August 14, 2023 • 44 mins
Granger Smith Podcast Episode 201: When you lose someone special in your life, whatever you're feeling right now is normal especially if you are feeling selfish. BUT, only during the ground zero phase. Join me as we discuss this topic and more on this week's podcast!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Does it make me selfish for wanting him back down
here with us. What's up, guys, Welcome back to the podcast,
episode two hundred and one, and thank you for being here.
(00:21):
I've got a I'm actually sitting almost exactly in the
same spot that I have been sitting for about one
hundred episodes or more, but I'm turned a little bit.
So if you're watching this on YouTube or other apps
that allows you to watch the podcast, I've been messing
around today with a different setup. I'm like, ah, you
(00:44):
know what, two hundred plus episodes, Maybe I'll change the
setting around a little bit. Maybe I'll change the scenery
around just a little bit. So comment below, especially if
you're on YouTube. Comment below, say I like the new setup,
or come on, man, I missed the old setup, which
is literally just turning everything this direction. The wall on
(01:06):
my left is usually straight behind me. Awesome. Yeah, yeah,
So trying some new things, trying to change it up
a little bit, and I like it. I'm actually comfortable.
I'm in a more comfortable chair, So that's good. What
I do on this podcast. If you're new here is
I answer your questions. You email me Granger Smith Podcast
(01:27):
at gmail dot com. And I answered them. Now, lately,
I've been talking about my book Like a River, which
came out on August first, and just been so encouraged
by so many people getting that book and either listening
to the audiobook or are reading on Kendle or the
hardcover itself, and so much so that we've had a
(01:48):
supply chain issue for a second. We're back doing great again.
Amazon's like on a two day delivery like normal. But
for a while there was like a four day period
where Amazon was out of books. So the publishers getting
them books because they just they went out faster than
people thought. Yeah, praise God for that, and praise God
for so many listeners that are that are hungry for
(02:12):
a book like that, a book that helps navigate grief
and loss and suffering in a way where you know
that there is there's hope, and there's joy, and there's
peace and there's rest and there's purpose on the other
side of that kind of pain. So I say that
(02:32):
to introduce a different kind of questioning. We're still the
same old podcast, but I'm almost encouraging questions from the
book itself because I think it's it's only appropriate that
if anyone reads the book and they think, oh, I've
got I've got a question about that, Or there's something
he said in there, there's a certain line he said,
(02:52):
or or how does he know that's biblical? Like he
said that, but how does he know that's right? Or
is that just his opinion. If you want to ask
those kind of questions, certainly that's great. Grangersmith Podcast at
gmail dot com. Or if you just want to ask
a question about something else, like you know, a relationship
or a work issue, I'm gonna answer it like I'm
(03:14):
sitting in a comfy chair, sitting with you in the
living room and we're just walking through something, you know,
two buddies in the cab of a truck, two people
sitting around a campfire, and you say, hey, may can
I run something by you? Well, that's how we're gonna
that's how we're gonna talk about it. So let's jump in.
And the first question comes from Josh and the subject
(03:35):
line says advice. The email says, Hello Granger. I'm Josh.
Life has been rough this year. I lost my grandpa
back in March, and the night of this funeral, I
lost my uncle. Life hasn't been the same since I
lost my grandpa. He was my rock, my go to
person for everything, rather it be advice or just to talk.
(04:00):
We talked about everything day. We talked every day about everything.
Visited often. It seems like no matter what I do,
I can't seem to get over the bump in the
road to heal my losing him. I visit his gravesite often,
as often as I can. I know he's up in
heaven with my Grandma and my dad. Does it make
(04:22):
me selfish for wanting him back down here with us?
Any advice for me to help with this pain? Thanks
in advance. PS. I went to your show in Clearfield.
Was hands down the best concert I've ever been to.
Been following you for ten years. Josh, thank you, buddy,
and I'm so sorry about your grandpa. I didn't know
(04:44):
your grandpa, but you did, and you loved him, so
I say, I wish I could have known him. He
sounds like a great man. And it's not lost on
me that you also mentioned the fact that you've also
lost your dad, so I'm imagining that this is the
(05:05):
loss of your grandpa is also in a way stacked
on top of the loss of your dad, probably leaving
you as the head mail of your family, and if
you're anything like me. When that happened to me, at
(05:26):
being the oldest child and losing my dad in twenty fourteen,
already had lost my grandpa, I felt like an overwhelming
feeling of man, I didn't sign up for this, like
I didn't. I wasn't ready to be the head man
of the house, you know, I wasn't ready to beat
the patriarch, if you want to use that term. That's Dad.
(05:50):
He's still had a lot of time left in him.
And sometimes these these positions, these roles in our life,
are put on us when we don't feel qualified, and
we don't certainly don't feel ready, but nonetheless, here it is.
So what are you gonna do with it? This is
the hand that you were dealt. You have said here
(06:16):
that it's been within a year. I don't know the
time frame. No, you said, yeah, there is a time frame.
I lost my grandpa in March, then you lost your uncle,
so that it's been this is a recent email. So
this you know, it's been within the last four or
five six months that you have realized I am I'm
(06:39):
the head guy. Now. I want to tell you a
couple of things. The first thing I'm gonna tell you
first and foremost is whatever you're feeling right now, in
this time, you're still in the ground zero period, as
I call it. Whatever you're feeling right now is totally
(06:59):
norm what's okay? So you're like, man, I feel guilty,
I feel selfish, I feel sad, I feel I feel
like indifferent about everything. Whatever you're feeling is okay. You
have permission to feel whatever you want to feel because
(07:21):
you're in ground zero right now. If this was six, seven,
eight years down the road, I'd say, bro, we got
to talk about some things. You talk about these feelings
you're having right But that's not the case. This is
still recent. What is that March, April, May, June, July, August.
You're six months in Okay, you haven't gone through the
round of all the first yet. Like you're going to
(07:44):
have your first Thanksgiving coming up, that's a tough one.
First Christmas, your grandpa's birthday, your dad's birthday, the day
you lost him. That's a tough anniversary. So until you
get through, really through all of those, then it's still
not time to discuss the appropriate emotions that you're having
(08:06):
in response to this kind of grief. Okay. So first
I want to give you permission to say whatever you're
feeling is okay, and that includes let's get specific here,
that includes this feeling down here where you say, does
it make me selfish for wanting him back down here
with us? Okay? So you have permission to have a feeling,
(08:31):
and I'm gonna include selfishness in that. But let's unpack that.
Let's unpack that I'm trying to see in here. If
there's a reference to God, if there's a reference to
your faith, there's not, I don't think besides heaven. You
mentioned heaven. That doesn't do anything for me. No, you're
(08:55):
just curious. That doesn't mean anything. I'm just trying to
get a baseline here. What I want to do is
I want to talk about many times death in this situation,
specifically death, It opens up a longing within us that
(09:16):
we might not have recognized before. It gives us a
certain kind of home sickness. Right, and you've kind of
mentioned that with he's up there with Grandpa and grandma
and Dad. Well, that gives you a sense that, well,
I I'm not with my family anymore like Grandma, Uncle, Dad, Grandpa,
(09:39):
They're all in another place and I'm here, So I
feel disconnected from my family. And that, in a sense
gives you a feeling of homesickness, right, And it gives
you a yearning and a longing in a way that
you might not have felt before. And I'm going to
(09:59):
argue with with you that that's a good thing. It's
a good thing that you have this, this longing for home.
What does that do for you? Though? Like? Where does that?
Where does that drive you to? Does that drive you
to a feeling of resentment and stress and anxiety and
(10:21):
you're gonna going to go off the deep end and
get stuff out of your system and rebel against society?
