Wisdom, Truth, and How to Truly Help Others

Big Picture Topics today which offer great insight on how we can truly help others.  What can we do as individuals?  What role does SafeHouse Ministries play?  What role can business owners play?  What can and should government do?  How does our culture impact the behaviors of individuals?  Answers to these questions an so much more!

Transcript

Copy

Phil Shuler 0:00

HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the Safe House Ministries podcast, where we share stories of the power of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. Safe House Ministries is based out of Columbus, Georgia, and we are a ministry that exists to love and serve people who have been affected by addiction, homelessness, and incarceration. I'm your host, Phil Shuler, the Director of Development for Safe House Ministries here in Columbus, Georgia. Safe House serves people each month as they transition back into our community. Safe House provides an abundance of services

0:31

Including 184.

Phil Shuler 0:33

beds for homeless individuals and families, case management for obtaining job skills and long term employment. Over 300 hot meals every day, free clothing, and so much more. One of the most incredible services that Safe House provides is our free 9 12 month intensive outpatient substance abuse program, which is state licensed, CARF accredited, and has no wait list. Almost 100 percent of individuals staying in our shelters who follow our three phase program become fully employed within a few months. And 68 percent of individuals who stay at least one night with us End up finding work and moving into their own home. Thank you for being with us today and listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoy this week's episode.

John 1:13

I'm gonna die with a wind in my face going for it. And my experience says, you can do it too. I did it. I had a good mom and daddy. I had some, some good instilling, but I put it all online. I borrowed off my house. My wife said, you got six months and if you can't pay us, you gotta go back to work. And we just kept borrowing money. And, and, and you know, at a, I've been in business 23 years, I've lost money more years than I've made money, but I've made more money than I lost. And I'm getting to the point where I'm gonna be able to change that statistic and say, I've made money more years than I made money, lost money. And I've made more money than I lost. But we have losing years. Everybody has losing years. If you're gonna sail across the ocean towards blue strategies, blue waters, you're gonna get some storms. And it's gonna be tough. You might have to bail. You might have to do some unconventional things so you don't sink, and I don't mean corrupt things. You might have to make hard choices on who has to row and who has to bail.

Phil 2:14

Yeah, yeah, you're right. It's I love the, uh, quote I heard long ago from ancient sailors, uh, Greek and Roman. They, they would say The goal is to get to your destination. And an excellent sailor can get there no matter which way the winds are blowing. Right. And it might take you a little longer sometimes, but you know, instead of making excuses, well, the winds are going against me and this and that. A good, a good sailor can figure out how to, how to get That's

John 2:41

exactly right. There's, I love how you said that, an old ancient sailor, there's an old sailing term called hedging. Have you ever heard that term? I

Phil 2:50

have not.

John 2:51

So hedging is when the old tall ships were in the harbor. There's only a window of this long to sail across to their destination because of the, the wind, the, uh, the summer winds and the winter storms and they needed to get outta the harbor, but the wind was coming into their face and didn't have motors back then, you know, they had row rows, but that wasn't even strong enough to pull a big, tall ship that's sail across the ocean. So they would put the big Anker into a dinghy and row the Anker out 300 feet in front of the boat, throw it over the dinghy, and then pull on the, an Anker into the wind. And then they'd pull that Anker up, put it in the dinghy, push it out again, 300 feet and do it again until they got around the point.

Phil 3:32

Wow.

John 3:32

A good sailor's gonna figure it out.

Phil 3:34

Yeah.

John 3:34

And it ain't gonna be easy. Nobody wants to catch into the wind, but you gotta leave. You can't sit there waiting for the wind to be at your back.

Phil 3:43

Yeah.

John 3:44

You ain't gonna make it.

Phil 3:45

Yeah. That's,

John 3:45

and that's just a good life lesson.

Phil 3:49

Absolutely.

John 3:49

That wake up every morning, show up for work on time, be consistent, be proud of, of the person God's created you to be. He gave, he gives grace freely. You can get through this rehab, you can get outta jail. You can get caught back up on your debt from the time you were in jail. You can live a clean life. You can go encourage others. And, and if you don't believe me, go ask Amanda. You know, go ask these people who've, who've done it.

