Success isn't worth it

Success is something that is That term is so widely used, and yet it's still so mysterious because so many people define that word in so many different ways, Like your boss or your teacher might look at success for you differently, or your parent or your grandparent or your kid might look at that differently for you or themselves. And success is defined so many different ways for that individual. So how do you call yourself successful? And people struggle with that.

We all struggle at some level with defining our own success, Like is it because of accomplishments in your career? Is it because you have so many kids? Or is it because you're married for so many years? Or is it because you stayed single? What does success mean? And when you start diving into that subject and you start stripping

away everything. It's actually amazing how much we all have in common for the core idea of success, and I love talking about it and I could talk about it on every podcast if I wanted to, because it's something that's worth discussing. What is your success and how do you define that and how does that make you different from anyone else or the same? I got my good buddy Bernie. We're going to talk about this and many

other questions that we are asked. If you have anything for me at all, anything you want me to talk about, could be music related or touring, or life or struggle or happiness, anything. Email Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com and we'll dive into it one of these mondays. Welcome to this podcast. This is episode seventy one. Did du Long line up and downed on the back? Crazy co

yeahation my podcast business associate partner Sidekick Today. It comes from the corporate world of old Maybe yeah, let's go with Sidekick. I'll be sidekick. When we first met, I forgot to say this, Like meeting granger for the first time is kind of like I feel like it's when Robin met Batman automatically, he knows, like, Okay, I'm going to be the kicking in this role. It's like, well, I was gonna be the funny one and you'd be the good looking one. But then you're pretty funny too,

so it's like, well, I'll just be the sidekick. I'll be the rob. Stop to your back man. Stop it. It's true, y'all know it's true. That's why you're here. You missed the actual joke of the whole thing. You come from the corporate world of Old Navy. Yeah, when I met when I met Bernie a long time ago, he was working at Old Navy, and a couple of times I would come and see you and you had the headset on. Remember that, Like all the Old Navy

people have to wear headsets. Yeah, well they don't need more. They got these light they could just wear, like these walkie talkies or something. But yeah, we had to wear the headset and they got so mad. Put your headset on? What was the purpose of it? I always know it's not that big of a stores. Yeah, I don't know it. Yeah, I have no idea. We should write them an ask, I guess so they the Old Navy employees are in constant communication with each other, Okay, and I guarantee you

ninety percent of that is not work related. Oh really, it's about customers that are in the store, like, man, stay away from that lady, she's crazy. Yeah, or you know whatever. Okay. Comment if anyone has ever worked at Old Navy, I'm curious why they use headsets. That's an interesting business model that they or why they've gone. I think they've gone away from them though, so if you have any intel into why Old maybe lost the headsets as a former, you know, like Old Lomba. How many

years did you work at Old Navy? We'll see it's a good job. Yeah, yeah, it was great. I met a lot of great people there paid the bills while I was just drifting trying to figure out life. Guys, you know what you're doing right. I was probably there for two and a half years. Yeah. Do you still fold close and think about it? Yeah? Absolutely, dude. Lesly can attest to this. Like Sunday nights, she takes the the routine with the kids, like I give baths and

and and do the bedtime routine. Uh, every night except Sunday night, because that's when we do laundry. And so I walk into our dent and there's just like a mound of clothes and I'm like, let's do this, about to bust out my old Navy chops, And so I'll just sit there and full close and the and the thing is is nobody appreciates it. But it's not even like the kids will take their stack and just like throw it into that. But it does. It does remind me of those days. And you know, just like if

you're gonna fold some clothes, just do it. Well, you know, the kids are the harder it is to fold. It's like, yeah, the shirt is so little, it doesn't fold in any direction. That's true. Some things are really tough to fold. Common below old Navy alumni. I'm interested to know. Let me please don't like unsubscribe from this podcast because I know a championing all of you old Navy people out there. Why would anyone think badly of Old Navy for any reason?

I don't know. That's like the ones that works there were like, okay, yeah, I'm with you. Everyone has bought something in Old Navy. No matter what your style is, or your background or your what, everyone has bought something from there. Yep, it's got something for everybody. That's right. It's a good brand. It's a good American brand. People outside of the country are like, I've never been there, Old Navy. That sounds stupid, not as American as an

American eagle. We've digressed. First question comes from Taylor, and it says, if you get this email, I want to thank you for reading it. If you decide to answer it, I really look forward to hearing your opinions and your advice. My name is Taylor. I'll be twenty two years old on November twelfth. That already happened, so you are now twenty two Taylor. I'm from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I'm a technician at a dealership, and your podcast give me such

inspiration to keep working as hard as I can. I have to ask a couple things. First and foremost, I've been playing music since I was in fifth grade. I've always been in love with music. It's such a great escape from the world, and it's such a great way to connect with people all over the world. I've been wanting to start a band for a long time, and I'm curious what you would recommend to get started I'm a drummer, I play guitar, and I would love to

get something going. My second question is simple, do you like coming to Baton Rouge? If so, what's your favorite part? Ye? Thank you, Taylor. I'll start with the last question. Man, what's my favorite part of Baton Rouge The food? I love Cajun food. So yeah. I love traveling so much because of the food in so many different places, you know, Like I love to get whatever that that local cuisine is in that region or country or state or city.

