New Years' Goals That Actually Honor Jesus

You're listening to the Provoke and Inspire podcast. What's up everyone? Welcome to the Provoke and Inspire podcast. It's all of us. We've got Luke, we've got Santa, we got David, we got myself. What's up fellas. Wait, which one did you say? We've got Santa. Yeah. Which one's Santa? That's good. You didn't see that? We have Santa. The one dressed like him? Yeah. Wait. What? For those who. For those who are not watching, we do not have anybody dressed as Santa here. Just to be clear, that would just be way too cheesy. Uh, this is awesome. I'm excited to be here, fellas. It's, uh, I don't know, there's something about the end of the year that feels relaxing and stressful at the same time. It's kind of a paradox. Uh, but we've got one more recording that should get us through to the end of the year. And then twenty, twenty six shall be upon us. It's going to be amazing. Today's episode, it's all going to, uh, feature and hover around the idea of the end of the year of ambition. We're going to look at what the world says about hustle culture, and how to make the most of your life. Contrast that against what Jesus says, because I would say that all four of us on this podcast, I think we describe ourselves as ambitious in the right sense of the word. Maybe we would use this more spiritual language of stewardship, but either way, we want to make the most of our lives. I know, I certainly do, and yet we have a world that I think ping pongs between apathy and hustle, culture, life maxing, which is this more modern word for how to make the most squeeze the juice out of every little bit of your life. Optimize. That's what I'm doing today, actually, guys. Weird. Weird. You brought it up. Yeah, I am life Max. He's actually sitting on one of those quad bicycle chair things, so he's actually he's working out below the waist as we speak. I am dude, that's just burning the quad. I'm impressed. You can notice that. Yeah. Burn the quads, baby. Uh, so we're going to be talking about how to make the most of your life, but not in a way that sucks. Basically. Not in a way that just sucks the life out of you and leaves you on this sort of endless wheel treadmill going nowhere, that kind of crud. So it's gonna be a great conversation. But before that, we got David's random story, and I thought I would do a little bit of ChatGPT research just to kind of see what the AI thought of David's random story. First, I asked it just what it is to help those who listen to this, maybe more recently in their kind of confused, what is this thing that keeps coming? Well, according to ChatGPT, David's Random Story is a recurring informal segment where David Pierce shares a short, personal anecdote or quirky moment from his life or experiences. It's intentionally lighthearted and unpredictable, often humorous, odd or off the cuff, and doesn't necessarily tie directly into the main topic of the episode. And then I asked it more of a qualitative question. I said, do people like it? And it said, in short, yes, many listeners appreciate and enjoy the off the cuff segment. It gives a bit of humor and a personality before the deeper discussion begins, and some fans even call it the highlight of the show. ChatGPT made it sound boring. It's not that boring, David. I didn't think it made it sound boring. I disagree, I think that what ChatGPT did is it made it sound like you guys are boring and I bring personality. That's what I heard. Maybe. Hey. Why? Okay. Why? In the spirit of Christmas, I thought I would offer a positive description and even a positive assessment of doctors. And yet it still brought contention. It still brought friction amongst us. When will we be smooth? Exactly. Um, so what I want to understand is how does the AI do that? Because it can't listen to the podcast, can it? It can't do audio, it can't I? Well, I think it's just listening to the podcast. It is. Okay. Why do you think it can't listen to the podcast? Because I've asked it to before. Maybe I don't pay enough. Yeah, there's a fraction too much friction. Which sounds like a bad, uh, Limp Bizkit lyric. That's an that's a fraction. There's a friction. That's that's an eighties song, actually. I don't want to talk about it. Yeah. All right. Are we ready to do the thing? I'm kind of conflicted about this one, but. Yeah, let's do it. When is the last time you've entered into a random story with just confidence? I feel like every time you're starting to preface them with, like, well, you know, you can't always hit a home run, but maybe I'll try. First of all, I don't have a southern accent. If it's random story. Yeah. So anyway, uh, for those of you that know I'm kind of dealing with prostate cancer right now and so on, part of that is I had to do a it's a weird sentence, but. Yes. Yeah. Um, and so one of the things that I had to do yesterday was a Pet scan. I don't know if our listeners have ever done that, but it's very weird. They. What is it? Well, they're so expensive that they have now a lot of hospitals just have a traveling thing because they can't afford one hospital, can't have it because it's so expensive, I don't know. So then you go into this room, there's all this radioactive isotope in you probably top. I mean, I'm no scientist, but probably isotope tobe tobe. It's not. It's not tobe. It's isotope tobe. No. He said he also said something about photons. And I thought photons. That's like what you put in your salad, isn't it? Ask Leon to fact check. Fact check all of this. I think that's croutons. But again, I'm no scientist. This is where we need the soundbite to kick in. You know who we should ask? Elon Musk. He would know the answer to this question. We're going to put this stuff in you. You're going to sit there for like an hour and while it's circulating your body, and then you go into this thing and it takes twenty six thousand pictures. But this was the part that I thought made me think of Chad. Uh oh. They said, you know, when you get done with this, you're going to feel fine. You don't have to do anything, but you need to stay away from women and children. Wow. What? Yeah, that is similar to Chad, but in more of a legal sense. That is very. Well, actually, they said pregnant women and young children. Wow. Um, okay. Yeah. And