Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 507 ｜ Our Real Enemy, Our True Family & Our Ultimate Goal

00:00:00.000 hey guys welcome to relatable happy monday hope everyone had a great weekend we're off we're off

00:00:17.360 to the races this morning so this morning i was at um a protest against vaccine mandates for

00:00:25.660 southwest airlines just to i wasn't actually protesting myself i was getting some interviews

00:00:31.720 from a lot of you guys and it was really exciting to meet some of you and to talk to southwest

00:00:37.740 employees who are pushing back against this mandate and i'll play some of that footage once

00:00:42.440 we have it all put together maybe on thursday but very interesting to hear from those of you who are

00:00:48.940 standing up against this what i heard was it's about sincerely held beliefs not even necessarily

00:00:54.800 about the vaccine although it is for some people um but it's really just about freedom the ability

00:01:01.220 to be able to provide for your families a lot of the people i talked to have been working for this

00:01:06.620 airline and other airlines for decades and this is just the breaking point for a lot of you and i think

00:01:11.940 that it would um that it would do well of these corporations and of course of the federal government

00:01:20.700 to listen to people who have sincere well thought out reasons to oppose these mandates um so we'll talk

00:01:30.800 a little bit more about that later in the week uh today i just kind of want to um give us some

00:01:37.800 perspective about about a lot of the things that are um that are going on right now there is so much

00:01:45.720 chaos there's so much confusion there are so many different news stories that everyone's trying to keep up with

00:01:50.620 and i just want to make sure that we as christians are looking at all of this from the proper

00:01:54.700 perspective it's easy to get so consumed with politics that we start to lose sight of what is eternal

00:02:02.220 and what is temporal and i just want to bring us back to where we should be standing as the church

00:02:10.840 i believe in in all of this and explaining to you why i as a christian stand where i do

00:02:18.480 politically but also you know opening the door to the areas of christian liberty that i think are

00:02:25.200 important um i want to take a break from the news even though there's so much that we could talk about

00:02:31.860 i will say just briefly colin powell secretary of state under um under george w bush he died from

00:02:41.680 covid complications and he's 84 years old so whether someone is vaccinated or not the chances

00:02:49.680 of surviving covid aren't really great and so um he died sadly we should be praying for his family

00:02:56.500 during all of this and everyone who knew him it's always kind of shocking off-putting when

00:03:01.400 someone who has been such a pillar in american political life for so long dies even when they are

00:03:08.020 old so that's the one bit of news that i'll say but other than that we're going to take a break

00:03:11.620 from the news just to kind of get our bearings to kind of get our legs underneath us a little bit

00:03:16.700 so i want to explain this issue that i see on the left and the right and i realized as i was

00:03:23.160 writing this out that this takes a little bit of repetition to break down where i think we are

00:03:27.140 in this moment but there's this issue that i see on both political sides and i see this among

00:03:32.980 christians and among secularists and um then i'm going to explain like i said where i sit and where

00:03:38.780 i hope to have everyone who listens to me sit in the midst of all of the craziness politically and

00:03:43.180 culturally that that's going on um and maybe stand is actually a better word than sit because we are all

00:03:49.440 standing against we feel like we're standing against these waves of chaos and confusion right now

00:03:53.680 as christians and as conservatives and then i'll talk about why i stand where i do theologically

00:04:00.840 and politically and i hope that these explanations give you a whole lot of clarity and i hope that you

00:04:05.320 end this monday episode feeling very encouraged about why the heck any of us are here why we talk

00:04:11.140 about the things that we do why i believe we are called to the fight that's before us and yes that

00:04:16.360 does include politics um the reason that we talk about the things that we do that yes are temporary yes

00:04:24.240 um are physical and political and cultural sometimes rather than spiritual and eternal is

00:04:32.780 because we believe that there is no neutral ground that's what c.s lewis says there is no neutral ground

00:04:37.620 in the universe every square inch every split second is claimed by god and counter claimed by satan

00:04:43.840 and we say often on this podcast neutrality is a myth secularism is not neutral christianity is not

00:04:50.720 neutral conservatism is not neutral neither is leftism nothing is truly neutral no book no movie

00:04:57.460 no show no second we spend is spent neutrally everything in one sense is spiritual warfare like

00:05:04.960 everything that is thought everything that is said everything that is done or not done is all in

00:05:10.860 submission to god or to satan everything that exists is either claimed by god or by god's allowance is

00:05:17.280 claimed by satan ephesians 2 2 calls satan the prince of the power of the air the spirit that

