Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 439 ｜ How Do We Avoid Being Lukewarm？

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Thanks for being here. Another pre-recorded maternity

00:00:14.680 episode where I will be answering some of the questions that you guys sent me on Instagram.

00:00:22.940 Okay, this is a question that I love and I get these kinds of questions a lot and they just,

00:00:28.520 they make me really happy and they remind me that like God's work and we've said this many times on

00:00:34.480 the podcast doesn't make headlines. It doesn't reach Pew Research and Gallup surveys, but it's

00:00:40.800 still happening. And this question is, I don't want to be a lukewarm Christian anymore. How do I begin

00:00:46.120 this journey and stick with it? And guys, I get those questions all the time or I get questions

00:00:50.820 or messages saying, Hey, you know, I used to hate what you had to say about religion and Christianity,

00:00:58.660 or I found you through an influencer that was negatively talking about you or your podcast.

00:01:05.380 And I wanted to hate on you too. And then I ended up changing my mind or I read your book and I changed

00:01:11.740 my mind about this or just messages from new believers or from skeptics that are sincerely

00:01:18.440 searching. Like I get those messages all the time. And if I just a random person with a small,

00:01:25.400 relatively small sphere of, of influence, um, compared to, you know, big name influencers and

00:01:33.300 commentators and theologians, if I'm getting those questions, I have to think that other Christians

00:01:38.120 are as well. And that's God is always going to continue working. He's always going to continue

00:01:43.740 pursuing. He's always going to continue to seek and save the lost. As he says that he came to do,

00:01:50.060 he's always going to keep looking for the lost coin and rescuing the lost sheep and running towards

00:01:57.300 the prodigal son. And you'll hear from the Washington post in the New York times, that

00:02:02.480 Christianity is waning, that it's dying out, that it's antiquated, that Christians are the cause of all

00:02:08.520 of our major societal problems and our, our, our biggest inhibition to success and progress as a

00:02:15.520 country. You'll keep seeing how it is, uh, less safe, less popular, less lucrative, less trendy to

00:02:23.040 be any form of a Christian. You'll see people latching onto something that vaguely looks like

00:02:28.200 Christianity, but is really more secular social justice activism. You'll see teachers denouncing

00:02:34.020 their faith and walking away in the name of faith deconstruction. You'll see all of these things

00:02:39.720 happening. And yet God is still moving. God is still working. God is still changing hearts. He is

00:02:45.480 always, and will always be in the business of changing hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.

00:02:52.140 And he doesn't need the media to cover it. He doesn't need to trend on social media. He doesn't

00:02:56.800 need the approval of, of edgy YouTubers who think that they have, uh, that they have the end-all be-all

00:03:04.200 questions that take down traditional Orthodox Christianity. He doesn't need any of that.

00:03:10.540 The fact of the matter is, is that God is still calling people to himself as he has throughout

00:03:14.860 history. And he will continue to do so until he comes back and rules in perfect peace forever and ever.

00:03:20.600 And evil and disbelief has no more, uh, no more power, no more influence over the universe. So

00:03:28.960 this person, I don't want to be a lukewarm Christian anymore. How do I begin this journey

00:03:33.820 and stick with it? Well, first of all, it is, uh, God who works in you both to will and to work for

00:03:40.920 his good purpose. That's what Philippians one tells us that we're to work out our salvation with fear and

00:03:46.440 trembling, but it is God who does the work, uh, and that he is faithful to complete the work that

00:03:52.440 he began in you. And so if you by grace through faith, believe in Christ for the forgiveness of

00:03:59.680 your sins, and you feel this quickening, this desire inside you to read his word and to seek him

00:04:07.000 and to pray and to talk about him, which it seems like from this message that you sent me, like you do,

00:04:13.640 like you just want to know more. That is the Holy spirit working inside you. And my encouragement

00:04:18.840 to you is to follow it, to obey, to get you a study Bible, to start praying every day. It doesn't

00:04:26.000 have to be these long, sophisticated, complex prayers. You don't have to pretend to know all

00:04:33.120 the right things to say or say all the right things, uh, say all the right things to come before

00:04:38.340 the Lord with humility and to ask him for wisdom, which in the book of James, he promises, uh, to

00:04:45.380 give you. If you are finding yourself that kind of curiosity and that kind of desire to follow the