Everybody's known for something and everyone has even if it's just like a local place that has an amazing burgers. I love to do that kind of stuff. So yeah, bet Ruter's Cajun food. Love it. Shout out to Louisiana, and thank you for the question, Taylor. Bernie and I on the last podcast kind of had a similar question,

but it was backwards. It was a drummer trying to be part of a band, and you are a singer trying to get a band, And it's a little bit different of an answer than a musician trying to find a singer. It's a little bit a little bit different. I, as I said mentioned on the last podcast. I started my first band by putting an ad out in the school paper that's a country singer looking for country band, serious gigs in line, and I lied about the gigs.

I didn't have any gigs in line, but I did get one reply, just one in the entire Texas A and M system. One piano player that became a longtime friend and actually moved to Nashville with me at some point, and get you gave it a shot for like five months and introduced me to other musicians. So it actually worked. Then add in the paper worked. Uh so today's age, you wouldn't do that. You would instead probably post on Facebook and just say I'm looking for musicians and man

aim low at first. Aim low because your first band doesn't. They don't have to be complete rock stars in any way. They don't have to look like rock stars. They don't have to play like rock stars. They just need to be good people you want to hang around. If they're good people, you want to hang around them. You're gonna want to practice more. If you want to practice more, you're going to get better. You don't want to look at it and go I don't want to get around

those guys. Tonight. So put it out there, put it out in the world, put it out on social media. Say you're looking for a band, and it usually just needs to start with one person. One person comes in and goes I play bass, You go cool, come over, come to the garage, and inevitably that bass player will know a cousin or somebody that plays something else. You know, my cousin plays keyboard or drums or whatever. Invite them over.

Aim low, start that network from the center and work outward. Right, Yeah, I think he nailed it. I'll just say one thing that Griz actually told me I hadn't done. I hadn't had a songwriting appointment in like forever, and a buddy of mine said, hey, let's you know, let's get together write some songs. I was like, okay, So I called Grizz. I was like, dude, I haven't done this a long time. What do I expect? You know, like, what what do

I need to do? And I remember you said when you can keep the level of your gratitude above the level of your expectation, magic will happen. And I remember leaving that appointment just feeling like man, we wrote probably one of the worst songs ever written. But I had a blast and like he did too, and it was just like, yeah, let's do it again. And there's just something about the experience of it that I think can help, you know, kind of propel to another appointment and like, oh,

I'm gonna write with that person now. And so yeah, I think that advice was really sound like he's saying the same, you know kind of thing. You know, shoot low, but keep your gratitude high, expectation low, and you'll you'll really enjoy it and see what happens. Just put put yourself out there. There's what's crazy is there's a bunch of musicians out there right now looking for you, and they don't know that they're looking for you, and you

don't know you're looking for them. But one day it'll happen and you'll be at a garage one day and the music will sound terrible, but it will be so fun. That's how it starts, man, And we've everybody that's been a musician at some point remembers those first days of making music with another human in the room. So I got a follow up question for you. His question, So he has now opened himself up, like, Hey, you played bass and you played drums, and yeah, they get together right,

and this drummer is awesome. It's like he's God, he's there. The piano players okay, he's okay. The bass player is just like, oh man, I don't know if he has played this instrument before or just like borrowed. It happens. How do you go through the process of like communicating like I want to find another bass player or do you do? You have to set that expectation from the beginning.

How do you navigate like getting the right people together skill and you know, kind of chemistry And I hope nobody listening that used to play with me back in the day. But but yeah, that that happens, man, and it's gonna happen, you know one day to Taylor you you're gonna have that bass player or whoever that's terrible. It always happened to me, and I don't ever I know a couple of times it was a little awkward, but I don't ever remember it being a situation where

that person didn't know it was coming already. Like if that, if that, if like you're saying, the drummers great and the bass player is terrible, He's just gonna know, man, I can't keep up. And what's cool is a lot of times you could still if he's a good guy, the bass player, you could just say, man, I found this guy and he's he's he has a lot of experience at base and I want to bring him on to show you some things and to jam with us. But I also I don't want you to quit on me.

