Latest / Sermons on the Side / 84 | The Stockdale Paradox

Transcript

84 | The Stockdale Paradox · Sermons on the Side

0:01
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Sermons on the Side.
0:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm Brad.
0:04
SPEAKER_01: And I'm Richard.
0:06
SPEAKER_01: And life can move pretty fast.
0:08
SPEAKER_01: So we're here to slow down, dig deep, and find the story hidden in everyday moments.
0:14
SPEAKER_05: With years spent in ministry, friendship, and navigating real life together, we're all about blending humor, honesty, and faith into conversations that meet you right where you are.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: So whether you're brand new or you're back for more, we are so glad you are here.
0:30
SPEAKER_05: So relax, listen in, and let's discover meaning together.
0:34
SPEAKER_01: In the ordinary, the messy, and everything in between.
0:38
SPEAKER_05: Sermons on the side, finding meaning in the everyday.
0:44
SPEAKER_05: At the moment of this recording, we are still not yet to our fantasy draft.
0:52
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
0:52
SPEAKER_05: And our fantasy draft is going to take place, and then NFL season is going to start just a couple of days after that.
0:59
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
1:00
SPEAKER_05: And then drop day for the in fact, on drop day for this episode, NFL would have started last night.
1:05
SPEAKER_05: Did you know that you're on a Wednesday, which is weird.
1:08
SPEAKER_05: It's usually a Thursday.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's just getting football on every day of the week.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
1:13
SPEAKER_05: It's a plan.
1:14
SPEAKER_05: It's a plan, and guess what?
1:16
SPEAKER_02: I'm here for it.
1:23
SPEAKER_04: Come on, how does this happen?
1:25
SPEAKER_04: You know what?
1:26
SPEAKER_04: That's i that's that's an eighty four.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: That is Pad one, and then it's Jedi right there.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: That's uh oh my goodness.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: It's Thursday, Thursday, gotta get it down on Thursday.
2:00
SPEAKER_01: That was do you remember Rebecca Black?
2:03
SPEAKER_01: I do know.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: It's Friday.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: It's Friday Day.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: Friday day.
2:08
SPEAKER_05: Okay, now I do.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: I have no idea why that popped into my mind.
2:11
SPEAKER_05: In the end, you put a little twang in there, and I thought, oh man, this is a country song.
2:16
SPEAKER_05: What country did we just make any sense?
2:21
SPEAKER_05: But you know what?
2:22
SPEAKER_05: I thought, okay, that's a country song, maybe.
2:24
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
2:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know.
2:25
SPEAKER_01: I just went for it.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
2:27
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited because football's back.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: Woo! I'm excited because fantasy football is back.
2:32
SPEAKER_04: That is right.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: I'm excited because you're back from the freaking beach again.
2:39
SPEAKER_01: What in the you've spent so for those of you, for those of you that didn't either listen to last week's episode or maybe listen to the show or to the uh outro because here's the deal.
2:50
SPEAKER_01: I think that you've been there there being Panama City, Florida, the beach that you've got, you know, the Yeah, the trailer.
2:58
SPEAKER_04: Right.
2:58
SPEAKER_04: It's a great trailer.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: I think that you've been there more than you've been home.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: That's how many times every other weekend you're just like, uh going to the beach.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: I guess we'll record five episodes next Monday.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: Keep up with the I'm just kidding.
3:15
SPEAKER_01: So, so we're gonna have a little bit of a friendly competition.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: I think we should.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so here's what we're gonna do.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna set it's called an over-under.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: So, right now, all of our listeners are gonna get their phones out, um, unless you're driving, then get somewhere safe and then get your phone out.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: Go to our Instagram, and you are going to see a story where you can vote for either over this number of days that Richard has already spent in Panama City this year, or under this many days that he's already spent in Panama City this year.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: And what is that over-under set at?
3:49
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Mr.
3:49
SPEAKER_05: Rico.
3:50
SPEAKER_05: We're gonna we're gonna set the over-under number at 29.5.
3:56
SPEAKER_05: Meaning 29 and a half days?
3:59
SPEAKER_05: You're guessing whether I've been there more than 29 and a half days or less.
4:03
SPEAKER_05: So more than a month or less than a month.
4:09
SPEAKER_02: This is free money.
4:11
SPEAKER_02: This is free.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: I think it's over.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: I think you spent the whole month of February there, that's 28 days.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm just kidding.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: All right, so there you go, folks.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: Listen, we quoted a lot.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: He spends a lot of time there, but has it been a full month?
4:27
SPEAKER_01: That's the question.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: So if you think you spent 29 days or less, then you're gonna select under.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: If it is 20, if it's 30 days or more, then you select the over and we're gonna read off all the winners.
4:41
SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
4:41
SPEAKER_05: Here's the thing you'll know you got to the right place on Instagram.
4:45
SPEAKER_05: See, I I didn't even tell you this.
