Jordana.
I was starting to ask you, thank you for sticking with us here for a minute. How would you describe to the average person walking around the United States right now, what is the very latest and what are we witnessing in Iran.
Well, we are witnessing a major wave of protests sweeping across Iran.
They began in Tehran.
Two weeks ago because the currency nosedived there. But they're coming on the backdrop of many, many complaints by Iranians.
Right.
First of all, there's water shortages, there's rolling blackouts again, the economy is terrible, and Iran finds itself in a weakened position geopolitically as well, after.
The war with Iran, the war with Israel.
Right the twelve day war that really took out, we could say Delta a serious blow to Iran's nuclear program, its ballistic missile program. It also thought its proxies, the terror groups, if you will, that instead of pouring millions of dollars into their people and their country, the Iranian regime pours it into Hamas and has Blah, both of
those taking a huge hit. So the people on the streets of Iran are coming with grievances for many years, but in the last two years it kind of has reached a tipping point and we are seeing tens of thousands of Iranians again across the country. But to get some perspective, we can look back at nineteen seventy nine and we can say that we're not in a moment yet where it looks like the regime is about to crumble. Right back in seventy nine, it took a year of protests.
Down the Shaw and in those months, right in the end, millions.
Of Iranians were in the street. Right now, we're not seeing those numbers. Unfortunately. What we are seeing is the regime cracking down brutally as it has in it over the last decade, killing, wantonly shooting and killing protesters in the street.
As you said, the number is now over.
Two thousand by a US group tracking them here in Israel. The intelligence services here say the number is higher, somewhere between four and five thousand, not twenty five hundred. And the big question is what President Trump is going to do. He's offered to provide help, He's encouraged protesters to keep going on the streets, even to quote unquote takeover institutions which seems to hint at regime change.
But what is the president going to do? It is a fateful moment.
There has never been a moment like this, or an American president is willing to intervene and has threatened to intervene, even militarily, to stop the protests, to stop the regime's brutality and support these protesters who want a democratic, secular government right. They don't want a government run by the Ayatola.
You know, go ahead, please go ahead, Jordana.
I was going to say that, you know, but the president is facing It's a really complicated picture, and I think, you know, God bless President Trump and his advisors. They have a really difficult decision to make.
Are they going to do something to try to actually.
Topple the regime, which runs the risk of a regional war, or are they going to do something a little scaled back and hit symbolic sites, but that would keep the regime in power. Would that be selling short the protesters for America. Perhaps President Trump is still interested in getting that nuclear deal, you know, and neutering Iran's nuclear ambitions, and that would be a plus even if the regime doesn't change, you know, And what's the calculation. Will the
Iranian strike US Bass, will they hit Israel? It's a lot and I know obviously the Israelis are watching closely.
Well, you know, I'm curious, Jordana, and I'm trying to dumb this down a little bit, and thank you for doing so. For a lot of us who are here, we follow what's going on in Iran. We knew about the nuclear sites that President Trump blew up not too long ago. But you know, depending on who you believe, you know. Sociologist Charles Kurzman says he thinks that there were two to three thousand killed during the Revolution of nineteen seventy nine. Historian Stephen Tucker has said roughly that's
about right. A lot of people think there was a lot of propaganda with the current Islamic government saying as many as sixty thousand were killed. But the bottom line is is let's say you split, you know, say it's seven or eight thousand, like you said, The bottom line is is we are seeing mass killings. Are these just from what you're able to gather from people on the ground. Are these people that are protesting that are getting killed?
Are they people who are violently protesting. Are they people who are just anti regime and they're pulling them off the streets and executing them. And now they're talking about public hangings there, that's right.
Iran is set to hang a twenty six year old that they detained on Thursday night. They put him in a kangaroo court, convicted him of offenses against God. It sounds almost comical if it weren't so tragically true. And he did not have any lawyer, he could not appeal his decision, and he is set to be hung today publicly in Iran for protests thing against the regime. The people that are being killed are coming from all kinds
of different socioeconomic classes in Iran. It's students, it's the middle class, it's the older Iranians that have lost faith in the leadership of the Ayatola. It's intellectuals, it's artists who are often involved in this. And you know, and it's women. It's women who are among the most oppressed in Iran.
Right.
There are all kinds of Sharia laws against you know, what they can uh, Iranian laws against what they can wear and not wear and covering their hair, not covering their hair.
Uh So this is uh, you know these are this is a you know.
We should really give credit to the Iranians who are going into the streets and risking their lives, hoping, praying that they're demonstrations can really bring a change to this regime. And I think it's only possible, really, uh, if there is some kind of help from the outside. Uh. And over time, the regime is not according to the Israelis, the regime is not in a moment today where it
can be bombed out of existence, right. It needs to be weakened over time until it falls over, much like you know, much like the Syrian dictator, right who unfortunately in that case it took years.
