"Standing on the Shoulders of Giants"

Join Jimmy and Annette as they discuss what it means to stand on the shoulders of giants and while living up in a down world!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We'll be right back.

(00:02):
Don't get down when you're seeing the worst.
Cause the last will be the first.
What a day I'm telling you.
All things will be new.
Living up in a down world.
Yeah we're living, yeah we're living.
Living up in a down world.

(00:23):
Oh!
This is Jimmy and Annette and we are living up in a down world
and we are excited to be coming to you from the heart of the Texas Hill Country.
Fredericksburg, Texas.
Hey beautiful how are you doing over there?
I'm doing great.
Actually my real world for you is gorgeous.
Your hair is stunning.
Thank you.

(00:44):
Well you're the one who told me to curl it today.
I know.
Wow.
It worked.
It worked.
How are you doing this morning?
I'm good.
Are you full of energy and excited?
Well I'm kind of upset.
We're at work.
I have a lot of work to do.
I'm upset.
Well and we have no internet back here so I'm going to have to move to the other part
of the church just because we've been gone all week and I have work to do.

(01:07):
I know you've got work to do.
You have a sermon to prepare which you can do at home but I have work.
I have a wedding today at 1 o'clock too because what time is it right now?
It's about 9.51 am.
We better hurry.
We've got to get this done.
No we love talking about God and we love talking about living up in a down world
and what that actually means that that's not just a clever or cute title to a podcast.

(01:28):
It's really our mantra.
I mean what does it look like to live up when the world seems to be losing its mind?
That's for sure.
By the way this is episode number 71.
Hey cruising right along.
I know Tina said we're hitting 100.
They're going to catch up with us.
I'm like it doesn't work that way unless you all don't.
Unless they take a big break.
Take a big break.

(01:49):
We're the ones who take a break.
They don't.
I know.
We're more.
It's a little different.
We have day jobs.
We have full time jobs.
Our day jobs just take over our lives sometimes but that's the nature of ministry.
And all of our trips.
We have had a lot of trips.
To me it's kind of hard to take the equipment on a trip because you kind of have to stop,

(02:10):
regroup, be able to talk but especially when you have other people with you.
I would rather come back from the trip and talk about it.
I will say this so Adam Curry the pod father.
We'll talk a lot more about Adam and Tina a bit because we're going to talk about our
trip to up to New England.
Boston.
Boston.
Boston.
Boston.

(02:31):
You have to say Boston.
It was amazing but we'll talk more about that in a minute.
I just want to let's get some things out of the way.
So he secured from this guy this portable podcast unit that is like tiny.
I know I saw it.
Not much bigger than a deck of cards has two inputs so it would be very easy to travel

(02:52):
with that.
It would fit in the backpack.
The biggest tricky part is your mic stands.
That's it.
But we do some small mini stands.
Can you buy mini stands?
Yes we can.
Smaller than what you already have?
Yes they make them and they're a little tabletop and they fold up.
So that way we could literally have.
Well that's a little bit better than taking a whole bunch of equipment.
Right.

(03:13):
No I agree.
We can do that too so we'll be able to be more portable.
It's kind of fun.
Listen we have no trips planned.
Not for a while.
No airplane trips.
We have a trip at the end of September for our staff but that's a work trip.
Staff retreat.
We don't have anything planned.
No.
I'm sure something's going to come up though.
Things do in our lives.
My executive assistant.

(03:35):
Our assistant.
But it really might.
Thank you.
Because I tell her what to do for you so I'm really yours.
That's true.
She keeps sending me stuff.
Hey you might want to go here.
I'm like what are you trying to get rid of us or something?
So it's cute.
There's a lot of amazing things that we would like to attend.
We're on a really learning and growth track.

(03:56):
I feel like you and I both are trying to catch up from high school.
Poly Sci, political science.
I took Poly Sci in college.
I was actually part of a very cool program.
But I don't remember anything because that was a season of life
where I was so focused on the Bible and learning as a pastor,
a young minister.

(04:17):
I was on such a learning curve with that.
So anyway, we're catching up.
It's like catching up.
Lost time.
We're making up.
I feel like because of the things that we're learning right now
about history, and I had really bad history teachers.
They were actually coaches that were forced to teach a subject.
No knock on coaches who were teachers.

(04:39):
No, and I don't know if they're doing that now,
but it was back then in the 70s.
They were forced to teach subjects,
but they ended up spending so much time with the football players,
baseball players, basketball players, and cheerleaders
that we really didn't get taught.
So I had no interest in history.
And now I feel like I'm playing catch-up towards the end of my life,

(05:03):
which is crazy.
End of your life.
You've got lots of treadwear left.
Well, you know what I mean.
We're in at least the last third of our life.
Yes, hello, the last third.
Okay, I'm not depressed about that.
So I think of...
If I knew I was dying in a month, I'd still be studying this.
It's so important.
But I love the fact that we're having biblical citizenship classes

(05:27):
with Patriot Academy going on in our church on Wednesday nights,
and Faith is able to hear all of this information.
That's our daughter.
And she's soaking it in.
That's our daughter.
Yes, I was going to say that.
But I'm so glad that she's getting this at her young 23-year-old age
and not waiting until she's in her 60s and 70s to get this.

(05:51):
So that makes me...
Because we really need to know where we came from.
We need to know our heritage, not just who our Creator is,
but those that created America that sacrificed on our behalf
and our children's behalf and children's children's behalf

(06:12):
so that we could have liberty.
And it's been very interesting learning about that.
So, yes, we just got back from Boston yesterday.
That trip was phenomenal.
Everybody is asking me at the office, so how was it?
Not enough time.
I know, I couldn't even get you down here to do the podcast.
We were saying, 9 o'clock, we're going to meet at 9 o'clock.
And you couldn't even...

