Latest / MESSmerized - Funny and faith based encouragement in marriage , family , Christian parenting , and finding purpose / Episode 129: How'd I Miss That? - Cynthia Goes Solo

Transcript

Episode 129: How'd I Miss That? - Cynthia Goes Solo · MESSmerized - Funny and faith based encouragement in marriage , family , Christian parenting , and finding purpose

• 0:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is Cynthia Gannoff and you are listening to the mesmerized podcast.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hey friends, welcome to 2026 and welcome to a new year on mesmerized and for those of you who have been here for a long time.
• 0:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for showing up and being a part of this community.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're new, welcome.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are so glad you are joining us.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: The next few weeks we're going to do things a little bit differently as we step into a new year.
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: 2026 is the year of how I miss that.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: My new book releases February 3rd many of you know that many of you have already pre-ordered it I cannot thank you enough for doing that But I thought it would be fun the next few weeks probably four or five weeks to share some of the stories from the book Share some of the people I'm gonna have some of the people on it from the past people that I tell stories about some really funny people that will be talking with us
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And really, because I feel so strongly about the message of this book, I just want to share it with you guys, why it matters to me and not because I'm here to sell you books, but I would love for you to pre-order a book, absolutely.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: But really, because I'm here to share with the Lord's put on my heart and what matters to me, when it comes to faith and family, and parenting, and
• 1:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: marriage and all those things and so I thought, hey, let's just do it here and so that's what we're going to do the next few weeks.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today it's just going to be me.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to share kind of the premise of the book a little bit of the background behind it and hopefully some words of encouragement to you going into a new gear and then after this week, some of my friends will be on we'll be talking out different parts of the book sharing stories and really laughing a lot.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's my
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, now, let's start with this.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many of you have asked in the past about, just how do you get a book contract?
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: How did this come about?
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm just going to give you a really quick thumbnail for anyone interested or just curious or maybe you want to write a book.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I am not a girl in my entire life.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was like, I'm going to write a book one day.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, not one teacher, not one professor.
• 2:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not one law school academic person was like, man, this girl is going to write a book one day.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, it was not that way at all, just in the last couple of years, I just blogged a lot, wrote a bunch of articles and then at some point thought, huh,
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: whether it be something the Lord would want me to do.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: And a friend, K. Yima said, hey, you should send something into my agent.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And just so you know, he's never taken anyone that I've sent to him or maybe one person ever, but you should just send it in and see what the Lord does.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you're supposed to write a book, then he will pave the way.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he did that agent responded back.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: We started working on a book proposal, then he sent it out to all the publishing houses.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh my gosh, what if he sends it out this book proposal to all these publishing houses and not one response?
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he said, you know what, I'm pretty good at my job.
• 2:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know books that will get a deal on when they won't, and I think we're okay.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I was like, all right, so we prayed hard over it.
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: My agent, Eric Wolf, I'm a incredible man of faith.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so he did he send it out and we got several publishers that responded and I did some zoom interviews with them.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: and ended up getting the choice of three different ones and I picked David Cook and specifically it's called Esther Press.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's an imprint of David Cook and I picked him because I thought they were so missional and I loved Susan who worked with me on this and they were trying to take authors that maybe don't have the biggest names, not the
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, Christian famous, if you will, they want to take maybe smaller names, smaller platforms, but they had a strong message.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And to allow the Lord to do something with those voices in the industry, and I just really loved their philosophy.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's who I went with, and they gave me a two-book deal.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so the first book, as you guys know, life is messy.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: God is good.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: It came out almost two years ago, shocking, but two books in three years is not for the week.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'll tell you that, now knowing what I know.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: But that book came out, and I feel like I had 50 years of stories and thoughts to put into that one, and I tell you what, it flowed off the fingertips.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, got it, this is gonna be great.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there were some slow moments, but overall, wrote it, loved it, done.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, oh, I could do 100 of these, and then book two came along.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And for everything that was easy in book one it was not in book two and what I love about it is book two I feel like I had to rely on the Lord all the way through start to finish everything from the title to The content to the design everything seemed harder that yet everything else was It was God's guidance and prayer and just asking the Holy Spirit to speak over this book to me
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so it is officially out how I miss that and by out, I mean, it'll be out February 3rd, but it is out of my hands and I'm very grateful for that and it was based on this quote, I read this quote a long time ago and I had it written in a journal and I'm not much of a journal or so that tells you something that I actually wrote it down, but there's this quote and really nobody knows who it came from, but it says this there's very little difference between people, but it's the little difference that makes a big difference.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that just stuck with me, there's very little difference between people, but it's a little difference that makes a big difference.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've seen that yourself.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure that there's just certain people that just have something about them, the way they do things, the way they think, the way that they care for other people, like little tiny things, almost hard to describe, but it makes a big difference.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: and who they are and how they get around the world.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think about my husband, he've heard this before, but he has no Christians and his family, no believers, and in high school, long before I knew him, he saw a group of guys.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mike, my husband, was a baseball player, is very into sports.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so he was watching these guys who lived a little differently.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: High school boys, and finally was like, I want to know why.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Little things that do, he can't really even articulate what it was, but they live differently, and so he got to know them and they invited him to FCA, and that's how Mike became a Christian.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Little differences that made a big difference in Mike's life.
