November 6, 2023 • 46 mins
Granger Smith Podcast Episode 213: Join me as I discuss this topic and more on this week's podcast!
New podcast every Monday morning!
Ask me questions!
#GrangerSmithPodcast or email me at grangersmithpodcast@gmail.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We can't possibly know how unbelievably incredible this experience will be,
and that is heaven. Well, what's up everybody. Welcome back
(00:22):
to the podcast, episode two hundred and twelve, and thanks
for being here. I love doing this. It's different than
everything else I do, all the other pieces of media
I get to do. This is different because I don't
prep for it. I don't have notes for it. I
don't have books on the table for it. This is
me answering your questions. That's all this is. I'm going
(00:43):
through emails, no rhyme or reason to how they're ordered either,
So you email me. Look, the email has changed this
week for the first time and two hundred episodes, the
email has changed. I'm still going to check the old one,
but we're trying to streamline this. So the new email
is podcast at grangersmith dot com. So podcast at grangersmith
(01:08):
dot com is your email if you want to ask
me any questions. It could be about anything in life,
anything you're going through, anything you're excited about, anything you're
worried about, anything you're stressed about, any anything in a
relationship or whatever it might be. Just ask me the question.
We're going to talk about it like we're just sitting
in the cab of a truck. You say, hey, man,
can I run something by you? And we walk through
(01:29):
it once again. That new email is podcast at grangersmith
dot com and I going to jump right into this.
And the first one that randomly comes up, the subject
line says is country wrong, and the email itself says, Hey, grangeer,
I'd like to stay anonymous. I'm nineteen years old from
(01:49):
the back country of the Northwest Territories. Yes, the North
has good old boys, and trust me, let me pause
you right there, the Northwest Territories. Yes, the North has
country boys. I have traveled this beautiful world and I
have seen country boys and country girls everywhere. It's not
just the South. Let's move on in this question says
(02:10):
my question is this, and hopefully it makes sense. Is
it wrong to live the quote unquote country lifestyle. Me
and my boys love cruising around in trucks, playing in
the mud, and so on. But people from our church
often make comments on how that lifestyle is not glorifying
to God. Also, I really enjoy listening to George Strait,
(02:31):
and the leadership of our church really looks down on
any kind of country music. I have a very close
relationship with God, as do all my boys. We love
having Bible studies and prayer meetings as well as any
other church function. And I know that we all love
the church. So my question is how would you balance
that spiritual life then having fun? When and when when
(02:55):
does that fun become wrong? By the way, I love
your music in but I also love seeing you leave
it for God's work. Ye yee, all right, Anonymous, thanks
for the email. I think it's a good question, ma'am.
I think it's a good question. A couple of things
worry me from the question that you're asking, and it
neither one of those things really has to do with you.
I'm more worried about the people in your church coming
(03:19):
at you with this legalistic idea that you need that.
What did you say, It's not glorifying to God? Right, man?
We have to be careful with that, with saying stuff
like that, Hey, that's not glorifying to God. We have
to be careful if it's not a sin, right, If
(03:41):
it's a sin. If we're talking about a moral issue,
we're talking about right and wrong. It's a moral issue.
If it's sin, then of course it doesn't glorify God.
But if it's a non moral issue, like cruising around
in a truck, that's not morally wrong or right. And
so we can't over spiritualize that and say, hey, man,
(04:02):
you can't ride around that truck. That's not glorifying God.
That doesn't make any sense to me. That is, that's
a negative on the church itself. I don't know why
they're saying that, because that's coming across pretty legalistic to me.
But maybe if we were in the cab of the truck,
maybe this would come up. If we were in the
(04:23):
cabin of the truck cruising around and not sending maybe
this would come up if I asked further. Maybe there
are things that these people are seeing you guys doing,
Like are we drinking. We're drinking in the truck, We're
staying out past curfew. Are we hanging around a bunch
of people were hanging around some hoodlums that are doing
(04:43):
some things that we shouldn't be doing. There's some thug
life going on here, you know what I mean. Then
you could see that, and from the church perspective, somebody
in the church is like, hey, guys, man, guys, I
don't want to see y'all hanging around those guys, those
hoodlums over there. I don't want you. I don't want
(05:04):
to see y'all out here at two in the morning,
even if you're not the one drinking. Y'are stacking up
a bunch of a bunch of beer cans back here,
and you're underage, you're nineteen years old. I don't want
you to get caught and be associated with this because
it looks bad on you, and I don't want that
to come around and then you have consequences that you
(05:25):
have to pay for that like that, that's a legitimate thing.
That could be someone that actually cares about you, wanting
the best for you, and it might be heard like
this legalistic thing. These guys are telling me, I'm not
glorifying God. Maybe they just actually want the best for you,
and they're like, hey, I'm a little bit worried about
who you're hanging out with and what y'all are doing. Right,
(05:47):
So there's that. Let's put that aside now, and let's
let me plug another card here and just say this,
is it wrong to live a quote unquote country lifestyle? No,
not essentially, No, I mean, think about think about the Bible.
We have John the Baptist, who John the Baptist clearly
(06:10):
was a country boy. The dude ate he ate locusts
and wild honey, and he wore animal skins. Uh, the
dude is his country is it gets Jesus ended up
finding his disciples that were a lot of them were fishermen.
Like these dudes are country boys out there fishing. Jesus himself,
God invades the world, his own creation, to come into
(06:32):
redeemed centers. And how does he come in? Does he
come in as a city boy? God comes into creation
redeeming sinners, and he comes in as the son of
a carpenter, not a wealthy man. He comes in working
with his hands. And we understand that maybe the carpenter,
maybe that was also a metal worker. We're not really
(06:52):
sure exactly if it was woodworking or metalworking, but either way,
we're talking about blue collar in our in our perspective,
somebody that works with their hands and somebody that's not.
They're not just poor, but they're also not they're not
just crushing it and they're not wealthy by any means.
And so you could say Jesus himself chose country boys.
(07:15):
I think that's a fair enough answer, all right. Next question.
Strangely enough, well, the subject line says spurts and you
could email me podcast at grangersmith dot com. That's my
new email. Then this subject line says spurts, but I
don't think you meant to say spurts. Let's dive into
the email and says, hey, granger do you believe in
spirits or ghost? There it is spirits ghost. I never
(07:40):
really did. Their email says, I never really did until
I was in a car accident back in twenty fourteen.
I woke up in the hospital and I swear I
saw my sister's X in the corner of my room.
Felt like he was watching over me. He had passed
away a few years before the car accident. What do
you make of that? I will not on any medication,
(08:01):
so I know I wasn't tripping. Thanks Gin, okay, Jin,
thank you so much for the email, and let's dive
into spurts. You were in a car accident back in
twenty fourteen. You woke up in the hospital, and you
swear you saw your sister's EX in the corner of
(08:23):
the room, and it felt like he was watching over you,
and you were not on drugs. You were fully, fully
aware that this was happening. Okay, So yeah, I'm going
to tell you that the Bible is going to say, well,
how do I start this. There's a multiple ways to
get into this, but the Bible is going to say
that there are absolutely spirits. Of course, absolutely third member
(08:48):
of the Trinity, Holy Spirit. Right, so we're in. We're in.
We understand that God is spirit. We understand that. We
also understand that they're is a spiritual warfare going on
around us. Read Ephesians six. See what Paul writes about
(09:08):
that Aphesian six. We understand that there are angelic creatures
and demonic creatures, and we cannot see them, but they
are present here on this earth as we speak. Okay,
that is what the Bible says. So yes, the answer
(09:30):
is there are spirits. There are there are There is
all kinds of spiritual activity around us wherever you are,
wherever you're listening to this podcast. I remember when I
used to think about this, like twenty years ago, when
all of the This Present Darkness books were out. Remember
(09:52):
that series of books, This Present Darkness. My dad used
to read those and I would come in and read
them with them. It's fascinating stuff, but it's a about
spiritual warfare. And the thing to know about that is
that when a human dies, what the Bible says is
(10:13):
that person has no business on earth anymore. They're done that.
Jesus says, that person has no business left on earth.
They're finished with their work. They're not haunting earth. They're
not back here sending butterflies or roses, are closing cabinet
(10:37):
doors so that you'll hear them. They're not whispering things
in your dream, and they are not looking over your bedside,
watching over you when you're in the hospital. Okay, that's
what the Bible says. And we believe that the Bible
is inerran. The Bible is the word of God. If
(11:02):
you don't believe that, if you don't believe the Bible
is the word of God, then then I'm not sure
what to tell you, because you're you're not gonna believe
anything else I'm about to tell you. But what's strange
too is that when when the disciples were in the
boat during the storm and they saw Jesus coming to them,
(11:24):
they thought he was a ghost. That's what the Bible says.
