Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - REPLAY： Things May Change If We Make These 3 Commitments

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Things have been super heavy recently. If you have been

00:00:14.940 paying attention at all, you know that we have likely in our nation reached some kind

00:00:22.520 of breaking point. I know that might sound hyperbolic and I really wish it were. I actually

00:00:28.780 hope that it is. I hope that I'm wrong. I hope that things can swing back and that we as a people

00:00:34.040 learn to love liberty again. There are days when I see the possibility of that. And then there are

00:00:39.760 days when I don't see any possibility of that whatsoever. I went to dinner last night with a

00:00:46.580 friend, a friend who shares my same views, but is it political? She's not consuming the news all day.

00:00:53.640 She works in nonpolitical job with nonpolitical, but you know, left leaning people. And we talked

00:01:00.320 about this heaviness that we both feel just this sense of sadness that things are never going to

00:01:06.000 be the same again, that the America that we grew up in will never go back that the America that our

00:01:12.020 children are going to grow up in, it just won't be the same as the one that we once knew. And it was

00:01:18.300 really hard to hear her talk about this, especially because I would like to chalk up my feeling,

00:01:24.940 my feelings of sadness and just like hopelessness about the state of the country to me having this

00:01:32.640 job, like having to consume so much news and talk about it. But if people outside of my line of work

00:01:39.320 feel this way too, if you guys feel this way too, that means that it's, it's real. Now,

00:01:44.640 not everyone feels this way. Not all of your friends are going to feel this way. I would say,

00:01:49.040 especially people on the other side of the aisle, or maybe they feel this way, but for different

00:01:52.540 reasons. There are people who, who still think of all of the government restrictions for the virus

00:01:58.940 as something that is, is really for our good, that vaccine passports are amazing innovations and

00:02:07.080 mandates are beautiful manifestations of public health policy who think the DHS openly calling those

00:02:12.720 who question COVID restrictions, a terror threat to the country, that that's right on target,

00:02:18.500 that, that one day the politicians will allow us to live and travel and dine freely again. They

00:02:23.420 might be sad about some other stuff that's going on, but as far as the encroachments on our liberty that

00:02:28.200 you and I see, they just don't care about it. And they actually see it as good. And many of those

00:02:32.520 people are, are still bunkered in their homes with their children whom they refuse to send to school. 0.99

00:02:37.500 And they, they really feel that everything would go back to normal if those darn right-wingers would 0.98

00:02:43.460 just stop politicizing this and, and do what they do. I mean, they really think that somehow 0.98

00:02:48.400 the people inhibiting their happiness or the people advocating for liberty and not the politicians who

00:02:54.720 have destroyed freedoms and businesses and livelihoods and people's will to live for the past

00:02:58.920 year while flouting all of the rules themselves. I mean, these, this group of people, I would say maybe

00:03:05.480 half the country, maybe, maybe a little less, they're unable, it seems to understand how it is

00:03:11.660 possible for someone like me to say, yes, the virus is real. Yes, it can be very serious and deadly.

00:03:19.340 And I don't think we should pretend otherwise. I don't lack any compassion for the healthcare

00:03:23.380 workers who have been dealing with this. I don't, I don't lack any sympathy for the people who have

00:03:27.620 lost loved ones from this at all. I know some people who have lost loved ones from this,

00:03:31.560 but I also have to say many of the things that we are being told by our powers that be don't make

00:03:39.660 sense. They don't align with scientific data from around the world. And, and also there are a thousand

00:03:45.220 other things that can threaten and kill you as an individual and destroy society as a whole.

00:03:49.240 And we are doing a cruel disservice to ourselves and our neighbor by failing to realize that.

00:03:54.080 So they want you to believe that that stance, the people on the other side of this issue,

00:03:58.740 they want you to believe that that stance is extreme or that it's dangerous. And it's just not

00:04:03.580 like, I'm here to tell you, to validate for you that it's not, that is normal. It is thoughtful.

00:04:09.400 It is well-rounded. It is kind. It is loving. It is compassionate to think about the other risks

00:04:14.620 and the other consequences intended or not that we face, especially when it comes to public policy

00:04:20.180 that is encouraging people to stay masked and indoors. It is not wise, I will say, to believe in

00:04:26.540 grand conspiracy theories that can't be fact-checked, but it is wise absolutely to question state-sponsored

00:04:32.560 messages and measures done in the name of safety. Always. It is wise to consider those intended and

00:04:38.760 unintended consequences of public policy implemented in the name of safety. It is wise to support

00:04:43.880 transparency and truth and freedom. And those of you who understand that, as I do, may be feeling

00:04:50.860 really scared about what's to come. Painfully nostalgic for pre-2020 America, pre-2015 America,

00:04:58.220 when it seems like things just started to kind of go downhill as far as our national

00:05:03.020 cohesiveness goes. The cultural, the moral, the sexual revolutions have just been going at

00:05:09.360 breakneck speed for the past five years. And now we are facing truly unprecedented threats from foreign 1.00

00:05:16.520 adversaries that are more powerful than ever before, much thanks to our terrible foreign policy

00:05:22.800 decisions over the past couple of decades, but especially over the past few months. And let me

00:05:27.920 just say, as an aside, one thing that really bothers me right now, maybe it shouldn't, I'm willing to

