Across the Counter
This podcast is a passion project where we interview a diverse blend of musicians, authors, podcasters, pastors, and thinkers about semi religious topics.
Instead of listening to respond or debate, we listen to understand through finding common ground and hearing our guests’ stories.
So grab your beverage of choice and pull up a seat Across the Counter!
Learn more at www.atcpodcast.com
Across the Counter
Chaos | Noah Asher | Episode 48
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Join us as we sit Across the Counter from award winning author Noah Asher.
In this ATC episode:
• Noah’s story is a powerful testament to the idea that our deepest trials are not the final word on our lives, but rather a prelude to a deeper purpose and service.
• During our conversation, Noah shares the vulnerable process of turning personal letters from his time behind bars into a beacon of hope for others still facing their personal battles. The conversation isn't all heavy, though; we laugh and find common ground in the unexpected places where humor meets gravity in Christian literature.
• Noah's unique perspective on faith doesn't shy away from the realities of his past, and his commitment to helping those in need shines through, especially in his efforts to provide his book to inmates and individuals in rehab centers.
Connect with Noah:
Instagram: @thenoahasher
Website: www.thenoahasher.com
Beliefs espoused by the guests of ATC are not necessarily the beliefs and convictions of ATC.
That said the intent of our podcast is to listen, remain curious and never fear failure in the discovery life giving truth. Many people we ardently disagree with have been our greatest teachers.
Finding Faith After Chaos
Speaker 1Pull up a chair across the counter. Your one-stop shop for a variety of perspectives around Jesus and Christianity. I'm Grant Lockridge and I'm here with Noah Asher. Noah is an award-winning author. He is the author of Chaos, overcoming the Overwhelming. And Noah, just tell me why you decided to write a book.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, thanks for having me today. And this book Chaos, was basically born, written out of my own chaotic journey Years ago. I was incarcerated and tried taking my own life because I felt like I had nothing more to live for. And in that moment, that season of trying to find purpose again, I realized that so many people, when they're in the midst of chaos whether it is incarceration or addiction, or the loss of a loved one or even divorce to understand that, hey, there is purpose in your pain, but the pain was never your purpose. And just to help people walk through that journey.
Speaker 1Cool. So if you don't mind me asking and feel free to be like I don't want to talk about it, but why'd you go to prison? Or? Jail or whatever it is, why'd?
Speaker 2you go to prison or jail or whatever it is.
Speaker 2Yeah, jail is first and then prison, but it was really from it all stemmed from addiction and it all stemmed from just selfishness, but addiction was the main thing.
Speaker 2I talk about it in the book and because of my addiction, I let it control me and rule over me. And, funny enough, I grew up going to church and so it's like I knew who God was, but I don't feel like I really had a relationship with him. And it's kind of like the old saying of I knew the hymns but I didn't know him, him. And so that process was long and drawn out, because even while I was incarcerated I thought, because of the weight of sin, you know, and the weight of, sometimes, the guilt that we feel within our sin, it was so heavy upon me because I knew right from wrong but I was still doing wrong and it led me to a deep, dark pit. But in that pit it was an opportunity to grow closer to God as who he really is, as my Father, and really dive into that I talk about in the book, how we're not a lost cause but we're a found child, and that's something I just tell myself over and over and over again in the midst of my own chaos, something.
Speaker 1I had to tell myself over and over and over again in the midst of my own chaos. Yeah, so describe kind of the process of you know. A lot of people will either have that like one moment where they're like, hey, I met Jesus for the first time. Or you know that long season I was more of like you know a long season kind of guy. But describe to me kind of that process of your, you know, coming to Jesus. Testimony.
Speaker 2Yeah, for me it was. While I was locked up I was kind of manipulating the system. I thought, okay, god, I know you love me and if you love me you won't want me to be in pain and so get me out of here. Or if you're not going to get me out of here, take my life. Let me come home to you, jesus. Either way, I want to go home. I want to go home to my house and to my cozy bed, or I want to go home to you.
