Speaker 1: What's Up? Everybody? Welcome to the podcast and what is
Speaker 1: if you're listening in real time as it releases the
Speaker 1: last podcast of two thousand and twenty four. Now, if
Speaker 1: you're like me, I usually am playing catch up on
Speaker 1: podcasts and listening after they release. So most people will
Speaker 1: listen after it's already twenty twenty five or beyond. It
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter. Because as I was kind of putting
Speaker 1: together this podcast, and I'll be honest, I didn't do
Speaker 1: very much prep. I hardly ever do very much prep
Speaker 1: on these because I want them to stay loose. I
Speaker 1: want them to be able to pivot and shift and
Speaker 1: be flexible. So you know, my after midnight radio program,
Speaker 1: it's pretty structured, it's pretty I have I have certain
Speaker 1: I have certain points I have to make every hour
Speaker 1: in each six hour segment that I do seven days
Speaker 1: a week, and this podcast, I don't have a requirement
Speaker 1: to go any direction, so I try to keep it loose,
Speaker 1: and so I didn't do much prep work. But the
Speaker 1: normal format of this is I answer your questions and
Speaker 1: you email me podcast at grangersmith dot com. And I
Speaker 1: think there's a good chance we can get to some
Speaker 1: questions on this episode. But as I was collecting questions,
Speaker 1: I started thinking, you know, last show of the year,
Speaker 1: maybe it should be some kind of reflection. So then
Speaker 1: I started thinking, what if. What if the reflection was
Speaker 1: if I were single and starting over, here's what I
Speaker 1: would do, right, And that's kind of a good exercise
Speaker 1: for me, And so if it's a good exercise for me,
Speaker 1: I might as well unpack it in real time on
Speaker 1: the podcast. Like I said, I did just I thought
Speaker 1: for thirty seconds on this really and so I hope
Speaker 1: to kind of unpack it later. But I think it's
Speaker 1: I think it could be a good reflection for any
Speaker 1: of us, whether it's going into a new year or
Speaker 1: mid season of anything else. If I were single and
Speaker 1: starting over, here's what I would do. And you know,
Speaker 1: as I look back on this year, and there have
Speaker 1: been a lot of things to reflect on. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a major election, the Olympics, major hurricanes hitting locations
Speaker 1: of the US that have never been hit by hurricane.
Speaker 1: There have been strange things in the skies, whether that's
Speaker 1: SpaceX or Chinese balloons or drones, a lot of unanswered questions,
Speaker 1: a fluctuating economy, an economy that was once pretty decent,
Speaker 1: and then it was horrible, and then it kind of
Speaker 1: started flattening out in certain areas. The rise of AI,
Speaker 1: I mean, the rise of AI has been insane just
Speaker 1: in this year alone. If you think of back to
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, we didn't really have anything to do
Speaker 1: with AI, and now it seems to be the talk
Speaker 1: of the town. So many people are talking about AI
Speaker 1: and what it's capable of, and so much so that
Speaker 1: we're probably looking into the next year and thinking, most
Speaker 1: of us are probably agreeing that by next year we
Speaker 1: won't know what is real and what is fake, and
Speaker 1: we won't know a video faked or a video recorded.
Speaker 1: In fact, this very podcast, what I'm doing right here
Speaker 1: can probably and will be most likely replicated some form
Speaker 1: within just a few years, which brings up the point.
Speaker 1: Here's my point. We should be training ourselves to see
Speaker 1: hear truth so that when AI does the talking, and
Speaker 1: it will in many times, many ways and many forms,
Speaker 1: it will and it's not always a bad thing. I've
Speaker 1: argued that it's not always a bad thing. It will
Speaker 1: free up time and open up new avenues of creativity
Speaker 1: for people. A little side note, for instance, here's an example.
Speaker 1: If I was still in the music business and promoting
Speaker 1: radio singles. I would imagine that here, just in a
Speaker 1: few years, you will be able to start a prompt
Speaker 1: on AI and create a visual music video for a
Speaker 1: song in thirty seconds. So for an artist that doesn't
Speaker 1: have a budget or is trying to get their feet
Speaker 1: wet and get off the ground a little bit. Although
Speaker 1: you could question the authenticity of it, I think that's
Speaker 1: going to be just a thing. You know, Hey, make
Speaker 1: me a video that a cool visualizer for this song
Speaker 1: so that I could put it up on YouTube whatever.
Speaker 1: So that that's coming and that's been a huge innovation.
