Are you trying to numb your mind? There's a better solution...

You've switched some things up. I have sitting on this side now. Yeah, I'm I still recognize you. It's mostly by your voice, though I'm not used to seeing this side of you. Yeah, I I because of the second camera. I'm just trying to make adjustments. You asked me earlier why I make adjustments, and I said, usually it's because of a problem. Most of the things in my life are innovated from problems. You're a visionary. There's Yeah, You're

you're always getting better, which is cool. Good, I'll take that. I'll take that as a compliment. Yeah, and you are the reason I love you as a guest is because first of all, you're just just a good human being, just a good dude. And if I had something going on in my life a question, I'm so glad that I have you in my life to bounce that off of. If I said, hey, Chat, I got to talk about something.

Could we meet for coffee, You'd be like house three o'clock. Absolutely, And I think that that's that's such a benefit to have that kind of person on this podcast where we can go through these questions and walk through it as as if we're living it with them. That's really what we're doing. And if anyone wants to email, you could email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. That's where I'm

getting these questions from. And you're you've been on here so much that I actually have a lot of questions that are for you, okay, that are for chat specifically that that's in the subject line. And I'm gonna I'm trying to find I was gonna find like an easy one to get into. Probably this one first question is, Hey, this is John from Illinois. Shout out to Illinois granger What is your favorite thing to hunt? Yeah? M hm, we've talked about we have the very first Yeah, episode

I was a part of. We talked about the difference between hunting and shopping, like in Texas we kind of shopped for meat around a Yeah, you steer the line like heater air conditioner in the in the summertime. And I've had people that they were less than excited about the way that I described hunting in Texas. They were like, whatever, man, and that they're telling me that it's because I take the easy route and I'm a rifle hunter and I need to bow hunt or I need to whatever else.

But I mean, I don't totally disagree with them. Chad is a Montana guy. Yeah, Montana hunting is very different than Texas hunting, and there it's all hunting. So I understand the joke about shopping, and I feel that, and I feel the need to to make a hunt difficult so that you could feel like you're you're earning it and your reflection of your ancestors and you're it's a it's a huge challenge. I understand that. But sometimes you

just want to get a dough right. You just want to feel the freezer exactly, and and so I do appreciate that. I think it's interesting here you can your your your limit or whatever, you can get five deer. And where I've lived before and hunted in Colorado on Montana, it's it's you get one, you pay, and you get one because of size difference. But the question is what's our favorite? M h, Yeah, what's our favorite? Which is

in Texas we need to get white tail off. Like the reason there's five is because we need to manage herd. Because because as humans, we've also managed to get rid of all the predators. You know, there used to be wolves in Texas. Did you know that? Wild wolves? If you think about I always put in perspective of that movie Old Yeller. Did you ever see that movie? Ye? Remember they're fighting. There's a wolf in the movie. That's that's fighting Old Yeller. TRAVI us a wolf, get your gun.

And that was that took place like in the Texas hill country. So there used to be wolves in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana. And those wolves were either killed by local farmers and ranchers and pioneer people, or they were bred out by coyotes. Coyotes could breed with a wolf, and the more that the codies do that, obviously it they just become coyotes and and so coyotes aren't a predator of deer or

they are. They are, but they'll they'll take they'll take down a fawn, okay, and they'll actually take a lot of fawns. But we also manage those. The State of Texas will manage codies free of charge to ranchers just to help with cattle and goats and sheep and chickens. So the State of Texas will manage that for you. So we also get rid of coyotes, but they're not

like a wolf. A wolf take down a dough to a wolf take down a buck, and they used to, but because we've limited that those predators, Texas needs hunters to manage the white tail herd because if you don't manage it, they'll just there's not enough food to go around. Yeah, this is not an answer to his question at all, I know, but it's very enlightening and I think you're you're drying a good point that there are different reasons why we would hunt and maybe have different favorites. So

there's a what's your favorite thing to hunt and eat? Right, there's the what do you enjoy the flavor of or like to cook? But then I think there's the what's kind of on your bucket list? Right, would you love to say that you've you've done that kind of hunt? And then there may be just a man when it comes down to it, I love to, okay, hunt this.

