You Might be Getting Old If...

We’ve been called “grumpy old men”… and honestly, they’re not wrong.

This week, Tony and Robert swap reading glasses for microphones and dive into the hilarious (and slightly painful) signs that we might be getting old, from groaning when we stand up to getting way too excited about new appliances.

But it’s not all jokes, we also talk about what aging has taught us about purpose, peace, and learning to laugh at ourselves along the way.

If you’ve ever said, “They don’t make music like they used to,” this one’s for you.

Listen to The Pulpit & Porch now, and don’t forget to like us on Facebook and Instagram, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode with a friend who’s still pretending to be 29.

#ThePulpitAndPorch #GettingOld #FunnyPodcast #AgingWithHumor #GrumpyOldMen #LifeLessons #FaithAndLife #PodcastLife #LaughOutLoud #Storytelling #HumorAndFaith #PodcastCommunity

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
You might be getting old if you make that little noise so every
time you stand up. Or if you know all the songs in
the grocery store because they were the soundtrack of your
senior year in high school. Or if you've ever looked forward
to getting home early so you cansit down and do absolutely

(00:23):
nothing, the word on the street is apparently we are a couple of
grumpy old men here on the podcast at the Pulpit and Porch.
And honestly, maybe they're not wrong.
But here's the thing. Getting old isn't all that bad.
In fact, it's kind of fun. It's kind of humbling and
actually kind of holy. So today on the Pulpit and
Porch, we're talking about the eggs, the naps, the early

(00:46):
dinners, and the wisdom that comes with realizing you're not
25 anymore. And thank God for that.
So grab your sweet tea, settle into that rocking chair and
let's laugh, groan, maybe even find some grace.
And this thing called getting older.
Welcome to the Pulpit and Porch.I'm Tony Maher and with me, as
always, is my friend Robert Kell.

(01:06):
Hey everybody, we are so glad you're here.
The pulpit and porch is where wekick back, put up our feet and
have real conversations about life, faith, growth, and maybe
even a little sports and pop culture.
If you're looking for a perfectly polished sermon,
you're probably in the wrong place.
Yeah, around here it's more about those honest heart to
heart conversations, like the one you have on a front porch
with good friends. Sometimes we stay on track,

(01:27):
sometimes we take the scenic group.
And honestly, that's half the fun, isn't it?
We dig into the highs, the lows,and all the inbetweens of living
out your faith in real life. Along the way, we may pull up a
few extra chairs and invite somefriends under the porch to share
stories and ideas that just may change the way that you see.
Things. So whether you're chasing your
purpose, building your faith, orjust trying to live a little
more fully, pull up a chair, grab some sweet tea and join us.

(01:49):
This is the pulpit and porch we got to see waiting for you.
I'm officially old. What?
What determines that? I had a doctor's appointment
yesterday, and when I make a doctor's appointment, I like to

(02:12):
get the first appointment of theday because you typically can
get right in. And my doctor's appointment
yesterday was with a sleep doctor because my wonderful wife
is convinced that I have sleep apnea, which is a telltale sign

(02:33):
that you're getting old. And so I fought it for a while.
I didn't want to go. I didn't believe her in the
things that she said. I thought that you mean since
like 97 or something like that. And so she showed me some
recordings the other night that she took of me and it was
self-awareness is always a positive trait to have that I

(02:56):
don't always have. And so that it really shocked
me. And she said, listen, I it's not
about the fact that you snore soloud that the neighbors hear
you. It's not the fact that you stop
breathing in your sleep and wakeup gasping that everyone thinks
they need to call 911 because ofthe torture that's happening in

(03:17):
our bedroom, he said. I'm I'm genuinely worried about
your health, that I want you to live a long life.
I don't want to be a widow. And so I made the doctor's
appointment. I set my appointment for 8:00 AM
in the morning. I.
Love, 8:00 AM appointments. They sent me the message and
said please arrive 30 minutes before.
And so I get there at 7:30. I'm there.

(03:39):
I, I parked the car. I walk up, I go to open the door
to the office and the door to the office is locked.
Big sign on the front that says opens at 8:00 AM.
And then why did you tell me to get here 30 minutes early when
you don't even open 30 minutes early?
So I stand in the hallway for the next 20 minutes.
They open the door at 7:50. I go in, I get all signed in,

(04:01):
they hand me my receipt for my co-pay, my $60.00 co-pay for my
insurance, and I go and sit downin the waiting room.
I'm the only person in the waiting room for about the next
10 minutes. Then a lady comes in.
She gets checked in, she comes, she sits down next to me.
A few minutes later a man comes in.
Gentlemen, this was an older gentleman.
He comes in, he goes to the window, it's a very small

(04:22):
waiting room, so you can hear everything that's happening.
And he says hi, I'm here for my appointment.
And the guy says, what's your name?
He gives the name. Due to hippo laws, I won't say
the name. He gives the name.
And then the guy says, oh, your appointment's not till 9.
And the old guy says, oh, I musthave put it in wrong.
Well, I guess I'll just sit hereand wait.
There's no point in me driving home.

(04:43):
I'd be home for 5 minutes where I had to turn around and drive
back. And so the guy at the check in
says maybe we can get you in a little bit early for your
appointment. So that's fine.
I'm not in any hurry. I'm retired.
So he goes and he sits down. 8 Oclock comes, eight O 5 comes.
The nurse comes out and she calls the lady who got there 5
minutes after me. So she goes back going.
That's strange. 5 more minutes come by, it's now 810.

(05:06):
Nurse comes back out and calls the guy who doesn't have the
appointment until 9:00. My appointments at 8 and she
calls him back, whose appointment isn't for another 50
minutes to go back. And so I'm saying they're
finally at 8:15, the nurse comesback, calls me, we go back.
The lady says to me says, so youthink you have sleep apnea?
I said, well, I don't think I have sleep apnea, but my wife

(05:27):
thinks I have sleep apnea. And she says, well, why does
your wife think that you have sleep apnea?
So I tell her exactly what I just told you and all of our
listeners about the snoring and the stopping breathing and the
gasping and the police coming because they think that there's
an emergency happening and, and all this.
And she said, Oh yeah, I bet youhave sleep apnea.
I said OK, great. I said, OK, here's what's going
to happen. You're going to get a call in
about one to two weeks from someone telling you to come pick

(05:50):
up this thing to do an at home sleep study.
You're going to go, you're goingto do that.
And then about a week or two after that, we're going to call
you to come back in and go over the results.
Have a great day. I was there for 3 minutes, 3
minutes, paid $60.00 for my co-pay, was there for three
minutes. And then I'm walking back to my
car. I'm thinking to myself every

(06:11):
time that someone has said that we're grumpy old men, they're
exactly right. I thought we need to do an
episode about the fact that one that I'm getting older and
you're older than me. So, so you're especially getting
older. But the fact that we have had
many, many people comment and say that were you, you invented

(06:31):
the word curmudgeon. Did not invent that.
That is an absolute word that has been around for years and
years and years. Only a curmudgeon would use the
word curmudgeon. I'm not.
I'm not arguing that. I'm just saying that it's a
word. And so we we're going to spend
some time today talking about getting old.

