SPEAKER_00: Welcome to AACC Unplugged.
SPEAKER_03: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have that deep, nice radio voice that I had last week.
SPEAKER_00: A little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Allergies are clearing up.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Good.
SPEAKER_00: It's a trade-off, right?
SPEAKER_03: I mean, rain's coming back, so stay on your stay on your antihistamines.
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Preaching Sunday, so I could be really bassy if the if the allergy kick back in with the rain.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So chance for Jacob's family pharmacy to sponsor the show.
SPEAKER_00: I buy all of my anti-histamine allergy meds there.
SPEAKER_00: Tim actually like, I don't want to say he changed my he kind of changed my life.
SPEAKER_00: I never had bad allergy stuff until I moved here.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember I did not sleep well for like 10 days.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember I was teaching on a Wednesday night, and I remember just being like very foggy.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, man, this is this is not working.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I got done, I just felt terrible.
SPEAKER_00: And I think Jamie was like, you have to talk to Tim.
SPEAKER_00: And he set me up on a regimen, and I'm telling you, I've not suffered, like suffered since then with the allergy thing.
SPEAKER_00: And so I mean that's been three years.
SPEAKER_03: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: So anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes up just a little bit, I get that bassy voice.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of fun.
SPEAKER_00: But no, it's been good.
SPEAKER_03: Good.
SPEAKER_03: I just take mine when needed during the season.
SPEAKER_03: Mine's every day.
SPEAKER_03: It's terrible.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So if you forget, do you notice like pretty quickly?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I I would be on Benadryl if I forgot, and it would be a terrible day.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: The Benadryl.
SPEAKER_01: I know.
SPEAKER_01: It's terrible.
SPEAKER_00: And so I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a little bit of a segue.
SPEAKER_00: I think we were going to talk about.
SPEAKER_00: See, I'm making a segues, transitions, censorships.
SPEAKER_00: It can't just sound like we're talking about our day or our life or something.
SPEAKER_00: It has to be going someplace.
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
SPEAKER_03: But we do laugh together, so that's always good.
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
SPEAKER_03: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I get to preach Sunday, and the kind of my key text is uh Jesus talking to the Pharisees and the rulers, and he's like, You want to kill me?
SPEAKER_00: This is after he tells them that they're children of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You want to kill me because you don't have room for my word.
SPEAKER_00: And we were just gonna talk about things that we make room for.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, spiritual or otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: Can be your allergy treatment.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you gotta make room for the thing.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta make a brush your teeth.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, those things.
SPEAKER_00: Deodorant, I mean, things we don't even think about.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: All the boring things.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: But um yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all have any habits that that 100% you're gonna make room for, either daily or weekly or even annually?
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03: Um this has been on my mind a lot, and I'll bring up our class again.
SPEAKER_03: Yes, practicing the way.
SPEAKER_03: It's it's it's changing everything.
SPEAKER_03: So I I literally made a list and put it on the wall, the wallpaper on my phone of um I don't hear you through this.
SPEAKER_03: Is this better?
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, sorry.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm like I'm like Doug who just looked over here.
SPEAKER_03: Um so I literally made a list so that I could see it repeatedly through the day of um practices, of discipl of spiritual practices, of uh generosity, hospitality, I can't list all of them, prayer, scripture reading, fasting, um some more.
SPEAKER_03: There's lots more.
SPEAKER_03: Lots, lots.
SPEAKER_03: Um but I I've I think I've made room for scripture and prayer, but there's stuff that I struggle with.
SPEAKER_03: I just started fasting.
SPEAKER_03: Um and I struggle with generosity and hospitality.
SPEAKER_03: So I really want to explore those and and factor them into my daily routine and forget all of the binge watching of Netflix and things like that that I do.
SPEAKER_03: Um it's mostly podcasts of uh Practicing the Way, the rule of life podcast, or or just going back and and listening to you or Doug um on on a Wednesday night or Sunday morning, something like that.
SPEAKER_03: Just fill my brain with everything good.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So has has streaming gotten less enjoyable because it's not as good as it was a couple of years ago, or or is it just because like maybe we've aged out of that time in our lives or found better things?
