January 20, 2025 • 44 mins
In this episode, Brody follows up on last week’s interviews with college students.
He highlights key themes, especially the importance of reading Scripture daily, which was a common thread in every interview. Brody shares why making time for God’s Word is crucial for spiritual health and also talks about the need to stay connected to a local church, not just campus ministries, and how this helps keep you spiritually grounded.
College is a time of freedom, and Brody reminds students to use it wisely, stay faithful, and be willing to swim against the current when needed.
Insights from Students on Staying Faithful in College
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this week's episode of no Sanity Required, I
want to follow up last week'sepisode and in that episode JB
interviewed several collegestudents who have worked at SWO,
who are currently working atSWO, and talked about the
struggles, the challenges, theopportunities and the things
that maybe need to be thoughtabout, focused on as you prepare
(00:24):
to head off to college, or ifyou're a college student, or if
you're the parent of a highschool student and you're
preparing them to go.
It's just really good stuff.
I love that episode.
I thought JB did a phenomenaljob, so, thankful for her, proud
of her, I want to say thank youto everyone who participated.
It was just awesome listeningto all those young men and women
(00:46):
talk about the Lord and theirfocus and struggle and all that
goes with being on mission onhigh school and college campuses
.
So this week we're going tofollow that up.
I'm going to give you somethoughts that I came away with
after listening to that episodeand, uh, I'm real excited to
share this.
This will be a followup butalso, I think, give uh some
(01:09):
things that that we can takeaway from from all of those
interviews and conversationscombined, some, some themes,
some common things that we heardthat kept coming up and then
how, that those would apply evento those of us who are well
beyond our college years.
Or if you're not going tocollege, you're going to go in
the military, you can go totrade school, you can go
straight into the trades,whatever.
(01:29):
Just some things that everybeliever can take away.
So I'm excited to get into this.
I'm recording from my truck andI'm recording with a stuffy
nose because we just got donerecording a couple of episodes
that we're going to be rollingout in the next couple of weeks
and I swept really good in thesuper coop in the area where we
were recording and now I'mhaving a crazy allergic reaction
(01:53):
or something.
I've sneezed 100 times in thelast 15 minutes trying to get
this thing started.
So hopefully I'm done sneezing,Hopefully we'll get through
this episode.
I'm excited to bring it to you.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Welcome to no Sanity Required.
Welcome to no Sanity Requiredfrom the Ministry of Snowbird
Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bibleculture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well, we just came out of we had last weekend we
had our not this past weekend,which was MLK, but the previous
weekend, so weekend before lastnow I guess we had our annual
college event, our collegeretreat.
It's a conference where we hadwe actually had about 600 people
that were going to be attendingthat, which is for SWO.
That's a full-size conference.
(02:42):
I know that for some people insome venues that's not big.
For instance, if you go to thePassion event every year, that
thing's massive.
I think it's 20,000 people ormaybe more, I don't know.
It's huge.
But for us it's a bigconference but it's still small
enough that we feel like we canreally connect with people,
(03:03):
enough that we feel like we canreally connect with people.
With all of our staff, you know70 or so of us involved and
then over 500 people attendingyou know we're able to really
connect with folks, network withpeople.
And then the teaching is.
I always love I love teaching,but I also love sitting under
the teaching at the collegeevent because there's always
(03:23):
some part apologetics to it, youknow, just defending the faith,
understanding the validity andstrength of our faith and our
belief system and our worldview.
It's very helpful.
I found the focus this year wasidolatry and two things that
stood out to me that I foundextremely helpful.
First off, everything was good.
Spencer Davis kicked off theweekend with a talk on.
(03:46):
He looked at some things thatwe can take away from the
incident where the Israelitesmade the golden calf out of the
jewelry that God had plunderedfrom the Egyptians and then they
said this is our God, but thisis also Yahweh.
It's a representation of YahwehCrazy story.
Spencer did a phenomenal job onthat talk.
(04:07):
He adapted that talk from abreakout session he had done
several summers ago I think 2020summer and it's one of my
favorite topics and talks thatI've ever heard him do and he's
a phenomenal teacher.
On Saturday morning, JohnRouleau spoke.
John looked at the idolatrythat is more ideological, you
(04:30):
know, the idolatry of ideas inour age, and that was phenomenal
.
That's right in his lane.
That's John Rouleau wheelhousestuff, you know, and it was so
good.
And then I really enjoyed allof the breakout sessions.
Sessions, um, we had threebreakout sessions Hank Parker,
rob Conti and Jake Schwarting.
All all talk breakout sessions.
(04:51):
The all of those wereexceptionally well done, um, and
pretty well attended.
We, you know, we had.
We had about a hundred people,we had about 500 on the books
and we had a little over ahundred no-show, so about 20 to
25% no-show because of the snow.
We had a little over a hundredno-shows, so about 20 to 25%
no-show because of the snow.
We had a lot of snow thatweekend and we just had people.
I think people are scared todrive, you know, people from the
(05:14):
South, if there's snow theykind of freak out and uh.
But then it was funny because,I mean, people came anyway.
We thought we were bracing forand we saw that it was going to
be single digit temps at nightand five or six inches of fresh
snow falling on that Friday.
Going into the event, wethought, okay, buckle up, this
thing, we won't cancel.
(05:36):
Just so you know, we won'tcancel.
It doesn't matter if it's thestorm of the century, we're not
going to cancel it.
Whoever can get here and gethere and we'll make the most of
it.
But because, for a couple ofreasons but, and I guess the
main one being it's verydifficult to reschedule
something here.
You know our calendar is packed, it's not like we could, and
then for everyone that'straveling if people aren't able
(05:56):
to come.
They can't.
You know, a lot of people haveplanned for six months to be at
this event, some for a year, andso it's locked into their
calendar.
So it's just, it doesn't makesense for us to cancel something
and I'll be honest, and I'm notbusting anybody's chops here,
this is not critical.
But when it comes to cancelinganything, this goes.
(06:18):
We were talking about this atchurch last weekend.
I was talking actually with my,my son-in-law, greg.
We were talking about howquickly people will cancel or
bail out, and I understandthere's liability issues.
You know, if you're driving abus with a bunch of kids, I get
that, I really do, and so Iunderstand why people cancel.
But like we had a bunch ofalmost every church in our
(06:41):
community that weekend canceledSunday services and I'm like I
don't want to.
I'm not being judgmental and Iknow I'm very opinionated, like
most people, but that's insane.
That's just crazy to me.
How are you going to faceChristians in Siberia that sneak
in sub-zero temperatures tomeet in underground churches
(07:02):
during the Soviet era?
What about Christians in NorthKorea, where they're already you
know?
What about Christians in NorthKorea, where they're already
freezing to death?
What about Christians in Muslimstrongholds.
You know where there'sfundamental Islamic strongholds
where people will be persecuted.
It's just.
I would hate to face Christiansand say, oh yeah, we don't go to
church if it's chilly outsideor if there's a little bit of
snow on the road.
(07:22):
The snow came in Friday.
People canceled church.
Two days later I can tell youthe roads were fine.
So my opinion on that is run it, have church.
If you can get there, great.
If you can't, then that's yourdeal.
But we're going to have church.
I don't care if it's me and sixpeople, my family will be there
and whatever other folks canget there.
(07:44):
So that's my rant aboutcanceling church.
We don't cancel church.
We won't cancel church.
We ain't doing it over my deadbody, it won't happen.
So if you canceled church lastSunday, I don't know what to say
other than come on, man, comeon, that's that'll make sense.
Shame on you, so I love you,but shame on you, okay.
So we did not cancel, we ran itand by Friday night session we
(08:08):
had over 300 attendees here.
And then we had some that saidyou know what?
We're not going to drive Fridaybecause the roads won't be
plowed yet, but once the road,because the only way to get to
Andrews is through either theNantahala Gorge or the Ocoee
Gorge.
Now, if you don't know what agorge is, it's a two-lane road
that goes through a deep ravinein the mountains and it's curvy
(08:31):
and it's, you know,consequential, and so you want
to let those roads get cleared.
We don't have any interstatescoming here, you know.
So it's tough to travel here.
So we had some folks waited.
I know there's a church fromAugusta, georgia, that waited
and came in on Saturday morningand I say man, hats off to them.
And then we had several groupscome in on Thursday.
(08:51):
They're like, let's go a dayearly, we'll get ahead of the
storm.
And Josh Dunn in our frontoffice got a call Friday, I
think, or I think Saturdaymorning.
There was a group that had comeand they were staying in an
Airbnb.
Not everyone stays on site atSWO, any of our adult
conferences.
We have a lot of people thatstay in town and they'll rent
Airbnbs or they'll rent cabins,you know.
(09:14):
And these guys had come in onThursday night.
They went to a house way up inthe Nantahala community above
Nantahala Lake.
It's a mile up a gravel roadthat's curvy and steep and they
were legit snowed in.
They couldn't get out and thenthey were able to.
They had Wi-Fi up there at thisAirbnb.
So they got in touch with folksin our office on Saturday
(09:35):
morning and Jeff Garner and JoshDunn Jeff is our transportation
director, josh Dunn runs ourfront office them boys went up
there and they got them, dugthem out and and uh got their
vehicle out and brought them tocamp.
Those folks were so thankfuland, um, they got to be here for
the uh all the afternoon andevening stuff on Saturday and
then on Sunday morning.
So crazy weekend.
(09:56):
We ended up with over 400people attending.
So I mean, maybe a hundreddidn't show, it was.
It was awesome, but uh, thenthen.
Uh, then Saturday night I spokea pretty intense, for me
probably the least enjoyablemessage of the weekend for
people, but I felt a strongsometimes you just get a strong
(10:16):
feeling of urgency and Ipreached on idolatry and what
that looks like in our culture.
It's a worship issue, you know.
And so I looked at Isaiah 44and I read 90% of that sermon.
It was pretty intense.
And then Sunday morning, zachpreached and did a phenomenal
(10:37):
job and it was more.
