Foxhole Symphony
Foxhole Symphony
PIVOT: Cultivating a Resilient Spirit in a World of Change
Ever wondered how a simple change in your morning routine could lead you closer to your faith and improve your relationships? Join us as we bare our souls about reshaping life to make room for God in the day-to-day hustle. In this engaging episode, Mark and Sarge inject some humor into the conversation about lifestyle pivots, repentance, and the quest for authenticity in how we live and connect with others.
Change can be daunting, but divine guidance can make all the difference. This episode peels back the layers on behavioral change, the limitations of willpower, and the grace found in surrendering to a loving, sovereign God. We share anecdotes and spiritual insights, like those found in a resonant Psalm, to illustrate how shifting our focus can transform our approach to life's hurdles. Our discussion leads us to a deeper understanding that discipline in returning to spiritual truths is not just beneficial but essential for a resilient spirit.
Faced with the fast-paced world of today, we dissect the concept of intentional living, exploring resources like Cal Newport's "Slow Productivity" and the Encounter app as aids in your journey towards tranquility and purpose. Wrapping up, we extend an invitation to our listeners to engage, share their stories, and join a community that values transformation and spiritual depth—because after all, isn't life about more than just keeping busy?
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Welcome to Foxhole Symphony, a podcast about the transformational value of men in authentic community.
Speaker 2:In our foxhole. Men are equipped to build relationships that foster belonging, accountability and growth.
Speaker 1:Stop believing the lie that you can thrive in isolation and instead join us on the journey from broken to whole.
Speaker 3:Hello everyone. They call me the Maestro and we are back in the foxhole where we actively pursue belonging, accountability and growth through authentic relationships. No masks, no agendas, just iron sharpening iron. Steve and Mark are in the foxhole and they're decked out in their basketball gear this morning and they are ready to take the court. You know what time it is? Get your favorite notes app open and settle in. We start in three, two and one.
Speaker 2:Hey, welcome back to Foxhole Symphony Podcast. I'm Sarge here with Mark. There's some things to talk about. I know you've got a plan for this morning. I do. You've got an idea, I do, and it's a nugget, let's pivot.
Speaker 1:You want to pivot? Go Good, it's a good word too, isn't it? Pivot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not something you say all the time it's not, and, to be honest, so it's two memories for me.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:One is you know basketball Absolutely Right.
Speaker 1:Who's in the pivot?
Speaker 2:Pivot, pivot. I can remember coaches yelling at my son.
Speaker 1:I had to go look it up.
Speaker 2:His friends like pivot right and then the other. Both require yelling. Actually, both of my memories involve yelling, coaching basketball. And then there was a Friends episode. I don't know if you ever watched Friends, but there was a Friends episode Ross, they're moving a couch down the stairs tight stairs in the apartment or up the stairs, and Ross is stuck with his face between the wall and the couch and whoever he's moving the couch with I forget who it was, maybe it was Joey or Chandler or somebody and Ross is going pivot, pivot, screaming, and they're just stuck.
Speaker 1:Oh no, and I do recall that. But that episode makes me think of Young Frankenstein, when Gene Wilder's face is caught with the revolving door and he goes put the candles back.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's great oh well, that's not.
Speaker 1:my mind is totally now in Madeline Kahn and Frau Blucher. Wow, I wanted to talk about pivot in terms of a lifestyle pivot.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a phrase or a word that I use pretty often at work. One of the things my company is noted for is being nimble, and when I think of nimble I think of being able to pivot right On short notice. You can turn, turn away, turn towards, and that just resonates with me so much because my life. Often I find myself in that sin cycle of where I have sinned, I confess, I repent, I turn towards God and then potentially sin again. Right. And so the repentance, the pivot there, the turning away, I like to. You know I'm a glass half full guy, so turning away can be turning towards just as well, right. But how it relates to my day in my life has had me thinking lately.
Speaker 1:And, as usual, my friends John and Tim at the Bible Project hit me the other day in a conversation on the Sermon on the Mount. The new study they're doing for this year was a talk about change and repentance, and they actually used a metaphor, or analogy, I should say, with their kids about how do you redirect your kids, and it made me start to think about the changes I've made in my life, from my routine. So let's start there, as I'm thinking about, I'm a routine guy as a planner, right? So there's the list, and then there's certain things. I think I'm a pretty simple guy, but my list is pretty good. Like, don't mess with my toothbrush. There's a little glass bottle there and the toothpaste and toothbrush are there and I expect it to be there every morning and every night.
