Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - REPLAY： 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

00:00:17.060 we're off to the races this morning so this morning i was at um a protest against vaccine

00:00:25.040 mandates for southwest airlines just to i wasn't actually protesting myself i was getting some

00:00:31.740 interviews from a lot of you guys and it was really exciting to meet some of you and to talk

00:00:37.540 to southwest employees who are pushing back against this mandate and i'll play some of that

00:00:42.400 footage once we have it all put together maybe on thursday but very interesting to hear from those

00:00:48.800 of you who are standing up against this what i heard was it's about sincerely held beliefs not

00:00:54.340 even necessarily about the vaccine although it is for some people um but it's really just about

00:01:00.580 freedom the ability to be able to provide for your families a lot of the people i talked to have been

00:01:05.940 working for this airline and other airlines for decades and this is just the breaking point for

00:01:11.320 a lot of you and i think that it would um that it would do well of these corporations and of course

00:01:20.100 of the federal government to listen to people who have sincere well thought out reasons to oppose

00:01:28.200 these mandates um so we'll talk a little bit more about that later in the week uh today i just kind of

00:01:35.900 want to um give us some perspective about about a lot of the things that are um that are going on right

00:01:43.880 now there is so much chaos there's so much confusion there are so many different news stories that

00:01:49.660 everyone's trying to keep up with and i just want to make sure that we as christians are looking at all

00:01:54.120 of this from the proper perspective it's easy to get so consumed with politics that we start to lose

00:02:01.480 sight of what is eternal and what is temporal and i just want to bring us back to where we should be

00:02:09.700 standing as the church i believe in in all of this and explaining to you why i as a christian stand

00:02:18.260 where i do politically but also you know opening the door to the areas of christian liberty that i

00:02:24.640 think are important um i want to take a break from the news even though there's so much that we could

00:02:31.760 talk about i will say just briefly colin powell secretary of state under um under george w bush he died

00:02:41.780 from covid complications and he's 84 years old so whether someone is vaccinated or not the chances

00:02:50.200 of surviving covid aren't really great and so um he died sadly we should be praying for his family

00:02:57.040 during all of this and everyone who knew him it's always kind of shocking off-putting when

00:03:01.940 someone who has been such a pillar in american political life for so long dies even when they are

00:03:08.540 old so that's the one bit of news that i'll say but other than that we're going to take a break

00:03:12.140 from the news just to kind of get our bearings to kind of get our legs underneath us a little bit

00:03:17.220 so i want to explain this issue that i see on the left and the right and i realized as i was writing

00:03:23.900 this out that this takes a little bit of repetition to break down where i think we are in this moment but

00:03:29.540 there's this issue that i see on both political sides and i see this among christians and among

00:03:34.240 secularists and um then i'm gonna explain like i said where i sit and where i hope to have everyone

00:03:40.440 who listens to me sit in the midst of all of the craziness politically and culturally that that's

00:03:45.360 going on um and maybe stand is actually a better word than sit because we are all standing against we

00:03:51.240 feel like we're standing against these waves of chaos and confusion right now as christians and as

00:03:56.260 conservatives and then i'll talk about why i stand where i do theologically and politically and i hope

00:04:02.440 that these explanations give you a whole lot of clarity and i hope that you end this monday episode

00:04:07.560 feeling very encouraged about why the heck any of us are here why we talk about the things that we do

00:04:12.580 why i believe we are called to the fight that's before us and yes that does include politics um the

00:04:19.360 reason that we talk about the things that we do that yes are temporary yes um are physical and

00:04:27.320 political and cultural sometimes rather than spiritual and eternal is because we believe that

00:04:34.500 there is no neutral ground that's what c.s lewis says there is no neutral ground in the universe every

00:04:39.560 square inch every split second is claimed by god and counter claimed by satan and we say often on this

00:04:46.540 podcast neutrality is a myth secularism is not neutral christianity is not neutral conservatism is not

00:04:52.860 neutral neither is leftism nothing is truly neutral no book no movie no show no second we spend is spent

00:05:00.360 neutrally everything in one sense is spiritual warfare like everything that is thought everything that is

00:05:07.660 said everything that is done or not done is all in submission to god or to satan everything that exists

00:05:14.360 is either claimed by god or by god's allowance is claimed by satan ephesians 2 2 calls satan the prince

00:05:22.060 of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience so satan is

00:05:27.300 actively working in the universe through those who do not follow christ we were all once sons and

