May 12, 2025 • 14 mins
Learning had to be rediscovered, in an unlikely place.
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Forged in thought. Built in Truth. Spoken from experience.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:10):
Have you ever been lost in your thoughts?
Randomness?
A thought pops into your headand you don't know where it came
from.
Many times it's your past.
Things that have happened thathave not let you go.
(00:32):
Why have they hung on?
Let's talk about that.
Hi, I'm Timesmith.
Welcome back.
I hope you got a chance tolisten to the last lesson.
(00:54):
I was talking about memories.
Well, we started off in thefoyer of our minds.
Well, the foyer of my mind.
From here on out, we'll justcall it the forge.
It's something that I associatea little bit better with.
It's part of my trade.
I like to forge tools and weld,work on cars and hobbies of
(01:20):
such.
But if I were to describe alittle bit better what the forge
is like, aside from the elevatorto the left, the staircase to
the right, and the counter inthe center, is that behind the
counter there's a largestaircase headed upward.
(01:42):
I would say those are the goodthings.
in our life, the things that weend up advancing to.
But for the sake of this podcastand for now, I want to keep us
on track with brokenness, withsome of these memories.
As I thought about even theforge and why it is a forge, I
(02:04):
think a lot about my own father.
I think about the training hegave me to become a tradesman,
to become a mechanic, to becomea fabricator.
Now, let's step down into thefirst subfloor.
Watch your step.
Don't walk too fast.
(02:26):
I've made sure that there'snothing here that you could trip
on.
As we walk past some of thesememories, we come onto a door.
It's the door of me being achild.
When I open it up, there's apicture there.
pre-adolescent, with me and myfather.
(02:46):
From a very early age, I workedwith my father, holding the
flashlight, grabbing tools.
Most of the time it was thewrong one, but that's how I
tried to help.
And one night, my father wasworking late on one of his cars.
(03:08):
Actually, it was an IsuzuTrooper II.
It was our family vehicle.
And I think he was working on aclutch.
I do remember that thetransmission was out.
I was really young.
Maybe around six or seven yearsold.
Old enough to carry a flashlightand to lay down on the cold
(03:29):
concrete floor and light it upwhere he asked me to.
I noticed that my father wasbalancing this transmission with
the jack, two hands, and a kneeon the transmission.
It didn't feel safe at all.
Well, as he was struggling, hedecided to take a break, and we
(03:53):
mounted the transmission backup, and in that moment I asked
my dad if I could use therestroom.
He said yes.
Let's take a break.
As I go inside, I hear my dadfaintly yelling, Help! Help! I
looked out the bathroom door andI noticed no one was moving
(04:14):
around.
So I ran out.
I noticed my father had thetransmission across his head.
I ran up to him and I pushed itoff.
Then I dragged my dad out by hisfoot.
He seemed to be okay and I'm notsure if it was entirely all me
pulling him out.
(04:34):
But he had a gash on his head.
And that ended the work for thenight.
So let's stop that memory rightthere.
Again, let's step outside theroom.
What we see is a father and ason working.
A somewhat tragic moment that ason would find his dad with the
(04:55):
transmission on his head.
For about two seconds, thesituation looked really bad.
I learned my father was a toughman.
But something happened that day.
As a young boy, I realized thatI should be helping my father.
(05:17):
But that was the way I learned.
It was that very moment that Ilearned that I can take apart
cars and put them back together.
I learned that I liked welding.
I learned that I like cuttingsteel and welding it.
I learned that I like to buildthings.
(05:37):
I learned that there was aprocess.
That process, how has it appliedto this?
I can never steer away from thefact that even in the midst of
learning, there was a huge holein me and a massive brokenness.
(06:00):
Without keeping you guessing fortoo long, maybe a couple more
lessons and I'll explain to youwhat that brokenness is.
But that brokenness hadshattered me completely.
My thinking process, mydevelopment, my recognition, my
comprehension, it was allaffected.
(06:21):
I was not able to completetasks, let alone stardom.
But I did understand that therewas a process.
That there had to be a way toovercome and there had to be a
way to conquer.
That a person shouldn't livedefeated, or numb, or just
(06:45):
coping with everything thatcomes at them.
This became a challenge.
