Imagine the echo of laughter as another friend takes a graceful (or not so graceful) slide across the ice—our latest gathering at Pirelli Veterans Arena was a night filled with such moments, binding us together through shared slips and spins. With a community that's more like an extended family, weaving tales from a young man's icy dental debacle to the warm-hearted antics that keep us chuckling, our 18th episode peels back the layers of life's less polished, yet genuinely endearing experiences.
We all have those days when even a simple task like chopping veggies can turn into a mini-saga worth sharing over a family dinner. This episode brings you into the kitchen where everyday adventures await, from the gratitude for unexpected gifts to the hilarity of the Wendy's chili finger tale. The chat takes a twist with odd finds in fast-food orders and the subsequent corporate responses, reminding us that it's these quirky encounters that add spice to our stories.
Finally, we share the subtle art of disarming conflict with love, reflecting on how kindness, even to those who disagree with us, can change the atmosphere around us. By embracing the transformative power of love and the comfort we receive from Christ, we're not just nourished; we're equipped to extend the same support to those around us. Come join us as we discuss the joy of Christian fellowship, the importance of community in the post-COVID world, and how acts of love can uplift and unite us, one cake pop—or podcast—at a time.
Imagine the echo of laughter as another friend takes a graceful (or not so graceful) slide across the ice—our latest gathering at Pirelli Veterans Arena was a night filled with such moments, binding us together through shared slips and spins. With a community that's more like an extended family, weaving tales from a young man's icy dental debacle to the warm-hearted antics that keep us chuckling, our 18th episode peels back the layers of life's less polished, yet genuinely endearing experiences.
We all have those days when even a simple task like chopping veggies can turn into a mini-saga worth sharing over a family dinner. This episode brings you into the kitchen where everyday adventures await, from the gratitude for unexpected gifts to the hilarity of the Wendy's chili finger tale. The chat takes a twist with odd finds in fast-food orders and the subsequent corporate responses, reminding us that it's these quirky encounters that add spice to our stories.
Finally, we share the subtle art of disarming conflict with love, reflecting on how kindness, even to those who disagree with us, can change the atmosphere around us. By embracing the transformative power of love and the comfort we receive from Christ, we're not just nourished; we're equipped to extend the same support to those around us. Come join us as we discuss the joy of Christian fellowship, the importance of community in the post-COVID world, and how acts of love can uplift and unite us, one cake pop—or podcast—at a time.
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Plugged In podcast. Hello, good to be back. I almost said good morning because it is morning here. We don't often record in the morning.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:It's kind of an afternoon show.
Speaker 2:Kind of feeling the lull today. Yeah, I need some coffee.
Speaker 3:None of us have coffee here. That's a problem. That's a problem.
Speaker 1:We've run up against that before, and here we are again.
Speaker 2:I think we've learned.
Speaker 1:But we are in episode number 18 of the Plugged In podcast. One thing that comes to mind right away is that about a year ago, we were talking about how poor Loretta and I were at ice skating yes, and how Nate is basically a wizard.
Speaker 3:Of course I don't know how. Of course I don't know how?
Speaker 1:But Mass Youth recently had Friday Night Fellowship. Let's just start off the podcast. Can you guys give us a brief little recap of Friday Night Fellowship at the Ice Skating Rink in 2024?
Speaker 3:Yes, so we went back to the Pirelli Veterans Arena in Franklin, massachusetts, which, first of all, they are phenomenal. Yeah, they're so kind, they gave us a free assembly room to have pizza. Normally they charge like a hundred bucks an hour. They gave it to us for free, so that was awesome.
Speaker 1:We sometimes, when you're like I'm the Salvation Army, people are ready to help you out.
Speaker 2:And then when you repeat and it's like hey, I'm coming back and we have a huge group coming, yeah. There's perks. You get some perks.
Speaker 1:No doubt those people buy pizza and other stuff. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:No, they were awesome. We had a great group. We had about nine core come out.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 3:And I'd say about 75 people, 66 people on the ice, and it was really cool to see some new groups from core that we haven't seen in a while, which ones which ones, the things Like seven, kids eight kids and some friends from camp that we knew. Salem North Shore brought a nice group of seven and that had been a while since we had seen them, and a great group from the crock was there as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he did. He got out on the ice, captain Chicago.
Speaker 1:Who had the hardest fall?
Speaker 3:Okay, Was there a documented fall? There was, and actually I don't know if I can share this, but there was. There's an incident report.
Speaker 2:There was an incident report.