Speaker 2:And if it wasn't, it would throw you into a tizzy.
Speaker 1:I admit it, it would Like who touched my. You know, just like you yelling pivot, but I use that as an example of I'm organized. I put I know where my crap is. It's very rare If I lose my keys they're gone.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:My glasses. I just had an episode of of glassitis and they're gone. They're at a restaurant in Connecticut, never to be seen again. So I say that to say that I'm an organized, routine guy. I have a life that, while I feel I have freedom in my life, I've also ensured my sanity and others around me by ensuring things are kind of in their place. But in the last you've been with me for this journey in the last five or six years I've made some pretty significant changes in my life, especially in the morning, with my devotional time, with my time in the word and things of that sort, and I hadn't until recently stopped and said what did you stop doing? What did you eliminate? Yeah, why were you able to change? There's only 24 hours in a day and I'm still sleeping seven, seven and a half. I always have.
Speaker 1:Good day is eight, but I'm trying to be more introspective about, okay, what are the things we need to do as men to change our routines a little bit, to give God that extra few minutes, that extra chance. That's really the crux of this, at its core. What changes, what repentance, where do we pivot? What are some examples in your life? As I keep talking and looking at you, thinking and seeing the smoke come out of your headphones, thinking about what changes have you made? Where did you pivot your life? And I know you've got some great stories about walking down street corners that you may have told here before. I don't know, but and I don't want to put words in your mouth but for me I almost feel like God just made a pathway for me and said I'm bringing you on this journey with me now and you'll just do whatever you need to do. You'll make time for something that's important for me, just as we do in so many other areas of my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Why I keep God and family ahead of work in terms of priorities in my life. Yeah, and I know some people listening can't say that no work can consume us, so there's some pivots may be required, so let's talk about that Well it's interesting, yeah, so many things we can talk about there.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, first of all, you know our resources, just stewarding our resources. So you talked about time, time schedule, priorities, right, how we spend our time and how we spend our money. Evaluating those, really uncover what our priorities are very quickly, right, right, so the? And so park that for a second. Going back to routine, you know some of us just need more discipline in our lives and we need a routine. Right, we're, we're, we're go, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, I just want to say I realize not everybody's like us, right, routine wise. Well, that's why I want to talk about it.
Speaker 2:Right, and so some people right. This is there's. There's a pendulum from flying by the seat of my pants to you. Know you, I'm pointing at Mark right, which is, you know, I'm scheduled down to the minute is.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm scheduled down to the minute, right, yeah. So for that person that you know has no routine and there's a, there's a blessing and a curse to both, both of these. So here, here's, you know, having no routine and no schedule and no man, that sounds like manna to me, like I would love to go through life like that. It's right I would. I would meaning, I would love to feel the freedom of that. There's some really great things to be, you know, like what might I notice more? What might I become more aware of? How might I notice God at work, or the needs of other people, or these other, if I didn't schedule everything down to the minute? Okay, yeah, however, however, those people can also drive us crazy, right? It's like you know where's the schedule? Are you showing up? Doing Ever? No Forget on time.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Now you could serve somewhere. Like that person may or may not need some more discipline and schedule in their life, okay. On the other side, the person that's overly scheduled and again like might need more surrender in their life, might need to give up a little bit more control Right, surrender in their life, might need to give up a little bit more control right and and might notice more things and be more aware, and you know. So again there there's there's good and bad to to both of these. And, um, the thing about this, the schedule, you know I look at that and go, wow, okay, I guess it could be easy and challenging for people in both of these camps to pivot Absolutely because you're on the extremes Right.
Speaker 1:Bring it to the middle, okay, and I feel, believe it or not, in my mirror time, I've come much closer to the middle. I have a plan for every day and I used to schedule a lot, but I have a group of things I'd like to accomplish that day to have it be a successful day. And, by the way, there's not a lot of like extraneous fluffy stuff in the list. It's stuff that has to get done. I can either pay someone to do it or I can do it, or find someone to help me do it.
