BUSTING THROUGH CEILINGS

Do you ever wonder about prayer and the power of prayer? Do you keep hearing the word “Gerrymander” and wonder what it mean? Where it started? This episode is GPS covers these areas as well as BUSTING THROUGH MENTAL CEILINGS. The aNBA and NHL Playoffs and much much more. 

Transcript

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God, politics, and sports. Three areas people say you should try to avoid. But here we are. I'm Bill Smith, and I look forward to talking to you about faith, politics, and sports. One of the things I have decided is I need to go get me some glasses that are reflection-proof because I wear glasses and everybody's looking at me every time we come on the podcast, and I am not wearing glasses because the light reflection to it, so it sets up the whole life. But anyway, with all those things says, welcome to God of Politics and Sports with Bill Smith. I am Bill Smith. I'm excited once again to be speaking to you all across the nation, across this planet, as we once again are moving forward on this day of this podcast to come across and be able to have some fun and talk about these things and all the things that are going on around us globally, as well as uh with maybe even within your own home to look around and see, hey man, this is going on. First off, so I don't get to the end of this thing and forget to say it. I want to say happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, all those mothers that take their time with their children who may just want to be driving them crazy uh at time periods. Um, I know that uh growing up as a kid, I put my mother through many different challenges, but she was successful in weathering many storms that I brought to the table at different times. This boy was crazy. I, you know, as a little boy, I used to trip my younger sister. Not the young, the youngest one's way too far behind me. But my younger sister, uh, when she was first learning how to walk, I would walk up and trip her. Um, so you know, my mom had to endure that. Now my dad was around and and he was involved in that. I mean, he's still alive as well, but you know, there was a discipline level that that came in there with that. So mom had to take a lot of the brunt of that, and then even with some things I've done in uh growing up is uh I got kicked out of daycare, y'all. I got kicked out of daycare. Yeah, your boy got kicked out of daycare because I would roll up underneath of other kids' cots and I would kick them till they fell off. This was during nap time. So I got thrown out, and the only way they let me back in was during nap time. I had to go in my aunt's room. My aunt Ethel, miss her so much, she was awesome. Uh, I had to go in her room to sleep because they knew I wouldn't act a fool in her room because she tightened up a hind up. So I would go there. Uh so yeah, my mom got many phone calls. Uh it was my nickname is Bill Bill. So growing up is Bill Bill, and then it's uh Bill Jr. and Billy, and then all the other things that that kind of came along with it. So that's just going through that. And I'm not even gonna roll into the stuff junior high, high school, uh, up until the time period when I walked that aisle. But then even then, it became grandmother or me, as she says, with my children and my my sister's uh children as well. So happy Mother's Day to my mom, to my stepmother, to my awesome wife who uh carried my three babies, and then we picked another one up along the way, and uh what she's done with our children, our children are truly blessed to have a Mimi slash Nana such as her. Uh, what she's done is hold our house together through many challenges. Uh, I am the house band, that's the husband, but that to support the head, you need a strong neck, and this is a big head, so she definitely gotta be a strong neck. So, with that, um, aunts, godmother, actually, mine is one and the same. Uh, all those people who step in the role to fill those motherly roles for people, I want to let you know how important you are, and God bless you for what you do. So, happy Mother's Day. Um, our awesome First Lady at Joyce Center. Uh, she does an incredible job of supporting and uplifting our man of God and keeping him up in prayer, our bishop up in prayer. So, First Lady Deborah, definitely happy Mother's Day to you as well because you're not just a mother to your children and grandmother to your grandchildren, but also to the mother, uh, you mother, mothers, and the children behind, so they all know they can look to look to you for strength. So, once again, happy dag on Mother's Day. Y'all, y'all walk that aisle. I don't care what your ethnicity is, because one of the things I get sick and tired of, and I love people supporting different ethnicities, etc. But it's all it's not just black women or white women, it's just women in general that stand together and say they're gonna raise their babies and they're gonna keep their child and they're gonna raise and fight uh for that child. Um, do I believe us as men need we need to step up more? Heck yes. But uh without getting all into that. Anyway, I was gonna go a whole nother direction, but I want to stay focused on the main thing, which is happy Dag on Mother's Day to all you mamas that are coming up uh this weekend on uh May the 10th, 2026. Now, how was your busy and blessed weekend? And I want to call it that busy and blessed weekend. I just don't want your weekend just to be busy. I I pray it was blessed. I had a great opportunity. I've never been to