September 22, 2024 • 62 mins
When was the last time you truly surrendered your daily struggles to faith? Join us in an eye-opening conversation with Adam Fox, a beloved friend of the Hays family, as he steps in for Brady, who is enjoying a well-deserved anniversary break. Adam shares his deeply personal faith journey, taking us from his roots in a Christian home to his evolved understanding of integrating faith seamlessly into every facet of life. The discussion turns poignant as we uncover how everyday moments, rather than grand gestures, often lead to the most impactful spiritual growth.
Ever struggled to ask for help, even when you knew you needed it? We tackle this familiar battle head-on, discussing how to balance self-reliance with seeking divine and communal support. Adam opens up about the common hesitation men feel in admitting vulnerability, and we talk about the indispensable value of a non-judgmental support system. Metaphors, personal stories, and candid reflections abound as we emphasize the importance of surrendering even the smallest issues to God and keeping our eyes on the bigger picture.
From bow hunting to church hymns, we explore how faith intertwines with our daily activities and passions. Adam discusses the joys of archery, the heartfelt beauty of nature, and how our hobbies can serve a greater purpose. Our conversation also touches on the dynamics of church life, the evolving landscape of worship styles, and the enduring connections within our community. Whether you're inspired by favorite Bible verses or the camaraderie of a church family, this episode promises a rich tapestry of reflections and insights that are sure to resonate and uplift.
We love hearing from our listeners whether it's criticism, advice, or just thoughts on the conversation we had. Find us or reach out to us here:
•Email: lifebesidechristpod@gmail.com
•Instagram: @lifebesidechristpodcast
•Intro/Outro Music: "Our Days" by David Hays
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
welcome back to life beside christ podcast.
We are two episodes in a row, ahaze down.
Um, it is the same one again.
It's starting to become apattern.
Happens a third time?
We're gonna have to have aserious conversation with him.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, I mean first time, pretty excusable Maybe.
Maybe I mean I could get myshots in.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
You guys both had one under your belt, yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I mean, you can't blame him, though it's his
anniversary today.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I guess we said that.
Last time, though, we said wecan't blame him I mean you can't
blame the guy.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I just want to treat people how I want to be treated.
You know what I'm saying.
You know what I'm saying.
That's funny, that's funny.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, taking a different angle from last time.
Huh, yep, you don't want tohear from him later, or what?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I don't know if he'll listen to this.
I don't know.
I think I can say whatever Iwant.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, so with that, Brady, just I guess Zoe won't
ever listen to this.
She doesn't listen to thisanyway, Brady basically forgot
his anniversary and said, yeah,next Wednesday works for me Come
Wednesday today.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Sorry, anniversary's today Can't be there, which is
wild to say, and I even text you.
You text him to confirm yeahlike we, good for tonight still
oh actually no.
I got married three years agotoday, so that is crazy that it
was three years ago, I know.
I got two kids already.
They better slow down bro, Goodgrief.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
But we are joined today with a replacement for
Brady A good one, adam Fox.
He's one of our probably mostsupportive listeners so far,
which is pretty sweet.
But Adam is joining us todayand we'll hear from him pretty
soon.
Do you have anything to sayright now, before we get into
(01:59):
the meat of it?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I just want to thank you for asking me to come on
here tonight.
I'm happy to be here.
I just want to thank you forasking me to come on here
tonight.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I'm happy to be here.
A lot of the emails we've readhave come from Adam and it's
nice getting those and hearingfrom you guys.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Nice to finally meet him, you know, in the flesh yeah
.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
No, so just a little bit before we go in.
So adam works with your dad.
I guess I think maybe we'llunderstand more later.
But so you guys have been haveknown him for a while, yeah, and
then I met him through you guys, kind of with through you guys,
(02:43):
and then bow hunting, or notbow hunting, but uh, the archery
club, so yeah, anything elsebefore I don't think so I think
we could just get into kind ofyour story and, uh, we can just
ask questions from there andjust get to know you better, I
(03:04):
guess, or let the audience knowyou better.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, so go ahead and share as much or as little as
you want about whatever you wantreally, I guess, your faith,
your journey to here, to here,good English.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
To this point, I guess, and we can talk about
some stuff after.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, that sounds good to me.
Just a little bit of mybackground.
I've known Carter's parents forlonger than he's been alive, so
I kind of grew up with his momand got to know his dad when I
was still in high school and Iprobably have pictures of him as
an infant at home somewhere.
(03:47):
So I know I do of Brady.
But yeah, so I've known theHayes family for a long time and
been a part of their lives fora long time, and I have a wife,
amanda.
She's at home right now.
We've been married for a littleover 23 years now.
So that's just a little bitabout my personal, personal life
(04:09):
, who I am, and but what got mehere tonight?
Yeah, I would say I don't haveany like really exciting earth
shattering story of you knowanything happening and bringing
me to faith or anything likethat.
I was.
I was, uh, uh, fortunate enoughto be raised up in a Christian
(04:32):
home, um, christian family, um,you know, raised up in church,
going to church, from you knowthe time I was born until you
know now, and so you know, it'salways been a part of my life
and, you know, started out insome of the smaller churches
that you guys know, and thenwent to some larger churches and
(04:54):
then now we we've been at it'sCherry Hills Church in
Springfields where we go now.
We've been there since shortlyafter we got married, really, my
wife and I.
You know, she was raised inaChristian home and always been a
Christian person, and it's beena great, I would say, journey
in life.
(05:14):
You know, like I said, nothingearth shattering, any big moment
where that brought me to be abeliever, or anything like that.
So not exciting I would say inthat way.
But what I would say is that Ihave, you know, as I have, let's
just say, matured, matured inyears in life.
(05:39):
I would say that I have alsomatured in my faith, not just in
what I know, but how I practiceit and how I use it and what I
don't know the best way todescribe this but parts of my
(06:02):
life that before I never reallythought about.
You know, what does God have todo with this?
Or what does you know, how canI use this for God's glory?
You know, as I've gotten moreadvanced in my years, I've
learned that there are a lot ofthings that I don't have this
desire or this passion just touse it for me, but it's to be
(06:26):
used for God's glory and youknow, as you look deeper into
that, it's easy to find thosethings and to be able to do that
to serve God in a better wayeach day.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, it's funny because we've talked about it a
little bit before too, and Ithink a lot of people are always
looking for that big like.
Okay, big reveal, revealyourself to me, god, so I can
believe in you.
Otherwise I'm I'm not sure, oror I'm not gonna buy into it
(06:59):
until something like thathappens to me, and or they just
hear it and they expect it tohappen to them the same way and
not let their faith be theirfaith and it kind of be repeat
of someone else's, instead ofreally being a believer
themselves in whatever theirjourney is and all that.
(07:21):
Um, but the other thing is, too, is I kind of in my head,
chuckled, because when youtalked about maturing in your
faith, there was something I wasthinking about last week and
it's like sometimes I have tostop myself, and not in an
excuse way, but I have tounderstand that I'm 25.
(07:41):
We talked about last time wherehow much I just worry, worry
about stupid stuff, overthinkthings, and I'm like, okay, I, I
gotta understand, like I've gotto slow down, I gotta have
patience, and I'm like I just Ijust kind of like expect to.
If I don't know it, then it'smy fault right now, like instead
of understanding whatever it is, I'm going through, to kind of
(08:02):
learn from it and mature throughit over time and it's not going
to happen overnight.
But it is something that, likeI thought about last week, I'm
like what are you doing, dude?
You're expecting the results tohappen now, like like you've
lived your life and to know allthe answers, and I'm like I
don't.
I stopped myself from thinkingthat way and it was just kind of
a funny thought.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
You're exactly right because you know, I I look back
to when, you know, I would havebeen in my 20s, you know, and
the things I I worried aboutthen or that were of concern to
me.
I look back now it's like, oh,that's a whole different set of
things now, that that I worryabout, or that.
I look back and like, wow, thatwasn't.
It didn't seem like a big deal.
It doesn't seem like a big dealat all now.
(08:43):
It was to me.
Then I was in a different placein life and you know, and it's
kind of I think that's part ofmaturing and being able to take
those things and just say, okay,I can't do this.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
You know, you got to surrender this to God and say
here, you know, this is you youshow me what to do, right?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
yeah, carter you, I thought you have a thought.
No, I lost it.
Oh, my bad, too much ramblingby me.
No, you're good.
Um, but yeah, it is somethingthat we have to definitely
remind ourselves often.
But that's kind of like talkingto someone today about the
podcast and understanding too,like that's we're we're trying
to.
I guess the point of thispodcast is one for ourselves,
(09:29):
like we've talked about, but foryounger Christians, for newer
Christians, I guess to to talkabout these things, and I think
that's that's good to bring up.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, and I think it's.
I think it's great that you'redoing this.
I've been you guys know I'vebeen impressed with you.
Some, from the beginning youknow think it's great that
you're doing this.
You guys know I've beenimpressed with you from the
beginning.
You know it's great that you'redoing this.
And yeah, I know you're aimingit towards younger Christians,
but just so you know it affectsolder Christians as well.
You know we're all maturing inone way or another and you know
(10:00):
we're all learning, we're allgrowing.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
All we're all learning, we'reall growing.
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah, we've had a lot ofsupport from all ages and all
length of believers, I guess, inthat sense, and so again, we
appreciate anyone who supportsus and all this, I guess um, I
don't know if this is toopersonal of a question, but you
(10:27):
mentioned using like maturingthrough the word and all that.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
How do you use the word and all that to kind of
fight your battles in lifeagainst the devil, I guess and
life against the devil, I guessyou said it better whenever
you're explaining your thing?
But just knowing how to use Godto fight your temptations and
all that, Like, I guess I'mcoming from a place where I
(11:01):
struggle with these littlethings that I know me and God
can beat, but I keep strugglingevery day.
That I know me and God can beat, but I keep struggling every
day.
And I didn't know if you hadadvice for me and others on how
to use that and just be stronger, I guess, through.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
God.
Yeah, that's a good question,that's a tough one there to tell
you the truth, but what I wouldsay is there's, know it's,
there's going to be.
We'll call them seasons in yourlife where, where things are
more challenging than others,Times are going to test your
faith.
Times that are going to seemeasy.
You're going to go throughtimes, probably, that you, you,
(11:39):
you question, you know what isyour purpose and what has helped
me over the years, if there'ssome times where I would even,
you know, question the realityof it all, but there's always
something that brings me back tosay there's no doubt that this
is real you know that God isreal.
(12:01):
You know, and there are thingsthat will push you, or could
potentially push you, to thatpoint sometime where you are
questioning what is your purpose, and I would recommend some of
what you're doing already isyou're surrounding yourself with
fellow believers, friends thatare like family to you, family
(12:26):
that are like friends to you.
Whatever it may be that they'regoing to be there to help you
through those challenging times,to encourage you.
There's going to be specificverses, chapters of the Bible
that are going to stand out toyou on one day and aren't the
next because they don't seem asapplicable, but there's always
something in there and it maynot be specifically related to
(12:50):
whatever the exact thing is, butthere's a foundation there that
is something that's going tohold you up.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Okay.
So maybe my problem is I don'tknow if it's being too shy or
too guilty where I don't go andask for just a talk even if it's
just a talk with a friend orfamily and kind of help me
(13:20):
through that.
But I also think that's throughGod.
Help me through that, but Ialso think that's through God.
But I think both those kind ofgo hand in hand where you talk
it out and get back to God andget back on the right foot.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
So yeah, I think some of that is you're being the
stereotypical man.
You know we were fixers.
We don't.
We don't want to ask for help,we want to deal with it
ourselves and it's.
It's very easy to fall intothat.
But you know, I would encourageyou to have somebody in your
(13:52):
life that you can go to with,look down upon you for anything,
not going to judge you inwhatever it is, and have that
brotherhood there.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
So I've got a question and maybe this is
hopefully, maybe it makes sensein the question, but you just
kind of said having someone togo to and in my head it's kind
you like being like thestereotypical male, like right,
and I'm like, well, if I've gotan issue or if I've got stuff
(14:36):
I'm struggling with, I should beable to turn to god and talk to
him about it.
But I'm like no, I need tofigure this out myself.
So I guess maybe do you haveany advice on or thoughts where,
like maybe you've went throughthe kind of same thing where
like, okay, this, I, this hasgot to be with, like, with God,
I've got to come to the solution, I've got to get through this,
(14:58):
whatever it is, with God,instead of trying to say, god, I
can do this, this is my problem, I can fix this one.
Because I think a couple weeksago I was in a funk, I guess,
and Brady and Carter kept goinglike dude, what's wrong with you
?
Like leave me alone, dude, howabout that?
Just leave me alone.