I thought, isn't there an old Native American saying you never know what it's like to you're in someone else's moccasin or something like that? I think sounds really weird. That's very, very true. And looks culture. They'd always say, who wants to be an athletic supporter, for example? What? I am so confused. I have no idea what's so anymore. Until you're in another man's trousers, you never know another man's trousers. Yeah. That. That probably could be a British. There's, like a party. No, but what is even going on right now? Part of being aware of other people's moccasins is that you can be more empathetic. So now when I see Chad, I feel a lot more sympathetic because, you know, for me, this is for that day. But for Chad, you know, this has been a permanent. So, yeah, you know, it's like the no fly list. I've been rebuking this face since I was born. Once you're on that list, there's no getting off of it. I can't believe they said to you, stay away from women and children. That is so, well, pregnant. It's eerily reminiscent to hide your wife. Hide your kids back in the day. Yeah I know, oh, no, I actually said, how long? How long do you have to stay awake? No, but they actually said to me, I said, well, I'm already I already have that restriction. And the guy didn't know what to do. No you did, I did. No you didn't, yes I did. How. For how long? No, I didn't I didn't think of it later I said it. That's how I deal with stress is I make jokes. What? Has it messed up? Your Christmas. How long do you have to stay away from kids? Just that day. Oh, okay. So you were radioactive for a day. Well, the way I handled it is I tried to back into places. All right. It's a perfect way to move on. Uh, man, I don't even know what to make of that, but I'll remember the phrase forever. You haven't lived until you've been in another man's moccasins or whatever. All right, let's move on. So I would like to think that in general, I'm the kind of person who is trying to zoom out and look at the way that I'm living my life, and I want to make the most of it. I'm attempting to define success, but I'm also conscious of the fact that the way my personality is, I'm very intense, I'm very driven, and I can even feel, I think, overwhelmed by the desire to want to make the most of every moment. And it can make it hard for me to relax. I don't know if you guys can relate to that. It can be hard to not feel like, you know, just sit and chill and do nothing. Even if I have a random half day off or if something happens like, uh, on the rare occasion that maybe my wife has all three kids somewhere, and all of a sudden I find myself with like an open evening. No joke. I will, like, write a list. I will be like, okay, what do I do with this? Like, okay, I'll read. Maybe I can work out. And then literally that's just how my personality is. And I think part of it's personality, but it's also partly the world that we live in and the content that we're constantly being bombarded with. And I think it's this sense of how do I make the most of my life. And I don't think that's an entirely ungodly question, but I think it can be taken in ungodly places and in an ungodly direction. And so I want to just have the conversation, like, how do you guys wrestle with this idea of stewardship, this idea of godly ambition, making the most of your life, um, being a good steward of your opportunities, time, talent and physical health and all those things. Uh, and how do we kind of compare maybe the false narratives of the world with the truth of Jesus? Um, and then as followers of Jesus. Looking forward to twenty twenty six, take hold of the right way to view it and go for it. So, Luke, what do you think? Um, I think I agree with you that there's something about, um, there's something godly or something about being a follower of Jesus where we need to be good stewards of our time. And so and I think Jesus did that. So if I'm to look, look to Jesus as an example, I think Jesus, um, knew knew enough about what the plan was. You know, what he was called to do, that he was very intentional about everything he did. So so I really appreciate kind of thinking about those times that he would go away alone, you know, like, uh, he'd go off and pray and then he'd come back and tell, tell the disciples, we need to go to this town, this town, this town, because that's what we're going to. That's what we're here for. I've got to go preach in these other places. And he was surrounded by people all the time. So he had to, um, be intentional with his time. Otherwise he would, just as you were putting it before life. Life would just get sucked out of him right there. Just people are going to be always, um, asking him for things. And it would be that chaos. So. So I see an intentionality in Jesus that. And that's why I think as a follower of Jesus, that's something I should have as well in terms of going away, praying, making a plan, thinking God, what is God calling me to do? How do I plan that out? Well, um, but at the same time, um, I there is this culture around us of, um, just everything being so intense and I'd say even in the Christian culture in like, um, in the world of events and church and missions, we get so kind of crazy with meetings and travel and doing all these different things. And I think that if we're not careful, we're just we're not being good stewards of our time. We're just being busy, being active all the time. So. So for me, there's you can go too far on both sides. Um. You have I think it's. That's why I try to look to Jesus for being intentional and planning. Well, but but it's not. It's not the world's way. It's not the culture's way of, like, trying to look busy all the time. So, you know, it's the way we impress each other nowadays. I feel like is like looking busy, like, oh, I'm doing so much. And I find that tiring for sure. Uh, I hate the cliche as much as you do the I'm busy thing, and I don't necessarily. This conversation could quite easily go down that route of just busyness in general as an issue. And I do think it is an issue, and especially I think because the end of the year provides an opportunity to reflect on how we are trying to live. But, David, why would you say that? Do you feel like that's gotten worse as you've