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The Weight of Waiting: How to Have Faith in the Midst of Uncertainty · Mental Health and the Mission of the Church

0:00
SPEAKER_08: And now there's a possibility I'm not gonna be able to get lungs.
0:03
SPEAKER_08: Are you changing the rules on me here?
0:05
SPEAKER_08: Because it was like if I don't get the lungs, I don't get through this unless you give me a miracle.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: That was our friend Chip Judd talking about the unnerving medical crossroads he was at recently.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: On the last episode, Chip recorded in real time how it was difficult navigating and waiting on the medical news from his doctors.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: I updated you at the top of that episode that since Chip recorded it, he got the good news he was praying for and is currently on the waiting list to get a new lung.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: In this episode, Chip shares details of what that season of waiting was like as well as getting the good news.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: His friend, Pastor Greg Surrat, shares his perspective of being greatly concerned about his friend.
0:43
SPEAKER_02: We got a phone call that day.
0:44
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, not until after hours.
0:46
SPEAKER_08: So the day had ended.
0:47
SPEAKER_08: Colleen and I are like, oh man, we gotta go one more night, it looks like.
0:51
SPEAKER_08: And sure enough, I think it was 6.05.
0:53
SPEAKER_08: We got a call, and it was one of my reps from the hospital.
0:56
SPEAKER_08: And she said, We got the results.
0:58
SPEAKER_08: You are approved to go on the list.
1:01
SPEAKER_08: We just kind of lost it there for a minute.
1:03
SPEAKER_08: Told her if we were in her presence, we'd be hugging and kissing her.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: And uh the two also reflect on the pain of this world, the heartbreak of losing loved ones, and pondering together, how do you trust God through it all?
1:18
SPEAKER_08: Different people that I've buried in my church, and even since I've been here at Seacoast, I think it's perfectly legitimate to say, God, I don't get this one, but I trust you, and I know your answer will be fair and it'll make sense.
1:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:33
SPEAKER_08: I don't have a clue what it is though, and that is a little bit uncomfortable, but God, I trust you.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: How do you trust?
1:39
SPEAKER_02: Well, most of the time there's not an easy package that wraps up real clean, even though we'd like for it to.
1:45
SPEAKER_02: I even thought about that about you when I was struggling through this whole process.
1:49
SPEAKER_02: Of course, I lost Darren a few years ago, and you know, Billy Hornsby, and then you start to go, all my friends, you know, or that's not all my friends, but that's what you tend to do.
2:01
SPEAKER_02: And one of my good friends children.
2:04
SPEAKER_02: It was just tragic.
2:05
SPEAKER_02: And I can remember thinking, you know, I don't know the future.
2:09
SPEAKER_02: You know, what if this child going to be in the hands of God right now?
2:14
SPEAKER_02: Uh, what what do they avoid?
2:16
SPEAKER_02: What would have been out there in the future?
2:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Greg, you don't know the answer.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: As Chip's story continues to unfold, he'll continue to share and we'll continue to learn vicariously through him.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: It's Chip's Mental Health and the Mission of the Church podcast.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: This episode, hosted by his friend and founding pastor of Seacoast Church, Greg Surrat.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: These partners in crime are at it again.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
2:40
SPEAKER_07: I like that shirt.
2:42
SPEAKER_07: Buffalo Bills, baby.
2:43
SPEAKER_07: That's cool.
2:44
SPEAKER_07: How about those game cocks, man?
2:46
SPEAKER_02: How about that quarterback?
2:47
SPEAKER_02: My gosh.
2:48
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, man.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: Hey everybody.
2:51
SPEAKER_02: Uh glad to have you on today and glad you're here, wherever you might be watching from.
2:57
SPEAKER_02: Kind of a last minute thing, but uh wanted to take a few minutes and talk a little bit about the Christmas season, some of the emotions that we have during this.
3:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh, how do you handle it?
3:09
SPEAKER_02: And I want to uh bring in a couple of my friends, and let's see if I can do this.
3:16
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm kind of being the the producer and the host and uh everything right now.
3:22
SPEAKER_06: He asked me and Chip to help.
3:23
SPEAKER_06: We just didn't want to.
3:24
SPEAKER_06: We just want to enjoy the conversation.
3:26
SPEAKER_02: We didn't want to help exactly, exactly.
3:30
SPEAKER_02: This is Chip Judd and Joey Svenson.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: Where do we start?
3:34
SPEAKER_02: Merry Christmas.
3:35
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, Merry Christmas.
3:37
SPEAKER_02: Is it too early for that?
3:38
SPEAKER_06: No, gosh, no.
3:40
SPEAKER_06: Why would it be?
3:41
SPEAKER_06: It's post-Thanksgiving, man.
3:42
SPEAKER_06: We should be blurring Christmas music now.
3:44
SPEAKER_06: Look at Chip's background.
3:46
SPEAKER_06: I know the Juds have it right, man.
3:49
SPEAKER_06: Christmas trees back there.
3:50
SPEAKER_06: Well, I mean, you are you listening to Christmas music at all, Pastor Greg?
3:53
SPEAKER_02: No, I don't like Christmas music.
3:56
SPEAKER_08: I don't like much of it either.
4:00
SPEAKER_08: My wife.
4:01
SPEAKER_02: I like blues.
4:02
SPEAKER_02: I like blues.
4:03
SPEAKER_02: Give me some blues Christmas music, and I'll be all right.
4:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:06
SPEAKER_06: Well, what about just updating the process of having to wait for those results, Pastor Chip, and the news?
4:14
SPEAKER_06: We obviously updated people on your social media channels, and then the latest podcast episode with Pastor Greg was recorded before you got the good news.
4:24
SPEAKER_06: We inserted it at the top of the episode because we had already recorded.
4:28
SPEAKER_06: So if people heard that, then they got that update.
4:31
SPEAKER_06: But I would say there's probably people watching live and they don't know the latest update, which is really good news.
4:37
SPEAKER_02: I'll bet, I'll bet, Joey, there are people watching live that have no idea what we're talking about.
4:41
SPEAKER_02: That's true.
4:42
SPEAKER_02: And uh so, Chip, why don't you give us uh just a little bit of well, hey, before you do, before you do, let me let me lay out some ground rules.
4:50
SPEAKER_02: First of all, we want this to be a QA.
4:52
SPEAKER_02: I'll be asking a few questions.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: Joey will ask them, but we'd we'd love to have your questions.
4:58
SPEAKER_02: At any point, there's a QA section on Zoom if you're in Zoom, or if you are on Facebook, you can just put it in the comments and I'll try to track that and follow that a little bit.
5:09
SPEAKER_02: Put your questions and answers.
5:10
SPEAKER_02: We'll try to get to them as we go along.
5:12
SPEAKER_02: So, Chip, why don't you give us an update?
