What If Life's Not a Script? Rethinking God's Plan
What if life isn’t about following a strict plan, but rather about dancing with God in a creative partnership? This episode dives deep into that intriguing idea, suggesting that instead of a rigid blueprint, God invites us to co-create our lives, playing along with the choices we bring to the table. Picture it: even when we mess up—like when I accidentally wore mismatched socks to a meeting—there's potential for something beautiful to emerge from our blunders. We’ll explore how this perspective can reshape our understanding of life's ups and downs, and how God works through our experiences, weaving good out of even the messiest situations. So, grab your favorite drink, kick back, and let’s chat about how to embrace the chaos and craft a life that’s living, useful, and downright good!
Questions from the episode:
- Is God still creating?
- How can bad things happen to good people?
- Are we part of His new creation?
- Did he just wind it up and leave it to run? Deism.
- Is he still involved? To what extent?
- Is there an extent to His love?
- How you answer these questions determines, to a large extent, your worldview.
- Plan of salvation through sacrifice and reconciliation.
Takeaways:
- Life isn't about having a strict plan; it's about co-creating with God through our choices.
- God can make something beautiful even from our worst mistakes and ignorant blunders.
- We might feel like we're separated from God, but the truth is, we can't be separated from love itself.
- Asking the right questions about God's involvement can lead to a deeper understanding of our life journey.
Transcript
Yeah, hold on, let me get my.
Speaker A:How can you tell if, like, our levels.
Speaker A:Does it matter in there?
Speaker B:Well, yeah, it matters.
Speaker B:I mean, I'm looking at my channel and it's not, you know, it's not.
Speaker B:It's not clipping.
Speaker C:My channel look good.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:Mutants, too.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:How am I looking in there?
Speaker A:I feel like I hear an echo, but maybe.
Speaker A:Maybe I don't.
Speaker A:You hear it?
Speaker C:I'm not.
Speaker A:You don't hear it?
Speaker B:Hang on a sec, let me do that.
Speaker A:Can you hear it now?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:Is that better?
Speaker A:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Because I just turned this fourth channel, since it's not.
Speaker B:Sometimes you have to turn that.
Speaker B:Whatever's not being used.
Speaker A:Is there a separate volume in the headphones versus, like, what's coming through there?
Speaker A:Could have mine just up a little bit more.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So just in my head.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay, good.
Speaker A:That's good.
Speaker A:Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker A:I just wanted to be able to hear it.
Speaker A:Hear it.
Speaker B:All right, we got everybody going here, here, here.
Speaker C:You're ready to start?
Speaker B:Yeah, go ahead and start.
Speaker B:I'm going to clap so that.
Speaker B:That way.
Speaker A:So we start.
Speaker B:So that way it syncs.
Speaker B:Okay, wise guys, I gotta do a bigger one than that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay, there it is.
Speaker B:There it is.
Speaker A:There we go.
Speaker B:Red button.
Speaker B:A red light is.
Speaker A:Are we recording?
Speaker A:We are recording.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker A:Otherwise, we'll have a conversation about the Bible that never happened.
Speaker B:Well, the great thing is all of these three things are recording the audio as well.
Speaker B:So, I mean, if I literally had to use this one, it might, you know.
Speaker B:Anyway, whatever.
Speaker B:We're not going to worry about.
Speaker B:We're not going to make any of those kind of mistakes no more.
Speaker A:Everybody?
Speaker A:Everybody ready?
Speaker A:Everybody here?
Speaker B:Everybody?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Taking buddy here.
Speaker B:Take roll.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Here we go.
Speaker B:Hi.
Speaker B:Welcome to the Wise Guys, a podcast where we unleash the unthinkable and step over the line to help us see things differently, to enhance our worldview.
Speaker B:I haven't said it that way in a while, have I?
Speaker B:Okay, that's old way we used to do.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker B:But, you know, I brought it in again.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So, hi, I'm Mac, your host, and in this episode, we're going to.
Speaker B:I don't know if the word addresses right.
Speaker B:We're just going to chat about.
Speaker B:We're just going to offer some perspectives over the pretty common, you know, Christian perspective that we think that God has a plan.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We've said that probably many, many times.
Speaker B:It's probably been part of your theology.
Speaker B:Part of how you.
Speaker B:Where you look at God, you know, we typically use it a lot of times when we just don't have any other answ.
Speaker B:You know, a lot of times it just happens because we're just.
Speaker B:We don't know.
Speaker B:We're just frustrated.
Speaker B:But if we do think that there is a cosmic plan, whatever that might look like, or not.
Speaker B:All right, what might it look like and how do we interact with it?
Speaker B:And that's just a little summary.
Speaker B:We're going to go, you know, deeper.
Speaker B:We're going to maybe run some side trails that you hadn't really thought about.
Speaker B:But this is going to be fun.
Speaker B:And I've really been looking forward to this.
Speaker C:You know, you always put your hand up and refer to me when you say side trails.
Speaker C:The master of buddy trails.
Speaker A:He is.
Speaker A:Embrace it.
Speaker B:But that's right, you know, we're gonna get you some.
Speaker C:Gonna own it.
Speaker B:You're gonna get.
Speaker B:I'm gonna get you some bunny ears, man.
Speaker B:You know, that's gonna work.
Speaker A:I have a title for him.
Speaker A:He's the ultimate authority of Bunny trails.
Speaker A:That's his title.
Speaker C:There's only one degree of separation between chaos and any topic when it comes to me.
Speaker B:Well, we just, you know, we heard the cats here, so I want to welcome my wise guys, though.
Speaker A:Of course, Coach St.
Speaker A:You know, hey, hey, guys.
Speaker A:I don't know what.
Speaker A:I don't know what God's plan is tonight, but my plan is, guys.
Speaker C:And that's fun.
Speaker B:Some fun.
Speaker B:And the rest got the rev.
Speaker C:I feel like we come together and on our night to record.
Speaker C:And we're tossing a ball around.
Speaker C:Throw that ball around and just see what happens.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Keep it in the air.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker B:Well, sometimes it's a dodgeball, though, I gotta admit.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:You know.
Speaker A:You know, but I've gotten hit a few times.
Speaker B:I love the ball in the air thing.
Speaker A:Hey, let me say hello to all of you beautiful, exotic cocktails out there.
Speaker A:Hello.
Speaker B:Yes, yes.
Speaker B:Welcome.
Speaker B:Catch the ball.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Here.
Speaker A:Coming your way.
Speaker B:We're glad to have you, without a doubt.