in the years that you've had, where busyness has become this idol, or is that just something that is that a new strategy of the enemy in an ironic way, be doing so much that we actually have no idea what we're doing at all? Now my watch is always telling me what to do. I never had that before you know. So it's like saying it's time to stand. You know, it's like my watch. Walk more, walk more. You're not supposed to be telling me stuff. You're a watch. Or it'll say you need to do better. You know, let's get all those circles closed or after I wake up, it said you got a ninety percent on your sleeping. Whatever. So that's change. My watch now is very a part of everything that I do. Pretty specific, but okay, back in the day, when, uh, Jody and I went to Amsterdam, the only way you could communicate was by handwritten letters. I thought you were gonna say messenger. No. And so then it was impossible to always be communicating. And what that did is it didn't put this pressure on you to have to be in that way, busy all the time. And so there is more time for actual reflection. We did these things called aerograms, which so and it was like this paper that folded and you could send I remember that. Yeah. And so you would write really small and really carefully because you didn't have time to waste words talking about. You know, anything. So you your communication was more disciplined and more send. Grain and muskets. So I think what's changed is now you have a lot more superficiality in communication. You have a lot of busyness that's really not important. And I think that can also suck away what God is asking you to do, because you're busy with all the stuff that really shouldn't take up your time. Um, and so I think that's changed a lot. And now with AI, it's going to it's even getting worse. So I think this is a this is a real battle for our souls. And it can even look like it's important, but it's not because it's not Holy Spirit driven. Yes, we are supposed to live disciplined lives, and Bible is full of examples of that, but it's under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. That's the key. And the most important thing that I do for God is the next thing he asks me to do. I feel like there's a pride in it, like, especially when it comes to church world or missions world and like leadership. And you know when I get sometimes I get into like when I'm in meetings with other people in ministry or in church and stuff, it feels like there's this competitive thing of like, I'm doing this, this, this and this, and yeah, I'm going to go here and do that, that and that and there's this, this pride in it that, um, that's the side that I think you're talking about as well, David, that I just, um, I get really tired of and I'm like, how do I how can I avoid that? How can I be intentional with planning but not get sucked into that thing of like this pride of like, have I achieved enough? And is it is it visible enough to everyone that I'm doing all these things and I just, you know, I can't remember who said this, but I've heard it a few different times. Somebody said it, Billy Graham, at the end of his life when he was asked, you know, what would you have done differently? He said something like, I, I probably would have traveled less and spent more time with my family. And I just, you know, I just think about those things when it comes to planning as well. It's like, am I am I falling into that trap? Two thoughts came to mind in my first day on the job as chief development officer for Steiger. One was a quote that David routinely has said throughout my life of knowing him, which is if God takes his hand off of me, I'm dead. Or he'll say that about the mission of God takes his hand off of Steiger. We're dead. And never in my life have I felt that kind of sentiment or that value proposition in my life the way I do now. And the second thing is what my mentor told me, which is amazing, that Steiger provided me with a mentor. That's how much you all knew Chad. He's got potential, but with a mentor, this could actually get wild. So I'm really grateful. My mentor is the sweetest woman ever. And she said two things. She said, Chad, did I already tell everyone this, by the way? I probably did, no I haven't, it was of depth and substance. The odds are very good you did not bring it up last time. All right. This is both depth and substance. But she said two things that were so encouraging. She said, Chad, I'm going to tell you the two best pieces of advice I can give you. And I got out my little pen and paper ready to write, and she said, you won't need that. And I was like, no, no, I'm writing it down. She said, number one, the Holy Spirit will help you. The second one, she said, you need to pray that God helps you develop a prayer life that will sustain this role. Those three things have have resonated very strongly. Some days I'll feel that sense of like, okay, I gotta okay, who do I reach out to today? What do I do? How do I be super productive? I want to like, how do I find the biggest donor in the world and bring them into Steiger? And I feel all this pressure and I can, you know, I'm trying to make it happen. And then randomly on Instagram, I see this Francis Chan post and it's a video. It's just him sitting like on the edge of a of a stage, and he's talking and he says, you know what? If we just did everything from a spirit of rest instead of striving? And as soon as he said that, I was like, oh, I was like, cut to the core, you know? And, uh, and I just told the Lord I was sorry because like so many days I show up and I'm just, you know, it's like I'm trying to be all Alex Hormozi and all, like, super inspired and like, just, you know, like that hustle culture, make it all happen, come up with the strategies. I love all that kind of stuff. So since that day and I'll close with this and let someone else speak since that day, as I begin to feel the pressure rising, it's almost like I now I'm attuning my spirit to that pressure and I'll just be like, God, I feel that pressure right now and I just hand that over to you. Nothing good's going to come from me feeling that pressure. So I surrender it to you and I invite you to break through and, you know, just help me to to reenter rest. Yeah. I think this entire