Phil 4:18

Yeah.

John 4:19

And you know, you got it in you to have hope. So don't worry about how little you make today, worry about how long can you sustain being the person God created you to be and how you're gonna make baby steps towards that dream.

Phil 4:34

Yeah. I, um, just thinking through all that we've covered. And thinking through the, the way that you operate as a small business owner, the way that Safe House Ministries operates to help people to have that hope and to, to have the foundation that they need in their lives to get to a better place. I mean, there, it really, there's a couple of things that just stand out to me. Solomon in the Book of Proverbs talks about, you know, people are searching for all these things and they're, they're getting, and all these things. And he says, but with all the things that you're getting, there's one thing that you need to get that matters more than anything else. And he said, it's wisdom. It's wisdom.

John 5:14

Gosh,

Phil 5:14

wisdom and truth. And without those things, we're lost. We're lost we're, we don't understand why things aren't working out right. People are. Solomon also said in chapter four, people are stumbling around in the darkness. And he said they don't even know why they're stumbling. They don't even know why. Right? Because. Without wisdom, without truth, you can't even figure out which direction you need to go in. Mm-hmm. And, and how to stand up. And so that, that idea of, of helping folks at Safe House Ministries and the way that you help teach folks the art of work and it's, it's taking away the, the lies of the enemy, helping them to realize this is truth. Right. In our society, we are lost people like what? They, we don't even know what truth is, right. it's just craziness there, like there is a reality and there is such a thing as absolute truth.

John 6:07

Absolute truth.

Phil 6:08

And you and I know that absolute truth comes from the creator of everything, God. And he's given it to us in the Bible. But there's just so many fundamental things and wisdom and truth. They factor into helping people have hope again, and love and grace and these other things begin to come into play.

John 6:27

Truth has been distorted. Yeah. And I'm not being judgmental. That's why a safe house doesn't, isn't judgmental of people who thought they knew the truth and, and did this and made that choice. You're not judgemental towards that. You're just trying to help pray them to the rock. That'll give them the wisdom to discern better and then the strength every day to make better choices.

Phil 6:51

Yeah.

John 6:52

And uh, I think that's so relevant. Solomon talking about wisdom and truth. He didn't just talk about wisdom and he didn't just talk about truth. He talked about 'em both.

Phil 7:03

Yeah.

John 7:04

Yeah,

Phil 7:05

yeah.

John 7:05

Yeah. I, I think it's really hard. The culture and the environment is extremely difficult. We're polarizing, but I don't think any of this is really new. To God's creation. No, we can read it all the way back. They were talking about it. 'cause it was relevant back then and they had all these fake truths and uh, you know, and, and really quite frankly, I look at, you know, just look at the history of, of, uh, America. Look at, you know, look at, look at the Romans. I mean, we've been having these problems forever. Yeah. And, uh, you know, who knows if we're, we're close to the end? But it doesn't, to me, I don't, I don't try to guess and pretend like we're closer, closer the end we've ever been. Every day's a journey. Yeah. God's given me a dream and he's given me multiple dreams and I've been very blessed in a lot of ways with good relationship and, and a pursuit I like to pursue. And, uh. I think, I think, uh, God's given me some wisdom to know what truth is. I hope I can water some seeds to help others

Phil 8:08

Yeah.

John 8:08

In those areas. And I would like to see, you know, idealistically, my dream for Columbus is that we would change the culture with that generational poverty that you spoke of earlier, that we would, help instill hope in people to be a, a godly person. That, that, uh, they could actually do some things for themselves and hold that corner. And, and I hope that we would have discernment on where to spend the money and where to carry the weight that we should be carrying as a government, you know, as a people of God, but not to carry it for 'em and let them complain and, and, and slander us. Yeah. You know, all the time. And what I meant by that is, uh. We just can't do all things for all people at all times. And we need that spread.

Phil 8:52

Yeah.

John 8:53

Between the revenue coming in and the expenses going out, and we need people to help get knowledgeable and engage in what's happening in their city and how the cause and effect is on them.

