We may have a problem (not a pity story)

Chad celebrity Pastor. Don't say that because the celebrity something goes wrong for them. I'm kidding. I said that for a reason. I'll tell you a minute. But we also have your brand new podcast that's launching you created. We don't know, we don't have a launch date when we come out. We're to take a break after we do a couple questions, and I want you to tell everybody the details on that and when they might find it, how they might find it. Perfect and you're a celebrity

because of that. It hasn't even come out yet, you're already a celebrity. There you go. Podcast. In all seriousness, this podcast is about answering your questions. We answer your questions that you write you email to Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com. Could be about any subject. They have as of late gotten pretty deep, and I personally like

to engage in the deeper questions. What's interesting is I also get a lot these days that says they want you to help answer the question specifically, pastor Chad, I need this. Sometimes it says it right in the subject line pastor Chad, I need I need your help, and so that makes it even more fun that you're here. Cool. I want to start with this first question and you'll see what my joke was. That subject line is why do we idolize celebrities? I don't no kidding, but that

was an interesting question. It says, Hey, Grangdeer, I met you at Bristol this last weekend, and again I want to reiterate the positive Christian influencer having in country music. I'm currently reading a book called Wanting, and it is about the mimetic parentheses imitation desire that we have as humans. The author talks about the many ways that we imitate people and I can't help but think of the literal interpretation of this with celebrities. I think that you have

some insight on this as being a celebrity yourself. Why is it that we jump up and down to get an autograph or celebrity or stand in line to get a selfie? Why do we listen to celebrities political or social opinions when we've never even met them? What makes their voice such an influence? This isn't meant to be a religious question, but more worldly. I have a strong group of christ follower of friends that I listen to

and seek their guidance. But that said, I love your music and many other country musicians, and so now I'm wondering why a little more deeply. This is a long question, and I doubt you could read the whole thing on the air. Love your feedback gratefully, Josh. Thank you, Josh. It's a great question, unique question. I don't think we've got anything like this before on the podcast. And I think there are very few people that would use the

word mimetic desire right, the idea of imitating. So yeah, this is he There's so many layers to what he talks about there, but it's true. We I mean, I can remember when I was a little kid and way up in small town Montana. It was a big deal that we had Marcus Allen running back for the Raiders was coming to our town. And the line that formed in the mall. That's a place if you're under a certain age, that's where you used to go and buy things.

I don't know if they have malls anymore, I'm not sure, but we stood in line forever for him to use a sharpie and make his signal sure on a photo. Yeah, I still have that photo. They still have that autograph. And it's like, why was that such a big deal? And it was funny because I really didn't know a lot about Marcus Allen. It wasn't like I was a Marcus Allen fan. But when I learned who he was, that he was in the NFL, and all of a

sudden he had more like stock. Yeah, it's crazy. I used to go to Texas Ranger games when I was a little kid, and I'd wait in a parking lot at the end for the baseball players to come out, and I'd just have a baseball and a pen ready, and I didn't care who it was, and I just wanted one of them to sign it. And usually it was a guy I didn't even know which It's kind of goes to what you're saying. Just their stock goes

up because they're part of that team. And I'll bet you it's because, like if I think about my own desires in that, it's because if I am somehow uniquely associated with that person who has kind of this high you know, popularity or notoriety, then and I'm associated with him, then my stock will go up. Because what's the first thing I do when I get an autograph? I can't wait. I have people in mind that I'm going to tell, and I say, dude, guess what I got so and

so signature? Even if you go into my office. When I was a little kid, I wrote a letter to a football player and he wrote back. Now, he could have been a stamp or something, but I've always believed it was his autograph, and I have it in my office and it's there, and I want people to say, WHOA you have so and so soon, you know, because there's this desire I have, maybe it makes me more

important valuable. I mean, I think it gets into some of those just core human desires of identity purpose, meaning that is so right, and I think to speak to that that we've come to it. I think that probably has perpetuated tenfold in the modern world, especially with social media, because I know that we had celebrities in the old days, you know, the you know, hundreds of years ago. I know that there were celebrities, but I don't think that there was nearly as many as there are now because

of social media world. Probably starting with TV was probably that when you could see their face, that was the that was what really kicked off celebrities, like in the fifties, but even since the fifties, I think were tenfold that And the interesting thing about what you're saying about sharing in that that popularity is the the rise of the selfie, because that proves even more more than an autograph. It proves I was there right with those present, and I

could show you. And and that's what I see from the from the other side of the aisle here, what I see is when people come up in a meet and greet, I desire the human, the human in me desires to talk to them and to engage with them and to have a conversation of some sorts with another human. But a lot of times I'm not treated as that human. I am not giving a pity story here. This is not what this is about. It's just it's an observation that sometimes people I'm the object of their selfie and

they're not there. They're on a mission to come and get and grab that selfie, and then they're on a mission to leave to send it out to all their friends. So there is an absence of true knowing or experience that could happen human to human. Yes, because their goal is something else. I need this instance to occur and record it so that my stock goes up, Yes, somewhere else.