SPEAKER_00: I I have like like I feel like I'm missing out that I don't have like a show or things that I care about that are online that are entertainment or movies or TV shows.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like I'll give those shows a try.
SPEAKER_00: If my kids will mock me, they're like, Dad, you've watched episode one of like everything and episode two of like nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't enjoy any of it.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: And I used to enjoy TV.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, maybe not as much as like really people that are into it, but like I mean, I I was pretty normal.
SPEAKER_00: Like I think my habits were fairly normal, and now like I literally don't like anything.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Um, streaming, television shows, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Have y'all found that?
SPEAKER_00: Did you didn't know?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it and it has to be one of those spectacular I want to go see it at the movie theater for me to want to go see it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, one of those.
SPEAKER_01: And I I don't know, maybe we're just getting older and wiser.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think both exist.
SPEAKER_03: I think movies and shows are just not as good as they used to be.
SPEAKER_00: Hell Mary is proof that like I still like movies.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: I can go back and watch The Princess Bride.
SPEAKER_00: It's still great.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Um, but just everything that's come out, so I I don't know, I have a theory that like cinema died in like 2008.
SPEAKER_00: Like you can go back before then, and there's just like this great variety of movies, and anyway, I don't want to talk about movies, but um, I just haven't enjoyed like a year of film in forever.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I used to be a movie buff.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03: It seemed like every weekend you couldn't decide on what you wanted to go see, and then you'd be like, I'll save it till next weekend.
SPEAKER_03: And like you just end up at the movies every weekend, which I love the movies, like you said, it's so fun to actually go to the movies and and love the popcorn.
SPEAKER_03: That was me in middle school.
SPEAKER_00: So I mean, I was just there with my friends just every time.
SPEAKER_00: All the time.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03: So, yes, I think our tastes have changed, and they're not as good as they used to be.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But then it feels like the streaming shows kind of came out and got really good.
SPEAKER_00: But now I don't even think like the culture stranger things, like the culture kind of cared about that, but everybody thinks the last couple of years they were kind of phoning it in.
SPEAKER_00: And they're and they only make like eight a year, and they come out every two years.
SPEAKER_00: So and since that show's ended, it's like just in like the culture, and me personally, just doesn't care about it.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I don't really feel the loss.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I have better things to do with my time.
SPEAKER_03: The reward's not high enough.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Like you said, it's good for a couple of seasons, three seasons maybe.
SPEAKER_03: Then the writing gets terrible, the storyline doesn't make sense, and you just lose it.
SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, so that was our rabbit trail.
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
SPEAKER_00: Other things that uh you make room for.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I make room for reading.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a big, big book consumer.
SPEAKER_00: How many books a year?
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I've seen lists or pictures that you've put up.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, for example.
SPEAKER_01: It it depends.
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm I'm I'm slowing down this year.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm really being intentional with what I read and what I consume this year.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing any challenges, I'm not doing any um um any any of those like I normally do.
SPEAKER_01: Like last year I did seven.
SPEAKER_01: It was insane.
SPEAKER_01: Wait, seven challenges.
SPEAKER_01: Seven challenges.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: You realize there's people like, she read seven books.
SPEAKER_01: No, I know, and that's that's great.
SPEAKER_00: If you read that in a week, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: I I used to, yes.
SPEAKER_01: I used to.
SPEAKER_01: But now I've I've dialed it back.
SPEAKER_01: I do maybe 10 to 15 a month, which is less for me.
SPEAKER_01: I know, I know.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's great though.
SPEAKER_00: How many are Garfield the star?
SPEAKER_01: Like none of them, actually.
SPEAKER_01: Um the thing with me is, you know, um being up here and going around.
SPEAKER_01: I usually have my audiobooks going.
SPEAKER_01: So I have several audiobooks going, physical books, um, maybe one or two of those a month, if that makes you feel better.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: But most of it is is audiobook.
SPEAKER_01: But I've been really intentional this year to just to just slow down.
SPEAKER_01: Even with my my Bible study, I'm not on a a reading plan this year, and that's been so freeing.
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm going through, I know.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I've I'm going through uh um this really cool book that Thomas and Macy Beck gifted to me.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Um it's the Apologetics.
SPEAKER_01: April 13th, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: April 13th, is that right?
SPEAKER_03: Macy posted.