(15:19):
But it was like I was justfrustrated about little things.
It was like I was justfrustrated about little things
and uh, but I was like it wasstuff that I was like no, like I
and it sounds stupid.
It sounds stupid, but likesaying like now, this isn't big
enough to bring up in prayer,like this isn't big enough to
take to him.
This is, this is something thatI'm being frustrated about for
(15:41):
no reason and I need to fix itmyself, kind of thing.
So I don't know, do you haveanything for other?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, I would say you know one, there's no problem
too big or too small.
Yeah, and you knew that already.
Yeah, you know.
But it's hard to convinceourselves of that and
unfortunately, with with a lotof us who are stubborn, and
(16:14):
unfortunately, with with a lotof us who are stubborn,
especially if it's a big problem, it gets to the point where you
almost have to be broken to beable to to surrender it.
Because you get to the pointwhere there, you know, you
finally realize there's nothingI can do here.
You know nothing, it's I can'tfix it, it's not me, I got, I
gotta surrender it, all you know.
And and that's not an easyplace to get to.
Yeah, and it's not an easything to do, doesn't sound?
fun no, no, it's, it's not, andit can be a big problem or a
little problem, but that's kindof like you say, like you do,
(16:35):
you go through, like the seasons, the ups and downs yeah and not
to interrupt you, but I kind ofgo back to.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I think I told carter about this.
I was, I was driving to awrestling meet and I was like
dude, this thought just like itclicked in my head.
Um, but I remember when I wasgoing through like driver's ed,
I was driving first time,driving on like the interstate
and the my, the driver's edteacher in the passenger seats
like you keep.
(17:02):
Do you feel yourself likeswerving?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Not like hard but like that's that Macedonian.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Yeah, whatever Cars are still new there, they
haven't gotten in there.
Get out of here, anyways.
But like, like trying to stayperfectly in the center but're
looking too close.
So she's like, look furtherahead on the road to keep
(17:28):
yourself straighter in your lane.
I was like god, that doesn'tmake sense.
Like like I, I don't know.
So then I was like, okay, I'lltry it and you're you stay if
you like you know, if you'relooking further ahead, you, it
was easier to like keep yourselfcentered, I guess, and now, as
you've been driving for even ayear, like that becomes easier.
But like as a first-time driveron there going 65 or 70, like
(17:51):
you're trying to say perfectly,and you're just like making
those little adjustments, tryingto stay in, like swerving and
how I was.
Like that to me sounds likeyou're focusing too much now,
like on what you, what's leaving, and you're driving past every
two seconds instead of lookingforward and trying to get to the
ultimate destination.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
In a straighter line kind of, I guess.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
That's a I really like that analogy.
To tell you the truth, you know, I mean, where do you A lot of
rambling?
Sorry, no, I like it.
You know where do you put yourfocus, you know, is it where it
needs to be or is it somewhereelse?
I like that you were talkingearlier about a couple weeks ago
you were in a funk or whatever,but one thing that I found
(18:36):
encouraging about what you saidthere was that you had friends
that noticed that that's sayinga lot right there.
You've got those people therethat you know, they know they
know the, the normal levi yeahand.
But then they know whensomething's not right also, they
can see that you know and youknow that's a.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That's a good thing to have right there too yeah,
yeah, I guess I appreciate thema little bit yeah yeah, even
even them.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
They don't show up, right, yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
What I was going to say earlier and this is going
back a little bit, but about thebigger little problems just
trying to solve on your own,that God already knows, he knows
everything.
It's if you want to go throughthose problems with God or
without.
Yeah, you're trying to find asolution, but there's an easy
(19:29):
way out.
It just it's tough to get there.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, for sure, and it's not like you're.
You're turning quote, unquoteyour back to God and saying I'm
like I'm walking the otherdirection.
Yeah, You're you're trying todo good, right.
It's like, okay, you walk withme, but on that side of the road
.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I'm going to walk on this side.
You can walk with me, but stayon that side.
I'll get this taken care of,but instead of being like, all
right.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah.
You know, but it makes me thinkof.
Do you guys remember the oldbumper sticker that said God is
my co-pilot?
Yeah, that one always annoyedme.
It's like co-pilot.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
No, it should be your pilot, yeah, so you think
you're driving the whole shipthere.
That's funny.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Any other thoughts?
I kind of interrupted you asecond ago.
Did you have anything else?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
If I did, they're gone already.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
My bad, my bad.
No, that's okay.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I enjoy the discussion.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So I guess, before, I guess, before, I guess well, I
guess, I guess, yeah, you dothat a lot you are guessing um,
before we start asking you morequestions, is there anything
else about you and your journeythat maybe you want to talk
about, or any experiences withkids or anything like that?
You've that stuck out to you, Iguess?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Yeah, yeah, I'd be happy to you know, I would say
this is when I talked earlierabout how, as I've gotten older
and been able to, to mature andyou know, learn what, uh, you
know how to use my life andthese things that God has
blessed me with.
You know my, my talents, mydesires, ability.
You know, whatever it may be,my hobbies, things like that,
(21:09):
that's, that's something thatI've been learning a lot here in
the last few years.
I would say, and you know, ofcourse, you guys, I know we've
shot archery together.
That's something that I do a lotof and I've had the privilege
of being able to teach kids,have a good group of adults that
I get to hang out with at thearchery range and things like
that, and one of the things thatI've come to learn here
(21:30):
recently is that whether it'sthat hobby or whatever your
hobby, your talents, yourabilities may be, you know it
hit me one day.
It's like well, I don't havethat just for fun.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
You know it is there, it's something that I do enjoy
and I know God has given me thatability to enjoy it, but it's
like there is so much more thatcan come from it when you're
able to share it with others andto, you know, encourage others
with with those, um, thosethings that you do in life,
whatever it is.
Unless your hobby is likestealing cars or something, then
you know it's not really goodat it, yeah, yeah.
(22:04):
That's.
That's probably not somethingfrom God right there.
But you know if it's somethingthat is good and you can use it
for his glory, for his purpose,you know why not do that and and
it's like I've been able to seeand get a greater appreciation
for it and get a lot moresatisfaction out of the things
that I enjoy doing.
Once I learn that, boy, I canteach somebody how to do this.
(22:25):
I can spend time doing this withsomebody else.
I mean these things.
I've been able to do some ofthese things with my wife, you
know, and it's just, there'sbeen a variety of people that
have come into my life becauseof these hobbies that I have and
these desires and abilities,and it's like you know, I was a
slow learner, but I've learnedthat, you know, I can use these
for a greater good.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
And it's been a nice experience.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, it is something , though, too Like, even kind of
, like you said, the stuff thatyou do that you never really had
much thought in, as just yourhobby or something you enjoy
doing, how much you can use to.
It may not even be in abiblical way, like not biblical,
but like a in a I don't know achristian setting I guess, but
(23:16):
like helping somebody out andjust kind of showing um love, I
guess, to other people.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Exactly and setting an example for them whatever it
may be, Just go there and useyour God-given abilities and
yourself as a person to justinteract.
It's going to bring people intoyour life that you may never
have noticed before, you maynever have talked to, but all of
a sudden they're there and youhave a common interest and you
know it's a good way to be.
(23:48):
Yeah, and you know, I've seensome different things.
Where I was challenged lastyear to speak at an event, oh
yeah.
About one of my hobbies, youknow archery, bow hunting, that
kind of thing and I was able tolook like, take a much deeper
look into those things and whatI found is and I think you can
(24:09):
probably do this with a lot ofdifferent uh, uh hobbies,
whether it be a sport oranything but I found so many
parallels from what I do thatwere in the Bible, you know, and
I was able to talk about thatand I was like I challenged
people to, um, to take a reallydeep look into what they enjoy
doing, whatever it may be, andfind, you know what, what is in
(24:31):
the word about that that canbring a deeper meaning to you
and use that yeah that's goodCarter.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Got anything after that.
Not not too much um, hey, man,you you did.
You had a good episode lastlast episode I know right and
people were giving himcompliments and and now he's a
little back, down back.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
They got way too high .
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I gotta bring them back back to sitting there and
watching, yeah I don't have muchoff of that.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I do have a question.
I was listening to anotherChristian podcast and they
brought up that God is like ahotline he's 24-7, all the time
which I completely agree with.
Yeah, he's 24-7, all the time,which I completely agree with.
(25:27):
But the problem is I findmyself not believing that.
Okay, I do believe that 100%.
I know what you mean.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Or where you're going , yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
In my day-to-day things.
I'll wake up, pray, and thenit's like once I say amen and 10
minutes later it's like I'veforgotten.
And then lunchtime I'llremember again.
It's like, well, it's notreally like a 24-7.
It's like three times a day.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I remember, oh, yeah, here we go yeah.
But I didn't know if you guysfelt the same way or if that's
just a personal thing or whatyou mean like just thinking
about, like how I justthroughout the day, or I'll just
go off and forget it.
And then, uh, and whenever it'stime to lay back down in bed, I
was like, oh well, thank youfor all these things.
(26:20):
I forgot the all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
But yeah, I think it's, and we've talked about it
a little bit Like how easily itis to be distracted, not just
with like work, but just otherthings, like with your phone,
with music.
And like how easy it is to justbe distracted From things and
we allow ourselves maybe to doit too much.
I know I'm guilty of that, butnot thinking and doing things
(26:51):
with God throughout the day, Iguess, and putting him at the
first thought of things, I guess, but I don't have an answer.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I'm just kind of putting myself along next to you
, like for adam to answer for us.
Yeah, like what I think?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
like it's not literally like this, but it's
almost like me saying amen islike hanging up for now yeah,
call you like, yeah, it's likeyeah, and maybe it's better to
not think of it as a hotlinemore of like, you know, like
he's with me all the time timekind of thing, instead of when I
call.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yeah, I think, you know.
I think there's something to besaid about having a scheduled
time every day.
You know I prefer to start andend every day in prayer, you
know, but throughout the day Idon't have a set time or
anything like that.
I may see something or somebody, or somebody says something, or
I see somebody that'sstruggling that day, whatever it
(27:47):
is, you know, and I'll taketime to to say a quick prayer
right there.
Um, you know, and also there's,there's been times where I've
I've thought, well, I need to bemore intentional about, you
know, keeping uh incommunication with God
throughout the day, and so therewill be something like, anytime
(28:08):
this would happen, that wouldbe a reminder to me to stop and
pray for a little bit, and it'ssomething like I did it anytime
I felt the need to get up andget a snack, like, well, I'm
going to pray for this personinstead, and so there's things
like that.
You can do that, so you don't gofrom after you get out of bed
in the morning until you lay inbed at night and think, oh, I
(28:29):
haven't thought one bit aboutthis all day.
Right, you know, because thatcan happen.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Life is busy, things, things can pull you away, and
that's, that's uh yeah, becauseI there's been times where I
felt myself like I'm forcingmyself to.
Okay, I I gotta do it now, justto like almost checkmark my
daily checklist.
I guess, and not at all timesdoing it with the right
(28:55):
intentions, I guess, and justkind of doing it like going
through the motions kind ofthing and not meaningful time in
prayer and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
I get what you're saying for sure, because that
can happen.
It just feels like somethingthat, oh, that's just what I'm
supposed to do so that's why Ido it, but there's no real
meaning behind it, and I thinksometimes you can.
If I were to decide to prayevery time I dropped my pen on
the floor or something like that, then it would marginalize or
minimalize what I was doing.
(29:24):
So I think there's a balance inthere and there's certain
things that are going to go oneach day that are more
meaningful and you're going tobe able to.
It's going to mean more to youis what I'm trying to say in
that sense.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yeah, that makes sense, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Yep, that makes sense .
Speaker 1 (29:42):
So I'll go with the next question, then.
One of my I enjoy asking people, especially on here when we
have guests is a verse thatalways comes to your head when
you need to, or just a versethat immediately comes to your
head that you turn to a lot, Iguess.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, I have actually there's.
There's three of them, and Ifeel terrible cause I never have
memorized exactly what thethree.
I'm terrible remembering thingslike that.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Hey, you can look them up and cut it out.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, I'm not looking on my phone right now.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
I don't see yeah, yeah, so, but but Proverbs 27,
17 is one of them that I I keepso.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
but Proverbs 27, 17 is one of them that I keep, and
that is as iron sharpens iron,so one man sharpens another.
You know, it's something thatit reminds me, because there's
times that I think I know betterthan other people.
And that's a good reminder to methat you know a lot of wisdom
can be gained from other peopleNow you have to be able to vet
(30:54):
out what is right, what is wrong, who to listen to and who to
not listen to, but where yougain that wisdom from and that
advice and that kind of goesalong with that, and so that's
one of them that I fall on quitea bit.