Yes, much like learning with myfather how to disassemble a car,
or do a brake job, or do a headjob, which are difficult.
Well, once you do it, you learnthe steps, and it's not so
(07:07):
difficult.
It's just time.
It just takes time.
Fabricating and making gates andhandrails.
Yes, when I started off, it wasvery difficult.
But now I just see it as it justtakes time.
And the process of rebuildingbrokenness and mending takes
(07:28):
time.
When I look at these roomsoutside of this memory, I think
about all the time invested intobuilding these rooms.
Completing these rooms.
Making them habitable formyself.
A place that I wouldn't hurtmyself.
(07:51):
And at times a place that Ineeded someone else.
Yes, sometimes I had faith.
Sometimes I had family.
Sometimes I had my wife.
Sometimes I had a friend.
And sometimes...
I had to do it alone.
(08:14):
But it's a process.
It's not always one thing allthe time.
Once you complete it one way,you move on to the next step and
it becomes the next thing forthe next moment.
What exactly am I saying?
(08:35):
You might have a problem.
You might have just realized it.
It recently might have gottenthe best of you.
Or you've been dealing with itfor a very long time, unable to
overcome it.
For some, it starts off that wewant to get rid of it.
(08:59):
And we could be in that thoughtfor a very long time.
It's still a step in theprocess.
For others, we might pick up abook a podcast, self-help, going
to church, finding a way toovercome it, trying to find
(09:22):
exactly where we are in theprocess.
That's what it is.
It's a process.
Every step of the way, startingand completing tasks.
Once the desire comes, that'sthe beginning of the task.
(09:43):
But you must continue tocomplete the job.
If we go back into that memory,I remember the next day my
father came home and he said,hey.
And I go, yes, dad, do you wantto finish?
(10:05):
I told him I'd go outside and gohelp him.
Now with a little more intent, Ipositioned myself laid down on
the ground, and together wepushed the transmission in,
locking it in with a couplebolts and taking a large sigh of
relief.
(10:25):
Let's step out again.
That relief of completing thetask, even when it beats us up,
even when it gets the best ofus, it's still a part of the
process.
My father had a habit of when hewould complete a job, he would
just say, thank you, God.
(10:46):
He had a gratitude withinhimself, a gratitude of knowing
that he completed that process.
Yes, we still had to attach thedriveline and the bolts, but the
heavy part was done.
So what exactly is the heavypart in your life?
Is it starting?
(11:07):
Is it breaking the habit?
Is it actually telling yourselfthat that habit must go?
Is it telling yourself thatperson must go?
Is it telling yourself somethingmust go?
None of it is easy.
(11:28):
And never mind about people notliking you.
You might not like yourself inthe process.
But if the conviction is thereand it tells you that you must
complete that task, then youmust finish.
It's the only way to find peace.
I look inside that memory.
(11:50):
And I remember glancing up at mydad after when we got up.
Just looking up in a sigh ofrelief.
That was peace.
Yeah, he still had the bandageon his head or a band-aid on his
head.
But he had peace.
Sometimes we have scars from thethings that we've experienced.
(12:12):
Sometimes we have bruises andbumps from where we're at in the
process.
But that's evidence that wefought through.
That's evidence that we learned.
Yes, we don't always have tolearn from our mistakes.
Sometimes we learn by listening.
But sometimes life just happens.
(12:36):
And we must do what's necessaryin that moment.
So, let's just take one stepback away from that room.
Again, the elevator to the leftand staircase to the right.
There's a lot of work that'sbeen done in here.
(13:00):
And that's what I hope toaccomplish even with you in
sharing.
I'm not a doctor.
I'm just somebody who'sovercome.
Again, I represent somethinglarger.
Something more than a feeling.
I represent a hope.
When we go beyond being astatistic.
(13:23):
Many times we're told, and I wastold, that we won't amount to
much or anything.
But that didn't stop me.
Quietly, I structured myselfmentally and I built strength.
I strengthened my heart.
(13:44):
I put myself firm and Idetermined that I was going to
overcome all my shortcomings.
That's all I have for today.
So, let me walk you out.
Why don't we just take thestairs back up and exit out of
the forge.
Remember, If you feel lost, youcan be found.
(14:10):
If you feel unloved, you areloved.
