Episode 20: Luke 13:1-9

Translation: Common English Bible (CEB)

3 Questions:

What word, phrase or image strikes you in this text?

Toward what is God calling you in this text?

How do you resist comparing yourself to others?

Additional texts:

Isaiah 55:1-9

Psalm 63:1-8

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Transcript

00:01.85
Kevin Shock
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Tend. Today, Nathan and I are excited. That sounded...

00:11.29
Nathan Pile
That.

00:12.29
Kevin Shock
Yeah, excited ah to be continuing our podcast. Our look at some texts in Lent. and Lent is a, well, I don't know. What would you say about Lent, Nathan?

00:26.22
Kevin Shock
it's ah it's a It's an interesting season. it's not always It's not always the season that has the most ah palatable Bible readings in it, which makes for interesting conversation, I think.

00:35.67
Nathan Pile
that

00:38.05
Nathan Pile
That's true. um I would consider it to be a reflective time of year um in the church.

00:42.97
Kevin Shock
Yes.

00:44.36
Nathan Pile
It is designed to be a reflective time of year in the church. So...

00:49.01
Kevin Shock
Yeah. So um here's a here's we're going to be reading a good reflective piece today from the gospel according to Luke, the 13th chapter verses one through nine.

01:01.90
Kevin Shock
Nathan and I are going to be reading from the common English Bible translation. ah You can always find that on Bible Gateway dot com or the Bible Gateway app or simply use whatever translation you have nearby.

01:18.59
Kevin Shock
Our three questions for today. What word, phrase, or image strikes you in this text? Toward what is God calling you in this text? And how do you resist comparing yourself to others?

01:34.58
Nathan Pile
Yeah,

01:37.60
Kevin Shock
Or maybe you don't.

01:39.02
Nathan Pile
was going to say, not well. Not well is my answer. um

01:43.08
Kevin Shock
ah

01:44.09
Nathan Pile
Here's some information about your hosts, besides about them comparing themselves.

01:44.34
Kevin Shock
ah

01:49.82
Nathan Pile
ah We are men married to women in financially stable households, white firmly in our middle age. College and seminary educated, we work in the Lutheran Church, and we're born and raised in western Pennsylvania.

02:02.78
Nathan Pile
All of this affects how we read scripture and discuss it, but none of these none of this makes us better able to read or discuss scripture than anyone else. We believe that the wisdom of scripture is the whole community's compiled interpretation for life with God and one another.

02:20.09
Nathan Pile
So we want to know what you hear and think from your life experience as you engage scripture.

02:29.42
Nathan Pile
Luke, the 13th chapter, verses 1 through 9.

02:35.68
Nathan Pile
Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans, whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices. He replied, Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans?

02:55.62
Nathan Pile
No, I tell you. But unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did. What about those 18 people who were killed when the Tower of Siloam fell on them?

03:09.57
Nathan Pile
Do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.

03:25.47
Nathan Pile
Jesus told this parable. A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He said to his gardener, Look, I've come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I've never found any.

03:42.38
Nathan Pile
Cut it down. Why should it continue depleting the soil's nutrients? The gardener responded, Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer.

03:56.40
Nathan Pile
Maybe it will produce fruit next year. If not, you can cut it down.

04:09.79
Nathan Pile
If you're meeting with a group, you can pause the podcast now and engage the questions on your own. Or you can listen to Kevin here as he ah shares what word, phrase, or image strikes you in this text.

04:27.06
Kevin Shock
It's the more sinful and more guilty of wrongdoing.

04:32.11
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

04:32.63
Kevin Shock
I just...

04:36.58
Kevin Shock
That... That's... um

04:42.74
Kevin Shock
those questions that Jesus poses to some who were present, I'm not sure exactly who those were, ah but that's who we hear at the beginning of 13.

04:50.08
Nathan Pile
the

04:54.18
Kevin Shock
some were Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus. um

05:00.89
Kevin Shock
And ah the ah I think that the questions that Jesus asks are both of the, like there's a part of me that says, yeah, Jesus, give it to them.

05:12.88
Kevin Shock
And then a part of me that also says, oh boy, Jesus, you caught me. ah Um, I think this is, uh, well, ah yeah, not not to get too far into question three already, but this is something that really sticks out at me.

05:32.61
Kevin Shock
um

05:37.41
Kevin Shock
and And perhaps I get the highlights for highlights for me, the human inclination two one to want to not just compare ourselves to others, but put us ourselves in a higher position than other people.

05:56.80
Kevin Shock
To somehow prove or look for look for a sign that we are better than somebody else.

06:07.56
Kevin Shock
If that makes sense.

06:09.25
Nathan Pile
Yeah. um Well,

06:15.92
Nathan Pile
yeah, well, your third question is keeping me from asking new questions. um

06:22.36
Kevin Shock
Oh, we can ask me, ask me questions.

06:23.14
Nathan Pile
So yeah, we'll get, we'll, yeah, I'm going to ask you a question. So, um,

06:26.23
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

06:33.95
Nathan Pile
is this a part of our human nature?

06:40.65
Kevin Shock
I but I don't know if I'm the expert on it, but I feel like it is. I feel like it's.

06:47.27
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

06:51.31
Kevin Shock
Yeah,

06:56.94
Kevin Shock
yeah I'm going I'm going to give a really like. ah um I'm trying to give it I'm going to try to give a logical theological answer to that question.

07:06.29
Nathan Pile
Okay.

07:06.36
Kevin Shock
Yes, I think that it is a part of our human nature. because or or I would say our broken human nature um because i think that the putting ourselves um comparing ourselves I don't think I can definitively say that comparing ourselves to other people is sinful uh because we might compare we might judge ourselves less worthy than what we are um Although maybe that would be sinful too. I don't, I don't, I don't like to think that that would be necessarily.

07:40.54
Kevin Shock
Um, but I do think that seeking justification for why we see ourselves as better than other people is in at least a small way, us putting ourselves in the place of God, us casting judgment on, and and especially

07:59.85
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

08:03.87
Kevin Shock
concerning the life and death of other people. um

08:08.40
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

08:09.85
Kevin Shock
I think I think if we put ourselves in the position where we can we feel like we are empowered or able to cast judgment on other people, then we put we're putting ourselves in the place of God, and that is absolutely sinful.

08:27.46
Kevin Shock
So that's a long answer to, yes, I think this is a part of our broken human nature.

