March 17, 2024 • 30 mins
Hartley introduces us to the breath prayer, Kevin anticipates push-back in the upcoming political season.
SHOW NOTES:
- adjacent — /ad·ja·cent/ adjective not distant: nearby; lying near, close
- tangent — /ˈtanj(ə)nt/ adjective
(of a line or plane) touching, but not intersecting, a curve or curved surface - tangential — /tan-jen-shuhl/ adjective
(of a subject or activity) different from or not directly connected with the one you are talking about or doing: a tangential issue - Kevin is currently reading: Practical Optimism: The Art, Science, and Practice of Exceptional Well-Being by Sue Varma, MD; published by Avery; 2024; 336 pages
- You can pray a breath prayer into the spaces of your day: when you are waiting, when you are worried and anxious, when you need some sense of God's presence, 'underneath' all other words and thoughts consuming your daily interactions, when you are entering into silence and solitude, and as a way of bringing your mind back to your desire when it begins to wander.
- Discovering your Own Breath Prayer
- Sit quietly, reminding yourself you are in God's loving presence. Allow yourself to sit with a particular word or phrase from Scripture if there is one which helps you enter a prayerful, listening stance.
- Express your true heart to God: "God, what I most want from you right now is...
- Choose your favorite name or image for God which best captures who God is for you or who you need or want Him to be as you are currently relating to him. (examples: God, Father, Jesus, Creator, Spirit, Breath of life, Lord, Shepherd, Holy One, Prince of Peace, Savior)
- Combine your name for God with the expression of your heart, capturing your yearning for intimacy, wholeness, or well-being in Christ.
- Consider variations of your combination until you have a prayer of about 6 to 8 syllables which flows smoothly when spoken aloud; rhythmic enough to be prayed with the inhalation and exhalation of your breathing.
- Portions of the Breath Prayer exercise are adapted from The Breath of Life: A Simple Way to Pray by Ron DelBene; published by Wipf and Stock; 2005; 110 pages
- The film “Super Size Me” is a 2004 part documentary film and part health experiment directed by and featuring American indie filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. In the film, he records the effects of a 30-day period of time (Feb. 1 – March 2, 2003) in which he ate only McDonald’s food.
- A man named Johnny Harris researched why McDonald's™ ice cream machines are consistently broken down and chronicled his findings in this video presentation.
- You can visit this website to discover if the McDonald's™ ice cream machine near you is currently operational.
Comment—What do you think?
X / Tweet™ to us | @FaithMoneyBomb
Leave a comment via Email | f.bombs@hartleywright.com
Connect With Us:
Hartley Facebook / Twitter / Threads
Kevin Facebook / Blog
Show Credits:
- Sound Effects by Zapsplat
- Announcer: Dr. K.J. Wright
- Music Credits
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, you know, a place like Golden Corral, 90
days, you could you could dothat. You could say, you know
what? I eat here. I'm good for90 days.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah. That's about right.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
It's like me with a Big Mac. I I loved Big Macs.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I hate Big Macs. I've had one in my life. I hate
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, as a teenager, I loved Big Macs. And so then as
I got to an adulthood andrealized how many calories was
in 1 Big Mac, I said, okay.That's it. Welcome to the faith,
finances, and f bombs podcastwhere we inspire you to manage
(00:37):
your money, find your soul, andcover your ears. Well, hello,
everyone.
As I've said before, this is nota wait. My mic is hot. Maybe I
should back up. Somebodysomebody listening now has
probably just covered theirears, which is great because we
gave them a warning. I have saidbefore and probably will say
(01:01):
again, this is not a politicalpodcast by any means, but I
think it's fair to say we arepolitically we are political
adjacent.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
That's a good word for it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I would think so. That's how I've thought about
it. And so,
Speaker 2 (01:15):
you're the wordsmith. What would be the difference
between adjacent and tangent?Tangent. Nah.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I hadn't thought about that. We'll have to
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Just throw it out there.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Tan why would you say tangent? I don't know. Oh.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Because I like the word tangent.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
You just like the word tangent. You
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well, specifically tangential. I like that word.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah. Tangential. You know, some words and I'm not
saying this about tangential,but some words do not exist.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I know. Although, you know, the whole irregardless is
now in a dictionary.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah. And it has been for some time, and we have an
episode that was where I didtalk about that. And I think I
even mentioned that it was inthe Yep. Dictionary.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And we
Speaker 1 (01:55):
have a whole podcast episode where my f bomb of that
particular podcast were thesewords that are not words, and
more and more, they are becomingwords because we have accepted
them. But
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah. Oh, let's get back to politics then.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yes. So, we introduced and we are waiting on
data to unfold on the AlabamaIVF situation. And then lo and
behold, last Thursday night, wehad the presidential State of
the Union address and then aRepublican response from Katie
Britt.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
From Alabama.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
From Alabama, senator. And then there was
quite a Saturday night live,which I have not I am not a
Saturday night live enthusiastand haven't been for many, many,
many, many years. Listener, ifyou're not aware of this, the 2
of us are very, very old guysdepending on your age.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
It's all good about context.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah. I'm old to make sense. Depending on your age,
we're either very, very, veryold or maybe just very old.
We're old to Jason. Either way,I was alive when, Saturday Night
Live began, and so those weregreat days.
They were fabulous. They werefantastic in terms of Saturday
Night Live. And, and then it hita point in which it was just I
thought, man, this isn't workinganymore. And some of that may
(03:06):
have been age related. Some ofit was just my particular
flavors of what I like and Idon't.
So but every now and then,there's something Saturday Night
Live has that I think they dohave really good sketch.
Scarlett Johansson was the gueston Saturday Night Live. Their
whole opening was herimpersonating Katie Britt, and
she had her down to the t. Nice.If you if you did not see Katie
(03:27):
Britt's
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I did not.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Presentation, I would watch that first. A rebuttal?
Her rebuttal. But you need towatch a good you need to watch
it up to about the 7, 8 minutemark where you can see how she
presented it, and then you'llreally appreciate Scarlett
Johansson's parody.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Have you read any article or heard anybody speak
about her rebuttal in itself interms of I'm asking because I
don't know if you're comp ifyou're hearing all of this for
the first time. It's what I'mabout to say.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah. I know very little other than I saw a fact
checker article, and she wastalking about us sex
trafficking. And
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Mentioned a woman, and the woman said that was from
2004 to 2008 Oh. During Biden'sadministration. Yeah. That's
about all I know.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah. And part of, Johansen's pitch perfect parody
points that out. I'm mentioningall of this because I do
believe, at least at this point,she is likely to be Trump's
running mate.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
That's why she drew the
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I believe that's how she was chosen to
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Politically, that makes sense to me.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yes. Politically, it does. And people have had quite
a reaction all across across theboard.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I have no doubt.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Trump is the forerunner. He's kinda secured
that spot. And I'm not sureabout Bobby Kennedy. Is Bobby
Kennedy still I can tell
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I can tell about
Speaker 1 (04:42):
June. Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah. Yeah. Bobby's Bobby's
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Let me specify. Again
Speaker 2 (04:47):
For us who are older For
Speaker 1 (04:48):
us who are older, see, the listener knew exactly
who I was talking about. Yeah.You needed the clarification.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, just because I'm older than
Speaker 1 (04:55):
you, it is. Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And I wanna make sure that they knew we weren't
talking about a dead person.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's right. Yes. Oh, I'm sure it would Our
special guest today, our musicalguest on the podcast today will
be the dead Kennedys.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
That's right. Once again, for young people, you may
not know that. Now he's runningas an independent. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I was hoping you were gonna tell me someone else
Speaker 2 (05:21):
because no good news for you.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah. I was hoping you'd say someone else because I
because I'm not sure theincumbent
Speaker 2 (05:27):
is What a situation we're in.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yes. We are in quite a situation. And, again, we are
not political here. We are justpolitically adjacent.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah. But I gotta I gotta imagine if we could talk
to all 330,000,000 Americans 1on 1 and just say, come on. On
one hand, you got this. On theother hand, you got that. How in
the hell did we get here?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Great question.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
These are the 2 best options out of 330,000,000
people? I I can't believe that'strue.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
That's where we are.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I know that's where we're at.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I just It's hard to fathom how it happened.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
My mind works. I wanna know how did we get here?
