Royals, Resilience and Revival

00:00 All right, Father, we honor you. And Lord, even with the banging that's going on around us right now, Lord, it's just the sound of progress as we are blessed to even expand our capacity and capability here at the bridge and the bridge studios. Thank you that Adam and I come together and we literally have this heart and this attitude of we get to do this. So today we pray for anyone who listens to this. We pray, Father, that their hearts would be open, their minds would be attentive, Lord, that you would speak life into them and encouragement and hope as we continue down this track. We honor you in all we do and say today. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

00:41 It's Wednesday, April 30th, 2026. We get to do this. This is episode number 30. This is the life we've been blessed with. This is a gift for life. We get to do this. This is the chance we dare not miss. This is the life we get to do this. And hello, everybody. Welcome. You've got two frazzled podcasters with you today. At least I am. I'm a little frazzled today. Oh, really? I'm obviously frazzled. I mean, I came flying in here from two previous meetings. I left a meeting to get here. Oh, man. Because I love doing this. Me too, brother.

01:22 I do. I mean, the meeting's important, but we've got our whole staff in there, so they can relay the info to me. But man, just such a joy to sit here on the mic. Likewise. And man, before we get into anything, I love the video I saw from the BBC archives of you jumping out of your Hilo into your castle and into your opulent gold chair. Yeah. Wow. I'm looking at that. That was amazing. 2004? 2004. Yeah. BBC. You know, because it was always the public broadcasters who immediately understood, you know, like, oh, this is something good. NPR, PBS, BBC, these guys, they all understood that they only had 24 hours a day.

02:06 And radio listening in the UK is a very different culture than we have. We used to have that sitting around the wireless. This is still very big in the UK. Wow. So for them to have more ways to broadcast, and it was just exciting to them. So they came over to visit me in Belgium. And this was definitely a different period in my life. And I guess I'll put a link in the show notes because they just published this all of a sudden. They put it on their, on their website, on their YouTube channel. People said, oh, oh, man, what is this? Never seen this before. So, yeah. But the thing is, I am just as enthusiastic today, maybe even more so than I was back then.

02:52 And I also don't feel older. I look at it. No, that's, you know, and when I look at that, it's 20, 22 years ago. I don't feel less, you know, I just don't feel older or less energetic. The same energy, which makes sense because this is the path that God has had me on all these decades. No kidding. And, you know, but yeah, I had the helicopter landing in the back. That was kind of cool. Did you see me with my Ugg boots? No, I didn't notice the Uggs. I did not see the Uggs. I jumped out of the helicopter wearing Ugg boots. And hell yeah. You're fixing your hair when you got that distracted me. You're under the blades. You got to get the hair. Tina noticed the same thing. Oh, look at you primping your hair, man.

03:34 Look at you. Great video. Go see. I don't know what you, what would how would you find it on if you would just go to YouTube? Because it's worth watch. Yeah, if you talk about the early days of podcasts. We say 2004 podcasting BBC. It'll probably pop up. I'll put a little link in the show notes. So we need to apologize. I did during the prayer, but I need to just call it out because it's very loud right now. This is a church mouse I hear. Oh, my gosh. It's a big squirrel up in the attic. So we are building, we're adding mega seats into our, we call it a flex space or extra room, all-purpose room that we do because our meetings, you know, our last men's meeting, we had 130 men.

04:14 We were wall to wall. There'll be probably close to that with women this Saturday, which, by the way, I'm coming to see you Tina. I will be there. I will be there too. I'll be there cheering her on. She's giving her testimony. Yeah, that's a big deal for her. It's beautiful. Kind of her first opportunity to really present that. Yeah. So I've been living with her with this as she lived with me when I was going to do my testimony in Lake Wales. It's always a build-up. I completely understand it. Yeah. But this was put on her heart well over a year ago, and she's just been working towards this, praying like, Lord, is it time yet? Is it time yet? And then it was time. And now she's like, Lord, are you really sure this is not the time?

04:55 Because, yeah, she's anxious a little bit. Yeah, of course. Which Sunday. understandable, but she's a great speaker. And there's phenomenal. And she's just got the voice, the buttery voice. It's amazing. I don't know if it's that Indiana thing, but man, there's just a beautiful presence to her. The voice of the touch tone teller. Yes, and I can totally hear that. I mean, like, yes. If you'd like to get a certificate of deposit, press three. Oh, perfect back in the day. Oh, man. You always wonder who do those. You know, back when you're young and you're listening to these, you go, oh, I wonder what the person looks like who did this.

05:33 There it is. I think that weird. That's what they look like. That's cool. Well, I'm excited for. So you guys listening, pray for her. Just throw a prayer up and just say, Lord, bless Tina. She shares her testimony. That'll have high impact. So that's hence the need to expand our space. We need more space. We have capacity for about 100, and we're going to have 130 in there. Will this be also used for more people during service? Yeah, we're going to create an overflow space. You know, we can build a new building for $14 million. Let me write a check. Oh, yeah, here we go. Just drop it in there. Drop it in the hat. So, or we can actually do an overflow space and spend $500,000, $600,000 and get that done.