4:48
SPEAKER_05: But on our recent trips to the beach, uh, on those weekend trips, and I was there for a vacation too.
4:55
SPEAKER_05: So, you know, anyway, the point is numbers going up.
4:58
SPEAKER_05: The point is that we've started a new tradition on when we have days that you know the weather's good and we're actually sitting on the beach.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
5:07
SPEAKER_05: You know, with our beach chairs, the sunscreen is everywhere, my huge gigantic hat.
5:13
SPEAKER_05: Straw hat the straw hat, old man beach hat that keeps my my neck from being any redder than it already is.
5:21
SPEAKER_05: And so the new tradition, and and Rhonda named it Sermons on the Seashore.
5:28
SPEAKER_05: Oh see what we did there?
5:31
SPEAKER_05: Okay, and uh we just we do a devotion, and I I have my Bible with me, standing there or sitting there with uh in our beach chairs, or standing there and and sharing a devotional from the scripture.
5:46
SPEAKER_05: Wow, having a little time with the Lord our God on the beach.
5:50
SPEAKER_05: And uh so the reason I say that is because what you're gonna go to, when you go to our Instagram right now to vote for the overunder, that's what the picture's gonna be.
6:03
SPEAKER_05: Rhonda took a picture last time we were there.
6:06
SPEAKER_05: Okay, she snuck a pic of me standing there in my beach outfit with the hat, Bible in hand, waves lapping up uh around my ankles, and me uh sharing a devotion.
6:19
SPEAKER_01: So that's the determinants on this on the seashore.
6:22
SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
6:23
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's a tongue twister.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: Say that five times fast.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: Goodness.
6:26
SPEAKER_05: So anyway, that'll be the photo that the over under vote now.
6:30
SPEAKER_05: You know, there you go, folks.
6:32
SPEAKER_05: It is a good thing.
6:33
SPEAKER_05: Now you mentioned that NFL has started, so I am wearing the appropriate hat.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: I would I don't know about the appropriate hat, but you are wearing a hat.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: Um you're wearing a an hat.
6:48
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, cowboys hat.
6:50
SPEAKER_05: So I'm curious.
6:52
SPEAKER_05: What happened there?
6:53
SPEAKER_05: Well, I was just born and raised this way.
6:55
SPEAKER_05: I was I became a Cowboys fan shortly after birth.
6:58
SPEAKER_05: And so I'm I'm working on 60 years, 60 uh yeah, several years, 60 something years.
7:05
SPEAKER_05: So anyway, uh Cowboys fan, never dreamed that a Mississippi State quarterback would now be the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, but one Dak Prescott is, and I'm gonna enjoy it while I can.
7:17
SPEAKER_05: But at the moment of this recording, we are still not yet to our fantasy draft.
7:27
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
7:28
SPEAKER_05: And our fantasy draft is gonna take place, and then NFL season is gonna start just a couple of days after that.
7:34
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
7:35
SPEAKER_05: And then drop day for the in fact, on drop day for this episode, NFL would have started last night.
7:40
SPEAKER_05: Did you know that we're on a Wednesday, which is weird, it's usually a Thursday.
7:45
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's just getting football on every day of the week.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
7:48
SPEAKER_05: It's a plan.
7:49
SPEAKER_05: It's a plan, and guess what?
7:51
SPEAKER_02: I'm here for it.
8:00
SPEAKER_04: How does this happen?
8:00
SPEAKER_04: You know what?
8:01
SPEAKER_04: That's 80.
8:01
SPEAKER_04: That's that's 84 episodes right there.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: Right?
8:04
SPEAKER_01: That's that is Pad One, and that is Jedi right there.
8:08
SPEAKER_05: That's uh Oh my goodness.
8:10
SPEAKER_05: But anyway, welcome to uh the season.
8:13
SPEAKER_05: And uh, you know, with the fantasy draft that is gonna take place very shortly after this recording.
8:19
SPEAKER_05: Um, you know, you'll you and I we're in the same league.
8:23
SPEAKER_05: We're my friend has now become my enemy.
8:27
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
8:27
SPEAKER_05: Uh but uh but I'll I'll I'll be kind.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: And my my dad's in the league.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: We got a couple friends, you know.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: The friend of my friend is now my enemy.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: The friend of my enemy is now my friend.
8:37
SPEAKER_05: Son of my friend, and my my my son Bryce is in the league, so it's gonna be fun.
8:42
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, got it, got to love it.
8:44
SPEAKER_05: Just got to.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: I agree, man.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be fun.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: I can't wait.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: Oh, this is the best time of the year.
8:51
SPEAKER_04: It just feels like all right.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: Well, hey, let's dive right into the sermon on the side.
8:55
SPEAKER_01: I am super excited.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: You got some like legit notes over there.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: So I'm ready.
9:01
SPEAKER_05: You know it.
9:01
SPEAKER_05: Hey, this sermon on the side is inspired by an actual historical figure, actually, a war hero for the these great United States of America, uh, is uh Captain James Stockdale.