Speaker 2And I prayed that over and over again. And then I just kind of had that moment where I'm like no, I'm here, and if I'm here, I'm going to do this thing for real. I had all the time in the world, of course, not much to do there, and so in that season I realized you know what? I'm going to stop saying God, why me? I'm going to start saying God, use me. I'm going to figure out how I can make this happen, even behind bars. And so for me, a lot like you, it was a gradual opportunity where it's like I knew who God was, but I didn't have that full relationship with them and it took the bottom falling out for me to really lean into him a little bit deeper.
Speaker 1That's awesome. So how long would you say? Like you've identified as a Christian? That's a good question. I would say right now you've identified as a Christian?
Speaker 2That's a good question. I would say, right now, a full-on Christian. Six years, that's how long it's been since I've gotten out and I would say that in that time I've learned a lot. I got baptized and it's just been a great journey of growing more of who he is. And it's not like there's any, there's no hidden agenda, it's just me in love with my Father and it's awesome. I love it.
Speaker 1That's cool, man, so something because you said like, kind of you thought that God was real, right, yeah, for a long time, and then you know you eventually gave your life over to God. I just find it super interesting. That's something that I've been thinking about a little bit this past week of like the nature of belief and what it means to actually like believe in Jesus and the things Jesus said, and that's just so. That's tougher than you'd think to grasp, because it's like you can think that God is real, you know, you know that God's real, but what does it mean to like put your full weight into it? And can we even put our full weight? Because it's like we're not perfect people, so I don't know, that's just something I've been kind of chewing on.
Speaker 2Yeah, and for me it was because I grew up going to church and I'm from the South and so we focus more on don't push the button, don't push the button, and then if you push the button it's like you are a failure. And so, because I grew up with that mindset, it was one of those things where I knew he was real, and at this point I've sinned. So now it's like, well, there's no going back, and so I'm stuck in this cycle of, well, I've already messed up, but there's no way to get back to him. And so it wasn't until I literally had no other option. I couldn't run no longer. I was in a place of no more running. And that's when I realized, oh, he never wanted me to run in the first place.
Speaker 2Like when you look at the prodigal son story, it was always the father who ran toward the son. We have to be willing to, to accept the embrace, and for me I was not willing to accept the embrace because I didn't think he could love me, because I was a sinner, still am, but we, because we all are. But it was just you've made God angry and there's no turning back at this point. And I realized that's not the God that I serve.
Speaker 1Yeah. So I'm interested more, and also in the process of writing a book. One, where'd you get the idea? And two, how do you actually go about writing? First of all, how many pages is that sucker, because when I got it it was a lot longer than I expected for somebody writing their first book. So, first of all, impressive that you wrote just a ton. A fresh book. So, first of all, impressive that you wrote just a ton. And second of all, you know how'd you write that much?
Speaker 2Well, it started out I was writing letters while locked up. I was just writing letters to my parents and telling them hey, I'm going to get through this, we're going to get through this, and it was almost therapeutic for me just to be able to share what something I read or something that I really felt like I was working on while incarcerated. And I was writing these letters. Well, my mom, who is super mom after I got out she gave me this vintage suitcase and inside it had every letter I had ever written to her, and it was hard to read some of those. Looking back, but I realized, wow, there's some depth in here, and so I started taking it and formulating it into a book. But I did not want it to be some other prison book or some other story like autobiography memoir, because no one knows who I am, so there's no reason to write a book about me. So I wanted to share some of my story because I feel like I wanted to have that moment of saying, hey, you're going to get through this. How do I know? Because God's gotten me through it. So I wanted to give that encouragement there. But I wanted to write a book based off of what I felt like God showed me while I was in the midst of my own chaos.
