The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
WOFOYO SHORT: Seasons, Responsibility, And Renewal
The holiday buzz can blur what matters most—so we press pause to talk about seasons, responsibility, and the courage to make changes. We open with the power of spiritual rhythms like Lent and Advent, not as rituals for ritual’s sake, but as practical tools that teach us when to fast, when to celebrate, and how to evaluate our lives with clarity. That frame leads into a real conversation about feeling out of sync with the people around you—sometimes months or years ahead—and how to carry that tension without pride or despair.
From there, we step into Joshua Chapters 7&8 for an unflinching leadership lesson. After victory at Jericho and a painful loss at Ai, Joshua learns that “not my fault” can still be “my responsibility.” We unpack the Achan story, then trace how confession, alignment, and a smart plan turned defeat into decisive success. Along the way, we explore practical strategy: taking a tactical pause, detaching, widening your view, testing assumptions against results, and choosing actions that fit the terrain you’re actually on. Integrity plus strategy beats hustle without reflection.
We bring it home with a timely practice: take inventory now. Name the habits that lift you, the patterns that drain you, and the neutral clutter that steals your focus. If a relationship, project, or routine isn’t beneficial, decide whether it needs pruning, pausing, or a plan. Gratitude and growth are not rivals; gratitude fuels honest change. Before the calendar flips, choose one concrete adjustment and one small experiment you’ll run for the next four weeks. Then tell someone who will hold you to it.
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Hey everybody, welcome to another WoeFo Yo Short. This is C Dub. One of the things that I appreciated about growing up Catholic in Catholicism, every year is divided up into seasons. There'll be a 40-day season before before Easter Resurrection Sunday. And that that'll be called Lent. This time of fasting and contemplation. There's a time of celebration and anticipation for weeks before Christmas. That's called Advent. But it teaches you to break your life down and maybe evaluate and learn how to operate in different functions at different times. There's going to be seasons in your lives. There's going to be seasons where it's celebratory. There's going to be seasons where you may have to draw things down and get lean. A lot of times that get lean season will coincide with you getting alone with the Lord. Seasons are important. If you don't believe me, it just go back to Israel in the Old Testament, and especially if you get to look in the Gospels, if you know what to look for, especially in John's Gospel, it breaks things down according to the Jewish feast. There were spring feasts, there were false feasts, so the early rain and the latter rain. It was about planting season and harvest season, would be a better way of saying it. That's always an important lesson. However, one of the things that I've noticed in my walk with the Lord, and it might be like this for you, and it might not. And that's fine either way. One of the things I've noticed is that a lot of times my seasons are not happening at the same time as everybody else's. Usually they're ahead by anywhere from three months to there's times I say certain seasons and kind of before the body of Christ, you know, that that I interact with is experiencing there. There's times, it seems like I've been ahead of schedule from anywhere three months to five, six, seven years. And I'm I'm not saying that to toot my own horn. I'm just saying that as a reality. Because that can get real lonely when you're when you have that happening. Oh, yeah, I was ahead of the time. Yeah, okay, buddy. Yeah. That's real comforting to be ahead of the time. And uh anyway, one of the things the Lord's been dealing with me, though, uh, about is that as time progresses, things are sinking up more and more. So that period of being ahead of everybody else might not be as drastic because everything's happening so fast. Let's get in the word for ourselves. I'm just going to summarize. Joshua chapter 7. You have something happen. They have just come off of this magnificent defeat against the odds of Jericho in chapter 6. And then they have something that happens over in chapter 7. And basically, what happens with chapter 7, if you read, is the story of Achan. And so they go up against this small outpost called Ai. We don't need everybody. Let's just send a couple thousand to fight against this because they're they're not well protected. Well, they get a shellacken. They end up running away, tail tucked between their legs. Joshua's like, You have forsaken us. And the Lord says, Shut up. I haven't forsaken you. One of your people has done something that they shouldn't have. They've done taking some day. There were some strict orders in Jericho what not to take. And lo and behold, there's this dude named Achan, and he takes a Babylonian garment, and he takes some bit of gold and some silver and stuff. They have to deal with Achan. And they deal by drawing lots. Achan confesses, and I know y'all don't like to hear talk like this. They stone Achan and his family and all that he owns, and they burn them up. It's a very Old Testament story. Repent. They