March 7, 2025 • 52 mins
Merry...Christmas...everyone. We know, we know. It's March! Join us for the ride as we release a hidden Plugged In Podcast episode that never made it to air.
Ever had your hot water heater die while single parenting for a week? Matt shares his chaotic experience managing kids, household emergencies, and a child who needs "some space" in a public bathroom. The struggle is real, and sometimes only a little blue Australian dog named Bluey can save the day.
As we dive into the Christmas season, our hosts share their most memorable Red Kettle stories – from electric wheelchairs getting stranded in the Wendy's drive-thru to family traditions of playing instruments outside Walmart on Black Friday mornings. We learn about Nate's viral kettle video that's amassed nearly 70 million views, possibly making him the generational face of The Salvation Army for the TikTok generation!
Beyond the holiday humor, we continue our exploration of John Mark Comer's "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry," focusing on silence and solitude as essential spiritual disciplines. In our constantly connected world, we've lost natural moments of boredom that once created space for spiritual reflection. The conversation turns deeply personal as the hosts reflect on how Jesus intentionally withdrew to quiet places when his life was busiest – a counterintuitive but vital practice for spiritual formation.
As always, thanks for listening to the Plugged In Podcast! Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel @samassmusic and share our episodes in whatever medium you consume them.
Merry... Christmas... !
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
welcome back everyone .
We are here with episode number22 of the plugged in podcast I
don't know about you, but I'mfeeling 22 thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
It just hit me right now.
I would have never thank you,taylor swift, nope see more.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Your face was amazing , though, no more of these
references is not going to begood for me.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I would have never gotten that.
It would have been funny to letit dead.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Thanks for bringing the energy today.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hey, yeah, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Nate, you were there for her.
That was good, I was.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I don't normally sing all out of key like that.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh Well, Nate, I wouldn't.
Now I'm self-conscious.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I wasn't going to call you out.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Let's do it again.
No, we're done.
I wasn't going to call you out.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Okay, episode 22 of the Plugged In Podcast.
We are in the month of December, my gosh.
If you haven't heard it fromanyone else yet.
You can hear it from us.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Merry Christmas to you, I don't know if here just
in case it doesn't happen westart so ambitious, and then
real life comes our way.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
It's okay, I do have an opener today.
You ready for it?
Yes, bring it on.
So last week, holy cow, lastweek was a mess, okay, so I was
single dadding it yes.
So my wife Heather, she went toa conference on well, I went to
a conference Wednesday throughFriday a couple couple of weeks
ago and then we got back, saweach other literally for like
(01:28):
two hours.
She went to the airport late onFriday night and was gone all
the way through the followingSaturday, right Over a week.
Now I don't want to dramatizethis too much because there are
millions of single parents outthere that rock it.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
But let me um affirm all of them I was struggling,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I was struggling.
So Saturday, Sunday, like it wasokay because utilize the
daylight, we were going to theplayground went to the store,
there were activities, there wasstuff to do, but then the week
hit and so mass brass on Monday,like I was gone like literally
all day, it's like a 14 hour day.
Wednesday, the Quincy Corps hadtheir music finale, right, and
to get the kids from daycare,bring them to the finale, expect
them to like sit in the chapeland like watch this thing happen
(02:11):
, it was, they were really goodthey were Come on.
Okay.
So if Caleb ever listens tothis podcast in the future, I
will be so embarrassed for him,but I'm trying to manage all
this stuff going on and then.
So caleb kind of disappearsaround the corner, and he does
(02:32):
that from time to time.
He'll throw the ball with withgary or someone, and so he's
gone for, like you know, morethan 45 seconds and I'm just
like where's caleb?
so I walk around the corner,mackenzie crying, mackenzie's
crying by the way, because Ileave for one second caleb is
door wide open, pooping in thebathroom yes and so I'm like, oh
(02:54):
, buddy, and so, but like it's,it's like, it's like totally
normal to him.
He's just like, he's justlooking at me as I like take a
step closer to, like, ask him ifhe's okay, or shut the door.
He goes.
Daddy, I need some space.
I missed that part.
So like of the like, dozens ofkids and people that are walking
(03:17):
by watching him with the doorwide open, he's like, daddy, I
need some space and so, no, theweek was wild.
Self-advocate right there.
Oh, the week was wild.
In addition, the refrigeratorwhen we bought our house in 2021
, it was a multi-generation homeand we sealed it up, and
actually we rent out one bedroomof our home the refrigerator in
(03:40):
the rental unit went out, so itneeds to be replaced.
And then, on top of that maybethe worst part so on Wednesday,
after the music finale, I camehome.
There's no heat or hot water inthe house, so I try to put
Mackenzie to bed.
Caleb follows me downstairs andI'm like I'm doing what I know
how to do, what I know how to doto fix a hot water heater.
(04:02):
So, let me just put this incontext.
I got three degrees in tromboneperformance.
So when I went downstairs tofix this hot water, heater, so
what?
I know, yeah, what I know.
Anyways, that has to bereplaced.
Wow, no, after all that, and ifyou are an adult and know what
hot water heaters cost, we'recanceling Christmas this is
(04:22):
trauma.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
So Merry Christmas everybody.
Merry years cost.
Yeah, this is um, we'recanceling christmas, yeah, so,
yeah.
So christmas, merry christmaseverybody, merry christmas to us
.
Put a nice big red bow on thatnew hot water tank, put it under
the tree, yeah so it was um, itwas a wild week, I will say.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
The one thing that that saved us was a little blue
australian dog named bluey ohyeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Bluey to the rescue.
Yeah, bluey's incredible, yeah,you know they like it's a
morally sound show yeah, there'stwo parents there that both
contribute.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
They're like.
You know, there's no like.
Uh, it's just a really goodshow.
Yeah, I love it and you can.
Every time caleb and mckenzieare watching it, I'll look over
and they're like just smiling tothemselves, like they're just,
they're just into it every nowand then jackson breaks out with
like daddy, daddy, yeah, andI'm like oh, we got a little
Australian here, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
That's awesome, but they definitely write that show
for the parents as well.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, it's so sentimental, so emotional.
Little tears.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
If you can get the parents, then the kids are in as
well.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, and it's I.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
It is as an adult.
It's well written, Like so.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I'm all about Bluey.
If you want to.
If you want to, if my kids everhave a birthday coming up, get
them something Bluey that'lllast another six months and then
I'm sure it's over, but oh,great show.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I took a picture of Mackenzie at the Quincy concert
with her feet on the wrong hershoes on the wrong feet, I swear
.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
So she has like learned them wrong because it's
every time.
Now, okay, I was just saying.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I think this might be a microcosm of how Matt's week
is going.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
That he just didn't even realize, but if she did
that, you go, she's obsessedwith her shoes.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
She wants to take her shoes to bed, she wants to take
them on the changing table, butshe has learned to put them on
the wrong feet.
So I'm trying to undo that andI just don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Good luck.
Yeah, I don't know how that'sgoing.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
But we are moving into fundraising season for the
Salvation Army, and Nate tell usa little bit about the Red
Kettle campaign.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah, no, the Red Kettle campaign.
It is our signature fundraiserof the year in the Salvation
Army and, for those who aretuning in, I'm sure you have
some form of experience with theRed red kettle, whether it's
you volunteered some hoursyourself you might be an officer
, you might be running yourcampaign in your local community
Switching kettles right now.
But what a visible presence andopportunity we have as the
(06:33):
Salvation Army during this timeof year.
It's the thing that maybe somany people who don't know much
about the Salvation Army atleast they know that we're there
at their market basket, theirShaw's or Walmart whatever
raising funds throughout theyear.
And as we were just thinkingabout this season and what our
Corps and our Corps officers andlocal Corps communities are
going through, we just thoughtthat maybe we would share some
(06:56):
of our favorite kettle memoriesfrom our experience, or maybe
some funny, humorous things thathave taken place at kettles
over the years.
Uh, just to bring somelightheartedness to the, to the
craziness of this season.
All right, so we had this bellringer, uh, in columbus, ohio.
Uh, he was.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He was a really nice guy don't, don't name his name,
don't name his name.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I'm not gonna say yeah, please, no names um, he
was a really great guy, um, butwhat he would do on his breaks
was he would take the electricwheelchair from the grocery
store and he would drive it,like his own personal vehicle,
across the plaza to the Wendy'sdrive-thru.
Yes, and one of these days hedid this and it got out of range
(07:39):
from the grocery store and gotstuck in the drive-thru.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
In the.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Wendy's drive-thru and backed up cars all through
the drive-thru.
Oh, my goodness, and we got somany phone calls from Wendy's
and from the grocery store abouthim taking the scooter and
going through the drive-thru.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It's just the calls you don't expect.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Calls you don't expect to get.
Was it the same person that onthe?
I think it was the last day ofkettles when I was taking
picking up the kettles he had.
There was like one of thosesoda displays.
When you walked right in he hadlike moved the soda so he could
sit on the sodas and then hehad a giant bucket of fried
chicken and was just eating andI was like bro I was like I'm so
(08:19):
done.
It was, but it was like the endof the season.
I was like here's your check.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You know there are some kettle workers.
They take the job descriptionliterally.
It doesn't say that I can'thave fried chicken and move the
soda display.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I'm like, yeah, it's so true, but he was hilarious.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And that's the thing In his mind.
He was doing the right thingbecause he's like I want to
maximize the time that I'm outhere at the kettle.
I don't want to take my lunchwhile I'm here and you're not
supposed to eat at the kettle.
But he was just like Captain,I'm making tons of money, I'm
not taking a break, so you cankind of see through the
reasoning that there was a pureintent, Sure sure I have two
(08:55):
favorite memories, one's funny,one's like family oriented.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
The funny one is so I would always have my trombone
out on the kettles and in highschool, uh, I was a kettle
worker.
So after once christmas breakstarted I'd be taking.
Like if they could give me a12-hour shift, like with a break
, like I'd be doing it.
I was at walmart from 6 am to 6pm like that was my, my thing.
Yeah, um, but I remember as akid there were some times where
it was literally so cold outside.
(09:20):
So one year my trombone for awhile had a leaky spit valve and
it didn't inhibit my ability toplay.
But you know, every once in awhile just a tiny little bit of
condensation from the instrumentcomes out.
Well, on the coldest of daysthat water would never drop and
hit the ground.
So I didn't even realize it.
But I got like two hours in andI realized there was like a six
(09:43):
inch long like sp spitzicle,like a spitzicle that was
hanging off the bottom of mytrombone and it really confused
me at first, and then I was justlike, oh my goodness, this is
like one drop at a time it'saccumulated.
That's amazing there wasanother story where, literally
again so cold, uh, the the brassinstruments, you know, require
valve oil or some sort of likelubricant to make the valves and
(10:05):
the slides work.
I literally remember them beingthe halls with the turkey and my
slide froze mid-song and thatwas it.
It was so cold I mean we'retalking, it was like probably
two degrees out wind chill ofminus five.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Well, Illinois, right yeah, Illinois.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
So I packed up my trombone and was done.
But then I was just like oh,I've got like nine more hours to
go?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
No yeah let's go.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And then my sentimental one was just, it was
a family tradition for backwhen, black Friday was more
aggressive.
I guess, yeah, yeah, I thinkit's much less of a thing now
that online shopping is soprevalent.
Yeah, but you'd have these doorbuster deals.
The stores would open 4, 5, 6am, something like that.
And so I remember me and my dadand my two brothers and a
(10:53):
couple different years, my momwould be out there, or if my
grandparents were visiting forThanksgiving or it was some sort
of family representation.
But we got out.
We'd wake up at, like you know,5 am.
Nobody showered.
You put on like your warmestclothes.
Yes, layered, but you broughtyour instruments and we were out
there at Walmart at 6 am whenthose doors opened, Joy to the
world.
And so we'd go from like 6 to10.
(11:14):
We'd do four hours and we'dmake a large amount of money for
the Army and then afterwardswhoever didn't come out to the
kettle that day would meet us at.
There was a restaurant calledVillage Inn that was more or
less like an IHOP or somethinglike that, but this is even back
in the days of you walk in therestaurant and they ask you if
you want to be seated in thesmoking or non-smoking section.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Oh shoot, I know right.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So no, but I remember the family that stayed behind
would meet us at Village Inn.
We'd all have this like bigpancake French toast waffle.
So, it was just really special.
