Between Prayers And Answers

0:02 Okay. I am annoyed is a strong word. What? Concern. Concern for what? A very, I'm concerned for you. Well, that's nothing new, let me tell you. What are you concerned about? This is literally, you've shocked me. We've just pressed play on the podcast and now you've come out with some surprising information. I know, right? I'm trying to be provocative. What's the deal? Well, we had a conversation that you wouldn't listen to me on, so I figured if we had it while we were recording a podcast. Are you being dead serious right now? Holy dead serious that you would listen to me. I quit. Where do I break contracts? When did I ever sign a contract for this podcast, frankly? Okay, so somebody sent me a very fascinating article about intermittent fasting. Oh, my God. We are not. Excuse me. Oh, my. When I say, oh, my God, I really am crying out to God, but it has become offensive to some people.

0:57 Oh, my goodness. What? We're going to do this again? I literally had a FaceTime this morning with a friend who intermittent fasting has changed his life. But do you know that according to the American Heart Association, how much death by heart complicated problems increases if you're an intermittent faster? I've had a good run. You can't say that. I tried to tell you this and you didn't listen. Do you remember the percentage that I told you? Well, I don't believe it, so it doesn't matter. It's like 90 some percent. 91% increase of death by heart. It was a very reputable article. Was it? I mean, it got sent to me on Instagram, but. Correct. And there it is. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our podcast where we reference illegitimate sources. It was the American Heart Association's article.

1:54 I don't know. That's kind of compelling. They tend to be pretty trustworthy people. I mean, I said there were some more. But the thing is, I take good care of my heart. Yeah, how do you take good care of your heart? Um, how? Is it really? I like it. I like your heart. I want it to keep beating. I'm wearing a true religion jacket for those who are not watching on video. Remember true religion in the 90s? How many buttons are unbuttoned in your true religion jacket? Just two? Hold on. Just count it. Just count it. Hold on, that's three. That's a stop. Leave me alone. Why are you so mean to me? I just want to count. It's one, two, three. I am so humiliated. This is not intended. None of this was planned. Out in the podcast world, what's it called? Do you want me to button it up?

2:46 No, don't button it. You just can't get offended. I do feel like I'm offending people all over the world. You just can't get offended when I'm like, I just like to like rub your chest when it's somebody. And you can't get offended when I do that. We cannot be pastors and be acting like this. You know what I mean? Like people will be offended. Okay. How should we act? Holy. And sanctified. Oh my gosh. All right. Well, I don't know what to do if I'm going to stop intermittent fasting. That means, because the intermittent fasting allows me to also have like french fries later in the day every now and again. You know what I mean? and I could just have salmon and chicken and salad for the rest of my life. No, no, no, but here's the interesting part of the article. Okay. That people who intermittent fasted and people who like, so what's intermittent fasting? Like an eight hour window of eating compared to people who eat in a 12 or 14 hour window of eating would be what normal people do.

3:39 Oh yeah. The people who consume the same amount of calories in intermittent fasting and not, oh my gosh, you have to turn the basketball off in the background. I can barely. I can see your eyes. No, Wes, do not turn it off. You have to turn it off. No, I was looking at people in our neighborhood. I can see you. There's a window behind you. I can't even see because of the glare on the TV. That's a true story. That's what you were trying to see. I was trying to see it, but I just ended up seeing our neighbors. I know what you're trying to see. It's like men who don't think. For those not keeping track, we are recording this on the opening round of March Madness, the NCAA Division I basketball tournament. And I filled out a bracket, Sue Me, and I'm just kind of checking on my scores. I would just like to stand up. Just make it clear to men everywhere. Please.

4:29 Women know when a man's looking at her boobs. We know when a man- This just got really offensive. And we know when a man is watching over our shoulder to look at sports. Okay. I think- Then what am I doing right now? You're looking at my boobs. Oh, okay. All right. I still think that men think that they can get away with those things. And I would really just love to set the record straight. Yeah. Just, just so that is a creepy feeling though. We can digress if you want to into that, but like, yeah, when you see dudes like thinking that they're like, you know, sly, it's like, bro, stop. That's so awkward. I feel bad. But anyways, um, wow. The, the, the, the, the woman form. Beautiful. I would love to hear my fellow women weigh in and say, can you tell when these two things are being done to you? I'm sure they can.

