Latest / FAITH and FRICTION / The Moment Everything Cracked
Transcript
- here final: Welcome to the moment everything cracked and the real faith journey began. This week's episode of the Faith and Friction Podcast. If you've ever felt that quiet, gnawing sense that something in your faith or worldview no longer fits, this conversation gives language to the ache and a path through it. It's for anyone wrestling with inherited beliefs, religious expectations, or the fear of becoming different. Welcome to the conversation. Alright. One more time. Faith and friction. Well we ask harder questions about faith and culture. They kind of describe us a little bit anyway. Asking some of the harder questions? I mean maybe the more uncomfortable questions for sure. Yeah. The questions that actually nobody wants to ask or nobody's willing to ask is better. Well they're So they are harder. Yeah, they're harder to answer in any event. Rev. Welcome. Once again, man. It's good to be here. You know, I look forward to every week that little that you bring in that little lead into the thing. It's like it's a place of joy. It's a place of hard questions, but there's joy in the exercise. Loving it. Just loving it, man. Yeah. It's all good. So cheers to everybody who's watching or listening. Yep. Say hi. And again, I wanna encourage wanna encourage everybody to watch the video. We got a We got a little bit of a new environment here we're we're proud of. I think it looks pretty cool. I think it looks great. So bravo, my friend. So thank you. I'm just loving it as well, myself. So the and of course the blue wall. We talked about that last week, too. Well, and I hope that anybody who's watching notices the environment, not only physically, but emotionally, spiritually, mentally. This is an environment that is important. It is. It it all goes together, right? It's almost kind. Cl making your bed every morning. I mean, you know, it's just or moving the furniture. Maybe we're moving the furniture of the consciousness of the nation or of the of religious systems in the world. Lots going on now. Lot lots on my mind for this episode that we were talking about earlier. How do we narrow it? Because we have to come up with one focus, but I love the book that you're reading right now and how that's awakening things in you. Well, y y that's happened throughout my whole life. I can go back and say that one. And that's why I tend I expose myself to a lot of those things. And sometimes I'll just read two chapters and go, okay, nope, found out what I need to know. You know, I won't stick in it just because I started reading it. I don't have time for that, you know. but when I get one and you I always know when when when I've got one is because when I read and I go, yeah. This one's hitting some curve, hitting a special place or a memory. That's right. It's either it it it either and or resonates or convicts or makes me ponder and I think we can all go back in time and look at the book or the conversation or the sermon at some time. Sure. Or the lesson or the class that changed your life. I it completely My hope and desire is that maybe somebody hears one of our episodes and goes, That was one of my moments where something was awakened in me and I began to think differently. I that's our that's That's our mission, that's our heart's passion. speaking along those lines, I had somebody, you know, we talk every once in a while, and when it comes up in the right episode about how an angry God creates, you know, angry people. Angry followers. Right, there we go. I had somebody comment on that and say, well, realize that the opposite's also true. You better believe it. That angry people are. Also will angry God you know, in their image, right? So I thought about that. That was pretty good. You're right. And what the opposite can be true. A kind God creates kind people. A kind person looks for a kind God or a loving or a compassionate. And that that would be the law of the way that's the sowing and reaping, that's the whole thing. If we could just get that, if the human race could just get that, the more loving I am, the more opportunities I have for loving. And the more loving people show up in my environment. Does cause and effect karma. There, you know, that's how powerful we are. Hello. So there we are. So lots going on in my head, lots, you know, and and the beauty, we talked about this in the pre-show, you you're so great that you can just pick right up on all this stuff that flows through my brain. Like John used to say, remember. Stu used to say, I can't ever keep up with him and then all of a sudden I started getting by the way, Stu's gonna be with us. Yes, I'm so excited. On our next episode. So any of you that used to listen to our other podcasts when we was a wise guys, we had Coach Stu, you know, with us. he's gonna be one of my favorite people on the planet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's gonna be great. We're gonna have a lot of fun next the next episode. Should yes, next week anyway, whether it's the next episode it should