So we also needs somebody to sell T shirts or to be the tour manager or you know, you could keep them on the team. So they still feel like they're like just getting replaced and fired, right, but they're gonna know, Yeah, I can't. A musician knows when he's not in a circle he can keep up with. Yeah. So it's not it's not ever easy, but that's it's inevitable. All right. Here we go, new question. It says, Hey Granger,

this is Kyle from Washington. Shout out to Washington State. Says, my wife and I had an opportunity to meet you at a show in Idaho back in December before the pandemic started. And when we met, you asked me what I did for a living, and I said I'm a youth pastor, which is still true Today, I wanted to say how thankful I am for you and the example you are setting living your life out in faith so boldly without hesitation. I wanted to ask you a simple,

but genuinely curious question. Who is your favorite Bible character that you admire or relate to? And why? I love asking people this question to hear a little bit about their story and why they chose to relate to a certain person in the Bible. Over another, thank you, Kyle, Junior High pastor for True Life Youth. That's it, Bethany Christian Academy. What's up Kyle? Thanks for writing in man. Yeah, I'm glad that I'm glad we got to meet in Idaho, and then that you still listen to me to today.

That's awesome. Question came back in October, so little late. All these questions. You could ask anything you want. You email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. I'm probably not going to answer it on the next episode that from when you emailed it like this question from Kyle for a few months out, So I hope you guys can have patience and keep listening knowing that maybe one day I'm going to answer it. So ask anything you want, Bernie,

I'll start with you. Who's your favorite Bible character? He says that either you admire or you relate to the most. And why. I guess every answer is a Sunday School answer, right, Which is interesting because you don't have to be a Christian to be able to answer this question because most people, regardless of your background or religion or atheism or whatever. Yeah, no character is the Bible and there's somebody that you could relate to. Yeah, yeah, there's a couple that kind

of jump out to me. I'll go with my can I have a top two? Yeah? Okay, of course, of course. The first one I think is probably the father of the prodigal son. Wow, okay, I think that there's something about like trying to like communicate to our kids what that love is like. So explain a little bit of the prodigal son's story. Okay, it's a short one. So you know, young man goes to his dad, Hey, I want my inheritance. I don't need you anymore. I'm gonna

go live my life. Takes his dad first. His dad says, okay, son, here you go. Which that's a tough one for me to swallow. I'd be like, I'm not giving that to you. You You justually gonna like you're gonna go, you know, give it all the way or party it away whatever. So that's what the kid does. He goes and he you know, you know, spends all of his money on parties and you know, drinking whatever, ends up working with animals and eating pig slop, and he has this moment

where he's like, what am I doing? You know, my father is rich, and maybe he'll give me a job to just work whatever. So he runs back and the father had spent day after day just like looking out down the road, just praying and hoping that his son would come home. And you know, the Bible says when he was still a long way off, his dad jumped

up and ran towards him. Yeah. I think that there's something just pretty special about that relationship and what it says kind of about what we can feel for our kids, but also like how I can how I imagine God feels about us, and he's trying to tell us like, hey, it's okay, you want to go just do your own thing, okay, And eventually we're going to come back and be like, Dad, I'm so sorry. Can I just like work for you, He's like work for me. No, we're gonna throw a

party because you're here. You weren't here. Yeah. So I think that that would be first one that came to mind, and then the second would be Job only, because I think to live is to suffer in some way and to struggle. And I think that Job, you know, like in all of that, he did not sin against God. He he did not curse him, he did not he

stayed faithful, which I just cannot even imagine. And so I think that testimony to me is like the things that we go through in the struggles that we have, is like this, this comforting hope of this you know, biblical character that saw far more than I think, you know, we can imagine. I could definitely relate to Job too. And it's the oldest book that I learned this from Billy Graham, But the Book of Job is the story

of Job is the oldest written story in human history. Wow, it's the oldest piece of literature that we could trace back to a human writing, which is interesting because it's all about suffering and what's wild to me, it's a little bit of a tangent from Kyle's question. But what's wild about that story is that you know that the Bible says God is is today and it always was. He's the same as he always was and he always will be. And that story Satan is with God. He says,

you got this guy Job, he's pretty good. Huh you think he's good? And God's like, hey, he's one of the best. He goes, I bet you if I start messing with him a little bit, he won't be as good as you think. Can I do it? God says, yeah, you could mess with him? So do you realize what I just said? This is a wild story that God and Satan are talking. Satan doesn't mess with Job until he gets permission. So it's interesting to think that's the

oldest story written history. It's interesting to think that that could. I say could, but it probably does still happen today. Yeah, Satan doesn't get to do anything without permission, right, he didn't have the authority. And some people have a big problem with that. Yeah, they're like, no, Satan acts on his own power. He's a complete rebellion. He's his own It's like, no, God's it still in control of everything. No,

