Speaker 1: What caught my attention in this email was one sentence
Speaker 1: that Darby said out of all that this is what
Speaker 1: caught my attention. Such a sad world to raise my
Speaker 1: children in. Pastor Chad Warren Montana Man, mountain Man back
Speaker 1: on the podcast, back one of the all time favorite guests,
Speaker 1: and we're just talking before we started the camera. You
Speaker 1: are starting a podcast called Take and Read, the Taken
Speaker 1: Read Podcast. Yeah. For those that have followed this podcast
Speaker 1: long enough, you've heard Chad talk about this with me.
Speaker 1: It is what we're kind of calling it is the
Speaker 1: next level to this podcast, the deeper level. So if
Speaker 1: you hear something, if you hear something that we reference
Speaker 1: from the Bible, and you want to hear it a
Speaker 1: deeper analysis of it. I say that kind of lightly
Speaker 1: because it's also going to be for anyone yet to
Speaker 1: hear exactly, I think, similar to what we get to
Speaker 1: enjoy here and then other people watch it. We have questions,
Speaker 1: they're deep questions. Some of them are not deep questions.
Speaker 1: But it's two guys just off the cuff, no preparation,
Speaker 1: and there are so many times in our interactions where
Speaker 1: whether we're getting tacos or grabbing a cup of coffee,
Speaker 1: we bring up a passage of scripture and that leads
Speaker 1: to something else and we just are all of a
Speaker 1: sudden off to the races and we're chewing on the
Speaker 1: word and we're getting into life and what does it mean?
Speaker 1: How does it affect the way that I'm a dad?
Speaker 1: How does it affect I'm a husband or a brother
Speaker 1: or a friend. And so it'll be a lot of
Speaker 1: that where we'll just start with a passage scripture and
Speaker 1: no preparation in fact, you're going to be on it,
Speaker 1: and then we'll just switch chairs. I'll be over all right,
Speaker 1: you good, and we'll just read a passage and then
Speaker 1: just talk about it and see where it goes. How
Speaker 1: do we kind of unpack that as menagata? For those listening,
Speaker 1: this is a normal thing for Chad and I will go,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned, we'll go get lunch, we'll get tacos.
Speaker 1: And this podcast that you're listening to now is really
Speaker 1: just an extension of these kind of conversations. The way
Speaker 1: that we have this setup is if you have a
Speaker 1: question anything in the world, and you would like it answered,
Speaker 1: you email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. And then
Speaker 1: here's Chad and I and we're eating tacos together with you,
Speaker 1: and you ask it in a way that you just say, hey, Maniel,
Speaker 1: I've got something in my heart I want to share
Speaker 1: with you. Guys. It's about my career, or about my girlfriend,
Speaker 1: or about my grandmother, or about my dog, or could
Speaker 1: be anything. Could be about fishing, could be about hunting.
Speaker 1: We've talked about all these things and could I get
Speaker 1: y'all's opinion on it. And then you get to kind
Speaker 1: of sit at the table with us as we're having tacos,
Speaker 1: and like Chad and I do with our lives with
Speaker 1: each other, and Chad is so great. That's why I
Speaker 1: have them as a guest, that we get to just
Speaker 1: talk about it together. So and you get the advantage
Speaker 1: of maybe you hear a question that somebody else asked
Speaker 1: and it's not yeah, maybe you never knew you had
Speaker 1: that question, or you're too afraid or you didn't know
Speaker 1: who or where to go with it. And now you're
Speaker 1: going to benefit from at least Granger and I. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be candid. Benefit might be a loose word in
Speaker 1: some situations. We'll see, we'll see. I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: jump right into this, so you're going to hit you
Speaker 1: with something right off the bat, Chad, This subject line
Speaker 1: is government mandate. Oh there we go, going to be
Speaker 1: talking about masks. Here we go. We'll find out it says,
Speaker 1: Hey Granger, I'm just wondering how you feel about the
Speaker 1: government and all the mandates. How are they pressuring everyone
Speaker 1: to get the jab and wear a mask? Again? Do
Speaker 1: you see the light at the end of the tunnel
Speaker 1: with all of this? Such a sad world to raise
Speaker 1: my children in? Frowny face. I'm definitely not planning on
Speaker 1: getting the jab. What are your thoughts? Thank you for
Speaker 1: your amazing podcast. God bless you and the Smith family. Darby.
Speaker 1: I don't know where Darby's from, but thanks for riding Garby.
Speaker 1: What caught my attention in this email was one sentence
Speaker 1: that Darby said out of all that this is what
Speaker 1: caught my attention. Such a sad world to raise my
Speaker 1: children in. And I rebuke that thought. I hear people
Speaker 1: say that, and I rebuke that thought for so many reasons.
Speaker 1: And I'll just start by saying, all human beings are
Speaker 1: brought into the world for a time such as this,
Speaker 1: This is their time. I was just thinking, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it's it fires me up. And when people say such
Speaker 1: a tough time to raise children, and Darby, I'm not
Speaker 1: using that. I'm not saying that in that way to
Speaker 1: belittle your concern, because it's a true concern for you
Speaker 1: and probably for a lot of people. But what I'm
Speaker 1: saying is I'm trying to fire you up to say
Speaker 1: this is a good time. This is a good time
Speaker 1: to raise good children, this is a good time to
Speaker 1: raise little warriors. And I love that. And you know
Speaker 1: the old the old adage that says that good times
Speaker 1: make weak people. Weak people make bad times, bad times
Speaker 1: make strong people. And it's just this is how this
Speaker 1: little this cycle goes. And so we've had good times
Speaker 1: in the past. My generation was great kids born in
Speaker 1: the seventies, eighties, and nineties. We had it really good.
Speaker 1: And I think we're starting to We're going to see
Speaker 1: a trend where it's going to get tough, and then
Speaker 1: the kids that are being raised right now that are
Speaker 1: raising a tough time are going to be strong, and
Speaker 1: then those strong kids are going to grow up and
Speaker 1: create good times. What do you think about all this stuff, Chad? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think, like you said, your generation, we
Speaker 1: had certain things that were good and bad. And I remember,
Speaker 1: even when I was a kid, my grandparents and parents,
Speaker 1: uncles aunts saying, man, you guys have it so easy
Speaker 1: back in my day. And so you just like each
Speaker 1: generation sees its own challenges and ease and compares it
Speaker 1: to the next. And so I think, yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: our kids are born for such a time as this. Yes,
Speaker 1: they they won't know a world where you could just
Speaker 1: wait at the gate for your loved ones to come
Speaker 1: off the plane. That world's gone. That changed twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: So it's things are changing, but they are this is
Speaker 1: the time. This is the time they were brought in
Speaker 1: the world intentionally, sovereignly, supposed to be born and supposed
Speaker 1: to be raised in this time, Darby. And so I
Speaker 1: think for Darby and for any of us who lament
Speaker 1: some of the challenges that we're experiencing, and we just
Speaker 1: we reflect on our own upbringing and maybe the freedoms
Speaker 1: we had that you know, like like I can't my
Speaker 1: mom would send me outside on a Saturday, and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be home till like and she'd send me out
Speaker 1: in the morning and I wouldn't be home till like
Speaker 1: after dark and she had no worries. And we don't
Speaker 1: live in a world where my kids can't do that.