be. so we're looking forward to that. It depends what he has to say. It might be two years down the road. It'll be great. I'm looking forward to it just to get him in front of the mic and I think he's excited about it as well. So with that, last week. Man, some really cool stuff last week, right? That we sort of went through some of our a bit of an epiphany about some of the two point I call it, you know, Faith and Friction two point where we've sort of started to download maybe a an updated version of of who we are. Or leaning I think I looked at it as we're leaning more purposefully into the why. You know, we're we were spending some time asking about the why doing this podcast, why the up level. And I think that's always a really good conversation to have. It get we get clearer inside and I think the message gets clearer to anybody who's choosing to listen. Yes. And and we're gonna even fine-tune that part of what I much wanted to cover in this episode is to pick up a little bit from last week. If you watch our episode from last week or you listened, if you haven't You know, you're gonna Yeah. We you know, we went through their new website, bit you know, the homepage and some of the verbiage and some of our passion and the way we're looking at things. And even in that, we stepped back from to say, gee, when it actually got articulated like it did, and like it's written or was written, I'm gonna say, then I think it gave us going back to your why the why that you just talked about, you know, I don't think we talked enough about. Why the you the listener? Should be listening to us. I mean, what what's the benefit? And I think we're gonna get clear about blurr about those benefits for being part of this community. And I love that idea. It's not just two guys sitting here talking, it's creating a sense of community. Right. That's what I'm all about. Well, and so you know, we we went through some of the more we and you messaging, not just I think My I was a little bit convicted from what last week saying, well, we talked a lot about us, about where our where our focus is and what you know our purpose is. And and those are all good things. There's nothing wrong with it, right? But I was a little convicted to say so the therefore. The therefore wasn't quite there enough for me. As you're listening in. I'll be honest, there there are enough podcasts out there where it's all about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, and I'm just entertaining myself as I'm on the microphone. I want to spend some time with the people where we are expanding the energy and the vibration. The up leveling is not just a personal experience. It's a a worldwide experience that I think is a revolution. Mm-hmm. A renaissance of if at the least, that needs to happen. And so I I love that you're you're leaning into the direction of what's in it for you. Right. Listening, those people listening, what's in it for you? Because that's why I do anything. How can I make the world a better place? The beauty about that is always you've I mean good grief. How many, you know, trips around the sun do we each have? When that's your focus, then guess what happens for you? Yeah. Okay. We get benefit It's back to the cause and effect thing. You you're loving, you get love back. You make the world a better place for somebody else, it's gonna be a better place for you. Yeah, and we've always taken that attitude. We did the wise guys when Stu and I did the wise guys way long time ago. It really was about you know, let's just talk so that we can benefit all the way around, us included. I mean, we didn't leave ourselves out of the equation it's just about you. No. And there's no way. But it's a symbiotic thing that we're in it together. We talk about that all the time, right? So there you go. So just I I just wanted to mention a couple of rewordings, but this back up a little bit. I think this has a much more broad application when you say to yourself, gee, it when was the last time I said this or thought this or went down this path and had to step back? back from it and say now, am I really clearly articulating in in the right way how I feel, what I think, is sending the right message, you know? I mean, just to just to ponder it even. Well I think the pondering is is in of itself a spiritual exercise. questioning, challenging. Doing it better. We are works in progress individually and collectively. We're a work in pro the podcast is a work in progress. And I think that's a holy thing. Yeah. And I believe that's why we're here on Earth. And this Earth School is to be a work in progress. And so reworking words, reworking what's coming out of our mouth and in our head is is a beautiful thing. I agree. I agree. So we're working on it. To tell everybody, tell all of you out there we're working on it too. We don't have a perfect, I just had to call my screen back up. I gotta figure out how to make sure that doesn't happen again. But we're we're you know, it's we're a work in progress. So a couple of things. Just let me just a couple. I I thought