They thought he was a ghost, which is interesting because
that puts it in perspective that the disciples, just like you,
thought that there was some kind of spiritual world out
there that they could see and be afraid of, like
a ghost. What we do know is that the enemy
(11:48):
is a liar and a deceiver. He's the King of
lies and easily makes his presence known throughout the Bible,
manifesting in demons. There's all kinds of demonic warfare that
Jesus is casting out demons. Paul is dealing with it.
Paul is dealing Peter is dealing with it. Everyone's dealing
(12:11):
with demons. And we see this throughout the New Testament.
They are manifesting themselves, and they are possessing people, they
are oppressing people, and they're making themselves known in all
kinds of ways. Right, So with everything I've just told you, now,
let's start putting some of these pieces together. I threw
a lot at you. So we start putting these pieces together.
(12:34):
And you could say, if I saw something at the
end of the bed when I was in the hospital,
if I saw something looking over me, it had the
appearance of a human that even looks like a human.
I used to know and the enemy is a deceiver.
He's the king of lies right, and he's the prince
(12:56):
of this world. Am I right with Jesus? Because I
saw something that didn't seem right and it wasn't an angel.
You would I think you would have said that. I
think you would have said I saw an angel, like
people say that. You didn't say that. You said I
saw a human, a dead human. And I'm telling I'm
(13:17):
telling you that the Bible says there are no dead
people that are haunting this earth, but there are spirits,
demonic creatures, deceitful, able to take different forms. You see
what I'm putting together here. I'm saying, when I hear
something like that, it's terrifying for me to think about
you and what you might be dealing with, what might
(13:40):
be around you, and what you might have seen that
day in the hospital. I could speak from a somewhat
confident experience that you are in a spiritual war right now,
and I would run to our savior, Jesus. I would
(14:01):
run to him. And we have to understand who he is.
We have to understand that he came in the form
of a man, one hundred percent man. He came to
this earth, born of a virgin, lived a perfect life,
fulfilled the law perfectly, perfectly in a way that we
could not. And he was killed on the cross as prophesied,
as planned by God because of the evil hearts of men.
(14:25):
He was killed on the cross on purpose as the
sacrificial lamb, taking on the sins that me and you
have committed, and all of his people taking on the
sins and redeeming them as the ultimate sacrifice by taking
the wrath of God as a payment, because the wages
of sin is death. He took the wages of your
(14:47):
sin and paid it in full. Three days later was resurrected,
proving his divinity. If you believe that, If you believe that,
that's the gospel, and he could save, and he could
end this strange idea that maybe someone has been watching
you at the end of your bed. Thank you for
(15:10):
the email, Jan And I'm sorry that I'm all over
the place today on this episode. Let me jump into this,
and I don't know what I'm getting into here. The
email says this, Hi Grande, I'm twenty eight years old.
I'm from North Texas. I love your podcast. I listen
(15:31):
to them all the time, and I find that they
help me. But I have something that I've been struggling with.
When I feel like I'm on the right track of
doing good, I always fall back into the old routine
and just get stuck in a rut. I pray for
guidance to get out of this, and when I do,
I still go back again and again. If you have
any advice for me, please let me know. I've been
(15:51):
trying to save money and I was doing good until
I lost it by going to the casino. And I'm
beating myself up because it's one of the things I
struggle with and stress out about. Yeah, this comes from Lonnie. Lonnie,
thanks so much for the email. Twenty eight years old,
North Texas. And I know that those casinos are right
over that border in Oklahoma. You're struggling with doing good,
(16:15):
getting on the right track. Those are the words that
you're using. And you're getting this rut and you save
up a little money, and you've got a gambling addiction,
and so you had to burn up this money in
the casino and then you beat yourself up about it.
You feel guilty, and this is the cycle. This is
the vicious cycle. And this happens a lot to a
lot of people, and not just casinos, but a lot
(16:37):
of other things as well, namely drugs. And there's a
lot of ways that I could go about this, and
to answer this quickly, it's very difficult because this is
the kind of thing that takes hours of discussion and
weeks of getting together. But the first thing I'm going
to go with is I'm going to go with accountability,
(17:00):
because if you show me the five people that you
hang around, then I'm gonna show you the net average
of what you are and what you are becoming. So
take the five people around you that you hang around
with most, and I'm gonna take those five people, I'm
gonna see them, evaluate them, and I'm gonna tell you
exactly who you are based on those five people. It's easy.
(17:23):
I take the average of them and that's you. I
take the average of where they're going in life, where
they're heading, and then that's your average of where you're
going and where you're heading. That is easy, And this
happens in all walks of life with all different kinds
of people, all tribes and tongues and all cultures. Whoever
you're hanging around with becomes you, and you can't think, well,
(17:46):
I'm gonna help make these people better. Don't think that
that never works that way. I hang around with with
some bumbs. I'm not a bum, but I'm gonna help
bring them up. They need me. You're going to be
a boom five years you're gonna be a bum That's
just the way it is. So I think if you
(18:07):
look at those five people, we almost don't have to
go anywhere else. I would say, Upgrade. My brother says
this all the time. Upgrade, you're five. Upgrade, you're five
people because those five people are affecting you big time.
And you get some five people around you with accountability,
with integrity that say, hey, Lonnie, what are you doing
(18:27):
on Friday? Come on, we got some stuff to do.
And you're like, okay, good. They're lifting you up instead
of hey, man, come on, get in the truck. We're
going to the casino. And you're like, man, I'm trying
to get better. And they're like, come on, Lonie, go
to the casino. That's what happens with your five Hey.
When you buy a house right and you get on
a certain street and you're the most expensive house on
(18:48):
the street, your value of your house goes down because
everyone else around, all the other houses around you are
pulling your value down. So don't be the most expensive
house on the street. I hope that's not you, Lonnie.
I hope that you have more value than that, and
I hope you could upgrade your five keep that accountability
around you. This conversation could be way longer than this,
(19:10):
but I want to start just with that simple thing.
Who's around you. It's time to upgrade your friends. It's
time to go, hey, man, I need some friends that say, man,
you're not going to that casino. We're gonna hold you accountable.
We're gonna keep you down here because we love you, man,
because you're our friend, and we're not gonna let you
get into this. Find those friends and I'll start doing
(19:31):
it right now. I'll take a break beer right back.
This show is sponsored by Better Help. You know, we
have so many questions coming in with people that are
asking things that usually require a therapist or a counselor
of some sort. And I am not that I could
provide you with a lot of answers, but sometimes it's
(19:52):
just going to need therapy just for a peace of mind.
Amber and I did that after we lost riv and
we learned some things about it each other that we
just would not have known without it. In fact, in
my book Like a River, I talk a lot about
therapy and how that affected me in a positive way
that I still use techniques that I learned today. As
(20:13):
we go into winter coming up in the holiday season,
a lot of stress could come with that, and therapy
could really be a bright spot inside all of that
holiday change. So if you've been thinking about starting therapy, hey,
give Better Help a try. It's entirely online, designed to
be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill
out a brief questionnaire to get matched up with a
(20:35):
licensed therapist and then you could switch therapist at any
time for no additional charge. Find your bright spot this
season with Better Help. Visit Betterhelp dot com slash granger
today and get ten percent off your first month. That's
Better Help h e LP dot com slash granger. Hey
did you hear about our brand new EEE Freedom Club
(20:57):
over at ee dot com. Well, it's a brand new
club we just started where you get a shirt of
the month delivered right to your door. This is an
exclusive EEE shirt that's seasonal that changes every month. We
only make the amount that we have in the Freedom Club,
so no one else gets a shirt like this and
you can't find it anywhere else. This also gets you
(21:17):
early access to all of our launches, so if you're
tired of things selling out by the time you finally
get logged in for a launch, you can get access
to our launches long before anyone else does. Plus exclusive
discounts monthly exclusive discounts for the EEE Freedom Club members only,
plus a lot of other cool stuff we've been working on.
You could check this out at EEE dot com again,
(21:38):
it's called the EEE Freedom Club. And by the way,
we also just launched our brand new Hunter's line. It
just came out and I hope you enjoy it. You
could find all of this at EEE dot com. Last thing,
if you want to get a hold of me for
any reason personally, go to cameo c ame eo dot
com slash grange your smith, or you could download the
(22:01):
cameo app again that c ame eo. Download that app
and find me Granger Smith. You can get a video
message that I could send to us. It says happy
birthday to somebody, Happy anniversary to somebody. Maybe just a
bit of encouragement, maybe a pick me up. Whatever you
want me to say, you fill that out on the
app or the website, and then I come in. That
(22:24):
sends a notification to my phone and I record a
video message about thirty seconds to a minute long, just
talking whatever you want me to say to whoever you
want me to say it too. It's super easy, and
then I hit send. It goes right to you again.