I don't believe in that. Kind of God that lets him do that would give him permission to do something terrible. It's just what it says. Yeah, a lot of times with this stuff. It's not what I feel in my heart. That's what it says, right, yep. Way off on a tangent. But this question is hard for me, Kyle, because it's hard for me to compare myself or relate to anyone in the Bible without sounding arrogant in some way like

oh you're sure, yeah, you're gonna be like him. Please, with that being said, don't take it the wrong way when I say I could relate a lot of times to Peter. It's like I think most of the Bible characters, though, they were like you know, and messed up a lot. Yeah, yeah, And I just I'm thinking. I'm thinking of like the first Pope, Peter, the first Pope of the Church the Rock,

you know, not that Peter. I'm talking about the fisherman that was always a little bit on edge, you know, when when the Roman soldiers came to get Jesus, he just cuts the guy's ear off, you know, like, come on, man, like gets this. I can't imagine Peter, like in the garden getting the sword and be like, get out of here. Man.

Whack just whacks the guy's ear off, and he's just like Peter, chill out, which he probably told he kind of has that tone with Peter a lot, like dude, chill would you chill out for a second, Like this is supposed to happen, Let me deal with this. In fact, he says, you know, Satan get behind me. He like, like Satan is is affecting Peter's ability to control himself sometimes.

So yeah, I feel I feel that, and I feel that side of Peter, and I also feel the side where Jesus says, follow me, and Peter just drops everything, leaves everything, leaves the boat, leaves the fishing nets, leaves us everything, and just goes Yep, here we go. I'm in, I'm in, I'm all in. I'm dropping everything. I love that. I can't say that I've done it to that extent in my life, but I want to. I want to do that, and I want to be that. I want

to be that more than I am. The the ability to not to not be perfect and not be so righteous and high and mighty, but at the same time, the total reverence, which in a lot of ways I could say that about about David as well, who I could. I could definitely relate to David because of you know, musician makes a lot of mistakes but always gives God the glory and he fears God. So an interesting question.

And I haven't gotten a question like this on the podcast, probably won't anymore, but I think we kind of think we kind of hit on it. So yeah, Kyle, one day I'll meet you and hear your answer to all this stuff. And that was kind of the light coding. That's a deep conversation that could take hours, but those kind of the frosting of it. See if we can get We got about ten minutes, sot's see if we can get one more before we take a break. And it says, hey, grandeured, this is Eric from wake Forest,

North Carolina. Shout out to NC. Says I'm coming to you as a child of God, father too incredible kids, and husband to a loving woman. I have a question for you that I've been trying to answer for myself. Putting aside success in a career or hobbies or personal accomplishments, in your opinion, how can you judge your success as a husband and father I know. My goal is to raise up confident, independent, responsible, caring and loving kids, to grow old with my wife always being honest and never

losing sight of her my love for her. But how could I know that I've accomplished that? Thanks brother Eric. So my goal is to raise up confident, independent, responsible, caring and loving kids, and to grow old with my wife, always being honest and never losing sight of my love for her. How could I know that I've accomplished that. I don't think you will too. You're old, right, yeah, yeah, I'm looking up a poem for your love it so much.

This poem I've probably read it on this podcast at some point I can't remember, but it's by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It's so interesting, this poem. I found it because in such an interesting way. But I found it when my

dad died. We were going through all his stuff and you know, like his desk, drawer and closet, and we're going through a bunch of paperwork and we're trying to find anything that was important and throw out anything that wasn't, and we found this poem written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, hand written by my dad on an eight y ten piece of paper just in a folder. None of us knew why he wrote it, none of us knew where

it came from. And that was the thing about my dad was like, at some point he felt the need to take out a pen and a fresh piece of paper and write it by hand. Maybe we'd like to think that because it meant so much to him, or maybe because he wanted to live like that. But the interesting thing is he didn't say anything to any of

us about it. The poem says success to laugh often and much, To win the respect of intelligent people, in the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the beauty and others. To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition. To know that one life has breathed easier because you lived here. This is to

have succeeded so good. That's great, man. And you don't see anything in here about a lot of money in your bank account or and so that kind of success. Eric is about the journey, not the destination. It's not about knowing if you accomplished that because I found that note, you know, tucked into my dad's stuff after he was dead, and was like, yeah, he did it, he did this, but he didn't know that right, you know what I mean, Like it was past his time. So you can't. You're

never gonna sit back and go, ah, boom did it. Yeah, I did the success thing. I succeeded as a husband and father. It's an ongoing journey. You're going to continue to unpack this and continue to live this every day. So once again, I've said this many times, but the fact that you're even asking it means you're on the path. Man.