So it seems like there's multiple favorites, right, And I can think there's one animal that fills two of those categories for me, and then there's another one that's just that bucket list like that would be cool an epex predator go first. Okay. So the thing that I have enjoyed hunting the most, and I also enjoy the meat

the most of is the rocky mountain elk. I think that is just the process of stalking the animal, finding it, you know, chasing it, getting after it, spending hours climbing mountains, trapsing through the forest. It is a it's a powerful moment when you have downed a bowl elk and it's there before you and it's it's just majestic. It's huge, it's beautiful, and its meat is so good and tasty. But my like, what would I love to hunt someday? It'd be a grizzly bear. Yeah, because I think there's

this element of you're going to die. You could, it could in me right. It's not just a one way street here, it's two ways. And yeah, that are a polar bear, same thing. Those things hunt you. Yeah, okay, awesome. I've been elkhunting, but I've never gotten an elk. It keep going and we need to get you up to Montana or Colorado. Will trapes around for a few days. Yeah, we'll get you. I would love to. I have. I've

gone mule deer hunting. I have gotten a mule deer, actually got a mule deer in Mexico, which was a But I haven't. I just don't have a lot of big game experience grown up white tail hunting. I have a lot of great whitetail stories. And that's probably my answer to what I enjoy hunting and eating because I've done it so much. And do you both rifle and bow hunts and I have. I enjoy bird hunting. I enjoy dove hunting. It's a completely different deal, you know.

I love to go out with Lincoln, my son, and he can easily go and he's been deer hunting with me too. But there's a process of dove hunting where we could literally go out in the front yard, you know, in September thirtieth in Texas and get a dove and then you can go right back to the grill and put that dove breast on the grill within twenty minutes of shooting it, which is really cool. I like to do it with white tail too. I like to get the backstrap and eat a piece of it the same day.

There's something special about that that is awesome bucket list for me. I would say doll sheep in Alaska or the Northwest Territory of Canada that I've had some friends do that, and it's like a nine day deal. You're probably not gonna get one. You're gonna you're gonna walk for fifty miles. You're gonna be more tired than you've ever been. Are they like up in eigh elevation or

are they okay? Yeah, So you'll see one and you'll you'll see And first of all, just to get a legal illegal ram, that's hard in itself, just to find one, and then when you do, you will you could hunt it. You could stock it for three or four days and you're going mountaintop to mountaintop just watching it and You're like, well, the sun's going down, we need a camp here. He's probably gonna be in that same ridge when we wake up.

Wake up there he is. So you move down the valley and you come back up, and then he's he's moved on to the next hill. And then and you realize, well, our airplane pick up, which is how they get you, is in two days. We have to start heading back to the drop site. We're gonna let this one go. But it's crazy. I mean the stress that the toll it takes on your body. You're completely dependent on the weather. If it's foggy, you can't do anything but stay right there.

If it's raining, you're right there. I'm in When do I mean, how many can go on this? Okay, I'll look into it. I'm serious, talk about totally do that, talk about getting close to God? I mean, you are out in the middle of absolute nowhere. If this results in an actual hunt, this is the best question we've ever received. That's true. Thank you. John. His name, by the way, his emails John the Angler. Yeah, he's a fisherman, probably a fly fisherman. Yeah yeah, let me find one

of these that has Chad. Here's one right here, two granger and Pastor Chad. Hey, my name is Aaron. My wife goes to church every Sunday, but I don't. I used to go to church by myself when I was younger, but I stopped because I felt like I was consistently being judged by my peers. I want to start going with my wife, but I still have that fear. I don't know much about the word, and I want to be a follower of Christ, but I don't know where

to begin. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank y'all so much, Love you guys. So, Aaron, do you say he didn't say where he's from. It's a good question, though, and I want to address first that he used the word fear.

It's interesting and I would say as a pastor, Aaron, as much as you might be intimidated or have that fear of going back, or or not knowing enough or feeling like you should know more, as a pastor, that does not exist in our heart and when we if I were to meet you on a Sunday morning, I would be so floored and excited that you overcame the fear to be there because of what that means for you.

