If I Were Single And Starting Over

on these because I want them to stay loose. I want them to be able to pivot and shift and be flexible. So you know, my after midnight radio program, it's pretty structured, it's pretty I have I have certain I have certain points I have to make every hour in each six hour segment that I do seven days a week, and this podcast, I don't have a requirement to go any direction, so I try to keep it loose, and so I didn't do much prep work. But the normal format of this is I answer your questions and

you email me podcast at grangersmith dot com. And I think there's a good chance we can get to some questions on this episode. But as I was collecting questions, I started thinking, you know, last show of the year, maybe it should be some kind of reflection. So then

I started thinking, what if. What if the reflection was if I were single and starting over, here's what I would do, right, And that's kind of a good exercise for me, And so if it's a good exercise for me, I might as well unpack it in real time on the podcast. Like I said, I did just I thought for thirty seconds on this really and so I hope to kind of unpack it later. But I think it's I think it could be a good reflection for any of us, whether it's going into a new year or

mid season of anything else. If I were single and starting over, here's what I would do. And you know, as I look back on this year, and there have been a lot of things to reflect on. You know, there's a major election, the Olympics, major hurricanes hitting locations of the US that have never been hit by hurricane.

There have been strange things in the skies, whether that's SpaceX or Chinese balloons or drones, a lot of unanswered questions, a fluctuating economy, an economy that was once pretty decent, and then it was horrible, and then it kind of started flattening out in certain areas. The rise of AI, I mean, the rise of AI has been insane just in this year alone. If you think of back to twenty twenty three, we didn't really have anything to do with AI, and now it seems to be the talk

of the town. So many people are talking about AI and what it's capable of, and so much so that we're probably looking into the next year and thinking, most of us are probably agreeing that by next year we won't know what is real and what is fake, and we won't know a video faked or a video recorded. In fact, this very podcast, what I'm doing right here can probably and will be most likely replicated some form within just a few years, which brings up the point.

Here's my point. We should be training ourselves to see hear truth so that when AI does the talking, and it will in many times, many ways and many forms, it will and it's not always a bad thing. I've argued that it's not always a bad thing. It will free up time and open up new avenues of creativity for people. A little side note, for instance, here's an example. If I was still in the music business and promoting

radio singles. I would imagine that here, just in a few years, you will be able to start a prompt on AI and create a visual music video for a song in thirty seconds. So for an artist that doesn't have a budget or is trying to get their feet wet and get off the ground a little bit. Although you could question the authenticity of it, I think that's going to be just a thing. You know, Hey, make me a video that a cool visualizer for this song so that I could put it up on YouTube whatever.

So that that's coming and that's been a huge innovation. And so I think for us learning truth, seeing truth, even if it's AI, even if it's artificial, you realize AI could either speak truth or not. It doesn't have to be a human that speaks truth or lies. AI could speak truth or lies. And so just because AI says it, they could be telling you the biography of

Winston church and it could be actually really helpful. If you're learning about Winston Churchill and AI is teaching you, it's not helpful and it's hurtful if it's deceiving you or hallucinating, like some people say, that's like the term for AI messing up, hallucinating, And so it's a good practice for us to be checking things, double checking things, having multiple sources so that we can start training ourselves

to discern truth. That's important, right, and that that's something that the last couple generations have had to learn with the rise of big media. So that's what I want to talk about. And partly it also comes because I get these all these messages on my different platforms, and everyone has some sort of religion and I'm not talking about necessarily a deity. I'm talking about it could be

your religion is prepping. And when you get stuck in this this rabbit hole of, for instance, prepping, then it starts to feel like you must evangelize prepping to everyone, and if you don't, then people will be unprepared and you're going to be the only one with canned beans or AMMO. Other people will message me about conspiracy theories about like, for instance, the drones in the sky in New Jersey, and they'll talk about the drones and they'll talk,

you know, they'll send me some Alex Jones thing. In fact, I got an Alex Jones thing recently that Hurricane Helene was completely manufactured by weather engineering, and it was weaponized against the people of Appalachia. I am, by no means saying that that is false or that it is true. I am merely saying that there was a lot of propaganda. Maybe that's completely true, maybe that's completely false, but either way we need to learn to discern it. One of