And when we go out sometimes I'll go out to the crowd to sing a song and people will flock to the to where we are, not to get closer or to get a better view. They're trying to get a selfie maliciously so that they could instantly leave and go and have proof that they were there. It's a strange thing now that first we got to address you know, the word idolize at all is. You know, we're gonna

we hate that word idol by all sense. And I know that you said, Josh that you didn't want this to be a necessarily religious question, but we're we're we're called to flee from idols, and so being a celebrity, I don't think you it's necessarily bad if you look at it more of in terms of mentor or or someone that you could you could look up to for out of respect. And I think there's a different way than than to use it the word idol. And I don't think joshun in a bad way. It was Nietzsche

that said. I think it was Nietzsche that said the human heart is an idle factor, like that we constantly we can't help but exalt things, stuff people like we are just disposed that way, like naturally disposed to produce worship, exaltation of something, things like giving priority, allegiance, time, attention, money to stuff to somebody. And so that's I mean, that's an interesting question. I think that's what that's why there's something in the way that we exist as humans

and as as a Christ follower. I would say that's part of the design. And it's just a it's now, it's it's fallen or it's a broken thing in the way that we do that with all kinds of things that are unworthy of it instead of the one true thing that is worthy of it. Yeah, he is worthy of it. Right once again, I'm going to go I'm going to dive into religion one more time. I know that that's that's what you said you didn't want to do.

But this is, this is so fascinating. But in the Book of James, in the Bible, there's this really weird little section that's just almost almost out of the blue, and its information that we didn't know in any other part of the Bible, and it's sitting right there in the Book of James. And it says that I'm sorry, Jude, I don't know why I said, James. In the Book of Jude, it says that the angel Gabriel, so Gabriel disputed with Satan over the body of Moses after he died.

And I always thought that is so weird, like, why is it in the Book of Jude, Why is that? Why is he talking about the angel Gabriel disputing with Satan about the body of Moses. And then one day I had a pastor tell me that the modern belief on that is that if if Satan got the body of Moses, he could have given it back to the people of Israel and they would have had the body to bury and carry his bones and worship the body of Moses because he was their profit, he was their savior.

You know that if a lot of these people were ignorant to the fact of what even happened, and they would have taken the body and they would have worshiped it, and it would have become an idol to them. And so that's an it. I mean, it's certainly not outside of the realm of what likely would have happened. Yeah, that's not that is that is speculation what I've just said. But it's very interesting to think about what that what

that meant. And it's interesting in his question he he does identify that somehow we're willing to give credibility to somebody who has a celebrity status or some sort of popularity to their opinions about all kinds of things, which product we should. I mean, it's just a fascinating studying sociology and I would love because I've got you here right, a celebrity by definition. What is it like on that side?

Are you do you ever feel like you're expected to have opinions about things and that you're expected to share those, or that you feel some obligation, because there are in the realm of celebrity, there are some that you just never hear from, you don't know where they stand on certain things. And then there's some that won't like yeah, they won't stop sharing their opinions and all kinds of So from that side, what does that feel like? Do you feel pressures to share or is there a hesitancy

to share because of what I don't know? Yes, yes and yes yes. So for instance, for me, I just kind of from day one, I decided, you know, I'm not going to get political, and I've said that. I said it in this way that that most people could follow me for five minutes and go, okay, I got a good I got a good feeling where this guy leads, right, But I don't have to. I don't have to get up with a megaphone and start shouting it from the rooftops. I don't have a political science degree. I don't have

a law degree. And that's kind of where it is for me. I don't I don't feel like my voice politically should be heard louder than anybody else's because I don't have a reason to. Sometimes sometimes celebrities will run in groups that other people can't run in so they're hear conversations. Maybe they meet some of the politicians personally and so they get a personal attachment. So I could see that. But I met I did meet George W. Only president I've met. I met George W and through

several encounters with him. The personal encounters really elevated my opinion of him. Meaning what I saw on TV was one person. But when I met him, I really liked him even more. I liked him, I'll be honest. I liked him before, but I really liked him after I met him. I just thought, you could just tell this guy is he cares? He cares. But I never shouted that from the rooftops. I didn't think it was important after me to go, don't you talk about about George W.