And for your eternal security, that you're taking a step towards the Lord, and that is significant, and that is a win in and of itself. And I'll also confess Aaron that as a pastor, there are often times where if I'm sitting in the congregation and somebody else's preaching or teaching and they reference a verse or a book of the Bible, I sometimes have to look in the Table of Contents to find it, in the sense that I don't automatically know exactly what page in number. But

it's okay to not know. It's okay to be in a place of still learning, and to just embrace that and own that there's still so much to learn when it comes to the scriptures, what they say, what they mean, where to find things, and so don't allow that fear. Just know that you're not alone in it. I think the enemy wins when he gets us to think we're somehow unique and weird in our own issues and that no one else can relate or has those issues. But

that is absolute, that's a lie. Yeah. So I have a friend that I try to get to go to church with me all the time, always ask him, and he had an interesting thing to say about that. He said, I can't go to church right now because until I know more about the Bible, I feel like it's me walking into the movie theater halfway through the movie. I'm just going to go to church on a given Sunday and the preachers talking about something and I don't know

the backstory at all. What do you say to that? Well, I mean, that's the place where we learn the backstory. Like, that's the exact place you ought to go. It's kind of like I talk to people because in another life I am a a coach CrossFit yep. And I'll have people say I really want to try CrossFit, but I need to get in shape first. I don't feel like it can coming point and do CrossFit because I'm just

not physically there. And I'm trying to convince them. No, if there is, there is nothing better than CrossFit to help you begin to experience fitness and to get in shape. That's what it's designed to do. It's not there for the people that are already fit to then go and hang out and have fun. No, it's designed to develop

fitness for people that are not fit. That's a great analogy. So, and you could you could attest to this that on Sunday, Aaron Sunday mornings, churches will build their service with you in mind. They're going to build their service knowing that a certain percentage probably pretty big, what thirty forty fift they know will go on a Sunday as a guest or as a friend or the mother in law joins

because they were asked to. And pastors know that, they know that on Sunday mornings they're going to have to They're going to have to build their sermon with a component of this is a lot of people's first time to hear this first time or it may be the only time in the week that these folks will experience the Bible. And so we understand that this is an important opportunity to get people comfortable with the Word, exposed to the scriptures, learning the Bible, how to approach the

Bible on their own, like it's a unique spot. The majority of people that are coming that may be the only time they experience it. So, yes, we do have that in mind. And so like I said, that's the place you should go in order to gain a greater understanding and love of comfort. Yeah, once you get that, then they have small groups and Bible studies during the week that then dig deeper and it allows you to

get to the next level. But Sundays will always take you back at some point to the basics in the message. At least it's usually built like that. So and there's a podcast that you can listen to, the Take and Read podcast. Yes, when does that come out? It should If it's not already ready, it will be ready in the next week from when this podcast. When you hear my voice right now, okay, good, good, good like okay, then we'll reiterate that again. Okay. So what do you

think Aaron means by judged by others? He says, I stopped going because I constantly felt like I was being judged by my peers. What do you think he means Christians judging or non believers, non church goers judging him? A good question. I took it to mean that other Christians, other peers within the church were judging him for lifestyleka, something like that, and he just he felt like it was a place of judgment. Could go either way. It could be other people as friends that aren't church goers,

saying why do you go to church? I don't know that's a good point, man. I would just lean in, Aaron, I would lean into what Chad said about this is the same scenario as you saying I really want to get in shape, but I don't really want to go to the gym because I'm not in shape, and everyone is saying no, the gym is how you get in Jed's where you go. That's where you go. That's and just like the gym, when you go to the gym, you're surrounding yourself with other people that have like minded goals.

They all want The people at church are going to want to know more about the Word and to be stronger followers of Christ. And so you're going to surround yourself, just like you would do at the gym, with people that are have the same goal in mind. And just like the gym, you're going to have those guys that are there because they want to show how strong they are totally and they're flexing down and they're they're simply there because they want to display, you know, all of

their their macho stuff. And I think you're going to find that obviously in the church. You're going to find people that really want you to know how much they know and and just just let them just roll with it. So he says, I don't even know where to begin. Well, you find a church. Yeah, where's your wife going? He says, his wife goes. My wife go to church every Sunday, perfect, Yeah, the right past. So hey, babe, what time are you going? Is it ten? What time do you leave? I'm in,

