Expectations, Faith, And Christmas Chaos

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (01:14):
Is it ticking?

SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
Ticking time bomb.
There we go.
It's moving.
Ticking time bomb.
TikTok.
Tick.
It's ticking.

SPEAKER_04 (01:23):
Nick's in the tree seat.

SPEAKER_01 (01:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:26):
I still feel like loud or maybe it's my ears.

SPEAKER_01 (01:29):
Yeah, your ears might be loud.

SPEAKER_04 (01:31):
What color am I?
Orange.

SPEAKER_01 (01:33):
Orange.
Orange.
So turn her orange headphones.
That's good.

SPEAKER_04 (01:35):
That's good.

SPEAKER_03 (01:37):
Alrighty.
Alright.
Now I'm all distracted.
Lots of colors, lots of colorsin like Spongebob.
I just want to press the redbutton.

SPEAKER_04 (01:49):
Don't touch it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:50):
Goodness gracious.
Why is a red button is alwayssomething bad happens.

SPEAKER_01 (02:00):
Well, because red means stop.
And the president has the redphone.
Yeah.
Yep.

unknown (02:05):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (02:06):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
Red is bad.
Yeah.
Your hat's bad.
You got a bad hat.
My Bucky's hat.
Can I tell you it was threestops?
I've never been to a Bucky'shat.
It was three stops to get thishat.
I stopped at three Buckys to getthis hat.
And they had them at every one,but he couldn't decide what he
wanted.
No, that's I wish that weretrue.
So we stopped at one on the waydown.

(02:28):
Never even thought about a hat.
The kids all got something tiny.
Like we told them five dollarsor under, you can grab
something.
On the way home, I was like, Iwant a Bucky's hat.
Like I decided I had to get one.
So we stopped at the one inDaytona Beach.
Don't ever do that at lunchtime.
It was so busy you couldn'tmove.
Oh and so the only hats they hadwere Bucky's Christmas hats.

(02:48):
So I grabbed one reluctantly,but I was like, I'll get it.
We got in the car and we starteddriving home.
We were coming home.
And I saw a sign as soon as wegot on the interstate: 163 miles
to Bucky's.
Well, guess where we stop?
Bucky's at that Bucky's.
So I went in, found the hat.
That's all we got.
Back out we went.
But their brisket on mac andcheese, delicious.

(03:11):
That's kind of a thing of mine.
With mac and cheese or on macand cheese?
On mac and cheese.
So you get the mac and cheeseand then they put a big old lump
of brisket on top of it.

SPEAKER_04 (03:19):
They someone had that at the market a few weeks
ago.

SPEAKER_01 (03:22):
You know who it was?
Fun story.
Is that TCB barbecue?
It's an Elvis reference.
Oh I went up to them and I waslike, Am I catching an Elvis
reference?
And the lady's like, Yes, you'reonly the second person who've
ever gotten it.
I fist bumped her.
We talked for a while aboutElvis and then on my way I went.

(03:42):
But we're trying to book her forRailroad Festival now because
why not?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (03:46):
Where were they from?

SPEAKER_01 (03:47):
They're local, but I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_04 (03:49):
Because I've never I had never seen them until then.

SPEAKER_01 (03:51):
Yeah, me either.

SPEAKER_04 (03:53):
Huh.

SPEAKER_00 (03:55):
Maybe they're just coming out of the box.

SPEAKER_01 (03:57):
Out of the box.
Out of the box.
Anybody remember that from ourchildhood?
I do.
I don't.
Well, you're that's not yourchildhood.
It would have been ourchildhood.

SPEAKER_00 (04:12):
How about Mr.
Green Jeans?
Have you ever seen Mr.
Green Jeans?
Nope.
Oh.
Yeah.
He was on uh Captain Kangaroo.

SPEAKER_01 (04:23):
Oh, jeez.
Now I know who Captain Kangaroois, but only from a country
song.

SPEAKER_03 (04:29):
There was more than one Captain Kangaroo, though.
No, there wasn't.
I thought there was one when wewere kids, but then there was
also one black and white fromway back when.
Or maybe it was the same guy andhe just carried he carried
Claire over into the.

SPEAKER_00 (04:41):
No, no, I think uh I think there was only one
original Captain Kangaroo.
Just like Howdy Duty.
It's Howdy Duty time.

SPEAKER_02 (04:52):
What was his clown's name?
Oh, I have no idea.
I've never seen Clarabelle.

SPEAKER_00 (04:57):
Jeez.

SPEAKER_02 (04:57):
Well, you don't know nothing.
Yeah, I don't.

SPEAKER_04 (05:00):
Yeah, that that out-of-the-box tune like lives
in my head rent-free.

SPEAKER_01 (05:05):
Mine is not the Mine is not the theme song.
Mine's the goodbye song.
So long to you, my friend.
I remember that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Guy playing the bongos.
Yeah, that was my jam, man.

SPEAKER_00 (05:20):
What the bongos?

SPEAKER_01 (05:21):
Well, that song.
It was just one of those.
It was like you could put thaton repeat.
It's very calming.
It's very calming.
Oh, you need to listen to RoyRogers.
How about Big Comfy Couch?
Did you watch a little bit?

SPEAKER_04 (05:32):
Did you watch Bear in the Big Blue House?

SPEAKER_01 (05:34):
Okay.
Funny story about Bear in theBig Blue House.
Not entirely appropriate for apodcast, but it's a funny story,
so I'm gonna share it anyway.
I that was pre-me or post me.
That was Brooke, my cousinBrooke's age.
So we were at my grandma'shouse.
I had spent the night, I'meating a bowl of cereal, sitting
on the floor in the living room,Bear in the Big Blue House is
on.
And if you know Bear in the BigBlue House, every time he would
come onto the like at the at thebeginning of the episode, he

(05:57):
would and do the sniffing thing.
Something smells really good.
It must be you.

SPEAKER_04 (06:01):
And like puts his nose up to the camera.

SPEAKER_01 (06:03):
Like up to the screen.
So he's like, you see the bear'snose.
I had never seen the showbefore.
Okay.
Now I was a flatulent child.
Might still be as an adult.
I don't know.
That would be up for debate.
Anyhow, I had just passed gasand Bear starts sniffing at the
screen.
I'm dying thinking there is noway this is real life right now.

(06:24):
Turned out it was just part ofthe show.
But I didn't know that.
Thought that was the funniestthing ever.
For my I I still think it'sfunny.
I still laugh.
Anyhow, I know Margie's laughingright now.
When she hears this, she's gonnalaugh.
So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 (06:37):
I don't know if this is podcast appropriate, but just
say it anyway.
And you know, the Christmas Eveparty.

SPEAKER_04 (06:48):
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (06:49):
Oh, yes, where they put all the keys in there.
Yes, that's a great question.

SPEAKER_04 (06:53):
Wait, wait, hold on.
Let me think.

SPEAKER_01 (06:54):
It is not child appropriate.
It's not kid appropriate.
I've always thought that.

SPEAKER_03 (06:57):
But I didn't notice this for years.
Oh, I did.
Wait, what?
And then Margie said somethingabout it.
I'm like, okay.
I said, no, they're just puttingtheir keys in the bowl because
they're all going to drink.
And so they don't want anybodyto drive home drunk.
And she's like, no, you aretotally missing.

SPEAKER_01 (07:13):
I think that's what that's like.

SPEAKER_04 (07:16):
Wow.
I never caught on to that.
I don't think Chase has eitherbecause we watched that point.
How did they get that passed?

SPEAKER_03 (07:22):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (07:23):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (07:24):
You know.
Producers.

SPEAKER_01 (07:26):
Well, I think it was probably intentional.

SPEAKER_04 (07:28):
It was one of those like adult humor things.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (07:31):
Do you remember Rocco's Modern Life?
Yeah.
Or even Hey Arnold.
There were a lot of adultreferences in those shows, but
when we were kids, we didn'tknow that.
Yeah.
I guess so.
If my parents would have seenthat, they probably would have
freaked out that I was watchingit.
But of course, I wasn't wellsupervised as a child either.

SPEAKER_00 (07:47):
So that's what happened to him.
No.
No, that was getting hit by thelate summer evenings watching
Beavis and Butthead.

SPEAKER_03 (07:57):
Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 (07:57):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (07:59):
Yeah, we don't even need to get into Beavis and
Butthead.
There's a video game for theSuper Nintendo of Beavis and
Butthead.
My brother and I played thatgame nonstop for hours.
The whole purpose was to getfrom your house to the Guar
concert.
Well, I don't know that we everbeat that game.
We could get to the last level,but we could never beat it.
It was, yeah.
So I actually rebought itbecause I wanted to play it
again.

SPEAKER_03 (08:19):
Yeah, that was one of those games where it was more
fun just to screw around thanwas to actually beat it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
To accomplish the goals.
Yeah.
Those guys are worthless.
Oh, yeah.
Oh my gosh.
And did you ever see the twoguys that actually look like
that?
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (08:36):
Hilarious.
Hey, Pastor Roger.
Yes.
I'm gonna ask you one more time.
What was that receipt for atLowe's for$200?

SPEAKER_04 (08:47):
You just threw it away, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 (08:48):
Oh, we'd eat a string.
Good job.
I've only told you three times.
Yeah, I and I always forget.

SPEAKER_00 (08:54):
And I thought maybe he would, you know, write it
down or he was doing what he wassupposed to be doing then.
Nope.
Nope.
No.

SPEAKER_01 (09:01):
Nope.
Well, here's the problem.
I ask him, and three hourslater, he texts me back.
I'm already done with what I wasworking on.

SPEAKER_04 (09:06):
So But to his defense, you should have known
that's how that was gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 (09:10):
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
Thanks.
Actually, what's funny, I hadtext both he and Pastor Holly
about receipts because I'mmultitasking right now.
I'm coding all of the creditcard purchases.
I text both of them at the exactsame time about receipts that I
needed information on.
Both of them text me back at thesame time hours later.
It was hilarious.
I was like, well, they must havebeen together or something.

(09:31):
Both of you are like, what do wedo?
Get this guy off our back.
I do tend to be a nag when itcomes to receipts because like
my wife has 18 to code.
She does all the checkingaccount stuff.
I strictly do the credit cardstuff.
And I don't like outstandingstuff because it's at the end of
the month, it's tedious to tryto get caught up.

(09:53):
So anyway.
Roger and Holly are goingthrough their couch cushions.

SPEAKER_03 (09:57):
Yes.

SPEAKER_05 (09:57):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (10:01):
Well, usually you can't read his.
They've ridden in his wallet forthe entire month.
And all they're all worn out.

SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
The ink's wore off of the road.
Okay.
I'm not real sure where this isfrom.
Here it is.
Or how much it is.
All completely worn out.
Yeah, I can't help it.
Well, at least I had thereceipt.
You know, it may not be legible,but I do have the receipt.

unknown (10:23):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (10:24):
Well, guys, last appropriate episode of the year.
Well, how'd that happen?

SPEAKER_01 (10:29):
I don't know.
So we were gonna release onemore yet.

SPEAKER_03 (10:32):
Yeah.
This might be the actual lastrecording.
Last recording, last topic forthe year.
Really timely, I will say.
Because we had this idea for awhile and we kind of left it on
the list and skipped it and youknow, then decide to do it, and
then I couldn't be here in theone week.
So that we postponed it again.

(10:53):
Yeah.
But wouldn't you know sometimesthat all works out just the way
it's supposed to.
Because of course it's theholiday season, and I think for
many people it is the season ofexpectation.
Yes.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, you know, that'syeah, that's how we've all
conditioned ourselves to be.
Is that you know, we don't takethis should be the time when we

(11:15):
all slow down and take accountof our blessings and take
account of, you know, our lovedones and uh spend a little more
time with that.
And and what do we do?
We try to go even faster.

SPEAKER_00 (11:28):
You know, chop everybody's in a hurry.

SPEAKER_03 (11:30):
I know at my work right now, it is absolutely
insane.

SPEAKER_01 (11:34):
Well, you want to get everything done before the
end of the year, so you can justbig push.

SPEAKER_03 (11:38):
Like, yeah, everybody wants nobody wants to
make the same amount amount ofmoney last year as last year.
You know, you want to make moremoney.
Yep.
So everybody's just push, push,push, and it's just just a just
a relay, just every day of justhow much more can we get out the
door.
And you know, we're closing inlike next week will be the last
full week that we'll have of theyear, and then it'll be

(12:01):
Christmas week and then NewYear's week.
And so, you know, we're justdriving ourselves insane, trying
to get all this stuffaccomplished.
And that makes it even harder.
It does, because then you comehome new stress, yeah, and you
come home, and guess what?
You're pretty exhausted.
You know, you might want to dosome holiday things with your
family and make time for this ormake time for that.
But a lot of people are well,you're working overtime at work,

(12:24):
and then you're you're thinkingmore about that, and then you
know what you should be thinkingabout this time of year.
So yeah, so you know, andMichael, your message was was
just really good.

