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Dave Gibbs joins the show! · Day Drinking With Dog

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Viva Tequila Seltzer, the number one hard Seltzer in the world and the official
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heart Seltzer of Day. Drinking with Dog. Ditch them all, add tequila
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Welcome back Day Drinking a Dog. It is just before Christmas, December twenty
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first, on this beautiful sunny, cold Thursday afternoon. Merry Christmas, everybody.
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Hanukkah Kwanza. All that stuff is We're the init or is coming right
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up, which brings me my guest today, Dave Gibbs. Dave, good
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to have you back on the show. You were one of the original first
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ones in this studio, your whole family. Yeah, back that we were
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talking plumbing and taxes, crypto taxes. We were. It was an interesting
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time. It was great and I don't think anyone in the crypto world has
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paid a tax yet that speaking of Helen Earth, that there are gonna be
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some stuff coming down on them down the line. I'm afraid there's some changes
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coming about. Yeah. The reason why we're doing this show kind of came
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to fruition. Over the summer. You and I were at a probably one
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of the longest day golf tournaments I've ever been involved in in my life.
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And yes, eight am to eight pm, twelve hours of stop go,
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eat, drink, stop go. It was epic. Yeah, I started
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out. I started out that day. I mean, I don't have rain
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gloves, never have. And the two boys you were playing with were like
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just they were like ready for a monsoon. They were they had every piece
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of equipment ready for rain. I think the second shot the club flew out
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of my hand. I was just like, I don't know, and then
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my feet are soaking wet. These guys are like gloshes. That day was
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just crazy. Oxford, Oxford Greens right, Oxford. We were at Oxford
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Greens And I tell you, I just feel they've botched it, but I
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get the fact that they want to get it over with. Excuse me because
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to like read, there was a lot of tournaments this year that were like
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a lot of either canceled completely or whatnot. But anyway, so we actually
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had a fun day and then we're I was I would say slightly more intoxicated
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than you on the ride home, and well you were driving, so that
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that made sense trying to be sick. Yeah, And I'm not sure how
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the conversation started, but you are a very religious person. You're a churchgoer.
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You met your wife Joanne at church. I mean, you could tell
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this side of the story. But we had a nice little debate in the
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car because I guess what I call myself. I don't really I think I'm
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agnostic, not necessarily atheist. Like the difference is, like I just you
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can't prove to me personally that there's a God, and I've never seen signs
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of it, so I just I guess instead he's in one of those terms.
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I just say I'm non religious, you know, or free thinking or
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whatever you want I might call. There's a million different labels for it.
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It's interesting that that's starting to become a more common position, right, that
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people are having. It's I find it sad, but but I can I
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can see it, right. So we were kind of going back and forth,
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and what I was quite impressed about is I don't want to sound like
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weird, but like you your quick answers, like you knew your belief you
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knew, and and I respected that a lot. I can come up with
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some scenarios onto, you know, why I don't believe in heaven and Hell
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and all the stuff that goes along with it, And we'll probably get that
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into that in a little bit. But first let's get to your background.
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Like you were born in as a church goer, you started going in later
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life? Was your was your parents' church goers? Who I will be meeting
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in a couple of weeks. You've been I've been pre warned. Apparently I'll
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go ahead, pop to what's viva? I like, I prefer the watermelon
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the best. So let's get going on that to Seltzers. Yeah, so
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my folks, you know, were and continue to be, you know,
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church goers. It was an experience that I grew up with. Although listen,
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at a certain point in your life, going to church doesn't make you,
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you know, necessarily a believer, right. You know, everybody at
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a certain stage of life, you know, has to confront a lot of
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things, right, and you've got to confront your religious beliefs. You've got
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to confront whether it's something that you're going to embrace, where it's something that
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you're going to choose to just put up on a shelf or choose to say,
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I got a lot of questions. I have more questions than I have
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answers, and it's not something that I feel at this stage of my life
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is important enough to me to pursue. And you know, my faith journey,
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probably up until I was thirty, was very erratic. You know,
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my twenties were my you know, the twenties of any typical twenty year old
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person, right, But I think my faith was still there. Were you
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at church every Sunday in your twenties. I wouldn't say every Sunday, but
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I was, you know, I mean consistent enough. Yeah, I was
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consistent. I was consistent, but I you know, I lived. I
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lived a life at that time that you know, reflected you know what,
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I think a lot of people's lives, you know, reflect in their twenties.
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You know, you're you're at a stage of your life where you're still
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you're trying to find career, you're trying to find a spouse, You're trying
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to find a lot of things, right, And I talk about my faith
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experience pretty commonly in you know, all kinds of circles, basically saying,
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hey, listen, it started. It really started for me at the moment
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I became a father. And I think something happens to you at least for
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you. Yeah, I mean listen, all I can talk from is my
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experience, right, I mean, I'm not a I didn't go to seminary.
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I'm not. At times, I feel very unqualified actually to really talk
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about a lot of these things, but I can talk about them from my
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experience. Well that's that's all asking. Yeah. So for me, I
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think the moment when I became a father was when I really I think had
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my first epiphany, if you will, with all of this. And I
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think the beauty of that is that, you know, when we talk about
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having or being a person of deep religious conviction or having a relationship with Jesus
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or however you want to however you want to call that or define that or
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or package that, right, I think the beauty of it is that we,
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whether we understand it or not, have a relationship or we don't have
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a relationship with you know, God, the Father. And I think the
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beauty of that relationship with my son was that I had some tangible things that
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were a great reference point for me around how God views me, sees me
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and wants for me to live a life in relationship with him. And that's
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kind of where a lot of things took off from me. So how old
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were you then? I was thirty years old. Yeah, my wife and
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I got married when I was twenty five when we met at church who you
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know, I met in youth group. Actually our at our church and youth
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group was a you know, it was a big part of my Christian formation,
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my experience around really trying to go deeper with God, try to find,
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you know, what it meant to pursue a relationship with Him. And
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I think what was also really beneficial for me was that my wife was on
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board with that, and that my wife and I had a common you know,
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experience together around that. I will say that I think there were times
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when my wife you know, was more uh doubtful about things, or just
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was preoccupied with raising our kids and pursuing a lot of other things, you
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know. But it's funny how life brings you full circle. And while I
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think we're both at a place in our lives where you know, we're have
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a very strong faith, I would tell you right now, uh, what
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I see out of her, Uh, it's it's a it's beautiful, and
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it's and and there are times when I wish that I, you know,
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had the ability or the time to devote even more, you know, to
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where to my journey. I see her devoting a lot of time to her
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journey, you know right now, Oh, you've got taxes to take care
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of her people, a business throughout trying to hide cryptos money. So my
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my growing up on religion. So my parents were divorced when I was very
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young, like four, and I don't really think either of them were really
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big church people. Matter of fact, I know they weren't, but they
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did go. I mean, they had their local churches. And my mother
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got a boyfriend and we moved out to Pennsylvania and she sent me off to
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Sunday School at age I don't know, five, six, seven, somewhere
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in that really young age. And I think from a really young age in
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my life, I could spot something that was just didn't seem right. And
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what are those things where? Fuck I meant to I meant to google is
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too, So I had it. But you know, like you stick your
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head through and your arms through and they like fucking throw shit at you.