00:05:36.860 admit that maybe it shouldn't bother me, but it does bother me, is that you see so many people,

00:05:41.940 and typically I would say it's like in the female, like Christian online community, 0.71

00:05:46.740 who spent every day after the George Floyd incident last summer in the months leading up to

00:05:53.000 the election, talking about politics, something they don't usually talk about, but they were talking

00:05:57.600 about politics all the time. And they usually weren't using specific terms, but just like

00:06:01.600 referencing justice and equity and equality and decency and voting very vaguely, yet very,

00:06:09.080 very passionately and relentlessly, all of a sudden they became activists after being supposedly

00:06:15.820 apolitical for a very long time. And yet now over the past few months, since the election,

00:06:21.580 since the inauguration, like they're not talking about any of those issues anymore,

00:06:27.060 at least not as loudly, at least not in relation to our elected officials. So you hear a peep out of

00:06:34.280 them when there's a story that elicits, you know, some kind of media contrived hysteria,

00:06:38.260 something about an interaction with the police or maybe Palestine, or when there's a chance to talk

00:06:44.160 about racism, they, you know, speak up a little bit about this, but they're not talking with as

00:06:50.740 much vigor as they were just a year ago about the problems this country faces. And guess what?

00:06:56.060 Kids are still in cages. Like violent crime is skyrocketed. The economy is in serious trouble.

00:07:01.160 We have an absentee president. All these things really matter. Like politics still matter. They

00:07:06.760 didn't stop mattering when you stopped caring about them or when it stopped being cool to post about

00:07:11.180 them. And so it's mostly radio silence from these same people who decided they were activists a year

00:07:16.360 ago, who were crying out Micah six, eight, when it was trendy and now really have nothing to say.

00:07:21.860 Now it's, Oh man, I'm just so tired of politics. I'm so tired of the news. Let's just unplug and be

00:07:26.600 happy. But those same people who say that they don't care what's going on in the news and in culture.

00:07:31.840 Now I can guarantee you just wait a year from now, right before the midterms, when there's another

00:07:37.520 big crisis that Democrats use to gin up outrage against Republicans and gives people the opportunity

00:07:41.960 to virtue signal on social media, they will be experts and activists again. They won't pay

00:07:46.620 attention until there are social media points to score. And they'll lecture the rest of us about

00:07:50.860 how we don't care enough about the issues at hand. Let's not be those people. I include myself in

00:07:57.080 that. Like, let's not be those people. We can't just bury our heads in the sand until the next

00:08:01.640 black square trend comes along. There are policies being implemented now that affects you and your 0.73

00:08:06.780 neighbor. There are things happening now that demands your attention and comprehension and

00:08:10.840 preparedness. They're not trending. They don't come associated with any virtue signaling points.

00:08:15.560 They're not going to win you any friends or any accolades if you care and talk about them,

00:08:22.280 but they matter. As we always say on this podcast, politics matter because policies matter because

00:08:28.140 people matter even when it is not an election year. But at the same time, and I totally understand

00:08:36.000 this. So I agree with the people who say, you know, we just need to take a step back and not be

00:08:41.180 obsessed with this. We can't allow ourselves to be totally inundated by the news. We can't be consumed

00:08:48.280 with headlines, with social media commentary. We can't be sucked into every new narrative. I mean,

00:08:53.140 that really robs our joy. And you know why? I talked about this on Instagram the other day,

00:08:58.060 because it places a burden on us that we were never meant to carry. I posted Psalm 62, 11. I think it

00:09:08.160 was on Friday that says, power belongs to God. Let me read you all of verse 11 and 12.

00:09:15.440 Once God has spoken, twice have I heard this, that power belongs to God and that to you,

00:09:22.860 O Lord, belongs steadfast love for you will render a man according to his work. Reading the news

00:09:30.880 makes us feel like power belongs and must belong to us because it makes us feel omniscient,

00:09:39.380 omnipresent, knowing everything, being everywhere at once. We see images of pain and suffering,

00:09:45.220 halfway around the world. And we're expected to think something about it, to say something about

00:09:49.940 it, to do something about it, to passionately care about it. So we're made to feel that we're

00:09:55.060 omnipotent too. Like it didn't used to be that way either. The most that you could do was read about

00:10:02.180 something happening elsewhere in the newspaper, but there was no expectation for everyone to have a

00:10:06.780 stance on it and a responsibility for it. There are lots of things that I love about technology and

00:10:13.480 social media. I think a lot of people spend a lot of time railing on those things. And there are

00:10:17.580 reasons to, there are also reasons to love it. But one thing that I will criticize it for is that

00:10:23.340 unhealthy aspect of making us feel like we have to be everywhere, know everything and do everything

00:10:29.680 about everything. I personally fight that burden. That makes me feel like I need to talk to you guys

00:10:37.740 about everything, that I have to care about everything, try to understand and then explain

00:10:44.540 everything, give you guys action items for how to address everything. And it's super overwhelming.

00:10:50.160 And it can be really demoralizing. Like I felt very demoralized, just to be honest, over the past

00:10:55.700 like week or so, because there's so much I want to talk about and want you to care about and want me to

00:11:02.200 care about and want to do something about. But I have to make myself refocus. And I have to remember

00:11:10.260 a few things that I'm going to remind you of too. Power doesn't belong to me. It belongs to God.