06:16 So that's what we're doing right now. So it'll be a nice space. It won't look like a warehouse like it does now. It'll be finished. We'll have a big screen, or how does that work when we're doing it? Yes, we're going to do a screen in there and we'll have a live partial band, like a just so they'll have live music back here. Oh, we want to import the whole band. We'll just do, we'll have acoustic set back here, so it'll be a little more casual. Oh, interesting. And it'll be a different atmosphere, but then the message will be piped from the main room into the overflow space. Wow, man. So a lot of it will be the same, but we'll have a host over here as it builds. And so, yeah, we're at that point. We hit nearly 700 two weeks ago. We were nearly 700 this weekend.

07:00 In a town of 11,500 or whatever it is, that crazy. Something's happening. Something is happening here. Yes. You know, well, maybe I'll just kick it off with this because bring it. So actually, I texted Glenn Beck about this. So he came out with something that I, I mean, he's spending money that he'll never get back on an audio series called, I think it's America, the, what is it? The, let me see where it is. I thought I had it written down here. I'll have it because I can pull up from your text. I actually listened to part of it.

07:42 Very cool, actually. Yeah, so it's, it's really, it's the American story, is what it's called. The American story. That's it. And so this just popped into my Godcaster feed, and you can find these if you have the Godcaster app. If not, go to Godcast.rtfm or go to the bridge and you know, there's links to it. And it was this episode, the third episode, is about the Great Awakening. Now, did you hear any of that? Yeah, I listened to about 15 minutes of it. And it was so good. I just want to share some of that. Yeah, it was fantastic. Because it starts, I didn't realize this. It started right after the Salem witch trials. And he has this whole thing about the Salem witch trials.

08:26 That was cool. How they happened, which was clearly just temporary insanity, basically. Just people went insane. But that is also the work, confusion and stuff like that is the work of the enemy. And so he takes us through this journey. And what I love so much about it is he's doing theater of the mind. He's doing sound effects and he's doing ambient narration. He's just screaming in the background, demon possessed, or whatever. Right. So I'm going to skip that. I'll skip that book. But just listen to this is kind of where the change happened. And of course, this all came, you know, there's what, 3 million people, I think, in the colony. So it was pretty early days.

09:11 The Salem witch trials, while an extreme example, were symptomatic of churches sinking into decay. Puritans repeated the kind of oppression that they had fled England to escape. Their piety had turned rigid and cruel. By the early 1700s, a sense of decline gripped New England. Pastors lamented their congregations straying from their first love. Distracted by business, trade, and worldly woes, their hearts had grown cold. God, they said, had sent judgments as warnings, such as the devastating wars with the Native Americans and the disaster in Salem.

09:51 The New England colonies, they were barely a century old. and they already needed a reboot. At the first Congregational Church in Northampton Mass, embers began stirring. It was Pastor Solomon Stoddard. He urged his congregation to pray for God to do a new work in their community. As Stoddard put it, quote, The Spirit of the Lord must be poured out upon the people, else religion will not revive. The sparks from those embers in the Northampton church would ignite something massive, a spiritual renewal that would spread from town to town and change America.

10:32 I love this so much. Yeah, I already unmuted you. Yeah, I love this so much. Me too. Because this can't happen to dive back in. But this could happen here. This is my point. This happened in one church. One single church is where this started to take hold. I know. And exciting. It is. And are you familiar with this, Pastor Stoddard? Are you familiar with this? No, no. It makes me want to go look him up. You know, this is why I love things like this because it's education. Yeah. It's not just theater of the mind for entertainment, although it is very entertaining. Yeah, it is. I mean, did you hear the drills? Did you know they had drills back then? I'm sorry. You muted some death. Here's the second piece.

11:12 This is where we get into it. Revival erupted in Edwards Church. He kept a track of it in a book called A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, which read like a first-hand account of a miracle. Listen to this excerpt, his words capturing the electric atmosphere. The Spirit of God began extraordinarily to set in and wonderfully to work amongst us. There was scarcely a single person in the town, either old or young, that was left unconcerned about the great things of the eternal world.

11:50 This work of God, as it was carried on and the number of true saints multiplied, soon made a glorious alteration in the town. So that in the spring and summer following, 1735, the town seemed to be full of the presence of God. It never was so full of love, nor so full of joy. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on the account of salvations being brought unto them. Parents rejoicing over their children as newborn, and husbands over their wives, and wives over their husbands.

12:29 There were many instances of persons that came from abroad on visits or on business who partook of that shower of divine blessing that God rained down here and went home rejoicing. Till at length the same work began to appear and prevail in several other towns in the country. In every place, God brought his saving blessings with him. Edwards was floored, stunned by the scope of the revival. Nearly everyone in Northampton showed signs of conversion or deep soul searching. This revival didn't stay local. It marked the dawn of the Great Awakening, a movement of Christian conversion and rededication that swept through the colonies like a flood.