08:35.88
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

08:36.35
Kevin Shock
You and I talk in this podcast a lot about um the the the quest of becoming the people whom God has made us to be. And I don't, I don't think and don't think that what we're talking about here is part of that nature.

08:53.21
Kevin Shock
as nature as lovingly and wonderfully made creations and children of God. Uh, but it is a part of our, our sinful nature, our broken nature.

09:05.25
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

09:07.29
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Well, and you were, you had had said had said um that as we were, used the word humble. That's what caught my attention.

09:20.96
Nathan Pile
um When you first started to explain this. And I think when we're truly humble, we're more living into

09:32.49
Nathan Pile
what God intends for us when we're, when we're, and And this other piece of us, the sinful, broken piece of us, I think that judgment side of ourselves usually isn't humble.

09:47.97
Kevin Shock
Mmm.

09:48.81
Nathan Pile
You know, and so um so I appreciate that.

09:49.84
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

09:51.81
Nathan Pile
I appreciate that clarification or that piece as as you were um sharing your reflection and and in that and then then answering my question. I think we get lost

10:06.21
Nathan Pile
in when when when When we most often compare ourselves to others, it's putting ourselves on top, putting us above them, making judgment about them, put yeah and and putting them lower than ourselves.

10:21.68
Nathan Pile
And that part of it, not that there's not judgment in in humility, there's judgment in humility. um But I think when we're when humility is a part of of judgment, it causes us to

10:38.55
Nathan Pile
devalue ourselves, which can be unhealthy. Um, but, but, but I think it it it can also help us put in, put us in into context with others.

10:43.58
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm. Sure. sure

10:53.78
Nathan Pile
Whereas oftentimes when we're making judgment, we're not also humble. Um, because we're, we're putting, we're, we've, we've put ourselves up on ah on a pedestal and we're undercutting others and saying, well, they're not good enough because x Y, Z, whatever, whatever it is that we're saying.

11:12.80
Nathan Pile
Um, so I think and in, in those ways, how do we, as God's people,

11:25.99
Nathan Pile
how do we live into humility? Um,

11:28.79
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

11:30.05
Nathan Pile
is one of these pieces for us. And it's interesting that this comes up now because we're in the month of March and and and Hanna and I are working on a grant proposal for the American Camping Association, which is a group that Sequanota is a part of, but that's interested in in you know making camp better, making camps stronger.

11:55.40
Nathan Pile
And one of the pieces that we're working on is around character strengths. And one of the pieces that feels strongly for me is about that humble, is is that humble character strength.

12:07.51
Nathan Pile
um

12:08.19
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

12:08.19
Nathan Pile
It's not normally the way we talk about it in the church. ah the The way that, you know, when we're, when we are, um when we sacrifice for others, when we we make ourselves the servant these are some languages that that like it's language that we use in the church right we're we're a servant to all or a servant of others um but we we don't usually say in the same phrase about being humble but they're absolutely connected they're absolutely intertwined um and so one of the things that as we're trying to write our own letter um around this grant is that we use completely different language

12:49.95
Nathan Pile
when we talk about humility, but humility is the piece that they want written about because it's considered a character strength.

12:55.36
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

12:58.13
Nathan Pile
Um, they, that's the word that they want, compassion, empathy, or other character strengths that are out there that also connect to this idea of humility and being humble, um, but also care for the other, you know, um,

13:15.16
Nathan Pile
And so care for the other, again, would be a churchy kind of phrase, whereas um empathy or compassion might also be, would be the character strength that kind of gets named. And so we're recognizing that as we write our proposal, that there's even some language differences between what I would consider to be the church and the secular world, even though they really are promoting the same values, the same character strengths.

13:47.39
Nathan Pile
Um, it's just, we have some different language around them. And so that piece of being humble, um, I think, you know, it's, to me, it's interesting that, that, um, it's not a word that I use in my language when I talk with kids at church camp, but it needs to be. Does that make sense?

14:10.50
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

14:11.97
Nathan Pile
Um, um, because we use it in other places in our world and in our society, but it may not be connected.

14:22.97
Nathan Pile
Because a lot of times we use humble when we're overconfident, you know, we we use it out in the secular world. sometimes when people are overconfident, we're like, hey, you should really humble yourself a little bit, or or at least I do.

14:38.95
Nathan Pile
You know, it's not, ah I don't use it to talk about being a servant to others when we humble ourselves. It's not something I do. So it's been an interesting um exercise here for me in writing this grant is to recognize that there's

14:47.78
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

14:54.47
Nathan Pile
their strengths that we have within the church, but that I don't always tie them to some of the words that we use in the secular secular world. And how do i how do I remedy that? How do I communicate better when I'm dealing with parents and when I'm dealing with, and when I'm um teaching staff and and so forth? so

15:12.36
Kevin Shock
So I'm just curious, is it, is the terminology that you're talking about that you don't use the word humility when you're, well, but well, I just, i was curious because you said that, you know, words that we use more in the secular world, where do we use humility in the secular world, Nathan?

15:20.42
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

15:33.81
Nathan Pile
Typically, well, ah okay, i see I see your point.

15:34.74
Kevin Shock
but

15:37.15
Nathan Pile
I see your point. um In the secular academic world, it gets used.

15:42.28
Kevin Shock
Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

15:43.80
Nathan Pile
that Because that this is all coming out of research, right?

15:44.40
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

15:46.40
Nathan Pile
there Part of camp is, one of the things that camp has going for it is that that we're a place where character development happens. um

15:55.07
Kevin Shock
Yes.

15:55.88
Nathan Pile
and humility is the word that they use to describe what I worked with what i would describe as serving the other.

15:55.95
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

16:05.52
Kevin Shock
Okay. Okay. I see Now I see, I see the nuance now.

16:08.42
Nathan Pile
And so that part of it, so you're right.

16:08.96
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

16:10.50
Nathan Pile
and I And I agree that in our secular world, probably the only time we use humble or humility is when somebody is overconfident. They're they're they're too they're ah just too much.

16:21.16
Kevin Shock
Oh, like like they need to they need to be more humble.

16:21.64
Nathan Pile
And we're like, you need to you need to be humbled. Yeah, you you need to lose so that you become humble.

16:25.62
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

16:27.84
Nathan Pile
you know that kind of That's where we use it.

16:28.26
Kevin Shock
Uh-huh.