Speaker B:Thanks for joining us.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:All right, so guess what, Tons.
Speaker B:Time for.
Speaker A:What is it?
Speaker A:Words to the wise.
Speaker C:Feeling wisdom coming on.
Speaker B:Words to the wise.
Speaker B:Okay, here we go.
Speaker B:Let me put my.
Speaker B:Let me put my Gandalf hat on.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:My.
Speaker B:My hood.
Speaker B:Something like that.
Speaker B:Here.
Speaker B:Who.
Speaker B:Okay, here it is.
Speaker C:Download.
Speaker B:Yeah, download.
Speaker B:Download.
Speaker B:All right, so here we go.
Speaker B:Keep your eyes on the road and your head out of your apps.
Speaker A:I love this.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Think about this.
Speaker B:What are you thinking about?
Speaker A:Well, I have a story to tell so my daughter's all grown up now, but when she was younger and she got a phone, the rule was this, you cannot walk and be holding your phone.
Speaker A:Anyway, advice probably saved her a lot.
Speaker C:Of bumps in the head.
Speaker A:Well, think about it.
Speaker A:I've been driving through parking lots where there are people just looking down and they think that they're bigger than my Jeep and they're not.
Speaker A:So that was always.
Speaker A:The rule is keep your.
Speaker A:You know, pay attention to what's around you.
Speaker A:Like, actually live your life and experience it.
Speaker C:You know, this last week, I've been holding a mantra.
Speaker C:I'm just reminding myself, look up, look up, look up.
Speaker C:And whether it's in the phone or it's just downtrodden, just look up.
Speaker C:And I tell you, just that simple act.
Speaker C:I feel happier, I feel more joyous, I feel more fulfilled.
Speaker B:Well, I think that's a part of.
Speaker B:Yes, I take it out of the same thing that says if you're focused on your apps, even if it's not dangerous, which it certainly can be, it's two story.
Speaker B:You're missing so much else.
Speaker B:There's just so many other great things that are going on around you that if you got your face stuck in the doggone app, you don't get to experience.
Speaker C:Another point of that is not only are you missing life, life is missing you.
Speaker C:Knock, knock.
Speaker C:I want to know you.
Speaker C:And if you're in an app, I don't get to see you, feel you know you, and experience you love.
Speaker A:So one of my favorite people said this.
Speaker A:There are no ordinary moments.
Speaker A:You know who said that?
Speaker B:Is it Richard Orr?
Speaker A:Dan Millman, who wrote a book that changed my life, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, which is also a movie.
Speaker A:If you haven't read this book, you have to read this.
Speaker B:I remember when you turned me onto that years ago.
Speaker A:Oh, it is.
Speaker A:And he talks about living in the moment, and he's the someone that said, there's never nothing going on.
Speaker A:There's always something happening, but you got to pay attention to it.
Speaker A:You know, look around.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, I.
Speaker B:I totally agree.
Speaker B:We talk about getting your antennas up.
Speaker B:You know, it's.
Speaker B:Again, it's hard to have relationships if your only relationship is with your phone.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:I mean, you know, again, like.
Speaker B:Like the Rev said, you just gotta, you know, just look up.
Speaker B:There's lots of people out there, and there's lots to be experienced.
Speaker B:Pull yourself out a little bit.
Speaker C:My wife has sometimes said, you know, put the other woman in our life down.
Speaker C:That's my work.
Speaker C:Okay, I get it.
Speaker A:You didn't name your phone, did you?
Speaker A:I don't think you should do that.
Speaker C:Not a good idea.
Speaker A:Not a good idea.
Speaker B:Certainly not a female name.
Speaker A:Okay, well, we're all everything.
Speaker A:Life is interconnected, right?
Speaker A:I mean, there.
Speaker A:And there's meaning in every experience in my.
Speaker A:I mean, if you, if you look for it, you can't be sleepwalking, man.
Speaker A:You got to be awake.
Speaker C:So what are we awake to tonight?
Speaker C:What are antennas?
Speaker B:I think not only are we awake to it tonight, but I want to.
Speaker B:I want to give you our listeners.
Speaker B:We're going to pull back the curtain a little bit here on us, the three of us.
Speaker B:All right?
Speaker A:Look out.
Speaker B:Because, you know, every week we try to give you some wisdom, we try to give you some perspective, and maybe sometimes this can.
Speaker B:At least it might feel like when we do this, we got it figured out and we're just trying to pass it along.
Speaker A:Yeah, okay.
Speaker B:You know, oh, we sit up here and, you know, we're trying to impart to you down there.
Speaker B:So this week, three of us, you know, we just.
Speaker B:We talk about what we're going to talk about.
Speaker B:And, you know, we talk about this all the time.
Speaker B:I mean, it just doesn't willy nilly.
Speaker B:We don't just walk in here and say, what are we talking about tonight, guys?
Speaker B:And so we've.
Speaker B:We were working through some new stuff, thinking, you know, New thinking.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:We ask you guys to new think all the time.
Speaker B:And we were confronted with that very same thing this week with some new ideas as we were thinking about an episode.
Speaker B:And it was really, really great to see the dynamic as it was going back and forth between us.
Speaker B:And this is what made me think and look up and go, this is exactly what we're encouraging you to do, is to open up your brain, consider some possibilities that you had never thought about before.
Speaker B:Engage, wrestle with.
Speaker B:I was using that Stu coach Stu had to put his Sniglet on and, you know, just.
Speaker B:Just do it together.
Speaker B:And it was amazing.
Speaker C:Putting on a sniglet together.
Speaker A:I'm sorry.
Speaker A:Let's do it together.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker B:I think they have one for Siamese twins.
Speaker B:Maybe.
Speaker B:I'm not sure.
Speaker A:I got something for you, Rev.
Speaker C:I feel uncomfortable.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So anyway, we just wanted you to know that we've been going through the same thing.
Speaker B:We didn't.
Speaker B:I'm not just using this as one example, but it was just right up front with us this last week, and I really wanted to just share this with listeners that says we're going through the same things.
Speaker B:And we try to come out the other end with bedazzlement.
Speaker B:We love to use that word.
Speaker C:And it's not always comfortable.
Speaker C:You're absolutely right.
Speaker C:Sometimes it's like we're in the fire of refinement.
Speaker C:But when we stay there with each other as friends, as brothers, something good can happen.
Speaker C:Even if it's like we're wrestling a little bit.
Speaker C:To use the wrestling as the analogy, if you can stay in the arena, something beautiful can happen.