I wouldn't say I have afavorite Bible verse or anything
like that, but that's one thatcomes to mind a lot, right.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Yeah, carter, I like hearing it from anybody, all the
time.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Oh, I didn't prepare for this.
Hey man, it's okay, you wantone of mine.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, yeah, Let me hey man, it's okay you want one
of mine.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, yeah, let me.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
I always turn to Revelations 320.
I've said it on here multipletimes and I haven't memorized
this one either, but definitelynot looking at it.
Here I am.
I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice andopens the door, I will come in
and eat with that person andthey with me, and it's just a
good reminder.
I was like it was one of thefirst ones after doing the Bible
(31:49):
study with their family attheir house.
That stuck out to me when Iread it it was like okay, that
one's gonna stick to me, becauseI think it was a little bit
different and for them.
They grew up Christian and Ikind of was introduced to
Christianity and Jesus in a moreserious way through them or
through their family, and it wasjust like he's not forcing his
(32:13):
way into my life, he's not there, right?
So if he's knocking at the doorand I finally got to the point
in my life where I was like, oh,there is someone at that door,
let me open it, kind of thing,and it was just a good little
visual, I guess.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Yeah, and it applies on many levels too, whether your
whole life or just maybe youhave one little part of your
life that you're like no, thisis for me, I don't need you here
.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Well, he's knocking at the door, you know, yeah, yep
, that's a good, I found mine,you found yours.
Yep, it was on the other sideof my cross.
There you go.
Uh, mark 9, 47, let me, let mego.
Uh, not look for it real quickintermission.
Okay, it says and if your eyecauses you to sin, pluck it out.
It is better for you to enterthe kingdom of God with one eye
(33:12):
than to have two eyes and bethrown into hell.
I like the seriousness of it.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Like this isn't a joke.
If you're sinning andsomething's causing you to sin
get it out of your life.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, that's definitely something too.
I think we I keep saying it,but we've talked about some of
this stuff before but things getso watered down a lot of times
in daily life, or even sometimesin churches among fellow
(33:48):
believers even, that we don'talways think of the ultimate
truth that we're either going tobe with God in eternity or
separated from Him, and it'spretty serious.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, it is.
It's a serious matter that,unfortunately, a lot of people
don't take seriously.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Can't serve two masters brother.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
That's right.
That's right, it's really okay.
Saul, do you have anotherquestion, or do you want?
Speaker 2 (34:22):
me to go Me oh yeah, that's what I asked.
I got a.
So did you grow up in Linville?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
I did grow up in Linville, okay.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
So the shop?
Was that always there wheneveryou were born?
The mower repair shop?
Yes, it was, yep it was.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
My parents started that before I was born and up
through, you know, until theyrecently retired here in the
last few years, and I worked forthem growing up and through
high school and through college,and so, yeah, I'm a Linvillian
to the core.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Okay, so all two of the Linville people that listen
will know exactly what you'retalking about.
Yeah, yeah, that's good, we gotto keep it.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Don't want them coming might bump up our
population or people moving intolynnville, yeah, um.
So I don't really know myparents story or where they grew
up that much.
So was my mom also fromlynnville, or was she there, did
she move there or what was the,I guess?
(35:28):
How did you get to know my mominto meeting my dad?
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Well, when I was really little and I don't know
up to what age I remember yourmom, cause she's, uh, maybe five
years older than me, four orfive.
I can't remember where she's at, but, um, her and her two
brothers, I remember them, uh,in Linville growing up.
They were older than me, but,uh, I remember where she's at,
but her and her two brothers, Iremember them in Linville
growing up.
They were older than me, but Iremember where they lived there.
And then I remember them at theLinville Christian Church and
(35:57):
Bible school days sitting on thesteps out there, probably
playing a kazoo and singingsongs in the morning, and I
remember.
And then then she was gone.
I don't remember.
I must move somewhere.
I didn't really know.
And then, um, later on, when Iwas in high school, then, um, I
(36:19):
had known your uncle Jason.
We went to a lot of bow shootsand things like that and hung
out with him.
Then your dad started showingup and your mom was with him.
That was before they weremarried.
Then I was like, oh hey, I knowyou.
It was kind of like never, youknow, your mom's a very social
(36:41):
person.
It was kind of like, well,there wasn't a 12-year gap in
there, or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
That's funny.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yeah, so that's when I got to know your dad, and then
he became one of my bestfriends.
He was actually one of thegroomsmen in my wedding.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Okay, I did not know that Yep Learning too much for
today.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Any other Linville questions?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
I don't think so Not yet Linville heavy episode here.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, that's funny.
Um, so how long have you beengoing to the church you've
currently been going to?
Speaker 3 (37:19):
23 years?
Yeah, pretty much.
We uh uh.
We got married in 2001 and, andwe were still in college we
went to University of Illinoisat Springfield and so we lived
on campus and prior to that wewent to church in Jacksonville
and my wife was from Ashland andwe'd go to church there some.
But once we got married welived in Springfield.
It was somebody that she workedwith, I believe, at a daycare
(37:46):
that invited to go to church athis then it was Cherry Hills
Baptist Church and it's justCherry Hills Church now.
But so we started going there,and that was late in 2001, I
believe.
And then, other than a shortstint where we have, you know,
attended a more local churchwhen it was something that we
could, were able to be theremore regularly, you know, a
short stint there, then that'swhere we've been the whole time.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
So is that a big church, or is it a pretty small
church, or it's.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
It's pretty big, I would say.
Right now I think our numbersare around 1500 a week.
Oh, wow, um, when we were goingthere, it was probably about
half that, but that facility wasoutgrown and um I can't
remember what year now it mighthave been like 2005 um moved to
a new facility with a largerspace and actually they're doing
(38:35):
some remodeling for additionalspace right now.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Really, yeah, it's been so.
Is it a?
Is it still a baptistdenomination church or is it
non-denominational?
It's non-denominational.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
They were, I believe, originally part of the American
Baptist Association and thenit's probably I always think
things like two or three yearsago it's probably been like
seven years ago that they justthey pulled out of the
association.
They didn't, you know, they're,the church is, you know,
self-sustaining.
They didn't really needanything from that association.
(39:06):
And I think there are someother reasons too, but I don't
want to quote anything withoutbeing certain on it.
And so, yeah, we're just CherryHills Church now and it's a
great place to be.
We've got a good team ofpastors and it's a large church.
But I've always told people itdoesn't feel that way.
If you want to hide, you canhide, I guess, but you can only
(39:29):
do that if you're trying to.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Because it's very personal, I would say We'll need
to go sometime.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, I like I've not been to a ton of different
churches, but I like going andseeing how different churches
are, especially not in the same,I don't know like fashion of
church, I guess.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
But so do they like First Christian?
They're mostly like they do atraditional service, traditional
music I guess, and then they dolike more like modern
contemporary.
What do you guys kind of follow?
Speaker 3 (40:07):
We used to do right now.
They just started back to threeservices again each Sunday.
Used to do that all the time.
They had 8 o'clock and then9.30 and 11.
And 8 o'clock was always thetraditional service with hymns,
and then the 9.30 and 11 were acontemporary service.
Now they do three identicalones and the message is the same
throughout them and everythinglike that.
(40:29):
And as far as like the, whetherthere's a praise band or a choir
or whoever's up there, itvaries from from week to week,
you know.
Sometimes it's, you know thewhole choir is up there and it's
really going.
Sometimes it's it's two orthree up there, you know,
singing with maybe a guitar or aviolin in the background or
something like that.
So there's a wide variety ofthat, the type of service,
(40:52):
whatever it may be, and it seemsto suit people.
Well, because it's not.
You know, there was a lot ofpeople that didn't like a praise
band.
Well you know, it's not thatthat's every week or whatever it
may be so yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
So what's?
Do you have a favorite of themusic type?
I guess Do you have a favoritethat your church does.
That is a good question.
Or do you just enjoy all ofthem?
Speaker 3 (41:16):
I enjoy.
I'm not one that likes to sing.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Some people they love to sing, and that's not me.
I love to listen to it.
Yeah, and there are certainpeople who at times are like, oh
, this person's up there as leadsinger today.
You know, their voice may besomething that I really like or
whatever.
Whatever it may be.
Yeah, sometimes it is just thetype of music I wouldn't say I
have a particular favorite, butI enjoy listening to it.
(41:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yeah, listening to it .
Um, yeah, yeah, it's when Istarted going to lynnville.
Um, it's basically all hymnswith the occasional, like your
dad or someone playing piano orguitar or something like that
and singing something a littlebit different and I enjoy.
I enjoyed the hymns sometimeswhen there weren't a ton of
(42:05):
people there, it was a littlerocky to get through there yeah,
and but I also I also enjoysome of the more modern or
contemporary music that we hearfrom going to the first
christian services.
But they do a traditional 8 amtoo.
It's like I like I enjoy thekind of a mix.
(42:25):
Enjoy a mix because sometimes Iwant to hear a whole room
singing Amazing Grace orsomething like that I don't know
.
I just kind of like it.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
I went to Linville this past week to the Christian
church and I'd actuallyforgotten about hymnals because
I hadn't had them Our church hadgotten rid of them a long time
ago I was like, oh wow, you knowhymn number and they're on the
board up there the ones we'regoing through and I was like,
huh, I'm going to have to singreally quiet, which I did.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
There's a few in there that get after it and you
can really hear them, butthey're there.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
every week there's nothing wrong with that.
That's right, absolutely wrongwith that.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
That's right.
What's crazy.
I admire somebody that willsing at the top of their voice
without a care in the worldbecause they're loving it, and
that's not me.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Same here, yeah, so I went to that Illinois College
Bible study.
I didn't go to school there, Ijust showed up.
That's so funny to me.
To give myself some backgroundhere.
My sister went to IC so sheinvited me and I went, but they
(43:38):
were singing these new Christiansongs.
I'd never heard these in mylife.
They didn't go to Linvillesinging out of a hymnal.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Like, hey, you're doing this wrong.
Yeah, yeah, we gotta slow itdown out here.
Acapella only.
Yeah, I was like I was.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
I was really impressed they.
They were singing and I meaneveryone kind of like was
looking down or had their eyesclosed.
I was kind of looking aroundlike these people are singing
like what the heck like theyknow these songs.
That was.
That's really cool.
If once I have children, I hopeto expose them to that music
and so they can know that better, I guess there's something
(44:15):
about that, that energy in theroom that can really get you.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
You're ready for worship at that.
At that point, you know yeah,yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
So I'll go with my next question.
Is there a person from thebible that you find yourself
relating to or connecting tooften, or maybe, as you've read
through a book, you're like?
Speaker 3 (44:37):
yeah that's.
I can see myself kind of doingthat that one, I can't say, as
I've ever really thought aboutthat before, that is intriguing
I've.
I can't say, as I've everreally thought about that before
, that is intriguing I've.
You know, I've studieddifferent people in the bible
and different things, but um, asfar as one that I relate, to.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Hmm, I always kind of think about Peter, not Peter,
uh sorry, paul get those, butwell, peter, sometimes too Paul
Get those, but well, petersometimes too, but Paul, and
just that.
It was like an immediate switchafter his meeting with Jesus on
the road.
It was like my whole life isdedicated to this now, and he
(45:21):
even wrote like I still sin, Istill do things I don't want to
do, but my faith is 100% inJesus.
Through all of his epistles andletters it's pretty evident
that that could be any one of usstruggling with the same things
that he struggles with Maybenot the wisdom that he shared
(45:43):
through those, but the strugglesthat he talks about and shares
is just like any other person, Iguess.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Well, and it's a great example that if, if
somebody ever says well you know, God can't use me for anything
whatever it is like yeah, well,look at Paul.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
He can use anybody Literally.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah .
I would assume I'm going tohave to think about that
question some more because Inever thought about that, but I
would assume there's probablyparts of a lot of people in the
Bible that you can relatecertain things to.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
But yeah that's a good question where did you come
up with that question?
Did you just think that up?
Speaker 1 (46:24):
oh, that one, I thought of these next couple.
I got off of a chat GPT.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
I would assume we probably all got a little bit of
Jonah in us at times.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Wanted to go the other way.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Yeah, I would assume we can all relate to that.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Yeah, do you have any other questions before we go,
because we're about 50 minuteshere.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
Wow time flies doesn't it, it does.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
I have no more questions about the Bible.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
But I have different questions.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Okay, you can go.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
So how did you get into hunting and what is your
favorite thing to hunt or typeof hunt or place to hunt?
Speaker 3 (47:07):
Okay, Well, I kind of grew up hunting.
My dad did a lot of hunting asmy whole life and I got to go
with him as a child and when wewere kids of course we had BB
guns.