That these are the 2 choices?Again?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Again. That in 4 years' time
Speaker 2 (06:04):
cow.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Knowing what we had and witnessing how everything
unfolded, how is there no oneelse?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
What's so disappointing to me. In one of
my class sessions, I just said,I feel sorry for you all. Here
you are, 21 years old. For someof you, this is the 1st
presidential election you'vebeen able to vote in, and this
is your choice. Do you rememberwhen, we looked at candidates
who were in their sixties, andwe thought they were old
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
For being president. And now we're looking at guys
who are gonna turn 80, andyou're like, well, okay.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Well and even Bobby Kennedy is an independent. He's
70.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah. But he's in great shape.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
He is in great shape, man. That guy.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You see him without a shirt?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Oh my gosh. That guy is I I need to know his routine.
I know some of it because I'veheard his wife talk about it, on
a podcast where she was a guest.He's in the gym all the time.
He's working out all the time.
He constantly goes. Heexercises. He never he never
stops in that regard.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah. My guess would be it's been a habit for most of
his adult life or
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I would guess so.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
He wouldn't be that disciplined. Yeah. And it
certainly doesn't hurt that he'shad financial resources to do
whatever he needs to do.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
That is that is very helpful. Yeah. Not to just beat
a horse to death and not to turnoff listeners who say, okay. I'm
done with this episode. Yeah.
Back in the early eighties, hewould talk about it. We finally
got to a point where it it wasjust the right time for Trump.
He was like, you know what? Withthese choices, I probably have a
realistic shot.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I still think all of his decisions were driven by
revenue. Think of the publicityhe got in 2015 when he came down
that golden hell of it orescalator.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Escalator.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Isn't it hasn't stopped since? That's a
wonderful thing. It's great.Great.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
There's some process there. A small loan of
$1,000,000. $1,000,000. That's ahorrible Trump impression. First
time I've ever tried that.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Well, keep working on it because, I mean, he may be
president for the next
Speaker 1 (07:53):
4 years. He may be president.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
We wanna sharpen that, invitation so we could do
some parodies on our ownpodcast.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah. That's true. America's a mess. I'll just say
that.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
What's that? What do you got?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
This is the magazine, Foreign Affairs. That's why I
opened with this politicalleaning because America's a mess
on its own, but Russia andUkraine are a mess. So I was
reading about where they're atin terms of bringing that to an
end and then Israel and Oman.Haiti
Speaker 2 (08:15):
in there?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yes. Holy cow. It's gonna be very interesting what
happens in the Middle East, ormaybe we should start looking
and calling it the new MiddleEast because it's not gonna be
the same. I don't wanna get intoall of that because then it
would become very political interms of America's involvement
or lack of involvement withRussia and not really helping
and supporting Ukraine, helpingJerusalem, but not doing what
they need to do. So that startedOctober 7th.
(08:38):
How long is the war in Ukrainehas been happening since 22?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah. We're in our 3rd year.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
3rd year of that. But one thing I can say about that
is, as I read this morning, thisis the Russian military, are
they weak and vulnerable, almostat an end? Or on the flip side
of that, are they strong enough?And do they have support? And do
they have arsenal support inorder to come in and do some
devastation and destruction?
And both statements are true. Itreally just depends on decisions
(09:04):
that need to be made. Yeah. Thesame can be true about Israel. I
think really in the Israelsituation, they just need new
leadership.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Saw a headline about Netanyahu possibly losing his
leadership Yeah. Positionbecause of all this.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
They were getting ready for elections when the
incidents happened on October7th, and then that brought
everything to a halt. So here weare now, this many months later
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
People really don't understand. One of the things on
my perpetual to do list is get abetter grip and handle an
understanding of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. And and
most people really don't have anunderstanding of it. And, I
mean, why would they? That'spart of our luxury of being
westerners.
We can be surrounded in ourfirst world problems and hear
about those things, and theyrattle us and they and they stir
(09:46):
us for for what? All of a dayand a half, and then most of us
are back to our usual lives andignoring
Speaker 2 (09:52):
everything else.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah. So enough about that. I'll let you respond to
that and then move us intofinances if you would like.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
And I don't really have a response that's coherent
or intellectual. Yeah. One thingthat popped my head is we're
talking about Trump, Biden,Netanyahu. If your father took
the keys and wrecked the car,how often would you keep giving
him the keys so he can go backout?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Well, it depends on if I am an enabler, codependent.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Seems like that's what we're doing with these
guys. It's like, well, youscrewed it up the first time,
but come on back for anothertry.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Can I just push push the edge here a little bit more?
We have our senators and ourrepresentatives are all men who
just will not give up power.They most of them don't realize
how they're abusing that power.And so why not? Yeah.
I mean, I mean, that's part ofit. We're gonna keep giving them
the keys because if I hold himaccountable, I'm speaking not as
(10:42):
myself. But if I am a senator,for example, if I hold him
accountable, then someone isgonna need to hold me
accountable, and I don't wannabe held accountable for many of
the decisions I've made. Yeah.And what's on my record and how
I vote and the fact that I dokeep giving him the keys.
I mean, I think that's I don'tthink that makes me cynical. I
only think it makes meskeptical. I'm trying to be a
realist.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Practical optimist. Yes. The new book I'm reading.
Alright. Well, I'll talk aboutfinance.
We'll get off of that.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And the listener takes a big heavy sigh.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah. Thank god. Not a lot to talk about since we
were here last week. Things aregood. We have, on pace, have
another record high today.
The S and P is currently at5167. The record high close is
5157. So we are above, but westill have, gosh, 4 and a half
(11:33):
hours left of the trading day.So anything could happen. So
there's really nothing new.
Chairman Powell testified lastweek before congress and
essentially said, I think we'redone raising rates. Right. First
time he's made that statement inany form. He's always been much
more vague. So now comes therace of who wins the first rate
cut?
There was trying to guess. JamieDimon, CEO of JPMorgan said this
(11:54):
morning, I think they should becautious and wait as long as
they can to cut rates. Becausethe economy's doing great. His
point is don't rush it becausewe don't have to go backwards.
You get it wrong.
We don't have to reverse andraise rates again. Just let it
sit. Think there's probably somewisdom in that. Powell, in his
defense, has been clear for ayear now. We will analyze the
data and make our decision.
Now the skeptics have alreadyran into this with some client
(12:16):
appointments, have said, oh,yeah. But it's an election year.
They'll cut rates. I said,you're probably right. I'm not
saying it's causation, but therecertainly seems to be a
correlation between electionyear and rate cuts.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Very, very much.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
There wasn't in 16 or 20 because rates were still at 0
from back in 2009. So thatthat's something that's in our
heads is a collectiveconsciousness. Like, politics
are gonna get involved in this.They're gonna cut rates so that
the incumbent has a chance towin. Yeah.
It's I don't know that that'sactual, but that's what people
believe.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
In my history, that's what I used to believe until
until recent until the recenttime. Well, just
Speaker 2 (12:52):
think we had no rate cuts in 12, 16, or 20.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So in the 3 most recent elections, no rate cuts
that year. Right. But that'sstill what people believe.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
It's a default thing that I've had to shift and
change.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yep. I think I told you this, and we probably had on
a podcast. After that lunch, Iwent to
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yes. Is this about the history of Yeah. The facts.