16:29.91
Nathan Pile
And that's not a good connotation. Yet, when we look at it from ah a person perspective, being humble is a character attribute. It's a character strength.

16:42.82
Nathan Pile
If somebody is humble. I don't think I don't think, you know, so when we're talking about it in that way, and again, from an,

16:45.91
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

16:51.43
Nathan Pile
um I want to say academic, but it's not just a source solely an academic pursuit, but when we're when we're looking at it from a character development perspective, it has some real value to it.

16:57.71
Kevin Shock
Yeah. and Yeah.

17:03.75
Nathan Pile
I agree that we don't, we're not walking down the street using the word humble, humble, you know, we're not talking about humble, humble. Again, unless it's in and in my and what I would consider considered to be a case where we're we're thinking that somebody needs to be humbled.

17:20.85
Nathan Pile
They're overconfident.

17:22.08
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

17:22.33
Nathan Pile
um they're, they're They're obnoxiously overconfident.

17:26.58
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

17:26.99
Nathan Pile
And so we use the word humble to kind of put them in their place. um so So yeah, I hear what you're saying too, that we're not talking about humility.

17:39.92
Nathan Pile
around the table at at a restaurant or it's not a part of our normal language.

17:43.00
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah.

17:45.26
Nathan Pile
So.

17:46.70
Kevin Shock
Yeah. I, I just, I was curious. So I just did a quick search.

17:51.41
Nathan Pile
No, no, good.

17:52.64
Kevin Shock
Um, well, I, I wanted to ask you that question because, because I do think that humility has, um, well, it has scriptural precedent. I mean, that, that word is used in, in scripture, not, uh, humble.

18:03.31
Nathan Pile
Mm

18:06.39
Nathan Pile
hmm.

18:08.08
Kevin Shock
Um, but I, I just did a quick, you know, in Bible gateway, you can just, type of word in and hit search and it'll tell you where that word comes up in, in, in that translation, at least the translation of and in CEB that, I mean, there are, it's not a ton of it's like 18 places that humility comes up.

18:16.41
Nathan Pile
find. Yeah.

18:26.90
Kevin Shock
But, but the thing that, um,

18:29.12
Nathan Pile
Does it happen more in the Old or New Testament?

18:31.33
Kevin Shock
um, it's actually pretty, um, it's, yeah, not, not entirely even I, more in the new, but not by much.

18:34.49
Nathan Pile
Pretty even?

18:41.10
Kevin Shock
Um,

18:41.81
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

18:42.51
Kevin Shock
it ah And actually, there are you know four five

18:48.26
Kevin Shock
four of the references come from Proverbs, which makes sense.

18:53.68
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

18:54.16
Kevin Shock
um

18:54.51
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

18:55.25
Kevin Shock
But ah Paul uses it a few times. and I'm ah just and well And actually, Peter, too, in his letters, um conduct you conduct yourselves or clothe yourselves with humility.

19:07.66
Kevin Shock
But Ephesians 4.2, conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. And I think that that verse has implications for the gospel that we're reading right now.

19:23.36
Kevin Shock
um there are, because we're, I mean, you, and obviously you and I have talked about humility in, in a way in that first part, but what we haven't talked about yet is there's, there are two pretty, um I would say connected, but pretty distinct parts of this reading, the gospel reading.

19:42.06
Kevin Shock
um We have the Jesus interacting with the, the sum, ah but then, then he moves right into a parable about the fig tree. and And I do think they're connected, but I think that it takes a little bit of looking to see what the connections are.

19:58.38
Kevin Shock
So that I was just, patience is another word that comes up for me, um but that's more rooted in the second half of the gospel reading in in my interpretation of it.

20:13.46
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

20:14.04
Kevin Shock
um Did you answer the first question?

20:16.58
Nathan Pile
I have not. um and And the the image that that stuck with me was the fig tree.

20:17.62
Kevin Shock
ah Okay, I didn't think that you ah technically had.

20:23.90
Kevin Shock
Okay.

20:24.51
Nathan Pile
and and

20:25.08
Kevin Shock
Well, good.

20:25.97
Nathan Pile
And it popped up at me because when I did my internship in Florida, um you know, many years ago now, like 20,

20:36.95
Nathan Pile
um One of the things I can remember ah was that I was preparing a sermon and I did a a visit with one of the members of the church who had had just had surgery. And so they were at home. And so I had um gone to visit them because, you know, they just weren't able to get to church for a while. And so um and while we were there, he was talking about an orange tree that he had in his backyard And then he told me the story of the orange tree, of which then I proceeded to use in the story of the fig tree that Sunday in church, in my sermon, because he said he had put this orange tree in the ground and he and like it was doing it everything that, that, uh, uh, the owner of the tree was upset about.

21:03.28
Kevin Shock
Hmm.

21:25.14
Nathan Pile
It was just growing, but never producing any oranges. And he was about ready to pull it out of the ground. And he happened to talk to a nursery owner, and a yeah like a tree garden center space place, like owner.

21:39.77
Nathan Pile
And the guy said, you need to hit the tree with a baseball bat.

21:44.21
Kevin Shock
What?

21:45.06
Nathan Pile
A wooden baseball bat. He needed to take it and hit the trunk of the tree as hard as he could, like three times.

21:52.98
Kevin Shock
What?

21:53.67
Nathan Pile
And then the next year it would produce fruit. And so he did it and he had oranges. He's had oranges ever since.

22:02.70
Kevin Shock
This what what is the what is the reasoning?

22:06.28
Nathan Pile
a I don't know. He just said that that was, it would it needed like some kind of, I guess, like ah to be kind of shaken alive.

22:17.00
Nathan Pile
And so hitting it with a baseball bat, a wooden, a wooden baseball bat. It wasn't a metal one. He had to have a wooden baseball bat.

22:21.65
Kevin Shock
Yeah, okay.

22:22.64
Nathan Pile
Hit the tree three times. And he said he hit the, he hit it harder every time.

22:27.44
Nathan Pile
So he hit it like kind of lukewarm the first time.

22:31.07
Nathan Pile
And then he hit it a little harder and then he really whacked it the third time. um And it, we did it down close to the root of the tree. And ever since then he's had, Ever since then, he's had oranges.

22:43.38
Nathan Pile
Now, I haven't talked to him I haven't talked to him recently.

22:43.97
Kevin Shock
That is bizarre.

22:45.69
Nathan Pile
This is 20 years ago. But ever since then that he had done it, he had fruit on the tree.