Utah. We went to Utah to watch uh my granddaughter JC and her team, TCVA, uh, which is Tri-County Volleyball Club, yeah, something like that. Anyway, out of San Antonio, and they went and they played in Utah. And I was so excited to see them because they did some great things, and they had, and I even talked about this on one of my podcasts. They had a propensity to be killer on Friday, killer on Saturday, and be the first ones out on Sunday. Well, they went 3-0 on Friday. I wasn't impressed, you already done that. They went 3-0 on Saturday. Did not impress me. They already done that. So we rolled into Sunday, and myself and my my daughters, my younger daughter's husband, we were joking around about. Well, if they stick to what they've been doing, we'll be at breakfast by 8:30, 9 o'clock. Well, they won the first game. Nice. Well, let's see what they do the second game. And they rolled up and they won the second game. Okay, now I need a snack because we're gonna be here for a while. Then they won their semifinal game, and then when they won their semifinals, they put themselves in a position to get that bid to go to the Nationals. Now they didn't win the championship, but the team they lost to already had a bid, so they stepped in there and they earned. They finished 9-1 on the day. 10-0 would have been awesome. But uh, I think they got a little emotional after they realized they made they got their bid. They got so caught up in it after they didn't play as well in that last one. But the bottom line is they did it. And I'm so thrilled for them that they broke over, they busted through that. And once again, I don't believe the sky's the limit. Why? You still have space. So the sky should never be the limit for anybody. So when people say the sky's the limit, so please do not put a ceiling on the greatness that I can achieve and what all can be accomplished in my life. So I applaud them for breaking through. So now they'll go to Indianapolis, Indiana, and they'll get a chance to play for a national championship in June. Uh, so of course, her Nana will be there. I've already said let's get them plane tickets. I'm not gone, but they're gonna go. Uh, we have a lot of things going on with our youth program and and other things going on, so I won't be able to break away. But Nana will be there, and uh yeah, yeah, so I won't be there directly, but my money will be, baby. So, but anyway, it's it's such an exciting time. But this segment of GPS is brought to you by one of our sponsors, QCraft Sausage, and once again, you can text 76706, excuse me, 706-409-3532. You can text 706-3409-3532, or you can DM uh at Marquez Carr on Instagram, or you can go directly to QCraft Sausage dot square dot site and go ahead and uh order that sausage directly online. It's some good stuff you need to get into it. So, once again, this segment of GPS God politics and sports is brought to you by our sponsor, QCraft Sausage. You can text 706-409-3532 or DM at Mark Quez, M-A-R-Q-U-A-Z-E-C, C-A-R-R on I-G or Q Craft Sausage that square dot site, and order you some sausage and just let them know when you order the sausage. You heard it here on GPS so they know that I'm letting you know the truth. That's some good meat. Get that sausage. Also, you can look into getting some of that source. It's just sourdough, and you can get some of that as well. Alright. Now, I love prayer. I do, I do, I do, and I love how it can change and will change your life. And the most important prayer of all of them is that prayer of repentance, or what some say is the sinner's prayer, which is Romans 10, 9 to 10, which says, if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it's and it's with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. And I think that that prayer, and I did that prayer over wow, over 30 plus years ago, um, and really stuck to it. Now I did it over 40 years ago, but I entered what you call a backslid mode. But uh then in 1991, 1990, but I didn't hold on to it and I back backslid. But the effectual, fervent prayers of the righteous availed much, and one of the person who led me to the Lord when we were over in Saudi in the Gulf War, because I tell everybody I was a Gulf War Christian. And he said, What are you talking about? Well, because I knew we were facing a million-man army, and I knew from from being raised up around the word and in church that you don't see God unless you're born again. You don't get into heaven, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Um, so my but see, God knew my heart, so it was a mocking anyway. I wasn't even saying the words, it wasn't really from my heart. It was just in my head. But that that man uh William Henry, and I'll say his name, he kept praying. And and the awesome is when the Bible says, Greater is he that is in us than he that is within us than he that is in the world, or greater is he that's within you than he that is in the world, it really stood out because myself, my wife, and his wife, none of us was living for Christ. So we could sit around playing Monopoly or whatever it was, and and his wife may want wine, and I may want beer, and my wife really didn't drink too much at the time. And he would say, Nope, because you're all gonna get born again. We're ah man, well, lo and behold, by September of 1991, I was fully sold out for Christ by the end of 1991, uh, it was September of 1991, and then his wife later on, but everybody, because he stuck to his word and he prayed. So prayer does change things, and prayer does change lives. But one