Speaker 1: And so I think for us learning truth, seeing truth,
Speaker 1: even if it's AI, even if it's artificial, you realize
Speaker 1: AI could either speak truth or not. It doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be a human that speaks truth or lies. AI
Speaker 1: could speak truth or lies. And so just because AI
Speaker 1: says it, they could be telling you the biography of
Speaker 1: Winston church and it could be actually really helpful. If
Speaker 1: you're learning about Winston Churchill and AI is teaching you,
Speaker 1: it's not helpful and it's hurtful if it's deceiving you
Speaker 1: or hallucinating, like some people say, that's like the term
Speaker 1: for AI messing up, hallucinating, And so it's a good
Speaker 1: practice for us to be checking things, double checking things,
Speaker 1: having multiple sources so that we can start training ourselves
Speaker 1: to discern truth. That's important, right, and that that's something
Speaker 1: that the last couple generations have had to learn with
Speaker 1: the rise of big media. So that's what I want
Speaker 1: to talk about. And partly it also comes because I
Speaker 1: get these all these messages on my different platforms, and
Speaker 1: everyone has some sort of religion and I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about necessarily a deity. I'm talking about it could be
Speaker 1: your religion is prepping. And when you get stuck in
Speaker 1: this this rabbit hole of, for instance, prepping, then it
Speaker 1: starts to feel like you must evangelize prepping to everyone,
Speaker 1: and if you don't, then people will be unprepared and
Speaker 1: you're going to be the only one with canned beans
Speaker 1: or AMMO. Other people will message me about conspiracy theories
Speaker 1: about like, for instance, the drones in the sky in
Speaker 1: New Jersey, and they'll talk about the drones and they'll talk,
Speaker 1: you know, they'll send me some Alex Jones thing. In fact,
Speaker 1: I got an Alex Jones thing recently that Hurricane Helene
Speaker 1: was completely manufactured by weather engineering, and it was weaponized
Speaker 1: against the people of Appalachia. I am, by no means
Speaker 1: saying that that is false or that it is true.
Speaker 1: I am merely saying that there was a lot of propaganda.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's completely true, maybe that's completely false, but either
Speaker 1: way we need to learn to discern it. One of
Speaker 1: these one of these things I saw. Here's an example
Speaker 1: with the drones. I saw. It happened to notice on X,
Speaker 1: which by the way, is is something that knows me well.
Speaker 1: It sucks me in if I go to post something
Speaker 1: on X that app knows me so well how to
Speaker 1: grab me for the next thirty seconds. And that's something
Speaker 1: I'm working on with my own self discipline really honestly,
Speaker 1: that's a confession. But I saw this thing where I
Speaker 1: noticed that with drones. People were posting pictures and saying,
Speaker 1: you know, like comparing it to ezekiela one where the wheel.
Speaker 1: Ezekiel's by the river and he sees the manifest station
Speaker 1: of God's glory and there's a wheel and it's turning
Speaker 1: in on itself and someone they were posting pictures of
Speaker 1: the drones, going look is this Ezekiel one, and it
Speaker 1: was like this very strange, weirdly moving orb It was
Speaker 1: kind of turning in on itself, almost like fire or
Speaker 1: smoke in the way that it moves, but it was
Speaker 1: rotating in a very unnatural way. And X which for
Speaker 1: all intents and purposes what I've seen with the X platform,
Speaker 1: they're pretty good with their community notes, and it's said
Speaker 1: on there on the community notes, it said, this is
Speaker 1: not a shot of drones. This is actually a shot
Speaker 1: through a telescope of the planet Venus. And the weird
Speaker 1: movements you see are you know, like the sun's rays
Speaker 1: or the rotation or the atmosphere, and the way that
Speaker 1: it kind of moves and looks misty, and the focusing
Speaker 1: in and out was the telescop of itself and so
Speaker 1: it wasn't was not a drone. Someone was deliberately lying,
Speaker 1: deliberately deceiving, and it's not hard to believe why they
Speaker 1: would do that, Partly mostly probably because people want to
Speaker 1: get clicks, they want to get views, and they will
Speaker 1: deceive you by putting something that's completely false on the
Speaker 1: Internet so they'll get retweets or repost as they call
Speaker 1: it now on X which is crazy. But after they
Speaker 1: did the community notes, and it was like, once I
Speaker 1: saw that, I was like, oh, that that's obviously not
Speaker 1: It's obviously not a video of a drone. That's obviously
Speaker 1: a telescope focusing on a star or a planet. And
Speaker 1: then I started seeing that same video pop up on
Speaker 1: other platforms and people were saying the same thing. Here
Speaker 1: is a close up from my phone on the drone
Speaker 1: in New Jersey. This is stranger than anything we would expect.