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What are those things called? Oh like, uh, not a guillotine,
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No, not a guildga were chopping my head up, but like they would
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they would, like you know, throw tomatoes at you, and okay,
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so yeah right right, yeah, so yeah, yeah, your arms are
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turt you can't move your heads in and they put the thing over the top
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anyway, whatever the hell that fucking thing's called. So my first day at
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Sunday School, they put me in one of these, and they like they're
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trying to demonstrate, you know, two thousand years ago, how you know,
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a town drunk or somebody was punished in the in the in the you
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know, in the town square. And they had like people ball up pieces
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of paper and throw them at me, like like I wasn't the only one,
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like we all kind of went through it. And I got home that
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day my mom was like, how'd you like Sunday School? I just said
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it was awful. It was awful. I didn't. I didn't. Why
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can't you just demonstrate that in a book, like we got to really actually
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do this. Yeah, And my mother was great. She's like, if
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you don't want to go, I'm not forcing you to. And I said,
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I don't. So that was my one day of that. And you
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know, when you're at such a young age and you're swayed easily by your
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own perceptions of things, I said, I don't want to go to church
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at all. And then she said okay, and then the person she was
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dating at the time was a big church goer and they would go and I'd
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stay home. The only time I ever went to church was was like another
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thing, like like Christmas is coming up, so we did midnight Mass.
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But they kind of coerced me into going because I'd get my Christmas Eve gift
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after Mass. And I caught onto that and I'm like, wait a second,
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And I think one of the hardest things my personal thing, was reading
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it and trying to understand the Bible verses. And I just, even to
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this day, I almost feel like when I read a Bible version and it's
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not often, it's like it's like you got to read it five times and
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then maybe even google and decipher what the heck they're talking about. And I
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remember we had a Bible as Lit class in high school and I almost took
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it. I didn't, but I was like I should have taken that because
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I just, I just I can't read it. Like I'm a pretty good
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reader, I can't read the Bible. I can't read the scripture how it's
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written. And I think that might be hard for you know, kids today,
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because they're just you know, it's it's everything has to be shown to
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them. Kids don't really read today anymore. One of the beautiful things I
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think about the times that we're in now is that, you know, with
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the advent of social media and some of the other I think, you know
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platforms that you know are out there, is you know, just tearing.
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You talk about how difficult I think sometimes a Bible can be to read.
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You know, listen, I'm you know, fifty seven years old. Their
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passages in the Bible that continue to challenge me, they're there, you know.
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You take the Book of Revelations for exam for example, is the last
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book of the Bible. I mean, it's one of the most profound and
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difficult books of the Bible to dissect and understand. But there's a version of
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the Bible that you know is out there now. It's called The Message,
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and it's it was written by h I want to say his name is Eugene
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Peterson. I think it's Eugene Peterson. Actually, Bono, you know,
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has had an amazing relationship with this guy. And basically the Message is sort
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of the Bible in ordinary language, just like you and I are talking.
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And I think it's just been a great version right for people to take and
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read, because I think it's inviting and I think that it takes away some
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of the difficulty. I mean, you have so many different, you know,
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versions of the Bible, right, I mean you have to you know,
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New International version, you have you know, Goodness to you know King
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James versions. There's so many different versions, right, And yes, but
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but I think anything that allows people to read something walk away from it with
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a fresh insight or better understanding of what are the themes behind, you know,
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what is being written or what was Paul trying to say, you know
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in uh, you know, the New Testament, et cetera, et cetera.
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You know, Like I think that's a good thing, you know.
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But at the same time, there's also a lot of content on social media
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today delivered by you know, uh, national churches, local churches. Uh.
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Jesus has a big campaign, yes, like that what started at the
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Super Bowl. Yeah, and you know, Jesus gets us, you know,
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and and I think that's pretty cool. And and if you dig deeper
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on some some of that stuff, I mean, there's so much content.
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The only thing that I would just caution, you know, is that doctrine
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is a really important thing I think when you're viewing, receiving, digesting content,
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and sometimes a difficulty that you have in the world that we live in
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now is all right, somebody says something, you know, how truthful is
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it? You know? Uh? Is it? Is it rooted in sound
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doctrine? Right? And and I think that's an important piece of trying to
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make sure that you're grasping, as you're trying to digest all the stuff that's
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coming at you all the time, you know, how truthful and reliable is
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that information? And you have to go on your own journey with that.
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You know, you have to talk to others to say, hey, listen.
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You know, as you've grown in faith and as you've you know,
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learned more, who do you listen to? Who do you respect? You
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know? Who are the people you know that you consume, you know,
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information from? So how come when I was growing up, Satan the devil
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was more cartoonish and just the thing, you know, the good versus evil?
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Where now I feel if you watch entertainment or you watch music videos a
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Sam Smith versus for instance, excuse me, they it's almost like their religion
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and they pushing that agenda of Satan and Satanism, and it's it almost trickles
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into politics, like Republicans are Christian and Democrats are you know whatever. And
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it's like I've never in my lifetime seen a division amongst religion and politics,
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and people are choosing sides, you know, and like Ginsburg passes away and
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all the Republicans like she was the devil anyway, she allowed abortion, you
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know, and there's all sorts of sides to it. And like I said,
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so, I'm not I don't really have a skin in any of that
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game. I just don't. But what I don't like to see is if
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I'm going to choose anything, it's choosing Jesus loves Us on a Super Bowl
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commercial. Then Sam Smith performing at halftime with red lights everywhere, dressed in
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some demonic lingerie, going after fucking fourteen year old kids. I don't know.
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That's just that's just me. Is that too fu to fucking ask?
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No? And listen? I think you know, uh, if you're a
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parent today, I mean, I don't know. These are beyond challenging times.
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And I agree with you, I I think that, and and listen,
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the Bible speaks to this, speaks very clearly to this, that you
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know, in our lives, you know, we don't we don't wrestle against
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flesh and blood, you know, we we wrestle with the forces you know,
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of evil and darkness in this world. And and Satan is a divider.
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He's you know, Satan's real, man, It's real. It's as
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real as you and I sitting here having this conversation. And you know,
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satan Ism and everything that comes with that, it's real. It's it's a
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real force in our world. And it doesn't have to be really, you
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know, out there. It comes in very very subtle ways, you know.
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And that's the genius. And Satan's you know, Satan's you know,
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he you know, Jesus says you know in in the Gospels. You know
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that, you know, Satan is a liar, He's a thief. He
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comes to steal, kill and destroy. Right, you know, and deception
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and and and everything that comes with that. Right is a huge part of
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society. You know, what's the what's the last line and usual suspects.
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The biggest trick the devil ever made was convincing people he didn't exist. And
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that's so and he he he's real, very real, and you look,
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you can look at this is the lines of like just like before, like
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this before phones and the internet and the technology that we have now. Like
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I always joke, like you said today you just the devil was at McDonald's
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today. You paid nine dollars for two small cheeseburgers, right, and he's
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he's down there and looking up this laughing at You're like, oh Jesus,
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you need that crap heart congesting food that bad You're willing to spend nine dollars
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for it because everything that tastes good for you and there's some fucking health nuts
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out there, so well, no, like chickpeas are grown up, are
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really fucking tasty if you have the right spices. Everything that's good for you
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or tastes good is bad for you. The strip in this world, in
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all walks of life, and you know we have to be guarded, right,
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I mean that's part of life. Phrase to be is to be aware,
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you know of the fact that listen, you know there is good and
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there is evil, and there are things that you know. You know,
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I'm just trying to remember what the saying is, you know, and it's
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one of life can be a very tempting place, you know, for us
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to live and lead us not to temptations. Well, yeah, that from
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like weddings and funerals. But at the same time, it's you know,
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all things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial. Yeah, And
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I think that's another part of our living, living a life of faith where
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you begin this journey of discovery around yeah you know, okay, I walk
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with Jesus or I you know, claim to have a relationship with Jesus,
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but yet he's the creator of all things. So all things, you know,
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could be permissible for me, but not all things are beneficial for me.