And growing up in Linville wedidn't have to walk too far to
get outside of town to go shootat sparrows or whatever it may
be.
Outside of town to go shoot atsparrows or whatever it may be,
there was local farmers at thattime.
(47:29):
All had hoglots around theirhouse right outside of town and
the birds just flocked to there,and so our Saturday mornings
were with our BB guns at thesehoglots, shooting at birds.
That's what we did, and then, aswe got a little older, me and
my brother and some of ourfriends we would.
We would just pack something todrink in a bag or whatever and
(47:52):
we would just take off to thetimber for the whole day and we
would cook what we shot.
Yeah, if we shot something, wemay pack some snacks or fruit
snacks or something with us, but, uh, you know, we kind of
relied on what we were gonnashoot that day and we'd light a
fire and it was not good eating.
But you know, um, that's whatwe did, um, and so kind of grew
(48:15):
up hunting and it's one of mypassions, I would say.
And you know, bow hunting, uh isby far my favorite.
I mean, I gun hunt too.
I enjoy, um, bow hunting anddeer, um, um, probably my
favorite is is hunting from theground, uh, where you're kind of
on a even more even playingfield with them.
There's something, somethingkind of neat about having a wild
(48:38):
animal that close to you at eyelevel and you're hidden from
them, whether it's somethingyou're going to try to take home
to put in the freezer or not.
There's.
There's something that's reallyto me is is really enjoyable
about that.
And I shoot, you know,traditional archery equipment
you know, recurves long bows,everything like that and and
there's something really neatabout having to get that close
and uh, I find myself doing alot more watching the animals
(49:02):
now than what I used to.
I'm not so focused on gettingthe shot or the kill, but just
enjoying them and learning fromthem.
It's really neat to just be apart of nature.
I've always had that desire tobe outdoors.
There's many nights where it'sa nice evening and I think, yeah
, I'd rather just sleep outsidein a tent tonight.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
I've always been impressed when I see you post a
buck or something like thatyou've gotten.
And I'm like, without evenlooking, I'm like I know you got
that with the recurve or alongbow like that's even more
impressive than a compound likein the videos.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
I mean I think you just posted one where one was
off to the left and then thenext picture.
It's like right there yeah howin the world?
Speaker 3 (49:48):
yeah, they can.
You know, it's kind of neatwhen you can get them to be that
close to you and and sometimesthey don't know you're there,
sometimes they do but they can'tfigure out, figure you out, and
so they're kind of curious yeahyou know, and I get just as
excited over you know, bringinghome a doe is what I do bring a
big buck.
You know, I'm not a trophyhunter, I don't pass them up,
but I you know, yeah, I, I getjust as much excitement out of
(50:12):
that yeah, you know it's.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
I don't think that's part of it.
Yeah, so I know the prep thatbrady does for deer hunting.
It's all the clothes and thescent stuff.
Um, is that about the same onthe ground, or do you have to be
even more thorough?
Speaker 3 (50:31):
and whatever, I don't know anything about it more
thorough, I would say, becauseyou're, there's no chance that
your scent is going to carryover top of them and I hunt the
wind, no matter what.
I don't worry about scentcontrol or buying the scent lock
clothing or anything like that.
One, I'm too cheap to do thatand two, I know that if they're
(50:51):
downwind of me they're going tosmell me no matter what.
So I have to basically play thewind, based off of what I know
of their patterns, where I thinkthey're going to be coming from
, going to and setting upsomewhere that you know with
whether, whatever the wind is,that day, that they, they're not
going to pick that up, becausetheir eyes can fail them, their
ears can fail them, but theirnose will never fail them out
(51:14):
there.
Yeah, dang, that's crazy.
Yeah, it's amazing how, even ifyou don't think you stink, how
bad they can how easy, they cansmell you.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Huh stink, how bad they can,how easy they can smell you.
Yeah, it's crazy, oh well I'vegot some more like rapid fire
questions, I guess.
Go for it, uh, to send us offunless we've got anything else
you've got, or you want to talkabout or do anything before we
get into that, I guess, or no, Idon't.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
I don't think I have anything in particular.
I'd say go for it.
Speaker 1 (51:51):
So you don't have to give super long answers.
The first one was preferredworship style.
So what kind of music?
But we kind of asked that oneFavorite Christian podcast.
Speaker 3 (52:01):
Well, I'm going to have to go with Life Beside
Christ.
Speaker 2 (52:06):
There's one person, at least there's one.
We were just staring at him,he's sweating profusely right
now.
Speaker 3 (52:16):
I do really enjoy it.
There are some Christian bowhunting podcasts that.
I listen to as well, and I doenjoy them, but this is one that
I don't miss, yeah, Well it'shard to miss when we put one out
a month.
Yeah, one a year.
You can never really fallbehind.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
So that's kind of a plus in that sense too.
But we appreciate that.
Do you have a go-to worshipsong or just a Christian song
that you like to listen to?
Hmm, that, or just like aChristian song that you like to
listen to.
Speaker 3 (52:51):
Hmm, that I don't have one particular one.
It's weird.
I wake up every morning with asong in my head.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
Yeah, basically the same way.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
And sometimes it's a song from church, sometimes it's
whatever music I have playingon a YouTube channel at work and
, yeah, I wake up with a song inmy head.
I don't think I have a favorite.
I'll probably think of it asI'm driving home, but yeah,
that's what I would call myfavorite, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Favorite all-time movie.
Speaker 3 (53:18):
Oh, favorite all-time movie.
Well, that one's easy.
Forrest Gump, forrest.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Gump.
Yeah, okay, that's a goodanswer.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Favorite Christian movie or show.
Speaker 3 (53:29):
Ooh Well, I mean I wouldn't say it's necessarily a
Christian show, but you know theDuck Dynasty yeah, I enjoyed
that, and War Room was a goodone.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
I don't know if you guys got a chance to watch it or
not.
Someone's going to make acomment to me after they hear
this episode.
I've told you to watch War Room, and I still haven't yet.
Speaker 3 (53:55):
That's one I need to watch.
It's been a while since I'veseen it, but I remember it being
very good yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
Yeah, I need to watch that.
Yep.
What about have you?
Jace Robertson has his new showTreasure Hunting with Jace or
the Robertsons, I don't know.
It's kind of like his new showof the Robertson family, I guess
.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
I haven't heard of that.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
Oh well, sorry.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
No, I'll watch it tonight.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Call me a liar, do you prefer?
Speaker 3 (54:29):
a large church or do you prefer a smaller church?
You know, I grew up In what Iwould call a very small church
starting out, and then we wentto a larger church which was
First Christian.
Yeah, they weren't near aslarge then as they are now.
I think, from the standpoint ofopportunities to do things and
(54:50):
be a part of things more thanjust a Sunday morning, the
larger church has more to offeras far as that goes.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:58):
Not that a small church can't do, that Right, you
know.
But I do enjoy the largerchurches has more to offer as
far as that goes.
Yeah, not the small churchcan't do that right, you know
but I I do enjoy the, the largerchurches I would say.
I think um, you know, Iprobably have gotten more out of
those that way.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
Yeah, um, hopefully this question makes sense, but
it may be even tied into likehunting.
But are there things throughoutyour daily life that make you
think of god?
I guess, like we talked aboutbefore, like one of our first
episodes, like the stars arelike.
(55:29):
It is like a quick reminder forme when I see them, that like
how little you are this is crazyyeah god made of this.
Is there anything like that foryou?
Speaker 3 (55:40):
Yeah, I would say nature in general.
Speaker 1 (55:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (55:43):
You know, just the mere fact that you can be out
there and you can look at thisgiant oak tree that came from an
acorn.
Speaker 1 (55:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
You know, and you're like this little tiny acorn that
fell on the ground and ended upin the dirt and all of a sudden
there's this.
You know, many years laterthere's this giant tree from it.
That doesn't happen by chance.
Right you know, and that's oneof the things I love about being
out there hunting, and you know, I can sit in a tree for hours
and just watch squirrels andstuff like that.
(56:11):
That's one place and you know,when I'm sitting in a tree stand
that's something that brings mecloser to God.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
Yeah, you know yeah.
Speaker 3 (56:18):
And that's to me, I would say, just nature itself,
and there are obviously peopleout there that are a part of my
life that definitely would.
I would put in the samecategory.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
Right, yeah, carter, last chance.
I got one last question to sendus off.
You got any other things tothrow in?
Speaker 2 (56:38):
Yeah, Okay, our last chance.
I got one last question to sendus off.
You got any other things tothrow in?
Yeah, okay, um, so last time wetalked we talked about out west
and how we need to get outthere.
I'm proposing we make a big oldcamping out west trip and go
out.
We can hunt, we can fish, goout camp, go see the mountains,
(57:00):
all that stuff once.
I uh, or I could just not get ajob ever if I just go live out
there, that'd be ideal.
So I'm I'm good anytime you guyswant to go.
You guys carter's trying toleave tomorrow.
Yeah, I've got nothing to do.
You've got a topper on yourtruck.
Speaker 3 (57:16):
I mean, you can just throw a sleeping bag and a
sleeping pad in the back andyeah, there you go that gas
money's gonna kill me the gasmoney is rough.
Speaker 2 (57:25):
Yeah, I gotta save up for uh a little while with no
job it's, it's tough.
Speaker 3 (57:31):
The downside of going out there, if you're anything
like me, is one, you won't wantto come back here and two,
you're gonna every day.
At some point you're going towish you were back out there.
Yeah, because it's just, it'sbeautiful.
You know, it smells better whenyou're in the mountains and in
the pine trees.
And I don't know, maybe thefolks out there, if they come to
the Midwest, they think thatthis is better.
I don't know.
(57:51):
It could be a matter ofperspective, but this dusty corn
bean thing, yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Um, one more question yeah, go ahead.
Uh, so our group me, brady,levi, I don't think zoe, but oh,
kind of zoe we've been talkingabout if we're gonna stay, to
stay in Jacksonville or move outof here.
Did you ever have the want tomove out of Illinois?
(58:23):
And I guess what kept you here?
And it seems like you have avery happy and fulfilled life,
so it's all worked out.
But I didn't know if you hadthe same urges to get out of
here as well.
Speaker 3 (58:37):
Yeah, at one time I did, actually After we got
married, you remember me sayingearlier, we were still in
college and when I graduated Iwas applying for jobs in many
different places Missouri, Iwould say, border states around
here.
I did apply for some jobs inColorado.
We went to Colorado on ourhoneymoon, had a cabin in the
(58:59):
mountains, um, you know, mostpeople go to a beach or
something like that.
That's just a sunburn for us,so.
But I applied for some jobs outthere with um, like the
department natural resourcestype places, and then states
bordering illinois and thenother places in illinois.
So I wasn't, I wasn't attachedto this area, but I but I am
(59:19):
attached to this area.
Speaker 2 (59:20):
I mean all my family's here.
Speaker 3 (59:22):
Um, you know I I wasn't against moving away.
Looking back now, I'm reallyglad we didn't, because you know
there's things that happened inlife that it's been really good
to have family close and tocontinue to have family close.
Speaker 2 (59:34):
Yeah, yeah, guess we're not moving.
Yeah, yeah, guess we're notmoving.
Speaker 1 (59:42):
All right, so I'll ask my last question Any advice
for newer, younger Christians,or maybe even something that you
would tell yourself as ayounger adult about faith,
following Jesus, anything likethat that you want to share or
(01:00:04):
send everyone off with?
Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Yeah, I would say maybe one don't sweat the finite
details right away.
I think some people can get toocaught up into thinking that
they have to be perfect or thisor that.
And the thing is you're nevergoing to be perfect and and
that's you know it'sunattainable, and you know
(01:00:28):
people you need to be able to togrow and mature and know that
that's going to be somethingthat is ongoing.
You know it's.
It's not going to comeovernight.
You know you're not going toknow everything in the Word
overnight.
You're going to maybe sinwithout knowing it because you
(01:00:48):
don't have that knowledge yet,and that's okay.
You know that's one of thereasons that we have, you know,
we have been given this greatgift of, you know, forgiveness
of our sins and grace and mercy.
You know, um, and so that'swhat I would encourage people is
to have a desire to, to learnand to grow and immerse yourself
in the word so that you canlearn.
But don't get discouraged.
If there's something thatyou're you realize oh, I've
(01:01:12):
fallen short on this or that youknow because we're all going to
do that.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, just staying tryingto get back on that path and
yeah, and rolling with the bumpsand and have people, find
people that are going toencourage you along the way and
help you grow.
You know people that um haveyour best interest at heart and
that are, you know, going tohelp build you up.
(01:01:33):
And and uh you know, that arealso willing to tell you if you
do something, if something iswrong.
Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
Yeah, yeah, that's some good advice.
Well, we appreciate you joiningus and filling in for Brady,
even though, I mean, you weregoing to be with us even if
Brady was here.
He's just nice to rub it in hisface.
Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Yeah, that's right.
New and improved.
Yeah, in his face.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, new and improved.
Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Yeah, but we appreciate you coming on and
supporting us and everythingelse.
Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
I really appreciate being here.
This has been a good time and,yeah, I enjoy what you're doing.
I applaud you guys for whatyou're doing.
I mean, probably you're takingyou out of your comfort zone a
time or two, and I think that'sa great thing.
Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
So yeah, yeah, definitely does that.
Well, we appreciate it.
We'll see you guys next time.
welcome back to life beside christ podcast.
We are two episodes in a row, ahaze down.
Um, it is the same one again.
It's starting to become apattern.
Happens a third time?
We're gonna have to have aserious conversation with him.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, I mean first time, pretty excusable Maybe.
Maybe I mean I could get myshots in.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
You guys both had one under your belt, yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I mean, you can't blame him, though it's his
anniversary today.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I guess we said that.
Last time, though, we said wecan't blame him I mean you can't
blame the guy.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I just want to treat people how I want to be treated.
You know what I'm saying.
You know what I'm saying.
That's funny, that's funny.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, taking a different angle from last time.
Huh, yep, you don't want tohear from him later, or what?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I don't know if he'll listen to this.
I don't know.
I think I can say whatever Iwant.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, so with that, Brady, just I guess Zoe won't
ever listen to this.
She doesn't listen to thisanyway, Brady basically forgot
his anniversary and said, yeah,next Wednesday works for me Come
Wednesday today.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Sorry, anniversary's today Can't be there, which is
wild to say, and I even text you.
You text him to confirm yeahlike we, good for tonight still
oh actually no.
I got married three years agotoday, so that is crazy that it
was three years ago, I know.
I got two kids already.
They better slow down bro, Goodgrief.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
But we are joined today with a replacement for
Brady A good one, adam Fox.
He's one of our probably mostsupportive listeners so far,
which is pretty sweet.
But Adam is joining us todayand we'll hear from him pretty
soon.
Do you have anything to sayright now, before we get into
(01:59):
the meat of it?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I just want to thank you for asking me to come on
here tonight.
I'm happy to be here.
I just want to thank you forasking me to come on here
tonight.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I'm happy to be here.
A lot of the emails we've readhave come from Adam and it's
nice getting those and hearingfrom you guys.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Nice to finally meet him, you know, in the flesh yeah
.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
No, so just a little bit before we go in.
So adam works with your dad.
I guess I think maybe we'llunderstand more later.
But so you guys have been haveknown him for a while, yeah, and
then I met him through you guys, kind of with through you guys,
(02:43):
and then bow hunting, or notbow hunting, but uh, the archery
club, so yeah, anything elsebefore I don't think so I think
we could just get into kind ofyour story and, uh, we can just
ask questions from there andjust get to know you better, I
(03:04):
guess, or let the audience knowyou better.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, so go ahead and share as much or as little as
you want about whatever you wantreally, I guess, your faith,
your journey to here, to here,good English.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
To this point, I guess, and we can talk about
some stuff after.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, that sounds good to me.
Just a little bit of mybackground.
I've known Carter's parents forlonger than he's been alive, so
I kind of grew up with his momand got to know his dad when I
was still in high school and Iprobably have pictures of him as
an infant at home somewhere.
(03:47):
So I know I do of Brady.
But yeah, so I've known theHayes family for a long time and
been a part of their lives fora long time, and I have a wife,
amanda.
She's at home right now.
We've been married for a littleover 23 years now.
So that's just a little bitabout my personal, personal life
(04:09):
, who I am, and but what got mehere tonight?
Yeah, I would say I don't haveany like really exciting earth
shattering story of you knowanything happening and bringing
me to faith or anything likethat.
I was.
I was, uh, uh, fortunate enoughto be raised up in a Christian
(04:32):
home, um, christian family, um,you know, raised up in church,
going to church, from you knowthe time I was born until you
know now, and so you know, it'salways been a part of my life
and, you know, started out insome of the smaller churches
that you guys know, and thenwent to some larger churches and
(04:54):
then now we we've been at it'sCherry Hills Church in
Springfields where we go now.
We've been there since shortlyafter we got married, really, my
wife and I.
You know, she was raised inaChristian home and always been a
Christian person, and it's beena great, I would say, journey
in life.
(05:14):
You know, like I said, nothingearth shattering, any big moment
where that brought me to be abeliever, or anything like that.
So not exciting I would say inthat way.
But what I would say is that Ihave, you know, as I have, let's
just say, matured, matured inyears in life.
(05:39):
I would say that I have alsomatured in my faith, not just in
what I know, but how I practiceit and how I use it and what I
don't know the best way todescribe this but parts of my
(06:02):
life that before I never reallythought about.
You know, what does God have todo with this?
Or what does you know, how canI use this for God's glory?
You know, as I've gotten moreadvanced in my years, I've
learned that there are a lot ofthings that I don't have this
desire or this passion just touse it for me, but it's to be
(06:26):
used for God's glory and youknow, as you look deeper into
that, it's easy to find thosethings and to be able to do that
to serve God in a better wayeach day.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, it's funny because we've talked about it a
little bit before too, and Ithink a lot of people are always
looking for that big like.
Okay, big reveal, revealyourself to me, god, so I can
believe in you.
Otherwise I'm I'm not sure, oror I'm not gonna buy into it
(06:59):
until something like thathappens to me, and or they just
hear it and they expect it tohappen to them the same way and
not let their faith be theirfaith and it kind of be repeat
of someone else's, instead ofreally being a believer
themselves in whatever theirjourney is and all that.
(07:21):
Um, but the other thing is, too, is I kind of in my head,
chuckled, because when youtalked about maturing in your
faith, there was something I wasthinking about last week and
it's like sometimes I have tostop myself, and not in an
excuse way, but I have tounderstand that I'm 25.
(07:41):
We talked about last time wherehow much I just worry, worry
about stupid stuff, overthinkthings, and I'm like, okay, I, I
gotta understand, like I've gotto slow down, I gotta have
patience, and I'm like I just Ijust kind of like expect to.
If I don't know it, then it'smy fault right now, like instead
of understanding whatever it is, I'm going through, to kind of
(08:02):
learn from it and mature throughit over time and it's not going
to happen overnight.
But it is something that, likeI thought about last week, I'm
like what are you doing, dude?
You're expecting the results tohappen now, like like you've
lived your life and to know allthe answers, and I'm like I
don't.
I stopped myself from thinkingthat way and it was just kind of
a funny thought.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
You're exactly right because you know, I I look back
to when, you know, I would havebeen in my 20s, you know, and
the things I I worried aboutthen or that were of concern to
me.
I look back now it's like, oh,that's a whole different set of
things now, that that I worryabout, or that.
I look back and like, wow, thatwasn't.
It didn't seem like a big deal.
It doesn't seem like a big dealat all now.
(08:43):
It was to me.
Then I was in a different placein life and you know, and it's
kind of I think that's part ofmaturing and being able to take
those things and just say, okay,I can't do this.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
You know, you got to surrender this to God and say
here, you know, this is you youshow me what to do, right?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
yeah, carter you, I thought you have a thought.
No, I lost it.
Oh, my bad, too much ramblingby me.
No, you're good.
Um, but yeah, it is somethingthat we have to definitely
remind ourselves often.
But that's kind of like talkingto someone today about the
podcast and understanding too,like that's we're we're trying
to.
I guess the point of thispodcast is one for ourselves,
(09:29):
like we've talked about, but foryounger Christians, for newer
Christians, I guess to to talkabout these things, and I think
that's that's good to bring up.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Yeah, and I think it's.
I think it's great that you'redoing this.
I've been you guys know I'vebeen impressed with you.
Some, from the beginning youknow think it's great that
you're doing this.
You guys know I've beenimpressed with you from the
beginning.
You know it's great that you'redoing this.
And yeah, I know you're aimingit towards younger Christians,
but just so you know it affectsolder Christians as well.
You know we're all maturing inone way or another and you know
(10:00):
we're all learning, we're allgrowing.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
All we're all learning, we'reall growing.
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah, we've had a lot ofsupport from all ages and all
length of believers, I guess, inthat sense, and so again, we
appreciate anyone who supportsus and all this, I guess um, I
don't know if this is toopersonal of a question, but you
(10:27):
mentioned using like maturingthrough the word and all that.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
How do you use the word and all that to kind of
fight your battles in lifeagainst the devil, I guess and
life against the devil, I guessyou said it better whenever
you're explaining your thing?
But just knowing how to use Godto fight your temptations and
all that, Like, I guess I'mcoming from a place where I
(11:01):
struggle with these littlethings that I know me and God
can beat, but I keep strugglingevery day.
That I know me and God can beat, but I keep struggling every
day.
And I didn't know if you hadadvice for me and others on how
to use that and just be stronger, I guess, through.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
God.
Yeah, that's a good question,that's a tough one there to tell
you the truth, but what I wouldsay is there's, know it's,
there's going to be.
We'll call them seasons in yourlife where, where things are
more challenging than others,Times are going to test your
faith.
Times that are going to seemeasy.
You're going to go throughtimes, probably, that you, you,
(11:39):
you question, you know what isyour purpose and what has helped
me over the years, if there'ssome times where I would even,
you know, question the realityof it all, but there's always
something that brings me back tosay there's no doubt that this
is real you know that God isreal.
(12:01):
You know, and there are thingsthat will push you, or could
potentially push you, to thatpoint sometime where you are
questioning what is your purpose, and I would recommend some of
what you're doing already isyou're surrounding yourself with
fellow believers, friends thatare like family to you, family
(12:26):
that are like friends to you.
Whatever it may be that they'regoing to be there to help you
through those challenging times,to encourage you.
There's going to be specificverses, chapters of the Bible
that are going to stand out toyou on one day and aren't the
next because they don't seem asapplicable, but there's always
something in there and it maynot be specifically related to
(12:50):
whatever the exact thing is, butthere's a foundation there that
is something that's going tohold you up.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Okay.
So maybe my problem is I don'tknow if it's being too shy or
too guilty where I don't go andask for just a talk even if it's
just a talk with a friend orfamily and kind of help me
(13:20):
through that.
But I also think that's throughGod.
Help me through that, but Ialso think that's through God.
But I think both those kind ofgo hand in hand where you talk
it out and get back to God andget back on the right foot.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
So yeah, I think some of that is you're being the
stereotypical man.
You know we were fixers.
We don't.
We don't want to ask for help,we want to deal with it
ourselves and it's.
It's very easy to fall intothat.
But you know, I would encourageyou to have somebody in your
(13:52):
life that you can go to with,look down upon you for anything,
not going to judge you inwhatever it is, and have that
brotherhood there.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
So I've got a question and maybe this is
hopefully, maybe it makes sensein the question, but you just
kind of said having someone togo to and in my head it's kind
you like being like thestereotypical male, like right,
and I'm like, well, if I've gotan issue or if I've got stuff
(14:36):
I'm struggling with, I should beable to turn to god and talk to
him about it.
But I'm like no, I need tofigure this out myself.
So I guess maybe do you haveany advice on or thoughts where,
like maybe you've went throughthe kind of same thing where
like, okay, this, I, this hasgot to be with, like, with God,
I've got to come to the solution, I've got to get through this,
(14:58):
whatever it is, with God,instead of trying to say, god, I
can do this, this is my problem, I can fix this one.
Because I think a couple weeksago I was in a funk, I guess,
and Brady and Carter kept goinglike dude, what's wrong with you
?
Like leave me alone, dude, howabout that?
Just leave me alone.
(15:19):
But it was like I was justfrustrated about little things.
It was like I was justfrustrated about little things
and uh, but I was like it wasstuff that I was like no, like I
and it sounds stupid.
It sounds stupid, but likesaying like now, this isn't big
enough to bring up in prayer,like this isn't big enough to
take to him.
This is, this is something thatI'm being frustrated about for
(15:41):
no reason and I need to fix itmyself, kind of thing.
So I don't know, do you haveanything for other?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, I would say you know one, there's no problem
too big or too small.
Yeah, and you knew that already.
Yeah, you know.
But it's hard to convinceourselves of that and
unfortunately, with with a lotof us who are stubborn, and
(16:14):
unfortunately, with with a lotof us who are stubborn,
especially if it's a big problem, it gets to the point where you
almost have to be broken to beable to to surrender it.
Because you get to the pointwhere there, you know, you
finally realize there's nothingI can do here.