Speaker 1:Oh, I won't mention names, but there was an incident report.
Speaker 3:It was filled out within the first five minutes of the event. Wow, a young man fell. A young man. A young man. I won't say what core or what his name is they? Tripped in the lobby, oh yeah, yeah. Well, ended up cracking his tooth.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, yeah, Now I feel bad that I left.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's an, it was a, it was an incident, so yeah but the arena was great.
Speaker 3:They brought ice, they brought a little baggie to put his little tooth in and take home with him.
Speaker 2:Nate's laughing, so that's a problem too.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 3:And then, but to edit this out, yeah, I don't know, but he, he seemed to be okay. Other than you know, yeah, that incident to start the night.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I heard your pride more than it does physically.
Speaker 3:I think it did, cause he was asking for a mask to wear the whole night.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, but it was a great night.
Speaker 1:It was a fun poor guy. We do have Friday night fellowship coming up in March. Yeah, I know details about that are coming out soon. We'll be moving back to we're kind of doing like an every other.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:We're doing like a worship and kind of a study type of format and then we're doing a fun fellowship type of event. So in March that's coming up soon Information is going to come out about Friday night fellowship. I do have an opening rant today. Oh boy, for you listeners out there, I'm sure that you can imagine like the worst weekend of your entire life, like I just experienced mine yeah. And it wasn't just me, it was the whole family endeavor.
Speaker 2:So I went to um.
Speaker 1:I went to the New York area. I went to help call the recording session with the New York staff band for their most recent their newest album is going to come out. It's a lot of fun. The recording session was was great so, but the first thing that happened is I was basically sick as a dog.
Speaker 1:My my throat was swelling up Like I didn't feel great. I told Nate off the air. I think that I, for the past like five or six days, I'm on every single anti histamine that you could possibly buy from CVS Walgreens, Like so you're also like tired, as can be, because you're like yeah, I'm trying to buy the boxes that are the non-drowsy ones, but I'm just at this point, I'm just like yeah, I'll take anything to get you know to get me the walking pharmacy.
Speaker 1:So that was the first thing. I had to be like razor sharp focus and it was like really hard to work my way through these anti histamines in my brain, but anyways.
Speaker 1:So after the recording session, it was a holiday weekend president's day on Monday and my wife and I had the thought okay, instead of me coming back after the recording session, why don't we meet halfway in Connecticut, Nice? We'll stay at a hotel and we'll take the kids swimming. Awesome, Perfect, It'll be a great weekend, Perfect. So at the end of the recording session, I started to get texts from my wife that was just like I don't, I don't know why we I don't know why we did this.
Speaker 3:Why did we do this? Why did we do this to ourselves?
Speaker 1:So she packed up the dog. The two kids made this like two hour drive in the Connecticut and the kids weren't doing great in the car, the dog wasn't doing great in the car. She gets to the hotel and it's not like it's. There's not great things happening. So of course they put us on the fourth floor, like a half a mile away from the elevator. So I'm not there, yet I'm still in the recording session. So she arrives with our dog and with our two like infant children and our luggage and like like a hero is trying to make her way, like into the hotel room.
Speaker 1:So every parent's like worst, worst nightmare. The dog is like not behaving well, and so the two kids are in the hotel room. The dog is in the hallway and like sneaks out and starts to run out. So Heather, like just instinctively goes to grab the dog, the hotel door closes. Oh no, with the two kids inside, oh, my God, I know so like panic, panic.
Speaker 1:Oh, she's texting me like, oh my gosh, this is like the worst possible thing, so like her heart drops. Caleb was on the other side of the door and she was able to instruct him. Caleb, can you turn the handle for mommy?
Speaker 2:and he was able to turn the handle and open the door. So like oh my gosh, I have like goosebumps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I need to speed through the rest of this, but we get into the hotel room and it like it smells like heavy smoke. Lovely, so that was. That was like number one. Yeah, how good. Later the dog went to use the bathroom and I don't know how to say this like over in the room.
Speaker 1:Well, we took her out, or Heather took her outside, but she had blood in her urine. So the dogs like having some issues. Caleb ends up not sleeping that night. So he he wakes up about three o'clock in the morning and come in, is just like that's it, Like he's on our bed, he's kicking us in the face, he's rolling around, he wants, he's like ready to play. So if you have any toddler that doesn't sleep at night, you know the next day is going to be like so it gets worse. So we don't sleep that night. There is also a party happening the floor above us. That is like going on at like three, four, five AM.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, just average president's day party, that's all.
