Ep 512 ｜ Responding to Steven Furtick’s Problematic Post
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Summary
Stephen Furtick is a pastor and author who is well-known for his charismatic style of preaching. In this episode, I talk about why I don't think he should be allowed to do what he does, and why you should too.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and
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a wonderful week. All right. Today we are talking about Stephen Furtick. So there were
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a ton of news stories that I wanted to get to today. And yet I saw this post on Facebook
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that I will specify in a little bit. And I was like, oh, I think I need to respond to that.
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And there were even other stories under the umbrella of Christian news that I wanted to get
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to today. And I'm not even going to be able to get to that because as I was preparing for this,
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I realized, okay, this is going to take me the entire time. All right. I want to respond to the
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offending Facebook post that he put out and that some people were talking about on Twitter. But
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first, I want to set us up. I want to give us some context, not just about who Stephen Furtick is,
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but also why, even before I read what the post is, why I take issue with this and really Stephen
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Furtick in general. So Furtick is a very popular author and pastor in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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He leads a church called Elevation Church. Their worship team produces music that is sung in
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churches across the country. If you go to a contemporary non-denominational or Baptist church,
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you have probably sung an Elevation worship song. They're very catchy. They're kind of like
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hill songs. Furtick is very dynamic. If you have seen a video of him, he's very watchable. It's hard
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to not watch the whole clip. And that's like social media gold. And so often his videos go viral or
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semi-viral on social media. And it's easy to see why. He is very charismatic. And I mean that like in
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the, not in the biblical sense of the word, like speaking in tongues. I mean that he is an excellent
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communicator. It's again, very easy to see why he is so beloved by so many thousands of people.
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When I first started taking Christianity seriously, I was in high school, like junior,
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senior in high school. And I was reading and consuming everything I could, really without
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much thought to whether or not it was sound doctrine that I was taking in. I just didn't
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really have that kind of discernment. And I was eager. Like I was just very eager to learn more
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about Christian theology. I was raised in a Christian home. I went to church every Sunday. I went to a
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Christian school, kindergarten through 12th grade. I'm very thankful for both of those things and
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both of my parents. But in particular, my mom is a very diligent studier of scripture. And so
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the reason I didn't really, I don't know, make my faith my own until the end of high school wasn't
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because of a lack of good parenting on my parents' part. It was, I don't know, it just became kind of
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routine for me as it can when you are raised in a church in particular, maybe kind of like a formal
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Baptist church. It really wasn't until I had a particular Bible teacher when I was a junior in
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high school that I realized that there was this rich intellectual side of Christianity that I hadn't
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really explored before. So I started reading Mere Christianity and C.S. Lewis and all kinds of,
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all kinds of different authors. But I was also, you know, C.S. Lewis is great,
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even though I disagree with him on some things theologically. I was also reading like Donald
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Miller and The Shack and then also David Platt and Matt Chandler and Stephen Furtick and Francis
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Chan and John Piper and Elizabeth Elliot. And I probably had some Joel Osteen sprinkled in there.
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I mean, I was truly all over the place just because I wanted to know more. And in my mind then,
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which is kind of crazy to think about now, I didn't see a whole lot of fundamental differences
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between those people. So that just kind of tells you, and I want to make a note on this,
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that kind of tells you about discernment and wisdom, how it grows over time and with the grace
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and the power of the Holy Spirit. So before you, and I'm just speaking general, you, I'm not speaking
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to any one person out there, but before you, or I should say we, judge someone for following a
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certain teacher that we in, you know, our Christian discernment recognize as unbiblical, we have to
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remember that we don't know where people are in their faith. Like it doesn't mean just because
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someone is listening to a teacher that you don't agree with, or that you're actually discerning as
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a false teacher. It might not mean that they're not really a believer. Maybe they need your
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encouragement. Maybe they need you to lend them your discernment, but don't give up hope or offer
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up condemnation to the new yet eager believer who maybe doesn't yet have the wisdom that you do.