00:04:52.120 Lord, then simply obey it. Simply put one foot in front of the other. Now there is going to be all

00:05:00.100 kinds of distractions for you. Now there's going to be all kinds of influences that are trying to pull

00:05:06.620 you in a million different directions, read screw tape letters by CS Lewis, and you will, you will see,

00:05:12.360 I think a very creative representation of how Satan seeks to steal souls for himself, uh, seeks to

00:05:20.500 subvert people's, um, faith seeks to tempt people and divert their eyes away from God and away from his

00:05:29.980 gospel. You are going to find now every excuse, every obstacle, every reason not to read your Bible,

00:05:38.800 not to pray, not to go to church on Sunday, not to share your faith because Satan would love for you

00:05:46.920 to remain lukewarm. He would love for you to remain in complacency. He would love for your life to be

00:05:52.340 characterized by apathy. He would love to convince you that you have enough faith, enough belief to escape

00:05:59.360 hell, but that you don't actually have to live out your faith in any way. He wants to keep you ineffective

00:06:06.320 and he wants to, uh, keep you in the corner where you're hiding your faith, you're hiding your beliefs,

00:06:12.660 and you're never actually pursuing the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit. He would love to keep

00:06:19.000 you right there. Now, Satan, uh, can't take away someone's salvation who is already saved. He just doesn't

00:06:27.240 have that power. God is sovereign over that. Romans 8 makes clear that there is nothing that can

00:06:33.920 separate believers from the love of Christ, assuming that you are someone who is saved, but he does want

00:06:39.940 to steal your, he does want to inhibit your sanctification, um, in that he wants to tempt you

00:06:46.380 away from reading your Bible and actually pursuing the Lord and being effective. But through the power of

00:06:53.440 the Holy Spirit and your obedience that God allows you to have, you can absolutely resist those

00:07:00.240 temptations. And I think a great way to do that, not just reading your Bible, not just praying, those

00:07:04.960 are very important things, but to surround yourself by fellow with fellow believers. Um, it's very easy

00:07:12.260 when we're isolated to start being ruled by our doubts, to start being ruled by our emotions, to start

00:07:18.040 being, um, allowing, um, allowing our doubts and our questions to get the best of us rather than

00:07:23.200 seeking the truth that answers them. And if you surround yourself with believers who are more

00:07:28.900 mature than you, who are passionate about their faith, um, who are more mature than you spiritually,

00:07:35.180 I mean, maybe emotionally too, who are farther along in their walk than you, who can hold you

00:07:40.220 accountable, um, in, uh, reading your Bible and in cultivating your faith, then, uh, God allows that

00:07:49.560 to be used as a protection for you, allows you to draw upon the strength and the faith of other people

00:07:56.700 to continue to endure and to persevere when those obstacles are set in your path, when you are tempted,

00:08:03.600 when you want to slide back into complacency and being lukewarm. And so if you have not found,

00:08:09.300 uh, a biblical gospel centered church near you, I encourage you to do that. Founders.org slash church

00:08:16.780 search has, um, has a pretty good tool on their site. Um, masters, uh, master seminary also has a

00:08:25.200 tool on their site. I can't personally vouch for every church that's recommended on those sites. And

00:08:29.960 I'm not sure that those organizations can either, but that will point you into the right direction.

00:08:34.040 And I would also pray about that too. I would say if you join a church, be very,

00:08:39.160 wary of the churches that are, um, simply feel good churches that don't talk about sin, that don't

00:08:45.900 talk about sanctification, that don't talk about salvation, that kind of stay away from talking

00:08:50.960 about heaven or hell or iffy on cultural issues, or who seem to be preaching a different gospel to

00:08:56.600 people of one skin color and one message to people of another skin color based on, uh, the perception

00:09:03.800 of marginalization or oppression points. Definitely steer clear of those kinds of churches, steer clear

00:09:10.340 of the kinds of churches, um, that make politics also their idol. So there are different sides to

00:09:17.520 that coin. Go to a church that is preaching the word of God, that is preaching the gospel, that is

00:09:23.420 preaching the hard stuff. Get as involved as you can. Be surrounded by women, godly women who can help

00:09:31.240 you and can point you back to God's word. There are also resources online. Join Women's Book Club