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And in what degree? And in what you know environment and guarding that
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and trying to who understand personally what your limitations are, and what are you
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going to consume? What are you going to look at, what are you
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going to read? What are what are you what environments are you gonna put
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yourself in? And and you know, what kind of friendships are you gonna
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have? You know, and you hear it all the time. You become
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the people who you choose to be around. And I think for me,
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you know, as I've grown into adulthood and I've tried to walk this journey
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as a father you know, to my kids, it's what environments am I
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putting myself in on a weekly basis that helped me to become the person that
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God desires for me to be, calls me to be. Because I'm never
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gonna be perfect, only He is perfect. You know, I'm gonna make
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mistakes, I'm gonna say things that, uh don't honor him. I'm gonna
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I'm gonna choose things at times in my life that aren't beneficial for me.
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But the beauty of being in an environment on a weekly basis, sitting in
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the pew and being around others is that, you know, it's a it's
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it's a it's a centering point for me. You know, it's a place
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where I can find truth. It's a place where I can find forgetness,
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It's a place where I can find reconciliation. And I think the journey of
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trying to ask yourself what church environment am I going to choose to put myself
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in that that man, we can spend a week talking about that, right
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So, but it's a relationship, that's really what it comes down to.
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I think those outside of religion could be life lessons as well. Whether you
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believe in religion or not. I choose my friends and I choose to not
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be friends with certain people. It's not many. Let's bring science into this
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a little bit. And this is where this is where my mind wanders in
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my own thinking process. So you just said, you know, God and
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Jesus created everything. At what point, like let's say the Big Bang theory,
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right the universe? Do you put those two together like your God,
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Jesus' father started the Big Bang? Or how how do you how do you
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distinct between matter of faith and matters of like empirical evidence. I'm glad you
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are bringing this up because we did touch upon a little bit of this,
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you know, in the car, and you know it's I'm not a Big
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Bang believer, right. I'm going to tell you one of the reasons why
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I heard somebody talk recently about the human eye. It was fascinating to me
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as they talked about it. Do you know that the human eye is not
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only the most vascular organ in your body, but it is literally the most
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complex organ not only in your body, but it's like one of the most
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complex living things in our entire world. And the comment around that was that
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there has to be a creator there has to be some force, something,
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some personal being that's behind the creation of the eye because it is so complex.
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But that's the human eye, and yes, the human eye, probably
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any probably any dog sea Blende back right, but that. But where that
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really was going was it would be literally impossible for organic matter to come together
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in some cosmic way and create something of that level of complexity over a billion
27:23
years. Evolution, I mean, we've seen evolution since we've been alive.
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We've seen animals that have evolved within our lifetime. Do you think the first
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I mean the dinosaur era. I bet you someone's donas they didn't have eyeballs,
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and how good was their vision? Well, I do think I'm just
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saying over time, I do believe that I do believe that my faith is
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big enough to say that there's a creator God that joins with you know,
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uh, that joins with an evolutionary creative process, but that he's behind that,
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and that he's the author of that, that nothing that has come into
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existence has not come into existence without you know, him being the author of
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that. You know, in Genesis talks about how listen he spoke and the
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world was created and things came into being. You know, and he was
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before time and and will be you know, till the end of time and
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into and into eternity. You know. So so God's just like I'm just
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being cynical here. God just like, all right, eyeball boom, give
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him an eyeball, Like he's not He doesn't have like a bunch of little
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god elves making an eyeball. Right, it's Christmas time. I got it,
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like really little bit, no, I know. I mean, like,
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see, this is where I've part of part of its mystery, right
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and and and part of it is we are never are our minds and what
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we can comprehend it's finite right of our brain. God is an infinite being.
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And and I think you have to Is God the universe in your mind?
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See? Is he the Is he the the stars, the galaxies,
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the moon, the Sun? Is that God? Or is God just life
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on Earth? No? I think God is creator of all right, So
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if he's so good at making these eyeballs, there's got to be other life
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out in the universe right now. This goes into my aliens ship that I'd
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like to talk about, which I gotta tell you I have really I mean,
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goodness, we we can touch on so many things here. But have
29:59
you seen that Netflix documentary? Hey don't. They're off of the fucking question
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right now. Well, and we'll get back to Netflix. Don't worry.
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I think it's I think it's a really challenging question. I don't really have
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a full and complete answer on. Like, in all honesty, do some
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people believe that like Jesus and God are is kind of like an earthly thing
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and he's more just rooted into Earth and human life and all life on Earth
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and not really universal per se. Well, I can see you lean more
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towards now He's everything. But I will say this, I mean the Bible
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is the Bible's clear that Earth is a place where essentially only human life can't
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exist. So the question you're really raising is is there life outside side of
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Earth, outside of our you know, right of what we know? You
31:06
guys call it miracles and you know all that you know and listen, it's
31:14
possible, what anything's possible. But what I would tell you is, I'm
31:18
I'm a staunch believer in that I stick to what the scriptures say about human
31:26
life and that only Earth is the Earth is the only habitable place in that
31:34
we that we know of. Right, So let's say distant galaxies in the
31:38
next thirty years are so far advanced technology wise, and they reach us.
31:44
Right, do you think because God is the universe, that their scripture on
31:52
that eco planet in wherever it's from, and they have similar by like we
32:00
do, or would they even not even look like us? I mean,
32:05
if God is the whole universe, you think he would be sending these I'm
32:09
probably saying this all wrong, but sending the apostles down and then they're writing
32:14
the scripture and they have their own Bible on planet, you know, Zoconia,
32:19
and and that's what maybe if we were to be invaded by an alien
32:23
I know, I'm going crazy right now or whatever they come to approach this.
32:28
Just like math, these are the two things that are absolute. Math
32:31
is a universal language, and so is the Bible. Is that something that
32:35
would that Again, I'm just making a shit up in my head. I
32:40
don't think I can answer it. I just well, I know you can't
32:44
answer it, but you can you can give an opinion. Like I think,
32:47
if there was human like or intelligent, it's just called intelligent life because
32:53
we have a lot of non intelligent life on this Earth, including some humans.
33:02
But you know, like in all honesty though, so I guess my
33:07
point is like, if if God is so universe, I'm just trying to
33:09
bridge the gap of whether people just feel it's to Earth or it's universal.
33:15
To me, if I'm a believer that it's the universe, I wouldn't be
33:19
afraid of other civilizations because they would have to be under the same God as
33:24
we are. And this brings me into the point of all these different religions
33:31
in the world, and there's I think i google, there's four thousand religions
33:37
and five thousand gods that people worship to this day, and you wonder why
33:44
there's so much war and hate and everything in this world. Like if I
33:51
know you believe in your God, but who's to say that he's the right
33:53
god to believe in or is it more of whatever God you want to believe
33:58
in that's just as well, Like this is this is what This is my
34:01
biggest contradiction on religion for me personally, and why I've never really been a
34:06
true believer and stopped going to churches. I lived up to it. I
34:08
lived next to a kid we were the same age. He was Jewish.