SPEAKER_03: Like the book will be available on Amazon.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: This that's Thomas's book.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, sorry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Um the apologetics Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And so reading all of the um different um debates has been really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that slows me down.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just in Leviticus and it's April.
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, this is gonna take me a few years, and I'm really excited about that.
SPEAKER_01: Slowing down, um, making room for slowing down.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's what I've been doing this year.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I always have I always make space for books.
SPEAKER_01: Um, my family, we've been doing the practices, and Sabbath has been really, really great.
SPEAKER_01: We've we've been very protective about our Sabbath day.
SPEAKER_01: And um Wayland has a new job, and so uh he wasn't able to do the last couple, but now um he has gotten off for that day, and it's gonna be awesome to have that again.
SPEAKER_01: Um just just making room for things that matter, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Um, things that don't matter.
SPEAKER_01: We when I was growing up, um, we had kind of had a badge of honor to be that busy.
SPEAKER_01: I look back and I'm like, how did my parents do this?
SPEAKER_01: How did my parents cart four kids to all different things all over the place, all at the same time?
SPEAKER_01: And um we still found time for church, we still found time for youth group, we still found time for all of that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But I look at that and I'm like, that's that life was exhausting.
SPEAKER_01: It was exhausting.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: It just um making time for what matters instead of just all of the all of the fluff.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of the busyness.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I want to go back to the books.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really curious about people that read that much.
SPEAKER_00: So like put it into baskets is like a percentage between like Christian, fiction, non-fiction, kind of kind of what types of books are you plowing through at the rate of three or two?
SPEAKER_01: Most most of them are fiction.
SPEAKER_01: I love mysteries.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, I'm a big Agatha Christie fan.
SPEAKER_01: I'm almost done with all of her books, which I'm super excited about.
SPEAKER_01: The ones that are left are hard to find.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but um, big Agatha Christie fan.
SPEAKER_01: Um love um the old mysteries.
SPEAKER_01: I have all of the Sherlock Holmes at home.
SPEAKER_01: Um I love Arthur Conan Doyle.
SPEAKER_01: I love those kinds of mysteries.
SPEAKER_01: And um, so I consume a lot of mystery.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Um I I would say I'm about 25% nonfiction.
SPEAKER_01: And and truly nonfiction.
SPEAKER_01: Like I don't c include the faith stuff in that nonfiction.
SPEAKER_01: So probably 25% nonfiction.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'll read memoirs, I'll read uh biographies, um, history and um Christian fiction versus or Christian fiction, Christian uh works versus uh worldly works.
SPEAKER_01: I'm working on that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, I'm working on that.
SPEAKER_01: I used to not consume very much, maybe like four or five Christian books a year, but this year and like I've I've gone into a deep dive on fasting.
SPEAKER_01: I've I've read two, I'm working on a third book on fasting, and shut off the books.
SPEAKER_01: It's really, really awesome because it's one that I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: So um Eat Fast Feast has been really, really awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I really enjoyed that book.
SPEAKER_01: Um we just finished, oh goodness, what was it called?
SPEAKER_01: God's Chosen Fast.
SPEAKER_01: Chosen Fast.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in that one now.
SPEAKER_01: Um and I'm currently doing um is it John Piper?
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: Um, A Hunger for God.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
SPEAKER_01: That's the one that I'm in right now.
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's been fascinating.
SPEAKER_01: So um, like I said, growing up, we didn't fast.
SPEAKER_01: Um we looked at people who did that, that you were an odd duck, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and now I'm one of the odd ducks.
SPEAKER_01: So it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So back back to the mystery books things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, does Agatha Christie does she still write her own books?
SPEAKER_01: No, she's dead.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, but like, okay, so there's a lot of authors that like were just like a a business themselves by the time that they got done, and other people were writing their work.
SPEAKER_00: Well, yes, or there was never an author strictly.
SPEAKER_01: So so there are authors who write um using her characters.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: So it's it's like fan fiction-ish.
SPEAKER_02: Pretty much.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but they've taken over, and I think they've gotten permission from her state because again, she's she's not in the public domain.
SPEAKER_01: Some of her works are, but not all of them.
SPEAKER_01: And um I think that they got that permission to use her characters to do that, but it's only two authors that I know.