00:09:36.900 with Allie Stuckey. Like there's a lot of like-minded women, um, on our Facebook page too. There's the

00:09:43.100 Christ Church Bible Reading Challenge, which is also a Facebook group that a lot of people are a part of

00:09:48.700 that read the Bible in a year together and, um, uh, share a lot of prayer requests and questions and

00:09:56.400 things like that on that page. So even online, there are ways to connect to people that can maybe even

00:10:01.180 connect you to a local community in your area. So those are the pieces of, um, advice that I would

00:10:07.820 give to you in regards to that. Um, let's see. Next question. Favorite political commentator besides

00:10:20.020 yourself, LOL. Um, so I would not consider myself my favorite political commentator. So I listened to,

00:10:28.580 honestly, I'll be honest, like I haven't been listening to political podcasts quite as much

00:10:33.100 recently. Um, because I probably feel like a lot of you do after the election, like I had a little

00:10:39.820 bit of election burnout. And then after the events of the beginning of January with the riot and all of

00:10:44.760 that, I also had a little bit of election burnout or, you know, post election burnout, I guess.

00:10:51.000 And so I kind of unplugged from the news. Like I haven't, we honestly, we don't watch cable news.

00:10:59.280 We weren't watching a whole lot of cable news before the election, but we would at least

00:11:02.800 like catch Tucker's opening monologue most nights. And I would try to listen to a lot of different

00:11:08.440 political podcasts to try to just make sure that I was keeping up with all the different stories and

00:11:13.300 everything that was happening. But then after January 6th and all of that, it just was,

00:11:18.680 I just kind of unplugged a little bit. Obviously I stay plugged in so I can tell you guys, but I think

00:11:24.500 from what I can tell, you guys have like kind of felt the same way and we're just tired of politics.

00:11:28.960 And it wasn't just the election that did it. It was everything that happened last year,

00:11:32.980 um, including COVID, including the riots and some of the peaceful protests that were going on

00:11:39.480 and the million different competing narratives and the hypocrisy that we saw from so many different

00:11:44.120 sides and so many different ways, the false narratives being pushed by so many different

00:11:49.800 outlets for so many different stories. I think a lot of people are just tired. And even those of you

00:11:55.200 who are not happy that Joe Biden won the election, I would include myself in that category.

00:12:00.500 Like there's part of you that just wants to not pay attention and you don't, you kind of want to

00:12:06.980 stick your head in the sand and pretend like politics don't matter anymore. And part of my job

00:12:11.280 is to remind you why they do matter and to tell you what's going on and to remind you that politics

00:12:15.860 matter because policies matter because people matter and politics affect policies, which affect

00:12:21.080 people, especially the most vulnerable people. And so they matter. They will always matter. And I do

00:12:25.900 think we have an obligation as a Christian, even though our hope is in heaven to care about what's

00:12:29.940 happening in the temporal and the here and the now and to do whatever we can to advance the welfare and

00:12:35.920 the freedom of not just our family, not just our children, but also our community and our society

00:12:41.960 at large. And part of that is staying in the know. So I do pay attention for the sake of my job,

00:12:50.420 for the sake of you guys, for the sake of like trying to fulfill that responsibility that I think that we

00:12:55.300 have. But at the same time, I don't, I really don't stay saturated in the news. I really right

00:13:02.660 now don't listen to political podcasts that much. I've listened to, I'm pregnant as I'm recording this,

00:13:08.240 as you're listening to this, I'm probably no longer pregnant, but I, um, I, uh, have been listening to a

00:13:15.980 lot of birth and pregnancy podcasts. And, um, you know, a lot of them are, I don't agree with

00:13:23.820 everything that's said. A lot of them are very woo woo. A lot of them are very new age or a lot of

00:13:28.460 them are very like progressive and they use terms like pregnant person or gestator or things like

00:13:35.020 that. And I really can't stand that, but it's hard to find, you know, exactly the right podcast.

00:13:40.780 But honestly, I don't listen to a whole lot of political podcasts. If I really want to listen to

00:13:44.840 like a particular subject that like, say I'm not covering on this podcast, so I haven't researched,

00:13:48.960 but I just want to hear someone's take. I do listen to Albert Moeller, the briefing. I do.