Is that where you're going? Or are you saying I
have a longing for home, I have a longing for
this in your case, here in this email heaven where
I no longer feel at home. Here, I feel a
(10:42):
longing like I don't. This isn't my forever home. It's
what I would say in like a river of the book.
And so would that drive you to be a rebel? No,
it would drive you to learn more about your creator,
to want to know who God is, as revealed in
the Bible and the scriptures, because the more you get
(11:03):
to know him, the more you get to know your Creator,
the more comfortable you are with your forever home, and
the more hope you have of being there with him,
not with Grandpa and Dad, but with your Creator, the
giver of the gift. Like your dad and your grandpa
(11:23):
and your grandma and your uncle were gifts. Imagine being
with eternally, spending time with in the presence of the
giver of the gift. What I want this feeling, this
selfish feeling to do. What I want this selfish feeling
to eventually do is manifest itself into a hunger for
(11:46):
forever home, a hunger to drive yourself in a way
to appreciate what you have here in one sense, and
learn who your Creator is in another, so that you
can be connected with that feeling of this place, the
(12:07):
place that you know you do finally belong, and death
has the way of just uncovering that for us, and
it's amazing. So, Josh, you're in ground zero. Use this.
This is like this wind beneath your wings right, use
this wind to drive you to towards God, as revealed
(12:29):
in the Scriptures, As revealed in your local church and
not against him, because if you go against him and
you choose a different path of rebelling, you will feel
further and further from Grandpa and Dad and uncle. I
promise you, I promise you. Next question, subjectline says your
(12:56):
dad's old truck. Hey Granger, I'm a huge fan and
loving the book so far. Or I had a couple
of cries today. I started reading this morning and I
just can't put it down. Anyway, you talked about how
you rolled your dad's truck over. Then you mentioned that
the driver's door is missing. How did you do that?
Love the show and all your wisdom. God bless Justin
(13:18):
from Big Rapids Michigan. Never heard of Big Rapids. I've
heard a Grand Rapids Michigan, but never heard a Big
Rapids Michigan. That's interesting. Yeah, So for those of you
that might know Earl Dibbles, this is in all the
original Earl Dibbles music videos and the original Country Boy
(13:42):
Part one, Earl Dibbles is driving this pickup truck that's
missing a door and earle. You would think that Earl
made it famous, but actually it was my dad. As
I talked about in the book, like a river. It
was my dad that would drive this one door truck
with a rolled up you know, looked like a smash
(14:02):
coke can roof on this truck. And he would drive
it through town with no shame. That's just what he did,
and so people recognized him like there's the one door
truck guy, you know. And the truck itself wasn't pretty itself. Anyway,
I'll explain what happened. I rolled it over when I
was probably eighteen seventeen something like that, maybe sixteen, somewhere
(14:27):
around those three years. And I was ironically, I was
at Earl Devil's house, the house that we filmed in
front of, and we were cleaning that out. Tyler Parker
and I and I went down there with the truck.
We drove down there and it's a little bit on
a little bit of an incline and the truck is
(14:50):
a standard three in the tree and I put it
in neutral, didn't put the emergency brake on because it
wasn't moving, you know. I rolled up the house at
the bray, got out of the truck. It wasn't moving.
About thirty minutes later, a stiff breeze rolled in right
and kicks in the back of that truck a little bit,
(15:11):
just enough, just enough of an edge, and it starts
moving that truck. By the time I looked out of
the window of that old house, I saw the truck
just inching along, just barely moving down this dirt road.
I thought, whoops, ran out there. But by the time
I ran out to the porch, it had picked up
speed and it was going too fast for me to
catch it. And it went right into the fence, the
(15:34):
cattle fence, and that front left tire rolled up on
that cattle panel and it was like a little ramp
for it, and it just flipped it right on its top,
like slow motion. To me, because I'm running behind it,
I just see this truck flip and I thought, oh no,
what My first thought is, I gotta call Dad. I
(15:56):
don't want to call Dad, but I got to call him,
you know, that's the first thought. And I remember walking out.
You know. The first thing I did, of course, is
Tyler and Parker and I put our hands on the
side and try to try to possibly push it over.
That didn't work. I saw oil coming out of the
front grill, just dripping down. You know, trucks upside down, well,
(16:19):
we see these these linemen driving by these they're going
to fix it some kind of telephone pole. And they
had a truck with a big winch on it. Right
around this time. I go running out of there out
to the county road and to flag them down. And
then they stopped and they came over and and I
was like, hey, man, I flipped this truck. And they're
like you okay? Are you okay? Man? I was like,
(16:40):
I wasn't in it. Long story, I wasn't in it.
And they were like, yeah, we'll help you. So they
pulled that truck over there and hooked up the cable
to the bottom of it, and they said, man, this
winch will turn it over, but we can't guarantee that
by the time these wheels hit the ground it doesn't
just break the axles. And we're like, yeah, well, it's
(17:03):
too late for worrying about that now. So they hooked
it up and just as slow as they could, they
tilted that truck and just once it got to straight
up ninety degrees, it just started falling and went bam,
landed on all four tires, balanced a little bit blew
out of shock, but I didn't care, and it actually Uh,
it started right up. The engine started right up. So
(17:24):
that was that. And then your question was you mentioned
the doors driver's door is missing, So that around that
same time, I had a little puppy in the back
of my truck, a little dog, and that dog was
in the bed of the truck when I was in
the barn and I was pulling out of the barn,
(17:46):
and I had the door open, the driver's side door open,
and that dog was jumping up and down, and I thought, Dad,
gumm it, I don't want this dog to jump out
of the truck, and I'm gonna run over it, you know.
So I've got my head turned around and I'm looking
behind me as I'm backing out of the barn. Totally
forgot that the door was open, and that door just
(18:11):
just slowly bent into the barn, and I stopped real quick,
realized what I did, pulled forward. But then after that
the door the hinges were bent, and it was Anybody
that's ever seen anything like that knows that once you
bend those hinges it's near impossible to ever get it
(18:31):
back to the original shape again. So the door never
closed right. It always had a gap in it always
had an air gap and water gap. So Dad just
you know, he was mad at me, but he ended
up just said, let's just take the door off. It'd
be much better. Instead of having this rattley door, we
might as well just take it off. So that's what
we did, and that's why the truck had the beat
(18:52):
up roof and the door missing. Take a break and
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(20:23):
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(20:44):
phone and send it right to you. All right back
to the podcast in the new setup room. Let me
know comment below if you if you're digging the new setup.
It's hard because I produced this podcast by myself well,
and I also film it and record it myself, and
so it's I actually set up a stuffed animal in
(21:07):
the chair whenever I'm getting ready to record, so I
base my lighting and my focus and everything on a
stuffed animal, so I never really know how how it
looks until Paul gets a hold of it, edits it,
puts it out. So hopefully this is good. Otherwise we'll
make adjustments for next week. Email email me if you
(21:28):
want me to answer a question for you. Grangersmith Podcast
at gmail dot com. We've been talking a lot lately
about my book Like a River, and if you haven't
gotten a copy yet, you can find it wherever you
love to buy books, including Amazon, Barnes Andnoble dot com,
Barnes and Nobles physically in the store Walmart Walmart dot com.