(06:52):
Now in fairness, can I say this?I've been like grumpy old man,
like things that people are grumpy about as they get older.
I've been grumpy by that stuff since I was 20, so I feel like
I've been in training for this for a while.
Our last several episodes have been very heavy.
We've had some incredibly heavy stories, some deep, meaningful
stories. Some of the last couple episodes

(07:13):
that we've done with just the two of us have been really thick
topics that we've addressed and and they've been really good.
And so today we wanted to just take some time, maybe poke fun
at ourselves a little bit, maybelaugh, give our listeners an
opportunity to just kind of unwind wherever you're at,
whatever you're doing to to listen to something a little bit
more lighthearted, something that makes you smile, something

(07:35):
that maybe makes you laugh. And so today we're talking about
you might be getting old if and you saying that is something
that's been this way since you were a teenager for you.
But but I want to, I want to askyou, has there been, was there a
moment in your life that you realized that you officially
were not young anymore? I think when I was spending more

(08:02):
months a year injured than I wasplaying sports was the moment
that I realized that that I was kind of aging at A at a more
rapid pace than I thought. You know, you spend out of a out
of a two year window, you spend,you know, nine months, 10 months

(08:26):
of that in a boot and then another 6.
Months of giveaway there. Another six months of that we.
Travel a lot. We travel a lot.
When I travel, I have to take myown pillow.
That's a sign you're getting oldwhen you have to take your own
pillow. And we quite literally said we
have a vacation home in on the beach in South Carolina.

(08:48):
And it was the most comfortable bed that I'd ever slept in.
And now we're at a place that weliterally said, my wife and I
that we're going to take our mattress Topper, our 3 inch
memory foam mattress Topper off of our mattress at home and take
us take it with us next. So not only are we going to
travel with our own pillow pillows, but we're also going to

(09:10):
take our own mattresses with us anywhere we go.
We will pay the extra $175 fee for an extra suitcase so that we
can take fold up our mattress Topper and take it with.
Can you imagine checking in to your Best Western Hotel carrying
in a mattress Topper saying because you're I'm so old that

(09:30):
if I sleep on your mattress without my mattress Topper that
I'm not going to be able to movein the morning.
That is old. It it is old and and I'm I'm not
there. What about what about when you
heard your favorite song from high school on the the classic
rock station? It, it is weird to me that the
oldies station is now 80s and 90s music.

(09:55):
And I'm like, I'm like, So what are 50s and 60s and 70s music
now? Like what is that?
If, if oldies music is 80s and 90s, what is what is what are
those eras and decades? Because when I was a teenager,
it was like, oh, the oldies, the50s and 60s and now here we are
in the mid, you know, twenty 20shere and it's it's now the 80s

(10:18):
and 90s are that are what that was when I was in high school.
I had a friend of mine when I was in high school that was just
his vibe was 1950s and 60s and his car was like 1960s.
I think it was a 64 Mustang thathe had and he dressed like the

(10:39):
1950s and 60s. He slicked his hair back and
wore white T-shirts. Leather jacket, jeans, rolled a
little. Bit it was just it was just his
vibe. He was such a cool guy.
It was just his vibe. Now you see kids that have that
same mindset and they're dressing up like the guys from
Friends and oh man, I'm old. It's definitely a different, a

(11:02):
different window, different era.Do you think that getting old
happens all at once, or is it a gradual thing that happens
little by little? As it's, it's gradual and and I
think that there's things that we're bent towards that we get
there faster. Like I've always been overly
frustrated if people don't respect the system, like if
there's a line and, or there's a, you know, a setup and like

(11:25):
there's a rhythm that's supposedto be happening at an event or
cars leaving a parking lot and things like that.
There's things I've always kind of been a little bit agitated
towards. And so those things just get, I
guess it feels like it's amplified it, I don't know,
maybe it's, we say getting old, but maybe it's just been the
fact that for 20 years, you get a little more frustrated with it

(11:49):
a little bit at the time. And maybe you've just trained
yourself to be more frustrated with it.
But I think it's, I think it's gradual.
Do you, do you feel differently or do you think there's just, I
mean, me getting injured, I was fine one day and then I wasn't.
So I think there's some parts ofit that that are different and I
have to like I have to show up early and I put my socks, braces

(12:10):
and shoes on inside of a sauna and I spend 15 minutes in a
sauna trying to get my muscles looser before I go stretch and,
you know, jog and do things likethat.
And I didn't do that when I was even 40.
So, you know, there's things that almost 50 that I do
differently now, but. I coach basketball, coach high
school basketball, and a couple of years ago we didn't have

(12:33):
enough players to run 5 on five scrimmages in every practice.
So every single practice I was having to run full court, five
on five with my guys. And I loved it, loved it so
much. The last couple of seasons we've
had enough players that I haven't had to do that.
This year we have 12, but we hadpractice a couple of weeks ago,
a couple days ago where we only had 7 show up.

(12:56):
And so me and my assistant coaches had to step in and run
full court. And it was the first time that
I'd done in it for a prolonged period of time in probably a
couple of years. And let me tell you, that was
not a gradual getting old. That hit me right in that moment
that it was something that just a couple of years ago I could do
and love it and I could do it three times a week.

(13:18):
I, I felt like death. I felt like my life is over.
Just I, I told the guys at the end of practice, I said we won't
be having practice tomorrow because I will be in the ER.
So you guys can come visit me inthe emergency room and we'll
talk through strategy and maybe do a walkthrough in the hallway.
As long as I can see you from the mechanical bed that raises

(13:41):
and lowers me with the push of abutton.
Yeah, yeah, those, those momentshit and I get it.
Do you think that we joke about getting old for denial because
it's funny, or is it for survival?

(14:03):
I think it's starts as funny because we're like, we know
we're not old yet maybe. And we're on that cusp of like,
but we don't realize it. I I think Nate Bargetzi does a
thing and he said it's just funny, man.
You get into your 40s and you'rehanging out with a couple of

(14:25):
people. He's like, you're like 40 and
there's like this this 28 year old and you look over and you're
like, yeah, yeah, we're two guyssame age, the same a life.
You look at a 44 year old, like look at that old guy over there.
And it's like, I am the old guy to this kid.
And I think there's some momentswhere we just aren't aware until
we are. And, and so I think it starts as

(14:47):
funny. I, I guess denial or survival
could be something like you could maybe either or you don't
have to do both of those. And some people do all do all of
them. But I would say if there is an
order, we start with humor because we're making fun of our
parents and we realize, ah, ha, ha, look what I did.

(15:07):
My dad did that or my mom did that or blah, blah, blah.
And then it's maybe a little bitof denial of going.
I can't be getting this old. So we try and do something.
We try and come back quicker from an injury or we still want
to act like we could go take a big hike that we did when we
were 25 and we haven't hiked since we were 25.

(15:28):
But now we're 45 and we're goingto go like climb Kilimanjaro or
something like that. Or, you know, like you said, I
haven't played basketball. I haven't played hard in two
years. And I jump out there like I'm 25
and I was going to be able to run for two hours.
And then, you know, and then I think it's survival thing.
You go, OK, like I realize I'm old.

(15:49):
And so maybe now I'm funny and Ido some humor because I know I'm
old, but there were just momentswhere I mean everybody colors
and fat hair and things like that.
And and I was just like early on.
I mean I've had Gray and my goatee and beard since I was in
my early mid 30s. Proverbs 1631 Gray hair is a car

(16:11):
is a crown of glory. Yeah, I there's a lot of people
that do not feel that way, but Mel and I both just decided one,
there's just A and again, this may be a sign of old.
There are a ton of chemicals in hair coloring that like lead
that they say lead towards cancer and things like that.
You sound like an old man, right?
Now we made decisions a long time ago that we were just going

(16:32):
to God made us how he made us. We're going to try and be wise
and we're going to step into things as best we can.
And and so Melissa is better at health stuff than I am, but
we've tried to be wise with, youknow, just things like that.
And so she was like, you know what, it is what it is.
I'm not coloring hair. No, just for men.
For you. No, I've never done anything.