His sermon had a little bitmore of an apologetics field
defense of the faith, actually awhole lot of an apologetics
feel.
It was very good and juststrong, but anyway it was
awesome.
And then Rob's breakout was alittle bit shorter than I felt
like it needed to be.
I didn't feel like he hadenough time.
(10:58):
We didn't give him enough time.
So we circled back.
Rob and I just finished onyesterday, as I'm recording this
Yesterday, rob and I justfinished on yesterday, as I'm
recording this.
Yesterday Rob and I filmed andrecorded uh, the, the, the film
team, our production team, umset up the onstage, um set up
for recording, for filming thoseinterviews, and Rob and I had,
(11:19):
uh, we talked for an hour and ahalf, probably worked through
his breakout.
We're going to bust that intotwo episodes and drop those next
week, but, um, so what?
Uh look for that.
And it's his.
His talk was about just theimportance of studying scripture
, how to read and study theBible.
Uh, you know, just a reallyclear, clean conversation about
the importance of and sort ofpractical thoughts on how to
(11:42):
study scripture.
So it was awesome, loved it,loved every bit of it.
It was an awesome event.
And then this past weekend wehad MLK weekend.
We had a winter SWO that justwrapped up today and MLK is our
third winter SWO weekend.
We have one more of those andthat'll be present to stay
weekend next month.
(12:02):
But we're doing, we're, we'reworking through the book of
Philippians at our winter SWOand, uh, so anyway, awesome
weekend.
There got cold weather here inthe mountains.
I know it's cold everywhere.
It's unseasonably cold in a lotof places.
We're in single digits.
So you, you know these old,these old houses that a lot of
us live in, old mountain housethat I live in, it's just a
constant battle to not have yourwater freeze up.
(12:23):
So, and my y'all know, mywater's on a spring, I'm not on
a well, I'm not on city water,I'm on a spring and it is very
difficult to keep that suckerfrom freezing up.
But we're we're surviving andum.
So I want to go into in thisepisode.
I just want to unpack and sharewith you some thoughts that I
took away from that, uh, thatepisode last week.
(12:44):
I thought I'm so proud of JB,so thankful for her, I'm so
proud of all the folks thatparticipated, and so I just want
to look at some common thingsthat popped up in those
interviews and some things thatI think we can learn from it,
take away from it and beencouraged by.
So this will be a part two tolast week's episode.
Now, before I totally dive intothis, just a reminder that I'm
(13:07):
sitting in my truck and I'mrecording on my phone, so the
audio is never great and italways picks up every little
movement.
So I'm going to try to sitsuper still so it's not
distracting.
But if y'all know me those ofyou that know me or you've been
to SWO I'm pretty restless inADD and move around a lot, so
I'm going to try hard.
(13:27):
But anyway, let's dive intothis.
Here was the first constant thatI heard throughout all of the
interviews and that was theimportance of daily Scripture
time in the Word.
I want to give you a couple ofthoughts on that.
One is and Rob and I are goingto really be unpacking this in
the next couple of episodes butjust some thoughts on the
importance of Scripture in yourdaily life.
First off, I appreciated howMarley and I think somebody else
(13:50):
said this too talked about howit was good to learn not to
freak out on days where shemissed her morning devotion With
work and some late-night finalsor study and preparing for
projects or whatever.
Sometimes the schedule just gotcrazy and she didn't get it in
in the morning that time in theWord, and she said it was good
(14:14):
to learn that she could comeback to that.
The Lord's not angry with her.
There's still the opportunityto grow and spend time with the
Lord the next day or later thatday, and it just it reminded me
of a principle that I learned along, long time ago, which is
that the Lord, I think, showedme I think it was through a book
that I read, maybe, and thiswas talked about but you know,
(14:36):
if you miss a morning of time inthe word, don't freak out.
But at the same time, I think weneed to have a sense of urgency
where if I get up and don't gettime in the Word, then I'm
going to feel a sense of urgencyto get back in the Word.
I think of it this way If youget a short night of sleep,
let's say that you work late,and then you've got to drive
(14:58):
somewhere and you get home lateand whatever, for whatever
reason, your normal bedtime is11 pm and you don't get in bed
till one o'clock, and then yournormal wake up time is 5 30 AM,
but on this particular dayyou've got to get up a little
bit earlier.
Just one of those perfectstorms where you only get about
four hours of sleep.
(15:19):
Now some people will say, well,that's all I ever get, that's
all I need.
I would say to you that is nottrue.
It's medically andscientifically proven that no
one is going to remain in goodhealth with four hours of sleep,
and so for most of my adultlife in my 20s, 30s and then
just into the beginning of my40s I would go to bed between
(15:39):
midnight and one and I would getup between 4.30 and five.
So most nights I would sleep infour and a half hours.
Anybody that knows me knowsthis is true.
Anybody that knows mepersonally closely has stayed in
my home.
That's how I rolled.
I can remember going to bed atmidnight, getting up at 4.30.
That was a consistent patternand actually doing a morning
workout and then getting time inthe Word and being ready to
(16:01):
work by 7.30, 7, 7.30.
That was my pattern.
That was the way I did things,and I would make fun of folks
that needed more sleep.
Well, the joke was on me,because what happened?
Is it caught up with memedically and I had some health
problems in my early and mid-40sthat were directly connected to
that lack of sleep.
And so you got to sleep.
(16:22):
You need six hours minimum.
You really need seven to eighthours of sleep if you're an
adult, if you're a teenager, youneed more.
If you're a kid or a teenager,you need more because you're
growing.
But let's say for this you knowyou're an adult, you need seven
hours of sleep.
If you have a night where youonly get three or four hours of
sleep, that next night you'regoing to be looking forward to
(16:45):
getting a good night's rest andyou're going to need it even
more and it's going to be a goodnight of sleep.
I find that some of my bestsleep is when I have a crazy
couple of days super busy, lotsof work, and then a short night
in between.
That next night I just crashand sleep.
So good.
Take that same principle andnow let's say you have a day
(17:06):
where you don't get time in theWord, you're not really able to
slow down and just focus andreflect on the Lord and His
goodness and spend timemeditating on His Word.
That next morning you should beso much more excited about and
in anticipation of that time inthe Word it's so critical.
(17:26):
The other analogy that we use alot here is at least that I use
personally in my life and we tryto talk about it here is think
of spiritual hydration.
If you are dehydrated, you needwater.
Think of yourself spirituallybeing dehydrated and you need
the water of the word Jesus.
(17:48):
Well, paul says Jesus throughPaul, the Holy Spirit through
Paul, says in Galatians I'msorry, in Ephesians 5, that the
sanctification is the washingwith the word.
And so you picture your mindand your soul and your emotional
makeup and health beingaffected by this irrigation of
(18:08):
the word of God through yourmind and your heart.
And so people will say I can'tread good, I don't focus good, I
have a hard time focusing.
First off, that's a lie thatyou've believed.
If you think I can't read theword of God, I don't focus good
on it, that's just not true.
You're choosing not to bedisciplined to get the scripture
(18:30):
in front of you and reflect andmeditate on it.
It's like saying I just can'tfocus on my wife, so when she's
there I just get distracted andignore her.
Well, what kind of marriage isthat going to be.
So.
Your spiritual health, myspiritual health, depend on time
spent letting my mind behydrated with the word of God.
(18:52):
When I get up in the morning,the first thing I do is I get in
an ice cold shower.
I jump in an ice cold tub thingon my porch out from my bedroom
.
This morning I didn't.
This morning I got straightinto an ice cold shower.
The pipes are in the back of myhouse and that water is about
45 degrees and it is awesomethis time of year.
So I get out of bed, feet hitthe floor, step in the shower,
(19:16):
take about a minute or two longcold shower, get out, drink
about 20 ounces of ice coldwater and I say that to say I
feel like it alive and awakensmy body, my mind.
It hydrates my brain physically.
You know that you need water.
(19:37):
Well, think of the word of Goddoing the same thing for you.
So this is where I'm going toget into.
One of the other things that wascommon was people in these
interviews saying I'm not amorning person.
It's harder in the morning, Ido it at night.
But then you heard a couple ofpeople say I've learned that if
I don't do it first thing, I'llget distracted and get sideways.
Let me say this to people thatsay they're not readers
(19:59):
distracted and get sideways.
Let me say this to people thatsay they're night readers I
would say, yes, go ahead andread at night, but you need to
start your day with a reflectionon God's Word, because your
mind has laid dormant other thanwhatever dreams you had.
You lay in bed.
When you wake up in the morning, if nothing else, listen to
some scripture while you drinkyour morning beverage If it's a
(20:21):
glass of water, if it's a Coke,if it's a cup of coffee and
imagine that, as your mind iscoming alive and awake, the word
of God is saturating andhydrating it.
So I would just say that I didhear a couple people say I'm not
a morning person, so I usuallyread at night, read at night,
(20:42):
but also read in the morning.
And then I appreciated therewas a couple folks that said
I've learned that if I don'tmake it a priority to start my
day, then I'll get busy and itwon't happen.
I would just say, to summarizethe importance of Scripture
imagine that your mental, yourspiritual, your emotional, your
psychological health and beinghealthy in those areas is
(21:07):
completely dependent on thescripture and your meditation on
it.
You need the word of God everyday.
Okay, now the rest of this willgo kind of quick quick.
Campus ministry and local churchwere two things that were
talked about and reminded me ofthe importance of spending time
in fellowship through communityand ministry.
(21:29):
So I want to separate the two,and we do this with our staff
that come to work here in thesummer.
Don't let campus ministry serveas the local church for you.
It is an addition to the localchurch.
So when you go to college, getplugged into a local church.
If you're not going off tocollege, you're already settled
(21:49):
into a career or you're a youngdad or mom, your life is just
getting rolling.
You need to get plugged into alocal church, and it doesn't
have to be a cool church withall the latest, greatest
technology.
It can be a church that's smalland rural, as long as it's
faithful in terms of teachingthe Word of God and it's a
community of people that lovethe Lord.