5:25 I am sure most. I have no idea what this episode is about. It's not about anything yet. It's not? Oh, okay. No, no. But the episode is a little. The episode is a little. can you imagine if every episode we did that sound like you know that was me slurping maybe some people would be like a asmr thing and they would love it but maybe not um the episode is a little heavy so oh no wonder you've been doing this yeah again to um everyone listening i chelsea chelsea plans all these episodes and i am blindly invited and it makes it for for interesting recordings that's for sure okay it's fine now you're checking your phone well it's because i have something about the episode on my phone oh oh i thought you were sending some texts he asked yeah he's talking that's boring how does that make you feel boy i never feel that way um somebody covering everything somebody sent in a question yeah and it was so compelling that i want to talk about it whoa and to me the context of the i actually i'm going to ask you first before I read the question. When is the last time you felt disappointed by God?

6:40 Wow. When is the last time I felt disappointed by God? Well, every time my sports figure or team doesn't win, I do. That's clear. Well, a little bit of a thought recently. Well, Alston's one of our sports teams. I guess the Nuggets won the championship last year. Porter Jr. I love him so much. Sometimes I wish he gave me more points for the sports things that I throw out there. Yeah. I would just love to give myself some credit for that. Your sports knowledge is pretty extensive. I'll give you that. I'll give you that. Go on.

7:17 Man, I think in a way, if I'm really honest, I think disappointed is a really good word. Man, I guess I'm going to say it, but I find myself disappointed with God weekly. You know, I mean, I'm in a real relationship with him and I do feel, I know he's perfect, but he is mysterious. And I think sometimes I wonder like, hey, why is that okay? The relationship that I have with God, I hear about travesties and tragedies and death and pain and injustice. And I feel disappointed with God because I know what he's capable of. I trust him, and but but i don't hopefully i don't you know play play games to to me expressing my disappointment is a part of my relationship with him so so i guess i do that i mean i was on a facetime this morning with a friend and i expressed disappointment on his behalf towards god in in some of the things he's going through so um i guess that's my answer yeah cheers yeah um yeah i like that you put it in context of relationship because any genuine relationship there's going to be expectations that aren't going to be met which for me i would say disappoint the definition of disappointment is unmet expectations i agree and so often i think we don't even know what our expectations are until they are unmet yep and that's where it comes from i want to read this question um because i think it will really frame our conversation today this is from i won't it was a public question so I won't read the person's name, but she said, yeah, lately I've been feeling like it's confusing to keep believing and believing for God's will to be done. And at the same time declaring, I'm the head and not the tail or seek and you will find or write the vision and make it plain.

9:05 And she said, but bad things still happen and we don't get everything we pray for, even when we trust and obey and pray and believe God for it. And I think this is such an important question in conversation. I do too. Because if it's not talked about, what this incredible woman wrote in, what you said you experience on a weekly basis, having expectations of God that go unmet, it does happen in a consistent basis in our relationship with God. And I feel like if we don't have a plan for it, if we don't have something to go back on it, if we don't maybe have a way to adjust our expectations sometimes, then we're just going to drift away from God. Because nobody wants a relationship where they just can keep being disappointed and don't know how to handle it. Would you agree?

9:56 Yeah. And I think if I was writing a prescription for people dealing with disappointment with God, it would start with, number one, use that as a connection point with God. Tell him about your disappointment. Express it. Say it out loud. I think it's, I notice in my life, I'll say it like this, I'll get disappointed in someone and I'll go to like one of their friends to tell them. And I really have, I've done that so many times, it's embarrassing. And a good friend ends up telling me, hey, would you, there was an instance recently where a fellow preacher of mine, I just felt disappointed and I went to one of his friends and they were like, hey, can you promise me that you'll go and talk to that person? And I was like, okay. You know, because I don't, maybe that feels awkward or I don't want to hurt their feelings or whatever. But I think when it comes to God, sometimes we tell everybody else we're disappointed with him, but we don't end up telling him.

10:56 I don't know. I'm going to kind of disagree with you. Oh, that's exciting. I know. I love it when we disagree. I think that's, people are like, let's listen to see how people disagree who are in marriage. Where do we go for that? In good faith. Yeah. that I actually don't want you, and obviously God is a different subject, but I'm just like going to side-tray all this. I don't want you to tell me every time you're disappointed in me because I think that can be a little like, I don't know, we live together a lot. Sometimes I think what a good friend should do if you say, hey, I'm disappointed in Chels, is now we're just dealing with hypotheticals, of course, because you're never disappointed in me, Was ask, was your expectation wrong? What was your expectation that didn't get met? And do you think maybe you, instead of trying to fix Chelsea, do you think you need to fix yourself and fix your own expectations?