I typically say, and I don't get any kickbacks or anything,
(21:49):
but I think Amazon is super easy because you could
order it and then it arrives in two days. A
lot of people are listening to the audiobook, which is
cool to me. I'm the one that read it. Yes,
and a lot of people can get that knocked out
while they're driving to work and commutes. A couple commutes
and it's done. If you're a book person, you like
(22:13):
the paper pages, you could do that too. Let's get
to these emails Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. First
question here on the second break subject, Cline says broken,
hurt people period Like a River. Email says, Wow, Granger,
your book was an amazing testimony. I binge read that
(22:35):
book in just two short sittings. I could relate so
much to the book. I've purchased five copies and I'm
passing them out to people I know that are struggling
and hungry for purpose. Honestly, I feel like I'm going
to be buying more sooner than later. People are broken
and looking for an answer. Just want to say thank you,
thank you for your podcast, social media and yeeee ambassadors.
(22:56):
One person in particular, Lake Fulture shout out to her.
Between your platform and hers, something has flipped a switch
in my life. I want to help people give them
hope through God's word. My question is this is the
book you mentioned reading the Bible and researching everything you read.
(23:17):
What software or apps did you use for that? Oh?
Hang on? In the book in Like a River, you
mentioned reading the Bible and researching everything you read. What
software or apps did you use for that? Looking forward
to seeing you preach in Columbus, Ohio. Okay, great, thank you, Drew.
They came from Drew, and he's talking about in my
(23:43):
I'm a big believer in reading a Bible plan so
that so that you could read the Bible in context
and not necessarily in small quips from devotionals. I think
devotionals are fine as a supplementary spiritual pick me up, right,
(24:04):
but not to learn who God is, and not to
nourish you and fill your soul for what you need
in the scripture. Devotionals are not good for that. Okay,
let me say that one more time. Devotionals are great.
They're fantastic, and I would recommend you have one or
(24:24):
two or three. I'd recommend you still give one to
someone for Christmas that you like, Okay, but they are
not for your They are if in terms of a meal,
they are more like an appetizer or a dessert. But
they should never be looked at as the main course
of the meal. They are not where you get your nourishment,
(24:45):
if that makes sense. Your nourishment's going to come from
reading the Bible, the Scripture in context. And so that's
why I advocate towards some kind of reading plan that
gets you working in context. What does that mean That
means you're not searching the Bible for one little line
(25:08):
or for one section about one subject. Instead, you're reading
the Bible as a whole so that you could learn
who God is. And you're like Granger, you always say
stuff like that, Well, it's fundamental, the scriptures, the Holy Bible.
(25:28):
The reason we have that is not so that we
could we could learn what job to take next. It
is not so that we could learn which girl out
of the three we should marry. Okay, that the Bible
is in our possession so that we can instead learn
(25:52):
who God is. Why is that important? Because when you
learn who God is and you learn to love your career,
then you desire to imitate him and instead of needing
specific direction on specific things in life, instead, as you
learn to imitate him, you learn what choices he would like,
(26:17):
the choices he would make, the things he would love,
and the things he would hate. You learn that through
time with him, as you learn who He is in
the Bible itself. So take, for instance, a few questions ago,
we got a question about somebody that had lost their grandpa. Now,
somebody that loves their grandpa that much like they do.
(26:38):
In that question, I would assume that they know him
very well because they have spent so much time with him, right,
They have watched him, they've seen him interact with other people,
they have had endless conversations with him, and they have
soaked that in so much, so much so that when
he's gone, when Grandpa's gone, you could then go to
(26:58):
a restaurant look to mean you and go, I know
what Grandpa would order. You could see a stranger on
the street doing something and you go, I know what
Grandpa would say to that stranger. You could be flipping
through selections of things to watch on YouTube and you go,
I know what Grandpa would think about this show. You
can see a comedian and go, I know Grandpa would
(27:21):
laugh at that or not. I know Grandpa wouldn't like
that joke at all. That's what happens when you spend
time with somebody. So that's the purpose of the Bible
is you learn who God is, as revealed in sixty
six books, in the entire narrative of the full cannon
of the Bible itself. You learn who God is in
the same way that a boy would learn as grandpa.
(27:43):
So then you walk through life and you go, what
job should I take, well, I know I know what
God would think about this. What girl should I marry?
I know what God would think about this relationship? I
know what God would think about this. I know what
God would want for me because I know oh him,
and I want to imitate him. I want to make
(28:03):
decisions like He would make. Right. So that's why I
advocate for reading it in context. If you read little
pieces and you cut them out and you take this example,
this life thing here, in this life example here, then
you're just you're you're taking specific instances and you're missing
out on the point. Okay, So that was not your question.
(28:25):
But your question is what do I use to read
the Bible and to get my understanding of it through
the translations? Right? So I use an app called Lagos
l O g os and it is a fantastic app
(28:52):
for you could read the Bible if you're if you're
like you like the physical pages, great, absolutely, that's great.
I read something called the McShane plan and that gets
me through the New Testament twice, the Psalms twice in
the Old Testament once through a year. In fact, London
is doing it with me right now, and she's crushing it.
(29:12):
And Amber's doing it with me, and my pastor Marshall
at a Mais Church is doing it with me, and
my mom is doing it with me. I believe Parker
and Amy are doing it, and Tyler just started. So
there's a lot of people in my immediate circle that
are reading the McShane plan. You could switch translations. I'm
an ESV reader, but I do my devotional reading, which
(29:36):
means my reading plans. I change the translations every year.
So I've done n IV ESV. Right now I'm doing
the CSB, which is cool because on lagos you could
just switch the translation and you might see things that
you didn't see before. Certain things might stand out. Now
with logos, you could This is not sponsored by the way.
(29:57):
You could touch a word on the screen and it
pulls up the Greek or Hebrew, and it pulls up
the other translations. So I can go to translation comparison.
That's a page. I swiped to that, and I could
see the King James, I could see the NIV. I
could see all of the other translations. Boom, right there,
(30:19):
there's that verse and here's what the King James says.
And I can compare that and go, oh, I actually
understand it better now that now that I see the
King James for instance. That's that's an example. There's endless
commentaries and resources on the Logos app, so I love it.
I love that, and I've been doing that for about
(30:41):
three years now. So I hope that answers your question
and let me know if you you want to go
further on that next question. Subject CLIENTE says like a
River and struggling to surrender. Hi. I'm Randy from Red Bluff, California.
I'm thirty three and I have two little girls. One
will be five at the end of August and the
(31:01):
other two in November. My littlest always says cute baby
when Maverick is on the screen. I love watching the
Smiths and listening to your music. They love watching the
Smiths and listening to your music with me. I read
Like a River as soon as I finished, I went
back and listened to the audiobook while ordering four more
hard copies to share with family and friends. And I
(31:24):
need them to hear your messages. I cannot even begin
to describe how badly I needed to hear your messages myself.
While I haven't suffered from losing a child, I have
lost several close people in my life, some that went
too soon and two that were sick for too long,
(31:44):
So thank you for this book. My question for you
is about surrender. I've had the sobbing, choke choked, whisper
in a ball on the floor moments crying to Jesus
asking what to do and to help me figure out
what his purpose is for me. I've always felt so
lost and like I've been meant for greater things by
(32:07):
helping people in some way. But I have no idea how.
I've told no one about these moments or that I
feel this way because I have no plan to back
those thoughts up. I have felt incredibly pulled this year
to search for him and learn his word, But when
I read the Bible, I walk away with so many
(32:27):
questions and have trouble with surrendering to the certainty of
it all. I am new to this. I wasn't raised religious,
and my own husband and his family gave me grief
for even buying a Bible, calling me a Bible thumper.
