Latest / Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten / The Body Teaches the Soul: Justin Whitmel Earley on Habits, Holiness, and Stewardship

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The Body Teaches the Soul: Justin Whitmel Earley on Habits, Holiness, and Stewardship · Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast for My Dad. Coach
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Alex van Houghten helps you get stronger in mind, body,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and spirit. He believes that your body is a temple,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: so taking good care of it is an actual worship.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I should know.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I live with them. Every week, he brings truth from
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the Bible too of some science and stories that will
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: set your heart on fire. May God bless you to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: become everything He made you to be, just one percent
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: better every single day.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Hey there, Coach Alex van Houghten. Here Faithful Fitness Podcast.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Our mission is to help you to make the most
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: out of the body God's given you. And let's face it,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: we don't exactly drift into health and holiness. We drift
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: into chaos, which is why our daily habits matter so much.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Kind of like these Barbelle rule outs, they take practice,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: rhythm and consistency. And in today's episode, we get to
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: catch up with Justin witt Mill early awesome guy. I
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: love his ministry. We're gonna be talking about his new book,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: The Body Teaches the Soul. And in this book there
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: are some amazing, amazing habits that help will help you
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: to be more like Christ. Sorry, I'm getting out of
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: breath before we dive into this episode, though, you need
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: to check the show notes for my new devotional, Faithful
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Fitness at faithfulfitnessdevo dot com. It's your forty day scriptural
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: foundation to putting more faith in your fitness. One more.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Here we go, here we go. So without further ado,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: let's dive into it. What's up, guys, This is coach
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Alex vann Holden on the Faithful Fitness Podcast. I'm super
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: excited to spend time with you today. Our mission is
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: to help you make the most out of the body
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: God's given you, and I know this conversation today is
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: going to help you with that. I have author, speaker, lawyer, dad, husband,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Justin Whitmill early on our podcast today, justin what's up, brother,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: how you doing this morning?
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: I'm doing so good, Alex. I am loving being on
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: an interview with the bench press in the backgrounds right.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: You know, it's heading up my alle even though the
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: bench press actually.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Well, this intersection of faith and fitness is near and
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: dearer to both of our hearts. And your book coming
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: out in just a month from now, is well, it's
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: it's going to bring these two things together in a
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: way that that everybody can understand why we're so jazzed about.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: So that's wait to talk about it. But before we do,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: something super important we got to talk about, and that
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: is I've got my dad fuel cup right here.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Let's go. I got my up here.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I've heard that the flask is your new favorite coffee maker.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Can you fill us in what's so good about that?
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Because we dads, especially we dads of boys, know we
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: dads need the caffeine.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: You read some coffee. Wow, so many parts that I'd
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: love to answer here first of all, and actually know
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: you were going to talk about this, but it happens
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: to be sitting on my desk because I just pressed it.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: So here's the flask.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Boom.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: So the flask is fun for many reasons. One, so
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: I'm a corporate lawyer, Like this is my job. I'm
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: sitting at my law firm desk. I was reviewing a
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: contract the minute before I got on this call, and
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: one of my clients actually said like, Hey, we have
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: this new product we need you to help us work on,
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: and I was like, this looks amazing. So what it
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: is is basically a French press meets a chemex meets
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: an aerow press, and so if you're in the coffee word,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: you know what these things are. Like you're actually you're
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: filling up an AeroPress style tube in here, but you're
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: doing it with coarse ground coffee that goes through a
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: filter like a French press, but then it ends up
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: in this nice glass like I wish you could see it,
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: fol so like it feels like.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: I can picture it. It's got to check right outside.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Like as you push down, the coffee fills up. So
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: it's like pleasing aesthetics, like the chemes. But I'm totally sold,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: so I make I go by the mode of life
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: is too short to drink bad coffee. I really respect
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: my friends who are like give me waffle house or
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: give me, like, you know, a fine cup of like
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Ethiopian pour over. I'll take anything. I respect that. I
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: kind of wish I was like that because it would
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: saved me a lot of money in time. But I
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: just I love making really good coffee and this is
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: one of my favorite ways to do it.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Oh dude, I love that. That makes me so happy.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: So there was a I mean, you know this your
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: father four boys, So like there was a time where
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I was so sleep deprived that like, I just like
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the only the only reprieve that I had in the
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: morning was my my cup of coffee. And you're right,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: it's like bad toilet paper. Like you don't buy bad
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: toilet paper, you spend the extra two dollars and you
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: get the two ply man. So spend the spend the
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: two bucks.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: And every day I was like, that's where you want
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: to spend your money, that's where you want to Yeah.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: That's right. Well thanks for that. I'm gonna have to
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: give that a shot because because I love coffee as
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: as well and as a dad, you know, that's That's
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: one of those small things I get up in the
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: morning and I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna I'm a Bible
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and I'm a cup of coffee before I open any
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: emails or mess with anything. And that's that's what I'm
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: gonna do. And and God and I really enjoy good
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: coffee together.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Amen. I mean, he made it. This is this is
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: touching on so many things that I write about in
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: the Body Teaches the Soul, which we'll get to. I'm
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: not trying to jump the gun here, but the idea
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: of that, like trying to get good sleep, waking up
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: appreciating the gifts of God. My morning has been for
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: a long time scripture before phone, which sometimes mean I
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: just don't get on my phone and don't do anything
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: until on the way of the office and I open
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: like an audio Bible app But usually now in this
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: phase of life, it means a cup of coffee with
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: the Bible, like it was this morning, and it is
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: one of the highlights of my day because like enjoying
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: the word of God next to the goodness of God
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: and coffee next to the quiet of a morning which
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: we know as Dad's is like is rare, Like this
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: is not going to be all the time, no, And
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: it's just such a high point of my life, and
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: it makes it makes me like appreciate that that body
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: soul interaction of like this is great coffee to drink
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: and these are the words of truth to meditate on
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: and chew on.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Let's go, yes, yes, let's go, and and on that note. Man,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: that's that is I believe that is the same spirit
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: that animates both the book that that you're publishing that
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I can't wait to talk through, and then we're publishing
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: a devotional the idea being that that the church has
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: gotten away from the body. Yes, and ceded that that
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: seeded C E D E D. I know you're a lawyer,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: but not everybody. Here's the word the way I'm saying
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: it ceded that that territory to the enemy in our world.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: And so it's it's so timely before before we jump
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: on that topic, though I do, I do have to
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: say this, and I'm going to say it on air.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: I said it pre show. But I want to say
