November 24, 2025 • 32 mins
Brody pauses before the holiday rush to look at the small, steady habits that actually shape a grateful life. He shares childhood holiday memories and the new traditions he and Little are building with their family. He also highlights recent guests, gives Snowbird updates, and previews our upcoming interview with Abby West, a Las Vegas CSI agent whose faith and fieldwork offer remarkable insight.
Whether your season looks familiar or completely different this year, simple traditions still matter—a verse, a prayer, a weekly meal—small rhythms that anchor busy lives and point us back to God’s new mercies each morning.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:02):
I love doing those interviews, I love the most
interesting stories, which isawesome.
Um being encouraged this weekthat we celebrate things to
Americans in such an awesome anduh thing.
(00:22):
So I want to do some of thesealso encourages you to reflect
on and think about the goodnessof the world and maybe creating
those movements for those of usthat are owned children, young
(00:44):
children, and also for those ofus that are young.
Um thinking about living as aperson who's goodness of the
world.
(01:14):
The responses and also somethings that I'm thankful for,
and hopefully helping you startto think about the goodness of
the world as this week we canappeal as a nation and as a
society and a culture andcelebrate God's goodness.
So, anyway, kind of aThanksgiving episode.
I know we're releasing it alittle bit early.
Uh Thanksgiving's later thisweek, but I hope it'll be
(01:36):
something that'll give you someopportunity to pause and reflect
on the goodness of the Lord.
So, welcome to No SanityRequired.
SPEAKER_00 (01:49):
Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters,a podcast about the Bible,
culture, and stories from aroundthe globe.
SPEAKER_02 (02:00):
Before I get into some of my most fond memories of
growing up, I wanted to just saythank you to all these guests
that have come on NSR in thelast few months.
Going back to summertime, man,we've had an amazing lineup, and
the feedback that I've gottenhas told me that y'all feel the
same way as our listeners andsupporters.
(02:22):
The No Sanity Stories, that's asegment in this podcast that
people really tend to beencouraged by and challenged by.
These most recent episodes withGwen have been incredible.
Clay and Brenda Hicks beforethat.
Um Tully and Tuttle.
Uh, great feedback on that one.
(02:42):
Um also the couple that uh Ican't remember now their
pseudonyms because I just knowthem by their real names.
What did we call them?
We called them Lewis and Emily.
Oh, yeah, Emily, because that'sher pen name.
But Lewis and Emily and theirstory, um, man, it was powerful.
And what y'all have told us isthat all of these guests have
(03:04):
been an encouragement, and thosestories have been an
encouragement to y'all.
I'm excited about oneparticular.
Now, y'all listen, y'all aregonna love this uh before I get
in today's uh content.
I've there there's a a lady, ayoung lady, a young woman.
Her name is Abby.
Abby West.
Abby West is uh, I love AbbyWest so much.
(03:25):
She her dad is one of my close,close friends in the world.
And I've known Abby literallysince she was a toddler.
Not since she was born.
Her dad and I became friendsabout 20, well, 23 years ago,
maybe 23, 24 years ago.
And at that time, I think Abbywas two or three maybe two years
(03:46):
old.
And she's she's about a yearolder than my oldest daughter,
Kilby.
And so they, you know, we we'veour families grew up together.
Um they they live in anotherstate, and we would go visit
them.
In fact, Abby's dad, Steve Finn,was on NSR several years ago in
one of our early seasons, andwe'll have him back on at some
point.
He's the executive director ofChestnut Mountain Ranch in West
(04:10):
Virginia.
But anyway, Abby served on staffat SWO.
She was uh she started off onElement.
Back then it was called ServantTeam.
It's our high school leadershipdiscipleship team.
Um and then from there sheserved, I think, three summers
on top of that.
I know she had three summers,but I don't remember if it was
like element and then threesummers.
(04:31):
She spent three or four summerswith us.
The only summer she missedduring her undergrad was the
summer she interned with anAtlanta area law enforcement
agency, I believe it was inGwinnett County.
And Abby is a crime sceneinvestigator.
She's a real life CSI, and sheis a CSI for the Las Vegas
(04:53):
Metropolitan Police Department.
And so Abby can tell it's crazy.
You know, one of the thingspeople loved the Clay Hicks
interview, because Clay's such asmooth talker, like not smooth
talker, that's a negativeconnotation.
He just got he's easy to listento, that's what I'm trying to
say.
And man, he tells us crazy coolstories and you know, just a
(05:14):
lifetime, a career in lawenforcement at that level.
Very interesting.
But Abby is a crime sceneinvestigator uh for the law, Las
Vegas Police Department, and shecan tell some crazy stories.
Now, I mean crazy, not juststories of crimes being
committed or um, you know, truecrime stuff, but like some wild
(05:35):
stories, a few things that havehappened where my jaw just
drops.
And um Abby loves the Lord, andher husband, Judah, is a uh is a
police officer with Las VegasPolice Department, so they're a
law enforcement family.
I'm excited.
Abby has agreed to come on.
She's she's excited, I think.
Um I was I spent the last week,uh last week, the week before
(05:57):
Thanksgiving week, Abby's dadand I were hunting uh out west,
and we spent about four daystogether.
And I said, Man, you think Abbyhad come on NSR?
He said, I think she'd love to.
So we called her, I called herand asked her, and she said, Oh,
I'd be honored.
And so uh that's gonna be cool.
Um I think what we'll do iswe'll have her come on, talk
about her childhood coming toSWO, growing up, coming to SWO
(06:19):
with her parents when they werebringing groups and then um and
then working here and just whatthis ministry has meant to her.
She'll be a no-sanity story, andthen uh and then we'll I think
we'll do that uh that's gonna befirst of the year.
We'll probably do that by justwe'll zoom, we'll do a zoom
call.
But then later, Lord willing,later in 2026, we're gonna fly
(06:41):
Abby and Judah over, get themhere for a conference so they
can spend some time at SWO.
They haven't been here a coupleyears, and we'll do we'll do a
couple more sit-down episodes.
So I'm excited about that.
That's the one that's the one uhteaser I wanted to give you.
Looking forward to it.
Katie Cousins is back incountry.
Her soccer season in Europe hasended.
She's back home after a pit stopwith Kilby and Greg in Uganda.
(07:05):
Um and so good to have her back.
I'm sure we'll get her on andget an update at some point over
the next month or so.
And then we got winter swowcoming up after Christmas.
We're in we're in that sort oflike a lull of ministry where we
don't really have we don't haveany groups here during November
(07:25):
and December.
We do in December, but it's likeDecember 27th, and we consider
that the new year.
So our ministry year, we startthe 26th ministry year on
December 27th of 25, if thatmakes sense.
So that's when we run winterswow one.
The first event of our ministryyear is winter swap.
(07:47):
Um, so winter swow one isDecember 27th, winter swow two
follows that.
So over that Christmas to NewYear break, we'll run two winter
swow conferences, and thosethose are usually pretty full.
Those first two winter swowconferences, I think we've got
about 700 folks coming in.
So that's gonna be awesome.
(08:08):
Uh good time.
We'll have a lot of staff comeback to help.
Uh, we do have in in December,we have our our annual staff
Christmas party.
So we'll have a lot of a lot ofsnowbird alum will come in for
that.