(22:10):
You need the local church.
That's biblical, and you willfind that, even though you think
I don't have time, when am Igoing to go to church?
How's this going to work out?
It's easy to believe the liethat you need, that you need.
It's very easy to believe thelie that you don't have time to
go to church or that you canspend that time better on
(22:31):
Sundays.
Go to the local church, hearthe word of God, fellowship with
God's people.
This is why the writer ofHebrews says don't forsake
assembling together with God'speople.
Now the reason I differentiateor make a distinction between
that and campus ministry isbecause a lot of students will
(22:52):
get to school and they'll go.
You know what?
I don't have a good localchurch here, but I really enjoy
crew.
Or I really enjoy BCM BaptistCollegiate Ministry, or I really
enjoy RUF Reform UnitedFellowship I think it's called.
I might not be getting all thenames right.
There's different campusministries that are faithful and
(23:14):
are solid and I would say getplugged into those solid.
And I would say get pluggedinto those.
But if it's either or yeah, ifyou only can do one or the other
campus ministry or the localchurch, I would prioritize the
local church.
So there's that and I wouldprioritize getting involved in
the local church.
So you're attending on Sunday,you're going to whatever midweek
(23:36):
stuff they have if it'sdiscipleship groups and homes or
some sort of community group,something like that.
Or if it's a Wednesday nightBible study, or go to that
church on Sunday morning, be apart of that and then get
plugged into a campus ministryfor your midweek.
Just make sure you're pluggingin.
And what I found is, if you'respending daily time in the Word,
you're plugging into a localchurch, you're involved in
campus ministry, that you'regoing to stay fulfilled and
(23:59):
active and accountable and havecommunity and so, anyway, all of
that came up in the interviewsand I appreciated that.
I also appreciated what Layleesaid about, you know, growing up
in a church that's so faithful,so solid, she loves it so much
that it was.
She had to really check herselfto not be overly critical when
(24:21):
she went and started exploringchurch options, and so I
appreciated that you might notfind a church that's just like
your home church back home.
It might not be exactly whatyou want, but if they love the
Lord and they're spending timepreaching and teaching His Word
every week and praying together,then find a church that's
faithful and it'll be good.
(24:42):
I also heard multiple peopletalk about how getting to
college all of a sudden you'vegot all this free time with
nobody telling you how to spendit, and so it's important to be
aware of that and develop a plan.
And that's where I think,between daily time in the Word
(25:02):
set aside meditating on God'sWord, reading God's Word,
listening to God's Word, weeklytime at local church and campus
ministry, don't overdo it whereyou're just busy all the time.
Your job right now is to be agood student, so don't get
overly involved.
I appreciate it.
There were a few people, I thinkDylan talked about local
ministry opportunities.
(25:22):
I remember my oldest daughter,kilby, when she was in college
she was plugged into a localafter-school ministry that was
similar to the Penwell programthat we are involved with.
That she was involved with that.
Little my wife runs, but youcan overdo it with it.
Little my wife runs, but youcan overdo it.
(25:43):
And so don't just wear yourselfout and become a bad student or
create more stress, but beplugged in and be so with all
this freedom and autonomy.
Don't waste that.
As a matter of fact, we tellpeople all the time, as
stressful and hard as collegeseems, it is the most relaxed
season of your life that youwill ever have.
That's crazy, I know, to somepeople to hear, but I mean
there's not going to be a timein your life where you can, in
(26:05):
the middle of the day, go takean hour and a half long nap.
There's not going to be a timein your life where you're going
to have an inconsistent schedulewhere some days you don't have
class.
You know like some collegestudents will stack all their
classes on Tuesdays andThursdays.
There's there's people thatthat go Monday, wednesday,
friday, all day.
They have nothing, so they'redoing homework, working on
(26:26):
projects.
You're never going to have thatkind of flexibility again.
So, while it is stressful, youdo have a lot of freedom and
autonomy with how you're goingto spend your time.
Understand this you have a lotmore time right now than you're
ever going to have, and I knowthat may say.
If you're a college studentlistening to this, you may think
that is not true, but it istrue.
(26:51):
It is true.
Life is only going to getbusier.
I didn't want to have.
I have a thought on fraternitiesand sororities, because that
came up a couple of times.
Somebody, I think, said I'm notthrowing off on fraternities
and sororities and they gave aclarifying statement.
But I would say man, I'm notthe best person to talk about
this because I think they'redumb.
I think they're just dumb andthey're a waste of time.
(27:11):
People are like, oh, you needto get into that because it's
going to help you with jobslater.
Let me tell you something youwork your butt off In this
generation.
You don't need a fraternity toget a good job or to be in a
sorority.
Fraternities and sororitieseveryone that I've ever
interacted with they're a bunchof dummies and I'm sure
somebody's listening will getfired up and say no, not ours,
(27:32):
it's different.
Well, I don't know them all.
I'm saying the ones that I'veinteracted with.
The college I went to theydidn't have them.
But I had a cousin who's beenon NSR and I love him and
respect him greatly.
But I remember he was in afraternity and I'd never been
around one and he would refer tohis brothers my brothers and
that's what they call each otherin the fraternity and I
(27:57):
remember at his wedding therewas a bunch of idiots there, a
bunch of dummies.
One of them hit on my wife andI almost went to jail that day
because those guys, they werejust idiots.
They were all boozed up and Irealized, right quick, I got a
bad taste in my mouth for what afraternity is.
My brother was a Division Ifootball player and had been
seeing a girl and they were onagain, off again.
(28:19):
This was 25 years ago, by theway, more than that, about 27,
28 years ago and they were onagain, off again.
Then they were off again forgood, but they still had a good
friendship, I think.
And she called him one nightand she was at a frat house, a
fraternity house, where they'rehaving a party, and she had run
into some trouble with some guysand she's like I just want to
(28:40):
go home.
I don't know how I ended uphere.
I think she was with a friendwho took her to this party and
my brother goes over there andhe's like I'll get her out of
there and we'll take her home.
So him and a couple of hisbuddies, two of them who played
in the NFL.
After this they go over thereto get a couple of girls and
escort them out of this frathouse.
And it turned into a brawl.
(29:02):
My brother put a dude in thehospital and was fortunate that
it didn't cost him like jailtime because he whipped this guy
.
This dude got in his face, hewas drunk and if you know my
brother, it is not a good ideato want to fight Duke Holloway.
He's a freaking wildcat and so,anyway, that whole ordeal was
(29:23):
crazy because Duke ended upgetting hit in the head with a
ball bat from behind and splithis skull and he had to have a
bunch of stitches and go to thehospital.
But between him and his threebuddies they hurt a lot of guys.
I think they whipped abouteight guys.
It was pretty impressive.
I think they whipped abouteight guys.
It was pretty impressive.
So that's my two fraternity.
Oh, I have one other fraternitysorority story.
(29:43):
Little and I were driving to afamily funeral.
We were going to the Williams.
Our family that lives in middleGeorgia.
It's the little side of thefamily.
It's where we spendThanksgiving week every year.
They're some of our dearest andclosest friends and family in
the world, and so there had beena death in the family.
(30:04):
We're going down there.
We messed up.
It was at the end of summer campone year and I had fallen
asleep.
Little was driving.
We got about two hours down theroad and I said I need you to
drive, I'm just hurting.
It was on a Saturday at the endof summer and she said, yeah,
I'll drive.
Well, I said stay on this road,and I meant stay on that
highway.
But to stay on that highway youhad to exit, otherwise it
(30:32):
turned into another road, ifthat makes sense, and I fell
asleep.
When I woke up, she hadn'texited and followed the road
sign.
She had just stayed straight onthat road.
And it took us straight intodowntown, down into Athens,
georgia.
And it was UGA, what do theycall it?
Pledge Week, I think it's whereall the sororities, which is
for women, and fraternities,which is for guys, are doing
their membership stuff.
(30:52):
And it was just.
It was like Sodom and Gomorrah.
It was the funniest thing,though they were all wearing
like fancy dresses and the dudeswere all in sports coats.
It was funny, but anyway,everybody's drunk and partying.
It was crazy.
And then my last fraternitystory was I was at one of my
brother's ballgames one time andthese guys they were pledging I
(31:13):
don't remember what university,but they came over and sat
behind.
We were in the visitor'ssection, which is a big football
stadium, and you've just got.
The only visitors at a gamelike that are like for the most
part were the family members ofplayers.
And so we're sitting there andthese frat guys come up here and
started beef with us and I gotinto a little bit of an
altercation.
So, anyway, I just spent a lotof time talking about
(31:34):
fraternities and sororities, butI'm saying that to say I've
just not had good experiences.
I know somebody's going to sayoh no, I'm in a fraternity and
here's why it's great.
Here's what I would say.
Me and all the people I respectmost have made it through life
without being in fraternitiesand sororities.
So I think you'd be just finewithout wasting your time and
money doing that garbage.
(31:55):
So that's my thought the timeand energy you would spend being
a fraternity or sorority person.
Put that into Baptistcollegiate ministry, baptist
student union, campus Crusadefor Christ, which is known as
CRU, something like that, or thelocal church.
Okay, there I'll get off thatsoapbox.
(32:16):
One thought is in your collegeyears you have an opportunity to
redeem what Little callsredeeming.
How does she say this?
Basically, she describesredeeming the little moments.
It's the idea that throughoutyour day you're going to have
opportunities and timethroughout the day to meditate
on Scripture.
(32:37):
Let's say you've got to driveeight minutes.
Then spend that eight minuteslistening to Scripture, rather
than Joe, than you know, joeRogan or um, or your favorite
band or or maybe listening toworship music.
Just, you've got a few minutesto wait for something right.
This morning I had about a 10minute window and I knew I
(33:00):
wasn't gonna be able to get intoanything work related.
So I spent that 10 minutes justtalking to the Lord and and
working on a verse of Scripturethat I'm trying to learn.
So just redeem little moments.
You don't have to block off awhole hour for a big, long quiet
time and then you're done forthe day.