But I always associate thatwith Black Friday and kettles in
the morning because it's likeyou didn't really want to get up
and do that, I know, but thenyou had fun doing it and now,
looking back at it, it's such aspecial memory.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I love those.
I love memories of playingkettles with my family.
We have this one memory of allof us playing.
I was on second, my dad onfirst.
My mom plays trombone.
Larissa even got on the alto.
My brother was playing tuba soit was a whole family affair and
Larissa after one song was likeI played G the entire time, but
how can we not mention Nate'skettle video?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh, man Talk about it , so some people don't know,
okay, so when Nate was at theSalvation Army Seminary.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Part of the expectation if you were in your
first year is that you go outand you ring kettles for the
Greater New York Division andNate.
If you know Nate, if you'vespent five minutes with Nate,
you know that he is just.
He does not stand still orhe'll say something wild or
crazy or whatever.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I'm going to say, nate doesn't do anything at less
than 100%.
We'll just characterize it likethat.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
I like to move, man, I like to move.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The most famous chicken dance.
So he was standing kettles atRockefeller Rockefeller center
in New York city and someonerecorded him doing the chicken
dance in a way that only Natecould do the chicken dance.
Yeah, and it has like 70million views.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
So that was a crazy time of life.
During that kettle season Iwould regularly come back with
like 75,000, 80,000 steps everysingle day.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Oh yeah, that was not fair, because we were in
competition and he was alwayswinning.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I lost 12 pounds over the season because if you think
eight hours per day, five daysa week, of just like vigorous
dancing, you're gonna loseweight and if your body's trying
to stay warm, it's also likeburning more calories just to
stay warm and you're layeredlike insulated and we didn't get
tons like we would get a littlemeal stipend from the training
(13:44):
school to go get you know, likea slice of pizza.
But we're not like out therehaving like a whole buffet or
anything.
We're having a slice of pizzaand water, and so it's like I
probably expended about 14 000calories and probably ate like
600 yeah, yeah, yeah, it'samazing you didn't pass out.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, no, but that video is like ultra famous, so
it's crazy, it's wild, it wild.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Every Christmas it kind of resurfaces again on
Facebook and recirculates.
But the last time I checked itwas up to 69 million views.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So how do you I mean tell me how you feel Like as we
cross?
I mean so, think about this andI'm being serious.
So when someone of an oldergeneration mentions the
Salvation Army, someone may saylike oh, the donut girls helped
my grandpa in World War.
I Like it's the most broadunderstanding of the Salvation
(14:32):
Army In today's TikTokgeneration.
It's very possible that someonecould say, do you know the
Salvation Army?
And their answer could be well,I saw this crazy guy doing the
chicken dance at a kettle.
That could be you.
You could be the generationalAmerican face of the Salvation
Army.
It's true.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yeah, that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
It's a lot of weight on your shoulders.
It's a lot of weight.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It's also very unique to that context.
You know, like Rockefeller, NewYork City, they're so used to
that kind of street performermentality and everyone's always
in a rush to go somewhere, andso if you are not doing
something like that dancing,standing out in a way, people
are just going to pass by, andso I understand it doesn't work
(15:17):
in every context, doesn't workin every community, but for that
time, for that season, itworked there and I'm all about
getting good publicity for the.
Salvation Army and the ministrythat we do, rather than bad
publicity.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And you had very good kettles after those.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Oh yeah, it was fun.
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Well, I'm sure after that went viral, people were
looking for you.
Like is that guy going to beout here?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And that's like if you look at some of the comments
on the original post.
It's like, if you look at thesome of the comments on the
original post, like we came,we're out new york next week I
hope that he's there and it'sjust like people came.
It was kind of like iconic itwas so funny.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I'm wondering if we can put out a challenge to mass
youth yes how about let's getthem involved with the kettles?
What do you?
What do you think you can we?
Uh, let's do it.
What can we give them?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
so how about if we did something similar last
christmas?
If you, I'm looking at thecamera yeah, look right at them
if you, uh, a young person,let's, let's extend it.
If.
If young person, young adult inyour core, if you are in your
core, if you get involved inkettles this christmas, whether
ringing, counting, dancing,playing your instrument,
(16:22):
counting, helping with toy shop,take a picture, tag us at
MassYouth and we'll send yousome swag.
You have to tag MassYouth youhave to tag MassYouth or else
we're not going to find it andwe're not going to send it, but
we would be glad to deck you outin some gear if it means that
you are helping locally, at yourcore, if you're getting
involved, and it's no, we kindof say it flippantly, but every
(16:47):
penny counts everything, andwhether that's the hours you're
giving or actual money in thekettle.
So, help your core officers,help your local leaders get
involved.
Tag us, take a picture, take aselfie.
Tag us and we'll send you somestuff.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
No, it's just a.
It's a beautiful opportunity tojust help carry the load.
Yeah, you know, share theministry Kettles in itself can
be exhausting, christmas can beexhausting, but I just think of
the relationships that areformed through bell ringers that
I've met over the years, andjust the conversations that take
place in the vans, and soeverything that we do, even the
things that are very hard, wehave an opportunity to point
(17:20):
people to Jesus and point themto the hope that we claim to
know.
And so, yeah, just helpshoulder that load and help
spread a little joy this season.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I love it.
Well, we have a couple morethings, a couple more segments
on the PluggedIn Podcast,episode number 22, before we
take a break today.
We're going to play a couple ofChristmas games a little bit
later and we are going to moveforward in our pod book club.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, I think that was it.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Talking about John Mark Comer's book the Ruthless
Elimination of Hurry.
More conviction to our soulsthis week.
Before we take our break,though, just a couple things.
One the Sounds of Christmas iscoming up.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yes, how crazy.
I mean like a couple days fromnow.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yes, sunday, december 8th, at the Boston Kroc Center
at 6 o'clock pm.
We hope everyone comes out.
So we're going to have seatingset up for 400 and then there's
going to be a little bit ofexcess room as well if we have
more than that, but we want thewhole division to come out.
If you're not in the SalvationArmy, we hope you come out.
It's a free Christmas concert.
A couple of things that I justwant to highlight.
(18:19):
All of our Youth Arts Ministrystudents both of the choruses
are going to be singing.
The Youth Arts Ministry TimbrelBrigade is doing a drill.
The dance team will be dancing.
We have original scripts beingwritten by Sam Leroux from
Springfield Mass Brass.
Our divisional band is playingmaybe the most epic tone poem
(18:40):
ever written, called the Kingdom.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Triumphant.
Nate loves it so good.
He loves a good tone poem, yes,called the kingdom, the kingdom
triumphant.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Nate loves it so good , he loves a good tone.
Yes, I do, uh, but that pieceis based on oh come, oh come,
emmanuel, rejoice, rejoice, uh,and then uh, new to this year.
So we have the family campchorus, the divisional family
camp chorus.
I can't wait to hear this isgoing to be uh singing as well,
and then we also have kind of uh.
As recently as this past familycamp, mass brass has started to
combine doing some pieces withour worship band.
(19:10):
So we're doing another combinedpiece at the sounds of
Christmas.
It's a.
It's a big uh sing along, uh,kind of production kind of piece
.
But Chris Molinaro actually didthe arrangement of the brass
parts for it Uh.
So it's a.
It's going to be a greatproduction.
If you're watching your clockright now, the show looks like
with an intermission, it's abouttwo hours and 15 minutes.
So we'll start at six o'clockand you can be on your way by
(19:32):
eight, 15, eight, 20, withenough time to get home.
So that's the sounds ofChristmas.
Sunday, December 8th, at theBoston Croc center, six o'clock
PMm.
There's going to be lots ofcookies, cocoa, water, coffee,
photo booth, there's going to bea pass the parcel.
A lot of fun stuff happening.
So we hope to see you there.
Final segment before we take abreak, we're bringing it back.
(19:55):
We get the most comments aboutthis segment, but we love saying
who we are so stinking proud ofyou guys want to take it away?
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yeah, take it away, nate.
One stinking proud of you.
Guys want to take it away?
Yeah, take it away, nate.
One of the great joys in ourministry is being able to travel
around the division and justsee young people in action, and
a few weeks ago we were at thePlymouth Corps.
First and foremost, thePlymouth Corps is hopping.
They're rocking, they arepacking that place out on a
Sunday morning.
So much representation ofdifferent people and backgrounds
and cultures.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Check out their Facebook page.
Envoy Anne has the social mediarolling.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
She really does, so check that out, she's going live
like every day, I know.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
You know what's happening.
You know what's happening there.
It's really cool.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And so we were there, privileged to be a part of a
junior soldier enrollment fortheir newest junior soldier,
isaac.
Isaac is just a phenomenalyoung man.
He's awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
He was in his uniform he was playing the bass drum.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
He was so nervous, but he did such a great job he
didn't want to mess up hisjunior soldier promise, but he
stood up there.
He knows exactly what it meansto be a junior soldier.
He lives it out.
It's not just you know, I wantto wear this uniform but I want
to point others to Jesus.
I want to share the love of Godwith my family, my friends.
And we've got to get to know,we've had the opportunity to get
(21:11):
to know Jesus Isaac over theyears and just kind of seen the
growth and the first time I evermet Isaac.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
he came to music conservatory two years ago and
that was the first time I evermet him.
Uh, but envoy and said this isgoing to be a great kid for this
program and it's just beenawesome to have him a part of
our family cause he's come backto music camp and, uh, he's a
proficient percussion player.
I mean he's he and Zia fromBrockton make a little team back
there.
It's really great.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
And just to tag on to that.
This past week we were in FallRiver and had the opportunity to
enroll Mason, who we shoutedout last episode Mason.
Mason and Joaquin.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Mason listens to the podcast.
He does listen.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
He tells me he listens.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
But we had the opportunity to enroll Mason and
Joaquin, which was a greatSunday.
The Mason and Joaquin it was agreat Sunday the past couple
weeks have been really wonderful.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Just one last thing about that enrollment in
Plymouth Perhaps the nicest orthe coolest, most impressive
junior soldier cake I have everseen made.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Oh, in our lives I saw a picture of it.
By Karen's daughter.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, it was incredible, incredible, amazing.
And then who I'm so stinkingproud of?
We'll wrap up today's segmentwith this.
We have chosen our participants.
Our young people go toCalifornia every December into
January to march in the RoseBowl Parade and represent the
Massachusetts Division.
Our two people are JulianSanchez-Aguilar from Chelsea
(22:32):
Corps and also Shanine Wade fromthe Brockton Corps.
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Give them some applause.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Oh, I'm not.
I'm not touching this thinganymore.
I don't want to do it, I refuse.
No, but julian is playing tuba.
When he goes out there, he'llbe playing a sousaphone, which
is that giant thing that wrapsaround you with the forward bell
, and so.
And then shaneen is going outon timbrels great, and so
they're going to be fantasticrepresentatives of the
massachusetts division.
We are proud of our youngpeople.
We are so stinking proud ofthem.
(22:58):
So when we come back, we'regoing to take a short break here
on the plugged in podcast.
This is episode number 22.
When we come back, we have acouple of christmas games and
rapid fire questions for you, aswell as our book review of the
ruthless elimination of hurry.
This is the plugged in podcastepisode 22.
We'll be right back.
All right, welcome back.
We are here with episode number22 of the plugged in podcast.
(23:32):
Maybe the christmas special?
Oh, maybe.
Maybe, time will tell.
No, a sneak peek of Christmas.
I think we got one more at us.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
We can do one more.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
I have faith.
After annual luncheon, soundsof Christmas Patriots party.
After that we'll squeeze oneout.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
We'll make it happen.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
I got my Christmas gear on, just in case Nate you
are.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
We didn't draw attention to your gear.
Gear.
You're looking great, I willsay.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
You always have a suit jacket on.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I don't, I don't, always I gotta up my game.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I wanna be like Matt.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Okay well.
Gotta grow your hair out.
That's a controversial topicthese days.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
No, it looks fantastic.
You could do commercials forHerbal Essences, I believe.
I think it's.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Here I was.
Okay, I'm not going to respondto that.
I will say, though, that, uh,it's funny when you, when I'm
editing the podcast clips, sowhen we go in between breaks
yeah if you're watching on theYouTube channel, uh like you'll
see like a little fade of likethis clip ends, the audio stops,
but we're still kind of like ha, ha, ha, you know like joking
yeah, but it's funny because thelast couple episodes, so I will
(24:37):
do what you have done.
Right, Take off my headphones.