Speaker 1: But there are other opportunities that have that I didn't have,
Speaker 1: and so trying to embrace them. But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I'm asking myself, what are the principles that are important
Speaker 1: for my kids to gain, not necessarily just the experience
Speaker 1: that they're supposed to have, and helping to infuse them
Speaker 1: and their their experience with those principles as key. So
Speaker 1: I wonder what Darby, what principles he thinks, you know,
Speaker 1: we had the benefit of, or he had when he
Speaker 1: was a kid, and what experience is brought about those
Speaker 1: learning those principles, and then how can he create those
Speaker 1: opportunities for his own kiddos. But yeah, the whole mask thing,
Speaker 1: I mean, did he ask if you're going to get
Speaker 1: the poke? He didn't. He just said what do we
Speaker 1: think about it? He said, I'm definitely not. And then
Speaker 1: he said, how are they pressuring everyone? Well, we know
Speaker 1: how they are, they're taking, they're taking the liberties that
Speaker 1: they want to take. How are they pressuring everyone to
Speaker 1: get the jab and wear the mask? Again? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I asked myself about the mask thing. I asked myself
Speaker 1: the same thing. I think, what, this's just common sense
Speaker 1: that when you sit down at the table and you
Speaker 1: take it off and you put it back on and
Speaker 1: you take you touch your face, that's just common sense. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But here's here's what I think. Here's what I know,
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to act like I know anything
Speaker 1: more than anybody else. But the virus is very contagious.
Speaker 1: It's affecting a lot of people. I think at some
Speaker 1: point it will directly affect every human being on the earth,
Speaker 1: probably at some point, I think, I think we all
Speaker 1: need to be bold enough to live with it, to
Speaker 1: live our lives safely. However, you want to be safe,
Speaker 1: if you're if you're at high risk, do what you
Speaker 1: have to do. But we're going to have to live
Speaker 1: our lives. Yeah, And I think one of the things
Speaker 1: that we have to wrestle with is what doesn't mean
Speaker 1: to honor or submit to or be a citizen when
Speaker 1: we feel like our rights are being violated and you
Speaker 1: know what, what does that look like? Those are things
Speaker 1: that we have to wrestle with and they're not hard.
Speaker 1: And what what what frustrates me is the the way
Speaker 1: that it is becoming so divisive. If you you know,
Speaker 1: if you were wearing a mask or not wearing a mask,
Speaker 1: you were making a statement and you were put into
Speaker 1: a camp or a category. And that's rough. Yeah. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta move forward with wisdom, winsomely and
Speaker 1: representing truth, but with a lot of humility, a lot
Speaker 1: of grace, a lot of patience. Yeah, totally agree. This
Speaker 1: subject is so beaten down that we don't need to
Speaker 1: talk any more of this podcast. Usually you start out with, hey,
Speaker 1: have you ever driven a track? I know, Sorry, I'm
Speaker 1: at you when when I set up this I wasn't
Speaker 1: really putting it in any kind of order. Off, just like, okay,
Speaker 1: this is truly non rehearsed. Yeah, this is non rehearsal.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hit you next. I'm gonna hit you with
Speaker 1: one called for you and Pastor Chad, oh cool man,
Speaker 1: is the same question there? It is? It says, hey,
Speaker 1: mister Smith and Pastor Chad, what are your views on predestination?
Speaker 1: I respect you and your faith and your willingness to
Speaker 1: speak freely about it, and predestination is a pretty complex idea,
Speaker 1: so I'm curious what you both think. Thanks, this is
Speaker 1: Joe from Iowa. Good another softball question, another just another
Speaker 1: easy one out of the gates. So we should we
Speaker 1: should kind of build this for listeners in a simple
Speaker 1: way to kind of say what, first of all, what
Speaker 1: Joe's even talking about? And then we could say what
Speaker 1: we think about it. Simply put, predestination is the idea,
Speaker 1: a biblical idea that God knew from the beginning, who
Speaker 1: has chosen people are. That's as simple as I could
Speaker 1: put it. Yeah, that God actively predestined some to salvation.
Speaker 1: And the rub that people have is that immediately means
Speaker 1: or by implication, that God then predestined some to help. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So some people might be thinking, well, that's a terrible thought,
Speaker 1: why would you even discuss it. We discuss it because
Speaker 1: it's actually written that way in the Bible with actually
Speaker 1: that word predestined. So the way that I know Chad's heart,
Speaker 1: and we've talked about this subject many times together, so
Speaker 1: I know I know how he feels about it, and
Speaker 1: it could be it could be treated delicately. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be, because it's not my word. I'm just
Speaker 1: a mess. I'm just the deliverer of the male. I'm
Speaker 1: not the I'm not the composer deliver it, so I
Speaker 1: don't have to feel weird about it. But there there
Speaker 1: are two There are two components to a Christian or
Speaker 1: a human being saved, Grace and faith. And Amber put this,
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna let you tell your story up
Speaker 1: to basketball. But Amber told me this, and I thought
Speaker 1: it was so interesting. But grace and faith are like
Speaker 1: two parallel lines. And I've heard this many times. They
Speaker 1: are like two parallel lines that only intersect in heaven.
Speaker 1: But she she put it, like, what do you call
Speaker 1: the people in the circus that are on the rings
Speaker 1: the trapeze? The trapeze? Yeah, like the people that hold
Speaker 1: the rings. I guess they have it. And gymnastics too,
Speaker 1: like they swing on the rings. So it's like grace
Speaker 1: and faith are like the two rings, and they're on
Speaker 1: a pulley, so they are they coexist. You have to
Speaker 1: have both to stabilize yourself, but you can't let go
Speaker 1: of one or you'll you'll completely lose balance. And so
Speaker 1: how that balance exists is a mystery, and it's no
Speaker 1: human knows the the impact of faith. Belief, believe and
Speaker 1: you'll be saved or grace because it's it's they co exist.
Speaker 1: There there are parallel lines, and that's why. And so
Speaker 1: that's why Joe's saying this is this is complex, This
Speaker 1: idea is complex. Before before you go and just blow
Speaker 1: our minds, I have to say that this idea, and
Speaker 1: I've said, I've said kind of alluded at this before
Speaker 1: in this podcast, don't ever let this kind of stuff
Speaker 1: stump you or trigger you or make you doubt. If
Speaker 1: any way that you start thinking this, this is not fair,
Speaker 1: this is not doubting, then just stop. It's not necessary
Speaker 1: for everyone to go through this in their mind and
Speaker 1: completely dissect how they feel about it. But but I
Speaker 1: would encourage you, as you read your Bible too, to
Speaker 1: see it. Circle that stuff and you'll see it a lot.
Speaker 1: You'll see you'll see Paul and Peter and John and
Speaker 1: Jesus talk about this a lot. And so it's interesting
Speaker 1: to circle it and go, oh, he chosen, chosen, chosen, predestined, elected. Okay,
Speaker 1: go ahead, Chad. Yeah, I think I remember struggling with
Speaker 1: this as a new believer, whether or not I was
Speaker 1: okay with a God that would pick some and not others.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's really what it came down to for me.
Speaker 1: And so, like Joe says, it is complex because there's
Speaker 1: it just it seems unfair. It seems like, well, how
Speaker 1: come some people get picked and not others, especially if
Speaker 1: it's not anything that they've done. How could he do that?
Speaker 1: And then they start to question the character of God
Speaker 1: or he's got loving if he's like that, and you know,
Speaker 1: if if people just have no say in the matter.