these one of these things I saw. Here's an example with the drones. I saw. It happened to notice on X, which by the way, is is something that knows me well. It sucks me in if I go to post something on X that app knows me so well how to grab me for the next thirty seconds. And that's something I'm working on with my own self discipline really honestly, that's a confession. But I saw this thing where I

noticed that with drones. People were posting pictures and saying, you know, like comparing it to ezekiela one where the wheel. Ezekiel's by the river and he sees the manifest station of God's glory and there's a wheel and it's turning in on itself and someone they were posting pictures of the drones, going look is this Ezekiel one, and it was like this very strange, weirdly moving orb It was kind of turning in on itself, almost like fire or smoke in the way that it moves, but it was

rotating in a very unnatural way. And X which for all intents and purposes what I've seen with the X platform, they're pretty good with their community notes, and it's said on there on the community notes, it said, this is not a shot of drones. This is actually a shot

through a telescope of the planet Venus. And the weird movements you see are you know, like the sun's rays or the rotation or the atmosphere, and the way that it kind of moves and looks misty, and the focusing in and out was the telescop of itself and so

it wasn't was not a drone. Someone was deliberately lying, deliberately deceiving, and it's not hard to believe why they would do that, Partly mostly probably because people want to get clicks, they want to get views, and they will deceive you by putting something that's completely false on the Internet so they'll get retweets or repost as they call it now on X which is crazy. But after they did the community notes, and it was like, once I saw that, I was like, oh, that that's obviously not

It's obviously not a video of a drone. That's obviously a telescope focusing on a star or a planet. And then I started seeing that same video pop up on other platforms and people were saying the same thing. Here is a close up from my phone on the drone in New Jersey. This is stranger than anything we would expect. Someone's covering up something, someone's lying to us, you know, all these things about the government's lying to us or

everything you believe is now not true. It's interesting and ironic that they're lying by saying that someone else is lying when reality they just want attention. But on the other platforms that were not on x, it wasn't always getting flagged, so sometimes it would miss the community notes, or maybe there's just too many of them in community notes, can't keep up, And it was getting so much traction. This one same video of the planet Venus through a telescope.

Bizarre stuff. And then you see other things that are flagged by community notes. Whenever something big happens, we'll go back to the drones, you know, for instance, people were posting all these videos in the community. Notes would say, this is not a recent video. This was taken at a at a technology show, a technology air show in Orlando, Florida, in twenty twenty two. You know, because people are like

this drone is different than anything I've seen. Yeah, that's because some other person took that video three years ago. We have to be able to discern truth. And my

inbox gets flooded by these things. And I always think to myself that me as a Christian, as a believer, it seems so obvious that the water is constantly being muddied so that we will fear things, so that we will be confused about things, so that we will idolize things, so that we will will do anything really to worry and fret or idolize or worship or be distracted from the reality that we are sinners in need of a savior.

And then we live in a following world. And yes, there are going to be storms, and there's going to be cancer, and they're going to be fatalities, and they're gonna be awful things, and they're gonna be precious things, and there's gonna beautiful things, and there's gonna be There will be things in the news that just perplex us, and the Bible says, yes, in this world you will have trouble. But take heart. Jesus says, I have overcome the world. He says, I say these things to you

so that in me you will have peace. So with all the troubled hearts and all the news and social media perpetuating it and making it bigger and bigger, bigger and crazier, these theories and this, what's happened with the election, what's happening with the deep state, And what's happened with Ukraine, what's happened with Russia, what's happened with China, what's happened with Iran, what's happening with these drones and these weather balloons,

and what's happened with weather engineering and her Ricane Helene, and and what's happening with people had worried about their gender and misunderstanding this and the racism here, and it's just all this cloud of confusion and social media just makes it louder and louder and louder, and Jesus says, peace be still, And there was a great comb Jesus is in the boat with his disciples and the storm is raging and the disciples find him asleep on the cushion.