You know nothing, it's I can'tfix it, it's not me, I got, I
gotta surrender it, all you know.
And and that's not an easyplace to get to.
Yeah, and it's not an easything to do, doesn't sound?
fun no, no, it's, it's not, andit can be a big problem or a
little problem, but that's kindof like you say, like you do,
(16:35):
you go through, like the seasons, the ups and downs yeah and not
to interrupt you, but I kind ofgo back to.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I think I told carter about this.
I was, I was driving to awrestling meet and I was like
dude, this thought just like itclicked in my head.
Um, but I remember when I wasgoing through like driver's ed,
I was driving first time,driving on like the interstate
and the my, the driver's edteacher in the passenger seats
like you keep.
(17:02):
Do you feel yourself likeswerving?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Not like hard but like that's that Macedonian.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Yeah, whatever Cars are still new there, they
haven't gotten in there.
Get out of here, anyways.
But like, like trying to stayperfectly in the center but're
looking too close.
So she's like, look furtherahead on the road to keep
(17:28):
yourself straighter in your lane.
I was like god, that doesn'tmake sense.
Like like I, I don't know.
So then I was like, okay, I'lltry it and you're you stay if
you like you know, if you'relooking further ahead, you, it
was easier to like keep yourselfcentered, I guess, and now, as
you've been driving for even ayear, like that becomes easier.
But like as a first-time driveron there going 65 or 70, like
(17:51):
you're trying to say perfectly,and you're just like making
those little adjustments, tryingto stay in, like swerving and
how I was.
Like that to me sounds likeyou're focusing too much now,
like on what you, what's leaving, and you're driving past every
two seconds instead of lookingforward and trying to get to the
ultimate destination.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
In a straighter line kind of, I guess.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
That's a I really like that analogy.
To tell you the truth, you know, I mean, where do you A lot of
rambling?
Sorry, no, I like it.
You know where do you put yourfocus, you know, is it where it
needs to be or is it somewhereelse?
I like that you were talkingearlier about a couple weeks ago
you were in a funk or whatever,but one thing that I found
(18:36):
encouraging about what you saidthere was that you had friends
that noticed that that's sayinga lot right there.
You've got those people therethat you know, they know they
know the, the normal levi yeahand.
But then they know whensomething's not right also, they
can see that you know and youknow that's a.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That's a good thing to have right there too yeah,
yeah, I guess I appreciate thema little bit yeah yeah, even
even them.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
They don't show up, right, yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
What I was going to say earlier and this is going
back a little bit, but about thebigger little problems just
trying to solve on your own,that God already knows, he knows
everything.
It's if you want to go throughthose problems with God or
without.
Yeah, you're trying to find asolution, but there's an easy
(19:29):
way out.
It just it's tough to get there.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, for sure, and it's not like you're.
You're turning quote, unquoteyour back to God and saying I'm
like I'm walking the otherdirection.
Yeah, You're you're trying todo good, right.
It's like, okay, you walk withme, but on that side of the road
.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I'm going to walk on this side.
You can walk with me, but stayon that side.
I'll get this taken care of,but instead of being like, all
right.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah.
You know, but it makes me thinkof.
Do you guys remember the oldbumper sticker that said God is
my co-pilot?
Yeah, that one always annoyedme.
It's like co-pilot.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
No, it should be your pilot, yeah, so you think
you're driving the whole shipthere.
That's funny.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Any other thoughts?
I kind of interrupted you asecond ago.
Did you have anything else?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
If I did, they're gone already.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
My bad, my bad.
No, that's okay.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
I enjoy the discussion.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So I guess, before, I guess, before, I guess well, I
guess, I guess, yeah, you dothat a lot you are guessing um,
before we start asking you morequestions, is there anything
else about you and your journeythat maybe you want to talk
about, or any experiences withkids or anything like that?
You've that stuck out to you, Iguess?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Yeah, yeah, I'd be happy to you know, I would say
this is when I talked earlierabout how, as I've gotten older
and been able to, to mature andyou know, learn what, uh, you
know how to use my life andthese things that God has
blessed me with.
You know my, my talents, mydesires, ability.
You know, whatever it may be,my hobbies, things like that,
(21:09):
that's, that's something thatI've been learning a lot here in
the last few years.
I would say, and you know, ofcourse, you guys, I know we've
shot archery together.
That's something that I do a lotof and I've had the privilege
of being able to teach kids,have a good group of adults that
I get to hang out with at thearchery range and things like
that, and one of the things thatI've come to learn here
(21:30):
recently is that whether it'sthat hobby or whatever your
hobby, your talents, yourabilities may be, you know it
hit me one day.
It's like well, I don't havethat just for fun.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
You know it is there, it's something that I do enjoy
and I know God has given me thatability to enjoy it, but it's
like there is so much more thatcan come from it when you're
able to share it with others andto, you know, encourage others
with with those, um, thosethings that you do in life,
whatever it is.
Unless your hobby is likestealing cars or something, then
you know it's not really goodat it, yeah, yeah.
(22:04):
That's.
That's probably not somethingfrom God right there.
But you know if it's somethingthat is good and you can use it
for his glory, for his purpose,you know why not do that and and
it's like I've been able to seeand get a greater appreciation
for it and get a lot moresatisfaction out of the things
that I enjoy doing.
Once I learn that, boy, I canteach somebody how to do this.
(22:25):
I can spend time doing this withsomebody else.
I mean these things.
I've been able to do some ofthese things with my wife, you
know, and it's just, there'sbeen a variety of people that
have come into my life becauseof these hobbies that I have and
these desires and abilities,and it's like you know, I was a
slow learner, but I've learnedthat, you know, I can use these
for a greater good.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
And it's been a nice experience.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Yeah, it is something , though, too Like, even kind of
, like you said, the stuff thatyou do that you never really had
much thought in, as just yourhobby or something you enjoy
doing, how much you can use to.
It may not even be in abiblical way, like not biblical,
but like a in a I don't know achristian setting I guess, but
(23:16):
like helping somebody out andjust kind of showing um love, I
guess, to other people.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Exactly and setting an example for them whatever it
may be, Just go there and useyour God-given abilities and
yourself as a person to justinteract.
It's going to bring people intoyour life that you may never
have noticed before, you maynever have talked to, but all of
a sudden they're there and youhave a common interest and you
know it's a good way to be.
(23:48):
Yeah, and you know, I've seensome different things.
Where I was challenged lastyear to speak at an event, oh
yeah.
About one of my hobbies, youknow archery, bow hunting, that
kind of thing and I was able tolook like, take a much deeper
look into those things and whatI found is and I think you can
(24:09):
probably do this with a lot ofdifferent uh, uh hobbies,
whether it be a sport oranything but I found so many
parallels from what I do thatwere in the Bible, you know, and
I was able to talk about thatand I was like I challenged
people to, um, to take a reallydeep look into what they enjoy
doing, whatever it may be, andfind, you know what, what is in
(24:31):
the word about that that canbring a deeper meaning to you
and use that yeah that's goodCarter.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Got anything after that.
Not not too much um, hey, man,you you did.
You had a good episode lastlast episode I know right and
people were giving himcompliments and and now he's a
little back, down back.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
They got way too high .
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I gotta bring them back back to sitting there and
watching, yeah I don't have muchoff of that.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I do have a question.
I was listening to anotherChristian podcast and they
brought up that God is like ahotline he's 24-7, all the time
which I completely agree with.
Yeah, he's 24-7, all the time,which I completely agree with.
(25:27):
But the problem is I findmyself not believing that.
Okay, I do believe that 100%.
I know what you mean.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Or where you're going , yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
In my day-to-day things.
I'll wake up, pray, and thenit's like once I say amen and 10
minutes later it's like I'veforgotten.
And then lunchtime I'llremember again.
It's like, well, it's notreally like a 24-7.
It's like three times a day.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I remember, oh, yeah, here we go yeah.
But I didn't know if you guysfelt the same way or if that's
just a personal thing or whatyou mean like just thinking
about, like how I justthroughout the day, or I'll just
go off and forget it.
And then, uh, and whenever it'stime to lay back down in bed, I
was like, oh well, thank youfor all these things.
(26:20):
I forgot the all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
But yeah, I think it's, and we've talked about it
a little bit Like how easily itis to be distracted, not just
with like work, but just otherthings, like with your phone,
with music.
And like how easy it is to justbe distracted From things and
we allow ourselves maybe to doit too much.
I know I'm guilty of that, butnot thinking and doing things
(26:51):
with God throughout the day, Iguess, and putting him at the
first thought of things, I guess, but I don't have an answer.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
I'm just kind of putting myself along next to you
, like for adam to answer for us.
Yeah, like what I think?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
like it's not literally like this, but it's
almost like me saying amen islike hanging up for now yeah,
call you like, yeah, it's likeyeah, and maybe it's better to
not think of it as a hotlinemore of like, you know, like
he's with me all the time timekind of thing, instead of when I
call.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yeah, I think, you know.
I think there's something to besaid about having a scheduled
time every day.
You know I prefer to start andend every day in prayer, you
know, but throughout the day Idon't have a set time or
anything like that.
I may see something or somebody, or somebody says something, or
I see somebody that'sstruggling that day, whatever it
(27:47):
is, you know, and I'll taketime to to say a quick prayer
right there.
Um, you know, and also there's,there's been times where I've
I've thought, well, I need to bemore intentional about, you
know, keeping uh incommunication with God
throughout the day, and so therewill be something like, anytime
(28:08):
this would happen, that wouldbe a reminder to me to stop and
pray for a little bit, and it'ssomething like I did it anytime
I felt the need to get up andget a snack, like, well, I'm
going to pray for this personinstead, and so there's things
like that.
You can do that, so you don't gofrom after you get out of bed
in the morning until you lay inbed at night and think, oh, I
(28:29):
haven't thought one bit aboutthis all day.
Right, you know, because thatcan happen.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Life is busy, things, things can pull you away, and
that's, that's uh yeah, becauseI there's been times where I
felt myself like I'm forcingmyself to.
Okay, I I gotta do it now, justto like almost checkmark my
daily checklist.
I guess, and not at all timesdoing it with the right
(28:55):
intentions, I guess, and justkind of doing it like going
through the motions kind ofthing and not meaningful time in
prayer and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
I get what you're saying for sure, because that
can happen.
It just feels like somethingthat, oh, that's just what I'm
supposed to do so that's why Ido it, but there's no real
meaning behind it, and I thinksometimes you can.
If I were to decide to prayevery time I dropped my pen on
the floor or something like that, then it would marginalize or
minimalize what I was doing.
(29:24):
So I think there's a balance inthere and there's certain
things that are going to go oneach day that are more
meaningful and you're going tobe able to.
It's going to mean more to youis what I'm trying to say in
that sense.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Yeah, that makes sense, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Yep, that makes sense .
Speaker 1 (29:42):
So I'll go with the next question, then.
One of my I enjoy asking people, especially on here when we
have guests is a verse thatalways comes to your head when
you need to, or just a versethat immediately comes to your
head that you turn to a lot, Iguess.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, I have actually there's.
There's three of them, and Ifeel terrible cause I never have
memorized exactly what thethree.
I'm terrible remembering thingslike that.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Hey, you can look them up and cut it out.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, I'm not looking on my phone right now.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
I don't see yeah, yeah, so, but but Proverbs 27,
17 is one of them that I I keepso.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
but Proverbs 27, 17 is one of them that I keep, and
that is as iron sharpens iron,so one man sharpens another.
You know, it's something thatit reminds me, because there's
times that I think I know betterthan other people.
And that's a good reminder to methat you know a lot of wisdom
can be gained from other peopleNow you have to be able to vet
(30:54):
out what is right, what is wrong, who to listen to and who to
not listen to, but where yougain that wisdom from and that
advice and that kind of goesalong with that, and so that's
one of them that I fall on quitea bit.
I wouldn't say I have afavorite Bible verse or anything
like that, but that's one thatcomes to mind a lot, right.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Yeah, carter, I like hearing it from anybody, all the
time.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Oh, I didn't prepare for this.
Hey man, it's okay, you wantone of mine.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, yeah, Let me hey man, it's okay you want one
of mine.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah, yeah, let me.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
I always turn to Revelations 320.
I've said it on here multipletimes and I haven't memorized
this one either, but definitelynot looking at it.
Here I am.
I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice andopens the door, I will come in
and eat with that person andthey with me, and it's just a
good reminder.
I was like it was one of thefirst ones after doing the Bible
(31:49):
study with their family attheir house.
That stuck out to me when Iread it it was like okay, that
one's gonna stick to me, becauseI think it was a little bit
different and for them.