And you're gonna yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah. So we'll we'll have those little teasers on the
podcast all summer leading up tothe election. Okay. We'll try to
be a voice of factual data asopposed to what we all think to
be true.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Right. Right.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I'll bring those in. We'll kinda cover those.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I catch you often didn't get you, we missed
because I worked assumptivelythat everyone who is listening
knows what we're talking about,but there might be someone who's
just dropping in for thisepisode. We missed that part
about actually what you'retalking about, which is, say
what it is you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
1st Trust data? Yeah. So they went and grabbed data
and analyzed a whole bunch of,let's just say, potential
outcomes in presidentialelection years. What happens
when a Republican wins? Whathappens when a Democrat wins?
What happens when the WhiteHouse, the Senate, and the
Congress are controlled by thesame party? What happens when
it's a split? What happens whenit's a president that's a
republican, a split? All ofthose kind of things. And they
(14:04):
broke it down with a lot ofhistorical data and just said,
they're very much into facts.
This is what happened. And oncewe start presenting it, I
suspect there's gonna be 47% ofthe population that's gonna be
shocked of our listeners. AndI've already been through this
in 2020 on Facebook. Even though
Speaker 1 (14:20):
people are
Speaker 2 (14:20):
gonna argue presented facts, I was told, no. That's
not right.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
So I'm prepared for that again because that's a
human behavior. It's a knownresearchable outcome that when
you present actual facts anddata that are contrary to
someone's opinion, they do notchange their mind. They just dig
in deeper because they now feelsalted. So I don't know how else
to do it other than saying theseare the facts. I don't know.
(14:45):
There's gotta be some way tocommunicate that without
attacking the other person. Ihope we can do it well. I don't
know. We'll find out.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
So a couple of things. You made the statement.
Our economy is doing great.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
It is.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Should come as no surprise to you that one of the
things Katie Britt attacked, shekind of evoked that fear that
the economy is in bad shape,which we know is the playbook.
And then this last thing thatyou're talking about, about
people feeling assaulted, tothat, I would say, hence, no.
You weren't wrong about theeconomy. Our faith focus, during
(15:21):
the Lent season, which we arestill in, has been on not giving
something up, but rather takingup a practice of prayer. And so
I wanted to make these kind ofsimple so they're not complex.
I wanna make them very tangible.Would would that be tangent?
Would that make them I don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
No. Tangent.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Tangent. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Probably the same root.
It could be. So I wanted to makethem tangible and concrete and
easy so that you as a listenercan say, hey. This is very
simple. This is a way I can makespace for God. And so today, I'm
just gonna be very simple andvery short and just talk about
the practice of a breath prayer.
Now this has origins of when itbegan and how it began. I don't
think the background of this isreally necessary for you to
(15:59):
appreciate this, and there'ssome scripture that goes with
this. But I would just say thatthe great thing about a breath
prayer is it's a way that youcan connect with God in any kind
of moment, in any kind ofsituation, and you already have
words that are provided. So youcan be praying about a situation
or a circumstance that you arein by simply lifting up a breath
prayer, which draws you near toGod and you feel his presence
(16:22):
near to you and you feel thatyou are connected with him even
though you are experiencing whatit is you are experiencing. It
also works as a place to justconnect.
If you feel yourselfexperiencing some anxiety, if
you feel yourself intimidated orapprehensive about something,
you're not settled, breathprayer can be something that
settles you. And so withoutgetting into the background,
(16:43):
just to keep it simple so thatwe have an easy access to Create
space for God, I would just say,here's how a breath prayer works
ideally best, and this has beenmy experience. A breath prayer
is as simple as this. You wantto find a name for God, not one
that you make up yourself, but aname and a title for God that
does exist, and there are plentyto choose from that are
(17:04):
biblical. And if you do not knowmany, you can just simply I've
never done this.
You could probably just put in aGoogle search names for God, and
you'll probably be get theHebrew ones first. That's
probably gonna be your top hit.The El Elohim and the El Adonai
and, you know, all of those. Butif you go into a deeper search,
you can find God in the personof Jesus. There were many, many,
(17:24):
many names and titles.
You wanna have a breath prayerthat includes a name for God
that you resonate with that isvery personal to you, that means
something to you ofsignificance. And then you want
to put in a prayer of what it isthat you most need. What do you
need from God most in this partof your life? Or maybe it's
something that has been anongoing struggle or something
(17:46):
that has been a great concernabout where you do not feel that
you and God are in touch withone another, place where you
struggle to make thatconnection. And then I believe
this is very important.
I know many people who havebreath prayers, and their breath
prayers are much longer thanthis, but I think what works
best is 7 syllables.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
If I were to use heavenly father is what
identifies for me.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
So just break that down.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
That's 5.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Heavenly father. That's 5.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
And I can only use 7?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
In that case, you would probably use more. Okay.
What again, I'm presenting theideal. Alright. Ideally, I think
7 works best because this is abreath prayer.
So it's a prayer that you makeas you breathe. So you have a
few syllables where you breathein and then a few syllables
where you breathe out. So in2010, when I began to embrace
(18:37):
and be an actual activeparticipant in every bit of my
transformational process, thefirst thing that alarmed me was
I felt like I'd lost my soul. Iwas out of touch with my soul. I
was no longer connected with mysoul.
I mean, I literally thought itwas lost, and it put me into a
panic and a tailspin. I may havetalked about that before in an
episode. So when I began toincorporate the spiritual
(18:57):
discipline of prayer anddifferent types of prayer,
because I had thought I'd lostmy soul, I I said, okay. What
would be a name for God that Ireally resonate with? Well, I
need him to be a shepherdbecause at the time, I am a lost
sheep.
Mhmm. It's what I trulybelieved. Mhmm. So shepherd
resonated with me. While he wasa very important part of my life
and we had a good relationship,I was not making him lord.
(19:21):
K. There's big god, but thenthere's lord who I allowed to
have a personal interaction.Actually allow him to have some
control and influence and justsurrender control to him. So I
needed a shepherd because I wasa lost sheep. I had not been
making him Lord.
So there I had two names for Godthat really resonated with me
and were very meaningful.Shepherd, lord. My big need or
(19:43):
my concern, my panic was thatI've lost touch with my soul.
Mhmm. So then my prayer, andthat's really at the heart of
the mechanic, is what is it thatyou need to prayer, and and it
can be an ongoing prayer.
And mine at the time, and it andthis was my breath prayer prayer
for several years, was I wantedhim to restore my soul. So then
(20:03):
my prayer became, shepherd,lord, restore my soul. So I had
7 syllables. Alright. So then Icould say, shepherd, Lord, as I
breathe in, restore my soul as Ibreathe out.
That was my breath prayer from2010 for many, many years. So it
was my breath prayer for muchlonger than it needed to be.
It's still a breath prayer Ihave. I have a handful of breath
(20:24):
prayers, but I hold that up as agood example that fits the
ideal. You've got 7 syllables,easy to remember, not very
complex.
You can breathe in and breatheout. This is the kind of thing
that is very helpful when you'relaying on a hospital gurney
about to go into a testprocedure. Everything that's
going on in your mind and yourheart, your emotions, you're
you're not stable in any way.This can be a very calming
(20:45):
thing, and it can bring youclose to God and you can feel
like, okay, God's in control. Ifyou're in line at a grocery
store and you're about to loseit because you picked the line
with the slowest checker and youcan feel yourself losing your
sense of balance because you'vegot too much to do.
You were too hurried, and soyou're gonna start to curse and
swear, and you're getting veryfrustrated inside. And you don't
have to say it out loud, but youcan say it in your mind. You
(21:07):
know, shepherd, Lord, restoremyself. So in the example you
had, you have 5 syllables there.Your actual prayer part, well,
is it gonna you're probablygonna need more than 2
syllables.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So then maybe pick words that are similar to that
for the title, or you just havea longer prayer. Kelly does
this. Kelly has had a few breathprayers. I don't know that any
of hers have just been 7syllables. I might be wrong
about that.