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Like I think back to myself in high school. And if I didn't have people take me under their wing,
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if I didn't have people spur me on in my faith, I started going to a different church than my
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parents when I was in high school. If I didn't have people who were encouraging me and building
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me up and they were only, you know, lashing out at me or telling me, why are you reading The Shack
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or why are you reading Donald Miller? You're so undiscerning. You're not really a Christian.
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Like I could have, I could have, I don't know because, you know, it's God's providence that I'm
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a Christian. It's not any effort on my own part, but I could certainly see that hardening me or
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making me bitter or turning me off in some way. And so I think we have to be very patient. We have
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to be very gentle. We have to be very gracious, not knowing exactly where people are or where or what
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their background is. That doesn't mean we shouldn't say anything. That doesn't mean we shouldn't speak
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the truth in love because we should, but we have to be careful not to offer up condemnation or write
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people off just because they might be listening to a speaker that you now know when your mature
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Christian faith is not someone that we should be learning from. I consumed all kinds of different
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Christian and pseudo-Christian material in high school and college. And I thank God that even though
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I've disagreed with these people on their social justice perspectives in the last few years,
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that Nat Chandler, Tim Keller, and Reformed theology ended up being the direction I went.
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And then, of course, that led to me knowing who people like R.C. Sproul and John MacArthur are
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and understanding the intricacies of Reformed theology and Calvinism, not even realizing I was
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Reformed or Calvinist before, or yeah, not even realizing that I was those things, even though
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I believed those things until I actually had a name for them just a few years ago. Now, that's not to say
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that I don't listen to people who are not in my particular Reformed camp because I do,
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but I am thankful that I did not go the direction of Furtick and Osteen and the Prosperity Gospel
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or even Donald Miller or someone like Jen Hatmaker or anyone over there. Now, why do I say that? Why do
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I say that in particular about Stephen Furtick? I know there are a lot of you out there who really
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love him. And there are a lot of things that he says that I really agree with, that I really agree
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with, too. I'm sure, you know, he's probably conservative politically, ideologically, and all
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that. Like, I haven't seen him say anything woke, and so that's not my contention at all. I've done
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an episode on the Prosperity Gospel. We will link that in the description. It was specifically about
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Joel Osteen. And, you know, some people, if you follow me on Instagram, you saw a few weeks ago that
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people were taken aback that I said, you know, Joel Osteen is a prosperity preacher. They were very
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upset by that. And that might be surprising to you. Most people know that, but a lot of people
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don't. He's got tens of thousands of followers and thousands of congregants. So you can go listen to
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that episode if you haven't already. Again, we'll link it. And we don't have time to do a deep dive
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into Furtick. And like always, and I get pushed back kind of on the other side for not, you know,
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going in for the kill and calling everyone false teachers. But I want to be charitable. I want to
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give the benefit of the doubt and simply say what is, in my capacity right now, observably true.
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So again, I want to be as charitable as possible. I'm not trying to, like, I just don't have the
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authority or even the capacity to discover everything that might make Furtick a false
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teacher, even though I know there are a lot of you out there that are saying, what are you talking
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about? You know that. Well, I want to give the only thing that I can honestly give right now.
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And again, that is what I see to be observably true, that Furtick is not an expositor of the word.
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And that in itself for a pastor is really troublesome. And I'll explain what I mean by that in just a second.
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Again, the reason I'm going to mostly leave my criticism there about the absence of expository
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preaching is not because there isn't more to say, but because in order to fairly level deeper,
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more serious criticisms, I have to have all the necessary information before me with context.
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And I just don't have that. So I don't think that it would be right. What do I mean when I say
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that Furtick does not exposit the word, the Bible? Expositional preaching is when a Bible teacher
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exposes what the Bible says, explaining the original intent and meaning of the text.
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So an example would be a pastor, say, doing a sermon series on Romans, going through a few verses
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every week, digging into what the Bible says and what the passage means. Not simply what it means to
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us, but what it actually means in light of the context of the chapter and the context of the
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book and the context of all of Scripture, the context of the gospel and the context of history
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that doesn't, you know, talking about all those different contexts doesn't have to take an hour.
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There are quick ways to do that, and we'll talk about that. But context is important. Looking at the
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original meaning intent of the text is important if you're looking at expository preaching.
