Bono is Embarrassed about U2, Lip Gloss Mix-ups and the Joy of Perspective Flipping

Ever mixed up your lip gloss with your concealer? I, Lisa Barry, certainly have, and it's just one of the many delightful missteps I'll be sharing to show you how life's little blunders can actually be blessings in disguise. We'll chuckle over my cosmetic calamity before easing into the heartwarming tale of my friend Julia's encounter at a drive-thru, where her kindness converted confrontation into camaraderie. You'll also get to hear about the remarkable J.J. McCarthy, who turned a child's innocent suggestion into a pre-game tradition that's sure to put a smile on your face, and we'll ponder the enchanting possibilities that a preschool's recipe assignment reveals about the importance of chasing big dreams.

Now imagine finding the silver lining in every cloud that darkens your day-to-day life. That's exactly what we'll explore in the second half of our conversation, where I recount my own experiences in turning daily nuisances into unexpected joys. We'll discuss the art of perspective-flipping, turning irritations into opportunities for growth. For anyone with a fear of flying, I've got a comforting statistic that might just ease your nerves. Plus, we'll dive into the surprising smarts of our underwater friends—octopuses, to be precise—and their clever antics. And for a dash of mystery, we'll introduce you to Timothy, a young caller whose unfinished story will leave you hanging on the edge of your seat, hungry for more. So, join us for a session filled with humor, empathy, and a sprinkle of sage advice for the days ahead.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi there, it's Lisa Barry.
Welcome to the Lisa Barry Showpodcast.
I want to be a friend in yourcorner, somebody who encourages
you, challenges you and justsomebody to hang out with.
You're going to hear somehighlights of my radio show this
last week and, if you stickaround to the end, I'll tell you
how you can listen to the showwith the music on your
smartphone.

(00:22):
Here we go.
Have you ever narrowly escaped asuper embarrassing moment?
Me too.
My husband and I were drivingto the mall yesterday and I
wanted to put on some lip gloss,and so I reached in my purse
without looking, found it,pulled it out and put it on.

(00:42):
We get to where we're going andmy husband looks at me and his
eyes get so big and I'm likewhat, what he goes?
Where are your lips?
I look in the visor mirror.
I had pulled out my concealerinstead of my lip gloss.
Isn't there a Bible verse aboutthat?

(01:03):
Something like he who concealshis lips is foolish.
That's true.
Attention, there are crabbypeople in this world.
Hey there, it's Lisa Berry.
What a news flash, right?
My friend Julia is the one whoinspired me in this.
She was going through thedrive-thru the other day.
All of a sudden she looks inyour rear view mirror and there

(01:25):
was a woman just flailing herarms so angry.
So Julia gets out of the car,goes back to the woman's car and
the woman says you cut me off.
Where did I do that when wewere both pulling into the
drive-thru and she was so mad.
Julia said okay, I'm sorry, Ihope your day gets better.

(01:46):
She gets back in her car andthen her son says mom, what's
wrong with that lady?
Should I videotape her?
She's like still yelling.
And Julia said no, don't dothat, I'm just going to pay for
her order.
He's like no way.
But she said we're supposed tolove our enemies.
I just have to.
I bet you'd do something likethat.

(02:08):
And as counterintuitive is thatseems that's exactly the way
Jesus changed the world.
I hope you always will taketime to speak the kind word
that's on the tip of your tongue.
Well, you know that the MichiganWolverines won the national
championship.
JJ McCarthy is the quarterback.

(02:30):
I don't know if you know this,but before every game he draws a
smiley face on his hand.
What you might not know is why,back in high school his team
had been undefeated, but thisone particular game.
He threw two interceptions andhe was bummed.
Well, after the game he'ssigning autographs and this

(02:50):
little girl about seven yearsold hands him her little tablet
to sign.
And she said what was wrong outthere?
Why were you so mad?
Why were you so upset?
You didn't look like you werehaving any fun.
And he said I don't know.
The interceptions had me downand I was frustrated with myself
.
She said you know what you need.
You need to smile more.

