Plugged In Podcast
Plugged In Podcast
Episode 19 - 215 Days Later...
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What do the Boston Celtics' 18th Championship, Megan Fox's Razzie Award, the Paris Olympics and even the shocking news of OJ Simpson's passing all have in common? All of these things have happened since our last episode of the Plugged in Podcast way back in February!
A lot has happened in the past 215 days, but we're back... pinky promise! Tune in to hear all about Matt and Heather's incredible vacation to the Swiss Alps and Paris, highlights from the 100th summer of Camp Wonderland, (where 775 life-changing commitments were made for Christ!), and the emotional rollercoaster that is life as parents of a Kindergartner.
Join us as we look ahead to some exciting upcoming events here in The Salvation Army Massachusetts Division, such as the relaunch of our monthly Youth Arts Ministry and Friday Night Fellowship. We also spend time discussing Halloween costume ideas, contemplating our favorite Gameday rituals, and Matt lets us in on something (or someone) that he considers to be a bit "overrated."
In our Scripture segment, we wrestle with the challenge of "being present" in a world of constant activity, how to experience real peace in the face of worry and fear, and what it means to "leave our nets" to follow Christ with a renewed sense of trust and obedience. Come along for the ride as we laugh our way through these topics and so much more!
here we are once again man, it's been a long time welcome back on this little circle table.
Speaker 3Oh, man, we weren't even in 2024, the last wait, no, we were.
Speaker 1Oh, we were this is episode number 19 of the Plugged In Podcast. We stopped saying seasons a long time ago. I think, technically, maybe you could call this season three, season three, maybe, maybe, but we dropped that a long time ago. This is episode number 19. Nice, and to all of our listeners. Well, I don't know, I was about to apologize, but should we apologize?
Speaker 3No apologies needed.
Speaker 2I think those that listen get it.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2But now I think, now that you know it's fall, people are asking and have asked. I think Nate said people are asking when the next episode is like oh, people want to hear us.
Speaker 1So our last episode, oh gosh, february, oh no, oh no, 23, 2024. Wow, it has been. Are you serious? It has been 215 days. It has been my eyes switching 5,160 hours. Oh jeez, thank you. And it has been 309,600 minutes since our last show dropped, february. Yeah, february 23rd was our last episode. It was episode 18, and I went back just for research sake. It was my terrible weekend in connecticut where mckenzie threw up all over the breakfast buffet. Like yeah, this was a long time ago that's great.
Speaker 2I for sure thought it was like march. I know april gets cuckoo, but I thought at least yikes.
Speaker 1So in that time, look at my calendar. In that time, here are some. Here are some things.
Speaker 2Oh no, that have happened since our last show around the world some of these are good, some of these are not good, but this has all happened Since our last show the Boston Celtics won an NBA championship.
Speaker 1That's true, we were not there to talk about it. Where's?
Speaker 2the.
Speaker 1Oh, the applause. There it is. They're going crazy, they're going crazy. Okay, Megan Fox actress won a Razzie for Worst Actress Award. Really.
Speaker 2Really, Isn't that surprising. I was like where are we going?
Speaker 3I hadn't heard much from Megan Fox since Transformers, but I didn't think she was the worst.
Speaker 1I don't think she's the worst. She's not great Not my favorite actress but not the worst. Oj Simpson died. Yeah, he did Controversial.
Speaker 2I feel like I'm hearing some of this for the first time. It's all new. It's because we were on the show. It's all news. That's right. Oj died.
Speaker 1OJ Simpson died. Okay, the door from the movie Titanic sold at auction for $718,000.
Speaker 2Nice, that door could have fit two people, okay, so that's the question. That's the question more than two people for double that. If we approved, it could be for two people didn't they do that on like a myth busters?
Speaker 1well, I'm sure they did yeah, but what was the conclusion? Could jack have fit?
Speaker 2yes, he could have fit I think they, I think he could fit, I remember they like they cut the door out. They had it like to shape the the same weight other things that happened in our time.
Speaker 1Uh, lebron james set the all-time nba scoring record. Wow, for those of us that are michael jordan fans, it wasn't the you know, it's a longevity record yeah yeah, um the paris olympics, the entire paris olympics came and went oh, now you guys were at camp. Be honest, did you watch much Olympics? A little bit.
Speaker 2Some of it lined up over our long break. So when we were up in Old Orchard, when we had the TV on, we had the Olympics on. I just love watching it.
Speaker 3The one thing we did watch was Katie Ledecky, yeah.
Speaker 2Oh shoot.
Speaker 3Basically lapping the competition.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, that was insane. It looked like she was swimming in the pool alone. What's the long? Is it 1,500 meters? What's the longest? One Something like that yeah, the one where she was like literally in the picture. She's going the other way. Yes, amazing.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1Other highlights. So we loved Watch Swimming as well. Yeah, simone Biles. Kind of had her return to dominance. But maybe I found the US men's gymnastic team to be so captivating.
Speaker 2Such an underdog that just rose to the top Two from Massachusetts that was awesome.
Speaker 1I'm just going to call him Stephen Pommel Horse guy, because everyone knows who we're talking about.
Speaker 2I don't know if you saw that live.
Speaker 1But, he took off his Clark Kent glasses.
Speaker 2He's so cute. He got on the pommel horse and like crazy. Blew it away.
Speaker 1Also, who was the other? Is it Fred Richard From Stoughton? Freddie Flips yeah, what a personality too. I know he's going to be fun to watch. Going forward they had a lot of personalities. I'm trying to think the Steph Curry shot Steph Curry shot that was amazing. Was that in the Olympics? Yes, it was against France, right?
Speaker 3Yes, yes, yeah, that was incredible.
Speaker 1Yeah, the US men's basketball team won another gold. Yep, the US men took I forget who won it, but the sprinter the 100 meters.
Speaker 2One gold again. Oh yep, I can't think of a name.
Speaker 1Overall, I found it very entertaining. I don't know if you watched the opening night. I kind of always like to see that because there's always like an artistic twist on it. You had Lady Gaga was singing, they did it on the river, and there's just tons of who was playing the piano that was on fire, like in the river, I don't.
Speaker 2Anyways, it was, uh you have to go find the youtube.
Speaker 1We did not see the opening no, we did like we heard about it, but I did not watch it the whole point is that the whole world passed us by while we were not recording the plug-in podcast yeah, you made the point.
Speaker 2You made that point a couple other things.
Speaker 1Uh, this is huge news. Oprah winfrey left weight watchers.
Speaker 3I don't know if you heard about that, yeah, she's done and then maybe this is great, she just likes carbs, now again.
Speaker 1Well, weight Watchers, like I was reading an article that they you know, forever they've been about points and calories, and like you can eat these foods and that and blah blah. And with the rise of Ozempic and what's the other one? Wegovi, wegovi, yeah, that's right With the rise of that, I feel like Weight Watchers started to shift their entire business model Interesting To move towards medication. But anyways, I don't know. I just got this headline off of the internet and so Oprah Winfrey left Weight Watchers 30 second plug in there my first Weight Watchers ever.
Speaker 2When I went with my dad and I was like a teenager, I accidentally wore a Hershey Pennsylvania shirt. Yes, my dad, yep. So there's that.
Speaker 3Chocolate Came in this shirt with the chocolate candy bar in it.
Speaker 2I was mortified, but every time I think of Weight Watchers. Okay, keep going.
Speaker 1Okay, my last one is just so. We don't endorse either side of the political aisle here. But huge news. So Joe Biden and President Trump had a debate that went so poorly for President Biden that, even though he was defiant about it, about three weeks later he dropped out of the presidential race. And now Vice President Kamala Harris is the nominee for the. Democrats. So what a wild ride that's been. And we're not even to the election yet.
Speaker 2We're not even there. We still got like a month and a half two months.
Speaker 1Yeah. So the point is, it's been a long time, it's been a long time. Since we've recorded the Plugged In Podcast. But Point made Understood, it's good to be back.