I run my fingers through myhair and kind of like separate
it out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly so Idon't know if I'm proud of that
or not.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Be proud, be proud.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
My wife, not a fan.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Not a fan of the longer hair.
It does matter.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
We should shave your head on the next podcast episode
.
Wow, that would get some clicks.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
man that would get clicks.
After that break, nate is readyto go.
Yeah, that's not happening.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Okay, so new segment of episode number 22.
Going to throw it over toLoretta.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
All right, well, just in case, this is our Christmas
special Just in case.
Just in case we're going toplay a little Christmas game.
Us in case we're gonna play alittle christmas game.
Okay, so you two bro code.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You two need to think alike.
Oh, we do that pretty regularly.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I know this is why this might be really good I'm
all good I'm gonna namesomething and you two have to
each respond and you get pointsif you say the same thing aaron
rogers wait, so do we have torespond at the same time?
No, you'll have like a secondto think.
So here's an example.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Let me go like three, two, one boom.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Here's an example Okay, something you put on your
hot chocolate.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Three, two, one Marshmallows.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
What yes, no?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
All right.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
So we're just going to jump right in.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
There's one point.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I'm not keeping score or keep score Okay.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Ready, something you would find at the North Pole.
Three, two, one Penguins,penguins and elves Penguins and
elves Penguins elves.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
We were both in the realm.
I'm stuck in the animal cage.
That was the animal cage.
You need to go back.
If you haven't heard our animalcage segment, go back to
episode 21, part number one.
That was one of the betterclips I think this podcast has
produced.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It was phenomenal.
Alright name one of Santa'sreindeers 3, 2, 1.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Rudolph.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Good job Name one thing you can hang on the
Christmas tree 3, 2, 1.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Ornaments Wait star ornament Did we get half a point
.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Now we're going to get a little trickier.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Are you keeping score ?
I'm not keeping score.
We got one.
We have one out of three.
No, you definitely have liketwo.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
We got Rudolph and marshmallows.
You both said Rudolph and youboth said marshmallows.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I thought that was a practice one.
I was giving it to you.
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So we're two out of four, we're 50%.
That's right.
I'm going to lull.
There's so many.
Just look at each other, lookinto each other's eyes.
So wait, are we thinking?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
three, two, one, all I want for Christmas is you.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
We went Mariah, then we went straight traditional.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
That's why I'm like are we going Christmas him?
I really thought joy to theworld in my brain.
He's not saying that.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Okay, ready.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Name a Christmas movie.
Oh, three, two, one Christmas.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Vacation.
Dang it, you guys.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Come on, man, come on , let's go, come on.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Name, a name, something red.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Three, two one Santa's hat.
This is getting worse.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
We're not good at this game anymore.
Let's do.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Okay, I'm going to go back to the easy question.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
What are we?
Two of eight, two of seven?
I'm not doing that.
Give us the easy one, okay.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Name a spice that you bake with at Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
A spice, a spice.
Okay, three, two, one Ginger.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Cinnamon and ginger.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Okay All right, here we go, here we go Okay okay,
this is going to get you back ontrack.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Okay, come on.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Name something that you use to wrap presents.
There's like three options.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Okay, Three, two one Wrapping paper, tape, tape.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Okay, I thought I was going with the most obvious
thing, wow All right, this mightbe a little more difficult.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
This is like our friendship is ending.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
You guys seeing some true colors here.
Okay, Name something that youwould find in a stocking.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Three, two, one Fruit .
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Does anybody else get fruit in their stocking?
Yes, I get an orange.
Okay, yeah, at the bottom of mystocking.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah, santa, santa always brings an apple, an
orange or a banana, somethinglike that.
Okay I was about to saytoothbrush is that not a thing?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
yeah, no, my mom stocking stuffers are like yeah,
practical what did?
Speaker 1 (28:54):
you say lar Loretta.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
I said Santa.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Okay, got you.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
I said Santa, okay, let's do the last one, he's
listening.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
You gotta be on the same.
We gotta end well.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Ready Worst team in the NFL 3-2-1 Jets.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Wow, it wasn't even me this time, larissa, if you're
listening, that was Nate.
It was not me.
Larissa, if you're listening,that was Nate.
It was not me.
Larissa, if you're out there ifyou're out there.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
That was not me.
I just thought that we couldget something I was just trying
to.
You know, I don't even want youto end on a good note.
Now, I'm just kidding we'lldeal with this after the fact.
Now I'm gonna be in troubleyeah, you are ready.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
A Christmas flower.
Oh okay, a flower, easy, wait,hold on.
I know what it is, I know holdon.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I know what it is, I know what it is.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I know what it is.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
But I can't think of the word.
Okay, one, two, three.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Mistletoe.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Mistletoe's, not a flower right, no, it's like a
sprig of berries or something.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Oh my goodness, all right.
Well, that's my gamePoinsettias.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah, we're going to end it there In our show notes.
I said to you I'm so bad atthese games.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
You can't mess this up.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
She literally said there's no way you can be bad at
this game.
You did say that.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Mistletoe.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
I wasn't thinking poinsettia.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
So what is mistletoe?
That is the Christmas flower.
It lines every chapel.
I will give you that, but thentell me what mistletoe is.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
That is the Christmas flower.
It lines every chapel.
I will give you that, but thentell me what mistletoe is A
berry?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I don't know.
It's like a holly berry Holly,maybe that's what I was thinking
of, or maybe a holly bush.
Come on, mr.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Garden.
I'm upset with myself, I'membarrassed and I'm upset with
myself.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I'm embarrassed and I'm upset.
That's going to be all forepisode 22.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Thanks for joining us Merry Christmas See you next
time.
Okay, I have a rapid firequestion oh, now I feel like
this is going to be revenge.
No, it's not.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Okay, one for each of you.
So we'll start with Nate.
All right, nate, I'm going togive you five Christmas movies.
Oh wow, you only get to keepthree.
You have to completely forfeitthem from your life.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Wow, past and present , do I rank those three that I
keep?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I mean, if you want to, that'd be a bonus game.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Oh, my word, Just say the three If we really want to
make it overcomplicated.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Okay, Movie number one National Lampoon's Christmas
Vacation.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
That is a good one classic number three home alone,
two lost in new york are you inmy head right now because you
weren't in the game wow, that'sa zinger of all singers you
weren't, I wasn't in yourseither, so okay, number four
jingle all the way, and numberfive die hard oh man, I love
(31:31):
this.
I tailored this list to you,buddy.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yes, I did tailor this to me I thought, when you
said movies, you would have saidyou have to eliminate two of
them.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Okay, christmas Vacation Elf Home Alone 2,
jingle All the Way and Die Hard.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
And don't pull a Nate and over explain no, no, no,
just eliminate two Home Alone 2is my favorite Okay.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
It's I'm really good at following instructions.
Hold on a second Let me explain, let me give you my synopsis.
So Home Alone 2 is kept.
Yeah, okay, I think in terms ofChristmas movies.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
It's okay, just go for it, let's go.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
You have to keep Elf.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, I think you have to keep Elf.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
You only get one more choice.
So you have Christmas Vacation,jingle All the Way and and Die
Hard Okay.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
I'm going to keep.
National Lampoon's ChristmasVacation yeah, Just because it's
so like, it's so unique fromevery other Christmas movie.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
So you're obliterating Jingle All the Way
and Die Hard yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
I do love both of those.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Gone, wiped from your memory Turbo.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Man, I love it.
We haven't seen Sinbad since.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
He was a great bomb carrying Postman.
He had the bomb.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
It clicked in my head .
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Alright, loretta, you're rapid fire.
Same concept.
I'm going to give you five bigChristmas traditions or
Christmas things.
You can only pick three.
You have to eliminate you fivebig Christmas traditions or
Christmas things.
You can only pick three.
You have to eliminate two.
First one, christmas music.
So this is hymns in church,hits on the radio, caroling and
annoying speakers in the mall.
Okay, so that's all of.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Christmas music All of it, all of it, all of it.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Christmas decorating this is indoor and outdoor
lights, your Christmas tree,throw pillows, rugs, nativity
scenes.
It's all, all of it.
All of it.
Christmas food, so cooking withyour family a big holiday meal,
all treats and desserts,gingerbread houses, anything to
do with Christmas food, okay.
Christmas entertainment Allmovies this sucks.
(33:35):
All concerts, musicals, anykind of entertainment, okay.
And then, lastly, christmasgifts, both giving and receiving
.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I'm such a giver.
I love giving Christmas gifts.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
So you can keep three , but you have to forego two.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
This absolutely sucks .
Okay, I'm going to say keepingdecorating.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
My house is already decorated?
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
It's tough.
I feel like my heart is sayingokay, keep Christmas movies and
entertainment because you'll getChristmas music in it.
Is that a loophole?
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Stop over explaining, so that's it.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
He was waiting for it .
Speaker 3 (34:10):
He got you Nate's double in trouble.
Now you guys are going to havewords later, that's when we have
fun drive home.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
I'm going to have words later.
That's going to be a fun drivehome.
I'm going to keep Christmasentertainment.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Okay, Christmas movies are life, so you're
keeping decorating andentertainment.
Then you have music, food andgifts All right left.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I'm going to go gifts .
Speaker 1 (34:23):
You're keeping gifts.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
I love giving Christmas gifts.
I love thinking about whatwould they like and giving it.
I love watching Jackson.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
So you're getting rid of all Christmas food by the
way.
Cookies I mean, like cookies,hot chocolate, you know
Christmas ham.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
All the.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Christmas, so you can't eat anything ever if you
don't pick this.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
No, but I'm saying like having like a big meal at
the core or with your family itwouldn't exist.
That would be number four therewould be no like getting
together to have like a big mealwith family.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Bummer, so you're getting rid of all the food and
all the Christmas music that'stough, that's tough, I know.
I think I found my loophole,which is what makes me okay with
that, because I would getChristmas music through movies.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
I don't know if that's legit.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Well, you didn't say that Okay.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
All right, fair enough.
Okay, so that's our rapid firefor today.
We have one more segment here,plugged In Podcast episode
number 22.
If you've been following alongwith us, I actually heard from
someone this week that said theypurchased the book and they are
reviewing it alongside thepodcast.
I thought that was pretty cool.
(35:34):
This is John Mark Comer's theRuthless Elimination of Hurry,
and the book has been talkingabout hurry and busyness as a
sickness Right, and how it'sgetting worse and worse and
exponentially worse.
But we've moved on to thesolution-based passage of the
book.
We're in the intermissionsection and then we just started
part three.
Intermission is a set ofblack-colored pages that are
(35:55):
about 20 pages where the font isreally large.
I love these pages.
I like that.
It went pretty fast, me too, asI'm in a hurry to read it.
You know exactly.
But they're talking aboutspiritual disciplines and the
idea of.
I found this really interesting,but reading the Gospels
differently.
We don't think of the Gospelsas biographies, but he's talking
(36:17):
about if you thought about theGospels differently.
We don't think of the Gospelsas biographies, but he's talking
about if you thought about theGospels and if you read them as
biographies, would you accept ita little bit differently and
not just taking the stories onthe whole, but you would
recognize the smaller parts orthe in-betweens, the day-to-day
actions, like if we want to belike Barack Obama.
We would read his biography andwe'd say, oh, barack Obama woke
(36:39):
up at 5 am, he had coffee inthe morning, he studied for two
hours.
I would mirror my life if Iwanted to reflect Barack Obama.
So they're reading these, he'sreading.
He's saying read the Gospels asbiographies.
Look at Jesus's life.
He has a conversation withsomeone, he performs a miracle,
but then he goes off in praise.
He goes off in praise.
He goes off in praise.
(36:59):
Nate, can you tell us a littlebit about this section and the
spiritual disciplines?
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Yeah, so when we're talking about spiritual
disciplines, we're talking about, as it's described in the book,
it's a lifestyle that we'readopting to create space for
emotional health and spirituallife, that everything
holistically is connected fromour body, our minds and our
spirit.
And it's interesting I don'tthink I really ever fully
(37:26):
thought this through but Jesusdoesn't ever really command us
to practice the spiritualdisciplines outside of prayer.
It's not something that Jesusexplicitly said go and find a
place of solitude and silence orgo and adopt all these certain
practices.
Rather, it was Jesus modelingthe lifestyle of what it means
(37:47):
to live a life that isspiritually disciplined, and so
I think that when we're lookingat this topic of spiritual
disciplines, we're focusing onnot getting so caught up in the
practices themselves as likethey're the end all, but rather
(38:07):
I want to form my life in thehabits of Jesus.