conversation, Chad, is about identity, right? And if I was to slightly translate the Francis Chan quote, I would say, because rest can connote this idea that I'm passive or that I'm, you know. Yeah. True. The anti burnt out culture and all that stuff. And there's some validity to that that we could talk about later. But I would say what if I could do everything out of a place of trust. And for me, the reframing is a recognition of who I actually am and the role that I actually play. Because when I become anxious or when I strive, or when I make it all about my hacks and my plans and my task management systems, what that is indirectly or directly saying is that I am the one that will make this happen. And when I feel that it's because I have forgotten who I am, right? And that's what I'm saying. So when David says one step at a time, the thing in front of you, I don't believe that's some self-imposed limitation, some sort of false humility. What I actually think that is, is a recognition of how God has set this world up to work, which is that I get to hold my dad's hand as a branch. He's the vine. And he, you know, my pastor even said the other day that God doesn't give us a searchlight out into the future. He gives us a lamp unto our feet. Right? He gives us this idea that I will provide your daily bread. I will provide you the thing that is necessary for you today. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. And so I think part of why this topic is so compelling to me is that it's not just an end of year conversation amongst us about life hacks and productivity. It's more fundamental than that. It's about who am I? And I think if anything we do at the end of the year here is to parse through all of that frenetic activity and to have the Holy Spirit expose where we have forgotten who we are, because when we remember who we are, I think rest becomes the only natural response because our role in it is not stress, it's reliance. That's the role that we are asked to play. And so I don't know, I just think identity is such a crucial part of this whole conversation. Like Jesus said, you can stress all you want. It's not going to add a hair to your head. Yes. Mhm. Yeah, exactly. If stress would create some kind of real fruit then do it. Go for it, you know. Then learn how to handle stress as much as you can because it'll bring about the change. It reminds me there's this there's this movie about the Soviet Union or something like that. There was this character in it that I really loved, and he always said exactly that. David. He was like, somebody was like, are you not worried about this? Are you not worried? And he'd always go, like, Will it help? And they're like, no. And he's like, so, so why worry? And it's exactly what you're saying. Sorry I interrupted you. You were going to say something more about. Yeah, that's the Tom Hanks movie. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. About the whole prisoner exchange. Yeah. And there's various times in the movie they go, are you worried? Aren't you worried about? And he's like, Will it help? No. So so no I'm not. But sorry, David, you're going to say something about what Jesus said about it. Yeah. There's a beautiful, authentic piece to that. Yeah. I mean, you talk about ambition. You know, like, I always think about the scripture where they were asking Jesus, it's John six twenty eight, what must we do to do the works God requires? What is the work that we should do? And Jesus said, the work of God is this to believe in the one whom we ascend? Yeah. Interesting. Do you want to know what the work is? That's the work. Spend time with the one God has sent. And then out of that. Because I don't think that when I'm spending time with Jesus that I become passive. Actually, I become more passionate. But then my time is more nuclear because it's got the Holy Spirit in it. So actually much more fruitful. But it's not like trying to push a round peg in a square hole kind of thing. It's still hard, but there's the wind of God on it. Yeah. And I have seen, you know, where I'll be stressing about something, trying to make something happen. And then I get to a place of, I can't do this, I give up. You know, I've had this in different things, and I just go, I'm out. Lord, I can't do this. Please help me. And then I feel like God says to me, why didn't you just do this right away? In the beginning, you know? Yeah. Let's start with. Please help me. I can't do it, you know? And then out of that, Chad, God will give you the ability to do what he's called you to do. The worst thing you could do is to try to fulfill this role through your own effort, or through reading a bunch of books about, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. The three Fastest ways to Crush Your business. I just want to add something to what David was saying about the I like how you put it. The time is nuclear because, you know, it's just so much more fruitful when it's led by the Holy Spirit. One way for me of observing that is when I, at this time of year, you know, often also not only thinking about what am I going to do next year. You're looking back at the year, right? And so often when I, when I do this, when I look back at my year and I'm kind of just prayerfully like, God, you know what what what were the important things, what happened? What what did we do? Um, and actually, very often the things that I look at and go, wow, that was super fruitful, that generated this or that. Um, it's not always the stuff we actually planned or put down in our strategy or whatever. You know, it's something that God orchestrated. And and I don't mean that in a sense of like, don't make a plan, just go with the flow and see what God does. I don't mean that because I think that's also, um, a mistake, but I just mean, um, when you do what you're saying, David, when you when you come first before God and say, I can't do it, I need you show me what to do. Then we more often spend our time on something that is actually going to be fruitful. And and you'll and you can see it with hindsight. You can look back and go, wow, I did not expect that to generate what it did and it did. And so sometimes it's that's how it goes. And I and I feel like, um, we can we can be more fruitful. Um, not