Speaker 2Yes, it is.
Speaker 1If you've stayed this far into episode 19,. My name is Matt. I am the music director here in the Massachusetts division and I am joined by my co-hosts.
Speaker 2I'm Loretta, captain Loretta and the divisional candidates secretary and youth secretary. It's a really long title.
Speaker 3Who are you?
Speaker 2And my husband.
Speaker 3Hi, I'm Nate and I'm part of the team with Loretta here in the youth department. Divisional youth secretary Basically just means that we spend our summers at camp. We pour into the lives of young people and young adults and see what God is doing across the great Massachusetts division amongst the young people.
Speaker 1That's right. So the Plugged In podcast, it can be all over the place, but essentially we speak to Salvation Army events and gatherings and happenings here in the Massachusetts division. And even if you're not in the Salvation Army Massachusetts division, hopefully you can spend some time with us, share a laugh or two, and usually every episode we have some sort of devotional or Bible study type of thought. So if you're here for the ride, welcome to the Plugged In Podcast. Here we go, Our next segment today three ups, three downs. So to recap kind of our personal time, since, uh, since we've recorded the podcast when you guys want to go first, we've got some ups and downs. I have a lot of ups.
Summer Camp, Kindergarten, and Family Highlights
Speaker 3That's great, is that okay? Yeah, I have five. Wow, okay, let's hear it. So I think the the one that I have to touch on first is coming out of the summer. Um, summer is a great time here in the Massachusetts division at the happy summer place, camp wonderland. Yeah, we just want to give glory to God for the 775 new commitments and rededications that took place at camp this summer, just continually in awe of the ministry.
Speaker 2Yeah 775.
Speaker 1I have this new effects board and it's just you just wait.
Speaker 2You have no idea what effects are coming your way.
Speaker 1Good joke. That's about the extent of it Sorry.
Speaker 3But it's just it's. I'm continually in awe of the ministry of camp. I know the impact that it's made in my life and the life of so many others, not just who have been campers but staff, and so just grateful for the opportunity to be a part of that ministry team and provide a safe haven for people to really come and encounter God. So that was great. So that was this summer, Also milestone in our family. Our son, Jackson, started kindergarten.
Speaker 2He did. I'll take that off of my up here he did.
Speaker 3He started kindergarten, which is wild, but he's doing great. His teacher's phenomenal today is the scholastic book fair at his school. Do you remember the days? Of so quick story about scholastic book fair here we go that was one of my favorite like highlights as a child. But I wasn't the kid who would go and buy the books. I'd go and buy the like ridiculous trinkets that you could buy.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, yeah. So I saw this like tarantula necklace in in jackson's book that he brought home the other day and I said I'd totally buy the tarantula necklace and and wear that. But I I bought this spy pen one time and it wrote in invisible ink and had this little light on the other end so you could read it now. You can just buy that on amazon I would pass secret messages to kids in my second grade class.
Speaker 1Wow, I remember posters being a big deal, whether it was sports heroes or your favorite band.
Speaker 2They always had that bin of posters that you could buy.
Speaker 1We were in that era of you had a poster of either Michael Jordan, or NSYNC or Backstreet Boys. Those were the posters that were on people's walls. Great Good times, man. What's that like for as mean? That's what, as parents, you know him going to kindergarten. Oh, a wreck, A wreck. I bet A wreck yeah.
Speaker 2I just. We went to brunch together on his first day of school and we're sitting at the like the table, we're sitting at the restaurant every couple of seconds. I was just like sobbing because I kept thinking about it and I'm like is he making friends? Like is he sitting by himself Cause he's so quiet in new situations, and so I'm just like you know, like total mom guilt. Then he said to me, probably like the second or third day of school, cause every morning he's like I don't want to go to school.
Speaker 2And I'm like oh, too early for this Second, one of the first few days of school. I said why are you having such a hard time? I said can you you have? There's people there, everyone's like figuring it out like you can do hard things. And he goes. I don't like watching you walk away from me oh my goodness, and I just like, yeah, curled into myself and I just wanted to like melt and I was like how can you articulate that? So now we have to like process that.
Speaker 1My mom has a famous story to her or to our family. But like the first day that she walked me to kindergarten, we got to the door and I looked at her and said, mom, after today you don't have to walk me to school anymore. And she was just like Matthew, why? And I said to her well, mom, one day I'm going to say bye, mom, I'm getting married. So, and like she, she, like she disintegrated you know, she like melted in the moment, but it's amazing.
Speaker 3Yeah, anyways, nate, sorry to hijack your ups, but that's good, that's good. Um, so my other two, uh, a chick-fil-a is opening up in your camp, that is, that's big in my book that's that's opening up very soon, we drive past it. I was going to say, and by camp you mean by your house. I mean, yeah, like eight minutes away, so we drive past it and I check out the progress that's happening. I get very excited.
Speaker 1Talk to the foreman. How much longer, sir?
Speaker 2Has that paint going?
Speaker 3good.
Speaker 2Drive through ready.
Speaker 3Oh, and then yesterday was, uh, Loretta and my eight year wedding anniversary.
Speaker 2I had to put that on the list, you know because my life would not be the same without you.
Speaker 3There you go, yeah.
Speaker 1In a positive way. Positive If it wasn't on your list, it was going to be. Oh, yeah, yeah, it was going to be on somebody's list.
Speaker 2It would have been talked about later.
Speaker 3Oh sorry, I have one more my last high or up Is this the Steelers are 3-0. They lead the division and their defense looks Phenomenal.
Speaker 1Enough of your ups, did you have a down? No downs.
Speaker 3Uh, we don't have, we don't have to end with no, I don't want to hijack all this time. You guys go All right?
Speaker 2Well, he took several of my ups. Um, one of my ups was the Facebook picture for your birthday.
Speaker 1Oh, you want to explain this or?
Speaker 2so, Um with last year we, our families, went on a family vacation. Took a group picture.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2And um then in the winter, we have our annual patriot party, and so matt, sneaky matt, posted a picture of me and nate and jackson, uh, standing in front of the field at gillette and was like oh, this underprivileged family like I have no, no, no, no, hold on, I didn't use the word no, no, I said it was like a lovely couple who were like avid patriots.
Speaker 1Fans posed in front of the field and they were so happy to share that moment with their son. Like gosh, I'm like I didn't know about you, but I did not say underprivileged.
Speaker 2That's the first word that I thought of, but it was like I had the opportunity and privilege, so I was like, okay, game on. And so I think I probably said to you, on a podcast episode, I will have revenge yeah, and so like the next month, like perfect, that's what I wanted.
Speaker 2It was months it was months so, um, like the next month, I photoshopped, uh, a jets logo on matt's shirt from our family vacation yeah, group photo and just waited and I waited and I waited, and I had it in my camera roll until your birthday and then.
Speaker 3I just posted it. This was premeditated, oh yeah.
Speaker 2I posted it and just let it sit, and then.
Speaker 1So at that point the picture itself was like 13 months old.
Speaker 2I mean, it was like over a year.
Speaker 1But then from the time that you had told me you get revenge, you had waited like seven months.
Speaker 2I was a long awaited.
Speaker 1And, in the grand scheme of things, like the logo in the picture is so small. Yeah, I mean I'm wearing like a star lake pullover, yeah, and it's like it's just a chest logo and it's so small. So I see this post on social media from lorita's just like hey, dear friend, like have a great day like birthday friend yeah, I was like, and so I like. I thought I was like, oh, that's really nice, but then, like, didn't think anything of it. I don't know why I came back to it later that day.
Speaker 1Someone probably commented I told you, my kids have changed so much. Mackenzie was more or less an infant when we went on that trip Such a baby. I was looking at the picture and I zoomed in on their faces because I wanted to see Caleb and Jackson are making silly faces.