00:11:17.760 As Psalm 62, 11 says, I cannot control anything, much less what's happening hundreds or thousands of

00:11:24.240 miles away from me. I am not responsible for becoming an expert on everything. I am not called

00:11:30.860 to say something or do something about everything. I do not have the capacity to care about everything.

00:11:37.760 And neither do you. Someone asked me what I think about the hashtag free Britney thing. Someone asked

00:11:46.160 me this on Instagram. And I know everyone has an opinion on that, like right, left and center. And

00:11:51.660 we're all supposed to care about it. And that's great if you do care about it. I'm not slamming that.

00:11:56.720 I mean, maybe that's important for different reasons for you. Maybe you love Britney Spears. I

00:12:00.760 mean, I wish the best for Britney, her family, all the good stuff. But the truth is, I am at total

00:12:07.380 capacity for things to care about. Total capacity. I'm at the brim. And that free Britney just doesn't 1.00

00:12:14.520 make the list. And I don't know if it ever will make the list. Maybe at some point, something will

00:12:18.980 get knocked off the list and free Britney will get on my list of things to care about. But I just

00:12:23.580 don't right now. We have to recognize both our calling and our capacity. So we have to

00:12:30.880 recognize our loves and our limits, our priorities and our parameters. So in other words, we have

00:12:38.540 to decide what are the few things that we really care about? What are the things that we feel

00:12:44.480 passionate to become experts in, to stand up for, to work for, to talk about, to do and focus

00:12:50.020 on that or, or those things multiple without becoming ceaselessly distracted by everything

00:12:57.840 else. Now that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to know about things that are going on

00:13:02.480 in the news and around the world. Obviously, I think that's important, but we can't give

00:13:07.640 our heart to all of them. We simply do not have the power to bear that burden. We are not

00:13:13.540 God. And it's also about like removing our ego and humbling ourselves. Like we have to

00:13:18.680 humble ourselves knowing that God has called us to certain things and God has called others

00:13:23.500 to other things. And he doesn't need any of us to do any of the things that he wants to

00:13:28.540 do. So what do you know for sure that you are called to do? And maybe you don't know

00:13:35.200 yet. Maybe that's something that you need to pray about, that you need to ask wisdom for.

00:13:39.340 God promises you wisdom. You know for sure though, one thing you know for sure that you don't

00:13:46.100 even have to wonder about Matthew 22, 37 through 39, that you are to love the Lord, your God

00:13:51.640 with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And from that love, you are then to love your

00:13:56.380 neighbor as yourself. Now, as we talk about in, in my book, that loving your neighbor as yourself

00:14:03.120 doesn't mean, and much more eloquently, C.S. Lewis talks about it in mere Christianity,

00:14:07.860 doesn't necessarily mean liking your neighbor. It doesn't mean an affection. Some people think

00:14:13.500 that, okay, if Jesus tells me to love my neighbor as myself, that means that I have to like myself

00:14:18.780 and be confident in myself before I can go out and love other people. That's not the kind of love

00:14:23.620 that he's talking about. He is not saying that affection for yourself is a prerequisite for going

00:14:29.780 out and loving other people. I mean, think about how much time we would waste trying to, you know,

00:14:36.000 like how we look in our reflection before we went out to go and serve those who need our help.

00:14:42.740 The kind of love he's talking about is the love that we're born with this love that results in a

00:14:47.560 kind of instinctive self-preservation and care for ourself and drive to meet our own needs.

00:14:54.320 Like with the same natural drive, um, that we have to meet our own needs. We are to be driven to meet

00:15:00.980 the needs of other people. That's the kind of love that he's talking about. So that we know that we have

00:15:06.580 to love God and that we have to love people. And I add another one to that. So there are three

00:15:11.900 things that I try to commit, uh, myself to very imperfectly, of course, because I'm a fallible

00:15:18.800 person like everyone else. Um, but I try to apply these things and commit to these things that I

00:15:25.180 encourage you to as well. The number one thing of course is love God. Number two, love others.

00:15:30.840 And number three is we've talked about many times the title of Roger's book, live not by lies. So love

00:15:36.940 God, love people live not by lies. So what that means is number one, I will seek God as my source

00:15:42.220 of wisdom, as my source of truth, direction, strength, morality. I will by his grace, obey him

00:15:47.980 fully and completely. Um, number two, I will look at the people that God has placed in my life and I

00:15:55.140 will pay attention to them and their needs. I will seek to encourage them, to edify them, to serve them

00:16:00.020 where I see an opportunity. And this takes a lot of grace-driven effort. The natural propensity for

00:16:04.940 all of us every day is selfishness. It takes the Holy spirit to help us improve in this self-sacrifice

00:16:12.720 for the good of other people daily. And number three, I will try my best again, by the power of

00:16:18.400 the Holy spirit to refuse to say or do that, which I know is not true simply because it sounds good or

00:16:25.280 is popular or is inoffensive. I will not purposely perpetuate false narratives. That doesn't mean that

00:16:32.420 I don't get it wrong. That doesn't mean that I don't accidentally do that, but I will try