(16:53):
I did. I did in the.
You didn't frost your tips. In the late 90s, early 2000s, I
did some, you know, Backstreet Boys In Sync tip blonde tips on
the hair, but that lasted for about 6 months and I was done
with that. But yeah.
Yeah, I think that it's a mix. I do think that it's a mix of I

(17:15):
think that the humor helps us tosurvive.
I think that the humor helps us to cope with the changes, the
the truths that we can't change,that we are getting older.
So joking about it helps it to be a little bit more manageable,
a little bit more bearable. Denial softens the blow of the

(17:38):
fact that, man, this is the reality that I face that I'm I
can't do the things that I used to be able to do.
I'm not the person that I was before.
I am getting older. And I think that being able to
laugh about it just helps us connect with people that are,
that are facing the same exact thing that we are.
And our hope for this episode isthat you don't take offense to

(18:01):
the things that we're going to say, the things that we've
already said, but that you can either one, laugh at a couple of
old curmudgeons who who are embracing and accepting the fact
that we are getting older. And if you're right there, right
along with us, maybe you can feel a sense of camaraderie with
us, that you're not in this alone, that we're getting old

(18:22):
together and you're in good company, hopefully.
If you're offended by what we'vealready said, you're either old
and you have embraced it and you're going.
That's mean that you all said that or you think you're not
old, but you're going. All this stuff seems really real
to me. You shouldn't be calling me old
and you haven't realized you're old yet.

(18:44):
So very true. I think that there, you know,
yeah, there could be some thingsspeaking a little too close to
home. All right, So what we're gonna
do now? There's this old comedian by the
name of Jeff Foxworthy, and if you're listening to the show and
you're in your 40s or above, you're probably saying why do
you even have to introduce him? If you're under 40, you've

(19:05):
probably never heard of Jeff Foxworthy, but he made a career
off of a bit that he did called You might be a redneck.
If we are going to try to make acareer and hopefully we have the
same that this launches us into super stardom and we are doing
instead of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour can be the great

(19:26):
haired comedy tour that that we will start off of.
You might be getting old if, andwe're just going to talk through
some of these, you may be getting old if you make that old
man noise every time you stand up.
Absolutely. I know that I do every I.
Don't make it every time I. Stand up.
Oh, I do. Every time I get up.

(19:47):
Unless the record is on the mic,then there's a here.
Here it goes. I do not do it every time I
stand up. It's amazing how quickly my body
stiffens up. You might be getting old if you
know all the songs in the grocery store and they were cool
when you were in high school. Yeah, we kind of talked about

(20:08):
that. It's it's probably a little bit
a little bit true because the thing that kind of happens is a
lot of a lot of stores won't play current music because it's
too risque, but they'll play older music because it's not
even though it was terribly bad when we would have been kids
listening to it. So I would say that's true.
You ever walking through Food City and you say, oh, I love

(20:31):
this playlist and you realize it's all songs from from high
school do that all the time. The.
The fact that like our songs have become elevator, there's
elevator music versions just instrumental like elevator of
all of those and. You know, and you can sing all
the. Words along and go in.
All right, I think I might like that.
That's a big deal. That's awesome.
Yeah, you might be getting old if you stretch before you get

(20:54):
out of bed. I do not do that.
You don't stretch. Not before I get out of.
Bed like just a little man. Oh man, I do you.
Maybe you're not as old as you think.
You might be getting old if you get excited about new
appliances. I mean, I've always, I mean,

(21:14):
when you're spending that kind of money, I've always been
excited for something that upgraded our house.
When you were a kid, you didn't get excited when you got a new
microwave or a new refrigerator.No, but what is that?
I mean, like at 20. I did though.
Did you really? Oh yeah.
When we got a new microwave, it was like, this is awesome.
I mean, I'm a huge, I'm a huge fan of any appliance or
technology that we upgrade or dowhen we have to do those things

(21:35):
like I, I love that stuff. You might be getting old if you
have a guy for everything. You have your car guy.
You have your bat guy. You have your long guy.
I have I I mean, if that makes me old, but I feel like I've had
guys for a while, but but you. Have to.
You have to gather, you have to curate, curate those your list

(21:58):
of guys. And I had and I have one, so if
it makes me old, I'm in. I'm there for it.
Do you have a car guy? It's shifted recently, and then
it'll shift again as soon as Kobe graduates.
Yeah, soon as my youngest kid finishes, he's the car guy.
Finishes school and he becomes aprofessional of automotive

(22:19):
technologies. He will be my car guy.
You might be getting old if you think TikTok is a noise that
your watch makes. If that's what you think, you
are old. I am not there.
So I'm pretty aware of technology, or I mean social
media. What about what about this one?
You might be getting old if you remember when Netflix mailed DV
DS. I could go down such a rabbit

(22:41):
hole here. Go for it.
Go down the hole. So, OK, this is the grumpiest
old man thing that you the, I mean, I don't know that you'll
hear me say today probably. And I'm still mad that
Blockbuster wasn't smart enough to figure this out.
The last Blockbuster officially closed.

(23:01):
They actually made a Netflix show about the last Blockbuster
and and Blockbuster, it's officially closing.
And Blockbuster kind of keeps acting like they're coming back.
And I still have my Blockbuster card.
And so I remember when Netflix was doing its thing and and I
was going, alright, going to those crazy people, I'm going to

(23:22):
stick with Blockbuster. And then we went to Blockbuster
and, and we, we had moved to Florida and where we were living
in Florida, they didn't honor the Blockbuster system.
So we cancelled Blockbuster and went to Netflix because some
were independently owned and some were not.
And I, it was, I still drive by the old Blockbuster.

(23:43):
That was our Blockbuster that the 1.
And I look at mail and I go, that building's still empty.
If I ever won a billion dollar lottery, I'm buying Blockbuster
and I'm reopening a Blockbuster in that store right there.
And she's like, This is why God would never give you money
because you would do the see, right?
That's the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
And I was like, it would be awesome.

(24:03):
And she's like, no one would come.
And I was like, everyone would come.
People want to get back to. Like those old nostalgia stores
are huge. I'm like, people love those.
We could launch something. Now the problem is you go, you'd
rent your VHS and then wouldn't have anything to play it on, you
know? You know what I did the other
day and I wanted to watch a movie.

(24:24):
I really wanted to watch a movie.
I love movies and I, I wanted, Iwanted to go to the movies.
I love going to the movies. I just love that feel.
But there was no movie that was worth my $37 for me to go to the
movies. And so then I thought, I'm going
to rent a movie. And so I drove to our closest
Walgreens where our red box was.And the red box was gone.

(24:47):
There's no red. Red box doesn't exist anymore.
I've never, I've never rented. From a oh come on, never you
never you missed like a decade. But I was still do Netflix had
mailers for a while. Well, that's that was the
question that we just talked about.
You might be old if you remember, and I remember DVDs.
And that totally switched. To But you had to wait.

(25:07):
You had to send back the one andthen wait two to three days for
it to come back. No, we live in an instant
gratification society and I can.See for the four movies.
Yeah, I was. You were too cheap.
I mean for the four. So I could watch one, drop it in
and by the time I finished like I had this.
No, no, no. For Christmas I would get 2 DVDs
for a month and that was my Christmas gift.