I've met him, and I love him. I've never felt that need. But the reason I'm kind of setting it up this way is because I think the gospel is different. I think the gospel I don't think politics are is life and death. I'm not called to preach politics or anything else in that realm, but the gospel, I feel like. I did not feel like I know that the calling of the gospel is it's much different. So that's why

I do bring religion into my platform. Yeah, it's interesting that you're able to make that kind of difference or be able to separate out that line, because I think people listening to this might there might be people that go, well, you do use your platform to talk about your faith, which you would argue is a part of who you are, whereas your political position and I may make people mad,

is not a part of your identity. It's not, and that's it shouldn't get them to fighting words for some people, But shouldn't you would identify that it's not, whereas your relationship with Christ is. I remember this would have been well, this is a while ago, sixteen seventeen years ago. I was just graduated or college. I was in a small church in New Bronfles, Texas, and that morning we had a guest pastor come in and he can't he was

a missionary in the Philippines. He came and preached and at the end of the service, he invites his son forward and asked if we a is a very small congregation. I mean we're talking maybe thirty forty people gathered in this elementary school gym, and at the end of the service, he says, Hey, I would like to invite my son to come up because and for you guys to be

in prayer for him. He's a junior in high school and he we think the Lord's going to do something and give him a platform through football, and so Tim, would you come on up, Bud, And he brings Tim Tebow to the front and we all gather around and we start praying for this high school kid named Tim. And it's just amazing to be on that side of it because from the beginning his goal was not to

necessarily have fame and fortune. It was he was a follower of Jesus and he was going to use that avenue through which to glorify God, powerful, powerful, amazing man. That's amazing, which is can be true for anybody, Yeah, have any occupation. That should be the way we look at it as a platform. Josh, awesome question. That brought up a lot of sorry, a lot of I'm sorry. I'm gonna I'm gonna read off some of these subjects lines for you. Here we have how to teach the

Gospel to an unbeliever. We have in laws seem to hate me. Why he says he's lost. We have a podcast question, we have a speech question. Help with my relationship family issues. Any of those stand out to you, Let's jump into in laws. I think it was the second one you mentioned in law's hate me? In laws hate me? Hey Grandeur, I love your podcast and I love your YouTube channel, says I have a problem. My fiance's dad is struggling with his son and I getting

married soon. He keeps saying he doesn't like to share my fiance and I don't love him as much as he loves him, and I never will. My fiance is the oldest of three. He has a brother who's twenty one and a sister who is eighteen. My fiance and I are both twenty four. I cannot get over the fact that his dad treats me like I'm not welcomed into the family, all because I'm marrying his son and quote stealing him away. He gives me dirty looks when I'm around, and he ignores me. What do I do?

All right? I need to understand that I heard you correctly. There is a young lady. Yes, she is engaged to a young man. Her name She did not tell me to stay anonymous. I'm gonna say her name is Sierra. So Sierra has a fiance. Fiance's dad yes, gives her the evil eye yes, and doesn't welcome her because she is stealing away the son from the dad, which is typically a story. You hear the mother in law for sure, not the father in law, right, or you hear it

from the father in law if it's the daughter. Yeah, that's being taken away. Yeah, it's very interesting. That's an

interesting dynamic. I have more questions, and I think I do have answers, But sometimes you could explain the way the mother in law situation, you could explain away when you see you see a mother in law not wanting to give her son away to another girl, usually you could trace that back to the husband of the mother in law, the father that never honored her, that was not present either physically or emotionally, spiritually, just not present and left her to get all of her needs and

wants and loves from the son. Right. So the son was providing the mother with what she needed from a man, and she can't stand to lose that to another woman. It's almost like cheating. So this is a flip, complete flip flop of that story. Yeah, you're right, this is this is We built this podcast based on us kind of sitting in a room together. We're having a conversation, and so it makes it hard when we can't bounce a couple more questions back to you, Sierra. But we'll

start with this. We'll start with you're asking what do I do communication? This is a conversation with you and him. It has to happen soon. And I would say it's like a you know, a coffee shop environment, or maybe he likes a certain restaurant, and you just go without your fiance, without anyone else. You just go with the

future father in law, and you be vulnerable. You'd be loving, you be patient with him, you'd be just completely honest to the situation without making him feel like he's wrong or making him feel like he has misguided ideas about you. And you've got to prove that you're actually good and you do. You will love him, You know that, none of that. It's just it's all about I am so honored to be a future part of this family. And I just respect you as a father, and you have

raised the man that I love. You've raised my husband, and I will forever be grateful for the father that raised my future husband, that we will then make a family one day, and I just I wanted to take you to dinner, and I just wanted to take you to your favorite chicken fried steak place and just then

just tell you from the bottom of my heart. I wanted to look you in the eye and just tell you from the bottom of my heart that this is not lost on me what this day means, and what it means to be part of your family and to make to make your son happy and to give him everything he's ever wanted from a wife, and to honor him and just just shower him with that kind of

a conversation. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like you've articulated a fear he has is that you're taking his son away rather than him seeing the addition of a daughter into the family. Yes, So, is there a way that, similar to what Granger said, adding an experience or something to where you want them to clearly understand you you have no intention to extract him from the family, but every desire to be involved in and alongside of him.