34:13
They were, you know, they were very you know Hebrew. He went
34:15
to Hebrew school all this stuff, and we you know, play around after
34:19
school every day in chit Chat. And his name was Adam and yeah,
34:25
right and uh and he was from Israel too. Their their family migrated over
34:32
here. And I just remember like these younger conversations, and it's just you
34:39
know, if if you ask a Muslim or an Islamic person, or you
34:44
know, a Buddhist for that matter, and it's all different beliefs. So
34:47
if your God controls the universe, I mean, like I don't know,
34:52
like like where do you draw the line? Almost the way that I process
34:59
that is to go back to the Gospels where Jesus, you know, you
35:10
know, name me, name me one God if you will, of all
35:19
of these other religions that has claimed to you know, conquer death, to
35:25
rise from death and and and to its claim. Well, but it's more
35:31
than that. I mean, it's been it's it's historical. It's been proven.
35:36
I mean it's so wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, it's
35:40
been proven that he rose from the dead. Well, I mean listen,
35:43
you go to all the gospel accounts. I mean, this is this is
35:45
gospel accounts, yes, but these are eyewitness accounts that are that had been
35:52
substantiated. I didn't see it on TikTok. So if it wasn't on TikTok,
35:59
the TikTok exists over two thousand years ago. That's like another thing too,
36:02
like not outside of religion anything historically, Like the Napoleon movie came out
36:07
when I was reading people online, like, oh, it's not historically accurate.
36:09
It's like again, you're going by some dude that was drinking wine fermented
36:14
for a day, all bombed up, writing shit and fucking with no electricity
36:19
candlelight. But his girlfriend was harry as fuck. They didn't have razors.
36:23
Like, think about the life they lived back then, and like, I've
36:27
written something down, I've said shit on this podcast that probably isn't necessarily true,
36:31
so we go buy shit so long ago and the people had such short
36:36
life spans. It's a hold on the topic. But okay, so Christ
36:40
rises, but I you know, but what you're saying is for me for
36:45
me, And this also becomes right a personal exercise that you have to walk
36:53
through. Do you believe the truth of scripture when you when when someone hands
37:00
you a Bible and says, you know what, this is the word of
37:04
God. It's reliable, you can stake your life on it. There are
37:08
things in here that God tells us about life and about his goodness and who
37:14
he is. And is that something that you're going to stake your life on.
37:19
Part of pursuing you know, Jesus is there are things we're going to
37:25
know, and there are things that we are going to have to choose to
37:31
believe on faith, right, And that's the beauty and it's it's also the
37:37
challenge, right of what living a life of faith in these eighty to ninety
37:45
years or one hundred years that we're given what it looks like, right,
37:47
So you have to wrestle with am I going to believe that the Bible says
37:57
everything? Am I going to leave these words? And I'm am I gonna
38:02
and and am I gonna going to go down? You know that journey with
38:08
the knowledge that this can be relied upon, that it's truthful. And and
38:15
if you if part of your struggle with starting to choose a life of faith
38:22
versus one that you know is not, if part of your struggle is I
38:29
can't get past whether or not I can believe the Bible. It's a real
38:35
it's it's a real thing, right, It's a real journey that people continue
38:40
to wrestle with. But I think that goes back to what we were talking
38:45
about just a little earlier, which is I think that you also have to
38:49
be careful about, you know, and be open to the the delivery of
38:59
the content, right, and and the doctrine and and who's delivering it and
39:02
and you know, and you watch you watch this ship on TV and it's
39:07
just Asume is, like, yeah, it's like squirm worthy some of these
39:12
people. And one thing I want to chime in before we continue is,
39:16
you know, I envy I envy you and your faith and everyone that has
39:22
it, because as I get older, and it seems like we go to
39:27
a funeral every month, you know. And you know, I'm not upset
39:34
that I'm not religious or don't have faith, but I appreciate the fact that
39:39
people do. And I think that you know, and you you know well
39:44
documented my anxiety and maybe you know it's something that I just don't think I'll
39:49
ever be an option for me. But I can't say no either, like
39:52
you know, like I know, I'll never be a Yankee fan like that,
39:54
that's that's concrete, you know, but but like it just it's just
40:04
it's something that I feel like a lot of stuff in life is not it's
40:10
not marketed the right way, you know, like Joel Olstein or whatever,
40:15
like like I see him, I'm like, yeah, no thanks. You
40:17
know, like when I grew up watching the Jimmy Grahams of the World and
40:22
and somebody putting their hand on someone's head and they faint and they catch her
40:25
and she's healed from fucking cancer. Yeah no thanks, you know, stuff
40:30
like that. And then when I had my early childhood church school thing,
40:32
Yeah no thanks. And I go to weddings and I go to the Catholic
40:37
weddings and I'm sitting there at church in Stratford for two hours with no air
40:40
conditioning, and Steve sit and Neil stand sit and Neil stand and everyone around
40:45
me, and I think my favorite part is like shaking everyone's hand, to
40:47
be honest with you, because that's I'm more like someone like that. And
40:51
I just it's always for me, then no thanks. But that doesn't mean
40:55
I never would because I know it's for the good. I know it's not
41:00
it's actually fighting evil, uh, you know, at its roots. So
41:07
I can't ever say no to something like that. I can have my doubts,
41:10
I can have my you know, my conspiracy theories in my head.
41:15
But talking to someone like you I appreciate because like you stand by it,
41:20
you believe in it, you read it, you attend it, you're married
41:24
with it. I'm sure your children go to church and stuff, right,
41:30
they do, you know, but again they're in their twenties right, Well,
41:32
no, I mean like when you were, the kids and all that
41:34
do what they want. Now, how is church on a Sunday morning after
41:38
a nice like you know, stone Bridge for Telly's bender? Though? Are
41:42
you are you like really studying you just kind of like, yeah, I
41:45
know this stuff. I'm gonna I'm gonna mentally check out today. No,
41:50
listen, I love that question, you know, and I and I think
41:54
the thing that I would the answer that I would give to that is part
42:04
of regularly participating in a in a church is family, right you and you
42:12
develop these relationships with people you know over time, and it's a place where
42:17
I think it should be a place of accountability. I think it should be
42:22
a place that's welcoming. I think it should be a place that understands that,
42:28
man, we are broken people, and there's brokenness, and there's brokenness
42:37
all around us. Right. But the beauty of being in a church environment,
42:45
you know, for me every week, is that we're opening up scripture,
42:52
we're studying it, we're analyzing it in the light of modern every day
43:00
you know events, so it's always evolving. It's you know, well,
43:04
it's I mean, how you interpret it twenty years ago is different than how
43:08
you might want to interpret it. I've several friends right that you know,
43:14
I that I have just had these deep, long relationships with in my church
43:21
for a very long time. And you know, I was part of a
43:24
men's group for a very very long time. And you know, the Bible
43:34
is it's living. It's called the Living Word, and it's living because there
43:39
are things that continue to take place in our world that we can see and
43:49
we can bring back to Scripture and we can say, you know what,
43:52
it doesn't matter whether it was two thousand years ago or if it's twenty twenty
43:54
three. Some of these core things that the Bible talks about, they continue
44:00
to be these struggles, they continue to be these things that we deal with
44:04
on a day in and day out, day day in and day on basis.