13:17 So, I know, right? So good. Why'd you turn it off? No, I'm kidding. After two minutes, you got to stop. Listen to me. So get this on the Godcast so you can just search for Glenbeck podcast and listen to it in your car when you're driving. Listen to it in your truck. You will be just blown away. You get sucked in. And this kind of goes back to what I was saying about the BBC. Radio dramas, these things. Love it. They've kind of fallen by the wayside just because they're expensive to produce, although increasingly easier to produce because you can do it at home and we don't have to necessarily pay attention to the public. Yeah, a lot of those true detective podcasters, they've got sound effects going on.

14:01 But also, invite your kids to listen to this. Oh, kidding. It's thrilling to hear what was going on. It's really ignite the imagination again, which is what we've so dumbed down and dulled down with visual overslaught. I mean, we're just like onslaught of visual stuff. And it just, it dumbs you down. It's like you get into numbness. And it's a way, you know, because reading is very difficult for people these days, just, you know, sitting still with a book, or there's so many distractions around us all this time. I mean, you have to basically put your phone in a different room because that will continue to be alerting you to some important thing you need to do, and which gives us all a Pavlovian response.

14:44 But when you just listen to this and just get swept up in it, and this is amazing. America. And in this 250th year, this is the stuff that I hope people just will focus on and listen to because it is where we come from, who we are. And man, I hope we can get some of that back. Man, if you get a chance to text or write Glenn or talk, just tell him, man, he's got some fans here. We're promoting this. We are in with it and we appreciate it. Well, I texted him and he says, oh, man, thank you so much. Will you post it on social media? I said, yeah, of course. And then he reposted mine. He's like, Adam Curry is good. And he's started off of X. There you go. There you go. So good. So it worked. You found it through that.

15:29 Oh, good. Because I was going to keep it as a surprise when you said I heard that. I'm like, well, how did that happen? How did that happen? I'll follow you. It's my own fault. No, I'll definitely let him know. I'm a follower. Because he does thank you. He does this kind of stuff. And I just appreciate that because I don't think there's just, there's not a lot of certainly no. Well, it does. Actually, there was advertising in it, strangely enough. But anyway, Glenn makes it work. And it's just something cool to listen to. And when I hear that, how it started in one church in one small part of one of the colonies and how that just caught fire. And if we all sit to my stomach, sorry.

16:14 And if all were just a little less cautious about talking about our faith, I think we would ignite so many other people. For instance, we got a nice, a really nice email from Carol. Sheet Rock Drills. Yeah. Carol Goodman. Excuse me. She says, Adam, I want to take a moment to write you and tell me how much of an impact you've had on my daily life. You genuinely changed my routine and improved my overall mindset in ways I didn't expect. My husband and I moved to Fredericksburg in late 2024 and finally settled full-time on our 90-acre ranch in Willow City.

16:53 Now that we're empty nesters, it's been a really rewarding transition. I've had a long career as a contracts and acquisitions professional. I'm still doing it, but luckily now I can work remotely and enjoy what I like to call the best kept secret, the Napa Valley of Texas, Fredericksburg. About me, Gen X, Georgia girl, U.S. Air Force Academy grad, Air Force officer, Iraqi war veteran, Christian, wife, mom, now a grandmother. And I've always been a hardcore conservative and political news junkie. For years, that meant staying glued to Fox News and social media, which honestly kept me constantly spun up. Wow. I realized who you were through attending Bridge Church here in Fredericksburg. Do you know, Carol Benny? I do. I know exactly who you're talking about. And led me to We Get To Do This, which led me to no agenda, and everything shifted.

17:38 I feel calmer, more grounded, more intentional how I consume information. You all have helped me step away from the noise, and I'm truly grateful for that. And the message, put down your phones and pick up your Bible from the We Get To Do This podcast really hit home for me. It really stuck. That's beautiful. Yeah. And she also says she was a fan back in the MTV VJ day. So just leave that. Leave that for what it is. But that's, to me, it's like, here we are. That's why we get to do this. If that's the result, I am super happy. You know, while we love getting emails and notes from people all over the place, and keep them coming, guys.

18:18 I mean, this is a conversation. I try to get back with anybody who writes and respond. But it seems there is something really special when it's people right here in your community because that's really where this, the heart of this, the genesis of this is we want to touch our community. We want to see this revival that we just heard about. Exactly. You know, from history, we want to see that happen right here. And so it starts here, starts local, then it goes translocal, right? It moves out in concentrate circles. So so wonderful to hear from Carol. And what a sweet note. That's awesome. And things are happening.

18:58 Theo Vaughn, you're familiar with Theo Vaughan? Why is that singing about? He's a big YouTube podcast. Yeah, he's got long hair. Yeah. Yeah. He's kind of like a mullet. Yeah, kind of redneck-ish-looking dude. He's like, I'd say a Rogan spin-off in a way. Very big podcast. He does very similar with, you know, talking to people, you know, very laid-back interviews. And now, Theo has been very open about his struggles with addiction, alcohol, cocaine, pornography. He's a, he's a comedian,

19:35 but this, you know, podcast thing really caught for him. And all of a sudden, he's out doing interviews talking about his faith. Wow. And I'm not one. one to spike the ball like, yeah, we got Theo Vaughn. But this, just this one thing talking about prayer, I just wanted to share this because this was so deep and so good. And he needs prayer from us. Listen to this. You know, I've been struggling, man. The past couple years, I've had, you know, it's been a struggle. You know, sometimes I realize for myself, I would pray to God to help me get away from certain behaviors in my life. But at the same time that I was praying, there would be a part of me that knew I was probably going to do those things again.