by coming up with the exact perfect strategy, but it is by doing what you guys are saying. It's like spending time before God. And yeah, I think we could find a way to make it very practical for people. I've got some thoughts on that. But Ben, you go ahead. Yeah. No, I mean, I was just going to say I think the other the, the fundamental aspect of this that I think is worth addressing before we get more technical or practical is that I think, I think how things work is crucial, and how things work is linked to your sense of who you are. Right? So we talked about the vine, the branch idea that God's role for me is not to carry the weight, it's to do the work with him. But he ultimately is the one who makes it happen and supplies the power and takes my five loaves and two fish and makes them nuclear and expands them with the isotopes, uh, and feeds the masses in so doing. But I think another core aspect of this and, you know, I think it's cool, Chad, to kind of personalize this through the lens of the story of your new role is there isn't. Also, another crucial question that needs to be asked is, why am I doing this? Like what drives me? What's my motivation? Because when you look at the world and the life maxing and the hustle culture and that all the different life hacks and productivity. A lot of that's driven by this desire to be something, to want to make the most of their lives to to feel a sense of inadequacy or wanted to wanting to achieve a certain level of success or fame or money or whatever. And I think it's really important that we ask the question, why do I do what I do? I remember feeling a season of restlessness not that long ago, and I really remember reflecting on prayerfully reflecting on what is it that pushes that like truly at the core of who I am, what is it that gets me to want to do more and be more productive? And and I really think that this idea that we have to find our satisfaction in God alone, like it cannot be God and these other things. I think when we get off and we get sucked into or seduced into these other patterns, is because we've kind of believed the lie that, yeah, you know, I am valuable enough as Chad. But you know what, Chad? The great fundraiser, that would be a little bit more valuable. That would make me a little bit more satisfied. That would fulfill me in a way that just being Chad wouldn't necessarily fulfill me. And I think ridding ourselves of the ancillary ways that we try to find satisfaction in this world is also a way that we then have the peace and clarity to see the wheat from the chaff. Right? To see the things that are useful and productive and the things that are actually not helpful and negative because we are honest about the things that are motivating us. I talk to my kids about this all the time. It's like my son is a very ambitious young athlete, but I am constantly telling him that there is only one gas for the car, and that is his relationship with God. Like everything else is great. He can do everything he wants to the outside of the car and add all these things that the world has to offer that are blessings from God. But if he does not recognize that there is only one source of true and pure joy found in God than anything else that he tries to put in, that place is going to lead to dissatisfaction, including his love of this game. Right? And so it's not that the love of the game is wrong. It's just it's wrong if it's loved more than the love of God, or that it's seen in replacement of what only God can give. So I just think that's another really core, fundamental part of that is who am I and what's driving me? And if I spend some time in the new year here reflecting on that, I think that that will then give me the clarity to actually plan as God would intend for me to plan. That's good. Holy spirit led goals. Really? It sounds very basic, but that's it actually. I mean, and I think of of what it says in first Corinthians three twelve, if anyone builds his foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw. So basically the world's value, their work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. You know, Jesus talks about people who will have great ministries. They'll perform signs and wonders, they'll speak prophetically, and Jesus will go, who are you? You know, I don't know you. It can even look from the outside like I'm doing a very spiritual thing. But if it's not built on on what God is asking me to do, it's wood, hay and straw. And when the day of fire comes, it says that it will not survive. You know, the quality of each person's work that has been built survives. The building will receive reward. But. But if it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss, you know? And Paul says, and yet will be saved, even though through one escaping through the flames. So obviously this is for followers of Jesus, but they'll look at the end of their life and go, it meant nothing, I wasted it. God gave me this time on this planet. I was impressed with the world's value system, which is, incidentally, very much in the Christian world. It's very much in us, in me. Do I want my life to matter or not? So the part I need to start with again, get back to are my goals. Holy spirit life goals. What are they actually? Is it my selfish ambition? You know, that drives me because selfish ambition hides. It can look very noble. Well, I'm doing this because I want to reach a lot of people for Jesus. You know, I'm. I want to change the world for Jesus when actually it's my ambition. And so these are constant things. But then if I get that right, no matter what I'm doing, no matter there's there's no small or big task anymore. Right? Because a lot of people that I talk to, they feel like, oh, I'm not doing anything important. It's not high on the world's status when it's the Holy Spirit thing. You don't feel those kinds of thoughts anymore about things, and you actually in the right way, you breathe because like we say, if God takes his hand off of us for a second, we're dead. so we know that we're aware of that. Yeah. But it it also means that whatever combination of circumstances you are pursuing, they're not satisfactory anyway. Yeah, exactly. In other words, the lie built into the dissatisfaction is that, well, I don't have available