December 30, 2024 • 52 mins
DJ and Brad discuss how God has changed their lives in the last ten years. They also discuss the little moments that God has moved in their lives to show Himself as the loving provider that He is.
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(00:00):
Welcome. This is the Men Church Stuff Podcast.
(00:17):
This is the show where brothers-in-law DJ Culp and Brad Coleman talk about stuff from
our perspective as men. It's a show for anyone who wants to hear how Christians interact
with the world. And don't worry, we're real. We've grown up in church, and we want to share
our experiences with you. We'll talk life stuff, church stuff, man stuff, and stuff
(00:39):
stuff. Here we go.
Greetings listeners here and there and everywhere all across the land. This is the Men Church
Stuff Podcast wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Hope that you guys have had a wonderful holiday
with yours, whoever yours is. I'm one of your hosts, DJ Culp, as always here with my beloved
(01:08):
brother-in-law, Brad Coleman. Brad, what's up, man?
Dipping coffee trying to make the best of the day.
So, last episode was definitely unorthodox discussing our not favorite Christmas things.
(01:33):
But it was fun, man. So, we are recording this, what is it, three weeks ago? So, Brad,
I can only assume that you and I and Dad and Tabitha and Brad, or you and I and Dad and
Tabitha and the kids and Shara and Mom, we all had a great time. So.
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Yay.
Yay.
It was so great, I don't even remember it.
I know. It just flew by. It really did. I just can't believe it. So, this podcast episode
drops on December 30. The new year is just around the corner. And in light of that, I
(02:19):
want to make an announcement. As I mentioned at the end of last week's show, there's a
Facebook group chat that we encourage you guys to visit and let us know what your favorite
moments of the Men's Church Stuff podcast were over the year 2024. We're going to do
a specific listener episode sometime very, very soon in the new year. And we want to
(02:48):
highlight some of the memories that you guys have posted. So, make sure to head over to
the Facebook group page and let us know. Find that chat. And I mean, seriously, anything.
Anything at all. So, we've already gotten a couple comments. One of my favorites as
(03:08):
of right now, Brad, is that the person, and I'm trying to remember her name off the top
of my head, but the person loves the banter between me and you. I mean, I love bantering,
Brad.
There's a lot of that.
There's a lot of that. So, Brad and I, we decided, actually this is at Brad's request,
(03:30):
that our topic today is going to actually be how God has worked in our lives and or
how our lives have changed, which, I mean, we're Christians here, so there is no difference
between the two. But nonetheless, what has changed in our lives in the last decade, in
the last 10 years? So, Brad, why don't you go ahead and crank it out? Brad and I have
(03:55):
composed some questions for each other unbeknownst to each other. And so, we're about to hear
each other's questions and yeah, just go from there.
Okay. So, when I was writing these questions, I was kind of thinking about if you were to
be sitting down over coffee with yourself 10 years ago and just having a conversation.
(04:24):
So, first question is, what's something that you do now that you would have never believed
you would be doing 10 years ago?
Alright, so 10 years ago, I was finishing year two of three at the University of Mississippi.
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And your question is, what's one thing or something?
You can share more than one, but at least one thing that your younger self would be
kind of surprised.
So, I am not, I'm surprised that I'm not as involved. Actually, I shouldn't even say as
(05:10):
involved. I'm not involved with the research component of my, the academic research component
of my area. In music education, so I got a PhD and Brad, my coursework is really meant
to groom someone into becoming an academic researcher and really to the extent that they
(05:40):
want to be. So, if I wanted to work at an R1, so like a University of Mississippi, University
of Missouri, Columbia, University of Chicago, if I wanted to go to even work my way up to
an Ivy League, something like that, I would have the tools necessary to write that kind
of research. That's, I went in thinking that I might be interested in that, but I came
(06:06):
out really more satisfied with the knowledge that I have and the experience that I have
in the art of teaching college students, the pedagogy, the methodology. And I know right
now, sorry listeners, I know this is an incredibly nerdy answer, but I am very happy and content
(06:33):
with how my job looks. I really did think that I would be a, I would become a research,
I'm not going to say research giant, but I really did think that I was going to become
far more of a writer and publisher than I ended up being because right now I think I've
(06:58):
only ever published like one thing. Well, I mean, that's not my dissertation, but like
the way my job looks, what I teach, how active in performance that I am, I love the balance.
And I really feel like for me, I really feel that if I had done that research route, if
(07:24):
I had really chased that, I don't think that I would have been anywhere near as happy.
And so yeah, like I definitely did not see myself being at an institution like this.
That's for sure. I really thought, dude, I was going to work at state schools. And I
(07:45):
was, I think a lot of times anybody that gets a collegiate teaching degree of any sort probably
has the stars that I had. I wonder if I'll be able to work at a Big Ten institution or
an SEC institution, like the big athletic heavy hitters where lots and lots of students
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go, there's a lot of money, there's a lot of big giant program, that kind of thing.
But dude, I love Union. I love Union. The students are, Brad, the students are just
excellent. I mean, they're fantastic. They're loving, they're caring, they're hardworking,
they're smart. They show up on time for their final exams.
(08:32):
Yes. They all show up with writing utensils for their final exam, which I did have one
time. I had a student walk up to me on the day of the final, showed up like five minutes
late, sat down and then got back up and walked up to me and said, do you have a writing utensil?
I just went, no. Did he actually ask you for a writing utensil?
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I was asked on the day of the final, do you have a writing utensil?
No, no, no, no. He didn't say like, hey, do you have a pencil? Because most people don't
say- Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. He asked, do you have
something to write with? I'm sorry, Brad. I'm just saying like that.
Anyone who uses writing utensils probably have one.
Does anyone have a writing utensil that I can borrow? Anyone? I thought maybe that was
(09:19):
college professor speak there. Right.
He was probably like, hey, you got something I can take this test with?
Dude, I've never thought about how nerdy it is to say writing utensils.
Did I write them? Most of us are looking for a pencil or a pen. Like you got a crayon I
can borrow. That's funny. All right, Brad. So for you,
(09:43):
a crayon. Doesn't matter what color.
More than likely, this particular student probably would have been just as successful
on his exam with a crayon than with anything else. Brad, in the last 10 years, have there
been any developments in your life that you actually anticipated happening?
(10:05):
That I anticipated happening? Yeah, my two oldest became teenagers. I didn't anticipate
everything that would go with that. But I did anticipate them becoming teenagers.
(10:26):
That's not a cop out at all. I anticipated that time would continue.
Let me ask you. Okay, so along those lines, then 10 years ago, were you actually thinking
in 10 years, KB and Isaiah will be teenagers? Yeah. So 10 years ago, Hannah is still really,
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really young. So because Hannah was born in 2013, she's 11. So I was putting together
that still coming up in the future, at one point, I will have three teenagers. And so
will we. They will all be teenagers at one point, all
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at the same time. All at the same time. And so I'm still trying to prayerfully prepare
everyone involved for those days that are ahead. So yeah, I mean, with that, 10 years
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ago, I did not see myself being a senior pastor. 10 years ago, my thing was, I'm not telling
you I don't want to ever do that. But I am telling you that I don't want to ever do that.
God. I'm not telling you that I won't, because I know where that ends up. But I tried to
(12:03):
find the loophole in God's system. So along those lines, Brad, can you recollect
when you did have kind of like the first thought of, hmm, I wonder?
Yeah. So I knew God was stirring stuff in my heart, and God was chasing me around with
(12:24):
Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. And every time that I would go to like pray, I felt like God was
whispering through, you know, the Holy Spirit was whispering, trust me. And so all of this
was kind of going on for probably about two years, a year and a half, two years. And then
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it was Thanksgiving, and your dad and I were having a conversation. And your dad, I don't
even know how it came up, you know, me and your dad, we'll go places.
Yeah, how does anything come up? Yeah.
But he was like, so what you're saying is the only reason that you don't want to be
a senior pastor is because you're afraid.
(13:12):
Leave it to dad. That's right, dad.
Which is like, you know, that's like, now you've just, you've called me Ella. I'm a
country boy, like hillbilly. Like that's one of the big, like you might as well just, he
could have just gotten slapped me in the face. And I was like, no, I'm not scared, man.
But then the more I thought about it and the more I processed through it, I was like, darn
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it.
Yes.
That is exactly what it is. Like, shoot. And so like, I just kind of went introspective.
I think I've shared a little bit about this before, maybe on one of the former podcasts,
but I went a little introspective. Tabby and I were driving home. She's driving, I'm sitting
here. Kids are like all asleep. You know, this is probably eight, nine years ago now.