They grew up Christian and Ikind of was introduced to
Christianity and Jesus in a moreserious way through them or
through their family, and it wasjust like he's not forcing his
(32:13):
way into my life, he's not there, right?
So if he's knocking at the doorand I finally got to the point
in my life where I was like, oh,there is someone at that door,
let me open it, kind of thing,and it was just a good little
visual, I guess.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Yeah, and it applies on many levels too, whether your
whole life or just maybe youhave one little part of your
life that you're like no, thisis for me, I don't need you here
.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Well, he's knocking at the door, you know, yeah, yep
, that's a good, I found mine,you found yours.
Yep, it was on the other sideof my cross.
There you go.
Uh, mark 9, 47, let me, let mego.
Uh, not look for it real quickintermission.
Okay, it says and if your eyecauses you to sin, pluck it out.
It is better for you to enterthe kingdom of God with one eye
(33:12):
than to have two eyes and bethrown into hell.
I like the seriousness of it.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Like this isn't a joke.
If you're sinning andsomething's causing you to sin
get it out of your life.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, that's definitely something too.
I think we I keep saying it,but we've talked about some of
this stuff before but things getso watered down a lot of times
in daily life, or even sometimesin churches among fellow
(33:48):
believers even, that we don'talways think of the ultimate
truth that we're either going tobe with God in eternity or
separated from Him, and it'spretty serious.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, it is.
It's a serious matter that,unfortunately, a lot of people
don't take seriously.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Can't serve two masters brother.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
That's right.
That's right, it's really okay.
Saul, do you have anotherquestion, or do you want?
Speaker 2 (34:22):
me to go Me oh yeah, that's what I asked.
I got a.
So did you grow up in Linville?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
I did grow up in Linville, okay.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
So the shop?
Was that always there wheneveryou were born?
The mower repair shop?
Yes, it was, yep it was.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
My parents started that before I was born and up
through, you know, until theyrecently retired here in the
last few years, and I worked forthem growing up and through
high school and through college,and so, yeah, I'm a Linvillian
to the core.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Okay, so all two of the Linville people that listen
will know exactly what you'retalking about.
Yeah, yeah, that's good, we gotto keep it.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Don't want them coming might bump up our
population or people moving intolynnville, yeah, um.
So I don't really know myparents story or where they grew
up that much.
So was my mom also fromlynnville, or was she there, did
she move there or what was the,I guess?
(35:28):
How did you get to know my mominto meeting my dad?
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Well, when I was really little and I don't know
up to what age I remember yourmom, cause she's, uh, maybe five
years older than me, four orfive.
I can't remember where she's at, but, um, her and her two
brothers, I remember them, uh,in Linville growing up.
They were older than me, but,uh, I remember where she's at,
but her and her two brothers, Iremember them in Linville
growing up.
They were older than me, but Iremember where they lived there.
And then I remember them at theLinville Christian Church and
(35:57):
Bible school days sitting on thesteps out there, probably
playing a kazoo and singingsongs in the morning, and I
remember.
And then then she was gone.
I don't remember.
I must move somewhere.
I didn't really know.
And then, um, later on, when Iwas in high school, then, um, I
(36:19):
had known your uncle Jason.
We went to a lot of bow shootsand things like that and hung
out with him.
Then your dad started showingup and your mom was with him.
That was before they weremarried.
Then I was like, oh hey, I knowyou.
It was kind of like never, youknow, your mom's a very social
(36:41):
person.
It was kind of like, well,there wasn't a 12-year gap in
there, or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
That's funny.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Yeah, so that's when I got to know your dad, and then
he became one of my bestfriends.
He was actually one of thegroomsmen in my wedding.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Okay, I did not know that Yep Learning too much for
today.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Any other Linville questions?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
I don't think so Not yet Linville heavy episode here.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, that's funny.
Um, so how long have you beengoing to the church you've
currently been going to?
Speaker 3 (37:19):
23 years?
Yeah, pretty much.
We uh uh.
We got married in 2001 and, andwe were still in college we
went to University of Illinoisat Springfield and so we lived
on campus and prior to that wewent to church in Jacksonville
and my wife was from Ashland andwe'd go to church there some.
But once we got married welived in Springfield.
It was somebody that she workedwith, I believe, at a daycare
(37:46):
that invited to go to church athis then it was Cherry Hills
Baptist Church and it's justCherry Hills Church now.
But so we started going there,and that was late in 2001, I
believe.
And then, other than a shortstint where we have, you know,
attended a more local churchwhen it was something that we
could, were able to be theremore regularly, you know, a
short stint there, then that'swhere we've been the whole time.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
So is that a big church, or is it a pretty small
church, or it's.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
It's pretty big, I would say.
Right now I think our numbersare around 1500 a week.
Oh, wow, um, when we were goingthere, it was probably about
half that, but that facility wasoutgrown and um I can't
remember what year now it mighthave been like 2005 um moved to
a new facility with a largerspace and actually they're doing
(38:35):
some remodeling for additionalspace right now.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Really, yeah, it's been so.
Is it a?
Is it still a baptistdenomination church or is it
non-denominational?
It's non-denominational.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
They were, I believe, originally part of the American
Baptist Association and thenit's probably I always think
things like two or three yearsago it's probably been like
seven years ago that they justthey pulled out of the
association.
They didn't, you know, they're,the church is, you know,
self-sustaining.
They didn't really needanything from that association.
(39:06):
And I think there are someother reasons too, but I don't
want to quote anything withoutbeing certain on it.
And so, yeah, we're just CherryHills Church now and it's a
great place to be.
We've got a good team ofpastors and it's a large church.
But I've always told people itdoesn't feel that way.
If you want to hide, you canhide, I guess, but you can only
(39:29):
do that if you're trying to.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Because it's very personal, I would say We'll need
to go sometime.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, I like I've not been to a ton of different
churches, but I like going andseeing how different churches
are, especially not in the same,I don't know like fashion of
church, I guess.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
But so do they like First Christian?
They're mostly like they do atraditional service, traditional
music I guess, and then they dolike more like modern
contemporary.
What do you guys kind of follow?
Speaker 3 (40:07):
We used to do right now.
They just started back to threeservices again each Sunday.
Used to do that all the time.
They had 8 o'clock and then9.30 and 11.
And 8 o'clock was always thetraditional service with hymns,
and then the 9.30 and 11 were acontemporary service.
Now they do three identicalones and the message is the same
throughout them and everythinglike that.
(40:29):
And as far as like the, whetherthere's a praise band or a choir
or whoever's up there, itvaries from from week to week,
you know.
Sometimes it's, you know thewhole choir is up there and it's
really going.
Sometimes it's it's two orthree up there, you know,
singing with maybe a guitar or aviolin in the background or
something like that.
So there's a wide variety ofthat, the type of service,
(40:52):
whatever it may be, and it seemsto suit people.
Well, because it's not.
You know, there was a lot ofpeople that didn't like a praise
band.
Well you know, it's not thatthat's every week or whatever it
may be so yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
So what's?
Do you have a favorite of themusic type?
I guess Do you have a favoritethat your church does.
That is a good question.
Or do you just enjoy all ofthem?
Speaker 3 (41:16):
I enjoy.
I'm not one that likes to sing.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Some people they love to sing, and that's not me.
I love to listen to it.
Yeah, and there are certainpeople who at times are like, oh
, this person's up there as leadsinger today.
You know, their voice may besomething that I really like or
whatever.
Whatever it may be.
Yeah, sometimes it is just thetype of music I wouldn't say I
have a particular favorite, butI enjoy listening to it.
(41:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yeah, listening to it .
Um, yeah, yeah, it's when Istarted going to lynnville.
Um, it's basically all hymnswith the occasional, like your
dad or someone playing piano orguitar or something like that
and singing something a littlebit different and I enjoy.
I enjoyed the hymns sometimeswhen there weren't a ton of
(42:05):
people there, it was a littlerocky to get through there yeah,
and but I also I also enjoysome of the more modern or
contemporary music that we hearfrom going to the first
christian services.
But they do a traditional 8 amtoo.
It's like I like I enjoy thekind of a mix.
(42:25):
Enjoy a mix because sometimes Iwant to hear a whole room
singing Amazing Grace orsomething like that I don't know
.
I just kind of like it.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
I went to Linville this past week to the Christian
church and I'd actuallyforgotten about hymnals because
I hadn't had them Our church hadgotten rid of them a long time
ago I was like, oh wow, you knowhymn number and they're on the
board up there the ones we'regoing through and I was like,
huh, I'm going to have to singreally quiet, which I did.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
There's a few in there that get after it and you
can really hear them, butthey're there.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
every week there's nothing wrong with that.
That's right, absolutely wrongwith that.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
That's right.
What's crazy.
I admire somebody that willsing at the top of their voice
without a care in the worldbecause they're loving it, and
that's not me.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Same here, yeah, so I went to that Illinois College
Bible study.
I didn't go to school there, Ijust showed up.
That's so funny to me.
To give myself some backgroundhere.
My sister went to IC so sheinvited me and I went, but they
(43:38):
were singing these new Christiansongs.
I'd never heard these in mylife.
They didn't go to Linvillesinging out of a hymnal.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Like, hey, you're doing this wrong.
Yeah, yeah, we gotta slow itdown out here.
Acapella only.
Yeah, I was like I was.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
I was really impressed they.
They were singing and I meaneveryone kind of like was
looking down or had their eyesclosed.
I was kind of looking aroundlike these people are singing
like what the heck like theyknow these songs.
That was.
That's really cool.
If once I have children, I hopeto expose them to that music
and so they can know that better, I guess there's something
(44:15):
about that, that energy in theroom that can really get you.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
You're ready for worship at that.
At that point, you know yeah,yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
So I'll go with my next question.
Is there a person from thebible that you find yourself
relating to or connecting tooften, or maybe, as you've read
through a book, you're like?
Speaker 3 (44:37):
yeah that's.
I can see myself kind of doingthat that one, I can't say, as
I've ever really thought aboutthat before, that is intriguing
I've.
I can't say, as I've everreally thought about that before
, that is intriguing I've.
You know, I've studieddifferent people in the bible
and different things, but um, asfar as one that I relate, to.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Hmm, I always kind of think about Peter, not Peter,
uh sorry, paul get those, butwell, peter, sometimes too Paul
Get those, but well, petersometimes too, but Paul, and
just that.
It was like an immediate switchafter his meeting with Jesus on
the road.
It was like my whole life isdedicated to this now, and he
(45:21):
even wrote like I still sin, Istill do things I don't want to
do, but my faith is 100% inJesus.
Through all of his epistles andletters it's pretty evident
that that could be any one of usstruggling with the same things
that he struggles with Maybenot the wisdom that he shared
(45:43):
through those, but the strugglesthat he talks about and shares
is just like any other person, Iguess.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Well, and it's a great example that if, if
somebody ever says well you know, God can't use me for anything
whatever it is like yeah, well,look at Paul.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
He can use anybody Literally.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah .
I would assume I'm going tohave to think about that
question some more because Inever thought about that, but I
would assume there's probablyparts of a lot of people in the
Bible that you can relatecertain things to.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
But yeah that's a good question where did you come
up with that question?
Did you just think that up?
Speaker 1 (46:24):
oh, that one, I thought of these next couple.
I got off of a chat GPT.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
I would assume we probably all got a little bit of
Jonah in us at times.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Wanted to go the other way.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Yeah, I would assume we can all relate to that.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Yeah, do you have any other questions before we go,
because we're about 50 minuteshere.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
Wow time flies doesn't it, it does.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
I have no more questions about the Bible.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
But I have different questions.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Okay, you can go.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
So how did you get into hunting and what is your
favorite thing to hunt or typeof hunt or place to hunt?
Speaker 3 (47:07):
Okay, Well, I kind of grew up hunting.
My dad did a lot of hunting asmy whole life and I got to go
with him as a child and when wewere kids of course we had BB
guns.
And growing up in Linville wedidn't have to walk too far to
get outside of town to go shootat sparrows or whatever it may
be.
Outside of town to go shoot atsparrows or whatever it may be,
there was local farmers at thattime.
(47:29):
All had hoglots around theirhouse right outside of town and
the birds just flocked to there,and so our Saturday mornings
were with our BB guns at thesehoglots, shooting at birds.
That's what we did, and then, aswe got a little older, me and
my brother and some of ourfriends we would.
We would just pack something todrink in a bag or whatever and
(47:52):
we would just take off to thetimber for the whole day and we
would cook what we shot.
Yeah, if we shot something, wemay pack some snacks or fruit
snacks or something with us, but, uh, you know, we kind of
relied on what we were gonnashoot that day and we'd light a
fire and it was not good eating.