(03:12):
And she took his hand and hersharpie and she drew a smiley
face on his hand.
And he has been doing that eversince, before every game.
All because a little girlreally cared and wanted to
encourage him.
Your encouragement might be thething that somebody remembers
for the rest of their life.
Wouldn't that be awesome?

(03:33):
I'm wondering if you have thissame talent that I have for
choosing the only brokenshopping cart at the supermarket
.
Well, you might be revampingyour New Year's resolutions
already, because maybe they justseemed a little too lofty or

(03:54):
you just don't quite have theenthusiasm that you did two
weeks ago.
Well, somebody said this set agoal so big you can't achieve it
until you grow into the personwho can See.
Now maybe you should keep thataudacious goal.

(04:15):
There's one preschool teacherwho had a brilliant idea to ask
her students to share theirfavorite recipe their family
makes, and so she wrote down, asthe kids dictated, these
recipes.

Here's Ethan's eggs (04:27):
Prep time one hour.
Cook time two seconds.
Ingredients pancakes, sugar,skittles.

Instructions (04:37):
First you put the pancakes and then the sugar,
and that's it.
You can cook it.
But you can go to my house andI will give you eggs, because my
mom makes eggs all the time.
You can eat them with a spoon,now don't put anything on them,
because that's how you make eggs, with nothing.
Then another preschooler namedJoe has Joe's tacos, and here's

(05:00):
what the instructions are.
First, I don't actually know.
I really don't rememberanything.
Can I change this to cheesyroll-ups?
If you ever have trouble fallingasleep, watch a show about sea
creatures.
Hey, there, it's Lisa Barry.
I was just before bed lastnight and I'm flipping through
channels and I'm alwaysintrigued by ocean video

(05:25):
photography.
It's mesmerizing.
It's the way you shouldnaturally get sleepy.
But here's something I learned,and this is just testimony to
God's creativity.
Do you know how smart an octopusis?
First of all, I always thoughtoctopuses, or octopi, what do
you call them.
I always thought they were hugebecause in the cartoons they

(05:45):
were always eating people, right?
But some of them are as smallas a tennis ball.
But they're really smart.
In fact, this one aquarium hadan octopus in one and the
octopus didn't like the lightover the aquarium, so it figured
out a way to squirt water atthe light so it would short out

(06:06):
and then turn off.
Then they'd have to replace thelight and the octopus would do
it again.
It became so cost prohibitiveto have this octopus in the
aquarium that they eventuallyjust let it go free.
Just think of all the coolstuff God has to show us.
And we haven't even scratchedthe surface.
Hi, it's Lisa, you're on theair.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Hello, this is Timothy.
I'm 11 years old and one day,my mother did not exactly allow
me to listen to the radio, butto the banger, which probably
wasn't a good idea.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Oh yeah, disobeying mom, that's tricky.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
But so I tuned to a random station and I happened to
come here, and so I ranupstairs and said Mommy, I think
I heard Christian songs on theradio.
I think I found the right one.
It was completely accidentaland I've been listening for what
?
Now?
Five years, I think, and it wasvery fun.
He's at the best radio stationin town.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Well, timothy, I'm pretty sure we found the best
listener in town too.
Hey, there it's Lisa Barry.
I was surprised when I foundout that Bono from U2 is
embarrassed about the name ofthe group.
He's embarrassed about hisvoice and he's embarrassed about

(07:27):
pretty much everything aboutthe band.
And, oddly enough, that gave mecomfort, because I am so
critical of everything that I'vedone in the past.
Are you too?
When I listen to some of my oldradio work, I am literally
mortified, and I know there arepeople that would tell me Lisa,
you gotta love yourself.

