Foxhole Symphony
Foxhole Symphony
Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs
Have you ever felt a nudge, a whisper, or a sign that seemed too perfectly timed to be mere coincidence? Join us on the latest episode of the Foxhole Symphony Podcast as we uncover the profound significance of recognizing signs from God in our daily lives. Maestro kicks things off with his trademark humor and warmth, setting the stage for an enriching conversation about the power of community and authentic relationships. Mark then shares a touching personal story about a moment of divine clarity on a morning walk with his dog, Red, where a simple stop sign became a powerful reminder to stop judging and be more present.
Throughout our discussion, we dive into various moments of spiritual realization and divine guidance that have shaped our faith journeys. From personal anecdotes to Biblical events, we emphasize the importance of being attentive to God's signs and seeking His purpose in our lives. We also explore how suffering and crisis can heighten our spiritual sensitivity, making us more receptive to God's voice. Additionally, we highlight the role of people in conveying God's messages and underscore the importance of staying connected with others, both spiritually and professionally.
As we wrap up this profound episode, we turn our focus to the significance of gratitude and mindfulness in our daily lives. By appreciating the small, often overlooked moments, we can deepen our connection with God and the world around us. Emphasizing the practice of looking up from our distractions, we share personal stories that highlight how these simple acts can lead to recognizing God's presence and blessings. With a heartfelt prayer for our listeners, we invite you to join our growing community and share this journey of hope, healing, and spiritual growth with us.
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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 back at it and I can hardly see them behind all these signs. No, u-turn one way 10% off your next frozen yogurt. Steve and Mark are back at it and I can hardly see them behind all these signs. No U-turn one way 10% off your next frozen yogurt. Well, grab a seat, open your notes app and buckle up.
Speaker 2:The light goes green in three. Two. Welcome back to the Foxhole Symphony Podcast. I always wanted to do that 70-plus episodes. I always wanted to open, like Stephen Wright.
Speaker 1:You caught me off guard. I'm glad I did I waited three years.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, welcome back, and I'm thinking I'll start. No, I can't even breathe in. It's good to see you. I'm Sarge here with Mark. Hey, how are you, bro? Good, it is steamy out.
Speaker 1:We're in a series of steaminess right. Yesterday was the type of day I said to Jack. He slept in a little bit, he had foot surgery early in the morning and he's laying around and I said, bud, just that, you're in a perfect spot. I said you don't need to do anything outside, you just need to walk out and you start your pores all open up Steam room.
Speaker 2:Right Steam room.
Speaker 1:And I like a good sweat, yeah, but yesterday was a whole new level of yeah, and this morning same.
Speaker 2:Thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's just a wall of humidity.
Speaker 1:It's unbelievable. I think it lasts another few days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's your weather update. It's totally episodic. That's what we do every episode and their Comment about the weather.
Speaker 1:This is our lives. Yeah, wait till the Giants start playing.
Speaker 2:Exactly. And then, in addition to the, just the thick humidity, the steamy, which is bizarre for where we live, I mean this is not normal, right? And then there's just, there's this smoke. That's not. I mean, there's obviously a wildfire somewhere, but it doesn't smell like fire, it smells like melting plastic, it got to something man-made. Yeah, this is not trees, it's not good. And sign of the times Sign of the times Chaos In a bad way.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's signs everywhere there are.
Speaker 1:There are. What a great segue. Hey, listen. Sign of the times.
Speaker 2:Yes, so, um, yeah, we're going to talk about signs, and what's the question we're trying to answer?
Speaker 1:The question we're trying to answer is that we're cutting right to the end. We can just skip this and make this a four minute podcast. Let's do it. Three minutes of weather what can a man do to make himself more available, aware and open to signs from God? That's what we're after here. Let me jump back to the beginning with a story of why this God put this on my heart about 10 days ago.
Speaker 1:There I am walking the Redster right Doing our morning walk. I'm out in the next door you know the development next door doing our two-mile loop, whatever it is. Red and I are cruising along and I was pontificating to our brother Bo about something. I was complaining, I was judging something. It could have been from a church work, probably something I don't remember exactly, but let's just say it was something about the home or somebody, and I was praying for patience and guidance and a soft heart, heart full of grace and mercy, and lamenting like what's golly. You know why can't I just stop and breathe and just, you know, stop judging, be present. And Red decides to pull off onto the grass off the road. I turn around and about 14 feet in front of me is a stop sign, a big red octagonal stop sign. Now I'm here to tell you that I've walked past that stop sign a thousand times and never looked at it, never paid attention, because I it's a dead end street. I never drive there. There's no reason for me to drive on Sterling Place. Bo starts talking to me and I'm looking at the stop sign. I'm just staring at the stop sign. I'm like Bo. I'm like Bo, hello Bo, wait a minute, I've got goose flesh right now.
