Monday Motivation- "What Can I Do?"

Living as Ordinary Christians in a Time of Cultural Judgment

Hey everyone, welcome to Conversations That Matter, cell phone edition. I just got out of the gym, that's why I look the way I do. But my house is kind of a mess right now. It's just before we're moving and there's boxes everywhere.

And it's a small apartment, so you can imagine things get a little crowded when we're running from room to room trying to box things up. And so I'm giving a little space right now for my wife and I'm going to do the podcast just with my phone out here.

And it's going to be a short one. By the way, some of you making fun of me for saying something short and then go in 50 minutes. That's short. If it's under an hour, it's short. I'm just hoping you know that.

That's my standard for short. So I need to come up with another word for when it's really short. I could say really short, but maybe like a micro podcast, that's what we're doing here. So that you have your mega editions, which are like, that's the three hour long, two and a half hour long podcast that's in depth on something.

There's a few of those that I have. I do have some podcasts that I think approach like two and a half hours. I don't do that so much anymore because I'm putting out so many of them. I just can't sit there every day for that long.

And then and of course, if it's I think an hour to me, an hour, 45 minutes, that should be that's that's a good length. If it's over an hour, I'd say it's kind of a little longer. If it's under an hour, it's shorter.

So it's short. If it's under an hour, and then the micro podcast and what would that be? I guess anything under half an hour is a micro podcast. So this is a micro podcast. I just came up with this and I'll probably stick with that.

Those are the designations for those making fun of me out there. So what I wanted to do was respond by video to a message that I got. And it's it's a message that I have gotten in many different forms over the years now.

And but this one particularly hit me. It was someone who was frustrated. And just it went into details about their life a little bit. They have children and and they work. I mean, it could be a lot of different people, right?

That fits the bill. Busy, you know, trying to make a living, but just grieved over what's happening, not just to their country, but to the church, to even even their local church, their local assembly.

And they don't really know exactly what they can do. And they just they want to do something. And I really empathize with this. It made me think back to like 10 or 11 years ago, something like that. When actually it was maybe it was eight or nine years ago.

But I remember listening to at the time. I remember I had this there was kind of like two periods of time in my life where I listened to Glenn Beck, his show quite a bit. And part of the reason was, I thought it was pretty funny.

The Stu and Pat, the other guys and the way they'd Glenn and then the three of them would kind of play off each other, I thought was hysterical. But it was I'm trying to remember. It was during I think I think it was Obama's first term, if I'm not mistaken.

But there was just a lot of concerns about what was happening. This seemed like it was different than even other times Democrats had won in the past 50 years. This was this just had a different flavor to it because of how radical some of the things he was pushing were.

And I remember thinking at the time when I was listening to Glenn Beck, and I by the way, I should mention probably is unnecessary. But I do realize I know that there's some people who are listening or already they're typing the comment, Glenn Beck's a Mormon, don't you?

Yeah, I do. And I actually I don't listen to Glenn Beck much anymore. Not because of the Mormon thing, but just because I don't know. I don't know what it is. Actually, I think I think there's just he's moved.

He's changed, in my opinion, a bit over the years, and he's gotten a little wacky. And I think the Mormonism might contribute to that. He just he really does combine his his faith with his political ideas in ways that, for instance, like his eschatological belief seems to have a very special place for America.

That's what Mormonism teaches. And you can see that in Glenn Beck, if you listen. America is it is the it's the city on a hill. It is God's chosen nation almost in a way. And some of the critiques that leftists will make about the religious right, et cetera.

I see some of those, not all of them, but some of those critiques I could see. OK, I know Glenn Beck fits that a little bit where he kind of views America as this this nation that has like a covenant with God.

And anyway, he's kind of been like that for a little while, but I think he's gotten more and more and more that way over time. And I think that was the thing that made me eventually just I don't listen to him as much.

But that's a complete rabbit trail. And I just said that for those who who I just thought of were probably typing their comment. You know, how do you listen to Glenn Beck? I don't I don't as much. And there's nothing wrong with listening to Glenn Beck, though, by the way.

I think I think he's entertaining his show. And back to the point. So I was listening to Glenn Beck. And I remember every day I had a job I was weed whacking. I was working for a parks or it was a what was a grounds and maintenance department in a local town municipality.

And I do the weed whacker thing and I put my headphones in and I listen to the radio and or it was a podcast, I guess I was listening to Glenn Beck. And I would just get this kind of discouraged like every day I get angry, I get frustrated.

This is happening right in front of me. And what can I do about it? I am a string trimmer technician or the other fancy words, bioreduction engineer, we used to call ourselves that. Yeah, we we whacked and mowed lawns and that kind of thing.

So what can I do from where I am? I can't I can't influence anyone. I can't. People aren't going to listen to me. It's not going to change anything. I really want to change something. And in my mind, it had to be something big.