Speaker 1: Someone's covering up something, someone's lying to us, you know,
Speaker 1: all these things about the government's lying to us or
Speaker 1: everything you believe is now not true. It's interesting and
Speaker 1: ironic that they're lying by saying that someone else is
Speaker 1: lying when reality they just want attention. But on the
Speaker 1: other platforms that were not on x, it wasn't always
Speaker 1: getting flagged, so sometimes it would miss the community notes,
Speaker 1: or maybe there's just too many of them in community notes,
Speaker 1: can't keep up, And it was getting so much traction.
Speaker 1: This one same video of the planet Venus through a telescope.
Speaker 1: Bizarre stuff. And then you see other things that are
Speaker 1: flagged by community notes. Whenever something big happens, we'll go
Speaker 1: back to the drones, you know, for instance, people were
Speaker 1: posting all these videos in the community. Notes would say,
Speaker 1: this is not a recent video. This was taken at
Speaker 1: a at a technology show, a technology air show in Orlando, Florida,
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two. You know, because people are like
Speaker 1: this drone is different than anything I've seen. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: because some other person took that video three years ago.
Speaker 1: We have to be able to discern truth. And my
Speaker 1: inbox gets flooded by these things. And I always think
Speaker 1: to myself that me as a Christian, as a believer,
Speaker 1: it seems so obvious that the water is constantly being
Speaker 1: muddied so that we will fear things, so that we
Speaker 1: will be confused about things, so that we will idolize things,
Speaker 1: so that we will will do anything really to worry
Speaker 1: and fret or idolize or worship or be distracted from
Speaker 1: the reality that we are sinners in need of a savior.
Speaker 1: And then we live in a following world. And yes,
Speaker 1: there are going to be storms, and there's going to
Speaker 1: be cancer, and they're going to be fatalities, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna be awful things, and they're gonna be precious things,
Speaker 1: and there's gonna beautiful things, and there's gonna be There
Speaker 1: will be things in the news that just perplex us,
Speaker 1: and the Bible says, yes, in this world you will
Speaker 1: have trouble. But take heart. Jesus says, I have overcome
Speaker 1: the world. He says, I say these things to you
Speaker 1: so that in me you will have peace. So with
Speaker 1: all the troubled hearts and all the news and social
Speaker 1: media perpetuating it and making it bigger and bigger, bigger
Speaker 1: and crazier, these theories and this, what's happened with the election,
Speaker 1: what's happening with the deep state, And what's happened with Ukraine,
Speaker 1: what's happened with Russia, what's happened with China, what's happened
Speaker 1: with Iran, what's happening with these drones and these weather balloons,
Speaker 1: and what's happened with weather engineering and her Ricane Helene,
Speaker 1: and and what's happening with people had worried about their
Speaker 1: gender and misunderstanding this and the racism here, and it's
Speaker 1: just all this cloud of confusion and social media just
Speaker 1: makes it louder and louder and louder, and Jesus says,
Speaker 1: peace be still, And there was a great comb Jesus
Speaker 1: is in the boat with his disciples and the storm
Speaker 1: is raging and the disciples find him asleep on the cushion.
Speaker 1: I've been to Israel. I've been to the Sea of
Speaker 1: Galilee and the boats there. There's actually a fishing boat
Speaker 1: from the first century that they have found. It was
Speaker 1: in the mud, preserved, preserved by the mud, and they've
Speaker 1: now brought it up. And it was this incredible process
Speaker 1: of how they they because as soon as they hit oxygen,
Speaker 1: it started it rose, and so they were able to
Speaker 1: put foam around it and take it to the shore
Speaker 1: and then and preserve it and then put it in
Speaker 1: a museum, so you could see a first century fishing boat.
Speaker 1: And my point is it's pretty small. It's about the
Speaker 1: size of like a Chevy suburban really maybe maybe like
Speaker 1: a Chevy Express Van fifteen passenger van. It's just not
Speaker 1: that big. And so you think of the disciples in
Speaker 1: there and Jesus in there, and they're in they're in
Speaker 1: the middle of this deep lake and the storm, which
Speaker 1: I've also seen storms rage across that little lake. It's
Speaker 1: not little, it's it's a decent sized lake. But the
Speaker 1: way that it sits in this bowl, in this valley,
Speaker 1: and the storms roll over the mountains and they just
Speaker 1: crash into the bowl and the valley in Lower Galilee,
Speaker 1: and it just rips apart that that fresh water sea.