Speaker 1:whatever the case might, be so that middle ground, the person who has that tremendous freedom, I get it. That does look pretty attractive for a while. I don't know what I'll do after the second week of that and I'm in a stage of life where I can see that pretty clearly. I kind of know what that looks like and I'm thinking I'm going to be doing stuff in the yard and the house and the garden and it'll just I'll switch. Yeah, the freedom will become the freedom to just do something a little different than work. But on the other hand, that um, super planner, you know that our friends listening who have jobs, and they're thinking well, I can't stop working. Yeah, I've, you're asking me to fit in room for God somewhere where Right. So two kids.
Speaker 2:I got a wife, right, yeah, so you brought us back to you know again priorities, right, and really looking at at, I think, in a healthy evaluation of how we spend our time and how we spend our money, you know, I mean really like, how much time do you spend doing what? You might be surprised what you find if you really stop and evaluate how much tv you watch or you know how yeah, yeah, right how much time you spend on on devices or social you know, whatever it is, whatever it is right, even hobbies good, great things that god gave us and fun and recreation.
Speaker 2:Like you know, you do you spend golf if golf's your thing, like, how much time a week are you spending playing golf or riding your bike or whatever it is Right, right, um? Versus other other things? Again, what are the priorities? Going to the gym Really good thing, right, um? Do you have an addictive personality and and you know where's that showing up? How does that show up?
Speaker 1:Right, and we don't just mean sex, drugs, rock and roll alcohol.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Right I mean you could.
Speaker 1:you could be addicted to a lot of things, absolutely. I know someone who's addicted to serving.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 1:Every night of the week, six nights a week, they're in another group or another church event or another something, and I look at this guy going, oh my gosh, you just took that addiction and picked up this addiction. So I'm just giving an example. It is better, no doubt about it. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, how'd he die? Served himself to death?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think the prioritization you know of life, I mean yeah.
Speaker 1:And in accounting right, mm-hmm, setting priorities, but, just as you would, a family budget, yeah, think about your day Well, and that's just it.
Speaker 2:I think, at the end of the day, strip it all away. It comes down to awareness.
Speaker 1:It's just having a greater awareness of you know what your, what your priorities are yeah, I, I spend a lot of time these days telling, affirming in people a change they can make. I find this being honest with my brothers about. You can do this. Yeah, like this mountain that you're talking about is a hill. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so that's a whole nother branch, right, like the, the behavioral management, you know, versus real heart change, right, and so you know, we can look at our schedule, how we spend our time saying I need to stop doing this, so what you were saying earlier. Schedule how we spend our time saying I need to stop doing this, so what you were saying earlier, right, I need to stop doing this and start doing that. Well, you know, yeah, that's good. You know, developing healthy habits right, that's good. But there's a much deeper change that I think we're wanting to talk about, right, and so some of it is our own pivot and it it maybe it starts there. But you know just what you said before about filling this addiction with good things, um, that's, that's just sort of behavioral management, right, you know that might lead to some good things, but I'm not sure it leads to heart change, which we aren't really capable of doing on our own strength, no, and let's go down that rabbit hole for fun, but I want to before we go.
Speaker 1:I have learned that it's not always stop and start. Sometimes it's just stop. Yeah, really yeah. I don't want to make it sound so simple that I'm going to stop doing this bad thing and start doing this good thing. I don't think the world's that simple, no, but it is good for you, but it's not even simple enough to just stop that.
Speaker 2:This is my point. It's like that that's my own will, on my own will, and strength, own will and strength. I'm going to change this behavior. I'm going to stop doing this. Listen, good luck, right.
Speaker 1:We've learned. Good luck. It doesn't last, right? So let's go ahead. I know where you're headed We've actually been there a little bit several times but the pivots that we're talking about, you don't look pivot, change, repent, pick your word, it doesn't matter, but we picked pivot. That pivot, without God in it, without surrender in it, its chances of success are not good.
Speaker 2:Right, and I think exactly what are you turning towards? So it's not necessarily, even necessarily, it's not necessarily starting something, but the but the stopping is choosing to turn towards something else. If, if, if the, you know, like a dog returns to his vomit. If I keep going back to this, this is my, this is my routine, this is my MO, this is my habit, this is my sin, this is, you know, it's the, it's okay, stop, pivot toward what is the question? Right? Right, is it towards some other activity, some other? You know, discipline, yeah, that's good, but you know it's turning my head and my attention right towards something. But it's also turning my heart, you know, towards something is much more important and much more significant and challenging.