I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be doing a podcast like this at the time. It just it wasn't even on the radar, it wasn't on the agenda. But it's a windy path that gets us all to kind of where we are.

And so that's kind of where I am right at this moment, I could change tomorrow. But I empathize with the person who wrote me about this. And I, I know that there's a whole lot of people, regular, ordinary, decent people out there who want to do something and feel like they're helpless, that they can't do much.

And what I want to say is that you're not helpless, I want to encourage you, you're not helpless. And there's never a point in time in which we are without hope. So some of you know this, some of you need to be reminded of this, I need to be reminded of this.

Because I want to let you know, I still feel that way sometimes. It doesn't go away if you have a platform. You may start thinking, well, if I had a bigger platform, I could do more. Or if I had a job that was truly in government, I could do more if I was in Congress, or if I if I was the president, I mean, it gets to the point where even if you're the president, you feel like you could be helpless.

Well, the swamps just keeping me back. That never ends. That feeling that it never quite goes away. But I do understand when you're in a position where you just feel like you have absolutely no recourse, and the ground's shifting underneath you, and you're worried about your children, you want to do something.

Prayer, Judgment, and Trusting God's Sovereignty

And so the number one thing is realize God's in control, pray, prayer does work. And I'm not just saying that, I need to preach that to myself too. I do believe we are under judgment right now. And I really, I'm hesitant sometimes about saying what God is or God isn't doing when he hasn't clearly revealed that in his word.

But one thing I realized is that in Scripture, there's even places where you'll see in the Old Testament that God's judging a nation. And there's an assumption that the nation should kind of realize that that's God's judgment.

It's not it's not just like, well, God hasn't clearly given a special revelation. It's like, look around you, see what's going on. You are being judged right now. You are slaves to this other nation. Your morality is going out the window.

This is what your sons and your daughters are doing. You're eating people. It's a sign of judgment, right? So there's, I think God does use natural disasters. I think he's a whole host of things to judge a people or peoples.

In the case of the United States, we're in some ways, there's a number of different nations almost wrapped into one country. And I think he is judging. I can't in good conscience look at what's going on in our culture, our general culture, and look at that and say, well, that doesn't mirror Romans 1, because it does.

Romans 1 is playing out right before our very eyes on a mass scale. So I do think that that is happening. And so I pray accordingly. I do pray with expectation that God will win, because I know that's what the scripture says.

I pray with expectation, knowing that I play a special role in this, because I'm alive and I'm here. And all things worked together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

He's put us here for a reason. I don't know always what that reason is. But I know we're here. And it's an exciting time to be alive. Imagine if you were alive during the time of the American War for Independence, or World War II, or, you know, you pick the time in history.

Sometimes we go back, we read books or watch movies on these events, and we think, man, what a time. You know, my time is kind of boring compared to that. We're living through times when in 50 years people will probably look back and say, well, that was an interesting time.

So just realize that. You are part of a unique time in history. And sometimes the stories that we look back on years and years later aren't the stories of politicians or people with influence, right? Those aren't the stories we usually want to read.

Usually the stories that we want to read are of the little guys, right? They're the normal people. And I remember what Francis Schaeffer said. There's actually no, there are no little people in no little places.

Everyone has significance. And we want to read the stories of, you know, the shoemaker in Nazi Germany, or, you know, the banker, or the shop owner, or the farmer. You know, these are the kinds of things that intrigue us, the businessmen.

What did they do? How did they react to what was going on around them? It's the same today. And so some things you can do, practically speaking, I'm going to get practical here. You can write down what's your story.

I mean, this is the historian in me maybe coming out, but you can leave a record for your children and your children's children. If you're concerned, leave behind a legacy. Leave behind something that they can get to know, something about their parents, their grandparents, their great-grandparents, et cetera, and teach them the moral virtues that you want.

You can have a voice that might even be much more influential in 50 years when it's not as influential now. And all it takes is you taking a little time every day, 15 minutes maybe, and just writing down your story.

I'm a big advocate of that. Other things you can do besides just praying that the Lord would intervene is you can do the things that the Lord has told us to do in scripture, right? You're a Christian.

You have a mission, preach the gospel, to make disciples. So go out and do that. Use your spiritual gifts in church and enjoy the people around you. Love the people around you. Love your neighbor. Love the place you live in.

Love the people that are there. And the greater the proximity, the more love. Hopefully, you're pouring on them. So that's also a way to kind of rebel against the evil that's going on in our country that doesn't want us to...

It wants us to wear a mask everywhere and not really love people, but love people in the abstract. Love the idea of equality or something like that. It's not real love. Go and love real people. Minister to them.

It brings a lot of satisfaction. And you understand, I think, over time when you see improvement in people or even sometimes rejection, that people reject the truth because they were confronted with it.