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And she's like, are you okay? Because I hadn't been talking. I was like, I'm just mulling
over some stuff. I was like, I want to talk to you about it, but I got to get there. And
so it's probably like another 15 minutes. And finally I was like, okay. I said, I think
God wants me to be a senior pastor. And my wife says, yeah, I told you that. And I'm
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like, no, you didn't. Like very adamantly, no, you did not. Like I would have remembered.
Because I would have shot that down.
Yeah. Like you spent the conversation I just had with your dad. No, we didn't have this
conversation. She said, I told you like two weeks ago, you needed to put your resume
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out, like revamp your resume and put your resume out. That I thought that that's what
you needed to do.
That's not what that means.
Right. And I was like, yeah, I thought like as a youth pastor or maybe collegiate ministry,
like you never like even remotely hinted toward, oh yeah, I've probably seen your pastor.
(15:15):
It's like me and you having a conversation and then me just saying, me too. Yeah. Wait,
wait.
Oh, trust me. I was like, no, my favorite candy is a Snickers bar too. Yeah, sure. Don't
you remember like three weeks ago we were talking about that? Yeah, me too.
You said you like chocolate.
(15:36):
No, no. So Brad, I'm with you on this one. Tabitha, that's a hard no.
Now the beautiful thing though, the beautiful thing is that what God was working on in my
heart, he'd already been working on in her heart. She'd already got there unbeknownst
to me. And honestly, it's probably a God thing that she didn't. I probably really needed
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to have the conversation with your dad first. I needed this spiritual blind sighting because
that's what I felt like that Thanksgiving. I was like, I don't even know what to feel
right now. And I would tell people that God took what I was most afraid of and made it
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what I most wanted to do for him. He didn't take away all the fear. Matter of fact, I
would argue that a lot of the things I was afraid of, I've walked through since I've
been a senior pastor, which has been what, six and a half years. Yeah. So yeah, that
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was an intense moment of moments. That was an intense day. Happy Thanksgiving.
That's funny, man.
Yeah, it was quite a journey. It's been quite a journey ever since. Yeah. All right. So
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on a more lighthearted note, my second question for you. If you were sitting down with coffee
with your 10 years ago self, what joke would you tell as you now?
Oh, so I'm telling myself.
You're telling old you. You're telling old you a joke. What joke would you share? Your
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sister, by the way, when I told her about this, right, she said, she said he just he
uses the same ones. It wouldn't be a new one. It'd just be one he'd already been telling.
He'd just be bring it up.
Okay. All right.
Remember how we found that funny? I still find it funny.
All right. Well, so I don't like I don't have this. I don't have this memorized. So I will
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read it verbatim. Because this is absolutely me. Like 100 percent. This is me. Ten years
ago. I think it was kind of me. I just wasn't as snarky about it. Maybe a cowboy who just
moved to Montana from Texas walks into a bar and orders three three mugs of beer. He sits
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in the back of the room drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them,
he come back. He comes back to the bar and orders three more. Brad, you're smiling. Do
you know this joke? I think you shared it with me at one point. Okay. The bartender
approaches and tells the cowboy, you know, a mug goes flat after I draw it. It would
taste better if you bought one if you bought one at a time. The cowboy replies, well, you
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see, I have two brothers. One is in Arizona. The other is in Colorado. When we all left
our home in Texas, we promised that we would drink this way to remember the days when we
drank together. So I'm drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for myself.
The bartender admits that this was a nice custom and leaves it there. The cowboy becomes
a regular in the bar and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs, drinks them
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in turn. One day he comes in and only orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and
fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says,
I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.
The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment and then a light dawns in his eyes and he
laughs. He says, oh no, everyone's just fine. It's just that my wife and I joined the Baptist
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church and I had to quit drinking, but it hasn't affected my brothers though.
Yeah. Gave up my beer. That's right. Just be wrong for me to give up theirs though.
No, I can't do that to them. Now this one, actually along the same lines, what I love
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is I love kind of enlightening a lot of our students and to see some of them exit the
world of the legalistic belief. Like I am not by any stretch of the imagination arguing
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against works have anything to do with faith because I know that's such a fine line. But
the other day I looked at one of my students and I said, why do you take two Baptists fishing
with you?
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That's one of your sister's favorite jokes. She's just camping, but yeah.
Because if you only take one, he drinks all your beer. I absolutely love that joke. And
what's amazing, like really to me is like the students, when they really get to know
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me and know my heart, like it is funny. It's a hysterical joke. That is as real as real
gets. Yes, it is comical, but it's true. If there are two Baptists around each other that
are for the most part, like not sort of brothers in Christ, like they're just church attenders,
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there's no way your alcohol is getting drank.
Right, but Baptists don't drink in front of other Baptists.
No, they don't. So I will say this one. I know you asked for one, but here I'll leave
you with another one. I got to get to it here. Pictures. So I love putting stuff on my office
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door that has absolutely nothing to do with anything except just humor. Where is it? It's
a Calvin and Hobbes, which I love. Listeners, if you want to send me anything, send me Calvin
and Hobbes. Love Calvin and Hobbes stuff. And I recently took it off my door because I'm
moving offices. Brad, this is the last time that I'm recording in this office. I'll be
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moving offices across the hall so I can put two drum sets in my office and teach right
there.
So this, Brad, like again, it's just so my type of humor, very literal, you know, sarcastic
tongue in cheek. Calvin's in school and he raises his hand. Miss Wormwood? Yes, Calvin.
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If ignorance is bliss, this lesson would appear to be a deliberate attempt of your part on,
excuse me, if ignorance is bliss, this lesson would appear to be a deliberate attempt on
your part to deprive me of happiness, the pursuit of which is my unalienable right according
to the Declaration of Independence. I therefore assert my patriotic prerogative not to know
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this material. I'll be out on the playground and the next one, she's going to grab him
and he's yelling, help monarchists.
Help, help, I'm being repressed.
Help, help, I'm being repressed.
Oh, that's funny. I didn't think about doing like a lighthearted one. All mine are like
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serious. Well, I guess this could be lighthearted if you want to chase it, Brad. In the last
10 years, what has changed the most in your life?
Probably my hairline.
I wondered if you were going to say that. 10 years ago, you had a mop up on top. Yeah,
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not anymore.
Actually one of the biggest ones is that I don't do like sugar. I don't do processed
sugar.
Oh gosh, yes. That is what.
That journey on and off. Yeah, because, and Tabbie and I were having this conversation
(24:06):
the other day, because people will offer us sugar and she's like, I feel bad. I'm like,
because I'm always like, well, we don't eat sugar and all this. I said, yeah, I would
just, I've kind of just stopped telling people that. Like if somebody gets me a Kit Kat bar
and like, I will take it. I'll give it to the kids. I just say thank you because I said,
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I don't want to be like an offense against the vegans out there, but I don't want to
be like what people make fun of the vegans for. Like, you know, vegans got to tell everybody
they're vegan. No, no, no, no. I'm vegan. I'm vegan. And I was like, I feel like I'm
starting to come across like that. Oh no, no, no.
People eating tasty animals. I don't eat sugar. Yeah. I don't eat sugar. Yeah. Me not eating
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sugar has nothing to do with anybody except for me and your sister. Yeah. You know, and
especially me because, and she tells this story to kind of illustrate just, just how
bad of an addiction that I had to sugar. We were in a level three snow emergency in Ohio
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and so, which meant we could not go out on the road. It was so cold. It was like, you
know, you couldn't go outside for more than a couple of minutes without just being very,
very uncomfortable. You're not going to go play in the snow. Right. And so we couldn't
get out and we ran out of like sugary snacks. And so I was in the kitchen and after everybody
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went to bed and I took a cup of sugar and a pack of Kool-Aid and I mixed it together
and I was just spooning this. It's called happy crack, by the way, this happy crack,
sugary stuff. Yeah. I mean, that's, that was, that was a pretty low, that was a pretty low
point. So when people understand I'm not against people eating sugar or happy crack. Yeah.
(26:09):
Don't do crack by the way. Look, there's a reason. Like, like if you listen, if you're
out there and you're listening to this and you have found yourself with a plastic baggie
of full of sugar and Kool-Aid and you were just eating it with the spoon. Maybe you need
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to do what I did and not immediately. This is your intervention. Yeah. And reevaluate
how sugar has a hold on you and maybe you need to, maybe you need to let it go. People
love you. People are here to support you. But, you know, the biggest thing, you know,
we had, your sister and I had kind of done that for 18 months. Then we fell off the wagon
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and her diagnosis with lupus was, was one of the things that got me in the gear was,
you know, it's better nutrition, better eating, staying away from processed foods and processed
sugars and stuff like that. And I knew that your sister wasn't going to do it if I didn't.