I fell alone with whom I'm supposed to be supported
most by in my search for his love. That's a
(32:50):
capital age his love. How do you surrender when you've
had those not rock bottom but current. Let me read it,
how do you surrender when you've had those not rock
bottom but current take you under moments only to surface
for air filling, hungry to learn his love, yet confused
(33:12):
and a lot more lost than before. Sorry for the
link the email. Thanks so much for all you do
in your family. Much love, God blessed Randy. All Right, Randy,
A lot to unpack here. I want to start by saying,
thank you so much for the for reading like a
River and getting the four other copies. And let's try
to walk through your question, just super casual. Let's walk
(33:37):
through what it means to surrender, what it means to
be in these rock bottom moments that you say that
you've been on. And you say, I've told no one
about these moments you have now, so thank you for that.
Thank you for being vulnerable enough to do that. And
then you say, when I read my Bible, I walk
away with so many questions and have trouble with surrendering
(33:57):
to the certainty of it all. That's that would be
an apologetics issue. And you say I'm new to this.
That's understandable. You weren't raised religious and you have a
husband that's now given you grief for any of this. Okay,
So that is a lot to unpack. But the answer,
I think it's more simple than you might think, and
(34:20):
it's very underrated and not talked about too often in
our society today. It's probably the most obvious answer I
can give you, and it's probably the least talked about
these days, right, and that is the local church. What's
(34:42):
missing from your email and what's missing from a lot
of these questions from different people on this podcast is
the purpose. The purpose of a local church, the way
that it's supposed to function, which is absolutely biblical. Gathering
together on the Lord's Day on Sunday mornings with fellow
(35:04):
believers is absolutely a command by Jesus. It's absolutely a
New Testament, Old Testament. It's this is a complete canon
Bible command. Okay. So avoiding the local church, not being
plugged into a local church, or casually attending occasionally a
(35:29):
church that's not as healthy. Maybe it's just a massive seeker,
sensitive lights going crazy, big band playing. No one really
knows anybody personally. You certainly don't know the pastor because
there's so many people, there's no way you could ever
get close enough to have a conversation with him. If
any of those reasons are you, then you are missing
(35:54):
probably your biggest tool, your biggest asset, your biggest support
system within your new walk as a Christian. And I
am not underestimating what I just said. It is that
important finding a local church with a appropriate amount of elders.
(36:23):
That's another word for pastors to match the appropriate amount
of people that show up on a Sunday so that
the sheep, which is what we are as a congregation,
can be shepherded appropriately. You can't have too many sheep
for one shepherd, otherwise he can't possibly know where they
(36:45):
all are and how they're all doing. There is no
fence big enough for that, So you need some more shepherds.
The bigger your church gets, the more shepherds you're going
to need to make sure that you have an adequate
over the flock in a way that you could answer questions,
you could walk through life struggles. The church should function
(37:08):
in a way where you say, man, I'm having trouble
with my husband right now. He is an unbeliever. He's
actually calling me a Bible thumper, and I really just
want to know more about the Bible in fact, and
what you ask me. I read the Bible and then
I walk away from it with more questions. Well, it's
(37:29):
great that you email this podcast for that, and I
certainly could give you my best advice. But I'm only
here on random times that I find your email in
my random inbox out of many emails. That is not
an adequate source for you to be fed and nourished
and shepherded and taught and rebuked occasionally and encouraged. I'm
(37:57):
not that for you. But a local church is that.
That is the reason they function. So you getting plugged
into a local church where you you find like minded
people with you, and you could express your concerns. You
could express your problems. You could be vulnerable. You could say, look,
(38:20):
I'm having trouble understanding this, and someone goes, can you
meet for coffee? And we could what are you talk?
We have in trouble with Isaiah the Book of Isaiah?
You don't understand it? Are you cool for coffee on Wednesday?
And we could walk through whatever you're talking about. Well,
maybe we could talk about it together. And you're like, well, yeah,
here's another thing. This is what's crazy. You said, I
(38:45):
have trouble with surrendering to the certainty of it all.
Totally understandable. I mean, that's that's doubt. I mean, doubt
is biblical. Thomas had doubt, Peter had doubt, that the
disciples themselves had doubt. So it's not surprising for you
to say it. And it does not mean that you're,
(39:06):
you know, in some way in trouble, okay, because the
more you the more you mature the Lord willing, the
less that doubt becomes. But here's what I'm trying to say,
a church itself is maybe the greatest apologetic. Apologetic is
(39:26):
a defense of the faith. It's how we Christians defend
our faith. And there's all kinds of methods and ways
to practice apologetics, but maybe the greatest apologetic is called
ecclesial apologetics. Ecclesial apologetics, and that means apologetics of the church.
(39:50):
The church itself becomes a unified apologetic in what way
when you notice that there are believers gather on a
Sunday morning and there is something special about them, not
that they're perfect. In fact, in many ways they are not,
but they operate almost as an organic unit. They operate together,
(40:15):
they help each other. They lift each other up. They
care for people that are underprivileged, or or the poor,
or people that are disabled, or people that are disadvantaged
in any way. They actually care. A hurricane comes through
some town and they're going off with their chainsaws together
(40:35):
to help these people they don't even know, to clear
the wood from out of the trees that have fallen
in front of their house. They're they're going to hospitals
to raise money for kids that have terminal diseases. They're
they're helping each other move from one apartment to the
next because there's there's a woman that's that's a widow
(40:56):
and she needs she needs to move a dresser and
a mattress. And people come over from the church and
they help, and then they gather and they cry together,
and they do life together. And so many times you
could see that in a society that seems like it's
falling apart, right in a society that feels so ununified,
(41:17):
a society that becomes obsessed with politics and race and
all different viewpoints right and left and everything in between.
And then you go to a local church, a healthy church,
and you see all different kinds of races, all different ethnicities,
all different ages, all different economic groups, coming together, unified,
(41:42):
living together, making life together, sharing joy together, sharing and
sorrow together. And you go, who are these people? I mean,
surely there's something strange about it, there's something supernatural about
this group. That's what a healthy church should look like,
(42:02):
and that's what it should put off. It should literally
put off a defense of the faith in itself. E.
Colesial apologetics is what a healthy church puts off. If
you are plugged in there and you have made a
commitment and to become a member of a church like this,
where you're plugged in and you have questions, It doesn't
(42:23):
matter the level of knowledge that you have. You come
in as a brand new believer, you come in as
a twenty year plus believer. You plug in where you
are and you say, I want to help serve. How
could I help serve this congregation? What are we doing
for the community, what are we doing for each other?
And you live in that for a while. These doubts
(42:44):
that you have, the questions you have about the certainty
of it all, as you say, the need to surrender
and the how to starts to become more focused and
more clear. As you're plugged into this local body, not
just listening to a like this, not just reading a
daily devotional, not just watching some sermon on YouTube, but
(43:09):
physically gathering with the body, which is called the bride
of Christ. The bride of Christ is what the church
body is considered. When you do that, you are thereby
gaining one of your biggest, biggest earthly assets as a believer.
(43:29):
And if you're not doing that, you're missing out on
the biggest, apologetic, the biggest, greatest benefit you could have
the local church. So don't neglect to gather with the
local body on the Sunday morning and other times that
they might meet. I think that's so important, and I
(43:52):
think you're in a great place for this because you're
not going to be the only one that has a
husband that's a non believer. You're not going to be
the only one that's new to the faith. You're not
going to be the only one that has doubts on
how to surrender to a certainty of it all. And
that's a beautiful thing. We all need community, and to
know that you're not alone helps tremendously. We love you, guys,
(44:18):
See you next Monday. Thanks for joining me on the
granger Smith Podcast. I appreciate all of you guys. You
could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes.