But I think Iran is a different.
Case, and getting rid of the Iranian regime would change the entire region in the Middle East for the better, right, I mean.
The world, not just the entire world, right right.
Right, So this is you know, this is a regime that you know, it's not it's not yet on its last legs. But this is another important moment that could be wisely used to continue to weaken the regime. And I think the president has obviously a lot of options on the table, right he can, he can impose more economic sanctions. He can think about targeted assassinations that would
weaken the regime. He can think about cyber attacks, right right, he can, and he can think about limited military strikes or if if you know, if the assessment is that, you know, the regime would really fall in a couple of weeks, then you know, if that's the assessment, which it's not, that's not the assessment here in Israel, maybe he would carry out, you know, much wider scale attacks.
You know, there's still you know.
Iron still poses a threat to the United States, going to Europe and to the region.
Yep, yep, Jordana.
I can't thank you enough for your time and your expertise, and godspeed over there in Jerusalem. We certainly appreciate you taking the time to join us here today in Cincinnati. Okay, we'll talk sin Oka A twenty six seven hundred wlw ah. Yes, don't stop believing. We call it plain glass, stained glass.
We do it every Wednesday at this time. With the head pastor of the Horizon Community Church there in Newtown, right along the banks of the Little Miami River, he came up with the name of this four week series. We talked a lot about last week New Year's resolutions. A lot of us make them, and often times it's about our health, especially our physical health, getting in better shape.
But the series is called The.
Me I Want to be, The Me I want to be, So Chad to recap in case people missed part one, I'm not too busy. It's just not a priority. Recap that forrest before we move on to topic number two, if you would please.
Sure, Yeah, thanks, shotting me again. When you say to yourself, I'm too busy, it kind of gives you the illusion that you're a victim of your own life. If you say I'm not too busy, it's just not a priority. It's both convicting. Oh my goodness, I'm not doing this because I'm not prioritizing it. On the other hand, it's very freeing. That's right, I'm not doing that right now
because it's a lesser priority. I reference the idea is a guy named Nehemiah who helped rebuild the walls in the city in Jerusalem, and when he did that, there's a whole bunch ofield of trying to distract him. He sends a message to them and says, hey, guys, I'm doing a great work. I don't have time, don't have time to come down and talk to you. In other words, you're not a priority. It's okay that there's certain distractions in life, certain things in certain seasons of life you
can't do. But when you say it's not that I'm too busy, it's not a priority, it really helps crystallize you and keep you from making the excuses we all make to okay. The second thing we talked about last week is just learning how to just love your life the way it is and not wait for some arbitrary future deadline to begin trying to enjoy what you have around you.
Absolutely, and that could come in just a roof over your head, It could come in your spouse, it could come in your children. The things are doing well as opposed to focusing on what they're not doing well. Today we're going to talk about make a to be list rather than a to do list.
Yes, and I think this is something I think the classic question to be or not to be? That is the question. I think that really is. The question is have you really thought about yourself? Who am I becoming? Am I to do list should flow out of my to b lists? And I can look at good circumstances and bad circumstances and say, are these help shaping me and who I want to be? When I was in my twenties, I've been married a couple of years, and I just had we had my first child on the way,
and I really was challenged to do this. I sat down and began to think about, who are the people in my life that I want to be like? And I don't know who you'd come to mind, but like one of mine was my grandfather, And I thought about certain character qualities he had and I wrote those down. And I thought many things about my father that were really aspiring to me. Ways he parented, the way he connected,
the way he controlled his temper. And I just took a page and I began to write down all the character qualities I wanted to be And I wanted god, I wanted a life I wanted to intentionally partner with to become. And so I wrote all those pieces down. And so I'd encourage anyone who wants to create a tab list, find a hero. Of course, we're all flawed.
I'm plenty of flawed. All the people I mentioned are flawed, But find those character qualities and all the different heroes in your life begin to say, what would it look like if I could become that version of myself. It's almost like finding a hero or finding a model for yourself. I had a buddy of mine became one of my heroes in my industry, and he said he is in his sixties and the time he said Chad his last name Sutter. He said, the world has yet to see
a Sutter who's actually happy. In the seventies, he talked about all his relatives get grumpier and grumpier, the chronologically aged, and he really wanted to be a person filled with joy and other centeredness. And if you remember the old commercial about the tombstone pizza, you know, what do you want on your old tombstone? It's more than though on
my tombstone. I accomplish these things. When you're sitting at your deathbed and people are around you who know you, what do you want them to see about who you became over your seventy eighty ninety years. I became a person of love. I became a person of peace. I became a person of real character. I was kind, I was and that's what you hear at funerals. I do
lots of funerals. You get to hear about people's character qualities far more than you actually hear about the things they accomplished and what really lasts that people really remember about you.