Speaker 1:Really so I'm like sick as a dog. Neither one of us slept. Caleb didn't sleep. In the morning we go to the breakfast buffet. This is the. This might be the worst part. So we're in the hotel breakfast buffet and in the lobby Heather is holding baby Mackenzie in line for the food.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Mackenzie projectile, vomits her entire bottle like like across the entire breakfast buffet. Oh no, oh no. And on top of that, caleb's at an age where, like when Mackenzie has thrown up before, he like steps in it and he's like, oh, that's yucky. So like I scoop Caleb, I drag him out of there. Mackenzie's like crying, heather's like mortified, like getting towels and trying to wipe this up. We like, oh, it was crazy, there's more.
Speaker 2:You have time for more? Do we have time for more? Just lay it out, let's go.
Speaker 1:OK, so after that happens we leave the breakfast bay. We decided to take the kids swimming. Still there's like a billion kids in the pool, so Caleb's more or less intimidated.
Speaker 2:So we like quote unquote swam you know, in the pool for what that was.
Speaker 1:We go to a restaurant after we leave the hotel and that's a horrible experience and, like toddler refusing to eat food, go to the bathroom like blah blah. And then here's the, here's the keystone, or the capstone and the story. We leave, we have two cars, obviously. Well, we came separately. We leave the restaurant, we decide to meet up at a Duncan, get a coffee and then we're going to drive home.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Heather drives to the wrong Duncan.
Speaker 3:Oh man.
Speaker 1:I call her on the phone to say hey, where are you? When she answers the phone she gets pulled over by a cop because in Connecticut you can't be on your phone.
Speaker 3:So you set her up, bro yeah.
Speaker 1:So the officer basically like walks up and like Heather didn't say this, but in her mind, in her mind she's just like just write me a ticket.
Speaker 2:Just, I don't even care, I'm just don't explain it to me. I don't have the, I don't have time or the mental capacity oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:So then Heather drove home with the kids and Mackenzie threw up two more times in the car. Oh geez and yeah. So we made it home, you all lived, and then the next day was Mackenzie's birthday.
Speaker 3:And you guys had some great photos of your birthday on Facebook, so it looked like it was all fake. It was all.
Speaker 1:Photoshopped Fake. Happiness is right, is what is going on.
Speaker 2:That's the true life of a parent right there. That was way too long of a rant. Oh my gosh, matt.
Speaker 1:I feel like someone out there can be like worst weekend of my life, something like that. You need to get that out, man.
Speaker 2:Oh my, that's insane, that's my story.
Speaker 3:I'm sticking to it. Wow, god bless you guys.
Speaker 2:Well, we had, like just in the past couple weeks, had some wild things happen. Nothing is wild as the Matt yeah. But, Nate what happened in in Lole, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:So I'm a very forgetful person. During the summer at camp, I will lose my keys. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Ten times a day with the Apple tag. With the Apple tag, I'll lose them yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll say at the HQ here. So Nate loses his keys so much that he, just when he unlocks his office door, he just leaves the entire key chain in the door. And then he'll come to my office and be like where's my keys? And I'd be like, bro, did you check your door? They're still in your door.
Speaker 2:I mean, our house keys are in the door, right. But then he'll say LaRuta, have you seen my keys? I think you had them last on my honey. That's not the reality. Yeah, but keep going it takes a village.
Speaker 3:So thank you guys for being my village. So I forget things a lot. I'm in mass brass. I always forget my folder. Matt will tell you that there have been many times where I've shown up to things shown up to concerts, shown up to rehearsals. Have not had my folder, but so I have no comment Okay. So the next episode is ramp. Nate and his music, so two Sundays ago, pause.
Speaker 2:I've also found like five folders in cleaning the house. So I keep finding all of them Sorry.
Speaker 3:You know how much music I practice in so many locations.
Speaker 2:Oh, please.
Speaker 1:Here's what I'll add to this story. You know how many photocopies I have to make in preparation of people losing folders.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm done. I've killed a lot of trees, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Keep going, keep going Okay.
Speaker 3:So two weeks ago it was Junior Soldier Sunday at the Lowell Corp, which was amazing. Great See, the Junior Soldiers really doing their thing and leading in worship. But I was playing in band that day and I had gone to band practice on Tuesday. I was really excited. I was like, all right, I need to make it in time for preliminary music. So we had the. We had Yam the day prior and played in brass. Here I get into Lowell, I open up my horn case and my horn is not in the horn case.