If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel. Hit that
little like button and notification spell so that you never
miss anytime I upload a video. If you have a
question for me that you would like me to answer,
(44:39):
email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Yi
Does it make me selfish for wanting him back down
here with us. What's up, guys, Welcome back to the podcast,
episode two hundred and one, and thank you for being here.
(00:21):
I've got a I'm actually sitting almost exactly in the
same spot that I have been sitting for about one
hundred episodes or more, but I'm turned a little bit.
So if you're watching this on YouTube or other apps
that allows you to watch the podcast, I've been messing
around today with a different setup. I'm like, ah, you
(00:44):
know what, two hundred plus episodes, Maybe I'll change the
setting around a little bit. Maybe I'll change the scenery
around just a little bit. So comment below, especially if
you're on YouTube. Comment below, say I like the new setup,
or come on, man, I missed the old setup, which
is literally just turning everything this direction. The wall on
(01:06):
my left is usually straight behind me. Awesome. Yeah, yeah,
So trying some new things, trying to change it up
a little bit, and I like it. I'm actually comfortable.
I'm in a more comfortable chair, So that's good. What
I do on this podcast. If you're new here is
I answer your questions. You email me Granger Smith Podcast
(01:27):
at gmail dot com. And I answered them. Now, lately,
I've been talking about my book Like a River, which
came out on August first, and just been so encouraged
by so many people getting that book and either listening
to the audiobook or are reading on Kendle or the
hardcover itself, and so much so that we've had a
(01:48):
supply chain issue for a second. We're back doing great again.
Amazon's like on a two day delivery like normal. But
for a while there was like a four day period
where Amazon was out of books. So the publishers getting
them books because they just they went out faster than
people thought. Yeah, praise God for that, and praise God
for so many listeners that are that are hungry for
(02:12):
a book like that, a book that helps navigate grief
and loss and suffering in a way where you know
that there is there's hope, and there's joy, and there's
peace and there's rest and there's purpose on the other
side of that kind of pain. So I say that
(02:32):
to introduce a different kind of questioning. We're still the
same old podcast, but I'm almost encouraging questions from the
book itself because I think it's it's only appropriate that
if anyone reads the book and they think, oh, I've
got I've got a question about that, Or there's something
he said in there, there's a certain line he said,
(02:52):
or or how does he know that's biblical? Like he
said that, but how does he know that's right? Or
is that just his opinion. If you want to ask
those kind of questions, certainly that's great. Grangersmith Podcast at
gmail dot com. Or if you just want to ask
a question about something else, like you know, a relationship
or a work issue, I'm gonna answer it like I'm
(03:14):
sitting in a comfy chair, sitting with you in the
living room and we're just walking through something, you know,
two buddies in the cab of a truck, two people
sitting around a campfire, and you say, hey, may can
I run something by you? Well, that's how we're gonna
that's how we're gonna talk about it. So let's jump in.
And the first question comes from Josh and the subject
(03:35):
line says advice. The email says, Hello Granger. I'm Josh.
Life has been rough this year. I lost my grandpa
back in March, and the night of this funeral, I
lost my uncle. Life hasn't been the same since I
lost my grandpa. He was my rock, my go to
person for everything, rather it be advice or just to talk.
(04:00):
We talked about everything day. We talked every day about everything.
Visited often. It seems like no matter what I do,
I can't seem to get over the bump in the
road to heal my losing him. I visit his gravesite often,
as often as I can. I know he's up in
heaven with my Grandma and my dad. Does it make
(04:22):
me selfish for wanting him back down here with us?
Any advice for me to help with this pain? Thanks
in advance. PS. I went to your show in Clearfield.
Was hands down the best concert I've ever been to.
Been following you for ten years. Josh, thank you, buddy,
and I'm so sorry about your grandpa. I didn't know
(04:44):
your grandpa, but you did, and you loved him, so
I say, I wish I could have known him. He
sounds like a great man. And it's not lost on
me that you also mentioned the fact that you've also
lost your dad, so I'm imagining that this is the
(05:05):
loss of your grandpa is also in a way stacked
on top of the loss of your dad, probably leaving
you as the head mail of your family, and if
you're anything like me. When that happened to me, at
(05:26):
being the oldest child and losing my dad in twenty fourteen,
already had lost my grandpa, I felt like an overwhelming
feeling of man, I didn't sign up for this, like
I didn't. I wasn't ready to be the head man
of the house, you know, I wasn't ready to beat
the patriarch, if you want to use that term. That's Dad.
(05:50):
He's still had a lot of time left in him.
And sometimes these these positions, these roles in our life,
are put on us when we don't feel qualified, and
we don't certainly don't feel ready, but nonetheless, here it is.
So what are you gonna do with it? This is
the hand that you were dealt. You have said here
(06:16):
that it's been within a year. I don't know the
time frame. No, you said, yeah, there is a time frame.
I lost my grandpa in March, then you lost your uncle,
so that it's been this is a recent email. So
this you know, it's been within the last four or
five six months that you have realized I am I'm
(06:39):
the head guy. Now. I want to tell you a
couple of things. The first thing I'm gonna tell you
first and foremost is whatever you're feeling right now, in
this time, you're still in the ground zero period, as
I call it. Whatever you're feeling right now is totally
(06:59):
norm what's okay? So you're like, man, I feel guilty,
I feel selfish, I feel sad, I feel I feel
like indifferent about everything. Whatever you're feeling is okay. You
have permission to feel whatever you want to feel because
(07:21):
you're in ground zero right now. If this was six, seven,
eight years down the road, I'd say, bro, we got
to talk about some things. You talk about these feelings
you're having right But that's not the case. This is
still recent. What is that March, April, May, June, July, August.
You're six months in Okay, you haven't gone through the
round of all the first yet. Like you're going to
(07:44):
have your first Thanksgiving coming up, that's a tough one.
First Christmas, your grandpa's birthday, your dad's birthday, the day
you lost him. That's a tough anniversary. So until you
get through, really through all of those, then it's still
not time to discuss the appropriate emotions that you're having
(08:06):
in response to this kind of grief. Okay. So first
I want to give you permission to say whatever you're
feeling is okay, and that includes let's get specific here,
that includes this feeling down here where you say, does
it make me selfish for wanting him back down here
with us? Okay? So you have permission to have a feeling,
(08:31):
and I'm gonna include selfishness in that. But let's unpack that.
Let's unpack that I'm trying to see in here. If
there's a reference to God, if there's a reference to
your faith, there's not, I don't think besides heaven. You
mentioned heaven. That doesn't do anything for me. No, you're
(08:55):
just curious. That doesn't mean anything. I'm just trying to
get a baseline here. What I want to do is
I want to talk about many times death in this situation,
specifically death, It opens up a longing within us that
(09:16):
we might not have recognized before. It gives us a
certain kind of home sickness. Right, and you've kind of
mentioned that with he's up there with Grandpa and grandma
and Dad. Well, that gives you a sense that, well,
I I'm not with my family anymore like Grandma, Uncle, Dad, Grandpa,
(09:39):
They're all in another place and I'm here, So I
feel disconnected from my family. And that, in a sense
gives you a feeling of homesickness, right, And it gives
you a yearning and a longing in a way that
you might not have felt before. And I'm going to
(09:59):
argue with with you that that's a good thing. It's
a good thing that you have this, this longing for home.
What does that do for you? Though? Like? Where does that?
Where does that drive you to? Does that drive you
to a feeling of resentment and stress and anxiety and
(10:21):
you're gonna going to go off the deep end and
get stuff out of your system and rebel against society?
Is that where you're going? Or are you saying I
have a longing for home, I have a longing for
this in your case, here in this email heaven where
I no longer feel at home. Here, I feel a
(10:42):
longing like I don't. This isn't my forever home. It's
what I would say in like a river of the book.