That's at cameo dot com slash Grangersmith, or you could
download the cameo app and search for me granger Smith.
(22:44):
Back to the podcast. All right, welcome back to the podcast,
and if you have a question for me, email podcast
at grangersmith dot com. That's podcast at grangersmith dot com.
Ask me anything you want. We'll walk through it. The
next email here, subject line says podcast question the baby dilemma.
(23:06):
Hey Grangeer. First off, thank you for the blessing to
the world with Like a River. You're a gifted writer
and I hope everyone gets an opportunity to read your book.
My family listens to your podcast, so I would like
to remain anonymous. Please. My husband and I welcome to
our first child over the summer. This is a baby
that I'd prayed for. But I don't think my husband
fully realizes my desire to have a baby, although I've
(23:28):
told him and he always seems surprised. During my pregnancy,
we were constantly anxious about having a healthy baby. We
pray over our baby and praise God. Everything we prayed
for God has provided. But our baby was. Before our
baby was born, I would constantly say we were never
having more children because of the anxiety and stress involved
with growing and wanting a happy, healthy baby. I had
(23:50):
been in the emergency room twice during the pregnancy for
scary situations, which turned out to be just fine. Fast forward,
and now our baby is here. Our baby is wonderful, happy, healthy,
and fills our heart with so much joy. My dilemma
is that I find myself toying with the idea that
it was so ignorant, ignorant to say I'd never have
another My husband, however, is adamant on having no more children.
(24:14):
Last time I brought it up, he seemed to have
worn me down saying he seemed to have worn down saying, fine,
if you want one more, we'll have one more, which
is obviously doesn't mean that he wants another but that
i'd be I will have broken him down into surrender.
I don't want that to be the mindset he has
when bringing another baby into the world. And obviously I
(24:36):
don't want to change his mind. I'm just not sure
how to get over this desire in my heart. Could
you please share your thoughts on this. Sorry it's been
long winded. Thank you for your time. Blessings to you. Anonymous. Yeah, absolutely,
keeping this anonymous. It is interesting, I will say, just
throw this out there after so many episodes. It's interesting
when someone like this says they want to remain anonymous
(24:58):
because their family listened, but then they give such a
detailed story about their family that's it'd be really difficult anyway,
you know what I mean. It's a great question. Thank
you for the question, and let's walk through it. There's
a couple of things I want to show you. At
the very beginning of what I want to say, I'm
(25:21):
gonna I'm gonna find the first time you said God,
and well you said at the very beginning, this is
a baby I'd prayed for. Okay, So there's that, And
then batten down into the fourth paragraph, you say, during
my pregnancy, we were constantly anxious about having a healthy baby.
We'd pray over our baby and praise God. We would
(25:46):
you and your husband would pray over our baby and
praise God. Everything we have prayed for God has provided. Okay,
I just want to point that out. During my pregnancy,
we were constantly anxious about having a healthy baby. We
prayed over this baby and praise God. Everything we prayed for,
(26:09):
God has provided. I just want to I said that
twice because I want to see what I want you
to see. What you typed, you were anxious, you prayed,
He provided. Now. To be honest, it doesn't always work.
He always provides, and his plan always happens, but we
(26:33):
don't always see it happened in the way that we
want it to happen. In this case, it did what
you wanted and what you prayed for was aligned with
his will, and it happened and he provided everything that
you asked for. Sit with that for a while, and
(26:55):
I hope you're listening. But in your situation, I want
you to sit with that idea, and then I want
to I want you to see what I want to.
I want to show you what you're doing and what
we all do. We we're anxious, we pray, he provides,
we get anxious about something else. That's what we do.
(27:18):
Is crazy, but that's what we do. And he goes,
you of little faith. That's literally what he's saying in
this through his word. And so here we are, and
what you're what you're anxious about, and what your your
your dilemma is with your husband is totally valid, and
(27:39):
your husband is totally valid for thinking what he's thinking
because he went through this with a wife that was
overly anxious about having a healthy baby, a wife that said, oh,
we're not going to do this anymore. I'm in pain,
I'm nervous, i'm anxious. Oh please God, and you got
this healthy baby. And he said no more. And he
(27:59):
said fine, yeah, yes, I get it. This is you've
been a stress ball. And so yeah, I hear you.
And then a few years go by and you go, hey, babe,
I think I want to have another baby, and he goes,
uh uh, he says no. Right, So that's what I mean.
(28:19):
I don't blame him for saying no, because this is
what he's left with. And I also don't blame you
for now God's provided, and now you're anxious again about
a new thing. I also don't blame you that you
want another child. That this is all natural. These are
all these things, every bit of it is natural, and
it makes total sense. And I don't read this and
(28:41):
go this is a messed up family. I don't think that.
I go, yeah, this sounds like a pattern. It sounds
like a very normal pattern. So let's just acknowledge first
of all your feelings and everything you're going through, and
this pattern it's normal. And your husband and his resistance
to it, there is a level where you're just gonna go, Hey,
(29:05):
you know, I'm not gonna push you beyond what you want.
I desire another baby, and I can understand why you
say no because of the craziness of the first pregnancy.
I get it. At least acknowledge him that, at least
give him that instead of if it's getting to the
point where you're actually breaking him down, that's what you said,
(29:27):
you said, he said, fine, if you want one more,
we'll have one more, which obviously doesn't mean he wants another.
But you've broken him down. If that's the case, what
that breaking down tells me is you've been nagging him. Hey,
if you're thought any more about this baby. Is it
always about what you want? Is it what you want
or what I want? Because I want another baby? Is there?
(29:49):
And is it so much to ask? We have one
and he's health and it's beautiful. Can we have another one?
That's all I'm asking? And he goes, fine, Fine, if
that's what you want, we'll do it. I could totally
see that plan out. What's what's happening. We can't control him,
we can't control his reactions, but what we can do
is change the way we approach it. So instead it's
(30:09):
like this. It's like, hey, baby, no, you don't want
another baby, And it's crazy to me that I actually do.
But I'm not gonna push it. I just wanted to
tell you and I want to get it out there
and maybe if you change your mind, will you please
come to me. But I feel I feel like it's
(30:30):
in our future to have another one. But I totally
understand that you don't, You know, like, let's do that
instead of pushing him to break him down. Let me
go back to God's province, providence. Let me go back
to God's purpose, in God's will. This is gonna blow
your mind if you really think about it. Listen, anonymous.
(30:52):
Think about this. Think step away from this podcast, and
I want you to think, after this is over, really
think about what I'm about to say, and if you
really meditate on this, it will blow your mind. Whether
or not you have a baby another baby is already determined.
(31:19):
If you have another baby, it is already written. If
you don't have any more babies in your life, it
is already determined. It's crazy, right, And what am I
just a puppet on a string here? Well? No, No,
You're making choices, you're making decisions, you're praying through it,
(31:42):
you're acting within your will, the constraints of your personal
will and everything you got going on and everything you're
dealing with. But the product of that is already determined.
The reason I tell you that is that should if
you meditate on that and you go wow, it's already determined,
(32:05):
a baby or not, It's already written, regardless of what
I'm worry about. What. The reason I tell you that
is because you could sit back on that and just
go wow. I could just rest in that, Hey, God,
did this is? This? Is you? You're God and I'm not.
You know my heart, God, you know I want another baby.
(32:25):
You also know my husband doesn't. But God, you could
soften his heart, or you could give me better understanding.
Either way, this child's I'm handing it to you. It's
all you, God, whether it comes or not, it's all you.
That is, that is a mature prayer. And that is
(32:46):
that is where extreme rest comes from. That is, maybe
that's extreme. How could you possibly extremely rest? That is
where ultimate rest is right. Ultimate rest comes from from
ultimate faith, which none of us have. But the closer
you get to that, the closer, the stronger your faith gets.
(33:08):
The stronger you believe that God has already determined this
for you. The stronger you believe that, the easier you rest.
It's crazy, but it's true, and that's what the Bible says.
And I love that we already have this example in
(33:29):
your life when it happened before. You were anxious, you
were worried, you prayed, He provided, Trust him. Thanks for
the email. Let's dive into another one here. I'm trying
(33:50):
to know. I have no idea what I'm getting into,
but this question subject line says life question. The email says, Hey,
Gran should like to remain a non us, but I
have a question for you. I am no, no, I've
read this one before, I've read that one. That one
(34:11):
came in twice. Don't send him twice, y'all. Don't send
them twice. That's that. Then it leads me to this
kind of stuff. Let me go into this one. Hey Granger.