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There may be various ways to apply Scripture to our lives, but there is one true meaning,
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which means faithful Christians and Christian teachers can disagree on some passages, by the
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way. That's how you get multiple understandings of, for example, like the end times. But expository
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preachers seek to find the meaning using the context that I just listed. I'm trying as diligently,
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albeit fallibly, to understand, interpret, teach, and then apply the text according to that meaning.
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So expository teaching preaches from the text rather than into the text. So it's drawing meaning
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out of the text, not placing our subjective meaning into or onto the text. This is the difference between
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exegetical and eisegetical preaching. Now, some of you know what all of these terms mean,
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and for some of you, this is the first time that you're learning them, which is totally fine.
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To exegete means to lead out of. So that prefix, ex, means out, like exit or exile, extract.
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Eisegesis means to lead into. The Greek prefix, eis, means in. So expository preaching is exegetical.
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It is starting with the text, then drawing the meaning out of it, using all the context that
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we talked about. Eisegetical preaching is putting subjective personal meanings into the text. So
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expository exegetical preaching seeks to view and present scripture as the authority rather than as
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an assistant to whoever is preaching. The posture of the expository preacher is humility, recognizing
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that there is no greater wisdom or comfort or hope or inspiration to be preached than the word of God
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itself. That doesn't mean that he can't add biblical commentary. But again, he is starting with the
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inerrancy and the authority of scripture. He's not starting with his own subjective analysis.
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There's a difference there. Exegetical preaching is known to, is typically known to have these four
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steps. So number one, observation. So what does the passage say? Number two, interpretation. What
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does the passage mean? And that's, you know, where the context comes in. Number three, correlation. How
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does the passage relate to the rest of the Bible? Again, I would say that has to do with context and
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just our understanding of the general narrative of scripture and what the gospel itself says.
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And then number four, application. How should this passage affect my life? So is there a sin
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that you need to stop doing? Is there a command that you need to be following? Is there something
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that you need to go do according to this text? Or is there a lie that you have believing that this
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particular passage is refuting with truth? Is there something that you need to change internally,
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externally, according to this passage? Is there an idea that you believed about God that
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is clearly refuted in the Bible? And if that's confusing, if it seems like it contradicts itself,
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I wouldn't say go into your own mind or go outside of the Bible to try to reconcile what seems like
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two contradictory passages, but go into scripture. One example is Ephesians 2, 8 through 10.
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By grace, you have been saved through faith. I mean, over and over again, just in those two verses,
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we see that salvation is a gift, that it's not something we can earn. And then we look in the
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book of James and we see faith without works is dead. How do we reconcile those two things? We go
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into scripture. I've actually done a whole podcast on those two things that seem to be contradicting
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each other and actually are reconciled in Ephesians 2, 8 through 10 itself. When we read that that faith
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that is required for salvation is given to us by grace, and it is worked out then in works. And
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actually in Ephesians 2, 10, it says that God has prepared the good works that we have been doing
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beforehand. So the works that we are called to throughout scripture, but specifically in the book
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of James, it's an outworking of that faith. It is not salvation itself. So again, we go into
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scripture to reconcile what seems like a complicated idea or two seemingly contradictory verses. We don't
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just discard one in favor of the other. We try not to rely on our own biases or what we want scripture
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to say. We go deeper into scripture to try to understand how we can reconcile what may seem like
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to opposing views in scripture. That was just a quick detour. Stephen Lawson, in my opinion,
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is one of the greatest expository teachers of all time. He has a podcast called The Expositor Podcast.
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He has a few podcasts, and I've heard him preach in person before. He's great. Highly recommend that.