(07:48):
I'm okay with myself.
I just can't believe I was everthat bad.
So there has to be a happymedium between still being your
own cheerleader but realizingthat, whoa, you've come a long
way, because all thatembarrassing stuff it's behind
us.
We'll be embarrassing again,but it'll be for new stuff.
If you're somebody who can getcaught in the downward spiral of

(08:13):
negative thinking me too.
And it's a subject my daughterand I talk about a lot, because
we both have the tendency, andshe shared her Bible study
lesson with me about Jesus whenhe was tempted in the desert.
The things the enemy said toJesus were logical, and I for
one would have responded andsaid oh, you've got a good point

(08:36):
.
That's not what Jesus said.
Jesus made what he was feelingtake a backseat.
He quoted scripture and thentold the enemy to take a hike.
And you know what she said next.
Wasn't it thoughtful of Jesusto come to this earth to show us
what to say and what to do, sowe wouldn't have to guess.

(08:57):
She's right.
Do you realize?
You are loved that much Ifyou're motivated by fear in your
decisions?
Me too.
There's a lot of stuff I don'tdo because I'm afraid of the
outcome.
What if I fail?

(09:18):
What if I embarrass myself?
What if I lose money?
But then somebody pointed outokay, why does the what if
always have to be bad?
What if it's the best decisionyou've ever made?
What if it turns out to be apassion?
What if it turns out to be yourcalling?
Let's turn that.
What if, around, it's notalways bad?
Well, I'll bet this issomething you and I've never

(09:43):
thought of doing before Making aset of rules for our funeral.
There's one woman who did that.
She said first of all, you cancry, but do not cry too much.
Do not make a fool out ofyourself.
Next, bertha is not invited tomy funeral.
Do not let her in.
You know, that's one of thegreat things about getting old

(10:07):
you can get by with so much.
I'm just listening today andher three year old looked a
little down, a littlediscouraged, and she said what's
the matter, honey?
And he said I don't know.
I've just had a lot of daytoday, even to a three year old,
to put their finger right onthe pulse of what we're feeling.

(10:28):
Have you ever tried to repairsomething with super glue and
some of it oozed onto your?
You cannot get that off.
You can chip at it, you canpull at it.
That is how committed God is toyou.
I think I may have just figuredout how to turn an annoyance

(10:50):
into a wow-god moment.
I know it sounds weird.
Hey, there it's Lisa Barry.
First of all, I have solidaritywith you over the many
annoyances that you have to dealwith throughout the day.
There's a lot of them, and Ihad one just a little bit ago
when I was getting ready to talkto you.

(11:10):
Right outside my studio, someworkers fired up their noisy
equipment and I'm sitting heregoing.
Wait a minute, I'm on the radiohere.
I had to play another songbecause there's no way you would
have been able to hear me.
But then I remember the versethat says what the enemy means

(11:32):
for evil, god can use for good.
So I've gotten in the habit of,in that annoyance, say God, how
do you want to use this forgood?
Like, maybe there's somethingthat God wants me to say that I
haven't thought of yet and Ineed a time out to think of it.
And so I want to encourage you,in the midst of all the
annoyances in your day, to sayokay, this is something that the

(11:55):
enemy means for bad.
God, now it's your turn.
How do you want to use it forgood?
If you're one of those peoplenot crazy about flying, here's a
little bit of encouraging newsfor you.
Last year was the safest yearfor airlines ever.

(12:16):
There were no crashes zero.
And just because I'm curious, Idecided to look up to see how
many car crashes there areannually Nationwide.
Can you guess?
Six million.
So next time you're vacillatingon whether to drive or fly
somewhere, you probably want toremember that statistic.

(12:39):
Well, that's it A littlesnippet of a week's worth of
radio show.
But it's a lot cooler when youcan hear some amazing songs
mixed in.
I'd love for you to give it atry, and if you just open a
browser and go totheleasabarryshowcom, then click
on how to Listen, the show's onin a lot of different time

(12:59):
zones so you can pick the onethat works for you
Theleasabarryshowcom, and thenhow to Listen.