First of all, I'm a big fan. My wife and
I went to your concert at the Lake of the
Ozarks and I had a blast. My question is this
(34:32):
last summer there was a local family whose youngest boy
drowned in the lake over Fourth of July weekend. We
have bought your book, and I'm curious when do you
think it's a good time to give them this book
to anonymously thanks for what you do with your podcast
right now or give it to him right now. You
(34:54):
sent this early October, and it is that happened for
the July. Yeah, right now, give it to them right now.
Next question, subdic Cline says, friends, Hey Grangeer, my name
is Toner from Tulsa, and I've been helping in my
church youth group for almost a year and I'm starting
(35:16):
to see a change in me that's causing me not
to be around my non church friends anymore. And one
of them told me I deserted them for church? Should
I feel bad that I may? That I may have happened?
How do I'm going to try to read what you
wrote here? They told me I deserted them for church.
(35:38):
Should I feel bad? I'll just whatever you said for that.
I'm not quite sure, but you said, how do I
balance hanging out with church friends and my non church friends.
I have recently quit drinking every weekend. I'm a non
church friend. My non church friends are mad because I
won't drink with them anymore. What should I do? Hey, Toner,
I appreciate the email, brother, and what your saying is
(36:01):
absolutely normal. This is absolutely normal. Jesus read through the
gospels and watch what Jesus says very carefully. He's gonna say,
I did not come to bring peace. I came to
bring a sword. He's gonna Jesus is gonna pit father
against son, mother against daughter, friend against friend. Your new brothers,
(36:28):
your new friends are going to be friends you find
in Christ, and then you're going to as an example,
then go back and be able to give your non
church friends as a bit of your hope that they
could trust and what you trust in that they don't
need to be doing what they're doing in a non
(36:49):
judgmental way. It's super easy. You're just like a man.
I I'm sorry I don't go out with you guys drinking.
But I just found something better. That's all it is.
I just found something better, like what possibly could be better.
It's like, man, you should come with me. You should.
You should come and check it out. She should come
to church with me and maybe you'll see. But I
(37:10):
just bounce on them better. And I can't go drinking anymore.
Why can't you go drinking? Man? Because to be honest
with you, when I go drinking, it's it's nothing on
you guys. It's not it's not judgment in any way
on you guys. But when I go drinking, I feel convicted.
I feel I feel like I'm messing myself up a
(37:31):
little bit. What are you talking about, ton Er? Come on, man,
come drinking with us, dude. That I love you guys, seriously,
I do, and I appreciate the invite and I'll go
with you guys, but but I can't drink because it
just it's not who I am anymore. That that old
me died, that version of me is gone. Ah. So
(37:53):
at that point if they're like, well, get out it.
We don't, we don't want anything to do with you.
Is that something that you would all a friend? You
found something, you found a treasure and you love it
and it's a new joy of your life. It's given
you purpose and joy and identity. And these guys say,
(38:16):
get lost, man, or come with us? Or do you
still call them friends? So yeah, that's the new world
you're living in and it's totally normal. And here's the thing,
here's the cool thing, Toner. I bet you a couple
of these guys, maybe one is gonna end up coming
with you. That's a beautiful thing about it. But there
is no more for you. There is no more. How
(38:36):
do I balance church friends and non church friends. It
doesn't matter what I tell you on this podcast, because
you've been redeemed by the blood, So the Holy Spirit's
going to act through you and witness to this as
you live it out, so you don't even have to
worry about me. And what I say, what's gonna happen
is the more you go out with these the non
church guys, the more you're just going to be miserable.
(38:57):
And you're like, oh, I really don't want to be here.
I don't feel like I fit in. I just don't
want to. I don't want to be doing this. That's
what you're gonna feel. And I don't have to. I
don't have to push you along. You're gonna end up
going back with the friends that go Hey, Toner, we
get you, we get you, man, we understand come back.
(39:18):
That's the deal. Let's grab another one. Hey, thank you
guys for bearing with me on this podcast. This has
been interesting, and I think for those of y'all that
have listened to a bunch of these when I do
them at night and just weird things happen in my
brain and I don't have a guess. It's just me
and you. So so yeah, what I'm gonna do. I'm
(39:42):
actually scrolling down. I'm gonna grab something kind of old
right here. It says broad, open ended heaven question. Hey Granger,
how do you picture heaven? I would love to hear
the details that you imagine. My name is Julie and
I'm from Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Thank you for what you're
(40:04):
doing this podcast. My husband and I love hearing these
all the best. Julie, Hey, Julie, thank you so much
for the encouragement, and yeah, that's a great I love
this question. You know what's crazy. I was thinking about
this today, not the question, but I was thinking about
this in now analogy. Today. When I tell you the
(40:24):
truth about heaven, it's going to sound boring compared to
other ideas of heaven that you've heard. But the reason
it sounds boring is to anyone that's listening is because
you're your underestimation of what I'm about to say is
(40:49):
will blow your mind because if you really got to
grasp on what I'm trying to say, and me too, Hey,
I can't either. I can't. My brain is way too small.
But if I really got a grasp on what I
was trying to say, it would be the most opposite
of boring that anything I could possibly say. But because
(41:09):
I can't say it well, and because my brain is tiny,
when I do say, it's gonna sound boring to you.
Let's do it, all right, let's get into it. I
could tell you how do I picture heaven. I could say, Man,
I hope it has green grass, and I hope it
has a beautiful lake and largemouth bass and good lures
(41:31):
and good fishing gear, and I hope it doesn't have
fire ants because I can't stand fire ants. And I
hope the sky's blue with puffy clouds, and I hope
the temperatures around seventy degrees, and I hope that those
fish bite every single cast. I hope I get an
eight pounder here, a ten pounder here, And I hope
(41:52):
River is with me. And River is standing next to me, laughing,
and we're fishing together, and maybe we're both about the
same age, and we're saying, isn't Heaven fun? And Rivers like, yeah, Dad,
Heaven's so fun. And we're just catching bass, and then
my dad walks up and he says, hey, guys, how's
the fishing. And we're like, Dad, it's Heaven fish shirt.
(42:13):
You know, we're always biting here and it's crazy. I
can tell you that. And then we would end the
podcast and everyone would be like, Oh, that's real sweet,
But let me tell you, I think that's that thing
that's really far off. Okay, I've prepped a lot, So
here we go. When we get to Heaven, we are
going to be in the presence of our creator, and
(42:36):
we are going to be so lost in the dazzling
magnificence of him that it's going everything else will pale
in comparison. And I think there will be everything else.
I think there will be a lot of unbelievably incredible
things in heaven. But I think if we miss the
(42:57):
fact that we're going to be in the presence of
the maker of everything you've ever loved, imagine that for
one second, you're going to be in the presence, the unveiled,
unfiltered presence of the creator of everything you've ever thought
was beautiful, are worthy? Are lovely, or artistic or musically inclined,
(43:24):
Everything you've ever thought that every human being has ever
thought about planet Earth, that ever thought it was worthy
or beautiful or integrity, are healthy or beautiful sounding, or
beautiful smelling or beautiful every sense beautiful, the most incredible
(43:44):
thing you could possibly imagine in your life that you've
ever seen or enjoyed, or tasted, or listened to or
are sung along with everything, You're going to be in
the presence, unfiltered, unveiled of the one that created all
of that. We can't possibly know how unbelievably incredible this
(44:13):
experience will be. And that is Heaven, and that's what
the Bible is going to describe it as we're gonna
be the presence of our Lord. And like I said
at the beginning of this question, there's probably a lot
of people who go, that sounds boring because you're not
thinking of it in that you're thinking of it in
(44:34):
terms of largemouth bass and green grass and blue skies.
The creator, the guy, the one, the being that invented
blue skies and green grass and largemouth bass, the one
that every song, the most beautiful songs you've ever heard
in your life, the one that invented music, right of
every beautiful girl or handsome boy you've ever seen in
your life, the one that invented handsome boys and beautiful girls,
(44:57):
the one that the way you love your child, or
your wife or your grandfather, the way you love them,
the feeling you felt, the butterflies you felt, the one
that created them is going to be right in front
of your face, unveiled, unfiltered, with you, and you're gonna
(45:18):
just be in the presence of that and go. I
don't want to go anywhere else. I just want to
stay here, Please Lord, I want to I just want
to soak up this moment. I can't as I describe this,
I can't possibly portray what this might mean for all
of us believers, but I could say it's going to
(45:40):
be beyond our wildest dreams. Yeah, that's how I picture heaven.
All end the podcast there, but I love you guys.
