Speaker 1: I love that your heart is asking this question. I
Speaker 1: love that your heart is saying you want to get
Speaker 1: to know God and become a light in this dark world.
Speaker 1: Not everybody says that. In fact, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people listening to this podcast right now that probably think
Speaker 1: I have zero desire to want to know God, zero
Speaker 1: desire to be a light in a dark world. In fact,
Speaker 1: I don't even think this world is that dark. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. This is episode ninety six, and
Speaker 1: I am by myself today, no guest. I'm winging it.
Speaker 1: I like that I had a last minute cancelation. It
Speaker 1: was actually Parker canceled on me last minute, and I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, should I wait, should I rebook it, or
Speaker 1: should I just do it like I used to do.
Speaker 1: I used to sit here and do these by myself,
Speaker 1: and so I think it might be kind of refreshing
Speaker 1: for me to reset do one by myself, and then
Speaker 1: we'll go next week. Next Monday. We do these every Monday,
Speaker 1: we'll be back with the guest. The format of this podcast,
Speaker 1: if you are new here is I answer your questions,
Speaker 1: usually ME and a guest. Today's just me. You will
Speaker 1: email these questions to Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Could be about any subject as you see today. As
Speaker 1: you will see, I've picked some questions that are just
Speaker 1: all over the map, so it doesn't really matter what
Speaker 1: the subject is. I want to hear from you, Grangersmith
Speaker 1: Podcast at gmail dot com. Shoot it over and we'll
Speaker 1: get on this podcast and we're going to answer it.
Speaker 1: We have episode one hundred coming up. I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna do an all star cast. At least that's what
Speaker 1: I've seen you guys talk about in the comments, and
Speaker 1: I've talked to some of my guests about it. Maybe
Speaker 1: bringing some of my most most excited, most well received
Speaker 1: guest back here on episode one. I think it'd be awesome.
Speaker 1: I want to give a shout out to all platforms
Speaker 1: that listen, you know. I want to thank the Apple
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, to Spot, the Spotify listeners of course, to
Speaker 1: YouTube listeners. Those are the ones that point at. I
Speaker 1: could point at the YouTube listeners because they actually are watching. Now.
Speaker 1: Everybody else, thank you so much, whatever platform you're on,
Speaker 1: Thank you for making this one of the top music
Speaker 1: podcast all genres in the world. Love that. I'm it
Speaker 1: just blows me away that this podcast which a lot
Speaker 1: of times we start talking about God could be at
Speaker 1: the top of a of a pop group of podcasts.
Speaker 1: That's really exciting for me, and that's a testament to
Speaker 1: you guys for making that what it is. Let me
Speaker 1: get started. This first question comes from Logan. It says, Hey, hey, Granger,
Speaker 1: my name is Logan. I'm from Missouri. I wanted to
Speaker 1: know what is your personal best bass? And I also
Speaker 1: wanted to know how you find the courage and energy
Speaker 1: to get up and accomplish everything you need to accomplish.
Speaker 1: Those are two very different questions. And I'm assuming Logan
Speaker 1: that you don't mean bass like bass guitar. What's your
Speaker 1: personal best bass? I'm pretty sure you're talking about bass
Speaker 1: bass and my best bass eight pounds. That's That's an
Speaker 1: honest truth. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sugarcoat this.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna pretend like I've caught a ten pound
Speaker 1: bass or eleven pound bass. My best bass is eight pounds.
Speaker 1: I measured it with the scale on the dock and
Speaker 1: I was probably nineteen years old, and this was an
Speaker 1: East Texas on a smaller lake next to Lake Fork.
Speaker 1: Great bass out there, and it was funny because I
Speaker 1: remember this trip so specifically. We went out there with
Speaker 1: some friends and we camped out there, and we took
Speaker 1: these little boats, and we're going out all day, fishing
Speaker 1: this lake hard all day, and we were having some luck.
Speaker 1: We're catching some small fish. But I remember we came
Speaker 1: back and we started fishing in with perch, just just
Speaker 1: hooking the perch through their lip and fishing right at
Speaker 1: the dock at the lake where the other people put
Speaker 1: their boats, and we were just pulling these huge lunkers.
Speaker 1: So it's just funny. It's a testament to you could
Speaker 1: work all day and think you're going out and the
Speaker 1: reeds and the nice little coves and the creeks, and
Speaker 1: you think you're finding the perfect spot, and all the
Speaker 1: big bass we're right there where we are camping. So
Speaker 1: second part of your question, logan, how do you find
Speaker 1: the courage and energy to get up and accomplish everything
Speaker 1: you need to accomplish? That is a loaded question, and
Speaker 1: it really depends on the context of how you're asking it,
Speaker 1: like are you are you dealing with something? Are you
Speaker 1: are you not loving work? Are you struggling in some
Speaker 1: area that would that would change the way I would
Speaker 1: I would answer this if I'm just gonna give you
Speaker 1: a general answer, how do I find the courage and
Speaker 1: energy to get up? Which is an interesting way of
Speaker 1: wording it, right, how do you find the courage? That
Speaker 1: means that would imply to me that you're having trouble
Speaker 1: building up courage to start a day will to tell
Speaker 1: me there's other things going on. I start my day
Speaker 1: every morning by reading the Bible, and that definitely gives
Speaker 1: me courage. It definitely gives me energy, and I start.
Speaker 1: You know, after a while. You put this in routine
Speaker 1: and I just crave it and I need it, and
Speaker 1: every once in when I have to skip it because
Speaker 1: I have like an early flight, and so I have
Speaker 1: to put it off. It's not the first thing I do.