5:15
SPEAKER_02: Some people have no idea what we're talking about.
5:17
SPEAKER_02: Um, you're on a medical journey and where you've come from.
5:20
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, six, six, eight years ago, eight years ago, we knew something was wrong.
5:25
SPEAKER_08: Somewhere in the neighborhood of six years ago, we got an official diagnosis.
5:29
SPEAKER_08: Fancy name is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which is a lung disease that's progressive, can be slow, can be fast.
5:38
SPEAKER_08: They have medications that'll slow it down but not stop it.
5:41
SPEAKER_08: Of course, the whole way we've been trusting God and asking and believing for a miracle and healing, have had his peace and presence the whole way through.
5:49
SPEAKER_08: So we, you know, journeyed that and kept it pretty under wraps.
5:52
SPEAKER_08: And then this summer, uh, things just dipped precipitously, quickly, even a couple of times kind of scary.
6:00
SPEAKER_08: Hence, I went on the oxygen about uh August-ish, I think.
6:05
SPEAKER_08: Really, when I got on the oxygen, I realized I wished I got on it sooner because it it was so helpful.
6:13
SPEAKER_08: And in the process, of course, the doctors are tracking where I'm at, and they said that you are getting worse and at a pretty significant rate.
6:21
SPEAKER_08: In other words, we're concerned, which of course begins the conversation of a lung transplant.
6:27
SPEAKER_08: So we began that process of two to three week, very intense evaluation where they test every part of you.
6:33
SPEAKER_08: Then right at the end, when we were about to go on the list, we were hit with that there was a little something going on with my liver.
6:41
SPEAKER_08: There was a test they needed to run, a biopsy of my liver, and the results would either put me on the list ready to go, or disqualify me from getting lungs, which means there's no cure.
6:57
SPEAKER_08: No, I trust God, believe God, but it was still pretty, pretty startling to realize that there was no medical uh help if that test fell the wrong way.
7:08
SPEAKER_08: So we had about a I don't know, about a five-day stretch waiting for the results that was over a weekend and it was it was pretty awful to be honest with you.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: Before you go into the the answer, kind of where you're at now, let's talk about that five-day stretch.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: From my point of view, my wife said I didn't sleep hardly at all during that time.
7:29
SPEAKER_02: It's a uh a pretty straightforward kind of if you if you get approved, you have a chance to live.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: If you don't get approved, um, you may not see Christmas.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: Is that too stark?
7:45
SPEAKER_02: Is that too Yeah?
7:47
SPEAKER_08: We don't know if it would have been that quick or not.
7:49
SPEAKER_08: It felt to me at the time like it would have been, but yeah, that's kind of the way it hit us.
7:54
SPEAKER_08: Um, it was just that black and white and scary.
7:58
SPEAKER_02: Take us into the struggle.
7:59
SPEAKER_08: I mean, I think Colleen and I both, you know, we spent time with the Lord and we felt like from the very beginning that God told us that we were gonna come out the other side.
8:08
SPEAKER_08: Saturday of that weekend was just absolutely horrible.
8:11
SPEAKER_08: I think Carolina was on a bye, so we didn't even have a game to watch.
8:14
SPEAKER_08: You know, that was not fun.
8:16
SPEAKER_08: You know, I think we both tried to distract ourselves.
8:19
SPEAKER_08: We were waiting for the phone to ring and and somebody to just say, Test is good, let's do this.
8:26
SPEAKER_02: You and I connected for lunch on that last day.
8:31
SPEAKER_02: And so I I've been trying to get on it.
8:33
SPEAKER_08: Before we got the news.
8:34
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, it was before we got the news.
8:37
SPEAKER_02: Before you got the news.
8:38
SPEAKER_02: I didn't want to bug them too much, but I I want to have lunch because we have lunch.
8:43
SPEAKER_02: And he straightens me out.
8:44
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's all selfish.
8:46
SPEAKER_02: It's about me uh on that whole deal.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: Actually, I just wanted to, you know how it is.
8:50
SPEAKER_02: My my goodness, you just want to connect, but I don't want to intrude.
8:54
SPEAKER_02: And so Chip texts me, I'm at a Seacoast golf tournament, and he says, Can you can you have lunch?
9:01
SPEAKER_02: And I the answer is yes, let's do it.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: I'll get there quick as I can.
9:05
SPEAKER_02: I said, Do you want me to come to the house?
9:06
SPEAKER_02: And he said, No, let's meet at a restaurant not far from his house.
9:10
SPEAKER_02: When I say not far, how many blocks is that, Chip?
9:13
SPEAKER_02: It's probably a couple three or four blocks, good-sized blocks.
9:17
SPEAKER_02: And so I get to the restaurant and I hear somebody shout my name as I'm getting ready to go in.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: And here comes Chip, and he's walked from his house to the restaurant, and he's carting behind him two oxygen bottles on a wheel cart.
9:33
SPEAKER_02: And I'm thinking, here's a guy who uh his lungs aren't working, and he has hoofed it, you know, two, three blocks from his long blocks, long blocks from his house.
9:46
SPEAKER_02: Um, and he can't hardly breathe.
9:48
SPEAKER_02: Now that was a funny scene.
9:50
SPEAKER_02: I just gotta tell you, that was a funny scene.
9:52
SPEAKER_06: I could tell you were enjoying it.
9:54
SPEAKER_06: I was.
9:55
SPEAKER_06: Now, see, I couldn't tell that story and laugh and get away with it.
9:58
SPEAKER_06: You guys are two older buddies, dudes goofing around.
10:02
SPEAKER_06: It would be disrespectful if I would have said that, but you guys are our our peers.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm thinking this guy's near death.
10:09
SPEAKER_02: And and I could have gone by his house and picked him up, but his wife sent him out the door with his oxygen.
10:15
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
10:15
SPEAKER_06: Pretty hardcore.
10:16
SPEAKER_06: That's pretty hardcore.
10:17
SPEAKER_06: Walking over the restaurant.
10:19
SPEAKER_08: When they told my wife that exercise is good, he needs to keep using his lungs.
10:25
SPEAKER_08: She just kicked me out.
10:26
SPEAKER_08: She said, get your butt out of the door and walk over there.
10:30
SPEAKER_08: She's probably listening right now, so I hope she's getting a kick out of it.
10:33
SPEAKER_02: But I tell you what, that the lunch was was hard.
10:37
SPEAKER_02: It was good.
10:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was a little tricky.
10:39
SPEAKER_02: It was hard because we we're we're staying in faith and you know, believing that um standing on your scripture.
10:45
SPEAKER_02: I think I talked to you a little bit about how God had impressed trust on me.
10:51
SPEAKER_02: You had talked about trust.