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: thank you very much for your work. One one of
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: your book's habits of the household is is well it's
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: it was a godsend in our household. I don't know
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: if you know Richard Foster. He was a writer in
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: the fifties. He wrote Celebration of Discipline and I loved
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: that book. It was such a deep book. You know,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Hippocrates said everybody wants a cure until the prescription is
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: discipline and reading good.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: I've heard that it's good man.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: You take that one to the bank's he's he's been
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: gone for a while, so he won't mind. But yeah.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: But in the nineteen fifties, Richard Foster, a Quaker, wrote
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: a book called celebration of discipline, and he was he
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: dove into the long lost spiritual disciplines of things like
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: fasting and meditation on scripture, and in the book is
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: so scriptural that it's mostly scripture and a little bit
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: of Richard Foster talking, yes, which is great. But what
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: I found trying to lead people through that it was
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: it was too dense. It was not practical enough for
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: the phase of parenting and in the season of life
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: that individuals were in, or at least not in our
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: church community. And so when I read your book, Habits
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: of the Househole, you published in twenty twenty one, when
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: I read this, I think I read it in a
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I think I read it shortly after you published it
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: because I was looking for for work on discipline that
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: would translate directly and just such an intensely practical So
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: your writing style is so graceful, it's so so filled
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: with love. I could tell the Holy Spirit was with
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: you while you were managing the chaos of parenting for
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: young boys. Man. And and we've led we actually we
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: actually bought I think we I think we have like
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: forty copies of this in our side table, because every
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: time somebody in our church has a child who already
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: has children or like here, read.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: This, read this book a gift. I'm so honored to
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: hear that I had no idea, Alex. I mean I
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: was scribbling on parenting ideas in spring of twenty twenty.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: You may remember that time. I was sitting there in
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: March like trying to write this book, and there was
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: spiritual warfare going on big time because I kept thinking,
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: what do I know about parenting. I've got like four
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: like from newborn to six year old young boys. Our
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: house is totally chaotic, a mess. By the way, I
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: should be focusing on my law firm because the role
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: is going crazy. I should really be trying to like
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: protect the revenue and clients I have. And I was
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: writing about parenting every morning before I started my law work,
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: and I just remember thinking what am I doing? Why
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: am I doing this? But I felt that like deep
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: sense of like call I like just scribble what you're experiencing.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: And to hear you know, four years later, it's sitting
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: on the table at your church. For every family who
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: has you know, their second child is just like an
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: incredible ode to His goodness and graciousness.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Amen and the Holy spirit does that right, Like, like
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: you have your work, you have the thing that your occupation,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: the thing that you're doing, that that obviously you've been
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: called to. Obviously God's giving you opportunity to pursue that
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: education and a take care of people and whatnot. But
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: then you also have that little, that little thing, that little,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: the still small voice that's like, hey, you need you
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: need to write this down, Like you need to write
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: this down. It might just be for you, might just
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: be for your kids, but it's probably not.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it turns out it's not. So if there's
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: a message for anybody listening, it's just share what you're
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: going through. Honestly, these people need to hear your honest struggles.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: That's where we meet each other and become a community.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: And as it turns out, that's what people want to
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: read too.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Right. And I gotta say, Shep, I don't know him,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: but he is my spirit animal.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: He is he is as many people's spirit animal. Yeah, yes,
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: he's a wild dude turns seven. He turned seven last week?
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Are you serious? I Mean it's so weird because I
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: don't I don't know your kids, but I read about
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: and this was like a snapshot of your life to
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: such a gift, I'm sure to to your family, But
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: a snapshot of your life when he was very little?
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: What you wrote this like I wrote it when he
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: was I mean very much in diapers, maybe just you know,
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: one to three years old across that span.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yep, no, man, Shep embodies toddlerhood. So thanks
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: for that, dude.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: He is such a such a gift. But also that
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: we call him the tail of the whip because we
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: had three boys and then found out we're pregnant with
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: a fourth and we were just like pleading with God
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: to give us a sweet, calm, quiet girl and we
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: got Shep who whip. Like he's the most Yes, he's
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: the most boy boy, he's the most being punctious. He's
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: the most I'm gonna get what's mine, like I will
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: fight you on it.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Oh man, it's got to be youngest of youngest of
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: four boys. Like he's got a he's got a you know,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: grab it and growl as they say.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: That is. Yeah, he's got what it takes. He's got
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: what it takes to survive. That is, like, I'm not
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: worried about him. In some ways, I'm very worried about him.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: In otherwise I'm not worried.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: I'm sure sure, well, if he ever hears this, keep
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: it up, ship.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: I feel.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Well transitioning then from from that work. And obviously I'm
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: going to put a link in the show notes. I
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: think every parent, especially parents who have young kids at
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: their house and they're and they're trying to bring the
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Gospel to life in the everyday muck and meyer of parenting.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be mucky and myrie. It is,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: but it doesn't have to be you can you can
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: bring Christ to life in the smallest things, even from
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: waking up to kneeling at your bed and prayer to
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: to rich. They're not rituals. What did you call them?
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: It's a special word. Uh not a catechism, oh little.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: I call it the habits, little liturgies, liturgies, thank you, liturgy,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: special liturgies. That it's these are these are things you
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: can do every day. As we were talking about with
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: the coffee, you know, don't drink bad coffee. Drink good
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: coffee if you can, if you have a.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Liturgy to that goodness. That's right, Ye, that's right.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: We're gonna eat, so when we eat let's make sure
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: we we we do it habitually in a way that
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: brings the Gospel to life for kids. Such a powerful book.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna put the link in the show notes, I hope,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: but I hope everybody picks that up. And if if
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: you're in my community and your listeners, come find me,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: I've got a copy for you. I think you need
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: to read it. So uh, but I do want to
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: transition to your your book coming up, because this is uh.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: I'm excited to read it. Honestly, given your your writing
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: style and stuff, it just speaks really well to me.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: It helps me as a dad speak well to things,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: and so as a as a professional who works in
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: the space where faith and fitness intersect. I'm looking forward
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: to have having more of your language on that front.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: And I think that's important that that you know, it's
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: a united front in the Christian space. What so so,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: it's it's called the Body teaches the Soul.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Body teaches the soul.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Why did you write this book? What?