(25:28):
Is I'm going, oh, wow. And then I could do that, but
no, no, no, no, no. And then Redbox came along and
you could just go and get it. It brought back Blockbuster in
in a small. But if you were right, here it
is me and you arguing over DVDs is why they call us old.
But if you were paying for Redbox, you could have the money
you spend at Redbox. You could have paid for Netflix

(25:49):
to upgrade and it would have been cheaper and you could have
gotten way more movies. No, but you get it instantly.
And the half the joy, half the joy in going to Blockbuster was
walking around, seeing the thingand wondering if it was going to
be behind the case. You remember that you saw it.
You knew which movie you wanted.And then you would go and you
would pull it down and there wasnothing behind the case.
And she's like, oh, man. And so then you would go up and

(26:11):
check the ones that have been returned and hadn't been put
back on the shelf yet. And you would ask the guy, hey,
could I get that one right therethat just got returned?
Or you'd sit there and stop people coming in the front door.
And you kind of look and not tryto be creepy saying, are they
bringing back the movie that I want?
And then you'd snatch it really quick as soon as it got checked
in with Redbox. You don't get that with Netflix
Mailer DVDs. You, you go online and you knew

(26:33):
and you know what's coming in the mail.
You know what you're getting with Red Box, you got to go, you
got to look at the screen and itwould say out of stock and oh
man. And so then you'd go to the one
right next. If you were at one of the places
that had an A&B machine, you'd log out of the A machine and
you'd step over to the B machineand say, so you are getting back
that same joy of the hunt, the joy of the search that is bred

(26:57):
into our DNA as human males. The The joy of the hunt you.
And I viewed that very, very differently.
Like I've, I've never, I don't know that I ever like, there
were movies I wanted to see, butI don't know that I ever like,
like felt it as deeply as you did.
Now, I did build pretty good relationships with my
blockbuster people. And we would stand and talk and

(27:18):
they would they, when I walk in and be like, Hey, is this,
they're like, Nah, man, it's out.
And I was like, well, if one pops in, they would always check
the box for me and and they would stick one to the side and
all that kind of stuff. But.
Yeah, we blockbustered very differently.
Yeah, I, I've built relationships with people and
hung out and I just, I enjoy watching movies and I, I mean,

(27:38):
it's like I would watch, you know, the Pokémon, my mentality,
you know, got to catch them all,got to watch them all.
So I was just, I was just watching movies.
So if there was one that wasn't there, it's like, yeah, it'll
get to it. And I would watch something
else. It was occasionally something I
would really want to see that how it would just take a while
to get to but. Yeah, I went in knowing what I
wanted, and if it wasn't there, there's disappointment.

(28:00):
Here was the beautiful thing in Blockbuster's effort to compete
with Netflix. So this was before I switched to
Netflix. Like they had the mailers that
you could do so Blockbuster would mail you and I think it
was up to 4 movies. And so we had a four movie pass
and we had kids. So at that point.
We were rich, rich. I don't know about that.
It's just we that's the subscription we paid for and and

(28:24):
so we would have a. You're the first person I've
ever known to have the Four movie.
I always wondered what that lifewas like.
We would take and we would like we had a couple of kids movies
that would be coming in. We would have a movie that Mel
and I would want to watch and maybe ATV show that we would get
a few episodes in and so we would get discs at a time.
But you could take those insteadof mailing the Mailer back, you

(28:47):
could take the Mailer to Blockbuster and they would let
you swap it for a movie. And so there's times we would
have like 8 movies at our house and just like because of the way
the mailers and all the other stuff would work.
We've rambled way too long on this.
You might be getting old of spicy food.
Feels like a personal attack. I mean, it doesn't bother me to

(29:09):
spicy food destroy you. Do you not sleep at night?
Yeah. Oh, it doesn't mean that's.
That's just a recent thing. I'm talking the last six months.
That what I eat great. And when I eat greatly impacts
the kind of night that I'm goingto have.
Yep. That I, for the first time in my
life, about six months ago, I had to go and buy Tums and

(29:34):
acids. Yeah.
Yeah, no, I I mean it doesn't, it doesn't bother me.
I have gotten to the point like I I got probably couldn't drink
a Coke it like or a pot of coffee at 10:30 at night and go
to bed at 11. But I'm not far from that.
I mean, it's still like I prettymuch could drink, you know,
caffeine and go straight, lay down and go to sleep.
If I eat after 8:00, I'm going to pay for it.

(29:56):
Nah, I can eat after. Eight.
Yeah, it's just. Is that anything or just spicy
food? Anything like fatty?
Sugary. Yeah, anything processed not
good for you. Man, I could sit down and eat a
bowl of Count Chocula like did. You find it, I did.
I've looked for it for you in several grocery.
Stores how? It's just not there.
I. Was going to surprise you and

(30:16):
give you a gift because I know that giving of gifts is your
love language and so I was good.I've looked several times.
I even went to a store specifically just to try to find
you Count Chocula. That's how much I love.
You I that is awesome and I found.
I did find some. I told and.
How many boxes did you buy? I bought. 4 I didn't go crazy.

(30:38):
What's with you at 4:00? I didn't, I didn't, I didn't. 4
DVDs. From from Netflix, four boxes of
Count Choculus. Deep like like can I like this
is this is first world problems and and like when people go
like, oh, I'm not wealthy. I'm like, if you bought four
boxes of cereal that cost almost$5 a piece now I'm like, you

(30:58):
might be rich and like, and so Idon't, I'm not, I mean, I'm not
what the world would consider rich, but I feel very fortunate
that I could do that. But, and we've still got a
couple of boxes. We're, we're working through it.
And so I'll probably run by and before the end of the month and
try and grab a couple more just to where we can.
I literally, I eat cereal one month a year and that's it.
So. You might be getting old if

(31:19):
coffee is considered a snack. It's not a snack for me, but I
do love coffee and I will drink it all day long.
You might be getting old if you avoid anything that makes you
have to wait in line. I don't like lines I.
Don't like lines either. Oh, I hate lions.
You don't like coffee either? I don't like coffee, I don't
like lions. I especially don't like lions

(31:40):
for coffee. I we went to Starbucks the other
day. We did the drive through.
We were sitting there for like 7minutes and like, come on, if
you're going, if you're going toplace your if you're going
through the drive through, have already placed your order with
the mobile app. If you're going to go and get in
line at the drive through and atthe speaker and they say,

(32:01):
welcome to Starbucks, you can take your order and you're not
going to say, yeah, I had a mobile order for.
If you're going to sit there andsay, yeah, let me get a let me
get a mocha frappuccino with 7 squirts of of vanilla and non
fat mocha latte with light ice and you've got 7 drinks.
You have no business being in the drive through line.
You need to get your butt insidethe store and order then and sit

(32:24):
down in one of the comfy chairs instead of backing up the line
for everyone who placed their mobile order and is ready to go.
Can I give you the hottest day? Because I give my my drink light
ice, my spice Chai with six pumps of vanilla.
I get that with light ice. Because then you get more drink
beverage to enjoy when that thatjerk that ordered from the

(32:48):
speaker in front of you, by the time you finally get your light,
ice is already melted and now your drinks because it's been
sitting on the counter, it's been ready for 7 minutes.
So so two things. One you you could walk in and
grab your drink because they'll sit them right there on the
counter for you. No, no you can't.
And. 2. You have to select on the app
whether you're doing in store, pickup or drive.