Is there a way that you could even maybe invite you know, your fiance's mom and dad just the parents over for dinner, and that you get to host them and maybe create some regularity around them being a part of it, involved in this next step in their son's life on a regular bit. I don't know, but I think that's something around that the fear of losing versus the reality of adding or components there. I love that.

That's such a great point, you know, just just making him recognize that this is a this is an addition. You are now a new daughter of his. Yeah, and you you understand that, you see, you see the joy in that, and you can't wait to show him what that's going to add to his life. Chad brought up a good point that you made the mother. The mother should be involved in this dinner at some point too. I don't know if that'd be weird if it was

just the dad. I like the idea of a dinner, but but at some level, I think it's important to not have your fiance involved in this because I think he would kind of jump into the conversation and it might it might go a different direction, and you just kind of want to keep it focused and and this might and that that might not do anything. That first dinner might just be planning a seed and this might take years to unfold. And I'm sorry that that this

is a tough situation for you. Don't don't let it be a point of contention in the future marriage. So this needs to be tied up really tight with your your fiance and he needs to know that you guys got to be on the same page with this too.

And to be all completely honest here, it is really going to be his duty to defend you against his father if it gets to a major point of contingent, if it gets to a point where your father is really shutting the door on you, guys, it's going to be up to your fiance to to protect you and to defend you and present you as the the new bride, the new daughter. Yeah, so thank you, Sierra, and best wishes to you. I hope that I hope that this goes well for you. You will knock out one more

or at least get into one. Any of that. Do you remember any of those we said, how to teach the gospel unbeliever? He says he's lost podcast questions some leaving someone you love wedding speech question. Maybe we'll do that real quick. It sounds like a quick, quick maybe maybe un could be wrong. Dear Granger Smith, I'm a fourteen year old farm boy who loved to listen to your podcast. In two weeks, my uncle and soon to be aunt are getting married. I want to do a

speech on their wedding day. I was thinking about having it funny and having some kind of line. All good marriages are based on the lawnmower. There's a lot to consider. Does it have auto steer? How long can you take a nap before you run over your wife's flowers? Sounds like a real question. Have any beers? Can it hold? Can you go to Tim Horton's and back before work? Must be northern? Must be? Yeh in Canada, maybe there's

there's a bunch of Tim Mortons like in Minnesota. Oh okay, and yeah, I'm not good at speaking in front of crowds. I want to do this, but I don't know how to gain the confidence to speak in front of a bunch of people. At don't know. Do you have any suggestions on how to get more confident? And do you think that's a good idea about the lawnmower? Thanks for your input, Grant Grant, thank you for writing and shout out to Tim Hortons, thank you for listening to the podcast.

I would I would tell you this, if you are not confident in front of crowds, and you're not good at speaking, and you're already building up anxiety about this, I don't think I would go into a big, long lawnmower joke. I think I would lean more on you being vulnerable. What I mean is like in the first line, when you stand up and you're gonna make a speech, the first thing you say is I'm nervous. I'm really nervous.

I'm not good at speaking, but I want to speak because this wedding is so important to me because I love my aunt and soon to be aunt. I love my uncle and soon to be aunt so much that I want to speak from my heart. But please please excuse the fact that I'm shaking and I'm really nervous

right now. Yeah, And I would emphasize make it about them and not you, like after you get over that and you get past that initial intro and highlighting stories of meaningful you know or funny moments with your uncle

and people love story. Yeah, and if you can work a lawnmower into that story, man you're saying, yeah, if you could do the lawnmower joke, great, I would preface it just to just to break the ice, just say, man, I'm just I really want to speak here because I loved, I love I love these people, but I'm just nervous. So yeah, we're gonna take a break. Beer right back, guys, thanks for keeping up with this podcast. You could find me on tour at grangersmith dot com. You could also

meet me right there on the homepage. There's tour dates and then it says meet granger. So if you ever want to find me in person and go over any of this stuff we've talked about today in person, you could do it that way. This podcast is brought to you today by Athletic Greens. This is such an amazing company. It is the most extensive, best feeling, best tasting nutritional supplement I've ever taken. I could say that with confidence because I actually bought into this myself. I got it

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That's what I'm trying to do again. Simply visit Athleticgreens dot com slash granger and get your free year supply of Vitamin D and five free travel packs today. All right, Chad, take and read podcast. Is your new podcast that you're going to be releasing here? What do you have a time estimation on this? We're talking to you three weeks month, I would say, yeah, continue to think that in October we'll see episodes drop and see those starting to come out.