If you have a question for me, email podcast at
grangersmith dot com and we'll see y'all next Monday. Gigi,
thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate
all of you guys. You could help me out by
(46:01):
rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe
to this channel. Hit that little like button and the
notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload
a video. Yi
We can't possibly know how unbelievably incredible this experience will be,
and that is heaven. Well, what's up everybody. Welcome back
(00:22):
to the podcast, episode two hundred and twelve, and thanks
for being here. I love doing this. It's different than
everything else I do, all the other pieces of media
I get to do. This is different because I don't
prep for it. I don't have notes for it. I
don't have books on the table for it. This is
me answering your questions. That's all this is. I'm going
(00:43):
through emails, no rhyme or reason to how they're ordered either,
So you email me. Look, the email has changed this
week for the first time and two hundred episodes, the
email has changed. I'm still going to check the old one,
but we're trying to streamline this. So the new email
is podcast at grangersmith dot com. So podcast at grangersmith
(01:08):
dot com is your email if you want to ask
me any questions. It could be about anything in life,
anything you're going through, anything you're excited about, anything you're
worried about, anything you're stressed about, any anything in a
relationship or whatever it might be. Just ask me the question.
We're going to talk about it like we're just sitting
in the cab of a truck. You say, hey, man,
can I run something by you? And we walk through
(01:29):
it once again. That new email is podcast at grangersmith
dot com and I going to jump right into this.
And the first one that randomly comes up, the subject
line says is country wrong, and the email itself says, Hey, grangeer,
I'd like to stay anonymous. I'm nineteen years old from
(01:49):
the back country of the Northwest Territories. Yes, the North
has good old boys, and trust me, let me pause
you right there, the Northwest Territories. Yes, the North has
country boys. I have traveled this beautiful world and I
have seen country boys and country girls everywhere. It's not
just the South. Let's move on in this question says
(02:10):
my question is this, and hopefully it makes sense. Is
it wrong to live the quote unquote country lifestyle. Me
and my boys love cruising around in trucks, playing in
the mud, and so on. But people from our church
often make comments on how that lifestyle is not glorifying
to God. Also, I really enjoy listening to George Strait,
(02:31):
and the leadership of our church really looks down on
any kind of country music. I have a very close
relationship with God, as do all my boys. We love
having Bible studies and prayer meetings as well as any
other church function. And I know that we all love
the church. So my question is how would you balance
that spiritual life then having fun? When and when when
(02:55):
does that fun become wrong? By the way, I love
your music in but I also love seeing you leave
it for God's work. Ye yee, all right, Anonymous, thanks
for the email. I think it's a good question, ma'am.
I think it's a good question. A couple of things
worry me from the question that you're asking, and it
neither one of those things really has to do with you.
I'm more worried about the people in your church coming
(03:19):
at you with this legalistic idea that you need that.
What did you say, It's not glorifying to God? Right, man?
We have to be careful with that, with saying stuff
like that, Hey, that's not glorifying to God. We have
to be careful if it's not a sin, right, If
(03:41):
it's a sin. If we're talking about a moral issue,
we're talking about right and wrong. It's a moral issue.
If it's sin, then of course it doesn't glorify God.
But if it's a non moral issue, like cruising around
in a truck, that's not morally wrong or right. And
so we can't over spiritualize that and say, hey, man,
(04:02):
you can't ride around that truck. That's not glorifying God.
That doesn't make any sense to me. That is, that's
a negative on the church itself. I don't know why
they're saying that, because that's coming across pretty legalistic to me.
But maybe if we were in the cab of the truck,
maybe this would come up. If we were in the
(04:23):
cabin of the truck cruising around and not sending maybe
this would come up if I asked further. Maybe there
are things that these people are seeing you guys doing,
Like are we drinking. We're drinking in the truck, We're
staying out past curfew. Are we hanging around a bunch
of people were hanging around some hoodlums that are doing
(04:43):
some things that we shouldn't be doing. There's some thug
life going on here, you know what I mean. Then
you could see that, and from the church perspective, somebody
in the church is like, hey, guys, man, guys, I
don't want to see y'all hanging around those guys, those
hoodlums over there. I don't want you. I don't want
(05:04):
to see y'all out here at two in the morning,
even if you're not the one drinking. Y'are stacking up
a bunch of a bunch of beer cans back here,
and you're underage, you're nineteen years old. I don't want
you to get caught and be associated with this because
it looks bad on you, and I don't want that
to come around and then you have consequences that you
(05:25):
have to pay for that like that, that's a legitimate thing.
That could be someone that actually cares about you, wanting
the best for you, and it might be heard like
this legalistic thing. These guys are telling me, I'm not
glorifying God. Maybe they just actually want the best for you,
and they're like, hey, I'm a little bit worried about
who you're hanging out with and what y'all are doing. Right,
(05:47):
So there's that. Let's put that aside now, and let's
let me plug another card here and just say this,
is it wrong to live a quote unquote country lifestyle? No,
not essentially, No, I mean, think about think about the Bible.
We have John the Baptist, who John the Baptist clearly
(06:10):
was a country boy. The dude ate he ate locusts
and wild honey, and he wore animal skins. Uh, the
dude is his country is it gets Jesus ended up
finding his disciples that were a lot of them were fishermen.
Like these dudes are country boys out there fishing. Jesus himself,
God invades the world, his own creation, to come into
(06:32):
redeemed centers. And how does he come in? Does he
come in as a city boy? God comes into creation
redeeming sinners, and he comes in as the son of
a carpenter, not a wealthy man. He comes in working
with his hands. And we understand that maybe the carpenter,
maybe that was also a metal worker. We're not really
(06:52):
sure exactly if it was woodworking or metalworking, but either way,
we're talking about blue collar in our in our perspective,
somebody that works with their hands and somebody that's not.
They're not just poor, but they're also not they're not
just crushing it and they're not wealthy by any means.
And so you could say Jesus himself chose country boys.
(07:15):
I think that's a fair enough answer, all right. Next question.
Strangely enough, well, the subject line says spurts and you
could email me podcast at grangersmith dot com. That's my
new email. Then this subject line says spurts, but I
don't think you meant to say spurts. Let's dive into
the email and says, hey, granger do you believe in
spirits or ghost? There it is spirits ghost. I never
(07:40):
really did. Their email says, I never really did until
I was in a car accident back in twenty fourteen.
I woke up in the hospital and I swear I
saw my sister's X in the corner of my room.
Felt like he was watching over me. He had passed
away a few years before the car accident. What do
you make of that? I will not on any medication,
(08:01):
so I know I wasn't tripping. Thanks Gin, okay, Jin,
thank you so much for the email, and let's dive
into spurts. You were in a car accident back in
twenty fourteen. You woke up in the hospital, and you
swear you saw your sister's EX in the corner of
(08:23):
the room, and it felt like he was watching over you,
and you were not on drugs. You were fully, fully
aware that this was happening. Okay, So yeah, I'm going
to tell you that the Bible is going to say, well,
how do I start this. There's a multiple ways to
get into this, but the Bible is going to say
that there are absolutely spirits. Of course, absolutely third member
(08:48):
of the Trinity, Holy Spirit. Right, so we're in. We're in.
We understand that God is spirit. We understand that. We
also understand that they're is a spiritual warfare going on
around us. Read Ephesians six. See what Paul writes about
(09:08):
that Aphesian six. We understand that there are angelic creatures
and demonic creatures, and we cannot see them, but they
are present here on this earth as we speak. Okay,
that is what the Bible says. So yes, the answer
(09:30):
is there are spirits. There are there are There is
all kinds of spiritual activity around us wherever you are,
wherever you're listening to this podcast. I remember when I
used to think about this, like twenty years ago, when
all of the This Present Darkness books were out. Remember
(09:52):
that series of books, This Present Darkness. My dad used
to read those and I would come in and read
them with them. It's fascinating stuff, but it's a about
spiritual warfare. And the thing to know about that is
that when a human dies, what the Bible says is
(10:13):
that person has no business on earth anymore. They're done that.
Jesus says, that person has no business left on earth.
They're finished with their work. They're not haunting earth. They're
not back here sending butterflies or roses, are closing cabinet
(10:37):
doors so that you'll hear them. They're not whispering things
in your dream, and they are not looking over your bedside,
watching over you when you're in the hospital. Okay, that's
what the Bible says. And we believe that the Bible
is inerran. The Bible is the word of God. If
(11:02):
you don't believe that, if you don't believe the Bible
is the word of God, then then I'm not sure
what to tell you, because you're you're not gonna believe
anything else I'm about to tell you. But what's strange
too is that when when the disciples were in the
boat during the storm and they saw Jesus coming to them,
(11:24):
they thought he was a ghost. That's what the Bible says.