Speaker C:And that's what we ask our listeners to do and just will stay with us.
Speaker C:Even if it feels a little bit different than what you might believe.
Speaker C:Stay with us.
Speaker B:Just ponder it and just ponder it.
Speaker B:Okay, so we went through it and it was great experience for us.
Speaker B:So we were just living what we talk about, I guess, is what I'm really trying to say as well.
Speaker B:All right, all right.
Speaker B:So now we're back to our theme for tonight, our conversation, our focus.
Speaker B:And that is asking a question, which I can't wait for the Rev to kind of give his perspective on this because I thought it was great in the pre show what we were doing.
Speaker C:Don't worry, it'll only be an hour and a half.
Speaker B:Oh, man, that was awesome.
Speaker B:I loved it.
Speaker B:Okay, so here's, here's the, here's what we're going to just kind of press into.
Speaker B:There's a lot of questions that come up when we're trying to understand God's plan in quotes, right?
Speaker B:And so here's some questions.
Speaker B:What role do we play in the plan?
Speaker B:Is God really good?
Speaker B:Does God have expectations of us in this grand plan?
Speaker B:Is there a right answer to this question?
Speaker B:What is God's plan?
Speaker B:In order to be a Christian, do you need to have some answers, you know, or, or you're.
Speaker B:You're less than what you should be, whatever it might be.
Speaker C:And I'm going to add it.
Speaker C:To be a good Christian, to be a good Hindu, to be a good Buddhist, to be a good Muslim, all of the above.
Speaker B:Be a good person of faith.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Maybe we can say you go, how about it?
Speaker C:I like that.
Speaker B:I like that.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker A:To be a good human, be a good human.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:That doesn't need to take a good you.
Speaker B:You know, be a good you.
Speaker B:Hey there.
Speaker A:Oh, are we going to Dr.
Speaker A:Seuss?
Speaker B:Be a good you.
Speaker B:Not a who, but a you.
Speaker A:A you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, good.
Speaker B:Well, here we go.
Speaker B:All right, so I took this quote.
Speaker B:If, if none of you know this guy, you need to, you need to read about it.
Speaker B:You need to read Some of his stuff.
Speaker B:You need to watch his movie.
Speaker B:William Paul Young, W.
Speaker B:Paul Young, he wrote the Shack.
Speaker B:He's really got some really cool perspectives on a lot of stuff.
Speaker B:You might not agree with everything and that's okay, but encourage you to, you know, enter into some of his stuff because it's really good.
Speaker B:So he.
Speaker B:Here's a quote that I took from one of his books and I'm going to read it and then we're going to go on.
Speaker B:And then truly I'm going to bring it back into the conversation at the end so that maybe you can now filter what we're going to talk about and maybe it'll have a little better context, you know, if we talk about it again.
Speaker B:So here's the quote.
Speaker B:What if there is no plan for your life, but rather a relationship in which God constantly invites us to co create, respectfully submitting to the choices we bring to the table.
Speaker B:He then climbs into them and begins to craft something living and useful and good even from the worst of our ignorant blunders.
Speaker C:I love that.
Speaker B:I love the connotation, the way that, you know, maybe we.
Speaker B:Maybe we need to look at the plan a little bit differently.
Speaker B:It did for me anyway, that's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker C:So I like that last line.
Speaker C:I think it's Joseph in the older Testament that says something to the effect of what man has used for evil, God has used for good, or intended for evil, God has used for good.
Speaker B:Yeah, I believe that parallel.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Even our ignorant blunders.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, we're beautiful, exotic cocktails, as Stu tells us and encourages us every week.
Speaker B:And so with God loves the umbrellas, man.
Speaker B:He loves the pieces of fruit.
Speaker B:He loves all of it.
Speaker B:It's just who we are.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So, so keep that in mind.
Speaker B:But we're going to bring it back.
Speaker B:We're going to bring it back and maybe it will make a little more sense or maybe you can relate it to some of the stuff we're talking about when we get there.
Speaker B:Okay, so here's the scoop.
Speaker B:We're going to talk in this, about this in two different ways.
Speaker B:We're going to talk about it in the big sense, the macro sense, as a.
Speaker B:As God may operate in the cosmos, however I can that, all right, the big picture, the ark, and then the second half of the episode, we're going to bring it down maybe and share some thoughts or at least some, you know, ideas about now bring it into the micro, into us, maybe personally, corporately.
Speaker B:But now we're bringing it into our lives and how it filters through everything that we do.
Speaker B:So that's kind of how this thing's going to flow.
Speaker B:All right, so the macro perspective, we're just going to go.
Speaker B:All right, so here's a macro perspective.
Speaker B:God created everything at a point in time.
Speaker C:So we ask questions, is God still creating?
Speaker A:How can bad things happen to good people?
Speaker B:Are we part of his new creation?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Or did he just wind it up and leave it to run?
Speaker A:Is he still involved?
Speaker A:And to what extent.
Speaker B:Is there an extent to his love?
Speaker C:You know, how we answer these questions determines to a very large extent our worldview.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And is there a plan of salvation through sacrifice and reconciliation?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So, you know, we fire hosed you there with a lot of the questions that might come up that we might have.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And so let's just.
Speaker B:Now we're going to kind of fold back and let's see if we can flesh out a few of these questions, just give some perspective on them from our perspectives.
Speaker B:And again, keep in mind when I might share a perspective or Coach Stu or the rev.
Speaker B:A lot of times we're looking at each other going, yeah, man, yeah, cool, Love that.
Speaker B:Or we might be going, well, okay, I love you for that.
Speaker B:No worries.
Speaker B:But you know, I might look at it a little bit differently, and that's healthy.
Speaker B:There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker B:All right, so let's just kind of go back and let's maybe try to give some perspective, not necessarily some answers to these questions.
Speaker B:Okay, so let's start with the first one.
Speaker B:Is God still creating?
Speaker B:We're going to acknowledge that there is a belief that God created everything, whether it was at a point in time or whatever, that there's a creator that created everything.
Speaker B:So now we say, is God still creating?
Speaker C:And I like to say that God is creativity itself.
Speaker C:So I guess the answer would be yes.
Speaker C:It's in constant, in motion.
Speaker C:Creativity.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, I agree completely.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, this wasn't even a question for me, of course.
Speaker C:But there is a belief system on the planet that everything that has ever been created or has already done, it's already complete.
Speaker C:And so there is no more creation to happen.
Speaker C:It's just for us to discover it.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:So the creativity is just our awaking to it, our awareness of it.