Speaker 1: And I think what you're saying is there is this
Speaker 1: mystery in our activity and our role in extizing faith
Speaker 1: and obedience to Christ. And there's also God's sovereignty just
Speaker 1: showing up and arriving and him opening our eyes to
Speaker 1: see things. And I can tell from my own story
Speaker 1: that I was not looking for him. It's not because
Speaker 1: I'm somehow clever or I found the secret sauce like
Speaker 1: I was running away from him and he completely disrupted me.
Speaker 1: And so I can't take credit for this awareness or
Speaker 1: understanding of who God is. He did that and revealed
Speaker 1: that to me. But some of the ways that I
Speaker 1: think it's important to understand is that we all in
Speaker 1: this human condition, we would identify as Christians. We would
Speaker 1: say that all have sinned, all fall short. So there
Speaker 1: It isn't as though God is taking this group and
Speaker 1: saying I'm going to make you sinners and you're going
Speaker 1: to go to Hell, and I'm going to make you
Speaker 1: nonsinners and you're going to go to heaven. But the
Speaker 1: reality is the whole human race is falling, broken and sinful.
Speaker 1: And so then why is it that a God that
Speaker 1: we would say is loving and good and perfect and righteous,
Speaker 1: why would he choose some to then escape that fate.
Speaker 1: That's the big question. And what we see throughout the Bible,
Speaker 1: whether it's the Old Testament of the New Testament. God
Speaker 1: is a God that picks, he chooses, he selects, he predestines,
Speaker 1: And it starts with Abram, and he calls Abram, who
Speaker 1: is not a godly man, he just was in obscurity,
Speaker 1: but he calls him and makes and he says, I'm
Speaker 1: going to make a people out of you, and yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: total pagan. And he tells Abram, which he later names Abraham,
Speaker 1: that I'm through you. I'm going to make you a name.
Speaker 1: I'm going to make a name for you. I'm going
Speaker 1: to give you descendants as numerous as the stars, and
Speaker 1: through you, all nations will be blessed. So all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, he selects this one guy, and it's through
Speaker 1: him that all nations are going to come to be
Speaker 1: blessed by Abraham. So he's picking one to bless the rest.
Speaker 1: We see that again with the people of Israel. There
Speaker 1: are time and time again where through Israel he's going
Speaker 1: to interact with the people so that the watching world
Speaker 1: sees what kind of God he is, and the way
Speaker 1: that he blesses these people as they walk in obedience,
Speaker 1: well they don't over and over again, but again he
Speaker 1: allows them to come back when they repent of their sin.
Speaker 1: They come back and the watching world gets to see
Speaker 1: a God of power, a God of grace. And then
Speaker 1: we enter the New Testament, and it's made very clear
Speaker 1: that what God is doing through his son Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: is drawing people to himself, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: and now it's not just the Jews the chosen people,
Speaker 1: but now it's what the Bible calls gentiles. All those
Speaker 1: non Jews, that's you and me are now included. And
Speaker 1: so what God is saying is that the boundaries are
Speaker 1: moving out and all these different kinds of people are
Speaker 1: being brought in. And so the reason why he chooses
Speaker 1: some is to draw the rest. And there's a board
Speaker 1: picture that a friend of mine always tells he's a
Speaker 1: pastor out in New York, and he says, imagine it
Speaker 1: this way that you have. You're in this high school
Speaker 1: basketball gym, and you've got this this phenomenal basketball team.
Speaker 1: They're the visitors, and they've come to play, and they
Speaker 1: are clearly high caliber, talented team, best of the best.
Speaker 1: And what God does is he looks around it and
Speaker 1: he instead of choosing like the varsity squad for your
Speaker 1: home team, he goes out of the basketball court area
Speaker 1: through the double doors that exit the gym around the corner,
Speaker 1: and he finds the group of smokers and emo kids
Speaker 1: and the people that are just angry and you know,
Speaker 1: just hate sports and have a chip on their shoulder
Speaker 1: and you know, eyeline or all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And he picks those kids and he says, you're my team,
Speaker 1: and he brings them in and coaches them in such
Speaker 1: a way that they excel beyond all of the best
Speaker 1: basketball players in the gym, to the extent that now
Speaker 1: all of the jocks that he overlooked they want to
Speaker 1: play on that team. Like that that's what God's doing
Speaker 1: when he picks, he's picking for the purpose of mission. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's trying to draw others to himself. You, Joe, you
Speaker 1: asked pastor Chad and you got it. You know, when
Speaker 1: it comes to this kind of stuff, it's interesting to
Speaker 1: think about. If you think I believe that something you
Speaker 1: could ask, but why do you did? Was that belief
Speaker 1: given to you or did you create it on your own?
Speaker 1: Because the Bible says we should have nothing to boast
Speaker 1: about in our salvation, nothing, and to an extent, you
Speaker 1: could boast that you believed and others didn't, So that
Speaker 1: can't be real. If you if you are not saved,
Speaker 1: you are an active rebellion. You are someone that says
Speaker 1: absolutely not, I want nothing to do with it. If
Speaker 1: you're questioning and you're like, but am I, that's the
Speaker 1: person I want to talk to. Yeah, if you're questioning that,
Speaker 1: if you're thinking maybe you are, then maybe you are right.
Speaker 1: And so then there's those parallel lines, you know, then
Speaker 1: so like what are you balancing on? You balancing on
Speaker 1: God's grace? Are you bouncing on your own belief? And
Speaker 1: I love that. It's a mystery and I think if
Speaker 1: it was, if it was perfectly clear cut, we could
Speaker 1: just say check that box, we're done, see in heaven.
Speaker 1: But because it's not clear cut, it's complicated. We want
Speaker 1: to read more and we want to underline. I want
Speaker 1: to circle those words and we go what does that
Speaker 1: word mean? Why? But why do I need to be?
Speaker 1: How do I need to be getting closer? And it
Speaker 1: becomes a lifetime of this and I think that was
Speaker 1: by design. Yeah, it was by design. Thank you, appreciate you. Joe.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Iowa Stu. We got another question coming up.
Speaker 1: It can it be like what my favorite color is?
Speaker 1: How about this one? This one says my career. Surely
Speaker 1: this is going to go east my career. Hey Grangeer,
Speaker 1: my name is Landon. I'm from Boise, Idaho. I love
Speaker 1: your show. I was and it was wonderful. If you
Speaker 1: could please sorry, I'm going to read this right, it
Speaker 1: would be wonderful. I'm just correcting a little bit of
Speaker 1: your writing. Landon, it'd be wonderful if you could answer
Speaker 1: this question on your podcast. I'm fourteen and for all
Speaker 1: fourteen years of my life, I've wanted to pursue my
Speaker 1: dream of being a police officer. Do you have any
Speaker 1: tips on how to stay productive in ways to reach
Speaker 1: my dream job without giving up or blindly choosing to
Speaker 1: pursue something different? Thank you, I hope you have an
Speaker 1: amazing day. Appreciate you and Boise Idaho, I love Boise
Speaker 1: fourteen good age. And he says, blindly choosing to pursue
Speaker 1: he's predestining himself too, blindly that he's choosing this is
Speaker 1: a good one. Chap this. We don't have to get
Speaker 1: in trouble with this. It doesn't apply to just whether
Speaker 1: you want to be a police officer. No, right, it's
Speaker 1: no if if you've if you've got a dream and
Speaker 1: there's a there's something you want to do with your life,
Speaker 1: what what are the best steps? Like? How did you
Speaker 1: when did you want to become a musician? We were
Speaker 1: just talking about actually right here, fourteen So you can't
Speaker 1: go to academy at fourteen. You can't train really in
Speaker 1: any way. I mean, yeah, I don't I don't know
Speaker 1: what is required to become a police officer. You know obviously,
Speaker 1: and you know the law, studying the law, but that's
Speaker 1: all stuff they'll teach you. There's I don't know if
Speaker 1: watching law and orders is a good thing or a
Speaker 1: bad thing, because I'm sure it's not like it's portrayed
Speaker 1: in the TV show. There's probably a lot of law
Speaker 1: enforcement officers listening. Comment below if you're watching on YouTube,
Speaker 1: a comment below if you could help Landing out. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it starts with get good grades. You know,
Speaker 1: work hard. If you don't get your high school diploma.