And so would that drive you to be a rebel? No,
it would drive you to learn more about your creator,
to want to know who God is, as revealed in
the Bible and the scriptures, because the more you get
(11:03):
to know him, the more you get to know your Creator,
the more comfortable you are with your forever home, and
the more hope you have of being there with him,
not with Grandpa and Dad, but with your Creator, the
giver of the gift. Like your dad and your grandpa
(11:23):
and your grandma and your uncle were gifts. Imagine being
with eternally, spending time with in the presence of the
giver of the gift. What I want this feeling, this
selfish feeling to do. What I want this selfish feeling
to eventually do is manifest itself into a hunger for
(11:46):
forever home, a hunger to drive yourself in a way
to appreciate what you have here in one sense, and
learn who your Creator is in another, so that you
can be connected with that feeling of this place, the
(12:07):
place that you know you do finally belong, and death
has the way of just uncovering that for us, and
it's amazing. So, Josh, you're in ground zero. Use this.
This is like this wind beneath your wings right, use
this wind to drive you to towards God, as revealed
(12:29):
in the Scriptures, As revealed in your local church and
not against him, because if you go against him and
you choose a different path of rebelling, you will feel
further and further from Grandpa and Dad and uncle. I
promise you, I promise you. Next question, subjectline says your
(12:56):
dad's old truck. Hey Granger, I'm a huge fan and
loving the book so far. Or I had a couple
of cries today. I started reading this morning and I
just can't put it down. Anyway, you talked about how
you rolled your dad's truck over. Then you mentioned that
the driver's door is missing. How did you do that?
Love the show and all your wisdom. God bless Justin
(13:18):
from Big Rapids Michigan. Never heard of Big Rapids. I've
heard a Grand Rapids Michigan, but never heard a Big
Rapids Michigan. That's interesting. Yeah, So for those of you
that might know Earl Dibbles, this is in all the
original Earl Dibbles music videos and the original Country Boy
(13:42):
Part one, Earl Dibbles is driving this pickup truck that's
missing a door and earle. You would think that Earl
made it famous, but actually it was my dad. As
I talked about in the book, like a river. It
was my dad that would drive this one door truck
with a rolled up you know, looked like a smash
(14:02):
coke can roof on this truck. And he would drive
it through town with no shame. That's just what he did,
and so people recognized him like there's the one door
truck guy, you know. And the truck itself wasn't pretty itself. Anyway,
I'll explain what happened. I rolled it over when I
was probably eighteen seventeen something like that, maybe sixteen, somewhere
(14:27):
around those three years. And I was ironically, I was
at Earl Devil's house, the house that we filmed in
front of, and we were cleaning that out. Tyler Parker
and I and I went down there with the truck.
We drove down there and it's a little bit on
a little bit of an incline and the truck is
(14:50):
a standard three in the tree and I put it
in neutral, didn't put the emergency brake on because it
wasn't moving, you know. I rolled up the house at
the bray, got out of the truck. It wasn't moving.
About thirty minutes later, a stiff breeze rolled in right
and kicks in the back of that truck a little bit,
(15:11):
just enough, just enough of an edge, and it starts
moving that truck. By the time I looked out of
the window of that old house, I saw the truck
just inching along, just barely moving down this dirt road.
I thought, whoops, ran out there. But by the time
I ran out to the porch, it had picked up
speed and it was going too fast for me to
catch it. And it went right into the fence, the
(15:34):
cattle fence, and that front left tire rolled up on
that cattle panel and it was like a little ramp
for it, and it just flipped it right on its top,
like slow motion. To me, because I'm running behind it,
I just see this truck flip and I thought, oh no,
what My first thought is, I gotta call Dad. I
(15:56):
don't want to call Dad, but I got to call him,
you know, that's the first thought. And I remember walking out.
You know. The first thing I did, of course, is
Tyler and Parker and I put our hands on the
side and try to try to possibly push it over.
That didn't work. I saw oil coming out of the
front grill, just dripping down. You know, trucks upside down, well,
(16:19):
we see these these linemen driving by these they're going
to fix it some kind of telephone pole. And they
had a truck with a big winch on it. Right
around this time. I go running out of there out
to the county road and to flag them down. And
then they stopped and they came over and and I
was like, hey, man, I flipped this truck. And they're
like you okay? Are you okay? Man? I was like,
(16:40):
I wasn't in it. Long story, I wasn't in it.
And they were like, yeah, we'll help you. So they
pulled that truck over there and hooked up the cable
to the bottom of it, and they said, man, this
winch will turn it over, but we can't guarantee that
by the time these wheels hit the ground it doesn't
just break the axles. And we're like, yeah, well, it's
(17:03):
too late for worrying about that now. So they hooked
it up and just as slow as they could, they
tilted that truck and just once it got to straight
up ninety degrees, it just started falling and went bam,
landed on all four tires, balanced a little bit blew
out of shock, but I didn't care, and it actually Uh,
it started right up. The engine started right up. So
(17:24):
that was that. And then your question was you mentioned
the doors driver's door is missing, So that around that
same time, I had a little puppy in the back
of my truck, a little dog, and that dog was
in the bed of the truck when I was in
the barn and I was pulling out of the barn,
(17:46):
and I had the door open, the driver's side door open,
and that dog was jumping up and down, and I thought, Dad,
gumm it, I don't want this dog to jump out
of the truck, and I'm gonna run over it, you know.
So I've got my head turned around and I'm looking
behind me as I'm backing out of the barn. Totally
forgot that the door was open, and that door just
(18:11):
just slowly bent into the barn, and I stopped real quick,
realized what I did, pulled forward. But then after that
the door the hinges were bent, and it was Anybody
that's ever seen anything like that knows that once you
bend those hinges it's near impossible to ever get it
(18:31):
back to the original shape again. So the door never
closed right. It always had a gap in it always
had an air gap and water gap. So Dad just
you know, he was mad at me, but he ended
up just said, let's just take the door off. It'd
be much better. Instead of having this rattley door, we
might as well just take it off. So that's what
we did, and that's why the truck had the beat
(18:52):
up roof and the door missing. Take a break and
be right back podcast is brought to you guys by
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(19:14):
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(20:23):
app and search for me Granger Smith. That's super easy
to find me on there. Request a video. I'll say
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Smith and I will say whatever you need in the
(20:44):
phone and send it right to you. All right back
to the podcast in the new setup room. Let me
know comment below if you if you're digging the new setup.
It's hard because I produced this podcast by myself well,
and I also film it and record it myself, and
so it's I actually set up a stuffed animal in
(21:07):
the chair whenever I'm getting ready to record, so I
base my lighting and my focus and everything on a
stuffed animal, so I never really know how how it
looks until Paul gets a hold of it, edits it,
puts it out. So hopefully this is good. Otherwise we'll
make adjustments for next week. Email email me if you
(21:28):
want me to answer a question for you. Grangersmith Podcast
at gmail dot com. We've been talking a lot lately
about my book Like a River, and if you haven't
gotten a copy yet, you can find it wherever you
love to buy books, including Amazon, Barnes Andnoble dot com,
Barnes and Nobles physically in the store Walmart Walmart dot com.