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: What was the what was.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: The compelling still small voice in your heart and mind
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: that led you to this.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: There are a lot of answers. So if you ran
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: this question back three times I would have like three
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: different I think, good, true and holy spirit filled promptings,
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: but I'll give you I'll give you one that was
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: very connected to Habits of the Household. In fact, there
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: was a chapter in Habits of the Household on exercise
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: that the editor cut and said, you know, this is
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: just not ready and like just not fully formed. And
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: they were right, what they were right, because it was
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: it wasn't. As it turns out that it was its
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: own book became the seed of you know, this this
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: book the Body. But here's what was happening. The month
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: that Shepherd was born, I walked into a CrossFit gym
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: for the first time. Okay, so Shepherd is now seven.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: And the reason I walked into it was because I
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: had just finished four years at a really tough boot camp,
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: high flying what we call big law firm. So I
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: spent the first four years in my lawyering just in
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: a very intense environment, working all the time. You know,
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: And this is I have a separate story of sort
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: of mental health collapse in that environment because there's so
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: many bad habits. I allude to it in Habits of
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: the Household, but I tell it, I tell it in
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: depth in the body teachers the soul. So I'm coming
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: out of some really bad health and mental health space.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: And I was starting my own law practice, and I
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: remember thinking, if I'm starting my own law practice, I
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: want to try to involve moving my body because I miss,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: you know, physical activity. I feel like something's not right
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: in my head my body. And I'm sitting at a
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: coffee shop one day, like this is probably a couple
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: months into starting my own practice, and I hear all
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: this banging next door, like I'm trying to have coffee
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: and work, and I hear just like clang and bang,
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: and there's like a garage next door. So I'm like, literally,
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: what are they doing? And I walk out and there's
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: no one in the garage. I'm like, oh, I guess
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: it's not the mechanics. And then I keep hearing it
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: and I look and there's this little door and it's
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: called Shocko Bottom CrossFit, and I look inside and this
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: dude who has like honestly the body of a Greek god,
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: and it's like he's like the only one in there,
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: and he's just lifting up I now know it's clean
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: and jerks. He's lifting up these weights and like putting
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: them above his head and I knock interrupt his workout,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: and he comes to the door all sweaty, basically like,
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: is there a class I can come to that would
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: get me to this?
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: And he was like, you know, come come tomorrow at
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: noon if you're free at this time. We do a
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: noon class every day. And so I for or mixed motives.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm mostly joking about the I realized, like,
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: this guy do has different genes than me. But I
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: was like, I need to get moving, and so I
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: start going to this class every day, and a couple
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: things happened. Alex One. I realized that everything that I've
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: been writing about in habits and formation in community are
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: on display in fitness, Like all the habit theory of
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: how your brain works and how you sort of get
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: in the groove of something, all the way that you
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: overestimate how much you can change in a day or
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: a week, but underestimate how much you can in months
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: and years. Yes, all the ways that you need community
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: to stick to it were actually just like I literally
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: just published a book about this. It was my first
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: book on habits and formation, called The Common Rule. And
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: I remember looking around the gym class, and this is
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: not specific to CrossFit necessarily. This is just about fitness,
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: particularly group fitness. And I was like, Oh, they're putting
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: to practice all this stuff that I'm thinking about. So
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: my mind was starting to click. But then I had
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: a really significant moment a couple weeks later. So wanting
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: to exercise is common to almost all humanity. Doing it,
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: as it turns out, is like pretty hard. Like you
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: get tired and you get hot and sweaty and pain
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: and like you're like, ah, this is I don't like this.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: And so I would go through these classes and CrossFit,
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: you know, you have like a weightlifting section and then
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: you have like a workout of the day sprint section,
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: and I would just get tired, right and I would
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: just be like this hurts. I'm tired. I would take
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: a break, and I remember people looking at me funny.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: But I didn't really know the culture. I didn't really
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: know like the whole point was to like not stop,
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: you know, for like eight to twelve minutes. So I'd
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: just like take a bathroom break or take a water break.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: And one day a couple weeks in, I'm doing some
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: exercise where I'm like, you know, actually it was clean
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: and jerks. It was like picking up the bar lifting
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: out over your head. And I remember like, I'm like, WHOA,
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: Like I hit the wall. I'm just tired. So I
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: get up to got like take a water break, and
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: my instructure comes over. His name is Ryan. He was
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: the one that I saw originally with a shirt off
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: lifting and he's like, hey, just pick it up one
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: more time. And I was like, I can't. I've hit
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: the wall. He's like, just pick it up, and I'm like, okay,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: and so I did one more rep and he goes, great,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: pick it up. I did one more rep. He just
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: looks at me pick it up, and I'm like, I
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: look up at the clock. There's like eight minutes left,
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh my gosh, he's going to stay here,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: like he's not leaving. And I remember collapsing on the
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: ground at the end of that workout in exhaustion, yes,
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: but also a deep satisfaction. And this thought was going
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: through my head that Okay, the wall I thought was
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: the wall was not the wall, right, which is a
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: fitness realization in and of itself. But next morning, I
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: am helping my son at his high chair. I remember
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: he knocks his sippy cup off the table. I go
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: down to get it for him. I put it back
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: like my legs are so sore from the day before.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: I'm like, oh leg day, yeah exactly. And then I
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: go to get like his breakfast or something, and just
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: being the toddler, he is like, you know, he slaps
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: the cup back off onto the floor, and I remember
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: like turning around and having this flash of anger, which
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: happens often to me and parenting, and I was just
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: like I'm done, like I'm it was that feeling. I mean,
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: any parent knows this feeling. It's like I'm done with
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: my patience. This is too much, I'm too tired, like
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: I'm about to snap at a toddler for being a toddler.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: And then I heard in my head pick it up,
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: pick it up, and yeah, it wasn't you know, Ryan,
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: my coach was nowhere near. This was the Holy Spirit
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: being like, you're you think you're at the end of
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: your patients, But I've got more patience, I've got more grace.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: And I remember picking it up, putting it back, smiling
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: at him. And that was the day where for some
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: reason the Lord was like, what I have to teach
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: you through the body and fitness and what I have
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: to teach you and your soul and spirit and holiness
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: are not as different as you think, and I'm going
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: to use one to teach you the other. Ever since
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: that day, and it's been like seven years since then,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: I have thought of the gym as a spiritual gymnasium
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: where the undergrimary thing that's happening is I'm learning how
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: to push through discipline for health and holiness it and
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: they feed each other. And this has been now a
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: seven year exploration of realizing that the Lord is doing
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: much more work than health. He's working on all of me.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Well said, well, so thank you for that story. That's
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: so it resonates so deeply with you know. For me,
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: I come from the opposite perspective in that fitness was
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: always a part of my life, but I didn't realize
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: that it was a spiritual practice. I didn't realize it
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: it was something I was consistently a part of. It
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: was athletic, and I helped people. I brought them through
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: the process of you know, whether you can't walk and
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: you're in mid sixties and we're recovering from surgery, or
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: if I'm training a you know, a fifteen year old
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: football athlete how to jump higher and run faster. You know,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: I was. I was familiar with the process and the
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: science and the nutrition. I was familiar with that, and
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: I was leading people through that. But I didn't realize
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: that it was spiritual work until until just just some
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: years ago. And you just described it so well. How
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: that how that goes.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: To what made you realize it?