Speaker 1:It is it is Look. I'm going to oversimplify this. You know, if you've ever cooked anything, right, if you put too much of an ingredient, it's like, oh, that's bad. I need to just stop doing that. Right, I know it said three eggs, but I wanted to put six, et cetera, et cetera. This came out crappy. I don't do that again. Right, that's a simple change, head change right, I saw the recipe, ignored it.
Speaker 1:I'm smarter than them, and what does Emeril really know? And off I go. Then go through your life. You could be doing so many good things, but you might be doing too much of something good, right? You might say I might want to consider spending more time with my wife. Instead of serving six nights a week, I'm going to pick one for my wife, right? So that's, I'm doing something good. I'm just going to change my time management. Like you said, my behavior needs to change, where my focus is now on my bride. Yeah, right, a good thing. Yeah, you really didn't stop doing anything there. You just made an adjustment, right?
Speaker 1:Personally, so many times where God has directed me to make change, where, and in spite of myself, more often than not, I just told you what. 18 hours ago, about God hitting me. Well, I felt like a slap right in the face with Psalm 118. That's a. That was a pivot moment for me. Wednesday could have been one of the worst days I've had in a very, very long time. It was off to a bad start as frustrated as I can remember being in a long time. Won't go into the whole thing again and put you to sleep, but I was literally outside walking the dog Got hit with a devotional with Psalm 118 in it that simply reminded me to praise my God, that his faithful love endures forever, and it was the words I needed. At that moment, my heart was exposed and raw and I decided, with God's help and that Psalm, to simply change my day. I lost two, two and a half three hours of the day, but I decided to not give up the rest of it.
Speaker 2:So let's park there for a second. So I think that you know, when we had the basketball reference and I just had this image of you know, being on the defensive, right so being effective defensively, right. So the pivot is, you know it's an offensive move, right On the defense, right, it's. What are you looking at? Where are your eyes fixed? Right, so, like here you are walking the dog. Now you were on the defensive, under attack, right, you're like getting chased, getting beat up. You're like stop pummeling me On the ground, fetal position.
Speaker 2:Well, in basketball, one of the first things you learn in defense is don't move your head, don't watch the ball, keep your eye on the belly button, right. So, so you got, you got somebody on offense, you got don't, don't, don't get faked out, don't get faked out by the shiny object syndrome over here, look over here, look over here. You know, look at the birdie. You know the old cartoons getting smacked in the mouth. Keep, keep your eye on the belly button and stay focused Right and so not suggesting Jesus is a belly button, but being called worse, keeping your eyes fixed, which is which is. So I just honor that. Like you know, you're on the defensive, but here you go, you've got the discipline to go back to the word, stay in the devotions, keep doing what you know you need to do and go back to the source of truth.
Speaker 1:And that's where the routine without the routine in my okay Is that what I'm saying and for me, I told you and it's okay to say you know, for me to say it, but I I'm walking along, pissed off, and I press a button automatically the Bible app. There are two readings that day Job 15 and Psalm 118. And I was lamenting yesterday. Job is just pissed off and you're like yeah, yeah, let's go. Job is angry at his friends, elephants all his friends, God, the dog, you know.
Speaker 2:You're like, that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Exactly See. Thank you, Lord, I knew it. I've got righteous anger, you know.
Speaker 2:And then I hit 118 and just melt, yeah, because he's like yep and guess what? My faithful love endures forever. And I'm going to tell you again my faithful love endures forever. And my faithful love endures forever. And I'm going to tell you again my faithful love endures forever. And again, my faithful love endures forever. Right, it's beautiful, but, yes, so therein lies the beauty of having the discipline and having developed the habits, right, so that when you're on the defensive, you know exactly what you need to do. It's just part of the routine. It's it's you know exactly what you need to do. It's just part of the of the routine.
Speaker 1:What were you doing, stephen Sargent, before you started surrendering to God? Can you go there? Give it, give me an anecdote. You changed your heart, changed, yep. You made a choice. Yeah With God, yeah, with help with God, to change what were you doing before.