00:13:54.280 I'll, I'll listen to, um, uh, I'll listen to like, if Ben Shapiro is talking about a subject that I'm

00:14:01.580 curious to hear his take on, I'll listen to that. I do still, you know, scroll through Twitter and

00:14:06.740 just kind of see what people are saying. There's a lot of commentators on Twitter

00:14:10.500 that I really, that I really like a lot that I don't probably agree with on everything and I

00:14:15.840 don't go to for everything, but for different things, I like to hear their, I like to hear

00:14:20.900 their take on. I like to hear what James Lindsay and Christopher Rufo say about critical race theory

00:14:25.780 and what's happening in policy and in education. I like hearing what Corey DeAngelis has to say about

00:14:30.820 education. I like to hear what Jesse Kelly has to say about, um, about, you know, the,

00:14:38.620 the factlessness of the Republican party and what he thinks about, uh, the future of our country and

00:14:45.620 the future of the parties. I like to hear what Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles have to say about

00:14:50.300 culture. I like to hear, um, let's see, I haven't listed like any women, but I do. There's some like

00:14:59.260 female commentators that I like. I mean, I like to hear what, uh, I like to hear what Daryl and Virgil

00:15:04.980 have to say about what's going on, uh, inside the church. I also follow a lot of people that you

00:15:10.280 guys like probably don't know. I love following people. Like when I can tell they're just kind of

00:15:16.300 starting out in their endeavor of, of gaining influence and gaining an audience and then

00:15:22.500 watching them grow. I love that. And I love having those people on my podcast. Like when I first had

00:15:28.140 Daryl and Virgil on, I mean, this podcast was a lot smaller, but also they were too, like people were

00:15:33.380 just starting to find out about just thinking podcast and now it's blown up. It's hugely popular.

00:15:40.120 It deserves to be so. Um, and Samuel say is the same way. A lot of people, uh, he's gained a lot

00:15:47.100 of influence. Monique Dusan has also gained, um, a ton of influence. Alisa Childers already had a lot

00:15:53.980 of influence, but her influence has really grown through her YouTube channel. But these are people

00:15:59.080 that aren't necessarily speaking at mainstream conferences, whether they be political or, uh,

00:16:05.960 evangelical or whether, or, or Christian, but they are voices that I find exceptionally influential

00:16:15.060 and important and that I like to follow. So there, there's a lot of voices. There's a lot of voices

00:16:20.080 out there that are very important to me. And that helped me add a lot of insight to my theology and my

00:16:26.700 politics, Nancy Piercy, her books and her work have helped me so much. Nathan and, uh, Gabriel

00:16:33.720 Finoscio. I think that's how you pronounce their last names. Um, or their last name have also been

00:16:39.720 very interesting for me to follow on social media is people who I think I differ with, uh, theologically

00:16:45.400 on some things. I think they also give, uh, a lot of great insight. So there's a lot of good follows

00:16:51.380 out there. Like there's just a lot of smart people, a lot of really not smart people too.

00:16:56.180 That's really depressing, but a lot of really smart people that have a lot of insight that,

00:17:00.720 you know, don't have necessarily millions of followers, but are bringing a lot of intellect

00:17:06.820 to the table. And there's a lot of bad things about social media, but one good thing is that,

00:17:12.400 that we have access to a lot of bad stuff, but good stuff and good information as well.

00:17:17.840 Um, let's see. Oh, someone asked, this is an interesting question. Ideal turn of events for

00:17:25.660 the rest of 2021. Ideal turn of events for the rest. Ideal. See when I think ideal, I think even

00:17:35.060 like out of the realm of possibility, you like ideal, like, um, like that Joe Biden, that we no longer

00:17:43.840 have like a democratic president and a democratic Senate and a democratic house. Like that's, that's

00:17:48.960 one ideal for me, but that's not going to happen. Obviously in 2021, um, that the democratic party

00:17:58.020 and that leftism in general stops being totalitarian mongrels. Um, that would be ideal. Um, people

00:18:09.520 waking up to the corruption in our public school system and our, uh, teachers unions who don't

00:18:16.860 care one bit about the welfare of your children. That would be ideal. Planned Parenthood completely

00:18:22.360 going under. That would be ideal. Um, churches preaching the true gospel and not the gospel of,