(06:33):
I was down here waiting.
It's hard because we had two travel days and one full day doing the exploration.
And we need about a week.
At least.
Well, I would say like a five to six day kind of deal.
We would still be back on Sunday.
So, yeah, we'll need to plan that a little more careful.

(06:54):
But it was our first trip out.
I kind of called it a scouting trip,
just to see where we'd want to go the next time to stay,
which would probably be Plymouth.
I want to stay at one of the B&Bs there.
That was just a little fascinating.
It's a great central spot.
We can get up to Concord, up to Lexington,
get down if we needed to go back around Boston or anything.

(07:15):
So, it's kind of a good place to start and kind of be,
I wouldn't call it central, but it's more in the southern or eastern edge of things.
But it puts us an easy driving distance
and a lot of places that are historical.
And we'll go into a little bit more detail,
but I want to remind people, just a little commercial caveat,
do go to our website, Living Up in a Down World.

(07:39):
I do daily devotionals on there.
The only time, if you don't see a devotional,
it's only because it was a travel day.
And so, and we've had a lot of travel days.
So, whenever it looks like there's a skip,
that's the same way on social media platforms,
it's only because we were traveling
and probably flying at 6 o'clock in the morning,
which we did twice this week.
I know, that was early, brutal early.

(08:00):
It's very hard on me because literally, I do not sleep at night.
And so, my mind is so worried that I'm going to not wake up in time,
even though we have all these alarms on.
I have mine on, you have yours on.
And I can't, for some reason, my body says,
no, you're not going to sleep, you're just going to stay up all night

(08:21):
and then get on the plane and, oh my gosh.
And then you're mad at me because I'm snoring and sleeping.
And you're like, how can he sleep?
And I'm like, really?
How can he do this?
But I had a lot of Bible time because when I don't sleep,
I'm like, okay, I'm going to get in the Bible
because that's definitely going to put me to sleep.
And that didn't even put me to sleep.
So, a couple of things and we're bouncing around,

(08:42):
but it's because it's 9 o'clock and we just had two cups of coffee.
So, we may be all over the place.
But I want to invite you to go to our website,
livingupinadoworld.com and subscribe to our newsletter.
I put out a newsletter either the day of or the day before
that we're going to release a podcast.
That way you kind of know what's coming.
I love pictures, so I put a lot of pictures in it.
I'm going to put a lot of pictures from our trip.

(09:04):
And then leave a review.
If you like what you're hearing, man, leave a review.
It's so helpful for us just to hear from you,
to know that our voice is getting out there.
I was talking to Adam Curry about this,
and Adam, one of our topics of conversation was
there's not always great instant feedback loops in podcasting.

(09:26):
There's some things, some tricks, some end arounds,
some things you can do.
But for the most part, for most podcasters,
the reason they don't last over a year or even over a few weeks
is because they don't get any feedback.
So, they think we're not touching anybody.
Even Tina last week, not this week, but last week,
she was struggling because she's like, nobody's listening.

(09:48):
I'm not hearing anything.
No one's writing.
No one's sending anything.
And so, she was really struggling on the show.
And I thought, I kind of get that.
We've had that conversation before,
because it comes in cycles, it seems like,
where you won't hear anything, and then you'll hear a bunch.
And so, just appeal to those of you who are listening.
If this is encouraging you, you can do two things.

(10:10):
One, you can write us.
I mean, just go right on there.
You can literally write us.
It'll send a direct email to me, and I'll get that.
We'd love to hear from you.
Love to hear anything about you, your life,
maybe what you're getting out of the show or what.
Maybe it's just something, you have a question or something.
But we'd love to hear from you.
So, that's a big deal.
Another big deal you can do in terms of value for value,

(10:31):
if this is helping you, is you can pass this on.
Just send our link on to other people who could use this.
Maybe they're struggling in a various area of our life.
You can go back to our archives, all of our titles,
or kind of giveaways of the topics.
And you can find something that fits or works.
But anyway, we're here to help people.
That's it.
That is our biggest thing.

(10:53):
We want to teach people what it looks like to live up in a down world,
even on your worst day, even when things aren't perfect,
or even when you did a whirlwind three-day trip 24-7 each day,
and you come back and you're like,
we're back in the office on Thursday after a trip to New England.
Or you just turn on the news and watch it.

(11:14):
Yeah, for 30 seconds.
I mean, literally.
That'll wipe you out, won't it?
So, I have to tell you, this morning,
you and I drove to work separately because you've got a wedding to do.
In a little while.
It's Mary in the afternoon, like 1 o'clock on a Thursday.
Outside, it's going to be 1 o'clock.
96 degrees.
It's going to be 96.
Lovely.
I'm glad it's you and not me.
I have a meeting.
Thank God I got out of it.

(11:35):
Can't wait to get that jacket on.
I got boots.
But anyway, I was driving to work and I felt like the Holy Spirit said,
pray for your country.
Pray for this administration.
Pray for the upcoming administration because God knows who's going to win.
And I just began to fill my car up with just prayer.
Wow.

(11:56):
Because as much as we disdain what's happening in this world
because of this administration,
it doesn't mean that we shouldn't pray.
If anything, we need to pray more.
Absolutely.
So I literally prayed for their eyes to be open,
for policies to be made that are in conjunction with what the Word says.

(12:18):
I prayed for the upcoming administration.
I prayed for protection and safety.
I prayed for Israel.
I just felt like the Lord said, pray right now.
And I think when something comes into our head,
especially as Christians, when you're a Christian,
things like that come into your head often
because we live and breathe Jesus.