9:18
SPEAKER_05: Now, this gentleman was a captain in and he was a naval aviator in the Vietnam War.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
9:25
SPEAKER_05: In the years since, he became an admiral.
9:29
SPEAKER_05: So he he's just the biggest deal that you could imagine.
9:33
SPEAKER_05: And this guy was uh flying fighter jets over the skies of North Vietnam in the Vietnam War.
9:43
SPEAKER_05: And so it was it was really intense.
9:44
SPEAKER_05: And so what we're going to uh I'm telling you a little bit about this guy and what he endured and what his life uh some of the ideas and concepts and really life principles that he believed in, I they're they're really gonna be our sermon on the side, and hopefully we'll be able to, hopefully we'll be able to learn something and embrace something that will be helpful to us.
10:09
SPEAKER_05: But anyway, so uh Captain Stockdale, as I said, had been a very successful and decorated uh Navy fighter pilot.
10:18
SPEAKER_05: And uh, but at one on one of his missions, his plane was uh was was hit by anti-aircraft uh munitions and and he he went down.
10:32
SPEAKER_05: Uh they they they fired upon his uh his his aircraft and he had to eject, so he bailed out.
10:38
SPEAKER_05: And so now he's floating down and it's totally truly behind enemy lines.
10:43
SPEAKER_05: He's he's he's coming down in his parachute into a village in North Vietnam where everybody, all the villagers are, you know, the Americans are the bad guys.
10:54
SPEAKER_05: So once he lands and he injures himself terribly, breaks a vertebrae, blows out his knee, but they, I mean, the the villagers get him and take him straight to the uh to the North Vietnamese army.
11:08
SPEAKER_05: And he becomes a prisoner of war, and he ended up go being taken to a POW camp that was called or the the slang name that was given to this POW camp was the Hanoi Hilton.
11:24
SPEAKER_05: And this was a notoriously brutal prisoner of war camp.
11:31
SPEAKER_05: He was there for seven years.
11:33
SPEAKER_05: But as you can imagine, being the highest ranking officer, uh, he was he was the leader of the American contingent there.
11:44
SPEAKER_05: Now they had brother, they were brutally treated, all of them were.
11:50
SPEAKER_05: I mean, Stockdale himself uh is it's estimated that he was physically tortured 20 different occasions.
11:59
SPEAKER_05: There was ongoing nastiness and brutality that all the POWs suffered.
12:07
SPEAKER_05: But on 20 different occasions he was singled out, as many of the others were as well, but singled out and and subjected to uh an incredible beating.
12:19
SPEAKER_05: I'll I'll call him Admiral Stockdale.
12:21
SPEAKER_05: He was captain at the time, but Admiral Stockdale, during his time there, was a source of leadership and encouragement to all the other American POWs.
12:31
SPEAKER_05: They came up with really interesting ways of communicating, uh just tapping on the walls between the cells and and things like that.
12:40
SPEAKER_05: And they were able to try to help each other endure and get through.
12:47
SPEAKER_05: Now there was uh uh an interview one time uh in in the years long after Admiral Stockdale was released and came home.
12:57
SPEAKER_05: War is a distant memory and he is going moving on with his life.
13:00
SPEAKER_05: And you can imagine he he led a such a consequential life before, during, and after his imprisonment.
13:08
SPEAKER_05: And uh, but at one point, he's a much older man, he's being interviewed, and they're like, questions about how do you endure?
13:15
SPEAKER_05: I mean, how do you get through that?
13:16
SPEAKER_05: And how do what is it like with morale being so low?
13:21
SPEAKER_05: And uh, and one of the questions was was it were you able to tell when when a a prisoner, another a fellow POW in that camp, were you able to get a sense of whether they were going to be able that individual was gonna be able to make it or not?
13:41
SPEAKER_05: And they were basically asking, what's what kind of guy, what kind of guy under those bizarre and extreme circumstances were most likely to make it through?
13:53
SPEAKER_05: And his answer was very first for some of us, very surprising.
13:57
SPEAKER_05: And he said, Well, it was not it was not the unrealistic optimists.
14:05
SPEAKER_05: And I I remember when I first heard about his answer in that interview, I thought, well, that's weird.
14:11
SPEAKER_05: I thought the optimism was what we would need.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
14:14
SPEAKER_05: Right?
14:14
SPEAKER_05: Just keep your chin up.
14:15
SPEAKER_05: It's gonna, we're gonna get out of here, we're gonna make it.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: Push through the next day.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: There's hope around the corner, you know, that kind of thing.
14:23
SPEAKER_05: Yes, that sort of thing.
14:24
SPEAKER_05: But Sogdale went on to explain, he said, it was the the ones who the ones who were just convinced that it would be over soon.
14:35
SPEAKER_05: And would say things like, you know what, we'll be home by Christmas, or we'll be home by next summer, or maybe maybe the following Christmas.
