"Categorizing Your Adversity"| Episode #83 | Builder of All Things | Author’s Cut: Chapter Six w/ Richie Breaux

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Welcome to the Builder of All Things Podcast—where we go beyond the pages of the book and explore into the Author’s Cut! 🔥 Join Richie Breaux and Ray Bisnar as they break down each chapter in micro-episodes, giving you the behind-the-scenes insights, deeper wisdom, and real-life applications—just like a Director’s Cut for a book. 

In this episode, “Categorizing Your Adversity,” we enter the turning point — the moment the groundwork meets the real-life application. After laying the foundation of stewardship and ownership, we now step into the heart of the battle: how to discern the adversity you're facing — and respond accordingly.

🌬️ Not all adversity is the same. Some storms are out of your control. Others come wrapped in deception. And some? They’re smoke signals from a fire we started ourselves.

💡 In this conversation, we unpack:
* The three categories of adversity: The Storm, The Snake, and The Smoke
* Why your response to hardship must match the type of adversity you’re in
* How to recognize when you’re dealing with something God-allowed vs. self-inflicted
* What spiritual discernment looks like in business, marriage, leadership, and life
* Why categorizing your adversity brings clarity, strategy, and peace — even in chaos

📖 “God allows storms.” That shift alone changes everything. When we stop resisting what’s out of our hands and start leaning into God's sovereignty, we move from control to trust — and that’s where wisdom flows.

🤍 Whether you're navigating a personal storm, discerning hidden motives, or confronting your own decisions — this episode gives you a framework to face it all with courage and clarity.

👇 Drop a comment: Which category do you feel you’re facing right now — storm, snake, or smoke?

#CategorizingAdversity #TheStorm #Stewardship #ChristianLeadership #FaithInHardship #Discernment #SpiritualGrowth #TrustGod #StormSnakeSmoke #KingdomMindset #PurposeInPain #HeartWork #GodAllowed #FaithOverFear

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:18):
it's getting really good at this point, um and so,
if you want to kind of bring usinto the about the storm and
what's happening here, yeah,this is, um, really the meat of
the book and I say that to saythe rest, chapter one, all the
way building up to chapter five,when we're in chapter six.

(00:40):
Here was basically theperspective shift.
Now we're jumping into, if youhave the perspective shift and
understanding it and shiftingyour mind to understand what
we're talking about in the otherchapters, which is that builder
of all things is the owner.
We operate as stewards and whenyou capture that stewardship,

(01:02):
you start opening the door ofyour almost like what you, your
belief system transfers fromyourself to a higher power,
right into God himself, and thatallows your heart, the soil of
your heart, to be moreacceptable to what God's trying
to do.

(01:22):
It's kind of like becomes yoursoils, ready for the seed and
fruit for God to work in yourlife.
And so we wanted to reallyestablish when I say we just
people, I've talked to theexperiences I've had, me and my
wife, when I was writing thebook.
I wanted to really establishthat first.
But in preparation for thispart, which I call battling

(01:44):
adversity, is really the meat ofthe book, because people,
businesses, pastors, parentsthat's a lot of Ps we battle
adversity every day.
You can't ignore them and whatI've experienced I've done it, I

(02:06):
see people do it we want tocategorize our adversity and
call it a storm.
Naturally, hey man, I'm goingthrough a storm.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, and I've heard that a lot was able to really
pinpoint this and then also nowpaying attention to life is that
, depending on what kind ofadversity you're in, is based on
how you'll respond to it.
So you, you can't respond toeach adversity the same, and so

(02:37):
I wanted to take and really lookat a storm.
You know through my experiencesI shared the book just growing
up in the, the Midwest, and thetype of storms we would get.
Man, we got those Wizard of Ozstorms.
You know like we get tornadoes.
I remember when I left to comehere to the islands that you
know there's this town calledWashington, right outside, I

(02:57):
mean 10 minutes from my city,got wiped out with one of the
greatest tornadoes in theMidwest in a very long time,
very historic.
Some of my friends' homes, itwas all over the national news
and the storms there are justcrazy, you know.
But looking at a storm man and Ireferenced that to like the

(03:17):
adversities I go through inbusiness, through life, through
marriage, through friendshipsthere's all these different
challenges.
Like storms, they come a lot oftimes when you don't expect
them and they're typically outof your control.
They're not something that'scaused by your decisions, by

(03:38):
people you don't have.
I mean, people are saying thatthe government's creating these
storms, sure, but in reality Godis allowing them.
It's how the earth operates.
They're going to come, they'regoing to go.
You got to be just naturallyready and prepared.
And however hits, if it.
One of my favorite movies istwister.
You know the old twister, thenew one was pretty good too.