Speaker 2:The horn is not there. We brought an empty case, I brought an empty case and the horn is literally sitting right. He didn't notice. Bro, how did you pick that? I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I mean, I've been working out, so maybe it just seemed a little lighter.
Speaker 2:Oh, there it is. Somehow it has to compliment you.
Speaker 3:No, the horn is still sitting in the chapel here at DHQ in my Yam formation.
Speaker 2:No. So he like we're sitting in chapel at DHQ chapel yesterday. He looks over, he's like, oh, there it is.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, chris is like is that your horn, bro? I was like yeah, let me tell you this story.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God. But, I that's not as bad as the story you told in the podcast when you run it over.
Speaker 2:We're just not doing great with this poor horn is the bottom line.
Speaker 3:I'm really thankful for Ernie McNess. If people know Ernie, he's the bandmaster there. He is great man. He pulled out this boozy and hawks horn and it's ready to go. Gave me the whole history about how this horn was. Of course it was his dad's horn from I don't know 20, 30 years ago, and that was one of the nicest horns I've ever played.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:It turned out to be. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:So thank you, Ernie McNess, you're my hero.
Speaker 1:That story like shocks me. 0%, no, like, like it's just a day in the life.
Speaker 2:Ernie probably had six horns down there oh he was ready to go.
Speaker 3:That were oiled up like ready to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the social media content for this episode will be. Are you surprised that Nate forgot his horn? Are you surprised that Ernie was ready? Are you surprised? That'll be the content.
Speaker 3:Yeah, shout out to Ernie, I like that. I like that Okay.
Speaker 2:So mine you have to find the thread in mine because it goes a different route. Anyway so we have been like really intentional about making meals and like eating lower carb and like trying with different, like veggies, and just really trying to be in touch about food. And so I was on Amazon a couple of days ago and you know those veggie choppers that you like.
Speaker 2:Put the veggie in and you're like yep see them all over TikTok and I've been obsessed with them, but I haven't bought one. When it was on sale I was like, let me do this, so I get the veggie chopper. I'm chopping veggies, I'm making like almond bites to freeze. I was on a roll.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she was.
Speaker 2:Then I'm slicing carrots to put in our salad and they come with that like that guard. Like you put the veggie in the guard but the carrots were getting too thin. So I put the guard to the side and then I'm like, I'm like chopping, and I get the slightest bit distracted. And like I, I sliced the carrot and it took a chunk of my finger. Oh, man. Like right on the knuckle and so.
Speaker 1:I mean it's immediately. My first thought is it could have been worse.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent could have been worse. And then like I send it to like a text to our family chat and my dad's telling me how he's done worse.
Speaker 2:I'm like thanks, thanks for yeah, I'm like thanks for affirming me, dad, but this is about me, so anyway. So I get this chunk of my finger off Jackson's like I need to see it. Oh my gosh, oh my goodness, mom, your finger. So it was a whole saga. Wrap my finger, and of course it's my middle finger. So I have to like hold my hand up to stop.
Speaker 3:It was a whole thing.
Speaker 2:But then Nate proceeds to tell me he's like you know it could be, it could be worse. And I was like I know, honey, I know it can be worse. Let me just wallow in my you know, whatever right now he's like did you know that?
Speaker 3:here comes Nate with his facts.
Speaker 2:Did you know in like in like 2007, that someone found a finger, in a way that he found a finger in a Wendy's chili, and I was like what I was like you never heard this before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Was that in Quincy Illinois? I don't know, I reread the story because I feel like that's a story of, like my childhood.
Speaker 3:It's an urban legend passed on from generation to generation.
Speaker 2:So then, so then, that prompts a whole like deep dive into the Wendy's chili finger.
Speaker 3:It was a saga.
Speaker 2:But then we find out that that was all a hoax. But listen, so the woman planted the, planted the finger in her own chili.
Speaker 1:Didn't she get a ton of?
Speaker 2:money, I think. So I don't know if she had to pay it back or what, but she like planted it, she like got a finger.
Speaker 3:Where do you get a finger?
Speaker 2:Her husband works in like some.
Speaker 3:Black market bro Industrial.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, that prompted the whole thing. But then here's the end of the thread. It reminded me when we were we've already said the name Wendy's when we were driving one day, I think it was 2019. We stopped at a Wendy's on one of our travels. I got I think I just got an iced tea, drank the iced tea and we had like hours to go. We get home and I'm like shake the iced tea. I'm like how is there still ice in this thing? Like this is amazing. I open it up. My goodness, there was a used chapstick in my Wendy's cup. It's fantastic In the bottom.