But first ministry event will bewinter swos one and two back to
back.
About 700 students come in forthat.
And then we'll be rolling.
(08:28):
We'll do several winter swowevents through the month of
January and February, months ofJanuary and February.
And then we'll also have ourcollege uh event, which is
coming up in that's in January.
That that college event, the ourcollege retreat is January 9
through 11.
And that thing's slamful.
(08:49):
I think we've got right now withour people, our college students
that serve at SWO, um, all totalplus registered guests, we're
around 500 people right now.
And that sounds depending, youknow, everything's relative.
To some people, that would seemlike a huge conference.
To some people, it would seemreally small.
Like if you go to uh what's thebig one in Atlanta?
(09:11):
I don't know why I'm drawing ablind.
Passion.
If you go to Passion in Atlanta,you know, I think it's 20 or
30,000 people, something likethat.
So ours is tiny compared tothat.
And part of why we started doingthis event is because that event
had grown so large, and a lot ofpeople felt like it had lost a
little bit of it just had it itkind of changed identities,
rightfully.
(09:31):
So you can't run a 20,000,30,000, 40,000 person event the
same way you can run a1,000-person event, you know,
just in terms of intimacy andeven the way you teach, is it's
hard in those larger settings.
So that was part of it.
And and um, and then also wewant to focus more on equipping
so so the teaching emphasis andfocus of our college event is
(09:55):
very um, it's very deliberate.
And it's not just sort of like abig hype event, um, just as far
as it's not just big energymusic, lights, let's go for it.
It's like, yeah, let's open theword of God.
Let's talk about how do we equipyou to go into the academic
world or a lot of folks thatcome to it are not even in
(10:16):
college.
They're young adults that havestarted their, you know, they're
either in the workplace orthey've started their career,
whatever, but just targetingthat age group.
How do you, how do you um keepyour eyes on Jesus and grow in
your relationship with the Lordevery day?
Uh anyway, that that event'scoming up this winter.
Our pure and holy event, whichis that's a student ministry
event where we focus onsexuality, biblical sexuality.
(10:41):
Um we focus on relationships.
In the the past few years, we'vespent a lot of time focusing on
gender because it's been such ahot topic.
That seems to be calming down alittle bit.
I think people are people arewaking up, even non-Christians,
and realizing the damage that isbeing done to young people
through the gender revolution,you know, whatever you want to
(11:03):
call it.
I guess that's what you call it.
Anyway, so anyway, just toupdate um, like some things to
be looking forward to coming up.
Excited about that.
But today, what I want to do isI want to talk about
Thanksgiving.
I love Thanksgiving, probably,not probably, definitely, my
favorite holiday of the year.
Thanksgiving is my favoriteholiday of the year.
(11:24):
I'm gonna go ahead and say that.
I think I've shared this before,but uh our our Thanksgiving
tradition, we made a decision,and I I would encourage young
parents to do this, youngfamilies to do this.
We made a decision when webecame parents uh in 2000.
Said, let's, we actually did itin '99, I think, when Little was
(11:46):
pregnant with our first child.
Like, let's let's establish someholiday traditions that that
we're just gonna establish, andeveryone's gonna just know this
what that's what we do.
And a lot of that had to do withI I'd seen families stress and
fret over, well, we'll go tothis, these grandparents on this
(12:10):
year and these grandparents onthis year, or we'll rotate one
year we'll go here toThanksgiving and here to
Christmas, and next year we'llgo here to Thanksgiving and
there to Christmas.
And it can be stressful, youknow.
And I'm sure a lot of y'all feelthat, and just decided we're
gonna figure out what how how wewant to do this for our kids,
and we're gonna do it.
We're gonna raise them doing thesame thing every year, and
(12:31):
that's what we've done.
Um, Thanksgiving, we spend inmiddle Georgia.
Y'all know my wife Little isfrom Georgia, and she has family
in the middle part of the state.
And uh, man, they they're someof my favorite human beings
alive.
The little's cousins andextended families, just the
(12:53):
kindest, most generous, mostloving people.
They, I am just so thankful tobe a part of that extended
family.
And so we go, and that's it,there's a shout-out, that crew.
I think some of them listen inSR.
That's David and Regina Williamsand Patrick and Jenny Brantley,
and and then Jason is their son,Jenny's brother.
(13:14):
So his family, Jason and MalloryWilliams.
Jason is Jenny's brother,Jenny's family, um, and then
David and Regina.
Regina would be Little's cousin.
And anyway, a lot of folks havegone to be with the Lord,
grandparents on both sides, andthat the the family dynamic has
(13:35):
changed.
And um, I don't know, I justlove going down there.
They they got a large acreage,large for our family, largest
acreage of anybody in ourextended family.
They got several hundred acresand just ride four-wheelers and
shoot guns and go squirrelhunting and go deer hunting, and
every once in a while kill ahog, and but eat good and cowdy
(13:57):
hunt at night and visit withfamily throughout.
It's just awesome, man.
Just love it.
So that's our Thanksgiving um,what do you call it, tradition.
And this year we'll go down uhtomorrow night to on Tuesday
night.
We'll go down Tuesday night, uh,which is gonna be after we got a
high school basketball game.
My my youngest daughter, Juju,has a basketball game, and then
(14:19):
when we're done with that, we'llhit the road and drive down and
drive, drive down and spend,literally spend the rest of that
week.
So that's gonna be awesome, orthe rest of the week.
That'll be that'll be a lot offun.
Christmas, our our uh tradition,we made a decision when so when
I was growing up, both sets ofgrandparents lived, you know, in
the same, we all live in thesame area.
(14:40):
And so on Christmas, we wouldjust sleep at the house and then
get up and we'd hit both sets ofgrandparents throughout the day
and wake up at the house, openpresents, you know, have
Christmas morning there, andthen ride over to my one
grandparents and spend themiddle part of the day, and then
supper would be at the othergrandparents.
That's when I'm when I was whenI was young.
(15:02):
And then my nanny died when Iwas in the sixth grade.
She was young, she's about theage I am now, and she died, she
had breast cancer, and afterthat it changed to where then
just went to my mom's parents'house on Christmas Day, and um
that and I and so I looked backat that and I was like, you
know, that was way lessstressful, I think, as a kid.
I loved going to both sets ofgrandparents because you got
(15:23):
more presents.
But uh anyway, once we switchedto where we're just going to one
set of grandparents, that seemedto be a little bit easier.
So anyway, we decided we'regonna we're gonna sleep at home.
I don't want to sleep.
I want my kids to experienceChristmas morning in our home.
I want to have a fire going whenthey wake up.
And and that has been awesomebecause by staying, by staying
(15:45):
put on Christmas, we have theexperience every few years to
have a white Christmas.
So I think last one was maybe2020.
Was it 2020, 2021?
We had about six inches of snowthat fell on Christmas Eve
during our Christmas Eveservice.
Oh, that's another reason I lovebeing home at Christmas.
I'm getting ahead of myself.
I'll I'll probably do anotherepisode when it gets Christmas
(16:07):
week.
But we do a Christmas Eveservice at Red Oak Church.
That's my favorite churchservice of the entire year.
It's literally my favoritechurch service of the entire
year.
We don't do anything else allyear at Red Oak that I enjoy as
much as the Christmas Eveservice.