that that it was probably a little bit clearer. so we're asking the hard questions about faith and culture. Mm-hmm. Over here. Hard questions, no easy answers, right? But why? To help leave, help you leave with clearer language for what you believe, whether you doubt and still need to explore. I mean, these are these these are outcomes, these are expectations that we might have about how we all want to be affected by what we're talking about, right? more than easy answers. We've talked about that. And hopefully here on this podcast and the blog and the community, everything we're creating, you can examine at the ed belief at the edge of faith and culture. Where tidy explanations run out. So it's about exploration. It's about your as a listener exploration as well as ours. We do it all the time. Well, you know, I believe the questions that we're gonna ask and that we have asked and and are gonna ask tonight, everybody's got in the pit of their stomach. So to me, the why is because well, I'm gonna be the one that who's got the guts to just try to answer it and and not have an answer when I go into the question. No easy answers here. And I think we're kind of fed up with easy answers. Right. Talking points no longer work anywhere, politically, spiritually, emotionally. and there is a benefit because thank God somebody just opened up the conversation. And by opening the conversation, I can be in a safer, more beautiful place to express my own concerns, my own questions. And learn. And my own answers. Yeah. And and learn from others about I never thought about it that way. Gee let me because we all can help each other raise our consciousness. It's it's it's the and we To not do so devalues the presence of God that chose to do business as creation. Yeah. It's pl plain simple. Well it's a disservice to humanity and to the one. A disservice. I love that. Because we've talked on previous episodes. I know we're kinda running some rabbit trails before we get to the main point, but these are all good points that You know, we you know, we are out here trying to somewhat get some clarity, you know? to get a little bit of clarity amidst the chaos. And hopefully we can help each other. And and Jake, not yeah, not Jack. I thought Jake. Jake written this book that we're gonna talk about, Jake Via. he's all about that. You know, he's all about that it's it's really, really difficult to make Transitions to have to get, you know, maybe sometimes they all two by four or whatever it might be, shed things. It's really difficult to do it literally by yourself. Yeah. And number two is there's no reason that you should have to, you know, do it by yourself, you know, unless you've decided that you don't want to press in, whether it's this community that you can just, you know, engage with or your whole your circle, whatever it might be, you know. I'm thinking about a spiritual echolocation system. I've got vibrations. I need to bounce it off of you to know where you're coming from. I have to read the environment and we can only do that together. Right. Otherwise it's going out into the ethers. Yeah. So and the book is called You Are Here. And it's like the echolocation by having the conversation, sharing the vibrations, and we begin to figure something out. this is where I'm at. And I didn't even realize until you said that. Yeah. Or I never thought of it that way. thank you for the feedback. And help maybe it can help me get on stock because I never thought about I never thought about putting tire chains on to get out of the snow. You know, or sand or what's and what's a tire chain? You know, whatever. I mean, just one of those. Ha thing. So so yes, we're gonna what I want to do. I started reading this book because it's just the the the explanation, the you know, the the ple the re what do want to call it? The preface or the preface or the you know that's description. That's the word I was looking for, the description of the book. It's called You Are Here, and it's by a guy named Jake Via, and it If there's any way, shape, or form I can get this guy on our podcast, I'm gonna want to try to I believe in the realm of possibilities. I mean, we ought to put it out there because his story, and I just started reading the book, but we're gonna spend some time in this episode because a lot of these things that he's going through or went through a part of my very much a part of my story. but I think there also can be a common story in circumstance, maybe just not in details. Yeah. Sure. Exactly. And I think that's worth Well, my basic belief system is is we're all one. And if we're all one, then something you've gone through, I've gone through at a different level, but I've gone through it too. And we're all having a very similar experience. So I love that this book awakened memories perhaps within you and things that you've gone through to grow and to stretch and to become. Well it y yes. It it definitely did is again. We talked about earlier. It's one of those, my gosh, that was me. yeah. are you serious? It's so just a little bit of background. He