SPEAKER_01: And I read it, and I'm like, they're not as great.
SPEAKER_01: They're not Agatha.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: So from about the time I was maybe seven or eight, Hardy Boys I just thought were amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And I was probably maybe 15, 16, or 17, somewhere in there, when I found out that F.
SPEAKER_00: W.
SPEAKER_00: Dixon was not a person.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That like just a publishing house just hired a bunch of packs and they gave them some characters.
SPEAKER_00: Is it Caroline Keene?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so when I found out that I had been like duped, I like almost promised to never love again.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, wait a minute, there's no FW Dixon.
SPEAKER_00: And then like you kind of hear a lot of cynical takes about that.
SPEAKER_00: And then I look back and I'm like, I love to read as a kid, and like those stories lived inside of my head.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know, a lot.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: That was a culture.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: That's funny.
SPEAKER_03: I didn't know any of that, but I'm I'm fairly new to the reading reading action.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Um like I I really didn't start reading books for myself.
SPEAKER_03: There were there were a couple of series when I was growing up, Goosebumps, when you're young.
SPEAKER_03: Um and then one is that R.L.
SPEAKER_03: Stein.
SPEAKER_00: R.L.
SPEAKER_00: Stein.
SPEAKER_00: Is that a real person?
SPEAKER_00: R.
SPEAKER_00: L.
SPEAKER_00: Stein.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: It is.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: It is actually an R.L.
SPEAKER_01: Stein.
SPEAKER_01: Jack Mike got to meet him when he portrayed him in that one movie.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It was cool.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Very cool.
SPEAKER_03: Um and then and then it's towards the end of my college years, um, I would start to read.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: But again, it was sporadic, it was not very long, but I've been very consistent over the past few years of reading physical books, listening to audio books.
SPEAKER_03: Um my husband has written a couple of books and I love them.
SPEAKER_01: And they are fantastic.
SPEAKER_03: So I read his work.
SPEAKER_03: Um so just I try, yes, I'm I'm trying to fill my empty space, whether it's working on something in the car with with something that's gonna help me and not and not just confuse my mind like I I need clarity.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I know at one point that I I was a I was in early on the podcast craze.
SPEAKER_00: I was I mean, I grew up with radio, with uh AM talk radio, and so I've just always been drawn to that.
SPEAKER_00: And so I mean, I was burning CDs of preachers when I was in college.
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
SPEAKER_00: Um I've just always liked that.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember at one point, it was about the time of COVID, I was like, I have to give it up.
SPEAKER_00: I had like nine or ten podcasts that I wanted to listen to all of them every day.
SPEAKER_03: And then it's stressful.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are Christian, a lot of them were like sports, like you know, I mean, they weren't like morally bad, it just you know, fun fun to like sports, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I found myself like becoming like an expert, expert.
SPEAKER_00: I knew like one fact about like a thousand things, but didn't know two facts about anything.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you don't read books the way that you used to.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so I put away the podcast for like maybe a year or two, just cold turkey, all of them.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I'm gonna use this time to read.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I still would listen to sermons because I don't consider that a podcast, even if you get it through your podcast feed.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I I just intentionally said I need to make room.
SPEAKER_00: And now I listen to them, but I can kind of take it or leave it, and I'm a little more discerning in what I listen to.
SPEAKER_00: I've been listening to the uh the fall of civilizations, a single episode.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a five-hour podcast about the Persian dynasty.
SPEAKER_00: And I started it before the war that we're currently in against Iran, which is the Persian Empire, the Persian people.
SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, it's just it's just fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that feels more like reading a book if you're if you're listening to a podcast for that long.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, it's taken me weeks to get even halfway through it.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: It's really good.
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
SPEAKER_01: Well, with dense material like that, yeah, it's gonna take you some time to process.
SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
SPEAKER_03: Aaron loves that kind of history.
SPEAKER_03: Like I know he was originally an English teacher, but he's an English history teacher.
SPEAKER_03: And he loves the consumption of of mankind in in general.
SPEAKER_00: But tell him to find the one on the um Mongols on the Golden Horde.
SPEAKER_00: It is crazy.
SPEAKER_03: He probably has.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: That that boy is full of information.
SPEAKER_03: It's awesome.