22:48.04
Kevin Shock
Well...

22:52.97
Nathan Pile
And so it was this idea of, again, this guy had to trust that the nursery guy wasn't just like, give him a line, you know.

23:03.42
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah.

23:04.53
Nathan Pile
And so he went home and he's like, you know, he said, I did.

23:05.76
Kevin Shock
ah

23:07.65
Nathan Pile
I felt really silly about it. And like I hemmed and hawed about it for a long time until I actually went out and did it. He's like, it was probably two weeks later that I finally went out and hit this ah or- orange tree.

23:17.12
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Did he, ah did he like look around to make sure no one was watching him before he did it?

23:22.25
Nathan Pile
I'm sure he lived in a gated community. And so I'm sure there was some, I don't want anyone to know what I'm going to do here.

23:27.05
Kevin Shock
a oh my gosh.

23:28.93
Nathan Pile
I don't know if he did it. Like I didn't ask him if he did it like during daylight or maybe it was dark, maybe just went outside and went as dark and hit this orange tree. um But he did it. and And like he'd had it for, I don't know, five or 10 years. It wasn't maybe 10 years, maybe it was five years, five or six years, something like that.

23:45.18
Nathan Pile
But he said it'd been around for more the years than he thought it should have. And he should have gotten an apple or an an orange draw out of it. And he had just never received anything. And so he went and was there for something else, getting something for the flower bed or something.

23:57.71
Nathan Pile
And so he talked to one of the nursery people and they said, oh no you have to have to physically hit the tree. So I don't know if anybody listening happens to be a orange tree connoisseur and if they know why the tree needs to physically be disturbed in that way.

24:15.19
Nathan Pile
But I, when I told it that Sunday in church and talked about this gentleman's faithfulness that he went out and did this more than one person came up and said, this is absolutely true.

24:29.10
Nathan Pile
Like, you have to do this. That's how I got fruit on my orange tree. And I was like, this is like, again, it sounds insane. It's like, you're laughing about it.

24:39.56
Nathan Pile
And and I was the same way. Like, like this this seems so not that's something that we should be doing.

24:41.41
Kevin Shock
Yeah, yeah.

24:48.60
Nathan Pile
But it was what they did and what he did. And he had orange oranges and has had oranges. And and and other people in the congregation said the same kind of thing happened. um I even think one of them said it was a lemon tree.

25:02.07
Nathan Pile
Like theirs was a lemon tree that they had to do this to. So I don't know if I don't know if all sitness sitness citrus trees have to be hit with a bat.

25:05.01
Kevin Shock
Yeah, and... um

25:09.81
Nathan Pile
like I don't know.

25:11.42
Kevin Shock
Oh, I'm seeing i'm seeing ah anecdotal evidence online of magnolia trees, apple trees. ah there

25:19.68
Nathan Pile
that all trees need to have some kind of a disturbance.

25:21.67
Kevin Shock
Well, maybe you don't need it, but it can but it can spark. Yeah.

25:26.04
Nathan Pile
it can spark it to being, so you've done a, you've done a Google search during this to kind of feel like if

25:27.17
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

25:29.72
Kevin Shock
I just, I was so curious. I'm not going to spend all this time reading it right now, of course, but ah but I may later because there's, yeah.

25:38.75
Nathan Pile
yeah

25:40.34
Kevin Shock
Yeah, I mean, one theory is that it produces a ah hormone called, of all things, traumatin, like trauma, like traumatic, ah that like that can lead to better growth.

25:40.52
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

25:49.53
Nathan Pile
Oh, right. Yeah.

25:54.83
Kevin Shock
ah Yeah, a apparently parents please whacking a tree truck with a bat is not a is not not unheard

26:03.14
Nathan Pile
Not unheard of.

26:05.87
Kevin Shock
I'm so surprised.

26:06.82
Nathan Pile
so So I have to do it to apple trees?

26:07.93
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

26:08.68
Nathan Pile
Because we just planted, like five years ago, we planted apple trees here at camp. Now I feel like maybe I'm going have to go out and whack the tree with...

26:14.51
Kevin Shock
ah I would, Nathan, I would consult maybe somebody first, but, um but ah there's definitely a question on Quora. Does, does hitting your apple tree with a bat increase the amount of fruit that? Yeah.

26:29.85
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

26:29.94
Nathan Pile
Interesting.

26:30.85
Kevin Shock
Hmm.

26:31.05
Nathan Pile
Interesting. Interesting. interesting

26:34.31
Kevin Shock
Oh my goodness.

26:34.65
Nathan Pile
So, yeah, so that's what, it' it just stuck out to me.

26:35.35
Kevin Shock
That's funny.

26:37.09
Nathan Pile
And it was, again, it was about this being patient and

26:37.89
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah.

26:41.08
Nathan Pile
and and

26:41.78
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

26:42.37
Nathan Pile
and and kind of somebody saying, ah you need to do this thing and then believing that it could happen and then doing it.

26:54.82
Nathan Pile
So, yeah.

26:55.39
Kevin Shock
Yeah, yeah.

26:58.82
Kevin Shock
Okay.

26:59.50
Nathan Pile
All right, let's do it a second time.

27:01.33
Kevin Shock
All right. From Luke 13, some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices.

27:14.21
Kevin Shock
He replied, do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans? No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.

27:26.34
Kevin Shock
What about those 18 people who were killed when the Tower of Siloam fell on them? Do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.

27:41.26
Kevin Shock
Jesus told this parable. A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He said to his gardener, look, I've come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years and I've never found any.

27:58.04
Kevin Shock
Cut it down. Why should it continue depleting the soil's nutrients? The gardener responded, Lord, give it one more year and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer. Maybe it will produce fruit next year.

28:10.88
Kevin Shock
If not, then you can cut it down. Nathan, toward what is God calling you in this text?

28:20.23
Nathan Pile
Um, well, because we're the this is the tend podcast.

28:25.28
Nathan Pile
I would say that God is calling me to tend my heart.

28:26.56
Kevin Shock
Ha, ha.

28:29.60
Nathan Pile
Um, uh, or as the passage itself says, change my heart. And as we, um, ah spoke this at a retreat here recently, um repent, repent,

28:46.82
Nathan Pile
or turn to God. Any of those phrases would, um I think, exemplify what I feel I'm being called toward in this passage. So this idea of

29:00.19
Nathan Pile
of caring, tending um my own heart and in my relationship um

29:09.03
Nathan Pile
here with God, again, we we we've talked a little bit about this idea of judgment and and um how I can judge others. And so in in my own ways, how do i how do i humble myself instead of making judgments about others?