I mean, what I'm learning about this world is it when you first started. There's a lot of things to consider. You've got to not only record these things, but then there's some editing and there's a whole production side and then getting them submitted to the various platforms. So we're yeah,

we're well underway. I've got an email address so if people are like, okay, hey, put me on the notification list or whatever, so you can go to the Take and Read podcast at gmail dot com and it's all spelled out Take and Read podcast perfect gmail dot com. And I'm sure you'll be back on this podcast before it launches. Yeah, so then we'll have a more definitive date and I'm going to be one of the episodes. Actually, well,

I don't want to give it away. Yeah, okay, yeah it's and next time you're on this one, we'll talk more about it and get more into the details of it. But but you guys are gonna you're gonna really love it. I love the concept of it. It's a fun time. It's a really fun time. What do you think In Chez there was one about the Gospel to an Unbeliever is that too. Are we just getting leaning too much into it or is there something more? What are you

trying to say? I don't know. I don't I mean, I can get away with it because I'm a pastor, so I'm expected to be preachy. But I love when people worry if I should talk about the gospel and then my podcast. I know you're not worried. We've done it before. Let's jump into it, says Hey Granger. I'd like to remain anonymous. I've been listening for a few months, and I'm encouraged by you and your willingness to speak

about your faith. I work at a major hospital, and without giving too much detail, my boss is an unbeliever. I have grown my faith tremendously over the past year and feel as though I'm almost completely a different person. The people that spend the most time around at work are not Christians and engage in behavior such as gossip and cursing. Like every other word. This never bothered me until I really got into the word. Now I feel convicted by it. I've talked to my boss about it

about God and he said he's an agnostic. He tells me that his personal family issues, he has personal family issues, and all I can always think about is that he needs to be running to Jesus. I even invited him, invited him to church once. How do I go about starting a conversation with him about the gospel? My fear is that he will completely reject it. I feel torn between not wanting to be around these people anymore and wanting to try to show them who God really is.

Any help can be appreciated. Thanks and you anonymous are This is a great opportunity because I have Pastor Chad next time, I mean, and he's really good at this kind of stuff. I want to want to sympathize with you here that this is this is very very very very common email and it's multi layered. You you've kind of given us some multi layers here, So before before I just unleash chat on you, I'll break it up just a little bit here. You're you're you're being bothered

by his gossip and cursing. You got to dismiss that because you can't. If he's an agnostic, like he says, then you can't be surprised like what comes out of his mouth, and you can't be judgmental about it because he has no point of reference. He has no moral basis to base off what he says, and so you can't it would be legalistic of you to go, well, you shouldn't cuss. Well, he has no moral basis stuff

not cussing. I think we sometimes get into a situation where we as believers can expect non believers to behave with some sort of moral code that like, where, why would we expect that? Why would we assume that of them? Yeah? Where we are a stardust to him? And yeah, and and there's a we understand, there's a a regeneration, a there is a transformation of our heart that occurs when we give our lives to Christ and the spirit of God dwells in us. And and there's a transformation that

we aren't responsible for. And so if that has not occurred, we can't expect that. So I think that's a great point that we've got to manage our expectations when we're interacting with people that are agnostic, which means that they don't believe. Yeah, there's people that come around me and they'll friends of mine and they'll say ged, you know, the yell, and then they'll go, I'm so sorry, I am so sorry, and I'll go, yeah, I get that, don't apologize all the time. They'll find out what I

do for a living. And it's funny because sometimes they're like, what do you what do you do for a living? I'm a pastor. No, And then they'll drop something on me and I'm like and they're like, I'm so sorry. I don't usually and I'm like, it's it's all good. No, man, it's all good. I don't. I don't have an expectation for you. Now. If you come to me and you profess your faith and we're getting deep into this conversation and then you then you want to ask me if

it's okay. If you could just say whatever you want, then we could have that kind of conversation. But for your boss, uh to the to to mis anonymous here, No, I think that's something you should work on. It internally with yourself is you can't be bothered by the state of the world. It is what it's. We're in a falling world. It is what it is. I sympathize with you you feeling convicted to talk about it, and you feel you feel an anguish inside you. I could sympathize

with that feeling. Of of Oh, I want to say it, and I feel like a coward, you know, but that I'm not. And oh, a quiet moment just passed and I didn't say it, and I should say it again. Did I miss an opportunity? But once again, before chat, before I ut least chat on you, I want to give you. I'm going to give you some confidence that and this is this is biblical truth. The power of

the Gospel is what would change a man's heart. Not the way you say it, or the timing that you say it, or the inflection that you say it with, or the story or parable that you pair it with. This is the power of the Gospel. That it's planning a seed that can change his heart alone. Now, now we as stewards are required to be the ones that say it. But you're not going to You're not going to win him or lose him. You are not going to win him or lose him. That is not on

your shoulders. All you're required to do is preach it. Yeah, there's examples through the Book of Acts where Paul, one of the apostles and early teachers in the church, he would go to one village preach the gospel and they would they would begin to stone him or throw rocks at him and drag him out to the edge of the city and leave him for dead. And then he would pick himself up, go to the next city, preach the same gospel, and then be invited to stay for

months years on end teaching and many would come. And in both instances he's faithful. Right, He's successful because he follows and is faithful to the Lord. And I think for anybody who's listening to this that's in a situation where they're like, I feel compelled. There's this tension though I'm in a workplace, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do this or I don't want to compromise my job,