SPEAKER_03: I need to expand mine.
SPEAKER_01: I focus mostly on World War II.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, I don't even do history.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's my jam.
SPEAKER_01: That's where I usually live, is in World War II.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I guess I could talk about some of the things that are my that I definitely am gonna make room for.
SPEAKER_00: Uh reading the Bible has has, you know, I I was that kid that didn't grow up in church, and when I went, I was like, some things had happened in my life, and I was just all in immediately.
SPEAKER_00: I got baptized, the church gave me a Bible, and I I I did what not a typical kid would do.
SPEAKER_00: I took it home and I just started devouring it.
SPEAKER_00: And I still have that Bible, it has outlines, it has markers, it has questions, it has comments.
SPEAKER_00: I can look back and see just like a lot of seething arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I get this, and these adults don't.
SPEAKER_00: Um interesting.
SPEAKER_00: I can see that in a lot of my notes and a lot of my thinking, but um just just such a joy to like look back and to know like Yeah, this is how I've grown.
SPEAKER_01: See how God transformed you.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's like I could have skipped any one, like, there wasn't one day that that happened.
SPEAKER_00: No, right?
SPEAKER_00: So, like, I don't know, if your dental hygiene is decent, like it wasn't one day that you cleaned your teeth.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And to just know and so I said something out loud when I taught the teens this week of like, just like don't be the same person in six months as as what you are now.
SPEAKER_00: It would be tragic if in six years you're the same person as you are now.
SPEAKER_00: And so just like doing those little things every day, they really matter.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so just just looking back about the seasons of life that I was really faithful and getting into the word every day just for the sake of being in the word, and it's it's different when you're prepping to teach.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh every minister knows that.
SPEAKER_00: Um but but just having that habit.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I haven't been in the habit as much.
SPEAKER_00: I I kind of got out of it, but just journaling when I've journaled my prayer life, like my prayers are so much more focused.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And so um those those are things that have helped me a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of kind of non-spiritual things is I'm not a daily person, but at least three to four days a week I try to work out and consistency.
SPEAKER_00: I I have a note on my phone that I think goes back to 2019 when I started kettlebell swings.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's it's pretty wild.
SPEAKER_00: And there's some gaps in there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's some seasons where like when like I moved here, like I wasn't doing it like I was before for for like a few months.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but just over time, I'm pretty consistent.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: And and so that's what's nice about keeping a journal when you pray.
SPEAKER_00: And we do that here for the for the staff.
SPEAKER_00: And um w what does that start in twenty twenty four?
SPEAKER_00: Our our prayer journal here?
SPEAKER_03: I think so.
SPEAKER_03: I think we're coming up on the third.
SPEAKER_03: Third year.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_03: I think we're finishing the third year.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: We do that in our oh goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Our Timothy group.
SPEAKER_01: I almost said Tabitha.
SPEAKER_01: But our Timothy group, we do that in and Gail has this journals full of prayers, and she just likes to go back and look.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Likes to go back and look and see how God has answered those prayers.
SPEAKER_01: We read my kids do um missionary, um, famous missionaries, famous um evangelists um little biographies, and there's one I can't remember his name, but he was the um owner of an orphanage in England.
SPEAKER_01: And excuse me, he he would um not have any kind of uh plan for what they were gonna eat that day or anything, and he just wrote down their specific prayer, and then someone would come along and say, Hey, I felt led to give the kids our bread today.
SPEAKER_01: And like that kind of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Just insane.
SPEAKER_01: And then he would he would put down in and it was a ledger, he would put down in the ledger, this is how God answered our prayer today.
SPEAKER_01: And some days they fasted and some days they feasted, and it was just it was an incredible, incredible faith that just goosebumps.
SPEAKER_00: I joked around about doing a spiritual disciplines retreat, and I'm like, hey, we can save money on food.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're fasting this week.
SPEAKER_01: We're fasting this weekend.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, kids, no snacks, right?
SPEAKER_01: But it's just that kind of faith is incredible and mind-blowing to me.
SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the things we did when um it was around the time that Tom um was first diagnosed with cancer.
SPEAKER_01: Um, our kids in the backyard, we would be praying and we'd be praying and we'd be praying, and then um every once in a while I'd hold it up and I'm like, this is what we prayed for.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what, guys?