11:50 Of course not. That was ridiculous. No, I think you need to change. And I think that's where we end this episode. Thanks again for joining us and in good faith. We are 12 minutes in and we have come to a conclusion. Yeah, that's a great point. I suppose I probably took disappointment. I don't think any friendship or relationship is all that healthy if you are communicating every little moment of unmet expectation. I, the only thing I would say about the definition of disappointment being unmet expectation. I mean, I think, you know, you can get your eggs over hard when you want them scrambled and that's unmet expectation. Is that disappointment? I mean, come on, you know, I, I, that's a little bit, you know, heavy handed if you ask me. So I think there are levels of disappointment to say the least. And so I guess what I'm insinuating is like, you know, something that is reoccurring in your brain, in your heart that kind of gives you that twinge and that pain and that hurt. Like, man, I really am surprised that someone said that about me and it's really hurting my feelings.

13:03 And then you go and tell them, they're like, man, you really need to talk to them. So I think in the case of God, I guess I made an assumption here and that's my fault. And that is that what we're talking about is not just, God, my back hurts this morning, which by the way, I do, I must admit, I do bring that disappointment to God. That's where I got that illustration because when my neck and back hurts, which it kind of does a little bit right now, because I wasn't able to take my Epsom salt bath as long as I normally do this morning because we had a Zoom call. But yeah, expressing disappointment in a realistic way. Is it every day with God and me? I don't know if it's every day, but it is weekly. And I would say in a way, it's weekly with you too, with each other. No, I agree. In the context of God, probably one of the best, first best things we can do when we're disappointed with God is to talk to him about it. Yeah.

13:57 And say, hey, God, I'm disappointed with you about. But assessing, yeah, assessing expectation, I think, is a really, really healthy exercise. And how would you do that? Well, I think, I do think it's so interesting going back to the question that was asked, which was such a phenomenal question. and uh i like now that there's a specific person with it i feel like i need to be so careful but um the so let me take let me okay sorry remove it away from the question um i do think we have a culture a western cultural christianity habit of picking scriptures out of the Bible, taking them to mean what we want them to mean, and then turning that expectation on God and calling it faith.

14:52 That's phenomenal. I could not possibly agree more. We assume on the text all the time. And I'll say this, I think here's a whole perspective to take on. The New Testament, let's just talk New Testament for a moment, right? So you got the book of Matthew to the book of Revelation. It is a communal context, almost completely in the context of community. Not completely, but almost. Meaning all of the truth and the revelation of God is within the context of community. Now, translate that to the hyper-individualized culture we live in. And so everything in the New Testament, if we're not careful, becomes this individual arrangement that God is going to do for me, when oftentimes it is something to be played out as an interconnected communal member. And that in and of itself is very challenging to articulate to people who are like, oh, I read this in Philippians, therefore God's going to do it for me. And it's like, well, actually that was what God was going to do for the whole community.

15:56 Yes. Well, even the specific verse that was given, you know, that our amazing friend is standing on, which is actually an Old Testament scripture, which is, hey, you are the head and not the tail. first of all, that is old covenant, which means it's in a different covenant. But even more specifically, that was a covenant, a contract, an arrangement that God made with a country, the country of Israel. And thank you for pointing that out, whether it's Old Testament or New Testament, we tend to take these scriptures and say, oh yeah, this is going to apply to me and to my life and to my job and to my marriage. And I call it faith when I say, and so because I'm holding on to this scripture. I'm the head and not the tail. I'm the head and not the tail. I'm going to get this promotion in my job. And then we don't get the promotion in our job. We're disappointed in God. And I think that's a fair emotion, but I think what we should do if we want to be mature followers of Jesus is to go back and to check our expectations and assumptions and where is it coming from?