Speaker 1: It's like the tenth thing I do if I have
Speaker 1: an early flight, and it throws me off a little bit,
Speaker 1: and then I just can't wait to get back to
Speaker 1: that routine. So man, that's what I do, and everything
Speaker 1: else kind of trickles down from that. If you want
Speaker 1: to talk about specific ways to get things accomplished, I'd
Speaker 1: love to make lists. I'm not always great about completing
Speaker 1: the list, but just making it helps you really get
Speaker 1: those big chunks of things that you need done, like
Speaker 1: say you need to do one, two, three, four things
Speaker 1: and then then you would like to do about ten
Speaker 1: things after that. Well, making that list, that to do list,
Speaker 1: my brother calls it power list. You make that power list,
Speaker 1: and that you can go in and go no matter
Speaker 1: what happens today, no matter what I do, I'm going
Speaker 1: to get these three things done. That's my power that's
Speaker 1: the top of my power list. And you put them
Speaker 1: in order, and I'm going to make sure that I
Speaker 1: go one, two, three today boom. I could do a
Speaker 1: lot of other things, but I'm going to make sure
Speaker 1: no matter what, my power list gets done. And make
Speaker 1: your powerless short. Don't make thirteen things on your power list.
Speaker 1: Make two to five max. And you need to trust yourself.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna write it down, you need to be
Speaker 1: able to trust yourself that you're gonna accomplish those things.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is if you if
Speaker 1: you stop trusting yourself, then you're gonna you're not gonna
Speaker 1: make the list anymore. You're gonna go I'm writing this down,
Speaker 1: but I know I mean, I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: I don't trust myself. So how do you trust yourself?
Speaker 1: You trust yourself by making your list shorter and easier
Speaker 1: to begin with. So if you are terrible at crossing
Speaker 1: off a power list, then make your list tomorrow. Brush
Speaker 1: your teeth. I'm talking that's easy. You're gonna do it,
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna brush your teeth in the morning.
Speaker 1: You're gonna go check did it right? And then and
Speaker 1: then you slowly build up your confidence that every time
Speaker 1: I write something on this page, I'm gonna check it
Speaker 1: off every single time. Right, So then you build up
Speaker 1: a trust with yourself and a lot of people, don't
Speaker 1: you think of trust as being with other people, But
Speaker 1: trust you have to trust yourself first, otherwise you're never
Speaker 1: gonna get anything done. Logan. If you don't trust yourself
Speaker 1: that you will hold yourself accountable to whatever you hold
Speaker 1: yourself accountable to. Right, does that make sense? It's easy
Speaker 1: to tell someone else do this, but can you tell
Speaker 1: yourself to do it and actually do it? So powerless?
Speaker 1: That's your thing, Logan. Let's move on here. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pull up I have a little little pocket of questions
Speaker 1: that I have ready for today, but I'm gonna skip
Speaker 1: around not really knowing what I'm clicking on. This one
Speaker 1: says the subject line is how to find God? Hey, Grangeer,
Speaker 1: just wondering how you know God loves you. I believed
Speaker 1: in God my entire life, but these last two years,
Speaker 1: I'm having trouble thinking he really cares about us. All
Speaker 1: three deaths and one year is a lot to swallow.
Speaker 1: But I'm wondering why he feels the need to hurt us.
Speaker 1: That's such a common question, Sharon, But that does not
Speaker 1: make the question any easier to answer or easier to digest.
Speaker 1: The fact that it's common doesn't make it lesser of
Speaker 1: a question. In fact, it just makes it more justified
Speaker 1: that you're going to ask it. And it's a loaded
Speaker 1: question because you say, I'm having trouble thinking he really
Speaker 1: cares about us all, and then you have to ask yourself,
Speaker 1: but how much do I care about him? You say
Speaker 1: you've believed in God your entire life. That's good, that's
Speaker 1: a start. But have you trusted in God your entire life?
Speaker 1: That's obviously a no. That's that's what I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: That's a no for me. Have I trusted in God
Speaker 1: my entire life? No? But when did you start or
Speaker 1: have you started? It? Was it yesterday or was it
Speaker 1: ten years ago? So what are you What are you
Speaker 1: giving back to God? What kind of faith and trust
Speaker 1: are you putting back to God? When you're expecting everything
Speaker 1: from him, You're expecting prosperity and peace and happiness and joy.
Speaker 1: You're you're expecting that after you've had trouble, you then
Speaker 1: question it and you say, you know what, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't think he cares about us. So I said
Speaker 1: this in the in a sermon that I did recently,
Speaker 1: But why do we expect the fruits of the spirit
Speaker 1: when we're not giving the faith that it requires. And
Speaker 1: you might say, well, I have faith, I believe. Well,
Speaker 1: this is what I said in the sermon. But are
Speaker 1: you using faith as a noun or a verb, because
Speaker 1: you might be just saying one time, one and done,
Speaker 1: I have faith, I believe. But it's supposed to be
Speaker 1: a verb. Faith is supposed to be a verb. It's
Speaker 1: supposed to be active. It's supposed to be something we do.
Speaker 1: Jesus asks us to keep his word daily, to take
Speaker 1: up our cross daily, to keep his word daily, so
Speaker 1: it's active. Our faith has to be cultivated daily, and
Speaker 1: so it's a daily it's a daily exercise of saying, God,
Speaker 1: you know what, there's trouble. You told me there's going
Speaker 1: to be trouble. Jesus says, in this world we will
Speaker 1: have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world.
Speaker 1: That's John sixteen thirty three. So if that's promised, then
Speaker 1: why are we so surprised when we get it. You've
Speaker 1: had death in the family. That's terrible, but it's common
Speaker 1: and we're all gonna see that, and it's promised. So
Speaker 1: at what point do we go, God, I'm gonna stop.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stop wondering why you're doing things, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start wondering what You're trying to teach me in
Speaker 1: them through it? God, what do you have in store
Speaker 1: for me? Things are changing. I heard a pastor say
Speaker 1: one time on YouTube. He said, when when things start
Speaker 1: happening around you, God's talking. God's trying to talk to you.
Speaker 1: And so at what point do we go, I'm tired
Speaker 1: of your talking? And then when do we change and
Speaker 1: go what are you trying to tell me? What is
Speaker 1: it You're trying to tell me in this situation? God,
Speaker 1: I've had death in the family. I need to know
Speaker 1: where do I go from here. I'm gonna trust. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna trust that you have a plan for me, that
Speaker 1: you want me to prosper, that you I want things
Speaker 1: to be good for me. So I'm gonna trust in you.