he was he grew up in the church, his p family of pastors, he was an evangelical, and he went through the whole process. He became a pastor, he became a missionary, he came back I mean, just all of these I was never a missionary, okay? but Well you yeah, I mean you were in one form. Well, this is true. You're right. So again, the story I think is great and I would just want to walk through some of the first parts of this book and some of the highlights because I can go, There it was. That was me. And this is how I either dealt with it, I didn't deal with it and then you we were talking about this in the pre-show, where you know, you could absolutely, whether it's your own personal experience, to say, Well, that is part of my story for sure. Or I can't tell you how many people that I've talked to in what I do and who I am. We're all the mirrors for each other. That have gone through similar experiences. And again, the the refocus a little bit is telling our stories so that we can talk about victories, we can talk about failures, we can talk about challenges, we can talk about either how we got through it or how we're still trying to get through it, whatever it might be. But I I'm convinced, just knowing and and Living the life like I have and you you as well, that there's people out there that can say me too. Me too. Right? Me too. So there it is. Let's just start. Again, it it here I am and his whole premise of the book. Let me just say that to start with what is he went through all of these experiences and came out the other end of all of this and the you know with losing himself. He just didn't know who he really was. Well, I know the world you're gonna talk about here and it sounds like it's just ripe with expectations. This is what great grandpa did, this is what dad did, this is what you're going to do, and you just fall in line and follow the herd and just do what you're expected and then realize Who am I? What do I want? What do I desire? What's true for me? I think most of the world is in that point. Well, and this is this is absolutely the lesson, and it's wrapped in faith and religion. And so again, it's Christian story. His story is a Christian is mine is, but it but it's bigger than that. You know, losing yourself, like you were just talking. You didn't even say the word religion and what you were just talking about. Okay. So it's it's the world condition that we live in, it's the cultural condition. So, just a few, you know, let's start out with his story a little bit. And so he starts the whole book out with this line: Dad, he's 15 years old. 15, and his dad's a pastor. All right, keep that in mind. Dad, I don't know what God wants me to do with my life. Now, how many times have I asked myself that question because it was the mission. If I can just lock into figuring out what God wants me to do, then I'm gonna be happy, I'm gonna be fulfilled, I'm gonna yeah, all of that. And then of course the the fallacy in that is we're looking at in my opinion, we're looking at God wrongly, even to ask that question that way. Right. It's putting God into the realm of a personality. Well, a personality and with the playbook. gee, if you would just follow the playbook I have for you, Mac. Well, and then you go at to an external reality, dad, grandpa, or anybody outside of you to give you that answer. Ooh, warning. Warning. We have a problem there. Yes. God d the dad just tell me what God wants me to do. Mm-hmm. Dad will give you the answer because I've got an expectation. The same one my father gave me. Correct. And I n I know your struggle, son. And here's how I overcame it, right? Here's what and you know, he he talks. We're gonna talk about this tonight that I'm I'm kinda, you know Giving you this little spoiler alert, where he was saying, I was taught that I can't trust myself. I can't trust my heart. It's ingrained in religious systems. I can't trust my creativity. I can't trust my discernment. I can't trust I can't trust any of that. And so what's your intuition, your discernment faculties are gifts of God. Yes. And again, to not use them is to do a disservice to the God that chose to do business as all creation. And we weren't created as robots. I mean, it's in the struggle, it's in the trying to figure it out that the beauty comes in. All right. So as a follow-up to that, here's he says to himself, I wasn't asking what I wanted. What were my hopes and dreams? The question never crossed my mind. And here's the key word, here's the key sentence. Amen, man. I'm gonna say it before I even say it. Why on earth would I ever be so selfish? No, what mattered most was God's will. And again, these are easy ways and easy places. To lose yourself. It's no longer about you or yourself. And and life isn't already. It's actually a proactive shutting down of yourself because it's wrong and it's bad. And the reality is somewhere this essence of God is going, wait a minute, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Right. I gave you the free will. I gave you these special talents, these unique ways of thinking