17:03 And does it actually line up with how is scripture intended for it to line up? I totally agree. And I think that we have been co-opted and colluded with hyper-achievement culture and championship culture and winning culture. And I'm not saying it's inherently wrong. We have built these sports organizations and constructs, completely man-made, by the way. We've made our own trophies. We've made our own championships. We've made our own tournaments. We've made our own, you know. And winning is phenomenal. And winning is phenomenal. And I love to win. and we're having a podcast. And wouldn't it be great if this was the number one faith podcast or whatever the rankings and categories are, but that's the world we live in. And as a result, I think what's difficult is you take this ancient magical, mystical book, which is not at all connected to this modern kind of achievement type A driven Mamba mentality culture. And you try to translate it into that. And so what ends up happening ahead, not the tail, is we take that into like my job at UPS or my job at FedEx. You know, I don't know why I'm into the shipping companies, but you know, and it's like, oh, that means I'm going to get a promotion. That means I'm going to prosper. That means I'm going to be blessed. And that may very well be true, but I recently was doing a study on Romans 12 and preparing for some talks. And I went back in a research assistant, Ben, who's incredible, brought up a lot of these old mystics and their writings. And I was reminded of brother Lawrence and practicing the presence of God. And there was this mentality that now is a thousand years old or whatever, a few hundred years old, where a lot of these philosophers and thinkers and writers used to believe that even the most, if I could use the word mundane, or the most ordinary roles and occupations were to bring glory to God and had incredible significance all the way down to the earthworm, that even the earthworm in creation had significance as it reveals the essence of God and the care of God.

18:54 And I think so much of when it comes to dealing with unanswered prayers and navigating disappointment with God, we do have to kind of become, as the scripture says, sober minded and remind ourselves again that the goal for God in our life on earth is not exactly how we see it. We see more square footage, another car, another income. Great marriage. Great marriage. Healthy bodies. Healthy bodies. Great skin. Full head of hair. Wonderful sex life. All of these things I'm for. I don't think anyone has ever looked at Jude and Chelsea and thought they don't care about any of that. No, we care about that for sure. And I love a good bronzer when you go on camera. You know, whatever. So I'm as guilty as the next guy. But we also have to kind of wrap our minds and our arms around the fact that oftentimes God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.

19:48 And that what God is for is really connection with Him. And some of these secondary, arbitrary things like square footage and great skin and a really awesome vacation cruise matters to God because it matters to us. But it's not His main objective. And so I think sometimes, like you said, bringing it all the way back, our disappointment with God oftentimes is our projection of what we believe the plan and purpose of God is for our life, which we think in terms of achievement, prosperity, winning, and getting ahead, when oftentimes God is like, man, I'm trying to connect with you. In the sports world, being the chaplain for the Seattle Seahawks, there's this interesting thing that used to happen. I don't go to games like I used to, but I used to be on the sidelines. I don't want to brag. But we would, as the chaplain, I'd be on the sideline of the Seattle Seahawks. I always loved when you're on the Seahawks.

20:43 It was a skinny jeans season, and the camera would pan, and I can literally see your skinny little legs. Oh, and all the players on the team back then would make so much fun of me. Shout out to Bobby Wagner for my skinny jeans. And your legs are always moving. Oh, there's Judith. Oh, because it was freezing cold in Seattle. Me and Jonathan Rainey, my partner, the best, the best, best, best. I love you, Jay Rainey. But we'd be standing there. And at the end of the game, there's this phenomenon that would happen. Whether win or lose, we'd all walk out on the field and we'd meet at the 50-yard line. And what happens at the 50-yard line of most NFL games is the chaplains from each team and the players that so desire will come to the 50-yard line and we all get on our knee and we say a prayer. And it occurs to me in that moment that their side was praying and our side was praying that God in his goodness would give us the victory in this NFL football game. And at the end of every game, it would dawn on us a little bit of our silliness.

21:43 And I'm not saying that God doesn't smile and think it's cute and adorable, but this idea that like, as the chaplain of the team, and let's not kid ourselves, Pete Carroll, Coach Carroll, who I adore, the former coach for the Seattle Seahawks, is the one who gave me the opportunity. And Coach Carroll wanted me to help win, okay? I was there to help win. But in reality, here I am praying that our team would win, but they're praying that their team would win. And then it dawns on you, maybe God's main objective isn't that we win our football game, but that some other things that are far more important transpire in our life. So it just kind of, in those moments every time at the 50-yard line, your brain would kind of go, you know, boing, like you kind of go on tilt and you'd go, oh, I think maybe God's priorities are different than ours. Yeah, like does God choose who's winning based on who prayed better prayers? There's so many mysteries. So many mysteries.