Speaker 1: And I can imagine these, these disciples and Jesus out there,
Speaker 1: these fishermen that are used to it. But this is different.
Speaker 1: This is this is a aging storm, and Jesus have
Speaker 1: all things. He's asleep, taking a nap right there on
Speaker 1: a cushion in this relatively small boat. And I said,
Speaker 1: wake up, aren't you afraid? Don't you know we're about
Speaker 1: to die? Jesus gets up, he says, peace be still,
Speaker 1: and the wind and the waves stop, the storm ceases,
Speaker 1: and the Bible says there was a great calm. And
Speaker 1: I believe in so many ways we are still those disciples.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it is actually physically a storm, and then
Speaker 1: sometimes it is a storm in her minds, perpetuated by
Speaker 1: the inability to discern truth. And it goes further than that,
Speaker 1: because it's it's not just the ability to discern truth,
Speaker 1: because if there if there was something really bad happening
Speaker 1: and it was true, we still need to be able
Speaker 1: to compartmentalize this really bad thing in relation to eternity
Speaker 1: and what what Jesus says, you have in him. And
Speaker 1: when you when Jesus says, I am the Way, the Truth,
Speaker 1: and the Life, no one comes to the Father except
Speaker 1: through me. Look to me. You will have peace in me.
Speaker 1: You will have joy in me. My joy will be
Speaker 1: in you. In this world you'll have trouble, but take
Speaker 1: cart if overcome the world. Let your hearts not be troubled,
Speaker 1: nor let them be afraid. You know, he says all
Speaker 1: these promises because you'll be with me, You'll die in me,
Speaker 1: You'll you'll be raised in me. You'll you'll listen to
Speaker 1: the right and of the Father. In me, You'll be today,
Speaker 1: You'll be with me in paradise. He's promising all these
Speaker 1: things in perspective of this finite life that we live.
Speaker 1: And so when the storm is raging in our lives,
Speaker 1: and it does rage, and it doesn't take the fact
Speaker 1: away from the actual raging of the storm, but Jesus says,
Speaker 1: look to me, look to me. This is bigger. This
Speaker 1: is this is a bigger thing. It's like when when
Speaker 1: my kids are crying because they want ice cream, and
Speaker 1: I say, look to me, I have better things planned
Speaker 1: for you than ice cream. In fact, this ice cream
Speaker 1: is going to hurt you right now, so you can't
Speaker 1: have it. Look to me as a father, and I
Speaker 1: will lead you on the right path. It's bigger than
Speaker 1: ice cream. You say, Grange're why, man, I don't know.
Speaker 1: The thing I'm going through right now is not It's
Speaker 1: not a kid problem. This is this is an adult problem.
Speaker 1: And I say, yes, you have an adult problem. Yes
Speaker 1: I understand, but we have a great God who has
Speaker 1: spoken and continues to speak through his living, breathing word.
Speaker 1: Now through that, I still haven't said. If I were single,
Speaker 1: starting over, here's what I would do. But that's the
Speaker 1: setup for it. You know, maybe this season you forgot
Speaker 1: to get someone a gift, or you didn't get them
Speaker 1: something in time, or maybe they didn't like the gift
Speaker 1: that you got them. Either way, I could solve that
Speaker 1: problem for you if you go to cameo dot com
Speaker 1: slash Granger Smith. I'll make you a video message. And
Speaker 1: that video message could be anything you want me to say.
Speaker 1: It could be a late Christmas gift, it could be
Speaker 1: a happy birthday, a word of encouragement. Maybe sorry I
Speaker 1: didn't get you the gift in time. Either way, go
Speaker 1: to cameo dot com slash Granger Smith, and I'll make
Speaker 1: you a customized video message however you want me to
Speaker 1: do it, go to cameo dot com slash Granger Smith
Speaker 1: and I'll make it right now. Okay, So after we've
Speaker 1: kind of talked about the reasons, as we think about
Speaker 1: a reflection on this year, let's talk about this. If
Speaker 1: I were single and starting over, here's what I would do.
Speaker 1: Number one, and this is number one, seek first the
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God. In so many ways, if I were
Speaker 1: single and starting over, I would anchor myself deeply in
Speaker 1: Matthew six thirty three. Seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness,
Speaker 1: and all these things will be added to you. That's
Speaker 1: the beginning of the conversation. I would build my relationship
Speaker 1: with Christ as the foundation before chasing careers or hobbies
Speaker 1: or relationships or jobs or possessions, Grounding everything in that idea.