00:16:36.420 by the grace of God with all of my might, never to do that. I will not use terminology

00:16:41.640 or newfangled definitions that do not correlate with biblical reality or with reality or biblical

00:16:48.080 morality. I will not sacrifice truth for the sake of a superficial form of empathy. Uh, the goal will

00:16:55.000 never be to intentionally shock or offend or hurt feelings. That's never my goal. The goal will be to

00:17:00.240 simply insist that two and two make four. I do that for obedience to God. I do that for love for other

00:17:06.380 people and for sanity for myself. So all three of these things require me to be in God's word,

00:17:12.540 which to be perfectly honest with you is more consistent for me some weeks than others. Like

00:17:18.460 last week, for example, it was very inconsistent and I felt it. I felt the heaviness and the sadness and

00:17:25.660 anxiety characterized my thoughts. I felt the burden that I must know and fix everything to be

00:17:31.860 everywhere at once. God's word is necessary for me to know how to love God, how to love people and

00:17:38.440 how to love truth. Prayer is necessary for me to know how to do those things and to be empowered to

00:17:45.520 do those things. Talking to other people who are on this same journey is necessary for me to gain

00:17:50.920 encouragement and perspective. And that can be really hard because I don't want to burden people

00:17:54.900 with my anxieties and my worries, especially people that don't do my same job. I don't want

00:18:01.140 my friends to think or people in my Sunday school class to think that I always want to talk about

00:18:05.280 politics or that I always want to talk about the news because I really don't. But I do feel the need

00:18:11.720 to kind of, you have to have people to unload your burdens onto and your cares onto. Ultimately,

00:18:18.140 we do that on the Lord. We cast our cares on Him because He cares for us, Scripture says. But we

00:18:23.920 also have to have community and people around us who are willing to bear those burdens and to speak

00:18:28.400 life and encouragement into us. And I think that's really hard in this day and age when real, true,

00:18:33.880 profound connections to real Christian friends and Christian community, even within the church,

00:18:39.500 is really lacking. Like it's really lacking. I'm guilty of it. Most people I know, honestly,

00:18:45.960 are guilty of it. I don't know any church that is perfect at this, but gosh, like that is where

00:18:51.760 the church can stand out right now and forming real and profound and meaningful connections with

00:18:57.540 people. People are hungry for that. We're starving for that. And if anything has been proven over the

00:19:03.180 past year and a half, it's that human beings need that. We need that to survive and thrive. So we need

00:19:09.180 all of these things to accomplish what I believe to be three priorities for the Christian life, love God,

00:19:13.800 love others, and to live not by lies. It gives us the perspective that we need and perspective when

00:19:22.680 we are drowning what feels like in the depths of despair about our own lives or about the future

00:19:27.540 of the country is so crucial. And speaking of perspective, speaking of God's Word, I want to read

00:19:34.400 to you a few verses that help us remember our place in all of this. Job 42.2, you've heard me quote

00:19:41.920 this very many times on this podcast. I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours,

00:19:49.960 God, can be thwarted. So God doesn't need us. He may choose to use us, but nothing we do or don't do

00:19:57.320 can inhibit him even a little bit. Jeremiah 32.17,

00:20:01.160 All Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your

00:20:09.040 outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. God can do all things. His ultimate purposes cannot

00:20:16.880 be thwarted. His sovereign will cannot be changed. Nothing is too hard for him. Nothing means nothing.

00:20:23.680 Nothing throws him off his game. Nothing surprises him. Nothing takes him aback. Nothing confuses him.

00:20:29.200 Nothing hinders him. Nothing is a mystery to him. Nothing and no one can foil his plans. He is not

00:20:34.880 waiting to see what's going to happen. He is not curious about what's coming around the corner. He

00:20:40.160 doesn't come in after the mess to clean it up. He is completely and totally in control of everything.

00:20:47.700 And as we already said, he doesn't need us, but he does choose to use us. And he does in his

00:20:55.020 sovereignty and in his total and complete power, omniscience, omnipresence. He does call us to

00:21:02.080 certain things. In general, I believe, as we've already established, those things to be love God,

00:21:07.860 love others, and don't lie. The second two are really products of the first, but because some people

00:21:13.920 really think that loving God simply means being nice to people, I think it's necessary to explicitly

00:21:19.100 point the second two out. So here's what this looks like. And I can't get into specifics exactly

00:21:26.880 because I don't know what, I don't know what your life looks like, but who is right in front of you

00:21:33.700 to love? And how are you to love them? The truth is you don't have to look very far for your neighbor

00:21:38.980 and we don't have to think of sophisticated ways to love them. It's our spouses. It's our kids.

00:21:45.300 It's our friends. It's our, it's our coworkers. It's our communities. It's our church. Like we

00:21:50.900 serve them. We encouragement, we encourage them. We seek to meet their needs. That can mean words of

00:21:56.540 encouragement. It could mean prayer for them, with them. It could be making them dinner. That's

00:22:00.860 something that we really like to do and that people really appreciate if someone is going through like

00:22:06.940 a hard time or a busy time or a stressful time or an exciting time, easing one burden by just like

00:22:12.960 making them food or sending them food. That's a really easy way to love people. Like all the ways

00:22:17.540 that you would like to be loved, you show that love to those that God has placed in front of you.