00:05:23.340 is now at work in the sons of disobedience so satan is actively working in the universe through those who

00:05:29.200 do not follow christ we were all once sons and daughters of disobedience that's what ephesians 2 3

00:05:35.940 says so we all once walked as sons and daughters of disobedience following the prince of the power of the

00:05:41.640 the chapter goes on to say it is only through the power of christ by the grace of god manifested

00:05:47.980 uh in our faith in jesus that we are now sons and daughters of obedience we were once rebels vessels

00:05:55.260 of wrath tools of the evil one and now not because of anything we have done but because of god's

00:06:00.880 incredible mercy we are now children of god friends of god heirs of god with christ vessels of mercy

00:06:08.460 ambassadors of christ so the old has gone the new has come as second corinthians 5 17 says

00:06:14.220 ephesians 5 8 says at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the lord walk as children

00:06:20.500 of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true that last part is

00:06:25.980 something that you'll hear me say on relatable a lot that which is good and right and true that is

00:06:30.740 what we as christians cling to and push for and then in ephesians 6 we're told this for we do not

00:06:37.000 wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic

00:06:42.420 powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places so

00:06:48.900 we new creations in christ children of light lovers of all that is good and right and true

00:06:55.600 haters of that which is not good and right and true we are in a spiritual battle against children of

00:07:02.400 darkness sons of disobedience haters again of all that is good and right and true that spiritual

00:07:08.700 battle is real neutrality is a myth there's dark and light okay so we got that that's the whole big

00:07:16.600 grand context that we're all living in whether we acknowledge it or not but here's where i think

00:07:22.060 things get complicated when we talk about the things that we do when we talk about these different

00:07:26.140 political issues here's where i personally struggle when it comes to the culture wars political wars

00:07:34.060 it is fairly easy for me to say what is evil and dark and what's not according to not my feelings but

00:07:42.280 god's word so anything that glorifies what god calls disordered sexuality anything that normalizes what

00:07:48.780 god calls perversion anything that seeks to corrupt or abuse children physically sexually psychologically

00:07:54.600 all of the above anything that seeks to disintegrate and redefine the nuclear family which god defines

00:08:00.980 clearly in the first chapter of genesis and reiterates throughout scripture specifically by jesus

00:08:05.720 himself in matthew 19 and is necessary a necessary building block for any functioning free society

00:08:12.140 anything that disincentivizes work which existed before the fall before sin entered the world and is

00:08:18.780 therefore inherently good and necessary for both individuals and nations to thrive anything that

00:08:24.380 encourages covetousness of someone else's possessions anything that replaces the god-given role of the

00:08:30.260 parent or the church with the role of the state anything that intentionally dehumanizes or oppresses

00:08:36.120 a group of people anything that enables or in or exacerbates anarchy and lawlessness anything that causes

00:08:44.000 people to believe in utter lies anything that that uh calls evil what god calls good and calls good what god

00:08:52.460 calls evil now within these kind of broad categories of what according to god's word are very clearly evil

00:09:01.280 um uh within those categories are packaged my specific thoughts about immigration about guns about free

00:09:11.180 speech about abortion welfare race etc which i've detailed obviously many times over the years on this show

00:09:17.440 and all of my specific views fall into one of those deal breakers i listed above and it's on those

00:09:25.260 specifics so it's on the how of those things especially on the how policy wise on the policy specifics that i

00:09:34.120 think faithful christians may disagree that doesn't mean both sides are right or even that both sides are

00:09:41.500 biblical or that it's not important to debate and determine who is correct but it also uh doesn't

00:09:47.540 mean that either side is not a believer like for example i voted for trump there are christians faithful

00:09:55.020 christians who didn't vote for either candidate i respect that decision and their faith and yes i even know

00:10:02.140 christians who voted for joe biden is really hard for me to understand that decision i will debate that

00:10:08.820 decision until the cows come home and at the end of the day i will probably at least get them to say that voting

00:10:14.620 for biden was not a good decision but those christians that i know personally who voted that way i will see

00:10:21.820 them in heaven like i have no doubt about that there are christians who disagree on the particulars of gun policy

00:10:27.960 of immigration policy welfare policy covid policy and even though i really think they're wrong and i could root my

00:10:36.000 beliefs about each specific policy in scripture i have to believe these are not salvation issues

00:10:41.640 because if i don't then i've just placed spiritual burdens on people that don't actually biblically

00:10:47.000 exist and i've added something to the gospel that biblically is not there so there are people who