and being, and the world is shutting it down. Use it. Use it. Get out there. Let just just one use it or lose it. You are going to lose who you are, the un the magnificence of your very soul if you don't use it. This is what happened to him. Looking back, he says, I don't think I was really asking what God wanted. see, there becomes now that you begin to think about it. I was actually asking if I pursue something my family or community doesn't value. good God. When I read this, and I love my family. Don't get me wrong. will I still be loved and valued? You're asking that question because are you tied so closely? Well, and this is the greatest manipulation tactic since the beginning of time. You do what we ask you to do. You follow my expectations, or we withdraw our love. We withdraw our acceptance of you. Man, that breaks my heart because it's story after story of this happening. Yeah. Where just walk lockstep the way you're supposed to, and then we will love you. That is that is conditional love that is destroying the planet and destroying any more. Further exploration and experience of God. Right. No, I wanna make it clear though. My f I never in my whole journey felt like my family didn't love me or value me. I want to make That's good. Good on them. I want to praise that and put a light on it. They love me. Today, I mean, it no worries there. You know, they they might not have understood. You're an oddball. Yeah. Well, they did that and they might not have understood completely, but they respected me enough and loved me enough to say, Dad, you gotta do what you gotta do. Man, it's I got it. All right. All right, so. so let's see. So for years I thought of that conversation as the moment. To be fully honest, it was actually the moment when everything cracked. It wasn't the moment where everything came together. And you got it cracked. There was an understanding. now I get it. Whoa, now I don't even get it, even more so. Did I say that the right way? Well, you get my meaning. Right. Well, it's even that moment, it's a very scary moment, and a lot of people avoid it. The fallacy of the current system. The the the failing of the current system. Yes. And the the lie that is the current system. But I got nothing to replace it yet. Well, there's what do I do with this? I have the awareness that this doesn't work for me, but I don't know where I'm going. That's the mystery, and that is a very scary place. Well, it was the therefore. We were talking about a gee, here's what happened, here's what I think, here's how I feel. Now what? Yeah. You know? And if I let go, I I use the trapeze all the time. I've let go of one trapeze bar, the other one hasn't arrived yet. Yeah. That's the moment of love of Juice, but man, do we fear it. So we either run back to the old because it's comfortable and known, or we just grasp at the next thing that comes our way that may not be good for us. Well, yeah, there's there's no wisdom in that. There's no discernment in that. There's that's right. So the system got to decide what mattered. There you go. This is exactly what you're saying, what you're worth and who you were supposed to become. operating on the quiet assumption and this is I love that word on the subtle on the y you never could grasp it definitively. It was always just sort of caught and taught. You know, you never could say, wait, no, that statement blatant. No, exactly. It's just all goes together in this subtleness that has its effect on you without you know Slapping you between the eyes necessarily. So Well, and that's the great deceiver. That's written around biblical is no, it's not gonna come in loud and and make an unob obnoxious noise. It's too easy to recognize that way. So I can control you by just the undercurrent of making you just feel a little bit less loved because you're different. This is it's a frog in the pot, man. Okay, without a doubt. this is you know, operating on the quiet assumption that if you knew better than you could ever know yourself, that that it knew better than you could ever know yourself. So and again, the it's the system, the you know, God. Whatever and unfortunately 'cause it's I'm always hard on systems, soft on people, the dad and the grandfather that are employed by the system don't even know they're doing it. Correct. They're the subtle pawns and keep perpetuating the same You're exactly right. It's done in love. It's done for the best of the son or the grandson. It's not malicious. Well, and this is what happens. If you don't have that cracking open you talked about in your own heart, you're inevitably passing it on to the next person. You will. Yeah. Wow. You can't share this transformational journey. Now your ki your son, your daughter, your friend, whoever it might be, may not obviously follow the same path, and that's okay. But I think we're remiss what responsibility do we have to share the story and then let people make up their own mind about how they want to grid that and what they want to do with it. Right. I love it when my grandkids and my great grandkids and my