22:34 The only thing we know is that God answers Tim Tebow's prayers in football. That's the only conclusion I've come to. He answers no one else's prayers but Tim Tebow. The miraculous drive that Tim Tebow had in his career, both college and professional. If you want your team to win the football team, ask Tim Tebow to pray. He's got a connection on that one. Well, that's a good thing. You know, it's such a dichotomy because I think about the words of Jesus where he said, I have come so that you could have life and life more abundantly. Yep. That life is Zoe, right? Zoe life. We have friends of ours who have a church named Zoe. Zoe church. We're all here because we believe Jesus will give us abundant life. That's right. And I don't want us to sound like we don't believe that. I would just like to propose that we have created our own picture of what that abundant life looks like. Wow.

23:29 And when God doesn't meet our picture of abundant life, we get discouraged, disappointed, want to give up. So let me throw out a scripture at you. Throw it at me. Throw it at me. And say, how would you apply this to your everyday life? Like you said Philippians, and it's a book that is a community book. Stretching my neck. Sorry. What I do. I know you're not. I'm not looking away. I know you're not looking for a basketball game. It's not over there. It's over there. I blame the whole tech team for scheduling. Tech team? What does that even mean? Sorry, our whole podcast team for scheduling this day of recording on the opening round of March Madness. So disappointing. Speaking of disappointment. Speaking of disappointment. So there's a scripture in Philippians that Paul's writing to the church in Philippi. And he said, he who began a good work in you will be faithful to bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus.

24:32 I have prayed that prayer over my life in so many different ways. Like, hey, writing a paper. Hey, God, you started this work. Will you help me get this paper written? Hey, da, da, da, da, da. And made that application. I don't, is that right? Is that wrong? How do we take those kind of verses? How much do we take them and associate our expectations of God with them? But I'd love for you to speak to just through a random verse out at you. What is the way to take that and to apply it to our expectations with God? Jesus took scripture out of context, but he's also God. So we'll leave that with him. But I would make one comment on that. When taking scripture out of context, Jesus did it for one primary reason. And that was that people, humans, would see him for who he really is, would see his character, would see his love and his care. I think the work he started in all of us is a loving connection and relationship with him.

25:39 And I think ultimately he will finish that and we will be with him forever. That is so simplified, it is insulting to incredible minds like yours and any thinking person. But I will say this, we all take scripture out of context. Absolutely. I mean, we just do. It's just, I know I do, that's for sure. And I think when it's for the intent of making sense of life and its complexity down here on earth, I think God is very gracious. but ultimately like the scripture, he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. That work is the work of regeneration and reject and redemption and reformation and transformation. And it's a deep spiritual soul work that God changes us from the inside out and prepares us to live eternally because we're eternal beings.

26:37 And that's beautiful and wonderful. I, like anybody else, have applied that to the silliest and most temporary things, even my golf game. But I think God is gracious and he's understanding. Yeah, God's not some weird rule keeper who gets annoyed at us when we don't read his book right. Because he's in it for relationship. He knew we would do that. With us. And he put it in there anyway. And I think he smiles when we do. I just want to say that for the record. I think when you pray for the Seahawks to win a football game, I think God smiles. I think God enjoys the camaraderie of a process. God wants to better over-involve God than under-involve God. I agree. But I do think it would do us all well if we could teach ourselves just the little process of, okay, I'm reading this verse. How is it supposed to apply to its original audience?

27:43 What was the original meaning supposed to be? And I think not because we want to be weird Bible nerds. Oh, I love me. I am a weird Bible nerd and I love it. So I say, wait a minute, that's you. You're not a nerd. Come on, everybody, relax. Not because we want to put other people down or correct other people's theology or tell other people that were wrong, but so that we can navigate and regulate our expectations of God and our relationship with Him and our relationship with others that were doing it according to who He revealed Himself to be in the Bible instead of who we're trying to force Him to be through our interpretation of the Bible. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to ask you a question, but I will make a comment. I think I learned from scholarly men and women who know much more about the Scripture than me to say, hey, listen, if you're going to take a scripture out of context, at least know the context.