Speaker 1: How do I trust? Go to his word or read
Speaker 1: his word? That might not be the answer you want, Sharon,
Speaker 1: but the fact that you've had death in the family
Speaker 1: is not a shock and it has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with God's lack of love for you. What's he trying
Speaker 1: to tell you? God's talking, Sharon, It's time to listen.
Speaker 1: It goes both ways. Your faith is a verb. Use it.
Speaker 1: It's a verb. Let's gip around here. And here's one
Speaker 1: that says subject line Grandpa in World War Two. It says,
Speaker 1: deer Granger, can you talk about your grandpa in the war?
Speaker 1: I would love to know more about him. I've seen
Speaker 1: your YouTube video at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.
Speaker 1: That's my favorite place, only three hours from me. I've
Speaker 1: phoned in a B seventeen and a B twenty five,
Speaker 1: and if possible, can you even send me a picture
Speaker 1: of him? Says parentheses. I'm only twenty eight years old.
Speaker 1: But I love war history and aviation. You need to
Speaker 1: come to Dayton to the D Day re enactment. It's
Speaker 1: the best in the country. This is coming from Zach
Speaker 1: in Ohio. Zach, what's up? Brother? Thank you for the email.
Speaker 1: Shout out to our friends in Ohio. I love this question.
Speaker 1: I love war history, specifically World War Two. I love
Speaker 1: Vietnam history and Civil War history and World War One history.
Speaker 1: I really love World War Two. It's my favorite. My
Speaker 1: granddad flew Auld be twenty four in nineteen forty four,
Speaker 1: he was stationed out of Italy. He flew out of
Speaker 1: Italy and he did most of his bombing raids into
Speaker 1: Romania and Germany. And I am obsessed with that history
Speaker 1: in our time, and I wish, I wish I could
Speaker 1: talk about it more often. I want to because it's
Speaker 1: such a hugely impactful part of our history, and yet,
Speaker 1: like so many other things in our life, overlooked and
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit forgotten, especially today, when what was
Speaker 1: happening in World War Two in the nineteen forties was unprecedented.
Speaker 1: It was a time when there was a world power
Speaker 1: quickly gaining that power, and that was Germany and if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for a complete Allied alignment coming together, so
Speaker 1: many countries, so many leaders, so many heroes on the
Speaker 1: front lines and at home, coming together for one unified cause,
Speaker 1: then the Allies would have lost. And none of us
Speaker 1: want to imagine if the Nazis had won that war
Speaker 1: what things would be like. Even today, we're talking about
Speaker 1: a time when people at home, like the Ford Dealership,
Speaker 1: I mean, they'll just give me the Ford manufacturers and
Speaker 1: the GM manufacturers in Michigan were making airplane parts. And
Speaker 1: this was happening all across the country, not just Michigan,
Speaker 1: people making tank parts and airplane parts and cockpits and
Speaker 1: wings and ammunition and guns. It's a complete unified effort,
Speaker 1: maybe like this country has never seen, probably like this
Speaker 1: country has never seen. Can you imagine today, our country,
Speaker 1: our people, whatever country you're in, it's not just mine,
Speaker 1: coming together for one unified purpose, and everyone agrees that
Speaker 1: this is what we need to be doing. Men, women, children,
Speaker 1: elderly people coming together for one purpose. Unbelievable. My granddad
Speaker 1: was a you know, obviously a tiny, tiny fraction of
Speaker 1: that effort, but he was one of them, and he
Speaker 1: was flying to be twenty four and he had to
Speaker 1: fly fifty missions. And so I started reading his flight
Speaker 1: diary after he died. My dad compiled it made an
Speaker 1: easily digestible book for all of the family to read,
Speaker 1: and it was just it was unbelievable reading his day
Speaker 1: by day events, you know, and what was happening. And
Speaker 1: he was waking up at at three am, and he
Speaker 1: would get briefing for the mission, and then they would
Speaker 1: they would get together and they would go through like
Speaker 1: the maps and the pre flight design, and then they
Speaker 1: would go out and they would go on their bombing raid.
Speaker 1: And sometimes you'd completely miss the target. Sometimes you'd hit it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he wasn't able to drop it all. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: had enemy fighters and flack. In fact, most of the
Speaker 1: time he had enemy fighters in flack that threatened his life.
Speaker 1: Two different times they would have accasionally they would have
Speaker 1: a day off or like a few days off, and
Speaker 1: two different times the day that he had a day off,
Speaker 1: another team took his ship out, his B twenty four,
Speaker 1: and it was shot down and destroyed. Everyone killed. That
Speaker 1: happened twice, so the first time his ship was called
Speaker 1: the Ginny Abel destroyed on his first day off. They
Speaker 1: gave him another ship. They called it the Genny Abel two.
Speaker 1: He flew it for a while and then he took
Speaker 1: a day off and then it was destroyed. So then
Speaker 1: they gave him a third ship, and he said, we're
Speaker 1: not naming this one, so it was just a serial number.
Speaker 1: They did not name it the Genny Abel. Unbelievable stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are so many stories where he had
Speaker 1: to crash land and he was scared out of his mind.
Speaker 1: And he was twenty four years old, and he was
Speaker 1: the oldest because he was the captain. He was the
Speaker 1: oldest in the crew, which is just how it was.
Speaker 1: When you're twenty four and you're the oldest. Just blows
Speaker 1: my mind and I could talk about it forever. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, Zach, great question. I have a passion for this,
Speaker 1: and so I've been a Dayton, Ohio and I've seen
Speaker 1: the Air Force Museum. I've also gotten to fly in
Speaker 1: a B twenty four, which is a bucket list thing
Speaker 1: for me. There's only one still flying B twenty four
Speaker 1: in existence. So I love it and it's a huge
Speaker 1: passion of mine. Next question says, Hey Granger, did you
Speaker 1: play sports? That's the subject? It says, Hey Granger, I
Speaker 1: wanted to know if you ever played any sports growing
Speaker 1: up and what your favorite sport is and what you
Speaker 1: love to watch. I love to watch baseball. That comes
Speaker 1: from John John says he loves to watch baseball. Yeah, John.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Texas and the thing that we
Speaker 1: did was play football. So I have a passion for football,
Speaker 1: just like just like B twenty fours. I love football.