It's just wonderful.
Um and then, you know, go homeand uh we watch the Nativity
(16:30):
story on Christmas Eve after theservice as a family, and then
Christmas at the house.
But what was I getting at?
Um, oh we yeah, we get up uh andwe wanted our kids to grow up
having Christmas at home.
So Thanksgiving, when I wasgrowing up, um, we would we
would go Thanksgiving morning,we would go every single year.
(16:52):
Me and my dad and my brotherwould go squirrel hunting.
The only hunting I did in myentire growing up life.
I'm I love to hunt now.
The Lord's given me incrediblefortune to hunt waterfowl in
several states and inSaskatchewan several times.
Thanks to the generosity ofothers, I've gotten those
awesome opportunities.
(17:12):
I've been able to hunt elk outwest, mule deer out west, I've
been able to hunt whitetaileddeer.
I don't know how many states.
I counted it up, like 14 statesmaybe.
Um killed a pile of hogs hereand there and yonder, and
squirrels and rabbits, and youknow, pheasant hunting in South
Dakota with Muggs' family, andjust man, I've I've I've loved
(17:33):
hunting.
But when I was growing up, Ididn't hunt.
Except on Thanksgiving Day thatmorning, me and my dad and my
brother would go squirrelhunting.
And I loved it.
It was there was uh there was anolder lady, elderly lady in our
community, and her name was MissLola Lawless.
(17:54):
That was her name, Lola Lawless.
Don't old people have the bestnames, best names that you you
hear in older people, and such agood name.
I didn't appreciate it then, butnow I think, man, what a great
name.
Lola Lawless.
So Miss Lawless, um, she was awidow lady, and she had some
some property.
I don't think it was a lot ofproperty.
(18:15):
I think she probably lived onfive or six acres.
But it was uh, or maybe, maybemore than that, maybe, but no
more than 20 acres.
And in the community of Bethel,I don't think many people have
more than 20 acres.
It's all a little small.
You know, it's a real crowded,it's a rural community, but it's
very crowded.
You drive through Bethel and thehouses are, you know, you got a
(18:36):
lot of houses sitting on anacre, a lot of houses sitting on
two or three acres, but there'sno big, there are very few vast
tracts of land.
And here was this littlemountain, the side of a
mountain.
This lady let us go up there andsquirrel hunt, and it was just a
bunch of hardwoods.
And I can't, I mean, we had a wehad an exact pattern, and my
(18:56):
brother Duke, he listens tothis, he listens to NSR, and and
uh so shout out to Duke.
He's probably remembering thesame thing right now as he's
listening to this that I'mremembering, which is we would
we'd get out of the truck and wewould have our shotguns.
We didn't hunt with 22s, which alot of people say that that's
cheating, but that's what wedid.
(19:17):
We had we only had threefirearms in our home.
One was it that it was twosingle-shot shotguns.
A 28-gauge that Duke has, a12-gauge that I have.
The both of those have belongedto our Papa.
Um, Papa, Pawpaw.
It was funny.
My dad's dad, some of thegrandkids called him Papa, some
called him Pawpaw.
(19:37):
But anyway.
Um, and then uh a little 22rifle that uh I don't even know
where that thing's at.
Um I'd I'd like to have it.
Uh or for my brother to have it.
I don't maybe he does have it, Idon't know.
Anyway, our dad would carry that22 once we got big enough to
carry two shotguns.
We were real little.
(19:57):
Um my dad would carry that 12gauge, I think.
He'd carry one of the shotguns,and then me and my brother would
carry, you know, our BB guns.
But anyway, that was our onehunting trip of the year.
We'd go on Thanksgiving morning,and we always killed a pile of
squirrels, and then we'd takethem and drop them off at this
old lady's house that lovedsquirrel.
She would eat squirrel becausemy mom wouldn't, she wouldn't
(20:18):
prepare it.
She didn't like it, she thoughtit was gross.
She's like, hey man, we'rerodents, them were rats.
If you ever had squirreldumplings, they're really good
if they're done right withgravy.
But we would uh we would hunt onThanksgiving morning, then we'd
get done hunting, we'd take onsquirrels and drop them off, and
then head to my grandparents'house, my mom's parents.
It was awesome memories.
(20:39):
And so um anyway, I had a goodchildhood.
I'm thankful.
I grew up on a just a rural dirtroad there in that little
community in Western NorthCarolina.
There was basically surroundedby tomato farms and cow
pastures.
On one side, uh kind of up thehill, across the road from the
(20:59):
house, it was uh cow pastures,and then behind the below,
behind the house was the PigeonRiver.
Between our house and the PigeonRiver was a, I don't know, 50 or
60 acre tomato farm.
And this is a great, fun, fondmemories of my childhood, you
know, and um love the hot summerdays, ride our bikes down there,
jump the river.
Sometimes we'd take inner tubesand float a section of it, and
(21:22):
in the winter, when it wouldsnow and we'd miss school, we'd
go up across the road onto that,into that cow pasture and go
sledding.
There's a huge hill that was onthe Reeves farm.
It's called Triple R Farms.
The Reeves Farm was the bestspot for sledding.
And uh this is great.
Um, and then the the PigeonRiver ran along the tomato farm.
(21:44):
That was the Henson, that wasHenson Farms, and we would we
would take our bikes and ride upthe up the river with inner
tubes, just old, you know,tractor tire inner tubes and
float down the river.
A lot of times our dad would gowith us on that.
Uh my parents were stillmarried.
They were together then.
That was cool.
Um but they used that river forirrigating those tomato fields,
(22:06):
you know, just pulling water outof the river to irrigate the
tomato fields.
It was fun.
Probably the thing we played themost, whether it was summer,
fall, or Thanksgiving Day, wewould play war.
We called it playing war.
War games with toy pistols andrifles.
We would get in the woods aroundmy grandparents' house and we
just play war.
We'd we'd shoot it out.
(22:26):
We'd play shoot it out.
Uh shoot them up.
And then we'd, of course, playfootball out in the in the yard.
And uh it was great.
Growing up in a rural setting,one thing you learn how to do is
appreciate simple things, Ithink, at a young age.
You learn how to work hard.
Um, I remember jobs that I hatedas a kid.
(22:49):
To this day, I just hatethinking about it.
Anyway, I told you this is avery laid-back episode.
And uh, but yeah, anyway,selling nightcrawlers.
How funny is that?
They pack those things up andsell them to sell them at a
bait, sell them as bait toconvenience stores and stuff
like that.
I go on with stories of mychildhood, but the point I'll
(23:09):
make is man, make make your makeyour memories.
Um uh think of think of thinkoutside of the box, but think
simple.
Man, you don't have to come upwith big elaborate schemes for
what traditions you're gonnamake, you know.
Just I I I shared all thatbecause I think a lot of y'all
(23:32):
will identify with it.
My memories of my childhood areso simple.
And man, I I feel like we'vewe've come to a time where
everything costs money.
Like, I know a lot of people,all their memories cost money,
you know.
Like, man, I have the bestmemories of going to going on a
cruise every year.
I'm sure those are greatmemories, no doubt.
(23:53):
And I would never begrudge that.
I have great memories of we goto, you know, such and such
every year and stay in thishotel or this, we rent a house
at the beach, and I have some ofthose memories too, and that's
fun, and we've done that as afamily.