So I was like, I gotta, I gotta lead by example. So answer me this Brad, cause I've never really
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known. When you say processed sugar, my analytical brain says, okay, well that must mean that
there's not processed sugar. Yeah. There's sugar in a lot of things, you know, like fruit
and maple syrup. Those aren't processed. I mean, they're, they're not like all like white
(27:41):
sugar is like one sugar is not white. It's like a yellow white sugar. It comes from sugar
cane, right? So, so it's, it's just like bleach flower, which, which I typically stay away
from too. You know, pretty much all of the goodness, like the actual good for you-ness
has been taken out. And, and now, you know, you just have the stuff that kicks your brain
(28:07):
into I need more, I need more, I need more. Anytime you have sugar in nature or almost
every time, like I'm, I don't know everything, so I can't, I won't say every time, but almost
every time that you have sugar in nature, you have fiber with it. God pairs sugar with
fiber. Yeah. That's why you get a buzz and then you poop. So that's why, you know, you're
(28:28):
not going to overeat on apples most likely because your, your fiber tells your brain,
your stomach and stuff tells your brain we're full. Yeah. I'm full. Stop. Turn it off. But
what we tend to do is we pull, you know, all the fiber out. Now I will do, you know, occasional
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glass of like a hundred percent apple juice, but because it doesn't have the same effect
on my brain negatively that process sugar. Like I won't crave it. Like I do a hundred
percent like pineapple juice. We buy those. That's one of my sweet fixes. So I still like
sweets, but those, those don't make me crave. They, they satiate or, you know, those. So,
(29:15):
yeah. So basically trying to take things the way that God gave them to us or as close to
that as we can. So, so, you know, I make, I put maple syrup on my pancakes. I just don't
eat maple syrup a lot. Yeah. Right. So do you, do you use or will you eat like cane
(29:37):
sugar? Like, will you, will you sweeten something with cane sugar? I've never actually, I've
never actually tried cane sugar. I do a lot of honey. Like I found a place that's got
some local honey. So like, I get unsweetened peanut butter. All right. Cause peanut butter
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is, is generally like, people don't think about this. It's usually just chock full of
sugar. Like look at your peanut butter. It's, it's almost as bad as Mountain Dew. I mean,
it's pretty up there. Maybe not that bad, but some of them like, like, like your sister's
favorite was Jif. Well, Jif's like one of the worst, like as far as sugar content. Yes.
(30:21):
Probably not quite as bad as Mountain Dew. I'm just exaggerating, but I mean, there's
a lot of sugar. Yeah. But you know, now I do like no sugar added peanut butter. Okay.
You know, it's like, but then I drizzle some honey. Like if I'm making a peanut butter
sandwich dribble, drizzle some honey in there or, or big spoonful of honey, really sometimes.
(30:44):
So I got, so I get that sweet cause I still like the sweet, but then like 10 minutes later,
I'm not going like I need another one. Yeah. Right. And that's the way sugar always was
with me. Like there was, I could never eat enough gummy bears. I make myself sick with
eating gummy bears. Yeah. Yeah. Gosh that year. So there's one year listeners for Christmas.
My mom got Brad a what? Like three pound five pound bag of gummy bears. It was so big. Dude,
(31:13):
I had forgotten this until I said it. You, you were burning through those. Oh, I remember,
I remember like, yeah, I remember thinking like in a day or, or day and a half, like
half of that bag was gone. Like I want to say that they didn't last a week. Goodness.
Oh, that's what I'm saying. So, so like, when I say like, I don't do sugar, I'm not trying
to be pompous. I'm trying to be like, look, I am like an alcoholic. Don't offer me a shot.
(31:39):
Yeah. Right. And I mean, and that goes, that goes to, you know, Paul's whole, you know,
argument on, on foods, you know, what is it foods dedicated? What's the word I'm thinking
of? Sacrifice to idols. Like some people don't care, but if you don't crave it. So like,
cause it takes about three weeks in my experience. Like if I consume some sugar, like I'll crave
(32:02):
it. Yeah. But about three weeks, the first, the first three weeks are killer. So if you're
going to stop sugar, like it just be prepared, like buckle down. Yeah. But after those three
weeks, like I don't miss it. Like I, like I find this stuff like Christmas, I don't miss
the taste. I don't miss the stuff. Sometimes it's the, the emotions that are, that are
(32:29):
behind it. Well, and, and you know, like you've said multiple times on the show, um, your
mom's, uh, pumpkin bread or pumpkin roll. Like it's the, it's, it's the nostalgia. It's
the smell. It's the, the experience that you really do miss more than the food itself.
And for me, um, from like, from, from that, from that, in that regard, um, for me, that's
(32:54):
like, uh, well, listeners, this is gonna sound absolutely disgusting to you, but my grandmama
would make a bang and oyster casserole. And I liked it, but like, it was the experience
that I knew that grandmama would make that for me. Yeah. So I'm, I'm, I'm totally with
(33:15):
you on that one, man. Yeah. So anyway, off to the next question. Yeah, do it. Yeah. Um,
what's the best advice you would give 10 years ago, DJ? The best advice on what? Open-ended.
The best advice. It's like, it's like, you got, you got five minutes with yourself over
(33:40):
coffee. What advice are you going to give yourself 10 years ago? I can stay away from
Cracker Barrel on November 14th, you know? Um, something wrong with the chicken. So the
best advice that I would give myself is this, um, stay on the path that you're on. You're
(34:05):
going to be okay. God, and I, I started to really, uh, started really like manifest this
idea in my head when I got the job here at Union. Um, God plays the long game so long
(34:27):
that it doesn't, it makes no sense a lot of times. And so the best way that I could really
verbalize it is that God plays a game of chess. And I would tell myself that you're in the
middle of the chess board and you're a piece that God hasn't actually moved yet. And the
reason that God hasn't moved your piece is because you're not ready to be moved and He's
(34:51):
not ready to move you. He's still working on you and He's still working on a way to
move you. And what's going to happen is this, there's going to be a move that's going to
actually for a small time, it's going to destroy you. And that move was, um, was when, uh,
(35:18):
Shara got the job as a speech language pathologist, um, at a local school system here that, that
treats her, Brad treats her so well. Um, she's super, super loved and appreciated. She does
so good. Like seriously, I'm not saying it's cause she's my wife. She's an awesome speech
therapist, but that move will destroy you. And then He's going to move one more piece
(35:47):
and all of a sudden you're going to see the entire chessboard. You're going to see, you're
going to see what God's up to and you're going to realize that all the moves that you watched
around you are the exact moves that only made that particular move possible.
So I don't know if you've seen the video kind of meme going around with like Sheldon Cooper
(36:11):
from a big bang theory and he's going through this paper and he's like, why, why, why? And
then he turns the next page. He's like, Oh, that's why. But that's exactly right. Basically
what you just described. Like, what? It's my turn. Put me in coach. It's me. Oh, no,
(36:34):
no, it's not. Okay. Okay. I guess, I guess you do know what you're doing. God. So, um,
what was the biggest life surprise that you did not see coming? And if, and like, if,
if that's the pastor thing that we could, we could, um, falling from the ceiling in
(37:00):
the sanctuary. Yeah. Definitely, definitely didn't see that one coming. Yeah. Brad, you
win the podcast today. That one, that's, that's your ace of spades. I don't have an answer
better than that. Rarely does very much time go by before that comes up. Somebody would
bring it up or I will forget that people have come to the church after. Yeah. And then somebody
(37:25):
will say something or I'll say something and they'll be like, wait, what? And the whole
thing starts over again. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It is a long way. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. That is a miracle in the line. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. What was it? 18 feet, 20 feet,
something like that. I mean, like the story changes. Um, I haven't measured it. I'm not
(37:47):
going to go back and measure it. It's pretty vaulted. Um, it's, I mean, it's higher, it's
higher than you would want to fall from. Oh, yes. Oh, absolutely. But technically you can
make it your, like your own sort of, you know, type of fishing story. So it's 20 feet now
next year to be 22, 23 by the time that you're, you know, 70, you fell 178 stories, you know,
(38:09):
but I tend to go the other way, right? Cause at first it was like 30 and then it was like,
I was like 25. I fell three inches. Yeah. I'm like 18. Yeah. So like, you know, it wasn't
a big deal. I stumbled over a piece of gravel. Your sister gets onto me for downsizing things,
like acting like things aren't a big deal. Yeah. Like it was, it was nothing. I'll tell
(38:32):
you it was something you like, I don't go in addicts anymore. Um, yeah, but that was,
that was pretty big surprise. Yeah. Um, yeah, not a, not a good surprise, but God used it
in a lot of ways, still using it. Right. Um, reminds me that, you know, he's, he's in control.