SPEAKER_01 (12:35):
Yeah, I wish it would have been recorded.
Yeah, don't get me started.
That's too bad.
No, and here's the thing it thisis just it's how it happens.
I went into the pulpitfrustrated, like I my I was my
spirit was not in a good place.
I walk into the pulpit, and allof that energy was channeled
into that message, and I don'tget to listen to it.
I remember about 40% of what Isaid.
So the other 60% is just goneforever.

(12:57):
So yeah.
Was it very frustrated?
It wasn't anybody's fault.
The system did the recordingstarted, but when we pulled it
out, there was no file there.
So apparently it wasn't meant tolive on, it was meant for that
moment.

SPEAKER_04 (13:10):
That's what I was about to say.

SPEAKER_01 (13:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (13:12):
So, you know, I I think it carries over into you
know how sometimes we look atour faith is you know, I can
compare this right now to, youknow, the I think the present
state of you know, guilty ascharged, like with us with with
Maggie.
Like, you know, it used to befun to go Christmas shopping.

(13:34):
Oh, it's now it's not funanymore because now these kids
like they have it's not a wishlist.
It's a one list, it's a oneslash expectation.
Yes, yeah, it's like screenshot.
And again, she doesn't write itout anymore like she's writing
it to Santa.
Now she sends you her wish liston Amazon with the full
expectation that we're gonna getevery single item, yeah, and

(13:56):
then she sends one to her dad,and then she sends one to the
grandparents, and she sends oneto the brothers.
And it's just like Does she sendthe same one or just different?
No, she like builds theseseparate lists for everybody.
Yeah, everybody gets their list.
And you know, and it's just likethis is not funny.

SPEAKER_00 (14:12):
At least she knows she's not gonna get the same
thing twice.

SPEAKER_03 (14:15):
Well, exactly.
That's the you know, but it justit leaves nothing to the
imagination and and it leavesnothing to you know.
I think I think sometimes themagic of let's say believing in
Santa Claus is just you have tobelieve in it.
You have to have this sense ofbelief that you he might bring
you something.
Right.
So that you know, but anymoreit's just like it's this

(14:38):
expectation, like I'm gonna getit.
What is he bringing me?
You know, and yeah.
Or just you know, and of course,they just they just have, I
think with now kids have accessto something like Amazon.
Where before, you know, yeah, welooked through the Sears Wish
Book.
Or Montgomery Boards.
Yeah.
And that was kind of fun.

(14:59):
But even that was kind oflimited.
Like we didn't have we didn'thave all these outside sources
that you could go to and youknow, and so like I said,
they're building these lists andthey get it built up in their
mind that you know they can sendone to each you know, loved one
that they have, and they havethat expectation, and it just
leaves nothing, no room left forthe magic.

(15:19):
The magic or, you know, as Icompare it to the faith of you
know, believing.
And sometimes I think, you know,we can look at that with our
faith as well, is you know, whenwe pray, what do we you know,
are we praying because we havefaith?
Are we believing because we havefaith, or are our prayers our

(15:43):
expectations of what we want andwhat we desire, not necessarily
the faith that we have in God todo his will and his choosing.
You know, and so I think a lotof times we can get we can get
that mixed up.

SPEAKER_01 (15:58):
Well, I posed this question last week during my
message, and while it's notnecessarily about expectation, I
think it's what creates theexpectation.
So the question is, and it's abig question, what is sin?
What exactly is sin?
Right?
So you can go through thetextbook answer, but basically
sin is anything that will thatyou do that knowingly separates
you from God.
Yeah.
I think that's a fair way toexplain it.

(16:19):
Yeah, I agree.
So what I mean by that is if youare a smoker and you put smoking
before anything else, if you area world traveler and that world
travel comes before God, any ofthose things, all of those
ultimately become sinful innature.
It doesn't mean that that issinful, but for you, it creates
a roadblock, it creates ahurdle, right?

(16:39):
Okay, so the problem is is wedon't look at sin that way.
We look at sin as homosexuality,illicit drug use.
Basically what the Bible, likeblack and white well, not even
But even then, technically,marriage or divorce is a sin
according to the Bible.
So what the world or what thelaw will will deem acceptable,

(17:03):
the church will deem acceptable,right?
Yeah, yeah.
So when divorce becomesaccessible, acceptable by law,
then it becomes acceptable bythe church.
And it takes time, right?
It takes time.
So we go through divorce, thenwe start to talk about there you
there's a laundry list of thingsthat we can get into.

(17:24):
And then you start looking atthe episcopal churches that are
allowing transgenders to bepastors in the churches.
Listen, do you do you, but ifthe Bible says it's a sin, it's
a sin, right?
Like that's all the things.

SPEAKER_03 (17:35):
Well, it's like I I said it might have been even
been the last podcast.
When we went to Salem up inMassachusetts, I mean, very
different dynamic up there.
Certainly.
Uh, and most of the churchesthat I saw, you know, had the
LGBTQ flag on the church, noteven on a pole, but on the wall
of the outside of the church.

SPEAKER_04 (17:55):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (17:56):
And you just, yeah, you you you have to wonder.
And I'm sure maybe in a lot ofcases they're trying to say,
you're welcome here.

SPEAKER_01 (18:04):
Yes, this is a place that you can come.
But but the but God has calledus to repent of our sins and to
be made new.
You know, my wife shared thisthing with me, and I never like
to throw my wife under the busbecause you know, my wife is
incredibly open-minded to youknow, all different types of
people and whatnot.

(18:25):
But it said, I was born thisway, and then it said, yes, then
be born again.
Right?
Like we can't use that.
I was born a complete and totaljerk.
You know what I mean?
Like my life was not the same asit is now.
Right.
I chose to lay those thingsdown.
Do I have those tendencies?
Absolutely, I do.
But I laid those things down andfought, I picked up my own cross

(18:47):
and followed Jesus, right?
And that's what changed.
So the problem is, in myopinion, that the acceptance of
sin leads to the expectationthat God will change for us
versus us having to change forGod.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (19:01):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (19:01):
Our salvation is reliant upon a God who will
change Himself rather than a Godwho will change us.
That's that's the mindset.

SPEAKER_03 (19:09):
Yeah.
You know, there's a lot ofpeople in the world that are not
set up well by their parents.
Right.
No, they they start off on a badfoot right from the get-go.
And but that doesn't mean like,well, that that's an excuse to
say, well, you know, my parentsjust totally just you know,

(19:29):
totally ignored me or you know,didn't didn't give me the love I
needed, and you know, so I guessthis is who I am and it's who
I'm gonna be, and that's the endof it.
You can't change me.
You know, that happens all thetime.
So, you know, that that's that'snever an excuse to say, well,
because of my situation or theenvironment that I grew up in,

(19:49):
or you know, either even thingslike lack of education, none of
those things in the end are anexcuse just to remain, you know,
yeah who you are.
Because it's everybody's goal tosee who you are through Christ.
Right.
You know, it should be.
Yeah, that's the only that's theonly way that you're gonna be

(20:09):
able to make that change.

SPEAKER_04 (20:12):
Yeah.
Whenever a few weeks ago, a fewmonths ago, whenever we were
talking about doing, you know,expectation and faith, and I
just was like, okay, well, weneed to know what the difference
is between the two.
And the one leads todisappointment, which is clearly
expectations, and the one ispersevering during difficult

(20:34):
times.
So I mean because I think a lotof the we you know, like people
were trying to use Jesus as orGod as their genie and like, oh
yes.
No, that's not especially duringthis time, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (20:51):
When you talked about prayer specifically, like
are we going are we going toprayer for for his will or are
we going for and uh is it whatwe want, that's what we're
asking for.
And I'll tell you that it'softentimes far more often than
not, and and I I will give a lotof grace to those who aren't
saved or maybe don't necessarilyhave a great relationship with

(21:13):
Christ.
Prayer is prayer at that point,right?
Like having an open dialogue issure is a step in the right
direction.
But last Sunday after church, Ihad somebody come up and ask if
I could pray.
They were gonna stand in forsomebody who was ill and they
wanted me to pray that theywould get better.
And I'm like, well, I'm happy topray with you and I'm happy to
let you stand in, but I'm gonnapray that God's perfect will be

(21:36):
done in this situation because Iam not a divine authority.
I don't know all of the things.
And all I want in your life, inmy life, in my children's life,
is that God's will will be done.
Yeah.
Good, bad, or indifferent.
We're not gonna understand it,right?
Yeah.
But yeah.
It's so silly.
I think of things like a fewmonths ago, I'm not a pet

(21:59):
person.
Okay.
I don't I'm I've got two dogs, ahamster, fish.
I like the fish.
They don't need anything fromme, right?
They're fine.
The hamster, she's cute.
She's super adorable.
She you can hold her, you canpet her, you can play with her.
She doesn't bite.
Most hamsters bite.
This one doesn't.
I mean, they hold her all thetime.
She's constantly running aroundon us.
The problem is, is sometimes mydaughter, twice, three times

(22:22):
now, will leave the cage dooropen and the hamster escapes.
Oh, I know.
Hamster on the loose.
Hamster on the loose.
Okay.
Everybody in the house isdevastated because everybody
loves the hamster.
Me, on the other hand, I'm like,I don't care about the hamster.
However, Milo will eat it.
I'm not even worried about that.
Milo eats her.
Milo eats her.
Nope, not even that.
It's not even that.

(22:42):
To me, it pains me to be a poorpet owner.

SPEAKER_04 (22:45):
Oh.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (22:46):
To leave that hamster loose in my house means
it's not eating, it's notdrinking because it can't reach
anything, right?

SPEAKER_04 (22:52):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (22:52):
So how fair is it to that hamster that I not hunt for
it until I find it and put itback in the cage?
Right?
So one night I spent a whole daylooking for this stupid hamster.
I did.
A whole day.
Whole day.
So finally I decided, you knowwhat?
I think I know where she's at.
She's gotta still be in thebedroom because she's chewed up

(23:13):
a hole in the carpet.
Wonderful.
In my brand new home.
Chewed a hole in the carpet.
And I knew she had, I couldn'tfind the hole, but I could tell
because I found the carpetfiber.
She had started to nest it up.
So I thought, I'll put her box,she has a little sleeping box,
over top of that nest that shehas made, and eventually I'll
catch her in there.
So I turn out all the lights.
My kids are at my parents'house.
I turn out all the lights and Igo into the flashlight because

(23:35):
they're nocturnal.
I'll see her little eyes glow.
Right after it got dark, dark, Iopen that door and I turn on the
flashlight, and there she sitsin the middle of the floor.
So we go to catch her.
She jumps up into the bottom ofmy daughter's dresser.
This is where she's been living,is in the bottom of this dresser
for a full day.
All right.
Now, when I pull the drawer, I'mlike, I can't pull the drawer
out because I'm afraid I'llsmash her.

SPEAKER_05 (23:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (23:54):
So I pulled the drawer out above it and stuck my
head in there.
Sure enough, there she sitsstaring up at me.
And it pains me that she wentlike a full day.
I mean, trust me, she foundplenty to eat, obviously.
She pooped everywhere.
But it pained me to see that.
I look at the world the sameway.
It pains me to be a Christianand not raise up other healthy
Christians, good, strong, solidChristians.

(24:17):
Because I know what myexpectation of God is, and that
is his perfect will.
Not my will, his will.

SPEAKER_05 (24:23):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (24:24):
And I'm okay with like, I don't always win.
I don't always get what I want.
I don't always I don't alwayssee the victory that I desire to
see.

SPEAKER_05 (24:33):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (24:33):
But I have never once been ever left going, why
did he do that for too verylong?
Maybe for a few minutes, maybefor a day.
And then I go, that taught mesomething important.

SPEAKER_05 (24:44):
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (24:44):
Something important either about myself or about the
other person or about thesituation.

SPEAKER_00 (24:49):
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's always a lesson there.
Yep.

SPEAKER_03 (24:52):
Yeah, we've been doing a family Bible study on
Monday nights, and my uh wife'snephew comes over and stepsons,
they join in, and one of thegirlfriends.
And so it's a fair, you know, wehave a fairly good time.
And it's we do it, it's maybelike an hour, if that.
And we've just been we startedin the New Testament with
Matthew.
So we've been doing that likeonce a week.