Maybe you spend 20, 30 minutesin the morning reading in God's
(33:21):
Word and then throughout the dayyou've got moments that you
just kind of practically reflecton Scripture and talk to the
Lord.
You've got moments that youjust kind of practically reflect
on scripture and talk to theLord.
We heard a lot of people talkingabout the disappointment of
losing friends who drift awayfrom the Lord.
I don't know if you heard a lotof people, but I heard that
come up a couple of times.
So just a reminder that you canbe faithful in your college
(33:43):
years.
And something that I thoughtabout is and this kind of came
up in the interview when JB wasinterviewing Stein and that was
if you can ramp up and go intocollege walking with the Lord,
with some momentum and you letthat carry you through that
first semester.
That'll be real helpful.
(34:04):
I think if you get there and youget disoriented, you get behind
the curve and you start makingsome bad choices.
It's a slippery slope.
So prepare to go and thenprepare, be faithful.
When you get there, just remainfaithful.
That's important, just beingfaithful regardless of what
everyone else is doing.
It's okay to be different, it'sokay to swim against the
current.
Let's see, we talked aboutserving, giving of yourself for
(34:27):
others, ramping up before you go.
Oh, with that, it's not justthat your friends are going to
turn away and some of you mightgo to school and you don't have
any friends going there.
You know there's nobody therethat is a believer.
You're kind of on your own.
You might have to seek that out, and I heard a couple people
(34:48):
say seek it out, try to findsome Christian fellowship and
community.
And a couple people said, ifyou can't find it, then start it
, and I thought that was good.
You kind of create your own.
I think it was.
Somebody was talking about oneof our girls here who was an
interview.
I think it was Alejandra theywere talking about who's a SWO
staffer that she got to schooland started a campus ministry
(35:10):
because there was nothing goingon.
So just know you're going tocome under attack and sometimes
that attack is going to comefrom professors.
That was wild music, the musicstory that Stein told he said he
had a professor, a music, hehad a music class and they had
(35:31):
to, like they had to dosomething where they had to
choose a song and then critiqueit, or I don't remember the
whole assignment.
But Stein chose a Christiansong and the guy failed him, he
said because he hates Christianmusic.
And what's crazy is professorscan do stuff like that.
They depending on theuniversity.
A lot of places professors havean incredible amount of
autonomy, and so that was acrazy story.
(35:54):
That just highlighted howdifficult it might be when it
comes to dealing with professors.
I mean, that might be yourbiggest opposition.
And then Marley, you know sheher story about how a professor
told her she needed to justexperience college life go to a
party, get drunk, have a goodtime with your friends.
You're young, you can do thatnow, and he was encouraging her
(36:16):
to that.
That was kind of crazy.
Appreciated the constant focusof being taking the
opportunities to be a light andbeing an encouragement to others
.
That's a good word for us.
Are you going to be anencouragement to somebody today?
Are you going to be a light tosomebody today?
So so important, so helpful.
And then it was interesting howpeople, a lot of people there
(36:39):
were several people that didthat are Christian college
people.
I think it was Andrew and maybeCadence and they were talking
about how, just how quickly youcan end up falling away from the
Lord and just becoming verylazy, that your Christian life
because you're taking Bibleclasses or whatever.
That was interesting, but Ialso appreciated.
(37:03):
In that same vein, cadence saidthat the one thing that you get
at a Christian university she'sat Liberty University.
She said it's like you'reswimming downstream.
So if you do want to follow theLord, be faithful to Jesus.
There's a strong current forthat.
So that's something to consider.
Go to college.
(37:28):
A Christian university mightafford you the opportunity to
really build momentum in yourChristian walk and probably not
have quite as much pushback.
But I thought that was goodinsight.
The danger is that you get lazy, but the positive is that
you're sort of swimmingdownstream.
So I thought that was veryhelpful and then I just had a
couple of funny thoughts afterlistening to it.
It just reminded me of things Isaw at the college retreat, and
(37:52):
some of this is funny, some ofit's just a point of interest.
One is and I'm going to rantfor just a second about young
men.
I saw at least four young dudesthese are college age guys, so
we're talking 18 to 25 year oldguys at our college retreat
walking around in pajama pants.
(38:12):
Pajama pants Don't like men.
Do not go out in public inpajama pants.
I don't give a rat's hairy buttcrack what is in style or who
where that's trending.
That is not a thing for you.
That is not a thing that men do.
That's not a thing that menshould do.
I have a 14-year-old boy in myhouse who walked into my kitchen
(38:36):
one day at seven o'clock in themorning about to go get in the
car to go to school, and he'swearing pajama pants.
And my wife said to him shesaid what are you doing with
those?
And he said oh, everybody'swearing pajamas today.
And she said what is it SpiritWeek?
Is this like Spirit Week?
Because you already had SpiritWeek?
She was on to him because hewas trying to make it sound like
this was something the schoolwas endorsing.
And he said no, it's not SpiritWeek.
(38:58):
She said, well, spirit Weeky'all had Hat Day, team Day and
you had Pajama Pants Day.
And said, remember, we didn'tlet you wear pajama pants on
spirit week.
What is today?
And he said, well, and come tofind out like a group of boys
just said, hey, let's wearpajama pants, cause a lot of
kids are doing it.
And she said you walk your rearend right back to your room.
You put on a pair of real pants, a pair of real shoes.
(39:21):
You're not leaving the houselike that.
And she said something I thoughtwas very important.
She said there is noself-respecting, hardworking,
grown man anywhere that is inyour life and your sphere of
influence that you're going tosee walking around in pajama
pants.
That's not what men do.
Go change man.
I loved it.
I was like Little's a boss lady,but I realized there's this
thing right now where dudes aredoing it, because a couple days
(39:44):
later I am after thatconversation with Little.
I'm driving, I'm pulling upoutside of the grocery store.
I dropped her off, she'd gonein and I stayed in the car.
She just had to run in and getsomething and I just stayed in
the car so I could pick her upright at the door because it was
real cold and a guy about myage comes walking out of the
grocery store wearing pajamapants and I thought now this guy
(40:06):
looked like a dummy.
You can't walk around lookinglike that and expect anybody to
take you serious, so that's justdumb.
So, dudes, don't wear pajamapants in public.
Knock it off, quit that crap.
I don't care who's doing it,what somebody's told you.
Don't do that it's stupid.
Don't do it Like, have a littlebit of self-respect so that you
(40:27):
can expect people to take youserious.
And then.
So there's that rant.
The other thing that I thoughtwas interesting and this is just
an observation listening to allthese kids.
Most of the kids interviewedare Southern, but have you
noticed how the Southern accentis going away?
Like?
Stein lives in North Georgia.
He lives right just.
(40:48):
Stein grew up 45 minutes southof here and I know how the
people my age and older and alot of kids still in North
Georgia talk and he talks likehe's from you know, like the
West.
He's got that contemporaryaccent and I heard several
people with that, even likeMarley and Dylan, have Southern
(41:08):
accents, but when they start toarticulate you can tell a lot of
that accent is going away.
That's not a criticism, by theway, it's just interesting.
It made me wonder I wonder howmany generations we might be,
just one or two generations awayfrom there, not really being
many people with strong accents.
We get to that point wherethere's like just that
contemporary accent and it'sinteresting because you used to
(41:31):
have a lot of regional accents.
Even in the South they'redifferent, they're varying
accents.
The mountain accent wasdifferent than the coastal
accent.
South Alabama folks from theretalk different than people from
Central Florida.
People from Middle Georgia talkdifferent than people from East
Tennessee.
It was all Southern accents butvery much different variations.
(41:51):
Same thing with the Northernaccent or dialect.
People from Pennsylvania andNew Jersey talked a little
different than people from theupper Midwest.
It's interesting and I think alot of that's going away because
of the influence of socialmedia how much of our language
is learned through what welisten to and watch.
That was interesting.
That has nothing to do withanything, just an observation.
(42:12):
And I see it with our staff.
If somebody comes here andserves on staff and they've got
a real strong Southern accent.
Man, they really get heckledand picked at, which is always
in good jest and good fun, butanyway, that's a real thing.
Even JB.
Jb doesn't have an accent.
She's got that contemporaryaccent.
Does not sound Southern at alland she's born and raised in
(42:33):
Georgia by people that are bornand raised in Georgia, by people
that are born and raised inGeorgia.
I thought that was interestingand it's something I bring up
because I've noticed it more andmore with our staff.
But again, neither here northere.
So just my thoughts on thatepisode from last week.
Again, jb did a phenomenal job,so did all the folks that got
(42:53):
interviewed and I appreciate itso much.
I'm proud of all of them.
I'm proud to be associated withsuch dynamic and amazing young
adults who are the remnant inthis generation that are going
to take the gospel and impacttheir generation.
I'm grateful, so grateful, tobe a part of it.
(43:13):
Next week we will have a coupleof episodes coming out of Rob
and I sitting down havingconversation and then we've got
some other stuff coming out.
Be looking for some things thatare coming out in connection to
this college retreat stuff andthe college interviews.
As we look towards summer,we're going to have a little bit
more content along these linesand we've also got some stuff
coming in the next month or sowe're going to be recording
(43:39):
about doing ministry in small,like local ministry in small
communities, if you're part of asmaller church, or even if
you're part of a big church, buthow do you minister in smaller
communities, and just theimportance of being faithful
where you live and where youserve.
So that's it for this week.
I am going to come back andread some in a future episode.
(44:00):
I want to read some what do youcall it reviews from Spotify and
Apple or from Apple ApplePodcasts that's where it's at.
We were looking through reviewsyesterday and just some
encouraging stuff that peoplefrom Spotify and Apple or from
Apple Apple Podcasts that'swhere it's at.
We were looking through reviewsyesterday and just some
encouraging stuff that peoplehave written, and so I want to
read some of those and then givesome shout out to people that
have taken the time to leave areview.
If you leave a review and youlet us know who you are, we will
(44:21):
send you swag.
So just so you know we'll sendyou some SWO swag.