20:17 And there's a story called John 5, and it's about a guy who's at these pools. There's a sick man there, and he's been sick for a long time. And Jesus asks him, Do you want to be healed? He asks him, Do you want to be healed? And that's a crazy question because, you know, if I get healed, then I'm different. So that's just been something that I've been having to ask myself. It's like, yeah, do I want to be healed? Do I really want something different?

21:00 And sometimes a lot of the answer is no. I don't. I want something different, but I don't want to. I don't know. If I'm scared of it, I don't know what I am. I don't know if I don't want to do what it takes to get out. I can't even tell what it is. It's hard for me. Some of this stuff's a little bit hard for me to say. I think I don't even know why. But I think I want a new story. This hit home for me and for Tina too. Because when we were in the process of being saved, we're like, but I don't really want to change.

21:36 I don't want to be different. This is, and that's just how you think at that moment. Well, you know, what am I going to be like some crazy Bible thumper or what is going to change? And so I feel him in this moment. I feel him. And for me, the answer is, yeah, you're going to change, but wow, is it going to be so good? This just seems like this is something that people are struggling with when it comes to their faith. And they, you know, like you would say, like, are you ready to step over that line? This is the stepping over the lime bit, man. I can feel him struggling with that. Man, I love the fact that he just hung that out on his podcast.

22:16 You know, a lot of times when you're podcasting over time, and I'm noticing this, you start to feel like you got friends. You know, you feel like, you know, Bo, Lacoste, and now Brett Vaughan and others, and Carol and others, Holly. I mean, the list goes on where you start to realize, okay, there's somebody listening to what I'm saying right now. And they may not be in real time, obviously. It's going to be later. But so you feel that. You feel it. And I can feel him leaning into that. He's being real and true. I mean, and I love that. He kind of has a jelly roll vibe, you know, because Jelly's kind of in the same place. He does have a bit of a place.

22:57 He's really leaning into his faith. He's growing. But he's the first to admit he's still struggling. And man, I just totally appreciate that transparency. That transparency is what's going to bring the breakthrough for healing, the breakthrough. And of course, we always think different means weird. We think that I'm going to suddenly carry a briefcase around instead of a backpack and I'm going to suddenly put Jesus stickers all over my car like Mel. I got one on mine now, too. Or I'm going to become, as you call yourself, a Jesus freak.

23:34 But that doesn't mean you're freaky. That just means you're freaky over Jesus. It doesn't make you weird. It just, it actually makes you the best of who you can be because God begins to enhance all those amazing gifts that he gave you to begin with. That starts to emerge over time. And actually, we begin to see the best true version of who you are, not the false narrative, not the fake or the phony or the imposter. We get to see the real person emerge out of that. That's what coming to Christ. Yeah, we give our life over to him. We surrender, which is the hardest thing for anybody. And once you step over that line, and he's obviously right there.

24:17 Theo, I like that. That comes actually from theology, theos, God. Is that where the name comes from? Yeah, I mean, Theodore. He doesn't even know that. Yeah, he didn't even know that calling himself Theo. Theos is God. So anyway, but I love that he's already stepping down that path. But what's going to happen while there's that fear of I may become something different than. than I'm comfortable with or that I know by default, that's the beauty. You don't become your default. You become the best of who God created you to be. And so what also hit me is he says, you know, when I'm praying, it's like, Lord, help me stop these behaviors. But in his inner self, he's like, I'm probably going to do it anyway.

25:03 Yeah. I mean, how do we deal with that in our prayer? Well, because when you're locked into habits and addictions, you don't, you can't remember a time when it wasn't that way. So you're sort of stuck behind a false wall or a smoke screen. You know, smoke screen, you go through it and you're like, oh, it's just smoke. It wasn't a brick wall. It looked like a brick wall. It was just smoke. But we get stuck behind those walls. And that's what I hear because we can't imagine ourselves not having a coping mechanism because that's what addictions are. It's coping. It's numbing. It's all those things. And he can't imagine himself not having that.

25:43 So there's a fear. Well, what am I going to default to if I don't have this anymore as a crutch? Right. What am I going to do now? And the beauty of it is. You're doing it. It changes. I mean, even your desires change. Even what you want and what you crave after. And that doesn't happen overnight. I don't ever want to throw out this rose-colored glasses moment here. Dying to yourself is a process, and it's hard. And Jesus didn't say, He says, My yoke is easy, my burden's light. But he also said, Those who desire to be godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. I mean, there's, we got to be careful that we don't oversell under deliver in the sense of telling people, hey, man, it's awesome on this show.