Speaker 1:Retelling you the story for the first time, going here I a moment ago, I was saying Lord, show me, help me to be present, right, help me to stop. I said, brother Bo, there's a stop sign in my face right now. I didn't know what I was like. Oh my gosh. And he starts laughing, he goes. Well, you asked for a sign. I said I didn't think it'd be a metal one. You know, eight feet in the air, right, that big. So I was swept away. I stood there and we prayed about that moment for me just acknowledging that it could be that simple. Maybe it sounds oversimplified, I don't know, but to me in that moment it was a clear, unmistakable sign from God going Mark, stop, stop with the whining, stop with the judgment. Stop with the wah wah wah you know the Woodstock noises and just enjoy.
Speaker 1:And this is a walk that's beautiful, it's green, it's got the blue skies, breezes. It protects you from the cold when it's really cold out. This is an area we love to walk because you're protected on both sides. You don't get blown away by bitter, cold winds. It protects you from hot sun if we're walking in the afternoon. So there's a lot of beauty in here.
Speaker 1:The houses are really far apart, they're mansions, so it's pretty in so many ways. But they're in the middle and I swear to you it's like right in the middle and there are no other street signs in this development except when you leave. There's a stop sign in the middle that I think my God put in front of my face to remind me that sometimes you have to look really hard for a sign. You got to really get down on your knees and humble yourself and surrender and pray and hope that that song or that verse or that person comes in your life to show you what you want. And other times there's a billboard. That's what it felt like to me. God put a billboard in my path, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's my story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's why I'm here talking about this today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and obviously you know the stop sign existed and was in that place before you got there. But the awareness, the sensitivity, the connection, you know, the hearing from God in that moment, your attention being brought to it, you know, is a beautiful thing, it's a gift. How many times.
Speaker 1:The key, I think, is how many times I walked past it, ignoring it. Yeah, how many times do I ignore the signs? The most obvious been there, done that sign. Right, that is there for me. It in that moment, at that specific time, that's the sign I needed. Yeah, by the way, I don't like being told to stop. Yeah, you, how often does someone say to you, steve, stop? And you're like okay, yeah, sure Right.
Speaker 2:Happy to have you. What a rolling stop. Does that work? We just. You know you're right.
Speaker 1:Let me just screw the Jersey slow roll, right, that's how you fail the driving test, right, excuse me, you, it was a rolling stop. Um, yeah, so I'm, I'm, uh, I'm pretty hyped up about it and I I quickly grabbed that, as you might guess, yeah, and I Googled signs in the Bible. Bible, I had so much fun for two or three days I kept going back. I love it and it's just. All it is is signs, from old to new, just every Psalm. And Brother Paul is the king of signs in the Bible. Right, he left a crumb trail, I feel, for us to follow. I feel for us to follow, you know, the fact that he went from such a dark, desperate type of life to a redeemed, grace-filled life. Right, and now I've written so much of the New Testament, everything you know about Brother Paul, but he's like the crumb trail guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, right up to and including the crumb trail that I read this morning in our devotional about, why do I do the things that I don't want to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, that part, yes, that resonates with every man. What man has read 1 Corinthians 5, whatever it is, it's somewhere in there. Yeah, and I'm sorry I don't have my my phone or anything with me to to update that folks, but paul is giving this great soliloquy and, out of the blue, admits why do I keep doing the things I know I shouldn't be doing? Yeah, what, what is that about me, lord?
Speaker 2:you know it. It's interesting. There are some signs that are quite subtle that I'm sure we miss every day, right, right, yeah. And then there's, like the you know, there's the signs that are so obvious that we still choose to ignore. I'm thinking about the plagues. I'm thinking about the plagues. You mentioned biblical references. Oh yeah, the plagues. I'm thinking about the plagues. You, you mentioned biblical references and oh yeah the plagues.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really, so no, I the red sea and the plagues yeah, yeah, and so pretty good signs.
Speaker 2:So like, well, and here's the thing you know, I was thinking about this yesterday um exodus 8, and you know, moses and pharaoh, right, let my people go. Frogs, there were frogs. Right, the frogs, frogs, come on you gotta pick frogs I will send a plague of frogs on your whole.