• 6:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think about this in Luke 10, remember Jesus in that portion of the chapter.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's saying, like, love your neighbor and the lawyer, leave it to the lawyer, right?
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is like, well, who's my neighbor?
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: What constitutes my neighbor?
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so he goes into the story of the good Samaritan.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: He talks about the guy that went from Jerusalem to Jericho and he got beat up and left for dead and a priest passed him right on by and a Levite passed him right on by.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then there was the Samaritan.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the one who stopped.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the person.
• 6:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, you guys know that's highly controversial that Jesus would make the Samaritan the hero of the story.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jews hated Samaritans.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so he makes him the hero of the story and he's the one that stops and cares for the guy and gets him fixed up fed a place to stay and you think about this like what's the difference in the people that walked by?
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's their outlook.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's their availability
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: The way they looked at this, the robber, well, he was seen, he saw this man as someone to be exploited.
• 7:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 7:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the Levi in the priest, they saw the man as an obstacle to be avoided.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: They switched the side of the road.
• 7:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: They went right past him.
• 7:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the good Samaritan, they saw this broken and hurting man as a neighbor.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: They saw him as a neighbor worth loving.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's just this outlook that's marked with compassion and mercy and interruptibility and risk-taking, availability, intentional living, and it's willingness to serve others when it's inconvenient.
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like that kind of outlook, it informs our actions.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, that's the kind of mindset that produces these small pivots that significantly impact those around us is the little difference that makes a big difference right in our parenting our workplaces our friendships and you guys were not on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, but we are on the road between the partners meeting in our desk or the gym and the carpool, maybe it's the road between the dorm and the inner mural field for some of our younger listeners.
• 8:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are on the road in our outlook.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: matters, how we do things.
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: It makes me think of the story actually tell it in the intro of the book.
• 8:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was going to Houston, speak it in event, kind of a larger event that I had been asked to speak out a couple of years ago.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And typically my friends will go with me when I speak.
• 8:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I used to think it's because I love to hear me speak, but it turns out it's because they think I'm terrible, logistically at traveling.
• 8:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I was like, you know what, I'm going to Houston.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can handle that.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a couple hours from my house.
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can get there.
• 8:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm driving along and I stop at Bucky's and you guys, you know, Bucky's is, right?
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, let's not commit heresy and call it a gas station.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, Bucky's is the mecca of all things.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I had stopped, but I was in a hurry.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was just going to get gas, but this woman and her daughter came up to me and they asked for help.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: They needed food.
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't have any money.
• 8:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, honestly, I have no money to give you.
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: And they said, no, if you could just go in, when you go in, could you give me food?
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I go in and I'm thinking all the normal things, like, you know, what kind of scam is this?
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, do they robbing me or they take us out on my car?
• 9:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do they want my kidney?
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, what's happening here?
• 9:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I filled up a bag of food and rushed back out and handed it to him and I was in a hurry and I couldn't be late.
• 9:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I had this big event and so I handed it off to them.
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I get back in my car and as I'm driving off, I hear the loudest bang, like crash.
• 9:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: it's like, what is that?
• 9:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And only then did I realize you guys that in all of the hurry and the hub of, you know, safeguarding my kidney and questioning these people's intentions, I had forgotten to replace the hose back in the pump and it was still the gas hose was still in my car.