Speaker 1: I love the sport. I love what it the camaraderie,
Speaker 1: I love what it does to those young men on
Speaker 1: the field. I started when I was in sixth grade
Speaker 1: and then started playing team on my school team in
Speaker 1: seventh grade, and we played all the way through high school.
Speaker 1: And there's so many things that happened to me in
Speaker 1: my life today that I still attribute the lesson that
Speaker 1: I learned from football. And there's a unification that happens
Speaker 1: in football with those eleven guys where every man has
Speaker 1: to do his job and if they don't, there's a leak.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a problem, there's a flaw. And that's
Speaker 1: such a great little piece of life to learn that
Speaker 1: everyone has to hold their own weight. You do different things.
Speaker 1: Football players on the field are all different sizes too.
Speaker 1: I love that you got a four hundred pound guy
Speaker 1: standing next to one hundred and sixty pound guy, and
Speaker 1: they both have to do their job. They both have
Speaker 1: to do exactly what they've learned and at the technique
Speaker 1: that they exactly have, they're supposed to do it. And
Speaker 1: it's very unique in that way. And you're going to
Speaker 1: war and it's strategic and it's physical, and it's above
Speaker 1: all that, it's mental. And my dad was a huge
Speaker 1: part and me playing and he used to always be like, here,
Speaker 1: it's a mental game. It's a mental game. The first
Speaker 1: thing you ever told me when I started seventh grade
Speaker 1: football and I was a little guy, you can imagine
Speaker 1: I played. I played the skill positions. And so my
Speaker 1: dad said, when you go in as a seventh grader,
Speaker 1: I want whenever the coach says, get me someone, I
Speaker 1: want you to volunteer, even if that means offensive line
Speaker 1: or linebacker or defensive end like positions that obviously are
Speaker 1: not suited for me. It's for the big guys, the
Speaker 1: strong guys. And so that's that's exactly what happens with
Speaker 1: the first practice. Coach goes, give me an offensive lineman,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, boom, I'm ready to coach and he's like, Smith, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no, no no no. Give me like a
Speaker 1: big guy like offensive linemen. Man, I could do a coach.
Speaker 1: And so then he'd flip and he'd be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: give me somebody volunteer for a defensive end. I jump
Speaker 1: in there. I'm ready, Coach. No, Smith, you're like a
Speaker 1: safety or a running back, not a defensive end. But
Speaker 1: when it did something, it did something to coach, and
Speaker 1: that came from my dad. It was great advice. And
Speaker 1: basically it just says, coach, I'm ready for whatever you have.
Speaker 1: I'm here. I don't care, use me, use me, use
Speaker 1: me for the tool that you need. And I don't
Speaker 1: care what it takes. I want to do it. And
Speaker 1: that was that was such a such an awesome thing
Speaker 1: about being a young teenager playing football. We do, we
Speaker 1: do one more question? Take a break. This one says,
Speaker 1: Hey Granger. My name is Doakes. I'm from Orum, Utah.
Speaker 1: I'm fifteen years old, sting in school. I have a
Speaker 1: major self esteem issue. I have no motivation in school anymore.
Speaker 1: I just need some advice. I've talked to my parents
Speaker 1: about it and they have helped me very little. But
Speaker 1: I just want to hear what advice you want to give.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being an example and for producing great music.
Speaker 1: Thank you Doaks well Man. First of all, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a coincidence that I just read that question
Speaker 1: right before this one and then yours, and so it's
Speaker 1: something I would say to you, buddy, Have you thought
Speaker 1: about football? Have you thought about football or any sport?
Speaker 1: And keep in mind what I love about football as
Speaker 1: opposed to baseball and basketball track. Football can require much
Speaker 1: less skill than the other sports because it's a mental game.
Speaker 1: It's physical and mental, but above all mental. Down the
Speaker 1: list is skill in fundamentals. So somebody like you Doaks,
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about you. You say you ever
Speaker 1: made your self esteem issue, But when you put on
Speaker 1: that helmet and those shoulder pads in your school in Utah,
Speaker 1: and I know they have football in Utah, I just
Speaker 1: saw it. You become a warrior. You're a warrior for
Speaker 1: the for this army, this army of soldiers, and you're
Speaker 1: one of the warriors in the army. And this might
Speaker 1: not be the advice you want, but it's a coincidence
Speaker 1: that I'm coming right off of that other question. But
Speaker 1: you want to talk about building up your self esteem
Speaker 1: is getting in there and putting on a helmet and
Speaker 1: hitting somebody and forgetting about your troubles and going after
Speaker 1: somebody and volunteering for everything that coach has. I'm here,
Speaker 1: I'm here. Doaks, get out of here. No, I'm here, coach.
Speaker 1: I want to do this. That's a big that's a
Speaker 1: big deal. And so the other thing is just getting
Speaker 1: involved with a friend group. It could be it could
Speaker 1: be anything, but you can't do this alone. Humans are
Speaker 1: not made to go out on their own. They're made
Speaker 1: for their meant for connection. We're built this way. We're
Speaker 1: built for connection with each other. And the longer you
Speaker 1: go out on your own and blazing your own trail
Speaker 1: is as awesome as that might sound on paper, the
Speaker 1: less self esteem you're going to have. So surround yourself,
Speaker 1: engulf yourself with a group of friends that you have
Speaker 1: a common goal, you're doing something in some kind of
Speaker 1: group effort, and you're working towards a common goal together.
Speaker 1: It's just like what I was saying about the country
Speaker 1: in World War Two. We became such a great country
Speaker 1: together because we were working towards one common goal despite
Speaker 1: our flaws. And despite our differences, we had one goal.
Speaker 1: A lot of differ different people with a lot of
Speaker 1: different personalities and a lot of different flaws and scars
Speaker 1: and problems, and we came together for one goal. So
Speaker 1: you dolks, coming together with a group for one goal.