Speaker 2:Are you really on frogs? Yeah, yeah, 100, it's my plague. And they will come up into your palace, in your bedroom and onto your bed, into the house, right Again. So Lord says to Moses tell Aaron, stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt. So he did. Frogs came up, right. Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said pray to the Lord to take the frogs away. And right, yeah, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord. Moses says to Pharaoh I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people tomorrow. Pharaoh says. Moses says it will be as you say. So the frogs will leave you and your houses and your fish. They will remain only in the Nile, right? So all this happens, right? And the frogs were piled into heaps. The land reeked of them.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine, oh?
Speaker 2:I could smell it Frog poop, I could smell it. But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, but when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. And then the gnats come. So I just, you know, like I'm reading this yesterday, I'm like you know, it's so easy you talked about judging right it's so easy to be like a pharaoh and it's like man, like am I, am I pharaoh, here we go.
Speaker 2:Am I pharaoh? You know, when have I been pharaoh? You know? Praying relief, hardening of the heart. It was better before. It was better before.
Speaker 1:How about one of my favorites? Thanks, lord. Next yeah, thanks for the stop sign, father. Yeah, and three days later I'm being a judgmental jerk again. Yeah, you know. And the stop sign, if not for the podcast, is history. It's a cute story. It's a chapter in the book I'm gonna write someday.
Speaker 2:Right with god, but thanks, lord next, so so easy to get swept up in what we think we want why were you reading exodus eight yesterday?
Speaker 1:if you don't mind me asking so yeah, yeah, ironically.
Speaker 2:So I was having coffee with a friend and he had a speaking engagement coming up and he actually had said I said, oh, what are you speaking about? He's like, I don't know, the Lord put Exodus eight on my heart. I got to think about it and I happened to pull it up and I'm like, and that's where we went, I mean that's what we were talking about. And he was like, oh my gosh, that's so good, I love it. Are you pharaoh? Am I pharaoh? Yeah, um, so yeah that's what got signs.
Speaker 1:How about feeding 5 000 people, or 4 000, depending on which story you prefer?
Speaker 1:how about the sign. So in in those days, that's a large group. You, you get a concert of 5,000. Now, you know, football games 70,000, right, james Taylor in concert, it's 5,000. To walk in the park for us. We're going to see him in August, that's why I bring that up, but 5,000 had to walk a long way to get to the plateau where Jesus wanted to give that little speech. Yeah, right, 5,000 people left. Imagine the ripples coming out of that and the signs, right that. What did that say to potential, to the folks who believed, or potential believers, or people like the Romans who just all they wanted to do was crowd control, as long as the crowd wasn't killing anybody. They were pretty much meeting, talk all day. You need water, you need food, right, 5,000 people. Logistically, a nightmare in my head. I'm trying to organize it in my head, but the sign, the ripple that came out of that, is unmistakable, just like any plague that you pick.
Speaker 1:These are the big signs, like any plague that you pick. Yeah, these are the big signs. The big biblical stories has some of our heroes in it, starting with Jesus and others, and then there are the subtle yeah, one just came to mind.
Speaker 2:I remember six months ago walking in town doing, doing the loop you know I have a loop, like you do and I remember thinking and I forget exactly what it was. I was thinking, but I was. I was contemplating a decision and you know remember feeling um at a crossroads and a bit in crisis and then coming up the street and off to the left by the post office, there's a, there's a giant area like sort of wrapped in caution tape okay all over caution, caution, caution, caution.
Speaker 2:Again, walk by it all the time, never took note until this moment. I'm praying, I'm asking the Lord and you know. Again I look to the left caution and I'm just weeping, weeping and it's very much like your stop sign moment and that listen, that has not happened very much to me, but in that moment I was deeply grateful, deeply grateful and took note, like I think that's important. I think you know there's probably people saying you guys, out of your minds, what are you talking about? Not to over-spiritualize everything we see, but take note, ask the Lord, is this from you?
Speaker 1:That's it. That's key, absolutely key. I do it every day. It seems that way lately and it's just some spiritual maturity, you know, in in my evolution of my conversations with god. Yeah, have become very much like that, because I spend a lot of time saying show me, I get from missouri in about seven seconds. Right, if you want me to do this, show me. You know it's awful, yeah, but with it's not an arrogant show me, it's like please, show me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I want right here Am I.
Speaker 2:Lord, in your will Right.