Speaker 2And now chaos, like I mentioned earlier, doesn't come in just the form of incarceration, it comes in the form of loss, Like I lost my dad while I was editing this book and I asked if I could. I told the editor I said can I please have this book back? And I want to add some stuff about my dad, because for someone reading this who's experiencing loss, I want to be able to relate. I want to be able to explain how that that season felt of losing my father. And I've also experienced illness. About a year and a half ago, we could not figure out what was wrong with me. I just kept getting worse and worse, and finally we figured out it was lupus, but for a while I was just in a wheelchair, could not walk, and now here I am, I run two miles every day. And so it's just explaining that we can. While our chaos may look different than one another, we can all overcome that which overwhelms us. And so, to go back to the question of how to write it, it's just leaning into taking personal experiences and then, of course, first and foremost, the foundation of scripture and then connecting all the dots. And for me, my goal and my prayer for every, on every page that people will find is hope, help and humor. Those are the three H's I want on every page for my reader and I hope that's the case.
Speaker 2And one thing for me when you're writing a book, something that Pastor Mark Batterson said and he's the champion of authorship, he's an amazing, amazing author and pastor he said that all ologies can be pointed back to theology. And when he said that, it has always resonated with me. And when I think about the intricacies of the brain and you look at neurology, it's like, oh, wow, it can truly be pointed back to theology. You can point back to God and go, wow, it can truly be pointed back to theology. You can point back to God and go, wow, there has to be a God because of just how intricate even our brain is. And when he said that, I try to incorporate that in my writing as well. I like to discuss science, I like to discuss history and just show other examples where we've seen someone come through from chaos, you know, and from overwhelming to overcoming.
Speaker 1Yeah, so describe to me kind of your views on grace as far as you know being, you know, incarcerated guy. I mean, I've talked to so many people like this guy, talian Chavijan, that we interviewed. You know he just has a massively cool stance on grace and how much like how big God's grace actually is and like you know, I'm a sinner, so, sweet mama, I need some grace. So just describe to like you know I'm a sinner, so, sweet mama, I need some grace. So just describe to me you know kind of your views on grace as a guy who's kind of been through it a little bit.
Speaker 2Yeah, I actually love this question and I laugh a little bit because I always have this friend that just I picture him in my mind. I remember going to a Christian bookstore with him one time and I was looking at this book and he goes oh I don't like that author because he talks too much about grace. And I was thinking like, how do you, how do you, read the Bible? That author talks a lot about grace throughout. But so that's pretty much. When it comes to grace, it's like it's. It's found all throughout scripture, from the very beginning to the, to the very end we see God's grace come about. And I have a chapter in my book called a hater's going to hate and we have to do what the wise philosopher tells us Taylor Swift, you know, shake it off. But uh, I look at the life of the, the transformation of Saul to Paul, and, and that transformation. I love that transformation. I can connect in a lot of ways to that story. But for me, one of the hardest things that I think we look at with other people's sin, nature and people's sin is we look at it and we go. Well, I know I have a little bit of trash in my yard, but their yard looks a lot dirtier and so they focus in on someone else's trash. And when we look at the life of Saul to Paul, I'm starting to understand that if we don't believe that Jesus can turn Saul into Paul even today, then we've missed the boat on the power of Jesus. Even today, then we've missed the boat on the power of Jesus Like it blows my mind how easy it is for us to look at the parting of the Red Sea and go, wow, that's a great miracle, god is powerful. But then when we look at someone today and go, wow, they had a heart change, we don't look at it with the same amazement. But that's what God does. He's still in the redemptive, he still has redemptive power and it's through his grace that it's possible.
Speaker 2And I also look at the Grinch in my book and how you know, the one with Jim Carrey. We see him going down the mountain and he comes down with all the gifts at the end of the movie because he had a heart change. And he stands and he goes I'm the Grinch that stole Christmas and I'm sorry and the officer standing there and all of a sudden the mayor comes up and you see Jim Carrey with his arm stuck out and he goes aren't you going to handcuff me, put me in a chokehold, blind me with pepper spray? And the mayor goes. You heard him, officer, and I recommend the pepper spray and the officer's response was yes, I heard him. He said he was sorry.
Speaker 2And we see the Hoos do what the church should do, right, where we see them welcome the Grinch in, they sing together, they even eat and dine together at the table and that's a beautiful picture of what the church is supposed to do in that setting. But unfortunately we come across mayors who recommend the pepper spray and those people who are doing that they don't understand sometimes that Jesus already took the pepper spray for us all and it's resting in that realm of grace to understand that his love is great enough to cover not some sin but all sin.