thing people tend to do with time periods is and even in this time period, far too often people are praying as if God is an ATM. And yes, God does God will heal your hear your prayers. If you're not born again, the first part is that sinner's prayer, if you will, or that repentance prayer. But if you're one who is born again and you're serving God, yeah, God can hear your prayers, but there's some things that have to go along with that. How's your heart? Is it dissent or anger towards somebody that you need to release? Because one of the things that I'm a firm believer in is this you gotta forgive, and that includes yourself. And I know I've done some dumb behind things in my life since I've been born again. I know other people have also. And one of the things that I remember my bishop saying to me is, brother, have you forgiven you? And I never thought about it. Like, if I'm not forgiving myself, not excusing it, but forgiving, there's a problem because there's no there's no moving forward if you're gonna keep things hanging over your own head. So that forgiving that that needs to take place. I've learned to pray for the results, not the issue. So, in other words, when I'm praying, and if I'm praying for someone that needs healing or my body, I'm thanking and praising God and praying, God, Father, thank you for the healing. Thank you for the healing of cancer, thank you for the healing, thank you for the financial breakthrough. Father, we give you all the glory so that prayer is not just praying the issue because I don't pray for cancer, I pray and I thank God for the deliverance. And I never had cancer, but I'm just saying I'm using that as an example. Uh I've learned to speak to your body, and when I was going through, and this was in 2020, headed into 2021, and I had COVID. Didn't hold on to it, COVID didn't have me, but my body was afflicted with COVID, and afterwards I developed type 2 diabetes. Well, let me go through the whole process. I went from 200 and maybe eight or nine, maybe ten pounds, and I think I shared this before, and I dropped down close to my wrestling weight in high school, which is 158. That's a lot of weight. Didn't realize, did not know what was going on. But once the diagnosis was given and I know what to speak to, the one thing that my bishop said to me time and time again, even actually even before that, was brother, you have to speak to your body. You have to speak to your body, you have to speak to your body, and as I continue to speak healing to my body, not the sickness, but the healing, things started to be revealed. And then there was a practical side to it. Because even within that, within the prayer and the healing of my body, I'm gonna get through this pretty quick. There were things I had to do. I had to change my diet. So I went to a keto diet, which is crazy because keto usually people use it to use it to lose weight. I went to it to put back on the weight. Then, yes, I did the medication that was necessary, but what they thought might be maybe months because of prayer, because my faith, and I put works with that faith, what they thought may take months only took two months. And actually it was a month because you start one January I started everything, treating everything, and by the beginning of February basically was cleared up. Um, so that was within a month period that I went from a point of possibly being into a diabetic coma, which was December 29th, that by the end of January I put most of the weight back on, which I'm glad I did. I couldn't do one dip, I couldn't even bench the bar. That changed immensely, but it all started with prayer and consistent prayer and praying not the sickness, but praying the healing, thanking God for the healing. But I still had to remember that. So when you want to increase financially, just don't say, Father, Lord, I I I bind up poverty. Okay, well, no, how about you release your abundance? We rebuke poverty, but how about you release your abundance? And also, once again, I'm I want to read something in James 2, 14 through 26. So I'll read this as fast as possible. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have work? Can faith save him if a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body. What does it profit? Thus also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. I'm gonna stop right there. By what you're doing displays your faith. Just this podcast alone, I'm stepping out on faith. Because I didn't have a lot of things that I'm I'm doing right now with this. And I had and I had to step out because just speaking it was not enough to get it done. I had to initiate works with it. Alright. My works, you believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the devil the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works? And by works faith was made perfect. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only, likewise, as not Rahad the harlot, also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way. This goes back to Joshua. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Bottom line, pray and seek ye first the kingdom of God, but you must stay focused and busy as well. So prayer is so very important. Do those practical things if it's something with your health, just you pray and pray, pray, pray, pray your health, speak health to your body. But if the you go to the doctor and they say, Hey, you need to change your diet, don't say, I got faith and no, I'm healed. And then you go out and keep eating the same way. That's not the worst part. You you may be speaking of faith, but the worst and initiating that process is, and I know our man of God has been sharing powerfully on faith about the process and getting those getting that thing moving, maybe you push away from the table that you go work out. If you don't have a job and you're saying, Well, I want I need my finances to change. Well, your finances aren't gonna change if you're not doing anything. So faith and prayer and they're all in embraced and and encompass one another. So I want to encourage you to pray. I want you to pray diligently in your life because prayer does change things. I'm telling you, as a witness in my life, I've seen it, I've seen our lives change because of prayer. I've seen our lives change because once we prayed, we began to put things into place with that prayer. So prayer does change things. But the works that come along with that faith and that prayer, that's on you. And what you're gonna do, like my man Hulk Hogan said, what you're gonna do when the prayer and faith is running wild out your mouth from you. Now, okay, he didn't say that, but I just changed it around a little bit. But even within that, in our prayer, we need to be praying for this nation and our leadership at all levels. You don't have to like somebody, and I say this, and it seems like I'm saying this constantly because I really believe this firmly. You don't have to like somebody to pray for them. You don't. We just need to be praying for them. Whether it's God touched their heart and changed their mindset and what they think and how they may be doing things, whatever it might be, but we definitely need to be praying for our leaderships, our leadership at all levels, from city council or aldermans to mayors to uh a state council member, state senate, state house members to governors, to um our our federal house, federal uh uh Congress, I'm sorry, Senate members, to the vice president, to the president. We need to be praying for everyone and leadership in our nation because a kingdom divided, and I shared this before, our kingdom divided will surely fall. So we need to pray for some unity. I'm not saying you have to agree with everything. On I'm not saying you have to agree with everything that somebody may be saying. I'm not saying that. I don't agree with abortion. I am anti-abortion, period. But I'm still gonna pray for Jeffries or Schumer or oh Lord AOC, whoever's in the leadership position. I don't have to agree with their politics, but I do pray for them spiritually. And within that, I don't agree with everything that may be going on with our president. And he says he's done some great things for the Christian community. And even abroad, no other president has attacked terrorists who have attacked Christians. And he did drop some bombs on in, and I came around, I think it was Nigeria area, but in that area where radical Muslims were massacring Christians. Was it enough? No. Can we do more? I would love to see us do more without putting boots on the ground. But that's a that's a whole nother discussion and topic in itself. And I'm gonna have to remember that. Well, we must must make sure we keep praying for our leadership because the biggest news besides the war in Iran and its seemingly unending direction, and and I know the president said he's he's looking at it being over within the next three weeks, these hostilities starting to end. The biggest news or new political hot button is gerrymandering across the nation. And I'm not well versed in gerrymandering, I've heard about it because once again I love uh and and as I shared before, I love politics and I love learning new things. And and I heard about it before in my government class, but I never really ventured into it. But as I looked at it, I said, gerrymandering as I looked and did some work on is defined in the context of representative electoral systems, is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries, and it's to give an advantage to a party or group or socioeconomic class within the constituency. So even in, and just to vary off real quick, even in Louisiana, with the decision that the Supreme Court came down with, it ruffled a lot of feathers because everyone's saying, hey, it's attacking strictly the black community. But if you look at what it's saying is if we're gonna, if this is gonna be across the board correct, with how they drew up these district lines, then these lines are not constitutional because it favors just one in general, but not all in itself. And without getting because the Supreme Court decision is already done. I'm not getting way deep into that. Uh I I do understand what a lot of people are saying that, hey, it it takes away the Civil Rights Act. Well, it doesn't when the Civil Rights Act is civil rights for everybody, and it's saying, but blacks need to have more opportunities, and I I'm not against all that. I'm not against all that. I am really disappointed when people they will say they'll take away from say a Clarence Thomas or Byron Dandelson Donalds or Tim Scott, and they'll say, you're only there because of the Civil Rights Act. But if somebody steps up and says, no, I'm not embracing that. This is who I am inside. God bless me to do boom, boom, boom, boom. I press, nope, you can't do that. But then on the same token, they'll say, Don't lock me in just because of my color. I want to be known for more than that. See, you can't have it both ways. You can't. So if I say to you, and and it's been said to me in the profession that I am