44:07
But you know, to answer your question, it you know, there's
44:12
a time where we worship, we sing, there's a time where we study
44:15
you know, the scripture, and there's a time where we spend in prayer,
44:22
which you know is a time of confession. It's a time of uh.
44:27
You know, that's what you do on Sundays and it's a Saturday night,
44:31
it's and it's a time and it's a time to declare God's goodness right
44:37
and to praise him, you know, for continuing to be who he is
44:42
and continuing to sustain us. You know, I think of just the way
44:49
God provides for me day in and day out with so many different things.
44:53
You know, he provides my health, He provides my ability to wake up
44:59
every day and you know, uh earn a living. He provides his goodness
45:05
in terms of just you know, the relationships that I have, and sustains
45:12
me through a lot at difficult times. I mean, I've had I've had
45:15
health issues in my life. I've had relationship issues in my life. I've
45:20
had times in my life where financially things have not gone really well for me,
45:25
and I've developed these you know, I've just developed these things in my
45:31
life that have allowed me to point it all back to Him and that he's
45:37
the author and the source of who I am as a person, and and
45:44
how I believe I'm going to be sustained until the day that I take my
45:46
last breath. Do you think if if God wasn't in your life, that
45:51
you would have been on a different path or not sitting here today, and
45:55
or I mean, I look at it as you know, kind of both.
46:01
For someone like you, like your fare faith in God and in the
46:07
Church have probably swayed you in a certain direction of life to make certain decisions
46:15
when you were down, when you were having struggles. I think someone like
46:20
you that has your convictions would have been fine either way. I know you
46:24
like to I'm not saying that, but you know what I mean, Like,
46:28
I just think, like you're not like some guy that was just a
46:30
bum, and you know you're educated and you would have figured it out.
46:35
I'd like to say I've always figured it out my life without the faith,
46:38
there is no question that my life, I think in many places in my
46:44
life would have been a train wreck, would have been an absolute train wreck.
46:46
No doubt about it. You know, I to this day, man,
46:52
I dude, I wrestle with a bunch of things in my life,
46:58
even though I consider myself to be a person of faith. And I think
47:06
what has been transformative for me, or continues to be transformative to me,
47:10
is that I'm inviting God. I'm inviting Jesus Christ into those struggles, those
47:20
things that I know are they're there. I wrestle at times. I mean,
47:24
I've got a temper. I wrestle with anger, at times, I
47:30
rest I'm impatient. I can be one of the most impatient people you've ever
47:35
met in your entire life. You know, you can ask my brother,
47:39
you can ask my wife, you can ask my kids, you can ask
47:44
sometimes the people I work with, how the hell are you so long?
47:50
I'm not gonna watch fifteen minutes in I'm my eyes right, let's go.
47:53
But you know what, God, God is God the Father, He's Jesus
47:59
the Son, and he is spirit right, And so we get to know
48:05
him in all of these forms right, and we get to know him,
48:10
and he says, you know what, you can't worship me unless you worship
48:15
me in truth and in spirit. And and so we invite the Holy Spirit
48:20
into our lives. We invite that to give us, you know, the
48:27
the insight, the power to try to overcome, you know, in these
48:32
in these areas of our lives that we struggle with, and we go back
48:37
to scripture, and we can rely on scripture, and we can rely on
48:39
what what is there to say? You know, listen, you know the
48:45
Psalmist David struggles with struggled with these things. You know, the Apostle Paul
48:50
struggled. I'll take it all back, but listen, I mean, I
48:57
you do you you everybody has these things in life, right that if you
49:05
don't find a way. And I think faith for me has helped me to
49:09
find a way to redeem these really screwed up, messed up places in my
49:19
life. And I do think that in many ways my life would look like
49:22
a train wreck in certain places. I don't think i'd be married. I
49:29
don't think that I would have some of the well you probably would it meant
49:32
your wife if you didn't go to church. No, But I just think
49:36
that, you know, in general, yeah, I just think that,
49:37
you know what, I probably wouldn't be as forgiving, you know, I'd
49:45
be pretty I think I think I would have the tendency be a pretty hard
49:52
person, you know, pretty jaded, highly opinionated. You know, I
49:59
think I could. I would never be in a place where I could.
50:07
I could, I could show grace, man Like, grace is a huge
50:13
thing for me in my life. Like I I don't I don't like to
50:20
hold onto resentments. I don't like to hold on to stuff like that,
50:24
you know, because man, it just can eat you alive, you know.
50:30
And I think I have found forgiveness and I have found grace. I
50:32
have found mercy every single day of my life. Man, when I mess
50:37
up, I make a mistake, I get angry. I can't be over
50:40
something, you know, and I can go you know what. I screwed
50:45
up today, Man, I screwed up today. But God, thank you
50:51
that you know me intimately and that you offer your grace and your forgiveness,
50:58
because that's what you went to the cross for. That's that is everything that
51:01
you went to the cross for. You you knew that we were fallen,
51:06
You knew that you know we were not gonna have the capacity to ever redeem
51:10
ourselves, and that that's the beauty of who you are is that you offered
51:16
yourself for that. You made that sacrifice for me, and I can and
51:22
when I die and I go to heaven, God's not gonna look at me.
51:27
He's not gonna look at Dave and what Dave accomplished. He's gonna see
51:30
Jesus. And that's how he's gonna see Jesus through me. He's gonna look
51:36
at me, and he's gonna go, I see Jesus. You accepted Jesus.
51:38
I see Jesus. And that's the only reason why you're qualified to even
51:43
stand before me, because you there is there's nothing, there's nothing about what
51:47
you can do. I listened to a message recently and the pastor said,
51:52
do you know what you have to offer God? Dirt and sweat. That's
51:58
all you got to offer him. There's nothing else you have that you can
52:04
offer God but dirt and sweat. And so when you come to that realization
52:10
in your life, espress on Martine. Of course I don't have Jesus in
52:14
me, so he should be like, yeah, next, I'm fucked.
52:16
But I love that you're But I love that you're open, right, I
52:20
love that you are like, oh man, I'm not closing that door.
52:23
I just it's just my journey hasn't looked like your journey, right, and
52:29
that listen, you know we childhood is a big thing for for a lot
52:34
of us, you know, we all well you know, it's funny interrupt
52:37
that you say childhood and this is one of my biggest things that you know,
52:43
life's not fair. Uh, you know, why would God let you
52:49
know, some of this stuff happen. And I've seen it personally, and
52:53
you know it's childhood cancer and kids that don't even have a chance. And
53:00
I guess you could blame it on evil and the devil, but you said
53:06
yourself, I mean, God has fucking made the most complex thing in the
53:08
world in the universe with an eyeball, but kids get cancer and they can't
53:16
survive it. And I know there's no easy answer for that, but that's
53:21
you know, one of the things that also, I mean, there's a
53:22
million examples of you could say, you know, God should have did that
53:25
or that, or why was there a car accident there? You know,
53:29
like that guy was a great person, and that's why I just I just
53:34
feel it's I don't know, it's such a hard subject, but is there
53:39
an explanation on the religious side on you know, it's just like they're they'll
53:46
find, you know, peace when they're gone. But you know, I've
53:52
known people that lost their children before the age of four, you know,
53:57
And to me it's it's pretty godless to me. We live in a fallen
54:01
world, you know, And and I think that's part of the struggle,
54:07
right, And again you could we could have a whole discussion about you know,
54:16
did you know the Garden of even even exist? And do you believe
54:22
you know, whether or not Adam and Eve were really right, you know,
54:27
real beings and you know, do you believe that story? Right?
