59 | Three Points of Contact

On construction sites, there’s a simple safety rule: always maintain three points of contact. Whether climbing a ladder or stepping onto heavy equipment, the idea is straightforward - stay anchored in three places so you remain stable and secure. 

Recently, while serving as chaplain on a construction job site, Richard sat in on a safety briefing led by a friend responsible for the well-being of hundreds of workers. During the talk, the director of safety emphasized the importance of this rule, and it sparked a meaningful conversation between Richard and Brad about how the same principle might apply to our spiritual lives. 

In this episode, we explore three important points of contact for a healthy life of faith: our connection with the Lord, our connection with community, and our connection with ourselves. When those anchors are strong, we’re far more stable - no matter what life throws our way. 

Sometimes the most meaningful spiritual lessons show up in the most unexpected places… even in a construction site safety talk.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Sermons on the Side. I'm Brad. And I'm Richard. And life can move pretty fast. So we're here to slow down, dig deep, and find the story hidden in everyday moments.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

With years spent in ministry, friendship, and navigating real life together, we're all about blending humor, honesty, and faith into conversations that meet you right where you are.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

So whether you're brand new or you're back for more, we are so glad you are here.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

So relax, listen in, and let's discover meaning together.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

In the ordinary, the messy, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Sermons on the side, finding meaning in the everyday.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

You want to know what my absolute pet peeve is? I do. I do. Is when I'm driving and I approach an intersection, it turns yellow. It's green. It was green, but it turns yellow and red. And I stop at the intersection. I look around. There ain't nobody there. Not a soul. Why did it turn red light? Why did it turn red lights are what's wrong with America?

SPEAKER_02 1:09

There you go. I got it. There you go. What is wrong with America? Red lights.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Red lights. Do away with all of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

There you go. And and you're you're this is your statement?

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah. Yeah. You're like, Martin Luther. Here I stand. I can do no more. I will die on this hill.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

I don't need 95 feet. I got one. I got one. Red lights. Abolish them. Get them out of here. Green lights only.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

It's time, everybody. Sermons on the side is back for another episode. So, welcome, along with me, your favorite podcast host, Brad William.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

I'm back. I didn't get broken.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

I didn't get broken. We didn't break it broken. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go listen to the segment of last week's episode.

unknown 2:18

That's so good.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

I almost uh just coughed up a lung laughing so hard at that segment.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

On a scale of one to 50, how many texts have you sent voice to text in the last week?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Uh 50 in one day. No, seriously. It's a lot. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Honestly, I want to just throw this out there. I'm just a follow-up to the segment from last week. If you have a talk-to-text text from Richard that looks terrible, please send it to me. I'm gonna no, no, send it to me. I am going to make a compilation and we're gonna send it to I don't know. Like, can you still send things to America's Funniest Home videos? America's Funniest Home Text.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

That's it, man. You gotta do it. You gotta do it, dude. So good to see you. Welcome back to the mics, my brother.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yes, it's always good to be here. This just feels like home. Honestly, now that we've done this for more than a year, I mean, this really has become part of our weekly rhythm.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

And it's just it would it feels weird when we don't get together.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Oh, dude, a couple of weeks ago when our schedules were just off and we had to like do something different. My whole week was thrown off. Every day felt like Tuesday for some reason. And like it was Thursday, and I was like, is today Friday? I think we actually had lunch on that Friday, and I was like, this is the fourth Friday in a row that I've had, and it's terrible. Oh my goodness. And it's all because of that one Monday.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Yeah, it just threw us off a little bit. That's all. But man, we are back, and as always, just grateful to have our listeners on this ride with us.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Yes, in exciting times, my brother. Well, hey, let's dive right into this week's sermon on the side. I see a lot of notes. I'm very, very excited about it.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Scribble, cat scratch.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yeah, no, it's just I didn't say I can read the notes. Don't hold them up to me. I just see the notes. I trust the trust that whatever that I mean, what is that? In Hebrew?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