(25:13):
And we got into this discussion,and you know, I said to Timmy, I
said, you know, everybody justthinks that again, God, Jesus is
this genie.
That when when they become aChristian, they think, oh, well,
you know, does this mean all myproblems are gonna go away?
I'm gonna start, you know,seeing things happen in my life,

(25:33):
and you know, what I pray for isgonna come to pass.
And you know, you start buildingup all these expectations.
And we were trying to, andMargie's son, Charlie, it's it's
it's really great because he'she's the type that he's trying,
he's trying to figure out like,well, how is all this possible?
Yeah, how could God be real?

(25:54):
He's asking all those questions,like, how is this how is this
actually realistic?
And you know, so we're kind ofhaving that talk with him, and I
said, you know, and they'relike, well, if God is real, then
why does he do this?
Why doesn't he do that?
And it's like one of the mainthings you have to understand is
God is not trying to createexpectation for you.
He could give you everythingthat you desire.

(26:17):
But what are you gonna do withthat?

SPEAKER_05 (26:18):
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (26:19):
Eventually, you're gonna take it for granted, and
all you're gonna have in itsplace is this constant empty
hole in this expectation.
So, like people chasing money,people chasing whether it's cars
or you know, going to Vegas,gambling, whatever you're
chasing on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_05 (26:35):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (26:35):
You the chase will never end.
Yeah, you know, and you cannever fill that hole up.
You know, and it's like God isnot trying to create
expectation, he's trying tocreate faith in you.

SPEAKER_05 (26:44):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (26:45):
That's the main thing.
He's trying to uh give yourheart faith to believe in him,
to do God's will.
So that's why he's not going toanswer every single prayer that
you have.
Right.
Because if he did, you youwouldn't be, you wouldn't be a
worthy human being.
You would just be this thingjust chasing, chasing, chasing,
which let's face it, we all weall do that to a certain extent.
Oh, yeah.

(27:05):
We would be gluttonous.
Yes, and as you said, I mean,the non-Christians, it's even
worse because you know that'sthat's what you're living your
life for, is to chase that nextnew car, chase that new house,
chase that new boat.
You know, he uh Timmy wastalking about this kid, he just
wanted a brand new Corvette, hadto have it.
It's what he always wanted.
We got it.
And of course, you know, it'swinter time and it started, and

(27:28):
you know, now the salt's on theroad and he's been driving it,
and you know, so it's gettingscratched.
Yep.
And of course, he's gettingstuck.
He can't even get to workbecause you know, in a Corvette,
real-wheel drive, it ain't goanywhere.
So he already hates this car.
So, you know, he went from hadto have it, it was a dream his

(27:48):
whole life, to now realizingthat oh, yeah, it looks pretty,
but what is it really doing forme?
Yeah.
Now I have this huge payment.

SPEAKER_04 (27:56):
With beauty comes paying.

SPEAKER_03 (27:58):
Sometimes I can't even get to work because it
won't get me to work.
And it's already getting allthese scratches all over it.

SPEAKER_04 (28:04):
You probably have to put like sandbags in the back of
it and weigh it down.

SPEAKER_03 (28:08):
Like, so that's a perfect example of all that of
just, you know, God is trying tocreate faith.
He's not trying to, you know,he's he doesn't want to just he
like I said, he could.
He could give you everything youwant.
But you know, he's not evengoing to do that for the most
loyal Christian.
He's he's not gonna give you allyou want all the time.

SPEAKER_04 (28:27):
He's trying to make create that faith so you have a
relationship with him.

SPEAKER_01 (28:31):
Yeah, you know, like he wants you to rely on him.
Yeah, yeah.
I think oftentimes that exactstory when we think think about
Job for just a moment.
I mean, he found favor with God.
Yeah, in God's eyes, he wasblameless.
He was, you know what I mean,like he was darn near perfect.
And God still didn't give himeverything he wanted.
So I don't think any of us havereached the the point of Job at

(28:55):
this at this stage of our lives.
And I think the story of Jobbecomes mischaracterized as this
moment when God allows the enemyto really mess with mankind.
And and that's part of thestory, but I don't think you get
the full story by just simplyfocusing on that.
I think you have to look at allof the other stuff because you

(29:17):
know Job lost everything.

SPEAKER_03 (29:20):
Oh, yeah.
He lost the most importantthings in life.

SPEAKER_01 (29:22):
I mean, uh all of his wealth, all of his family, I
mean, literally all of thethings that he could that he had
had and amassed and haddeveloped, and he lost all of
it.
I mean there was misery in hislife, and and to God be the
glory.
I we can't imagine that.
We get one inconvenience andwe're you know upset.

(29:45):
Well, you know, I think abouthow quick we drop the GD, you
know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 (29:50):
Like Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (29:51):
Yeah.
It it's wild that we think abouthow quick we're we're willing to
to forget about the blessingsand only focus on the bad things
that happen.
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (30:01):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (30:02):
Yeah, it'd be like, what if you like use your
mother's name like that everysingle day?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
How would that like resonatewith you?
Sometimes that's the way yougotta think about it.
It's like if you you if you useyour mother's name in that tone
every day, I mean you you haveto be like, what am I doing?
I guess it's not knocked out.

SPEAKER_05 (30:21):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (30:24):
Yeah, I was thinking something dawned on me the other
day, like kind of piggybackingoff of the the faith, like he
won he's building this to havefaith that way you can have
faith in him so he can have thatrelationship.
And something just hit me likeyou know, he doesn't want us to
sin, not because he's somecrucial god that hates us, you

(30:46):
know.
He he's putting thoseexpectations on us that way we
have a relationship with him.
Like it's not just a a book thattells us, yes, you can do this,
no, you can't do that.
Like there's a purpose.

SPEAKER_03 (31:00):
But it's not because I said so.

SPEAKER_04 (31:01):
Right.
Yeah, it's like, yes, sure, hesaid these things, but there's a
reason why he said this thing.
Like it's because he wants youto have a relationship with him
throughout the whole life.
And like if you have that sin,like you can't have that
relationship with him, like it'simpossible.

SPEAKER_01 (31:17):
And if you do, that relationship will struggle.
That's what I was gonna say.
Exactly.
You find a way to formrelationship, that relationship
isn't true, and right, and Iliken it to any good marriage,
right?
I drive my wife absolutelycrazy.
It's what I do, it's like myspecialty.
It's it's probably one of thethings that I'm the best at.
And I know for a fact that if Iwere to do something that my

(31:46):
wife didn't like, it wouldn'tchange how she felt about me.
But it would change what shethought about that situation.
And i it it's wild to think thatshe could care about me that
very much.
That's nothing compared to whatGod thinks about us.
Yeah, literally nothing.
Yeah, yeah, nothing.
It's a drop in the bucket ofwhat God thinks about us.

(32:08):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (32:10):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (32:10):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 (32:12):
I mean, even you know, the whole advent calendar
thing.
Like I is does anyone know thedefinition of Advent?

SPEAKER_03 (32:21):
I feel like I should.

SPEAKER_04 (32:22):
It it has something to do with expectation.
It's like basically the seasonof expectation because it's
leading to like the the comingof of Christ and everything.
And so I've been doing thisadvent calendar with Cooper, and
it's just like a it's started onDecember 1st, because some
people do like 12th, I think.
Yeah, but we did the firstthrough the 25th, and it's just

(32:43):
a box, and each day has anotherlike a box inside of this huge
box.
So you pull it out, and thefirst day he's like, All right,
this is cool.
Second day, he's like, Oh, okay,because I'll put something
different like every third dayor something.
Like, and then I think after thefourth day, he's like, hmm, like
wanting more, and I'm like, no,no, no, you only get one a day.

(33:03):
And then he's like flipping outbecause he's expecting that he
gets this other.
I'm like, no, that's not howthis works, you know.
But I thought that was kind ofneat whenever we decided to do
this topic.
I'm like, wow, yeah, I mean,even for as young as he is, you
know, like a year and a half,and he's like, Oh, nope, I get
another one.
I'm like, no, you don't.

SPEAKER_03 (33:21):
No, and and that's important to mention is it is
human nature.
Yeah, it is part of our sinfulnature to want to to want our
our flesh wants everything.
You know, it wants what itwants, when it wants it, and you
know, and most people on a dailybasis can just they don't think
any further than that.
They just give in to whatevertheir flesh wants.

(33:41):
Yeah.
You know, and they take noaccount of it whatsoever.
And they can't even see like howcaught up you you can be in
something that's totallydiverting you from heck, it can
totally totally distract youfrom spending time with your
family.
And of course, social media isjust that oh yeah, that thing
that we we all desire and wanton a daily basis now.
And and you just don't realizelike how much time it is.

(34:04):
And it's funny because I wastalking to a guy that we do
business with today.
I just called him to, you know,we just follow up on the orders
that we have, what's going on,and sudden all of a sudden we're
in this conversation about AIand about social media and
talking about our kids and yeah,and just how dangerous
everything has become.
And, you know, so that alone isjust something that all human

(34:27):
beings now, it's like you can'tyou can't live without your
flesh just wants that on a dailybasis.
Right.
Yeah.
And it's we've went to this,we're on autopilot now.
You know, every, especially theyounger generation, their
brains, I believe, trulybelieve, are not developing the
way they should.
I think these k children'sbrains are on autopilot.

SPEAKER_01 (34:48):
Well, I also think that it creates stress and
anxiety.
I think it creates expectation.
Well, right.
Yes, and you're exactly right.
An expectation of beingentertained 24-7.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
I think that it creates, and andI think there are studies out
there that prove this, but I'mnot a scientist or a doctor.
But it's like being addicted todrugs.

(35:09):
Yeah.
You need that next, like you'relooking for that next eye, which
is why you continue to scroll.
And whatever your weakness is.
Correct.
And that's the algorithm.
Like it's the thing that youwatch from.
Listen, my wife was talkingabout a skylight calendar.
You know what that is?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (35:22):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (35:22):
So it's a basically it's a big old digital calendar.

SPEAKER_04 (35:24):
I thought you got her one.

SPEAKER_01 (35:25):
No.

SPEAKER_04 (35:25):
Oh.
I thought you were going to gether one last year.

SPEAKER_01 (35:28):
Well, we ended up getting a digital picture for
the colour.
Oh, wait.

SPEAKER_04 (35:30):
She the big skylight.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 (35:33):
So it's a great big digital calendar.
You can hang on the wall, youcan sync your Google calendar
with it, yada, yada.
Everybody gets their own color,their own whatever.
And my wife is incrediblyorganized.
Our calendar is always like verydetailed.
So she her and I were talkingabout it.
We had a friend that was sellingone, used because she got a
bigger one, and we're like,okay, like we'll let's talk

(35:54):
about it.
It's all I see.
It is all I see on my socialmedia because we talked about
it.
So that algorithm has kicked in,and it's like, you really want
one of these.
You gotta have it, gotta haveit.
It's five hundred dollars.
Yeah.
I can use my phone for the sameprice that I use my phone for
every month, right?
Yeah.
I mean, it's mind-boggling tothink though, that like it in

(36:16):
it, it just keeps attacking andattacking.
So do that now to a child whothinks that at Christmas they
should get everything that theywant.
My kids get those littleChristmas books.
Remember when we used to getthose and we would circle one or
two things?
My kids circle whole pages.

SPEAKER_03 (36:30):
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (36:31):
Now, we'll tell Easton, we're not buying that
because you won't play with it.
You don't actually like matchboxcards.
You're only circling it becauseit's in that magazine and you
don't have anything else on thepage to circle.

SPEAKER_04 (36:42):
Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 (36:42):
There's nothing else to circle.

SPEAKER_04 (36:43):
Yeah, you're like, well, I'm gonna circle this one.

SPEAKER_01 (36:45):
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (36:45):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (36:46):
And so we go through that with him.
We don't even buy toys for ourkids anymore.
Yeah.
They don't use them, they don'tplay with them.
Right?
We've got a house full of toysthat nobody plays with, but it's
because they were so addicted tosocial media and and not that my
kids have social media, butYouTube kids, even.
My daughter listens to we haveYodos, so they have these little
cards and they read you book.

(37:06):
Yeah.
Yodos are fantastic.
Cooper's getting one forChristmas.
Are you getting him which one?

SPEAKER_04 (37:10):
I told my dad and stepmom to get one, so I don't
know.

SPEAKER_01 (37:13):
Yeah, there is a mini one.
The mini one, they make a smallone.
We have a small one.

SPEAKER_04 (37:17):
I think it's the bigger one.

