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Patience: The Hidden Power of Long‑Suffering · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  Relish pleasing or zestful flavor a quantity
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  just sufficient to flavor to be pleased or
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  gratified by enjoy we are hoping that what
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  we bring to your table today might add some spice
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  to your life ladies and gentlemen welcome back to another episode of relish
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  i am roan miller and this is don patterson don how are you doing pretty good
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  pretty good yeah i'm doing all right It's a good day It is It's a good day It's
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  a beautiful day out Nice Sunny Love the weather Yeah Moving into fall But.
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  We'll We won't start there Shall we do one of the questions for you?
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  Open question Yeah Okay So How are you seeing God change you?
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  And this would be Okay How do you see God sanctify you?
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  In other words Drawing you closer to that image That
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  he would like to have you reflect others i would
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  i'd say when i was younger i
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  don't know maybe four years or so ago i mean i think some of my friends could
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  attest to this my siblings parents but really i had yeah i would get like angered
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  easily easily angered very i was a very competitive guy i still am you are but,
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  Everything had to go my way I had to be playing great I had to win Had to have my way Whatever,
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  I think over time That has went away I mean You've called me Like laid back Chill.
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  So Hopefully others are seeing that Having it my way To asking God to have it
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  his way Yeah So I think that's,
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  That's a good answer, and hopefully people now can attest to not being easily
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  angered, because I know they can attest to me being easily angered before, so.
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  Yeah, isn't that neat how God changes us? Yeah. And it's always a good thing
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  when he's doing the changing, for sure.
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  Yeah. So, we got another episode with the fruit of the Spirit here. We're doing patience.
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  We're going to be patient today. Long-suffering. Even though it's a poor translation of the passage.
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  So when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit, that's Galatians 5, verses 22.
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  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and then patience,
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  kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
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  And what's interesting is this word in the NIV is patience.
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  And if you have your translation, and if your translations have patience, underline it.
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  Go to the outside margin and say long-suffering.
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  Because in the Greek, that's exactly what it is. It's long-suffering. It's makrothumia.
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  Macro, of course, that's big, right? Large, long, if you will.
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  It's a quantity that's bigger. Big quantity. Big quantity.
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  And thumia is a little harder to boil down.
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  But it's that passion. it's that
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  glow it's something for which if
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  you go down to the root which is theo it
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  is that for which you would sacrifice so it
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  almost is the same root as agape peo
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  yeah but theo it's it's
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  that root sacrifice long suffering
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  is definitely a better translation than patience because
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  patience okay what do we think patience about i mean what do we have patience
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  well i'm in the fast food line and i want to get my burger yeah and patience
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  is i wait as long as it comes without making a noise right yeah and if i'm not
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  patient i'm going to make noise and it's interesting to watch people.
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  Especially maybe at food places yeah when they don't think they've been up they've
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  been given the right to order at the right time or when their order takes a
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  long time to come out and they start crumbling and anyway.
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  Patience. Oh, I would say one thing. Don't ever ask God for patience. I've heard this one.
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  You'll end up with long suffering. You end up with, if you ask God for patience,
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  you end up with long suffering.
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  So you got to be careful what you pray for.
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  The best English translation is the importance of what you're suffering for.
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  Understand the importance of what you're suffering for and how long you're willing to suffer for it.
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  So when you put it in the Christian context of love, joy, peace,
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  it means that those things, those are heavenly values, if you will,
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  that you're willing to put the effort into.
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  I mean, love, that's the agape, that's sacrificial love.
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  So it's something you're gonna put the effort into giving someone else.
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  Joy, joy, that's a value of the heart. And we have that joy because God gave it to us.
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  And that peace is that that is not just the absence of conflict.
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  It's a value in the heart that's given to us by God. He emulates it most fully.
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  So then when we come to long suffering, we realize it's in that same pattern.
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  And it's a long time getting there, but it's worth having.
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  Okay. So it's long suffering. And I got thinking about biblical examples of
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  long suffering. And I think of Ruth or Naomi.
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  Naomi and she walks with her daughter-in-law, Ruth, and they go back to the...
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  She's a long time waiting for anything good to come out of all the bad she went through.
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  Job, that was a long time waiting for something good to come out.
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  40 years in the wilderness from the time of the Exodus till the time that the
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  God's people could actually cross the Jordan into the promise that they were given. Yeah.
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  Probably the greatest example of long suffering would be God himself.
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  Yeah. I mean, can you imagine creating and then having that creation say,
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  oh, I think we'll eat the apple.
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  And then end up all these other things.
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  Snowballs. until, oh, I guess we need a flood. We're going to just take care
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  of this. Oh, but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
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  And so here's Noah. Okay. And then all these people come from Noah.
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  And then all of a sudden they build this tower to God.
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  And then God finally says, I'm just going to call out a person that I like.
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  So Abraham gets called out. And then he develops into a great nation in exile, in Exodus.
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  And then Egypt, and then he calls out that people and he tries to shape them by his laws.