What is going on? What is that? Greek? Jay Cookingham knows how to write in Klingon, which is a star text. Right. So maybe it maybe it looks like Klingon.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Well, we'll send a picture to Jay.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

But look, we've got us a good sermon on the side. Hey, it comes from a good friend of mine who is a safety coordinator for a very large construction company. This construction company has sites and workers and teams on job sites all over the country. And I got to meet this guy up North Georgia when he was serving as safety coordinator. And I'm when I say safety coordinator, this guy lives and breathes safety. Which actually makes sense when you think about it. If you've got thousands and thousands of construction workers on sites all over the country, and you're a c you're a big company like I'm talking about, man, safety and taking all the necessary precautions on what are dangerous working. These are dangerous working bodies.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Yeah, these are big like commercial type stuff. Oh, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

I'm talking about just massive warehouses and and buildings that they're putting up all over the place.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Guidelines, protocols, everything. I mean, that's so important.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

And you can't, I I mean, you can't even express how important it goes, yeah, it is a priority for this company. And the guy that I'm talking about being the safety coordinator over a site that has thousands of workers on it. I mean, you talk about, I said he lives and breathes safety because he believes it. And he would say things like, My job is these guys go home to their families at night because there's enough danger on a job site like that. It's it's just crazy. Yeah, right. Well, so it was fascinating to be around him, and every time I would visit that site that he was working in North Georgia, I would just watch him and and I would watch him just constantly speaking and saying the words and the instructions and the reminders about how to be safe, but I could really see it in his he was living it, man. He was, I mean, his head was on a swivel, as they say. He was looking both ways, always keeping an eye on stuff. And when he when when we'd say goodbye and go uh in different directions, he would say, he would say, Be safe. Now people say that all the time. Yeah, and I'm and they mean it. They want you to be safe, they don't want anything bad to happen to you. But you can see it in this guy's eyes. It wasn't just a throwaway uh thing to say as you're leaving, he would look at you and he'd say, Be safe. And I'm like, Yeah, sorry. I mean, it was just it was it was a big deal, and so I learned a lot of interesting little safety tips from him that were core critical things in that environment on a job side. And there's one of them I want to talk about. Okay, he he would always refer to three points of contact. Three points of contact.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Like when you're like climbing something, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

He was talking about when you're climbing a ladder, um, getting in and out of one of those vehicles that are all tooling around these and driving around these these big job sites. They he said you always have to have three points of contact, meaning you have three of your limbs between your arms and your legs, three of your limbs are securely holding on to or standing on something solid. So your two hands and one leg is on something solid when you're going up a ladder or when you're getting into a vehicle. The other leg that's not on something solid is kind of reaching for the next solid place.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah, that one can be in transit, but yeah, but the other three gotta be locked in.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Because he said you would just be shocked at how injuries take place on even the scenarios that don't look that dangerous, you know, a small ladder, not not some huge, tall thing, but somebody just saying, you know what, I'll skip the bottom rung of this ladder, or I will just I'll carry something in one arm while I'm hiking myself up this ladder. And he's like, No, you can't do it. It's too dangerous. Three points of contact to have two hands and one leg on something solid and the other leg reaching for the next solid step, that makes you stable. He said, It's all about stability. I never saw this guy. There was a little platform we would stand up on, and he would do his big safety presentation a couple of times a month to thousands of employees under the big tent before the day started. And we're you know, we're up on this platform so everybody could see him, and there are maybe seven wooden steps to get down from the platform. This is like a literal, it's not a ladder, it's like literal set of stairs that were built upon this on this thing. You know, he would never he wouldn't carry things up and down those ladders, uh up and down those stairs because he had to have he always had one hand on the railing, and if it was if it was too heavy for him to carry, he would make two trips up and down those stairs. Like let's say he had five binders of in, you know, like notebook binders, he'd bring two down on one trip, and I and I would watch him go down, set, set the two down on a table, go back and get the other three. He was he refused to do anything that affected his stability, going up and down stairs, up and down ladders, in and out of those big vehicles.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. It sounds like he's a good leader, too, because no matter how meaning, uh no matter how small the task was, he was going to model what it looked like to be stable at all costs. Even if it's just a couple of flights of stairs just to get up and down this little four foot whatever, it's not even it's not necessarily even about the safety of those stairs. Yeah, it's about practicing safety protocols for when the situation does require it.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Exactly. That is that's a hundred percent it. And I loved watching him do that. And I every time he dropped one of these little wisdom thoughts about safety, I I could almost automatically see the parallel to real life. And so I thought about my life and I thought you know what? I need three points of contact. I need three points of stability in my life at all times. At all times.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Okay, talk to me.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