SPEAKER_01 (37:18):
Yeah, we like that.
But it reads books and then itdoes a Yodo daily podcast, and
it's kid appropriate contentthat basically it's this guy
that gets on there and talksabout all of the things that are
important, like maybe acelebrity who has a birthday
that day, or like this day inhistory, yeah.
Yes, exactly.
So it's it's got all thosethings.
My daughter has learned so manyuseless facts from that Yodo,

(37:41):
but it only allows you to absorbso much content because it that
podcast is only so long, right?
So you can't just doom scroll.
So we have actually eliminatedalmost entirely all of their
screen time.
So Emmett, it doesn't have anyany screens at all right now.
Easton has his smartwatch,that's it.

(38:02):
And that smartwatch only allowshim to call me, Alyssa, my mom
and dad, and I think that's it.
That's it.
So the four of us and Adelineonly has her tablet, and again,
very limited amount of time thatshe's allowed to watch it
because they will watch peopleopen toys and play with us.
That's what we were discussingtoday.
And now they want that toy.

(38:23):
They want that toy.
We my daughter, and I don't evenremember what it was, but we're
in this phase right now forChristmas.
She wants this American girldoll.
It's the brand new girl of theyear, whatever this is.
They do have some really coolAmerican girls right now.

SPEAKER_03 (38:36):
We were open the other day, and I was like, wow.

SPEAKER_01 (38:38):
I think we're up to eight.

SPEAKER_03 (38:39):
I would think uh the girl toys right now are kicking
toys.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, they are.
Right.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (38:45):
I think we have eight American girl dolls in our
house right now.
She doesn't play with them.
She only wants that doll becauseit's girl of the year and she
doesn't have it.
Yeah.
So add it to the list.

SPEAKER_03 (38:55):
Yeah, I saw the Harry Potter series, Wizard of
Oz series.

SPEAKER_01 (38:59):
The Disney princesses were adorable.
Oh my gosh.
I didn't see those ones.
Yeah, Willie Wonka.
I would have bought her everyDisney princess doll without
even questioning it because theywere all adorable.
They are cool.
I mean, they're yeah, they theydid it right.
I mean, we they're when we wentto Chicago, we walked five and a
half miles, no joke, because weparked in a parking garage and

(39:20):
we're like, because what do theycall it?
Miracle Mile, I think is whatthey call it.
And we walked the whole street,and American Girl is literally
the farther end to get to theAmerican Girl store.
We walked in there and boughtnothing.
There was a dress my wife waslooking for that matched Summer
McKinney, the doll she got lastyear for Christmas, the romper
that Summer McKinney wears, theysell them for little girls too.

(39:41):
We got over there and we walkedthat whole store, they didn't
have minor size.
So then we had to walk all theway back.
Couldn't you Uber back?
Well, we could have, but wedidn't.
Yeah, that trip was expensiveenough.

SPEAKER_03 (39:54):
Could have read Scooter.
That's what I was about to say.
Can you imagine asking yourparents for furniture for
Christmas?

SPEAKER_04 (40:03):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (40:04):
Well, Maggie last year had to have the she wanted,
she has this big, comfortablebed, right?
It's got the brass head, headand brass, you know, foot
footboard, everything.
And had to have this day bed.
And we're like, we're tellingyou, you're not even done
growing.
Right.
It's gonna get bigger.
Yeah.

(40:24):
The last thing you want to do isget this day bed.
Yeah.
You're you're gonna regret it.
I got it, you know, it's what Iwant.
And and of course, she and we'relike, okay, well, let's get you
a good one.
If we're gonna do this, let's goto say Value City, let's go
somewhere and actually get you agood, good, solid bed.
Had to have this one on Amazon.

(40:45):
Had to have it.
It was the only one that shewanted.
And of course, if you know, ifyou order any furniture from
Amazon, it's a jigsaw puzzle.
Yes.
You are talking hundreds oflittle pieces that you have to
put together even before you canreally start putting the bed
together.
You got to put all the drawerstogether one at a time.
Yep.
All this stuff.
I mean, so day after Christmas,everybody's invested in putting

(41:06):
this bed together.
Well, she sits back and watches,of course.

SPEAKER_00 (41:10):
Yeah, that's her gift.

SPEAKER_03 (41:13):
And when You know it.
Now, a year later, she's toobig.
Don't want today bed.

SPEAKER_04 (41:18):
She's something on it.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (41:19):
Just they ain't vibing it now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're out of style.
Wishes we had the other bed.
And I said, Remember I told youall this a year ago and you
didn't listen to me?
Yeah, I know.
Like I was like, Well, next timeyou get a new bed, you'll have a
job and you'll be paying for it.
And most likely you'll beputting it together.

(41:40):
So we're like, you know.
It's just like, so sometimesthat's the level of expectation,
as I said.
I couldn't imagine asking myparents, even as a 14-year-old,
yeah, for a piece of furniturefor Christmas.
Well, even like But it's butagain, there's now they you know
before kids couldn't do that.
Like they couldn't look atfurniture, I guess.

(42:01):
You know, you couldn't get andnow, like I said, they just they
have everything.
Yeah, even and they don't seethere's no level of like you
know, I'm a child, you know, youit there's just no level of
Yeah, I see what you're saying.
They're I don't know what theright word for it is, but they
think they're already likethey're living like they're
adults.

(42:21):
That's what it's adultdecisions, like the Or trying
to, you know, at that age, andit's just like your your brain
is not even prepared to reasonthrough this decision.

SPEAKER_04 (42:31):
Well, and like you said, like they don't even
realize like what Pastor Michaelwas saying, like you know,
Easton doesn't even realize howmuch it will cost to have this
toy, let alone how much work ittakes to m gate that money to
get that toy to appreciate.
Yeah, like they don't understandthat, which yeah, I mean nothing
on them.
That's what I'm saying.
Like, they're not gonna be ableto do that.

SPEAKER_03 (42:51):
But I wanted like uh I wanted like a five dollar
action figure.

SPEAKER_04 (42:55):
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (42:55):
When I was yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 (42:57):
Now they're fifty dollars.

SPEAKER_04 (42:58):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 (42:59):
But you know, it it's kind of our wants and
wishes kind of fit our age atleast.

SPEAKER_04 (43:05):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (43:06):
Yeah, we might have wanted, you know, sure the girls
probably wanted a Barbieplayhouse and they were a little
more expensive, or I want aCastle Gray Skull and they were
a little more expensive.

SPEAKER_01 (43:14):
But I think what you're the point that you're
trying to make, and I want to Iwant to try to clarify it, is
that at our age, we were gettingthings that were age
appropriate.
Now kids are getting things thatyou buy as an adult, right?
As a kid, when my parents boughtme a new mattress, it was
because I needed a new mattress.
Right.
Not because I asked for one.
They didn't buy me new bedroomfor it.

SPEAKER_03 (43:35):
Not because it was the right aesthetic for it.

SPEAKER_01 (43:36):
Correct.

SPEAKER_04 (43:37):
And you knew better, you knew better to even ask for
one.
Well, because you know what Imean.

SPEAKER_01 (43:41):
Right.
It and and I was more worriedabout being a kid.
Maggie, I'm not picking on you.
No, no, no.
I'm just saying.
So, like, we didn't every sixmonths decide that we wanted to
redo our room and we got topaint it whatever color we
wanted.
Oh, no.
I remember my bedroom for themajority of my childhood was
unfinished drywall.

SPEAKER_03 (43:57):
Okay, I I will say I had the furniture when I moved
out of my parents' house to myfirst apartment.
The furniture that I took withme was the furniture that the my
brother and I had probably whenwe were four or five years old.
Like we had the same dresserdrawers.
Yes.

SPEAKER_04 (44:13):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (44:14):
All through childhood.

SPEAKER_00 (44:15):
You knew where everything was at.

SPEAKER_03 (44:17):
True.

SPEAKER_04 (44:17):
I will say growing up somehow, like, I don't know
why we switched rooms so manytimes.
We had five bedrooms in like anold Victorian home, and there
were five kids plus mom and dad.
We so I think I I think Iswitched bedrooms four different
times, and each time, wouldn'tyou know it, it was getting
painted.

(44:38):
And I'm like, now Cindy hatespainting, but you wonder why.
You know, so I'm like, well, toMaggie's defense, I will say
that.
Yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_03 (44:46):
I mean, I you know, I grew up.

SPEAKER_04 (44:47):
Yeah.
I wanted the circle back to likethe expectation thing.
Like even I guess I guess mysisters and I, we kind of do
like we kind of know, okay,ballpark range from last year,
this person spent this much, youknow, for me.
Maybe I'll just hey, yeah, it'dbe nice to have this.
And like typically I don't evendo that.

(45:07):
Typically, I just let them getme whatever, you know.
But sh I think Shy might haveasked me, like, hey, if you need
a gift idea, I'm like, actuallyI do.
So she sent me something, andthen she actually asked me,
like, I'm having a hard timeshopping for you.
Like, you know, can you give mesome ideas?
So I sent her like one of thosebird feeders, like the the
camera one, yes, and they'rethey've been on sale like$30

(45:30):
like this past like week and ahalf.
So I'm like, hey, right there,because they're normally like
nine.

SPEAKER_01 (45:34):
So it's a bird feeder slash security.
No, no, no, no, no.
It's a bird, it's a bird feeder,but then when the birds come in,
it identifies the bird and sendsit to you.
So like you can like bird watchbasically.

SPEAKER_04 (45:44):
And like my I mean that was something I like to do
with my grandma, like yeah, youknow, it was one of the last few
things I remembered doing withher in the nursing home, plus
like at her house and stuff, butall to say, like I kind of know
how much to spend now with mysister, but even Chase's
brothers, like they'll eachspend like I think it's like a
hundred dollars on each brother.

(46:05):
And but they're just sendingeach other, like, and this has
been going on for years, likesending each other's you know,
screenshots or this and that.
I'm like, at the end of the day,if you all know that you're
spending a hundred dollars, whydon't you just keep your hundred
dollars?
Everybody's done.
Buy your buy yourself what youwant.
That way you don't have to swapit out.

SPEAKER_01 (46:22):
You don't have to wrap it, you know what I mean?
Yeah, and that's what I wasgonna say.
For me, the holidays, and I toldmy wife this, I told my kids
this, and it's I I'm gonna standby it.
It will not become an exchange.
Yeah, it's not gonna betransactional.
Yeah, I like to shop for goodquality gifts.
Now, do I struggle?
Absolutely, because I don't buythe same things that my kids
would buy, right?
Yeah, like my 16-year-old,15-year-old, soon to be a

(46:44):
16-year-old, he likes clothesthat I would never pick for him.
He likes those, like almost likeJinko jeans.
They're not Jinko jeans, butthey're the wide flare.

SPEAKER_04 (46:53):
I've seen him walk around town.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (46:55):
Okay.
And then there's a parent Healso lives a block away from me.

SPEAKER_04 (46:58):
There's there's a new, like almost faded camo
that's incredibly popular.
That almost, like a little yes.

SPEAKER_01 (47:06):
So he likes that.
Now he this kid doesn't hunt.
He has no reason to wear camoever in his life, but it's the
thing.

SPEAKER_04 (47:12):
It's the thing right now.

SPEAKER_01 (47:13):
And so I'm like, I would never buy him these.
Never ever.
So I have to ask him, like, froma style standpoint, yeah, what
do you want?
But if we get to the point whereI'm like, hey, I'm just gonna
get you a$100 gift card, go buywhatever you want.
Nope.
No, yeah, we're done.
Yeah.
And and it's not because I don'twant to get you something, but
why?
I'm gonna buy you$100 worth ofsomething, and you're gonna get
me$100 worth of something.

(47:34):
Why don't we just buy ourselvesa hundred dollars or something?

SPEAKER_04 (47:36):
Exactly.
Exactly.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (47:38):
Well, you know, and now that you mention it, like
this is a I this is probably thefirst year since Margie and I
have been married that I haven'tasked for anything specific.

SPEAKER_04 (47:47):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (47:47):
But she's like, oh, she goes, You're probably gonna
be hate everything that I gotyou, and you know, she's buying
stuff for me.
I have no clue what it is.
And you know what?
I like it better that way.
I like it better than that.
You know what?
Hey, this kind of it's kind oflike a kid again.
I used to be like, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (48:01):
I used to hate surprises, and I would hunt the
house high and low to findwhatever Alyssa bought me.
And I mean, I'm talking likewhen the box would come, I would
shake it before I But then wouldyou feel bad?
No.

unknown (48:14):
No, never.