Just just so you know, we'llsend you some SWO swag, so that
should motivate Surely.
Anyway, thank you all forlistening and just appreciate it
so much, and we'll see you nexttime.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at SWOutfitterscom tosee all of our programming and
resources, and we'll see younext week on no Sanity Required.
In this week's episode of no Sanity Required, I
want to follow up last week'sepisode and in that episode JB
interviewed several collegestudents who have worked at SWO,
who are currently working atSWO, and talked about the
struggles, the challenges, theopportunities and the things
that maybe need to be thoughtabout, focused on as you prepare
(00:24):
to head off to college, or ifyou're a college student, or if
you're the parent of a highschool student and you're
preparing them to go.
It's just really good stuff.
I love that episode.
I thought JB did a phenomenaljob, so, thankful for her, proud
of her, I want to say thank youto everyone who participated.
It was just awesome listeningto all those young men and women
(00:46):
talk about the Lord and theirfocus and struggle and all that
goes with being on mission onhigh school and college campuses
.
So this week we're going tofollow that up.
I'm going to give you somethoughts that I came away with
after listening to that episodeand, uh, I'm real excited to
share this.
This will be a followup butalso, I think, give uh some
(01:09):
things that that we can takeaway from from all of those
interviews and conversationscombined, some, some themes,
some common things that we heardthat kept coming up and then
how, that those would apply evento those of us who are well
beyond our college years.
Or if you're not going tocollege, you're going to go in
the military, you can go totrade school, you can go
straight into the trades,whatever.
(01:29):
Just some things that everybeliever can take away.
So I'm excited to get into this.
I'm recording from my truck andI'm recording with a stuffy
nose because we just got donerecording a couple of episodes
that we're going to be rollingout in the next couple of weeks
and I swept really good in thesuper coop in the area where we
were recording and now I'mhaving a crazy allergic reaction
(01:53):
or something.
I've sneezed 100 times in thelast 15 minutes trying to get
this thing started.
So hopefully I'm done sneezing,Hopefully we'll get through
this episode.
I'm excited to bring it to you.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Welcome to no Sanity Required.
Welcome to no Sanity Requiredfrom the Ministry of Snowbird
Wilderness Outfitters.
A podcast about the Bibleculture and stories from around
the globe.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well, we just came out of we had last weekend we
had our not this past weekend,which was MLK, but the previous
weekend, so weekend before lastnow I guess we had our annual
college event, our collegeretreat.
It's a conference where we hadwe actually had about 600 people
that were going to be attendingthat, which is for SWO.
That's a full-size conference.
(02:42):
I know that for some people insome venues that's not big.
For instance, if you go to thePassion event every year, that
thing's massive.
I think it's 20,000 people ormaybe more, I don't know.
It's huge.
But for us it's a bigconference but it's still small
enough that we feel like we canreally connect with people,
(03:03):
enough that we feel like we canreally connect with people.
With all of our staff, you know70 or so of us involved and
then over 500 people attendingyou know we're able to really
connect with folks, network withpeople.
And then the teaching is.
I always love I love teaching,but I also love sitting under
the teaching at the collegeevent because there's always
(03:23):
some part apologetics to it, youknow, just defending the faith,
understanding the validity andstrength of our faith and our
belief system and our worldview.
It's very helpful.
I found the focus this year wasidolatry and two things that
stood out to me that I foundextremely helpful.
First off, everything was good.
Spencer Davis kicked off theweekend with a talk on.
(03:46):
He looked at some things thatwe can take away from the
incident where the Israelitesmade the golden calf out of the
jewelry that God had plunderedfrom the Egyptians and then they
said this is our God, but thisis also Yahweh.
It's a representation of YahwehCrazy story.
Spencer did a phenomenal job onthat talk.
(04:07):
He adapted that talk from abreakout session he had done
several summers ago I think 2020summer and it's one of my
favorite topics and talks thatI've ever heard him do and he's
a phenomenal teacher.
On Saturday morning, JohnRouleau spoke.
John looked at the idolatrythat is more ideological, you
(04:30):
know, the idolatry of ideas inour age, and that was phenomenal
.
That's right in his lane.
That's John Rouleau wheelhousestuff, you know, and it was so
good.
And then I really enjoyed allof the breakout sessions.
Sessions, um, we had threebreakout sessions Hank Parker,
rob Conti and Jake Schwarting.
All all talk breakout sessions.
(04:51):
The all of those wereexceptionally well done, um, and
pretty well attended.
We, you know, we had.
We had about a hundred people,we had about 500 on the books
and we had a little over ahundred no-show, so about 20 to
25% no-show because of the snow.
We had a little over a hundredno-shows, so about 20 to 25%
no-show because of the snow.
We had a lot of snow thatweekend and we just had people.
I think people are scared todrive, you know, people from the
(05:14):
South, if there's snow theykind of freak out and uh.
But then it was funny because,I mean, people came anyway.
We thought we were bracing forand we saw that it was going to
be single digit temps at nightand five or six inches of fresh
snow falling on that Friday.
Going into the event, wethought, okay, buckle up, this
thing, we won't cancel.
(05:36):
Just so you know, we won'tcancel.
It doesn't matter if it's thestorm of the century, we're not
going to cancel it.
Whoever can get here and gethere and we'll make the most of
it.
But because, for a couple ofreasons but, and I guess the
main one being it's verydifficult to reschedule
something here.
You know our calendar is packed, it's not like we could, and
then for everyone that'straveling if people aren't able
(05:56):
to come.
They can't.
You know, a lot of people haveplanned for six months to be at
this event, some for a year, andso it's locked into their
calendar.
So it's just, it doesn't makesense for us to cancel something
and I'll be honest, and I'm notbusting anybody's chops here,
this is not critical.
But when it comes to cancelinganything, this goes.
(06:18):
We were talking about this atchurch last weekend.
I was talking actually with my,my son-in-law, greg.
We were talking about howquickly people will cancel or
bail out, and I understandthere's liability issues.
You know, if you're driving abus with a bunch of kids, I get
that, I really do, and so Iunderstand why people cancel.
But like we had a bunch ofalmost every church in our
(06:41):
community that weekend canceledSunday services and I'm like I
don't want to.
I'm not being judgmental and Iknow I'm very opinionated, like
most people, but that's insane.
That's just crazy to me.
How are you going to faceChristians in Siberia that sneak
in sub-zero temperatures tomeet in underground churches
(07:02):
during the Soviet era?
What about Christians in NorthKorea, where they're already you
know?
What about Christians in NorthKorea, where they're already
freezing to death?
What about Christians in Muslimstrongholds.
You know where there'sfundamental Islamic strongholds
where people will be persecuted.
It's just.
I would hate to face Christiansand say, oh yeah, we don't go to
church if it's chilly outsideor if there's a little bit of
snow on the road.
(07:22):
The snow came in Friday.
People canceled church.
Two days later I can tell youthe roads were fine.
So my opinion on that is run it, have church.
If you can get there, great.
If you can't, then that's yourdeal.
But we're going to have church.
I don't care if it's me and sixpeople, my family will be there
and whatever other folks canget there.
(07:44):
So that's my rant aboutcanceling church.
We don't cancel church.
We won't cancel church.
We ain't doing it over my deadbody, it won't happen.
So if you canceled church lastSunday, I don't know what to say
other than come on, man, comeon, that's that'll make sense.
Shame on you, so I love you,but shame on you, okay.
So we did not cancel, we ran itand by Friday night session we
(08:08):
had over 300 attendees here.
And then we had some that saidyou know what?
We're not going to drive Fridaybecause the roads won't be
plowed yet, but once the road,because the only way to get to
Andrews is through either theNantahala Gorge or the Ocoee
Gorge.
Now, if you don't know what agorge is, it's a two-lane road
that goes through a deep ravinein the mountains and it's curvy
(08:31):
and it's, you know,consequential, and so you want
to let those roads get cleared.
We don't have any interstatescoming here, you know.
So it's tough to travel here.
So we had some folks waited.
I know there's a church fromAugusta, georgia, that waited
and came in on Saturday morningand I say man, hats off to them.
And then we had several groupscome in on Thursday.
(08:51):
They're like, let's go a dayearly, we'll get ahead of the
storm.
And Josh Dunn in our frontoffice got a call Friday, I
think, or I think Saturdaymorning.
There was a group that had comeand they were staying in an
Airbnb.
Not everyone stays on site atSWO, any of our adult
conferences.
We have a lot of people thatstay in town and they'll rent
Airbnbs or they'll rent cabins,you know.
(09:14):
And these guys had come in onThursday night.
They went to a house way up inthe Nantahala community above
Nantahala Lake.
It's a mile up a gravel roadthat's curvy and steep and they
were legit snowed in.
They couldn't get out and thenthey were able to.
They had Wi-Fi up there at thisAirbnb.
So they got in touch with folksin our office on Saturday
(09:35):
morning and Jeff Garner and JoshDunn Jeff is our transportation
director, josh Dunn runs ourfront office them boys went up
there and they got them, dugthem out and and uh got their
vehicle out and brought them tocamp.
Those folks were so thankfuland, um, they got to be here for
the uh all the afternoon andevening stuff on Saturday and
then on Sunday morning.
So crazy weekend.
(09:56):
We ended up with over 400people attending.
So I mean, maybe a hundreddidn't show, it was.
It was awesome, but uh, thenthen.
Uh, then Saturday night I spokea pretty intense, for me
probably the least enjoyablemessage of the weekend for
people, but I felt a strongsometimes you just get a strong
(10:16):
feeling of urgency and Ipreached on idolatry and what
that looks like in our culture.
It's a worship issue, you know.
And so I looked at Isaiah 44and I read 90% of that sermon.
It was pretty intense.
And then Sunday morning, zachpreached and did a phenomenal
(10:37):
job and it was more.
His sermon had a little bitmore of an apologetics field
defense of the faith, actually awhole lot of an apologetics
feel.
It was very good and juststrong, but anyway it was
awesome.