A couple of breath prayers thatI'm aware of that she has had
have been right there around9:10. I'm not saying if you have
more than 7, it doesn't work.It's just a longer breath. You
know, inhale with a fewsyllables, exhale.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And I like the 7 syllables, and I think that's
ideal because it makes it verysimplistic and it's easier to
hang on to.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Good stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I had a friend. I still have a friend, but he his
father had diabetes. It was bad.It was he had a serious Yeah.
Case of diabetes, and heeventually died from the
disease.
Yeah. One of the reasons itovertook him was because he just
did not care to change. And whenI mentioned this to my friend,
he says he knows ways to trickthe testing and trick the doctor
(22:12):
when he goes into a test. So hewill go a couple of nights
before his test and chow downlike there's no worry at Golden
Corral's buffet. And then acouple days later, he does
whatever he needs to do to that,just fools the doctor enough to
think that his levels may behigh, but it's it's okay.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
It's hard to fool harder to fool an a one c
because they'll tell you that'sa 60 to 90 day average.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So that would be tough. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Is a one time snapshot. Boom. Right then.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah. So talking about this now makes me wonder
if if his diabetes testing orcheck ins or whatever they were
based on glucose.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
It had to be glucose
Speaker 1 (22:50):
or he couldn't have gone. He couldn't have gone
Speaker 2 (22:51):
out of golden cow. Yeah. He must did it 90 days in
advance. But yeah. Well, that'sa lot of planning.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Well, you know, a place like Golden Corral, 90
days, you could you could dothat. You could say, you know
what? I eat here. I'm good for90 days.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah. That's about right.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
It's like me with a Big Mac. I I loved Big Macs.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
I hate Big Macs. I've had one in my life. I hate
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Well, as a teenager, no. It's just it's preference. I
loved Big Macs. And so then as Igot to an adulthood and realized
how many calories was in 1 BigMac, I said, okay. That's it.
So I decided at that point tohave 1 Big Mac a year.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Just keep the streak alive?
Speaker 1 (23:25):
In the last few years, I don't know when I had
the last one because I just gotout of the habit. Because when
you're only having 1 a year
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yeah. At some
Speaker 1 (23:32):
point, you say, I don't need to have 1 Sure. This
year. When they came out with,again, listener, we are old. The
quarter pounder with cheese hasprobably been in existence your
entire life, but it has not beenin existence my entire life. No.
So when they came out with thequarter pounder with cheese,
that was my burger of choice atMcDonald's. But before that, it
was always a Big Mac. Yeah. Thatwas it. Hungry for a burger.
(23:55):
Speaking of McDonald's Yes. Itis not uncommon for parents of
young children or even someolder children to frequent
McDonald's quite a bit. Yeah. We
Speaker 2 (24:03):
took our kids there.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
When our children were young, I would pick them up
from school. We'd get a snackafter school. When you have an
after school snack, you have 3options. One of which is you
don't go anywhere. You come homeand you have a snack at home.
That is really the mostreasonable and the most
pragmatic, and it's probably theone I would highly recommend
except I'm a 7, and so,therefore, we're not gonna have
a snack at home. So that leavesyou with 2 other choices. You
(24:25):
either go to a place like Sonicor you just run through
McDonald's and get somethinglike a cone. So we would
frequently go through McDonald'sto get ice cream cones because
that's pretty you know, it'sokay. Safe snack.
Not bad. It's a nice littletreat.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
But their their ice cream machine would be out so
much. If I had a podcast at thetime, this would have been a a
full f bomb. It would not havebeen a cherry bomb. It would not
have been a smoke bomb.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
It is a f bomb The for me.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Frequency of the ice cream machine being broken has
increased over whenever you weremost frustrated by it.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
I saw an article online that says, why is
McDonald's ice cream machinealways broken?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
There you go. Makes you wonder if it ever really is
broken. We didn't go toMcDonald's every day. We
wouldn't have an after schoolsnack every day. Madison, I
don't know if she loves to tellthis story, but she's I've heard
her tell more than one person.
And she will tell about a timein which on this particular
week, we wanted to get a cone,so we had tried this is, like,
our 3rd attempt of the week. I'mtalking to the drive through
(25:24):
attendant, ordered the ice creamcream, says, I I'm sorry. The
ice cream machine is broken. Wecan't give ice cream today. And
I said, done with McDonald's andpeeled out, peeled away from
there in a rage.
Nice. Plymouth Voyager minivan,but all but 2 of those tires
were squealing. I mean, I left
Speaker 2 (25:43):
skidmarks on
Speaker 1 (25:44):
friends of ours that our kids grew up with living in
Tennessee now. They've moved inTennessee in 2017. 2019, Brian,
the dad, sends a text just tomyself and Madison. Sends us a
text with a link to a newsarticle in Florida about a man
pulling out an AR 15 because theice cream machine was broken. He
doesn't say anything.
(26:05):
Florida. He just sends a textwith that link. Madison simply
responded, I bet he yelled donewith McDonald's. Alright.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
So I'll give you an up to date version of the same
story. The class I teach is inFulton, Missouri, so I drive
there Tuesday Thursdays. Afriend of mine who's a client
lives in Fulton. He normallycomes to Columbia to do our
meetings. But since I'm inFulton now twice a week, I told
him his name's Alvin.
I said, Alvin, one of thesedays, I'm gonna come in early,
and you and I will get some icecream. A client of mine passed
(26:34):
away that Alvin knew, and Ifound out she knew him one day I
was talking to her in Fulton.She passed away. So I checked in
with Alvin. I said, hey.
Did you know so and so passedaway? He said, yeah. I just
found out. Did you know her daddied last week? Oh, wow.
Yeah. I saw that in theobituary, blah blah blah. So I
said, I'm gonna come in earlybecause I'm worried about you.
Because he openly said to me,it's really bothering me. I'm
(26:55):
having a hard time with it.
So I thought I'm gonna go justmeet him for ice cream. We'll
talk for a while, see how he'sdoing. So I called him, and I'm
like, hey. I'm coming to Fulton.Can you check around and see
where a good place to get icecream in Fulton?
He says, sure. So I call himback. He goes, well, the place I
wanted to take you to isdowntown, but they close at 1.
So that wasn't gonna be anoption. So I said, well, I know
(27:17):
where the McDonald's is.
Is there only 1 in Fulton? Hesaid, yes. Well, then I know
where the McDonald's is. Howabout we just make it simple?
We'll go get an ice cream.
We'll sit and talk before I haveto go to class. Great. So show
up. I'd like a, you know, asundae, blah blah blah. Our ice
machine is broken.
I said, that's how I felt. And Istart I looked at him, and I
(27:39):
started to laugh. And I said,then I'm assuming you don't have
a McFlurry or a milkshakeeither. And she said, yeah. It's
all out of the same machine.
So here we are just 3 weeks ago.Wow. Once again, a McDonald's
whose ice cream machine isbroken.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
What the hell, McDonald's? No. You are a
national I mean, you are aninternational phenomenally. And
this is a universal thing. Like,if you mention it anywhere,
people will be like, I could bein an airport, and I could hear
(28:13):
someone say, let's go over toMcDonald's.
Well, not for ice cream.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
That's right. So I mean, that's other passengers
are gonna say, not today becausetheir ice cream machine's
Speaker 1 (28:20):
growing. Exactly. Right. It's it's what is what is
up with that?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
To me.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
There should be an international investigation into
this. That'd be a huge parody.That's a parody I could write.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Think the justice department needs to get involved
in this.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Do you remember Super Size Me? I would just do one on
just I would just do one on theice cream. I would just Yeah.