00:10:52.780 i believe peddle factually and biblically incorrect information on race for example racism police brutality

00:11:00.000 justice so-called social justice who call themselves christians many of them are some may not be not

00:11:07.940 based and i'm not saying that based on my feelings about them but based on their general rejection of

00:11:13.780 the bible as authoritative and their seeming insistence upon worshiping the god of self rather than the god

00:11:19.280 of scripture and then there are people with whom i agree politically and culturally and honestly this

00:11:25.520 bothers me more people who i really agree with politically and culturally who i believe really

00:11:31.460 see things like as they are right now in this political moment their eyes are opened in that way

00:11:36.440 and some of whom you know they don't even pretend to be christians and that's fine but then there are some

00:11:42.740 who i agree with on so much politically who call themselves christians who based on what they say

00:11:49.740 and based on what the bible says uh they seem to not be walking out a genuine faith in christ it seems

00:11:57.700 like they believe christianity is less about uh taking up your cross and following christ and more about

00:12:04.500 some strange mix of patriotism and self-help and that really distresses me that really makes me sad

00:12:11.800 and now here's why i think we have what we do we've got christians who believe that they align

00:12:19.520 with some left-wing values or left-wing policies on things and again i think they're completely wrong

00:12:25.060 about that but you know we're free to be wrong on things that are not salvation issues and i'm sure

00:12:31.860 they think that i'm wrong on some of those things as well and then we have people on the right who are

00:12:38.060 right politically but have their theology all out of whack to the point of where i am not even sure that

00:12:44.080 they could articulate the gospel so it doesn't give you any clout to be a christian on the left

00:12:50.740 um according to leftists like you are not going to get any more credibility being a christian you're

00:12:57.560 probably actually going to have less credibility from leftist secularists if you are a christian

00:13:02.240 but it does give you clout with the secular world to be on the left if you are a christian which is why i

00:13:09.580 believe they're christians who adopt some of the left-wing values that don't align at all with

00:13:14.200 scripture like say abortion and they just call it like nuanced or something like that because it's

00:13:18.880 easier to be mainstream politically and still try to hold on to the christian faith it's cooler

00:13:24.060 it's less controversial to be maybe center left and of course they may sincerely believe the political

00:13:31.160 things that they do but the truth is they agree with the secular world on these things almost 100%

00:13:37.100 of atheists and agnostics identify as on the left side of the political aisle now it does give you

00:13:44.440 clout to be a christian on the right which is why i believe there are secular people on the right who

00:13:50.680 simply say that they're christians because most people on the right are like there are a ton of

00:13:55.380 evangelicals on the right and it gives you a boost if you espouse christian values whether you're a

00:14:01.860 christian or not and a lot of these people on the right really don't know the first thing about the

00:14:06.680 christian faith i think and i know this is controversial i think that trump probably falls

00:14:12.240 into this category and before someone calls me judgmental i think that we are supposed to just

00:14:17.060 discern the fruits of what people say and do and again this is not coming from a place of

00:14:21.960 condescension because as i already said all of us according to ephesians 2 were all once in that

00:14:27.600 place we were all um uh part of the old way and now we are part of the new way as new creations we

00:14:35.060 were all sons and daughters of disobedience now only through by grace by grace through faith in

00:14:40.040 christ are we um are we sons and daughters of obedience so this is not coming from a place of

00:14:46.740 superiority or condescension i'm just saying what is so i think that there are christian liberals seeking

00:14:52.220 affirmation from the world and then there i think there are secular conservatives seeking affirmation from

00:14:58.780 the christian right does that make sense and so both are dealing with a form of compromise that i

00:15:05.900 think that we have to be really discerning about now i am not an arbiter thank the lord of who is a

00:15:10.800 christian and who is not um we may be surprised by some of the people that we see in heaven my point

00:15:16.040 is that the spiritual battle of good versus evil light versus dark does not primarily break down into

00:15:23.680 left versus right because of what i just described it doesn't break down primarily as republican versus

00:15:30.360 democrat or conservative versus liberal it is not primarily political and i'll explain that a little

00:15:35.980 bit more in just one second so this spiritual battle that christians are facing is not primarily

00:15:43.360 against vaccine mandates or covid restrictions or gun control or abortion or even communism and let me

00:15:50.860 just say like that's tough okay that's tough for me um i imagine that it's probably tough for you too

00:15:56.780 if you're as passionate about these things as as i am because i hate all of the things that i just

00:16:03.000 listed i think all of them are evil and cumulatively they have a very oppressive effect on societies and