And then Rob's breakout was alittle bit shorter than I felt
like it needed to be.
I didn't feel like he hadenough time.
(10:58):
We didn't give him enough time.
So we circled back.
Rob and I just finished onyesterday, as I'm recording this
Yesterday, rob and I justfinished on yesterday, as I'm
recording this.
Yesterday Rob and I filmed andrecorded uh, the, the, the film
team, our production team, umset up the onstage, um set up
for recording, for filming thoseinterviews, and Rob and I had,
(11:19):
uh, we talked for an hour and ahalf, probably worked through
his breakout.
We're going to bust that intotwo episodes and drop those next
week, but, um, so what?
Uh look for that.
And it's his.
His talk was about just theimportance of studying scripture
, how to read and study theBible.
Uh, you know, just a reallyclear, clean conversation about
the importance of and sort ofpractical thoughts on how to
(11:42):
study scripture.
So it was awesome, loved it,loved every bit of it.
It was an awesome event.
And then this past weekend wehad MLK weekend.
We had a winter SWO that justwrapped up today and MLK is our
third winter SWO weekend.
We have one more of those andthat'll be present to stay
weekend next month.
(12:02):
But we're doing, we're, we'reworking through the book of
Philippians at our winter SWOand, uh, so anyway, awesome
weekend.
There got cold weather here inthe mountains.
I know it's cold everywhere.
It's unseasonably cold in a lotof places.
We're in single digits.
So you, you know these old,these old houses that a lot of
us live in, old mountain housethat I live in, it's just a
constant battle to not have yourwater freeze up.
(12:23):
So, and my y'all know, mywater's on a spring, I'm not on
a well, I'm not on city water,I'm on a spring and it is very
difficult to keep that suckerfrom freezing up.
But we're we're surviving andum.
So I want to go into in thisepisode.
I just want to unpack and sharewith you some thoughts that I
took away from that, uh, thatepisode last week.
(12:44):
I thought I'm so proud of JB,so thankful for her, I'm so
proud of all the folks thatparticipated, and so I just want
to look at some common thingsthat popped up in those
interviews and some things thatI think we can learn from it,
take away from it and beencouraged by.
So this will be a part two tolast week's episode.
Now, before I totally dive intothis, just a reminder that I'm
(13:07):
sitting in my truck and I'mrecording on my phone, so the
audio is never great and italways picks up every little
movement.
So I'm going to try to sitsuper still so it's not
distracting.
But if y'all know me those ofyou that know me or you've been
to SWO I'm pretty restless inADD and move around a lot, so
I'm going to try hard.
(13:27):
But anyway, let's dive intothis.
Here was the first constant thatI heard throughout all of the
interviews and that was theimportance of daily Scripture
time in the Word.
I want to give you a couple ofthoughts on that.
One is and Rob and I are goingto really be unpacking this in
the next couple of episodes butjust some thoughts on the
importance of Scripture in yourdaily life.
First off, I appreciated howMarley and I think somebody else
(13:50):
said this too talked about howit was good to learn not to
freak out on days where shemissed her morning devotion With
work and some late-night finalsor study and preparing for
projects or whatever.
Sometimes the schedule just gotcrazy and she didn't get it in
in the morning that time in theWord, and she said it was good
(14:14):
to learn that she could comeback to that.
The Lord's not angry with her.
There's still the opportunityto grow and spend time with the
Lord the next day or later thatday, and it just it reminded me
of a principle that I learned along, long time ago, which is
that the Lord, I think, showedme I think it was through a book
that I read, maybe, and thiswas talked about but you know,
(14:36):
if you miss a morning of time inthe word, don't freak out.
But at the same time, I think weneed to have a sense of urgency
where if I get up and don't gettime in the Word, then I'm
going to feel a sense of urgencyto get back in the Word.
I think of it this way If youget a short night of sleep,
let's say that you work late,and then you've got to drive
(14:58):
somewhere and you get home lateand whatever, for whatever
reason, your normal bedtime is11 pm and you don't get in bed
till one o'clock, and then yournormal wake up time is 5 30 AM,
but on this particular dayyou've got to get up a little
bit earlier.
Just one of those perfectstorms where you only get about
four hours of sleep.
(15:19):
Now some people will say, well,that's all I ever get, that's
all I need.
I would say to you that is nottrue.
It's medically andscientifically proven that no
one is going to remain in goodhealth with four hours of sleep,
and so for most of my adultlife in my 20s, 30s and then
just into the beginning of my40s I would go to bed between
(15:39):
midnight and one and I would getup between 4.30 and five.
So most nights I would sleep infour and a half hours.
Anybody that knows me knowsthis is true.
Anybody that knows mepersonally closely has stayed in
my home.
That's how I rolled.
I can remember going to bed atmidnight, getting up at 4.30.
That was a consistent patternand actually doing a morning
workout and then getting time inthe Word and being ready to
(16:01):
work by 7.30, 7, 7.30.
That was my pattern.
That was the way I did things,and I would make fun of folks
that needed more sleep.
Well, the joke was on me,because what happened?
Is it caught up with memedically and I had some health
problems in my early and mid-40sthat were directly connected to
that lack of sleep.
And so you got to sleep.
(16:22):
You need six hours minimum.
You really need seven to eighthours of sleep if you're an
adult, if you're a teenager, youneed more.
If you're a kid or a teenager,you need more because you're
growing.
But let's say for this you knowyou're an adult, you need seven
hours of sleep.
If you have a night where youonly get three or four hours of
sleep, that next night you'regoing to be looking forward to
(16:45):
getting a good night's rest andyou're going to need it even
more and it's going to be a goodnight of sleep.
I find that some of my bestsleep is when I have a crazy
couple of days super busy, lotsof work, and then a short night
in between.
That next night I just crashand sleep.
So good.
Take that same principle andnow let's say you have a day
(17:06):
where you don't get time in theWord, you're not really able to
slow down and just focus andreflect on the Lord and His
goodness and spend timemeditating on His Word.
That next morning you should beso much more excited about and
in anticipation of that time inthe Word it's so critical.
(17:26):
The other analogy that we use alot here is at least that I use
personally in my life and we tryto talk about it here is think
of spiritual hydration.
If you are dehydrated, you needwater.
Think of yourself spirituallybeing dehydrated and you need
the water of the word Jesus.
(17:48):
Well, paul says Jesus throughPaul, the Holy Spirit through
Paul, says in Galatians I'msorry, in Ephesians 5, that the
sanctification is the washingwith the word.
And so you picture your mindand your soul and your emotional
makeup and health beingaffected by this irrigation of
(18:08):
the word of God through yourmind and your heart.
And so people will say I can'tread good, I don't focus good, I
have a hard time focusing.
First off, that's a lie thatyou've believed.
If you think I can't read theword of God, I don't focus good
on it, that's just not true.
You're choosing not to bedisciplined to get the scripture
(18:30):
in front of you and reflect andmeditate on it.
It's like saying I just can'tfocus on my wife, so when she's
there I just get distracted andignore her.
Well, what kind of marriage isthat going to be.
So.
Your spiritual health, myspiritual health, depend on time
spent letting my mind behydrated with the word of God.
(18:52):
When I get up in the morning,the first thing I do is I get in
an ice cold shower.
I jump in an ice cold tub thingon my porch out from my bedroom
.
This morning I didn't.
This morning I got straightinto an ice cold shower.
The pipes are in the back of myhouse and that water is about
45 degrees and it is awesomethis time of year.
So I get out of bed, feet hitthe floor, step in the shower,
(19:16):
take about a minute or two longcold shower, get out, drink
about 20 ounces of ice coldwater and I say that to say I
feel like it alive and awakensmy body, my mind.
It hydrates my brain physically.
You know that you need water.
(19:37):
Well, think of the word of Goddoing the same thing for you.
So this is where I'm going toget into.
One of the other things that wascommon was people in these
interviews saying I'm not amorning person.
It's harder in the morning, Ido it at night.
But then you heard a couple ofpeople say I've learned that if
I don't do it first thing, I'llget distracted and get sideways.
Let me say this to people thatsay they're not readers
(19:59):
distracted and get sideways.
Let me say this to people thatsay they're night readers I
would say, yes, go ahead andread at night, but you need to
start your day with a reflectionon God's Word, because your
mind has laid dormant other thanwhatever dreams you had.
You lay in bed.
When you wake up in the morning, if nothing else, listen to
some scripture while you drinkyour morning beverage If it's a
(20:21):
glass of water, if it's a Coke,if it's a cup of coffee and
imagine that, as your mind iscoming alive and awake, the word
of God is saturating andhydrating it.
So I would just say that I didhear a couple people say I'm not
a morning person, so I usuallyread at night, read at night,
(20:42):
but also read in the morning.
And then I appreciated therewas a couple folks that said
I've learned that if I don'tmake it a priority to start my
day, then I'll get busy and itwon't happen.
I would just say, to summarizethe importance of Scripture
imagine that your mental, yourspiritual, your emotional, your
psychological health and beinghealthy in those areas is
(21:07):
completely dependent on thescripture and your meditation on
it.
You need the word of God everyday.
Okay, now the rest of this willgo kind of quick quick.
Campus ministry and local churchwere two things that were
talked about and reminded me ofthe importance of spending time
in fellowship through communityand ministry.
(21:29):
So I want to separate the two,and we do this with our staff
that come to work here in thesummer.
Don't let campus ministry serveas the local church for you.
It is an addition to the localchurch.
So when you go to college, getplugged into a local church.
If you're not going off tocollege, you're already settled
(21:49):
into a career or you're a youngdad or mom, your life is just
getting rolling.
You need to get plugged into alocal church, and it doesn't
have to be a cool church withall the latest, greatest
technology.
It can be a church that's smalland rural, as long as it's
faithful in terms of teachingthe Word of God and it's a
community of people that lovethe Lord.
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You need the local church.
That's biblical, and you willfind that, even though you think
I don't have time, when am Igoing to go to church?
How's this going to work out?