to me the source of satisfaction that he does because he's on a stage and his career is successful and he has a husband or she, he has a husband, a boat. She has a she has a husband and a boat, you know. You know what I mean? And the lie built into that is that, well, when I get those things, then I'll have satisfaction like they will, as opposed to I want to believe. I have to believe that there is a version of satisfaction available to me when I'm rich, when I'm poor, when I'm single, when I'm married, when I'm young, when I'm old. Like otherwise, it's just another version of what the world says, which is no. Under certain circumstances, in certain seasons you can be satisfied, but then they're not satisfied. That's the big lie. People will say, well, now you know people, whether it's this neighborhood or this country, you know, people in Norway are so rich they're satisfied. So they're not as open because they have everything they want. They're so well looked after. It's totally not true. In fact, some of the darkest, heaviest music comes from Norway. That's also because it's never sunny there. But but also, it's because you can achieve all this, and you're looking in your perfect house and your whatever, and you're empty. I think that's why people who are struggling often are happier. You know, and our friend Brian from Korn, he says this all the time. He's achieved huge success, you know, in the music industry. And he knows a lot of famous people. And they're the most lonely, empty, depressed people you'll ever meet. But, you know. But you hear that, right? I don't know if you're like me, but I'll be. I'll go. But let's just give it a try. I. Let me, God, let me be famous, you know, for you. So that I can just see if it'll. You know, I'll be the one who can win the lottery and not have my life. I can be I'll be the I'll be famous and whatever. Um, to add to that, I think it's interesting that Steiger sent me boxes and boxes of books. Yeah. Such as? Oh, you can't see. Oh, rock priest such as? Such as this one, such as Ben Pearce's book, which is still downstairs. And a bunch of boxes. Oh, what does that imply? You really took that? No, no, no, seriously, here's the lesson. I already said this once on this podcast, but Ben's book is holding up Aaron's death. Yeah, literally. He's got it on a thing. Everything you need to know to level out the desk. And it's Ben's book. So what does that tell you? Yeah, I want to use the rabbit trail goes even deeper because they did not send me a single copy of Luke Greenwood's book. What? There you go. Because Luke is sending me his book every week. Is that crazy? I don't know what that says about maybe my book was sold out or Luke, but ah, that's what it was. I didn't think of that. Yeah. That's it. Mom, dad, Anya sold out. But I know, I know, Chad. When he wrote his book, he just had all these fantasies about how he was going to be interviewed on. I don't know what. Yeah, I did kind of be honest, didn't you, Chad? Admit it. Did I ever confess that I had to repent to Bob Goff? Or, like, stealing his quote? No, no, you need to. Yeah, but let's. Okay, but hold up. Let's be honest, though. Raise your hand if you've not apologized to Bob Goff. Not why. I don't even know who Bob Goff is. So so tell us is Chad I want to hear. No, this is for real. True story. It's like the dumbest stuff ever. But I was so wrapped up in the stupidity of all of it. I reached out to everybody I knew and everyone I didn't know. And I asked Bob Goff to write a quote for my book. He sent me the kindest message back and it was something like, you know, Chad, I think you're such a champion and a world changer, but I'm really busy right now, and so I'm sorry I can't do this. And so I ended up using the part of the quote that said, Chad, you're such a champion and a world changer. That's so good without the rest of it. Yeah. And then, uh, what's wrong with. I did not actually include it on the book, I don't think, which was good. So I didn't have to go reprint it, but I did include it in like a little marketing piece, and he saw it and he sent me a message and he said, said, hey, you know, I sent you a really nice, polite message telling you I couldn't do this. So please don't use my, you know, no partial quote improperly. Whoa. So in other words, he had to out himself as someone who actually didn't want to endorse you. Yeah. And just use that as a cover because. Because if he was too busy, but like, he was really into you and wanted to endorse you, he would have been like, oh, well, that was kind of clever. That was efficient. But he obviously actively was against saying, yeah, he was actively against. So Chad, I think you need to to really let that penetrate you. That hurt. I think it already did. I think I, I think I spent six years running from Jesus because of that hurt. Wow. So I think that was the core of all my all my all my pain, all my suffering the last six years. But I think that points out, I mean, like, the best way to find out where you're at is to write a book and see how you react to your book. I think that's a really. Yeah, I agree. You want to know an ancient maxim? Yeah. Let's hear it. The two most annoying people on the planet are people who are engaged and people who are about to release a book. Yeah, yeah, they are the two most unself aware. The whole world is about me. Yeah. Everybody stop and wait to see what's going to happen. Crazy. It's like, just get married and let your stupid book go out and let twelve people buy it so we can all move on. But I have to say, I wasn't like that when my the books that I've written, I've not been like, wrong. I am not a diva. I have not been insufferable. No I haven't. I was dead, I was like eight. Okay, I don't remember. No, but, like, I don't think I'm as lame as you guys when it comes to that kind of thing. Here's a question. What if. What if you're engaged and about to release a book? Oof! I would say you got to pick your poison. Either stick with the engagement or the book, but probably not both. But, Chad, didn't you have these fantasies how you were going to be on these big talk shows and stuff? Admit it. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I did. I thought I was going to be huge. I was going to be on all the world stages. It turns out the biggest risk ever was writing the book in the first place. The only thing huge about me is my forehead. Since this whole thing is falling apart, you might as well just end it in some way. I had some thoughts about making it practical, because if I understood the thought or the purpose you had of New Year's goals and all that kind of thing, I think. I think we've said the most important stuff, but it is really important to think about how to do that, like practically. And I know that each of us here have different ways of doing this and maybe, maybe sharing a few of those would be helpful for people listening. Like, okay, I want to set some goals that are Holy Spirit inspired, and I want to figure out how to be intentional and a good steward of my time. But I don't want to fall into the the whole culture of just running around like a rat on a wheel, as we used to say in the. Yeah, because I have I have four really profound OKRs that I've been spending a lot of time working on. Well, okay. Well, there's an example. Well, there's no I don't mean actually telling people what, what your OKRs are, but the OKRs are an example okay. So like so for me my my process and I don't always do it exactly the same. But some of the key points are um, when it, when I start thinking about next year or actually planning anything for that matter. Um, I try to the way I try to put into practice, um, the Holy Spirit led thing is to go for a prayer walk to, um, to just kind of just bring it before God and say, God, I don't want objectives and strategies. I want what you want for me and I. And then as I'm praying, I try to think through what are the prayers God is putting on my heart that are most like burning in my heart? Like, these are things that when I pray about it, I get excited. Or when I pray about this, I really feel something strong and meaningful about, um, that I just have that sense that it's from God. So now I'll go home and I'll write down those prayers and I'll let. For me, my first kind of plan is a is a list of prayers. It's like, I want to see God, I'm asking you for this, or I want to see a breakthrough in this area. I want to see that change. And I'll write out those those prayers, and then I'll work it through into, um, a bit more of a plan, like you're mentioning their chat on OKRs or something like that. So objectives and these are some objects I want to put or priorities I want to put for next year. And then another piece I think that's just important to share about is it's also important to share with others and to hear good feedback on it, and to know that God often speaks to us through other people looking into what we're prioritizing. So for me, it's like sharing with Anya, sharing with other guys on on our team what it is I've been praying over and thinking about so that I can get some good thoughts on on whether those are good priorities. And you guys are very distracted and laughing while I know while I'm sharing. So it might be the end of the episode. It's not my maybe. Maybe it'd be good to end on some of those practical notes. What do you think, Ben? Do you have any practical notes for for people to take away? No, I do, I do. And to be honest, it probably could be a separate episode because I despite the foundational elements that are crucial and need to be in place of having a proper sense of your identity, how things actually work, having an honest assessment of what motivates you and what propels you forward with those things put in place. Man, I'm the kind of person who, in light of all that, genuinely wants to make the most of my life. And so for me, it's been a process that I've actually talked about, I think on this podcast on a more just solo episode before, but I have a very intentional process, and for me, it's the first element of it was, I want to know my mission statement, right? I always say that you aren't going to get where you want to go if you don't have an aim, right? Logically, if I don't have a destination in mind, I'm not going to live my life in such a way that's going to get me there. So the first thing that I really did was write out my mission statement for my life. And the phrase that I steal for that was my eulogy. Goals. Like, at the end of my life, when people are talking about me and what I did and who I was, what am I going to want them to say? Well, I love this, but it's probably not going to be this, right? My assumption is it's going to be the way I love my wife, the way I love my kids, the generosity that I had towards others, the friend I was, you know, and then the way I gave myself for the sake of the world and for preaching the gospel. And so in light of that, I created a mission statement that's not flat, it's top down. So love Jesus, love my wife, love my kids, tell people about Jesus, inspire others to do the same. That is my mission statement in that order and that is what I want to be. And then I take that aim and I say, okay, this is the time I have. This is the money I have. This is the role that I have. This is how do I now build a plan that would reflect that aim, right? And so so I build a plan. And for me, every single Friday I then do what I call reset, which is what that is, is I look at my life, I first, I hold out my aim again. I'll often write it down on a board and I'll pray over it. I'll say, okay, God, I want to love my wife. I want to love you first. Above all else, I want to love my wife. I want to love my kids. Tell people about Jesus, inspire others to do the same. And I, I will sort of re cement that in my heart as my aim. And then I'll say, okay, now I'll do a brutal assessment of my schedule to see if the way I'm living, the money I'm spending, the priorities I have actually reflect that. So then I will I will tweak things that aren't working. So let me give you a really specific example. I want my kids to know and love Jesus, right? That's part of how I love them. And I was struggling to find a consistent way for them, for me to have like a family Bible study with them. It just wasn't working. They were squirrely and energetic. One of them's nine, one of them's five. So it's hard to kind of find a sweet spot for all three. So I drive them every day to school. So I took I made twelve Pearce family