26:26 Jesus, man, you'll never have another problem. Boy, we're dealing with car stuff still. The drama continues with Lexus Corporation. And I don't want to get into that on this one because we're still waiting on some things. But, you know, I had Pastor Brian came into my office today. This is how real it gets around here. And he goes, Can I just pray for you? He said, I know this is a distraction. And I know you're trying to focus on you. We've got WWJDJ tonight. I'm teaching tonight on spiritual gifts. He goes, I know you're distracted with all. Can I pray for you? That's what brothers do, right? We help each other. And I said, please do. And I've been coping okay, but I'm not going to lie.

27:08 I mean, this stuff's coming at me. And we're being told things are going to cost twice as much as they were, and that we're, you know, everybody's balking. Nobody wants to own what happened. And so all that to say, and again, no details, but yet there'll be a time for details, but not right now. But all I have to say is just when we find ourselves distracted and being pulled away, it's so awesome to have brothers who say, hey, man, I know you're distracted because I would be. So can I pray for you? Yes. Not to be. So those are the things that you step into as a believer.

27:46 You don't step into perfection. You step into a journey. It's just the first step on a long journey. You know, I've been thinking about prayer a lot, especially after hearing this from Theo Vaughan. And I went back and like, you know, because we have the model prayer, which we talk about quite a lot. And, you know, so it's Matthew 6. There's a couple of things that struck me as I was rereading it. Because before Jesus tells us, tells the disciples how to pray, when you pray, say, he first started with,

28:24 he started with what not to do. He starts with when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love praise, to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And so then the simplicity of the model prayer, which on its face seems simple, I'm like, am I overcomplicating my prayer?

29:04 Should it just when Jesus says, when you pray, say, and I'm fully aware that it's not asking for me, it's our father, not my father. Forgive us and give us our daily bread. So it's just like this meta thing that I look at that and I'm like, am I overcomplicating other things when I'm praying for healing for people? And should, I mean, should it all just be wrapped up in the model prayer? Does this question even make sense to you? Yes. Okay. I do because we all go down that track of waking up one day and go, why did that take me so long to get to the point?

29:47 Maybe God's sitting there like somebody when church has gone 15 minutes over. And he's going, okay, wrap this up, boys. I do wonder about the land the plane. Is he like glancing over at his iPad? Like, oh, I'm sorry, what? I'm listening to about a billion other people right now at the same time. So, you know, I love where Jesus in that passage you read. He says, they think they'll be heard for their many words. Yes. That's verse seven. It says, and when you pray, do not keep on babbling. Babbling like a pagans. For they think they'll be heard because of their many words. That is a keep it simple saint moment if there was one. So recently in our staff meeting, our staff used to, we never did like corporate prayer as a staff.

30:29 We just kind of one person led, and then we went into our staff meeting. Then we started saying, hey, you know what? We got nine staff, got 10 here today or nine. We're going to assign everybody an area. So you're going to pray for this flex space. You're going to pray for the new life center and the outreach to children, children with hard things. And then we're going to pray for spiritual warfare, pray against that. Pray for unity, all those things. So we have 10 every week. And at first, everybody was shy when we first started. Nobody pray hardly. But then everybody got unshy. And then we started looking at our watches going, wow, this just took the whole meeting.

31:13 So I had to come in and say, listen, guys, everybody gets one minute because what they would do, they'd pray, they'd do an introduction, the body, and then a conclusion, like a sermon. Like a whole arc. We're already here. Yeah. We don't need the heart. Just jump right into the topic. So we limited the prayers to a minute. And so in 10 minutes, we've prayed, covered a lot of ground. It is no less impactful, no less powerful, and no less spiritual to get right to the point. And so I love this scripture. They think they'll be heard because of their many words. And then the next line, do not be like them.

31:54 Yes. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. Yes. So he gives us a template. Well, so again, am I doing too much? Because you're not really answering the question. Maybe it's not to be answered. I don't want to put you on the spot like that. No, because a lot of our prayers turn conversational, correct? Yes. We're more talking to him. Very much so. You know, when you're walking Phoebe. When I'm driving down 87, you know, and it's conversational. So I'm more talking to him than creating a formal prayer. Okay. Yeah. Because there's different kinds of prayer. Yeah. So it's more conversational.

32:33 And then just as a general observation, the disciples, they asked how to pray. They didn't ask, which by today's standards, I think we would have been, yo, Jesus, show me how to walk on water, man. Show me how to still the story. Man, can you teach me how to make the blind man see? Could you give me the thing where you make the guy get up and walk? And like, they knew, they knew that the power is all in the prayer. This is, hey, this took me three and a half years to like even start to figure this out. I'm like, oh, wait a minute. They had plenty of misses, trust me. I mean, you know, they love the misses.

33:18 For sure. There was some insight here when they really wanted to be taught how to do this. And I'm listening to the sounds right now. It's just like, I'm tuning it out. I'm like, I don't really hear that. I could probably make that go away with some AI post-processing. Yeah, whatever. But it is progress. Hey, you know, I have done podcasts in the weirdest places with the weirdest ambient sounds and noises. Well, no one ever really complains about it. The closets are the best. The clutio, yes, the cluio. The clutio is closet studios. Best sound ever. So, yeah, sorry to get off topic there. It's all the distraction there. But yeah, I think we do overdo it sometimes. I find myself trying to get simple again.