But you know, um, that's whatwe did, um, and so kind of grew
(48:15):
up hunting and it's one of mypassions, I would say.
And you know, bow hunting, uh isby far my favorite.
I mean, I gun hunt too.
I enjoy, um, bow hunting anddeer, um, um, probably my
favorite is is hunting from theground, uh, where you're kind of
on a even more even playingfield with them.
There's something, somethingkind of neat about having a wild
(48:38):
animal that close to you at eyelevel and you're hidden from
them, whether it's somethingyou're going to try to take home
to put in the freezer or not.
There's.
There's something that's reallyto me is is really enjoyable
about that.
And I shoot, you know,traditional archery equipment
you know, recurves long bows,everything like that and and
there's something really neatabout having to get that close
and uh, I find myself doing alot more watching the animals
(49:02):
now than what I used to.
I'm not so focused on gettingthe shot or the kill, but just
enjoying them and learning fromthem.
It's really neat to just be apart of nature.
I've always had that desire tobe outdoors.
There's many nights where it'sa nice evening and I think, yeah
, I'd rather just sleep outsidein a tent tonight.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
I've always been impressed when I see you post a
buck or something like thatyou've gotten.
And I'm like, without evenlooking, I'm like I know you got
that with the recurve or alongbow like that's even more
impressive than a compound likein the videos.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
I mean I think you just posted one where one was
off to the left and then thenext picture.
It's like right there yeah howin the world?
Speaker 3 (49:48):
yeah, they can.
You know, it's kind of neatwhen you can get them to be that
close to you and and sometimesthey don't know you're there,
sometimes they do but they can'tfigure out, figure you out, and
so they're kind of curious yeahyou know, and I get just as
excited over you know, bringinghome a doe is what I do bring a
big buck.
You know, I'm not a trophyhunter, I don't pass them up,
but I you know, yeah, I, I getjust as much excitement out of
(50:12):
that yeah, you know it's.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
I don't think that's part of it.
Yeah, so I know the prep thatbrady does for deer hunting.
It's all the clothes and thescent stuff.
Um, is that about the same onthe ground, or do you have to be
even more thorough?
Speaker 3 (50:31):
and whatever, I don't know anything about it more
thorough, I would say, becauseyou're, there's no chance that
your scent is going to carryover top of them and I hunt the
wind, no matter what.
I don't worry about scentcontrol or buying the scent lock
clothing or anything like that.
One, I'm too cheap to do thatand two, I know that if they're
(50:51):
downwind of me they're going tosmell me no matter what.
So I have to basically play thewind, based off of what I know
of their patterns, where I thinkthey're going to be coming from
, going to and setting upsomewhere that you know with
whether, whatever the wind is,that day, that they, they're not
going to pick that up, becausetheir eyes can fail them, their
ears can fail them, but theirnose will never fail them out
(51:14):
there.
Yeah, dang, that's crazy.
Yeah, it's amazing how, even ifyou don't think you stink, how
bad they can how easy, they cansmell you.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Huh stink, how bad they can,how easy they can smell you.
Yeah, it's crazy, oh well I'vegot some more like rapid fire
questions, I guess.
Go for it, uh, to send us offunless we've got anything else
you've got, or you want to talkabout or do anything before we
get into that, I guess, or no, Idon't.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
I don't think I have anything in particular.
I'd say go for it.
Speaker 1 (51:51):
So you don't have to give super long answers.
The first one was preferredworship style.
So what kind of music?
But we kind of asked that oneFavorite Christian podcast.
Speaker 3 (52:01):
Well, I'm going to have to go with Life Beside
Christ.
Speaker 2 (52:06):
There's one person, at least there's one.
We were just staring at him,he's sweating profusely right
now.
Speaker 3 (52:16):
I do really enjoy it.
There are some Christian bowhunting podcasts that.
I listen to as well, and I doenjoy them, but this is one that
I don't miss, yeah, Well it'shard to miss when we put one out
a month.
Yeah, one a year.
You can never really fallbehind.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
So that's kind of a plus in that sense too.
But we appreciate that.
Do you have a go-to worshipsong or just a Christian song
that you like to listen to?
Hmm, that, or just like aChristian song that you like to
listen to.
Speaker 3 (52:51):
Hmm, that I don't have one particular one.
It's weird.
I wake up every morning with asong in my head.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
Yeah, basically the same way.
Speaker 3 (52:59):
And sometimes it's a song from church, sometimes it's
whatever music I have playingon a YouTube channel at work and
, yeah, I wake up with a song inmy head.
I don't think I have a favorite.
I'll probably think of it asI'm driving home, but yeah,
that's what I would call myfavorite, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Favorite all-time movie.
Speaker 3 (53:18):
Oh, favorite all-time movie.
Well, that one's easy.
Forrest Gump, forrest.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Gump.
Yeah, okay, that's a goodanswer.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Favorite Christian movie or show.
Speaker 3 (53:29):
Ooh Well, I mean I wouldn't say it's necessarily a
Christian show, but you know theDuck Dynasty yeah, I enjoyed
that, and War Room was a goodone.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
I don't know if you guys got a chance to watch it or
not.
Someone's going to make acomment to me after they hear
this episode.
I've told you to watch War Room, and I still haven't yet.
Speaker 3 (53:55):
That's one I need to watch.
It's been a while since I'veseen it, but I remember it being
very good yeah.
Speaker 1 (53:59):
Yeah, I need to watch that.
Yep.
What about have you?
Jace Robertson has his new showTreasure Hunting with Jace or
the Robertsons, I don't know.
It's kind of like his new showof the Robertson family, I guess
.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
I haven't heard of that.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
Oh well, sorry.
Speaker 2 (54:18):
No, I'll watch it tonight.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Call me a liar, do you prefer?
Speaker 3 (54:29):
a large church or do you prefer a smaller church?
You know, I grew up In what Iwould call a very small church
starting out, and then we wentto a larger church which was
First Christian.
Yeah, they weren't near aslarge then as they are now.
I think, from the standpoint ofopportunities to do things and
(54:50):
be a part of things more thanjust a Sunday morning, the
larger church has more to offeras far as that goes.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:58):
Not that a small church can't do, that Right, you
know.
But I do enjoy the largerchurches has more to offer as
far as that goes.
Yeah, not the small churchcan't do that right, you know
but I I do enjoy the, the largerchurches I would say.
I think um, you know, Iprobably have gotten more out of
those that way.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
Yeah, um, hopefully this question makes sense, but
it may be even tied into likehunting.
But are there things throughoutyour daily life that make you
think of god?
I guess, like we talked aboutbefore, like one of our first
episodes, like the stars arelike.
(55:29):
It is like a quick reminder forme when I see them, that like
how little you are this is crazyyeah god made of this.
Is there anything like that foryou?
Speaker 3 (55:40):
Yeah, I would say nature in general.
Speaker 1 (55:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (55:43):
You know, just the mere fact that you can be out
there and you can look at thisgiant oak tree that came from an
acorn.
Speaker 1 (55:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
You know, and you're like this little tiny acorn that
fell on the ground and ended upin the dirt and all of a sudden
there's this.
You know, many years laterthere's this giant tree from it.
That doesn't happen by chance.
Right you know, and that's oneof the things I love about being
out there hunting, and you know, I can sit in a tree for hours
and just watch squirrels andstuff like that.
(56:11):
That's one place and you know,when I'm sitting in a tree stand
that's something that brings mecloser to God.
Speaker 1 (56:17):
Yeah, you know yeah.
Speaker 3 (56:18):
And that's to me, I would say, just nature itself,
and there are obviously peopleout there that are a part of my
life that definitely would.
I would put in the samecategory.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
Right, yeah, carter, last chance.
I got one last question to sendus off.
You got any other things tothrow in?
Speaker 2 (56:38):
Yeah, Okay, our last chance.
I got one last question to sendus off.
You got any other things tothrow in?
Yeah, okay, um, so last time wetalked we talked about out west
and how we need to get outthere.
I'm proposing we make a big oldcamping out west trip and go
out.
We can hunt, we can fish, goout camp, go see the mountains,
(57:00):
all that stuff once.
I uh, or I could just not get ajob ever if I just go live out
there, that'd be ideal.
So I'm I'm good anytime you guyswant to go.
You guys carter's trying toleave tomorrow.
Yeah, I've got nothing to do.
You've got a topper on yourtruck.
Speaker 3 (57:16):
I mean, you can just throw a sleeping bag and a
sleeping pad in the back andyeah, there you go that gas
money's gonna kill me the gasmoney is rough.
Speaker 2 (57:25):
Yeah, I gotta save up for uh a little while with no
job it's, it's tough.
Speaker 3 (57:31):
The downside of going out there, if you're anything
like me, is one, you won't wantto come back here and two,
you're gonna every day.
At some point you're going towish you were back out there.
Yeah, because it's just, it'sbeautiful.
You know, it smells better whenyou're in the mountains and in
the pine trees.
And I don't know, maybe thefolks out there, if they come to
the Midwest, they think thatthis is better.
I don't know.
(57:51):
It could be a matter ofperspective, but this dusty corn
bean thing, yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Um, one more question yeah, go ahead.
Uh, so our group me, brady,levi, I don't think zoe, but oh,
kind of zoe we've been talkingabout if we're gonna stay, to
stay in Jacksonville or move outof here.
Did you ever have the want tomove out of Illinois?
(58:23):
And I guess what kept you here?
And it seems like you have avery happy and fulfilled life,
so it's all worked out.
But I didn't know if you hadthe same urges to get out of
here as well.
Speaker 3 (58:37):
Yeah, at one time I did, actually After we got
married, you remember me sayingearlier, we were still in
college and when I graduated Iwas applying for jobs in many
different places Missouri, Iwould say, border states around
here.
I did apply for some jobs inColorado.
We went to Colorado on ourhoneymoon, had a cabin in the
(58:59):
mountains, um, you know, mostpeople go to a beach or
something like that.
That's just a sunburn for us,so.
But I applied for some jobs outthere with um, like the
department natural resourcestype places, and then states
bordering illinois and thenother places in illinois.
So I wasn't, I wasn't attachedto this area, but I but I am
(59:19):
attached to this area.
Speaker 2 (59:20):
I mean all my family's here.
Speaker 3 (59:22):
Um, you know I I wasn't against moving away.
Looking back now, I'm reallyglad we didn't, because you know
there's things that happened inlife that it's been really good
to have family close and tocontinue to have family close.
Speaker 2 (59:34):
Yeah, yeah, guess we're not moving.
Yeah, yeah, guess we're notmoving.
Speaker 1 (59:42):
All right, so I'll ask my last question Any advice
for newer, younger Christians,or maybe even something that you
would tell yourself as ayounger adult about faith,
following Jesus, anything likethat that you want to share or
(01:00:04):
send everyone off with?
Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Yeah, I would say maybe one don't sweat the finite
details right away.
I think some people can get toocaught up into thinking that
they have to be perfect or thisor that.
And the thing is you're nevergoing to be perfect and and
that's you know it'sunattainable, and you know
(01:00:28):
people you need to be able to togrow and mature and know that
that's going to be somethingthat is ongoing.
You know it's.
It's not going to comeovernight.
You know you're not going toknow everything in the Word
overnight.
You're going to maybe sinwithout knowing it because you
(01:00:48):
don't have that knowledge yet,and that's okay.
You know that's one of thereasons that we have, you know,
we have been given this greatgift of, you know, forgiveness
of our sins and grace and mercy.
You know, um, and so that'swhat I would encourage people is
to have a desire to, to learnand to grow and immerse yourself
in the word so that you canlearn.
But don't get discouraged.
If there's something thatyou're you realize oh, I've
(01:01:12):
fallen short on this or that youknow because we're all going to
do that.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, just staying tryingto get back on that path and
yeah, and rolling with the bumpsand and have people, find
people that are going toencourage you along the way and
help you grow.
You know people that um haveyour best interest at heart and
that are, you know, going tohelp build you up.
(01:01:33):
And and uh you know, that arealso willing to tell you if you
do something, if something iswrong.
Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
Yeah, yeah, that's some good advice.
Well, we appreciate you joiningus and filling in for Brady,
even though, I mean, you weregoing to be with us even if
Brady was here.
He's just nice to rub it in hisface.
Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Yeah, that's right.
New and improved.
Yeah, in his face.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, new and improved.
Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Yeah, but we appreciate you coming on and
supporting us and everythingelse.
Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
I really appreciate being here.
This has been a good time and,yeah, I enjoy what you're doing.
I applaud you guys for whatyou're doing.
I mean, probably you're takingyou out of your comfort zone a
time or two, and I think that'sa great thing.
Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
So yeah, yeah, definitely does that.
Well, we appreciate it.
We'll see you guys next time.
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