Like there are going to be those tensions regardless. But faithfulness to the Lord doesn't necessarily mean, well, I'm I'm gonna corner them in the hallway one day and I'm just gonna let them have it. Like, that's not necessarily what it means. It means to be intentionally asking and trusting the Lord for opportunities. And so I think the first step in any time that you want to share the new life that you have in Christ with somebody, and there's somebody the Lord has put on your mind.

You begin praying and you fight for them in prayer, You pray, you intercede, and then start asking them, Hey, I want you to know I pray regularly for you. Are there specific things I can go to the Lord on your behalf for and just begin asking on a regular basis and say how is that going? And it gives you an opportunity that you genuinely care because you

are praying. The Lord has put them on your heart, so pray for them, engage with them, talk to them about that, and then you're gonna see doors open up because if they know that you genuinely care and you're not just trying to check a box or do something like that, but they go, man, this person can asking and then they follow up and see how I'm doing.

Like there is going to be genuine friendship and care and love established there because that's what's happening, and you desire to carry their load, to share their struggles, and so I think that through that there can be a softening and people are more receptive and open when they believe you truly care for them. And then letting them know if there's any time you want to talk about this stuff. I'd love to I'm a good listener. I'd love to listen, and giving them opportunity to then share

burdens more and more with you. There's going to be a natural opportunity to just say, you know, I've faced something like that, or I've gone through something and one of the things I found to be so helpful for me is the way that I can trust in the Lord, or I can go to the Lord, or I found

this encouragement in the scriptures. And it doesn't have to be like sometimes I think we think about evangelism as somebody standing on a box and a street corner and telling everyone you're going to Hell, and that is that that is a such a minority component or way to

do it. There are so many other ways. And I think if he's put you in a situation that you have a care and concern for your boss, you start by praying and just keep a prayer journal, write down the prayers that you're praying, and then engage him and ask your boss or or I don't know if it's a male female, but ask your boss, how can I be praying so anything else? And then follow up on as you're praying, Hey, I continue to pray. How's that going?

And it's going to give you a natural segue because you're not looking to you know, check a box or score a point or whatever, like you genuinely care for and are called to be in that spot, and so you're looking for longevity of relationship with somebody and that always love always wins, Like if you truly care for them, that's going to win the day. Yeah, I want to hit on note what you just said. We're not looking. You're not looking to check a box. We're not looking.

This is not a numbers game. This isn't a result driven game. You're planning seeds out of love because because you you have seen the truth and you have seen restoration, and you've seen peace and joy, and you felt that to the core of your soul, and you genuinely, out of love, want everyone in your immediate circle to feel that. And sometimes when you tell them that, or you you tell them the story of the gospel and they reject it, you feel like you lost, and you you you're not

good at this or any of these things. Most most times I've ever told the gospel to someone that's been rejected. Can you agree it can you say the same thing, But we don't know the seeds that we're planning. We don't know what that's going to how that's going to grow, because because God is gonna is going to grow that planet if if that's the will of the plant, it could be ten years down the road, it could be twenty years down the road because of a seed that

you planted. And so you have an advantage here anonymous that your boss is going to you. It is a heat about family issues and problems that that gives you a slight advantage. That's a strange word to you to use advantage in this this kind of context, but it gives you. It gives you an open door to then say, well, my in my worldview, I could I could cry with you. I could understand suffering, and my worldview allows me to understand suffering and pain and this kind of difficulty that

you're going through. And my worldview allows me to understand that there is a basis of truth and that there is hope, and that there is an answer, and that there is there is a savior to this and and I would love to tell you more about that worldview. I would love I forgot I think Parker told me that there was like John Maxwell or somebody like that. Somebody said that The thing they love to say is I really wish you had what I have. It's just

an intriguing way to say that. I could see, I could see why there's pain and why they're suffering, and I could see that there is an end result to this, and I wish you could see that too. It would help you so much through these problems that you're talking to me about. And I'll sit with you as long as it takes through your problems and tell you about this Jesus Amen, And I would say, be really good

at your job. There is a powerful opportunity. When you show up and you are diligent and reliable and faithful to do the work you're expected to do, and you do it with excellence, you have more credibility. That's a great point. That's a great point building credibility through your action. Thank you, Anonymous. I'm gonna kick it back to you again. Chad, we have feeling lost in a fog. We have needing advice in life, help with my relationship, leaving someone you love.