Phil 9:02

Yeah.

John 9:03

It's, they think a lot of people think if John wants to cut that he, I'm not, I'm not gonna vote for him because that's gonna directly take away my whatever. And, uh, you know, there's a cause and effect for everything so you can get that whatever for so long until it has a more of a negative effect on you.

Phil 9:21

Yeah.

John 9:21

And, and those are the hard decisions that politicians don't like to make.

Phil 9:26

Yeah.

John 9:27

And uh, I, I, yeah, I don't really like this job, but it can be worth it. It's really worth it when you see somebody's life transformed for the better.

Phil 9:35

Oh, yeah. We, we've alluded, alluded to it in the conversation, but there is a reality and a truth to the fact that there are many times in our lives when we have to go through pain, we have to even get, get into some situations where it pushes us down farther. We take a few steps back, but in doing that, we get on a more stable foundation and we can get to an even higher place than we ever were before. And if, and if you don't go through that, you can't get to that higher place. And that's the, that's the idea. I think that you're, you're talking about in some ways that yeah, there might be some short term pain mm-hmm. But without that, you're, you're gonna always have this permanent, maybe a, maybe, maybe a moderate pain, but it's never gonna get any better.

John 10:20

I was, uh. Was having some governmental discussions yesterday about taking one step back so that we could make two steps forward. You know, it's kinda like pruning the old Rose Bush. It ain't gonna blossom as good if you can't prune it back every now and then.

Phil 10:34

Yeah.

John 10:34

We keep adding to the top and we don't make any real adjustments. You start losing where the roots are and you know, sometimes the best thing that can happen to somebody who's addicted to drugs, they break down and they end up in jail and Safe House ministry comes along and shows them, here's what you can do, here's how we can help you, here's how we can carry the weight. But you gotta carry your corner.

Phil 10:57

Yeah.

John 10:58

And, uh, without that breakdown sometimes, and, and I tell people all the time, you know, as a business owner, you know, when I talk about losing money, having to decide who's gonna bail and who's gonna row, you have to make hard decisions and change is extremely hard, especially just the nature. The human, just the nature of God allowing us to have choice in our life. It's easy to vote for the simple, simple, gimme this today, it's harder to change more fundamentally for a hope for tomorrow.

Phil 11:32

Yeah.

John 11:33

And a longer term strategy. It's hard to go to work at an entry level job and say, this is gonna probably take me 10 years. When in reality it's gonna take you 12, 13, 14, 15 years, and you're not gonna get there as fast as you want to, and you yet you're gonna still pursue that dream. That's hard. That's a different mindset that takes, that's that change of mindset from where generational poverty sat there, you know on some kind of entitlement and never knew how to work. And now it's gonna change a mind that that kind of change is hard.

Phil 12:05

Yeah.

John 12:05

It does put you in control more than some government entity of your life.

Phil 12:12

Yeah.

John 12:12

Being in control of you.

Phil 12:14

Yeah. It's, it's such a real thing because individuals face, and I've been there periods in my life when you're, you're receiving help assistance, you know, whether it's Medicaid or whether it's, um, the healthcare exchange and you're getting the subsidies for your health insurance or whether it's, whatever it is. And so you come to the place where you're like, all right, well, I can make more money, but. I'll make more money and then I'll lose these benefits. So I'll have a net loss for a certain period of time. But you, if you don't do that, you can't get to a net much higher gain on the other side.

John 12:52

Well, and that gain on the other side is too hard for people to even wait on. That's where we're stuck in society. And you know, Obamacare just changed last year, and I had, I've always tried to do insurance. I never could at Anker pack. This is the first year we've ever done it.

Phil 13:08

Wow.