Speaker 2Then I zoomed in and I'm going across the picture and I was like what you were in the office too, and I kept saying to like Nate, I'm like tell me if he reacts, cause like I'm just waiting for the moment I was like no way I went in, I like shaded it, I like went in so detailed and I was like I don't want anyone to look at this and think it's a photoshop job oh no, the the effort was phenomenal, but it was so subtle.
Speaker 1It was so subtle that it was not noticeable, which made it even because I was like, oh, she like spent time on this, like she worked at this and then it just but then on your birthday I'm like where is that? Picture, because it was so deep in my photo uh role, so that was a highlight thank you for including that on your ups, like in the last six months a meaningful part of her life right listen, I waited so long for that oh man.
Speaker 2um, I also had jackson starting kindergarten, I also had all of Yep, and then I also had wait.
Speaker 1Oh, here comes a prop. Okay, there it is. I brought my hat, I'm not going to.
Speaker 2But and then I also had, we went to. We took Jackson to his first baseball game, nice At Citi Field. Mets versus the Red Sox. Mets won. It's just been, it's been, it's been decent Red Sox.
Speaker 3Mets won it's been decent You're rolling high.
Speaker 2I know you have no idea.
Speaker 3Yeah, you're riding the wave. The thing that's incredible about a Mets and Red Sox game, though, is that everyone came together to chant disparaging things against the Yankees. Yes, it was like in that moment people came together on a united front and it was really cool to see that.
Speaker 2No, it's been crazy. I mean to see that. No, it was, it's been a crazy, I mean between youth councils and wonderland 100. We've had a lot of good events, yeah, but there's probably even more in there since our last record date was february.
Speaker 1Yeah, there's tons, you're talking star search and yam overnighter and yeah, a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker 1um, okay, I have some ups. Was that your list? That was it okay? Uh, one thing on my list was the, the summer music activities, music Conservatory and Music Camp. We had a record number of students at Conservatory 30 students, everyone's playing brass, everyone's singing. It was a really good-feeling community this summer. Yeah, and we talked about this in the past, but with the addition of Chris as a full-time employee now, it was just like the faculty gelled. Everyone was kind of in the right place doing the right thing. Conservatory felt awesome. Same thing with music camp. It just felt like people were slotted in the right roles and it was just. It felt like a really good week. It's awesome.
Speaker 1Maybe the highlight not just of my, this might be the highlight of my life, like I'm not sure how to describe this, but um, so post. Uh, after the music stuff over the summer star Lake, um, after family camp.
Speaker 2So my yeah, yeah.
European Vacation and Fitness Journey
Speaker 1So my wife and I celebrated our 10th anniversary this year. Congrats, applause meter. Oh yeah, sorry. Yeah, there we go, almost hit the wrong one. Oh yeah, she doesn't listen. Let's be honest, she's not listening to the podcast. So we're celebrating our 10th anniversary and it was one of those things. Probably for the last four or five years we've just kind of been saving up a little bit at a time, not knowing what we're going to do, but we're going to look into something. We knew that we could get some like credit card airline transfer miles, but it had to be a non-domestic flight. So we were thinking, okay, we can do this transfer, but where's somewhere in Europe that we're interested in? So first we were thinking, maybe, like we're both like huge music nerds, so a place like Vienna?
Speaker 1Vienna and Prague and that kind of like area Budapest would be like very interesting. So a place like Vienna, vienna and Prague and that kind of like area Budapest would be like very interesting. So we were looking at that stuff. And then we crossed over. I was I've never been to Paris, heather had been, but I had never been. So I was looking online how can I? Is there a train that goes from like Prague to Paris and what does that look like? And I came across these YouTube videos that were like take this scenic train that goes through Switzerland. That's incredible. And so I came across these videos and this is the theme of my life. But like 10,000 hours of YouTube later I knew everything about Switzerland and I knew the cities and I knew the trains and I knew. So we ended up spending our vacation. We went seven days in Switzerland and three days in Paris and it was just I don't really have words for how I mean borderline, life-changing. I mean it was like so I can't, I'm, I have no words.
Speaker 2I have no words, that's awesome.
Speaker 1Every day in Switzerland was like a different, a different hike, a different mountain. It was something totally different than I think either one of us have ever done on a vacation. That was another thing we were talking. We've taken vacations where you relax on the beach, you do nothing, you blah, blah, blah. This one was like we're going to Switzerland every single day.
Speaker 2We wanted to make sure we were like seeing as much as possible but it wasn't.
Speaker 1But while it was like an itinerary and like seeing, as much as possible there was no. There's no people. Yeah, like we were on these like hikes and these mountains where, like maybe once every 45 minutes you passed like someone else. But it was like you and it's still peaceful.
Speaker 2Yeah, it was like yeah, the land structure.
Speaker 1It's hard to describe the landscape how beautiful it was. It was just so. I mean, it was like I don't know if that's the up of of my summer or year or decade, or like I'm serious, it was like like literally one of the highlights of my life.
Speaker 2That's amazing. Your photos were beautiful.
Speaker 1Thank you. I have like 10 million more. I just like.
Speaker 1Just slowly dropping I got to go through them. I don't know if I want to post them Like it's, just like so. And then my last up was just my, my health. In anticipation of this trip, I knew how physical the trip was going to be and I just like I didn't want to go to Switzerland and then, like at night, be complaining about like a sore ankle or out of breath up the mountain. So I have literally like never run in my entire life Like I'm serious, like so before this trip, like I don't know if I had. I'm being honest to all the listeners out there. I don't know if I had ever run like a mile in my life without stopping, like I just didn't know if I'd ever done it in my life. And back in school, like when you did the pacer, I was always like the worst kid.
Speaker 2Like I was the last one on that flip.
Speaker 1No, like my my fitness, my anyways. Long story short. Um, really the the runup to switzerland, like about two months, really, the month of july and august. I just felt like I absolutely killed. It was getting in the gym five, six, seven days a week, started running a mile and then two miles and then I was getting in three, four, five miles, like. So it just like felt I've never really yeah yeah.
Speaker 1So I like really felt proud of that and uh. But then when we got to Switzerland, um, I guess my wife's not listening, I don't want to say I don't want to say I felt in better shape than her, but like I was ready to like, yeah, scale the mountains.
Speaker 1I was ready to. I was ready to conquer the mountains. I felt really good, that's awesome. So it was just, it was really really great, amazing. So I don't think any of us shared any downs. That's fine. We can just call this segment three ups next time?
Speaker 2Yeah, let's call it three ups.
Speaker 1But hopefully our listeners. You can relate to some of the ups that we've had in the past six or seven months. I'm sure you have ups of your own. We would love to hear from you. So if you're on Instagram, if you're on YouTube, you're watching this send us an email. We'd love to hear what's going on in your life. We're going to take a short break here on the Plugged In Podcast and then, when we come back, we have some upcoming events that we want to talk about. Here in the Salvation Army Massachusetts Division, we have a rapid fire round of questions for each of the hosts and then we'll round out today with a devotional thought for you. So thank you for being here. The Plugged In Podcast, episode 19. We'll be right back.
Speaker 2Ready. That's my nervousness. I'm putting that in.
Speaker 1We're back. We're on it, started with the teeth. Jenner Want to do that again. We're back. We're on it, started with the teeth. Chatter Want to do that again. It's okay.
Speaker 3I'm nervous, I'm nervous.
Speaker 2Why.
Speaker 3Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1All right, welcome back to the Plugged In Podcast, episode number 19. We were just chatting about nate and his teeth chatter that one right into the mic all morning.
Speaker 3Why are you nervous? I don't know, man. It's been a long time, it's been a long time.
Speaker 2How many days, yeah?
Speaker 1215, 215 days. Oh good, you remembered no I meant that it was like it was an obscure number.
Speaker 3Yeah, no, I know my brain is filled with obscure facts that don't matter in life. I got you True.