(38:53):
Um, and this is, Tabby's really been kicking on this a lot lately. She's brought it up
a lot. You know, I donated the kidney in 2011. They, they told me based on where and how
like just powerful the hit was that if I'd had a kidney on that side, I most likely,
I mean, like, like they were like, you would have died on the way to the hospital. Like
(39:17):
if you made it into the ambulance alive, you know, it would have, it would have ruptured
your, your kidney, you know, you don't want septic. You, I mean, you probably would have
bled out internally. They're like, like they were like, you're almost definitely would
have died. So like donating that kidney saved my life. Yeah. So, and you know, just how
(39:39):
phenomenal that those reminders of this, God's been working when he made my kidney and, and
when I donated the kidney and yeah, we made sure I didn't have a kidney there. So I can
hit right like this and it's going to hurt like heck. So yeah, that one I didn't see
(40:03):
coming. Yeah. All right. You're up there, Brad. What do you miss from 10 years ago?
What do I miss? Yeah. What do you miss? What do I miss? I mean, as we were speaking earlier,
(40:30):
I miss my hair. Yeah. I miss, I miss Adam. Listeners, I may have mentioned this on the
show before, but, but my other brother-in-law, Shara's brother, he passed in 2016. So he
(40:50):
had an aortic aneurysm. Yeah. I miss Adam. I miss our talks, miss hanging out with him.
I miss, I miss the food in Oxford, Mississippi, which is, which is something that like is
very easy. I mean, as long as we get in the car and goes, like it's very easy to revisit
(41:13):
because it's still there, but still it's, it's not a part, it's not a daily part of
our, of our lives anymore. What do I miss? I love working at Union. I really do. And
I can't say it enough, Brad, I miss big school culture when so, in traffic, right? Not,
(41:43):
well it depends. We're so wired different. We are, we are wired very differently. Not
that kind of traffic. No. So Oxford, Mississippi, without, without the university, I think it's
like, I don't know, 20,000, maybe 30,000 people at the most. You know, I mean, it really is
just kind of a small country town. That's hilarious. DJ thinks 20,000 people is a small
(42:12):
country town. That's pretty good. That clarifies a lot of things. Yes, it does. Yes, it does.
So anyways, if, you know, with Ole Miss being an SEC school, dude, when, when a, like when,
(42:32):
when SEC football is in town, you get out of town, you know, you don't, or you just,
or you just barricade yourself down. You don't go anywhere. No. Dude, I love the, I love
the, the, like the, the vibrancy of college life on a large campus. I fell in love with
(42:52):
it at Ole Miss. Murray was fun. You know, Murray State University in, in Murray, Kentucky
has, I don't know, anywhere between, like any year they would have anywhere between
9,000, 11,000 students. It would fluctuate often. Which I think, I'm trying to think,
Brad, is, is EKU where you guys went, is it, is Eastern Kentucky a little bit bigger or
(43:13):
a little smaller? Then what? Then what I just said, like 9,000 to 11,000. I don't know.
Okay. Cause I know the, I know EKU. Let's go back to the small town aspect. Okay. According
to the US Census Bureau, a small town is typically defined as incorporated place with a population
(43:33):
of less than 5,000 people. Right? However, however, however, okay. Almost 42% of the,
so about 76% of the approximate 19,500 incorporated places had fewer than 5,000 people. Of those,
(43:53):
almost 42% had fewer than 500 people. Oh my gosh. That's not a town. So, so your idea
of a small town is four times as big as the maximum that the Census Bureau, that you could
even consider it a small town. Like you described four small towns. Like that's, yeah. Like
(44:20):
20,000 people. I'm like, that's a pretty good sized city. I mean, I've been, you know, to
big cities. I, like I've been to London, England and where 3 million people like commute into
the city. There's just some traffic. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, anyways, anyways, I do.
(44:45):
I love big school culture and I love Union again, but it's not big school culture in
the least. And so I do, I do miss that. Let's see Eastern Kentucky University had a total
enrollment of over 15,000 students in 2023. See, here's the thing. I thought I remembered
(45:06):
EKU actually having a three small towns. I was thinking that EKU had a larger undergraduate
population than Murray, but your campus felt a lot smaller because it was tidier. Like
it was way more compact than Murray's was. And I always liked EKU's campus. I thought
(45:30):
it was fun. So we got some fond memories there. Yeah. Brad, let's do one more. Let's do one
more each. I think that's all I got. Oh, really? That was the last one. I just got one more.
No, I got one more. Oh, gotcha. Okay. Brad, what has been the largest obstacle to overcome
(45:54):
last 10 years? Probably the one that I'm still trying to overcome. And that's the man in the
mirror and his anxiety and his fear and his, you know, and the way that letting that be
(46:14):
who's in the driver's seat. And I think we've talked about this before about how
I feel like I've come a really long way with not letting my fear get in the way as much,
you know, as I did when I was younger where I didn't do things or I made different decisions
than really what I wanted to because I was afraid. So I think that's been one of the biggest things.
(46:40):
And I wouldn't say that I've conquered it. I don't think on some level it's a lifelong thing,
but I definitely have, I think, a better hold of it. I let it stop me less. I won't say that I'm
less afraid, maybe sometimes, but I let it stop me less. And again, and you've heard me quote this,
(47:02):
I'm sure, one of the things that God has, I think, used to help me, you know, obviously,
like faith and trust in Him and growing in Him, absolutely. But it's a quote from John Wayne,
you know, courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway. And so, yeah, that's definitely
(47:24):
fear, anxiety. My last question for you.
My last question is a question about a question. What question would you ask a decade ago, DJ?
Just kind of turn the table. Like you're sitting across, like,
(47:47):
is there anything you would ask yourself?
What would I ask?
Hey, remember that $20 that I hid somewhere? Where was that?
Where did I put it?
Like a National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? What is it? Happy Mother's Day 1986 or something like that?
(48:14):
What question would I ask myself?
That's really weird.
I know, I like really weird questions.
Because I'm trying to ask a question
that I would be unable to answer now, that I would still be unable to answer then.
(48:47):
And it would backfire on me because they're going to be like, hey, like, I know, like, yesterday,
you put this somewhere and I haven't been able to find it in 10 years. Where did you put it?
Where on earth? Yeah, where did it go?
And 10 years ago, me would go, dude, I have no idea. But it was yesterday. I mean,
it was 15 minutes ago. I don't know. I said it somewhere.
(49:09):
Yeah, dude. Wow.
I win. The question that stumps the question.
A question that I would ask myself 10 years ago. Okay, fine. How about this? Why do you think
that God is not going to give you the desire of your heart?
(49:39):
Like music, in terms of music performance, why do you think that basically, why do you think that God
will not allow you to perform? Why do you think that?
Yeah. Why do you think that he is willing to actually strip that from you?
(50:04):
And like, I'm thinking about that from the perspective that the answer to that question,
man, it developed so unbearably slowly over the last 10 years.
Yeah, like why on earth would I doubt?
(50:31):
A whole lot of questions.
A whole lot of questions. All right. And there you have it, listeners. The last show, the final show
of the final show of 2024. Remember to go over to the Facebook group page, check out the chat,
and let us know what your highlights are of the show for the year 2024. What was it that you loved
(50:58):
the most? Also remember that the coupon coffee code for this show at Green Frog Coffee Company
is life. And remember that on, hang on, let me pull it back up just so I can say it right,
that on Monday, December 30, that if you take the word life to the North Green Frog Coffee Company
(51:21):
in Jackson, Tennessee, you get two bucks off your order. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with
us. Thank you for being a part of the show. Thank you guys so much for being a part of our lives
in 2024 as the show has continually progressed. We're excited about where the show is going to go.
(51:43):
And Brad, maybe in 2025, maybe we can start to talk about some merchandise, because I know that
I've shown the coffee cup that you gave me for my birthday. I've already had several people
say, dude, if you guys had coffee cups, I would so buy one. So tell you what, let's do this.
(52:04):
When this show drops, let me and Brad know what kind of merchandise you would like to see us
provide you. So again, thank you guys so much. Listeners, we love you, Brad. I love you, buddy.
Love you too.
Dude, listeners, we'll see you next year. There's so many good jokes that I love right at the change
(52:31):
of the year, right after new year. It's like, I haven't gone to the bathroom in a year
since last year.
Listeners, we will catch you next time.
Welcome. This is the Men Church Stuff Podcast.