00:18:31.580 uh, social justice, moralism and, um, people waking up to the divisiveness and the insidiousness

00:18:41.600 of intersectionality and critical race theory. That would also be ideal. Having a media that tells

00:18:48.220 the truth, not, not agrees with me, not as conservative, not as liberal, but just tells

00:18:56.900 the truth, having people actually care about our country and caring about the history of our country

00:19:02.280 and realizing that even though our country is very imperfect and has been very imperfect sometimes

00:19:08.600 in more times than others, or like more pervasively and sometimes than others. Um, but that our ideals

00:19:15.620 and ideas upon which we were founded are very good and in fact are exceptional. Caring about, um,

00:19:23.480 caring about the safety, the protection, the privacy of our, uh, of our citizens, caring about the values

00:19:31.080 on which the country was founded, um, letting go of moral and cultural relativism. Those things would

00:19:37.620 be ideal. Our education system and academia actually helping kids and young people critically

00:19:45.300 think through issues rather than only indoctrinating them with one side of the ideological

00:19:52.680 spectrum's dogmas. That would be ideal. Um, it would be ideal if parents also, um, were more involved

00:20:04.760 in their kids' education. It would be great if we all woke up from the stupor that gender ideology

00:20:13.060 has placed so many people in and just realized that biology is pretty darn basic when it comes

00:20:20.860 to XX and XY. Not saying that there aren't biological anomalies, but the exceptions don't disprove

00:20:27.720 the rule that men and women exist biologically and that gender identity is this modern idea that was

00:20:35.640 actually, uh, that was actually presented by a guy who ended up being a total pervert, Dr. John Money

00:20:42.820 in the 1960s. And that, uh, in order to protect the more vulnerable gender, which is the female gender,

00:20:51.500 we actually have to be able to define what a female is. And the best and clearest way to do that is

00:20:57.080 scientifically. So to stop the gender madness, um, that would also be ideal. And it would be ideal if

00:21:06.720 we actually had substantive discussions about policy, about what's best as far as immigration policy goes,

00:21:14.040 what's best as far as welfare policy goes, what, um, any kind of true equality under the law

00:21:22.580 looks like when it comes to actual disparities between different classes, between different races,

00:21:31.500 between different kinds of people, looking at the real causes of those differences, looking at potential

00:21:37.800 real solutions, um, to close those gaps, if they even need to be closed us, just having like a logical

00:21:45.720 and just at least loosely moral framework through which we are operating and discussing difficult

00:21:54.720 issues, that would be ideal. That would be ideal. My ideal is not everyone agreeing with me, not everyone

00:22:03.340 thinking the same way I do or having all the same values that I have. Um, although of course I want

00:22:11.880 everyone to believe in the gospel, it would be hateful for me not to want that. Um, but it would

00:22:18.160 be ideal if we can just live in a society that actually cares about any semblance of the truth,

00:22:23.780 whether it's moral truth or objective or scientific truth. And we were able to debate from that place.

00:22:30.700 If we had a media that we could actually trust to give us all the information that we need, and then

00:22:35.580 we have the ability to critically think and make our own decisions, that would be ideal.

00:22:39.980 Living in a post-truth society, not ideal. Not ideal. Um, so that's, that's my answer to

00:22:49.460 that question. You probably weren't expecting something that long, but there you go.

00:23:03.360 Okay. Next question. What is your favorite cookie? Probably just going to have to go

00:23:09.420 with a mushy chocolate chip cookie. Like I'm talking half-baked. I'm not even talking about like

00:23:15.940 three-fourths baked, half-baked chocolate chip cookie. You just can't beat that. I mean,

00:23:23.160 I would love, I challenge you to find me a better cookie than that. I like other kinds of cookies.

00:23:29.260 I do. I mean, I like sugar cookies. I like snickerdoodle cookies. I like peanut butter cookies.

00:23:33.660 I even like oatmeal raisin cookies. I'm trying to think of a cookie I don't like. M&M cookies,

00:23:40.800 M&M chocolate chip. Good. Um, I honestly, I love, I love cookies. I love all cookies, but

00:23:50.220 if I'm going to have to pick the best, the most superior cookie, it's going to, it's going to be

00:23:55.900 chocolate chip. It just is. Um, and I don't think that there are any even like arguments to

00:24:03.300 the contrary. Talk about an ideal society. Ideal society is when everyone agrees on the objective

00:24:08.760 truth of the supremacy of chocolate chip cookies. Do you get a lot of hate? How do you handle it?