Have a great day.
Goodbye.
I am the Timesmith.
Have you ever been lost in your thoughts?
Randomness?
A thought pops into your headand you don't know where it came
from.
Many times it's your past.
Things that have happened thathave not let you go.
(00:32):
Why have they hung on?
Let's talk about that.
Hi, I'm Timesmith.
Welcome back.
I hope you got a chance tolisten to the last lesson.
(00:54):
I was talking about memories.
Well, we started off in thefoyer of our minds.
Well, the foyer of my mind.
From here on out, we'll justcall it the forge.
It's something that I associatea little bit better with.
It's part of my trade.
I like to forge tools and weld,work on cars and hobbies of
(01:20):
such.
But if I were to describe alittle bit better what the forge
is like, aside from the elevatorto the left, the staircase to
the right, and the counter inthe center, is that behind the
counter there's a largestaircase headed upward.
(01:42):
I would say those are the goodthings.
in our life, the things that weend up advancing to.
But for the sake of this podcastand for now, I want to keep us
on track with brokenness, withsome of these memories.
As I thought about even theforge and why it is a forge, I
(02:04):
think a lot about my own father.
I think about the training hegave me to become a tradesman,
to become a mechanic, to becomea fabricator.
Now, let's step down into thefirst subfloor.
Watch your step.
Don't walk too fast.
(02:26):
I've made sure that there'snothing here that you could trip
on.
As we walk past some of thesememories, we come onto a door.
It's the door of me being achild.
When I open it up, there's apicture there.
pre-adolescent, with me and myfather.
(02:46):
From a very early age, I workedwith my father, holding the
flashlight, grabbing tools.
Most of the time it was thewrong one, but that's how I
tried to help.
And one night, my father wasworking late on one of his cars.
(03:08):
Actually, it was an IsuzuTrooper II.
It was our family vehicle.
And I think he was working on aclutch.
I do remember that thetransmission was out.
I was really young.
Maybe around six or seven yearsold.
Old enough to carry a flashlightand to lay down on the cold
(03:29):
concrete floor and light it upwhere he asked me to.
I noticed that my father wasbalancing this transmission with
the jack, two hands, and a kneeon the transmission.
It didn't feel safe at all.
Well, as he was struggling, hedecided to take a break, and we
(03:53):
mounted the transmission backup, and in that moment I asked
my dad if I could use therestroom.
He said yes.
Let's take a break.
As I go inside, I hear my dadfaintly yelling, Help! Help! I
looked out the bathroom door andI noticed no one was moving
(04:14):
around.
So I ran out.
I noticed my father had thetransmission across his head.
I ran up to him and I pushed itoff.
Then I dragged my dad out by hisfoot.
He seemed to be okay and I'm notsure if it was entirely all me
pulling him out.
(04:34):
But he had a gash on his head.
And that ended the work for thenight.
So let's stop that memory rightthere.
Again, let's step outside theroom.
What we see is a father and ason working.
A somewhat tragic moment that ason would find his dad with the
(04:55):
transmission on his head.
For about two seconds, thesituation looked really bad.
I learned my father was a toughman.
But something happened that day.
As a young boy, I realized thatI should be helping my father.
(05:17):
But that was the way I learned.
It was that very moment that Ilearned that I can take apart
cars and put them back together.
I learned that I liked welding.
I learned that I like cuttingsteel and welding it.
I learned that I like to buildthings.
(05:37):
I learned that there was aprocess.
That process, how has it appliedto this?
I can never steer away from thefact that even in the midst of
learning, there was a huge holein me and a massive brokenness.
(06:00):
Without keeping you guessing fortoo long, maybe a couple more
lessons and I'll explain to youwhat that brokenness is.
But that brokenness hadshattered me completely.
My thinking process, mydevelopment, my recognition, my
comprehension, it was allaffected.
(06:21):
I was not able to completetasks, let alone stardom.
But I did understand that therewas a process.
That there had to be a way toovercome and there had to be a
way to conquer.
That a person shouldn't livedefeated, or numb, or just
(06:45):
coping with everything thatcomes at them.
This became a challenge.
Yes, much like learning with myfather how to disassemble a car,
or do a brake job, or do a headjob, which are difficult.