54:30
But if you believe that story like I believe that story, then you know
54:37
that sin was introduced into the world and the fallenness of our world and Satan
54:45
and evil. You know, we're we're manifested and brought into living color.
54:53
Right with that decision to say, you know, God said don't right,
55:00
don't eat that. And there were reasons why he said don't eat that,
55:05
you know, but children don't even like you just mentioned, how you know,
55:10
when you're at the pearly gates, you offer dirt and sweat and he
55:15
sees God in you from all of the your lifelong experiences with Christ and Scripture
55:22
and all. That's the acceptance of an imitation, you know, God,
55:25
God offers invitation to us every day, you know. And I think,
55:29
but a two year old that dies of cancer or dies in a car crash
55:34
or just passes away, is there exceptions? I mean, I'm being serious,
55:42
like like like I always envision, you know, like what happens when
55:46
I die and does my conscience move on? Well, when I was one
55:52
and two years old, my brain wasn't developed yet. I don't have memories
55:55
from that. So if I die at that age, do I automatic actually
56:00
you have a developed mind and conscious or does that take at least seven years,
56:06
ten years, fifteen years to really fully develop? These are my questions
56:09
I've always had, Like someone dies at such an early age, are they
56:15
just accepted into heaven and they learn when they get there? Or is it
56:20
all just a this is just a blip on the radar of a consciousness through
56:27
because you know, through time through the dawn of time? Like did we
56:30
have previous lives? Are we going on to a future world or life?
56:37
Like? These are all questions that interest the fuck out of me, Like,
56:38
and they interest me, yeah, Like I don't like and I wrestle
56:42
with the same things that you just talk about, you know. I mean
56:46
I've personally known, you know, of families that have lost very very young
56:54
children. And yeah, you you know you wrestle with Okay, well I
57:01
have to, you know, my faith tells me that I have to,
57:06
you know, verbalize it, right, I've got I've got to. I
57:09
got to make a choice. And does it does a one year old they're
57:14
a one day old, you know, child? They don't they don't have
57:19
a choice, right, and and so a miscarriage, an abortion like you
57:23
know, but I would I guess how I process that dog is is like
57:32
God in his infinite mercy and grace and in the vastness of who he is,
57:40
right and the goodness of who he is. I have to embrace that
57:47
God in his goodness is merciful, right, right in a in a context
57:54
like that, and you know that the doctrinal pieces of that, whether or
58:02
not I could, you know, I couldn't even begin to debate with you
58:07
know, the likes of some seminary scholar around that, right. But in
58:13
my heart, right, there's something core in my heart that tells me that
58:20
God, in his goodness right is going to be merciful in those situations.
58:24
I mean, you take is that who's who's more powerful? Satan or God?
58:31
Oh? I know what your answer is, Yeah, God one hundred.
58:36
I mean why do we have groups like Hamas and you know all those
58:45
you know, terrorists, raping children, beheading children? Like this is what
58:50
boggles my mind is like how does that? How has God not taken over
58:55
said nah, this can't happen. How is he in that touch that?
58:59
Like, how is he not touched the people that are doing this with his
59:02
own hand? And it said that this is no either just wipe them off
59:07
the earth, which they're trying to do, or just I can't imagine everyone
59:15
in those groups when they're committing these heinous crimes, think it's for their God,
59:22
think it's for Allah or whatever it is. I don't know. I'm
59:24
sorry, I'm not really well versed in that stuff. But yeah, and
59:29
like, why is God letting Satan? And I'm not challenging either one of
59:32
them. I was always told them to challenging either one of them, I'm
59:35
not doing But and this has gone on for the DNA time don of history.
59:42
War's never gonna stop. I think one of the greatest demonstrations of God's
59:47
love, you know, toward us and toward the world, right, is
59:52
that he gives us free will. He gives us choice, right, right,
59:57
right, right. I agree with that, And I think that one
1:00:00
of the fallouts, right of free will and choice is that we choose not
1:00:07
to align ourselves with the goodness of who He is, and and we choose
1:00:13
to, you know, not take him at his word. We choose to
1:00:16
say, you know what, I reject you. I reject everything that you
1:00:21
offer me. I reject your even your existence. I reject it. And
1:00:27
when we reject that, now we're vulnerable. Now, now we become our
1:00:34
own gods. Now we decide. And I think that what you see and
1:00:39
the evil that you see and the the vision that you see in this world,
1:00:45
there's a byproduct of part of that, right is that you know,
1:00:50
if you're not if you're choosing not, if you're not choosing God, you're
1:00:53
choosing something else, and that opens you up to a whole stream of potential
1:01:05
things. Right. But we definitely know that there is evil in this world.
1:01:10
We can see it. Yeah, we live it. You know.
1:01:16
You turn on the news every night, and the news starts every single Night
1:01:21
with Evil. It starts with what's messed up and left up and wrong,
1:01:24
and you know, with with our world because that stuff sells, because that
1:01:30
that stuff is the stuff that's you know, we've turned news into entertainment and
1:01:36
it's it's kind of crazy, you know, but you know, I I
1:01:44
think that the Hamas situation has just mushed this thing has mushroom into even within
1:01:52
the church, massive debate, yeah, you know, and it's hard at
1:01:59
times to have conversation about it. And that's one of the difficulties about you
1:02:05
know, the kind of environment that we live in today. Everybody's got their
1:02:07
face and their phone and nobody, nobody's nobody has time to even do what
1:02:14
you and I are doing right now, right, and nobody even has the
1:02:17
tolerance anymore, Like nobody can tolerate anybody anymore. I'm done with you already,
1:02:27
and it's sad, you know, you know what I find funny too.
1:02:30
We'll switch off more towards what we're talking about now, but like I
1:02:36
see something like, let's just stick with a mass, right and the horrible
1:02:39
acts of with October fourth or whatever it was, and how can anyone of
1:02:45
sane mind look at that and then when Israel decides to retaliate back a moss
1:02:57
like like just me like like like that's just so common sensical, Like I
1:03:01
get it. They don't want, you know, more death and destruction all
1:03:06
that, but you're not dealing with rational people. If they do have a
1:03:13
god, it's something so evil that it needs to be eradicated if we want
1:03:19
to continue on this journey in this world. And even like lighter politics stuff,
1:03:25
you know, And I'm not even gonna go left and right here,
1:03:30
but I'll see something I'll say on my side, well that's kind of stupid,
1:03:36
you know, But the far right is gonna, oh, that's fucking
1:03:38
scripture. And then the far left is like, no, you all need
1:03:42
to die, you know, like it's just like where the fuck is that?
1:03:45
Just that just like, let's come in the middle a little bit on
1:03:47
both sides. And I know the left will never so I don't even like,
1:03:52
but I want to pull I'm gonna rain back my side a little bit,
1:03:55
like yo, let's you know, because they're just they're just kicking themselves
1:04:00
in the feet every day and the ass every day. They can't get their
1:04:02
shit together, and I just don't see an end insight. I just don't
1:04:09
you know, the Colorado just fucking Supreme Court, so they can't put Trump
1:04:14
on the ballot, and even got Democrats like, actually, that's the one
1:04:16
thing. The guy's like, wait a second, you can't do that.