(12:39):
We live and breathe God.
And I felt like the Lord said, pray right now.
And I just filled up my car.
I just turned down the music.
Because we're in really troubling times.
And I could just be in a fetal position in bed and just say,
oh, no, the sky's falling, chicken little.

(13:00):
Or I can pray.
Or I could go protest and have everybody think that I'm full of hate.
And I'm not.
And there's nothing wrong with protesting if you're protesting in the right spirit.
We've been given that right.
Exactly.
But there's a right spirit too.
It's part of the Bill of Rights.
We shouldn't be belligerent and evil.

(13:22):
Right or violent.
I even prayed for the January Sixers,
the ones that really were convicted that they had good intentions.
There was no evil intentions.
There was no belligerent.
It was just they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yeah, yeah.
Or right place at the wrong time or whatever you want to say.

(13:45):
Wrong place, wrong time.
And I prayed because I know that I feel that if Trump gets on,
he's probably going to pardon all those people.
But I prayed for that because we need to pray for those things in our life
because what is going on in this world is affecting everybody.
And it's affecting our children, our children's children.

(14:09):
What happens right now this year is going to affect our legacy.
Yeah, this is historic.
So I feel like that's what God had me do this morning,
which I haven't just turned my car into a sanctuary like that in a long time,
but I knew God had pricked my heart for a reason.

(14:32):
Something's probably going to happen today that is the reason why I needed to do that today.
Very possible.
Yeah.
Could be in a preemptive strike.
Could be.
So interesting enough, I'm driving in the other car.
Behind me.
I'm on hold with a place to get top breakfast tacos and they're not helping.
So I'm just sitting there and I did the same thing.

(14:55):
I started praying for our nation.
One of my prayers is this because I think people are living under this misnomer
that if we just get my guy elected into office, everything's going to be okay.
And we need to wake up.
First of all, we don't worship a man or a woman.

(15:17):
We don't worship a candidate.
We vote.
We do our part.
We do the due process of being a participant in the system.
Even if it's broken, that doesn't mean give up.
That means you still go vote.
You still go do what you need to do, participate, speak up, speak out, talk about it.
However, we've got to realize there is no one that will ever sit in that oval office

(15:44):
that will fix everything.
And we've got to wake up to that.
We do.
We have to wake up to that.
There's a reason why the founding fathers constantly appealed to God and nature's God,
to providence, divine providence, to living our lives for our posterity,

(16:05):
for those that will come behind us and leaving the legacy,
why they were willing to literally laid face down in the mud dead
so that the next generation could walk over their bodies into the next level of freedom.
All of that combined, we have to realize unless Jesus is going to run for office,
there will never be a perfect candidate, and we'll never have a completely righteous platform ever.

(16:29):
I think what I'm seeing so much of is people worshiping, they spend more time
worshiping a candidate like Trump than they do.
You're going from preaching to meddling.
Well, it's true.
Seriously though, I see it too.
It's bad.
It's like they idolize him, and what they're doing,

(16:51):
Or her.
Yeah, but what they're doing is they're putting other gods before God,
and that's a dangerous place.
What's the Bible word for that?
Idolatry.
It is.
I just refuse.
I've never felt like a president could, even though I appreciate policies
that presidents have put forth that are good, wholesome policies,

(17:15):
I've never thought, I guess because we're pastors,
and people put us on pedestals, and we fall all the time,
I never put people on a pedestal like that.
No, not at all.
Especially politicians, even though Trump's not really a politician,
he's a businessman, he's not our savior.
There's only one.
And even if he gets in office, it's a life raft for a very short time,

(17:38):
but you know what?
I truly believe Jesus is coming back soon.
I just do, and I want to live my life believing that.
If we lived our life believing that Jesus is coming any day now,
we could be raptured out, our life would change.
Our life would change.
And literally, Annette, I love what you're saying there,
because Dame Annette, because...

(18:01):
That's reserved for Adam Curry only.
He's the only one that can call me Dame.
I can step in and use that name.
No, you call me Gorgeous, he calls me Dame Annette.
Okay, all right, we'll go with Gorgeous.
But if you think about it, you totally took me off my thought.
Never mind.
I lost my thought.
Oh no, I'm sorry.
It's okay.
We're talking about putting people on a pedestal.

(18:25):
If we get put on or put on a pedestal, we're going to fall.
No one can save this world, no one.
I didn't help you.
It's okay.
I'm sorry.
It's all right.
It'll come to you when you're talking about something else.
Probably will.
It's all good.
I'm sorry.
No worries.
I feel like it's time for us to...

(18:47):
I remember now.
Oh, go ahead.
We have to live ready.
Yes, there you go.
Because really that's what you're saying.
By living ready, being prepared, expectant, living expectant, he could come any day.
Let's expect that.
What's wrong with having hope for that?
And saying, you know what?
If he were to come back today, would I be living my life different?

(19:08):
Exactly.
If I knew he was coming back in a month, would it change the things I'm doing right now?
And if it would drastically change the thing you're doing right now, then you're not doing
the right things right now.
Exactly.
And you know what?
We're not promised our next breath.
We are not.
And we wake up in gratitude when we wake up and we can breathe and everything is all well,
but anything could happen from day to day.

(19:31):
And I think that if we live constant...
Even today, just driving here, I was thinking about all the things I don't like about myself.
We talk about physical things we don't like.
And I'm like, if I would get my mind off that and put it on God, I need to take my mind
off of myself because my body is rotting.

(19:55):
I mean, because we're all rotting.
We're all dying.
It's dying every day.
Yeah, the physical body.
Our physical body.
And yet, if I'm constantly thinking about me, then that means I'm not thinking about
him.
And I literally said, Lord...
Can I ask a question?
Yeah.
Can I ask a question or something here?
Yes.
Would you say that can be a form of idolatry?