29:26.49
Nathan Pile
How do I humble myself in such a way that ah I'm working to change my heart about whatever the weakness is in me that is causing me to look at and judge others?

29:39.98
Nathan Pile
Um, I'm a, I must, uh, on the Enneagram, I'm a strong one for anybody that is Enneagram person or fan.

29:51.41
Nathan Pile
Um, I'm a strong one.

29:51.88
Kevin Shock
I'm, I'm not, what does that mean?

29:53.07
Nathan Pile
Enneagram.

29:54.56
Kevin Shock
I mean, I know what the Enneagram is, but I don't know what the number two different numbers are.

29:59.55
Nathan Pile
Uh, so I'm, I'm pretty driven in, um, and but with that drive comes some judgment. Um, of others.

30:10.38
Nathan Pile
ah And so, you know, um one of the things that it tells me as an Enneagram one is that when like I go on retreat, sometimes just be on retreat, Nathan, don't start critically judging the retreat and being like, you know, because I'm a camp person.

30:28.40
Kevin Shock
Oh,

30:31.17
Nathan Pile
And so we do a lot of retreats, right? So like, go don't go on the retreat and be like, well, the schedule's kind of not very good.

30:40.20
Kevin Shock
oh gosh.

30:40.69
Nathan Pile
And, you know, and and so like, and it was funny because this happened at a retreat recently um that I was re-reminded of this tendency of myself, but like a week or two, two weeks before I was at an event for Lutheran Outdoor Ministries.

30:41.00
Kevin Shock
Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

30:55.81
Nathan Pile
And like my chief complaint was, it's a terrible schedule. Like that was like, like, As we got started, I'm like, they want us to go from seven o'clock in the morning until nine o'clock at night.

31:07.46
Nathan Pile
This is a terrible schedule. Well, how is this teaching us rest and renewal as a professional? If we they bring us together for meetings and we're going to spend 14 hours together in meetings.

31:13.50
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. who

31:19.74
Nathan Pile
um But again, like in my own head, yes, it was meetings. And yes, we had to get some things done. Maybe we could have tweaked the schedule. The problem was I, that became the thing that I focused on.

31:31.79
Nathan Pile
not like the meetings were the meetings, and what but in my head, I was kind of stuck in the,

31:41.34
Nathan Pile
in the, in the oneness of critiquing what was going on around me as opposed to just, just be in the meeting, Nathan. Don't look at the schedule.

31:51.70
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

31:52.50
Nathan Pile
Don't make judgment about the schedule. Don't, you know, um, any of those pieces. And so, um, So yeah, that ah that that's just a part of of Nathan.

32:04.10
Nathan Pile
um And so the Enneagram is a um a way of kind of looking at our are characteristics and personality pieces of who we are and how we're and how we've become who we are.

32:13.72
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

32:17.66
Nathan Pile
um And so um so if you're not familiar with it, it is out there. it's it's It's very interesting. People that I... um have studied and looked at, find it to be um pretty helpful.

32:33.45
Nathan Pile
Again, it's like any personality test. you know It gives you just some insight of who you are. It's not definitively who you are. But there's nine entities, nine types in the Enneagram. And so there's a diversity of of what that looks like. And you can even lean one way or the other to the others that are next to you.

32:55.74
Nathan Pile
So there might really be closer to 27 types, uh, cause there's nine and then there's two.

33:00.00
Kevin Shock
Oh, I see. Yeah.

33:02.05
Nathan Pile
So, and that's probably, probably true. There's, you know, there's 27 types of people in the world and, um, more so than one, like we're not all the same.

33:13.09
Kevin Shock
Right, right.

33:13.41
Nathan Pile
Um, but how we look at the world, the way that we, um function in the world. And so it's not bad. There's none of the types because I'm on number one doesn't mean I'm at the top of the list.

33:25.48
Nathan Pile
It, it, it, it is just, that's what they've, they've numbered them one to nine um kind of a thing. And so um as a one though, I'm, I can be really part of what I do internally.

33:40.25
Nathan Pile
don't normally voice it out loud. It is normally an internal thing, but I'm constantly, a perfectionist i'm constantly trying to say how do i make this more perfect and that's a true statement about myself um like i've come to recognize about that about myself uh but as as with anything

33:50.62
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

34:03.36
Nathan Pile
our strengths also become are our sin or our weakness. And so it was interesting that it would, you know, that it had given me this reference of when you go on a retreat, you're constantly tearing apart the retreat. And was like, yep, that's me.

34:21.86
Nathan Pile
ah I can't just enjoy the retreat. I can't just be on retreat. i am instead saying how I would do it better or what, how I would make changes again in my own head. um Not so much that I do that verbally outside of my head or my body, but in my head I do it.

34:35.76
Kevin Shock
Yeah. yeah come

34:39.03
Nathan Pile
So.

34:39.44
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah. That reminds me of when some people, I don't know who, but some people go into a church service and start looking at the bulletin and going, Hmm.

34:51.10
Kevin Shock
Hmm. Hmm. um I'm not calling anybody out, but I've heard, I've heard this is a thing that sometimes, sometimes a certain group of people in a certain profession can be pretty critical of other people's worship services.

34:55.69
Nathan Pile
and Not calling anybody out on that. Yeah. of Of other people's worship, worship liturgies. Yeah.

35:08.79
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

35:09.92
Nathan Pile
Why would they pick that font?

35:10.34
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

35:11.83
Nathan Pile
Why is it that size?

35:12.32
Kevin Shock
for fright er Right, right, right. And stupid stuff like that. Like, right.

35:17.09
Nathan Pile
yeah

35:18.24
Kevin Shock
Yes. Uh-huh. Why isn't this... why why did you Why did they print this? Why didn't they print this in the bulletin? I mean, yeah, all that kind of stuff.

35:26.01
Nathan Pile
Oh, yeah.

35:26.54
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

35:26.93
Nathan Pile
Oh,

35:27.01
Kevin Shock
not Not anything that, like, you know, has huge implications. Just, yeah.

35:32.19
Nathan Pile
yeah.

35:33.01
Kevin Shock
Got to nitpick.

35:32.99
Nathan Pile
Yep. Yep.

