the person says,
Speaker 2: look at this. They used all these bricks to make
Speaker 2: this beautiful picture of these these like enemies loving each
Speaker 2: other or you know like that. Whatever the image is
Speaker 2: is like, this is amazing. And Meg, you look up
Speaker 2: at the wall you're like, Wow, So that's what my
Speaker 2: life was about. I really was just putting one brick
Speaker 2: at a time as I was.
Speaker 1: Told beautiful mosaic.
Speaker 2: And then at the end, I think that's we get
Speaker 2: so caught up and making our own mural and what
Speaker 2: we want our legacy and our life to be. But
Speaker 2: maybe it's just about listening to like what's the next
Speaker 2: brick and the next one and the next one. And
Speaker 2: I think at the end of that, the hope is
Speaker 2: is that God has done something that's like, this is
Speaker 2: who I am.
Speaker 3: I just used this.
Speaker 2: Person to lay these bricks, and that'd be pretty awesome.
Speaker 2: I would I would love at the end of my
Speaker 2: life Lifer to stand with you and us look back
Speaker 2: and be like, didn't think he was drawing that picture?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't think he was doing that. But wow, man,
Speaker 3: what grace right.
Speaker 1: That's beautiful. Man, what a beautiful way to end the
Speaker 1: episode two. So we love you guys. We'll see you
Speaker 1: next Monday. Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith podcast.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all of you. Guys. You could help me
Speaker 1: out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube,
Speaker 1: subscribe to this channel. Hit that little like button and
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