I'm in. Hey does this look okay? All right, let's roll and then your level of participation is could be zero. Yeah, just sit sit in the seat. One of our pastors at celebration. Daniel, his story is crazy, his testimony is crazy. He came from Lansing, Michigan, and he came from a non believing family, and his mother was radically transformed, radically reborn and started going to church, and his dad, who was a drug dealer, thought that she was going to

meet another man. So he would follow her and go and hide in the bathroom and wait just to catch her in the act, because she had to be going to this church thing, because there had to be another man she was cheating on him with. So he was going and hiding in the bathroom and sometimes doing drugs in the bathroom, and one day after so many times

the Gospel penetrated him. It just radically transformed him, and he walks out of the bathroom tears streaming on his face, walked up to the altar, fell down in front of the pastor and said, I'm in. He then gave his life to Christ and he started going to church, and then he became a pastor. And then he radically transformed his family and turned himself into the police and said, well this is before he became a pastor. Turned himself into the police and said this is what I do.

And they said, we'll let you off if you rat out all of your drugular buddies, and he said, I can't do that because they'll kill my whole family. So instead he opted to go to each of them and ministered to them the Gospel. So he went to each of the drug dealers and ministered and some of them believed that's so cool and transformed. And then that then led to his young kids growing up in the Word.

And then now Daniels the pastor himself. That's awesome. That's the kind of stories that you that are undeniable, Aaron. So just show up, no expectations, just show up with your wife. Yeah, yeah, let's kid, let's take a break. We'll be right back. Podcast is brought to you today by Athletic Greens. I love me some Athletic Greens. I've been taking this stuff for man probably over a year now, since I first started reading it on this podcast. They

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You're gonna love it. Back to the podcast, Aaron, we're just talking about you, the guy that emailed last, and we're talking about what it would mean to your wife for you to go with her to church. And I'll tell you this too, that statistics will say that if you don't go, your kids won't go either. Yeah I can't. Yeah, it's about the father. Statistics will show them a father that does not go to church, the kids will not go,

regardless of the mother. Whatever that means. Yep. So Chad has a podcast out that's it's not out now, but it's out. By the time you hear this podcast, it should be ready to take and read. Take and read podcasts spelled out yep. And it's it's it's the next level if you if you want to get deeper into the word, it's the next level from this podcast to go to and and just break down the Bible itself.

Inspired by Yeah, my time getting to be here with Granger and and inspired by him as he and I had tacos and and explored what what could it look like for people that wanted to go a little bit deeper into some of these topics, specifically around the Bible. So yeah, we got after it. And uh, if you tune in, my first guest is a really good guy, one of my favorite guests, and yeah, you'll probably really appreciate him if you tune in. All right, I think

that might be me. It is. This is an interesting question. I don't think I've seen anything like this. This is If you have a question, email Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. Subject line of this one is homesick says hey granger thanks for your podcast. I've been listening for a while and I really like your advice. So I have a question of my own for you. I'm twenty

two years old. Recently moved to another state to do a year and a half of voluntary service work and I felt like this is what God wanted me to do. But the last few weeks I felt really overwhelming with this new job and everything, and I miss home and my family a lot. I work with one other guide and we do a lot of driving, and it could be very lonely. So my question is how much is homesickness? Okay? And how much should I just not let myself think

about it? And how can I overcome homesickness and believe in myself that I am enough on my own. Thanks in advance, Andrew. And it's interesting because you you ended it almost like you thought I was going to tell you that you're enough on your own, like anticipating that I would say something like that. But man, homesickness is a real thing and I feel it. I feel it because I travel for my work. And the first thing

that comes to my mind, Andrew, is just balance. You have to be able to balance your home life with your work life. And some people don't have that kind of luxury, like a deployment soldier in the Armies out

for sixteen months on deployment doesn't have that choice. If you do have a choice, then I would I would lean into that balance as hard as you can and really really dial in your time that you're present when you are home as opposed to going home, and that's the time you get to just lay on the couch and look at your phone, but instead just really really be as present as you can. I know you're twenty two. I don't think you're married, which is good that makes

it worse. Homesickness gets a lot worse when you have kids. Have you ever felt homesick? Yeah? So in my position at the church, I get to lead out efforts and missions, and so when we think about global or international missions, I'll go and a trip will be ten fifteen days absence,

so about a half of a month. And so I've definitely experienced it, and I think there are some things that I've learned about that experience and just being in seasons of life that feel like you're in a particular place or of time where you can't wait to get past it, but it's you're in this and this is where you are, this is where God has you. And yeah,

so I think there's some things to think about. Like I always identify the duration of the trip or the season, and if I know there's there's a time stop, like I know that it's gonna end at some point, that's different than if I don't know when it's gonna end totally. And it sounds like he does. He has a dedicated time. He said a year and a half. He's doing this volunteer service, he's working, he's doing this particular thing, and there's an end date. So there's something to that that