SPEAKER_01 (48:15):
I was happy to know what it was.
Well, because it also gave me anadvantage because I knew how
much I knew what I needed to goand shop for in order to beat
whatever she bought me.
Because I proclaim to be theworld's best gift giver.
Like I am, I like to and I'lltell you, last year she spent
half, probably less than half ofthe money on me that I spent on
her, and she did far better forme than I did her.

(48:37):
I bought her caraway pots andpans.
Have you ever heard of those?
Non-toxic, yeah, I meanincredibly expensive.
I bought her a whole set ofcaraway pots and pans.
I just bought her all thethings, right?
So she's like, How much moneydid you spend?
I'm like, it doesn't matter.
Do you like them?
That's what matters.
And it's stuff that like shejust wouldn't buy for herself,
so I didn't mind spending themoney on it because it's for the
house anyway.

SPEAKER_04 (48:57):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (48:58):
But she bought me stuff that like I mentioned in
passing.

SPEAKER_04 (49:02):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (49:02):
She would remember it.
And yeah, so yeah, there was ayeah, there was such a
difference last year.
And it is funny because myexpectation has always been
fairly low of what she buys me,but she has done much better.
But I enjoy the surprise now.

SPEAKER_05 (49:17):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (49:18):
Like I like to know like that she's been shopping,
like it's that like, ooh, Iwonder if I'll see the package
before she does it.
But I don't care to know.
I don't, I don't care to know.

SPEAKER_04 (49:27):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (49:31):
That's hard because a lot of times, like our Amazon
accounts are linked.
Yes, I shop on my mom's kind oflink.
So it's like, yeah, oh, don'tdon't try not to look at your
Amazon account this month.
And I'm like, well, you know,what if I want to get something
for you?
Yeah.
And so that kind of getsdifficult to keep a surprise.
Yep.
But you know.

SPEAKER_04 (49:50):
I'm in this thing where Chase is like telling
everyone he wants cards.
And I think it's been happeningin the past five years.
But I'm like, can you tell mesomething you want other than
cards?
No, I just want cards.
I'm like, oh no.

SPEAKER_03 (50:01):
I love that.
We went.
Have you been to the Dover fleamarket lately?

SPEAKER_04 (50:04):
No, but we've been wanting to.

SPEAKER_03 (50:06):
No, don't.
No, yeah, no, don't.

SPEAKER_04 (50:08):
Seriously?

SPEAKER_03 (50:08):
Gosh, they have don't it used to be just junk.
Like for a long time, it was Ireally thought it was going to
close down.
And we just went, we just wentlast weekend.
And wow, it has really changed.
They've got a lot of cool stuffin there.
In fact, we walked out with abunch of more Christmas light up
blow bowls.
Oh, yeah.
Like we just couldn't helpourselves because they were they

(50:30):
were well below market value.
And we loaded them up.
But I'm telling you, yeah, theyhave got old toys, old cards,
cards still in the packs.
Yes, you know, like the 80s and90s.
They have.
I mean, I'm like, I told her, Isaid, put a couple, get a couple
packs of cards for me from the80s and 90s, put them in my
stocking.
I thought that'd be cool.

SPEAKER_01 (50:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So yeah, it's really changed.
They have there's one guy therethat has Pokemon cards that I
wouldn't believe.
And a lot of it's like semi-new,it's sort of new.
It's new er, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 (50:58):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (50:59):
I don't know that he has anything that's like wildly
hard to find, but a lot of it'sstill in packs.
And you know, my kids alwayslike just the boxes, the empty
boxes.
Yeah.
So they have those, so theysnatch up stuff they've never
seen before or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 (51:13):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (51:13):
That's I was really impressed.
Yeah, because I used when wewere kids, my mom had a relative
who had a booth there.
And I believe every Saturday orSunday, I had to go to the Dover
Flea Market.
Yeah, Saturday we went to theDover Flea Market.
And then every Sunday we went upto Garbers and Strasbourg.
Oh, yes.

(51:34):
Every weekend.
And then, of course, that's whenlike baseball cars and stuff
were like really hot.

SPEAKER_05 (51:38):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (51:38):
So I had a good time there because I'd always get
cards and stuff.
But that's where I spent a lotof my weekends.
And wouldn't you know when Iwent in there?
I'm like, some of those samevendors that I saw as a kid,
they're still sitting there.
Yeah, booze.

unknown (51:51):
Wow.

SPEAKER_05 (51:51):
That's good.

SPEAKER_03 (51:52):
And they were old then.
Yeah.
And they were old then.
Like this is a den of vampires.
It is wild.
So yeah.
But again, I thought it was, Ithought it was on the verge of
closing down.
And now they're open Fridays.

SPEAKER_05 (52:05):
Oh.

SPEAKER_03 (52:05):
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah, they're open to like nineto six on Fridays.
And a lot of cool stuff.
So check it out, don't check itout.
It's on you now.
Sorry if I so yeah, so you mightbe able to find some stuff there
that he wouldn't know.
I guess maybe he wouldn't knowabout.
And it's all cash though.
You have to have cash.
Yes.

(52:26):
Yeah.
I figured.
You know, there's there would beno trace of you're not getting
receipt, you know.
So you could get it.
Very true.

SPEAKER_04 (52:31):
You could get some paper trail.

SPEAKER_03 (52:33):
Yeah, you could really keep a secret, I think,
if yeah, you found somethingthere.

SPEAKER_04 (52:36):
He went to a card show at the mall the other day.
Sunday.
Do we still do those?
So they did one a few months agoand he was so sad he like didn't
know about it.
And then people were talkingabout it saying it was good.
And it was at Newtown Mall.
So then he went, I think it wasSunday after church.
Or maybe no, no, no, it wasSaturday.
Yeah, but he said it was likepretty decent.

(52:58):
So yeah.
Talk about expectation, buyingall those cards, and then you
think I got it, I gotta behitting something, and then you
don't.

SPEAKER_01 (53:06):
I don't even want to talk about the black hole.
Yeah, I got into that for toolong.
That was dangerous.
I have four, I think, at thispoint, complete Pokemon sets,
but it was I would kill somebodyto complete the set.
Like it was wild.
It was a wild, it was a wildtime.
I was glad I finally got a holdof myself.

(53:26):
But I mean, I'm talking, Iseriously, it was bad.
It was really bad.
Yeah.
Oh man.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (53:31):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (53:32):
Money was no object in that moment.
It didn't matter.
Because they were hard to find.
And so if you found them, youjust bought everything you could
get your hands on.

SPEAKER_04 (53:39):
Well, and that's Chase, like Hill's still I don't
know.
I think he has it figured outthat they stalk on Thursdays or
Fridays in Walmart, maybe andhe's seen these same two people.

SPEAKER_01 (53:51):
Yeah, they just hover away.

SPEAKER_04 (53:53):
Well, no, no, no.
These same two people have beenhovering, but then they've
gotten into a fight twice.
Yeah.
He's like, and it's but it waslike male and a female.

SPEAKER_02 (54:01):
Like so stupid.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (54:03):
Yeah.
Most of the time, if you go ifyou go to Walmart in that
section, there's like nothing.
Nothing.
No, picked over.
Completely picked over.

SPEAKER_05 (54:09):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (54:09):
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
I mean, kudos, I guess, toPokemon, but damn.

unknown (54:13):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (54:14):
Is the Pokemon Go still a thing?
Uh-huh.
Is it?

SPEAKER_04 (54:17):
It is.
That that church right acrossthe street from me.
That's a spot.

SPEAKER_01 (54:21):
It used to be one out here.
I don't know if we're in that.
Yeah, we used to be a Pokestop.
I don't know if we still are.

SPEAKER_04 (54:26):
My aunt does it every now and then just to like
do it with her grandkids, likejust to get outside.

SPEAKER_03 (54:31):
I mean, for a while it was like zombies.
I mean, it was just I didn'treally notice people doing that.

SPEAKER_04 (54:37):
I never got into it.

SPEAKER_03 (54:38):
I couldn't really I mean we went I remember we went
to the Smoky Mountains.
And no matter where we went, nomatter what site we were going
to, tens upon you know, peoplejust wandering around like
zombies trying to find thesePokemons up on, you know, up on
uh Well, so are you looking atthe phone the whole time, like
trying to find it as you'rewalking?

SPEAKER_04 (54:59):
Do you know?

SPEAKER_03 (54:59):
Yes, yes, you can.
Because like they're looking inthe bush, they're looking, you
know, they're looking at thecase.

SPEAKER_01 (55:04):
Well, I mean, yeah, it's just like if you open it on
your phone, they they pop up onyour phone whatever they're
gonna do.

SPEAKER_03 (55:09):
And so you walk towards yeah, whatever landmark.
Correct.
Yeah, and then you can spin itand collect the Pokeballs.
But my question always was isthere only certain Pokemons you
can find, say at the SmokyMountain?
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (55:21):
Or they're everywhere so okay, like
Monopoly.
When Pokemon Go first came out,Kangas Khan, who is Kangaroo,
was only available in Australia.
Oh you couldn't get him anywhereelse.
There was one that was origami,I forget what his name is, but
he's like folded origami.

(55:42):
He was only available in China.
Charizard was more prevalent inChina than he was in Japan, than
he was anywhere else.
Far-fetched, you could only getin Asia.
So they had a like certain onesthat you could only get in
certain places, but that waswhen it was Gen 1.
Now they've opened it up topretty much anything, and it's
it's a disaster.
Like I lost, I lost interest.

(56:02):
I wanted the full 151, theoriginal set, and I didn't
complete it.
There was only one that I didn'tget, and it was Aerodactyl.
It was the only Pokemon I didn'tfind.
And I used to spoof, so I wouldset my phone to basically walk
north all night long.
And so my guy would just like itwas you had to hack your phone

(56:23):
to do it.
It was again, I have this thingwith completing sets, so it was
it's it was almost like adisease.
Just like a lemming, just readyto just walk right off the
cliff.
So listen, I would spoof inAustralia.
I would so basically I would setmy phone's GPS to say that I was
in Australia.
I was in, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (56:41):
Are you kidding?

SPEAKER_01 (56:42):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (56:43):
No, Michael!

SPEAKER_01 (56:44):
Yeah.
So that I could catch all ofthem.
And one night while I waswalking, I woke up in the
morning and Aerodactyl had hadbeen like had been spotted on my
phone, but I was asleep, so Ididn't catch it.

SPEAKER_04 (56:56):
Oh is it supposed to alert you?

SPEAKER_01 (56:59):
It doesn't know.
Back then it was still veryrudimentary.
Like your phone would buzz whenyou got close to a Pokemon, but
basically I would do that tohatch eggs.
I would let it walk all night tohatch eggs so you could get
different Pokemon out of theeggs.
But he was the only one I nevercaught.
And after I gave up on it, myson transferred all the Pokemon
to himself.

(57:20):
So he got all my good stuff.

SPEAKER_04 (57:22):
At least you can transfer the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 (57:23):
Yeah, that's cool.
Well, and we had these, oh mygosh.
It's it's seriously, it was adisease.
That's I I just can't.
It was bad.
It was really bad.
Trying about an addiction.
Oh yeah.
Listen, and I again I've toldyou guys this.
I don't deny it.
I have an addictive personality.
I can't help it.
And if I have one, I have tohave them all.
Like you've got to complete theset.
It's just how it is.

SPEAKER_00 (57:45):
What if there's only one in the set?

SPEAKER_01 (57:46):
Well, then I'm happy to get the one.

SPEAKER_03 (57:48):
It's probably like that's not for me.
Yeah.
What fun is trying?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (57:51):
What is that?
That's not even a challenge.
And the more, the merrier.
Like the more items that are inthe set.
And I really do you guysremember when cars first came
out?
The movie cars, they made thoselittle die-cast cars.
Collected every single one ofthose, including all of the
misprints.
Worked at Walmart at the time.
Every morning when I got towork, I'd go over and I'd thumb
through the cars of anythingthat was put out the night

(58:13):
before.

SPEAKER_03 (58:14):
Yeah.
If you're a big antique shopper,the one thing you notice is the
beanie babies.
Oh my gosh.
They're worth nothing.
They're worth nothing, butyou'll see a lot of them in the
glass cube.
Yeah.
In the cube and like$799.

SPEAKER_01 (58:27):
Nobody's paying that.

SPEAKER_03 (58:28):
Nobody.
I mean, they're just antiqueshops are just full of them.

SPEAKER_04 (58:31):
What about the cabbage patch kids?