00:05:33.560 daughters of disobedience that's what ephesians 2 3 says so we all once walked as sons and daughters

00:05:39.840 of disobedience following the prince of the power of the air the chapter goes on to say it is only through

00:05:45.400 the power of christ by the grace of god manifested uh in our faith in jesus that we are now sons and

00:05:52.360 daughters of obedience we were once rebels vessels of wrath tools of the evil one and now not because

00:05:58.900 of anything we have done but because of god's incredible mercy we are now children of god friends

00:06:05.100 of god heirs of god with christ vessels of mercy ambassadors of christ so the old has gone the new has

00:06:12.420 come as second corinthians 5 17 says ephesians 5 8 says at one time you were darkness but now you are

00:06:18.880 light in the lord walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and

00:06:24.660 right and true that last part is something that you'll hear me say on relatable a lot that which

00:06:28.940 is good and right and true that is what we as christians cling to and push for and then in ephesians 6

00:06:35.600 we're told this for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the

00:06:40.880 authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces

00:06:46.580 of evil in heavenly places so we new creations in christ children of light lovers of all that is good

00:06:55.200 and right and true haters of that which is not good and right and true we are in a spiritual battle

00:07:01.520 against children of darkness sons of disobedience haters again of all that is good and right and true

00:07:07.880 that spiritual battle is real neutrality is a myth there's dark and light okay so we got that that's

00:07:16.020 the whole big grand context that we're all living in whether we acknowledge it or not but here's where

00:07:22.240 i think things get complicated when we talk about the things that we do when we talk about these different

00:07:26.660 political issues here's where i personally struggle when it comes to the culture wars political wars

00:07:34.580 it is fairly easy for me to say what is evil and dark and what's not according to not my feelings but

00:07:42.800 god's word so anything that glorifies what god calls disordered sexuality anything that normalizes what god

00:07:49.540 calls perversion anything that seeks to corrupt or abuse children physically sexually psychologically

00:07:55.120 all of the above anything that seeks to disintegrate and redefine nuclear family which god defines clearly in

00:08:02.060 the first chapter of genesis and reiterates throughout scripture specifically by jesus himself in matthew 19

00:08:07.400 and is necessary uh a necessary building block for any functioning free society uh anything that

00:08:14.020 disincentivizes work which existed before the fall before sin sin entered the world and is therefore

00:08:19.640 inherently good and necessary for both individuals and nations to thrive anything that encourages

00:08:25.400 covetousness of someone else's possessions anything that replaces the god-given role of the parent or the

00:08:31.420 church with the role of the state anything that intentionally dehumanizes or oppresses a group of people

00:08:37.820 anything that enables or in or exacerbates anarchy and lawlessness anything that causes people to

00:08:45.240 believe in utter lies anything that that uh calls evil what god calls good and calls good what god

00:08:52.980 calls evil now within these kind of broad categories of what according to god's word are very clearly evil

00:09:01.800 um uh within those categories are packaged my specific thoughts about immigration about guns about free

00:09:11.700 speech about abortion welfare race etc which i've detailed obviously many times over the years on this show

00:09:17.960 and all of my specific views fall into one of those deal breakers i listed above and it's on those

00:09:25.800 specifics so it's on the how of those things especially on the how policy wise on the policy specifics that i

00:09:34.640 think faithful christians may disagree that doesn't mean both sides are right or even that both sides are

00:09:42.020 biblical or that it's not important to debate and determine who is correct but it also uh doesn't

00:09:48.060 mean that either side is not a believer like for example i voted for trump there are christians faithful

00:09:55.540 christians who didn't vote for either candidate i respect that decision and their faith and yes i even know

00:10:02.660 christians who voted for joe biden is really hard for me to understand that decision i will debate that

00:10:09.340 decision until the cows come home and at the end of the day i will probably at least get them to say that voting

00:10:15.140 for biden was not a good decision but those christians that i know personally who voted that way i will see

00:10:22.340 them in heaven like i have no doubt about that there are christians who disagree on the particulars of gun policy

00:10:28.480 of immigration policy welfare policy covid policy and even though i really think they're wrong and i could root my

00:10:36.520 beliefs about each specific policy in scripture i have to believe these are not salvation issues

00:10:42.160 because if i don't then i've just placed spiritual burdens on people that don't actually biblically

00:10:47.520 exist and i've added something to the gospel that biblically is not there so there are people who

00:10:53.300 i believe peddle factually and biblically incorrect information on race for example racism police brutality