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So in expository preaching, the subject of the sermon is the text. This is in contrast to topical
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teaching and textual teaching. A topical teaching is when you say, okay, today we're going to talk
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about gossip. And you go find all the verses that have to do with gossip, and you preach on that. Or
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textual preaching or teaching, which is when you preach from the text, but the text is more of
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kind of like a starting point for a theme. So this could mean that a pastor says, we're talking about
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2 Timothy 1.5 today, which is the verse about, you know, Timothy and his grandmother Lois, his mother
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Eunice raising him in the faith. And they use that to discuss the importance of grandparents, even
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though that's secondary to the point that the text is actually making. Now, let me say with that,
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not all topical and textual preaching is unfaithful or bad. Like we, I mean, I'm not preaching, but we
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talk about topical things and we look for the verses that fit into that topic. That in and of itself
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is not wrong. It is totally possible to make a completely valid and biblical point about the
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importance of grandmothers using 2 Timothy 1.5. It is possible to do a sermon series on the end
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times, for example, and to go to various parts of scripture to do that series. That is not in itself
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unbiblical or a mishandling of the text. One of the best and most comforting sermon series that I've
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listened to recently was a sermon series by John MacArthur on the role of parents to protect and raise
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their kids in the Lord. I mean, he talked about the history of child sacrifice, both literally and
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figuratively, you know, sacrificing your child's mind to corruption in society and all of that. And
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he drew from a variety of passages, but he never traveled outside of what the text actually means.
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So topical and textual sermons can be biblical and edifying. As long as, as long as, and this is
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whether it's expository, topical, or textual, as long as it is exegetical and not eisegetical, meaning
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the teacher will seek to understand and convey the original meaning and context of the passage rather
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than extract the verse from its context and give you a meaning that, you know, they want it to have
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according to the topic or theme that they want to preach on that day. So what you'll see in
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eisegetical preaching is a lot of, this is what it means to you, or this is what it means to me, rather
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than simply, this is what it means, period. And as we've already established, biblical texts can and do have
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a variety of applications, but only one true meaning. And so a faithful handler of God's word
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will seek to understand what the text actually originally means and then offer up possible
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applications. So someone who is not rightly handling scripture, you'll notice, will constantly insert
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themselves or you in the text where you do not exist. So they will make you David in the story of
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David and Goliath. They will make you Daniel in the story of Daniel in the lion's den. They will make
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you the hero of the story and often depict God as your cheerleader, as your motivator, as your
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accomplice, rather than the actual hero of every single story in scripture, which is God himself.
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Every example of courage and faithfulness in the Bible is a testimony, not to human power or
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potential, but to God's power and providence. So thank God we are not the heroes of scripture.
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We are not the stars of the show. How much pressure would that be? We are not center stage. Our life
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is not the main narrative. Our personality traits, our strengths and weaknesses, our lived experiences,
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our feelings, while they all may be important, they all have a place, they do not determine what
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the text says or how the story of eternity goes. God's great plan of redemption through Christ is the
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thread that runs from Genesis through Revelation and has run read throughout all of history and to
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today. So we are not the point. Christ is the point. It is his story, his glory, his gospel that is the
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cornerstone, not us. That is the perspective of a faithful Christian teacher preaching the word.
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And with that in view, you are going to find the faithful Christian teacher diving into all kinds
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of very uncomfortable yet biblical topics that don't always make you walk away feeling cozy inside.
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They will talk about hell. They'll talk about sin. They won't shy away from the parts of the Bible that
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seem to depict God as someone who makes us a little nervous. And they'll extrapolate the hope of Christ
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and his gospel and his glory in everything, because that's what every bit of scripture is pointing to.
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Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed,
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rightly handling the word of truth. So this is serious stuff, which is why I bring it up in
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relation to Stephen Furtick. Without even dissecting every single Furtick sermon, you can easily observe
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that Furtick is mostly, I would say, just because I haven't listened to every single sermon,
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but I would say mostly from what I've seen, an eisegetical preacher. That does not mean that he
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doesn't say good biblical things sometimes, or that you can't ever have drawn encouragement from him.
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I've read and listened to things that he has said and have found myself nodding along, feeling inspired.
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I mean, he has got a skill for communicating things in a way that hits home and is memorable. God gave him
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that skill. That's great. But always trying to find the phraseology that sounds good or catchy
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can come at a cost. It can come at the cost of truth, especially when your MO is to insert you
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into the text where you simply do not belong. So Furtick sometimes infuses meaning into the text
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that is not there, which leads him to sometimes draw conclusions and make statements that sound good
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and maybe even sound godly, but are not biblical. So let me read you about the post.