00:16:08.940 thus i think that they should be opposed by christians that's my view and i believe it's a biblically 0.65

00:16:13.860 based view i am very passionate about those views and i want to persuade other people to hold those

00:16:19.760 views on those subjects even so i have to understand that believers who disagree with me on these are

00:16:27.860 my brothers and sisters and at the end of the day i have more in common with them fundamentally than i do

00:16:34.500 with the atheist who agrees with me on say the dangers of critical theory at the end of the day

00:16:40.300 my allegiance is to jesus my citizenship is in heaven i'm a member of the body of christ that doesn't

00:16:46.880 mean that i'm not a citizen a citizen of the united states that doesn't mean that i'm not

00:16:50.540 politically involved obviously you guys know how involved i am and how much i care about it but

00:16:55.120 ultimately fundamentally like that's where my association is at the end of the day it is still

00:17:02.640 light versus darkness it's not ultimately pro-abortion versus anti-abortion it's not ultimately

00:17:08.520 capitalism versus communism it's not ultimately freedom versus tyranny it is ultimately ultimately sin

00:17:15.600 versus salvation christ versus satan the church versus the world that is really hard to remember

00:17:21.400 when everything is so insanely political right now and when i see so many christians who just

00:17:27.860 don't get it who still think black lives matter is really about saving black lives who still think that

00:17:34.800 all of these covid mandates are really about our health who think that joe biden really is

00:17:39.840 empathetic and unifying who think that critical race theory and gender theory have some merit to

00:17:45.400 them who think that abortion is some nuanced issue that maybe we don't need to be involved with 0.59

00:17:52.240 politically who think saying a man is a man is unloving who think social justice is actually just

00:17:58.180 they really think the biggest problems facing our country are white supremacy and christian nationalism

00:18:03.340 it's insane to me i mean it's it's mind-boggling um they don't see what's happening they have no idea 1.00

00:18:09.380 what's coming they are totally and completely ignorant and their ignorance works as complicity 0.93

00:18:13.700 and tyranny and they don't see it they don't see the parallels to the gulag archipelago or brave new 0.99

00:18:18.740 world or 1984 or the screw tape letters they literally do not see it and that is maddening to me

00:18:24.340 and yet and yet at the end of the day i have to remember where i stand on which side quote unquote i am

00:18:36.000 ultimately and most importantly and that is on the side of those with whom i agree on the gospel

00:18:46.520 and disagree on politics is there a debate about how much secular progressivism you can buy into

00:18:56.320 before it's logical to wonder if you believe the bible at all or just secularism in general right or

00:19:01.440 left yes yes there is definitely a debate about that absolutely we talk about that a lot uh but i'm

00:19:08.500 talking about true believers who simply have maybe given into mainstream dogma on political

00:19:16.140 issues without even really thinking and that's actually why i have this podcast this podcast

00:19:21.860 is for believers it is to inform believers on my side of the political aisle and it's also to

00:19:27.960 persuade believers on the other side of the political aisle there are non-christians who listen to this 0.58

00:19:32.480 podcast i'm very thankful for that i have non-christians whom i've had on this podcast who have a lot of

00:19:38.760 wisdom to share and i am happy to have their voices on those important subjects i just wrote an article

00:19:44.200 that's out today for world magazine saying that you know we can learn something as christians from

00:19:48.460 dave chapelle and joe rogan even though we really disagree with them theologically we disagree with

00:19:53.120 a lot of the things they say but the fact that they're willing to come out and and say hey biology

00:19:58.160 is something that exists like a man is a man like that that kind of secular sanity infused into the

00:20:03.840 cultural conversation matters i welcome it that's great but as far as i know dave chapelle and joe

00:20:09.800 rogan aren't christians like that is not ultimately who i am linking arms with um and even though they 0.99

00:20:16.740 have more wisdom on these subjects and more courage on these subjects than a lot of christians do that

00:20:21.220 just means that christians should be ashamed about their lack of wisdom and courage on it doesn't mean

00:20:25.660 that i am no longer in alliance with them as my fellow believers um the the secular voices who are

00:20:34.980 sane and all the categories that i'm talking about are so important but they're not family

00:20:38.580 the christian church is um the christian church are the ones that i am supposed to be fighting

00:20:43.980 alongside that's why i am much more interested in arguing with people who bear the name of christ

00:20:49.340 than i am interested in arguing with non-christians about politics i mean that in the sense that i want

00:20:55.780 to talk to true christians who are left-wing and show them where i believe they're wrong politically