14:44
SPEAKER_05: And and the heartbreak that those guys endured because they had an unrealistic optimism, it may, it was a crushing thing.
14:57
SPEAKER_05: They were their bodies were being beaten, literally, but their spirits were being broken as well.
15:04
SPEAKER_05: Or that's what with the the their captors was were hoping that they would be able to break their spirits and get them to, you know, read propaganda on a video, you know, and whatever, just the political and wartime stuff.
15:19
SPEAKER_05: But that but a crushed spirit that was that was uh naively hoping that things would get better quick, that crushed spirit made it difficult for some POWs to endure.
15:37
SPEAKER_05: And so out of his answer and his and the explanation that followed, this answer that I just sort of described, came this um this philosophy that is now literally called the Stockdale Paradox.
15:56
SPEAKER_05: The Stockdale Paradox.
15:57
SPEAKER_05: Now, a paradox, the definition of the word paradox, is a statement that seems to contradict itself, but it might still be true andor reveal a hidden truth.
16:10
SPEAKER_05: So what Stockdale said was the most likely one to make it was those were those who could maintain unwavering faith that they'll prevail in the end.
16:30
SPEAKER_05: All the while simultaneously, honestly confronting the brutal facts of their current reality.
16:38
SPEAKER_05: All right, now I know that's a lot, but here's the thing.
16:42
SPEAKER_05: He just said the naive optimists, they're not gonna make it through these hard times.
16:47
SPEAKER_05: But he's also saying you need unwavering faith that ultimately, in the end, you will prevail.
16:56
SPEAKER_05: You've gotta have that, but at the same time, you've got to have a have an honest acceptance of how the brutal reality of your life is playing out.
17:10
SPEAKER_05: And he said you can't have just the unwavering faith, and you can't have this 100% negative we're living through hell, and I don't know if we're gonna make it.
17:24
SPEAKER_05: That's why it's a paradox.
17:26
SPEAKER_05: The Stockdale paradox says unwavering faith that ultimately, eventually, we will prevail, while being able to look honestly at the brutal realities, whatever they may be.
17:46
SPEAKER_05: Does that paradox statement make sense and why he's it almost seemed like he's saying two different things, but he wasn't.
17:54
SPEAKER_05: No, he was saying they must coexist together.
17:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I absolutely, yep.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: It's a big old and I see and I also see where you're going from uh Sermon on the Side perspective.
18:07
SPEAKER_01: I see that turn and how it relates to us.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: You know, typically we'll come here and and and you know, it's finding the hidden meanings of everyday life and it's fun and it's upbeat.
18:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, this this is heavy, man.
18:20
SPEAKER_01: This is we're talking about real people who have spent real lives in in real suffering.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I didn't have on my bingo card today that we were talking about prisoners of war.
18:36
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
18:37
SPEAKER_01: I think there is absolutely something appropriate about being stopped in our tracks and going, Do I have that same ultimate respect and admiration as it relates to my faith journey with Christ?
18:57
SPEAKER_01: Because I have, as you were just kind of repeating some of those lines, I know that I have said things like, Oh, well, I'll, you know, by next summer I'll have kicked this sin habit out of the, you know, down the road.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: Or by by Christmas, I'm sure that this little area of my life will turn around.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: Or, oh, well, there's always next summer to try to, you know, whatever the case may be.
19:19
SPEAKER_01: And how, man, do I have a grasp on the full reality that is the current situation?
19:29
SPEAKER_01: But do I also have the confidence and the belief and the know that one day I am going to stand before God.
19:40
unknown: Yes.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: And He is going to say to me, Well done, my good and faithful servant.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: And how holding both of those things might feel like a paradox, but they do coexist.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: Dude, I am going there with you right now.
19:57
SPEAKER_05: Come on, come on.
19:58
SPEAKER_05: Oh, I feel you.
19:59
SPEAKER_05: And one of the one of the as I break down this paradox and how it applies to us, I always go back to or my mind just goes back to times when things were very dark in my life.
20:17
SPEAKER_05: And I didn't know how any of it was gonna play out.
20:22
SPEAKER_05: I didn't know if there were gonna be any remarkably good outcomes.
20:29
SPEAKER_05: It just felt like it was a survival thing.
20:34
SPEAKER_05: But in those moments, false optimism is useless.
20:41
SPEAKER_05: Realism wins over wishful thinking.
20:48
SPEAKER_05: Realism wins over wishful thinking.
20:52
SPEAKER_05: Having said that, determining not to lose faith in ultimate goodness, and and and as believers, as followers of Christ, what we believe is that this this remarkable promise that's listed in Romans chapter 8, verse 28.
21:14
SPEAKER_05: And it says, for for those who love God and for those who are called according to his purpose, all things work together for good.
21:26
SPEAKER_05: So everything in the person's life who is doing their best to follow heart after God, you know, someone who loves God, someone called according to his purpose, which are those that are following him.