(00:17):
This is the show where brothers-in-law DJ Culp and Brad Coleman talk about stuff from
our perspective as men. It's a show for anyone who wants to hear how Christians interact
with the world. And don't worry, we're real. We've grown up in church, and we want to share
our experiences with you. We'll talk life stuff, church stuff, man stuff, and stuff
(00:39):
stuff. Here we go.
Greetings listeners here and there and everywhere all across the land. This is the Men Church
Stuff Podcast wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Hope that you guys have had a wonderful holiday
with yours, whoever yours is. I'm one of your hosts, DJ Culp, as always here with my beloved
(01:08):
brother-in-law, Brad Coleman. Brad, what's up, man?
Dipping coffee trying to make the best of the day.
So, last episode was definitely unorthodox discussing our not favorite Christmas things.
(01:33):
But it was fun, man. So, we are recording this, what is it, three weeks ago? So, Brad,
I can only assume that you and I and Dad and Tabitha and Brad, or you and I and Dad and
Tabitha and the kids and Shara and Mom, we all had a great time. So.
(01:54):
Yay.
Yay.
It was so great, I don't even remember it.
I know. It just flew by. It really did. I just can't believe it. So, this podcast episode
drops on December 30. The new year is just around the corner. And in light of that, I
(02:19):
want to make an announcement. As I mentioned at the end of last week's show, there's a
Facebook group chat that we encourage you guys to visit and let us know what your favorite
moments of the Men's Church Stuff podcast were over the year 2024. We're going to do
a specific listener episode sometime very, very soon in the new year. And we want to
(02:48):
highlight some of the memories that you guys have posted. So, make sure to head over to
the Facebook group page and let us know. Find that chat. And I mean, seriously, anything.
Anything at all. So, we've already gotten a couple comments. One of my favorites as
(03:08):
of right now, Brad, is that the person, and I'm trying to remember her name off the top
of my head, but the person loves the banter between me and you. I mean, I love bantering,
Brad.
There's a lot of that.
There's a lot of that. So, Brad and I, we decided, actually this is at Brad's request,
(03:30):
that our topic today is going to actually be how God has worked in our lives and or
how our lives have changed, which, I mean, we're Christians here, so there is no difference
between the two. But nonetheless, what has changed in our lives in the last decade, in
the last 10 years? So, Brad, why don't you go ahead and crank it out? Brad and I have
(03:55):
composed some questions for each other unbeknownst to each other. And so, we're about to hear
each other's questions and yeah, just go from there.
Okay. So, when I was writing these questions, I was kind of thinking about if you were to
be sitting down over coffee with yourself 10 years ago and just having a conversation.
(04:24):
So, first question is, what's something that you do now that you would have never believed
you would be doing 10 years ago?
Alright, so 10 years ago, I was finishing year two of three at the University of Mississippi.
(04:49):
And your question is, what's one thing or something?
You can share more than one, but at least one thing that your younger self would be
kind of surprised.
So, I am not, I'm surprised that I'm not as involved. Actually, I shouldn't even say as
(05:10):
involved. I'm not involved with the research component of my, the academic research component
of my area. In music education, so I got a PhD and Brad, my coursework is really meant
to groom someone into becoming an academic researcher and really to the extent that they
(05:40):
want to be. So, if I wanted to work at an R1, so like a University of Mississippi, University
of Missouri, Columbia, University of Chicago, if I wanted to go to even work my way up to
an Ivy League, something like that, I would have the tools necessary to write that kind
of research. That's, I went in thinking that I might be interested in that, but I came
(06:06):
out really more satisfied with the knowledge that I have and the experience that I have
in the art of teaching college students, the pedagogy, the methodology. And I know right
now, sorry listeners, I know this is an incredibly nerdy answer, but I am very happy and content
(06:33):
with how my job looks. I really did think that I would be a, I would become a research,
I'm not going to say research giant, but I really did think that I was going to become
far more of a writer and publisher than I ended up being because right now I think I've
(06:58):
only ever published like one thing. Well, I mean, that's not my dissertation, but like
the way my job looks, what I teach, how active in performance that I am, I love the balance.
And I really feel like for me, I really feel that if I had done that research route, if
(07:24):
I had really chased that, I don't think that I would have been anywhere near as happy.
And so yeah, like I definitely did not see myself being at an institution like this.
That's for sure. I really thought, dude, I was going to work at state schools. And I
(07:45):
was, I think a lot of times anybody that gets a collegiate teaching degree of any sort probably
has the stars that I had. I wonder if I'll be able to work at a Big Ten institution or
an SEC institution, like the big athletic heavy hitters where lots and lots of students
(08:05):
go, there's a lot of money, there's a lot of big giant program, that kind of thing.
But dude, I love Union. I love Union. The students are, Brad, the students are just
excellent. I mean, they're fantastic. They're loving, they're caring, they're hardworking,
they're smart. They show up on time for their final exams.
(08:32):
Yes. They all show up with writing utensils for their final exam, which I did have one
time. I had a student walk up to me on the day of the final, showed up like five minutes
late, sat down and then got back up and walked up to me and said, do you have a writing utensil?
I just went, no. Did he actually ask you for a writing utensil?
(08:54):
I was asked on the day of the final, do you have a writing utensil?
No, no, no, no. He didn't say like, hey, do you have a pencil? Because most people don't
say- Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. He asked, do you have
something to write with? I'm sorry, Brad. I'm just saying like that.
Anyone who uses writing utensils probably have one.
Does anyone have a writing utensil that I can borrow? Anyone? I thought maybe that was
(09:19):
college professor speak there. Right.
He was probably like, hey, you got something I can take this test with?
Dude, I've never thought about how nerdy it is to say writing utensils.
Did I write them? Most of us are looking for a pencil or a pen. Like you got a crayon I
can borrow. That's funny. All right, Brad. So for you,
(09:43):
a crayon. Doesn't matter what color.
More than likely, this particular student probably would have been just as successful
on his exam with a crayon than with anything else. Brad, in the last 10 years, have there
been any developments in your life that you actually anticipated happening?
(10:05):
That I anticipated happening? Yeah, my two oldest became teenagers. I didn't anticipate
everything that would go with that. But I did anticipate them becoming teenagers.
(10:26):
That's not a cop out at all. I anticipated that time would continue.
Let me ask you. Okay, so along those lines, then 10 years ago, were you actually thinking
in 10 years, KB and Isaiah will be teenagers? Yeah. So 10 years ago, Hannah is still really,
(10:50):
really young. So because Hannah was born in 2013, she's 11. So I was putting together
that still coming up in the future, at one point, I will have three teenagers. And so
will we. They will all be teenagers at one point, all
(11:12):
at the same time. All at the same time. And so I'm still trying to prayerfully prepare
everyone involved for those days that are ahead. So yeah, I mean, with that, 10 years
(11:36):
ago, I did not see myself being a senior pastor. 10 years ago, my thing was, I'm not telling
you I don't want to ever do that. But I am telling you that I don't want to ever do that.
God. I'm not telling you that I won't, because I know where that ends up. But I tried to
(12:03):
find the loophole in God's system. So along those lines, Brad, can you recollect
when you did have kind of like the first thought of, hmm, I wonder?
Yeah. So I knew God was stirring stuff in my heart, and God was chasing me around with
(12:24):
Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. And every time that I would go to like pray, I felt like God was
whispering through, you know, the Holy Spirit was whispering, trust me. And so all of this
was kind of going on for probably about two years, a year and a half, two years. And then
(12:49):
it was Thanksgiving, and your dad and I were having a conversation. And your dad, I don't
even know how it came up, you know, me and your dad, we'll go places.
Yeah, how does anything come up? Yeah.
But he was like, so what you're saying is the only reason that you don't want to be
a senior pastor is because you're afraid.
(13:12):
Leave it to dad. That's right, dad.
Which is like, you know, that's like, now you've just, you've called me Ella. I'm a
country boy, like hillbilly. Like that's one of the big, like you might as well just, he
could have just gotten slapped me in the face. And I was like, no, I'm not scared, man.
But then the more I thought about it and the more I processed through it, I was like, darn
(13:37):
it.
Yes.
That is exactly what it is. Like, shoot. And so like, I just kind of went introspective.
I think I've shared a little bit about this before, maybe on one of the former podcasts,
but I went a little introspective. Tabby and I were driving home. She's driving, I'm sitting
here. Kids are like all asleep. You know, this is probably eight, nine years ago now.
(14:06):
And she's like, are you okay? Because I hadn't been talking. I was like, I'm just mulling
over some stuff. I was like, I want to talk to you about it, but I got to get there. And
so it's probably like another 15 minutes. And finally I was like, okay. I said, I think
God wants me to be a senior pastor. And my wife says, yeah, I told you that. And I'm
(14:32):
like, no, you didn't. Like very adamantly, no, you did not. Like I would have remembered.