Speaker 1: It could be anything. It could be the chess team,
Speaker 1: it could be the theater, it could be building rebuilding
Speaker 1: diesel engines. But getting that group together and find your
Speaker 1: niche within that group where you're contributing for the common goal,
Speaker 1: self esteem goes up. I'm taking a break, Be right back.
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Speaker 1: I have a question from Troy. It says, Hey Granger,
Speaker 1: I'm Troy from Wisconsin, big fan of yours. I've seen
Speaker 1: you at Country Jam. What books would help me with
Speaker 1: understanding the Bible. I'm thirty five and I was raised
Speaker 1: in a not so religious house. I would really like
Speaker 1: to get to know God and become a light in
Speaker 1: this dark world. If you have any titles or references
Speaker 1: I could use help, or if you want to send
Speaker 1: an address where I could find a better place to
Speaker 1: understand this, that would be great. Love to meet you
Speaker 1: again if you ever come back to Wisconsin. Just so
Speaker 1: you know, I did the prayer with your pastor on
Speaker 1: the podcast on a few episodes ago, just like you asked,
Speaker 1: and I felt like a lot of weight was lifted
Speaker 1: off my chest. Thank you for being the lead reason
Speaker 1: for me to do this. This comes from Troy, and
Speaker 1: I want to I want to Troy. I want to
Speaker 1: say something at the end of this email. I'm not
Speaker 1: the lead reason now. That was God. God. God is
Speaker 1: always the lead reason. I am. I'm a tiny pawn
Speaker 1: in this game, right, So let me let me start
Speaker 1: with this. Let me start with this way. You being
Speaker 1: thirty five rays in a not so religious house, no
Speaker 1: big deal, That's that's very normal. I would encourage you
Speaker 1: to not try to get a book to understand another book.
Speaker 1: The Bible is a book, and I would encourage you
Speaker 1: not to get another book to understand the main book.
Speaker 1: Does that makes sense? I would go right after the
Speaker 1: main book. I would go right to the source. That's like,
Speaker 1: you know, the Bible is like an instruction manual to
Speaker 1: our lives, and you would never get an instruction manual
Speaker 1: try to understand the main instructure manual. You'd never get
Speaker 1: a supplemental instruction manual to understand the main instructure. You
Speaker 1: would not do that. And I know that that's not
Speaker 1: what the world wants to tell you. The world wants
Speaker 1: to tell you that you're going to go to a
Speaker 1: bookstore and there's a book for you, and the book
Speaker 1: will help you understand the book so that you could
Speaker 1: better understand the book, right, because they make a lot
Speaker 1: of money selling more books and devotionals. I used to
Speaker 1: be a devotional junkie. I would read any kind of
Speaker 1: book to help me understand the book. But the reality
Speaker 1: is true, you don't need that, You just need the
Speaker 1: one book. I love that your heart is asking this
Speaker 1: question question. Love that your heart is saying you want
Speaker 1: to get to know God and become a light in
Speaker 1: this dark world. Not everybody says that. In fact, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people listening to this podcast right now
Speaker 1: that probably think I have zero desire to want to
Speaker 1: know God, zero desire to be a light in a
Speaker 1: dark world. In fact, I don't even think this world
Speaker 1: is that dark. I bet you there's people thinking that.
Speaker 1: I know there is. So I love that your heart
Speaker 1: is telling you that, and you're writing in to this
Speaker 1: podcast with that very question. So this is when I
Speaker 1: want to I want to kind of walk this through
Speaker 1: with you, Troy. I'm going to give you some actual,
Speaker 1: tangible things that you could do to get this ball rolling.
Speaker 1: I personally like to do this in the morning, so
Speaker 1: that that's when my brain works, but you don't have to.
Speaker 1: You could do it at night. Maybe you're a night guy,
Speaker 1: maybe step late, maybe in the middle of that, maybe
Speaker 1: lunch break kind of guy. I don't know. So when
Speaker 1: I say morning, that's just me. But I like to
Speaker 1: get up early before the family's up, still dark outside,
Speaker 1: preferably quiet, just me and an occasional train from the
Speaker 1: distance and a dog barking and a bird that's just
Speaker 1: waking up, quiet, no distractions. Then I like a cup
Speaker 1: of coffee. I could fill with one cup of coffee,
Speaker 1: I could feel my brain just like start revving up,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty empty. Now this is important part of
Speaker 1: this morning routine for me. This is how this is
Speaker 1: exactly how it starts. It doesn't go to social media first.
Speaker 1: I don't go to email, our Instagram or Facebook or
Speaker 1: TikTok or anything first because or text or text or
Speaker 1: text messages. I don't look at text messages first because
Speaker 1: you could get something that's going to throw you off
Speaker 1: a little bit. Unless you're expecting something some really important news.
Speaker 1: Stay away from text emails, Facebook, Instagram, tiktoks, whatever you do, news, TV, radio,
Speaker 1: stay away from all of it. So just you, the birds,
Speaker 1: occasional dog barking dark outside, a cup of coffee. You
Speaker 1: with me so far, and I'll get a comfortable chair,
Speaker 1: and I'll get the Bible, the book, not the instruction
Speaker 1: manual to the instruction manual, but the book. And I
Speaker 1: would pick a Bible that's easier to understand for you.
Speaker 1: Everyone has their own opinions the Bible. The authors of
Speaker 1: the Bible, the men that wrote it, wrote in the
Speaker 1: language of their time, for the language of their people,
Speaker 1: Like the New Testament. Most of it's Greek because that
Speaker 1: was the common language at the time. So they wrote
Speaker 1: it in Greek, and they wrote it in an in
Speaker 1: a way that everyone that read it knew that language,
Speaker 1: So you need to do the same. We are very
Speaker 1: blessed in this time to have a lot of translations.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that it's been a game of telephone.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that it's been translated so many times
Speaker 1: that it doesn't even make sense anymore. The translations we
Speaker 1: have are usually a team of hundreds of scholars, very
Speaker 1: smart people that will take the old Greek text. They'll
Speaker 1: go all the way back. They're not looking at something
Speaker 1: that happened one hundred years ago or two hundred years ago.