The point I wanted to get at iswhat are the simple things in
life?
Thanksgiving should be a timewhere we think, what are the
simplest things I could bethankful for?
(24:14):
And what can I reflect on inthis season?
And what memories are wecreating as a family or as a
young married couple or as youngparents, are you are you
establishing those patterns?
And let me just tell you tothink inside the box sometimes.
And sometimes think outside ofthe box, but sometimes just
(24:34):
think simple.
Like let's make sure that we'reI guess if if there's a a theme
or a message for thisThanksgiving episode, it's come
up with daily comma.
If you're if you're if I'mpunctuating this sentence, come
up with daily, comma, weekly,comma, monthly, comma, maybe
(24:58):
quarterly, and annual, annually.
Come up with with uh traditions,you know.
And the reason I said daily,pause there, is maybe that's
something that you'reestablishing that every morning,
you know.
I we we read a little devotionevery morning, and there's been
times where I think there's apressure to uh are we really
(25:18):
doing a good devotion?
It don't matter, man.
Read I'm reading a verse ofscripture and a devotional
thought and praying, and theneverybody's out the door.
Well, it's not that elaborate,and I don't know how much you're
listening to it most mornings,the the couple kids that are
still at home, but it doesn'tmatter, you know, be faithful to
be consistent with those typesof things.
And then, but then there'sthose, you know, weekly, we have
(25:41):
weekly traditions, you know.
We do a Sunday morning brunchevery Sunday after whatever
retreat event we've got going onat SWO when that's over Sunday
morning ahead of the house.
We all have a big breakfast,brunch kind of thing.
That's a weekly tradition.
It doesn't happen every singleweek, but most weeks it's it's
happening.
And so that kind of thing, youknow.
(26:03):
What is what is your what isyour do you do uh uh some some
traditions every year, you know,and for me it's we we decided
that was going to beThanksgiving and Christmas.
And uh we established whenKilbytuck and Laley were growing
up, we would go to Hondurasevery year.
Every December, a group ofsnowbird folks would go to
(26:23):
Honduras and we'd work in in achildren's home down there, a
big orphanage called OrphanageEmanuel, which a lot of y'all
are probably familiar with.
I think we did 20 trips downthere.
That was a long run.
And uh that was a cool memoryfor them, you know, to think
back on.
But just just reflect on thegoodness of the Lord and ask,
how can I do this better?
How can we be more consistent?
(26:43):
And maybe, listen, don't don'ttake what I'm saying as some
sort of gospel message of thisis how you got to do life.
Maybe your family is so blendedthat that that that these types
of things aren't aren'tpractical.
Or maybe, you know, I wasthinking of uh a friend of mine
the other day where uh they justhad a couple of kids, and those
(27:06):
kids are now grown, and there'sno grandparents living, the kids
aren't married, but they've goneand one one one child is married
and is working far from home,and the other one lives far from
home.
And I don't know, they're forthem, it just life looks a
little different.
And so I don't want to say yougot to do it this way, you know,
or or it's or you're not beingyou're not being faithful.
(27:27):
Or, you know, a lot of youngcouples that want so badly to
have a child, and and forwhatever reason the Lord hasn't
opened the womb, and it's like,man, what are we gonna do?
How are we gonna establish thoseholiday you know rituals and and
it doesn't matter?
It doesn't matter, man.
What matters is spending uhappreciating and enjoying the
(27:49):
good life God's given us.
I love that part of theEcclesiastes where the writer
says, and I'm I'm paraphrasing,but he's like, man, life is
rough and it's stressful, andeverything is just futil
futility.
It's there's futility and vanityand everything.
And man, you're trying to figureout how to get through this
world and for the for the goodto be more impactful than the
(28:12):
bad.
And he said, Man, here's whatI've learned.
Hit pause, enjoy a good meal.
So maybe you're a young coupleand you don't have strong, you
don't have relationships withinyour extended family and you
don't have kids yet, then pauseand enjoy a meal together, you
know?
Watch the sun come up or go downand just reflect on God's
goodness and spend time with theLord and in his word.
(28:35):
Um I think it'll be I thinkit'll be awesome to to start to
create some of those patternsand and for those of you that
are parents of of kids that arestill at home, establish those
those traditions.
I think that man, I can't sayenough about that.
Anyway, I don't know if this wasenjoyable.
(28:55):
I just get a lot of feedback.
People, a lot, for for whateverreason, a lot of our listeners
say they really enjoy these morelaid-back driving down the road,
sitting in the truck kind ofepisodes.
And today uh I I'm not driving,I'm just sitting, but I enjoy
doing these.
I'm just recording this on myphone.
And uh, so maybe the soundquality ain't the best, but um,
(29:17):
yeah, there's that thought.
Hey, I want to close by justsharing a few verses to to think
about.
The the scripture says that uh,you know, God inhabits the
praise of his people.
And there's a there's athroughout the word of God,
there's a biblical principlethat when we are people of of
thanksgiving, when we arethankful that the Lord uh honors
(29:41):
and blesses that, and that he'sblessed by that.
I think that's important torecognize that the Lord is
blessed by our thankfulness.
And see this in Philippianswhere Paul talks a lot about
rejoicing, you know, rejoice,rejoice, rejoice, and and
everything give thanks.
But I I always When I think ofThanksgiving, the thing I'm most
(30:03):
thankful for is the consistencyof the Lord's mercy.
That Lamentations 3, 21 and 22,the steadfast love of the Lord
endures forever.
Um, steadfast love of the Lordendures forever.
His mercies are new everymorning.
Great is his faithfulness.
I don't think I quoted all thatjust right, but that you maybe
(30:23):
you're familiar with that verse,that that those couple of
verses.
Just that the Lord is faithfuland he's steadfast.
So he's consistent.
When I think of the Lord'ssteadfastness, I think of his um
he doesn't quit, he doesn't turnback, he doesn't let go, but
also his persistence inextending grace to us and
(30:47):
persistence in extending mercyto us, um showering us with his
kindness over and over.
And um, yeah, so that it's justthere's just a uh there's a
non-stop outpouring of God'sgoodness to us.
(31:08):
We'd be thankful for that.
Um so steadfast love of the Lordendures forever.
When I think of that steadfastlove, that's what I think of.
I think that he doesn't quit.
I think that he's consistent, Ithink that he's intentional,
that he's determined.
And when God is determined to dosomething, you better believe
it's gonna happen.
So um grateful, grateful forthat aspect of um of the love of
(31:34):
the Lord and the mercy of theLord.
It's worth giving thanks over.
So, update for my family is um,well, that's that's really all I
had to share for today.
And so just hope and pray thatyou guys have an awesome
Thanksgiving and that the Lordwill bless your time with family
or friends, wherever you are,whatever you're doing.
(31:55):
Um so just know that we're atSnowbird, we're we covered your
prayers and we're grateful foryour partnership and for those
of you that listen to this everyweek.
It means a lot to us.
And just pray in God's richest,fullest blessings on y'all this
week as we give thanks to theLord for his goodness and and
for his grace and for who he is.
(32:16):
I like to say, you know, I liketo encourage our folks, let's
thank and praise the Lord forwho he is and for what he's
done.
Who he is and what he's done.
Those two things.