00:24:15.520 Um, sure. I do. I don't get as much as I think that people who hate me wish that I did. Um,

00:24:24.680 I heard like someone say once, I don't even know who, who it was about, but some like progressive

00:24:31.300 influencer saying something along the lines of, um, like, well, if you're getting a lot of cruelty,

00:24:39.880 then you need to assess why that is. Well, first of all, that's very, excuse my language, but stupid

00:24:49.560 logic. So you're saying that if a particular group or a particular person is getting bullied,

00:24:55.160 then it's not the bully's fault or the people who are being cruel. It's actually the person who is

00:25:00.920 getting bullied and is the subject of the cruelty. You want to play that out logically? Like that's

00:25:07.500 called victim blaming. That's such an ugly attitude. Now it may be that someone is polarizing or it

00:25:15.080 may be that someone is controversial. Does that mean that they deserve any kind of cruelty or any kind

00:25:22.040 of harassment? I certainly don't think so. But do I, do I get angry people in my DMs? Of course I do.

00:25:30.260 Of course I do. Because I represent an intersection that a lot of people hate, conservatism and

00:25:40.080 Christianity. And so those two things make people very mad. The good thing is, is that I could never

00:25:46.520 be accused of being a grifter. Because a grifter is someone who, you know, says whatever they need to

00:25:55.340 say, to make as much money as possible, to get as many followers as possible. And I could have a lot

00:26:03.740 more, I could, if I chose one or the other, I think if I just chose political commentating,

00:26:09.340 I never talked about my faith. I certainly never talked about like specifically reformed theology.

00:26:15.820 Then I could be, I could appeal to a lot more people. But because I don't just bring like vague

00:26:23.820 notions of like God family guns into my conservatism, but I actually talk about theology

00:26:30.420 and a particular reformed theology, that automatically is going to cut a good portion

00:26:36.540 of your audience off. Because people don't want to hear about that. They don't, they don't want to

00:26:41.440 hear about both. Either you've got Christians that are, will say, will come to my podcast and say,

00:26:48.440 oh, I like what you have to say about the Bible, but I hate your politics or I hate when you talk

00:26:53.360 about conservatism or whatever. And then you'll have people on the other side who say, oh, I,

00:26:59.960 you know, I really like to hear your politics, but please like leave your faith out of it or leave

00:27:04.380 the religion stuff out of it. I would say there are fewer people like that than the, than the first

00:27:09.780 category. The first category, those people tend to be the ones that actually have no problem with like

00:27:15.880 more left-wing Christians talking about their politics. They just have a problem when conservatives

00:27:20.860 talk about their politics or they don't see like social justice, secular social justice as

00:27:27.580 political. So they're okay when leftist political commentators talk about it, but they're not okay

00:27:32.680 when conservative Christian political commentators talk about their perspective. They'll call that

00:27:37.300 divisive, but they don't think that, for example, like Christians posting a black square or agreeing with

00:27:44.300 everything that Black Lives Matter says is divisive. And so typically that's what's underneath

00:27:49.680 that category of people who maybe they like what I have to say theologically. They don't like what I

00:27:55.000 have to say politically. And, and that's, that's fine. If I wanted the largest audience possible,

00:28:02.820 I would either never talk politics or I never talk religion, but instead I've chosen to talk about

00:28:08.780 these two very polarizing subjects, which I do again, not because I want to be polarizing because it

00:28:18.100 would probably benefit me a lot more to not be like, I just pick one polarizing thing that at least

00:28:24.320 more people want like are agree with me on. Um, but the reason I talk about them is because I like,

00:28:33.480 I genuinely believe this stuff. Like the reason why I talk about reformed theology, the reason why I talk

00:28:39.420 about theology, the reason why I talk about the Bible, the reason why I talk about conservative politics

00:28:45.340 is because like all of these things are genuine aspects of my worldview. And thankfully, like

00:28:51.260 through choosing to talk about these things, I have found a very sizable audience who is also

00:28:57.520 thinking through these issues in the same way, or who wants to think through these issues in the same