(33:08):
You could. Choose in store pickup.
But once you get into the drive through line and there's people
in front of you and behind you, there's no getting out.
You're stuck. You could make that choice long
before you ever get to Starbucks.
Second thing is this. I hate mobile orders.
I would so much rather walk in and talk to a person.
I would so much rather order through.
I hate mobile orders now. I do it all the time because

(33:29):
that's the world we live in. Did you know that Sam's Club has
actually gone away? You cannot walk up to the cafe
anymore and order like a slice of pizza.
And I was. Told that I haven't experienced
it, but I was told. I'm in the same boat.
A buddy of mine, a pastor I workwith, he was at Sam's Club and
he said there was this like 80 year old dude there and he's
standing in line and he said, hey, Sir, you know, like, and

(33:50):
he's like, I just want to get a piece of pizza.
And he's like, they're not at the registry.
He said, well, there are people back there.
He said, yeah, they're just making food.
They're not doing this anymore. Can you still do the scan and
go? You can order it on your app.
You can, you can. And then apparently you can go
to the registers and order and check out.
But he so my buddy, he's like, well, I don't, I don't have an

(34:10):
app. I don't know what app.
He's like, are you paying with cash?
And he said yeah. And he said just hand me $2.00.
And my buddy ordered the pizza for him and got it and handed it
to him. But like it's really there is a
there is a level of Sam's Club is an old person thing.
And I mean, there's a lot of young people that go there as
well. But it's something that when you
make a decision like that, you make a decision to go.

(34:33):
I do not care if anyone over theinsert age here ever comes to my
store anymore. Starbucks, I believe, can see.
My mom used to love to get the pizza combo at Sam's Club.
She will not get it anymore. She will never have the Sam's
Club pizza combo again unless I am with.
Her and like I think Starbucks and there's places like that,
they continually make choices togo.

(34:54):
We are always going to choose a younger demographic.
If you want what we do there, itwill not be long till where
Starbucks will go. You order on a mobile app or you
don't get in or you don't or, oryou have to come in the store.
And I think it won't be long where they just say you're on
the mobile app or you don't get Starbucks.
And, and I don't know is that isthat six months, five years?
I don't know. But I think within that window

(35:16):
it'll be. So yeah, it's it's always
interesting to me to watch and. Then the AI will be making your
drinks for you. Man, I'm telling you that we
don't have time to get started on AI today, but I've listened
to a couple of podcast episodes that I need to send you.
I mentioned one of them to you and you were telling me about
something that one of your kids has been doing.
And, and like the AI thing. I actually, and what's
interesting is when I'm listening to the AI, then again,

(35:38):
this is very much the grumpy oldman like, oh, you're just
against technology. I am so not against technology.
I'm a I'm against some of this AI stuff though.
Yeah, you get excited about new appliances.
I do like new appliances and butlike the whole thing about this
AI is the guy who's promoting it, who's talking about this
thing he's created. He's like, it's not replacing
writers inside of movies. It's it's it's enhancing.

(36:01):
And I'm like, that is so like every word he said, I'm like,
you could not be more saying, yeah, we're getting ready to
replace writers like this. The set the Screen Actors Guild
is probably have another strike coming up because of what these
people are creating and they're doing.
But yeah, no, I I get grumpy around the fact of just things
going away. I like talking to people and the

(36:22):
more and more and more you and Idon't know if that's to get an
old thing or if it's a it's a faith thing for me.
Like I feel like that we are like just when you can go up and
talk to somebody and kind of have a conversation.
I just, I just like that. The reason I miss Blockbuster is
not because I love streaming services and it is extremely

(36:43):
convenient to sit down and go, oh, that new movie, they that
thing's barely out in theaters and now it's on, it's on
Paramount now or whatever. Like I enjoy that.
But the thing I really miss is not so much having to get out in
the rain to go get a movie that Mel and I want to watch or the
family wants to watch. It's like I miss walking in and

(37:04):
going, oh, I know set. There's seven people that work
here and I know all seven of them and I knew their story and
I knew where they went to schooland I knew who their family was.
I miss those things. And if I don't think that makes
me old, I think it just I just like community.
But I miss the hunt and I miss limited choices.
I think now we have so many choices that you don't know what
to choose. Yeah, things do eventually go

(37:25):
away and and we bought a ton of movies, but we have so many
movies on our shelf. We still have them that that has
the blockbuster, you know, dollar 99 or something like
that. We'd buy older DVDs and stuff
for a buck or whatever, things like that.
But all right, continue. This is absolutely way too long.
After you may be old if you callSpotify the radio.
You would be old. I don't do that, but you would

(37:45):
be old. You may be old if you remember
life before cell phones and missit sometimes.
I guess that I would say yes, but I do and I remember it and I
miss it a lot. You may be old if you know all
the songs that played on MTV in the 80s and 90s.
In fact, I want to change that and say you might be old if you
remember when MTV played music videos.
Let's do it that way because I wasn't allowed to listen to

(38:07):
music like that in the 80s. And so I didn't know any of
those songs. There's still a lot of them when
they come on. I don't know the words.
I know what the song is. I don't know the words.
But yes, I I would agree that I saw something the other day and
I don't know if it was true or not that they're actually
shutting down on MTV as it like that whole there's no more music
videos at all. I don't think there's been music

(38:28):
videos on MTV I. Think they had a port.
They have like multiple Mt VS a little bit like ESPN.
They've got multiple things and I think they had one.
They had a section of a day. They were still doing a few
music videos. I saw something that was wrapped
around that. I should have shared that
article with you. You might be old if you can't
figure out why anyone needs stories on social media.

(38:49):
I would agree with that, but I'll.
Be honest, I don't understand them at all.
I don't know what they are. I don't get it.
I don't understand what's the difference between a stories and
A and a Just a regular post I I don't know.
So you can explain that to me when we're done recording.
You may be old if you've never used Tiktok and you're proud of
it. Used or like used by meaning
you've recorded yourself or likeused like oh, I get on there and

(39:12):
scroll through. I don't have the app I, I, I.
Haven't used Tiktok in a while but I do have Tiktok.
I don't have the app. I've never had the app.
You might be old if you have a favorite pin.
Oh man, I'm a pin snob. I actually like have certain
pins I use and I don't even wantto write.
I'm the same exact way. And I've been like that for 20
years. Yeah.

(39:33):
Yeah. Yeah, I don't think that's an
old thing. I know for a fact I have not
changed pins that I used the brand of pin that I used since
2011. Wow.
I know for a fact since 2011 I have not changed the brand.
Very impressive. At least one, if not two of my
kids have bought into the same. Are you a pen stealer?

(39:54):
No. Do you think that that is an
ethical issue if you're a pen stealer?
I think it should be a crime punishable by flogging.
I'm a pen stealer. This pin is bought.
Oh, this one says Higher Ministries that has my address
on it. But so that's one that was sent
to me by some company that that wanted to get me to buy them.
This one is from the law office of Derek Malcolm.

(40:18):
Let's see. See.
But I would never use those pins, so I wouldn't want.
They're the best. Pins.
But no, like I use tools, so I use two things.
I use tools and I use Sharpie and so those are the two things
that I use and I don't use anything outside of that.
Got a lot of Keller Williams Realty pens in in the desk.
Yeah, Tool and Sharpie are the only things I would want to.