00:22:22.700 You steward the resources that God has already given you. Not that you imagine that God will give

00:22:26.940 you a year from now, but the ones that you have right now, you steward them for his glory, trusting

00:22:31.700 that he is going to take care of you. And yes, there are times, I would say, especially right now,

00:22:38.220 as we seem to be on the precipice of losing some of our liberties. There are times when loving the

00:22:46.160 people in your life and loving your city and loving your state and loving your country, which I think

00:22:50.540 we are called to do, means caring about a few issues that affect them and that you are also passionate

00:22:58.860 about. So are you passionate about the education policies in your area? I think, you know, we all

00:23:05.000 should be to a certain extent, but if you're especially passionate about that, get involved,

00:23:09.580 campaign with someone that you believe in running for the school board, run yourself if that's

00:23:13.800 something you feel called to do. Are you passionate about vulnerable moms and families? Volunteer at

00:23:18.360 your local pro-life pregnancy center. Are you seeing some kind of policy putting an undue burden on your

00:23:24.260 community? You should meet with your representatives. You should learn about that. Learn about the

00:23:28.220 alternatives. You should talk about it with people. You should get people to care about it by

00:23:32.340 raising up the subject in conversation. You should raise, as we say on this podcast, a respectful

00:23:37.340 ruckus about it. Get other people to join you. Work collectively. Vote, of course. That doesn't solve

00:23:45.840 all of our problems, but I do believe that we are not called to just sit on our hands in all of this,

00:23:51.700 that we are called to do something about the things that God has put on our heart

00:23:55.520 by serving in some way, by speaking up. And that might characterize one season of your life

00:24:03.680 or one day of your week or one day of your month. It might not characterize every day or your entire

00:24:09.600 life. It might not be your full mission and your 24-7 calling, and that's okay. Like, most of your life

00:24:16.020 may be done doing very mundane-seeming things. Like, do not think that God can't be glorified

00:24:24.040 in the mundane. He absolutely is. Like, our entire lives, every second, are meant for His glory,

00:24:30.620 and He can be glorified in everything we do, whether it's seen by the world or not, whether it makes waves

00:24:36.740 or a ripple, whether it's shouted to a nation or whispered to your family, whether personal,

00:24:40.700 professional, or political, we can make a difference. Colossians 3.17, and whatever you do

00:24:48.700 in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father

00:24:55.320 through Him. And I've got some more practical tips for you guys. All right, so some practical

00:25:00.440 tips. I kind of gave you some practical tips, but some more practical tips, I guess. People ask me all

00:25:06.720 the time, like, what do we do? Feels like the country's going in this terrible direction.

00:25:10.520 It feels like things can't turn around, and as I've already said, I can totally empathize with

00:25:14.460 that feeling. I feel like that myself sometimes. And in addition to just knowing that this life is

00:25:20.540 not where our hope lies, that we kind of have to, I think as Americans, I, at least, I can't speak for

00:25:26.780 everyone, but I think that we assume that things are always going, that history is always going to

00:25:31.600 right its course in our lifetimes. That, okay, by the next election, things will be better. In just a few

00:25:37.260 years, things will be better. If this goes away, or if this changes, things will be better. People will

00:25:41.360 be more sane. They'll be more normal. And yes, I do think that we've seen the pendulum swing on a

00:25:47.200 variety of political and social, cultural, religious, theological issues in throughout America's

00:25:54.420 history and throughout world history. And that is true, but we can't hang our hat on that. Like, we can't

00:25:59.360 trust in that because we don't actually know if that is true. And depending on your eschatology,

00:26:04.180 you may believe that it is absolutely inevitable that things are just going to go to hell in a

00:26:09.420 handbasket until Jesus comes back. We've talked about eschatology. I'll actually link my end times

00:26:14.660 podcast episodes in the description to this podcast so you can go listen to those. But the fact of the

00:26:22.140 matter is, like, we don't actually know. We don't know if Jesus is coming back tomorrow. We don't know

00:26:27.520 if he's coming back in a few weeks. We don't know if he's coming back in a thousand years from now.

00:26:31.340 Yes, there are some things that we know have to happen before that, but we don't actually know how

00:26:35.560 or when it's going to go down. At the same time, I understand people's, like, apocalyptic feelings

00:26:41.320 about that. And they're wondering, okay, well, do we even care about the direction that the country

00:26:47.740 goes? Like, are we even, are we just distracting ourselves with politics? Should we just remove

00:26:53.060 ourselves from everything that's going on in the political and civic sphere and just focus on what's

00:26:58.260 happening in our homes? And as I've kind of already touched on, and as I've explained many times on

00:27:02.680 this podcast, I don't think that's the answer. I do think a way to love, a way to love your neighbor

00:27:06.920 is to care about the policies that are implemented and the things that are going on. That I think

00:27:11.200 looking after the welfare of the nation that you are in is a very godly thing to do. I think it's a

00:27:17.460 very loving thing to do. Now, I know that there are people who think that you shouldn't love your

00:27:21.260 country, but I think loving your country and having a certain level of patriotism and a certain fondness

00:27:27.960 for your country's culture and its ideals is a very biblical thing to do. And it can compel you to