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: It was a big piece of it was that in
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: my in my journey and my testimony and story. Uh,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: there was there was the first time that I wrestled
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: with my own health and fitness. I had always run,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: I always eat well. I've always had a six pack.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: You know, That's the just been my life and and
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: I love weight training. Martial arts was a huge part
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: of working through childhood trauma for me. So so like
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: I've always embodied this process of discipline and UH and
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: healing and adaptation. I've always embodied this process. But when
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: my first son was born, that was I wasn't ready
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: for fatherhood. I didn't grow up with a dad. I
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: didn't know what that looked like. It was like a
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: ton of bricks hit me in the face. He went
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: to Nick you for like, you know, two weeks and
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: so what I'm like working and sleep deprived and and
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: uh so the first time in my life I am
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: I am relying on bourbon and pop tarts to make
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: me feel good. And and so suddenly I have like.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: It sounds like a really unholy combination. I in, you know,
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: also the pop tarts. But still I call.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: It the bourbon and brownies diet. But you know, it's
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: the it, and it's it's not it wasn't good for me.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Obviously I'm not espousing that, but but I I caught
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: a reflection of myself in the mirror of my car
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: stopping at a gas station actually right about this, in
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: a faithful fitness I caught a reflection of myself and
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: I felt the Holy Spirit say, is this the dad
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: you want to be? And and for me it was
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: like no, Like like I've I've worked my whole life,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: like being athletic and helping people do this, and and
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: and now I have a son and I get to
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: show him how to be a man, and they're like
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: what am I doing? And so so I spent some
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: time and energy researching. Uh there's actually a whole a
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: whole plethora of research about the biological basis for Dadbod,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: the increase of prolactin the decrease of testosterone, and kind
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: of helped me explain for the first time what I
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: was wrestling with and and and so I started a
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: podcast actually called Defining dad Bod. That that helped me
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: start articulating to fathers that that we have this awesome
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: responsibility as dads to bring the spirit of the Father
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: and to bring physical fitness and leaving a legacy of
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: health and fitness for our kids. We have that awesome
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: responsibility and awesome opportunity, and and that I was failing it.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: So I wanted to fix that. So and so that
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: that was that was for me. That was a big
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: piece of my realization. And since then God has taught
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: me a lot from a scriptural perspective about how Scripture
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: comes to life in the daily practice of exercise and nutrition.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: So so that's that's where it came out for me.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: That's so good. I'm so grateful for you and so
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: grateful the Lord worked that in your life. There's so
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: much to be explored here, and I'm so glad you're
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: doing it because I feel like I'm just diving in.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: But I'm diving in because of how much the Lord
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: has just been pointing this arrow in my life. Like
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: I write about things that I am, that I write
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: about the places where God is working on me. And
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: that's why happens as the household came out because God
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: was working on me through being a parent. And then
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: I suddenly realized this whole thing by the way we
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: came to being Dad's by way of our bodies. Like
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: that's you know, so much of this life is about
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: the body. In fact, it all is because God never
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: made any part of us to be just spiritual or
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: just physical. It's always integrated and it has been probably
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: the key thing that he's been doing in my discipleship
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: in the past five years.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: Hey man, well, I'm so glad you spent the time
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: to write it. I can't wait to read it as
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: a as a father, you know, I wrestle with a
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: genetic just called Eelers Dan Los and and if I
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: don't exercise on a regular basis, my my joints won't
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: allow me to do normal things like like pick up
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: my children and put them in a car seat and
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: that sort of thing. And so when you when you
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: joked and have it to the household. I don't. I
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: don't think it was a joke. Obviously, it's real life
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: for a dad. But you said, Justin Whittman Early loves
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: to wrestle with his four boys, and so I have two.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: So I'm not getting ganged up on as much as
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: you are. It sounds like, but but I have two.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Double man that that youngest of mine has a mean
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: left hook. He's left handed. Man, pow, he'll get you. So.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: But but for me, with with the generic disorder, I
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: wrestle with getting to wrestle and not have like ridiculous
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: pain in my neck and not my my joints popping
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: out of place and stuff it. For me, the the
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: physical practice of keeping myself in good shape was obviously
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: related to one of my most important spiritual tasks, which
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: is be a bother to my boys and teach them
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: manhood and rough and tumble them and show them how
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: to be embodied and and to just just exist with them,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: you know. And so for me it was like like
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: this is so obvious for me, but it was really
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: hard for me to start articulating that to other individuals
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: and show them how God made their body to teach
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: them spiritual things too. And in the church, and I'd
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: love to talk to you about this. In the church,
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: I often hear it's not quite heresy, but we're real close.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: We're real close to the heresy of gnosticism, where where
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: we'll preach about spiritual things. But we've got donuts in
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: the lobby. And it's a joke how out of shape
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: we all are, Like, don't I don't actually mean like
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: a like a metaphorical joke, Like there's jokes from the
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: pulpit about how we all know we should exercise, but
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: we're not right, and it's like, hmm, I feel like
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: we're missing something. And so I wanted to ask you
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: about this because because I see it in the world,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: especially post COVID, especially with the proliferation of things like
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: I don't know, boys being girls and girls being boys
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: and stuff. There's this deep opportunity in in the body
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: of Christ today to reclaim some territory of the body
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: that the enemy has been playing all kinds of games
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: with in our world today. And and it's it's an
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: it's a powerful opportunity for the testimony of God's goodness,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: the testimony of God's grace and love and healing for
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: for us to take the body seriously and to stop
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: acting like it's some sort of thing separate from the
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: spirit that will be rid of someday when we when
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: we get to go to heaven. Uh So, so I
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: want to ask you about that because your book is
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: obviously coming in in the same same timeframe that that
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit laid this on my heart to write about.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: And so I wanted to ask you when you when
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: you pray about your book and when you pray about
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: its reception and hopefully the fruit in the world of
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: helping people see that the body teaches the soul, what
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: are some things that you're praying through that you hope
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: this addresses in the world at large.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: My great hope is that by paying more spiritual attention
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: to the body, people will live more into lives of
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: love for other people and for God. It's actually very simple.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of complexity into theologically why have we
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: gotten so astray here? And practically how do you do this?