• 9:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I ripped it from kingdom come you guys like it.
• 9:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was not like just I'd moved up a little bit.
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was way out of the lane of where I'd been getting gas and I had the hose dangling out and it got really weird because at that point I did you know I'd make a decision what am I going to do am I going to like act like hey this is totally normal.
• 9:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean half a bucket you've seen how many cars are in their gas lanes.
• 9:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're all looking at me, and I was like, okay, am I gonna, like, act like this is normal, am I gonna burst into tears?
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, what weird thing am I gonna do?
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I put it in park, and I went and I got that gas pump out, and I walked it all the way back, like the walk of shame.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: So horrifying, right?
• 10:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I think about that moment all the time because I realized at that moment what mattered most to me was the platform that I was going to be speaking on and I'm wondering in that moment what mattered most to God was that the platform or was it my heart at the pump and my willingness to be inconvenienced.
• 10:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: My attitude, my questioning of people, God's people that maybe did legitimately need some help.
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And how often are we, are we focused on the platform?
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever your platform is, maybe it's not speaking on a stage, but we all have these things that seem like the important things.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And God's saying, really, are they?
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think we've got to think about things like, Jesus said to think about things, right?
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: He talks about the mustard seed in Matthew 13, 31 to 32.
• 10:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though it's a smallest of seed, yet when it grows, it's the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: You have to think of the context in this as Jesus talking to a huge group of Jews and non-Jews but he's talking to them and there's this elephant in the room question he's answering because these Jews, they've been waiting for the kingdom of heaven to come and they thought it would come with fanfare and trumpets and this mighty Messiah, right?
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: not this common-looking man who's carding around a bunch of one-off disciples, right, this humble man.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so he's saying to him, he's explaining to them, this is how the kingdom works.
• 11:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: He's like, think of the mustard seed and how it's this tiny thing, but it becomes this huge plant.
• 11:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And this makes sense these people because they would be walking paths every day, dirt paths and there would be just utils of little tiny mustard seeds everywhere.
• 11:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so we sang, think of this tiny mustard seed.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: You probably picked one up and they used like this little tiny seed becomes a huge plant.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's pointing out at the fields probably that they're looking at and they are covered in these beautiful, big, huge mustard plants.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's saying, that's how it works, these little things.
• 12:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is the mustard seed mentality, you guys, that these little things
• 12:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: and our faith make a huge difference.
• 12:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: They matter, right?
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: They have impact.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so we have to have this mustard seed mentality and show up and know that these faithful little acts that we're called to do all throughout the Bible that they matter and they're significant and the kingdom of God.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: so often we make the mustard seed mistake.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that is just because we can't see the growth.
• 12:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't see what difference it makes that it's not making a difference.
• 12:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't matter.
• 12:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: I fall for that all the time.
• 12:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's how I miss it.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: All the time is that I think these little things I'm doing when I can't see results.
• 12:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: They don't seem like the big significant things that they just don't matter.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think about the bamboo plant.
• 12:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've probably heard this,
• 12:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: you water it and you on and on day after day continue just to tend to it.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Watch the sun shine on it.
• 13:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Make sure it's water and then it gets kind of weird because nothing happens and it can be up to two years before you see any growth.
• 13:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now how maddening is that?
• 13:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would make it about three days.
• 13:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like there's nothing there.
• 13:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm moving on but you keep tending to it and then one day you will see something sprout.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Something green come about.
• 13:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: You will see growth and
• 13:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: and you can app up to two to three feet of growth in one day and all that time when it seemed like nothing was happening.
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, during that time there was a deep root system that was forming in order to sustain the growth that was about to happen.
• 13:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think
• 13:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's just such a good analogy of what happens when we do these little things that make a big difference.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right?
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: It seems like it doesn't matter.
• 13:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: These moments of generosity, moments of kindness, these moments of stopping and helping people.
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you just tend to these little things like, gosh, it doesn't seem to matter.
• 13:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And everybody else is doing big things.
• 13:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing these little things.
• 13:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you know what?
• 13:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: One day, one day it does sprout.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what Jesus is saying, like these little seeds, man, they become big.
• 14:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when you do one day see the impact of the small little things in kingdom living, man, it makes a huge impact, generational impact.