Let a camera follow me around.Perfect for Say, we're gonna go
nationwide.
I'm gonna go city to city, and Iwill eat nothing but ice cream
cones, but we're gonna track andsee how many of these McDonald's
say our ice cream machine isdown right now. It's amazing.
It's broken. It's almost likeit's
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Well, we got our f bomb in.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yeah. Right? Yeah. It's amazing to me. And that is
not, I mean, it's it's asunfathomable as the fact that we
are down to Biden and Trumpagain.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
That's a good corollary.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Biden and Trump and McDonald's ice cream.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
The country is not well.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
It we are in shambles.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
But I'm not dare gonna say make America great
again.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That's another
when you do go and check, whenyou go watch the footage of her,
you might check out just alittle bit of Biden's state of
the unit dress.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
I can't bring myself.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Because there was a, oh, gosh. What was she? I guess
she was a rep. Yeah. Theheckler.
You heard about her.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yes. I heard about it. And she was wearing what was
inappropriate and illegal towear at a State of the Union
address. She had a mega hat on.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Oh, shocker.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
And, I think her shirt might have had something
with Trump or something, but
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Oh my god. There is such a concern for America. But
hey,
Speaker 2 (29:49):
wrap this up and go get some ice cream done.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah. Let's go see. Yeah. Right now.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
We're on the case.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
We're going to go see report.
Well, you know, a place like Golden Corral, 90
days, you could you could dothat. You could say, you know
what? I eat here. I'm good for90 days.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah. That's about right.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
It's like me with a Big Mac. I I loved Big Macs.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I hate Big Macs. I've had one in my life. I hate
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, as a teenager, I loved Big Macs. And so then as
I got to an adulthood andrealized how many calories was
in 1 Big Mac, I said, okay.That's it. Welcome to the faith,
finances, and f bombs podcastwhere we inspire you to manage
(00:37):
your money, find your soul, andcover your ears. Well, hello,
everyone.
As I've said before, this is nota wait. My mic is hot. Maybe I
should back up. Somebodysomebody listening now has
probably just covered theirears, which is great because we
gave them a warning. I have saidbefore and probably will say
(01:01):
again, this is not a politicalpodcast by any means, but I
think it's fair to say we arepolitically we are political
adjacent.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
That's a good word for it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I would think so. That's how I've thought about
it. And so,
Speaker 2 (01:15):
you're the wordsmith. What would be the difference
between adjacent and tangent?Tangent. Nah.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I hadn't thought about that. We'll have to
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Just throw it out there.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Tan why would you say tangent? I don't know. Oh.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Because I like the word tangent.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
You just like the word tangent. You
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well, specifically tangential. I like that word.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah. Tangential. You know, some words and I'm not
saying this about tangential,but some words do not exist.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I know. Although, you know, the whole irregardless is
now in a dictionary.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah. And it has been for some time, and we have an
episode that was where I didtalk about that. And I think I
even mentioned that it was inthe Yep. Dictionary.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And we
Speaker 1 (01:55):
have a whole podcast episode where my f bomb of that
particular podcast were thesewords that are not words, and
more and more, they are becomingwords because we have accepted
them. But
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah. Oh, let's get back to politics then.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yes. So, we introduced and we are waiting on
data to unfold on the AlabamaIVF situation. And then lo and
behold, last Thursday night, wehad the presidential State of
the Union address and then aRepublican response from Katie
Britt.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
From Alabama.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
From Alabama, senator. And then there was
quite a Saturday night live,which I have not I am not a
Saturday night live enthusiastand haven't been for many, many,
many, many years. Listener, ifyou're not aware of this, the 2
of us are very, very old guysdepending on your age.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
It's all good about context.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah. I'm old to make sense. Depending on your age,
we're either very, very, veryold or maybe just very old.
We're old to Jason. Either way,I was alive when, Saturday Night
Live began, and so those weregreat days.
They were fabulous. They werefantastic in terms of Saturday
Night Live. And, and then it hita point in which it was just I
thought, man, this isn't workinganymore. And some of that may
(03:06):
have been age related. Some ofit was just my particular
flavors of what I like and Idon't.
So but every now and then,there's something Saturday Night
Live has that I think they dohave really good sketch.
Scarlett Johansson was the gueston Saturday Night Live. Their
whole opening was herimpersonating Katie Britt, and
she had her down to the t. Nice.If you if you did not see Katie
(03:27):
Britt's
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I did not.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Presentation, I would watch that first. A rebuttal?
Her rebuttal. But you need towatch a good you need to watch
it up to about the 7, 8 minutemark where you can see how she
presented it, and then you'llreally appreciate Scarlett
Johansson's parody.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Have you read any article or heard anybody speak
about her rebuttal in itself interms of I'm asking because I
don't know if you're comp ifyou're hearing all of this for
the first time. It's what I'mabout to say.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah. I know very little other than I saw a fact
checker article, and she wastalking about us sex
trafficking. And
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Mentioned a woman, and the woman said that was from
2004 to 2008 Oh. During Biden'sadministration. Yeah. That's
about all I know.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah. And part of, Johansen's pitch perfect parody
points that out. I'm mentioningall of this because I do
believe, at least at this point,she is likely to be Trump's
running mate.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
That's why she drew the
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I believe that's how she was chosen to
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Politically, that makes sense to me.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yes. Politically, it does. And people have had quite
a reaction all across across theboard.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I have no doubt.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Trump is the forerunner. He's kinda secured
that spot. And I'm not sureabout Bobby Kennedy. Is Bobby
Kennedy still I can tell
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I can tell about
Speaker 1 (04:42):
June. Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah. Yeah. Bobby's Bobby's
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Let me specify. Again
Speaker 2 (04:47):
For us who are older For
Speaker 1 (04:48):
us who are older, see, the listener knew exactly
who I was talking about. Yeah.You needed the clarification.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, just because I'm older than
Speaker 1 (04:55):
you, it is. Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And I wanna make sure that they knew we weren't
talking about a dead person.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's right. Yes. Oh, I'm sure it would Our
special guest today, our musicalguest on the podcast today will
be the dead Kennedys.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
That's right. Once again, for young people, you may
not know that. Now he's runningas an independent. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I was hoping you were gonna tell me someone else
Speaker 2 (05:21):
because no good news for you.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah. I was hoping you'd say someone else because I
because I'm not sure theincumbent
Speaker 2 (05:27):
is What a situation we're in.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yes. We are in quite a situation. And, again, we are
not political here. We are justpolitically adjacent.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah. But I gotta I gotta imagine if we could talk
to all 330,000,000 Americans 1on 1 and just say, come on. On
one hand, you got this. On theother hand, you got that. How in
the hell did we get here?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Great question.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
These are the 2 best options out of 330,000,000
people? I I can't believe that'strue.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
That's where we are.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I know that's where we're at.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I just It's hard to fathom how it happened.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
My mind works. I wanna know how did we get here?
That these are the 2 choices?Again?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Again. That in 4 years' time
Speaker 2 (06:04):
cow.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Knowing what we had and witnessing how everything
unfolded, how is there no oneelse?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
What's so disappointing to me. In one of
my class sessions, I just said,I feel sorry for you all. Here
you are, 21 years old. For someof you, this is the 1st
presidential election you'vebeen able to vote in, and this
is your choice. Do you rememberwhen, we looked at candidates
who were in their sixties, andwe thought they were old
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
For being president. And now we're looking at guys
who are gonna turn 80, andyou're like, well, okay.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Well and even Bobby Kennedy is an independent. He's
70.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah. But he's in great shape.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
He is in great shape, man. That guy.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You see him without a shirt?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Oh my gosh. That guy is I I need to know his routine.
I know some of it because I'veheard his wife talk about it, on
a podcast where she was a guest.He's in the gym all the time.