Speaker C:You know, both can be right.
Speaker C:But there's still things to unfold, things to discover.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:You know, again, everybody's got their own way they want to.
Speaker B:Especially when you start to frame God because it's an abstract concept.
Speaker B:A lot of times, always, pretty much.
Speaker B:And that is if God is creativity.
Speaker B:And we talked about this in an episode a while back about God's characteristics.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:If God is creativity, not just creative.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But creativity, then there's absolutely no way, given that character trait, that there can't be continual creating.
Speaker B:You know, and whether it's through us to create a beautiful picture or whatever it might be, it's an ongoing beautiful thing that God's gifted us with is His.
Speaker C:We live in an ever expansive, ever created universe.
Speaker C:And there's always more and it's always more.
Speaker B:People don't like the word evolve because, you know, the minute when you go there, you go to the monkey and you go to the, you know, just look at that word as evolved, that it, it just gets enhanced all along the way, all the time.
Speaker B:I mean, how else could you think God would do it?
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker A:To me, it's exciting to know there's more for me to experience and see.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker A:I mean, that is really cool.
Speaker B:Press in, man.
Speaker B:Yeah, press in.
Speaker B:So that's exciting.
Speaker C:It gives me joy.
Speaker C:I wonder what, how I'm going experience God differently this morning than I did yesterday.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, sometimes when I see his new creation and I get up with a bad hair day, man, I'm going, okay, no, no, thank you.
Speaker C:I've seen your hair like that before and not even in the morning.
Speaker C:I've seen in the afternoon look like that.
Speaker C:I still think it's God.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, okay.
Speaker B:You got a default there.
Speaker B:I get it.
Speaker A:Punk rock Mac.
Speaker B:So his God still creating.
Speaker B:That was one of our questions.
Speaker B:We get this.
Speaker B:We used to get this all the time.
Speaker B:But it's a pretty common question that gets asked especially as just life happens.
Speaker B:How can bad things happen to good people if God is good?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We're going to kind of, we're going to kind of assume that.
Speaker B:But I'm not necessarily thinking that everybody's going to go, go there.
Speaker B:But, but what's the scoop with that?
Speaker B:That's, you know, again, that's in a more macro.
Speaker B:I'm not talking about your life, but I'm just talking about people.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I hope that I don't, I don't get in trouble for this, but I don't think God does anything to us.
Speaker A:I mean, I just don't.
Speaker A:I mean, I think that, you know, we have setbacks in life.
Speaker A:And to me, the way I like to look at it is those are setups for something good coming my way.
Speaker A:I mean, because that's how I want to see it.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:You know, it doesn't mean I don't feel it when it happens.
Speaker A:And it doesn't suck because it does when things like that happen.
Speaker A:But what's your choice?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I don't sit there and say, oh, God, why are you doing this to me?
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:I just don't do that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So that's.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:I hope other people can see it that way.
Speaker A:Because God's loving and God is love.
Speaker A:So, you know.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Well, and some.
Speaker C:You're preaching my sermon.
Speaker C:God is love.
Speaker C:You know, we're using these adjectives to describe God.
Speaker C:I say God is the noun.
Speaker C:It is love itself.
Speaker C:And so when bad things are happening, I like to use this analogy of the river's gonna go to the ocean.
Speaker C:It's all.
Speaker C:It knows what to do.
Speaker C:It's going to the ocean.
Speaker C:That's what I liken.
Speaker C:God.
Speaker C:I've taken the personality out of it.
Speaker C:I'm either cooperating with that current or I'm not.
Speaker C:And so bad things happen when I'm trying to fight the current.
Speaker C:So it's just a call when bad things are happening in my life to get back in touc with, where is that current within me?
Speaker C:How can I cooperate with it more?
Speaker C:The current, the river does not care if I'm cooperating or fighting it.
Speaker C:It's going to buoy me up.
Speaker C:If I cooperate with it, it'll lift me up and get me to the ocean of magnificence.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, that's beautiful.
Speaker B:I mean, I think that's a great picture of the way it works.
Speaker B:We tend to want to default because we love.
Speaker B:We're human.
Speaker B:We love to answer to something.
Speaker B:You know, we just.
Speaker B:We don't like something to be unknown.
Speaker B:You know, that happens.
Speaker B:I want to know why.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:You know, especially if it's something bad, you know, something happens bad to me or to someone that I know or even just, you know, I remember people, you know, years ago when the tsunami hit there in Indonesia.
Speaker B:Remember that?
Speaker B:And then there was some of the folks out there in the ether that were saying, well, that was a bunch of godless people out there, and God just sent the tsunami so that he could, you know, punish them.
Speaker B:You know, that kind of, you know, I just think when we adopt those kinds of perspectives, then it gives us a warped perspective.
Speaker B:Perspective of God, which is, you know, can't explain anyway.
Speaker B:But, you know, we try.
Speaker C:Well, because we want to live in the personality of this image created this God created in our image, and we give it a personality and we describe it with words.
Speaker C:Vengeful.
Speaker C:That sounds like a vengeful God.
Speaker C:I can't believe in that God, you know, so I just have to believe in the noun.
Speaker C:God is an energy, the river, the flow, period it.
Speaker C:And I.
Speaker C:I want to cooperate with it.
Speaker C:I want to immerse myself into the.
Speaker C:The waters of God being and know that if a bad thing happened yesterday, it'll be better tomorrow because I do that.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Can we just drop the mic right now?
Speaker B:Maybe we just thought.
Speaker C:Yeah, I was dangerously close to a bunny trail.
Speaker A:Do we need these other questions?
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker B:Well, how about this?
Speaker B:If you have a perception about God and his involvement in the world.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We're talking in a macro sense now, but so did.
Speaker B:Here's the question.
Speaker B:Did God just create the world, the cosmos, you know, at all, and then just wind it up like a clock and just let it go?
Speaker B:Okay, there it is.
Speaker B:Did my work.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm, you know, I'm going over here on vacation.
Speaker A:I'll be back later.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And hands off for the most part.
Speaker B:And we get to screw up and we get to do bad stuff, and we just, you know, we're on our own.
Speaker B:Like I said, you know, just there it is.
Speaker B:You know, there is a God that we think out there somewhere, but not involved, not engaged.
Speaker B:You know what, what do you think about that?
Speaker B:What do you think about that concept?
Speaker B:How does God, you know, how does that look like God?
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker C:I'm going to defer to the coach over there.
Speaker C:He's got wisdom.
Speaker A:Yeah, you wrote.