in, that where I've gotten to is because of my ethnicity. And I never embraced that. I never embraced that, and I don't believe in embracing that. On the same token, if something's not done right, I can't blame it on just on my ethnicity, unless I have proof. If I have proof that somebody is doing something just because of my ethnicity, then I'm gonna point that out. But if I don't have proof that it's just because of my ethnicity, then I'm not going to sit up there and make that the case because I don't know. And then once you do that, I'm a firm believer in one thing is once you identify that, now you give that and that person power and authority over you. And I know that I'm not giving you can't, folks, we can't do that. We have to stop doing that. Whether you're black, white, Hispanic, whatever it might be, we have to stop giving people authority over us because something didn't go down the way we wanted it to go down, and we immediately just want to start blaming people uh for it. And I don't care, folks, I don't care what your political beliefs are. We just gotta stop doing it, period. We gotta stop doing it, period. And the we just immediately want to blame folks. I mean, the blame game is crazy. The blame game is absolutely crazy, and we have got to stop the blame game when it comes to those things. But anyway, back to gerrymandering. The word comes from the combination of salamander and vice, he was vice president uh Elbridge Jerry, but he was governor of Massachusetts in 1812 when he signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that looked like a mythological salamander, i.e. gerrymander. So that's how that came about. About the term is very negative, has very negative connotations, and gerrymandering is almost always considered a corruption of the democratic process. So, and it's part of the manipulation of an electoral electoral constituency, excuse me, boundaries, so as to favor one party or or a class, as I as I stated before. So a lot of people see it in a very negative uh connotation. Um, so what they call it is redistricting. They want to redistrict, they wanted this to this, so they can get more votes, more Republican votes here and Democrat votes here, and etc. And it's never ending because uh what was seen as okay maybe for Texas would uh absolutely decimate another state's and everyone having and really seeing their vote heard or seen. And what you end up doing is unfortunately, and this affects all people. Some people may say, well, my vote is 100% going to be null and void because they redistricted like Virginia, which made it well when it was 5'4 or 6'4, now it's 8-2 or 7-3 as far as seats for in areas that could be predominantly Democrat or Republican. And I also said this: be careful because you go about gerrymandering and changing things around, if there's any flip, then you're gonna end up losing out. If there's any flip, if as we start setting up things, and yes, I go far more conservative, you start to see a flip uh in places that you thought was locked in red or locked in blue, and all of a sudden you get a little purple going on, or some changes in there. Seats that you thought were guaranteed now are going the other direction. And people, we we really need to get out of this thing because it has become, once again, a political hotbed. It's become a political grenade, and it's one of the biggest things that's going on in our country now as people are gearing up and gearing towards the uh votes for the house. And it really only affects the house. That's where it mostly affects the house. That's where uh the most it affects is the house. Is it gonna affect um the executive branch as far as the uh the uh um president? No. It mostly affects the legislative branch and the house, because that's the seats. It's not gonna affect the president because that's the state as a whole, and that's electoral votes. So no matter how you move it around, it's not gonna change that. But it does affect the House. Uh I'm not too sure if it does with the Senate, but I know it does affect the House more so than any other place uh within that and the House seats, which means it can either stifle the uh last two years of uh President Trump's uh agenda because if they went back to House, nothing's gonna get to the Senate, even if the Republicans have it. So you'll have a lot of things, and it'll just hold a it'll just stop up the government, which in turn means that in 2028 it could very well turn everything back right into uh say if it's Vance who runs, everything goes right back to Vance. Uh that means the House, the Senate, and the White House could be a Republican. Or in 2028, that the House, the Senate, and the White House could be Democrat. And we've seen that over the last few years, those kind of scenarios begin to take place. So uh a lot of states are now on the hunt to complete redistricting to get more house seats. But folks, once again, there's no guarantee that people are gonna vote for you and in the direction that you want to go. So as we as we move forward in this, this is why I love sports so much. Because all you got to do is show up and play. That's it. You just show up and play. Uh, even though I do see it now a lot in high school sports where, especially football, uh the negotiating and and moving. It's man, it's like an NIL deal. We're just talking about high school kids. But the one of the things I do um love is when people step out and they're trusting God uh to do things. There's an awesome book. It's called Mommy My Curls