(20:15):
It totally is, which is why I even asked God to take that out of my mind because I'm like,
that keeps putting...
Pointing the fingers back at me.
It's all about me because I don't look good enough.
I'm getting older.
I'm getting more wrinkles.

(20:35):
I'm getting this.
And so I got to go do something about it.
And I think God's more interested in what I'm going to do for him than what I'm going
to do for me.
And it hit me hard this morning.
But what's in there?
I pointed to the chest because the heart.
Because he's trying to craft our character and he wants our heart to be for him and not
so tangled up and caught up in the things of this world.

(21:00):
We do have to live here.
We get to live here.
We get to do this.
But it can't be always everything.
Everything.
Yeah.
And it felt like just even this morning I was kind of beating myself up.
In the get ready room?
In the get ready room.
That's the bathroom.
That's the bathroom.
And I'm like, oh my hair is so pretty but my face is so ugly.

(21:20):
I mean I literally was just going through that in my head because I'm aged.
Not just your head.
You were doing it out loud.
I said it out loud to you but in the car.
And that's why I felt like the Lord said start praying for the administration.
Start praying for Israel.
Start praying.
And what did it do?
It took my mind off myself.
That's awesome.
And that's when I said, Lord help me to not put my mind so much on myself that I think

(21:44):
I need to change all this to be attractive to you because you don't even see all the
things I see.
You're always, you're always, always building me up.
Here's a way that plays out, right?
So somebody captures a picture of us.
They take a picture of us.
And if the first thing you do when you grab a picture is look at everything that's wrong

(22:06):
about you, which is what I do, or bad about you, that's an indicator that there's something
broken in the system.
I actually deleted two pictures yesterday that you sent me that we took because I was
like oh my gosh.
I was just, it just, yeah, it upset me to see those two pictures.
I just felt disdain.

(22:28):
But that's not right because God made me.
And I know, I really, I ask God to help me in this area because I don't want to be so
vain that I feel like I need to go do something every time I don't like something about myself
because I would be in surgery 24-7.

(22:48):
So let's be honest.
Let's be real here.
The people who have impacted our lives the most.
Are the godly people.
Were the godly people, not the gorgeous people.
Yeah.
Let's just be real.
No, it's true.
The people that have impacted me, I've got a list of names running through my head right
now.
I never think about their physical appearance.
I never think about their stature.

(23:11):
Are they buff?
Are they shredded?
Are they swole?
Do they work out?
I don't think about any of that.
I think about the giants they are in the kingdom.
The giants they are.
How they persevere.
Yeah, character.
That's all that matters at the end of the day but we get so caught up in the other.
Yeah.
I'm going to be real honest here and hopefully I'll know if she's listening to the show.

(23:37):
When I get around Tina and she is so gorgeous and we're the same age and I look 20 years
older than her, it's very hard on me.
That's when I tend to go inside and yet she wants to enhance her looks and yet I'm like
going, God, if I look like that, I would never have to do anything.

(23:58):
She said similar things.
As best friends, there's always that tendency to compare.
Yes.
That's easy to do.
Especially for females.
What I love about her, she's so beautiful on the outside but she's equally as beautiful
on the inside.
Oh yeah.
She radiates.
I love her love for God.

(24:18):
She was talking last week on the show how she had lost her joy and we got to talk about
that over the week because they were with us in Boston.
It was really cool because she said that the one thing I didn't lose was my faith though.
My faith is strong and I was like, okay, very good.
You didn't go... Because a lot of people when we lose our joy, we just don't even want

(24:42):
anything to do with God.
We're just like when yet the joy of the Lord is our strength, that's what we need.
She didn't lose that and I love that.
I really love that about her.
What a thing.
She has beauty on the inside.
Totally.
When I watch her worship like in church, like when I'm up on the platform, if I'm playing
music, my eyes are always scanning the audience.

(25:02):
It's her and Adam at the front.
It's her and Adam right there.
Forefront, center and male of course.
Male.
Oh.
But Adam and Tina, I love watching them worship because there's such a purity about it.
They lift my heart just to watch them.
Has nothing to do with their outward appearance.
Has everything to do with their heart.
Although he's gigantic.
Well, that's terrific.

(25:23):
I'm standing next to me and I'm like at his stomach.
I actually noticed that.
I'm at his abdomen.
We've got some great pictures.
Yeah, it's great.
Yeah, I saw that and I thought, wow.
We should not put you two together.
So we got to go see, we flew out to Boston.
We got to see the National Monument.
Talk about that for a minute because for one, I had never even heard of this National Monument

(25:45):
and it's...
It's somewhat little known, which is unbelievable.
And there's hardly anyone who goes to see it.
It's moving and it's in the middle of a residential area.
Although we don't want people to go deface it so we don't even want to tell you where
it is.
Right, right.
It's called the National Monument to the Forefathers is the total title.

(26:06):
Everybody just says the National Monument.
It is an 81 foot granite structure.
It is the largest granite monument in America.
In America.
Yeah, I never heard of it.
I've lived here.
Yeah, it was built in 18, I think 1859 if I remember correctly.
It was when they finished it.
1889 I think.
89?
Okay.