Speaker 1:Send me, send me, show me, yeah, give me purpose, cause I? I seek purpose.
Speaker 2:And I think that is you know, and I think that is you know, part of living in sync and in step with his spirit.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Being sensitive to his spirit, being sensitive to his voice, being sensitive to you know, our surroundings, you know, and that longing is a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing and we've talked about this before like the suffering and being in crisis and how that heightens, has the potential to heighten our sensitivity, because we are poured out Psalm 22,. We're poured out Right Right, psalm 22,. We're poured out like water and you know. So that that's a, that's a beautiful thing, that's a beautiful season to be in, to take note of the signs and um, you know. And then there's the people, right, there's the objects, and then there's the people. You know, and how, how God continues to speak to us through his people.
Speaker 1:Remember the commercial Gosh. I don't know who the brand was or the IP, but it was a group of vignettes and it was interviews and at the end everyone in the interview said and I'm a people person and I'm a people person and I'm a people person. I'm a people. I just when you said that it made me think of I'm in the people business. I interact with other humans for my job. If I'm not interacting with other humans, I'm failing at my job, right, truthfully. That's how important the people part of my job is in sales Right?
Speaker 1:So interestingly, I can put them in a box so fast, If God was trying to show me something in the other people in my interactions every day. I'm not giving him a fair chance because I quickly not dealing with you, you, you know, or sizing them up, not dealing with you, you you know, or sizing them up right judge, judge, judge right. Can this sales?
Speaker 2:can opportunity here, no opportunity, right, yeah, serve my needs. Well, there that's. I mean, that's certainly the probably the most significant thread. You know it's the antithesis of the question you asked at the beginning of the podcast what can you do to avoid the signs? Stay self-absorbed and be looking for your own? And my conversation yesterday having coffee and looking at Exodus 8, it was very much about looking back to the you know, the way that my needs were served and maybe you know, can I go back there? And it's like no wait, that was like I, I look, you know you look back and intend to only remember the good sometimes and it's and it's like oh wait, wait a minute, I failed to forget that I was dying, you know, at this certain death and you know, in spite of my, you know physical and material needs being met. You know, spiritually and emotionally, you know bankrupt.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and yeah, you know it's, it's. It's interesting, it's just interesting that you know. I think again, thinking about the Israelites, thinking about, you know, being in slavery and and going well, yeah, but at least we had whatever right.
Speaker 1:Hundreds of years, hundreds of years. Yeah, the Israelites you're referring to were slaves for hundreds, if not thousands. I'm sorry I'm not going to get my Bible details correct, but it was definitely hundreds of years. Yeah, how many generations you keep telling your grandkids he's coming, we're following the Lord. There's something better. This is our God. We are a chosen people. After year 300, do you think? You might, might be like ah yeah, you know, are you sure? Right, and I? Here's a, a test, not test. That's not a good word.
Speaker 1:Um, a challenge that I've given myself, um, in the last, in the last, I would say, three years or so, is to help me stop judging. I have just taken on a phrase to remind myself that the person in front of me is a child of God. Man, woman or child, they're a child of God. They're a child of God, and I repeat that to myself over and over and over, and I repeat that to myself over and over and over. It really helps me. I mean, I'm going to go as far way out and say Don and Joe are two presidential candidates, when I'm judging them, which I do every day, wondering how I got here, child of God, when I'm at work ready to judge somebody and put them in their corner so they leave me alone, child of God. So I've made small steps, small positive steps. Does change everything? Simple? Well, that's awfully simple, right? Someone again might be listening going well, that was easy, you know. But they're a child of God, Treat them that way.
Speaker 1:And I have a tendency to ignore people. And it reminds me watching the Chosen, season four. Sorry, doing my shout out to the Chosen, but Jesus is doing, sign after sign, miracle after miracle, water into wine. Lazarus, the centurion's kid, everything Watching and everyone's ignoring him. They're ignoring the signs of Pharisees, the Sadducees. Everyone's ignoring, or just outright. If they watch, they show watching the miracle happen yeah, just outright. If they watched, they showed watching the miracle happen yeah, a sad. You see watching lazarus walk out of the tomb and he goes.
Speaker 1:I gotta go back to jerusalem and tell him this guy's lying yeah, right, yeah and I I I'm afraid of that in myself, of just ignoring people and ignoring science yeah, and it's it's.