You're doing great. You're doing great. You say, my go goal is to raise up confident, independent, responsible, caring, loving kids, to grow old with my wife, always being honest, never losing sight of my love for her. Boom, you do. Just do that. That's your goal. Do that, and that's It's not a victory. Every moment you're gonna feel like

a failure. Sometimes you're gonna feel like you're not you know, you're you're not caring enough for your kids, or you're you're not being you're losing sight of your love for your wife. Occasionally you might feel that, and then you correct yourself and you straighten your boat up again, and then you keep sailing, and that journey is the You're playing the long game. You know, you're playing the game

of averages here. Nobody's perfect. You're gonna you're gonna have tons of failures, but you're gonna win more than you fail with that kind of goal and mentality. So yeah, I think you're I think you're doing good. Brother. Yep, right on, quick break, We'll be right back. I'm grateful that this podcast is brought to you by features. You know, changing your sock's gonna make a huge difference in your daily walks or hitting the links or whatever you do. For me, I'm a stage guy. My feet matter when

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three months. Visit ritual dot com slash granger to start your ritual today. Should have a question, email Strangersmith podcast at gmail dot com and these come in, they come in random. I try to sort them a little bit, and I'm giving you guys a little bit of a warning because I think just looking at these subject lines, I think the ones that I'm going to finish here with today are a little deep and a little spiritual. So I hope that everyone stays with me on this

and I'm just I'm answering it as they come. Okay, I'm not. I'm not trying to pigeonhole this podcast. And in any way besides the fact that I want to be able to answer your questions. It could be how do I become a drummer, it could be how do I find God? I'm going to answer them as they come. And sometimes I see comments that think that this podcast is kind of pinching pigeonhole in itself in a certain way,

and it's not. I'm just answering as they come. If you hear a lot of questions about career, it's not because I'm picking them that way. It's because there's a lot of people thinking about their career. There's a lot of people. So if you think I'm only finding the ones about faith, no, that's just a lot of people are really questioning faith. Yeah. So with that being said,

the first question. The first question of this segment subject line is walk in Faith says, how to grande your My name is Timothy, which is another awesome character that we don't know much about in the Bible besides Paul writing to him. But strong name Timothy. I live in a small town in Pulaski, Virginia. Long story short. I grew up on a farm, joined the Marine Corps looking for a better life and a better opportunity. After eight years of service, I moved back and started a new

life with a family. Grew up going to church. I've fallen away from Christ, but have now re establish myself in my faith and wanting to grow it as well. So my question is parentheses. Sorry it's long. I'm thinking of my children as my parents do. How could I help lead them to Christ and help them live for God? Any advice would be helpful. I love you and Amber on the podcast. I watched them on YouTube. Shout out

to YouTube watchers on this podcast. My oldest son Zane agrees when I say your music is great and if you ever are around us in August, We'll be sure to come to your show. God bless and keep up the good work. So your question is how could I lead them to Christ and help them live for God? Any advice would be helpful. Some missing pieces in this question,

and there's some missing stuff in here. And as always, I'd always like to say, this is like we're sitting in there, We're sitting around a campfire and these kind of questions come up and we're gonna answer them like we're sitting around campfire with their buddies. So Bernie's a great guy, He's a great person to have on this with me. I would say I would start, Timothy. If you're asking how could I help lead them to Christ

and help them live for God? The number one place to start is you living that in front of them. Because you could only say so much. You could. You could send them to school, you know you could. You could put them on a YouTube channel that they should be watching, or give them a book. But man, number one, and way above number two, is you live that life for them to watch you. They're watching you right now.

Live it, man, live it, and and through that example, that's the best teacher you could be to your family. If you can't live up to what you're trying to preach here, then no one's going to be attracted to that lifestyle that you're trying to pitch to them. So it doesn't it doesn't even matter. We've all seen that. We've all seen some crazy preacher on TV and been like, I don't want to be that guy. So I don't want to listen to anything you say in it or

whatever he snake O he's selling. I don't want it, so right, Yeah, yeah, I think Griz, you know, hit the nail on the head. It really starts with you. So so the options here are you know, point your kids, you know, to to know Jesus, lead your kids away or to the world. Right. We know that, you know, Jesus is hidden inside God's word. You know, he is the word. It was there in the beginning, if you know. The question really is like how how much time do

we really spend in God's Word? How much are we letting it really saturate the small moments of our lives and become the reactions that come out because much like you know a lot of you know, TV shows or different podcasts you could listen to, like, whatever you're putting in is going to come out naturally. So the more.