35:35.78
Nathan Pile
Yep.

35:36.30
Kevin Shock
Oh, my goodness.

35:39.42
Kevin Shock
Um...

35:39.52
Nathan Pile
All right.

35:40.86
Kevin Shock
So I, I don't think I've answered this question yet. Have I?

35:43.54
Nathan Pile
Oh, no. You have not.

35:44.56
Kevin Shock
No, no.

35:44.92
Nathan Pile
Your turn.

35:45.13
Kevin Shock
Um, I, I, I, yeah, I don't know. i don't know exactly what, uh, um, um, I mean, I, I was just kind of wrapped up in what you were talking about and, uh, and I think that it's good. I think it's good ah a good way to be called, um, uh, away from judgment toward, toward patience and, and mercy. Um, I, yeah, I think that, um,

36:13.39
Kevin Shock
Well, for me, there's a, who ah I guess I'm struck in the parable by the, the the he thankfully, the the owner of the fig tree has the has the wisdom to listen to what the gardener is saying.

36:34.68
Nathan Pile
Mmm.

36:35.69
Kevin Shock
and um And I think that there's a

36:40.65
Kevin Shock
I think there's a ah and pandemic, and I'll call it that, in our society of people thinking that they know more than what other people know.

36:49.63
Nathan Pile
Mmm.

36:50.06
Kevin Shock
That, you know, you you read. um Well, you read a couple articles online about whacking a a fruit tree with a baseball bat and suddenly you're an expert in it, you know, that kind of thing. A lot of a lot of armchair quarterbacks or or name any other profession out there in the world.

37:04.67
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Yeah.

37:07.30
Kevin Shock
um i I think I think this reminds me that it's good to listen ah to the people who know what they're talking about.

37:15.44
Nathan Pile
yeah

37:15.56
Kevin Shock
And. um And and to to actually maybe put some trust in the people who know what they're talking about and not to not to confuse people who say they know what they're talking about with people who actually know what they're talking about, um because there's some of that going on in our world, too.

37:35.59
Kevin Shock
ah But but the thing I think that ultimately this is calling me toward is that if there's if there's anyone who knows

37:35.74
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

37:45.81
Kevin Shock
or is an expert in patience and what it means to live well with others and, uh, and mercy, it's God.

37:58.02
Kevin Shock
It's, it's God, it's God in Jesus Christ. Um, and so I think that there is, uh,

38:07.46
Kevin Shock
yeah, I, um,

38:11.08
Kevin Shock
I think, I think there's some wisdom for me in feeling like I, if, if I'm going to live well with other people, it it would really do well for me to let God inform what that's going to look like.

38:26.67
Kevin Shock
Um, and maybe I do a reasonable or a half reasonable job of that as is, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded of that all the time, but also, yeah.

38:40.07
Kevin Shock
also Also to be reminded that that's actually, that is actually the way that I desire to live with other people and not just, uh, in some kind of ongoing conflict or I'm right, you're wrong dynamic that's happening.

38:58.38
Kevin Shock
Um, yeah, yeah. I, I, I am, I'm taken by the, um, by the patience of the gardener. and and And so then how the gardener then also encourages the owner to be patient.

39:16.31
Nathan Pile
Yeah. It's like patient times two, right? It's patient for the tree and also patient for the

39:19.32
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

39:24.17
Nathan Pile
the owner of the vineyard who who doesn't have the patience.

39:25.65
Kevin Shock
Yeah, right.

39:31.09
Kevin Shock
Yes, yes. Yeah, which, yeah, i I think that that, I mean, I'm not the kind of person who likes to automatically plug um roles into where different characters are in parables. But I but i think for me, it's some somewhat obvious. Maybe I'm wrong.

39:56.24
Kevin Shock
I where Where I interpret this is that Jesus is the gardener in this

40:00.20
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Yeah.

40:01.80
Kevin Shock
Uh, he, he's the one. And i I don't know if, I don't know if God is the owner, ah but yeah, but in any case, I definitely take this to be a, um, I'm, I'm, uh, well, she's, Jesus isn't just the gardener.

40:16.34
Kevin Shock
He's also the fertilizer, you know, in a weird kind of way.

40:19.97
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

40:21.08
Kevin Shock
Um, yeah, he's, he's the one who pours himself out on the ground.

40:22.37
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

40:28.59
Kevin Shock
Um, Yeah. Or in the earth so that, so that people can bear fruit. Yeah.

40:35.84
Nathan Pile
No. Yeah.

40:37.99
Kevin Shock
Um, but that's all to say, Jesus is definitely, I definitely get a sense here that Jesus is saying, um, right after he chides all of these people for, you know, do you think, do you think you're any better?

40:49.48
Kevin Shock
You better change your hearts and lives if, you know, if you do.

40:51.48
Nathan Pile
yeah

40:52.65
Kevin Shock
And, uh, and yet I, there's, I get the strong sense from where he goes from there that he is, uh, he is He is patiently engaging in work to to enable them to change their hearts and lives.

41:07.80
Nathan Pile
yeah Yeah.

41:09.09
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

41:12.67
Kevin Shock
Yep. That's all I have to say about that. So a third time.

41:15.53
Nathan Pile
All right. Let's do it a third time. Yeah.

41:20.50
Nathan Pile
Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices. Yeah. He replied, Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans?

41:40.08
Nathan Pile
No, I tell you. But unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did. What about those 18 people who were killed? When the Tower of Siloam fell on them, do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem?

41:59.73
Nathan Pile
No, I tell you. But unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did. Jesus told this parable.

42:10.49
Nathan Pile
A man owned a fig tree planted planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He said to his gardener, look, I've come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I've never found any.

42:27.17
Nathan Pile
Cut it down. Why should it continue depleting the soil's nutrients? The gardener responded, Lord, Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer.

42:40.94
Nathan Pile
Maybe it will produce fruit next year. If not, then you can cut it down.

42:50.07
Nathan Pile
Kevin, how do you resist comparing yourself to others?

42:55.45
Kevin Shock
Um, I, uh, I think you said it very early on. Uh, I don't really do a great job of it. Um,

43:10.42
Kevin Shock
i i think I think when I am doing a half-decent job at it, it's it's but through remembering that um that these these people are created and loved by God in the same way that I am.

43:23.80
Kevin Shock
and ah and And also, i feel like feel like I can be pretty sympathetic to people who are going through something.