(40:41):
Got a lot of pens from our accountant that I have to go in
and sign for checks. And sometimes those pens make
their way into my pocket becausethey're really good pens.
They've got like 18 of them sitting in the little cup that
are there. And so I feel like I pay them
enough I can take a pen. But you're telling me that I
should be prosecuted for that? You mean like stealing them from

(41:01):
a server and things like that? You're like taking a server.
No, no, no. The cup.
The cup that's sitting. There those are designed to take
you think so they want you to take this advertising.
For them, yeah, OK, I don't feelso bad then.
I was taking. Them from a church, they want
you doing that and things so long as.
OK, you might be old if you check the weather before leaving
the house. Like it's a life or death
decision. Do you do this?

(41:23):
Every day. But for you, like it could be
middle of the summer here and itdropped below 85 and you're
like, it's chilly outside. I may need a coat.
Yeah, I used to have a Siri, notSiri, an Alexa.
What's a Echo? Amazon Echo in our bathroom.
And it was every morning. Alexa, what's the weather today?

(41:44):
But it was the original Alexa, the very first one that I got to
be one of the first. You're one of the lucky 10
million people that gets to pre-order this before they come
out to the general public. And it looked like a Pringles.
Can you remember that thing? I do and it gave out about a
month or two ago and I haven't replaced it in the bathroom.
So now I just started recently. Since we got our new phones,

(42:07):
it's been well documented on thePulpit and Porch podcast that my
wife and I got new phones. About 3 weeks ago we got the
iPhone 17 Pro. In fairness, you had like the 4S
that you upgraded from. I mean, you had a really old
phone. It was.
Didn't have a camera? No.
So flip. I mean, it was a Motorola Razor.
Yeah, man. That thing was.

(42:27):
Cool. Oh, what was the side by side
one? It started.
Oh, I'll think of it. BlackBerry.
No, that was the one that had the keyboard at the bottom, but
there was a sidekick. There was a sidekick one as
well. But so this one, I can just, it
can be sitting on the counter and I can be, I can be sitting
on my, my bathroom vanity and I can be in my closet and I can

(42:49):
say, Siri, what's the weather today?
And it'll tell me the weather just like the Alexa used to do.
So I've started doing that untilI can get maybe for Christmas
I'll get a new Alexa or something like that for the
bathroom. We've got Amazon stuff around
the house and I ask often, I mean, just for the fact of like,
do I need, you know, a hoodie ordo I need a jacket?

(43:12):
And it's. Important information to have.
You can't always tell by lookingoutside.
No, and it's Northeast Tennessee.
And so when I ask what's the weather today, it'll be like
currently, it's this, you're going to see a high of this.
And I'm going, oh, well, it's currently like right now.
I mean, today it's it was 40 some degrees when I was leaving
the house this morning and it's going to be a high of like 62.
And I'm going and, and if we look at the windows here at the

(43:33):
pulpit and Porch Studio, I mean,I think it's going to blow trees
over. I mean, it looks that way Windy.
Yeah. So, yeah, by the way, could not
be an older conversation that we're having right now.
Like, do we check the weather? My granddad used to read the
Farmer's Almanac. He was a farmer, I guess, in
fairness, but and he would make decisions about his entire life,

(43:56):
like year. I mean his entire year would be
wrapped around with the farm. Do you remember the great days
when you'd go on a road trip andyou'd pull out the Rand McNally
from under the seat? I was mad the other day that a
AAA doesn't give out paper maps anymore.
It's ridiculous. I mean like I would.
Cancel my AAA subscription if I had one.
We have 5 people on that thing and I'm like I can't go in there
and. Can't go in and get your trip?

(44:17):
No, you can't do all that stuff anymore.
And what's the point of even thebrick and mortar AAA store
anymore if you can't go in and get all your vacation resources?
I would say they probably still book vacation.
They still function as a travel agent, but I don't know that.
I don't know if they do trip ticks or not.
But like you can't go in and getmaps and a lot of stuff like
that. Like I love the maps.

(44:38):
I thought those were awesome. So did I.
What's your funniest? You might be getting old if
moment that you've had recently that you just laughed at
yourself for what you did. I don't it might be one of those
like eating earlier things of like going probably eat dinner

(45:02):
now and then like it's 4:30. I don't know that that even
really like I'm not out of work yet and I'm going.
I could probably eat dinner right now and I could, I can
just kind of roll on there. And so I'm like, yeah, I can't
do that. Can't get there.
So what about you? The inspiration for this
episode, what piqued this idea for us to do this episode into

(45:25):
my head was 2 days ago my wife dropped a pen, probably a pen
that was taken from the accountant's office or the.
Car hijacked. Out of the cup, yeah.
And we looked at each other like, who's going to get the
pen? And I said, I got the pen and I
stretched before I bent down to get the pin.
I literally stretched before I bent down to get the pin in

(45:46):
preparation for what I knew was about to happen.
And as I was getting back up, I thought, my goodness, I'm old
that I just stretched before bending down to get a pin.
That that's a little embarrassing.
What's embarrassing about it? I was nervous a few weeks ago.
I I like, I like knelt down preaching and I was and I
thought about it afterwards. I'm going.

(46:07):
I was not thinking when I did this and I'm going and I didn't
groan and I I stood up pretty easily and I was like I was
nervous that I was later. I'm going.
I was fortunate to be able to get up, but.
Yeah, The other day we were watching a baseball game and I
got up in between one of the innings and I did my groaning
like I did. And my son said, dad, are you
OK? And I said, yeah, just hold when

(46:29):
your kids look at you and just doing life and say, oh, are you
all right? And like, yeah, that's just a
normal life now. It's just the way I am.
So here's the question I would ask is like, if you knew you
were doing it, would you not want to stop it?
Or you just like, write a passage like I deserve to groan.
Absolutely I have. Earned these groans.

(46:52):
Yeah, I think if I knew I was groaning and to be fairness, one
day I did something and and it wasn't that I was like, I didn't
groan every time I stood up, butI I did something, I did that
kind of kind of things, just stood up and and I was at my
doctor's office and he said, didyou really just.
And I was like, yeah, but I don't think it was malicious.
Like Melissa would have said something to me if I was doing

(47:13):
that all the time. And I kind of intentionally now
in my brain, I'm going, OK, I'm not going to be that person that
every time I stand up, I'm goingand kind of moaning and exhaling
and stuff like that. And so I don't know, I just, I
just wondering, it's like it's, it's like intentional and
motivated as you are by so many what seemingly be useless
things. I just figured maybe you would

(47:35):
want to nip that in the bud. Well, we're going to go a little
philosophical now with this nextquestion that when did fun start
meaning staying at home? Turn on some Kenny G in the
background how we answer this one and go, you know.
Kenny G is doing a concert in Greenville at Christmas time.

(47:59):
The. Yeah, nice.
Longer. Yeah, I wanna go so bad.
The tickets are so expensive. Everything so expensive.
We were crazy. We were looking at at tickets.
There's some comedians and Jay Leno.
I like Jay Leno. I always have.
And it's it's like $300 to get into the room for two tickets
over at Hard Rock to go see Jay Leno.

(48:20):
You. Don't even Jay Leno's going to
be at the Hard Rock in Bristol. In like a month or so.
You don't even want to know whatI had to just pay for tickets to
go see the Lakers play the Atlanta Hawks in a couple.
Weeks. Oh, no, I I wouldn't.
Yeah, no, I wouldn't want to know what was the question is
that, I mean, I'm getting on. When did it start being fun to

(48:42):
stay at home instead of going out on a Saturday night?
So I like Mel and I have always enjoyed just like renting a
movie and staying home. And so for me like that, that
hasn't changed anything. We've actually gotten more
active and, and, and our kids have controlled a lot of stuff.