1:04:20
And now California's going hell or hawa and try the same thing. And I'm
1:04:25
like, I said this in twenty eighteen. You guys are better offter just
1:04:32
having Trump went now because in four years it's over or I'm sorry, and
1:04:39
uh, yeah, twenty what was the last of twenty twenty? Yeah,
1:04:42
tark, twenty twenty. You want twenty sixteen, twenty twenty, I said,
1:04:45
because you know who's gonna run again, And it's just he is on
1:04:50
your mind twenty four to seven, and he knows it, and he uses
1:04:55
that to his advantage, and you guys fall for it every fucking time.
1:05:00
You know, if you stop covering them, you know what happens when you
1:05:02
stop covering them, he goes away. Yeah, on on your on your
1:05:08
stations, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN. You you fucking
1:05:14
run the fucking majority of them. So if you just stop talking about them,
1:05:18
I mean, I do think that it's important for the church today right
1:05:25
to speak to our political environment. But at the same time, well,
1:05:34
listen, I mean the church is made up of people like you and I,
1:05:39
of course, right, I mean, it's God ordained, it was
1:05:43
God's idea. It's flawed, you know, because there's things that are flawed
1:05:48
about the church, you know. And I would confess that, you know
1:05:51
what I you know, I'm I'm a human being, right, I'm a
1:05:57
broken, flawed person. And but every day as I journey with Christ,
1:06:04
you know, my I'm supposed to I'm supposed to be looking more and more
1:06:11
like Him, right as I journey every day. Yeah, maybe not,
1:06:15
that's my problem, but I'm supposed to, you know, I more and
1:06:24
more the characteristics of who He is, you know. And and I think
1:06:28
that what we're finding today and what we're seeing today is that you know,
1:06:31
you have no matter whether you're a Republican, a Democrat, you know,
1:06:38
an independent right these those three where you are politically, you're going to find
1:06:45
that everywhere in the church. And so I think that it's a dang it
1:06:50
can be a dangerous place at times, you know, if you're going to
1:06:55
say, you know, God's a Republican or God's Democrat, you know,
1:07:00
and you know, but but you know, I think, but I think
1:07:08
it can be. I think we got to be just careful, right,
1:07:11
You got to be careful about, you know, saying that that God's got
1:07:19
a political you know position, well, and listen. I'm I'm a Republican.
1:07:27
I've been a Republican my whole life. But I'm I liked it.
1:07:30
And I was just having this conversation with somebody in my church last week and
1:07:33
I said, you know it, I'm I tend to err on the side
1:07:42
of it being a centrist right, I'm more I can see I can see
1:07:45
value on both sides of things. I go back to John McCain and I
1:07:50
look at McCain as a uniter, right, and and I think if I
1:07:56
were, if I were ever on a ballot someplace, you know, or
1:08:00
I ever decided to go into politics, I think one of the things that
1:08:02
I would say would be a big part of who I would want to be
1:08:06
is an uniter, because there's value on both sides. Right. But yeah,
1:08:15
and you know, but where does it get us, right when we
1:08:18
have so much strife and we're so polarized. Things are so polarized right now,
1:08:25
You know and fighting for you know, this person versus that person,
1:08:32
and you can always find flaw, you know, on if you dig for
1:08:38
it, you're gonna you're gonna, you're gonna find it. I don't understand
1:08:41
why people get involved in it anymore, but from the church's point of view,
1:08:45
I mean, I think, you know, we got to be guarded.
1:08:47
You've got to be guarded around how you're how you're going to present from
1:08:54
a political perspective, because you belie you're not looking out at all the But
1:09:01
I do think that I do think that I stand on the side of I
1:09:09
stand with Israel, you know, and I'm a firm believer in that.
1:09:13
I think this country, you know, should always value and stand with the
1:09:21
Israel Israeli nation, and and so my personal and political and religious, you
1:09:30
know, beliefs are you know, I have my convictions over that right,
1:09:34
you know, like I feel like, you know, you saw the guy
1:09:38
that like climbed the Menora in New Haven, Yes, to try to tear
1:09:42
it down, Yes, propoustany flat like that. Yeah, Yeah, that
1:09:47
to me is the quintessential like just image of what we're living in today is
1:09:59
I don't know that person, but he probably has no idea. He probably
1:10:04
hasn't done any research. It's just what people are doing. And he wants
1:10:09
to be seen or heard or arrested, which I think he was. That's
1:10:17
the TikTok world, that's the whatever the I guess, but under thirty,
1:10:23
almost under twenty five. And I don't know where it's going from here.
1:10:29
I really don't. And maybe everyone does need to find a little religion in
1:10:31
their life, a little uh, the grounding of their morals and and and
1:10:38
have a moral compass and realize everything's not that bad if you don't want it
1:10:45
to be. But there are people out there with agendas, and these universities
1:10:49
are insane, especially these Ivy League ones. I mean, yeah, I
1:10:54
mean I think it's shameful. It really is shameful. Now, you know
1:11:00
the other side of this is I also think that we live in a world
1:11:03
where you know, listen, you know, five days from now it's going
1:11:06
to be Christmas, you know, and in three and a half months it'll
1:11:11
be Easter. And whoa, you skipped right by Saint Patrick's Day. Come
1:11:17
on, you have you got to stop and Sat Patrick's day fly right by
1:11:28
Valptiz's day. I can give two fucks. But don't stop, you know,
1:11:30
stop, but how many how many people as you get into conversation with
1:11:34
them, you know, really really just actually take some time to really stop.
1:11:45
Does anyone know what Christmas is even is? And if they do,
1:11:48
their only answer going to be, Oh, It's Christ's birthday, right,
1:11:51
That's it. That's all they're gonna know. Other than that, it's just
1:11:56
media driven. It's it's propaganda. It's you know, we got to move
1:12:00
old products. We gotta you know, and it's you know, one good
1:12:03
thing outside of the religious part of it is you know, it's a little
1:12:06
boost the economy, but it stresses the fuck out of people. I hate
1:12:11
it. Like I love giving presents to people and seeing their reaction, but
1:12:15
trying to like, but there's anxiety. Is that is that the right thing
1:12:19
that they want? That did I get them enough? Did I not get
1:12:23
them enough? You know, you're going to nineteen holiday fucking parties. I
1:12:27
just fucking want to sit home and I'm tired. And but even conversations like
1:12:31
we're having right now, I mean, it's like, are people even having
1:12:36
these conversations around a dinner table? You know? Right now? It's probably
1:12:42
politics, you know, in a living room, right, you know,
1:12:45
with you know, with a lit Christmas tree in a fireplace. You know,
1:12:47
like they don't know the meaning of it, you know, with a
1:12:49
you gott ask brave tonight when I get home, what's Christmas mean to you?
1:12:53
Presence? It's always gonna say, is presence and their kids? And
1:12:56
I don't care. I get it. But you as obviously very religious person
1:13:01
when you were growing up with when your kids were growing up with you,
1:13:05
did you explain the meaning of Christmas with them every Christmas? Or did it
1:13:11
just become after a while, just put the fucking presence under a tree.