00:21:02.240 i also want to show conservatives who are not true followers of jesus who are maybe just christians in

00:21:07.540 name only i want to show them what christianity is and what the gospel is that it's bigger and better

00:21:13.300 and deeper than a tagline in our bio you know faith family freedom or something like that or it's better

00:21:19.640 and bigger and more profound than the campaign slogan or an identity that we know is going to you know

00:21:25.440 get us in with the conservative evangelicals like that is deadly that's deadly that's just as empty as

00:21:31.320 any kind of secular progressivism um it's bigger and better than a narrative that centers on the

00:21:37.160 rise and fall of the united states uh i see a lot of conflation of that um on the right and that does

00:21:44.720 that does worry me in the same way that it worries me that there are uh that there are christians that

00:21:51.240 compromise so much on political and cultural issues to the point of basically almost being

00:21:56.660 indistinguishable from secular leftists um i love when i get when i get christians who tell me

00:22:03.700 yeah i was a christian but i was ignorant politically and now i've changed my mind for listening to your

00:22:09.500 podcast or reading a book or whatever it is and usually it's not it's it's not me uh but when people

00:22:15.840 become christians and when they get involved in the christian community and they start studying

00:22:21.540 scripture they do tend to move to the right politically and socially i know people get so

00:22:27.840 mad when i say that but it's true it i mean it's true when i i did a survey the other day on instagram

00:22:33.760 asking people um you know what changed your mind on abortion if you were previously pro-choice and now

00:22:39.660 you're pro-life or maybe you were someone who said i'm personally pro-choice but i'm or personally pro-life

00:22:44.880 but politically pro-choice if you're one of those people who maybe didn't think that the law had anything

00:22:49.360 to say about it what changed your mind almost every single person said becoming a christian or

00:22:54.680 realizing that you weren't really a christian you just said that you were a christian but really

00:22:58.560 reading the bible that is what pushed you to be anti-abortion most people that i talk to if i say if

00:23:05.720 you were on the left and you moved right what changed your mind most people say someone introducing

00:23:09.980 me to god and i'm not saying that being on the right is the same as being a christian i just spent a

00:23:15.220 few minutes talking about that that's just typically the trajectory that happens so you can get mad at

00:23:21.700 me all you want to about that talk to people it is typically true um it's and it's because like it's

00:23:29.820 really hard to stomach the legality of abortion or the disintegration of the family or the

00:23:34.620 unencumbered growth of the government as a christian um but but i love even more when i get

00:23:40.900 conservatives who tell me that maybe they were already pro-life they already hated big government

00:23:46.100 um but now they're a believer like god used this podcast or god used a bunch of different people

00:23:53.120 a bunch of different conversations a bunch of different resources to show them that even though

00:23:57.020 they aligned with a lot of christians politically or maybe even that they thought they were christians

00:24:00.700 um they you know they they realized that they weren't they didn't know anything about theology and so

00:24:06.840 that's where i sit in the midst of this that's where i unabashedly want my my listeners to sit i

00:24:15.000 want you to sit in the midst of all of that that doesn't mean that i'm in the middle politically you

00:24:20.220 guys know that i'm not but i want us to be so careful especially on the right because you know i've

00:24:25.760 seen a lot of conservative figures lately who i didn't even realize were christians and i would

00:24:31.540 have assumed maybe that they weren't even though we um you know even though we agree politically

00:24:37.180 like going out to churches and giving sermons and i just i worry a little bit about that i worry a

00:24:44.100 little bit about that on the right that we stop caring about theology and we stop caring about whether

00:24:51.020 or not someone believes the gospel when they align with us politically like that it's a little it's a

00:24:57.380 little shaky and it's a little difficult like when we see the onslaught of um you know tyranny in some

00:25:04.440 ways that we see coming and has already manifested itself in places like canada and australia like it's

00:25:10.460 really easy for us to believe that left versus right is darkness versus light and to conflate this

00:25:17.240 political um fight that we're in with a spiritual fight and it's not the same thing but

00:25:26.960 the political can be spiritual they're not the same but they can definitely be intertwined and um

00:25:34.820 i hate the word nuanced because i think it's overused but it truly is a nuanced look of what is what is

00:25:42.560 going on so i see it as i care about politics because i care about people as we say so much

00:25:50.220 politics matters because policy matters because people matter politics affects policy policy

00:25:56.860 affects people and so i care about the things that i care about i vouch for the policies that i