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They got quite a few people upset. And I think understandably, he posted this on Facebook
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day before yesterday. He said, following Jesus doesn't change you into something else. It reveals
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who you've been all along. What would it be like to see the you that God sees? Dot, dot, dot. So I'm
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going to give you my thoughts on that in just one second. Okay, so we just read the post. Let me try to
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give you, let me try to give Stephen the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he means to say that Jesus
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changes you into who you were meant to be, who he desires you to be all along. That's really charitable
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of me. And I believe that this quote, someone messaged me and said this is, it's a part of a
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sermon. And I'm sure the video is somewhere. So I won't say that Stephen Furtick actually believes
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what he said here. I will say that it was an error. I will give him the benefit of the doubt
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and just say that he mistakenly or someone on his team mistakenly typed this out. They didn't think
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through it. It sounded good. He meant to word it differently and did it. Okay, that's my charitable
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interpretation of what happened here, even as I believe him to be an eisegetical preacher who,
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if he decided to handle the word by preaching exegetically, I think that, I mean, it would be
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amazing. He's already got the skill set there. Unfortunately, he chooses, I think, to be more
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of a motivational speaker than a handler of the word of God. Now, this post, he did delete it after
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some people questioned it. It started circulating on Twitter. People were sending it to me on Instagram.
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So that's good that he deleted it, but only after 21,000 people liked it, which tells me that even if
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Frederick sees the error in what he said, and I hope that he does, although I've yet to see an explicit
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correction, many people don't see the error in what he says, which is why this is worth dissecting
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publicly and correcting with scripture. So let's look at this again. Following Jesus doesn't change you
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into something else. It reveals who you've been all along. What would it be like to see the you that
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God sees? This is very easy, very easy to refute using scripture. Romans 6, 5. We know that our old self
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was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer
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be enslaved to sin for one who has died has been set free from sin. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if anyone
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is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. You were dead,
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Ephesians 2, 1 says, but God made us alive together with Christ. As verse 4 says, Ephesians 4, 17 through
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24. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the
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futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of
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the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given
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themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way
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you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is
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in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through
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deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after
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the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 5, 8 through 9. For at one time
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you were darkness, not just in darkness, you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
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Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.
00:25:48.480
So we're not just improved versions of ourselves. We're not just the best versions of ourselves.
00:25:55.960
We're not who we always were. We are new. We are new creations. We are new creatures. We are not who
00:26:02.900
we were. Yes, we are in the same physical body. We have the same physical bloodline, a lot of the
00:26:08.640
same personality traits, but we are spiritually new people. We have a new father, a new spiritual family,
00:26:14.560
a new place of belonging, a new purpose, a new hope, a new destination, a new identity altogether.
00:26:19.960
That is so important because God is not a self-help genie trying to draw out the best,
00:26:25.480
most lovable parts of you so that you can feel good about yourself and become successful. That's
00:26:29.340
not who God is. God is asking you, sinner, to come and die, to take up your cross, to crucify yourself
00:26:36.000
and follow him. If you are in Christ, you are fundamentally changed from who you once were.
00:26:42.740
That doesn't mean you don't wrestle with your flesh, your old identity, your selfishness,
00:26:47.040
your sinfulness. It doesn't mean you won't be tempted and even give in to temptation. It means
00:26:52.720
that if you are a Christian, who you once were was a child of the devil and who you are now is a
00:27:00.660
child of God. Why? Not because of who you are or anything you've done, but because God in his
00:27:07.220
abundant grace, according to his will and his will alone rescued you. Because he sent his only son,
00:27:13.440
a sinless savior, to die a gruesome death on the cross on your behalf so that your sin could be
00:27:19.500
paid for forever so that you, a sinner, could be reconciled to a perfect and holy God. You didn't
00:27:27.580
have righteousness before Christ. Christ gave you his righteousness when he saved you. Second
00:27:33.120
Corinthians 5.21. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become
00:27:42.280
the righteousness of God. We became the righteousness of God through Christ. We were unrighteous before.