34:02 And this is one of my defaults right here. So I go back to the Lord's Prayer, the model prayer. I do this several times a day. Also, at night, I've started a new thing. I'm now reading prayers. Oh. I've never really out loud or just out loud. Out loud. No, out loud. I use the prayer that avails month much. And then someone recently gave me a book called Prayer. Prayer of Americans or When Americans Pray. And it's prayers like by various people in public office, like Mike Cuckabee or Hayley McInenney or all these different people that had prayed. And some of the prayers are, you know, for America.

34:47 We're praying for our president. But a lot of them are just real generalized. And excellent book. I have to show you that book. Yeah, you gave me a book today. I didn't want to forget that. Yes, it's a different book. This is called Forge the Sun by Brett Hahn. And did you meet him? No, I found him on Substack. You know, I used to not pay a lot of attention to Substack. Such a different, it's not exactly user-friendly. So, you know, it's a little different. You got to dive in. But what I began to, for some reason, I think, you know, I've got about 300 subscribers there just from living up in a down world.

35:24 And so when I switched over, it kind of got me back into that world a little bit. And what I find about Substack is that people are writing, writing. They're not just social media posts. These are people who really want to own their craft. And it's a supportive, very supportive community. I found him, somehow stumbled on something he wrote, and I just was like, whoa, this is, this resonates with me. Writes a lot about our early days, the founding of our country. But he's relating it to how they raised men, sons, how they forged them. I love the title. Forge, Forge the Son. So I started reading his stuff, and then I commented a couple of times.

36:07 It turns out he's a listener and all that. Listen to his bio. Brett Hahn is the founder of Amrev Resurrected and a son of the American Revolution. His seventh great-grandfather served in the New Jersey militia under General Washington. Isn't that cool? Yes. Very cool. And cool factories. It looks like a great book. I'm definitely going to read that. You'll enjoy it. It's an easy read, but it's a series of essays, and he posts those on Substack. So every day or so, I think he's posting one a day up to the 250th. It's so good. I read one in bed the other night too. I said, can I read this to you? Sure. Well, she didn't know. It's kind of long. So she was almost snoring by the time we got done. But it was so rich and so good.

36:52 So anyway, Brett, such a blessing, brother, to find your writings. And man, keep doing it. Keep teaching about our early days and our founding and how men were forged by hard times and by toil and by difficulty, but also living for a dream that was bigger than them. And what we can do today to replicate that. That's the whole point. That's the point. So the King of England, the King and Queen of England are visiting us. And of course, they're being sent to Yorktown to see where they were defeated. I know. Oh, man. One of the funniest things. That was a great brief that you wrote for Sunday, by the way. And I cracked up big time when I read that. I was like, whoa. They're here to negotiate the terms of surrender.

37:37 A handful of people got that. Yeah, no, some people did. That's good. So there was a dinner last night, and they had the typical back and forth jokes. But King, by the way, you notice that there were no no kings protests during his arrival while the king was here. What an opportunity to go out there and say, we don't want any kings. But he spoke to the joint joint houses of Congress, and I watched it yesterday, mainly because there had already been kind of these setups. I listened to a lot of the UK media like, well, I should have probably brought that clip.

38:17 We believe that the speech will be very good. It will go over Trump's head, but people will know what he really means. I'm like, okay. So, you know, that was your typical British media. But he brought something up. Now, he is also the head of the Church of England, which now, what do we know about the Church of England? It's called the Anglican Church. It was a split-off from the Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church. And they didn't want to submit to the Pope. They wanted their head of the church to be the leader of the nation. And so there's a lot of similarities in terms of how they do what they do.

39:01 There's a lot of theological similarities. Anyone who's Catholic or Anglican can correct me on any of this because I'm not an expert on that at all. One of my favorite human beings is a bishop in the Anglican church. He was in Africa for many years, now in his 70s. He's raising up pastors in countries I can't can't name. name because he's doing undercover work for the gospel, for the kingdom, and he is a fireball for Jesus in his 70s. But so I've had great respect for some of the Anglican men that I've met through the years that are ministers.

39:41 So the whole concept of separation of church and state doesn't go over very well there. You never hear the Brits complain about that. No, I've never heard that statement reiterated. And we don't actually have it here either. No, we don't. But he did say something that I just thought was super curious. And I have an opinion about what he was saying. I'd love to hear yours. Here we go. And, Mr. Speaker, for many here and for myself, the Christian faith is a firm anchor and daily inspiration that guides us, not only personally.

40:33 That guides us not only personally, but together as members of our community. Having devoted a large part of my life to interface relationships and applause. I wait for it. And greater understanding. It is that faith in the triumph of light over darkness, which I have found confirmed countless times. Through it, I am inspired by the profound respect that develops as people of different faiths grow in their understanding of each other.