Because I would have shot that down.
Yeah. Like you spent the conversation I just had with your dad. No, we didn't have this
conversation. She said, I told you like two weeks ago, you needed to put your resume
(14:54):
out, like revamp your resume and put your resume out. That I thought that that's what
you needed to do.
That's not what that means.
Right. And I was like, yeah, I thought like as a youth pastor or maybe collegiate ministry,
like you never like even remotely hinted toward, oh yeah, I've probably seen your pastor.
(15:15):
It's like me and you having a conversation and then me just saying, me too. Yeah. Wait,
wait.
Oh, trust me. I was like, no, my favorite candy is a Snickers bar too. Yeah, sure. Don't
you remember like three weeks ago we were talking about that? Yeah, me too.
You said you like chocolate.
(15:36):
No, no. So Brad, I'm with you on this one. Tabitha, that's a hard no.
Now the beautiful thing though, the beautiful thing is that what God was working on in my
heart, he'd already been working on in her heart. She'd already got there unbeknownst
to me. And honestly, it's probably a God thing that she didn't. I probably really needed
(16:01):
to have the conversation with your dad first. I needed this spiritual blind sighting because
that's what I felt like that Thanksgiving. I was like, I don't even know what to feel
right now. And I would tell people that God took what I was most afraid of and made it
(16:22):
what I most wanted to do for him. He didn't take away all the fear. Matter of fact, I
would argue that a lot of the things I was afraid of, I've walked through since I've
been a senior pastor, which has been what, six and a half years. Yeah. So yeah, that
(16:43):
was an intense moment of moments. That was an intense day. Happy Thanksgiving.
That's funny, man.
Yeah, it was quite a journey. It's been quite a journey ever since. Yeah. All right. So
(17:07):
on a more lighthearted note, my second question for you. If you were sitting down with coffee
with your 10 years ago self, what joke would you tell as you now?
Oh, so I'm telling myself.
You're telling old you. You're telling old you a joke. What joke would you share? Your
(17:30):
sister, by the way, when I told her about this, right, she said, she said he just he
uses the same ones. It wouldn't be a new one. It'd just be one he'd already been telling.
He'd just be bring it up.
Okay. All right.
Remember how we found that funny? I still find it funny.
All right. Well, so I don't like I don't have this. I don't have this memorized. So I will
(17:52):
read it verbatim. Because this is absolutely me. Like 100 percent. This is me. Ten years
ago. I think it was kind of me. I just wasn't as snarky about it. Maybe a cowboy who just
moved to Montana from Texas walks into a bar and orders three three mugs of beer. He sits
(18:18):
in the back of the room drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them,
he come back. He comes back to the bar and orders three more. Brad, you're smiling. Do
you know this joke? I think you shared it with me at one point. Okay. The bartender
approaches and tells the cowboy, you know, a mug goes flat after I draw it. It would
taste better if you bought one if you bought one at a time. The cowboy replies, well, you
(18:40):
see, I have two brothers. One is in Arizona. The other is in Colorado. When we all left
our home in Texas, we promised that we would drink this way to remember the days when we
drank together. So I'm drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for myself.
The bartender admits that this was a nice custom and leaves it there. The cowboy becomes
a regular in the bar and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs, drinks them
(19:02):
in turn. One day he comes in and only orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and
fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says,
I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.
The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment and then a light dawns in his eyes and he
laughs. He says, oh no, everyone's just fine. It's just that my wife and I joined the Baptist
(19:27):
church and I had to quit drinking, but it hasn't affected my brothers though.
Yeah. Gave up my beer. That's right. Just be wrong for me to give up theirs though.
No, I can't do that to them. Now this one, actually along the same lines, what I love
(19:55):
is I love kind of enlightening a lot of our students and to see some of them exit the
world of the legalistic belief. Like I am not by any stretch of the imagination arguing
(20:18):
against works have anything to do with faith because I know that's such a fine line. But
the other day I looked at one of my students and I said, why do you take two Baptists fishing
with you?
(20:38):
That's one of your sister's favorite jokes. She's just camping, but yeah.
Because if you only take one, he drinks all your beer. I absolutely love that joke. And
what's amazing, like really to me is like the students, when they really get to know
(21:01):
me and know my heart, like it is funny. It's a hysterical joke. That is as real as real
gets. Yes, it is comical, but it's true. If there are two Baptists around each other that
are for the most part, like not sort of brothers in Christ, like they're just church attenders,
(21:21):
there's no way your alcohol is getting drank.
Right, but Baptists don't drink in front of other Baptists.
No, they don't. So I will say this one. I know you asked for one, but here I'll leave
you with another one. I got to get to it here. Pictures. So I love putting stuff on my office
(21:49):
door that has absolutely nothing to do with anything except just humor. Where is it? It's
a Calvin and Hobbes, which I love. Listeners, if you want to send me anything, send me Calvin
and Hobbes. Love Calvin and Hobbes stuff. And I recently took it off my door because I'm
moving offices. Brad, this is the last time that I'm recording in this office. I'll be
(22:14):
moving offices across the hall so I can put two drum sets in my office and teach right
there.
So this, Brad, like again, it's just so my type of humor, very literal, you know, sarcastic
tongue in cheek. Calvin's in school and he raises his hand. Miss Wormwood? Yes, Calvin.
(22:37):
If ignorance is bliss, this lesson would appear to be a deliberate attempt of your part on,
excuse me, if ignorance is bliss, this lesson would appear to be a deliberate attempt on
your part to deprive me of happiness, the pursuit of which is my unalienable right according
to the Declaration of Independence. I therefore assert my patriotic prerogative not to know
(22:58):
this material. I'll be out on the playground and the next one, she's going to grab him
and he's yelling, help monarchists.
Help, help, I'm being repressed.
Help, help, I'm being repressed.
Oh, that's funny. I didn't think about doing like a lighthearted one. All mine are like
(23:23):
serious. Well, I guess this could be lighthearted if you want to chase it, Brad. In the last
10 years, what has changed the most in your life?
Probably my hairline.
I wondered if you were going to say that. 10 years ago, you had a mop up on top. Yeah,
(23:45):
not anymore.
Actually one of the biggest ones is that I don't do like sugar. I don't do processed
sugar.
Oh gosh, yes. That is what.
That journey on and off. Yeah, because, and Tabbie and I were having this conversation
(24:06):
the other day, because people will offer us sugar and she's like, I feel bad. I'm like,
because I'm always like, well, we don't eat sugar and all this. I said, yeah, I would
just, I've kind of just stopped telling people that. Like if somebody gets me a Kit Kat bar
and like, I will take it. I'll give it to the kids. I just say thank you because I said,
(24:26):
I don't want to be like an offense against the vegans out there, but I don't want to
be like what people make fun of the vegans for. Like, you know, vegans got to tell everybody
they're vegan. No, no, no, no. I'm vegan. I'm vegan. And I was like, I feel like I'm
starting to come across like that. Oh no, no, no.
People eating tasty animals. I don't eat sugar. Yeah. I don't eat sugar. Yeah. Me not eating
(24:52):
sugar has nothing to do with anybody except for me and your sister. Yeah. You know, and
especially me because, and she tells this story to kind of illustrate just, just how
bad of an addiction that I had to sugar. We were in a level three snow emergency in Ohio
(25:14):
and so, which meant we could not go out on the road. It was so cold. It was like, you
know, you couldn't go outside for more than a couple of minutes without just being very,
very uncomfortable. You're not going to go play in the snow. Right. And so we couldn't
get out and we ran out of like sugary snacks. And so I was in the kitchen and after everybody
(25:43):
went to bed and I took a cup of sugar and a pack of Kool-Aid and I mixed it together
and I was just spooning this. It's called happy crack, by the way, this happy crack,
sugary stuff. Yeah. I mean, that's, that was, that was a pretty low, that was a pretty low
point. So when people understand I'm not against people eating sugar or happy crack. Yeah.
(26:09):
Don't do crack by the way. Look, there's a reason. Like, like if you listen, if you're
out there and you're listening to this and you have found yourself with a plastic baggie
of full of sugar and Kool-Aid and you were just eating it with the spoon. Maybe you need
(26:31):
to do what I did and not immediately. This is your intervention. Yeah. And reevaluate
how sugar has a hold on you and maybe you need to, maybe you need to let it go. People
love you. People are here to support you. But, you know, the biggest thing, you know,
we had, your sister and I had kind of done that for 18 months. Then we fell off the wagon
(26:55):
and her diagnosis with lupus was, was one of the things that got me in the gear was,
you know, it's better nutrition, better eating, staying away from processed foods and processed
sugars and stuff like that. And I knew that your sister wasn't going to do it if I didn't.