(49:03):
So over the last decade, as the boys have been playing sports
and doing all these things, our lives been so busy with ABC and
D and our friend group is insideof either church or those sports
teams. When we had some time off,
typically we're like, but now like we went to dinner last
night. I mean, we're, we're booking
dinner with some other friends here in the next week or so.

(49:24):
I mean, we're constantly like doing more things with people
and getting out. And so we're doing out more now
than 4. But I love, I love staying at
home and just watching a movie, eating dinner at the house and
that kind of stuff. I like adventure.
I've always, I've always liked adventure, like to go out and do
stuff. But I find myself now being more

(49:46):
like. When everything cost a billion
dollars, Yeah, like you mentioned, you were joking
earlier, $37 and I guess technically, if you're going to
get popcorn to drink, it might have.
It's going to be more than that as.
I say it might have cost you that, but 37, you know, for my
whole family to go watch a movie.
And they've changed the cheap day.
Now it's now Wednesday, not Tuesday.
If you go to AMC, you can't. Oh, really?

(50:07):
Yeah, the cheap day is on Wednesday, not Tuesday.
That's horrible. It is Tuesday night's date
night. And Wednesdays, but, but you
always had to go early to get the cheap day.
But, but you all both have somewhat flexible schedules.
You might could work out a 3:00 matinee type thing maybe.
But but yeah. And so but like for our family
of five to go catch a movie would be $150.00 now if we were

(50:30):
getting snacks and stuff like that.
I don't know why you're complaining you had the four DVD
set from Netflix. Yeah, for $28.00 DVD a month.
It wasn't. It might not even.
It absolutely was true at all. Go back and look at those prices
from 2002. Three.

(50:52):
I also realized that I was old this past week because I got
very excited about the fact thatwe need a new vacuum.
Now, I wouldn't be excited aboutthat, Yeah.
But you get excited about a microwave.
Well, but I mean, I use AI use amicrowave a lot more than I use
a vacuum. We use a microwave multiple
times a day. Like in my favorite.
So my, my boys and I sit around and we watch golf and different

(51:14):
things. And there's always all these
sponsorships are popping up. So one day we were sitting there
and I think all of us were in the room and, and I'm like, OK,
you get 5 sponsors who do you want?
And they're like, oh, that's a great question.
And so we're just thinking through who we would get as
sponsors. That's a great question.

(51:35):
Who would your five sponsors be on your hat, your sleeve of your
shirt, your golf bag and all those things?
And it was an absolute blast of a conversation.
Like OK, well I don't want 2 carcompanies, so which cars would I
want? And this and this and this.
And you know, I think and one ofmy 5 literally was no ninja.
Oh yeah, ninja shark in that combo.

(51:56):
I love so like anytime like if Iwas because.
You can get a vacuum and you canget an air fryer.
They the, they have the ice cream machines and the slushy
things and all this stuff. And I'm like, like, if I'm new
today, I was buying a Ninja appliance this afternoon, I
would be so thrilled, like I would be giddy that I would be

(52:17):
getting a new Ninja appliance. That's exciting, and it started
with just a blender. It did.
And so and I think we have 6 ninja things at our house.
Our coffee pot, we've got a blender, we've got, we replaced
our crock pot years ago with a ninja.
We have an air fryer. I'm I'm missing a couple things.

(52:38):
How? How can I not think of this
stuff? You're like a black belt.
Like, we have a lot. I mean, we have several things
and I love it and there's so many more that I want and it is
awesome. I love them so much.
I'm proud of you man 6 ninjas. That's that's exciting.
What's something that you appreciate more now than you did
in your 20s? Quiet, I hated silence and I'm

(53:02):
struggle with it still but I really love quiet and and
probably deeper conversation. Not just kind of random
relationships but like deeper conversations about things.
What about you? Time.
Because it is leading just. Time itself?

(53:25):
Yep, just time itself, yeah. It's always hard for me when
people post. I think you'll resonate this
people post on social media liketime is a thief and and I'm
going, well, I don't know. I mean, I've tried not to live
that way, but it is something I start to think about like, man,
you know, it's I say all the time I'm when I'm talking to
people, I'm like, I'm eight months from my life being very,
very different and I don't know that I love it, but I can't

(53:49):
change it. So I'm just trying to embrace
it. But no, it's a great.
Answer When I was younger, everything was let's hurry,
let's hurry, let's get to this next thing, let's get to this
next thing. And now might just please slow
down. Let's live in this.
Let's soak it up as long as we can.
So what's something that when you say that was something you
would tell 25 year old you if you could go back and do that?

(54:12):
Slow down. I think that's a big thing that
I would say slow down. My phrase would probably be the
whole line of like, really take to heart the the statement that
people overestimate what they can do in a day and
underestimate what they can do in a year.

(54:34):
And if you'll do small things today, Craig Rochelle talks
about habits and stuff like that.
If you'll create small habits today, it you will where you'll
be when you're 50. You will not even be able to
imagine what that could look like.
Yeah, I think that I would tell my younger self stop trying to
prove yourself and just trust yourself more.

(54:57):
Trust your instincts. Don't care as much about what
people think. Not everything is as urgent as
you think that it is right now. When you get older, you're going
to realize what's actually important, and it's not a lot of
the things that you're chasing right now.

(55:22):
Yeah. So with that answer there,
you've kind of stepped into thisa little bit like how has
getting older made your faith stronger?
Like you, you kind of, I think we both kind of leaned into that
faith thing and just a little bit of commitment and and, you
know, less, less dependence and less investment from the critics

(55:47):
and more focus into, Hey, you know, here's where God would
want from me. Here's what he says about me.
Here's who he says I am. So I can, I can trust.
I can trust, you know, you said your gut.
You and I both like, that's the work of the Spirit.
You know, you and I both know wecan trust the Holy Spirit.
We can trust that gut instinct because we're, we don't have to
listen to the voice of the critics and go, oh, doesn't

(56:08):
matter. Like no one can cancel you as
long as I'm with you. I mean, that type of thing.
So we didn't call it cancelled when we were 25.
But yeah. Yeah.
I think that perspective, you know that that's the big thing
that I think you have in gettingolder is perspective.
I love to be able to look back at life and things that I
thought were so monumental at the time that now I can look

(56:35):
back and see the patterns, the themes, the way that God was
present and moving and working in each of those situations.
The way that He was guiding me, directing me through all of
that, showing me that God is constant through it all.
That even in moments when it felt like He was nowhere to be
seen, that he didn't care, he wasn't there, That he was

(57:00):
constant. That even when life was
unpredictable, that God was still good and in the moment,
you so often can't see that. But as you get older and you can
see your life from 30,000 feet, you can take the overhead view
and get the perspective of now being older, of seeing what you

(57:21):
can see what God was doing through all of that, that you
just didn't have the maturity, the wisdom to, or the
perspective to see it at the time.
I think I would echo that when Isaw this question and I just
thought like, you know, what would it mean, you know, or
what's it mean as I'm getting older to look at my faith and,

(57:42):
and, and go, man, it, you know, strength, the strength of that
faith, the more the groundednessof that faith.
And it's just is I look back like it's easier for me to trust
God now because I can look back and see him in things when I was
unsure, maybe before or when, like you said, when things seem
hard. So I can't say that any of that
any better at that's, that was literally what I was thinking,

(58:03):
though, is just, and I think there's that's why all the
statements around, you know, Gray hair is a badge of honor.
I mean, it's these things of like respect your elders, like
we need to listen to more stories of people who are ahead
of us. I took one of my boys and A and
a friend of ours. We were playing golf the other
day. And we're standing, we're

(58:24):
standing at the chorus getting tee off on hole number one.
And this, this other, this oldergentleman pulls up to the
pavilion and and he's standing there.
And I was like, you hitting him well today.
And he's like, you know, not toobad for a 90 year old.
And I said, you're my new hero. And I said, are you from around
here? He's like, yeah, I grew up.
And this starts telling me a story.