00:11:00.520 justice so-called social justice who call themselves christians many of them are some may not be not

00:11:08.460 based and i'm not saying that based on my feelings about them but based on their general rejection of

00:11:14.300 the bible as authoritative and their seeming insistence upon worshiping the god of self rather than the god

00:11:19.800 of scripture and then there are people with whom i agree politically and culturally and honestly this

00:11:26.040 bothers me more people who i really agree with politically and culturally who i believe really

00:11:31.980 see things like as they are right now in this political moment their eyes are opened in that way

00:11:36.960 and some of whom you know they don't even pretend to be christians and that's fine but then there are some

00:11:43.260 who i agree with on so much politically who call themselves christians who based on what they say

00:11:50.260 and based on what the bible says uh they seem to not be walking out a genuine faith in christ it seems

00:11:58.220 like they believe christianity is less about uh taking up your cross and following christ and more about

00:12:05.020 some strange mix of patriotism and self-help and that really distresses me that really makes me sad

00:12:12.320 and now here's why i think we have what we do we've got christians who believe that they align

00:12:20.040 with some left-wing values or left-wing policies on things and again i think they're completely wrong

00:12:25.580 about that but you know we're free to be wrong on things that are not salvation issues and i'm sure

00:12:32.380 they think that i'm wrong on some of those things as well and then we have people on the right who are

00:12:38.580 right politically but have their theology all out of whack to the point of where i am not even sure that

00:12:44.600 they could articulate the gospel so it doesn't give you any clout to be a christian on the left

00:12:51.260 um according to leftists like you are not going to get any more credibility being a christian you're

00:12:58.080 probably actually going to have less credibility from leftist secularists if you are a christian

00:13:02.760 but it does give you clout with the secular world to be on the left if you are a christian which is why i

00:13:10.100 believe they're christians who adopt some of the left-wing values that don't align at all with

00:13:14.720 scripture like say abortion and they just call it like nuanced or something like that because it's

00:13:19.400 easier to be mainstream politically and still try to hold on to the christian faith it's cooler

00:13:24.580 it's less controversial to be maybe center left and of course they may sincerely believe the political

00:13:31.680 things that they do but the truth is they agree with the secular world on these things almost 100%

00:13:37.620 of atheists and agnostics identify as on the left side of the political aisle now it does give you

00:13:44.960 clout to be a christian on the right which is why i believe there are secular people on the right who

00:13:51.200 simply say that they're christians because most people on the right are like there are a ton of

00:13:55.900 evangelicals on the right and it gives you a boost if you espouse christian values whether you're a

00:14:02.380 christian or not and a lot of these people on the right really don't know the first thing about the

00:14:07.200 christian faith i think and i know this is controversial i think that trump probably falls

00:14:12.760 into this category and before someone calls me judgmental i think that we are supposed to just

00:14:17.580 discern the fruits of what people say and do and again this is not coming from a place of

00:14:22.480 condescension because as i already said all of us according to ephesians 2 were all once in that

00:14:28.120 place we were all um uh part of the old way and now we are part of the new way as new creations we

00:14:35.580 are all sons and daughters of disobedience now only through by grace by grace through faith in christ

00:14:41.180 are we um are we sons and daughters of obedience so this is not coming from a place of superiority or

00:14:48.200 condescension i'm just saying what is so i think that there are christian liberals seeking affirmation

00:14:53.380 from the world and then there i think there are secular conservatives seeking affirmation from

00:14:59.300 the christian right does that make sense and so both are dealing with a form of compromise that i

00:15:06.420 think that we have to be really discerning about now i am not an arbiter thank the lord of who is a

00:15:11.320 christian and who is not um we may be surprised by some of the people that we see in heaven my point

00:15:16.540 is that the spiritual battle of good versus evil light versus dark does not primarily break down into

00:15:24.200 left versus right because of what i just described it doesn't break down primarily as republican versus

00:15:30.880 democrat or conservative versus liberal it is not primarily political so this spiritual battle that

00:15:36.900 christians are facing is not primarily against vaccine mandates or covid restrictions or gun control

00:15:43.180 or abortion or even communism and let me just say like that's tough okay that's tough for me um i imagine

00:15:51.120 that it's probably tough for you too if you're as passionate about these things as as i am because

00:15:57.260 i i hate all of the things that i just listed i think all of them are evil and cumulatively they have a

00:16:02.360 very oppressive effect on societies and thus i think that they should be opposed by christians that's my