00:27:49.300
We are different people with different destinations, a different destination, a different purpose,
00:27:54.980
a different identity. Now we are, because of Christ, new. Now, I think that Stephen Furtick
00:28:03.580
knows this, but what he needs to publicly and clearly own up to, to eradicate any confusion
00:28:10.040
among the people who follow him, the millions of people who follow him, is that what he said
00:28:15.020
is not true. It is anti-biblical. It is anti-gospel. It is a very significant untruth
00:28:21.360
because it gets not just some peripheral theological issue wrong. But again, the gospel
00:28:29.040
itself, the gospel is that Jesus makes you not better, not the more authentic version of you,
00:28:36.080
but new. Jesus makes us new. He gives us a new heart, a new hope. And if you're a believer in Christ,
00:28:42.120
you have, by grace through faith, believe that Jesus died to reconcile you to God and was raised again
00:28:48.220
on the third day, trusting in Jesus as the Lord and master of your life. And you're thinking,
00:28:53.700
but I don't feel new. I don't have the emotions associated with having a new identity. I still
00:28:59.880
struggle. Maybe you're thinking with a depression or anxiety or the desire to sin. Maybe you still feel
00:29:06.600
like your old self, but you do believe and you want to follow Christ. Maybe that's you. Let me comfort
00:29:13.220
you. Let me reassure you by saying that nowhere in the gospel are we asked how we feel about trusting
00:29:19.480
Christ. Nowhere are our feelings the signifier of whether or not we are saved. Nowhere do we see
00:29:27.300
that in scripture. We still live in the physical flesh, which means we are going to struggle with
00:29:31.740
all of the burdens of this life and all of the burdens that our own sin places on us. But the
00:29:37.880
Christian life is determined not by, or it's distinguished by, it's defined by, not perfection
00:29:45.100
or by constant happiness, but by a grace driven determination to obey Christ and his word as
00:29:51.260
humbly and as joyfully as we can. Christians are called to both love and joy, but I don't think
00:29:57.700
either of those things are mutually exclusive with sadness and temptation to sin. Love can be emotional
00:30:03.120
and that's great, but ultimately it is a choice to put the God defined interest of others before
00:30:08.200
yourself. And joy is a commitment to thanking God for every heavenly and earthly blessing that we've
00:30:13.880
been given, rejoicing in God's sovereignty and goodness, even when we're sad. It is the hope of
00:30:18.700
heaven, not simply the fleeting pleasure of earth. Philippians 1 6 says, and I am sure of this, that he who
00:30:25.820
began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ. God did this for you. You
00:30:33.960
don't, you don't get to attribute your goodness or your potential, um, or God finding you because of
00:30:42.340
your personality traits or strengths, particularly lovable. You don't get to attribute your salvation
00:30:47.100
to any of those things. And thank goodness, because those things are so, uh, they're so unreliable.
00:30:52.860
They're so fleeting. They, they change. They're so conditional. Rather our salvation rests on God's
00:31:00.640
grace, thankfully. And by his grace, he has made us new. He's made us new creations, not just
00:31:08.200
improved versions of ourselves, not who we always were, but somehow manifesting, you know, a, a new
00:31:16.860
truth that we have discovered. That's new age stuff. That's not the gospel. And that's not going to
00:31:22.580
free you. That's, that's not going to free you. Um, thankfully the gospel is better. The gospel is
00:31:28.440
better than this Facebook post by Stephen Furtick. I hope, I have hoped that he comes out and he
00:31:33.060
publicly, um, he publicly corrects this. I think that a lot of people who follow him, uh, would really
00:31:38.900
benefit from that, but I at least wanted to try to, as humbly as I can, correct the record for my
00:31:44.000
listeners and viewers. Um, all right. I do want to play a few, uh, voicemails from you guys. I meant
00:31:52.360
to say this at the top of the episode, but I want to play a few voicemails from you guys. I asked for
00:31:56.740
voicemails telling me your millennial woes and what I mean by a millennial woes. Um, I did, you know,
00:32:03.300
all these Instagram stories on this last week or the week before I don't remember, um, about not
00:32:08.960
wanting to do these tiny tasks and getting what feels like paralysis surrounding, like taking
00:32:14.760
clothes back to Goodwill or listening to voicemails. I mean, it's very first world problems I realized,
00:32:19.760
but I think it has something to do with, you know, technology overstimulation. I think some of it is
00:32:25.680
generational, but a lot of you messaged me saying that you feel the same thing. You have like errand
00:32:31.000
paralysis or like trivial task, tiny task paralysis. And I feel you on that. So I just wanted to hear some
00:32:37.120
of your stories of that. So I'm going to play a few voicemails that you guys sent me.