He's working out all the time.
He constantly goes. Heexercises. He never he never
stops in that regard.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah. My guess would be it's been a habit for most of
his adult life or
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I would guess so.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
He wouldn't be that disciplined. Yeah. And it
certainly doesn't hurt that he'shad financial resources to do
whatever he needs to do.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
That is that is very helpful. Yeah. Not to just beat
a horse to death and not to turnoff listeners who say, okay. I'm
done with this episode. Yeah.
Back in the early eighties, hewould talk about it. We finally
got to a point where it it wasjust the right time for Trump.
He was like, you know what? Withthese choices, I probably have a
realistic shot.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I still think all of his decisions were driven by
revenue. Think of the publicityhe got in 2015 when he came down
that golden hell of it orescalator.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Escalator.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Isn't it hasn't stopped since? That's a
wonderful thing. It's great.Great.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
There's some process there. A small loan of
$1,000,000. $1,000,000. That's ahorrible Trump impression. First
time I've ever tried that.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Well, keep working on it because, I mean, he may be
president for the next
Speaker 1 (07:53):
4 years. He may be president.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
We wanna sharpen that, invitation so we could do
some parodies on our ownpodcast.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah. That's true. America's a mess. I'll just say
that.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
What's that? What do you got?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
This is the magazine, Foreign Affairs. That's why I
opened with this politicalleaning because America's a mess
on its own, but Russia andUkraine are a mess. So I was
reading about where they're atin terms of bringing that to an
end and then Israel and Oman.Haiti
Speaker 2 (08:15):
in there?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yes. Holy cow. It's gonna be very interesting what
happens in the Middle East, ormaybe we should start looking
and calling it the new MiddleEast because it's not gonna be
the same. I don't wanna get intoall of that because then it
would become very political interms of America's involvement
or lack of involvement withRussia and not really helping
and supporting Ukraine, helpingJerusalem, but not doing what
they need to do. So that startedOctober 7th.
(08:38):
How long is the war in Ukrainehas been happening since 22?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah. We're in our 3rd year.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
3rd year of that. But one thing I can say about that
is, as I read this morning, thisis the Russian military, are
they weak and vulnerable, almostat an end? Or on the flip side
of that, are they strong enough?And do they have support? And do
they have arsenal support inorder to come in and do some
devastation and destruction?
And both statements are true. Itreally just depends on decisions
(09:04):
that need to be made. Yeah. Thesame can be true about Israel. I
think really in the Israelsituation, they just need new
leadership.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Saw a headline about Netanyahu possibly losing his
leadership Yeah. Positionbecause of all this.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
They were getting ready for elections when the
incidents happened on October7th, and then that brought
everything to a halt. So here weare now, this many months later
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
People really don't understand. One of the things on
my perpetual to do list is get abetter grip and handle an
understanding of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. And and
most people really don't have anunderstanding of it. And, I
mean, why would they? That'spart of our luxury of being
westerners.
We can be surrounded in ourfirst world problems and hear
about those things, and theyrattle us and they and they stir
(09:46):
us for for what? All of a dayand a half, and then most of us
are back to our usual lives andignoring
Speaker 2 (09:52):
everything else.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah. So enough about that. I'll let you respond to
that and then move us intofinances if you would like.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
And I don't really have a response that's coherent
or intellectual. Yeah. One thingthat popped my head is we're
talking about Trump, Biden,Netanyahu. If your father took
the keys and wrecked the car,how often would you keep giving
him the keys so he can go backout?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Well, it depends on if I am an enabler, codependent.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Seems like that's what we're doing with these
guys. It's like, well, youscrewed it up the first time,
but come on back for anothertry.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Can I just push push the edge here a little bit more?
We have our senators and ourrepresentatives are all men who
just will not give up power.They most of them don't realize
how they're abusing that power.And so why not? Yeah.
I mean, I mean, that's part ofit. We're gonna keep giving them
the keys because if I hold himaccountable, I'm speaking not as
(10:42):
myself. But if I am a senator,for example, if I hold him
accountable, then someone isgonna need to hold me
accountable, and I don't wannabe held accountable for many of
the decisions I've made. Yeah.And what's on my record and how
I vote and the fact that I dokeep giving him the keys.
I mean, I think that's I don'tthink that makes me cynical. I
only think it makes meskeptical. I'm trying to be a
realist.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Practical optimist. Yes. The new book I'm reading.
Alright. Well, I'll talk aboutfinance.
We'll get off of that.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And the listener takes a big heavy sigh.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah. Thank god. Not a lot to talk about since we
were here last week. Things aregood. We have, on pace, have
another record high today.
The S and P is currently at5167. The record high close is
5157. So we are above, but westill have, gosh, 4 and a half
(11:33):
hours left of the trading day.So anything could happen. So
there's really nothing new.
Chairman Powell testified lastweek before congress and
essentially said, I think we'redone raising rates. Right. First
time he's made that statement inany form. He's always been much
more vague. So now comes therace of who wins the first rate
cut?
There was trying to guess. JamieDimon, CEO of JPMorgan said this
(11:54):
morning, I think they should becautious and wait as long as
they can to cut rates. Becausethe economy's doing great. His
point is don't rush it becausewe don't have to go backwards.
You get it wrong.
We don't have to reverse andraise rates again. Just let it
sit. Think there's probably somewisdom in that. Powell, in his
defense, has been clear for ayear now. We will analyze the
data and make our decision.
Now the skeptics have alreadyran into this with some client
(12:16):
appointments, have said, oh,yeah. But it's an election year.
They'll cut rates. I said,you're probably right. I'm not
saying it's causation, but therecertainly seems to be a
correlation between electionyear and rate cuts.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Very, very much.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
There wasn't in 16 or 20 because rates were still at 0
from back in 2009. So thatthat's something that's in our
heads is a collectiveconsciousness. Like, politics
are gonna get involved in this.They're gonna cut rates so that
the incumbent has a chance towin. Yeah.
It's I don't know that that'sactual, but that's what people
believe.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
In my history, that's what I used to believe until
until recent until the recenttime. Well, just
Speaker 2 (12:52):
think we had no rate cuts in 12, 16, or 20.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So in the 3 most recent elections, no rate cuts
that year. Right. But that'sstill what people believe.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
It's a default thing that I've had to shift and
change.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yep. I think I told you this, and we probably had on
a podcast. After that lunch, Iwent to
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yes. Is this about the history of Yeah. The facts.
And you're gonna yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah. So we'll we'll have those little teasers on the
podcast all summer leading up tothe election. Okay. We'll try to
be a voice of factual data asopposed to what we all think to
be true.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Right. Right.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I'll bring those in. We'll kinda cover those.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I catch you often didn't get you, we missed
because I worked assumptivelythat everyone who is listening
knows what we're talking about,but there might be someone who's
just dropping in for thisepisode. We missed that part
about actually what you'retalking about, which is, say
what it is you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
1st Trust data? Yeah. So they went and grabbed data
and analyzed a whole bunch of,let's just say, potential
outcomes in presidentialelection years. What happens
when a Republican wins? Whathappens when a Democrat wins?
What happens when the WhiteHouse, the Senate, and the
Congress are controlled by thesame party? What happens when
it's a split? What happens whenit's a president that's a
republican, a split? All ofthose kind of things. And they
(14:04):
broke it down with a lot ofhistorical data and just said,
they're very much into facts.
This is what happened. And oncewe start presenting it, I
suspect there's gonna be 47% ofthe population that's gonna be
shocked of our listeners. AndI've already been through this
in 2020 on Facebook. Even though
Speaker 1 (14:20):
people are
Speaker 2 (14:20):
gonna argue presented facts, I was told, no. That's
not right.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
So I'm prepared for that again because that's a
human behavior. It's a knownresearchable outcome that when
you present actual facts anddata that are contrary to
someone's opinion, they do notchange their mind. They just dig
in deeper because they now feelsalted. So I don't know how else
to do it other than saying theseare the facts. I don't know.