• 14:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And all that time when you're doing these little things that seem like they're nothing God is forming a deep root system that will sustain the growth of what He's doing.
• 14:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: in his kingdom plans, in his timing.
• 14:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think if someone who did this really well, there's a woman, she's passed away recently, but her name is Peggy Powell.
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Peggy Powell understood this mustard seed mentality that these small things have big impact, big kingdom impact.
• 14:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it goes kind of like this.
• 14:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mike and I have some very dear friends and many years ago, strong Christian friends, one of my good friends from college, and a lot of years ago, the husband got caught up in white color crime.
• 14:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was shocking to us and he is eventually sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and we just couldn't believe it in his wife was devastating a two small children and I had reached out to some people our church just to be praying for him as he went to prison and first family and all of this all the people impacted by this and Peggy Powell heard about this and I don't know Peggy I didn't know Peggy well, but she heard about it and a couple years into his sentence in prison I heard from his wife
• 15:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: that Peggy Powell started writing him a letter when he first went to prison every single day.
• 15:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Every single day, she would send him something short, just a little note, maybe an article from a newspaper, maybe a joke, eventually over time, he was able to start writing her back and they started memorizing scripture together and they would challenge each other to memorize passages and write them out and send them back and forth.
• 15:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Justin served, I believe, eight and a half
• 15:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: His release after eight and a half years and of that eight and a half years every single day, he received a letter from Peggy Powell.
• 15:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Peggy Powell understood something I don't that these little things are significant.
• 15:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Some things that I miss and I asked I called her one day and I said, what prompted this?
• 15:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, what motivates this?
• 16:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: You don't even know him.
• 16:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: You don't know his family.
• 16:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: They don't live in the same city.
• 16:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we do, he's not even in the same state and prison.
• 16:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And she said two things, practically I know that prisoners that receive mail are treated better.
• 16:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: But two, I wanted him to know that his best days are still ahead and that there's no condemnation in Christ.
• 16:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so here's the thing, Peggy Powell's passed away.
• 16:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our friend, he got out of prison.
• 16:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: His still at home now with his wife, he's still married.
• 16:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: His kids are thriving, going to college.
• 16:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: I believe there will be generations of people changed because of the faithfulness of Peggy Powell.
• 16:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: I believe there will be generations that will look at life and have a belonging in Christ and see faith because of her.
• 16:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And they won't ever know a Peggy Powell,
• 16:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Justin's family still together and his kids are the Lord.
• 16:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: His kids will get married and probably have kids and it will go generation to generation.
• 16:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And although Peggy Powell probably didn't see the full picture of it, definitely didn't see the full picture of it.
• 16:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: When she was just getting a stamp every day, writing a simple letter, I believe now on the other side of eternity and heaven she sees how these little things made a big difference in kingdom impact.
• 17:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was a mustard seed mentality she had.
• 17:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's what I want for us.
• 17:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's why this book matters because I've spent so much of my life as a girl who grew up a Christian.
• 17:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've spent so much of my life thinking the big things are the big things, and sometimes they are, but most often in Kingdom Living, it's the small things that you already know.
• 17:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: The things you hear about, if you're in Bible study, or something you know about these things, that we just need reminders.
• 17:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And my hope is I'm giving you comical hilarious reminders in this book of what matters.
• 17:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to leave us as we start to wrap up with the first chapter I talk a lot about maybe it's not what we do but how we do it that matters like that's the little difference right and as Christians love how we love people matters.
• 17:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And, and I think about how Jesus has asked, like, what's the greatest commandment when they asked him, right, once again the lawyer?
• 18:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's the greatest commandment?
• 18:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, listen, love the Lord to God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
• 18:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Love.
• 18:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you can't separate your love for God with your love for people.
• 18:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our brand is Christians, it's love.
• 18:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is our brand.
• 18:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think about an opportunity I had to podcast someone.
• 18:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I will not mention names, but I was so excited to podcast this person.
• 18:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Someone I wanted to podcast for a long time and a person that is very well-known and speaks really well into loving people well because of our faith.
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I was so excited and I set up for the interview and got ready to do the interview and something as,
• 18:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Murphy's law can only allow this to happen.
• 18:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Something happened and our technology got messed up.
• 18:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so we weren't able to connect.
• 18:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I called this person's direct dial.