00:26:03.600 vouch for because i believe that it's best for people um but i also see that ultimately what people

00:26:10.740 need is the gospel ultimately what people uh what i want people to do is not to be republican necessarily

00:26:18.900 um but i want them to bow to christ i want them to see christ as king everything else that i advocate

00:26:26.320 for i think is good for society i think it's good for people and i love the country in which god has

00:26:32.620 placed me and so i push for policies and i push for people or i push for issues um and sides of issues

00:26:40.480 that i think is best for the family and that glorifies god the most and allows people the freedom

00:26:45.820 to to speak and to worship and to think and to provide for their families all these things that

00:26:52.840 i see according to the bible are good and right and true while at the same time holding my partisanship

00:26:59.620 loosely when it comes to um when it comes to the gospel and when it comes to who i am ultimately

00:27:06.660 linking arms with and i can't tell you exactly specifically what it always looks like to walk that out

00:27:14.760 because obviously i've linked arms with people who are not um who are not believers when it comes to

00:27:21.460 for example gender ideology or critical theory or things like that but i can't do that at the expense

00:27:29.280 of my partnership with fellow believers um and things have become so heated so hot that really i think

00:27:38.360 that a lot of us feel like we do have more in common with unbelievers who agree with us politically than

00:27:45.660 we do believers who disagree with us politically and i think people on the left feel like that too

00:27:50.560 100 percent um so i don't know what it looks like to necessarily walk that line um because certainly

00:27:59.580 if we care about tyranny if we care about the threat of totalitarianism which i think that we should

00:28:06.400 um and we obviously do on this podcast it's gonna take a line with people who are not believers who

00:28:13.600 care about who care about this stuff um and we do that while at the same time wanting to change their

00:28:20.420 hearts and knowing that the gospel is ultimately the answer it's this tension it's this tension that

00:28:26.780 christians live in that's another overused term tension nuance all that stuff sometimes these are just

00:28:32.280 excuses for people to not really know what they're talking about um and i don't mean it in that sense

00:28:38.460 but we do we live in this tension of being here and knowing that we have to care about the people around

00:28:44.180 us and care about the world and care about what's going on right in front of us while knowing that our

00:28:49.120 hope is in heaven that our faith is in god our trust is in god not in any politician or political party

00:28:54.980 wanting what's best for our nation wanting what's best for our families wanting what's best for our

00:28:59.480 community being logical and true truth matters so much not just when it comes to biblical truth

00:29:05.140 but also when it comes to uh when it comes to just factual truth scientific truth like all of all

00:29:12.340 truth is god's truth so all of that matters a whole lot and i'm always going to be advocating

00:29:17.460 for that while also feeling this sense of but this is not my home but this is not my ultimate calling

00:29:26.160 but these people around me who don't agree with me on the gospel are not are not my family and i think

00:29:33.440 we are we get confused sometimes when we're reading the bible our western i think lenses make us view

00:29:40.560 particular verses in scripture that are um that are really talking about loving the church and caring for

00:29:49.940 the church like for example caring for the least of these we think of oh least of these in society

00:29:54.920 it's really talking about persecuted christians it's talking about the least of these within the church

00:29:59.400 we look at a verse that says you know visit those who are in prison and we're thinking oh this means

00:30:03.800 everyone in prison it's really talking about persecuted christians who are in prison 0.53

00:30:07.340 and i think that um we think really that so many of the commands in scripture about taking care of

00:30:15.080 people outside of the church when our primary responsibility yes we're supposed to go out and make

00:30:19.580 disciples and evangelize but our primary caretaking responsibilities are really to our families in

00:30:24.840 the church like those are the people that we are mostly supposed to be ministering to and serving and

00:30:31.520 i think we've really neglected that like i think the local church so often is so focused on growing

00:30:37.880 numbers and so focused on missions that we neglect building very intimate uplifting community within the

00:30:44.820 church and we sometimes fail i'm not saying always but sometimes fail facilitating these very important

00:30:51.280 discussions and debates about politics so that christians in the local church can come together

00:30:56.460 and say you know i really disagree with you on this so passionately but at the end of the day you're my

00:31:01.020 brother sister in christ the church really needs to be the one bringing people together i'm not talking

00:31:05.440 about some big organization doing that i'm talking about the local church equipping believers to be able to

00:31:12.160 discuss these things that matter but are not ultimate um so that's what i hope that we can see maybe

00:31:17.900 there's pastors there are people who are listening who can help us craft a vision for you know how to help

00:31:23.580 churches do that in their own way i think that this is such a moment in the age of vast globalization