00:16:08.260 view and i believe it's a biblically based view i am very passionate about those views and i want to

00:16:13.880 persuade other people to hold those views on those subjects even so i have to understand that

00:16:20.120 believers who disagree with me on these are my brothers and sisters and at the end of the day

00:16:26.480 i have more in common with them fundamentally than i do with the atheist who agrees with me on say the

00:16:33.560 dangers of critical theory at the end of the day my allegiance is to jesus my citizenship is in heaven

00:16:39.800 i'm a member of the body of christ that doesn't mean that i'm not a citizen of the united states that

00:16:45.740 doesn't mean that i'm not politically involved obviously you guys know how involved i am and how

00:16:50.000 much i care about it but ultimately fundamentally like that's where my association is at the end of

00:16:56.860 the day it is still light versus darkness it's not ultimately pro-abortion versus anti-abortion

00:17:03.080 it's not ultimately capitalism versus communism it's not ultimately freedom versus tyranny it is

00:17:09.180 ultimately ultimately sin versus salvation christ versus satan the church versus the world that is

00:17:15.920 really hard to remember when everything is so insanely political right now and when i see so many

00:17:22.300 christians who just don't get it who still think black lives matter is really about saving black lives

00:17:29.260 who still think that all of these covid mandates are really about our health who think that joe biden

00:17:34.620 really is empathetic and unifying who think that critical race theory and gender theory have some

00:17:40.820 merit to them who think that abortion is some nuanced issue that maybe we don't need to be involved with

00:17:48.180 politically who think saying a man is a man is unloving who think social justice is actually just

00:17:54.120 they really think the biggest problems facing our country are white supremacy and christian nationalism

00:17:59.280 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

00:18:05.320 what's coming they are totally and completely ignorant and their ignorance works as complicity

00:18:09.640 and tyranny and they don't see it they don't see the parallels to the gulag archipelago or brave new

00:18:14.680 world or 1984 or the screw tape letters they literally do not see it and that is maddening to me

00:18:20.260 and yet and yet at the end of the day i have to remember where i stand on which side quote unquote i am

00:18:31.940 ultimately and most importantly and that is on the side of those with whom i agree on the gospel

00:18:42.460 and disagree on politics is there a debate about how much secular progressivism you can buy into

00:18:52.260 before it's logical to wonder if you believe the bible at all or just secularism in general right or

00:18:57.360 left yes yes there is definitely a debate about that absolutely we talk about that a lot uh but i'm

00:19:04.440 talking about true believers who simply have maybe given into mainstream dogma on political

00:19:12.080 issues without even really thinking and that's actually why i have this podcast this podcast is

00:19:18.020 for believers it is to inform believers on my side of the political aisle and it's also to persuade

00:19:24.460 believers on the other side of the political aisle there are non-christians who listen to this podcast

00:19:28.720 i'm very thankful for that i have non-christians whom i've had on this podcast who have a lot of wisdom

00:19:34.940 to share and i am happy to have their voices on those important subjects i just wrote an article that's

00:19:40.400 out today for world magazine saying that you know we can learn something as christians from dave

00:19:44.640 chappelle and joe rogan even though we really disagree with them theologically we disagree with

00:19:49.060 a lot of the things they say but the fact that they're willing to come out and and say hey biology is

00:19:54.320 something that exists like a man is a man like that that kind of secular sanity infused into the

00:19:59.780 cultural conversation matters i welcome it that's great but as far as i know dave chappelle and joe

00:20:05.760 rogan aren't christians like that is not ultimately who i am linking arms with um and even though they

00:20:12.660 have more wisdom on these subjects and more courage on these subjects than a lot of christians do that

00:20:17.160 just means that christians should be ashamed about their lack of wisdom and courage on it doesn't mean

00:20:21.600 that i am no longer in alliance with them as my fellow believers um the the secular voices who are

00:20:30.920 sane and all the categories that i'm talking about are so important but they're not family

00:20:34.500 the christian church is um the christian church are the ones that i am supposed to be fighting

00:20:39.900 alongside that's why i am much more interested in arguing with people who bear the name of christ

00:20:45.280 than i am interested in arguing with non-christians about politics i mean that in the sense that i want

00:20:51.720 to talk to true christians who are left-wing and show them where i believe they're wrong politically

00:20:58.180 i also want to show conservatives who are not true followers of jesus who are maybe just christians

00:21:03.320 in name only i want to show them what christianity is and what the gospel is that it's bigger and