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: But my hope is not complicated. And I believe fundamentally
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: we're made to be lovers of God and neighbor, and
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: so any endeavor in our life is and must be
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: geared towards that end. And so I would actually, I'll
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: work backwards here because you just shared Alex super interesting
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: part about your life, which I think makes you extreme
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: but not unusual, which is that you know, if you
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: don't move and exercise, right, then you're not going to
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: be able to do the ordinary things that make up
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: a life of love for ad Right, you've got an
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: extreme version of it, but it puts on display what
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: is true for everyone, and that is that living a
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: life of love of God and neighbor, as it turns out,
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: requires and is implied, that you have a certain respect
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: for the temple of the Holy Spirit that you've been
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: given called our bodies. And when I think we've read
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: honor your body or your body is a temple maybe
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: within some limited terms of sexual sin, to which they
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: are true for sure, but they're just not the whole
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: story of what God is doing through our bodies. So
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: when I think about, why do I have a chapter
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: on exercise in this book, and by the way, it's
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: actually it's only one chapter on exercise in the book.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: The rest of the chapters are breathing, thinking, eating, sleeping, sickness,
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: then exercise, sex, technology, worship, and death, death and resurrection.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: So those are the So I'm looking at all these
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: different areas of the body. But let's just take exercise, eating,
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: or sleeping, for example. All of these things are so
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: fraught with either ignoring them, like I'm not gonna pay
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: attention to what I eat, I'm not going to exercise,
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: I'm going to disregard my need for sleep. And there's
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: all kinds of versions of it, or where a culture
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: is fraught with idolizing them, where it's like I must
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: get this, you know, sleep routine right, or I must
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: eat this way, or I feel horrible about myself, or
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: I must exercise like and all of it, you know
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: that can be geared towards vanity and body image and
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: really healthy ways. And we just swinging, we, you know,
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: oscillate between these pendulum far ends of ignoring the body
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: or idolizing it. And what I want to say is
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: that God didn't make us live that way. What He
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: made us for is to image Him and that means
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: to put love on display. If you ask you what
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: is the image of God means? I think it means
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: lots of things, but one of the things it means
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: is that we are to show what God is like.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: God is invisible, he's spirit, right, but we are this
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: wild and crazy but beautiful union of spirit and body.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is really and this is the core
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: theology of the book. So I said, you know, practice
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: and theology, the core theology is is just looking at
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: what Genesis plainly tells us that God created Adam out
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: of dust, that's matter. Then he breathed into him the
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: spirit of life. This is Genesis two seven, and the
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: Bible says when those two things came together, a living
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: soul was born. And so this idea of a soul,
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: that we are souls is I used to think of
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: that as like sort of the invisible spiritual center of me,
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: but now I think of it, oh, as that's the
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: whole of me. Like I am a soul, like more
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: than I have a soul, it I just am one.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: And that means to be embodied and to be a
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: spiritual body, and that God always meant these things to
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: join together. So when we ignore the body, we're committing
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: a spiritual heresy that says, oh that what God made
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: and called good is actually not important. But when we
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: idolize it we're creating another spiritual heresy, which is to
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: say that the body is all there is, you know,
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: and you're just matter. But no, there's a spiritual, invisible
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: and yet real and powerful realm to it. And we
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: should never tear apart what God joins to get together.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: Like literally, when spirit leaves body, we know what that's called.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: It's called death. Okay, that's that's what happens when spirit
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: and body are disconnected. We should think of that theologically.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: Any theology that separates body and spirit is a theology
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: of death. It's going to be to bad results. And
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: so we've got to uphold this idea that we are
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: made to live in bodies and that that means something
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: for how we live, for how we eat, for how
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: we sleep, for how we exercise. But I'll just wind
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: that all down by saying, don't think that just means fitness, longevity, health, vanity, No, no, no,
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: those are often minus the their byproducts of living a
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: life that honors got in your body. But the main
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: point is to love. It's like, what how do you eat?
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: How do you need to eat?
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: Sets that you are alert to have a quiet time,
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: since that you are alert to do your work it's
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: that you are patient enough to love your children. I
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: don't know about you, but like you know, if I'm
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: eating horribly, I snap at my children way more. And
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: you can take this far. You know, some people are
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: getting sick, they're dying early. You know, there's there's a
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: ton we can't control, but we should be stewards of
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: what we can control. And so that's like the general
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: thesis of the of the whole book right there.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: Well said, it's so crazy. So this is the first
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: time we've ever gotten to talk. I know I've read
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: your work, but this first time we've ever gotten to talk.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: And what what the Holy Spirit revealed to me is
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: what I call my book the sin Spectrum of fitness.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: On one side, we have we have gluttony, and we
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: have sloth. This is like neglect. This is I'm eating garbage.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: I know it's not good for me. I've made a
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: god out of food or sloth. I've made a god
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: out of comfortability. I don't I won't push myself, I
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: won't get uncomfortable. I don't like it. Right, That's that's
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: that side. And on the other side is envy and vanity.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: These are this is this is the pride side of fitness,
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: and and those are the seven part of the seven
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: deadly Yeah.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: I was like, hey, these are I recognize these things?
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And and most people do. Although there are
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: category categorizations of things that are biblical, the Bible doesn't
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: actually talk about seven deadly sins. But but but the
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: question in fitness is how do I take vanity and envy?
