Episode 10 - Unmasking Serenity in the Autumn Air - Plugged In Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Matthew Luhn (00:09):
Here we go.
Yay Season two, baby Season twoof the Plugged In Podcast.
It's been a minute, man, it'sbeen a long time Now.
We kind of we went out onseason one with a whimper.

Loreita Hinzman (00:23):
Yeah, I know.

Whimper.
We had all these grand plans torecord right up till
commissioning in June and yeah,wham, didn't happen, did not
happen.

Life came in strong.
Life happened yes.

So it has been a while, the whole summer has gone
by, and now, guys, it isOctober, but we are here to kick
off season number two.
This is episode number ten ofthe Plugged In.

Nate Hinzman (00:47):
Podcast Wow.

Wow, if you guys want to look ahead to the end of
our episode and our devotionalthought, you can crack open your
Bibles to Matthew, chapter 11,verse 28.
And just to give you a teaser,this is what it says.

Sorry, Nate was not ready for that.
I was not ready, I was throwingit to you, buddy.

All right, let me try that again.

Matthew 11, 28 says this Come to me all who are
weary and burdened, and I willgive you rest.
Put my yoke upon your shoulders.
It may appear heavy at first,but it's perfectly fitted to you
.
Learn from me, for I am gentleand humble of heart.
When you are yoke to me, yourweary souls will find rest, For
my yoke is easy and my burden islight.

It was worth the wait.
Yes, it was worth the wait.

Yes, so I scrolled all the way down, or all the
way back up to the top.

Excuse us Whatever you want to say I'm out of
practice.

It's been a while.

It has been a while, so later in today's
episode we are going to talkabout wrap that up.
Give us a theme, nate.
What is today's theme?

Learning how to rest in the midst of the
busyness, resting in God and notallowing the chaos that
consumes our everyday lives toreign in us or have control over
us.

Are you listening?
Today it's October.
Are you already too busy?
Is there too much going on?
Is there too much happening inthe Salvation Army?

Yes, Sometimes yes, Sometimes yes.

In case you are joining us for the very first
time, my name is Matt.
I'm the music director here inthe Massachusetts Division.
You guys want to introduceyourselves.

Sure, I'm Matt and my husband Nate.
Say hi, nate.

Hey.

We are the division youth and candidate
secretaries in the MassachusettsDivision, which just means we
help oversee the youth ministrythat happens here and help
people who feel called tofull-time ministry enter into
that journey.

So guys tell me about your summer.
The whole summer has passed by.
Give me a couple of highlights.
What happened?

Oh my word, it was crazy.
I can't believe how fast thesummer went.
You want to start?
Yeah, I can start.

One of the greatest privileges that we have
in our role is to be out atCamp Wonderland, our summer camp
for the summer, and to reallyjust welcome campers onto that
holy ground for seven differentsessions throughout the summer,
where they're participating ineverything from arts, arts and
crafts, music, recreation,different forms of sports, but

(03:07):
also building relationships intheir cabins and, most
importantly, being immersed inthe love of God and just being
surrounded by people who areloving on them, seeing potential
in them and pouring into them.
And so this summer we welcomed945 campers onto— 945.
945 campers to go along withclose to 80 staff who served

(03:29):
seven sessions there, about twomonths on camp, and just want to
give God the glory for the 721new decisions that were made for
Christ this summer.

That's incredible, yeah, 721.

721 decisions.

And a lot of those happen each week during each
session of camp.
I think we talked about it inprevious episodes, but there is
a night where the camp staffputs on a production called
Jesus Theater and then at theend of that production there's
an opportunity for kids toaccept Jesus into their heart,
many of them for the first time.
But 721, that's an amazingnumber.

Yeah, one of my favorite camper quotes of the
summer.
There was a camper who wascalling home Her mom—it was one
of the situations where mom wasmore worried about her than she
was worried about being there.
And she was calling home andwe're sitting next to the phone
as she's calling and she's likeMom.
It's a Christian camp but itdoesn't feel like a cult and I

(04:22):
was like.
I was like you win.
Yes.
But it was just so— VictoryWe've achieved our goal.

It was so cute.

It was so sweet but she had a great time.
But I think the campers make itall worth it.
It's crazy schedules but it'sso much fun and it's a nice
change of pace for us too to beout of the office and be
immersed in ministry, so it wasgood.

It's a unique feeling to be at camp and to see
the level of happiness and joy,just watching that, even on the
hottest days or the rainiestdays, just seeing them play and
interact both with their friends, with their counselors, it's
just a unique thing.

Just being outside and playing
non-technology, it's just reallycool to see, and I feel like
that was all we had was eitherrain, thank you, or hot.
There's nothing in the middle.
There's a lot of rain thissummer, a lot of rain.

I read somewhere like 14 of the last 17 weekends
it has rained, that is horribleWhole summer it rained.

Yeah, how about you?

Me, I'm going to go with a personal summer
highlight, so we talked a littlebit in the spring time I was
doing this weight loss program.

Yeah.

So it's called Awaken 180.
So if you want to check it out,it's a Boston based program,
but I'm just really thankful forwhat they offered because it
was successful for what I waslooking for.
So I went on a 20 week programthat started in January,
extended really right into theend of June.
So it was interesting because Istarted working at camp right

(05:54):
as the program was finishing.