00:32:42.800
All right, we're going to go ahead and play the first voicemail.
00:32:47.500
Hi, Allie. This is Elizabeth. I'm calling from California. Love your podcast. Um, so I have been
00:32:53.940
putting off changing my last name on my driver's license for almost two and a half years now.
00:33:00.760
My poor husband looks at my license all the time and really wants me to change my last name.
00:33:05.440
Um, and I changed it on my social, but haven't gone into the DMV to change it because who likes
00:33:12.480
the DMV? So yeah, hopefully I'll get that changed soon. Um, thanks again for your podcast,
00:33:20.340
man. I understand that is a hassle. That's a hassle. Also fun fact, kind of unrelated. Um,
00:33:27.340
I never change when my friends get married. I never change their last name in my phone. It's not
00:33:33.900
like, Oh, I don't like their spouses or I can't accept the fact that they're married. Obviously
00:33:37.300
has nothing to do with that. I just don't do it. And I still always think of them by
00:33:40.960
their maiden names. Even if they've been married for, you know, six years, they are still,
00:33:47.460
most of them are still their maiden names in my phone. And I really have to jog my memory
00:33:53.120
sometimes. Like what is their married name? Maybe that's a millennial task. I just don't
00:33:57.120
feel like doing, I don't know. Okay. Next voicemail. Hi, Allie. My name is Kayla and I
00:34:02.360
am, um, from Tampa, Florida. Um, this is like the realist. Um, and it's hard to pick one thing,
00:34:10.320
but probably the most embarrassing thing, um, is that I have a really hard time sending out
00:34:18.880
thank you cards. And not that I won't write them. So I will literally collect the addresses
00:34:24.740
and I will write them all. Like I've done this and then I won't send them out. Um, this is like
00:34:32.740
a thing, right? Please, please. I'm praying that this is a thing and it's not just me. Um, but I
00:34:39.920
literally, Oh, I don't know if it was for my wedding or something else, but I like got the addresses
00:34:45.900
of everybody that had gone and I wrote every single card and I put them all in the envelopes and I
00:34:52.200
addressed them. And then I never sent them out because like going to the post office or putting
00:34:58.560
them in the mailbox, even like, I don't even know. I was living at like a boarding school. So like
00:35:02.740
the situation was different for mailing. Um, like I was living with my parents who teach at a boarding
00:35:08.260
school. I need to clarify. Um, so anyway, it just was like one thing too many and they never got sent.
00:35:14.660
And I'm like still mortified to this day. Oh my gosh. Okay. I'm so glad that you said that
00:35:20.940
because that's like one of my deepest, darkest secrets that I have like a drawer full of thank
00:35:27.020
you notes. I'm so I can't wait for my husband to listen to this. So he knows that it's not just me
00:35:31.400
that I have like a drawer full of thank you notes from a variety of things, probably baby showers,
00:35:36.720
probably wedding showers, probably from my wedding. And I too addressed them. Put, listen to this,
00:35:42.620
put stamps on them and they never went out. Thank you. Thank you. My dear sister and new best friend
00:35:52.500
for admitting this because I've done the same thing. It's terrible. Why are we like this? I'm
00:35:58.400
not letting us off the hook because I do think that it can speak to like a character issue too.
00:36:03.000
I'm just letting you know. I'm, I'm right there with you. All right. I think we have time for one
00:36:07.040
more, even though I want to play like a thousand of these, cause these are so great. One or two more.