Speaker 1: That's something I have not always done. That's something I
Speaker 1: still struggle with today. But at least I have a
Speaker 1: better understanding of that enough that I could put that
Speaker 1: as the number one priority. And then when I start
Speaker 1: kind of drifting away, I know that's where my anchor is,
Speaker 1: and I come back there. Seek first the Kingdom of
Speaker 1: God that goes with everything I've said about the you know,
Speaker 1: the conspiracy theories and the troubles, and that the problems
Speaker 1: as things come and go and fade, come in and out.
Speaker 1: We worry and we get so strung out on the
Speaker 1: world's problems, and then we forget that. Jesus says, in
Speaker 1: this world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I've
Speaker 1: overcome the world, and we anchor ourselves in that. And
Speaker 1: like I said, we think about the storm on the
Speaker 1: Sea of Galilee. There's raging and the disciples are freaking out.
Speaker 1: Jesus asleep on the cushion, and a relatively small fishing
Speaker 1: boat rises and says, peace, be still. And then in
Speaker 1: the waves are calm. There's a great calm. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: So easy to forget that, so easy to drift away
Speaker 1: from that. Seek first the Kingdom of God. In our
Speaker 1: discerning of truth. Number two, be intentional about relationships, or
Speaker 1: be intentional about who I spend my time with, whether
Speaker 1: that's friends or mentors or dating romantic relationships. I would ask,
Speaker 1: does this person draw me closer to God? Or pull
Speaker 1: me away from him? Proverbs thirteen twenty reminds us whoever
Speaker 1: walks with the wise becomes wise. Your circle of friends,
Speaker 1: your immediate circle of friends, matters tremendously. They influence you tremendously.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that bad morals corrupt good character. Do
Speaker 1: not be deceived. So for you thinking it's okay, I'm
Speaker 1: not affected by this, I don't get affected by people
Speaker 1: like that great trip, you know, I could resist that stuff.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, do not be deceived. Number three, I
Speaker 1: would steward my time and my money better with a
Speaker 1: clean slate starting over. I would want to develop these
Speaker 1: disciplines early, these spiritual disciplines. Right reading my Bible every
Speaker 1: single morning. That is an excellent steward of time that
Speaker 1: I that I have not done until the last half decade.
Speaker 1: Have been very serious about that. And and you know
Speaker 1: what helps me is journaling. Is I've journaled the last
Speaker 1: six years digital journal. I keep two journals. One is
Speaker 1: my reflection journal that I reflect on the reading that
Speaker 1: I've done in the Bible, and it allows me to
Speaker 1: kind of have a little commentary to myself, meditate on
Speaker 1: it a little bit. And then I have my daily
Speaker 1: journal that's just this is what happened yesterday, This is
Speaker 1: what's happening that I hope happens today, and what I
Speaker 1: hope I might do in the future, And this is
Speaker 1: what I think about it. I do that every day,
Speaker 1: and I could listen to digital and I keep it
Speaker 1: with me, and you know it's always you know, uploaded
Speaker 1: on the cloud. I could keep it with me and
Speaker 1: I always can trace. And I think to myself, what
Speaker 1: if I had this thirty six years in a row
Speaker 1: instead of six, How amazing would that be to look
Speaker 1: back thirty years and see what I was doing. And
Speaker 1: it helps you realize that the thing you think is
Speaker 1: is a big problem, the thing that that you just
Speaker 1: are convinced this is a huge problem. And then you look,
Speaker 1: you look back on it in a journal and you
Speaker 1: go that big a deal. And then the other things
Speaker 1: that might seem kind of small, you look back and
Speaker 1: you go bad matter that's still has ripple effects that
Speaker 1: go even into today, And a journal helps us to
Speaker 1: think about that. So that's a that's a steward of
Speaker 1: time that helps with our stewarding of time, and then
Speaker 1: and then budgeting wisely, saving consistently valuing these things time
Speaker 1: and money as a gift from God. We're on loan.
Speaker 1: You know, He gives us these things as borrowed. We
Speaker 1: don't We don't keep it. We certainly don't keep any
Speaker 1: of anything of this earth with us. We know that.
Speaker 1: And then the even easier thing to understand is we
Speaker 1: don't keep time. It comes, we have it, and it's gone.
Speaker 1: When you say yes to something, you're always saying no
Speaker 1: to other things. That's something I wish I would have understood.
Speaker 1: I would ask myself, in dealing with money and time,
Speaker 1: what is eternal and what is temporary? Right? Great question
Speaker 1: to ask. Stewardships shape your future more than you think
Speaker 1: when you're younger. Stewardships of time and money shape your
Speaker 1: future more than you think when you're younger. Number four
Speaker 1: learning to be content in every season. It's so easy
Speaker 1: to believe. You know, I'd be happy when I would
Speaker 1: just be finally happy if this that, when I get married,
Speaker 1: when I get a job, when I hit a certain goal.