But all in all I know.

All in all, it was actually better that I finished
right before camp, becausestaying that discipline was
pretty difficult yeah.
That's hard.
I mean I had my nose andchicken fingers and chicken
patties.

Late night snacks.

Oh, yeah, yeah, no , but all in all, at the highest
point I was at, I was down 75pounds.
Wow, incredible, and it wasjust I don't know.
I feel good about theaccomplishment and there's still
more to go, but I'm justfeeling better and that was kind
of like my personal highlightfor the summer, aside from we've

(06:30):
talked about our kids growingup, and Mackenzie is now seven
months old, which is wild.
Oh my gosh goodness.
Yeah, that was my summerhighlight and yeah, it just went
way too fast.

Yeah, it went so fast.

It always goes so fast.
It's insane.

But I feel like this year was faster than usual
.
I don't know.
Maybe it wasn't.

We're just getting older.

I mean backtracking.
Kudos to you for keeping strictand rigid.
You know coming off of thatprogram in camp Because you know
the men you have no controlover it.

It happened for a while.
I'm not going to pretend like Iwas a saint because really once
we got into the musicconservatory, snacks for the
faculty like no.

I was partaking in those.

But I mean, I feel like at that point I had earned
it.
Yes, oh yeah, but now we're allback in our fall routines.
We're back in the office, backto kind of regular schedules.
I think that's always jarringcoming out of the summer and I
don't know I don't really knowif it's like that for other
people with I'm going to use theword normal jobs.
I feel like we don't havenormal jobs, fair assessment,

(07:30):
but we bounce back from being,you know, in shorts and a
t-shirt and in and out of campsettings and teaching kids, to
now you're a little bit moreback in the office, meetings,
still getting out and teachingand being with people, but it's
certainly a transition that ifyou've never done it before it
can be rigid.
Yeah, yeah, Larita, I think youhave a game for us?

Yes, I do.
I'm curious what.
This is Okay, so we're going toplay this catchphrase game.
Have you ever playedcatchphrase before?
Oh you have?

Yeah, of course who has it.

So this is like it's a little intimidating.
This is catchphrase ultimate,and I think the idea is to throw
like a frisbee, but we're notgoing to do that?

No, we're not going to do that.
No, we're not going to do thatNot on space.

Here you can see.
If you're looking at the video,it's pretty intimidating, okay.

If you are listening to look at YouTube, sa
Mass Music.
We are recording this episodelive on video so you can see our
little space.

Okay, so we're going to play catchphrase.
We're going to let me pull upmy little notes tab here and
we'll all keep score.
We're just going to go aroundand I'll keep track of how many
you get.
We're not going to pass it oranything.
Okay, matt, why don't you startus off?
Oh geez, here we go.

And.

I'll keep tabs All right.

If you're listening or watching, you have
to guess along.

Yeah.
See if you can get it before wedo.
Oh, the sound effects.

What category are we doing?
Toss up?

Toss up yeah general Okay.
Oh gosh, I have to multitask,all right.

Am I just pressing this button?

Press play, and then don't scream into the mic,
larita.

Okay, oh, I should push my mic away.
All right, here we go.
All right, toss up category,here we go.
It's going to be an immaculateround.
Okay, this is, in France, thecapital, paris.

Yeah.

I hope it's a capital.
That's right.
This is a movie.
Wild, wealthy and poor.
No, no, what's the word forwild Wild?

and crazy, crazy, yes.
And then, well, rich Asians yes.

Good job, nate.
Okay, pass Okay, not Okay.

This is a chalk board?
No, not chalk board.
Yeah, dry erase Close.

Sorry, wrong clue, I read it wrong.
Okay, a basketball, you got tohit the Backboard.
Yes, backboard.
Okay, before Google Maps Iwould use, I would look this up
Map, quest, map, quest, yes, ohmap quest Okay Turkey.

I'm going baster, yes.

Wow, okay, a bird with a ton of colors.
Okay, my car.

Ignition no.

Start Chee.
Yeah, okay, now I'm going toeat this.
It's a tasty treat Cake, cake,cupcakes, ice cream Crisp and
apple pie, yes, so.

Key lime pie yes, yeah.

Okay, I'm going to fly, not Delta, not American
United.

The cheap ones, cheap ones, period Okay.

Walk outside at night.
This comes on Stars.
The bulb Street light.

Yes, this is good.

Wow, I was solid.
I'm going to say that wasimpressive.

We'll have to check the tape, but I just I
don't know if I just keptcooking.
We're at 11.
Whoa, nice job.
Should I have held that no?

no, no, that's good.

Sorry, I was like I just spoiled the spoiled
the score.

I'm feeling good about 11.
That was good.
That was really good.
There were some weird ones.

I can't wait for Nate.
This is going to be good.

I felt weird trying to describe crazy rich
Asians.

Yeah.

That was.
I felt wrong saying it.

Love that you tried to explain blackboard.

That was good yeah 100% said backboard and my old
man eyes read it as blackboard.

So, Okay, you recovered.
That's all that matters.
You can go, I'll finish it off.
Okay, I got you.
I got you.
I need.
Can you beat 11?

Probably not, but oh, starting off strong.

Are you ready?

I'm excited for this.
Okay, it's missing anywhereelse.

