Latest / HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN® / Troubling Times Part I w/Special Guest Nick L

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Troubling Times Part I w/Special Guest Nick L · HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN®

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  This week's podcast is brought to you in part by Right On Cue Productions.
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  They produce and edit all of our intro and outro.
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  DJ Eric Santana and Right On Cue Productions presents Have Faith,
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  Let It Begin. Have faith and let it begin.
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  His word starts in 30 seconds.
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  Angel Santana, his podcast will start soon. God is with you,
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  Have faith, let it begin Get ready 30 seconds Have faith,
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  let it begin God bless you.
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  Hello, everyone, and welcome to Have Faith, Let It Begin.
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  My name is Angel, your host. I want to thank you for joining us yet again for
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  another amazing two-part series.
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  I'm going to call this definitely a one-two punch, mainly because not only are
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  we having Nick back on our show, and if you all don't know who Nick is,
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  we call him the professor here because he loves to come on, And he really gives
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  us a different perspective into so many different types of episodes that at
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  times I'm even afraid to touch. And I mean that in a positive way.
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  He has shown our viewers and shown me how to tackle certain topics with a very, very professional,
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  but yet easier way of explanation to how we can maneuver and get through difficult,
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  maybe uncomfortable at times topics.
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  So with that being said, it is a special day. We're rolling out the red carpet for him.
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  Our good friend, Nick is back and he's with us on the show and you've heard of him before.
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  You loved his insights, his humor, and his heart.
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  And we're excited to have him back on Half Faith Let It Begin.
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  So sit back, buckle up and enjoy welcoming back Nick back to our show.
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  And as always, Nick, the floor is yours.
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  Thank you, Angel. And again, thank you for the platform that you've given me
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  to express my thoughts about things.
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  Yeah, I want to talk about what's been going on around in our country for a bit of a while now.
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  And there's been so much going on as of late that are disturbing trends going
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  on in this country. However, if you look back at history, it's not without presence.
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  And I'm going to go through that and explain. So what has happened over the
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  last really short period of time? It just seems like every...
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  Couple of weeks or something, there's something going on that's really terrible.
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  You have the shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO.
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  You have the attempts on the life of Donald Trump. The Minneapolis shooting.
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  The killing of the Ukrainian woman on the train in North Carolina.
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  The shooting of Charlie Kirk. The Minnesota shooting of the state lawmaker and
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  their spouse. an arson attack on the governor of Pennsylvania's residence.
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  I mean, that's just kind of the main ones that have happened in a very short period of time.
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  But if you look back, and I know some of the people that are of my age will
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  remember some of these, probably all of these,
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  the 60s and the 70s were pretty rough times as well.
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  You know, within within a few months of one another, actually five months of
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  one another, you had the killing of Medgar Evers, who was a civil rights activist.
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  Five months later, you had the shooting of President Kennedy back in 1963.
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  Back in 1965, another civil rights activist, Malcolm X, was killed. too.
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  Can you just talk about McGovern? I'm sorry, let's recap. Go back, because I lost you.
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  You cut out. Start from the shooting of the first guy. I forget his name.
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  Oh my goodness. Okay, so Medgar Evers? Yes. I don't know what you said after
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  the shooting of him. You were gone. Okay.
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  So start from there. Ready? Three, two... Okay, so back in 1963,
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  within five months of one another, you had the shooting of Medgar Evers,
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  who was a civil rights activist, and President Kennedy in 1963.
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  In 1965, another civil rights activist, Malcolm X, was shot and killed.
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  In 1968, you had Martin Luther King and Robert F.
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  Kennedy within two months of one another, who were both shot and killed.
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  In the early 70s, you had a presidential candidate, George Wallace,
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  who was shot and paralyzed.
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  And then, you know, if you move on still a little later, in 1981,
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  within two months of one another, Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II were both shot.
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  So it's not as if it hasn't happened in this country before. Yeah.
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  It's just that it's getting very close together, these things.