10:52
SPEAKER_02: And I took my dogs for a walk and trying to get my head around all this, and my my deal that came was that I've I've got to trust God with my past, which I I do, and you've helped me to do that.
11:04
SPEAKER_02: That you know, that God loves me and He's not mad at me and all those kind of things.
11:08
SPEAKER_02: And then I've got to trust God with my present.
11:11
SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, I was dealing with some present things in other areas of ministry.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: But for me, right at that moment, the hardest thing was uh trusting God with the future, your future and our future, and you know, your family's future and all of that, and and uh getting to a place of trust and all that.
11:30
SPEAKER_02: So we talked about all that.
11:31
SPEAKER_02: It was hard, it was good, it was hard.
11:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
11:36
SPEAKER_08: Well, I don't know if you remember, Greg, but I told you that one of the reasons I wanted to go to lunch was I wanted you to tell me if I was crazy.
11:43
SPEAKER_08: Do you do you remember me saying that?
11:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I do.
11:46
SPEAKER_08: You know, we were waiting on this result that could be, you know, pretty medically devastating, but I really had a piece I was very, very concerned, but I really felt strongly that either way, God was going to get us through this.
12:01
SPEAKER_08: And I said, Greg, am I in denial?
12:04
SPEAKER_08: Am I so afraid to really embrace the reality of what I'm dealing with and I'm deceiving myself?
12:09
SPEAKER_08: So that was that was an interesting wrinkle to the conversation because it was it was just helpful for you to hear me out and say, you know, hey, I I think you're just processing the reality of what you're dealing with.
12:20
SPEAKER_06: And do you think you struggle with any guilt of not having a very specific faith of God is going to heal me here on this earth?
12:31
SPEAKER_06: Is that sneaking up to where you're just like, should I be thinking that way?
12:35
SPEAKER_06: You know, with a lot of your background, a lot of your peers who would say that is the sort of faith that you should have right now.
12:41
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, there's no doubt about it.
12:42
SPEAKER_08: I came out of the word of faith camp.
12:44
SPEAKER_08: You know, if God said it, that settles it.
12:47
SPEAKER_08: You know, you can take it to the bank and all that, which I pretty much still believe.
12:51
SPEAKER_08: But I also believe in the the word of the Lord came unto me saying, and I believe God got one of the ways God can comfort us in a situation is speaking to us about the situation.
13:04
SPEAKER_08: And so all through the thing, you know, I'm a journaler and you know, love spending time with God.
13:10
SPEAKER_08: And and this is the part that gets a little bit freaky, I think, for some people, particularly if they came from where I came from.
13:16
SPEAKER_08: I felt like God showed me myself in a hospital bed recovering from surgery.
13:22
SPEAKER_08: So I'm praying, God, are we gonna be okay?
13:26
SPEAKER_08: God, you're gonna heal me?
13:28
SPEAKER_08: What's going on here?
13:29
SPEAKER_08: And the next thing I see is myself in a hospital bed recovering.
13:35
SPEAKER_08: I thought, okay, God, I'm I'm slow, but I'm not real slow.
13:40
SPEAKER_08: That seems like seems like you're trying to give me a hint on where this is headed.
13:45
SPEAKER_08: And I had peace with it.
13:46
SPEAKER_08: I I was like, God, I would prefer a miracle, and it seems like a miracle would be cool, but I want more time.
13:53
SPEAKER_08: I want more time on earth.
13:55
SPEAKER_08: I want more time with my kids.
13:57
SPEAKER_02: Chip, isn't that a miracle though?
13:59
SPEAKER_02: I mean sure, yes.
14:01
SPEAKER_08: And thank thankfully, whoever said that the first time really helped me.
14:05
SPEAKER_08: Because the bottom line is yes, it is a miracle.
14:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, how long have how long has there even been the capacity or possibility for somebody to get it to survive what it is that you have?
14:59
unknown: Right.
15:00
SPEAKER_02: Maybe I'm getting a little story.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: We got a phone call that day.
15:03
SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
15:04
SPEAKER_08: Interestingly, not until after hours.
15:07
SPEAKER_08: So the day had ended, and Colina and I are like, oh man, we gotta go one more night, it looks like.
15:11
SPEAKER_08: And sure enough, about six, I think it was six oh five, we got a call, and it was one of my reps from the hospital.
15:18
SPEAKER_08: Uh, her name's Julie, and she said, uh, well, we got the results, and you are approved to go on the list.
15:29
SPEAKER_08: So we just kind of lost it there for a minute.
15:33
SPEAKER_08: Told her if we were in her presence, we'd be hugging and kissing her.
15:36
SPEAKER_08: And uh, and then of course we started letting the people know, you guys and family and that kind of thing.
15:43
SPEAKER_08: I think for me, you know, you know how it is, you kind of hold it together for yourself, for your wife, for the people around you.
15:49
SPEAKER_08: And I think for me, I was almost almost sort of sort of numb, not numb in a bad way, but just like, uh, but it was the next day that I really felt a lightness.
16:03
SPEAKER_08: Like I felt, okay, God, this is what I felt like you've been saying from the beginning.
16:07
SPEAKER_06: Oh man, that's gotta be a sweet feeling.
16:09
SPEAKER_08: And and I feel like, okay, I know what how to pray and how to move forward and how to continue to trust you.
16:16
SPEAKER_08: And at the same time, say, you know, God, if you want to interrupt this process and drop a couple of new lungs in me, have at it.
16:23
SPEAKER_08: But yet feeling like this is the path that God chose for me, and I'm okay with it.
16:29
SPEAKER_08: I'm not looking forward to it.
16:31
SPEAKER_08: I'm looking forward to the outcome, but not the process.
16:34
SPEAKER_02: You probably have a little, little different perspective before the hiccup, whatever we want to call it, the problem with the liver.
16:41
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's probably a a bit of dread, bit more dread of the process of the of the lung transplant.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: Then it was, oh boy, we we hope we get a lung transplant.
16:53
SPEAKER_02: And now there's probably dread with that, but it's not, you know, it's better than it was before.
16:58
SPEAKER_02: Puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?
17:00
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
17:01
SPEAKER_06: What what's the what's the current state of things now as far as the probability of getting a lung transplant?
17:09
SPEAKER_06: Like you mentioned in a former conversation, the recognition that somebody's gonna have to give up their life for you.
17:16
SPEAKER_06: Are there certain matches that like is it the same sort of thing with blood?
17:21
SPEAKER_06: Like you need a certain type of lung.
17:22
SPEAKER_06: Like, how does all that work and what are your chances of getting that lung transplant?
17:27
SPEAKER_08: The chances are really good.
17:28
SPEAKER_08: It's just when.
17:29
SPEAKER_08: Um, yes, blood type, height, size, all kinds of issues come into play.