Upcoming Salvation Army Massachusetts Events
Speaker 1Okay, so we're going to go. We're going to tell you about some upcoming events here in the Salvation Army Massachusetts division. Maybe you're a part of them, maybe you're on the way to them right now, as you are listening to this in your car, or however you listen to this. September 28th is this Saturday. We're recording a few days before. I'm not going to tell the listeners that this is going to come out before the 28th.
Speaker 1Let's not tie ourselves down here, because I feel like when we tie ourselves down, like oh, we're going to record every week or every other week, 215 days passes.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's. True, exactly.
Speaker 1Anyways, Youth Arts Ministry, YAM, starts up on September 28th and it's an exciting new season. There are new things to the schedule, there's different classes. This year the timings have switched around a little bit. There is a whole lot cooking for Youth Arts Ministry.
Speaker 2There are two tracks that run, yeah so exciting.
Speaker 1Ages 9 to 12 is one track and then a teenage track, 13 plus. Right now there's about 70 students registered. That's awesome, and, I believe, a little bit north of 30 adults Incredible, that's awesome. So that ratio of instructors to students is a solid one and I'm just excited for a really, really great season. It's good.
Speaker 2It's going to be good. I'm really excited about my class this year too. I have some fun ideas, so it's always exciting.
Speaker 1This is in our show notes, but this year we're doing something a little different for devotions. Yeah, we are using our devotional segment at YAM to aid in the teaching of the Corps Cadet material. Yeah, you want to talk about?
Speaker 3that just a little bit, of course.
Speaker 3Yeah, so for the 13 to 25 age group, we are going to be doing kind of an intro to Corps Cadets for them as well, knowing that we do have some really faithful core cadet brigades across the division, and so this isn't a time to take that away from them, but something that we view as a supplement to that and to help enhance their conversations that they're having at their core, and also for those young people that are here that maybe don't have a core cadet group happening at their core, a way just to get some exposure to that, get their feet wet, and I mean it's fantastic curriculum, it's a great opportunity to just come alongside our young people and disciple them and encourage them, and so we're looking forward to having them all here together to study in community.
Speaker 2Yeah, Dynamic duo Neil and Nate.
Speaker 3Yeah, Neil's the best man.
Speaker 1He's so good, he is Neil Weld's Kroc Center. He's the best. Anytime we can kind of tie some things together at events that we're doing, I think it just kind of solidifies, fortifies the purpose of us coming together. And so I'm really excited about that Territorial event coming up we have on October 4th is Singing Stars. They started this a handful of years ago to kind of compliment. The New York staff band has been doing future all-stars for brass players for a long time. The New York staff band has been doing future all-stars for brass players for a long time. But the ETSS, the Eastern Territorial Staff Songsters, basically the adult choir of the territory for the Salvation Army, has started singing stars so they have young people from around the territory come out to Star Lake Camp at the conference center they get to sing with the ETSS. I almost said three S's.
Speaker 1It almost fell out, but they have a really great weekend and we do have some delegates from Massachusetts that will be going down with Chris Molinaro and they're going to have a fantastic weekend. So we'll hear more about that soon. Loretta, you have, I believe, candidates Seminar.
Speaker 2That's right. Same weekend is the Candidates Seminar, so that will be happening in Suffern New York from October 4th to the 6th. Is that that Friday?
Speaker 1to Sunday. Can you tell us, can you tell the listeners, what a candidate is?
Speaker 2Sure, a candidate is someone who has identified that the Lord has called them to full-time ministry. So, within the Salvation Army, a candidate is someone who has identified the Lord has called me to this specific purpose, and they are in the process of becoming a cadet, which is a first-year seminary student at the College for Officer Training. And so this weekend is a little bit broader than just narrowing down one calling. You know, because our God is a creative God. Our God calls everyone to individual purposes, otherwise God would be a very boring God. But this is just a weekend that is focused on kind of taking all the other stuff away, the clutter away, the, the distractions away, and like what is God calling you to? Um, and if it's full-time ministry, here's the Avenue. If it's local leadership within your core, here's the Avenue.
Speaker 1And, and so it's, it's um so this is intentional, so this is not just for people who are thinking about officership.
Speaker 2No, no it is. I don't think I knew that it's. You know, in the past, I think back when, even when we were younger and going to this weekend, it was there was kind of a idea of one track. But in recent years that's I mean, that's been expanded to understand that. Um, you know, that's why there's multiple tracks that people can choose from for the weekend. You can choose different tracks to be a part of. Whether you are this, is it God's calling me to? This? I know, before I go into the weekend, I'm going to this accepting track, or I'm really not sure, but I also don't really know what my purpose is or what God's calling me to. So I'm going to this exploring track and it's a little broader now, which I appreciate.
Speaker 3Yeah, we recognize that some people are called to go to pick up and to go and some people are called to stay and be faithful where they are, in their own sphere of ministry, at their local core. So it's just a time to encourage and to seek the Lord's face and get some confirmation as to where he may be leading.
Speaker 2That's great and I think about, like your, your dad, who was definitely called to stay. But there was a calling in that and I think of my parents that never officers, but called to be strong local leaders. Like that's just as important as us who are transient and come and go, but there is a calling in people who are called to stay.
Speaker 1Yeah, I uh I'm going to talk about this later in my kind of devotional thought for myself Um, but I'm going on 14 years living in the Boston area and by far that's the longest I've ever been in one place. So just talking about staying rooting, kind of being effective where you are, if that's your calling and it isn't for everyone there is a place for you. I think the registration for this year is closed. Yes, but if you want to go in the future, how would someone get in touch with you?
Speaker 2They can either email me I'm not going to. I'll put my email somewhere on Instagram or something, because it's a long one.
Speaker 1Yeah, if you're watching on YouTube, we'll have it on the screen.
Speaker 2Yeah, or you can always reach out to us on our MassYouth Instagram, massyouth, facebook, and also would love to, you know, meet up for lunch, coffee, dinner and just chat, because the process is just as equally relational as it is paperwork based. And so it starts with conversation. So love to do that.
Speaker 1Awesome. We have two more events we want to mention. Nate, we have Young Adult Bible Study coming up in the middle of October. I believe it's October 18th. Yes, just give us a briefing on that. Yeah.
Speaker 3So we do Young Adult Bible Studies at our in Sharon, massachusetts, which is always a nice little intimate setting where we come together with food and fellowship and look to God's word, uh, for a little bit of the evening there. And so, um, this year we're looking to do a study on the book of Acts, uh, which I'm really excited about just how we can be missional where we are and how God uh, really just tying into that how we, we are called to ministry wherever it is that the Lord places our feet.
Speaker 1Acts is crazy, like there's a. There's a lot of stuff that goes on in Acts, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3And so it's. It's not like you don't have to be a pastor to be in ministry, because God calls each one of us to be missional where we are, and so we're going to be looking at that and just spending time together in community, sharing food and, uh, just encouraging one another.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3Awesome.
Speaker 1Last thing I have on my list uh, we have Friday night fellowship for the young adult Bible study. Sorry, what's the age kind of for that?
Speaker 3So that's after high school. So college or high school graduates and up and kind of, and I think the oldest one that comes is probably 30 ish. But you can keep if you're older than 30, come on out too.
Speaker 2I am older.
Speaker 3I'm older than 30. So I still want to consider myself a young adult.
Speaker 1We'll see. There's like some magical, there's not. I feel like there's no hard number, but there's like some number where you just become adult and you're just like oh crap. Where is the line? I'm not a young adult anymore. Um and then. So October 25th, we have Friday night fellowship.
Halloween Costume Ideas and NFL Trivia
Speaker 3Yes, now, friday night fellowship is, uh, we try to do it at least a few times in the fall and then in the spring as well, and this is geared towards, uh, individuals that are in that, uh, I don't know, later middle school or later elementary middle school age, something specific for them, um, uh, and so what we're going to do for our October gathering, on the 25th, is we're going to put together a fall fest, fall festival, complete with all the fall things you know pumpkins, apple cider, flannel, all the great things that moms, good moms, scarecrows, I don't know, whatever, whatever you can think of fall we're going to, we're going to try to put that together and have just a good time of fellowship together, and we'll be scheduling some more. Some more information will come out about location and expectations for that.