John 13:08

And it will cost our company about $250,000 a year in premiums. And that's if, if they don't go up and that's like funny. It's gonna go up. And, uh, but there was a lot of people who were paying $9 a month for the healthcare through Obamacare. And when that went away, I gave a lot so they could receive something, but it cost them even more. And what they didn't realize, and it's, it's really hard, some of 'em have, there's this one lady that cried. Uh, she's got two kids at home. She's a single mama. She's, she's doing better than an entry level workforce. And, uh, but, but that's a real challenge. So how do you overcome that? Well, let me explain to you. If the government continues to have trillions of dollars more in debt every single year, that debt shows up in the form of inflation. So everything that you're buying is costing more and it's a hidden tax called inflation. And it's not John Anker who's hurting you or holding you down, but the system that we're voting for continuously, this, this is the system that the people have, have voted for. And, and there is a cause and effect. And it took 10 years for Obamacare to come around in subsidies to go away and cost to go through the roof. Now, I'm not, that sounds political because I said a person's name, I should have said just government healthcare because I don't, he did some good things too. I just called it what it was. But there are causes and effect of government, bad government intervention on our lives, and we take it on the front end, we're gonna have to pay for it on the back end. And that's true also in local governments. And that's why I'm here. If we can't change the culture in Columbus, Georgia, if we can't change the mindset in Columbus, Georgia, if we can't help somebody break out a generational poverty, if we can't help somebody, not blame, you know, be a victim and blame somebody else, uh, for where they are, how are we ever gonna do it in the federal government? It doesn't matter who's president. If we can't change that at Safe House Ministries in the jails, in the drug rehabs. In South Columbus, east Columbus, coed road, doesn't matter where it is. If we can't change those people to give them hope, and it's not up to me and you to change 'em, it's up to them to accept a different mindset to carry their corner. Yeah. If we can't change that, I don't know what we're doing.

Phil 15:30

Yeah, yeah.

John 15:31

Absolutely. And I'm an idealist. I think we can, and I'm gonna keep pushing. That's why I'm gonna die with the win in my face. I can lose an election. I ain't gonna quit. Now, I'm not saying I'm gonna run again 'cause my wife's probably gonna say no again. But I will say, no matter what I'm doing, I'm gonna try and instill that mindset and give somebody that gift that my dad gave me. And that's the Art of work.

Phil 15:53

Yeah. It's awesome. There is hope. safe House Ministries is there for anybody that wants to reach out, that's struggling dealing with addiction dealing with not having a place to live, homelessness, whatever it might be. And it's, it's vital to the community, the work that Safe House Ministries does to help people to get back on their feet. But what also is vital is business owners like you and like others, and we need more business owners who will say, you know what? I will give an opportunity to let some people come in and have an opportunity to work and I'll invest in teaching and helping them to build that foundation of understanding the character they need to develop the, the discipline they need to develop those qualities so that they can get to a better place. We need people in the community that will say, you know what? I've got some extra money. I don't have to have 16 streaming services. So how about I give 15, 30 bucks a month and support the work that Safe House Ministries does to help other people? Like we, there's all of us, no matter what we do, where we're at, especially if we're Christians, we understand that we have a responsibility to love mm-hmm. To love our neighbors. Just like Jesus said, the whole law comes down to two things. Love God and love your neighbor. Right. And we're all supposed to be doing that. And I loved, I have loved this discussion and just the, the real ways that we have talked about to love others and help them with substantive things. Right. To build that foundation which is what real love is, right? It's if you help someone carry on in their life with false beliefs, with lies, with untruths. Bet you do it in the name of love, that's not love. Right? One Corinthians 13 Paul gives a list of all the things that love is, and one of those things is truth, right? Love gives the truth. So it's, it's awesome. There's hope and, um, we, uh, there are so many people that have shown and given an example that they can overcome the greatest challenge, challenges greater than you and I can even imagine, right? I mean, I, I think back of some of the things that people have said, it just, I mean, I've heard people talk about being a 6-year-old child. Their mama would bring in people to sell her body and do drugs. And she, this woman described running under the bed because if the men found her, they drag her out, they would, they would abuse her. I mean, like, but coming, overcoming, stuff like that, right? Like, we have challenges and problems, but we have no idea some of the things that people face.

John 18:32

Do you remember Dexter at Safe House?

Phil 18:34

Yeah.

John 18:34

Did you know Dexter was one of our first employees at Anker Pack.

Phil 18:37

Wow. I did not know that.