17:36
SPEAKER_08: And I I appreciate that you brought up a really important thought, and that is it's not like you know, your your sister or brother giving you a kidney.
17:44
SPEAKER_08: To get a lung transplant, someone has to lose their life.
17:47
SPEAKER_08: My ask for everybody out there is be praying for, not for it to happen, but be praying for the family, the individual, the situation.
17:58
SPEAKER_08: Because for me or anyone else to get a lung transplant, someone has lost their life.
18:04
SPEAKER_08: And probably not in an expected way.
18:07
SPEAKER_08: Just be in prayer about that.
18:09
SPEAKER_08: The process, Joey, is we're on the list.
18:11
SPEAKER_08: You you get a number based on different factors, you wait, you know, and your team works for you.
18:18
SPEAKER_08: And I'm confident I love the the team at the Medical University of South Carolina, they're doing a great job.
18:25
SPEAKER_08: We feel very, very well cared for.
18:27
SPEAKER_08: Uh, we feel like they're really in a corner pushing for us, and they're gonna do everything they can to get me a number that gets me up the list.
18:37
SPEAKER_08: So you wait, and when you get the call, you boom, boom, you should already have a bag ready, and you're out the door and go to the hospital, and probably within a 24-hour period, you're you're done.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: How about the recovery process, Chip?
18:49
SPEAKER_02: What's involved there?
18:51
SPEAKER_08: The recovery, you're you're in ICU for a week.
18:53
SPEAKER_08: The big danger after surgery is your body rejecting the the lungs, and then they giving they're giving you somewhere around 20 medications to prevent that from happening.
19:05
SPEAKER_08: So you're in ICU for a week, and then you go to a room in the hospital for anywhere from one to three, depending on how you're doing, and then you go out into the community, but you have to stay around the hospital because they want you to be able to get to the hospital quickly if something were to go off course.
19:24
SPEAKER_08: And they don't want you to go to just any old hospital, they want you to come there to them because they know exactly what they're you're dealing with and what they're dealing with.
19:32
SPEAKER_08: You stay around the hospital for a few weeks, one to four weeks, I think if I'm remembering correctly.
19:38
SPEAKER_08: And then I get the impression that that first three months is an important window of observation.
19:45
SPEAKER_08: And then uh if you're doing well, things start loosening up, uh, medications start getting sorted out, what you need to stay on and come off of and whatever.
19:54
SPEAKER_08: Always the through this whole process.
19:56
SPEAKER_08: Now, post-surger, the number one threat is infection because to make your body keep the organ, they've diminished your immune system.
20:08
SPEAKER_08: So you don't want an infection of any kind, cold or uh anything.
20:13
SPEAKER_08: They were really picky even about dental work because I had some dental work done.
20:17
SPEAKER_08: And the bottom line is they don't want anything in your body that is potentially going to invite infection.
20:23
SPEAKER_02: We've got an important question uh from Josh Surratt who I believe is our lead pastor at Seacoast.
20:30
SPEAKER_02: He said, Joey, if you were a match, would you be willing to give Chip your lungs?
20:37
SPEAKER_06: I'll let I'll let my wife Priscilla make that call.
20:40
SPEAKER_06: Oh wow.
20:41
SPEAKER_08: Well that's she's I just got hey, Greg, I just got my lungs, man.
20:46
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
20:47
SPEAKER_08: If Priscilla's making the call, I just got my lungs.
20:51
SPEAKER_06: Hey, hey, I do have a quick science question uh that you probably know now, being in this process, and then I know Pastor Greg wants to get to some more of these questions, but what's the oldest pair of lungs that you could end up with?
21:03
SPEAKER_06: Like there's got to be a cutoff point where you can't donate your lungs anymore.
21:07
SPEAKER_06: Like I don't, it's a good question.
21:09
SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
21:09
SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
21:10
SPEAKER_06: It'd be really interesting.
21:11
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, it would be.
21:13
SPEAKER_08: I I am in a category, they don't do older people.
21:17
SPEAKER_08: Uh and again, forgive me if this sounds braggadocious or something, but they have repeatedly told me that they're not looking at me as a normal 70-year-old.
21:26
SPEAKER_08: They normally give 70-year-olds one lung.
21:28
SPEAKER_08: They want to give me two if they can.
21:30
SPEAKER_02: Well, you're just in incredible shape.
21:33
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, man.
21:34
SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's it's a specimen.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: You are a specimen.
21:37
SPEAKER_02: That's all I'm gonna say.
21:40
SPEAKER_02: Jenny wants to know.
21:42
SPEAKER_02: Uh, there's a list.
21:44
SPEAKER_02: Do you know where you are on the list?
21:45
SPEAKER_02: Like, is there a number?
21:47
SPEAKER_02: Like you're at number five?
21:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:48
SPEAKER_02: How does all that?
21:49
SPEAKER_08: I don't I I don't know the number.
21:52
SPEAKER_08: But yes, there is a number, and there'd be a way to know.
21:55
SPEAKER_08: One of the people tried to show us how to get to this one website, and we got to the website, but we can't figure out how to get that specific yet.
22:04
SPEAKER_02: So B uh kind of makes a statement and asks this.
22:07
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes she says, I get frustrated when God's not crystal clear with his memos or he changes midstream.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: Anybody, anybody else get frustrated with that?
22:18
SPEAKER_02: Uh, she says, when I think about the amazing work that you are doing and launching and the book completion and all of that, and then the health challenges.
22:27
SPEAKER_02: I wonder if you don't also ask God, uh, did I get the memo wrong?
22:32
SPEAKER_02: And how do you handle that?
22:34
SPEAKER_02: Do you kind of get that?
22:35
SPEAKER_02: Kind of get the gist of what she's saying.
22:37
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, um, I'm probably a little funny about that.
22:40
SPEAKER_08: I feel like My life's better than I deserve it to be.
22:43
SPEAKER_08: So when wrinkles like this come into it, I feel like I'm already way beyond the ticket I bought.
22:49
SPEAKER_08: You know what I'm saying?
22:51
SPEAKER_08: The benefits I've received are so far beyond what I deserve that I process it a little bit differently.
22:58
SPEAKER_08: You know, if my ride ended today, it's been a better ride than I deserve.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: That's gratitude, right?
23:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
23:04
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's that's the definition of gratitude.
23:06
SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
23:07
SPEAKER_08: I'm trying, I want to say this carefully.
23:09
SPEAKER_08: It's gratitude because it's just stupid how good my life's been, Greg.
23:13
SPEAKER_08: I mean, us being friends and you helping me finally write a book and the people that that want to hear what I have to say.
23:21
SPEAKER_08: I mean, what is wrong with them that they want to hear what I have to say?
23:24
SPEAKER_08: Whatever, you know what I'm trying to say.
23:26
SPEAKER_08: Now, is it challenging, disruptive, scary?