They thought he was a ghost, which is interesting because
that puts it in perspective that the disciples, just like you,
thought that there was some kind of spiritual world out
there that they could see and be afraid of, like
a ghost. What we do know is that the enemy
(11:48):
is a liar and a deceiver. He's the King of
lies and easily makes his presence known throughout the Bible,
manifesting in demons. There's all kinds of demonic warfare that
Jesus is casting out demons. Paul is dealing with it.
Paul is dealing Peter is dealing with it. Everyone's dealing
(12:11):
with demons. And we see this throughout the New Testament.
They are manifesting themselves, and they are possessing people, they
are oppressing people, and they're making themselves known in all
kinds of ways. Right, So with everything I've just told you, now,
let's start putting some of these pieces together. I threw
a lot at you. So we start putting these pieces together.
(12:34):
And you could say, if I saw something at the
end of the bed when I was in the hospital,
if I saw something looking over me, it had the
appearance of a human that even looks like a human.
I used to know and the enemy is a deceiver.
He's the king of lies right, and he's the prince
(12:56):
of this world. Am I right with Jesus? Because I
saw something that didn't seem right and it wasn't an angel.
You would I think you would have said that. I
think you would have said I saw an angel, like
people say that. You didn't say that. You said I
saw a human, a dead human. And I'm telling I'm
(13:17):
telling you that the Bible says there are no dead
people that are haunting this earth, but there are spirits,
demonic creatures, deceitful, able to take different forms. You see
what I'm putting together here. I'm saying, when I hear
something like that, it's terrifying for me to think about
you and what you might be dealing with, what might
(13:40):
be around you, and what you might have seen that
day in the hospital. I could speak from a somewhat
confident experience that you are in a spiritual war right now,
and I would run to our savior, Jesus. I would
(14:01):
run to him. And we have to understand who he is.
We have to understand that he came in the form
of a man, one hundred percent man. He came to
this earth, born of a virgin, lived a perfect life,
fulfilled the law perfectly, perfectly in a way that we
could not. And he was killed on the cross as prophesied,
as planned by God because of the evil hearts of men.
(14:25):
He was killed on the cross on purpose as the
sacrificial lamb, taking on the sins that me and you
have committed, and all of his people taking on the
sins and redeeming them as the ultimate sacrifice by taking
the wrath of God as a payment, because the wages
of sin is death. He took the wages of your
(14:47):
sin and paid it in full. Three days later was resurrected,
proving his divinity. If you believe that, If you believe that,
that's the gospel, and he could save, and he could
end this strange idea that maybe someone has been watching
you at the end of your bed. Thank you for
(15:10):
the email, Jan And I'm sorry that I'm all over
the place today on this episode. Let me jump into this,
and I don't know what I'm getting into here. The
email says this, Hi Grande, I'm twenty eight years old.
I'm from North Texas. I love your podcast. I listen
(15:31):
to them all the time, and I find that they
help me. But I have something that I've been struggling with.
When I feel like I'm on the right track of
doing good, I always fall back into the old routine
and just get stuck in a rut. I pray for
guidance to get out of this, and when I do,
I still go back again and again. If you have
any advice for me, please let me know. I've been
(15:51):
trying to save money and I was doing good until
I lost it by going to the casino. And I'm
beating myself up because it's one of the things I
struggle with and stress out about. Yeah, this comes from Lonnie. Lonnie,
thanks so much for the email. Twenty eight years old,
North Texas. And I know that those casinos are right
over that border in Oklahoma. You're struggling with doing good,
(16:15):
getting on the right track. Those are the words that
you're using. And you're getting this rut and you save
up a little money, and you've got a gambling addiction,
and so you had to burn up this money in
the casino and then you beat yourself up about it.
You feel guilty, and this is the cycle. This is
the vicious cycle. And this happens a lot to a
lot of people, and not just casinos, but a lot
(16:37):
of other things as well, namely drugs. And there's a
lot of ways that I could go about this, and
to answer this quickly, it's very difficult because this is
the kind of thing that takes hours of discussion and
weeks of getting together. But the first thing I'm going
to go with is I'm going to go with accountability,
(17:00):
because if you show me the five people that you
hang around, then I'm gonna show you the net average
of what you are and what you are becoming. So
take the five people around you that you hang around
with most, and I'm gonna take those five people, I'm
gonna see them, evaluate them, and I'm gonna tell you
exactly who you are based on those five people. It's easy.
(17:23):
I take the average of them and that's you. I
take the average of where they're going in life, where
they're heading, and then that's your average of where you're
going and where you're heading. That is easy, And this
happens in all walks of life with all different kinds
of people, all tribes and tongues and all cultures. Whoever
you're hanging around with becomes you, and you can't think, well,
(17:46):
I'm gonna help make these people better. Don't think that
that never works that way. I hang around with with
some bumbs. I'm not a bum, but I'm gonna help
bring them up. They need me. You're going to be
a boom five years you're gonna be a bum That's
just the way it is. So I think if you
(18:07):
look at those five people, we almost don't have to
go anywhere else. I would say, Upgrade. My brother says
this all the time. Upgrade, you're five. Upgrade, you're five
people because those five people are affecting you big time.
And you get some five people around you with accountability,
with integrity that say, hey, Lonnie, what are you doing
(18:27):
on Friday? Come on, we got some stuff to do.
And you're like, okay, good. They're lifting you up instead
of hey, man, come on, get in the truck. We're
going to the casino. And you're like, man, I'm trying
to get better. And they're like, come on, Lonie, go
to the casino. That's what happens with your five Hey.
When you buy a house right and you get on
a certain street and you're the most expensive house on
(18:48):
the street, your value of your house goes down because
everyone else around, all the other houses around you are
pulling your value down. So don't be the most expensive
house on the street. I hope that's not you, Lonnie.
I hope that you have more value than that, and
I hope you could upgrade your five keep that accountability
around you. This conversation could be way longer than this,
(19:10):
but I want to start just with that simple thing.
Who's around you. It's time to upgrade your friends. It's
time to go, hey, man, I need some friends that say, man,
you're not going to that casino. We're gonna hold you accountable.
We're gonna keep you down here because we love you, man,
because you're our friend, and we're not gonna let you
get into this. Find those friends and I'll start doing
(19:31):
it right now. I'll take a break beer right back.
This show is sponsored by Better Help. You know, we
have so many questions coming in with people that are
asking things that usually require a therapist or a counselor
of some sort. And I am not that I could
provide you with a lot of answers, but sometimes it's
(19:52):
just going to need therapy just for a peace of mind.
Amber and I did that after we lost riv and
we learned some things about it each other that we
just would not have known without it. In fact, in
my book Like a River, I talk a lot about
therapy and how that affected me in a positive way
that I still use techniques that I learned today. As
(20:13):
we go into winter coming up in the holiday season,
a lot of stress could come with that, and therapy
could really be a bright spot inside all of that
holiday change. So if you've been thinking about starting therapy, hey,
give Better Help a try. It's entirely online, designed to
be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill
out a brief questionnaire to get matched up with a
(20:35):
licensed therapist and then you could switch therapist at any
time for no additional charge. Find your bright spot this
season with Better Help. Visit Betterhelp dot com slash granger
today and get ten percent off your first month. That's
Better Help h e LP dot com slash granger. Hey
did you hear about our brand new EEE Freedom Club
(20:57):
over at ee dot com. Well, it's a brand new
club we just started where you get a shirt of
the month delivered right to your door. This is an
exclusive EEE shirt that's seasonal that changes every month. We
only make the amount that we have in the Freedom Club,
so no one else gets a shirt like this and
you can't find it anywhere else. This also gets you
(21:17):
early access to all of our launches, so if you're
tired of things selling out by the time you finally
get logged in for a launch, you can get access
to our launches long before anyone else does. Plus exclusive
discounts monthly exclusive discounts for the EEE Freedom Club members only,
plus a lot of other cool stuff we've been working on.
You could check this out at EEE dot com again,
(21:38):
it's called the EEE Freedom Club. And by the way,
we also just launched our brand new Hunter's line. It
just came out and I hope you enjoy it. You
could find all of this at EEE dot com. Last thing,
if you want to get a hold of me for
any reason personally, go to cameo c ame eo dot
com slash grange your smith, or you could download the
(22:01):
cameo app again that c ame eo. Download that app
and find me Granger Smith. You can get a video
message that I could send to us. It says happy
birthday to somebody, Happy anniversary to somebody. Maybe just a
bit of encouragement, maybe a pick me up. Whatever you
want me to say, you fill that out on the
app or the website, and then I come in. That
(22:24):
sends a notification to my phone and I record a
video message about thirty seconds to a minute long, just
talking whatever you want me to say to whoever you
want me to say it too. It's super easy, and
then I hit send. It goes right to you again.
