Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / August 31, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: Greetings all. Today is Monday, August 31st. I'm your host, Greg Miller, and this is the latest episode of Beliefs, Ballots, and Bulldogs. Dog fans, game week is here. Not almost here. No more, we're getting close. It's here. That means the tone changes now. We've asked questions this offseason: who breaks out? What does the offense look like? Does gunners step up and improve? Which young guys are gonna flash? Is the defense ready to become Georgia's defense again? Can we fire Bobo yet? We've asked all the questions, but now it gets real. And look, let's be honest, ⁓ Tennessee State isn't exactly gonna be a dramatic football game, I don't suppose. I think we're favored by darn near 50 at this point. ⁓ we're bigger, we're faster, we're deeper. We should, without much question, control this game. But that doesn't mean that this week is meaningless because the standard is not on the schedule. And that's the message. The opponent changes every week. The standard doesn't. Georgia doesn't need to get sloppy because the matchup looks comfortable. We don't need to sleepwalk because the SEC opener is still a little ways down the road. And we certainly don't need to wait to big games to start dialing things up and getting serious. Championship teams form championship habits before championship moments hit. They start this week. They start in practice. They start in the meeting rooms. They start with the veterans stepping up and leading. They start with Gunner walking into that game, acting like he owns the offense from top to bottom. The offensive line communicating, the defensive line, lining up and flying around, everything we're used to seeing. It it starts with proving that Georgia can beat Tennessee State. We will. It's not the point. The point is whether or not we look like a team that understands what the rest of this season demands. Clean, sharp, physical, focused, serious. That's all I want to see. There should be no panic, no overreaction to what we see. We're not going to show the whole playbook. I just want to be a team that looks like they're aware that the chase has started. Because again, at Georgia, the opponent doesn't set the standard. The standard is not on the schedule. Georgia decides the standard. And that starts now. Game week is here. The season is here. The talking, thank goodness, is almost over. The standard is not on the schedule. Let's go, dogs. All right, guys, we wrapped up Proverbs Week last week and I thoroughly enjoyed that. I hope you guys did as well. ⁓ we're gonna get back into a little bit more of our normal flow here with some some cultural events, current event type thematic things to to apply our our biblical scripture to. ⁓ today's theme is is kind of a a theme we've all become comfortable with. It's it's meeting people where they are. We've all heard that phrase, but but there's a key to that, and it's it's meeting people where they are without leaving the truth behind. I totally agree. Look, you you do have to meet people where they are, 100%. But I also think we need to understand what this verse actually means. Because meeting somebody where they are doesn't mean you have to agree with everything they believe. It doesn't mean you are to pretend that their bad decisions are good decisions. It doesn't mean that you change your own convictions depending on who you're talking to. And it definitely doesn't mean that you abandon the truth because the truth might make somebody uncomfortable. That's not love. But here's the other side of it. You can't help somebody from a distance if you're unwilling to understand where they're standing. And I think Jesus gives us one of the greatest examples of this in John chapter four. So today we're going to a well. Jesus is traveling through Samaria, and around noon he stops at Jacob's well, tired, thirsty. His disciples had gone into town to buy some food, and a Samaritan woman comes out to the well to draw water. Now, look, back in this day, there are all kinds of cultural dynamics here. For starters, she's a woman and he's a man. She's a Samaritan, he's a Jew. There was deep hostility between the two cultures in this time. The religious beliefs were different, their histories were different, the cultures were just different. And this allows us to discover pretty quickly that this woman has a ⁓ a complicated personal history, shall we say. So there are plenty of reasons for these two people to not have a conversation. And yet Jesus looks straight at her and says, Give me a drink. That's John chapter four, verse seven. That's how it starts. Not with any sort of accusation, not with a sermon, not with Jesus listening to everything that she believes and telling her what's wrong with her theology. And not with him saying, hey, let me explain why people like you are the problem. He just asked for a drink. And the woman herself is taken aback. She's surprised by this. Essentially, she she looks at him and says, But you're a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you even talking to me? And I think there's something very, very important here. Jesus crossed a line that the culture around him had drawn. Not a line of morality, not a line of truth, a line between people. And he crossed it. Jesus saw a person. And that's where I want to sit with this for a minute. I think we have become incredibly good as a society and as a culture of putting people into categories. We meet somebody and almost immediately start trying to figure out hey, what camp are you in? What do you believe? Who did you vote for? What church do you attend? Do you even go to church? What's your lifestyle? What groups are you a part of? Are you conservative? Are you liberal? Christian, atheist, rich, poor, addict, successful, failure? Are you a MAGA person? Never Trumper? Whatever label we can find. And look, labels aren't always meaningless. Sometimes they're accurate. What somebody believes matters. How somebody lives matters. The truth matters. But