Speaker 1Nice Costumes, yes, why not? Okay, good, I'm just checking it's pretty close to Halloween.
Speaker 3Leonard Bernstein, would that be your costume? Your hero? Here he goes, maybe.
Speaker 2I was just thinking I'm I. We need to wear costumes on on halloween this year. I'm just gonna spice things up at dhq oh, should we have.
Speaker 1We should have a plugged in podcast costume costume party, yeah done yeah, I'm not gonna be learned although that white jumpsuit that he's famous for pretty iconic yeah, it is we were in petco the other day and jackson saw several dog costumes pizza tacos like I want to be this.
Speaker 1I'm like it's a dog it's a dog costume I don't even know where caleb learned this word, but for like the last three weeks he's just. I want to be a skeleton for halloween and I just like, I'm like okay and then. So we went to target and he found this like glow-in-the-dark, like rainbow skeleton, like that's. There was no getting him off that. But the funnier one was we got target. Mckenzie like disappeared around the corner for a second. Also, she won't ride in the car anymore because she sees Caleb walking and running around. So we went to target.
Speaker 1It was like crazy. But McKenzie scoots around the corner and I'm just like, hey, we're okay. And she comes back one second later in her two little arms and she comes back one second later. I love her In her two little arms. She's rocking back and forth. She picked up two candy buckets that are like metallic rainbow skulls, but she was just waddling down the aisle and for whatever reason, she knew to grab two of them One for her and one for Caleb.
Speaker 1I looked at Heather and I was like we're not buying these, and then we bought them.
Speaker 2I was going to say you bought them. They clearly match his costume, which is what mackenzie was thinking exactly she had all she, she had it down, she knew.
Speaker 1So those are the events uh we have coming up. That covers us, I think, through the end of october, because again, I'm not gonna promise that we're gonna be recording, uh every week or every other week. So if you don't hear from us again, uh, for 215 days. We've listed the events through October.
Speaker 2We've covered the next month and a half. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1Uh, we do have a rapid fire question around Um. Who wants to go first on this? I think we each put together three questions.
Speaker 2Yeah, I can go first.
Speaker 1Okay, you go first.
Speaker 2Okay, first, matt, I have three questions for you oh, I'm ready, ready. Invisibility or super strength super strength.
Speaker 1Why invisibility feels creepy?
Speaker 3I was gonna say that like it feels.
Speaker 1It feels like it feels like you would want to be invisible to do things that you're not supposed to be doing you'd be like you know, stealing food or something, or I don't. I don't know what the like yeah yeah, so I'm going super strength all right, no more questions on.
Speaker 2That leads right into my next question. Okay, what is something that you could eat for a week straight?
Speaker 1oh, pizza I was gonna say pizza too, so many different toppings like easy.
Speaker 2I could go way more than a week, way more than a week. That's good nate will be like we just had pizza. I'm like I don't care, I could have it again yeah, okay, last question yep what are the five nfl teams with an animal in the logo that are not bird, cat or human?
Speaker 1bird cat or human I found this one online with an animal yeah, an animal.
Speaker 2Five nfl teams that are not bird, cat or human, like no panthers, no eagles wow, this should take me a while.
Speaker 1Uh, chicago bears. Yep, a lion is a cat it's gonna take a while um Seahawks Falcons, those are birds. Panther is a cat, Jaguar is a cat.
Speaker 2You're doing good though.
Speaker 1Let's see Phone a friend Phone a friend, the Commanders, the Giants, the Eagles and the what.
Speaker 2You said Giants, go north.
Speaker 1No, I was going by division.
Speaker 2Oh sorry, I'm like well Asian.
Speaker 3Well okay, no, I was going by division oh sorry, I'm like location.
Speaker 1Well, okay, north of. Well, it's not the Patriots, no, that's human. Thank you, cleveland Browns. Those are human Kansas City Chiefs, not an animal.
Speaker 2You're naming all of them, except I've got one so far, this is awful.
Speaker 1Everyone except for all. Right, can you tell me which conference? No, I can't, okay, I don't know. The conference Houston Texans also people.
Speaker 2Nate might be able to say that 49ers people. Nate, tell them the conference.
Speaker 1AFC South. Afc South, that's like my worst division, tennessee Titans Wait.
Speaker 3Sorry, afc East Bro, my bad.
Speaker 1AFC East. So the Jets, not an animal. Patriots, not an animal Buffalo.
Speaker 2Bills. Yes, that's two. That was my north clue.
Speaker 1Okay, and then who am I forgetting?
Speaker 2Dolphins Miami.
Speaker 1Dolphins. Okay, I got three, here we go Two more. Hit me another division, that helped.
Speaker 2Sorry, those were the two I but you have. You can't look at your ears no longer rapid fire sorry, afc west afc west broncos
Speaker 1yes nfc west, nfc west.
Speaker 2So that's the rams yeah, that was pretty rapid, quicker than I would have been all right, I'm proud of myself I mean it's nfl season. I gotta yeah, yeah, yeah tis the season. I think we all picked a football question, so oh good, good yeah, all right, am I going for Nate, too. Should I do Nate?
Speaker 1too. You want to do someone, I'll go for it. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2Would you rather be able to speak every language in the world or talk to animals?
Speaker 3Oh, definitely every language in the world.
Speaker 2Okay, enough said, I'm not going to ask anymore.
Speaker 3Name the eight NFL teams that end in E-R-S Steelers Yep Commanders. Yep Eight Buccaneers.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 3Ears, ears, ears, ears Chargers.
Speaker 2Yep Chargers. We need some background music.
Speaker 3Jaguars.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 3This is why I got this. Yes, a little distracting.
Speaker 2Well, it's done, so good yeah.
Speaker 3Panthers.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 3Oh, yeah, good one. Sorry, thank you.
Speaker 2Two more. I don't know what on my list You've said and not.
Speaker 3Oh, I do. 49ers AFC West.
Speaker 2Niners and one more I said chargers oh, you said concentration face.
Speaker 1Yeah, I lost track of what he said I know I'm like actively trying to okay who have I said, who didn't.
Speaker 2I say okay, so you said chargers, commanders, steelers, niners, panthers, buccaneers, packers I didn't say packers, oh, wait, did you say raiders? No either I counted wrong or I ruined rolling back.
Speaker 3What did I do? All?
Game Day Traditions, Friends, and Choices
Speaker 2right last question what's your favorite game day tradition?
Speaker 3my favorite game day tradition thank you for repeating well, first of all, I watch football games standing in front of the TV the whole time. I can't sit, because if I sit, if I sit, my team does not play well.
Speaker 2The moment I stand up.
Speaker 3TJ Watt gets a sack. I don't know what it is. We have this connection.
Speaker 2So yesterday's, like I think they won because I was standing, I don't think it's a tradition.
Speaker 3I just think it's an obligation now so, but my favorite tradition is chili chili on game days. After church, come home, nice, pot of chili. Uh yeah, I put on my, put on my Jersey. Sometimes I wave the towel. Terrible towel, nice, I'm an obnoxious fan that you don't want to watch football with hey all right.
Speaker 2There's my questions.
Speaker 1Okay, I have three questions. Hey, it's all right, there's my questions. Okay, I have three questions. Sorry, that was not rapid. No, it's okay. Um, the first one is easy, kind of boring, but has to do with my vacation. So for both of you, beach vacation or mountain resort not even a resort, I'm a mountain retreat.
Speaker 2I meant like I instantly go to beach.
Speaker 3Yeah, um, I. I think I would normally say beach, but I I went skiing for the first time not too long ago and I really enjoyed it and I think I would like to go to a legit like ski resort.