value statements. They're all backed by verses, but they're this is who we are. This is who my family is. Twelve statements. And every week I print one out the value the the the verse that supports it, and I slap it on the back of my car seats and the twenty five minute drive to school Monday through Thursday. We we talk about the verse, we memorize the verse. We talk about why it matters. You know, the five year old has a different level of interacting with it than the nine year old does, but by and large it's been really cool. And then Friday we get donuts to celebrate. Like if they if they do it Monday through Thursday, then we go to this local little donut shop and we celebrate. And that was a Holy Spirit inspired wisdom to actually accomplish an aim of mine, which was to help my kids know and love Jesus. But that was a practical response to a broader aim. And I that's a one example of something I do in every area of my life, in accordance with the values that I've been set. But this Friday thing, what that does for me is it's a weekly rhythm to honestly evaluate whether the way I'm living is reflecting what I believe are my Holy Spirit inspired aims for my life. And that that's that's my practical sort of hack that I've come up with. That has been awesome for me and I so look forward to Fridays because it's like I get to continually tweak and mess with and be ambitious and be productive. But because of the because it's based on an order I believe in, the priority is in knowing God and loving him, which means that helps then orient the ambition of all the other things in their proper place. How does that knowing God priority play out in your daily life? Well, well, for me it's like okay, so under that there's there's subheadings, right. So what does it mean to know God. Well I better have a great prayer time. Right? I better have a plan for for digesting and wrestling with Scripture. And then for me, sort of the third component of that is, is books usually that sort of stimulate and expand my mind and understanding of God. Now there's other elements that I feel more recently convicted about in terms of more corporate sides of spirituality, like feeling a need to be more intentional with my engagement and spiritual corporate spirituality where I can be less naturally drawn to. But by and large, it's assessing. Go to church. Well, yes, but like. But I mean, just to be perfectly honest with you guys like my personality type I have. I love the hermit solo out in the woods version of this spirituality, the spiritual disciplines. By contrast. I really struggle with the corporate side of it, but I was like that too for a long time. I never, I thought, I don't, I don't identify with the corporate worship times. Yeah, that's something that changed in my life in recent years. But for a long time I felt the same way. Yeah. So, so for for me, it's not to make it overly myopic. It's they they all have drop down menus. And basically I know what my main aim is. And then that Friday is a time to say, am I achieving that And do I have the right disciplines in place to ensure that I'm constantly tweaking with it in very practical ways? From the time I do it in the morning to the place I do it, is it the right environment? If I continue to say week after week I want to do X, but X never happens. What's wrong is the environment wrong? Is the time wrong? Do I not have the right prompt in place to remind me? So I know it gets really nerdy here? Um, but that's the level of detail I love. That's good, but it starts in a deeper and more broad place. I think it's amazing, really. It's inspiring for me. And look, we were listening to you. It was chat. I'm sorry, I apologize. No it wasn't. You were texting. Guys were texting each other. That's what I think was going on. No, you just cut chat off. He didn't get to finish his story, and then that's all. Oh. I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm sorry. Chad. Go ahead. Any other thoughts or comments? I don't know what it was. I don't even know if I was telling this story. I don't think you were, but no, all I have to say is Bleep Santa Claus. Yeah that's right. That's that was the last episode. No, I think that is really good. I for sure was checking out towards the end, but I think it was funny because it's like I was my brain was heading out right as both of you were like heading into like this epic, epic finale. Final point and, uh, it's. Yeah, my I think my my ADHD. We forgive you, Chad. We forgive you. And by the way, that initial like thing you had prepared, that was great. It was different to last time I noticed a difference. Well, that's it for twenty twenty five. It's been real. It's been good. It ain't been real good. Okay. I just feel like I had to finish the phrase. It's been great. It's been great. I love you guys. This has been fun. I'm excited, I feel energized. There's some, uh, some announcements that will be to come in early January related to some new, new, old people that may or may not be joining us soon to bring some new energy and life into this. Are you saying you're firing Chad? Guests already scheduled. We have some great new guests. Don't we have some great guests coming? You don't have to say who, but don't we? Uh, yeah. No, no, I got Frank Turek coming up in mid Jan. Uh, that'll be interesting. Uh, you know, he was standing about twenty feet from where Charlie Kirk was shot. So, uh, that'll be an interesting question to ask and to see how he's processing that whole thing. Um, we're talking to Peter Kraft. He's a brilliant professor in Boston. He's a philosophy and Christian professor. I'm excited to talk to him. I don't know who else I got coming up. We got a bunch of people coming up, but we love y'all. This has been fun. And, uh, it's. Sorry. Somebody asking what? Oh, my advice about. Okay, I can, I can, uh, I don't know where that one is. Somebody can put that in the comments. I think it might have been from last year, around this time where I shared sort of that whole progression that I've given. I also taught that basically that exact formula at the at the Steiger Mission School. So it's out there somewhere. I'll make sure it gets shared. Uh, but that's it. Y'all got anything else to say before I hit this little red button? No.