Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Wednesday June 17, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: Hey, what's up, guys? It is Wednesday, June 17th. Podcast is Beliefs, Ballots, and Bulldogs, and I'm your host, Greg Miller. The theme of the day is what if you're wrong? Not politically, not culturally, but personally. And before somebody turns this off and doesn't listen to the rest, hear me out. One of the most underrated spiritual disciplines is the ability to ask yourself to look in the mirror and say, What if I'm the one that needs to change? The book of Psalms, chapter one hundred thirty-nine, verses twenty-three, twenty-four. We have all heard this. This is absolutely one of my favorite and one of the hardest hitting verses in the Bible to me. Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way of the everlasting. This is this is In some ways this is one of the most dangerous prayers in the Bible. ⁓ not because it's complicated, but you know, they let's let's it's just honest. ⁓ David is not asking, you know, show me what's wrong with them. He's saying, Lord, show me what's wrong with me. And that's ⁓ that is something I know we all struggle with, my myself included. We you think about how much of our modern life and and how much of our society. you know, focuses on spending time diagnosing everyone else. We we are it is so easy to point the finger. ⁓ we all know what's wrong in Washington, DC. We know what's wrong in Hollywood. We know what's wrong with the church. We darn sure know what's wrong with our spouses or significant others. We all know what's wrong with our boss if you're unfortunate enough to have one of them. And we know what's wrong with the younger generation. But do we ever stop and ask, you know, what blind spots am I carrying? Growth begins where defensiveness ends. I'm going to repeat that because it bears repeating. Growth begins where defensiveness ends. The moment you think you know it all and you become unteachable, you're going to stop growing. If if you think you've got it all figured out and there's nothing left to learn, well, guess what? You're going to stop learning. Think about this in in your in your marriages. Think about this in your in all of your interpersonal relationships. You know what how many arguments could disappear or or be reconciled quickly if you just took a different approach and simply said, hey, you know, what am I missing here? Instead of standing so firm on I know I'm right and you're wrong or not let me explain why you're wrong. Just, hey, you know what? Maybe there's something I'm missing. Maybe, maybe this person who I know and I love and I trust Maybe they're just coming at this from a different angle and not understanding it. You know, everybody it it's it's so easy in this world, and I have I have talked about this on several episodes about the lack of accountability. And you know, we all demand accountability, but we seem to only want to demand it from the world around us. Very few of us are are practicing any sort of self-examination. You know, you look in politics and and both political parties are are absolutely condemned. convinced that the other side is the problem. And we all just think, hey, the country would be better off if if everybody else changed. David's prayer to God here in the in the Psalm, it it it flips that upside down. He's he's talking about himself. The greatest threat to spiritual growth isn't ignorance at all. It's pride. Ignorance can learn. Pride already thinks it knows and won't learn a darn thing. Talking about some sports for a little while. ⁓ Dogs came through in a in a nail biter last night. Just an exhilarating game. We ⁓ we we down the horns two nothing. ⁓ just a masterful pitching performance by Veg and Bird. Simply just brilliant work by both of those two guys. ⁓ we got a rematch with the Sooners tonight, get a little ⁓ get a little quick revenge and hopefully some instant karma for them beating us the other night. ⁓ it's time to avenge that loss and and let's keep this Omaha train rolling. ⁓ we we are a ⁓ we are a Georgia Bulldog themed show and ⁓ the Georgia Bulldogs have been pretty darn good at football here lately, and that gets some of us pretty excited about the upcoming football season, which means there are eighty days left until we kick off between the hedges. Eighty seems like a very popular ⁓ number in the in the football world, but there's oddly enough not been a whole lot of historical eliteness with the number eighty in Athens. We got a ⁓ we got a true freshman on campus this year. Kid by the name of Caden Prothrow, who I think he might step up and make a name for himself. He might ⁓ he might get some recognition for that number eighty finally. There's a as a lot of tight end, there's a lot of talent in that tight end room. Todd Hartley has done a just absolute masterful job. ⁓ we talked about Leonard Pope at tight end yesterday. You go back to the recent history with Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington enjoying so much success. ⁓ Lawson Lucky, Oscar Dell. The tight end room is absolutely loaded. But this young man is Caden Prothrow, he's a big cat. He's six seven, six eight, kind of a leaner guy. I think they might get this young man on the field as a jumbo athlete out at wide receiver. ⁓ just got impeccable ball skills, got a got a lot of attention in the in the G Day game. I think ⁓ I think he's gonna get some snaps out wide and and I I'm looking forward to seeing what Caden Prothrow can do this year as a true freshman. You never want to put a lot of emphasis or or expectations on true freshmen coming into big boy football, but this kid might be special. He was a big time recruit, number one tight in the nation, if I believe, if I recall correctly. ⁓ and I think they're gonna line him up out wide, and he's just a matchup nightmare. So I don't know. At the end of the day, man, I know one thing is I I love talking Georgia football. We got I eighty days left until we kick it off. But for now, we are all one hundred percent behind the diamond dogs. Let's get that W tonight and let's keep marching. We'll spend a little bit of time. We have you know, the the The title of the show is Beliefs, Ballots, and Bets. And and we have to this point sort of avoided or tiptoed around any of the more cultural or political stuff other than how we, you know, just directly applied it to the personal scripture of the day. But I want to talk a little bit about something that's been getting a lot of attention lately. And and and it's a the the theme of national pride. We're seeing all kind of data being released that that saying, you know, Americans are just are split completely these days on On whether or not we're even proud to be an American. And and you really see it, I think it it's it's prominently being displayed in the in the extremes. It's it's in the older generations and and the younger generations. And you know, we we've just got to realize that that being proud of your nation is something we should all embody. We've got you've got half the crowd that that acts like you know, America is just beyond criticism, beyond reproach. And then we've got half the crowd that acts like, you know, America is this evil empire that's simply beyond redemption. You know, Christians, I think, you know, we don't have to choose between those extremes. We