Speaker 2:Well, to be honest, keeping busy, keeping busy. So you know it, for me it, a lot of it, comes down to productivity and you know some of that is tied to identity, Some of that is just, you know again, tied to worth and value. You know I've got to stay productive, keep moving, keep moving and pivot, and this is why this, this topic, really hits home for me. Just just keep pivoting. And what am I pivoting to? Right, okay, let me get off this hamster wheel and jump on that hamster wheel.
Speaker 1:I was just thinking of the same thing.
Speaker 2:The same metaphor in my head went through running through the maze Right Rather than you know what I'm attempting to do right now, and I'm not saying this is coming easy, but it's an exodus from the hustle. It's an exodus from the hustle.
Speaker 1:Presence over productivity, presence over production. You've said it so many times in the last two months, right.
Speaker 2:But it's so true, and you know this is a big, big topic since COVID. In the last few years there's a lot of thought leaders talking about what it means to be productive and an exodus from the hustle. It started with the great resignation.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Right. People were like whoa, I'm getting my priorities straight, I'm getting out of this rat race. And then it was silently quitting, this whole silent quitting movement, people going I'm not, I'm not doing that anymore, and it causing employers and business owners and executives to go. What's going on here? And you know how can we be most, most productive? What does productivity really mean? It doesn't mean busyness. What does productivity really mean? It doesn't mean busyness.
Speaker 2:So this is a whole nother podcast and there's lots of them out there, um, but for me it it really hits home and speaks to you know the, the, the disease of, of busyness, and it's quality over quantity. So for me, it's evaluating my time and when you were saying like, like, planning out your day now, like I, I'm literally I talked about it. You know a couple, a couple episodes ago about, you know, my journaling, and not just journaling my life, but journaling my day, planning my day, which I've always done, but having less of a task list and more of what are the few things that I'm going to focus on today that are going to result in quality and excellence, whether that be relationally, whether it be for my work, whether it be my time with the Lord, what are the few things and what is my purpose today? And then, what is my priority today? What is the one thing that absolutely has to get done? You know, or I will have failed.
Speaker 2:And so you know, having that focus day in, day out, as well as week to week, helps me surrender the the hustle and the busyness to God and say Lord, what, what. And it's it starts with the purpose question. It's one of the hardest questions for me to answer. What is my purpose today? How do you even answer that Right?
Speaker 1:That's hey, that's masterclass stuff, but I tell you, I tell you, and and I was, I'll admit.
Speaker 2:Most days I leave it blank. I'm like I don't know, because I want to just make a list of 4 000 things that I'm going to accomplish today.
Speaker 2:That way I can check them off, check them off, feel good about it, but, like you know, rather than but, rather than you know, getting out of the hustle, clearing the space, saying, god, how do you really want to use me today? That's what I want to be my purpose, and then clearing everything, clearing my mind, clearing my spirit, and saying you know who comes to mind, you know, like what comes to mind, you know what. What is it, lord, that you're that you're putting on my heart here? Who needs who needs my? You know who needs more of you, lord, like, where is it you want me to invest today? You know, or this week, and or what, or what's going on in my heart that you want to do in me today? That maybe needs to be my, my, focus. So it's. It's a totally different way of looking at life. My, my, you know where I've used to be is okay, wake up, start checking emails, look at my calendar, look at my appointments, look at my start. That's my day. I get it and start prioritizing the tasks.
Speaker 1:So, wow, this is causing some real introspection. I'm thinking of how I start my day. I often open my eyes in the dark of our bedrooms somewhere between 5.30 and 6.30 in the morning and start talking to God.
Speaker 1:If my mind is right and I'm generally sane. That day I just start a conversation of thanks and gratitude. I learned that discipline Not always Okay and that all started for me sometime in the last 10 years. So let's just say it didn't happen for 55 years, but I'll give myself 10, it's probably less. I've been on the planet almost 24,000 days and I can tell you I can count on two hands the number of times I've said to God okay, lord, what are we doing today? What's my purpose today? Where do you want me?
Speaker 2:Good friend of mine says all the time, pay attention to what you pay attention to, and I love that. Like pay attention to what you pay attention to. What do you? What do you take note of? What are the things? What's the you know? What things do you, you know? Get your focus, um focus day in and day out and when you go through life, being sensitive to what you might see outside of what you're usually focused on. It's very interesting.