23:32
SPEAKER_08: All of the above.
23:33
SPEAKER_08: Now, I'll tell you what, I did wonder if God was changing the deck of cards on me was that weekend was sweating it out.
23:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
23:40
SPEAKER_08: Because I had, I felt so confident.
23:42
SPEAKER_08: And I wasn't saying much about it because it sounded weird to say, well, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have a lung transplant instead of a miracle.
23:48
SPEAKER_08: That just sounds weird when you're around a bunch of Christians.
23:50
SPEAKER_08: But I really was fairly confident that God had shown me myself in that hospital bed.
23:54
SPEAKER_08: So then the weekend comes and I'm thinking, okay, God, you told me I'm gonna get through this thing, and now there's a possibility I'm not gonna be able to get lungs.
24:02
SPEAKER_08: What are you are you are you changing the rules on me here?
24:05
SPEAKER_08: You know, does that make sense?
24:07
SPEAKER_08: Because it was like if I don't get the lungs, I don't get through this unless you give me a miracle for just a minute there, and I mean metaphorically, I was like, God, you got me a little bit confused here, but we got to the other side.
24:21
SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
24:22
SPEAKER_08: I didn't, you know, to the person who asked that question, the main thing to me is make sure you build community before you get in these situations.
24:32
SPEAKER_08: Because what keeps you from going down these dark alleys where you get mugged is people around you that that you know well enough, they know you, you love each other, and and you can go to them and say, hey, dude, let me share something I'm thinking or praying.
24:48
SPEAKER_08: Am I am I do I have a screw loose?
24:50
SPEAKER_08: And they love you enough to say, you know, I I I think that's not God.
24:55
SPEAKER_08: And so you gotta have that before you get in these pickles.
25:00
SPEAKER_08: Build it while you're there if you have to, but it's better to build it before.
25:04
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, hey, Jenny, who asked the first question about where you are on the list, she said that you're her hero.
25:09
SPEAKER_06: So I guess going back to your life has been so stupid good, this girl is calling you her hero for crying out loud.
25:15
SPEAKER_06: Come on.
25:15
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I'd go that far.
25:17
SPEAKER_06: You know what I mean?
25:19
SPEAKER_02: No, you're one of my heroes, my friend.
25:21
SPEAKER_02: You know that.
25:23
SPEAKER_02: So uh Josh asks, with your health issues, has that changed your perspective on the Christmas season at all?
25:31
SPEAKER_08: Uh I'm I'm editing my thoughts.
25:35
SPEAKER_06: Um the whole live thing is a different dynamic, huh?
25:39
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:40
SPEAKER_08: I mean, I enjoy the holidays because the people around me enjoy the holidays.
25:44
SPEAKER_08: From a spiritual perspective, I don't put any more weight on Christmas, Easter, or any other day.
25:49
SPEAKER_08: To me, every day is death, burial, resurrection.
25:53
SPEAKER_08: Every day, I just don't, I don't know.
25:55
SPEAKER_08: I just don't think like that.
25:57
SPEAKER_08: So I enjoy the festivity of the holidays.
26:01
SPEAKER_08: And I enjoy obviously the birth of Jesus and all, but not just during Christmas.
26:07
SPEAKER_08: And I know we all we're all the same way.
26:09
SPEAKER_08: So I guess the answer is no, I don't think so.
26:12
SPEAKER_02: Are we unearthing a Grinch spirit here, Joey?
26:15
SPEAKER_02: Did you say that or not?
26:18
SPEAKER_08: No, I'm not anti.
26:20
SPEAKER_08: I'm just I love the joyfulness that even unsaved people have this time of year.
26:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:26
SPEAKER_02: So Christmas is a difficult season for a lot of people.
26:33
SPEAKER_02: I would say most people at some point in their life go through something, lose somebody that makes Christmas difficult.
26:41
SPEAKER_02: Um, you guys know, I think that we uh lost a uh a friend.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: Um uh Fred and Tracy Norris uh helped start Seacoast.
26:52
SPEAKER_02: And I was sitting down with Fred the other day in the hospital and said it's more than help starting Seacoast.
26:57
SPEAKER_02: It's almost they're they're one of those people that if they weren't there in the beginning, uh maybe Seacoast doesn't happen.
27:03
SPEAKER_02: When we moved to town, uh they took us in, uh became partners in ministry and just you know, we're we're worship leaders in the in the early era, even before Seacoast started when we had a young adult group.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: Tracy died last week.
27:18
SPEAKER_02: It was very sudden for a lot of us and fairly sudden for Fred and the family.
27:26
SPEAKER_02: And uh I remember the the night she passed, went to heaven.
27:29
SPEAKER_02: I came came home from the hospital uh real late that night.
27:33
SPEAKER_02: And uh just on the way home, there there's just this heaviness of thinking about Christmas for them, Christmas for families.
27:41
SPEAKER_02: We've got to plan a service, you know, or they're they're planning a service.
27:45
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to take too much, you know, uh credit or anything for this, but and then someone else in our church lost somebody just this weekend in a very tragic way.
27:54
SPEAKER_02: That's the story of a of you know a significant group of we uh we all face uh losing folks.
28:02
SPEAKER_02: How do you handle that?
28:03
SPEAKER_02: If you were talking to someone who had recently lost someone, or maybe somebody who just they just dread Christmas.
28:11
SPEAKER_02: You know, you you said Christmas isn't that much different because it's the death, burial, and resurrection.
28:16
SPEAKER_02: I believe that about you.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: But some of us can bury stuff, you know.
28:21
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we we even make it spiritual.
28:23
SPEAKER_02: How do you walk through the emotions of Christmas?
28:26
SPEAKER_08: I know that's a big, it's a big subject, but first of all, I would acknowledge that I believe there's people that are gifted to walk beside people in those moments.
28:35
SPEAKER_08: And the reason I say that is I'm not one of them.
28:37
SPEAKER_08: I'm not saying I'm not decent at it, but there are some people that just have a supernatural ability to to comfort and to they know when to talk, when not to talk.
28:49
SPEAKER_08: It's amazing to watch.
28:51
SPEAKER_08: And I've I've seen several of them around Seacoast that seem to have that, what I would call a gift.
28:56
SPEAKER_08: So, you know, pray that that that person or more than one shows up in that family's life.
29:03
SPEAKER_08: You know, the thing about this kind of pain, now if we're talking about a the recent loss, no matter how you look at it, no matter what angle you come at it from, there's an element of it.
29:12
SPEAKER_08: You you you can't go above it, around it, below it, but through it.
29:18
SPEAKER_08: And you know what?
29:19
SPEAKER_08: The only comforting thing I've come up with, Greg, is how horrible would it be if you left this earth and no one cried.