He says he's lost. Do any of those feel like the next question, I'm in a fog. Okay, let's see there. Hey Grandeur, I love your music and your channel. You're very inspiring, and I'm married. My name is Joe and I'm married, twenty six years old with two kids. Quick backstory.

Four years ago, I got a spinal cord injury. While I was unable to walk, my best friend, who I called brother, spread a nasty lie to all of my friends and family that I was faking the injury to make my pregnant wife go to work to pay our bills. This made everyone in my life abandon me when I needed them most. Fast forward four years, I mostly healed physically,

Praise God. I still have no friends, and I have guys in my life that I call friends, but our friendship is basically just materialistic and we don't have a deeper connection past work, trucks, et cetera. I'm craving a best friend to connect with on that level, but I cannot open up to the people in my life to tell them how broken I am. I harbor unforgiveness and I resent all people because of my friends and family

that treated me so poorly prior to this. I'm caught in a place where I crave human connection, but I cannot bring myself to connect with other people. I'm shackled on so much trauma and pain that I can't find a way to heal. Do you have thoughts on how a person can navigate this? Thank you, love your music, Please don't stop being you, Joe. Joe got poetic almost there at the end. He he says that he can't open up to people. Is it that he won't open

up to people? Is it sounds I mean, the way he described it sounds like an incredibly scary, lonely, painful place. And if it's that he won't open up to people, my question is, so is it? It doesn't sound I can get much worse? So why not try opening up to people? And another question I have is where's his wife in the scheme of things? Like what kind of relationship? If I'm experiencing the stuff that he's talking about, my

first engagement is going to be with my wife. I'm going to be talking to her and vulnerable with her, And so that's for me, that's a first stop. Yeah, for those of you guys watching on YouTube, I look sometimes sometimes people say, man Chad was talking to You're just looking at your phone scrolling YouTube. It's scrolling Twitter. No, no, no, I'm scrolling the question as Chad's talking, and I agree. I agreed that there's a wife missing in this situation.

There is a lot of blanks in this story the need filled in. And so because there's so many blanks here, I think we need to almost forgot forego the whole story of the injury and the the forsaking friends, and we need to say that there's something else going on here. Mm hmm. Yeah. I wonder why the friends would assume that about him if if there were if there's something historically about the nature of their friendship that would cause

them to question his trustworthiness. And so so, when when attorneys are going at it in court, when there's like a certain certain pieces of evidence that get dismissed, you know, I kind of feel like we have to dismiss that, yeah, because there's not I don't know enough about that story. It's nothing against you, Joe, I just don't know enough about your friends leaving you and the injury that I'm gonna have to dismiss that that piece of evidence and

just go to this. I harbor unforgiveness and resent all people because of how my friends have treated me. I'm caught in a place where I crave human connection, but I can't bring myself to connection with other people. I've shackled on so much trauma and pain I can't find a way to heal. I almost want to just deal with that. Like that's the question. Yeah, an extreme amount of bitterness and it's I mean, I think it's powerful, Joe,

that you're willing to admit that you are harboring these things. Yes, Like that's a that's a big step to say I know this about myself because then you're in a position to start to face that. Because that's that's what it is right there. It's a bitterness and harboring a distrust of people, and you will you will not experience a authentic friendship and connection with people if you don't trust them. That is the most fundamental element to any meaningful relationship.

There's got to be trusted. And so if you enter it with I don't trust people in general, So then you're not going to be able to have that kind of connection with people. I have an idea here, Hey, Joe, will you will you email Chad? What's that email you set up for churches. Remember, well, you could just email the Take and Read podcast at gmail dot com. Perfect

Take and Read podcasts at gmail dot com. And what I want you to do, Joe, is I want you to email Chad and tell them where you live, and Chad's going to reply back with a really solid church in your town. And then I would ask that you go to that church and seek one of the pastors that you could get counsel from. A don't look at this as like a regimented thing. This could be coffee, but but seek one of these pastors. And this is, guys, this is why Christian churches exist in the communities. It's

it's it's there. They do a lot of different functions, but but one one of the things they do is is they counsel people that are lost. And and you could go to one of these pastors, by the recommendation of Chad, and say I harbor on forgiveness and resent all people because of my friends, and I'm caught in a place where I crave connection but I can't. You could say that and to to a pastor. And the cool thing is you won't even know him uh before before this, so you won't have this, you won't have

this family connection or embarrassment. Yeah. And and this is a walk you could begin taking with this guy that I think is going to be so fruitful for you down the road. That's a great call. Yeah. I don't think we've ever answered a question that way, but it just occurred to me that this might be deeper than we could sit here and do in ten minutes. Yeah, Okay, I got a transition to this one. Okay, So like extension of that question. This one says struggling to find

a church? Hi, Granger. My name is Austin. I'm twenty one years old. I just moved to a new town two years ago. I've been struggling to find a church that has my same views. I went from a small town in Iowa to Flagstaff, Arizona. I love Jesus, I read almost daily, but I'm unable to find a church that believes what I believe. How do you find a church? This is the question I don't like. Is church really important? So Austin, I'm not going to go. We don't have

to dig into this at all. Email take and read podcast at gmail dot com. Here go, and Chad is going to go look up Flagstaff, Arizona and find you the place. He's going to find you the place. The reason I'm not just saying out on a whim I trust Chad and I do this to Chad. I've done this several times where I say, Hey, I'm going to this city. I'm going to be playing a show on Sunday night. I need a church to go to on