Speaker 1: They're going all the way back to the source, the
Speaker 1: oldest copies that we have, and they're translating it together
Speaker 1: in a big panel, and they're weighing it against all
Speaker 1: kinds of references to figure out exactly what these authors meant,
Speaker 1: so that you could know exactly what those words meant.
Speaker 1: I say that because and there's people that might hate this,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying it because if you get an old
Speaker 1: king James, and that's not the way we speak anymore,
Speaker 1: and you're you're liable to start reading that and go
Speaker 1: man I don't. I don't understand this, these shouts and
Speaker 1: shells and and midst and it's and I don't understand it. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I read personally me, I read the E. S V.
Speaker 1: I also like the N I V. There are many options.
Speaker 1: I my go to is the E. S V. I
Speaker 1: have also read many times. I've read the N I V.
Speaker 1: I like both. My mother reads the N I V. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're back to the We're back to the morning. Okay,
Speaker 1: dark outside, just the birds, just a distant train and
Speaker 1: a dog. Coffee is working in your brain. You're in
Speaker 1: a you get a in a comfortable chair. You got
Speaker 1: your E. S V. Right, you're with me. You open
Speaker 1: this thing up up to I want you to go
Speaker 1: to one of the major gospels four Gospels. I want
Speaker 1: you to go to either Matthew or John. I've heard
Speaker 1: many people go to Luke to Mark. Great these are
Speaker 1: They're all great, you can't go wrong. But I'm gonna,
Speaker 1: for the sake of this podcast, I'm gonna take you
Speaker 1: right to Matthew because that's chronologically the first one Matthew one,
Speaker 1: verse one, and that's the beginning of the New Testament
Speaker 1: in the Bible. So see how easy this is so far,
Speaker 1: this is so easy. You don't even need another book
Speaker 1: to tell you how to do the book. You open
Speaker 1: it up, but don't read. Don't read a word, just
Speaker 1: get it lined up. Go to Matthew one one. Don't
Speaker 1: read a word. Don't read a word. Okay. Coffee is
Speaker 1: working in your brain. There's a distant dog barking a
Speaker 1: little train. No one in the house is up, it's
Speaker 1: still dark. You're in your comfortable chair, e sv pulled up,
Speaker 1: but you haven't read a word. And right then, this
Speaker 1: is when it happens, Troy. You close your eyes and
Speaker 1: you say, God, I want to understand this book. I
Speaker 1: know that this book, these words were inspired by you.
Speaker 1: It was written by man, But these words were inspired
Speaker 1: by you through the work of man. And these men
Speaker 1: wrote this stuff during a time when they were eyewitnesses
Speaker 1: to these supernatural events. And they lived in a time
Speaker 1: when there was hundreds of other eyewitnesses around them, keeping
Speaker 1: each other accountable. And they wrote these words. God, they
Speaker 1: wrote your words through their hands. And here I am
Speaker 1: sitting in this chair with a distant train and the
Speaker 1: coffee in my brain, and God, I want to understand this.
Speaker 1: I want to know. I want these words to matter
Speaker 1: to me. I want to see your truth in here.
Speaker 1: I want to see your promises, want to see your
Speaker 1: purpose for me so that I could feel like I
Speaker 1: have a purpose, so that I could live for you.
Speaker 1: But I need you to open my eyes. I if
Speaker 1: you don't open my eyes, God, it's gonna look like gibberish.
Speaker 1: It's gonna look like stuff I don't understand. It's gonna
Speaker 1: look like an ancient, weird book. God, don't make it
Speaker 1: be that for me. Make it be the truth. Make
Speaker 1: it be what you say. It is the living word,
Speaker 1: your living word. Make it be that. I want to
Speaker 1: believe it. God. And just like I wrote to that
Speaker 1: podcast where I said, I want to get to know you,
Speaker 1: and I want to become a light in this dark world.
Speaker 1: I can't be the light. You're the light, but I
Speaker 1: want to reflect it. I want to reflect your light
Speaker 1: into this dark world. Please, God, open my eyes. And
Speaker 1: then Troy, you open your eyes and you follow down
Speaker 1: to Matthew one and you go game on, game on.
Speaker 1: It's time to read, and don't read too much. I
Speaker 1: would say, if you're just starting, you'll limit it to
Speaker 1: like one chapter, maybe two. I do four In the mornings,
Speaker 1: I do four, and I'll do and I have a
Speaker 1: reading plan that that keeps me skipping around. But for you,
Speaker 1: just do one or two because you don't want to
Speaker 1: go too far because it's it might get it might
Speaker 1: start jumbling up. Okay, And the next morning after you
Speaker 1: do this, the next morning, repeat, repeat, keep a pin
Speaker 1: with you. You might want to do a little a
Speaker 1: little highlight on you. You You might want to circle some things.
Speaker 1: You might want to go that's interesting. That verse was
Speaker 1: really interesting. It kind of feels like it's talking about me.
Speaker 1: And you get that pin and you kind of put
Speaker 1: a little put a little circle around it and and
Speaker 1: do a little line in the margin that says, this
Speaker 1: kind of sounds like me. That'll help. That'll help with
Speaker 1: your brain. Now. I I usually have a notepad next
Speaker 1: to me too, so I could kind of take take
Speaker 1: a general jot some things down. Some days I have
Speaker 1: my notepad and I read the Bible and I don't
Speaker 1: write a single thing in the notepad nothing, And some
Speaker 1: days I'll fill up pages. So it's just it's kind
Speaker 1: of whatever's on your heart. But it might help with
Speaker 1: your digesting of it. If you're taking a few notes
Speaker 1: or doing a little circles. Another thing is you might
Speaker 1: not need to use a physical book. I use an
Speaker 1: app called Logos, and I really like the app. I'd
Speaker 1: sell my iPad. It's called logos l O g os.