Talk to Me. And my sister wrote this. I call my sister in church Victoria Fuse. My wife and I counselor her and her husband and when they got married. Um, so but it's wonderful. But it's called Mommy My Curls Talk to Me. And it's a great book. And I will say, uh, if you once you get a chance to look this book up, you will see that, yes, it may be lawyers projected just towards one ethnic group, which is black, but it's it all children, mommies, all children can read this book and get great inspiration out of it, so that you can do some great things even as a child. So I do definitely want to mention that because mommy, my curls talk to me. And with all the shifting going on in this nation and other things, sometimes we just need to sit down with our children and read them a good book. Also, not just reading them a good book or reading from the best book, which is the Bible, but a good book like this, Mommy My Curls Talk to Me. But also, God, Politics, and Sports is sponsored by and brought to you by Spartans Youth Football. And we have some man, the playoffs are hot and heavy. My Sixers did a great job of winning game seven in Boston. I can't stand Boston. I can't stand my dad. You know how much a highly great I think my pops is, can't stand Boston, dude. But he's a he's a Boston fan. And in the 80s, he would come by the house. And if if Boston knocked my Sixers out of the playoffs, I had a poster. It was a Fair Foster poster. And you're trying to figure out why I married a white woman, right? But anyway, fair Foster poster, and and he would put the little uh the little uh the leaf, the clover leaf for the Celtics up there, and and he would write on ha ha ha ha ha. So and then my Sixers would win. I wouldn't hear from him. Not that he would, you know what I mean. He didn't even talk all that trash. Then after Sixers win, but the Sixers jumped up in there, they did a great job, and then they went out there and got Mollywap just beat down by the Knicks in game one. Was it 29, 30, whatever it was? It was a whole lot of points. And it really disappointed me because all that trash I talked Saturday and Sunday to my son-in-law, Darius, and my daughter Sarah, because they're Knicks fans, all that trash I talked. But it's only one game, so hopefully they bounce back the next game. Minnesota went into San Antonio. My other team. Yesterday was not a great sports day. Monday, May 4th, was not a great sports day for my household because my Sixers, uh, my Sixers got destroyed, uh, my Flyers lost, and then my my wife's team, which is I'm I'm adopting also the Spurs, they got beat by Minnesota, who Minnesota, I think, I think Minnesota was 3-1 against them uh in the regular season. So they have that where the Spurs seem to have that makeup just perfect to beat uh OKC. It seems Minnesota has that formula that they beat the Spurs. And uh but OKC owns Minnesota, so it's crazy. The West is gonna, the West is crazy. I still see OKC, as long as they stay healthy coming out of the West, the Lakers are gonna give them a battle, especially if Luca comes back. They're gonna give them a battle. So I I'm looking at six games. Um hopefully it's just four, because I can't stand the Lakers, but I know they do have uh, and I may not be a big LeBron fan, but there's a championship pedigree that he's part of. I you gotta admit, he's one of the best uh players uh of all time in the NBA. Uh you throw into Luca and Reeves and they start battling. Uh Smart gets going. They can very well give OKC uh I'm saying six games, no more than six game series. So that they could uh shot what they start tonight. So we'll see what happens in with which tonight is uh Cinco de Mayo, May 5th. I don't drink and I don't know nothing about what Cinco is somebody got broke free for somebody and somebody's independence. So that's what that's how much I do know with Mexico's independence that comes from that. I don't I'm not sure. I don't know if it's for the Spaniards uh or or European country. I'm not sure it was, but that's what I know that much about Cinco de Mayo. But on this fifth uh day, Detroit and Cleveland should be a good physical series. I'm actually gonna take Cleveland. I got Cleveland and seven. And the reason why is because I believe that they're their senior leadership uh between Harden and some of those, you know, uh and Allen. I just think that they're gonna they're deep enough that they will hold off a young uh gifted Detroit team. But I think Cleveland will will find a way to win out uh in seven. That series I got going seven. I I like to say the Sixers win in seven, but uh my heart will stick with the Sixers, but my mind and and having to do the prediction, I got the I will say the Knicks in six, but I want to be wrong on that one. I most definitely want to be wrong. Spurs, Spurs are gonna win in six. They're gonna find a way to win in six. Um and now I'm gonna change that. Spurs and seven. This is gonna go seven. Each one's gonna grab a win on the home court uh again. So Spurs and seven, OKC six games. Yeah, so I'm looking at two two series going six and two of them going seven with that. Uh in hockey, the Flyers got jumped on down 0-2 to the Hurricanes. Now they need the whole serve at home to get the series back even. Uh the Hurricanes are a relentless team. Uh the Flyers had tons of opportunities to tie the series up last night. So I'm hoping they take those moments to say we can finish this because the Hurricanes are not, they have not trailed a game since April 5th or 7th. And they were