Speaker 1Yeah, mountains nice backtracking just a little bit uh with your football stuff. Who the stealers like the most hated rival, the team you hate the most the team that I don't like the most the ravens oh, the ravens well, the browns aren't a threat to me.
Speaker 1Okay, ravens okay, that sets this up. Perfect. Okay, you have to choose one of two things. This is for Nate only the Steelers win an NFL championship is your first choice. Or your son, jackson is drafted by the Steelers as a fifth round pick in the NFL, is then released by the Steelers. They let him go. He's picked up by the Ravens and in the AFC championship game the Ravens defeat the Steelers to go on and Jackson wins a Super Bowl championship as a member of the Ravens. Which one do you pick? So that's a big scenario.
Speaker 3I have a lot of faith in my son, jackson, and I think that he would be cheering for the steelers even while winning the super bowl. So, as a ravens, yes, as employed.
Speaker 2That's not the answer, the question. Stop finding the loop which one?
Speaker 1you have to choose one either. Jackson wins a super bowl championship with the ravens with the ravens or the steelers. Win a championship, you get to experience a Steelers championship.
Speaker 3Oh, I've experienced them, so I'll go with Jackson. Okay, all right, good answer dad. Because you know that is a once in a lifetime family moment, yeah, and career moment for him.
Speaker 2Would you wear Jackson's jersey?
Speaker 3I'd wear his jersey, but I'd wear like Heinzman on the back and probably like X out the Ravens on the front.
Speaker 1Okay, all right. Last question is for Loretta. I don't know, okay, if you could be best friends with only one member of the Friends cast, who would it be, and why?
Speaker 2That's a fantastic question.
Speaker 1And like we're just going to assume that like you don't ever get a chance to meet any of the rest of them, but you are legitimate coffee besties on a regular basis with one cast member.
Speaker 3So the character, not the actors.
Speaker 1No, no, no. Let's go with the character. The character yeah, I was thinking character Yep.
Speaker 2One character, ugh, I don't know, this is like-.
Speaker 1Pretty tough.
Speaker 2This is tough. First, I'm thinking Phoebe would be hilarious. All the time I definitely am more of a Rachel.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 2Also OCD Monica, she's struggling.
Speaker 3I am?
Speaker 2I'm really struggling, joey, all of them. I'm going to go, rachel.
Speaker 1Rachel, yep Okay.
Speaker 2I feel like we'd vibe yeah, yeah, there'd be vibes there, okay. But I'm also thinking, joey, no, I'm going to go, rachel.
Speaker 1I couldn't do Joey, I couldn't. I would get tired of it. I would like I couldn't. Chandler would be my friend.
Speaker 2Yeah, chandler. No, you and Chandler would fight all the time.
Speaker 3Yeah, but it'd be sarcasm. It'd be good fighting.
Speaker 1And you don't know, man, I'm with, I'm with her on this, thank you, okay. You got some nate. I do.
Speaker 3Yes, okay, sorry, I forgot that I had questions all right, matt for you what is something that you consider to be entirely overrated, but something that seemingly everyone else enjoys. But you can't stand it, or you're just like that's pretty subpar oh my goodness, I need some time to think about that.
Speaker 3Um, completely overrated but every but everyone else loves yeah like something that people, a trend or a food or an experience that everyone's like this is so great and you're just like, yeah, it's not that great I'm gonna get some real hate for from this, but it's the first thing I can think of taylor swift I knew you were gonna say that sorry
Speaker 3I'm gonna pack this up, she's out she's out, sorry, all right, all right, um, she's better than most too, but like I mean she, she like writes her own stuff which is pretty she's, she's incredibly talented yeah, okay, next question all right, uh soundtrack to your life, and why oh?
Speaker 2man I. I tried to direct him to not so serious questions. That's not serious no, it's, it's good, it's just thought, thought, what's the word?
Speaker 1um soundtracks my life and why, um, I think if I had like a spotify playlist of like, uh like, john williams yeah I think that covers so much emotional ground that you could fill up every moment of your life with a John Williams theme from one of his movies. So I think that I'm going with the John Williams playlist. That's great. I think that would cover quite a bit.
Speaker 3Cool, cool. Sorry, I don't want to get too deep on the question no, it's fine, go ahead.
Speaker 2I'm just messing.
Speaker 3Do you want me to go with question three? Let's hear it. All right, Something that you would tell to 15-year-old Matt if you could go back in time. Oh man 15-year-old Matt.
Speaker 1Well, when I was 15, nothing was. I wasn't serious about anything yet. Yeah, even like my music stuff, like I think I was good and like I knew I was good, but you have no idea, like the level of work, yeah, that it takes to be a professional or like. So I like didn't really take it seriously until maybe into my halfway through my sophomore year of college. Yeah, so like all through high school it just like I don't know. I mean, it's just something fun. That's not really great advice. Like get more serious to a 15 year old. Shape up. Come on, bro. I'm not sure if I could go back. I mean we talked about my health earlier.
Speaker 1I think if I could go back and just say and just not even say things, but help educate. Say things, but help educate. I don't think I maybe knew enough. Yeah, uh, information about just how to, well, how, like everyone's, everyone's different and everyone's metabolism and the way they you know, I just yeah, if I could go back, I feel like there are things in my life that I have uh missed out on because I've made choices to exclude myself from things, because I've been self-conscious about my weight or about my like strength or ability to participate in things, like I've seen friends do like five K's and do different kinds of trips, or I've always been like self-conscious about swimming in the water without my shirt on, like there's a whole lot of like like body issues. I guess if I go back and be like 15 year old matt, there's still time yeah, like yeah, right, the shit buddy.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's good yeah that is good.
Speaker 3Anyways, that's mine nice oh boy all right that's the bar would you rather the jets win one super bowl and then consistently finish last every season? For the rest, of your life.
Speaker 222 years of my life.
Speaker 3Or make the playoffs every single season and be competitive, but never win the Superbowl. So it's basically just you get all the hate from Patriots fans every single year of your life, except for one. Or every year you can say, hey, we're pretty decent in the standings, but you don't win.
Speaker 2Oof, I don't know. I feel like I would rather experience one and then just get the first round draft pick every year.
Speaker 3And know that they're always going to be bust.
Speaker 2I don't know because I feel like, even with the Mets, that's been what. What was it? The 2016 World Series against the Royals we've always come up short, and that's just a terrible feeling to always be like almost, but to experience one, and then I would have zero expectations.
Speaker 3I'd be like that's fine with me nice, that's a good question thanks for writing it, sorry if you were arrested, what would it be for and who would bail you out?
Speaker 2you better bail me out.
Speaker 3That's the answer to that depends, depends if you're arrested for beating me up or something I don't, I don't know.
Speaker 2I have no idea what I'd be arrested for. Uh, uh, I don't know. I have no idea what I'd be arrested for. I don't know, I don't know, I have no idea. All right, think about that one Stealing.
Speaker 3Pray about it Stealing what are you stealing?
Speaker 2I don't know. It wouldn't be like murder, but I don't know what it would be.
Speaker 3You can get arrested for some crazy stuff like filing your taxes incorrectly, that's not what I was thinking.
Speaker 2Okay, keep going all right.
Speaker 3One last question, serious question what significant thing would you like to accomplish in the next 10 years?
Speaker 2wow, 10 years. Um, I am not entirely sure. Part of me thinks I would like to, at that point in 10 years, maybe be working towards like a master's degree. But then the right now part of me is like, oh heck, no, don't add that to your schedule. But I think that's a goal that I would like to achieve, but I'm not like hard pressed on it.
Speaker 3Nice, I like that. Good job, bravo that was a good job.
God's Message of Being Present
Speaker 1Bravo, that was a long rapid fire. It was a long rapid fire. I don't want to say nate's second question was the worst of all time.
Speaker 2But no, I'm just kidding I'm like I don't know what I'd be.