Praise the Lord for who he is,praise the Lord for what he's
done.
And uh we can do we can all dothat.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody,and uh, we'll talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_00 (32:36):
Thanks for listening to No Sanity Required.
Please take a moment tosubscribe and leave a rating.
It really helps.
Visit us at swoutfitters.com tosee all of our programming and
resources.
And we'll see you next week onNo Sanity Required.
I love doing those interviews, I love the most
interesting stories, which isawesome.
Um being encouraged this weekthat we celebrate things to
Americans in such an awesome anduh thing.
(00:22):
So I want to do some of thesealso encourages you to reflect
on and think about the goodnessof the world and maybe creating
those movements for those of usthat are owned children, young
(00:44):
children, and also for those ofus that are young.
Um thinking about living as aperson who's goodness of the
world.
(01:14):
The responses and also somethings that I'm thankful for,
and hopefully helping you startto think about the goodness of
the world as this week we canappeal as a nation and as a
society and a culture andcelebrate God's goodness.
So, anyway, kind of aThanksgiving episode.
I know we're releasing it alittle bit early.
Uh Thanksgiving's later thisweek, but I hope it'll be
(01:36):
something that'll give you someopportunity to pause and reflect
on the goodness of the Lord.
So, welcome to No SanityRequired.
SPEAKER_00 (01:49):
Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters,a podcast about the Bible,
culture, and stories from aroundthe globe.
SPEAKER_02 (02:00):
Before I get into some of my most fond memories of
growing up, I wanted to just saythank you to all these guests
that have come on NSR in thelast few months.
Going back to summertime, man,we've had an amazing lineup, and
the feedback that I've gottenhas told me that y'all feel the
same way as our listeners andsupporters.
(02:22):
The No Sanity Stories, that's asegment in this podcast that
people really tend to beencouraged by and challenged by.
These most recent episodes withGwen have been incredible.
Clay and Brenda Hicks beforethat.
Um Tully and Tuttle.
Uh, great feedback on that one.
(02:42):
Um also the couple that uh Ican't remember now their
pseudonyms because I just knowthem by their real names.
What did we call them?
We called them Lewis and Emily.
Oh, yeah, Emily, because that'sher pen name.
But Lewis and Emily and theirstory, um, man, it was powerful.
And what y'all have told us isthat all of these guests have
(03:04):
been an encouragement, and thosestories have been an
encouragement to y'all.
I'm excited about oneparticular.
Now, y'all listen, y'all aregonna love this uh before I get
in today's uh content.
I've there there's a a lady, ayoung lady, a young woman.
Her name is Abby.
Abby West.
Abby West is uh, I love AbbyWest so much.
(03:25):
She her dad is one of my close,close friends in the world.
And I've known Abby literallysince she was a toddler.
Not since she was born.
Her dad and I became friendsabout 20, well, 23 years ago,
maybe 23, 24 years ago.
And at that time, I think Abbywas two or three maybe two years
(03:46):
old.
And she's she's about a yearolder than my oldest daughter,
Kilby.
And so they, you know, we we'veour families grew up together.
Um they they live in anotherstate, and we would go visit
them.
In fact, Abby's dad, Steve Finn,was on NSR several years ago in
one of our early seasons, andwe'll have him back on at some
point.
He's the executive director ofChestnut Mountain Ranch in West
(04:10):
Virginia.
But anyway, Abby served on staffat SWO.
She was uh she started off onElement.
Back then it was called ServantTeam.
It's our high school leadershipdiscipleship team.
Um and then from there sheserved, I think, three summers
on top of that.
I know she had three summers,but I don't remember if it was
like element and then threesummers.
(04:31):
She spent three or four summerswith us.
The only summer she missedduring her undergrad was the
summer she interned with anAtlanta area law enforcement
agency, I believe it was inGwinnett County.
And Abby is a crime sceneinvestigator.
She's a real life CSI, and sheis a CSI for the Las Vegas
(04:53):
Metropolitan Police Department.
And so Abby can tell it's crazy.
You know, one of the thingspeople loved the Clay Hicks
interview, because Clay's such asmooth talker, like not smooth
talker, that's a negativeconnotation.
He just got he's easy to listento, that's what I'm trying to
say.
And man, he tells us crazy coolstories and you know, just a
(05:14):
lifetime, a career in lawenforcement at that level.
Very interesting.
But Abby is a crime sceneinvestigator uh for the law, Las
Vegas Police Department, and shecan tell some crazy stories.
Now, I mean crazy, not juststories of crimes being
committed or um, you know, truecrime stuff, but like some wild
(05:35):
stories, a few things that havehappened where my jaw just
drops.
And um Abby loves the Lord, andher husband, Judah, is a uh is a
police officer with Las VegasPolice Department, so they're a
law enforcement family.
I'm excited.
Abby has agreed to come on.
She's she's excited, I think.
Um I was I spent the last week,uh last week, the week before
(05:57):
Thanksgiving week, Abby's dadand I were hunting uh out west,
and we spent about four daystogether.
And I said, Man, you think Abbyhad come on NSR?
He said, I think she'd love to.
So we called her, I called herand asked her, and she said, Oh,
I'd be honored.
And so uh that's gonna be cool.
Um I think what we'll do iswe'll have her come on, talk
about her childhood coming toSWO, growing up, coming to SWO
(06:19):
with her parents when they werebringing groups and then um and
then working here and just whatthis ministry has meant to her.
She'll be a no-sanity story, andthen uh and then we'll I think
we'll do that uh that's gonna befirst of the year.
We'll probably do that by justwe'll zoom, we'll do a zoom
call.
But then later, Lord willing,later in 2026, we're gonna fly
(06:41):
Abby and Judah over, get themhere for a conference so they
can spend some time at SWO.
They haven't been here a coupleyears, and we'll do we'll do a
couple more sit-down episodes.
So I'm excited about that.
That's the one that's the one uhteaser I wanted to give you.
Looking forward to it.
Katie Cousins is back incountry.
Her soccer season in Europe hasended.
She's back home after a pit stopwith Kilby and Greg in Uganda.
(07:05):
Um and so good to have her back.
I'm sure we'll get her on andget an update at some point over
the next month or so.
And then we got winter swowcoming up after Christmas.
We're in we're in that sort oflike a lull of ministry where we
don't really have we don't haveany groups here during November
(07:25):
and December.
We do in December, but it's likeDecember 27th, and we consider
that the new year.
So our ministry year, we startthe 26th ministry year on
December 27th of 25, if thatmakes sense.
So that's when we run winterswow one.
The first event of our ministryyear is winter swap.
(07:47):
Um, so winter swow one isDecember 27th, winter swow two
follows that.
So over that Christmas to NewYear break, we'll run two winter
swow conferences, and thosethose are usually pretty full.
Those first two winter swowconferences, I think we've got
about 700 folks coming in.
So that's gonna be awesome.
(08:08):
Uh good time.
We'll have a lot of staff comeback to help.
Uh, we do have in in December,we have our our annual staff
Christmas party.
So we'll have a lot of a lot ofsnowbird alum will come in for
that.
But first ministry event will bewinter swos one and two back to
back.
About 700 students come in forthat.
And then we'll be rolling.
(08:28):
We'll do several winter swowevents through the month of
January and February, months ofJanuary and February.