00:36:10.920
We'll see. Okay. Next one. Hi, my name is Morgan and I heard on your podcast about this
00:36:18.800
millennial errand phobia. And I have, um, have a funny little phobia to share. It's actually not
00:36:30.340
mine. It's my husband. He has this thing where he is incapable of putting his disposable contacts
00:36:40.380
into the garbage can. Where they end up is typically stuck to his nightstand. Um, I have found them
00:36:50.740
on the toilet seat, um, stuck on my kids sometimes on accident. I find them on my seat. Um, they just
00:37:03.520
tend to migrate. All right. Um, okay. That might be a different thing. So at one point, this is before
00:37:10.120
I did any of this, I did this thing on Snapchat back when I had Snapchat, I haven't had Snapchat a
00:37:15.560
very long time. So we're talking like 2015. Yeah. It must've been like right when I got married and I
00:37:20.920
would like, uh, I would like take pictures of things that like my husband would do. Like,
00:37:26.280
for example, put the like toilet paper roll on top of like the empty toilet paper thing and just say
00:37:33.480
like things husbands do. And that was like a little hashtag that I did for a while. That might just be
00:37:38.000
a things husbands do. Husbands do things like that. Why does their side of the bathroom look so
00:37:43.300
drastically different than your side of the bathroom? For no reason. It's like, I see you.
00:37:48.660
Why does it look like that? Like there's a bathroom monster that lives on the husband's side of the
00:37:53.360
bathroom. My husband is like, he's an organized person. He's a very clean person. And yet, like I,
00:37:59.620
you know, I grew up with brothers. It's the same thing. Why do guys' bathrooms always just end up
00:38:03.920
being so messy? I don't understand it. So that might just be like a things husband do, husbands do
00:38:09.840
type thing. Could also be millennial trivial task paralysis. Who knows? All right. Let's do one more.
00:38:16.140
Hi, Ellie Beth. This is Susan from Virginia. And I just wanted to tell you about something that
00:38:20.860
I've been procrastinating on. And it's a little embarrassing and kind of, um, aesthetic. But,
00:38:27.580
um, so about three years ago, I think in 2018, I got my haircut and I saved it to donate it and
00:38:36.360
put it in a Ziploc bag and stuck it in like my bin of mail. And, um, it didn't get mailed. And then
00:38:45.860
two years later, I got my haircut again to donate and put that hair with the other hair.
00:38:52.580
And it sat there for probably about a few months. And then, um, we were getting ready to move. So
00:38:57.800
we were moving, but I was like, I'm finally going to send this hair to the organization to donate it,
00:39:02.920
um, for someone to be able to use it. So I put it in a package, took it to the post office.
00:39:09.060
I mailed it, but, um, I mailed it at one of the self-serve centers and I guess I must hit the wrong
00:39:15.040
package type or whatever, but I didn't give it enough postage. So it came back. And so that was
00:39:20.660
a little over a year ago and it's still sitting in my van waiting for me to take it back to the post
00:39:26.100
office. And I don't know why, but the post office is one of those things that I just put off forever.
00:39:31.880
So I've had hair from some for about three years, some for about a year ago that I've been waiting
00:39:38.440
to mail in to be turned into a wig for someone who needs it. So, um, I think tomorrow I'm finally
00:39:44.420
going to go mail that. Yes. Have this admission be the motivator that you need. Again, no judgment
00:39:51.620
from me because I would probably do something like that. I've never actually donated hair because I've
00:39:56.360
been highlighting my hair since like eighth grade, but, uh, wow. Like that's, I'm glad that it's your
00:40:02.560
hair. I feel like if some, if your car got searched or something, someone be freaked out by that. Like
00:40:08.480
it's almost like a silence of the lamps type situation. If you've seen that, you know what
00:40:11.920
I'm talking about? Like it's a little creepy. It's a little creepy, but it is your hair. And so it's
00:40:16.940
not actually creepy, but it would seem creepy if someone was like, why do you have all of these
00:40:21.040
stray ponytails in your backseat guys, millennials, we got to get better. And I'm talking to myself as
00:40:28.740
well. Thank you guys so much for sending your voicemails. All right. We'll be back here tomorrow
00:40:33.040
with who knows what something good, probably something newsier political since we haven't
00:40:37.420
really gotten to that. We didn't get to that today. Uh, so I'll see you guys back here tomorrow.