here's the danger. Once we successfully put people into a category, we can stop seeing them as a person. And that's what we notice here. Jesus doesn't do that. Jesus doesn't look across the well and see a woman or a Samaritan or any type of demographic. He sees a real person with a story, real pain, real mistakes, real question, real spiritual needs. And before we ever Talk to somebody about how they need to change, maybe we should start by actually seeing them where they are. And I think one of the most underused sentences in our culture right now might be help me understand. Not, hey, how do you believe that? Not, hey, what's wrong with you? Or let me tell you why you're wrong. Just that's what you believe. Help me understand how you got there. It's different when you ask somebody that, listen to them. Understanding somebody is not the same as agreeing with them. And somehow we seem to have lost that distinction. We we can you can understand somebody and still disagree completely. You can listen to everything they say without surrendering even one of your convictions. You can show compassion without endorsing the behavior or the belief. You can love somebody wholly. without pretending that everything they do is good. In fact, sometimes understanding the road somebody has traveled is exactly what will help you know how to walk with them towards somewhere better. But Jesus doesn't leave her there. And this is where I think the story gets even more important because there's another version of meeting people where they are that basically means, you know, never challenge anybody, never say anything uncomfortable, never tell anybody they're wrong. It just affirm everything. Go along to get along. But that's not what Jesus does either. Eventually this conversation gets personal, very personal. Jesus tells the woman to go and call her husband. So she says, I have no husband. And Jesus responds, verses 17 and 18. You are right in saying, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. All right then. So apparently Jesus knows this lady, knows the whole story. And he knew before he ever even asked her for a drink. And yet, he still started that conversation. That's important. Jesus wasn't pretending like her life was perfect. He didn't redefine the truth so nobody's feelings got hurt. But he also didn't humiliate her. He didn't mock her. He didn't reduce her entire existence to the worst decision she'd ever made. He spoke the truth to a person who was already willing to engage. And that's the balance that we've got to recover. Meeting somebody where they are doesn't mean that you agree that where they are is where they should stay. Sometimes love says, come sit with me. And sometimes love also says, There's a better way. Jesus could do both. Paul later tells us in in Ephesians chapter four, verse 15, he uses the phrase, speaking the truth in love. I think those are the two most powerful things out there right now, and the two most powerful things that this culture needs, truth and love together. The truth in love. We've gotten so good at separating these things. There are there are people who want love, but don't care about the truth. Anything goes, never challenge anybody, never make anybody uncomfortable. As long as you're sincere, everything's fine. That's not biblical love. But there's another group who seem perfectly comfortable with the truth and occasionally seem to like using it as a weapon. Well, I'm sorry it hurt their feelings, but I'm just telling the truth. All right, but but scripture doesn't merely say speak the truth. It says speak the truth in love. Because truth without love is usually cruel. And love without truth is often dishonest. Jesus gives both grace and truth. Not 50-50. Jesus doesn't dilute either one. There's another passage that I think it fits beautifully here. Paul says in First Corinthians 9 22, I have become All things to all people that by all means I might save some. Paul isn't saying I change the gospel depending on who I'm talking to. The truth doesn't change ever. But the way he approaches people does. That's wisdom because people are different. You can't necessarily talk to somebody who's been in church for 50 years the same way you talk to somebody who's never opened a Bible. You don't talk to somebody who's grieving. The same way you talk to somebody who's arrogant. You certainly wouldn't talk to somebody who's struggling with an addiction, like somebody who's proudly celebrating their destructive behavior. You don't talk to your 15-year-old child the way that you talk to your 50-year-old friends. Different person, different story, different starting point, same truth. And when you read the gospels, Jesus doesn't walk around giving everybody the same canned repetitive speech. He encounters people, he asks questions. He listens, he tells stories, he challenges people, he comforts people, he confronts people, he shows mercy to people. He knew who was standing in front of him. And maybe that's what we're all missing. Sometimes we're just trying so hard to win instead of to reach. Especially nowadays. You know, social media has trained us all like circus monkeys to just perform in disagreements. We're not always talking to the person anymore. A lot of times we're talking right past them for the approval of the people that are already on our own side. We want the dunk, we want the clip, the comeback, the the quote tweet, the moment that everybody goes, ⁓ you got him, you got that guy. Great. Congratulations. You you destroyed somebody. But did you reach them? And that's not necessarily the same thing. You can win an argument and lose the possibility of having any influence over that person. And sometimes I think we're so concerned with proving that we're right. That we never even stop to ask why the other person believes what they believe. And again, that doesn't make the truth relative. The truth is the truth, and the truth matters. But if our goal is to actually reach people, then the person has to matter too. And here's the part that might sting a little bit. There