down 2-0, but the Flyers just couldn't hold it together. Even though I think the goalie played great. We just missed too many opportunities. I say we because I'm a Flyers fan. Missed too many opportunities in that. Vegas took a 1-0 lead uh in their series over the Ducks. Uh, that's going to be another good series. Hockey's just a lot of fun to watch. The Avalanche won a wild game against the Wild 9-6. Uh Well, that looks like another long series just from the fact that everybody wants to keep scoring goals and nobody wants to play defense. And the Sabres are Canadians. They don't get started until uh May 6th. That's their first game of their series. A lot of NFL rookie camps have opened up. One of my Spartan babies, uh, Devin Deal, he's in the Seahawks camp. So they opened up camp, saw some nice pictures of him in the Seahawks uniform wearing number 53. So I'm excited about that. Baseball, it's I'm glad it's 162 games. So my Phillies can get back in it. They're uh nine, ten games out of first in the division, but only five out of the wild card. And we see that you don't necessarily have to win your division to be a champion. You just got to get in the playoffs and get into the dance. So I'm looking forward to that as the baseball season uh moves along. They've won back-to-back series, which is really good. Uh, because the only way that you have to chip away. You have to chip away. Hey, you know what? You got uh four-game series, you win three out of four, that's great. And of course, you get some help uh in other places with that. But and then, you know, before I really get done, I want to commend these cats with the UFL. I've enjoyed watching United Football League. Um, it's actually becoming a good conversation uh around these guys are really playing some good football. It's not just guys right off the street. These are guys who are either played in the NFL or looking to get into, they've been in training camps. Uh some of them have been vets for years and they're playing, they just want to play out their career, or they're trying to get back into the league. And within that, you're seeing some really good football. Uh, I like the rules. I like the four-point um field goal. I like the fact that you can't punt once you cross the 50. So either you kick a field goal or you go for it. I love that. I wish the NFL would do that. I wish, because you know you get teams that get to the 49, and oh, we're just gonna put, nah, partner, you're on the 40. And if we it actually created some strategy. Do we go for this on third down because we don't get it up, you know, we we're gonna take this shot. We're on the 49, and we need five yards. We're gonna take a shot because we if we run the ball, we're gonna get three yards, maybe get three, and then we have no choice but to go for it. So it makes the game, makes the coaching a lot more aggressive uh with that. So I do I have had a lot of fun doing that um or watching that. Also, backlash, WWE backlash coming up this weekend. Jacob Faktu will not beat, um will not beat uh uh his cousin Roman Reigns, but it should be a good match. Uh, they're making this one dude, Oba Femi, to be a complete monster, and he is. And I do like some of the things that they're doing uh in WWE as well as AEW's uh has some really good things that's going on as well. Always gotta get my real quick pro wrestling talk in there. I still say the greatest time period in wrestling was the 1980s because those cats got after it. But this is some good stuff too. But anyway, once again, I'm thrilled that TCVA Green 15 broke through mentally to battle to a 9-1 record, and they're on their way to Indianapolis, Indiana to play for a national championship. So it's over four days Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, the 24th, 25th, 26th. That will be a yes, I believe there's those days that'll all be pool play. Then that final day, that Sunday, either it's the 27th or 28th, that will be straight up. I think I got my day. But anyway, that will be 100% bracket play, and that's what I'm gonna be playing for a national championship. So I just want them for all of them, because my granddaughter said, You better say something about us. I want to tell you this. One of my coaches, one of the greatest men I've ever been around, Jack Welch. One thing he said to me, uh, my junior year, I won semis. I beat a kid who was coming in basically undefeated, and he was picked to win regionals, and I knocked him off. And one of the things my coach said to me was, after I lost in the finals, and I I didn't wrestle well, he said, do not be satisfied with just getting there. Because by winning, back in my day, there was no you there was no wrestle back, but you had to get to the you had to win in the semis to guarantee that. And I won in the semi, so guaranteed me my trip to States, and it was do not be satisfied with just getting there. So I'm telling you, T T C VA and everybody else, don't just be satisfied with getting there. Once you establish that you're going there, be a success when you get there. Pray. The affectionate frame of prayers of a righteous man avail it much. Pray for one another, make sure you have. Forgiveness in your heart. And remember one thing. Huh? God is with you. Yeah. Trust Him and everything that you do. God bless you. This is God Politics and Sports with Bill Smith. Have a great day. Thank you for joining me for God, Politics, and Sports. Stay engaged, stay encouraged, and I look forward to speaking to you once again on God, Politics, and Sport.