Speaker 2:It's rooted, I I believe I mean it's obviously rooted in self and selfishness and all of that, but it's rooted in this holding on to something, whether it's emotional, whether it's material, whatever it is, I want, I need something and I'm holding onto it. And as long as those hands are closed and those fists are clenched, you know it's going to be tough to do unless there's nothing at risk. If you have nothing to risk, if you're risking losing, nothing easy to do. But as soon as there's risk involved, risk involved. Most people, most people, are not willing to do that and many are unaware, right, I mean. But even if you know, if you are aware, you're perhaps unwilling, so you're either unaware or unwilling. And then there's a and then there, and then there's a small, you know, a small part of the population that is just open hands.
Speaker 2:Open hands, it is the main thing, it is the most important thing. It's why you know, it's why Jesus said it's the greatest commandment. Gosh, I love that. Love your neighbor as yourself. It's. It's said, it's the greatest commandment. Gosh, I love that. Love your neighbor as yourself. It's probably the simplest and hardest thing for followers of Jesus to do and most of us fail Because I want, I need, I have, and I am unwilling, or unconscious, or unconscious, and you know, I think that's where the rubber meets the road. You know, what is it that you need to release? What is it you need to surrender? What is it you need to give up or give back? Give back to the Lord, what is it you need to? It's His, it's His anyway.
Speaker 1:I'm picturing God right now smiling at you and me and has a list. You know, remember the old thing where you open the wallet. Can I see a picture of your kid? Right? God is smiling right now especially at me, going Mark, there are so many signs waiting for you. You just got to get all the crap out of the way. Yeah, just start emptying out and clearing the path for me to do to you what I'm dying to do for you Lead you, show you, you know, anoint you.
Speaker 1:But I've got things in my way of my own doing, by the way, love your metaphor with the open hands. If you the daily refresh in the Bible app that we do every day. Often it leads a prayer at the end of every one very nice, short, crisp one, perfect for me and it often says open your hands and look up, or spread your arms and look up or lift your arms and praise God. And it always offers you this physical manifestation of this as well. And I often am doing that. I'm walking the dog and I take the leash, I stick it under my arm and I'm walking with the dog with my hands out. If anyone's watching me, I must look like hysterical, maybe that's why God was like stop Right, You're going.
Speaker 2:Why God was like stop Right, You're going to hurt yourself and your dog.
Speaker 1:That's good, okay, so let's be practical in the last few minutes we're together.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This morning, before we go out into the steamy New Jersey countryside, what can a man do to be more available, aware and open to signs from God? So I wrote down a few things to start, and let's, let's play with this Slow down.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Breathe, look around, yep, like literally sit down somewhere outside, preferably, I think. Look around, yeah, now, certainly I think just about everybody listening you and me would sit there and go. I see that all the time. If I'm choosing to sit down somewhere, it's probably someplace I know and the area I'm talking about, if you're in my yard, I see that it's pretty, lots of nice flowers and trees and green grass. But can I appreciate that from a different perspective? Can I look at it seeking connection with God? I think the catalyst there is and you know I've been doing this now for a few years in my overt prayer life, just thanking him for the simple, the creation, the things in front of me. Thank you for this day, another day, eyes open, breathing, the 101 level existence prayers.
Speaker 1:But looking at things you see every day with a heart oriented to God, made that for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can you do that? Yes, and I would add to that look back and look up. Looking back, acknowledging the mile markers, acknowledging God's activity, spending time giving thanks and gratitude and just acknowledging what God has done in your life, acknowledging the signs. What have you seen and experienced in the past? And then look around, take note, write it down so that it's easier to look back. Um, look ahead, you know, look ahead as well, um, and and look up, look up. Spend the time you know with Father, giving thanks as you look back, asking for his guidance and, you know, acknowledgement, helping to your awareness of what's around and how he might want to speak to you through that, and this is prayer life, what you're just describing is just being with him, right, and this is prayer life.