00:27:35.880 seek the good and seek the welfare of your fellow citizens. I think that's a very good thing. And so

00:27:42.740 we do those things. We pursue those things without trusting in elected officials to usher in our

00:27:50.580 version of utopia. Elected officials are never going to be able to fix anything, no matter the

00:27:56.560 political party. There are corrupt people in both parties. There are bad policies in both parties. Now,

00:28:03.040 you guys know where I land on that. I don't think that it's morally equivalent. But the fact of the

00:28:08.260 matter is, is that neither party, no politician is going to be able to save us in the way that we

00:28:12.480 want to be saved. They're not going to be able to make the changes that we want to, that we want to

00:28:18.980 be implemented to achieve whatever we think our vision is of some kind of great and glorious and

00:28:28.020 moral nation. It's just not going to happen. So while I don't know if things will swing back in a

00:28:33.460 different direction and if things will go a different way as far as politics and culture goes,

00:28:39.660 I do know 100% that my hope can't be in that because I just don't know. And that's not where

00:28:46.940 the Lord tells us to put our hope. Like where my hope is, is that there will be a perfect ruler or

00:28:54.240 there is a perfect ruler already. He already rules and perfect justice and righteousness. But one day,

00:28:59.940 evil will be no more. One day there will be no more wickedness. There will be no more

00:29:04.120 injustice. There will be no more oppression. There will be no more unfairness. There will,

00:29:09.640 there will be nothing to worry about. There will be no stress. There will be no concern. There will

00:29:13.920 be no sorrow, sadness, sickness, deceit, propaganda. None of that will exist. That is where my hope lies

00:29:21.300 that we are on. We are sojourners on a very, very quick temporal journey here on earth and eternity

00:29:27.940 will be gladness and freedom forever and ever. And yet while we're here, there are, there's cause

00:29:34.780 for concern and there are things to do. I think a strategy that could work depending on your definition

00:29:41.220 of work, it can, it can either buy you time or it can help you create a community in which you are

00:29:48.800 protected and your freedoms are protected and how you want to live in accordance in your values is

00:29:54.100 protected. And I think that you should polarize, localize and prioritize. So those are the three

00:30:00.240 things that I encourage you to do. And what I mean by that is that if you live in a blue area

00:30:07.460 that is solidly blue, and you are pretty sure that you being there isn't really going to turn the tide,

00:30:13.160 like it's not going to change things, then I would move somewhere red. Like I would move to a red state.

00:30:19.080 I'd move to a red city and I would make it redder. A lot of you ask me, should I move out of California

00:30:24.760 and move to a red state like Oklahoma or Idaho or South Carolina or Texas or Florida? I say, yes, 0.50

00:30:32.260 that's not possible for everyone. So I'm not saying that everyone has to do that. Um, I am saying that

00:30:37.900 if you can do that, if there's any way that you can do that, you will be amazed at how much better

00:30:42.200 your life is being around people that care about liberty and have the same values that you do.

00:30:48.060 Um, and so I would encourage you to polarize. I do not mean that you can't or shouldn't have

00:30:54.800 relationships with people who politically disagree with you. I think that it's very important. I think

00:30:58.800 that we should allow ourselves to be challenged by people who disagree with us on a variety of issues,

00:31:04.360 but I'm talking about creating a life for you and your family and hopefully your, your children in

00:31:09.960 which, uh, your freedom and the values, uh, that you want to live by are protected. That's not possible

00:31:16.740 everywhere in this country, which is really, it's sad that you have to, that you can move to a

00:31:21.760 different state and live not just a slightly different life, but a radically more free life.

00:31:27.480 Um, and so every single person I've not talked to one conservative that moved from Oregon or

00:31:33.200 Washington or California to a conservative state and regretted it. Like every message that I get about

00:31:37.720 that is like, Oh, it was the best decision of my life. I'm so much happier. Um, and I think that'll

00:31:43.160 be true for you too. Um, I, I encourage red States and red areas to get even redder than they already 0.99

00:31:50.800 are and to solidify, um, to solidify your holds on that. And so the second one then is to, uh,

00:32:00.200 localize. So care about the problems that your community is facing. As we've already talked about,

00:32:07.000 get involved with what's going on in the schools. Even if you homeschool or send your kids to private

00:32:11.740 school, you're still a taxpayer. Like, uh, you already know how I feel about public school,

00:32:16.060 but, um, you should still be involved in what is being taught there in the, and the mandates and

00:32:24.060 restrictions that are being, um, that are being placed there because you have a vested interest in

00:32:30.240 the community. And like I said, you have a monetary interest too, because you pay taxes. And so get

00:32:36.940 involved on the local level. You should seek to influence in every sphere in which God has placed

00:32:44.160 you with the values in the worldview that you have. Now I, for some reason, like people on the left

00:32:50.880 freak out when people say that, but everyone does that. Like that's what a representative democracy

00:32:57.340 is. That's what every single politician and any involved citizen does. Like you enter into a space

00:33:04.420 and you try to influence it with the values and ideas and ideals that you have. The only people

00:33:09.120 that are scared to do that are not progressives or conservatives and Christians who have been lied

00:33:14.780 to and have been told that by a conservative and a Christian speaking up about their values or trying