(14:45):
There's gotta be some way tocommunicate that without
attacking the other person. Ihope we can do it well. I don't
know. We'll find out.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
So a couple of things. You made the statement.
Our economy is doing great.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
It is.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Should come as no surprise to you that one of the
things Katie Britt attacked, shekind of evoked that fear that
the economy is in bad shape,which we know is the playbook.
And then this last thing thatyou're talking about, about
people feeling assaulted, tothat, I would say, hence, no.
You weren't wrong about theeconomy. Our faith focus, during
(15:21):
the Lent season, which we arestill in, has been on not giving
something up, but rather takingup a practice of prayer. And so
I wanted to make these kind ofsimple so they're not complex.
I wanna make them very tangible.Would would that be tangent?
Would that make them I don'tknow.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
No. Tangent.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Tangent. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Probably the same root.
It could be. So I wanted to makethem tangible and concrete and
easy so that you as a listenercan say, hey. This is very
simple. This is a way I can makespace for God. And so today, I'm
just gonna be very simple andvery short and just talk about
the practice of a breath prayer.
Now this has origins of when itbegan and how it began. I don't
think the background of this isreally necessary for you to
(15:59):
appreciate this, and there'ssome scripture that goes with
this. But I would just say thatthe great thing about a breath
prayer is it's a way that youcan connect with God in any kind
of moment, in any kind ofsituation, and you already have
words that are provided. So youcan be praying about a situation
or a circumstance that you arein by simply lifting up a breath
prayer, which draws you near toGod and you feel his presence
(16:22):
near to you and you feel thatyou are connected with him even
though you are experiencing whatit is you are experiencing. It
also works as a place to justconnect.
If you feel yourselfexperiencing some anxiety, if
you feel yourself intimidated orapprehensive about something,
you're not settled, breathprayer can be something that
settles you. And so withoutgetting into the background,
(16:43):
just to keep it simple so thatwe have an easy access to Create
space for God, I would just say,here's how a breath prayer works
ideally best, and this has beenmy experience. A breath prayer
is as simple as this. You wantto find a name for God, not one
that you make up yourself, but aname and a title for God that
does exist, and there are plentyto choose from that are
(17:04):
biblical. And if you do not knowmany, you can just simply I've
never done this.
You could probably just put in aGoogle search names for God, and
you'll probably be get theHebrew ones first. That's
probably gonna be your top hit.The El Elohim and the El Adonai
and, you know, all of those. Butif you go into a deeper search,
you can find God in the personof Jesus. There were many, many,
(17:24):
many names and titles.
You wanna have a breath prayerthat includes a name for God
that you resonate with that isvery personal to you, that means
something to you ofsignificance. And then you want
to put in a prayer of what it isthat you most need. What do you
need from God most in this partof your life? Or maybe it's
something that has been anongoing struggle or something
(17:46):
that has been a great concernabout where you do not feel that
you and God are in touch withone another, place where you
struggle to make thatconnection. And then I believe
this is very important.
I know many people who havebreath prayers, and their breath
prayers are much longer thanthis, but I think what works
best is 7 syllables.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
If I were to use heavenly father is what
identifies for me.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
So just break that down.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
That's 5.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Heavenly father. That's 5.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
And I can only use 7?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
In that case, you would probably use more. Okay.
What again, I'm presenting theideal. Alright. Ideally, I think
7 works best because this is abreath prayer.
So it's a prayer that you makeas you breathe. So you have a
few syllables where you breathein and then a few syllables
where you breathe out. So in2010, when I began to embrace
(18:37):
and be an actual activeparticipant in every bit of my
transformational process, thefirst thing that alarmed me was
I felt like I'd lost my soul. Iwas out of touch with my soul. I
was no longer connected with mysoul.
I mean, I literally thought itwas lost, and it put me into a
panic and a tailspin. I may havetalked about that before in an
episode. So when I began toincorporate the spiritual
(18:57):
discipline of prayer anddifferent types of prayer,
because I had thought I'd lostmy soul, I I said, okay. What
would be a name for God that Ireally resonate with? Well, I
need him to be a shepherdbecause at the time, I am a lost
sheep.
Mhmm. It's what I trulybelieved. Mhmm. So shepherd
resonated with me. While he wasa very important part of my life
and we had a good relationship,I was not making him lord.
(19:21):
K. There's big god, but thenthere's lord who I allowed to
have a personal interaction.Actually allow him to have some
control and influence and justsurrender control to him. So I
needed a shepherd because I wasa lost sheep. I had not been
making him Lord.
So there I had two names for Godthat really resonated with me
and were very meaningful.Shepherd, lord. My big need or
(19:43):
my concern, my panic was thatI've lost touch with my soul.
Mhmm. So then my prayer, andthat's really at the heart of
the mechanic, is what is it thatyou need to prayer, and and it
can be an ongoing prayer.
And mine at the time, and it andthis was my breath prayer prayer
for several years, was I wantedhim to restore my soul. So then
(20:03):
my prayer became, shepherd,lord, restore my soul. So I had
7 syllables. Alright. So then Icould say, shepherd, Lord, as I
breathe in, restore my soul as Ibreathe out.
That was my breath prayer from2010 for many, many years. So it
was my breath prayer for muchlonger than it needed to be.
It's still a breath prayer Ihave. I have a handful of breath
(20:24):
prayers, but I hold that up as agood example that fits the
ideal. You've got 7 syllables,easy to remember, not very
complex.
You can breathe in and breatheout. This is the kind of thing
that is very helpful when you'relaying on a hospital gurney
about to go into a testprocedure. Everything that's
going on in your mind and yourheart, your emotions, you're
you're not stable in any way.This can be a very calming
(20:45):
thing, and it can bring youclose to God and you can feel
like, okay, God's in control. Ifyou're in line at a grocery
store and you're about to loseit because you picked the line
with the slowest checker and youcan feel yourself losing your
sense of balance because you'vegot too much to do.
You were too hurried, and soyou're gonna start to curse and
swear, and you're getting veryfrustrated inside. And you don't
have to say it out loud, but youcan say it in your mind. You
(21:07):
know, shepherd, Lord, restoremyself. So in the example you
had, you have 5 syllables there.Your actual prayer part, well,
is it gonna you're probablygonna need more than 2
syllables.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So then maybe pick words that are similar to that
for the title, or you just havea longer prayer. Kelly does
this. Kelly has had a few breathprayers. I don't know that any
of hers have just been 7syllables. I might be wrong
about that.
A couple of breath prayers thatI'm aware of that she has had
have been right there around9:10. I'm not saying if you have
more than 7, it doesn't work.It's just a longer breath. You
know, inhale with a fewsyllables, exhale.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And I like the 7 syllables, and I think that's
ideal because it makes it verysimplistic and it's easier to
hang on to.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Good stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I had a friend. I still have a friend, but he his
father had diabetes. It was bad.It was he had a serious Yeah.
Case of diabetes, and heeventually died from the
disease.