00:21:08.900 better and deeper than a tagline in our bio you know faith family freedom or something like that

00:21:14.820 or it's better and bigger and more profound than the campaign slogan or an identity that we know was

00:21:20.380 going to you know get us in with the conservative evangelicals like that is deadly that's deadly that's

00:21:26.300 just as empty as any kind of secular progressivism um it's it's bigger and better than a narrative that

00:21:32.500 centers on the rise and fall of the united states uh i see a lot of conflation of that um on the right

00:21:39.800 and that does that does worry me in the same way that it worries me that there are uh that there are

00:21:46.340 christians that compromise so much on political and cultural issues to the point of basically almost

00:21:52.360 being indistinguishable from secular leftists um i love when i get when i get christians who tell me

00:21:59.640 yeah i was a christian but i was ignorant politically and now i've changed my mind for listening to your

00:22:05.440 podcast or reading a book or whatever it is and usually it's not it's it's not me uh but when people

00:22:11.780 become christians and when they get involved in the christian community and they start studying

00:22:17.480 scripture they do tend to move to the right politically and socially i know people get so

00:22:23.760 mad when i say that but it's true i mean it's true when i i did a survey the other day on instagram

00:22:29.700 asking people um you know what changed your mind on abortion if you were previously pro-choice and now

00:22:35.600 you're pro-life or maybe you were someone who said i'm personally pro-choice but i'm or personally pro-life

00:22:40.820 but politically pro-choice if you're one of those people who maybe didn't think that the law had

00:22:45.060 anything to say about it what changed your mind almost every single person said becoming a christian

00:22:50.380 or realizing that you weren't really a christian you just said that you were a christian but really

00:22:54.500 reading the bible that is what pushed you to be anti-abortion most people that i talk to if i say if

00:23:01.640 you were on the left and you moved right what changed your mind most people say someone introducing

00:23:05.920 me to god and i'm not saying that being on the right is the same as being a christian i just spent a

00:23:11.160 few minutes talking about that that's just typically the trajectory that happens so you can get mad at

00:23:17.640 me all you want to about that talk to people it is typically true um it's and it's because like it's

00:23:25.760 really hard to stomach the legality of abortion or the disintegration of the family or the unencumbered

00:23:31.160 growth of the government as a christian um but but i love even more when i get conservatives who tell me

00:23:38.180 that maybe they were already pro-life they already hated big government um but now they're a believer

00:23:45.000 like god used this podcast or god used a bunch of different people a bunch of different conversations

00:23:50.060 a bunch of different resources to show them that even though they aligned with a lot of christians

00:23:54.300 politically or maybe even that they thought they were christians um they you know they they realized

00:24:00.020 that they weren't they didn't know anything about theology and so that's where i sit in the midst of

00:24:05.660 this that's where i unabashedly want my my listeners to sit i want you to sit in the midst of all of

00:24:13.940 that that doesn't mean that i'm in the middle politically you guys know that i'm not but i want

00:24:18.140 us to be so careful especially on the right because you know i've seen a lot of conservative figures

00:24:23.220 lately who i didn't even realize were christians and i would have assumed maybe that they weren't even

00:24:29.860 though we um you know even though we agree politically like going out to churches and

00:24:35.480 giving sermons and i just i worry a little bit about that i worry a little bit about that on the

00:24:41.600 right that we stop caring about theology and we stop caring about whether or not someone believes the

00:24:48.380 gospel when they align with us politically like that's it's a little it's a little shaky and it's a

00:24:54.600 little difficult like when we see the onslaught of um you know tyranny in some ways that we see coming

00:25:01.780 and has already manifested itself in places like canada and australia like it's really easy for us

00:25:07.600 to believe that left versus right is darkness versus light and to conflate this political um fight that

00:25:15.740 we're in with a spiritual fight and it's not the same thing but the political can be spiritual they're

00:25:25.840 not the same but they can definitely be intertwined and um i hate the word nuanced because i think it's

00:25:33.220 overused but it truly is a nuanced look of what is what is going on so i see it as i care about

00:25:43.080 politics because i care about people as we say so much politics matters because policy matters because

00:25:49.700 people matter politics affects policy policy affects people and so i care about the things that i care

00:25:56.940 about i vouch for the policies that i vouch for because i believe that it's best for people um but i also see

00:26:05.000 that ultimately what people need is the gospel ultimately what people uh what i want people to do is

00:26:12.740 not to be republican necessarily um but i want them to bow to christ i want them to see christ as king