I've been to Israel. I've been to the Sea of Galilee and the boats there. There's actually a fishing boat from the first century that they have found. It was in the mud, preserved, preserved by the mud, and they've

now brought it up. And it was this incredible process of how they they because as soon as they hit oxygen, it started it rose, and so they were able to put foam around it and take it to the shore and then and preserve it and then put it in a museum, so you could see a first century fishing boat. And my point is it's pretty small. It's about the size of like a Chevy suburban really maybe maybe like a Chevy Express Van fifteen passenger van. It's just not

that big. And so you think of the disciples in there and Jesus in there, and they're in they're in the middle of this deep lake and the storm, which I've also seen storms rage across that little lake. It's not little, it's it's a decent sized lake. But the way that it sits in this bowl, in this valley, and the storms roll over the mountains and they just crash into the bowl and the valley in Lower Galilee, and it just rips apart that that fresh water sea.

And I can imagine these, these disciples and Jesus out there, these fishermen that are used to it. But this is different. This is this is a aging storm, and Jesus have all things. He's asleep, taking a nap right there on a cushion in this relatively small boat. And I said, wake up, aren't you afraid? Don't you know we're about to die? Jesus gets up, he says, peace be still, and the wind and the waves stop, the storm ceases,

and the Bible says there was a great calm. And I believe in so many ways we are still those disciples. And sometimes it is actually physically a storm, and then sometimes it is a storm in her minds, perpetuated by

the inability to discern truth. And it goes further than that, because it's it's not just the ability to discern truth, because if there if there was something really bad happening and it was true, we still need to be able to compartmentalize this really bad thing in relation to eternity and what what Jesus says, you have in him. And when you when Jesus says, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me. Look to me. You will have peace in me.

You will have joy in me. My joy will be in you. In this world you'll have trouble, but take cart if overcome the world. Let your hearts not be troubled, nor let them be afraid. You know, he says all these promises because you'll be with me, You'll die in me, You'll you'll be raised in me. You'll you'll listen to the right and of the Father. In me, You'll be today, You'll be with me in paradise. He's promising all these things in perspective of this finite life that we live.

And so when the storm is raging in our lives, and it does rage, and it doesn't take the fact away from the actual raging of the storm, but Jesus says, look to me, look to me. This is bigger. This is this is a bigger thing. It's like when when my kids are crying because they want ice cream, and I say, look to me, I have better things planned for you than ice cream. In fact, this ice cream is going to hurt you right now, so you can't have it. Look to me as a father, and I

will lead you on the right path. It's bigger than ice cream. You say, Grange're why, man, I don't know. The thing I'm going through right now is not It's not a kid problem. This is this is an adult problem. And I say, yes, you have an adult problem. Yes I understand, but we have a great God who has spoken and continues to speak through his living, breathing word. Now through that, I still haven't said. If I were single, starting over, here's what I would do. But that's the

setup for it. You know, maybe this season you forgot to get someone a gift, or you didn't get them something in time, or maybe they didn't like the gift that you got them. Either way, I could solve that problem for you if you go to cameo dot com slash Granger Smith. I'll make you a video message. And that video message could be anything you want me to say. It could be a late Christmas gift, it could be a happy birthday, a word of encouragement. Maybe sorry I

didn't get you the gift in time. Either way, go to cameo dot com slash Granger Smith, and I'll make you a customized video message however you want me to do it, go to cameo dot com slash Granger Smith and I'll make it right now. Okay, So after we've kind of talked about the reasons, as we think about a reflection on this year, let's talk about this. If I were single and starting over, here's what I would do. Number one, and this is number one, seek first the