Speaker 1: If you fail out, you're not going to go to
Speaker 1: the academy, right I'm assuming you're not going to get
Speaker 1: accepted to be like a lot of these academies are
Speaker 1: pretty strict. So your first, your first tiered goal right here,
Speaker 1: Landing is to get into a good academy that you want.
Speaker 1: So I would go boom to their website. Maybe you
Speaker 1: want to be an Idaho State Trooper. I don't know,
Speaker 1: just throwing that out there. That's probably one of the
Speaker 1: more difficult law enforcement groups in Idaho, the troopers. So
Speaker 1: you go to their website and you go to applications
Speaker 1: or the next event that they're hosting, and you just
Speaker 1: go down the checklist of what it takes. You know,
Speaker 1: how old do you have to be, what kind of
Speaker 1: degree do you have to have, what kind of physical training.
Speaker 1: Do you have to have or you have to run
Speaker 1: you have to run five miles under this time. Okay,
Speaker 1: now you got something to work for. Yeah, you got
Speaker 1: a goal. Yeah. I mean I can relate to that
Speaker 1: because when I was thirteen fourteen, my older brother who
Speaker 1: was in the Navy, turned me onto this these this
Speaker 1: group called Navy Seals yep, and I was like, I
Speaker 1: want to do that, and now I'm not going to
Speaker 1: be able to enlist at fourteen or anything like that.
Speaker 1: But he got me the physical entrance requirements and I
Speaker 1: was far from them. But I had some goals. I
Speaker 1: had to get my run time down. I had to
Speaker 1: be able to swim and pull up smush up. So
Speaker 1: there were certainly those types of things. What I wish
Speaker 1: I would have been able to do in order to
Speaker 1: get a better idea is to be around it, like
Speaker 1: to be around that community and see what you know,
Speaker 1: their family life was, Like what was you know? Because
Speaker 1: all that I knew was what was portrayed in the media,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be hyped up. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure now there's a lot more accurate portrayals of it.
Speaker 1: But back back then, I mean in the early nineties,
Speaker 1: there wasn't a lot of material out there, and so
Speaker 1: I guess, like if my own son who's thirteen, he's
Speaker 1: got things that he wants to do and things he
Speaker 1: wants to be, and so I try to just get
Speaker 1: him around people that do that to let them speak
Speaker 1: into that, because he may have an idea of what
Speaker 1: it is and it's it's not that it's going to
Speaker 1: be romanticized or so I don't know if you when
Speaker 1: you can start going on right alongs or that's a
Speaker 1: great Now. I bet you there's some kind of clinic
Speaker 1: going on that maybe do like a summer clinic, or
Speaker 1: there's there's always land in the there's always the idea
Speaker 1: of you go and you get a job there in
Speaker 1: the mailroom or taking off the trash right and you say, hey,
Speaker 1: I want to do this. I want to do whatever
Speaker 1: it takes. Do you have anybody in the mail room
Speaker 1: that needs help. I will intern, I'll do it for free.
Speaker 1: I want to take off the trash. I want to
Speaker 1: I want to clean the garden beds of the precinct.
Speaker 1: But I just I think land, and there's there's got
Speaker 1: to be a checklist that you can get into pretty easy.
Speaker 1: After you listen to this podcast. You can get in
Speaker 1: and just make you a little short list and go,
Speaker 1: I got to run this kind of mile, I got
Speaker 1: to lift this kind of weight, I have to have
Speaker 1: this kind of grade at school. And and other than
Speaker 1: that what Chad said, just absorb it around you. Get
Speaker 1: get involved as much as you can. Don't forget to
Speaker 1: live your life as a fourteen year old kid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: be fourteen, be fourteen, and maybe get into trouble. I'll
Speaker 1: get in trouble. It's like go steal a bike. No,
Speaker 1: don't do that. Just totally kidding. Yeah, I love it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's awesome. Hey, Landon, there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: kids that are that are having this dream so much respect.
Speaker 1: I wish that we had an entire generation like you
Speaker 1: that says, I love law enforcement. This is all I've
Speaker 1: ever wanted to do. I have no aspirations past that.
Speaker 1: I think. That's that's awesome, buddy, So hats off to you.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna be in Boise Man and like August
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, somewhere in the twenties, so like, well, we'll
Speaker 1: see you soon. It's beautiful over there. That's so you
Speaker 1: need me to carry you yeah, I need to carry
Speaker 1: you back. Let just take a break. Your Right Back
Speaker 1: podcast brought to you guys today by cameo dot com.
Speaker 1: If you tried cameo, have you got the app? Have
Speaker 1: you gone to the website? This is an awesome way
Speaker 1: to keep in touch with me at a personal level.
Speaker 1: Say you have I have a question that you wanted
Speaker 1: me to answer on this podcast. I haven't answered it yet.
Speaker 1: Well you could ask it on Cameo and I could
Speaker 1: send you a video message of me answering it. It's
Speaker 1: super simple. Go to cameo dot com slash Granger Smith.
Speaker 1: You could find me. You could download the app. It
Speaker 1: makes it even easier. You could search in the search
Speaker 1: tab for Granger Smith. You pull me up, ask anything
Speaker 1: you want, or you could You could tell me to
Speaker 1: say happy birthday to your kid, or your wife or
Speaker 1: your husband, or happy anniversary or good luck on the
Speaker 1: football game coming up this week. We've been talking a
Speaker 1: lot about football on this podcast, so there's I could
Speaker 1: say anything you need me to say, and it's really cool.
Speaker 1: You're going to get it in form of like a
Speaker 1: FaceTime message. It looks like I just sent you a
Speaker 1: video message from my phone, which is exactly what I'm doing,
Speaker 1: and it's super simple for me. I can go on
Speaker 1: there and I could read, I could find out all
Speaker 1: the details about you. It's a very personal way to
Speaker 1: send it as a gift. A lot of these that
Speaker 1: I do are gifts, and I'll be saying like, Hey, Sarah,
Speaker 1: I just heard from your husband Mike, and he told
Speaker 1: me it's your birthday, so I wonder wish your happy birthday.
Speaker 1: And I can go on and say anything that Mike
Speaker 1: tells me that I need to add to this birthday.
Speaker 1: Wish I could do it on Cameo so Cameo dot
Speaker 1: com slash Granger Smith. Another way to keep up with
Speaker 1: me is yegy Nation yeg nation dot com. If you
Speaker 1: are the if you want to take your fandom to
Speaker 1: the next level, go to yeg nation dot com. You
Speaker 1: could find out how to get exclusive merch from US,
Speaker 1: exclusive discounts, early access to the Yegi apparel launches, which
Speaker 1: could be huge if we start selling out of sizes.