1:13:15
Let's go get our tree. Let's fucking cook ham in a turkey and fucking
1:13:20
take the tree down in januiny wone. I mean like you do it every
1:13:25
single fucking year. It's like my birthday, Like I could like, this
1:13:28
year's my fiftieth. Okay, cool, big one, Yeah, big one
1:13:30
going on a cruise. Let's all other nap could care less. Just you
1:13:34
know, know that you're real the sun. You know, I'm just so
1:13:38
cynical. It's just like it's the years fly by so fast now, Like
1:13:42
does it Thanksgiving feel like three months ago? It's yeah, I mean it's
1:13:46
like, whoa, we just had that? Yeah, yeah, no doubt
1:13:49
about it. It's like you're you know, it's just like you're a rocket
1:13:53
fuel, you know, just going from what Thursday? So, I mean
1:13:57
Christmas Eve is basically Christmas because Christmas Morning last half hour, it's over and
1:14:00
then it's like, okay, let's get on with our day. But you
1:14:03
know, it's I think it's a time that it's it's an inviting time,
1:14:10
right, it invites us into all right, is this going to be the
1:14:15
year that I'm going to be open to what this is all about? And
1:14:21
am I going to ask some deeper questions? Am I going to wrestle with
1:14:27
this? Jesus? What what environment you got? But it's like but it's
1:14:34
like what environment? Right? Am I going to put myself in this year
1:14:40
where maybe I'll be more open to wrestling with what this is all about?
1:14:47
And it's fine if you think Jesus thinks when he looks down on all this
1:14:50
ship, you think he's like, oh man, that's pretty cool, all
1:14:54
these lights and it's all about me, But then he really knows he gets
1:14:58
some people's heads and he knows what going on? Or is he like man,
1:15:02
this is not what I wanted. I think anytime someone turns their eyes,
1:15:15
their face, their thoughts, their mind, their will, whatever you
1:15:18
want to call it, toward him, I think he smiles. You know.
1:15:28
This summer, I had a really powerful experience where and I'm yeah,
1:15:34
anybody in my family will tell you, like, as I've gotten older,
1:15:38
have gotten much more emotional, right, And there are times where I'm okay
1:15:44
with it, and there are other times where I'm like, oh my gosh,
1:15:45
Dave, like you just you're such a sorry sap man, right,
1:15:48
right, come on, just get with it, right. But I listened.
1:15:54
I listened to a message that somebody delivered on Luke fifteen, and it's
1:16:01
Luke fifteen is probably one of the most powerful parables that Jesus gave, you
1:16:08
know, in the scriptures, and it's the parable of the lost sheep,
1:16:12
the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the prodigal Son,
1:16:16
which most people know the story of the prodigal Son. You might not know
1:16:24
all the layers to it, all the pieces to it, but most people,
1:16:29
you know, if they have had any church or religious education and experience,
1:16:38
they know the story of the prodigal Son. But it's this, this
1:16:44
gentleman spoke on this in such a powerful way for me that it just was
1:16:49
so transformative in my life, and it deepened my love for Christ so much
1:16:59
more because it's it's a it's an image of God constantly pursuing us, constantly
1:17:14
chasing us, a lot for a lot of for everybody, for everybody,
1:17:19
and and and it's just this beautiful image of how, no matter where life
1:17:28
has taken us, no matter what we look like in terms of just what's
1:17:36
happened to us, here's a God who is open arms running for us.
1:17:54
And it's super powerful because we live in this world today where people are like,
1:17:59
man, you don't know what I've done. You don't know what my
1:18:05
life looks like. You don't know the brokenness. You don't know the times
1:18:11
where I've said, God, go yourself, God, I got nothing.
1:18:16
I want nothing to do with you. God. I think you're the you
1:18:20
know, you're the reason why this has happened in my life, and blah
1:18:24
blah blah blah blah. You know. And and when you reach these these
1:18:29
these pivot points in your life where you have you're faced with something, God's
1:18:39
right there. He is right there, arms open wide running toward us,
1:18:44
going accept the invitation. You don't have to come to me with everything figured
1:18:51
out. You never You're never going to figure everything out, but with me,
1:18:58
will walk together and we will figure things out because I created you,
1:19:04
and I know you know better than anybody. I know you better than yourself,
1:19:10
you know. And when you reach that place where you are willing to
1:19:17
wake up every day with the knowledge that that's what you're inviting yourself into that
1:19:27
kind of relationship, It's like, man, I mean, when you think
1:19:30
of when you think of a parent, when you think of you know,
1:19:36
I mean, I say this to people all the time, like, yeah,
1:19:40
my kids are going to disappoint me. There's gonna be things that are
1:19:43
gonna happen that I'm not gonna be happy about. But you know what,
1:19:45
there's stuff that I did that I'm sure my parents, you know, we're
1:19:47
upset and disappointed with me. And you know, in the relationships that you
1:19:53
have, there's people that disappoint you all the time, right, I mean,
1:19:56
But at the same time, it's like, man, I will never
1:20:02
give up on my kids. I would never give up on my kids.
1:20:08
There's nothing I would to do for my kids. In God, the same
1:20:11
way. There is nothing that he would never ever do for us, and
1:20:17
he pursues us all the time. And there are experiences, there's relationships,
1:20:24
there's things we may watch, we may listen to, we may see,
1:20:29
we may have these moments where we get invited to something and we hear something
1:20:31
and it's like, you know, that's his invitation to us, right,
1:20:34
and it's like, what are we gonna do with that? And I think
1:20:38
Christmas, Saint Patrick's Day Easter, these are these great imitations, right,
1:20:44
there's a great opportunities to say, hey, you know what, a year's
1:20:47
already gone by, it's gone. It's a flashpoint, man, It's it's
1:20:50
you know, it's been a rocket ship of a year, you know,
1:20:53
and it's like I'm here again, and what am I gonna do with this?
1:21:00
I was gonna end on that? So you should do this for a
1:21:04
living. Yeah, I got tissues too, dude. I want to thank
1:21:10
you, I really I want to thank you for this. It's uh,
1:21:15
I'm not I don't feel qualified in any way other than just my yes,
1:21:20
but my experience, right, yeah, And and I'd rather have someone like
1:21:25
you on that than you know, someone that just couldn't tried to convert me
1:21:30
at the same time my audience and all that other stuff. Like you you
1:21:33
have your beliefs, I have mine. We're obviously friends. But again,
1:21:38
I want to leave it on what you just said. I thought that was
1:21:40
great you you got a little emotional again, which but no, no,
1:21:44
no, I'm not using it as a joke. I mean it proves to
1:21:47
me, how you know, dedicated and your belief in it all is.
1:21:51
And like I said before, I'm envious of people that have that faith,
1:21:55
in that belief and maybe one day I'll find it in that walk of life
1:21:58
or in something else in life. Who knows. But Merry Christmas to your
1:22:02
family, your wife and kids. I love you man. Let's have another
1:22:09
Viva after the show and uh we'll talk about sports. Thanks so much.
1:22:15
Merry Christmas everybody. I hope you enjoyed this episode, whether you are a
1:22:18
churchgoer or not. We brought up a lot of interesting points and counterpoints,
1:22:25
and that's what I like to do on the show. So I will talk
1:22:27
to you guys hopefully next week. With pastwal he's blown me off twice,
1:22:30
but we got some ship to get off the chests about other stuff. So
1:22:34
Mary Christmas everyone, Happy New Year and I'll talk to you soon. Thanks Dave Base