Speaker 1: And you could you gotta do any any translation of
Speaker 1: the Bible, and you could pull it all up. You
Speaker 1: could do reading plans, you could. I like it because
Speaker 1: you if you see a word you don't understand, you
Speaker 1: just hit it on the iPad. You just touch it
Speaker 1: the word and it boom pops up a definition of
Speaker 1: the word or a reference of where else it might
Speaker 1: be in the Bible. And I like that. But hey,
Speaker 1: but everybody could do whatever they want. But that's I
Speaker 1: wanted to give you a roadmap, Troy, so that you
Speaker 1: don't go out and feel like you have to spend
Speaker 1: money on an instruction manual to tell you how to
Speaker 1: use the instruction manual to your life. Does that make sense? Okay,
Speaker 1: let me let me give around here. This made me smile.
Speaker 1: Crazy step mother, Crazy step mother. It says, that's the subject.
Speaker 1: It says, Hey, Granger, please keep me anonymous. Fair enough.
Speaker 1: My fiance and I are both twenty two. We love
Speaker 1: your music and your family and we can't wait to
Speaker 1: see you in Redland, PA. Or excuse me, we got
Speaker 1: to see you in Redland, PA. The reason I'm writing
Speaker 1: is my fiance step mother has been trying to manipulate
Speaker 1: her relationship with her father. My fiances step mother, I'm calculating,
Speaker 1: has been trying to manipulate her relationship with her father.
Speaker 1: This has been going on for years, and I've been
Speaker 1: with her for three years now and we live in
Speaker 1: our own apartment, and it's slowly been getting worse. There
Speaker 1: has been physical and mental abuse situations in the past
Speaker 1: between them which drove her to end up living with
Speaker 1: her grandmother, and she acts like it like they never happened,
Speaker 1: and her father never did anything about those situations and
Speaker 1: basically chose her stepmom over his daughter. Her stepmom has
Speaker 1: mentioned that all the abuse in the past hasn't changed anything,
Speaker 1: and she hasn't done anything to show it. My fiance
Speaker 1: wants to stand up for herself all the time, but
Speaker 1: is afraid that it will ruin the relationship with her dad.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Anonymous. I'm apologized for skipping through this email
Speaker 1: a little bit. So I want to say. I want
Speaker 1: to say a couple of things. This is common if
Speaker 1: you guys listen to this podcast on Monday, as you
Speaker 1: know that this is not the first time we've we've
Speaker 1: had a crazy step mother or a stepfather or anything
Speaker 1: like this. I think, in fact, I think it was
Speaker 1: it last week we had monster monster in law. So
Speaker 1: one thing I want to say, mister anonymous, is this
Speaker 1: is not totally your problem until you get married. And
Speaker 1: that's important because you can't you can't take on the
Speaker 1: full burden of this family until you are married. It
Speaker 1: is it is honorable of you for wanting to hang
Speaker 1: in there for your fiance. You've been there for three years,
Speaker 1: and I would like to see you go ahead and
Speaker 1: tie the knot, lock this down, make her your wife,
Speaker 1: because then a lot of things change from that, because
Speaker 1: then when she's your wife, you guys are you're You're
Speaker 1: then loyal to each other before anything else. You're loyal
Speaker 1: to each other before the rest of the family. So
Speaker 1: it sounds like what this is, what it's boiling down to,
Speaker 1: is your question really is how does she my fiance,
Speaker 1: maintain a good relationship with her dad. It sounds like
Speaker 1: that's what she's after and what you're after, because you
Speaker 1: could just Forget the stepmother, you know, right, forget this.
Speaker 1: It sounds like there's no need to repair anything there.
Speaker 1: You just want to keep Dad in here. So so
Speaker 1: many of these questions just come down to a really
Speaker 1: good communication. And I think it comes down to besides
Speaker 1: you getting married, go ahead and getting married. I think
Speaker 1: it sits down you sit down with her dad and
Speaker 1: you just say, hey, mister Dad, I want to be
Speaker 1: totally honest. This has been going on. There's been physical abuse,
Speaker 1: which is crazy, and there's been mental abuse, and we
Speaker 1: can't do that anymore with her. But we love you
Speaker 1: and we want a relationship with you. We want to
Speaker 1: maintain this relationship with you, dad, And how could we
Speaker 1: do that? How could you help us? Meaning we're not
Speaker 1: going to come over there for Thanksgiving and go mess
Speaker 1: with and you're not going to be messing around with her? Okay,
Speaker 1: what else could we do? How could we meet in
Speaker 1: the middle? How could we how could we do some
Speaker 1: things we don't necessarily have to get involved with her?
Speaker 1: And another option is, and because I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know the direct context, but you could sit down with her.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like you might have already done this,
Speaker 1: but you could you could sit down and just say, hey,
Speaker 1: this is this is bad, and because we love dad,
Speaker 1: we don't want to we want to we don't want
Speaker 1: to mess it up with him, and you're right here
Speaker 1: with us, and so how could we make this better
Speaker 1: for you? But mister anonymous, you don't have a voice
Speaker 1: until you get married. Right now, you're just the fiance
Speaker 1: or the boyfriend. You're just a boyfriend. You don't have
Speaker 1: a true voice until you lock this down. And you're
Speaker 1: now you're talking about your wife, and then you, guys,
Speaker 1: have have a bond that is now more important than
Speaker 1: her and her dad's bond. Her she's always gonna have
Speaker 1: an incredible bond with her dad, but your husband is
Speaker 1: going to be a tighter bond, just the same as
Speaker 1: she is going to be a tighter bond than you
Speaker 1: are with your mother. You're student, and that's if you
Speaker 1: have a tight bond with your mother, that means she
Speaker 1: you better really lock it down with her. Right Does
Speaker 1: that make sense? Because that's that's how it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1: That's just how it is. Guys. These problems with in
Speaker 1: laws are not going to go away. You can't fix them,
Speaker 1: but you could change the way you react to them.
Speaker 1: You can't tell them how to act or tell them
Speaker 1: to stop doing something or change them. You can't, but
Speaker 1: you could change you, and you could change the way
Speaker 1: you look and your react and the way you deal
Speaker 1: with it and the way you deal with it internally.
Speaker 1: You can change that. So that's where I would lead you.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the question, brother, Let's do another one here.