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: How do I take glut nancel? How I take those
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: things out of fitness? And in the middle road, the
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: narrow way, if you will, is stewardship. I say, hey,
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: God gave me this body. I don't know how long
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: I'm going to be responsible for making this thing function well,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: but I'm going to steward it well. I'm going to
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: make the most out of the body he's given me.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: And maybe he didn't give me the genes to look
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: like a Greek god every time I do uh, you know,
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: clean and jerks or whatever, But but he did give
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: me the responsibility to make the most out of this
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: thing I've been given. And that includes as you said,
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: and I like that you outline the chapters there, the rest,
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: the nutrition, the exercise, there's there's a whole whole spectrum
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: of things that we steward, whether we know it or not,
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: that that affect the way the body functions, and the
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: body does teach the soul. The body does teach the soul.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: When i'm I'll give you an example, when I'm in
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: a position where my mind is cloudy because bourbon and
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: brownies or or have I have doom scrolled on my
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: phone for an hour and a half instead of going
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: to bed right, So now my sleep is disrupted. So
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: I've eatn away that I'm cloudy minded, my stomach hurts,
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: I'm not I don't have the energy I need. Maybe
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: I'm not recovering. That's the thing about sleep. Sleep recovers us.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: The magic of workouts happen in your sleep. Your mind
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: and your body restore themselves. That's how God made it.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: So if my sleep is garbage, my food is garbage,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: and I wake up this morning and my child has well,
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: they've woken up before me and made a mess of something,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: because that happens, and how I respond is directly related
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: to how I feel. It's directly related. And you can
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: talk about mindset and intentionality and being spirit filled and
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: all that all you want, but your body can easily
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: become an impediment to being a vessel of God's goodness
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: and love in your own household. And that's not even
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: mentioning your community. It's not even mentioning your work. It's
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: not even mentioning your relationship with your spouse. And so
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: there's this very very deep union. We don't get to
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: separate the two. There's this deep union between how we
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: steward our body and how we get to live out
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: the calling in our life. And it's apparent to me,
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: it sounds apparent to you. I can't wait for it
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: be articulated in written form. For those who are like
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: I still don't quite get how clean and dirks are
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: a spiritual exercise.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean we live in a Gnostic age. We
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: live in a Gnostic age for sure, so this stuff
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: is not going to be as clear to us as
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: it should be, which is why I wanted to write
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: about it, because a lot of the feedback I got
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: from Habits of the Household was, you know, it's so
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: helpful when you break things down into categories and just
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: make it simple and practical, And that is like entirely
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: what this book is. It's just looking at the simple,
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: practical stuff but this theological category alex I think honestly,
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: is so helpful to people. So for example, let me
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: just give one point of clarity that I think a
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: listener might be wondering right now, because one of the
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: things that we're talking about is like, as it turns out,
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: I'm more patient, you know, I'm more loving, I'm more
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: gracious when I steward my body well. And somebody's going
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: to ask, so, wait, are the fruits of the spirit
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: the fruit of the spirit it? Or are they fruit
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: of like a good night's sleep or treating your body well? Right?
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: And they want and they want to draw a separation. Right,
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: they want to say, well, which which is it? And
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: I want to say, you don't. You don't have to
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: do that. You don't have to do that. What you
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: need to know is that your health and your holiness
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: are always grace based miracles period, okay, which also means
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: they are calls to the steward. And what I mean
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: by that is so you might say, is it the
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: work of the spirit of my life or is it
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: the work of a good night's sleep that helps me
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: be a good parent in the morning? And I would
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: say the Bible actually blurs those lines for you, because
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: it doesn't it think about do not get drunk online,
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: but be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Bible acknowledges
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: that when you dishonor your body and the way that
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: it was made by ignoring its God given limitations. And
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: this can be sleep like you're made to rest a feature,
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: not a flaw. It's made to show you that you're
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: not God. God does not slumbern or sleepy watches every Israel.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: The psalms say so things like you can eat too much,
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: like we can over extend, or we can drink too much,
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: or we can sleep too little are signs of pride
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: or bucking our limitations in the world. And those have
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: spiritual consequences. They guess they suppress the work of the
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: Holy Spirit, or they call forth the work of the
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: Holy Spirit. And does that mean it's up to us
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: or it's not grace space or it's legalistics Of course not.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: And actually your body is the best metaphor for this,
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: Like I think about this all the time now, Alex.
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: We can we can guarden a plot of land, and
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: we can be really good stewards of it. But not
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: a single person in the history of the human race
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: has ever made a leaf grow like we just we
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: literally it's a miracle. We can do the tilling work,
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: we can steward the land, but only God does the
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: miracle of growth. And likewise, you can eat all the
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: right things, you can lay down to try to sleep,
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: and you can break your body down through exercise, but
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: only God gives sleep, like only God gives rest. Only
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: He can nourish and knit yourselves back together. There's a
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: miracle going on your body all the time, called healing
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: that you can only put yourself in the position to receive.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: You actually can't control it. And so both in our
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: spiritual and physical life, we see this beautiful balance of
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: grace and effort where all the things that actually happen
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: are because of grace, and yet that grace motivates us
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: to have effort. And paying attention to the body is
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: actually one of the best ways to realize the spiritual
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: reality of the world, and that is that God. You know,
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: He causes everything, and we respond. So I always whenever
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: I'm talking about habits, habits of health, or you know, spirituality,
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: I always remind people's habits won't change God's love for you.
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: I say this all the time inhabits. With household habits
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: will not change God's love for you. And God's love
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: for you should change your habits, and your body puts
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: that on display in both physical and spiritual life, that
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: we respond in God works.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: Amen. Amen, Well said you know Jesus when he taught
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: to pray, he taught us to pray a very very
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: simple prayer. But he said that Kingdom come, that I
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: And so and so we have we have this, uh,
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: this wonderful opportunity as as vessels of God's goodness to
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: see His Kingdom come to life every day in our life.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: And I see in the in the church a huge
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: gap because if you ask, if you ask the average
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: church going, I'm not I'm not not they in us. Okay,
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm in this category too. I'm preaching to myself.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: There's a huge gap when when you say, okay, you
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: see God's goodness all around you, you see his blessings. Would
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: you count your body among them? Would you say? Would
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: you say that this body God's given me is a blessing,
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: It's a vessel for his goodness here in the kingdom.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: And might there might be some who are like, yeah, yeah,
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: you know what, it's all I can run. It's usually
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: the young ones. The young ones are all like, oh yeah,
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: my body's great. Yeah, Okay, when you're fifty eight and
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: you've accumulated things over your entire life span, it's it's
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: very easy to say, yeah, God's good, but I'm really
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: struggling with my body right now. Yeah, God's God's good here,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: but you know, I have all these health issues and
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: so so for for me, my prayer is that when
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: we say that Kingdom Come, that will be done on
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: earth as it is in heaven, we can say the
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: same thing when we look in the mirror, not because
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: we look pretty, not because we're taking pride in the vessel. Yes,
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: but we can say God, thank you so much for
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: the way you're healing me. Thank you so much for
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: what I what I can do with the hands and
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: feet you've given me. And I also think, you know,
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: I love this picture of the bride of Christ coming
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: to him in glory right. That makes me so happy.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: And I also think of a bride in here, real
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: real world bride marrying a husband in showing up as
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: beautiful as she can show up, like like there's no
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: bride I know or ever met. I've trained a lot
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: of women getting ready for weddings. All right, there's no
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: bride I know. He's like, you know what, I'm getting
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: married in six months. I'm gonna eat every cheeseber I
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: could find. I'm going to sit on the couch and
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: watch Friends over and over again. You know why, because
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: because I don't care about how I show up on
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: my wedding. And I'm like, you know what I think.