(58:46):
And I and I just thought and andthere came a point in time, then
everybody starts showing up and I'm going, OK, I'm going to have
to leave and actually go play golf now.
But I thought we just don't listen to the stories of people
who have the wisdom and the ability to journey life with us.
And you start talking about, yeah, I used to play golf over
here and they they weren't, theywere not handling this and this

(59:06):
and this well. And so everybody got mad and the
whole group, people went over here.
And I thought, that's interesting.
I always wondered what happened to those courses and why this
did this and why that happened there.
And just being somebody who's played a lot of golf in the
area, I was like, that's a really crazy story.
And and I just thought, you know, it was a 3 minute
conversation with a 90 year old man who he's like, yeah, try and

(59:26):
get my son to play. And I'm going, you're 90.
I mean, your kids probably 70, Imean years old.
I was 6570 years old. And and it's like that's, it's
just funny going, yeah, I'm trying to get my kid out here.
All he wants to do is go fishing.
I'm like, he's probably retired too out here fishing and, and
stuff. But I just, you know, I, I think
that that's something for me is just being able to, to look back

(59:49):
and because as I've aged, I havethis, you know, probably
perspective on life that's different.
And I just go, I didn't ask my grandparents enough questions
when I was a kid. When I had my grandparents, I
didn't ask enough questions. And now I don't take advantage
of the people. And that's why I'm so grateful.

(01:00:10):
One of the things I'm doing right now that it, it, it's a
lot of time, but I read, we're reading two books at a time.
We do a chapter from each book aday and we just read until
they're done. And we get 2 new books.
But this one pastor and I, we have an 87 year old.
A man that has mentored both of us for and he's been he's been

(01:00:31):
in my life for 20 years or more now.
And, and we have read countless books over hundreds of cups of
coffee and he reads these books with us and every day we just
shoot a short text of Hey, here's what God said to me
today. Here's what stood out.
And we get his investment in Hey, Robert, here's a here's a

(01:00:52):
word I would encourage you with.Here's something I'm going
that's priceless for me to be able to look at it, you know,
30, almost 40 years older than Iam.
That much life, that much ministry.
He's a former pastor. He's from a, he's from another
country. He's lived all over the world.
He's a doctor of veterinary medicine that live that pastored

(01:01:13):
and leads and still invests and,and leads small groups and talks
through things. And it's just beautiful to see
he and his wife do that. And I'm so grateful that I get
that space. And I think that's something
that's just come with age of being able to go.
I need to value the people who got to where I want to get to
more. Why do you think it takes us

(01:01:35):
until we're old ourselves to realize the value in that?
I mean, my thought would be, andI'd be interested to hear your,
your comments on this as well. For sure.
I think some of it comes down a little bit to just, I mean, I
mean, I think we're, we're so arrogant and prideful when we're
younger. We just think we know
everything. And, and I always thought like,
my kids won't be that way or I wasn't that way.

(01:01:59):
And I look back and it's like, well, I was that way.
And I remember my parents sayingthings or my grandparents or
other adults in my life saying things that I'm going, man, this
is a this, this is something that they don't know what
they're talking about. And so I make life choices and I
do things. And then as we get older, we go
like, why was I making things sohard?

(01:02:21):
And but I watch my kids now and they'll go through stuff and I'm
going, hey, help me understand how that's wise.
And and it's just something of their, you know, they're going
to have to make their own decisions and things in life.
I give wisdom as best I can. And I think as we get older, we
go, yeah, I need somebody which scripture sets up time and time

(01:02:43):
and time and time again. I need somebody to help me
navigate this. And as we realize we don't have
all the answers, that God is guys giving us the scripture in
the Holy Spirit. And then also he's given us
other people. And I've just found there's some
20 year olds that are really bright.
I've found a lot more wisdom though with people that are at

(01:03:05):
my phase or a little further, especially as I get older that
have a lot of wisdom that can speak and invest in lead.
Well, there's, I don't think it's possible to be young and
have wisdom because wisdom comeswith experience.
You can be incredibly smart, youcan be incredibly intelligent,
but I think wisdom comes with experience.

(01:03:25):
By definition, wisdom comes withexperience.
And so when Scripture says, surround yourself with those who
are wise and you will be wise, Yeah.
I think I love I heard a pastor one time just talk about and
just say with that verse you're.Talking about here.
With that verse you're talking about, I heard a pastor say one
time that just, you know, it's apromise and a warning that if

(01:03:49):
you walk with wise people, you will grow wise.
I mean, it's actually a promise that if you walk with wise
people, you will become a wise person, but a companion of fool
suffers harm. It's this warning.
If it doesn't say you will become a fool, it says you will
suffer the same consequences as as other fools.
And so proximity to ridiculousness or ignorance

(01:04:11):
leads to consequences doesn't make you ridiculous and
ignorant. Now, some might say if you're
with, if you're with a fool, maybe you are a fool, but that's
not what scripture says. It says that if you, you know,
companion of fools will suffer harm.
And I tell my boys all the time,I'm like, there are people who
just have an ability to not be present when consequences

(01:04:31):
happen. And if you hang with fools,
there is going to come a time that that is going to be a
person you're hanging with and they will get away Scott free
for whatever reason, and you will suffer consequences.
And honestly, if you were there,you may deserve it.
But even if you didn't do it, itdoesn't matter.

(01:04:53):
Like that's how life works. And and so some people be all
right. Robbie, that's not fair.
You're teaching your boy. I'm like, that's just, that's
just reality. So I agree 100% with what you're
saying. There very good.
We've rambled a lot. We have, and I think it's about
time to call it an episode. Yeah.
Yeah. You agree.
Got it. This is all the time that we

(01:05:13):
have for this edition of the Pulpit and Porch podcast.
You know, The funny thing about getting older is that it sneaks
up on you one day. You're staying out past
midnight, and the next day you're mad that your neighbor's
leaf blower started before 8:00 AM.
But there's beauty in it, too. Getting older means that we've
seen God's faithfulness, not just heard about it.
It means that we've learned whatmatters, what doesn't, and that

(01:05:36):
peace is better than popularity.So yeah, maybe we move a little
bit slower. Maybe we also love a little bit
deeper. Maybe we laugh a little bit
easier and live with a little bit more purpose.
If you joined in today's episode, do us a favor and share
it with a friend who also may becomplaining about their back
lately. Make sure you like and follow

(01:05:58):
the Pulpit and Porch Podcast on Facebook and Instagram.
Subscribe wherever you listen toyour favorite podcasts so that
you don't miss the next front porch conversation.
Until next time, keep your senseof humor, keep your hope, and
maybe keep some ibuprofen handy.We'll see you next week.