Speaker 1: But you know, if I were single and starting over,
Speaker 1: I would focus on Paul's words in Philippians four eleven.
Speaker 1: I have learned to be content in whatever situation I'm in.
Speaker 1: True peace doesn't depend on circumstances. And you know this
Speaker 1: is coming from a guy I have seen the highest
Speaker 1: of highs and the lowest of lows, whether in business
Speaker 1: or in personal life. I've seen in my career the
Speaker 1: biggest of stadiums with the most people, in the smallest
Speaker 1: little bars where there's nobody but a bartender. I have seen,
Speaker 1: you know, marrying my bride the happiest day than welcoming
Speaker 1: children into the world. And then I've buried a son
Speaker 1: and a father. It's a big spectrum, and it's so
Speaker 1: easy in any of these spectrums to say, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's going to be better. When it's going to be
Speaker 1: better when we've healed after five years. You could say
Speaker 1: after a loved one is lost, it's going to be
Speaker 1: better when we get this new radio single out. And
Speaker 1: you know what's so crazy about having a number one
Speaker 1: song in the world is that you get to celebrate
Speaker 1: that for a second, if you do. I don't think
Speaker 1: I ever did. But the most overwhelming thought that's wrapped
Speaker 1: around a number one song in the world is what's next.
Speaker 1: We gotta go to, we gotta go to in a row,
Speaker 1: we gotta go three in a row, we gotta go
Speaker 1: four in a row. It's always the thought, no one
Speaker 1: ever thinks this is great, number one in the world.
Speaker 1: I guess we'll hang it up now, don't We always
Speaker 1: want that from athletes. They break the record and we
Speaker 1: go now, you could retire right, No, they keep going,
Speaker 1: and then they get injured, and then they get traded
Speaker 1: down to a lesser team, and then they just kind
Speaker 1: of dwindle away. We want it for everyone else, but
Speaker 1: when it comes to ourselves, we go no more more.
Speaker 1: I've noticed in my career that the highest of highs,
Speaker 1: the greatest feelings, the greatest excitement, the greatest contentment and
Speaker 1: happiness happened at all the different levels. It didn't increase
Speaker 1: as the situation increased. Me walking, let's take an example, stagecoach,
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty thousand people, me walking out on
Speaker 1: the stage, or Bristol Motor Speedway in the stadium, one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty foot catwalk, drizzling rain. Everyone's got their
Speaker 1: cell phones up with the flash slats on, so much energy.
Speaker 1: I'm walking down there in front of everyone. The crowd's roaring,
Speaker 1: and I'm content right in that moment. I'm happy, I'm excited,
Speaker 1: pumped up, grateful, for my band, grateful for the crowd,
Speaker 1: and then rewind ten years before that. I'm in Norman, Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: There's two hundred and seventy three people sold out in
Speaker 1: this little venue, the catwalk. It's not one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty feet instead, it's about seven feet and we built
Speaker 1: it out of road cases. And I walk out and
Speaker 1: the crowd goes crazy, and I'm excited and I'm content
Speaker 1: and I'm happy, and there's my band and I'm grateful
Speaker 1: to be with them. And then rewind ten years before that,
Speaker 1: and I'm in College Station, Texas at Hurricane Harry's and
Speaker 1: there's one hundred and twenty people and they're excited and
Speaker 1: they're they're you know, I'm pumped, and I'm grateful for
Speaker 1: my band. And then rewind ten years before that and
Speaker 1: there's thirty six people and they're not really excited to
Speaker 1: see me. But I'm just excited to be playing, and
Speaker 1: I'm happy and I'm content and I'm grateful for the band.
Speaker 1: In every situation, it didn't increase the happiness, the excitement
Speaker 1: didn't increase. It's always relative to where you are in
Speaker 1: your life right then. But I always thought that it would,
Speaker 1: you know, that's why you keep chasing it. You think
Speaker 1: I love this feeling, I want to have it even
Speaker 1: at a ten X level than this, And I bet
Speaker 1: if I feel it at this level, then i'll ten
Speaker 1: exit when I get to this level. And it's not true.