It's easy to believe the liethat you need, that you need.
It's very easy to believe thelie that you don't have time to
go to church or that you canspend that time better on
(22:31):
Sundays.
Go to the local church, hearthe word of God, fellowship with
God's people.
This is why the writer ofHebrews says don't forsake
assembling together with God'speople.
Now the reason I differentiateor make a distinction between
that and campus ministry isbecause a lot of students will
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get to school and they'll go.
You know what?
I don't have a good localchurch here, but I really enjoy
crew.
Or I really enjoy BCM BaptistCollegiate Ministry, or I really
enjoy RUF Reform UnitedFellowship I think it's called.
I might not be getting all thenames right.
There's different campusministries that are faithful and
(23:14):
are solid and I would say getplugged into those solid.
And I would say get pluggedinto those.
But if it's either or yeah, ifyou only can do one or the other
campus ministry or the localchurch, I would prioritize the
local church.
So there's that and I wouldprioritize getting involved in
the local church.
So you're attending on Sunday,you're going to whatever midweek
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stuff they have if it'sdiscipleship groups and homes or
some sort of community group,something like that.
Or if it's a Wednesday nightBible study, or go to that
church on Sunday morning, be apart of that and then get
plugged into a campus ministryfor your midweek.
Just make sure you're pluggingin.
And what I found is, if you'respending daily time in the Word,
you're plugging into a localchurch, you're involved in
campus ministry, that you'regoing to stay fulfilled and
(23:59):
active and accountable and havecommunity and so, anyway, all of
that came up in the interviewsand I appreciated that.
I also appreciated what Layleesaid about, you know, growing up
in a church that's so faithful,so solid, she loves it so much
that it was.
She had to really check herselfto not be overly critical when
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she went and started exploringchurch options, and so I
appreciated that you might notfind a church that's just like
your home church back home.
It might not be exactly whatyou want, but if they love the
Lord and they're spending timepreaching and teaching His Word
every week and praying together,then find a church that's
faithful and it'll be good.
(24:42):
I also heard multiple peopletalk about how getting to
college all of a sudden you'vegot all this free time with
nobody telling you how to spendit, and so it's important to be
aware of that and develop a plan.
And that's where I think,between daily time in the Word
(25:02):
set aside meditating on God'sWord, reading God's Word,
listening to God's Word, weeklytime at local church and campus
ministry, don't overdo it whereyou're just busy all the time.
Your job right now is to be agood student, so don't get
overly involved.
I appreciate it.
There were a few people, I thinkDylan talked about local
ministry opportunities.
(25:22):
I remember my oldest daughter,kilby, when she was in college
she was plugged into a localafter-school ministry that was
similar to the Penwell programthat we are involved with.
That she was involved with that.
Little my wife runs, but youcan overdo it with it.
Little my wife runs, but youcan overdo it.
(25:43):
And so don't just wear yourselfout and become a bad student or
create more stress, but beplugged in and be so with all
this freedom and autonomy.
Don't waste that.
As a matter of fact, we tellpeople all the time, as
stressful and hard as collegeseems, it is the most relaxed
season of your life that youwill ever have.
That's crazy, I know, to somepeople to hear, but I mean
there's not going to be a timein your life where you can, in
(26:05):
the middle of the day, go takean hour and a half long nap.
There's not going to be a timein your life where you're going
to have an inconsistent schedulewhere some days you don't have
class.
You know like some collegestudents will stack all their
classes on Tuesdays andThursdays.
There's there's people thatthat go Monday, wednesday,
friday, all day.
They have nothing, so they'redoing homework, working on
(26:26):
projects.
You're never going to have thatkind of flexibility again.
So, while it is stressful, youdo have a lot of freedom and
autonomy with how you're goingto spend your time.
Understand this you have a lotmore time right now than you're
ever going to have, and I knowthat may say.
If you're a college studentlistening to this, you may think
that is not true, but it istrue.
(26:51):
It is true.
Life is only going to getbusier.
I didn't want to have.
I have a thought on fraternitiesand sororities, because that
came up a couple of times.
Somebody, I think, said I'm notthrowing off on fraternities
and sororities and they gave aclarifying statement.
But I would say man, I'm notthe best person to talk about
this because I think they'redumb.
I think they're just dumb andthey're a waste of time.
(27:11):
People are like, oh, you needto get into that because it's
going to help you with jobslater.
Let me tell you something youwork your butt off In this
generation.
You don't need a fraternity toget a good job or to be in a
sorority.
Fraternities and sororitieseveryone that I've ever
interacted with they're a bunchof dummies and I'm sure
somebody's listening will getfired up and say no, not ours,
(27:32):
it's different.
Well, I don't know them all.
I'm saying the ones that I'veinteracted with.
The college I went to theydidn't have them.
But I had a cousin who's beenon NSR and I love him and
respect him greatly.
But I remember he was in afraternity and I'd never been
around one and he would refer tohis brothers my brothers and
that's what they call each otherin the fraternity and I
(27:57):
remember at his wedding therewas a bunch of idiots there, a
bunch of dummies.
One of them hit on my wife andI almost went to jail that day
because those guys, they werejust idiots.
They were all boozed up and Irealized, right quick, I got a
bad taste in my mouth for what afraternity is.
My brother was a Division Ifootball player and had been
seeing a girl and they were onagain, off again.
(28:19):
This was 25 years ago, by theway, more than that, about 27,
28 years ago and they were onagain, off again.
Then they were off again forgood, but they still had a good
friendship, I think.
And she called him one nightand she was at a frat house, a
fraternity house, where they'rehaving a party, and she had run
into some trouble with some guysand she's like I just want to
(28:40):
go home.
I don't know how I ended uphere.
I think she was with a friendwho took her to this party and
my brother goes over there andhe's like I'll get her out of
there and we'll take her home.
So him and a couple of hisbuddies, two of them who played
in the NFL.
After this they go over thereto get a couple of girls and
escort them out of this frathouse.
And it turned into a brawl.
(29:02):
My brother put a dude in thehospital and was fortunate that
it didn't cost him like jailtime because he whipped this guy
.
This dude got in his face, hewas drunk and if you know my
brother, it is not a good ideato want to fight Duke Holloway.
He's a freaking wildcat and so,anyway, that whole ordeal was
(29:23):
crazy because Duke ended upgetting hit in the head with a
ball bat from behind and splithis skull and he had to have a
bunch of stitches and go to thehospital.
But between him and his threebuddies they hurt a lot of guys.
I think they whipped abouteight guys.
It was pretty impressive.
I think they whipped abouteight guys.
It was pretty impressive.
So that's my two fraternity.
Oh, I have one other fraternitysorority story.
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Little and I were driving to afamily funeral.
We were going to the Williams.
Our family that lives in middleGeorgia.
It's the little side of thefamily.
It's where we spendThanksgiving week every year.
They're some of our dearest andclosest friends and family in
the world, and so there had beena death in the family.
(30:04):
We're going down there.
We messed up.
It was at the end of summer campone year and I had fallen
asleep.
Little was driving.
We got about two hours down theroad and I said I need you to
drive, I'm just hurting.
It was on a Saturday at the endof summer and she said, yeah,
I'll drive.
Well, I said stay on this road,and I meant stay on that
highway.
But to stay on that highway youhad to exit, otherwise it
(30:32):
turned into another road, ifthat makes sense, and I fell
asleep.
When I woke up, she hadn'texited and followed the road
sign.
She had just stayed straight onthat road.
And it took us straight intodowntown, down into Athens,
georgia.
And it was UGA, what do theycall it?
Pledge Week, I think it's whereall the sororities, which is
for women, and fraternities,which is for guys, are doing
their membership stuff.
(30:52):
And it was just.
It was like Sodom and Gomorrah.
It was the funniest thing,though they were all wearing
like fancy dresses and the dudeswere all in sports coats.
It was funny, but anyway,everybody's drunk and partying.
It was crazy.
And then my last fraternitystory was I was at one of my
brother's ballgames one time andthese guys they were pledging I
(31:13):
don't remember what university,but they came over and sat
behind.
We were in the visitor'ssection, which is a big football
stadium, and you've just got.
The only visitors at a gamelike that are like for the most
part were the family members ofplayers.
And so we're sitting there andthese frat guys come up here and
started beef with us and I gotinto a little bit of an
altercation.
So, anyway, I just spent a lotof time talking about
(31:34):
fraternities and sororities, butI'm saying that to say I've
just not had good experiences.
I know somebody's going to sayoh no, I'm in a fraternity and
here's why it's great.
Here's what I would say.
Me and all the people I respectmost have made it through life
without being in fraternitiesand sororities.
So I think you'd be just finewithout wasting your time and
money doing that garbage.
(31:55):
So that's my thought the timeand energy you would spend being
a fraternity or sorority person.
Put that into Baptistcollegiate ministry, baptist
student union, campus Crusadefor Christ, which is known as
CRU, something like that, or thelocal church.
Okay, there I'll get off thatsoapbox.
(32:16):
One thought is in your collegeyears you have an opportunity to
redeem what Little callsredeeming.
How does she say this?
Basically, she describesredeeming the little moments.
It's the idea that throughoutyour day you're going to have
opportunities and timethroughout the day to meditate
on Scripture.
(32:37):
Let's say you've got to driveeight minutes.
Then spend that eight minuteslistening to Scripture, rather
than Joe, than you know, joeRogan or um, or your favorite
band or or maybe listening toworship music.
Just, you've got a few minutesto wait for something right.
This morning I had about a 10minute window and I knew I
(33:00):
wasn't gonna be able to get intoanything work related.
So I spent that 10 minutes justtalking to the Lord and and
working on a verse of Scripturethat I'm trying to learn.
So just redeem little moments.
You don't have to block off awhole hour for a big, long quiet
time and then you're done forthe day.
Maybe you spend 20, 30 minutesin the morning reading in God's
(33:21):
Word and then throughout the dayyou've got moments that you
just kind of practically reflecton Scripture and talk to the
Lord.