I think is helpful. And the next question we would naturally ask is Okay, is it worth it? Yep? I don't know if he's required to be on this thing, but you're asking yourself is this worth it? And if it is, then what do I hope to get out of this? Like what's the value? What's the worth of this? And how might I get the most out of this experience? So I mean, like so many of the questions that you get, it's like I have more questions for this individual, like, Okay,

what is this? Why did you decide to do it? In your decision to do it, have you started to second guess that decision what you thought it was going to be. Is there more that this could do in your life than you anticipated? Are there ways in which pining for home right now in this homesickness is diminishing the value of what you could get out of this time? And so I just have more questions than I have answers, I think. So we'll just treat it like this is just he's out on work and he has to do

it and he's stuck to it. So Andrew, I'll walk through a couple of things that I do in my life when I experience homesickness. One thing is FaceTime. FaceTime is amazing. FaceTime is something that we didn't have six, seven, eight, ten years ago where you could save your mom. So you're thinking about your mom. I'm just throwing that out there. I say, hey, Mom, can I FaceTime you at ten am every day for a couple of minutes? That would

make me feel good? And this buddy that you're driving with tell him that, say, manam I know it sounds weird, but I get a little homesick and he might look at you and go me too. He'd be weird if you didn't. If you guys are on the same mission together something. Here's a couple other things that important to me. Maintaining a schedule is important. A routine is important even

when you're gone. Maintaining even if it's broken. Just knowing your schedule, knowing that I'm gonna eat at this time, I'm gonna go to sleep at this time, I wake up at this time, We're gonna drive this many miles today. The unknown makes homesickness worse, and so it's like I don't know how much farther we're gonna drive. I don't know how much sleep I'm gonna get tonight. I don't know if I'm gonna where I'm gonna eat lunch. Not

knowing those things adds to the anxiety of it. So then along the same lines, if you could add a gem stop or some kind of exercise into your daily routine, it will drastically help you. It man, it helps me. I work out every morning on the road. We either find a gym, or we'll work out outside, or we'll do some kind of cardio outside. But some kind of physical activity every morning, every single morning. I'll do that.

And if I'm feeling a little grumpy or a little homesick, forty five minutes of getting the blood flowing and I'll feel great. I feel great. And then along the same those same lines, trying to eat healthy because you have a tendency to get homesick or depressed and eat junk because it's convenient. Maybe it's comfort comfort, Yeah, gas stations, been on the road, you're stopping. I'm just gonna grab these Doritos in a Snickers bar and a coke. I just don't feel like I don't feel like eat anything

other than this. It's and it's just a never ending cycle because then you feel worse and you crash because of that sugar. It and it just perpetuates the problem. So FaceTime your mama at a certain time. That helps instead of just sporadically, just say hey tomorrow at ten am, knowing your schedule of your day when you go to bed, know your schedule tomorrow. What do I have tomorrow? Okay, tomorrow, we drive three hundred miles. I have two stops. I'm gonna eat in this town and I already looked it

up and there's a diner I'm gonna eat there. We'renna do that twelve thirty. Then I'm gonna have dinner. I'm gonna try to do as healthy as I can, and it's gonna be in this town. And then I'm gonna be in bed by ten and then lights out at ten thirty. Cool. And then there's there's a there's a comfort that comes with that, like I know what I'm doing tomorrow and just stick to those kind of things. And then I think, to Chad's point, count down the days.

I've got seven more days, six more days. And then you know, I keep a weather app on my phone my iPhone. I'll keep the weather in all the cities that we're going to, and every time we get to a city, I delete it off the weather app. So that's kind of a way to count down. I could scroll through the city the checklist. So Andrew, what your feelings real? I'm gonna I think you might have wanted me to say, get over it, stop thinking about it. You're fine on your own. I'm not gonna say that.