And then we'll also have ourcollege uh event, which is
coming up in that's in January.
That that college event, the ourcollege retreat is January 9
through 11.
And that thing's slamful.
(08:49):
I think we've got right now withour people, our college students
that serve at SWO, um, all totalplus registered guests, we're
around 500 people right now.
And that sounds depending, youknow, everything's relative.
To some people, that would seemlike a huge conference.
To some people, it would seemreally small.
Like if you go to uh what's thebig one in Atlanta?
(09:11):
I don't know why I'm drawing ablind.
Passion.
If you go to Passion in Atlanta,you know, I think it's 20 or
30,000 people, something likethat.
So ours is tiny compared tothat.
And part of why we started doingthis event is because that event
had grown so large, and a lot ofpeople felt like it had lost a
little bit of it just had it itkind of changed identities,
rightfully.
(09:31):
So you can't run a 20,000,30,000, 40,000 person event the
same way you can run a1,000-person event, you know,
just in terms of intimacy andeven the way you teach, is it's
hard in those larger settings.
So that was part of it.
And and um, and then also wewant to focus more on equipping
so so the teaching emphasis andfocus of our college event is
(09:55):
very um, it's very deliberate.
And it's not just sort of like abig hype event, um, just as far
as it's not just big energymusic, lights, let's go for it.
It's like, yeah, let's open theword of God.
Let's talk about how do we equipyou to go into the academic
world or a lot of folks thatcome to it are not even in
(10:16):
college.
They're young adults that havestarted their, you know, they're
either in the workplace orthey've started their career,
whatever, but just targetingthat age group.
How do you, how do you um keepyour eyes on Jesus and grow in
your relationship with the Lordevery day?
Uh anyway, that that event'scoming up this winter.
Our pure and holy event, whichis that's a student ministry
event where we focus onsexuality, biblical sexuality.
(10:41):
Um we focus on relationships.
In the the past few years, we'vespent a lot of time focusing on
gender because it's been such ahot topic.
That seems to be calming down alittle bit.
I think people are people arewaking up, even non-Christians,
and realizing the damage that isbeing done to young people
through the gender revolution,you know, whatever you want to
(11:03):
call it.
I guess that's what you call it.
Anyway, so anyway, just toupdate um, like some things to
be looking forward to coming up.
Excited about that.
But today, what I want to do isI want to talk about
Thanksgiving.
I love Thanksgiving, probably,not probably, definitely, my
favorite holiday of the year.
Thanksgiving is my favoriteholiday of the year.
(11:24):
I'm gonna go ahead and say that.
I think I've shared this before,but uh our our Thanksgiving
tradition, we made a decision,and I I would encourage young
parents to do this, youngfamilies to do this.
We made a decision when webecame parents uh in 2000.
Said, let's, we actually did itin '99, I think, when Little was
(11:46):
pregnant with our first child.
Like, let's let's establish someholiday traditions that that
we're just gonna establish, andeveryone's gonna just know this
what that's what we do.
And a lot of that had to do withI I'd seen families stress and
fret over, well, we'll go tothis, these grandparents on this
(12:10):
year and these grandparents onthis year, or we'll rotate one
year we'll go here toThanksgiving and here to
Christmas, and next year we'llgo here to Thanksgiving and
there to Christmas.
And it can be stressful, youknow.
And I'm sure a lot of y'all feelthat, and just decided we're
gonna figure out what how how wewant to do this for our kids,
and we're gonna do it.
We're gonna raise them doing thesame thing every year, and
(12:31):
that's what we've done.
Um, Thanksgiving, we spend inmiddle Georgia.
Y'all know my wife Little isfrom Georgia, and she has family
in the middle part of the state.
And uh, man, they they're someof my favorite human beings
alive.
The little's cousins andextended families, just the
(12:53):
kindest, most generous, mostloving people.
They, I am just so thankful tobe a part of that extended
family.
And so we go, and that's it,there's a shout-out, that crew.
I think some of them listen inSR.
That's David and Regina Williamsand Patrick and Jenny Brantley,
and and then Jason is their son,Jenny's brother.
(13:14):
So his family, Jason and MalloryWilliams.
Jason is Jenny's brother,Jenny's family, um, and then
David and Regina.
Regina would be Little's cousin.
And anyway, a lot of folks havegone to be with the Lord,
grandparents on both sides, andthat the the family dynamic has
(13:35):
changed.
And um, I don't know, I justlove going down there.
They they got a large acreage,large for our family, largest
acreage of anybody in ourextended family.
They got several hundred acresand just ride four-wheelers and
shoot guns and go squirrelhunting and go deer hunting, and
every once in a while kill ahog, and but eat good and cowdy
(13:57):
hunt at night and visit withfamily throughout.
It's just awesome, man.
Just love it.
So that's our Thanksgiving um,what do you call it, tradition.
And this year we'll go down uhtomorrow night to on Tuesday
night.
We'll go down Tuesday night, uh,which is gonna be after we got a
high school basketball game.
My my youngest daughter, Juju,has a basketball game, and then
(14:19):
when we're done with that, we'llhit the road and drive down and
drive, drive down and spend,literally spend the rest of that
week.
So that's gonna be awesome, orthe rest of the week.
That'll be that'll be a lot offun.
Christmas, our our uh tradition,we made a decision when so when
I was growing up, both sets ofgrandparents lived, you know, in
the same, we all live in thesame area.
(14:40):
And so on Christmas, we wouldjust sleep at the house and then
get up and we'd hit both sets ofgrandparents throughout the day
and wake up at the house, openpresents, you know, have
Christmas morning there, andthen ride over to my one
grandparents and spend themiddle part of the day, and then
supper would be at the othergrandparents.
That's when I'm when I was whenI was young.
(15:02):
And then my nanny died when Iwas in the sixth grade.
She was young, she's about theage I am now, and she died, she
had breast cancer, and afterthat it changed to where then
just went to my mom's parents'house on Christmas Day, and um
that and I and so I looked backat that and I was like, you
know, that was way lessstressful, I think, as a kid.
I loved going to both sets ofgrandparents because you got
(15:23):
more presents.
But uh anyway, once we switchedto where we're just going to one
set of grandparents, that seemedto be a little bit easier.
So anyway, we decided we'regonna we're gonna sleep at home.
I don't want to sleep.
I want my kids to experienceChristmas morning in our home.
I want to have a fire going whenthey wake up.
And and that has been awesomebecause by staying, by staying
(15:45):
put on Christmas, we have theexperience every few years to
have a white Christmas.
So I think last one was maybe2020.
Was it 2020, 2021?
We had about six inches of snowthat fell on Christmas Eve
during our Christmas Eveservice.
Oh, that's another reason I lovebeing home at Christmas.
I'm getting ahead of myself.
I'll I'll probably do anotherepisode when it gets Christmas
(16:07):
week.
But we do a Christmas Eveservice at Red Oak Church.
That's my favorite churchservice of the entire year.
It's literally my favoritechurch service of the entire
year.
We don't do anything else allyear at Red Oak that I enjoy as
much as the Christmas Eveservice.
It's just wonderful.
Um and then, you know, go homeand uh we watch the Nativity
(16:30):
story on Christmas Eve after theservice as a family, and then
Christmas at the house.
But what was I getting at?