You see that there's a reaction. You see that there is something, that you're doing something. So that's another thing that we should all be doing. We can all be doing. Other things you can do. And this is more political.

Local Political Involvement and Using Your Gifts

Get involved on the local level. I really encourage this. Get involved with your election board. Get involved with your school board. Get involved with your town. Maybe run for local office. See where that takes you.

We're not all going to be congressmen overnight. You're not going to just... Unless you're really rich and you have the money to start a campaign or you have a celebrity status, you're just not going to do it.

It's not going to happen. Start on the local level and work yourself up if you want to get into a higher office. But even if you don't, you can have a huge impact on your local community. Whether you know it or not.

Even just on the school board. You might even homeschool your kids. You may not even care that much. But it's still important to get involved with what the other kids in your community are being educated in.

Because let's face it, your children are going to be working in the same world that those children are going to be working in when they grow up. So get involved with that stuff. That's part of loving your community.

You don't have to have a huge platform. You don't have to be speaking at big conferences. Sometimes that can make a bigger difference in the people around you locally than someone way off somewhere who no one really knows who says things.

Like me even right now, right? You can make a bigger difference in your community than I can make in your community. That's just a fact. So in a spiritual, in the evangelical world, right? Not everyone's going to be a John MacArthur.

But you can make a greater impact on the people around you if you're a pastor of a local church that they actually attend. All right? So that's something I really encourage. I encourage people also to take inventory of the skills that they have.

Not just the spiritual gifts, but the skills that God has given you. Look at your life as an investment of those things in some ways. That you do have a purpose and God's equipped you in certain ways.

And your abilities are unique to you. Not everyone can do the things that you can do. And you may think, oh man, I'm just a good painter. No one really wants a painter. Not everyone can paint. Use your gift for the glory of God.

Use it to forward the things that you believe in, the convictions you have. Preserve the things that are true and valuable that you love. So that's my little pep talk to everyone out there. I understand the discouragement, but we can't wallow in it.

We can't, no matter how bad things get. We cannot wallow in discouragement. We do not know what the future holds. Yeah, we can see the trajectory. We can prepare. But we still don't know exactly what's going to happen.

And a lot of things can happen. And so we have a vacuum of leadership right now. When good men do nothing, evil triumphs. Nature abhors a vacuum. Get involved. Stand in the gap. Be the lesser magistrate.

Be a leader in your household first. Be a leader in your community second. Or assist someone who is leading. You don't have to be the one, the front man, but you can hold the bucket. You can hold the suitcase for the person who is the front man.

You can help them do what they're so good at. So maybe for you, it's playing an assist role of some kind. But we all have a part to play in this, okay? No one is left out of it. It's not just like there's some people that their job is to sit around and do nothing and absorb podcasts, right?

I hope you're not doing that. When you listen to my podcast, my intention is that you're going to use that. It's going to help you think through things. And then in your personal life, in the conversations you have, it'll help frame things for you to have better conversations, etc.

So that's why I do what I do. It's not just you can sit around and just listen to me do work for you and all the thinking for you. I don't want to do that. I want to help you think. And so I'm very much about everyone getting involved.

All hands on deck, all right? That's what we're after. So be encouraged. The Lord is on the move. We don't know what it's going to look like in every way, but there's good things happening. Sometimes, you know, even on this podcast, I focus a lot on the negative things because I have a pretty specific bent right now, which is fighting something very bad and preserving good things.

But fighting the bad things that would threaten them. So it can seem negative at times, but even as things go bad, even in places like Nazi Germany, even places like communist Russia, there was good things that we can always point to.

God never completely abandons a country as long as there's Christians there. There's a remnant. He's not going to abandon his people. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Nothing. So be encouraged by that.

Keep trucking, okay? As they say in the South sometimes, keep trucking. And yeah, I guess that's all I really wanted to say. I wanted to relate to you all. I understand. Believe me, I do. I get it. I wish there was a button I could push.

I wish I could just make it stop, right? But there is no button and it's up to God. He's the one with the button. And if he doesn't want to make it stop right now, it's not going to stop. He has purposes and his purposes center on glorifying himself, showing forth his character, disclosing who he is.

In a world without evil, we would not know some of those attributes of God. They would not be revealed. His judgment, his wrath, and his mercy. We wouldn't know anything about those things in a world without evil.

And so there is a grand purpose. We'll understand it more at the end. But we are in the rat maze right now and we can whistle as we go through it, okay? Not knowing what's around the bend, but knowing that the judge of all the earth shall do right.

So we've gone about 20 minutes. I'd say that is a micro podcast for everyone who complains that my podcasts are too long. Hopefully this one, and I'm not bitter about it. I'm not bitter about it. Hopefully this one's a good length for you guys though.

And more coming later this week. That's my little pep talk. And it's for myself just as much as it is for you. God bless and enjoy the rest of your week. Bye now.