I'm gonna say it's a real thing because as humans were built for community. We're built for family and to be together and to be on a routine. We're not built to separate and go. We can and we're good at it, and we should. You need to to grow in life, but you need to understand it when you don't feel comfortable, why and where that's coming from? Yeah, buddy, good question, man, I was good. Where should we go now? What about budgeting? How about budgeting? That's all great? Another

off the wall. It says, Hey, Granger and guest. My name is Kaylee. I'm twenty six years old from Magnolia, Texas. I'm a Texas A and M class of twenty seventeen. And was she supposed to say something after that. Okay, yeah, I knew you guys haveniced this. I've got my parents hoked on the Smiths and so now we watch together. Thank you, Kayley. That's awesome. She also listened to the podcast every Monday morning at her desk while she's prepping

for the week. My question is about budgeting. I moved back in with my parents in May to save up for a house. I've been doing pretty well saving so far, but I feel like I could really maximize my savings by creating a solid budget. Do you and your guest have any strategies for budgeting programs to use or apps?

Thanks so much, Kaylee. Yes, what you got Within the first couple months of marriage, we did the whole financial piece thing and we saw transform just our peace of mind as well as the actual amount of money we were able to save. To have a plan for the money before it arrived and telling it where to go rather than wondering where it went, it was huge for us. And when we are when we stick to the budget, we definitely experience more joy and success in saving and

getting to prioritize money where we want it to go. So, yes, we've used things from an envelope system to a simple spreadsheet, to Mint to simplify, or there's all kinds of programs, free apps where you can link to your bank account and as you spend money, you can go through and assign this is it was for clothing, it was for food, and it can track all that so you can just every week, every day, every month, you can see if you're sticking within those categories you've preset. But I think

it's a good idea. So you're talking about Dave Ramsey, Yes, right, yeah, so that's the same place I would go, Kaylee. Is Dave Ramsey probably dot com, I don't know, the Financialpeace dot com, something like that. Just just google Dave Dave Ramsey and he is really the go to for for your question. And you might have already heard of him or from him, but he has a massive platform, many books and and very detailed step by step process that chat's talking about. Amber and I did the same thing

and it's called baby steps or something. Ye, baby steps and emergency fund and you kind of accumulate there's things that you kind of prioritize and do in a certain order that then helps you build and protect your your budget and your wealth. And the good news is you're twenty six and you're single, and you're already thinking about this as opposed to forty five and you're in tremendous debt and you you're in trouble. You know a lot of people will go there from that too, So it's

great that you're starting from scratch. Maybe you have some school debt, maybe you have car debt. I don't know, but Dave Ramsey, no matter what stage you're in, these baby steps at the beginning, will just go Okay, here's here's the deal. We're going to start with the highest interest credit card, and we're going to attack it, and we're gonna pay the minimum on the lowest interest credit card. What does he call it? Like the snowball now the it's been a while since I've seen it. Oh, he

calls it going gazelle intense. Okay, yes, I think that's the first case. Yeah, And you you are able to identify your priorities, and so you attack debt and you say no to other things, and for a period of time you're just just going after that thing and paying it off, and you're going gazelle intent. Same no to some of the frills. Of life for a little while. And I think he says, what's his phrase, live like no one else now, so you can live like no

one else later, Yeah, or something that's awesome. All of these things are copyrighted Dave Ramsey. Yeah, sorry, Dave, I take no credit. He has so many YouTube videos and probably podcasts, and so yeah, I would lean lean, lean in to Dave Ramsey and don't worry about what I say because he's the authority, and Chad and I have both done it so very fun. Yeah, good for you for thinking about that. Kayley, Let's see so many, so

many questions, so many questions. How about struggle with marijuana? Okay, next one on a queue. Hey and your My name is Blake. I'm twenty four years old currently living in Reno, Nevada. Turned twenty one a few years back and about the same time I started smoking marijuana. Now a little backstory. Growing up, I was deeply involved in church in Las Vegas,

and I was on fire for Jesus. Once I moved to Reena for college, I got involved with the fraternity, and to be honest, it really helped me find who I was and some great lifelong friendships I found myself distant from Christ as I was in attending church and I was in a relationship that was not supportive of my faith. Around my twenty first birthday, I started smoking and I've been pretty much doing it every day since. It has helped me with insomnia, depression, and some medical