Okay, yeah, it has missed guys.

Hey, ya named the video website.

Oh man.

All right, this is a national landmark.
The four presidents are carvedinto the hills.
Yes, all right, these peoplework on a lake and they watch
over kids, so they don't.
Yes, this is a.
It's like a horse, but it's on.

Yes, Under the sea .

Not okay.
This is a cucumber that you putinto vinegar, and you what kind
?
Do, yes, don't yes, these arein your cars and they come out
when you're in a car.
This just a movie about it, ken, and.

Barbie, yes, oh wow.

So much passing.
We didn't make rules about this, all right.

He's gonna go back .

Luigi is part of our super mario.

Yes, it's a purple vegetable and you can play it
with with marinara Parm 11 ohMine are we not allowed to skip?

I always skip well, I mean, you skip cuz some
of them were not appropriate.
You skip like a hundred, you'relike when.

I feel, I feel like, well, you don't apply this
a now?
But I've always played likewith one allowed skip, okay in
here.

But don't worry, I skipped a lot.

Yeah, you skipped a lot.
I skip, nate, you're gonna keeptrack for me.

I will okay.
I'm great at multitasking.

He, I know Wow okay are you feeling better or
worse about your?

life.
Well, if he would have skipped,if he would have skipped, he
would have got like 18.

Hmm, it's because we didn't clarify.

So I think, I think, I think yeah.

How are you gonna feel the read if you get like
four Uh accurate, I 100% freezeup.

I'm like.

I forget all words and how they sound.
Okay.

Here we go.

Let's do it.

You got this Now that I've set the tone
really good.
How do I do the toss up?

Okay, here we go.
She's feeling the pressure.

I'm like crying .

It's okay, this means nothing in the scope of
eternity.

Yeah, but you will hold it over my head.

All right, here we go.

Oh, uh, all food goes into this garbage garbage
disposal, but not a garbagedumpster but then it melts it
like Decomposes uh, yeah but youand then you put it in a garden
compost.

Yes, wow, okay, um, the red stuff that comes
out bud, what Keep going?

You got this blood transfusion.

Chocolate or vanilla.

Strawberry blood.
Strawberry blood, orange, Iforget it, okay.

Okay, um, this is, uh, okay.
You use this to play a gamewith a puck hockey, yes, hockey
stick.
Oh, this is a kind of coffee,not a cappuccino, but uh uh
latte.

Okay, another one.

Um no, it's wind, with water Nope with water
, yeah, yes, thank you.
Okay.
Uh, rocky babo was a boxer.
Yes, Um, um um.
Oh, um, there women wear thesekinds of pants really high and
it's like a joke from the 90smom jeans, mom jeans, mom jeans.
Um you this is kind of icecream.

(15:08):
This is an ice cream and youput, you put.

Chocolate, you know sprinkles.

There's a fruit and you put banana split.
Yes, sorbet, um, this is kindof gas, not, not E85 diesel.
Okay, another word Um petroleum, the other another one.

That's all the words I know, okay done Um.

oh, we saw him in concert, Uh guitar.

Yes, uh, what was I six?
What was the blood one?
I'm really putting?

What is that?
Why do I get the weird ones See?

that's why I use the skip button.

But I was like, oh, I can describe blood and I
can describe pudding, but then,as soon as I started saying the
red stuff that comes out of yourbody, I was like this is so
weird.

All right, I like that.
We should maybe bring that back.
We're going to take a shortbreak in our show.
When we come back from thebreak, we're going to have top
fall things, so keep in mindyour favorite things in the
seasons of October and November,and then after that we're going
to get to our devotionalthoughts.
So we'll be right back on thePlug In Podcast.

(16:11):
Ok, we're back on the Plug InPodcast.
Welcome back.
Thank you, you're listening tothe audio.

Oh, not me them .
Yeah well, welcome back, larita.
Thanks.

All right, top fall things.
I want to hear let's do topthree.
You guys want to read your listof three, or should we go
around the table?

Let's do our three.
Yeah, go ahead.

OK, let's, Larita, you go first.

OK Are you doing like three, two, one like.

I did not have any kind of structure.

You didn't rank them.

OK, I'll look at them really fast.

I rank them right now.
What do you?

got.
Probably three would be.
This is so you're going to makefun of me.
Fall scented candles.

Oh, that's not a bad one.

I love like apple candle, pumpkin candle,
love it.

Does that be my three?
I'm one kind of candle all yearlong, though.

Vanilla.

Well, kind of, but it's called Christmas cookie.

Oh, that's good or sugar cookie.

I mean, that's not a seed Like that could be all
year long.

Yeah, it's timeless Well the good thing
about those is see, I don't likefloral candles or anything like
that, but anything that's cleanor like a baked good, Anything
that makes me think the oven ison and I'm about to ingest lots
of sugar, like I'm ready forthat.

OK, next one, that would be my three.

Two would be like apple crisp.
I'm not a pumpkin fall girl,I'm an apple.
So that'd be two and then.

Lots of sugar on top right.

Lots of sugar, lots of crumble.

Yep, yep.

And I think that kind of mixes in with like
apple picking.
I love.

Like the apple crisp sauce, the syrup.
I don't like the actual bakedapple inside of it.

OK, interesting I knew that I sense fights in your
house.
There are.