Speaker 1: You get into my website before anyone else does, only
Speaker 1: you and the other yee Nation members. You get exclusive songs,
Speaker 1: and you get access to Amber and I doing a
Speaker 1: big live Q and a once a month, we'll do
Speaker 1: an hour long Q and A answering your questions right there.
Speaker 1: So it's similar to this podcast, but it's live and
Speaker 1: you see a video chat. So these are two really
Speaker 1: good ways Cameo dot com, yege nation dot com or
Speaker 1: great ways to continue at a personal level with me.
Speaker 1: Back to the podcast. I have another one for you here.
Speaker 1: I don't know how triggered this is going to be Chad,
Speaker 1: but the title is burnt Out by the Ministry for
Speaker 1: Pastor Chad, says, Hey Granger, Pastor Chad, my name is David.
Speaker 1: I'm nineteen years old. I'm from North Carolina. Pause, nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 1: That isn't add up. Burnt out okay, says A couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, I emailed Granger about his thoughts on
Speaker 1: gospel music. Well, I have a question for Pastor Chad
Speaker 1: now relating to the ministry. My question is this, what
Speaker 1: do you do when you feel burnt out by the ministry.
Speaker 1: I'm interning in a church in New Jersey for the
Speaker 1: summer and God has really blessed me. I've learned a
Speaker 1: lot and the church has blessed me a ton. But
Speaker 1: the church is in transition and searching for a new pastor,
Speaker 1: and with that comes a lot of stress from the
Speaker 1: congregation staff and myself. I have been here only for
Speaker 1: a month, and while it's been a blessing, I'm just
Speaker 1: burnt out from constant negativity, questions we can answer, and
Speaker 1: getting used to this new environment. It's been hard to
Speaker 1: stay positive and energized. Would love to hear back from
Speaker 1: you guys. Thanks for what you guys do, ye you,
Speaker 1: David ah Man. That's it's a Unfortunately, it's a pretty
Speaker 1: common scenario where people feel called into full time vocational ministry,
Speaker 1: pastoral work, minister at work, and they get to that point.
Speaker 1: It's sad that he's nineteen and he's there, but unfortunately
Speaker 1: not surprising as well. I mean, it doesn't take long
Speaker 1: to get there. And there are things that you have
Speaker 1: to hold on to as you respond to that call
Speaker 1: and you engage in this kind of work, and that
Speaker 1: is remembering that God is the one that called you
Speaker 1: and you work for him. It's very easy to get
Speaker 1: caught up, whatever the structure of the church or the
Speaker 1: ministry or the organization is, to think that your primary
Speaker 1: report is to people and to their opinions and what
Speaker 1: they want from you. But just to always remember God's
Speaker 1: one to put you there, that you're His called shepherd
Speaker 1: or person in that position, and so you're beholden to Him.
Speaker 1: And oftentimes, and we see this in the scripture, God
Speaker 1: puts on the heart or leads a leader to do
Speaker 1: something that's unpopular with the people, not unbiblical, but unpopular,
Speaker 1: and it's going to face resistance. But those people always
Speaker 1: are absolutely sure that it's God that they're following and
Speaker 1: that he's leading them. And so as much as they
Speaker 1: get pressure, and sadly they are going to get a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure from people, they serve him that he
Speaker 1: is the boss, he's who they work for. I'd also
Speaker 1: say it's important to have a network of support friends
Speaker 1: outside of that direct ministry experience. So I've got friends
Speaker 1: from other churches, other pastors, other ministries that aren't in
Speaker 1: my current church, and it's just refreshing to hear what
Speaker 1: the Lord's doing in their world, what they're wrestling with,
Speaker 1: and it's a place that I can decompress with them
Speaker 1: and I can work through challenges that I'm facing or
Speaker 1: frustrations that I have, and they're able to listen say yep,
Speaker 1: now get back in the game staying there. You got this,
Speaker 1: So having those kind of people outside of your immediate
Speaker 1: context is huge. It sounds like he doesn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of that. Yeah, that can be challenging, David. We
Speaker 1: could hit this from a couple different one being just
Speaker 1: a simple fact that it's a summer internship. That should
Speaker 1: be enough to energize you through this. There's an end date,
Speaker 1: there's a temple world, and you can and on one
Speaker 1: one hand, you could go, hey, I'm learning, I'm learning
Speaker 1: the kind of people I don't really want to be
Speaker 1: around right now. You could say it in that way,
Speaker 1: keep it in mind exactly what Chad said that God
Speaker 1: called you here for a reason. That reason could be
Speaker 1: so you see a stagnant environment that you don't that
Speaker 1: you don't want to be a part of. It could
Speaker 1: be that he's showing you this is not your calling.
Speaker 1: That too, he brought you here to experience this and
Speaker 1: you go, man, this isn't what I'm wired for. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The other angle I could take this from is this,
Speaker 1: this is typically this kind of thing is a leadership problem.
Speaker 1: It's a trickle down problem. If they're changing leadership, it
Speaker 1: would explain even more why this is a trickle down
Speaker 1: problem you're if you're feeling says burned out, constant negativity,
Speaker 1: questions we can't answer, getting used to this environment, hard
Speaker 1: to stay positive, energized. That's all that. All that is
Speaker 1: trickling down from bad leadership, not bad people, bad leadership,
Speaker 1: and it's in transition, so that could it could not
Speaker 1: even fall in anyone one person's shoulders. So you could
Speaker 1: learn from this and you can go this is not
Speaker 1: how this is not how I would be leading, And
Speaker 1: I'm not going to give into negativity. I'm going to
Speaker 1: be the one that stays positive in the hallways and
Speaker 1: the office ways and outside on the sidewalk when I
Speaker 1: see somebody, I'm gonna bring I'm going to bring that energy.
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring that light because that is up
Speaker 1: to you, and you can be the one that does it.
Speaker 1: You don't have to fall into constant negativity, the questions
Speaker 1: you can't answer. What's wrong with saying we can't answer
Speaker 1: that right now? There's a positive way to not being
Speaker 1: able to answer questions. Man, David, I could relate this
Speaker 1: directly to me on tour. I could say, we see bands,
Speaker 1: and we see bands all the time that are just
Speaker 1: walking around their head down, they're dragging their feet. We
Speaker 1: see crews, audio crews at big, massive festivals and they're
Speaker 1: just walking around, just mad. And I'm thinking, you're doing
Speaker 1: this for a living. You're making people smile for a living.
Speaker 1: Traveling around in a tour bus, eating catering. Ten years ago,
Speaker 1: this was your dream. Now you're mad and you're negative
Speaker 1: because it's hot or it's too windy, or the rain
Speaker 1: might come at three o'clock, or the people are getting
Speaker 1: outside the barricade and you have to fix it, or whatever.
Speaker 1: The thousands of reasons humans will continually fall back to
Speaker 1: negativity when they don't have a leader that's keeping them energized.
Speaker 1: I'd also say one of my mentors told me, in
Speaker 1: the ministry, there's a lot of stuff that you're going
Speaker 1: to do that wasn't what you imagined it to be, Like,
Speaker 1: this isn't what I thought pastoral ministry was going to be.