Um, oh we yeah, we get up uh andwe wanted our kids to grow up
having Christmas at home.
So Thanksgiving, when I wasgrowing up, um, we would we
would go Thanksgiving morning,we would go every single year.
(16:52):
Me and my dad and my brotherwould go squirrel hunting.
The only hunting I did in myentire growing up life.
I'm I love to hunt now.
The Lord's given me incrediblefortune to hunt waterfowl in
several states and inSaskatchewan several times.
Thanks to the generosity ofothers, I've gotten those
awesome opportunities.
(17:12):
I've been able to hunt elk outwest, mule deer out west, I've
been able to hunt whitetaileddeer.
I don't know how many states.
I counted it up, like 14 statesmaybe.
Um killed a pile of hogs hereand there and yonder, and
squirrels and rabbits, and youknow, pheasant hunting in South
Dakota with Muggs' family, andjust man, I've I've I've loved
(17:33):
hunting.
But when I was growing up, Ididn't hunt.
Except on Thanksgiving Day thatmorning, me and my dad and my
brother would go squirrelhunting.
And I loved it.
It was there was uh there was anolder lady, elderly lady in our
community, and her name was MissLola Lawless.
(17:54):
That was her name, Lola Lawless.
Don't old people have the bestnames, best names that you you
hear in older people, and such agood name.
I didn't appreciate it then, butnow I think, man, what a great
name.
Lola Lawless.
So Miss Lawless, um, she was awidow lady, and she had some
some property.
I don't think it was a lot ofproperty.
(18:15):
I think she probably lived onfive or six acres.
But it was uh, or maybe, maybemore than that, maybe, but no
more than 20 acres.
And in the community of Bethel,I don't think many people have
more than 20 acres.
It's all a little small.
You know, it's a real crowded,it's a rural community, but it's
very crowded.
You drive through Bethel and thehouses are, you know, you got a
(18:36):
lot of houses sitting on anacre, a lot of houses sitting on
two or three acres, but there'sno big, there are very few vast
tracts of land.
And here was this littlemountain, the side of a
mountain.
This lady let us go up there andsquirrel hunt, and it was just a
bunch of hardwoods.
And I can't, I mean, we had a wehad an exact pattern, and my
(18:56):
brother Duke, he listens tothis, he listens to NSR, and and
uh so shout out to Duke.
He's probably remembering thesame thing right now as he's
listening to this that I'mremembering, which is we would
we'd get out of the truck and wewould have our shotguns.
We didn't hunt with 22s, which alot of people say that that's
cheating, but that's what wedid.
(19:17):
We had we only had threefirearms in our home.
One was it that it was twosingle-shot shotguns.
A 28-gauge that Duke has, a12-gauge that I have.
The both of those have belongedto our Papa.
Um, Papa, Pawpaw.
It was funny.
My dad's dad, some of thegrandkids called him Papa, some
called him Pawpaw.
(19:37):
But anyway.
Um, and then uh a little 22rifle that uh I don't even know
where that thing's at.
Um I'd I'd like to have it.
Uh or for my brother to have it.
I don't maybe he does have it, Idon't know.
Anyway, our dad would carry that22 once we got big enough to
carry two shotguns.
We were real little.
(19:57):
Um my dad would carry that 12gauge, I think.
He'd carry one of the shotguns,and then me and my brother would
carry, you know, our BB guns.
But anyway, that was our onehunting trip of the year.
We'd go on Thanksgiving morning,and we always killed a pile of
squirrels, and then we'd takethem and drop them off at this
old lady's house that lovedsquirrel.
She would eat squirrel becausemy mom wouldn't, she wouldn't
(20:18):
prepare it.
She didn't like it, she thoughtit was gross.
She's like, hey man, we'rerodents, them were rats.
If you ever had squirreldumplings, they're really good
if they're done right withgravy.
But we would uh we would hunt onThanksgiving morning, then we'd
get done hunting, we'd take onsquirrels and drop them off, and
then head to my grandparents'house, my mom's parents.
It was awesome memories.
(20:39):
And so um anyway, I had a goodchildhood.
I'm thankful.
I grew up on a just a rural dirtroad there in that little
community in Western NorthCarolina.
There was basically surroundedby tomato farms and cow
pastures.
On one side, uh kind of up thehill, across the road from the
(20:59):
house, it was uh cow pastures,and then behind the below,
behind the house was the PigeonRiver.
Between our house and the PigeonRiver was a, I don't know, 50 or
60 acre tomato farm.
And this is a great, fun, fondmemories of my childhood, you
know, and um love the hot summerdays, ride our bikes down there,
jump the river.
Sometimes we'd take inner tubesand float a section of it, and
(21:22):
in the winter, when it wouldsnow and we'd miss school, we'd
go up across the road onto that,into that cow pasture and go
sledding.
There's a huge hill that was onthe Reeves farm.
It's called Triple R Farms.
The Reeves Farm was the bestspot for sledding.
And uh this is great.
Um, and then the the PigeonRiver ran along the tomato farm.
(21:44):
That was the Henson, that wasHenson Farms, and we would we
would take our bikes and ride upthe up the river with inner
tubes, just old, you know,tractor tire inner tubes and
float down the river.
A lot of times our dad would gowith us on that.
Uh my parents were stillmarried.
They were together then.
That was cool.
Um but they used that river forirrigating those tomato fields,
(22:06):
you know, just pulling water outof the river to irrigate the
tomato fields.
It was fun.
Probably the thing we played themost, whether it was summer,
fall, or Thanksgiving Day, wewould play war.
We called it playing war.
War games with toy pistols andrifles.
We would get in the woods aroundmy grandparents' house and we
just play war.
We'd we'd shoot it out.
(22:26):
We'd play shoot it out.
Uh shoot them up.
And then we'd, of course, playfootball out in the in the yard.
And uh it was great.
Growing up in a rural setting,one thing you learn how to do is
appreciate simple things, Ithink, at a young age.
You learn how to work hard.
Um, I remember jobs that I hatedas a kid.
(22:49):
To this day, I just hatethinking about it.
Anyway, I told you this is avery laid-back episode.
And uh, but yeah, anyway,selling nightcrawlers.
How funny is that?
They pack those things up andsell them to sell them at a
bait, sell them as bait toconvenience stores and stuff
like that.
I go on with stories of mychildhood, but the point I'll
(23:09):
make is man, make make your makeyour memories.
Um uh think of think of thinkoutside of the box, but think
simple.
Man, you don't have to come upwith big elaborate schemes for
what traditions you're gonnamake, you know.
Just I I I shared all thatbecause I think a lot of y'all
(23:32):
will identify with it.
My memories of my childhood areso simple.
And man, I I feel like we'vewe've come to a time where
everything costs money.
Like, I know a lot of people,all their memories cost money,
you know.
Like, man, I have the bestmemories of going to going on a
cruise every year.
I'm sure those are greatmemories, no doubt.
(23:53):
And I would never begrudge that.
I have great memories of we goto, you know, such and such
every year and stay in thishotel or this, we rent a house
at the beach, and I have some ofthose memories too, and that's
fun, and we've done that as afamily.
The point I wanted to get at iswhat are the simple things in
life?
Thanksgiving should be a timewhere we think, what are the
simplest things I could bethankful for?