That's at cameo dot com slash Grangersmith, or you could
download the cameo app and search for me granger Smith.
(22:44):
Back to the podcast. All right, welcome back to the podcast,
and if you have a question for me, email podcast
at grangersmith dot com. That's podcast at grangersmith dot com.
Ask me anything you want. We'll walk through it. The
next email here, subject line says podcast question the baby dilemma.
(23:06):
Hey Grangeer. First off, thank you for the blessing to
the world with Like a River. You're a gifted writer
and I hope everyone gets an opportunity to read your book.
My family listens to your podcast, so I would like
to remain anonymous. Please. My husband and I welcome to
our first child over the summer. This is a baby
that I'd prayed for. But I don't think my husband
fully realizes my desire to have a baby, although I've
(23:28):
told him and he always seems surprised. During my pregnancy,
we were constantly anxious about having a healthy baby. We
pray over our baby and praise God. Everything we prayed
for God has provided. But our baby was. Before our
baby was born, I would constantly say we were never
having more children because of the anxiety and stress involved
with growing and wanting a happy, healthy baby. I had
(23:50):
been in the emergency room twice during the pregnancy for
scary situations, which turned out to be just fine. Fast forward,
and now our baby is here. Our baby is wonderful, happy, healthy,
and fills our heart with so much joy. My dilemma
is that I find myself toying with the idea that
it was so ignorant, ignorant to say I'd never have
another My husband, however, is adamant on having no more children.
(24:14):
Last time I brought it up, he seemed to have
worn me down saying he seemed to have worn down saying, fine,
if you want one more, we'll have one more, which
is obviously doesn't mean that he wants another but that
i'd be I will have broken him down into surrender.
I don't want that to be the mindset he has
when bringing another baby into the world. And obviously I
(24:36):
don't want to change his mind. I'm just not sure
how to get over this desire in my heart. Could
you please share your thoughts on this. Sorry it's been
long winded. Thank you for your time. Blessings to you. Anonymous. Yeah, absolutely,
keeping this anonymous. It is interesting, I will say, just
throw this out there after so many episodes. It's interesting
when someone like this says they want to remain anonymous
(24:58):
because their family listened, but then they give such a
detailed story about their family that's it'd be really difficult anyway,
you know what I mean. It's a great question. Thank
you for the question, and let's walk through it. There's
a couple of things I want to show you. At
the very beginning of what I want to say, I'm
(25:21):
gonna I'm gonna find the first time you said God,
and well you said at the very beginning, this is
a baby I'd prayed for. Okay, So there's that, And
then batten down into the fourth paragraph, you say, during
my pregnancy, we were constantly anxious about having a healthy baby.
We'd pray over our baby and praise God. We would
(25:46):
you and your husband would pray over our baby and
praise God. Everything we have prayed for God has provided. Okay,
I just want to point that out. During my pregnancy,
we were constantly anxious about having a healthy baby. We
prayed over this baby and praise God. Everything we prayed for,
(26:09):
God has provided. I just want to I said that
twice because I want to see what I want you
to see. What you typed, you were anxious, you prayed,
He provided. Now. To be honest, it doesn't always work.
He always provides, and his plan always happens, but we
(26:33):
don't always see it happened in the way that we
want it to happen. In this case, it did what
you wanted and what you prayed for was aligned with
his will, and it happened and he provided everything that
you asked for. Sit with that for a while, and
(26:55):
I hope you're listening. But in your situation, I want
you to sit with that idea, and then I want
to I want you to see what I want to.
I want to show you what you're doing and what
we all do. We we're anxious, we pray, he provides,
we get anxious about something else. That's what we do.
(27:18):
Is crazy, but that's what we do. And he goes,
you of little faith. That's literally what he's saying in
this through his word. And so here we are, and
what you're what you're anxious about, and what your your
your dilemma is with your husband is totally valid, and
(27:39):
your husband is totally valid for thinking what he's thinking
because he went through this with a wife that was
overly anxious about having a healthy baby, a wife that said, oh,
we're not going to do this anymore. I'm in pain,
I'm nervous, i'm anxious. Oh please God, and you got
this healthy baby. And he said no more. And he
(27:59):
said fine, yeah, yes, I get it. This is you've
been a stress ball. And so yeah, I hear you.
And then a few years go by and you go, hey, babe,
I think I want to have another baby, and he goes,
uh uh, he says no. Right, So that's what I mean.
(28:19):
I don't blame him for saying no, because this is
what he's left with. And I also don't blame you
for now God's provided, and now you're anxious again about
a new thing. I also don't blame you that you
want another child. That this is all natural. These are
all these things, every bit of it is natural, and
it makes total sense. And I don't read this and
(28:41):
go this is a messed up family. I don't think that.
I go, yeah, this sounds like a pattern. It sounds
like a very normal pattern. So let's just acknowledge first
of all your feelings and everything you're going through, and
this pattern it's normal. And your husband and his resistance
to it, there is a level where you're just gonna go, Hey,
(29:05):
you know, I'm not gonna push you beyond what you want.
I desire another baby, and I can understand why you
say no because of the craziness of the first pregnancy.
I get it. At least acknowledge him that, at least
give him that instead of if it's getting to the
point where you're actually breaking him down, that's what you said,
(29:27):
you said, he said, fine, if you want one more,
we'll have one more, which obviously doesn't mean he wants another.
But you've broken him down. If that's the case, what
that breaking down tells me is you've been nagging him. Hey,
if you're thought any more about this baby. Is it
always about what you want? Is it what you want
or what I want? Because I want another baby? Is there?
(29:49):
And is it so much to ask? We have one
and he's health and it's beautiful. Can we have another one?
That's all I'm asking? And he goes, fine, Fine, if
that's what you want, we'll do it. I could totally
see that plan out. What's what's happening. We can't control him,
we can't control his reactions, but what we can do
is change the way we approach it. So instead it's
(30:09):
like this. It's like, hey, baby, no, you don't want
another baby, And it's crazy to me that I actually do.
But I'm not gonna push it. I just wanted to
tell you and I want to get it out there
and maybe if you change your mind, will you please
come to me. But I feel I feel like it's
(30:30):
in our future to have another one. But I totally
understand that you don't, You know, like, let's do that
instead of pushing him to break him down. Let me
go back to God's province, providence. Let me go back
to God's purpose, in God's will. This is gonna blow
your mind if you really think about it. Listen, anonymous.
(30:52):
Think about this. Think step away from this podcast, and
I want you to think, after this is over, really
think about what I'm about to say, and if you
really meditate on this, it will blow your mind. Whether
or not you have a baby another baby is already determined.
(31:19):
If you have another baby, it is already written. If
you don't have any more babies in your life, it
is already determined. It's crazy, right, And what am I
just a puppet on a string here? Well? No, No,
You're making choices, you're making decisions, you're praying through it,
(31:42):
you're acting within your will, the constraints of your personal
will and everything you got going on and everything you're
dealing with. But the product of that is already determined.
The reason I tell you that is that should if
you meditate on that and you go wow, it's already determined,
(32:05):
a baby or not, It's already written, regardless of what
I'm worry about. What. The reason I tell you that
is because you could sit back on that and just
go wow. I could just rest in that, Hey, God,
did this is? This? Is you? You're God and I'm not.
You know my heart, God, you know I want another baby.
(32:25):
You also know my husband doesn't. But God, you could
soften his heart, or you could give me better understanding.
Either way, this child's I'm handing it to you. It's
all you, God, whether it comes or not, it's all you.
That is, that is a mature prayer. And that is
(32:46):
that is where extreme rest comes from. That is, maybe
that's extreme. How could you possibly extremely rest? That is
where ultimate rest is right. Ultimate rest comes from from
ultimate faith, which none of us have. But the closer
you get to that, the closer, the stronger your faith gets.
(33:08):
The stronger you believe that God has already determined this
for you. The stronger you believe that, the easier you rest.
It's crazy, but it's true, and that's what the Bible says.
And I love that we already have this example in
(33:29):
your life when it happened before. You were anxious, you
were worried, you prayed, He provided, Trust him. Thanks for
the email. Let's dive into another one here. I'm trying
(33:50):
to know. I have no idea what I'm getting into,
but this question subject line says life question. The email says, Hey,
Gran should like to remain a non us, but I
have a question for you. I am no, no, I've
read this one before, I've read that one. That one
(34:11):
came in twice. Don't send him twice, y'all. Don't send
them twice. That's that. Then it leads me to this
kind of stuff. Let me go into this one. Hey Granger.