So, you know what's interesting say that.
It's really interesting you say that because about funerals, and you know you do so many of them. And I've been to a couple where you've handled at Horizon Church and it really is amazing. I mean, you don't sit up there and when your kids get up there, or your grandparents or your grandkids get up there, they're not
talking about the building that somebody named after you. Not that there's anything wrong with having a building named after you if you were committed to something, or you gave money to something a university, of high school, whatever, animal shelter or anything. Not wrong with any of those things. But it really is what people want to hear. It is finding a hero.
When you're sitting at a funeral of boy.
My granddad used to do this, and I'm thinking to myself, Gosh, when I a granddad, I want them saying the same thing about me.
Yeah.
Yeah, And even if you did get a building named after it's because you were generous, it's because you were other centered, it's because you're trying to impact other people. Later, it's still that to do or that accomplishment still trace back it to it to be there's a on the stained glass side. There's a verse in the Bible say this is the will of God. It was like, what's God's will for my life? This is God's will for your life, that you would be conformed into the image
of his son. So, whether you're a Jesus person or not, if you've ever read the biography of Jesus, Matthew Mark Luther, John, the guy is just a stunny example of a life best lived. I mean, I think he's got himself. But even if you don't, he gets angry at the right times, He gets angry at the right people. He is so in control under duress, he has peace. So find a hero.
And it's almost like if you've ever been on like a carnival cruise line, there's always that day that they bring out the ice sculptor and they've got this big block of eyes that start chiseling away at it. To be conformed in the image of something is to say, hey, life's chiseling away with me right now, or I feel like God's chiseling await with me right now. But it's not meaningless pain. I'm being chiseled into something. And you're watching that sculpture and you're like, what in the world
is going to become? Chop chop chop, chop, chop chop chop. After about thirty minutes, you're like, oh, my goodness, it's a beautiful swan, it's an angel, it's whatever it is. You realize all that pain, all that challenge was purposeful in the same way you look at your own life and say, God, I'm going through some times I don't
like right now. There's some hard times to some chiseling times, but I want to partner with life, partner with you so that I'll be chiseled into somebody who is other centered. And what I did to make mine more memorable for me is I took my one of my twenties. I did my last name. That got too long, so I did my first name. Take those character qualities and try and shorten to something you can remember, like my name Chad. I kind of took that and said, I want that
to represent number one connections. The main thing I'm trying to be about is connecting to my wife, connecting my kids, connecting with people who are important to me, and people I work with and work for. Age humble, humility is a huge critical juncture. I just see pride destroys mayor is it destroys people's ability to learn and grow? So humility was one of my character pualities. A for chat is authentic. I want to be the real mean matter whether you see me on stage or see me off stage.
And my kids get to know that I admit when I do stuff wrong. So I want to be authentic and indeed dependable. I just see so many people who say things that don't follow through. So those were like my four character qualities reduced into four words. And then I had a longer one for hope and which includes things like initiate for other centeredness for oh, the needs of others, and I begin to write down the needs
of my spouse specifically as right to target. It just became a really helpful way to check in and verify this is what I'm trying to accomplish, and this is what I'm hoping the life and God's going to do in my life and It really has become a memorable way for me to partner with the challenges and then assign my to do list from.
That to be list.
When you make up this list a to B list rather than a to do list oftentimes. And I was reading about this just recently in the last day or two, and the quote was from this big, huge hedge fun guy who opened all these charter schools in New York City, eighty of them I think he opened. And he was asked, you know the meaning of life? And he says, to sacrifice for the betterment of others. Now, I mean, that's a beautiful way of looking at life, right, to make
your personal sacrifices for the betterment of others. But that took action on his part, and he talked a lot about that, and how yeah, it's one thing to write it down, it's another thing to go do it. Give everybody out there, give me something that Okay, here's a word, you know, you just used them off the letters in your name. Give you an example of something where Okay, I'm gonna make this to be listed And now what's something I could go do to put that in practice?
And I'm talking of maybe outside of okay, being nicer or more connected to my wife.
Right, I'll give you one. Reject passivity. There's a tendency in all of us, except for work maybe to reject passivity and the things that really matter and to delay it. And so how can I be intentional in initiating the things I want to be true? So it's like two years went by and I have not initiated in accomplishing my goal. I've not initiated in really taking seriously that I want to lose weight I want to really have
I've accepted passivity. When it comes to I get home, I completely check my brand to the door and don't think that I need to engage with the people around me. So that would be one. I want to reject passivity. So what's the opposite? I want to initiate and then really right down, what does a person who initiates in your current life look like?