I just feel like the more time that you know that we are spending, you know, in stillness and quiet and solitude, just letting that kind of you know, soak into us, then it's going to naturally come out, which is what your kids are watching. They you know, they're going to pick up on if something's just kind of forced from you, and they're going to pick up on like, no, that's that's just what dad did. He you know, you know my dad, he just sat in his chair and

sang old hymns like that's just what he did. You know, these little things start to show your kids, you know, where your heart, where your treasure lies, and so and like just above everything though you're not alone. This is man. My wife and I talk about it, Griz and I talk about it. Man, this is such a difficult thing. We value these relationships so much and we want to like make sure that we're pointing them towards life that's

meaningful and eternal. And so because we care about it so much, there's almost can be this like over analysis of are we doing it right? Are we? So? I think one just taking away the burden of like the Holy spirit is to meet your kids and we can't dictate when that happens, if it happens again, going back

to you can only control what you can control. You know, God has written the rest, and we just have to trust in him that, you know, if we abide in him and that his word starts to come out, our kids are just going to like be drawn to him, which which, yeah, man is it's a constant daily battle. We're all in it, and so know that you're not alone.

But it's worth the fight for sure. What good time to do this, Timothy too, of an opportunity is your nighttime prayers and could also be meal time prayers too, But a nighttime prayer for me is really important because when I lay down to pray with Lincoln or London, I try not to ever let it become a repetitive, repeated prayer from a book. I try to make it different every night, which is the challenge, and I try to make it creative in a way relative to our current lives. And I try to let it be in

a language that they could easily digest. So for instance, I'll lay down with you know, say Lincoln, and you know every night we say prayer, and I'll just say I'll try to be just as plain languaged as I can. God, thank you for this little boy, led him to grow

strong and smart and love you above all else. And if he's ever scared to talk to you, he said, if he's ever happy to thank you, you know, and just putting these little things in his brain, you know that we're he just feels that relationship where I'm kind of saying, I'm kind of saying the words that he

could think, if that makes sense. But to me, that's a good opportunity because he's laying there, his eyes are closed and I'm right in his ear, as opposed to you know, he's with us at the farm now and just run around with his sister, so it's hard to get him focused, and that's a good time for them

to focus. Yeah, I think that's great. Making it like you're saying, just different every time, and personal takes away the ritual part of it, which there's a whole culture of people that believe closeness to God and in relationship with God is all about ritual. It's not the heart

behind what you're doing. It's just doing the thing. And I think what you're doing separates that and saying it kind of makes it like, no, we're you know, we're doing this because if you were doing it just to check it off the box, it would be the same thing every night and just say oh yeah yeah, and Lincoln would pick up on that. Yeah yeah. So yeah, that's awesome. Man, good question, Timothy, really good and it's awesome that you're thinking about that, and thank you for

your service. Shout out to Marine Corps two and Virginia. All Right, this question comes from Eric. He says, Hey, my name is Eric. I'm from Covington, Louisiana. And he says, I like when you're good friend. How you and your good friend Bernie think. He said, I need a friend like him. I promise I didn't find this female before you came. That's awesome. I love your new album. I'm a big friend of your music and watching your podcast and smith videos. My question is, how would you know

if God is trying to give you a blessing? Once again, a spiritual question. So, my wife's dad inherited his family's land in a small town called Blonde and it's a big property with four houses on it, and he's trying to offer us one of the houses on the property, but it's the smallest house on the property, and it also needs the most work. And I really I don't

make the best money at my work. So I want to take the offer because we live in a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment with a large dog and two cats. If you were in my shoes, would you take this offer? Let me read again, Yeah, to soak it in. Yeah, shark take Would you take the offer for that reason? All right? It says, how do you know if God is trying to give you a blessing? My wife's dad inherited his family's land in a small town. It's a

big property with four houses. He's trying to offer us one of the houses on the property, but it's the smallest house and it's the house that needs the most work. I really don't make the best money at work. I want to take the offer because we live in a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment with a large dog and two cats. If you very much chose, would you take the offer? I'm trying to find the negative. Yes, that's what I'm thinking. Yeah. So here here's a perfect example.

This actually recent not exactly the same, but recently happened. I was out on a walk around my office and I walked by this house that was in the area that our office was currently that we were leasing, and we knew that we wanted to buy a place. And I walked past. All these houses are real nice, and then we found one that was like it was kind of overgrown, needed a lot of work, and I just kind of felt like, I feel like I need to

talk to somebody about this. Who happened? So first of all, don't underestimate just walking with God, go for walks, be still and quiet, and just try to listen. Just try to listen. That nudge will lead you a lot of really fun, exciting places. So I walk around the back and there's a kid outside that's raking the leaves, and so I said, hey, do you own this house? He said, my mom does. I shouldn't know in this house. So Mom comes out and I said, hey, I was just

curious if you're interested in selling. She said, well, well, maybe let me get your phone number a week and talk about it. All that to say that lands me then in this situation like you're in Okay, I have this opportunity. The price that she came back with was more than I felt like it was worth or that I was comfortable paying for it. So that would be the first question with this house, like is it is does it make you uncomfortable? Do you know, listen to

your gut. It probably has the answer for you. But if it, if it does, I think go So So what I did is I went back to her and I said, Hey, I would really love to have this property and kind of continue its legacy here. We're not going to tear it down and do whatever like restore it, but honestly, this is kind of the budget that we're looking at. And I said, if that you know, somehow you know may work for you, just let me know.