Speaker 1: Here's another one subject line God question. It says, Hey, Grangeur,
Speaker 1: this is John from Nashville. I hope us all is
Speaker 1: well with you and your family. I have a question
Speaker 1: for you. How do you pursue a relationship with God
Speaker 1: and try to pursue country music as a career. I
Speaker 1: am a follower of Jesus as you are, and I
Speaker 1: don't believe that you have to be in Christian music
Speaker 1: to follow God as an artist. So what would your
Speaker 1: advice be in doing both and doing them both well?
Speaker 1: In christ? John, Nashville, Tennessee. John, I'm assuming that you're
Speaker 1: a country artist awesome, and I'm assuming you're asking a
Speaker 1: valiant question on how to do both. I see your
Speaker 1: point because you kind of kind of hear the voices
Speaker 1: out there where it's like, oh, you're a Christian and
Speaker 1: you're a singer, you should do Christian music right, But
Speaker 1: you know a lot of people don't feel that way.
Speaker 1: A lot of people feel like and by the way,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of corruption in Christian music too, but
Speaker 1: a lot of people feel like to be a reflection
Speaker 1: of that light, you got to go into a dark place.
Speaker 1: I heard this a long time ago when I was
Speaker 1: a teenager. A pretty popular country singer told me this.
Speaker 1: He was like, I want to be I want to
Speaker 1: go into a dark place and try to be a
Speaker 1: light as opposed to just hanging around people that are
Speaker 1: all think like I do. There's no growth in that.
Speaker 1: There's no spiritual growth in that. So your question is
Speaker 1: how do you do both? I mean, you just do it.
Speaker 1: You do it, but you never compromise one or the other.
Speaker 1: And the one is you never compromise God. So you're
Speaker 1: going to come into situations as a country singer when
Speaker 1: you might have to compromise something. Something has to give,
Speaker 1: and God will never give. You'll never give in that area.
Speaker 1: Country music will be the one that has to give way.
Speaker 1: You'll have to turn down an offer, or you'll have
Speaker 1: to you'll have to fire a manager or a band member,
Speaker 1: or you won't sing a certain song, or you won't
Speaker 1: shoot a certain music video a certain way. I've dealt
Speaker 1: with all these things, and I'm still peeling back layers
Speaker 1: in my own career. I'm still finding things that I
Speaker 1: did in the past, and as a reborn Christian now
Speaker 1: going I got to reconcile that I can't I can't
Speaker 1: have that anymore on stage with me, or I can't
Speaker 1: say that anymore. I can't sing that lyric anymore. And
Speaker 1: some of you that have seen my shows recently might
Speaker 1: have noticed there's certain lyrics that don't happen on my
Speaker 1: stage anymore because I look at them differently. Now. I
Speaker 1: have a greater fear of God now, and that's really
Speaker 1: what it boils down to. I have a fear, and
Speaker 1: I believe, I believe it's a righteous, healthy fear, But
Speaker 1: I have a fear of God and a fear of
Speaker 1: His disappointment in me that I don't want to do
Speaker 1: some things anymore that I've done in the past, and
Speaker 1: so I haven't. I don't have it all figured out,
Speaker 1: but it's it's a daily renewal. It's a daily task
Speaker 1: for me to go in there and what layers. Can
Speaker 1: I peel back and a daily dissection of my life,
Speaker 1: my public life, my singing life, my songwriting life, my
Speaker 1: music videos. But everything that I do, you're constantly looking
Speaker 1: at it and going what else. It's like cleaning the garage.
Speaker 1: You're going through like this is a messy garage. But
Speaker 1: where do I start? Okay, I'm going to start in
Speaker 1: this corner right here, and when I finish that corner,
Speaker 1: I'm going to look around and go what else could
Speaker 1: I start cleaning up? That's my life right now, and
Speaker 1: that that should be your life, John and any believer,
Speaker 1: we just want to we want to feel motivated to
Speaker 1: please God, to not disappoint him. Now, if you're a
Speaker 1: non believer and you're listening to this, this is not
Speaker 1: This is not the key to Christianity. This isn't how
Speaker 1: you get in the Kingdom. You don't start cleaning your
Speaker 1: garage and hope, hey God, you see me down here
Speaker 1: and cleaning up. That's not how it works. So I
Speaker 1: don't want to confuse anybody. Christianity is the opposite. The
Speaker 1: opposite every other religion is get your life cleaned up
Speaker 1: to be worthy of God. And Christianity it's go to
Speaker 1: God and watch him clean your life up. And so
Speaker 1: that's where I am, That's where I have this, just
Speaker 1: this deep feeling that God is sanctifying me, constantly cleaning me.
Speaker 1: And how do I reconcile that? In country music? It
Speaker 1: day by day, John, Day by day. I'm not perfect.
Speaker 1: I never will be. But I try to get a
Speaker 1: little better, a little bit better every day. And sometimes
Speaker 1: I slip back, and sometimes I make a mistake, and
Speaker 1: I still will. I'll say something wrong, I'll do something
Speaker 1: on stage and I shouldn't have done but I was
Speaker 1: so overwhelmed by the crowd and I thought it'd be
Speaker 1: really cool if I did this, and then I go,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't, I shouldn't have done that, And I do
Speaker 1: less and less of those things. But that's me. And
Speaker 1: if I was in just pure Christian music, there wouldn't
Speaker 1: be that challenge. I wouldn't. I wouldn't have that as much.
Speaker 1: So I'd tell you one thing, John, I got this podcast,
Speaker 1: and I've had this opportunities to preach a little bit.
Speaker 1: I feel like I've preached on this podcast a little
Speaker 1: bit today. So there's that. But it's definitely possible, John,
Speaker 1: And with christ anything as possible. So if you want
Speaker 1: to do country music and be a Christian, go for it, buddy.
Speaker 1: I love that. I'll be looking out for you. I'll
Speaker 1: be keeping in touch with you. So I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: Thanks for putting up with me without a guest today
Speaker 1: on the podcast episode ninety six. Love y'all and we'll
Speaker 1: see you next Monday. Ye yee. Thanks for joining me
Speaker 1: on the Grangersmith Podcast. I appreciate all of you. Guys.
Speaker 1: You could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes.
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Speaker 1: a question for me that you would like me to answer,
Speaker 1: email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Ye