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: I think.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: I think in this season it's time for the bride
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: of Christ to get ready for the wedding. You know, like,
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: let's like, let's get in shape, let's take good care
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: of our body that we can present ourselves. Hey Lord,
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: this is the best I can offer you. This is
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: the best I can make myself, not because not because
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to earn your favor, but because I just
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: want to do the best with the gift You've given me.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: I really like what you're expressing, and I so in
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: the book, I say this the same sort of thing
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: with a concept of windows vers mirrors. And you know,
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: any conversation like this is so fraught with people who
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: have struggled with eating disorders. People who you know, work
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: out hard, but their body doesn't look the way they
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: want it to. They have some health issue they have,
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: you know, they're aging. There's all these reasons where you're like, yeah,
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: but and I'm like, look, if we are idolizing our
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: bodies and thinking about body image, we are going to
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: be staring in a mirror and forever disappointed because the
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: error of materialism or the vanity of our culture is
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: that it just holds the mirror in front of us
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: and we continually just look back at ourselves with this
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: cycle of shame and disappointment. But when I'm when I'm
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: trying to say, don't idolize your body, but rather image
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: God through your body, it means like smash that mirror
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: and go look through the window of your body, which
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: is all about this what you were just saying, Olex,
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: what can you do with it? Not how does it
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: look to you, but what can it do? And over
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: the course of marriage, honestly, this has become so precious
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: to me as I have you know, for both my
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: wife and I and both of us are pretty, you know,
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: relatively good shape, but we're clearly getting older. And yet
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: my focus is slowly because I think the Holy Spirit's
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: working in my life is slowly becoming more and more
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: in awe of all that we can do with our
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: bodies for the sake of love, and less and less like,
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: what does it look like when I look at it
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: in the mirror. I'll tell you what. When I look
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: through the window, I feel like, Oh, my gosh, I
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: am growing in this awesome strength and capacity to serve
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: my family, to protect my family, to be up in
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: the middle of the night for my family, to lift
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: my boys, to wrestle my boys, to hug my wife,
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: to carry my wife, to work hard, to drive long
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: distances on road trips. There's so much I can do
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: with my body for the sake of love, because the
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: Lord has been helping me to steward it. And that
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: is so satisfying. So anybody they're hearing this and like, well,
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: but I have this issue or that issue. I often
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: tell people, you know what the exercise most correlated to
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: longevity is is just walking outside. Right, So anything that
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: you're any time you're like, well, but I can't, I'm
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: just like, if you can, if you can go embrace
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: the gift of walking, then you're stewarding the gift of
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: saying how can I love more? Over the life like
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: walking outside with a friend is one of the most
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: healthly things you could do for your mind, body, and soul.
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: And I think when you leave body image behind and
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: when you look through that window of bodies as image
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: of God, you're just so free to think about how
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: can you love instead of how can you look?
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: Mm hmmm hm, well said, And I would actually, I
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: would also tack on to that any listeners who are
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: wrestling with that in particular, just like coming to church.
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: When you come to church you were saying, And like
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: we're actually told don't forsake gathering together as somewhere in
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: the habit of doing it, we're actually told scripturally speaking,
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: to continue to come together because practicing faith is not easy.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: It's it's best done in community. Now, definitely, you have
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: a you have a wonderful window to the Father through
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: the Blood of Christ, where you can you can connect
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: with him on an individual level. But but but God
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: teaches us we don't. We don't do that alone. It's
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: we do that in community. And the same the same
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: as said of I believe the same is is important
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: to do from a from a fitness perspective. If you
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: have wrestled in the past with eating and shame and
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: exercise and all that stuff, and you've wrestled with that,
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: and you're like, yeah, but I want to encourage you
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: to find the help that you need so that you're
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: not doing that on your own. I've done this for
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: so many years as a coach because because there's nothing
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: that hurts me more than to see somebody working so hard,
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: like doing an exercise or or counting their calories or
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: whatever they're doing, and maybe they're just missing one or
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: two pieces of knowledge or one or two pieces of
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: wisdom or something that practically speaking, they would get so
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: much better results. And I often say, hey, my job
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: as a coach is to teach you how God made
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: your body to eat, to teach you how God made
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: your body to move. And it's not it's not always intuitive.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: It's intuitive when you're young, but it's not intuitive as
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: you get older, for sure, and you have all the
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: things of adulting you got to do and and so
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: so I want to encourage you. If you're listening to
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: this and you're you're wrestling, you're like, ah, I man,
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: this has been this has been such a hard thing.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Don't do this alone. You don't need to do this alone.
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: You can. I'll help you that there's CrossFit gyms in
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: the world that walk in find the spirit of a
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: place where vanity doesn't win and gluttony doesn't win. It's
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: it's it's a place of stewardship and and get going man,
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: because because you don't have to be alone in this it's.
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: I could not agree more. There's also a meta theme.
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: I hope this isn't beating a dead horse, but there's
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: a meta theme to this where you know, we are
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: our bodies collectively are called the body body of Christ. Okay,
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: that's why we're the temple of the Holy Spirit. This
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: is a This is a storyline through scripture. You know,
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: Eden is the original temple where Adam and Eve are
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: there and God is with them, and then you go
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: through progressions of it's the tint and then the Tabernacle,
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: and then the built Temple, and then the New Testament
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: tells us that the progression of God's story is that
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: we collectively our bodies where we are gathered become the
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: temple of the Holy Spirit, which means our bodies don't
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: work unless they're in the community of other bodies. This
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: is why the virtual world has thrown us for such
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: a loop in mental and physical health and loving our neighbor.
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: And this is why we've become so divided. This is
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: because we've forsaken gathering for thinking that a mind to
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: mind communication through texts or you know, tweets can substitute
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: for the interaction of the body. And you see it
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: in exercise. Almost almost no one can do anything meaningful
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: to change their body alone. It always happens in community,
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: whether the community of a a trainer or friends working
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: out together. You must have other people to change. So
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: it is in the church, and so it is when
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: you and this is what we're really passionate about Alex
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: combining them together and saying, hey, what if the church
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: was actually interested in the health and the holiness of
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: our bodies. When you're in that community of stewarding your
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: body with other believers, you're in the way of grace.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: When you try to do it alone, it is so unmotivating, tragic.