Speaker 1I didn't think the Grinch was a Christian movie, but now I'm not too sure.
Speaker 2It's very holy. Kirk Cameron should play in it, right.
Speaker 1No, that's a good metaphor. I saw just a lot of hilarious metaphors of, like you know, pop culture, funny little things here and there, of like you know what was the first thing you wrote? Was it Wonderwall? It wasn't Wonderwall, it was Third Eye Blind something.
Speaker 2Yeah, I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Humor and Hope in Christian Writing
Speaker 1That cracked me up. I was like, hey, he's pretty bold putting that on the first page, dude, that's good stuff.
Speaker 2What's funny is there's one point where I talk about how Christians always say this adage of God doesn't give you more than we can handle, and I say that's crap. God doesn't give you more than we can handle. And I say that's crap. And then I actually I say below it. I go kind of like in parentheses. I'm like can I say crap in a Christian book?
Speaker 1And.
Speaker 2I'm like, okay, that's poop. And what's funny is my the Christian publisher actually came back to me and said, yeah, you can't say the word crap. I said that's so funny, cause that's the whole joke of can I say crap in a Christian book? And the answer is no. I guess I can't, because they made me take it out, but I left it. I was like that's poop, that's how I left it. And I was interviewed by this music magazine and I love music and so I was so honored. But they were talking about how I went from James Taylor to Taylor Swift in the same chapter. I was like, yeah, let's go, let's go.
Speaker 1They do. That's so interesting because I've read a lot of Christian books that aren't published by. Necessarily, I don't know who published your book. It was like a subset of Zondervan, right, or something. Yeah, yeah, okay, I don't know. Where did I see that? Did I read that somewhere? I don't know.
Speaker 2It may be on the back or something, but yeah, it's the the thing about Christian books and I love I've read, I've read so many is some of them are just very deep, very great, and I wanted to have that raw vulnerable or vulnerability throughout the book. But I also wanted to make people raw vulnerability throughout the book. But I also wanted to make people smile and make people laugh, because I think when you can joke, especially in the season of chaos, when you can joke about your chaos, you own it instead of it owning you and I want to be able to share that's my personality in a nutshell my dad's funeral. I shared a joke and my friends laughed and they're like, can we laugh? I was like, yeah, he, my dad would have.
Speaker 2So let's do it, and that's one thing that I never want to. Um diminish or demean someone's chaos and the pain that they're feeling, because pain is real. Um, but I do want to put a smile on people's face. That's why I say hope, help and humor throughout.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's cool man. Yeah, I don't like taking things too seriously myself. I don't know if I'm you know I won't even get into that. I've got there's some dark humor in funerals for me, right.
Speaker 2I have a lot of dark humor and I have to scale back a little bit in the book, but it was. I'll put it this way. People always ask me like what, how do I start writing? And it is true, there is an element where I do turn on some great like worship music and try to get my heart and my mind in the right head space, you know, in the right heart space. But then a lot of times I will turn on the office. No lie, I'll turn on the office and just have it in the background as I'm writing. And it's just something about that. That fun, that funness brings out the creativity while I write and it really does help.
Speaker 1So I like it. I like it. Yeah, that's funny, but put the office in the background. There's some people that are just like silent writers, that are like I don't want anything, and there's some people that are just like jamming, doing whatever.
Speaker 2So and I have the office. I even quote back to Grace. I quote Michael Scott in the book. I say everyone deserves a second, second chance. That's from that's Michael Scott so that's his that's his view on Grace and I love it. I'll take it.
Speaker 1So where is this like, where's this book taken, you Cause I know that?
Speaker 2Oh, thank you this is the first book you've ever written right yeah or am I making things up?
Speaker 1okay, this is the first book you've ever written. You know you're just some dude that, you know has a story, which to me, is my favorite type of dude. So like, yeah, you know you're, you're just, you know, wrote you a little book.