Speaker 1: Or there's just a lot of stuff you do that's
Speaker 1: just not fun and a lot of challenges. But he said,
Speaker 1: you have to set boundaries and ensure that you get
Speaker 1: to do a fair amount of what does energize you,
Speaker 1: what does fill your cup in the way that you're
Speaker 1: called designed to serve that kind of thing, things that
Speaker 1: interest you, and ensure that you protect that you get
Speaker 1: to do those things, and it allows you to navigate
Speaker 1: and endure the many things that aren't enjoyable. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure for you, man, there's probably a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: you got to do that's just part of the business,
Speaker 1: just part of the music industry. It's not your favorite
Speaker 1: and it can be a drag, but you make sure
Speaker 1: that you get to do enough of what you do
Speaker 1: love songwriting and being with fans and getting to deliver
Speaker 1: your music to people and share that with people. That
Speaker 1: makes the rest of it okay. That's worth it, absolutely
Speaker 1: And you could sum that up by saying, David, keep
Speaker 1: your gratefulness higher than your expectations. You're expecting so much
Speaker 1: from this church and you're not as grateful for the position.
Speaker 1: Just make yourself it doesn't have to be a lot
Speaker 1: more grateful. You'd just be a little tiny bit more
Speaker 1: grateful than you expect out of the job. Gratefulness above expectations,
Speaker 1: and you're not going to feel that drag. You could
Speaker 1: relate that to any job, David. There's plenty of other
Speaker 1: jobs out there. You could switch to another profession and
Speaker 1: feel the same way in the same thing. Not being said,
Speaker 1: I can't relate to this particular job like Chad can,
Speaker 1: but I could say with almost certainty, no one gets
Speaker 1: into the ministry and goes I'm looking to get in
Speaker 1: ministry because it's gonna be fun. Yeah, it's not the
Speaker 1: first reason you would say so. And that has to
Speaker 1: do with lower your expectations a bit. Hire the gratefulness,
Speaker 1: and that's really good. Let me just fine gratefulness above expectations.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you made that up, but that's brilliant.
Speaker 1: I didn't make it up, but I don't remember where
Speaker 1: I heard it, but I've used it for so long.
Speaker 1: That is really good. And it could relate to we're
Speaker 1: playing a gig and when we used to be in
Speaker 1: the van and we would have to load in and soundcheck,
Speaker 1: and then we would get in the van and go
Speaker 1: to eat dinner, go to a hotel room and change clothes,
Speaker 1: come back to the venue, and we come back the
Speaker 1: parking lot. What does it look like? It's like the
Speaker 1: instant idea of how this night's gonna go. Is it
Speaker 1: packed or are there like four cars there? So if
Speaker 1: you just keep your expectations low. Like, man, it's Friday night.
Speaker 1: We're gonna play a gig tonight. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: even care who comes. Then when you roll up and
Speaker 1: there's fifteen cars, you go, dude, fifteen cars, maybe they
Speaker 1: had five people in them each car, It's gonna be
Speaker 1: pretty good night. But if you played there last year
Speaker 1: and there was one hundred cars, and then you roll
Speaker 1: up this year after dinner and there's fifty cars you
Speaker 1: were expecting one hundred or more, it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: bad night. You've lost the gratefulness of what the night is.
Speaker 1: So thanks for the question, Dave. Again, I appreciate your brother.
Speaker 1: We got some stuff. How about football and peer pressure? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's football. We're getting into the fall season. Per two
Speaker 1: days are probably starting. Hey Grange, I've listened to many
Speaker 1: of your podcasts and your songs. My favorite song of
Speaker 1: yours is America, Thank You Buddy. It says I'm from
Speaker 1: a small town in Iowa this or second Iowa, Second Iowa,
Speaker 1: and I'm thirteen. I'm going into the eighth grade. At
Speaker 1: my school. Sports is a huge thing. I've played football
Speaker 1: at my school for three years now, and this year
Speaker 1: I've decided not to play football. It's just not my thing.
Speaker 1: But some of my friends really want to play, and
Speaker 1: I don't want to. How should I handle this? I
Speaker 1: love your advice. I'd really love you to help me out.
Speaker 1: Thanks in advance. I would like to remain anonymous. Well
Speaker 1: how do I process? You're thirteen, so I could approach
Speaker 1: this in two ways, one your buddy, two father figure.
Speaker 1: I might have the same answer with both. I would say,
Speaker 1: if a lot of your friends you say, some of
Speaker 1: my friends really want to play, if those are close
Speaker 1: friends of yours, I would follow them into football, because
Speaker 1: you're risking separating yourself from that friend group and football.
Speaker 1: I love football. I talked about it on the last podcast.
Speaker 1: And one of the reasons I love football is because
Speaker 1: it's not talent and skill based. It is camaraderie. It
Speaker 1: is mental toughness, It is show up and compete. It
Speaker 1: is it is be available, be ready, and much less
Speaker 1: like baseball is so much more skill and right place,
Speaker 1: right time and patience, and football is is eleven guys
Speaker 1: and they're gonna put on helmets and we're gonna get
Speaker 1: out there and try to win this game regardless, and
Speaker 1: it comes in all different shapes and sizes of people
Speaker 1: you know, all different skill levels. So this is my
Speaker 1: first my first bit, Sam, Sorry, why do I do that? Luckily?
Speaker 1: Why do I do that? My first bit to you,
Speaker 1: sir is, uh, follow your friends in there. You're in
Speaker 1: eighth grade. Give it, give it one more year. That's
Speaker 1: what I would ask you. Give it one more year
Speaker 1: for your friend's sake, so that you could be with them.
Speaker 1: It's not about starting. It's not about being a star.
Speaker 1: It's not about being a hero in the field. It's
Speaker 1: about going through August and September with these guys in Iowa.
Speaker 1: I was just not in Iowa recently with a head
Speaker 1: football coach actually, and I was such a cool, cool
Speaker 1: little stadium in green Grass and just being a part
Speaker 1: of that, being a part of something that's bigger than you,
Speaker 1: that's greater than you, where you're contributing, not necessarily always
Speaker 1: on the field, but you're there contributing morally with your friends.
Speaker 1: You're there to give them support. And unless you could
Speaker 1: replace all that I just said with something else in
Speaker 1: eighth grade, like maybe it's track or baseball or chess
Speaker 1: or math team. If you could replace it with that,
Speaker 1: do it. But if you can't and you're just gonna
Speaker 1: do nothing, I would say follow your friends in footb Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of questions for Anonymous. What kind
Speaker 1: of friends are they? Are these the kind of friends
Speaker 1: that you want to be? Like? Are they good friends?
Speaker 1: Are they you know, a good peer group? This is
Speaker 1: obviously the dad and the pastor and me. I'm not
Speaker 1: answering as a friend, but whether you should or shouldn't
Speaker 1: I think a question that you probably want to answer
Speaker 1: is what do you want to be true of you
Speaker 1: in a year from now? Like, in terms of your
Speaker 1: relationship with these guys and these friends, do you want
Speaker 1: a deeper friendship? And there's no doubt if you go
Speaker 1: through something as challenging as a football season with a
Speaker 1: group of guys, the highs and the lows, everything that
Speaker 1: you have to traverse with them is going to draw
Speaker 1: you closer. There's something about having to go through something
Speaker 1: difficult together that just forms bonds and friendships that can
Speaker 1: last a lifetime and develop character. And there's all kinds
Speaker 1: of benefits even if it's And the other question would
Speaker 1: be why don't you want to? Is there something about
Speaker 1: or something you've had as an experience that that just
Speaker 1: you go, you know what, I don't want to have
Speaker 1: to work that hard. I don't want to go through
Speaker 1: two days. I don't want to have to get hit.