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: So many people quit, give up, get stuck in shame.
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: And I just couldn't encourage everybody listening more. Whatever you're doing,
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: whether it's working on a parenting habit, spiritual discipline, or
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: a new exercise routine. Do it with a friend. Do
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: it with a friend and he is the easy way
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: to start. Send them this podcast, be like, hey, I
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: just heard some really interesting thoughts and I really want
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: help doing them. Would you just listen to this?
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: And then then we need to go for a while.
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: Everybody's like, how do I start? Send them this podcast?
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: Do it together?
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: That's great, that's great. You know, the Bible tells us
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: that Satan room is around like a hungry lion, seeking
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: whom he might devour. And we as Christians are like zebras.
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: Zebras do not blend in with the African savannah. They don't.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: They're black and white. They're black and white stripes. I
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: don't know if they're white with black stripes or black
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: with white stripes, but no.
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: But we do know they get picked off when they're alone.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. When you're in a herd,
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: the lion's like, what's going on. There's there's so many
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: there's so many stripes moving around. But when you're alone,
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: you get picked off, and that that shame, the guilt,
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: the defeat, the overwhelm, those are all tools of the enemy,
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: keeping you from from from walking in the calling that
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: God's put on your life, your your spirit, and your body.
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: So this is the original sin of Eden. Right, get
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: even alone and talk to her about food? Whoa right
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: when you're when you're in community, I mean again, like
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: things like food or fitness, like our appetites, our loves.
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: When we're alone, we are in such great danger. But
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: when we stay together and keep it in where as
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: a gift they got like just a chapter before the
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: fall of you know, man, we see that Genesis two
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: nine says God gave fruit in the garden that was
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: good for food and pleasing to the eye, like he
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: meant it for goodness and delight. He's like, you know,
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: do this, not that. And we hold that when we're
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: in community. But when we get alone with the enemy,
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: the gifts of God turned to worshiping creation over created,
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: which is the worshiping creation over the Creator, which is
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: the essence of sin.
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: That's right, that's the golden calf. Don't do it. I
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: did so I could talk to you for a very
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: long time, and.
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: We could probably go a long time.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah we could, we could, and maybe we can do
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: this again. Sometime soon, but I want to I want
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: to have the opportunity to pray over you, to pray
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: over your book, to pray over your family, and to
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: end this podcast in prayer and communion with the Father.
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: If that's all right with you, I would love that.
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: Brother.
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you, awesome Father God, thank you so much for
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: this day. Thank you for the way that you've led
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: justin and for the way your spirit has inspired him
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: to bring truth and grace and love to his written
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: work so that his family, in the ministry of his household,
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: can affect the families and households of many. Lord, I
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: know that for my brother this has been a humbling
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: thing for him, and I know the hard work and
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: the commitment that you've called him to, the weight that
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: he carries. And so Lord, I just pray that your
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: Holy Spirit would be near him imbue his words with wisdom.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: I pray Lord that you'll imbue his fatherhood with grace.
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: I also pray Lord, a hedge of protection around his
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: profession and his personal life. There's a target on those
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: who would speak up for the Gospel and well your
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: kingdom coming and your will being done here on earth
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: as it is in heaven. So Lord, I just pray
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: your protection on him, and I also pray for the
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: listeners who have been a part of this conversation. God,
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: I just I pray that if there is an impediment
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: to them moving forward with using their body for your glory,
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: for them stewarding themselves well and an exit from gluttony
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: or sloth, Lord, that you would inspire them with energy
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: and help them to be become comfortable being uncomfortable and
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: growing the way that you've called them to grow. But
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: I also pray Lord that they wouldn't they wouldn't fall
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: into the traps of envy or vanity, that they wouldn't
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: make their body an idle. And Lord, I just pray
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: that you would bless them with the support that they
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: need to move forward in holiness and in health. God,
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: redeem your people and teach us to follow you in
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: this very interesting age that's not a surprise to you,
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: but we're still struggling with. Yes, we love you, Lord
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: and Jesus name.
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: Amen, Amen, Amen, thank you so much.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: Man, man, you got it. You got it. Guys on
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: the shirts that looks yeah, like.
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: Is that one of your your companies or podcasts?
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we put these shirts out with the devotional
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: for pre orders and stuff, so we'll probably continue to
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: do that thereafter. But everybody who's picked up a books
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: getting one of these shirts, well.
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm going to pre order it then so
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: I can get one sent to me.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: That's what I'm talking about.
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: That's what I would love to share this with people.
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: Do you mind if I take a screen snapshot? Yeah?
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: Please please? Do you want a thumbs up?
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: Or yeah? I guess it look like we're talking.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: Perfect?
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: Perfect? When do you think you'll put this out?
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: This will come out in about I think we're five
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: weeks out. I'm going to try to get it out
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: on the same weekend your book goes live. That's the goal. Yeah,
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: because you're launching October twenty eighth, I believe is the
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: is the date and.
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: I'm flexible, like you can kind of do it whenever,
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: but as long as you give me a couple of
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: heads up through emailing Blair who you've been in touch with,
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: because I would love to post and send this to
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: people and talk about it.
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, one hundred percent. We send a thumbnail that
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: that'll be on YouTube and stuff, and then we usually
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: chop this up into a bunch of little shorts and
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: stuff and we send those to you. You can do
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: whatever you want with this stuff. It doesn't bother us,
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: but we send it to try to make it easy
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: on you as well.
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: Perfect. That sounds great.
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: Cool. Well, as as we close here, I always say
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: the same thing, so I'm going to say this to
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: everybody so my editor doesn't get mad at me. So, guys,
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us on the Faithful
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: Fitness podcast. This has been coach Alex beIN outen until
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: next time. You guys know what I'm going to say next,
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: Train hard, but pray harder.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: Hey, if this episode helped you, chare it with someone
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: who needs to hear it, and don't forget to subscribe
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: and leave us a raving review so more people can
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: find Faithful Fitness. Oh in, my Dad's new devotional is
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: almost out now. You can grab a copy for yourself
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: and then join our free community at Better Daily by
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: clicking on the links in the show notes below. We
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: all have a cross to carry, but it's lighter when
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: we do it together, so check out both links and
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: the show notes. Don't be a big well bob, just
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: do it Until next time. Don't forget. Train hard and
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: pray even harder.