00:31:29.080 that seems to be crushing us in so many ways whether it comes to supply chains and big governments uh

00:31:35.300 big government policies that are exacerbating and enabling unemployment um when things

00:31:42.140 seem to be just getting bigger and bigger and more and more overwhelming like the church needs to be

00:31:46.380 focused laser focused on its people laser focused on its communities i think christians are really

00:31:51.280 called to simplify our lives right now and yes national politics matters state politics matters these big

00:31:58.080 picture things matter but we really i think need to localize we need to be taking care of one another

00:32:04.960 that's how we're going to get through this i think and we need to lean into that and remember

00:32:09.400 where ultimately our allegiance lies even as we are pushing for policies that we believe are best for

00:32:16.240 everyone i hope that makes i hope that makes sense okay so i just wanted to we haven't done the things

00:32:22.760 i don't get in a really long time and i don't know if this qualifies as the things i don't get so if

00:32:27.260 you're fairly new you haven't been listening since the beginning we do like uh sometimes i'll say like

00:32:32.960 things i don't get like people who wear flip-flops and airports you guys know i have very strict

00:32:37.320 airport etiquette that what i'm wearing right now is is great for an airport actually so i believe

00:32:45.040 like this is not even what i was going to say things i don't get but this put me on this tangent

00:32:48.840 so for airports um you got to wear closed-toed shoes preferably i mean with socks even if i know

00:32:56.600 if you have tsa pre-check you're like well i don't have to take my shoes off when i go through security i

00:33:01.480 know but still i just don't think toes they don't need to be seen they don't need to be seen on

00:33:05.880 airplanes they don't need to be seen especially if you're a guy if you're a guy no one ever needs

00:33:10.740 to see your toes at all flip-flops are just off limits period that's another attire rule i have

00:33:16.360 again another topic for another day but airports everyone needs to be wearing closed-toed shoes

00:33:21.160 you don't need to wear heels or anything like that think about an emergency like if you have to slide

00:33:26.800 down one of those slidey things if you crashed in the ocean you don't want your heel to puncture that so

00:33:31.740 we're thinking practical here closed-toed shoes socks are preferable just in case you do have to

00:33:37.120 take off your shoes for any reason and you don't want your feet to smell on a plane that's the worst

00:33:41.180 thing you need to have long pants on maybe a long skirt it's not ideal but you need to have long pants 1.00

00:33:47.940 on the joggers that i'm wearing right now are ideal for that because they've got an elastic waistband

00:33:53.380 jeans uncomfortable acceptable but uncomfortable and then like i'm having i have a tank top on but then i have

00:34:00.320 a sweater over it so i've got some layered options here the the the planes are cold they're almost

00:34:06.000 always cold and so you need some layers and i had a sweet lady sit next to me and like her little 1.00

00:34:11.760 tennis outfit the other day when she had a like a tennis skirt on and a tank top on and she was 0.86

00:34:16.940 shivering the whole time i don't want that for you so things i don't get that's one thing when people

00:34:21.060 don't wear the correct attire for um airports i should probably just like i don't know create some

00:34:27.820 company where i help you pick out your airport outfits and i know some of you are going to be

00:34:32.680 offended by that i'm sorry again not ultimate issue we can still be fellow believers in christ

00:34:36.740 um but the thing that i don't get that is complete i don't even know how i got on to that the thing that

00:34:43.160 i was talking about on instagram um was this like thing that millennials have and this is this is a real

00:34:51.300 thing i'm going to tell you about it and you're going to be like oh i do that too i did i thought that

00:34:55.660 i was the only person you're not the only person this is actually a phenomenon that i read about

00:34:59.720 in some magazine i think i even wrote about it or almost wrote about it in my book and i can't even

00:35:04.760 remember what it's called now but so we have anxiety as millennials millennials born anywhere from

00:35:11.360 i think it's like 1982 to 1997 i was born in 1992 so i'm right smack dab in the middle i'm very much a

00:35:18.640 millennial just all most of the characteristics that you think of when you think of a millennial

00:35:23.460 i embody and one of those things is like we're okay or at least i'm okay and i think most of us

00:35:30.400 are okay making like the major life decisions the people who are kind of on like the older end

00:35:35.180 certainly of millennials sometimes they're called like the early 80s are called like xennials

00:35:40.220 like generation x millennials but we're okay with like the major life decisions um like i'm married

00:35:46.960 i have kids i have a job we pay our bills we've got a mortgage so like we've got i'm fine with all of