issues I have. I have discussed it with my doctors. In the last six months or so, I started attending a church regularly, and I'm even a small group that meets with people around my age when it's a week. My issue is that I've come to is I'm trying to stop smoking and even what the Bible says about weed and addiction. So my question is, what does the Bible say about weed? And do you have any advice on ways to stop smoking? Help to catch a concert when you're in reno? Yee blake, Okay, A lot, a

lot to unpack, a lot to unpack. So we didn't we didn't first say me not, Chatty's a pastor. You can't say this that that there are there are good reasons from marijuana. There's medical reasons. For instance, if it's crazy opioid from your doctor, or your doctor wants to give you some kind of edible and it's doctor approved, then okay, I can understand it. So you need to ask yourself because you you identified a bunch of problems that you're using it for. You need to really dial

in why are you using it? Because I don't think it's any of those reasons right. Why are you using? And then why do you want to stop? Because you're not convinced the Bible says to stop? You're asking, does it? It's interesting because the Bible says that the heart that is the law will be written on our hearts, and so our hearts know the law and will speak it

to us. It's actually it's a big testimony to the truth of the Bible because from an atheistic perspective, we all, as image bearers of God have this law written on our hearts that speaks to us. That's hard to explain where that would have come from. We know right from wrong, and we know different scenarios. We know that the smoking thing is probably not right and I should probably quit.

But then you know, we could justify it by insomnia, depression, medical issues, doctor approved, but we know that's not why he's emailing this podcast. Yeah, I mean, yeah, other people describe it your moral compass, that there's something that we have that says that I ought to do this and I probably shouldn't do that, or we feel bad when we do something. But back, so his question is one of what does the Bible say about a weed? And

do you have any advice to stop smoking? So to one's practical, one's more kind of philosophical theological, right, And I want to say one more time, if anyone's listening in Grandma is in stage three cancer and doctors saying hey, some edibles will help you eat, I've heard of these stories. Right, this is not what we're talking about. Yeah, I mean not it right that we we can identify whatever whatever

substance it might be. There are there are ways in which, like prescription medication is used to help and assist, and there are ways that it is abused and it's very harmful. Well, you could say the same about alcohol, regular tobacco. You could say the same about McDonald's. Right, that the way that our culture approaches food and processed food and stuff that's just bad for you. The way that we use that is harmful to our bodies. So that's a whole

another discussion. And chads a cancer survivor by the way, Yes, And so there's a whole discussion to be had about how does marijuana compare to other substances that people might be addicted to or that might cause harm. But that's

not this that's not this discussion. I think what he's asking what does the Bible say about whether it's substance or maybe using products or ingesting things, or it could even be in the realm of you know, the Bible talks about meat, sacrifice to idols and refraining from it because it might cost someone to stumble. Even though you're free to partake, there is a reason to abstain from it for the sake of another brother, or a weaker brother.

So there's a lot of avenues you could take to say there's a certainly there's factors in your circumstance that would have to be considered. But in general, there is no passage of the Bible that says marijuana is a sin. But it does speak to the way that we give ourselves to things, the way that we allow substance to influence us. It talks about that you do not be

drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit. So there are times in seasons where alcohol is acceptable in the scriptures, and there's other times where it's like, man, the abuse of that stuff is really unwise and unhealthy. And so, just like any of these conversations, a substance that impairs your judgment, a substance that causes you to not be able to respond to the spirit or to love others well because you have been impaired. Yep, that's not what That's not God's design for us, that's not

his best for us. And so we don't have to find a passage that says thou shalt not partake of marijuana, because there's other principles that guide us to understand. Can I be sensitive to God's leading in my life if I'm impaired? Am I in a position where I can fully and freely care for and serve another person? Or am I limited because I'm impaired? Yeah, there are things that we have to consider. Yeah, is your motivation behind it?