Speaker 2Where is that book taking you now? I'm so glad you asked, because right before we jumped on this actually. Well, let me back up All proceeds for this book I'm using to provide copies to prison libraries and rehab centers across.
Speaker 1America, oh heck yeah.
From Pain to Purpose
Speaker 2And so that's really cool. But then I just signed, before we jumped on this podcast, I signed a document that has me producing the audio book for this this month, and by next month it's going to be available for free on eight, eight hundred thousand inmates tablets for them to listen to yeah, and so I'm very pumped about that because for me when I was, I would go to these chapels while in prison and you'd have these guys and god bless them.
Speaker 2I'm so thankful that they showed up a lot of times. That's the hardest part, just showing up. But you could tell some of these guys they didn't have some crazy prison story, they just are volunteering and sometimes they would tell me hey, you're going to get through this, and I'm like am I.
Speaker 2Like will I Like? How do you know that? Show me, and for me. I love that. I don't really hear that when I speak in prisons and rehab centers they don't ever say to me oh, you just don't know what I'm dealing with. Because they know I do understand, and so that relatability helps when it explains that, hey, like you do have a fighting chance when you get out, like you do have a fighting chance when you get out.
Speaker 2I thought when, by signing a deal, my little few years that I did was going to turn into a life sentence, because I've heard all these horror stories about you know hard to get a job or to do this, hard to do that. And here I am, I'm sitting in my office, I have letters from US senators congratulating me and encouraging me and I'm just so thankful for every one of those steps congratulating me and encouraging me and I'm just so thankful for every one of those steps and I'm so thankful that God has his favor, has been upon me to help me get to where I am today. And I don't want it just to be for me, I want it to be to help others. In fact, in the book I talk about, of course, joseph's moment where he went from the pit to the palace and in between he was in prison. But it was Genesis 50, 20 that truly changed my outlook on my own chaos, and it was that what the enemy intended for evil, god will use for good. And normally that's all we see of that verse, that's all Hobby Lobby puts on the wall heart. That we see.
Speaker 2But the verse doesn't end there. It says what the enemy intended for evil, god will use for good, to save many lives. To understand hey, god's not only turning things around for you, he's turning things around for you to help others. And that's where I say in the book it's like, hey, you go from pain to purpose, but don't stop there. You go for that platform next and utilize your chaos to help others. And I think that's to me the biggest slap in the enemy's face when you can turn what he thought was going to be your downfall and to turn it around and now help people out of their own pit yeah, that's so cool that your book's gonna be on 800 000 prison prisoners tablets, like I am.
Speaker 2I'm excited about that for you, but for them I mean mean that's, that's cool.
Speaker 2Yeah, and what's funny is, uh, I prayed. I was talking to uh someone from my team last night and, uh, we knew the papers were coming today and I said y'all thought I was crazy when I said let's pray boldly this year for a million copies, I said y'all thought I was crazy and I'm not going to sit and boast and pat myself on the back for having amazing faith. No, every day that we've prayed for a million to get into a million people's hands, every time I quiver I was like, uh-oh, this is impossible. I was praying it but I still didn't think it was possible. And then God's like, yeah, I got you.
Speaker 1Here's 800,000 people right here.
Speaker 2So it's crazy how God's just opening these doors, that, ironically, I fought so hard to get out of prison and now here I am doing prison sort of ministry to focus in on it for them. And it's funny. I was talking to some correction officers the other day and we were talking about this event coming up and they laughed they go. I think you're the only person who's ever begged us to go back in and I was like, as long as I get to leave and eat Chick-fil-A afterwards, I'm all about it. Just let me leave, please, yeah, please, let me leave. Like you hear that it's almost like PTSD. I hear the shutting of the cell. I'm like, oh no, like time to go. So that's a funny story.