Yeah. One of the reasons itovertook him was because he just
did not care to change. And whenI mentioned this to my friend,
he says he knows ways to trickthe testing and trick the doctor
(22:12):
when he goes into a test. So hewill go a couple of nights
before his test and chow downlike there's no worry at Golden
Corral's buffet. And then acouple days later, he does
whatever he needs to do to that,just fools the doctor enough to
think that his levels may behigh, but it's it's okay.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
It's hard to fool harder to fool an a one c
because they'll tell you that'sa 60 to 90 day average.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
So that would be tough. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Is a one time snapshot. Boom. Right then.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah. So talking about this now makes me wonder
if if his diabetes testing orcheck ins or whatever they were
based on glucose.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
It had to be glucose
Speaker 1 (22:50):
or he couldn't have gone. He couldn't have gone
Speaker 2 (22:51):
out of golden cow. Yeah. He must did it 90 days in
advance. But yeah. Well, that'sa lot of planning.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Well, you know, a place like Golden Corral, 90
days, you could you could dothat. You could say, you know
what? I eat here. I'm good for90 days.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah. That's about right.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
It's like me with a Big Mac. I I loved Big Macs.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
I hate Big Macs. I've had one in my life. I hate
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Well, as a teenager, no. It's just it's preference. I
loved Big Macs. And so then as Igot to an adulthood and realized
how many calories was in 1 BigMac, I said, okay. That's it.
So I decided at that point tohave 1 Big Mac a year.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Just keep the streak alive?
Speaker 1 (23:25):
In the last few years, I don't know when I had
the last one because I just gotout of the habit. Because when
you're only having 1 a year
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yeah. At some
Speaker 1 (23:32):
point, you say, I don't need to have 1 Sure. This
year. When they came out with,again, listener, we are old. The
quarter pounder with cheese hasprobably been in existence your
entire life, but it has not beenin existence my entire life. No.
So when they came out with thequarter pounder with cheese,
that was my burger of choice atMcDonald's. But before that, it
was always a Big Mac. Yeah. Thatwas it. Hungry for a burger.
(23:55):
Speaking of McDonald's Yes. Itis not uncommon for parents of
young children or even someolder children to frequent
McDonald's quite a bit. Yeah. We
Speaker 2 (24:03):
took our kids there.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
When our children were young, I would pick them up
from school. We'd get a snackafter school. When you have an
after school snack, you have 3options. One of which is you
don't go anywhere. You come homeand you have a snack at home.
That is really the mostreasonable and the most
pragmatic, and it's probably theone I would highly recommend
except I'm a 7, and so,therefore, we're not gonna have
a snack at home. So that leavesyou with 2 other choices. You
(24:25):
either go to a place like Sonicor you just run through
McDonald's and get somethinglike a cone. So we would
frequently go through McDonald'sto get ice cream cones because
that's pretty you know, it'sokay. Safe snack.
Not bad. It's a nice littletreat.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
But their their ice cream machine would be out so
much. If I had a podcast at thetime, this would have been a a
full f bomb. It would not havebeen a cherry bomb. It would not
have been a smoke bomb.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
It is a f bomb The for me.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Frequency of the ice cream machine being broken has
increased over whenever you weremost frustrated by it.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
I saw an article online that says, why is
McDonald's ice cream machinealways broken?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
There you go. Makes you wonder if it ever really is
broken. We didn't go toMcDonald's every day. We
wouldn't have an after schoolsnack every day. Madison, I
don't know if she loves to tellthis story, but she's I've heard
her tell more than one person.
And she will tell about a timein which on this particular
week, we wanted to get a cone,so we had tried this is, like,
our 3rd attempt of the week. I'mtalking to the drive through
(25:24):
attendant, ordered the ice creamcream, says, I I'm sorry. The
ice cream machine is broken. Wecan't give ice cream today. And
I said, done with McDonald's andpeeled out, peeled away from
there in a rage.
Nice. Plymouth Voyager minivan,but all but 2 of those tires
were squealing. I mean, I left
Speaker 2 (25:43):
skidmarks on
Speaker 1 (25:44):
friends of ours that our kids grew up with living in
Tennessee now. They've moved inTennessee in 2017. 2019, Brian,
the dad, sends a text just tomyself and Madison. Sends us a
text with a link to a newsarticle in Florida about a man
pulling out an AR 15 because theice cream machine was broken. He
doesn't say anything.
(26:05):
Florida. He just sends a textwith that link. Madison simply
responded, I bet he yelled donewith McDonald's. Alright.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
So I'll give you an up to date version of the same
story. The class I teach is inFulton, Missouri, so I drive
there Tuesday Thursdays. Afriend of mine who's a client
lives in Fulton. He normallycomes to Columbia to do our
meetings. But since I'm inFulton now twice a week, I told
him his name's Alvin.
I said, Alvin, one of thesedays, I'm gonna come in early,
and you and I will get some icecream. A client of mine passed
(26:34):
away that Alvin knew, and Ifound out she knew him one day I
was talking to her in Fulton.She passed away. So I checked in
with Alvin. I said, hey.
Did you know so and so passedaway? He said, yeah. I just
found out. Did you know her daddied last week? Oh, wow.
Yeah. I saw that in theobituary, blah blah blah. So I
said, I'm gonna come in earlybecause I'm worried about you.
Because he openly said to me,it's really bothering me. I'm
(26:55):
having a hard time with it.
So I thought I'm gonna go justmeet him for ice cream. We'll
talk for a while, see how he'sdoing. So I called him, and I'm
like, hey. I'm coming to Fulton.Can you check around and see
where a good place to get icecream in Fulton?
He says, sure. So I call himback. He goes, well, the place I
wanted to take you to isdowntown, but they close at 1.
So that wasn't gonna be anoption. So I said, well, I know
(27:17):
where the McDonald's is.
Is there only 1 in Fulton? Hesaid, yes. Well, then I know
where the McDonald's is. Howabout we just make it simple?
We'll go get an ice cream.
We'll sit and talk before I haveto go to class. Great. So show
up. I'd like a, you know, asundae, blah blah blah. Our ice
machine is broken.
I said, that's how I felt. And Istart I looked at him, and I
(27:39):
started to laugh. And I said,then I'm assuming you don't have
a McFlurry or a milkshakeeither. And she said, yeah. It's
all out of the same machine.
So here we are just 3 weeks ago.Wow. Once again, a McDonald's
whose ice cream machine isbroken.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
What the hell, McDonald's? No. You are a
national I mean, you are aninternational phenomenally. And
this is a universal thing. Like,if you mention it anywhere,
people will be like, I could bein an airport, and I could hear
(28:13):
someone say, let's go over toMcDonald's.
Well, not for ice cream.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
That's right. So I mean, that's other passengers
are gonna say, not today becausetheir ice cream machine's
Speaker 1 (28:20):
growing. Exactly. Right. It's it's what is what is
up with that?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
To me.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
There should be an international investigation into
this. That'd be a huge parody.That's a parody I could write.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Think the justice department needs to get involved
in this.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Do you remember Super Size Me? I would just do one on
just I would just do one on theice cream. I would just Yeah.
Let a camera follow me around.Perfect for Say, we're gonna go
nationwide.
I'm gonna go city to city, and Iwill eat nothing but ice cream
cones, but we're gonna track andsee how many of these McDonald's
say our ice cream machine isdown right now. It's amazing.
It's broken. It's almost likeit's
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Well, we got our f bomb in.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yeah. Right? Yeah. It's amazing to me. And that is
not, I mean, it's it's asunfathomable as the fact that we
are down to Biden and Trumpagain.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
That's a good corollary.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Biden and Trump and McDonald's ice cream.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
The country is not well.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
It we are in shambles.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
But I'm not dare gonna say make America great
again.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. That's another
when you do go and check, whenyou go watch the footage of her,
you might check out just alittle bit of Biden's state of
the unit dress.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
I can't bring myself.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Because there was a, oh, gosh. What was she? I guess
she was a rep. Yeah. Theheckler.
You heard about her.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yes. I heard about it. And she was wearing what was
inappropriate and illegal towear at a State of the Union
address. She had a mega hat on.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Oh, shocker.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
And, I think her shirt might have had something
with Trump or something, but
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Oh my god. There is such a concern for America. But
hey,
Speaker 2 (29:49):
wrap this up and go get some ice cream done.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah. Let's go see. Yeah. Right now.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
We're on the case.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
We're going to go see report.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
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
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!