Kingdom of God. In so many ways, if I were single and starting over, I would anchor myself deeply in Matthew six thirty three. Seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. That's the beginning of the conversation. I would build my relationship with Christ as the foundation before chasing careers or hobbies or relationships or jobs or possessions, Grounding everything in that idea. That's something I have not always done. That's something I

still struggle with today. But at least I have a better understanding of that enough that I could put that as the number one priority. And then when I start kind of drifting away, I know that's where my anchor is, and I come back there. Seek first the Kingdom of God that goes with everything I've said about the you know, the conspiracy theories and the troubles, and that the problems as things come and go and fade, come in and out. We worry and we get so strung out on the

world's problems, and then we forget that. Jesus says, in this world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I've overcome the world, and we anchor ourselves in that. And like I said, we think about the storm on the Sea of Galilee. There's raging and the disciples are freaking out. Jesus asleep on the cushion, and a relatively small fishing boat rises and says, peace, be still. And then in the waves are calm. There's a great calm. The Bible says, So easy to forget that, so easy to drift away

from that. Seek first the Kingdom of God. In our discerning of truth. Number two, be intentional about relationships, or be intentional about who I spend my time with, whether that's friends or mentors or dating romantic relationships. I would ask, does this person draw me closer to God? Or pull me away from him? Proverbs thirteen twenty reminds us whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. Your circle of friends,

your immediate circle of friends, matters tremendously. They influence you tremendously. The Bible says that bad morals corrupt good character. Do not be deceived. So for you thinking it's okay, I'm not affected by this, I don't get affected by people like that great trip, you know, I could resist that stuff. The Bible says, do not be deceived. Number three, I would steward my time and my money better with a clean slate starting over. I would want to develop these

disciplines early, these spiritual disciplines. Right reading my Bible every single morning. That is an excellent steward of time that I that I have not done until the last half decade. Have been very serious about that. And and you know what helps me is journaling. Is I've journaled the last

six years digital journal. I keep two journals. One is my reflection journal that I reflect on the reading that I've done in the Bible, and it allows me to kind of have a little commentary to myself, meditate on it a little bit. And then I have my daily journal that's just this is what happened yesterday, This is what's happening that I hope happens today, and what I hope I might do in the future, And this is

what I think about it. I do that every day, and I could listen to digital and I keep it with me, and you know it's always you know, uploaded on the cloud. I could keep it with me and I always can trace. And I think to myself, what if I had this thirty six years in a row instead of six, How amazing would that be to look back thirty years and see what I was doing. And it helps you realize that the thing you think is is a big problem, the thing that that you just

are convinced this is a huge problem. And then you look, you look back on it in a journal and you go that big a deal. And then the other things that might seem kind of small, you look back and you go bad matter that's still has ripple effects that go even into today, And a journal helps us to think about that. So that's a that's a steward of time that helps with our stewarding of time, and then and then budgeting wisely, saving consistently valuing these things time

and money as a gift from God. We're on loan. You know, He gives us these things as borrowed. We don't We don't keep it. We certainly don't keep any of anything of this earth with us. We know that. And then the even easier thing to understand is we don't keep time. It comes, we have it, and it's gone. When you say yes to something, you're always saying no to other things. That's something I wish I would have understood. I would ask myself, in dealing with money and time,

what is eternal and what is temporary? Right? Great question to ask. Stewardships shape your future more than you think when you're younger. Stewardships of time and money shape your future more than you think when you're younger. Number four learning to be content in every season. It's so easy to believe. You know, I'd be happy when I would just be finally happy if this that, when I get married, when I get a job, when I hit a certain goal.

But you know, if I were single and starting over, I would focus on Paul's words in Philippians four eleven. I have learned to be content in whatever situation I'm in. True peace doesn't depend on circumstances. And you know this is coming from a guy I have seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, whether in business or in personal life. I've seen in my career the biggest of stadiums with the most people, in the smallest

little bars where there's nobody but a bartender. I have seen, you know, marrying my bride the happiest day than welcoming children into the world. And then I've buried a son and a father. It's a big spectrum, and it's so easy in any of these spectrums to say, you know what, it's going to be better. When it's going to be better when we've healed after five years. You could say after a loved one is lost, it's going to be

better when we get this new radio single out. And you know what's so crazy about having a number one song in the world is that you get to celebrate that for a second, if you do. I don't think I ever did. But the most overwhelming thought that's wrapped around a number one song in the world is what's next. We gotta go to, we gotta go to in a row, we gotta go three in a row, we gotta go four in a row. It's always the thought, no one ever thinks this is great, number one in the world.