And these are some practicesthat help me become more like
him.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
And rather than a command as an invitation, he
says come follow me, come followme.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
That's the quote it says.
For Jesus, leadership isn'tabout coercion or control.
It's example and invitation.
I highlighted that.
I love that.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Yeah, and you think of the word discipline and a lot
of times discipline has somenegative connotations to it
right, nobody likes the worddiscipline, but in the book he
talks about how like disciplineis a way to access power, and he
uses this illustration of likebench pressing your own weight.
You don't just get up one dayand you're like, oh yeah, I'm
going to bench press my ownweight.
No, you start by doing somepushups and then you add, you
(38:47):
know, start benching a littlebit and you add more weight as
you go, as you build thatmuscles and then eventually
you're able to do it.
And so he makes this connectionbetween willpower.
You have the desire to dosomething, but willpower can
only take you so far.
And so these disciplines arelike.
It's like reframing your willto seek that of the abundant
(39:09):
life of Christ.
And then eventually, as weallow these disciplines to form
us and frame our character afterChrist, to model those habits
and those lifestyles, then weare actually able to access a
power that doesn't come fromourself.
The Holy Spirit's power opensus up to a power beyond our own,
(39:29):
because we know that we canonly will ourselves so far.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
I can say you know.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
I really want to be able to run a marathon, but am I
going to will myself to put inthe work for that?
And even if I am.
I may not be able to um becauseI'm physically limited but in
the same, in our spiritual life,I want to live like Christ.
I can do all these practices,but at the end of the day it's
also a practice in surrender.
I can't become like Jesus.
(39:55):
I can do the things that he haslaid out.
I can follow after his way, andthen his spirit makes us more
like him as we open ourselves upto his power, and so it's
really a practice in surrenderand a practice in being present
with God, being present withpeople, being present to all
that is good and beautiful inthe world and being present to
(40:16):
our own souls.
They talk about in the book howwe live in an age now where
we're constantly talking aboutmindfulness, mindfulness, being
mindful, but a lot of times thesecular world does mindfulness
but erases the yeah, erasesJesus from the equation.
Right, emptying your mind, justbeing present with yourself,
(40:38):
but it's not disconnecting fromthe world so that you isolate
yourself from everything.
It's disconnecting from thenoise so that you can connect
more to him and his voice, hegets into his first.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
What we read about was silence and solitude, and he
talks about isolation versussolitude, and obviously that's
the very end of the chapter.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
But the difference between the two Let me all right
so if you're following along inthe book.
So after this intermissionsection, he starts to lay out
four practices for unhurryingyour life, and the first one
that we got into for thisepisode was silence and solitude
.
So what you were just saying Ifound it interesting.
The very.
Excuse me, I'm losing my voice.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Anytime I talk too much, it just it's shot.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
I don't have a.
I have a Patrick Mahomes,Kermit.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
I was just going to say you go for a Kermit thing.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
I have a Patrick Mahomes, kermit the Frog voice.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Like it's it's pretty .
Speaker 1 (41:26):
That's one of my limitations.
I can't.
I'm not a great singer.
I have a.
I have a limited voice, soSilence and Solitude.
He starts the chapter off bysaying do you remember in a time
in the late 90s, do youremember what boredom is?
And I thought about this and Iwas.
I mean like, yeah, of course Ido Like you know, I remember
(41:49):
being at home.
You're 12, 13, 14 years old, andthis is, I mean really before
we're.
I mean, video games are around,but it's not like life dominant
Right, and I still remember,like you know, my friends coming
and knocking on the door andyou going out and playing with
them and stuff like that, andthat was like your entertainment
post-school or or not in churchactivities.
Um, but he talks about like doyou remember when you used to be
(42:11):
bored?
Because moments in everyone'slife used to exist like this?
Yep, because moments ineveryone's life used to exist
like this, and in those momentsthose were opportunities for
silence and solitude and toconnect to the Father.
Those were moments ofopportunity to focus on prayer
life, to focus on your day orjust to kind of like rein
(42:33):
yourself in.
Now those don't exist anymorebecause we have our phones in
our pockets.
You pull out your phone, yourun through the Instagram reel,
you're getting this dopamine hitof.
It just sucks away your time,it sucks away your attention.
So he starts out by saying thatsilence and solitude has been
largely Lifted from our life.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Yeah, yeah Well, it talks about the very start of
Jesus's ministry.
Right when he is, he's baptized, he comes out of the water, the
Holy Spirit descends upon himand from immediately, right
there, he goes into thewilderness.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Gone, and the wilderness is not a For 40 days,
for 40 days.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Yeah, you know, and he toils through there, hungry,
thirsty, tired, physically,emotionally, spiritually, hungry
, thirsty, tired physically,emotionally, spiritually, and um
the?
The point that he makes in thebook is that the wilderness is
not a place of weakness.
In fact, those wilderness, thewilderness time, the time of
solitude and silence, where wecan just be with the father, is
a place of restoration andstrength so I'll just jump in
(43:30):
because, because, uh, what youjust said when you first read
the story.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
It says he, he went into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil.
Yeah, it was the scripture, andthe way the author is saying it
is just like well, why would,if you're going to be tempted
the devil, why would you go intothis place where you're all
alone?
Right.
But, like you said, he'sreversing the way you're reading
that.
Right, the narrative going intothe wilderness was not a place
of weakness, but it was a placeof strength because he was
connected to the father and thenyou you read it differently
(43:54):
where it's Jesus was led by thespirit into the wilderness.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
If you miss that word , you miss the intentionality of
the leading to the place.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
Yeah, yeah, there's just a lot of great stuff in
this chapter.
There's something that reallyjust kind of blew my mind and I
know it in my head but just tolike read it on paper and to
take it to heart.
There's this one quote thatsays the busier and more demand,
and the busier and more indemand and famous that Jesus
became, the more he withdrew tohis quiet place to pray.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
And I think of how many times in my life I'm like
man.
If only I had more time.
I can't do that because I don'thave time.
I don't have.
You know, I can't prioritize myspiritual life because I'm so
busy.
But it's Jesus, knowing howbusy and how demanding his life
was, he needed more time withthe Father.
And so it's reframing andrefocusing, reprioritizing that
which is important.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
This is the point of the book where I, like I've been
convicted all over this book,but this is the book where I
felt really spoiled, like I'malready hyper aware that I grew
up in a household where myparents, my grandparents, like I
, have generational models in mylife of faithfulness, pursuit
of holiness that are really,really special, but this chapter
(45:09):
in particular, silence andsolitude.
So I just have memories of myentire life, my childhood, both
my mom, my dad, my grandpa, likeif, for whatever reason, I were
to be awake or out of bed atlike 5 or 6 am, there, my
parents were in the living roomnext to the window, the sun is
coming up, their Bible in frontof them, not even talking to
(45:32):
each other, just quiet time withGod.
Not even talking to each other,just quiet time with God.
And in the case of my grandpa,like he built this cabin in the
upper peninsula of Michigan andhe would go out on the lake with
a pontoon boat that he likeassembled himself like this
orange piece of wood, but he'dgo out into the middle of the
lake, drop anchor at sunrise andit wasn't like a show off thing
(45:53):
, but everyone around the lakelike oh, there's Her herb having
his morning devotions and justthat, those moments of silence
and solitude.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
I just I read this and I was just like, wow, that
has been displayed in front ofme my entire life, yeah well, I
was like, when he draws theparallels between the external
noise and the internal noise,like that's something that I
struggle with so much, because Ifeel like my mind never stops.
And so when I've alwayscontemplated this silence and
(46:22):
solitude, I've always thought tomyself fine, I can have silence
externally, but internally Ifeel like what does he say?
There's a mental chatter thatnever shuts up.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
And I feel like, uh, he says, the clutter in our
minds is like a mental chatterthat never shuts up.
Yeah, and I feel like, uh, hesays, the clutter in our minds
is like a mental hoarderlandlocked in his or her own
bedroom, um, in aself-constructed prison, and I
just feel like, oh, my word, theamount of times that I've tried
to withdraw and find, uh,moments and pockets of silence.
Speaker 3 (46:52):
My mind doesn't shut up, yeah yeah, and that's, and
that's where he says that a lotof times we use these external
noises to drown out or mask ourown internal noise.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (47:04):
Meaning that because our lives are so chaotic and our
spiritual lives are so hungryand so thirsty and so desperate
to be present with Christ.
We fill that void with anythingelse that comes our way as a
distraction.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
And it's super convicting.
Super convicting Also just as aparent to think of.
He mentions in here thatchildren, more than anything
else, they need your time, andfor that relationship to thrive,
T-I-M-E.
T-i-m-e.
Children need time with you forthat relationship to grow.
And you know, we wouldn't justlike write off our kids and just
(47:37):
be like go figure it out.
We try to be intentional andspend time with them.
But why are, why didn't we notput the same level of
intentionality into our timespent with the Lord?
Super convicting.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Yeah, well, uh, there are three more uh practices
left in this book and um ournext episode, whether that's in
December, before Christmas or inJanuary.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
We're really just leaving this one up.
I know, I know we're reallyletting them know, we're giving
ourselves an out.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
We're giving ourselves an out.
Because, sometimes we'vepromised episodes and then it
hasn't happened.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
And then all of our listeners are so upset.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Would you stop?
Are you being sarcastic?
That yeah, would you stop?
Are you being sarcastic?
Speaker 1 (48:15):
No, okay, it's going to kick you, but the following
practices the next three.
So we did silence and solitude.
The next three are Sabbath,simplicity and slowing.
Man, yeah, so those fourpractices silence and solitude,
sabbath, simplicity and slowing.
So I think we've said it eachepisode.
This has been an easy read,it's been a convicting one and
(48:37):
it's also been a fast read, likewhen we need.
When we need to plow 60 pages,like it can, it happens pretty
quick.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
So highly recommend it, john Mark Comer is the
ruthless elimination of hurry uh.
Over the next couple episodeswe'll wrap up this book and then
we'll see what's next.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
I feel like this has been kind of a a new twist to
the podcast.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
Guys got any?
Uh, last thoughts before wewrap up the episode.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
I am thoughtless.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Tell me about the Patriots party.
Yes, the.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Patriot party is coming up on December, 10th
December, 10th Tuesday December10th.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
You're welcome, thank you.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
Um, yeah, it's going to be a great time.
It's for those who haveresponded, kristen has been
communicating with the fieldabout those who will be, who
have wanted to come.
Once again, newburyport isbringing a bus full of 30 kids.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Wow, they're amazing.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
It's incredible, but it's just a great opportunity
for our kids to experiencesomething that they maybe would
never have had the opportunityto do and and be loved on and be
served literally uh, food andand whatever by the Patriot
organization.
So it's been a great time.
Um so uh, keep an eye out forany additional emails from
Kristen on that.
(49:47):
If you're coming to that andthen sounds of Christmas right
around the corner.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
Yeah, two days before that, can I plug one last thing
?
Nope, gotta go Go for it.
All right, nevermind, justkidding.
So we also have December 14th,we have an upcoming young adult
Christmas gathering, yes and sofor that we, if you can just
RSVP the way you were looking at.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
Loretta was like is this happening in?
Our house, I know, Am I allowedto invite people?
Speaker 3 (50:13):
Well, we didn't mention how amazing allowed to
invite people.
Well, we didn't mention howamazing, so we just had friends
giving yeah, with about close to40 young
Speaker 2 (50:20):
adults in our house.
It was incredible.
Speaker 3 (50:20):
Just a lot of fun times.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Uh, just pie baking competition you should ask ask
chris milliner about how neatyeah, don't ask him okay me once
again decided to make a veryambitious pie.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
I did yeah, and you only have an hour gluten free no
, oh, espresso it.
Good, it's an espresso custardpie, but what happened, was it?
Wasn't setting properly, so weadded a lot of cornstarch to it,
which apparently alters thetaste.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
The women tried saying that's enough.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Anyway, that's a story for another day, Anyways
what I was saying young adultChristmas gathering Saturday,
december 14th.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
We'll have to have a firm count for that, so RSVPs
will be coming out for that andwe'd love to see you there If
you've made it this far intoepisode number 22 of the Plugged
In Podcast.
We don't do this often, but Iwould ask that you would
subscribe to our YouTube channelso we've got all the episodes
running on YouTube.