are people in this world who want absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. And yeah, sometimes that's just simply because they have they have rejected rejected Christ and Jesus told us that would happen. But I think we'd be dishonest if we pretend that that's always the reason. Maybe some people haven't rejected Jesus because of Jesus. They've rejected Jesus because of us. They've rejected the version of Jesus they've seen represented by Christians. That should bother us. Not because we're supposed to water down scripture, not because Biblical morality changes based on on the day. Not because we're supposed to become timid about what we believe and willing to speak the truth, but because if somebody encounters me as a Christian, I want them to at least see something that resembles Christ. Truth, absolutely, unquestionably. Conviction without doubt. But also patience, kindness, humility, compassion, a willingness to listen. A willingness to sit at the well. And this isn't only about evangelism. This applies inside our own houses. Maybe your teenager is struggling and you've already prepared that speech. Maybe before you give that speech, ask yourself a question. You know, maybe your maybe your spouse is frustrated and you've already kind of prepared your self-defense. Maybe before you start defending yourself, listen to what your spouse is saying. Maybe you've got an employee that's that's struggling, or a friend making bad decisions, or a family member who you just disagree with some things on, somebody dealing with addiction, or somebody who's left the church, or somebody who's just angry with God. There are people we all know whose life has gone completely sideways. And we're standing over here thinking, man, why don't they just get it? Maybe the better question is, where are they? What happened? What are they afraid of? What are they carrying what do they believe? Why do they believe it? What happened to them? What don't I understand? Because before we can decide what somebody needs to hear, maybe we should find out where they're already standing. And there's probably somebody in your life right now who you think isn't where they should be, maybe spiritually, maybe personally, politically, morally, emotionally. Maybe they're making bad decisions, they're struggling, they're lost. Maybe they've hurt you. Maybe you are frustrated with them right now. Maybe you genuinely cannot understand how they became the person that's standing in front of you right now. And maybe your instinct is just to stand where you always stand and shout direction. You come over here to me, I'm right. Get your life together. Figure it out. Why can't you see what you're doing? But maybe, maybe this time God's asking you to walk over there. Not stay there. Not pretend like you're not trying to get them to somewhere better. Don't compromise the truth, but simply Go meet them at the well. And then there's what I love about the story, how how this story ends. This woman obviously never expected this conversation, and eventually she leaves her water jar and runs into town and starts telling people about Jesus. In verse twenty nine, John chapter four, come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? Think about that. Jesus knew her story, and she knew. That he knew that somehow she didn't leave that conversation feeling like she had been condemned. She left wanting other people to meet him. That's remarkable. She became a witness. And people from the town start coming out to see Jesus. The woman at the well becomes the woman telling everybody where to find him. And that's how it started with Jesus just being willing to have a conversation. So here's what I want all of us to do think of a person. One person, not a group, not Democrats or Republicans, atheist or Christian, not those people. Think about a person, somebody you know, somebody you disagree with, somebody that's struggling, somebody you've been frustrated with, somebody you want to help. And instead of beginning them with, or instead of beginning your approach with, what do I need to tell them? Try beginning with what do I need to understand about them? Listen to them. Ask some questions, buy them a coffee, make the phone call, sit down and meet them where they are. Then when the opportunity comes, and it will, he's really good at opening doors. When the opportunity comes, tell the truth lovingly, clearly, without embarrassment and without compromise. But remember, you're talking to a human being who was created in the image of God. This is not an argument that you need to win. Jesus met the woman at the well. Different background, different beliefs, complicated life. Plenty of reasons not to have that conversation. And he talked to her anyway. He didn't compromise the truth. He didn't pretend her choices didn't matter. He didn't tell her everything was fine. But he also didn't treat her like she was beneath him. He saw her. And maybe that's something our world desperately needs right now. People willing to cross the route, people willing to listen, willing to understand, willing to love somebody they disagree with. Willing to tell the truth without enjoying the opportunity to hurt somebody with it. Because meeting somebody where they are doesn't mean agreeing that where they are is where they should stay. It means loving them enough to go there and get them. So before you shout instructions from across the divide, walk over, sit down, ask a question, and listen to the answer. You don't have to abandon your convictions. Jesus never did. You don't have to pretend wrong is right. Jesus never did. But you can look across that divide and remember that's a person that God loves. And maybe somebody in your life doesn't need another lecture from you right now. Maybe they need to know that you're willing to sit at the well, get in your Bibles, say your prayers, and meet somebody where they are and tell the truth. But tell it with love. All right, guys, as always, get your Bibles, say your prayers, love one another, and tell the truth. What a message. God bless.