don't have to choose between blind nationalism and bitter cynical criticism. You know, a a believer, a a follower of Christ can be grateful for this country, which is unquestionably the best nation on the planet. But we can still be honest about its flaws. We can be committed to the future, but still remember that our highest citizenship is going to be in heaven. Philippians 3:20 says, But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await the Savior Jesus Christ. But then we've also got the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 29:7 says, Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. These two passages. Show us the balance that as Christians I believe we're supposed to maintain. We don't worship our nation, but we don't abandon it either. We serve it faithfully and we do the best we can to make it the best place possible. Pride is falling, and and you know, I think a lot of that, you know, ⁓ the risk of sounding like the Kodji old man. It's all social media related. It it's it it that's what's having such an impact on the the younger people. And the lack of pride in America and and this this swinging tide of of emotional hatred towards our own nation, it it's really impacting the younger people. And I don't I don't think this is just a political problem. I I think it's a spiritual and a cultural problem. You know, we have to be aware of of a handful of things. And I've jotted down three points that I think we need to talk through as as as it comes to Christians and having some national pride. Gratitude is not idolatry. It is it is absolutely okay to thank God for the blessings of living here and not anywhere else. It's okay to be grateful for freedom and opportunity and the religious liberty, the freedom of speech, the opportunity to work and raise a family, and even criticize the government and not get hauled away. We can all be grateful for those things, but that doesn't mean we worship our nation. Just by the same token. Just because someone is a little bit critical, whether it's of the current administration or whether it's of the history of our nation or whether it's the current policy thing, loving your country doesn't mean you have to pretend everything is perfect. You know, we as parents, I I embody this completely. You know, I have been blessed. I have two amazing young daughters, and I haven't had to do a whole lot of correcting them. But as a parent, and because I love my child, I will correct them if it's needed. Coaches correct players that they believe in. Citizens, we at we as Americans can absolutely call out corruption and foolishness, and we should absolutely identify and work to fix the moral decay because we want our country to be even better than it is. And then finally, the third point I've I as I kind of thought about this through is I think we as the Christians, we need to be the grown ups in the room, so to speak. We we can't get caught up in the in the vitriol and the hysteria. We we can't be hateful. And we can't worship a party. Now, those of you who follow this show or or my my counterpart show with with my buddy David on Common Sense Superheroes, you know which way I lean politically. But I don't worship the Republican Party. I don't worship the conservative viewpoints, and I darn sure don't worship Donald Trump or his MAGA kin. I support them, I believe we're on the right path with them, but it is not a worship thing at all. I'm not acting like America is the kingdom of God, but I'm also not act like Rooting for our country to collapse or fail, which seems like a lot of folks are, and that's just wrong. The the message here for conservatives is that you know, no, America is not perfect, but it's a hundred percent worth preserving because the ideas at the foundation and the formation of this country are better than anything that was ever created. Liberty, ordered freedom, personal responsibility, religious freedom. Family, local community, all of these things that that were the foundation and the building blocks of this country, all of these things are still worth fighting for. And and from a biblical standpoint, I I think the message is clear. It's you know, we we are to be involved and we are to participate in citizenship and in our government. But our hope is not in Washington. Our responsibility includes our neighborhoods and our schools. Get involved locally, get involved in your neighborhood, get involved in the county school district. That's where you can make a difference. Today I'm not asking you to worship America. I'm just asking you to stop giving up. Pray for this country. Raise your kids to understand the good and the bad. I say this all the time, and this is one of the things I think has been the absolute under, just undermining of our nation as a whole. Tell the truth. In all cases, historical, current stuff. Let's tell the truth. Because so much of what we're teaching our kids and what we're raising people to believe is not accurate about this country. Tell the truth about this nation, defend the good, but acknowledge the bad, and repent where we've gone wrong. And remember this that a Christian can be a faithful citizen of America because we already know we're a citizen of heaven. And that's really all that matters. But we're gonna do our part here. Getting back to the theme of the day, that the passage from Psalm, you know, we we think about this and and oftentimes. The the most mature person in the room is usually the one who's most willing to examine himself. You know, humility in in this case is not thinking less about yourself. It's just being honest about yourself. And and David's prayer here, and and this is a prayer that it's it's hard to it's hard to really get down to this. And and I I was listening to one of the famous podcasters who his show's a little more popular than mine, but Theo Vaughn is wrestling with this a lot right now. And and you know it He has made a prayer and he's asking himself, you know, like like Jesus healing the lame man, you know, do you want to be healed? Because as Theo has figured out, if you decide that you do want to be healed, well that means you gotta make some changes. But this is a prayer that can change your life because it's not about fixing the world around you. It's asking God to fix you. What if you're the problem? Everybody wants God to reveal the truth until that truth is about them. Maybe the most important question is Question today isn't what's wrong with America or what's wrong with the church and what's wrong with our leaders or different political parties or what's wrong with our neighbors or what's wrong with my spouse. Maybe the most important question, maybe the singular thing that we should all be coming back to is what needs to change in me? It's it's any biblical scholar will tell you that obviously King David was one of God's Favorites if God ever has favorites at all. ⁓ but even he struggled and he was asking God to search his heart, know his purity, know his inner thoughts. You can't hide from God. So you might as well be honest and let him own it and let him help you through anything you need to change. Because that's the only way you're gonna find peace and happiness is to change the things that he's been trying to get you to change all along. As always, guys, get in your Bibles, say your prayers, love each other, and tell the truth. God bless.