SPEAKER_03 (58:33):
Surprisingly, you will see quite a few of them.
Now, most of the time they'reyou could tell they're well
played with.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So they're s still somewhatsought after.
I mean, I know there's some ofthem that go for hundreds of
dollars.
Yeah.
But you'll you'll see.
I mean, you do see them quitefrequently though.
And a lot of times they'remissing their clothing or part
of their clothing where you canjust tell they're really soiled

(58:55):
and well played with.
Yeah.
As they should be.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (58:57):
All that all that old stuff's worth a buck, ain't
it?
I'm just saying that's a goodthing.

SPEAKER_03 (59:00):
Well, that's the thing is if if they made
anything that wasn't meant to becollectible, it's worth
something.
Yes.
If they made it to becollectible, it's worth nothing.
It's worth nothing.
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (59:09):
You know, even baseball cards were not truly
meant to be collectible at thewhole time.
I was listening to a podcastabout beanie babies, and the
gist of a beanie baby was it wasbasically this guy was trying to
sell stuffed animals.
He was a toy salesman and hesucked miserably at selling all
of these other toys.
So he had found this particularanimal that was fairly firm and

(59:32):
it had beans in it, and theywere selling really well.
So he decided to design his ownand make them floppy.
And then when he would he wasselling a ton of them, and then
he got the wise idea to startretiring them and changing their
names and changing their colors,and now it's got spiked hair
rather than flat hair, and hewould do all of these things,

(59:53):
and people would eat up thevariations.
Yep.
To the point to where, I mean,in the 90s, when these things
were popular, when people wouldmarriages would end, people
would get divorced, they wouldfight over their beanie babies.
Yeah, they would go into courtand they would fight over how
that was in the prenups.
Yes.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:12):
The reason I was asking about the cabbage patch
kids is we were listening orwatching something right before
I got here about likeChristmases leading up to like
starting from the 1930s.
Yeah.
Or maybe the 20s, like the toptoys and stuff.
And like I think the 30s waslike the savings bonds.
Like that's when the savingsbonds first came out.
But the cabbage patch kids werelike someone was trying to get

(01:00:34):
to one at a mall, and like sheended up getting it, but like it
was torn to pieces, but she'slike she didn't care, she still
got it.
I'm like, oh my gosh.
Same thing with the these littletroll looking things.
Yeah, those things the trolls.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:48):
That's no, that's not a that's my wife loves
those.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:50):
You know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_03 (01:00:51):
Okay, yeah, she'll pick them up at antique shops.
Yeah, she loves them.
She has a bunch of them.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:54):
So that that was invented by like some dad that
just wanted to make a doll fortheir like for their her his
daughter, and now they're likesome huge thing or was some huge
thing, is some huge thing, butokay.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:10):
So I still have my two.
So do you really?
So my grandpa has one still inthe Box and and he and I had
talked about selling it, andthey're not they're fifty bucks
is the average going price.
Yeah, I had that one, the whiteone.
Yeah, so I think that was theone that I had, but I think mine
had white ears on the insidestill.
I don't think it had pink.
I think that one was shice.

(01:01:33):
I was gonna say one of mysiblings had that one, and it
seems like the speckled onessell for more.
Like that one's like Ladybug,this one's like Cowprint, those
ones sell for a little bit more.
But anyhow, my grandpa has oneand I thought about selling it.
So do you guys remember a fewyears ago when they brought out
the hatchimals?

SPEAKER_04 (01:01:51):
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:52):
Yep, yeah, oh yeah.
So we bought two hatchimalsbecause my kids were like, oh,
we gotta have them.
And to me, it was nostalgic.
It was like having a Furby.
It's nothing like having aFurby.
Those things were stupid.
Once it hatched out of the egg,it was a useless tool.

SPEAKER_04 (01:02:05):
Well, and the Furby is they could like talk to each
other.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:07):
Yeah, it was creepy.

SPEAKER_04 (01:02:08):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:08):
I was like, pretty sure they were trying to take
over the work.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:12):
Well, of course, then they moved that moved on
with like the L O Ls.
You didn't know which one youwere getting.
Yes.
Yeah, so it created even moremania.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:19):
Well, and that's so we did Lego minifigures for
years.
Okay.
So they would come in theselittle plastic packs.
We my wife and I got to thepoint where we could feel them
and tell you what was in thepack.

SPEAKER_04 (01:02:29):
Lego minifigures.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:30):
Lego minifigures.
Okay.
Okay.
So we could feel them and tellyou what was because they come
in pieces and you have to buildthem.

SPEAKER_04 (01:02:35):
Is it like 15 pieces, like 10 to 15 pieces?

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:37):
No, these are it's just a minifigure.
So it's you've got you've gotthe head, the hair, the
accessory, the top of the body,the bottom of the body.
Okay.
So like if it had short legs,you knew that it was whichever
one on the package that was ashort one.
If it had a sword and you couldfeel the sword, you knew it was
that one.
So we would go into stores andwe would sit on the floor and
feel these things so that wecould get the entire collection.

(01:02:59):
I'm not joking about this, okay?
They got to the point where theystarted putting them in boxes so
you couldn't feel them anymore.
And then because I mean my wifeand I, we they were like four
dollars a piece.
It wasn't like they were a lotof money, but still when you buy
16 of them in every set, and thesets are literally overlapping
each other, you can't keep up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a wild ride.

(01:03:20):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:20):
I just two two thoughts before it escapes me.
1984, Christmas, I believe thatthere were store managers that
would stand at the door beforethey opened with ball bats.
Jeez.
Because that's how bad thecrowds were trying to get those
cabbage patches.
Oh, wow.
It got so violent that storemanagers were standing at the

(01:03:42):
door with a ball bat, basicallytelling them, like, we're not
having this.
Like, if there's vacuumers introuble, yeah.
You're going down.
And you can watch clips of youknow, women just tearing each
other apart.
People I mean, I think peoplewere getting trampled.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
People were getting trampledover them.
And so that's you know, whenstore managers started getting

(01:04:02):
Black Friday Massacres.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:03):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:04):
So that's kind of when the whole mystique of the
Black Friday, I think, began,and Cabbage Patch Dolls is just
kind of one of those infamousmoments.
Yeah.
Um But also going back to theBeanie Baby, I think the home
shopping network had to be anadvent social media.
Yeah.
That keep kept people glued totheir TV 24-7 when they were

(01:04:26):
selling them things.
Like if we were a kid, no matterwhose house we went in, some
they're watching the homeshopping network.
People just addicted to it.
Couldn't get away from it.
And they knew it.
So they they would just keepbringing these beanie babies and
keeping people glued to the set,just ordering, you know, all
day, all night long.

SPEAKER_04 (01:04:48):
Speaking of expectation, you know how you
know you're expected to go tojury duty if you have jury duty.

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:55):
Otherwise, you go to jail.

SPEAKER_04 (01:04:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
My sister sent Shy sent thisinto our family group chat.
Just Mallory things.
She calls me and tells me shegot called in for jury duty, but
she says she can't go becauseshe already has plans.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:10):
Well, who I guess, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:05:12):
Your plans are changing now.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:14):
Yeah, and they're gonna pay you four dollars for
being there, by the way.
Yes, yes.
You're welcome.
Yeah, that's fine.
I can see Maggie sayingsomething like that.
I already had plans.
Yeah, well, well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:23):
Not anymore, you don't.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:25):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:26):
Have you ever been on jury duty?
No, not quite done.
Listen, I was on grand duty.
I kind of was on grand jury.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:32):
Yeah.
I got called one time.
And I wish I would have knownthat the earlier you're there,
earlier you are there, the thecloser your number is.
Like if you're the first personin line to sign up that day,
you're the first person theyinterview.
So so long as you pass, you'reon the jury, right?
Because mine was just aboutgetting out of work.

(01:05:54):
I didn't care about like it waslike, you can pay me the four
bucks, I'll donate it back.
I don't care.
But I really desperately wantedto like experience a jury trial.
And I was two people away fromgetting seated.
So I didn't Dang.

SPEAKER_04 (01:06:07):
My friend just did the one about the guy who like
tried to murder the Oh yeah.
Yeah, and like they she saidthey took her like out to the
scene.
Not this, like, not the kind oflike the road and kind of just
to envision what happened typedeal.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:24):
That's wild.

SPEAKER_04 (01:06:24):
But yeah, I never knew they took her to uh scene
of the cry and the van, like the15-passenger van took.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:30):
They did that on the OJ trial.
Now, obviously, the OJ trial wasa little bit bigger, but they
did that.
They took everybody to OJ'shouse.
I'd have been taking selfies.

unknown (01:06:37):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:38):
I guess they didn't have cell phones.
Not with cameras, at least.
No.

SPEAKER_04 (01:06:43):
Yeah, I think she was on it all week and she sent
us a picture of her check and itwas like$98 or something.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:49):
But you gotta wonder, you know, if if cell
phones would have been moreprevalent at that time, would
the OJ murders have evenhappened?
No.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:56):
No.
No, they're so like ringcameras, like they really do
stop a lot of crime.
Yeah, they do.

SPEAKER_04 (01:07:01):
As silly as it sounds, but even like lead to
arrests.
Arrests ends.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:06):
Yeah.
Or you know, OJ doesn't have togo to the house.
You can just call it her andcall on her or you know,
something like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, you could just imaginethat being a lot different.
I don't know.
Yeah.
It would have s prevented that.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:17):
I'll tell you what, though.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:18):
Yeah, what was your grand jury experience?

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:20):
Was it something to Well you uh you heard more than
one one case.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:27):
Oh yeah.
Your responsibility was todecide whether or not they were
gonna be indicted.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:32):
You you heard at least two a day.
Sometimes three if they wereshort.
It was it was an experience.

SPEAKER_04 (01:07:40):
Wait, so grand jury duty, I'm grand jury are they
bringing the convicted in?

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:46):
No.
No.
No.

SPEAKER_04 (01:07:47):
Does each county still have a grand jury duty?
Okay.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:50):
So you're basically hearing the case to decide
whether or not it goes to trial.
Grand jury, like so.
If somebody gets murdered, thatcomes to the grand jury and you
guys decide that that theydecide whether or not there's
enough evidence.
Yeah, enough evidence to havethem.
They don't get to decide thecase, they just decide whether
or not it goes to trial.

SPEAKER_04 (01:08:06):
Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
Dang.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:11):
But that was that was an experience.

SPEAKER_04 (01:08:14):
I bet.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:18):
You wonder about a lot of that stuff.

SPEAKER_04 (01:08:20):
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:21):
Wonder how how people can be that morbid and do
the things that they do a month.

SPEAKER_04 (01:08:30):
How long ago was it?

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:32):
Yeah.
It was back in the year eight.
This is back when back whenJesus was still in.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08:38):
Year eight?

SPEAKER_04 (01:08:39):
2008?

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:41):
No.
No, it was back uh back in myday.

SPEAKER_04 (01:08:47):
Walking around on his dinosaurs.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08:52):
Uphill.
Uphill.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:54):
Both ways.
Pair of bags on his feet.
Yeah.
It was it was it was probably inthe 70s.
Okay.
Late 70s.

SPEAKER_04 (01:09:00):
Well, and honestly, I feel like a lot more crime
happened in the 70s to 80sbecause there wasn't a ton of
video footage.
And do you do you agree,Michael?
Like the crime.
You don't think?
No.

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:12):
Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_04 (01:09:13):
Compared to now?
I think.

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:15):
I think people got away with more stuff back then,
but I don't think more crimehappened back then.
I think it was a much differenttime.
It's the fluoride in the water,is what it is.
I'm kidding.
But there's definitely likesomething has happened in our
society.
Like, listen, okay, we're justgonna parents turn this off if
your kids are around.

SPEAKER_04 (01:09:30):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:32):
Last Monday, so that was two days ago.
I was sitting at work and I wastalking to one of the guys at
work.
I was like, I was working in hisoffice with him.
He was showing me some stuff.
And I get an alert on my phone,and there's a news article that
in Canton.
Canton.

SPEAKER_04 (01:09:47):
The guy tried to stab his parents?

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:49):
Nope.
Oh.
Nope.
This one's worse.
This one's worse.
It's 9 30 in the morning.
It's 9 30 in the morning whenI'm reading this article.
That the police areinvestigating a shooting in a
strip club in Canton.
Question.
Why are you in a strip clubbefore 9 30 in the morning?
Right?
Yeah.
Okay.
Why are you in a strip club atall?

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:08):
But like Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:09):
All right.
We know why you're there.

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:10):
Are they still there from the night before?
Or like are they opening outearly?