Marital fights.

Nate does not like hot fruit.

Yeah, yeah, I like fruit, just not hot fruit.

So he doesn't like pie or anything.

And then you have sensitive teeth or something.
No, I just I'm a fruit snob, Iguess.

There was a major fight when we were
planning for our wedding,because I wanted fruit in the
cake and he was like hard pass,hard pass.

You don't put fruit in cake.
That's gross.
Ok, but I know I do.

And then one Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving, thanksgiving, friendsgiving, all
the giving.
There's a lot to unpack by justsaying Thanksgiving.

That covers everything.

Thank you.

We'll take it, we'll accept it.

What Do I have?
To have a specific?
Well, there's like so.

I mean, you could have your top three Thanksgiving
things.

OK.
Well, we didn't do that, we didfall OK.

All right, so a day.

Thanksgiving part of fall.
All right, it's her list, it'syour list.

Yeah, it is your list.

I shouldn't have gone first.
If you attacked, all right.

You didn't get the lowest score.

I'm going to dissect all of yours.
All right, nate, nate, what doyou?

got All right Coming in at number three,
number three, number three.
Daylight savings time what?
Yes, you know why I'm all aboutthat extra hour of sleep.
But since we have afour-year-old, it doesn't really
apply anymore.
But back in the day I rememberthat extra hour of sleep was
what I needed to propel myselfinto the fall.

Yeah, ok, that's fair.
All right, but we all agreethat at this point the clock
should fall back and then neverchange.

And never jump forward.
Yeah, never change again.

Yeah, I heard there was some type of bill
introduced to get rid of thatright.

I just think in general, spring forward is evil
, Like the idea of losing anhour.
Well, it's just that it'sequated right.

I don't know the whole history of it, but I mean
it was for the farmers in the1700s.

Yes for crops, Right.
Yeah, I selfishly do not wantto lose an hour of sleep.

Like I like the summer, but there's no need for
it to be light at 9 o'clock inthe evening, you know what I
mean?

There is nothing, Wait.
So you're saying daylightsavings is a good thing, but in
the fall time it gets darkerfaster.

Yeah, and it gets worse.
It's fine.
That's fine in the fall.

But is it just going to keep getting worse?

Because I mean, yeah, but there's nothing worse.
You step outside at like 3.45PM and it's like OK, the day's
over Right, which is like winter.

OK.
So maybe what I really want isjust one day of the year where
church starts an hour later.
Oh, ok.

OK, there we go .
I think that your list isalready worse than mine.
All right, number two.
Ok, number two.

Moving on, moving on, moving on.
Number two pumpkins.
Yep, pumpkins are fantastic,carving pumpkins going to the
pumpkin patch, pumpkin spiceeverything.
Yesterday I was at Walmart andthere was pumpkin spice
deodorant.

Oh, did you buy it .

No, I did not.

He sent me a picture and I said walk away.

Bro, you have lots of time still to pick that up.

Yeah, they also have eggnog out already at
Walmart pumpkin spice eggnog.

I say, by the time we have the next episode, you
have purchased and tested thisout, I'll bring it.
I'll bring it, we'll give it areview.

Yeah it's the native brand of deodorant it has
a pumpkin spice, so I'll bringit.

Pumpkin spice product reviews.

Yeah, yeah, ok and then number one, the definitive
number one best thing aboutfall is football in my opinion
Very good.
Football season is fantastic.
I've been waiting for this tocome up.

Larita.

Lots of you.

Should we even set the stage?
Or you just want wait, wait,hold on, I think I'm going to
ask Nate instead.
Ok, nate.

I will speak through her.

Yeah, yeah, like an interpreter Can you describe
the moment that Aaron Rodgerswell.
First of all, hold on.
Let's describe the moment heran out of the tunnel with the
American flag, like was Laritaweeping, and then a different
kind of weeping.
Tell me about the moment whenhe tore his Achilles four
seasons into the season.

Season Four plays, four plays so here's the thing
about Aaron Rodgers Like he.

We're not asking for your dissertation.
Oh no, I am.

No, but here's the thing.

He's universally not liked by many people,
correct you know what.
But this year, with them beingfeatured on Hard Knocks, he kind
of became a likable characterand you can kind of get behind
you can kind of go ahead.
Unless you're a Pats fan, youcan kind of get behind the jets
underdog, not really having muchsuccess in recent years, and I

(22:05):
I for one, Tell me aboutLarita's reaction.

This is what.
I want to know this is what Iwant to know.

Yeah, there was just the tragic like text thread
with her family just saying oh,I should pull that out.
Classic jets.

Classic jets Nate's not doing a great job.
I didn't talk the rest of theday.
Oh, I'm sure, oh yeah.

And she was ignoring texts from people and
she was blocking people onsocial media.

I was ignoring you , I don't, I don't remember
texting anything bad.

I don't wait and I'll have to go back.
I'll have to find it, probablywhile you're doing yours, but my
dad was just like oh Very firstperson I thought of.

Yeah, thanks.

I was just.
I wasn't excited because I waslike I don't want, like I don't
want to win something on theback of someone else.
Here's the thing, here's the.