00:33:20.440 to shape their workplace or community or school or whatever with their values, that that's, you know, 0.98

00:33:26.060 some kind of crazy authoritarianism and some, you're just some religious nut job. Okay. Well, 0.95

00:33:32.740 the progressives are now redefining what gender and sexuality and morality and reality look like for

00:33:41.540 your kindergartner. So how'd that work out? Don't buy that lie. Every single person, no matter their

00:33:47.860 religious beliefs, no matter their political backgrounds are trying to influences the space in

00:33:53.720 trying to influence the space that they occupy. And so you Christian conservative should be doing the 0.61

00:34:00.860 same thing unabashedly, respectfully, kindly, but you should absolutely be trying to implement

00:34:07.940 your worldview and your values. And that value might just be freedom. I think that's what it is for most

00:34:15.900 people. It's not that I want you to live how I live. That's not what I want. That's not what

00:34:20.620 conservatives want. That is like a fantasy by some people on the left that I want you to be forced to

00:34:25.320 be a Christian or forced to live a Christian lifestyle. That's not true at all. Like my,

00:34:30.560 that, that is not my value. Uh, my value is Liberty and I could get into all of the, you know,

00:34:38.500 different ideas for, for governance and for society that I have, but mostly like, I want you to respect

00:34:46.720 that. I want to live and raise my family, how I want to, and I will respect how you want to raise

00:34:53.260 your family. And I'm not speaking about some kind of libertarianism because I don't call myself a

00:34:58.600 libertarian. Obviously I believe in some kind of moral foundation for the laws that we have,

00:35:03.680 but that's not the same as a theocracy. Me saying, Hey, I'm going to join the school board and I'm

00:35:08.080 going to try to move it in a direction that I want to move it in is literally what everyone does.

00:35:13.160 So polarize, localized, prioritize, pick the things that you care about. I don't even know if those three

00:35:18.120 things are in order. Um, but pick the things that you care about in your local community

00:35:23.040 and, uh, lead them, influence them, get other people to care about them. Um, I think that is

00:35:29.120 the strategy that we have to employ right now. I personally think like life is too short to live

00:35:34.980 next to tyrants and to be controlled by the petty tyrants that run some of our states and cities

00:35:41.200 and to be in constant fear of your life because so many of our best cities have been run by these

00:35:47.180 progressive policies that have led to a rise in violent crime and increased homelessness and

00:35:51.800 public drug use and all of these terrible things that really just drive down quality of life. Like

00:35:56.300 life is too short to live among that. Um, and so move to a place that shares your values, um,

00:36:02.580 try to support people that share your values, support businesses that share your values, start a

00:36:07.000 business in accordance with your values, provide services in accordance to your values. There's

00:36:11.740 a growing market for that because as conservatives are, you know, lumped into this other group that

00:36:21.080 is no longer kind of like welcome to impolite society, there's still going to be a market for

00:36:25.980 goods and services and businesses and all that stuff. And so that's what I encourage you to do.

00:36:32.020 Now, some people say, well, that's not being salt and light. That's not being a witness. Uh,

00:36:36.400 not all Republicans are Christians. Like I actually think that, I mean, there's a large percentage

00:36:41.460 probably of Republicans who aren't true Christians and who, because Republicanism and Christianity are

00:36:47.160 sometimes, um, seen as synonymous, uh, there are probably, that's probably like a bigger danger. I

00:36:54.740 would say in the Republican party that there are a lot of people who just believe that they're

00:36:58.520 Christians who are not. So just because you live in a red area and they align with your values, 1.00

00:37:03.960 as far as freedom goes, doesn't mean that there's not an opportunity to share the gospel with those

00:37:08.240 people. And it doesn't mean that you're not going to be able to communicate to people who live in

00:37:11.620 blue States and things like that. So, um, I don't really buy that argument. So that's what I say.

00:37:17.460 I say polarize in, I'm talking about in the sense of where you live and where you, um, where you move

00:37:24.480 to and then localize and, uh, prioritize. I don't mean polarize in the sense that you shouldn't be able

00:37:31.400 to have a conversation with someone on the other side of the aisle, just to clarify. Um, I want to

00:37:37.300 read this quote that I think is super comforting. Um, well, there's actually two quotes that are

00:37:44.080 super comforting. Um, the first one is from C.S. Lewis. He wrote, uh, he wrote an essay in 1948 about

00:37:51.500 living in an age where people feared an atomic bomb, um, which is an age that lasted quite a while,

00:37:57.560 gave people living at that time, a sense of impending doom. And here is what he said. He said

00:38:03.280 in one way, we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. How are we to live in an atomic age?

00:38:10.220 I am tempted to reply. Why? As you would have lived in the 16th century when the plague visited London

00:38:16.120 almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land

00:38:21.920 and cut your throat any night, or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of

00:38:26.920 syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor 0.84

00:38:32.860 accidents. In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation.

00:38:39.620 Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the

00:38:45.660 atomic bomb was invented. And quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways.

00:38:51.440 This is the first point to be made. And the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together.