There's lots of shorts thatwe're trying to get filtered
(51:19):
into your algorithm on the feedson your phone, Speaking about
not being hurried or having yourphone suck your life away.
Subscribe to the SA Mass MusicYouTube channel.
We do bring we put forth someeffort to give you a lot of
content, so we'd like you tostay connected to what we're
doing.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
Stay plugged in.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
All right, well, everyone, it's been a pleasure,
as always in episode number 22of the plugged in podcast.
If we don't see you beforeChristmas, have a Merry
Christmas, a happy new year, butI think we got one more episode
, so when that comes, we willsee you next time.
welcome back everyone .
We are here with episode number22 of the plugged in podcast I
don't know about you, but I'mfeeling 22 thank you.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
It just hit me right now.
I would have never thank you,taylor swift, nope see more.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Your face was amazing , though, no more of these
references is not going to begood for me.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I would have never gotten that.
It would have been funny to letit dead.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Thanks for bringing the energy today.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hey, yeah, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Nate, you were there for her.
That was good, I was.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I don't normally sing all out of key like that.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh Well, Nate, I wouldn't.
Now I'm self-conscious.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I wasn't going to call you out.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Let's do it again.
No, we're done.
I wasn't going to call you out.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Okay, episode 22 of the Plugged In Podcast.
We are in the month of December, my gosh.
If you haven't heard it fromanyone else yet.
You can hear it from us.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Merry Christmas to you, I don't know if here just
in case it doesn't happen westart so ambitious, and then
real life comes our way.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
It's okay, I do have an opener today.
You ready for it?
Yes, bring it on.
So last week, holy cow, lastweek was a mess, okay, so I was
single dadding it yes.
So my wife Heather, she went toa conference on well, I went to
a conference Wednesday throughFriday a couple couple of weeks
ago and then we got back, saweach other literally for like
(01:28):
two hours.
She went to the airport late onFriday night and was gone all
the way through the followingSaturday, right Over a week.
Now I don't want to dramatizethis too much because there are
millions of single parents outthere that rock it.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
But let me um affirm all of them I was struggling,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I was struggling.
So Saturday, Sunday, like it wasokay because utilize the
daylight, we were going to theplayground went to the store,
there were activities, there wasstuff to do, but then the week
hit and so mass brass on Monday,like I was gone like literally
all day, it's like a 14 hour day.
Wednesday, the Quincy Corps hadtheir music finale, right, and
to get the kids from daycare,bring them to the finale, expect
them to like sit in the chapeland like watch this thing happen
(02:11):
, it was, they were really goodthey were Come on.
Okay.
So if Caleb ever listens tothis podcast in the future, I
will be so embarrassed for him,but I'm trying to manage all
this stuff going on and then.
So caleb kind of disappearsaround the corner, and he does
(02:32):
that from time to time.
He'll throw the ball with withgary or someone, and so he's
gone for, like you know, morethan 45 seconds and I'm just
like where's caleb?
so I walk around the corner,mackenzie crying, mackenzie's
crying by the way, because Ileave for one second caleb is
door wide open, pooping in thebathroom yes and so I'm like, oh
(02:54):
, buddy, and so, but like it's,it's like, it's like totally
normal to him.
He's just like, he's justlooking at me as I like take a
step closer to, like, ask him ifhe's okay, or shut the door.
He goes.
Daddy, I need some space.
I missed that part.
So like of the like, dozens ofkids and people that are walking
(03:17):
by watching him with the doorwide open, he's like, daddy, I
need some space and so, no, theweek was wild.
Self-advocate right there.
Oh, the week was wild.
In addition, the refrigeratorwhen we bought our house in 2021
, it was a multi-generation homeand we sealed it up, and
actually we rent out one bedroomof our home the refrigerator in
(03:40):
the rental unit went out, so itneeds to be replaced.
And then, on top of that maybethe worst part so on Wednesday,
after the music finale, I camehome.
There's no heat or hot water inthe house, so I try to put
Mackenzie to bed.
Caleb follows me downstairs andI'm like I'm doing what I know
how to do, what I know how to doto fix a hot water heater.
(04:02):
So, let me just put this incontext.
I got three degrees in tromboneperformance.
So when I went downstairs tofix this hot water, heater, so
what?
I know, yeah, what I know.
Anyways, that has to bereplaced.
Wow, no, after all that, and ifyou are an adult and know what
hot water heaters cost, we'recanceling Christmas this is
(04:22):
trauma.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
So Merry Christmas everybody.
Merry years cost.
Yeah, this is um, we'recanceling christmas, yeah, so,
yeah.
So christmas, merry christmaseverybody, merry christmas to us
.
Put a nice big red bow on thatnew hot water tank, put it under
the tree, yeah so it was um, itwas a wild week, I will say.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
The one thing that that saved us was a little blue
australian dog named bluey ohyeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Bluey to the rescue.
Yeah, bluey's incredible, yeah,you know they like it's a
morally sound show yeah, there'stwo parents there that both
contribute.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
They're like.
You know, there's no like.
Uh, it's just a really goodshow.
Yeah, I love it and you can.
Every time caleb and mckenzieare watching it, I'll look over
and they're like just smiling tothemselves, like they're just,
they're just into it every nowand then jackson breaks out with
like daddy, daddy, yeah, andI'm like oh, we got a little
Australian here, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
That's awesome, but they definitely write that show
for the parents as well.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, it's so sentimental, so emotional.
Little tears.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
If you can get the parents, then the kids are in as
well.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, and it's I.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
It is as an adult.
It's well written, Like so.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I'm all about Bluey.
If you want to.
If you want to, if my kids everhave a birthday coming up, get
them something Bluey that'lllast another six months and then
I'm sure it's over, but oh,great show.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I took a picture of Mackenzie at the Quincy concert
with her feet on the wrong hershoes on the wrong feet, I swear
.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
So she has like learned them wrong because it's
every time.
Now, okay, I was just saying.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I think this might be a microcosm of how Matt's week
is going.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
That he just didn't even realize, but if she did
that, you go, she's obsessedwith her shoes.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
She wants to take her shoes to bed, she wants to take
them on the changing table, butshe has learned to put them on
the wrong feet.
So I'm trying to undo that andI just don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Good luck.
Yeah, I don't know how that'sgoing.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
But we are moving into fundraising season for the
Salvation Army, and Nate tell usa little bit about the Red
Kettle campaign.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yeah, no, the Red Kettle campaign.
It is our signature fundraiserof the year in the Salvation
Army and, for those who aretuning in, I'm sure you have
some form of experience with theRed red kettle, whether it's
you volunteered some hoursyourself you might be an officer
, you might be running yourcampaign in your local community
Switching kettles right now.
But what a visible presence andopportunity we have as the
(06:33):
Salvation Army during this timeof year.
It's the thing that maybe somany people who don't know much
about the Salvation Army atleast they know that we're there
at their market basket, theirShaw's or Walmart whatever
raising funds throughout theyear.
And as we were just thinkingabout this season and what our
Corps and our Corps officers andlocal Corps communities are
going through, we just thoughtthat maybe we would share some
(06:56):
of our favorite kettle memoriesfrom our experience, or maybe
some funny, humorous things thathave taken place at kettles
over the years.
Uh, just to bring somelightheartedness to the, to the
craziness of this season.
All right, so we had this bellringer, uh, in columbus, ohio.
Uh, he was.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He was a really nice guy don't, don't name his name,
don't name his name.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I'm not gonna say yeah, please, no names um, he
was a really great guy, um, butwhat he would do on his breaks
was he would take the electricwheelchair from the grocery
store and he would drive it,like his own personal vehicle,
across the plaza to the Wendy'sdrive-thru.
Yes, and one of these days hedid this and it got out of range
(07:39):
from the grocery store and gotstuck in the drive-thru.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
In the.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Wendy's drive-thru and backed up cars all through
the drive-thru.
Oh, my goodness, and we got somany phone calls from Wendy's
and from the grocery store abouthim taking the scooter and
going through the drive-thru.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It's just the calls you don't expect.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Calls you don't expect to get.
Was it the same person that onthe?
I think it was the last day ofkettles when I was taking
picking up the kettles he had.
There was like one of thosesoda displays.
When you walked right in he hadlike moved the soda so he could
sit on the sodas and then hehad a giant bucket of fried
chicken and was just eating andI was like bro I was like I'm so
(08:19):
done.
It was, but it was like the endof the season.
I was like here's your check.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You know there are some kettle workers.
They take the job descriptionliterally.
It doesn't say that I can'thave fried chicken and move the
soda display.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I'm like, yeah, it's so true, but he was hilarious.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And that's the thing In his mind.
He was doing the right thingbecause he's like I want to
maximize the time that I'm outhere at the kettle.
I don't want to take my lunchwhile I'm here and you're not
supposed to eat at the kettle.
But he was just like Captain,I'm making tons of money, I'm
not taking a break, so you cankind of see through the
reasoning that there was a pureintent, Sure sure I have two
(08:55):
favorite memories, one's funny,one's like family oriented.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
The funny one is so I would always have my trombone
out on the kettles and in highschool, uh, I was a kettle
worker.
So after once christmas breakstarted I'd be taking.
Like if they could give me a12-hour shift, like with a break
, like I'd be doing it.
I was at walmart from 6 am to 6pm like that was my, my thing.
Yeah, um, but I remember as akid there were some times where
it was literally so cold outside.
(09:20):
So one year my trombone for awhile had a leaky spit valve and
it didn't inhibit my ability toplay.
But you know, every once in awhile just a tiny little bit of
condensation from the instrumentcomes out.
Well, on the coldest of daysthat water would never drop and
hit the ground.
So I didn't even realize it.
But I got like two hours in andI realized there was like a six
(09:43):
inch long like sp spitzicle,like a spitzicle that was
hanging off the bottom of mytrombone and it really confused
me at first, and then I was justlike, oh my goodness, this is
like one drop at a time it'saccumulated.
That's amazing there wasanother story where, literally
again so cold, uh, the the brassinstruments, you know, require
valve oil or some sort of likelubricant to make the valves and
(10:05):
the slides work.
I literally remember them beingthe halls with the turkey and my
slide froze mid-song and thatwas it.
It was so cold I mean we'retalking, it was like probably
two degrees out wind chill ofminus five.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Well, Illinois, right yeah, Illinois.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
So I packed up my trombone and was done.
But then I was just like oh,I've got like nine more hours to
go?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
No yeah let's go.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And then my sentimental one was just, it was
a family tradition for backwhen, black Friday was more
aggressive.
I guess, yeah, yeah, I thinkit's much less of a thing now
that online shopping is soprevalent.
Yeah, but you'd have these doorbuster deals.
The stores would open 4, 5, 6am, something like that.
And so I remember me and my dadand my two brothers and a
(10:53):
couple different years, my momwould be out there, or if my
grandparents were visiting forThanksgiving or it was some sort
of family representation.
But we got out.
We'd wake up at, like you know,5 am.
Nobody showered.
You put on like your warmestclothes.
Yes, layered, but you broughtyour instruments and we were out
there at Walmart at 6 am whenthose doors opened, Joy to the
world.
And so we'd go from like 6 to10.
(11:14):
We'd do four hours and we'dmake a large amount of money for
the Army and then afterwardswhoever didn't come out to the
kettle that day would meet us at.
There was a restaurant calledVillage Inn that was more or
less like an IHOP or somethinglike that, but this is even back
in the days of you walk in therestaurant and they ask you if
you want to be seated in thesmoking or non-smoking section.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Oh shoot, I know right.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So no, but I remember the family that stayed behind
would meet us at Village Inn.
We'd all have this like bigpancake French toast waffle.
So, it was just really special.
But I always associate thatwith Black Friday and kettles in
the morning because it's likeyou didn't really want to get up
and do that, I know, but thenyou had fun doing it and now,
looking back at it, it's such aspecial memory.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I love those.
I love memories of playingkettles with my family.
We have this one memory of allof us playing.
I was on second, my dad onfirst.
My mom plays trombone.
Larissa even got on the alto.
My brother was playing tuba soit was a whole family affair and
Larissa after one song was likeI played G the entire time, but
how can we not mention Nate'skettle video?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Oh, man Talk about it , so some people don't know,
okay, so when Nate was at theSalvation Army Seminary.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Part of the expectation if you were in your
first year is that you go outand you ring kettles for the
Greater New York Division andNate.
If you know Nate, if you'vespent five minutes with Nate,
you know that he is just.