Everyone does.
So here's the part about AaronRodger.
I don't want to get into thisbecause it's not with the
plug-in package, but here's thething that I'm one of those
people that does not like AaronRodger's, and he's a fraudulent
guy.
So he is someone who is aconspiracy theorist about 9-11.
He thinks it was a governmentinside job and I don't know all
these details Well, I mean,that's just like that's who he

(23:09):
is, and then he plays for NewYork and runs out of the tunnel
with a spotlight on him with theAmerican flag.
It's just disingenuous.
I mean, I'm not one to say hehad it coming for him, but the
guy is not likable.
I mean I don't want anyone toget injured.
That stinks.

But now we're subjected to all these primetime
games with the Jets and ZachWilk.

With the horrific Jets team now.
I like how New EnglandSportsHawk radio the next day
was just like wow, it stinksthat he's injured, but this is
two more wins for the Pats thisyear.
Those are automatic victoriesthat Zach Wilson can't play.

It's not like they looked great against the Jets
this past Sunday.

No, no, no, the Pats are not.

I just want to say OK, so I have scrolled back,
oh gosh At 824.

PM.
She kept her receipts 824.

PM At 824 PM.

You said number eight in the house.
Oh, yeah, yeah.

That was before.

By 826,.
I said did you legit just jinxthis?

See, I said nothing.

I said nothing mean, but like that's how
quickly that turned.
Yeah, and then Nate was sendingimages of Tom Brady in a Jets
uniform.

It was crazy because it felt like a lot of
the country was watching thatmoment.

Yes or at?

least sports fans.

I just couldn't believe.
It was like.
I was like there's no way.
There's no way this couldhappen to us.

Oh yeah, Coming back to Nate's list, I do love
that football is back.
That is like a fantastic thingto fall.
Ok, I'll speed through.
We took.
I'll speed through my list.
I listed like seven differentthings, just in case you took
some of my Overachiever.
No, no, no, I'll pick some ofmy weird ones, oh lovely.
First weird one, I'll just listit as number three.

(24:51):
In the fall your grass looksamazing.

Oh, here we go.

No, I'm not even kidding, I'm not even kidding.
Like so the combination of thecooler temperatures with the
rainfall, like so all the grass,like, gets super green and it
starts to thicken up and itrevives itself from the summer
where it was like beat up by theheat.

Nice.

So okay, number three your grass looks amazing.

Okay, that's a.

I love.
I personally love.
I'm a bigger guy, so I love thecooler weather and the ability
to wear jeans and a hoodie, aslike your dress coat.

What a weather.
Yeah, like, yeah, yeah, that'snot like in New England like
that.

You can't do that during the summer.

No.

You're usually wearing more layers during the
winter, yeah, but like, fall isthe sweet spot where you don't
need to leave the house with acoat.
Yeah, or hopefully not a rainjacket, but if you're in a
hoodie, that's a good one.

I am stealing it and like tennis shoes.

Like that's my like fall dress code.

Yeah, I'm all about that, and you don't get in
a building and you have 18layers on and you're sweating
because that's winter.

Yeah.

I'm with you.

And then I don't know if this is number one.
I don't have.
I didn't rank them, but I didhave football on the list.
I had apple orchards.
We kind of mentioned that alittle bit.
Yeah, love it.
Pumpkin spiced.
Everything I'll say I love agood chili.

Yes, I'm surprised you didn't have that.

That is, that is our post.
Sunday church football meal.
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Ours too, and like the first day of fall, like we
were on Saturday, we're justlike oh wait, we're going to
make chili, yeah.

You're going to make chili?
Yeah, it's time?

Yeah, but once you throw it in the slow cooker, it
cooks all night.
And then you wake up and you'rejust like oh, this smells
delightful.

The house Smells amazing, but then you
come back from church.

Yeah, and I don't know how you guys eat your chili
, but I like to crush up sometostitos, some crunchy chips, a
little bit of shredded cheese ontop, oh yeah.
I don't know if you can do sourcream.

Yeah, definitely yeah.

Load that up, but also, you usually make enough
that there's leftovers.

Oh yeah.

So I actually saw Nate heating up his extra chili
this week in the office.
It was glorious so that's mylist Chili I don't know if
that's the top, but it'scertainly good.

I know I had to put like the sour cream in like
a little Ziploc bag so he couldlike snip the end I made a
little cake pipette.
You know how, like Wendy's doesthe like this.
I had to make a littlesqueezable packet because you
have to have sour cream withchili.

Thanks for hooking me up.

You're welcome, honey.

I'm sure that you, listening out there, have your
fall lists, so if you've writtenthem down or if you've thought
about them, send them to us.
You can get ahold of SA MassMusic or Mass Youth on any
social media platform prettymuch, but we'd love to hear from
you Facebook, twitter well, Iguess not Twitter formerly known
as Twitter, now the X.
Yeah, how do you even say thatLike I don't tweet something

(27:37):
anymore, I don't you X something, I X'd it.

Elon Musk, bro that guy.

Yeah, and Insta yeah, get ahold of us.
Sa Mass Music or Mass Youthboth of those run the podcast
and you can find the podcast onYouTube this season.
Yay, yeah.
So, nate, we teased thisearlier, but we're going to look
at this verse Matthew 11, 28.
But I think you have a bunch ofverses to kind of go through

(28:05):
Today we're talking about.
I don't know if we tried tomake catchphrase fit into this
theme, but are you too busy?
Are you stressed?
Yeah, too many things going on.
Is the pressure bearing down onyou and how do we deal with
that?