Speaker 2When I first got out, I was working with a hotel, a popular hotel chain, and I was there for three weeks just at front desk and they promoted me to general manager, which is automatically like the favor of God, so, so beautiful. But I remember sitting in my office and some of my staff knew my story and everything, and this employee came and said, hey, I don't know why, but like the police are out front and now I'm not doing anything wrong sitting in my office, but by the time she told me that it walked up to the front, back up to the front to see if they were still there. And then 15 seconds later she walked back to my office. I was gone. She called me. She's like where did you go? I said I'm in my car, I'm, I'm, I'm down the road. She's like there's no way. I was like, yeah, like I got it and I got out of there. I'm not going to stick around find out why they're there, but so I still have those little moments here and there, but overall it's just just. It's been so exciting to even see like with these, these officers I talk to on the daily and wardens, and it's just crazy.
Speaker 2You asked me that, gosh, six years ago. I go no, heck, no, I want to be far away from this as possible. And and that's another thing, people, even my team, they're like are you sure you want to talk about your time in prison? Because of sometimes the church community can look at that pretty hardcore, and I was like we, I can leave that out, but where I settled on it was hiding, looks like guilt and guilt leads to shame, and so I didn't want that. Guilt and guilt leads to shame, and so I didn't want that. But I also felt like by hiding it it's not showing, you know, by the words of our testimony that we hear in scripture, it was not showing proof of how God is still in the redemption business today. And that was so crucial for me and I, you know again, we went back and forth with that on whether to include it or not. In fact, I mean, I had one literary agent read my book and he said love the book, don't love the author. I was like cool. I said cool, cool man.
Speaker 1So maybe the worst thing you could say to a person.
Speaker 2Yeah, I was like, what do you say after that? Like, okay, blessings, like how do you? I don't know, I probably screw you.
Speaker 1But yeah, yeah, christian man, you know, maybe not, but right, but it's, it's very.
Faith, Grace, and Testimony
Speaker 2You know, that story I share with the Grinch. It's like the mayor. I just kept running into a few of those and um, um, unfortunately we see more mayors sometimes than we do who's? But it's. My faith is not built on what I've seen other christians do. My faith is built on what I've seen god do and yeah I.
Speaker 2I saw that a lot in in prison and you know, and even now on the other side of it, I still see, see and deal with people who don't have a relationship with God, that they don't go to church, and most of the time the biggest hang up is other Christians and I'm like, well, you're not going for them. And so, yeah, we've had that conversation a lot and I'm glad people feel like they can come up to me and have that conversation. I'm pretty I've I tell people all the time I've needed grace, so I feel like I can extend it pretty well and so I can have those conversations with no judgment and kind of get to the bottom of it. A lot of book signing events I've done.
Speaker 2People will just unload at in the middle of a Barnes Noble about all they have going on and I'm like, yeah, I guess you've read the book. Like you know, I don't really I'm not going to judge, so what's up? They'll tell me all kinds of stuff, and a lot of people just stop too, though, because chaos is to me. I may be biased, biased, but chaos to me is a great uh, placeholder word for what we go through, and uh, like my banner, um, when I do barnes and noble events, all it says is new book who dis? And then it has. It has the cover of my book on it and oh, there you go and people go. Uh, chaos, like that sounds like my life and I don't know what accent I was just doing, but I guess southern.
Speaker 1I don't know what that was that was the southern bell, which, by the way, I live in south carolina okay, no, it's not greenville, south carolina. So that was very much the southern bell lady at that um in the christian section of the barnes and noble for sure, exactly.
Speaker 2But they'll tell me that and I'm just like you know, uh, but they'll say that that's like their life, and then they'll just start unloading and I'm like, oh yeah, this is a cool. I'm so glad just god gave me and revealed this word of chaos, because I do feel like it does explain for a lot of people what they're going through. And if you ever see well're going through, and if you ever see it well, I was about to say if you ever see the cover, I guess you have it behind you because you have it. But it has a bunch of words raining down upon an umbrella and I like to use the metaphor throughout the book about storms that come our way, and I wanted the different words to be what it feels like.