children and and they come back to me with a wisdom that and I'm Awake enough to be cracked open by what they said. Yeah, you've told us some stories like that. Whoa. See, they're they're a lot brighter than my thoughts. Yeah. me, no doubt about it. And now here was here's a statement, and I think I've told you this before, but I'm gonna say it again on the episode. It's gonna blow my mind because you keep going like this. Yeah, I know, I know. I read this stuff and I just go, you know, But that wiring gets a lot louder when you're told from the time you're old enough to understand language that your own heart cannot be trusted. Brainwashing 101. I can remember, and I think I've said this, I remember sitting in church one time and I heard that very same thing being preached. You know, and again, it was under the guise that. You know, we're fallen, first of all, and so we you know we have a sinful nature as opposed to, and so therefore our heart is winsome, it's wanton, it's it's not grounded, it's not necessarily godly. You know, it can lead us astray. Don't rock the boat, or I will judge you as evil. Yes, and so will God. Yeah. Yeah, there's the biggie. Okay. God told me to pass this message on God can't hear your prayers. If you know, if that's the case, you know, that kind of stuff. I mean, it's just my god. Shut down your soul and then you're okay with God. Wow. Everything opposite than what I currently know. Yeah, you can't trust your own compass, your inner compass. Then how do you know you're living the way you're supposed to? Well, there's gotta be a way to correct the course. Of course, you know, you can't be just out there in no man's land, right? Of course, the quick answer is supposed to be simple. Read the Bible. Trust the word of God instead of yourself. Now, you know, there's a little bit of, you know, that there's a little friction there, right? There's some friction because I do believe, I love the Bible. I believe it's fraught and with wisdom and guidance and and connection and all of that. And fallacies. And fallacies. And so the discernment between those things. You what is But if you shut down my intuitive faculty and my ability to discern, boy, this is good for my life. This just doesn't make any sense. So I just buy hook, line, and sinker a story that somebody, as the employee of the system, says, Don't question it. Right. Well, I'm just gonna perpetuate it. That's my choice. And regurgitate. Which which then it does a disservice to the very gift of God, and that is grace, our ability to choose. And and this can be, it doesn't have to be Christian. It doesn't have to be the Bible. It's all religious. I mean, it can be all across the board. So use this depending upon where you might be coming from from a religious or a faith standpoint. It's not exclusive to Christianity by any means what he's talking about here. It's just religious systems. There you go. Period. It's a system. All right. So if you cannot trust yourself to know you're becoming the person you're meant to be, you'll go looking for a Substitute, a substitute. So you're gonna the it's like nature abhors a vacuum. You're gonna get filled. It you will find something somewhere that will at least in that moment satisfy you. Somewhere along the line, right? False, real, it's real for you at that moment. Yeah. But is it really best for you? Well, there's another thing you can say, well That's gonna teach you something that ultimately is gonna take you to your highest and best. The question is it best for me? that's selfish. Get thee behind the evil man. Sorry, sorry, God. Yeah, it's not about me. I understand. You mentioned God's will. There is one and only will of God. It's that for us to flourish, to create, to manifest, to love, to love, to experience life. And we're shutting down the one will of God when we shut it down to say, well, this is what daddy said. Yep. And this is what everybody said. This is my tribe. This is what my tribe says. And you know what? It makes sense to me right now. Okay, I can understand that. I can't realize in the moment that I'm getting lost in all of this because, well, quite frankly, it's comfortable. Everybody else is saying the same thing. And it's not bad. It's not hard. That's right. That's right. You know, people come into classes sometimes and say, I'm a recovering Catholic or I'm a recovering Methodist. You're not recovering from that. You're building on it. I love that, man. That's awesome, brother. Don't recover from it. Take it, learn the lessons, and then evolve. Yes. Because here's the thing. And I did this. I told you this. I did look at it like I was recovering. And you know what that did to me? That made me angry. Yeah. And I became the victim in all of that. And that was I couldn't see that. Yeah. I I just could not see it. It made me feel justified. in the way that I felt that I needed to to to go no no more it's so easy to become very self-righteous about the self-righteousness of others. That's another meme. Maybe that goes on a t-shirt. It's like the one that says I hate hateful