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:14):
I don't know.
They have they have a nightcrew.
Yeah.
But it's 9 30 in the morning,okay?
And now we're shooting somebody.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:19):
So maybe it was mad there wasn't a continental
breakfast.
I don't.

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:22):
You don't know.
No.
Why were you eating breakfastthere?
There's a lot of you know, theysay don't get steak from a
seafood restaurant.
I would just don't eat if you gothere.
Like that's not good.
Anyway, it's not funny, but it'sdisgusting.
Anyway, so Tuesday, yesterday, Iwas sitting at his desk all day.
I got home and I get anothernotification that there was a

(01:10:43):
shooting in the strip club.
Now, I don't know if it's thesame one, Tuesday evening.

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:47):
No.

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:47):
What is going on in this world?
Now you know those places arefull of cameras, so these people
are getting caught.
Like there's no doubt thatthey're getting caught.

SPEAKER_04 (01:10:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:54):
But what has happened in our society that we
think again being there, beingthere at nine o'clock in the
morning is acceptable.
And then we're just shootingeach other.
No, I'm all for owning guns.
Everybody can own all the gunsthey want.
I don't really care.
You're never going to stopstupid people from owning guns
or crim committing crimes,right?
You're never going to outlaweither of those things.
Yeah.
So I would rather you have a gunand be protected than not.

(01:11:17):
But my point is, is crime todayis far more rampant than it has
ever been because we don't knowhow to communicate to just say,
like, hey, I don't like the wayyou're talking.

SPEAKER_04 (01:11:26):
Right.
Yeah.
So I'm just going to jump toconclusions to jump to my rather
than tell you that, I'm justgoing to shoot you.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:31):
Right.
And that's much easier.

SPEAKER_05 (01:11:33):
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:33):
It's wild.
It is wild to me.
And it's not just that.
I mean, I'm talking in Philly,that guy hit the other guy with
his car because he didn't likehim.

SPEAKER_05 (01:11:40):
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:41):
Well, you know, with uh, you know, with concealed
carry and all this, people Ithink feel they have a more
right than ever to shoot anotherhuman being.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Whether they have, you know, thelicense or not.
Right.
It's just the way that we thinkof society now.

SPEAKER_04 (01:11:55):
Well, you're not even you don't even know.
You have more right to do itthan like Ohio, you don't even
have to have a license now,which is well, to open carry,
right?

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:04):
You have to have a license to conceal carry.
Yes.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:06):
You can open carry.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:07):
You can open carry.
You can open carry in Ohio, butyou can't conceal carry.

SPEAKER_04 (01:12:11):
So what's the difference between open and
conceal carry?

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:13):
Open carry is if my gun is on my side and you can
see it.
Conceal carry is under yourcoat, under your vest, in your
purse.

SPEAKER_00 (01:12:20):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (01:12:21):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:21):
So you're either John Wayne or Listen, when I
worked in North.
When I worked in North Canton, Iworked for Walmart in North
Canton.
We had a guy come in with, Idon't know, and it had to be a
big old Magnum 757 or whateverthey call those things.
Dirty Harry?
Seriously.
Seriously, this thing like wason his side and it looked like
it almost touched his knee.

(01:12:42):
It's a big hog leg.
It was stupid.
And like there's people freakingout in the store.
He's not doing anything wrong.
Technically, it's legal.
Yeah.
There's no sign on the door thatsays you can't have a gun, you
know?
And I said to him, I said,listen, I don't care if you
carry the gun or not.
However, it's causing a lot ofproblems.
Can you just put it away?
Like, take it back to the car.

(01:13:03):
Yeah.
Can we just be considerate?
And again, why a gun that big?
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you unless you're trying tocreate chaos, which is exactly
what he was doing.
But I'll sue you.
I said, I'm not, I'm not tellingyou you have to take it off.
I'm asking you if you will.
Will you be considerate of theother people in the store and
just put it away?
Yeah.

(01:13:23):
Wow.
The answer was no, by the way.
A hard, non-negotiable.
I kind of figured that.

SPEAKER_00 (01:13:30):
Non-negotiable.

SPEAKER_03 (01:13:32):
Wow.
Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 (01:13:35):
Yeah, there's only a few places you can't take it.
Yeah.
Hospitals and governmentbuildings.

SPEAKER_01 (01:13:41):
And if they have a sign that says that you're not
going to be able to do it.
And if they're sign.
Yeah.
Schools.

SPEAKER_00 (01:13:46):
Schools.
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:13:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:13:49):
That's a big one.
I mean, I had I even had to giveup my razor knife when I went to
the hospital.

SPEAKER_01 (01:13:56):
You know, we went on our cruise and we were very
careful on what we packedbecause we knew like you can't
take steamers, you can't takeanything that's like high energy
consumption.
They don't even haverefrigerators in your room on
the cruise.
You get a cooler.
Seriously.
It looks like a refrigerator,but it just like if you put it
in cold, it stays cold, likecool-ish, but it doesn't, it
doesn't cool.

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:14):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:14:15):
And I had packed my razor blade.
Like I hit I had had it in oneof my pants pockets.
I tossed it on the top of mybag.
I didn't realize till we gothome that they had confiscated
it.
Because they go through yourbag.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (01:14:29):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:14:29):
They will just take whatever's in there that they
don't want you to have.
Now when you get off the boat,there's a table that's for
confiscated items, and you cango over and collect your item.

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:37):
You didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 (01:14:37):
But I didn't know it was confiscated, so I had to go
buy another one.
It was only like 15 bucks, butthat's not the point.

SPEAKER_04 (01:14:42):
Huh.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:44):
Wow.
It's like you know, when I whenwhen I flew to Germany though, I
had a little pocket knife and Ihad that thing with me all the
time.

SPEAKER_01 (01:14:51):
Well, that was bad I was back in on a plane though,
it's the size of the blade.
Now you back then it probablydidn't matter.
You could also probably stillsmoke on the airplane.
Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 (01:15:02):
My dad tried to take one in the U.S.
Capitol.
Yeah, it didn't happen, did it?
And the way my dad was, hecouldn't understand why he
couldn't have it.
I mean, it was like this, youknow, this big.
And he just couldn't get itthrough his head, like, you
know, I'm Jeep.
Like, I'm not gonna hurtanybody.
Why do you have to confident?
And they're like, listen, I'mlike, dad We don't know yet.

(01:15:23):
Like, you cannot come in thisbuilding unless you leave it
outside.
He goes, Well, I want to leaveit outside, you know.
Somebody's gonna steal it.
Yeah, but he just couldn'tfathom like why somebody would
think that he would do somethingwith his pocket knife.
And so I think I think he triedto hide it or do something
outside, maybe by a trash can orsomething, but I don't think he
got it back.
Because when you leave, you exitlike the other end.

(01:15:46):
It was not worth going back for.
Yeah.
But it was I'll never forgetthat.
Like the lady just kind of kepttrying to explain it to him, and
he's just like, I don't lookingat her, like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 (01:15:56):
They won't let you fly with toothpaste.
I mean they can't imagine theCapitol with a pocket key.
Yeah, it was funny.

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:03):
Well, you mean they won't let you fly with
toothpicks?
Toothpaste.
Oh, toothpaste.
If you get if it's in a littletube.

SPEAKER_01 (01:16:09):
You can you can put it underneath, but you can't
take it in your carry on either.
Who needs to brush their teethon an airplane?
Yeah, anyway.
Right.
You know.
Buy it when we get there.
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:16:20):
Hey, you can buy it once you go through security
too.
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 (01:16:23):
At those little convenience, but they know that
it's been checked.
So although, let's be honest,how much are they really
checking that stuff?
It comes from a securedsupplier.
That's the only reason they saythat it's checked.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:16:39):
I'll say I think it was back in 2015.
I went to a Browns game and itwas like January 2nd, like
freezing.
I think it was like that theweek of Christmas, like that
weird time, and I had car heartson.
You're going through all thesemetal detectors, and I'm sitting
at the game, and it's like thethird quarter.

(01:16:59):
I put my hands in the car heartsand I pull out these bullets.
I'm like, oh well that didn'tbullet.
Yeah.
It was from when we were likegoing hunting and stuff, and
like they were just still inthere, unused and everything,
but it didn't let them off oranything.
Metal detectors did not do athing.

SPEAKER_01 (01:17:16):
Aiden was like, wow.
Aiden took a screwdriverthrough.
We when we flew to Florida.

SPEAKER_03 (01:17:23):
Through the airport?

SPEAKER_01 (01:17:24):
Yes.
Yes.
He got stopped.
But we go through the airport,we go through security, and the
lady says, Who has the red cinchsack?
And I said, He does.
And I said to him, I said, Whatdo you have in your bag?
And he goes, My pencils.
Because he likes to draw, so hehad like really sharp pencils.
Yeah.
And I was like, okay, it'swhatever, no big deal.
So we go over there.

(01:17:44):
She pulls a screwdriver, red andblack screwdriver, out of his
bag.
And she goes, What's this for?
And he goes, Oh.

SPEAKER_04 (01:17:55):
Sharpen my pencils.

SPEAKER_01 (01:17:56):
He says, I took the heel, I took the skates out of
my Heelys because he wore Heelyshoes.
And he's like, I just threw itin the bag.
I didn't even think about it.
I said to the lady, just throwit away.
She goes, No, it's fine.
It's short enough.
You can keep it.
Puts it back in the bag.
And on the plane we go.
Apparently, it wasn't longenough to hit any vital organs.
I don't know.
Oh my gosh.
She just gave it back.

SPEAKER_04 (01:18:18):
We got stopped for Cooper's powder, like his
formula.
Yeah.
And I'm like, I mean, come on.
I have a pack and play.

SPEAKER_01 (01:18:24):
I have a zipper bag.

SPEAKER_04 (01:18:26):
Like, they're looking at me, and my dad's
like, Sydney, I'm like, what youwant me to just travel without
the formula?
Yeah.
Like, I was going to buy somedown in Florida anyway, but I
need some like from now and 12hours from now.

SPEAKER_01 (01:18:37):
He doesn't need to eat.
It's fine.
No, he's fine.

SPEAKER_04 (01:18:39):
We'll we'll start from Yeah, it's fine.
You can deal with a crying babyon the plane while his ears are
popping, Dad.
Go for it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:18:44):
Yeah, no kidding.
What else was I've seen people,I I've heard horror stories of
people getting stopped for thedumbest.
Oh, when we went to DC, we went,Alyssa was nursing at the time.
We didn't take the kids.
So she was pumping.
And then so while we walkedaround DC, we were carrying a
cooler.

SPEAKER_05 (01:19:03):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:19:03):
Okay, because she would pump, we would put it in a
bag, put it in the cooler.

SPEAKER_05 (01:19:06):
Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 (01:19:07):
We get to the Holocaust Museum, they won't let
us take it in.
And Alyssa's like, I think it'slike we go.
She said, I'm not dumping this.
She said, I'm absolutely underno uncertain circumstance am I
dumping this.
And the guy's like, Well, thenyou can't come in.
And she goes, Oh, but we can.
Because technically she's abreastfeeding mother, so they
can't stop her.
Right.
Like that would be Yeah.

(01:19:28):
And eventually, I think theyeventually did let us go in.
Yeah.
But it was it was an ordeal.
Yeah.
There wasn't any ice in thecooler or anything like that,
but they said you can't takeliquids in.
So they did eventually let usin.

SPEAKER_02 (01:19:41):
Oh my.
Quite fun.

SPEAKER_01 (01:19:44):
Never expected that.
Boy.
That was a loose pullback.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:19:53):
Well, any about that time.
It is.
Any final notes there, Sid, orany response, or let me see.

SPEAKER_01 (01:20:03):
I'm not allowed to think.
Not paid for that.
I'm too old to think.

SPEAKER_04 (01:20:11):
Oh, yes.
I can end it on this.
We need to always be expectingJesus' return.
You know, we can't be like withthe we can't have like the
deathbed salvation mount, youknow, mentality.

SPEAKER_01 (01:20:23):
Yeah, people say that all the time.
Well I'll just get saved when Iwhen I before I die.
Well, it does it's not quitethat easy.

SPEAKER_04 (01:20:29):
And like it's so easy to go through life like,
okay, yeah, Jesus is gonna comeback someday.
Like, yeah, whatever.
But like, no, you need to expectthat he's going to come back.
Like you need to be ready.

SPEAKER_01 (01:20:41):
Yeah.
Well, because we weren't again,we weren't called to just get to
heaven.
We were called to bring heavenhere.
Yeah.
Called to to preach the gospeland to encourage people to be
saved.