He does not stand still orhe'll say something wild or
crazy or whatever.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
I'm going to say, nate doesn't do anything at less
than 100%.
We'll just characterize it likethat.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
I like to move, man, I like to move.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The most famous chicken dance.
So he was standing kettles atRockefeller Rockefeller center
in New York city and someonerecorded him doing the chicken
dance in a way that only Natecould do the chicken dance.
Yeah, and it has like 70million views.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
So that was a crazy time of life.
During that kettle season Iwould regularly come back with
like 75,000, 80,000 steps everysingle day.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Oh yeah, that was not fair, because we were in
competition and he was alwayswinning.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I lost 12 pounds over the season because if you think
eight hours per day, five daysa week, of just like vigorous
dancing, you're gonna loseweight and if your body's trying
to stay warm, it's also likeburning more calories just to
stay warm and you're layeredlike insulated and we didn't get
tons like we would get a littlemeal stipend from the training
(13:44):
school to go get you know, likea slice of pizza.
But we're not like out therehaving like a whole buffet or
anything.
We're having a slice of pizzaand water, and so it's like I
probably expended about 14 000calories and probably ate like
600 yeah, yeah, yeah, it'samazing you didn't pass out.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, no, but that video is like ultra famous, so
it's crazy, it's wild, it wild.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Every Christmas it kind of resurfaces again on
Facebook and recirculates.
But the last time I checked itwas up to 69 million views.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So how do you I mean tell me how you feel Like as we
cross?
I mean so, think about this andI'm being serious.
So when someone of an oldergeneration mentions the
Salvation Army, someone may saylike oh, the donut girls helped
my grandpa in World War.
I Like it's the most broadunderstanding of the Salvation
(14:32):
Army In today's TikTokgeneration.
It's very possible that someonecould say, do you know the
Salvation Army?
And their answer could be well,I saw this crazy guy doing the
chicken dance at a kettle.
That could be you.
You could be the generationalAmerican face of the Salvation
Army.
It's true.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Yeah, that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
It's a lot of weight on your shoulders.
It's a lot of weight.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It's also very unique to that context.
You know, like Rockefeller, NewYork City, they're so used to
that kind of street performermentality and everyone's always
in a rush to go somewhere, andso if you are not doing
something like that dancing,standing out in a way, people
are just going to pass by, andso I understand it doesn't work
(15:17):
in every context, doesn't workin every community, but for that
time, for that season, itworked there and I'm all about
getting good publicity for the.
Salvation Army and the ministrythat we do, rather than bad
publicity.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And you had very good kettles after those.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Oh yeah, it was fun.
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Well, I'm sure after that went viral, people were
looking for you.
Like is that guy going to beout here?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And that's like if you look at some of the comments
on the original post.
It's like, if you look at thesome of the comments on the
original post, like we came,we're out new york next week I
hope that he's there and it'sjust like people came.
It was kind of like iconic itwas so funny.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I'm wondering if we can put out a challenge to mass
youth yes how about let's getthem involved with the kettles?
What do you?
What do you think you can we?
Uh, let's do it.
What can we give them?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
so how about if we did something similar last
christmas?
If you, I'm looking at thecamera yeah, look right at them
if you, uh, a young person,let's, let's extend it.
If.
If young person, young adult inyour core, if you are in your
core, if you get involved inkettles this christmas, whether
ringing, counting, dancing,playing your instrument,
(16:22):
counting, helping with toy shop,take a picture, tag us at
MassYouth and we'll send yousome swag.
You have to tag MassYouth youhave to tag MassYouth or else
we're not going to find it andwe're not going to send it, but
we would be glad to deck you outin some gear if it means that
you are helping locally, at yourcore, if you're getting
involved, and it's no, we kindof say it flippantly, but every
(16:47):
penny counts everything, andwhether that's the hours you're
giving or actual money in thekettle.
So, help your core officers,help your local leaders get
involved.
Tag us, take a picture, take aselfie.
Tag us and we'll send you somestuff.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
No, it's just a.
It's a beautiful opportunity tojust help carry the load.
Yeah, you know, share theministry Kettles in itself can
be exhausting, christmas can beexhausting, but I just think of
the relationships that areformed through bell ringers that
I've met over the years, andjust the conversations that take
place in the vans, and soeverything that we do, even the
things that are very hard, wehave an opportunity to point
(17:20):
people to Jesus and point themto the hope that we claim to
know.
And so, yeah, just helpshoulder that load and help
spread a little joy this season.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I love it.
Well, we have a couple morethings, a couple more segments
on the PluggedIn Podcast,episode number 22, before we
take a break today.
We're going to play a couple ofChristmas games a little bit
later and we are going to moveforward in our pod book club.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, I think that was it.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Talking about John Mark Comer's book the Ruthless
Elimination of Hurry.
More conviction to our soulsthis week.
Before we take our break,though, just a couple things.
One the Sounds of Christmas iscoming up.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yes, how crazy.
I mean like a couple days fromnow.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yes, sunday, december 8th, at the Boston Kroc Center
at 6 o'clock pm.
We hope everyone comes out.
So we're going to have seatingset up for 400 and then there's
going to be a little bit ofexcess room as well if we have
more than that, but we want thewhole division to come out.
If you're not in the SalvationArmy, we hope you come out.
It's a free Christmas concert.
A couple of things that I justwant to highlight.
(18:19):
All of our Youth Arts Ministrystudents both of the choruses
are going to be singing.
The Youth Arts Ministry TimbrelBrigade is doing a drill.
The dance team will be dancing.
We have original scripts beingwritten by Sam Leroux from
Springfield Mass Brass.
Our divisional band is playingmaybe the most epic tone poem
(18:40):
ever written, called the Kingdom.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Triumphant.
Nate loves it so good.
He loves a good tone poem, yes,called the kingdom, the kingdom
triumphant.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Nate loves it so good , he loves a good tone.
Yes, I do, uh, but that pieceis based on oh come, oh come,
emmanuel, rejoice, rejoice, uh,and then uh, new to this year.
So we have the family campchorus, the divisional family
camp chorus.
I can't wait to hear this isgoing to be uh singing as well,
and then we also have kind of uh.
As recently as this past familycamp, mass brass has started to
combine doing some pieces withour worship band.
(19:10):
So we're doing another combinedpiece at the sounds of
Christmas.
It's a.
It's a big uh sing along, uh,kind of production kind of piece
.
But Chris Molinaro actually didthe arrangement of the brass
parts for it Uh.
So it's a.
It's going to be a greatproduction.
If you're watching your clockright now, the show looks like
with an intermission, it's abouttwo hours and 15 minutes.
So we'll start at six o'clockand you can be on your way by
(19:32):
eight, 15, eight, 20, withenough time to get home.
So that's the sounds ofChristmas.
Sunday, December 8th, at theBoston Croc center, six o'clock
PMm.
There's going to be lots ofcookies, cocoa, water, coffee,
photo booth, there's going to bea pass the parcel.
A lot of fun stuff happening.
So we hope to see you there.
Final segment before we take abreak, we're bringing it back.
(19:55):
We get the most comments aboutthis segment, but we love saying
who we are so stinking proud ofyou guys want to take it away?
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yeah, take it away, nate.
One stinking proud of you.
Guys want to take it away?
Yeah, take it away, nate.
One of the great joys in ourministry is being able to travel
around the division and justsee young people in action, and
a few weeks ago we were at thePlymouth Corps.
First and foremost, thePlymouth Corps is hopping.
They're rocking, they arepacking that place out on a
Sunday morning.
So much representation ofdifferent people and backgrounds
and cultures.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Check out their Facebook page.
Envoy Anne has the social mediarolling.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
She really does, so check that out, she's going live
like every day, I know.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
You know what's happening.
You know what's happening there.
It's really cool.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And so we were there, privileged to be a part of a
junior soldier enrollment fortheir newest junior soldier,
isaac.
Isaac is just a phenomenalyoung man.
He's awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
He was in his uniform he was playing the bass drum.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
He was so nervous, but he did such a great job he
didn't want to mess up hisjunior soldier promise, but he
stood up there.
He knows exactly what it meansto be a junior soldier.
He lives it out.
It's not just you know, I wantto wear this uniform but I want
to point others to Jesus.
I want to share the love of Godwith my family, my friends.
And we've got to get to know,we've had the opportunity to get
(21:11):
to know Jesus Isaac over theyears and just kind of seen the
growth and the first time I evermet Isaac.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
he came to music conservatory two years ago and
that was the first time I evermet him.
Uh, but envoy and said this isgoing to be a great kid for this
program and it's just beenawesome to have him a part of
our family cause he's come backto music camp and, uh, he's a
proficient percussion player.
I mean he's he and Zia fromBrockton make a little team back
there.
It's really great.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
And just to tag on to that.
This past week we were in FallRiver and had the opportunity to
enroll Mason, who we shoutedout last episode Mason.
Mason and Joaquin.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Mason listens to the podcast.
He does listen.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
He tells me he listens.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
But we had the opportunity to enroll Mason and
Joaquin, which was a greatSunday.
The Mason and Joaquin it was agreat Sunday the past couple
weeks have been really wonderful.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Just one last thing about that enrollment in
Plymouth Perhaps the nicest orthe coolest, most impressive
junior soldier cake I have everseen made.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Oh, in our lives I saw a picture of it.
By Karen's daughter.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, it was incredible, incredible, amazing.
And then who I'm so stinkingproud of?
We'll wrap up today's segmentwith this.
We have chosen our participants.
Our young people go toCalifornia every December into
January to march in the RoseBowl Parade and represent the
Massachusetts Division.
Our two people are JulianSanchez-Aguilar from Chelsea
(22:32):
Corps and also Shanine Wade fromthe Brockton Corps.
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Give them some applause.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Oh, I'm not.
I'm not touching this thinganymore.
I don't want to do it, I refuse.
No, but julian is playing tuba.
When he goes out there, he'llbe playing a sousaphone, which
is that giant thing that wrapsaround you with the forward bell
, and so.
And then shaneen is going outon timbrels great, and so
they're going to be fantasticrepresentatives of the
massachusetts division.
We are proud of our youngpeople.
We are so stinking proud ofthem.
(22:58):
So when we come back, we'regoing to take a short break here
on the plugged in podcast.
This is episode number 22.
When we come back, we have acouple of christmas games and
rapid fire questions for you, aswell as our book review of the
ruthless elimination of hurry.
This is the plugged in podcastepisode 22.
We'll be right back.
All right, welcome back.
We are here with episode number22 of the plugged in podcast.
(23:32):
Maybe the christmas special?
Oh, maybe.
Maybe, time will tell.
No, a sneak peek of Christmas.
I think we got one more at us.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
We can do one more.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
I have faith.
After annual luncheon, soundsof Christmas Patriots party.
After that we'll squeeze oneout.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
We'll make it happen.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
I got my Christmas gear on, just in case Nate you
are.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
We didn't draw attention to your gear.
Gear.
You're looking great, I willsay.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
You always have a suit jacket on.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I don't, I don't, always I gotta up my game.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I wanna be like Matt.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Okay well.
Gotta grow your hair out.
That's a controversial topicthese days.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
No, it looks fantastic.
You could do commercials forHerbal Essences, I believe.
I think it's.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Here I was.
Okay, I'm not going to respondto that.
I will say, though, that, uh,it's funny when you, when I'm
editing the podcast clips, sowhen we go in between breaks
yeah if you're watching on theYouTube channel, uh like you'll
see like a little fade of likethis clip ends, the audio stops,
but we're still kind of like ha, ha, ha, you know like joking
yeah, but it's funny because thelast couple episodes, so I will
(24:37):
do what you have done.
Right, Take off my headphones.
I run my fingers through myhair and kind of like separate
it out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly so Idon't know if I'm proud of that
or not.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Be proud, be proud.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
My wife, not a fan.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Not a fan of the longer hair.
It does matter.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
We should shave your head on the next podcast episode
.
Wow, that would get some clicks.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
man that would get clicks.
After that break, nate is readyto go.
Yeah, that's not happening.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Okay, so new segment of episode number 22.
Going to throw it over toLoretta.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
All right, well, just in case, this is our Christmas
special Just in case.
Just in case we're going toplay a little Christmas game.
Us in case we're gonna play alittle christmas game.
Okay, so you two bro code.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You two need to think alike.