So I was like, I gotta, I gotta lead by example. So answer me this Brad, cause I've never really
(27:21):
known. When you say processed sugar, my analytical brain says, okay, well that must mean that
there's not processed sugar. Yeah. There's sugar in a lot of things, you know, like fruit
and maple syrup. Those aren't processed. I mean, they're, they're not like all like white
(27:41):
sugar is like one sugar is not white. It's like a yellow white sugar. It comes from sugar
cane, right? So, so it's, it's just like bleach flower, which, which I typically stay away
from too. You know, pretty much all of the goodness, like the actual good for you-ness
has been taken out. And, and now, you know, you just have the stuff that kicks your brain
(28:07):
into I need more, I need more, I need more. Anytime you have sugar in nature or almost
every time, like I'm, I don't know everything, so I can't, I won't say every time, but almost
every time that you have sugar in nature, you have fiber with it. God pairs sugar with
fiber. Yeah. That's why you get a buzz and then you poop. So that's why, you know, you're
(28:28):
not going to overeat on apples most likely because your, your fiber tells your brain,
your stomach and stuff tells your brain we're full. Yeah. I'm full. Stop. Turn it off. But
what we tend to do is we pull, you know, all the fiber out. Now I will do, you know, occasional
(28:49):
glass of like a hundred percent apple juice, but because it doesn't have the same effect
on my brain negatively that process sugar. Like I won't crave it. Like I do a hundred
percent like pineapple juice. We buy those. That's one of my sweet fixes. So I still like
sweets, but those, those don't make me crave. They, they satiate or, you know, those. So,
(29:15):
yeah. So basically trying to take things the way that God gave them to us or as close to
that as we can. So, so, you know, I make, I put maple syrup on my pancakes. I just don't
eat maple syrup a lot. Yeah. Right. So do you, do you use or will you eat like cane
(29:37):
sugar? Like, will you, will you sweeten something with cane sugar? I've never actually, I've
never actually tried cane sugar. I do a lot of honey. Like I found a place that's got
some local honey. So like, I get unsweetened peanut butter. All right. Cause peanut butter
(29:58):
is, is generally like, people don't think about this. It's usually just chock full of
sugar. Like look at your peanut butter. It's, it's almost as bad as Mountain Dew. I mean,
it's pretty up there. Maybe not that bad, but some of them like, like, like your sister's
favorite was Jif. Well, Jif's like one of the worst, like as far as sugar content. Yes.
(30:21):
Probably not quite as bad as Mountain Dew. I'm just exaggerating, but I mean, there's
a lot of sugar. Yeah. But you know, now I do like no sugar added peanut butter. Okay.
You know, it's like, but then I drizzle some honey. Like if I'm making a peanut butter
sandwich dribble, drizzle some honey in there or, or big spoonful of honey, really sometimes.
(30:44):
So I got, so I get that sweet cause I still like the sweet, but then like 10 minutes later,
I'm not going like I need another one. Yeah. Right. And that's the way sugar always was
with me. Like there was, I could never eat enough gummy bears. I make myself sick with
eating gummy bears. Yeah. Yeah. Gosh that year. So there's one year listeners for Christmas.
My mom got Brad a what? Like three pound five pound bag of gummy bears. It was so big. Dude,
(31:13):
I had forgotten this until I said it. You, you were burning through those. Oh, I remember,
I remember like, yeah, I remember thinking like in a day or, or day and a half, like
half of that bag was gone. Like I want to say that they didn't last a week. Goodness.
Oh, that's what I'm saying. So, so like, when I say like, I don't do sugar, I'm not trying
to be pompous. I'm trying to be like, look, I am like an alcoholic. Don't offer me a shot.
(31:39):
Yeah. Right. And I mean, and that goes, that goes to, you know, Paul's whole, you know,
argument on, on foods, you know, what is it foods dedicated? What's the word I'm thinking
of? Sacrifice to idols. Like some people don't care, but if you don't crave it. So like,
cause it takes about three weeks in my experience. Like if I consume some sugar, like I'll crave
(32:02):
it. Yeah. But about three weeks, the first, the first three weeks are killer. So if you're
going to stop sugar, like it just be prepared, like buckle down. Yeah. But after those three
weeks, like I don't miss it. Like I, like I find this stuff like Christmas, I don't miss
the taste. I don't miss the stuff. Sometimes it's the, the emotions that are, that are
(32:29):
behind it. Well, and, and you know, like you've said multiple times on the show, um, your
mom's, uh, pumpkin bread or pumpkin roll. Like it's the, it's, it's the nostalgia. It's
the smell. It's the, the experience that you really do miss more than the food itself.
And for me, um, from like, from, from that, from that, in that regard, um, for me, that's
(32:54):
like, uh, well, listeners, this is gonna sound absolutely disgusting to you, but my grandmama
would make a bang and oyster casserole. And I liked it, but like, it was the experience
that I knew that grandmama would make that for me. Yeah. So I'm, I'm, I'm totally with
(33:15):
you on that one, man. Yeah. So anyway, off to the next question. Yeah, do it. Yeah. Um,
what's the best advice you would give 10 years ago, DJ? The best advice on what? Open-ended.
The best advice. It's like, it's like, you got, you got five minutes with yourself over
(33:40):
coffee. What advice are you going to give yourself 10 years ago? I can stay away from
Cracker Barrel on November 14th, you know? Um, something wrong with the chicken. So the
best advice that I would give myself is this, um, stay on the path that you're on. You're
(34:05):
going to be okay. God, and I, I started to really, uh, started really like manifest this
idea in my head when I got the job here at Union. Um, God plays the long game so long
(34:27):
that it doesn't, it makes no sense a lot of times. And so the best way that I could really
verbalize it is that God plays a game of chess. And I would tell myself that you're in the
middle of the chess board and you're a piece that God hasn't actually moved yet. And the
reason that God hasn't moved your piece is because you're not ready to be moved and He's
(34:51):
not ready to move you. He's still working on you and He's still working on a way to
move you. And what's going to happen is this, there's going to be a move that's going to
actually for a small time, it's going to destroy you. And that move was, um, was when, uh,
(35:18):
Shara got the job as a speech language pathologist, um, at a local school system here that, that
treats her, Brad treats her so well. Um, she's super, super loved and appreciated. She does
so good. Like seriously, I'm not saying it's cause she's my wife. She's an awesome speech
therapist, but that move will destroy you. And then He's going to move one more piece
(35:47):
and all of a sudden you're going to see the entire chessboard. You're going to see, you're
going to see what God's up to and you're going to realize that all the moves that you watched
around you are the exact moves that only made that particular move possible.
So I don't know if you've seen the video kind of meme going around with like Sheldon Cooper
(36:11):
from a big bang theory and he's going through this paper and he's like, why, why, why? And
then he turns the next page. He's like, Oh, that's why. But that's exactly right. Basically
what you just described. Like, what? It's my turn. Put me in coach. It's me. Oh, no,
(36:34):
no, it's not. Okay. Okay. I guess, I guess you do know what you're doing. God. So, um,
what was the biggest life surprise that you did not see coming? And if, and like, if,
if that's the pastor thing that we could, we could, um, falling from the ceiling in
(37:00):
the sanctuary. Yeah. Definitely, definitely didn't see that one coming. Yeah. Brad, you
win the podcast today. That one, that's, that's your ace of spades. I don't have an answer
better than that. Rarely does very much time go by before that comes up. Somebody would
bring it up or I will forget that people have come to the church after. Yeah. And then somebody
(37:25):
will say something or I'll say something and they'll be like, wait, what? And the whole
thing starts over again. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It is a long way. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. That is a miracle in the line. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. What was it? 18 feet, 20 feet,
something like that. I mean, like the story changes. Um, I haven't measured it. I'm not
(37:47):
going to go back and measure it. It's pretty vaulted. Um, it's, I mean, it's higher, it's
higher than you would want to fall from. Oh, yes. Oh, absolutely. But technically you can
make it your, like your own sort of, you know, type of fishing story. So it's 20 feet now
next year to be 22, 23 by the time that you're, you know, 70, you fell 178 stories, you know,
(38:09):
but I tend to go the other way, right? Cause at first it was like 30 and then it was like,
I was like 25. I fell three inches. Yeah. I'm like 18. Yeah. So like, you know, it wasn't
a big deal. I stumbled over a piece of gravel. Your sister gets onto me for downsizing things,
like acting like things aren't a big deal. Yeah. Like it was, it was nothing. I'll tell
(38:32):
you it was something you like, I don't go in addicts anymore. Um, yeah, but that was,
that was pretty big surprise. Yeah. Um, yeah, not a, not a good surprise, but God used it
in a lot of ways, still using it. Right. Um, reminds me that, you know, he's, he's in control.