SPEAKER_04 (01:20:52):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:20:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:20:54):
So there's some is some good in expectation.
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:21:01):
Properly managed.

SPEAKER_03 (01:21:03):
It's hard to do.
Yep.
And the enemy constantly wasn't.
Make it harder.

SPEAKER_04 (01:21:09):
I wanted to circle back at the way beginning when
it was either Michael or Nickwas talking about.
Oh, I think it was Michael.
With the basically like havingyou having God bend his roles
for us.
Like, I saw something todaysaying, you know, that's not

(01:21:31):
Christianity.
That that's like spirituality.
That's like manifestation.
That's a whole different realm.
Like Christianity in having arelationship with Jesus, that
means you're sacrificing, likeyou're putting your stuff down
every single day.
That way you can have thisrelationship and have eternal
life.
Like manifestation andeverything else, that is self,
you know, that's just not.

(01:21:52):
I mean, yeah, it is selfish.
Like it's self-wanted thingswhere and I think people are
trying to skew the Bible andskew Christianity to make it
like that.
So we are like people pleasingand we're just, you know, like
trying to make everyone happy,and you can't do that.

SPEAKER_03 (01:22:08):
Yeah.
As I've said many times, I mean,we we've come to this idea that
kindness is something justinnate within all of us that we
should just follow.
Like everybody should be kind.
I mean, it sounds good, it's agreat idea.
Yes, we should all be kind.
But logically, but what is thesource of kindness?

SPEAKER_01 (01:22:25):
Well, because if you don't understand the love of
Christ, you have no moralcompass.
You don't understand moralitytechnically.
Because what is moral?
We don't murder people, right?
We don't commit adultery.
We when we talk about morality,we look back to the Ten
Commandments or the teaching ofJesus.
That's what we've based moralityon.

SPEAKER_03 (01:22:46):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:22:47):
So if you want to be a good person, whether you
believe in God or not, you wantto be a good person, you have to
have somewhere to base what isgood and what is bad.
Right.
Because if if it is baseless, ifthere is no list of what is
right and what is wrong, thenthat means that murder is okay.

SPEAKER_04 (01:23:06):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:23:07):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:23:07):
If there's no like I mean, it's kind of like it's
kind of like Pinocchio, it'skind of like Pinocchio.

SPEAKER_03 (01:23:12):
You know, when he gets roped in, you know, he gets
conned into going into the whatdo they call that?
What did they call that onPinocchio?
You know, it's the where all theboys go to pretty much do as
they please.
Yeah.
Like, you know, the I think theycalled it pleasure island.
Yeah.
And so the guy makes it seemlike, you know, you don't need
the all these rules.
You don't need to be a good boy.
You don't need to follow upeverything that you've been

(01:23:33):
taught.
Over here is this place whereyou can just do what you want
and everything's accepted andeverybody's happy.
And then of course he gets overthere and it's, you know, that's
not the case.
You know, there's a lot ofproblems over there.
You know, and once you're overthere, good luck getting out.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
So I think sometimes it's assimple as that.
It's just like, yeah, it alwaysit we can make anything look

(01:23:55):
good.

SPEAKER_04 (01:23:55):
Yeah.
And the world's going to try tomake it look good.
Shiny.

SPEAKER_03 (01:23:59):
Kindness is, yeah.
I mean, it's a great notion, andwe should all be kind to each
other, but we have to know wherethat source comes from.
It's not just something thatkindness isn't just something
that we're born.
I don't think we're born with,you know.
It it has it has its source.

SPEAKER_04 (01:24:16):
Yeah, I have a friend who she is, she's not a
close friend, but she's afriend.
Like I graduated with her.
She's one of the mostkind-hearted people, but she's
an atheist, you know.
So it's like it goes both ways.

SPEAKER_01 (01:24:26):
Like, yeah.
And it's interesting becausethis is the part that with
atheism that I can't understand.
That means you believe innothing.

SPEAKER_04 (01:24:36):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:24:36):
Yeah.
That's a hard one.

SPEAKER_04 (01:24:38):
But but she'll say that she believes that Jesus was
a person at some point.
Like, all right, that's a start.

SPEAKER_01 (01:24:43):
Well, but if you believe in nothing, what do you
think happens?
Yes.
And I don't mean like in theafterlife, but like again, that
moral compass.
How do you how do you gaugemoral compass?
How do you navigate what isright and what is wrong?
Because if you don't believe inthe Bible and you don't believe
that Jesus lived and you don'tbelieve in God, Ten Commandments

(01:25:04):
don't exist to you.
What is right and wrong?
Right.
And don't try to tell me it'sthe law, because the law is
ambiguous.

SPEAKER_03 (01:25:11):
I was gonna say some people believe that, well,
humans created right and wrongto keep control of society, so
everything that runs somewhat,you know, in order.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:25:21):
I think not something from God.
I think we have to understandthat that evil people have
existed from the very beginning.
Because if we go back to Cainand Abel, we'll remember that at
that point you had what?
What would be the well itdoesn't matter.

(01:25:41):
You had a 25% chance of beingkilled at that point because
when Cain killed Abel, therewere only four people on the
earth.
Yeah, right?
Four people.
Yeah.
Four people.
And one of them got murdered.

SPEAKER_03 (01:25:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:25:55):
Your your chances weren't real high.

SPEAKER_05 (01:25:58):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:25:58):
Right?
Like it's you gotta think aboutit that way.
It has always existed and itwill always exist so long as we
live in a world that allows it,and so long as God hasn't come
back to to wipe us out.

SPEAKER_03 (01:26:10):
Well, and you know, Cain being the first murderer, I
I heard because I listened toit's called The Great Courses,
and right now I'm one on the OldTestament.
And it's pretty good.
Now, I will say, like, she'sdean at some college or
something, so she's looking atmore of a you know, educational
type of study, but it's stillinteresting.

(01:26:31):
And she's trying, she's lookingat more like the Bible is like a
bunch of folk tales that maybedo have some biblical meaning,
but maybe these people didn'treally exist.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, but one thing that shementioned was okay, so Cain is
the first murderer.
And the fact that Cain is movingaway from God before this

(01:26:54):
process.
So when he murders Abel, hedoesn't really fully understand
what he's actually done untilit's happened.
Right.
Like he doesn't know, like,okay, if I hit him over the
head, if I stab him, if what howwhatever method I'm going to
use.
I don't realize that killing himis he's not coming back.

(01:27:15):
Like, you know, they don'tunderstand murder, but he
doesn't understand it becausehe's already removed himself so
far from God.
So that so murder to him isn't,I'm gonna say isn't that big a
deal, but you just you're so farremoved from things that you
don't understand what you knowthe consequences of what you're
doing.
And so I think about that with alot of people that you know are

(01:27:37):
not Christians, that don'tbelieve are atheists, they look
at things like that.
Like they don't they don't seewhat the true consequences are
of doing some of the things thatthey do because because they
don't they're not in thatrelationship.

SPEAKER_01 (01:27:50):
What's interesting is they'll still recognize that
murder is wrong.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (01:27:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:27:54):
Or they'll still recognize that adultery is
wrong, or they'll recognizethat, you know, whatever.
How are you?
What's yeah, yeah, why's thatbased on?

SPEAKER_00 (01:28:05):
Why are you recognizing those things?

SPEAKER_01 (01:28:06):
What is that based on?
Because if you don't believe inGod, then you aren't your morals
can't be aligned with God,right?
Like that doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_04 (01:28:14):
No, like travel basic human rights.

SPEAKER_01 (01:28:16):
Okay, well, all right, that sounds fine.
Now I want to remind us ofsomething else.
There was a time in the Biblewhen God was so sick of humans
that he was gonna kill us all.
Yep.
Yeah, right?
He was gonna wipe us all out.
And what does it say?
That Noah found favor with God,yeah, and so he spared the the
family, Noah's family, yeah, andallowed them to repopulate the

(01:28:41):
world, right?
Yeah, okay.
So we were are now againessentially sinless, right?
So we gotta, we gotta do overright, we gotta do over.
And all of a sudden, here we areagain in this place.
And I mean, you even go back toall the other stuff that we you
know, it it wasn't like theycame off the boat and everything

(01:29:02):
was good.
Yeah, no.
It was it it has been chaosthen.
It will be it's chaos now, itwill be chaos in the future
until Jesus returns.
But the point is, is we we knowthese things, and we I I read
those stories as fact, right?
I don't read them as conjecture,it's this is a fact, this
happened.
If somebody once said to me,Well, the whole world didn't

(01:29:23):
flood, just the world that theyknew.
The Bible says that the worldflooded.
Yeah, and so if they wrote inthe Bible that the world
flooded, I have to assume thatthe world flooded.
The earth that God formedflooded, flooded.
Yes, I I don't know, I wasn'tthere.
Yeah, I wasn't there when youknow whatever.

(01:29:43):
We can't, as Christians, onlybelieve part of it.
Yeah, yeah, we have to believethe whole thing.
We have to be able to look at itand say, you know what, that
probably really did happen.
And because it's in the word ofGod, there's gotta be some truth
to it, whether we understand itfully or not.
I read an article about AIcreating the mark of the beast,

(01:30:06):
and I mean, I think this guy wasout there, but I wasn't there,
and but one of the things thathe said was in Revelation, they
talk about the statue thatstood, and then the statue could
speak, and the statue could makepeople do things, and they're
saying that was a robot, butback then the word robot wasn't
really a word, so what he'strying to explain to us and and

(01:30:28):
and give us in a vision issomething that he couldn't truly
explain.
Right, right now, is that true?
I don't know, but I won't knowuntil Jesus comes back.
Yeah, right, yep, yep.
So I don't I don't worry myselfwith those things.
Yeah, I do worry myself with howthe world looks at the gospel
and treats it as though it's notaccurate or that it's whatever.

(01:30:54):
I do think we've come a long wayin translation and that we
understand some of the words alittle bit better, and I think
that we should give some meritto the things that we've
learned.
And we should be able to look atthe King James Version, or we
should be able to go back goback and look at the Greek and
Hebrew writings and say, oh,this is what we thought it
meant.
Yeah.
But the actual translation wascloser to this.

(01:31:16):
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (01:31:16):
And that's what some of that great courses uh series
is also trying to explain isthey're trying to explain to you
the actual translation.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And and it's hard to do that.

SPEAKER_04 (01:31:26):
That's always been fascinating to me.
Just like translation.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:31:29):
You know, I have lots of Amish friends, and
they'll tell you there isn't aword in English for the word
that we use in Dutch.

SPEAKER_05 (01:31:34):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:31:35):
Like for us, it's called this, but how would I
explain that to you in English?

SPEAKER_05 (01:31:39):
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 (01:31:40):
And you gotta have a you have to assume these ancient
languages would be the sameword.

SPEAKER_05 (01:31:46):
Right?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:31:47):
They're not all gonna translate word for word
into what it is that we wouldunderstand.
So you know what we mean.

SPEAKER_03 (01:31:52):
Well, and I so I think sometimes in even in the
ancient Egyptian, like sometimesthey're using the same symbol,
but that doesn't necessarilymean it means the same thing
every time.
Correct.
So it's just like they couldhave the same symbol for
multiple words or meanings.
Yeah.
And so that's why it's so hardto translate it, is because
yeah, you think it means thisbecause you've thought you've

(01:32:14):
routed part of the code in amillion different places.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (01:32:17):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:32:17):
Yep.
So very interesting.
Good stuff.
All right.
Roger, you want to praise out?

SPEAKER_00 (01:32:28):
I can't.
Okay.
Heavenly Father, we do thankyou, Lord, for this day.
Lord, we just ask that you wouldtake and be with us, you know,
as as we go out into the outinto the world, Lord.
Allow us to to to bring Jesus tothose that don't know him.
Lord, we just we thank you forthis season, Lord.

(01:32:49):
We just know, Lord, that that uhwe we celebrate this this this
birth of Jesus.
And we just thank you for thisopportunity.
Lord, we just ask take and bewith each person that that
listens to this podcast orlistens to any of our podcasts,
Lord.
Just just have them have an openheart to hear the words that

(01:33:10):
that that we say, Lord.
It's we have a good time, wetalk about some of the some of
the most bizarre stuff, Lord.
But we're we're bringing it toyour people.
And we just thank you for thisopportunity.
Lord, we just just be with eachperson here, Lord.
Be with those that arelistening.

(01:33:31):
Allow them to feel yourpresence.
We just just just thank you andpraise you, and we give you all
the glory, Lord.
We just ask us all in Jesus'most precious name.
Amen.

SPEAKER_04 (01:33:42):
Amen.

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