Oh, we do that pretty regularly.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I know this is why this might be really good I'm
all good I'm gonna namesomething and you two have to
each respond and you get pointsif you say the same thing aaron
rogers wait, so do we have torespond at the same time?
No, you'll have like a secondto think.
So here's an example.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Let me go like three, two, one boom.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Here's an example Okay, something you put on your
hot chocolate.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Three, two, one Marshmallows.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
What yes, no?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
All right.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
So we're just going to jump right in.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
There's one point.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I'm not keeping score or keep score Okay.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Ready, something you would find at the North Pole.
Three, two, one Penguins,penguins and elves Penguins and
elves Penguins elves.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
We were both in the realm.
I'm stuck in the animal cage.
That was the animal cage.
You need to go back.
If you haven't heard our animalcage segment, go back to
episode 21, part number one.
That was one of the betterclips I think this podcast has
produced.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It was phenomenal.
Alright name one of Santa'sreindeers 3, 2, 1.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
Rudolph.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Good job Name one thing you can hang on the
Christmas tree 3, 2, 1.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Ornaments Wait star ornament Did we get half a point
.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Now we're going to get a little trickier.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Are you keeping score ?
I'm not keeping score.
We got one.
We have one out of three.
No, you definitely have liketwo.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
We got Rudolph and marshmallows.
You both said Rudolph and youboth said marshmallows.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I thought that was a practice one.
I was giving it to you.
Oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So we're two out of four, we're 50%.
That's right.
I'm going to lull.
There's so many.
Just look at each other, lookinto each other's eyes.
So wait, are we thinking?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
three, two, one, all I want for Christmas is you.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
We went Mariah, then we went straight traditional.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
That's why I'm like are we going Christmas him?
I really thought joy to theworld in my brain.
He's not saying that.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Okay, ready.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Name a Christmas movie.
Oh, three, two, one Christmas.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Vacation.
Dang it, you guys.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Come on, man, come on , let's go, come on.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Name, a name, something red.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Three, two one Santa's hat.
This is getting worse.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
We're not good at this game anymore.
Let's do.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Okay, I'm going to go back to the easy question.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
What are we?
Two of eight, two of seven?
I'm not doing that.
Give us the easy one, okay.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Name a spice that you bake with at Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
A spice, a spice.
Okay, three, two, one Ginger.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Cinnamon and ginger.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Okay All right, here we go, here we go Okay okay,
this is going to get you back ontrack.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Okay, come on.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Name something that you use to wrap presents.
There's like three options.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Okay, Three, two one Wrapping paper, tape, tape.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Okay, I thought I was going with the most obvious
thing, wow All right, this mightbe a little more difficult.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
This is like our friendship is ending.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
You guys seeing some true colors here.
Okay, Name something that youwould find in a stocking.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Three, two, one Fruit .
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Does anybody else get fruit in their stocking?
Yes, I get an orange.
Okay, yeah, at the bottom of mystocking.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah, santa, santa always brings an apple, an
orange or a banana, somethinglike that.
Okay I was about to saytoothbrush is that not a thing?
Speaker 3 (28:50):
yeah, no, my mom stocking stuffers are like yeah,
practical what did?
Speaker 1 (28:54):
you say lar Loretta.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
I said Santa.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Okay, got you.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
I said Santa, okay, let's do the last one, he's
listening.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
You gotta be on the same.
We gotta end well.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Ready Worst team in the NFL 3-2-1 Jets.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Wow, it wasn't even me this time, larissa, if you're
listening, that was Nate.
It was not me.
Larissa, if you're listening,that was Nate.
It was not me.
Larissa, if you're out there ifyou're out there.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
That was not me.
I just thought that we couldget something I was just trying
to.
You know, I don't even want youto end on a good note.
Now, I'm just kidding we'lldeal with this after the fact.
Now I'm gonna be in troubleyeah, you are ready.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
A Christmas flower.
Oh okay, a flower, easy, wait,hold on.
I know what it is, I know holdon.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I know what it is, I know what it is.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I know what it is.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
But I can't think of the word.
Okay, one, two, three.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Mistletoe.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Mistletoe's, not a flower right, no, it's like a
sprig of berries or something.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Oh my goodness, all right.
Well, that's my gamePoinsettias.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah, we're going to end it there In our show notes.
I said to you I'm so bad atthese games.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
You can't mess this up.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
She literally said there's no way you can be bad at
this game.
You did say that.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Mistletoe.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
I wasn't thinking poinsettia.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
So what is mistletoe?
That is the Christmas flower.
It lines every chapel.
I will give you that, but thentell me what mistletoe is.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
That is the Christmas flower.
It lines every chapel.
I will give you that, but thentell me what mistletoe is A
berry?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I don't know.
It's like a holly berry Holly,maybe that's what I was thinking
of, or maybe a holly bush.
Come on, mr.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Garden.
I'm upset with myself, I'membarrassed and I'm upset with
myself.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I'm embarrassed and I'm upset.
That's going to be all forepisode 22.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Thanks for joining us Merry Christmas See you next
time.
Okay, I have a rapid firequestion oh, now I feel like
this is going to be revenge.
No, it's not.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Okay, one for each of you.
So we'll start with Nate.
All right, nate, I'm going togive you five Christmas movies.
Oh wow, you only get to keepthree.
You have to completely forfeitthem from your life.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Wow, past and present , do I rank those three that I
keep?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I mean, if you want to, that'd be a bonus game.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Oh, my word, Just say the three If we really want to
make it overcomplicated.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Okay, Movie number one National Lampoon's Christmas
Vacation.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
That is a good one classic number three home alone,
two lost in new york are you inmy head right now because you
weren't in the game wow, that'sa zinger of all singers you
weren't, I wasn't in yourseither, so okay, number four
jingle all the way, and numberfive die hard oh man, I love
(31:31):
this.
I tailored this list to you,buddy.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yes, I did tailor this to me I thought, when you
said movies, you would have saidyou have to eliminate two of
them.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Okay, christmas Vacation Elf Home Alone 2,
jingle All the Way and Die Hard.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
And don't pull a Nate and over explain no, no, no,
just eliminate two Home Alone 2is my favorite Okay.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
It's I'm really good at following instructions.
Hold on a second Let me explain, let me give you my synopsis.
So Home Alone 2 is kept.
Yeah, okay, I think in terms ofChristmas movies.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
It's okay, just go for it, let's go.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
You have to keep Elf.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, I think you have to keep Elf.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
You only get one more choice.
So you have Christmas Vacation,jingle All the Way and and Die
Hard Okay.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
I'm going to keep.
National Lampoon's ChristmasVacation yeah, Just because it's
so like, it's so unique fromevery other Christmas movie.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
So you're obliterating Jingle All the Way
and Die Hard yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
I do love both of those.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Gone, wiped from your memory Turbo.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Man, I love it.
We haven't seen Sinbad since.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
He was a great bomb carrying Postman.
He had the bomb.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
It clicked in my head .
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Alright, loretta, you're rapid fire.
Same concept.
I'm going to give you five bigChristmas traditions or
Christmas things.
You can only pick three.
You have to eliminate you fivebig Christmas traditions or
Christmas things.
You can only pick three.
You have to eliminate two.
First one, christmas music.
So this is hymns in church,hits on the radio, caroling and
annoying speakers in the mall.
Okay, so that's all of.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Christmas music All of it, all of it, all of it.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Christmas decorating this is indoor and outdoor
lights, your Christmas tree,throw pillows, rugs, nativity
scenes.
It's all, all of it.
All of it.
Christmas food, so cooking withyour family a big holiday meal,
all treats and desserts,gingerbread houses, anything to
do with Christmas food, okay.
Christmas entertainment Allmovies this sucks.
(33:35):
All concerts, musicals, anykind of entertainment, okay.
And then, lastly, christmasgifts, both giving and receiving
.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I'm such a giver.
I love giving Christmas gifts.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
So you can keep three , but you have to forego two.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
This absolutely sucks .
Okay, I'm going to say keepingdecorating.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
My house is already decorated?
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
It's tough.
I feel like my heart is sayingokay, keep Christmas movies and
entertainment because you'll getChristmas music in it.
Is that a loophole?
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Stop over explaining, so that's it.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
He was waiting for it .
Speaker 3 (34:10):
He got you Nate's double in trouble.
Now you guys are going to havewords later, that's when we have
fun drive home.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
I'm going to have words later.
That's going to be a fun drivehome.
I'm going to keep Christmasentertainment.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Okay, Christmas movies are life, so you're
keeping decorating andentertainment.
Then you have music, food andgifts All right left.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I'm going to go gifts .
Speaker 1 (34:23):
You're keeping gifts.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
I love giving Christmas gifts.
I love thinking about whatwould they like and giving it.
I love watching Jackson.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
So you're getting rid of all Christmas food by the
way.
Cookies I mean, like cookies,hot chocolate, you know
Christmas ham.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
All the.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Christmas, so you can't eat anything ever if you
don't pick this.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
No, but I'm saying like having like a big meal at
the core or with your family itwouldn't exist.
That would be number four therewould be no like getting
together to have like a big mealwith family.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Bummer, so you're getting rid of all the food and
all the Christmas music that'stough, that's tough, I know.
I think I found my loophole,which is what makes me okay with
that, because I would getChristmas music through movies.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
I don't know if that's legit.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Well, you didn't say that Okay.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
All right, fair enough.
Okay, so that's our rapid firefor today.
We have one more segment here,plugged In Podcast episode
number 22.
If you've been following alongwith us, I actually heard from
someone this week that said theypurchased the book and they are
reviewing it alongside thepodcast.
I thought that was pretty cool.
(35:34):
This is John Mark Comer's theRuthless Elimination of Hurry,
and the book has been talkingabout hurry and busyness as a
sickness Right, and how it'sgetting worse and worse and
exponentially worse.
But we've moved on to thesolution-based passage of the
book.
We're in the intermissionsection and then we just started
part three.
Intermission is a set ofblack-colored pages that are
(35:55):
about 20 pages where the font isreally large.
I love these pages.
I like that.
It went pretty fast, me too, asI'm in a hurry to read it.
You know exactly.
But they're talking aboutspiritual disciplines and the
idea of.
I found this really interesting,but reading the Gospels
differently.
We don't think of the Gospelsas biographies, but he's talking
(36:17):
about if you thought about theGospels differently.
We don't think of the Gospelsas biographies, but he's talking
about if you thought about theGospels and if you read them as
biographies, would you accept ita little bit differently and
not just taking the stories onthe whole, but you would
recognize the smaller parts orthe in-betweens, the day-to-day
actions, like if we want to belike Barack Obama.
We would read his biography andwe'd say, oh, barack Obama woke
(36:39):
up at 5 am, he had coffee inthe morning, he studied for two
hours.
I would mirror my life if Iwanted to reflect Barack Obama.
So they're reading these, he'sreading.
He's saying read the Gospels asbiographies.
Look at Jesus's life.
He has a conversation withsomeone, he performs a miracle,
but then he goes off in praise.
He goes off in praise.
He goes off in praise.
(36:59):
Nate, can you tell us a littlebit about this section and the
spiritual disciplines?
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Yeah, so when we're talking about spiritual
disciplines, we're talking about, as it's described in the book,
it's a lifestyle that we'readopting to create space for
emotional health and spirituallife, that everything
holistically is connected fromour body, our minds and our
spirit.
And it's interesting I don'tthink I really ever fully
(37:26):
thought this through but Jesusdoesn't ever really command us
to practice the spiritualdisciplines outside of prayer.
It's not something that Jesusexplicitly said go and find a
place of solitude and silence orgo and adopt all these certain
practices.
Rather, it was Jesus modelingthe lifestyle of what it means
(37:47):
to live a life that isspiritually disciplined, and so
I think that when we're lookingat this topic of spiritual
disciplines, we're focusing onnot getting so caught up in the
practices themselves as likethey're the end all, but rather
(38:07):
I want to form my life in thehabits of Jesus.
And these are some practicesthat help me become more like
him.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
And rather than a command as an invitation, he
says come follow me, come followme.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
That's the quote it says.
For Jesus, leadership isn'tabout coercion or control.
It's example and invitation.
I highlighted that.
I love that.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Yeah, and you think of the word discipline and a lot
of times discipline has somenegative connotations to it
right, nobody likes the worddiscipline, but in the book he
talks about how like disciplineis a way to access power, and he
uses this illustration of likebench pressing your own weight.
You don't just get up one dayand you're like, oh yeah, I'm
going to bench press my ownweight.