I guess we'll hang it up now, don't We always want that from athletes. They break the record and we go now, you could retire right, No, they keep going, and then they get injured, and then they get traded down to a lesser team, and then they just kind of dwindle away. We want it for everyone else, but when it comes to ourselves, we go no more more. I've noticed in my career that the highest of highs, the greatest feelings, the greatest excitement, the greatest contentment and

happiness happened at all the different levels. It didn't increase as the situation increased. Me walking, let's take an example, stagecoach, one hundred and twenty thousand people, me walking out on the stage, or Bristol Motor Speedway in the stadium, one hundred and fifty foot catwalk, drizzling rain. Everyone's got their cell phones up with the flash slats on, so much energy. I'm walking down there in front of everyone. The crowd's roaring,

and I'm content right in that moment. I'm happy, I'm excited, pumped up, grateful, for my band, grateful for the crowd, and then rewind ten years before that. I'm in Norman, Oklahoma. There's two hundred and seventy three people sold out in this little venue, the catwalk. It's not one hundred and fifty feet instead, it's about seven feet and we built it out of road cases. And I walk out and the crowd goes crazy, and I'm excited and I'm content and I'm happy, and there's my band and I'm grateful

to be with them. And then rewind ten years before that, and I'm in College Station, Texas at Hurricane Harry's and there's one hundred and twenty people and they're excited and they're they're you know, I'm pumped, and I'm grateful for my band. And then rewind ten years before that and there's thirty six people and they're not really excited to see me. But I'm just excited to be playing, and I'm happy and I'm content and I'm grateful for the band.

In every situation, it didn't increase the happiness, the excitement didn't increase. It's always relative to where you are in your life right then. But I always thought that it would, you know, that's why you keep chasing it. You think I love this feeling, I want to have it even at a ten X level than this, And I bet if I feel it at this level, then i'll ten exit when I get to this level. And it's not true.

It's always relative to where you are. Learning to be content in every season, being present, and that probably that leads me to number five. Don't rush God's timing. I would trust God's timing more fully and resist this pressure to force my own plans, whether that's a career, a relationship, personal growth. I would remember Ecclesiastes three eleven that He made everything beautiful in its time. God's delays are not his denials. God's silence are not his unanswered prayers. Why

is that so hard for us to understand? It is always his perfect timing. This is easy to see with my kids as they want They want chocolate ice cream right now, and I say no because I know I have something much better for them, and I also want to protect them from belly eggs and rotten teeth and whatever else. That that's the reason they can't have the chocolate ice cream at ten PM. I have something better.

I love them too much. To waste it on something so trivial, And yet isn't that us don't rush God's timing. Number six. I want to invest in my character over my image. Invest in my character over my image. And that's because what I've seen and what I know. The world focuses on appearance and perception, right, But instead I would develop more of who I was on the inside. Proverbs four twenty three says guard your heart. Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it, says the author

of you of Proverbs. A strong character rooted in Christ will outlast all of the surface level success. Integrity is a word that I could use over and over to refine character. These are things I would tell myself if I were single and starting over. Number seven. Prioritize the local church and community. This is something that's very hard to understand. I didn't understand it for a long time. But a Christian cannot last. Will not last. You will

not make it as a Christian. You will not be able to grow spiritually at all without the local church. That's how it's set up. We are a body. It is like saying the eye saying to the hand, I don't need you, or the hand saying back to the eye, I don't need you. I could see just fine, and the hand says I could touch just fine. In fact, the body comes together as different members, and we need each other, to serve each other, to encourage each other

Hebrews Hebrews ten twenty five. We have to remember, do not give up meeting together, do not neglect gathering, as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage one another. The Bible says, this helps us with accountability, It helps affirm our profession of faith. It helps us, it helps if we're lost. It encourages us to bring back another someone, another member that's lost. The members of the body need each other, and then that overflows into the community. Prioritize

the local church, which then outflows into the community. If the Bible says, if Jesus says the greatest commandment outside of loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, if he says love your neighbor as yourself. If that's the commandment, it says, follow me, and here's my commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. How could you do that outside of community? How could you do that outside of the context of the local church. You can't.