Speaker 3:You could be a millionaire, I could have. Well, she tweeted at Wendy's and Wendy was like oh, here's some coupons. They were like what?
Speaker 2:They wrote and they said, oh, dm us with, like, the store number. And so I was in contact and they were like, well, send us your address, we'd love to send you something. I was like I really don't want any food from you.
Speaker 1:Should have gotten bacon eight years for life.
Speaker 2:And I was like they offered you coupons, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's like oh, you didn't like your experience, Come eat with us again.
Speaker 2:But then you also want the coupons. Anyway, it was just like this whole our dinner conversation, that's the whole thread, and I was like, wow, we have really we've covered a lot, because I chopped my finger on the carrot chopper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you still have your finger, I know.
Speaker 3:It could have been worse. Could have been worse we could have ate your finger for dinner by accident.
Speaker 1:I either rewind quite a bit in that story because I just have to say so. You mentioned your dad and like, giving you know he's like, uh, he's a man's man and he gives fatherly advice and like, but I feel like he's also he's seen I don't you know, I don't know your family that well, but he seems very protective of his daughters, you know, and one of the better videos that I have seen in a long time was on social media. So your sister, I'm so scared, no, no, I think you're going to know in a second she's convincing your dad at the table that she did a really good thing by paying $400, $100 per tire to get specialty air put in them.
Speaker 1:And your, your dad is literally like doing everything inside of him to not be like you did. You did what?
Speaker 2:He's trying, he's, so he's like ah, I wish you would have told me it's so good, but Larissa is playing it out.
Speaker 1:It's a prank. Yeah, it's a prank and she's just like wait, I didn't, I didn't do a good thing. I thought I was like taking care of my vehicle and he's like $400.
Speaker 2:Well, once you can see the moment it clicks because she's like so I shouldn't have paid $100 per tire.
Speaker 1:Oh man, and then he goes.
Speaker 2:He like he pauses for a second. He's like you paid $400.
Speaker 1:You're joking Like he was instantly.
Speaker 2:But it was so cute because he did not at first respond the way she wanted him to. She wanted him to instantly be like what?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but he was like so like he was really gentle at the beginning and then Larissa just did not know how to respond.
Speaker 2:She's, yeah. Larissa is all about the pranks. We don't ever know what's true, what's not.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's so good, it was good.
Speaker 2:It was good, I loved it.
Speaker 1:It was like, it was like one of those like when you, when you see it on social media, I probably watched like 14.
Speaker 2:So I was like this is just great. We need to have my obnoxious laugh in the background. So you know it's all good.
Speaker 1:We're going to take a quick break here at the Plugged Podcast and when we come back we have three devotional thoughts, brief ones, to share with you, and then we'll get you on your way. So, just to recap, this is episode number 18 of the Plugged Podcast. We'll be right back. All right, welcome back to the Plugged Podcast. This is part two of episode number 18. We have a couple of devotional thoughts for you today to sink your teeth into, or sink your brain into. I don't know I was going with the cliche, but then I was just like that doesn't really work. I'll start today. So my thought is simple. It's just. You guys know that my brain works in song most of the time. So as we come into the Easter season, you start to get familiar tunes that pop up, and one of my all time favorite hymns has this lyric. It says Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. My two favorite parts about that are the choices of words of color, like crimson.
Speaker 1:That's like such a, it's a weighty word, and then he washed it white as snow. I want to read this verse. This is a familiar one, but it's Romans five, six through eight. You see, just at the right time, when we were still powerless, christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, christ died for us.
Speaker 1:I have a friend who a friend that is like I feel like in the most recent I'm not explaining this very well he's brushing up with suicidal thoughts on like a pretty regular basis and it has to do with different kind of addiction and just the scenarios and circumstances he finds himself in. And I was just recently hit with this verse I think we've talked about like a Christmas time, you kind of like. Once you internalize the story, you don't I don't know if you think about how remarkable it is anymore, and I feel the same way. Well, I mean about Jesus' entire life on earth. But at the end of his ministry, at the end of his life, you come down to this like ultimate sacrifice and when you think of like the heroes in the form of today, in this like hyper world we live of, like superhero movies. Even when you think of a superhero, you may not think of the first thing being like that person's willing to die.