Speaker 2Sometimes it's just hitting us hard and heavy, and so you're going to see words like addiction, but you're going to see words like rejection and loss and illness, divorce, even bankruptcy. So I think one of these words will apply to pretty much everybody who sees it and the umbrella. I actually woke up having a dream about this cover and I started to draw it and I told the editor. I was like, listen, I'm a horrible drawer, don't judge my drawing, but this is what I want. And the umbrella I thought was cool, because a lot of times I feel like things are raining down upon us. But it's by the blood of God that we truly are, by Jesus that we truly are covered and we're protected under His grace, under His love, and so yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's a pretty cool cover. Yeah, I read a couple of the words there's so many words. I was like dang dude, we really, you know, we need, we all need a little bit of that umbrella.
Speaker 2Yeah, and of course, because there's an umbrella, of course I talk about um, uh, rihanna.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, you got it.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1It's always a banger, by the way.
Speaker 2Oh, at my uh, at my book release party. We did it at a movie theater, which was super cool, but I had this band play that comes and plays when I speak in some of these prisons and stuff. But I asked them if they would start off with this rock version of Umbrella and at first they were like are you sure? I was like, yes, let's do it. And it was so cool, it's the coolest thing.
Speaker 1Well, first of all, proud of you for not omitting a part of your testimony, Because that's big. Because the second, people are honest about what they've been through and all that stuff. I think that it is very powerful Because one it doesn't make me think about Noah Asher, At least to me, it makes me think about God, like how cool he is, not how cruddy Noah Asher was, you know what I mean. I just think that that's really, really awesome and it points it back to God instead of us when we share a testimony, points it back to God instead of us when we share a testimony, which especially one that's kind of difficult and makes you seem kind of slimy, because I have a pretty slimy testimony myself, so it's like I don't know. That's cool, I think.
Speaker 1Definitely honesty goes a long way, especially like it cuts through a lot of stuff in the Christian space, because it feels, at least at church, that you kind of got to hide some stuff, because it feels like you're going to get a bunch of those mayors, you know if we're going to go with the Grinch reference of like, ah, you know you can't do that as a Christian. So people just like hide their sin like crazy. Yeah, Just in various church settings, which has been a common theme that anybody that I've had on this podcast that really talks about grace. They're like man. I did not feel comfortable sharing it at a church setting. It was more like the bar with normal, because they don't judge as hard and I don't know man. That's just one of those things that, as you know, a fellow Christian, I definitely want to encourage you to keep on sharing your honest testimony and not let any of the people say anything that's not like, because the focus is often no asher, like it's, it's on God, so that's that's where you want to be.
From Vulnerability to Encouragement
Speaker 2Thank you, Thank you for that, and I do that. Vulnerability sometimes, of course, puts an even bigger target on your back at times, but it's again. It goes back to the Saul to Paul thing. I mean the first part of Paul's ministry. We see the Pharisees, of course, but even some of the apostles are like, did we trust this guy? Like we know what he was just doing, and now we're supposed to just go to his church service, Like what's going on? And you know, of course Barnabas came along and encouraged him and helped him through that process, helped him through that process. But that's what, for me, just resonates is so many times we are worried that oh, like, oh, how can they go from being Saul to Paul? And it's like, because scripture shows us proof of it first off, but also that God's power is not limited, and I just think that that's why I wanted it to be there. So thank you for that encouragement alone. It means a lot, because there are some mayors out there.
Speaker 1We got to keep going.
Speaker 2We got to keep going. Yeah, I don't get some sort of money back from the Grinch after this. I'm going to be very upset. So oh, to plug in it, you better.
Speaker 1Yeah, there's no doubt. If any of the people that wrote the Grinch or produced the movie are watching or listening, just make sure you throw Noah some cash, he's your biggest fan, jim Carrey's probably listening right now. Oh yeah, there's no doubt. We definitely we're having him on next week. No, I'm just kidding, but yeah, man, it's funny.
Speaker 2You have to say like just kidding sometimes because people like hold you to it.
Speaker 1I have to do that in the book.
Speaker 2Sometimes I have to say something and then I'm like just kidding, it's a joke.