So so I I need I need to be able to grab a hold to two things with my hands and at least one thing. I I need three things that I'm grabbing a hold to that bring stability and constancy and steadiness into my life. As if my life was me going up and downstairs. What are my three go-to things that are gonna guarantee that I have stability, no matter what happens.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

That you don't fall.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Exactly. And so I started thinking about what are those things? What are the three? And and it's it's quite simple. I'll just share with you my what my three points of contact, I call it three points of steadiness, three points of stability are it's my connection with God.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

First and foremost. My connection with God.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yeah, yeah. And and there are just different things that are a part of my life and are a part of my daily, weekly, monthly rhythms that allow me to stay connected with God. And those are decisions I have to be pretty intentional about. So, in other words, my connection with God is not uh automatic. I mean, I mean, I could I could lose my grip on my connection with God if I weren't intentional about hungering for it, thirsting for it, wanting to stay connected to God. And and you know, some of those things that I do to to strengthen that connection with God. They include prayer, they include my my time in the word, the Bible, the scriptures, uh, my time gathering with other believers, but you know, for for worship and for teaching and just learning. But my connection with God, that's that's my first point of stability, my first point of contact. My second is my connection to community. Because I I just look, I people say, What do you mean community? I'm saying I I I need to be connected in a circle of other people that are kind of pulling in the same direction as I am, you know, some like-minded people, some people that that I can do life with.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

And I don't I don't mean just go into a church service with, but some people that really get to to be part of the rhythm of my life, the connection. We talk about that in recovery. We say we say uh change takes place in community. Change doesn't, you know, change healthy change doesn't happen in isolation.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Or it's very limited how much change can happen in isolation.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

And community is is just so critical. So there's two points of contact for me. My rel my connection with God, my connection to community. Now, this third one is gonna sound a little weird. Okay, it is my connection to myself.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

That's not weird.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

I'm with you.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

No, I'm with you. Okay, so you can't feel me on that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

I just lived and it but some of it has to do with my addiction journey. Some of some of it has to do with just the the situations in my life. I I I know what it's like to be to not be really in touch with with myself. I I became a as a people pleaser and as a performance junkie, you know, I would perform so I get the approval of of people. And I would just wear whatever mask needed, was needed for whatever situation. And uh everybody liked me, you know. So I I achieved some approval. Everybody liked me, but very few people even knew me really well because what was I doing? I was just kind of doing an act to make sure everybody still approved of me.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Yeah, and that trap that you that I have fallen into as well is you get to a place where you're lying to yourself. Exactly. And and one of the other phrases that we will share on Tuesday nights is living in reality at all costs. And so when I hear you say that this third point of stability is connection with myself, what I hear is making sure that I'm living in reality, that I'm not lying to myself, that I'm in touch with where where's my head at? Where are my emotions? What volume knobs are turned up right now? And where am I in relationship with my other points of contact, with my community, with the Lord? Yeah, you know. Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah, it's just it was just this was a neglected part of my life for so long. And so I'm I'm learning it now, and it is a stabilizing factor for me that I can just not, you know, if somebody asks me how I'm doing, I can, you know, men, the old joke is men have uh two emotions, uh okay or mad. How you doing? Okay, how you doing? I'm just mad. You know, it there's a whole range of actual things going on in my mind and in my heart that I'm starting to learn to connect with and stay connected and be aware of and just be willing to be honest about.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