21:40
SPEAKER_05: All things will work together for good.
21:44
SPEAKER_05: But you know what?
21:45
SPEAKER_05: It doesn't, the the Bible does not promise us that we will even be alive and breathing, breathing on this earth to see that outcome.
21:53
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
21:55
SPEAKER_05: We're told to put our faith in the fact that God said it will happen, and it could be generations.
22:00
SPEAKER_05: After I'm long gone.
22:02
SPEAKER_05: Before something good comes out of a bad situation I'm going through right now in 2026.
22:10
SPEAKER_05: But that's what I believe.
22:11
SPEAKER_05: I have unwavering faith that that is true.
22:15
SPEAKER_05: And yet I am learning to also say, even if I don't get to see it all, and even if it doesn't play the way I think it should, or in the timetable that I think it should, I I do believe it's gonna happen.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're not we're not promised to see the harvest.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: We're just commanded to sow the crop.
22:41
SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: Plant that seed.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: Right.
22:44
SPEAKER_01: And we are promised that there will be a crop, right?
22:49
SPEAKER_01: But we have to turn the we have to turn the results over to him.
22:53
SPEAKER_01: Wow, dude.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
22:55
SPEAKER_05: God is just look, God is teaching me to be able to say, and this is because I'm a Mr.
23:03
SPEAKER_05: Optimism dude, you know.
23:04
SPEAKER_05: I'm I'm glass half full all the time.
23:07
SPEAKER_05: But you know what?
23:08
SPEAKER_05: Glass half full, it takes on a new meaning now for me.
23:11
SPEAKER_05: It's not just trying to pretend everything's you know, Pollyanna or as a really old movie, um, everything's Ted Lasso.
23:19
SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
23:19
SPEAKER_05: You know, I'm trying to I I'm it's glass half full doesn't mean smile even though I'm dying inside.
23:25
SPEAKER_05: No.
23:26
SPEAKER_05: Glass half full means really believing that even the worst of my life or any of our lives, the worst of stuff, God can do some good.
23:36
SPEAKER_05: I'm I'm and so I'm able to say this is bad.
23:42
SPEAKER_05: This situation is bad.
23:43
SPEAKER_05: And guess what?
23:45
SPEAKER_05: It might get worse.
23:46
SPEAKER_05: Again, not trying to bum everybody out, but I'm saying, look, I can say it's bad and it might get worse, but I believe God will accomplish his purpose.
24:02
SPEAKER_05: And that's what I hope we hear today through this sermon on the side that God is going to accomplish his purpose, even though it's bad, even if it gets worse, these certain things in our life or in our realms believe it can happen.
24:23
SPEAKER_05: And and and we encounter this dynamic all the time in in our our recovery community, and we what's that line?
24:31
SPEAKER_05: You know that line we talk about with reality all the time?
24:34
SPEAKER_01: Commit to reality at all costs.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: At all costs.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
24:37
SPEAKER_05: Because I know that's where I'm gonna find true peace and serenity is to be able to stop ignoring or pretending and just say this is how bad it is.
24:51
SPEAKER_05: But the fact that it's that bad does not change the the does not change the fact that God has a plan and a purpose, and he will get it done.
25:03
SPEAKER_05: So we'll wrap by by looking at what King David said when he was in a really desperate situation.
25:11
SPEAKER_05: In fact, it's it's Psalm 57, right?
25:14
SPEAKER_05: And it says there's this little writing right before the the verses actually start, and it says this was a Psalm of David written during the time he fled from Saul and went into a cave.
25:30
SPEAKER_05: Now, if you dig around in the Bible story, that's basically he's a fugitive, he's fleeing for his life, has a ragtag band of misfits that are fleeing with him, and the most powerful man in the nation wants him dead, wants them all dead.
25:46
SPEAKER_05: He actually has to live in secrecy and hiding.
25:50
SPEAKER_05: He's in a cave, a series, a network of caves and tunnels is his home.
25:56
SPEAKER_05: And here's what he says while that's going on.
25:59
SPEAKER_05: You ready for this?
26:00
SPEAKER_05: I don't know if you're ready, Brad.
26:02
SPEAKER_05: Is anybody ready for this?
26:04
SPEAKER_05: Here we go.
26:05
SPEAKER_05: Have mercy on me, oh God, have mercy.
26:08
SPEAKER_05: I look to you for protection.
26:11
SPEAKER_05: I will hide beneath the shadow of your wing until danger passes by.
26:17
SPEAKER_05: Because let me tell you, danger was a constant reality, a brutal fact of his reality.
26:24
SPEAKER_05: But then, verse two, I cry out to God most high, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.
26:35
SPEAKER_05: He will send from heaven and rescue me.
26:39
SPEAKER_05: My God will send forth his unfailing love and his faithfulness.
26:45
SPEAKER_05: Very next breath, he says, I'm surrounded by fierce lions.
26:49
SPEAKER_05: They devour greedily.