Speaker A:Wrote a word after this question.
Speaker A:Deism, Right.
Speaker A:And my understanding of deism is that it believes in the existence of God.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:But God does not actively intervene in the world that God created.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:That would be a deist.
Speaker A:Yes, Deism.
Speaker A:So I have a stewism.
Speaker A:Are you ready for this?
Speaker B:Wait a minute, hold on.
Speaker C:You know what we need?
Speaker A:Can I do this?
Speaker B:Wait, wait, wait.
Speaker B:You know what I need here?
Speaker B:As far as our clips?
Speaker B:I need a buckle.
Speaker B:I need, like.
Speaker A:Here we go.
Speaker B:Okay, here we go.
Speaker A:There was deism.
Speaker A:Here's.
Speaker B:Here's a stewism.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So God part in Stewism, okay?
Speaker A:God participates in all aspects of your life.
Speaker A:However, he allows you to drive the car.
Speaker A:So you decide where you're going, how fast you're going.
Speaker A:If you run out of gas, you got to fill up the tank.
Speaker B:Oh, so God's not the gumball machine that we talk about right.
Speaker B:That you stick the quarter in and just say, oh, okay, God.
Speaker B:Crink.
Speaker B:Now I get the goodies, right?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:Well, this goes back to Jung's quote right there.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We have the choices that we make, and it doesn't matter what choices we make.
Speaker B:You know, God's going, all right, let's see what we're going to do about that.
Speaker C:But is that guidance always there?
Speaker C:It's always present.
Speaker C:It cannot be separate from us.
Speaker C:And it's always moving in the direction of our highest good.
Speaker C:We're either paying attention to it.
Speaker C:It or not paying attention.
Speaker A:There's the catch.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker C:You know, it's like standing.
Speaker C:You're driving the car and the.
Speaker C:God's telling you guidance is coming.
Speaker C:Shut up back there.
Speaker A:Don't make me come back.
Speaker C:Shut up.
Speaker C:I've got this.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker C:That's when we get in trouble.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's an interesting thing to ponder.
Speaker B:But doesn't it give you.
Speaker B:Doesn't it give you a much greater sense of calm and peace and trust and excitement to think that.
Speaker B:That it wasn't just wound up and left, that we're actually integrated in the whole process?
Speaker B:That, you know, God's for us.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:God's for us.
Speaker B:And so if you really adopt that who.
Speaker B:I think things change.
Speaker C:I like to say life cannot be separate from what life is.
Speaker C:And life is God, plain and simple.
Speaker B:Period.
Speaker C:It's the same thing.
Speaker C:And so we cannot.
Speaker C:We can't be separate from God except in our own mind to believe that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:So God is the life itself, everywhere, present at all times.
Speaker B:There's the choices that Stu was talking about.
Speaker B:I mean, we got a choice to make that perspective or not.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:You know?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Well, think of raising your own kids.
Speaker C:You're always there.
Speaker C:Papa's always there.
Speaker C:I'm here, but I'm not going to interfere with your life choices, even if I disagree.
Speaker C:But I'm here if you need me.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And what I am going to part to you is wisdom and perspective and some.
Speaker B:All these other things that will try to keep you from going in the ditch.
Speaker B:But again, it's still your choice.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:I'm available to offer my counsel, to offer my guidance, to offer whatever it might be.
Speaker B:But, hey, you know, free will.
Speaker C:I've given you all the tools you need to create the most magnificent life.
Speaker C:Here you go.
Speaker C:Use the tools.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker C:If you want advice on how to use those tools, check in with headquarters.
Speaker C:But other you're on your own to.
Speaker B:Figure it out headquarters.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's the CEO.
Speaker B:All right, well, here's the significance of why we're asking these questions.
Speaker B:These are the macro questions.
Speaker B:These are the bigger, the cosmic, you know, pondering points that we try to impart to you.
Speaker B:But how you answer these questions, you know, if you think about them and you go, well, let's see, does God still creating.
Speaker B:Wow, I hadn't thought about that a long time.
Speaker B:The point is, when you start to think about these things and answer them however you do, it makes a big difference.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker C:Asking the question in of itself opens the portal of creativity.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:Being willing to sit with the question and the mystery.
Speaker B:So ask yourself each one.
Speaker B:They're going to be in the show notes.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker B:So ask yourself these questions in the quiet of your own place.
Speaker B:Because what you're doing is you're massaging, you're articulating, and you're forming your worldview.
Speaker B:And your worldview is in a large extent formed by how you look at God or, you know, or whatever.
Speaker B:I mean, just going to use as a general term, even if you're looking at it, to say that God doesn't exist.
Speaker B:I mean, that's still part of your worldview.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker B:And it's going to formulate a lot of your decisions, a lot of your perspectives.
Speaker B:So it make.
Speaker B:It matters, guys and gals.
Speaker B:It matters.
Speaker B:So, you know, with that, we're going to kind of just leave you thinking about that.
Speaker B:We're going to take a little bit of a break, and then we're going to come back now and talk more specifically about.
Speaker B:About you and me and these guys personally.
Speaker B:All right, thanks for listening.
Speaker B:We'll be right back.
Speaker A:I'm gonna leave that run because it was about five minutes.
Speaker B:Yeah, I got it here.
Speaker A:So here's something that happened with my video.
Speaker A:I forgot to turn off one of my alarms.
Speaker A:So it went off.
Speaker A:It stopped the video, and I didn't catch it for like three minutes.
Speaker A:Oh, so you're gonna have like two videos from me.
Speaker A:And it was.
Speaker C:Well, let me ask, too.
Speaker A:So if.
Speaker C:Should I stop it now?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:I'm just.
Speaker C:I don't want to run out of memory here.
Speaker A:I think you'll be all right.
Speaker B:No, we're not gonna.
Speaker B:We're not gonna.
Speaker B:Not gonna.
Speaker B:We're not gonna hang.
Speaker A:Just so you know, with mine.
Speaker A:That's what happened.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker C:Of Jesus, the missing year, Missing minutes of Stew.
Speaker B:Where'd Stu go?
Speaker A:This is from what, 12 to 30?
Speaker A:Is that way?
Speaker A:Or 33?
Speaker B:Spreading in the east 12 to about 30.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:Oh, God, the missing stew years.
Speaker A:I did get stewism in there, though.
Speaker B:I love that, man.
Speaker B:That was awesome.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker B:All right, all right, all right.
Speaker B:Welcome back to the wise guys.
Speaker B:We're in this episode, we are attempting, or at least we're throwing it out there to say, does God have a plan?