So here's my these are my three points of contact. And here's the thing in our lives, we are we are crawling in and out of, I think about those guys on that job site, crawling up in those big uh excavation vehicles and coming down out of them. And I think in my life, bro, I am crawling up into and down out of some weird situations sometimes. Yeah, stuff is life can be pretty crazy. Yeah, and I am I supposed to just think that I can just kind of wing it to get up and down out of that kind of situation or that kind of uh part of my story or my history or or whatever it might be. I I am I am in and out of some pretty weird, wild stuff in my life. And I need stability while I'm getting up in there while I'm getting out of it. Yeah, and otherwise, hey, if I if I don't have those three things, if I only got one, I'm probably flapping in the breeze, man. Trying to get down, how am I gonna get all the way down there? And not, you know, I'm just hanging on for dear life for to one thing. How about God wants to create three points of contact for me so that I can move safely up and down the ladders of my life and in and out of the vehicles of my life so that I'm stable? You got anything from scripture for us?

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Yeah, I love it. I just I think that there's a lot of listeners right now that I would imagine that we've got some listeners right now that this is really hitting home for um, whether what regardless of the type of journey that we're on, yeah, I think we can all relate to that moment where something just kind of comes out of nowhere. Maybe it's some scaffolding that's falling, or maybe there's just this you know, job sites are crazy, but something just hits us.

unknown 19:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

I don't know, is it a health journey? Is it a job situation? Is it a family trauma? I don't know what it is, but there are moments that life is crazy and all of us can relate to navigating in and out of some crazy circumstances. And I just we were talking a little bit before, but uh Psalms 40 is just such a beautiful passage that talks about how the the this is a promise that God is giving. He's a He drew me out of the pit of destruction, out of this miry bog, and he set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. Yes, and so I don't know what that pit of destruction is for you right now, friend. I don't know what that miry bog is that's around you. But Psalm 40, verse 2 promises that God will lift you out of that and he will set you on the rock. That is, I mean, that it doesn't change the bog, it doesn't undo the destruction, but it does place our feet where we're supposed to be. It it re-secures our three points of contact to him, and that is worth celebrating, that is worth remembering.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Golly, that's good. Hey, let me throw one more verse at you before we wrap. It's in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 23. It says, Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope that we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promises. Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Whoa.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

I'm just I picture holding without wavering onto my three points of contact because God's got a plan. Dude, and he's not leaving us, dude.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

I all right. My five-year-old, my sweet five-year-old Becca.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Talk to me.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

We were at a playground and they had these little rock climbing walls. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. I mean, she might have been three inches off the ground. Okay. I mean, it was uh not high, but she's off the ground, and so she's freaking out. She's got two hands, one foot, and then one foot's just kind of dangling. And bless her heart, dangle it three inches further, and you'll touch the ground. I'm standing right behind her, and she's starting to get really worked up. She's freaking out. Daddy, I don't, I can't hold on much longer. And I'm telling her, I'm like, hold on tighter, baby. You got because I'm not touching her. I want her to try to figure this out, you know. As a father, as a father, seeing your child suffer, there's part of you that wants to go, just I'll save you. Let me just go ahead and I'll move your foot to the ground, you know.

unknown 21:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

But I think there are times, brother, where our heavenly father allows us that that struggle and says, just Hold on tight, reach out a little bit further. I'm here if you fall.

unknown 22:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

I'm here. And I'm not going anywhere. And finally she reached out that big old clobber knocker of her foot and got the ground and turned around, wiped her tears, and she was like, Oh, I was right here. And I think just so many times the Lord's looking at us like, oh my goodness. Oh Lord, I didn't realize that it was if I just waited a little bit longer, if I just trusted you a little, you know, and I just, anyways, as you were describing that holding tighter, I was like, Man, if that didn't just happen, bro, that is outstanding.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Oh, in that moment, I was right here. I didn't, yeah, whatever. But listen, listen, that is beautiful. And I I get that moment that you're describing too. So thank you to all our listeners for giving us some time today to take some thought about the three points of contact. And uh join us on this journey, you know, as we because we're all climbing up some ladders and jumping into getting in and out of some weird situations. But God has us. So let's hold tight. Good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