Speaker 1: Or is there something more, you know, severe that really
Speaker 1: good point that's causing you to not want to do it?
Speaker 1: So I would just wigh. Is it just a I
Speaker 1: wanted to have a free fall and just kind of
Speaker 1: be in the stands and hang out with the ladies,
Speaker 1: or I guess there's other guys that don't play football too, right,
Speaker 1: But what's the reason why you wouldn't really good point
Speaker 1: to listen to anonymous that what are you trading this for?
Speaker 1: Why are you deciding not to do it? I promise
Speaker 1: you that when you do. First of all, let me
Speaker 1: say that the last three years, which have been fifth grade,
Speaker 1: sixth grade, and seventh grade, aren't going to be the
Speaker 1: same caliber football as eighth grade football. That's going to be.
Speaker 1: It's going to be different and you will be able
Speaker 1: to say one day. I promise you in your job,
Speaker 1: when your job gets hard and something you have a challenge,
Speaker 1: you're going to go. You know what, I remember standing
Speaker 1: out there in October and the cold rain, standing ankle
Speaker 1: deep in mud, in that field with my buddies. This
Speaker 1: isn't that bad. That was tough. You're going to learn
Speaker 1: so many life lessons like that. You get about about
Speaker 1: winning and losing and struggling and fighting through adversity and
Speaker 1: competition and challenges and overcoming them together as a group.
Speaker 1: That all these things you're going to learn. And once
Speaker 1: again I got to say, this is not about talent
Speaker 1: and skill and fame and notoriety. Some very few kids
Speaker 1: get that. But what you're really going to get out
Speaker 1: of football is this group. And we're made as humans
Speaker 1: to be connected in a group. So I challenge you
Speaker 1: to to rewind this podcast and listen to what Chad
Speaker 1: said and question your reasons. As a dad, as a pastor,
Speaker 1: We're going to question why are you not wanting to play?
Speaker 1: And this is this is not what you wanted to
Speaker 1: hear in this podcast. Probably when you wrote in this
Speaker 1: is not what you're expecting, you wanted us to say, Well,
Speaker 1: you go out there, just do what you know, do
Speaker 1: you man? B you bu But I feel pretty serious
Speaker 1: about this, and I would say too that if there
Speaker 1: is something else, that another reason why you shouldn't do it,
Speaker 1: and it's a good reason then obviously we don't have
Speaker 1: that information, and we're going off of what you've indicated here.
Speaker 1: But there's a few things that for my own son,
Speaker 1: who's thirteen and looking at a fall season of sports,
Speaker 1: like I want, I want him to know that this
Speaker 1: is a season that will pass. He has very few
Speaker 1: opportunities to do this kind of stuff. I mean, the
Speaker 1: opportunities to play on a team sport and to I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got probably only five more opportunities to do this,
Speaker 1: and then once you get off, most people aren't going
Speaker 1: to be able to do this in college or in
Speaker 1: their adult life. So it's a unique season of life
Speaker 1: to take advantage of these kind of things. Also, we're
Speaker 1: training future men. We're not raising boys, we're raising men.
Speaker 1: And we need a generation of young men that can
Speaker 1: take the hill, that can and that comes because they've
Speaker 1: decided to do hard things and they've survived them and
Speaker 1: they've gotten better for it. So do hard things, anonymous,
Speaker 1: all right, we need we need men like you to
Speaker 1: lead in the future. So do hard stuff, make hard choices.
Speaker 1: And if you've ever said yes to any one of
Speaker 1: these buddies when they said, hey, are you gonna play football,
Speaker 1: and you said yes, then you better do it because
Speaker 1: your word is your bond. That's so good. What do
Speaker 1: you say? We have to we have to have men
Speaker 1: that could take the hill. Yes, we need men that
Speaker 1: can take the hill, that could take the hill. Yes,
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that man. And let me
Speaker 1: say one more time, Anonymous, let me just clarify. If
Speaker 1: you're saying you want to replace this with soccer cool,
Speaker 1: wrestling great, cross country cool, it's not. This is not
Speaker 1: football specific. This is doing difficult things, do hard things.
Speaker 1: It'll be better for it, and when you do it
Speaker 1: in a group, even even better than that. Right, thank
Speaker 1: you for email. We got time. We have time, Chad, sweet,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw this over to you. We have military
Speaker 1: marriage is hard. We have relationship problems. We have feeling
Speaker 1: lost in a fog. Advice from a fan, grief belief
Speaker 1: differences in relationship. You have advice from a fan. I
Speaker 1: think it was miss misstated here, okay, advice to us.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear. I thought that I read it.
Speaker 1: And let's jump into one of those relationship marriage ones.
Speaker 1: Which one do you want? You want the belief differences
Speaker 1: in a relationship, relationship problems or military marriages is hard
Speaker 1: belief differences sounds says, Hey Granger, I'd like to remain anonymous.
Speaker 1: You got it, he says. I'm a strong Christian, but
Speaker 1: my boyfriend considers himself agnostic. He doesn't understand why God
Speaker 1: would let bad things happen to people and children, like cancer, starvation, etc.
Speaker 1: I never know what to say other than that, other
Speaker 1: than that we live in a fallen world with suffering,
Speaker 1: and that this is in our home, and that life
Speaker 1: is so short comparatively to eternity. What would you say
Speaker 1: to a non believer that says that they cannot believe
Speaker 1: in God who would let bad things happen to innocent people?
Speaker 1: What do scriptures say? Also? What are your thoughts on
Speaker 1: marriage between a Christian and a non Christian? What does
Speaker 1: a Bible say about that? I'm always praying for God
Speaker 1: to reveal himself to my boyfriend and for him to
Speaker 1: escape to accept Jesus into his heart. Thanks for reading
Speaker 1: my email. This is loaded. We've gotten into this in
Speaker 1: the previous times. I've been here at at the table
Speaker 1: with you in terms of why would God allow and
Speaker 1: what would we say to somebody who's struggling with a
Speaker 1: God that allows evil and bad things and suffering and cancer,
Speaker 1: and I think, yeah, I mean the answer remains the
Speaker 1: same there, certainly is. We live in a world that
Speaker 1: is very fallen and broken, and there's a ton of
Speaker 1: pain and suffering. The reason why God allows that to
Speaker 1: take place is because he's a God of love and
Speaker 1: he is created a universe in which we are free creatures.
Speaker 1: And in order for authentic love to occur, freedom has
Speaker 1: to exist, which also means we have the ability and
Speaker 1: the freedom to not love and to reject Him in
Speaker 1: his ways. So there, that's usually where I start with
Speaker 1: when I'm talking to somebody who really gets upset about
Speaker 1: the idea of evil and a god that will allowed.
Speaker 1: Is I look at the ideals of love, which everyone
Speaker 1: they enjoy that they love the idea of freedom, but
Speaker 1: to realize that freedom necessitates both a good and a
Speaker 1: bad side. There's the freedom to do good and evil,
Speaker 1: and that is something that this world has because He
Speaker 1: is a God of love and has created this world
Speaker 1: for that. Let me tie this to the last question
Speaker 1: real quick. So I would say to this anonymous, I
Speaker 1: would say, to your question, and as Christians, we need
Speaker 1: to be armed with an answer of some sort we
Speaker 1: can't just fumble our way to I don't know you're right.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're right. So to answer this, why does God?