What does it look like?
You want to have a better connection with your mom and dad, for example, So I know, I like, for years my mom and dad and I had a very close relationship, but we just weren't in a family that says I love you very often. My grandpa never said it, so I decided in my thirties, I'm going to stop that. I know I love my mom and dad. I they love me, we just don't say it. It's kind of weird, really,
so I just decided, and it was strangely awkward at first. Sure, it was thirty years ago where I decided I'm going to end the phone call by saying, Mom, I love you, And it was so weird that that so was even at the time was awkward because it changed then Mom starts saying and Dad starts saying. Now, I always knew it. It wasn't lacking, sure, but I had to take the initiative, and I thought, that's what I'm gonna do. We mentioned my brother. In the ten years we didn't talk Western
in law. Just recently I re engaged with It'd be easy to say, you know, it's kind of better off. Let by gods be bygones. I can't control how they're going to react, but I'm going to initiate. Another thing I'd say, is that date the women in your life. Yeah, when your mom's in town, if she's out town, they say Mom, while we go out to dinner, to go she and I. Your mom will probably be amazed by that. If you got a daughter. I started dating my daughter
when she was two, maybe even one. You know, we're gonna go on our little Chick fil A data and we go get chicken minies and Sunday morning, or we go get nice can call him evening. But the women in your life initiates and we all do that when we're first dating. You know we're going to woo them all and then we kind of get into passivity. What does it look like to date your daughter, date your wife, date your mom? What does it look like to really be intentional? So that'd be one. Another one for me
is fun. I know it's not as high for other people, but I have lots of fun all the time, and I initiate fun. When's the next trip we're going to take, when's the next family night we're going to go out on, what's the next movie night? So for me, I wanted to be someone who initiated environments where friends laugh together, where family can talk. Sometimes we're initiating at a family gathering. We don't want to just say, hey, it's your birthday. We might go around the room and have everyone say
something about the person's birthday. We care about It's just ways of being intentional and turning. Like I talked last week about cronos your regular time at a krinos, this was an opportunity to really say something and do something and bless somebody. So there's a couple examples.
That's great stuff. A tease for next week, make a hire r key of needs.
Yes, hierarchy of needs is understanding that there's always going to be a way in which ten things want your attention. So what are the things going to prioritize over the other ones? And what's the most important thing I'm going to do versus what's the most urgent thing I'm going
to do? And how do I make sure the tyranny of the urgent doesn't step on top of the character qualities and the priorities that I want to shape me And really, even in the job, this is the most important, even though these are the ten phone calls that just came in. How do I prioritize not the tyranny of the urgent, but the hierarchy of what's really true?
Love it the me I want to be with. Pastor Chad Hovan, thank you for your time, sir.
Love this stuff and everybody's looking forward to the next couple of weeks as we continue this series.
So hope you have a great rest of your day.
You too appreciate it.
Alrighty, let's check the traffic. It's been absolutely I don't know if chaos. Would you use that word, chuck, chaos?
I think we're just shy of it.
Okay, Okay, Yeah, Unfortunately, yep, problem that you see Triumphing Center. You see Health Women's Sports Medicine program provides specialized care for female athletes at all levels. Schedule and appointment online at UCHealth dot com. Northbound seventy five earlier accidents are clear, still running close to an extra twenty five minutes between Turfway and Town southbound seventy five. They cleared the accident below Monroe above one twenty nine. Traffic still heavy through Lachland.
Still working with an accident on the eastbound two seventy five that's near forty two in Shearonville. And there's a wreck on Montana above Westwood. Northern southbound traffic blocked off at Anaconda. Chuck Ingram News Radio seven hundred wlw WCPO nine first warny four cast.
Not too bad out there right now, Maybe it's raining where you are, a light rain and the temperatures not bad. We're still on the plus side of forty, but that will change as a cold front and cold air settles in as a day goes on. By the time you drive home from work and to be around thirty two degrees tonight xdreamely cold. For the next number of days.
We will be in the teens tonight in the wind chill is a high Tomorrow in the teens and then in the single digits wind chill tomorrow night, Friday and Saturday. We might get some snow, Jennifer saying, probably not an inch or right at an inch. The two days combined are high. On Friday will be twenty seven, but again with the wind chill is going to feel a lot colder than that. And then on Saturday a little warmer. It'll be thirty five, but will feel like it's in
the twenties. So bundle up. Take care of your animals and look if you need to get one. They could use a second chance. Get to your local animal shelter, bring home a dog or a cat. You'll be healthier, you'll be happier, you'll have more love in your house. Saloni around the corner. This is the Nation station seven hundred WLW Cincinnati