I typically say, and I don't get any kickbacks or anything,
(21:49):
but I think Amazon is super easy because you could
order it and then it arrives in two days. A
lot of people are listening to the audiobook, which is
cool to me. I'm the one that read it. Yes,
and a lot of people can get that knocked out
while they're driving to work and commutes. A couple commutes
and it's done. If you're a book person, you like
(22:13):
the paper pages, you could do that too. Let's get
to these emails Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. First
question here on the second break subject, Cline says broken,
hurt people period Like a River. Email says, Wow, Granger,
your book was an amazing testimony. I binge read that
(22:35):
book in just two short sittings. I could relate so
much to the book. I've purchased five copies and I'm
passing them out to people I know that are struggling
and hungry for purpose. Honestly, I feel like I'm going
to be buying more sooner than later. People are broken
and looking for an answer. Just want to say thank you,
thank you for your podcast, social media and yeeee ambassadors.
(22:56):
One person in particular, Lake Fulture shout out to her.
Between your platform and hers, something has flipped a switch
in my life. I want to help people give them
hope through God's word. My question is this is the
book you mentioned reading the Bible and researching everything you read.
(23:17):
What software or apps did you use for that? Oh?
Hang on? In the book in Like a River, you
mentioned reading the Bible and researching everything you read. What
software or apps did you use for that? Looking forward
to seeing you preach in Columbus, Ohio. Okay, great, thank you, Drew.
They came from Drew, and he's talking about in my
(23:43):
I'm a big believer in reading a Bible plan so
that so that you could read the Bible in context
and not necessarily in small quips from devotionals. I think
devotionals are fine as a supplementary spiritual pick me up, right,
(24:04):
but not to learn who God is, and not to
nourish you and fill your soul for what you need
in the scripture. Devotionals are not good for that. Okay,
let me say that one more time. Devotionals are great.
They're fantastic, and I would recommend you have one or
(24:24):
two or three. I'd recommend you still give one to
someone for Christmas that you like, Okay, but they are
not for your They are if in terms of a meal,
they are more like an appetizer or a dessert. But
they should never be looked at as the main course
of the meal. They are not where you get your nourishment,
(24:45):
if that makes sense. Your nourishment's going to come from
reading the Bible, the Scripture in context. And so that's
why I advocate towards some kind of reading plan that
gets you working in context. What does that mean That
means you're not searching the Bible for one little line
(25:08):
or for one section about one subject. Instead, you're reading
the Bible as a whole so that you could learn
who God is. And you're like Granger, you always say
stuff like that, Well, it's fundamental, the scriptures, the Holy Bible.
(25:28):
The reason we have that is not so that we
could we could learn what job to take next. It
is not so that we could learn which girl out
of the three we should marry. Okay, that the Bible
is in our possession so that we can instead learn
(25:52):
who God is. Why is that important? Because when you
learn who God is and you learn to love your career,
then you desire to imitate him and instead of needing
specific direction on specific things in life, instead, as you
learn to imitate him, you learn what choices he would like,
(26:17):
the choices he would make, the things he would love,
and the things he would hate. You learn that through
time with him, as you learn who He is in
the Bible itself. So take, for instance, a few questions ago,
we got a question about somebody that had lost their grandpa. Now,
somebody that loves their grandpa that much like they do.
(26:38):
In that question, I would assume that they know him
very well because they have spent so much time with him, right,
They have watched him, they've seen him interact with other people,
they have had endless conversations with him, and they have
soaked that in so much, so much so that when
he's gone, when Grandpa's gone, you could then go to
(26:58):
a restaurant look to mean you and go, I know
what Grandpa would order. You could see a stranger on
the street doing something and you go, I know what
Grandpa would say to that stranger. You could be flipping
through selections of things to watch on YouTube and you go,
I know what Grandpa would think about this show. You
can see a comedian and go, I know Grandpa would
(27:21):
laugh at that or not. I know Grandpa wouldn't like
that joke at all. That's what happens when you spend
time with somebody. So that's the purpose of the Bible
is you learn who God is, as revealed in sixty
six books, in the entire narrative of the full cannon
of the Bible itself. You learn who God is in
the same way that a boy would learn as grandpa.
(27:43):
So then you walk through life and you go, what
job should I take, well, I know I know what
God would think about this. What girl should I marry?
I know what God would think about this relationship? I
know what God would think about this. I know what
God would want for me because I know oh him,
and I want to imitate him. I want to make
(28:03):
decisions like He would make. Right. So that's why I
advocate for reading it in context. If you read little
pieces and you cut them out and you take this example,
this life thing here, in this life example here, then
you're just you're you're taking specific instances and you're missing
out on the point. Okay, So that was not your question.
(28:25):
But your question is what do I use to read
the Bible and to get my understanding of it through
the translations? Right? So I use an app called Lagos
l O g os and it is a fantastic app
(28:52):
for you could read the Bible if you're if you're
like you like the physical pages, great, absolutely, that's great.
I read something called the McShane plan and that gets
me through the New Testament twice, the Psalms twice in
the Old Testament once through a year. In fact, London
is doing it with me right now, and she's crushing it.
(29:12):
And Amber's doing it with me, and my pastor Marshall
at a Mais Church is doing it with me, and
my mom is doing it with me. I believe Parker
and Amy are doing it, and Tyler just started. So
there's a lot of people in my immediate circle that
are reading the McShane plan. You could switch translations. I'm
an ESV reader, but I do my devotional reading, which
(29:36):
means my reading plans. I change the translations every year.
So I've done n IV ESV. Right now I'm doing
the CSB, which is cool because on lagos you could
just switch the translation and you might see things that
you didn't see before. Certain things might stand out. Now
with logos, you could This is not sponsored by the way.
(29:57):
You could touch a word on the screen and it
pulls up the Greek or Hebrew, and it pulls up
the other translations. So I can go to translation comparison.
That's a page. I swiped to that, and I could
see the King James, I could see the NIV. I
could see all of the other translations. Boom, right there,
(30:19):
there's that verse and here's what the King James says.
And I can compare that and go, oh, I actually
understand it better now that now that I see the
King James for instance. That's that's an example. There's endless
commentaries and resources on the Logos app, so I love it.
I love that, and I've been doing that for about
(30:41):
three years now. So I hope that answers your question
and let me know if you you want to go
further on that next question. Subject CLIENTE says like a
River and struggling to surrender. Hi. I'm Randy from Red Bluff, California.
I'm thirty three and I have two little girls. One
will be five at the end of August and the
(31:01):
other two in November. My littlest always says cute baby
when Maverick is on the screen. I love watching the
Smiths and listening to your music. They love watching the
Smiths and listening to your music with me. I read
Like a River as soon as I finished, I went
back and listened to the audiobook while ordering four more
hard copies to share with family and friends. And I
(31:24):
need them to hear your messages. I cannot even begin
to describe how badly I needed to hear your messages myself.
While I haven't suffered from losing a child, I have
lost several close people in my life, some that went
too soon and two that were sick for too long,
(31:44):
So thank you for this book. My question for you
is about surrender. I've had the sobbing, choke choked, whisper
in a ball on the floor moments crying to Jesus
asking what to do and to help me figure out
what his purpose is for me. I've always felt so
lost and like I've been meant for greater things by
(32:07):
helping people in some way. But I have no idea how.
I've told no one about these moments or that I
feel this way because I have no plan to back
those thoughts up. I have felt incredibly pulled this year
to search for him and learn his word, But when
I read the Bible, I walk away with so many
(32:27):
questions and have trouble with surrendering to the certainty of
it all. I am new to this. I wasn't raised religious,
and my own husband and his family gave me grief
for even buying a Bible, calling me a Bible thumper.