Speaker 1: It's always relative to where you are. Learning to be
Speaker 1: content in every season, being present, and that probably that
Speaker 1: leads me to number five. Don't rush God's timing. I
Speaker 1: would trust God's timing more fully and resist this pressure
Speaker 1: to force my own plans, whether that's a career, a relationship,
Speaker 1: personal growth. I would remember Ecclesiastes three eleven that He
Speaker 1: made everything beautiful in its time. God's delays are not
Speaker 1: his denials. God's silence are not his unanswered prayers. Why
Speaker 1: is that so hard for us to understand? It is
Speaker 1: always his perfect timing. This is easy to see with
Speaker 1: my kids as they want They want chocolate ice cream
Speaker 1: right now, and I say no because I know I
Speaker 1: have something much better for them, and I also want
Speaker 1: to protect them from belly eggs and rotten teeth and
Speaker 1: whatever else. That that's the reason they can't have the
Speaker 1: chocolate ice cream at ten PM. I have something better.
Speaker 1: I love them too much. To waste it on something
Speaker 1: so trivial, And yet isn't that us don't rush God's timing.
Speaker 1: Number six. I want to invest in my character over
Speaker 1: my image. Invest in my character over my image. And
Speaker 1: that's because what I've seen and what I know. The
Speaker 1: world focuses on appearance and perception, right, But instead I
Speaker 1: would develop more of who I was on the inside.
Speaker 1: Proverbs four twenty three says guard your heart. Guard your heart,
Speaker 1: for everything you do flows from it, says the author
Speaker 1: of you of Proverbs. A strong character rooted in Christ
Speaker 1: will outlast all of the surface level success. Integrity is
Speaker 1: a word that I could use over and over to
Speaker 1: refine character. These are things I would tell myself if
Speaker 1: I were single and starting over. Number seven. Prioritize the
Speaker 1: local church and community. This is something that's very hard
Speaker 1: to understand. I didn't understand it for a long time.
Speaker 1: But a Christian cannot last. Will not last. You will
Speaker 1: not make it as a Christian. You will not be
Speaker 1: able to grow spiritually at all without the local church.
Speaker 1: That's how it's set up. We are a body. It
Speaker 1: is like saying the eye saying to the hand, I
Speaker 1: don't need you, or the hand saying back to the eye,
Speaker 1: I don't need you. I could see just fine, and
Speaker 1: the hand says I could touch just fine. In fact,
Speaker 1: the body comes together as different members, and we need
Speaker 1: each other, to serve each other, to encourage each other
Speaker 1: Hebrews Hebrews ten twenty five. We have to remember, do
Speaker 1: not give up meeting together, do not neglect gathering, as
Speaker 1: some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, this helps us with accountability, It helps
Speaker 1: affirm our profession of faith. It helps us, it helps
Speaker 1: if we're lost. It encourages us to bring back another someone,
Speaker 1: another member that's lost. The members of the body need
Speaker 1: each other, and then that overflows into the community. Prioritize
Speaker 1: the local church, which then outflows into the community. If
Speaker 1: the Bible says, if Jesus says the greatest commandment outside
Speaker 1: of loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind,
Speaker 1: and strength, if he says love your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1: If that's the commandment, it says, follow me, and here's
Speaker 1: my commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. How could you
Speaker 1: do that outside of community? How could you do that
Speaker 1: outside of the context of the local church. You can't.
Speaker 1: That's why a monasticism just didn't work. That's why you
Speaker 1: can't be a monk. And they realize that the monk
Speaker 1: life failed because you're taking away the one strength that
Speaker 1: you were given, the God given ability to love others,
Speaker 1: to serve them with whatever special gift you have. That's
Speaker 1: how you contribute to the body. But you can't do
Speaker 1: it unless you're in the body. Number eight learned to rest,
Speaker 1: learned to rest and trust God. If I were starting over,
Speaker 1: I would remember, and I would remind myself that rest
Speaker 1: is a spiritual discipline, not just something you do when
Speaker 1: you're exhausted and you can't move on, you can't go
Speaker 1: any further. I would learn to trust God fully, embracing
Speaker 1: the rhythm of work, the Sabbath rest that He has
Speaker 1: designed for us in christ proverbs or excuse me, so
Speaker 1: what is a psalm? It's I'm on twenty seven to
Speaker 1: two says in vain, you rise early and stay up late,
Speaker 1: for He grants sleep to those he loves. That's that's
Speaker 1: an interesting verse to meditate on. You think you wake
Speaker 1: up early and go to bey. You think that's all
Speaker 1: you Huh, He'll give you sleep it's the way you're
Speaker 1: designed learn to rest. So many times I want to
Speaker 1: grind it out. This world, this culture tells us to
Speaker 1: just grind it out, grind it out. That's so interesting
Speaker 1: because I think so many times, especially in the world,
Speaker 1: it's probably more difficult now than it ever has been,
Speaker 1: just in terms of us having a grasp over time itself.