SPEAKER_01: God has answered this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And it was just fantastic for them to see that.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think we we forget to look for those tangibles and and we do get bogged down in the busyness and and things like that, but the consistency of of being in the word and and and reflecting.
SPEAKER_03: I think I think that's something we forget to do as well.
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
SPEAKER_03: Um, I spent two decades maybe not growing, being asleep, as I say, stagnant, not not pursuing God at all, still thinking I was a faithful Christian.
SPEAKER_03: Um and just just the living word, just a little bit every day.
SPEAKER_03: It changes, or a little bit consistently, like we said.
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't have to be every day.
SPEAKER_03: It does it's not every day, it won't be.
SPEAKER_03: Things happen.
SPEAKER_03: But though that reflection of where you've been, where you're going, looking for God's answers, whether they're yes or no, He's gonna bless you regardless of of what's coming.
SPEAKER_03: Um that faith of maybe somebody will bring food, maybe somebody won't.
SPEAKER_03: Either way, we're gonna be blessed in some fashion, whether we're hungry or not.
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03: It's it's pretty mind-boggling and and humbling.
SPEAKER_00: Well, uh I I love the journal that we keep, and I never do this.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it might be powerful if we did, but just when I tell people we prayed for you, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's that like like I can see their name on the page.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, like, like I know we prayed for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's like it's like it's in the book.
SPEAKER_00: And I I know that a lot of counselors will say that if there's something that's bothering you and you can't sleep at night to get up and write about it.
SPEAKER_03: There's a a very visceral connection of of your mind and and your spirit when that when you can get that out.
SPEAKER_00: It's and it's real.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus tells us to cast his cares upon him.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, I I know that you can say it out loud.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of people that are like, yeah, I can pray silently and I know God can hear that.
SPEAKER_00: However, it helps me a lot to say it out loud because they motorically are moving through it and they can audibly hear it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a posture.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't do that a lot.
SPEAKER_00: But when I do write my prayers a lot, it it does feel like okay, I'm like, I turned this over.
SPEAKER_00: It went from me to the page.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And I I think there's something to that.
SPEAKER_00: I agree.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm motivated to pick up journaling again.
SPEAKER_00: I have a journal.
SPEAKER_00: I have a pen.
SPEAKER_00: It's next to my bedroom.
SPEAKER_03: I've had to start typing mine because I can't write.
SPEAKER_03: Carpal tunnel getting old.
SPEAKER_03: But it's great because I can I can just look out.
SPEAKER_03: I can be staring at a wall or or the sky and I can just be thinking, and it all just comes out of my of my fingers, and then it's there on the page.
SPEAKER_00: So have you done the thing?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I think I I think I learned this or I might have taught this even, where like you turn off the monitor.
SPEAKER_00: So on like a laptop, you can't do this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you just minimize the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so like you open your document and you turn off the monitor and you just unleash stream of consciousness, just God, hear me out, and just and just get after it.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And then at that point, it's like you don't you might want to turn the monitor back on and read it or edit it or something, or you can just be like, okay, God, it's yours.
SPEAKER_00: Just a good way to get it all out.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it really is.
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I like the that stream of consciousness.
SPEAKER_03: When when you're when you're thinking too hard and and the process just it doesn't happen, it it sits with you and it's your turmoil.
SPEAKER_03: And um, that's when I start uh inventing arguments that that never would happen.
SPEAKER_03: I would never say some of these things to the people that I argue with in my mind.
SPEAKER_03: I don't need to be doing that.
SPEAKER_03: I just need to let go and and and let those emotions, those feelings flow and then be done with it and stop arguing and being critical and pray.
SPEAKER_00: All right, we ready to pray out?
SPEAKER_00: Let's do.
SPEAKER_00: On that note, all right.
SPEAKER_00: Lord and God, we want to make room for you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to make room for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Um we want to let go of anything that isn't beneficial to our spiritual health, to our well-being, to to things that don't that don't serve the people around us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, uh, we want to say no to those things because we have a bigger yes.
SPEAKER_00: And that yes is you.
SPEAKER_00: And we just want to seek you and we want to follow you.
SPEAKER_00: And we just ask that you fill our lives, fill our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the name of Christ that we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.