Speaker 3The only thing I'm thinking of is like murder and stealing and I'm like I guess I with stealing, parking ticket, violations that you just don't pay, I don't know there's other things that aren't like I'd be maybe that Cause I'd like forget to do something.
Speaker 2Yeah, I don't know. I'm sorry, I'm not going to actively.
Speaker 3You can. You can scrub that from the record.
Speaker 1No, no, it's good, it's on the record we're Now.
Speaker 3We'll be able to go back and listen to it, man. That was a terrible segment then and now.
Speaker 1So we have just a couple of devotional words around the table. I'll start. I don't really have I was saying to Nate off the air. I feel like God's trying to tell me something. I don't necessarily I'm not attaching it right now to scripture or something that I've read recently, but it's just a thought in my mind that has just kind of like been. It honestly came about on the vacation to Switzerland and kind of the solitude and the peace and being up in those mountains and kind of admiring the beauty and stuff.
Speaker 1I just feel like God was telling me to be quiet and to settle down and be present, be in the moment, and not I'm just always, I've always been the person. What's next? Where am I going next? What's the next thing? What do I want to accomplish? Like, how am I working towards that? And I just feel like on that vacation there was two things. One, uh, what I just said be present, be still, uh, take some time listening, stop talking so much and stop doing, stop trying to just go, go, go, go, go, Uh. But the other one was, um, to appreciate the moments that you're in and to just kind of be present is what I said. But whether it's time with my wife, time with my kids, time with my friends. I don't need to always be thinking about what is next, but appreciating. What's that line from the Office from Andy Bernard? How do you recognize?
Speaker 2You're living the good days before they're. Yeah, the good old days, the good old days. How do you?
Speaker 1recognize that you're in the good old days before they pass you by yeah.
Overcoming Worry Through Faith
Speaker 1So I feel like in the past I've really been dwelling on challenges that God has presented me, challenges that God has presented me, and I'm trying to turn my perspective, uh, into a way of of gratitude for those challenges. Uh, because I feel like I have been immensely, uh, blessed with good things in my life, but I want to see the challenges as blessings as well, and so where I'm at, I'm trying to sit and be comfortable and not abandon my desire or pursuit for accomplishment or doing my best. I'm not going to stop doing my best, but I'm going to be more. I'm trying to be more content with what is in the present and appreciating it and being in that moment. So that's just kind of like where my vacation took me. That's awesome.
Speaker 1And I did come back, uh, excited to come into work, yeah, and I can't say that I've always, like, had that feeling coming off a break and I walked in and I was just like I I want to, I want to be positive, I want to be a force for good and I want to try to maintain positivity and happiness and just appreciate both accomplishment and struggles for what they are and yeah, so that's just kind of again, I don't know if that's biblical or spiritual, but I feel like God has been saying those things to me just in my thoughts and in my alone time, and just so. Yeah, that's, that's where I'm at, it's good.
Speaker 2That kind of we don't plan or talk through our devotional thoughts in advance, but that kind of lines up with exactly what I was. Oops.
Speaker 3Sorry.
Speaker 2No, which is awesome, I think.
Speaker 2No, it's fine, our family, my grandmother, my dad's mom, her maiden name was Courage and so it's kind of become a family name. So my dad is Peter Courage, my brother is Peter Courage, All my nephews on my side are Judah Courage, august Courage, jackson Courage. So it's kind of like our thing. People don't understand it unless you know the whatever. So I'm always drawn to the courage word. But there's a devotional series that I was doing on the Bible app called Courageous Peace, and it just drew me in because I was kind of like that's interesting.
Speaker 2I wouldn't think courageous and peace necessarily go together when you think about the terms, but the scripture that accompanied one of the days of this devotional series was Philippians 4. And I'm going to read the message translation. It says fret or worry Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displays worry at the center of your life, displaces worry at the center of your life. Life, this place is worry at the center of your life, and I too tend to be, I'd say, an overthinker and a worrier.
Speaker 2Just I don't know if that has been kind of more so, being a mom Like I wasn't always such a maybe not anxious, but I wasn't always such a worried thinker, and I think a lot of that comes with motherhood as well.
Speaker 2But I do tend to focus on some of those failures and worries. And I was reminded yesterday even when scripture talks about tomorrow, it's not a 24-hour tomorrow, but tomorrow could mean, when I'm 45 years old, tomorrow's not time-based, but just this idea of worrying about things that are beyond my control. And there's a quote by Corrie Ten Boom that says worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength. Carrying two days at once. It's moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worry does not empty tomorrow of sorrow, but it empties today of strength. So I think it's just for me this idea of how worrying pulls my focus off of the Lord and how worrying also robs even the challenges of its potential to kind of recenter. And I just love, I love the message translation of of certain things, but just that idea of, um, let petitions and praises shape your worries, um into prayers. So that's kind of just where my head's at and I just kind of re reaffirmed by some of the things you were saying as well.
Speaker 1I feel like worrying is something so relatable.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1It like invades everyone's space right but it's usually stuff that you feel powerless or things that you feel powerless over, yeah, that you can't. Or maybe, if you have some power over it, it's not complete power. It's like it depends on some other circumstance or person it's, but in a lot of cases, worrying is like stuff that you just can't control.
Speaker 3Yeah, it invades your space, invades your mind yeah so to twist that into petitions, into prayers like giving it to god, and the way that worry like spills over into other years of our life, where it affects our family members and our and our children, who we try to shield from the stresses and anxieties like well, you find you, yeah, you'll, like you know, respond to your spouse in a short way, or you're like there's, there's just that like worry has infiltrated who.
Speaker 1You are Right and it comes out in ways that you don't want it to.
Speaker 2Yeah, and usually it's in relationships that you feel you can be the most vulnerable. So it's your marriage, it's your kids and and I found with jackson in school he's worrying in the mornings. He is saying I don't want to go to school, like he'll just drop these little one-liners like school's boring. But I feel the need to overcompensate and be like you're gonna have so much fun and and so I'm like I like this version of me yeah that's just much more uh able to spin his worry into something fun.
Speaker 1Sure.
Speaker 2And so, like I thought about that again this morning, I was like man, I, I like this, I like not letting the worries define the direction of my day. Um, which usually it's Sunday morning, is a disaster day for me. Just everything goes wrong on Sunday mornings for me and I just become the worst version of myself. I feel like most families.
Speaker 1Okay, I mean most families. It's so true, it's like that's like one of the sticking points of like church in the morning on the weekend.
Speaker 2It's tough, it's not.
Speaker 1I remember disastrous days as a kid you know, like my, my dad was a different guy when it was just like we'll be in the car in 15 minutes.
Speaker 2You're going to go to church and like it.
Speaker 1You got mismatching socks on and like pancakes are being thrown around.
Speaker 3And like, yeah, and the coffee dumps all over the front of your shirt, yeah, that was all the other week for me.
Speaker 2But yeah, so that's just like something. It can externally seem so trivial, like obviously don't worry, but when you're in the moment and it's consuming you and it is taking control of your mind and your heart and your attitude, and just you're spiraling down, it's just how can I, how can I stop being controlled by this and this is my big thing this year for myself Well, how can I stop being controlled by the chaos and control it?
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And so to me that's just kind of just those small moments of surrender. But, stop finding that peace.
Speaker 3I like how you said that you redirect Jackson by saying this is what's today's going to be great Like look forward to this.
Speaker 2You have gym class. You love gym and that's literally.
Speaker 3What God does for us is that he takes that worry and he redirects it. But look at this, look at my goodness, look at how I'm here, look at how I'm available, and reshapes that and reforms it. So the same thing that we do as parents, god lovingly does to us, which is incredible.
Speaker 2All right, you're up.
Trust and Obedience to God's Plan
Speaker 3All right. I was looking at a familiar passage from Matthew 4, 18-22, and it's the calling of the first disciples, and I just want to read from the message, paraphrase just two verses here. Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, jesus saw two brothers, simon, who he later called Peter and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them come with me, I'll make a new kind of fishermen out of you. I'll show you how to catch men and women instead of fish. They didn't ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.