And she called me back and said, yeah, actually that I think if if you could kind of do this, I think we may be able to make something work. So the point of the story is if you communicate with your dad earlier, Yeah, whoever, my wife's dad, Okay, So you communicate with the father in law and just show them like, hey, this is this is really what we can afford. I want to be responsible for a good steward or what I've been given and if and

don't be emotionally tied to it. I was ready to walk away from that house and be like you know it just it wasn't it you? You have the unlimited resources. If God wants you to have that place, he's gonna he's gonna move in the hearts of the people that are you know, behind the scenes of it and say, you know what, I think we could make this work and we could give it to him for this or

you know whatever that may be. I just I think that putting it out there and communicating with your father in law where you sit with it and and make sure that it's a win on both sides, Like because I also went to this lady and said, look, I don't want to lowball you. I don't want to like take, I don't want to take from you. I want this to be a win for you and a win for me. And if it's not a win on both sides, then don't get emotionally attached. There will be something else that

comes up and walk away. Props to the dad too, like trying to get his daughter to live close to him. That's gonna be me one day, like hey boy, I'm gonna offer you a house so that London could live close to me. Again, that is another variable in the question. Yeah, so how's your relationship with them. Here's the thing, dude, you're not going to be married to the house. If it's not good, you're leave. It sounds like it's a pretty good, decent opportunity because you're not. It's not like

you're giving up a lot to do it. You're giving up a two bedroom, one bath apartment that you already fill too crowded in with these with your animals and your wife. So you're not giving up a lot. You're gonna go into the house. If it doesn't work out, If it makes your life terrible, just leave and patch things up with the in laws and go back to the two bedroom apartment. It doesn't feel like it's I don't feel like there's too much negative in this in

this question. There's this is an easy This is an easy commitment that you could easily get out of, unless unless there's something I don't know in here where this this is all the way across the country on the other side of But you're in Louisiana and this is in Maine or something, But you didn't say that. Sounds like it's in the same area. You're not giving up much.

Give it a shot, and because you you have a job that doesn't make that much money doesn't mean you can't work on this property slowly with your own work, you know, your own two hands and uh and and make this better. It's amazing what some yard work could do and cost nothing but a little sure, a little gasoline. So and my guess is the father in law would probably be willing to life. That's true. That's true. You get a can of paint, you know, scrape some that

old paint off. It's it's been pretty amazing. And you don't have to do anything right now, even if you want to save money. You could just move in. And there's nothing wrong with living in a little bit of a junker right now with the vision of what it could be. So, yeah, dude, I don't think there's anything wrong with going in this house. You say, if if I was in your shoes, Yeah, it sounds like sounds like I don't get those dogs to some land, get them,

get them out of that apartment. We got wet. We let's do another one. Okay, says hey Granger. My name is Gage. I'm from small town, USA. Monta Signo, Washington, Montasigno. Is that how you say it? Monta Signyo Washington or it could be Monta Sano Montasana. That's probably right. Sorry, man, I'm a butchering the town name. I'm twenty one years old. I'm an automotive mechanic and also a volunteer firefighter and medical responder. I'm currently taking EMT classes. Thank you for

your service. I love listening to your podcast. I listen to them when I'm driving to and from work, and when i'm driving to the fire station, and when i'm driving to nine to one one calls. Listening to your voice helps me stay calm and relax, especially when I'm going to nine to one one medical calls. Hearing you talk helps me stay focused, calm, and prepared to do

the best that I can. I'm emailing you because I've always been a follower of God in Christ, but i find myself at times putting Christ aside, kind of on the back burner and focusing on things instead of when I should be focusing on my Savior. I'm hoping you can give me some advice on how I can can can can excuse me, can continue to follow Christ and make more of make him more of the priority overall, want to become a better Christian. Anything helps thanks many

yee Gauge. You're human, dude, this is your human and I'm sure Billy Graham ran into the same daily problem. The most important thing is you're aware of it and you want to be better. And that's the most important thing, is the motivation to want to be better in anything in life, whether it's a job, or your relationship with your wife, or becoming a father, or your relationship with God. So first of all, thank you for your service, Thank you for listening to this podcast and using it as