Oh yeah, I mean that game you're trying you are
racing against the clock,literally Right, literally, to
make split second decisions.

And sometimes that's how it feels.
I was just going to say, and Ifeel like as the time gets, as
the clicking gets like faster,I'm like.

Oh yeah, your heartbeat speeds up your
respiration, it starts sweatingcrazy.
Yeah Well, just kind ofsegueing on that, in just a few
short days, it is a world mentalhealth day, on October 10th,
and I was doing some researchprior to this and came across
this statistic that said thatthree in five Americans today

(28:53):
report that stress has anegative impact on their
everyday lives.
Three in five, so that's prettysignificant, which led me to
ask myself am I stressed out?
I'm sure we can all identifystressors in our lives, and each
of us deal with our own formsof stressors in a unique way,
and some of them are very uniqueand some of them are very

(29:14):
personal.
But what I wanted to sharetoday was my greatest source of
stress, and I think that that ismy.

You're not going to get fired by sharing this,
are you?
Oh, no, no, no, okay.

No, it's just a general or divorced and I Fired
or divorced.

No, no, no, it's not that kind of and I feel
stress.

I think, my greatest sorts of stress.
Just if there was a catch-allumbrella for it all, I would
just say busyness, just stayingbusy, like not prioritizing my
time correctly or saying yes totoo many things or just filling
my calendar with busyness right.
And so, larita, she makes funof me because I have this
massive to-do list on my laptop.
It's all compiled there in aMicrosoft Word document.

In a Word document .
She doesn't make fun of youbecause you have a list.
She makes fun of you becauseit's the year 2023 and you have
a list without bullet points.
That's just on a random Worddocument.

It's just like it works.
I have a thought, enter andthen I type it in.

But I just, when things come to my mind, I just
throw it into that document, Icross them out.
When they're done, it's great,it's fair.

Yeah, so Larita's stressed by seeing your document
.

If only you could hear my heartbeat right
now.

So I mean, what I've been thinking about is,
sometimes I feel like I don'thave enough time to get the
things done in my life right.
We always have somewhere to go,we always have pending projects
over our heads, we always haveemails and texts going off, we
always have people looking forus, assignments, due
appointments, missed calls,bills that are due, groceries to

(30:43):
buy the list is literallyendless.
And so I would venture to saythat busyness has become a
chronic condition for mostAmericans, and this hurried way
of life can really have anegative effect on everything
from our physical health and ourwell-being to even our mental,
our emotional and our spiritualhealth.

(31:04):
And then, kind of hand in handwith that, on top of just the
sheer busyness of going, going,going, is the pressure that we
often place on ourselves to notlet anyone down not let anything
drop through the process.
Right, I can handle it all,because people are expecting me
to keep it all together.
And so if I don't do it, if Idon't say yes, if I don't handle

(31:25):
it, then who will right?
And so what this creates thenis naturally this urgency to do
more, to be more, to take onmore.
And then, somewhere along theway, when we get buried alive
underneath all the expectations,all the weight, we get to this
point where we believe that ourentire worth and our value is
attached to what we do, what weproduce, and if we're not

(31:48):
extremely careful, we can losesight of what's really important
and how God is inviting us intoHis rest.

Do you just back here just a little bit?
Do you?
Do you feel anxiety?
I know I do.
When the idea of lettingsomeone down, yes, all the time,
yeah, I think like I can'thandle that thought.
I like I get irked when I thinkit's just a character complex
that I have.
I don't like when people don'tlike me.

And.

I don't like when I the idea of letting someone
down, telling them no, lettingthem know I didn't do a good job
, but like that stuff all driveslike anxiety for me.

Yeah, no, absolutely.
I think that, like there areoften times too, where something
as silly as someone likemispronouncing my name, I'm a I
have been afraid to like correctit because I don't want them to
feel weird.

You know what I?

mean Like I don't want to make them feel
uncomfortable, so I'll feeluncomfortable.
And then I'm like in my ownhead for for forever, Like why
am I even thinking this way?

Sidebar.
What's the weirdestpronunciation you got?

Oh, one time in high school my maiden name is
Vaughn, Like I got called with aloud speaker, Laureata Van
Hugen.

The exchange student from Germany, laureata
Van Hugen.

Yeah, laureata Van Hugen, I get Laureata or
Laureata.

Yeah.

I've gotten Laurecia before.

Laurecia.
That was a fun one.
That's cool.
I'd say everyone on their firsttry.
I'm Matthew Loon, matthew.

Loon.

That's been my whole life.
Sorry, Nate Go ahead.

Oh no, you're good , you're good.
But, as you were saying that,though, like these expectations,
how many of those do we justproject that people aren't
actually placing on us?
But somewhere in the deeprecesses of our mind we're like
we're the ones who are sayingwe're letting people down, you
know?

what I mean.