• 18:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I had that number from the purr, the PR person I called.
• 18:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the person answered, I said, I am so sorry.
• 18:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what's going on.
• 18:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: It'd been about 15 minutes since it was supposed to start.
• 19:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: The interview was supposed to start.
• 19:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And this person was definitely not happy about the delay.
• 19:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I said, maybe we could reschedule this person said, listen, I'm not rescheduleing now or ever.
• 19:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And here's the deal, listen, everybody has a bad day.
• 19:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I get it.
• 19:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: But when your whole premise is love, when your whole platform is built on love and you act unloving, it doesn't go unnoticed, right?
• 19:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's how it is for us as Christians.
• 19:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like listen, we are to be about love.
• 19:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the greatest commandment.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: You probably know first Corinthians 13.
• 19:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was probably in every wedding.
• 19:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've attended maybe in your own wedding.
• 19:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we know that love is patient and kind and all these things it goes through as beautiful.
• 19:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: But do we skip first one sometimes like listen to this?
• 19:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: If I speak in the tongues of men or angels, but do not have love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.
• 19:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's saying like, we can do all kinds of great things, so we can do all kinds of God things.
• 19:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if we're not doing him in love, it really doesn't count.
• 20:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's even worse than not counting.
• 20:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: It sounds like a gong.
• 20:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, we probably don't have gongs in our house, maybe you do.
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I don't, but I remember the gong show.
• 20:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I was a little kid, I remember my grandparents loved it, right?
• 20:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's kind of like the kissing cousin to America's got talent or the voice.
• 20:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like they would put these like talent acts, I'm saying talent and air quotes.
• 20:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: They'd put them up there in front of celebrity judges and they would get a score from 1 to 10.
• 20:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if they were horrible, they would totally get boot off and gong.
• 20:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: A gong would come with someone bang the gong and gong and it'd be like, get off the stage.
• 20:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: You're that bad, right?
• 20:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And listen, as Christians, like we've had a long history of gong where the actions can we agree to that?
• 20:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like maybe arguments over praise teams versus pipe organs or maybe bringing politics too much into church or maybe it's women and ministry.
• 20:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's all kinds of things.
• 20:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we have these like level 10.
• 20:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: talents and giftings of people in our churches and our congregations that really get netted out to zero.
• 21:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: They get gonged off because in all of our doing and building and platforming, we forget that the assignment, the assignment is love, right?
• 21:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to read you from my book page 33.
• 21:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I said it this way.
• 21:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Says, maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, but I can't help but wonder how our perspective might change if a gong crashed.
• 21:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Every time we convinced ourselves, we were on brand doing the right or the Christian things, but they weren't based in love, like lifting her up in prayer.
• 21:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: That kind of comment and a text thread when we're really just sharing gossip with a few friends, gong, or correcting our spouse and love while listing his last 10 mistakes, gong.
• 21:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Helping others once a month at a local ministry, but only to check the box for service hours, gong.
• 21:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Giving 10% of your bonus with a four smile, because you really just wanted to take a vacation, gong.
• 21:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Holding babies in the nursery because the children's minister keeps cornering you, gong.
• 21:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 22:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: We do that a lot.
• 22:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: how we do things matters, how we love people matters.
• 22:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: This will be the last story I'm gonna share with you, but I talk in the book about how back in law school, y'all know I went to law school many years ago.
• 22:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the first class I took was contracts, and so so excited because the entire class and by excited like not excited, but it was new, the entire class came down to one test.
• 22:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's one exam at the end, and so,
• 22:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, okay, I'm a pretty good student.
• 22:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: I can do this.
• 22:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I went to class and I took notes and I joined the study group and I did all the things participated in class.
• 22:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so the end of the semester comes and I'm like, all right, my first law school class.
• 22:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to take the test.
• 22:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I got the test and it was front and back just two essays.
• 22:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I read them.
• 22:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh, got it.
• 22:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know this.
• 22:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Got it.
• 22:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: No problem.
• 22:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I scribble it out back when we used pencil and paper everyone.
• 22:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: I scribbled it out and I turned it in as like nailed it like I knew it.
• 22:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: So grades came out later and they were anonymously graded the test were and the grades were anonymous.
• 23:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it was post on the front doors of law school and I went and I found my little student ID number and next it said F and I literally laughed because I was like, there's no way I got an F. I'm a good student and I did all the things and I looked again.