Speaker 1:To die to die for the people that he's protecting. So, while Christ went to die on that cross and I think the part about it that we internalize and we just kind of like he died for me, christ died for me, but he didn't just die for me and he didn't just die for Christians or he didn't just die for people that are trying hard, but he died for the least of these and he died for all of us and that was God's plan. Like that was the blueprint from the beginning. And so I've just been thinking about my friend and I'm just trying to offer gentle encouragement and you're kind of always in a situation where you don't really know what to say. You don't want to push them away and you don't want to overwhelm, but you remind them that you love them, you think about them, you care about them.
Speaker 1:But ultimately I've just been thinking about as we come closer to Easter Christ died for me, but he also died for this person and whatever situation they find themselves in. That was part of God's plan. And so that's just been kind of on my mind, this idea of ultimate sacrifice, and you can pin it on yourself Like would I be willing to die for my friend who's having suicidal thoughts? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's tough.
Speaker 1:Would I give up my own life? I don't know, no like so. Anyways, I'm just that's a. There's no ultimate resolution in that thought, other than the fact that there is comfort in knowing that the death wasn't the final destination. But that's just kind of been on my mind today, and I'm sure that people out there are. Now we're in the lint season, so I mean there's been a lot of talk and chatter and thought about Easter and what it means and the journey to the cross and then ultimately rising again. Good stuff.
Speaker 2:Thanks, matt, yeah, yeah, you want to go neat, sure.
Speaker 3:I can go. Well, if you're anything like me, you're probably over the political season already Done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, I'll check.
Speaker 3:And it just seems like every day another sound bite comes out of some ridiculous statement or some accusation or some blame game or something that sounds like this yeah, something like that. Right Subtitles on the bottom yeah.
Speaker 1:Let me sometimes yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean you're good, matt, you're good.
Speaker 3:But I don't know what it is. I go to the gym at night and they have CNN and they have Fox News right there when I'm on the elliptical and so I'm just like my I'm already mad that I'm like exerting energy and running and then I have to look up and read like, oh, what ridiculous statement was said today. And this season really breeds a lot of just hostility and division and conflict.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it just speaks to a larger problem in our world that we live with people that we don't necessarily agree with, and sometimes that can lead us into sin, but sometimes it gives us opportunities to be a redeeming presence in the midst of that.
Speaker 3:And so I've been reading this book, live in Grace Walk in Love by Bob Goff. It's a 365 day devotional very short, really emphasizing the importance of being people of love, being people of grace, being people of mercy and intentional in the way that we interact with one another, ultimately representing what Christ has done for us. And in one of the passages in here, bob talks about how oftentimes, when he he's a speaker, he's an author, he's a pastor, oftentimes he'll interact with people who don't necessarily agree with him or say something against him or really just start conflict with him. And his way of disarming conflict is, rather than adding to the noise, is he will send them a cake pop in the mail with no return address, and it'll just be like disarming conflict with an act of love. And one of the things that he posed in here was am I more concerned with being right or am I more concerned with being like Christ?
Speaker 3:And how oftentimes our opinions, our truths, what we hold and what we value, sometimes we make that primary and central to who we are and at the expense of those who don't agree or vote or look like us or necessarily, you know, think the same things that we think. And that led me to Ephesians, chapter four, verse two. It says this be humble, be gentle, be patient, tolerate one another in an atmosphere thick with love. Make every effort to preserve the unity that the Spirit has created, with peace binding you together. I love that, the way that's described in atmosphere, an atmosphere thick with love. You know, like if you think of what you're breathing in, right, is it nourishing you, is it building you up, is it contributing to your health and well being, or is it something that's bringing you down? Is it something that are you creating an atmosphere where others are walking into hostility and conflict and aggression? And so, being humble, being gentle, letting our love be louder than our opinions.
Speaker 3:It's not an easy process, it's not an easy practice, but when we look at the Gospels and we see how Jesus lived it out, I think of his encounter was Zacchaeus right, this tax collector that nobody wanted anything to do with.
Speaker 3:And here's Jesus, intentionally going out of his way and spending time with this man and through the intentional interaction, right and that act of love, zacchaeus ends up like following Christ, like leaving behind his entire career and livelihood and whole life history of being this contentious, divisive figure. And I think of the crowds looking in on Jesus and it says, here's this guy who's hanging out with this notorious sinner, what does he think he's doing? And Jesus, in just this radical act of rebellion, not adding to the noise but disarming the noise with love. And what a challenge that is for us in our world that is so noisy, so chaotic, so divisive. Can we disarm the noise with love? Can we disarm conflict with love? Can we be more concerned with letting love be louder than our opinions? And what a transformative, what a redemptive, what redemptive power is found in that. Yeah, yeah, that's that's what I feel God has been laying on my heart in these, these days, where it's so much easier to just type something on a computer, hit, send and, you know, add to the noise.