(26:26):
I think.
1800s.
But this thing, it's actually a formula.
If you go around it, so on the top there's a large...
I'm going to have this on the newsletter as well.
But on the top of it, there's a female who's got her finger pointed to the sky and it's
actually labeled in granite, faith.
And then below that, there's four other figures that go around the base of this massive, massive

(26:52):
granite monument.
And it has all over it symbolism.
It has reliefs that show them signing the Mayflower Compact.
It shows the Puritans slash Pilgrims conversing and probably negotiating with the Indians.
It has all these different things that shows them embarkment, them going on to getting

(27:17):
arrival on the land.
Just them holding a Bible, holding the Ten Commandments.
And then the four figures are, first of all, the most impressive to me is Liberty Man.
Liberty Man looks like Schwarzenegger back in the day.
But the detail of the veins in this...
The detail, the muscle structure, everything's there.
Oh my gosh.
It was amazing.
There's so much symbolism.

(27:37):
And then there's a mother and she's called Education.
Education.
She's educating her child.
And she's the other one.
And then there's another one, another male figure, and he's Law.
So you've got faith at the top.
You've got law.
You've got education.
You've got liberty.
What was the last one?

(27:58):
I'm drawing a blank.
It's another female.
It's not justice.
No, it wouldn't be justice.
That was part of law, I think.
It would be...
Because it's education...
Oh.
I've got it in my pictures.
I do too.
I have to look at it.
I know.
It's a lot to take in.
I mean...
Education.

(28:18):
There's an unbelievable amount of things to take in.
I have it up here on the...
Evangelist.
That's just another piece.
Youth.
Morality.
Morality.
Yeah, morality.
So you've got morality.
So you've got faith, morality.
And her eyes are not open.
Right.
They're like blank.
Because it's about inward.

(28:39):
Yeah.
The inward heart.
It's looking inward instead of looking outward to find that.
It is the most...
It's remarkable.
What I loved about it is when you walk up to it...
Of course, we took a picture of me standing by it and it's hilarious.
Oh yeah.
It's amazing.
Because I'm the shortest of us four.

(28:59):
But what I loved is when you walk up, when you first drive up and you see this...
Is it called osprey?
It's an osprey.
Osprey nest, which looks like a crown of thorns.
It does.
It's like a bird built a nest on the top of her head and literally it looks like a crown

(29:19):
of thorns.
It's wild.
Because the nest is substantial.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I just got a...
Grandma Lenora died last night.
Alicia just sent me.
Wow.
Yeah.
Family member.
Yeah.
Well, God bless her.
Yeah.

(29:39):
Wow.
So, sorry, yeah, I know that took you off a little bit.
Totally.
So, Adam and Tina went with us.
One of the things...
So, here's how this trip started.
A few months ago, we were taking the biblical citizenship class online just to get a kind
of a precursor of what we're going to be doing at the church.
And so, we did the online version of it.

(30:01):
And the very first was about the national monument, the very first lesson with Kirk
Cameron walking through all the symbolism and all.
And it was so compelling.
And so, we said to each other, I mean, literally almost...
At the same time.
At the same time, basically.
We need to go there.
We have to go.
And then I said, well, we should go there during our break, during our time off.

(30:22):
And I was like...
You're like...
No, let's wait till August.
And so, we just got online, looked, and found out where it was.
You could fly into Boston.
It'd be about 40 minutes, 45 minutes from there to the monument.
So, we'd just go to Boston, and then we had also been watching the Doobie Brothers on YouTube

(30:42):
in their 50th tour.
And it showed...
And guess where they were going to be?
In the Boston area.
In the Boston area.
Okay, this is where we're going.
Okay.
So, we had the miles.
We did our tickets.
And we just like, we're going to do this.
And I've been excited about ecstatic...
You're not going to believe this, but this is the truth.
I was more excited about going to the national monument than I was seeing the Doobie Brothers.

(31:07):
But you know, I was too, because we, again, then we had the biblical citizenship class
in our church.
We were doing it online.
The week before.
And the first class was the week before we were leaving.
And that just stirred up more...
Fresh again.
...interest in going.
Now, don't get me wrong, the Doobie Brothers crushed it.
And Steve Winwood.

(31:27):
And Steve Winwood was off the hook.
Adam Curry was like...
Amazing.
So, I prefer Steve to the Doobie Brothers.
I preferred...
Steve is 76 years old.
He came out and they did a five or six, seven minute jam.
Yeah.
I liked the Doobie Brothers better.
And they tore it up.
They were all good.
I don't compare bands.
I like to just say, hey man, they both bring what they have and yay for them.

(31:49):
So all that to say is we planned this a while back.
And then we were like, let's invite the Currys.
Not knowing if they'd be able to because he does so many podcasts.
Because he never gets to leave because of his podcast.
He's got a lot going on.
And they said yes.
And it worked.
It worked out.
And they did their show last night, by the way.
Kareem the Keeper, check them out.
And then he's doing his show, No Agenda Today.

(32:10):
Check that out.
And so yeah, it was such a blessing to share this trip with them.
It was.
For one thing, we travel well together.
It's shocking.
A lot of friends and couples don't.
We've been around some that were hard and we were like, oh, let's not ever do that
again.

(32:30):
It's because we're easy going and they're easy going.
We don't have one of us playing tug of war.
It's like, what do you want to do?
I don't care.
Just decide.
And usually I'm the most easy going.
But on this particular trip, I was like, we need to go.
We need to go.
We're going here.
And now we're going to go.
Because I was like, well, you had it all planned.
I did.
This is what we're doing.
I mean, it wasn't a heavy agenda or time wise.

(32:51):
It was like, I want to go to I want to go to the National Monument.
And then we found out some people say, yeah, Plymouth Rocks right around the corner.
Well, let's go see Plymouth Rocks.
We were right there.
And I said, now everybody's getting tired.
It was in the afternoon.
I said, that's we're driving to Lexington.
And nobody cared because we wanted to get the most out of the trip that we could.