Speaker 1: Why did God create a world that has suffering? Basically
Speaker 1: is what you're saying. So I'd say to relate to
Speaker 1: the last question, why did Man create a game like
Speaker 1: football that allows suffering and pain and blood and hardship
Speaker 1: and loss and adversity and possible broken bones? Why did Man?
Speaker 1: Why did we create a game like that? And why
Speaker 1: do we still play it? That sounds ridiculous. Oh wait
Speaker 1: a minute, that's the same question, because look what football
Speaker 1: does to young men. It creates men that could take
Speaker 1: the hill. It creates strength and bond and love and
Speaker 1: endurance and perseverance and patience. Why do we go to
Speaker 1: a gym and work out to tear down our muscles
Speaker 1: to grow bigger ones? That everything in life revolves on
Speaker 1: this same principle, that it takes adversity or some kind
Speaker 1: of breakdown to then build back up. God created this world,
Speaker 1: He created us. Don't you think he kind of knew
Speaker 1: that that if you imagine a world of perfect bliss,
Speaker 1: what would that be like? Will be terrible? I think
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about Heaven. I'm not talking about it.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about this here and now. If it was
Speaker 1: just everything was just fine. I was reading a study
Speaker 1: or a story I think it was back in the nineties.
Speaker 1: There was this experiment I think it was in Arizona
Speaker 1: called the biosphere or biosphere too, and scientists created this
Speaker 1: environment that was completely closed in and it had all
Speaker 1: of the different trees and plants and things like that,
Speaker 1: and they were doing an experiment to see if they
Speaker 1: could create that kind of the perfect environment free from
Speaker 1: that kind of thing, and what they could learn from it.
Speaker 1: The interesting thing they found out about the trees in
Speaker 1: this biosphere, and it was that after a certain after
Speaker 1: they would grow to a certain maturity, these trees that
Speaker 1: were full and lush and fruitful would fall over and
Speaker 1: then some of them would just start to shrivel up
Speaker 1: and die. And they were like, what's going on here?
Speaker 1: And it's because the trees lived in an atmosphere with
Speaker 1: zero adversity. There was no wind, and because there was
Speaker 1: no wind, their root systems were shallow and they didn't
Speaker 1: have to grow deep root systems, and so they were
Speaker 1: unstable and they fell. So it's interesting to learn that
Speaker 1: trees need adversity, They need the stress of wind and
Speaker 1: rain and snow, and it causes their roots to go
Speaker 1: deeper and deeper and stronger and stronger so that they
Speaker 1: can be mature and even more vibrant. That's incredible analogy,
Speaker 1: that's perfect. We need wind to then send our root
Speaker 1: system deeper to stabilize us, and then we're more fruitful,
Speaker 1: and then we have more vibrant lives. That's that is
Speaker 1: the answer. And people don't people think that's so hard
Speaker 1: to understand why God could introduce adversity or suffering into
Speaker 1: our lives. When if you look at every time that
Speaker 1: we go through a war in this country, imagine World
Speaker 1: War two, we came together from that adversity. We unified
Speaker 1: after nine to eleven, the aftermath of nine to eleven.
Speaker 1: The flags I still see the vision of all the
Speaker 1: flags on everybody's porch, and everyone coming together is one
Speaker 1: to help each other and make each other stronger. And
Speaker 1: it's those type events help make us stronger. Let's move
Speaker 1: on to her next big question here, what are your
Speaker 1: thoughts in marriage between a Christian and a non Christian?
Speaker 1: What does the Bible say about it? Praying to God
Speaker 1: forgot to reveal himself to my boyfriend. Uh, this will
Speaker 1: be the last thing. And then in the podcast, Yes,
Speaker 1: I have had this conversation with a variety of couples
Speaker 1: through the years, and it is let me say, let
Speaker 1: me say, is chat is you give marriage advice pre
Speaker 1: marriage counseling, So you're you're pretty equipped for this kind
Speaker 1: of Yeah. And one of the things that I do
Speaker 1: with a couple is I have them picture. Let's say
Speaker 1: their marriage is wildly successful, they have this long, happy marriage,
Speaker 1: and I have them separately imagine who's around them. Let's
Speaker 1: say when they're ninety and their marriage they've they've been
Speaker 1: married maybe seventy years, and when they close their eyes
Speaker 1: and picture who's there? What are the people experiencing that
Speaker 1: are there? Yeah, what's the size of the people. What
Speaker 1: does life look like in that picture? And it's interesting
Speaker 1: that how often couples that are both believers have a
Speaker 1: similar vision, the pictures the same, which means as they
Speaker 1: decide things about and priorities about their life, and that's
Speaker 1: going to lead to that ultimate successful picture, they're going
Speaker 1: to be making decisions with the same sense of priority,
Speaker 1: and they're going to have the same priorities. But if
Speaker 1: a couple has a different picture of what success in
Speaker 1: marriage looks like, that's going to be extremely challenging to
Speaker 1: begin a marriage that's going two different directions. And so
Speaker 1: when it comes to kids, how are we going to
Speaker 1: discipline our kids? Are we going to go to church?
Speaker 1: What does it look like if moms heading'to church but
Speaker 1: dads stay home and watching football on Sunday. Those types
Speaker 1: of things have an impact. Not that it can't be successful,
Speaker 1: but the odds are stacked against. Statistically, if it's not
Speaker 1: the mother that goes to church that affects the kids,
Speaker 1: it's the father. And a father that does not go
Speaker 1: to church, eighty percent of those kids will not go
Speaker 1: to church when they grow up, regardless of what the
Speaker 1: mother does. It's leadership, right, It's a leadership issue in
Speaker 1: that regard. And so yeah, other things come into play.
Speaker 1: How you spend money, prioritize spending, how you make decisions
Speaker 1: about career and whose career and all these these are
Speaker 1: all emanating out of two distinct worldviews. A Christian worldview says,
Speaker 1: I believe that God exists, that he's ultimately good, and
Speaker 1: that he orders my days. A non Christian worldview thinks
Speaker 1: that I'm in charge of things here and if it's
Speaker 1: going to be it's up to me. And so there's
Speaker 1: different hopes and dreams and different standards, and so it's
Speaker 1: extremely challenging. It's very difficult. Anonymous dumping or we'll be
Speaker 1: praying for him. That's the pastor leouds. I like to
Speaker 1: say that on this podcast. Dump him. Yeah, I may
Speaker 1: or may not be serious, but thank you for the email.
Speaker 1: This is this We're around a campfire, just a couple
Speaker 1: of buddies. Remember I can say to say we're buddies here,
Speaker 1: not on the platform. We're on the same page. Thank you, guys. Chad,
Speaker 1: love you brother, You're awesome. We are. This is episode
Speaker 1: ninety seven. We're still planning on the getting together with
Speaker 1: several of us on number one hundred, so we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that. And yeah, thank you guys for all the
Speaker 1: different platforms that you're listening and watching. Thank you, we
Speaker 1: love you, see you. 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 the notification spell So that you never
Speaker 1: miss anytime I upload a video. If you have a
Speaker 1: question for me that you would like me to answer,
Speaker 1: email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Ye