Speaker 1:It's like so, it's so true, like it's just how often do you read an article or read a post or something like that and you're just like disgusted by the comments? Yeah, yeah, and you know, sometimes people are will hide behind, you know, I think on Twitter or what used to be Twitter. Yeah, like you don't sign necessarily your name, yeah, you don't have to be verified.
Speaker 1:Same thing with Facebook, like if you really wanted to make some false identity. Yeah, there's just like this ability to get on the computer, say whatever you want to say whatever kind of vitriol or hatred, or just like at the expense of others, and hide behind that computer screen. And it's not that it necessarily wouldn't happen in person, but it's just like it's unfortunate that technology has driven us to this point of I guess it goes for everything but so much potential for good. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's being twisted for evil and dividing us and pulling us apart, yeah, but I don't know, I like those acts of love. It's tough because you don't want to go out there and promote your acts of love and be like hey, look at this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look at what I'm doing. Look what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Right, but on the flip side I feel like that's also inspiring and people need to see that level of good in the world to try to balance out the evil.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's a tough like. It's a tough balancing act. It is you don't want to promote yourself. It's almost like those stories need to be told, not necessarily by the person doing them. That's tough. I don't know how to find that balance. Yeah, but you need good news, you need good stories you need, like acts of love that are out there in the it's not self promotion, it's more just like recognition of I don't know just.
Speaker 2:we always hear about the bad. It's good to hear about the good, yeah. And also how do you send a cake pop in the mail? That sounds amazing.
Speaker 3:I think that's pretty awesome yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm like I think like a Starbucks cake pop putting it in a bag, but I'm like, no, I can't be. I overthought that part of the story a little too much. But yeah, thank you, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3:Just finding a way to to highlight the motivation for why you respond that way. Because because of Christ's love dwelling in us, I have no help. There's nothing I can do but extend it to you.
Speaker 2:Well, that kind of links up to what has been on my heart recently.
Speaker 2:We were at a core couple pretty recently and I was just talking to the core officer there and we were just talking about some of the things that that she's facing with her family and some of the the things that you know aren't aren't publicized but we don't necessarily know about until you have that one-on-one conversation.
Speaker 2:And she was saying that she really inadvertently ended up having a conversation with someone else in the division who had gone through something very similar to what they had gone through and, as a result, like this beautiful friendship has kind of blossomed in the in recent days because one person went through something really difficult and another person's going through something very difficult, but there's just wisdom that is being shared between the two and like, okay, you're gonna need this, you're gonna need to stop at Starbucks and get yourself coffee on the way, like there's just this encouragement and it's just it's a reminder that I've needed in my life too, to know the things that I've gone through, the things that I've experienced. How many times I've come in or I've run into or been in a situation where someone else is going through something very similar.
Speaker 2:And I'm like listen, I can empathize with this, but I can also, like I can, speak into this, because I have experienced something very similar and it just continually reminds me of this verse from 2 Corinthians, where Paul is right into the church in Corinth and he says, speaking about Jesus, he says he, jesus, comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort others when they are troubled. We will be able to give them the same comfort that God has given to us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and your salvation, for when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you.
Speaker 2:And I remember this verse years ago was linked to a devotional book that I was doing at the time called Streams in the Desert, and there was a line in that devotional that said Christ comforts us, not so that we will be comfortable, but so that we can be comforters of others. And so just it kind of, you know, lessens the severity, not lessens the severity, but it gives purpose to some of the things that we've gone through, because the Lord is going to use what we have been brought through to comfort others within our spheres. And just so, whatever we're going through, whatever our listeners are going through today, whatever comes to mind as you hear that verse, just a comfort in knowing that not only is the Lord near, but he's going to use whatever we face not only for his glory, but to be able to be a comforter to a brother or sister who's going to go through something similar. And so it was all, just in the past couple of days, been been re, you know, re brought to mind as I've seen it lived out in this friend.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, there's something I was thinking about just in terms of what we do here on the podcast. Like I want to encourage listeners out there Like you don't have to have a podcast to find someone who you get along with and to just be with them and share and talk and have a conversation. And like when we record this podcast people won't know this, but I mean we, you know we press the record button for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, whatever it is but we've probably talked for 45 minutes before we press record and when we're done recording, we might talk for another 30. And it's because we enjoy being with each other. We bounce ideas off each other, we vent our troubles and we get advice from each other. And that's like to me, one of the things. When you talk about coming out of the COVID era, there's a lot of stuff from the COVID era that I like. How do I phrase this? I actually miss it, like the level of traffic, like the busyness of the schedule, like all that stuff, kind of like compound stress in your life.