26:51
SPEAKER_05: Their teeth are like spears and arrows, and their tongues cut like swords.
26:56
SPEAKER_05: Okay, that's kind of freaky.
26:58
SPEAKER_05: You know what the next thing he says is?
27:00
SPEAKER_05: Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
27:03
SPEAKER_05: May your glory shine over all the earth.
27:08
SPEAKER_05: And then he just keeps going back and forth.
27:10
SPEAKER_05: My enemies are this, my enemies, this is bad.
27:12
SPEAKER_05: And then he goes, but God is with me.
27:15
SPEAKER_05: See, he was living and praying and singing and writing this poem with this paradox in mind.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: I was about to say that was the Stockdale paradox playbook right there.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: It was what was the reality of the situation and the belief that God is still good, and knowing that it will work out in some way in God's plan and the end.
27:39
SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
27:40
SPEAKER_05: So I will just leave us with a repeat of a couple of these verses.
27:45
SPEAKER_05: I'll leave all our listeners with this.
27:47
SPEAKER_05: And consider this as you listen.
27:50
SPEAKER_05: Perhaps there are chunks of your life, or maybe even the majority of your life, is very difficult right now.
27:56
SPEAKER_05: Maybe you are just in the middle of cave kind of living, or feeling like life is brutalizing you.
28:06
SPEAKER_05: Maybe you just don't see how long it's gonna end.
28:09
SPEAKER_05: And you're tired of hoping and crossing your fingers and saying, maybe by next Christmas, maybe that's where you're at.
28:17
SPEAKER_05: Why don't we go back to what David says?
28:19
SPEAKER_05: He starts this Psalm 57 verses 1 and 2.
28:23
SPEAKER_05: Have mercy on me, oh God.
28:25
SPEAKER_05: Man, sometimes our our voices are hoarse from praying and asking God for mercy, but let's keep doing it.
28:33
SPEAKER_05: Let's keep doing it.
28:34
SPEAKER_05: Have mercy.
28:35
SPEAKER_05: I look for you.
28:38
SPEAKER_05: I look to you for protection.
28:40
SPEAKER_05: I will hide beneath the shadow of your wing until the danger passes by.
28:45
SPEAKER_05: And this is our this is our rallying cry when we're living through the Stockdale paradox.
28:53
SPEAKER_05: I cry out to God most high, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.
29:00
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
29:01
SPEAKER_05: There is my hope.
29:03
SPEAKER_05: He will do it.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
29:05
SPEAKER_05: He just will.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: So that's a phenomenal verse, man.
29:08
SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Lord.
29:09
SPEAKER_05: God is good.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: Boom.
29:12
SPEAKER_01: Bang.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: That one, that one's worth like uh, all right.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: Let me just back it up to the beginning and listen through all the way again because there's just a lot of meat on that bone.
29:21
SPEAKER_05: Rack it up.
29:22
SPEAKER_05: Let's rack it up.
29:23
SPEAKER_05: Let's run that back, right?
29:24
SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
29:25
SPEAKER_05: Oh my goodness.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: All right.
29:27
SPEAKER_01: Well, do you have a uh segment for us?
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Bro, we got a segment.
29:30
SPEAKER_05: We got a segment.
29:31
SPEAKER_05: And I am kind of seeing now, and I think back last week's episode, this this thing about Rico is really old is kind of a theme here.
29:40
SPEAKER_05: There's a series of segments about my my grumpy old guy persona.
29:49
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
29:50
SPEAKER_05: You kids and your rock and roll music.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm sure that's a quote from some old movie, but I don't know.
29:58
SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
29:59
SPEAKER_05: But anyway, so listen, I there are um there are difficult technology things that happen to me in my life.
30:08
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, there are some things that really boy, they trip me up.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: Top to text is just at the top of that list, by the way.
30:14
SPEAKER_05: It absolutely is, but if you go back a few more years, long before Sermons on the side came to be, you experienced this.
30:22
SPEAKER_05: I mean, you you got me a fire stick for my birthday one year.
30:28
SPEAKER_01: I remember that.
30:29
SPEAKER_05: Came and set it up, working awesome.
30:33
SPEAKER_05: Oh, please.
30:33
SPEAKER_05: It would have sat in the packaging, wouldn't have even opened the plastic if you had not.
30:39
SPEAKER_02: It's just an HDMI.
30:41
SPEAKER_01: You just plugged it.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: I thought it was just an excuse to get us over at your house and didn't legitimately know how to set it up.
30:48
SPEAKER_05: No, I didn't.
30:49
SPEAKER_05: But and then in the months following, there were phone calls, people.
30:54
SPEAKER_05: Why why is this clicker?
30:57
SPEAKER_05: It's a I'm clicking it, and nothing's happening.
31:01
SPEAKER_05: Oh man.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: Which way do you have it pointed?
31:04
SPEAKER_01: You have batteries in it?