a way. You know, on a nine to one one call is not a place I thought I would this podcast would exist, but you've y'all's emails have always made it made podcast in my mind, get broader and broader in terms of who's listening and why they're listening and

where they're listening. So that's that's a cool thing. If I could, if I could help you like that success point, if I could make one life breathe a little bit easier than that success and if you if you're going to a nine to one one call and a little bit calmer by the time you get to the location, then that's success for me. That's that's a great win. For this podcast, Burns. What do you say he's put he puts, puts God on back burner? Who doesn't? Yeah,

who doesn't? And if you don't, you're just you're not truly admitting it. Yeah. Yeah, I think just having the the awareness that man, the enemy has so many very desirable and pleasurable tools at his disposal to distract us with Yeah, and he's not taking days off either with throwing them at us. And so yeah, it's it's it's a struggle. It's it's tough. I Yeah. One thing that comes to mind, Man, I'm not really sure why, but I'm just gonna share it with you. Maybe it maybe

it connects, maybe it doesn't. I'm just gonna get kind of practical. I would probably say two and a half three years ago, I started practicing meditation. And I know a lot of people hear the word meditation, they're like voodoo, you know, new Age, And it's like, no, hey, let's just let's go ahead and take that perception, throw it out the window. Here's what I'm talking about. In order to run faster, I do certain certain stretching and I do certain kind of weight lifting because that enables me

to run faster meditation when we can. It's doing the same thing but for our minds. And if you read through the Bible, there's so many verses that are very very powerful about mindset and where are you know, A mind focused on the flesh is death. A mind focused on the spirit is life and peace. These are the

two things we're talking about here. So what I found with meditation is all I'm trying to do is really stretch, exercise my mind and give it the ability to retain things more and to focus more so that whenever it comes time for that race, which is like I go out into the world or I'm in a sermon, or I'm listening to a sermon and I'm listening, I'm trying to like my mind all of a sudden is not just going a thousand different directions. It's like I'm able

to like listen and I'm able to focus. And not only that, when I get in the situation where I need those things I've heard to come out, I feel like my mind is just a lot more clear. So this is something very you know, practical and easy. Start with three minutes a day and you can get on an app or you can just sit in quiet, and just like, just try to follow your breath for as long as you can. And the point is not to be able to go the three minutes without getting distracted.

The point is is to be able to recognize when you've been distracted and then return back to your breath. Okay, And here's what meditation has taught me about not only following my breath but also my life, is that my life is trying to pursue the breath of God, and day in and day out, I get distracted. The point is to recognize when I be more aware and recognize when I've been distracted and just come back to that breath.

And the more that you do that, the easier it is to recognize, and the easier it is just to come back. You don't start veering miles away like you may feel you are right now, like come back and and just start that. You're going to start to see parallels in your mindset and your spiritual life. Your mind, body, and spirit are more connected than I think we know, so that would just be a practical thing. I hope it hits with you or maybe somebody else, but I

think that's awesome. Man, and dude, I wasn't asking that question when I was twenty one years old. I just wasn't. So yeah, it props to you. You're way ahead of me and where I was at that age. So and you're also you're working two jobs auto mechanic and volunteer firefighter slash medical responder. Those are some stressful jobs you're working.

Because yeah, and it might be overlooked that auto mechanic could be stressful, but dude, I know how it gets when you're in a place and it starts getting backed up and Joe Bow wants his vehicle right now, and your boss is wondering why you know while you're not on it, And that's a stressful thing. People want their vehicles when they're getting worked on. They're mad that it costs so much, they're mad that the part is hard to find, and then they're mad that you can't do

it tomorrow. So I can't. I can't imagine that coupled with your your medical responder stuff that you got. I think Bernie's probably on something that it's really worth exploring, because it sounds like you have a lot of stuff clanking around in your brain during the day and especially when you get home. It's time to shut your brain off for a little bit and not just go to besides this podcast. You make sure that the podcast is part of your day, but other than that, you probably

want to reduce the screen time a little bit. And that pause, that quiet is where God is going to have space to come and work in you. And so that's going to take care of itself. He's going to take care of itself. Give him that space, give him that pause, and watch him come in and start working you from the inside out. And keep asking that question. If you keep asking yourself that question, how could I

continue to follow and make that a priority? I want to become better If you keep asking that, you got it, It's coming to you. There's no secret answer. There's no I'm not going to say start with fifteen minutes here and do and read this and make sure you journal that. I'm not going to say that. You're just you do you. As long as that is it is a focus and a priority for you, You're gonna be a good spot. That's all we got. Bro. Hey, good times man again,

Thanks for giving back. Yeah, we'll see you guys soon. Ye, thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith 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 the 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 Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Yigi