41:18 It is why, it is my hope, my prayer, that in these turbulent times, working together and with our international partners, we can stem the beating of plowshares into swords. I that's worthy of a clap. Golf claps. I am mindful that we are still in the season of Easter, the season that most strengthens my hope. It is why I believe with all my heart that the essence of our two nations is a generosity of spirit and a duty to foster compassion, to promote peace, to deepen mutual understanding, and to value all people of all faiths and of none.

42:11 Accentuated by some banging on the ceiling. The interfaith relationships, that kind of confused me. Like, what is he talking about? Do you think? I mean, is he just in general about living together with other people who have other beliefs and other faiths or none? Or is he there was a lot of criticism about this particular piece of the speech in the UK because he's talked about living in the season of Easter where he didn't say anything on Easter in the UK, but did congratulate everybody on Ramadan. So I didn't know that. Yeah, there's a little bit of strife about that. What was your impression over all of this?

42:48 Well, I think in terms of what's happening in the UK with Islam coming in full force, being brought in, drawn in full force. Unreal, open borders, if ever there were. And so I think he's probably alluding to that. But I don't know that for sure, but that would be the most obvious thing because. Yeah, that's what he's doing. I think he's alluding to this crossing boundaries and whatnot and working together. What do we take away? You know, the first part of it, I was in on him. I mean, faith is a firm anchor, inspiration that guides us both personally.

43:32 Yeah. I was all in with that. I don't know. You know, I mean, we're experiencing a lot of things here in the United States and Texas. Yes. There's a lot of Islamic fear and all that that some is not merited. I think caution is merited, but not fear per se. So, yeah, my takeaway, though, if I'm leaning towards the first part of what he said, you know, hey, we know all about his life because we watch The Crown. So we know everything. We know the whole deal. Accurate news. And literally, in my mind, I'm defaulting to the show before the kid and going to school.

44:16 Help yourself. I'm fighting it going. This isn't helping me. me. And then knowing lots of different things about his life, I'm thinking, was faith really an anchor then? I mean, so, yeah. You know, it's hard not to think that way. I want to be positive. I want to live up in a down world regarding that and just say, wow. Appreciated what he said. You want to value what people bring. Can you value something and affirm them without affirming their position? You know, that's always tricky. That's a good one because you could hear the difference in the claps.

44:57 I think during the interfaith part, that was only the Democrat side of the house. Oh, yeah. I'm pretty sure it was coming from probably the left. President Trump left of stage. President Trump had a great joke. Again, I didn't bring the clips. He had a great joke last night the dinner. He says, King Charles, you're so amazing. You spoke in Congress and even the Democrats stood for you. That's something I have not been unable to do. I love it. I love it. It's pretty funny. It's pretty funny. Anyway, for the most part, I thought it was great. The interfaith, I'm a little confused about just what he means by that because used to, that was more of just pretty generic, you know. I think with the rise of Islam and some of the scary things, hard things,

45:42 I think it's got a different connotation now than it would have 20 years ago, 30 years ago. I mean, I took it in a similar vein because I just, you know, so many dinner conversations, you know, my stance on this. So many people like, oh, Islam's taking over. I'm like, well, yeah, there may be some problems, but please don't hate everybody you see who, you know, might be a Muslim. Please, please pump the brakes on that a little bit because we just, that's, I think that just, the enemy loves that. Like, yeah, yeah, let's just stir up some hatred. And then we're all, you know, the enemy's feeding on us again.

46:27 It comes back to our broad stroke generalization. Yes. Right. And, you know, no more than we want people to do that to us. Yes. We have to give the same consideration to others. There's so many different groups. I mean, it's Baskin-Robbins, you know, 31 different flavors. You know, it's high in 54. I mean, there's so many aberrations within the Christian tradition, so many aberrations within the Islam tradition as well. And so it is dangerous to do broad stroke. And I see a lot of that right now on both sides. Yeah, sure. Sure. So, yeah, but I would be curious to hear someone who knows more about his stance on that.

47:07 Yeah. To bring clarity to that. Been looking for it. It wouldn't surprise me if we got an email or two, a comment or two of someone straightening us out. And I'm fine with that. I would hope so. I'd like to hear if someone knows a little more about that. Where are the Anglicans listening? That's right. We want to hear from the Anglicans. Absolutely. Absolutely. Otherwise, I got to tell you. Things are looking good in the United States. I'm feeling good about what President Trump is doing. I'm unapologetic about my analysis of what he's doing. Your briefing was so good. It was fun to write because fun to read. Because I'm like, this is just good. He's just, he's doing stuff that

47:49 I think it was, he's doing things for our grandchildren because he cares. You delivered it perfectly because he cares more about that than poll numbers. And man, that is the truth. And in a weird way, and that kind of comes back to the book that Brett Hahn wrote. We are so self-centered on what's happening right now, the gas prices right now, my rent right now, the job I have right now. And we need a little, particularly as we are in the middle years of our lives, maybe over the halfway point, probably.