28:38 That actually is the best advice. I could not agree. At least know. Yeah, just know what you're doing. Yeah, just know. And I think we certainly tried to do that over the course of at least the last several years as we've grown in our understanding of scripture and original languages, and you are studying for the two of us. I mean, I love to study, but we have different approaches. Can I ask you, how do you determine the context of ancient scripture? That's a loaded question, which I'm not saying this is pertinent to all of our viewers, but since we're on the topic. Oh, man. How do I give a podcast answer to that question? Which is actually the perfect follow-up question to what I just said. It is. Thank you very much. You know what one of my favorite tools is? Tell me. um the message translation of the bible i first of all i think does such a phenomenal job of because it um the way it translated there's some translations that are word for word that really study and i think these are amazing hebrew word translation that took the original greek and really have studied them out and try to think what's the best word to replace that and i think there's a benefit to that. The message translation is more of a thought for thought translation. If you ever notice, like if you're looking up Philippians 2, 4 and you try to find it in the message translation, there's actually not a Philippians 2, 4. There's like a Philippians 2, 1 to 7, and they kind of made it all into a paragraph. I think that's a really simple place to start is, hey, go, what does the message translation say about this? And not just for that specific scripture, but maybe read the whole chapter. And what's the whole purpose? I think the other great tool that the message translation has, which I don't know if this is on the Bible app or not, um, be curious to find out is the introductions to books, the introductions to the books of the Bible that are written in the message translation are very helpful to say, Hey, here's, here was the overall goal of what was trying to be accomplished in this letter to the Philippians. And just starting there, um, or another place, another great resource that I have loved is the Bible

30:49 Project. I read through... Which we hope to partner with. I know, right? Hint, hint. Hint, hint, Bible Project, if you're hearing Church Home wants to partner with you. Help us use your curriculum so we can help people understand context better. But I read through a Bible Plan that had the Bible Project, and they did intro videos to each book of the Bible in the New Testament, and those were extremely helpful too. Extremely helpful. That's the best answer. I really do. I think for anyone out there even new to scripture or considering being into scripture and the story of Jesus. Thank you, Eugene Peterson, a real gift to our generation, truly. Yep. You know, even thinking through that book and that verse in Philippians, you know, God who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. One of the things that has been just fascinating me lately is, and this is such a question I have for God, by the way, our English language is so limited in community verses. Proper English language is I can say, hey, do you want to go to dinner with me tonight? And I could be speaking to eight of us, but the proper way is to say, do you want to go to dinner tonight? Now, somehow in our English language, we've hacked it. And people who live down South will say, yeah, y'all want to go to dinner? People who grew up in North like us, like, hey, you guys want to go to dinner? Because we realize that you doesn't properly convey what you're trying to express. You're trying to express, hey, does everybody who is here, a group of community, all of us want to go to dinner. I'm not asking you on a date. I'm asking a group of people out.

32:18 I wish you would. Oh, I love going to dinner with you. But because the Bible is a proper book and they have used proper language for it, most of the yous that we find in the New Testament are not, hey, God who began a good work in you, Judah Smith, will be faithful to complete it. It was, hey, God who began a good work in y'all, in y'all, in all of you guys will be faithful to complete it in all of you guys. And just that one simple thought of, man, this is actually a community book written to communities of people, not to individuals for my life and God's plan that he has for me and my goals, can really be so transformative in how we apply the scripture to our everyday life. Totally, totally, totally agree. Oh, my heart just gets full. I want to say something that I think, excuse me, I think makes, hopefully makes some sense. But when it comes to...

33:20 That's such a great intro. I'm going to say something that hopefully makes some sense. Yeah, well, I think that is such a weird way of saying it, but it might sound a little bit like it's kind of out of left field. But, you know, when I deal with disappointment with God, there's a practice that I think that I have done that has really helped make sense of the specific individual disappointment I was trying to deal with. And I think you know this about me, but it's actually ended up being something that I do every single day. And what I mean by that is yesterday or two days ago, we were at a birthday party and someone asked me, you know, when's your day off? And I was like, every day.

34:14 You know, like I try not to like plan my days too much. I actually loved that moment so much. Yeah, and then you guys all got on me about how hard I work, which is very nice. But the point is like my days are full of, we were done podcasting here spontaneously. Now I'm going to be on a Zoom call at 1 p.m. with a potentially a new friend who just wants some encouragement around their spiritual journey. But I say that to say one of the most practical things that I have discovered when dealing with disappointment with God is that if you will connect again to the community by way of serving the community. And I think sometimes when we say serve the community, no offense, but the super church evangelicals all over America, you think like. Door greeting. Door greeting. Worship leading.

35:05 Worship. Yeah. Leading a small group. But actually what I mean is reaching out to people in your life and asking them if you can do anything for them. Yeah. And if you can pray for them. Yep. Call them and listen to what they're going through. Pray with them on the phone. I've prayed with, I don't want to brag, but it's, let's see, it's 1120 today. And I have had two different phone calls with two different men where we've prayed for each other.