Because it's changing your mind, are your perception? Are your You're it's numbing you to some other kind of pain that that's inside. Then you're you're taking away from what Christ can do for you, because He could accomplish all those things and in order for that to happen, we need to have a clear mind. The Bible's talk so many times about about the mind, the mind, the mind, the controlling your mind. Not your feelings, are your your heart,

are your gut, but your mind. And so if you're transforming your mind with any kind of substance for any kind of reason, then everything Chad said, then you're you're you're hindering your yourself from the spirit speaking to you in that way. So there's a couple of things. But I would just I would say, why are you trying

to numb yourself? Is it? Do you like yourself better when you're you're under the influence problem or are you able to relax more when you're under the influence problem because you're you're taking away from the fact that there's there's there's a better solution to all of this. And and that's why I built this. I wanted to say that, and that's why I built the whole thing up with. If you need to be impaired for a medical reason,

that's different. But if it's just like you know what, man, I don't really like myself the way I am sober, Yeah, I like myself better when I'm numb to the problems, and then you can't identify what the problems are, and it's never ending numbness that you keep searching for, but you're never fixing the problem. You're just bondoing the side

of the car without getting the new door. Yeah, or I mean similar to that, I like myself better, or I just I like to escape from the world or my problems or my situation, and I just I just want to break from it for just a little bit. And then when it wears off, Man, you're right back in that spot and Leven's changed, and it may even be worse because you've neglected to engage with in a healthy way the things in your world. But Yeah, if it's I mean, I really like what you said, Granger.

If it's this, then that's a problem. If it's this, then it's I mean, like going through the checklist of what's your motivation. And it sounds like he wants to stop, and he wants some practical advice on how to stop. I've I've never had to deal with substance abuse and trying to figure out how to stop. My My biological father was addicted to substance and didn't really ever successfully stop. So I don't have good advice for that because that's

not something I've experienced or witnessed. Do you have any I would say, first and foremost, get away from the other guys that are doing it. Yeah, So your community, the people you disassociate with, the people you're around, and that you are who your five people, your five closest people around you are, That's who you are. We could you could substitute that marijuana for girlfriend. How do I

quit this girlfriend? She's not good for me. You could substitute it with almost anything, my job, my career, it's not good for me. How do I quit it? I'm making good money. So this situation is it's not just marijuana. So I would first and foremost get away from these guys that are doing it, or just tell them straight up, guys, I'm trying to stay away from this. So will you please not do it in front of me? Oh come on, man,

we've changed, Yeah, I've changed. Yeah, So cut off your Yeah that the friendships are the place where that is natural and normative. Also cut off access if you can like how you're getting it. Yeah, we would say that with other avenues of sin or temptation. We would say, you need to cut off access, you need to stop hanging around people that are doing it. And the reality is it needs to be it's it's likely to be replaced by something else. Yeah, tell tell your small group.

He's in a small group. Yeah, I would say, guys, I'm gonna tell you something. I'm smoking weed. Hey, it's not that it's it's it's not like you're coming out and saying, hey, guys, I'm gonna tell you I'm a serial killer. You're gonna say I'm smoking weed, and they're going to go, how can we help you? I mean, you're not too far lost here, man, bring it up to your small group. And so I'm trying to quit. I don't want to do this. I don't like what it's making me become. Can you help me with this?

And that's what a small group is for. Yeah, I think you should ask the same question of them. Yeah, you guys have some advice. I need to, yes, stop doing this and to figure out a better way and get some accountability and some support. And then we'll say this to and then this is the last thing we'll say on this podcast. Actually, but Chad and I would both agree that this is not a this is not a judgment thing, and it's important this day and age

because everyone's so offended. But leaning into Christ as hard and as fast as you can, with all of your burdens and with all of your problems and all your vices and all of your addictions and all of all of your tendencies, take it all to him. This is Christianity. Is not about drop it all and then you're worthy to go to church and sit before Christ. Christ says, bring it all to me. Give all of it to me, and I will take it and I will make you clean.

Leaning into Him. It's not about it's not about how could I work to shave all this often and to be better for myself? Just go to him. Just go Okay, God, I'm pregnant, I'm not perfect, I got so many problems. But I'm leaning into you and you will be amazed at what He can do to you in that aspect. Amen. Thank you guys. That's all we got today. I always appreciate you, brother, Amen taking me podcast, taking repodcast check it out. Ye ye, thanks for joining me on the

Granger Smith podcast. I appreciate all of you guys. You could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel. Hit that little like button and notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video. If you have a question for me that you would like me to answer, email Graingersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Yie