31:06
SPEAKER_05: Are you in the same room as the device you're trying to?
31:11
SPEAKER_05: Are you at home?
31:14
SPEAKER_05: My wife is trying to do it.
31:15
SPEAKER_05: I'm doing it for remotely.
31:17
SPEAKER_05: So uh so that happened.
31:19
SPEAKER_05: I tried to, you know, I'm trying to uh screencast, what do you call it?
31:24
SPEAKER_05: Um screen sharing oh mirroring sharing, screen sharing.
31:28
SPEAKER_05: I you helped me through that.
31:30
SPEAKER_05: But here's the thing: I love wearing earbuds uh for my phone, you know, to make calls, to listen to stuff, listen to podcasts, whatever.
31:39
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I think they they they're trying to do too much with these earbuds, man.
31:44
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
31:44
SPEAKER_05: The whole touch this once and it'll pause it, touch it twice and it'll open your garage door.
31:51
SPEAKER_05: I don't, what are they trying to do?
31:53
SPEAKER_05: You know, I look, I will tell you this.
31:56
SPEAKER_05: I see that many functions on the little startup guide.
32:01
SPEAKER_05: I'm like, nope.
32:02
SPEAKER_05: Give me the one thing I need.
32:04
SPEAKER_05: I just need one thing.
32:06
SPEAKER_05: I need music or or voices to play through these.
32:09
SPEAKER_05: Don't get any.
32:10
SPEAKER_05: I mean, do you do you hey on earbuds, do you do the tapping?
32:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, how do uh I'll do the, you know, I'll I'll do the you know, where where what's it called?
32:20
SPEAKER_01: When you like commute it and it like sound automation or what not automation, it's the filtering, yeah, noise cancellation, and you can skip, you can turn up, you can turn down, you can answer calls, you can hang up calls.
32:33
SPEAKER_05: Stop it.
32:34
SPEAKER_05: He's now if you if we were a video podcast, he's just tapping his ear, he's pretend tapping his ear.
32:40
SPEAKER_05: Too many functions.
32:41
SPEAKER_01: It's okay, hey, let me tell you this everything that we just described, you can do on the earbud.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to, you can just do it on your phone.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
32:50
SPEAKER_05: But the phone's in the pocket.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh, oh, I forgot.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: Heaven forbid working my pulse all.
32:59
SPEAKER_01: You just I forgot.
33:01
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's too much for you to have, you know.
33:04
SPEAKER_05: Look, so Justin Keck, our friend from South Carolina.
33:08
SPEAKER_05: South Carolina.
33:09
SPEAKER_05: Uh a few weeks ago when I was at the beach at P PCB uh on another trip, and and he called the number and we have two names to go up.
33:19
SPEAKER_05: So we're having a phone conversation.
33:22
SPEAKER_05: I look, all I need to do, I'm out, I'm walking around outside the trailer.
33:27
SPEAKER_05: It's PCB.
33:28
SPEAKER_05: It's um it's hot outside.
33:31
SPEAKER_05: I'm sweating.
33:32
SPEAKER_05: All I need to do, I'm just trying to reach up and and get the earbud and make sure it doesn't slip out of my ear.
33:39
SPEAKER_05: Hung up on him three times in one conversation.
33:42
SPEAKER_05: And I'm telling him, I'm like, Justin, why do you do this?
33:46
SPEAKER_05: And he's like, uh, you know, he just didn't even try.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:49
SPEAKER_05: Because he's a a young man like yourself.
33:51
SPEAKER_01: Justin, we try, man.
33:52
SPEAKER_01: We we try to keep him hip, but oh, and I'm gonna tell you one last thing.
33:56
SPEAKER_05: So on that same trip to the beach, right?
33:59
SPEAKER_05: I'm wearing my big, my big uh beach sombrero.
34:03
SPEAKER_05: You know, it's just this huge straw hat.
34:06
SPEAKER_05: And it's got the uh, you know, the little drawstring, yeah.
34:10
SPEAKER_05: So I'm gonna go up uh up to the car and get something.
34:13
SPEAKER_05: I'm listening to Darcy Frost, our good friend Darcy Frost, the uh shout out to our Kiwis.
34:19
SPEAKER_05: Come on, Carrie Confetti podcast, which originates from New Zealand, and I'm listening with the earbuds, and I'm just walking, and it just keeps stopping.
34:32
SPEAKER_05: The podcast keeps stopping, and then in another second, it starts back up.
34:37
SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, man, what is going on?
34:39
SPEAKER_05: The reception?
34:40
SPEAKER_05: Is it or is it my earbuds?
34:42
SPEAKER_05: You know what was happening?
34:43
SPEAKER_05: The string from my head is just knocking up against the earbuds.
34:48
SPEAKER_01: All right, okay, now that's not good.
34:51
SPEAKER_05: Pause, unpause.
34:52
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, You must not have air pods.
34:55
SPEAKER_05: I well, I don't know their pods, they're things.