00:38:57.500 If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb, when it comes, find us doing 0.76

00:39:03.160 sensible and human things, praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the

00:39:09.340 children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts, not huddled together

00:39:15.200 like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies. A microbe can do that,

00:39:20.460 but they need not dominate our minds. That is a word for today. I mean, what do you want to bet

00:39:29.380 that people living then who also perhaps lived through both world wars and the great depression

00:39:36.940 and the dust bowl, and who saw the continued totalitarianism throughout the world in the 20th

00:39:43.040 century, even after the wars, also thought that surely they were living through the end times.

00:39:48.160 I mean, they didn't face the same threats that we do. They didn't have a lot of the same problems

00:39:54.760 that we do, but they didn't know that. They had no reason to think this wasn't the worst

00:39:59.520 of it. People in other nations who have never known freedom, who have always known tyranny

00:40:05.180 and persecution and hardship, don't you think that they've believed that the great tribulation

00:40:09.640 was at hand? Like people have lived through what has seemed like apocalyptic struggles for

00:40:15.800 all of human history. Now, like I said earlier, this may be it. This may be the end. And maybe

00:40:21.880 things will never swing back and Jesus is going to return sooner. Maybe not. Like maybe this is yet

00:40:27.700 another bad cycle of human history and it will continue to cycle through as it always has. We

00:40:33.080 don't know. And the point is we have to deal with what is before us right now. Like our responsibilities

00:40:40.220 are not suspended because the world is going crazy. And our responsibilities are to love

00:40:46.380 God, to love our neighbor, to live not by lies. Three ways I think that we can do that in freedom

00:40:55.900 is to polarize when it comes to where we live and where we spend our time and the businesses

00:41:04.300 and the people and the organizations we support and to localize, to focus on the things that are

00:41:10.720 right in front of us and to prioritize, to focus on that, only that which we are really passionate

00:41:15.880 about and know something about and feel called to. Philippians 4, 4 through 7 says,

00:41:21.580 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness, reasonable. We have

00:41:27.080 to be reasonable. Be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. So there's a sense of urgency here.

00:41:33.040 Do not be anxious about anything. Wow. That's a really big blanket statement. Do not be anxious

00:41:38.640 about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests

00:41:46.140 be made known to God and the peace of God. This is a promise which surpasses all understanding will

00:41:52.500 guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So God knew all of the things that we are going

00:41:59.880 through right now, all of the things that we've been through, all the things that are going to

00:42:03.480 happen, not just in the world, but also in your personal life. And still he told us to rejoice.

00:42:07.240 I mean, the Christians in Philippi, the Christians in some of these churches were going through hard

00:42:11.680 times themselves. And God through Paul says, you are to rejoice always. You are to be reasonable always.

00:42:17.480 You are to be grateful always. You're worried about something. Tell me about it. Present it to me.

00:42:22.540 Literally tell me about it. Not like trying to belittle your concerns,

00:42:26.500 but literally God is saying, tell me about it. Cast your cares onto me. I care for you. And

00:42:31.720 in, uh, in Matthew 10, Jesus talks about, we're not to worry about those who can throw,

00:42:38.500 um, who, who can kill our body. We are to fear the one who can throw our body and our soul into hell.

00:42:44.520 Jesus tells us that not even a sparrow falls from the sky apart from, uh, apart from the father's will.

00:42:51.860 So if that is true, if he even controls the, the plight and the flight of the sparrow,

00:42:58.580 which can be sold to, can be sold for a penny. Jesus says that how much more does he care about

00:43:03.500 us? How much more is he seeing us? How much more is he attending to us? How much more is he going

00:43:08.540 to carry our burdens and be in control of our lives? Now I have one more really encouraging

00:43:14.280 quotes to read to you that I hope just ends on a peaceful note for you guys. So this is a quote by

00:43:21.100 John Newton that I saw shared over the weekend on Instagram that I really appreciate.

00:43:26.300 And it goes like this. We can easily manage if we will only take each day the burden appointed to it,

00:43:33.020 but the load will be too heavy for us. If we carry yesterday's burden over again today,

00:43:38.360 and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it. I mean, that is

00:43:44.500 so true that we are trying to bear the burden of yesterday and tomorrow. And he is saying this in a

00:43:50.960 day before social media. And it's even more true today where we are actually like it is demanded

00:43:56.600 of us by social media and by the media in general to care about everything that's happened in all of

00:44:04.640 history and might happen in all of the future at once and bringing it back full circle to what we

00:44:09.740 said at the beginning. We don't have the capacity to do that. We can care and should care about what's

00:44:14.220 right in front of us. We should do what we can with what we are given and what we are called to,

00:44:18.640 but we can only manage today's burden. That is what Jesus says to you, that it is sufficient.

00:44:26.120 Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Let tomorrow worry about itself. We can't,

00:44:31.020 there are things that we can do to prepare. I think that, you know, Proverbs 31 talks about that,

00:44:36.660 the importance of wise and prudent preparation and planning and all of that. But we can't put our

00:44:43.640 hope in what the future is going to look like. We also can't put our fear there either because we

00:44:47.380 don't know. What we do know for sure is that God is completely in control. Nothing is too hard for

00:44:52.120 him. All we can do is do the next right thing. All right. I hope that was an encouragement for you.

00:44:57.960 I will see you guys back here tomorrow.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - October 05, 2022

REPLAY： Things May Change If We Make These 3 Commitments

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