All right, brother. Well, it wouldn't be a sermon on the side without a segment. It sure would. And so I've got a segment for you. A couple of weekends a couple of weekends ago, I navigated Atlanta traffic with the family. I'm really good. Coach. Oh, now I've done plenty of Atlanta traffic. Just I work in Atlanta and will periodically go visit the the home office, but I've I've really timed out my route and I know when to avoid the peak times. But for this family event and the multiple stop family event that we had going on, it was just you gotta go when you gotta go. And there were road closures, there were wrecks. It was the it was we've all been there, right? But we've been but it it reminded me of something. Okay, and I have I've made this claim for years. In fact, you can ask our dear friend Evan Henson, our one of our guests, yeah, that I I have said this phrase for decades, and it is a true statement, and I'm going to declare it here on Sermons on the Side for the very first time. This is what's wrong with America. I I this is a hundred percent what is wrong with America. These are strong words, man. Red lights. Red lights are what's wrong with America.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Okay, okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna need you to break this.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

If you are at a red light and it turns green, let's just say you're four cars away from the intersection. And that first car waits a second and then slowly drives away, and then that second car waits a second and then slowly drives away, and then that third car waits a second and then slowly drives away. I get stopped at the intersection because the light has turned back to red. Oh, the worst. I have I listen, red lights. You want to know what my absolute pet peeve is? I do. This is when I'm driving and I approach an intersection, it turns yellow. It's green, it's it was green, but it turns yellow and red, and I stop at the intersection, I look around, there ain't nobody there. Not a soul. Why did it turn red light? Why did it turn red lights are what's wrong with America?

SPEAKER_02 25:26

There you go. I got it. There you go. What is wrong with America? Red lights.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Red lights. Do away with all of them.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

There you go. And and you're you're this is your statement?

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Yeah. Yeah. You're like Martin Luther. Here I stand, I can do no more. I will die on this hill. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

I don't need 95 pieces. I got one. I got one. Red lights. What's wrong with America? Abolish them. Get them out of here. Oh, that's green lights only.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

I can't wait to hear from our listeners on this one. Dude, that's a great statement. And you know what? I think you're gonna have a lot of support. Thank you. I appreciate it. For this sentiment, for this conviction. I think people are gonna be, I'm with Brad. Yeah. Can't break, can't break Brad. Can't break it. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Can't break you. Can't break Brad. You can stop me at a red light, Badek. He can't break me. Give that Charles. That is it. Dude, thank you for this awesome sermon on the side. I tell you what, the rest of this week and into this weekend, I'm gonna be really thinking about my three points of contact and uh and having a more stable environment, right, with the Lord, with my community, with myself.

unknown 26:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

I love it, dude.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Oh man, thank you. And again, to all our listeners, we love you and appreciate all your support. Can't wait to be with you right back here next week for our next episode of Sermons on the Side. Woo! Come on, man. Dog, bro. So so Evan Henson knew that was coming. When you said that phrase, he knew where you were going.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

100%. 100%. I love it. When you approach an intersection, it turns red and there's only like one car. But there's like maybe seven cars that just got stopped by the light. Yeah. Like, why does that one car matter more than these seven?

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Come on. Come on. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. That's right. And I just quoted Star Trek 2, The Wrath of Khan.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Oh, well, I didn't know that, but I think it was Star Trek.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Uh J. Cook and Ham, let us know. I think that was red light too. Wow. I you know what? I feel you. And uh, do you need to do a minute to just kind of go down? All right. Did we because we we an exposed nerve. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

There's like four red lights in between here and my house, so mentally preparing. Hey, I need you to text me when you get home.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

I need to make sure you got home.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

I want to talk to Tex. Right. I got home okay. I don't I don't know what is gonna come through.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Oh man.