35:37 And that, I don't mean that to sound strange as much as I mean that to sound, that is one of the primary ways I deal with disappointment with God, is that I commit to say, I might be misinformed on my disappointment. And it might be that what I think I'm not getting or missing might have more to do with the group and community I'm a part of than just about me. And I think what I've discovered is by taking that you all, y'all, and not just you approach, I think I have made sense of things that, I'll give you a very specific example. we've had projects, shows, books, and things that have fallen through. I mean, from a television show to book publishing to projects we had prepared and the deal didn't go through. The show got a pilot made, never went through. And I've often wondered like, well, that's kind of disappointing. And why didn't that happen? And I think I've taken seven years off of publishing a book right now. And it's like, I just feel disappointed with how my last book deal went. But what I've noticed is as I've kind of connected again to my circle of friends, new friends, old friends, it's like, oh, God's doing something with all of us that actually I look back and you know, I do this a lot. I look back and go, thank God that show didn't happen or that thing didn't go through or that production company wasn't stood up. Because over time, I've realized God was also trying to connect me in a community that was right, not only just for Judah and Chelsea, but for everybody involved. And so I just can't, I guess I just can't underscore enough how the community aspect of God's promise, purpose, and plan as it pertains to the New Testament and our understanding of it is so communal more than it's not.

37:42 it's interesting as you were telling those stories i remember those moments of like yeah show not going through you had a book contract that was two book deal that the publisher literally oh look at the basketball again i saw no our neighbors were just walking by that's the truth that's the truth that's actually true yeah um so i know you threw me off sorry i remember those moments yeah and i think the worst thing that you or anybody in those seasons or disappointments can do is to turn and look at ourselves and to say, what did I do wrong? Wow. Don't you think that is so much of human nature though, is like, oh, you didn't get that pilot show. It's like, oh, how could I have done better? What did I, what did I, did I, did I mess up on this? Did I mess up on that? How did I not, how did I, and we make it all about ourselves instead of the gift that time gives that we can look back and that we can make, see God in it, Make it about community.

38:39 Trust God with it. Is there a time to have personal growth and development and do all those things and see how we can grow and improve? Absolutely. Is the time when you're disappointed the time to do that? I don't think so. I think that's a time just to go with God and say, hey, God, I really do believe you're working something in this that I maybe can't see or understand. And I think the practice of giving your life away, bear with me, that sounds so dramatic. By giving your life away, it's not as dramatic as it sounds. It's giving time and energy and effort to others. And today, and I keep referencing today, but one of the calls I was on, I was just encouraging a friend of mine around connecting with Jesus. And what's wild is the more I talked to him about connecting to Jesus, the more desire I got to connect more with Jesus and the more connected to Jesus I felt. So I don't know, my practice as it pertains to my daily life is, I think I grew up in environments where it was like Bible reading, prayer, and those individual devotions are important. But nobody, for some odd reason, in my spiritual development and training and schooling, I was not really taught to give myself to others. And yet, in a way, that has become one of the most sacred practices of worship that I've ever participated in. And it's certainly healed a disappointed heart more times and I can count. It's so interesting. And you're right. You do that by going to your phone, texting, sending prayer things. Probably too much sometimes, but incessantly.

40:33 No, but you also have a lot of people in your phone, in your world that you can do that to way more than I do. The other day I was, I don't know if I was disappointed. I was just bummed about life a little bit. It was Monday. I'm looking ahead of the week. It was a long week. Okay. But I found myself on Instagram, which I don't do a ton and just responding to as many DMS as I'd gotten and encouraging people and praying for people. And it was so fascinating how differently I felt before doing that than after doing that. And just, yeah, that simple way of giving, you know, for a lot of people, maybe words aren't the way that they give their life away, but maybe it is going and cooking a meal for somebody of just thinking of you. You and I are talking about how we use our different gifts, but there's so many different ways that people can do that in their own sphere, in their own giftings to truly give their lives away to others and to see things in community. the thing that I have noticed as we're talking about some of those disappointments that we've faced is just the reality that sometimes it takes some time, which requires some waiting so that we can see how God was using what was our disappointment to actually provide abundant life for us.

41:54 Yeah. Any thoughts as we conclude on what to do in that season of waiting? that season between a disappointment. And I do think there will be some things in life that are just mysteries that we're not going to know until we get to heaven. So maybe the wait is the wait for our whole life. You know, those moments of waiting. You know, waiting is an active concept in scripture. You know, it's not a inactive concept, which means waiting is this posture of looking, anticipating. And so I think waiting, if someone asked me, based on my study in Scripture, what I think waiting is, I think it's more along the lines when Jesus says, consider the lilies, consider the birds.