Speaker 1:What you're just describing is just being with him. Don't let your mind wander. I'm a wanderer, you know squirrels forget it literally sitting outside, but I like what you said about the 360 view right behind front up. I'm also thinking of our friend, brother Ed Ballett. He always sends those notes on my current view. It's his toes over the water with a fishing pole, right Always. That's his view, yeah, but I bet you, if we had him here and maybe we should if we had him here and asked him about that view, my guess is that he has stopped long enough a few times and said thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think some of that heart of gratitude for these gifts that we get is really key, you know, to experiencing more. And I want to be careful. I'm not trying to manufacture signs now, you know, but I did pray two days ago to a gray sky, a gray, cloudy sky, because so often I'm on the same walk. I walked two trails in the morning for five years the dog's five years old. I've been walking for five years and blue sky. You know our blue sky. So I mean, look, wherever you are in the world listening to this, you have your blue sky and it's the cloudless blue sky. You know the one I'm talking about azure, blue, green, tall, 90 foot Oaks around us. It's pretty, man. It's easy to thank God for that Sun on my back, breeze on my face, but two days ago it was like this outside the sky was low and gray and dark and thick and I made sure I didn't change my prayer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll give you another example of signs. One last thing that sort of reflects some of this. It's easy for me, on my loop, going for my walk past, you know, down down the river, past the ball fields, up through town, you know, and it's I, walk along the river.
Speaker 2:It's beautiful, and oftentimes I find myself looking down, looking down over a route, looking down at the ground or looking down at my phone. I mean, how many people was walking out of the supermarket yesterday and this woman nearly walked right into me because she's she's walking up the sidewalk looking down at a phone. Just watch where you're going, look up for crying out loud and it's things like that. Like you know, look up, get off the phone, get off the device and look up. You know, and one of the things and I have to remind myself, and so walking down past the ball fields, and you know, my son's 20. I spent a lot of years down on those ball fields coaching you know, the whole.
Speaker 2:Thing.
Speaker 1:And sitting getting those wrinkles on your butt from those metal stands that are hot.
Speaker 2:And it's it's uh, you know it's early morning, it's summer, and there's a man out there with his, with his son, you know, hitting them ground balls and you know tossing him pitches.
Speaker 2:And it's just the two of them, and and this little boy is probably eight, you know something like that under under 10 and and and his dad, and, and I just sat there, put my arms on the fence, sat there and watched them for probably 10 minutes and listened to.
Speaker 2:You know, just this, this beautiful I'll call it a song, but I just this, this beautiful interaction, just the two of them, just the two of them, and encouragement and excitement and enthusiasm, and and just just this love, and it and it and it. It reminded me of just the father's love. And you know, part of me, like I was looking back, I was thinking about all the you know the many years on the ball field and thinking about the many years these two have ahead of them, and and you know, just thanking god for you know, the beauty of a little league field in the middle of the woods in Hunterdon County, you know, and perfect, yeah, it's just so like those are the things, like you know how many times I probably walked by the same scene, but never even took note, right.
Speaker 1:Cause you're looking down Exactly. Well, uh, to continue God's connection in our lives, I will tell you a short story that I am one of the people who puts a pithy quote at the end of their emails. I always have something I don't know what's there right now, but coming out of the almost pandemic that we had I think this is around 2021, for almost a year, I had two words in quotation marks at the bottom of my emails and they were look up, Wow. And there was only one reason for that. One of my moments of that was a big thank you, lord. Just moments of thank. That was a a big thank you, lord. Right, the creator of the universe cares about me so much that he's willing to make me aware of simple, obvious and as well as subtle signs just for me, just for me, just for me. Yeah, billions and billions of people in the world. My God talks to me. Mark needs to slow down. He needs to breathe, be aware, seek connection as strongly as I. Seek connection with you, my friend and our V2G brothers, the men that I've decided to invest in. I need to. What do I triple? What does God deserve A little bit more right?
Speaker 1:So this is a call, uh, to listening to in your own way. Look for the signs from God. I don't think you're going to have to look that far and when you see one, acknowledge it, maybe do it that day. Going right back to the beginning, I stopped. I decided, at least for a few hours. I know it sounds pathetic, but for a few hours I was aware of my judgmental heart, which is a battle I fight every day, and just I stopped and I'm going to take the red octagonal and never forget. This is a story that will live on in digital infamy now because I put it out here on the podcast and maybe it'll impress somebody or help somebody in their own way. It might not be a big red metal sign but that's what.
Speaker 1:I got.
Speaker 2:Love it Well. Thank you everybody for listening. Take note, become aware of your surroundings. What's happening, what's he trying to show you and what might he be trying to say? Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3:Peace. Sometimes, the best summaries come in the form of a list, and I have two of them for us to think about. What's the best way to miss the signs? You'll like this list. It's a short one. Be self-absorbed. What's the best way to see the signs? Slow down and take a deep breath, get off your phone, look around having gratitude for what God has done, look up, spend time with him in authentic relationship and in his word, and look ahead seeking to glorify God in all that we do. 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. 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. Thank you. 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.