43:33.06
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

43:33.39
Kevin Shock
um

43:35.17
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

43:36.11
Kevin Shock
it It becomes more difficult whenever...

43:42.20
Kevin Shock
Uh, whenever like their, their anxiety or, or their anger about something starts coming out sideways and, and before I know it, I, or other people are in the, in the path of their, you know, their tirade or, or whatever it might be.

44:05.87
Kevin Shock
I, I do think that, um, I think it becomes harder to be sympathetic then, but, but then also to try to keep in mind that, um, they, ah this, this stuff, this is stuff that's coming out sideways and, and they are somewhere somehow deeply being affected by something and it's, and it's difficult for them to handle.

44:35.00
Kevin Shock
Um, I think, I think where my spouse would tell me, tell you that I'm not good at, um, not, not, not ah necessarily about comparing myself to others, but, but, um, but I think related is that i well, what we were talking about just a couple of minutes ago that, um, that the gardeners patients,

45:05.81
Kevin Shock
leads to the, um the owner being patient. Um, and I think where, what I am not always good at, and I think it comes and goes in seasons of my life is that, uh, sometimes when other people are anxious, I allow myself to become anxious for them and with them as well.

45:29.83
Kevin Shock
And the thing that I find is that my, my anxiety aid does not produce any good result. Uh, it doesn't help them at all. Um, and, and in fact, it's, it's harmful to me and then potentially to other relationships that I have that are unrelated to the anxiety that's being felt.

45:38.82
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

45:49.00
Kevin Shock
Um, and, and that's, that's something that I, I feel like I pretty constantly work on.

46:01.41
Kevin Shock
Uh, again, I go through seasons where it, it doesn't happen. And then I go through seasons where I just, I feel like I'm, I'm feel like I'm anxious because people around me are anxious. And again, it's not the same as comparing myself to someone else, but, but when I take a step back and think like, what, what, why am I anxious? I don't have to be anxious.

46:23.82
Kevin Shock
Um, you know, I might, I might care about them and the fact that they're anxious, but, but me being me taking that on for myself,

46:35.05
Kevin Shock
Does not, doesn't help matters in any way, shape or form.

46:38.16
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

46:39.81
Kevin Shock
So yeah.

46:40.34
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Well, just listening to you talk, the thing that um but strikes me as is that ah when I'm more tired, I could seem I could see myself more easily falling into comparing things.

46:51.86
Kevin Shock
Oh gosh. Oh boy.

47:00.07
Nathan Pile
making judgment, you know, all of those pieces, comparing myself to others.

47:02.83
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah.

47:04.11
Nathan Pile
And, and so like, if, ah if, if it's been, you know, we've talked in years past, like at the end of my summers, I'm kind of like in a different space and place. And, and, and, and judgment is one of the things that unfortunately, when I, so when, when I'm good enough to be able to catch myself,

47:13.12
Kevin Shock
Yep.

47:23.96
Nathan Pile
doing it, like it's one of my early warning flags to myself, like you're really tired, Nathan.

47:31.25
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah.

47:32.05
Nathan Pile
But if I'm so tired that I don't even know I'm doing it, then I'm, then I'm even causing harm because I'm not catching myself.

47:33.41
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

47:39.62
Nathan Pile
and I'm just making judgment about others or comparing myself to others.

47:42.40
Kevin Shock
Oh my gosh.

47:43.90
Nathan Pile
And then, then it's when, then I get into a ah terrible um spiral of, Oh, poor Nathan. Oh, woe is you, you know, whatever it is that I'm stuck in

47:54.08
Kevin Shock
Jeez.

47:54.99
Nathan Pile
um

47:55.08
Kevin Shock
Jeez. Yeah.

47:56.15
Nathan Pile
Because, because I'm, because what I'm doing is compare, you know, at the end of a summer for me, it's always like, you know, oh man, like that, like all I do is work. That person doesn't seem to be working over there.

48:10.33
Nathan Pile
What, why would, oh man, it's just not fair. But you know, there are other times of the year where, when I'm not working. Um, like I am in the summer, but when I'm so tired and so exhausted, boy, I just make comparison and judgment become kind of my, the my mode of operation, which is terrible.

48:32.14
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

48:32.34
Nathan Pile
um When, when, it when I'm in that kind of a state. And so again, if I can catch myself doing it, I'm like, okay, Nathan, you need to take a couple of days off. You need to need to give yourself a bit of a break because you're,

48:46.80
Nathan Pile
you're in that spiral of ah judgment and, and, uh, Oh, woe is me. Oh, woe is me.

48:54.42
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

48:54.73
Nathan Pile
And, um, and then I'm not good for anybody. Whereas as you shared too, I think when somebody is really going through something and I have, and I have to put on those, uh, character strengths of, of patience and empathy or compassion, that helps me to, to be more humble, to be more,

49:15.74
Nathan Pile
um to to live into humility, but be able to hear what the person is saying. It allows me to not make judgment about, you know, but you know, it almost like I have to, it's like putting a hat on, like, like I have to be aware that I'm doing it.

49:32.67
Kevin Shock
who Yeah.

49:35.16
Nathan Pile
And and then I can seem to get rid of that. um Even if I'm exhausted at the end of a summer, I can be empathetic if I'm like, Oh, I need to help this person. Yeah.

49:44.15
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah.

49:44.83
Nathan Pile
And then I can put, then I can be humble for whatever, because it's going to be a short, you know, it's going to be a time period or whatever. um I can do that. um But again, it's, you know, how do I resist comparing myself with others?

50:02.17
Nathan Pile
Like you said, I do that poorly. um if it If I'm left to my own devices, if I'm like, this person really needs help, that's it that becomes like an easy transition in my head, in my behavior.

50:05.92
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

50:14.46
Nathan Pile
Like I can help this person. I can do that. I can set aside my my wants, my my pieces and help the person where I'm at. Yeah.

50:26.52
Nathan Pile
but when when I'm when I'm really you know I've I've gone too far i've burnt the candle too at both ends for too long um trying to resist comparing but like that's i just can't do it and so i guess one of the things i'd have to say is one of the ways to resist it is to make sure that i get my rest um

50:50.54
Kevin Shock
Well, that is, uh, that is both good practical, uh, advice, but also, uh, it's biblical.

51:02.39
Kevin Shock
I, to, to hear you,

51:02.55
Nathan Pile
It is. It is. It's also how we show how how we should read um schedule retreats in the future.