Well, once you do it, you learnthe steps, and it's not so
(07:07):
difficult.
It's just time.
It just takes time.
Fabricating and making gates andhandrails.
Yes, when I started off, it wasvery difficult.
But now I just see it as it justtakes time.
And the process of rebuildingbrokenness and mending takes
(07:28):
time.
When I look at these roomsoutside of this memory, I think
about all the time invested intobuilding these rooms.
Completing these rooms.
Making them habitable formyself.
A place that I wouldn't hurtmyself.
(07:51):
And at times a place that Ineeded someone else.
Yes, sometimes I had faith.
Sometimes I had family.
Sometimes I had my wife.
Sometimes I had a friend.
And sometimes...
I had to do it alone.
(08:14):
But it's a process.
It's not always one thing allthe time.
Once you complete it one way,you move on to the next step and
it becomes the next thing forthe next moment.
What exactly am I saying?
(08:35):
You might have a problem.
You might have just realized it.
It recently might have gottenthe best of you.
Or you've been dealing with itfor a very long time, unable to
overcome it.
For some, it starts off that wewant to get rid of it.
(08:59):
And we could be in that thoughtfor a very long time.
It's still a step in theprocess.
For others, we might pick up abook a podcast, self-help, going
to church, finding a way toovercome it, trying to find
(09:22):
exactly where we are in theprocess.
That's what it is.
It's a process.
Every step of the way, startingand completing tasks.
Once the desire comes, that'sthe beginning of the task.
(09:43):
But you must continue tocomplete the job.
If we go back into that memory,I remember the next day my
father came home and he said,hey.
And I go, yes, dad, do you wantto finish?
(10:05):
I told him I'd go outside and gohelp him.
Now with a little more intent, Ipositioned myself laid down on
the ground, and together wepushed the transmission in,
locking it in with a couplebolts and taking a large sigh of
relief.
(10:25):
Let's step out again.
That relief of completing thetask, even when it beats us up,
even when it gets the best ofus, it's still a part of the
process.
My father had a habit of when hewould complete a job, he would
just say, thank you, God.
(10:46):
He had a gratitude withinhimself, a gratitude of knowing
that he completed that process.
Yes, we still had to attach thedriveline and the bolts, but the
heavy part was done.
So what exactly is the heavypart in your life?
Is it starting?
(11:07):
Is it breaking the habit?
Is it actually telling yourselfthat that habit must go?
Is it telling yourself thatperson must go?
Is it telling yourself somethingmust go?
None of it is easy.
(11:28):
And never mind about people notliking you.
You might not like yourself inthe process.
But if the conviction is thereand it tells you that you must
complete that task, then youmust finish.
It's the only way to find peace.
I look inside that memory.
(11:50):
And I remember glancing up at mydad after when we got up.
Just looking up in a sigh ofrelief.
That was peace.
Yeah, he still had the bandageon his head or a band-aid on his
head.
But he had peace.
Sometimes we have scars from thethings that we've experienced.
(12:12):
Sometimes we have bruises andbumps from where we're at in the
process.
But that's evidence that wefought through.
That's evidence that we learned.
Yes, we don't always have tolearn from our mistakes.
Sometimes we learn by listening.
But sometimes life just happens.
(12:36):
And we must do what's necessaryin that moment.
So, let's just take one stepback away from that room.
Again, the elevator to the leftand staircase to the right.
There's a lot of work that'sbeen done in here.
(13:00):
And that's what I hope toaccomplish even with you in
sharing.
I'm not a doctor.
I'm just somebody who'sovercome.
Again, I represent somethinglarger.
Something more than a feeling.
I represent a hope.
When we go beyond being astatistic.
(13:23):
Many times we're told, and I wastold, that we won't amount to
much or anything.
But that didn't stop me.
Quietly, I structured myselfmentally and I built strength.
I strengthened my heart.
(13:44):
I put myself firm and Idetermined that I was going to
overcome all my shortcomings.
That's all I have for today.
So, let me walk you out.
Why don't we just take thestairs back up and exit out of
the forge.
Remember, If you feel lost, youcan be found.
(14:10):
If you feel unloved, you areloved.
Have a great day.
Goodbye.
I am the Timesmith.
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