(38:53):
Um, and this is, Tabby's really been kicking on this a lot lately. She's brought it up
a lot. You know, I donated the kidney in 2011. They, they told me based on where and how
like just powerful the hit was that if I'd had a kidney on that side, I most likely,
I mean, like, like they were like, you would have died on the way to the hospital. Like
(39:17):
if you made it into the ambulance alive, you know, it would have, it would have ruptured
your, your kidney, you know, you don't want septic. You, I mean, you probably would have
bled out internally. They're like, like they were like, you're almost definitely would
have died. So like donating that kidney saved my life. Yeah. So, and you know, just how
(39:39):
phenomenal that those reminders of this, God's been working when he made my kidney and, and
when I donated the kidney and yeah, we made sure I didn't have a kidney there. So I can
hit right like this and it's going to hurt like heck. So yeah, that one I didn't see
(40:03):
coming. Yeah. All right. You're up there, Brad. What do you miss from 10 years ago?
What do I miss? Yeah. What do you miss? What do I miss? I mean, as we were speaking earlier,
(40:30):
I miss my hair. Yeah. I miss, I miss Adam. Listeners, I may have mentioned this on the
show before, but, but my other brother-in-law, Shara's brother, he passed in 2016. So he
(40:50):
had an aortic aneurysm. Yeah. I miss Adam. I miss our talks, miss hanging out with him.
I miss, I miss the food in Oxford, Mississippi, which is, which is something that like is
very easy. I mean, as long as we get in the car and goes, like it's very easy to revisit
(41:13):
because it's still there, but still it's, it's not a part, it's not a daily part of
our, of our lives anymore. What do I miss? I love working at Union. I really do. And
I can't say it enough, Brad, I miss big school culture when so, in traffic, right? Not,
(41:43):
well it depends. We're so wired different. We are, we are wired very differently. Not
that kind of traffic. No. So Oxford, Mississippi, without, without the university, I think it's
like, I don't know, 20,000, maybe 30,000 people at the most. You know, I mean, it really is
just kind of a small country town. That's hilarious. DJ thinks 20,000 people is a small
(42:12):
country town. That's pretty good. That clarifies a lot of things. Yes, it does. Yes, it does.
So anyways, if, you know, with Ole Miss being an SEC school, dude, when, when a, like when,
(42:32):
when SEC football is in town, you get out of town, you know, you don't, or you just,
or you just barricade yourself down. You don't go anywhere. No. Dude, I love the, I love
the, the, like the, the vibrancy of college life on a large campus. I fell in love with
(42:52):
it at Ole Miss. Murray was fun. You know, Murray State University in, in Murray, Kentucky
has, I don't know, anywhere between, like any year they would have anywhere between
9,000, 11,000 students. It would fluctuate often. Which I think, I'm trying to think,
Brad, is, is EKU where you guys went, is it, is Eastern Kentucky a little bit bigger or
(43:13):
a little smaller? Then what? Then what I just said, like 9,000 to 11,000. I don't know.
Okay. Cause I know the, I know EKU. Let's go back to the small town aspect. Okay. According
to the US Census Bureau, a small town is typically defined as incorporated place with a population
(43:33):
of less than 5,000 people. Right? However, however, however, okay. Almost 42% of the,
so about 76% of the approximate 19,500 incorporated places had fewer than 5,000 people. Of those,
(43:53):
almost 42% had fewer than 500 people. Oh my gosh. That's not a town. So, so your idea
of a small town is four times as big as the maximum that the Census Bureau, that you could
even consider it a small town. Like you described four small towns. Like that's, yeah. Like
(44:20):
20,000 people. I'm like, that's a pretty good sized city. I mean, I've been, you know, to
big cities. I, like I've been to London, England and where 3 million people like commute into
the city. There's just some traffic. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, anyways, anyways, I do.
(44:45):
I love big school culture and I love Union again, but it's not big school culture in
the least. And so I do, I do miss that. Let's see Eastern Kentucky University had a total
enrollment of over 15,000 students in 2023. See, here's the thing. I thought I remembered
(45:06):
EKU actually having a three small towns. I was thinking that EKU had a larger undergraduate
population than Murray, but your campus felt a lot smaller because it was tidier. Like
it was way more compact than Murray's was. And I always liked EKU's campus. I thought
(45:30):
it was fun. So we got some fond memories there. Yeah. Brad, let's do one more. Let's do one
more each. I think that's all I got. Oh, really? That was the last one. I just got one more.
No, I got one more. Oh, gotcha. Okay. Brad, what has been the largest obstacle to overcome
(45:54):
last 10 years? Probably the one that I'm still trying to overcome. And that's the man in the
mirror and his anxiety and his fear and his, you know, and the way that letting that be
(46:14):
who's in the driver's seat. And I think we've talked about this before about how
I feel like I've come a really long way with not letting my fear get in the way as much,
you know, as I did when I was younger where I didn't do things or I made different decisions
than really what I wanted to because I was afraid. So I think that's been one of the biggest things.
(46:40):
And I wouldn't say that I've conquered it. I don't think on some level it's a lifelong thing,
but I definitely have, I think, a better hold of it. I let it stop me less. I won't say that I'm
less afraid, maybe sometimes, but I let it stop me less. And again, and you've heard me quote this,
(47:02):
I'm sure, one of the things that God has, I think, used to help me, you know, obviously,
like faith and trust in Him and growing in Him, absolutely. But it's a quote from John Wayne,
you know, courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway. And so, yeah, that's definitely
(47:24):
fear, anxiety. My last question for you.
My last question is a question about a question. What question would you ask a decade ago, DJ?
Just kind of turn the table. Like you're sitting across, like,
(47:47):
is there anything you would ask yourself?
What would I ask?
Hey, remember that $20 that I hid somewhere? Where was that?
Where did I put it?
Like a National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? What is it? Happy Mother's Day 1986 or something like that?
(48:14):
What question would I ask myself?
That's really weird.
I know, I like really weird questions.
Because I'm trying to ask a question
that I would be unable to answer now, that I would still be unable to answer then.
(48:47):
And it would backfire on me because they're going to be like, hey, like, I know, like, yesterday,
you put this somewhere and I haven't been able to find it in 10 years. Where did you put it?
Where on earth? Yeah, where did it go?
And 10 years ago, me would go, dude, I have no idea. But it was yesterday. I mean,
it was 15 minutes ago. I don't know. I said it somewhere.
(49:09):
Yeah, dude. Wow.
I win. The question that stumps the question.
A question that I would ask myself 10 years ago. Okay, fine. How about this? Why do you think
that God is not going to give you the desire of your heart?
(49:39):
Like music, in terms of music performance, why do you think that basically, why do you think that God
will not allow you to perform? Why do you think that?
Yeah. Why do you think that he is willing to actually strip that from you?
(50:04):
And like, I'm thinking about that from the perspective that the answer to that question,
man, it developed so unbearably slowly over the last 10 years.
Yeah, like why on earth would I doubt?
(50:31):
A whole lot of questions.
A whole lot of questions. All right. And there you have it, listeners. The last show, the final show
of the final show of 2024. Remember to go over to the Facebook group page, check out the chat,
and let us know what your highlights are of the show for the year 2024. What was it that you loved
(50:58):
the most? Also remember that the coupon coffee code for this show at Green Frog Coffee Company
is life. And remember that on, hang on, let me pull it back up just so I can say it right,
that on Monday, December 30, that if you take the word life to the North Green Frog Coffee Company
(51:21):
in Jackson, Tennessee, you get two bucks off your order. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with
us. Thank you for being a part of the show. Thank you guys so much for being a part of our lives
in 2024 as the show has continually progressed. We're excited about where the show is going to go.
(51:43):
And Brad, maybe in 2025, maybe we can start to talk about some merchandise, because I know that
I've shown the coffee cup that you gave me for my birthday. I've already had several people
say, dude, if you guys had coffee cups, I would so buy one. So tell you what, let's do this.
(52:04):
When this show drops, let me and Brad know what kind of merchandise you would like to see us
provide you. So again, thank you guys so much. Listeners, we love you, Brad. I love you, buddy.
Love you too.
Dude, listeners, we'll see you next year. There's so many good jokes that I love right at the change
(52:31):
of the year, right after new year. It's like, I haven't gone to the bathroom in a year
since last year.
Listeners, we will catch you next time.
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