Speaker 1:But when you talk about Christian fellowship, being with people a reason to like physically be in church as opposed to virtually doing it.
Speaker 1:It's like this kind of stuff it's not even necessarily I don't know, like the I don't want to say anything, I don't know too risky, but I mean like the coffee and fellowship time with Christians after the church can be every bit as spiritually fulfilling as the actual act of worship While you're sitting in the pew. And so, along with what you're saying, like I just like I hope people are still pursuing that concept. You don't have to have a podcast to do it.
Speaker 1:And we and even if we didn't, if the podcast ended tomorrow, I think we would still hang out, we would chat, we would vent, we'd share happy stories, like that's just what it is. And so, going along with what you're saying, I just, if you're listening out there, I hope that you have that person. If you don't have that person or people, you can, you know, find a Bible study, yeah, you know. Find the core, the church, the place that you feel like you can have that type of social engagement and fulfillment. Yeah, we need community, we need one another.
Speaker 2:I think I've found in myself. It's so easy, it's so easy for me to be an island. You know it's so it's. I don't have to we were just talking about this too. I don't have to, you know, rely on others. I can just be. You know, rely on myself. If I don't get it done, it's on me and not a frustration with other people. It's so easy to be an island, but it's so much more fulfilling to, to collaborate, to work together, to have people have a community, have people that you trust.
Speaker 2:It's very it can be very scary because it's a very intimidating and, you know, vulnerable process, vulnerable for sure Vulnerable is the word, yeah, but that community that's built is something that there just can't be, you know you can't, it can't be quantified in any kind of, you know, measurable or whatever.
Speaker 1:It's just that's one of the things, too, that I appreciate most about the just the concept of the Salvation Army.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I've been fortunate to do a lot of traveling in my life. And I think I've been to 10 different countries and in all of them. I have visited a Salvation Army.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's just like it's the same. Yeah, that's what's like so weird.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's the same Like there. There might be a brass band there, or there's a corps officer in uniform, or someone is, like you know, ready to say hello and pray for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, there's an altar call at the end of the message, like you go around the world, and there's this community of believers that are already your brothers and sisters before you walk in the door. And that's just like I don't. I don't have history in other churches, this has been my whole life, but it seems like that is a very unique concept.
Speaker 2:You've already knocked down several barriers before you even step foot in the door. Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 3:It's amazing. Yeah, I was just going to say, you know, I think a lot of times our culture tells us that if we don't, if we can't handle it all by ourselves, if we don't have it all together, then something's wrong with us. And the reality is like we're human beings and we need to have grace for ourselves and recognize that we've been wired for relationship from the dawn of time, like Christ created Adam and Eve in relationship, you know to compliment each other and to to affirm each other and to encourage one another. And then that's how the church, the early church, was formed to model community. And so I think anytime that we have an opportunity to lean into community, it teaches us not just a lot about ourselves and those around us that God has placed in our midst, but it teaches us about him, because he's a communal God. So yeah, great thoughts, great thoughts.
Speaker 2:Great thoughts, everyone yeah Around the little table, yeah.
Speaker 1:I like this. Well, guys. That's going to bring us to a wrap of episode number 18 on the Plugged In podcast. Before we go, I do want to say we'll have this person on the podcast pretty soon, but we've sat on social media and it's gone around in emails, but it's been a thrill for me to welcome Chris Molinaro, yay.
Speaker 3:To the music department Solid.
Speaker 1:And we've mentioned him on the podcast before, I think as it comes to archery and camp wonderland, and handbells.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah and handbells.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:So we'll have Chris on the podcast sometime soon, but he's off to a great start in the music department. And if you're in the Massachusetts circles, you've probably already seen him in some emails and you've seen him at Yam and he's already a part of what we do.
Speaker 2:He's family already yeah.
Speaker 1:So All right, well, we're going to. That's going to be a wrap, yeah, any closing thoughts?
Speaker 2:Nope, exhausted on the thoughts. Okay, no more thoughts. I hear that imaginary music. There it is, there it is.
Speaker 1:All right, everyone. Episode 18 of the plugged in podcast. We will see you next time. Oh, he got it.