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  Like I said, every couple of weeks, every month, there's something major happening
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  to a person of prominence.
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  And I think the difference between those times, which were very turbulent,
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  and these times, is you not only have the acting out with these shootings,
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  It's the way we are behaving as a society that's inciting all of this.
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  I think our incendiary talk, our insightful language that we're using towards
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  one another is just bringing about chaos in our society.
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  It's become a society where if you disagree with someone's opinion or what they
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  represent, there's a mindset that it's all right if you go out and take that
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  person's life to silence them.
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  Or the right to commit some act of violence, such as property destruction.
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  It just seems to be okay to select that to want to get your point across.
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  Us, and that's the resolution.
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  I expect better from us as Americans.
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  This country is comparatively young when compared to other countries around the world.
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  We're only 249 years old.
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  But in that really short time frame, we've developed and established ourselves
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  to be the most powerful country on earth.
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  Yet, we have many issues that need to be resolved and discussed.
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  We're not perfect. By far, we are not perfect.
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  And our founding fathers established a process to deal with those issues and
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  differences of opinion.
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  They established a constitution, which includes a bill of rights.
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  That is a boundary of rules that make us a civilized society.
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  And these rules are established by a mandate of the majority.
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  This is a civilized discourse of opinions on subjects.
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  If there is belief that something needs to be changed, it can be through this
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  discourse and a necessary vote where the majority opinion rules.
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  Mandates established years ago
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  when the constitution was was written
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  and formed can be changed
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  through a civilized vibrant process and that process is codified in this constitution
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  this is what makes this country great everyone has a voice and is allowed to express that opinion.
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  But that comes, again, with a process.
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  This is not the Wild West here. We have actually devolved from that civilized process.
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  We now feel we can silence differing opinions by taking out a life.
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  It has made us no better than many other cultures around the world who punish
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  different opinions through torture, imprisonment, and death.
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  And I would like to say that the prime example to that is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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  What was his crime? He had a different message to talk to his people about, to talk to those about.
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  And what did he get for that? He was tortured and publicly hung on a cross for
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  it. Does that sound familiar?
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  So I ask, aren't we better than that?
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  Aren't we capable of discussing our differences and coming to a middle ground solution?
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  And just think about the definition of a negotiation.
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  A successful negotiation is a mutually acceptable agreement where all parties
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  feel their fundamental needs are met even if all goals are not attained.
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  Is this not acceptable to us? But this involves listening.
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  We have lost the art of listening. And it is an art since it takes patience and compassion.
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  Most times, since we have to get our point across, we interrupt each other,
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  We talk over one another.
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  More can get done by tuning out other thoughts and truly listening to the other party or parties.
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  We see this all the time.
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  You can see it on the news when newscasters have interviews with our people who are politicians.
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  When two people are just trying to speak the loudest and no one is hearing the
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  other one talk. They're just talking over one another.
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  And these are the people who we put in charge of our country.
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  We need to get back to respect, tolerance, and consideration.
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  All of these qualities are discussed in the Bible. is valuing others above ourselves
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  in Romans, honoring one another.
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  In Matthew, the golden rule, treating others as you would want to be treated.
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  Tolerance is discussed in collosions, forbearance and forgiveness.
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  Titus, be peaceful and gentle, showing consideration to everyone.
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  And regarding consideration in Corinthians, consider how our actions affect others.
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  So I'm going to end this segment by reading a piece of scripture And it's from Luke 7, 31-35,
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  And what I hope is that the Have Faith, Let It Begin audience would think about
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  it And I would love to hear your feedback on it, what your thoughts are,
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  And we're going to make this a feature of a future podcast and we're going to discuss it.
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  And just keep in mind that with reading any piece of scripture,
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  there's always going to be several ways you can interpret it.
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  I have my way of interpreting this paragraph, but here it goes.
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  What comparison can I use for the men of today?
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  What are they like? They are like children squatting in the city squares And
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  calling to their playmates We piped you a tune,
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  but you did not dance We sang you a dirge,
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  but you did not wail I mean that John the Baptizer came Neither eating bread
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  nor drinking wine And you say he is mad.