00:26:20.500 everything else that i advocate for i think is good for society i think it's good for people

00:26:25.820 and i love the country in which god has placed me and so i push for policies and i push for people or i push

00:26:32.700 for issues um and sides of issues that i think is best for the family and that glorifies god the most and

00:26:39.980 allows people the freedom to to speak and to worship and to think and to provide for their families all

00:26:47.900 these things that i see according to the bible are good and right and true while at the same time

00:26:53.400 holding my partisanship loosely when it comes to um when it comes to the gospel and when it comes to who

00:27:01.660 i am ultimately linking arms with and i can't tell you exactly specifically what it always looks like

00:27:08.820 to walk that out because obviously i've linked arms with people who are not um who are not believers when

00:27:16.760 it comes to for example gender ideology or critical theory or things like that but i can't do that at the

00:27:24.440 expense of my partnership with fellow believers um and things have become so heated so hot that really

00:27:33.840 i think that a lot of us feel like we do have more in common with unbelievers who agree with us

00:27:40.660 politically than we do believers who disagree with us politically and i think people on the left feel

00:27:45.720 like that too 100 um so i don't know what it looks like to necessarily walk that line um because certainly

00:27:55.520 if we care about tyranny if we care about the threat of totalitarianism which i think that we should um and

00:28:03.260 we obviously do on this podcast it's gonna take a line with people who are not believers who care about

00:28:10.080 who care about this stuff um and we do that while at the same time wanting to change their hearts and

00:28:16.960 knowing that the gospel is ultimately the answer it's this tension it's this tension that christians

00:28:23.220 live in that's another overused term tension nuance all that stuff sometimes these are just excuses for

00:28:29.040 people to not really know what they're talking about um and i don't mean it in that sense but we do

00:28:35.340 we live in this tension of being here and knowing that we have to care about the people

00:28:39.840 around us and care about the world and care about what's going on right in front of us while knowing

00:28:44.780 that our hope is in heaven that our faith is in god our trust is in god not in any politician or

00:28:49.980 political party wanting what's best for our nation wanting what's best for our families wanting what's

00:28:54.740 best for our community being logical and true truth matters so much not just when it comes to biblical

00:29:00.600 truth but also when it comes to uh when it comes to just factual truth scientific truth like all of

00:29:08.020 all truth is god's truth so all of that matters a whole lot and i'm always going to be advocating

00:29:13.380 for that while also feeling this sense of but this is not my home but this is not my ultimate calling

00:29:22.080 but these people around me who don't agree with me on the gospel are not are not my family and i think

00:29:29.380 we are we get confused sometimes when we're reading the bible our western i think lenses make

00:29:35.700 us view particular verses in scripture that are um that are really talking about loving the church

00:29:44.380 and caring for the church like for example caring for the least of these we think of oh least of

00:29:50.040 these in society it's really talking about persecuted christians it's talking about the least of these

00:29:54.600 within the church we look at a verse that says you know visit those who are in prison and we're

00:29:58.760 thinking oh this means everyone in prison it's really talking about persecuted christians who

00:30:02.700 are in prison and i think that um we think really that so many of the commands in scripture about

00:30:10.460 taking care of people outside of the church when our primary responsibility yes we're supposed to go

00:30:15.120 out and make disciples and evangelize but our primary caretaking responsibilities are really to our families

00:30:20.620 in the church like those are the people that we are mostly supposed to be ministering to and serving

00:30:27.260 and i think we've really neglected that like i think the local church so often is so focused on growing

00:30:33.820 numbers and so focused on missions that we neglect building very intimate uplifting community within the

00:30:40.760 church and we sometimes fail i'm not saying always but sometimes fail facilitating these very important

00:30:47.220 discussions and debates about politics so that christians in the local church can come together

00:30:52.400 and say you know i really disagree with you on this so passionately but at the end of the day you're my

00:30:56.960 brother and sister in christ the church really needs to be the one bringing people together i'm not

00:31:01.140 talking about some big organization doing that i'm talking about the local church equipping believers to be

00:31:07.840 able to discuss these things that matter but are not ultimate um so that's what i hope that we can see

00:31:13.600 maybe there's pastors there are people who are listening who can help us craft a vision for you

00:31:18.780 know how to help churches do that in their own way i think that this is such a moment in the age of

00:31:24.080 vast globalization that seems to be crushing us in so many ways whether it comes to supply chains and

00:31:29.500 big governments uh big government policies that are exacerbating and enabling unemployment um when