Speaker 1: You don't traveling. If I was going to travel one
Speaker 1: hundred years ago, maybe longer one hundred and fifty years ago,
Speaker 1: I would say I'm leaving for a month, I'll see
Speaker 1: I'll get there when I get there, and I'll come
Speaker 1: back when I come back, And when you saw me,
Speaker 1: you'd be like grandeer, you made it back. And today,
Speaker 1: if I say, hey, let's do coffee at eleven oh five,
Speaker 1: then at eleven oh six you're looking at your watch, going,
Speaker 1: is everything okay? Where are you? You're late at sixty
Speaker 1: seconds past when I said it was going to come.
Speaker 1: That's never existed in any time in history until now.
Speaker 1: That hurts our ability to learn to rest. Number nine,
Speaker 1: Be wise about dating and purity. That's a big one.
Speaker 1: I would if I were speaking to myself starting over single,
Speaker 1: I would approach dating with more patience and purpose are
Speaker 1: patients in the purpose, our purpose in the patience. But
Speaker 1: I would be intentional about it, king someone who shares
Speaker 1: my faith values. Purity guarding my heart that is that
Speaker 1: is uh, that's an unbelievable truth. Purity of mind, body, spirit,
Speaker 1: actively guarding it like a like a great treasure. Remembering first,
Speaker 1: first Thatsalonians for three, that says, for this is the
Speaker 1: will of God. And when the Bible says that you
Speaker 1: stop for a second any time you see a verse
Speaker 1: that says, for this is the will of God, stop,
Speaker 1: gather yourself and be ready. And this one first Thatsalonians
Speaker 1: four three, this is the will of God. Your sanctification
Speaker 1: that you may that you abstain from sexual immorality. It
Speaker 1: matters to our creator because you were created in that way.
Speaker 1: Because when you don't look, let me, let me, let
Speaker 1: me illustrate it like this. I've said this before. It
Speaker 1: matters to Ford Motor Company that you put gasoline in
Speaker 1: a gasoline powered engine. Not that it that it hurts
Speaker 1: Ford Motor Company when you don't, but you're doing something.
Speaker 1: If you put diesel in that gasoline engine, you're doing
Speaker 1: something it's not designed to do. So it matters to
Speaker 1: the image. It matters the ones that are imaged from it,
Speaker 1: the ones that are made in the image. It matters
Speaker 1: for them to put in the necessary ingredients according to
Speaker 1: the way it was made. So when the Bible says
Speaker 1: abstain from sexual immorality, it's just as much for you
Speaker 1: as it is for God. You we have to understand
Speaker 1: this isn't just like some crazy God to some dictator
Speaker 1: telling us to do things that take us away from
Speaker 1: some fun, because we all know we don't have to
Speaker 1: look far to see. When you do break this and
Speaker 1: you step outside of this, you start to get hurt
Speaker 1: in ways that are very difficult to repair. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about heart problems, and we've seen enough of that on
Speaker 1: this podcast, right, And finally number ten focus on eternal
Speaker 1: impact with a blank slate starting over, I would ask
Speaker 1: myself more often in every situation, does this have eternal
Speaker 1: impact or is it temporary? Where is the eternal value
Speaker 1: in what I'm doing right now? And if there is none,
Speaker 1: why am I doing this? But a great question to
Speaker 1: ask whether that's serving others, whether that's sharing the gospel
Speaker 1: using God's gifts that he gave me for his glory.
Speaker 1: Framing that question in our minds helps us to make
Speaker 1: those kind of kingdom choices, and it makes it less
Speaker 1: less about my comfort and my reputation and more about
Speaker 1: him and his glory. It's a good consideration. And these
Speaker 1: are this is a quick list, and maybe I could
Speaker 1: do more of these and you know, kind of expand
Speaker 1: on it, but I think it's a good way as
Speaker 1: we reflect on the previous year and we look forward
Speaker 1: into it another year, to think of it in terms
Speaker 1: of if I were single and starting over, this is
Speaker 1: what I would do. And as always, as I finished
Speaker 1: the final podcast of this year, I say, we'll see
Speaker 1: you next Monday. Ye thanks for joining me on the
Speaker 1: Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate all of you. Guys. You could
Speaker 1: help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If
Speaker 1: you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel, hit that little
Speaker 1: like button and notification spell so that you never miss
Speaker 1: anytime I upload a video. Yigi