(24:14):
And what can I reflect on inthis season?
And what memories are wecreating as a family or as a
young married couple or as youngparents, are you are you
establishing those patterns?
And let me just tell you tothink inside the box sometimes.
And sometimes think outside ofthe box, but sometimes just
(24:34):
think simple.
Like let's make sure that we'reI guess if if there's a a theme
or a message for thisThanksgiving episode, it's come
up with daily comma.
If you're if you're if I'mpunctuating this sentence, come
up with daily, comma, weekly,comma, monthly, comma, maybe
(24:58):
quarterly, and annual, annually.
Come up with with uh traditions,you know.
And the reason I said daily,pause there, is maybe that's
something that you'reestablishing that every morning,
you know.
I we we read a little devotionevery morning, and there's been
times where I think there's apressure to uh are we really
(25:18):
doing a good devotion?
It don't matter, man.
Read I'm reading a verse ofscripture and a devotional
thought and praying, and theneverybody's out the door.
Well, it's not that elaborate,and I don't know how much you're
listening to it most mornings,the the couple kids that are
still at home, but it doesn'tmatter, you know, be faithful to
be consistent with those typesof things.
And then, but then there'sthose, you know, weekly, we have
(25:41):
weekly traditions, you know.
We do a Sunday morning brunchevery Sunday after whatever
retreat event we've got going onat SWO when that's over Sunday
morning ahead of the house.
We all have a big breakfast,brunch kind of thing.
That's a weekly tradition.
It doesn't happen every singleweek, but most weeks it's it's
happening.
And so that kind of thing, youknow.
(26:03):
What is what is your what isyour do you do uh uh some some
traditions every year, you know,and for me it's we we decided
that was going to beThanksgiving and Christmas.
And uh we established whenKilbytuck and Laley were growing
up, we would go to Hondurasevery year.
Every December, a group ofsnowbird folks would go to
(26:23):
Honduras and we'd work in in achildren's home down there, a
big orphanage called OrphanageEmanuel, which a lot of y'all
are probably familiar with.
I think we did 20 trips downthere.
That was a long run.
And uh that was a cool memoryfor them, you know, to think
back on.
But just just reflect on thegoodness of the Lord and ask,
how can I do this better?
How can we be more consistent?
(26:43):
And maybe, listen, don't don'ttake what I'm saying as some
sort of gospel message of thisis how you got to do life.
Maybe your family is so blendedthat that that that these types
of things aren't aren'tpractical.
Or maybe, you know, I wasthinking of uh a friend of mine
the other day where uh they justhad a couple of kids, and those
(27:06):
kids are now grown, and there'sno grandparents living, the kids
aren't married, but they've goneand one one one child is married
and is working far from home,and the other one lives far from
home.
And I don't know, they're forthem, it just life looks a
little different.
And so I don't want to say yougot to do it this way, you know,
or or it's or you're not beingyou're not being faithful.
(27:27):
Or, you know, a lot of youngcouples that want so badly to
have a child, and and forwhatever reason the Lord hasn't
opened the womb, and it's like,man, what are we gonna do?
How are we gonna establish thoseholiday you know rituals and and
it doesn't matter?
It doesn't matter, man.
What matters is spending uhappreciating and enjoying the
(27:49):
good life God's given us.
I love that part of theEcclesiastes where the writer
says, and I'm I'm paraphrasing,but he's like, man, life is
rough and it's stressful, andeverything is just futil
futility.
It's there's futility and vanityand everything.
And man, you're trying to figureout how to get through this
world and for the for the goodto be more impactful than the
(28:12):
bad.
And he said, Man, here's whatI've learned.
Hit pause, enjoy a good meal.
So maybe you're a young coupleand you don't have strong, you
don't have relationships withinyour extended family and you
don't have kids yet, then pauseand enjoy a meal together, you
know?
Watch the sun come up or go downand just reflect on God's
goodness and spend time with theLord and in his word.
(28:35):
Um I think it'll be I thinkit'll be awesome to to start to
create some of those patternsand and for those of you that
are parents of of kids that arestill at home, establish those
those traditions.
I think that man, I can't sayenough about that.
Anyway, I don't know if this wasenjoyable.
(28:55):
I just get a lot of feedback.
People, a lot, for for whateverreason, a lot of our listeners
say they really enjoy these morelaid-back driving down the road,
sitting in the truck kind ofepisodes.
And today uh I I'm not driving,I'm just sitting, but I enjoy
doing these.
I'm just recording this on myphone.
And uh, so maybe the soundquality ain't the best, but um,
(29:17):
yeah, there's that thought.
Hey, I want to close by justsharing a few verses to to think
about.
The the scripture says that uh,you know, God inhabits the
praise of his people.
And there's a there's athroughout the word of God,
there's a biblical principlethat when we are people of of
thanksgiving, when we arethankful that the Lord uh honors
(29:41):
and blesses that, and that he'sblessed by that.
I think that's important torecognize that the Lord is
blessed by our thankfulness.
And see this in Philippianswhere Paul talks a lot about
rejoicing, you know, rejoice,rejoice, rejoice, and and
everything give thanks.
But I I always When I think ofThanksgiving, the thing I'm most
(30:03):
thankful for is the consistencyof the Lord's mercy.
That Lamentations 3, 21 and 22,the steadfast love of the Lord
endures forever.
Um, steadfast love of the Lordendures forever.
His mercies are new everymorning.
Great is his faithfulness.
I don't think I quoted all thatjust right, but that you maybe
(30:23):
you're familiar with that verse,that that those couple of
verses.
Just that the Lord is faithfuland he's steadfast.
So he's consistent.
When I think of the Lord'ssteadfastness, I think of his um
he doesn't quit, he doesn't turnback, he doesn't let go, but
also his persistence inextending grace to us and
(30:47):
persistence in extending mercyto us, um showering us with his
kindness over and over.
And um, yeah, so that it's justthere's just a uh there's a
non-stop outpouring of God'sgoodness to us.
(31:08):
We'd be thankful for that.
Um so steadfast love of the Lordendures forever.
When I think of that steadfastlove, that's what I think of.
I think that he doesn't quit.
I think that he's consistent, Ithink that he's intentional,
that he's determined.
And when God is determined to dosomething, you better believe
it's gonna happen.
So um grateful, grateful forthat aspect of um of the love of
(31:34):
the Lord and the mercy of theLord.
It's worth giving thanks over.
So, update for my family is um,well, that's that's really all I
had to share for today.
And so just hope and pray thatyou guys have an awesome
Thanksgiving and that the Lordwill bless your time with family
or friends, wherever you are,whatever you're doing.
(31:55):
Um so just know that we're atSnowbird, we're we covered your
prayers and we're grateful foryour partnership and for those
of you that listen to this everyweek.
It means a lot to us.
And just pray in God's richest,fullest blessings on y'all this
week as we give thanks to theLord for his goodness and and
for his grace and for who he is.
(32:16):
I like to say, you know, I liketo encourage our folks, let's
thank and praise the Lord forwho he is and for what he's
done.
Who he is and what he's done.
Those two things.
Praise the Lord for who he is,praise the Lord for what he's
done.
And uh we can do we can all dothat.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody,and uh, we'll talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_00 (32:36):
Thanks for listening to No Sanity Required.
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