John 18:39

Wow. Yeah, I miss him.

Phil 18:40

Wow.

John 18:41

I always loved pulling up to Safe House to go to a board meeting, you know, Dexter, Hey, Mr. Anker, he'd come out. He was your maintenance guy there for a long time, and he was a good man. Good man.

Phil 18:51

I miss Dexter.

John 18:52

We worked together about seven years.

Phil 18:53

Wow.

John 18:54

And then, uh, you know, he ended up working at Safe House after some other stuff, but Good man.

Phil 18:59

Yeah.

John 19:00

That's kind of the, the, the people's stories in their lives that y'all are able to, to witness to and courage and get him on track. Y'all are very effective. And I do think small amounts of money go a long way with Safe House Ministries. Y'all do a lot with a little, and if people just gave a little bit more, you could do a lot more.

Phil 19:19

Yeah, that's so true. Any last words or last things you wanted to mention? No,

John 19:23

this has been really fun. It actually feels good to share stories that are, that are true and real and saying out loud. It helps me focus on, you know, don't get too busy to forget to put these stories. I wanna put these stories up on our website, you know, not because of us be because it is what's real, you know? Life is short. Yeah. It's real short. We've all experienced it. Amanda's lost 23 friends. You know, I'm, I'm 56, I already said, and yeah, I could die tomorrow. And I talk about death you know, my wife and, and only because it just. Life is short. Doesn't matter if I'm 80 years old, 90 years old, you know, 56 years old, we should be pursuing while we're here and doing what's right.

Phil 20:08

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And speaking of stories, um, there are hundreds of stories in all the podcasts of the last several years with Safe House Ministries, Amanda's story. Uh, there's a podcast that she really kind of goes deeper into her story as well. So yeah, and, and stories are inspiring.

John 20:28

Yeah,

Phil 20:28

they

John 20:29

are. They're real.

Phil 20:30

Yeah. They

John 20:30

bring people. AI can't replace that.

Phil 20:32

No.

John 20:33

Yeah.

Phil 20:33

Yeah. Thank you for being here today.

John 20:35

Thank you Philip. This is awesome.

Phil 20:37

Yeah, I love it. Do you mind if I close this in a word of prayer?

John 20:39

That'd be awesome.

Phil 20:40

Father, I love you and I thank you for your goodness. Thank you. That you are the creator of all things, the possessor of all wisdom, and you have more power than we could ever imagine. And thank you, especially that you love us, you love us so deeply that we don't deserve it. Lord, thank you for the work that Safe House Ministries do is doing. Thank you for the, the ministry work that John is doing within his business of Anker pack. Lord i, I pray that you would. Work in the hearts of other business owners, Lord that they would, they would incorporate that idea of, of ministry and, and helping people in fundamental ways into their business philosophy. Lord, I pray for our city. Thank you for just letting me live here and raise my kids here in Columbus. Pray that you'd give our city officials wisdom and give them guidance and an ability to just manage their emotions in difficult situations and speak words with wisdom and just to, to make decisions that would help our community get to a better place. Lord, for the people around our community that are struggling, that are in bondage, that are in darkness, that are in desperation and despair, Lord, reach through to them and show them that there's hope, that there's help. And that there's a way that they can move forward. And most of all, I pray, reach them with the truth of your son, Jesus. In his name I pray. Amen.

John 22:12

Amen.

06-21-23 SAFEHOUSE-CH2 22:13

We look forward to being with you again next week as we share another testimony about the power and the goodness of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. if you are someone listening to this podcast that loves to hear these stories of the great things that God is doing in changing people's lives for the better, and if you would like to be a part of that work, please reach out to us You can reach us at

Speaker 22:36

7,200 Manor Road.

06-21-23 SAFEHOUSE-CH2 22:37

Columbus, Georgia, You can call us at seven oh six three two two. 3 7, 7 3, or you can email us at info@safehouse-ministries.com.

Speaker 4 22:48

Thank you so much for being with us this week for the renew restore and rejoice podcast of safe house ministries, we pray that God will bless you this week. And we look forward to having you back with us again next week for a new episode.