First of all, I'm a big fan. My wife and
I went to your concert at the Lake of the
Ozarks and I had a blast. My question is this
(34:32):
last summer there was a local family whose youngest boy
drowned in the lake over Fourth of July weekend. We
have bought your book, and I'm curious when do you
think it's a good time to give them this book
to anonymously thanks for what you do with your podcast
right now or give it to him right now. You
(34:54):
sent this early October, and it is that happened for
the July. Yeah, right now, give it to them right now.
Next question, subdic Cline says, friends, Hey Grangeer, my name
is Toner from Tulsa, and I've been helping in my
church youth group for almost a year and I'm starting
(35:16):
to see a change in me that's causing me not
to be around my non church friends anymore. And one
of them told me I deserted them for church? Should
I feel bad that I may? That I may have happened?
How do I'm going to try to read what you
wrote here? They told me I deserted them for church.
(35:38):
Should I feel bad? I'll just whatever you said for that.
I'm not quite sure, but you said, how do I
balance hanging out with church friends and my non church friends.
I have recently quit drinking every weekend. I'm a non
church friend. My non church friends are mad because I
won't drink with them anymore. What should I do? Hey, Toner,
I appreciate the email, brother, and what your saying is
(36:01):
absolutely normal. This is absolutely normal. Jesus read through the
gospels and watch what Jesus says very carefully. He's gonna say,
I did not come to bring peace. I came to
bring a sword. He's gonna Jesus is gonna pit father
against son, mother against daughter, friend against friend. Your new brothers,
(36:28):
your new friends are going to be friends you find
in Christ, and then you're going to as an example,
then go back and be able to give your non
church friends as a bit of your hope that they
could trust and what you trust in that they don't
need to be doing what they're doing in a non
(36:49):
judgmental way. It's super easy. You're just like a man.
I I'm sorry I don't go out with you guys drinking.
But I just found something better. That's all it is.
I just found something better, like what possibly could be better.
It's like, man, you should come with me. You should.
You should come and check it out. She should come
to church with me and maybe you'll see. But I
(37:10):
just bounce on them better. And I can't go drinking anymore.
Why can't you go drinking? Man? Because to be honest
with you, when I go drinking, it's it's nothing on
you guys. It's not it's not judgment in any way
on you guys. But when I go drinking, I feel convicted.
I feel I feel like I'm messing myself up a
(37:31):
little bit. What are you talking about, ton Er? Come on, man,
come drinking with us, dude. That I love you guys, seriously,
I do, and I appreciate the invite and I'll go
with you guys, but but I can't drink because it
just it's not who I am anymore. That that old
me died, that version of me is gone. Ah. So
(37:53):
at that point if they're like, well, get out it.
We don't, we don't want anything to do with you.
Is that something that you would all a friend? You
found something, you found a treasure and you love it
and it's a new joy of your life. It's given
you purpose and joy and identity. And these guys say,
(38:16):
get lost, man, or come with us? Or do you
still call them friends? So yeah, that's the new world
you're living in and it's totally normal. And here's the thing,
here's the cool thing, Toner. I bet you a couple
of these guys, maybe one is gonna end up coming
with you. That's a beautiful thing about it. But there
is no more for you. There is no more. How
(38:36):
do I balance church friends and non church friends. It
doesn't matter what I tell you on this podcast, because
you've been redeemed by the blood, So the Holy Spirit's
going to act through you and witness to this as
you live it out, so you don't even have to
worry about me. And what I say, what's gonna happen
is the more you go out with these the non
church guys, the more you're just going to be miserable.
(38:57):
And you're like, oh, I really don't want to be here.
I don't feel like I fit in. I just don't
want to. I don't want to be doing this. That's
what you're gonna feel. And I don't have to. I
don't have to push you along. You're gonna end up
going back with the friends that go Hey, Toner, we
get you, we get you, man, we understand come back.
(39:18):
That's the deal. Let's grab another one. Hey, thank you
guys for bearing with me on this podcast. This has
been interesting, and I think for those of y'all that
have listened to a bunch of these when I do
them at night and just weird things happen in my
brain and I don't have a guess. It's just me
and you. So so yeah, what I'm gonna do. I'm
(39:42):
actually scrolling down. I'm gonna grab something kind of old
right here. It says broad, open ended heaven question. Hey Granger,
how do you picture heaven? I would love to hear
the details that you imagine. My name is Julie and
I'm from Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Thank you for what you're
(40:04):
doing this podcast. My husband and I love hearing these
all the best. Julie, Hey, Julie, thank you so much
for the encouragement, and yeah, that's a great I love
this question. You know what's crazy. I was thinking about
this today, not the question, but I was thinking about
this in now analogy. Today. When I tell you the
(40:24):
truth about heaven, it's going to sound boring compared to
other ideas of heaven that you've heard. But the reason
it sounds boring is to anyone that's listening is because
you're your underestimation of what I'm about to say is
(40:49):
will blow your mind because if you really got to
grasp on what I'm trying to say, and me too, Hey,
I can't either. I can't. My brain is way too small.
But if I really got a grasp on what I
was trying to say, it would be the most opposite
of boring that anything I could possibly say. But because
(41:09):
I can't say it well, and because my brain is tiny,
when I do say, it's gonna sound boring to you.
Let's do it, all right, let's get into it. I
could tell you how do I picture heaven. I could say, Man,
I hope it has green grass, and I hope it
has a beautiful lake and largemouth bass and good lures
(41:31):
and good fishing gear, and I hope it doesn't have
fire ants because I can't stand fire ants. And I
hope the sky's blue with puffy clouds, and I hope
the temperatures around seventy degrees, and I hope that those
fish bite every single cast. I hope I get an
eight pounder here, a ten pounder here, And I hope
(41:52):
River is with me. And River is standing next to me, laughing,
and we're fishing together, and maybe we're both about the
same age, and we're saying, isn't Heaven fun? And Rivers like, yeah, Dad,
Heaven's so fun. And we're just catching bass, and then
my dad walks up and he says, hey, guys, how's
the fishing. And we're like, Dad, it's Heaven fish shirt.
(42:13):
You know, we're always biting here and it's crazy. I
can tell you that. And then we would end the
podcast and everyone would be like, Oh, that's real sweet,
But let me tell you, I think that's that thing
that's really far off. Okay, I've prepped a lot, So
here we go. When we get to Heaven, we are
going to be in the presence of our creator, and
(42:36):
we are going to be so lost in the dazzling
magnificence of him that it's going everything else will pale
in comparison. And I think there will be everything else.
I think there will be a lot of unbelievably incredible
things in heaven. But I think if we miss the
(42:57):
fact that we're going to be in the presence of
the maker of everything you've ever loved, imagine that for
one second, you're going to be in the presence, the unveiled,
unfiltered presence of the creator of everything you've ever thought
was beautiful, are worthy? Are lovely, or artistic or musically inclined,
(43:24):
Everything you've ever thought that every human being has ever
thought about planet Earth, that ever thought it was worthy
or beautiful or integrity, are healthy or beautiful sounding, or
beautiful smelling or beautiful every sense beautiful, the most incredible
(43:44):
thing you could possibly imagine in your life that you've
ever seen or enjoyed, or tasted, or listened to or
are sung along with everything, You're going to be in
the presence, unfiltered, unveiled of the one that created all
of that. We can't possibly know how unbelievably incredible this
(44:13):
experience will be. And that is Heaven, and that's what
the Bible is going to describe it as we're gonna
be the presence of our Lord. And like I said
at the beginning of this question, there's probably a lot
of people who go, that sounds boring because you're not
thinking of it in that you're thinking of it in
(44:34):
terms of largemouth bass and green grass and blue skies.
The creator, the guy, the one, the being that invented
blue skies and green grass and largemouth bass, the one
that every song, the most beautiful songs you've ever heard
in your life, the one that invented music, right of
every beautiful girl or handsome boy you've ever seen in
your life, the one that invented handsome boys and beautiful girls,
(44:57):
the one that the way you love your child, or
your wife or your grandfather, the way you love them,
the feeling you felt, the butterflies you felt, the one
that created them is going to be right in front
of your face, unveiled, unfiltered, with you, and you're gonna
(45:18):
just be in the presence of that and go. I
don't want to go anywhere else. I just want to
stay here, Please Lord, I want to I just want
to soak up this moment. I can't as I describe this,
I can't possibly portray what this might mean for all
of us believers, but I could say it's going to
(45:40):
be beyond our wildest dreams. Yeah, that's how I picture heaven.
All end the podcast there, but I love you guys.
If you have a question for me, email podcast at
grangersmith dot com and we'll see y'all next Monday. Gigi,
thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate
all of you guys. You could help me out by
(46:01):
rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe
to this channel. Hit that little like button and the
notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload
a video. Yi
Host
Granger Smith
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.