(33:12):
And we really did.
And it was fascinating.
And I love I loved watching, especially Adam, because he loves history so much.
And it was just it was really wonderful watching his excitement of what we were doing.
And we were reading all the plaques, all the monuments.
Because you were like, I'm not going to stop at every marker.

(33:34):
And he goes, why?
I want to.
Tina and I are kind of rolling our eyes.
We're like, oh, gosh, where's the mall?
Where's the mall?
Which we didn't do.
We were going to drop you off so you can go shopping.
It's funny because the hotel we stayed at had like an outdoor mall attached, but we
didn't even shop.
We didn't even go shop.
We did not.
Because we were so if we would have had time, we might have.

(33:55):
But we were enthralled with what we were doing.
And it was just so much.
It just wasn't enough time.
So we have to go back and spend another week.
I was two days is travel days.
So you really lose it.
You lose the time.
It's true.
We spent one full day on sacred ground.

(34:16):
I was so moved at Lexington Green.
That's where the shot was fired.
The what they shot.
Is it the Minutemen?
So the Minutemen were involved in that, but it was the shot heard around the world.
And it was where the Hancock Clark house is.
Reverend Clark.
His house.

(34:36):
We walked down to it.
It was a couple blocks down.
We went down to that.
It was closed.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get the tour, but I'll do it another time.
But he was the Reverend who some say it wasn't actually a shot fired from a gun.
It was actually the shot fired from his sermons because he was preaching about liberty, about
freedom, about tyranny, and about where is for freedom that Christ has made us free.

(34:59):
He was preaching freedom and he prepared the congregation of Lexington, the Lexington Church
of Christ.
He prepared them for war.
When Paul Revere rode into town, say the British are coming, the British are coming on Paul
Revere's midnight ride.
And it just so happened that John Hancock and Samuel Adams were staying hiding out at

(35:22):
his house because the British were trying to find them because they were two of the
key players in the revolution.
And you read all this before you went.
You were like studying everything you could.
I could have been a tour guide.
Yeah, you sure could.
I totally could.
I was all in.
And so all of that was happening and it all happened right there on that spot of ground
we were standing on.

(35:43):
And there's a huge flagpole, kind of a mast style flagpole in the middle of the park,
Lexington Green they call it, Commons.
And on the front of it has a thing that says where American liberty began, something like
that.
I may not be getting that just right.
But where freedom began or where liberty began.

(36:05):
And I was moved.
I was emotional.
And then it turns out eight Americans of the, by the way, the army, 800 British soldiers
march into Lexington.
Wow.
And they meet on that common ground, the green where all this happened.
And the next piece of that is about 30 to 50, I don't know the exact number, mostly

(36:30):
congregation members from Reverend Clark's church.
Which people don't know.
And they're not fighters.
They're not militia.
They're just normal folk.
That'd be like us taking up arms and standing against a Chinese invasion.
So these Brits, which were professional battle hardened soldiers come and they meet and they're

(36:51):
trying to, the captain, interesting story, the captains of the British army are going,
this is going to be a bloodbath slaughter.
So he was trying to get his men to back off.
They were actually telling him stand down.
He knew it would be.
Because it would be.
And he knew these were just regular, I mean, so there was some compassion there on the
captain's part from the Brits and somebody fired off a shot.

(37:15):
Now there's a big debate on who fired the first shot.
So nobody really knows.
No one really knows.
Wow.
But it is true that they were itching to fight because they had marched all night and they
were like ready for blood.
They're soldiers, right?
They're warriors.
And the captains kept yelling, stand down, stand down.
And somebody started it and they dropped eight of the congregation members died on that

(37:39):
field.
And seven of the eight are buried right there on the field.
And you can go to the memorial.
That is moving.
It was.
Because it felt like how we felt when we were at the Vietnam wall.
You feel this heaviness of what those servicemen did for our country.

(38:01):
There's an atmosphere that surround those kinds of things.
We went to the Holocaust Museum in Israel.
It was very moving.
It was the same thing.
You feel this weight.
Because you know something important.
This is something important that literally shifted the way the world saw the world.
So those are powerful moments for me to be able to pray over our nation, lay hands on

(38:28):
that monument and pray, to be able to walk around Lexington Green.
It's just to know you're standing on sacred ground.
Consecrated ground.
Very powerful.
So anyway, we got to go back.
We got to go back.
I'm going to park it now.
We're not taking early flights anymore.
I'm not doing it.
That was brutal.

(38:49):
Although the traffic is great.
Driving to the airport.
That was easy.
Yeah, it was great.
So yeah, anyway.
So if we don't know our history, we are doomed to repeat it.
And we really are repeating it.
We are.
Totally.
Oh my gosh.
It's mind boggling.

(39:09):
I've had a great insight as we're there at Lexington and we're talking and processing
everything we're seeing.
There are several churches that are all the way around the Commons because now it's like
a park.
And two of the churches that we saw right there had LGBTQ flags, banner, colors, Black

(39:29):
Lives Matter banner.
It was kind of that everything goes.
Everybody is included in our church too, but we don't want people to stay where they're
at.
We want them to obviously be saved.
That's right.
We want the kingdom of God to be in front of anything else.
And it's obvious that his observation was just as evil was surrounding that church and

(39:54):
those men at Lexington Green that were ready to fight and the enemy was encroaching upon
them, it's the same today.
It looks the same.
It feels like the enemy is surrounding everything that's standing for liberty, everything that's
standing for freedom.
And so we had a real poignant moment with that just going, wow, it's not a lot changes.

(40:16):
History is indeed repeating itself.
Anyway, loved our time with them.
We went on the Mayflower too, which is fascinating.
That was interesting because it's so small and to know that it was carrying 102 people
with animals, 30 crew, animals.
I can't even imagine.