Sunday morning in this city. Chad will go boom, boom, boom, and they'll text it to me and sometimes he puts it in the in the terms of this is the church I would go to if I was in that time, I was in that town, this is probably where I would check it out. So, yeah, Austin, thank you for emailing there. Doesn't need any to be anything more. Besides, yes, church is really important and I would lean on Chad and hopefully this podcast could be a blessing to you

in that way. Amen, Okay, help with my relationship. I'm going to go there. Hey Granger, I'm TJ. I'm nineteen from Little Rock, Arkansas. Hopefully one day you'll come to my state. Hey buddy, I'm coming to Little Rock in Mike a month or two, I am, and you sent this email last Wednesday, so this is recent. It says I was recently in a relationship and me and her were happy and everything was going right, and one day she hit the switch and everything changed. She broke up

with me because she was heading to college. We broke up because she didn't think she has time for the relationship, and she said that was best for us, but I thought otherwise she wouldn't take my suggestion to make it work. Now we've been broken up for a month and I'm still not over her at all. I really feel like I love her, and I felt I never felt like I did when I was with her. My question is how do I get past this? How do I give up thinking that she'll come back? I hate everything about

us not being together. Please give me advice. I really need to know what to do. Thanks for taking my question, ye, and God bless ps. I'm a Christian and very active in church. Man. I have been there me too. Dude, Man, there is nothing that hurts worse than a broken heart. That yes, I totally resonate with that. Did chant I love you on this podcast because you know what my brain was thinking. You're thinking that you know what my brain was thinking. Man, don't we answer this like every

single episode? Well, I love don't you? I mean you say that there's like six basic questions, right, But I can resonate with that. I remember going through that experience and then like I flipped it like I was the one later that was like, hey, we're going different places, you know, And I just don't know all the time, you know. And so I've been on both sides of that. And man, first of all, it's it's tough, like if you're still a month out or three months out, broken,

hearts hurt and they take time. But I had a buddy tell me. He looked me square in the face and he's like, look, dude, they are like three billion women on this planet. You can be as picky as you want to, right, And to realize that, yes, there is an affection that grows for an individual, but love is not a feeling. It's a choice. It's a decision

to serve and to regard somebody more than yourself. So, yes, you have feelings and strong affection for this gal, and it's hard to imagine that you could move past who she was and maybe how she made you feel or all kinds of stuff. But hey, man, you'll get through this. You absolutely will. And let me tell you something she told you. According to you, she said she doesn't think she has time for the relationship and it's best for us. Brother.

That's code word for she don't like you. I'm sorry, dude. That's code word, man, that's been used since the beginning of language. I think they probably said that in the caveman days. They said, I don't have time for this. It's up there with it, and we're not We're not trying to minimize no, no, no, the emotional no no, no impact of something like this, but there is the

it's not you, it's me. Yeah, it's a similar one because just let's just use just a little bit of common sense here that if she really really loved you, if anyone really loves anybody, they just make that becomes the time they make the time. This is not anything against you. Like Chad said, I'm just trying to make this clear that she's gone, she's gone. Could she come back? Maybe maybe there's always there's always that, but that's rare.

And brother, you're you're you are prime. You're nineteen years old. Man, It's time to dive into your buddies. I don't know how long you guys dated, but now it's time to

just have some guy time. You're you're at you're an age where it's like you your career time, or it's college time or a tech school time, but you're in that phase where its high school's over and you're starting to blossom your new manhood, and that is just it's an amazing time to be nineteen again, and to be single while you're nineteen is a blessing and is so important and you are gonna be You're gonna be just fine. Can I read you? Psal, I'm twenty three. Come on,

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me, besides still waters, he restores my soul. That is so powerful for a broken heart, for a broken anything, for a broken human to hear those words, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down to green pastures, he leads me, besides still, he restores my soul. Just say that, Just say that over and over that it's not her that restores your soul

or gives you peace. It's this word. This is a living word, and it's so valuable and it will restore you. Say it, repeat it, breathe it, live it, and be nineteen man. Amen, it's all we got, buddy. Thank you amazing. We'll see you guys saying yee 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 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. Ye