also make a memorial and write down all the words of the law so that this doesn't happen again. It's a memorial. They have the stones that haven't been cut, and they make an altar to the Lord, and they write down all the words of the law so that the people can read them. And Joshua reads them in the whole assembly. So then they get ready to go up and fight Ai again. And the Lord says, Don't be dismayed. So take all the fighting men with you. Arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai and his people in the city and his land. And you shall do to Ai and his king as you did to Jericho and its king, only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as a plunder for yourself. Lay an ambush against the city behind it. There's this really interesting book called Battles of the Bible, written by two IDF guys. And it's not a religious book, but it does break down in a military fashion all the tactics and strategies that were involved. It gives you a layout and land of all these places where these battles occurred and some of the circumstances. Well, here's the deal. This you're going uphill, but there's this valley right before AI. And so when they send siege behind it, they have people in ambush. Then they send a diversionary group up. Look like they're going to try and take AI again. And then when the men of AI see them, they turn, tucktail, and run before, except that's a diversion. And what happens is that all the men of AI chase them. The ambush group goes behind sets the city on fire and then comes up behind them. And then you also got men might have been waiting on the side, so they enclose the whole frickin' valley and they wipe out everybody. So there's a story of AI. Now, Joshua had a signal that he gave, and that's when they all came down on the men of AI and killed everybody. C Dub, why are you bringing that up? I'm recording this a day after Thanksgiving. This is going to air today because I was celebrating Thanksgiving to get ready for Thanksgiving rather than record an episode prior to. While everybody else is out there shopping, I'll tell you what the Lord's been causing me to do. This giving thanks for sure. Very, very thankful. But it's also been a time for me personally of taking inventory. And so you're going to have these seasons where, Lord's, maybe maybe some things ain't working out quite right. Uh Lord, why is this happening? Why is that happening? If you really want to be mature about it, you're never, I'm not saying you're never going to be wrong doing this, but you will get quickly corrected, which is the best way, rather than assume, Lord, why did you do this? If something's not going the way it should, the first person you should look at is yourself. It might not be your fault, but as someone who is called to be a leader, and we're all called to be leaders. I've been talking about this recently. You're called to be a leader.
SPEAKER_00:Realize that it might not be your fault, but it is your responsibility.
SPEAKER_01:Aiken taking the banned items after the conquest of Jericho was not Joshua's fault. It was Joshua's responsibility. And so you have to deal with things. Last couple weeks caused me to re-evaluate some things. Doesn't involve his podcast at all. But just on a personal level, this last two, three weeks has been a time of reflection, a time of evaluation of what have I been doing. I'm seeing some things that were starting to happen that I didn't like. And I have to go back and go, hmm, what's contributing to this? I've had to examine my own actions. And in doing so, had to make some relationship adjustments with people, some of which were a potential romantic interest down the line. And I go, well, yes, this is not happening for various reasons. A lot of it has to do with stepping back. Um, as Bones says, take the tactical pause and just view things from not being so up close in them. And bottom line, you go, well, is this is this what the Lord wants? And I know this is uh a callous way of looking at it for for some of y'all because everybody wants to be very emotional these days. But you have to go look and say, is this benefiting me? If I continue on this course, uh, what are the results going to be? Uh is it gonna be beneficial or is it gonna be detrimental? Or is it gonna be neutral? These are questions since you're called to be a leader while everybody else is giving Thanksgiving, and we should give Thanksgiving, don't wait to New Year's to start evaluating things. Look at where you're at now, look at what's been happening. Ask yourself, what have I done to contribute to things I like or don't like? You know, what's my part? And even if certain things aren't your fault, they're still your responsibility and you gotta deal with them. That's just part of it. It's part of being an adult. So happy Thanksgiving, everybody. You have Christmas season coming up on us. I want you all to have a blessed one. But while you're being blessed and while you're being thankful, take inventory, folks, and make whatever adjustments you need to make and do it before the new year. Wofoyo. Hey everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at wofoyo.org or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or even check us out on YouTube. For Bones and Myself, this is C Dub, reminding you that if you're going to grow, you gotta Woefo Yo. Get in the word for yourself.