(40:37):
I was claustrophobic just being underneath where they were all standing.
And they said it was actually eight inches shorter.
The actual one was eight inches shorter.
Oh, that totally would have done me in.
You had to know God was calling you to do that.
Me and Adam both were having to stoop over just to walk through it.
I know.
Well, I didn't have to do that.
Well, three of y'all did, but I didn't, just kidding.

(41:00):
But yeah, it was...
So anyway.
I did not know that we were going to get to see that.
I just, I didn't think that we were going to be that close to a heart.
I guess we were.
I wasn't thinking in conjunction to where we were landing, but I was quite surprised.
Yeah, that was a surprise.

(41:20):
That was a surprise.
It was, you got to see Plymouth Rock if it's actually where they landed.
There's all kinds of legends around that.
Plymouth Rock was very much a disappointment because it's just a rock.
And we were at the monument and some people say, well, looking at this monument makes
Plymouth Rock, that was disappointing.

(41:41):
Yeah, yeah.
It was a small rock.
Well, it's just a rock.
It's a big rock, but oh yeah.
And it's really iffy if that's really...
If that's even...
They could have grabbed a rock off the seat.
It was funny.
Yeah, I was like, yeah.
It was one of the best things I think.
But it's interesting, fascinating, all of it was, and just such a great joy to be with
our friends.

(42:01):
And man, we love those guys.
Can't wait to explore more of our history with them because I think that's amazing.
A couple of things, how about Carnivore Corner?
Let's talk a little bit about that.
So the producers of the documentary, Healing Humanity, The Power of a Proper Human Diet,
I think we shared this.

(42:22):
They sent a cinematographer, John, out here and he spent the day with us, videoing, filming,
talking, flying drones around.
I mean, it was very cool being a part of that and that was B-roll stuff.
And so this last week, we got to see the actual torch.

(42:42):
It's called a torch.
Which in layman's terms, it's a trailer.
That's what I would think.
Yeah, kind of.
Kind of a trailer.
I mean, I don't...
Torch sounds like, what is that?
It's a trailer and you know exactly what that is.
They call it a torch.
And all that means is this is the...
It's a 10 minute video that I guess almost like a trailer, kind of carries the gist of

(43:04):
everything.
And it's what they present to networks like Angel Network or any of these other distribution
networks.
Investors, too.
They pitch this.
This is what they use to pitch.
It shows the quality of their cinematography and their production and their editing.
So it's to give them a 10 minute snippet.
And I know they had a couple big meetings last week or a big meeting last week with

(43:28):
investors.
So they're excited about that.
But they will be presenting this to the Angel Network.
But when we saw it, your first statement before you hit play was, we're probably not even
in it or I mean, maybe a snippet.
We were the ones featured.
Yeah, I was about a third to...
Between us and Dr. Kiltz.

(43:49):
Yeah, about a third of it was us.
Wow.
Which was shocking.
And it's funny because Tina said they should have had Brian on there because he's lost
so much weight.
But I'm thinking this isn't about weight.
No, it's not.
This is about...
It's about lifestyle.
Lifestyle changes and health.
And the reason they wanted to feature us and Dr. Kiltz, I think, is because of our age.
Yes.

(44:10):
Because we're showing that you can live up and down in the world physically as well as
spiritually and emotionally.
And I think that's what captured them because they showed us working out, showed us walking.
But they showed Chevy.
They...
Chevy...
John loved Chevy so much that Chevy is in this movie, y'all.
This is so cool.

(44:31):
This is so funny.
He's going to be on the big screen.
He's going to be on the big screen.
We're always going to remember Chevy.
There were at least two shots of Chevy.
It made me laugh.
At least.
One with him sitting in my lap and another one of him by himself.
I'm like, really?
What does that have to do with health?
I know.
Really?
I thought, how funny.
I know.
But you know Chevy, he's what, eight years old?

(44:52):
Yeah.
He's not going to live forever and yet we're going to have him on film.
I know.
And about a thousand pictures that I've taken of him.
Yeah, exactly.
But I thought, how funny.
We'll always remember that.
So here's a good thing.
And speaking of Chevy and our podcast, so we've got the studio up at the church, but
we're not always at the church.

(45:12):
And because our lives are so...
Because he gave you that little piece.
Yeah.
Our lives are so nuts that with Adam providing me with this little podcast unit, we're going
to have a setup at home as well.
Yeah, we'll be able to do both.
It's going to be nice because a lot of times we miss simply because we're so stinking busy
or we're traveling or whatever now.
And the bonus and caveat is Mr. Chevy will get to be on the show again.

(45:36):
Right.
There you go.
So I'm super excited about that.
Although it's not video, so you never know he's there.
It doesn't matter.
We know.
He's part of the show.
We know.
So yeah, he's not with us today.
So in terms of Carnivore, we've continued our journey.
We're on like day 406 right now.
Is that crazy?
Who's counting?
You are.
Not me.

(45:57):
Yeah, you are.
I am.
I'm totally him.
And so anyway, super excited about the torch and yeah, we're doing this.
Yeah.
It's been amazing.
It's great.
All right.
So speaking of spiritual things, I have a little thing, a little precursor of where
I'm going to go on Sunday, but it's also bouncing off.
It's really riffing off of something I said last week.
Right.
Which is?

(46:17):
And it is this, is that the answer is always, yes, Lord, what is the question?
I saw that on your devotion.
That has really been burning in my spirit because a lot of times we don't, we wait to
say yes to the Lord until we hear the assignment and all he wants is our yes.
Because we're afraid he's going to send us to Zimbabwe.