29:30
SPEAKER_08: So for me, that pain I would feel for that loved one, again, doesn't make it go away, doesn't make it lessen, but to give it purpose.
29:40
SPEAKER_08: You're you're punctuating and celebrating that life, that person, and that role, the place they held in your life.
29:49
SPEAKER_08: And again, it helps me to just think how horrible would it be that no one's crying, no one misses you.
29:57
SPEAKER_08: So it's kind of a gift.
30:00
SPEAKER_08: Your pain is kind of a gift in a weird way.
30:03
SPEAKER_06: That's so true.
30:03
SPEAKER_06: I I'll just say real quick, I'll never forget because my daughter is not a huge shower of emotions.
30:10
SPEAKER_06: And this was when she was about in the eighth grade, she lost her great-grandmother.
30:15
SPEAKER_06: And I remember looking over and seeing her sobbing at her great-grandmother's funeral, who's she's a very special, sweet woman in my life, too.
30:24
SPEAKER_06: And it that's a gift to me, and it will always be is having that visual to see how much my grandmother meant to my daughter.
30:32
SPEAKER_06: Right, right.
30:33
SPEAKER_06: And I didn't, and I didn't like her seeing I didn't like seeing her in pain mourning either, but I I realized the the gift aspect of it now that you've said that.
30:42
SPEAKER_06: That's really neat.
30:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, somebody on Zoom right now um asked this is it okay, so is it okay to question God or is it more of a conversation with God?
30:54
SPEAKER_02: You know, in moments like you faced chip and still face.
30:59
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we talk about we're over it, but we've still got quite a bit to get through.
31:03
SPEAKER_02: But we are in a better place than we were last time we talked publicly on this.
31:07
SPEAKER_09: But yeah, that's right.
31:08
SPEAKER_02: Or if you know, you're like my friends and we're there in the hospital, we're just praying and praying and reading scripture and just believing God, and ultimately um there's a there's a death as a result of it.
31:22
SPEAKER_02: Is it okay to question God?
31:24
SPEAKER_08: I I think it is.
31:25
SPEAKER_08: Like I again, I'll use my situation.
31:27
SPEAKER_08: I look at scripture and I see by his stripes we're healed.
31:30
SPEAKER_08: I see, you know, forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases.
31:34
SPEAKER_08: So I see scripture and a fairly overwhelming argument for healing.
31:39
SPEAKER_08: And I look at my situation, I said, okay, God, I acknowledge that you're in charge and you can do as you please, but I also believe you're a God of integrity.
31:49
SPEAKER_08: You say what you mean and mean what you say.
31:52
SPEAKER_08: So I I have questions.
31:54
SPEAKER_08: I I'm a little confused, but it's not not like how dare you or why me.
32:00
SPEAKER_08: I call it file 13.
32:02
SPEAKER_08: I I have a file where I put these questions and I say, God, uh whether it's in this life or the next, can we can we come back and visit this and you explain to me what exactly you were thinking when this happened?
32:16
SPEAKER_08: And I mean not so much my situation, but different people that I've buried in my church and even since I've been here at Seacoast, I think it's privileged to say, God, here here's uh the flavor, the the texture of it.
32:31
SPEAKER_08: I would say, God, I don't get this one, but I trust you.
32:35
SPEAKER_08: And I know your answer will be fair and it'll make sense.
32:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
32:40
SPEAKER_08: I don't have a clue what it is, though, and that is a little bit uncomfortable.
32:45
SPEAKER_08: The foundation I stand on is, but God, I trust you.
32:48
SPEAKER_08: You did everything you could do in this situation.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: I I kind of feel the same way.
32:54
SPEAKER_02: I my trust and how how do you trust?
32:57
SPEAKER_02: And there's so much, and I I'm well, most of the time, there's not an easy package that wraps up real real clean, even though we'd like for it to.
33:05
SPEAKER_02: I even thought about that about you when I was struggling through this whole process.
33:09
SPEAKER_02: And of course, I lost Darren uh Patrick a few years ago, and you know, Billy Hornsby, and then then you start to go, well, all my friends, you know, or that's not all my friends, but that's what you you tend to do, and and uh this isn't right, and how can this be?
33:30
SPEAKER_02: And I know I need to trust.
33:32
SPEAKER_02: And I go back to you know, it's Job shaking his fist at God, which I relate to a little bit, but God pointing out to him, Did you create all of this?
33:42
SPEAKER_02: You know, in other words, do you know more than I do?
33:45
SPEAKER_02: And I think that I know how it should end for everybody, you know, uh in a way that will be advantageous to them and to my needs and emotions.
33:57
SPEAKER_02: But I don't know what the holds, you know.
33:59
SPEAKER_02: I I lost my mom at 54 years old.
34:03
SPEAKER_02: And um, I remember that I I didn't understand that at all.
34:07
SPEAKER_02: She was 54, I was 30 something.
34:09
SPEAKER_02: I also remember burying one of my uh good friends' uh children that was uh it was just tragic.
34:18
SPEAKER_02: And I can remember thinking, you know, I don't know the future.
34:23
SPEAKER_02: You know, what if this child going to be in the hands of God right now?
34:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh what what do they avoid?
34:29
SPEAKER_02: What would have been out there in the future?
34:31
SPEAKER_02: Uh what types of things that I didn't see?
34:35
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not saying that's God's reasoning, but uh I try to, in my own mind, okay, Greg, you don't know the answer, but you think that the future is all gonna be wonderful and great, and and yet this could have been the grace of God.
34:49
SPEAKER_02: You know, that's probably a terrible way to look at it, but that's how I, in my own way, climb deeper into trust of trusting God just to say, I don't know.
34:57
SPEAKER_02: I I I don't know what the future holds.
34:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I gotta trust Him.
35:01
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, you hit on tragedy with a child, whether it's a long-term illness, a terminal illness, a tragedy accident or something.
35:09
SPEAKER_08: That one will make me scratch my head pretty hard.
35:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
35:13
SPEAKER_08: No, everything you're saying makes sense, and I believe there will be a day when it will all make sense.
35:21
SPEAKER_08: But that doesn't mean we have to like it.
35:23
SPEAKER_08: Doesn't mean we can't tell God, you know, who in the world do you think you are for just a minute?
35:30
SPEAKER_08: I think you're allowed a couple of minutes where you just kind of give them a piece of your mind.
35:34
SPEAKER_08: I've never heard a really adequate answer for me, but uh, wasn't it at Lazarus' tomb that Jesus wept?
35:40
SPEAKER_08: Is that right?
35:41
SPEAKER_03: Yes, yeah.
35:43
SPEAKER_08: So I think to myself, okay, like what was that?
35:47
SPEAKER_08: And I I like to think that maybe for just a moment, even though he knew he was going to raise him from the dead, what if for just a moment he felt what we feel when you lose someone?