00:35:55.440 that and we're responsible in that regard it's little things that give us anxiety so what i mean

00:36:02.760 by that is like okay we might take care of all of our major life decisions maybe you went to law school

00:36:07.660 you became a lawyer you're engaged and all that good stuff but i bet that your trunk is filled with

00:36:14.580 boxes of clothes that you have been meaning to give away to goodwill for like six months and you

00:36:21.780 probably have like a row of wrinkly shirts hanging up in your closet that instead of ironing or steaming

00:36:28.780 you have just decided that you're going to avoid wearing because you just feel like you never have

00:36:33.340 time to do that i bet that your voicemail box is full right now and that you not only maybe haven't

00:36:41.980 called these people back or maybe you have but you're not going to listen to the voicemails and

00:36:45.700 it actually gives you a little bit of anxiety to think about listening to those voicemails or when

00:36:52.760 someone calls you that you don't want to talk to you just let it go because you don't want to pick up

00:36:58.760 the phone you might have a closet that's filled with packages uh amazon packages of things that you

00:37:07.780 don't want to send back or that you know that you need to send back but you haven't sent back yet um

00:37:14.220 this is a problem that millennials have and i'm going to give you my analysis on it i'll give you

00:37:18.760 my analysis on it my quick analysis on it okay so just my quick analysis about like why we have anxiety

00:37:26.680 about these little things and i would love to hear your analysis too so i i and i read about this

00:37:33.220 somewhere and i can't remember i can't remember what it is one i think that we are over stimulated

00:37:38.980 at all times we are consumed by technology and we have this sense of rushedness like we have this sense

00:37:46.900 of hurry that may or may not be real um and we always feel like we don't really have time to do

00:37:53.940 things that we don't have to do for for me it's really difficult for me to do things or to even text

00:37:59.600 i'm terrible at texting people back terrible at texting people back and it's not because i don't

00:38:04.920 care although i if i'm honest with myself i do think that not texting people back can build up to

00:38:11.820 like a care a character flaw like i'll just own that like i think that it makes you seem unreliable

00:38:16.460 and untrustworthy or uncaring when that's not really the case it just i really just forget and um i think

00:38:23.420 that millennials are constantly feeling just over stimulated and overburdened by things that may

00:38:30.800 or may not affect us we probably don't have a whole lot more responsibilities than generations past but

00:38:35.880 we have access to so much more information access to so many other problems that we are we feel

00:38:42.800 burdened in ways that we're not so maybe we as millennials need to again kind of going back to

00:38:47.780 what we talked about simplify and cut down a little bit so we can actually do these things because it

00:38:54.100 actually matters like i know it's funny but i don't think it's a good habit to get in to not send things

00:38:59.740 back that we want to return obviously that wastes money or to not take the stuff to charity that we

00:39:05.320 want to donate to charity or even something as simple as like not ironing our shirts or not

00:39:09.900 steaming our shirts i think um makes us lazy i think that we could all do better and i know this

00:39:17.320 doesn't apply to everyone out there we could all do better at managing our time i am definitely

00:39:22.300 preaching to the choir like i am talking to myself i just constantly feel encumbered by so much and

00:39:29.200 some of it is real some of it is in my imagination and you know when you decide that you're going to

00:39:34.820 do something when you decide that you're going to make a priority for example to work out and the

00:39:39.580 thing that's been holding you back from working out so far has been that you don't have time and then

00:39:44.440 all of a sudden when you make the priority for it you realize that you do have time and it's even

00:39:48.100 hard for you to imagine why you thought that you didn't have the time before i think that that can

00:39:54.060 be true of millennials that we need to do a better job of prioritizing there's so many little things

00:39:58.920 that i hate to do like i hate to call like if i have to cancel subscription and i have to like call

00:40:05.060 someone to do that or i have to go through the hassle of doing something i really really want to

00:40:11.100 avoid doing that at all costs but then when i realize that i i just do it it doesn't take that

00:40:15.200 long and really i just wasted a whole bunch of time beforehand um that i didn't need to waste so

00:40:20.940 uh this podcast is called relatable for that reason i am you you are me like better work and if you

00:40:28.940 understand that reference um you need to stop paying attention to politics too much you're too

00:40:34.840 consumed like i am all right that's all we've got for today we've got a lot of good stuff this week

00:40:39.260 we'll be back here tomorrow

00:40:40.200 you

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - October 18, 2021

Ep 507 ｜ Our Real Enemy, Our True Family & Our Ultimate Goal

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