(46:39):
Yeah, Nigeria or something.
Yeah, I'm right.
Yeah.
We're going to get some weird assignment.
No, he's going to send us to Fredericksburg to an amazing group of people.
No kidding.
We're just talking about how blessed we are to be here in Fredericksburg, in our church,
the bridge.
People are afraid we're going to leave.
I know.
And we're like, you don't know us.
We want to stick.
We love you.

(47:00):
You're stuck with us.
God called us here.
That's right.
He would be the one to send us off, but I don't.
Yeah, I don't see that happening.
I don't feel that.
We're right where we're supposed to be.
So anyway, that's just something that I want to encourage you, and that is this, is that
just say, yes, Lord.
Let everything be a yes.
And I had a friend write me, he said, man, you gave me my new morning, my morning saying,

(47:23):
the first thing I'm... when I get up in the morning, I'm going to say, yes, Lord.
Oh, wow.
So anyway, I want to encourage you with this because it's percolating in me in a deep way.
So I just want to share it with you.
And the scripture is going to be out of 1 Samuel 3, and it's when he was coming to Samuel,
to call Samuel.

(47:44):
It says, the Lord came and stood there calling as at the other times.
Samuel, this is when Samuel was a kid too.
Samuel, Samuel.
Then Samuel said, speak for your servant is listening.
So that's what got me thinking about this.
And so let me just read this and we'll end with this.
And it's titled, Yes, What's the Question?

(48:05):
Have you ever had a moment when you realize God had been trying to get your attention
for some time?
Well, I've lost count.
Call me slow on the draw.
Sometimes I miss his cues.
Samuel was no different.
God was calling and he was slow to realize it was him.
Our answer should always be a hearty, yes, Lord.
Now what is the question?

(48:26):
We know from the biblical record that God speaks 24, 7, 3, 6, 5.
So say out loud, yes, Lord, now what's the question?
Give him your yes right now.
Then listen, his question will surface soon enough.
So I want to encourage you now because he will.
If we will give him our yes, the question will come.

(48:47):
And so I'm just adding to my morning thing.
First thing is good morning, Holy Spirit.
Good morning, Lord Jesus.
Good morning, Abba Father.
Good morning, God.
And then I'm going to add, yes, Lord.
Now what's the question?
And he's never going to ask you to do something that he doesn't equip you to do.

(49:09):
Exactly.
And it could be...
It could be uncomfortable.
It could be a stretch.
It could be forgiving people that have wronged you.
Even this morning, that was another thing.
I spent time saying, Lord, those people that I have asked for forgiveness over and over,
and I used their names again, I said, I'm going to do this again.

(49:30):
I'm praying for restoration.
That's good.
I don't know what it looks like, but I'm still praying for it because I don't ever want to
hear a name and feel uneasy.
We should never feel uneasy about someone that we have forgiven.
That's true.
Hello?
That means the hurt is still there.
I'm asking God to take all that away.

(49:52):
Because I don't want to live like that.
I don't want to every time a name comes up, I recoil.
I want to live with such love and gratitude that we have a God that is a restorer, that
is a redeemer.
If we have that attitude, our life, we can live up in a down world.

(50:17):
I was really having a good time with the Lord this morning.
I didn't have time to get...
You had a great drive in.
I'm on hold trying to get our breakfast tacos ordered.
Maybe I needed this.
But the thing is, I didn't have time...
When I got up, I had to get ready because we had to be up at the office so early.
I didn't have time to get in the Word, so I was like, okay, well then I'm just going

(50:37):
to speak directly to Him and let Him speak to me.
I felt like every time I thought of something, I knew that was Him speaking to me.
Wow.
It's beautiful.
If it's something that's good, that is helpful, profitable, I know it's from Him, period.
So I knew that.

(50:58):
I love that.
I love you.
You are gorgeous.
So on a land plane, we got a boost today.
We did?
Well, yesterday.
Is it yesterday?
No, I'm talking about a boost.
Oh, you got a boost.
Oh, okay.
This is from a man named Adam Curry, and he boosted us with a striper boost.
Now, we have 77,777 sats, and he writes, what an amazing time.

(51:23):
What an amazing time we had together in New England.
Now that I think of it, we should have done a podcast together to revel in it.
Support your favorite podcasters with value, y'all.
Thanks, Adam Curry.
We love you, brother.
And man, what a joy to do this life with you and your sweet wife, Tina.
We are loving life with you guys.

(51:43):
And you said we got another- I sent you a message.
Look at your message.
I'm looking.
We got a $25 PayPal from Cole Dahl.
Don't know who that is, but thank you, Cole, for that.
He sent it a couple of days ago.
Awesome.
And that's, hey, we have one listener that we know of.
So- You're funny.

(52:04):
But we're appreciative.
We are a value for value show.
So if we're bringing value to you, the best way, the best way without sending any money
is to just let other people know about us and give them our website, livingupandadownworld.com.
Beautiful.
But yes, it's very nice when we get a PayPal donation or a Bitcoin donation.

(52:31):
We love that.
We appreciate it.
But thank you, Cole, for that.
That was sweet.
Thank you, Cole.
Blessings.
Blessings.
All right, baby.
I think we probably need to call her today.
Yes, I have some work I have to do.
Hey, me too.
I still got- You have to get ready for a wedding.
I can't prep for this wedding.
I've got to put on a jacket- And boots.
In a 196 degree weather.
Yes.
Or a baby.
Oh, wham, wham, wham.

(52:52):
Call the whambulance.
Hey, you get to do this.
I get to do this.
It's true.
And it's for a sweet couple.
It is.
So it's a blessing.
All right.
We are out of here and we challenge you in love.
Live up in a down world.
God bless you all.
Up next, the