42:53 I think he goes on to say the you know the lilies in the field the flowers in the field they don't you don't hear them grunting and toiling stressing and striving but they burst with color you don't hear birds stressed and straining you hear them chirping and singing and then Jesus says don't you realize you're you're so much more valuable to me than flowers and birds and so I think I I think waiting is also admiring the work of the great artist of the ages. And I think it's this idea of, well, I don't know. And what's God saying? And I'm frustrated. Well, what do you know? You're alive. The ocean's beautiful. Lakes are gorgeous. The birds are still singing. We got geckos around this neighborhood, you know, seeing the little geckos cruising around. They're cute.

43:48 seeing our little puppy dog, Louie, and we took him to dinner the other night, last night at a Mexican restaurant. I don't think that we're supposed to. He's so little. But it was adorable. Yeah, he's so little and no one knows. Yeah, and he's just sitting at the- I forgot he was there. He put his paws on the table. His little head popped up. He put his paws up. So cute. You know, but that's, you know, waiting isn't just like, well, all right, God, you better show up. Nope, still hasn't shown up, still hasn't shown up. But he has shown up, hasn't he? I mean, you got oxygen in your body. You got blood flowing through. So I think waiting is also an act of admiring, acknowledging, reveling, and really, really deep gratitude that God is so faithful in so many ways. I love that, that waiting is actually an active posture. So we think of waiting as sitting around and doing nothing.

44:43 My dad is still fighting cancer. So he had a medical procedure that he was going to get done to relieve some pain that he's been in, which is, I mean, he was anticipating this for a long time. He gets to the doctor's office. He waited. He literally waited in there for three hours. And finally, the medical day was done. And he just left and didn't get this pain relieving medical procedure that was going to be really helpful for him. But in that mindset of waiting, you're just sitting in a doctor's office doing nothing. There's nothing active about it. It's like everything is based on when they come and get me, that's when the waiting is over. But I love that, that waiting actually can be active and we can be in awe of nature and just take time to, I just picture just taking time to look up. So often when we're in, you know, even the posture of disappointment is just shoulders hunched, head down. You can see it.

45:41 I love toddlers because they actually do what we all want to do. They just don't know how to hide it yet. Right? When a toddler is disappointed, they just like, their whole body just collapses and collapses and hunches. And so, I mean, it's cute when it's not yours, when it's your kids. It's a lot of work. But I do think that can easily become our posture when we're disappointed. But if we could just encourage people in those seasons of disappointment or when you feel that God to, hey, I love what we're saying. Hey, have a conversation with God about it. First of all, talk to him about it. Check your expectations. Hey, were your expectations misinformed by a mistreatment of scripture or some cliche that you heard? You know, do we need to adjust our expectations? And finally, I just think you just wait, but wait with an act of waiting and check our posture and look up and see all the incredible things that God has done. And don't you feel like...

46:39 So beautiful. I really do believe disappointment will not last forever. There are disappointments that we will carry. Disappointment dissipates. It's beautiful. It really does. Some grief will last forever. You will always miss your dad. But it gets less sharp. It gets less sharp. The edges round off. It dissipates. So there is reason to hang your head. And we do believe that God wants that abundant life for us. It just doesn't always look the way we think it's going to look in our Western mindset. You want to close in prayer? Look and feel. Yeah, I do. And I have to go number one so bad. Well, that's a good time to conclude. So I'm glad that we got, yeah. It's like how many beverages can one person have? Right? You know what I mean? It's like you to grow up. Okay, let's pray. Go for it. God, I can imagine right now friends of ours that are listening to this episode in different parts of this country and maybe different parts of the world. And if they're honest, the thing that hurts the most is disappointment with you.

47:43 Wondering why that didn't happen. And so many people find themselves so convinced that you're going to do that thing that they have been hoping for you to do. And yet here we find ourselves honestly admitting you didn't do it and it hurts. And we're not sure why. I'm asking for that person right now who can hear the sound of my voice, maybe as they're driving down the freeway. Meet them. Meet my friend right now. Meet that human being and show that person, your son, your daughter, your child. show them how much you love them and how you are completely, completely in love with them and completely in control. And you hold them in the palm of your hand.

48:49 Thank you for these musings and these moments and these things that we have communicated. Use them in ways that we only dream possible to serve, inspire, and encourage people all over the world. Thank you for that. Amen. Amen.