Speaker 2:There's a book, slow Productivity, by Cal Newport. It's a great read. Slow Productivity Highly recommended. It's not necessarily a faith-based book, but it is a great book.
Speaker 2:On top of the disciplines of just quiet meditation with the Lord, listening, gratitude, praise, worship and prayer and getting in the word All of these things are really really important habits that lead to a shift in our heart posture and changing the direction of our hearts. Meditating on his word, critical, as we've talked about. How does that play in day to day at work? Well, slow, slow productivity is a great read for some application of day to day life. Cause you, you asked the question what does that mean at work? How do I? How do I juggle this? How do I juggle Right what connect them, integrate them, integrate your fate, and then you know. A book like slow productivity will give you some a really different shift in perspective on how you approach your day-to-day work, because work is from God and the enemy wants to use it to keep you busy, so that you're busy in the rest of your life and you can't take note of what God wants to do with it.
Speaker 1:So they're connected. He loves the noise, doesn't he Absolutely. And he loves keeping your life noisy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So for me to answer your question, having to break out of that, say enough's enough, stop, turn away. Look over here. Retreat is another one, right. So it's not just repent and turn away Toward what, and sometimes it's just whoa got to retreat got to retreat and let's stay there If we don't communicate anything else.
Speaker 1:Wisely today, I want to say to our listeners you have time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You have time to think through this and you have time to change Absolutely. There is time in your day for God. Yeah, you have time. Yep, don't lie, don't kid yourself. Yeah, there's time for this type of conversation in your head or with someone you trust. Yeah, could be your bride, could be a brother in your head or with someone you trust.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Could be your bride, could be a brother. I was just saying to our friend Bo earlier this week he was asking me about a gym that I used to go to and he was like why don't you go?
Speaker 2:anymore. I'm like I don't have, I don't have time. And I was like, oh, that's such a lie. And I I said to him, I said that's a lie, I do have time. I I choose not to get up at five and go Cause for me and my schedule. That's what I would have to do and it's the travel. It's too far. I started giving them all the excuses and I'm like, yeah, none of that's true. Well, those are all excuses. The truth is I choose to do something else with that time. I choose to sleep a little later. I choose, I do choose to carve out more time for devotions and all of that. Good things. But like it's a choice, it's a choice. We all have the same amount of time and every day.
Speaker 2:We don't necessarily have not looking into the future, but for right now right now.
Speaker 1:Right there's. I want to to coax and exhort people to to pray, to think through this, to to make time to consider what heart change really looks like. Cause you're right, while we'd be here all all day talking about that process, you and I have both had the blessing of experiencing heart change. At least I think so. I've watched you and we've watched others. We see men begin that process pretty regularly, just because we have decided to have brutally honest I hate that word really honest conversations with each other and bear our heart and soul Beautifully honest.
Speaker 2:Thank you, they are beautifully honest.
Speaker 2:Which reminds me and we probably don't have time to talk about it, but on the offensive, there's a mindset change that needs to happen too. Yes, it's heart change, but it's also a mindset change, and what you just did is great awareness, right Like you know, brutally honest to beautifully honest is a complete shift in mindset and that's really critical, right Like I. You know, for me it's battling a scarcity mindset you know we've talked a little bit about that and reframing that to an abundance mindset, right, right, so, like I don't, there's not enough time, bs. The abundance mindset is. I've got plenty of time. How am I going to use it? Right, right, I'm so stressed out, right Like, if you're, take note of what you're taking note of. If you are, if you feel tense, stressed out, burned out, stop, time out, there's a problem. What's going on? Take note of it, breathe.
Speaker 1:That's my word, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Won't. I don't want to speak for anybody else. I was shocked. Shocked at how much clearer God's voice seemed to me once I made time to breathe. So I just want to say I'm only speaking for one man at the moment, but I know somebody listening could use that moment, their couch, their chair, to just be at peace, to put down the journal, put down the Bible, put down your phone and just listen, yeah, and and a great.