Speaker 1Well, yeah, Also with. Yeah, Also with like text like in a book. If you're writing a book or a paper or a text message or anything, it's very hard to put like inflections on things. Yeah, so if you write like a joke and like black and white ink, it's hard to like figure out if it's a joke or not. So that's just a classic yeah, problem of writing like you've got to like make it extra clear that that is a joke, very much so.
Speaker 2And um, I think I even say at one point that if there was ever a movie done about my life, I want it to be ryan reynolds. And I think I went off on why it should be Ryan Reynolds. But people were like are you for real? I was like, no, I don't think there's going to be a movie about my life. Why would there be a movie about my life unless, like Sherwood, you know, fireproof those guys. They couldn't do it. What's up if y'all are listening, what's up?
Speaker 1yeah, shout out to Hallmark, you need to get a Hallmark movie. The prisoner, the ex-Prisoner, gets a Hallmark movie, that's right Finds love in all the wrong places.
Speaker 2I'm writing it for them, yeah.
Speaker 1No, that's great, that's funny. Yeah, man, we like to kind of give you a space at the end. We usually go for about 40 minutes, 45 minutes or so. We like to give people space at the end to kind of plug whatever they want to plug and also anything that you want to share with our audience. So just you know a prison story, any you know something cool, just something that you've learned recently, whatever. Just as kind of a final thought of what you want to share with our audience.
Speaker 2That'd be awesome maybe like a story of getting shanked or something, something, oh yeah you know, yeah, any, any toothbrushes getting shanked, or you, you know. Yeah, I have makeup over my teardrop tattoo right now. You can't see it.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, but I would say that anyone listening to this who does feel like they're overwhelmed, I do want to encourage you that you can overcome. And I remember being on a trip years ago and we're on the side of this mountain and it was such a dangerous road. It was a one lane road, but traffic was going both ways Don't even know how that's legal or possible. It was just so dangerous and all of a sudden it started to pour down rain so hard that we couldn't see beside us, behind us or even in front of us, and so all we could do is just stop and wait out the storm. But before we knew it, the storm let up, we could see again and we could go forward again.
Speaker 2So for anyone listening to this who does feel like the storm is just raining down upon them and they can't see in front of them or beside them or behind them, I just want to encourage you to know that the storm will let up and you will be able to see again and go forward again. So just just hang in there and don't, don't give up, don't stop fighting. And because I've already made so many music references, I'll just say don't stop believing. Just add that in there. But no, I just want to encourage you in that realm because it's so important to just know that, hey, if you're on the ledge, you can step back, because God is with you, he's fighting for you. But then sometimes, when we get off the ledge, it's okay, I'm off, what do I do now? And that's when the help comes in. And so I encourage you to get this book and hopefully it'll help you get off that ledge and find steps to not go back to the ledge. And all the information is found at the noah ashercom sweet the noah asher, all right.
Speaker 1Sweet the Noah Asher, all right. Not a Noah Asher. The.
Speaker 2Noah Asher. Yeah, trying to lean into this pride a little bit. There's nothing wrong with pride, right? The Bible doesn't say anything about that, right?
Speaker 1Nah, dude, I think you're good on pride.
Speaker 2No, actually, though Noah Asher was taken, so I was like, well, we got to do something and I just did not feel cool about like real Noah Asher or anything like that that people use, so we went with the well, before this we were talking about Matthew Steven Brown and if you want to know why he goes by Matthew Steven Brown, it's because Matthew Brown was taken.
Speaker 1He put Matthew Steven Brown, so I stick it. He put matthew stephen brown, so I asked him about that because that's funny. It cracked me up because my middle name's stephen and I was like you know why don't I go by grant stephen lockridge?
Speaker 2like yeah, that just sounds so much cooler than grant lockridge, like grant stephen yeah, that's not my middle name, but I may turn all my stuff to noah stephen asher, just why not?
Speaker 1yeah, let's try it out Well. Thanks so much for being on, noah. I loved your testimony. I got to read the rest of that book. It definitely was. It cracked me up page one, so I got to read the rest of that. But thanks so much, man, that was a blast, thank you. Thanks for listening to the Across the Counter podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate us five stars, wherever you got this podcast. Thanks y'all.