people. Yeah. No, and but you know that's a very real path that can be taken. These were the enemies and I'm fighting against them now or running away from them. No. Take what value is there and build on it. It took me quite Frankly, years to stop saying you caused this. This, this, I can't believe that I thought that way, then you taught me that way. And now I'm gonna have to, you know, climb out of it, right? No, no, no. This is such a great point. I love it, man. Because I'm if anything, in this episode, if I there's anybody out there that listens to this episode and can say I'm there right now. Yep. But my encouragement is don't harbor it. Don't harbor the the the finger pointing and the anger and the angst that it's out there That's the easy answer, that's the easy path. Don't take the easy way out. Because guess what? The world you and this is the angry people that create angry gods. Yeah, people who are victims will create more opportunities to be victims. You're inviting it into your experience. You know, this is exactly true, and as just made me think, it it crept its way into my work. Is what happened that circumstances you invited it in. Well, there you go. Unconsciously. Right. I did because What it was started happening then is I started blaming for certain events that didn't go the way that I wanted them to go or thought they should go. I became again the victim to that, to that system, to that person, to that decision. What a great epiphany to have, though. And and that's again, what is the benefit of doing this podcast? That somebody is listening going, I almost went there. But your story is awakening something in me. Yes, I'm not gonna do that. Right. Or stop from doing Doing it right now. Right now. Let me realize what I'm doing and I'm gonna stop it and get on with it. And that would have made a huge and again, you say to yourself, Well, I could have been, would have been, should have been. It got me to where I am today, but I don't think we can say to ourselves that, well, don't do these things because you need to go through it anyway in order to learn a lesson. I've never, I've never ascribed to that. I think we create our own. Chaos and turmoil and good that we experience. And then God basically, the universe says to us, Okay, what do you want? Here I am. All right, I'm here. Thanks for the invitation. Let's do it together, whatever you've decided. And that was a man, that's a shift. That's a big one. That is a big worldview shift. Shift, man. I mean, you know, like you're saying, and it's scary. Well, and and the only reason I can recognize it, you're telling the story because your story is my story. Well, there it is. I mastered the art of victimhood and but and I don't want to do it. And I'm only one thought about going back to that world. That's why things like this are important to stay conscious. Yes. Stay awake. There it is. Keep the conversation go. Keep asking the questions that keep us moving forward and not going back to the old. If you don't if you don't put some of these processes in in in place, some systems of your own to help you, you know, things like meditation, let's just pick one. Or you want to read the Bible for, you know, fine. There's wisdom, but but more than zero, right? We thought about that years ago. More than zero. Right. So so anyway, so let's see. if love was never supposed to come with conditions attached. And we tend again to create a God that there are conditions to that love. We we try to say that God is all loving, that you know, He's unconditionally loves, and then yet we create a system that doesn't allow for that, that doesn't really adhere to And then a system that does not allow you to question the incongruity of that. I receives so much that God's created a personalized torture chamber if you don't walk lockstep with the system that grandpa just told you. That doesn't make sense. No, it it doesn't. and the cosmic the cosmicness of it, can I say it that way? And and it creeps its way again into everyday life. one of the biggest things about this really helped me to realize that it wasn't hypothetical, it wasn't a one-off, it wasn't just getting past. A, you will here comes B, here comes C that have much the same components. Yeah. Right. And you have to apply the same, you know, wisdom, the same discernment over and over and over again. so let's see. If the if I'm changing the world on the outside, but I never change myself, I'm gonna have the same experience over and over and over. And it would be very, very unfulfilling. Well, there it is. Let's see, there wasn't a single moment when everything fell apart. I think we talked about that early. And most of us can understand that. Although there can be things that come into your life that absolutely are tipping points, you know, that boom. That that whether that's the last straw, or maybe there were little bits and pieces coming along, but it was a major life-changing event that. catapulted you past all the other little incremental. Well, you know, there are those that believe in religious systems