51:11.16
Kevin Shock
you mean you and me specifically or people in general?

51:13.69
Nathan Pile
People in general. And when I go to their when I go to their retreat and I look at their schedule.

51:14.40
Kevin Shock
Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

51:17.95
Nathan Pile
um

51:19.45
Kevin Shock
excuse Well, I didn't want to bring us back to that, but okay.

51:21.99
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Well, I'll take it, sir.

51:23.66
Kevin Shock
Okay. okay um No, I mean, hearing the the last bit of what you said, the word that came to me hearing you talk was Sabbath. this this is

51:33.52
Nathan Pile
Apple now.

51:34.20
Kevin Shock
This is about Sabbath. And it is about, um i think I think that many of us have had the experience of, I hope, or had the self-awareness to recognize, oh, I'm acting this way because I'm tired.

51:36.94
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

51:47.33
Kevin Shock
But it's it's not just...

51:47.52
Nathan Pile
Mm

51:49.66
Kevin Shock
it It can be a physical thing, but but we are in the in the great Hebrew tradition, we're we're unified beings.

51:51.98
Nathan Pile
hmm. Mm

51:59.07
Kevin Shock
we're

51:59.52
Nathan Pile
hmm.

51:59.93
Kevin Shock
Body affects mind, affects spirit, and all of those interplay one with the other. and before you know it just you may maybe you're missing some sleep and you're feeling physically off and then and then then you realize oh my prayer life is off and then I'm oh i'm snapping at people at work or um you know might get an argument with my spouse it it's all it's all connected it's all connected and I think it I think that that it that don't know if it

52:06.63
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Yeah.

52:27.72
Nathan Pile
yeah

52:32.89
Kevin Shock
ah you're not, you weren't giving it as advice necessarily. You're just saying for yourself, this is what you need. But I think, I do think it is good advice to take a step back. And, and sometimes it can be helpful for someone else to say that too. I, this morning I had ah my, my annual appointment with my sleep doctor um who just, you know, looks at like the data for my CPAP and says, well, it looks like things are going well. I mean, yeah that's our,

52:57.04
Kevin Shock
for the past three years, that's been the appointment.

52:57.47
Nathan Pile
That's.

52:59.38
Kevin Shock
Um, but I talked to him, I talked to him this morning because my, my resting heart rate has been elevated for a little while now. And, you know, and he, and he said, well, there's nothing in the data that he has that would indicate that, but he started asking me some questions and,

53:19.11
Kevin Shock
Oh, okay. So two two months ago, you had like major orthopedic surgery. ah Following that, you had an infection in your incision.

53:29.64
Kevin Shock
And then you had a bad reaction to antibiotics. And then you had the flu. And I could see him like resisting laughing.

53:40.74
Nathan Pile
um

53:41.81
Kevin Shock
and and and And then it was kind of the question of, and and how much did how much difference did you say there is in your resting heart rate? And I said, about like five to 10 beats per minute on average.

53:53.78
Kevin Shock
And he said, yeah, I, I think you should just see how things play out over the next few months. but Like, a there's nothing to worry about.

54:04.90
Kevin Shock
um he said He said, you know, that that difference in heart rate, he said, that's not... but that that That can happen normally in seasons of life. and um but But he also said, you know your like your body has been through a lot in the past couple of months.

54:19.49
Kevin Shock
and

54:19.46
Nathan Pile
Right.

54:20.65
Kevin Shock
and And yeah, you probably don't feel like you're getting the kind of rest that you should be getting. And maybe you feel a little anxious about it. He said, see how things see how things kind of even out over the next few months. So yeah, but but having having somebody else say that to me and like ask me the right questions. I was like, Oh yeah. Like, you know, I, I left there feeling much less anxious about the whole thing than I had.

54:49.30
Kevin Shock
ah But first of all, because he said, you're fine. Like it's okay. But also helping me to recognize that. Yeah. This like, look at everything that your body's dealt with.

54:59.55
Kevin Shock
Um, this, yeah, this isn't like, this isn't so unheard of.

55:00.44
Nathan Pile
Right.

55:03.36
Kevin Shock
And, and so then, you know, between, between that appointment and, um Nathan, I had told you before we started recording today that my my wife gave me some good reminders last night about and about that I'm the only one who's in control of my emotions and nobody else is in control of my emotions.

55:14.98
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Yeah. it

55:21.91
Kevin Shock
I just My anxiety level feels so much less today than it did yesterday.

55:25.11
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

55:27.57
Nathan Pile
Yesterday.

55:28.29
Kevin Shock
yeah

55:28.35
Nathan Pile
Good.

55:29.09
Kevin Shock
and Yeah, which is a good thing. ah But it does take that sometimes being pulled out of our own... but self-referential view viewpoint, um, to, uh, to see that, um, yeah, uh, things are going to be okay.

55:41.37
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

55:49.69
Kevin Shock
And, and even more so, uh, like God, God is still in control of all this stuff.

55:49.72
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

55:56.70
Nathan Pile
no

55:57.48
Kevin Shock
And, and that's, that can be enough for right now. Yeah. Yeah.

56:04.82
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Okay. Well, um, that is a, uh, I, I enjoy, I'm glad we talked about that text because that's a text that, um,

56:07.45
Nathan Pile
to

56:16.51
Kevin Shock
i Like I said at the beginning, half of me says like, yeah, Jesus, you tell him. And the other half is like, oh, boy. OK, quit talking about me, Jesus.

56:22.94
Nathan Pile
and Good talking to me. yeah

56:24.32
Kevin Shock
Yeah. ah um

56:25.93
Nathan Pile
ah

56:26.90
Kevin Shock
But some additional texts, if you want to explore a little further for this week, Isaiah chapter 59, verses one through nine. Everyone who thirsts come to the water. Seek the Lord.

56:38.53
Kevin Shock
ah Psalm 63 verses 1 through 8, O God, eagerly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you. And 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 1 through 13 talks about Israel, baptized in cloud and seas, ate the same spiritual food as Christians.

57:00.96
Kevin Shock
So ah as always, we encourage you to share your reflections with us on on the text we discussed today or any of those additional texts. um We enjoy your questions, your thoughts, whatever whatever you want to share with us. We enjoy receiving them.

57:17.53
Kevin Shock
And ah we hope to tend our faith with you again soon. Grace to you.

57:22.19
Nathan Pile
And peace.