35:57
SPEAKER_08: Here's what I'm saying.
35:58
SPEAKER_08: So when we're dealing with some horrible, unexpected, or whatever, it helps me to think every tear we're crying, God's got some of his own.
36:07
SPEAKER_08: I don't think God enjoys our pain.
36:10
SPEAKER_08: And that's what I mean.
36:12
SPEAKER_08: There's things about it that I think it's it's pretty ridiculous for us to think we're gonna be able to make sense of it all.
36:18
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, and I'm okay with that.
36:20
SPEAKER_08: It it would scare me if if God couldn't do something that we couldn't figure out.
36:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
36:26
SPEAKER_02: He's too small in that case.
36:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, somebody uh who uh uh asked a question on uh Zoom.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh he's saying, now being in the position your friend Jack Frost was in, and Jack Frost was a friend of yours and influenced on you, and how you felt when he passed, has anything changed in how you feel now?
36:46
SPEAKER_02: Or is there a lesson uh to learn that you can share when we get angry with God and when our loved one is not healed?
36:54
SPEAKER_02: Well, we've been talking about that a little bit.
36:56
SPEAKER_02: Maybe there's uh yeah, maybe you got a little more insight on that.
36:59
SPEAKER_08: Well, I I do believe in spiritual warfare, and and I don't know that it's fair to say that, you know, yes, we're in spiritual warfare, but God always wins because I don't know that that's kind of like everybody gets a trophy, whether you do what you're supposed to do or not.
37:15
SPEAKER_08: So I think Jack was a casualty of war, to be quite honest with you.
37:21
SPEAKER_08: I feel like if if my situation did or does go badly, I would want to be seen as a casualty of war.
37:28
SPEAKER_08: I don't think got Jack dying at the age he died at was the best God had.
37:33
SPEAKER_08: In other words, are you saying it wasn't God's will?
37:36
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, I pretty much am.
37:38
SPEAKER_08: But I'd have to get into an hour and a half of theology to explain why I say something like that.
37:42
SPEAKER_08: I don't think God always gets what he wants.
37:45
SPEAKER_02: Um Wow.
37:46
SPEAKER_02: We need okay, so Joey, we need to schedule another hour.
37:52
SPEAKER_02: Does God does God always get what he wants?
37:55
SPEAKER_02: That's good.
37:56
SPEAKER_02: That'd be a great conversation.
37:58
SPEAKER_02: And uh, I'd love to uh go deeper on that.
38:02
SPEAKER_06: Can can I can I answer real quick?
38:04
SPEAKER_06: I can just answer it simply.
38:06
SPEAKER_06: All you have to do is just check the first story in the Bible.
38:09
SPEAKER_06: If God gets what he wants every single time, then he wanted the fall to happen.
38:14
SPEAKER_06: There you go.
38:14
SPEAKER_06: Done.
38:16
SPEAKER_02: Right.
38:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we probably gotta wrap it up.
38:18
SPEAKER_06: We need five hours.
38:19
SPEAKER_06: We need five hours on that.
38:21
SPEAKER_02: My brain has got to wrap it up to say I yes, I I agree with that.
38:26
SPEAKER_02: And it's in the same uh realm of you know the scripture that says um in all things give thanks, for this is God's will for you in First Thessalonians 5.18.
38:39
SPEAKER_02: It it doesn't say for all things give thanks.
38:42
SPEAKER_02: Uh I can't give thanks for the the things that we've talked about over the last few minutes.
38:49
SPEAKER_02: I can't give thanks for all of that.
38:51
SPEAKER_02: But in all of those things, God works and God has the final say.
38:57
SPEAKER_02: And there are casualties of the war, but the war isn't lost.
39:02
SPEAKER_02: The war's already been won.
39:03
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
39:04
SPEAKER_02: And there are medals to be passed out, and there are people to be honored, and all of those.
39:09
SPEAKER_02: So, in in my mind, yes, I would agree, but I would also say that God has that unique ability to to make the tapestry to where it's better uh in his time, in his time.
39:22
SPEAKER_02: When we're in the midst of it, sometimes it doesn't feel like we're in the time, but we are we are in the time we're supposed to be in.
39:29
SPEAKER_08: Um, Greg, you know, Greg, the interesting thing is when we're in the middle of a pain, pain caused by the loss of someone, we think it's gonna lessen our pain if we understand why it happened.
39:42
SPEAKER_08: And we're not.
39:44
SPEAKER_08: It's not gonna lessen our pain.
39:46
SPEAKER_08: It may later help, but it's it's just not.
39:51
SPEAKER_08: The psychology side of it is it gives us a sense of control.
39:57
SPEAKER_08: Like when I feel like I understand why it happened, I don't feel as vulnerable and alone.
40:04
SPEAKER_08: An accident is just frightening.
40:06
SPEAKER_08: And so what you just said, what Joey said, what I said, what we're really saying is there's a complexity to this stuff that's beyond our soul's desire for a simple answer.
40:16
SPEAKER_08: And I think the church has settled for simple answers, and at times it causes more harm than good.
40:22
SPEAKER_02: I want to ask one more question and then we'll wrap this up.
40:25
SPEAKER_02: Ryan gives it, uh, and Ryan says this, love you, Chip.
40:28
SPEAKER_02: I believe with you that you'll be on that recovery bed.
40:32
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
40:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I imagine uh facing something like this brings a new level of clarity.
40:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh, when you get through the transplant process, how do you think you'll spend your time?
40:44
SPEAKER_02: What will you focus on?
40:46
SPEAKER_02: You've made a huge difference in the church and with your friends and family.
40:50
SPEAKER_02: What, if anything, is still left undone?
40:54
SPEAKER_08: Interestingly, I just journaled yesterday and I put this word down.
40:59
SPEAKER_08: Focus is or equals concentration of power.
41:04
SPEAKER_08: And what I mean is I want to do less by doing more of the right stuff that I'm uniquely called to.
41:11
SPEAKER_08: I want to not chase so many rabbits, and I want to play more.
41:15
SPEAKER_08: I want to, in a sense, I want to work more focused and I want to play more intentionally.
41:20
SPEAKER_08: That's what I want to do when I get to the other side of this.
41:24
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
41:25
SPEAKER_02: That sounds like more concerts in our future.
41:27
SPEAKER_02: I like that.
41:27
SPEAKER_02: The moment.
41:29
SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
41:30
SPEAKER_02: You got to get healed up.
41:31
SPEAKER_02: We got another book to do, bro.
41:33
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
41:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh, one of the reasons we did the endurance factor uh is because I really felt like you had just a bunch of stuff inside of you that needed to, the world needed to hear.
41:45
SPEAKER_02: And uh hey, that book is still good.
41:48
SPEAKER_02: It that is a great Christmas gift.