So.
I read a quote earlier thisweek that said if the devil
can't make you bad, he'll makeyou busy, meaning that we can
become so fixated and sopreoccupied by everything else
that's going on that we reallydo lose sight of what's truly
important.
And that's where our priorities, that's where our soul kind of
comes out of alignment to whatGod desires for our lives.
And so the point today is thathurry can be a great enemy of

(33:55):
our spiritual life.
This past weekend we were at ayoung adult retreat which was in
the Poconos in.
Pennsylvania.
It was a great time with about350 other young adults from
across the territory and on theopening night it was really on
this topic of rest, which kindof really aligned to what God
has been laying on my heart andshout out to Captain Daryl

(34:16):
Houston.
He had this one quote that saysyou have permission from God to
rest.
You have permission from God,In fact, God desires rest in the
midst of our weariness, Likethat's what he created us for.
That's what Sabbath is allabout.

Man, it's so hard.

Yeah.

So hard, like I'm just a person that I almost
fear the quiet.
You know what I mean.
Like even when I'm doinganything, when I'm getting ready
in the morning, I have like thenews on, I have something on,
because silence is sometimesscary or even silence is
deafening.

Sometimes I have to check myself because I know
that the three of us arecomfortable texting each other
at like pretty much any time and, like you know, most of those
texts are our friend you knowfriendly texts and then every
once in a while, it's, like youknow, 1045 pm and I go to text
you a work question I'm likesend Yep.

And we're like answer yeah, Right.

And then we get caught up and that's an easy
pattern falling to yeah.

And then I usually respond with some ridiculous
gift.

Yes, you are the gift master.

I am the gift master my phone fills because of
the gifts that Nate sends in.
It's good Just trying tolighten the moon, you know.
Thank you.

So God actually gives us permission to rest, and
that that doesn't mean that weare God's not telling us to just
drop all of ourresponsibilities to sleep
through all of our alarms andneglect our roles, but rather
what he's telling us to do.
What he's inviting us to do, isto lean into him, to carve out
space and time to simply bepresent with him.
And what we'll see is, when wedo become intentional about

(35:54):
being present with him, we willleave that presence renewed,
refreshed, encouraged andstrengthened.
And so this isn't somethingthat Jesus just commanded or
something that God created usfor.
This was something that Jesusmodeled himself, and so I just
wanted to just share a few briefhighlights from scripture.
In Matthew, chapter 14, jesusfinds out this devastating news

(36:15):
that his cousin, john theBaptist, had been murdered.
And we read in verse 13 ofMatthew 14, that as soon as
Jesus heard the news, he left ina boat to a remote area to be
left alone.
And so Jesus Jesus, processinghis grief, processing the stress
of that moment, modeled for usthat sometimes you just need to
be alone, sometimes you need toretreat from the chaos that you

(36:38):
are in and spend time alone.
And then in Mark, chapter one,verse 32, we read that it had
been a long day.
It was past sunset, night hadcome, sick people, demon
possessed people, had beenbrought to Jesus all day long.
And it even says that theentire town gathered at his door
to watch Jesus heal.
And so Jesus heals them.

(36:58):
And think of the pressure andthe expectations of all the eyes
on him watching.
Is Jesus going to heal me?
Is Jesus going to heal me?
And then it says in verse 35,before daybreak the next morning
, jesus got up and went out toan isolated place to pray.
And so here Jesus is after along, busy night, exhausted.
The first thing he does, beforethe sun even begins to rise is

(37:19):
he prioritizes time alone withhis father rather than sleeping
in a few extra minutes.
He gets up because he knew thatthis was what he needed deep
down to be restored.
And if Jesus needed that, thenyou better believe that we
desperately need that as well.

You wonder what Jesus was thinking about when he
went off to be alone, like, Ialways, always have trouble like
remembering that Jesus washuman.
So like when he goes off byhimself and he's just sitting
there alone, knowing who he is.
What is he thinking about inthat moment?
Because, you know, he has theability to comprehend, like all

(37:55):
of eternity, all of humanity,like, but is he thinking about
his disciples?

Is he?

thinking about his mother?
Is he thinking, I mean?
But also you know that he like,sees the future, like I'm just.
What is he thinking about inthat moment?
He's alone, he's quiet, he'spraying, but I'm just.

Those are always the fill in the gap, like
things that I'm really curiousabout like because he was a
person Like we're his feet tiredfrom walking, like you know
what I mean Like he all thethings that.

What about your?
Yeah, what about bodily things?
I'm hungry.

Right, right, like this rock, is uncomfortable
to sit on whatever, my sandalsno longer fit.

Well, I think of all this.
I have a blister, sorry.
Think of the times that, like,I've tried to retreat and then,
like all of a sudden, my I get anotification on my phone and
I'm instantly out of that.
Snap out of it, or like or likethe AC, like the room I'm in is
too hot or too cold.
It's just like so many thingscan take us out of that place of
rest, if we're not trulycentered on why we're there and
who we're there for.

(38:55):
Just a few other quick examplesMark, chapter four Jesus spent
an entire day with the crowdsbecause they hung on literally
everywhere that he spoke, and sowe read all these parables in
Mark, chapter four.
But then, in verse 35, it saysthat evening had come and Jesus
decides that it's time for abreak.
This is where Jesus sets aboundary and he says no.
And he says I'm going to leavethe crowds behind, I'm going to

(39:16):
step into the boat where theycan't follow me, and sometimes
we have to tell people no andit's amazing how you follow up
that that part.
Jesus goes down into the bottomof the boat and this is where
the storm rises up on the sea ofGalilee, and Jesus is fast
asleep at the bottom of the boat.
Yeah, what a powerful message inthe midst of that storm that
the chaos is always going to bethere.