No, you start by doing somepushups and then you add, you
(38:47):
know, start benching a littlebit and you add more weight as
you go, as you build thatmuscles and then eventually
you're able to do it.
And so he makes this connectionbetween willpower.
You have the desire to dosomething, but willpower can
only take you so far.
And so these disciplines arelike.
It's like reframing your willto seek that of the abundant
(39:09):
life of Christ.
And then eventually, as weallow these disciplines to form
us and frame our character afterChrist, to model those habits
and those lifestyles, then weare actually able to access a
power that doesn't come fromourself.
The Holy Spirit's power opensus up to a power beyond our own,
(39:29):
because we know that we canonly will ourselves so far.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
I can say you know.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
I really want to be able to run a marathon, but am I
going to will myself to put inthe work for that?
And even if I am.
I may not be able to um becauseI'm physically limited but in
the same, in our spiritual life,I want to live like Christ.
I can do all these practices,but at the end of the day it's
also a practice in surrender.
I can't become like Jesus.
(39:55):
I can do the things that he haslaid out.
I can follow after his way, andthen his spirit makes us more
like him as we open ourselves upto his power, and so it's
really a practice in surrenderand a practice in being present
with God, being present withpeople, being present to all
that is good and beautiful inthe world and being present to
(40:16):
our own souls.
They talk about in the book howwe live in an age now where
we're constantly talking aboutmindfulness, mindfulness, being
mindful, but a lot of times thesecular world does mindfulness
but erases the yeah, erasesJesus from the equation.
Right, emptying your mind, justbeing present with yourself,
(40:38):
but it's not disconnecting fromthe world so that you isolate
yourself from everything.
It's disconnecting from thenoise so that you can connect
more to him and his voice, hegets into his first.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
What we read about was silence and solitude, and he
talks about isolation versussolitude, and obviously that's
the very end of the chapter.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
But the difference between the two Let me all right
so if you're following along inthe book.
So after this intermissionsection, he starts to lay out
four practices for unhurryingyour life, and the first one
that we got into for thisepisode was silence and solitude
.
So what you were just saying Ifound it interesting.
The very.
Excuse me, I'm losing my voice.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Anytime I talk too much, it just it's shot.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
I don't have a.
I have a Patrick Mahomes,Kermit.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
I was just going to say you go for a Kermit thing.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
I have a Patrick Mahomes, kermit the Frog voice.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Like it's it's pretty .
Speaker 1 (41:26):
That's one of my limitations.
I can't.
I'm not a great singer.
I have a.
I have a limited voice, soSilence and Solitude.
He starts the chapter off bysaying do you remember in a time
in the late 90s, do youremember what boredom is?
And I thought about this and Iwas.
I mean like, yeah, of course Ido Like you know, I remember
(41:49):
being at home.
You're 12, 13, 14 years old, andthis is, I mean really before
we're.
I mean, video games are around,but it's not like life dominant
Right, and I still remember,like you know, my friends coming
and knocking on the door andyou going out and playing with
them and stuff like that, andthat was like your entertainment
post-school or or not in churchactivities.
Um, but he talks about like doyou remember when you used to be
(42:11):
bored?
Because moments in everyone'slife used to exist like this?
Yep, because moments ineveryone's life used to exist
like this, and in those momentsthose were opportunities for
silence and solitude and toconnect to the Father.
Those were moments ofopportunity to focus on prayer
life, to focus on your day orjust to kind of like rein
(42:33):
yourself in.
Now those don't exist anymorebecause we have our phones in
our pockets.
You pull out your phone, yourun through the Instagram reel,
you're getting this dopamine hitof.
It just sucks away your time,it sucks away your attention.
So he starts out by saying thatsilence and solitude has been
largely Lifted from our life.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
Yeah, yeah Well, it talks about the very start of
Jesus's ministry.
Right when he is, he's baptized, he comes out of the water, the
Holy Spirit descends upon himand from immediately, right
there, he goes into thewilderness.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Gone, and the wilderness is not a For 40 days,
for 40 days.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Yeah, you know, and he toils through there, hungry,
thirsty, tired, physically,emotionally, spiritually, hungry
, thirsty, tired physically,emotionally, spiritually, and um
the?
The point that he makes in thebook is that the wilderness is
not a place of weakness.
In fact, those wilderness, thewilderness time, the time of
solitude and silence, where wecan just be with the father, is
a place of restoration andstrength so I'll just jump in
(43:30):
because, because, uh, what youjust said when you first read
the story.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
It says he, he went into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil.
Yeah, it was the scripture, andthe way the author is saying it
is just like well, why would,if you're going to be tempted
the devil, why would you go intothis place where you're all
alone?
Right.
But, like you said, he'sreversing the way you're reading
that.
Right, the narrative going intothe wilderness was not a place
of weakness, but it was a placeof strength because he was
connected to the father and thenyou you read it differently
(43:54):
where it's Jesus was led by thespirit into the wilderness.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
If you miss that word , you miss the intentionality of
the leading to the place.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
Yeah, yeah, there's just a lot of great stuff in
this chapter.
There's something that reallyjust kind of blew my mind and I
know it in my head but just tolike read it on paper and to
take it to heart.
There's this one quote thatsays the busier and more demand,
and the busier and more indemand and famous that Jesus
became, the more he withdrew tohis quiet place to pray.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
And I think of how many times in my life I'm like
man.
If only I had more time.
I can't do that because I don'thave time.
I don't have.
You know, I can't prioritize myspiritual life because I'm so
busy.
But it's Jesus, knowing howbusy and how demanding his life
was, he needed more time withthe Father.
And so it's reframing andrefocusing, reprioritizing that
which is important.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
This is the point of the book where I, like I've been
convicted all over this book,but this is the book where I
felt really spoiled, like I'malready hyper aware that I grew
up in a household where myparents, my grandparents, like I
, have generational models in mylife of faithfulness, pursuit
of holiness that are really,really special, but this chapter
(45:09):
in particular, silence andsolitude.
So I just have memories of myentire life, my childhood, both
my mom, my dad, my grandpa, likeif, for whatever reason, I were
to be awake or out of bed atlike 5 or 6 am, there, my
parents were in the living roomnext to the window, the sun is
coming up, their Bible in frontof them, not even talking to
(45:32):
each other, just quiet time withGod.
Not even talking to each other,just quiet time with God.
And in the case of my grandpa,like he built this cabin in the
upper peninsula of Michigan andhe would go out on the lake with
a pontoon boat that he likeassembled himself like this
orange piece of wood, but he'dgo out into the middle of the
lake, drop anchor at sunrise andit wasn't like a show off thing
(45:53):
, but everyone around the lakelike oh, there's Her herb having
his morning devotions and justthat, those moments of silence
and solitude.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
I just I read this and I was just like, wow, that
has been displayed in front ofme my entire life, yeah well, I
was like, when he draws theparallels between the external
noise and the internal noise,like that's something that I
struggle with so much, because Ifeel like my mind never stops.
And so when I've alwayscontemplated this silence and
(46:22):
solitude, I've always thought tomyself fine, I can have silence
externally, but internally Ifeel like what does he say?
There's a mental chatter thatnever shuts up.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
And I feel like, uh, he says, the clutter in our
minds is like a mental chatterthat never shuts up.
Yeah, and I feel like, uh, hesays, the clutter in our minds
is like a mental hoarderlandlocked in his or her own
bedroom, um, in aself-constructed prison, and I
just feel like, oh, my word, theamount of times that I've tried
to withdraw and find, uh,moments and pockets of silence.
Speaker 3 (46:52):
My mind doesn't shut up, yeah yeah, and that's, and
that's where he says that a lotof times we use these external
noises to drown out or mask ourown internal noise.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (47:04):
Meaning that because our lives are so chaotic and our
spiritual lives are so hungryand so thirsty and so desperate
to be present with Christ.
We fill that void with anythingelse that comes our way as a
distraction.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
And it's super convicting.
Super convicting Also just as aparent to think of.
He mentions in here thatchildren, more than anything
else, they need your time, andfor that relationship to thrive,
T-I-M-E.
T-i-m-e.
Children need time with you forthat relationship to grow.
And you know, we wouldn't justlike write off our kids and just
(47:37):
be like go figure it out.
We try to be intentional andspend time with them.
But why are, why didn't we notput the same level of
intentionality into our timespent with the Lord?
Super convicting.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Yeah, well, uh, there are three more uh practices
left in this book and um ournext episode, whether that's in
December, before Christmas or inJanuary.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
We're really just leaving this one up.
I know, I know we're reallyletting them know, we're giving
ourselves an out.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
We're giving ourselves an out.
Because, sometimes we'vepromised episodes and then it
hasn't happened.
Speaker 3 (48:10):
And then all of our listeners are so upset.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Would you stop?
Are you being sarcastic?
That yeah, would you stop?
Are you being sarcastic?
Speaker 1 (48:15):
No, okay, it's going to kick you, but the following
practices the next three.
So we did silence and solitude.
The next three are Sabbath,simplicity and slowing.
Man, yeah, so those fourpractices silence and solitude,
sabbath, simplicity and slowing.
So I think we've said it eachepisode.
This has been an easy read,it's been a convicting one and
(48:37):
it's also been a fast read, likewhen we need.
When we need to plow 60 pages,like it can, it happens pretty
quick.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
So highly recommend it, john Mark Comer is the
ruthless elimination of hurry uh.
Over the next couple episodeswe'll wrap up this book and then
we'll see what's next.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
I feel like this has been kind of a a new twist to
the podcast.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
Guys got any?
Uh, last thoughts before wewrap up the episode.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
I am thoughtless.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Tell me about the Patriots party.
Yes, the.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Patriot party is coming up on December, 10th
December, 10th Tuesday December10th.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
You're welcome, thank you.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
Um, yeah, it's going to be a great time.
It's for those who haveresponded, kristen has been
communicating with the fieldabout those who will be, who
have wanted to come.
Once again, newburyport isbringing a bus full of 30 kids.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Wow, they're amazing.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
It's incredible, but it's just a great opportunity
for our kids to experiencesomething that they maybe would
never have had the opportunityto do and and be loved on and be
served literally uh, food andand whatever by the Patriot
organization.
So it's been a great time.
Um so uh, keep an eye out forany additional emails from
Kristen on that.
(49:47):
If you're coming to that andthen sounds of Christmas right
around the corner.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
Yeah, two days before that, can I plug one last thing
?
Nope, gotta go Go for it.
All right, nevermind, justkidding.
So we also have December 14th,we have an upcoming young adult
Christmas gathering, yes and sofor that we, if you can just
RSVP the way you were looking at.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
Loretta was like is this happening in?
Our house, I know, Am I allowedto invite people?
Speaker 3 (50:13):
Well, we didn't mention how amazing allowed to
invite people.
Well, we didn't mention howamazing, so we just had friends
giving yeah, with about close to40 young
Speaker 2 (50:20):
adults in our house.
It was incredible.
Speaker 3 (50:20):
Just a lot of fun times.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Uh, just pie baking competition you should ask ask
chris milliner about how neatyeah, don't ask him okay me once
again decided to make a veryambitious pie.
Speaker 3 (50:32):
I did yeah, and you only have an hour gluten free no
, oh, espresso it.
Good, it's an espresso custardpie, but what happened, was it?
Wasn't setting properly, so weadded a lot of cornstarch to it,
which apparently alters thetaste.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
The women tried saying that's enough.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Anyway, that's a story for another day, Anyways
what I was saying young adultChristmas gathering Saturday,
december 14th.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
We'll have to have a firm count for that, so RSVPs
will be coming out for that andwe'd love to see you there If
you've made it this far intoepisode number 22 of the Plugged
In Podcast.
We don't do this often, but Iwould ask that you would
subscribe to our YouTube channelso we've got all the episodes
running on YouTube.
There's lots of shorts thatwe're trying to get filtered
(51:19):
into your algorithm on the feedson your phone, Speaking about
not being hurried or having yourphone suck your life away.
Subscribe to the SA Mass MusicYouTube channel.
We do bring we put forth someeffort to give you a lot of
content, so we'd like you tostay connected to what we're
doing.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
Stay plugged in.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
All right, well, everyone, it's been a pleasure,
as always in episode number 22of the plugged in podcast.
If we don't see you beforeChristmas, have a Merry
Christmas, a happy new year, butI think we got one more episode
, so when that comes, we willsee you next time.
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