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:And we've tried to take the first half of this episode and kind of walk through some of the bigger picture stuff that we might apply toward that, answering that question or at least pondering a question maybe we can't answer.
Speaker B:But, you know, it's a bigger stuff now.
Speaker B:We said we were going to spend the rest of the episode talking about how we narrow it down to us.
Speaker B:To us personally, corporately, but to the people.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:You know, us, the people.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So let's do kind of what we did before.
Speaker B:We're going to fire hose you a little bit.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So here's some micro perspective on Does God have a plan?
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker C:And so we asked the question, how involved is God in the everyday happenings in our lives?
Speaker A:Is there a customized, unique plan for each of our lives?
Speaker B:Do you believe that God says, I love you and I'm for you?
Speaker C:Can we ever be separated from God?
Speaker A:How or does God answer prayers?
Speaker A:Is there more?
Speaker B:Is our amount of faith a determining?
Speaker B:Isn't it?
Speaker C:Oh.
Speaker A:Is our amount of faith a determining factor?
Speaker B:Hey, you're.
Speaker B:Leave me holding the bag.
Speaker A:I wrote.
Speaker A:I wrote something between that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Part of the stuism is living in the silence for a moment.
Speaker B:All right, let's do that one.
Speaker A:Let me do that one again.
Speaker A:How or does God answer prayers?
Speaker A:Is our amount of faith a determining factor?
Speaker B:Is God capricious?
Speaker B:Can we manipulate God?
Speaker C:Oh, I'm getting uncomfortable.
Speaker C:Does God bless some and not others?
Speaker A:No, I can answer that one right now.
Speaker B:We're in agreement now.
Speaker B:Yeah, let's just go have a beer.
Speaker B:All right, we're done.
Speaker B:Cheers.
Speaker B:So, all right.
Speaker B:So with that boom, those are some of the questions that we came up with.
Speaker B:You might have your own, but we, again, we kind of fire hose you to make a little bit of an impact about how important some of these questions can be, especially as you ponder them and you wrestle with them and as you maybe come up with some answers for yourself.
Speaker B:So let's kind of.
Speaker B:We'll fall back.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:And so let's start with the one that says, I love you and I am for you, says God.
Speaker B:What do you think about that?
Speaker B:That, huh?
Speaker B:Do you believe that?
Speaker B:Is that something that you can resonate with or is there some.
Speaker B:Yeah, buts.
Speaker A:That's the key, I think.
Speaker A:I think for that to be true, you have to.
Speaker A:It is true, but I think for you.
Speaker A:For it to be true, you have to accept it.
Speaker A:Like, it's almost like a gift.
Speaker A:Like you.
Speaker A:If you don't take the gift, you don't.
Speaker A:You don't have it.
Speaker A:So that's.
Speaker A:That's kind of how I see that.
Speaker B:I'd like to carry it a little further.
Speaker C:That's I always like to do.
Speaker C:You know, I love you when I'm for you.
Speaker C:I love you when I'm with you.
Speaker C:I love love you and I'm expressing as you.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:That's how much I love you.
Speaker B:Now, that ought to.
Speaker B:That to me, that excites the living stew out of me.
Speaker B:So, you know, you adopt that perspective, man.
Speaker B:I'm telling you, you strap in, it makes it personal.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:It brings it right here and not separate from.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:I love you so much that I've given my only begotten entity and energy and son and self to be expressed at the point of view.
Speaker C:Now, I know that for some that's a difficult concept, but when I got that, I felt more love than I'd ever known my entire 63 years.
Speaker B:I love that, man.
Speaker B:So, you know, here's what I say to all that.
Speaker B:Thank you for sure.
Speaker B:Yeah, thank you that you've included me in the whole thing, because I am you and you are me.
Speaker C:How blessed are we?
Speaker C:Oh, I love it that we're that loved.
Speaker B:So, all right, let's ask the next question.
Speaker B:How involved is God, or would you think God is in the everyday happenings of our lives?
Speaker A:Yeah, God's always there.
Speaker A:We talked about this a little bit earlier in the good.
Speaker A:And especially during tribulations and such, when things aren't going our way.
Speaker A:I think especially in those moments God is there.
Speaker C:I felt that in some of my darkest hours.
Speaker C:I felt an essence that you're okay, you're going to be all right.
Speaker C:But if we're not experiencing God or love or life in that moment, guess who moved?
Speaker C:We're the ones that moved.
Speaker C:And it's just a matter of moving back into congruity.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I think what can come up in this question as well without running a bunny trail, and that is, do certain things that happen in our life, good or bad?
Speaker B:I'm not.
Speaker B:I'm not categorizing them, happen as a result of God going blessing, curse, blessing, curse.
Speaker A:No, I don't believe that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So, you know, I don't either.
Speaker B:But, you know, I think you.
Speaker B:You can go sometimes with the.
Speaker B:Depending upon your theology that you can attribute to God, you know, the specific happenings in your life again, as you categorize them as good or bad.
Speaker C:Well, and that's easy to do if I define myself only as a human being having an earthly experience.
Speaker C:That's a philosophy that does work.
Speaker C:I don't understand why bad things.
Speaker C:We are called on the spiritual path to define ourselves as spirit, as light, as love, as Christ, as the Buddha, as whatever you want to call it.
Speaker C:When we do that, we can't.
Speaker C:That kind of God dies.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:You know, it feels like suffering.
Speaker C:Bad things happen to people on the earth.
Speaker C:But when I realize when a crucifixion is happening and I rise above it and define myself by something greater, it's not God doing it to me.
Speaker C:You know, there are those that say, we're not punished for our sins, we're punished by our sins, our sleeping, our mistakes, and the graces.
Speaker C:We're only one breath, one idea, one moment away from going back and being okay again.
Speaker B:Well, we talked to some last week.
Speaker B:We talked about in our episode, we talked about.
Speaker B:And the words to the wise was like, if you have a plan A and it doesn't work out, now you have plan B.
Speaker B:And I thought it was very insightful that Rev was saying, because I think it taught me something for sure that said, well, failing at plan A is part of the plan because you can't experience the joy and the overcoming and the whatever might be when you have to go to plan B.
Speaker B:You know, and so they're all, you know, we talk about this holism all the time, that everything's connected all the time.
Speaker B:And so you can say something and you go, oh, yeah, but we were talking about that over here.
Speaker B:Remember that?
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:That kind of fits in here, too, doesn't it?