• 23:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Still enough.
• 23:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, frantically, I went to talk the professor and the professor, obviously not knowing was me, graded, and honestly.
• 23:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was like, you were the F, oh my heavens, I would have never guessed.
• 23:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you came to class.
• 23:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: You studied.
• 23:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: You knew the material.
• 23:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: You did all the things.
• 23:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And he said, but here's a deal.
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you read this legal scenario, you must have read it wrong, because you answered the two questions wrong.
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: You answered the question wrong, and I don't know if it's worth anything to you, but if that's what we were asking, it would have been an A.
• 23:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, no, that's really not helpful, but I just misread it.
• 23:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I answered it wrong, and I think that's a lot about, that's a lot to say about how we live life as Christians.
• 24:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: We live in a culture that is desperately seeking a word on their identity, on if they're good enough.
• 24:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: They want to understand our faith, they want to understand our God.
• 24:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if we are answering it with anything other than love, then we're answering the wrong question.
• 24:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we can go to all the Bible studies, and we can read the Bible in a year, and we can listen to the podcast, just like I did in the Contarch class, I did all the right things.
• 24:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you have one chance moments to show.
• 24:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: what matters to you and to show these glimpses of Jesus.
• 24:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when we don't show it in love, then we missed what was being asked.
• 24:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that's my encouragement for all of us.
• 24:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: The problem is you guys that when we have these one chance in counters, it's usually when we are rushed and they are usually inconvenient, think back to the good Samaritan, right?
• 24:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: When we're on our way on a road from Jerusalem to Jericho and it's inconvenient or we're on the highway and the jerk cuts us off or we're at work and the person that's unkind or that got the position we wanted needs something, it's these one chance encounters by people that are flawed and probably annoying and it's inconvenient to us and probably will cost us something but those are the moments.
• 25:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: They were answering the question, what matters most to us?
• 25:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so don't miss it.
• 25:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: right?
• 25:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Don't miss it.
• 25:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the kingdom of God, the small things become big things.
• 25:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: The little difference is make a big difference like the mustard seed.
• 25:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it all starts not with just how we do things, but how we do them, why we do them, not what are the things we do, but why do we do them?
• 25:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And are we loving people well as we do them?
• 25:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, that's a little kickoff intro into how do I miss that, the book, and the sub by the way, the subtitles, gas pump confessions drive through obsessions and figuring out what really matters.
• 25:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Gas pump confessions, well, you already heard that story, drive through obsessions and figuring out what really matters.
• 26:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the subline on it.
• 26:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so you guys, thanks for just letting me share what's on my heart with this book with you guys.
• 26:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And here's my ask.
• 26:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: If I could have an ask, it's kind of three asks in one, but here's the first thing.
• 26:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would just love for you to take a minute, like when you finish this in just second and pray for this book.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: And just pray that the Lord gets in the hands of the people who need it.
• 26:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether that be three people or three hundred thousand, I just want
• 26:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: the message that the Lord has to get to the people who need it.
• 26:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so would you pray that for me?
• 26:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm praying the Lord will do just that, get it in the right hands at the right time for the people who need it.
• 26:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Second of all, if you haven't pre-ordered a copy, it would mean a ton to may if you would do that, like soon, because Amazon and other retailers, they order books based on pre-orders.
• 26:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so pre-orders are right now, and that shows these places that Christian authors
• 26:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: also tells my publisher and enforces reinforces to them that these things matter and that people will support strong Christian writing.
• 27:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then the last thing is, would you be wanting to share this podcast this week or in a coming weeks if something strikes you or speaks to you, would you share it with your friends and continue to grow what we're doing here and as rise.
• 27:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Guys!
• 27:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to 2026.
• 27:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for being willing to go along with me on this ride as we do it kind of differently the first few weeks.
• 27:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stay tuned.
• 27:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to have some fun people on some funny people on some blasts from my past that I'm sure will have some funny stories.
• 27:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: So join in each week and we will be doing this and the book releases February 3rd but we'll probably do the next four or five weeks.
• 27:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: So thank you for the last few minutes for giving me your time and thanks for being a part of the mesmerized family.
• 27:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: You guys are the very best.
• 27:50
  [UNKNOWN]: Thank you.