That's why a monasticism just didn't work. That's why you can't be a monk. And they realize that the monk life failed because you're taking away the one strength that you were given, the God given ability to love others, to serve them with whatever special gift you have. That's how you contribute to the body. But you can't do it unless you're in the body. Number eight learned to rest,

learned to rest and trust God. If I were starting over, I would remember, and I would remind myself that rest is a spiritual discipline, not just something you do when you're exhausted and you can't move on, you can't go any further. I would learn to trust God fully, embracing the rhythm of work, the Sabbath rest that He has designed for us in christ proverbs or excuse me, so what is a psalm? It's I'm on twenty seven to two says in vain, you rise early and stay up late,

for He grants sleep to those he loves. That's that's an interesting verse to meditate on. You think you wake up early and go to bey. You think that's all you Huh, He'll give you sleep it's the way you're designed learn to rest. So many times I want to grind it out. This world, this culture tells us to

just grind it out, grind it out. That's so interesting because I think so many times, especially in the world, it's probably more difficult now than it ever has been, just in terms of us having a grasp over time itself. You don't traveling. If I was going to travel one hundred years ago, maybe longer one hundred and fifty years ago, I would say I'm leaving for a month, I'll see I'll get there when I get there, and I'll come back when I come back, And when you saw me,

you'd be like grandeer, you made it back. And today, if I say, hey, let's do coffee at eleven oh five, then at eleven oh six you're looking at your watch, going, is everything okay? Where are you? You're late at sixty seconds past when I said it was going to come. That's never existed in any time in history until now. That hurts our ability to learn to rest. Number nine, Be wise about dating and purity. That's a big one.

I would if I were speaking to myself starting over single, I would approach dating with more patience and purpose are patients in the purpose, our purpose in the patience. But I would be intentional about it, king someone who shares my faith values. Purity guarding my heart that is that is uh, that's an unbelievable truth. Purity of mind, body, spirit, actively guarding it like a like a great treasure. Remembering first, first Thatsalonians for three, that says, for this is the

will of God. And when the Bible says that you stop for a second any time you see a verse that says, for this is the will of God, stop, gather yourself and be ready. And this one first Thatsalonians four three, this is the will of God. Your sanctification that you may that you abstain from sexual immorality. It matters to our creator because you were created in that way. Because when you don't look, let me, let me, let

me illustrate it like this. I've said this before. It matters to Ford Motor Company that you put gasoline in a gasoline powered engine. Not that it that it hurts Ford Motor Company when you don't, but you're doing something. If you put diesel in that gasoline engine, you're doing something it's not designed to do. So it matters to the image. It matters the ones that are imaged from it, the ones that are made in the image. It matters for them to put in the necessary ingredients according to

the way it was made. So when the Bible says abstain from sexual immorality, it's just as much for you as it is for God. You we have to understand this isn't just like some crazy God to some dictator telling us to do things that take us away from some fun, because we all know we don't have to look far to see. When you do break this and you step outside of this, you start to get hurt

in ways that are very difficult to repair. I'm talking about heart problems, and we've seen enough of that on this podcast, right, And finally number ten focus on eternal impact with a blank slate starting over, I would ask myself more often in every situation, does this have eternal impact or is it temporary? Where is the eternal value in what I'm doing right now? And if there is none,

why am I doing this? But a great question to ask whether that's serving others, whether that's sharing the gospel using God's gifts that he gave me for his glory. Framing that question in our minds helps us to make those kind of kingdom choices, and it makes it less less about my comfort and my reputation and more about

him and his glory. It's a good consideration. And these are this is a quick list, and maybe I could do more of these and you know, kind of expand on it, but I think it's a good way as we reflect on the previous year and we look forward into it another year, to think of it in terms of if I were single and starting over, this is what I would do. And as always, as I finished the final podcast of this year, I say, we'll see you next Monday. 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 notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video. Yigi