00:31:37.700 things seem to be just getting bigger and bigger and more and more overwhelming like the church needs to be

00:31:42.320 laser focused laser focused on its people laser focused on its communities i think christians are

00:31:46.980 really called to simplify our lives right now and yes national politics matters state politics matters

00:31:53.340 these big picture things matter but we really i think need to localize we need to be taking care of one

00:32:00.540 another that's how we're going to get through this i think and we need to lean into that and remember

00:32:05.320 where ultimately our allegiance lies even as we are pushing for policies that we believe are best for

00:32:12.180 everyone i hope that makes i hope that makes sense um okay i'm going to talk about something fun

00:32:16.740 uh that i talked about on instagram that got some laughs from you guys okay so i just wanted to we

00:32:21.980 haven't done the things i don't get in a really long time and i don't know if this qualifies as the

00:32:26.080 things i don't get so if you're fairly new you haven't been listening since the beginning

00:32:29.700 we do like uh sometimes i'll say like things i don't get like people who wear flip-flops and

00:32:35.180 airports you guys know i have very strict airport etiquette that what i'm wearing right now is is

00:32:42.080 great for an airport actually so i believe like this is not even what i was going to say things i

00:32:47.100 don't get but this put me on this tangent so for airports um you got to wear closed-toed shoes

00:32:53.160 preferably i mean with socks even if i know if you have tsa pre-check you're like well i don't have

00:32:59.200 to take my shoes off when i go through security i know but still i just don't think toes

00:33:03.460 they don't need to be seen they don't need to be seen on airplanes they don't need to be seen

00:33:07.940 especially if you're a guy if you're a guy no one ever needs to see your toes at all flip-flops are

00:33:12.700 just off limits period that's another attire rule i have again another topic for another day but

00:33:19.060 airports everyone needs to be wearing closed-toed shoes you don't need to wear heels or anything like

00:33:23.400 that think about an emergency like if you have to slide down one of those slidey things if you

00:33:28.640 crashed in the ocean you don't want your heel to puncture that so we're thinking practical here

00:33:33.040 closed-toed shoes socks are preferable just in case you do have to take off your shoes for any

00:33:38.380 reason and you don't want your feet to smell on a plane that's the worst thing you need to have long

00:33:42.900 pants on maybe a long skirt it's not ideal but you need to have long pants on the joggers that i'm

00:33:49.260 wearing right now are ideal for that because they've got an elastic waistband jeans uncomfortable

00:33:54.920 acceptable but uncomfortable and then like i'm having i have a tank top on but then i have a sweater

00:34:00.640 over it so i've got some layered options here the the the planes are cold they're almost always cold

00:34:06.640 and so you need some layers and i had a sweet lady sit next to me and like her little tennis outfit the

00:34:12.780 other day when she had a like a tennis skirt on and a tank top on and she was shivering the whole time

00:34:17.700 i don't want that for you so things i don't get that's one thing when people don't wear the correct

00:34:21.920 tire for um airports i should probably just like i don't know create some company where i help you

00:34:29.320 pick out your airport outfits and i know some of you are going to be offended by that i'm sorry again

00:34:34.300 not ultimate issue we can still be fellow believers in christ um but the thing that i don't get that is

00:34:39.980 complete i don't even know how i got on to that the thing that i was talking about on instagram um

00:34:45.920 was this like thing that millennials have and this is this is a real thing i'm going to tell you about

00:34:52.460 it and you're going to be like oh i do that too i did i thought that i was the only person you're not

00:34:56.860 the only person this is actually a phenomenon that i read about in some magazine i think i even wrote

00:35:02.040 about it or almost wrote about it in my book and i can't even remember what it's called now but so we

00:35:07.700 have anxiety as millennials millennials born anywhere from i think it's like 1982 to 1997 i was born in

00:35:15.860 1992 so i'm right smack dab in the middle i'm very much a millennial just all most of the

00:35:20.800 characteristics that you think of when you think of a millennial i embody and one of those things

00:35:25.600 is like we're okay or at least i'm okay and i think most of us are okay making like the major

00:35:31.660 life decisions the people who are kind of on like the older end certainly of millennials sometimes

00:35:37.560 they're called like the early 80s are called like xennials like generation x millennials but we're okay

00:35:43.220 with like the major life decisions um like i'm married i have kids i have a job we pay our bills

00:35:51.320 we've got a mortgage so like we've got i'm fine with all of that and we're responsible in that regard