(03:58):
But just uh, you know, theycome in all different forms and
your job is to survive it.
That's right, that's all thereis to it.
But the battles and adversitieswe face in life, I don't think
it's wise to categorize italways as a storm.
So, in where we're going in thisbook, the next three chapters

(04:20):
are vital on categorizing anddiscerning what adversity are we
in?
So I broke those out in threecategories, three pillars, which
I call the storm, snake and thesmoke, and so this chapter,
specifically, is thoseadversities that are out of your
control, like a storm.
So to set this, you know,podcast up, to set the chapter

(04:43):
up, and this, this next threechapters, was being able to
discern and categorize it first.
So what's good?
So you know how to respond toit correctly, right, how to
respond to it practically, howto respond to it spiritually,
even spiritually.
There's a different way torespond to, however, the

(05:04):
adversity is right, and so, justto set the stage for this
chapter um, that's what thismeat we're getting into is like
okay, the any adversity you'refacing in life or business, this
applies, you know, to look atit and say, okay, which category
is it which?
Which one is it?
Are we talking about somethingthat's out of my control?
Um, or you, the snake which Ireference as that's, uh, the

(05:31):
deceiver, the liar?
I mean, we hear the word snake,and that's why I use it is
because we think of, like, youknow the enemy, the devil, you
know the snake in the Bible, andso when you meet somebody who's
kind of like a deceiving type,oh, he's snake-ish, you know,
he's kind of snake-ish.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Normally it's a people.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Normally it is a person who, when you know you
discern we'll talk about that inthe next podcast.
But you know, when somebody isafter attacking your character
or coming at you, you know in asnakeish way, we'll call it
right now.
And then the last one is thesmoke is when you it's
self-inflicted adversity, whenyou really can look in the
mirror and say did I start thisfire?

(06:09):
You know, kind of deal.
So on the smoke, we'll talkabout that.
But, very important, I haveeven in the book I have this
kind of like interlude thatdescribes everything I just
shared to set the tone for thenext three chapters.
So when you're going into thestorm, I want you to embrace
categorizing it like of its ownadversity, you to embrace

(06:34):
categorizing it like of its ownadversity so you understand how
to respond it, because youcannot respond, or I would
advise you to respond to thesnake like you would a storm I
wouldn't advise for you torespond to the smoke like you
would, a storm and theseadversities.
So that's just to set the stageof the interlude, you know, and
interlude this podcast, beforewe start talking about the storm
, of where we're headed.

(06:54):
This is the challenges of life,these are the tornadoes, these
are the, the big rain stormsthat are trying to take you out,
trying to make it so you knowthe things that are out of your
control so you would say thatthe storm is normally something
that's out of your control, outout of your hands, something you
can't really control.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
I mean, you have no control over this thing.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, good example.
I'm in residential construction.
I own a residentialconstruction company.
We rely heavily on puttingtogether architectural plans,
submitting them to the city andcounty and getting permit
approvals.
Permit approval usually threeto six months, but when that
delay kicks out to like twoyears, and that's to me a storm

(07:42):
being created.
There's different levels of thestorms that we'll talk about,
but to me that's out of mycontrol.
There are certain things Icould try to help control that,
but there's just a point whereyou're like man, there's nothing
I can do to change thesituation.
And what's unique about thestorm is it's God-allowed.
God allows storms.

(08:02):
That's the foundational part ofthe approach to a storm is
understanding that if Godallowed it, that's a great
foundation to start.
It's in his control and that'sthe hard part.
As a human, we want greatfoundation to start Like it's in
his control and that's the hardpart.
As a human, we want to controleverything.
But when it's out of yourcontrol, whose control is it in?
Bye.