41:51
SPEAKER_02: Come on, you know, for for a family or friend.
41:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I promoted, I gave my rights away to it anyway.
41:57
SPEAKER_02: So I I think there's more in there and uh more left to do.
42:01
SPEAKER_02: Guys, uh, hopefully those of you who are listening or will listen in the future can get some benefit out of real life experience.
42:09
SPEAKER_02: Life doesn't always go the way that you hope that it would or that we believe for, you know, and and I still think that we've got to have faith and we believe, and there's you know, just just having faith, I think you're in a better mental place than if you don't have faith.
42:23
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, the Bible says we grieve, but we don't grieve as those who have no hope.
42:29
SPEAKER_02: You know, that hope, that's the key word, and that's the thing that gets us through.
42:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh, any last words?
42:34
SPEAKER_08: You know, that's what that's what buoyed my soul through this whole thing, Greg.
42:39
SPEAKER_08: I never for one moment was fearful of my future.
42:43
SPEAKER_08: What got me through is this simple thought.
42:45
SPEAKER_08: I died way earlier than I wanted to.
42:48
SPEAKER_08: Well, just a superficial reading of scripture would indicate what follows this life's pretty good.
42:54
SPEAKER_08: So I'm like, okay, that sounds like a win.
42:56
SPEAKER_08: And then I think, okay, well, if I get through it, that's a win.
43:00
SPEAKER_08: I couldn't see a loss anywhere.
43:02
SPEAKER_08: Now, I could for my wife and my kids and all that.
43:05
SPEAKER_08: But then I said, okay, God, if you've taken this good a care of us up to this point, I haven't taken that good a care of my wife and family.
43:13
SPEAKER_08: You have.
43:14
SPEAKER_08: So you can do that without me.
43:16
SPEAKER_08: It's that hope that you're talking about.
43:18
SPEAKER_08: I didn't understand questions, I was scared a couple of times, but fundamentally, hope is a is a constant expectation of good.
43:28
SPEAKER_08: I I knew wherever this thing went, it might have some moments that weren't good, but I knew the outcome was going to be good.
43:37
SPEAKER_08: And worst case scenario, I missed my wife for what?
43:41
SPEAKER_08: Maybe she lives 20 more years.
43:43
SPEAKER_08: Then it's like, hey, get over here and get me some tea.
43:46
SPEAKER_08: So with you.
43:49
SPEAKER_02: Oh boy.
43:50
SPEAKER_02: That's an insight.
43:52
SPEAKER_02: Oh boy.
43:53
SPEAKER_06: As far as your community is concerned, Pastor Chip, I didn't ask you permission to share this, but your daughter set up a carrying bridge site to keep up with this journey.
44:05
SPEAKER_06: But I also thought this just speaks volumes to the community you've been blessed with that there's a GoFundMe set up with a$50,000 goal, and there's been 224 separate donations of a total of$42,000.
44:22
SPEAKER_06: So that's a little sign of how many people love you and uh love you to that degree, man.
44:28
SPEAKER_06: That's really awesome.
44:29
SPEAKER_06: Really awesome.
44:30
SPEAKER_08: Well, and I'll tell you what, Joyce.
44:31
SPEAKER_08: Some of the things that have been said with those gifts or without them, but some of the things that have been said just humble you to your knees, man.
44:39
SPEAKER_08: I mean, why else you want to Get out of bed in the morning.
44:42
SPEAKER_02: Somebody asked me this this weekend now is that to cover medical bills?
44:46
SPEAKER_02: And really it's not.
44:48
SPEAKER_02: I think you know that's medical bills are going to be a lot higher than that, I think.
44:52
SPEAKER_02: We, you know, and and there's insurance and what have you.
44:55
SPEAKER_02: And we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
44:57
SPEAKER_02: Uh a lot of what Chip does, believe it or not, is uh income that comes when he's on the road, uh, you know, as a consultant and a counselor and all of that.
45:08
SPEAKER_02: And uh we just want to make it to where, and his family are wonderful folks and friends, but we want to make it to where that's one less thing he has to worry about.
45:17
SPEAKER_02: I don't have to worry about boy, we gotta we gotta heal up, we gotta get on the road.
45:20
SPEAKER_02: In fact, I hope he doesn't get on the road.
45:22
SPEAKER_02: I hope we figure well, I don't want to say it like that, but I don't want you on the road like you were.
45:27
SPEAKER_02: I I want you to be able to heard and maybe leverage through things like this, through you know, video and what have you, be able to leverage what God has given you.
45:38
SPEAKER_02: Well, listen, it's been good.
45:40
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for listening, and uh, we appreciate y'all, and we'll see you on the flip side.
45:44
SPEAKER_07: See y'all.
45:50
SPEAKER_08: Joey, let's see if he makes his name bigger than ours.
45:53
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, you know I will.
45:56
SPEAKER_08: His will probably be all caps, and ours will be like a little byline over in the corner.
46:02
SPEAKER_08: Or he'll just put Greg's rat and friends.
46:05
SPEAKER_08: Well, he'll put Greg's rat and friend plus Joey.
46:10
SPEAKER_05: Plus Joey, huh?
46:11
SPEAKER_05: The title's gonna be called Pastoring a Sick Friend.
46:18
SPEAKER_08: Is that you?
46:19
SPEAKER_08: You talking about yourself?
46:23
SPEAKER_06: Uh big Doug.
46:25
SPEAKER_06: Was that supposed to mean that last comment?
46:27
SPEAKER_08: Well, I I was I was trying to not say, could we switch out Doug and Joey?
46:33
SPEAKER_08: So you caught you kind of caught me.
46:36
SPEAKER_06: You took a sharp turn and it was Big Doug.
46:39
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, I just kept me kept me from saying something I shouldn't say.
46:43
SPEAKER_08: Then you made me say it.
46:49
SPEAKER_08: And we got to the website, but we can't figure out how to get that specific yet.
46:54
SPEAKER_06: Are you trying to hack it and move yourself up?
46:56
SPEAKER_06: No.
46:57
SPEAKER_08: No.
47:00
SPEAKER_08: No, because I know everybody on there's in the same situation.
47:03
SPEAKER_06: I know.
47:04
SPEAKER_06: Probably not a probably not a funny joke.
47:06
SPEAKER_08: Well, Joey, we'll for we'll forgive you.
47:09
SPEAKER_02: I have an idea on this, but I want to pitch it to you.
47:13
SPEAKER_08: This this that's part of the question?
47:16
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
47:16
SPEAKER_02: That that was my editing at the end.
47:19
SPEAKER_08: Oh, okay.
47:19
SPEAKER_08: I have an idea.
47:20
SPEAKER_08: Wow.
47:21
SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
47:21
SPEAKER_08: Yeah.
47:22
SPEAKER_08: It just I was like, what in the world?