Speaker 2:If you don't know how to do this, I'm going to offer a. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but a phenomenal resource is the encounter app. Check out the encounter app. Um, you know, there there are phenomenal meditations um, biblical scriptural, it's a scripture for the day and it's a 15 minute. Yup, 15 minutes Doesn't have to be done every day. Pick once a week, pick one. I scroll through, I'm like, okay, I get it. And I'm like, oh, wow, this really hits home. I'm going to do this and I walk and I walk and it's 15 minutes. It's even best if you can close your eyes, why? It eliminates distractions which can be dangerous if you're walking. It is so if you're not going to walk, if you're going to sit, you know, earbuds, no distractions, eyes closed. Take it in, learn practice to be quiet, to breathe, to listen to God's word and to go on a journey, and man, God has used that mightily. So check out the encounter app, shout out encounter app. It's a. It's a great tool and resource.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And, by the way, yes, you can tell your wife and kids and dog, these 15 minutes are mine. Don't bother, daddy, you know I need that with my God.
Speaker 2:God bless my dad. I just pictured him. My dad had. You know, we hear these words like prayer closet.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know there's like you know, I go in my prayer closet and it's like it's a room, it's my chair, it's wherever you write to be alone with God, like my dad literally went in the closet. He had a chair in the closet and he closed the door and it was because so there were no, and he would read, for I can see hours, oh hours he may still to this day and uh you know, we have the ripe old age of oh wow, his birthday's.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know this, this month 87. God bless him, bless him.
Speaker 1:Love you Ray. Yeah, Shout out. Yeah, Love you Pop Ray.
Speaker 2:Sargent A literal prayer closet. So yeah, point is get alone with God and wow. So there's a lot to pivoting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you pick your word listener, change, repent, pivot, shift, whatever works for you. There's a change and I take this as my responsibility. Today I kind of like having control, but I like being able to pivot, to showing some flexibility, to letting God own more and more and more of my heart. It is joyful, it is truly joyful, and before I finish, I just want to give credit to Chris Bruno and shout out to Chris, because he's the one who told me that the words brutal and honesty don't go together.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:So you should never say that he's brilliant, yep.
Speaker 2:Love you, chris.
Speaker 1:He's awesome, I want to hang out with that guy more. Well, I want to hang out with you more.
Speaker 2:Let's go to Ireland with Chris Bruno on his next uh adventure His little.
Speaker 1:Scottish getaway and he writes a book.
Speaker 2:Oh, is it Scottish? Well, no, no that he did.
Speaker 1:He did the Right. That's what I meant.
Speaker 2:But I think his last personal time away, where he took weeks he went to the Scottish countryside and parked himself where Guinness was See. So you say that and I get nervous, I start sweating. I'm like weeks Now. That's an impossibility. There's my scarcity mindset. Who can do that, Right, not you.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you From nothing to a great conversation about possibilities for us to learn more and our friends listening to try something that allows them to make more time for our Lord and Savior.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all good. Yeah, hey, don't just be you, be you in Christ.
Speaker 1:Amen Peace Peace. The guy shared some Amen Peace Peace.
Speaker 3:The guy shared some insightful ideas with us this morning. One of the things that Steve said stuck with me. It was about considering the important habits that lead to a shift in our heart posture. If I just took the time to think about one habit to start or stop change, become more consistent in what would it be? What does that new heart posture look like in my life?
Speaker 3:Taking the time to be beautifully honest with myself or allowing a trusted brother to be beautifully honest with me and bringing those things to the foot of the cross and asking God to help me take that first step towards the heart change I need in my life? How will that first step bring change in my life? What about the people around me? How will it change their lives? What will God be able to do in and through me when he gets a teachable and moldable version of me? And what about you and moldable version of me? And what about you? What's the one habit that will change the trajectory of your life for the better? Lord, please continue to use this podcast to impact the lives of all who listen. I ask that you would bring hope and healing to each and every one of them. Lord. Meet them right where they are and reveal yourself to them like only you can do, in Jesus' name amen.
Speaker 2:If you enjoyed today's episode, please share it and invite others to the Foxhole. You can find us wherever you download your favorite podcasts. Be sure to subscribe so you know when new episodes drop, and please rate us and comment there too, as it'll help us get found by others who could benefit. Find, follow and like us on your go-to social media networks by searching Foxhole Symphony or visit foxholesymphonycom to make it super easy to find us. Drop us a line with feedback, questions, topic requests. Who knows, Maybe you'll be a guest on a future episode. In the meantime, prepare to move, embrace discomfort and just be you.