(39:37):
But Jesus down below had thisdeep sense of peace and
contentment and was able tosleep in the midst of the storm
because he had his heart set onwhat was true and what was right
.
And so he gets up and he speakspeace.
Be still over that storm.
And he speaks peace.
Be still over the storms in ourlives.

I'm just, I'm imagining like just peace and
contentment, like when Jackson'shaving a tantrum.
Like what would that look like?

Yeah, Amen, amen.
And then the last thing Iwanted to focus on the example
of Christ is that he made it aroutine.
This is, this, wasn't just whatJesus did when he was like I
just can't take it anymore, I'mdepleted, I'm going to, I need
to go and recharge.
He made this an everyday, dailyrhythm, and it was the rhythm
that he needed to be sustainedphysically, emotionally and
spiritually ready for what hewould confront along the way.

(40:25):
And so how often do we have toget to the end of ourselves, to
the very bottom, get to abreakdown, get to some type of
attack, before we start to feellike, oh, I really need to set
aside time for myself or Ireally need to rest.
But making it a part of ourdaily rhythm and routine, that's
what's really going to be lifegiving and sustaining for us.

And you know that if you're not taking that time
to rest, or by yourself, like insome sort of routine, you are a
ticking time bomb to a badsomething.
Oh yeah, whether it's aconversation with your spouse or
your core officer or a friend,like when you are at the end of
your rope and you don't evenrealize it, you haven't taken

(41:05):
the time for yourself.
You're setting yourself up fora difficult situation.

Yeah, it's not going to be good, for sure.

For sure.

And so I just wanted to end with some
encouragement, some practicaltips right, yeah.
And it's all about balance.
Yeah, finding some life givingactivity that you can partake in
to help balance to copeeffectively when stress is
imminent.
Social media is great, but itcan also be draining, and so
knowing our limitations withthat right, and so finding some
healthy rhythms taking walks,going to the gym, painting,

(41:35):
reading a book, baking someapple crisp, I don't know,
playing some music, whatever ittakes right, incorporate some
rhythms that you know are goingto be life giving to you, and
then combine that with a renewedemphasis on making time to be
present with the Lord each day.
And what you'll discover in themidst of that is that God is
not calling you to do more.
Rather, he's calling you to bea better version of yourself,

(41:58):
and that's that's hard for us toquantify as success.
People pleasing accomplishmentdriven people.
God's not calling you to domore, but he's calling you to be
the best version of yourselfwith what you already have on
your plate.
And so I just wanted to plug aquick book that I've been
looking at the RuthlessElimination of Hurry by John

(42:20):
Mark Comer.
It's available on Amazon forlike 16 bucks, and I love the
subtitle of this book.
It says how to Stay EmotionallyHealthy and Spiritually Alive
in the Chaos of the Modern World.
And right now, if you aresomeone in a ministry role who
is in charge of leading Biblestudies or Sunday school classes
, they actually have a videoseries on right now media which,

(42:41):
for those who don't know, thatis the Netflix of spiritual
Bible studies Bible studyresources, and every Salvation
Army Corps has a subscription tothat, and so check out the
Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.

Is that overdoing our young adult Bible
study on this season?
We are not, oh sorry.

We are doing young adult Bible study on October
6th.
We are doing man loves.

That was one of the contenders.
I think that was one of thecontenders.

That's a good one, but, as I was looking at the
materials more, it's more gearedtowards people who are actively
in ministry, and so I wanted togo with one that is more
focused on our audience.
So we're going with Bob Goff'sLove and Chaos on October 6th,
but yeah, that's myencouragement to you.
I wanted to leave off with justJesus's words from Matthew,

(43:30):
chapter 11, verse 28.
He says this Thank you, nate,appreciate that.

Hopefully you listening today can take some
encouragement from the wordsthat Nate brought and from
Scripture.
Today I really liked what is it, captain?
Dorell Houston?
Captain.

Yes.

Not a major yet.
Nope, you have permission torest.
God gives you permission torest.
I like that, all right.
Well, guys, this is seasonnumber two.
It's episode number 10 in total.
We are going to wrap thePlugged In podcast for today.
If you're looking to tune in tothe next episode, it's going to
release on October 20th and ifyou want to get a head start on

(44:28):
the devotional, you can crackopen your Bibles to the fourth
chapter of Philippians.
I joked saying that this hasthe most amount of verses that
could appear on a coffee mug.
Yeah, but if you want to thinkahead, we're going to talk about
life.
Sometimes sucks.

Yeah.

How do you focus on the good vibes only?

Yeah, and finding joy right.

Yeah, are you prioritizing joy over happiness?
Is the peace of God washingover you?
Are you anxious about things inyour life?
So that's stuff to look forwardto.
And we're going to have anothergame to play, maybe a ministry
tip of the month, yeah,something like that.
But, guys, it was fun.
I'm glad we did this.
It's good to be back.
The final season, no.

No, just season two.
Here we go.
Season two Plugged.

In podcast season number two.
All right, everyone, we willsee you next time.

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Episode 10 - Unmasking Serenity in the Autumn Air

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 10 - Unmasking Serenity in the Autumn Air