00:35:57.640 it's little things that give us anxiety so what i mean by that is like okay we might take care of all

00:36:05.280 of our major life decisions maybe you went to law school you became a lawyer you're engaged and all that

00:36:10.820 good stuff but i bet that your trunk is filled with boxes of clothes that you have been meaning to

00:36:17.460 give away to goodwill for like six months and you probably have like a row of wrinkly shirts

00:36:24.880 hanging up in your closet that instead of ironing or steaming you have just decided that you're going

00:36:30.420 to avoid wearing because you just feel like you never have time to do that i bet that your voicemail box

00:36:36.880 is full right now and that you not only maybe haven't called these people back or maybe you

00:36:43.520 have but you're not going to listen to the voicemails and it actually gives you a little bit of anxiety

00:36:48.060 to think about listening to those voicemails or when someone calls you that you don't want to talk to

00:36:54.980 you just let it go because you don't want to pick up the phone you might have a closet that's filled

00:37:02.800 with packages uh amazon packages of things that you don't want to send back or that you know that

00:37:10.580 you need to send back but you haven't sent back yet um this is a problem that millennials have and i'm

00:37:16.840 going to give you my analysis on it i'll give you my analysis on it my quick analysis on it because

00:37:21.000 we're running out of time in just one second okay so just my quick analysis about like why we have

00:37:26.100 anxiety about these little things and i would love to hear your analysis too so i i and i read about

00:37:32.820 this somewhere and i can't remember i can't remember what it is one i think that we are over stimulated

00:37:38.840 at all times we are consumed by technology and we have this sense of rushedness like we have this sense

00:37:46.760 of hurry that may or may not be real um and we always feel like we don't really have time to do

00:37:53.800 things that we don't have to do for for me it's really difficult for me to do things or to even

00:37:59.100 text i'm terrible at texting people back terrible at texting people back and it's not because i don't

00:38:04.780 care although i if i'm honest with myself i do think that not texting people back can build up to

00:38:11.680 like a care a character flaw like i'll just own that like i think that it makes you seem unreliable

00:38:16.320 and untrustworthy or uncaring when that's not really the case it just i really just forget and um i think

00:38:23.280 that millennials are constantly feeling just over stimulated and overburdened by things that may

00:38:30.660 or may not affect us we probably don't have a whole lot more responsibilities than generations past but

00:38:35.740 we have access to so much more information access to so many other problems that we are we feel

00:38:42.660 burdened in ways that we're not so maybe we as millennials need to again kind of going back to

00:38:47.640 what we talked about simplify and cut down a little bit so we can actually do these things because it

00:38:53.960 actually matters like i know it's funny but i don't think it's a good habit to get into not send things

00:38:59.620 back that we want to return obviously that wastes money or to not take the stuff to charity that we

00:39:05.180 want to donate to charity or even something as simple as like not ironing our shirts or not

00:39:09.760 steaming our shirts i think um makes us lazy i think that we could all do better and i know this

00:39:17.180 doesn't apply to everyone out there we could all do better at managing our time i am definitely

00:39:22.180 preaching to the choir like i am talking to myself i just constantly feel encumbered by so much and some

00:39:29.260 of it is real some of it is in my imagination and you know when you decide that you're going to do

00:39:34.860 something when you decide that you're going to make a priority for example to work out and the

00:39:39.440 thing that's been holding you back from working out so far has been that you don't have time and

00:39:44.180 then all of a sudden when you make the priority for it you realize that you do have time and it's

00:39:47.780 even hard for you to imagine why you thought that you didn't have the time before i think that that can

00:39:53.920 be true of millennials that we need to do a better job of prioritizing there's so many little things

00:39:58.780 that i hate to do like i hate to call like if i have to cancel subscription and i have to like

00:40:04.680 call someone to do that or i have to go through the hassle of doing something i really really want

00:40:10.800 to avoid doing that at all costs but then when i realize that i i just do it it doesn't take that

00:40:15.060 long and really i just wasted a whole bunch of time beforehand um that i didn't need to waste so

00:40:20.800 uh this podcast is called relatable for that reason i am you you are me like better or work and

00:40:28.100 if you understand that reference um you need to stop paying attention to politics too much or

00:40:34.540 too consumed like i am all right that's all we've got for today we've got a lot of good stuff this

00:40:38.920 week we'll be back here tomorrow

00:40:40.080 you

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - June 23, 2022

REPLAY： Our Real Enemy, Our True Family & Our Ultimate Goal

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