Speaker C:So when I failed at plan A, I found more love at plan B than I thought was even possible.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker C:So because I listened to that energy that was right there in the midst of my failure, in the midst of my dark night, I hear you.
Speaker C:I had to turn to something greater.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, here's a real important question, okay?
Speaker B:I think this is the one you need to.
Speaker B:If you can't answer it definitively one way or the other when I ask it, think about it.
Speaker B:Think about the ramifications either way, all right?
Speaker B:Whether you answer the question yes or you answer it no, think about that.
Speaker B:Here's the question, can we be separated from God?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Period.
Speaker A:Next question, please.
Speaker B:Stu wants to drop mic right there, man.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:The gospel of stewism.
Speaker B:That's a stew ism.
Speaker B:All right, so I, I, I mean, I would agree with that, Rev.
Speaker C:I'm going to join the stew camp there.
Speaker C:We can't be, but we can sure feel like it.
Speaker C:Well, you can pull yourself out thinking it.
Speaker C:I can pull myself out, but God's going to follow me and is there again through grace, I can make a different decision, but the reality is we cannot be, and I'm going to be blasphemous here, we cannot be separate from that which we are.
Speaker C:And so if God is expressing at the point of us, I can run and run and run and run.
Speaker C:There's no place, I think in the Old Testament, there's no place that, not the deepest pits of shoal or hell or the tallest mountain or the deepest ocean.
Speaker C:God's there, right?
Speaker C:I can sure believe it.
Speaker C:And that puts me immediately in hell.
Speaker B:All right, so it's a very, very important, important question, right?
Speaker B:Because again, we would answer this collectively, the three of us in our perspective and thoughts about God, who just wants to, that's it, drop the mic.
Speaker B:The answer is no.
Speaker B:But I'm not so sure that.
Speaker B:I'm sure that there's some of you out there that are going, well, what about, what about if I sin?
Speaker B:What about if this happens?
Speaker B:What about if this condition happens?
Speaker B:And, you know, we come, we all have a lot of these different things that we've been taught that are part of our theology or part of our worldview.
Speaker C:You know what I like to teach you?
Speaker C:Use the word sin.
Speaker C:You put it out there.
Speaker C:So I'm going to run with it.
Speaker C:The only sin I believe, if you trace every bad thing that ever happened, was at its root.
Speaker C:Somewhere there was a belief in separation from God.
Speaker C:Somewhere there was an action that was founded upon a belief of separateness from God.
Speaker C:If we can heal that, all of this stuff goes away.
Speaker C:Sin is an archery term that just means missing the mark.
Speaker C:I forgot.
Speaker C:Surely God was here and I did not know.
Speaker C:Now I'm awake again.
Speaker C:But you can go back to all the ills of humanity.
Speaker C:That's, it's, that's its root.
Speaker B:Well, I think there's a great sense of comfort that you can say, okay, maybe I don't totally believe this because I'm just having a little struggle with it.
Speaker B:But, gosh, if the fact that I can never be separated from God is true.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker C:This is not Just a pretty theory for me.
Speaker C:I used to live in hell because I had bad things happened to me.
Speaker C:Talk about at some point on the podcast that it's like, God's not here, sir.
Speaker C:God is not here.
Speaker C:And when I began to just open a corner of my mind that God is here, and I'm going to find it.
Speaker C:I'm going to find him.
Speaker C:I'm going to find her, I began to look with different eyes and feel with a different heart.
Speaker C:And suddenly life became brighter.
Speaker C:It wasn't all dark.
Speaker C:It wasn't all depression.
Speaker C:It was like I had a way out.
Speaker C:God, for me, has been the way out of those dark nights.
Speaker C:And it just started with opening a corner of my mind.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:I can't feel it right now in this moment.
Speaker C:I don't see it, but I'm going to keep looking.
Speaker B:Yeah, but I.
Speaker B:You know, but I'm going to trust that it's true.
Speaker C:Seek and you shall find.
Speaker C:Knock on, the door will be opened.
Speaker B:Well, that's right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:All right, here's kind of a.
Speaker B:This may be the last one that we're going to.
Speaker B:We're going to go over, but I think a lot of people struggle with this one as well.
Speaker B:How.
Speaker B:Or does God answer prayers?
Speaker B:All right, so do we have, you know, beseeching, you know, and then we have an answering, or is the amount of our faith, or is there some incantation or proper procedure that we need to go through or words we need to say in order to stimulate God?
Speaker B:Answering a prayer or reacting to or acting upon.
Speaker A:Well, Mac, since we are beautiful, exotic cocktails, it is different for each of us.
Speaker A:Like for me, for instance.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:I hear, and I have shared with the both of you that I get messages from people at the gas station.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:In movies.
Speaker A:In.
Speaker A:Which is why I watch movies over and over and over again.
Speaker B:He's our movie expert right here.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:In music, I mean, it.
Speaker A:It comes in hearing some phrase said.
Speaker A:Said on the radio, that grabs my attention because I'm paying attention.
Speaker A:So, yeah, my antennas are up.
Speaker A:So for me, that's how it works.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I've had it in the middle of a wrestling match.
Speaker A:Not me wrestling, but me coaching.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And I've.
Speaker A:I've received a message because I'm looking for those.
Speaker B:Well, so, yeah, let me make a point right there.
Speaker B:You're looking for those, but you don't have a predetermined expectation of what it looks like.
Speaker A:Not anymore.
Speaker A:There was a time.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:All right, this is.
Speaker A:I'm gonna say I've been like this forever.
Speaker A:And I say that, I say that intentionally because I want everybody to know.
Speaker A:It's not like we, we've always been this way, right?
Speaker A:Like we've, you know, we've grown and learned over the years and I've made a lot of mistakes and I've.
Speaker A:I've stiff armed God a lot.
Speaker A:But I don't do that anymore because.
Speaker C:Because it's important to say I don't do it anymore, period.
Speaker C:Most of the time.
Speaker A:Better.
Speaker C:Better than I used to be.
Speaker B:Better.
Speaker B:I'm a little bit better than.
Speaker B:There's a song about that anyway.
Speaker A:So I would, I would encourage everybody to find what this is for you because it'll be something unique to you.
Speaker A:You could be on a farm and you're taking care of animals and when you know you're spending time with those animals, feeding the pigs or whatever, like you, something happens.
Speaker A:Like you, you get a thought.
Speaker A:You feel something deep down inside you're.
Speaker C:Attuned to that you're looking.
Speaker C:Radar is out.
Speaker C:I said to people who, to get to the ocean, we'll find it.