48:29 And I have a grandchild on the way. I am really like, you know, it's not great. I'm blessed beyond belief, but I've been on all sides of the wealth spectrum. I've given up worrying about that. But even if there's pain, it should not be for me anymore. It has to be for these coming generations. And when you put that lens on your view of what President Trump is doing and what he's attempting to do, and if you listen to what he's saying, it really changes your attitude overall.

49:09 It's like, yeah, that will be good if we have manufacturing come back correctly. come roaring back in America. Right. You know, now you still have to parse through his bombastic rhetoric of, we're the hottest country right now. From his standpoint, we are because he sees the investment coming in, and that's right. That's not making a difference to us right now at this moment. So, I just hope that people take some time to think about that. How do we form and have a category in our mindset for forming? Because a lot of what formed my generation and yours were hard things. Yes. Hard times. We talked about 1974, oil embargoes, which was a big scam. Turns out it was fake.

49:53 But man, it threw our country into just fear and fights at gas pumps. And man, it got crazy there. But how do we form and forge the next generation? Because here's what's the trick. We wanted them to have an easier time than we did. Yes. And that has produced soft men. It has produced, that's a broad stroke generalization. So if you're out there and you're tough, don't whip me up for that. But just that's just generally speaking. It's produced a lack of resilience, a lack of perseverance and endurance, a lack of patience.

50:35 It's produced a generation that would rather sit in their house or a coffee shop on their phone or their computer than actually be outside. I stood outside last night while I was grilling steaks and just looked around. And you know what I thought to myself? It's been too long since I just stopped and looked around. Yeah. Because studying yesterday is on my screen. I got an upgraded version of Logos, so I'm nerding out over that because I'm just enjoying it. But I'm standing there looking around, smelling smoke, and going, oh my gosh, I miss this. But how do we forge the next generation? They have to feel, if they feel no pain, they will never appreciate what they have in terms of this country.

51:19 That's kind of where we're at. Well, I have similar for the past couple of months. There's something about this particular time of year with the rains that we've had. And I still have some smell ability left in my senses. It's been, you know, I've had all kinds of allergy things and all kinds of issues throughout the year. So it's diminished somewhat. But I remember the smells, the smell of the wet leaves. I stop and I listen to those. We're very fortunate. We have a great silent back road.

52:00 Quieter than the studio to me. My goodness. No. Those guys, they're getting it done, though. No worries. We need them to do it. And I hear the amount of birds. And I think probably the best thing you can do is get your kids into nature where there's no cell service if possible. We have great national parks. It doesn't have to be an expensive weekend or whatever it is. And just sit and just walk in nature because that is God's creation. And I'm in awe. And it's been decades since I've even, as a kid, I remember like, wow, this is so cool. Look at this tree. Look at that tree. And now I'm like, wow, look at God's creation. Look at every blade of grass.

52:43 Look at that cow over there. Smell that. I smell this fragrance from this tree, from that tree. You know, before we get into feeling the hard times, maybe just it's like this dumb thing people say, oh, go touch grass. But there's kind of something to it. They're really grounding. They got to get grounded. But I get it. Surrounded and grounded. I think that's just my advice because this is working for me really well right now. Same thing you had. Just, ah, yeah, I remember this. And it takes me back, man. It takes me back. I remember what books I was reading about nature and American Indians. And I learned how to build a shanty, a lean to. I tried to build a wigwam.

53:28 Not so successful. Made a lot of fire. A lot of fire. I was good at fire. Amazing. We didn't light things up. That's amazing. We're alive. Yeah. And so I was very fortunate to grow up in West Texas, which is a very rural and cowboy culture. Ranches everywhere and farms everywhere. So I grew up. You heard a horse. I know. Two of them. I grew up around horses and tractors. And Annette and I have been talking about that a little bit more lately of just how thankful we were to be raised in a more rural setting. Yeah. Because it also makes me value and appreciate where we live in Fredericksburg, Texas, in the Texas Hill Country.

54:10 I love when a farmer rolls up in his old beat-up truck and he says, Hey, think it's going to rain today. I mean, that's the depth of your conversation. You know what, though? That man is just, I love that stuff. I love small town. Yeah. When we have people visit us and we go to a restaurant and 15 people call by name out, which happened the other day, they're like, Man, you know everybody. I'm like, No, they just know me. I don't know everybody, but just because I'm pastor of the church, but I love it. I love walking into a restaurant or store and seeing people I know and just exchange of life. People, come visit Fredericksburg. Come on, come enjoy all of the beautiful things we have to enjoy.

54:51 We have a Ladybird Park. Yeah, state park. So go hang out there. Check out some of the wineries. Not all of them. Some of them are drinking barns, but some of them are. But yeah. All right, brother. Let's land this plane. Thank you. I love it. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy and hectic day. Can I just thank our listeners one more time? Yes. Guys, ladies, thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing notes. We value you. We appreciate you. And that you would give us time. And we want to continue to encourage you and build you up in your faith and your journey and your walk in Christ. Brother, I love doing this with you. I love doing it with you, brother. We'll be back next Wednesday.

55:34 We get to do this. Take care, y'all. This is a life we've been blessed with. This is a gift we get to do this. This is a chance we dare not miss. This is the life we get to do this.