I fell alone with whom I'm supposed to be supported
most by in my search for his love. That's a
(32:50):
capital age his love. How do you surrender when you've
had those not rock bottom but current. Let me read it,
how do you surrender when you've had those not rock
bottom but current take you under moments only to surface
for air filling, hungry to learn his love, yet confused
(33:12):
and a lot more lost than before. Sorry for the
link the email. Thanks so much for all you do
in your family. Much love, God blessed Randy. All Right, Randy,
A lot to unpack here. I want to start by saying,
thank you so much for the for reading like a
River and getting the four other copies. And let's try
to walk through your question, just super casual. Let's walk
(33:37):
through what it means to surrender, what it means to
be in these rock bottom moments that you say that
you've been on. And you say, I've told no one
about these moments you have now, so thank you for that.
Thank you for being vulnerable enough to do that. And
then you say, when I read my Bible, I walk
away with so many questions and have trouble with surrendering
(33:57):
to the certainty of it all. That's that would be
an apologetics issue. And you say I'm new to this.
That's understandable. You weren't raised religious and you have a
husband that's now given you grief for any of this. Okay,
So that is a lot to unpack. But the answer,
I think it's more simple than you might think, and
(34:20):
it's very underrated and not talked about too often in
our society today. It's probably the most obvious answer I
can give you, and it's probably the least talked about
these days, right, and that is the local church. What's
(34:42):
missing from your email and what's missing from a lot
of these questions from different people on this podcast is
the purpose. The purpose of a local church, the way
that it's supposed to function, which is absolutely biblical. Gathering
together on the Lord's Day on Sunday mornings with fellow
(35:04):
believers is absolutely a command by Jesus. It's absolutely a
New Testament, Old Testament. It's this is a complete canon
Bible command. Okay. So avoiding the local church, not being
plugged into a local church, or casually attending occasionally a
(35:29):
church that's not as healthy. Maybe it's just a massive seeker,
sensitive lights going crazy, big band playing. No one really
knows anybody personally. You certainly don't know the pastor because
there's so many people, there's no way you could ever
get close enough to have a conversation with him. If
any of those reasons are you, then you are missing
(35:54):
probably your biggest tool, your biggest asset, your biggest support
system within your new walk as a Christian. And I
am not underestimating what I just said. It is that
important finding a local church with a appropriate amount of elders.
(36:23):
That's another word for pastors to match the appropriate amount
of people that show up on a Sunday so that
the sheep, which is what we are as a congregation,
can be shepherded appropriately. You can't have too many sheep
for one shepherd, otherwise he can't possibly know where they
(36:45):
all are and how they're all doing. There is no
fence big enough for that, So you need some more shepherds.
The bigger your church gets, the more shepherds you're going
to need to make sure that you have an adequate
over the flock in a way that you could answer questions,
you could walk through life struggles. The church should function
(37:08):
in a way where you say, man, I'm having trouble
with my husband right now. He is an unbeliever. He's
actually calling me a Bible thumper, and I really just
want to know more about the Bible in fact, and
what you ask me. I read the Bible and then
I walk away from it with more questions. Well, it's
(37:29):
great that you email this podcast for that, and I
certainly could give you my best advice. But I'm only
here on random times that I find your email in
my random inbox out of many emails. That is not
an adequate source for you to be fed and nourished
and shepherded and taught and rebuked occasionally and encouraged. I'm
(37:57):
not that for you. But a local church is that.
That is the reason they function. So you getting plugged
into a local church where you you find like minded
people with you, and you could express your concerns. You
could express your problems. You could be vulnerable. You could say, look,
(38:20):
I'm having trouble understanding this, and someone goes, can you
meet for coffee? And we could what are you talk?
We have in trouble with Isaiah the Book of Isaiah?
You don't understand it? Are you cool for coffee on Wednesday?
And we could walk through whatever you're talking about. Well,
maybe we could talk about it together. And you're like, well, yeah,
here's another thing. This is what's crazy. You said, I
(38:45):
have trouble with surrendering to the certainty of it all.
Totally understandable. I mean, that's that's doubt. I mean, doubt
is biblical. Thomas had doubt, Peter had doubt, that the
disciples themselves had doubt. So it's not surprising for you
to say it. And it does not mean that you're,
(39:06):
you know, in some way in trouble, okay, because the
more you the more you mature the Lord willing, the
less that doubt becomes. But here's what I'm trying to say,
a church itself is maybe the greatest apologetic. Apologetic is
(39:26):
a defense of the faith. It's how we Christians defend
our faith. And there's all kinds of methods and ways
to practice apologetics, but maybe the greatest apologetic is called
ecclesial apologetics. Ecclesial apologetics, and that means apologetics of the church.
(39:50):
The church itself becomes a unified apologetic in what way
when you notice that there are believers gather on a
Sunday morning and there is something special about them, not
that they're perfect. In fact, in many ways they are not,
but they operate almost as an organic unit. They operate together,
(40:15):
they help each other. They lift each other up. They
care for people that are underprivileged, or or the poor,
or people that are disabled, or people that are disadvantaged
in any way. They actually care. A hurricane comes through
some town and they're going off with their chainsaws together
(40:35):
to help these people they don't even know, to clear
the wood from out of the trees that have fallen
in front of their house. They're they're going to hospitals
to raise money for kids that have terminal diseases. They're
they're helping each other move from one apartment to the
next because there's there's a woman that's that's a widow
(40:56):
and she needs she needs to move a dresser and
a mattress. And people come over from the church and
they help, and then they gather and they cry together,
and they do life together. And so many times you
could see that in a society that seems like it's
falling apart, right in a society that feels so ununified,
(41:17):
a society that becomes obsessed with politics and race and
all different viewpoints right and left and everything in between.
And then you go to a local church, a healthy church,
and you see all different kinds of races, all different ethnicities,
all different ages, all different economic groups, coming together, unified,
(41:42):
living together, making life together, sharing joy together, sharing and
sorrow together. And you go, who are these people? I mean,
surely there's something strange about it, there's something supernatural about
this group. That's what a healthy church should look like,
(42:02):
and that's what it should put off. It should literally
put off a defense of the faith in itself. E.
Colesial apologetics is what a healthy church puts off. If
you are plugged in there and you have made a
commitment and to become a member of a church like this,
where you're plugged in and you have questions, It doesn't
(42:23):
matter the level of knowledge that you have. You come
in as a brand new believer, you come in as
a twenty year plus believer. You plug in where you
are and you say, I want to help serve. How
could I help serve this congregation? What are we doing
for the community, what are we doing for each other?
And you live in that for a while. These doubts
(42:44):
that you have, the questions you have about the certainty
of it all, as you say, the need to surrender
and the how to starts to become more focused and
more clear. As you're plugged into this local body, not
just listening to a like this, not just reading a
daily devotional, not just watching some sermon on YouTube, but
(43:09):
physically gathering with the body, which is called the bride
of Christ. The bride of Christ is what the church
body is considered. When you do that, you are thereby
gaining one of your biggest, biggest earthly assets as a believer.
(43:29):
And if you're not doing that, you're missing out on
the biggest, apologetic, the biggest, greatest benefit you could have
the local church. So don't neglect to gather with the
local body on the Sunday morning and other times that
they might meet. I think that's so important, and I
(43:52):
think you're in a great place for this because you're
not going to be the only one that has a
husband that's a non believer. You're not going to be
the only one that's new to the faith. You're not
going to be the only one that has doubts on
how to surrender to a certainty of it all. And
that's a beautiful thing. We all need community, and to
know that you're not alone helps tremendously. We love you, guys,
(44:18):
See you next Monday. Thanks for joining me on the
granger Smith Podcast. I appreciate all of you guys. You
could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes.
If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel. Hit that
little like button and notification spell so that you never
miss anytime I upload a video. If you have a
question for me that you would like me to answer,
(44:39):
email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Yi
Host
Granger Smith
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