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  And then everybody does what's right in their own eyes and judges.
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  Yeah. Then we have prophets and kings and, and yeah.
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  And it's, I have to wonder how much long suffering God has already done by the
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  time he's given him 40, 400 years of silence and finally gives his son as the word become flesh.
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  To dwell among these people that he's tried to get a hold of all this time.
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  You talk about long suffering. That's the word. And, and God's the best,
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  the best example of it. Yeah.
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  Which makes us really pale in comparison. I mean, I was in high school one time.
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  I know it's hard to believe, but it's been over 50 years ago.
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  Actually, I know it's been 50 years ago. I have a high school reunion coming up, my 50th.
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  And all those dreams and things that, oh boy, if we could just grow up,
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  if I could just get in the job force, if I could just get that job.
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  Well, that was 50 years ago. I would never have dreamed I'd be where I am today.
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  Yeah. But praise the Lord.
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  And it's been worth every step.
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  So when you're thinking about long suffering, especially if you're in a moment
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  where things are painful, I think sometimes we have to ask our questions,
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  our question of God in the midst of that pain,
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  what would you have me do with this?
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  What would you have me learn with this?
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  Where would you have me go with this pain I'm currently in?
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  Because I don't believe God gives those things to us without an ultimate plan,
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  without an ultimate purpose.
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  And if we worship a purposeful God, then even the downtimes play into that plan. Long-suffering, yeah.
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  Isn't there a verse that no suffering is, like, he will not let us suffer more than we can bear?
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  1 Corinthians 10, verse 13. All suffering is purposeful or something?
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  1 Corinthians 13. Yeah, yeah. 10, 13. Yep. You're right.
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  Of course, I can probably have something on top of it.
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  10, 13. Right there. Temptation has come upon you, except what is common to
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  humanity, but God is faithful.
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  He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,
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  but with temptation, he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it. Right.
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  And then you've got James 1, 2 through 4. Consider it pure joy when you do trials
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  of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance,
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  and perseverance must finish its work to leave you mature and complete, not lacking anything.
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  And what's interesting is, then Paul has almost the same thought in Romans chapter 5.
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  Verses 1 through 6, right at the end of verse 2, and we rejoice in the hope
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  of the glory of God, not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings.
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  Really? Because we know that suffering produces perseverance,
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  almost the same words, perseverance produces character and character hope.
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  And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our
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  hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
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  You see it just, oh, verse 6, you see it just the right time.
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  While we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
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  Very seldom will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man,
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  someone might dare to die.
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  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this.
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  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Yeah, there's a.
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  Our biggest disappointment. Yeah.
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  It's kind of like even within our own suffering, like you said, and the,
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  like you keep zoom, like zooming out and there's others that are struggling or suffering more.
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  And there's biblical people that have suffered more and longer and harder than God.
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  And you're just this tiny little piece that's suffering along with everybody else.
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  That's true. But one of the things that's interesting, when we as Christians
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  are engaged in long-suffering, and this is something that you,
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  what you said brought to mind, is we become examples of the strength that Christ
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  can give in the midst of suffering.
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  So that we can actually, people will start wondering, how on earth are you able
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  to put up with that situation God's put you in?
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  And then you can say, well, Christ has given me strength.
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  Christ walks with me day by day to get us through.
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  It's interesting because people will come up to me once in a while and say,
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  I don't know how you do what you do.
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  And I said, well, I guess I didn't know anything other than doing it.
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  And, you know, with the challenges we have, we all do the best we can.
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  And I think doing the best we can is also a testimony of what God's willing
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  to do in our lives and continue doing in our lives.
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  And so, so many times I have some younger people say, I don't know why I have to go through this.
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  Well, because you need to get to the other side.
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  And the only way to the other side is getting through it. But every time we
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  go through it, we get better.
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  Something we learn or new things we understand about ourselves are revealed
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  in those times of suffering.
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  So, it's like going to school. You enjoy school, right? Yeah.
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  At times. Every day. Every day, every day, go to school.
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  And while you don't realize you're in a learning process, progress process,
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  although your dad probably tells you that,
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  it is getting you to the next level of knowing how the world works,
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  how you work in the world, and then how you can affect the world by what you know and how you work.
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  So see all those math problems, you've got them for a reason.
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  Yeah. They'll get you ready for that vocation in life where you can use them effectively.
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  Yeah. Even calculus has a place.
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  Believe it or not. Yes. I don't use it in my office very often.
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  You would definitely pick and choose. Pick and choose. I wasn't good at it.
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  So maybe that's the part.
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  Since I wasn't good at calculus, I didn't pick a vocation.
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  God didn't call me to a vocation that used it very much. It wasn't one of your
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  God-given abilities, maybe No,
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  it's not one of my God-givens He put you to better use, so I sure hope so,
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  All right Well, thank you guys for joining us I hope that you enjoyed Share it with somebody,
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  Well, thank you guys for joining us and we'll see you next time.
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