Speaker 3I was thinking a lot about that last sentence there, about dropping their nets, and thinking about who these men were, peter and Andrew, and how, as fishermen, their nets were. That was their entire source of who they were. That was their identity. Without their nets, they wouldn't be effective in anything that they did.
Speaker 3That was their livelihood, and I was trying to equate that to my life and trying to think of like what are the nets in my life that I cling to so tightly? That if I they're my familiar space, my comfortable space, the things that I rely on to get by each and every day, that God might be asking me to set down so that I can follow him in obedience. And it doesn't have to be bad things I'm not talking about struggles or bad habits or mindsets but even those things that are good, the talents, the gifts, the opportunities that I cling to so tightly for my well-being, my motivation, my goals, my desires and aspirations. But maybe God said, hey, I want to reshift your purpose a bit and I want to open your eyes to something different, because it wasn't essentially that they were doing anything wrong.
Speaker 3Right, the nets weren't bad yeah no, it wasn't a bad thing, but it was. You focused so much of your life for this purpose. But I want to take what you've mastered, I want to take what you know and I want to use that in a way that's going to expand my kingdom in a way that you've never imagined, and expand how I can use you in this season of your life in a new and powerful way. And I'm just thinking about that and I think if we were to internalize that we all know those areas of our life that God may be asking for a deeper surrender, and it can be those things that we struggle with, but it can also be those good things and it can be God.
Speaker 3How can you use my gifts and my talents in a new way, not for myself, but for you? Or where are you calling me out? Into an unfamiliar space where it might be a little uncomfortable, where you're asking me to put myself out there in faith, believing that you want to reshift and reprioritize and do something incredible? And I was just thinking about that. I was thinking about my life and I was thinking about Candidate Seminar this weekend and how there will be people from all across the territory coming together really discovering who they are in Christ and discovering how he can continue to shape their purpose in a way that brings glory to God and leaves an impact on the world around them.
Speaker 2And.
Speaker 3I think it's just something that we can constantly revisit as believers, to say how is the purpose that God has called me to? How is that aligning with the way that I live my life each and every day? Am I clinging to the familiar where God has asked me to go into deeper waters and drop the net, or, yeah, I think that's just what God's been stirring in my heart?
Speaker 1It's interesting that you so I don't know, I can't remember now if this was in the scripture or if you added this, but you focused on the nets and that being the identity, but right before that, did you add this, or is it in there? It said without questioning, oh yeah, it said they didn't ask any questions. That's what I like. So you focus on the back half and I was just like God asked me to do something different. They didn't question it. Like this, like that level of faith that this was the guy yeah, you know, I'm going to follow him at all costs, like that's. That's to me. That's like stunning yeah, one. I mean it's stunning to to use your talents and reshape your identity and who you are.
Speaker 3To do without questioning is like a that's counter to who we are as people. Yeah, yeah, I don't open an email without questioning.
Speaker 1I know Right, right, yeah, no, you read that. I was like wow, without questioning oh, yeah, yeah, they did it.
Speaker 3And we live in an age where it's like question everything, yeah, yeah, and it's okay, use your voice, and we're not discouraging that in any way, but to have the confidence and the courage to that they knew he could be trusted and they knew that his way and his plan for them was greater than what they had in that moment.
Speaker 3And so do we have the same confidence and trust to, to believe that whatever God is calling us into or to step into um that we can do so without questioning his motivation or whether or not he'll be there through the process.
Speaker 1Where do you feel like you're at personally with that? I think I go sorry'll be there through the process. Where do you feel like you're at personally with that? I think I go sorry, to put you on the spot. No.
Speaker 3I think, I think I go through different seasons of it. Yeah, I think there are times, um, in community, uh, where I think at camp, where I'm surrounded by this beautiful community and I believe that I'm I'm walking fully in the purpose, that God has designed me and created me to be in that type of affirming environment. And I think, when we step back into different seasons of life and we allow I don't know maybe situations that we don't necessarily enjoy as much as other settings.
Speaker 3We can question why am I here? What am I doing? Am I wasting time? And I think that that's where God says you know, I didn't call you to be comfortable, but I called you to be obedient where you are. And I think he, I think I go through these seasons where I see or I feel fulfilled in ministry and maybe opportunities where God was like well, you're holding too close to that comfort or that mindset and I want to challenge that a bit. I feel like we all. I want to challenge that a bit.
Speaker 1Yeah, and I feel like we all I mean everyone goes through seasons.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You know that's like not unusual to any one person. No, but, no, um, and I feel like summertime, at least for all of us. It just is like it's a different beast it is.
Speaker 2It's not real life when you were just saying off air that our summers are so similar but so different. We can occupy the same space but not interact at all, just because it's similar. But I don't know, it's wild, it's wild no-transcript.
Speaker 3These were my nets for this season of my life, but maybe you're asking me to lay these nets down and pick up these new ones because you're preparing me for something different. And so just having the willingness and the obedience to trust, whatever the season is, even if it's completely unfamiliar and new, believing that the one who called you is faithful through the process yeah, Good stuff.
Speaker 2Well said.
Speaker 1Rita, do you mind closing us in prayer today?
Speaker 2Would love to let me just cough here, Sorry, Wait. Thank you.
Speaker 3Great job.
Speaker 2Good joke, let's pray. Father, I just thank you for um. Even selfishly, I thank you for this ministry um that Matt and Nate and I have, and I thank you, lord, for the opportunity that we have to um to fellowship, to be a be a presence to people, to people, in this interesting way.
Speaker 2Lord, I just pray for the individuals who are under the sound of my voice, who maybe resonated with something today. Maybe there is that worry that's just weighing heavy. Maybe there is something new that's coming along, coming down the road that there's hesitancy. Maybe there's just the feeling of being consumed by chaos and not experiencing peace in a true way. Lord, I just pray for that person. I pray for your voice to be the loudest in their ear.
Speaker 2Father, I pray that you would silence the, the voice of Satan that wants to discourage and hold us back, and I pray that you, lord, would be the true word in our ear to remind us of your promise that you will never forsake us, that you do have hope and a future, that you do desire peace for us, that you do desire wholeness for us. So, lord, I just thank you for the opportunity that we have to not only encourage each other around this table, but to be encouraged by your word and to encourage others because of your word. So, lord, just thank you for this time, thank you for the season that we are currently in. We praise you for even the challenge that might be facing us today, and we just ask that you would reveal further reveal the blessing um that lays before us. Um, maybe it's difficult to see, maybe it's easy to see, but Lord, would you reveal it to us today. Father, we love you. Um, we thank you that you are our God. Your name we pray, amen. Amen.
Speaker 3Amen. Thanks guys.
Speaker 1Yeah, amen, thanks guys. Yeah, all right, it's good to be back.
Speaker 2Episode 19.
Speaker 1So I'm going to pull out my calendar 215 days from now.
Speaker 2Should we lock in our next episode? What will happen in?
Speaker 1215 days, that's true. So much stuff went down. What could happen? Well, we'll have a new president. I mean, we'll have, yeah, we'll have a new president.
Speaker 2Yeah, we'll have.
Speaker 3Yeah, we'll have a new president yeah, yeah, either way, christmas, one way to go crazy in 250 days?
Speaker 1that's probably true. Yeah, christmas, new president, um well, probably another super bowl. Yeah, will taylor swift and travis kelsey make it? Yes, are they.
Speaker 2You think so, you think it's real love, I do, I love, love.
Speaker 1It's been a while now They've been together.
Speaker 2Defied the odds.
Speaker 1Well, they've defied the odds. Yes, can't let that one go All the suspect, or whatever. Anyways, episode 19 of the Plugged In Podcast. Thank you to all our listeners out there joining us today. We'll be back soon with episode 20. I won't say when it will be, but we will be back. Look out for it. A lot of great stuff coming up. So we will see you next time.