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  The Son of Man came, and he both ate and drank.
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  And you say, here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
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  God's wisdom is vindicated by all who accept it.
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  Angel, your thoughts? I mean, I think that's amazing.
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  And I thank you, Nick, you know, for taking the time to share your heart with
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  us today. And before I make my final comments, you know, everybody here knows
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  we don't get into politics often here at Have Faith That It Began.
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  However, sometimes in life, politics and believe it or not, our feelings of
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  the way we live our lives and try to be more Christlike tend to intersect.
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  So with that being said, this is why I appreciate Nick coming on because,
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  you know, he allows us the opportunity to look at things in a different light.
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  So I really, really appreciate that. You're right.
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  Let's start with that. You know, troubling times are nothing, nothing new.
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  When we look back at the late 60s, 70s and 80s and even recent events in recent
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  years and recent weeks, history is filled with moments of unrest and division and hardship.
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  Every generation seems to wrestle with its own kind of storm.
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  And the question is, you know, I guess the question we keep asking is, how do we get better?
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  Right. Like you said, how do we learn from this? How do we grow?
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  And as a country, how do we grow as a country and as a person or as people?
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  One thing that becomes clear when we study history, the problems may change
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  shape, but the root of the issues often remain the same.
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  And that's pride, selfishness, fear, and hate.
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  Today, we see so much anger and division in our behavior, in our communities, even in our families.
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  And it feels overwhelming at times.
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  And it's easy to lose hope.
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  It's, you know, but there's, here's where faith, you know, steps in, right?
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  Scripture reminds us, like you said, in Romans, you know, you brought up Romans.
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  What was the Romans again, real quick? It was Romans. Romans 12 was honoring one another.
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  Right. And if you think about Romans, because I didn't want to repeat the same thing twice.
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  Romans chapter 12, verse 21, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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  That means that even when the world feels like it's spinning with negativity,
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  we are called to respond differently.
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  Certainly, we're called to stand in the gap, to bring light where there is darkness,
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  and to model the love of Christ in a world that desperately needs it.
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  So, how do we get better as a country? We start small.
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  With ourselves. If we can't fix it, we can't fix Washington overnight,
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  right? Let's just be real.
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  And we're going to continue on with this discussion. But we can't snap our fingers and erase division.
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  We can choose kindness.
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  We can choose forgiveness. We can choose to listen more than we speak.
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  We can choose to treat others with dignity, even when we disagree with them.
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  Imagine if one of us took just one step toward compassion every single day.
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  How much healing could begin in our homes, our workplace, our schools,
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  and yes, even in our nation?
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  Nick, your words remind us that we've been through troubled times before,
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  and yet we made it through.
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  Not perfectly, not without scars, but we endure and we can endure now too.
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  Because God has not abandoned us.
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  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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  And he calls us to live differently, to rise above the noise,
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  and to be peacemakers in a world that desperately needs peace.
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  So my encouragement to our listeners today is this, don't let the headlines steal your hope.
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  Don't let the behavior of others cause you to mirror anger with anger, hate with hate.
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  Instead, let's flip the script. Let's choose to be the light of darkness.
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  Let's choose to show love where there is hate and offer grace even when it's not deserved.
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  This is how change begins, one heart at a time.
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  And let's come together. And to all of you tuning in, let's pray.
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  Heavenly Father, we thank you for reminding us that even in troubled times, you remain the same.
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  Lord, we ask you and your peace to calm our spirits and for your love to soften our hearts.
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  Teach us to see each other, not as enemies, but as brothers and sisters in Christ.
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  Help us to overcome hate and love, anger with patience and fear with faith.
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  May each one of us be a vessel of your grace in this world, starting right where we are.
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  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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  In Jesus' name we pray, amen. May God be with you.
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  May he shine his light upon you and grant each and every single one of you peace
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  on earth. Because remember, you matter.