34:57
SPEAKER_05: I get them from Amazon.
34:59
SPEAKER_05: I get them off the Amazon.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: Off the Amazon.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: Somebody help the man.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: You need okay, there's two things happening.
35:06
SPEAKER_05: The net the on the line.
35:09
SPEAKER_01: Undo the dial-up computer.
35:11
SPEAKER_01: I go to www.google.com and then I type in Google and I get to Google.
35:19
SPEAKER_05: The string on my hat is positive and podcasting.
35:22
SPEAKER_05: That one, that one I'll give you.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: That one I'll give you.
35:25
SPEAKER_01: That one's not okay.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: That one that's a air, that's a that's a pod issue.
35:30
SPEAKER_01: You need to get some good quality AirPods.
35:32
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but see, based on how I easily I lose them or or something happens.
35:36
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, well that's that's hard to invest any more than that$19.99 on Amazon.
35:41
SPEAKER_02: That's yeah, there are again.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: All right.
35:44
SPEAKER_05: So there you go.
35:45
SPEAKER_05: So there it is.
35:46
SPEAKER_05: A whole, oh, and that's see, oh, bro.
35:50
SPEAKER_05: See, mine's mine's much mine's much smaller, you know, my little thing.
35:54
SPEAKER_05: So uh y'all pray for your boy.
35:57
SPEAKER_05: Pray for Rico.
35:58
SPEAKER_05: Pray for Rico and pray for everybody in Rico's life who has to hear me complain about this.
36:04
SPEAKER_05: So, hey, what a ride this episode has been.
36:09
SPEAKER_05: Am I telling the truth or not?
36:10
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you are.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: We've talked about the the good, the bad, the serious, the ugly, the beautiful, the wonderful, the terrible, the everything in between.
36:17
SPEAKER_05: Well, we appreciate our listeners going along for this journey.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
36:22
SPEAKER_05: And uh, but I know the Lord is is speaking to us and helping us.
36:25
SPEAKER_05: So you know what it means.
36:27
SPEAKER_05: That you just listened to episode 84, which means next week is episode 85 special interview coming up.
36:35
SPEAKER_05: You're gonna love it.
36:37
SPEAKER_05: So we can't wait for you to join us for episode 85 next week for Sermons on the side.
36:58
SPEAKER_01: How do you feel about your uh how do you feel about your fantasy team?
37:02
SPEAKER_01: All right.
37:03
SPEAKER_01: How do you feel about your fantasy team that you haven't even drafted yet?
37:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, I you know what?
37:08
SPEAKER_05: I always, hey, the Optimist, the glass half full.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: What is the what's the Stockdale paradox telling you about your fantasy team?
37:16
SPEAKER_05: The brutal reality of the subpar players that I will be drafting during our draft, but I will I will retain this faith that miracles can happen.
37:27
SPEAKER_05: No, man.
37:28
SPEAKER_05: You know, it's it's looking forward to the draft, it's just there's part of me that says it's all about the draft order.
37:37
SPEAKER_05: But then after the next uh first round or so, it's just be creative, be smart.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: Go get your guys, dude.
37:46
SPEAKER_05: Pray hard.
37:47
SPEAKER_05: Do you fast and pray before the fantasy draft?
37:50
SPEAKER_01: I fast and pray during the fantasy draft, my brother.
37:53
SPEAKER_05: No, I need snacks.
37:54
SPEAKER_05: That's right.
37:55
SPEAKER_05: There are many snacks being considered.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: Well, good luck.
37:58
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and and same to you.
37:59
SPEAKER_05: You know what I'm saying?
38:01
SPEAKER_05: I mean, I look, you know what, when it comes to all these fun things we do, I choose this relationship.
38:07
SPEAKER_05: I choose our friendship.
38:08
SPEAKER_05: Hear that, Bryce?
38:09
SPEAKER_05: Over Hear that big dog?
38:13
SPEAKER_05: How about how about your dad, Johnny Memphis?
38:16
SPEAKER_01: Man, shots fired across the uh fantasy football table.
38:21
SPEAKER_05: Man, Johnny, and he's a multiple league guy.
38:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you what, this is about to be a bounce back year for Pops.
38:27
SPEAKER_01: You feel it?
38:27
SPEAKER_01: He's had a couple of down years, really unlucky on the injury bug.
38:31
SPEAKER_04: Johnny boy.
38:33
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's this man called me in July.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: He was like, What do you think about the depth chart of Arizona's backfield?
38:38
SPEAKER_01: I was like, what is what is going on?
38:41
SPEAKER_01: It's July.
38:42
SPEAKER_02: The World Cup is still being played.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: We're not even talking.
38:46
SPEAKER_01: Have they have the Arizona Cardinals even started playing football?
38:49
SPEAKER_01: Pops is in.
38:51
SPEAKER_01: Oh, brother.
38:52
SPEAKER_01: That's anyways.
38:53
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, good stuff, man.