You've got moments that youjust kind of practically reflect
on scripture and talk to theLord.
We heard a lot of people talkingabout the disappointment of
losing friends who drift awayfrom the Lord.
I don't know if you heard a lotof people, but I heard that
come up a couple of times.
So just a reminder that you canbe faithful in your college
(33:43):
years.
And something that I thoughtabout is and this kind of came
up in the interview when JB wasinterviewing Stein and that was
if you can ramp up and go intocollege walking with the Lord,
with some momentum and you letthat carry you through that
first semester.
That'll be real helpful.
(34:04):
I think if you get there and youget disoriented, you get behind
the curve and you start makingsome bad choices.
It's a slippery slope.
So prepare to go and thenprepare, be faithful.
When you get there, just remainfaithful.
That's important, just beingfaithful regardless of what
everyone else is doing.
It's okay to be different, it'sokay to swim against the
current.
Let's see, we talked aboutserving, giving of yourself for
(34:27):
others, ramping up before you go.
Oh, with that, it's not justthat your friends are going to
turn away and some of you mightgo to school and you don't have
any friends going there.
You know there's nobody therethat is a believer.
You're kind of on your own.
You might have to seek that out, and I heard a couple people
(34:48):
say seek it out, try to findsome Christian fellowship and
community.
And a couple people said, ifyou can't find it, then start it
, and I thought that was good.
You kind of create your own.
I think it was.
Somebody was talking about oneof our girls here who was an
interview.
I think it was Alejandra theywere talking about who's a SWO
staffer that she got to schooland started a campus ministry
(35:10):
because there was nothing goingon.
So just know you're going tocome under attack and sometimes
that attack is going to comefrom professors.
That was wild music, the musicstory that Stein told he said he
had a professor, a music, hehad a music class and they had
(35:31):
to, like they had to dosomething where they had to
choose a song and then critiqueit, or I don't remember the
whole assignment.
But Stein chose a Christiansong and the guy failed him, he
said because he hates Christianmusic.
And what's crazy is professorscan do stuff like that.
They depending on theuniversity.
A lot of places professors havean incredible amount of
autonomy, and so that was acrazy story.
(35:54):
That just highlighted howdifficult it might be when it
comes to dealing with professors.
I mean, that might be yourbiggest opposition.
And then Marley, you know sheher story about how a professor
told her she needed to justexperience college life go to a
party, get drunk, have a goodtime with your friends.
You're young, you can do thatnow, and he was encouraging her
(36:16):
to that.
That was kind of crazy.
Appreciated the constant focusof being taking the
opportunities to be a light andbeing an encouragement to others
.
That's a good word for us.
Are you going to be anencouragement to somebody today?
Are you going to be a light tosomebody today?
So so important, so helpful.
And then it was interesting howpeople, a lot of people there
(36:39):
were several people that didthat are Christian college
people.
I think it was Andrew and maybeCadence and they were talking
about how, just how quickly youcan end up falling away from the
Lord and just becoming verylazy, that your Christian life
because you're taking Bibleclasses or whatever.
That was interesting, but Ialso appreciated.
(37:03):
In that same vein, cadence saidthat the one thing that you get
at a Christian university she'sat Liberty University.
She said it's like you'reswimming downstream.
So if you do want to follow theLord, be faithful to Jesus.
There's a strong current forthat.
So that's something to consider.
Go to college.
(37:28):
A Christian university mightafford you the opportunity to
really build momentum in yourChristian walk and probably not
have quite as much pushback.
But I thought that was goodinsight.
The danger is that you get lazy, but the positive is that
you're sort of swimmingdownstream.
So I thought that was veryhelpful and then I just had a
couple of funny thoughts afterlistening to it.
It just reminded me of things Isaw at the college retreat, and
(37:52):
some of this is funny, some ofit's just a point of interest.
One is and I'm going to rantfor just a second about young
men.
I saw at least four young dudesthese are college age guys, so
we're talking 18 to 25 year oldguys at our college retreat
walking around in pajama pants.
(38:12):
Pajama pants Don't like men.
Do not go out in public inpajama pants.
I don't give a rat's hairy buttcrack what is in style or who
where that's trending.
That is not a thing for you.
That is not a thing that men do.
That's not a thing that menshould do.
I have a 14-year-old boy in myhouse who walked into my kitchen
(38:36):
one day at seven o'clock in themorning about to go get in the
car to go to school, and he'swearing pajama pants.
And my wife said to him shesaid what are you doing with
those?
And he said oh, everybody'swearing pajamas today.
And she said what is it SpiritWeek?
Is this like Spirit Week?
Because you already had SpiritWeek?
She was on to him because hewas trying to make it sound like
this was something the schoolwas endorsing.
And he said no, it's not SpiritWeek.
(38:58):
She said, well, spirit Weeky'all had Hat Day, team Day and
you had Pajama Pants Day.
And said, remember, we didn'tlet you wear pajama pants on
spirit week.
What is today?
And he said, well, and come tofind out like a group of boys
just said, hey, let's wearpajama pants, cause a lot of
kids are doing it.
And she said you walk your rearend right back to your room.
You put on a pair of real pants, a pair of real shoes.
(39:21):
You're not leaving the houselike that.
And she said something I thoughtwas very important.
She said there is noself-respecting, hardworking,
grown man anywhere that is inyour life and your sphere of
influence that you're going tosee walking around in pajama
pants.
That's not what men do.
Go change man.
I loved it.
I was like Little's a boss lady,but I realized there's this
thing right now where dudes aredoing it, because a couple days
(39:44):
later I am after thatconversation with Little.
I'm driving, I'm pulling upoutside of the grocery store.
I dropped her off, she'd gonein and I stayed in the car.
She just had to run in and getsomething and I just stayed in
the car so I could pick her upright at the door because it was
real cold and a guy about myage comes walking out of the
grocery store wearing pajamapants and I thought now this guy
(40:06):
looked like a dummy.
You can't walk around lookinglike that and expect anybody to
take you serious, so that's justdumb.
So, dudes, don't wear pajamapants in public.
Knock it off, quit that crap.
I don't care who's doing it,what somebody's told you.
Don't do that it's stupid.
Don't do it Like, have a littlebit of self-respect so that you
(40:27):
can expect people to take youserious.
And then.
So there's that rant.
The other thing that I thoughtwas interesting and this is just
an observation listening to allthese kids.
Most of the kids interviewedare Southern, but have you
noticed how the Southern accentis going away?
Like?
Stein lives in North Georgia.
He lives right just.
(40:48):
Stein grew up 45 minutes southof here and I know how the
people my age and older and alot of kids still in North
Georgia talk and he talks likehe's from you know, like the
West.
He's got that contemporaryaccent and I heard several
people with that, even likeMarley and Dylan, have Southern
(41:08):
accents, but when they start toarticulate you can tell a lot of
that accent is going away.
That's not a criticism, by theway, it's just interesting.
It made me wonder I wonder howmany generations we might be,
just one or two generations awayfrom there, not really being
many people with strong accents.
We get to that point wherethere's like just that
contemporary accent and it'sinteresting because you used to
(41:31):
have a lot of regional accents.
Even in the South they'redifferent, they're varying
accents.
The mountain accent wasdifferent than the coastal
accent.
South Alabama folks from theretalk different than people from
Central Florida.
People from Middle Georgia talkdifferent than people from East
Tennessee.
It was all Southern accents butvery much different variations.
(41:51):
Same thing with the Northernaccent or dialect.
People from Pennsylvania andNew Jersey talked a little
different than people from theupper Midwest.
It's interesting and I think alot of that's going away because
of the influence of socialmedia how much of our language
is learned through what welisten to and watch.
That was interesting.
That has nothing to do withanything, just an observation.
(42:12):
And I see it with our staff.
If somebody comes here andserves on staff and they've got
a real strong Southern accent.
Man, they really get heckledand picked at, which is always
in good jest and good fun, butanyway, that's a real thing.
Even JB.
Jb doesn't have an accent.
She's got that contemporaryaccent.
Does not sound Southern at alland she's born and raised in
(42:33):
Georgia by people that are bornand raised in Georgia, by people
that are born and raised inGeorgia.
I thought that was interestingand it's something I bring up
because I've noticed it more andmore with our staff.
But again, neither here northere.
So just my thoughts on thatepisode from last week.
Again, jb did a phenomenal job,so did all the folks that got
(42:53):
interviewed and I appreciate itso much.
I'm proud of all of them.
I'm proud to be associated withsuch dynamic and amazing young
adults who are the remnant inthis generation that are going
to take the gospel and impacttheir generation.
I'm grateful, so grateful, tobe a part of it.
(43:13):
Next week we will have a coupleof episodes coming out of Rob
and I sitting down havingconversation and then we've got
some other stuff coming out.
Be looking for some things thatare coming out in connection to
this college retreat stuff andthe college interviews.
As we look towards summer,we're going to have a little bit
more content along these linesand we've also got some stuff
coming in the next month or sowe're going to be recording
(43:39):
about doing ministry in small,like local ministry in small
communities, if you're part of asmaller church, or even if
you're part of a big church, buthow do you minister in smaller
communities, and just theimportance of being faithful
where you live and where youserve.
So that's it for this week.
I am going to come back andread some in a future episode.
(44:00):
I want to read some what do youcall it reviews from Spotify and
Apple or from Apple ApplePodcasts that's where it's at.
We were looking through reviewsyesterday and just some
encouraging stuff that peoplefrom Spotify and Apple or from
Apple Apple Podcasts that'swhere it's at.
We were looking through reviewsyesterday and just some
encouraging stuff that peoplehave written, and so I want to
read some of those and then givesome shout out to people that
have taken the time to leave areview.
If you leave a review and youlet us know who you are, we will
(44:21):
send you swag.
So just so you know we'll sendyou some SWO swag.
Just just so you know, we'llsend you some SWO swag, so that
should motivate Surely.
Anyway, thank you all forlistening and just appreciate it
so much, and we'll see you nexttime.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required.
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