00:29:01.180 way. My goal has never been to be the most controversial figure, to be a lightning rod, to cause

00:29:09.060 controversy, to go viral, to have the biggest podcast in the world. And I'm just thankful that by the

00:29:15.100 grace of God, this is a good sized, like a very good sized audience. And I have been able to gain

00:29:20.280 the platform that I have, but I've done that not by asking myself, what can I do to gain more

00:29:25.740 followers or to gain more influence, but simply like, how do I rightly handle these issues in a way

00:29:32.360 that is sincere in a way that I hope and try to align with the word of God. That doesn't mean that I

00:29:38.520 always do that perfectly, but I can tell you that I certainly am not saying anything on here that I

00:29:43.420 simply am saying because I hope it gets a lot of clicks or because I hope it goes viral or something

00:29:49.940 like that. That's just not, that's not the game that we're playing. Again, if I were doing that,

00:29:55.720 then I would pick, I'd pick a lane. But I don't want to pick a lane because I like talking about the

00:30:01.640 things we talk about. And thankfully, there are a lot of you who like talking about the things that

00:30:04.920 we talk about. So do I get a lot of hate? I mean, yeah, I get people that really, you know,

00:30:13.480 don't like what I have to say. And also there's tone police people out there too, who it's funny,

00:30:21.760 but it's always has to, it always corresponds with confirmation bias. The people who have tone

00:30:26.540 issues are the people who don't agree with the content. The people who say, wow, she's so

00:30:31.720 gentle or gracious or like soft-spoken or whatever are always the people who actually agree with the

00:30:37.740 content. And so it's interesting how that works. But thankfully, like the Lord gives me a lot of

00:30:44.980 encouragement through you guys too. As I've said, like I get a ton of messages from you,

00:30:50.500 such encouraging messages, people whose minds have changed. Not, and I don't take credit for that,

00:30:55.540 but I am thankful to be used in any way as a vessel or for my guests on the show to be used in any way

00:31:01.460 as a vessel. That has drawn people to Christ and has changed people's minds. And so sure, I get

00:31:08.680 pushed back. Everyone in this sphere does. Everyone on social media does in some way. But I also get a

00:31:16.760 whole lot of encouragement. Are there cruel people on the internet who say and do cruel things? Yeah,

00:31:22.440 there are. And the funny thing is like they fancy themselves as the tolerant ones. People who,

00:31:28.980 you know, spend all of their time on forums or making posts or making videos or like making content

00:31:35.480 based on what they don't like about something else, something someone else said or like trying to

00:31:46.400 out people as, you know, as bad people. They fancy themselves like the good ones. They fancy

00:31:54.480 themselves the compassionate ones. Really like they're the bullies. Like I can't imagine that

00:31:59.160 kind of existence that is constantly scouring the internet for like call out material and for material

00:32:08.640 that you can use to then make other people angry and get them on your team. And then you fancy

00:32:17.160 yourself like the tolerant, the loving, the acceptance, the accepting, the compassionate one.

00:32:22.140 Man, that's such like an unoriginal, entiring sounding existence. And so I just don't worry

00:32:29.940 myself too much with those kinds of people. I don't want to be like that. I wouldn't want to

00:32:35.280 be friends with people like that. And so I also always consider the source of the criticism and

00:32:40.740 what the criticism says. Now, there are also very fair people that fairly push back and fairly have

00:32:46.580 like opposing views to what I say. And I always appreciate those people. Those are different than

00:32:51.040 trolls. I don't call everyone who disagrees with me a troll or a hater or an attacker. I really loathe

00:32:57.420 when people say someone who disagrees with them attacked them or harmed them in some way. That's

00:33:02.740 so fragile. I certainly never want to be that. But of course, there are haters, but there's so much

00:33:09.820 more encouragement and there's so much more goodness too. All right. Last question. Favorite

00:33:17.260 holiday, 4th of July. It's not because I like it more than what Easter or Christmas represent. I

00:33:23.680 just like the whole day of it. I like the summer. I love America. I love the 4th of July and everything

00:33:29.520 that is included in it. It's always been my favorite, my favorite day of celebration.

00:33:35.500 All right. That's all I got for today. We will be back here soon.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - June 16, 2021

Ep 439 ｜ How Do We Avoid Being Lukewarm？｜ Q&A

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