that the there's a little pebble of the universe to get your attention. You don't pay attention, you get a rock. You get a rock and then a brick and then a big boulder lands on you and we think, it happened all of a sudden. Actually the all of a sudden is a realization I haven't been paying attention to the call of my soul. I should have been paying attention to the the divine discontent that was within me that said Something doesn't work here. And then it feels like a boulder. it's an automatic. my gosh, my world's falling apart. But really, it's the awareness and the epiphany. I haven't been paying attention to my life. And I haven't been paying attention to the life that is wanting to express through me. But go have it, however you get that moment, have it, allow that epiphany. Yeah. Well, you know, I'm thinking when you say that, sometimes, many times we can't see it like we're talking about, right? But others can. And hopefully we're all surrounding ourselves with I'm sorry I you, all right, to help us be able to see some things that we can't see. In love. And that requires an open mind, an open hand, an open heart, and an open spirit. Yes, it does. And our religious systems are shutting all of that openness down. So I'm saying if you have that discontent about wanting a more open spiritual system, don't shut it down. No. Don't let anybody shut it down for you. No. They're not bad or evil or wrong or stained or broken. They think they're protecting you in some ways. They're giving you the right to believe that with their whole heart. yeah, this is not malicious. All right. By any means, we don't I don't want to paint that picture at all. But most of us, here's here's what Jake says, most of us don't abandon an inherited worldview overnight. No kidding. It's you know, it is a process. That you have here's what I call it, and I'm we're gonna leave the listeners with this, because there's so much more to this, and I'm sure as I continue to read the book, you know, we'll have more to share because it's such a common story. And we'll hopefully be able to get some people on the podcast that can say, when you were talking about Jake you know doing his thing. If anybody knows Jake via, get get his get him in touch with us. Exactly. Or read his book. I I am totally very much encouraged and share some of your thoughts with it. but It's it's one of these things where I call it, here's what I call it. The Ug. I've always called it the Ug. And if you have it, if you're experiencing it, if you've ever had it, let's talk about talk with your people, talk with us about how you dealt with it, how you approached it, how you're in it right now. Maybe the Ug. I have I called it my Ug that I couldn't articulate what it was, but I knew it was an Ug. Yeah. I can't listen to that anymore. I can't that can't just doesn't r resonate with me and I can't I don't know what to do with it right now, but it's there. Right? I mean it just it just is. Let love of your soul drive not the fear of the unknown. And so the ug is here. I don't know what it means. I don't know where it's leading me, but I'm gonna let love of my soul let me hang out between the trapee bars long enough to know something good is about to happen. That's not easy. I get it. Knees are knocking, your heart is racing, and you're breathing hard. But I'm telling you, take it from my experience, from your experience, from anybody's experience in your environment. Yeah. There's good on the other side. Yes, there is. God on the other side. Yeah, and that's and and that's not, you know, and that's not, you know, rainbows and unicorns. Okay. It's just a lived experience. So there it is, man. The Ug. I love it. Great discussion. I want to explore that Ug, your Ug more. Yeah. Gave us some little dip into the pool. We did. and so we'll tell st more stories. Mine'll come out a little more along the way as yours will. Maybe we'll each do an episode at some point where we're actually, you know, making it our story. But I I love that just, you know, you know, let it out out there almost like a fishing line. So thanks for listening this week, man. Good discussion this week. Brother. You you are you're a brilliant catalyst for good dialogue. So we're having some fun with this. It's bringing back some memories without a doubt. We hope it stimulated some of you out there to t in in common or somebody you know. so again, thanks for listening. Come back next week. Listen to our episode last week because it'll help give you some context for where we're going. And if you know anybody, I'm gonna say this again, we're gonna probably say this every week. That We need to hear their story. You need to hear their story or listeners need to hear their story. Please put it in the comments on Facebook. I got it. Go to the website. I've got my email out there. You're gonna be able to make a comment right out there on the website at faithfriction.com. And let's get this conversation going. So thanks for listening, Brad. Thank you, brother. And have a good one. We'll talk to you next week. Take care.