Speaker C:You've got to keep looking.
Speaker C:You can't give up after a day or two.
Speaker C:The river is there and the current is wanting to lift you up and take you there.
Speaker C:But you got to keep attuned.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And again, there's not all these hoops and things and can't, you know, again, like I said the word incantation or just, I'm just going to call it a prayer or saying the right words again.
Speaker B:Let's go back to what we already talked about.
Speaker B:God's for us, okay?
Speaker B:God's for us.
Speaker B:All right?
Speaker B:So the minute we get off the idea that we have, as I always talk about the gumball God, where you put the quarter in and you turn the crank and now you get the prize.
Speaker B:All right?
Speaker B:You know, it's a relationship, it's a conversation, it's a.
Speaker B:We're in it together, co creating together.
Speaker C:And everybody's got a different tool.
Speaker C:If the tool is working for and you're finding that God, that love, that life, that light, whatever it is, keep using that tool, right?
Speaker B:It'll.
Speaker B:It'll manifest great stuff.
Speaker C:But eventually you get to the place where the tool gets set down.
Speaker C:And now it's a place of presence, a place of being.
Speaker C:And let me tell you, that is holy.
Speaker C:I've touched that place.
Speaker C:I call it the high meadow.
Speaker C:And it's been, I've been there.
Speaker C:And I come down to the valley still I'm Human.
Speaker C:But then I know what the high meadow feels like, and so I use the tool again and get back up there and set the tool down.
Speaker C:Here I am.
Speaker C:I don't know if I'll be here on Earth forever.
Speaker C:If I get to the place where I'm just 100% there, I'll enter the cult of Stewism.
Speaker B:Well, these are.
Speaker B:These are important questions, all right?
Speaker B:These are important things to think about and how they affect us and our lives and our perspectives and our relationships.
Speaker B:And all we're saying is, we're not trying to tell you to think one way or the other.
Speaker B:We're sharing how we might look at it.
Speaker B:And all we're offering to you is the challenge.
Speaker B:I'll just call it a challenge to think about it and come to a maybe a new understanding that you've never had before.
Speaker C:Keep your mind open, keep your heart open, keep your eyes open.
Speaker B:Does that make sense or not?
Speaker B:You know, but I think it can change a lot of things if you truly will be willing to.
Speaker B:All these questions that we're asking, I mean, the whole episode, pick one.
Speaker B:Pick one of those questions that we just been throwing out there at you and just sit with it, especially if you struggle with it, if you don't have the immediate answer like Stu did.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:Okay, go on.
Speaker A:Let's go watch a movie.
Speaker B:Next question, please.
Speaker C:Go to the sanctuary of Stew and go to the Cineplex.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:I'll be there.
Speaker B:So just understand, you know, God loves all of us, all right?
Speaker B:Equally.
Speaker B:Let me just use that word, too.
Speaker B:There is no bestowing greater or lesser on anybody, all right?
Speaker B:That just isn't God's character.
Speaker B:I mean, it just doesn't work that way.
Speaker B:So when we do mess up, let's go back now.
Speaker B:Let's finish.
Speaker B:Up, up.
Speaker B:And let's go back to Paul Young's statement that we talked about in the beginning.
Speaker B:All right, so what do you guys want to just read that we'll.
Speaker B:We'll finish up?
Speaker C:Go for a coach.
Speaker A:What if there is no plan for your life, but rather a relationship in which God constantly invites us to co create, respectfully submitting to the choices we bring to the table.
Speaker A:He then climbs into them and begins to craft something living and useful and good even from the worst of our ignorant blunders?
Speaker B:Isn't that beautiful?
Speaker B:It doesn't that give you.
Speaker B:For me, it does.
Speaker B:Maybe it doesn't.
Speaker B:But for me, I picture.
Speaker B:I kind of close my eyes and I picture God.
Speaker B:You know, you got to Give it up.
Speaker B:Some sort of a, you know, climbs in and begins to craft something useful in living.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:I just get that picture in my mind of it as we try to understand that and that just.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:I don't know how else to say it.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:There's some comfort in.
Speaker C:In the knowledge.
Speaker C:I can't mess this up.
Speaker C:I can't screw it up.
Speaker C:God's more powerful than my mistakes.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So what do you think, guys?
Speaker A:So true.
Speaker B:Anything else?
Speaker B:Huh, man, Better exhale over this one.
Speaker A:Deep breaths.
Speaker A:Deep breaths.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Good stuff, though.
Speaker B:Good stuff.
Speaker C:It'll preach.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I really do think that we've.
Speaker B:And for me, personally, even still, you know, that just going through this exercise is helpful for.
Speaker B:For me, you know, let alone trying to say, hey, you know, you guys need to get it.
Speaker B:But I hope.
Speaker B:We hope that it truly has.
Speaker B:Has helped you just make your life better.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Don't.
Speaker B:Didn't we talk for years about just making it a little bit better?
Speaker A:A little bit better?
Speaker A:Y.
Speaker B:Just changing your.
Speaker B:Just fine tuning the dial a little bit.
Speaker B:And then what will happen is that picture will get a little clearer, and then you're going to want it even a little clearer.
Speaker B:You're going to keep.
Speaker B:I mean, it's a progression, I guess, is what I'm saying.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So thanks a bunch, wise guys.
Speaker B:So much fun tonight.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker C:Where's our music?
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker C:Oh, no, Outro.
Speaker B:I kind of wanted to end with this, you know, this emphasis that we're giving to what Young was saying and, you know, think about it for yourself.
Speaker B:Yourself.
Speaker B:We challenge you in this.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:You got the MI5 challenge.
Speaker B:Always.
Speaker C:It was fun to play ball, throw a ball around with you guys.
Speaker C:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker B:So thanks, guys.
Speaker A:Yeah, thanks so much.
Speaker B:Thank you for listening to us.
Speaker B:And I think we mentioned this last week, but next week, our next episode, I say, which we'll do next week, we're gonna have a guest.
Speaker B:And so I think you're really going to enjoy him.
Speaker B:I think he's going to make you think about some things maybe that you haven't thought in that way.
Speaker B:And that's what this podcast is all about.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker B:Thinking differently.
Speaker C:I'm really excited about.
Speaker B:About it.
Speaker B:Yeah, he's going to be great.
Speaker B:I've loved having the conversations with him that I have to this point.
Speaker B:So please tune in next week where we're going to have another unthinkable, thinkable conversation.
Speaker B:All right, thanks, gang.
Speaker B:Have a great week.
Speaker B:Take care.
